Returning Welsh Dragon Hero (High School DxD - FGO Ritsuka Interlude Past 1)
Ritsuka Interlude 1: Land of (False) Titania & The Earnest (Pervy) Prince
It was finally over.
As I rested my head back on my bed, I couldn't help but sigh and cuddle with my blanket, trying to get cozy.
Halloween was over.
Honestly I had not expected Elizabeth to just do all that. Create a Singularity, even if it's a "mini" one, whatever that means. Or somehow coerce other Servants to help her, some that really wouldn't normally work for her like Carmilla or Uncle Vlad. Or randomly find a grail.
Seriously Eli, how?
Still, all's well that ends well, and the party and food at the end were pretty cool. Thank fuck Eli didn't manage to sing.
And thank god they cleaned up my room and didn't leave me with the decorations.
Now, that October 31st was over, I can just relax and sleep. I hope to get a nice break till the next Singularity.
"Society tends to have a lot of rules on how people should conduct themselves. On how one should act. Yet at times these social rules seem to go against one's natural desires. In a way, one could say that politeness isn't just a lie, but are chains, stifling the true expression of our emotions."
A voice spoke to me. A haze figure appeared in my mind. I couldn't see them.
"But there's a reason why people hide behind the shield known as 'politeness'. Even more so behind the one called 'etiquette'. What the point of them? To appear formal. To seem untouchable. In a way, don't you think formality is just a way for people to act self-important so they can't get critiqued?"
Long fluffy like hair. White robes.
Was that a staff?
Am I being visited by Gandalf in my dreams to be told 'we live in a society'?
"...Okay. I suppose that's not a bad comparison, wrong on the angel origin part though. I especially love the part of him facing the Balrog alone, thus getting the entire EXP of the encounter to himself."
Okay, whatever mystique you were going for, it's completely dead now.
"Ahem, To henceforth continue what I was saying." Coughed the 'wise, mysterious', figure. "No need to put it between quotation marks. Honestly, you're this harsh when we only just met. You should liven up a little. Throw away convention for a bit. Although being brutally honest like you were was pretty good. It will help save that poor boy."
Who?
"Well, wizards like me can't help but put our noses where we don't belong. Honestly, this sequence of events is completely unexpected, but it's one you can't just ignore now that you notice it, you know."
So you're just a busybody.
"I like to think of it more as a friendly helper, that sprinkles a little magic in other people's lives."
Ah. A busybody that thinks he's helping. Who's the poor victim? Is it me?
"Well, you definitely need a lot of help given your current lot in life."
Ouch. Low blow, Gandalf.
"Haha... But that's how you should face the boy. That attitude is correct. There's nothing wrong with honesty, even if it's annoying or embarrassing. Especially if it's hurtful. Hell a lot better then denial or repression. Destroying things on the inside is far worse than destroying one's image. Reputation can be rebuild. Image can be rebranded.
"But the core of who you are? If that's broken completely..." An unexpected sadness emanated from the mysterious wizard.
But don't people change?
"Not really. People transform themselves into different versions of themselves, or different sides of themselves become more prominent. The core 'You'? You can twist it. Hide it. Reshape it. But if you broke it? There would be no 'you' anymore."
Okay, that sounds really serious. Almost sad.
But seriously, can you just straight forward tell me what's happening?
The cryptic wizard gave me a mysterious smile and nothing else.
"Fair maiden." A cautiously cute voice was calling out to me. "Fair maiden, I know not how you came here, but you need to awaken from thy slumber. Danger's afoot." The voice sounded stifled. Almost like someone was pushing down their natural cheerful tone for a more formal voice.
I opened my eyes to see... a theater kid?
"Um..." I sat up, the teenage-looking Servant-from how many she interacted with, she could just kinda tell at this point-quickly stood back up, giving her space. "Where am I?" I asked the Servant.
The teenage Servant seemed to dress like a prince, or maybe an adventurer? I say 'seemed to dress like' because the clothes just looked... not authentic in a way. Somehow.
Then there was the boy's features. He looked Japanese, so that really threw in another point of the cosplay angle. A Servant cosplaying as who though?
Looking around, I saw we were in a city of sorts. The building was made of stone, but nothing that looked to be made of modern materials or aesthetics. I could see walls encircling the city, and the horizon felt closer than it looked.
Yep. I'm in another Mini-Singularity. I wonder if this is something like Orion's Singularity, or Elizabeth's Halloween. Seriously? Another... what to call them "Event", right after the last one?
"Fair maiden, are thy well? How did thy arrive in Titania? Thou had picked a dangerous time to visit these lands." The teen Servant said, looking at her warily.
"Ah, I'm okay, thanks to you." I said, grinning and thanking the Servant. I could have been in danger after all, so having someone helping me out right away is always good, and lucky. "My name is Fujimaru Ritsuka, and I... have no clue where this is."
"A-Ah, um, you're welcome, Miss Ritsuka." The teen Servant said, blushing fiercely all of a sudden while rubbing the back of his head. Is he that weak to compliments? Also did he just lose the 'medieval' knight way to talking? "A-hem, I mean," he quickly coughs and regains his composure, forcing himself to stand up straighter, and give a wider smile, than the small bashful but more sincere one he had before. "It's only right for one of royalty to act with nobility, Lady Fujimaru." Oh? So he's a prince not a knight. "Mine name is to be, Prince Hydro, and I'm fortune to have met thee today." He says with a bow.
And he stayed bowing. It went on for a few moments too long, before it hit me.
I curtsied in turn, feeling like that's how he expected me to act, while I'm now doing my part in a play, rather than this being a normal greeting.
Also 'Prince Hydro'? I can't think of any historic or mythical figure by that name. Maybe he's someone related to water somehow?
He coughed as he quickly stood back up, as if there was no awkward moment before. It's actually kinda cute.
"Lady Fujimaru, am I to presume that thou has no idea where you are, or what situation you landed yourself in?" Prince Hydro asked curiously.
"Um, aye!" Was that the correct reply? I feel like I didn't go medievally right and went straight into pirate accent.
"Hmm, I see." Prince Hydro looked conflicted for a moment, looking aside, frowning a bit, before looking back at me with a neutral look, that almost seemed resigned. "Then allow me to regal you of the tale of this unfortunate land." He said with a cheerful smile that felt fake. As if he was using cheer to drown out any worry or anxiety. "This..." He gestured with his arm behind and around him. "Is the land of Titania," he sighed. "Once a land of luscious, peaceful land, yet sadly it has been taken over by darkness born of the excessive desires of people's hearts."
"Oh, standard RPG story. Neat." I muttered and nodded.
Did Prince Hydro just stumble mid-exposition?
"T-That darkness coalesced and overtook the seven guardian maidens, who were meant to rule this land fairly." He quickly recomposed himself, continued his explanation. He placed a hand over his heart, looking regretful. "When I was young and foolish, I squandered mine blessing of being prince of this place, and thus was exiled from it, but after hearing of the tragedy that had befallen my home, I returned to purge it of the darkness that had taken hold of it, once and for all, so it would become a land free of evil and sin, only one of purity and goodness." He said sincerely.
...Is it me, or it he going in and out of his princely manner of speaking?
Also someone using "purge" and "purity" when describing their goal, gives major villain vibes. I couldn't help but think. Looking at Hydro's adorably proud look at having given his exposition, I put the thought aside for later.
"However," Prince Hydro looked at me concerned after finishing his explanation. "You are not someone affected by the darkness even though you should have already."
Did he just glance at my boobs? I blinked at that, but looking at Hydro's face, he was just calmly meeting my gaze. Maybe he was just giving me a once over due to my clothing.
"You do not look like one of Titania's citizens, I can only assume from your attire and looks that you're a foreigner. But why would you come to this land when it's overrun by darkness, and those monstrous dark angels?" He asked.
"Truthfully, I have no idea how I got here." I grinned good-naturedly. "I was just sleeping back at Chaldea when all of a sudden I woke up here. I think I must have Rayshifted in my sleep or something." I chuckled.
"'Chaldea'? 'Rayshift'?" Hydro looked at me confused.
"Ah, you see-" Before I could explain to the perplexed Hydro, the sound of flapping wings and the evening sky turning black.
"They're here!" Hydro looked behind him in panic. "I need to hide." He said before quickly looking at me, as if he had forgotten me for a second. "No, we need to hide. Lady Fujimaru, the emissaries of darkness are coming, those who were over taken by the evil now wielded by the corrupted seven maiden, and lost to sin. We need to run."
Huh, we're not fighting? That's usually how these things go. For some reason it still felt like he was giving exposition, even while panicking.
"Gotcha." I gave him a thumbs up and nodded. "Alright, Prince Hydro, lead the way."
He looked surprised, as if he expected that I was going to oppose him.
"R-Right, then we need to hurry to the theater house, where the first maiden is. The quicker we defeat the purify the maidens the faster we can cure the land, and get rid of the darkness and the countless dark angels." Hydro said and we began to move, but before we could run the sound of multiple women laughing could be heard. Their voice holding an odd distorted echo. "Dammit, some of them reached us."
The enemies sudden flew straight down from the sky, their wings not really moving to help with their flying. I guess they were flying by magic. Sorry, Magecraft.
There were three of them. Their faces were concealed by black scarfs, they held red glowing energy spears in their hands. They continued their weird echoed laugh, which... now that I really focus on it, just sounds goofy. Like someone trying to be haughty, evil and intimidating, rather than actually being those things.
And their outfits...
"Holy crap, they're flying strippers!" I cried out.
"Pffffftt-!" Hydro laughed, before quickly covering his mouth.
But seriously, they were dressed in leather bikinis and leather thigh-high boots. Their black wings extending from their backs to show them being "angels". Although according to Da Vinci, that's likely not what angels would actually look like. Probably. The Christen Servants I met or had, like Jeanne d'Arc or Saint Martha, didn't confirm things one way or another.
Hydro's involuntary laugh seemed to piss off the dark angels as they stopped laughing. Hydro paled, and took out his sword, but stumbled in drawing it as almost had it fly out of his hand, before fumbling and then finally grabbing it, pointing the blade at the enemies.
...He does know how to fight, right?
"Halt you evil harlots that were overtaken by darkness." He shouted, trying to sound commanding, but... I could see his knees shaking.
I opened up my Magic Circuits, gathered up my Od ready to support the teen Servant. I already had the image of what Servant to call on their Shadow version in mind.
I blinked as I registered what he just said.
I mean sure, "harlot" isn't really a swear word, but first time I met a Servant straight up call someone a whore. I bit back a snort.
"HAAAAAAAAAA!" Hydro shouted heroically slashing forward.
...And completely missed the first dark angel.
After that it was just... sad.
The dark angels actually looked flabbergasted for a while at Hydro's flailing attacks. Then they grinned maliciously at one snorted, then they began their echo-y laughs again.
The dark angels began to move in.
"Okay yeah, no." I said and drew on my Od to call on the echo of one of my Servants.
It's a good thing that the dark angels seem to only focus on Hydro. Although admittedly it's odd how they don't even seem to register me as an enemy.
"Time to change that, Saber!" I called out.
From my shining Command Seals, a red light shot out in a line, and a few feet from me materialized a dark silhouette in the form of magical energy that took the form of Servant Saber, Artoria Pendragon.
Shadow Servants were a copy of the actual Servants I was contracted to that could fight in a limited capacity. It was a summoning method developed by Da Vinci to save up on energy costs of Chaldea, as well as to give me a way to protect myself in case of an emergency of landing in a hostile location without Mash or one of my Servants with me.
As Shadow Saber shot forward, I started to calculated what to do next. The surprise attack should startle the dark angels enough for me to run in, grab Hydro and run away. After that as they are chasing us, I could summon Shadow Arash to shoot them down and-
With a single slash Shadow Saber cut down two of the dark angels. The third one only then slowly began to react, as turned to look at Shadow Saber, perplexed by her existence. In the next instance Shadow Saber lopped off the dark angel's neck.
Thankfully there was no blood or gore, the dark angels just broke down into shadowy wisps and dispersed into magical energy. Okay, they were constructs and not people transformed. Neat.
"H-Huh? What?" Hydro looked at Saber in surprise, not sure if she was an enemy or not.
But before he could assess what happened Shadow Saber dispersed into magical energy absorbed by my Command Seal once more. Huh, I usually don't recover this much Magical Energy from using a Shadow Servant. This really was hell of an easy fight.
Although I could have sworn the dark angels were faster and stronger when facing Prince Hydro, but then when Shadow Saber appeared, it's like they couldn't comprehend her existence.
"L-Lady Fujimaru, was that you're doing?" Hydro asked both in awe and wariness.
"Yep!" I pushed through his suspicion that I might be secretly evil or something, but a thumbs up and a good attitude wide grin. "I guess you could say you're not the only one on a journey to save their world."
Hydro's unease was pushed away, as he looked at me with excitement and near child-like wonder. He tried to contain himself, to act as he usually did.
"Wait, for real?!" He wasn't succeeding. Cute~. "I-I meant, forsooth?" He coughed in his fist, trying to act casual.
"Yeah," I rubbed the back of my head. "It's kinda of a crazy situation that I just found myself in."
"Um," Hydro looked around for a moment, as the evening sky returned once more. "We shouldn't stick to open spaces like this, given that the dark angels found us once. We must find shelter, but... could you regal me with your tale, Lady Fujimaru?"
"On one condition," I held up a finger. Hydro paled and took a step back. Odd. "Call me Ritsuka." I said.
"Ah! I could never be so improper-"
"'Ritsuka' or no story." I huffed, pouting childishly-yeah I know, I didn't care-and crossed my arms.
Hmm? Why does Hydro look like he's really struggling right now? It's just a name usage, not a big deal.
Wait... Is crossing my arms emphasizing my boobs? I bit back a smirk. Is that... bothering him?
Of course I stopped once I noticed that. I totally didn't push up my chest or trying to walk with a bounce a few times, just to see Hydro squawk as he took a moment to answer my last inquire.
"A-Awesome! To think that Lady Fuji-"
"A-hem!"
"L-Lady Ritsuka..."
"Acceptable."
"Haha, to think you'd have such burden weighing on you, and have carried it valiantly thus far. You're truly amazing, Lady Ritsuka." Hydro said with a small smile, as he looked at me.
"Not really." I shook my head. "I'm just lucky that I had so many people helping me out. Truthfully if it hadn't been for my cute kouhai, I wouldn't know what to do." I smiled at remembering my Mashmellow. "But since they believe in me so much, I can't afford to give less than my best." I grinned widely with a guts pose.
"I'm truly inspired by your tale, Lady Ritsuka." Hydro said, as he gazed at our destination with a determined look. "That's why I will also do my best here as well."
We had reached the theater house. I wondered if I were going to meet Phantom of the Opera here. It would be nice to have a familiar face.
No, wait, he'd likely be summoned as an enemy, right? Or maybe we'll meet completely different Servants here.
We actually fought some dark angels on the way here. Hydro even managed to take down two all on his own. Welp, guess he's getting better.
Odd thing I noticed, his sword swings are stronger for some reason when he uses his left hand. Which I noticed had the only article of clothing that didn't match the rest of his outfit. A long red glove, that reached up to his elbow.
Weird, but if there's an explanation it will likely turn up later at some point.
We entered the theater house to see dozens of dark angels, yet unlike when they usually zoom in on Hydro upon him entering some kind of radius, they were all busy, or maybe better to say, frozen in ballet dancing.
And on the stage was an Assassin Servant alright, one that was familiar, yet I didn't expect.
"There she is, Mata Red Shoes. Once she was a high noblewoman known for her elegance, now she had become corrupted to dance and hypnotize the citizens into being drawn into her eternal dancing whimsy." Hydro explained.
"Sounds like a parody version of the Red Shoes fairy tale." I couldn't help but note.
"Huh?" Hydro looked at me confused.
"Don't worry about it," I waved him off. "Let's focus on the Evil Princess." I said.
"Corrupted Maiden." Hydro corrected.
"Yes, that."
"My, my, aren't you two so serious?" Fairy Tale Mata Hari spoke up, addressing us directly, yet never ceasing her dancing. It seemed like the Assassin Servant was acting out an assigned role. At the very least, she's not using actual Mata Hari's Noble Phantasm. This was a nice substitute though. "So chained by duty and rules of conduct that you can't ever act out on your desires?"
"You were once a steadfast lady. Now you have been corrupted to do nothing but indulge in sin. Do you not regret what you have become, Mata Red Shoes!?" Hydro cried out.
"Oh? And what about you? Have you become so ashamed of your heart's want, as to bury it many times over and cage it in a mask of duty?" Mata Red Shoes asked back.
Huh? I blinked at that.
Okay, at first she had an airy tone to her voice, like an absent minded or ethereal tone as one would expect of a fairy tale character. Suddenly at the end she sounded very serious and threatening once she address Prince Hydro directly.
Okay, the RPG isn't so straightforward. There's a mystery element to it.
"I have no more words for you. Lady Ritsuka, this woman had let herself be drowned in her indulgence of her desire. Let us free her from the sin and darkness that corrupted her!" Hydro declared dramatically.
I focused on my Command Seals called upon the echo of one of my trusty Caster Servants. A mage who also excels in battle. A druid that can heal and harm in one breathe.
"Come forth, Caster Cu Chulainn!" I shouted, and from my red shining Command Seals appeared the Caster Shadow Servant of Ireland's Child of Light.
Hydro and Shadow Caster launched forward as Mata Red Shoes laughed and danced. The battle hand begun.
After a grueling battle, with a final slash, Hydro cuts down Mata Red Shoes.
Finally as her strings were cut, she stops, and her magical energy begin to leave her.
Mata Red Shoes holds a hand to her chest, almost looking regretful.
"We did it." Hydro panted in relief. "The darkness's connection was cut. She's free now."
From Mata Red Shoes' chest a ball of... not darkness. There definitely was some darkness to it, but there was also a swirling violet light of some sort, something that wasn't just malice or glee, but drive was expunged from her chest floating upward.
Then the ball of energy shattered.
I blinked at Mata Red Shoe's body changed.
"Wha..."
"There. One of the dark concentrations was destroyed." Hydro said proudly, sounding a bit more winded all of a sudden, but I wasn't focused on that.
"Aww, I wanted to dance some more." Mata Red Shoes said.
"What the fuck!?" I cried out. "Her boobs just shrunk!" This is outrageous.
"L-Lady Ritsuka, what are you saying? Why would you focus on something so l-l-lewd in this moment of triumph?" Hydro cried out, red-faced.
"Hahaha," the Assassin Servant giggled. She began to disperse into motes of magical energy. "Maybe you being around is a good thing," she said as she glanced at me, then she just looked at Hydro with a gentle smile. "The thing about desire is, speaking it can lead to getting hurt, but burying it can lead to a hurt that perpetuates. One can only lie to themselves for so long."
"Is that why you abandoned everything just for your desire to dance?" Hydro asked, almost accusingly with a disapproving frown, yet he sounded a bit regretful.
Mata Red Shoes laughed again.
"What can I say, even if I ended up getting hurt," she smiled. "Wasn't this more fun?"
She was dispersed, desummoned from this Mini-Singularity.
Things were quiet for a moment. There was a sound of a distant rumbling, like a gate being opened. Maybe we can now go to the next area.
However I had one thing on my mind, as I turned to face Prince Hydro.
"We managed it this time. We still have a long path, but," Hydro said with a smile, more confidence present in his stride. "If we keep out momentum, we can make! Shall we continue, Lady Ritsuka?"
I had a very important question.
"Is the whole 'purifying them from darkness' thing, just so that you can make their boobs smaller!?" I demanded. "What? Are you so active about being from the Itty Bitty Titty Committee that you'd declare war on the world?"
Because if it is, then this prince just got himself a mortal enemy!
"Why are you focused on that part?!" Hydro shouted, mortified. "Lady Ritsuka, that's improper!"
