Chapter 3 – Trifas Section 0

February 17th, 2017, one week after the Grand Order started.

Just as Alice has done every day since she got here, she wakes up at 6:00 AM and gets dressed. She first jogs around Chaldea twice. It's how much she jogged back at the Clock Tower, so she wants to keep it up here too. None of us are awake yet, but the staff usually get up around this time too, so she would often pass them in the halls. She goes to the gym to work out and does certain workouts on certain days of the week for about an hour or two every day. After that, she swims ten to twenty laps in the pool to cool off and get some more exercise in. The swimsuits provided by Chaldea for women are just standard one-piece swimsuits with the Chaldea logo in it. And lastly, she showers to get the chlorine off and goes for breakfast.

Few staff members are in the cafeteria, some getting food and others already sitting at tables. Alice decided to eat there today since it's not crowded. She walks up to the counter and goes to order. "Hello, Emiya. You're up early again I see?" Emiya puts down the dish he was cleaning. "Of course, someone has to make the food around here."

"But there's the automated staff to do that. You can do other things you know."

"I have no issue with doing this. They are good help, just consider me doing this as tanks for summoning me." Emiya says with a smile.

"Well, your cooking is amazing, so we're happy you're doing this. But feel free to do other things if you don't want to do this anymore."

"Understood, thank you, Alice. I'm assuming you want the usual for breakfast?"

"Yes please."

The red bowman turns around and begins to cook. The staffbots bring over the ingredients needed, and he does his thing.

After he finishes cooking, he hands Alice her tray of food and she sits down to eat.

It's been nice having all these Servants at Chaldea. Artoria Alter, Emiya, Cu Chulainn, and Medusa. I'm glad we were able to summon the Servants encountered in Fuyuki to Chaldea. Alice thinks while eating her breakfast.

As she continues eating, two more people enter the cafeteria and Alice looks up to see who they are.

Ritsuka looks over and sees Alice, then waves. "Hello Alice!" Mash also says hello.

Alice smiles. "Oh, hey you too. Are you getting breakfast?"

"Yeah, I ran into Mash in the hallway, so we decided to get breakfast together. Let us get food first, then we can keep talking."

The three chat while they eat their food. Ritsuka finishes his food and sets his fork down. "So, you can fight hand to hand right, Alice?"

"Yes, I can, why do you ask?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could teach me. I know I can form pacts with Servants, but I don't want you guys to protect me all the time. I want to be useful, but I don't know how to fight very well."

Alice goes silent for a bit, as if she's in deep thought. "I won't go easy on you. I'll train you like how my Sensei trained me. I'll hold back, but you'll still get hurt, are you prepared for such a thing, Ritsuka Fujimaru?"

"That's fine with me! If I can be more useful, then I'll be more than happy to get hurt if it means I can be of help."

"Alright, once we finish here, we can start, if that's fine with you of course."

"Sure thing!"

Another voice speaks up from behind Alice. "Oh? You're going to teach Ritsuka some things? Mind if I tag along?"

"Oh, Director, yeah that's fine with me. Feel free to tag along."

"In that case, the simulator should work just fine." Mash suggests to the group.

"Good idea, Mash!" Ritsuka pats her shoulder and Mash gains a small blush.


In the simulator room, the room is set to a grassy, open field on a sunny day.

Alice turns to Rituska. "What do you know about hand-to-hand combat? Anything?"

"Nothing much. Sorry."

Alice sighs. "Well how about this then? Land one punch on me, if you can do that, you will be average enough to hold your own."

"Hit you huh? I don't know if that's possible for me, but I'll try my best!"

"We believe in you, Senpai!"

Motivated by Mash's statement, Ritsuka gets ready to attack with his all.

"Here goes nothing...!"

"I couldn't even manage one hit… I'm really bad at this."

After a crushing defeat, Ritsuka sits in his room.

"Don't worry about it, Senpai! You'll do better next time!" Mash brings water over to Ritsuka.

"Yeah, I sure hope so."

"BEEP!"

"The wristband? A message?"

Ritsuka looks at his wrist and taps the screen.

"'Come to the command room immediately for a meeting.' It says."

"Alright, Mash. Let's go."


Da Vinci stands at the front of the room. "You may be wondering why I called you here today. As you know, we will be leaving for Trifas soon. Meaning, you will need Mystic Codes for combat. You can design them however you want."

Alice raises her hand. "What rank will they be?"

"S-rank of course. Only the best."

"Normally, they would've been C or B-rank, only because there were so many of you, but…" Olga averts her eyes to the ground. "We can put more resources into these four, instead of 50 or so."

"Precisely. Now, here you go."

Staff members walk over to all of us and give us rectangular objects.

"A tablet?"

"Yes, use these to write down what you want your Mystic Codes to look like and what they can do, even weaponry. Be as specific as you can be with no details left out!"

We all do as she said and write down what we want.

"Sorry it took me so long, everyone." Ritsuka turns in his tablet to Da Vinci.

"Thank you, Ritsuka."

"I don't need your measurements, I have them all on file. If they feel snug though, please let me know as soon as possible." Da Vinci says with a smile.

"You are all dismissed for the day." Olga says.

"Do you guys want to watch a movie or something then?" I ask.

Ritsuka raises his hand. "I'm in!"

Mash joins in too.

Alice walks over and decides to join us.

"Nick? You wanna join?"

"I'll pass, thanks for the offer though."

"Alright then. How about you, Director?"

"I wish I could, but I'm far too busy right now."

Doctor Romani walks up to us. "Do you mind if I join in? All my duties for the day are done."

"Of course! The more the merrier!"

"Da Vinci?"

"I wish I could, Serena. But I have to work on these Mystic Codes so I can have them done before Trifas. If you're going to watch a movie, I'd recommend using the presentation room. Romani can help you set things up there."

Ritsuka sports a massive smile. "Wow, it'll be like an actual movie theater!"

We all walk out and chat.

Olga turns to Nick. "Are you tired? Why didn't you want to join them? It could help you bond with them."

"I'd rather not. Not really my thing, I'm not shy, but I do like my alone time and sitting in a dark theater like that isn't my thing."

"I see. I don't blame you. I was the same before taking over Chaldea. Though, you should get to know them better considering you will be working with them for a while."

"I'll take that into consideration then. I'm going to my room now, see you later."

"Bye."

Nick walks off.

I wonder if…I'll ask later. Olga thinks to herself. Shaking her head, she gets back to her work.


Nick gets back to his room. He pours himself some wine and sits down in a chair. His room looks like an old school office. A few comfortable chairs, a wooden desk with some books on it, with fake windows right behind the desk displaying the color of the night. Of course, he also has cabinets where he stores food supplies, wine, dishes, and other miscellaneous items. A TV sits on a stand across the room so he can watch it in bed or in his chair or desk. He flips it on and goes to relax. I should probably see if I can contact her. Nick's mind enters a dreamlike state, and a figure is across from him.

"I didn't think you would still be around. Allow me to fill you in on everything so far. It's an interesting situation."


"Here I come!" Ritsuka yells as he runs at Alice. Today is the second day he is training with Alice.

"Don't announce yourself when you attack. In the real world, you would give yourself up and be killed easily. Just keep quiet, Ritsuka."

"Right, sorry, Alice!" Maybe if I sweep her leg, I can knock her off balance and hit her while she's down!

He's gonna sweep my leg? He needs to learn how to properly hide his intentions. I mean, looking at my leg in quick glances while running at me is a dead giveaway. Alice calmly analyzes the battle. She does this in every fight she gets in, a basic rule in combat.

Here goes-!

Sorry Ritsuka, but I must teach you about consequences. You will leave yourself open when you go to kick my leg in the way I think you will.

Ritsuka goes for the kick as planned, but in an instant, Alice grabs his leg and throws it upward, throwing his whole body into the air. His body flips and he lands on his back onto the grassy simulated field.

"Your intentions were all over you, combined with your lack of speed, preventing your attack was simple. There were other counters I could've done too, but this was good enough."

"What should I have done then?"

"Personally, I would have, instead of a sweep, kicked the back of your leg right at the joint, forcing you to kneel. Then it would be over as I could put a knife to your throat. As for your hands, well, you wouldn't be alive with your speed."

"Oh…"

"Let me try again!"

"Of course. I'll go for as long as you want."


After another week of preparing…

The day of the rayshift arrives. We stand in the command room with Da Vinci in front of us.

"Well, the day has finally arrived. The day you leave for the First Singularity!" Da Vinci says in excitement.

I for one don't exactly feel ready.

"Oh right, your Mystic Codes are all ready. I stayed up multiple nights to make these! Luckily, Servants don't need sleep."

Da Vinci picks up a suitcase. "Once I open this, the Mystic Codes will automatically materialize onto your bodies since I mixed in my own outfit, they can materialize like a Servant's can. They are linked to your wristbands. Well, I hope you like them!"

With a flash, we all briefly light up. Next thing we know, we are all in the new Mystic codes. Mine is just what I asked for. A swordswoman outfit, just like what Miyamoto Musashi or Sasaki Kojirou would've worn. Gray just like I asked with the two swords I wanted. One over my back and one on my hip.

Alice's outfit seems quite casual. Just a gray half jacket, dress pants, gloves, and a green tie. She also is wearing ovaloid silver earrings. Nick is wearing a similarly casual outfit. A red and gray suit with a gray trench coat over it, though, he has no tie or bowtie. And Ritsuka, his outfit is sort of odd. He's wearing normalish clothes, they look like they are made for being active, maybe military-like? But this right arm has some sort of metallic casing. It has several white buttons on it too, these buttons are also on the upper right side of his chest connected to the arm. I wonder what that's all for?

"Wow, these look great! So easy to move in too!" I say in amazement.

"Just what I wanted. Thanks for adding my Sensei's earrings, they mean a lot to me. She gave them to me as a good luck charm before I left for Chaldea."

"Nice job, Da Vinci. You found a way to make a suit easy to move in? I'm impressed."

"Well, I am a genius inventor!"

Ritsuka stands there, looking at himself with a puzzled look. "This doesn't look like what I asked for."

"Well, writing down 'a black mech suit that makes me more useful,' isn't very specific, nor do we have the materials for that. That arm should be enough though. It has some built in spells like an 'attack boost.' Basically, you can boost your own, or others combat capabilities, like reinforcement. They can move faster and hit harder. To use it, press the middle button right below your elbow. And point your entire arm at who you want to use it on. Next is a stun. Exactly as it sounds, no explanation needed. Some enemies will have resistance though, so be careful about that. To activate it, press the left button, next to the attack boost one. Lastly is a heal. It can heal minor wounds like scrapes and open cuts. But don't expect it to be able to regrow an arm or something. And to use it, that'll be the right button here."

"Wow, thank you! But, what about all these other buttons?"

"Ah right. Those can summon 'Shadow Servants' as we call them to your aid briefly. You can only summon those at Chaldea. More will be available as we progress through the Singularities and encounter more to add to Chaldea. You only get eight per Singularity, so use them wisely~"

"Thank you, Da Vinci, for all of this! You're amazing!"

"It's no problem at all!"

The intercom comes to life as the Doctor begins to speak. "The time has come. Now that you have your Mystic Codes, we will begin the rayshift.

"Wait, why are you there? Shouldn't the Director be there?" I ask.

OIga walks over to us. "Normally, yes, but I'm coming with you guys. Romani and Da Vinci will be acting Directors for the time being. I want to help so I can redeem myself for what I did in Fuyuki. I was a real bitch, so sorry."

"Director…"

"Everyone, get in your coffins. We will be on our way soon."

"We promise nothing will go wrong this time. We've tested it plenty in the last week. It's perfectly safe for you all!"

"I really hope so." Just to make sure, I use my Mystic Eyes. Everything goes fine.

I, Alice, Nick, Ritsuka, Mash, and Olga Maire step into the coffins and relax. The doors close and Romani speaks one more time. "We will be monitoring you and will keep you out of danger. Stay safe out there, Chaldea!"

"3,2,1…Rayshift is a go!"

My body feels like it's put under anesthetic. My soul is ripped from my body and floats away as a blue tunnel surrounds me. There's nothing else I can see besides the blue tunnel. But, in that same instant, light fills my vision, then darkness. My eyes open, a green field is ahead of me, the rayshift was a complete success just as I foresaw.