Garden of Order: II
Finally.
Those were the words she felt on the tip of her tongue as she marched down the halls, rolling her shoulders until they cracked loud.
It hadn't been that long since she had been summoned but already she was getting bored out of her mind. Not that she didn't have some way to entertain herself, but it just wasn't the same if she was cutting down hollow summons. No challenge in that type of thing and even sparring with the other Servants…
Well, she hadn't actually gotten around to doing that yet.
And now she found out some of them had ditched Chaldea for one reason or another to go and get lost.
…It was what she inferred from the message her Master had sent her at any rate.
Bunch of idiots.
Running down and rescuing Servants after they went out and got lost, it sounded like a laugh and a half. Realistically, she should have expected better from them, even if they weren't exactly round table stock, they were still Servants so that came with some sort of expectation for competency.
But whatever.
With her down there, it would be a quick in and out operation.
And if someone was keeping the Servants trapped there? All the better.
What greater way was there to demonstrate her ability than by kicking the ass of whatever idiot decided he would pick a fight with Chaldea not even a couple days after she had been summoned. That would have just been some poor luck on their part and it brought a sharp toothed smile upon her lips.
Still, the fact her Master asked her to come down for something like this as a first mission.
There was no real problem, not especially.
But there was no denying that she had hoped her first mission would have been a little bit more than pulling someone out of the fire they had probably jumped themselves into in the first place.
Though that was just how Servants worked sometimes.
And she was no stranger to this sort of work, it had happened enough in the past with her to know the ropes by now.
Coming to a stop, she glanced left and right before turning around and raising a brow.
She couldn't sense her Master nearby, he was getting closer but he wasn't here yet. She suppressed a huff and shook her head. The least he could have managed was being there to meet her, but she could always just poke a little bit of fun at him for being so slow.
Then there was the girl…
Something about them ticked her as being familiar but not in the way she was wholly comfortable with.
Actually, it had been bugging her but there was no way to go about it right.
Must have been a summoning she didn't remember.
Everyone acted oddly enough around her that she could figure her last summoning with Chaldea hadn't gone swimmingly. From the face the kid had made - and she did have a brat for her Master - it looked like he was going to throw up on her boots or something. Which probably meant the last time he saw her was when she died or something.
He looked a bit green.
The doors to the chamber opened and she stepped inside, shouldering her sword and sweeping her eyes across the rather empty room.
They froze and lingered on the figure in the direct centre of the chamber, bathed in the light of the glowing sphere above his head, the blonde man stood with his hands resting upon the pommel of the obsidian blade. At the hilt of it was a glowing light, pulsating white in a way that was eerily similar to a heartbeat.
But that alone wasn't what had her freeze.
It was his face.
She'd been warned about it as an offhand comment which was why she hadn't been immediately thrown off, but this was beyond what she had been expecting. They said he looked a bit like Gawain, but she was seeing it for herself which was a little bit of a shock.
His armour was old looking, worn down and pounded like he'd been wearing it for years and never given it any sort of treatment. Beaten up looking red fabric was frayed at the edges and at the mantle around his waist. Draped over his shoulders was a long black cape which dropped right the way down to his ankles.
With an appearance like that, one would have expected them to be a rather elderly looking figure.
But the face was young.
He looked a bit like Gawain when she had first met him.
Save for the emerald green eyes, and the paper like face which was currently staring across the room towards her, eyes fixed solely on her head. She let herself stand there for only a minute, thankful for the helmet that she didn't look like a gawking fool, before she trudged into the room and approached him. The closer she got, the more she could see the subtle differences she hadn't before.
He looked a bit thinner than Gawain as well.
It was actually somewhat comical, he looked like he'd been given hand-me-downs and sent off to the front.
She stopped and stared, watching him for any sign of movement or a reaction.
For about thirty seconds, she didn't get one and she was about to write him off as being boring.
Then something, his brows lowered a little and those green eyes started to narrow. It was a tiny thing, almost fleeting, but it was a look she had seen hundreds of times before. She found it rather odd to see it worn by someone else, but she could figure out what it was almost instantly.
The face of someone who wanted to say something but was holding back to not be rude.
It pissed her off.
"What?" Snapping back at the silence, she broke it first with a challenge in her voice. Adjusting her posture and leaning on one side, she looked him up and down behind her helmet, but turned her head slowly with the gesture to make it apparent what she was doing to him. "You got something to say?"
He just kept staring.
Then his eyes slowly closed and his face turned away from her, the faint emotion faded away as if it had never been there in the first place.
When he spoke, it was a tone of indifference.
Which really didn't match what he said next.
"Nothing worth discussing with you."
Her eyes narrowed, she took a single step forwards and no more.
"Uh-huh." She very nearly growled at him and adjusted Clarent on her shoulder, slowly working her fingers along the hilt and drumming out a gentle tapping pattern on it. Just loud enough that he would have heard it. "Why? Not man enough to say something you can't back up, is that it?"
Slowly, his eyes opened and he looked at her.
She very nearly punched him for the face he wore.
Looking down at her as if she was some stupid kid who made some rookie mistake.
The unsurprised disappointment.
"You would have me air grievances to you moments before we go into battle?"
"Who said anything about battle?" Shooting back, she narrowed her eyes and gave an uncaring shrug. "This is a rescue mission, far as I've been told. Going in and rounding up some lost little lambs and then going out again…Why? You heard something different from me?"
"It will end in violence." He spoke with some resigned certainty. "It always does."
At that, she felt obligated to roll her eyes. Sparing him a glance after the obvious movement and eyeing him. "Stay here then if you aren't cut out for violence."
"Stay here." The blonde parroted the words back in a voice utterly flat. His lips twisted back and forth, acting as if he was tasting the words and finding it to be a rather unpleasant one. Green eyes turned and looked down at her, remaining on her face for a few moments before he continued on. "And leave his safety. To you."
Mordred felt her face twitch.
The very way he spoke was as if she had suggested the stupidest thing known to man, and she felt obligated to punch him in the head for that alone. She whipped around and glared up, the clang of steel and the sharp grinding of metal against metal cleared her eyes, the helmet snapped backwards and let her show off the vicious snarl she could feel on her lips.
He didn't so much as blink at her, just still giving her that look as if nothing in the world mattered.
Or that he couldn't care less.
She was getting more pissed off the longer he stood there staring.
"Yeah. To me." Growling back, she stepped forwards and looked up, her voice turned low and dangerous. "Unless you think there's a problem with me being around him, huh? You got a problem with me being there?"
No words passed between them after that, not for a small length of time.
And neither one took their eyes off the other.
Then he spoke slowly.
"I have concerns."
"Yeah? Like I give a damn about your concerns." Scoffing loudly, she stepped back and turned her head away, scowl still on her lips. "Master asked me to be down there. You got a problem with that? Take it up with him. Unless you're the type who just doesn't care what their Master says and thinks you know best, huh?"
It was a side eye towards him, the scowl turned into a warped smirk.
Not even that got a reaction from him.
Just a slow blink and then he was looking away once more.
Mordred clicked her tongue, the good mood she had been building up festered away like rust in the span of a minute and a half. Being stood near this doppelganger pissed her off for all reasons beyond Gawain. At least she could get a read on that guy, but this person just seemed to be an uncaring asshole.
Lazy, was the word that came to mind.
Complaining about the duty of a Servant.
Whatever, she had been picked for the mission and that was that, so clearly the Master needed her expertise, which was to be expected. After all, she was Sir Mordred, for crying out loud. Only an idiot would say that she wasn't needed on a battlefield. Well, with the obvious exception of if Father was on the battlefield, then bringing her in was like saying that Father wasn't enough.
Which was stupid.
Her eyes glanced for the door, it hissed and opened up.
Both Master and the girl - the weird one that still felt familiar - stepped into the room. The former briefly glanced at the blonde and looked a touched surprised, Mordred noticed the slip. It was as if he hadn't actually been expecting them to be there in the first place. It was a bit petty, but she felt a little pull on her lips at that.
"Ash." Master greeted after catching himself, speeding into the room. "You coming along as well?"
The blonde, Ash, wasn't long in responding. "Is there a reason that I should not?"
Master stopped and then rolled his lips, briefly glancing between the two of them and pulling his brows tight. She could read between the lines and gave a subtle snort and a shake of the head, lowering her brows down and hiding her smirk from the world.
Yeah, she was the reason.
Or maybe that he couldn't keep his damn mouth shut around her.
"No." Was the response the boy gave at last. "Happy for the help. No problems with who I've invited along to help, are there?"
Mordred glanced up and turned on the blonde, waiting to see what he would do.
For about half a second, he stood there in silence, then he eventually turned and looked her dead in the eyes. With that unblinking gaze, speaking not to her but to their Master. "None that I have not already made public."
Oh, so he'd been like this when she was summoned elsewhere?
Big shock.
"Yeah, tell him to keep his dumb comments to himself." Jerking her head for him, she turned away, intending to spare him no further looks while they were here. Even if she could still feel his eyes on the side of her head. "Or better yet, I'll take up point, Master, and he can sit back and leave all the heavy lifting to someone who doesn't have a problem with violence."
Master frowned and straightened, looking between them once more before closing his eyes and dragging a hand over his face.
"Alright, we're going down to this Singularity to rescue our missing allies." He explained with a patient tone, dropping the hand which had been on his face and looking between them with a strained look. "I don't want us to be in need of rescuing because we can't work together here. Now I've asked Sir Mordred to come along."
He looked at Ash.
"Can you work with that?"
"I have worked with worse."
"Ash."
"...I can."
"Alright." Master exhaled and nodded his head, pacing forwards and closing in on the blonde. The pair stepped off to the side and stared to whisper between themselves. She nearly strained her ears to listen in, but paused when she noticed the girl with glasses had started to approach her, rather hesitantly.
Mordred raised a brow at her, smacking her lips before angling her head. "What? You got something to say?"
The girl - Mashed? She believed that was her name - jolted like some sort of animal before shaking her head from side to side. Taking in a short but obvious breath and puffing herself up, squaring her shoulders and giving her a cordial expression.
"I am just saying that it is an honour to be working with you again, Sir Mordred."
Mordred just stared.
From anyone else, she might have accused them of being some sort of smartass and then threatened them for it. Yet when the girl spoke, there was a strange earnest nature about her. As if she couldn't actually be capable of lying or showing some sort of ulterior nature to her words.
Which was either because she was innocent as all hell, or because she had some sort of skill.
"Uh-huh." Mordred responded with a slow nod, eyeing the girl up and down before puffing out her chest, sharpening her grin and giving a triumphant look. "Sure it is! I'm Sir Mordred! Least you got an eye for that type of thing, kid!"
She felt the stares and turned.
Ash was looking at her from the corner of his eye, all while speaking with Master about something.
Their conversation came to an end, the blonde turned and let out a breath.
Master watched him for a moment longer, then turned to the group and gave a smile, she did not fail to notice the way his body tensed when he looked at her and sharply jerked away, as if he had just seen something a little unpleasant.
He'd been like that when she first saw him.
And she couldn't quite make sense of it, not really.
She could guess, but it was a weird reaction to have at this stage.
Ritsuka's eyes opened the second he felt the force of the Rayshift end.
As usual, it left him a little queasy, but no worse than every other time.
He had plenty to prepare for.
What he wasn't expecting, however, was to open his eyes and find himself in the parking lot of a city. His eyes bulged immediately, seconds of silence passed, and he took a step backwards. Neck on a swivel, his vision turned left and right as he scanned every single inch of the place he now found himself in.
Confirming that, yes, it was a parking lot.
Street lights not far from him burned bright, illuminating the otherwise darkened location and beyond those he could see buildings. Skyscrapers and office blocks alike, some rooms still aglow with the interior lighting while others were shadowed in darkness. There was an eerie silence about it all, his lips parted ever so slightly at the sounds that were so familiar and yet so eerie.
Squeal of tires, the faint hum of an engine somewhere off in the distance.
"...What the…?"
Swallowing the lump in his throat, his immediate thoughts turned away from the building and towards the others he had come down with. Already worried that he had somehow managed to arrive away from them, he turned and looked about, the names of the first couple individuals already on the tip of his tongue.
Mordred was in his face the second he turned around.
Eyes locked into his own-
-his hands slick with blood as he forces his sharpened nails through metal and flesh-
"Grgk!?"
With a noise less human and more animal, he vaulted away from her, pressing down hard against the ground and throwing himself to some distance. Catching himself and bringing his hands up.
Mordred watched him, then made a face and leaned back ever so slightly, eyes aglow with some odd feeling that he couldn't place. At best it would have been confusion and at worst it would have been the same stare he would have levied at someone showing some level of insanity.
Ritsuka swallowed and slowly lowered his hands to his side, glancing at them and finding they were clean.
His breathing, once pants, came out slower as he forced it down.
"Sorry." Gasping the word out, he shook his head frantically and brought his eyes up to meet the Saber, but she did not even look close to responding. Her scrutinising gaze lingered on him without another word. When she did turn her head from him, her eyes remained fixed on his own.
He shuddered and turned sharply, breaking contact and closing his own eyes hard, hands clenched into fists and bringing them up, pressing it flat against his temples.
The feeling of fingernails digging into his palms put stings of pain through his hand, he pushed a little tighter and-
"Gah!"
A shout tore free of him, a tight grip - like that of a vice - clamped down around his left hand and pulled it away from his face. Eyes flew wide and he scrambled to wrench himself free of it, already swinging his free hand towards whatever gripped him. He paused only briefly when his eyes locked onto the sight of the battered metal gauntlet.
The grip on his wrist loosened ever so slightly, but remained there all the same.
Ritsuka glanced upwards and met the dull green eyes of Ash…though this time they showed something different about them.
He looked…unsettled.
Like he was seeing something disgusting, mould on the wall.
Just as quickly as he had seen it, the expression vanished away and the coldness returned in force. Ash's eyes slowly lowered down and stared at the hand, still wrapped around Ritsuka's wrist. With eternal slowness, the fingers slowly uncoiled themselves and retracted, the hand returned to its side.
Ritsuka sharply drew his hand back, his other dropped onto it and rubbed back and forth along his sleeve, breathing slowly to match the movement before it ended with a single short exhale.
"Right, fine." He spoke, first as a low mutter to himself, then a bit louder. "Right. Everyone good and-where's Mash?"
He furrowed his brows, noticing immediately the absence of someone who wasn't there. Stepping forwards, he moved away from the blonde by his side and bit his lower lip, brows furrowing and eyes squinting in the nighttime darkness, he leaned forwards and caught sight of something not far.
Near a payphone, the silhouette of a person just moving around it.
The person rounded the glass cube on the stand and stepped into the light, even at the distance he could see the look of absolute amazement on her face. The glowing eyes which looked mere seconds away from sparkling. Her hands frantically jumped back and forth, as if deciding whether she should actually reach out and touch it.
"...What the hell is this supposed to be?"
He turned and faced the speaker, though her own attention was fixed solely upon Mash.
Not that it hid away any of the utter bewilderment on her face, Mordred looked at a total loss for words. Lips parted and having taken a half step backwards, slowly she raised her left arm and pointed towards the still excited Shielder, then glanced at him with an expression of growing expectation.
"No, seriously." Mordred's voice lost none of the confusion. "What is going on here? Why is she acting like that?"
It was a question that Ritsuka could not answer.
"Because she has never left Chaldea." The words came from behind him, he did not think that he imagined the disapproving edge within them. "And this would be the first intact modern city she has stepped foot in which was not set aflame. Grant her the minor intrigues that come with this development. She has earned the right to enjoy them."
Ritsuka had to blink at that, turning and staring at Ash in surprise.
Though he was looking across at Mash with a slightly downturned lip, green eyes flickered down and met his own. Ash stared for a moment, then broke away and resumed speaking. "Provided that is allowed."
"Y-yeah." He blurted out an answer quickly. "Of course. Though I can think of more impressive things in a city than a phone booth…"
It was as he turned that he caught Mash freeze up with her back to them, then she turned about and faced them. He could see the clear flush of red on her cheeks as she immediately jogged towards them, or more of a brisk walk with her head turned down to the tarmac. Only when she was within touching distance did she actually speak.
"S-sorry, Senpai. I'm not sure what came over me-"
"It's fine." Before she could get further apologies out, he interrupted her. "This is a first for you, right? So you can enjoy as much as you want with the…phone booths and the streetlights…and the buildings which…"
His words trailed off, he glanced past her at the payphone for a couple of moments before letting out a quiet snort.
It had been so long since he had seen one of those that he actually found himself missing just the sight of it. Stepping around her, he walked towards it without really registering what was going on until he was right in front of it. His hand reached out and placed itself flat against the cold metal of the outer rim.
Fingernails drummed up and down, he took in a deep breath.
"Senpai?"
"Mmmmh." With a hum, he shook his head. "Sorry, just…nostalgic about all of it. Didn't think I'd really see a city like this that wasn't on fire or something so…"
Ritsuka glanced away and towards the scenery.
Broken up by towering concrete blocks and distant spires.
Compared to the open wilderness he had seen or the mediaeval towns or even the cramped city streets of Rome, this was a different type of enclosed space, but all the same it had never quite felt so open before.
"Yeah, so." With a sniffle, he wiped his eyes and stepped back from the payphone, turning on Mash and giving a small smile to her. "Welcome to…"
Words failed him.
"You know, I don't actually know what city this-"
"Mifune." Ash supplied to them from a short distance away, the blonde standing with both hands resting on the pommel of his sword once more. His head turned left and right as he swept it across the landscape. He looked at them once more and continued. "That is what this place is called. Mifune city. We are currently located in the…"
He stopped for a moment, eyes narrowed, then nodded to himself.
"Kayamihama district."
Ritsuka stared. "...Well, that answers that."
Keeping his eyes on Mash for a second or two longer after the exposition, he turned on Mash and watched her expression. She was still partially regarding him, but it was clear that most of her attention was still on the city itself. Eyes wide and with that childlike wonder, she looked close to vibrate on the spot.
"How does it look?"
"Big." Were the first words out of her mouth, then Mash caught herself and flushed, "I-I mean this place seems to be very expansive, Senpai. I've read about how large cities are in books and Doctor Romani has always told me about what they can be but this is…I didn't think the buildings here would really be so tall and everything is so large and…"
"Bah!" A sudden scoff from some ways away, Ritsuka glanced with a hint of amusement at Mordred and the dismissive frown she had on her face as she marched towards them. Giving a look over the city as if it was somehow disappointing. "Nothing but bland buildings. This place is big, sure, but it ain't got nothing on Camelot."
She came to a stop and cracked a bright smile, looking expectantly at Mash. "Now that is a proper city."
"Was."
Ritsuka sent a look towards Ash at his unapologetic outburst, the blonde wasn't even looking at him. Which also meant he missed the rather sour look which Mordred sent his way, but Ritsuka did not doubt that Ash heard the growl which came from her throat, the one which made even the air tremble.
"Let's not spoil this moment, alright?" He waved down the pair of them and brought up his wrist, tapping at the inbuilt communicator. "Now then, Ash has managed to supply us with a location which helps with mapping. So we can just call up Chaldea and then ask-"
With a flash of blue light, the communicator hummed to life as the screen sprung up, the face of Romani stared back at him with the Director hovering over his left shoulder while Da Vinci appeared over his right.
"And contact!" Came the loud cheer of the doctor, accompanied with a smile. "Glad to see we could speak so soon, Fujimaru-kun. So, what's it like down there?"
Ritsuka could not help but raise a brow at the manner of speech the doctor used, nor could he ignore the shift in his posture. The way he was acting betrayed a very strong sense of knowing from the man. His right hand dropped to his hip while the left kept the communicator up. "Did you know where we were going to end up?"
Romani paused for only a moment, then responded with a shrug. "It was only a passing theory at the time. Being honest, I had no idea when you would actually end up and neither did Da Vinci. Now that you're giving us data, we can accurately say you are in-"
"Mifune City." Ritsuka responded before the doctor could get the words out, registering the surprise on the man's face. "Kayamihama district."
"U-uh…yes? How did you…have you been there before?"
Ritsuka brought up his hand and jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the direction of Ash. "I had a helpful guide."
It was apparent that both Da Vinci and the Director surmised what he meant before the doctor did, judging by their looks of understanding while the doctor just continued to stare at him with confused squinted eyes.
"...Ash told me."
"Oooooh. Right." Romani nodded and scratched his forehead. "Yeah, he has loads of memories and stuff…well, he's right. You're in the Kayamihama district of Mifune City. I started pulling reports as soon as we got readings back and it seems to me like you're near the residential section of it."
Ritsuka glanced up and looked around, then stopped as he spotted a building a distance from them but still closer than most of the others. A spiralling apartment complex, probably around nine or ten stories tall. Though what was most curious was that all of the lights were still on, shining through the windows. Especially at a time when they should have all been turned off, if the dark night sky above them was any indication.
He hummed and nodded his head. "Yeah, I can spot an apartment complex."
"Eh? You can Senpai?" Turning on Mash, he gave another hum as she looked at him amazed. "That's incredible. I wouldn't have been able to spot that, all of these buildings look similar to…ah! Maybe it's that one there! That building looks out of place compared to all of the others!"
She spoke louder than normal and sharply raised her free hand, pointing for the distance.
Following her finger, he soon found himself staring at the same apartment building he had just pointed out.
"Why is it like that?"
"...It's just an apartment complex." Ritsuka replied slowly, unsure if he was the odd one out here.
Mash actually looked stumped by his words, her lone eye widened considerably at his answer before blurting out in a hurry. "Just an apartment? But its design is so strange compared to all of the others. Is it really supposed to look like that when every other building is rectangular?"
"...Sometimes people want to be fancy?" He shrugged his shoulders, then glanced about for help.
He met the eyes of Mordred.
Who promptly shrugged. "I'm not a builder or anything, what would I know about making houses? Still though…who'd make a big circle spire for a house to begin with? Ain't that just going to be a mess to build up in the first place? I mean, I've never stacked bricks before but even a person like me can tell you it's easier to stack them at a sharp angle."
"The design is no less intricate than those of Londor."
Ritsuka turned to Ash in bewilderment as he slowly realised this was turning into some sort of debate on architecture.
"They constructed spires and steeples with jutting balconies, a feature of the Sable Church."
Ash shrugged.
"But it is a building. I suppose the damage would be mitigated in the event of a siege. The sloped walls mean that a direct impact from a catapult is unlikely to cause equivalent damage to a flat surface."
"Ah, yeah." Mordred gave a grunt of ascent. "That's right."
Then she paused and frowned. "Yeah, but this place is just for housing people, isn't it? So doesn't that make it sort of pointless? I mean, if you've got an enemy army here with siege weapons, then you've already lost, haven't you?"
Ash was silent for a second, then he nodded once. "True. This represents a considerable waste of resources."
His words ended with a deep frown.
"It would have made greater sense to construct towers such as these along the perimeter of the city, providing the defending force with buildings that provided ample defense."
Mordred exhaled, shaking her head. "Some people are just stupid…Ah, wait. Modern humans have all that…uh…technology and stuff, right? So would having these towers even make that much of a difference."
"...Probably not." Ash remarked with closed eyes. "No. Then it truly is just a waste for it to look like that."
The bewildering sight of Ash and Mordred arguing over the merits of defensive towers aside, Ritsuka brought his attention back to Romani while the pair of Servants behind him seemed to be distracted with their own conversation.
He could see Romani making a similarly puzzled face, evidently having heard them.
"R-right, anyway." With a short cough, the man straightened. "Mash isn't wrong when she says there is something about the building. We're already registering dozens of points of movement across the entire apartment, but none of them register as life forms."
Ritsuka frowned. "How so?"
"We mostly look for biological functions." Romani explained. "So in this case, if there is movement but no biological function - that is to say, actually being alive - then it leaves only one potential of what we might be dealing with."
Slowly, a frown made its way onto the face of the doctor. "Undead. Zombies or wraiths. Perhaps even both."
"So a haunted apartment complex?" Ritsuka muttered, then turned his eyes towards it and frowned. Looking it up and down, even at a distance it looked rather large. He could only make a rough guess as to how many people lived in it, if every one of them had been turned into a zombie or an undead of some sorts…
He rolled his jaw.
"Surely not everyone inside could have become an undead, Doctor?" Mash spoke the question that had been on the tip of his tongue. "That would mean there would be hundreds of enemies."
The Director interrupted this time.
"The presence of the undead is problematic because we have no idea what could be causing them. Zombies would require the existence of a skilled necromancer, while the wraiths would signify the presence of either a magus or-"
Ritsuka remembered this one from their lessons. "Or this was the site of something that claimed the lives of a great many people and their lingering thoughts have kept their memories around."
Olga gave a grim nod. "There are no records of something like that transpiring, but if it did, then it was unknown to me. Considering we stand within a distortion of time, I suspect this apartment is the epicentre…much too convenient to suspect otherwise."
With a grunt of affirmation, he met the eyes of Mash and nodded. "We just need to head in and investigate then."
"There's another problem."
Oh boy, they were piling them up today, weren't they?
Ritsuka glanced and raised a brow.
Romani pursed his lips, then started speaking. "We're already detecting Servant signatures from within the apartment complex and the issue is…well…there are more Servants in there than we are currently missing."
"Servants were summoned to this apartment building from other places than Chaldea?" It was not impossible to believe, but that was already a problem. If something was calling them down from the throne of heroes as well, or from some other minor singularity they had been summoned into.
Mash furrowed her brows, looking on in concern. "We still don't know why they came here and some of these servants could be hostile…if they were to engage in a fight with us, then it could end up destroying the entire apartment building."
There would be no keeping something like that a secret.
Ritsuka drew in a breath and then exhaled. "We'll have to take the risk either way, but you're right."
He eyed the apartment warily. "Starting a fight is more likely to bring it down around our heads. Goodness knows that even excluding Ash and Mordred, a stray punch from a Servant is putting holes in the floor."
Shaking his head, he squared his shoulders.
"It's a risk we have to take regardless." He declared. "But make sure to mind your strength if it does come to blows. The quicker we can stop the fights, the less damage they can do."
Turning to Ash and Mordred, he briefly paused as he noticed they were still in some animated discussion about the complex. Straining his ears towards them, he registered their conversation once more.
"-placing a ballista at the summit would provide adequate ranged combat against both incoming enemy forces and against dragon riders."
"Dragon riders?" Came the loud and dismissive scoff from the Saber. "Man, I could count on one hand the number of times that happened in history. I don't know what freaks you have to deal with, but I'd rather save space and just have a full platoon of archers up there. You see how far longbows can reach?"
"You never had those in Camelot."
"Shut the hell up, it's not about what we had in Camelot." Came the swift rebuttal. "It's about the fact they're English longbows. Now, even I can see the value of having something you're more likely to use."
"And what of siege implements?"
"They're probably gonna be made out of wood? Just throw some pitch and fire at them and call it a day…Maybe then you can get a catapult or something? But chances are - if you're in a tower like that - then you don't need to worry about someone wasting a siege tower on you. They're gonna be saving those for the walls and-"
"Hey, guys?" He called out, they stopped quite quickly and directed their eyes to him. Bringing up his hand, Ritsuka jerked a thumb towards the apartment. "We've got some news on that. It's full of Servants and the problem is that we have more Servants in that than we actually have missing from Chaldea."
Neither Mordred nor Ash said anything for several seconds.
Then Mordred popped her lips, taking a sniff and then glancing at the building in question. "Well. That's a damn problem, ain't it?"
Ash, meanwhile, was just gazing at the building with pinched brows before he spoke. "I am unsure if it would survive a confrontation."
Good to see they were on the same wavelength.
"That's what I thought." He replied, then turned back and rolled his lips. "But we're still going to have to go in. I've already told Mash, but our best bet would be to take out opponents quickly. Goes without saying that using Noble Phantasms is a big no…Well, offensive ones at the very least."
Mordred snorted somewhere behind him.
"And we've got news of some sort of possible undead incursion here. Zombies and ghosts, that sort of thing. Either the residents or…well…summons."
"Small fry then." Came the bored retort of Mordred, a borderline dismissive scoff from her and then the trudge of metal. He glanced to the right as the Saber moved past him, shouldering Clarent and wearing an indifferent face. "Come on. Lets drag these idiots out, Master."
She seemed rather eager.
He glanced at Romani and caught the shrug the man gave.
"We'll be in touch." Receiving a nod, he shut down the communicator and started to walk after the Saber.
Mash joined him a few moments later. "I cannot detect anything in our immediate path, Senpai. Magical in nature, I mean."
Ritsuka stopped and held up his hands, it was enough that both Mordred and Mash either side of him did the same. The former just raised a brow while the latter went into a state of alert.
He looked left and right, then nodded to himself once satisfied before crossing the road.
Soon aware of a burning sensation in the back of his head, he did not turn around until he was on the other side of the road. Spinning and finding Mordred boring holes into the front of his face, an expression of irritated disbelief.
"What…?" He found himself replying, feeling a little bit embarrassed, turning and raising his hand to block out her glare. "It's the law…"
"Ah." Mash blinked and straightened, then put on a guilty wince. "I completely forgot, Senpai. I should have been paying closer attention to where we were…Don't worry. I am familiar with the expected traffic laws of several different countries and am prepared in case we encounter future situations."
With a resolute face, she puffed out her chest and drummed a fist into her body. "You can count on me to keep you safe against careless motorists."
"...You guys are such dorks." Mordred scoffed, loud enough that the pair could hear her.
Ash was the last to cross the road, pointedly not looking both ways and keeping his head facing forwards. The blonde met his eyes and slowly raised a brow, a faint glimmer of confusion as he came to a stop in front of the trio, looking over all of them before finally ending his sweeping gaze on Ritsuka.
"...The street is abandoned, why concern yourself with motorists who do not exist?"
Ritsuka flushed. "T-the…uhm…law."
Ash just continued to stare.
Then he responded with a single sentence. "I see."
He regretted doing it now, but it was something he did all the time before now.
It just never occurred to him to act otherwise.
Bringing up a fist before his face, he coughed into it and started walking once again, already eager to put the entire incident behind him. Eyes glancing further up the sidepath and towards the turn which seemed to go in the direction of the apartment. At least there seemed to be a straight route right towards it.
Moving himself into a light jog, Ritsuka kept his eyes turning between the road and the apartment. Making a turn and continuing onwards, but keeping his pace relatively slow. Eyeing the street warily as he noticed something else which seemed to be alarming.
"...How come we haven't been spotted? You'd think that a full gathering of us would have someone poking their head out."
Mordred made a noise. "Probably some magic thing. I mean, a building full of ghosts and other evil undead shit?"
She scoffed loudly. "Wouldn't surprise me if someone filed this as some gas leak and cleared the area."
Ritsuka slowed and then turned, raising his brows. "A gas leak? Who on earth would believe something like-"
He stopped.
Mash stared and tilted her head. "Senpai?"
"...You know? There was a gas leak near where I lived when I was pretty young. I just remember it as some weird thing that meant we had to stay out of town for a couple of days and then we moved right back in like nothing happened."
The implications didn't take long to settle.
Mash offered a small but admittedly strained smile. "I-I'm sure it was a genuine gas leak, Senpai."
Ritsuka now found himself in the odd situation where that was either a comfort or an even bigger worry.
"You know what? I'm not going to think about it anymore."
He declared, turning back around and continuing his march towards the street. Making another turn and then stopping as something rustled in a bush beside him. It was nothing more than a low cut row of green hedges, but the immediate noise had him flinch away from it.
Stepping back, he brought up his arms and glared at the offending spot.
A blur of movement, he blinked.
Suddenly Mash was right in front of him, shield raised with one hand while the other was held before his body, her fingers just inches from touching his chest in a movement designed to push him away.
The rustling of the bushes got louder still.
A pair of swords levelled at the bush, the respective owners tensed themselves.
Greenery parted, faint glowing blue eyes pushed out of the shrubbery, the slitted pupils widened before the owner of the sapphire orbs tilted their head.
Ritsuka felt his shoulders drop as he straightened himself, moving his hands up to press against his face.
Mordred snorted. "Oi, Master. Quite the fearsome beast, isn't it? No wonder you looked like you were going to piss yourself."
Whipping his hands off his face, he sent a sour look at Mordred, waving the hand towards the bush. "I can't be blamed for that! It's the dead of night and there's no one around and suddenly a bush starts rustling and-"
He trailed off, letting out a breath and shaking his head.
Mordred's smirk had only gotten wider the longer he tried to speak.
Yes, it was embarrassing with the benefit of hindsight and he was quite relieved at what he was seeing.
Looking back down, he stepped around from behind Mash and lowered himself into a crouch, pulling a faint smile and slowly raising his right hand. The back of his fingers facing the small pointed face.
The cat, a very bushy looking thing with long greying fur and what almost looked like a black necktie, pushed its head further out of the shrubbery. Sauntering forwards and sticking its nose flush against his knuckles. Taking a long sniff of his fingers before pulling back, then looking right into his eyes and angling its head.
"You're a cute one, aren't you?" He muttered in a low whisper, pushing his hand forwards while making sure it remained in line of sight with the cat.
He didn't want to startle them.
"Look at you, trying to scare me in the middle of the night." Wearing a playful frown, he felt his fingers grace the top of the cats head. Slowly, he rubbed them along their crown before giving a light scratch behind the ears.
Leaning into his touch, the eyes rolled shut and a low throaty pur escaped the furry animal.
Ritsuka was quiet as he smiled.
The cat was really soft.
"They seem friendly." Ritsuka replied, then glanced up and towards Mash, jerking his head for the cat. "You want to give it a try?"
Mash squeaked, glancing between him and the cat twice before rolling her lips. Slowly, she lowered herself down and reached out with her own free hand. Ritsuka pulled back from the feline, it seemed to register his absence, then locked onto Mash and took several steps towards her.
Gazing up with wide blue eyes, it closed the distance and all but rammed itself into the approaching palm.
With a faint jolt, Mash widened her eyes before giving a faint coo of appreciation.
Rubbing back and forth along the fur, the girl let out a soft giggle and smiled a little wider. "You were right, Senpai…the cat is very soft…Oh, they don't seem to have a collar on them."
She frowned, then looked up. "You don't think it's a stray, do you?"
He shrugged, then eyed the blank neck with a frown. Bringing up his hand, he scratched the side of his face. A peculiar mystery to be sure, the cat was well groomed and looked perfectly healthy, yet didn't seem to have a collar. Though it could have just been personal preference for the owners, he supposed.
There was another thing as well.
"Do cats normally get this big, Senpai?"
He grunted and shrugged. "I think there is this one species that is big…house cat-wise, I mean. I forget the name but I guess this is one of those."
Shaking his head, he stood up and turned. "Alright, we'll…"
He stopped when he found himself staring at Mordred.
She was sending side-eyed looks at the cat, all while shifting back and forth on her heels. Only barely did he register the fact her free hand, her left hand, was twitching up and shut as though she was fighting back the urge to move it.
He looked back at the cat, then at the Saber.
Taking a quick side step, he opened up a path. "...Do you want to stroke the cat too?"
"What?" Mordred snapped at him, giving him a look like he was an idiot. "We're supposed to be fighting your missing pals. Not wasting our time with whatever common pet crosses our paths. Come on, where is your sense of urgency? No matter how fluffy the damn thing-"
They both looked down, registering the dull thud of something hitting armour.
The cat was by Mordred's feet, rubbing around her legs and flicking their tail back and forth.
Ritsuka glanced back at Mordred and raised a brow.
Mordred was still staring at the cat.
There was a slight inhalation, then Mordred reached down and rubbed a lone finger along the back of the cat's head. It lasted a few seconds before she pulled back and snorted at the feline. "There, happy?"
The cat looked back at her.
Ritsuka suppressed a snort and shook his head. "Alright, enough distractions. We need to keep on moving…"
He stopped, then looked over his shoulder at Ash. "Are you going to give it a-"
"No." Ash's answer was as swift as it was cold, his eyes still fixed on the feline with no small amount of suspicion.
Ritsuka raised a brow.
Apparently Ash wasn't a cat person.
With a shrug of the shoulders, he turned and started moving again, glancing over to the direction of the building and then pausing as he caught sight of something. It was barely there for a moment, but he could have sworn he saw a flash of movement just by the entrance, if only for a brief second.
"Senpai?" Mash's voice behind him, one full of bemusement.
Ritsuka spoke back without turning. "I thought I saw something move."
"Not another cat, is it?" Mordred gave a dry chuckle.
He merely grunted back with his own small mirth. "I'm not sure, maybe it'll be a dog this time."
The response he got was a half snort, but he paid little mind to it. Instead he continued to look at the distant entrance of the apartment. Then he wet his lips and started moving forwards once again, this time with a greater sense of caution than before. Not long before Mash was flanking him, keeping her steps just ahead of his.
There might have been jokes, but they both knew it was too dangerous to be careless.
He stopped and looked.
There was movement again.
A blur, too fast to be human, darted out from the walled off corner that stretched around the building, there was a glint of something reflective under low lighting and then a howl, a long stretched out wail of something that sounded barely human.
The blur jerked to a stop and turned.
It was a shimmer in the air, he could hardly make it out, but the blur darted towards it with the glint of steel once more.
A cloud of something - appearing to have some sort of face - managed to let out another howl before the two objects collided with one another. It was an exchange that lasted mere blinks at best, a single flash of the metal and the cloud twisted and folded over itself, parting with a clean cut down the middle and then disappearing.
Ritsuka stopped and stared.
The blur had ground to a halt, back towards him, and provided a clear view as they stood in the doorway of the apartment. The lights from the inside casting a long shadow that stretched from the door, down the steps and over the path that he stood upon.
It was a person, he could see it clearly now.
He couldn't make out specific colours, only that they were some sort of kimono with a red jacked over the top. That was it, dark hair which just about reached their neck and that was if he squinted hard enough to look.
"Master." Mash whispered to him. "I've sighted the contact, they appear to feel like a Servant but there is something…wrong."
Mash sounded hesitant and decidedly uneasy.
Ritsuka found himself on alert quickly.
Mordred paced past him, a clank of metal and her helmet folded up to cover her face. It snapped into place, horned visage now with Clarent held with both hands in a clear sense of readiness, not quite hostile, but very much prepared for a breakdown in communication.
Ritsuka would rather have avoided that.
"Wait a second…" He muttered to the group, then took a step forwards and called out. "Excuse me?"
His voice echoed louder than he had expected, it nearly made him flinch.
The figure stilled and twitched, registering his words.
Then they slowly turned around.
Ritsuka prepared to speak again, only to freeze on the spot when they made eye contact.
He looked into the eyes.
The eyes that glowed ethereal blue.
The eyes he had seen before.
Whatever words he had died on his throat, he was staring into the azure orbs for what might have been an eternity.
He couldn't breathe.
His mouth opened and closed.
The eyes were staring.
Accusing.
"Oh Priscilla."
Warmth splatters on his hand, it's tight, enclosing.
"To see how far you've grown truly vexes me-"
His fingers force into the skin, it steams and opens, lips pulled into a smile he can't fight-
Ritsuka jerked.
Something pressed on his side and he recoiled at the moment, swinging his eyes and staggering backwards.
Mordred was looking at him, horned helm peering right into him.
He stepped backwards once more, his back struck something and he flinched, pulling away.
It held tight on his shoulder.
Ritsuka pulled harder, reaching around to free himself of the-
"Tch."
A click of the tongue, barely upon the wind.
"More Servants?"
Irritation laced the words.
"You and yours just seem to keep messing things up around here."
There was a whistle in the air, a muffled curse and then a crunch of something breaking.
Ritsuka turned on the sound.
Clarent was buried in the ground, the pavement had shattered like dust and the figure - a woman in a blue kimono with the red jacket - had stepped just beyond the range of the strike. Loosely held in her hand being nothing more than an ordinary looking kitchen knife.
But her eyes.
The azure eyes glowed brightly in the night.
"Fine." The woman exhaled and narrowed the orbs, they swirled and twisted like oceans in her skull. "I can at least clean up this mess before it gets any bigger."
Flipping the knife, she accelerated towards them.
