It took days of nonstop searching— days of looking through the timeline with SHEBA and analysing data until they realised they weren't searching in the right direction. It took another week for them to finally finally locate a trace of Ritsuka's existence. So much needed to be done to bring him back too; they needed to make a connection to a whole other timeline. By the time everything was set up to pull Ritsuka from wherever he was, it was 20 days since he disappeared in that Singularity…

"Finally… you're coming home, Senpai," Mash was on the verge of tears as they made the final preparation. Next to her calibrating the controls was Sion who could only give her a relieved sigh.

"Just a little longer…" The Atlas researcher mumbled. Once she made the last few adjustments… "Alright, everything is set!" She announced as she looked up and glanced around the control room at the other members of Chaldea. "It's time to bring Ritsuka back!"

Admittedly pre-emptive cheers filled the room as they started the process of bringing their missing friend back. Mash and Sion were soon joined by Da Vinci who came over from her console; the three watched silently in anticipation through the glass at the other where hopefully, Ritsuka would reappear in. Machines whirred to life and beeped for what seemed to be an eternity before a flash of light erupted in the other room. Once the light died down… there was someone out cold in the middle of the room.

"Senpai!" Mash cried in concern as she rushed into the other room with Da Vinci right behind her. "Senpai! Are you okay?!" She helped the young man sit up as he slowly regained consciousness.

" Ngh… Head hurts but… I think I'm okay…" He groaned out, putting a hand to his head to help with the terrible migraine he now had.

"Thank goodness…" At last, Mash closed her eyes and let out a relieved sigh. She had been so worried, so anxious for the last two weeks and now, Ritsuka was finally back. However…

"Um… Mash?" Da Vinci cautiously called out to her. "I… don't think that's him."

Mash let out an audible, "huh?", before looking at the young man in her arms. She was so worried that she didn't realise one major thing about his appearance— his hair. While the young man did have Ritsuka's facial structure, his hair wasn't the dark brown-bordering on black Ritsuka had. Instead, his hair was a greyish-blue. "Who… are you?"

"I could ask you the same thing," He retorted with a slight joking tone.

"I'm… We're… I'm so sorry…" Mash apologised as she closed her eyes, trying to hold back the tears threatening to come out.

Seeing her on the verge of breaking down clearly affected the Ritsuka lookalike who immediately tried to comfort her. "No, it's fine. I'm sorry for not being your friend." That might not have been the best thing to say but how else was he supposed to say?

"No, it's our fault. It looks like we made a mistake in our calculations," sighed Da Vinci as she glanced back at the glass window in the other room where basically everyone was scrambling around trying to figure out what went wrong. "You look like him, but seeing as you don't know who we are, you're probably not the person we were looking for."

"Look like him…?" A thoughtful look appeared on the young man's face before he hesitantly asked. "Who… are you looking for, exactly?"

The nervousness in his voice didn't go unnoticed by Da Vinci, but the only way to figure out why was to answer him. A thought had crossed her mind considering their similar appearance but that couldn't be it, could it? "Fujimaru Ritsuka. Do you… Do you know him?" Da Vinci answered… and watched a look of realisation spread across his face.

"No, it can't be… You guys are…" He whispered before shaking his head and asking more firmly. "Could it be? Are you guys Chaldea?"

The question naturally caught Da Vinci off guard; even Mash snapped to attention at the question. "We are. How do you…?"

"Oh… Oh no…" The young man muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. " Urgh… This must be some funny joke."

"Who are you? How do you know us?" Mash asked, trying to figure out who this doppelganger of Ritsuka was. They pulled him from another timeline; he shouldn't possibly know who they were.

The young man gulped, clearly shaking from nervousness, but answered them after a moment. "I'm… My name is Kousei. Fujimaru Kousei." He paused as he let what he just said sink in for the two as their eyes widened. "Fujimaru Ritsuka is my father."


...Yeah, this seems fun, ain't it? I actually had this done back in June but only had it on one site out of the three I upload to. So uh... have fun reading all the ile funni/i moments in coming. And yeah, this story is a separate canon from AMtHGF but things that are mentioned here may or may not come back to affect the main story. We'll see how it goes.

Oh yeah, Kousei's name is 凰誠 (dunno if it'll show up on FFN correctly) as suggested by one of those friends/muses/brainrotted dumbasses that feed my ego. The rest would be uploaded here soon