133: The Most Expendable
"Jeez, what part of 'using those things is dangerous' didn't you get?" I ask after Jason finishes explaining.
"Not to mention, now we won't get a chance to really examine the thing in detail, which is part of why I preserved it in the first place," Grimr mutters.
"It seemed like a good call at the time, okay!?" He shouts. "And it worked out! Look, I'm young, handsome, and have inexplicable sci-fi powers now!"
"It's probably Servantverse stuff…" The freshly re-capitated Nobunaga mutters something inexplicable, then moves on as if she said nothing. "Speaking of silly stuff, how about we go grab the Grail now? It'll probably be handy for the coming fight."
"If you know where the Holy Grail is, please mention it sooner…" Mash says with a small frown.
"It was probably in that cave, so… do you think Blackbeard has it now?" Jason asks.
"Nah, Elizabeth had it, so he's probably been roped into some kind of goofy halloween sub-plot," Nobbu says.
"Halloween…? I guess it's close to October…" I say. "Wait, no it isn't! It's still August!"
"Actually, we're at about 4 AM on September first, Senpai," Mash helpfully(?) corrects me.
"Right, it's late! I want to sleep!" I shout, and then something else clicks. "Wait, you said Elizabeth? As in Elizabeth I, or Elizabeth Bathory, or someone else?"
"Bathory," Nobunaga confirms. "Apparently she was shouting about getting a swimsuit when she first stole the grail from Blackbeard, so if we're lucky she might even be an extra class right now!"
"She actually showed up in this singularity too…? She was rambling about a swimsuit when she disappeared in France, but Servants don't remember things between manifestations, right…?" I say to myself.
"Oh, Elizabeth definitely remembers everything," Nobunaga says, and I feel a dire chill come over me. "She has Eliza particles on her side, after all."
"...Another stupid particle?" My retort doesn't really have very much energy - the existential terror is far too great.
"Seriously, though, why is it sci-fi?" I ask as we load up into the… Space Argo, I guess. "It's got air conditioning, balance stabilizers, and - are those laser cannons?"
"You think I know?" Jason asks.
"You can't even fire them, huh? Truly amazing…" I say. "By the way, what happened to that fifty-man crew you were talking about?"
"...Everyone refused," He admits. "I think if I ask enough times in dogeza, Pollux might feel enough pity to show up, and then Castor will join too. Other than them, maybe we can get Meleager if we find Atalanta, but that's pretty much it."
"...I guess we are asking a lot of them, but seriously?" I sigh. "...So, I guess we'll pencil in 'find Atalanta' after picking up Elizabeth and the Grail."
By the way, I already asked, but just grabbing the Grail and collapsing the singularity won't actually do anything to Hercules.
"On that note, we should think about swinging by Circe's island," Rigel says. "Stede aside, I feel like Circe would have to have something to help with this mess."
"There's a leyline there too, right?" I ask. "We can probably arrange to get some Servants sent from Chaldea… but do we actually have anyone useful left for this? I guess the Azoth Longsword is an A-rank mystic code, so maybe with buffs…?"
My communicator beeps, and the director springs into view. "You can leave those considerations to me, Subaru. You should get some sleep - Mash too. That's an order."
"...Right. Thanks, Director."
Still, it's easy to say I should sleep. "Hey, Nobunaga, I don't suppose you've got a spare mini-nobbu lying around? I tend to prefer using a hug pillow…"
"Nope! I'd offer to substitute, but I'm probably gonna be up late scheming with Jason," She says.
"No, you've already mentioned that you're some kind of nudist when things get too casual, so that would definitely be a problem," I sigh.
"I could shapeshift away the naughty bits if you want," she shrugs. "Actually, everything from the neck down is feeling a bit Avenger-y ever since I went through Rigel's mud, so I could even turn myself into a guy if that would make you more comfortable."
I have many questions, but in the end I go with the most important retort. "No, that last option would make things way worse!"
At this point, I finally take notice of the floating blue orb pressing itself into my chest. "Ah… the feeling's appreciated, but sensing your presence while I'm sleeping would be a bit tough."
"Hm… You could ask Medea for some help?" Nobunaga suggests. "She's got a passing interest in dollcraft, I'm pretty sure."
"Really?" I wonder. "You think I should ask through Rigel, or-?"
"No. No way. You have to ask yourself with some kind of guarantee that your little fairy girl goes nowhere near him," The Archer says, making an X with both arms. "She seems like she's somewhere between the old and young versions of her right now, so I'm not entirely sure how crazy she is, but anything implicating a potential love rival would be incredibly stupid."
"R-right…"
By the time the Argo arrives at the nearest Leyline, Subaru and Mash are already well asleep, and it comes down to Grimr to perform the necessary setup to rayshift Asclepius back to Chaldea as David works to move the Ark of the Covenant onto the boat.
"So? What do you plan to use that material for?" The doctor asks. "Those birds of yours were fishing it out of the water the whole way here."
The sage simply smirks. "It's the flesh of an incarnated Divine Spirit. What do you think we'll be using it for? It's gonna go into anything and everything. For now, I'm sending it back with you, but supposing Da Vinci doesn't find some way to burn through it all - and she shouldn't, I think I've got close to 30% of fishface's body mass here - supposing it's still there when I get to Chaldea, I think I'll give recreating Gae Bolg a try. Or I guess it'd be Gungnir, now."
"A sea monster's bones, hm?" The god of medicine closes his eyes for a moment. "And if I see fit to use it?"
"Go for it, long as you're helping out. Your Noble Phantasm needs ingredients, right?" Grimir grins.
"Splendid." Aesclepius smirks.
Chaldea's medical wing is fairly sizable, having been built to care for and be operated by a significantly larger staff than the facility now contains. As a result, out of five surgical theaters and twenty patient wards, only two of the former and ten of the latter are active, the rest having been sealed off and depowered. Even then, considering the skeleton crew operating them, the medical wing ought to have been shrunk even further, but the number of wounded personnel from the bombing of Chaldea a month prior had made that impractical.
Aside from those rooms, the medical wing also contains a pharmacy, an improvised rehabilitation facility, the morgue, and a number of cold storage rooms.
-Within one said cold storage room, a doctor with fluffy red hair and a freshly rayshifted servant examine a number of large machines - the rayshift coffins belonging to Chaldea's A team.
"As a doctor, I have my doubts about this procedure," Aesclepius says, looking over the medical charts belonging to Chaldea's cryogenically preserved masters. "No, more than that, it's simply irresponsible of me to make any sort of attempt at healing the ones in these coffins without prior test cases."
"That's what I was telling her!" Romani says. "It's way too risky to try something like this-"
"Medicine cannot be advanced without sacrifices, so would you point me to which of these is the most expendable?" Aesclepius asks.
"-I'm sorry, what!?"
"That said, Daybit Sem Void's medical history is too irregular to draw conclusions from, and Akuta Hinako's medical chart is missing. We need to exclude confounding variables like Ophelia Phamrsolone's mystic eye and Kirschtaria Wodime's damaged magic circuits as well, so… " The Servant murmurs. "Very well then. Kadoc Zemlupus. Scandinavia Peperoncino. Beryl Gut. Out of these three, which one would be missed the least if the procedure goes wrong?"
Objectively speaking, the correct answer would be Kadoc. Talented though he might be, he remains undoubtedly the weakest link in the A team. Not to mention that being from a minor mage family, there wouldn't even be any real political consequence to his death.
…But, the one asked this question is Romani Archman.
With a slightly shaking hand, he pages the Director, explaining the situation to her.
"...That's pretty nasty, Romani," She says. "Out of character, too - but I guess I can excuse it this time. I trust you'll still do your best to preserve his life?"
"...Of course."
"He's the most durable of the three, in any case," Olga Marie shakes her head. "Fine then. I'll authorize it. Medical to cold storage four, please assist Dr. Archman and Aesclepius in the resuscitation of A-Team member Beryl Gut."
A/N:
I am living within close enough proximity to the areas affected by Hurricane Helene to have strongly considered going to volunteer with the disaster relief efforts. One of the conditions I set for myself as an excuse not to do so was to use what little platform I have to try and raise awareness.
If you have money that you want to throw at me for writing this, please send it to one of the many disaster relief charities working in that area instead.
Thank you.