Hello everybody and welcome back to the start of chapter 36 of the story and Okeanos beggining! Hope everyone had a good Easter and vacations by the way.
And now without further ado, let's start it!
DISCLAIMER: All the Nasuverse characters belong to Nasu and are property of Type-Moon, with the exception of the OC's that belong to me, the author.
"Gaaaah!" The painful scream of a young purple haired witch echoed as the very own witch hit her back violently against the tree behin her, proceeding to fall to the ground. "T-This magic..." The young witch tried to stand up but her body was too injured and tired to do it. So all that she could do instead was slightly move her head to stare at the figure who had done this to her. She could feel the mana and magic of the opponent was leagues abover her's. The outcome of this fight couldn't have been more obvious.
"You have lost, Witch of Colchis." The figure said, walking torwards the young witch. It's voice mysterious but powerful. "And as per it was established by our own rules, you will fulfill what I have in mind for you." The figure crouched down, looking at it's opponent in the eyes that were dreading what would happen next.
Without prolonging more, the figure speaked. "This is what I want you to do..."
"This dream again."
Peko said to himself as the boy saw the place where he was again. For the third time, he saw the same sky and clouds, the same vast green hills. The same breeze of wind passing nicely throughout his body. And of course, the same painter. However, this time Peko was surprised by how close he was to the painter. Literally besides him.
The man was painting as always and still wearing a priest's clothes. The hair also didn't changed, maintaining the dark spiky hair that Peko had seen on his previous visit to this dream. While Peko's slightly spiky white hair would go from left to right, the man's hair would start from the right until it got all spikier on the left. Now it was the perfect chance to see this man's face. But first, the boy's curiosity made his eyes stare at the canvas first, seeing what the mysterious painter was creating ever since he had first saw the man.
It was a very realistic and detailed painting of a duck swimming in a lake. The colors, the lines, the matchup. Everything was incredibly detailed. From the physical aspect of the duck to the effects of the small ripples of water. Peko was mesmerized by such beautiful painting, looking at it with full attention, as if his vision could taste the colours and drawing of the canvas.
"Beautiful, is it not?"
In absolute surprise, a voice sounded in the dream. It was nice, welcoming, peaceful and comfortingly relaxed. It was the voice of the painting man. Such sound, made Peko's heart resonate inside, the boy taking his attention off the painting to look at the painter in priest's clothes, who also stopped his activity to move his head around and look at Peko's face. Finally, the two people were seeing each other's face in this large broad dream for the very first time.
And by seeing the man's face, Peko's eyes completely widened in pure bewilderment. "T-this face..!"
Something was itching on his mind and head. Something that had been caused by seeing the man's face. The mouth, eyes, ears. It all just seemed so...notorious and known for the boy. Wich only strengthened the question in Peko's mind. Who exactly is this person?
Trying to see if the man's existence was somewhat real, Peko stretched his arm in the direction of the painter's shoulder. "Y-you are..."
"Unfortunately, entrancing things tend to perish."
Not even being put there by the painter, a small black dot appeared in what was supposed to be the duck's eye. It's unnanounced appearence made Peko look back to the painting. "Hm? That things wasn't there."
"Evil and everything attached to it. Those do not perish."
In an instant, the dark small dot, rapidly increased it's size and destroyed the whole canvas that was starting to lose its colour. Not only that but the hole was swallowing everything around it. The grass, ground, air, clouds, all of the scenary was being consumed by the expanding black hole. Everything was tearing apart like paper, revealing the complete dark void behind it.
Peko tried to escape from the ruthless force of the hole, but the legs wouldn't obey. He was stuck. Again, the sensation of fear and paralysation struck the boy's body with the air running low on his lungs. Nothing could flee from the black hole. Not even the oxygen itself.
As there was almost nothing left of the scenario, Peko's body was beggining to perish like rubble. The painter's body however, stood unnafected. The man's face was totally overshadowed as it turned his head to look at Peko one last time.
The boy, not wanting to go away and wishing for more interaction with this man, tried to reach out to him as the arm he stretched crumbled away.
"Please, don't go! I want to talk with you! I need answers! Please wait! Wait! WAIT!"
"WAIT!"
Waking up in a frenzy, Peko opened his eyes to see he was again in his bedroom, alone. Nala had already woke up and went to the cafeteria. The boy felt his heart pumping wildly before calming down after some seconds. Sweat was running down his face and torso as he had woken up from the short dream that ended like a nightmare. That man who was both painter and priest. Who was he? Why did Peko felt like that?
"Could he..?" Peko stared down to the mattress he was sitting in, reflecting about the dream. "Or was it just my own imagination?" Peko thought to himself as he went to wash the face on the washbasin that was near the tub. Being real or not, the boy had to go to the cafeteria where his sister, Ritsuka, Mash and the rest were probably waiting for him. "I should stop being late like this."
Peko thought as he grabbed a new pair of clothes, the thinking of the painter, the black hole and the dream itself took a backseat in the meantime.
"Day 5110th. All operations and systems functional. Health and Physic are in good condition. Good morning, Number 2. How do you feel?"
The familiar voice of Dr. Romani sounded as the doctor himself was watching something behind a wall of glass.
The person in question nodded their head.
"Good to see that things are going smoothly." Romani smiled to them.
"What memory is this? It belongs to who?"
"Fu, fou!"
Ritsuka met Fou as he woke up, seeing the animal jumoing up and down over his chest. The delicacy wich Fou performed the jumps was enough to not hurt Ritsuka on the chest.
"Hm, Fou? What are you doing here?" Ritsuka asked the creature as he held Fou and put him down on the floor. "What hours is it?" The master wondered as he turned his head to look at the digital clock on top of the table. He had overslept.
"Dang it! I'll be late!" Ritsuka immediatly got up from his bed, almost falling on his way to the wardrobe due to waking up recently.
"Fu..." Fou watched the clumsy and hurried movements of Ritsuka as the human went to grab his standard outfit of master of Chaldea.
"I know Fou! I shouldn't be late on days like these!" Ritsuka said to Fou. "We are going to our third Singularity after resting two weeks from the previous one. To think it already has been that much time since that." Ritsuka then proceeded to stretch his back. "Reaching late is not a thing I want to set up as an exemple to Peko and Nala."
"What are you reading Nala?" The shielder and demi-servant of Chaldea, Mash Kyrielight asked to Nala as the two girls where sitting and eating in the cafeteria, with the older girl repairing on a newspaper that was being examined by the younger one.
"A random piece of paper with words and images all over it. It's what's called a newpaper right?" Nala asked to Mash who nodded in confirmation. "I found it in a room where Chaldea keeps old things to collect dust. A storage I guess."
"How did you gained access to it?" Mash asked Nala, knowing that Chaldea's storage room could only be opened with a card that neither she, Nala, Ritsuka and Peko had it.
Before Nala could answer her, Peko entered the cafeteria. "Good morning you two."
"Good morning Peko." Mash smiled to him.
Peko stared at them in confusion. The boy felt something strange here. "Ritsuka's still not here?"
"Yep. Looks like you have been beaten today by him." Nala replied to her brother.
"Weird. I thought he wouldn't be that kind of person." Peko said, crossing his arms.
"I also believed master would arrive sooner after me." Mash commented. "It's indeed unusual."
"Better late than never." Ritsuka said as he appeard walking behind Peko, greeting everyone. "Sorry for the waiting. Forgot to set my alarm."
"Good to see you Ritsuka." Peko said happily.
"Same goes for all of you." Ritsuka responded, proceeding to walk alongside Peko to the table Mash and Nala were sitting. He also noticed the newspaper Nala had in her posession. "Hm? Since when do you read that stuff?"
"Sheer curiosity." Nala responded as she frowned upon looking at several articles on the paper. "But I seriously don't know what all these lines of text are even talking about." She said frustrated.
"So how can you still say you have intrest in it?" Peko asked his sister.
"I just create scenarios in my head with the images I see in it." Nala responded all happily to her brother.
"I don't know if that is whether fun or tedious." Peko said to himself.
"Better than throw it in the trash I guess." Ritsuka said as he stretched his back and looked at Mash. "Hey Mash."
"What is it Senpai?" Mash asked him.
"That massage you gave me two weeks ago, I can still feel it." He put his thumb up to the shiedler. "Nice job!"
Mash blushed a bit. "I-I'm glad I assisted master in having a better recovery after the our mission."
"...but if I have to say wich picture I like the best in this newspaper..." Nala continued her talk as she flipped the pages all the way to the cover. "It would certainly be this one."
Watching the image and the title of what was clearly the main article of this newspaper, Mash narrowed her eyes. "Could you please hand me the newspaper Nala?" She asked politely.
"Sure." Nala handed the newspaper to the pink haired demi-servant who went to look at its cover closely.
"What's the problem Mash?" Ritsuka asked her after seeing how focused she was in seeing the cover of the newspaper.
"I think you also have heard about this new before master." Mash speaked as she gave the newspaper to Ritsuka who then gave a look at the cover.
The image was of a coastline whose waters seemed to have been soiled by a black substance that at first glance it could be mistaken by oil. The cover also had an edited image of lightning bolts on the background of a grey sky. Slowly remembering of when he had seen this before, Ritsuka looked to the date of publishment of the newspaper and the title.
31th January, 2004
HIT NEWS!: Mysterious dark substance unexpectedly appears on Chile's coastline overnight!
Scientists over the world theorize it may be correlated with the sudden events of yesterday. The people are starting to name it as 'The Day of Soundless Thunders."
Reading that specific name made Ritsuka look back into his past, to the early years of his life when the mentions of that event was on the news, everyone's mouths and everywhere else.
"Ah, it's truly been that much time." Ritsuka said, still looking at the cover.
"Do you know what it's talking about?" Peko asked him with curiosity. Nala was right behind him, showing her curiosity as well.
"Yeah. I was very young when it happened, but I can faintly recall what 'The Day of Soundless Thunders' was about." Ritsuka put the newspaper to lay on the table. "It may sound a bit hard to explain to you two, but it was a day where unexpectedly, no matter the region, time or weather, everyone in the world was surprised at the same time by huge bright flashes that came and went quickly out of nowhere." Ritsuka explained to the siblings. "No sound of lightning or even the spot of thunders appeard. Just the flashes alone."
The twins curiosity had just increased.
"That's quite fascinating!" Nala said.
"And a bit eerie too." Peko added. "Does anyone knew the reason for why it happened?"
"No." Mash responded. "All this years have passed and still no one figured out what was the phenomenon behind it. Some speculated to be aliens or other unatural type of things. The result was, no matter how hard the scientists investigated, studied it or therorized, no one was able to reach to a solid conclusion."
"That's how the story goes." Ritsuka said before staring at Mash. "You also remember it?"
"Not really. It was Doctor Romani who told me about it one day." Mash answered. "But it's quite the intresting case."
"But how does that has to do with the black stuff on the Chile's coastline thing?" Nala asked confused to both Ritsuka and Mash.
"What are you all talking about?" The voice of Da Vinci came as the woman artist entered the cafeteria. "Intresting topics about art? I hope so."
"Good morning Da Vinci. We were actually discussing about this 'Soundless Thunders' event from the newspaper." Peko told to the adult woman who went to grab it and observe the cover.
"Hummm, yeah. I've heard about this before. Huge flashes appearing out of nowehere in the sky all over the world. No matter if it was day or night."
"Do you wonder what it could have been?" Nala asked the italian artist.
"If I had to take a shot, I'd say it could have been some sort of magecraft or something mystic in the middle of it." Da Vinci speaked. "But that's just my hint. Even after its great decadence since the Age of Gods, the world can still be full of things way beyond our understanding. Not even the mage society could figured it out. Was it magic? Just nature working? Is there a scientific and logical explanation to this? Who knows. As an appreciator of art myself, I say the charm of some things are on the fact of being mysterious and mystical. Unknown." She smiled to them.
"Also, does Da Vinci knows what this whole dark thing on the coastline of Chile has to do with it?" Peko asked.
"Like the newspaper says, it all happened in a night. After the day of that event, the shores of the south american country suddenly got stenched by large amounts of what was initially presumed to have been a oil spill. But there wasn't records of any oil factory accident or human activity to produce that much polution. And the substance altough as dark as the oil, wasn't exactly the same thing. It just happened to appear the day after the Soundless Thunders event wich is why people think these two ocurrances may be related." Da Vinci explained.
"So that will remain a mystery as well..." Mash said.
"Now changing slightly the topic, that newspaper should be in the storage section of Chaldea. How did you get it?" Da Vinci asked them.
"Hum...the door was left open." Ritsuka responded, sweating a bit alongside everyone else.
"Then you entered the storage room without permission?" Da Vinci asked them with a cold tone.
"Well, only one of us went there and grabbed the newspaper." Peko said, as he looked to the side to stare at Nala.
"Right. I wasn't even close to the storage area to take the newspaper out of it." Ritsuka said, also staring at Nala.
The girl realized the two were indirectly telling Da Vinci who blame was and so she decided to deend herself. "I-I also wasn't near that area! Why are you two looking at me like that!? I didn't do it!" She almost yelled while trying to cover her face full of shame and guilt. "Back me up Mash, please!" She pleaded to the shielder.
"Sorry Nala, but Da Vinci would figure out even if I lied to her." Mash told to the younger girl who just frowned sadly in defeat.
"Well, I'd say it's more Romani's fault for leaving the door opened." Da Vinci sighed. "How can he forget to do something so basic? Still..." Da Vinci walked torwards Nala and pinched her cheeks. "Next time ask for permission please." She said with reprimand.
"Ow ow ow ow! I get it! Sorry Da Vinci senpai!" Nala apologized to the woman.
Satisfied with the response, Da Vinci let go her grip on Nala. "Better." She then looked to the four of them. "Now all of you get ready. We will start the Rayshift in thirty minutes, so be at the control room in a few minutes." Da Vinci informed them before walking away. "See ya later."
Peko chuckled as he saw Nala caressing her own cheeks. "Taking out that newspaper doesn't feel that worthy now."
"I didn't knew we needed permission idiot!" Nala reacted angrily.
"Well, now we know." Peko responded.
"Unfortunately, you are right on that." Nala said sadly before cheering herself up. "But what happened, happened. We have a more important thing to think about today."
"You're right." Ritsuka said. "We should eat our breakfast now in order to be at the control room in time."
"Me and Nala already eat ours Senpai." Mash told to the master of humanity. "The only ones remaining are you and Peko."
The two boys stood silent after hearing that.
"...Really?" Ritsuka asked dumbfounded.
"How long have we been sleeping?" Peko made another question.
"I think next time we should be the ones waking them up, don't you think Mash?" Nala asked to Mash with a smirk.
"Seems like it." Mash smiled as she saw Ritsuka and Peko sit on the table and starting to eat their breakfast, still wondering to themselves how they could have let to stay asleep for so long. " That 'Day of Soundless Thunders' however...I wished we could know the origin behind it..."
Already in the control room, the group of four people were getting ready for the Rayshift that would send them to the Third Singularity.
"I see you are all here." Romani speaked as he stood in front of them. "I assume you all know the objective by this point."
"Find the Holy Grail." Ritsuka responded.
"Make sure it isn't in posession of anyone that may be our enemie." Peko added.
"And if it is, then we kick our enemies butt and recover the grail from them." Nala said with a confident smile.
"Hope step two and three don't become a reality." Mash commented. "But yes, we are ready Doctor!"
Romani smiled with satisfied. "Then let's proceed to what we know about this Singularity." He said. "First, the time of this one is around late 16th century. And the location...isn't properly on land."
"Care to elaborate?" Ritsuka asked to Romani, not understaning what the doctor said at the end.
"I've been examining it and the location of this Singularity isn't geographicaly on land. But rather on a ocean." Romani revealed to them.
"So this Singularity is only sea and water?" Peko asked to the doctor, being surprised by the information.
"Fortunately no. There is also small islands scattered in it despite the Singularity not having a specific area." Romani told them. "Hope all of you know how to swim."
"Don't tell me you plan to drop us in the middle of the ocean with nothing!" Nala exclaimed, swearing to herself she would hate Romani if he ever tried to pull that off.
"Relax Nala. Of course I wasn't planning on doing that." Romani replied while rubbing the back of his head. "But damn if that doesn't sound tempting." "I'll rayshift you to one of the several islands within the Singularity, so don't worry."
"But what if the Holy Grail happens to be on another island? How will we go from a island to another without having to be through swimming?" Mash questioned him.
"No problema!" Da Vinci said as she walked torwards the shielder and handed her a rubber floaty. "This will help you in case of emergency." She smiled to them.
"...But it's only a rubber floaty." Ritsuka said, feeling dead inside.
On the other hand, Peko and Nala looked to be fascinated by such creation. It may be due to their amnesia, but seeing such thing for the first time picked up the intrest of the siblings.
"Whatever it is, the rubber duck looks pretty cute." Nala said.
"The person who created this must have been a genius!" Peko speaked.
Ritsuka wanted to say the rubber floaty wasn't such a big deal but he couldn't bring himself to lower the two kids happiness.
"Guess they don't see any problem in bringing it." Mash said with a small smile.
"FU FOU!" Fou jumped out of Mash's back and went torwards the twins, seemingly angry at sighting the siblings entertained with the rubber floaty. He jumped in attempts to cath the two's attention.
"Looks like someone is jealous." Romani joked a bit. "The tragedy that it would be for Fou to be replaced by a rubber duck. It must hurt a lot."
"Easy there Fou." Nala laughed as she picked up the animal. "No one is replacing you. Unlike this object you have emotions and life don't you?"
"Plus, we would prefer you over this rubber duck any time." Peko said, patting the animal's fur.
"Fou fu!" Fou said as he gave a snobbish expression torwards the rubber duck and tapped its material several times, like if he was punching it.
Nala distanciated Fou from the rubber floaty. "All right, you don't like it. No need to exaggerate."
"Now Fou as made a sworn enemy it seems." Ritsuka joked.
"C'mon Fou, Doctor Romani finally gave you permission to go with us and you'll behave like that?" Peko tried to reprimand Fou's behaviour.
"Fu!" Fou responded as he turned his head away, most likely showing that he choosed to ignore Peko's words.
"Well, I hope it doesn't last that long." Nala said as she held Fou in her arms and patted the creature, trying to see if he would feel better with it.
Mash then looked back at Da Vinci. "Either way, thank you for the item Da Vinci-san. We will make sure to find an utility for it." Mash thanked the woman.
"Good. That's why I gave it to you after all." Da Vinci said. "Romani, is the Rayshift prepared?"
"One hundread percent ready to go." Romani responded. "Once again, are you all ready?"
Before everyone could confirm it and proceed to start their newest mission, Peko remembered of something he wanted to ask to the doctor.
"Wait. Can I ask you something before we go doctor?" Peko talked to Romani.
"Sure Peko. Tell me what is it." Romani gave permission.
"About Flauros and the Seventy-Two Demon Gods." Peko said, bringing up the topic of Flauros that had appeard and revealed itself to them at the end of the previous Singularity after pretending to have been the mage known as Lev Lainur. "You and Da Vinci said you two would start to investigate and search anything related to it."
"Exactly! Almost forgot about that." Mash said. "Any clue doctor? Da Vinci-san?"
"Hmm, we do have a main suspect." Da Vinci told the group. "The appearence of one of the Seventy-Two Demon Gods could imply the involvement of a certain historic figure. One with great magic potential no less."
"Who is it?" Ritsuka asked her.
"The ancient and most famous out of the three kings of Israel, King Solomon." Da Vinci revealed the name to the group. It was by no means a lesser knwon figure or name with little meaning. Quite the opposite, Solomon was a very well known historic figure as well as religious, having left a legacy of being a very wise and capable ruler of his nation. Ritsuka and Mash knew who he was. Peko and Nala however were oblivious about his identity.
"Solomon..." Nala said, trying to think if she ever heard about that name before in her life. "Who is he?"
"Like Da Vinci-san said, he was king of Israel from 10th century BC. He was known for having created powerful spells and magecrafts and being blessed with huge amounts of mana as well as being gifted by God himself." Mash told her.
"10th century BC? How old is that?" Peko asked.
"Nine hundread years before the year you visited Rome on the previous Singularity." Romani responded him.
"Holy-..." Nala hold down her tongue. "That is way too back in time!"
"And believe me, there's even older times before that of Solomon." Da Vinci said. "But that is not of our intrest now. What is instead, is the possibility of having such legendary powerful and wise king as our main enemy."
"It would be really troublesome to have him as our main enemy." Ritsuka said. "Just to have a measure, how good is he with magecraft?"
"He was known as the King of Magecraft." Romani said with a serious face.
"Yep. That sounds very powerful." Nala said, feeling a little bit of anxiety on only thinking that such mighty figure could be their foe.
"If he ends up being really our enemy, then this Order will become way harder than it already is." Mash said with apprehension.
Romani tried to cheer her up as well as the rest of the team. "Hey now, don't pull those faces on me. You aren't about to give up just because of a guess right? Plus, I doubt very much he is even involved in the first place."
"Do you think so doctor?" Mash questioned him.
"Yeah. Solomon's tales and many stories around him used to have fictional and magical elements that the people would invent just to turn his legend more mystical and amazing."
Da Vinci wasn't quite sure. "I don't know Roman. The Seventy-Two Demon Gods used to be Solomon's familiars."
Despite that, the doctor remained skeptical. "And who's to say that their whole concept isn't also an exageratted fabrication? For what do we know, their existence can be bogus. Perhaps Flauros may be just an impostor using the name." Romani told Da Vinci and the rest. "So for what we know, Solomon's involvement can be nothing more than a simple farce."
"Could it be the work of that voice Flauros mentioned once?" Ritsuka brought up the strange voice that had instructed Flauros to cause the chaotic scheme they all saw in Rome.
"Perhaps, but it can't be Solomon himself, since Flauros didn't seemed to recognize it." Peko said before looking at Romani and Da Vinci. "Is it perhaps another historic figure who is working with Flauros and the rest of the Demon Gods?"
"That seems the most likely." Da Vinci replied.
"Do you have any thoughts who it might be?" Mash asked to the two adults in front of her.
Romani just crossed his arms and sighed. "Unfortunately no. The fact that we only know that it has a voice doesn't help us to reach anywhere in who identity may be."
"In that Romani is correct. We need more evidence to reach a conclusion. But the fact that we know its someone or something that may be working with the Demon Gods and possibly Solomon is already a start."
"Still a mystery thou." Nala said discontent.
"One that we hope it doesn't last that long." Ritsuka said. "But we should think on doing what comes first and leave those questions for later."
"You're right Fujimaru. The Rayshift is more than ready and we shouldn't waste any more second." Romani said as he started walking to his desk. "What matters now is clearing this Singularity and save humanity! Are you all ready?" He asked them.
"We are doctor!" Mash said.
"Already ready!" Nala confirmed.
"Same here! I'm prepared!" Peko speaked.
And finally, the leader, Ritsuka Fujimaru, also gave his confirmation. "Let's do this once again guys!"
"Fou fou!" Fou jumped, this time not having to hide and go with the group without their knowledge.
"Best of luck to you!" Da Vinci waved at them as she and Romani were now in the distance.
"Alright! Here we go!" Romani cracked his fingers and started typping on his keyboard.
The CHALDEA system was ready.
"Iniciating operation Rayshift...
Starting in 3...2...1..."
With the Rayshift completed, Mash was about to report their situation. "Rayshif-...hm?" Mash looked around to see no one was near her. She felt the sand in her feet and the hot good weather alongside the sound of the waves hitting the coast of the beach. Still she didn't seemed to find the rest of her group. "Where have they gone?" Mash asked to herself. "Could it be that the Rayshift actually failed?!" Starting to panic a bit, Mash was about to shout their names. However, she stopped once she saw the trio of Ritsuka, Peko and Nala lying with their backs on the sandy ground.
"Hmmm, this is more like it." Nala said as she alongside Peko and Ritsuka were enjoying the sun hitting their body as well as the waves soaking their feet.
"It has been some time since I have gone to the beach. If I knew the weather was this good, I would have brought sunscreen." Ritsuka talked with a peaceful smile on his face.
"Surely is a nice change of setting compared with France and Rome." Peko dig his body a little bit more inside the sand. "And the ground is really comfortable."
Sweating a bit out of weirdness, Mash approached them. "Hum...Shouldn't we be on the search of the Holy Grail instead?"
"Relax Mash." Ritsuka told to the shielder. "Even Fou is on the mood."
Looking to the sea in front of her, Mash saw the animal some meters away in the water, using the rubber floaty to rest and enjoy the cold water.
"Looks like the two were able to made peace." Nala said before taking a deep breath, still slacking alongside the rest minus Mash.
"Nature is truly a wonderful thing." Ritsuka melacholy speaked.
Reuniting courage and breaking her kawaii personality, Mash screamed at them altough still with remorse. "WE AREN'T HERE FOR VACATIONS! SO PLEASE STOP BEING LAZY AND GET THE HELL UP NOW!"
Getting screamed at in the ear, the trio quickly got up from the ground and cleaned their cloaths off the sand while Fou hurridly swimmed to the shore, not wanting to anger Mash any more second.
"Sorry Mash! We won't do that again." Ritsuka apologized to the shielder who went back to her normal posture.
"I hope so. Also sorry for having screamed at you. I didn't intend to yell that out." Mash told them.
"No worries. I admit we were getting a bit lazy with this atmosphere." Peko told to her while looking at the surroundings. "This climate is just too good to not enjoy it." The boy went to stare at the large ocean in front of him that would extend all the way torwards the horizon. "I think I also forgot how pleasent being in a beach was like."
"If we ever went to one." Nala said to her brother. "But it's true that it feels somewhat refreshing."
"I never went to the beach before in my life." Mash said as she crouched down to pick up a shell. "I never thought I would have the opportunity to be in a real one."
"Only thing that is missing of this beach is someone selling ice creams." Ritsuka said. "There was always a person doing it." He recalled.
"Wait! People sell and buy ice cream on a beach?!" Nala exclaimed in surprise.
"Yeah. At least in modern times and in ones that attract a lot of people." Ritsuka said to the girl. "But I doubt something like that existed in the 16th century."
"Wich means there is no chance we are going to find ice creams in this Singularity, is it?" Peko asked him.
"No." Ritsuka responded shortly.
"That sucks." Nala said with disappointment.
"Still, I think it's not all that bad." Mash speaked. "There's still other activities we could do in a beach like swimming, diving, surfing, building sand cas-" Realizing what she was saying, Mash quickly shaked her own head. "No no no! What am I saying? We need to focus on finding the Holy Grail!" Mash declared as she put her two hands against her cheeks. "Right! That's what we need to do! For the sake of humanity!"
"Well then let's start searching for it." Ritsuka told them before turning around and seeing the huge vegetation of the wild forest behind them. "Let's just hope it's on this island."
"It won't take that long." Nala said. "I'd bet it will take us the maximum of an hour until we looked at every corner of this island."
"Yeah. It doesn't seem to be that large." Peko commented.
"I hope that if we do find the Holy Grail, an enemy isn't already with their hands on it." Mash said as she helped Fou to dry his fur.
"If that happens we just have to beat them." Ritsuka told her. "Simple as that."
"Agree with that." Nala smiled to him.
"Then let's go in there and seek for the grail." Ritsuka said to his group. "Let's also stay close to each other everyone." Saying that, the Chaldea group entered the uncharted forest in search for the Holy Grail, in hopes that they would be the first ones to find it before anyone else.
"How much time as passed since we entered this place?" Peko asked to the group.
They have been searching everywhere on the forest of this island. But no matter how many caves they entered, how many trees they'd climb or rocks that would be turned upside down, the Holy Grail was in no one's sight. Eventually, the five of them were starting to get tired. The only thing they would find were some wild beasts here and there that would attack them. It was starting to get obvious the Holy Grail wasn't on this island.
"I guess...an hour by now?" Mash tried to calculate the time they have been inside this forest. "It's hard to tell without a clock."
In front of the group, Ritsuka saw something. "Wait a minute guys!" Ritsuka put his arm in front of them, getting a reaction out of the rest of his group.
"What is it master? Have you find something?" Mash asked him, preparing her shield if they had to fight another monster again.
"Have you spotted the grail?" Nala asked Ritsuka, also with her sword in hand.
"..." Ritsuka didn't said anything initially, instead looking at a rock in front of them.
The rest were confused by his silence.
"R-Ritsuka...it's just a rock." Peko told to his friend.
"I know. It's just..." Ritsuka let drops of sweat fall from his chin. "I think we have passed by this rock already."
The information shocked everyone as well as annoy and demoralize them even more.
"God damnit! We are walking in circles!" Nala said with frustration, kicking a pebble on the ground.
"Fu fou..." Fou made his noise while resting on top of Peko's head.
"Figures that it wouldn't be that easy." Peko lamented. "At least it means we have searched this island to its total. Now we can exit here and go search on another island."
"If we find the exit of this forest." Mash said with concern, causing Peko to gulp. She made a good point there.
"No trouble!" Ritsuka said. "We have already been through worse before. It won't be a forest that will stop us now."
"Yes but I wish we could have a map." Nala told him. "Speaking of wich, why the doctor is taking so much time in establishing communications?" Nala protested. "He would come in handy right now."
"I hope he isn't checking on that Magi Mari site instead..." Ritsuka muttered to himself.
As they didn't know what to do now, the peeble that Nala had kicked at the bushes seemed to have come back by been throw to the place where it had originally been kicked.
"Screw ya damn stone!"
They heard someone say in the distance.
"We all heard it didn't we?" Peko asked to the group.
"Absolutely." Ritsuka responded.
"It came from way back there." Nala pointed at the several trees and bushes in front of them from where the peeble had been throw back.
"Then let's go see what's behind it." Mash went on the front and the rest immediatly followed her. The group started to slice and push the trees, branches and bushes away, making way to the other side and being greeted by an unexpected vision.
In front of them, there was a small hidden beach with a numerous group of pirates that were sitting on tables and getting drunk on rum. A giant white tent stood next to the shore where a group of another pirates was playing a music for the other ones to dance to the sound of it. Next to it, there was a big red pirate ship with golden lines. There was no doubt the group had just stumbled themselves in a pirate's hideout. Thankfuly, all the piarates were too entretained dancing or drinking to even notice their presence.
"The party sure is lively." Peko commented on what he was seeing.
"They even have this funny costumes." Nala said, seeing the eyepatches, hooks, wodden legs and bandanas the pirates were wearing.
"Careful, they are pirates." Mash warned them. "And from what I heard, they aren't the most nicest of people."
"At least they are too distratced to even notice our presence." Ritsuka said. "So let's take this chance to turn back and-"
"Ahoy!" A random pirate with red bandana spotted them and decided to walk torwards the group
"Too late!" Peko hissed as now he and the rest stayed in place while the drunken pirate approached them.
"You mateys must be new around here, aren't ya?" The pirate asked them, his body movement seeming soft and dizzy.
Not knowing what to say, Ritsuka chosed to be careful in his words. "We are-"
Before Ritsuka could even properly introduce themselves, the pirate put an arm over the master of humanity's shoulder. "Aye, I know what you lot are. Pirates like us!"
"N-No! That's not what I-" Ritsuka started getting dragged by the pirate who was smilling all happily while taking a sip out of his rum. The rest of the group followed them.
"Looks like we dodged a conflict without doing much effort." Peko said, walking among the pirates and seeing them all dancing and drunking while paying no mind to them.
"They don't look like bad people at all." Nala said, enjoying the music and party of the lawless people of the sea.
"Then we were lucky to have encountered this kind of pirates. Many of them end up being ruthless looters." Mash informed the twins.
"I think Ritsuka doesn't like them eitherway." Nala giggled as she watched Ritsuka on the front smilling nervously to the drunktard pirate who was guiding them to the big white tent.
"Ahoy captain! We just found other couple of fellow pirates during our party! They have fancy dresses and everything!" The pirate exclaimed to his captain who was sitting on the improvised bar and taking a big gulp from a bottle of rom.
The captain in question was a mature adult woman with long pink hair, wearing a slevless red pirate coat with white leggings and black leather boots. She rubbed her head after drinking her bottle. "I already told ya damn spinless idiots to not enter the tent shouting. My head can hurt a freacking lot!" She exclaimed while turning her head around, the woman's blue eyes seeing the new arriving pirates.
The drunk pirate stretched the arm torwards his captain. "My dear friends, I present to you the famous pirate and owner of the Wild Hunt, Francis Drake!"
To be continued...
And that's it for chapter 36 of the story! So we have finally started Okeanos. And let me say...I actually enjoy it. Like, as one of the earliest Singularities I think it was fine and better than Septem. Sure that early FGO writting is still FGO writting but I think Okeanos does its job well enough. So unlike Septem, I won't add or remove any existent servants that are already in the Singularity. That doesn't mean it will 100% play out as in the game since I will add some new scenarios while still following the basis of the og plotline of the game kinda like Orleans. (Ah, aren't AU's just fascinating?) Also more bits of story drop here and there alongside weird dreams...usual Type-Moon stuff.
Anyways, that's all and see you next time on chapter 37 of the story! Peace!
P.S: A BIT OF A RANT OF MINE. IGNORE IT IF YOU WANT TO:
Am I the only one who's worried about FGO future? Like I know that the majority of us are in NA and we're having a good time but every time I look at the JP side of things with its dead weeks and the fact we've only had 2 events this whole year until now with no reruns, strenghtening quests or animation updates is truly aggravating. Like, at this point one has to question what the hell is happening at Lasengle (or even Type-Moon in general). We've been having this problems ever since the Road to LB7 thing and it's sad to see that now the devs do the bare minimum as in, do no changes or updates for weeks in the game and then release a new servant out of nowhere so that the whale players can skyrocket the gacha into the top and give money to them. We gave our vote of confidence during the delay of LB7 but now it all seems that...they kinda don't care. I don't like being a doomer and saying this on FanFiction instead of like...Reddit. But it pains me to see the game in this state and realize that in the gacha term of things, FGO is a very outdated gacha game compared with the newer ones, and this strange management and decisions of Lasengle and everyone else involved doesn't help it.
The only thing holding this game right now is the story, characters and the fact of being a Fate IP. But if they plan to do a part 3 with still having this type of management and not even considering changing engine as a whole, I think a lot of people will fall off the game the moment Part 2 (2.5) concludes. This is not coming from a hater, but from someone that watched this game at its peak and is now getting slowly drowned in the mud like this.
But with that little rant of the way, check out if you want the oneshot I did previous week about Tezcatlipoca and Daybit having fun on a road trip.
