Hello everyone and welcome back to the start of chapter 58! And the game after such a long time has finally implantes its first australian servant! I'm not australian myself but as someone who has searched some topics about Aboriginal Australia and thinks the concept of Dreamtime is cool, it's nice to see the game finally adressing that mythology.

And now with that said, 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


"Khh! Dammit! She couldn't have gone too far!"

Nala runned through the huge dust of mist in the middle of the streets, chasing after Jack the Ripper who had fled from them as part of her new game. Nala was so focused and single minded in catching the enemy that she didn't noticed she was now alone, having been separated from the rest of the group. She knew Jack couldn't be very furhter from her as she could hear the assassin's creepy giggled echoing around the fog.

"Hehehe! Where we might be? Could it be here? There? Or perhaps over here?" Jack taunted Nala while hidding on the mist.

"Guess we're about to find out!" Nala exclaimed, charging her sword and swinging the blade against the mist, dispersing it. With the area temporarily cleared, Nala turned her head to evert direction, trying to spot Jack. "Where is she?! She's gotta be here!" As Nala kept intensely observing, a shadow appeard above her on the ground, making the girl look to the sky above her.

It was Jack, right about to drop on her with the knives in hand. "Got you!" She serial killer smiled evily, ready to pierce her weapons into Nala's skin once she landed on the opponent. Yet, Nala reacted with precision, escaping Jack's surprise attack by centimeters and in return attacking the assassin with her sword which Jack managed to block it with her knives. Jack however seemed more happy than frustrated. "You reacted very good! Oliver should have told us earlier about you. Playing with you is so much fun!"

"Unfortunately I don't feel the same. This game of yours ends here!" Nala yelled, charging torwards Jack and trying to hit her. The assassin deflected the attack and jumped over Nala.

"Hehehe! But we still have so many ideas and games in mind we wanna try out! You'll certainly love it!" Jack said before making a sad frown. "But it's a tad sad that Oliver isn't here. We wanted to continue playing with him."

That's when Nala realized something. That she was fighting Jack alone. "Wh-what?!" Nala looked over her shoulder, seeing that she really wasn't with the group anymore. "Now that she mentions it I really got away from the others. But that can't make sense. Why they didn't followed me?"

"Hmm, but anyways, playing with you is as fun if not funnier to us." Jack told Nala. "We'll make sure to keep you around so that you can always play with us!"

"In your dreams!" Nala responded, going for another blow on Jack. The serial killer blocked the stroke and dodged the second one, starting to get away from Nala.

"Try catching up to us!" Jack said, jumping to the roof of a house nearby.

"Wait!" Nala didn't wasted a second and hopped on the same roof as Jack who now was running and jumping from rooftop to another, with Nala chasing her again right behind.

Jack threw some scalpels and other sharp knives at Nala to hinder her opponent's chase. Nala parried it and proceeded to make an attempt in slashing Jack from that distance, with the attack coming torwards the assassin only for her to use a chimney as a shield.

The serial killer was vey nimble, skillfuly using making a course by scaling and jumping from house to house like it was parkour while Nala altough not staying that much behind, didn't had the same natural moves as Jack to use the environment in her favour to escape.

The servant kicked some boxes to block Nala's path to her to wich she was able to pass through. The chase continued on the ground, passing by some narrow alleys and even the interior of some houses by jumping in and out of a window.

Just as Nala thought she would be persuing Jack forever, once she turned to the left and entered an abandoned building, she wasn't able to see the assassin anymore. "Crap! Did I let her escape?"

"Surprise!" Jack exclaimed, appearing from the shadows to flank Nala, managing to land a cut on her rib, having caught her enemy off guard.

"Ghg!" Nala flinched in pain, taking some steps back to distance herself from Jack. "You dirty..!"

"Yay! We got one cut! Two more and we win!" Jack said happily, treating all of their fight as another game. "Be sure to protect yourself better Oliver's sis!"

"I have a name you know?" Nala replied back, getting really tired of being called 'Oliver's sister' by the serial killer. It bothered her even more the fact Jack was totally wrong on her brother's name.

"Oh! Really?" Jack softly punched her own head while smilling clumsly at Nala. "Sorry. We forgot to ask you. What's your name then?"

"Can she even be able to take anything seriously?" Nala said to herself before responding. "It's Nala!"

With the answer given, Jack stood silent for some seconds. "...Nelly?" She tilted her head to the side, oblivious.

"THAT'S NOT MY NAME!" Nala shouted to her, completely shocked on how Jack mispronounce it.

"Hmm, then I guess we'll continue calling you Oliver's sister." Jack said. "You don't really mind, do you?"

Nala let out tears fall from her eyes as she gave up. "I think it's useless to make you think otherwise at this point, so sure."

"Okay!" Without warning, Jack tried to slash Nala again, who this time reacted in time to block the attack. "Let's go back to our game!"

"At least try to make it fair instead of attacking from nowhere!" Nala replied, fighting back.

"Precise Stroke!"

"Information Erasure!"

Using one of her skills, Jack cancelled out Nala's precise attack, with the blade missing its target, much to the Nala's unbelief. "She cancelled out my skill?!"

"We also have tricks up our sleeves." Jack said, landing her feet on a wall of the building, dashing at Nala.

The serial killer proceeded to jump around the walls and attack Nala nonstop, forcing her to stay in defense.

"Air Step!"

Nala activated her other skill, being useful to dodge from Jack's countless blows. However, no mattered how much Nala avoided the attacks, she was slowly getting cornered, having little to no room to continue evading. That's when she tried her luck and decided to fend off Jack. A deep mistake. The assassin had little to no opening available that Nala could use to attack her, leading to Jack easily parry Nala's attack and knock out the sword out of her hand by kicking Nala's pulse.

"Agh!" The sharp pain caused Nala to drop her weapon and being completely defenseless against Jack now, who didn't waste a second to slash Nala's shoulder and taking her down to the ground. As Nala tried to get instantly back up, she was pinned down by Jack, who now had her body on top of Nala's and leaned her knife's sharp edge on Nala's throat, totally immobilizing her.

"D-Damnit! What do I do now!?" Nala's eyes stared in apprehension and slight fear as she nervously gazed at Jack's sadistic smile who now had her enemy at her mercy.

"Hehehe. We won."


"Luminary Route!"

In the area near the bookshop, the group was passing through some difficulties in dealing with a different type of enemy from the ones they had faced so far in this Singularity, with Peko shooting one of the demon looking monsters with a light bullet. Even if it was manageable to kill them, it could take some time to do it as the shadowy monsters would reshap back their bodies after suffering a hit.

"Goddamnit! These things are reselient as hell!" Mordred said after seeing one of them cure a wound inflicted by the knight's sword.

"We have fought these things before! Just keep attacking them until they are defeated!" Ritsuka told her.

"Does that means our attacks are doing actual damage or not?" Hans questioned him.

"Kinda. Altough light related attacks can deal more damage and finish with them faster." Mash responded to the author before looking at Peko. "Are you feeling alright Peko?" She hoped he wasn't feeling exhausted from having to use more mana against these creatures since Peko was the only one of them whose attacks had great efficiency against these demonic monsters.

"Y-yeah! Still good!" Peko responded, trying to ignore his fatigue while clashing with the enemies.

"Keh! Then I should have done this a lot sooner!" Mordred talked, releasing some bright red thunders from her blade. "If these fuckers are really weak to light, then this should do it! Now let's wipe out the floor with them!"

And after some minutes later of more fighting, they were finally able to wipe out every enemy, winning the battle, with Mordred and Peko taking out the majority of them.

"It's over. We defeated all of them." Mash said, resting her shield.

Ritsuka went next to Peko, with the boy panting tiredly from the fight. "Here. Let me help." Ritsuka casted a healing spell on Peko before helping him standing up. The overuse of mana had clearly worn the boy out a bit, but it was the only way in dealing with those monsters faster and do better damage.

"Thanks Ritsuka." Peko cleaned the sweat from his face. "I'm ready to continue."

Ritsuka nodded. "Understood. We need to catch up to Nala."

"London is already a mess of a maze. And with this fog? We'll more likely run into monsters than her!" Hans expressed his opinion.

"Hey now. If it is to be a pessimistic jerk you better leave the group already." Mordred responded back.

"It is called being realistic. Think of the bad outcomes of a situation, not only the good ones." Hans told her.

"Fortunately doctor can scan the nearby areas to find her, can you doctor?" Mash asked to Romani.

"It won't be as easy and simple as it sounds. Remember that the Demonic Fog interferes with the communication system here." Romani explained. "It will take a while for me to encounter Nala's location."

"I can help with that if you want Dr. Romani." Jekyll speaked. "With the access of the city map you shared with me, I can also try locate Nala's position."

"Appreciate it." Romani accepted the scientist's help. "Also, there was something iffy about Jack the Ripper when you were fighting with her."

"Like what? Found something?" Peko asked him.

"While you were having the combat with her, I took the opportunity to analyze and inspect her Spirit Core. And it shocked me when I found out that Jack the Ripper's servant body isn't composed of a single soul, but of a hundread of thousands of souls instead!"

"What?! You're telling us she is made up of entire groups of souls?!" Ritsuka said in astonishment.

"I see. Now it makes sense why she always refered to herself as 'we' instead of 'I'." Mash commented, picking up that crucial detail.

"But how is that even possible?" Ritsuka said, still trying to understand it.

"We servants come in a lot of shapes and sizes. Some more unique than others." Hans told him. "Jack the Ripper seems to be one of those servant's with a special case. It would make sense in her own myth context that the serial killer's true identity was never revealed."

"So this servant girl we've been always seeing isn't probably the actual Jack the Ripper but instead some kind of fake persona." Mordred said, crossing her arms. "Hmmm, too complex for me. Let's think about that later and focus on reuniting with pip-squeak first!"

"You are able to possibly grasp the servant's concept but then say it's too complex for you?!" Hans exclaimed, extremely taken aback by Mordred's weird reasoning.

Ritsuka immediatly agreed with Mordred. "Sure! No time to waste here!"


"Hehehe. We won."

Jack said with a hint of sadistic joy in her words, tangling the tip of her knife on Nala's throat.

Nala tried to wiggle her hand torwards her fallen sword on the side, trying to reach for the hilt. Unfortunately, it was too far for her to grab it, and Nala was unable to move move of her body with Jack on top of her putting a knife in her throat. She could feel the cold steel touching the skin, threatening to cut it. Nala tried to remain calm and keep control of her breath despite the situation making her heartbeats getting insanely faster out of pure fear and doom. She had no possibly escape out from this.

"N-No! This can't be how I die! Not here! Not against her!" Nala shouted on her mind as she swetaed in dread, feeling Jack applying pressure on the knife. The moment the weapon of the serial killer had faintly pierced the skin of her neck, Nala closed her eyes and waited for the worst, cursing to herself silently.

Yet, right as the tiny wound had been made, the knife was taken away from her throat and Jack got up and moved away from Nala's body, completely surprising the girl who opened her eyes in confusion to look at the serial killer. "E-Eh? Weren't you going to kill me?"

"Hm? Why should we? You're our friend! And we never kill our friends!" Jack replied with an innocent smile. "Plus, remember what we told you? Three cuts and we win. That cut on your throat was the last one so we've won! Also, mommy and her coworkers want you and Oliver alive, so it wouldn't make sense to kill you here."

Nala reacted with a slap to her own head. "Of course! I forgot about that detail during our fight."

Jack laughed in response. "Hahaha, you're such a forgetful dummy Nelly."

"It's Nala." She replied, going to grab her sword and stare at Jack with a bit of hostility. "Still, if you want to keep me alive for someone's plans why did decide to cut me in the first place?"

"Just part of our game. That's all." Jack responded in earnest. "Does it hurt?"

"Not the worst wound I suffered so far but I would be better off by not having them." Nala told her with some irritation, not liking how Jack was trying to act so friendly after actively fighting against her and inflicting damage.

"Then no worries! We got a solution for that." Jack exclaimed, walking torwards Nala who initially hesitated and even pointed her sword at the assassin.

"Don't you dare taking another step." Nala warned Jack, only to see her rising her hands with no weapons attached to it. She was showing to Nala that in that moment, she meant no harm to her.

"It's alright. We aren't going to hurt you again. You can trust us." Jack told her with a serious and solemn expression, causing Nala to think if she should believe on Jack's word or not. But seeing and hearing how genuine her face and voice sounded, Nala gave the benefit of doubt and lowered her weapon, hoping she wouldn't come to regret it. Having been given the trust, Jack grabbed Nala's arm carefully.

"Surgery!"

Passing a finger on Nala's wound, Jack was able to heal all of the injuries on the other girl's body, much to Nala's bewilderment. "Done! Feeling better?" Jack asked to Nala.

"Y-Yes. Thank you...I think." Nala checked and touched the areas that had been cut by Jack before. "She actually healed me." Nala thought that perhaps it was because Jack needed to keep her alive, but even so, to behave this nicely to Nala was totally unexpected. "It can't be...that she actually thinks I'm her friend?!"

"Anyways, what do you want to do now? We don't need to take you to mommy just yet. We can still have more fun together!" Jack exclaimed happily. "We can perhaps wait for Oliver to arrive but he would bring the rest of his group with him..." Jack said a bit bothered. "So, what do you suggest for us to do now?"

Nala wasn't sure of what to say here. Jack's treatment to her was something that Nala could hardly believe in. "Eerm...I don't know exactly. How about-"

Before Nala could suggest anything, the two girls heard some unnatural noise nearby. Looking to the ground, they saw some dark puddles on the floor from which a type of monster Nala could recognize appeard from it. "These things are here?!"

"Are they bad?" Jack asked to Nala, noticing that her friend already had a previous encounter with them.

"They'll try to kill us, so yeah. They're extremely bad." Nala responded, wielding back her sword.

"Then we better get rid of them." Jack responded in a cold tone, taking out her knives. "We hate things that try to ruin our fun."

Setting aside the fact they where in opposite sides, Nala decided to fight alongside Jack for the time being. "Watch out. These monsters are different from the other types you and I were used to." Warning Jack, the two went to lash out the common enemies in front.

With the battle proceeding, Nala had taken down the first one of the small group after slashing it with her shinning blade. Still, that thing didn't go down after a couple of good hits, just like the first encounter she had with them on the previous Singularity. And altough she didn't want to admit, she had to be thankful to Jack for having healed her wounds and restored her energy before this fight had started or else Nala would start feeling some fatigue by now. "Okay! First one is down." She turned her head around. "I wonder how Jack is doi-"

"Hahahahahahahahahaha! This is so cool!" Jack laughed maniacally as she repeatedly stabbed the stomach of the demonic creature with her knives. "No matter how many times we pierce its body it just won't die! It's like an awsome toy that never breaks!"

"She's enjoying this way too much..." Nala smiled embarassedly as she watched Jack happily murder the monster before shaking her own head. "W-Why am I even caring about her? The best outcome here would be for her to die along with them." For as much as Nala wished for that outcome, she ended up sighing. "But defeating all of these things alone wouldn't be of great advantage to me. Guess I'll stick with her for now." Nala concluded, defending an incoming the attack of one of the imps. "We better take this battle to the outside! We'll have more space to move!"

"Good idea!" Jack responded, finally leaving the monster's deceased body alone.

Moving out to the streets, just outside the building, Nala and Jack attracted the monsters to the same location, now having more room to attack and dodge the blows of the enemies. The two were eventually able to defeat the rest of them, thanks to unintentionally relying on one another and fight together in harmony. With the remains of the corpse of the last monster vanished, Nala unsummoned her sword and took a moment to rest, taking a deep breath. Despite having Jack's help and having the natural counter to these enemies, the amount of mana Nala had to use against them used to wear her off. "Phew. They're all gone."

Jack on the other hand, didn't seemed tired at all. "Hehe, they ended up being nice to play with. Hope we find some more later on."

"You can't be serious." Nala responded, having to fight those things again being on the bottom of her list.

"Why? Are you scared of them?" Jack asked her with pure honesty.

I-it's not that! I ain't scared!" Nala immediatly responded. "Even a hundread of them could come and I would wipe them all out!"

Jack reacted with intrest and awe. "Wooaaah! Really? You must be very strong and amazing Oliver's sis!"

Nala chuckled in response, smilling with proudness "Thanks. I'm aware of my amazing capabilities indeed." Before she could continue to talk, she heard another sound coming from their surroundings again. "Huh? What is it now?" Nala expressed some mild annoyance, wanting to have a break for now instead of fighting.

Thankfully, what appeard around the corner of the building weren't more hostile enemies wanting to attack them, but instead a lonely and grubby boy, timidly sticking his body out from the hidding place. "A-Are they gone?"

"Oh? It's another kid." Jack said in surprise.

"But what is he doing out here? Maybe he's lost?" Nala thought to herself as Jack happily approached the shy boy.

"Hi there! We're Jack and the other girl over there is Nelly."

"Nala."

"Why are you here anyways? Have you come out to play too?" Jack asked, not getting a word in response from the boy. She however insisted in talking to him. "What games do you like to play? Anything in specific? Wanna join us?" Jack said, happily showing the boy one of her knives. "We do have some fun games in mind. You might like it!"

That created a totally opposite reaction that Jack wanted from the boy, with him slowly shying away and staring scaredly at Jack holding her knife. "E-Ehm...I-I..."

"Stop with that! Can't you see you're scaring him?" Nala told Jack, getting in the middle of the two.

Jack looked at the taller girl with some remorse. "But we didn't meant-"

"Are you okay? You didn't got hurt did you?" Nala asked to the boy, touching his shoulders.

"Y-yeah..." The boy responded, feeling a bit more comfortable around Nala who smiled to him.

"You can stop worrying now. Those things aren't here anymore. Were you lost?"

"I-I was on my way back home." The boy explained. "It's on the street right after this one. However, when did those things appeard I couldn't do nothing but hide. B-But then you showed up and dealt with them."

"Well, and you now can go back home, which is even more good news." Nala told him. "Want us to accompany you till you reach your house?"

"Thank you but that won't be needed. I can do it alone from here on." The boy rejected politely.

"Okay then. Be safe then!" Nala told him as she watched the boy walk away and wave goodbye.

"I will! Thank you two once again for dealing with those monsters! Goodbye!" The boy said as he dissapeard from Nala and Jack's vision, having gone away back to his home.

"That boy got lucky." Nala said to herself. "Walking alone in the streets while the city is in this state is quite dangerous. Hope that he can go back home safely."

"Yeah. We too hope for it..." Jack replied, her voice being with a tone of sadness but also bitterness to it, with the assassin boringly kicking the pavement as she started to walk away.

Nala found this behaviour of Jack to be weird. Never she had seen the serial killer looking this sorrowful. She initially thought to stay silent, although she couldn't help but to ask Jack what was wrong. "What's the matter?"

"Hmm, nothing really. We're just a bit frustrated. That's all." Jack responded to Nala, still having a sad expression on her face.

"But why?" Nala insisted. "That doesn't seem natural of you for what I've seen so far."

Jack didn't felt like she wanted to open up and answer fully to Nala's question. But in the assassin's mind, she was her friend, and so Jack thought it would be okay to share her displeasure with Nala. "It's...that boy didn't want to play with us. And we just don't get it why."

"What do you mean by that?" Nala continued her questions.

"Every person we encounter on the streets just runs away from us. When it's an adult, we kinda can understand why. Maybe they just don't have time nor care to bother playing with children. But when it's a kid refusing it? It irks us!" Jack rised her voice angrily. "Like, they're a child too right? And children love to play with other children. Then why they don't play with us? Why they instead run in fear when we invite them to play? It makes no sense!"

Hearing that, Nala didn't took to long to figure the problem. She had to choose her words carefully although. "Could it be perhaps, your type of 'games' aren't really games?"

Jack rised an eyebrow in confusion. "Hm? What do you mean by that?"

"If that boy accepted playing with you, what would be the game you would play? Something involving those knives of yours?" Nala explained to the assassin, pointing to the knife she had in her hand.

"Y-yeah. And what about that?" Jack replied, not seeing yet the problem.

"So what the game would be? Chasing him around until you'd cut him with your knife?" Nala said judgementaly, cornering Jack from getting an excuse out of this.

"But it would be fun..." Jack responded.

"Fun to who? For both of you or only you?" Nala replied back, easily taking down Jack's arguments, who now looked at the floor with a feeling of guilty.

"...Mommy told us that as long as you're having fun it doesn't matter what you're doing is bad or not." Jack tried explain to Nala.

"Just what kind of mother would give that advice?" Nala said to herself incredulously. Perhaps some of Jack's killing and psycothic attitude came from a place of innocence and bad parenting. "She may could have told you that, but not everyone works the same. Do you think a game is good to play whe you're the only one having fun?"

"...No...Sorry." Jack responded, finally understanding what Nala was trying to talk about. "We'll make sure that next kid we meet will have as much fun as we!" She exclaimed with conviction, making Nalapleased to hear that. Maybe Jack wasn't that bad.

"That's great to hear." Nala smiled to Jack who smiled back in return.

"But you're our friend, so we want to continue to have fun with you. This time something that both of us can have fun." Jack put a finger under her chin and started to think. "Hmmm a game where we could both have fun. Hmmmmmmmmmm..."

"Hum, I think that I'm fine with playin-"

"Fu Fou!"

"Eh? What was that noise?" Jack asked, with she and Nala having heard the same sound.

Nala knew what that noise meant. "This sound can only be..." Nala looked over her shoulder, touching her own back.

"Fu!" And in a glance, Fou appeard behind Nala on her shoulder.

"Fou! You're here!" Nala said surprised. "You followed me, didn't you?"

"Fou fu!" Fou responded, sounding like an affirmative answer.

"Is that animal your pet?" Jack asked to Nala.

"Kinda. More of a friend." Nala said, picking up Fou. "What about the others Fou? Are they alright?" She asked to the animal.

"Fou fu fu fou."

"I'm gonna take that as a yes then." Nala said, not being able to decipher what Fou had just said.

"He looks so cute." Jack stared closer to Fou, being mesmerized by the creature's appearence. "Can we pat him?"

"Ah, sure. He likes that." Nala put Fou down on the ground to let Jack pat him freely.

"Fuuu..." Fou reacted friendly as he felt Jack's hand brushing softly his fur, also brushing his body on the serial killer's hand.

"Hehehehe. He's fluffy." Jack said, continuing to pet Fou.

"He really is, isn't he?" Nala said, enjoying the vision of Jack fondle Fou.

"Can we dissect him?"

"..." Nala stood in instant shock as Jack's words hit her like a bullet from nowhere.

"FOOOUUUUUU!" Moving like quick thunder, all the fur of Fou's body got up as the animal jumped straight to Nala's arms, accepting immediatly her embrace while his body didn't stop from shaking.

"I think he isn't very approving of that idea." Nala told Jack while trying to calm Fou down.

"Oh really? Not even just a bit?" Jack slowly approached her hand to Fou, only to had it be slapped by the scared animal.

"Fu Fou! (Don't touch me again with those hands you psycho!)"

"See what I was talking before about no one wanting to play with you?" Nala said to Jack, using this moment as the perfect exemple of what they were discussing previously.

"Oh! You're right Oliver's sis! Sorry for our short lapse!" Jack laughed a bit. "This was nothing more but a prank from our part haha."

"You were definetly serious about it, weren't you?" Nala said with some suspicious, slightly turning her body to the side to make Fou get a bit far from her.

"Well, putting that topic behind, we know already of a great place where we can play next! Come with us!" Jack told Nala all happily, with a place in mind to continue their fun.

"Going right behind you!" Nala said as she walked shortly behind Jack, bringing Fou in her arms. At least now she had some real trustwhorty company on these streets.


"How far is that place? We've been walking for quite some time now." Nala protested a bit as she and Jack, with Fou as well, have been wandering the misty streets of London for quite some minutes.

"A few more blocks after this one until we reach it." Jack responded, leading the way.

"Can't you just tell me what is it instead?" Nala asked, not feeling with enough disposition to walk some more.

"Nope! It's a surprise." Jack told to the other girl. "Every kid loves surprises, right?"

"Yep." Nala responded, sighing. "I just hope it isn't some sort of trap I am walking into."

"Fu..." Meanwhile, Fou tried to call Nala's attention, pointing his paw to the opposite direction behind Nala's back.

"Hm? What is it Fou? You're saying you and I should turn back?" Nala talked back in a whisper, not wanting Jack to hear the conversation beetween the two.

Fou nodded his head. "Fou Fou."

"I know that it would be the wisest thing to do and that Peko, Ritsuka, Mash and the others are looking for me. But we might discover something about our enemies if we stick with Jack." Nala explained her motive for why following Jack, which lead to Fou dissaprovingly shake his head.

"Fou fou..."

"What? I'll be careful. I don't fully trust her so relax." Nala responded to Fou.

"Relax about what?" Jack immediatly enter the conversation, seemingly having heard some noises beetween Nala and Fou.

"H-Humm...Nothing! I just...wanted to relax my legs for a bit." Nala said, staring to the side where she convenently found a bench just near a wall of a building. "Oh! Coming in handy now!" Nala walked torwards the bench. "A minute or two sitting here should be enough."

"Wait! Don't sit there!" Jack yelled in warning to Nala, only to say it late as Nala sat on the bench and inadvertently elbowed the window from the building that was behind the bench Nala had sat on.

In response, the window immediatly opened, surprising Nala who stretched her head to look behind. "Hum? What's this?"

From the window, the figure of an old, grumpy and miser man with a pointy nose appeard. He had quite the elderly face, totally shaved, completely showing the old traces and features of his skin. "Errgh. Who dares to interrupt my daily coin counting?" The strict looking old man said with nuisance.

"Fu fou!" Fou exclaimed upon seeing this man's face, which wasn't very friendly at all.

"S-Sorry for the disturbance! I just sat here to rest for a bit!" Nala tried to immediatly apologize to the old man.

"Don't talk with him! He's a big meanie!" Jack said to Nala, grabbing her to pull her out from the bench.

"Ah, I see its you again." The old man stared coldly at Jack, disliking her presence. "Are you now recruiting other deliquents to the small troublemaker group of yours?"

"It is none of your business!" Jack replied with hostility, caughting Nala off guard. This was the first and only moment she saw Jack displaying some type of anger. But why with this old man? Did they had a past?

"And it wouldn't be if it wasn't for a brat like you to cause havoc every day around here." The old man said. "I think you're already old enough to let go of those supid and meaningless child plays and start to actually contribute to our society. When will you start working on the factories just like everyone else?" He said with mean intent.

"When you kick the bucket old coot!" Jack insulted the man before sticking her tongue out in provocation. "Just ignore this idiot and move on." Jack told Nala and walked away from there. Slightly confused, Nala was about to do the same.

"You should dissociate from that delinquent as soon as possible." The old man told Nala, going back to count the mountains of coins on his table, catching the girl's attention. "Your overall appearence tells me you are of higher status. It is no place for you to mix with people of lower bunch like her."

"Excuse me? Don't you think you are being too harsh on saying that?" Nala talked back to the old man.

"It is the way things are supposed to work during these times young lady. Girls like you get proper education and etiquette manners inside their well perserved houses while girls like her should be working their hard sweat on the factories to keep the gears of manufacture spinning so that I and other people of wealth can continue expanding our business. Your place isn't on the streets. It's hers."

"Are you implying that children work and have jobs here?" Nala said a bit surprised, not being aware of this fact.

"Those who live in poverty at least." The old man said, writting some notes on his paper. "Their early inclusion in the big world of the industries has to make up for their miserable lives. That's the only way those children are allowed and know to live."

"Then you're saying those type of kids shouldn't be doing anything else other than working for the benefit of others?" Nala asked, not liking of how the old man viewed children who had the misfortune of being born poor.

"Why indeed." The old man reinforced his statement, putting his quill down and taking a moment to stare at Nala. "This world functions on production. If people like those kids who have no other purpose stop working on the production by doing rather pointless and infantile things, the world itself stops." He explained to Nala. "Much more so that the whole city is now in quarantine. Entire companies and business have went bankrupt quickly with the appearence of this fog, deeply hurting the economy. And I need to make sure my enterprise doesn't have the same fate. This is a thing that harms not only me but the common folk as well. And kids like that troubling girl decide to play around instead of working to keep things stable for as long as possible."

"What?! You wanted kids to keep working on the factories with this fog and all the monsters hanging around the city?" Nala exclaimed perplexed, unable to understand why someone would have that type of thinking in a situation like that.

"It would be a noble sacrifice in order to keep stability across the whole country." The old man said with mumpish frown. "Plus, no one would miss street rats like them."

Nala didn't know if it were the words themselves or the way he spoked about it, but hearing such condescending attitude made her blood boil a bit. She contained herself in order to not jump torwards the window and deliver a punch right into the old bastard's face. Instead, she shifted her focus to the huge towers of coins behind him on his desk. "You say you spent every day counting those coins, isn't it?"

"Yes I do. What picks your curiosity young lady?" The old man replied.

"Well, what is even the purpose of counting them if you can't go outside right now to spend them on something?" Nala made her question, wanting to know the reason why the old man kept counting his coins day by day.

"Money as many other purposes than to just purchase things. But it's a topic a girl like you shouldn't be bothered to be into." The old man responded.

"Like what? Give it to someone? For having so much of it, you probably must have sent some to your family or friends." Nala responded, unknowingly touching on a sensitive subject for the man.

"I...live alone and don't bother to have friends. Only business partners who I can negotiate with." The grumpy old man responded briefly, wanting to leave that topic quickly as he went back to write on the paper of his desk.

"Wow. So you have all of that money and yet live alone, not using it for anything or even sharing it." Nala said, criticizing the old man's habit. "You know what? Here's a suggestion. Perhaps if you used some of your money on helping the so called 'street rats', perhaps both of you wouldn't have such miserable lifes."

"..." The old man didn't respond, opting to stay silent as he stopped his writing and slightly rised his head so that his eyes could stare at the huge piles of coins in front of him. Something that Nala said had surely affected him.

"Hmphm! Let's go Fou." Nala said to the animal in her shoulder. "We've lost too much time talking with this geezer already."

"Fu fou!" Fou responded, with the two about to walk away.

"Wait!" The old man suddenly called Nala out, making the girl take some steps back.

"What do you want? Don't you have more important stuff to do?" Nala talked back to him before being surprised by seeing the old man stretching his arm out of the window to hand Nala a pocket full of coins.

"Here. Take it." The old man said, not daring to stare to Nala nor to his own hand.

"And what you want me to do with this?" Nala asked the man, finding it strange his random act of generosity.

"Buy that girl some clothes. New ones. It is enough to make kids like her go happily into frensy." The old man responded, his hand and arm now slightly trembling. "Just accept it already! No refunds!"

Nala smiled awkwardly, scratching her own cheek while approaching her hand to the bag full of coins. "T-Thanks, but since everyone is at home, the cloth stores must be abandoned, so I think there is no need for you to give me money."

The old man then decided to just abruptly drop the bag into Nala's hand. "Then go away and don't disrupt me again! Bye!" The old man said hurringly, closing violently the window to his office right in front of Nala's face, leaving her alone with Fou.

"What a weirdo..." Nala commented, now looking to the bag of coins the old man had offered her.

"Fu fou." Fu replied in response.

"Well, we better go back to Jack now! She must have been waiting a lot!" Nala told to Fou as the two left the area near the building of the old man and shortly reunited with Jack who had been waiting for them on the other side of the road.

"We can't believe you actually went to have a conversation with him." Jack said mildly dissapointed and upset with Nala, having told her to not interact with that man.

"I know, I know. You two don't seem to be very good friends. But he at least gave us this!" Nala said to Jack, showing and throwing the bag of coins from her hand to the serial killer.

"Hum? Really?" Jack stared weirdly at the bag now in her hand, puzzled for why that old man would do that.

"Yeah. Guess even old farts like him can still have something of good left." Nala responded.

"Hmmm, seems so." Jack said. "But what are we supposed to do with this?"

"He told me to use it to buy some clothes." Nala moved her head around, ending up to spot a clothing store right on the other side of the street. "Oh! And looks like we found one right here! How convenient!" She said, moving torwads the showcase of the store, checking out the clothes inside. "Hm hm. This looks like a fine place to get you some clothes." She pressed her face against the glass. "But now, how are we going to get insid-"

"Watch out!"

Turning her head to see why Jack was warning her head, Nala saw the bag of money coming violently torwards her in the air. "Eeep!" Nala immediatly dodged to the side in time as the bag broke through the glass of the showcase.

"Now we've got a way to enter! Yay!" Jack said with a smile, this plan having been her idea.

"COULD YOU AT LEAST HAVE WARNED ME BEFORE?! THAT ALMOST HIT ME!" Nala shouted angrily to Jack.

"Hehehe, but your reaction was funny. Also, we got a way inside now, don't we?" Jack smiled to Nala who calmed herself down.

"Yeah, we do. But next time told me what you're gonna do first instead of saying nothing, alright?" Nala asked to Jack who nodded.

"Understood!" The assassin replied.

"Fu fou."

Fou was the first to enter the store with Nala and Jack following behind. They went straight to the kids section as Nala got marvelous with the dresses found in there while Jack didn't paid too much attention to it, thinking of the place as rather boring. However, that didn't stop the serial killer from helping Nala to analyze and gave her opinion in each cloth she was intrested in. Sure that Nala knew that the clothes were for Jack and not for her, meaning that it was the assassin's opinion that really mattered and not hers. Grabbing some few pair of set of dresses, Nala made Jack choose and test which one suited her the best. The duo and Fou ended up walking out of the store with a simple white dress with a red ribbon around the neck as it was the one Jack had liked the most.

"The time inside that store felt great! And also, nice choice of a dress Jack." Nala happily told Jack.

"You had fun inside there?" Jack asked to Nala, not seeing how someone would see the fun inside a clothing store.

"Yeah I had. Didn't you had as well?" Nala asked to Jack.

The serial killer didn't felt the same in relation to that, however, to know that Nala was happy, made her happy as well. "Yes, we too had fun." Jack then remembered something. "Oh! The place I wanted to show you is just up ahead!" Jack exclaimed, grabbing Nala's hand. "Let's go!"

"O-Okay! Just don't drag me like that!" Nala responded, trying to maintain her balance as Jack dragged her in a rush.


"And here we are!" Jack said all happily, extending her arms open, showing the interior of a huge decrepit and abandoned factory. "This is the place we wanted to show you! It's very nice isn't it?"

"Fou..." Fou responded, not sounding very impressed with the place. Nala's feeling was the same.

"This is just another decaying factory..." Nala said to herself.

"Which means it's time for our next game!" Jack said extremely joyful.

Nala on the other hand was starting to dread a bit. "Oh please tell me it doesn't include something like attacking or fighting each other."

Thankfully, it was none of that. Instead, Jack pointed to an empty bottle of glass in front of them. "There. Do you see that bottle?"

"Yeah. What about it?" Nala asked.

"Hehehe, watch it." Jack giggled, taking out one of her knives and proceeding to throw at the bottle with an incredible speed, breaking it into pieces.

"Wow! Not bad!" Nala said amazed.

"We know right?" Jack responded. "This is kinda of our playing ground that can also be use for training. We come here every time mommy has a conference with her coworkers." She explained, showing more bottles of glass scattered in many places around the facility to Nala. "And it can also serve as our training ground too. We lay some bottles here and there for practise. Wanna try?" Jack was willingly about to handle her knife to Nala.

"Oh thanks but I think I'll use something else." Nala refused Jack knife, not meaning she didn't want to try out this game Jack had introduced to her, but she didn't felt like using one of the assassin's weapons. She decided to pick up something from the ground. "Instead I'll be using this."

Jack looked at the object Nala had grabbed. "A rock?"

"Well, it's still a good item to throw at things." Nala said.

"Yeah, it can be." Jack said, confused why Nala would pick a rock over one of her knives before pushing that thought to the side. "Anyways, this hame here will be a competition! The one who breaks more bottles inside the building wins!"

"Okay, seems cool to me." Nala responded, happy that Jack decided to do a normal game for once.

"Since you are our friend and guest we are letting you go first." Jack told her. "Which bottle are you going to aim for first? We suggest some that is in a close and easy place to throw at."

"Hmmm, sure." Nala said, looking around while her brain determind which bottle she should try breaking first. Then her eyes looked to the ceilling and spotted a bottle up there, hiding behind a damaged fan. "I'll go for that one." She pointed to it.

"The one up there? But that's one of the hardest spots." Jack commented, doubting Nala would be able to hit the bottle from there. "You sure you don't want to go for an easier one?"

"Nah, I got this. Just watch." Nala responded, putting in position to throw the rock at the bottle. "Just like that pose Ritsuka does when he's about to throw something."

"Fou..." Fou sat on a pile of rubble near the girls, watching attentively.

"Aaaaaaaand...ya!" Nala pushed extended her hand to the back and pulled it to the front immediatly, putting strenght on her hand to add speed to her throw. The stone flyed upwards to the air, managing to avoid all of the tubes in the ceilling, pass through the gap of the fan's turbine and hit the bottle straight, breaking it to pieces.

Jack witnessed it in pure awe. "W-Whoa! You did it! You actually hit it first try!" Jack smiled widely to Nala. "You're amazing!"

"Holy cow! I really did i- I-I mean, of course I would hit it! Was there even any doubt?" Nala smiled smugly, hiding the fact she had hit it randomly by luck.

"Hehehe. We don't plan on getting behind then!" Jack took out a knife and quickly threw at a bottle that was all the way on the other side of the factory beetween behind some boxes, sliding beetween the small spaces and successfuly hit the bottle. "Now we're tied." Jack showed more of her knives in her hand to Nala. "And I'm not planning for it to end on a draw."

Nala smiled in response, accepting the challenge and grabbing more rocks from the ground. "Eh! It's on!"

"Fouuu..." Fou sighed, seeing that they would be in this for some time.

And the animal was right. Nala and Jack did nothing else for the next minutes but to have a great time in breaking every glass bottle inside the factory. They laughed, cheered, played around and so on. For that moment, the circumstance that Jack was an enemy was barely a thought to be reminded on Nala's head, who simply laughed in happiness as she hit another glass bottle as Jack praised her. All of this game had a sensation of tranquility and peace. No fighting, no blood, no monsters, no evil plans and missions to save the world. Just a girl enjoying a game with another kid.

"Wow! You hit another one!"

"Hell yeah! I'm the queen of the glass bottles!" Nala shouted in joy from the top of her lungs as the two girls continued playing.


"It's a nice view from up here isn't it?"

"Yeah. Quite the nice place to see everything."

With the game done, Jack took Nala to the top of the fabric's chimney, which from there, they could see quite a big part of London and its entire rows of houses, with the foggy scenario adjusting perfectly to the cloudy grey sky above.

"Do you also come up here many times?" Nala asked to Jack.

"Kinda. We always wanted to have another person to be seeing this view with us so that it wouldn't feel lonely. We wished it could be mommy but she rarely leaves the asylum."

"Y-your mom lives in an asylum?" Nala asked confused.

"Not exactly. She just works there." Jack clarified. "So we don't know if we will ever get to have mommy to see this view with us. But having you be the first person to make us company here also doesn't feel that bad." She smiled warmly to Nala. "We enjoy your presence, Nelly."

"You're never getting my name right, are you?" Nala responded with an annoyed smile.

Jack then leaned her back backwards and crossed her arms behind her head. "Hmm, we feel like eating something now. Same?"

That was enough to make an idea spark inside Nala's head. "I know just the thing!"

"Fu fou...(Here we go again...)" Fou already could guess what was coming from the girl's idea.

"I think this should do it." Nala grabbed a round and flat object that was leaned againt the chimney and put it on her lap.

"Are we going to eat this?" Jack said, not seeing what was the purpose of Nala grabbing that.

"Hehe. Don't talk too soon." Nala responded, clapping her hands and magically transforming the round object into a pizza. "Ta-Da! In a blink of an eye!"

"W-wha-!? You just made food out of that?!" Jack said in bewilderment.

"Yep. Here, take a bit and you'll see how good it is." Nala handed a slice of pizza to Jack before grabbing one for herself. "Bon appetit!" Nala exclaimed before nailing her teeth into the food and..."...it tastes like nothing." Nala said with no enthusiasm and huge deception, realizing that perhaps her 'cooking' was indeed terrible. She took out the teeth from the pizza unhappily. "Looks like the others were ri-"

"Hmmmmm! This is so gooooood!"

"Huh?"

Trails of Cold Steel III OST- Esmelas Garden

"We want more! More!" Jack said as she devoured the entire slice of pizza in a short time, demanding another slice. She liked it.

"H-Hum, sure! Here ya go!" Nala gave another slice of pizza to Jack who quickly took a bite.

"Delicioooooous!" Jack exclaimed. "We never had this before! It's too good! Oliver doesn't know what he's missing!" Jack swallowed the last piece she had on her hand, licking her lips. "Another one please!"

"Five star don't you think?" Nala smiled genuinely happily, amused that Jack was loving her terrible tastless pizza. Her first ever compliment on cooking. "Eat it as much as you want!"

Moments later, the assassin had finished eating the last slice of pizza, taking the same great pleasure in eating it as she did with the previous ones. "Mmmm, we loved it. This is the greatest meal we ever had! Even better than mommy's!"

"Glad that you enjoyed it." Nala responded, turning her head back to the big view in front of them. With some seconds passing by, a question came up on her head. "Hey Jack, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Go ahead." Jack accepted, still in a blissful mood from eating that pizza.

"How...How exactly did you met Oliver?" Nala asked to Jack, wanting to find any clue on why the serial killer was mistaking Peko for a character of a book.

"Oh? You're his sister and he didn't told you?" Jack said, surprised by the question.

"Yeah. He doesn't tell a lot of things." Nala responded, playing along in prertending her brother was Oliver for Jack.

"Hehe. Figures. Oliver is always keeping secrets, that silly." Jack said before deepening in the explanation. "Well, we used to live in the same orphanage. It was terrible. Little food for everyone. Decaying walls. Rude staff and it was common for some kids to get sick and die almost every month." The serial killer put her knees close to her chest and put her arms around her legs. "We hated that place. We wanted to get rid of all that, hoping it was only a bad dream. No one to care or play with us. No one except Oliver." She made a little smile on her face. "When we'd get into trouble, he would take the beatings in our place. When we had nothing to eat, he'd gave us majority of his own food. When we'd got hurt and cry, Oliver was there comforting us. And when we wanted to play, he would be always the one to participate." Jack stared peacefully at the horizon. "He was the motive for why we could learn how to smile." She then looked at Nala. "So no wonder why you two are siblings. You make us feel the same way."

Nala smiled shyly as she rubbed the back of her head. "I see."

Jack smile dissapeard as she still had more things to say. "But then we appeard all alone in the streets. No sign of Oliver anywhere. We felt empty, needing to find him or someone else that could give us warm. We spent the first days roaming around, trying to find a person whom we could be loved by. But they all runned away, shivering in fear. On the next day, as we thought we would be alone forever now that Oliver was gone, we found mommy right outside of the mental hospital. She wasn't like the rest. She approached us, hugged us. Gave us the embrace and warmth we so desperately wanted. She was like a real mother to us. One that we never had the chance to have before. She fed us, took care of us and even showed us new fun games for us to play. Without mommy, our life here would be boring."

"So you don't actually love this city?" Nala asked Jack.

"No. This city might be an entire playground for us, but we despise it in reality. Cold streets, mean people, fog and clouds everywhere with awful smells and noises. No one seems to smile here. No one remembers how to be a kid. Just staying on a desk grumbling and counting stupid coins." Jack said with slight disgust. "Mommy, Oliver and you are the only things of worth this place has. If possible, we'd want to pick in all of you and go together to a happier place." Jack told Nala. "One with countless green grass and huge blue sky, where the sun would shine everyday!" Jack picked up some random cloth on the ground and let it fall all the way down to the ground below of the factory. "Enough with the orphanages and factories! That is our wish!"

Nala smiled gently. "That's a beautiful wish Jack."

Jack nodded in response. "It sure is haha. Do you also have one?"

That question made Nala go through some thinking. "My wish..." She reflected deeply about it, but there was no other thing Nala would wish for more right now. "I want to see my parents." Nala responded, looking to the sky. Jack didn't respond, having known that sensation. "Our parents to be exact. Oliver wishes for the same too. I can barely remember them, but of what I can, is that we were happy, laughing and living together. But now...we don't know where they might could be, with the only memories we have of them being in some dreams from time to time, so we can't even be sure if it's all real or not. If we had parents to begin with. Everything is so fragmented in my mind and of my brother as well" Nala told Jack with a depressing and dispirited voice, putting her hands together close to her chest. "And if we had..." Nala started to feel an aching pain on her chest and throat forming up. "That they might be-"

"No! Don't even think about that!" Jack stopped Nala from finishing speaking, standing up immediatly. "We're going to help you find them no matter what!"

"Fu?"

"Really? You will?" Nala asked to Jack, not expecting such sudden declaration from the serial killer.

"Hm hm! Of course!" Jack responded, with a place in mind to start their search on Nala and Peko's parents. "We'll start by going to the asylum and asking mommy for help!"

To be continued...


And that was it for chapter 58!

A Nala-centric chapter. Very good or very bad depending if you like her or not. And it also served to gave Jack more screentime and inspection on the servant since in the actual Singularity of the game she isn't focused that much before being defeated for good.

So yeah, this was very little to almost no action chapter and mostly characters interacting with one another, which I don't view it as bad since not every chapter needs to include fights and stuff like that and instead focus on other aspects of the story. Overall, I enjoyed writing this one.

And before I close it, who's going to buy Samurai Remnant a week from here? Certainly not my broken ass XD

Anyways, that's all I wanted to say and see you next time on chapter 59! Peace!

P.S:

Peko (Sees Achilles walking in the distance, about to step on a lego): WATCH OUT ACHILLES! THERE'S A LEG-

Achilles (Steps on the lego): Oh? Were you trying to warn me about something Peko?

Peko (Shocked): You just stepped on a lego! How it isn't hurting you?

Achilles: Pff! Please boy. Do you think I would be the hero I am today if a simple toy brick injured me?

Peko: R-Right! You're a great hero after all! Nothing is able to stun you Achilles!

Achilles: That's right! Well, see ya around. (Achilles starts to walk away, accidentaly scrapping his heel on the edge of a table's leg) GGGGGRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Peko: A-ACHILLEEEEEEEEEES!

Atalanta(Sighs): Pay him no mind. He's just overreacting.