Hello everyone and welcome back to the start of chapter 104! May you all be enjoying this year's GUDAGUDA event and have all the luck on pulling for Rikyu!
With that out of the way, here comes the-
DISCLAIMER: All of 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
"Xuanzang...Sanzang? The one from the Journey to the West?" Ritsuka asked as he and the party all stared at the Heroic Spirit, the lady monk, wheeping and crying comically in the ground as she seemed to beg for their help.
"The one who mentored and accompanied the legendary Sun Wukong of the same epic. The most noteworthy buddhist priest of the Tang dinasty that traveled all the way to India and Central Asia in search of Buddha's holy scriptures, being the bases for the origin of the 'Journey to the West's odyssey." Romani gave the brief historical and mythological background of Sanzang to them. "To think such historic figure like her..." He gave a dissapointed look at the monk as she still hadn't stopped crying. Certainly not the first impressions he was expecting to have when meeting with Buddha's closest follower.
"What do you want our aid for?" Mash asked to Sanzang.
"I-It's my disciple!" Sanzang revealed, still sobbing. "He-He's been captured and taken captive!"
"Your disciple?" Ritsuka asked, trying to figure out who could it be before his eyes widening at the quick conclusion. "SUN WUKONG?!"
"You're insane?!" Romani exclaimed at Ritsuka as if he'd just said some blasphemy. "If Sun Wukong was here, this Singularity would be very different in the first place! Hell, I doubt it would exist even! It'd be over in a jiff! No way he'd end up being captured by some soldier knights even if against three or four knights of the Round Table! Even Zhu Baije and Sha Wujing would be a stretch already."
"Then who exactly is the disciple she's talking about?" Mash questioned.
"T-Touta. Tawara Touta and he makes the best rice I've ever eaten!" Sanzang shared her disciple's identity, crying even more. "And for Shakyamuni's sake, it's still too soon for me to never taste it again!"
"Tawara Touta?" Ritsuka replied, that name not being unfamiliar to him.
"An Heroic Spirit from Japan?" Nala asked, guessing by Ritsuka's reaction and the sound of the name of Sanzang's disciple.
"Yes. A warrior from the Heian era." Ritsuka replied back to her, telling shortly to Nala who Tawara Touta was. "Never thought that he and Xanzang Suanzang's paths would cross one day and for him to become her disciple. But I guess I should be used to it by now."
"The warrior best known for having slayed the great oni who was perceived as immortal, Taira no Masakado." Mash highlighted one of his most famous feats. "So he is also here. Was it the soldiers of the Lion King who took him prisoner?" The shielder asked to Sanzang who nodded her head in affirmation.
"Hm hm! Eye witness to it and everything!" The monk lady replied, having calmed down altough tears still streamed from her eyes.
"Mind if I ask, but did you saw to where did they took your disciple" Cursed Arm made another question to Sanzang. "A fortress of sorts?"
"One situated in the wastelands and right next to the mountain's range? Yep! That one, officer!" Sanzang responded.
"Eeeh..." Cursed Arm found that last part to be a bit unnecessary. "Looks like this confirms it."
"Confirm what exactly?" Nala asked to the Hassan.
"That this lady's disciple is being hold captive on the same place as one of our fellow Hassans." Cursed Arm replied, pointing it out.
"Oh yeah! You were telling us that before Sanzang appeared." Ritsuka remembered, he and the party being recently informed of it before getting interrupted by the monk's arrival to the Western Village.
"The Lion King and the knights of the Round Table have a fortress nearby the mountains?" Romani speaked, not being aware of that location before.
"Yes. It's also serves as their lookout post and prison to any enemies they end up capturing instead of killing." Cursed Arm shared his knowledge of the fortress with the chaldeans.
"It has been quite the pain to us ever since our conflict with the Holy City begun." Hundred Personas added. "For months we've tried to figure out how to infiltrate that fortress and destroy it from the inside out. It would be useful not having the Lion King's dogs at our doorstep." The other Hassan said, sighing. "Alas, that thing has been proving to have an iron guard."
"So Tawata Touta and the young Hassan are being held there." Mash replied. "Breaking them out doesn't sound to be an easy task by the way you described the fortress."
"But destroying it, or at least, leaving it damaged enough to be out of function while rescuing the prisoners from there would be a huge blow dealt on the Lion King and his forces." Ritsuka said, thinking that the elimination of the fortress would do some good for their side.
"It sure would. However, I think our top priority in this case should rather be more focused on rescuing those two captives." Nala replied to Ritsuka, partially disagreeing with him. "If that fortress is really heavy guarded, I doubt we will have much of an opportunity to destroy it."
"I do have to agree with Nala." Romani speaked. "I assume that getting inside the place will already be difficult. If anything, this should be done not only as a rescue mission but also as a stealth one. If we do end up alerting the soldiers in the fortress while breaking in or even trying to get out, it will certainly cause the entire force in there to be onto us and possibly call reinforcements, making our task a lot harder. So if anything, let's mostly concentrate on breaking Tawara Touta and the prisoner Hassan out of it."
"Okay! Then we will go with a silent approach. Got it!" Ritsuka replied, having been convinced by both Nala and Romani that perhaps the fortress destruction wouldn't be possible while simultaneously saving the prisoners. "Then who will be-"
"You got the first volunteer right here!" Sanzang exclaimed energetically, having stopped crying all of a sudden.
"That ended kinda quickly." Hundred Personas thought on how spontaneously the monk cheered herself up and casted the sadness away.
"Makes sense. You must know where that fortress us after all as well how Tawara Touta looks like." Romani said to Sanzang, accepting her volunteering to go with the party in order to rescue her disciple.
"That's right! Caster Xuanzang Sanzang reporting for duty!" Suanzang replied with a smile. "And as the reliable good mentor, it is my responsability to guarantee my dear disciple's safety!"
"I'll be staying here." Arash speaked, opting to not go to the enemy's fortress alongside the rest of the group. "Someone gotta stay behind to guarantee this village's protection while you guys are away." The persian archer told, giving a look to the small house where Bedivere was recovering. "That and make sure nothing bad happens to him before waking up."
"Keep the people here save from any harm then, Arash-san." Mash told to him.
"Count me on it the same way I'll count on you to bring back those two captives from the knights fortress!" Arash replied, buoyant as always.
"I'll be coming with you. I also believe Arash's capable enough to protect the village alone." Cursed Arm announced to also not go on their rescue mission, staying in the village to help Arash. "Now, who should also be coming with us..." The assassin stared to the other Hassan besides him. "Hundred Personas, please."
"Yeah, forget about that. I already told you I'm not helping these guys out." Hundred Personas denied her companion's request, still convinced on not lending her aid to the chaldeans.
Cursed Arm insisted however. "But Hundred Personas, you have to! The young Hassan that was captured is unable to commit suicide by her own nature, meaning that the longer her torture extents, the more plausible is for her to give in and spill out important information about our order and hideout!"
"..." Hundred Personas frowned her lips a bit, knowing that Cursed Arm was making a good point but being too stubborn to admit it.
"You know which Hassan we are talking about, don't you?" Cursed Arm pressed Hundred Personas. "Out of all of us, I was sure you'd be the one who wouldn't hesitate saving her. And now you will leave her to suffer a slow and agonizing death simply because you refuse to collaborate with people who you had a misunderstanding with in the past? That is purely childish!" He criticized her behaviour.
And it ended up working, with Hundred Personas letting her own personal grudge with the chaldeans cool down. "...Okay. I shall help them infiltrate the fortress and rescue one of our own." She looked at the group reluctantly. "Perhaps that way, you can earn a small inch from my trust."
"Well, better than nothing I suppose." Nala commented, this mission also being a test to prove themselves worthy of Hundred Personas reliance.
"But don't think that's all of it!" Hundred Personas said, having a 'catch' to add on her help to them. "To make sure you will really cooperate and not try to play a trick on us instead, I demand that we will take your unconscious friend as hostage of sorts. Do anything iffy and we will send a message to Arash here to put him asleep forever." She threatened the chaldeans to be sure they would indeed help the assassins with Bedivere's life.
"Hey now, I don't think there will be a need for that at all." Arash said behind Hundred Personas, thinking she was taking things a bit overboard with it. "I and Cursed Arm already told you. They are good people. They certainly won't betray us. So spare them of taking-"
"Deal. I agree with your terms." Ritsuka responded spontaneously, accepting Hundred Personas condition, much to everyone else slight surprise.
"What?" Arash said, completly flabbergasted.
"Hum, you took this better than I thought." Hundred Personas said, not expecting the master of humanity to have agreed with her idea of taking one of his friends hostage.
"Fujimaru, are you even sure of it?" Romani questioned him. "Bedivere is unconscious and still recovering. Shouldn't we at least wait for him to fully rest and let Bedivere himself decide if he wants to be made hostage or not?"
"By the looks of it, it will still take some time for him to wake up. We can't just wait here for a whole day for him to do that while we need to do something urgently at the same time, can we?" Ritsuka counter-argued, explaining to Romani why he had decided to give the knight as hostage to the assassins without consulting Bedivere himself first. "We don't have that much time, Doc."
"As long as we do our job, we know Bedivere will be fine and safe in the village." Nala added, supporting Ritsuka's decision. "We were already fully commited to do this mission with or without Bedivere being used as an hostage."
"Plus, I'm sure if Bedivere-san was awake, he would have no problems in volunteering to be hostage if it meant to gain Hundred Personas and the rest of the Order of Assassin's trust. He'd believe in us to fulfill the deal." Mash concluded, taking the same opinion as the other two.
"Fou fou!"
Getting to have their collective explanation of why they were somewhat okay with Hundred Personas claiming Bedivere as an hostage if they did not cooperated, Romani's mind perceived them as good motives, ended up going along with it. "Fine. Guess it's either that or we won't be able to make Hundred Personas change her mind."
"You heard that? All of us promise to aid you." Ritsuka told to Hundred Personas. "In return, promise to us that nothing happens to Bedivere if we maintain our part of the deal." He said, also not wanting the assassin to trick them the same way she thought they could trick her.
Hundred Personas was well aware of that. "Usually, words from cold assassins like us mean very little when negotiating this sort of stuff. However, as of now, I shall respect your condition for both parties sake. No one breaks no ones promise and it's all good." She told him and the rest of the chaldeans.
"Guess that's our cue to head to the fortress now. It will be a long walk till there." Cursed Arm lifted up his head, staring at the sky, still with some remaining hours of daytime left. "We can't wait any more second!"
"Now you said it." Hundred Persona nodded her head before shifting her gaze to Arash. "Arash, until our return, lookout for the West Village! As its Old Man of the Mountain, I leave its people's safety temporarily to you in my absence!"
"Aye aye ma'am!" Arash replied. "Good luck to all of you!"
"I'll start searching for the fortress location on the Singularity's map." Romani informed, typping on his keyboard. "I'll calculate and determinate what's the fastest route for you to reach there."
But before they could begin to be on their way to the fortress, Nala noticed something was off. "Uuh, weird..."
"What is it Nala?" Ritsuka asked to the girl, hearing her muttering.
"Where did that monk lady went to?" Nala revealed, having looked for her.
And very soon, the entire party realized Sanzang was nowhere near them anymore, having seemingly dissapeared.
"Now that you mention it, Sanzang is nowhere to be seen." Mash replied, also turning her head to look around for the buddhist priest.
But before they all could start assuming things, they heard a loud voice in the distance.
"OIII GUYS! ARE YOU COMING ALREADY? I THOUGHT THE DECISION TO GO WAS MADE UP AGES AGO!"
"This voice..." Looking at the narrow valley path that was the exit of the West Village and ahead of the party, Ritsuka and the rest all spotted Sanzang standing impeccably on her feet on the valley's huge natural rock walls, already some distance away from them. "S-Sanzang?!"
"So? Has everything been discussed out? If so, great!" Sanzang smiled down to them. "If I let a disciple of mine die, then I will really never be able to be on the same realm as Shakyamuni ever again!"
"SHE'S ALREADY THAT FAR AWAY!?"
Having left the village at Arash's protection, the party headed their way to the fortress, the sun recently setting on the horizon as they group had finished exiting the mountains and step into the territory where it mixed with the wastelands, their destination still being some miles and hours away. They hadn't runned into trouble so far.
"Doctor, how many more until we reach there?" Mash consulted Romani, the group having walked for quite some time now.
"Checking the map screen and analyzing the distance of your current location point to the fortress...You will be there in about three hours." The doctor shared with them how much distance and time there was still left for them.
"That is still some more terrain to go through." Nala lamented a bit.
"At least we haven't encountered any monsters or obstacles so far." Ritsuka said on a positive outlook.
"Do not jinx it!" Nala replied, bot wanting Ritsuka's words to give them bad luck.
"Whatever it can be, it certainly can't be worse than a giant venomous sandworm, right?" Ritsuka mentioned the creature they had found and fought in the desert right in their first hours in this Singularity, smiling to the girl.
"Heh. Right." Nala chuckled a bit, smiling back at Ritsuka. Altough it didnt look like much, it was definetly one of the very few occasions where Ritsuka saw his friend smiling again during this week. With all the bad things that happened to the group and the recent loses, Nala didn't had much motives to smile, being rather despondent and silent during the majority of their time spent in the villages. Ritsuka could only wonder how many times her mind hadn't stopped thinking of Peko, quietly agonizing about if he was okay or not. So seeing the girl give a little happy smile to Ritsuka, meant way more than it seemed. Perhaps her spirits were finally getting up again after all these days.
"That was quite heart acceleration inducing, wasn't it?" Ritsuka replied, wanting to keep the conversation with Nala going.
"Oof! If my heart wasn't racing at a hundred per hour that moment." Nala said, fondly remembering of the fight as if it had happened a long time ago. "But then I went SLASH at that creature and wisened it up!"
Ritsuka laughed a bit, liking to see Nala's usual behaviour slightly show up again. Knowing that Peko must be alive had probably helped her cheer up a little. "You sure did."
"You ended up facing Olgoi-Khorkhoi and survive? That's impressive." Cursed Arm speaked, hearing to their conversation while walking in front of them alongside Hundred Personans, Sanzang more ahead and leading the party. "It's rare for someone to have an encounter with that devourer sandworm and survive to tell the tale."
"That phantasmal creature sure looked menacing and dangerous when we runned into it in the middle of a sandstorm." Mash replied to the Hassan. "Thankfully, our friend here was able to push it back." She said with a smile, referring to Nala.
"?" Nala herself felt a bit puzzled as she stared at the shielder. "Friend?" She wasn't quite understanding Mash's actions with her lately. Why would Mash still call Nala her friend? Why did the shielder still cared and was nice for her even after Nala yelled those cruel things to Mash's face?
"That Olgoi-Khorkhoi sure makes almost impossible to venture through the desert. That Sun King bastard really got a nice security dog without even asking for it." Hundred Personas hissed, stating how the giant sandworm made almost impossible to travel on Ozymandias kingdom. "That's why this conflict is mainly only between us and the Lion King as none have the ambition and audacity to attack or invade the desert kingdom. That is..." She then gave a sharp glare to the chaldeans walking behind her. "Until we had kidnapped his priestress and counselor and were about to use her as bargain to force an alliance with the Sun King. But of course, someone always has to be a party pooper."
"Are you going to remind us of that every day until we die?" Nala replied back to the female Hassan, getting tired of how she didn't seemed to let that past trouble between them stay in the past.
"Plus, I doubt the Sun King would end up complying with your demands. If anything, kidnapping his counselor would much likely backfire badly to you." Ritsuka told to Hundred Personas, thinking her plan would only result in making Ozymandias upset and cause him to also bombard the mountains in retaliation for having taken Nitocris away.
"Well, we will never know that. Will we?" Hundred Personas said, the outcome of her plan never to be known as it was ended by the chaldeans themselves in the first place.
"Look, how about we just forget about that subject for a good while, no?" Cursed Arm proposed, already having enough of Hundred Personas interactions with the Chaldea group going back to the same topic always. "Instead, let's keep our eyes out for any monsters nearby."
"Yep! If there is one thing a person should be counting on when doing a journey, is to face off monsters ahead!" Sanzang exclaimed, ju,ping from the front of the group and landing right next to the Chaldea trio, now strolling by their side. "By the way, I still haven't reached to this place's desert myself. But that big sandworm that you fought surely sounds interesting. Care to describe me how did it look like exactly?"
"Uuuh, brown skin that shifted to red, no eyes, circular huge mouth." Ritsuka begun to describe Olgoi-Khorkhoi's aspect to Sanzang alongside Mash and Nala.
"Very agressive, thousand of sharp theeth, thick..." Mash said to the monk lady.
"Posionous, some kind of extra long fangs that came out of its mouth borders...All in all a grotesque looking worm." Nala added more details, concluding.
"Fou fou!"
Sanzang seemed fascinated. "Oooh, I see, I see. That does sound quite like some demons me and my previous disciples have faced on our journey. Lucky me that I haven't encountered with it yet or else I would have no one to protect me-uhm!" Sanzang quickly swallowed her words as she tried to rework on the statement she was making." I-I mean, that it is great me and my current disciple haven't encountered that worm yet or else I would need to protect him!" She 'corrected' herself, sweating a bit nervously.
"Okay? Knowing his legend, I think Tawara Touta wouldn't need the protection of a priest monk that much during a fight against an hostile creature." Mash replied, a bit wierded by Sanzang's bumbling speech.
"Sure, Tawara Touta is indeed an amazing warrior that has provened to fend off for himself pretty incredible. Buuut, having a little help and mentoring of the most reliable buddhist priest of the Tang dinasty can make a difference in dire situations you know?" Sanzang responded with a cheeky smile.
"If that priest ends up being Xuanzang Sanzang, I guess it is true." Romani gave credit to her, well aware of her legend and what she could be capable of.
"Hehehe, fēicháng ganxiè!" Sanzang thanked the doctor. "By the way, now that I am temporarily without a disciple, could you please pretend to be my old ones?" She asked to the trio.
"Hum? Pretending to be your disciples? Why?" Ritsuka asked to the monk, a bit confused.
"Ah, it's just that having no one to mentor and lecture for a day has been so boringly killing meee!" Sanzang explained with a tedious tone. "I feel like I lose my purpose! Making lonely journeys aren't for me! So would you be kind enough to be my disciples for a moment until we find Touta?"
"I dunno...but if it helps you to endure your current disciple's absence, I think there's no harm to it." Nala accepted.
"I think the same." Ritsuka also agreed.
"Good! That's great!" Sanzang said, sounding hugely pleased before starting to rummage for something inside her own clothes. "Now, where did I...aha! There it is!" She said, taking out three small paper notes and a simple pencil from her clothes, much to the others dumbfounded faces.
"What a-ugh!" Ritsuka got his face immediatly slapped by Sanzang who put the paper note on it before fastly writting some hanzi letters on it with her pencil.
"You're going to be The Great Sage Equal to Heaven: Sun Wukong!" Sanzang attributed that role to Ritsuka.
"Woohoo! I get to be Sun Wukong?" Ritsuka said with excitment, his eyes shinning a lot.
The monk lady then proceeded to slap the second paper note on Mash's forhead.
"Ough!"
"You will be The Marshal Canopy: Zhu Bajie!"
"I guess that isn't so bad." Mash whispered looking at the paper note glued on her own head
And lastly, Sanzang did the same to Nala.
"Wueh?!"
"And you will be The Curtain-Lifting General: Sha Wujing!"
"Hum...is he at least cool?" Nala asked, not having idea of who that was.
"Ah! I'm so glad to see you three again! It has already been some time since we defetaed Baigujing, no?" Sanzang speaked to the three as if they really where her famous disciples from the novel. "Anyways, I hope your resting time was good! We still need to find the remaining few Buddha manuscripts and save our beloved companion!"
"Fu..." A single drop of sweat fell from Fou's head.
"Is this really about about helping her cope with the lack of disciples to mentor or more about fueling a delusion here?" Romani debated inside himself as he saw how into the act Sanzang was with the other three.
"And we? What characters are we?" Hundred Personas asked to the buddhist priest, having heard the conversation together with Cursed Arm.
"Don't tell me you are willing to get into it." Cursed Arm told to the other Hassan.
"As long as it is entertaining." She justified.
With the roles given and Sanzang already treating the three as her previous disciples, Ritsuka tried to stay in character.
"S-So...uhmm, yo Mentor Sanzang, could you tell us how exactly our companion got captured?" Ritsuka asked, interpreting in the way he thought Sun Wukong would act and speak in this scenario.
"Pff-" Sanzang tried to contain a laugh at the impression. "Sorry, but Sun Wukong doesn't speak like that at all. 'Mentor Sanzang' is a funny one too! Here's a tip on how Sun Wukong actually speaks: agressively and like a delinquent. Gentleness is more of Zhu Bajie's thing."
"Oh? Really?" Ritsuka asked, a bit surprised by being told how the actual Monkey King would speak. "I mean, giving the nature of his behaviour in the story..."
"Yeah, he has quite the sailor's mouth." Sanzang replied. "Let's give it a try to that question again please."
Sighing and rubbing the back of his head, Ritsuka went along with it. "Okay..." Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, the master of humanity imagined Sun Wukong's speech by the indications he was given to.
"Eeh...master." Mash leaned over to Ritsuka, whispering to him. "Do you need any help to come up with-"
"Oi! You stupid brainless hag, how exactly did that moron ended up getting captured-saru? Tell me now-saru!" Ritsuka shouted at Sanzang, pulling the best delinquent face he could, hoping that this time he was impersonating Sun Wukong right.
"Was there any need to add the '-saru' at the end of your lines?!" Mash exclaimed, utterly baffled by the sudden agressive tone Ritsuka was using on Sanzang.
"That was...really convincing." Nala said, mouth agape and speechless alongside Romani, Cursed Arm and Hundred Personas as well.
Sanzang was full of joy with it, satisfied by Ritsuka's impression of her disciple this time before replying to him. "Ah, that? Well Wukong, you see, me and Touta were on our way to west, having ended our stay in the Holy City and-"
"Wait!" Romani exclaimed, he and everyone else astonished by how Sanzang revealed that information so trivially. "You had a STAY as a resident of the Holy City?!"
Hundred Personas and Cursed Arm wasted no time and took out their daggers.
"Then she's conspiring with the Lion King and his knights!" Cursed Arm exclaimed.
"This jerk is making of us fools and leading us to a trap!" Hundred Personas added with hostility torwards Sanzang.
"But we were in no way affiliated with the Lion King!" Sanzang tried to explain, staring with apprehension to both assassins.
"Then can you- I mean, Mentor Sanzang-san, explain to us why was she and Touta in the Holy City please?" Mash interrogated the monk lady.
"Gladly!" Sanzang was more than willing to explain. "When I was summoned to this Singularity half a year ago, one of the first things I catched sight of was of the giant towers of the Holy City in the distance. Wondering what that place was all about and drawn out by its mystique, I decided to go there. Along the way, I ended up meeting Tawara Touta who then agreed to become my disciple and traveling companion as he joined me on my journey to there. Once we arrived it, I was surprised to be pleasently received by one of their knights and be treated as a honored guest alongside Touta, spending two months in the Holy City of Camelot."
"How does knowing that helps bettering your case?" Hundred Personas frowned.
"Let's hear the end of it first, shall we?" Ritsuka told the Hassan to be calm.
"Then why did Mentor Sanzang and Touta decided to leave?" Nala asked to Sanzang.
"Because it was boring. The city was beautiful, clean, almost heavenly even, but so dull. I couldn't see myself staying on that place for anylonger despite how tempting and convincing the Knights of the Round Table and the Lion King himself tried to sound their goals to me. But I simply wasn't interested and instead decided to leave with my disciple for us to continue to pursue or very own adventures to the west!" The buddhist priest continued her retelling of her time spent in the Holy City of Camelot and the decision of leaving it despite being well treated.
"And they mustn't have liked that decision of yours I bet." Romani assumed what happened next.
"Well, when I expressed my wish to leave the city to the knights of the Round Table, they initially tried to convince me to stay but commands from their king ordered them to let me leave freely with Touta, accepting and respecting my choice. So I really thought all was good with them in that moment." Sanzang was more serious than before. "That was, until yesterday when me and Touta were finishing travessing the wastelands and passing nearby a fortress, we ended up getting a surprise attack from soldier knights that quickly surrounded us. I was able to flee but Touta didn't got as lucky." A look of confusion and dissapointment was visible on her face. "I just couldn't understand it. I thought the Lion King and the Holy City in general was okay with us two leaving in peace. So why do that all of a sudden?"
"My guess is that they bitterly couldn't accept a no from you behind your back." Hundred Personas responded. "The Lion King is certainly that kind of bastard that it doesn't matter if you are innocent. If you don't stand with him, then you are an enemy automatically." She said with some irk, tightening her fists.
"And how exactly did you found the village, Mentor Sanzang-san?" Mash asked, still waiting for the part where Sanzang ended up arriving to the West Village for help.
"I was being chased down by the soldier knights. Wanting to come back for my disciple, I ended up fighting back and use a summoning spell but-..." Sanzang went silent, embaressed to say the last part.
"But?" Ritsuka asked, wanting Sanzang to spill it out.
"..." Sanzang blushed, not really wanting to say it.
Ritsuka lowered his head and muttered. "Can't believe I have to do this again..." He then went to stare at the monk lady with his punk deliquent face. "But what happened next you deaf bimbo-saru? Did the cat eat your tongue-saru?!"
But before she could tell them, the entire group heard a loud roar out of nowhere.
"Huh? What was that?" Cursed Arm asked, wondering where the loud noise come from. And he quickly got the answer in the form of bad news
"Better get your weapons ready guys! I detect an hostile signal coming torwards you!" Romani warned the party, having noticed a possible enemy approaching them.
Looking ahead, they all saw a wild white dragon flying through some rocks, appearing in front of them.
"It's a dragon!" Ritsuka shouted, seeing the flying creature.
"It looks awfully familiar with those wyverns we fought back in France!" Mash said, remembering of the many similar type of monsters they fought way back in the First Singularity. But she noticed something diffirent on this dragon. Altough its scaly skin was white, a part of it was contaminated with a dark substance, having stenched majority of its tail and a part of the wings, slowly spreading through the creature's body. "That is-"
"The creature seems to have been infected by the Blight!" Cursed Arm exclaimed, ready to fight. "It's clearly losing its mind way more than it was before. We need to put it out of its misery quickly!"
"Signed right up!" Sanzang exclaimed, jumping to the front and bringing out her buddhist staff of four golden rings. "Got to clear the danger fast!"
"Well, you heard Mentor Sanzang guys!" Ritsuka said to both Mash and Nala. "It's time for combat!"
"You are really buying this whole play eh?" Nala gave him a tired look, hoping they wouldn't have to pretend to be Sanzang's disciples for this long.
With the order given, all of them went off against the contaminated white dragon. Altough enraged and crazed by the influence of the Blight, buffing its strenght and speed, it would completly leave its body exposed in return, being subjected to numerous attacks from its enemies. And apart from Nala, everyone was having difficulty in the beggining to deal damage on the dragon due to seemingly have a hardened skin. However, cutting down its infected tail deom the body which appeared to be its weak spot, the dragon had been weakened in its overall strenght, speed and resistance, the party rventually able to make more significant hits on the creature in a short time.
Like that, the dragon became more easy to kill, with Nala landing the final blow on the monster who let out a final agonizing scream before dying.
"And that's over! Surely a bit challenging but not anything that you weren't able to handle." Romani congratulated the group.
"It's...a bit easy for you to talk..." Nala said a bit exhausted, the corrupted dragon having taken more energy from her than the girl was expecting, almost losing her balance.
"Careful!" Mash speaked, putting a hand on Nala's back, helping her maintain her equilibrium. "Don't fall back, okay?" The shielder smiled to her.
"O-Okay." Nala responded, continued to be surprised by how Mash's empathetic gestures torwards her.
"Hmm...The Blight, the shadow demons, the corrupted humans and now this infected dragon we just killed." Romani murmured, sounding like he was making a connection.
"It all results on draining out much energy from Nala and Peko, exhausting them." Ritsuka stated it out, reaching to the conclusion the doctor was thinking about. "Could it be that those demons are created from The Blight's substance?"
"I never had the opportunity to analyze The Blight properly but I'm sure there is a connection to it and the analysis I made of the shadow demons back in the previous Singularity. It seems to revolve around the concept of 'darkness'. A darkness that engulfs light." Romani begun to theorize in his own head, going silent. "Could it be..."
"Phew! That's a danger out of the way!" Sanzang said, stretching her arms freely. "You three were as great as always! Specially you, Sha Wujing!" She applauded Nala.
"H-Hey!" The girl exclaimed, still a bit fatigued and weakly putting her fist up in the air.
"We are honoured to have been able to guarantee Mentor Sanzang-san's safety once again." Mash told her.
Sanzang felt a bit flattered, waving her hands up and down. "Aww please! Your concern for the other's well being always amuses me, Zhu Bajie! You already know that to these monsters I am nothing more but a desirable piece of tripitaka meat!" She giggled a bit before staring sideways. "Specially that it was I myself who summoned the dragon..."
"Excuse me?" Hundred Personas heard what Sanzang said, approaching her. "Care to repeat that last part?"
"!" Sanzang immediatly shutted her own mouth, carelessly slipping the part she didn't want them to know.
"You summoned the dragon that attacked us?" Ritsuka asked, giving the monk a skeptic look.
"...Allow me to explain." Sanzang smiled, trying to not look pressured. "That was the last part of my retelling that I was definetly about to tell, you see? The thing was, to save Touta and rescue him, I had performed a summoning spell, but it ended up failing and summoned a different type of dragon from the one I wanted, having no control of it, ending up going on a rampage and me fleeing to the mountains, desperatly searching for help." She told, putting a hand on her hip. "And that's how I ended up meeting you all! A nice little accident that ended up crossing with my disciples paths once again, don't you think?"
"..."
Everyone just silently stared at Sanzang, judging her.
"You...You tried to summon Bai Long in its dragon form, didn't you?" Romani questioned Sanzang.
Sanzang stuck her tongue out and blinked one of her eyes, admitting it. "Yeah, I did. Apologies!"
"You are dumber than I thought." Cursed Arm said in all honesty.
"That alone should allows us to at least amputate one of your limbs." Hundred Persona proposed, thinking it would be a fair punishment for the buddhist priest.
"Really? If so, you can take my left leg. I barely use it." Sanzang said, not feeling deeply disturbed nor threatened at all.
"Tsk! I wonder if anything happens inside that head of yours." Hundred Personas replied as she just accepted the monk's antics and begun to walk again torwards the fortress, with everyone else doing the exact same.
"Psst! Ritsuka!" Nala called out Ritsuka's attention, whispering near him.
"Hm? What is it, Nala?" Ritsuka asked to the girl, slowing down his footsteps, proceeding to stay behind the group, joining Nala on the back.
"Uhm..." Nala looked to the ground a bit reluctant, doubting if she had the courage to ask it to Ritsuka. But by now, she just had to. "Why does Mash still cares about me?"
"Hm?" Ritsuka gave her a confused look.
"You know what I mean." Nala looked at him. "Ever since we've been into this Singularity and made aware of the secret about her life expectancy, I have treated Mash with nothing but cold ignorance and bitterness. A kind of grudge that made me never want to see her face in front of me again." She confessed her foul behavior she had been having with Mash recently. "Hearing what she was hiding from us, made me so indignant that I just...I just felt my trust being broken. That I was lied to and hurt!" She said, bringing her hands close to her chest, a sound of regret in her voice. "That I couldn't believe in my own friend."
"..." Ritsuka listened patiently and carefully, getting to hear Nala finally vent a bit about her feelings torwards Mash on these past days.
"That's-..." Nala then faced Mash, seeing the shielder walking in front of them in the distance. "That's why I wanted Mash to feel the hurt she caused on me! To not comprehend why I acted distant and unfeeling with her without giving explanation! Why she wouldn't understand my resentement with her! To feel like I was keeping secrets from her the same way she kept from me! I wanted her to feel it all!" Expressing all out, Nala calmed down a bit. "Yet..." Feeling an ache on her chest Nala felt a huge sorrow transbording within her body as she stared to the ground. "She still cares about me..!"
"And you know why?" Ritsuka simply replied, seeing how Nala was looking a bit conflicted.
"I-I really can't, Ritsuka. I can't! I treated her like a nobody! I said things to her that must have been terrible to hear! All that because I was upset with her!" Nala couldn't understand why Mash would continue to be nice with her after all that. "Why? Why would someone I've been spiteful with still defend me and continue to be my friend? Why Ritsuka?" Nala begged for an answer as she took a introspective look at herself. "It...It made me realize I couldn't really hate Mash."
"There's your answer." Ritsuka approached Nala, patting her head. "It's because neither Mash hates you."
"Huh?" Nala's mind felt like it had touched a precious light that helped her clear her doubts with that answer.
"Mash is a very caring, gentle and good-hearted person. I think it's hard to find a person as caring as her in the world." Ritsuka told to Nala as the two now looked to the shielder. "And it shows by how her intention was never to hurt you or any of us by keeping secrets about herself. And even if it ends up hurting, Mash is able to apologize and admit her own mistakes. And so, she's also capable of forgiving the mistakes of people that are dear to her, because she doesn't want to lose them. And neither do you, Nala. You both can't hate a friend."
"Do you think she can forgive me?" Nala replied, the more she heard Ritsuka, the more her mind felt somewhat peaceful.
"Yes. And if you look within yourself, you can also forgive her, Nala." Ritsuka told her. "How exactly, I won't tell you. But want an advise at least?"
Nala lifted her head, staring at Ritsuka, wanting to hear it. "Say."
"All of that you said to me, you should say it to Mash." Ritsuka gave her one. "I think it's more than about time, wouldn't you say?" He told, seeing how now that Nala was realizing the errors of her way, she and Mash could finally come to a consensus and make peace between each other.
"..." Being silent for some seconds, Nala gave it some thought. And it made her finally take in how petty her attitude with Mash had been lately. "Yeah. I should definetly do it. But...I understand if Mash never comes to accept my apology."
"It's Mash. I am absolutely sure she will." Ritsuka replied, giving her a reassuring smile. "If it makes you more comfortable, I would accept it if I were in her shoes."
Nala smiled a bit to him in return. "If you say so. But I'm not sure if now would be the appropriate time. Maybe later when we return to the village." She replied, staring at Mash again. "If I can forgive uh?"
"Are we on that part of the day where we talk about how idiot Zhu Bajie is?" Sanzang speaked, appearing all of a sudden behind the two.
"Wha-?!"
"Since when you were listening to us?!" Ritsuka exclaimed, both he and Nala being startled by her sudden presence.
"Noticed you having your private conversation and being disciples of mine, I decided to see what was about. No problem if Mentor Sanzang here joins in, right?" Sanzang explained, having invited herself in to their talk. "Anyways, it was of Zhu Bajie you were talking about, wasn't it?"
"Uhm...yeah?" Nala replied.
"Ah, honestly, with every passing day, I believe less and less that Zhu Bajie is the dumb-dumb everyone talks about." Sanzang said, pulling Ritsuka and Nala closer to her.
"O-Oi!" Ritsuka exclaimed, surprised.
"Quite the contrary, I also agree that Zhu Bajie is a very gentle and friendly person, always wanting what's best for our group. In fact, maybe that's why people consider him to be dumb as his kindness and politness might look unnatural to them. I know, you are always making fun of him, but deep down, wouldn't you say the world would be a better place if there were more Zhu Bajies, Sun Wukong?" Sanzang asked to Ritsuka.
He smiled briefly to the monk lady. "A world full of Zhu Bajies and Mashs." Ritsuka then pulled his quick Sun Wukong act. "Tsk! You are quite annoying-saru."
"Hehehe, good thing I'm used to you saying that!" Sanzang replied happily, letting go of Ritsuka and Nala. "Eitherway, we better join the others! We still have a disciple to save!"
Watching Sanzang joyfully walk ahead of them, Ritsuka and Nala just looked at each other with sheepish smile, understanding that there was no helping it.
"We're finally here. The fortress." Cursed Arm stated, he and the group having finally spotted the knights lookout post and prison some meters away from them. Apart from him and Hundred Personas who had concealed themselves into the thin air, the rest of the party was hidding behind some boulders in order to avoid the gaze of the vigilant soldier knights that were patrolling near the fortress and on the top of its walls.
It was full night already by the time they arrived to their destination.
"According to the quick scan I made on the area, there seems to be always a full squad of soldier knights guarding every entry and exit of the fortress." Romani told them as he had finished inspecting the place and detecting all of the enemies in it. "It will really be difficult to invade. You weren't kidding when saying this fortress was heavy-guarded."
"We will need to find a way to get in without alerting any soldiers." Mash took a peek at the fortress behind the boulder. "But it seems that every perimeter and zone of it is occupied with guards. It's almost impossible to find an area of that fortress that is unguarded."
"We have to at least make one possible entry point free from soldier guards." Ritsuka started to think of any ideas. "Some type of destraction to lure a squad of soldiers out in order to leave an entrance open for us to pass withou being spotted."
"Sounds like a plan. Guess that's where I come in." Hundred Personas speaked, revealing herself in front of the party.
"What do you exactly have in mind?" Nala asked to the Hassan.
"Her very own Noble Phantasm." Cursed Arm answered, appearing next to Hundred Personas. "Activating it will cause enough of a distraction to keep a good part of the soldier knights busy and allow us to enter sneekly.
"I presume it's about summoning loads of assassins, isn't it?" Ritsuka tried to guess the ability of Hundred Personas Noble Phantasm, deducing it by what he has seen of her fighting before.
"Eh, my name isn't Hundred Personas for no reason." The female Hassan smirked. "Let me and my ninety-nine others handle the soldiers outside the gates and nearby. It must be enough of a diversion to buy you the time to enter."
"Do I sense a change of heart here?" Ritsuka smugged at her.
"Don't go assuming things already! I'm doing this for my captured companion! I still don't like you!" Hundred Personas replied, altough not with as much agressiveness as the previous times.
"Like that was going to change now." Nala responded, going to take a quick look at the soldier knights patrolling near them. "Better call your extended family already."
"The moment I do that, all eyes will be on me and my personas, so you guys better not screw this up." Hudnred Personas warned them, getting ready.
"We promise!" Ritsuka nodded at her before looking at everyone else. "Let's put ourselves in position as well."
"Uff, how long do we have to keep going into circles? Nothing has happened so far."
"We still have two more hours until the end of our shift. Also, I hope it stays like this. I am with no energy to fight if someone decides to attack."
Two soldier knights lazily chatted with each other while roaming outside the fortress with their battalion, the night so far being of no trouble to them. That was, until that point.
"Hey, you two."
"Hm?"
"Who goes there? Identify yourself!"
"We are all as one...
...and one as all."
Over the line that the light of their tourch could reach, the duo saw a lonely figure coming out from the shadows. An Hassan.
"Tsk! It's one of them!"
"It seems to be alone! Great! That way we can deal with her fast-hm?!"
Much to their horror and shock, the two soldier knights begun to see skull masks appearing from the shadows, revealing themselves behinf Hundred Personas. It kept increasing more and more by the second.
"A shadow with hundred variations..."
"Crap! It's a full batallion of them!"
"Call back for our squad and others as well! We are under attack!"
Eeying the desperate and overwhelmed duo, Hundred Personas grabbed her dagger, now joined by her other personalities manifested in physical form.
"Delusional Illusion: Zabaniya!"
Unleashing her Noble Phantasm at full power, Hundred Personas charged together with the rest of the other summoned assassins, sounding the alarms of the fortress which quickly made more soldier knights to come at their colleagues aid, their full attention eyed on the Hassan and her group. Soon, the zone of the fortress front gate became a battlefield.
Killing a soldier knight that was charging at her with a dagger and then kicking the one following it up in the head, Hundred Personas fought alongside her variations. "Now I leave the rest up to you! Don't dissapoint me!"
More to the left side of the fortress, having been left completly unwatched due to the conflict happening, Ritsuka and the rest of the party took the chance of Hundred Personas destraction to climb the walls without being seen.
Reaching up there, Cursed Arm swiftly and silently dispatched of two soldier knights that had been left behind.
"Ghg!"
"What i-ugh!"
"The coast is clear." The male Hassan informed them as they all ended up escalating the wall.
"We avoided being seen. Need to find a passage to get inside now." Mash speaked, focusing on the next stage of their plan.
"We can enter by that door over there." Cursed Arm pointed to a close door behind them, connecting to one of the fortress vigilant towers.
Sanzang took care of that part. "Well, if you excuse me..." Jumping torwards the door, Sanzang gave it a rough violent kick, bursting it open. "KYAAH!" Landing on top of the door's wreckage, Sanzang made a prayer with her left arm. "Just to show, my dear disciples, that this priest still has her ways!"
"That was incredible loud..." Nala entered, hoping no one heard the loud noise Sanzang made.
"Let's believe that all the commotion outside muffled the noise." Ritsuka said, seeing a soldier knight completly crashed under the door the monk lady had kicked down. "That was so incredibly reckless!"
"Crap! A surprise attack had to happen now of all times!"
"I know, right? Just when Sir Agravain is present no less!"
"Hm? Someone's talking." Ritsuka and the party heard a conversation coming from down the stairs.
"Sir Agravain?" Mash tought that name was familiar.
"Shh! Keep it low." Cursed Arm told them.
"We cannnot afford to look like fools in front of someone like him!"
"Indeed! However, isn't known that His Majesty himself forbids Sir Agravain from wandering too far from the Holy City due to always needing his assistance? What is he even doing here then?"
"Hell if I know! I'm not going to question a man like him! You can go speak with him about that if you want!"
"Sir Agravain is still on the dungeons down there, correct?"
"Yes. He must still be interrogating and torturing that new prisoner he brought over a few days ago."
"!" Cursed Arm curiosity grew, having an educated guess on who they could be talking about.
"I don't know why he keeps at it. The prisoner still hasn't speaked a thing. At this point it would be better to just kill her off."
"I make your words mine. What about the other one that arrived yesterday?"
"Who? That bowman?"
"Touta..." Sanzang muttered, the two soldier knights now speaking of her recent disciple.
"To be honest, I don't know why he's been made prisoner."
"According to Sir Lancelot when bringing him here, it was made under the orders of Sir Agravain. So who knows what are his plans for that bowman."
"Okay. I think we've heard enough." Sanzang speaked, having enough information from the conversation they just heard.
"Agreed." Cursed Arm replied, bringing out his weapons. He had to save his fellow Hassan before it was too late.
"Got it!" Nala replied, jumping from their current spot torwards the spiral staircase, landing with her sword on one of the soldier knights, killing him in an instant.
"What the-"
"Oi!" Calling out the other soldier knight's attention, Ritsuka runned down the stairs, using a spell to strenghten his right arm. "Eat this!" Jumping torwards the enemy, he punched him hard on the helmet, sending the soldier knight flying all the way down from the stairs.
"Clean punch, Sun Wukong!" Sanzang praised him, arriving at the back with Mash and Cursed Arm. "And I thought you'd miss your Ruyi Jingu Bang but guess you're doing just fine with your fists alone."
"Eh, appreciate it." Ritsuka responded.
"Sir Agravain..." Mahs murmured, still with that name in her mind. "Yet another knight of the Round Table."
"And it seems his own soldiers respect, or rather, fear him by the way they talk about him." Cursed Arm got a bit more worried. "Just to know that type of man is the one interrogating my fellow companion...We must haste!"
"As someone who has met him before, Agravain really isn't the type of person you want to have troubles with." Sanzang remembered of the times she'd saw the knight during her stay at the Holy City. "Always standing on business with a stone cold face and authoritarian demeanor. A perfect henchmen and second in command for the Lion King. Which thinking about it..." She put a thumb under her chin. "Why is he here if the king forbidden him to? Agravain doesn't strike me as someone who would disobey the people he serves so blindly."
"We can think about that later. Like Cursed Arm-san said, we need to encounter Touta and the captive Hassan the fast as we can!" Mash reminded to the group, with them no longer wasting time and climbing down the entirety of the stairs, finding a trapdoor at the bottom and opening it, entering the dungeons section of the fortress, travessing hallways while on the search for the two specific prisoners.
"Any idea if we are closer to the signal or not, Doctor?" Mash asked to Romani who was helping guiding them.
"I can't be sure. The signal here isn't exactly the best." Romani replied, his screen not having a clear showing of the dungeon area, having some interference to it. "But they must be here somewhere!"
"Hmmm..." Sanzang was suspicious of something.
"What's that face for?" Ritsuka asked her.
"This place. It's just too quiet. Too quiet for my liking." Sanzang justified, not liking the silence around them, feeling somehow eerie.
"Now that you mention it..." Nala speaked, also with a feeling that something was off, her guard suddenly get up, feeling that they were being observed.
And as they passed in front of a perpendicular hallway to their left, a monstrous creature lashed torwards them upon seeing the group walking in front of it.
"TO YOUR LEFT!" Romani exclaimed, warning them of the sudden threat.
"!" Being both on guard, Nala and Suanzang parried the attack together as the other three stepped out of the way, the monster revealing to be a giant made of stone.
"It's a spriggan!" Romani told them. "The soldier knights must have left it here in order to guard the cells during their absence!"
"Smart thing to do. They would never let it be too easy." Cursed Arm commented, knowing that the mission was going too smooth for his liking.
"But it seems that's the only creature they left in here!" Mash looked around, not spotting any other creatures appearing, meaning this spriggan was all alone. "I don't detect any other!" She went to stare at Ritsuka. "Master! Orders!"
"Defeat it quick before reinforcements decide to show up!" Ritsuka replied, commanding the shielder to fight the springgan alongside everybody else.
Altough tall and destructive in its attacks, the creature alone wasn't match for the party's combined strenght. A big target was easy to hit, and even if its attacks had a great impact area, the party found them easy to avoid and dodge before counter attacking. Eventually and after a minute, they defeated the spriggan, its decaying and dying body falling over some cells behind it, crashing them open.
"G- *cough* Good work everyone!" Ritsuka said, coughing a bit as he waved the dust away from his face. "Hope we don't run into more."
"And now that you said that, it will most likely happen." Nala replied, already counting to have to fight another monster og the same tpe because of what Ritsuka said. "But whatever. Since we're here, we should begin to-"
"Oi oi! Could you tone down on the noise? I was trying to sleep here." A voice speaked from one of the broken cells, the dust dying out.
Sanzang's eyes got energetic as she heard the voice. "Oh! This is..."
"Hmm? Weird. Since when my cell had a hole in it?" Walking out from the small room, a green haired archer cleaned his clothes from the dust. "And it seems even my chains got broken. How convenient."
"TOUTA!" Sanzang exclaimed, jumping happily torwards her disciple, now free.
Haven't noticed her and the others until now, the bowman got incredibly startled once he saw Sanzang appearing suddenly right in front of him. "S-San-WAHGH!"
Falling on the ground, Touta got a bit dizzy before recovering and witness Sanzang hugging him tightly, rubbing her face frenetically against his chest.
"I'mgladyou'reokayTouta! I'msohappytoseeyouagain! BlessedbeShakyamunithatyou'realright!"
"Ermmm...what?" Touta couldn't grasp a single word of what his 'mentor' said, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Can you talk more slowly?"
"Looks like she was really worried in your well-being." Mash commented, smilling at the sight.
"W-Well, I appreciate it." Touta replied, unsticking the content buddhist monk from him. "I'm glad to see you again and fine too, Sanzang. Thanks for coming back for me." The bowman smiled to her.
"Oh please. As if a mentor worthy her fame would ever dare to abandon a disciple of hers in trouble!" Sanzang speaked with pride before pulling a silly face and presenting the chaldeans behind her to Touta. "By the way, these are the disciples I was thinking to replace you with in case you had died."
"DON'T SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT SO BLATANTLY TO MY FACE!" Touta shouted in full indignation before calming down and taking a look at the chaldeans. "But so, you are her recent disciples eh? Thanks for coming to the rescue alongside Sanzang."
"You're welcome. Your own mentor came desperatly asking for our help so we couldn't have just refused iit." Ritsuka speaked to the bowman, happily offering him a handshake. "Also, it is a honour to meet up with the legendary warrior of the Heian period, Tawata Touta himself."
"Oh. That's rare. Didn't tought there would be people in this chunk of the Earth that knew my identity. Glad to be provened otherwise!" Touta replied, accepting the handshake. "What's your and your friends name?"
"You don't know? They are my previous disciples that I always told you about!" Sanzang got in the conversation, proceeding to point at Ritsuka. "This one here is Sun Wukong." She then pointed at Mash. "The other there is Zhu Bajie!" And finally at Nala. "And the one over there is Sha Wujing!" She then remembered of Cursed Arm as well. "Oh! And that one is the silent-intimidating-cool-skull-mask-guy!"
"How unnecessarily long." Cursed Arm thought.
"..." Touta silently stared at the trio with confusion, coming to then stared at Sanzang as if she was crazy, and then back to stare at the trio with some disbilief. "Are you really..."
"About that..." Mash approached Touta and informed of him of their meeting with Sanzang, the whole thing why she pretended them to be her disciples from the actual Journey to the West, telling their actual names and etc.
"I see. Sorry if she bothered you that much." Touta apologized on the behalf of her mentor's behaviour of them, thinking she must have been quite annoying. "Sanzang can be a mentor of many things, but calmness and quietude seems to not be on that list."
"It's alright. We didn't mind too much." Mash said to the bowman.
"But bringing that up, you said you would only treat us as yout disciples up until we found your current one." Nala reminded that fact to Sanzang. "You know what that means, right?"
"Yeah. You can all stop acting up now that Touta is back." Sanzang replied, not having forgotten it. "But it was great to have you three back with me even if it was for a small time!"
"Specially now that I was getting into the role..." Ritsuka muttered, coming to enjoy pretending to be Sun Wukong for the small hours that he could.
"This isn't over yet. We still need to rescue my fellow Hassan." Cursed Arm remembered them that their objective was only half done, approaching Touta. "Excuse me for asking this but, have you seen or heard about another prisoner down here in the dungeon? A young lady of short purple hair and skull mask?"
"Hmm, that sounds familiar. I heard that there is a prisoner that is currently being kept a level lower in this dungeon, being only visited by a knight with a bery unfriendly face." Touta told them of the captive Hassan's location.
"That must be where they are keeping her! Those bastards!" Cursed Arm said with some anger, not wanting to think on how awful his companion's time must have been here as a prisoner. "Quick! We need to rescue her now!"
"Right on time! I have finally gave the final touches and corrections on the dungeon's map!" Romani speaked with the party, his hologram appearing. "I'll be able to fully guide you to where the Hassan is. But I warn you that there are monsters along the way, so be prepared to fight!"
Touta gave a clueless and impressed stare at Romani and his hologramic appearence. "And who's this?"
"A very helpful spirit!" Ritsuka quickly answered. "Now let's go!" He said, the group deciding to move on and focus on rescuing the captive Hassan by finding the access to the lower floor while following Romani's instructions.
Once on the lower floor, the party had to spent more minutes running through the labyrinth of hallways in the dungeon while being almost constantly attacked by groups of ghost spirits.
"These things are becoming annoying to fight." Nala protested a bit after the party had defeated yet another group of ghosts. "It's like they're around every corner here!"
"Please tell us that we are at the end of it, Doc!" Ritsuka said, feeling that he too couldn't see ghosts in front of him anymore.
"You're almost there. Just a few more hallways and turn arounds." Romani replied before coming to speak something privately with him, Mash and Nala. "Also, guys, have you noticed that rice bag on Touta's back?"
"Yes. Is there something off about it doctor?" Mash asked him, staring at Touta's rice bag in front of her.
"Well, the sensors detect a good amount of mana energy coming from that bag. I suspect that must be some sort of Noble Phantasm of his." Romani revealed to them, the results on his monitor pointing torwards that answer.
"And? What are you trying to say with it?" Nala asked him, not understanding.
But Ritsuka did. "If its on the same molds of his tale, then it means that is the infinite rice bag that was given to him as a gift!" He said, remembering that part from Tawara Touta's legend.
"Exactly! We have to make sure he survives and comes back to the village with us! He much likely is the inhabitants only salvation in order to end their food shortage!" Romani told them how important and crucial would be if Touta supplied the villagers with his endless quantity of rice from his magical bag.
"Understood doctor! We will do our best to guarantee that!" Mash replied, checking their surroundings in the meantime. "How strange. We've been going inside the fortress this far and we haven't yet encountered with Sir Agravain that is supposedly here."
"Better be on guard then." Cursed Arm advised them. "It wouldn't surprise me if that knight is up to something."
"Yeah. His face gives off some vibes that he's always plotting something." Touta commented.
"Brr! Just thinking back on those dead glares from his gives me some chills!" Sanzang added.
"Is Agravain really that intimidating?" Ritsuka asked, curious.
"Having read his character before, I'd say such 'fright' steams from him being a cold strict man that is always on duty, very rarely showing a smile to others." Romani responded. "Originally, Agravain was the son of Morgan, sister and mortal enemy of King Arthur in the myths."
"Despite not seeming trustworthy and having joined Arthur's Round Table initially as a ploy set by his own mother Morgan to take down Arthur, Agravain quickly attained an almost profound and large admiration for the king, coming to abandon Morgan's scheme altogether and be fully loyal to King Arthur at his service." Mash continued the short and brief tale of Agravain. "His administrative and diplomatic skills were impressive. So much that in a short time Agravain ended up becoming an adjudant of sorts to King Arthur when it came to Camelot's overall management."
"However, due to his past relations and connection with Morgan, the other knights of the Round Table couldn't perceive him with kind eyes, suspecting for a long time that he could still be working for his mother in secret as her spy." Romani said, stating how despite Agravain's heartedly devotion to Camelot and his king, the other knights still had doubts about his loyalty. "Eventually, Agravain ended up being tragically killed by an insane Lancelot once he discovered the affair between the Knight of the Lake and at the time Arthur's wife, Guinevere. Following that up, it all crumbled and Camelot inevitably had its demise."
"That's quite messed up." Ritsuka commented after hearing the final part of the tale.
"If he was known for being cold before, such tragic event must have made it worse for him." Nala also speaked her own opinion after hearing how Agravain met his end.
"I wouldn't doubt it. Happiness is a thing that must have long since abandoned his body, leaving the harsh, rigorous knight he would end up becoming behind." Romani told them before staring back at the monitor. "Oh! You're finally arriving to the captured Hassan! Keep going!"
And some seconds after that, the whole party ended up entering a spacious oval chamber at the end of the hallway. The room didn't had anything much except some torches on the walls and-
"Serenity!" Exclaiming, Cursed Arm spotted the other Hassan, a young woman with short purple hair, all chained up to the wall on the other end of the room by some sort of magical red vibrant chains. The assassin immediatly went torwards his captive friend, with the party following him.
"...H-Hum...? Cursed...Arm..?" The other Hassan replied weakly, being barely unconscious as her body was showing signs that it had sustained some bruises during what could have been assumed, several interrogations made by Agravain.
"Those knights...!" Cursed Arm hissed with ire, furious at seeing how terrible her torture must have been for her to be in this state. Yet, he had to calm down and not late anger take the best of him in such crucial moment. "Help me destroy those chains pinning her to the wall!" He requested to the others, grabbing a dagger in his hand.
Sanzang volunteered, standing next to Cursed Arm. "Right! Let's do it then!"
Standing in front of the prisoner, the two servants aimed and attacked the chains, thinking it would be simple to destroy them. Only to discover that it didn't left a single dent on it once the chains got it, much to Cursed Arm and Sanzang surprised.
"What? It didn't even cracked?" Cursed Arm said, incredulous.
"I know these chains don't look like normal ones, but I wasn't counting for them to be quite resistable as well." Sanzang gave a closer look at the red chains again, inspecting them.
"Are you sure you're giving your all?" Touta questioned Sanzang.
"Of course I am!" She replied back to the bowman, a bit vexed that his disciple was even doubting her.
"Perhaps you are not putting the right amoutn of strenght or attacking the wrong spot." Touta grabbed his bow. "Lemme have a try." With the arrow ready, Touta aimed at another part of the captive Hassan's chains and fired his attack, yet, like the ones from Cursed Arm and Sanzang, it resulted in nothing. "Wow! Guess we found ourselves in a problem here!"
"Doctor, could you tell us what these chains are exactly?" Mash asked to Romani, wanting to see if he could give them an answer.
"Already on it!" Romani said, doing a quick search of the chains. "Hmm, not good. Their nature appears to be of a Noble Phantasm. Its magical properties make those chains as hard as the hardest of minerals, almost unbreakable. It's as if they were designed to restrained Heroic Spirits in specific, hardly giving them a chance to escape or even escape it."
"Then it is essentialy an 'Anti-Servant' type of Noble Phantasm we are dealing with here." Mash said.
"It means all of your attacks are ineffective against it." Ritsuka replied, trying to think on how they would break the Hassan free with that problem.
"But mines probably aren't." Nala said, stepping forward and bringing out her sword. "I'm not a servant after all."
"Exactly! Since Nala isn't one, her attacks won't have as much trouble as yours to destroy the chains!" Ritsuka replied, the party having found the possible solution pretty quickly.
"That might work if true. The chains won't register Nala's attack as those of an Heroic Spirit, probably making their material weaker." Romani also agreed with the idea. "Let's give it a try."
"Here goes." Lifting and wielding her sword, Nala put quite the amount of strenght and mana energy in her blade to cut the chains with a single cut, but also careful to not exaggerate in its power and ending up harming the Hassan accidentaly, making sure to have a good precision of her slashes. With that taken into account, Nala swiftly swinged her sword twice, cutting the pair of red chains that were restraining the Hassan, freeing her from the restraints.
"Oh!" Noticing that the Hassan was about to fall into the ground and being close to her, Ritsuka's instinctively moved his arms to catch her.
Something that alarmed Cursed Arm. "No! Don't-"
But the young Hassan's body was already grabbed by Ritsuka, altough rather haphazardly as he fell to the ground with the Hassan on top of him, her skull mask falling off and accidentaly touching her lips in Ritsuka's mouth, much to everyone's shock. "Hm?!"
"Master!" Mash almost yelled, blushing.
"At least you caught her." Sanzang told him.
Immediatly separating their lips, Ritsuka was still careful to gently push the Hassan's body out from the top of him. "C-Caught you! Nice job Nala!" Ritsuka told to the girl.
"If it was for that to happen I would have rather wished to not have done it." Nala commented on Ritsuka and the Hassan's accidental kiss.
"Dammit...!" Cursed Arm hissed.
"What's wrong, Cursed Arm-san?" Mash asked to the other Hassan.
"...Hmm...Aah..." Trying to open her eyes, the young Hassan could barely see the image of the person who had catched her falling body. "...W-Who...are you..?"
"Someone that came to rescue you alongside your friends." Ritsuka smiled to her. "You can rest now. We will get you out of here."
"Huh...?" Looking down at her own body, the Hassan felt the skin on her back being touched. Touched by Ritsuka's hands. "Ah!" The realization of it made the Hassan react in terror as she immediatly moved her body away from Ritsuka. "No! Go away!" She shouted, pushing Ritsuka aside and crawling all the way to the wall behind her. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! You shouldn't have..."
"What's with her?" Touta asked, seeing the panic reaction from the rescued Hassan.
"Don't tell me that the torture she suffered messed with her mind." Nala said, pondering the worse.
"No. It's not that." Cursed Arm said painfully.
"Eh?" Ritsuka stared at him.
"Hassan of Serenity's body is cursed. Cursed of extremely poisonous substances, riddled to every last inch of her skin." Cursed Arm explained with apprehension. "Serenity's Zabaniya is a direct inspiration from the legends of Visha Kanya from India: Assassin women whose bodies were so poisonous that could kill their enemies at the minimal physical contact."
Romani gasped, his eyes widenning in terror. "So what you're saying is-"
The assassin nodded his head. "Fujimaru's fate got sealed the moment he grabbed Serenity, now going to die from the extreme toxins invading and corroding his body. I'm sorry for not having told you sooner."
"Then...Ritsuka's going to die now?!" Nala exclaimed.
Hearing that, Sanzang started praying. "May you have lived a great life altough unfulfilled. I'll pray for you and for your next reincarnation to be even more joyful than the previous one."
"You're not helping!" Touta yelled behind her.
"I'm sorry! It wasn't my intention!" Serenity continued to desperately apologize, feeling extremely guilty that she might have just killed an innocent young man.
Mash immediatly went by Ritsuka's side. "Master! We need to do something quick! Tell me how is your body feeling! Perhaps we still have some time to-"
"I..." Checking his own body and moving his own hand in front of his face, Ritsuka looked back at Mash. "I don't feel anything aching or bad happening to my body right now."
"Eh?"
"Impossible!" Cursed Arm replied. "Serenity's poison is highly deadly. How aren't you dead by now, leave alone feeling no pain?" He asked, dumbfounded.
"Maybe, because of Mash's protection." Ritsuka pondered. "It's the same situation back in London with the Demonic Fog. It should have killed me but it didn't because of Mash's defensive and protection attributes being shared with me due to our master-servant connection." Knowing that, made the master of humanity felt hugely relieved, smilling at Mash. "Guess I owe you one again for this, Mash."
Romani let out a huge breath of relief as well. "Oh thank goodness for that! I already had forgotten it existed!" He then smugged at Ritsuka. "But I have to say Fujimaru. That would certainly be an unusual way to die."
"It definetly would." Nala added. "Wait. Does that mean I can also touch Serenity?"
"Uhu! You're not going to die! Blessed be Shakyamuni!" Sanzang yelled happily.
"Talk about being lucky eh?" Touta said to Ritsuka.
"You had us worried for a moment, master." Mash said, helping him get up. "Please be more careful next time." She said, sounding specifically more serious on that last part.
"I-I'll make sure of it Mash ahaha!" Ritsuka said, nervously scratching the back of his head.
"Hm..? You aren't dead?" Serenity asked him, surprised how Ritsuka didn't instantly agonized and died the moment he touched her body.
"Nope! All fine with me." Ritsuka replied back to the young Hassan, stretching his hand to her. "Now come! Let's get you out of here."
Serenity was completly amazed. To see that there was a person who didn't died at coming into contact with her was in someway enrapturing to her. "Eh..." The assassin blushed, giving a warm and lovely smile to him. "Thank you..." She grabbed his hand, getting up. "Thank you for..."
"O-Oi!" Ritsuka grabbed her body again, observing that Serenity was so exhausted and without energy that she couldn't even stand up on her own feet without help.
"She has suffered a lot." Cursed Arm commented, feeling bad for his companion. "But we got the job here done! Now let's get out of the fortress and go back to the village with Hundred Personas!"
Ritsuka nodded, he and the party preparing to leave the chamber. "Right! We must-"
"It would rather seem that my plan to lure a single target here ended up attracting a lot more than I accounted for. Not that I have any qualms with it."
The entire party got immediatly on guard as they heard the voice and footsteps coming from the only entrance to the chamber.
Sanzang recognized who was speaking. "This can only be-"
"It was shamelessly obvious that little stand your friend is pulling at the fort's entrance could not be anything but a mere ruse. But you knew that I would have already suspected that from the get go, didn't you?"
Entering the chamber, Agravain revealed himself to the party, accompanied by a full batallion of soldier knights, barricading the exit from them. The knight in black armour's rigid eyes coldly staring at his enemies.
"Greetings, people of Chaldea. We properly meat at last."
To be continued...
And that was it for chapter 104!
You know what this chapter made me think about? How it was a shame that Touta ended up being scrapped out from the Camelot movies. Like, I know on the overall scenery of the Singularity he wasn't that much of an important character to be included on, but I see him as being a bit fundamental to Sanzang's character during Camelot. Not saying that Sanzang can't be a character on her own, but when you go watch the Camelot movies, you can tell that there is something missing in there. That in my opinion, Sanzang's character in Camelot deteriorates a bit from Touta not being present. Like, I'd say they complement each other well, and if one is missing from the story, then half of the other one is missing as well.
That's a thought I had when watching the two movies besides that I also think Camelot would have benefited a lot more in story perspective if it was adapted as a series instead like Babylonia. Because even Touta and Hundred Personas who might seem minor characters in it that ended up being discarded from the movies, still had their own roles to play. But I'd attribute it more to the fact that since it was a duology there wasn't much space to adapt everything of the Singularity fully, having to make some cuts here and there. (Hell, even Holmes didn't make it and the Atlas exposition had to be given to Ozymandias instead)
But the fights were cool. And here we can have Sanzang and Touta's dynamic duo back again!
Anyways, that's all I wanted to say, and see you next time on chapter 105! Peace!
P.S:
Peko (opens the door of his cell, noticing there is no soldier guarding it): Can't believe they left the door unlocked! This might be my chance!
Peko (exits the bedroom and begins to walk on the palace's hallways, doing his best to not be spotted): Thankfully, I have already decorated the interior of this place. I just have to-
Artoria Pendragon (appears out of nowhere, pointing a flashlight at his eyes and jumpscaring Peko): Got you!
Peko: Aaah-Agh! Ow! My eyes! J-Jesus, that hurts! Why would you even point a flashlight so close to someone like that?!
Artoria Pendragon: In my defense, you were breaching perimeter.
Peko (Looks at the Lion King's new outfit): W-What are you even wearing?
Artoria Pendragon (Adjusts her cap): My security guard outfit. Like it? Gawain and Lancelot gave it as a gift to me. Now go back to your room.
