Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to their respective franchises.


He awoke to a blurred white ceiling and a numbness that enveloped his entire form. He stared blankly at nothing for who knows how long, dazed, his mouth open and... something he could feel pressing against his tongue, and he blinked slowly to regain more of his bearings, some additional colors swirling around like stains on a blank canvas. He could faintly sense movement around him, accompanied by sounds…voices.

Some very familiar voices.

"So, I just put this in his mouth, right?"

"...Uh, yeah, but…shouldn't we wait until he wakes up first?"

"Oh, he won't mind. He never does, trust me."

Kirschtaria Wodime's eyes snapped wide in alarm, the situation quickly registering as he spotted none other than Pepe looming over him, one hand on his hip and the other... lodged inside his mouth. His head was turned to the side, indicating that he was addressing someone else.

"Ah, he's awake," someone out of sight said in a tone of concern.

Pepe pursed his lips as he gave him a sideways glance. The bastard then plastered on a smile as he greeted, "Oh, good morning there, sweet prince."

"Hehe?" Kirschtaria began in a muffled voice, his features furrowed in grave worry. "Wy yo yoo ave yo han en ma mofh?"

Pepe fully faced him as his smile turned playfully sinister. "Just giving you your medicine, dear. Don't worry, Nurse Pepe will take good care of you."

"Eesh no..." Kirschtaria pleaded, wishing for every bit of his dignity. Or what was left of it. He knew he probably deserved it, but he'd be damned before he allowed himself to become unmarriageable.

"Aw," Pepe pouted in disappointment as he removed his appendage, which was thankfully sheathed in a surgical glove. Kirchstaria smacked his lips to try to get the taste of salty latex out, being careful not to move his body too much to avoid opening his wounds from the dull ache on his shoulder where Beryl had stabbed him. He slowly turned his head to see where he was, which was the Crypter's private infirmary still.

"Wh-What happened? Did…Lev…" His breath hitched when Pepe reared his head in once more.

"Lev is dead," Pepe told him bluntly as he was wiping something with a disinfectant wipe. "You lost consciousness right at the climactic moment. Too bad. Or maybe not, because you might have ended up blowing a gasket."

"Wh-What?" Kirschtaria needled, his brows knitting in confusion.

Pepe spared him a glance before tilting his head in the direction of the door, from where someone came into view. Someone the blonde had recently come to know of. He was wearing a standard Chaldean Mystic Code uniform, which was nowhere near as battered as the last time he had seen it. Neither did the person wearing it. The young man smiled and greeted, "Uh, hello."

Kirschtaria just stared at the boy, his vision still adjusting as he blinked a few more times. "Sūn...Wùfàn?"

Gohan didn't bother to correct him, scratching his head and looking away. "Right," he muttered awkwardly. He seemed to muster up some courage and faced the blonde to ask, "H-How are you feeling?"

He was procrastinating, but Kirschtaria could tell that it came from a place of genuine concern. His answer was a silent nod, before a look from Pepe prompted him to answer verbally, "I…I'm managing."

Gohan's smile brightened a bit. "Well, don't worry, because you'll be okay soon. That is, if you would permit it." Pepe looked away impishly from the glare Kirschtaria flashed at him before addressing the young man.

"You…want my consent for something?"

"A new miracle treatment, Kirsch," Pepe chimed in. "Just for you."

"That you were going to shove down my throat, you mean?" Kirschtaria sniped back at the man reproachfully. This merely earned him an audacious shrug.

Kirschtaria went silent in thought, then began, "First, Sūn Wùfàn-" He paused when Gohan raised a hand in interruption.

"Just Wùfàn," the half-Saiyan told him with a wave. "Or even Gohan, which is my actual name."

Pepe cocked a brow. "You were named after 'cooked rice'?"

Gohan chuckled lightly. "There's a story behind that, but I'm guessing you would want a rundown of everything that's happened first, right Mr. Wodime? A bit of context before anything else." He paused. "Okay, maybe a lot of context."

"...Kirschtaria is fine," the blonde agreed, choosing to dispense with any formality to reflect the boy's sentiments as a sign of respect after memories of recent events had seeped in. This was the boy who had come to defend them from the fiend that was Flaorus, formerly Lev Lainur. "And, yes, please," he stipulated, with Hinako walking up to his side in order to help adjust his cot.

Gohan nodded. "Well…"


Five days earlier…

"He's over here!" one of the staff clad in a thick winter coat exclaimed at the top of his voice to the others, who were sprinting to his location in order to hurry before the worst of the returning blizzard arrived. "He's alive!"

Romani and Da Vinci, the two of them appropriately dressed for warmth themselves, were the first to reach the pair, the licensed doctor rushing to examine the now unconscious Gohan, who was indeed alive but was far from unscathed. "Stretcher!" Romani shouted.

He, Caster, and the one who found the boy guarded him closely, afraid that something else might come along and endanger his already fragile life even more than it already was. Mash insisted that she come along, and she arrived shortly with Mao and Cerejeira at her side. They all carefully traversed the ruined landscape left in the wake of the battle, the ground bearing a long and deep rift nearly half a mile wide, which fortunately had not reached Chaldea in all the turmoil.

"He's alive," Romani noted with relief, he and those around him amazed that even after all he had been through, the boy was breathing, but covered in burns and bruises. His Chaldean uniform had been burned off, leaving his torso naked for them to see the extent of his condition. His pants were scuffed and singed, the edges frayed, and his shoes were barely wearable. Two of the staff arrived quickly with the stretcher, but due to the depth of the pit where Gohan was, they had to use some reinforcement on their legs to keep their balance, swiftly and safely arriving.

Some of the staff volunteered to remain and investigate the aftermath, while the rest hurried back to Chaldea with Gohan in tow. Mash was close by the boy's side, flanking her tutor who had fitted the boy with a non-rebreather mask. She refrained from asking questions, only hoping that this would not be the last time that she was to see the young man.

For the better part of the next proceeding hours, all surviving personnel worked non-stop. The facility was in need of major repairs, but fortunately was mostly intact except for some much-needed integrity checks. Power was gradually being restored, relieving much of the burden of stabilizing the surviving Masters, albeit still in comas, except for a few who had regained consciousness but still remained bedridden.

Gohan, unfortunately, was one of those in a coma, confined to a cot and equipped with the most advanced medical equipment Marisbury's money could buy, along with the technology he had commissioned from the Atlas Institute to monitor every intricate layer of his anatomy, vital signs, magical circuits, etc. Kirschtaria had insisted that no expense be spared to ensure that they had an even greater chance of surviving any form of sabotage.

The Masters who were deceased or in critical condition were placed in cryo-stasis along with the personnel who had suffered from Lev's poison, Romani lamenting that many of them were familiar faces. Curiously enough, none of the Masters had been confirmed as "Returners," as Krichstaria had come to describe those who had been sent back. This only lent credence to the theory that their return was not accidental, but intentional. Why exclude most of the Master Candidates except the Crypters? Why did this Sūn Wùfàn come along? Well, he had a good guess as to how (for this had his old student's signature all over it), but he'd have to hold off on any conclusions for now.

The next day, Romani returned to check on Sūn Wùfàn's condition and was not surprised to find Mash sitting at his bedside, some of the other occupied beds being attended to by the medical staff in the large infirmary. "Mash," he called to her as he approached. The girl looked over her shoulder and up at him as he stepped beside her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder and asking, "Have you been here all night?"

Mash gave her mentor and father figure a smile and nodded. Then she turned to a still sleeping Gohan, his arms and most of his upper body wrapped in gauze. It was a miracle that the boy was still alive, and even more that most of what he had taken from the battle were at most flesh wounds. Had he bled internally, or had the damage been a bit more critical, they would have had another one for the cryo-freezer.

"I…" Mash lowered her head, perhaps a bit embarrassed from the flush visible on her cheeks.

Romani's features softened when he remembered how close the Mash and the Fujimaru of his timeline had become during their adventures. One could even say that they had grown to love each other, which was why the news of the murder of the Fujimaru of this world had shaken him, and he was saddened that the Mash before him would no longer be able to form the closest bond she had ever had with anyone when she had been so deprived of companionship in her formative years. "I…just couldn't leave him alone, Doctor."

Romani nodded, a sigh escaping him that no matter how things might have been different here, Mash was still Mash, for which he was terribly grateful, having feared what she would be like before they had met. There was always the possibility that Marisbury's experiments would have a completely different effect on her psyche, but from the few years he had spent granting her some semblance of a normal upbringing, she was still as kind as any version of Mash Kyrielight. "Well, we couldn't exactly leave him alone either, Mash," Romani assured his surrogate daughter. "If it weren't for him, I fear we wouldn't even be here right now. None of us would be."

Mash was relieved and pleased by this, for as she studied the boy's condition once more, she couldn't understand how he could have endured such severe punishment and come out of it alive. The personnel educated at the Clock Tower had tossed around theories and assumptions that he might be a True Ancestor, a designer baby like herself, a demihuman because of the tail (that Caster insisted not be amputated), or even a pseudo-servant sent by the Counter Force. She just couldn't make sense of it herself, but she had this feeling, this intuition in the back of her mind that he was none of those things. That this Sūn Wùfàn was something else entirely.

"In any case, the rest of us have been extra busy," Romani admitted glibly, perhaps to put up a front, for as she studied him, she could see the bags under his eyes. There was no denying that they had been stretched thin, but many of the staff were working from experience, both from their training and from what they had gone through in their previous timelines. All of the Returners had survived by avoiding Lev's poison, for it was fortunate that in one iteration, poison had been the Demon God's preferred means of murder instead of a bomb.

"Doctor..." Mash began as Romani checked the boy's readings, which were stable to his relief, and once again he was amazed that someone could be so resilient at such a young age. Under normal circumstances, he would have been unnerved, but as far as anyone was concerned, he had seen worse. And with the benefit of hindsight, he couldn't be sure that everything about this Sūn Wùfàn was as it seemed, so even this matter had to be put on hold until there was solid confirmation. "Is…it true?"

Romani turned his head toward her. "Hm? About what?"

Mash hesitated. "About... you being from the future."

Romani stared down at his pad. "It's true." He no longer had any reason to keep such secrets from her, with all the talk that had gone around. "Although, to be more accurate, I'm from a different timeline."

Mash looked up in shock, echoing, "Different... timeline?"

Romani smiled tenderly at her. "It sounds pretty out there, doesn't it?"

Mash was silent for a moment. "Another timeline..." She lowered her gaze, processing this revelation. "Could you have rayshifted?"

A slight chuckle escaped the redhead as he turned to her. "Possibly. Or I could just have been wished back here by someone with a Grail." His smile became playful. "That someone might even have been my version of Mash."

"Your..." Mash began, her head snapping up with a look of shock. Her eyes were fixed on him for more than was comfortable as he walked over and knelt down to meet her gaze with his own, a gentle smile still playing on his lips.

"Does this change anything?" Romani asked. "That might be what you're worried about."

Mash looked away, averting and closing her eyes, her face wavering with confusion, worry, and maybe a little fear. Fear that she would...

Gentle hands, wrapped in surgical gloves, clasped her own in her lap. "Nothing has changed," Romani told her softly. "Nothing." He brought a hand to her cheek, but didn't press. "You mean as much to me as she does." He refused to use the past tense, certain that the Mash and Fujimaru of his timeline were alive and fighting for the future of humanity.

Despite the sincerity she could feel in the words, Mash still had her doubts. "I'm... just... not your Mash."

Romani gently brushed some of her hair aside. "That doesn't mean anything to me, and it shouldn't. Yes, you may not be the Mash I know, but that doesn't mean I love you any less. In fact, I was afraid that... you wouldn't accept me."

Mash blinked, then locked eyes with the man she had come to love and trust like a father. "Really?"

Romani beamed at her. "Yes," he said affectionately. "And it was the same with my Mash. When I first came to Chaldea - my Chaldea - I was a nervous wreck." He chuckled a little louder, but only enough not to disturb the other patients. "But, eventually, I got used to the ambience here-there. It was when I was taking care of you, well, my Mash, that I... was most afraid I'd mess it up." His eyes softened at her surprise. "I... never really had the best track record when it came to raising children." That was just one of the drawbacks he had found in having multiple wives, concubines. Not all of his many children were ever really close to him, and it did not help that he had been as distant and aloof when he was still Solomon. Frankly, parental bonding had not been one of his strong suits when he had a vast kingdom to run and students to teach. "I was most concerned about you. Would you be different? How different and how much? Thoughts like that would keep me awake at night. And then, when we finally met, any doubts I had melted away. I...wanted to be there for you...the first time all over again."

Mash looked at her adoptive father with tender eyes. "You...didn't mess up. I...was…I was always happy that you were with me."

Romani was pleased to hear that, his eyes darting downward. "Of course, the only thing I've taken of note that's different about you two is your taste in food."

"Really?" Mash blinked, recovering from her slump in an instant.

"Really," Romani confirmed. "She liked ice cream."

Mash made a face. "Ice...cream?" After a nod from Romani, she said, "But I...like pizza." She personally didn't like sweets either, which was a little odd if this version of her did. Romani laughed again as he stood up.

"Regardless," he continued, "Mash is still Mash, but you're also your own person, separate from her. That doesn't diminish anything between us. If anything, I'm sure the two of you would have gotten along if she had been here. Maybe even as sisters."

"Sisters..." Mash echoed quietly. She would be lying if she ever said she hadn't been curious about the matter. Family, siblings, those were just things that Marisbury and the researchers who made up the early part of her life hadn't allowed her to have or need. "Sisters," she repeated, a smile slowly forming back on her lips. She aligned her gaze with Romani again. "I…wouldn't mind if that ever happened."

"Neither would she," Romani said reassuringly, remembering his Mash fondly and imagining the two of them together like real siblings. Then his gaze shifted to the patient in front of him, and he seemed to gape at something to Mash's curiosity, prompting her to follow his gaze.

Gohan, still on his back and hooked up to instruments, looked up at the ceiling, or maybe at nothing, having only opened his eyes. Currently deprived of his proper senses, his blurred gaze darted before blinking slowly, the sounds around him new and disorienting.

"Sūn…kun?" Mash muttered out loud, her expression giving way to wide-eyed shock.

Blinking again, Gohan slowly turned his head in her direction, presumably having heard her, and he seemed to perk up a bit judging from the subtle movement of his eyebrows. His gaze then fell upon Romani, who quickly disappeared from view as he marched to the other side of the bed to check his vital readings once more. "Mash," he called to the girl, who was already on her feet and wearing a determined frown, eager to assist him. Once they were sure that his condition was stable, Romani addressed the boy as he continued to examine him with a torchlight, "You gave us quite a scare, young man." Which was such an understatement that the redhead had to suppress a wince trailing off.

Gohan did not answer, allowing the doctor to simply do his work, his pupils dilating from the light being shined on them. No further words were spoken as Romani conducted his tests with practiced ease. On a personal level, he was just thankful that the boy was conscious, even though by all logic, he still shouldn't be. It had only been a day and a half after all, for anyone else would have been out of it for at least a few days to a week at most.

Gohan made a weak sound, mumbling something through his oxygen mask, attracting Mash's attention. "Sūn-kun? What is it?"

"R...Roo...m..." Gohan struggled to say, exhaustion gripping his body.

"...R-Room?" Mash repeated, leaning in closer to hear better. Gohan made a movement with his head that could only be a nod.

"B-Ba-g..." Gohan croaked. Romani put a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Please rest," Romani bade gently. "For now, you shouldn't push yourself."

Gohan only seemed to fidget under the doctor's hold, and Romani was amazed that even in such a state, the boy was... strong. Unusually so. At least in human terms.

"Go... to my... room," Gohan said a bit more clearly, his eyebrows knitting lightly from the struggle of just forming the words.

"Your room?" Mash asked. "Why?"

"Brown...bag," Gohan continued. "Bring...here..."

"Brown bag?" Mash repeated, if only to confirm that she had heard correctly, and the boy nodded numbly. She shared a look with Romani, who seemed ambivalent about the request, but did not refuse. She looked down at the boy and accepted the request with her own nod. As she left, Romani let out a sigh, then smiled, mostly in relief that things could have been worse, but also at Mash's good-hearted drive to help.

"Thank you," Romani said as he looked over the boy's data. "We owe you a lot for saving us." He should have questioned the boy, or at least remained skeptical about the circumstances of his arrival, but since even Caster had vouched for him (which wasn't at all due to the boy's anomalous characteristics), he could withhold any judgment. But even from where he stood, this Sūn Wùfàn didn't set off any of his usual alarm bells, except maybe his monkey tail and his phenomenal strength.

Gohan glanced at the man but didn't say anything, choosing to wait patiently for Mash to return.


Elsewhere…

Pepe was in Chaldea's cryo-chamber with Hinako, the two of them watching as Beryl's body was placed in the freezer. "I would've gone with cremation, but the boys at the Clock Tower will want to cut him open and see what goodies he's got inside," Pepe opined, watching with a satisfied glint as the headless mutt's body was prepared by the staff.

He leaned against the wall, a lit cigarette between two fingers. Hinako stood next to him, watching apathetically and as a double insurance in case the corpse would rise. "So," Pepe began, taking a drag, "do you have any idea who the kid is?"

Hinako sighed and rolled her eyes. "Unfortunately, no." She had been one of the people who had helped retrieve the mysterious boy, and had stayed with a few others to study the aftermath of his battle with Flauros. When she was able to get a better look at him, she was able to determine that he wasn't one of the True Ancestors she knew or was acquainted with, nor did they resemble each other in any way, which made her slightly uneasy. Still, his presence warranted her caution, based on his actions and abilities alone. Also because of how... unnatural he felt to her.

As if something about him didn't belong.

Deciding to put those thoughts she had aside for now, she asked Pepe, "Are you sure killing him was a good idea?"

Pepe calmly shot her a look. "If him trying to kill our fearless leader and Ophelia wasn't reason enough, then what do you think?"

Hinako was quiet for a long moment, glancing as the coffin that now held Beryl's remains was securely sealed off. "I guess we can't exactly call ourselves Crypters anymore. We're short two members."

"Oh, I wouldn't fuss over it too much," Pepe told her. "We can make do, and with that adorable little newcomer, we just might."

"We still can't be too sure," Hinako chided. "Even if he was brought in by the Old Man, there's just something about him that doesn't sit right with me."

"Like?" Pepe needled. When Hinako didn't say anything more, he shrugged and pushed himself off the wall. "I'm gonna go check on Ophelia." When he was halfway through the door, he shot one more look at the girl, "If he somehow gets back up, chop his legs off. And if that isn't enough, you can turn him into hamburger."

Hinako cocked a brow. "Did he screw you guys in your timelines that badly?"

Pepe grinned, an intense glow coming into his eyes as he remembered those dark days well. Hinako, bizarrely, or perhaps not, was not a Returner as they had initially assumed or suspected, which made it a challenging initiative to bring her into their fold as an ally. When they broached the subject in a Himalayan bungalow she had made her home, she was understandably skeptical. In her incredibly long life, she knew better than to take such things at face value, having experienced her fair share of being lied to or tricked. With an inordinate amount of experience came an even greater amount of wisdom, which was why she mostly kept to herself.

He, Kirschtaria, and Marisbury had taken a trip to the remote mountain region where Hinako had chosen to isolate herself, only occasionally commuting to the local towns for luxuries such as tea and books. When Marisbury finally made her his crucial offer, she almost had the good sense to maim the three of them into unrecognizable chunks. How the man was able to convince the one in their timeline at all would remain a mystery for the ages, but then Kirschtaria stepped forward to make the big reveal. It was a means to sweeten the deal, but also to buy them time. Once she had heard their story and determined that they were telling the truth, or at least not talking complete nonsense, she decided to give them a chance to consider. But only on the condition that she would be left to her own devices, free to make her own decisions and judgments as she saw fit.

Marisbury, always with that smile of his, accepted. It would be months later that the Lord had somehow located Daybit, but chose to reach the man himself alone, without prompting or even informing them. Shortly thereafter, perhaps days after learning of his preemptive action, Marisbury's body would be found in a cabin he had rented, where he had presumably met with the elusive final member of the Crypters.

The presumed cause of death was suicide.

Kirschtaria would secretly assume directorship of Chaldea, along with the rest of Marisbury's remaining affairs. Not long after, the Animusphere was officially absorbed into the Wodime family. With the head of the Animusphere family dead, and his biological daughter too young and inexperienced to assume what had once been her birthright, the succession naturally fell to the chosen heir. Marisbury's loyalists would be silenced by Olga's expressed disinterest in inheriting, leaving everything to her tutor and confidante. There was only one thing she would never do, something Kirschtaria had drilled into her throughout her apprenticeship with him.

Never trust a man named Lev Lainur.

Even if the man was to show her the affection and attention she so desperately craved from Marisbury, she was to be numb to his advances or other attempts to charm her. The exact reason was never given, other than her own speculations, but only their mutual trust made Olga obey this directive. She could certainly pretend to be swayed, but for the sake of her pride as a promising magus under his tutelage, she was never to open herself to anyone else unless they were deemed worthy of her trust by Kirschtaria, who was now her de facto legal guardian.

She should have been sad. Sad for her father's death, sad that the Animusphere was now a mere branch of the Wodime, but to her utter bewilderment, she felt more... relieved. Happy, even. Happier than she had felt in a long time. It was as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

In order to follow the flow of events as closely as possible, Kirschtaria would have Olga publicly act as director, so as not to throw Lev off, for any other discrepancies would hopefully be attributed to natural differences that made this timeline distinct. The plan was meticulously executed with an almost obsessive compulsion, and Kirschtaria had to assign Pepe to make sure that any loose ends were tied up.

The harsh truth, as they sadly discovered, was that not all of the Returners were so eager for a repeat of their tenure. Some of them came from timelines much darker than their own, leaving them traumatized or wanting to live their lives in peace away from Chaldea. Kirschtaria did not force or coerce them, only let them share their experiences to gain some insight into how things could have been worse.

In one of these timelines, Fujimaru Ritsuka was a spy for the Clock Tower, which culminated in them sabotaging Chaldea by killing everyone so the Mage Association could take control, betraying those whose trust they shamelessly cultivated to exploit.

There was another timeline that made Kirschtaria and Pepe wonder if the guy telling them wasn't on some particularly amazing psychedelics, because what he ended up telling them sounded like something out of a gag show.

No, really.

The Fujimaru of his timeline was literally a cartoon character, with a fanatical, maniacal, practically all-consuming addiction to gacha rolls when summoning her Servants.

In the end, they let the guy go with a full retirement package and some much-needed advice to keep everything to himself, for fear that even the Mage Association would end up looking at them all funny.

Some were little different from Beryl, utter scum who simply wanted to take advantage of their second chance, either by spilling the beans to the Association or by actually daring to blackmail them to their faces. Marisbury had been quick on the uptake, so he had sent agents to investigate every single roster Kirschtaria had committed to memory. Such people, with the exception of those without such ill intentions, were promptly disposed of.

Of course, they had to be careful when replacing them all, not that Lev seemed to care all that much about their discovery, which was just one of the weaknesses they exploited to the fullest. No matter how vigilant the man-turned-demon might have been, he still looked down on them and let his prejudices get away with him. And if his talk of victory in his own timeline was true, then part of his downfall probably came from the high of that.

Pepe was marching down the corridors leading to the private infirmary where Ophelia still lay, when a familiar figure almost collided with him from around a corner, having already sensed her approach, but still feigning to say, "Whoa!"

"Ah!" A very startled Mash Kyrielight exclaimed. A moment of collecting her bearings, she apologetically bowed her head. "I'm so sorry, senpai."

Pepe blinked, then his expression softened at the sight of her, remembering her kindness and bravery in the Lostbelts. He patted her gently on the head and said, "No harm done, Mash-chan~! Why in such a hurry?"

Mash raised her head, chest heaving with the difficulty to form an answer, prompting Pepe to say, "Easy, there, Mash-chan. Breathe."

That seemed to adequately settle her down, "Sorry, Peperoncino-senpai-"

"Stop right there, Mash-chan!" Pepe coyly cut her off with a raising of the hand. "I already told you, didn't I? Pepe's fine."

"O-Oh, right," Mash admitted in a fidgety tone. "Sorry, Pepe-senpai."

Pepe huffed with a pouty smile, realizing that his efforts to get the girl to loosen up were becoming increasingly futile. "So, what seems to be the rush?"

"Uh, it's... it's Sūn-kun," Mash replied between swallowing a lump in her throat.

"Ah!" Pepe exclaimed in understanding. "So our mysterious savior has finally awoken from his beauty sleep. And... so soon?" He remarked in mild amazement. "Well, what does he want?"

"Um, his-his room," Mash began in a still shaky tone. "There's something in his room that he requested."

Pepe raised an eyebrow before tilting his head and asking, "How about I help you?"

Mash blinked in surprise. "Eh? N-No, I-that's okay. I'm fine going there by myself, thank you. You must be terribly-"

Pepe rapidly clicked his tongue in mock offense, placing both hands on her shoulders. "Now, now, none of that. My time is my own to decide, Mash-chan. It's not a problem at all."

Mash still insisted that she could do it on her own, but eventually gave in to a more insistent Pepe, but he was anything but forceful. "I'd just feel so awful if I left you on your own like this," he elaborated in a much kinder tone, bringing both hands to his heart. "I mean, you never know what you might find."

Mash turned to the effeminate man as they walked side-by-side, "Eh? What I might find?"

"You know~," Pepe began in a conspiratorial purr, his smile playful as he was cradling an arm, his free hand tilted to the side. "Like dirty laundry, even dirtier magazines-"

"Senpai!" Mash exclaimed reproachfully, her face turning beet red as they drew near to Room 48. "I'm fairly sure that Sūn-kun is not like that!" The man stifled a giggle, absolutely loving her reaction.

"Okay, fine! Sorry I said anything, Mash-chan!" Pepe relented happily. The girl pouted in embarrassment, which Pepe found even more adorable. Once they were in front of the door, Mash was about to open it with the unlock code when she stopped, remembering that the occupant was already outside. Sure enough, Pepe stepped forward, causing the door to slide open automatically.

Once they were inside, they distinctly took note of two things. One, there was already someone inside. Two, she was tampering with something, her back obscuring what it was. "Da Vinci-san?" Mash said in bewilderment.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Caster turned to find the two of them staring back at her in varying degrees of surprise. "Oh, excellent timing, you two," she exclaimed.

"Uh, excellent… timing?" Mash repeated in confusion, sharing a look with Pepe. "What… are you doing here?"

"Who, me?" Caster pointed at herself. She turned briefly back to what was hidden from them, revealing it to be a white case with what looked like the Chaldean logo embossed on it, but closer inspection disproved that assumption, though it still looked like a 'C' shaped logo. "Just checking the luggage of our recent guest."

"Luggage?" Mash echoed in question as they sauntered near. "Guest?"

"Do you even have permission to do that?" Pepe asked with his hands on his hips, already knowing the answer.

To her credit, Caster's expression furrowed in apology, her shoulders sinking. "Well, no…" Before perking up as she opened the case to reveal the contents. "But I'm sure the ragazzo will forgive me. I mean, this isn't exactly the first time I've come to study these."

"What... exactly are these?" Mash asked as she leaned in closer to get a better look at what they were, noting that they appeared to be canisters or capsules of some sort.

Caster practically beamed with excitement. "Wonders of science, my dear Mash!" She looked inside the case and carefully selected what was safe to release, having meticulously read the instructions, which fortunately were in English as well as Chinese, though she had no problem reading either language. She brought up the one containing the rice cooker, and with a simple squeeze of the trigger, she threw the capsule into the middle of the room, where it exploded in a cloud of smoke.

Pepe was in front of Mash in an instant to shield her from whatever potential danger there was, only for the both of them to recoil once the smoke cleared. "A... rice cooker?" Both pairs of eyes were drawn to the sight of a simple rice cooker that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Unless it did something impressive other than what it was built for, it's been quite a long time since anyone's thought of the household appliance as a 'wonder of science'.

"I know what you're thinking," Caster regarded them with a raised finger. "No, it's not the rice cooker itself, but what stored the rice cooker." She presented the open case to the pair again, and each of them took a capsule to study more closely. "Word of warning, don't pull the trigger on any of these, especially 1, 2 and 7." She almost jumped out of her own skin when she saw that Pepe was about to do just that with the 7th capsule. "Raggazi, stop!"

Pepe did indeed stop, his thumb already on the trigger to Caster's alarm. "Please, in the name of all that is good and holy in this world, do not, I repeat, do not, release what is in there!"

Seeing the genuine fear on her face, Pepe carefully returned the capsule to the case, much to the renaissance woman's relief, who let out a breath she had been holding. Mash was equally puzzled, but also returned the capsule she was holding out of courtesy and caution. Next, Caster went to the rice cooker and bent down to find the compression module that Gohan had shown her to press.

As soon as she did, the other two watched in anticipation, and then amazement, as the rice cooker exploded into another small cloud of smoke, and when the fog cleared, a tiny capsule took its place.

"Could... that be Sūn-kun's magecraft?" Mash asked curiously, while Pepe marched near and examined the strange device Caster had picked up from the floor.

"Not quite, ragazza," Caster replied tenderly as she walked to the bedside drawer and placed the case next to a brown bag that Mash noticed. "First, can either of you tell me what Clarke's Three Laws are?"

Mash seemed to perk up. "Oh, I know. The first law is 'If an eminent but elderly scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. If he says something is impossible, he is most likely wrong.'. The second is, 'The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to venture a little beyond them into the impossible.'."

Caster nodded, smiling proudly. "And the Third Law?"

"'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,'" Mash concluded.

"Precisamente!" Caster praised with a clap, then began pacing the room with an academic air, hands clasped behind her. "Arthur C. Clarke was certainly on to something when he coined such sayings, and fittingly enough, they can easily be applied to the principles of magecraft." She gestured to the ceiling, alluding to Chaldea as a whole to emphasize her point. "It was only in the last decade or so that time travel became possible, when the concept itself should have been confined to the realm of science fiction. Even in the Age of Mystery, stepping into the past or future would have been considered dubious, perhaps even heretical, but not impossible. However, as for these marvelous inventions," she gestured back to the case, "they are clearly a work of science in which the method of compressing much larger objects has been established for practical use. And whoever had discovered the method of doing so back in the ragazzo's world would most certainly be considered a contemporary of yours truly."

Mash blinked. "Sūn-kun's...world?"

Pepe's eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me..."

Caster shook her head. "No, no. He's not like the rest of us, Lei Peperoncino. He's from another world entirely."

"Another world?" Mash repeated with more shock. Pepe himself was astonished, but more thoughtful than visibly surprised.

"Do you know how he got here, Caster?" he asked in a more serious tone, his mind already swirling with thoughts of how Kirschtaria should address this, or perhaps the blonde already knew based on his earlier remarks regarding the Wizard Marshal.

"The way he explained it, he managed to enter our universe through the Second Magic," Da Vinci revealed, partially filling in certain blanks.

"To replace Fujimaru?" Pepe forwarded, to which Caster nodded.

"Fujimaru?" The other two Returners paused when they heard the name, in a tone that indicated unfamiliarity. It didn't affect Pepe as much as it did Caster, who could only regard the girl with a sad smile, remembering that the Fujimaru of this timeline was gone, dead.

"Another time, perhaps, dear Mash," Caster said in the same tender tone. "For now, I think it would be better for the boy to explain himself. By the way, why are you two here in the first place?"

Mash perked up at the question. "Oh, Sūn-kun is awake now."

"Already?!" Da Vinci said in astonishment. "That boy must be something else."

"Hm, we've already speculated what he might be," Pepe said carefully. "We asked Hinako if he could be a Xian like herself, and she confirmed upon coming up close to him that he is not."

"Oh? Then that just means he was telling the truth," Da Vinci recalled with a mysterious smile, a finger nuzzling the underside of her chin. "Or at least he believes it to be the truth."

"The truth?" Pepe echoed with a raised eyebrow.

"He is not a Xian, nor is he a True Ancestor," Da Vinci clarified further. "He is at least half human, but the other half of his heritage is more... alien."

"Alien?" Mash repeated, her eyes widening behind her glasses.

"Indeed," Da Vinci responded.

"Could..." Pepe began, breaking into a sweat as he remembered the Lostbelts and compared the events of that point in his timeline to the feats the boy had shown. "Could he be some kind of Ultimate One?" If he could be something like the Alien God, then...

Caster shook her head again. "No, but from the accounts he told me, they might as well have the potential to devastate entire worlds. Even a single one has the capacity to decimate a planet's population on a surface-wide scale."

The other two recoiled. For such a species to even exist, let alone be present in their world, Alaya or even Gaia would have had to have been triggered long before the time they had become aware of him, or during the battle with Flauros, whose level of power should have made him a prime target for the Counter Force as well.

Just what was going on?

"Does this alien race happen to have a name?" Pepe asked, which earned him a nod from Caster.

"The ragazzo referred to the species as Saiyans."


Later…

A loud growl rang out in the infirmary, drawing Romani away from examining one of the other patients, his attention drawn to the source of the sound, which was none other than Gohan's bed. Some of the other staff heard it as well and were drawn to the boy with varying degrees of curiosity and unnerved surprise.

"Hungry..." Gohan groaned weakly, his rumbling stomach overtaking the exhaustion of his body, or just making it worse. "Food..."

An awkward chuckle escaped from Romani, amazed that the boy already had an appetite after only waking up. "Just, uh, be patient, Sūn-kun. I'm sure the staff will be here soon with your meals."

"Hai..." Gohan murmured softly in Japanese, albeit unintentionally. Then his mind wandered, remembering recent events and his purpose in this world. "I need a Senzu…"

"Sūn-kun!" He heard Mash call his name and perked up a little in relief as she entered the infirmary alongside Caster and another person. She trotted over to his cot, carrying a bag with what could only be his supply of Senzu, which fortunately was still plentiful. "Uh, here, Sūn-kun. Is this what you wanted?"

"Yes," Gohan croaked as he gathered some strength to sit up, only to have the other person who had accompanied Mash and Caster press him down with a hand on his chest.

"Easy there, boya," he said in a pacifying tone. He quickly ran his eyes over the young man, studying him closely. Seeing him in such a state, infirmed and vulnerable, he almost found it hard to believe that this was the one who had killed Lev/Flauros. "You'll worry Mash-chan silly if you push yourself."

Gohan didn't fight against the man, flicking his eyes at Mash who was presenting the bag to him. "Open it."

Mash obeyed, seeing no reason not to since she and Pepe had checked the bag beforehand and found, "Um, is this what you asked for, Sūn-kun?" When she took her first look at what was inside, she noticed that it was stuffed to the brim with what looked like lima beans. Ordinary, run-of-the-mill lima beans. "Are you going to eat this?" Was this just supposed to be a snack? Surely the robot cooks could come up with something tastier and healthier. Not that lima beans were any less nutritious, but just having them alone and uncooked was bad for the potential lectin content.

Gohan nodded numbly. "Put one in my mouth," he said.

"Uh," Mash fidgeted, thrown off by the request and reluctant to feed a patient without permission from the doctor, who knew better than she did when to do so. "L-Let me ask the doctor first."

"It should be fine, Mash," Romani called over to them. "Just make sure he doesn't eat too much and it'll be safe." Normally, he wouldn't have allowed a patient to eat so soon after waking because of the risk of complications, but from Gohan's recent scans, he was at least stable. Liquid food would have been preferable, as chewing would undoubtedly prove difficult, but something that could just as easily be chewed and digested was acceptable.

Hearing this, the girl looked between the bag and Gohan, still unsure. Caster was quiet as she watched, suspecting something afoot when she received the explanation that the boy had specifically asked for the bag of beans and not one of his capsules, like the one that contained an entire clinic. Pepe was the same, having picked up a rather strange vibe when he first saw the seemingly innocuous legumes.

"Just one, Kyrielight-san," Gohan asked weakly. "Those beans should be fine. Something... for me to munch on." He felt bad about lying, but if he could show them the wondrous properties of the senzu beans, then a little white lie couldn't hurt.

After deliberating in silence, she relented with a wordless nod. She walked over to the nearest table and placed the bag on it in case the contents spilled. Next, she unfurled the drawstring to open the lip, revealing the same lima beans she had discovered in Gohan's room. She carefully plucked one per the young man's request, holding it between her thumb and forefinger.

"Um," Mash fidgeted again, chiding herself that she should have put on gloves first when handling food that she was going to give to someone else, especially a patient, but Gohan assured her that it was okay. "Alright, Sūn-kun, should... should I..."

"Just put it in my mouth," Gohan instructed her, not realizing how awkward that sounded until the girl came over to him, her cheeks a little flushed as she brought the bean to his lips and put it in after they parted.

He began to chew, wincing slightly when his jaw ached a bit from the blows he'd received from Flauros, but he knew that none of that would matter in a few seconds. With an audible gulp, he waited, and soon he perked up as his body began to recover in the span of a moment. His muscles rippled, the color returning to his features as all the bruises and scrapes he had suffered healed. He jumped to his feet, much to the wide-eyed disbelief of everyone present.

"Whew!" Gohan breathed in relief, his ruined threads replaced by a white patient's gown, then went about removing all of the tubes and wires still attached to him while adding, "Much better." Now standing on the bed, he did a few stretches, raising his arms over his head and grabbing each of his elbows to lean his torso from side-to-side. As he did this, everyone else could only gape at him, completely dumbfounded, their eyes wider than dinner plates and almost bulging out of their sockets.

Romani, being the resident physician, dropped the tablet he was tapping on after he went numb from the shock, his brain coming to a crashing halt at what he had just witnessed, with the patient he was currently attending to, who was one of the surviving Masters, comically sharing his reaction.

They were all silent as Gohan simply did his stretches, counting down to a set before he noticed their gawking faces still drawn to him. He swept his own eyes over the room and the people present, doing the only thing he could after the gravity of what had just happened hit him.

He let out a hearty laugh, scratching the back of his head before asking, "So, uh, how about some food?"

Everyone else, including those on their respective beds, fell to the floor hard enough to shake the place, having finally reached the absolute limit of what they could take up to that point.


Present…

Kirschtaria didn't know where to even start, his expression perfectly emulating and encapsulating the sheer, unprecedented shock that every single one of those people had shared that day.

"And, that's where it started," Gohan finished with a shrug. There was a long stretch of silence that was longer than what was comfortable, before the true director of Chaldea hung his head to massage a throbbing ache.

"Started?" Kirschtaria asked in an exhausted tone after getting his bearings, for he just knew from here on out he was going to wish that he had remained comatose.

Gohan shrugged again, avoiding eye contact. "My full integration into Chaldea."

"Full integration?" Kirschtaria repeated curiously. "Oh, right. Your... initiation was hardly official."

Gohan blinked. "How do you know that?"

Kirschtaria sighed, seeing no reason to be vague about the matter. "A letter from the Wizard Marshal, which I received over a year ago, informed me of your arrival."

"I see," Gohan understood. "Professor Schweinorg." Under the circumstances, he decided to address the older wizard in a more formal manner. Mainly because of what he had learned about the man's position and reputation, but also to make a good impression on who he was told was the actual director, Kirschtaria Wodime, who was technically his superior. He had learned his lesson from the first day and did not wish to have a repeat of it. "Well, like I said, things didn't exactly end there."

"I don't doubt that," Kirschtaria relented with a sigh. "Please continue, but I will be expecting a full report," which he would have to keep under lock and key against the Association's wishes, "as well as statements from all those present for the record." As honest as the boy seemed, he wasn't about to take his words at face value, despite Pepe being also present to corroborate certain details.

"Right," Gohan understood. "So…"


The Infirmary: Four and a half days ago…

"Wait, wait!" Romani, who had recovered and collected himself, hastily called to the boy who was still standing on the bed. "Just wait! I-" He swallowed some of the spittle that had almost spilled out, sweating profusely from what he had just witnessed, "-I need-I need to examine you first!"

Gohan looked at the manic doctor, a hint of guilt creeping in from what he could guess was his mental and emotional state being thrown into disarray. With a nod, he sat back down on the bed and shimmied over the edge in Romani's direction. Tablet in tow, the redhead went over the boy's readings again after reconnecting him to the machines, double-checking, even triple-checking to make sure he was in perfect health. Even the red welts around his arms had faded, as if they had never been there when the bandages were removed by him. "M-Maybe I should take a blood sample," he stammered, partly in denial at the results he was seeing, "urine, stool-"

"Enough with the pussyfooting, Romani!" Da Vinci cut him off, stepping between them and excitedly disconnecting the boy. "Listen to me, ragazzo, you must come with me to my workshop immediately! Bring those capsules and those wonderful little beans you have! There is so much for me to study, to analyze, to dissect-!"

"Dissect?" Gohan repeated that part with a furrowed brow, staring at the woman with some trepidation.

"Uh-I mean to talk to you!" Da Vinci corrected herself in vain, taking the boy's hand with both of hers, her eyes gleaming with a mad curiosity that had not been aroused in a long time. "There is still much to be desired of what we were discussing only a day ago."

"No, Caster!" Romani came to the boy's rescue just as quickly, grabbing his other hand. "I can't just discharge him like this!"

"Well, as anyone here can clearly see, Mr. Sūn Wùfàn is completely healed," Da Vinci argued, pulling the boy toward her. "A clean bill of health, as they say."

"And I say as the actual medical professional among us," Romani argued back, pulling the boy to him. "He should stay for further examination!"

"He goes!"

"He stays!"

"He goes!"

"He stays!"

"He goes!"

"Stop!" Mash finally intervened, and a relieved Gohan silently thanked her for putting an end to the ridiculous tug-of-war between the two. "Please, both of you, let Sūn-kun go!"

"But-"

"But-"

Seeing that neither of them would relent, a thoroughly annoyed Mash took a sharp breath and shouted, "I said let Sūn-kun go!"

Both Romani and Leonardo flinched, came to their senses and released the boy. Gohan, who had been silent during the whole debacle, could only sit back on the bed to catch his breath. Mash came up beside him and took his hand with both of her own, and before the boy could assume a repeat of that fiasco, she asked him, "Are you... really okay now, Sūn-kun?"

Gohan, seeing that she wasn't about to treat him like a human ragdoll, relaxed and answered, "Yeah. I'm perfectly fine now, Kyrielight-san. Uh, and sorry."

Mash's brows shot up. "Eh? Wh-Why?"

"I, uh, kind of lied to you back there about wanting to eat something. Well, not completely," Gohan confessed, rubbing the back of his head and looking away. "I just wanted to get back to full health quickly so I could maybe help out around here and make room for anyone else who might need medical attention."

Mash, Romani, Caster and Pepe were surprised by this reason. "Oh, uh, y-you don't really need to apologize for that, Sūn-kun. If-if it was just to get better-uh, by the way. H-How did you get better so quickly?"

Gohan stood up and walked over to the table. He picked up the still open bag of Senzu and showed its contents to those who came near. "I got better because of these."

Romani, just as curious as Caster, whom he held back with one arm to prevent her from snatching the bag, leaned in close to examine the mysterious legumes and asked, "What exactly are those? Some kind of drug?"

Gohan paused. "Uh, I don't think so," he answered slowly. "We...I...never really saw senzu beans in that way in all the times I've used them. They're naturally grown, after all."

Romani was about to say more when he was finally overpowered by the much stronger Servant, who pushed him aside and leaned into Gohan's personal space. "Naturally grown?! Please, you have to tell me where!"

"Alright, alright," a voice cut through the tension. "Enough." It was Pepe, who had finally decided to throw his hat into the ring. With a sigh, he continued, "Look, let's just take things slow for now." He pushed down the finger that Caster was raising halfway and added, "And I mean really slow." He then turned his head to the still seated Gohan and said to him, "Well, boya, I hope you're fully prepared to reap what you've just sowed. And I'm not talking about those beans."

Gohan opened his mouth to answer before pausing in regret, his head hanging in thought. "I... didn't intend for any of this."

"I'm sure you didn't," Pepe admitted. "But given the current circumstances, we're all still a little on edge. Thanks in no small part to some very recent events that I'm sure you're aware of."

Gohan could only give an awkward chuckle, knowing that he was a part of those very recent events. "Yeah, I figured."

Pepe looked at the boy curtly before a small smile appeared on his lips. "Well, I can't say that we aren't grateful for what you did. I'm sure we'd all be a smoking pile of ashes if you hadn't come along."

"Uh, y-you're welcome," Gohan said in acceptance.

Pepe went on, "I mean, if I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. You obliterating Flauros like that? I mean, there's gotta be something of him left lying around."

"Oh, uh," Gohan cupped his chin in thought. "There shouldn't be, since I made sure to push him all the way to the sun."

"...What."

It was only at that very instant that Gohan realized what he had just said and how he had said it.


Present…

Kirschtaria really, really didn't know where to even begin—again, his jaw pushing past his lap, the bed, and the floor as he could only stare silently at the now flushed boy.

"Yeah, I really need to work on being more tactful," Gohan conceded in an apologetic voice.