141: Unsettling Implications

As we hurtle through the air, with me being carried by Nobunaga, who's surfing through the air on one of her rifles, I can't help a certain thought-

Man, the anti-nausea properties of this Mystic Code are something else, huh?

"Subaru, I'm detecting another Servant below us. Wanna check it out?" Nobunaga asks as we suddenly slow down and my heart leaps into my throat. "Subaru?"

"Ah, um…" My brain is still a little scrambled, but I manage to connect the necessary neurons. "I don't see why nooOOOOAAAHH!" My voice devolves into screaming as we plunge like a falling star.

"Wait, where are you-?" Elizabeth, dutifully flapping behind us, doesn't even have a chance to finish her question before she's out of earshot.

What greets our sight is a hastily constructed market stall on an island barely large enough to be called a rock.

"Ah! Wait, wait, I'm not- no, it's fine! This perfectly normal, not at all suspicious, mushroom selling stall, iiiiis-" A girl with green hair, wearing a baggy purple cloak and a mask covering her eyes scrambles to drop an unfinished sign in front of the stall - only to freeze as her gaze locks onto me. "-Geh. What are you doing here?"

I blink once at the hostility in the stranger's voice, but before I can question it-

"We're here to press-gang you! Come fight Hercules with us!" Nobunaga initiates a negotiation with her usual subtlety.

"Gaaaaah! No way, no way!" She screams, pointing past Nobunaga, at me, "I knew iiit! 'Observe the new Beast', he says - you're just trying to kill me, shitty Purge King! But, but-!" With a single gesture, a comically large mushroom sprouts from the ground between us. "Take a look at this! I laced this baby with Hydra Venom! I still don't have a clue about your legend, but-!"

"Wait, wait, wait, take at least ten steps back!" I shout. "First, I don't even know you, second, I'm a living human, and third, Nobbu was just joking! You don't have to get dragged into this, we'll leave you alone!"

"...Eh?" The girl pauses in her hysterical screeching, and her arm, formerly pointing in accusation, falls to her side. She draws closer, examining me with a face that suggests squinting eyes behind the mask. "No, wait, now that I look at you, what's with those soulful eyes of yours? And you are a living human…" She comes closer and closer, and Nobunaga generates a rifle as a measure of caution, pointing it at the strange girl. But she draws even closer, heedless of the threat, focusing on me with complete concentration as an earthy perfume starts to assail my nostrils - and then her face lunges towards my cheek. "This taste… is the taste of a-"

BLAM!

She's only saved from Nobunaga's bullet because Rem's tiny fist, springing from her perch on my shoulder in fury, intercepts her attempt to lick my cheek.

"Ack! It was a joke, a joke!" The girl screams, diving behind a wall of mushrooms. "I get it, you were telling the truth, it was the taste of someone telling the truth!"

"I don't care if it's a Jojo reference, you can't just lick someone! That's sexual harassment!" I scream.

"Then it's a service~!" She pops back up over the mushroom wall with a facial expression that suggests a wink.

"Subaru-kun, Rem thinks this one may be a lost cause…"

"I mean, that's pretty obvious, but I feel like maybe I should learn about what she was shouting about just now…" I respond.

"...You really don't know who I am?" She tilts her head in confusion. "Did you inhale some spores? No, actually if you're a living human…"

Something like understanding arrives on her face - great, that makes one of us - and then it quickly morphs into some kind of ecstatic revelation. "By the gods, it's Purge King Lily."

What the fuck is she talking about?

"Heh… Hehehehe! This'll be great~!" Swiftly, she pulls another oddly colored mushroom from her pocket. "Alright, do as I say and I'll give you the hydra venom mushroom."

That would be really useful, but- "No, I really feel like I should ask a few more questions-!"

"Mushrooms are really great - they can record all kinds of information in their mycelium networks! Soo~oo, this one can actually record audio and video!" She explains.

"That wasn't my question, but isn't that a stretch-!?"

With a boldness unsurpassed, she thrusts the mushroom in my face. "So I need you to help me record as many embarrassing lines as possible so I can bully the Purge King! Now, repeat after me, 'Hi, I am the Purge King! Rainbows make me cry!'"

"So that explains where you got the giant mushroom, but what happened to that girl afterward?" Jason asks, eyes still locked on the completely out-of-place eyesore.

"Locusta, I think," I say. "A few of the lines focused on how a 'Lady Nero' should trust her more than the Purge King. As for what happened… we left her there. She screamed the moment we suggested actually bringing her to the fight, something about Hercules seeing through her Presence Concealment."

"Mmm… I don't think he's got Presence Detection, so it was probably just a matter of Luck," Jason mutters.

"Luck again, huh…" I mutter. "Well, if that's all, I've gotta check in with the Director."

"...Sure," He mutters, his eyes still not leaving the cartoonish fungus growing on his ship's once-pristine deck.

Mash is standing at the front of the ship, gazing at the oncoming waves, but as I make my way across the deck, I find my gaze drawn to another standing to one side. A cat-eared Archer I know only through the memories I inherited from Ahab. "You're… Natsuki Subaru, was it?"

"Yeah. You must be Atalanta, right? It's a real relief to-" I start.

"I don't really care how you feel about it," She says matter-of-factly. I guess Jason did say she was the standoffish type. "...I have some memory of the last singularity Chaldea visited, but past a certain point I abandoned my ability to think. There are some things I'd like to confirm with you, but it can wait until later."

"Sure thing," I say, giving her a thumbs up. "Glad to have you aboard!"

But with that brief conversation over, I make my way past Benkei, David, and Grimr, giving each a perfunctory greeting before I finally reach Mash.

"Yo, Mash-tan!" I call out. "Can I borrow your communicator? I've gotta give the Director my report." Mine got thrown in the ocean by Rigel, after all.

She turns towards me with a bit of shock on her face. "Oh, Senpai. You're back." Was the ocean ahead of the ship so interesting that you missed the arrival of the giant mushroom!? "Um, go ahead." Slipping the small, wristband-like communicator off, she hands it over, and I get into it as fast as possible.

"Hey, Director, I'm back, so go ahead and remind me of something so we can do the usual bit," as usual, I go full boke from the very start of the conversation.

"...I guess if you're in such high spirits, I can more or less guess at your level of success," Olga Marie responds with a sigh as she appears in front of me.

"It got really weird, and I'm still not sure where Blackbeard got a chainsaw or where he wandered off to after everything was over, but both Elizabeth and the Grail have been successfully retrieved!" I reply with a thumbs up. "Also we got a big mushroom full of hydra venom!"

"...Sure, why not," She doesn't rise to the bait. "As far as the plans for fighting Hercules go, we've more or less got the Chaldean contingent figured out, so we'll rayshift the best Servants for the job once you've arrived at the leyline. That said, there's been one development you weren't made aware of - thawing Wodime was deemed too dangerous at the moment, so we opted to try the procedure with Beryl Gut first."

"Beyl Gut…" I've heard his name a couple of times, but most of the staff doesn't really talk about him. "What kind of guy is he, Director? I'd like to know what to expect of this Senpai of mine…"

"Subaru, don't be mistaken. You've got seniority, not Beryl. For all his time in Chaldea, he has no experience as a Master or in Singularities outside of the simulator," The Director says, crossing her arms. "You're in charge, so you'd better be ready to lay down the law. Beryl might seem easygoing, but that only makes him more of a problem. If you don't constrain every ounce of his free will and make every decision for him, he's going to cause you trouble."

What a completely tyrannical analysis! As expected of Sensei! "Yeah, I got it, I'll keep him from slacking off somehow…"

"That's not what I'm saying," The Director says. "I'm saying that-"

A noise rings out from ahead of the ship. A familiar, distorted roar, echoing across the placid sea.

Quickly, with swiftly increasing volume, I become aware of the sound of churning water as something massive jets across the waves towards the boat.

"Oh, come on!" Yells Nobunaga as she sprints up from below deck, drawing a gun. "How many times do I have to teach you this lesson, old man!?"

Sure enough, the black-scaled form erupting from the surf in a giant leap towards the ship's deck can be none other than Dagon - but, as he arcs through the air, his form changes, melting away as a smaller, human frame takes its place.

BLAMBLAMBLAM!

A three gun salvo from Nobunaga is deflected, a gust of wind knocking the shots astray. As the wind rushes by me, a palpable sense of unease falls over me.

"Woah there! Friendly, friendly!" The dark-haired man says as he lands on the deck. "My bad, I just couldn't wait to see Mash, so I rushed over."

"Ugh…" Nobunaga grimaces, muttering so low I can just barely hear her. "It's Beryl after all. And, this curse-laden wind… god, that's awful. What did I do to deserve witnessing a duo like this…?"

Beryl Gut stretches, cracking his neck, and turns towards Mash, ignoring everyone else as he looks her up and down. "Hmmm… it doesn't seem like you got hurt during any of the stuff I missed. That's great, Mash. I'm really glad."

"...Beryl Gut," Mash's replies. "As you can see, I'm healthy, so please greet Senpai as well."

"Hm? Ah, right… sorry, I was just talking to that clone of yours, so it had me feeling like we'd already met!" He laughs and rubs the back of his head lackadaisically. "Name's Beryl. I've got the feeling that we're gonna get along, so I'll be in your care."

…I've heard a few worrying implications about this guy, but- "Yeah. It's good to meet you, Beryl-san."

"Hey, please, drop the honorifics. You'll make me feel old." He says. "And can you do something about your Archer there glaring daggers at me?"

I turn towards Nobunaga with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know what he's talking about," She gives an exaggerated shrug. "My eyes just look like this."

{Listen, Nobbu, if there's a problem, then-} I start to say, but I get cut off.

"We're pulling up now, so everyone get ready to disembark." Jason calls from the wheel.

And so, we arrive at another Leyline island for one final round of preparations.