Hi there. I'd like to start by saying that this is my first time writing FanFiction.
I was inspired by some of the other fanfics I read to try my own hand at it. I've seen a lot of FGO stories especially as of late, don't know the context behind why or what the whole Anti-NTR business is about, but it made me want to throw my own hat into the ring, so to speak, because I'm a big fan of the franchise too. Unlike most people, it was actually my first exposure to the world of Fate, so Ritsuka's always been my favorite protag. Honestly, it was kind of rough being a Ritsuka fan before the Lostbelts hit NA (imo) and he started getting much more character development and acknowledged feats, so it makes me happy to see him/her being so much more prominent now. No shade towards Shirou or anything, he's cool too. Even if I genuinely don't understand how strong he is because not even his own fans seem to agree on it.
Anyhow, since I'm new to all this, please let me know if I'm making mistakes anywhere. This story is also crossposted to QQ. Thanks in advance.
Chapter 1 - A Change of Scenery
It all started, as some of Ritsuka Fujimaru's more… covert misadventures tended to, on Guy's Night.
"It's just you and me, Mastah!" cried Astolfo, grinning from ear to ear and cracking his knuckles playfully. "But I'm no longer the same Astolfo you once dominated! You'll be screaming my name by the time this is over!"
What was Guy's Night, you might ask?
Well, it was a bastion for Ritsuka, his one source undeniable solace in the absolute madhouse known as Novum Chaldea. Sweet, sweet stress relief.
"Yeah?" Ritsuka replied, a wild grin on his face. "That's what you said last time, and I remember right, the only one screaming was you!"
It was something that the teenager responsible for saving the world more times than any other hero in his timeline's history, combined, had come to hold dear to his heart. Something he refused to compromise on unless absolutely necessary.
"Damn, do they even hear themselves?" muttered Kadoc Zemlupus, sitting on one of the many couches in the room and slapping a palm onto his face in exasperation. He still had no idea how his life had ended up like this, even though it had been literally months. "The girls would fucking lynch Astolfo if they ever caught wind of this without context."
"…There were a lot of close calls in the old days, before we got more Servants capable of shoring up security." admitted EMIYA, his voice tinted with fond nostalgia, as he continued whipping up some snacks with the ease of a practiced veteran in the small kitchen built into the corner of the room. "Master's… a little on the denser side sometimes, and doesn't know how his words or actions could be taken. It's probably the source of his, er…"
"Lady troubles?" finished Sigurd, a small smile playing on his lips as he adjusted his glasses with a finger. "I agree. Master has a way of being romantic without even meaning to, a quality that has caused him no small amount of duress at the hands of his admirers."
"Oooh yeah, you bet!" said Blackbeard, shooting a double thumbs up from where he was lazing on a recliner. "Honestly, it's a treat seeing Mastah at work. Never gets old! I used to be a little jealous when I first came here at how easily he could pick up chicks, but honestly? Now I'm just impressed. You can't help but respect a guy after he rizzes up two Beasts whose whole shtick is drowning people in Lust without even realizing it."
"…I know I read the reports, but I still can't believe he did that." said Kadoc, his eyes looking at something far away. "Hell, I literally saw them last week fighting over who gets to 'corrupt' him in the halls and I still can't believe it!"
"You get used to it." said EMIYA bluntly, shaking his head with a smile as he brought a platter bearing various different types of fried snacks. "Honestly, whenever an unmarried female Heroic Spirit is Summoned at this point we start developing countermeasures in case they eventually go off the deep end pining for Master."
"...Seriously?" asked Kadoc, incredulous. "Why would you even-"
"Kiyohime." replied EMIYA bluntly.
"Melusine." said Sigurd, vaguely haunted by an experience he clearly didn't want to share.
"Raikou." added Edward Teach, his huge grin showing just how amusing he found the topic of discussion.
"Yeah never mind, I see what you mean." he said, sighing and shaking his head. "Honestly, he should just fucking pick one and go steady. Then this mess would just evaporate and we'd get a little more peace around here."
All three Heroic Spirits stared at him, with faces set in stone, even the normally cheerful Blackbeard.
"W-What?" asked Kadoc, sweating slightly under their blank gaze.
EMIYA put a hand on his shoulder, an earnest look on his face as if he were a kind old uncle giving advice to the younger generation. "Zemlupus-san, if you value your life, never repeat that statement again outside the confines of this room. Not only is it naive, but it may very well lead to the destruction of the Human Order."
"You can't be serious." the Magus said, disbelief written on his face.
"Sir Kadoc, do you know who the last person to say something similar was?" asked Sigurd calmly. Too calmly.
"Who?"
"Diarmud." finished Blackbeard, his face grim. "That poor, poor bastard."
"Diarmud?" asked Kadoc quizzically. "Ritsuka said he wasn't in Chaldea back when we met the one summoned to Traum."
"Exactly."
"…Oh."
"Chaldea's in… a sort of cold war state right now, that's only kept from becoming something more violent by Master being 'neutral'." EMIYA admitted, coming back to the table with drinks. "If that were to… change, that careful balance disrupted somehow, then I don't even want to imagine the carnage that would erupt."
"I'm afraid it's only a matter of time though." said Sigurd, sighing. "Once Master's birthday comes up in a few months, the MDF (Master Defense Force) will have to work twice as hard as before to keep him… safe. I don't mind it, but I can only imagine that it would add to Ritsuka-kun's stress levels."
"What? Why?"
"Let the enlightened Blackbeard give you the deets, Kadoc." said Blackbeard, holding up a finger. "See, Mastah accidentally revealed why he wasn't actively looking for a girlfriend a few months back- because he wasn't 18 yet."
"What?!" hissed the grey-haired man. He felt like he'd been repeating that word a lot in the last few minutes, but that was freaking Chaldea for you- no matter how much shit you thought you got used to, there was always some other nonsense to drag you back in. He'd had a sinking feeling when Astolfo had left him and Holmes behind and rode off into the sunset back in Traum right after claiming he would take them to the Capital of the Righteous Realm, but it turns out his imagination hadn't been strong enough because that was probably the least tame thing he'd experienced after switching sides.
"Yeah, apparently Mastah's mother- his real mother - told him that he shouldn't touch any type of romance with a ten foot pole until he turned 18 under any circumstances."
"And those circumstances included the end of the fucking world?!"
"Yes." chorused the three Servants, almost as if they'd heard that exact same question being asked before.
"…You know what, I can respect that." said Kadoc finally, nodding his head. "A little crazy considering everything else he's done and been through, but that's fine I guess. Though I don't think that actually stopped anyone from lusting after him, but I guess it's another thing when they guy himself says he's open…"
Then another thought hit him.
"Hey wait a second", he continued, furrowing his brows. "didn't he fuck Kukulkan back in the South American Lostbelt to give her Mana? She never stops bragging about it, for crying out loud! How does that fit into all this?"
"That… didn't actually happen." said Sigurd, coughing into a fist to avoid showing his grin. "Master did technically transfer Mana to her, but that was through using his gloves. They're Mystic Codes designed with a couple of functions to help Master out in the field, but one of them is transferring Mana through physical contact."
"You mean-"
"They just held hands." said EMIYA, chuckling. "Didn't stop that goddess from trying to get a leg up on the competition by saying they had a Mana Transfer session without context. The others eventually calmed down after they learned the truth… only to get even more furious once they realized the two of them had participated in, and I quote, 'unprotected handholding'."
"This is actually some kind of bad comedy." muttered Kadoc, just completely done with this topic.
"Oh yeah, Mastah's got that Harem Protagonist Skill locked in, and it's glorious." laughed Blackbeard. "My Bro put all his Stat points into Charisma and never looked back."
On that, they could all agree. A comfortable silence filled the air between them for a few seconds, letting them hear the sounds of Ritsuka and Astolfo going at it, until the former finally let out a victorious shout.
"Ha! Gotcha!"
"NOOO!" cried Astolfo, dropping his controller on the floor and falling to his knees dramatically. "My King, why did you betray meeeeee?!"
"In your face, mongrel!" cheered Ritsuka as the image of Gilgamesh on the big screen performed his victory pose and let out a peal of booming laughter. "Man, King Gilgamesh is the best character in Servant Smash!"
"No! No he isn't!" cried Astolfo. "He's specifically supposed to be weak!"
As it happened, back during the Incident where Humanity was Incinerated, their Master had mentioned to Edison in passing that he missed his videogames sometimes, having not brought any of his consoles with him to Chaldea. That ended up galvanizing the lion-headed Servant, who saw a prime opportunity to prove himself more useful than Tesla, to end up making his own for Ritsuka's entertainment. One thing led to another, Noble Phantasms were exchanged and hallways were destroyed, but at the end of it all Chaldea ended up with its own Game Development Department. Their activities only continued thanks to the addition of other Servants who also got into gaming, such as Tomoe Gozen or the Valkyries, and now they actually had a sizable catalogue of Games in their archive.
One of these, of course, was Servant Smash. Based on Games like Tekken and Mortal Kombat, it was a fighting game where the full roster of characters were the Heroic Spirits of Chaldea themselves. Of course, not all of them were in the game as many weren't interested and some had abilities that were too difficult to translate into it while maintaining any kind of balance, but there was still a sizable chunk.
Gilgamesh wasn't supposed to be one of them, but the King of Heroes had one day shown up and demanded his inclusion into the character lineup. The Devs agreed, but decided to make him one of the worst Servants in the entire game as a way to get back at him. Not in a way that would be plainly obvious of course, but rather by making everything in his kit except for his actual moves horrible. Movement speed, recovery, and so on- all of them were so bad that they dragged him down even though his moves and his Super Phantasm were actually fairly decent.
When the King of Heroes found out about this, the only thing he did was smirk. Nobody understood why at the time, at least until one Guy's Night when they held a tournament and Ritsuka came out with the reveal that he was a steadfast Gilgamesh Main, then proceeding to utterly decimate the competition and win the whole thing. The King of Babylon was so pleased with his citizen's showing that he actually gave him a space in the Gate of Babylon to use for himself, if only for storing essential items. He'd also been unbearable for quite a while after, at least until Merlin managed to snag the limited edition Brave Knight Ritsuka Plush from (of which there was only one) from right under his nose.
…It should be said that while the male Servants didn't fight for a place in Ritsuka's bed like their counterparts of the fairer sex, that didn't mean they lacked their own conflicts. The Last Master of Humanity truly was beloved by those who walked the halls of Chaldea, regardless of race, gender or alignment- though whether they all would be willing to admit it or not was a completely different story.
Anyways, their match concluded, Astolfo and Ritsuka joined up with the other guys, one the picture of defeat and one with a radiant smile on his face. Blackbeard clapped his hands enthusiastically and got out of his recliner.
"And it looks like you're the tournament Champ this time too, Mastah!" he said, grinning. "Again."
"Hey, I'm just good at this Servant Smash. I don't think I've ever come close to beating Waver-sensei at any RTS game." the Master replied, frowning a bit at the memory of his repeated losses.
"Master, you do realize that isn't exactly a failure on your part right?" asked EMIYA dryly, even as he handed Ritsuka a plate of food. "I don't think there's anyone who would honestly fault you for not being able to beat an infamous Tactician at a Strategy game."
"What he said." continued Kadoc, looking at the younger boy with half-lidded eyes. "Don't compare yourself to Servants and feel inadequate, it looks ridiculous."
…It might have been extremely hypocritical coming from him of all people, but at least the Magus had the decency to use other humans as a benchmark and develop an inferiority complex. Ritsuka compared himself to literal legends and thought he had no talent.
"If you say so…" replied Ritsuka, clearly of the opinion that they were just trying to make him feel better.
"Well, enough about that! Since you're the winner, it's time for your prize!" said Blackbeard, causing the other three Servants to look at him curiously.
"A prize?" asked Sigurd quizzically. "We didn't plan for a prize yesterday."
"…Teach." asked EMIYA, his eyes narrowing. "What did you do?"
The infamous pirate said nothing, instead walking over to pull out a stereotypical pirate chest from underneath one of the sofas. "Here you go, Mastah! Open it up!"
Ritsuka curiously obliged, unlocking the latch and raising the lid to reveal a blinding golden glow that made everyone in the room flinch as they realized exactly what it was.
"He's… not supposed to have that, is he?" asked Kadoc, having stood up suddenly in shock after seeing what the 'prize' was. "I don't think there's any timeline in which Da Vinci or Sion would trust him with a Holy Grail."
"Indeed…" said Sigurd, glasses flashing. "Where did you get that, Rider?"
"I stole it!" the man said happily, shooting him double finger guns. "Saw Amakusa eying it a couple days back, so I had to do something about it."
"And your great idea to protect it was to steal it first?" asked Kadoc.
"Well duh! I'm a pirate, I don't really know what else you expected there."
"Yeah, that makes sense!" chimed in Astolfo, who had finally gotten over sulking about his ignoble defeat, causing the other men to groan.
Meanwhile, Ritsuka had taken out the Holy Grail that had been within the chest and brought it over to the table.
"I mean, I guess it's fine if you're giving it back to me Blackbeard." he said, an admonishing look on his face. "But please don't take any of the Holy Grails in the future. If you see anyone trying to take them, then just let someone else know. These things are dangerous even when you're not actively trying to lose them. Remember Vegas?"
"All right…" groaned Blackbeard, rolling his eyes, though his smile didn't fade.
"Hey, doesn't that Holy Grail look a little weird, or is it just me?" asked Kadoc, peering more closely at the golden cup in Ritsuka's hands.
"The magical power inside is much larger than a normal one." confirmed Sigurd, his Crystallized Wisdom letting him know what the difference was pretty quickly. "Where did this one come from, I wonder?"
"…I'm not sure." admitted Ritsuka, rubbing his black hair sheepishly. "We've recovered so many of these that I can't really tell anymore. They all kind of just blur together."
"That's fair." agreed EMIYA readily. They really did have way too many of those things. It was kind of hilarious how Magi had fought pointless battles to the death over a single Holy Grail, while Ritsuka stumbled his way into owning at least 30 of them without even meaning to. Sure, they technically belonged to Chaldea, but everyone knew that if Ritsuka actually asked to use one the Director would've let him. The man doted on Ritsuka and Mash as if they were his own kids.
"Well, it doesn't matter in the end. I'll go return them to Da Vinci-chan on my way back to my room." the Master said, before grabbing a chicken puff off the platter and getting to work on it.
They all agreed that it was probably for the best… even Blackbeard, the one who had stolen it in the first place.
"But man, this is great. I know I've told you guys this many times already, but thanks for arranging these for me." Rituska continued, speaking between bites of his snack. "Seriously, Guy's Night has always been so much fun."
Guy's Night was, essentially, exactly what it sounded like. Each Friday night, a small number of Chaldea's male Servants and even staff would take Ritsuka to relax and have fun, while the others made sure that no one else disturbed him. It was something akin to a forced vacation, where the young man didn't have to worry about the fate of the world or whatever madness was being cooked up in the Singularities. To some capacity, it had always existed in Chaldea since the Grand Order had first begun, spearheaded by Romani to help Ritsuka cope with the sudden expectations that had been thrust on him, but it had become something official after more conflicts started breaking out between the female Servants. It wasn't like Ritsuka hated spending time with them, quite the opposite in fact, but everyone could see that it wasn't healthy for him to have to dedicate time to stopping conflicts between Heroic Spirits when he was supposed to be taking a break. And so, Guy's night was officially established.
…There may have of course been a few ulterior motives, considering every Servant liked spending time with Ritsuka regardless of romantic interest, but that was neither here nor there.
Of course, it hadn't gone smoothly at first. The more clingy Servants were a nightmare to corral without Ritsuka finding out about it, because the kind teenager wouldn't mind spending time with anyone who asked unless he had a serious obligation, and chaos had erupted on multiple occasions for different, equally silly reasons- such as one time when Cu had questioned Ritsuka about what kind of woman he liked without realizing that they were being spied on, and subsequently caused a ground invasion.
But as they got more and more Servants allied to the cause like Merlin and Gilgamesh who were capable of enhancing their security measures, the process started to become a lot more streamlined, though not for a lack of trying on the part of their 'enemies'. It was only a stroke of luck that most of the more powerful Servants like Scathatch were less hysterical and aggressive than the likes of Elizabeth. Although maybe that was because the Witch of Dun Scaith was their collective Master's most prominent teacher in almost every combat discipline and thus spent a lot of time with him anyways. Regardless, they managed to settle on a routine. Every week, a small group would be selected and they would come up with a way to help Ritsuka relax, whether it was taking him somewhere cool in the Simulator or merely a gaming session like the one going on currently. This week's group was composed of Astolfo, Blackbeard, EMIYA, Sigurd and Kadoc, and they'd decided to go for something much simpler this time since Ritsuka had been dealing with some Micro Singularities and probably didn't have the energy to move around too much.
"It's no problem, Master." said EMIYA fondly. The tanned archer was one of Ritsuka's earliest Servants right after Singularity F, and honestly felt like he would actually shake Alaya's hand if he ever had the chance for allowing him to be summoned in the current timeline. It may have been an absolute shitshow thanks to the machinations of Goetia and the Alien God, but the Counter Guardian was paradoxically more at peace than he'd ever been. Ritsuka was hands down the best Master he'd ever had- maybe even the best Master, period. And while the boy looked up to him as a brother, Archer couldn't ignore the fact that he looked exactly like his and Rin's child in one of the timelines he'd been summoned to before… "You always run yourself ragged, you deserve to take a break from time to time."
"Ha, if you say so!" laughed Ritsuka, before letting out a deep breath as his expression became more serious. "It's just that there's always so much to do, it feels like I can't stop without making it pile up. I thought it was over with Goetia, but then there were those Pseudo-Singularities and after that Chaldea got invaded…"
Kadoc flinched at that, even though Ritsuka hadn't meant it as a jab toward him.
"Sometimes I wish I could just go far away from here. Somewhere where I don't need to kill people and destroy entire worlds just to save my own. A place where I can have a more 'classical' kind of adventure, ya know?" he finished, smiling a little sadly as he gave a glimpse of his true feelings.
Astolfo, always the one to try and cheer people up (an inadvertently cause chaos) was about to speak up, when the Holy Grail on the table suddenly erupted with golden light. Everyone immediately switched to high alert, ready for the worst.
Only…
They hadn't apparently been ready enough.
Because the chair where Ritsuka was sitting was now empty. He was gone, and the four Servants in the room could feel their Bond with their Master suddenly grow weaker by an order of magnitudes.
Of course, that was when the alarms started to go off, as Novum Chaldea went into lockdown.
The first thing Ritsuka Fujimaru felt was the uncomfortable feeling of sand on his face, while the second thing was the sensation of the waves lapping at his ankles. The third and most prominent, was just how strange he felt. Something was up with his Circuits, and he could barely feel his connection to the others.
'This must be another Singularity.' he thought to himself, nearly sighing into the sand with exhaustion. 'I should've known better than to say something like that so close to Grail…'
Well, nothing he could do about it now. This wasn't his first rodeo, and so the Master of Chaldea knew that the first thing to do was take stock of the situation and then try to find-
"Hey, are you ok?!" called a male voice, interrupting his thoughts, and Ritsuka could hear the sound of hurried footsteps as someone ran towards him across the sand.
Ritsuka immediately snapped to attention, his slight disorientation pushed to the back of his mind at the realization that he wasn't alone. On multiple occasions, he'd been ambushed not long after Rayshifting into a Singularity or entering a Lostbelt, and it was that experience that caused him to shift into a state of high alert. He got up off the ground, wiping his face with his hands, and looked at the person who had called out to him.
He looked like… a researcher of some kind?
The man was tall and fairly muscular, with tan skin and black hair tied into a bun. He had a lab coat thrown over his bare chest and wore baggy gray pants, a rather unique style Ritsuka surprisingly hadn't encountered before. Dark eyes colored with both curiosity and worry peered at him from behind green-rimmed glasses.
"Whew, you look healthy enough. That's great!." he said, before flashing him a smile. "The name's Kukui. You need any help, cousin?"
And uh, that's game. What do you guys think? Any suggestions?
I didn't want to throw angst into the story unnecessarily when it's meant to be on the more lighthearted side, so I didn't do the whole 'Ritsuka escapes the Chaldea that betrayed him' bit. I also kept the timeline kind of ambiguous, but think of it as between LB7 and Ordeal Call, because it'll be a cold day in hell before I give up my Avengers. I kind of just want people to have fun with me on this story, if it makes sense. Sorry if that sounds embarrassing.
As for why I chose Alola, it's because the region is canonically the place in the Pokémon world where the barriers of space and time might actually be the weakest considering they regularly have otherworldly incursions. But don't you worry, Ritsuka will travel far and wide.
That's all for now, thanks.