Apologies about the delay, my health has been rather poor lately and that got in the way of things. I'm getting better now, though.

006 - Unraveling Visions

Doctor Romani Archaman

The last few hours might've been the most stressful in his whole life. Both his lives. There's just something in the current frantic chaos around Chaldea that simply cannot compare. Of too many fires and too few buckets. Of too few people capable of taking the initiative and dealing with a problem by themselves… And too many others looking at him for guidance.

Who do they think he is? He's someone who listens to others for guidance, not someone who knows how to guide others! His life experiences have not prepared him for something like this at all!

And yet… here he is.

The A Team in critical condition, only kept barely alive due to the cryogenic functions of their coffins -and who had the bright idea of naming these things 'coffins', anyway?- to hopefully be revived at a later date, when there's at least something not on fire.

Eighty percent of Chaldea's critical systems are non-operative and the few that survived only did so due to Da Vinci's compulsive need to stack redundancies on top of other redundancies and/or flaunting the official regulations about such.

Seventy percent of Chaldea's personnel passed away and a further fifteen percent is grievously injured and incapacitated for the foreseen future, so they're operating with the skeleton of a skeleton crew. Ninety-percent of their leading and responsibility roles are part of that gruesome toll, including their Master Candidates.

The situation is… Dire.

The best news he's received all day came from Mashu's comms hailing from within the Singularity, but even that was all wrong! Hearing how the girl had become a Demi-Servant had been a relief, but what's wrong with Fujimaru?

Competent Magecraft User? Experienced combatant? That's all good news to hear but it was nowhere in her file!

And how does one manage to get perfect Servant compatibility while lacking the ability to summon Servants on their own? The only explanation he can think of is for Fujimaru to secretly be a Servant herself, but that's not the sort of thing you can keep hidden from the Head Doctor.

And he's the Head Doctor!

… He took solace in the fact that at least they were doing fine. For a certain definition of fine, of course. They seemed to feel remarkably relaxed and optimistic for a couple of isolated girls lost in the middle of an unknown temporal phenomena where humanity has gone extinct.

In any case, he simply couldn't afford to dwell on it when so many blaring sirens and blinking red lights demanded his personal attention all over Chaldea. So he begrudgingly let it fade to the background and focused on the things that truly really couldn't wait another minute or something was going to explode and kill them all.

And then he got a second communication from the Singularity and had to leave everything else fade to the background instead. Because that was a very scary Olga Marie Animusphere glaring at him from the other side of the line, seemingly about to start chewing heads and looking every little bit like the Tyrant Lady Director the rank and file know her to be, without even a hint of the sweet and bright-eyed child Doctor Roman had had the pleasure of being a pediatrician for, back when things were better.

Updating his old charge on Chaldea's status had been a painful endeavor, and not just because it hurt to watch the young woman slump a bit further with every bit of bad news he heaped on her back.

And then… he got a report back. One that made no sense at all, about the status of the Singularity. Surviving Masters? Red Faction? Apocrypha Protocols? What's wrong with this Grail War? That's not right, that's not right at all! But, at least… it sounds like the sort of 'not right' that's actually good news?

He eyes the six figures standing with Olga's people, not even bothering hiding his disquietude. Three of them are painfully familiar from his own knowledge of the Fuyuki Grail War. Tohsaka Rin, Illyasviel von Einzbern and Rider are individuals he's personally met before, in his own timeline. Even if the Tohsaka Master looks older than he would've expected.

Not so familiar are the other two Servants or one certain 'Matou Sakura', which he's fairly sure he would remember from back then. At least the woman looks every little bit like a Matou family member, so her story has some merit.

Some of the Servants these three Masters allegedly lost to the Black Faction are also familiar to him, a nameless Archer and Heracles himself as a Berserker. That doesn't explain why the Matou Master is currently contracted to the Servant that should've been lost to the Black Faction or why her first Servant turned out to be a different aspect of Medusa, summoned under the Lancer Class instead, but…

Well, timeline discrepancies are a thing, it's the whole basis of the Kaleidoscope, after all. Some details ending up fumbled isn't such a big deal as long as the broad strokes match. Especially considering that this is a Singularity and the world-line has already crashed and burned, anything goes there.

Yes, everything makes sense. And yet… Why does he feel like they're all being fed a fat shovel of bull? What is he missing? And most importantly—

"Alright, I've set up a small privacy Bounded Field." Olga announces all of a sudden, pulling Roman's attention away from his deep thoughts. "The Red Faction has been exceedingly accommodating so far, let's make the best of it before the situation changes."

"Eh?" Roman looks up, finally noticing the Red Faction are nowhere to be seen on the other side of the line anymore. "What did I miss?"

As soon as he blurts out that question, Roman winces. He shouldn't have said that.

"Please focus, Doctor Archaman." Olga chastises him with a frown. "You are in a position of actual responsibility now, we cannot afford you getting distracted with pointless daydreaming anymore."

"Lady Director asked our new friends for some privacy." Fujimaru explains with a smile, earning a grateful look from Roman. "So we can question their intentions without being rude to their faces."

"Haku-senpai!" Mashu protests, looking adorably scandalized at her senpai's cheerful cynicism. "Surely, the Lady Director doesn't entertain such rude suspicions about our hosts! Matou-Senpai is a great person and I'm sure her friends are too!"

"Ah… I wouldn't have put it quite like that, but…" Olga interjects, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "That's basically it, yes."

"Eh?" Mashu's head snaps towards Olga, expression confused and vaguely hurt.

"So." Olga presses on, refusing to glance in Mashu's direction. "Do we trust them or not?

"I can… kind of vouch for them, Lady Director." Fujimaru interjects again, looking vaguely sheepish. "More or less."

"Eh?" This time, it's Olga's turn to snap her head towards someone else with a vaguely confused expression.

In lieu of a verbal answer, Fujimaru fishes out a delicate chain necklace from inside her clothes, revealing a copper coin depicting some sort of snake or snake-like creatures. Roman himself isn't familiar with the make, but he's no archeologist so that doesn't mean much.

"This is the Circle of Usurpation." She explains, holding the coin so everyone can see it clearly. "Holy Symbol of Demon Lord Re'em."

"Oh, they all carried that same symbol in their persons." Mashu points out, prompting Roman to replay a recording of their introduction in another screen to verify the claim. "I noticed because Senpai told me a bit about her faith before."

It barely takes him a moment to pull back a recording of the Red Faction masters and locate their own versions of this… Circle of Usurpation thing. Though, now that he's properly paying attention to the portrayed image…

"I thought a Re'em was a form of unicorn?" He asks with a frown, using a question to hide his absolute certainty of such an obscure little bit of trivia.

"Oh, he has a big horn alright." Fujimaru immediately answers with a throaty purr.

"E–Excuse me?"

"Eh?" Fujimaru blinks in confusion before freezing in place as her cheeks gain a sudden rosy hue, apparently only now realizing what she just said. "Oh! Sorry, inside joke."

'Inside joke' his soft fluffy hair! Everyone here understood what she was insinuating!

"I don't get it, Senpai."

… Everyone but the sweet cinnamon roll pure as the driven snow, that is.

"Don't worry about it." Fujimaru waves Mashu's question away, proving above average smarts by facing the awkward problem the only way it can be faced. That is, ignoring it and hoping it goes away. Roman himself often resorts to that same tactic, himself. "Case is, my faith is very exclusive. Invitation only and rather picky with its members. One of the first things we learn is to trust each other, because only trustworthy individuals will ever get to join."

"That's… fairly thin proof. Still better than nothing, I suppose." Olga admits begrudgingly, eyeing the little coin item with suspicion even as Fujimaru hides it under her clothing again. "There's also circumstantial evidence of the Red Faction's goals being compatible with Chaldea's own and they've proven to be collaborative on multiple occasions. Additionally, we are currently in their debt."

"Does that mean we can stay here and collaborate with them?" Fujimaru perks up, clearly pleased with the idea of joining forces with her… fellow believers? "I'm sure Mashu would love for her Matou-Senpai to keep doting on her!"

"H– Haku-senpai!" Mashu protests with reddened cheeks, hands balled into fists as she repeatedly hits Fujimaru's shoulder in a display of embarrassment that's just as adorable as it is ineffectual. "That's absolutely true but you don't need to say it out loud like that!"

Roman feels himself relaxing in his seat, a soft sigh escaping him as he feels his soul getting healed by the sight in front of him. Too honest to lie even when she's flustered out of her wits. Mashu truly is a gift upon humanity.

"They have certainly earned a degree of trust." Olga interjects forcefully, doing her best to get the conversation back on track. "That said, Fujimaru."

"Yes, Lady Director?"

"Do I need to worry about your loyalties?"

"What do you–? Oh? Oh! No, you don't need to worry about fellow believers leading me astray." Fujimaru waves Olga's worries away in a dismissive fashion. "Because they won't and, if by some bizarre circumstance they try to, then they'll prove themselves to not be true believers."

"You seem awfully convinced of that, Fujimaru." Olga grumbles out in a challenging manner. "Are you some sort of religious head or something, to so freely judge the belief of others?"

"The faith of Demon Lord Re'em is deeply personal, everyone is their own religious head." Fujimaru explains without missing a beat. "I'm still rather new to this, actually, but Demon Lord Re'e is supposed to be King Solomon's last gift to Humanity. As his follower, any and all further goals are subordinate to ensuring there is a Humanity around to enjoy His gift!"

It's at that moment that reality slams into Roman like the weight of the world on his shoulders, all the stress and exhaustion of the last hours of intense tension hit him like a runaway train. Demon Lord Re'em? What's that? Where did it come from and how the heck did it become Solomon's Last Gift to anyone? He has no idea! Why does he have no idea? How could an entire religion that branches into various timelines be born while he wasn't looking!? It makes no sense!

He's vaguely aware of the Red Faction rejoining the conversation and makes all the appropriate noises at the appropriate times, but Roman isn't really paying attention anymore. There's far too much in his mind to do a good job of it and Olga seems to be in full form today, so he's sure she will manage without him constantly leaning on her shoulder and cramping on her style.

Once the call is finally over, he excuses himself from the bridge with a half-assed excuse that he's sure everyone saw through and makes his way to the only medical bay that survived the bombing more or less intact. Oh, there's plenty that managed to retain partial functionality, but this is the only one operating at full capacity.

Lying the central bed, connected to every device that Roman thought even remotely relevant, lies the body of Olga Marie Animusphere. In spite of the utterly wrecked state of the room it was found in, the body itself is perfectly intact and healthy. Except for the fact that it remains utterly unresponsive.

For these first few, frantic hours while Roman tried to keep Chaldea together with duct tape and prayers, he had feared the worst. That's why he was so shocked when Olga called him from inside the Singularity. He had simply assumed that, in some ironic subversion of his expectations, the bombing had destroyed Olga's soul while leaving her body untouched.

But now…

There's a soul, there's a body.

Ensuring the two of them reconnect into a single whole will take some hard work, but it's no longer beyond his reach. There's still a last, insurmountable hurdle in the way, but that insidious spark called hope has ignited within his chest, so he'll make sure everything is ready on his side… just in case.

For someone who can see the future, subverted expectations are usually a bad thing. They mean events won't play out as they should, they mean plans won't go as expected. That's the rule of thumb, but there's always some exceptions. When the path inevitably leads to failure, or when the cost of success is too steep… Then calling mulligan and hoping for a better hand becomes an enticing prospect.

"Did I even tell you, Olga?" Roman asks idly. "As your doctor, as someone who saw you grow since you were a little girl… I'm proud of the woman you've become."

Only silence meets his words. Silence and the soft beeping of the instruments that keep the empty body alive.

"Oh, who am I kidding, of course I never told you." He continues with a self-deprecating chuckle. "You would've laughed me out of your office."

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