023 - Hit the ground running
Mashu Kyrielight
The first thing Mashu notices when she opens her eyes is the vast blue high above. Her brain fails to register anything else as she drinks in the sight of the open skies. That's right, she always wanted to see the real sky, didn't she? The pictures and simulations didn't do it justice at all. For someone born and raised within a facility, this view is more precious than the breath of life.
Ah… Singularity F doesn't count, there was only a thick smoke blocking the view as far as the eye could see. This is the first time her eyes gaze upon the real thing and it is… beautiful.
"Mashu?" Senpai's bemused voice snaps her out of her reverie. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Ah, Senpai! Y-Yes, I'm fine!" Mashu stammers in reply, stealing a side-glance towards her before looking up again. "I was just watching the sky. It's beautiful."
"Ah… It really is. Not a hint of environmental pollution either, the fifteenth century had a lot of problems, but they had that going, at least." Senpai's voice sounds fond and warm. (Mashu would like to lean on her to bask in her presence while enjoying the view.) "A shame that weird white ring ruins the sights. I wonder if that's because we're inside a Singularity?"
"Is that so?" Mashu hums distractedly. "I hadn't noticed."
"How can you not notice a huge-ass white band of light drawn all over the sky like some disrespectful brat's graffiti?"
"It's… my first time seeing the real sky." Mashu confesses softly. Sure, she knows how the sky is supposed to look from pictures and recordings, more or less. But she also knows it can change a lot depending on the weather. "I thought that was just a normal atmospheric phenomenon."
"Right, this is your first…. Wait a minut—! No, this isn't right!" Senpai snaps, sounding infuriated all of a sudden. "I won't stand for my cute Kouhai being a shut-in who has never touched grass! Once we're done with all this Grand Order nonsense, I'll take you on a road trip all over Japan! We'll climb Mount Fuji and do the Shikoku Pilgrimage. Then we'll spend a month in Okinawa sunbathing and learning scuba diving! I'll get you sick and tired of so much open air in the great outdoors or I'll die trying!"
At that outburst, Mashu finally finds her eyes drawn away from the endless blue and into twin pools of determined gold staring right into her soul. Her breath catches and heart skips a beat.
"Ah, that sounds…" Senpai called her cute! "That sounds nice, Senpai. I'd like that."
"As you should!" Senpai nods in satisfaction, putting both arms on her hips and puffing her chest proudly. "Now let's hurry up and solve the SIngularities, because your senpai isn't a liar!"
Mashu opens her mouth to give out her best enthusiastic agreement but, before she can make a sound, she catches sight of a blue and white blur flying towards senpai at impossible speeds. It's only a flash of recognition that keeps her from rushing to intercept.
"Fou!" With a familiar battle cry, Chaldea's Most Mysterious Creature pounces on Senpai's head to perch on top of her hair.
"Gah–! What the—!?" Senpai sputters in a panic, very ineffectively flailing around while Fou effortlessly keeps balance. "Sound the alarm, man the cannons, we're under attack!"
"Fou, Fou!" Fou insists without leaving his perch.
Mashu likes to pretend Fou's cries hold actual meaning. He's certainly smart enough for it, even if she can't actually make any sense of them. But she has no doubt he's saying something smug and vaguely unflattering towards Senpai. Not that he bears any actual hostility against her, that's just the sort of relationship these two have.
At least, that's how Mashu imagines it.
Indeed, Senpai soon realizes what's going on and calms down again.
"Oh, nevermind. I see the little hellsp– Ahem!" Senpai starts, before an inopportune cough cuts her off and she needs to start again. "I mean the little hellion decided to follow us around."
"Indeed, Senpai." Mashu can't help a fond smile as she walks closer to scratch under Fou's chin. "He probably snuck along on one of our coffins."
"Yeah…" Senpai trails off, looking incredibly amused as she looks away, for some reason. "I'm sure that's what happened."
"Senpai?" Mashu tilts her head confusedly, reflexively catching Fou to cradle him against her chest when he jumps off his perch.
"Anyway!" Senpai claps her hands and starts walking in a seemingly random direction. "We should focus on the mission, right? Locate a Leyline or something?"
Considering how carefree she normally acts, Senpai can be surprisingly serious and goal-focused when it matters. Just because she's confident enough to act relaxed and without worries most of the time, it doesn't mean she doesn't care about the mission. As expected of Chaldea's Last Master, really. A truly admirable human being.
Even if she belongs to a weird religious cult.
"Oh, look." She calls out, pointing towards a small group that just appeared over the top of a nearby hill. "There are some locals coming towards us."
"They look like soldiers." Mashu observes with some worry. "Should we approach?"
"I mean, we could use some local news." Senpai shrugs. "Do you speak French, Mash? If not, just leave the talking to me."
Ah, Senpai can speak French? That's a surprise. The average Japanese can barely fend for themselves in foreign languages, even the really well-known ones like English and Chinese.
"Ah, no. I can speak it just fine." Mashu hurries to confirm. "Looks like French was part of my Servant's Legend."
"Funny that. How did a French Knight end up associated with the Round Table?"
Mashu could think of various explanations for that, but she'd rather not. There are some vaguely disgusting implications involved.
Soldier A
Strangers come from distant lands, claiming to have arrived to help solve France's tribulations. Normally, he wouldn't have believed a word, it's just too convenient, too fantastic, to be taken at face value. He may just be an ignorant village boy who got promoted when all his superiors got killed, but even he knows not to trust every fantasy tale like a superstitious fool.
Two girls younger than him, one dressed in strange and immodest clothes and the other wearing downright scandalous armor, accompanied by a mysterious unidentified creature? Well, they would've usually been regarded with suspicion, possibly detained for interrogation as potential swindlers.
But they live in a time of fantasy and miracles, when monsters roam the land and saints descend from Heaven to answer the people's prayers and protect the faithful once again. This is a time when fantasy becomes reality, when the convenient happens as if by miracle. The Chaldeans appear in the bible as people who foolishly challenged God and got punished by their hubris, but they're also described as wise and war-like.
Exactly the sort of people France needs right now.
Besides, they have a certain presence about them. Soldier A doesn't like the chances of his detachment against them, if violence happens to break out. So he did the only reasonable thing he could've done in such circumstances, escort the strangers back to the fort where they'd have the number's advantage and he can drop the problem in his superior's lap.
Momma A didn't raise no idiot and he'll happily wash his hands off responsibility as soon as possible.
"Wow, that's one battered-up fortress." The girl with the hair like fire comments in an awed voice. "I knew war can get ugly, but that's a whole 'nother level."
"War is an ugly thing indeed, but it shouldn't have gotten this bad." Soldier A shakes his head somberly. "The fort was built to challenge the armies of man, not the swarms of hell."
"Right, you've mentioned monsters before. And I know I said we're here to help…" The girl trails off in a sheepish voice. "But we don't actually know any details just yet. What's going on, exactly?"
"The dragon witch has sworn to burn France to the ground." Soldier A answers with a frown. "Her fell champions committing atrocities with glee all through the kingdom and her swarms of flying monsters setting everything else on fire."
"The… dragon witch?" The other girl, the one with the uncomfortably-revealing armor, tilts her head curiously. "Excuse me, soldier-san. I'm not familiar with that title."
"A wraith rose from hell, wearing the face of our most beloved saint." He explains with distaste. It wasn't enough that La Pucelle had been burnt at the stake like a lowly heretic, but hell itself had to make a mockery of the whole tragedy. "She's already killed King Charles and successfully sank the kingdom into chaos in only three days."
"Wearing the face of–" The armored girl parrots with a confused expression, before blinking in realization. "How would you know she's not her for real?"
It takes some self-control for Soldier A not to snap at that question. They are foreigners trying to help, he reminds himself. They don't know what they're talking about. Still, as someone who had the honor of fighting beside La Pucelle as a lowly foot soldier, the implications of such comment are enough to light a flame of indignation in his soul.
"Because our beloved Jeanne D'Arc would never hate the country she bled to protect with such vile and bitterness. That's not the kind of woman she was." Even if France failed her, in the end. Jeanne D'Arc would never turn out that way. Hell, she probably wouldn't even treat them with anger or disappointment, no matter how much they deserved it. "I'll still grovel at her feet and beg forgiveness for failing her if I ever have the chance, though. Any true Frenchman should, as far as I'm concerned."
His answer clearly makes an impact on the Chaldeans, who quiet down and continue walking in contemplative silence for a while. If he had a lick of sense, he'd use the chance to walk ahead and give himself an excuse not to overhear whatever conversation follows that silence. It's always better not to meddle in the business of magi, for they are–
"Senpai? There's nothing about a fake Jeanne in our files." Damn him and his troublesome curiosity. "It seems like we've found a hint towards the source of the Singularity."
"Seems that way." The fiery-haired girl hums in agreement. "We'll have to let the Lady Director know as soon as we secure a Leyline for communications."
…
Right, Soldier A has no idea what half these words even mean, but it looks like the Chaldeans were forewarned, somehow? It makes sense, there's no way their agents could've arrived so quickly when the travel time alone should've taken longer than that. He's not going to ask, just in case he finds himself on over his—
The deep bellow of a horn, reverberating through the plains, cuts off his thoughts and sends a shiver down his spine.
"Hurry ahead, men!" He commands with urgency, breaking into a sprint to reach the gates. "The fort is under attack!"
His detachment only hesitates for a moment before following his command but, as if to mock him, that's when the cause of the alarm comes to view. Like a cloud of furious wasps, but a thousand times more lethal, winged beasts armed with fiery breath come into view from the other side of the fort.
He feels the weight of despair on his soul and shoulders, his steps slowing down as the spark of determination propelling him forward stutters and dies. Such numbers, so close! It doesn't matter how hard they try, the fort is doomed!
He's about to call off the charge and order a retreat when two figures, one white and red and the other black and purple, blur past him.
"We'll rush ahead, Soldier-san!" The purple one calls in a polite but determined tone.
"Yeah!" The red and white one challenges in a cheerful voice. "Better hurry up or we won't leave anything for you!"
He can only watch as the two Chaldeans rush ahead, devouring the distance with impossible strides before they clear the walls of the fort in a single leap. Despair becomes shame and his teeth grit hard enough that he hears them cracking. Was he really about to give up! Before the battle has even started?
What would La Pucelle think of such cowardice!?
"Well men? Are we going to let some foreigners embarrass us like that?" He shouts a rallying cry. "Let's show these Chaldeans the resolve of French Soldiers!"
"OOOOOHHH!"
(What the hell is he doing? They're all going to die!)
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