Okeanos, September 28, 2017
Coming out of a Rayshift was like waking from a dream of circling stars in a timeless void to find oneself in an unfamiliar place.
For Ushiwaka, it was a strangely familiar sensation. Wondering why that was would have to wait, since in this case the unfamiliar place was the deck of an enormous sailing ship, surrounded by armed sailors. The sailors were just as surprised as the Chaldean team at their sudden appearance, and from the looks of it, much more upset.
Next to her, Lord Fujimaru looked around at the scruffy, bewildered crew slowly gathering to surround their group, and the reinforcements thumping up the stairs from below decks in response to their shouts of alarm, and sighed in disbelief. "God damn it, Roman."
"Dr. Roman… if you have any excuses, let's hear them." On the other side of Fujimaru, Kyrielight raised her shield, but spared a moment to glare at the Chaldean doctor's projection as it appeared beside them.
"Fou," agreed the fuzzy white creature on Kyrielight's shoulder, sounding annoyed.
Although she didn't speak up, Ushiwaka didn't quite understand the problem. Perhaps they were less used to being suddenly surrounded by hostile ruffians than she was. It seemed more like an opportunity to her; they were going to need a boat, clearly, so why not commandeer this one? Fifty-odd pirates to six Servants and one Master barely sounded like a warmup. The other Servants mostly seemed to be taking it in stride; Andersen had thrown his hands up in the air in annoyance, and Emiya was making the sort of face one made when one was too jaded to facepalm, but none of them seemed worried. Was she missing something?
" Uh… Murphy's law?" the doctor's hologram offered. When the only response this produced was silence, he continued, "Wouldn't you say it's rather beneficial to have transport immediately available?" Ushiwaka made a tch sound and frowned, annoyed at having her own thoughts presented as a blatant excuse for a mistake.
By then, the whole pirate crew had assembled to menace the seven Chaldeans. "I don't know what's going on here, but…" The loudest of the pirates shrugged, then drew a cutlass and roared, "Get 'em, boys!"
"Don't kill them!" Lord Fujimaru shouted in response.
Usumidori was already clearing its sheath on its way to the nearest pirate's throat when she heard the command, and her eyes went wide in alarm. There was no time to ask why he cared what happened to these worthless bandits; if she violated her lord's direct command with her first swing, she'd have no choice but to return to the Throne in disgrace!
Chagrined, she twisted her wrist and elbow mid-swing and managed to bring the side of her blade hard against her target's temple instead of its edge against his neck. She cringed inside to imagine what her mentor would think of the awkward strike, but it did its job, and the fellow was still breathing when he crumpled.
Very well, no killing, she told herself. Presumably no permanent maiming, either; better safe than sorry! At least it will be some sort of a challenge this way.
The ruffian behind that one shouted, leveling some kind of tube-and-handle contraption at her. A 'gun', she realized, plucking the name and function from the knowledge granted by her summoning. It seemed they used tiny fireworks to propel metal balls - strange, innovative, yet somehow boring. She slipped around the man's toppling comrade and kicked the unfamiliar weapon from his hand before he triggered it, sending it out into the ocean. A few fingers broke, but he wouldn't die from it, and her follow-up to the head with Usumidori's pommel ensured he wouldn't be in pain either, at least until he woke up.
She shifted her grip to better avoid striking edge-on and looked for her next victim. Two down in four seconds was distressingly slow; she'd have to pick up the pace if she wanted to show her new lord what she could do.
The violence that followed was over too quickly to be called a fight, or even a rout; the pirates didn't have time to even try to run. By the time the Servants had stopped swinging, most of the pirates were incapacitated and the rest cowed. Emiya held half a dozen sailors at half a dozen swords' points. Cu Culhainn had left another handful bleeding and moaning. Jing Ke had a knife to the throat of one of the ship's less scruffy sailors, possibly an officer. The only real trouble had been when one of the pirates managed to take a shot at Lord Fujimaru, but Kyrielight had intercepted the bullet and then very deliberately broken the offender's shooting arm in two places. Ushiwaka heartily approved.
The loud pirate who'd called for the attack was apologizing profusely to her lord from his knees. Fujimaru smiled back with what looked like genuine goodwill, and maybe a hint of pity. "It's fine, it's fine, it's partly our fault for showing up like this. Look, let's try this again. I'm Fujimaru Ritsuka, and these are my friends. I think Mash here wants to ask you some questions, okay?"
Okeanos, November 25, 2017
Head down, Ritsuka ran up the island trail faster than he'd ever run in his life. The distant roaring from his pursuer should not have been able to come from a human throat, and the ground trembled with each footstep behind him. Months of experience let him force the rising panic back down where it had to stay.
Being chased by Heracles was like being chased by an avalanche. You couldn't stand up to something like that. You couldn't even get out of the way. You just tried to outpace it and hope it stopped before it caught you, for whatever reason. Of course, this avalanche was after him, personally, and it wasn't going to stop until he was a bloody smear on the ground.
Because everything was going according to plan.
He hated this plan. It was a terrible plan. He hated that all the other plans were worse. He really hated that he'd been the one who proposed this plan.
A few paces ahead, Euryale turned and snapped, "Can't you run any faster, human?"
He really, really hated this plan.
Ritsuka gave the little goddess as cross a look as he could spare, which wasn't much. Despite her evident fear, she sniffed indignantly and darted up the trail, pulling ahead of him with ease. Trying to goad him into running faster, or just naturally annoying? He wasn't sure. For the hundredth time, he was grateful for his time on the track team and Leonidas' insistent training; his lungs burned, but he could keep going.
Two more switchbacks to the cave with the Ark, unless he'd lost track of his instructions. No, there was the blue cloth for the second marker. The Servants had scouted the path and marked the trail for him. He just had to get to the end, no matter what, before the disaster caught up.
His life in miniature.
Another roar came from closer behind him - much too close. Euryale, a dozen paces ahead by now, let out a tiny shriek, but to his shock fell back to stick with him instead of pulling ahead. The force of Heracles' footsteps behind him nearly made him lose his footing.
He fought down the fear and kept running. If his allies weren't on the ball he was going to die before he made it to the next turn in the trail. But he wasn't going to die. He wasn't, because they wouldn't let him down. Believing that was the only thing that had let him propose this stupid plan in the first place. They wouldn't make him regret it any more than he already did, would they?
Like a magic trick, a figure in green and gold appeared atop a branch up the trail, bow raised. Whistling blurs sped over his head and shoulders, close enough that the wind of their passage whipped his hair. He ignored it and kept running. Atalante wasn't going to hit anything she didn't intend to, and he didn't have the time to be relieved. Despite the arrows, the thunderous footsteps behind him hadn't wavered for a moment.
"Mash Kyrielight, engaging the enemy!" Mash burst from the bushes beneath Atalante's perch and charged down the trail towards him at automobile speed. Behind him, he heard a bass growl and the whoosh of something huge swinging. Mash leapt over his head with a defiant shout, raising her shield as she passed him.
The world shook around him, ringing like a gong. Pressure blasted Ritsuka from behind, driving him down and forward, and he barely managed to tuck himself into a roll instead of simply sprawling. He groaned with pain as he staggered to his feet; it sounded like he'd stuffed cotton in his ears. When he looked up, he couldn't hear what Euryale was shouting at him, though from the look of it, it was shrill and panicked. Too dizzy to run, he turned to look behind him.
Not ten feet away, Mash rose up off of her knees where Heracles' cleaver had driven her, shield still vibrating. The Berserker roared and brought his weapon down at Mash again. She caught it, struggled, and surged back upwards with a shout, throwing it off. Another spray of arrows flew over Mash's shoulders, notching the Berserker's chest and face but doing no real damage. Mash deflected another swing of Heracles' weapon off to the side into a large tree, which didn't so much shatter as detonate. Ritsuka could picture very well what that would've done to him, and wished he didn't have such a good imagination.
Eyes on the fight, Ritsuka staggered backwards up the trail, right hand raised. Command Seals only took a word to use, but the instinct to gesture was still there.
Mash tried to vault a low strike from Heracles, but it clipped her shield, sending her spinning. Before she could recover, the Berserker's huge, stony fist crashed into her side. Ritsuka only had time to open his mouth to shout before Mash blinked out like an image from a changed channel, revealing only splinters that had been a kanji-marked log a moment ago. Thank you, Kotarou , Ritsuka thought through his relief.
A man-sized shuriken glanced off of Heracles' head, not moving it a centimeter but drawing Heracles' snarling attention. Suddenly, the Berserker was surrounded by a trio of identical red-haired shinobi, bounding circles around him, trying to keep him off-balance. One of them was pulped by a swift blow, but apparently not the right one, because after it faded into smoke, the other two remained to chip their blades against his skin before leaping away.
Heracles spun after them with a roar only to find Emiya intercepting the blow, turning it with black-and-white swords that shattered in his hands just from deflecting the strike. Ushiwakamaru shot past him, whirling like a cyclone to slash the back of the Berserker's legs. Ritsuka could see the frustration on her face as Heracles didn't so much as turn his head at her attacks. Again and again, Heracles slammed his axe-sword down at Emiya, and again and again, Emiya slipped aside or spent its force destroying his endless, disposable blades. When Emiya began to falter, the Chevalier d'Eon stepped before him as if it was planned, their rapier striking at Heracles' eyes, throat, and heart like a wasp's stinger, doing no damage but impossible to ignore. Emiya fell back to regroup with Ushiwaka for another try.
Ritsuka shook his head, trying to control his fear. All this coordination, all this effort from so many heroes, just to distract him. If they couldn't get the Ark to kill him, he couldn't imagine what else they could try.
No matter how badly he wanted a few more seconds to catch his breath, Ritsuka's head had cleared and his lungs had stopped burning. They couldn't afford any more time. He turned away from the fight and ran up the trail. "Atalante!" he shouted, hearing himself as if he were under water. "Break off before we reach the next turn! If he loses sight of us he might go cross-country!" The Berserker had his sights set on Ritsuka and Euryale, but if he didn't have an obvious target he might think of cutting them off instead of chasing them, and they'd be in far deeper trouble than they already were.
Atalante nodded as her hands blurred, loosing another volley past him. "Lady Artemis is waiting to cover you after the turn, Master. Don't stop for anything."
As he passed Atalante, Euryale fell into step beside him again. She looked back over her shoulder, and he worried she was going to fall behind, but she mouthed 'Asterios', and anger replaced the fear on her face. She shot him a glare. "Hurry up so we can kill him," she snapped, and passed him by.
Behind them, the furious Son of Zeus roared again, cutting through the ringing in his ears. Ritsuka ran after her without daring to look back.
Author's Notes:
Shorter chapter than expected; had to cut a scene out that just wasn't working.
The theme for this chapter is 'We Are Not Alone', by The Rescues.
When it feels like you'll drown
Under the weight of the world
You are not alone now