"WHAT UTTER GARBAGE."
Gudako blinked and leaned backwards from where she was laying on her back to see an upside down Olga practically frothing at the mouth as she stalked forwards towards Ryujin,
"THERE IS NO WAY SHE SUMMONED A GOD LET ALONE A RULER SERVANT. SO WHAT-"
"And yet here I am~"
Ryujin purred at Olga who seemed to get even further incensed. The Servant leaned past the woman and arched a ruby red eyebrow at Gudako,
"Are you alright?"
Blinking she stood up and glanced at her command seals before frowning and looking at the servant she summoned,
"Okay I know that I have a Master/Servant contract with you but… I just don't see how the hell I managed to summon any servant let alone someone like you. I'm not trying to brown nose but-"
Ryujin sighed and folded her arms to glare at her,
"I'm glad you're not as I loathe idle and pointless flattery. Let me clear something up since there seems to be some confusion-"
Wind began to blow past them as electricity began to arc through the air,
"Easy now. They didn't mean any disrespect so calm the light show Your Highness."
The wind calmed down as Caster came forward,
"Caster. Is there any truth to what this woman says?"
Olga demanded as Ryujin gave her a withering look,
"I don't know what you have against my Master girl but watch your tone. I may not be at my full Divinity but thats only because-"
"Because you lowered it for Gudako. Am I correct?"
The redhead paused then looked back to Caster seeming to reevaluate him,
"...You're not normally a Caster are you, boy?"
Gudako choked as she tried not to laugh while she could imagine Caster's eye twitching,
"Been a while since anyone called me that…. To answer you question: No. I am normally a Lancer. Olga, she's the real deal. Trust me on that. I've seen and fought too many gods to not recognize this aura."
Ryujin smirked at Olga who just ground her teeth together as Gudako, still chuckling, walked up to her and held out her hand to shake,
"Gudako Fujimaru. Looking forward to working with you."
The Ruler's eyebrows shot up as she slowly extended her own hand to accept the handshake,
"'With me' you say? You truly are odd and yet… You mean it don't you? You see me as a person and not just as a tool or familiar…"
She trailed off as though lost in thought before they heard a bestial roar in the distance followed by towering clouds of dust as explosions went off. Ryujin glanced over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes before looking back at Gudako,
"Master-"
"Just call me Gudako. Its…. Weird to be called that."
The woman paused as her lips curled up a bit into a soft smile,
"Gudako then. You're still green when it comes to commanding servants correct?"
Nodding, she explained what had happened so far. A few minutes later and Ryujin had folded her arms clearly thinking,
"The idea was that she'd get a handle on commanding whoever she summoned by having them spar with me."
Caster said flatly,
"However you don't strike me as the kind of person to hold back and I'd rather not face off against a Ruler, let alone a God, if I can help it."
"And what level of holding back are you referring to? Mortal, demigod, or fully divine?"
"...You're starting to annoy me."
"The feeling is mutual God-slayer."
They stood there staring at each other as they each gave off murderous intent for a few seconds before they both started laughing. Mash came up behind Gudako,
"What… Just happened."
"You are asking the wrong fucking person Mash. Alright so, you two aren't going to try and kill each other correct?"
They both turned to look at her,
"Not currently no."
"Nah. Don't feel like dying today."
Gudako nodded,
"Then one of you teach me how to command a servant because I do not want whatever that was," she pointed at the dust clouds in the distance that were still lingering in the air, "to come and kill me."
Ryujin nodded and closed her eyes before tilting her head and opening one to smirk at Caster,
"How do you want to do this Mage?"
"First I think you should explain how you are a Ruler Servant and not one of the standard classes."
Groaning she closed her eyes for a few seconds then opened them to look at her,
"Gudako. How much about Servants do you know? I don't mean the basic crap like what they are. I mean skills, classes, etc, etc."
"Not… much. My mom gave me a crash course before I left for Chaldea but honestly it was all so sudden I don't remember it clearly."
The Ruler went still before she furrowed her brow,
"And why would your mother know about servant classes? Wouldn't this Chaldea place instruct you?"
Olga visibly flinched at this as Gudako shook her head,
"My Mom took part in a Grail War that was held in western Switzerland in 1992. My Dad took part in it as well. He just got… dragged into it by complete accident whereas my mom trained for it."
Ryujin seemed to consider this as Olga spoke up,
"A Grail War in Switzerland? I've never heard about one happening in 1992."
Gudako shook her head and stared at the ground,
"Everytime I asked she would just shake her head and tell me she'd "tell me later". I eventually stopped asking since 'later' never seemed to come around. My dad…."
"You said your family name was 'Fujimaru' correct?"
She looked up to see Ryujin staring at her with an intensity that unnerved her,
"Ye- Yes. Its my dads family name. My mom took it when they got married and she moved to Japan to be with him. The house behind me was actually the house she trained in for the war due to knowing one of the families here in Fuyuki. Both of my parents moved to Tokyo when my mom was pregnant with…. me but she would frequently come out to Fuyuki to maintain the house while its owner was in the UK."
Ryujin seemed to be lost in thought as Gudako remembered her lucky tsuba and the pearl. She walked over to the shield and bent down to grab them,
"Gudako? Would your mothers family ancestry happen to be Icelandic?"
She blinked and stood up slowly before turning around to look at Ryujin who was giving her an odd look,
"Yes…. How did you know that."
"Because I am positive that I was part of the very Grail War that both your parents took part in... as a Ruler."
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Okay so let me get this straight: Ruler Servants do not normally show up unless shit has gone well and truly sideways," Gudako stated several minutes later as both Ryujin and Caster nodded in time with each other, "Ryujin. You, or some other aspect-slash-version of you, intervened in the Grail War my parents took part in as a Ruler. Ruler Servants normally speaking are explicitly summoned by the Grail War system to oversee or 'correct' Grail Wars that are either too large or have gotten too off track from the original goal."
"An apt summary. I possess the Multi-summon skill as well as a version of the Ruler 'kit' meant explicitly for offense meaning that I can adapt on the fly to any classes that try to attack me. As such I am a Ruler that is sent in to clean up and stop Grail Wars that have 'gotten too off track' as you put it."
Gudako nodded and then looked around before opening her mouth about to ask her next question only for Ryujin to answer it,
"This Grail War, however, has not gotten bad enough to have me summoned by the Grail War System to correct it. No, the reason I was summoned as a Ruler is likely that pearl in your hand. I have only ever given out Watatsumi Pearls on a handful of occasions and even then only to people who have earned my respect and then some. The fact your mother had one speaks to her character."
Blinking she looked down at the pearl and smiled a bit before she put it back into her hoodies pocket along with the tsuba only to furrow her brow as a thought occurred to her,
"So what class do you normally default to?"
Gudako asked curious as Ryujin grinned wickedly,
"Berserker or Saber. Caster if I have to and I'd rather fight my enemies face to face so I try to never manifest as an Assassin."
"That tracks," groaned Caster, "Of fucking course you'd be a Berserker."
Ryujin glared at him and kicked out at his leg only for him to dodge. Before they could get any more off track Mash coughed into her fist,
"Erm. Hello Ms. Ryuj-"
"Mrs. Ryujin if you insist on calling me that given that I am married. As a fellow Pseudo-Servant, however, I won't expect you to give me any honorifics."
"I'm sorry a what!?"
Olga practically screeched causing Ryujin to plug her ear with a finger and frown,
"Did you really honestly think a mage of any caliber in the Modern Era would be able to just summon me as I am? No. One of my direct descendants, luckily enough, resided in this town and was near death. I asked her if I could have her body and she agreed as long as I didn't get her outfit ruined. She passed on and I took over. Simple as that."
Gudako frowned as Mash seemed to light up happily,
"Then Mrs. Ryujin do you think you could help me? I… don't know who the servant is who merged with me. I have their shield but I don't… know its name or function beyond the fact that it can be used in place of a summoning circle for Servants."
"Which explains why I was standing on top of it then. As for helping you-"
They all felt a wave pass over them as the bounded field they were in shook a little,
"And thats our que to move. Mash, grab your shield and protect Gudako and Olga. Ryujin, you and I-"
Ryujin held out her hand and lightning shot down out of the sky leaving a pure white sheathed katana in her hand. She wrapped her fingers around the sheathe and nodded,
"Gudako, we'll teach you how to command as we fight. Try to keep up and don't let what happens overwhelm you."
The bounded field around the house shook as a different roar than the earlier one sounded much closer,
"Thats your first lesson, Master: Always keep a calm head no matter what. Panicked commanders are no better than chickens without heads, and you are to command thousands."
Gudako nodded, feeling a lead weight drop into her gut, and got behind Mash's shield as the rest of the houses bounded fields broke down moments before something jet black and beastlike crashed through the building reducing it to rubble. Her eyes widened as it skidded to a stop and seemed to evaluate them despite not having visible eyes while it growled. Its tail was muscular and almost ratlike while it had nothing but knotted tissue over where its eyes should be and its claws looked like they could shred through steel like a knife through tofu.
It was as the monster took another cautious step forward that she noticed Caster and Ryujin weren't moving and it was only when the monster began to walk forward, its growl intensifying, that Ryujin looked over her shoulder at her with an arched eyebrow as if silently asking what to do.
She swallowed her nerves,
"Caster! You…. Support Ry-" She paused as something her mother said came floating out of her memory and she corrected her sentence almost immediately,
"Support Ruler with spells! Ruler! Kill it when you have the chance!"
She bit her lip as Mash looked over her shoulder at her causing Gudako to blink and smile,
"Mash. You protect the two of them so they can work on killing it."
"On it girlie!"
"Of course, Master~"
"Yes Master!"
Gudako grabbed Olgas arm and pulled her behind a nearby tree to push her down to the ground as an explosion sounded from behind them,
"Olga. You stay here. I don't want you getting hurt and-"
"I'd only get in the way of actual combat. Yes I know. Go! Support your servants!"
She smiled at her and turned around to jog back to the where she was standing just in time to see Mash attempt to intercept a lunge from the monster that was aimed directly at Ryujin only for her to not fully be able to take the full brunt of the strike with her shield causing her to be knocked backwards. Ryujin, not even phased, neatly dodged around Mash as she was thrown back, drew her sword, and sliced off the monsters right front paw. Its severed limb fell to the ground as it swung its tail at her only to have Casters Fireballs impact it from the opposite side knocking the monsters strike wide as Ryujin inverted her grip on her sword and flicked the tsuba with the middle finger on her other hand.
A ringing bell-like noise echoed around them moments before a bolt of lightning shot down to strike the monster only for it to barely dodge as the bolt blew the ground apart in an explosion of dirt and broken stones.
Gudako shielded her eyes from the debris and noticed that the stump where the limb had been severed was bubbling right before a replacement limb shot out,
"It can regenerate! Be careful!"
How the hell do we stop it from regenerating long enough to kill it…
She sucked in a breath in fear as Ryujin parried its newly grown front limb with her sword knocking her backwards. Right as it was about to pounce Mash pushed off and slammed her shield into the side of it knocking it away several meters,
"What else can we do…."
She muttered as she racked her brain before noticing that purple liquid was starting to drip out of the creatures mouth to land sizzling on the pavement,
"Poison! Don't let it bite yo-"
Gudako's eyes widened as the world slowed down. The hardened tip of the monsters tail had shot out and was heading right for her. She watched in slow motion as the tail inched closer and closer while she tried to dodge out of the way as Mash yelled her name trying to get to her and Caster tried to use some runes… however Ryujin-
"I am the Origin of Yamato.
The Other Half of O'Watatsumi,
She who would wield hurricanes and storms as blades,
From my blood flows Mana Eternal.
Partial release-
Umi no Arashi no Shinseina Zangeki!"
Something similar to silver thread shot out in front of Gudakos face before it swung into the tail and split it four ways carving it in a way so that no part of the limb hit her. The thread continued slicing up the tail of the beast and then seemed to loop itself around the base before it suddenly contracted severing the tail and leaving a bloody stump. As the monster howled in pain Gudako realized the chance that had been bought and yelled,
"Go! Take it out, Now!!"
As if on que there was a thunderclap as a streak of lightning shot through the creatures neck, cleanly severing its head, and then both the head as well as the body were quickly engulfed in Casters flames. Gudako looked over to see Ryujin flicking the creatures blood off her blade and sheathing it in one fluid motion as Mash came running over to check on her,
"Senpai! Senpai are you okay!?"
She vaguely heard Caster say he was going to check something as she shook her head,
"I'm fine- Mash. I'm fine, stop shaking me, God..."
Gudako stared at the remains of the monster as it slowly burned away into mana only for even that to vanish into the air. She suddenly felt exhausted as her legs almost gave out only for Mash to catch her just in time,
"Okay… Maybe less fine than I thought I would be."
She chuckled darkly as Ryujin came over to her and looked guiltily at the woman expecting to see anger or disappointment but instead only saw worry,
"Gudako I-"
"Thanks. For saving me… and sorry you had to."
The woman blinked and tilted her head at her before smiling,
"Well… Your welcome. Honestly I wasn't expecting something like that at all so consider myself impressed with how well you held yourself together. Although," She turned around to look at the spot where the monster had died,
"There shouldn't have even been anything of that caliber here in the first place."
Gudako slowly stood up with Mash's help as Olga walked up to the group white as a sheet causing her to look at her about to ask what happened only for the woman to subtly shake her head and mouth 'later'. Nodding she turned to look back at their little group as Caster came back from the ruins of the house holding a crate in his arms,
"So. Girlie you said your mom was Icelandic right?"
Looking over at him, he set the crate down with a grunt and waved them all over,
"Do you happen to remember what her family magecraft was?"
Gudako frowned as she folded her arms and thought back before shaking her head,
"No. I don't think she ever used it and besides even if she did its not like I could use it since my circuits are crap. My broth-"
She caught herself and for just a moment wished she could rewind time as everyone looked at her. Looking from one face to another she sighed,
"I-"
"Its fine, you don't have to explain if you don't want to. Magus families are complex and… full of idiocy. Trust me, I should know."
Looking over at Olga who gave her a look of sympathy she nodded, thankful for the gesture, and then motioned at the crate,
"Does something in this crate have to do with whatever magecraft my mom might have used?"
Caster nodded, infused his fingertip with mana, and tapped the lid causing multiple chains made of shadows to flicker into existence before vanishing again,
"I sensed the magic behind those chains the minute we got into the house but couldn't go to find the source until just now. Problem is I've only seen shadow magic like this from one other person and knowing how…. Unique the person who teaches this stuff is I don't know how the hell its here. Since you said your mom was Icelandic I got to thinking that… Nah. Nevermind."
Caster shook his head as Gudako stared at the crate feeling something in her memory flicker. Something about her moms teacher being important to her side of the family going back generations. She tried to grab onto the memory only for it to slip through her grasp as if she was trying to grab a shadow. Frowning she shook her head, infused her fingertip with mana, wincing at the slight burning sensation that filled her arm, and tapped the top of the crate. The chains flickered into existence again but this time that memory flickered more strongly with them.
Gods dammit!
Its like something is actively preventing me from remembering…
As she focused on the memory the feeling of it fading increased but not before she managed to grab a scrap of it in which she heard her mother talking about Ireland. She shook her head clear and glared at the crate,
Trying to remember this is like trying to catch sand as it runs through my fingers. I can worry about this shit later.
She frowned and looked from the crate up to Caster who seemed to be looking at the crate with a hint of wariness,
"Where did you even find the crate to begin with?"
He looked up at her and furrowed his brow as though confused,
"The underground workshop."
Gudako blinked,
"What? There is no underground workshop. My mom said she was taught out here in the backyard."
Caster arched an eyebrow and motioned for them all to follow him into the ruins of the house. They stepped over various bits of rubble and under a few semi-standing doorways until they were in what looked like a library. He pointed at one of the corners of the room where a hidden trapdoor had been lifted,
"Workshops down there. Classic Mage bullshit too so I can't exactly blame your mom for wanting to be taught out back. Something in the house itself was keeping it sealed but given the house is gone the seal is as well."
Gudako stared at the hole in the floor as her ears started to ring before she started walking forwards towards the trapdoor curling her fingers into a fist. She sensed one of the group was following her and glanced over her shoulder to see it was Ryujin who just winked at her then looked forward as she began to walk down the spiral stairs to the workshop below. Opening the door leading into workshop proper they both entered a medium sized room the walls of which were lined with various magecraft devices while the center of the room was dominated by a large stone table covered in various pieces of parchment, vials, gems, and books.
"So?"
Ryujin asked several minutes later while leaning over a gemcraft station,
"See anything you recognize?"
Gudako blinked and looked at the servant properly as the other woman just arched an eyebrow at her,
"You find a hidden magecraft workshop under the house your mom was trained in that you were never told about and that she never used. You're not curious?"
She snorted a laugh and turned to look around the room again,
"Curious… is a good word. 'Worried' would be more accurate though."
Walking around the table she came to a stop, folded her arms, and sighed as she looked at the floor behind the table while Ryujin came around the other side,
"Why would you be worried? Its not like….."
The servant trailed off as she saw what Gudako was staring at. It was a Servant summoning circle that had clearly been used given the marks carved into the stone floor but thats not what had caught her gaze. She walked forward into the circle and knelt down onto one knee to pick up the charred speartip sitting in its center turning it over in her hand to see what looked like celtic engravings on the blade,
"Thats… clearly a catalyst but-"
"….We should talk to Caster. Maybe he'll know."
Gudako stood up, wrapping her fingers the blade, only to frown as it crumbled to dust. She sighed and looked around for anything else only to not see anything of note that immediately caught her attention. They left the workshop soon after and got back above ground a couple minutes later. When they got out they saw that everyone had made themselves comfortable waiting on the two of them and Caster looked at her arching an eyebrow,
"Find anything useful?"
She shook her head,
"I think I found what was at one point a catalyst in a servant summoning circle but its charcoal. No idea what servant would have been summoned assuming one did. Speaking of who all is left of the Grail War anyway?"
Caster frowned and started ticking off his fingers,
"Archer's still alive. I know that much for a fact, the guy is a cockroach when it comes to surviving. I've personally killed Rider and Lancer although knowing what Lancer is like I wouldn't put it past her to have survived dying somehow. Berserker typically wanders the area where that building collapsed earlier. Odds are that roar earlier, along with the massive dust clouds, was him attacking someone or something. As for Assassin and Saber..."
He blew out his cheeks,
"Even with a divine spirit on your side your odds aren't good against Saber. She's just too damn powerful. As for Assassin the chick is just too damn slippery. Every time I think I've got her trapped she escapes somehow. No idea how."
"Maybe its a skill that allows her to escape any trap? There are legends of Assassins who have managed to escape and remain uncaught. Jack the Ripper is a good example."
Gudako looked at Olga and furrowed her brow,
"What would Jack the Ripper even look like anyway? Its not like anyone ever saw him."
"We're getting off topic," Ryujin said before looking at Caster meaningfully, "What did you mean by Saber being 'too damn powerful'. Sure, Saber servants are strong but they have to have weaknesses."
"You say that until you've seen what she can do. Its almost as though she has unlimited mana."
They fell silent until Ryujin shook her head,
"We should move. Its not wise to stay in a place where a battle was fought."
She looked to her left at the servant as she turned to look at Olga who was clearly lost in thought,
"Olga."
The woman jumped as Ryujin addressed her properly for the first time,
"Ye- yes?"
"What could you tell about that mana we both sensed while I was explaining my purpose as a Ruler?"
Gudako blinked and tilted her head,
"What mana?"
Olga seemed to breathe a sigh of relief,
"So I wasn't mistaken… thank god."
She looked at Gudako,
"While Ryujin was explaining the purpose behind a Ruler Servant I sensed mana a ways away from around where the building in the distance collapsed. What I sensed…."
She shook her head and hugged herself as she shook,
"It was from something or someone Powerful. I hesitate to use the word 'God' but…"
"What about the other two sources of mana?"
Olga looked at Ryujin confused only for the Ruler to look at Caster who seemed to be thinking,
"You've been here longer. What are your thoughts on the other two sources of mana that we've both been sensing this entire time. Both of which were over where Berserker supposedly was."
Caster chuckled darkly and shook his head,
"Only that I don't want to mess with the one that feels simultaneously divine and hellish at the same time. Gudako you remember how I said that two people came into this hellhole?"
She nodded,
"You said you led one to the other and that one of them drove off Archer."
He nodded and smiled a smile that was all teeth,
"The one that drove off Archer is the same one that somehow wields both heaven and hell at equal strengths. Which means that they are either a Saint or damn close to one. Come on. Our resident Dragon is correct in that we need to get moving."
Everyone started moving as Gudako frowned and looked in the direction that the building had collapsed in right as she felt pain from her command seals. She hissed in pain and looked at them to see them glowing only to dim,
"The hell was that about…."
~~~~~~~~
"So Gudako."
Gudako looked back at Ryujin as she navigated around a piece of debris from a fallen building and came up to walk beside her,
"I'm curious about this era. Even given my status as a Ruler servant I'm only given so much information."
Arching an eyebrow she looked at the Servant,
"Alright then. Whats the most recent thing either the Throne gave you or that you can remember. I can probably expand on that from there. History, both Japanese and World, was one of my stronger subjects in school."
Ryujin leaned her head back and closed her eyes managing to navigate the wreckage on the road without looking at it. She was content to let the servant think in peace despite her own burning questions,
She said she intervened in a Grail War that Olga had never heard of.
She knows my parents or at least my mom well enough to have given her a Watatsumi Pearl as a gift.
Her specific role when summoned as a Ruler Servant is to clean up Grail Wars that went off the rails…
Is the reason my mom never told me about the war she was in because its somehow more horrible than what we're in right now?
She looked around her at the ruins of Fuyuki and frowned,
What could possibly be worse than this?
"Color TV."
"hm?"
"You asked me the last thing that I remembered and it's color TV."
Gudako looked over at the servant and furrowed her brow,
"That would put your cut off in the late 1950s to the early 1960s…"
She blew out her cheeks,
"Alright so a lot happened in the 1960s alone. It was the beginning of the Cold War and the Vietnam War for one thing which were both their own special kind of bullshit in that neither was an outright war like World War 2 was. The Cold War eventually turned into a series of proxy wars between small countries while the Vietnam War is probably the more famous of the proxy wars. As for the countries behind the proxies that would be the United States and the USSR…"
She continued explaining what she could remember of the major events from the 1960s through the 1980s as they kept walking,
"...and everything just sped up once the first intercontinental internet cable was completed. As in literally sped up since you no longer had to wait months for a letter to arrive as it only took a few minutes to message someone on the other side of the planet. Then we had the whole Y2K thing at the tail end of the 1990s."
"What is this 'Y2K thing' you're talking about?"
"I can't remember the specifics off the top of my head but the general idea was that there was this mass panic that everything that had a digital clock or calendar would just fail outright once the clock ticked over to midnight of the year 2,000, hence 'Y2K'. I don't know how much of that panic was justified but people were in the streets yelling about the 'End of Days' for pretty much all of 1999."
Ryujin fell silent at this,
"So… the whole world is interconnected now. We've landed on the moon, Ideas flow freely from one person to the next with no barriers regardless of distance, and there is now a library of all of humanities knowledge that anyone, anywhere can access for free…. It seems I owe my husband an apology when I next see him."
Gudako glanced over to see her smiling a soft happy smile,
"So I have a question for you now if you don't mind."
Ryujin looked up and refocused on Gudako,
"You've said you're married twice now but… I don't think I've ever heard of Ryujin being married in any of the myths or legends I know about you."
"Oho? I'm curious as to what myths and legends you've heard but to answer your question. I'm married to-"
"Hey! Guys! Caster said he found a spot for us to rest!"
They both looked ahead to see that Mash was waving at them from further up the hill. Ryujin fell silent for a bit as they kept walking,
"Gudako."
"Yeah?"
She turned around to see that Ryujin had stopped a few paces behind her and seemed to be at war with herself. Eventually she sighed and looked her in the eyes. Gudako stared back into the sapphire blue draconic eyes briefly wondering what the Servant saw with them,
"You're a good person. Don't ever forget that and don't ever lose that goodness and kindness."
She blinked and tilted her head confused,
"Uhh... Thanks? Where's this coming from?"
Ryujin shook her head and smiled at her,
"Its nothing. Come on. You've been hiding the aftereffects of your overworked circuits but you do need rest and ideally medical attention both physical and magical."
Gudako winced and glanced at her forearms where she saw a few lines poking out from beneath her hoodie's sleeve,
"How long have you known that my circuits have been like this?"
The Ruler scoffed and walked up next her to gently grab her wrist and pull up her hoodies sleeve to expose the bright angry red lines on Gudakos arms. She hummed a bit as her brow furrowed,
"Since you summoned me to tell the truth. I've not been relying on you for mana at all this entire time due to how overworked your circuits are."
Gudako blinked as Ryujin pulled the sleeve back down,
"Wait you're not-"
"Nope. I'll tell you why I typically don't need external mana later. Come on."
Ryujin pulled her forward as they started walking again eventually cresting the hill to see a ruined school building. They walked towards it just in time to see a bounded field envelop the entire building as Caster finished his work. Entering the bounded field they walked up to Caster who turned around and winked at them,
"Thought I'd add to the protections in place already. Mash and I have already scouted the building entirely and its safe to rest at for a bit. I also have an idea of how Saber got so strong but that can wait until one of us gets a few hours of sleep or at least rests for a bit."
He said looking meaningfully at Gudako who winced,
"I… suppose some rest can't hurt."
Roughly half an hour later Gudako had sat down against the wall of a ruined classroom on the third floor and looked around seeing the other kids that would have gone here in her minds eye. She knew the seat she would have picked had she been in this room but she wondered what the other kids had been like.
Would I have had any friends here?
Would I have even been accepted as a normal person?
"Too much of a shit mage to be worth anything but too different to even try to fit in or appear normal. Gudako Fujimaru. Nice to meet you all..."
She muttered to herself as she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged her legs. She rested her chin on her knees and closed her eyes as she sat there rolling in the misery of her thoughts before she heard the familiar clank of armored boots coming down the hall which heralded Mash as she came around the corner,
"Oh! Senpai! What are you doing? ...Is everything okay?"
Plastering on a smile she watched as Mash walked forward her shield vanishing into blue motes and silently asked if she could sit down with a gesture to which Gudako slid to the side a bit to let her sit next to her. They sat in silence for a few minutes,
"I wish I could have done something like this…."
Gudako looked at the girl sitting next to her,
"Done what? Gone to school?"
She nodded excitedly and beamed at her,
"Yes! To be able to go to school, see new people, make friends, and…."
She trailed off in time with her happiness as she slowly slouched back against the wall,
"I guess its never going to happen though."
"Why not?"
"Because of how I was created. I was- I am a test tube baby. I was raised entirely within Chaldea so I never had a… normal childhood. ….I don't think. Senpai?
Gudako hummed a bit to show she was still listening,
"What was your childhood like?"
She stiffened in place as she once again saw her younger brother reaching out to hold her hand as he was carried away by those bastards. Gritting her teeth for a few seconds she eventually sighed,
"I was raised in a magus household but both my parents were abnormal when it came to being magi. They put more emphasis on living a good life as opposed to just shunting everything magical onto the best kid and then dying. So… It was a happy life… most of the time."
Frowning and staring into the wall opposite she did her best to ignore the memories of the last time she saw her brother. Sighing she rubbed the heels of her palms into her eyes before standing up and dusting herself off,
"Senpai?"
Gudako waved Mash off and smiled,
"Just going to go look around is all. No need to follow me."
Mash seemed to hesitate before she furrowed her brow,
"Did I ask something…. I wasn't supposed to?"
She paused and turned around to see Mash staring at her clearly worried to which she shook her head and gave a more confident smile,
"Just can't stand the idea of sitting here and doing nothing is all… I'm already useless enough with my circuits-"
"You're not useless at all Senpai!"
Gudako took a step back unconsciously as Mash quickly got to her feet and moved over to grab her hand in her own. She looked into the girls bright eyes,
"You're… just doing what you can for now and thats all you should do. Dr. Roman told me that once and… It helped when I felt like I should be doing more than I was already…"
She trailed off and started looking worried again as Gudako chuckled before reaching up to rub the top of her head. Mash blushed slightly and as she took her hand away slowly reached up to touch the same spot on her head with her own hands,
"I'll be safe. I promise. Okay?"
The Shielder seemed to hesitate but nodded a bit,
"Be safe."
Gudako smiled at her again and left the room to try and find Ryujin. She couldn't send out a pulse to sense where everyone was but as she walked into the fifth classroom on the third floor still unable to find the woman she frowned and crossed her arms while tapping her boot on the ground.
"Something about a string connecting us right…?"
She muttered to herself as she closed her eyes to think back to the crashcourse her mother had given her. Her mind went back to that string that Ryujin had used during the fight with the monster and decided to mentally imagine that string connecting her to the servant. She frowned as the string went in and out of focus only to suddenly sharpen as she sensed Ryujin on the other end,
(|Yes Master? You needed me?|)
Gudako opened her eyes stunned she was able to do it at all before she cautiously sent a thought back,
~|Ryujin? Did I manage to...|~
She heard chuckling over the connection and pouted not that the woman could see her,
(|You used the Master/Servant contract to establish this mental link correct? You should get used to feeling someone at the edge of your consciousness if you plan to be a Master commanding many Servants. If you want to talk in person I'm on the roof.|)
Ryujin partially disconnected from the link but didn't cut it off completely as Gudako ran a hand through her hair and made her way to the stairs to get to the roof. Climbing the stairs and pushing open the door she immediately noticed her servant leaning back on the surrounding wall. She walked over and stood next to her in silence for a bit before Ryujin sighed and looked out of the corner of her eye at her,
"Let me guess. You have questions about the grail war I oversaw that involved your parents?"
Gudako blinked and shook her head,
"I'm more than a little curious but I also know that now isn't a good time. I'd like to hear it when we're safe so I can make sure to memorize it. No my question is more…"
She trailed off and pursed her lips as she looked out at the burning city wondering how to ask the question that had been lingering in her mind ever since she had woken up here. As she looked out into the city she saw another building collapse in the metro area but the only sound she heard was a faint rumble. She leaned forward, resting her arms on the wall that Ryujin was leaning back against,
"You're wondering if we're going to make it back safely. Right?"
Looking over at the other woman she saw she was smiling at her and she nodded before looking back out over the landscape,
"I just- Do you-"
"Inhale for three seconds, hold for four, exhale for five. Give yourself time to think."
Glancing at the other woman she decided to try it as she closed her eyes, inhaled for three seconds making sure to fill her lungs, held it for four seconds, and then exhaled for five. She immediately noticed her thoughts becoming less jumbled and opened her eyes,
"What was that? Some super secret shinto meditation technique?"
Ryujin huffed a single laugh and shook her head,
"Nope. Just something I do to calm my nerves. Gods get nervous too you know. As for the answer to your question I don't know if we get back safely or not. I'm not a god of prophecy so I can't tell or predict the future. What I can tell you is that us all getting back safely depends on you keeping a level head and making the best decision you can at that moment. Anything after that can be handled by our future selves."
Gudako turned to look at the other woman and tilted her head a bit wondering how to ask her next question. Right as she was about to she noticed a ruby red glow from on top of a tall building in what would have been downtown Fuyuki and wondered what it was only for Ryujin to grab the back of her shirt and yank her down below the wall. She barely had time to yelp as Ryujin placed her hand over her mouth and shook her head. As they sat there they faintly heard the sound of a bow rapidly firing followed by an explosion. After a few seconds Ryujin slowly rose and looked over the edge of the wall before exhaling slowly,
"That was Archer… what was he shooting at…"
She stood up as Gudako rose alongside her noticing that Ryujins eyes were glowing and she swallowed nervously,
"Ryujin?"
The woman hummed to show she was listening as she continued to look out over the city,
"Do you see what Archer was shooting at?"
She hummed a no and then the glow in her eyes faded before she looked back at her,
"We need to talk to Caster. He's fought Archer before right? Then he'll know how best to deal with him."
Gudako nodded and walked back to the stairwell with Ryujin close behind and descended back into the school,
"Caster?"
Gudako called out only to frown when she didn't get a response back. She turned to Ryujin who tilted her head and seemed to focus before grinning at her,
"He's in the library."
They both started to look around for the signs to lead to the library eventually going down to the second floor were they turned a corner and saw the sign for the library. Going up to the door leading into it they saw it was partially open and Gudako knocked,
"Caster? You in here?"
She heard movement from within the room and the door slid fully open to see a tired but alert Caster who looked at her, glanced behind her at Ryujin, and then ran his hand over his face before waving them inside,
"Careful where you step. These runes are sensitive and placed specifically."
Gudako looked down and saw shimmering blue runes on the floor then noticed them spread all over along with lines carved into the floor forming a magic circle. She gingerly walked through them to follow Caster and turned around some book shelves to see him sitting back down beside a deer. She gasped and quickly covered her mouth as Caster held a finger to his lips before reaching back down to stroke the animals fur.
"Is it-"
"Not dead. Not yet, its… injured though, see?"
He carefully jerked his chin to where she couldn't see as she was still mostly behind a book shelf. She swallowed and slowly moved fully around only to feel bile try to surge up her throat as she saw the corruption on the back half of the animal. She held her hand up to her mouth as Ryujin came around the corner and immediately took stock of the situation,
"You know you can't save it right?"
Caster smiled softly and nodded,
"I know but…. I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't stay with it until the end. Don't worry, I've got this locked down. The runes I placed are stifling the corruption and easing the pain the animal is under. So…"
He trailed off as Gudako slowly walked forward and knelt onto her knees gingerly reaching out to touch the deer. She touched it and it jerked a little before calming down as she rubbed its neck as she closed her eyes and breathed out slowly trying to smile only to feel her lips twitch in response. Sighing she continued rubbing the animals neck as its breathing slowly became more labored,
"I've… never been good with… a lot of Moonlit world stuff. I can barely use 'Basic' Magecraft and most of what I do know is alchemy based but one thing I've never been able to stomach is the use of animals in magic rituals. I know this makes me a shit mage. The fact I care about animals."
Caster shook his head and looked at her as she looked into his red eyes to see respect in them,
"It just means you're more Human than the average Mage, and thats something to be treasured. Gudako."
She looked at him properly as he said her name to her for the first time. He looked at her for a bit and then nodded,
"I want to contract with you properly. Do you know how to do that?"
Blinking she tilted her head,
"Wouldn't that mean I know your true name in the process of establishing a master/servant contract?"
"Not necessarily," Ryujin said from nearby, "You get a lot of information with one but if the Servant chooses to withhold their true name or for some reason doesn't know their true name then the Master would never know. Most Masters already know their Servants true name due to having to use a catalyst related to them in the first place."
Caster nodded and grinned at Gudako,
"Cu Cuchulain little lady. Normally I'm a lancer but sometimes things don't quite work out as expected."
He winked at her as she smiled and held out her hand to shake. He grasped her hand and she felt what little mana she had reach through their connection as the contract was established. He pulled his hand back as the deer made a pained sound from between them. They all looked down and Cu seemed to grow somber,
"Are you sure?"
The deer made another softer sound and closed its eyes while breathing out as Cu nodded and placed his hand over the neck of the animal right below the base of its skull. Mana briefly pulsed off of him as he spoke a word that Gudako didn't recognize before the deer briefly went stiff and then turned limp. She blinked feeling tears pooling in her eyes as he pulled his hand away and there was a bloodless opening in the animals neck,
"I've gotta clean up here. Are you rested? We shouldn't stay in one place for too long."
Gudako stood up and nodded, wiping her eyes on her sleeve,
"I'm good enough to continue on again. Where are we going anyway? I've mostly been following you this whole time."
Cu chuckled and smiled a smile at her with no warmth,
"The Greater Grails Cavern. We've got to take out Saber before you have a chance of leaving. Luckily we're already 2/3rds of the way there. The path we're taking drops us onto the nearby highway which we'll then follow to an old temple which, if our local dragon goddess wouldn't mind helping, I could turn into hallowed ground to let you get some actual rest."
Ryujin scoffed and closed an eye to look at Cu who just smirked back,
"That sounded a bit like you saying you could make a Blessed Area better than I could. Is that a challenge I hear?"
Cu laughed as his smirk turned into something a bit more feral,
"Sure. We can talk rules for our little competition on the walk over there. As for everyone else…" he trailed off as he seemed briefly distracted before he snapped his head to the floor above them right as Olga screamed.