Ritsuka sat alone on the edge of his bed. He had just finished undergoing a fairly exhausting series of medical examinations in the treatment room. Silence filled the private room, but his head was noisy with various thoughts.
"This is different..." Ritsuka muttered softly.
His brow furrowed deeply, his eyes staring straight at the floor as if piecing together scattered puzzle pieces.
"This place feels very different from my old Chaldea," he continued speaking to himself. "The people are indeed still the same, their existence is real. But the building layout... the location of several corridors and rooms... there are shifts in the layout that don't match my memories."
Slowly, Ritsuka raised his face, glancing towards the table in the corner of the room. There, perched a silent crow.
The crow was not a living creature, but rather a clump of water obtained from that gathering. Ritsuka had changed the shape of that clump of water into a crow.
"But, of all those anomalies, there is one biggest difference that bothers me the most," Ritsuka said, staring intently at the crow. "The appearance and Class of Leonardo da Vinci. In my past, she manifested as a Caster. But why is her appearance here that of a little girl and her Class a Rider?"
Ritsuka narrowed his eyes. "What is the meaning of all this... Sensei?"
Suddenly, the crow's body rippled softly. Its beak opened, and instead of a bird's call, what came out was the laughter of an old man.
"Hahahaha! You finally realized it too, my Disciple!"
The deep and intrigue-filled voice of Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg echoed softly from inside the crow. The Wizard Marshal sounded very entertained from the other side.
Hearing the completely guilt-free laughter of his teacher, Ritsuka could only massage his throbbing temples.
"Haaaah..." Ritsuka let out a long and tired sigh. "Sensei, please stop laughing and answer my question first."
"Hahaha, alright, alright, I will answer," Zelretch's laughter subsided, replaced by the speaking tone of a teacher. "First of all... you still remember the concept of Parallel Worlds, right?"
"You mean... worlds that root from the same history, but then branch off due to one crucial event?" Ritsuka answered calmly, recalling his memories. "Where the existence of the people in it might be the same, but their fates, genders, or personalities can be very different."
"One hundred for my disciple!" Zelretch praised enthusiastically. However, a second later, the Wizard Marshal's voice was heard snorting cynically. "Tch, you truly deserve to bear the Cause rank from the Clock Tower. If only those selfish and conservative brats didn't prioritize political affairs and lower their pride, you would certainly have been awarded the Pride rank—or perhaps even higher—as a form of respect for your contribution to saving humanity."
Hearing his teacher's grumbling, Ritsuka could only smile wryly. His gaze stared blankly towards the room's wall.
"That rank, huh..." Ritsuka muttered softly. "Honestly, I've even forgotten about that. To me, such a rank has no meaning anymore."
"You sometimes underestimate your own achievements too much, Kid. But whatever, let's get back to the main topic," Zelretch replied, his voice turning serious again. "Since you fully understand the concept of Parallel Worlds, the explanation will be much easier."
"Next question..." Zelretch's voice flowed again from the crow's beak. "Do you still remember the last memory from your previous life?"
Ritsuka fell silent. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to pry open his shattered memory vault again.
"I..." Ritsuka muttered softly, his voice trembling holding back the pain. "I was tightly grasping the Director's hand at the edge of the Shadow Border... I tried to pull her... inside, and then..."
"You didn't manage to save her," Zelretch cut in. His tone sounded merciless, yet a deep sense of pity slipped within it.
Ritsuka lowered his head deeply, confirming that bitter reality.
"And not only that," the Wizard Marshal continued. "Because you stubbornly refused to let go of her hand, you were ultimately dragged down, falling after her into a dimensional vortex hole. An anomalous portal whose destination was completely unknown."
Silence for a moment. The flapping of the crow's wings could be heard softly amidst the darkness of Ritsuka's room.
"That vortex is an entity beyond reason. Even for me, I cannot fully comprehend what its impacts are or how the laws of physics and magecraft operate within it," Zelretch explained in a serious tone. "But, there is one thing I know for sure. After you were swallowed into that portal, the distortion of space and time compressed your existence."
Ritsuka's eyes slowly opened, staring blankly towards the crow.
"Your adult body shrunk back into a baby, then you were simply thrown out of your timeline. That portal did not turn back time to your past, my Disciple. Rather... it cast you into the Parallel World you are stepping on right now."
Ritsuka's eyes slowly widened. His breath caught for a moment as his brain quickly pieced together the red threads of all the anomalies he had encountered in this facility.
"Wait a minute..." Ritsuka interjected, his voice trembling slightly upon realizing that fact. "So, you mean, Sensei... the world I am in right now..."
"Exactly, you might also have started to realize it," Zelretch cut in, confirming. His voice echoed. "The world you are stepping on right now is not the past of your former timeline. This is a Parallel World."
Hearing that fact, Ritsuka's expression instantly crumbled. His face paled, replaced by a heartbreaking look of despair.
"No... that's impossible," he whispered hoarsely.
Zelretch let out a long sigh from across the dimension. "Unfortunately, that is the reality, Ritsuka. The most tangible proof of it is very close to you right now: Rikka."
Zelretch's voice sounded more serious than before. "Try to dig into your old memories again. Long before you set foot in Chaldea when you were just an ordinary person, did you ever have a younger cousin named Rikka? ...That is if you can still remember your old life."
Hearing that command, Ritsuka closed his eyes tightly. He tried to dig deep into his mind, searching for the remnants of his memories living as an ordinary young man in Japan.
However, all he found was emptiness. Every time he tried to remember his peaceful past, his memory was always covered by thick fog, then crushed by flashes of blood, seas of fire, frozen snowfields, and agonizing screams from the succession of Singularities and Lostbelts.
"Hah..." Zelretch sighed again, this time his tone implying a sense of pity he rarely showed. "Just as I guessed. Your brain and soul are already too damaged, my Disciple. That succession of trauma has caused your memories as an 'ordinary human' to start fading and getting erased."
The crow tilted its head, staring at Ritsuka intensely.
"Listen to me carefully, Ritsuka. In the true history of humanity, there never was an existence named 'Rikka Fujimaru'. There is only 'Ritsuka Fujimaru'. Originally, in this parallel world, that girl is the one who should have received that name."
Ritsuka's breath hitched. His eyes widened staring at the crow.
Then Zelretch continued mercilessly. "However, even though her name is different, the cruel fate to save humanity—which once burdened you and broke your mind—will now fall upon her. And you... your existence in this world has no historical roots whatsoever. Technically, you are nothing more than an anomaly. You are a 'Foreigner' in this universe."
Hearing that bitter reality, Ritsuka could only sit stiffly with his head bowed, his breathing heavy. He clenched both his fists tightly on his lap until his knuckles turned white.
Slowly, Ritsuka raised his face, staring blankly at the crow. "In that case... what happened to my other friends? Those who evacuated themselves into the Shadow Border... All of them!! Sion, Da Vinci, Captain, Director Goredolf... and my Mash?" he asked with a hoarse and trembling voice.
A moment of silence enveloped the communication.
"I do not know," Zelretch answered softly. The Wizard Marshal's voice, usually full of arrogance and intrigue, now sounded heavy.
"I have tried tracking the whereabouts of your people across various world branches and dimensions, but the results are nil. I couldn't find anyone. Not even a fragment of a trace of your Shadow Border remains," Zelretch explained. "I have even delved into the depths of the Imaginary Number Space sea, but there is nothing there. As if... they just disappeared without a trace."
Hearing that lethal report, Ritsuka's eyes instantly welled up with tears. The air around him felt like it had vanished. His brain automatically thought of the worst possibility he couldn't bear to say—that his friends might have been destroyed or erased.
Seeing his disciple's despair, Zelretch let out a long sigh. The Wizard Marshal then continued his words with a very gentle and sincere tone.
"Listen to me, boy. The world you are stepping on right now has absolutely nothing to do with you. You have no obligations whatsoever there," Zelretch said persuasively.
"If you want to leave and abandon that world... go ahead. It's fine if you want to run away from all this madness. I will help you cross over. I will find a truly safe and peaceful timeline for you to take shelter in. Or... you can rely on the dimensional gathering to find your own hiding place."
The water crow bowed its head slightly, as if Zelretch was looking directly into the eyes of his broken disciple.
"Run, my Disciple. Leave all those heroic burdens behind. You have sacrificed everything for humanity... now you truly deserve time to rest."
Hearing Zelretch's offer, Ritsuka could only remain silent with his head bowed. His gaze was fixed blankly on the dark floor of the room. Slowly, an immense despair began to creep in and gnaw at his inner self.
Under that heavy emotional burden, Ritsuka's eyes, which were usually a warm emerald green due to the side effect of the dragon core, slowly began to change color. The green color faded, completely eroded by a horrifying solid gold. His pupils narrowed drastically, changing into sharp straight vertical lines resembling reptilian eyes.
However, right before the darkness could completely take over him, the sound of the room's door opening broke the silence.
A girl wearing a jacket stood at the doorway, looking into the dark room.
That startled jolt brought Ritsuka back to his senses. Instantly, the gold color in his eyes receded quickly, returning to its normal emerald green.
"Fou~!" The cheerful call of the small creature preceded its presence. Fou ran through the open door, leaped lightly and landed on Ritsuka's shoulder, curling up comfortably and stroking Ritsuka's cheek gently, as if trying to calm him. The dim light from the corridor illuminated the doorway.
"Senpai...?" Mash called out, hesitant to step into the pitch-black room. She saw Ritsuka on the bed, his face gloomy and covered in a thick shadow.
"Mash..." Ritsuka murmured softly. He looked up slightly, letting a bit of the corridor light shine on his gloomy face and his pair of eyes full of tired wrinkles. "What is it?"
Ritsuka lifted Fou from his shoulder and placed it on his lap while stroking the small creature's head.
"T-That is..." Mash cleared her throat, trying to deliver the message. "Madam Director is calling us. An emergency meeting will be held immediately to discuss some important matters. Rikka Senpai is also already there."
Mash conveyed Olga's order fluently, but deep in her heart, she felt something profound. Mash felt Ritsuka's gaze somehow felt "heavy," "foreign," and "demanding." It was terrifying for the Mash of this world, but it also strangely made her want to understand him further.
"Is that so? Alright, let's go," Ritsuka answered softly.
He stood up from his bed while hugging Fou tightly to his chest. As Ritsuka stepped forward approaching the doorway, the light from the corridor slowly swept across his face, which had been hidden behind the thick shadow earlier.
Ritsuka looked at Mash, then carved a smile on his lips. "You go ahead first, Mash."
"U-Understood, Senpai," Mash replied, slightly stuttering.
The girl immediately turned around and walked ahead of Ritsuka. However, for some reason, a feeling of unease suddenly gnawed at her heart. Her goosebumps faintly rose. Ritsuka's smile just now... even though it looked friendly, somehow felt so empty, fragile, and forced.
Ignoring her bad premonition, Mash kept walking down the facility corridor.
Ritsuka walked trailing silently behind her. His head lowered deeply again.
Unconsciously, his arm's embrace on Fou's tiny body tightened.
"Fou..." the creature squeaked softly and sympathetically, leaning its head against Ritsuka's chest, fully feeling its master's sorrow.
CLICK.
Ritsuka's room door closed tightly, leaving the room back in silence.
On the table, the crafted crow blinked slowly. A moment of silence, before finally the sound of Zelretch's long sigh was heard again breaking the loneliness of the empty room.
"Haaaah..." Zelretch sighed.
"Can that Wheel also adapt to that kid's mental state?"
. . .
Just as Ritsuka stepped his foot into the room, a loud crashing sound suddenly broke the silence.
SLAM!
Rikka slammed the kotatsu table in front of her very hard. The room, which was initially messy due to building debris and after being cleaned was temporarily repurposed as a lounge area for the staff, was now enveloped in an incredibly tense atmosphere.
Romani, Olga, and Da Vinci were seen sitting around the kotatsu table, while the surviving Chaldea staff sat stiffly around them with pale faces.
In front of Rikka, a monitor screen displayed a projection of the globe with 7 black dots pulsating unnaturally.
"Y-You're lying, right?! The whole world... is burning?!" Rikka shouted in panic, her breathing ragged staring at the screen.
"Unfortunately, that is indeed the reality," Olga replied in a cold tone, even though her facial expression held back the same tension. "Da Vinci, show her the last recording."
"Alright, wait a minute," Da Vinci said. The genius girl reached her hand under the kotatsu blanket, grumbling softly trying to grab something. When her hand was pulled out, a remote was already in her grasp.
Da Vinci pressed one of the buttons, and the large monitor screen on the room's wall instantly lit up brightly.
"This is the last recording we managed to get. Everywhere is experiencing the same thing," Da Vinci explained.
The screen instantly displayed a series of scenes that felt like a nightmare. A massive sea of fire enveloped the earth. Major metropolitan cities were recorded in ruins; Paris, New York, London, Tokyo, to Shanghai all chewed up by the blazing flames.
The video then switched to the last recording taken from the peak of Mount Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro. The city below had completely drowned in a glowing red sea of fire. Even the iconic giant statue standing at the mountain's peak slowly began to crack and crumble, licked by the same terrifying fire.
"Our communication lines with the outside world are completely cut off. And our people who are currently on missions out there cannot be contacted at all," Da Vinci continued, her tone of voice turning very heavy and serious.
The little girl looked at Rikka straight on. "In short... the world outside this Chaldea facility has been destroyed."
Hearing that bitter reality, Rikka stepped back a few paces. Her eyes widened full of horror. Both her hands trembled violently as they covered her mouth, trying to muffle the scream stuck in her throat.
"Mom... Dad... My friends..." she whispered hoarsely.
Her defenses collapsed. Sobs instantly broke out, and tears flowed heavily wetting her cheeks. "Then... if the whole world is already destroyed, why... why are we the only ones who survived?!" she screamed hysterically.
At the doorway, Ritsuka only stood silent and speechless, observing the girl's mental breakdown. With a blank stare, he listened to how Romani and Olga began laying out the only crazy plan they had to restore the future: a mission to leap through time and resolve 7 anomaly points called Singularities.
Hearing that nonsensical plan, Rikka's swollen face was immediately filled with anger and absolute fear.
"Stop joking around!" Rikka snapped loudly, glaring sharply at Olga. "You're telling me to enter that kind of hell again?! And there are seven of them?! You all are completely crazy! Just so you know, I am just a kidnapping victim here! You dragged me to this facility by force from the start! I don't want to experience that horror again!"
"Then what other choice do we have?!" Olga retorted just as loudly, her voice shrieking covering the girl's sobs. The pressure of being the Director made her emotions explode too. "This is the only way to save the future of humanity! If you don't want to do it, then the world will truly be wiped out without a trace! Do you want to let that happen?!"
"I am just an ordinary high school girl!" Rikka screamed with a cracking voice. Her body trembled violently due to the fear and the burden suddenly dumped upon her. "And now you're telling me to save the world?! Please use your common sense! This is the real world, not a fanfic story or a cheap shounen manga! Such a crazy thing is impossible for an ordinary human like me to do!"
A fierce debate was inevitable. Both of them shouted equally, overcome by overflowing anger and despair.
On one hand, Rikka was just a poor teenager who became a kidnapping victim, forcibly dragged from her normal life. On the other hand, Olga was a victim of the cruel expectations and hierarchy of the Magus world, demanded to be a perfect leader when everything had fallen apart.
Looking deeper, the sight felt incredibly heartbreaking. The two of them were essentially just two young girls forced to shoulder the fate of the world—a responsibility that was entirely inappropriate to be placed upon their shoulders at such a young age.
The situation became increasingly out of control. The argument heated up and their voice intonations rose until it nearly led to a physical altercation.
Seeing this, Mash panicked instantly. The girl hurriedly stepped forward, intending to interrupt and break up their fight before it got worse.
However, before Mash had the chance to intervene, a hand gently gripped her arm.
Mash turned her head and found Ritsuka gently pulling her back. The young man shook his head slightly, gesturing for Mash to hold herself back and stay quiet. Passing Mash's body, Ritsuka stepped forward with an exceptionally calm facial expression.
"It's alright, Mash. Let me handle this," Ritsuka said softly.