Chapter Text
"Alright. Leave the dorms and follow everyone else. It's not hard. I can do this," Nikki told herself as the siren started blaring throughout the Chaldea Observatory. She knew what this meant; all Master Candidates of Chaldea were to come to the briefing room in anticipation of - at long last - commencing their mission. She cast a glance at the briefing pamphlet that had been distributed, which summarised the information about the Singularity that had appeared in Fuyuki and the mission that was being prepared to resolve its space-time distortion. But of course, that was all old information that she didn't need refreshed.
She left the room that she had been sharing with one of the other Master Candidates - a friend of hers, Ophelia Phamrsolone - and looked up and down the corridor, which revealed to her a quite significant snag in her plan. Which was that there wasn't a single other person in this corridor of the residential wing.
"So much for my plan . . This is fine. It's just three rights and a straight . . or, was it three straights and a right . . one of those. Damnit," Nikki quietly cursed herself. "I need to get moving, the Director will not be happy if I'm late because I got lost again,"
X
"Excuse me!" a high-pitched voice called among the throng crowding the briefing room in Chaldea, where Director Olga-Marie was waiting for the forty-eight Masters to assemble in anticipation of investigating Singularity F. "I, um, need to get through! Please?"
"Huh? Oi, pipsqueak, this isn't a daycare, get lost," one of the tallest men grunted and shoved his way into the room.
Another took pity on the young girl. "Are you sure you're supposed to be here, kid? This is very important adult magus business," He paused, realising that there was no discernible reason for a child to be there in the first place.. "Wait, why are you here anyway?"
"I'm a Master Candidate, same as the rest of you! Candidate #9, Era Sutsuki! Look!" The scrawny orangette raised her hand and brandishes the etched outline of a trio of Command Spells on her right hand. "I'm just short!" she whined with a pout.
"Wait, Sutsuki? You guys are a big deal in Egypt or something, right?" someone asked.
"Not that that's saying much," another muttered. "Atlas Institute hicks,"
"Uh-huh! That's why my dad sent me here!" Era pointedly ignored the rude man, save for stamping on his foot as she shoved past. "So let me through already!"
X
Tyler blinked awake, staring groggily at the lights overhead. "W-what happened?"
"Oh, good, you're awake. Tyler, right? How do you feel?"
The boy twisted his head and gazed at an orange smudge. ". . Garfield?"
"What? Uh, no. I'm Dr. Romani Archaman, but my friends call me Roman and you're welcome to as well." The smudge shifted in a way that he assumed was a smile. "Now, how are you? You caught a nasty fever and passed out, I don't think the climate here agrees with you. I fed you some antibiotics, so that should have helped. Do you feel any better?"
"Uh, yeah I feel fine. Loads better than earlier, actually. Might have just been motion sickness," Tyler sat up with a force of will, blinking until the world came into focus again.
"Good! Can you walk? The Director's about to start the briefing, and she'll throw a fit if everyone isn't there. You're in the reserves anyway, so just pretend to pay attention and I'll fill you in later. C'mon, up we go!" Before he knew it, Tyler found himself being stood up by the enthusiastic doctor, and all but frogmarched towards the door.
At long last, the cells in his brain started to fire off. "Wait, you mean the big mission? The super-secret thing that I had to sign all those non-disclosure agreements for and still haven't been told a thing about? It's starting now?"
"Yep!" Dr. Roman cheerily confirmed, taking his wrist and pulling him along once he was confident that the boy could stand on his own. "Don't worry, though, you'll be fine. Honestly, no one really expects much from the 47th Master Candidate, which would normally kinda suck but today works in your favour! We just gotta make sure the Director doesn't think you're incompetent. I mean, she probably already does, but that's more of a general attitude than anything to do with you specifically," he shrugged sympathetically. "Still, no reason not to put your best foot forward!"
Following him down the corridor, Tyler wasn't quite done yet. "So, I know I only got here a few hours ago, but when do I get to learn what exactly this mission is and why being a history student was a relevant qualification?"
"Don't worry, the Director will explain everything, as long as you're there quickly enough that you don't miss any of it," the doctor assured him. "So we've got to get going!"
"Uh, right! Yeah! On it! . . Can I get some coffee though?" Tyler questioned.
Dr. Roman hesitated. ". . Yeah, I think we've got time to duck into the cafeteria. No one'll notice, I'm sure."
X
After spending ten minutes picking her way through the corridors and rooms of Chaldea, Nikki had come to a depressing realisation.
She was lost.
Again.
Despite her intended direction and best efforts to follow through, she had somehow ended up on the outer perimeter of the Chaldea Observatory, in a long corridor with massive windows overlooking the Antarctic landscape. Given that she had been attempting to reach the inner core of the facility, this was exactly the opposite of where she was supposed to be.
Also, there was some kind of white squirrel nuzzling her leg. Nikki stared at what was presumably some kind of polar squirrel, and wondered why there was a squirrel in Antarctica. "Now who brought you here, little guy?" she questioned, reaching down to pick him up.
The rodent(?) shied away from her touch and barked, "Fou!"
"Fou? Fou! Oh, phew, there you are!" And now there was a girl with pink hair approaching her. "Oh, uh, hi. Th-thank you for finding Fou! I was looking for him,"
"Oh, hello. Is this your pet?" Nikki blinked at the strange girl.
"Um, well, no but sort of yes. M-my name's Mash, Mash Kyrielight. Are you one of the Master Candidates? Wait, shouldn't you be in the briefing room right now?"
"I got lost . ." Nikki admitted, not meeting her gaze. She straightened and offered her hand for a shake. "Nikki Aiadon, 29th Master. Nice to meet you, Mash. I, uh, have a really bad sense of direction, I can never get where I need to first try. Do you know the way to the briefing room?"
Mash considered this, then nodded. "Follow me! We can take a shortcut through the power room behind CHALDEAS, that way we can sneak in from the back. I'm sure no one will notice,"
"My saviour, thank you!" Clasping her hands together with a grateful smile, Nikki scooped up the squirrel(?) and followed Mash as she took off.
"Fou!" the creature yelped.
"Oh! Sorry. I forgot to introduce Fou. He's . . I honestly don't know where he came from, but he's allowed to do whatever he wants here at Chaldea,"
"Gotcha. Well, cuteness is a resource all its own I suppose," she admitte, casually stroking the squirrel. Fou accepted his tribute of affection with a smug chuff.
X
"Good morning, everyone. Or, that is, everyone who bothered to show up," Director Olga-Marie cast an angry look at the two empty seats at the back of the rows of folding chairs set up to accomodate the briefing, then at the spots where Mash and Dr. Roman should have been standing.
"While you were all given pre-prepared information pamphlets, I'm certain some of you felt they were beneath your notice. Well that's your loss because I'm not repeating any of the basic information! You all should already know all about how CHALDEAS and SHEBA operate, and if you don't I don't care to correct your ignorance. This is the situation. We have detected the existence of a Singularity in the city of Fuyuki, the year 2004." That got people's attention, and Olga-Marie nodded. "Yes, the location and time of the experimental Heaven's Feel ritual. I'm certain that's not a coincidence. Now," She paused. Something was flashing in the audience.
"You!" she shouted, causing Era to start and look up in shock. "What have you got there?"
"Oh, uh, it's a lucky charm my big sister made for me," Era held up an orange jewel set in a golden frame with Egyptian hieroglyphs around it. "She said it's a powerful defensive spell?"
"Whatever it is, it is causing reflections when you fiddle with it. Give it here!" the Director demanded with the air of a teacher confiscating a child's toy.
"Y-yes, ma'am!" Era nodded, offering it to her. "It's okay if you want one. My sister gave me a lot, since they all only work once,"
Olga-Marie nodded, snatching it away and pocketing it. "Right, whatever. Now, as I was saying,"
X
"Is instant coffee really the best we have here?" Tyler grumbled.
"Yes, it is. It's hard to ship stuff to Antarctica, you know," Dr. Roman scolded him, taking a drought of his own cup of coffee. "Now, come on, we should get moving. Head through those doors and it's the third door on the right. Try to be sneaky. I've gotta get up to the command room."
"Got it. Thanks, doc!" Tyler nodded, finishing and discarding his coffee and making for the doors.
X
Mash and Nikki crept in through the rear doors, and were immediately dazzled by a ball of bright blue light. "I do not get sick of looking at this thing," Nikki admitted, taking in the sight of CHALDEAS.
"It is beautiful," Mash agreed, and Fou chirped.
"Okay, I see the Director over there. Hug the wall. We'll sneak around the side," Nikki suggested, Mash nodding and stepping forwards as she turned to close the door behind her.
For the briefest instant as the double doors slid shut, she saw a flash of orange reflected in the glass window set into the power room doors. A wave of light that swelled, engulfing everything and sweeping towards her, already reaching out to engulf her by the time her brain had realised what she was looking at.
Then the explosion's concussive force washed over her and her head struck the door, lights flickering in her vision before everything went black.
X
One moment the Director was saying something about how Team A would be Rayshifting to the Singularity first, and Era as a member of Team B was no longer paying attention.
The next a wave of flame was racing towards her, and she barely had time to inhale before a barrier of golden light that she recognised as her sister's Magecraft appeared over her eyes, covering her body like a second skin.
For a moment, everything was blinding light, and Era reflexively screwed her eyes shut.
Then the light faded, and she opened her eyes to see that, while she was unharmed, not a single person in her vicinity had been so lucky. The smell of burning flesh and cries of pain assaulted her senses, and she flinched, staring uncomprehendingly at the blackened and ruined bodies of her prospective teammates.
All she could do was scream.
X
Tyler carefully slid the door open. "Hey, everyone, sorry for being a little -"
Before he could finish his sentence, a wave of air and fire threw him into the other wall of the corridor.
Staggering to his feet, he briefly saw a screaming golden figure emerge from the doors and rush past him. Peering past the doors that had been blown off their hinges, he took in the burned and smoking field of wreckage and bodies that had replaced the futuristic briefing room, shaking his head in confusion. "What the hell?"
Then he heard the screaming, and realised that whatever had just happened, people inside needed help.
He rushed in and scanned the room. Most of the Master candidates were lying, collapsed, on the floor, in various states of injury and burns - some of which looked fatal - except for one perfectly unharmed child(?) who was making unintelligible noises, petering off in volume as she stared uncomprehendingly at her surroundings..
But a cry of pain drew his attention to the back of the room, where a massive chunk of ceiling had pinned someone. Deciding the unharmed girl was not the priority, he ran past her, dancing around flames and bodies, and found himself facing the top half of a pink-haired research assistant. "Hey. Hey, uh," he trailed off, completely unsure what to do or say in this situation.
"H-hi," the girl whimpered. "I . . I can't feel my legs,"
In the background, a mechanised voice droned. "System switching to final phase of Rayshift. Coordinates, AD 2004, January 30th, Fuyuki, Japan." No one paid it any mind.
"Hold on. I can get you out, I'm sure," Tyler crouched and heaved, trying futilely to lift the chunk of debris.
"No, don't. You should get out, it's not worth it. Go help that other girl," she pleaded.
"Oi! Like hell, this . . oh, crap, this looks bad," Tyler started as a tall young woman with dyed blue hair, in a female version of the uniform he'd been issued scrambled around the debris and joined him. "Who're you? Wait, doesn't matter. Lift with your legs!"
"Warning, all observation staff. CHALDEAS' state has changed,"
Mash gasped, staring up at the ball, and both Masters followed her gaze to see that the sphere had become a ball of fire.
"Wasn't that the thing that simulates Planet Earth?" Tyler gulped.
"The explosion must have messed up CHALDEAS. I can feel the heat from here," Nikki winced. "We gotta move, if that keeps up, we might get cooked alive,"
"You have to go! They're about to shut off this area! You can still make it out, just leave me!" Mash pleaded.
"No!" Nikki yelled, struggling harder to lift the debris.
"W-what's going on?"
All three rounded to see the young-looking girl had joined them, peering at the pinned assistant. "Are you stuck?"
"I'm fine! You should leave, before -"
"Central area, sealed. 180 seconds until internal containment procedure,"
"- they shut off the area," Mash weakly finished, collapsing to the ground.
"Coffin vitals: Masters baseline not reached. Rayshift requirements not met. Searching for qualifying master . . three candidates identified. Candidates 9, 29, 47 reset as Masters. Unsummon Program, start. Spiritron Conversion, start,"
"Guys, I think the machine's talking about us," Tyler observed.
"Doesn't matter! We need to get Mash out of here!" Nikki insisted.
"But, we can't. It's too heavy," Era countered. "There's no point in pursuing a lost cause, that's what dad told me,"
"We don't know that!" Tyler insisted, grabbing a piece of metal and attempting to wedge it under the debris. "We can use this as a lever. Help me lift it!"
"I . . I want to, but my legs won't move. Why am I so tired suddenly . ." Nikki mumbled, falling into a seated position as her legs gave out. "It was nice meeting you, Mash . . I'm sorry this is all we could do,"
"That's alright. You did more than I could have asked for," Mash assured her, reaching out and trying her best to pull Nikki into a one-armed hug.
"You'll be okay. We - we'll come up with something," Tyler assured her.
Era pouted at him. ", miss . . uh,"
"Mash. Mash Kyrielight. It was nice to meet you too,"
"I'm Era," the youngest told them, settling down and offering Mash a conciliatory hug.
"Nikki Aiadon. It's really warm in here. I feel light-headed," A muffled noise of despair escaped her throat as she struggled against her own body.
"I'm Tyler. Don't worry, everything will be better when you two wake up," One way or another, Tyler left unsaid, instead taking Mash's other hand and giving it a comforting squeeze.
"Rayshift starting in 3, 2, 1. All procedures clear. First Order, commencing operation."
Blue light shone onto closed eyelids.
X
Nikki started awake and took in the scenery around her.
The Chaldea observatory had been replaced with a ruined cityscape in which everything was either on fire or no longer intact, mostly both.
". . Did I die and go to hell? Oh, come on!"