Fate/Sunny Order (FGO)
- Thread starter Swordomatic
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Rewrite Chapter 1.2: The Burning City - Arrival. Pt. 1
- Location
- Singapore
"So how does the ritual work?" Kana asked, as Mashu laid her shield down upon the ground.
Olga-Marie simply looked at her with an odd expression, but Ritsuka responded, never one to leave an explanation hanging if he could help it. "Well, it's kind of like the original Grail Ritual, right? With enough mana at its disposal via a vessel, like the Lesser Grail, the Greater Grail system is able to punch through into the Throne of Heroes and put out a request for a Heroic Spirit willing to fight for a wish - or, in our case I guess, willing to fight for humanity. I don't think the FATE System needs to charge for sixty years for enough mana to sustain seven Servants for two weeks, and I'm not sure if there's a Greater Grail architecture… But that should be more or less about it. This is honestly a really simple ritual circle, considering what it's capable of."
Kana blinked, watching the elaborate runic circle cast in light weave itself around the cross-section of Mashu's shield, impossibly elegant and far too detailed for human hands, by her own reckoning. "This is simple?" She said to herself. "Where do you even find the time for this?"
"You don't," Olga-Marie said glumly, arms crossed. "Advanced rituals can take months, even years of dedicated work to carve an appropriate array, to say nothing of procuring the right materials or securing the power supply. Something like this could be finished in a matter of hours, less if you know what you're doing. Chaldea simply streamlines the process for us."
"Why? Isn't it composed of magi who should know what to do?"
"We recruit from all walks of life," Olga replied. "Few magi possess the right qualities to be suitable Masters, so Chaldea takes anyone who is willing and able. Everyone with the aptitude is brought on." She sniffed irritably. "It's probably how the two of you got here. Tell me, who was your recruiter? I'll have to gut them for this oversight."
"Please don't gut anyone," Ritsuka said tiredly, in the tone of a man who has heard that threat so many times that it does not even register anymore. He looked up from his book, an old almanac describing the many ways to identify a good gemstone. Though, this one had notes scribbled on the margins. And pictures. Many, many pictures. Pictures that he definitely wasn't looking at exclusively. "No, really, please don't. We hid our identities to come here."
Mashu jolted in her skin immediately. "W-What?! Senpai, then--"
"We're actually Ritsuka and Kana, Mashu, calm down," Kana said immediately, which abated Mashu's immediate concerns - while also disappointing her greatly, as one who had been weaned upon sappy romantic fiction. "We just, you know. Never mentioned our last names."
"Also our cover names were really bad," Ritsuka cringed. "What kind of name is Fujimaru?"
"What kind of name is Gudao?"
"Easy there Gudako you're the one who tried to name us for a tiger."
Olga-Marie looked at the both of them. Each of them, one at a time, with long, unblinking stares of disbelief. "Alright, who got you both in?"
"Hm?" Kana planted her hands on her hips. "Who says someone got us in, Olga?"
"The two of you are far too dumb to have snuck in on your own, and my staff isn't completely made of idiots. Someone did the legwork for you two, and I need to know who." She narrowed her eyes. "Better not be one of the Edelfelts. Damn hyenas."
"It's probably not one of them," Kana said nonchalantly, "They're way too rich."
"Circle's done," Ritsuka said quickly, sucking on his teeth. "Alright, who wants to--" He froze suddenly. "The bounded field's gone."
"Bounded field?" Kana looked about suddenly. She kneeled down by Ritsuka, grabbing the alchemical silver he brought out. "You mean our bounded field?"
"The one around the house, yeah!"
"That's impossible," Olga scoffed. "It's an impressive defense. It would have taken even me several hours to break through, to simply make it disappear is--"
A strong wind suddenly blew through the living room. Debris flew everywhere in huge clumps, books and furniture and the remains of knick-knacks alike. Kana immediately threw herself at her brother and Olga-Marie, sending them all into the ground where they would have more protection. Mashu Kyrielight moved quickly, her superhuman constitution rendering her immune to all immediate danger.
When Ritsuka next looked up, his sister had flash-forged the alchemical silver into an arming sword, and he could see the night sky, tinged amber by a burning city. The upper floors of his home had vanished all of a sudden. And the chill that continued to slide past his back like a river would not subside.
"What was that?" He said. He blinked several times, but his eyes refused to adjust. By his side, Olga-Marie had collapsed and passed out.
Another wind blew through the living room. The clash of steel. The grip of flesh. Ritsuka looked up to find his sister careening through the air and landing butt-first through another wall while Mashu locked her hands against a pair of giant nails, held in the hands of a statuesque woman with long violet hair that went down to the floor, her skin a sickly pale complexion, her eyes covered by a thick blindfold.
"Oya?" The older woman purred, her voice like poisoned velvet. "This is a surprise. You might be worth some of my time."
"Senpai, quickly!" Mashu cried out. "I'll hold Rider back!"
Ritsuka's mind was buzzing with information. He felt overwhelmed. He couldn't breathe. "B-Barehanded?!"
The distant wall broke. Kana rolled back into the living room, her body a blazing green network of circuits and power, silver sword in hand. She was covered in cuts and scrapes, the knuckles on her trembling hands most of all. Yet she raised her other hand, all fingers pointed forward, and unleashed black bolt after black bolt upon the encroaching Servant. Rider weathered the storm like it was spring rain, more than content to overpower the Shielder as she liked.
"Hurry up and summon something!" She shouted. Ritsuka snapped to the shield on the floor, gazed at the runic circle branded in light over it. He reached his hand out, trembling digits scratching against the celtic runes upon the center of the shield's cross. He looked to the side, where Olga-Marie had passed out. And only then did he realise that he didn't know what to do.
Mashu cried out as Rider gradually pushed down on her, the taller Servant always having the advantage in a grapple. Kana was on her toes, ready to dive into the melee once more if she had to, but her pleading eyes kept glancing towards Ritsuka. There was no time left. And he didn't know the incantation.
Ritsuka tightened his grip on the shield. He closed his eyes and made a simple prayer.
Please, give me someone I can trust.
Three bands of light erupted from the shield, humming as they spun about in the air. The humming turned into a shriek as the magic reached its apex and erupted into a pillar of light. Mashu cried out as she was finally overpowered and Rider, no longer amused, simply kicked her aside. She hurled a nail at Kana and dove for Ritsuka, eager for the taste of human blood.
A violet ray of light struck her in the chest and sent her back. The light faded, revealing a woman covered in fine robes, her face hidden by a long hood. She stepped forward with a staff in hand, hurling a bolt of lightning at Rider. The Servant retreated several steps, distance it could cross in a moment, but it gave them enough space to breathe.
"Servant Caster, answering the call," the mysterious woman said, her voice smooth as velvet and brimming with pride. She tossed another lightning bolt, deleting the door where Rider stood as she evaded once more. "I will fight for mankind. And sooner than I thought," she added with a sinister chuckle. "What will you have me do, Master of Chaldea?"
Ritsuka worked his mouth but no words came out. He couldn't believe it. He called, and a Servant answered, a powerful witch from ancient history and myth. His Servant. Caster. "I, uh…"
Rider returned suddenly, falling from above at speed with her arms crossed before her face. Mashu met her with her shield now in hand, the clash a deafening shriek of metal. As Rider bounced off, Kana pulled her brother to his feet. "We need to beat her!" She cried out to Caster. "I know who she is!"
Rider kicked off Mashu's shield and landed on all fours. Beneath her disheveled hair, her eyes were open. Large beautiful eyes filled with a kaleidoscope of colours, their square irises peering out at them.
"--That's Medusa!" Kana yelled, a moment too late.
And everything went still as the Mystic Eyes of Petrification took hold.
Ritsuka fell back suddenly. He looked down and saw that they were already turning to stone, the grainy grey creeping up his trousers. Kana stumbled as her ankles no longer moved the way she needed and fell onto her elbows. Even Caster, commanding mana supplies vast enough to stave off the crippling transformation, moved sluggishly.
The only one left was Mashu, her chest heaving with exertion, her bare shoulders shiny with a sheen of sweat. She stood with her shield held high, glaring defiance at the Gorgon's face.
"The hero who stands to the last. How brave," said Medusa, as she strode forward on all fours. "But heroes die, little knight, and you will be no different."
"Prove it," Mashu Kyrielight snarled. She set her shield against the ground, her limbs locked for strength. "You won't get past me. Not one step!"
Rider laughed, a mocking and melodious tone. She darted forward faster than the eye could blink, fast enough that Mashu seized up as human instinct took hold. She leaped over the Shielder in that moment of hesitation, landing face to face against Caster.
"And you, Caster," Rider said with a laugh. "How nice of you to grace us with your continued existence."
"Get back!" Caster snapped, and with a wave of her staff she called upon arcane flame. Rider evaded, an easy backflip as she careened back to the front of Shielder. There she looked the Shielder in the eye, allowing the young girl to watch in entranced fear as behind her, her Masters turned to stone bit by bit, surely consumed by fear, paralysed by stone and indecision.
But instead, Kana had crawled forward on her elbows, already stone up to her hips, while Ritsuka had clasped his hands together and forward, drawing on what power he could even as threads of stone started threading across his shoulders.
"I can't believe you thought of this while we were turning to stone," Ritsuka muttered to himself, while Caster recovered her bearings and took off from the ground. The timing had to be perfect, and he was never the best at casting under pressure.
Rider spotted the female Master almost too late as the girl swiped at her feet with a blade of silver thrumming with light, but she dodged it easily with a simple hop. But caught in mid-air, it would be impossible for even a divine monster like the Gorgon to evade her brother's spell.
"Please don't miss," he pleaded to his own numb hands. "Please."
He unleashed it through the tips of his fingers, eight strands of light that coalesced and wove together into a tapestry of fire. It washed past Shielder, leaving her unmarked, but consumed Rider, who was blown back a step.
"Impudent," Rider snarled. She whipped her head, the ends of her hair snapping like snakes. "Irrelevant!"
Still burning, she charged right back in, intending to catch the Shielder off-guard and regain the momentum.
"By my Command Seal," Kana declared, her body turning grey but her voice never wavering, "Mashu, stand strong!"
The power left her hand as a bolt of red lightning and filled the Shielder with unnatural resolve. Rider struck her shield, but Mashu did not yield. The monster pitted her full strength against the young Hero, but the Shielder took not one step back. In her small body burned great courage and strength, strength to never falter against darkness.
And long before her Master's command faded and doubt was allowed to slip back into Mashu's thoughts, a dazzling array of circles appeared in the skies and unleashed a rain of light upon the stationary Rider, whose inhuman constitution could not resist such power and whose cursed blood was not proof against such great magicks. Finally Medusa faltered, her power and her life spent fruitlessly against the Shielder. She fell to her knees, then onto her back, where she vanished without a trace into motes of blackened ash.
Then, and only then, did Mashu drop her shield.
----
In the aftermath of Rider's defeat, Caster raised both her Masters to their feet with a simple wave of her hand, using magecraft from the days when Gods were real and present in the lives of mere men. Though the Gorgon had been defeated, the petrification lingered still, even as it receded quickly. Ritsuka and Kana leaned against one another to keep their balance as they faced their Servant, after they managed to set Mashu on the couch with Caster's help.
"That was an audacious plan, Master," the witch said, equal parts amused and appalled. "The place of a Master is to lead from the back, yet you showed no hesitation and joined the fray directly. In my time, that would be unthinkable. The Magus does not fight on the frontlines. That is what warriors are for."
Kana shrugged with one arm, grinning widely despite - or rather, because of how they won. For a plan she threw together in moments, she quite liked it. "I saw an opportunity and I took it, Caster. Besides, I'm not much of a Magus. This nerd's the one with the firepower."
"Could've thrown a lightning bolt, actually," Ritsuka muttered glumly. "Would've actually done more damage and may have even been a faster cast. Ugh, and my aim was still off."
"Shut up, Rits, you did good. Stop beating yourself up."
Caster continued, no doubt keeping her comments about Ritsuka's abilities to herself, if she even bothered to consider any. "I've only known one other to be as stupidly suicidal as you, and the boya was a true fool. But I've been remiss. We haven't made proper introductions, and we're safe for the moment." She took her hood down, revealing herself to be a true beauty underneath. Her lavender hair remained glossy and silky despite the battlefield she appeared in, but her most distinctive feature was certainly her pointed ears. "I am Medea of Colchis, Servant Caster."
And then Kana turned to Ritsuka with a fierce tilt of her head, a flash of anger crossing her eyes. "Rits, did you fuckin' summon the Witch of Betrayal?"
Medea's smile turned tense, judged once more for actions beyond her control.
"I mean, I guess?" Ritsuka's eyes were wild, but then he frowned and hardened his expression. "Look, I wished for someone I could trust when I did the summon, alright? Just because mom doesn't like her doesn't mean we have to!"
"...Alright, that's fair. You've either done real good or real bad here, Rits, but whatever. Sorry about that, Caster," Kana sighed as she turned back, "It's just that when I was younger, I heard about your… Exploits."
"Before or after I died?" Medea asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Hm? Does it matter?"
"Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Tell me, Masters, what are your names?"
"Ritsuka Tohsaka," Ritsuka said with a nod.
"Kana Tohsaka," Kana replied, jaw tense as the gears in her mind turned.
Medea regarded them both, lips a tense dip. "I see my initial assessment was more accurate than I thought. Is your father a redhead with gold eyes and a penchant for swords?"
Kana's eyes widened. Ritsuka's jaw hit the ground. "Oh my god, you remember the Fifth War," both of them said.
Medea considered Kana for a moment, before she turned to Ritsuka. Then, she smiled. "Master… Ritsuka, yes? You were the one to summon me?"
"Ah, yes Caster."
"And you said you wished for someone you could trust?"
Ritsuka only nodded.
"I see." Medea looked up at the burning sky, then around at a home torn asunder. "I would keep one such as myself at arm's length, Masters. But rest assured that I answered the call to fight for mankind's future, not for a selfish wish. I have every intention of abiding by that promise, provided the two of you remain committed to the mission. Would that be fair?"
"Honestly I'm just amazed you haven't shot us with lasers," Kana said, breathless despite everything. "I mean, our mom beat you with her bare hands! Doesn't that make you just a little mad at us?"
"I am a professional, young lady," Caster said with a laugh. "Are my terms fair, Masters of Chaldea?"
"They are," Ritsuka replied. "Be our sword in this war for our future."
Caster nodded. "Very well. I will secure the region and watch for further interlopers. If Rider remains the same, we may well encounter the others… Perhaps even myself." Caster's gaze turns distant for a moment before she regards her Masters again. "Did the boya ever mention Archer?"
Ritsuka nodded. "Dad told us already," Kana said with a shrug. "Honestly, it explains a lot."
"Then know that he may already be after us. Our battle against Rider was brief, but it will not be overlooked. Not in this world devoid of humans."
Caster departed on that note, vanishing into a cloud of butterflies. Ritsuka and Kana looked at one another, faces set into frowns.
"Think she's around too?" Kana asked, after a moment of silence.
"Sucker's bet," Ritsuka replied, his expression grim.
"...Damn."
----
"Are you an idiot? Do you sincerely, honestly have a death wish? What kind of fool continues fighting after their entire lower body is stone?!"
Olga-Marie had awoken quickly after Rider was defeated, and she had been on their case since. Kana was less than enthused for the lecture, and slouched in her couch as far as it would allow, the one arm propping her head so low it dipped below the armrests. While the petrification had reverted by then, considering how quickly they dealt with the Gorgon herself, her legs continued to feel stiff. More pertinently, her elbows were scuffed. Crawling across a debris-laden floor as quickly as she needed was hell on her arms, and she was paying for it now.
The gaping hole in the ceiling did nothing to quench her mood.
"It worked, didn't it?" Kana grumbled. Ritsuka had avoided the brunt of the Director's ire, as he was fussing over Mashu's injuries. The Shielder was insisting that she was fine, that everything was alright and she was just overcome in the moment after beating Rider, but her brother would hear nothing about it. He was always good at dodging these scoldings, damn honour student. "Look, Director, I'm glad that you're awake to yell at me now, but would you mind remembering that the reason you're awake to yell at me is because Rider is dead, not us?"
Olga-Marie was taken aback by Kana's belligerence, but she would not stand down. "Of course I know! But that doesn't mean you weren't being bullheaded about it! There were other ways of dealing with Rider, ways that didn't need you to risk your life like that! Do you even know what could happen to your body?!"
"Worst case, I could rip my body in half. Less worse case, I rip open my flesh and bleed - bleed a lot, once the petrification ends. End result is I bleed to death, maybe suffer some major organ trauma." Again, Olga-Marie found herself at a loss of words at what Kana responded with, all the while sounding completely irreverent about the crippling wounds she could have suffered. "But that also means we win. And I had every confidence Rits there could have put me back together."
"I've never actually used any of those healing spells, you know!" Ritsuka yelled from across the room. He had a tray in his hands, while Mashu averted her eyes with a cup in her hands and redness on her cheeks. "Scrapes, bumps, bruises? Sure! Nerve damage, organ trauma and arterial tears? Not on anything alive!"
Kana scoffed and waved one hand at him. "You're a nerd, you'll figure it out before I bleed to death."
"I'm not that good, Kana."
"And if you aren't, we have Director Olga-Marie!" Kana looked back at Olga, a smirk on her face. "And if you couldn't do it, Caster could probably keep me alive long enough to get fixed a little. Tadah, bases covered. I did think about it."
Olga-Marie nodded, arms crossed. "Yeah, I have to admit, you've considered the angles. But you forgot something."
"And what would that be, Director?"
"The fact that you're one of my soldiers, so you only get to do reckless nonsense when I tell you to!"
"Oh, give me a break! We had to pin Rider somehow, and that was to piss her off enough to lock her in a clash long enough for Caster to blast her! Give me one alternative!"
"Spend two Command Seals."
Kana blinked. She blinked again, long and hard. Then, she raised her right hand and pointed at the two remaining tattoos on the back of it. "You mean spend more of these non-renewable trump cards? Director, this is a war. I only have two left."
"They're renewable. FATE replenishes every Master's stock daily."
Kana blinked and sat upright immediately. She looked at her hand, then at Olga again. "Wait what. Aren't these incredibly powerful Command Seals the proof of the Master-Servant contract? Undeniable commands that give the Magus control over their Servant? Impossible to ignore and, if used well, unbeatable I Win buttons?"
"We're not competing for an unconditional wish, Kana. This is a battle to save the world."
"...Huh." She looked up at the night sky, tinged amber, and held up her right hand. "I could have used two of these."
Olga-Marie placed her face in her hands and sighed heavily. Ritsuka across the room merely shrugged as he returned with Mashu in tow. Though he was not involved in this conversation, he heard it all, and he was finally ready to rejoin it now that the storm had passed.
"How do you live with this suicidal idiot," Olga sobbed.
"My mother is a very patient woman," Ritsuka replied with a shrug. "Plus if you think Kana's bad…"
"By every indication, the boya was a fearless fool," Caster said from nowhere, before she reappeared in a storm of butterflies. "Or, rather, he feared for others more than he ever feared for himself. But that's not important right now. Masters, a Servant is approaching at high speed."
Mashu looked up suddenly, scanning towards the south. "I sense it too. Master, do we fight or do we run?"
"We needn't bother with this one," Caster said, her tone irritable. "He's too fast to evade, too simple to trick, and too strong to defeat. The only saving grace is that he isn't our enemy."
"That actually depends!" A voice called out from atop the southern wall. A man in light blue robes, resting a long wooden staff on his shoulder, squats upon the edge as he wore an easy grin. His blue hair is wild and untamed, and his red eyes are fierce, yet intrigued. "If you want, we could go a few rounds before we talk business."
Caster glared at the interloper, but she betrayed no shock. It is as she said, after all; he's too fast to evade. But it seemed that even the Witch of Betrayal had not realised just how fast he was.
Kana racked her mind immediately as she thought back to something her father once said. The gears locked in her mind and began to spin. From the tales, he matched the description nearly perfectly. "You're Cu Chulainn!" She cried out and pointed at him. "Ireland's Son of Light! Also, Irish Hercules!"
"Hah? Irish Hercules?" He hopped down from the wall and moved towards them at a leisurely pace before looking at Kana face to face, where he clearly stood more than a head taller than her. "If anything, he should be the Greek Cu Chulainn!"
Olga-Marie blinked. "You recognised him on sight. How did you recognise him on sight."
Ritsuka shrugged on his sister's behalf. "Blue hair. Red eyes. Insatiable lust for battle. Cu Chulainn is probably the most reasonable guess."
Cu Chulainn, now identified, looks over Kana at the two and, after a moment of protest, merely shrugged. "Aye, fair enough."
Caster was much less genial, and she made it known by hovering closer to him, staff not quite pointed at him but in a position to quickly, if needed. Mashu quickly moved in front of her, for moral as well as tactical support. "Why are you here, Lancer?"
At this, Cu Chulainn laughed, a bombastic bark that made Kana take two steps back, lest he infringe on her personal space. "Lancer? If only! I was called to be the Caster of this War! Running and hiding are all I've known since the world ended!"
Caster… Wanted to be taken aback, but after brief consideration decided it was too obvious to be surprising. Lancer would, well, have a lance. The Servant with them clearly wielded a staff of some design. "You haven't answered my question," she said testily.
At this, Caster Cu grinned. "Simply put, fight me."
Here, Mashu firmly planted her shield into the ground.
"No," Olga-Marie said immediately. "We're trying to save the world here, we don't have time for friendly death matches."
"No such thing," Cu insisted. "Still, if you're here to do something about this awful place, then I'm also happy to lend my staff to the effort. You lot may have beaten Rider, but you'll need to do better if you want to claim the Grail."
Ritsuka looked at Kana, who had backtracked so far from Cu that she now stood behind him. Kana shrugged. "Sure," she said.
"We'll shake on it and establish the pass," Ritsuka added, before he bit his tongue and extended his hand. "I mean, unless Kana wants to do it the other way."
"No no no no no that's fine you do your blood magic I'm perfectly happy to not do whatever it is you just said we could do."
Olga-Marie looked at her. "It's blood magecraft," she hissed. "Mage. Craft. Not magic."
Kana only responded with a long drawn out squeak, like a deflating balloon.
Mashu simply tilted her head. "There's another way?" She asked innocently.
Cu, meanwhile, grabbed Ritsuka's hand with a loud smack. "I accept," he said with aplomb. "Until we secure the Holy Grail, I will be your sword. Now, we should probably head over to the mountain through the woods - oh, but not too deep. Berserker's rampaging and, frankly, none of us can keep up with that monster."
"How many times has he died?" Caster asked.
"Three or four times," Cu replied. "As I understand it, Saber did it before all this happened."
Caster nodded. "Then I concur. Far from Berserker as possible."
"That bad?" Mashu asked, brow creased with worry.
"In simple terms, do not pursue Actual Hercules."
And that was that.
Olga-Marie simply looked at her with an odd expression, but Ritsuka responded, never one to leave an explanation hanging if he could help it. "Well, it's kind of like the original Grail Ritual, right? With enough mana at its disposal via a vessel, like the Lesser Grail, the Greater Grail system is able to punch through into the Throne of Heroes and put out a request for a Heroic Spirit willing to fight for a wish - or, in our case I guess, willing to fight for humanity. I don't think the FATE System needs to charge for sixty years for enough mana to sustain seven Servants for two weeks, and I'm not sure if there's a Greater Grail architecture… But that should be more or less about it. This is honestly a really simple ritual circle, considering what it's capable of."
Kana blinked, watching the elaborate runic circle cast in light weave itself around the cross-section of Mashu's shield, impossibly elegant and far too detailed for human hands, by her own reckoning. "This is simple?" She said to herself. "Where do you even find the time for this?"
"You don't," Olga-Marie said glumly, arms crossed. "Advanced rituals can take months, even years of dedicated work to carve an appropriate array, to say nothing of procuring the right materials or securing the power supply. Something like this could be finished in a matter of hours, less if you know what you're doing. Chaldea simply streamlines the process for us."
"Why? Isn't it composed of magi who should know what to do?"
"We recruit from all walks of life," Olga replied. "Few magi possess the right qualities to be suitable Masters, so Chaldea takes anyone who is willing and able. Everyone with the aptitude is brought on." She sniffed irritably. "It's probably how the two of you got here. Tell me, who was your recruiter? I'll have to gut them for this oversight."
"Please don't gut anyone," Ritsuka said tiredly, in the tone of a man who has heard that threat so many times that it does not even register anymore. He looked up from his book, an old almanac describing the many ways to identify a good gemstone. Though, this one had notes scribbled on the margins. And pictures. Many, many pictures. Pictures that he definitely wasn't looking at exclusively. "No, really, please don't. We hid our identities to come here."
Mashu jolted in her skin immediately. "W-What?! Senpai, then--"
"We're actually Ritsuka and Kana, Mashu, calm down," Kana said immediately, which abated Mashu's immediate concerns - while also disappointing her greatly, as one who had been weaned upon sappy romantic fiction. "We just, you know. Never mentioned our last names."
"Also our cover names were really bad," Ritsuka cringed. "What kind of name is Fujimaru?"
"What kind of name is Gudao?"
"Easy there Gudako you're the one who tried to name us for a tiger."
Olga-Marie looked at the both of them. Each of them, one at a time, with long, unblinking stares of disbelief. "Alright, who got you both in?"
"Hm?" Kana planted her hands on her hips. "Who says someone got us in, Olga?"
"The two of you are far too dumb to have snuck in on your own, and my staff isn't completely made of idiots. Someone did the legwork for you two, and I need to know who." She narrowed her eyes. "Better not be one of the Edelfelts. Damn hyenas."
"It's probably not one of them," Kana said nonchalantly, "They're way too rich."
"Circle's done," Ritsuka said quickly, sucking on his teeth. "Alright, who wants to--" He froze suddenly. "The bounded field's gone."
"Bounded field?" Kana looked about suddenly. She kneeled down by Ritsuka, grabbing the alchemical silver he brought out. "You mean our bounded field?"
"The one around the house, yeah!"
"That's impossible," Olga scoffed. "It's an impressive defense. It would have taken even me several hours to break through, to simply make it disappear is--"
A strong wind suddenly blew through the living room. Debris flew everywhere in huge clumps, books and furniture and the remains of knick-knacks alike. Kana immediately threw herself at her brother and Olga-Marie, sending them all into the ground where they would have more protection. Mashu Kyrielight moved quickly, her superhuman constitution rendering her immune to all immediate danger.
When Ritsuka next looked up, his sister had flash-forged the alchemical silver into an arming sword, and he could see the night sky, tinged amber by a burning city. The upper floors of his home had vanished all of a sudden. And the chill that continued to slide past his back like a river would not subside.
"What was that?" He said. He blinked several times, but his eyes refused to adjust. By his side, Olga-Marie had collapsed and passed out.
Another wind blew through the living room. The clash of steel. The grip of flesh. Ritsuka looked up to find his sister careening through the air and landing butt-first through another wall while Mashu locked her hands against a pair of giant nails, held in the hands of a statuesque woman with long violet hair that went down to the floor, her skin a sickly pale complexion, her eyes covered by a thick blindfold.
"Oya?" The older woman purred, her voice like poisoned velvet. "This is a surprise. You might be worth some of my time."
"Senpai, quickly!" Mashu cried out. "I'll hold Rider back!"
Ritsuka's mind was buzzing with information. He felt overwhelmed. He couldn't breathe. "B-Barehanded?!"
The distant wall broke. Kana rolled back into the living room, her body a blazing green network of circuits and power, silver sword in hand. She was covered in cuts and scrapes, the knuckles on her trembling hands most of all. Yet she raised her other hand, all fingers pointed forward, and unleashed black bolt after black bolt upon the encroaching Servant. Rider weathered the storm like it was spring rain, more than content to overpower the Shielder as she liked.
"Hurry up and summon something!" She shouted. Ritsuka snapped to the shield on the floor, gazed at the runic circle branded in light over it. He reached his hand out, trembling digits scratching against the celtic runes upon the center of the shield's cross. He looked to the side, where Olga-Marie had passed out. And only then did he realise that he didn't know what to do.
Mashu cried out as Rider gradually pushed down on her, the taller Servant always having the advantage in a grapple. Kana was on her toes, ready to dive into the melee once more if she had to, but her pleading eyes kept glancing towards Ritsuka. There was no time left. And he didn't know the incantation.
Ritsuka tightened his grip on the shield. He closed his eyes and made a simple prayer.
Please, give me someone I can trust.
Three bands of light erupted from the shield, humming as they spun about in the air. The humming turned into a shriek as the magic reached its apex and erupted into a pillar of light. Mashu cried out as she was finally overpowered and Rider, no longer amused, simply kicked her aside. She hurled a nail at Kana and dove for Ritsuka, eager for the taste of human blood.
A violet ray of light struck her in the chest and sent her back. The light faded, revealing a woman covered in fine robes, her face hidden by a long hood. She stepped forward with a staff in hand, hurling a bolt of lightning at Rider. The Servant retreated several steps, distance it could cross in a moment, but it gave them enough space to breathe.
"Servant Caster, answering the call," the mysterious woman said, her voice smooth as velvet and brimming with pride. She tossed another lightning bolt, deleting the door where Rider stood as she evaded once more. "I will fight for mankind. And sooner than I thought," she added with a sinister chuckle. "What will you have me do, Master of Chaldea?"
Ritsuka worked his mouth but no words came out. He couldn't believe it. He called, and a Servant answered, a powerful witch from ancient history and myth. His Servant. Caster. "I, uh…"
Rider returned suddenly, falling from above at speed with her arms crossed before her face. Mashu met her with her shield now in hand, the clash a deafening shriek of metal. As Rider bounced off, Kana pulled her brother to his feet. "We need to beat her!" She cried out to Caster. "I know who she is!"
Rider kicked off Mashu's shield and landed on all fours. Beneath her disheveled hair, her eyes were open. Large beautiful eyes filled with a kaleidoscope of colours, their square irises peering out at them.
"--That's Medusa!" Kana yelled, a moment too late.
And everything went still as the Mystic Eyes of Petrification took hold.
Ritsuka fell back suddenly. He looked down and saw that they were already turning to stone, the grainy grey creeping up his trousers. Kana stumbled as her ankles no longer moved the way she needed and fell onto her elbows. Even Caster, commanding mana supplies vast enough to stave off the crippling transformation, moved sluggishly.
The only one left was Mashu, her chest heaving with exertion, her bare shoulders shiny with a sheen of sweat. She stood with her shield held high, glaring defiance at the Gorgon's face.
"The hero who stands to the last. How brave," said Medusa, as she strode forward on all fours. "But heroes die, little knight, and you will be no different."
"Prove it," Mashu Kyrielight snarled. She set her shield against the ground, her limbs locked for strength. "You won't get past me. Not one step!"
Rider laughed, a mocking and melodious tone. She darted forward faster than the eye could blink, fast enough that Mashu seized up as human instinct took hold. She leaped over the Shielder in that moment of hesitation, landing face to face against Caster.
"And you, Caster," Rider said with a laugh. "How nice of you to grace us with your continued existence."
"Get back!" Caster snapped, and with a wave of her staff she called upon arcane flame. Rider evaded, an easy backflip as she careened back to the front of Shielder. There she looked the Shielder in the eye, allowing the young girl to watch in entranced fear as behind her, her Masters turned to stone bit by bit, surely consumed by fear, paralysed by stone and indecision.
But instead, Kana had crawled forward on her elbows, already stone up to her hips, while Ritsuka had clasped his hands together and forward, drawing on what power he could even as threads of stone started threading across his shoulders.
"I can't believe you thought of this while we were turning to stone," Ritsuka muttered to himself, while Caster recovered her bearings and took off from the ground. The timing had to be perfect, and he was never the best at casting under pressure.
Rider spotted the female Master almost too late as the girl swiped at her feet with a blade of silver thrumming with light, but she dodged it easily with a simple hop. But caught in mid-air, it would be impossible for even a divine monster like the Gorgon to evade her brother's spell.
"Please don't miss," he pleaded to his own numb hands. "Please."
He unleashed it through the tips of his fingers, eight strands of light that coalesced and wove together into a tapestry of fire. It washed past Shielder, leaving her unmarked, but consumed Rider, who was blown back a step.
"Impudent," Rider snarled. She whipped her head, the ends of her hair snapping like snakes. "Irrelevant!"
Still burning, she charged right back in, intending to catch the Shielder off-guard and regain the momentum.
"By my Command Seal," Kana declared, her body turning grey but her voice never wavering, "Mashu, stand strong!"
The power left her hand as a bolt of red lightning and filled the Shielder with unnatural resolve. Rider struck her shield, but Mashu did not yield. The monster pitted her full strength against the young Hero, but the Shielder took not one step back. In her small body burned great courage and strength, strength to never falter against darkness.
And long before her Master's command faded and doubt was allowed to slip back into Mashu's thoughts, a dazzling array of circles appeared in the skies and unleashed a rain of light upon the stationary Rider, whose inhuman constitution could not resist such power and whose cursed blood was not proof against such great magicks. Finally Medusa faltered, her power and her life spent fruitlessly against the Shielder. She fell to her knees, then onto her back, where she vanished without a trace into motes of blackened ash.
Then, and only then, did Mashu drop her shield.
----
In the aftermath of Rider's defeat, Caster raised both her Masters to their feet with a simple wave of her hand, using magecraft from the days when Gods were real and present in the lives of mere men. Though the Gorgon had been defeated, the petrification lingered still, even as it receded quickly. Ritsuka and Kana leaned against one another to keep their balance as they faced their Servant, after they managed to set Mashu on the couch with Caster's help.
"That was an audacious plan, Master," the witch said, equal parts amused and appalled. "The place of a Master is to lead from the back, yet you showed no hesitation and joined the fray directly. In my time, that would be unthinkable. The Magus does not fight on the frontlines. That is what warriors are for."
Kana shrugged with one arm, grinning widely despite - or rather, because of how they won. For a plan she threw together in moments, she quite liked it. "I saw an opportunity and I took it, Caster. Besides, I'm not much of a Magus. This nerd's the one with the firepower."
"Could've thrown a lightning bolt, actually," Ritsuka muttered glumly. "Would've actually done more damage and may have even been a faster cast. Ugh, and my aim was still off."
"Shut up, Rits, you did good. Stop beating yourself up."
Caster continued, no doubt keeping her comments about Ritsuka's abilities to herself, if she even bothered to consider any. "I've only known one other to be as stupidly suicidal as you, and the boya was a true fool. But I've been remiss. We haven't made proper introductions, and we're safe for the moment." She took her hood down, revealing herself to be a true beauty underneath. Her lavender hair remained glossy and silky despite the battlefield she appeared in, but her most distinctive feature was certainly her pointed ears. "I am Medea of Colchis, Servant Caster."
And then Kana turned to Ritsuka with a fierce tilt of her head, a flash of anger crossing her eyes. "Rits, did you fuckin' summon the Witch of Betrayal?"
Medea's smile turned tense, judged once more for actions beyond her control.
"I mean, I guess?" Ritsuka's eyes were wild, but then he frowned and hardened his expression. "Look, I wished for someone I could trust when I did the summon, alright? Just because mom doesn't like her doesn't mean we have to!"
"...Alright, that's fair. You've either done real good or real bad here, Rits, but whatever. Sorry about that, Caster," Kana sighed as she turned back, "It's just that when I was younger, I heard about your… Exploits."
"Before or after I died?" Medea asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Hm? Does it matter?"
"Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Tell me, Masters, what are your names?"
"Ritsuka Tohsaka," Ritsuka said with a nod.
"Kana Tohsaka," Kana replied, jaw tense as the gears in her mind turned.
Medea regarded them both, lips a tense dip. "I see my initial assessment was more accurate than I thought. Is your father a redhead with gold eyes and a penchant for swords?"
Kana's eyes widened. Ritsuka's jaw hit the ground. "Oh my god, you remember the Fifth War," both of them said.
Medea considered Kana for a moment, before she turned to Ritsuka. Then, she smiled. "Master… Ritsuka, yes? You were the one to summon me?"
"Ah, yes Caster."
"And you said you wished for someone you could trust?"
Ritsuka only nodded.
"I see." Medea looked up at the burning sky, then around at a home torn asunder. "I would keep one such as myself at arm's length, Masters. But rest assured that I answered the call to fight for mankind's future, not for a selfish wish. I have every intention of abiding by that promise, provided the two of you remain committed to the mission. Would that be fair?"
"Honestly I'm just amazed you haven't shot us with lasers," Kana said, breathless despite everything. "I mean, our mom beat you with her bare hands! Doesn't that make you just a little mad at us?"
"I am a professional, young lady," Caster said with a laugh. "Are my terms fair, Masters of Chaldea?"
"They are," Ritsuka replied. "Be our sword in this war for our future."
Caster nodded. "Very well. I will secure the region and watch for further interlopers. If Rider remains the same, we may well encounter the others… Perhaps even myself." Caster's gaze turns distant for a moment before she regards her Masters again. "Did the boya ever mention Archer?"
Ritsuka nodded. "Dad told us already," Kana said with a shrug. "Honestly, it explains a lot."
"Then know that he may already be after us. Our battle against Rider was brief, but it will not be overlooked. Not in this world devoid of humans."
Caster departed on that note, vanishing into a cloud of butterflies. Ritsuka and Kana looked at one another, faces set into frowns.
"Think she's around too?" Kana asked, after a moment of silence.
"Sucker's bet," Ritsuka replied, his expression grim.
"...Damn."
----
"Are you an idiot? Do you sincerely, honestly have a death wish? What kind of fool continues fighting after their entire lower body is stone?!"
Olga-Marie had awoken quickly after Rider was defeated, and she had been on their case since. Kana was less than enthused for the lecture, and slouched in her couch as far as it would allow, the one arm propping her head so low it dipped below the armrests. While the petrification had reverted by then, considering how quickly they dealt with the Gorgon herself, her legs continued to feel stiff. More pertinently, her elbows were scuffed. Crawling across a debris-laden floor as quickly as she needed was hell on her arms, and she was paying for it now.
The gaping hole in the ceiling did nothing to quench her mood.
"It worked, didn't it?" Kana grumbled. Ritsuka had avoided the brunt of the Director's ire, as he was fussing over Mashu's injuries. The Shielder was insisting that she was fine, that everything was alright and she was just overcome in the moment after beating Rider, but her brother would hear nothing about it. He was always good at dodging these scoldings, damn honour student. "Look, Director, I'm glad that you're awake to yell at me now, but would you mind remembering that the reason you're awake to yell at me is because Rider is dead, not us?"
Olga-Marie was taken aback by Kana's belligerence, but she would not stand down. "Of course I know! But that doesn't mean you weren't being bullheaded about it! There were other ways of dealing with Rider, ways that didn't need you to risk your life like that! Do you even know what could happen to your body?!"
"Worst case, I could rip my body in half. Less worse case, I rip open my flesh and bleed - bleed a lot, once the petrification ends. End result is I bleed to death, maybe suffer some major organ trauma." Again, Olga-Marie found herself at a loss of words at what Kana responded with, all the while sounding completely irreverent about the crippling wounds she could have suffered. "But that also means we win. And I had every confidence Rits there could have put me back together."
"I've never actually used any of those healing spells, you know!" Ritsuka yelled from across the room. He had a tray in his hands, while Mashu averted her eyes with a cup in her hands and redness on her cheeks. "Scrapes, bumps, bruises? Sure! Nerve damage, organ trauma and arterial tears? Not on anything alive!"
Kana scoffed and waved one hand at him. "You're a nerd, you'll figure it out before I bleed to death."
"I'm not that good, Kana."
"And if you aren't, we have Director Olga-Marie!" Kana looked back at Olga, a smirk on her face. "And if you couldn't do it, Caster could probably keep me alive long enough to get fixed a little. Tadah, bases covered. I did think about it."
Olga-Marie nodded, arms crossed. "Yeah, I have to admit, you've considered the angles. But you forgot something."
"And what would that be, Director?"
"The fact that you're one of my soldiers, so you only get to do reckless nonsense when I tell you to!"
"Oh, give me a break! We had to pin Rider somehow, and that was to piss her off enough to lock her in a clash long enough for Caster to blast her! Give me one alternative!"
"Spend two Command Seals."
Kana blinked. She blinked again, long and hard. Then, she raised her right hand and pointed at the two remaining tattoos on the back of it. "You mean spend more of these non-renewable trump cards? Director, this is a war. I only have two left."
"They're renewable. FATE replenishes every Master's stock daily."
Kana blinked and sat upright immediately. She looked at her hand, then at Olga again. "Wait what. Aren't these incredibly powerful Command Seals the proof of the Master-Servant contract? Undeniable commands that give the Magus control over their Servant? Impossible to ignore and, if used well, unbeatable I Win buttons?"
"We're not competing for an unconditional wish, Kana. This is a battle to save the world."
"...Huh." She looked up at the night sky, tinged amber, and held up her right hand. "I could have used two of these."
Olga-Marie placed her face in her hands and sighed heavily. Ritsuka across the room merely shrugged as he returned with Mashu in tow. Though he was not involved in this conversation, he heard it all, and he was finally ready to rejoin it now that the storm had passed.
"How do you live with this suicidal idiot," Olga sobbed.
"My mother is a very patient woman," Ritsuka replied with a shrug. "Plus if you think Kana's bad…"
"By every indication, the boya was a fearless fool," Caster said from nowhere, before she reappeared in a storm of butterflies. "Or, rather, he feared for others more than he ever feared for himself. But that's not important right now. Masters, a Servant is approaching at high speed."
Mashu looked up suddenly, scanning towards the south. "I sense it too. Master, do we fight or do we run?"
"We needn't bother with this one," Caster said, her tone irritable. "He's too fast to evade, too simple to trick, and too strong to defeat. The only saving grace is that he isn't our enemy."
"That actually depends!" A voice called out from atop the southern wall. A man in light blue robes, resting a long wooden staff on his shoulder, squats upon the edge as he wore an easy grin. His blue hair is wild and untamed, and his red eyes are fierce, yet intrigued. "If you want, we could go a few rounds before we talk business."
Caster glared at the interloper, but she betrayed no shock. It is as she said, after all; he's too fast to evade. But it seemed that even the Witch of Betrayal had not realised just how fast he was.
Kana racked her mind immediately as she thought back to something her father once said. The gears locked in her mind and began to spin. From the tales, he matched the description nearly perfectly. "You're Cu Chulainn!" She cried out and pointed at him. "Ireland's Son of Light! Also, Irish Hercules!"
"Hah? Irish Hercules?" He hopped down from the wall and moved towards them at a leisurely pace before looking at Kana face to face, where he clearly stood more than a head taller than her. "If anything, he should be the Greek Cu Chulainn!"
Olga-Marie blinked. "You recognised him on sight. How did you recognise him on sight."
Ritsuka shrugged on his sister's behalf. "Blue hair. Red eyes. Insatiable lust for battle. Cu Chulainn is probably the most reasonable guess."
Cu Chulainn, now identified, looks over Kana at the two and, after a moment of protest, merely shrugged. "Aye, fair enough."
Caster was much less genial, and she made it known by hovering closer to him, staff not quite pointed at him but in a position to quickly, if needed. Mashu quickly moved in front of her, for moral as well as tactical support. "Why are you here, Lancer?"
At this, Cu Chulainn laughed, a bombastic bark that made Kana take two steps back, lest he infringe on her personal space. "Lancer? If only! I was called to be the Caster of this War! Running and hiding are all I've known since the world ended!"
Caster… Wanted to be taken aback, but after brief consideration decided it was too obvious to be surprising. Lancer would, well, have a lance. The Servant with them clearly wielded a staff of some design. "You haven't answered my question," she said testily.
At this, Caster Cu grinned. "Simply put, fight me."
Here, Mashu firmly planted her shield into the ground.
"No," Olga-Marie said immediately. "We're trying to save the world here, we don't have time for friendly death matches."
"No such thing," Cu insisted. "Still, if you're here to do something about this awful place, then I'm also happy to lend my staff to the effort. You lot may have beaten Rider, but you'll need to do better if you want to claim the Grail."
Ritsuka looked at Kana, who had backtracked so far from Cu that she now stood behind him. Kana shrugged. "Sure," she said.
"We'll shake on it and establish the pass," Ritsuka added, before he bit his tongue and extended his hand. "I mean, unless Kana wants to do it the other way."
"No no no no no that's fine you do your blood magic I'm perfectly happy to not do whatever it is you just said we could do."
Olga-Marie looked at her. "It's blood magecraft," she hissed. "Mage. Craft. Not magic."
Kana only responded with a long drawn out squeak, like a deflating balloon.
Mashu simply tilted her head. "There's another way?" She asked innocently.
Cu, meanwhile, grabbed Ritsuka's hand with a loud smack. "I accept," he said with aplomb. "Until we secure the Holy Grail, I will be your sword. Now, we should probably head over to the mountain through the woods - oh, but not too deep. Berserker's rampaging and, frankly, none of us can keep up with that monster."
"How many times has he died?" Caster asked.
"Three or four times," Cu replied. "As I understand it, Saber did it before all this happened."
Caster nodded. "Then I concur. Far from Berserker as possible."
"That bad?" Mashu asked, brow creased with worry.
"In simple terms, do not pursue Actual Hercules."
And that was that.
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TimeDiver
Herald of Dis Lev
- Location
- In-between the parallel worlds...
Blatant. Lies.
Congrats, Herc... you've successfully usurped Lu Bu's Signature Warning.
EDIT: My inner Greek otaku is complaining that Hercules should be 'Heracles'.
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ConfusedCanuck
Where did it all go wrong?
- Location
- Neverland
I'm really liking theses' rewrites I'm having a blast with them!
And that ending just seems like simple common sense to me Herc's is terrifying and is something I wouldn't want to be in a 100 KM radius of and even then I still wouldn't fell safe with him!
And that ending just seems like simple common sense to me Herc's is terrifying and is something I wouldn't want to be in a 100 KM radius of and even then I still wouldn't fell safe with him!
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
"I wanted to be seduced by a spy, Senpai!"
Canon.
Best snek waifu has arrived! Just corrupted.
Huh, this time they summoned while in the Singularity. And it is Medea!
Shows how much she trusts her brother.
CU HAS ARRIVED!!!
Fu-fu-fu, oh, Mashu, let me teach you about things you can do with your Senpai later...
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MWKillKenny84
Lurking from the Trauma Switch.
- Location
- Vado Ligure
Romani (using the Hokuto Secret Art of the Disintegrated Shirt): UHAHATHATAHTAHATHATAHTHATHATHATHATHATH!
*Romani hits Icipall with a typical Hokuto Punches Barrage*
Romani: Omae wa mo nishindeiru.
BrokenAscendent
Unum prae omnibus aliis
- Location
- Auld Lang Syne
Just here to notate that you are correct Swordo;
These rewrites are of vastly higher quality. Good job.
These rewrites are of vastly higher quality. Good job.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
- Location
- Germany
No, I am quite sure that the connection between a master and a Servant/Familiar is called a "pass" in the Nasuverse.
Harry Leferts
Suave Shadow Cabal Kaiju
*Starts shipping Kana and Olga*
What? They're oozing UST like Kana's parents did!
What? They're oozing UST like Kana's parents did!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Really entertaining, I liked it.
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
Always like Olga when I see her in fics, honestly the girl really needed a hug and a good friend. Hope she survives in this rewrite, even if she ends up in a coma until a suitable time.
I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Though, didn't Medea die before she could learn the truth about Archer? Or did she, too, figure out in her final moments when she heard Archer's "Trace On"?
TimeDiver
Herald of Dis Lev
- Location
- In-between the parallel worlds...
"You are already dead... twice(?)"
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Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
The kind of fool who wants to keep living after the fight.
Still looking forward to when they summon Berserker for the first time.
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
I look forward to when they summon an Illya and she meets Herc, because seriously the Sitonai+Herc scene during Oniland was fantastic.
- Location
- Phoenix
Heracles shoulder Loli get!
You know, I don't want to sound rude about your older work but these rewrites are frankly a lot better. It's like ... how do I put this ... a well written story with jokes thrown in rather than a story written around jokes.
taovkool
Forever Gone
- Location
- The Library, Department of General Works
Hmm? I thought Mashu was the only Servant that Rits had successfully summoned?
As I recall he only got stupid keys in his other rolls.
Mattman324
you expected some anime, non-IRL giant robot, eh?
- Location
- Working in the basement on my giant robot.
Until Stheno, yes.
ConfusedCanuck
Where did it all go wrong?
- Location
- Neverland
Maybe Swordo is changing that up then? Or plans to build up to that joke at least.
- Location
- Singapore
That's exactly why I'm doing the rewrite.
What a difference two years of experience and a clear vision make!
BrokenAscendent
Unum prae omnibus aliis
- Location
- Auld Lang Syne
Don't you dare make us feel old swordo.