After some hustling and bustling, several people settled into their Coffins, much to the grumbling of most of the mission control there who really didn't enjoy being sidetracked by a bunch of inquisitive, if well-meaning, outsiders. The snoopy trio felt themselves… doing something. It felt as if they were being astral-projected out of their own bodies, and turned into gentle motes of light propelled across space-time…. It was like an out-of-body experience, but significantly prolonged, as if they were in a very vivid lucid dream.
After that whole process, the original team meant to go on the Rayshift, plus 4 extra, all found themselves in a small, quiet town, the sort that would ordinarily be overlooked. And yet, they were there
"So, it's just a normal town this time around?" A young man, who looked like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in years, asked, seeming slightly relieved and even underwhelmed about the whole thing.
A flamboyant, fabulous, ethnically ambiguous man began to ask "Director Olga, darling, I know you've been asked this before, but are you sure about taking-"
Before the query could be completed, he was cut off by an interloper.
Suddenly, many of the people present began to clutch their heads as if in pain, as a grotesque being began to approach the group. It had the claws of a bear at least in the front, while the back had more spindly legs, walked on all fours like a lion, but its head was some twisted cross of a zebra and a spider, having the shape and 'hair' of a zebra, but the eyes of a spider, only proportioned to fit its head. The body itself was roughly the size of a car, and moved uncannily, the legs, trotting in place like an impatient horse.
As the unknown… thing began to lurch closer to everyone, those on the ground clutching their heads began to bleed. First, a trickle of blood from the ears, and then, severely from every hole in their bodies. Responding to this utterly unexpected string of events, Olga pulled out a communicator of some sort and shouted
"Return Team A back to Chaldea, right now! All but one have been immediately incapacitated!"
Most of Team A was sent back as quickly as they came, leaving Olga, Ritsuka, Rika, Irenaeus and the same lavender-haired young lady, the only original member of Team A and the woman who helped guide the newbies to the presentation, alone at the mercy of the monster, which seemed to stare at them in defiance, with each set of eyes seemingly focused on the motley remnant present.
"Alright, when you're all settled, take us out too! This was clearly a mist–"
"...No can do."
"I'm sorry?"
"You guys' signal is specifically being blocked out; we can't get you out," the feminine voice on the other end replied, with a very distinct sense of urgency
"...We should run, right?" Ritsuka asked.
"What do you think?! Make a break for it!" the Director shouted, her voice very much panicky
The remaining five sprinted into what seemed to be wilderness in a desperate attempt to find even the most tenuous and basic form of safety, blood pumping and hearts racing as they ran, propelled themselves off from the scene to escape with their lives, the sheer amount of effort put into trying to escape the lurching chimera behind them forcing them to keep moving until their legs got sore with the sensation of pins and needles, and the sight of their long gone pursuer was a short, and fading, yet still painful memory
As they got their bearings, they all panted heavily like famished dogs, the taste of iron surging in their mouths, as they looked behind them to see if their unforeseen scourge of a pursuer was still tailing them. The newcomers looked away in shock and remorse, having realised that they came in with more hubris and indignation than sense, the silence of the scene only broken apart by repeated hyperventilating
"What was that?!" Rika asked, still heavily panting from sheer exertion.
"I don't know…." Olga replied, her face red with mortification, tiredness, and anger, shifting to frustration. "This wasn't supposed to go this way," silently muttering, "W-we didn't have any data on that thing....."
"...Pardon?"
"...We didn't know that thing existed."'
Rika reeled back in shock, staggering slightly as she fully realised the mistake, no, the utter catastrophe they had inadvertently wreaked. The world was likely to end, and even the people in charge were either indisposed or even blind to how much they were dealing with. And all in the name of their ill-advised quest for knowledge.
Shit.
Ritsuka, for his part, had his hand on the back of the lavender-haired young lady, having covered her back as they ran from the monster
"Hey, are you okay?" Ritsuka asked.
"Y-Yes…." She replied.
"You're an important worker of Chaldea, right, part of that team of people?"
"Yes."
"What is your name?"
"Mash Kyrielight. I'll be in your care, Ritsuka-san.." Mash replied, switching to his native tongue of Japanese, before immediately becoming flushed "Oh, sorry! I didn't mean-"
"It's fine! It makes conversation much easier, I don't speak English all that well. The fact that I can understand everything is also kinda helpful. ...I'm really sorry for what we caused. If you actually want nothing to do with us, I completely understand"
"Yeah, no shit!" Olga snarled, her voice utterly and completely fed up with the current fiasco. Are you serious right now?! You caused us to get stuck here, and you dare to try to make pleasantries with us afterwards?! Are you really that shameless?"
Ritsuka and Rika struggled to bring their gazes to her, the looks of mortification and horror still present as they met her eyes
"For the, frankly, little it's worth–"
"Words aren't enough to start with how much we–"
Just as everyone was getting their bearings while the twins were prepared to prostrate themselves in penance, and trying to find out what to make of their situation (or straight up just leaving), Irenaeus began to walk away from the group as if in a daze, slowly putting one foot in front of the other, a glassy look in his eyes, as he staggered off
"Where are you going?!" Olga shouted. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"
"I-I thought I saw someone. Like I dunno, a person in the forest." Irenaeus said, and stopped, his voice uncertain. Maybe he was going hysterical due to everything that was going on and all the odd things he had heard, but it was as if... Something was practically booming in his head, begging him to go over there, as he remembered someone, a vague hope blooming in his heart as he suddenly had something that could be either an epiphany or a sudden bout of madness
'Maybe… I gotta get out there.'
"Well, it can't be worse than what just happened. Lead the way." Ritsuka said. "Unless the Director says no."
"Absolutely not. I'm not going to babysit you any more than I've already done. We need to focus on–"
"Well, we're stuck here and kinda need the help… ANYTHING is better than nothing at this point."
Once again, like clockwork, the communicator Olga had on her activated, the same feminine voice perking up, "There's a Servant in the same direction that he's heading. I don't know how he knew it, but you should head there. We're actually all swamped here right now as is."
Olga, demoralised, crestfallen, and generally could only say a simple "Alright then, let's go…." seemingly resigning herself to her plans not just falling through, but falling into a ditch.
The other 4 began to follow behind briskly, as it turned into yet another run, following Irenaeus to the sight of this apparition, this uncertain figure, that seemed to be merely illusory.
After another, but thankfully less intensive, jog, Irenaeus finally beheld with his own two eyes a young lady, wearing an unorthodox set of clothing, a set of white custom priest-like vestments, standing in a clearing in the forest. The branches of the trees seemed to have arched to give way for the light to come through, the scorching sun beaming overhead on the woman, who was enjoying herself in the wilderness and wasn't fazed by the potential dangers that lay within it, probing the trees and birds with an intense gaze, a look of pure unadulterated wonder, as if she never saw something as utterly normal as a tree, as a flower, as the grass, as if the nature itself was something to marvel at.
To everyone else, this person was another potential threat, an unknown variable that could take a bad situation to even worse extremes
But to Irenaeus, this young lady didn't seem harmless and if anything, seemed vaguely familiar…