"Please wake up, Senpai!" says Mash, and my eyes immediately snap open to see her standing above me, wearing an outfit that could be called armor, if one was feeling extremely charitable. Is this that rumored Servant transformation of hers? I can feel the telltale connection of a contract between us, so that seems to be the case. Regardless, it's apparently healed what were almost certainly going to be lethal wounds, so I'm not complaining.
Although, speaking of wounds, the injuries I sustained from [Cor Leonis] and the penalty for using two invisible hands aren't here either? Was it the rayshift that healed us? Gingerly, I attempt to sit up, and then to stand up.
"Huh. I'm not injured. Did you heal me or something, Mash-tan?" I ask, rubbing the back of my neck.
"Um, no, you were like this when I woke up. But that's not important right now! First, we need to deal with these guys!" she says, addressing the four skeletons that appear to be surrounding us, wielding medieval weapons.
"Mm. Yeah, those are definitely enemies. I've never fought skeletons before, and I don't have my weapon of choice on me, but I'll do my best!" I say. One rushes me with a spear, but before I can even react, Mash is in front of me, bludgeoning it with a large shield forcefully enough to shatter the spear and the skeleton's arms in a single blow. "...Or you could take care of it. Hey, Mash-tan, could it be you're actually some kind of top-secret experimental super-soldier?"
"Despite our shared choice in weapons, I am not Captain America." She says with a straight face. "This is just the result of the Demi-Servant transformation - I'm not normally this strong."
"...G-good to know, I guess." I reply, caught off guard at the utterly serious way she delivered the first part of that response. "You know, the way you explained it earlier I was thinking the Demi-Servant thing was supposed to be more along the lines of possession - but it seems your personality is intact."
"Mm. Shielder - that's his class, apparently - said that he was giving me his power, and then left," Mash says with a small frown even as she annihilates another two skeletons in a single blow of her shield. "Sorry, but I won't be as useful as a full servant."
"No, I think you're doing just fine." I say with a nervous chuckle as the final skeleton is reduced to a fine white powder. "Mash-tan is probably cuter than some stuffy knight anyway, so this is actually the ideal result."
"I feel like cuteness shouldn't be relevant when calculating combat effectiveness, though…" Mash says, a light dusting of pink on her cheeks.
"Nope. Cuteness is extremely important! I won't be able to fight to my best if all my allies are stuffy old men, you know?" I say, nodding sagely.
"No, Senpai, you're the Master, so you shouldn't be fighting in the first place..."
Before I can retort, a blue hologram appears in between us. "Alright, I got through! This is the Chaldea Command room. Do you read me?" Says Dr. Roman through brief bursts of static.
"A-Team auxiliary support, Mash Kyrielight. I've completed the shift to Singularity F, accompanied by Natsuki Subaru. Both of our minds and bodies are intact. Rayshift and Master compatibility are both satisfactory, so please register Subaru as an official researcher."
"So Subaru is there as well, huh? I'm glad neither of you 'lost your existence'." Romani says, nodding to himself. "However… Mash! What's up with that outfit? It's shameless! I didn't raise you to dress like that!"
"Oh for the love of… Romani, get out of the way! Isn't it obvious she's become a Demi-Servant?" Director Olga Marie yells, shoving the Doctor out of the camera.
"Director! You shouldn't be active right now! You just lost a lot of blood, so-!"
"Shut up, Romani. I'll rest when I can be sure everything is under control." She snaps back, before turning her attention to me. "And you, the one who wasn't paying attention during my speech! Of course it's you we've got to work with. How did you manage to form a contract with Mash? Only a top tier Magus should be able to do something like that on the fly!"
"If you're talking about the contract itself, I'm pretty sure it was Mash who formed it. It was in place when I woke up." I say with a shrug, and the Demi-Servant gives a small nod in response. "As for actually maintaining it, I've got a high affinity for Spirits, and I'm still full on MP, so it's not that surprising."
"MP..." the director says with a scandalized look. "Our only hope is someone who refers to his mana reserves as 'MP'..."
***
A few minutes of briefing later, we discovered the connection was cutting out, and Mash and I were sent to go secure a nearby leyline so we could summon another Servant. Slowly, we made our way through the smoldering ruins of Fuyuki.
Fuyuki isn't a city. Cities are places where people gather, where commerce takes place, where men and women live their lives. Cities are places where children are born, where animals are raised as pets, and where NEETs go out at two AM to buy cup ramen.
Fuyuki isn't a city. There aren't people here. There aren't streetlights, or cars, or trains - or at least none that are still functional. The only living souls here are myself, Mash, and the occasional band of roaming skeletons.
...I really hate places like this. This empty ruin, filled with suffocating silence apart from the omnipresent crackling of flames. I can tell, after all - that there's a reason we haven't heard a single scream in a disaster zone that should by all rights be full of screaming civilians.
Everyone here is already dead. And considering how much of the former city is still actively burning, it probably wasn't the fire that killed them.
***
The leyline site is pretty nondescript. Just down the street from an intersection, a few meters away from the center of one of the many craters pockmarking the ground in this city. There were a few more skeletons wandering around the place, but they're no match for Mash.
"Can't say I've got any experience with summoning rituals like this, so you're going to have to walk me through it," I say.
"Right. Luckily, I was trained to memorize the summoning procedures, so that shouldn't be a problem." Mash replies, and slowly we construct the summoning circle.
***
"Alright. That should do it. We'll need a catalyst, though… my shield will have to do." Mash mutters to herself, moving to lay down her shield in the center of the circle.
...I've got a bad feeling about this. "Is that a good idea? Your shield is our only weapon after all. We'll be sitting ducks during the summoning ritual."
"You're not wrong, Senpai. But the only enemies we've met so far are skeletons, and I should be able to fend them off with my fists for the five minutes the ritual takes." She replies.
I'm still uneasy, but I nod silently. She puts her shield down, positioning it along several expertly drawn lines in the circle.
"Right. Repeat after me. Let silver and steel be the essence…" she starts, and then pauses.
"..." I gurgle. Something thuds into the ground to my left, and as my eyes move towards it, I see that it's a small throwing knife, pinning a small scrap of red flesh in place.
As Mash's eyes widen in horror, my hands shoot to my throat. The front half is missing, warm red liquid oozing out from beneath my fingers. Finally, the pain hits, but I can't scream out in agony with my voice box pinned to the ground several feet away from me.
Mash runs towards me- stop! The shield! Grab the shield!
And then, he's upon her, a hunched figure in a black cloak, lunging for her throat even as three more daggers - when the hell did he throw those? - embed themselves in Mash's body.
She blocks the attack, his dagger impaling the palm of her left hand. A fierce kick is delivered to the attacker's solar plexus, sending him flying.
(As this occurs, I'm already collapsing to the ground, my vision fading as warm blood fills my lungs.)
But even as he is knocked back, something explodes out from beneath his cloak. An oversized crimson arm, some two to three times longer than the man is tall, lunges towards Mash-
Faintly, I hear him whisper, "[Zabaniya]."
The hand only brushes against her chest, a single fingertip making contact. She goes for the shield, preparing to deflect another volley of knives.
Only, the next attack doesn't come. Because the fight is already over. Clutched in that crimson hand, against all reason - he only brushed her, how the hell? - is a still-beating human heart .
He crushes it, and Mash drops, clutching her chest.
Finally, darkness claims me. I feel a strange sense of being pulled, and then...