kaisou | Open log

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Open log

WHO: Ritsuka + anyone
WHERE: just some random street corner
WHEN: 1st of July
WHAT: Ritsuka found herself whisked away to another world? Must be Tuesday...
WARNINGS: Probably none, this time

There's a new face in town! Or at least, there's a redheaded young woman who, while not appearing particularly bewildered or confused, most definitely is spending some time looking over the surrounding buildings and cityscape. As one does when trying to figure out where one is or how to get where one needs to go. In any case, it's definitely true no one here's seen her in town before!

Should you approach, though, she'll promptly swap from that evaluating stare to a friendly grin.

"Oh, hi there! Are you from around here?"

If you're especially observant, though, you might notice a set of red marks on the back of her right hand. But that's probably not important, right? Right.

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Now it's Ritsuka's turn to be a little surprised.

"Why should I? If he was here without me then it's better for him if he found someone he could make a contract with, right?"

And she doesn't see any reason to demand him back if Cu is happy with the arrangement. The Servants are allies and friends, not her personal, well, servants.

The way Takame visibly relaxed at that. It had nothing to do with her world, just entirely on his reluctance to do anything out of turn. All the time he's spent in this realm and he still had reservations about making his own decisions.

At the time he did not, he chose to contract with Cu with the conviction a Master and Warrior of Light should show. He just never expected the original Master to show up. But if she was fine with it, so was he.

"I see. ... He is a good person and friend that I am honored to have by my side. Both he and Nagiko will be thrilled to see you, I'm sure." His tone softened as well. Both of them spoke highly of Chaldea's Master and she seemed to be an upstanding young lady. Which, you know, made things worse in a way.

"... One other Master is present in this city, but he is a good man. Neither he nor myself will do you any harm, this I swear. The Holy Grail does not exist here."

"Oh, I wasn't planning on getting involved in any Holy Grail Wars."

Look, she's been to singularities where those were taken place and still managed to weasel her way out of participating. This was never a concern for her on that level.

"But it's nice to know no one's going to cause trouble anyway."

"Ah." And the confusion returned. Granted, Takame was contracted to a Servant and there was no war here but what reason could she have to possess several Servants without a war? Something must be taking place.

"Is there not a Holy Grail War within this Chaldea? I'm afraid I only know it by name, but as to what takes place there and its purpose I know nothing. I would appreciate it if you would tell me what you can."

"Oh, no."

At least Ritsuka can explain this!

"Chaldea doesn't use Servants for Holy Grail Wars, but to help fix singularities--sort of like points in the timeline where something went wrong, and if it's not taken care of it would wreck the rest of history."

She's also currently under the assumption that this is just another singularity, but that's a whole other conversation to be had.

Well, that... sort of explained why she was so blase about being in another world. Having known someone who breached the rift between time and space in his realm and having seen the edges of reality, he knew such things were... possible, but...

"A 'singularity'? Hmm." It's both sad and a relief that he understood something like this being necessary. "It's an organization that is able to re-write history? Or rather, set it on its correct course. And to that end, it utilizes Servants with you as the Master. Is that what you're saying?"

There's a long pause and continuous agitated tail twitches.

"... Are you the only Master they have?"

"Right. You can't actually change history, exactly, but if something like a large singularity is disrupting it, then it can make everything else collapse."

See, Ritsuka knows some things, at least!

"And yeah. There were supposed to be a lot more, but Chaldea was sabotaged and someone planted a bomb in the command room when everyone was about to go on the first mission."

Well, there's a second Master now, but explaining that is... complicated, to say the least. And doesn't change the fact that Ritsuka's the one with contracts with literally hundreds of Servants.

Takame visibly tensed. Force of habit caused a hand to cling to his left flank hiding a massive scar covered by his clothes. A bomb. Sabotaged. Command room, all of these things were so familiar to him it made him sick to his stomach.

How many people must have been killed in that incident that caused there to be only one Master left? Seven hells, what has this girl seen?

"... And so they threw everything onto you? Because you were the only one left?" He's only assuming this, but that's how things tended to go.

"I wasn't in the room when it happened."

Which is a bit of a story unto itself, but that's another matter.

"But Mash--someone I met when I first got to Chaldea--still was, so I went there to try to help her. We were going to be trapped, but then the rayshift system activated and sent us to the first singularity instead. After that, the only way to fix things was to keep going, so..."

In a way, nobody had truly forced her into it, other than circumstances. She could have chosen to give up hope and quit then and there. But Ritsuka's desire to live had been too strong to allow that, so she'd fought, even if it meant taking on such a massive burden by herself.

"So you continued your journey and it has taken you as far as this realm." Takame knew how it was. Sometimes you take something simple up and revelations upon revelations build up to the point you know nothing else but to forge ahead.

That you need to forge ahead no matter how heavy the weight became.

"I understand. At least to some degree."

"It's not just that I was the only Master, but if I wanted to live, I had to keep fighting."

At least, that's how it started out. Sure, there was the grand goal of saving all of humanity, but that's just an abstraction. What really drove a sixteen year old to make her way through all that was simply the will to live, herself.

Maybe things are a little different now, but... Well, it's complicated.

"I see. From the outset there was but one option for you, then. Anyone would want to keep their life. To the bitter end we fight and live and learn." In one fleeting moment thou must live, die and know. She is young, of course she would want to live her life. She had the spirit.

Takame didn't know the extent of her circumstances, but even someone as emotionally inept as him could sense strength of spirit. She had that in spades.

"Ah, I've asked you so many questions but answered few in return. Please, if there is anything else about this realm you wish to ask I'll be glad to answer." Said pulling something from his pocket. It's a smartphone.

"Did you receive one of these when you arrived?"

"A smartphone? I'm not--"

Actually, hang on, let her check her pockets quick. Funny thing is, when you're so used to getting whisked away to other worlds with little to no warning, you don't stop to check and see if anything else is weird.

And look, sure enough, a similar phone is produced!

"Huh, when'd that get there?"

There it was. Same place Takame found his all those months ago, in a random pocket. Right, this was where he could make himself useful.

"When you entered this city, that phone will appear on your person somewhere. I don't know for sure how, but regardless it is how the rest of is in this realm communicate. At least those of us with awareness of magic.

The Libra app is used for that purpose, run by Zodiac. I'd advise placing your faith more in the users than in Zodiac itself, though twice per month they make themselves known with announcements." Through their conversations, Takame had maintained a mostly neutral tone. But when speaking about Zodiac there's a subtle but noticeable sourness that accompanied it.

So it definitely sounds like this Zodiac is something to investigate, is what Ritsuka's getting out of this.

"And only people who know what's going on have the app?"

Did she understand that right?

Maybe if they were as bad as they were before Mid-April. Takame's perspective was very biased given what he went through that month towards both them and the Black Order. Still, he nodded.

"Mm, precisely. As a whole, app users are more than willing to help one another be it asking a question or providing advice and conversation." It got... weird sometimes but he wanted to list off the good.

"We are all in the same situation, so something of a community has been built. The other Master I mentioned is a vital part of it. If I may, I'd suggest getting into contact with him if you can. But please feel welcome to rely upon me as well."

It still sounds plenty sus to her, and that at least gives her something to focus on.

But there's another thing that, as someone from the modern world, Ritsuka's picking up on here.

"So if only people who know about magic are using it, that means it isn't available to people normally somehow..."

Very sus.

"Indeed. This city's Spirit Vein and an individual's compatibility with it determine whether or not they can access the app or even perceive the supernatural around them. However, those of us from other worlds seem to always gain access to it."

A very oversimplified explanation, but it was the easiest way.

Right, right, but that's not quite how it works, being magically gifted a free smartphone aside, a person still has to download and install and--actually, you know what, Ritsuka's going to make the wild guess that the dragon-man might not be from the modern world. And therefore doesn't know how app stores and such work.

"Well, if someone just gives you a smartphone, then it's easy for them to have stuff pre-installed on it, you know? So it's people who are already here and already have their own that it'd be strange for it to be there."

"... Really?" He hummed, tilting his head lightly and looking at his phone curiously. Indeed, his world is considerably less advanced than this one.

"This isn't an app that can be removed, and there have been a number of instances where it appears out of nowhere along with other changes for normal civilians like Yusuke..." Again, he began to trail off into irrelevant topics and a name that Ritsuka didn't even know.

"Ah, but I did not know that, actually. Before arriving here I'd never seen a device like this before."

"Right, because if someone else had the phone first, they can install whatever they want on it before they give it to you. But normally if you own it, to put new apps on it you have to download and install them. If it appeared without that, then that might mean someone's hacking, or made some sort of virus."

Oh, wait, he probably isn't going to know what that means either, is he?

"Oh, and by virus I mean... it's a sort of program or app that does things you don't want it to, like making it impossible to use your phone, or always making you go to porn sites."

Ritsuka.

"Usually if you're careful and keep things updated and only download apps from places like an official app store you don't really have to worry about that though."

"Hm. That would explain how the app came installed on this phone the moment I arrived. Even in these matters there is malicious intent." Spoken like a disappointed brother. He wasn't fully aware of what hacking meant except for the kind you do with a sword.

But he couldn't help thinking that his leg was being pulled when porn sites were mentioned. Not that he was going to do anything about it.

"App... store? What's that?"

Porn sites absolutely exist and also absolutely have a very close relationship with viruses of all kinds. Kind of fitting, when you think about it, actually.

"It's a place where you can download apps, that's run by a company, usually the same one as made the OS for your phone."

Oops that was a lot of jargon but moving on. "Usually for someone to get their app listed in the official store, it has to pass a bunch of stuff to make sure it's safe for people to use, plus people can review and rate apps so you can tell by that if there's something wrong with it. But anyway you can get apps for all kinds of things there! There's ones to keep you organized, or help you with fitness stuff, things like dating apps, and lots and lots of games. Some you have to buy, but some let you play some of it for free."

Oh, Takame was aware of the existence of porn sites. He's dating an artist and knows several shitposters, he sort of had to be. The jargon only threw him off a little, he was a good listener and picked up at least a few things from this realm in his time that context clues filled in the rest.

Kind Of.

"I see. I was not aware of any of this. All I've needed in my time here was the Libra app and the Navigation app, after all..." Also that temporary Metaverse one but he is not prepared to think about April with anyone that isn't his therapist.

~~At least he has a therapist?~~ Oh dear, this poor man does not know the fun of cheap little phone games. Or gacha games. Or.... You know what just look here.

"Really? There's all kinds of fun and useful stuff. Sure, sometimes you might not need it, but that doesn't mean there might not be an app that'd make something easier, you know? And having some games to play can be fun!"

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