Ch 138: Three routes.

"Here, make yourself at home." said Asuka as she invited her companions inside.  Her house was very similar to the one Akeno had appeared in, and Akeno removed her boots, then her parka. Assassin appeared without her weapon, and Caster followed suit.

"The ceiling isn't that high." remarked Chisato. "Lancer is going to have to lean forward."

"Not necessary." said Akeno, and Britomart materialized without her Fortress Armor.

"Fufufu, since we are now allies, I will introduce myself properly! I am Fairy Knight Britomart! Let us save the world together!"

Akeno chuckled when she saw the faces of Asuka and Chisato, wondering if she had made the same expression earlier.

Caster glanced at Chisato, et after receiving approval, she puffed her chest.

"I am Tamamo-no-Mae, a housewife in training!"

"Aife, the warrior-queen of the land of Alpi." shrugged Assassin.

"Aife is the sister of that woman whose name you uttered." said Asuka as she rummaged through the cupboards, searching for plates and eating utensils to set up the table for dinner. "That relationship wasn't great. Try not to mention her name again, or she'll fly off the handle."

Akeno and Chisto nodded.

"Tamamo and I will prepare dinner. where's the kitchen?" asked Akeno.

"That door on your right."

Akeno nodded, and she entered the kitchen, followed by the fox girl.

"Let's see what we have to work with…" said Tamamo, opening the fridge. It was empty. Her fox ears and tail deflated visibly.

"Ufufu, I can create any ingredient, just tell me what you need, Tamamo." smiled Akeno.

"That would be a great help!"

As they started cooking, Akeno and Tamamo talked about food, then the discussion drifted toward household matters. The two of them got along well, and when they were done, they brought the dishes to the living room and they all ate together. No one mentioned the matter of the Holy Grail War, having tacitly decided to eat first.

Then, once the dishes were washed, and they shared a tea, Asuka sighed, and dropped the bomb. She told them that the gods had created this world using a fiction from another world as a pattern, and were manipulating fate to have events unfold as they did in the fiction.

As expected, the three Servants didn't take it very well. Even if this half-true was much better than hearing that your memories were fake, your relatives and your own self being created by some divinity, and the world being created just a few weeks or months ago.

After giving them time to digest the news and regain their calm, the three Masters called their respective Champions and placed the phones on the table, starting an impromptu conference.

"Let's start by recapping the events of the day." said Akeno. "Chisato and I met Rin Tohsaka in the afternoon. We convinced her to help up win the Holy Grail War, teach us the basics of magecraft, and help us for the duration of the second crisis, on three conditions. We will save Sakura Matou, her little sister, and protect her. Noah will revive Aoi Tohsaka, their mother. And we will give her samples of Rune Magic for her to study."

"Once the agreement was reached, Chisato and I left her house and were promptly found by Asuka, who decided to challenge us both in a fight. A fight she lost, mostly due to fighting two opponents simultaneously. After Aife was injured and under the effect of my Divide, and Asuka's Red Empress was damaged, she surrendered to me. Chisato, after discussion with Aria, agreed to surrender to me as well, on the condition that Noah will revive an unspecified number of her companions."

"Wait, you have Divide? As in, the Divine Dividing sacred Gear." asked Aria.

"Yes, I entrusted Albion to Akeno and Ddraig to Rias. Regarding the matter of resurrecting people, I have no issue with doing that." said Noah through the phone. "I asked my System, and I could do it right away, but the revived people will be stuck in my home or in the two worlds I manage until we can all go to the world you're in."

"I understand, I'll be very grateful if you can bring them back, Noah." replied Aria.

"It's fine. It will only require me to spend some time killing Hollows to come up with the requirements. Not a big deal. And I suspect that I'd be fond of them and want to do it anyway. Can you tell us in broad lines about your adventures?"

"Yeah. Basically, I started in the Lycoris Recoil world. For those of you who aren't aware, it is a world where Japan can officially claim to have almost zero criminality, thanks to groups of boys and girls trained to assassinate criminals of all kinds without the public being aware of them. The Girls are named Lycoris, and the boys Lilybells."

"I became the partner of Takina Inoue, one of the major characters, and we were both present on scene where two Lycoris were taken hostages. Takina solved the issue with a machinegun, but we were both reprimanded, her for recklessly endangering the hostages, me for not doing anything to stop her. We were both assigned to Café Lyco Reco, where we met Chisato. To remain brief, I befriended Takina, Chisato, Kurumi and the others, and convinced them to help me expose the existence of the Lycoris and Lilybells. Because killing criminals for minor crimes and turning orphans into assassins is just so messed up."

"So you essentially teamed up with that green-haired guy, the main antagonist whose name I forgot?" asked Noah.

"Majima, yes. He's part of my team now. With this mission done, Susanoo-sama put that world into stasis and sent us to the next one. I had brought with me Chisato, Takina, and Kurumi. I do not know what fiction that one is based on, but Susanoo-sama gave us the task of joining a terrorist group called Celestial Being, and basically take on the militaries of the whole damn world, using super powerful mechas named Gundams."

"I do not know every Gundam fiction, there's at least twenty or thirty of them. But is there a supercomputer named Veda on yours?" asked Noah.

"Yes! It seems you know about it!"

"I know it, yes. The fiction in question is named Gundam 00."

"Noah, in the near future, can we have a talk about that fiction? The situation over there is still ongoing, and I could use some intel."

"Let's do another talk like this in a day or two and I'll tell you what I remember. So, it's on that world that you lost a few companions?"

"…Yes." replied Aria, her voice heavy with pain. "Shortly after we joined Celestial Being, we had to deal with a trio of fake Celestial Being members who somehow possessed Gundams. Takina was piloting Gundam-Vidar when she spotted one of them during a patrol, and during the fight, she realized that the enemy Gundam had actually been stolen by a terrorist. Unfortunately, Takina was killed by that man."

"Do you have the name of the terrorist?" asked Noah.

"Ali Al-Saachez."

"I was expecting that name. He's one of the three main antagonists, and a major pain in the butt. Did you get him?"

"No. He's still at large somewhere. Even with my skills, I haven't found him yet… And more recently, we lost more people. The transport ship we used, the Ptolemy, was ambushed. We lost the ship, and not everyone managed to evacuate in time. We lost… Kurumi, Lichtendahl Tsery, and Christina Sierra. From the people I bought with me from the first world, only Chisato remains, and now, she's not going to be back for a while."

"I'll revive them." promised Noah. From his tone, it was clear to Akeno that he understood how much pain Aria must be feeling. She was likely blaming herself for bringing her friends to that world, and feeling very lonely.

"In fact, I'll start right now."

Akeno and the others watched her smartphone's screen intently as Noah left his smartphone's camera's field of view. Less than a minute later, the field of view changed as Noah took the smartphone in his hand, and pointed the camera toward a beautiful young woman, wearing a purple pilot suit and helmet, sleeping peacefully on a large bed.

Chisato had her hands on her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears, and Aria was starting to sob.

"She should wake up soon." said Noah with satisfaction in his voice. "And an idea just crossed my mind. Once this world is open to us Champions, do you guys think the Gods would allow for some kind of cooperation and mutual assistance beyond the limits of that world? Like for example, inviting each other into our worlds as temporary reinforcements, or lending military or humanitarian assets?"

"That's an intriguing idea." mused Erin. "And we lose nothing by asking…"

She trailed off as she saw Takina open her eyes. She looked in utter confusion at the room and the smiling man as she sat up.

"Takina!" cried Chisato, drawing her attention to the smartphone.

"…Chisato?"

"Yes! It's so good to see you again!"

"Takina, I'm here too." said Aria, her voice heavy with tears. "I missed you so much!"

"Where am I?" asked Takina as she removed her helmet. Her long black hair fell down her back.

"Hello, Takina. I'm Noah, another Champion like Aria. I just resurrected you."

"…So, I really died." muttered Takina, one hand clutching her chest.

"You can speak to Chisato and Aria through the phone. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, you'll have to be a guest in my home for a while before you can reunite with them."

"…This is very confusing."

Akeno looked fondly at Chisato and her smartphone as they quickly explained the situation to Takina.

"Ok." said Noah. "Time is precious, and we should move on. Akeno and I will give Takina regular opportunities to speak with you girls soon. Asuka, Erin, do you wish to speak a little about your own adventures?"

"Okay." replied Erin. "My first world was based on a popular game called Genshin Impact. I solved a few minor crises, defeated many bad guys, and made a lot of friends. Well, it is more than friendship with a few of the guys, but I digress."

"Introduce me to Eula." half asked, half ordered Noah immediately.

"…sure, why not." smirked Erin. "Anyway, after I fulfilled all the objectives Athena gave me, that world has been put in stasis, and I was sent to the world based on the Evangelion fiction. I became the pilot of EVA 04, that's the white one, came to Japan at about the same time Asuka came from Germany with EVA 02, and I assumed the role of Shinji's big sister to help him become more mature and less gullible. Asuka, Rei, Shinji, Mari and I managed to deal with every Angel that came without any of us dying, despite many close calls. Behind the scenes, I also executed the members of SEELE, who were plotting to turn all of humanity into an artificial god. Misato has become the leader of NERV, and Gendo Ikari is in jail. That world is at peace now, but there's so much that needs to be rebuilt. That's it from me."

"Thank you, Erin. As for me, my first world was based on a game named Sword Art Online, where a crazy developer used booby-trapped helmets to trap ten thousand players inside his game. If anyone tried to remove their helmets, they died. If they died within the game, they also died in real life. I contacted that madman ahead of time and managed to get him to compromise."

"I know that fiction." said Erin. "How did you manage to make him change his mind?"

"What he really wanted was to have the players act in a realistic way and live his game, not just play it. I told him that he could achieve that as long as the players believed death within the game was final, but that it didn't actually have to be true. He changed things so that people dying in the game would just be logged off, and the government decided to wait rather than try something that might end up badly. Long story short, I spent close to two years within the game, honing myself and seducing Asuna, Lisbeth and a few others, then defeated the developer himself and freed everyone."

"My second world was, hectic, let's put it this way. High School DxD, Bleach, Maou Gakuen No Hangyakusha, and at least one other fiction I don't know the name of, all in a single neat package. I came into that world with Asuna and two others, and we all started in separate factions. I gathered allies left, right and center, my girls did the same, and my faction quickly grew in power. Qlippoth, Aizen and his Arrancars have been defeated, the Thousand Years Blood War hasn't started yet, and some of my subordinates are now comparable in power to Shinigami captains."

"Since you mentioned the strength of your subordinates." started Erin. "Akeno, Chisato and Asuka, would you mind sharing your status screens? I'm quite proud of the powered armor I made for Asuka, and I know Asuka is strong. I'm still a baffled that she was defeated within barely thirty seconds of fighting."

Chisato shrugged and opened her own status screen, making it visible for the others, and Asuka moved her smartphone to give Erin a better view.

Name: Chisato Nishikigi

Age: 19

Level: 1

Exp: 0 / 1 000

STR: 50

AGI: 80

END: 50

MAG: 50

CHA: 50

Unattributed: 0

Personal Skills: Battle Prodigy, Magic Gun, Acute Senses, Improved Spatial Awareness, Improved Strength, Greatly Improved Agility, Improved Endurance, Improved Magic, Improved Charisma.

Inherited skills: Item Creation, Martial Arts Mastery, Automated Translation, Healing.

Favor Points: 65 712

"I guess I should show mine as well, to be fair." shrugged Asuka as she did the same as Chisato.

Name: Asuka Shikinami

Age: 18

Level: 1

Exp: 0 / 1 000

STR: 30

AGI: 45

END: 40

MAG: 70

CHA: 30

Unattributed: 0

Personal Skills: Genius Pilot, Machine Affinity, Battle Sense, Battlemage Specialization, Regeneration, Purge.

Inherited skills: Technopathy, Automated Translation, Healing.

Contribution Points: 92 523

"Battlemage Specialization?" asked Chisato.

"It just gives me a bunch of bonus attributes, and the type of specialization determined their distribution. How about you, Akeno?"

Akeno showed her own status, and the questions started.

"What are those bonus attributes? And all those shared skills?" wondered Erin.

"I have signed a soul contract with Noah. As a result, I get half of his attributes, and I can also use over half of his skills. The only condition is that I must be willing to offer him my loyalty. Britomart, this is what I was mentioned when I said I had a way to increase your strength, in addition to supplying you with mana."

"I see." replied the Servant, remaining dematerialized.

"This sound extremely potent. I'm getting envious here." said Aria. "Noah, is this ability to make soul contracts something exclusive to your Goddess or your System?"

"It's an application of Soul Magic. I do not know if you have access to that."

Akeno could see from Erin and Aria's expressions that they were checking on whatever system store or equivalent they had.

"I do, actually!" grinned Aria. "It's expensive, and I wasn't interested in something sinister sounding like Soul Magic, but now that I know about soul contracts, I know what I'm buying next!"

"I have it, too." nodded Erin. "I'm kicking myself for this missed opportunity. I suppose it's too late for Asuka's case, assuming she's willing?"

"Soul Contracts need to be signed with a drop of blood." said Noah. "So, for Asuka and Chisato, that's likely not going to be possible. What is possible, however, is for Akeno to have them sign soul contracts as my proxy, thanks to the Emissary perk. So, they will gain part of my skills and attributes."

"Wait!" interjected Takina, frowning. "I'm still very confused about the situation, but you're saying that you want Chisato to bind her soul to yours? Is this permanent?"

"Yes." said Noah. "I'll fill you in later, but Chisato and Aria have both agreed to it... Speaking about Soul Magic, Erin, Aria, before you decide to invest a big chunk of your hard-earned currencies into Soul Magic, we should first let Akeno, Chisato and Asuka buy high grade magic circuits. Those are important to practice mage craft or supply mana to the Servants, unless you want to do it the other way."

Akeno smiled as she saw the faces of Chisato and Asuka redden at the idea of doing bedroom activities with Tamamo and Aife.

"Installing the magic circuits is going to take a few hours, it seems. And we need to go check on Sakura tonight. Since we confirmed that Rin and Sakura are young adults, can you tell us more about our opponents?" asked Akeno.

"I'm not completely certain yet." hesitated Noah. "Considering their age, it should be the Fifth Holy Grail War, but…"

"I remember it well." smiled Aria. "Shortly after Rin summons Archer, the heroic version of Shirou Emiya, the protagonist, Rin will be attacked at night in her school by Lancer Cu Chulainn…"

Akeno saw Aife twitch at the mention of that particular Lancer, and for a moment, her eyes promised death, sending a shiver down Akeno's spine. But Aife kept silent.

"…The fight will be witnessed by Shirou, who will be mortally wounded by Lancer, as the Magus do not want normal people to learn about this stuff. Rin will heal Emiya, then try not to get him involved, but Lancer will find him again, and just before Emiya dies for real this time, he will somehow summon Saber, Artoria Pendragon. Because in this universe, King Arthur was secretly a woman. And she's far from the only one. She will force Lancer to retreat…"

Akeno and the others listened attentively as Aria told them how things would have happened in the fiction.

"…And in the very end, Artoria confess her love to Shirou as she is unsummoned." finished Aria.

"Thank you, Aria. Did you maybe get that information from watching the show?" asked Noah.

"Yes."

"There's a problem, though. The origin of the Fate franchise isn't the show, but a visual novel. And that novel has three different routes. Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. What you described correspond to the Fate route, if I remember correctly. The second one gives a greater place to Shirou, and he's the one defeating Gilgamesh."

"And in Heaven's Feel, Sakura has a greater role and ends up corrupted by the evil of Angra Mainyu, after being raped by this piece of excrement Shinji Matou. She's the one killing Gilgamesh, too. Artoria is also infected and turns into Artoria Alter, a much more ruthless version of herself. That's why I want to secure Sakura ASAP and improve her mental state, so that she won't succumb to that evil."

"And all that doesn't take into consideration the possibility that the gods may have changed some things." sighed Asuka. "I guess we should get to it, then. Help Sakura, become friend with Shirou and Ilya, and basically Murder-Death-Kill everyone else."

"Actually, I'd like to have Medea on our side as well." said Noah. "If we get lucky on the timing, and we can meet her just after she's summoned, and not after she meets that psychopath, I'm confident Akeno can turn her around. Asuka, Aife, can I ask you to help with this?"

"Yes. I lost to Akeno, so I have to follow her orders anyway." shrugged Asuka.

Noah nodded, and used light magic to show two scenes. The first was that of a tanned man with long blonde hair, arrogantly talking to a woman hiding her face and body with a hooded robe, and a bunch of scantily dressed women behind him laughing with cruel smiles. The view on the windows showed that the scene happened inside a high-rise building, and near the top. The second showed the same man and hooded woman in a windowless room looking like a high-tech lab, with six children locked into transparent cylinders around a stand. The device activated, turning the six children into bloody goo, and the stand generated a mana crystal from their life force.

As the magician was visibly boasting about what had just happened, the hooded figure, Caster, casually created a bigger mana crystal with a wave of the hand, causing the magus to slap her in anger. A few seconds later, the magus and the two assistants burst into flames, and Caster left the room.

"Aife, I would like for you to locate the building where those scenes happened and wait until he is done summoning Medea. Then, Akeno will take action, and Rin can contact the Mage Association to take care of the dozens or even hundreds of orphans kept in that damn tower and erase their memories. With a stern warning that the Magus of the Association should not use those kids for more experiments, or some terrible things will happen to them in the none too distant future."

"If that happens, I want to the be one doing terrible things to them." said Aria, her voice grim.

"You'll have to be faster than me." nodded Erin.

"I'll do as you ask, is Master allows it." replied Assassin.

"I do." said Asuka

"Thank you, everyone." smiled Noah.

"I may already know where that magus is." smiled Akeno.

"It's thanks to those glasses you made. When I was searching for the Tohsaka residence, I saw the city's center in the distance, and one of the tallest buildings had it's highest stories surrounded by an aura."

"That's great. Good job, Akeno." nodded Noah.

"Noah, is Medea really worth the effort, though?" asked Aria. "From what I remember of the show, she's kind of a vicious bitch, taking hostages and molesting Saber."

"Medea's Noble Phantasm might be priceless, depending on how events will turn out. In the Heaven's Feel route, this was Medea's dagger that allowed Shirou to sever the bond between Sakura and Angra Mainyu. But there's more to it. Are you familiar with Medea's history before she became a Heroic Spirit?"

"No. I know she was a famous magician in the Greek mythology, but that's it."

"Long story short, Medea fell deeply in love with Jason, and he married her to secure her help in getting the Golden Fleece. Then Jason physically, emotionally and verbally abused her, cheated on her, and generally was an utter ass to her. And you've seen what kind of man the magus who's about to summon her is. It's like she's cursed with men. I'd like to give her a break for a change."

For long seconds, no one spoke. Seeing that all the points they needed to cover had been discussed, and no one was bringing up another subject, Akeno cleared her throat.

"If no one has anything to add, we should get to gaining magic circuits and securing Sakura, before someone else does."

"Yes." said Erin. "It's been nice speaking with you all. Feel free to contact me again if needed. See you later."

"Bye, Erin. I'm lending my phone to Takina and giving her some alone time. I'm sure she'd like to catch up with Chisato and Aria."

Akeno nodded and gave her smartphone to Chisato.

"Thank you, Noah, Akeno." smiled Chisato. "We owe you a lot."

"it's fine." smiled Noah. "And I'm out."

Akeno gestured to Britomart.

"Let's go."

"Yes, Master."

Britomart smiled slightly as she followed her Master into one of the empty bedrooms. This discussion between the tree Masters and the three people above them had given her much to think about. But she felt gratified from learning that she was going to be being part of something even greater than the Holy Grail War, and that all of her companions seemed to be righteous people.