Fandom Main Record 1: Swan Song of Breaking Worlds

[AiDEE-c0]

Yuuto

. . .

​

―――The girl sitting at the window was lost in her own world.

Following the raindrops rolling down the windowpane beside her, her eyes shifted up and down periodically.
The drops would fatten, bolstered by the water splashing against the glass, until their weight pulled them falling into the abyss below.
...It was a familiar cycle.

―――――Sigh.
The girl's eyelids were drooping.
In spite of the lecture going on in front of her, she couldn't bring herself to pay attention. Today felt fuzzy, like the whole world had been enveloped by a strange aether. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't focus on any given thing.
It was frustrating, but nothing could be done.

That morning, the girl vaguely remembered having a strange dream during the night.
Unlike the muddiness of today, the dream she experienced came off as alarmingly 'real.'
Of course, it was only a dream.

"...Hmm."
But then, why was she feeling so uneasy ever since waking up?
Even though she was thinking, her mind resembled an empty ravine.
At the bottom of this ravine, a looming darkness consumed every drop of rain.
And though she saw them on their way there...

They disappeared into the void, and she couldn't recall their appearances.

"―――Mariya. Hiei Mariya!"
The sound of her name brought her out of her stupor.
It was the teacher calling out to her, his brow angrily furrowed.

It made sense. After all, she was sitting inside a classroom.
All around her, the familiar interior of a Japanese classroom invited an aura of excessive sanitation.
The walls were white, the desks made of polished wood, and the overhead light gave the impression of a surgery room.
...and everyone was staring at her.

"Yes, what is it?"
She stood up, catching the back of her shoe underneath the raised edge of the leg belonging to her chair.
She had intended to rise elegantly, but the sudden tug at her foot caused her to trip forward awkwardly.
The class erupted into brief giggles and hushed whispers.
Her stumble had almost resembled a bow.
...Like the bow of someone who knew they were going to be reprimanded.

"You're in class is what it is. It's clear you weren't paying attention, but maybe you can at least solve the problem on the board?"
A few more giggles of disbelief resounded from the corners of the classroom, as Mariya witlessly stared at the board.
She could make out lines drawn with chalk, but none of them were making any sort of sense.
It wasn't that she couldn't understand their contents, but that they never even formed a structure in the first place.
Looking at those incoherent scribbles caused her to feel nauseous.

"Sensei, may I please go to the bathroom? I don't feel too well."
She knew she would look like an idiot for saying those words, but they were genuine.
Eyes glued to the floor, her shoulders sank as she continued, her every word smothered in embarassment.
"I've been unwell ever since the morning, and I think I may be sick with something. I'm sorry for disturbing the lecture, it wasn't my intention."

"―――Hmph."

The teacher, perhaps feeling pity for an otherwise hard-working student, sent the girl straight into the Nurse's office.
Her steps rang out as she passed through the hall, windows lining the walls.
Though the Sun lay hidden behind a host of colorless clouds, an ethereal light bathed the hall in rays of pale gold.
Drowsiness gnawed at her entire being.

"...Maybe I can rest on the windowsill, for just a few minutes."
She lowered her cheek onto the alabaster platform, curls of hair serving as her nest.
Lazily, her pupils adjusted to the oncoming light and gave her a clear picture of the scene outside.

―――――!!!

Over an urban Japanese city, a large vortex of mysterious light hovered in the sky ominously.

It shouldn't have been possible, but a massive sphere of energy ate away at the filament. Several times larger than the Sun, it tore apart clouds and continued growing with every second.
Mariya's eyes widened. Was she dreaming? Had her sense of reality and dream switched places?
It would certainly explain the strangeness of today, but for some reason she knew it wasn't the case.
Something forbidden had snapped at the back of her brain, telling her she absolutely couldn't be dreaming.

No. The vortex in front of her was a hundred percent real.

"But why―――?"
As the vortex grew, it destroyed everything standing in its path.
At first it decimated tall buildings and skyscrapers, but soon it became large enough to touch even the ground.
Its growth accelerated rapidly. Within a mere minute, it would approach and swallow up the school.
"...You're kidding!"

Mariya jumped straight into action. Any remnants of sleepiness entirely shaken off, she bolted past the hall and back into the classroom.
Thinking of nothing else, she ran knowing she had to save them.
The plausibility of such a feat never occured to her.

"Sensei! Look outside, we have to evacuate―――――!"
The teacher didn't pay attention to her.
Both him and the rest of the students stood frozen in place. They weren't moving, as if stuck in time, yet simultaneously...
They appeared to be jittering.
The edges of their bodies shook with colorful shadows, a sight which made Mariya so uneasy she almost threw up on the spot.

She was running out of time.
What was she supposed to do? Even if she wanted to carry the students outside, she couldn't possibly save more than one of them.
Besides, that same part of her brain from before was telling her not to touch them under any circumstance.
Unwittingly, she began tapping her foot and let her eyes dart from side to side.
She hated the thought, but she had to run.

Biting into her lower lip, she turned heel and sprinted off.
Her class sat on the second floor, meaning she would have to conquer several flights of stairs.
Swearing under her breath, she continued running along the first staircase.
Then...

"―――――Hng!"
The ceiling crumbled and sent rubble plummeting her way.
Before she was crushed, she could see the outer edge of the vortex―having devoured a half of the building.
The structural damage must've collapsed the roof, she thought.
Something warm and sticky rushed out of her mouth.

With a look down, she realised her chest and lower half had been buried beneath the concrete.
The shine of her pupils slowly faded.

"―――――――"
Was that it? Would she die there and then?
She wanted to crawl using her only exposed arm, but she couldn't move a single muscle in her body.
Was her spine broken?
At the least, her body must've been in shock, because the pain of being crushed never reached her.

"No... I don't wanna die! There's still so many things I..."
Her breathing became strained, breaking up her sentences with pained wheezing.
"So many people... So... So..."

"Somebody, save me―――――――!"

Refusing to wait, the light of the vortex flooded over her, and her conciousness faded to white.

 

[Yuuto]

It was supposed to be a normal day.
Wake up, go to school, go home, sleep.
Maybe goof off a little in between.
Just another average day in an average life.

'How long have I been a student here? Feels a whole lot longer than it should be'
The young man thought this to himself, his mind momentarily fogging up before he refocused it on the content of the lecture.
For some reason, it felt like he had been through this material before.
The days just seemed to blend together sometimes.

"ERROR ERROR ERROR!"
Some random notification ran through his head, leaving him confused.
The rest of the class nor the teacher seemed to notice.
That was a matter of course.
Error messages weren't something you heard in the middle of class.
Perhaps it was a mere hallucination.

"Hrrgh!"
He let out a pained grunt as if to warn himself of impending danger.
And danger came in the form of a white vortex.
It showed no sign of stopping and it'd reach the school in due course.
Out of fear, he jumped out of his seat.
He looked at his surroundings and saw a scene out of hell.
Everything was glitching out and their silhouettes became staticky.

He ran out of the classroom and went down the stairs.
On the way, he saw an underclassman trapped beneath part of the ceiling.
Panic began flooding through his body as his mind desperately tried to think of a solution.

"System...call..."
Words he didn't mean to say came from his mouth.
It sounded almost robotic. It didn't feel like his own.

"Emergency protocol...activate..."
"Generate...summoning circle"
As he said this, a magic circle appeared below him.

"ERROR ERROR ERROR!"
There it was again, that error notification.

"Throne of Heroes is unavailable. Searching for alternatives."
Now the voice sounded as if it came from above like over an intercom.

"Phantom spirit found, beginning transfer into human unit."
The magic circle began to glow and from it came three rings of light.
At that moment, he began to feel something enter what felt like his soul.
And when it did, he saw the ocean.

"What the?"
He couldn't help but question it even as he stood in awe at the sight.
However, it was gone as soon as it came.

"Report, using the special characteristics of the summoned spirit, gathering other spirit remnants."
The rings of light appeared again, injecting the young man with more Phantom Spirits
Various images sped through his mind to the point that he couldn't keep track.
He had no time to think on it either as various bits of information were stuffed into his head in the name of emergency measures.

"Master candidate found. Forming bond."

"Wait, Master?"
He had no time to further process this as the white vortex closed in on him.
All he could remember after that was the power that surged from him in an attempt to protect himself and the one person he found.

'Where am I?'
Surrounding him now was not a ruined building but rather the green grass of a hill.
He got into a guarded stance in response, unsure if there'd be any further threats.
Such thoughts were halted the moment his eyes lay upon the girl he saw crushed under rubble.
Somehow, there was no trace of the wounds he saw earlier.

"Master huh?"
The basic information he had received came to him when he said this out loud.

"I guess I'll just have to wait till she wakes up."

 

[AiDEE-c0]

A blank void.

For a duration that felt like eternity, Mariya Hiei's existence was reduced to nothing.
However, it wasn't a nothingness devoid of meaning.

"―――――――"

Like being weightlessly submerged in a warm bath, she felt something reminiscent of the embrace of water.
She hadn't the capacity to process it, but it felt peaceful.
Yes, even if she had to spend the rest of time in this state, she wouldn't object against it.
Void of a sense of self, all the worries of everyday life melted away. It was a world of rest and calmness.

However, that world didn't last.
As if someone had unplugged the drain, the welcoming water suddenly churned and disappeared from under her, sending her plummeting through an infinite space.
What's more, a terrible pain had seized her. Worse than an ocular migraine, it burrowed into the deepest crevices of her conscious, until everything around her shattered.
For just a brief moment, a mirage of glass breaking spread across the void.

"――――――Ghh!"

Gasping for air, she started awake.
Her body instinctually threw itself upward, though her legs remained splayed out on the ground.
Carefully observing her surroundings, she found herself in a place she couldn't expect.
Instead of an absent whiteness, she saw a beautiful blue sky, itself crowning rolling hills of green as far the eye could see.
In her mind, she could best describe the scenery as 'rustic,' or 'picturesque.'

"Ah? That's strange, Hell looks a lot more pleasant than I expected..."
In contrast to her panicked plea for help, she appeared strangely calm considering the circumstances.
Perhaps she had made peace with the situation?

"Sure lived a disappointing life, though. Maybe this is limbo and I'm being repaid with monotony?"
Strands of hair brushed against her cheeks, as a soft spring breeze blew from behind.
Placated by the sensation, she let her gaze wander one more time.
Much to her surprise, it landed on another person a little ways down the hill.

"You're..."
She paused.
"That uniform, you're an upperclassman?"

Her mind began spinning again, a portion of the pain she'd felt in the blank void returning.
Clutching her head with one hand, she strained the eyelid on the opposing side open.
Memories of how she ended up here came flooding back.

"What's happening? Have I really not been dreaming this whole time? Is any of this actually real?"

Cluelessly, she looked to the senior as if he could provide any answers.
Was he also sucked up by the vortex? Besides, where were they and what happened to the city?
For a brief moment, the headache abated, but that didn't stop her from feeling lost.

"―――What am I supposed to do?"

 

[Yuuto]

"It's almost too peaceful..."
The green hills showed no signs of any hostile activity at the moment.
The young man couldn't help but be wary of that.
That white vortex just made the situation all the more suspicious.

Just what was going on?
Whatever gave him the information about Masters and Servants wasn't kind enough to give him info about their situation.
What an inconsiderate voice.

The sound of the girl near him stirring prompted the young man to turn to her.
She began talking to herself, seeming to have ignored his presence.
He didn't blame her for thinking this was the afterlife.
It took a bit but she eventually noticed him.

"Yup, I'm a third year, class 2. The name's Hiroto Kurogane."
A deep breath was taken as he tried to think of a way to explain what was going on to his panicked junior.
He himself knew little better than she did after all.

"Well, I could pinch your cheek to show you this is all real but that won't exactly help matters."
"I'm pretty much in the dark about our current situation myself."
As much as he wanted to appear as a pillar of support, it'd be more harmful to lie about what he knew.

"The only thing that stupid voice, whatever it was, told me is that I'm now a Servant of sorts and you are the Master I am contracted to."
"To be clear, I don't mean something like a butler. It's more something like a contracted magic ghost but said magic ghost is in my body."
"The marks on your hand is the proof of the contract."

 

[AiDEE-c0]

"......"

The girl slowly absorbed everything he told her.
For now, this was an empirical reality, and trying to push back against it would only result in frustration.
...Or perhaps it was rationalistic?
Shaking her head at the unhelpful internal query, she reminded herself of a quote from her favourite book.
Whenever she felt afraid, lost or overwhelmed, they were simple words that served as an anchor.

“After awhile you could get used to anything.”
She muttered aloud, exhaling a hum as she looked up at the crisp, springborn sky.
"Servant... and Master? No matter how hard I try to rationalise it, telling me that sounds all kinds of wrong."

Though she disregarded the foreign words with a suspicious look, she understood 'contract' rather well.
It stood to reason. After all, Mariya Hiei was a Magus entrusted with the Crest of a historical and enigmatic bloodline.
She extended her arm forward, letting her gaze fall upon the back of her hand.

"Does that mean you've become a Familiar? Or, perhaps, your Soul became the victim of such a transformation?"
She thoughtlessly spouted magical terms without considering Hiroto's base of knowledge, as if the situation called for any more confusion.

"So I'll have to supply you with Mana. Moreover, a Familiar in the shape of a person―――"
She stopped herself. This boy was undoubtedly wearing their school's uniform, so reducing him to the status of 'Familiar' felt rude.

"Nevermind it for now."
"I'm Mariya, sorry for the delayed introduction. Our lineage is fairly long, so you're in adept hands more or less."
"If you've been transformed into my Fa―――"

The Master coughed, correcting herself.

"Into a 'Servant,' there has to be a reason. I won't actually force you to do anything, but..."
"Even though we don't have any leads or bearings, and even if I have no idea where to begin―――"

She finally rose from the grassy coat of the hillside, dusting the dirt off her leggings.
Out of everyone devoured by the vortex, only this boy and herself arrived safely by these rolling hills.
Then, wherever their friends, classmates and families ended up, they probably couldn't save themselves.
Otherwise there wouldn't be a need for a 'Servant' and 'Master.'

Remembering their jittery, nauseating forms, Mariya steeled her heart.

"Will you help me make it back?"

 

[Yuuto]

Hiroto wasn't surprised when he saw his underclassman's face tense up as she was lost in her thoughts again.
Such a situation as this wasn't something one just accepted right away.
Now that he thought of it, she probably got past it faster than he would have if he didn't get that weird info uploaded into his brain.

"I know right? Sure, such terms were common place in the past but it certainly feels weird, almost chuuni, to hear it in modern times."
He let out a small chuckle, speaking in a light hearted tone to perhaps to ease his own mind a little.
However, it came out half hearted.
Their situation clearly wasn't all that good after all.

"I suppose Servants count as familiars in a broad sense so I guess I am though my situation is a bit different."
Hiroto sifted through the information he had on hand to explain.
"According to the information I've been given, I'm a kind of Demi Servant. A human with a saint graph merged with my body."
"At the moment, my class is unknown."
Such a thing still felt weird to him. It was like his soul suddenly gained extra weight.

"Eh? You said lineage. I suppose that means you're part of the supernatural world? You seem to know more than me at least."
Mariya's composure suddenly made more sense to him.
This would help greatly as the stupid voice didn't see fit to give him any info besides that on Servants.

"What kind of man would I be if I just left you hanging like that?"
The girl's origins aside, she was his underclassman and it was his duty as an upperclassman to help, Servant or not.
"I'm just as clueless as you though in terms of finding our way back but I don't mind protecting you while we figure that out."
"Hope we get along Master."

 

[AiDEE-c0]

"I see..."

The girl's lips curled into a reluctant smile. With the deep blue skies serving as the backdrop to her figure, she had assumed an air of pensive determination.
Her eyes fell to the side, then back to her upperclassman.
How long has it been since she could last rely on someone?

"Thank you, Kurogane-san."
"Let's depend on each other for now, until everything's returned to normal."

'Master,' it felt exceptionally strange directly being called that, even stranger than when the term was originally brought up.
To some extent, however, such a sanitized relationship seemed preferable.
Whether it was to save the world or simply casual friendship, Mariya had entirely forgotten how to maintain relationships.
Thus, if her new relationship arrived with a ruleset, it would make not ruining it that much simpler.

Placing her arms at her hips, the young magus turned her nose up towards the sky.
She had no intent of coming across as arrogant, but the prolonged eye contact had already worn her out and she had started feeling uncomfortable.

"You've mentioned a voice, I wonder if that's a clue. Either way, it won't do us any good to stand around in the middle of nowhere.
Let's talk on the way, we should probably find something to eat before our quest ends in malnutrition."

She stepped up to taking the lead in a way she imagined befitting a Master, though she struggled not to trip over her words.
Even more so than finding help or supplies, she just wanted to stop feeling useless by merely warming this peculiar spot of grass with her shoes.
Once they solved the issue of sustenance, how could they possibly begin to approach the overarching problem?
How did one go about saving the world?

"Ah, one more thing," she pouted.
"Please don't use such reductive words as chūnibyō, they bring back―――"

All of a sudden, the earth shook and rumbled.
Without warning, the hill they were standing on began forcefully vibrating, as if a stampede was raging deep inside its bowels.
The shaking threw Mariya completely off-balance, and slowly tore a hole into the side of the hillock.
...Or perhaps it was simply an accompaniment to the event.

Although the earthquake eventually subsided, a new rumbling quickly erupted.

"▂▂▃▃▅▅▅▅ーーー！!"

Crawling out of the freshly opened pit, a small group of garish creatures unleashed their deafening roars.
They were monstrous, pieced together from all sorts of unnatural parts.
Some of them resembled animals, while others bore the semblances of grey and scaly humanoid creatures.
All of them donned crude weapons and armor, and regardless of their shape one thing was clear as day.
They didn't belong to the world of humans.

"What... what on Earth?"
Mariya gulped, propping herself up as best she could.

"▂▃▅----▃▃▅▅▃▃！！▅▅■■■■▅▅▂▂！?"

The leader of those foreign creatures rode on a white horse, a splitting image of the Horseman Conquest.
Draped over by a white vestment, his head turned to the duo.
He pointed his finger and another screech escaped his lips.

"▂▂▃▃▃▃▂▂..."

The signal to attack.

 

[Yuuto]

"Well, said voice kinda just hijacked my body before dumping a whole bunch of info into me so yeah, trying to ask it for help probably won't work."
It was a weird sensation to experience.
First, his mouth was forced to say 'System Call' among other things.
Then before he could get past the initial shock, his brain was stuffed with way too much stuff.
His head still felt phantom pains from the process.

"Considering I'm now a Servant sort of, should be pretty easy at least to take down some game, whatever is here, for some meat."
His supposed master already seemed deep in thought, probably about the situation.
Oddly enough, her first order of business was to stop him from using the word chuunibyou in any capacity.
He was unable to ponder as to why however as the earth began to shake.
Instinctively, Hiroto took hold of Mariya to keep her from falling.

The earthquake didn't last that long all things considered but that was just the prelude.
One didn't need to be a genius to know that the things in front of them weren't human.
The fact that they appeared to be readying a charge indicated they were enemy combatants on top of that.

"Stay behind me."
Hiroto's voice was gravely serious as he stepped forward so he'd be in between the enemy and his master.
Already, information flowed through his mind and instructed him on the basics of what to do.
All that was left to do was focus.
He took in a deep breath and let a bright light envelop him.
When it faded, armor of Greek design appeared around him.
An arm stretched out a grasped for a naginata, a weapon of Japanese origins that appeared out of thin air.

"What a mismatch right? Western armor but Asian weapon."
He gave a small chuckle as if to alleviate not only Mariya's worries but his own.
He spun the pole weapon with practiced ease despite having none of the experience.
Thank goodness that was included in the info package...
He thought this to himself as he got into a fighting stance.

"It's my Servant debut. Let's make it showy!"
With a snap of his fingers, a row of Huolongchusui, China's earliest form of the missile appeared in front of him.
Though he had summoned them himself, the Demi Servant couldn't help but be further confused as to his hero's identity.
He wasn't told what spirit was in him, just the instinct in regards to his abilities.
"Fire!"
At his command, the ancient missiles lit themselves before being launched at the enemy, exploding on impact.
Hiroto charged in himself afterwards, engaging the enemy head on.

 

[AiDEE-c0]

"Ah―――"
Mariya had stumbled, but the hand of her upperclassman managed to save her from falling and rolling down the hill. Had it not been for their predicament, she might've blushed and averted her gaze in embarassment, but they didn't have the luxury of middle-schoolers underneath the sakura.

The beasts facing them roared as they attacked, their faces contorting in hatred and rage.
What on earth were those things? The Master's legs couldn't help but tremble.
Even as a Magus, she'd never enountered something so terrifying before!

She shook, but thankfully, she wasn't alone.
Hiroto stood in front of her, materializing a mismatched set of armor and weapons. Since Mariya didn't have a frame of reference for what a Servant should be, she took it at face value, her heart somewhat bolstered by both his brave figure and willingness to joke.

"▅▅▅■■■■！!"

On the other hand, the enemy didn't react in the slightest. Twelve of their rank, the ones most closely resembling misshapen animals, charged forward on all fours, strands of saliva flying from their mouths.

―――――Boom!

Without warning, an explosion sent them scattering and flying. The smell of scorched fur instantly filled the air, gouging the nostrils in the stench of the battlefield. Mariya shielded her eyes from the sudden flash of light, growing continually more and more uneasy.
When she finally regained her sight, she was alone atop the dangerous hill, left behind as Hiroto charged the enemy.

...Was that really fine? What if the enemy rushed past him and decided to attack her?
Mariya's teeth chattered, her eyes frantically scanning the battlefield. She had no way of helping or even defending herself, and her legs certainly wouldn't have enough courage to run.
She cursed herself for being such a pathetic excuse for a Mage.

"▂▂▃▃▅▅----▂▂▃▃▅▅■■■■ーー！!"

The Horseman's call interrupted her thoughts. He pointed and waved his finger in the direction of the fallen beasts, and all of them with enough limbs left for motion rose back to their feet. As if not learning anything, they rushed to encircle Hiroto, leaping at him one after the other.
In spite of their brutal abandon, their moves appeared to be deftly coordinated.