Journey to Find Heroic Spirits, by Kong Qingzhilin
Mash: Senpai, only the two of us are left in Chaldea...
Artoria: There's delicious food here every day. I don't want to go back to Chaldea!!!
Elizabeth Báthory: Master, here are tickets to my concert. Front row seats~
Francis Drake: One Piece is mine for the taking!
Osakabehime: Wuwuwu~ Gabriel, I can't whale anymore. Master took my wallet away...
Hokusai: Hehehe, Tir, what do you think of this painting?
Nero: Bismarck is nothing! Take a Golden Theater Cannon!
Siegfried: I'm sorry. I'll compensate you for the lost package. I'm truly sorry...
Karna: Master, excuse me. Arjuna and I have a fan meeting to attend.
Attila: It's all bad civilization!!!
Chapter 1: No One Left in Chaldea
"Senpai."
"Wake up, Senpai."
An anxious voice roused Yuxian from his sleep.
When he opened his eyes, a girl's face appeared before his bleary vision.
Pale pink hair, dark-rimmed glasses, and large violet eyes filled with urgency.
"Junior..."
Yuxian felt that he must still be dreaming, still in that wonderful dream where he had met the adorable junior he had longed for.
He closed his eyes again.
"Senpai, stop sleeping!"
Seeing Yuxian close his eyes again after opening them, Mash immediately stepped forward and yanked him out of bed.
Only then did Yuxian fully wake up. Looking at Mash before him, a suspicious expression appeared on his face.
"Who are you?"
Yuxian remembered attending an offline gathering with a group of Moon People, and everyone had been having a great time.
But he didn't remember such a cute girl among them. Her junior cosplay was utterly lifelike, without the slightest sense of incongruity.
As if possessed, Yuxian reached out with his right hand, pinched Mash's cheek, and pulled it outward. Normally, he would never have been this bold.
"Senpai!!!"
Mash's face flushed red at Yuxian's sudden action, her expression both embarrassed and annoyed.
"Everyone in Chaldea is gone! Senpai, get up quickly!"
Chaldea?
What Chaldea? Don't get too deep into character. Bring Babbage here, and then I'll believe you.
Yuxian shook his head inwardly and ignored Mash. He looked around and discovered that he was in an unfamiliar room.
He was a little confused. Although he had drunk quite a bit yesterday, he vaguely remembered returning home in the end.
He looked down at what he was wearing. It was still the casual outfit from yesterday, unchanged.
Then he looked at the back of his right hand, where a seal-script character for "Yuxian" had been stuck on with a sticker.
He had specially bought it for the offline gathering. The characters were dark red and looked very much like Command Spells.
When Yuxian focused his gaze on the pattern on the back of his hand, an unbelievable sight appeared before him.
A floating panel appeared in his field of vision, clearly displaying:
Command Spells: Special commands may be issued to Servants by consuming Command Spells. One Command Spell mark is restored every day at midnight. Effect One: Enhancement. (LV1) Effect Two: Recovery. (LV1) Effect Three: ??? Current contracted Servants: 1
This display, like a holographic screen from a science-fiction film, left Yuxian deeply unsettled. This was absolutely beyond anything known technology could achieve.
His heart lurched. He raised his head again and carefully examined the junior before him, from her appearance to her clothes to her mannerisms. There was no trace of cosplay at all. She was a perfect junior...
"Mash? You're Mash Kyrielight? This is Chaldea?"
"Senpai, are you still not awake?" Mash thought Yuxian must still be groggy from sleep to ask such a question.
He had transmigrated!
Yuxian's thoughts were in chaos. He needed to calm down.
The three functions of Command Spells—charging, healing, and resurrection—were things Yuxian, as a veteran FGO player, knew very well.
But what was written on the screen before him was completely different. Enhancement and Recovery could still be understood literally, but what the hell was that LV1 afterward? Did that mean they could be upgraded? How? Under what conditions?
And what did those question marks for Effect Three mean? A hidden function? Something yet to be developed?
There was only one contracted Servant at present. That should be Mash before him.
Judging by Mash's complete lack of reaction to the screen, she probably couldn't see it.
If transmigration had already happened, then a strange Command Spell system and a screen only he could see were no longer all that surprising.
After taking several deep breaths, Yuxian cautiously asked Mash, "What's my name?"
"Senpai's name is Yuxian." Though she found it strange that Yuxian would ask such a thing, Mash still answered him.
Yuxian felt relieved. It was his own name. He hadn't become someone else.
"I'm Chaldea's Master?"
"Yes. Senpai is Chaldea's only Master."
Mash was anxious. After answering that question, she stopped paying attention to Yuxian's abnormal behavior and hurriedly said, "Senpai, everyone in Chaldea has disappeared. Let's hurry and find out where they went."
"Disappeared?"
"Yes. When I woke up this morning, I couldn't find a single staff member or Servant. Even Fou was gone. I searched all of Chaldea, and the only person I found was you, Senpai."
Upon hearing that, Yuxian immediately rolled out of bed. He also wanted to see what the legendary Chaldea actually looked like and confirm the guess in his heart.
He and Mash searched throughout Chaldea. In truth, only Mash was searching, while Yuxian merely followed behind her and familiarized himself with this unfamiliar place.
They checked every Servant's room, Da Vinci's workshop, the kitchen, the cafeteria, the infirmary—one place after another.
Yuxian finally confirmed that he had truly transmigrated. This was Chaldea, the organization that safeguarded Human Order, and he was its only Master.
The two of them searched all of Chaldea without finding a trace of anyone. It was as if everyone had suddenly vanished at the same time.
In the end, they arrived at the Central Control Room.
A globe-shaped object was operating there. It was Sheba, an instrument used to observe humanity's future.
"Senpai, Sheba is operating normally. Could they have undergone Spirit Transfer?" Mash hurried forward to check the Spirit Transfer records.
Yuxian knew nothing about this stuff. While Mash operated the controls, he curiously examined Chaldea's most important device from the side.
After checking Sheba, Mash shook her head in disappointment. "There are no records of Spirit Transfer."
That result was to be expected. Not everyone in Chaldea liked Spirit Transfer, and besides, those staff members who were not Servants did not meet the conditions for it.
Mash continued, "Senpai, I also discovered something very bad. Outside Chaldea is no longer the snowy mountains from before, but a pitch-black unknown space."
"Unknown space?"
"Yes. According to the information, no living creature may be able to survive in that unknown space."
Mash frowned. This discovery only made the situation seem more complicated. She wasn't good at analysis, and she thought that it would have been wonderful if Da Vinci-chan and Mr. Holmes were here.
"So we're trapped here, unable to leave, and we can't contact the outside world either?"
Yuxian had not even had time to process the shock of transmigrating before another piece of terrible news arrived. For a moment, he was completely stunned.
Mash nodded. She was equally despairing over the news. "Yes, Senpai. But Sheba shows an unknown Singularity. That is our only hope, Senpai!"
Yuxian hesitated for a moment.
Being trapped in Chaldea like an isolated island was absolutely unacceptable to Yuxian. Even with an adorable junior like Mash accompanying him, the two of them would eventually go mad if this continued for too long.
Now, they could only hope that this Singularity would reveal the cause of Chaldea's abnormal state. Failing that, he hoped there would at least be other humans there, so the two of them could live normally.
He gritted his teeth. "Mash, prepare for Spirit Transfer!"
"Understood! Senpai, please get ready."
Mash immediately began preparing for the Spirit Transfer. She shared Yuxian's thoughts and placed their last hope on this unknown Singularity.
System Announcement: Spirit Transfer successful. Coordinates unknown.
Chapter 2: So You're a Lolicon
1994, Fuyuki City.
"Senpai, this is a modern city."
"Yeah. Let's ask around and find out where we are."
Yuxian and Mash had arrived in a modern city. There were many pedestrians coming and going on the streets, but their appearance did not attract anyone's attention.
Yuxian let out a long sigh of relief. In a modern city like this, whether or not they could find the cause of Chaldea's abnormality, at least he and Mash would be able to live normally here.
He even found himself looking forward to their life together from now on.
After asking around, Yuxian learned where he and Mash currently were.
"Senpai, this is Fuyuki City before its destruction. Do you think anyone from Chaldea might be here?"
Yuxian abandoned his earlier unrealistic thoughts. Fuyuki City was not a safe place. Too many major incidents had happened here.
Rubbing his chin, he analyzed, "Quite a few Heroic Spirits are connected to Fuyuki City. Maybe some of them are here. And at this point in time, if I remember correctly, the Fourth Holy Grail War is about to begin. Some Servants should already have been summoned. Let's look around and see if we can find anything. If all else fails, we'll visit the Three Founding Families directly."
"Mm!" Mash nodded, agreeing with Yuxian's decision. "Then let's start gathering information."
Visiting the Three Founding Families during the war was not a good choice. It could easily bring unnecessary trouble, and Yuxian did not want to do that unless they truly had no other option.
In fact, if he hadn't known Mash would never agree, he would rather have taken her far away from this place and found somewhere peaceful to live.
The two of them wandered around Fuyuki City.
On the surface, the city was peaceful, showing no signs that a grand war was about to take place.
The Holy Grail War was conducted in secret, so ordinary people naturally knew nothing about the world of Magi.
Yuxian couldn't help maliciously mocking it inwardly: Gilles de Rais summoning the Sea Monster in this Holy Grail War was merely an accident, and Fuyuki City being burned down in the end was only another, even bigger accident.
The two wandered around the city for a long time without finding a single useful clue, though they did become familiar with most of Fuyuki City.
Yuxian suddenly stopped and said weakly, "Mash, I'm so hungry. Are you hungry too?"
Yuxian had not eaten anything since waking up. While in Chaldea, his emotions had been too turbulent for him to feel much hunger.
Now that they had walked around Fuyuki City for so long, his body had begun to grow weak, and he could no longer endure the hunger gnawing at his stomach.
Mash was equally hungry. She had merely forced herself not to say anything. Seeing his condition, she encouraged him, "Senpai, hold on a little longer."
"No, I can't. Let's go find something to eat in the shopping district."
Yuxian no longer cared about Chaldea or the Holy Grail War. All he wanted was a full meal.
Before you continue