[FDJ]Chapter 1: Suzuki Yuki

"At the starting point of every illusion lies the ending point of every journey. The future of humanity should be created, expanded, and guarded by humans themselves... not interfered with by impostors who lack the qualification of being 'human.' This place is called Chaldea, the organization responsible for preserving human history. It was secretly established as an observatory to prevent humanity's extinction (Bad End). And I am Professor Lev Lainur, the magical advisor of the Chaldea organization... No, now I am Flauros..."

-Recording device malfunctioning, unable to continue operation.

-Power supply device damaged by 23%, damaged circuits have been cut off.

-Retrieval device has completed its work, confirmed: 47 survivors have been automatically recovered.

-Monitoring device overloaded, confirmed: no survivors remaining to be recovered, fire is about to become uncontrollable.

-Safety device confirms the above conclusion, abandoning all remaining deceased bodies, allowing the use of emergency measures to contain the fire...

Amidst the alarm sounds, the remaining 47 survivors were individually transported to cryogenic storage. Subsequently, a fire-suppressing solution was sprayed in the control room, bringing the fire under control and gradually weakening it. All ventilation ducts were closed within 15 minutes. Just a short while ago, over 300 people were busy at their respective posts, but now not even a complete corpse remains, let alone any hope.

There is no hope.

It is precisely because there is no hope that this disaster, which could have been prevented by sacrificing one person, occurred in the year 2016 AD.

Burning in the raging fire, this city, once known as "Fuyuki City," is now designated as "Singularity F," referring to a city of ruins filled with despair.

A few survivors attempt to find a way to survive, but it only adds a bit of amusement for the hunters before true destruction arrives.

"Lancer, help me! Hurry over here!"

Facing the skeletal giant elephant breaking through the main entrance of the stronghold, the young man with seaweed-like hair narrowly avoided the ivory sword and shouted towards the side entrance. However, several skeletal soldiers had already entered through the side entrance, and helpless survivors were being mercilessly slaughtered by these skeletal monsters. When facing these monsters, humans became helpless lambs waiting to be slaughtered, unable to win against even the weakest skeletal soldier, even if someone tried to fight back with a stick.

Perhaps it would be easier to die quietly and avoid the increasingly heavy sense of despair within this city.

A tall woman wielding a black long-handled scythe swiftly cut down the skeletal soldiers entering through the side entrance. Although more enemies attempted to enter from the side, she heard the young man's call and couldn't be bothered to block the door. It didn't matter to her if everyone else died, but if that young man died, it would be troublesome for her. Finding a replacement in this city that was on the brink of destruction was too difficult.

"Master, get down!"

The woman leaped over the chaotic crowd, and the scythe struck the giant elephant's tusks, breaking one of the ivory swords that had been honed into a blade. Her eyes were serpent-like, with converging lines of sight, slowing down the elephant's leg movement. Then she swung a second strike, using a jumping movement that no human could achieve to reach the head and neck of the skeletal giant elephant. Before the elephant, which had lost one leg bone, could fall to the ground, the third strike severed its spinal column.

Her combat strength far surpassed what humans could achieve. Strictly speaking, she had the same nature as the few advanced monsters wandering in the city, except she hadn't been corrupted and lost her sense of self.

"Master, run! The enemies are about to surround all the entrances and exits. We must escape before that." The woman shouted to the young man who was cowering on the ground behind her. Seeing the young man's ridiculous expression, she reached out and pulled him up, leading him to escape in the direction where there were fewer monsters.

"But what about the others..." The young man, feeling the woman's protection, regained some of his rationality as a magus (at least in his mind) and turned to look at the less than 20 survivors still gathered together, gradually being surrounded by skeletal soldiers.

"We can't worry about that now!" With a single swing of her sycthe, the woman repelled all the enemies blocking their path. They were relatively fortunate; the attacking force that infiltrated the stronghold this time was just a small reconnaissance team under the command of a Servant. If another Servant had been present to intercept, it would have been more difficult for the woman to fight with her current magical power. Although the young man she protected could be considered a magus, his magical power was so pitiful that she couldn't bear to draw from it.

If it weren't for the lack of a suitable Master, the woman would have already considered abandoning the useless person by her side.

After escaping from the pursuit of the skeletal soldiers, the two immediately took refuge in an intact building. Ignoring the woman's reminder, the young man kicked open the refrigerator in the house and grabbed a bottle of drink, gulping it down.

"Hah~ I almost lost my life there." The young man finished the bottle of drink and casually threw the plastic bottle into the corner of the wall. Anyway, there were hardly any survivors left in the entire city, so there was no need to worry about trespassing or anything like that.

"What did you just say, Lancer?"

"I suggest you check the freshness of the drink before you drink it."

Upon hearing Lancer's reminder, the young man realized that nearly a month had passed since the disaster, and the drink he had just consumed seemed to be the type that required refrigeration. The refrigerator, of course, had no electricity to keep it cold, and only now did the young man smell a nauseating moldy, and spoiled odor.

"Forget it, anyway, you humans shouldn't die from drinking a little expired drink. The night is approaching, I suggest using this place as a temporary stronghold for tonight. Or should we go to the pier immediately? The area there seemed relatively safer based on my reconnaissance a few days ago." The woman made a suggestion, but in reality, she didn't think hiding at the pier would be safe. Otherwise, she would have taken the young man there for refuge long ago.

The young man looked at the sunset outside the window, took a deep breath, and sat down on the sofa. "I can't walk anymore. Let's stay here tonight. I still need to gather some food and supplies. I left my backpack at the stronghold when we were running."

"Humans are troublesome." Rolling her eyes at the young man, the woman walked towards the bedroom of the house. Although she confirmed that there were no living creatures before entering the house, she opened the doors of each room one by one out of caution. The master bedroom was in chaos, with the window wide open. It seemed that the owner of this room was still sleeping before fleeing and probably met their end along with the other refugees. The rest of the rooms showed no signs of anything unusual. As the woman reached the last storage room, she sensed the scent of a living creature, but it felt different in some way.

Slowly pushing open the study door, the woman held a scythe in one hand. It seemed that this long weapon couldn't be freely used in the room, but she could summon a chain with her other hand at any time. She was simply accustomed to confusing potential enemies.

There were no magical mechanisms or any traces of magecraft in the study. The only thing present was a living person lying on the floor, still showing signs of breathing.

The woman cautiously approached a few steps, using her mystic eye to confirm the absence of any stealthy enemies. Only then did she crouch down to examine the person on the ground - a young man about the same age as her Master, with magical circuits. An immediate assessment of his magical power was difficult. However, judging by the appearance of the magical circuits, he seemed to be more advanced than her own Master.

The woman immediately entertained the thought of killing the current Master and forming a contract with the young man on the floor. But she quickly dismissed the idea. Acquiring the Holy Grail seemed almost hopeless, and switching to a seemingly more powerful Master wouldn't allow her to engage in battle with the Servants guarding the location of the Holy Grail. It would be better to observe this potential backup Master who managed to elude her detection for now.

"Master, I've found a survivor!"

"A survivor? Are there other people here? Is it a man or a woman?" The young man, upon hearing the report from his Servant, quickly got up from the sofa and headed towards the study.

When he saw the unconscious black-haired young man, curiosity turned into disappointment. "Is he still alive?"

"He's still breathing. It seems he suffered a strong impact, but there are no injuries on his body." The woman doubted this fact. It was highly unreasonable for a human to receive a strong impact without a single bruise on their body.

"Such a hassle. I'll try using healing magecraft to wake him up."

While the young man used healing magecraft, the woman observed the sudden appearance of another person. The person's attire was significantly different from this era, and there was no obvious sweat smell on them. If he hadn't had the opportunity to find a place to bathe and rest like her Master did, it would be impossible for him to still be wearing brand new clothes without any stains after more than twenty days of fleeing.

Under the magical effect of the seaweed-haired young man, the unconscious person slowly opened his eyes. He stared blankly at the two people standing beside him and took a long time to speak.

"Where... am I?"

"He's alive." The young man adjusted his collar smugly, striking a self-proclaimed suave pose, and introduced himself to the other person. "Consider yourself lucky. You've encountered the merciful and powerful genius magus, Matou Shinji."

"Where is this?" The awakened person repeated the question, completely ignoring the seaweed-haired individual who was boasting about being a magus.

"This is Fuyuki City." The woman spoke up, retracting the effect of her mystic eye as she assessed the other person. "Who are you? Where do you come from?"

The woman was somewhat surprised. In theory, humans should not be able to resist the hypnosis of her mystic eye, so the fact that the person showed no reaction even after hearing "Fuyuki City" was a clear indication that he was not from this city.

"Answer me! This is an order!" The woman bypassed her Master, Matou Shinji, and with one hand, grabbed the person by the neck, effortlessly lifting him.

The sensation of suffocation and the threat of imminent death finally made the awakened person understand that if he didn't answer the questions, the beautiful woman before him would kill him.

"Chaldea..."

"Chaldea? Where is that?" Shinji, puzzled, recalled the contents of his history textbooks and vaguely remembered it as the name of an ancient country in the Middle East. "Don't joke around. Do you want to die? Once my partner loses her temper, you'll be saying goodbye to your neck."

"My name is... Suzuki Yuki."

Suzuki Yuki didn't remember this name himself, yet it came out of his mouth. He had no idea why, but after he uttered his name, the woman who had been holding his neck eased her hostility slightly.

"Suzuki Yuki? Explain first. What is this place you mentioned, Chaldea?" The woman didn't completely let go of the suspicious Suzuki Yuki. From his reaction, she could tell that it wasn't his real name.

"That place is..." No matter how hard Suzuki Yuki tried to recall, he could only remember a few fragments of memories. It was as if his past had been sealed, and he couldn't remember any complete information through his recollection.

"Lancer, don't kill this guy."

Shinji took the initiative to stop the woman. Since she couldn't extract any information from him, she reluctantly agreed to Shinji's request and released the young man who called himself Suzuki Yuki.

"You have tonight to think it over. You better give us a satisfactory answer. Human."

The woman's snake-like eyes continued to stare closely at Suzuki Yuki's face, not missing any flaws.

===============================================================

Check My Other Work: Shinji Matou At Your Service