Chapter LXIX: Return to Normalcy (Refrain)

Returning to my body in Chaldea was no easier the second time than it was after Orléans, and once more, as the lid to my Klein Coffin hissed and rose, I came back to myself with the sense that I had been stuffed back into a too-small container. As though I had been struck half-blind and half-deaf before my brain was shoved into a skull two sizes too small.

The disorientation made it hard to keep my balance as I stumbled out of my coffin, holding onto the lip of it to keep myself from pitching over sideways. I squeezed my eyes shut against the disorientation and took deep, calming breaths as I waited for it to pass, like it had before.

No more powers, for now. Not until our next deployment. I really had to see about getting a terrarium built into one of the spare rooms, maybe two, so that I could keep a swarm around in between missions. Maybe actually have time to start weaving lines of silk thread for later use.

The others stumbled out of their own coffins, better off than me but not by that much.

"Is that ever going to get easier?" Rika whined. She was actually using Nero's sword — which had come back with her — as a crutch to keep herself upright. "Ugh. I am so glad we didn't eat anything right before we came back."

"Me, too," her brother agreed.

A hand appeared on my back, rubbing soothing circles between my shoulders. Arash, it had to be. It didn't do much of anything about the powers-related issues, but it did help make it easier to deal with.

"Thanks," I murmured to him.

"Anytime," he replied earnestly.

"It must be a living human thing," Emiya said. "It doesn't seem like any of us Servants have that much trouble with Rayshifting."

"Ah, it is a bit strange," Bradamante added. "But it's not that bad? I think it's because we as Servants don't have real physical bodies."

Yet another thing to be envious of Servants for: the convenience of not having to deal with the disorientation of Rayshifting.

The most frustrating part was that it looked like this was going to happen every time, both when we left and when we came back, and it didn't seem like it was going to become any easier with repetition. Knowing to expect it had made it somewhat less confusing going into Septem, but it didn't make the disorientation itself any less of a nuisance to deal with.

"Hey, Super Action Mom," said Rika. "Was that Connla I saw right before we left?"

"I thought I heard his voice," said Mash, "but I didn't have time to look before we were Rayshifted back to Chaldea."

"That brat," Aífe huffed. "Of course he showed up at the very last second. He's just like his father — nothing but trouble."

"Is he?" Emiya asked sardonically. "I'm not so sure about that."

"No picking fights," Rika ordered in a rare show of seriousness. Emiya's eyebrows rose a little, but he didn't snap back with something witty; he just accepted it as it was and obeyed.

"So, this is Chaldea," said El-Melloi II's voice thoughtfully.

"I'd welcome you more formally," said Da Vinci, and when I blinked open my eyes to look, she was standing at the door to the Rayshift Chamber, "but I'm afraid it's technically very late right now, and all of you just came from the most difficult fight yet, so I'm going to keep things as brief as possible."

"Leonardo da Vinci," El-Melloi II murmured.

"In the flesh!" Da Vinci said brightly. She approached the group leisurely, at ease. "It's good to finally meet you face to face, El-Melloi."

"The Second," he corrected tersely.

The smile on Da Vinci's face said that it was deliberate.

"You as well, Queen Aífe," she went on. "Since Romani is still asleep, I suppose it falls on me to thank the both of you for lending our team a hand in this last Singularity. We at Chaldea appreciate it very much."

"Your gratitude is accepted," said Aífe.

"It's not like we could have said no," El-Melloi II added. "The fate of mankind's future was in the balance, wasn't it? Petty excuses don't really cut it in the face of that."

"You'd be surprised," slipped out of my mouth before I could think better of it.

I realized my mistake the instant the words passed my lips, because instantly, I was the center of attention for the entire room. I'd just given away more in three words than I had in three months.

El-Melloi II's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

I wanted to play it off, call it nothing, but with everyone turned to look at me, there was no passing it off and playing it down. I had to give them something.

"I've been in high stakes situations before," I settled on, choosing my words carefully. "Even with everything they cared about on the line, most of the people who should have stayed and fought cut and ran the instant things started to look too hard."

"Is this the dragon fight I've been hearing so little about?" Aífe asked, interested.

"No," I said. "Later than that." Technically the end of my career, in fact. "By that point, even that dragon had to set aside his grudges to fight beside me. He had things he wasn't ready to lose, too."

It was ironic, actually. A hardened criminal, a former gang kingpin, one who I had blinded and emasculated at two different points, and he was one of the ones who stayed to fight when so many heroes tucked tail. Whatever grudge he had against me had been put aside — but not forgotten — in the face of something that was more important. It would have been funny if there had been any room for laughter during Gold Morning.

"The more I hear about the things you got up to, the more I want to hear," said Aífe.

I worked my jaw, trying to think of something more articulate than a simple "I can't talk about it," because that wasn't going to satisfy anyone. For that matter, how much did it even really matter anymore, when El-Melloi II himself wasn't shy about the fact that he was himself technically from an alternate timeline?

Well, he was a Servant, though. Automatically, he didn't have to play by the same rules as I did. I just wasn't sure if that meant he was more or less free to talk about that sort of thing than I was.

"I'm afraid the finer details of Taylor's past are all classified," said Da Vinci, coming to my rescue. "Only Director Animusphere can decide what can and can't be shared. Even I haven't seen the entirety of her record."

"And where is this Director Animusphere?" asked El-Melloi II. "Is it that Romani you said is currently asleep?"

"Ah, well, about that…" Da Vinci turned to me for help. All I could do was shrug, because I didn't see much point in keeping that part secret anymore when they were already here and contracted, so Da Vinci sighed and said, "Okay, I suppose there's nothing for it, then. Director Olga Marie Animusphere was one of the victims of the sabotage that killed so many of our staff. Her body didn't survive."

"I thought she was still alive," said Aífe, "the way everyone has been talking about her."

"In…a manner of speaking," Da Vinci hedged. "Through a series of complicated events, her body died, but her soul remained behind long enough for us to capture it with the FATE System we use to summon Heroic Spirits and maintain our team's contracts with Servants. She's been there since Singularity F, about a month and a half ago, when this whole situation started."

"You've preserved her soul by registering her as a Servant?" El-Melloi II asked incredulously.

"If you want to try and simplify it, then yes," said Da Vinci, "but it's really more complicated than that. We can't materialize her soul, for example, not like Servants do. That's the Third True Magic, and that's beyond even our most advanced capabilities. We need to prepare another body for her to inhabit before we can get her out of there."

Aífe made a sound of understanding in her throat. "That's what you needed all of those crabs for. The 'puppet' you're building is a new body for this director of yours."

She'd remembered that, had she? I wasn't that surprised. For all Aífe could be brisk and brusque, she wasn't an idiot by any measure of the word.

"Yes, actually," said Da Vinci, surprised. "I didn't realize you knew anything about puppetry, Queen Aífe."

"I don't." Aífe shook her head. "But the Throne of Heroes is outside time and space. Even someone like me has heard of Leonardo da Vinci."

"Well, that makes a lot of sense," El-Melloi II agreed. "After all, half of our knowledge about human anatomy came from Da Vinci's sketches and studies. They catapulted our understanding of our own bodies ahead by centuries."

Da Vinci chuckled. "Well, I am a genius!"

"Fou!" the little gremlin announced, hopping out from wherever he'd been hiding.

"And that accounts for everyone." Da Vinci smiled down at it. "You guys went through a lot of energy at the end there, but it looks like everyone made it out without any major wounds, didn't they?"

"Not everyone," Ritsuka said quietly. Boudica, Spartacus, and Jing Ke, I could read in what he didn't say. None of them had made it out.

Da Vinci's smile turned into more of a grimace. "Yes, forgive me, that's not what I meant. Only that none of you who couldn't recover from a crippling injury were seriously injured."

"Give them more credit," Aífe told Ritsuka. "Boudica and Spartacus knew exactly what they were doing. What happened was a result of their own choices, not some failure of yours."

Ritsuka frowned and looked away, but didn't argue the point. Maybe I needed to talk to Romani about giving the twins some attention, too. They were getting better at taking initiative and recognizing what sort of moves to make in battle, but if they started second guessing themselves because they were afraid of getting any of our Servants hurt or killed, then they'd just slide backwards, and that was no good.

And if not Romani, maybe Arash. He seemed pretty good at handling that sort of thing, too, and it wouldn't hurt to make Romani's workload a little lighter these days.

"Well, in any case," said Da Vinci, "I'm sure I don't need to tell you by now, but you resolved the Septem Singularity and things are going back to normal there. Congratulations, everyone! Good job! I'm sure Romani would say much the same if he was awake right now."

"Ah, let him sleep," said Rika. "Doc's been working really hard the last few weeks, he could use a break."

Da Vinci smirked. "Exactly my sentiment, as well."

"Great minds think alike!" Rika said smugly.

Da Vinci laughed a little, but didn't comment one way or the other.

"In any case," she went on, "we've already handled the Grail you retrieved again. It's going to take a little while to get it hooked up to our power grid, but it appears to be almost identical to the one from the Orléans Singularity, so I don't foresee any problems with that. Once we have, I might be able to make a few tweaks to ease the burden on you Masters a little."

I had to wonder exactly what that would mean. Were we going to be taking larger teams into Singularities from now on? Or was it just a matter of being able to get into more intense fights than before without our team draining us dry if things got tough? I was sure Da Vinci would tell us more when the time came, so I put those thoughts aside for the time being and focused on something much more important and much more immediate.

"And the Director?" I asked.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Ah… The issue of the Director's replacement corpus is another matter entirely. After all, you've all been gone for less than a whole day, technically, so I haven't had much time at all to work on that particular project," she said. "Having said that, however…" She held up an index finger. "One week. Give me one week, and things should be ready to restore the Director to…well, back to life."

One week. One week until Marie was back and talking again, back and barking orders again. It felt simultaneously like an eternity and no time at all. It had already been a month and a half. I could wait one more week, couldn't I?

"One more week," Ritsuka murmured.

"Director," whispered Mash.

"Hell yeah," said Rika. "One more week until Director Hardass is back!"

"S-Senpai!" Mash sputtered.

"With all of that said," Da Vinci pivoted, "we do need to discuss what happened at the end, back there." Rika groaned, so Da Vinci held up her hands, placating. "The big debrief can wait until tomorrow! I know it's late and all of you want nothing more than to climb into bed, so I'm not going to ask you to describe everything that happened in the Septem Singularity, but I do need to get at least some details about the final battle while it's still fresh in your minds."

"Fine," Rika grumped.

"Where do you want us to start?" asked Ritsuka.

Da Vinci's lips pursed thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose we understood enough about your fight with Romulus that it doesn't really need much explanation for now, so… I think you should start with what happened after you defeated Romulus, because that's where things started to get…strange, at least on our sensors."

Rika snorted. "Not only on your sensors, Da Vinci-chan."

Da Vinci's brow rose curiously. "Oh?"

We all shared a look, us Masters and Mash, thinking about all of the stuff that had happened once Romulus was defeated, and it was Mash who started with, "After we defeated Romulus, his court mage appeared. The one who had the Holy Grail."

"It was Lev," I picked up, "Lev Lainur, although he introduced himself as Flauros…"

So we told the story of all of the things that happened after Romulus was defeated, from Lev appearing all the way to the end. We told her about how Lev had swallowed the Grail and then transformed into that monstrous tentacle thing, calling himself a Demon God, one of seventy-two. Da Vinci didn't miss the significance of that. We told her about how tough and durable he was, how much of what we'd thrown at him hadn't worked at all, and how what did work didn't work well enough. We told her about how easily he threw magical energy around, and how he manhandled our team with wide-area attacks that he could use almost instantly. How close we had actually come to being wiped out as a result.

Repeating the series of events back to her, the way the fight ended felt almost anticlimactic. The Thunder Feat at full power was anything but a simple punch, but explaining it, it felt an awful lot like saying that all sorts of other techniques and Noble Phantasms had failed and a simple punch was enough to do Flauros in.

Like someone had taken Fafnir out with a box cutter.

"I suppose the martial arts of the ancient Celts were indeed quite formidable," was all Da Vinci said about that. I wasn't sure there was a better response to begin with.

From there, we told her about Lev using the power of the Grail he'd absorbed to summon Altera, who he'd called the "great hero of destruction," and Altera's immediate betrayal. How she'd stolen the Grail for herself and absorbed it, using its power to charge her Noble Phantasm, and how Spartacus had attempted to take her out with his own.

"He really was a hero," said Ritsuka.

"Sparty was a great guy," his sister agreed. "I wish he could've come back with us."

"Unfortunately," I said, continuing the report, "his Noble Phantasm was largely ineffective. What damage it did was easily healed, thanks to Altera's possession of the Grail."

I tried not to put too much emphasis on how close we all came to getting wiped out by Altera's Noble Phantasm, the more powerful one that she dropped on us from the sky. Sure, it had been closer than I would have liked, but the point was that we survived and made it out, so that was what really mattered.

As I went on, it really came into perspective exactly how much had happened one after the other. We'd fought Romulus, then Flauros, and then Altera back to back to back, and each one was a larger challenge than the last. Both Flauros and Altera had almost killed the entire team at least once, after all.

Da Vinci already knew we needed Bradamante, so I skipped over that part and went right to us catching up to Altera, including Aífe using one of her Noble Phantasms to mow Altera down — and the fact that it amounted to nothing, after all of it. For the fight itself, I focused mainly on the highlights, the important takeaways, specifically how Altera managed to hold her own against multiple Servants at once.

"It was likely her possession of the Grail that allowed her to do that," Da Vinci commented. "As a Heroic Spirit, she is undoubtedly a powerful one, but even if she was miraculously good enough to avoid major injuries in a fight stacked that far against her, the injuries she did take would eventually have caught up with her."

I nodded. "I agree. Her Crest of the Star skill in particular, I think, is what let her fight so well, but Aífe had her outmatched in terms of raw ability."

"Her form was serviceable and solid, but not transcendental," Aífe chimed in. "In a competition of raw skill, Lancelot or I could have taken her without issue. Connla as well."

"Speaking of," I said, "he showed up midway through. Apparently, he and Connla sensed something wrong with Hadrian's Wall and went to investigate…"

There wasn't much left of the fight to talk about after that, but I went over it anyway. Naturally, when I got to the part about her name, reactions to that were a bit…mixed.

"That was how you defeated her?" Da Vinci asked. "By calling her name?"

Emiya shook his head, chuckling. "When you put it that way, it does sound a little silly, doesn't it?"

"I don't really understand why it worked, though," Bradamante confessed. "Lady Altera… King Attila? Um, King Altera, maybe…"

"You know," said Rika, "history is really bad at this, isn't it? How many Servants have we met now that are supposed to be guys but are actually girls?"

"Three, I think," her brother said.

Mash shook her head. "Four, Senpai. Jing Ke, too, remember?"

"Ah, right." Ritsuka nodded. "Altera, King Arthur, Jing Ke, and Nero. That's four."

"A-anyway!" said Bradamante. "Um, I don't get why that threw her off so much!"

"No one was actually calling her Attila," I said, truncating my reasoning. "I decided it was worth a shot to see if she would react to it when I did."

"Taking advantage of her trauma in order to introduce a moment of weakness." Emiya shook his head again. "How shrewd."

"And also apparently effective," Da Vinci said. "It's a bit unusual as far as weaknesses go — far less blatant than Siegfried's — but a weakness is a weakness, I suppose."

"After that," I concluded, "we hit her with three different Noble Phantasms to finish her off. From there, you know the rest."

"You forgot the part where she broke mine," El-Melloi II said grouchily.

"Broke…? Your Noble Phantasm?" Da Vinci asked incredulously.

El-Melloi II grunted. "Not that it really matters that much in the grand scheme, but… Yes. Altera broke my Noble Phantasm. Or the implementation of it, more specifically."

Da Vinci sighed. "Good grief. Who knew Lev had that kind of ace up his sleeve?"

It made me wonder what else he had in the wings — or his king and seventy-one allies, in this case — because while Altera was a pretty strong card to play, so to speak, there was almost no way she was the only one. We still had five more Singularities that we needed to resolve, and I had no doubts that there were going to be some obstacles that were just as impressive for us to go through.

I was certain Aífe was going to be more than happy about that. More challenges for her to face and fight and test herself against. I wasn't really looking forward to dealing with seventy-one more enemies as hard-hitting and hard to put down as Flauros, though.

"Ah, speaking of," said Da Vinci, "the sensors that power your Master's Clairvoyance did get confirmed readings for her before you defeated her, so if her reaction to that name wasn't enough to tell you so, then I can tell you myself that you were correct, Taylor. That Heroic Spirit, whatever she decided to call herself, was indeed Attila the Hun."

It would have been weird if she hadn't been, reacting to that name the way she did.

"I don't remember orbital lasers being a thing Attila the Hun could do," Rika muttered crossly. "Why is she the one with an ion cannon?"

"There is quite a lot about Heroic Spirits that is either forgotten to time or simply unknown to the general populace," Da Vinci told her, like she'd spoken at full volume. "I'm afraid this wasn't the first time and won't be the last where you encounter Servants that can do things that seem quite impossible, to the layman."

As though I needed yet another reminder. The ancient Celtic martial arts could kill armies, a modern hero could replicate Noble Phantasms with his magecraft, Excalibur fired beams of light that could easily erase castles, and now Attila the Hun had an orbital laser that wiped out almost an entire city of two-hundred-thousand people. Oddly enough, my career as a cape had done more to prepare me for that sort of thing than the primers on Heroic Spirits and Servants I'd gotten from Chaldea.

"Don't feel too bad, Master," Emiya said, sounding amused. "You'll get used to it. Eventually."

"I refuse," Rika said petulantly. "I won't embrace the crazy, no matter what kind of delicious, scrumptious, utterly out of this world food you bribe me with!"

He snorted. "Hint received."

"Are you sure you want to eat this late, Rika?" her brother asked. "You might have some strange dreams tonight."

She lanced him with a glare and a scowl, and she hugged Nero's sword to her chest. "I need some comfort food."

Ritsuka grimaced, and he didn't seem to have anything else to say to that. I wasn't sure what he could have said to that without coming across as a complete asshole.

"Senpai," Mash murmured worriedly.

I looked away from them awkwardly. That was another thing I didn't need another reminder for: how much I missed my own best friend, who I was increasingly beginning to accept had probably been erased — incinerated — with the rest of human history, and who I had known from the moment I woke up here in Chaldea that I wasn't likely to ever see again.

If I thought too hard about how Rika must have been feeling just then, I was only going to miss her more, and letting myself fall down that slope was just going to make me miserable.

"Was that all you needed, Da Vinci?" I asked her.

She blinked at me. "Ah. Yes, I suppose so. I have kept you for quite a bit longer than I originally intended to, haven't I? My apologies. I just wanted to get a few details before you all called it a night and I got carried away."

"It's," Ritsuka paused to stifle a yawn behind his hand, "fine, Da Vinci."

Da Vinci gave him a brief smile. "I still need you three to write up your after action reports," she warned us, "but you have some time, so they can wait until you've all had some rest."

"Still don't understand why we have to do those," Rika said. "Who are we sending them to? Santa Claus?"

That particular mental image aside…

"I've told you before," I said to her, "when things get back to normal, everyone is going to have questions about what happened, and they're going to look to us for answers. We need to have them, or there will be even more questions. Reports now mean fewer interrogations later."

"You mean no interrogations," Rika said with fragile hope. "Right, Senpai?"

"No."

Her hopes were dashed. Sorry, Rika. Even if I was the friendly, big sister type of leader, this was one time where I definitely wouldn't have sugarcoated it.

Da Vinci sighed. "Unfortunately, Taylor has the right of it here. No matter what, there are going to be too many questions for simple reports to answer, when we've gotten everything back to normal. Even so, filing your after actions reports properly will make things far easier on all of us." She smiled. "So don't forget to write them up, okay?"

"Ugh," Rika grunted. "If I knew how much writing this internship was going to ask of me, I wouldn't have let you sign me up for it, Onii-chan."

"If you say so," said Ritsuka in a tone that clearly said he didn't believe her. Rika, being a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, did the mature thing and stuck her tongue out at him.

"You might not want to hear this," El-Melloi II said gravely, "but they're both right, Rika. The last people you want to come to you with questions is the Association. No matter what, it won't be avoidable that they're going to send someone to look into this, but things will go a lot better for you Masters if there's a paper trail and properly done reports to corroborate what happened."

Rika scowled and mumbled, "Fine."

"With all of that out of the way, I think I can let you Masters go get some rest now." Da Vinci held out her hands, smiling. "There's just one last thing we need to take care of, if you wouldn't mind, Rika."

It took a couple of seconds for Rika to realize what she meant, but when she did, she clutched Nero's sword tighter to her chest. I couldn't imagine it was in any way comfortable.

"No," said Rika. "Best Buddy gave this to me. I have to take care of it."

"A shelf in your room is not the proper place for an artifact like that," Da Vinci said wryly but with patience. "Strictly speaking, if Emperor Nero was right and that sword is what I believe it is, then it's something of a miracle it even made it back with you. Noble Phantasms aren't meant to outlast the manifestation of the Servant they belong to."

I was glad I wasn't the only one who thought that was unusual. On the other hand…

"Knowing Nero," I said dryly, "she'd say, 'Of course I could make it stay behind with you! After all, I am Emperor! Mm-mm!' or something like that."

Ritsuka snorted, and even Mash hid a smile behind her hand. El-Melloi II's brow knit together into something of a constipated look, and Arash chuckled under his breath.

"That sounds about right," Aífe agreed.

Da Vinci sighed. "There's a limit to how willing I am to accept a completely unscientific explanation like that, you know. Unfortunately, I don't have a better one at the moment, so just for now, I can gracefully admit defeat and plot my revenge."

"Oh my," said Emiya sardonically, "how frightening. If you need my protection, Taylor, I can guard you so that Da Vinci never has the chance to strike back."

"Hey, now," said Arash, joining in on the joke, "isn't that supposed to be my job? Yours is over there."

He jerked his head towards Rika, who, for once, wasn't taking part in the humor. Instead, she was staring down at Nero's sword, her brow furrowed, like she was thinking very deeply about something.

Bradamante leaned over to whisper in my ear, "Would Lady Da Vinci really be so petty?"

"Of course not," I replied.

"My, such faith you have in me, Taylor," said Da Vinci, who had heard us because she wasn't that far away. "Are you so sure about that?"

"Even if you did, that's still a fight I'd win," I told her. The next bit was a threat straight from Lisa inspired by a prank that Aisha had liked playing fairly often. "I'd just break into your workshop and move everything that wasn't bolted down three inches to the left."

Emiya snorted as Arash laughed, and Da Vinci shook her head ruefully. "A note to my future self," she said, smiling. "Remember never to get into a prank war with Taylor. She is cruel and doesn't fight fair."

"It's on my résumé," I added, straight-faced. "The Director had it listed as one of my strengths."

It really had been a long day, hadn't it? I think it said something that I was having an easier time connecting with the incarnated spirits of long dead great heroes than I was my own mortal teammates, but I wasn't really sure what.

"What makes it better," said Da Vinci wryly, "is that I would actually have to go and check to make sure."

"I'd believe it," said Emiya immediately. I wanted to call him a traitor, but he was Rika's Servant, not mine.

"So would I," Aífe agreed.

"I don't think that's fair," Mash chimed in. "Miss Taylor is… Well…"

"Exactly the way Da Vinci described her?" Emiya suggested.

Mash shook her head. "It's not that! Or, um, not only that, I think. The Miss Taylor that everyone here has seen is the Miss Taylor who leads us into battle, not the Miss Taylor who worked hard for two years to get ready for when she would have to! Everyone here has only seen the Miss Taylor who has to be strong for us, not the Miss Taylor who refused to let herself fall behind and endanger Chaldea's mission! That's why… I think Miss Taylor is a very admirable person!"

I wasn't the only one who was stunned by this outburst. Da Vinci, Emiya, Aífe, Ritsuka, El-Melloi II, Bradamante — the only one who didn't look at all surprised was Arash.

"Well said, Mash," he praised her warmly.

Mash's cheeks flushed and she looked away. "Th-that's just what I think!"

Mash… Is this what you've thought about me all this time? She'd never let on at all. Was that just because she was too shy, or because she hadn't been able to find the right words for it?

"Fou," the little gremlin said dubiously. Like I cared what it thought about me at all.

"Da Vinci-chan," Rika said suddenly. "This is very important to me, so…" She thrust out her arms and held the sword out to Da Vinci. "Please take good care of it!"

Da Vinci smiled. "It might very well function as a catalyst for a summoning." She took the sword from Rika gently, and appropriately, seemed to have a much easier time lifting it. "I was going to treat it with care to begin with."

"Best Buddy…" Rika murmured. She bit her bottom lip as her brow wrinkled.

Ritsuka picked up on what was wrong immediately, since he was her brother. "I'm sure Nero will remember us when we summon her."

"That's right!" Bradamante agreed. "Strong bonds aren't broken that easily! You'll see, Master! Emperor Nero could never forget you, I'm sure of it!"

"Onii-chan… Tii-chan…" And then Rika plastered on a broad grin so brittle that I was sure it would have shattered if I reached out and poked it. "Of course she will! I'm just being silly and worrying about nothing! When she comes back, it'll be like no time passed at all!"

Da Vinci's smile pulled tight, but whatever it was she wanted to say, she decided to keep it to herself.

"In any case," she said instead, "it's very, very late, and all of you have just come back from a very difficult fight. Now that we've gotten the most immediate concerns out of the way, why don't all of you go and get some sleep? I'm sure you'll feel much better in the morning."

"That sounds good," Ritsuka said.

"Uwah, an actual bed, mattress and all," Rika groaned. "I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight."

"I'll save the celebratory feast for tomorrow, then," said Emiya.

"If it doesn't turn me into a puddle of goo in my seat, I'm gonna sue you for false advertising."

Emiya snorted. "Noted, Master."

"In the meantime," said Da Vinci, hefting the sword she was holding, "I'll go see about putting this someplace safe and secure, shall I? Next time I see you guys, you had better be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! Buona serata, everyone!"

She turned and walked away, leaving the Rayshift Chamber and heading towards, I could only guess, her workshop. I thought about following her and demanding more answers about bringing Marie back, but I could admit to myself that I already knew the only thing she could do was offer me more platitudes about how everything was going well and it would all be fine. She knew far more about making realistic puppets than I did, after all.

This was one of those situations where I had to let it go and trust her to do her work. I could do that. I had done that plenty of times before. I just…hated feeling like there wasn't anything I could do about it.

For now, the only thing I could do was exactly what Da Vinci had suggested: get some rest. It had been a long day, packed full of four separate fights, three of them back to back, all of them intense, and while I'd had longer, more exhausting days before, this one definitely had a spot high up on the list.

"Get some sleep, everyone," I told the twins and Mash. "Da Vinci's right, it's been a long day. Everything else can wait until tomorrow."

And if it was exhausting for me, it had to be doubly so for them, because they weren't used to this sort of thing just yet. None of them had anything they needed to push themselves for right now, so without complaint, they took my suggestion, and us mere mortals headed off to the comfort of our beds.