N/A: Yuuto = Yūto(instead of double "u", it's a long u instead)
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Despite waking up with complete limbs and responsive body, the first thing Yuuto`s mind registered was heat, searing heat.
Not warmth.
Not the gentle burn of morning sunlight on skin.
No—it was an oppressive, suffocating, all-consuming furnace that felt like the world itself had been shoved inside a crematorium. His lungs, the moment he tried breathing, refused to accept the air; it tasted like charred iron and sulfur, acrid enough to sting down his throat.
The sensation made him gag, a desperate hacking cough followed, of him trying to expel whatever he had breathed, ultimately forcing himself to stabilize his breathing through tears and gritted teeth, trying to preserve what little left on his lungs.
He pushed himself up on trembling elbows.
Because the dawning realization of where actually was came to him.
He was in a city of fire.
Buildings bowed inward like molten ribs. Asphalt glistened like tar. Flames in unnatural hues cackled along the skyline, twisting like serpents intoxicated on their own destruction. The sky itself looked wounded—bleeding a sickly, hateful red.
Yuuto swallowed, and his throat burned.
'…Where… am I…? Where... is Fuyuki City? Miyama?'
The name crossed his mind the moment he woke up, but as if it was a nonsensical strip of memory, he had never thought about it until this happened.
'Was it a place in Japan? I know the map of Japan and how many prefectures are there, but there`s no Fuyuki City nor Miyama,' the twin cities that was described in the name`s memory that he just "remembered".
And what was this memories rushing into himself? It was uncanny, of him "suddenly remembering something he doesn`t understand or know beforehand. Yet, somewhere in the haze of his half-conscious mind, in the echo of Mash's earlier explanations, a single term surfaced:
Singularity.
In the summary of what he only knew about the topic, it is a point in time twisted out of shape. A distortion in history where something had gone horribly wrong.
He remembered Mash explaining it with a careful tone, for him to remember it easily:
Singularities are spaces that are not part of the regular temporal axis, something that became obscure to Chaldea`s observatory.
At the time, he hadn't really grasped it, thinking it was just a normal scenario of time paradox.
Now, standing amid a burning graveyard of a city, he did.
Singularity not only affects the time and space, but also 'information', it breaks down, distorts, and mix things up, to make obvious discrepancies that makes it obscure than factual.
But, the scenery of the burning hell in front of him...
It was wrong.
It was sick.
And something was very, very angry.
Not someone.
Something.
All he took was one clear look towards the hell he is in, and he experienced 'it'.
[Hatred]—so thick he could almost chew it—hung in the air. It wasn't like that man, Lev's, concentrated malice, sharp and personal like a knife pressed to his spine. No, this hatred was 'vast, impartial, collective'. The burned remains of thousands of unspoken grievances, screaming at the world that had betrayed them.
The "taste" of it raked across Yuuto's nerves like magma.
His stomach felt it was blistering, the bile rising with awful stench he could 'smell' because he felt that his gut imploded.
His chest felt that it was boiling, where the air was so heated that the smoke he had unfortunately inhaled turned to steam, a scalding and moist steam that caused him to feel agony by just opening his mouth.
His skin felt like it was nowhere, already burnt to charcoal, and only the crisp aftermath was there, a stifling sensation that made him want to scream.
Yet, another force made him stiffen.
[Madness]—it started as a firm and demanding pressure behind his eyes, then slowly, began clawing, scraping, tearing his mind matter with vigor it felt unreal. It felt like there was clawed fingers digging into his skull, tugging at something behind his consciousness, demanding entry, or release.
He staggered forward one step.
Then another.
Then he collapsed to his knees.
A ringing started in his ears—high, sharp, relentless. He desperately tried clutching the sides of his head, nails digging into scalp, breath strangled. Every emotional thread in the air condensed into a noose around his throat.
His vision reddened as streams of red liquid started to flood outside his orifices. His eyes, his mouth, his ears, and others, contracted and loosened, wildly beating, as if he was going to explode to gory scenery of flesh and bones.
[Fear] strangled him like a murderous killer.
[Despair] had choked him and are dragging him towards the seafloor.
[Hatred] kept burning him alive.
[Madness] are slowly breaking his mind.
A suffocating tapestry of agony.
He tried to stand—
—and collapsed again, vision splintering into static and red.
Then, something popped in his head.
A pressure.
A stab of pain.
The world blackened at the edges.
Just before consciousness left him, a silhouette appeared—lean, wolfish, with an almost amused posture.
Yuuto couldn't make out the face, but he knew it was a man.
Then everything went black.
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Yuuto surfaced back into awareness by degrees, like being dragged upward through mud.
His only resurfacing reaction was daze, as if such possibility of surviving what he experienced was impossible to happen.
Then a sound came first.
A man's voice, rough but almost playful, cutting through the fog:
"Oi. Are you planning to nap your way into the afterlife? At least have the decency to die consciously."
Yuuto groaned softly.
His eyelids twitched.
The voice snapped back sharply:
"Don't open your damn eyes."
He wanted to.
He needs to-
Something blunt smacked the side of his head.
"—OW!"
The pain caused him to shut his eyes shut, reluctantly listening to the voice. His throat felt parched, but much better now.
"Good. You can feel pain. Means you're alive. Mostly."
Yuuto pressed a hand against his skull that throbbing from both before and the current stimulation it had.
"W-Why did you hit me…?"
"To keep you from dying." The voice said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
'To save him? From what? It`s not that he`s going to be blind if he opened his eyes, right?'
Yuuto blinked behind his closed eyelids.
"…By hitting me?"
"If you open your eyes right now, kid, your head's going to pop like a melon. Whatever you did before I found your twitching and bloody body has caused your Origin to be unstable as a woman's temper, if I were a second late at healing you, you would've been turned to a bloody paint paste."
Hearing that, Yuuto immediately threw away his questions and shut up.
"And your… eyes? It's on the verge of tearing itself apart, like hell your eyes would've been able to drop itself away if you opened it carelessly, not that it would cancel your explosion."
Yuuto froze at that.
"…My… what?"
The man clicked his tongue.
"You.... don`t you know anything about what you've just done? I suddenly felt thankful of being summoned as a Caster, because I can see how stupid you are for doing that!"
"Uhh... doing what? I just looked into my surroundings-"
"Exactly. YOU looked on your surroundings, while not thinking about closing or sealing your undeveloped magic first, being such concentrated Ether up close, no wonder you're going to explode at the time. Tch, what kind of master even are you?"
He shifted—Yuuto could hear the rustle of cloth, the thud of wood hitting the floor, the faint crackle of flame. Whoever this was, he was close. Guarded, but oddly casual.
"Before I waste more breath: I mean you no harm. If I wanted you dead, I wouldn`t have dragged your dying ass back in my hiding spot. I'm even tempted to just make you a bait for my enemies to arrive. That way, you'll be useful to me."
"…That's not very comforting," Yuuto murmured weakly.
Because nothing that the man had said was false, it was all true.
He heard a low chuckle.
"Fair point, I'm pissed of getting an arrow on the back of my head again for rescuing you. Still, for you to not feel much bad, introductions are in order."
Yuuto could almost feel the grin in the man's voice.
"Name's Cú Chulainn. Summoned as Caster, a Servant. One of the finest with the spear, if I may brag a bit. Sadly, I wasn`t summoned as a Lancer. Bummer. Just call me Caster, for the sake of secrecy and convenience."
Yuuto froze.
A Servant.
A real Heroic Spirit.
Cú snorted lightly at the silence. "Your turn, kid. Name, occupation, reason for passing out in a burning hellscape—pick one."
Yuuto swallowed.
"…Yuuto. Norwich Yuuto. I'm… supposed to be a Master. Maybe."
"Supposed to be?" Cú echoed, unimpressed. "Hell, you sound like you're applying for a part-time job."
"Well, I— I'm new. To all of this."
"How new?"
"Three months."
The silence afterward was brutal.
Followed by a tone of utter disbelief:
"…Three months. You've been a magus for three months, and your higher-ups sent you into a Singularity?"
Yuuto winced. "…Yes?"
A loud thwack landed on his head again.
"OW—! Stop hitting me!"
"That was for your own good. And also because you deserved it. You could've refused, this is no child's game, brat."
Caster let out a long, frustrated sigh.
'Not like I can refuse when I don't even know how I get in here' Yuuto felt wronged, but he can`t say it directly.
"Listen up. You being here isn't just reckless. It's suicidal. A Singularity isn't some playground anomaly. It's a cancer in history—past events twisted so badly they break away from the correct timeline. This whole place? It shouldn't exist. Every second you breathe here, the world tries to erase you."
Yuuto swallowed hard.
Caster continued, voice sharper now:
"So tell me—what qualifications convinced your group you were fit to be a Master?"
"…I don't know," Yuuto admitted quietly.
"Hmph. Figures."
Caster clicked his tongue again.
"No conviction. No strategy. No encyclopedic knowledge. Kid, you're basically a civilian wearing a Master badge."
Yuuto took that blow silently.
But Cú wasn't done.
"And don't pretend you can hide it—I can feel your Origin thrashing around like a hooked fish, before. Something in that burning city triggered a dormant ability, perhaps of you 'looking on your surroundings' as you say. You're awakening Mystic Eyes."
Yuuto jerked.
"M-Mystic Eyes? I don't know much but— I can barely do basic magecraft—"
"Which makes this even worse." Cú rubbed his forehead. "Mystic Eyes aren't toys. They're curses branded onto your soul, sealed onto your eyes. And right now, yours are raw—bleeding—writhing open. Even in my base, if you even opened your eyes and look around too fast or too long, you'll fry your brain."
Yuuto felt himself go still.
"…So that's why… the city felt like it was crushing me."
"Kid, you were being crushed," Cú said bluntly. "By the emotions burned into this place. Hate, madness, corruption… it's all soaked into the air, the Ether. It was corrupted by negativity that the whole city itself began producing physical constructs to house such emotions. Do you encounter those walking bones around? Of course you don`t, you probably fainted on the same spot as you landed. For people with Mystic Eyes—especially unchecked ones—that kind of emotional pollution and environment hits harder than poison."
Yuuto's fingers trembled.
Caster added, almost casually:
"Which begs the question again—why the hell are you here?"
Yuuto opened his mouth.
And stopped.
Mash.
His breath hitched.
"I… someone… important to me… she… she was still trapped. Under the debris. Before I blacked out."
His voice cracked.
"Her name is Mash. She was calling me senpai. And I— I couldn't even save her."
Caster exhaled slowly, sounding almost bored.
"So. You got separated."
Yuuto shook his head violently.
"No—she might be dying right now— please— I have to find her—!"
He tried to stand—
—and immediately collapsed, knees giving out entirely.
Caster sighed in a long-suffering way.
"What part of don't move did you not understand? Stupid fool?"
Yuuto swallowed, voice trembling.
"But Mash were still there, I don't know where she is right now, but she's in danger!" Yuuto shouted, once again feeling helpless.
"Please… Caster… she's… she was already half-crushed. If I don't— if I just sit here— if I let her die—"
Caster's tone shifted. Not softer. Just… less mocking.
"Kid. You can't even walk three steps."
Yuuto looked up blindly in the direction of the voice.
"I don't care, you can help me, I know you will."
Caster's brows—Yuuto imagined—probably lifted at that.
Yuuto pressed on, desperate:
"I can feel emotions. Strongly. Too strongly. And before you told me your name… I felt that your introduction was real. That you meant no harm, I felt your frustration against me and my stupidity. That you're someone who doesn't turn his back when people need help, even if you're frustrated or crude or—"
"Watch it," Cú warned.
Yuuto pressed a hand to the ground.
"Caster… Please."
There was a moment of absolute stillness.
Then—
A low, incredulous laugh.
"You're a bigger fool than I thought."
Yuuto swallowed.
"…Is that a yes?"
"No," Caster sneered lightly. "It's a maybe. And only because I can't stand idiots who beg with that much sincerity."
A pause.
"Stay here. Rest. Don't open your eyes unless you want your brain to melt. I'll look for your kouhai."
Yuuto let out a shaky breath of relief.
Caster added with dry sharpness:
"If I find her dead, I'm blaming you."
"…Th-Thank you."
"Save it. I'm not doing this for you." a pause, "—Well. Maybe a little."
Caster's footsteps moved away over scorched earth.
But before he stepped too far, he muttered:
"Hah… What a damn mess. A half-baked rookie master, crippled like this. Is my luck that hopeless I couldn't even get a decent helper here?" Caster groaned, sounding hopeless at the situation, but his emotions are firm, unbending, and... inspiring.
Yuuto bowed his head.
Caster clicked his tongue once more.
"Don't you dare die while I'm gone."
And then he vanished into the burning wind.