Prologue/Dec 26th, 2019

...ou. Fou, fooou...

？！

Fou, fooou?

Fou, Fooou!

Fou. Fou... Fou.

？！

Pardon the intrusion, Master Fujimaru... Oh, you're already awake.

Good morning, Senpai. You must have been exhausted after all that Christmas cleanup.

I'm glad Acting Director Da Vinci gave everyone today off, after we all went a little wild last night.

...It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since we completed the Grand Order and prevented the Incineration of Humanity.

Yesterday may have been our last opportunity to eat with the staff we've come to know so well...

But we shouldn't be too sad about that. They all have great jobs waiting for them at their next employers.

...

I was...also told that you'll first be going back to your family's home, Senpai.

...Do you, um, know what you'll be doing after that?

Oh right, you finally got paid for all your hard work! As I recall, Da Vinci was grumbling about that...

"I tried lowball it so it wouldn't look like I was playing favorites, but no matter how you run the numbers, this is what he's earned."

"Still, I can't help but wonder if he's really up to handling all this money at such a young age."

"Oh well, I suppose I can always hold on to it for him if push comes to shove! Much better than letting King David get his hands on it!"

Fou, Fooou!

Da Vinci said that last bit under her breath so quietly I could barely hear her. But she's right, of course; you earned every penny of it.

So please feel free to use it however you like.

That said, if I might offer a suggestion, it would be to keep it in a savings account.

That way, you'll be able to handle any unforeseen expenses!

Fou, fooou.

...But I digress. So you don't yet know what you'll be doing next, huh, Senpai? As for me...

？！

I'm going to stay at Chaldea for just a little while longer after everyone else leaves.

All of our medical data may be safely backed up...

...but we still have to finish dismantling Chaldea's summoning system, so...

Fou. Fou!

Fou!?

What was that all about? He just ran off down the hallway all of a sudden...

I'd better go look for him, to make sure he doesn't interfere with everyone else packing.

Please, you just relax, Senpai. I'll see you again tonight at the farewell party!

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Did you hear the news? They say the inspectors for the inquiry board are already at the foot of the mountain.

Apparently they'll be coming up here by helicopter once this blizzard dies down.

Soon we'll have a new director appointed by the Mage's Association, along with fifty of their flunkies.

Saying it's an investigation sanctioned by the UN sounds nice, but let's not kid ourselves about what this is. It's just a hostile takeover.

All this time, the higher-ups at the Association have written off Chaldea as just another observatory...

...but the moment they see its value, they swoop in to milk it for all it's worth.

...Maybe it's weird for me to be upset about this, but I feel sorry for Olga Marie. She'd never have wanted things to turn out this way.

Well that's a surprise. You couldn't stand her back when she was alive.

...I mean, sure, I remember how she used to yell about anything and everything. Plus, she was...well, incompetent. Messed up all the time.

...But still, when I think back on it, I can't help but be impressed at how well she did despite all that...

Honestly, we should've been more considerate of her circumstances.

Even if she WAS the daughter of a Lord family, she was still just a girl fresh out of school who'd recently lost her father.

I guess. But you just have to set that sort of thing aside when you take a position of power, right?

As the heir to the Animuspheres, she should've had that stuff completely covered, no matter what her age or how recent her dad's death was.

To be brutally honest, she should never have taken over as director in the first place, but she clung to the authority it gave her anyway. And look where that got us.

Chaldea was nearly obliterated, and we had to beg the Mage's Association for help to rebuild it.

So it sucks, but if we want Chaldea to keep going, we have to let this new director take over.

And if Olga Marie WAS still here, you can bet she'd be the first in line to hand off the responsibility.

Seeing as the alternative is having it shut down for good.

？！

Hm? Oh, hey there, Candidate Fujimaru. Taking a walk around Chaldea?

Enjoy it while you can. This is probably your last chance for a peaceful walk and fond memories here.

Once the investigation gets going, there'll be scary security guards walking around like they own the place.

You know, maybe I should take a page from your book and go for a walk myself.

This might be the last chance I'll get to go wherever I want around here without a security pass.

So you're staying here, Dustin? Oh, right, you were just an ordinary engineer, weren't you?

Well excuse me for being ordinary. This is why I hate talking with you upstart mage jerks.

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Sure. Not everyone who works for Chaldea is a mage.

I used to study cosmic rays as a run-of-the-mill physicist before I came here.

It was the last director, Marisbury, who offered me a job here. At the time, I was struggling just to get by.

I'm guessing he wanted me for my experience with particle accelerators. At first I thought he was full of shit...

...but eventually, his earnestness and passion won me over. Before I knew it, I found myself out here in the middle of nowhere.

...That was fifteen years ago. Far as I'm concerned, this place is my home now.

Is that so? I'm headed to London, myself. One of the Clock Tower factions liked what they saw and made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

But hey, if they start talking about making a new Chaldeas there, maybe I'll give you a call.

We're not kids anymore, right? Nothing wrong with selling your hard-earned expertise to the highest bidder in this day and age.

Hmph... That's just like you, Sylvia. You always were a real piece of work. But I appreciate your consideration, or at least as close as you can get.

While you're here, Candidate Fujimaru... On second thought, let me just call you Fujimaru.

The inspectors are gonna have some questions for you, seeing as you're one of the Master candidates.

And the Mage's Association people are about ten times more calculating and devious than Sylvia here.

I don't think you'll be in any danger as long as Da Vinci's around, but watch out all the same.

No matter how horrible they are to you, you can't lose your temper with them.

Like they say, the only way to win is not to play. Just smile and nod, try not to let them get to you.

Don't worry. Just play up the Goody Two-shoes act and they'll run out of nits to pick soon enough. You'll be out of there in no time.

...I agree with that. Besides, you didn't do anything wrong, Fujimaru. If push comes to shove, we'll vouch for that ourselves.

Given the circumstances, you took the best course of action possible, and did everything you could.

We can all attest to that. So don't be afraid to hold your head high and tell them:

"Yeah, I'm Fujimaru, Master of Chaldea and savior of humanity. What do you want?"

Well hey, if it isn't Fujimaru.

How come you're not with Mash? This year's only got a few days left in it, you know.

If I were you, I'd want to make sure I had as many happy memories as possible together with her before I left.

Well thanks for that. Too bad about that whole "last" part, though.

Whoa, those aren't for throwing, you know! And what are you so embarrassed about at this point, anyway!?

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...But never mind that. I still have to finish writing this report.

Got some last-minute things I need to take care of before tomorrow, you see. Anyway, you've got questions, right? Mind if I keep writing while I answer you?

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Great. No need to bother telling me what they are. Da Vinci knows what's up.

The new director who'll be here soon... The pending investigation... What's going to happen to Chaldea...

So how about we review everything that's happened so far?

In the year 2017, Chaldea detected an abnormality in Chaldeas, a simulation of the world as it'll be one hundred years in the future.

The light of civilization had gone missing from Chaldeas, which meant that it had observed the end of humanity.

We hypothesized that the source of this abnormality lay in 2004, in the Japanese town of Fuyuki. We decided to send Team A, of which Mash was a member, there on an experimental Rayshift.

Unfortunately, the entire team was incapacitated in an act of sabotage, as were the other Masters on standby. That's Chaldea down forty-seven Masters in a single stroke.

But then there was you: Fujimaru, the forty-eighth Master. You were just a commoner selected to fill a quota, but you Rayshifted successfully.

And so, as humanity's last Master, the mission of preventing mankind's extermination fell to you.

That began the Grand Order, our mission to restore humanity.

Chaldea went on to fix seven Singularities before finding the Final Singularity.

There, they defeated the King of Mages, the one behind the Incineration of Humanity, and succeeded at repairing the foundations of human history.

That's right. You are the one who officially completed the Order, and who took back the world for mankindthe very world you're standing on right now.

But, your incredible, legendary adventure has come to an end, and it's time to return to reality.

Frankly, it's time to pass the torch.

We've lost eighty percent of our staff, and we simply can't continue operating as matters stand.

So, we're getting an influx of new staff from the outside.

The formalities were finished about a month ago, and they just finished choosing the new staff last week.

Which means they've now been discussing what to do about us for almost a year.

This staff is practically knocking on our doorstep as we speak. In a few days, Chaldea will officially be under new management.

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That's right. We'll have a new director chosen by the Mage's Association itself, along with a staff he personally trained.

The new director is Goredolf Musik. He's the heir to a fairly well-known family in the magecraft world.

I'm told he spent pretty much everything he had to snag Chaldea and all its benefits.

He probably did that as a show of power, to let everyone know that Chaldea is now exclusively under Musik family control.

The proceedings are already underway, and it looks like most of our current staff are being let go.

But that's not the problem. You'll still be you, even if they kick you out of Chaldea for good.

The problem...is the UN inspectors who will be coming along with them.

Grand Order or not, there's no denying Chaldea broke a whole mess of regulations.

Changing personnel without clearing it with the Mage's Association... Disclosing highly classified information to low-level personnel...

Overusing Servant summons, which were supposed to be limited to up to seven Servants... Conducting Rayshifts without UN authorization...

As far as they're concerned, these are all major crimes.

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Exactly! Not a single one of us did anything for our own personal benefit!

...Couldn't even if we wanted to, in fact, seeing as we were the only humans left in the entire world!

...But unfortunately, that meant less than nothing to them.

Sure, they could see what we were fighting against in the data.

The yearlong, global blank. The traces the Singularities left behind on Sheba.

Unbelievable as the Incineration of Humanity might be, the Association had to admit that it really did happen.

But for them, the data is just that, data. All they had to say in response was, "So what?"

As far as they're concerned, the world ended while they were sleeping, and by the time they woke up, it was all back to normal.

The only thing they can see is the scores of dead, the valuable Master candidates who were injured...

...and the litany of rules Chaldea broke while this was going on.

So this investigation is taking place to determine if these acts were deliberate.

In the eyes of the Association, the staff of Chaldea is nothing more than a band of criminals.

Of course, that's why I'm writing all these reports, to prove that this is all just a big misunderstanding.

Since data is all they've got to work with, data is how we're going to cover our asses.

Once I prove that everything Chaldea did was in order to preserve humanity, not to betray it...

...my work here will finally be done.

Then the weight of everything he stuck me with will finally be off my shoulders. Including you, Fujimaru.

Mostly our Servant usage records, and our Servants' current conditions.

I know you don't think of them that way, but Servants are extremely powerful weapons, you know?

So as far as the people outside are concerned, this is of critical importance, since it has to do with their own safety.

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Oh, and there's one more serious issue you should be aware of, especially since it concerns you directly.

The blast in the Command Room left all forty-seven of those Masters with horrific injuries.

With them all near death, we cryogenically froze them in their Coffins. We've been slowly thawing them all out, one by one, over the past year.

Now only the seven Team A Masters whose Coffins were still activating when the blast went offagain, the entire team, save for Mashremain in cryostorage.

It's a good bit harder to thaw and revive them, you see, so we kept putting it off until they were in perfect condition.

But once this investigation gets underway, we should finally be able to revive them thanks to new staff who specialize in healing spells.

And I'm guessing that once that happens, some of these Team A Masters are going to take over as the new Masters of Chaldea.

The new director has been saying he won't need you anymore, and that you will be relieved of your position within the year...

...because he's already got his eye on other Masters he trusts from distinguished mage families.

Anyway, I know this is all a lot to deal with, but don't you worry. I'll take care of everything!

I haven't spent the last six months preparing for this day for nothing!

I believe you mean "we," Leonardo da Vinci.

After all, I AM the one who did most of the work investigating the Association's movements, anonymizing the Spirit Origin graph, and dismissing the Servants.

Not that it was especially onerous for me, of course.

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Ah yes, precisely the sort of reaction I was hoping for! That makes all the time I spent hiding in the shadows worthwhile!

(Sigh)... Why did you have to let someone, even him, know you were here, Holmes?

Sorry about that, Fujimaru. The fact that Holmes is here is the toppest of top secrets.

I have not so much as included his name in any of my reports to the Association.

As far as they know, Sherlock Holmes was never among the Heroic Spirits summoned to Chaldea, and I mean to keep it that way.

I guess you could call this a kind of insurance policy, just in case everything goes south?

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Indeed. In the event that we face an enemy we cannot see...

...we will need an ally the enemy cannot see in turn. Hence our extreme caution.

Of course, I am no fighter. Should things turn violent, I won't hesitate to retreat to the workshop.

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Baritsu is strictly for self-defense. If armed assailants were to attack, I would only be able to protect myself.

Whoa, whoa, easy there. Things may get heated, but they're not gonna turn violent.

The main reason I had Holmes stay behind was to help with something I've been working on.

You see, Holmes is an even more skilled scientist and mage than his stories let on.

So I figured he would be the perfect choice to help me with a little something I've been building.

Look at this. Just an ordinary briefcase, right? But its contents are more valuable than all the treasures in this world combined.

We still haven't finished moving everything around, so I can't take it out just yet, but we should be done in another five days.

If my calculations are correct, and they always are, it'll be done before we have to leave Chaldea. I'll tell you what it is then.

I most heartily concur. Now then, I think I shall return to the workshop.

And don't worry!

If a time should come when you are imprisoned, that is when I shall reveal my most secret technique!

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Oh come on, he was obviously talking about lockpicking. Any decent detective is an expert with lockpicks.