Section 2: Glass Glass

Okay, let's head down the stairs.

Unfortunately, the basement's twelve floors down. I wish we could take the elevator, but that's not an option, so bear with me.

Ugh. As if I wasn't tired enough...

Don't let it get to you. Just think of it as getting your cardio in. Or leg day.

I must grin and bear it. I must grin and bear it...

By the way, Cú Chulainn, what did that Demonic Beast you fought look like?

Looked kinda like a Soul Eater. Fought like one, too. Tough bastard.

How intelligent was it?

Not sure... But I'd guess not intelligent enough to worry about.

If they were smart, we'd be dead by now.

I see. That does make sense...

But I'm guessing here, so take it with a grain of salt. We've still gotta watch our backs.

If I might add to what Cú Chulainn said...

I've found three types of Demonic Beasts here: land, aquatic, and airborne beasts. They're all about equally strong, though.

Yikes. So we have to worry about attacks from air, land, AND sea? That's just mean.

I just hope the sea beasts aren't nautiluses.

Never mind that now. We need to hurry. I can't protect all of you on my own.

Agreed. We need more glasses, and soon.

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What is it?

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Everything?

Aha, here we go! ...Hm?

Something wrong?

There aren't as many glasses here as before. There are still enough for everyone, which is great, but

Whatever. Let's just put them on.

Not being able to see what the hell's going on is starting to get to me!

Good point. Okay, why don't you choose a pair you like?

Any recommendations?

For you, sir, I'd suggest this pair right here.

You're weirdly enthusiastic about this... All right, here goes!

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I changed my Spiritron Dress to match.

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I just felt like it.

Can't argue with that...

I've never worn glasses before. What do you think, Master?

You think? Don't tell Professor about this, okay?

Well sure. I've never needed glasses before, so I'm not at all familiar with them.

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Huh.

Now I see.

Whoa, they really do make a big difference.

Well? Does the world look different now?

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Now that my eyesight is augmented, a few things are starting to come into focus. Metaphorically speaking.

Forget about magical energy remnants.

Turns out this whole damn building's practically drenched with magical energy.

I couldn't sense that at all until I put on these glasses...

I wonder if it's because our opponent is just that strong, or because they have a Holy Grail empowering them...

My money's on both.

...Well, that didn't take long.

!!!

Dammit... At least we can see 'em now, but it's still hard not being able to hear or otherwise sense them.

And to make things even more difficult, we can't kill them, so we have to pull our punches...

Yeah. And that's real damn hard to do when you're a Berserker.

...Almost makes me think that me getting picked for this was a trap.

Ah well, we're all here now. I fought one of these things earlier, so I'll focus on support this time.

The rest of you get a feel for fighting them.

Understood. All right, you three, let's go.

You got it.

Ugh, what a pain. I know we've gotta do it, but still!

Understood. Initiating Spirit Origin Memory Partition. Marine pattern summoning.

Now I can see how strong the rest of you are, too. Good luck!

...Phew. It's over, Master.

Good, they're still alive. Let's get going while the getting's good.

Hmph. Guess I didn't need to hold back after all.

Yeah, well, you couldn't kill one even if you wanted to.

Of course I couldn't! I'm nowhere near as capable as Sister is!

We should move on now before more of these Demonic Beasts show up.

There's another office a lot like the last one up ahead. We could head there for the time being.

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I'll bring up the rear. Go on. Move already.

Okay, okay! Take it easy with the spear! I'm moving already!

Whoa.

I'm seeing lots of differences between this and the last office now.

Even the slogans are different.

Indeed, they are...

And then there are these tanks.

Are these...young Demonic Beasts? They don't appear fully grown.

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Nor did I. Even touching them now, they still don't feel real.

My sense of touch isn't working at all. I expect there may have even been similar tanks in the other room, too.

Without these glasses, we wouldn't notice even if we ran straight into one of these things.

...What a fascinating bit of magecraft. I wonder if a Servant is behind this.

No, I don't think so.

Hm?

...Huh?

That's weird. Why was I so confident about that?

Probably because the glasses are boosting your intelligence.

Well that just makes it sound like I'm some kind of idiot without them!

You know, I'm curious about that, too. What made you think that?

Well...

Uh... For one thing, this is an office, right?

And as far as I know, Servants aren't typically summoned to places like this.

I mean, I'm sure there's the odd exception.

But even if you could, this place is way too contemporary.

Casters don't set up workshops in these sorts of times and places.

Anyway, what we need right now is a lead. Once we have one, we should be able to get a firmer grasp on the situation.

Whoa, that was spooky! I've never been so eloquent!

Well, your reasoning's sound.

You know, I gotta say...this is kinda nice.

I might even be able to make a convincing case to Sister while I'm like this.

...

...I could be wrong, but I didn't think your sister was the type to approve of using such aids.

...Ah, dammit. I can't imagine a single scenario where Sister would be impressed with me.

"Oho. So you have your intelligence boosted using a tool you know NOTHING about..."

"...and the first thing you use it for is to try to get praise out of me?"

"Already too big for your britches, hm? Is that all it takes to satisfy you, Nobukatsu?"

I can already hear Sister saying something along those lines.

I should have known my limited imagination would never be enough to predict how Sister would react...

Don't worry about it, Nobukatsu. Let's just worry about looking for clues now, like you said.

Yeah... You're right...

Okay, Master, where should we start looking?

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Got it. Then let's turn these desks inside out and see what we can find.

...Hmm. These are order forms.

This company has been ordering materials for magecraft rituals for over twenty years.

They look ordinary at first glance, but if you look closely, you can see the watermarks are embedded with a curse.

I found something here, too. These are orders for a bunch of animals, of all things, and these are...

Aw damn. This is awful.

What is it?

Clothes. These are orders for a ton of cheap clothes.

... ...I see.

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No company would just give this many clothes to their employees for free, and they're way too cheap to sell off for a profit.

...Which means they've gotta be clothes for people who aren't supposed to be here.

He means subjects for human experiments.

Looking at all these glass tanks, they were probably importing guinea pigs over a long period of time.

I'd agree with that. We've learned a lot.

A password, huh?

They say the most compromised password in the world is "123456."

Shall we give that a shot?

It's worth a try.

I was kidding.

So? That's no reason not to at least try it.

I don't know who made this place, but it's obviously a mage workshop.

And while most mage workshops might be fortified against someone trying to hack into them from outside...

...they tend to neglect the hell out of their internal security.

It's usually nice and secure once you're inside, being the thought.

Oh, yeah, good point. Okay, let's give it a shot.

So, here's what we found out.

Of the ten computers here, we were able to log into four of them with "123456."

Two of them unlocked with "123456789," and we still don't know the passwords for the last four.

Are these people idiots or something? Did they really not realize this was a criminal operation?

They probably didn't.

'Course they're idiots. Why else would they resort to crime? No idea whether they realized that or not, though.

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That's putting it mildly. These people got up to tons of heinous shit. We're talking human trafficking and experimentation.

They went through the people they "imported" from overseas faster than movie theater popcorn.

It makes their stupid marketing emails about three times more infuriating.

How dare a bunch of human-trafficking scum talk about their bottom line!?

The sheer gall to write crap like that! Ugh, it makes me sick!

The real question is, WHY were they trafficking and experimenting on people?

... ...

All right, Master, I think I've got some answers.

Those Demonic Beasts...

Given the documents and what we found on the computers, it's clear that those Demonic Beasts...

...were the whole reason this workshopcompany?was created.

All the products and materials for experiments they bought were almost definitely used to make those Demonic Beasts.

Seems like a safe bet that said beasts are also what spawned this Singularity.

Sure, but we've still got three big questions.

Why did they create those Demonic Beasts in the first place? How do we get rid of them?

And finally, what's the story with these glasses? ...Though I guess that last one's not as important.

They're probably just some kind of fail-safe.

Yeah. Those things are a tall order even for us Servants.

They'd absolutely slaughter any human mages, no matter how good they might be at magecraft.

Are these glasses not working on you or something, Sister's Master?

For fighting back against the Demonic Beasts, obviously.

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These Demonic Beasts don't stop at the five senses: they even interfere with intuition. I'm sure the people who made these glasses must have wanted every advantage they could get.

...For that matter, and I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but...

...doesn't this whole scenario seem like something out of

Indeed. This all feels like it's straight out of a contrived, low-budget disaster movie.

Uh... Mind filling me in? I'm not too familiar with those.

These people create powerful monsters...

...then lose control of those monsters...

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...the banished monsters go on a rampage and happily devour their creators...

...and now, those monsters are at risk of getting out into the wider world.

That was some great collaborative storytelling. You painted a very clear picture.

Okay, but seriously, how could these people let things get to that point? Didn't they realize they were playing with fire here?

There are always people who will just insist everything is fine, no matter what kind of nightmare fuel they're working with.

I saw more than my share of soldiers who didn't see any issue smoking in the gunpowder magazine.

Not that the Oda family ever let them get away with that, of course!

I've been going over some emails on this computer, and it looks like this section was General Affairs.

It's the department that oversaw company logistics and organization.

I also found out this company had another department that handled the experiments themselves.

That sounds like the next place we should go to learn more about the Demonic Beasts.

Works for me.

What do you think, Master of Chaldea?

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