Narrator POV
Orlando.
The city bustled with warmth and color, unaware that someone who had once fought gods and altered the course of entire worlds had just arrived… in a stolen Ford Taurus.
The moment Ritsuka Fujimaru pulled into a random street and turned off the engine, he patted the dashboard gently.
"Thanks for the ride, my friend," he murmured, stepping out and leaving the battered car behind.
All he had on him now was a partially black suit with broke money.
"…I need money."
It was a simple, brutal truth.
But then, his lips curled into a familiar grin.
"Wait. I have treasure."
Ritsuka closed his eyes. He activated his Wisdom of Humanity (EX) skill...not for battle or strategy, but to think the way a human should in an unfamiliar world. That included knowing where to find someone who would pay handsomely for something without asking questions in Orlando.
A flicker of knowledge and raw intuition pulsed in his mind. Coordinates. Faces. Passwords. Names whispered through the cracks of civilization. In this world, black markets ran not just on money, but reputation, secrecy, and power.
He headed for the first name that came to mind.
A bar on the edge of Orlando's underground district.
Ritsuka pushed the door open, stepping into the musky darkness of a place that reeked of spilled beer, cheap cigars, and secrets.
The bartender glanced at him but said nothing.
Ritsuka approached the counter, leaned forward, and said a phrase that didn't belong in this era:
"Even shadows cast by fire must bow before the dusk."
There was a pause. A silent understanding passed between them.
The bartender didn't say a word. He simply nodded and walked into the back room.
Minutes later, he returned and wordlessly handed Ritsuka a folded slip of paper.
Room No. 11.
(Black Market Deal – Room No. 11)
The door creaked open to reveal a room oozing with wealth and sin.
The floor was marble, and the air was thick with the scent of imported wine. A man sat on an expensive red velvet couch, swirling a glass of Royal Tokaji. Two bodyguards flanked him, fingers twitching near their guns.
"So," the man said, eyeing Ritsuka with curiosity. "You're the lad who wants to sell? You don't look like an arms dealer or an artifact smuggler. Too clean. Too polite."
Ritsuka gave a slow nod, calm and composed. "Professionals have standards."
The man threw his head back and laughed.
"Hah! I like that! I really do! You've got charm, kid. Name's Ulysses Klaue."
Ritsuka narrowed his eyes slightly. Vibranium smuggler. Black market king. The kind of man who traded with warlords and monarchs alike. Ritsuka Wisdom of humanity skill gave open book data of klaue.
"I'm Beryl Gut," Ritsuka lied smoothly. "Let's just say I'm traveler right now."
Klaue grinned. "Well, Beryl, what are you selling? I swear, if it's just diamonds or some basic gold bar, I'm throwing you out. Even I have standards."
"Oh, this?" Ritsuka said, reaching under his suit.
He slowly, theatrically, pulled out an ancient-looking shield bronze-rimmed, partially cracked, but radiating a strange, solemn presence.
The moment it hit the table, Klaue's bodyguards went stiff.
"…That… is not modern," Klaue muttered, his grin slowly fading into awe. "What is this?"
"Proof of Hero," Ritsuka answered softly. "It's older than any nation. Older than any king. A gift once given to a warrior who stood at the dawn of civilization. If you know how to trace relic age… check it yourself."
Klaue didn't hesitate. He took out a device sensitive to age, density, and arcane resonance. The reading lit up in red.
~14,000 years old.
Klaue blinked. "This… is real."
He began to laugh low at first, then louder and louder until he was wheezing.
Ulysses Klaue, drunk on the idea of wealth and power, leaned closer, chuckling like a lunatic. His fingers twitched, almost lovingly brushing the edge of the ancient shield Ritsuka had presented.
Then, the laughter stopped.
"How," Klaue asked slowly, voice lowering to a gravelly, dangerous whisper. "How did you get this?"
Ritsuka tilted his head, nonchalant. "Trade secret."
Klaue's smile vanished.
Click.
The pistol was in his hand in a flash, aimed straight at Ritsuka's forehead.
"Tell me, boy. Or die."
The room fell silent.
Even the two bodyguards, previously stone-faced, shifted uneasily.
Ritsuka didn't flinch.
His eyes began to glow...a deep, unnatural azure blue, the color of blue dark mana, of human potential wrapped in mystery and defiance. It wasn't just light...it was presence, one that held the weight of thousands of lives lost and saved. One that came from a man who had spoken with kings, gods, and monsters and emerged unbroken.
He just stared.
"Disappointed," Ritsuka said, his voice steady and sharp, "I expected better from you, Klaue. You've survived by knowing when to fold… I thought your instincts were sharper than this."
Klaue felt something crawl down his spine
fear.
It was humanity itself staring him down, wrapped in death, hope, and everything in between.
His arm trembled.
Then, slowly… he lowered the gun, breaking eye contact like a defeated animal.
"...Tch. Fine. You win."
With a wave of his hand, one of the bodyguards placed a large black suitcase on the table. Klaue opened it. It was stuffed to the brim with cash millions in assorted international currencies.
"This artifact," Klaue muttered, "could fund a private army, shake the black market economy, and make government wet their pants. I'm paying you enough to retire to a private island."
Ritsuka tried his best to hold back his laughter and put poker face. Because this item is cheapest material in his world.
Ritsuka stepped forward and calmly closed the suitcase with a soft click.
The shadows at his feet rippled unnaturally, swallowing the briefcase whole.
Klaue stumbled back, stunned. "What the hell…Are you a mutant?"
"Just an old trick," Ritsuka said, shrugging. "Let's call it a good deal."
Klaue chuckled nervously. "Yeah… yeah. Hell of a deal."
He extended his hand. "To future business, Beryl Gut."
Ritsuka looked at the hand.
Then turned and walked toward the door without acknowledging it.
"No offense, Klaue," he said, voice drifting over his shoulder. "But we won't be meeting again as business partners."
The metal door creaked open, and the Last Master vanished into the night And now… he had cash.
Klaue stood there, staring at the empty room.
"…What was that?" he muttered.
And for the first time in a long time, Ulysses Klaue felt unease.
---
Ritsuka Fujimaru's POV
Once I stepped out of that bar, I exhaled quietly.
"I thought this was going to be a disaster," I admitted to myself, slipping my hands into my coat pockets. "I mean, 90% of negotiations like that end with a bullet, not a handshake."
'Proof of Heroes is cheap material, so in a way I scammed Him.'. I mentally laughed at Klaue.
Still… it worked.
Klaue was insane cunning fox, no maybe rat, but he knew value when he saw it. And now, I finally had a temporary place to breathe.
I used the money to rent a beachside apartment, one large bedroom, wide windows facing the waves, minimal furniture. The kind of quiet Chaldea never gave me.
I dropped my coat on the couch and walked straight into the bathroom.
The water was hot comfortably so. I watched the steam rise around me, letting it soak into my skin.
I stared at the mirror afterward, running a towel over my hair.
The man who looked back at me wasn't a boy anymore.
Tall. Built. Scars running along my chest, ribs, shoulder memories etched into muscle and bone. The singularities, the Lostbelts, ordeal calls, the Alien World... I carried every memory on this body, even after being isekai'd into a new world.
Even without Mash or Da Vinci, this version of me still bore everything that had happened.
I pulled on a crisp white shirt and a black jacket, straightened the collar, and took a breath.
Then reached into my shadow and retrieved the glowing object nestled within.
A Cosmic Cube fragment. Vibrant and unstable, flickering with the possibility of rewriting laws.
"This… could power an entire planet," I murmured. "I can't even estimate how much energy is packed inside this thing."
I narrowed my eyes.
"And yet… what I want isn't power. What I want is connection."
I sat down cross-legged in the center of the apartment floor and activated a spell. Bounded Field: Type-Anti-Divine Perception. A barrier expanded outward invisible to satellites, telepaths, even sorcerers like Strange. No one would see this.
I reached out again and placed the fragment in front of me like a Grail.
"If I can't feel the Throne… it means I'm cut off. Theoretically… summoning should be impossible."
I smiled softly.
"But then again... theory never accounted for our bonds."
I stood, extended my right arm toward the fragment, and let my voice carry the weight of my journey.
"Heed my words!"
"My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny!"
"If you heed the world's call, then follow humanity's path and answer me!"
"O Servants who followed me in my journey… come forth and join my journey once again—
Guardians of Humanity!"
The fragment lit up like a star.
It pulsed, then exploded in radiant light, so blinding I had to shield my eyes. Even outside, it illuminated the beach but my barrier held firm, preventing detection.
When the light died down, I slowly opened my eyes.
One person stood in front of me, the form slowly stabilizing in the air like divine phantoms pulled into flesh.
And then she spoke.
A voice I hadn't heard in what felt like another lifetime.
"Finally. This time I get to help you, junior. Take the L, my male version."
I blinked.
Standing in front of me, dressed in her black-and-orange uniform with that familiar peaked cap tilted over her bangs, was—
"Hakuno…?"
Her face softened.
"I'm happy to see you again kouhai, Moon Cancer, Kishinami Hakuno. Let's fight together from now on—WHAT THE...?!"
She cut herself off halfway, her expression flipping from confident smirk to pure disbelief. I blinked, confused...until I saw the widening of her eyes, the slow creep of red blooming across her cheeks.
She just stared at me.
"Ritsuka… is that really you?"
I nodded slowly. "Yes?"
"But you look different."
I crossed my arms, raising an eyebrow. "Of course I look different. I'm grown up. What kind of question is that? Are you teasing me again?"
Her hands tugged at the hem of her jacket. "N-No, I mean... you really look handsome."
"Uh-huh." I turned away and started toward the tiny kitchen. "There's no way I'm falling for your sweet words. I'm immune to your teasing now."
"You sure?" she muttered behind me, but I caught the smile in her voice.
She sat down on the edge of the bed same posture she always had in Chaldea, knees together, straight-backed, like a prim schoolgirl who could summon a giant Moon Cell cannon at any moment.
I peeked back and saw it: that soft smile she gave only when she was with people she trusted.
I sighed, lips curling upward unconsciously.
It's really her.
I busied myself making two coffees, black for me, something sweeter for her. When I came back, she was sitting quietly, eyes a little hazy, clearly thinking something over.
She looked up the moment I handed her the cup.
"Thanks."
I took a sip of mine and sat across from her. Her eyes sparkled just a bit more as she leaned forward.
"Hey, I do have information. I kind of got a data stream from you when you summoned me....fuzzy, like a compressed system boot."
I raised an eyebrow, impressed. "Good. Saves me the explanation. That makes things easier."
I took another sip and leaned back. "To keep it short.. I challenged Hydra. The cancer of humanity. Nazi roots, secret operations, experiments… the worst kind of evil."
Hakuno's eyes narrowed seriously at the word Hydra, but her expression softened again a second later.
"Then I'll support you. No hesitation. Besides—"
"I'm your first Servant in this isekai world, right?"
I paused.
"...Yeah?"
She lit up like someone just handed her a victory flag.
"That means I get the front seat next to my future husband before anyone else. Victory." she murmured in low voice.
"Wait....what?" I blinked. "Future what now?"
"Nothing"
She really hadn't changed at all. Still the cool, reserved, sharp-tongued Hakuno but now with just a bit more warmth, more softness. Maybe being a Servant this time made her more expressive.
After a few moments, she lowered her cup and looked at me again. Her gaze was more focused now, more vulnerable.
She thought quietly, 'when I saw you smile like that again… I understood how my Servants must have felt about me. Back when I was a Master, I never really got why they were so… dedicated. Why they'd risk everything for me. But when I saw you smile again this warm, real smile I felt my heart stir. I finally understood.... But It's kind of unfair. You were my kouhai…'
"Can we go to the beach later?" Hakuno asked, tilting her head slightly, hands behind her back. And there it was ...her ultimate move.
Puppy eyes.
Weaponized cuteness.
If I were any other guy, I'd have folded like paper. But I wasn't just any guy...I was a Chaldean Master. I stared at her like a monk.
"…No. Unfortunately, we have to keep a low profile. Hydra already has intel on my face. Too risky right now."
Her eyes narrowed for a second, like she was calculating something.
"Wait, I have an idea."
Before I could ask, she stepped forward and ran her fingers through my hair, concentrating. A soft, magical shimmer passed over us.
I felt the subtle shift...my hair color turning white like frost under her spell. A minor illusion, Moon Cancer class magecraft.
"Now we can go on our first date," she said with a smile.
"Date?" I repeated, confused.
She tilted her head. "You know me better than anyone, right? If I'm going to start living again as a Servant, I want to do it properly. That means first dates, ice cream, beach walks… even if it's late."
I looked at her and realized something.
She never had those memories....not really. No bittersweet youth, no awkward teenage crushes, no stolen kisses behind the school building. Just battles, death, erasure, and the Moon Cell's cold logic.
But now?
Now she was choosing to live.
"…Okay," I said softly. "Let's go on a date. I have enough money. I'll even buy you normal clothes."
"Take responsibility for me, then," she said casually.
'her defence is low right now '
I didn't hesitate.
I stepped forward, closed the distance between us, and gently placed my hand under her chin, lifting her face up to mine.
Our faces were inches apart. I could feel her breath. Her lips parted slightly, surprised.
"I will take responsibility," I said calmly, eyes locked with hers.
Then I pulled back with a smirk.
Her face turned scarlet.
"W-What was that…?" she muttered.
Crossing my arms, I tilted my head playfully. "What, Senpai? Do you want to kiss your kouhai in a room alone?"
She looked like a computer trying to overclock itself ..face burning, voice caught somewhere between a squeak and a laugh.
"This is my revenge," I continued. "Same move you pulled on Valentine's Day. Remember? When I thought you were going to kiss me and you just laughed and you took selfie instead'?"
"Don't take that seriously! I was just messing aroun—"
Before I could finish, I felt something soft press against my lips.
Warm. Real.
My eyes widened.
She kissed me.
For a moment, the world stopped. I didn't think. I just reacted hands moving on instinct, wrapping gently around her slim waist, pulling her into me. Her hands clutched the fabric of my coat as we kissed openly, tenderly, like two people who'd been waiting far too long to say everything without words.
One full minute.
When we finally parted, a single string of saliva connected our lips, shimmering in the room's low light.
She looked at me, breathless.
"Now I'm serious," she said. "I'm not going to hide my feelings anymore."
Her face was red, but her eyes were clear strong, certain.
"…Same here," I whispered, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
We stayed close, foreheads touching, arms wrapped tight. The world outside could burn for all I cared.
"We should go on that date now," I said eventually. "Can't damage your only clothes."
"Mm. But maybe… just a few more minutes like this first?"
We didn't move.
Just held each other.
---
[Director Nick Fury – S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Command Center]
The news said it was a terrorist attack.
A goddamn terrorist attack.
But I've seen terrorist attacks. I've seen bombs. I've seen mutant bullshit, alien invasions, and Doom politics. And what I saw on that feed from Texas?
That wasn't terrorism.
That was erasure.
Wiped. Flattened. Obliterated.
No residual heat signature. No radiation. No bodies. Just… dust in the wind. Neat and tidy like the motherfucker behind it wanted to erase the idea of the place ever existing.
I sipped my whiskey slow.
"Coulson," I said as the man walked in, clean suit, same cool-headed face he always wore. "I see you got my message."
"I have, sir," he nodded.
"You seen the news?"
"I have."
I leaned back in my chair, glass in hand, eyes on the monitor behind him looping the drone footage. Crater the size of Gaint hole, no seismic activity beforehand, and the edges of the blast? Smooth as glass. Like God got out of bed in a bad mood and slapped Texas off the map.
"I got a feeling this wasn't some backwater militia with fertilizer bombs," I muttered. "No, this was different. This… was surgical. I want you on this personally, Coulson. Whoever did this? They're playing with a damn cheat code. And I need to know if they're an ally, or the next power lunatic with a god complex mutant powers."
"You can count on me, sir."
"Good."
I stood up and poured him a glass too. Man earned it.
"This kind of power… this ain't cheap. Not something some punk off the dark web pulls off. Someone big is behind this. Real big. I want names, motives, origins—and I want to know if it glows in the dark, talks in riddles, or if we can even kill it."
Coulson nodded, but glanced at me. "Sir… are you alright? You look tired."
I stared at him for a beat.
Then I sighed.
"You ever get visited by your dead mother in a dream, Coulson?"
He blinked. "Uh… no, sir."
"Well I did. Last night. There she was, sitting on the couch like she never died, watching Jeopardy, and laughing her ass off."
"…Laughing?"
"Yeah. At me."
She looked at me and said, 'Nick, your life's about to go upside-down, boy. You ain't never gonna get a minute of damn peace again.' Then she laughed like the devil just told a joke."
"…Sir, that's—uh—"
"Then I woke up. Turned on the news. And boom motherfucking crater in Texas. Like she knew. Like she was watching."
I downed my drink.
"My sixth sense is ringing off the goddamn charts, Coulson. And when my dead mama starts throwing shade in my dreams, that's not a coincidence. That's prophecy."
"…I see." Coulson didn't know what to say to that. Can't blame him.
"I'm telling you right now this ain't over. It's just the damn prologue. Something big is coming."
He gave me a look.
"you can leave now "
Coulson left without another word.
I stood there alone in my office, watching the crater on screen. The sky was overcast in the footage, but somehow… I knew.
Storm was comin'.
And I wasn't sure S.H.I.E.L.D. had enough umbrellas.
---
Note: Yes, Hakuno is main heroine this time. I did my best to give good love development between them from FGO reference story. Do you like it.
Finally I worte Nick POV, Yeahhhhhh.
How is the chapter guys?