-Underneath a tough and cool exterior of a mask, is still a decent human being yearning to live through...-
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[-Section 2: To the Spirit Medium-]

-3rd's POV-

As Madeleine, Mash, and Fou went to the second section part of the burning singularity of Fuyuki, in hopes of heading to the next location. Eventually, the two girls who were running for about a while except for Fou who was clinging to Madeleine's shoulder, the two girls kept going further now while losing their breath.

"Senpai. We will soon reach the point Doctor specified. There are only flames as far as the eye can see. It's nothing like the Fuyuki in our data. According to our data, it's an average regional city. There's no record of such a disaster occurring in 2004... The Mana density in the atmosphere is also abnormal. It's a lot like ancient Earth..." Mash explained as she sees the viewpoint of where they were now heading.

"I see, then we're getting closer to the pinpoint of the location then-" As Madeleine spoke, their small talk had been interrupted by a familiar voice in the distance.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"

"Oh boy, I have a pretty bad feeling about this..." The blonde-haired girl muttered after seeing the sudden scream, meaning that someone is here in the burning singularity.

"It was a woman's scream for sure. Let's hurry over, Senpai!" Mash ordered as they rushed over to the scene, just to find the female director of Chaldea, in the corner as a group of monsters was now approaching her.

"Wh-Who are these guys, anyway? Why do these things keep happening to me? I can't take it anymore! Come save me, Lev! You were always there for me right?" Olga wailed and was now panicking and didn't know what to do.

"Director Olga Marie?" The two girls spoke after seeing the director before them, catching the female director's attention.

"Y-You two! What in the world is going on here?" The director panicked after seeing the two girls in the distance, unfortunately, it causes the monsters to notice them coming at them.

"Ah! Mash, battle position!" Madeleine ordered as she and Fou stood in front of the director to defend her from the monsters as Mash prepared her large shield.

"Yes, Master!" Mash answered.

Eventually, another battle has quickly arisen.

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After the battle was over, everyone then joined the stunned and surprised director.

"The battle is over. Are you hurt, Director?" Mash asked as the two girls and Fou looked at Olga, who looked a little bit stunned at what she just witnessed.

"... What's going on?" The director spoke as she took a step forward.

"Director? About my situation. I know it's hard to believe, but the truth is—" As Mash started to explain, Olga cut her words off.

"A Demi-Servant right? You fused with a Servant. What I want to know is why it's successful now all of a sudden! Enough of that. You! The civilian who showed up late to my speech!" Olga stated as she looked at Madeleine whose eyes were now burning with annoyance and anger, enough to startle Madeleine.

"Ah-?!" The blonde-haired girl yelped as the director took another step forward at her with her arms crossed.

"How did you become a Master? Only first-class Mages can enter contracts with Servants! There's no way you could ever become a Master! What did you do to her to have her do your bidding?" She shouted as she pointed at Madeleine as if she was accusing her of something vital.

"What?! Don't look at me! I don't even know what happened! Plus, this is way off base for me to know any of this!" Madeleine stated, sounding like she is trying to defend herself.

"There's a misunderstanding, Director. I'm the one who forced the contract." Mash spoke, catching the director's attention as Madeleine took a few steps away from her.

"What did you say?" Olga asked as she looked at Mash.

"I'll explain how it happened. That way we can understand each other's situation better." Mash stated, thinking that explaining the current situation can help the director to understand what had happened.

That's also true, well it's better of getting accused of something in the first place, yes...
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"...And that's how it happened. We were dragged into a ray shift and teleported here to Fuyuki. No other Master candidates shifted with us. You're the only human we've run into, Director. But this gives me hope. If you're here, that means there must be other candidates who got teleported here..." Mash stated, sounding a bit happy that someone from Chaldea was here.

"...There aren't. That much I'm certain of... I hate to admit it, but I know why we were shifted to Fuyuki." The director stated, thinking a positive thought of the situation.

"Really?" Madeleine asked.

"So you understand why we survived?" Mash mentioned.

"All of us here share a common denominator. Neither me, nor you, nor that one "were actually inside the Coffins." Though Rayshifting flesh and blood aren't likely to succeed, it's not impossible. Meanwhile, the coffins have breakers. When the success rate's below 95%, the power's cut off. So they never actually Ray-shifted. We're the only ones here." The female director explained.

"I see. That's why you're the director." Mash stated, fully agreeing with her statement.

"You know director, you can be reliable when you're calm, I see the point," Madeleine stated as she received a very unlikely stare from Olga.

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying I'm not usually calm?" Olga sneered, glaring at Madeleine back like a gun pointing at a target.

"Wha- No! Of course not! That's not what I meant!" Madeleine stuttered.

"...Hmmph, whatever. I understand the situation now. Madeleine, since it's an emergency I'll approve you and Kyrielight's contract. From here on out, you'll follow my commands. First, let's set up a base camp. Listen, this is the time to search for a Leyline Terminal. A place where magical energy converges. There we'll be able to contact Chaldea. So in this town's case..." Olga spoke.

"This is the point, Director. The Ley point is at your feet." Mash stated, pointing down at the ground where she was standing.

"Yeah, you're standing on it." Madeleine agreed.

"Whoa! Oh r-right, I knew that, I knew that, of course! Mash, and place your shield on the ground. I'm going to set up a summoning circle, with your Noble Phantasm as the catalyst." The director explained as Mash looked at Madeleine.

"...So she says. Are you all right with that, Senpai?" Mash asked as Madeleine answered with a small nod.

"Yeah, let's do it," Madeleine answered.

"...Understood. Now let us begin." Mash stated as she started the preparations for the communication, as the summoning started after Mash placed her shield on the ground.

"This is... The same as the summoning experiment chamber in Chaldea." Mash explained after seeing the large shield glow.

A... Summoning Experiment...?

"CQ, CQ. Hello, hello? Okay, the connection's back! Good job, you secured the connection. Now we can communicate again, and even send rations..." Eventually, it was Roman who answered the call. It wasn't what Madeleine was expecting.

"Huh?! Why are you running the show, Romani? What about Lev? Where's Lev? Put Lev on!" Olga yelled, which put the orange-haired doctor in a slight panic the minute he saw the director.

"Waaaahhhhhhhhhh! D-Director, you're alive? And you're unharmed? What the..." The doctor spoke, isn't fully believing to see the director on the day shift.

"What's that supposed to mean? Where's Lev? What's the head medic doing in charge?" The female director demanded, sounding quite angry.

"Don't ask me why. I'm fully aware that I'm not cut out for this job. But there's nobody else, Olga Marie. Currently, the surviving full-time staff of Chaldea is less than twenty people, including me. The reason I'm in charge of operations is that there's no one ranked higher than me who survived. Dr. Lev was supervising from the Command Room. There's no way he could survive that blast." The doctor explained with a serious expression, enough to shock the three girls to hear the situation.

"No way—Lev... No, forget that. Wait... please wait. Less than 20 survivors? What about the Master candidates... The coffins?" The director asked, and was now getting even more worried about what was going on.

"...47, all in critical condition and we're short on medical supplies. We might be able to save a few, but all of them might be—" As Roman started explaining of what had happened, Olga cut his words off.

"Don't be ridiculous! Cryopreserve them immediately. Think about reviving them later. Your top priority is to make sure they don't die!" Olga ordered.

"I forgot the coffins had those functions! I'll get on it right away!" The doctor quickly answered as he quickly got straight to work.

"...That surprises me. Cryopreservation without prior consent is a crime Yet you made the decision right away. You put human lives ahead of your reputation as the director." Mash stated as she and Madeleine looked very surprised at the decision that Olga made.

"Don't be stupid! As long as they're not dead, I can explain myself later - why else? In the first place, 47 lives... There's no way I can carry that burden! Please don't die... I'm begging you... If only Lev were here!" Olga pleaded, which Madeleine had now felt an unfamiliar nostalgic feeling...

...This odd feeling... What is this...? Why is it so familiar...?

....Have I already felt this before-

"Senpai? Are you alright?" Mash asked, she then noticed Madeleine's expression she looked a little lost in her thoughts.

"Ah... Don't worry, Mash. It's nothing." The blonde-haired girl responded calmly.

" ...This concludes my report. Chaldea has lost 80% of its functionality. There's only so much that the remaining staff can do. I'm shifting available manpower to Rayshift repairs and maintaining Chaldeas' and Sheba's current states. As soon as external communications are back up, we'll request supplies and start rebuilding Chaldea." Roman reported then soon he showed the three girls the report back in Chaldea.

"That's fine. I would've done the same if I were there. ... Ah. Romani Archaman. I don't like it, but until I return you're in charge of Chaldea. Make the Rayshift repairs your top priority. We'll be investigating this town. The Singularity F." Olga ordered, which surprised Madeleine, Mash, and Roman at the same time.

"Director, you're not afraid to be at ground zero? Since when did you become so brave?" Roman wondered, after seeing the director in such a change.

"...Seriously, you don't know when to shut up. I'd like nothing better than to go back now, but it's going to take time till you finish the Rayshift repairs. This town only contains low-level monsters, with Mash as a Demi-Servant we'll be safe. Accident or not, we Animuspheres pride ourselves on doing our best in the situations we're given. I'll be looking into Singularity F with Ritsuka and Mash Kyrielight as investigators. That said, since my field staff is inexperienced, the extent of this mission will be to discover the cause of this anomaly. Analysis and eradication will have to wait until after Chaldea's restored, and I can send in a second team. Are you okay with that?" Olga declared, making her statement understandable and clear for Roman to hear and follow.

"That would actually be easy for us then..." Madeleine stated.

"Roger that. Best of luck to you, Director. We can now communicate in short bursts. Feel free to contact me in an emergency." Roman stated as she understood the command from the director.

"...Huh! Even if we sent an SOS, nobody would come to our rescue." Olga muttered, loud enough for Madeleine and Mash to hear her muttering.

"Director?" Roman spoke, wondering what was going on.

"Nothing, I'm cutting off the connection. Go do your job." Olga stated, and Roman started to be worried now.

"...Director, are you sure about this? There's also the option of waiting here for the rescue." Mash explained.

"I can't afford to do that... After we return to Chaldea, who knows how long it will take to select the next team? A month won't be enough to gather personnel or funds. Do you know how much the Association will harass me in the meantime? Worst case, they'll blame me for mismanagement, and I'll lose Chaldea to them. If that came to pass, I'd be toast. I can't go back empty-handed. I need something that will shut them up! ...Sorry, but you're both stuck with me, Mash, and Madeleine. Come on, let's explore this town. The cause of this twisted history must be here somewhere." Olga stated, and then they learned that the mismanagement will also be her fault if they don't do something.

Without another word explained, the two girls nodded at the director and then soon they followed her to the next location of this burning singularity.