"Manaka?! What are you doing here? It's past nine at night, and this place is in the middle of nowhere!"
I stare at her, letting my projected katana dissolve into blue particles as a wave of relief washes over me.
It's been a while since I last saw her. Because of this Holy Grail War, I've been really busy preparing—setting up bounded fields at the orphanage to protect the kids and using hypnosis on them to make sure they never come out during nighttime.
So I haven't had any time to see her, but now she suddenly appears right in front of me.
"Because I missed you~" Manaka giggles softly. Her eyes gaze at me with that usual, deep affection she always has, completely ignoring the fact that I just had a sword pointed right at her face.
I look past her into the pitch-black forest. There are no cars, no lights, and no one else around. Yet, her usual dress and shoes don't even have a single speck of mud on them.
"How did you even get here? It's really far from Fuyuki. Did you use an enchantment to run all the way here?"
"Does that matter?" Manaka asks, tilting her head innocently with a sweet smile. "If you're curious, I can show you how."
"No, not really. I'm just happy to see you." Well, there are multiple variations of magecraft out there, so Manaka probably just has one that lets her travel to me easily.
"Then," Manaka says, happily raising both of her arms toward me. "I really missed you. Why don't you hug me?"
Ohh, so that's why. Now I understand why she's here. Manaka asking for a hug is actually something that happens pretty often.
Like, back when I didn't see her during our usual playtime because I was busy. When we finally met up again, she was so mad at me, so I hugged her to apologize. Ever since then, she always loves hugging me.
I let out a soft laugh and step forward, holding my arms open. "Alright, come here."
The second my arms loop around her, Manaka pulls me in tight.
She doesn't just hug me like a normal friend. She throws her entire body into it, wrapping both of her arms firmly around my waist and locking her fingers together behind my back.
Her head immediately dives into the crook of my neck, burying her face directly against my skin.
"Woah, okay," I mutter, lightly patting her back. "Someone really missed me."
Manaka doesn't answer right away.
She just stays completely still, tightening her grip until our bodies are pressed together without a single gap between us.
I can feel the soft fabric of her dress, the warmth of her breath brushing against my collarbone, and the way she takes a slow, deep breath against my shoulder—almost like she's trying to inhale my exact scent into her lungs.
For a beautiful girl who looks like royalty, her arms are holding on with surprising strength.
"Hey, Manaka," I wheeze slightly, giving her shoulder another tap. "You're kind of squeezing the air out of me. I just ate a massive dinner, so please don't squish my stomach."
A tiny, muffled giggle vibrates against my neck.
She doesn't pull away completely, but she loosens her grip just enough so I can breathe normally again.
Instead of letting go, she rests her chin affectionately on my shoulder.
"You smell really nice," she murmurs sweetly, rubbing her soft cheek against mine. "Where have you been, Rikka? I was so lonely without you."
"Well, you know... this Holy Grail War is a real pain to deal with," I sigh, gently stroking her hair. "Somehow I got involved with multiple Servants, and so much happened."
Manaka tilts her head just a fraction, her pure eyes gazing at me. "Didn't you always say you didn't want to get involved in the Holy Grail War?"
"I know... But like, things just escalated," I explain helplessly. "Since I'm already here and dragged into it anyway, I'm just gonna go through with it to the end."
Her bright smile doesn't waver at all, but she presses her cheek even closer against mine. "Hmm... But this scent. There are so many different traces lingering on you, and your magical energy feels so crowded and split. Did you make a contract with a Servant?"
Smell? Do I smell bad or something? I still haven't taken a bath since our mall shopping trip this morning.
When I woke up, I was just starving and immediately went to eat without cleaning up.
I awkwardly turn my head, trying to sniff my own shoulder, but I can't pick up anything strange.
"I don't know what you're smelling," I say, lightly shrugging. "But yeah, I did make a contract with a Servant."
Manaka pulls her head back just enough so her bright blue eyes can look straight into mine. She gives me a playful, teasing look.
"Liar," she giggles, tapping a soft finger lightly against the center of my chest right. "I can feel three separate tethers anchored to you. You have three Servants, don't you, Rikka?"
I freeze for a second, rubbing the back of my neck with an awkward laugh. "Ah... well, technically, yeah. A lot of crazy things happened today, and I kind of ended up with three of them."
Manaka pouts her lips slightly, looking at me with pure, sweet concern.
"That's way too much for you, Rikka. You look so tired, and carrying three contracts must be giving you such a headache. Why are you forcing yourself to deal with that?"
"It's not like I wanted three," I grumble. "It just kind of turned out this way."
Her eyes suddenly sparkle with a bright idea, and her sweet smile returns in full force.
"Then why don't you just give them to me?" she chirps happily, completely casually, as if she were offering to take out the trash for me.
"Give them to you? What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said!" Manaka beams, tilting her head innocently. "I'm working on a special little project of my own, and it needs strong Servant souls as fuel to wake up. If you hand those three over to me, they won't drain your energy anymore, you won't have to be in this war, and we can just go back to playing together like we always do. Wouldn't that be so much better, Rikka?"
A little project? And using Servants as fuel? What kind of project even needs that?
The only thing that comes to mind is the Grail, but that makes no sense. Why would Manaka even care about doing something like that? It's definitely for some other reason.
"What do you mean by a little project?" I ask, staring at her in confusion.
But then, suddenly, something appears right in the tiny gap between Manaka and me while we're hugging.
"Huh?"
It looks like a floating ball of light. Before I can even react, the ball violently bursts open, exploding into a blindingly bright flash.
"Arghh, my eyes!"
It's so intensely bright that my grip on Manaka immediately loosens. I stumble backward a few steps, throwing my hands up to shield my face.
"Goddamn it, is this karma for stealing Solar Flare or something?!" I yell, squeezing my eyes shut because it hurts like hell.
Because I can't see a thing, I have no idea if Manaka's eyes survived the sudden flash or not. I want to call out and ask if she's okay, but before I can even open my mouth, I feel someone grab the back of my dress, forcefully yanking me backward.
"Kyaaa!"
"Master, get back!" I hear Artoria yell, her voice completely full of urgent, panicked warning.
Right after that, the loud, metallic clanking of chains erupts directly in front of me. It sounds like multiple thick, metallic chains snapping taut out of nowhere, holding something tightly in place.
Like, what the hell is even going on here?!
---
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---
On the floor of the hallway, Rikka sat with her hands pressed against her face, blinking rapidly as tears streamed from her stinging eyes.
Artoria stood directly in front of her, her invisible sword drawn and pointed straight at the open entrance.
In the doorway, Manaka was completely bound. Golden chains had shot out from thin air, wrapping tightly around her arms and torso, pinning her firmly where she stood on the threshold.
Yet, Manaka did not struggle. She didn't try to pull her arms free, and she didn't seem to care at all about the chains locked around her body.
She simply stood in her spot with a pleasant, sweet smile, looking completely relaxed.
"Hello, Saber. We meet again," Manaka greeted cheerfully.
"You! What are you doing here?!" Artoria demanded, her tone full of fierce hostility.
This was the second time she had encountered Manaka, and every single time, the little girl always managed to make a complete mockery of her.
Manaka didn't care about the hostility at all. She simply tilted her head, her smile remaining perfectly cheerful.
"Are you still upset, Saber?" Manaka asked, her voice light and teasing. "I only wanted to test you. Though honestly, you were pretty disappointing. Even after throwing those shadow Berserkers at you on the road, I thought you would last a little longer."
Artoria's grip on her unseen blade tightened until her knuckles turned white. "Step away from here. You will not lay a single finger on my Master."
"Your Master?" Manaka's sweet smile finally slipped for a fraction of a second, her bright blue eyes turning dead and cold. "How strange. You were serving that pathetic man in the coat just this morning, weren't you? Now you're clinging to my Rikka?"
"Yours? Mind your tongue, parasite!" Gilgamesh's arrogant voice cut in coldly from behind Manaka.
The King of Heroes materialized outside, stepping up right behind Manaka to completely block the doorway from the rear.
Several golden ripples opened in the air directly behind Manaka's head, the tips of high-tier noble weapons gleaming dangerously in the dark. With Artoria blocking the front and Gilgamesh standing directly behind her, Manaka was completely boxed in, tightly bound in golden chains with zero room to move.
Manaka casually glanced over her shoulder at Gilgamesh before returning her gaze to Artoria.
"Isn't this a bit too much? The two strongest Servants in this war teaming up just to stop me from visiting my best friend?" she suddenly sighed, her tone shifting into an exaggerated, innocent sadness.
"Cut the act," Artoria said coldly, not moving her invisible blade an inch. "Do you really think I'm going to believe you after what you did to me yesterday?"
From behind Manaka, Gilgamesh scoffed.
Her crimson eyes narrowed, flaring with a sharp red glow as Sha Naqba Imuru activated, looking straight through the girl pinned in her golden chains.
"Do you really think you're the only one who can see the future, parasite?" Gilgamesh said, a sharp, mocking grin spreading across her face. "I can see right through that fake little smile. Whatever you're plotting is pathetic."
Manaka didn't reply. For a split second, her pleasant expression dropped, her pure blue eyes going completely flat and cold.
Behind Artoria, Rikka finally managed to blink the stinging tears out of her eyes. Her vision cleared, and her jaw dropped at the chaotic sight in front of her.
Artoria was in a full combat stance with her sword pointed directly at the open door, Gilgamesh had floating Noble Phantasms aimed right at the back of Manaka's head, and Manaka herself was wrapped up tight in golden chains.
"Wait, what the hell are you doing?!" Rikka scrambled up from the floor, completely panicked. "Put the weapons away! Why are you attacking Manaka?!"
"Master, do not be deceived. This person is not a normal human," Artoria warned, holding her free hand out to stop Rikka from rushing forward into the crossfire.
"What? I mean, yeah, technically Manaka isn't a normal human. She's a magus just like me," Rikka argued defensively.
"That is not what Saber means, Master," Gilgamesh called out smoothly from the dark outside. "Did you not find it weird how this parasite managed to come all the way out here and enter the Einzbern bounded fields without triggering a single alarm?"
"Isn't that normal?" Rikka argued, her voice trembling slightly as she desperately tried to make sense of the scene. "There are all kinds of weird spells out there. She probably just used one to get here, right? She just wanted to visit me!"
Rikka was in complete denial. To her, the girl wrapped in those chains was just Manaka—the same sweet, overly affectionate best friend she had spent the last three years playing with. It made no sense for her Servants to treat her like a monster.
Artoria did not back down. Without breaking her stare, she reached her free hand back, firmly guiding Rikka behind her shoulder to shield her from the entrance.
"Master, please listen to me," Artoria said, her voice dead serious, refusing to take her eyes off the threshold. "On the first night, right after our battle at the docks, this girl ambushed Irisviel and me on the road. She summoned multiple shadow Berserkers as if they were disposable toys just to test my strength. Master, the magical energy she carries is not normal. It feels bottomless and completely unnatural, unlike any magus I have ever faced."
Manaka simply let out a soft, sweet giggle, entirely unbothered by the accusation.
Standing on the dark porch behind Manaka, Gilgamesh's crimson eyes flared with a sharp, glow as Sha Naqba Imuru activated.
"Saber is actually right for once," Gilgamesh sneered, the golden portals hovering behind her humming with lethal intent. "You know what my eyes can see, Rikka. And they are telling me this parasite is a walking disaster."
Gilgamesh looked down at the back of Manaka's head with pure, cold disgust.
"She wears that sweet face only for you, but beneath it lies an aberration tied straight to the Root. She does not see people as human—she sees this world as a playground of disposable toys. This creature would burn this city to ash and slaughter every soul in it if she thought it would earn her a single smile from you."
Rikka stood frozen behind Artoria, her mind completely short-circuiting as she struggled to process what her two strongest Servants were telling her.
She could barely process the words. The idea that Manaka—the same girl who brought her sweets, clung to her arm, and played with her for three years—was some kind of walking catastrophe who would burn an entire city for her felt completely absurd.
She wanted to argue. She wanted to tell Gilgamesh she was being ridiculous.
Before Rikka could find her voice, the atmosphere in the doorway shifted.
From the threshold, Manaka suddenly laughed.
It was not a villainous cackle or a roar of rage. It was a soft, melodic giggle that echoed sweetly through the hall, her shoulders shaking slightly against the golden chains holding her tight.
"Burn the city to ash?" Manaka repeated, her voice dripping with pure, innocent wonder. She tilted her head, her bright blue eyes curving into happy crescents.
"Why wouldn't I? If it made my Rikka smile, I would gladly drown this entire world in mud and tear apart the sky. Isn't that normal?"
The sheer, earnest sincerity in her sweet voice was sickening.
Then, the air in the hallway broke.
There was no massive explosion of mana, no flash of light, and no physical shockwave.
The ambient magical energy simply warped, turning suffocating and unnatural as the temperature in the castle plummeted. A dark, bottomless pressure began to leak straight from the bound girl.
Artoria's Instinct screamed in panic. She ground her teeth, her arms trembling as she fought to keep her footing against the crushing force bearing down on them.
It felt like standing at the edge of a bottomless abyss that was actively trying to swallow her whole.
Behind Manaka, Gilgamesh's arrogant smirk completely vanished. The golden portals hovering in the air rippled and flickered wildly as Gilgamesh tensed.
Even the Chains of Heaven began to let out sharp, metallic groans, vibrating violently as they struggled to bind something that defied reality itself.
Two of the strongest Servants in the war were visibly straining just to keep their ground.
Yet, the most terrifying part?
Rikka did not feel a single thing.
While Artoria and Gilgamesh were suffocating under the crushing force, the space directly around Rikka remained completely undisturbed.
Manaka's monstrous aura is parted with surgical perfection, curving around Rikka like a gentle, harmless breeze to keep her completely safe.
Manaka slowly turned her gaze away from Rikka.
The warm, loving smile instantly dissolved from her face. Her expression went completely blank, leaving behind a dead, hollow stare as she looked at the two Servants.
"You talk too much," Manaka whispered, her voice completely flat. "I'm having a moment with Rikka. If either of you makes another sound, I'll tear your cores out through your throats."