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It was one of those nodes in one of those chapters that just immediately throws you into combat, ready or not, with little other areas left in the game open for you to properly prepare. Especially using a borrowed servant. Nobu and Drake were at least decently leveled, but this Atma person seemed to be in her first and most basic ascension level, which was obvious to Gudako, as she’d point out long after this singularity had ended, that it was because she wasn’t nearly as accessorized nor “showing off her titties” like a lot of servants like to the more they eat their nuggets. Also, no lens flare or layer saturation. What was up with that?

Still, her first skill, Foolish Ulster Style, would prove enough to keep her alive for now. An attack buff with a free evade was never not wanted, though Nobu screamed when she saw that on her skill list. How dare she look into her other forms and copy one of her Berserker skills just straight up? Just fucking pilfered is what it was. Rude as all hell. Atma retorted with something about she didn’t put a copyright on it, and everyone else seems to have carbon copies of each others’ skills plenty. And if she loved it so much, she should have put a ring on it.

That’s not possible, you know, they screamed more and more, Drake having to snatch them both up by their ridiculous hats and throw them back on the front line. “Would you two idiots bicker later? There’s some people here who claim to know you and for some dumb reason they’re not taking any direct turn action unless one of you hits them!”

>>> “This is why you two never got stats until now, you know”
> “Well, it is still an early story fight”

“I’m pretty sure my annoying brother here’s a one star. Gotta be. The other one? Three if I’m being generous. Makes me wonder what whomever is in charge of them is or isn’t thinking.” Nobu sighed. “Though if they’re not going to attack until we do...”

Nobu called everyone in for a huddle. She whispered a few things here and there, making sure only to shout the dumbest of football metaphors to confuse her enemies, make them seem like they were dumber than they usually are, throw them off until it could be executed.

They were able to juggle the turns and skills just right that, thanks to command seals in play, there was a stack of Atma using her skill, Gudako charging her NP to one hundred percent, Drake slamming down her NP damage bonus and attack bonus for the group, and then slammed it so they’d do a buster chain with Atma, ending in a NP release. With this, maybe they’d get both down enough that they’d only get a few swipes in at worst. Not like they looked like they were capable of any damage.

The new Archer readied her sword and began swiping at them as she went through her chain, jumping back and beginning to glow as she recited something that could only be construed as bringing forth her NP. Her sword was sheathed and she put up her right hand, index and middle fingers pointed up in prayer. “To reach for the stars...”

Nobukatsu began to shake. “Wait! This isn’t fair! Using high level boss tactics against us already?”

“You two have a lot to fucking talk about playing fair! I’d say why I oughta, but I think I’ll let my sister’s sword do the talking. She’s always been my favorite sibling after all.” Nobu smirked.

“YOU’VE ONLY KNOWN HER A FEW CHAPTER NODES!” Nobukatsu sobbed.

“Really should have thought about this before just jumping in and all that….”

While the others kept them distracted, Atma continued her chant.

“So that I may cut even them down! Oh, rays of Amaterasu, guide my blade where it needs to cut! Hoshigiri – The Star Slaying Sword! One small slice for me, one giant cut for womankind!”

At once she dove across the battlefield, taking one swipe with her sword and sheathing it, jumping back to her original position as the sunrise burst open in the background, and a torrent of deep, searing cuts made their way through both Nobukatsu and Akechi’s bodies, watching as the damage multiplied on account of them being both low level and those that would tarnish her own sister’s name. Oh, and the fact she had a massive type advantage there.

It was scripted only as far as they both dropped to 1 hit point each, and they immediately stopped the battle.

“W-What kind of Noble Phantasm was THAT?” Nobukatsu continued to cry.

“Hmrf. A curious blade. I feel like I’ve seen others around the Oda family use it. Though the fact it’s with her and not the brother tells me…. Hrm, actually. Let’s retreat for now. I think there’s a certain someone back at the base that would be intrigued, so to say, to find out about this new sister of yours, wouldn’t you agree?” Akechi sounded disappointed, but not surprised.

“Oh you mean fa--- Oh, him. Yes! You’re right! Let’s head back! Maybe he’ll gift us with reinforcements and we can take this land and burn it in one go!”

“Farewell for now, what was that name again, Atma? Such an odd name. Next time we cross swords, you won’t be so lucky.”

With that, the two unscrupulous Sabers made haste far, far away. Just how fast were they traveling? And how were they doing so? Such mysteries remained about the Servant Universe.

~ END CHAPTER 2 NODE 5

> “Impressive work, Archer”
>>> “DO THAT AGAIN DO THAT AGAIN DO THAT AGAIN”

It was extremely exactly like an amazing and great and cool and bloody and cool and cool again kind of samurai movie, according to Gudako. Nobu laughed and pat her sister on the back. “I knew I could leave that sword in your hands. They’ll be too shaken to come back for a while. I think it’s safe to say we can restock this town and head north, cut off anything those two idiots may have sent up there off at the pass.”

“I’m not too worried, there’s a lot of mountains between here and there they’d have to climb, and with how scrawny both of their bodies looked, I’m not expecting them to be able to do that anytime soon. Even then they could very well fall into a geyser or hot spring.” Atma smirked.

“There’s hot springs here?!” Drake perked up.

“Plenty. I don’t think you can throw a bunch of wine grapes around here without hitting a few dozen.”

“You’re going to have to show me a tour of them when we’re done fixing your problem them, as thanks for services rendered. And I mean show me personally where all the really good ones are, right?”

Atma squeaked and turned red again, hiding behind her hat and trying to find a way to say she’d be glad to do so. Her honor really.

“Bwahaha! This one’s way too easy to rile up like this! I could have a lot of fun with this one!”

>>> “Gay”
> “That’s explicit content and we do not need to get removed from the app store”

“Now now, that wouldn’t be fun at all if they just scuffled off where none of us could see, now would it be, Master?” da Vinci chimed in. “Good work. This farming area should be safe; we’re not detecting anything else off about it from here. At least, for now. Where was it you said you were heading towards next?”

“Mendocino. Think of it like this Sonoma area, but someone threw up a lot of high elevated mountains throughout the middle of it. There’s also a few large lakes, forests, and it’s hard to travel from the coastline to inland. If we get it from all three sides, we should have a relatively annoying area for the enemy to try to take back, so if all else fails, we’ll have a sturdy enough base.” Atma scratched her head. “Which makes me wonder why they’d not tried to take it yet themselves. If I were them, it’d be the first spot I’d take. Not anything out east. The more inland and central you get in California, the more flat it is.”

> “So we want to take anything resembling a harbor or trade area.”
>>> “Sounds like a certain kouhai I know”

“S-SENPAI!” Mash shouted. “B-Be nice in front of our new friends!”

Atma chuckled. “It’s okay, it’s the liveliest it’s been around here, since uh, this whole thing happened, really. Been trying to fix a lot of this myself and it’s not exactly friendly work. But a lot of the coast of Northern California was once settled by the Russians way back when looking for furs and fishing and they left plenty of military style forts around. There’s a big one up there that would serve as a sturdy lookout for us, if nothing else.”

“So we should make sure the people here don’t need anything else and then just go north?” Drake asked.

“Almost perfectly directly north. Expect to see a lot of scarred earth from their repeated igniting of the area; some of the nicest parts of this state are now almost permanently blackened because of them, so try not to look too hard if you go by it. It’ll just depress you.”

With that said and done, a new spot appeared on the map, and off north Gudako and her crew of merry women went towards some new marker called Ukiah. Whatever that was.

Drake couldn’t help but steal a barrel of the ale from the basement of the brewhouse base before she left, though. She just marked it down in the inventory as “Rations, for pirates only, if you’re not a pirate and you touch this I will kill you so don’t even try, it’s cool drinks for Drake only, as in Francis Drake and not the rapper, who is not even a servant you dumbass”

~ END CHAPTER 3 NODE 1

After not too long, again can someone please tell Gudako or any of us how this just happens, they found themselves heading north away from Wine Country and into the heart of the area of California known as the Redwood Empire. The trees got taller, forests got more dense, hills rolled along more and tighter, roads were longer, the rocks were cragged, and the only water source around for miles was a small river running through a lot of it, with nary a fish in it. Atma explained once long ago that this was the Russian River, full of some of the cleanest water and freshest fish on planet earth, and she’d actually learned fishing there as a child, but now it was just a barely skimming along stream, impure, and the fish had long vacated for the ocean and as far away from the state as they could get. It didn’t make her too happy to dwell on it. The towns also became smaller, more rural in appearance, with the roads badly paved and on top of hills and between trees instead of the more urban sprawl that Petaluma had, even for a farming town.

Eventually they found themselves in the next town, Ukiah, which was all but abandoned. You could walk anywhere in it in an instant, and not without this magic teleporting servant junk that seemed to get you anywhere without hesitation. This was just a good ol fashioned small town. The Archer said this was actually her home for a good portion of her life, and that the graveyard was actually largely taken up by her family and ancestors, but as the fires went on, it soon became the nameless graves of most of the populace. Someone had to give them their last rites, and with only Amaterasu’s glowing sun at her back to help her, so did Atma work to give the town peace, promising the last of them that she would reclaim it and make it a peaceful, happy, small little town again.

She invited them into an area she claimed once held her house. It was a shed, and under it was a locked door that lead to a thriving underground version of the town above her. There were literal underground markets and people here, and you could get all the way to the coast on foot if you needed to. So long as the enemy didn’t bother to check this very dilapidated looking outpost, they’d never find where she hid the living and active parts of Mendocino. It was quite clever if you asked her yourself.

“Well, seems nothing else is going to happen today. I didn’t sense anyone following us, and we’re surrounded every way by mountains and trees outside to have anyone on our tail this soon, and nobody knows about the underground. I can arrange you all to have accommodations for as long as you’ll need them with one of my friends here.” Atma half smiled. She was glad to be home, but a lot of it was the fact it was intact, and the other half of her smile gone to the fact most of the original form of it had been laid to waste.

>>> “DO YOU GET HBO DOWN HERE I WANT TO WATCH PASTIME OF CHAIRS”
> “You’re extremely resourceful, aren’t you?”

“If you utter that show’s cursed name around here again I’m kicking you out!” snarled the Archer.

Along the way, following Atma, they noticed just how almost normal it seemed. Though one smell in particular caught Gudako’s eye. Well, nose.

“It’s cannabis, Master.” da Vinci snickered. “It was a popular crop up here for many reasons. People grew it in secret here in the mountains in such a way that nobody would ever be able to find it all again even if they had a map. The area around was perfect for it.”

Gudako was about to eat a whole ass edible off one person before Nobu dragged her away. “At least properly dose yourself!”

Mash sighed. “You should stay sober, Senpai! This is an important mission!”

Eventually, they reached an underground inn where Atma waited, checking the group into what looked like a lavish hotel.

A face turned around, with rolling blonde hair and a rather fancy set of attire, her chest very very much poking out of her dress rather very on purpose. “Hey, applehead, been piking out? Ain’t seen you in a while, nor these brightlighters before. You say they’re here to be hired as stiff hats against them deeger ol’ bearmen?”

> “What”
>>> “Wow okay no”

“Forgive my new friend, Madge. These girls are here to help us finally strike back and liberate the town!” Atma responded. “Everyone, this is Madge. An Assassin, and a right strong one, whom once upon a time when this area was founded, ran the most famous and high quality brothel anyone had ever known.”

“Ye go spoutin’ my true name like it were bloochin’ nonch.”

“Like you ever cared, once your name became slang for this kind of work.” Atma turned to her friends. “You’ll have to forgive her.”

“Aha! So that’s what she’s speaking!” da Vinci chimed in. “There was a dialect that only existed around this part of California known as Boontling, and she’s definitely more than fluent, she’s actually the origin point of a lot of words for it! As far as I can tell, the whole language was constructed to confuse outsiders.”

“Afraid I ain’t know how to accommodate a hologram molly, though...” Madge winked at da Vinci.

“That’s okay. Just keep the Master and her friends safe.”

“We should probably rest for now. Tomorrow, we’ll make way for Fort Bragg out in the west along the coast. I know two women who would be more than perfect to help us clear the way there and help keep watch if needed.” Atma grinned. “They’re just in the next room over.”

She lead the group over and opened the door. One of the two faces was familiar to Gudako; that was Quetzalcoatl and she was apparently trying to wrestle someone else who had an eerily similar look to her.

“This would be my favorite tag team. The one with the cape is Quetz, and the other one is both her wife and mine, the Rider of Moon Valley.”

Gudako’s brain froze up. How can woman be two wife at once and where does she sign up for this job?

~ END CHAPTER 3 NODE 2

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