Arknights' Lock of Heaven

“Avalon…not the Avalon I know…”

“We all know very well that if we part ways here, it will be goodbye forever.”

"Finally, she asked me what the happiest thing about the trip was, excluding Manchester."

“After I answered her, I asked her the same question.”

"She told me that the happiest time was the Welsh forest on the fourteenth day after we met."

"Our third handshake!"

"At the very end, as we were about to part, she whispered to herself, her back to me, that the happiest thing was—on the eleventh day in Gloucester. It might have been a trivial matter to me, but for her… it was the first time she had walked down the street with someone she liked."

"Then, she left immediately, without even giving me a chance to respond... Perhaps she knew she wouldn't get a response, because even if she did... it would only add to her regret."

"In the very end, I could only watch from afar on the ship as she battled the gods, connecting with Morgan's throne, merging with the twelve holy lances, and overloading her own body against the mountain-like deity. She used her concept of being a holy sword as a cannonball, and her own body, her own heart, and her own magic as fuel, to break through the god's curse and pave the way for my future..."

“Just like you,” Fujimaru Ritsuka said, stroking Natsumi’s cheek, “just like you that day.”

"When I watched her go blind, spitting blood, and giving her all, I realized that she was just like you. You were the same that day, even as the chains crumbled one by one, even as the light around you dimmed, you held Tiamat firmly, preventing her from taking another step forward."

"She used her life to open the path to the core of the god Kornunus for me, and you used your life to stop Tiamat from advancing for me."

"I am a despicable person, the most despicable person in the world."

"From Fuyuki at the beginning to Britain at the end, there have always been people willing to sacrifice themselves to pave the way for me..."

“Ritsuka, don’t be silly,” Xia Yu said helplessly. “I don’t know her, and I don’t know what Miss Artoria’s purpose is, but I’m not just doing this for you.”

“I’ve already told you this before. I had my own little schemes that I didn’t tell you, which has made you feel guilty for so long.”

"If we're talking about despicable behavior, then I'm the more despicable one."

“That means we’re just as despicable as each other,” Fujimaru Ritsuka said, rubbing her face against Xia Yu’s back.

“Yes, we’re just as despicable. Perhaps only that Miss Artoria is truly virtuous,” Xia Yu sighed upon hearing this, then smiled and said, “I must say, after hearing what you said, I’d like to get to know her.”

"Artoria is mine! She even confessed to me!" Upon hearing this, Fujimaru Ritsuka first smiled, then warily tightened her grip on Xia Yu's neck. "Mashu is mine too! Don't get any bad ideas!"

"You're overthinking it," Xia Yu said calmly. "I just want to get to know them."

"Tch, don't I know what kind of person you are?" Fujimaru Ritsuka curled her lip. "Give up, we're all the same. Don't I know you well enough?"

"Don't forget, who did you talk to the most back in Babylon?"

“…You’re so open-minded,” Xia Yu said after a two-second pause, “but would you dare say these things to Mashu?”

"No way! (Very loudly)" Fujimaru Ritsuka said confidently, "Although I don't dare, Mashu will definitely be on the same wavelength as me! You stinky man, don't even think about stealing my junior away!"

"Mash will always be mine! Mine!!!"

"I really didn't mean that..." Xia Yu explained speechlessly.

"You meant it!" Fujimaru Ritsuka shouted. "You definitely did! When you first saw Mashu in Babylon, your eyes were glued to her!"

"You treat me like I'm tied up and waiting for ransom, but you smile brighter than anyone else when you're with Mashu! You definitely have ulterior motives towards her!"

"Heh, who can blame me when Mashu is so cute?" Xia Yu said matter-of-factly, "And so polite, calling me 'senpai' all the time... I'm not pretending anymore, I'm coming clean, Mashu is just that cute! Is it wrong for me to have designs on such a cute lady?"

"Do you have the guts to say that to Mash?" Fujimaru Ritsuka glanced at him sideways.

“You don’t have the guts,” Xia Yu replied confidently. “It’s not like you do have the guts.”

"Ha, I don't have the guts either."

"..."

"..."

Silence is the snowfield tonight.

"Weren't we being really childish just now..." After a moment of silence, Fujimaru Ritsuka lowered her voice and said.

"Being childish is good; being childish means being carefree," Xia Yu sighed upon hearing this. "Are you feeling any better now?"

“Yeah, it’s a little better now. I really miss it. Back in Babylon, we were like that too,” Fujimaru Ritsuka rested her chin on Xia Yu’s shoulder. “I would get up early in the morning, have breakfast, and then wait for you to come and kidnap me. Then we would bicker in the sky in the morning sun, and occasionally we would run into Ishtar speeding through the air.”

"Haha, I only found out in the end that the goddess who always messed up was speeding around every day to find her lost cow."

"After we got rid of Ishtar, we came to the giant tree and started demanding ransom in my humble house," Xia Yu recalled nostalgically. "It's quite absurd, really. Da Vinci actually wanted to give us both a lesson together."

“You have the nerve to say that,” Fujimaru Ritsuka said matter-of-factly. “I’m just a half-baked Master, and what about you? With all your advantages, you still need to learn basic knowledge with me, you know? When you were obediently holding your books and asking the doctor and Da Vinci about the most basic things, we knew you were definitely not Enkidu.”

“It doesn’t matter, I never intended to hide it,” Xia Yu shrugged.

“But I never expected that you weren’t even a Kingu,” Fujimaru Ritsuka breathed playfully in his ear. “You really kept this from me for a long time.”

"It was out of necessity."

"So you force a beautiful girl to study with you every day, without missing a single day. You kidnap her in the morning to study, and she continues studying after lunch. Then, when Mashu comes to take her away in the evening, you leer at her..."

"I wasn't lecherously staring at her!" Xia Yu retorted, "Don't make baseless accusations! I was just looking at her with admiration!"

“Yes, yes, I admire it,” Fujimaru Ritsuka said with a smile. “But you can only admire it, unlike me, who can hug a cute junior and snuggle in her arms to my heart’s content.”

"It's a deal, you can't take Mashu from me, you already have so many kemonomimi girls!"

“What do you mean by ‘have’?” Xia Yu said speechlessly, “We are just in a normal superior-subordinate relationship.”

“Yes, yes, there’s a normal superior-subordinate relationship with the bunny-eared girls,” Fujimaru Ritsuka teased. “I heard that not only bunny-eared girls, but also deer antlers, dragon tails, angel halos and wings are all available here.”

"When you created so many strange and wonderful monsters with Gorgon, I knew your XP was definitely biased towards non-humans!"

"What do you mean I followed her in doing this!" Xia Yu retorted, veins bulging, to protect her reputation. "I moved out to live in the primeval forest a long time ago, out of sight, out of mind, okay? It was all her doing, it has nothing to do with me!"

"Ha, who would believe that?" Fujimaru Ritsuka said with a wicked smile. "Who am I?"

"I led my Servants through the Singularity, killed Goetia's Master, and am currently conquering the Lostbelt. I've witnessed the demise of the Greek Mechs, the Chaos that could devour planets for energy, the curse accumulated over ten thousand years after the fall of a god, and the world lingering on after Ragnarok. And I've conquered all of that! Do you think people will believe me or you?"

"If I told you XP is a monster, believe me, the entire Valhalla will know about it tomorrow!"

“But it’s Enkidu whose reputation gets affected,” Xia Yu said calmly, shrugging. “Anyway, Valhalla is in another world, so what does it have to do with me?”

"..."

Hearing this, Fujimaru Ritsuka was silent for two seconds, then a smile reappeared on her face. "Alright, alright, shamelessness is invincible, you win!"

“Besides, to be honest, it’s not that safe here either,” Xia Yu said slowly. “The marine life in the sea are remnants of a previous civilization. If they wanted to, they could wipe out all civilizations on this planet except for themselves in less than a year…”

"What's worse is that their god, the one in charge, Isamara, somehow couldn't think straight and committed suicide... Now, who knows what's really going on with Hai Si."

“Originium… This thing has a lot of problems too. If something goes wrong, it means the planet’s civilization will be rebooted. The evil is even more outrageous. Let me tell you, there’s a stargate on the snowfield to the west. Yes, the one from science fiction novels, the stargate that allows you to travel across light-years to another planet. The real evil is there.”

"There's another layer of star pods in the sky. This thing is really outrageous. It completely seals off the entire planet. The Terrans can drive mobile cities, but they're basically clueless about aerospace because of this. Who knows who left it behind? Is it a blockade by a possible enemy? Or protection from a previous civilization?"

"Who knows, there might be some alien civilization's monitoring station outside, just waiting for a new civilization to emerge so they can carry out another major purge."

"All the pre-civilizations capable of interstellar travel are gone. Who knows what awaits us beyond the atmosphere?"

Of course, the problem might not be that serious, but since Fujimaru Ritsuka had brought up all those titles, he had no choice but to exaggerate them to the extreme, emphasizing that he couldn't lose face.

As for Fujimaru Ritsuka... thanks to the torment the FGO world line inflicted on this little girl, after experiencing so many major events, she actually doesn't think there's anything wrong with what Xia Yu said.

Her attention was focused on the other side.

'I'm here...'

'us……'

And then there's that line, "Anyway, Valhalla is in another world, what does it have to do with me?"

"..."

“Looks like you’ve had it tough too. Being a savior isn’t easy,” Fujimaru Ritsuka forced a smile, took her right hand off Xia Yu’s neck, and then shook his hand vigorously.

"Let's cheer each other on."

"Hmm," Xia Yu said, looking down, "Let's cheer each other on."

"Ah, it's right ahead, there it is!" Fujimaru Ritsuka suddenly pointed in a direction, "Storm Borde is right there!"

495 Reunion

"Look, this is my ship!" Fujimaru Ritsuka jumped down from behind Natsume, then pointed at the Storm Borde in front of her, raising her head to show off, "How about that? Pretty cool, right? It can even fly!"

“That’s really impressive,” Xia Yu said, stroking her chin thoughtfully.

We need to find a way to bring it over!

Of course, it doesn't mean I want the ship, but rather that I'll use my specialty to get my hands on Captain Nemo's spirit portrait and then make a one-to-one replica.

Come on, a ship that can fly in the sky is so cool!

If you just install a few cannons on it, it'll be practically unstoppable in Terra, where there's hardly any awareness of air defense.

But the most important thing right now is...

He looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka.

The girl excitedly pulled him aside and told him about all the wonderful things about Storm Borde.

She was completely different from the girl who had just been crying on his back.

She has composed herself and will not show her vulnerability in front of others.

Ah, as expected of you.