Hello there everyone! This will be my first fanfic, so if there's any grammatical mistakes, please bear with me!

"Prologue" will be kinda slow, but the story will pick up from there.

I'm going to put this disclaimer here once and for all, saves me the trouble of copy-pasting. Woz?

Woz: "DISCLAIMER: THE AUTHOR DOES NOT OWN ANY OF THE FRANCHISES: KAMEN RIDER, FSN, AND ANY OTHER REFERENCES TO OTHER WORKS." If he did, he would've been making his own series, which is not going to happen in the near future.

Thanks Woz! I hope you'll enjoy! …Let's begin.

Prologue

"- go, Rits -!"

"- can't possibly defeat -"

"- all for what?"

"[RIDER TIME!]"

"…senpai?"

June ?, 2018

(My POV)

I woke up with a start, but my eyes aren't opened yet. 'Urgh… wha-how long was I out?'

lick, lick*

"...Umm. Since it's neither morning nor night, please wake up, Senpai."

I blearily opened my eyes. What greeted me can only be described as a white squirrel. No, on second thought, it looked more like a fox. Or a dog.

I blinked. Twice. Then I practically shot up from my sleeping position on the floor (wait, floor?) when my brain finally caught up with the strange sight. 'W-w-what the hell?!'

The squirrel-like creature then ran away, leaving me alone with another person. I rubbed my eyes sleepily before looking at her.

Lilac hair in a bob-cut, with her bangs covering her right eye. Her other lone amethyst eye hid behind her rectangular frame glasses. She appears to wear a grey hoodie with a black shirt, with an additional white collar shirt underneath, and a red tie to complement the outfit. She also wears a black skirt, tights and brown shoes.

The first thing that popped up in in my tired mind was: 'She's kind of cute'. Then I realised what I just thought and quickly got that out of my brain.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Let's see…" she put a hand on her chin. "…not someone whose name is worth mentioning… or something…"

"…?"

"I-I mean, I do have a name… but I don't often have the chance to say it," she looked to the side in embarrassment. "…which means I don't get to make an impressive self-introduction."

I nodded, still confused as hell. "Then, where am I?"

She smiled. "That's an easy one. This is an observatory, built to make the future of the human race as long and strong as possible." She looked out of the window. "This is the Chaldea Security Organization."

I followed her gaze. The snowing outside never lost its intensity, blanketing the outside world in various shades of grey-white. 'We are in Antarctica after all,' I thought.

We found a nice place to sit. The girl gave me a water bottle from a nearby vending machine. I uttered a "thanks" before chugging down its contents.

"You just went through the Spiritron Dive, right? If you're not used to it, it might put a lot of stress on the brain." I wiped away the remaining drool.

"Tell me about it. I've already forgotten what just happened before I woke up." It gave me a headache just by thinking about it.

The girl could only smile apologetically at me, before resuming, "Fou is the one who found you here on the floor, unable to regain your consciousness." "Fou?"

A loud cry of "Fou!" earned our attention, as we saw the creature from earlier returned. It ran towards her and with an impressive leap, landed on her face.

She doesn't seem surprised at all, as she let it slide around her shoulder before settling on her shoulder. It looked like this had become a routine for them.

"This squirrel-like creature is Fou. He's a Privileged Life-Form allowed to freely walk around Chaldea."

Now that I have a good look at him, he has purple eyes not unlike the purplette before me. A bit of fabric wrapped around his neck, giving a look that resembled a cloak.

Fou let her pet on his head, before he decided to choose my shoulder as a platform to jump off. Then he ran into the hallways again.

She smiled fondly at his retreating figure. "…He ran off somewhere again. He does that sometimes, just walks around."

I could only reply, "…so he's the mascot of Chaldea." She giggled and nod in agreement.

"Yes, normally he doesn't go near anyone aside from me, but he seems to like you, Senpai." I faced her in surprised, a mischievous glint present in her visible eye. "Congratulations. Now you shall be the second caretaker of Fou in Chaldea."

Now that Fou is gone, the area began silent again at the lack of topic. I tried to find something to talk about to ease the awkward atmosphere. Then I remembered.

"…oh, that's right! I haven't introduced myself." I held out my hand. "I'm Fujimaru Ritsuka. Sorry for not making a good first impression, but nice to meet you."

She took it with her own. "Ah, how rude of me. My name is —"

"Oh, there you are, Mash." A voice suddenly called out. We turned around to face the man before us.

He seemed to be of German descent in either his late thirties or early forties. He has long reddish brown hair on the sides of his head and seemingly bald on the top. A full green suit with a white collar shirt, green pants and black shoes. Completing the assemble is a matching top hat and a periwinkle tie.

"That won't do you know, wandering about without permission," he chided to the now-introduced Mash. Then he noticed me. "Oh, someone's already with you? You're..."

He pressed a screen on his wristband (a standard for the staff), and a hologram of my ID was displayed. "Master Candidate No. 48. I see... The rookie who just got assigned here. We did have an emergency opening for public applicants."

He then patted on my shoulder reassuringly. "Do forgive me, I was inconsiderate. But please don't be discouraged because you're a public applicant. We need all of you for this mission."

"I'm Lev Lainur, one of the engineers employed here." He smiled warmly and held out his hand. I stood up and shook it. "Welcome to Chaldea, Fujimaru-kun. I'm glad you're here."

Well, he's quite nice, I thought. But why do I have a bad feeling about him?

"Speaking of which," Dr. Lev checked his wristband again, "the orientation begins in 10 minutes in the Central Command Room. Do you remember the way, or…?" he trailed off.

"I'll be follow you guys then! Chaldea sure is huge…"

"All right, let's get going. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask me or Mash. We still have a bit of time after all."

As I was going after him, Mash suddenly called out, "Wait senpai, you forgot this!" I turned around quizzically, and she dropped something into my hand. "It dropped out of your pocket just now."

I just stared at the item in question. It looked like a bulky black stopwatch, with a clear glass window that exposed the unmoving gears inside to the viewer. Weirdly there's no minute or hour hands on it.

"Senpai?"

"Ah, nothing Mash. Thanks for picking it up!" 'I'll think over this later,' I thought while pocketing (back?) into my pants.

According to Mash, The Organization for the Preservation of Human Order, [FINIS CHALDEA], is a research facility and observatory that gathers researchers of every stripe, from Magecraft to science, all for the purpose of continuing the history of humankind for as long and strong as possible. It was founded by the late Director Marisbury Animusphere, and the current Director is his daughter, Olga Marie Animusphere.

Global Environment Model, [CHALDEAS, was created by these top researchers. It had been proposed that planets have souls (My jaw dropped from the revelation.), so this miniature Earth was replicated to reflect that soul. "As long as the light of civilization burns in CHALDEAS, humanity is guaranteed to last at least for another 100 years," Dr. Lev said.

But last year, the light had suddenly begun to die. If the light disappears completely, that means civilization will come to an end. According to their calculations, the human race becomes extinct in December 2019. I shuddered, finally recognizing the severity of the mission.

A close examination of the information had revealed a new abnormality, labelled "Spatial Singularity F". They discovered from 2004 to 2018 CE, there was a suburban city in Japan that was an "unobservable area" and did not exist in history. Chaldea assumed that was the cause of humanity's extinction, and had proposed the Rayshift experiment to the UN, which received approval.

Rayshift is a process that turns humans into Spiritrons and sends them back into the past (basically time travel) to intervene with certain events. By this means, we, the Masters, can travel to the past and investigate the cause of the future's disappearance, then destroy it.

Well, that's the plan.

Then the Director suddenly kicked me out of the Command Room. I could only look back at the closing automatic doors in shock and confusion. Beside me was Mash, sweatdropping.

"…It looked like you fell asleep again, Senpai. You've been left out of the first mission." I scratched my head sheepishly in response.

"…So that's why average citizens like myself were so aggressively recruited."

She nodded, then asked, "Will you leave Chaldea?"

"I haven't decided on that. But for now, I'll do what I can here. Leaving now will leave a bad taste in my mouth." I then turned towards the snowy landscape outside, my black hair and blue eyes reflected in the window.

'As high as we are above the ground, we can't see one bit of the blue sky,' I thought solemnly. I pity the people who worked and lived here for a long time; they can't feel the sun's warmth, or experience the four seasons like back in Japan.

As I turned back to speak to Mash, I noticed a figure leaning against the wall from my left. A grey robe covered their body, masking their identity; but judging by their frame I assumed it to be a guy. A hood low enough to cover his eyes, and a matching scarf hung around his neck, with what seems to be a hardcover book in his hand.

Out of curiosity, I walked towards the guy. As I was about to ask him out, he suddenly spoke while still reading his book.

"Congratulations." I stopped dead in my tracks.

"?"

"According to this book, your journey as a Master starts today." He flipped a page without looking up.

"?"

"However, a word of advice." He closed his book with a *thump*. "Look out for survivors."

"…Survivors?"

"Senpai, who are you talking to?"

I glanced at Mash before turning back at the guy. …Only to find out he's gone.

'W-w-what the hell?! Where did that guy go?' I whipped around frantically. 'He can't possibly run off; this is a straight hallway!'

"Are you alright Senpai? I saw you were talking to empty air just now," she asked in concern, "Do you want to stop by the infirmary?"

I paused, before shuddering in fear. 'Did I just… talk to a ghost?!'

The day just can't get any weirder.

"EEEEEEEEH? Who are you!?" I spoke too soon. It CAN get weirder.

I looked at the person in question with a deadpan. He has orange fluffy long hair tied in a ponytail, and green eyes. He wears a standard medical robe over green scrubs, with white pants and shoes. He also wears gloves, and an ID badge hangs around his neck.

"This is an empty room; It's where I slack off! Who gave you permission to come in?!" he pointed at me with a fork from his half-eaten cake.

I blinked. "l was told that this was my room..."

"Your room? Oh... I see, so the last one finally showed up, huh?" he mumbled to himself, before smiling at me. "I'm the head of the medical department, Romani Archaman. People just call me Dr. Roman. I don't know why, but it has a nice ring to it, so go ahead and call me Roman. "

Head?! I immediately bowed. "Nice to meet you, Roman-san! I'm Fujimaru Ritsuka."

He laughed. "Don't be so formal Fujimaru-kun. Let me guess," he smirked, "you're the rookie who just got here then got on the Director's bad side?"

He laughed again at my sour expression. "Then you and I are alike. Just so you know, I got yelled at by her too.

"You know the Rayshift experiment's about to start, right? The entire staff's been sent to help out. But since my job is to look after everyone's health, I had nothing to do. The machines are more accurate at reading the Vitals of the mages who are in the Coffins."

Dr. Roman pouted. "The Director said, 'When you're here, Romani, everyone slacks off!'" He made his voice as girly as possible, earning a laugh from me. I have to say, he made a really good impression of the Director. "Then she threw me out. So I've been sulking here." Then he grinned, "But that's when you showed up. This is what they called a blessing in disguise right?"

He got up from the (my) bed. "Since we both have nowhere to go, why don't we spend some time and deepen our friendship! Wanna drink anything?"

I shrugged. "Sure, chocolate sounds nice about now."

"...So that's the structure of Chaldea. An underground workshop built on a snowy mountain 6,000 meters above sea level..." Our conversation was interrupted by a buzzing wristband. He answered the call, and a holographic screen of Dr. Lev showed up.

"Romani, we're going to start the Rayshift soon. Could you come in case there's an emergency? The A Team's in perfect condition, but B Team on down is less experienced and they are displaying some slight abnormalities," he explained.

"It probably comes from anxiety. I'll give them some anaesthesia then."

"If you're in the infirmary, then you can get here in two minutes. Hurry up, will you?" With that, Dr. Lev hung up.

"This isn't the infirmary though." He flinched in response.

"Ack! Please don't mention that... It's gonna take five minutes from here, no matter what..." He sighed while scratching his head. "Well, I think they'll forgive me for being a little late. A Team has no issues anyway. Oh, that guy's — "

"Dr. Lev, I know, we've met before. He said he's an engineer here."

He chuckled in response. "An engineer? How humble of him." Seeing my perplexed look, he explained that Dr. Lev is the mage who created the Near-Future Observation Lens, [SHEBA] — A telescope used to observe Chaldeas.

Sheba not only observes Chaldeas, but also served as a surveillance system for most of the facility.

Also, it was the previous director who built the summoning/unsummoning system, which is the foundation of the Rayshift tech.

To actualize that theory, the Pseudo-Spiritron Calculation Engine, [TRISMEGISTUS] (basically a supercomputer) was provided by the Atlas Academy.

To say that I'm impressed was an understatement. It's fascinating that all these different talents had been gathered to carry out this important mission.

"It's pointless for an ordinary doctor like me to be there," Roman laughed in self-depreciation, "but if I'm summoned, I must go."

He got up from his seat. "Thanks for chatting with me, Fujimaru-kun! When you get settled in, come by the infirmary. Next time, I'll treat you to some yummy cake."

As he reached for the door, the lights above started to flicker before dying out, plunging the room into darkness. "What's this?" he frowned. "The lights are out. Did something—" He was interrupted when the ground shook from a tremor. Then the announcement came.

{EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY. A FIRE HAS BROKEN OUT IN THE CENTRAL POWER STATION AND THE CENTRAL COMMAND ROOM.}

*BOOM*

{CENTRAL AREA'S CONTAINMENT WALL WILL ACTIVATE IN 300 SECONDS. ALL STAFF MUST EVACUATE FROM GATE 2 AT ONCE.}

*BOOM* *BOOM*

"Was that an explosion just now? What on earth is happening?!"

So many questions like "Why" and "How" rushed into my head it's making me dizzy. But one thing stood out of my mind.

An image of a certain kouhai bowing at me before running off towards the Command Room.

"…MASH!" 'She's with the A team!'

I bolted through the door and ran straight towards the Command Room.

"Wait, Fujimaru! Where are you going!?"

I ignored his voice, my mind only focused on the image of the purplette. 'Please be okay… please be okay…'

Flashback:

"Look out for survivors."

'That guy… is the one doing this?! If so, why did he tell me to look out for survivors? It doesn't make any sense!'

The path towards the Command Room seemed so far away; the once white hallways now seemed menacing from being illuminated by dim green emergency lighting, bringing an eerie atmosphere throughout Chaldea.

I noticed Roman also ran beside me, but decided against asking why he hadn't evacuated yet. It wasn't long before we both came across the sight of the ruined Central Command Room. Gone was the vast area, with soft blue lighting and the Coffins raised from the cooling lake. Instead dust and flames filled the air, fallen debris dotting the place.

"Only Chaldeas survived?!" he bewilderedly exclaimed. The globe looked untouched, save for the light dimming at a visible rate.

"This was no accident. It's a sabotage."

{GENERATOR OPERATION STOPPED. POWER LEVEL CRITICAL. SWITCH TO THE BACKUP GENERATOR, ERROR. PLEASE MAKE SWITCH MANUALLY.}

{CONTAINMENT WALL WILL CLOSE IN 40 SECONDS. THOSE REMAIN IN CENTRAL AREA, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY—}

"...I'm heading down to the underground power station," he decided. "We can't let Chaldea's light go out.

"Hurry up and go back the way we came. Go outside, and wait for help!" With that, he ran into the darkened hallways again.

"…Sorry Doctor. But I should look for survivors till the last minute." I surveyed the area before running around.

The damage was way more serious than I thought. The Coffins looked relatively unharmed, but that didn't mean what's inside was fine. The bombs were strategically placed so that it does more damage through the resulting shockwave, rather than the explosion itself. I ran past the fallen Coffins, desperately looking around to find someone, anyone, had survived the blast.

{SYSTEM SWITCHING TO THE FINAL PHASE OF RAYSHIFT.}

{COORDINATES: AD 2004, JANUARY 30TH, FUYUKI, JAPAN.}

"MASH!" I yelled.

cough*

"…!" There, a barely noticeable cough. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, and there she was. "Mash!"

The situation was dire. She was pinned to the ground by a fallen ceiling debris. The only visible parts are her head and left arm. Her head was bleeding badly, and she looked like she could pass out at any moment.

{[LAPLACE]'S SHIFTING PROTECTION ESTABLISHED.}

{SINGULARITY'S ADDITIONAL FACTOR SLOT SECURED.}

{UNSUMMON PROGRAM SET. PLEASE START FINAL ADJUSTMENTS.}

"Hang in there. I'll get you out!" I tried lifting the boulder away, but it won't budge even an inch. I gritted my teeth and pulled harder. Still nothing.

"…Sen…pai…?"

"Mash, don't move! You'll—" I looked down, and the words died in my throat. A puddle of blood started seeping through the cracks between. There's so much blood… With those wounds, she's…

"…It's all...right. You can't...save...me. *cough*" Blood. "Don't mind me, please... Run."

My hands fell limply towards my side. I felt my legs giving out. 'I… I just barely know her… and she's going to die, just like that…?'

{WARNING ALL OBSERVATION STAFF.}

{CHALDEAS' STATE HAS CHANGED.}

{NEW REWRITING SHEBA'S NEAR-FUTURE PREDICTION DATA.}

From above, Chaldeas has turned crimson, as if the world itself is set on fire.

{UNABLE TO DETECT THE EXISTENCE OF MANKIND 100 YEARS IN THE NEAR-FUTURE ON EARTH.}

{UNABLE TO CONFIRM HUMAN SURVIVORS.}

{UNABLE TO GUARANTEE MANKIND'S FUTURE.}

"Ah…" Mash spoke tiredly. "Chaldeas...has turned bright red... No, never mind, that—" Before she could finish her sentence, the doors towards the hallways closed down, locking us within the burning ruins.

{CENTRAL AREA, SEALED.}

{180 SECONDS TILL INTERNAL CONTAINMENT PROCEDURE.}

"...they, shut off, the area," she wheezed. Her visible eye filled with despair. "...Now, we can't, get out."

"…We'll figure it out." I said reassuringly. To her or myself, I don't know.

Around us, the flames continued to consume the area. In front of me lied a dying girl. And I'm powerless to do anything about them.

{COFFIN VITALS: MASTERS BASELINE NOT REACHED.}

{RAYSHIFT REQUIREMENT NOT MET.}

{SEARCHING FOR QUALIFYING MASTER... FOUND.}

{CANDIDATE NO. 48, FUJIMARU RITSUKA RESET AS MASTER.}

{UNSUMMON PROGRAM, START.}

{SPIRITRON CONVERSION, START.}

"...Um...Sen...pai?" she weakly reached out. "Can…you…?"

I held her hand in mine; it's the only thing I could do right then. She smiled faintly in response.

{RAYSHIFT STARTING IN…

3

2

1

ALL PROCEDURES CLEAR.}

{FIRST ORDER, COMMENCING OPERATION.}

The last thing I remembered, was Mash shedding a tear, and a vortex of blue light.

A/N: Finally got this out of my head! It's been sitting there for weeks, and I finally got the time to write.

Edit: Some slight edits.

Experienced readers will notice about the changes I made, but this is for those who don't, and the reason why:

1) The containment wall: 90 seconds to 300 seconds; Roman explicitly states that the distance between My Room and the Command Room takes 5 minutes, no matter what. So I adjusted the time accordingly.

2) Lev Lainur: 5 minutes to 10 minutes; I wanted to have Lev arrived earlier than usual, that's why I added 5 more minutes, that way Ritsuka can "bond" with Mash and Lev(shudder) better, and thoroughly understands how Chaldea works.

Alright that's all for now. I will try to update as frequently as possible, but I'm still studying, so maybe on a biweekly basis. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISMS are welcomed! Also R !

P.S.: The POV will be constantly switching depends on the situation, but it will mostly be on 3rd POV; this chapter is just to set everything in motion.

P.P.S.: Requesting beta reader!