"So, for various reasons, I'm actually the only person in good enough shape to give you any kind of debriefing, so bear with me, Subaru-kun." Says Romani with an easygoing smile. He's rolled a desk out in front of my hospital bed, and has a bunch of paperwork laid out in front of him.
"Right, I guess the Director's been returned to bed rest, huh?" I mutter.
The doctor lets a quick grimace slip, before returning to his smile. "More or less. I'll start by saying, you are allowed not to answer some questions, especially those pertaining to the magic you can use. Standard Clock Tower protocol means that a mage is allowed to protect their mysteries."
"Right, secrecy was kind of the name of the game back there, huh?" I say with a sigh. Escardos-san aside, basically everyone in the place was cagey as all hell.
"Pretty much. Anyways, to start with, you came to Chaldea because… like me, you had a premonition, right? Disaster was waiting in 2015." He begins.
"Hm… well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but-" I start, and then I clutch my chest in pain as an invisible hand grasps my heart. "Oi, are you… kidding right now?" I can't even say 'that's about right'?
Beeeeeeeeep. A long tone comes from the heart monitor.
"Wha- Subaru-kun, your heart-!" Romani says, jumping up - but he calms down a little as the beeping returns to normal. "What the hell-?"
"Right, sorry, I can't answer that question." I say with a strained smile.
"Some kind of geass or taboo, then…?" Romani sighs. "Jeez, if talking about stuff is gonna give you heart damage, then don't talk about it."
"...Well, I've never died from it before, so it's not that big of a problem. Just a bit of chest pain, I guess-" I start, but he cuts me off.
"No, that's the wrong perspective to have, Subaru-kun." Romani says with narrowed eyes. "It would be one thing if it just caused lung pain or something, but since your heart just stopped for a second there, I'm going to seriously recommend that you never do something like that again."
"I mean, I won't push it hard enough to stop my heart. I've figured out that much." I say with a shrug. "But a little pain isn't-"
"You're still not understanding! That dumb saying, 'pain is weakness leaving the body' - it may be true when building muscle, but the damage to heart is a completely different matter!" Romani yells.
"It'll heal, so isn't it-"
"It won't heal." Roman says coldly. "That's the problem, Subaru-kun. The human heart heals incredibly slowly. In fact, up until 2009, the medical community was almost certain that it wasn't capable of self-repair at all. The strain of aerobic exercise is one thing, but actual damage to the heart can take months to recover from, and even then it tends to leave behind scar tissue that increases the risk of heart failure."
"...Oh." I mutter. "Wait, wasn't my heart seriously damaged on the way back from Fuyuki, though!?"
"Well, in that case, it was healed with magic instead of naturally, so there shouldn't be much scarring if the healer was competent - and by all appearances, they definitely were." He shrugs. "With magecraft, recovery from heart failure isn't impossible - but if you're somewhere I can't get to you when it happens, you're toast. So, seriously, don't strain your heart. Just that brief stoppage just now may have shaved as much as a month off your total lifespan."
"Ugh… Well, in the first place it's not like I triggered the thing on purpose except as a last resort." I say, itching at my arm.
"What kind of last resort is stopping your own heart!?"
"Eh… well, there are some dubiously useful side-effects. But for the most part it's useless unless I'm already in an awful situation, and if it doesn't work the pain will cripple me for a few seconds, so it's not great." I say with a shrug. "Regardless, I'll try to take your advice and not mess with that too much."
"Seriously, you're as bad as all the others. Anyway, where were we..." Roman mutters, glancing through his paperwork. "Ah, right. Reasons for coming to Chaldea… unknown, can't answer due to a geas?"
I shrug.
"Right, moving on… you somehow became aware of bombs in the command room, and of Lev's possession by Demon God Flauros. Presumably also something you can't talk about?"
"Yep. Can't say a thing about it. Doctor's orders, you know?"
He heaves a sigh. "This is going to be a long interview, isn't it?"
***
"Alright, so, moving on - these so-called [Authorities] of yours… Well, I get that the term is from that 'other world' of yours, so you're just using words you're familiar with, but that specific term has a pretty big history on earth; namely it's used to refer to the powers held by gods and divine spirits. And yet, since you said that they don't cost any mana to use, they really do seem to be similar in spirit, if not in power level." Roman says, scratching his head.
"Hmm…well, it's not like my versions are anywhere near the power of their previous holders. Petelgeuse, the guy who had [Invisible Providence] before I did… He could pull out something like one hundred of his [Unseen Hand]s at a time, and they had way longer range than mine do. And his predecessor was apparently powerful enough to force the strongest dragon in that world to retreat." I say, stroking my chin.
"Oh, so it's a power that's passed down to later generations! Then, it might be similar to that [Vestige Project] that the Wandering Sea was messing around with…" He says.
"Then what I've acquired would be [Vestiges of Sin]... hey, isn't that actually pretty cool sounding?" I mumble. "And it would help clearly delineate me from the bastards I got them from, too!"
"Wait, go back, where's the 'of sin' coming from, exactly?" He asks, an eyebrow raised.
"Ah, right, I guess I didn't mention it. The [Authorities] of that other world, they each correspond to one of the Seven Deadly Sins, plus the old decanonized ones, Melancholy and Vainglory." I explain.
"Ah, so it's something like that…" He mutters. "Incidentally, which sins do your abilities correspond to?"
"[Invisible Providence] was picked up off of Sloth, and I got [Cor Leonis] when Greed died… I should have one more, since we finally cornered Gluttony just before I got sent back here, but I don't know what it does yet." I say.
"Wait, wait! This whole time, I thought these authorities were passed down through some kind of learning, that you got taught how to use them! What's this about killing!?" Roman yells.
"Eh!? No way! The sin archbishops… well, they were something of a mixture between serial killers and terrorists, basically. If it were up to me, I'd have nothing to do with any of them, but they kept coming after the woman I love, so we wound up killing a bunch of them." I say. "And then for some reason, I unexpectedly wound up acquiring their powers after the fact… Honestly, it's been kind of troubling!"
"So you just kill the villains and steal their powers!? What are you, Megaman!?"
"That's wrong!... Is what I want to say, but that's more or less how it's worked out so far." I say, cringing a bit.
The doctor sighs. "So, how much do they change when you acquire them? Do you think we can predict what your [Vestige of Gluttony] will become?"
I exhale a little. "...The previous Authority of Gluttony, was one that allowed its users to eat 'names' and 'memories'. If your memories got eaten, you'd forget who you were, and if your name got eaten, everyone else would forget who you were. If both got eaten, you'd fall into a coma and become impossible to wake up. And of course, those guys could make use of anything they ate - one of them actually shapeshifted into a victim of theirs at one point."
"So you're Megaman, and your enemy was Kirby!?"
"Well, they were a lot less cute, and a whole lot more creepy, though… Anyway, several people close to me lost stuff to those bastards, so my hope has been that Gluttony might develop into something that can undo the damage its previous wielders did." I say with a shrug.
"...So you plan on returning to that other world, huh?" Roman says.
"Yeah. That troublesome old man said someone who can bring me home will turn up at Chaldea in something like two-and-a-half years, so I'll be in your care for a little while yet."
"...Right." He sighs. "Anyway, those [Vestiges] of yours have been covered about as well as we can for now, so we should move on."
"...In the end, I think [Authority] sounds cooler, so let's just keep using that." I interject. "Besides, doesn't [Vestige] sound too much like I'm summoning ghosts or something?"
"Hey, I'm writing in pen here! Don't make me go back and change it!"
***
"So, you got sucked into Archer's reality marble, and only survived because someone living in Void Space interfered… Ugh, I don't know where to start with that, so we'll leave it alone for now." Roman says, scratching his temple with the back of his pen.
"Hey, don't leave out the part where I heroically finished him off with my spellcasting!" I faux-brag.
"Yes, yes, Subaru-kun is amazing… Anyways, I'll go ahead and fill you in on what you missed while we were rushing you to the medbay." He sighs. "First of all, we didn't lose anyone other than you mid-rayshift, and you came through a little later. As for how everyone's doing, though..."
I see him frown, and I get a sinking feeling. "I suppose it'd be too much to hope for you to just say 'they're all perfectly fine', huh?" I mumble, gritting my teeth.
"...I'm afraid not." He gives a sad smile, and lets out a breath. "To start with, even though you managed to limit the explosion from the bomb directly beneath the director, we still lost an absolutely crippling number of people due to the other bombs. All told, we've only got thirty-four staff members remaining - and eleven of those people are going to have a long road to recovery before they can put in the hours we're going to need. As for the other master candidates, they're all alive - but we had to use the Coffins' cryo-stasis function to keep them that way, and we don't have anywhere near the number of medical staff to dare thawing them out now."
"...If only I wasn't so stupid! I should have realized Flauros would have a manual detonator as a backup!" I mutter, fists clenched.
"Subaru-kun…" He says, giving me a sad look. So he thinks so too, huh? I look away, cringing.
He finally sighs, letting out the tension in his shoulders. "That mess aside... as for Mash, she's doing amazing. In fact, she's the healthiest I've seen her! Her immune system finally seems to have stabilized, and her muscles and heart have exceeded normal human levels of fitness."
"Right, she mentioned something like that… I guess she'll finally be allowed outside after this mess is over, right?" I reply.
"That's my hope!" He says with a grin. "As for Mordred...she's uninjured, but her Noble Phantasm couldn't be salvaged. Da Vinci's working on a substitute, but even with her Item Creation skill, it's not like she'll be able to create something on par with Clarent."
"Right, I've been meaning to ask… that Da Vinci lady, is she-?"
"Oh, right. You haven't met her yet… Well, she's the second servant summoned by Chaldea, a Caster class with all the capabilities of her historical self - genius inventor status and all. And apparently, she also knew a bunch about magecraft back when she was alive, so she's pretty competent in that field as well." He explains. "Personality aside, she's probably one of the best Servants we could hope to have acting as our support!"
"Wait, what's this about her personality?" Please don't tell me that I'll-
"You'll understand when you meet her."
"Nooo! I was afraid you would say that! Every time someone tells me that, it turns out to be a real weirdo!" I complain, running my fingers through my hair.
He chuckles. "Aside from that… we managed to hook up Cu Chulainn to the FATE system, so he won't disappear anytime soon. However, that guy apparently replaced his arm with his master's, and then went and used a bunch of command spells from that arm… Obviously, servants aren't supposed to do that, and now he's got a minor fracture in his [Spirit Origin]. He won't be able to fight on the front lines for at least a few months."
"Geh… is it just me, or is our combat strength actually pretty abysmal right now!?"
"No, you're pretty correct… On the bright side, we should have enough power soon to summon an additional servant, so there's that. Anyway, moving on… Lev." He grimaces, and that cold, sinking feeling from before returns. Shit, come to think of it, Lev certainly seemed out of it at the end there. "I'm sorry to tell you this, after all the hard work you guys put in to recover him alive, but…"
"Lev Lainur, fell catatonic shortly after arriving at Chaldea."