3. Type-Earth
The place in which Angélique found herself was rather… unusual. As she was a veteran at this point, she was quick to adapt, but the initial shock was somehow still not wearing off.
Typically one would be summoned as a servant during a grail war, in which situation there would be a summoning circle under her feet. Then there was lying about who they actually were, as for some stupid reason you were not supposed to explicitly state your identity after the summoning. Although she feared that some of her fellow guardians might have broken the rule. Yes, she has Okita in mind, though the majin really is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Another form of summoning was a Singularity. As a counter-guardian Angélique's main task was correcting such irregularities in the proper human history.
Most of them were rather miniscule and not really worth the effort as for some stupid reason the bigger the threat of the singularity, the lower the chances are that a counter-guardian would intervene.
If a singularity summoning was to take place, Angélique would be briefed beforehand about the nature of it by the counter-force, but it was not the case this time around.
Lastly, there were mission summons, the most common of the three. A counter-guardian was, in the case of such an event, summoned without any circle into a timeline where something went wrong, or someone appeared, but they were usually minor deviations that did not warrant a singularity to occur because the changes had such minimal impact. At least for the moment of the summoning.
These missions typically involved assassinations or surveillance, acting only when necessary.
This kind of mission too was preceded by a short briefing with Alaya, mostly the one of the world in which the changes were to happen.
However, this time it was nothing of the sort. She just kinda appeared in a small apartment in, what she supposed was, Fuyuki. Without any briefing or any other knowledge a servant was supposed to have.
The city seemed peaceful, with no immediate threats apparent.
The next immediate threat was the appearance of a not-so-violent Beast. She never met any, if Alaya was in such a hurry to send her here, it would mean a threat at the level of at least beast IV, although the streets were littered with humans, so there was no need of finding the cath palug anywhere for now.
To say the least, Angélique was puzzled. A quick look at the apartment gave her no clues at what exactly was happening.
It was a simple studio apartment with a kitchenette connected to the living room, a bathroom and a bedroom. Nothing special other than that it was in a pristine condition.
The placement of it also ruled out any Magus interference, as they strongly favored single family houses with a basement over flats.
"What exactly is going on here?" she did not expect a reply, so when one came Angie jumped up a bit "Nothing strange, really~."
'A presence concealment? My senses have not detected them, so they must be a servant.' Her thought process was cut short with a giggle and an answer "Nothing of the sort darling~." Finally locating the source of the voice, Angie turned around to face the sofa that was empty mere seconds ago.
It was a woman in her mid-twenties, whose hair and eyes were the color of fresh peaches, clad in a simple white dress with golden threads.
Angie knew who it was from the moment she saw them. Tanaka, as all counter-guardians opted to call her, was a simple tool to do the bidding of the world.
In simple words a puppet of Gaia used to accomplish simple tasks, like a conversation or something no one other could do.
Normally a rather innocent , upbeat and cheerful girl was now manifested in a more mature form to perform a simple task of talking with her.
That… unnerved Angélique, if she was to be truthful.
"To what do I owe this honor, Lady Gaia?" The counter-guardian immediately kneeled on one knee, her eyes focused on the ground before her.
"Oh, why so serious, dear~?" Tanaka giggled softly. Her voice was melodious and clear, if it was to be attributed an instrument, it would be a soft jiggle of bells. It was comforting and reassuring, but all of these attributes scared Angélique. They all came from a being focused on its own beauty to the point of extermination of humans just to preserve it. "You can raise your head and sit down~." It was a warm and full of care invitation, but in the servant's ears it sounded like a serious threat to her well-being "I wouldn't dare, Lady Gaia."
"Oh~ stop with these formalities and sit down comfortably." Tanaka said it in a rather playful tone of voice, but the girl needed to force herself to obey these words through her own fear.
She sat in a rather uncomfortable position, her armor getting in the way of anything, really. No matter how comfortable one could make it, a piece of metal still would be a piece of metal.
In the void she opted to be in a more civilized pair of clothing, it was only after getting summoned that her armor reappeared, but being of spiritual nature she still could change in a blink of an eye, and so she did.
Now wearing a simple black t-shirt with a printed white pocket on her left side and a simple white skirt with a brown belt holding it in place. On it was hanging a small black bag full of the simplest of potions and a small cross.
There was an awkward silence as Angie was too nervous to say anything and Tanaka seemed too absorbed in studying her appearance.
It lasted for a few minutes, before from her bad thoughts Angie was ripped out of with a simple clap of the woman's hands.
"So. We are here for your job interview~." Tanaka smiled while Angélique's brain short-circuited. "The big G told me that you are perfect for the job and I kinda suck at creating things, so I decided to simply hire you."
'Wait, wait, wait! What exactly is happening right now? I don't know anything about this! And is she talking about the biblical God? He can interfere in such matters!?' The counter-guardian was panicking internally, her external appearance seemingly showing it, as Tanaka just again giggled softly, the sound of gentle bells filling the room once more "No need to worry. You are not yet in, we need to discuss a few things."
After that followed an explanation about the truths of the world, the "branch" creation and of the true nature of humanity 's unconsciousness and the world.
For each branch of the Tree there existed a version of each one of them, the previous one always being the stronger version of the next. In even simpler terms, the more branches stemmed from the world, the more Alaya's and Gaia's there were. Angélique for the whole time served the Alaya stemming from the world stronger than the one she was born in, Angie's existence now rooted into the proper Human history of these timelines, and before her sat the Gaia from a world even higher up than she was previously a part of. The proper human history that Angie was part of slowly spread into the branches backwards, in the direction of the root, rewriting their history to verify her existence.
She just made such an impact, the big G probably also helping out by not stopping the spread.
And now she was asked to perform for this Gaia as her own counter-guardian, stopping threats to the planet itself, rather than humanity, in the adjacent timelines.
After the explanation, Angie needed some time to think it through. It was a tempting offer, especially that she was promised a paid vacation and the access to the Throne of Heroes if she performs well.
After much needed time to think it through, the counter-guardian decided to finally accept the offer of the world itself.
"Delightful!" Tanaka clasped her hands "We just need you to see you in action and you will be accepted~." There was a clear untainted joy in her voice, as she giggled in glee.
"How exactly would that happen?" The now Gaia's-Guardian asked, rather perplexed by the situation. If she were to perform, she needed foes to fight with and a place to do it, and she would rather avoid that place, a simple thought about it made her shiver.
"How I wonder?" The woman playfully tapped her chin "What do you say about a grail war?" The smile on her face was blinding, Angie could swear that if Type-Sol were to see it, they would be blinded themselves.
This was also the last thing she saw before a pillar of light swallowed her, again.
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Hi there! Author here.
We have the third chapter in the works, spanning 1492 words, all coming together to bring it to life.
We are proceeding very slowly with the story, and I do not plan to pick up the pace for quite some time.
Anyway, why Tanaka and not Arcueid? Simply put, I consider Arcueid and Type-Earth as two distinct entities. It's my headcanon, if you don't like it, feel free to move on, but it won't impact the story later, so it's your loss. Arcueid represents the planet in a way, but she's more like a proxy created by it to exert control. I just think that Arcueid alone is a bit too naive to fulfill that role.
It wasn't the first time Angie had encountered a Type, but shh... Spoilers.
I will also be releasing her Status page today for those who are interested, so keep an eye out for that.
There won't be a chapter next week, as I have some important exams. Wish me luck!
If you have anything to ask/say/criticize, please fell free to do so!
So... that's everything I wanted to say. I hope you have a great day/morning/afternoon/night, and see you around!
Author