"Mash!"
As Ritsuka shouted her name, Mash brought her shield down on the skeletons surrounding them.
A heavy blow – and the bone-rattling dead scattered into splinters, unable to resist. However, as the fragments touched the ground, they began to fuse together as if by magic, charging into attack once more.
"Master! It's dangerous. Please, step back!"
While holding back the furious onslaught of dozens, if not hundreds, of skeletons, Mash kept her eyes fixed on her Master – Fujimaru Ritsuka.
When Chaldea was destroyed, he tried to save her, buried under the rubble. He didn't have a drop of magical talent… he was just a "patch," an extra number to fill a vacancy, but Mash would never want to lose this wayward man.
"Aaaah!"
"Master! Senpai, no!!"
One of the skeletons slipped past Mash and found Ritsuka. Without any magical abilities, or even basic weapons, the young man was doomed. Death breathed in his face.
"Senpai-aaaah!"
In unison with her desperate cry, a car engulfed in flames suddenly appeared in the middle of the burning ruins.
"Brake! Brake! Just brake-ee-ee!!"
"Senpai, get down!"
Taking advantage of the skeletons being distracted by the burning car, Mash scattered them, scooped up Ritsuka, and pulled him aside. In the next instant, a crash echoed, and the skeletons flew through the air as white dust.
"I… I'm safe! Thank you, Mash."
Thanks to Mash becoming his shield, Ritsuka miraculously avoided death. But in the confusion, trying to grab onto something, he inadvertently hugged her tightly around the waist.
"Oof!"
"Ah?! O… sorry. Sorry, Mash."
"No, no, Senpai. The important thing is that you're okay."
Both blushed and hastily averted their gazes. The awkward silence would have dragged on if not for Fou, who barked towards the burning car.
"Good! Very good. For such greenhorns, the progress is fantastic. Reminds me of myself when I was young."
From the flaming car, a man in a red suit jumped out with a flourish. He applauded, whistling with admiration. Mash instinctively blocked his path, raising her shield.
"Whoa, whoa! Hey, cool it! Who's gonna bite you? I'm no enemy. I just got dragged here along for the ride, so to speak."
The man in red was doing his best to show he had no ill intentions, acting loud and flamboyant, but it was impossible to tell if he was a friend or foe.
"Who are you?"
To Mash's question, the stranger, who had been observing the city turned into a sea of fire, frowned and said with feigned seriousness:
"I… am Batman."
***
Read the story months ahead of the public release — early chapters are available on my Patreon: Granulan