"Mana-chan! Wait! That's my only glasses I brought!"
With a small shake of her head, Ryougi Shiki took a sip from her cup as she cast her gaze toward the direction her husband just took off after her daughter. Since today was the festival day, the place was very crowded. With the stunt little Mana had just pulled, it was almost guaranteed that both her daughter and husband would get lost, especially in this hour.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, the woman in the white kimono couldn't help but let out a tired sigh. Why had her husband and she agreed to let Mitsuru have a day off anyway? Her daughter was really a handful and without him, keeping an eye on her was as hard as finding a needle in a haystack just by using hands. And Mikiya, being too soft with Mana and tend to spoil her, didn't help much. For now, she could only hope that both her husband and daughter could make it back in time before the firework started.
Leaning back into her seat, Shiki turned toward the evening sky with a faraway look. Recently, she felt... hollow, for the lack of better word. While there was nothing wrong with her body and abilities overall, for some reasons the head of Ryougi family often had a feeling that there was something 'missing' in her. Something seemed insignificant enough to be ignored most of the time for her, yet enough for her body to yearn for it and try to reach out in order to find it.
For the first time in ten years, Shiki wished to see that Aozaki woman. Sure she disliked that woman, but in this case she probably was the only one might have the answer for what she was feeling right now...
'All according to the plan!'
A small victorious smile appeared briefly on Ryougi Mana's face as she weaved through crowds of people. Her papa's glasses, which she had taken from her papa, was in her right hand as she carefully held onto it, making sure it wouldn't be broken either because of waves of people pushing against each other or dropping it.
"Wait, Mana-chan!"
The voice of her papa told her that he could still keep up with her pace. Now it was time for her to increase the pace a little bit.
"Catch me if you can, papa!"
And with that, she weaved through waves of people toward the destination. Soon, Mana would have her papa all for herself in this festival!
"Mana-chan! Where are you?"
Did her papa lose sight of her? Mana wondered. Should she con...
"Owie!"
As the little girl came to a clearing, she crashed into a person's legs and stumbled a little bit. Should have seen that, Mana thought to herself as she tried to get up
"I'm sorry. Are you okay?"
The familiar voice snapped Mana's eyes opened and took in the person she had crashed into
"Mama?! How..."
The person in front of her... She was a splitting image of her mama! If she hadn't seen the young woman's much longer hair, comparing to her gorgeous flowery kimono instead of plain white, the elegance in her manner and the different wedding band on different hand, she wouldn't have been able to stop herself from blabbering.
And more importantly, Mana could feel there was something very strange about this woman.
"Sorry, dear, but I'm not your mother." said the woman gently "You're Shiki's daughter, no? How're your mother and father doing?"
"I'm sorry for crashing you! And yes, my mama..." Mana bowed her head deeply before a detail hit her "Wait! You know my mama?!"
A small mysterious smile appeared briefly before the woman nodded
"Yes, I know her pretty well."
Mana gave the woman in front of her a careful appraising yet very curious look. Based on her appearance, the young woman was probably the same age as her mama.
"Are you... a relative of my mama?"
At first Mana wanted to use 'sibling' but seeing that she only knew about uncle Kaname as her mama's only sibling, the little girl decided to try another route
"In a sense, yes." a rather evasive answer, noted Mana mentally "And you can say I know your mama pretty well."
"Do you know about Aunt Hisako?"
Now Mana could see a fragment of amusement in the woman's eyes
"There is no aunt Hisako in Ryougi Family, dear. If you want to be as good as your papa in investigation, you will have to try much better than that."
Seeing steam of embarrassment started rising from the little girl, the woman decided to change the topic
"And you haven't answer my question, have you? How're your mother and papa doing? Are they fine?"
Giving the woman another curious look, Mana decided to answer truthfully as the little girl believed this person was trustworthy enough.
"Both of them are fine, though sometimes I wish both of them can take me to out like this more. Papa recently became more and more busier while mama sometimes seems like she lost something." Mana couldn't help but pout a little bit "And Mitsuru-san sometimes can be too grumpy! Seriously, he need to cheer up!"
A harmonic chuckle reached Mana's ears as the woman in front of her shook her head in amusement
"Well, that's good to hear then." said the woman as she pointed behind her "And I think your papa is coming for you, dear."
"Huh? Really?!"
Immediately, Mana swirled around but there was no one standing there. Much to her dismay, the little girl turned back in order to complain, the young woman had already gone.
"Where did she go?" wondered Mana aloud.
"How was it, Shiki-chan?" A young man stepped forward and stand by the left side of the woman in the flowery kimono. His messy black hair moved slightly in the gentle evening wind as the strange lapel pin glinted on his dark suit.
"It was very nice, dear." The feminine was radiating from small smile on the woman's face as she said in her usual soft tone "It seems everything is fine. My other self does have a very good life."
"So that was Ryougi-san's daughter, huh?" The young man scratched his chin with a curious look in his eyes "I assume that personality of her is from her father?"
"I believe so. I can see a lot of similarity to Mikiya-san's personality." the hint of amusement didn't leave the-longer-hair Shiki's eyes "And I doubt her mother will become a social person even if the memory of her time in Chaldea was still intact."
A chuckle escaped the young man lips as he looked at the sky fondly
"I never think it is that bad. She never turned down Jack, Nursery Rhyme and Jeanne Santa whenever they wanted to play with her. And she seemed to be a good friend with Shishou..."
"You mean the 'Who will kill a goddess (Artemis) first' contest between them?"
The deadpanned expression on his face almost made her laugh in an unladylike manner
"Don't tell me that contest was still... Nevermind, don't tell me. I don't want to know."
"If you said so, dear." the impishness was evident on the woman's face
"Shiki-chan, since you are..."
The young woman didn't need her companion to finish his question to understand what he wanted to ask
"In a sense, yes she is my daughter." the young man could feel a very well-hidden wistfulness mixed in his partner's happy tone "But if I am honest, I tend to see her more as an amusing niece rather than as a daughter..."
The sound of fireworks booming in the dark sky stopped the young woman dead in her track as the pair turned their gaze to the sky. Colorful fire flowers continuously bloomed on the dark canvas above them before silently disappeared. A brief yet mesmerizing beauty that wouldn't be easily forgotten.
"Dear..." without tearing her gaze away from the marvelous scene above her, Shiki spoke again "... Do you know why I answered your summon and became your Servant back then?"
A humorous chuckle came from her companion as he turned to her
"Didn't you tell me back then? It was because you want a change of perspective and some amusement..."
"Yes, but it wasn't the main reason..."
With a sad smile, the elegant young woman said with a reminiscent look.
"It was because at that time, I couldn't see your own future."
"Huh?"
The young man couldn't believe in his ears. His partner, who was connected to the Root itself, couldn't see his future?
"I could see and know everything. All the moment of your life. From when you was born, grew up, go to school, the day you ended up in Chaldea and met Mashu-chan, how we would meet each other the first time at Ogawa Mansion. After that..."
The sounds of fireworks exploding become more and more faster, signaling that the climax of the show was coming.
"... I couldn't see anything else in your future, not even a possibility. As if your future was a complete blank script waiting for you to write. At that time, you piqued my interest, thus pushing me to answer your call."
"In other word, you was curious."
The young woman let out a light yet strange chuckle that her companion wasn't sure how should he feel about it
"Indeed I was. I wanted to see how far would you go and what was waiting for you at the end of your path. But when we started working on the Lostbelt, I started..."
Suddenly, Shiki just stopped abruptly, forcing her companion to turn to her.
"What's wrong, Shiki-chan?"
"... No. Nothing." said the young woman with a shake of her head "Beside, it doesn't really matter anymore."
Yeah.
"... You remember that I once said that our meeting with each other and my love for you were nothing but an ephemeral dream, right?" Dedicated feminine hand reached out and gently squeezed the male's callused hand. A rare affectionate gesture that it almost surprised her partner "Therefore... thank you very much, Ritsuka-kun."
It didn't matter anymore.
"For what?" Ritsuka turned to his companion,
All of the gruesome deaths, agonizing pains and betrayal futures that could have happened to him...
"For turning this ephemeral dream into an eternal one, dear."
All of those futures that the Root had forced her to see over and over again since the day they had started venturing to the Lostbelts...
"... This is enough sightseeing for me now." Shiki let his hand go, much to her companion's displeasure and her own amusement "Time to go back, dear."
As long as she was still here...
"Can't we just stay a little bit longer?" the young woman could detect a playful childishness in his tone
"I'd love to, dear. But I'm already satisfied with having you for a whole day." her smile was hidden behind her kimono sleeve, her other hand briefly rested on her belly in wonder before dropping back to her side "Beside, I already have enough 'material' to make Mashu-chan and Musashi-chan pout in jealousy and rile your Shishou along with the Holy Maiden and the Dragon Witch at the same time."
... she would never let those futures happen to her partner.
Even if it meant she would have to face both the Counter Forces at the same time to keep him safe...
"Fine. Let's go home." Unbeknownst to the people enjoying the fireworks, the pair disappeared as few golden dusts remaining behind slowly dissipated into the cool evening air.
...then so be it.
Author's note: Just a short one-shot I wrote out of the whim for my one of my six main waifu in FGO. Thank you for coming to my Chaldea and helped me in so many time and events, Void Shiki. Kind of funny when I was writing this, I just kept having a Uchiage Hanabi vibe.
Also, INTERLUDE/STRENGTHENING QUEST FOR VOID SHIKI WHEN, DW?!
Also, I wonder how many ANGERY Mikiya x Shiki shippers will come here and bash me as well as this fic. There was this time when I posted an answer in a topic that I shipped Mikiya x Shiki and Ritsuka x Void at the same time, the amount of (virtual) hateful bricks thrown at me by the ANGERY fans probably was enough to build a villa.
Well, that's all for now. Please read and review!