"It's been three days since the dance… How the hell are we still this hungover and sick?!" Gudako groans from the couch in a small apartment with Ritsuka plopped to the ground. He too was letting out small moans of pain not trying to move at all. What made it worse was the summer heat was starting to get to the both of the students, with sweat covering their whole bodies.
"I do not know, nor do I care to know. I just want to be done with this whole hassle so I can go on enjoying my summer vacation." Ritsuka comments looking at the clock and calendar at the wall. He lets out a small groan as he slowly pulls himself up by using the couch. "I know it's a pain, but we need to eat. Do you have any ideas for what?"
"Can you cook?" Gudako asks.
"Too weak to cook. I can barely stand as it is." Ritsuka states looking down at his shaking legs..
"Can you pick up food?"
"That requires going outside. No, I don't want to leave the house.."
"Can you order delivery from your phone?"
"We had delivery for the past two days though."
"Do you even care?"
"Nope. I do not care in the slightest." Ritsuka takes out his phone to call in a restaurant. As he dials, the entrance door bursts open, smacking him into a wall. "Pain. It's just pain."
"Are you okay?" Gudako comments in the monotone voice, not even caring what exactly caused the door to push through.
"No." Ritsuka pushes the door off him to see Mashu, Emiya, Artoria Alter, and Jeanne Alter standing at the entrance. He blinks a few times before face platting into the ground.
"Oi. You two been radio silent for three whole ass days, and this is the reaction that we get?" Jeanne Alter exclaims with a pissed off attitude written all over her face.
"But I don't think it was really necessary for you two to break down the door, right?" Mashu hesitantly asks the two alters with a weak voice. Artoria Alter doesn't even look at Mashu as she answers.
"There are things that you must learn. Sometimes force like this is mandatory in life." Artoria Alter places Excalibur Morgon into the ground, looking at the sorry state of the twins. "You two are still taking the effects of the alcohol, even after it has been multiple days?"
"We are NOT as strong as you servants. So if you're here to patronize us for being human, I suggest that you leave." Gudako raises her head from the couch before giving up to just laying down in silence.
"Well seeing as you both have been in this state for a while, I thought it would be good if you got some actual cooking… And a bath." Emiya grunts, once taking a sniff of the room. The other servants slowly nod.
"Okay, mom." Both Masters muttered, barely loud enough for the servants to here. Emiya simply lets out a tired sigh before turning his head over to the two alters.
"I think HE is still having an effect on them with his skill… Would it be okay, if I leave the cleaning aspect to you two? I need Mashu to help me cook the food for them. I have to make it just right so they can take the medicine that the school nurse prescribed to them." Emiya asks with a frown. Both of the two alters look at each other, slowly arguing to each other about something that Emiya and Mashu couldn't understand.
A brief second of arguing later, the two alters walk outside for a few seconds. There was dead silence before the next thing that everyone knew, there were violent crashes and multiple explosions with the whole room shaking violently. After a good few minutes of this, the two alters return unscathed.
"Fine." The two comments.
Chaldea Academy
By: NexusMHX
Chapter 17: The Poisoning
"I told you that I'll help you. And here I am. You're comfortable, right?" Ritsuka softly asks, slowly spinning around the dance hall with Ereshkigal. The two weren't doing anything too elaborate given how timid Ereshkigal was being. Simply swaying back and forth was comfortable enough for the two to have fun while trying to relieve the stress and tension.
"Y-Yeah. Thank you… This is actually quite fun not that we're actually doing it." Ereshkigal gives a cute smile, looking down at her hands with Ritsuka. Her rhythm was slow, simply enjoying the moment that she was in with a smile.
A few of the third years, noticed Ritsuka and Ereshkigal dancing together. They saw it as a little weird before shrugging off to focus on their own dancing. Despite the two trying their best to not do anything crazy, they were still the center of attention for a few particular servants in the crowd. It was a sort of red flag for those who did not understand the situation between Ereshkigal and Ritsuka.
"Woah. Ritsuka is pretty bold, dancing with a girl when he isn't supposed to." Gudako comments with an interested glance at her older twin brother. Mashu, on the other hand, was more shocked than surprised while she's looking at the scene.
"The way that they're trying to hide it. Are they dating?!" Mashu exclaims, catching a few glances from nearby classmates before turning their heads over to Ritsuka and Ereshkigal. In a matter of seconds, rumors start to pop up left and right about the "new couple".
"And that concludes it. We hope that you enjoyed this little dance. But now it's time for us adults to have fun!" Da Vinci said with a smile, once the music finally ends. She gives the crowd a cheerful glance as they're simply looking through the dancing hall. She gives a small sigh from the reaction she's got. "Well now. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your night. Please make sure not to blow anything up? This took very long to make."
"No, it didn't," Romani interjects from the corner of the room. Looking a little pissed off, Da Vinci fling the mic straight at Romani, hitting him square in the head as he falls to the ground. "Ow…"
"Sorry…" Da Vinci comments, her face not matching her words at all as she walks off the stage area. The music starts to play once more with the dance hall, starting to fill up with multiple pairs of people to dance. Meanwhile, a certain specific group would surround Ereshkigal and Ritsuka in an instant, before they could even react.
"So this is rather interesting. I had no idea that you were able to bag yourself a date. And how exactly did ya do it?" Cu gives a small chuckle, wrapping his arm around Ritsuka while messing with his hair.
"Ah! Stop it. What the heck are you talking about?" Ritsuka exclaims trying to escape his chokepoint.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about! You and Ereshkigal. Trying to hide it by dancing during the third-year section. Not doing anything fancy, to make sure that you weren't noticed by anyone. Trying to be sly." Cu laughs, smacking Ritsuka's back.
"I must say. I am quite proud of you, bro. I never picked you to be the type of person who would get a secret girlfriend and all that. I'm so proud of you." Gudako smirks a little at her twin before looking over at Ereshkigal. "Now. My brother may be a little slow, but don't worry about it at all. You'll get used to it. But overall, you're lucky to have him."
"S-Secret girlfriend?!" Ereshkigal stammers, her face flushed beet red from embarrassment. She had no idea how to respond to the claims as she puts both hands on her face to cover herself.
"Yeah. Really lucky..." A pair of voices muttered as two hands grip Ritsuka's shoulders, one on each side. Ritsuka could feel the iron grips of the two alters, standing right behind him. An evil aura surrounds them, so powerful that almost everyone in the room could feel it.
Nervous sweat dripped from Ritsuka, terrified about the situation that he was in. He didn't even want to look behind him, feeling the glares crawling on his neck, giving him a chill down his very spine. He had to get out of this predicament before it got any worse. "W-We're not dating!"
"Oh, you don't have to lie. We know that you wanted to keep it a secret, but it's all good." Nobu says with a smile on her face, crossing her arms while watching the scene. She and Okita had stepped forward, merely watching everything unfold before them. "Seriously dude. If you're going to be in a relationship, you shouldn't hide yourselves like that. Put your foot down and announce it out to the world!"
"But for real! We're not dating! You guys don't understand what's going on." Ritsuka felt the pain in his shoulders digging in deeper as he quickly relays the whole story. He does his best to go at it as fast as possible, skimming any of the unnecessary details before concluding to "Which is where we are at right now. Now, do you believe me?"
"Boo. What is this? Some kind of rom-com trash?!" Ex comments from the sidelines, eating a few sweets from the food section with X bumping her shoulder.
"Yeah… That sounds like him. Ritsuka isn't the type of person to go out and do some stuff like that anyways." Gudako lets out a sigh of disappointment while giving her older twin brother a shrug.
"Oi. What's that supposed to mean?" Ritsuka comments with a relaxed expression. The two alters had calmed down as they weren't crushing his shoulders anymore. The two and the other members of the group started to laugh at it while Ritsuka simply let out a sigh of disbelief.
Ereshkigal gives a quick peek towards Ritsuka, unsure on what exactly the whole group is talking about. Then she turns to the group, meeting eyes with Ishtar making her jump a little. Her lookalike didn't react before turning her head to the girls of the group.
"So what are you guys going to do now? We're kinda standing out, not dancing in the middle of the room." Ishtar words clicked into everyone's brains. More specifically the girl servants as they all slowly turn their heads to Ritsuka. Before the next thing the boy knew, his arms were being pulled on each side, with a girl trying to dance with him.
"Oi Ritsuka. You're going to dance with me first, right? We're best friends after all!" Jeanne Alter comments with an angry smile on her face.
"You're kidding yourself. How exactly are you, Ritsuka's best friend? You're hurting him with your gorilla strength." Artoria Alter states as a comeback.
"Oh like you're one to talk and all that! He even gave me a compliment on my dress." Jeanne Alter gave a smug expression to Artoria Alter. The king was taken aback by it before coming up with a comeback on her own.
"That was just him being polite. There was no truth behind any of his words!" Artoria Alter's words seemed to cut deep, and a bit too low below the belt. She knew it too as the two just let go before noticing tall and short arms around Ritsuka's hands.
"Only a master dancer should dance with the one who has dance revolve around them. It would seem that I should have the honor of dancing with the most popular one in the school." Melt comments with a smile on her face towards Jeanne Alter and Artoria Alter.
"Oi. You're not even a part of our group. What makes you think that you can just barge in!"
"I want to dance with Senpai too!" The sudden outburst coming from the young kouhai seemed to startle the alters as they looked towards Mashu.
"For once, you're stepping out. Commendable Mashu. However, I will not bow down for you!" Artoria Alter smiles devilishly looking at her competition.
"My arms are noodles." Ritsuka plops his left arm off the floor, weakly raising it up. It wobbles for a little while before smacking back into the ground of the gym.
"It hurts being this popular, aye?" A voice comes from above Ritsuka. He looks up to see Robin taking a seat next to him. "Personally, if I were in your position… I'd be enjoying every bit of it."
"Aren't you hanging around Ibaraki and Lip?" Ritsuka questions his classmate as Robin places a second cup of punch in front of him. Ritsuka weakly drinks from the cup, dropping the question. "Thanks…"
"Don't worry about it. Though you have to admit. This has turned into something that I did not expect. I was honestly expecting there to be a more big explosion of stuff to happen. Like last year." Robin comments, examining the room while drinking a little. However he coughs a little from it.
"You alright?" Ritsuka asks his classmate with a small look of concern given his current circumstance.
"Yeah yeah. I'm fine. Just kinda choked on it a bit… I'm starting to get a headache, I'll tell you. I think I'm having a little too much fun." Robin chuckles with a small groan as he rests his head with one hand.
"I know what you mean. I'm starting to get a headache myself. Eugh." Ritsuka looks around the room, to see multiple people having similar problems. Something wasn't right with him but his headache is making him hard to process it all properly. "What the heck is going on?"
"SOMEONE SPIKED THE PUNCH!" Da Vinci calls out across the room with everyone looking towards the table. A man was examining the bowl in question, tasting it a little. Da Vinci walks over to the man with a confused glance hoping for an answer. "Did you find anything, Holmes? What could it be, with it being so strong that it's affecting all of the servants to some degree."
"It was them." Holmes points towards the math professor, Moriarty, and a girl that looked similar to Melt and the other lookalikes. "I saw them around the bowl not that long ago. It would seem that they conspired to pull off this little prank.
"B.B!" Melt calls out with anger. B.B. gives a small chuckle before dashing away at high speeds, fearing for her life.
"Holmes! You bastard!" Moriarty calls out while running away himself. There was a whole surge of energy coming all of the servants. Everything was going well, up until this very moment.
"GET THEM!"
"MAKE THEM PAY!"
"IMMA KILL THEIR ASSES!"
"HOW MANY TIMES DO WE NEED TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON OLD MAN?!"
"Yeah… This is what I was expecting…" Robin looked over to see Ritsuka not even moving. He nudges the boy, as he lets out small groans of pain. Robin simply shrugs before taking a nap to deal with the after-effects.
"Welcome to Chaldea Broadcasting Station. I'm your host, Mashu Kyrielight. Unfortunately, Senpai is still suffering some of the after-effects from the prank from the dance. So he couldn't be here today. I'm sorry for the convenience that may have caused." Mashu bows towards the camera with a frown. She looks to the sign to see a small storyboard with words for her to say.
[Wait… Why am I explaining this? It's not like this is actually television..]
"Stop being a spoilsport and just get on with it you numbnuts!" Ex calls out from across the room.
[I'm doing my best here. This is a comedy for christ's sake!]
"In any case. I would like to answer some of your questions, but it seems as though they're for Senpai. So until then, we can't, unfortunately, answer them at this time." Mashu bows apologetically with a depressed look on her face. "I have also come to tell you all that we will be going on a short hiatus for a little while. The author is about to start schooling soon, now that he's in college. He wants to make sure everything goes well and all that. We hope that you all understand that. With that, until next time. The next time we'll be available will be probably in October. Until next time, thank you for your support of this fanfiction."
{To be continued}