"You do realize that the Mages' Association's gonna be pissed once they get wind of what you've done?"
"I know, you don't have to remind me. Besides, it's me who's dealing with them all the time, and I'm not forcing you to deal with them as part of the terms of your updated contract, am I?"
"That would be incredibly self-defeating, but yes, looking through it, you certainly didn't impose something like that on me."
"Guh...now I remember why you're such a headache to deal with..."
I smirk a little. The Director and I are walking through the corridor on the unscathed half of the Chaldean facility, having just recently departed from Olga's office, which is on the other side from the Central Control room. So thankfully it's been spared from Lev's successful sabotage attempts...I've just spent the last two hours there renegotiating my newly updated contract with the Chaldea Security Organization that officially but clandestinely elevates my status within Chaldea from a mere freelancing agent and emergency medical support staffer to a provisional Master to replace the ones whose lives have unfortunately been taken by the attacks on the facility.
"Let's not forget that you're the one who still accepted my offer at the end of the day," Olga reminds me, pointing a strict finger up at me, almost poking my nose doing so. "You could've very well turned it down if you're that concerned with what the Association's going to do about you."
"Oh, it's not about me that I'm worried for."
"Then why are you so worried? And why's it such a big deal in the first place for you?"
"Again, it's not a big deal for me, it's Chaldea as a whole that I'm worried about. Especially now that most of the staff's been snapped." I end my thought there with a quick but appropriate snap of my fingers like I'm wearing some oversized metal gauntlet or something.
"And why should you be concerned? You're just a freelancer; you don't have anything invested in Chaldea, at least not up until now."
"I mean, that's exactly the reason why they'd be pissed, because you just contracted a previously unqualified freelancer who's only supposed to be doing groundwork and extraneous tasking, and then all of a sudden you're telling him to become a Master. That's like taking a school janitor and then putting him in charge of the school administration."
"Yes, but this is an emergency! And it's not as though all of the fifty Masters whom we initially planned to send to Singularity F were all of upstanding, noble birth or of any degree of prestigious magical background! I'll have you know, thirty-eight out of the forty-eight Masters were in fact elite mages, but we did still choose ten of them who'd applied publicly. As a matter of fact, that Master who was with me and Mash at Singularity F, she was just an ordinary schoolgirl we found in Japan who happened to show some aptitude for Mastership. I know this is very rude of me to say after...after everything that's happened, but we did accept some Masters just so that we could report to the Association that we'd filled up our quota."
"Yikes, I feel like I've just heard some kind of company secret or something."
Olga scoffs darkly off to her left, away from me. "And it's for the best if that's all you think there is to it. Anyways, if we can just randomly pick people just for the sake of having them here, I certainly don't see a problem with having our best freelancing mage step up in a time like this!"
"I see, I see. Now try to explaining that to the Association. Good luck, you'll need it."
"I-I don't plan to in the first place!"
"Then why bother explaining that to me?"
"Weren't YOU the one who told me to be careful with the Association?!"
"Well, all I did was ask you if you know what kind of shit you'll be getting yourself into with the Association by making someone like me a Master."
Sighing exasperatedly, Olga clutches at her face with one hand while shaking her head.
"Just - just - leave that to me to worry about, August. It's not like I haven't been doing so, ever since Father passed. You just worry about whether or not you'll actually even be accepted by FATE as a proper Master."
"Didn't you just say that literally anyone could be picked?"
"Doesn't mean that you still will!"
"And what if I'm not qualified to be a Master? Actually, why did we even renegotiate my contract before I became a Master when we don't even know if I'll become one?"
"Weren't you paying attention at all back in my office?! Part of the terms was to make sure that if you really did become a Master and manage to summon your own Servant or Servants, you wouldn't just immediately start running amok with them! At least this way, now that we've done things in this order, we don't have to worry about you doing that, or at the very least be able to hold you accountable!"
Lev certainly didn't give a shit, I think to myself. I'm fully aware that I'm starting to get under Olga's skin, so to prevent her from flying off her rails again like she sometimes does, I keep this particular remark to myself. I certainly don't feel it in me to bring up the topic of a man who's not only openly betrayed Olga but also attempted to kill her and killed most of her own staff in the process.
I briefly listen to the pair of footsteps clomping across the clean white floor of the hallway of Chaldea as we walk. Olga and I have known each other since grade school, though because Olga's grown up with a proper magical education, unlike my plebeian ass who attended and graduated from ordinary high school before going straight into the workforce known as my dad's self-employed freight forwarding company, I'm not exactly sure what the phrase "grade school" would even mean to her. But the point is that we've known each other for some time - dare I even use the phrase "childhood friends".
I say this because Olga grew up as quite the sheltered girl - as the only child of one of the Ten Lords of the Clock Tower, naturally she'd be brought up as such, especially in the wake of her father's sudden financial success that he'd been working to procure in order to establish the Chaldea Security Organization and, thus, all the cutting-edge magical technology that it contains. Such success and accomplishment naturally brings poring eyes filled with intent, either good or bad, and there's seldom anything in between, so the natural reaction of someone like Marisbury in that kind of a situation would be to isolate his daughter so that he could minimize the danger that she'd be subjected to. Too bad he didn't see what came for him eventually, three years ago. They do say that you never really know how a mage goes out...
Her dad aside, obviously such social distancing and isolation has had noticeable impacts on how she's turned out. She's an incredibly stiff person, normally - very formal and by the books, just like what I'd imagine a stereotypical overbearing manager or boss to be in a standard corporate environment...not that I'm the type of person to know what having to deal with someone like that on a daily basis is like, unless I count Olga, which I'm not. She's always very prideful, mainly for the fact that she believes that in whatever she does, the pride and reputation of her family's name is on the line, and she behaves as such regardless of the situation. And to that effect, she comes off as very cold and demanding almost all the time, and she doesn't discriminate against anyone. She'll fire anyone on her payroll at a drop of a pin if she doesn't like for a moment what they're saying, how they're behaving, or even who they are if she decides to change her mind about them.
But as often is the case with people like Olga, she does have a softer side to her that people seldom see, a side that she really only shows people she considers close to her. Obviously, given her upbringing and subsequent nature that I just described, the number of people who qualify as "close to Olga-Marie Animusphere" can be counted on one hand, and usually they're limited to Leonardo da Vinci, Chaldea's third-summoned Servant, and Doctor Romani Archaman, Chaldea's resident Head Physician.
However, I do have to count myself in the very short list of people "close to Olga" on the simple basis that we have a bit of history together, beginning with our shared years as adolescent students in junior high, or whatever the magical education equivalent of junior high is for Olga. Despite not interacting with her every day as she does with Da Vinci and Romani ever since her inception as Director of the Chaldea Security Organization, I find myself dealing with this more outgoing, more interactive Olga whenever we're alone together like this, or perhaps even when others are around, though she tends to keep up her colder, stricter facade in cases like those.
I've never asked her why she treats me as such, mainly because it's none of my damn business - but it is something I do dwell on sometimes here and there. Is it because her father, too, told her to stick with me just as my own dad told me to try to help her out whenever I can? Is it because she feels like our relationship can't just remain that of a Director and a staff member due to our spotty history together, or because of the work that I've contributed to Chaldea? It's not like I've done much, though, only the occasional shipping contract to move some of their equipment around and maybe some mundane magical fieldwork mainly consisting of astrological surveying - well, I guess I'm forgetting about my own medical expertise and the stuff I've done to assist Dr. Romani, and we haven't even discussed Olga and the injuries she sustained from Lev's sabotage.
Maybe it's because she just wants some people to call friends, when she normally lives a life where friends are a luxury. While that may be grossly underselling what Olga's situation is right now or has been for the past few years, maybe it is just a little simpler than what I'm making it out to be. If that's the case, too, certainly I can understand - not everyone can lead lives full of treachery, suspicion, and coldness - and in Olga's case, add the Mages' Association and their bullshit. And for those who do, most of them reach a breaking point sooner or later.
Whatever the case, I'm certainly glad to know that she treats me a bit better than her usual staff...it'll make future contract negotiations easier, assuming nothing happens between us. I suppose for now she has to, with how little of her staff remains.
"Now that I think about it, how were the original Masters supposed to establish their contracts with their Servants? Wasn't the original plan to Rayshift them into Singularity F on their own?" I ask aloud.
"Right. They'd Rayshift there, and they'd use whatever leylines they find in that Singularity to perform their Summoning rituals to acquire their provisional Servants."
"So assuming that the Rayshift had gone according to plan, and assuming all forty-eight masters were successful in summoning a Servant, that would've meant...forty-eight Servants running around at the same time..."
"No, you idiot, not all of them would've been able to successfully summon a Servant. Remember, a Servant will only respond to the summons request of a Master whom they deem worthy; basically they only show up if they want to and they have faith in you that you'll be a Master who's worthy of their service. Some of the Masters would have acquired Servants, others wouldn't have."
"...then what would've happened to the Masters who didn't manage to summon anyone?"
"We'd weed them out, simple as that. If there were a Master who was not able to successfully summon his or her own Servant, we would have either removed them from their Mastership position or have them relegated to support staff in Central Command or wherever needed additional staffing."
"That's a big yikes, didn't you say that you'd already done all the testing on whether or not those forty-eight were Master-material before they got here?"
"Hey, it was in the fine print, that Chaldea, and by extension, I as Director of Chaldea reserve the right to have the final say in a Master's qualification. It just so happened that we had a good opportunity to finally put the Masters we recruited to the real test."
"Aye, now I can see why Romani calls you ruthless..."
"It was a necessary step, August! Don't you dare try to twist this out of context!"
"My bad, my bad..." I dig my hands into my pockets as we continue to walk. This walk is starting to feel like it's dragging on, how much further do we have to go before we reach the Coffin Chamber...? "But then again, why did you want to kick everyone into the Singularity to see if they could successfully summon a Servant? You have FATE, don't you? And I'm about to use it, right? Why didn't you just have everyone do like a test run with that, see if they could summon anything like that beforehand?"
At this, Olga gives me a very pained look of irritation. As I mentioned before, since I'm someone the Director treats more of as a friend than one of her usual staffers, this is a look that she rarely gives, and she already never looks like this in the first place, so it's about the most genuine look I'll ever get from her. It seems that, for how coldly and aloofly she treats her employees, their collective deaths are in fact weighing down heavily on her mind. It certainly lines up with what she yelled at me earlier, about why I didn't save anyone else.
"If you're trying to get at how everyone died because of Lev..." she grumbles, turning away painfully, but I stop her right there with a big sigh.
"No, I wasn't trying to imply that, that's not your fault, so spare me that talk. It's a genuine question, why didn't you just let everyone have a go at FATE? Because there were just too many people and FATE isn't meant to be used that often in a short period of time or what?"
"The success rate for actually summoning Servants with FATE wasn't very high; as a matter of fact it was very low, so low that we didn't even have an estimation. Apparently, according to what little records of FATE I'm able to access, it's only ever summoned three Servants successfully, and I've yet to find any info on the first Servant," Olga groans a little, though her voice has lightened up a little knowing that I wasn't trying to prod her over the fate of most of her staff. "Anyway, we'd done everything we could to improve it, but nothing seemed to work..."
"I notice that you're speaking in past tense," I observe quietly.
"For good reason, because that was up until our Singularity F debacle. However, Da Vinci and Romani sent a report to me while we were renegotiating your contract that they've done a full checkup and analysis on Mash's state, and they say that they've found a way to dramatically increase FATE's summoning success rate."
"I see. But come to think of it, you offered me this renegotiation before you received that report, right? Which means you wanted to promote me to a Master even while knowing that FATE didn't have a very good success rate."
"What choice did I have? Even if you're a freelancer and a modern mage, your talent and skills are undeniable. It seems like Father's choice to employ freelancers as part of Chaldea's payroll turned out to be the right one...but that aside, it's certainly quite fortuitous that Da Vinci's reported to have found a way to increase increase the summoning success rate."
"Yeah, talk about just in the nick of time..."
The Director and I cease our conversation once we finally approach the Coffin Chamber, which the Central Command room overlooks. The doors were only lightly damaged and do not need repairs to still function, but when we step inside, clearly the same cannot be said of the rest of the chamber within. As a matter of fact, no repairs seem to have been done yet, but in a situation like this, it's hardly anyone's fault. Well, except for that Lev motherfucker.
"Ah, you're finally here! Renegotiation sure took its sweet time, huh?" Da Vinci calls over to us as we approach. She, Dr. Romani, and Mash, already changed to her Demi-Servant outfit, are standing around what appears to be Mash's cross-shield that's laid down on the floor, in a circular-shaped clearing with a five-meter radius where the rubble's been cleared away to make room for the cross-shield and the summoning ritual, I assume.
"So Olga's told me about how you told her that you've somehow increased FATE's summoning success rate," I mention to the Caster Servant as I give both Romani and Mash a curt nod of greeting, with Fou barking at me and jumping up into my arms.
"Oh, you wanna know about that? Sure thing ~ " Da Vinci says cheerily as always, despite the fact that the chamber that we're in's clearly seen better days. "After talking with Mash about what happened throughout the entire ordeal, I've pieced together the story: when Lev Lainur attacked the Coffin Chamber, he did so right after the staff initiated the Rayshifting process, and the bombs he planted - well, you can see the damage for yourself that I've oh so painstakingly cleaned up by myself."
"I helped out too, you know!" Romani complains off to the side as I survey the damage at Da Vinci's invitation, even though I've already gotten a look at it before after finishing Olga's reattachment surgeries. Rubble is everywhere, with entire chunks of the ceiling, walls, and even the floor missing; in some of the Chamber, it looks more like a rocky cavern than an actual room. Scorch marks are plastered everywhere, marking where the fires that broke out used to rage; it would appear Lev took the liberty to plant some incendiary bombs along with C-4. So much for an esteemed mage like himself stooping down to use modern human technology.
Perhaps the most grisly detail of all are the Coffins that are set up all around the central area of the Chamber. Many of them are broken and knocked over, with a few still stubbornly standing in their original spots, and they all sport varying degrees of damage that includes broken glass, dented frames, or uprooted circuits and wiring. But the one haunting characteristic they all share is the splash of a dark color painted against their front translucent glass doors. It's been some time since the sabotage so the color is beginning to dry out, but the identity of this color is unmistakable to those who have seen it before. Perhaps worse yet, the bodies are all still inside.
"Lev, being one of our head technicians, had rigged the Coffins to override some of their safety protocols during the initial stages of Rayshifting," Da Vinci continues to explain as Olga is looking increasingly more uncomfortable for reasons I need not explain. "So if the bombs he planted all throughout the Chamber and Central Control didn't kill them, the Coffins going haywire certainly would. Mash was in here at the time of the explosions, while Ritsuka and Romani were in Ritsuka's room, thankfully, because she was experiencing some post-simulation symptoms."
"It was mainly drowsiness caused by initial simulation exposure; it's a common symptom that people get when they first start using simulations here," Romani explains quickly. "But like Da Vinci said, the two of us were chilling in her room, but then we heard the explosions and then the emergency announcement come over the PA, and so we both ran to Central Control to see what was going on and we found this place like this. Just...with a whole bunch more flames and such. Ritsuka searched this area for Mash while I headed back out to see what I could do to contain the situation in Central Control."
"Master...er, Senpai...found me trapped underneath a big piece of rubble that fell on me after the initial round of explosions, and she stayed with me the entire time and didn't leave me," Mash explains; she stands up to do so once she's done setting up her cross-shield with FATE. She is also wearing a heavy expression, again for reasons that should be obvious. "And then...before I knew it - "
"The Rayshift that had been initiated completed, and even without Coffins, Mash, Fou, and Ritsuka were able to Rayshift into Singularity F in the others' stead," Da Vinci nods, watching me pet Fou like a movie villain pets a pet cat. I make sure to give Fou's ears an extra-long scratch.
"I was under the impression that Masters couldn't Rayshift without a Coffin?" I ask with a slight tilt of my head at the Chaldean staffers.
"It's possible even without them, as Mash and Ritsuka proved. Oh, and I guess Fou too - hey, hey, I didn't forget about you!" Romani blurts out quickly when Fou snaps his gaze over to the Doc irritably in my arms and yelps a quick "Fou!" at him. "But using Coffins increase the chances of a successful Rayshift. Plus, it also helps protect the Rayshifter from potential adverse effects in case the Rayshifting process itself goes wrong."
"Well, that's good. I'm not sure if we'll be able to use Coffins with how they are now." I nod at the destroyed Coffins all around us, some standing and some felled like a solemn graveyard whose tombstones have fallen victim to abuse and neglect.
"We'll repair them, of course, but yes, it's good to know that we can still Rayshift even with this mess on our hands. Depending on how fast our next Singularity pops up, that very well may be the course of action we'll need to take," Da Vinci remarks.
"Right, so that's nice 'n all, but what's all this gotta do with FATE and whether or not I'll be able to summon a Servant at all?" I ask to bring the conversation back to its anchor point.
Mash clears her throat to take over. "When Senpai and I, and Fou too, were all Rayshifted to the Singularity, just before it happened, the Servant whom I harbor entrusted me with his power so that I could become a fully-fledged Demi-Servant in order to fight with Senpai in the Singularity proper. Because of that, I acquired this shield as my weapon - and when Doctor Romani returned me and Miss Animusphere, Da Vinci took an interest in the shield and asked to analyze it."
"Aaaand when I did, I was able to determine that Mash's new shield is compatible with FATE as a form of catalyst, and that's what FATE needed to stabilize as a reliable summoning platform. As would a genius like me would be able to determine with ease!" Da Vinci ends the long-winded answer to my original question with quite the smug look.
"And somehow none of you figured this out until now?" I raise a questioning eyebrow at the staffers around me. "Some genius that is."
"Uaaaaah! August actually doubted my genius! In all my years as a summoned Servant for Chaldea, no one has ever had the gall to doubt my unrivaled genius except for one man - the one man who is now our new Provisional Master ~ !" Dramatically swooning with a hand up to her forehead, Da Vinci turns her body suddenly as though shot by a bullet.
"Okay, now you're just being dramatic. Or is it just because you can't handle ordinary plebeians like me questioning your genius?"
"I can't, thank you very much! If I may be frank, I can't expect just anyone to understand the true extent of a star-studded genius like me!"
"Yeah, imagine being so smart that you can't handle it whenever people say that you're not. Wow, what a terrible problem to have...how will you ever - "
Da Vinci purses her lips back at me. "The only reason why I'm not stuffing you back in the teleporter is because of your freelance history with Chaldea, August. Otherwise this particular genius will not allow such wanton disapproval of the sheer knowledge and mental prowess of Leonardo da Vinci, the true Renaissance Man!"
"You sure like saying the word 'genius' a lot."
"Yes, it is my favorite word! Have you noticed?" Da Vinci smiles brightly at me. Truly, the kind of smile only geniuses high on their own shit can make. I fucking hate it. But it's Da Vinci, so oh well.
"And you're not even hiding it..."
"Alright, that is quite enough between you two, if you're done asking," the Director intervenes finally, having enough of being a mere bystander in our rapidfire conversation. "August is quite exhausted due to his medical work on my behalf, so it is imperative that we have him attempt a Summoning Ritual and have him be on his way."
"Eh, I'm fine. I'm working off a second wind right now," I say quickly to reassure the Director. "I also told Romani that I'd stay behind to help clean up this mess."
"Then why didn't you do that once you were done with my surgeries?!"
"To apply shock therapy to you so that when you woke up, you wouldn't be a blubbering mess of trauma," I sternly retort. "And not to mention, if I am successful in summoning a Servant, I can have them help us out cleaning up this place too - so hopefully they can do that. Mash, everything's ready, right?"
The Demi-Servant nods. "Please, any time you're ready."
"Thanks, then I'll get started."
The staffers vacate the area as I hand Fou off to Mash and stand by on the perimeter of the clearing so that I alone stand before the cross-shield of Mash's harbored Servant that now lies on the ground facing up at the torn ceiling above us. Taking off the black fingerless glove on my right hand, I raise it out towards the shield and begin reciting:
"My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. If you heed the Grail's call and abide by this will and reason, then answer me."
A ring of bright flame flares up around my feet momentarily, putting itself out just as soon as it appears. I also feel a sharp sizzling sensation burning itself into the back of my exposed right hand as sinister red markings etch themselves in like a permanent tattoo.
"I hereby swear: I embody all that is good in the world, and I shall defeat all that is evil in the world."
The cross-shield on the floor before me emanates blue light, which expands rapidly to form a shape - that of an enlarged cross, in the same structure as the shield from which it appears - until the ends stretch over the shield itself, enough to touch the floor around it.
"Heaven and Hell, clad in three words of power. Come forth from the Circle of Binding, Guardian of the Scales!"
With the activation chant spoken loud and clear, from the middle ring of the cross of light, a condensed bundle of bright blue orbs and rising lines of equally bright blue light also expands swiftly to trace the circumference of Mash's cross-shield itself, or more specifically its central circular section.
"Alright, it's working!" Da Vinci calls over from the sidelines, cheering the successful-looking Summoning attempt so far. I can also hear Fou barking in his usual high-pitched squeals as well to show his own support too.
The rising lines of light cave inwards as the orbs lock themselves into place, and at the same time a white summoning circle made of magic energy that wedges itself underneath the orbs appears, in between them and the physical shield itself. The vectors of light from before collapse completely inwards to consolidate their energies and form a large, hazy ball of white light as a result, and with a few more seconds, this large orb of white light begins to emit crackles of light that sound roughly like static electricity, and the orbs of light surrounding the cross begin to enlarge with energy themselves, as if to confirm the rest of the system's progress.
Without warning, the enlarging orbs of light explode harmlessly with very bright shades of purple, green, yellow, but predominantly blue light - they give off so much of this light, in fact, that as they immediately begin to spin very rapidly, like the gears of a centrifuge, entire flakes of multi-colored magic energy the size of construction paper sheets fly off and dissipate as soon as they hit the floor.
"Th-That's a rainbow gate! Marisbury said that kind of summoning was only ever theoretical!" I manage to hear Romani cry out in surprise because the rapidly rotating orbs of light that begin to bleed into each other to form a solid ring instead is starting to sound like a very loud factory generator that's beginning to drown everyone else out.
"Is that supposed to be a good thing?" I holler back over at him.
"I don't know! This is our first time ever seeing it live in person like this!"
"Then I guess we're about to find out!"
Once the spinning orbs compact themselves into one solid spinning ring instead, it bursts into three smaller rings that again expand outwards like three rubber bands being stretched into perfect circles before snapping back together, again just like rubber bands being released. The moment they hit their centers together, a large pillar of light that matches the surface area of Mash's physical cross-shield blasts up into the air and slams into the ceiling, though it doesn't damage it, thankfully, the ceiling's already been bullied enough by Lev's bombs. The pillar of light is incredibly blinding, as it shines with the power of a floodlight, and Olga, Mash, and Romani are having a tough time trying to see through it with their hands up to their faces, while Da Vinci and I simply squint through the ocular oppression to make sure we aren't missing any important details about this summoning ritual.
Finally, after about half a minute of this pillar of light lingering and towering over us in the spacious but ruined Coffin Chamber, the pillar begins to dissipate as well, followed by the deceleration of the rings of light below it and the weakening illumination of the summoning rune itself. However, the platform of light above the shield remains strong and solid, so that the Servant whose silhouette begins to bleed into view in the wake of the disappearing pillar of blue light can stand without worry.
Another half a minute elapses before the bright lights have all faded, with, again, the exception of the white light platform and the initial cross rune layer. Only then is the appearance of the Servant whom I have just summoned made clear.
She's quite blue. Not the same shade of blindingly light blue that could pass as white much of the time - a deeper shade of blue, the kind of blue you'd see out in the middle of the ocean on a sunny day. Indeed, the modified kimono that she wears, held in place by a black sash around her midsection and secured with a gold ringed ornament, is entirely blue, with borders of black and the occasional stripe of white, mainly on the collar of her outlandishly stylish Japanese garb. There is no end to this sea of blue on her - blue kimono, blue detached sleeves with black folds, blue thighhighs, and almost hilariously large blue hair ribbon that dons the back of her head. The only parts of her body that are spared from this blue takeover are her black platform shoes, black sash, the white ropes that are tied somewhere behind her back, the white and black fabric collar that drapes around the base of her neck, the long, bright-magenta/heavy pink hair that cascades down the back of her head and shoulders that invalidates the need for the aforementioned blue hair ribbon, the tan animal ears riding on the top of her head with their respective white ear fluffs that twitch and turn every so often, and, of course, the light tan tail that shaped like that one particular style of paintbrush whose name escapes me at the moment that begins to swish slowly from one side to the other, now that she's been materialized in this world.
Her golden eyes peer down at me excitedly, and with a quick glint in them flashing briefly, she leaps off the white light platform on which she's just been summoned to land before me to announce in perfect English,
"Aaaaaaaaaaand if there's an order, I will come immeeeeeediately ~ !" she sings suddenly, busting out a bit of an opera voice towards the end there in the midst of her high spirits before reverting back to normal. "Your ever-so lovely aaaaaaand dependable Fox Shrine Maiden ~ Caster, Ta ~ Ma ~ Mo ~ no ~ Ma ~ Eya! ~ has descended ~ !"
Opening her eyes again to take a better look at me, now that she's landed right in front of me, Tamamo no Mae drops her cutesy pose and pouts up at me.
"What's with that solemn look, Master? You should be positively jumping for joy that I'm the one who answered your summons!" she taps her foot a bit impatiently, putting her hands on her hips to make sure that I know of her discontent.
"Ah, sorry. It's just that, at the moment, we've got a bit of a situation on our hands..." I reason with her calmly while gesturing around at the ruined Coffin Chamber around us. Only when I do this and Tamamo takes a better look at her surroundings does she realize as well, and giving a little hop of fright, Caster lets out a shocked squeal.
"Oh dear, oh dear! I was so excited to meet my new Master that I totally forgot about the situation at hand! I'm terribly sorry, Master, maybe my little introduction wasn't the most appropriate..." Tamamo's ears sag downwards with gravity to display her apology in a way only fox girls can.
"It's alright. But before we started, there is one thing I'd like to ask..."
"Yes, Master, anything you wish! This reliable and dependable Shrine Maiden is ready for anything you'd like ~ oops, there I go again, teehee ~ "
Tamamo certainly isn't one to hold her feelings back, is she.
"Turn around for a quick second."
"Oh?" A bit puzzled by this suspiciously simple request, Tamamo complies and turns around. "Like this, Master?"
"Yep, that's good. And now, if you'll excuse me."
I bury my heavy face into the huge, bushy tail that's not wagging slowly in front of me.
"Eyaaan ~ !" Caster gasps a little the moment I stick my face in her tail. "M-Master?"
"I knew you would do thaaaaaat! Cut it ooooooouuuut! ! ! !"
A quick Gandr shot bonks me in the side of the head, fired by none other than Olga from the side, and the harmless shot slaps me to the floor, causing my right hand to slap against the edge of the bottom part of the shield rune that's still lingering around.
"D-Director, you didn't need to hit him with Gandr for that, did you?" I hear Romani asking Olga cautiously as I sit up rubbing the left side of my head as Tamamo quickly tends to me, asking me if I'm alright and glaring daggers in Olga's direction.
"I did! And as his employer, I reserve the right to punish him for wrongdoings he commits on my property!" Olga yells at me and immediately pouts back at me.
"I call bullshit, there was no term like that in our contract!" I call over with a quick laugh.
"There is now! Once I head back to my office and add it in!"
"I'll have you know, that's a clear breach of agreement if you do!"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Don't go sticking your face in other people's tails like that, you scum!"
"Well, to be fair, I would've done the exact same thing..." Romani remarks absentmindedly with a blissfully innocent smile on his face, which earns him his very own harmless Gandr shot that also slaps him in the face.
"Master, what is this...'contract' you speak of with that girl?" Tamamo asks me, her voice having dropped considerably. "Would you please elaborate for me ~ ?"
"Servants are summoned with all contextual knowledge of their Master, aren't they? I don't need to tell you, you should already know," I remind her.
"I'm fully aware of that. I would just like to hear it straight from you ~ "
"Do you? Olga's my employer; she's the reason why I was even able to summon you in the first place."
At this, Tamamo recoils in shock and lets out a dreadful cry. "Uwaaaaaaaaan! Master's going to be stolen away from me by some brat! This cannot stand!"
"I assure you, nothing like that's going to happen."
"I-I'm not stealing him! Don't get the wrong idea, who would wanna deal with a guy like him!?" Olga cries back.
"Then it's just as well! Don't mind me as I keep my Master safe from brats like you!" Tamamo sticks her tongue out back at Olga, who retaliates in kind with,
"Don't - Don't call me a brat! I'm the Director of Chaldea, I'll have you kn - "
Another sudden flash of light interrupts Olga and seizes everyone's attention towards the cross-shield again, and sure enough, without prior notice, the Summoning circle has developed another set of bright blue orbs above the shield rune.
"Whoa, whoa, hey! Who said you could Summon another Servant?!" Olga roars at me, and this time she's clearly quite upset at what's about to happen.
"Don't look at me, I didn't do shit!" I shout back, scrambling up to my feet in case something is going wrong.
"Liar! You're the only Master in this room, so you're the only one who can even summon Servants in the first place!"
"Now that you mention it, didn't August's hand hit the side of the rune after you hit him with that Gandr?" Da Vinci mentions to the Director. "That might've accidentally reactivated the Summoning circle ~ "
"But there wasn't even any activation spell! He'd need to do it again, won't he?!" Olga argues as the light pillars return for a second time over the summoning circle.
"Well, FATE is special in that it allows a Master to summon or make contracts with multiple Servants at once. We didn't tell you this because we thought you'd freak out over it, but Ritsuka, the 48th Master, was found to be the most proficient at it."
"That still doesn't explain how this is happening without the summoning ritual!"
"It could be that August here is actually quite the capable Master himself! Don't stress out too much over it, Olga, we certainly can't complain about more Servants at a time like this, can we? Just sit back and enjoy the show ~ ! If nothing else, we can all just throw our hands up into the air say that it's all for science!"
"Damn you, Da Vinci, you're ALWAYS like thiiiiiiis! And we're MAGES, not ordinary SCIENTISTS!"
I have to wonder to myself why Olga of all people is freaking out over the fact that I've accidentally initiated a second Summoning sequence. I mentally prepared myself to have to deal with one Servant; what the hell am I gonna do with two?
"Master, can't you, like, cancel the summoning ritual?! Am I alone not good enough for youuuuuu?!" Caster cries out to me with a pleading tone. The summoning circle is starting to roar like a generator again, so we all have to yell to hear ourselves over it.
"I don't think that's possible, no! And I didn't mean to summon a second Servant, I was perfectly content just having you around!"
Tamamo certainly looks quite relieved to hear this, but this look of relief doesn't last long as the blinding pillar of summoning light reigns supreme in the Coffin Chamber once again. And once again, after the light has died down, another silhouette that slowly reveals itself in its wake stands on top of the solid white platform of light above the shield.
It's another female Servant. Stepping daintily off the white platform and walking up to me, completely ignoring Tamamo at my side who stares back at this Servant with subdued surprise instead of the horrified shock that I'm half-expecting, this second Servant also looks up at me and smiles - but with a much more subdued and cordially affectionate tone. And she says -
"Good morning, Master. I've come in response to your summons, so please, let me stay by your side for many years to come. I...I have a few different names, depending on the land, but for now, you can call me Youkihi - and I'm a Foreigner-Class Servant. Just don't - please don't call me a country-ruiner..."
A/N
Bridd: "I can't agree with you going with only one [Servant]."
Then this should make things a bit more interesting - this'll be my coping mechanism while I wait two years for Yang to come to NA. FeelsNAMan