"Thanks again for agreeing to help, Amakusa: moving all of this by myself would've ruined my back!" Gudako laughed as she spread the shroud she'd received from Cursed Arm over her blanket, deciding that for now it'd take up less space as an extra cover to keep the early spring chill away.

"Of course, Master, I'm happy to be of help." Amakusa immediately proved his worth as he lifted the heavy bust of Nero, placing it in a corner of the room. As Gudako would've felt bad to store Caligula's hard work from a rare moment of sanity away in a musty closet, she'd decided it wouldn't be too problematic if it was at least not placed in the way of anything.
Amakusa had pointed out that it still took up plenty of space, but Gudako tried to defend herself by saying it could act as an impromptu chair or coat-holder (as if there would ever be enough people entering this room to fill up the main coat holder in the first place). Amakusa decided to drop the subject, accepting that this gratitude for received presents was a slightly troublesome – if also endearing – trait of their Master.

As one could easily guess from looking at the scene, Gudako had finally gotten around to storing away the more difficult (read: non-edible) presents she'd received on Valentine's Day and had enlisted Amakusa's aid in doing so. Rather understandable, as not only was there enough stuff crammed in here to fill up an entire garage sale, the Nero bust alone would've been far too heavy for her to carry.

They were making good progress working separately, only ever briefly stopping for small banter or when Amakusa had to ask where to put something.
Amakusa took this chance to see what some of the Servants had gotten their Master out of curiosity (and maybe to get inspiration for next year so as to avoid the same blunder of his being one of the few gifts Gudako had actually been disappointed with). And he had to say, Chaldea's Servants were nothing if not creative in gift-giving.

"This is… fishing gear?" Amakusa asked as he inspected a wooden bucket and what appeared to be a rather simple fishing rod.

"Oh, yep, got those from Touta," Gudako said as she glanced up from stacking Babbage's math books into the shape of a grand throne. She'd promised herself not to donate any of the books to the library until she'd at least leafed through them, but when would she ever find the time (and work up the motivation) to do so…?

Noticing Amakusa was still looking at the gear, she asked: "Interested in fishing?"

"No, just curious. I've never gone fishing myself, but I've seen some of the younger kids in my hometown with similar things, so I got a bit nostalgic. Have you used this set yet?"

"Once when Touta showed me how to fish after giving it to me, but I haven't gotten another chance to practice yet. I've never fished before then either, but he's a good teacher."

"I'm sure."

"Want to come with me next time I ask him for a lesson? The more the merrier and all."

"… I'll consider it, thank you for asking."

"Speaking of fishing," Gudako said as she stored Caster Cu's druid staff in the closet, making a mental note to bring it with her next time she's planning on rayshifting to a more mountainous area so she can use it as a walking stick, "Turns out Cu and Emiya (though according to the former the latter cheated with some kind of special fishing rod) are also good at it, along with some other Servants. When Gilgamesh heard this, he apparently got really competitive, and now there's going to be a small fishing contest sometime soon."

"Now that you mention it, I think I heard about that: some Servants have been going around trying to recruit us Rulers and other neutral-aligned Servants to act as judges."

"Huh, can't say I'm-" Amakusa would never learn what Gudako was going to say next, as she abruptly cut herself off. At the same time, something behind him was spreading such a bright gold and red glow that it was reflected on the white walls, making for quite the spectacle. It was followed by the light disappearing as something was clacked closed, and he could hear Gudako mutter a small 'ow'.

"Are you alright?" He asked as he turned around and walked over to her.

"Yes, I'm fine: I just got a bit blinded when the light fell a bit badly on the object in here," Gudako said with a laugh as she held up the wooden box she was holding.

"What's in it?"

"I'll show you." Making sure to angle the box away from the ceiling light this time, Gudako once more opened it.
Inside of it was a magnificent bridal headpiece in Chinese style, and Amakusa had to admit it was a marvelous piece, clearly one of the more expensive gifts Gudako must've received.
… He was kind of curious over which Servant would give their Master a wedding accessory, however.

"I got it from Lu Bu: he said I should wear it on my wedding day." Amakusa figured Lu Bu had likely given it in genuine gratitude and not with an ulterior motive, but he was distracted by the words 'wedding day'.

They seemed to resound within his head, and before he'd even realized it he found himself asking: "Do you already have any concrete ideas about what your desired wedding would be like?" He felt intrusive for having asked such a personal question when he saw Gudako's eyes widen in surprise. But luckily, she didn't seem to mind it too much, and took her time thinking it over.
After a minute she finally looked up again.

"Honestly? I've always liked the idea of a western-style wedding – even though now that means I'll have to somehow find a dress to fit the headpiece, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. As for a potential groom… No, I've got no one in mind."

"Not even outside of Chaldea?"

Gudako shook her head before saying: "At this point I'm kind of glad about that: it'd have been an extra layer of depressing if I also had a dead boyfriend, regardless of how we were fixing to undo the incineration of humanity."

"… I see." It was quite rare for Gudako to admit that the situation back then was truly affecting her, just like all the other humans present. Of course, no one in Chaldea wanted humanity to be incinerated, but in a way the Heroic Spirits were more distant from it: they fought to protect the world they'd once lived in, but anyone they knew and loved in life were already long gone. The humans who still had family and friends left to lose outside of Chaldea only managed to keep their spirits up through focusing on their goal: preventing all those deaths from happening in the first place.
Considering that Gudako had been living a carefree life before all of this, the same must have applied to her as well. Yet whether through natural pluckiness or just a talent at suppressing her own grief, she rarely showed any sadness about it. Even when something terrible happened in the Singularities, she always seemed to retain enough cheer to find a quick retort or an encouraging remark for her companions and sometimes even enemies.
So to hear her admitting to how heavy this all had weighed on her – even if only for a moment – meant Amakusa had touched upon a sensitive subject. No, perhaps speaking of her life in the outside world at all was a sensitive subject.

"Anyways, I was rather vague with just saying 'western-style wedding', huh? You see…" Seemingly wanting to change the subject, Gudako went on a small tangent, producing more and more details of what she imagined her dream wedding to be. Amakusa respected that and didn't press the subject. In fact, he decided that for now it'd be best to just let her finish her rant to the end, staying silent as he continued moving various presents around, only occasionally piping in with a 'I see' or 'hm' to show he was still paying attention.

He did find himself trying to imagine what said wedding would be like: a slightly older Gudako, wearing a white wedding dress, the headpiece that started this conversation of course fitting perfectly. The bride walking towards the altar being escorted by her father who – while Amakusa had no idea what the actual man looked like – he for some reason imagined being similar in appearance to Roman. Maybe it was because they were both the only humans he regularly spoke with? He interacted with nearly all of Chaldea's staff, but only had real conversations with few.
Though if he was strictly trying to imagine a 'father-figure' among everyone he knew in Chaldea, strangely King Ozymandias seemed to fit that role better. He made a bit of a face at that idea, but luckily Gudako was busy moving a small wooden horse to place it at the back of her desk.

Moving back to his daydream he imagined her walking down the aisle and standing with her groom. For the life of him Amakusa couldn't imagine what her husband's face would look like. He'd probably be a typical Japanese man, good personality and an honest job. Perhaps short black hair and wearing that kind of white suit Amakusa had heard was typical at western-style weddings.
Yet despite the vagueness of his identity, the idea of this mystery groom made Amakusa uneasy. Ah, he really was becoming overprotective, thinking so badly of potential events so far into the future…

As he noticed Gudako was finally reaching the end of her rant, Amakusa decided to ask her to take a small lunch break: perhaps some of Emiya's food could keep her mind off the subject of the world outside this facility.


Short, but sweet! With this the Valentine's chapters are nearly at their end, the next chapter simply being a collection of short reactions to various gifts Gudako received from her Servants.
As always, thank you for reading!