As the previous chapter was rather short (and since I've got multiple chapters planned for the current Valentine's event and it'll be next year by the time I'll have posted all of them at this rate), here's an extra chapter!


Perhaps, Amakusa thought, it had been a bad idea to come here.
It wasn't that he had anything against a visit to the pool, but after arriving here he'd finally realized the trouble it could bring.
Not because of the small fit Roman would've once thrown upon learning that the young Gilgamesh had somehow managed to create a minor Singularity to house his Waku Waku Zabuun ("To celebrate summer with a bang!" he'd said), but because there was entirely too much leering going on for his tastes. As usual Blackbeard was the main culprit, but there was a significant other number of Servants that were being equally bad for once.
Amakusa knew all the female Servants would be able to look after themselves, but the issue was…

"Wah, this place is really huge! I'm definitely visiting the real thing with my family when I can finally get a break!" Amakusa glanced at his bikini-clad Master who happened to be sitting at a table near the edge of the kiddie pool, enjoying a cold drink with Mash while taking a break from swimming. Through an iron will, Amakusa managed to keep his gaze fixed on either her head or her feet, and nothing in-between.
More than a few times some of the Servants had turned their gazes to their Master – and this wasn't solely the male ones – and while she was old enough to look after herself, there was still that ever-present circle of protective Servants lying in wait nearby to murder discipline any of the Servants who actually tried to make a move on her.
(Lancer Raikou had insisted that they refer to it as discipling, and no one had objected if it meant they could sic her on anyone they viewed as in need of that.)

He moved his gaze soon though, not taking his responsibility of watching over the child Servants swimming lightly. It was a challenging task, considering:
1. Nursery Rhyme was still having difficulty adjusting to being in the water, her inherent book instincts making the process of being submerged difficult. It was only with much coaching from her two friends that she even started dipping her feet, and everyone wanted to make sure she had no unpleasant experiences to discourage future attempts. The floaty helped, though.
2. Jack couldn't swim. At all. As it turned out, the amalgamation of the spirits of dead children from London had never been taught how to swim, and for some reason she hadn't been granted the knowledge when she was summoned. Despite this she was recklessly eager to play around, and someone had to make sure that she didn't wander off into the deeper parts of the pool again.
And finally, 3. The young Santa Jeanne Alter Lily lacked a phobia of water and was outfitted with the skill of swimming, but because of this she had gotten a bit overconfident and constantly tried showing off to her friends. So far Amakusa had to discourage her three times from jumping off a high diving board on the other side of the pool into the deep end while hoping her friends would pay attention for long enough to see her. And she kept doing this in spite of the fact that a couple of Servants were using that part of the pool for 'underwater extreme sports', which basically boiled down to them trying to kill each other in the water instead of on land and were using a ball as a projectile weapon to circumvent the pool's 'no fighting' rule. Gilgamesh (Child) was keeping calm for now, but he'd likely start spamming Gate of Babylon the moment one of them managed to cause actual damage to the pool.

"Heya, Amakusa. How's it going?" Amakusa briefly took his gaze off the children to give Gudako a smile and a nod as she sat down next to him, letting her legs dangle into the water like his, before returning to watching the kids. He assumed Gudako was doing her rounds to speak to every Servant and had gotten around to him and the three girls.

"They're enjoying themselves, and I haven't had to interfere too often."

"Glad to hear it! But you've been doing this since we got here, no? Want me to take over for a moment so you can check the rest of this place out?"

"Thank you for the offer, but I like watching over them. Besides, I already promised to play a game with them later, and I'd hate for them to want to start playing only to find I'm not here." The young Santa in particular had insisted, but as the other two had grown rather fond of the Ruler as well due to association with her, they joined in. Amakusa wouldn't have been able to refuse Jeanne Lily alone, and especially not when her friends were asking too.

"Ah, you've got a point there," Gudako nodded. She'd started kicking her legs in the water, causing ripples. Amakusa hastily returned his gaze from them and back to the children.

It was around this point that the young Alter spotted that their guardian had gained a companion and went over to them (no doubt swimming instead of walking across the shallow pool to show off, and it was adorable).

"Ah, Reindeer Master!" The girl stopped in front of them, looking up at her Master with an expectant sparkle in her eyes.

Quick on the uptake, Gudako said with a smile: "Hey, Lily! That was some nice swimming there! Are you sure this is your first time at a pool?" Her excited smile widening into a proud grin, Jeanne Lily puffed out her chest with pride.

"Yup! I've even been teaching Nursery Rhyme and Jack!" Speaking of which, upon noticing where their friend had gone said girls were currently in the process of swimming over themselves. They'd actually started swimming not shortly after Lily, but were both being delayed because of different reasons.
In Jack's case, calling what she was doing swimming was being generous. A dog paddle had more proper form, but she was so enthusiastic about it that Amakusa couldn't bring himself to suggest that she just walk through the shallow pool.
In contrast Nursery Rhyme's technique appeared almost flawless… were it not for the fact that she could hardly sink her arms into the water. She was not only wearing goggles and a floaty, but even those inflatable arm guards. She would've gone for a life jacket as well if it hadn't gotten in the way of fitting into the floaty.

It took them a while longer than it should've, but eventually both girls reached the other three.

"Master!"

"Mommy!"

Their greetings were no less enthusiastic than Jeanne Lily's, and Gudako greeted them with at least as much enthusiasm.

"Reindeer Master, we were actually going to play a game! Want to play along?"

"Hm? But I heard you were already going to play with Amakusa though."

"You can also play!" Much like Amakusa, Gudako couldn't bring up much resistance against three pairs of sparkly eyes begging her and gave in within half a minute.

And so it was that in the kiddie pool there started a game of water volleyball (in name only), with on one team Gudako and Amakusa, on the other the three girls. There was initially some discussion over who'd be playing with who as they were uneven in number and adding Amakusa would automatically give his team the advantage, so they eventually decided on an 'adults vs. kids' setup.
Though to be fair, even if they were kids, the three girls were still Servants, so Gudako would be at a disadvantage anyways. Said disadvantage hadn't actually been that noticeable at first, since out of the five playing Gudako was the most experienced swimmer (apparently grail-granted knowledge that had nothing to do with a Servant's innate skill like Riding lost to an entire school career of weekly swimming classes).
Of course, then Jack had tried to hit a ball in the other team's 'goal', which Gudako happened to be standing in front of. And Jack hadn't held back with her hit. It could've ended nasty if Amakusa hadn't jumped in front of his Master to hit the ball back, incidentally also scoring a point for their team.
As it turned out, the amount of trust the girls had in Amakusa's abilities was a bit too strong, as they continued not holding back, expecting the Ruler to jump in if things got risky. Which he quite literally did on more than a few occasions.
So when the first match was over and the girls were celebrating their victory, Amakusa and Gudako were recovering from the stress and exhaustion (Amakusa had to do a lot of literal jumping in), just happy that there were no injuries.

By the next game Gilgamesh (Child) and Alexander also wanted to join in (the former had enlisted the aid of his Caster version to take care of the Servants rough-housing and damaging his pool, so now he could take a break), and luckily the boys were a lot better at taking consideration of Gudako being a frail human being. And since they were now split into 'boys vs. girls' teams with Amakusa and the two newcomers against Gudako and the three girls, it meant that the two young adults (physically at least, in Amakusa's case) could finally relax without keeping an eye out for (magic-reinforced) inflatable balls threatening to murder someone.
(That one pass made to Gudako that nearly broke her nose was deemed a fluke.)

It was a fun game, and Amakusa even managed to ignore the sound of "Ah, let me joi-" which sounded mysteriously much like Blackbeard approaching from the edge of the pool behind him, before it was cut off by what sounded strangely much like a strike to the throat.
He also tried not to pay attention to the somewhat concerned glance Gudako threw at something going on behind him, nor the reflection in the water of a certain Rider being dragged away by shadowy tendrils and multiple hands. He wondered how they were going to string him up if there weren't any trees nearby, but was soon distracted by the game.
What he found much harder to ignore was the sight of Kiyohime (both versions) and Serenity drooling over Gudako, the former two switching between that and sending the Ruler death glares. Honestly, Amakusa could've sworn that every time he glanced at them the two Kiyohimes switched between these two states.

Still, they managed to play until closing time without further incident, and all present considered the day a successful break from world-saving.
As they moved to leave through the entrance, Amakusa managed to distract the trio of girls long enough that they missed the image of Blackbeard hanging by a noose – he wasn't dead as his legs were still kicking, but that arguably made it worse – from the park's entrance. Oddly enough, none of the Gilgameshes had any objections to this even though it was technically defacing their water park.
Actually, had anyone remembered to cut Blackbeard down from there before destroying the Singularity? Ah well, he'd figure out a way to survive. And if not, Chaldea had stored his Spirit Origin so they could just summon him back.


I imagine Amakusa as wearing some kind of light jacket along with swimming trunks, so none of the girls have to see the scars on his body. (It also explains how Gudako managed to keep her eyes on the game and not on his abs.)

See you all next month!