AN: Cross-dressing it is then :-)
Chapter 46: The Recruit
Ritsuka found herself in the woods once again, unsure written on her face. She was sitting on a stone she just found nearby. It was already night so she builded a bonfire in the middle. Caster accompanied her this time together with Mashu, who held Fou in her hands.
Caster created a bounded field for some privacy reasons since Ritsuka was trying to contact Chaldea once more and she succeeded. Fou jumped away from Mashu and cuddled with Ritsuka.
"You're saying that for some reason the Servant's Noble Phantasm are affected by something and it has something to do with imitation Holy Grail in your body?" Da Vinci Lily said as she repeated what Ritsuka said earlier.
"Yes, Da Vinci, that's what I'm thinking." Ritsuka said as she caressed Fou in her lap. "Can you check my vitals and statistics again, Da Vinci?"
"On it, Ritsuka…" Da Vinci was ready and in due time was finish in a short amount of time. Ritsuka did not like the look on Da Vinci upon seeing the report. Nevertheless, Ritsuka was ready to listen.
"Ritsuka, it seemed that the imitation Holy Grail that was inside of your body seemed to be now developed greatly." Da Vinci concluded. "Compared to the last time we have talked, the mana source seemed to be advancing greatly, are you sure that there's no side effects happening in your body?"
"As far as I'm aware, there's no drastic change happening in my body."
"It seemed that we can't prevent it further and removing it might harm your soul itself, since it has already take root." Da Vinci swayed her head.
Ritsuka frowned. "I know that you don't want to say that I am currently hopeless in this situation but I know that a genius like Da Vinci has something to recommend about this."
Da Vinci in the hologram just chuckled. "You flatter me, Ritsuka but yes I already have a plan." Then her eyes turned to Circe who was busy observing them.
"Who? Me?" Caster was acting innocent but she was sure where this conversation would end up. Da Vinci caught up to her antics.
"Should I guess that you have now trying to train Ritsuka in magecraft? I deduced that the advancement of the imitation Holy Grail is partially slowed due to constant materialization of her Servants and was temporarily halted when you use your Noble Phantasm with no limitation. It might be connected to Ritsuka's mana source on why your Noble Phantasm are acting errant and maybe the different composition of mana from that world." Da Vinci just giggled. "Of course, this is all but a theorycrafting for me, Sherlock might have different hypothesis regarding about this but know that we are just helping to the best we can."
Thank you, Da Vinci for that." Ritsuka replied.
"If we can't prevent this imminent Holy Grail then you, Ritsuka, must put into a good use, starting with Magecraft Training with Caster."
"Yiss!" Caster pumped up her fist. Bonding time with Master.
"But I am already indulged in training with Scathach…" Ritsuka reasoned.
"Then the merrier it is then…add Circe to have you train in her version of Magecraft, I knew you have a talent in scheduling so there you go."
Then Ritsuka just laughed menacingly all of the sudden. "kehahahahaha….!!!"
The hologram of Da Vinci just stared at her suspiciously, Mashu and Circe were staring at her with awkwardness.
"Yare, Yare, it can't be help." Ritsuka was deliberately deepen her voice and Mashu couldn't help but remind her of the anime that Ritsuka force her to bingewatch together with her Senpai. Reminding of it just made her cringe.
Ritsuka also added the hand thingy she formed a figure and placed it onto her face and just pose (…think of Arjuna when he was about to unleash his Noble Phantasm). Then she just lower her back as much as possible while stretching. She was flexible by the way.
"WWWWWWRRRRRYYYYYY…!!!"
It was followed by a sound of crickets and Mashu just facepalmed herself, Circe covering her mouth in laughing uncontrollably and Da Vinci wondering what the heck Ritsuka just did. Even Fou was licking Ritsuka's cheeks after climbing on her body while the Master of Chaldea maintained that pose. Fou thought Ritsuka wasn't ok.
"Fou!"
"What are you trying to do, Ritsuka—"
"N-Nevermind. That's from the anime that we watche—C'mon, forget it." Ritsuka was being awkward more than ever and she sounded defeated as she threw her arms up in the air, as if she just gave up.
Shidou was washing the dishes that they were recently eating their dinner. He was currently wearing a cute apron gifted by Kotori when they were still young, although it seemed that Kotori ignored his apron by now and it was just a little sad. He was surprisingly good at it to the point that it was just automatic. However, his mind was tackling a different matter.
It's about Ainu back in her mansion and what she just and offered. Shidou knew how dangerous she was and not because Ainu has a devastating Angel (He thought that Ishtar's Maana was an Angel and he has still no idea what's its name), capable of using planets as an ammo. Imagine, using the planet Venus to shot the Earth out of existence but that's not what he was worried about.
It's how she knew a lot of Ratatoskr's existence. Ainu was surprisingly accurate about the details of Ratatoskr entirety: its organization, its members, its methods and many more. Shidou felt that there is more than to avoid the conflict between Ratatoskr and the other Spirits. He could just feel it, Ainu was already deeply involved into something else and yet he couldn't quite find out was it.
"There's no mole in our organization and I can assure you that." Kotori suddenly spoke to him, as she caressed her chin. "Ainu seemed to be tricky enough to fool us, the same can be said to Izanami. The [Goddess] are surely a terrifying force to begin with."
Shidou then looked back and saw Kotori behind him, gobbling on chupa chops and wearing her black ribbons. Her arms were cross across her chest and she was serious. She looked at Shidou with scrutiny.
Shidou was curious about something and asked Kotori. "Kotori-chan, will you follow up Ainu's deal or not?"
Kotori just shrugged it off. "Maybe, maybe not."
Shidou just pouted. He really wanted to know if she promised or not. Shidou would rather make her keep the deal fulfilled.
Kotori eventually gave up. "Ugh, ok, I will not!" She was rather annoyed. "I don't what kind of magical shenanigans has done by that damn Ainu but for some reason I can't just refuse to back out of the deal!" Kotori looked at her spread out palms. "I knew it, that geas scroll or something has to be behind all of this!"
"C-Calm down, Kotori, don't you think its not worth it declaring a date/war on them?" Shidou said wryly.
Kotori just scrutinized him carefully. "I don't know if you are being sarcastic or not but that's our motto in organization. I can't just give them a blind eye after they said that they were Spirit as plain as that!"
Shidou already finished washing the dishes. "B-but that would greatly risk the Ratatoskr. We were lucky that Ainu was benevolent as what she just said: she's willing to leave the Ratatoskr alone, and even tolerated sealing Spirits. Don't you think that's already a boon to us?"
"Fine, big brother. It's not that they should be prioritized on the whim." Kotori just looked away from her brother, as if she was angry with him.
Then Shidou just headpat her suddenly and Kotori didn't anticipate it. "That's great, Kotori-chan." He just felt it caressing her head and ruffle it. It made Kotori blush. He was genuinely happy for her.
"I-It has nothing to do with you, you stupid brother! I-I do genuinely think that we can just leave them alone if they kept their wraps down." She looked away from his passionate face.
When Kotori felt that Shidou wouldn't stop watching her warmly, she took everything up to eleven.
PUNCH!*
Shidou spitted out a combination of spittle and mucus. "Urgk!!!" Kotori just gave him a strong jab to his abdomen. Such is the violent tendencies of a tsundere.
Today was Origami's suspension from her job being lifted and Ryoko, the Captain of the AST, was the one who will greet her back. Origami was still a sufficient lieutenant to their team although, her wrath against the Spirits is getting prevalent this day.
Thanks to her, the Licorice was disappeared completely and they didn't know why and how. The only thing they knew was that Origami was the one who steal it. Ryoko still have doubts regarding that. She was just happy that she was back.
After several complaints that were thrown at her it became annoying. The number complaints considerable rose up after their newcomers came from the DEM. Ryoko welcomed them as naturally as she can but deep inside it was just unnecessary to have someone from the DEM to add more units. Ryoko thinks that their team was enough but in the end the decision still need to came from the higher ups.
To be honest, for Ryoko, the additional team that came from the DEM were just as insignificant as her team. Which is just sad but at least she was honest.
Except that their leader of team was Jessica Bailey. Ryoko could tell that she was a trouble maker in the beginning and that her title being the Adeptus 3 means she's a force to be reckon with. With her long curly dark red hair and fox-like icy blue eyes, Ryoko could tell that she has an arrogant personality.
And the other one was Mable Mcintosh, that one who has short brown hair and wears a pair of glasses. Ryoko could feel that this Mable girl was an easygoing and could be a brains to the team. She could also eye that Mable is somewhat competent in the field. Ryoko would rather choose Mable than over Jessica Bailey, even though she's powerful in her own right. Ryoko has no use on anyone who's very powerful but can't cooperate with her own team.
Anyways, she's looking forward for the new team that arrived from DEM but specifically on Jessica and Mable. It seemed that between them, things could go interesting.