Chapter 51: The Meet-up

"Hello, my name is Mashu Kyrelight and nice to meet all of you." Mashu introduced herself before bowing down before Kotori and the rest of the Ratatoskr. At the far corner, Ritsuka and her gang of Heroic Spirit cheered loudly for Mashu. Must have urged by the Master of Chaldea herself. The hollers and clappings shouldn't affect Mashu a lot but she ended up flushed face and embarrassed as a result.

Kotori was obliged to retrieve Mashu Kyrelight from their dorm according to Ritsuka's instruction. Mashu easily cooperated as well, seeing that Ritsuka was involved too.

At the moment, Reine and Kotori as well as a couple more of Ratatoskr members are currently in the saferoom.

Upon arrival, Ritsuka joined together with Mashu and seemed to be talking to theirselves, as seen from Reine and Kotori's perspective. The Ratatoskr was curious upon Ritsuka as well as the group of 'Spirit's who are very cooperative with Ritsuka. They wished to know more about them and perhaps, form an alliance with them.

Ritsuka and Mashu seemed to be ready to show something as Ritsuka was leaving Mashu on her own. It seemed that they are readily agreed onto something.

When everything seemed to be in order, Mashu begun transforming: her casual clothes were gone in exchange of an exquisite black armor, her pair of glasses disappeared as well and a large shield manifest beside her. All in all, the Ratatoskr were shocked for they knew who was in front of them.

It was the Spirit [Knight, a Spirit who only manifested that week and just disappeared as if it did not exist in the first place but the Ratatoskr managed to nabbed some information about this particular Spirit, especially how it looked.

Kotori glared at Ritsuka again, who just gave her a piece sign.

"C-Calm down, all of you." Mashu pleaded at them, seeing that there is a commotion with them. Eventually, they calmed down as they ordered. Mashu breathed deeply once more.

Shielder then placed her shield flat down the floor, as observed by all of the staffs present in the safe room. The shield glowed and released a blue light that occupied mostly of the ceiling.

After that, a hologram of some sort appeared on the shield after a display of lights.

The first one to appear as a hologram was Da Vinci lily.

"Oh, new guests I bet and there you are Ritsuka Fujimaru … and Mashu Kyrelight."

Kotori was the first one to ask. "Who are you?" Her eyebrows knitted in suspicions.

"I am the one and only Leonardo da Vinci, the universal genius!" Lily Leo really presented herself big time with exaggerated movements and pose, fortunately the signal strength inside the ship must have been stronger.

"Leonardo da Vinci? Don't you think he's—?"

"A man. Yes, I do but extremely complicated circumstances made me turn into this beauty, a one of a kind." Leonardo replied.

"Then are you a Spirit?" Kotori gulped from questioning. She just sounded herself a broken record and must have sounded like crazy.

"Depends on what are you trying to say then yes, I am indeed a Spirit." Da Vinci said with a happy tune.

Kotori must have felt scratching her head in confusion but she must not have concluded this in one way, there should be something a catch. She hypothesized that Da Vinci and the rest of Ritsuka's Spirits are different kind of Spirits.

"Ano, excuse me but I need to know who's asking? I already introduced myself."

"I am Kotori Itsuka, the commander of Ratatoskr, an organization whose purpose is to save Spirit through peaceful means without killing them."

"Uwah, that's so cool! Must have taken some kind of dedication, isn't it?"

"Right…"

"Let me introduced ours; we are the Chaldea Security Organization, a secret agency with the purpose of preventing the extinction of the human race. Ritsuka there is our Master of many Servants, acting on the order of solving the Grand Order conflict."

Upon hearing her name, Ritsuka stood proud and puff her chest out. Kotori stared back at Ritsuka with renewed sight. She never has thought that she was that important. She then returned her focus back to the hologram.

Also, Kotori didn't hear any of the organization by the name of Chaldea. It must have been relegated her from that thought because they are indeed a 'secret agency' but really, she should have heard some hints from the upper ranks in the government since it is for the sake of humanity.

"If you are some kind of important organization, why didn't you seemed to exist right here and why Ritsuka appeared all of the sudden now all of the times?"

"Good question, commander Kotori." Da Vinci Lily chuckled. "Singularities are dangerous anomalies that can appear in any point of history. We have a technology capable of sending Ritsuka at that point of history and deal with it using Servants that she contracted to. In other words, we have mistaken your timeline as a Singularity." Da Vinci really summarized everything and tell Kotori just a surface of everything, enough to make Kotori understand.

Kotori really wanted to ask them if they are from the future but there is still she wanted to clarify things first. "If you have the capabilities of sending her to the past then clearly you can retrieve her back to the present time, am I right?"

"Yes, you are indeed right, commander Kotori. Unfortunately, just like any normal organizations, we still face certain issues as well from operating alone; as soon as we have sent Ritsuka there, we found that we couldn't retrieve her back. Further investigations from our stance has concluded that something or someone has been forcibly anchoring Ritsuka into your world."

"World? I thought you called this place a timeline, wait, are you from the future or not?"

Da Vinci carefully explained. "At first, yes, we thought that Ritsuka ended up in the past but it turns out that Ritsuka ended up in a different dimension to be exact, as the blaring amount of evidence would suggest."

Kotori was nodding to everyword that Da Vinci said. "That would explain her sudden appearance all of the sudden here in this place with no identification nor any information within the database."

"Ah, then please we apologize for her behalf, no matter how eccentric she is, she is an important to us."

"Apologies accepted, now tell me more about this 'Servants' that Ritsuka was referring of, as well as her status as a 'Master'." Kotori really emphasized it.

Da Vinci looked concerned. "Oh dear, it must have confused you to the extent I believe…sorry once more for those terms. I will assure you that their exact meaning is not as it seemed." The little universal genius cleared her throat for a moment. "Master stands for the contractor of Spirits, while Servants are those of Spirits that are willingly contracted to the Master."

"I see that explains then." In truth, its just further complicated her way of thinking. Of course, she's not that dumb to show that she wasn't taking it all at once.

For this once, Lily Da Vinci was serious for a moment. "Commander Kotori, Ritsuka trusting you might not be a big deal for you…"

"I digress; in fact, I am honored to be trusted by the Master of Chaldea."

"Yes I believe you. You see, everytime Ritsuka travelled wherever and whenever she went, she couldn't prevent encountering groups of interests along the way; some cooperated with her to the fullest, some wholeheartedly opposed her but the worst of all are those who betray her at the most important moment."

"I understand." Kotori could feel that.

"I assure you commander Kotori, that Ritsuka is the most trustable and dependable ally when the time comes. We swear our lives on that." Da Vinci Lily then giggled in delight. "It seemed that I've ran out of words to convey…"

"By your words alone, are you suggesting an alliance?"

"Ah, only a genius can get understand words of a genius! Err, in other words, yes we do in behalf of Ritsuka."

"Give me some pointers then and we'll see what we can do."

"Okie-dokie. First, let Ritsuka continue her investigations there on the world but at the same time let her live the way she wanted to together with her Servants."

"Agreeable…"

"Second, do not involve her as well as her contracted Servants to your project that involves sealing the Spirit; even if there is a considerable difference between the Spirits of your world as well as the Spirits contracted by Ritsuka, we, under any circumstances, do not want to risk doing that."

"We can do something about that…" Kotori was not that foolish to let her brother experiment to the Ritsuka's Spirit, especially seeing them several leagues above from their own Spirit of this world. If a 'regular' Spirit can destroy a city with one glance, how capable are Ritsuka's Spirit at a normal scale? Thinking that alone just made her shudder.

It's a fortunate that Ritsuka as well as the organization called Chaldea chose to affiliate with the Ratatoskr alone.

"Simple and plain right? In exchange for those favors, Ritsuka could assist you in your mission in sealing Spirits for the greater peace, am I right?"

Kotori nodded at that thought, maybe it could be a great idea. "That's an interesting offer…"

"So you accept it or not?" Da Vinci then reached with her right hand, as if she was asking for a handshake even though it was currently impossible to do it.

Technically, Kotori here has no other choice and the offer made by Ritsuka's superior were just too tempting. Even with the aforementioned perks for her, this is just too much. A powerful ally sounds good.

With a smug on her face, she immediately agreed to the terms and conditions. "Deal."

…and the pact was made on that day.

After that a lengthy conversation and the final congregation of their alliance, Ritsuka proposed to be teleported back to their dorm after the successful alliance for some 'awesome experience'. After being transported back, the Ratatoskr also have a meeting among themselves.

The alliance between the anomalous organization called 'Chaldea' and the Ratatoskr was already clear enough but the in-betweens are still vague. The members wanted to clear any doubts and any issues from this hasty alliance. They were arguing and explaining among themselves.

"Can we still insert Ritsuka Fujimaru into our mission to conquer her to date?"

"As far as we know, they are already aware of us, Ratatoskr, as well as our method by dating a Spirit. It is indeed a saving grace that we haven't been attacked by AST or DEM industries right now."

"Even if we do, how would Shidou Itsuka proceed to date her with those multitiudes of Spirits guarding her, what's more dangerous is how they already know him as what he would say?"

"It is clear that the Chaldea is a separate organization, perhaps from the different dimension as they would suggest. So far in our list of database, no such name called the Chaldea Security Organization existed, even I double-checked the UN Organization for any familiar list regarding of 'safeguard of humanity'."

"I managed to checked the interior for any bugs and wiretappings they must have left, so far none I've discovered; maybe indeed they are staying true to their words. Not paranoid of course."

Kotori really wanted to listen to her staffs and members' suggestions but she seemed to be really, really tired. Reine even noticed her commander's lethargy but made no move until she was ordered. The commander of Fraxinus just sighed.

"Should we still classify the Spirits under the contract of Ritsuka Fujimaru? Does she have the same abilities as Shidou Itsuka? Is our Spirits different that much from Ritsuka's contracted Spirit?"

"No, there's no need for that, even if they have left out the details, it is clear that it is not a part of the deal."

"Do we even have to report this to the higher ranking officers, commander Kotori?"

This is Kotori's time to talk. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for remaining late this day, as for as your suggestion; as far as we know, we have no reason to do so since we can still control the situation until now. Chaldea remained generous to us, even lending us Ritsuka's assistance anytime if time calls, as such the only favor I could return, aside from their terms, is to control their anonymity to just us."

"Since it is clear that we are now in ties with Chaldea, should we inform Shidou of this development?"

Kotori raised her palm forward, indicating that she refused to do so from the last entry. "Shidou Itsuka is still dedicated to his mission of capturing [Diva, as such we couldn't give him some complication while he was still on a mission. I hereby order to hold this information from Shidou until the mission succeed."

"Despite the difference between Ritsuka's contracted Spirit as well as the general Spirits that Shidou captured as well as the other Spirits that still roam as stated earlier, it is still hard to differentiate them. How should we proceed on that, commander Kotori?"

Kotori just sighed then out of nowhere produced a thick notes bounded by ropes. "As a token of good will as what Ritsuka stated, she gave us her notes consisting of informations regarding the Spirits as well as a hard copy of our organization's detailed information. So far as what we could concluded Ritsuka's contracted Spirit composed of [Lancer, [Harpy, [Knight, [Kapitan] as well as the [Goddess]. Not stated codenames of a Spirits are considered not affiliated by Ritsuka and are 'safe' to be sealed by Shidou Itsuka. Ritsuka Fujimaru might consider updating her status in the future."

All of her members nodded and agreed from that information.

Even with her subdued voice, Kotori was really surprised when Ritsuka suddenly handed it to her after the meeting. This just reinforced them to be a force not to be a reckon with. Imagine able to do anything about this information, only to return it back to the original owner, only to add it additional nitbits of infos. Kotori didn't dare to think if Ritsuka still possess a second copy of this.

Kotori was hiding it really well, but she was already tired after that impromptu meeting. The idea that Ritsuka was harboring dangerous, world-ender Spirits just scared her a lot, even though she already recognized her as an ally already and being scared made her tired. She thought she became a yes-man during the entire meeting with the Chaldea and felt that her fellow members also agreed according to what she can understand, which made her feel inferior

Kotori decided to end this meeting right away in order to give herself some nap. "Meeting dismissed." Then she turned toward her Analst Officer Murasame to temporarily take charge of the aftermath of the meeting. She would go straight home and dive to her own bed.

psh* *psh*

The sound of the punching bag being assaulted by someone.

psh* *psh*

The individual who was currently punching the bag was alone in the gym, only the lights illuminated are her company here.

psh* *psh*

It was Origami and she has the permission to train here overnight but she was already cautioned by her superiors and colleagues as well. Her fellow soldiers were already left the barracks and emptied the gym.

She was the only one left.

psh* *psh*

Origami's skin was glowing sheen from her sweat and every abrupt movement made her muscles tightened. She was wearing boxing gloves, sports bra and athletic shorts. Her exposed skin shows that she was toned and muscled for a Wizard.

psh* *psh*

Her body was tired and light but Origami was still relentless, her ash-like hair shadowed her eyes.

psh* *psh*

"Origami?"

Somehow, Origami paused when she heard her name being called out and saw someone entered the gym alone. She looked toward whoever it was and realized it was Mable, again. She was wearing a casual clothing compose of a simple loose white shirt and red leggings. Her pair of glasses are also present on her face and her hands are dunk inside her pockets.

Mable was maybe watching her training from afar till now. She still couldn't forget how she managed to defeated her in a 1-on-1 fight.

"I wonder why you are you still here?" Mable asked her nicely while she tilted her head in curiosity.

Origami just heaved from her intense training and stared at Mable hardly. Yes, she instinctively hated those Wizards sent from the DEM but Mable…its just very complicated for her. Its as if Mable was an anathema to their group. She just too soft for them and yet she was respected, including their captain.

Also, it is so weird for her to appear in the gym this late.

Origami chose not to answer as she has no mood to do it and now, Mable entering the gym just ruined her mood to continue her training. She was about to pick the towel when Mable herself was the one who gave it to her. Origami then just took it away from her without even saying thank you.

Mable was unaffected by Origami's reaction. Mable thought that it is the best time to talk about something while Origami was still drying herself of her sweat.

"You knew about Shidou?"

Immediately, Origami stopped moving when Mable dropped Shidou's name. Then Origami has a full attention at Mable. Mable was content when Origami fully listened to her for this time. Origami remained grim all the time. If Shidou was involved, then surely it is something bad.

"My captain thought it was a great idea to catch Shidou and a certain Spirit. You know, for interrogation or something else?" Mable explained carelessly.

Origami gritted her teeth. "Why do you know about that and why do you bother telling it to me?!" It seemed that she was angry for some reason as she faced Mable.

"Calm down. You're his girlfriend, right? I still wonder why they will keep this from you—h-hey!!!" While Mable was in the middle of explanation, Origami abruptly left Mable in the air. Origami quickly pack her things up and stomped out of the gym, leaving Mable on her own and made no attempt to stop her.

Anyways as usual, Mable wasn't affected by Origami's actions.

Mable could still smell the whiff of the warm odor emanating from Origami as she left the gym and she could feel its hatred and anger. Slowly, she grinned and cupped her face with her palm.

"...k..ke…kehahaha….!" She let out a giggle then an outward laugh her as her shoulders trembled, only she can hear herself laughing at the nothingness.

Everything was readily entertaining for her, so much chaos to sown but not now, not now. The current Mable right now is a far cry from her gentle, soft and nice personality.

The surprise might be ruin.

As she blinks, her pupils were changed into mystical, yellow eyes that strangely glowed.