Ritsuka was lost in thought as he walked down the street, mulling over Jack's story. He trusted her, and if that was the case, then a lot of disturbing issues that came up.
First, these mud women were not a one time thing. As a matter of fact, there seemed to be a lot of them, maybe more than he and two servants could handle.
Secondly, there were evil flying bugs that were trying to do… something with people. Honestly, that was so random, Ritsuka wasn't sure if it even was a part of everything going on, but he did know it wasn't good news.
Third, and the best news he had all night, was that the Medea up in the mountain was the adult Medea. He could work with that. While she was far more skilled in the deadlier side of her magecraft, she was… okay, stable wasn't the right word, but he found her easier to deal with than Medea Lily. Maybe because Medea saw him like her little brother while Lily saw him as a potential replacement for Jason?
He didn't like the idea of being a replacement for Jason.
He stopped to take a break, his legs suddenly feeling very weak. No matter how many times he saw him, Heracles as an enemy terrified him, and it took until now for the adrenaline to die down. With a sigh, he sat on the curb, catching his breath. Jack noticed this and slipped out of his arms, walking over to the bag he carried on his shoulders and opening it up, digging into it.
A pleasant smell filled the air as Jack walked back with a small container containing a simple meal of warm rice and chicken. Still, it was super welcomed to the Master of Chaldea. He reached out to take it from Jack, who moved it out of his reach with a pout. The small bundle of children took a pair of chopsticks, scooping up some rice and chicken with it.
"Say ah, Mommy!" Jack smiled as she offered some of the food to him. Ritsuka indulged his daughter, opening his mouth and letting Jack drop the delicious food into his mouth. With a content sigh, he chewed the food slowly, before grabbing the food out of Jack's hands.
"It's your turn Jackie," He said with a smile, returning the favor as he fed his Assassin. The two took turns feeding each other until the food was gone, Fujimaru falling to lay on his back and stare at the sky for a moment, finally catching his breath. Jack took to simply poking his cheek in boredom as she waited for him to get up.
He was content to just lay there for a few more minutes, but a sound filled his ears, drawing his attention. It sounded like… a giant swarm of bugs. Sitting up, Ritsuka saw a swarm of insects breaking down a door, swarming into the small building. Where those the killer bugs Jack told him about earlier? Jack certainly didn't seem happy to see them swarming about.
"Go take care of some, Jackie," Ritsuka patted her head. "I'll catch up, okay?" with a nod, Jack dashed towards the house, knives at the ready. Ritsuka meanwhile reached into the bag, looking for some sort of weapon or the like. The first thing he grabbed was a slim green spear, one that seemed hastily made, but Ritsuka knew was as reliable as the sunrise. He could work with this. Rushing ahead, he ran into the house, swiping at the insects with his green spear.
He grimaced as he saw the bugs up close. They were hideous, like they crawled out from the pits of Hell itself. To make things even worse, it seemed that stabbing a few of them agitated the entire swarm, causing them to turn all their attention to Ritsuka.
However, before they could even fly towards Ritsuka, Jack began to slice them up. Any that got past Jack, Ritsuka would stab with his spear. The two of them kept this rhythm and strategy up, fighting until there was not a single insect left. Ritsuka sighed, wiping sweat from his brow as his mind began to wander. Why did these bugs crash into this house in the first place?
He kept his grip on his spear tight as he walked deeper into the dark house. He tried to flip on a light switch, but to no avail. The lights just weren't working, so obviously, no one was living here. This also couldn't be a nest, as the bugs had to break down the front door to get in.
So if the house had no people, and this wasn't where the insects nested, why did they force their way in here? Taking a deep breath to steel himself, he walked over to the first door he could find, placing his hand against it. He took a second to make sure that Jack was next to him before pushing open the door.
It was just an empty bathroom.
Ritsuka walked further down the hall, the eerie silence only being broken by some of the squeaky floorboards. Quietly, he opened the next door, finding only an empty room. Maybe it was a bedroom? At the very least, he didn't find some sort of hideous insect monster yet, so that was good. He moved on, opening the next door.
Only to find a sorry sight.
On the floor was a woman with short purple hair, dressed in what looked like a business suit lying face first in the ground. The most striking feature however was that she was missing her entire left arm. Ritsuka quickly dropped his spear, rushing to the mysterious woman's side, flipping her over and checking her over as Jack did the same. It looked like whatever happened to her happened somewhat recently, as even though the blood was dried up, she was somehow still alive, despite her blood loss and current unconsciousness. Her breathing was shallow though, he had no clue how long she'd last.
Whoever attacked her must have been a complete sadist, wanting this woman to die a slow and painful death.
Looking around the room, Ritsuka tried to piece together what exactly happened. He could see a summoning circle of some kind, with a pair of earrings near them. Most importantly though, he could see her detached arm!
"Jackie!" Ritsuka called out as he picked up the dismembered limb. "Come on, you have to reattach this," He told her, holding out the limb for her. Jack looked over the arm, grabbing it quietly and walking over to her wound, the small serial killer taking out her knives and getting to work.
Doing his best not to disturb Jack as she worked, Fujimaru walked over to the earrings, picking them up. Obviously, the woman tried to do a summoning, but who was she trying to summon? One close look at the earrings gave him his answer. He recognized these earrings, they were Cu's. So something really bad happened when she tried to summon Cu…
With each passing day, he found himself being thrusted deeper and deeper into this Holy Grail War.
"Mommy, Mommy, we're done!" Jack called out. Ritsuka looked over her handiwork. The stitches weren't very pretty, in fact, they gave the mysterious woman a sort of patchwork monster look, but Ritsuka knew that Jack was still good enough that she was able to save the arm, even if it probably wouldn't work at one hundred percent.
No, he needed to summon a better doctor for that.
And the only place he knew at the moment that he could summon for sure was on the mountain where Medea resided. It seemed he had yet another reason to deal with Medea. Pushing that out of his mind for a moment, he patted Jack on the head.
"You did a good job Jackie," He complimented, causing Jack to smile widely. He walked over and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder, the green glow of healing covering his hand as he applied the magecraft, her breathing becoming normal as he did. "Come on, let's get out of here," He scooped the woman off the ground and placed her on his back. Jack watched, and began to pout as she realized that now Ritsuka didn't have any arms to carry her. Wordlessly, she stuck her tongue out at the unconscious woman and grouchily picked up Ritsuka's spear, heading out of the house.
Ritsuka followed slowly, making sure that he didn't hurt the woman he was carrying on his back as he walked out. He almost wished he had a bag to carry her in, but that probably wasn't a good idea. He wasn't a war nurse and the woman wasn't an Indian God, so it wouldn't work out.
Stepping out of the house, he saw Jack putting the spear and food container back into the bag, still pouting as she placed the bag on her back. She still walked by Ritsuka, but she remained quiet the rest of the walk home, no matter how much Ritsuka tried to get her attention. The Master of Chaldea was beginning to think that maybe he was letting her spend a little too much time around Suzuka. This silent treatment was most certainly a page taken out of the JK Saber's book.
Was this what it was like for his mom when he was growing up?
After several minutes of walking, they finally made it back to the Emiya house, Jack quietly opening the gate for Ritsuka. The two approached the front door, which swung open wildly as Shinji threw it open.
"There the hell you are, Fujimaru!" Shinji snapped. "What the hell is going on? Rider came home with an unconscious Emiya, and you were no…," His rant drifted off track as he noticed the small girl in a raggedy cloak and unconscious woman on Ritsuka's back. "Where… to be… Fujimaru, who are they?"
"Ah, well, she-," Ritsuka motioned to Jack. "Is my Servant, Assassin,"
"We came to help Mommy!" Jack added helpfully. Shinji blinked in confusion.
"Mommy…?" Shinji stared at Ritsuka. "Fujimaru, are you an ugly woman?"
"What?! No! I make a very nice looking woman, thank you very much!" Ritsuka snapped back, offended. He had to keep telling himself that… otherwise Shinjuku would become a much more traumatic memory for him. Shinji stared, obviously confused before moving on.
"And the woman on your back?" Ritsuka shrugged.
"I have no idea. I just found her passed out in a house with an arm missing after fending off a swarm of bugs from hell that were trying to get into said house," Ritsuka explained. Shinji blinked, sighing to himself.
"The night's barely begun, and I already feel like going to bed…," Shinji muttered.
"Speaking of bed," Ritsuka pushed past Shinji. "I'm gonna lay mystery lady in one," As they passed by the kitchen, he turned to the Assassin. "Jackie, can you put the bag on the table?" With a smile and a nod, Jack went to put the giant bag down as he walked into the house, seeing Rider waiting for him by the hallway. Despite the blindfold she wore, Ritsuka could tell that she was glaring at Shinji, who was following him.
"Fujimaru, get your servant to stop staring," Shinji grumbled, something that Ritsuka ignored.
"Rider, how's Shirou? Matou said he was unconscious when you came home," He inquired.
"The boy kept trying to break free and get back to you," She explained. "So I drained him of some of his mana,"
"Ah. Kept him from coming back and filled you up a little. Two birds with one stone," Ritsuka nodded, not pressing any further as he walked past her, her falling in line between him and Shinji.
"Yes. I didn't take too much, so he should be fine in the morning," She added.
"Good job Rider," he complimented as he got to his room, opening the door and walking in.
"Eh? Sleeping in the same room as a strange woman? Ain't that kinda weird?" Shinji asked as he peeked in.
"Yeah, I'm not getting any sleep tonight," Ritsuka admitted as he tucked the woman in under the covers. He could only hope she'd make it. The moment his back was free, Jack bursted into the room, leaping onto his back and snuggling into it.
"Okay, I don't get it," Shinji spoke up. "This is a Servant?" He pointed at Jack on Ritsuka's back. "She's literally just a kid. Why would the Holy Grail summon that?"
"Oh, she's not from the Grail, Chaldea sent her over," Ritsuka explained, much to the confusion of Shinji and Rider. "It seems a lot is going on in their end, so for now they were only able to send Assassin. I'll probably have to summon the others on my own," He shrugged as he walked past them.
"So… you're an actual Master too…," Shinji gritted his teeth, causing Ritsuka to look at him, blinking.
"Yeah, of course I am," Ritsuka stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What, you think I save the world with just raw grit and determination? With my pitiful one circuit and my magical potential laying face first in the dirt, dead on arrival?" He shook his head. "Really man, where did you get the idea I'm some hotshot magus?"
He headed into the kitchen, sitting in front of the table where the giant backpack sat, rubbing his hands together. "Alright, let's see what goodies Chaldea sent me," He reached in, grabbing the green spear again. "A spear from Cu…," He muttered as he placed it on the table, reaching in and feeling around, his hands grasping on the thing he wanted to find the most. With a quick yank of his head, he pulled the Saint Quartz out from deep in the bag, the rainbow rock sparkling under the light.
"... Okay, I have to ask, what's that?" Shinji asked in a tired voice.
"This is a Saint Quartz. It's…," Ritsuka cleared his throat, his voice becoming much smoother and intelligent sounding, his impression of Sherlock Holmes being perfect as usual. "a crystallization of concepts formed when pseudo-spiritrons are gathered in large numbers, usually by destroying mystical creatures or defeating Servants," Shini's eyes narrowed as he took in the information.
"So basically you destroy things with high Mystery, and the residue of those becomes… a Saint Quartz?" He summarized, to which Ritsuka nodded sagely.
"Indeed, Mr. Matou. You'd make a good detective yet." Ritsuka finished his impression as he continued. "I can use three of these to summon a Servant." He placed the Saint Quartz on the table as he reached in and kept digging, soon pulling out another twenty of the rainbow rocks. "Twenty-one Saint Quartz… that means I'm good for seven Servants," he muttered as he leaned back. "I better hold on to these for now," He muttered as he placed eighteen of them back into the bag, slipping three into his pockets. Never knew when he'd need an emergency summon, after all.
With that out of the way, he reached back into the bag, pulling out a submachine gun.
"Whoa, what the fuck?!" Shinji cursed, backing away rapidly. Ritsuka blinked as he stared at the gun.
"Goddammit, Kiritsugu," he muttered as he put the gun on the table.
"W-wait, do you know-," Shinji began before Ritsuka interrupted.
"Yes, I know how to fire this thing. Do I want to? Not really. Will I have to? Probably," The comment caused Shinji to slink even further away as Ritsuka reached back into the bag. This time, he pulled out what looked to be a small white bracelet, a wide smile coming to his face. "Alright, now I feel really safe," He said as he slipped it on his left wrist. This bracelet was no ordinary bracelet, no, for it was made from the mane of Bayard, the horse of Saint Georgios, which would protect him from one fatal blow without fail. On top of that, it was blessed by every saint and holy person in Chaldea, transforming this ordinary Noble Phantasm into one that could purify every ghost he could ever encounter.
This still wasn't the craziest thing he got in exchange for chocolate.
The next thing he found in the bag filled him with relief. Chaldea had provided him with other Mystic Codes to use. Now he didn't have to stay stuck in the basic Chaldea uniform. He had the black and white combat uniform, the black yukata he got from Benienma's inn, and brown school uniform. Wait a minute…
"Why did Chaldea send you one of our school uniforms?" Shinji piped up, causing Ritsuka to blink. Yeah, it was a dead ringer for Shinji's school uniform. Actually, this was kinda perfect. He needed to get into contact with Tohsaka, and this would let him actually enter their school without drawing suspicion to himself.
"I dunno, but hey, it works out for me," Ritsuka said with a shrug. He began to dig in even deeper into a bag, pulling out what looked like a case for glasses, which inside revealed… an ordinary pair of glasses. Well, if glasses created by Primordial Runes created by the great hero Sigurd was considered ordinary. There was even more in the bag, but Ritsuka could see that Shinji looked like he was starting to get a headache, so he decided to put it off for now.
"You know what? I think I'm just going to go to bed," Shinji muttered as he turned on his heel.
"We do have a big day ahead of us tomorrow, so it'd be best to get your rest," Ritsuka mentioned as he started to put away some of the items. "Night, Matou," Shinji didn't answer as he headed to his room. At this point, Jack slid off Ritsuka's back and walked over to Rider.
"Hey, hey!" She said as she poked Rider's thigh. "Are you helping Mommy?" Rider tilted her head as she processed what she was just asked.
"Ah, yeah, Jack calls me Mommy. Don't worry about it," Ritsuka clarified. "And yeah, Jack, Medusa's a friend here,"
"Good, good," Jack said with a nod. "But that means she should be closer to Mommy instead of standing over here!" With a tug and no resistance from the confused Rider, Jack managed to pull Medusa over to the table, the small child then slipping in to sit on Ritsuka's lap.
"She's… a lively one," Medusa commented.
"And a troublemaker on top of it," Ritsuka added playfully, causing Jack to pout and poke Ritsuka's cheek.
"We're good, Mommy!" She pouted, causing Ritsuka to laugh.
"Yes, yes, you're a good girl," He admitted. Jack smiled, before looking at Medusa.
"Sit down with us! You'll make Mommy's neck hurt if he keeps having to look up to you!" Jack reprimanded childishly. Medusa didn't respond with words, only taking a seat next to Ritsuka. The Master of Chaldea pondered on what to do or even say. He had a decent idea of Medusa's current situation, but… could he save her real Master? Was it really even something he could do? If it was something like an abusive family… well, there wasn't much he could do about it. That wasn't a problem he could solve by throwing Servants at it, after all.
"Wha- who are you people?" A voice suddenly snapped Ritsuka out of his worry, the three sitting at the table turning their heads to see Shirou Emiya standing there, looking very confused. The Master of Chaldea leaned over to Medusa, whispering,
"I thought you said he'd be out until morning,"
"I thought he would be. I'm… just as confused as you," Medusa whispered back. Sighing, Ritsuka shook his head.
"No, no, this is fine, this works. Have a seat, Emiya, we have a lot of important things to talk about." Ritsuka motioned to the spot across the table. Shirou blinked, confused, but in the end, walked over and took the seat as offered. "Before we continue… there's something important you need to know," Ritsuka mentioned as he slipped on the glasses Sigurd gave him, the lens reflecting light as he clasped his hands together, resting his nose on them. Shirou was quick to notice that the small child in Ritsuka's lap had copied the pose, so he now had two people looking somewhat menacingly at him.
"Can… can I ask about the kid?" Shirou spoke up.
"Nope," Jack answered before anyone else got a word out.
"I'll explain her in a bit," Ritsuka stated. "Right now, there are more important things to talk about. Like how I know you're a magus, Shirou Emiya," Ritsuka was honestly guessing, but seeing how Archer was one, one with a Reality Marble no less, he had to guess that Emiya had started early. The way Shirou stiffened proved to Ritsuka that his guess paid off. "It's okay, I'm one too… in a loose sense of the word. And tonight, you were attacked by another magus,"
Shirou's face changed from one of surprise to one of confusion in record time. "Do you… mean the little girl with that…," He paused, taking a deep breath. "thing?" Ritsuka nodded.
"Yeah, you were attacked by Illya von Einzbern and Heracles," He confirmed, causing Shirou to tilt his head.
"Hera…cles?" He asked. "You mean Hercules?"
"No, no, Hercules is Heracles' name after the Romans came and absorbed Greek culture," Ritsuka explained. "That was very much Heracles. Which, by the way, is going to want to kill you again in three days, and the only way you can defend yourself is summon a Servant yourself," He was skimming over a lot of details, but right now, it was most important to get a Servant on Shirou's side. "After you summon your Servant, we'll get into more detail about what exactly is going on,"
"Servant…," Shirou stared at the two women by Ritsuka. "Are they Servants?" He asked as he motioned to the girls. Ritsuka nodded.
"Yeah. She's-," He placed a hand on Medusa's shoulder. "helping me out. And this little cutie," He playfully tugged at both of Jack's cheeks. "is my Servant," He paused as he thought to himself. "Honestly, come to think of it, I thought you'd know more about this, seeing as…," He drifted off, realizing he probably shouldn't mention that he knew that Shirou would join a war someday. "... you're a magus," he finally settled on. "Actually, how much of an idea do you have of what's going on?"
"None, really," Shirou admitted. "My father was a magus, and I've been teaching myself magecraft for a while now. Now all of a sudden, a little girl is calling me Onii-san and throwing Heracles at me," Ritsuka's eyes narrowed at that. Self teaching himself magecraft? If there was one thing he learned from all his lessons with all his teachers, it was that magecraft was way too complicated to just figure out on your own, not without really messing yourself up.
"This… might be a weird question, but what exactly have you been doing?" Ritsuka asked, his mind racing as he recalled what Lord El-Melloi II taught him. He had to break the process down to an easy to understand way for Shirou. "Like, for your magecraft training? Don't be vague, give me a step by step process of what exactly it is you do,"
Shirou blinked at the sudden change of question and the urgency in Ritsuka's voice, so it took him a second to gather his thoughts. "... I adjust my breathing, so I can concentrate enough to unify my body and all my nerves. This allows me to… create a burning rod inside my body, I guess, which I then insert into my backbone-,"
"Wait, hold on, full stop," Ritsuka interrupted, causing Shirou to jolt in surprise. "You're doing what?!" Even to one as incompetent as Fujimaru Ritsuka, this just sounded wrong. "What's with the burning rod? Is that your trigger or something?"
"Trigger?" Shirou blinked, confused. "No, it's how I create a magic circuit-," He was startled into silence by Ritsuka's head slamming into the table. Gently, the Master of Chaldea picked up Jack, gently handing her over to Rider, before he stood up and marched down the hallway, deeper into the house. The three left behind sat in awkward silence, hearing the sounds of Ritsuka barging into another room, Shinji's cries of indignation filling the house. Soon, Ritsuka returned, dragging Shinji behind him.
"What's this all about, Fujimaru?!" Shinji cried.
"Emiya's been using his nerves to create magic circuits," Ritsuka said flatly. Shinji froze, turning to look at Shirou with a look that could only be described as stupefied horror.
"You've been what?!" Shinji yelled, causing Shirou to lean back.
"Shinji, you're a magus?" Shirou asked in confusion, but before Shinji could answer, Ritsuka yelled,
"Are you insane?! That stunt should have killed you the first time you tried it!" Ritsuka was normally a very calm and understanding person, but the knowledge that one of his personal heroes, someone he cared very much about, almost killed themselves long before he turned 18 was making the Master of Chaldea a bit unreasonable.
"... My father told me that to be a magus is to walk with death," Shirou said seriously.
"That's not what the damn saying means!" Shinji snapped. "Being a magus is dangerous, yes, but actively risking killing yourself by converting your nerves into magic circuits… Shirou, you only have a limited amount of nerves in your body! What, you think being a magus would just regenerate them or something? You damned idiot!" With all his studying, Shinji always knew that something like this was possible, he even considered doing it at one point. However, even though Shinji wanted to be a magus despite the fact he had no magic circuits, he wouldn't do something so… stupid to play at one.
"The worst part is that it's not like Emiya doesn't have magic circuits. He has them! Much more than me!" Ritsuka added. "He just somehow missed the memo, and has been playing Russian Roulette every time he tried to use magecraft!" He sighed, feeling very drained at the moment. Jack crawled out of Rider's lap and began to tug on Ritsuka's sleeve.
"Don't be angry, Mommy. Smile. At least you can stop him from doing that again," She offered. Ritsuka took a deep breath to calm his nerves as he nodded.
"You're right, Jack, you're right," Ritsuka muttered. He patted her head as he walked over to Emiya. "Alright, Emiya, take off your shirt," Shirou could only blink as he stared at the strange boy that he had let live in his house.
"What?" He asked softly.
"We're going to open your magic circuits," Ritsuka explained. "I need to touch your back though," Shirou nodded, taking off his shirt and presenting his back to Ritsuka, who noticed that Shirou was actually pretty muscular. His clothes hid that pretty well. Quietly, Ritsuka held his hand to Shirou's back, letting his mind focus, the image of his body burning alive acting as his trigger to activate his circuit. "Oh, by the way, I found an injured woman and brought her back here, she's sleeping in my room now," Ritsuka quickly said as he pumped mana out of his body into Shirou's.
"What what-?" Before Shirou could finish questioning, he let out a loud grunt of pain, nearly falling over due to how sudden it was. Ritsuka stood up, dusting off his hands.
"Alright, so your circuits should be opened now." He stated. "Sadly, that's basically all we'll get done tonight… for now, get some rest. I'm going to get you a better teacher tomorrow," Ritsuka stated as he helped Shirou to his feet to carry him to his own room. So now he had a plan for tomorrow. He had to convince Tohsaka to not only help him assault Mount Enzou, but to act as a teacher to Shirou. Maybe he should get some gems or something to bribe her with.
Either way, tomorrow was going to be interesting, that was for sure.
