Fate series and characters belong to Nasu and TypeMoon
To you who yearns to be loved
Clicking the luggage close, Ritsuka squatted and laid it flat before moving it under his bed. He stood and whirled around with a contented grin, "Perfect!"
After waking up from the nap, he at once set off to finish unpacking his stuff from his own luggage. His clothes folded and stored inside the wall cabinet. His toiletries placed inside his bathroom.
Most of all, his own work table arranged with his journal on history book references, pencil case. And, his tablet with a wireless charger connected to the power socket. In this composition, Ritsuka felt readier to start his analysis of their prospective allies and adversaries.
KNOCK! KNOCK! Zrr!
The door behind him slide open, revealing the familiar orange-haired and violet-haired girls with a familiar squirrel.
Ritsuko stepped in and scanned his surroundings. "That's fast for unpacking your luggage."
"Yeah, I didn't bring much stuff with me. Other than, one or two to kill time I suppose," Ritsuka smiled.
Mash beamed and greeted, "I'm glad you look better now Senpai. Shall we get going?"
"Sure," Ritsuka shrugged and grinned with anticipation. "So, where do we start our first place for orientation, Mash?"
"Ah, about that…" Ritsuko replied with her voice trailed off.
The raven-haired Master threw a confused expression on his sister. Mash shared the same concerned face as Ritsuko. But, she offered a small assured beam and reassured, "There's something I need to bring you and Ritsuko-senpai before I show you both around."
-0-
Outside the third-floor corridor in Chaldea, there's a queue lined to a room. Each of the staff either carried a paper rose or small bags in their hands. Ritsuka peered his head over while lining up for Mash and Ritsuko.
The two came back with three paper roses in their hand. Joined into the queue, Mash handed one to the raven-haired Master, "This is for you, Senpai."
"Thanks," Accepted into his hand, Ritsuka turned to the front and asked. "I understand they make a small funeral service for the Director… But, why to the outside of her office?"
"We weren't able to find a vacant room to held for the service," Mash explained. "Her office is off-limits as we're only given to place the rose and express our respect outside, Senpai. It's a last-minute decision by one of the staff. Both the chief and Doctor approved of this, nevertheless."
"I suppose that explains the queue and the roses?" Ritsuka lifted his hand carrying the rose to examine.
Ritsuko nodded and showed a small beam to her brother, "Mash-chan and I helped Duston-san while you're asleep. Looks neat, don't you think?"
"An effort for someone who hardly did household chores back at home," Ritsuka snorted back.
"Hey!" The orange-haired Master glared at her brother.
Mash chuckled and spotted back at the front. "Ah, it's our turn now."
As the prune-haired lady wearing a classy-looking dress walked off, the three approached the short and slicked back raven-haired older Chaldea staff behind the counter.
He turned to them and smiled, "Kyrielight-kun, Ritsuko-kun, thank you both for helping earlier."
"It's no problem at all!" Ritsuko grinned assuredly.
Mash nodded and bowed with a grateful beam. "Thank you for allowing us to help, Duston-san."
"Don't worry about it. I'm glad both of you offered," Duston noticed the raven-haired Master standing beside Ritsuko. "You must be Ritsuka-kun. Pleased to meet you, my name is Duston Riveria. I'm one of the Chaldea Engineers here."
Ritsuka returned his beam back with his own and nodded. "Pleased to meet you too, Duston-san. Thank you for taking care of my sister. I hope she hasn't given you any trouble while I'm asleep."
Duston chuckled and shook his head. "No, she has been a huge help to Mash-kun and I. I'd like to thank you both again for taking your time to come here."
"It's the least we could do for the Director," A short bitter smile emerged on Ritsuka's lips as he recalled. "So, we should thank you for allowing us to join."
"It's nothing to worry about! The two of you supported us in clearing the Singularity. Besides, the Doctor suggested the two of you come here."
Blue orbs blinked in surprise, Ritsuko's orange orbs stared at her with a strange expression and tilted her head. "Eh? The Doctor did?"
"Yes, Senpais. He was the one who instructed me to bring both of you here before the tour," Mash nodded to confirm.
Duston nodded to affirm the Demi-Servant's words. "Knowing some of us were really close to the Director, he allowed having a small service to pay tribute to her. Roman-kun even asserted on conducting counseling now to the staff who are grieving for her."
Observed the two Masters nodded in understanding, a thought entered Mash's mind. She turned to the raven-haired Master and asked, "Senpai, have you visited the Doctor yet?"
"No," Ritsuka shook his head and responded. "Once I woke up, I went to unload my stuff–!"
His blue orbs widened at what she meant. Mash sighed knowing Ritsuka forgotten the Doctor's advice before they left. "I knew it… The Doctor is unavailable right now with the counseling. Please remember to see him after I show both of you around, okay?"
Ritsuka expressed an apologetic smile to her, "I'll remember it, Mash."
Ritsuko flipped through the memoir book on the table. Each page flipped with her hand to search for a page to write. But, each page filled with black written words from different staff.
She exclaimed with an astonished tone, "Man, we're nearly too late! There are only a few pages for us to write our thoughts to the Director."
The two shifted their attention to the orange-haired Master and approached her. Ritsuka peered over from the side as his sister's hand turned to the last few pages. "You'd expect her harsh bitch attitude would have people felt otherwise…"
His words trailed off upon dawned with realization what he said, "Crap…"
Ritsuko rolled her eyes and shot an unamused expression to her brother's remark. "Oh yeah, it's crap all right."
Mash's chiding glare from Ritsuko's right made Ritsuka gulped at his insult he made. Before he could bow to apologize, Duston gave a light-hearted and sympathetic laugh. "I understand where both of you are coming from since you simply knew her for hours. The Director may seem harsh, but she's the Director anyone ever asked for."
"Is that so…?" Ritsuka and his sister stared with a dumbfounded expression written over their faces.
"That's right," The Chaldea staff gestured his hand towards the many photo stand on the table. He followed the three came to take a closer view of the photographs. "She constantly put others need above herself when we have troubles.
"There was when one of our engineer team, Jane-kun was pregnant three months with her child. She sets up her work to be on desk-bound and permit her leaves when required to make sure she could give birth safely."
Mash nodded and verified to Duston's words. "When the child was delivered, she's the first to be there to congratulate her and her husband. The Director had further suggested and asserted she should be there while they were growing up."
Single violet orb directed to baby-blue photo stand, Ritsuko picked up to study it closer. There was Olga Marie with her arm around a brunette sitting on the bed. The brunette had a newborn baby in her arms while leaning close to the Director.
At their smiling face or rather the Director's, Ritsuko muttered to herself, "The Director definitely looks proud from here…"
"Ah…" Ritsuka hummed to himself in agreement. He spun his head back to the table to see at the rest. Though among them, a huge group photo stood out from the rest. He picked up to inspect it.
A 'Welcome to Chaldea Organization' banner displayed behind the huge group in the photo. Among the many staff, he saw Duston stood on the female staff left with another male staff. Romani and Mash laughing and smiling while Olga Marie grinned with her hands clapping.
"This is…?"
On Ritsuka's question, the raven-haired staff went to him and view the photo. Realizing what he meant, he told, "This took place when Sylvia and Muniel first entered into the team. The Director threw for them a welcoming party when the job was severe. Though she grumbled Roman-kun had urged to make them less tense, she's more than eager to guide them."
Ritsuka showed an amused grin as he now comprehended how strained Olga Marie's grin was. "Hmm… It's like the Director after all."
"Duston, we're done with the cleaning of Director's room. Is there anything else left? We're finished with cryopreservation maintenance check for the remaining Candidates too."
An unfamiliar feminine voice called out to the male staff.
Eyes following Duston turning his head to the voices, he replied. "Ah Sylvia-kun, Muniel-kun, you two can just put it at the desk here and go back to your workstation."
"Understood!" The short blonde-haired and plump figure nodded and set the broom and dustpan at the side. As he was about to do so, he looked at the two siblings and spared a baffled expression. "Huh?"
"Hm?" The short orange-haired female staff who set the clipboard down realized their presence too. Though, her brown orbs widened on realizing. "Ah, you two are–!"
"Pleased to meet you! I'm Fujimaru Ritsuko." The orange-haired Master realized their presences while looking at the photos. She set down the photograph before turning and bowed to them.
"Fujimaru Ritsuka, nice to meet you two," Ritsuka smiled politely and bowed.
With a modest understanding beam, the blonde-haired staff introduced himself. "Nice to meet you too, Ritsuka-kun, Ritsuko-kun. I'm Jeancle Abel Muniel, one of Coffin staff officer."
"Same here, my name is Sylvia Mazer. I'm one of the Chaldea control room staff. It's a pleasure to meet the ones who will save humanity. And, also," The ginger-haired staff looked at Ritsuka and showed an amused grin. "The kid who got the Director's bad side by sleeping through her orientation speech."
Deadpan expression appeared on Ritsuka's face of his first impression to them. His sister snickered behind him and reminded his words he always nagged at her, "You were saying about first impression, Ritsuka?"
The raven-haired Master rolled his eyes and gave an unamused sigh, "A faster way to make friends and connection around you…"
Duston let out an exasperated sigh and shot a chiding expression to her. "Hey, don't go teasing these two kids when you met them."
"You should know I'm just joking, Duston," Sylvia laughed and turned back to the siblings. "I'm just amazed you two completed the mission by yourself with Kyrielight."
"N-No, it's nothing. It's thanks to Mash-chan and the Director's help we could get through it," Ritsuko raised her hand and waved with a flustered expression.
But, Mash spun to her and reminded with a resolute tone, "Don't say that! Senpai, it's also thanks to the two of you I'm here. As your Servant, I'm glad to have wonderful Masters like you two."
"Fou! Fou, fou! Kyu!" Fou squeaked in agreement to his owner's words.
Chuckled at his sister's flustered attempt to deny both woman's compliment, Ritsuka noticed the dustpan in Muniel's hold. "You said both of you were cleaning the cryopreservation room earlier?"
"Oh, this?" Muniel followed Ritsuka's orbs staring at the book, he turned back and nodded. "Yeah, it was a mess when transferring the 47 candidates into the special coffins. We completed the nursing of wounds. So, all that's left was to wait for them to wake up soon."
Ritsuka murmured to himself in understanding. "I see…."
"Senpai, have you thought about what to write?" Mash's voice prompted for his attention next.
"Me?" Ritsuka noticed his sister already picked up a pen and wrote on the book. He then turned to Mash and showed a troubled beam. "No, I haven't thought of write to her yet."
"You don't have to worry about what you must write," Sylvia grinned at the thoughtful expression on Ritsuka's face. "Just write what you want to say to the Director if it's too hard for you."
The orange-haired Master set the pen onto the table and turned to her brother. "Or you could write how sorry you were for sleeping in her speech."
"Don't worry, I will write that down," Ritsuka sighed exasperatedly and took the notebook from his sister. In his hold, the raven-haired Master closed his eyes to think of what to tell to the Director, "Hmm…"
"Senpai?" Mash tilted her head at the thinking Ritsuka.
As seconds passed by, his lips made a frown when not a single idea appeared to his mind. Soon enough, he let out a sigh and showed a nervous smile to the Demi-Servant. "On second thought, why don't you go ahead first, Mash?"
"Is that all right with you?" Mash asked.
"Yeah, I'll write it after you have finished it. I'm still wondering about what I want to tell her…. So, you can go ahead first," Ritsuka assured and passed the notebook into Mash's hand.
Once in her grip, Mash nodded and returned a beam. "If you insist, Senpai."
Ritsuka watched her heading off to another side of the table to write her thoughts to Olga Marie. He shifted back to the front and spotted a folded photo lying on the table. He stepped closer and picked the photo. "Hey, this is…."
Duston turned up to see the photo in the raven-haired Master's hold, "Ah, this belongs to the Director herself, actually. It's a photo of her and her father. She seems to carry it around her all the time since I picked it up when she was rushing to prepare for the mission."
"Her father?" Ritsuka wondered with a bewildered expression. He wasn't able to determine the image of the man beside the woman closely resembling Olga Marie. In her hold, there was a recognizable child with silver-haired and orange orbs having a proud grin.
Despite noting her mother's appearance and herself having a similar appearance, the face of the previous Director blurred and blurred from the water droplets. Sylvia came and peered beside Ritsuka. "So, that's what she looks like when she's younger."
"To think such an adorable kid she had grew up to be…," Ritsuko commented once she and Muniel came closer to check out the photograph too.
Muniel rubbed his chin thoughtfully while staring at the picture. "I hear her mother died when she was young leaving only her and her father behind. He was more concerned with his work in running Chaldea, so she did everything she could to please her father."
"Where did you get that from? You certain it wasn't bad gossips from the other staff here?" Duston narrowed his eyes at the blonde-haired staff.
Muniel flinched and lifted both hands in a surrender position, "Don't look at me, it was flying around when we first arrived here."
"Um, I know it's bad to talk about people when they just… But, what happened?" Ritsuko queried in a cautious approach and shifted to Muniel.
Before he could respond, Sylvia answered instead. "If you all must know, it's from a bunch of personnel who seemed to be her previous classmates. The previous Director was a man who cared a lot about his work, and such, he spared little to no moments in raising her up."
Duston sighed and nodded reluctantly at their persistence to jump into this topic, "He's pretty strict too especially since his own daughter is the one to inherit his position. Naturally, she perfected everything she does. Be it magic or herself, she wanted to impress her father."
The orange-haired Master nodded as she concentrated. Though, Ritsuka's grasp on the photograph tightened as Duston proceeded. "Sadly, her father never bothered with what she accomplished. I heard he appointed someone else to be his apprentice instead of his own daughter.
"From the rumors itself, his daughter was nothing but a disappointment in his eyes. Until his death, he had never given a glance to the Director. And, she turns into a child forced to take his position after his sudden passing."
"The rumored tragedy of the Animusphere family," Sylvia sighed.
"It's awful enough she was unqualified to rayshift from her own inventions she made. But, I presume she had it coming from being a member of the Animusphere family."
"Her own father never even acknowledged her existence, let alone her hard work. It's one bad story after another for her life," Ritsuko remarked in a solemn tone.
While Muniel nodded in agreement, he changed to see Ritsuka had stood silent and still the entire time they were chatting. "Ritsuka-kun?"
Even at Muniel's call, Ritsuka remained unmoving to shift his attention to them. Ritsuko stepped forward and lifted one of her hand to poke his cheek. "Ritsuka?"
"Huh?" Ritsuka snapped out from his stupor and moved his attention to them. As he caught their strange expression, he instantly came back with a sympathetic, bitter smile. "Oh… Yeah, it's a depressing story isn't it?"
He set the photograph down back to the table and repeated Ritsuko's words. "To not even be acknowledged or loved by anyone, even by your own parent… I suppose it leads her a lot of hard times as the Doctor said."
"True…." Ritsuko mumbled in agreement.
"Senpais, I've finished writing," Mash approached them and handed over the notebook to Ritsuka.
Ritsuka received into his hand and grinned, "Ah, thanks!"
With her hand raised, Sylvia bid to them, "Then, we'll go ahead first, it's nice meeting both of you."
"Don't hesitate to meet up with us for lunch–!" Before Muniel spun to accompany his colleague, a thought popped into his head. "That's right, there's one of our crew who's about the same age as both of you and Kyrielight-san."
"Eh? A staff at our age?" Ritsuka queried.
Sylvia laughed as she remembered whom Muniel mentioned, "He's a pretty hard-working guy too. I'm positive you guys will get along. Hang out with us when you have the time! We'll bring him with us to let you guys know each other."
"Sure, thanks for the offer Sylvia-san." Ritsuko expressed an appreciated grin to them.
"Well then, hope to see you guys around!" Sylvia raised her hand and waved.
Muniel nodded and waved goodbye to them as he followed Sylvia to their respective workplace. Once they were outside the hearing range, Duston let a heavy sigh escaped his lips. "Honestly those two…"
A relaxed sigh escaped Ritsuko's lips as she observed them left. "They are nice colleagues to have with."
"Other than putting our section chief in a load of trouble when either of them escaped their work to take a nap on duty, or even just chattering away."
Ritsuka chuckled at the groan came out from Duston. But, the Chaldea Engineer showed a grin to switch to a different subject. "But, I'm sure you don't have an ill-will to them or the Director. We overheard her compliments to both of you. From what I believe, I'm sure she would be truly proud you're continuing her work."
The raven-haired Master nodded and affirmed with a decided look. "Ah… We'll work our best to restore Humanity back for her, Duston-san."
"Hey, it's your turn already! Hurry and write so that Mash-chan could continue her tour for us," Ritsuko reminded with a nudge to his elbow.
"Right," Ritsuka spun towards the same corner where Mash wrote on the notebook and thus added, "I'll be over there writing then."
"Sure!" Ritsuko turned back to Mash and Duston to continue chatting, though he overheard the contents of closing up since it's only left them.
Ritsuka walked towards the corner while opening the notebook to flip through. While flipping for the blank page, he leafed through the pages describing the accomplishments she did and compliments to her as a friend and Director.
"For someone who can't be honest with her mouth, at least her efforts are genuine," Ritsuka commented in his head. Once reached to the table, he spun the pen he took a few seconds before writing. "Let's see… 'Your first impression I had of you was no doubt awful. While I'm incompetent in your eyes, you're a pretty nasty person yourself too. But, in that brief journey—!'"
His right hand that writing across the notebook stopped when Sylvia's voice rang in his mind. "The previous Director was a man who cared a lot about his work, and such, he spared little to no moments in raising her up."
Duston's heavy sigh echoed in his thoughts later, "He's pretty strict too especially since his own daughter is the one to inherit his position. Naturally, she perfected everything she does. Be it magic or herself, she wanted to impress her father.
But, what occurred next in his mind soon was a clearer Duston's voice. "Sadly, her father never bothered with what she accomplished even after he passed away. I heard he appointed someone else to be his apprentice instead of his own daughter."
"To never even shown an interest to what she did…" Ritsuka repeated the words in a quiet tone.
"Because I've never been praised… I've never been praised by anyone! Why? Why does this always happen to me?! No one ever valued me! Everyone hated me! From the moment I was born, I've never been accepted by anyone–!"
The final vision of Olga Marie screaming in tears before the unseen force drew her towards the Chaldeas into her demise. Ritsuka's mouth formed a thin line. He shifted back to the notebook, went on writing while muttered. "I suppose this should do…"
Scribbled his final words into the notebook, Ritsuka put the pen down with the notebook in his hand and whirled to them. "I'm done, Duston-san!"
Duston whom been putting every collected small gift bags into a small black box shifted to Ritsuka and smiled. "Ah, thank you, Ritsuka-kun."
As Ritsuka approached him, Duston took the notebook in his hand and acknowledged, "With this, everyone's thoughts are recorded. Thank you three for coming down to give your prayers to her."
"No problem!" Ritsuka grinned while approached to both Mash and Ritsuko. He lifted his hand and waved, "We'll be seeing you around then, Duston-san!"
"Sure, drop by to my place for a cup of coffee if you'd like!" Duston beamed back and waved his hand too.
Waving their hands in synch to bid goodbye, the Fujimaru siblings turned and continued walking with Mash to their next destination.
Ritsuko let out a sigh once they went further ahead towards the elevator, "Until we restore back humanity to put her soul a proper rest…"
Mash nodded with a somber expression. "For the Director and the previous Director too… The two did all to protect humanity. We mustn't let their effort go to waste."
"For them… We'll definitely get back our future too. And likewise, our home to go back too." Ritsuka added with a nod of his head.
When Ritsuko nodded in agreement to his words, she recalled and spun her head to Mash. "Oh right, where will we go first to show us around, Mash-chan?"
On her excited face, Mash returned with the delighted grin to the orange-haired Master. "Oh yes, as your Kouhai, I'd like to bring Senpais another place Doctor had assigned me to. I'm sure Senpais will find it incredible."
"Guess this will be an interesting anticipation to look forward to," Ritsuka chuckled.
He joined together with the two into elevator heading downward in the Chaldea Headquarters.
End of Pre-issue
If you're surprise that this story is finally updated with a new chapter, I'm as equally surprise as you.
Because I thought I'm never going to update after that constant non-stop launching of events with no dead weeks! And, the procrastination and life is stopping me OTL
Honestly speaking, the entire and subsequent chapter before I start Orleans is making think twice for some plots...
Especially for this chapter since I don't have good experience of funeral or never stay long to write a good one. But I do think there should be a closure about Olga Marie after DW pulled that stunt on her, and even observing the time gap before release of Singularity. Plus with lostbelt release of some names of Chaldea Staff, there's going to be an original twist for them. And if they are OOC, I'll apologize because I'm only grasping their minimal appearance in the story.
So, here's the probably horribly written closure for her, which is dubbed also as the Epilogue for Fuyuki Singularity.
Subsequent chapters, I do have ideas but I'm having a lot of hesitation with one mainly how magic works in Fate series. I've tried reading everywhere including original VN and I'm only getting more and more of a headache in trying to understand. Another is in particular their backstory since... Well, all I can say is, I'm going to put warning on the start of the story if it's going to get very dark so please turn away or prepare yourself before reading.
Finally, if you think subsequent non-Singularity/Interludes/Events stories are bullshit... I'll whole-heartedly agree it is and it's going to get worst. So to make up for another unknown length before the next update, hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
