(Enhancement Room)

"What the hell..." Gudao sighed, not used to being blinded thanks to having an homunculus' eyes. "Please tell me you didn't explode."

"Scathach did say not to look directly at Ascensions, I guess that's why," Gudako was rubbing her own eyes. "Went off like a magical flashbang."

"Ho... hn..." The source of said magical explosion was calmly looking over her new outfit while Scathach eyed her warily; for different reasons of course. "Better than I was expecting, though I must say..."

There was a brief pause while the Servant remembered to fish Ruby out of her Inventory before addressing it. "I thought my color scheme was green?"

"Had to complain about something?" Ruby retorted. "If you recall, the transformation source is me, and rubies are red. Besides, it matches your hair."

"If this turns out like Prisma Phantasm and there's a green Kaleidostick, I might be a bit annoyed," Sasaku commented, while experimentally curling her gloved fingers. "Thank you for the longer stockings, though I see you deliberately left a gap between that and the skirt. And while I get elbow gloves and no sleeves, having less coverage at the shoulder defeats having the forearm protected, I'm pretty sure."

"What?" Ruby started, about the same time that Gudako added, "I don't think that's how these things work."

"Is that so?" Twisting around to look at the back sections, the wearer asked, "This two-tailed divided capelet looks like what Chloe has. Come to think of it, Illya had the white hair of most homunculi, but hers is pinkish."

"I wouldn't have given any of my contractors something like that deliberately," the wand defended itself. "Obviously things change when using an existing Heroic Spirit as your base. And you haven't thanked me for not outfitting you in pink."

"I thought rubies are red?"

"Like the whole light red color joke hasn't been done to death by now."

"Mhm, got it." She was busy examining the part at the waist where the crimson red outercoat flared out; it clearly could only be closed for the upper half of its length because of the volume of pleated white skirt which started at that point. "What is this all made of?"

"Spiritrons."

"Hmph, same as the rest of me then," she huffed. "I can guess the red parts are some type of velvet, and clearly the lower half and decorative white sections are lace. But the inner section, some type of satin?" She turned around, making the clothes swish about experimentally. "Hold on, this is based on silk?"

"Fufu~" Ruby said in a bragging tone. "Someone actually noticed for once."

"Is that in the group of things humans use to show off their wealth?" Gudao asked his fellow homunculus quietly.

"I believe so; it's both labor intensive to manufacture and need skilled craftsmen to work with. And high maintenance," Gudako replied after a moment.

"Ah, I suppose that would be still be the case in this age," the Servant whose clothes they were discussing said after a brief bit of confusion. "At home, we don't really lack for such things, but they are rather special use, not exactly battlefield wear. Hm, I think Illya mentioned that ritual dresses and the like do exist here."

"That's about right," her wand added approvingly. "What you transform into is about as important, maybe more, than the fact that you transformed. And of course nowadays the actual transformation sequences aren't even considered that interesting after a few showings..." it sighed.

"Why would it be special if it isn't rare?" Gudao asked, apparently interested in finding out more about their Servant's background. "If it isn't rare or expensive, is it just not functional?"

"Oh well, you see the ones for formal use are very decorated and stuff, you'd look out of place except in those specific occasions so, in a sense they are kept unused for those few times they are actually used. Otherwise, we'd have to invent some new best thing to wear for those situations. And the other thing is..." she frowned unconsciously while running a hand down her side. "I guess it's to be expected that you have my measurements down perfectly Ruby, but still...?"

"It looks just fine on you?" Gudako volunteered helpfully, but unsuccessfully.

"No, I think she means that the internal section fits very closely," Scathach explained, having noticed it with her warrior's eye. "I'd imagine that feels different than what she usually wears."

"If only," the other Servant muttered to herself, looking upset. "It's only been like two weeks since I left, as it were."

"What's the timeline for?" Ruby huffed. "I thought you were praising my tailoring skills."

"Ah, I see," Caster consoled it. "You accidentally reminded her of her husband."

"Huh?" "Huh?" "Huh?" One wand and two homunculi were simultaneously confused. One Servant also blushed, which only added to said confusion. "That's enough, Scathach; they won't understand it."

"It's really bad form to say something like that without giving it an honest try," Gudako prodded her verbally. "Besides, we might surprise you."

"I doubt so, since it's husband-wife stuff -" she paused as Ruby immediately objected, "Stop right there."

"Some of us did get married, though I really don't see why clothes of all things comes into that," Gudao had taken a moment to process the riddle, apparently giving up.

Scathach shook her head, "That's why she thought you wouldn't understand it. It also sounds stupid to explain getting expensive clothes which you wear just to take off soon afterwards."

"That's not really what-"

"I'm out. I'm out," Ruby repeated itself for emphasis. "Not staying for this." It then disappeared.

"Ho... hmm," the wand's owner looked thoughtful at the moment's revelation. "I honestly didn't realize that caused Ruby distress. Whoops."

"You mean, it does innuendo, but can't handle actual adults having relationships?" Gudako asked skeptically. "Because that seemed more like a tantrum to me."

"Ruby has to follow genre tropes like some sort of rule, I think." The now un-magical Sasaku's outfit had reverted back to her earlier sailor uniform. "If it's conviction, I can respect that; if it's programming, I might have done her some harm. It's not your fault, I'll apologize to Ruby later on."

"From what I heard, second-hand mind you, I'm a bit surprised your nation takes expensive lingerie as totally normal, seems like a thing you'd treat as pointless decadence," Gudako asked, seeing no likelihood of harm in it. "That is what Scathach was referring to, right?"

"It's not really decadent if pretty anyone who wants it can afford it," the Ruler explained briefly. "Besides, it was one of those 'giving a present for yourself' things, see? He liked the feel of it a lot more than I cared about such things. Works out, why not?"

"That means you kept it on, then?" Gudao pointed out the inconsistency.

"After. Look, I'm guessing when you say some homunculi got married, you're referring to experiments on having children our way, so you probably don't really get how it works for humans. Granted, I hardly know 'how it works' myself, and I've had a thousand years."

"You look much younger than that would suggest," Scathach seemed only a little surprised, to be expected given what the Masters knew of her own situation.

"Well anyway..." Sasaku sighed, realizing the extent of the derail. "Not only have I not checked the performance of the Barrier Jacket, but also Ruby's functionality."

"It's not a Barrier Jacket," Ruby contradicted her upon reappearing.

"Knight Clothes?"

"Since when did Belkan or Midchildan systems become actual systems of magecraft?" the wand scoffed. "I mean we Kaleidosticks were made personally by a Magician, you know? Look, I don't know the answers when coming along with a Servant summoning, so you'll have to do a trial run in the Training Grounds."

"I'll help!" Slyly interjecting herself into the conversation, Chloe poked her head in from the door. "I thought you'd have already transformed?"

"It's complicated," Sasaku eyed the familiar Archer carefully. "I'm pretty sure if it's you, I'd look weaker when transforming though."

"I take it that means you can do a lot more than a normal wand?" Scathach asked Ruby curiously. "Besides, obviously, talking and moving about."

l

(Gudao's My Room)

After they had made an excuse to leave the Servants, and da Vinci who had dropped by, to test Ruby's capabilities via the Training Grounds, the Masters took a moment to discuss the day's events in Gudao's simply-furnished My Room.

"I'm wondering if Ruby's starting to have an effect on her," Gudao said first, having had this on his mind for a while. "She seems to be taking a little too well to all this."

"I'm more worried about simply having an agent of Zelretch attached to her," Gudako shook her head. "She may be acting the part of a magical girl, but I'd wager it's indeed acting."

"Think she deliberately chose to bring up her husband? That's kind of important."

"Maybe. Maybe not." Gudako turned over the issue in her mind. "She said that Ruby either had to or just naturally follows magical girl conventions, right? That means she at least thinks that she has to."

"It would seem like Zelretch wasn't really doing us a favor with this," her fellow grumbled. "But of course he wouldn't, come to think of it..."

"My mother did say that a lot of people would be trying to either kill or leash her." Toying with her skirt, Gudako realized that a number of features of the Mystic Codes worn by the two Master homunculi seemed to mimic high-school uniforms. da Vinci's tastes showing through, doubtless. "From her point of view we'd be among that number too."

"Oh, no." Gudao couldn't help grin at that. "If we play our cards right, we'd be the ones saving or freeing her. Anyway, we should go over Elizabeth Bathory and Camilla's files while we have the time."

"Good idea." Gudako started pulling up the appropriate documents on the computer. "You know, I was wondering if perhaps she was expecting something like those cosplay outfits humans have rather than a proper set of magical defense clothes."

"You sure have that on the mind now, huh?" Gudao didn't care much for the topic. "I mean she, uh, 'threatened' Ruby if the results weren't up her expectations. What were you expecting, anyway?"

"You should have watched more of the humans' creative material," she retorted. "Prisma Phantasm especially might merit a closer examination since not only Archer, but now even Ruby seem to hint that Zelretch might have had a hand in it somehow. I wouldn't be surprised if that Magician had thought to create the genre to establish a basis for his wand-based magecraft."

"Hmm. If even fictional characters can become Heroic Spirits, does that suggest placing something into the minds of enough humans allows creating real legends from whole cloth?"

"Isn't the Grand Aria System like that, but for a magecraft system from all of us?" Gudao raised an eyebrow at her suggestion. "I mean: I don't think any single one of us can fully understand, let alone explain the System, so how did we construct it?"

"True enough, both these phenomena seem to be emergent and not fully understood," he had to admit, though it was troubling how little they truly know about so many things which Chaldea was critically dependent on. "For that matter, having other Chaldeas around might be quite the game-changer on its own, if we are all going up against the same, one, mastermind."

Gudako could only agree. "Unfortunately, our Rulers can't figure out how the 'Support List' mechanic -that Nero- mentioned might function. Just based on our meeting her, though, it seems like Servants can Rayshift without needing one of us around, or perhaps as long as there's a Master-from-another-Chaldea in the destination?"

"I'm a bit more curious about the Friend Points she mentioned gathering, but with an Event coming up we can't really spend the time to experiment on that."

"... Right. There's one obvious issue with even if it is Elizabeth: remember when she was told to ravage the countryside, and refused because she wanted to hold a concert?"

Gudao chuckled, though at the time, it was hardly an amusing situation. "The one which ended up ravaging the French countryside anyway?"

"Her noble phantasm involved using a castle to amplify her singing prowess, the castle she's inviting us to. Even without deliberate foul play, this could go disastrously."

l

(Iri and Matthew's room)

Though they had their own rooms in Fuyuki, both at the Emiya estate and Einzbern castle, in Chaldea they shared one for security reasons. Well, that and the fact that it was their parents' when one or both were visiting the facility.

Indeed, father had thought it fortunate that the whole family was visiting Chaldea at the time that the Incineration occurred. Nowadays, it seemed less likely fortune but more that the move alarmed the mastermind, who might have (correctly, it turned out) worried that Chaldea was nearing full functionality.

The older sister's musings were interrupted when she noticed Matthew unconsciously scratching his left arm while reading one of Chaldea's many spellbooks. Part of the reason they had early Inner Circle access was likely because they were the only humans left in their individual Houses. But that's not important right now.

"Mat, something wrong?" He looked up, confused, as she indicated his arm. "I didn't- huh?"

"Are they acting up again?" Iri asked clinically, while already pulling up the messaging program on the notebook computer in front of her. There was only the one in their room, because Shirou had been using it. It didn't take long to find the Matou section.

"Maybe, I don't feel different though..." Matthew wasn't certain, but that's enough for concern. She quickly sent a message asking for their current schedule. "It's been a couple months since mom last looked at it."

She stopped there. Because it's only been a couple months since that. Thankfully, a small beeping showed the quick response from the homunculus who had likely been working when her message arrived. "You can come down right now if it's urgent."

"Please ask Jeanne to pick up Mat." She thought for a moment; there had been an Event alert earlier, so the Ruler would probably be preparing for that - she changed it to ask for the knight, Georgios, instead.

(Matou Division, Laboratory)

The five people in the room, four homunculi and one human, sprung into action as their door opened to show an armor-clad Servant being followed by a boy whose purple eyes and hair matched the first four. "Hello," he said, looking around curiously.

"Doru," said their apparent leader. "Your mother taught me about the House's Crest Worms, and tapped me to look after those of us in Chaldea who have them. We don't have any of the human magi who do such work here, so I asked Dr. Romani from medical to give you a checkup."

"Was this such a big deal?"

"Mundane growing pains are common at your age," the doctor said. "As I understand it, we just want to be sure there are no external factors at play. Maybe not external..."

"Did Sakura explain what she saw during your last checkup?" Doru asked him gently. It was a rather new experience for him, having to work carefully due to not having the advantage of the System-mediated link that all homunculi shared. "Not really? Well, I'll do that while the good doctor goes through the basic routine.

"Ok." Matthew agreed. More curiosity than worry, on his part.

"We had no experience implanting with someone going through a growth spurt," the specialist started. "That and usually the recipient will quickly pick up on the magecraft, closing the loop by maintaining the binding."

"I thought Sakura already did that before," Matthew commented. It wasn't all that long ago, though obviously he wouldn't remember the actual surgery half of the process.

"The binding isn't an absolute once-for-all thing. However, that isn't really a danger, since what she indicated was more of lack of physical integration. Uh..." Doru paused awkwardly, looking to his fellows for help.

"A couple of them were not fusing as expected," one of them explained helpfully. She took a moment before adding for illustration, "Think of it like a cut that doesn't close up properly."

"The earliest generations had shells, and never really integrated, but that wasn't dangerous per se. Since your skill with the magecraft is still maturing, I'm sure everything will sort itself out in time. Can you take him over and run the division's usual scans? I want a full update on everything from the Fuyuki file. I'll fill the doctor in on that, by the way." His three colleagues nodded, leading Matthew over to where a series of Mystic Codes and more mundane medical devices waited.

"Everything seems to check out," Romani frowned despite this positive evaluation. "Provided that, as I take it, the lumps I felt are those worms you mentioned."

"Indeed," Doru reassured him with a professional's confidence, having checked the obvious spot on Matthew's arm which the doctor had immediately pointed out to him, wordlessly, earlier. "That's a symptom of non-integration."

"Was it really a good idea to do that procedure on a child?" the doctor asked quietly. "Not to be a critic, couldn't it have waited?"

"It's necessary to pass down the magecraft," the questioned homunculus shrugged. "The procedure is minimally invasive, and basically zero risk unlike most Magic Crest transfers, if that is what you thought it was."

"What you said earlier doesn't sound very zero risk: what happens if the binding does fail? There's Phantasmals trapped inside your body?" Romani shivered at the thought.

Doru shook his head extending a cupped hand. Moments later, something like a dark mist seemed to slowly rise from his palm, flowing over the sides. "One of my specialties is preventing that. But this specific issue was checked for earlier without finding any evidence." The mist, if one could call it that, disappeared.

"Sorry to interrupt," a Servant interrupted them from the door to make her presence known. "Georgios needs to prepare for standby due to the Event, so if it's fine I'll take Matthew back when he's done here."

"Thanks for letting us know, Martha." Doru quickly returned to the questions he needed Romani specifically to answer. "So, the usual physical checks, like reflexes, are normal, yes?"

"Yes, but of course I can't do any examination on things like magic circuits, as you know. Not a magus, after all," the doctor felt no need to repeat his earlier evaluation. "But I guess that was my main role here?"

"Your help was invaluable, unfortunately, it would be inappropriate for me to further discuss magecraft details, which happen to be the main concern here."

Romani only chuckled at the obvious dismissal. "I probably couldn't follow anyway, so that works out well. I'll be back on duty in medical if you happen to need me."