"Queen Shirou!" a voice called out.

"Hm?"

Shirou then turned around to see Lancelot, Knight of the Lake and one of the Knights of the Round, running towards him.

"Lancelot? What does he want?"

Lancelot then quickly placed his hands on Shirou's shoulders and said, "Oh thank god I found you!" while gasping for breath.

"Easy there. Take a deep breath before saying what you want to say next," Shirou said.

Lancelot followed Shirou's advice and took a deep breath. "Okay, I feel much better," he said.

"Good. Now, what seems to be the problem Lancelot?"

"My queen...I think Mashu is mad at me."

Shirou was confused. "Mashu?"

"Yes."

"How come?"

"Well..." Lancelot said as he thought back to what happened a few hours ago...

(A few hours ago...)

Lancelot was walking down Chaldea's hallway, minding his own business. As he was walking, he overheard Ritsuka and Mashu in the cafeteria taking about something.

"Hey Senpai?" Mashu asked.

"Hm? What is it Mashu?" Ritsuka replied.

"Do you have any family of such?"

"Yeah. I do have a mother and father back at home."

"Any siblings?"

"No. I'm an only child."

"I see..." Mashu muttered.

Ritsuka noticed Mashu's tone of voice and asked, "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well...it's just that I'm a little jealous of you senpai."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well...you have a normal family that loves you dearly and before you became a master of Chaldea, you were living a normal life, unaware of the moonlit world. You only had to worry about school, homework, just daily stuff from a normal life itself. Me? I'm a designer baby. I don't have any birth parents."

Ritsuka looked at Mashu with a face of comfort and said, "Don't worry. Even if you may be a designer baby and don't have any birth parents, you still got a family here. Me, Da Vinci, Fou, and everyone else here."

"You think so senpai?"

"Yeah," Ritsuka said with a smile on his face.

Mashu blushed and said, "T-Thanks."

"No problem."

As Ritsuka and Mashu continued their conversation, Lancelot was listening to the conversation in a corner of the hallway hidden. "Mashu...you had these feelings inside of you this whole time? You wished you had real parents?"

As time passed by, the conversation reached to a certain point where things got a little hairy.

All because of a certain question.

"Hey Mashu, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it senpai?"

"What do you think of Emiya Shirou?"

"Eh? Shirou-san?"

"Yes."

"Well...he's a nice person. I mean, the way he cares about other people and the servants, he acts like a mother to them."

"Really?"

"Yeah. In fact, one time, he brought over some bread during lunch and you want to know what I said?"

"What?"

"I called him mom by accident," Mashu said with a blush.

Ritsuka laughed at what Mashu just said. "Really?"

"Y-Yeah. Sorry, but I just thought what Shirou-san just did felt like how it feels to have a mom."

"Maybe you just want to call Shirou mommy for once?" Ritsuka jokingly asked.

"D-Don't make jokes like that!" Mashu yelled with a blush.

Eventually, the conversation ended and Ritsuka and Mashu left the cafeteria. As they left the cafeteria, Ritsuka noticed Lancelot was standing nearby.

"Ah Lancelot! What are you doing here?" Ritsuka asked.

"Well...can I talk to Mashu for a moment?" Lancelot asked.

"Sure."

Lancelot then turned to Mashu and said, "Uh Mashu, do you have a moment?"

"What?" Mashu asked.

"Um...that kind of people...might be not too bad..." Lancelot muttered with a blush on his face.

"What are taking about?" Mashu asked.

"You see...um...for your new mother...someone like Queen Shirou is a good choice, isn't it?"

That's when Mashu snapped, went into her demi-servant form, and dropped her giant shield onto Lancelot, surprising Ritsuka.

"Mashu! What are you-?!"

"Senpai! Let's just burn this guy to mana prism now!" Mashu yelled angrily.

"Eh?!"

"You heard me! Let's burn him to mana prism now!" Mashu yelled again.

"You misunderstood me! I don't know what you were getting at, but it must be a misunderstanding!" Lancelot yelled while he was getting crushed by Mashu's giant shield.

"Shut up!"

"Master! Please help me!"

(Back to the present...)

"And that's what happened," Lancelot said as he recalled the events from earlier.

Shirou was dumbfounded by the turn of events Lancelot told him. "So, what you are telling me is that Mashu nearly squished you with her shield because you said something that she misunderstood as something unethical?"

"Yes."

"I see..."

It was at that point that Shirou was really confused with Mash's actions. "Okay, why would Mashu do that to Lancelot? Why would she be mad at him for something misunderstood? And why would she want to burn him for mana prism?" he thought.

"Queen Shirou?" Lancelot asked, snapping Shirou out of his thoughts.

"Hm?"

"What should I do?"

Shirou sighed. "For now, I should probably check on Mashu to see what's bothering her from the conversation you two had earlier. Is that okay with you?"

"Y-Yes!" Lancelot said.

"Great. I'll be off to find Mashu then," Shirou said before he left Lancelot to find Mashu.

After a few minutes, Shirou found Mashu in the cafeteria.

"Mashu."

Mashu nearly jumped from hearing the voice. "S-Shirou san!?"

"Mashu, do you mind for a moment of your time?"

"N-No!"

Shirou then sat down next to Mashu.

"W-What do you want to talk about Shirou-san?"

"Well...it's about what you did to Lancelot earlier..."

Mashu let out a sigh after knowing what he was talking about. "Let me guess, Lancelot told you about that and that's why you're talking about that?

"Yes."

Mashu let out another sigh. "Well...Shirou-san, do you know of my origins?"

"No. Why?"

"Well...let's just say I'm not normal."

"What do you mean by that?"

Mashu let out one more sigh. "I'm a designer baby. Designed by the orders of the deceased Marisbury Animusphere in order to house a heroic spirit. At age 10, I was conducted into an experiment of housing a heroic spirit. The experiment well...was sort of a success...at the cost of limiting my lifespan to 18 years."

Shirou was surprised at Mashu's backstory before he asked a question upon realizing what Mashu said last. "Wait, if your lifespan is limited to 18 years...then how come you're still alive?"

"After the 7th singularity, I was granted a normal life thanks to fou-san. He granted me centuries of his prana into my life-force, giving me a normal life-force."

"I see...just one thing. Who was the heroic spirit that bonded with you?"

Mashu took a deep breath before saying, "Galahad."

"Galahad? Isn't he-"

"Yes. He's Lancelot's son, which technically makes him...well...my father...I guess."

"I see. So, you're a demi-servant like me, but why did you lash at him earlier? What it because of something that he said?"

"Yes. Do you have any idea what he said?"

"What?"

Mashu then repeated the last lime from the conversation before it turned into a fight. "You see...um...for your new mother...someone like Queen Shirou is a good choice, isn't it?"

Shirou was confused. "Uh...just how did that line make you so mad at him?"

"Well...it's because of my impression of him that made what he said sounds like something bad," Mashu muttered.

"What do you mean by that?"

Mashu sighed. "I'm starting to think that my father is a womanizer."

Shirou was shocked. "What?"

"Yeah. I'm starting to think that my father is a womanizer. Galahad thinks so too."

"No way. Lancelot can't be a womanizer."

"You think? Shirou-san, before you came here, there were times I saw Lancelot chatting with other women in Chaldea. At first, I thought it was a one-time thing, but as time went on, he kept doing the same thing over and over on several occasions. I know that he's not doing it on purpose, but at this point I can't tell."

Shirou was speechless at what Mashu just said. "You got to be kidding me..."

"I wish. In fact, Galahad has a nickname for him."

"And what would that be?"

Mashu sighed. "Sir Lance-marries-a-lot-of-women."

Shirou was nearly about to do a facepalm, but held it in. "Really? Galahad thought of that?"

"Yeah."

"Jeez, that's a bit too harsh on him, don't you think?"

"You can say that. Anyways, because of what he said combined with his interactions with other women in Chaldea, that's why I bashed my, or rather Galahad's shield, onto him and convincing senpai to burn him for mana prism," Mashu said embarrassingly.

"I see...so you have issues with your father then?"

"You can say that...I guess..." Mashu muttered.

Silence came between the two as they tried to figure what to say without upsetting the other. Eventually, Shirou broke the silence.

"So...do you hate him or something?" Shirou asked Mashu.

"Huh?! Oh no! It's not that I hate him or anything...it's just that's he's really embarrassing sometimes, especially when it comes to chatting with women," Mashu replied.

"I see..."

"Yeah. However, Galahad seems to hate him dearly."

"Really? How much?"

"To a passion."

"Because of what he did in the past?" Shirou asked.

"Yeah..."

Silence returned between the two. For a while, no one seemed to talk because each of them was trying to think of something to start a conversation but failed in their thoughts.

Eventually, Shirou broke the ice again.

"Hey Mashu?"

"What?"

"I know this sounds may a bit awkward to both you and Galahad...but can you forgive him?"

"Forgive Lancelot?"

"Yeah. I mean, he hasn't done anything bad to anyone here. He's a nice person, he's just going through some situations that can be misunderstood here. He's not a bad person, just misunderstood by other people. Okay?"

Mashu thought about it and said, "Well Galahad isn't going to try...but I could try. Is that okay with you?"

Shirou smiled. "It's all that I can ask for."

Mashu smiled back. "Okay."

"Good. First, we need to find Lancelot," Shirou said as he got out of his seat.

Shirou and Mashu then left the cafeteria to find where Lancelot was in. Eventually, they found him in walking down in the hallway.

"Lancelot!"

Lancelot immediately recognized that voice and turned around saying, "Queen Shirou? Mashu?"

"Mashu. Will you do the honors?"

Mashu hesitantly nodded and went up to Lancelot. "Um...Lancelot...about what happened earlier...I'm sorry for smashing you with my shield...and trying to convince senpai to burn you into mana prism..." she muttered.

"It's okay Mashu. It was my fault to begin with. I didn't realize the words I said influenced you greatly, especially-"

"On Galahad. Yeah, I know."

There was silence between the two while Shirou waited a word from each of them.

"Hey...uh, Mashu?"

"What is it Lancelot?"

"Um...if you don't mind...do you want to do a quest together?" Mashu embarrassingly asked.

Lancelot smiled and said, "Yes. I would love that."

Mashu smiled back. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go then."

"Hold on a second. I need to thank Queen Shirou for this. You can go on ahead."

"Okay!" Mashu said before she left, leaving Shirou and Lancelot behind.

"Queen Shirou, I...I don't know how to thank you," Lancelot said.

"Hey, don't thank me. I'm just doing what I think is right," Shirou replied with a smile.

"Queen Shirou..."

"However, Lancelot, in order to regain your daughter's trust, you must do one thing."

Lancelot listened quickly. "What is it Queen Shirou?"

"I think you need to lay off talking to women for a while, or else Mashu will continue to think that you're a womanizer."

Lancelot was shocked at Shirou's statement. "I am not a womanizer! I'm nothing like Merlin!"

Somewhere in Chaldea, Merlin sneezed. "Am I getting a cold? Or was somebody talking ill about me?" he thought.

(The next day...)

"Morning senpai!" Mashu exclaimed happily.

"Ah. Morning Mashu," Ritsuka replied. As Ritsuka and Mashu were walking together in the hallway, Ritsuka noticed that Mashu looked extremely happy today. More than usual as well. "Uh Mashu?"

"What is it senpai?"

"You seem quite happy today. Did something happen yesterday?"

"Well...let's just say...Shirou-san helped me with family issues..." Mashu said with a blush.

Ritsuka smiled, now knowing that she can get along with Lancelot now.