The Senpai and the Kouhai

April 7th, 2015

Ritsuka continued to read his book in silence. The male Master stifled a yawn as he flipped to the next page, and smiled.

A knock on his door took him away from his book, and looked towards the door.

"Senpai, may I come in?"

Ritsuka smiled. "Sure."

The door opened, allowing Fou to run up to Ritsuka and jump on the teen's shoulder. Ritsuka chuckled as he scratched the critter's chin, eliciting chirps from Fou. Mashu smiled at the scene.

"It is nice seeing you and Fou getting along so well." She said. "It is really enjoyable to watch."

"Well I have to admit, petting Fou is pretty therapeutic." Ritsuka answered.

Mashu giggled at the comment, before fidgeting with something behind her back. The Shielder flashed a warm smile at the male Master and walked towards him. The moment she did so, Ritsuka looked under his desk, then got up and looked under his bed.

"Senpai?"

"Sorry, it's just that Kiyohime has snuck into my room a couple of times, and she startled some people by popping out from under my bed."

Mashu winced at that. She remembered the first night back from France, when Ritsuka screamed in the night, and everyone saw Kiyohime in his bed, trying to snuggle up to him. It took a lot of convincing to get her to leave, but they managed to do so under the promise Ritsuka visits her on occasion. Something the male Master was happy to agree to. Mashu snapped back to reality and cleared her throat.

"I have something for you." She said. "I asked for everyone's help to make this, and they wanted me to show you our work, and I want to know what you think."

"What is it?" Ritsuka asked.

Mashu reached inside her hoodie, and produced an object in gift wrap. Ritsuka took the object and carefully opened it, not wanting to ruin the wrappings. The moment the gift was freed, Ritsuka's eyes widened in surprise as he saw the plaque.

In light of recent events, and to respect Ritsuka Fujimaru's wishes, Chaldea has now created a new policy. From this moment forth, Chaldea shall adopt a no-killing policy. There shall be exemptions, of course, but this policy shall be strictly followed, and those that break this policy shall be met with severe consequences, and this includes causing deaths caught in the crossfire. However, we also acknowledge that accidents can happen, so if a kill has been deemed an accident, the punishment shall be lifted. Below are two lists, one that shows the applicants for those who are under this new policy, and those who are exempt.

No Killing:

Humans and Fairies, regardless of hostility.

Allied Servants (Unless they ask us to, then they become exempt so as to respect their wishes).

Stray Servants. Diplomacy is highly encouraged in order to bring them to our side. However, if they do not cooperate after three to four attempts, the individual Servant automatically becomes exempt.

Oni.

Exemptions:

Enemy Servants.

Spriggans and efreets.

Phantasmal beasts. Including dragons, and fucking wyverns!

Gods (Including divine spirits).

Undead. This includes ghosts, and undead humans.

And spiders (Damned eight legged demons of nature)!

Ritsuka remained speechless as he continued to read the announcement. He looked at Mashu with a shocked expression.

"You made this for my sake?" He asked.

Mashu nodded. "After your explanation yesterday, and we all left the Command Room, I saw everyone's faces. They were all horrified, Senpai. Even MEDEA was disturbed by what she heard. So I took it upon myself to gather everyone, and ask for their help to make this so as to set your mind at ease."

Ritsuka was speechless. He just didn't know what to say to Mashu. The black haired teen trembled lightly. This was one of the kindest things a person who wasn't Doc ever did for him. Mashu took note of the trembling in his hands, and stared at the male Master with concern.

"Senpai, are you okay?"

Ritsuka nodded. "Yeah, it's just that….I'd have expected this from someone like Doc, but not someone else. Thank you, Mashu. I'm sorry if I made you and the others worry…."

Mashu shook her head. "It is okay Senpai, what you went through…I do not know if anyone would be the same after what you experienced."

The two of them fell into a comfortable silence as Fou rubbed his face upon Ritsuka's cheek, asking for more chin scratches. The male Master held the plaque in one hand in order to fulfill the critter's request, when Mashu cleared her throat.

"May I ask what you think of this?" She asked.

Ritsuka looked back at the plaque and read the lists once again. "Well for starters, I don't know why, but I'm glad you put oni under the no killing list."

"Liz insisted on it." Mashu said. "And Mr. Sanson suggested the part of counting deaths in the crossfire."

Ritsuka smiled at that comment. Those two were only summoned yesterday, alongside Jeanne and Marie, and they already wanted to help. He looked at the list and did a double take. "Who put fairies in the no-killing area?"

"I did." Mashu answered.

Ritsuka said nothing as he went back to the list and raised an eyebrow. "Did Tatsuko write the phantasmal beast entry?"

Mashu giggled. "Yes, she insisted."

Ritsuka chuckled. "Well, it certainly adds charm to the list. Wait….hang on, did she also write in the spider part?"

Mashu nodded. "She has severe arachnophobia. She cannot stand the sight of spiders."

Ritsuka thought to himself for a moment. It would seem he would need to thoroughly scan his room for potential eight legged critters and deal with them in case Tatsuko decided to visit.

A moment later, he returned to the list. "Okay, so undead is self explanatory. I mean they're already dead so you can't kill them. But why are gods on the exemption list?"

"Do you think we should take it off?" Mashu asked.

"No it's not that." Ritsuka answered. "I was just wondering who put that there."

"Medea and Medusa insisted that gods go on the exemption list." Mashu answered.

Ritsuka winced. "Yeah…. I can understand why those two would want them to be exempt…Then again gods are more likely to destroy the world for flimsy reasons so they would leave us no choice anyway."

"I agree….." Mashu said reluctantly. She then turned to look at the male Master's desk, and saw the book he was reading before she came in.

"Is that a book about Heracles?" Mashu asked.

Ritsuka nodded. "Yeah, it's about his twelve labors in particular."

"May I ask why you are reading it?"

"I was just brushing up on my knowledge of him considering he's in Chaldea." Ritsuka answered.

Mashu smiled at the comment, before raising an eyebrow. "Pardon me for asking, but I believe Artoria said that when we returned from France that you two would be training for a few hours everyday, and yet you didn't do it yesterday, nor today. So how come you are in your room instead of the training room?"

"Artoria gave me yesterday and today off because of how tiring France was. Tomorrow we start training."

"I see. And what were you planning on doing with your day off?"

Ritsuka smiled. "Well I happened to find some mecha anime down in the rec room and asked if I could borrow them for a while."

"Really, how come?"

"Doc and I were huge fans of mecha, and when we had some time to ourselves, that was one of the things we would watch religiously."

"Ms. Williams was a fan of mecha?"

Ritsuka nodded. "She's an even bigger fan of it than I am. And I'm a HUGE mecha fan."

"It sounds like Ms. Williams was the one to get you into the genre." Mashu said with a giggle.

Ritsuka chuckled. "Yeah, and it was easily one of the best things she did."

Mashu blushed. "Senpai, I have a favor to ask…"

"Name it."

Mashu took a deep breath, but the blush remained on her face. "Is it okay if I stay, and watch it with you. I am curious about what it would be like to watch it."

It was now Ritsuka's turn to blush. "S-sure. I mean it would be nice to have some company."

"Yes. I have heard that watching something with another person usually feels more fun than when you are alone."

Ritsuka said nothing at the statement, and smiled. "How about you get some popcorn and I get the anime prepped for us to watch."

Mashu smiled and nodded and walked to get the popcorn.

Three hours have passed, and the male Master and Shielder continued to watch more of the anime. Mashu initially wanted to take notes in order to have a better understanding of the lore, but by the first minute in, she couldn't bring herself to write anything down, otherwise she would miss something she thought could be important.

"It would seem that politics plays an important role in this series." Mashu said.

"That's actually a genre wide trope." Ritsuka said. "Almost all mecha anime deal with politics alongside the giant battles."

Mashu decided to look away to write that down. She then turned her attention back to the television, and saw that the characters were preparing for battle.

"Senpai, I have a question regarding the space battles." She said.

"Ask away."

"How are they able to fight in space at all?" Mashu asked. "They would be suffocating, or freezing out there."

Ritsuka opened his mouth to answer, only to stop as his eyes widened. He grabbed the remote, and paused the anime. He then lowered the remote, the expression on his face never changing. "I actually have no clue Mashu. In fact, I never even thought about that before."

"Really?"

Ritsuka nodded. "I guess I was too engaged in the stories and the giant robots to notice that before."

"Was Miss Williams like this as well?"

"Yeah, definitely." Ritsuka answered. "Whenever we watched mecha anime like this one here, we would always get hyped up when something big was about to happen. In fact, watching anime like this was one of the only times I ever saw her enjoy herself."

Mashu stared at him with slight reluctance. Ritsuka took note of her gaze and turned to face her. "Is everything okay?"

Mashu nodded. "I am sorry Senpai, but I was thinking about something Tatsuko told me…"

"What was it if you don't mind me asking?"

Mashu took a deep breath and exhaled. "She once told me that you and Ms. Williams were not close. And yet…the way you talked about her in France, and even now, makes it sound like you two were close in a way."

Ritsuka thought to himself in silence for a few moments, trying to process what she just told him. He then took a deep breath and chuckled. "Okay, I think I see where I may have given the wrong impression."

Mashu raised an eyebrow. "Wrong impression?"

Ritsuka nodded. "Yes, it's true Doc and I weren't close. But that doesn't mean we didn't care for one another."

"It…..doesn't?"

"Yeah. Our relationship is…..complicated." Ritsuka answered. "We cared for each other, but it just felt like there was this barrier between us, and we didn't know how to break it down."

Mashu stared at Ritsuka with a blank expression. She couldn't help but think that there was more to this Hannah Williams than she and the others previously thought.

"Are you okay Mashu?"

The lilac haired girl was broken from her thoughts as she stared at the male Master, and nodded. "Yes, I am fine. Let us get back to watching the anime."

Ritsuka nodded, and played the anime again.

The two of them resumed their viewing of the anime, talking to each other about what transpired on the screen. Mashu couldn't help but smile and be at awe at what she saw on the screen. Not only that, but seeing her Senpai enjoying himself, smiling and laughing as well filled her with a warm sensation on her chest.

Despite everything that he told them about what he went through, there was still a cheerful and upbeat side to him, and Mashu couldn't help but like this side of him. She then returned her attention to the screen as one of the battles was underway, and gasped as she saw one of the protagonists win the fight through questionable writing choices.

"Oh that was SO not fair!" She shouted. "The other mecha should have one!"

"THANK YOU!" Ritsuka shouted back. "Doc and I have been saying that for years!"

Mashu grumbled, something that Ritsuka couldn't help but find as cute. The Shielder then exhaled sharply and sighed. "Let us continue watching. I would rather do that and not let the conclusion of that fight annoy me."

Ritsuka smiled and nodded as they continued to watch a new battle play out in front of them. The two teens were at the edges of their seats as they watched another of the main protagonists fight against his opponent in a nail biting encounter. Soon, the two of them got up from their seats, and cheered as the protagonist one this battle through more believable means.

"That was incredible!" Mashu exclaimed. "The fight was perfectly paced, the combatants were on equal footing for most of it. And the music, the voice acting, and-and-and-and the animation was amazing!"

"I know right!" Ritsuka shouted back. "I always get excited whenever I see that fight, it's just picture perfect."

Mashu nodded. "I wonder if the next fight will be as brilliant as this one."

Ritsuka chuckled. "Oh definitely. In fact it's probably even better than this one."

"I believe you." Mashu said. "Let us continue to watch, because I have to know how the next fight goes!"

Ritsuka nodded and pressed the play button again as they sat back down to watch.

The next fight was upon them now, and both teens watched in earnest as the main protagonists reunited, and worked together to fight the opposing army before them. They watched with open smiles as the protagonists worked together in tandem, covering each other's weaknesses without uttering any words. It was as if they practiced that for years on end. They continued to smile as the music swelled, where they aimed their cannons on the main enemy's ship, and blasted at the center of the ship.

The ship then blew up, and went up in flames. The two of them paused the show and looked at each other.

"You were right Senpai, that was an even better fight!" Mashu said enthusiastically.

"Well I must ask you this then, what was your favorite part of that?"

"The entire time they worked together at the beginning!" Mashu answered energetically. "The way they said that they'd never abandon their friend in need, the way they all did not even hesitate to fight the entire army by themselves despite being outnumbered, the way they did not even utter a single word to each other as the fight raged on around them, the way they could convey their plans through eye contact alone. It was truly a riveting experience."

Ritsuka chuckled at the response. "Honestly? That was my favorite part too."

Mashu stared at him in slight surprise. "Really?"

Ritsuka nodded. "Yeah, it always seemed impressive that a team could even DO that, much less pull that off in a stressful and nerve wracking situation like that. Besides, it shows how much trust they all had in one another to not even say what they needed to, and instead just focus on the fight ahead, and knowing that your team won't slip up."

Mashu could only smile. She couldn't help but enjoy seeing Ritsuka being so passionate in something that interested him so much. It was as if he became a totally different person. Then again, she also couldn't help but enjoy watching the show either, and needed to know how it ended.

"Senpai, I would like to continue watching." She said. "I cannot leave without finishing this when it was starting to go from excellent to incredible!"

Ritsuka smiled and nodded. The moment they sat down, the male Master pressed the play button and resumed the show. As they continued to watch, Ritsuka gazed at Mashu, and saw how enthusiastic she became at watching the show.

He couldn't help but grin. Mashu was now hooked on mecha.

"So what did you think?" Ritsuka asked.

Mashu thought to herself for a few moments. They finished the entire show by this point, but there were so many amazing moments that she just didn't know what to say. She took a deep breath and just say the first thing that came to mind.

"It was amazing!" She said. "I cannot believe a show could have so many emotions packed into it."

"That's par the course for mecha anime in general." Ritsuka said. "In fact there are even BETTER mecha anime than this one here."

"I believe you, Senpai." Mashu said.

The two of them continued to talk about the anime they watched with great enthusiasm. Fou watched the two teens with interest. The little critter has never seen Mashu so lively before in the one year he stayed in Chaldea, and he was curious to see the male Master let his guard down around the Shielder as well. Fou wagged his tail in happiness as he continued to watch the two of them interact. Not as Master and Demi-Servant, nor as colleagues. Just two kids, talking about something they were passionate about.

"I still cannot believe Colt, Mira and Jane all survived in the end." Mashu said. "It was truly a miracle."

"Yeah, although it DID cost Colt and Jane an arm each." Ritsuka said. "Then again, tis but a scratch."

Mashu tilted her head to one side in confusion. Ritsuka saw her expression and gave a weak chuckle. "Sorry, just forget I said anything."

Mashu nodded and returned her attention back to the television. The Shielder looked at the menu screen before her and a thought sprang into her head. She had no idea such a wonderful genre was out there, and she missed out on it inside Chaldea. She wanted to learn more about it, to experience watching it, to think about the story elements, and to even discuss this with Ritsuka and Tatsuko. She wanted to have that experience inside Chaldea, and she wanted to keep doing so in order to have a sense of normalcy in her life.

But that wasn't all. She couldn't understand why, but her heart was telling her to stay and be with the male Master some more.

"Mashu? Are you okay?"

Mashu snapped back to reality and nodded. "I apologize, Senpai. I was just wondering about something."

"Ask away." Ritsuka replied. "If it's something within my power to answer, I will be more than happy to help."

"Can we watch another right now?!" Mashu asked enthusiastically.

"Well I won't say no to watching more mecha anime, so of course!" Ritsuka answered back with equal enthusiasm.

Mashu pumped her fist in the air, causing Ritsuka to chuckle at the sight. The male Master ejected the disc of the previous anime and put the next one in.

"Okay, so considering it's getting late, how about we watch…..four or five episodes tops before calling it a night."

Mashu nodded. "That sounds like a good plan. Though maybe we should find another day when we have nothing going on, and watch the rest of this one together."

Ritsuka grinned. "I like the sound of that."

The two of them sat down and watched the next anime, and began a new, even more enthusiastic discussion about what they were watching.

Unbeknownst to them, however, there were two people standing outside Ritsuka's door, listening in on their conversations with curiosity. One of them leaned away from the door with a triumphant grin.

"See Roman, I told you that they were just hanging out."

"Yeah, you were right after all!" Roman said harshly. "Sorry, I was just thinking back to the last time she was alone with a guy….. "

"Ritsuka isn't like that man." Davinci said. "You know better than that."

Roman nodded. "Yeah, he isn't…"

"Mashu is finally having a sense of normalcy, Roman." Davinci countered. "Do you really want to end their fun now, when she finally can even HAVE that?"

Roman listened into the room again, and sighed. "No, I don't."

Davinci put a hand on the doctor's shoulder. "Then let's leave them alone. Let them have some fun for a bit."

Roman smiled and nodded. "Okay, let's go then."

The Caster and the acting director quietly walked away from the male Master's room, chuckling at the laughter inside the room.

OC: Wow, I can't believe how so much happened, and yet it felt so little.

CV: Well, at the end of the day it is a downtime chapter, more slice of life than fight for your fucking life like Orleans was.

OC: True, but most importantly, it mainly focused on two characters. And these two in particular have perhaps the most important relationship in Fate Grand Order.

CV: The Last Master and the only Shielder, how symbolic.

OC: Exactly. And we also learn the reason why Ritsuka became a huge fan of mecha in the first place, and a small hint to another thing he's a fan of.

CV: Exploring his backstory is always interesting to me, and there's still a lot more on the way.

OC: That is also true. And like I said before to our readers, we will not actually reveal what made him this way quite yet. You will have to wait until either after the fourth or fifth Singularity for that to be divulged, but we have left a clue as to what happened.

CV: Right now, enjoy him and Mash just sitting in their room, watching anime.

OC: Mecha anime to be exact. And I can't help but find it hilarious that Ritsuka got Mashu hooked on it in just a single day. That alone deserves some praise.

CV: Must've been Evangelion.

OC: If that were the case, we would have one of them say "Get in the damned robot Shinji!"

CV: True. And also would've been confused by the ending.

OC: Yeah….. We don't talk about that.

CV: We don't.

OC: Almost as much as we don't talk about a certain interlude, or story chapter….

CV: There are things best kept under lock and key. Forever.

OC: That is too true. But enough about that. I'd also like to point out how Roman and Davinci basically sounded like actual parents here lol. It genuinely sounded like they were an actual family for a moment, with Davinci being the supportive mom, and Roman being the worried dad, wouldn't you say?

CV: Of course, and Da Vinci's behavior was very funny to me. She's the kind of mom who enters her daughter's room when she has a boy and asks if they were kissing.

OC: The funniest kind of mom. And speaking on those kinds of figures, we also got to delve more into Doc's life with Ritsuka, and it shows that despite not being close, there was a hint of care and affection between them where he reveals that Doc got him hooked on mecha, and how he remembers the times he watched it with her very fondly.

CV: I'm excited to meet Doc, too bad they're a bit burned right now.

OC: Yeah…..

CV: Well, let's not dwell in sadness and bad jokes, we still have a long way to go.

OC: Yeah, we do. In fact, I honestly can't wait for when we delve more into Ritsuka's past. Just as much as this little shoutout to Cosmic Vlad's new Fate Grand Order x Elden Ring fanfic! As a fan of the game, I gave it a read myself and it is AWESOME!

CV: Thanks for that. Honestly even though I haven't played the game because of… Lack of money, the lore and the characters are still very interesting to me, and I knew that I had to make a story about it.

OC: Well I also guess it helps that I actually play the game myself. In fact I have it running behind me on the inventory menu as we speak.

CV: Really? That's cool, how many times have you died in this session?

OC: I'd say…..about five or ten. And the majority of them is from fucking mistiming a jump in the Carian Study Hall. Whoever thought that jumping from the chandeliers to the wooden platforms is a damned sadist!

CV: If only you could just do like Rennala and float.

OC: That would be a neat idea. And speaking of which, I would also like to let our viewers know that while I don't actually help him WRITE the crossover fic, I do give ideas from time to time, some comedic, and some serious and heartwarming. I do this mainly because we always bounce ideas off of each other for Chronicles, so we decided to do the same thing with that Fanfic in order to get the creative juices flowing.

CV: Right, and while I can't reveal some of the more story-related stuff we share (mostly because Age of Stars is still on chapter 2 so lmao), he does give me ideas on how the Servants seeing Ritsuka's journey would react to the events in the Lands Between. Yes, that includes the many times he's going to die.

OC: And I also made suggestions on how many times he dies to some particular bosses based not only from my personal experiences, but also from what the community has gone through as well. It helps balance out the pacing, and also gives the Ritsuka in that fic time to learn and figure out their weaknesses better than the players can lol.

CV: Yep, it helps that Ritsuka is going to have the companionship of his Servants, at least when resting at the Sites of Grace, and they can help him with some tips, plus what he himself will discover after dying over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and… You know what? You guys get the point.

OC: Yeah I think they do. But back to Chronicles before we go crazy lol. Some of you may be wondering why this chapter might feel a little shorter than usual. Well after discussing it for a bit, Vlad and I agreed that some of the slice of life chapters would be shorter in length compared to our other chapters because there is not much going on compared to when we tackle the singularities, where we have a shit ton of stuff happening.

CV: Only exceptions to this would be either important stuff happening in those, like revelations or Servant summonings.

OC: Or some rough draft chapters I made on accident lol.

CV: That too. I've said it before but in between the many drafts you've done ever since Chronicles was but a concept, there must be enough to fill at least 10 chapters lol.

OC: I think that's understating it a bit lmao. But yeah, it's pretty frightening how I come up with new ideas, write them down in rough draft form as a single scene or two, and for some chapters we actually write a chapter AROUND that particular rough draft scene.

CV: True, although most of those are made for the Cosmos in the Lostbelt arc, so there's still a long way 'til we can get to those.

OC: Nah there's no way most of them are….hang on a moment…. (Looks at all the rough draft scenes)... Holy shit you're right! Wow, I can't believe I never noticed that!

CV: Really? Huh, somehow you're even more clueless than me.

OC: Well in my defense the Lostbelt Saga has SO much potential. Not that the Grand Order Saga doesn't have any, but the Lostebelt Saga in particular has so many things going for it that I couldn't help but make more rough drafts on it!

CV: True. Hell we even have our very own original Singularities planned for later down the line.

OC: At least yours is completely finalized, I'm still working out the kinks in mine aside from WHERE in the story it will take place.

CV: Take your time m8, after all we finished the first Singularity a chapter ago, we have plenty of time to work out stuff for the future.

OC: Fair enough. And I'll be sure to get your opinions on this one as well.

CV: I appreciate that. But in any case, this chapter of Chronicles has come to a close, we hope you enjoyed it and that you look forward to what the future has in store for this fanfic. We still have a few chapters of downtime before getting back into action. CosmicVlad and Owenchaser out, have a good night guys.