"You know, out of everyone to ask me about, I was not expecting it to be the nun," hummed Merlin as he and Ritsuka sat in the latter's room.
His Master only rolled his eyes. "You know very well it's not like that."
"Oh, let me have a little fun teasing you, Master. I rarely get to do that recently with all the troubles," the Caster pouted before clearing his throat. "Well, I do understand why you came to me, but I am probably the worst clairvoyant to ask. Need I remind you, I can only see the present."
Merlin's attempt to dissuade him only prompted Ritsuka to cross his arms. "That's what you usually do, but you can see the future too, can't you?" He undeniably foresaw the fall of Camelot
"That's… I happen to leave by pure coincidence." A morose look spread across his face. However, that was admission in itself as Ritsuka never mentioned Camelot. He felt guilty having to bring up a sore spot, but he had to know.
"Aponia said she sees something whenever she looks at me. The same for the other me too," Ritsuka shared with a small sigh. "I'm sure she can see the future— my future."
"And it worries you. Of course it does. Knowing the future comes with a price unlike any other," Merlin shared his frown. "Frankly, it's hard to give any advice regarding this. Depending on how far she could see and if she can only see the one future…" It'd be difficult to approach Aponia was the gist of it. Ritsuka fell deep in thought on how he could get Aponia to share her troubles. "In my opinion, it might be for the best to leave her be for now, Master. "
"...Maybe you're right," Ritsuka relented with a sigh.
"Just do what you usually do. Bond with her and she'd eventually open up to you about her troubles." As annoying as he could be, Merlin was still a good advisor.
"I guess Artoria kept you around for a good reason," Ritsuka mused.
"Now what's that supposed to mean?!"
He only chuckled at Merlin's pouting.
Days passed and Chaldea resumed operating with mild disruptions every now and then. Ritsuka had to do his best juggling everything as usual. Thanks to ELF-tsuka's sacrifice, it was easier to focus on his tasks without having to get dragged away by any of his needy Servants… most of the time.
Of course, he tried to connect with the newer Servants the best way he knew in the fastest time possible: taking them on a day-trip into a minute Singularity to collect materials as a teambuilding exercise. Mash was tagging along too, if only because she was worried about leaving Ritsuka with Kalpas.
"So this is what you dragged me out of my lab for? A hiking trip through a forest?" Mobius grumbled as she followed Ritsuka's lead. "Did you summon Elysia without any of us knowing or something?"
"This does sound like something she'd pull," Pardo sighed, trudging behind her. "How much longer till we make camp, Master? I need a catnap…"
"There should be a clearing up ahead according to our intelligence," Mash answered for Ritsuka. "After that, we can split up and begin our mission."
"But why us specifically?" RITSUKA questioned, making a very subtle glance at Kalpas who was trailing the back of the pack. "I don't think we're in need of a 'team-building' exercise as you so put it."
"It's mainly for my benefit to be honest," Ritsuka professed. "I still don't know much about all of you, much less how well you'd work together."
"I thought you'd be able to figure that out by yourself, Master. Surely you know how to read the room," Mobius scoffed, returning the unamused glare Sakura was shooting at her.
"Your intentions may be pure, Master, but blind faith could lead you astray," Aponia finally shared her thoughts, a sullen look still on her face.
"Maybe, but you can never know for sure, can you?" Ritsuka smiled in reassurance. Soon after, they reached the clearing. "And this should be the place. Mash, let's set up communications with Chaldea."
"Alright, that should be all we're lacking. Be sure to get extra to stockpile too. Good luck to all of you!" Da Vinci ended the transmission with a smile.
With that, Ritsuka sought to split the team to cover more ground. Sakura, Kalpas, Pardo, and Mash on one team; Mobius, Aponia, RITSUKA and himself on the other. Surely this would go well. "Leave it to us, Master," Mash assured him as they headed west down the mountain.
"More hiking, great. I don't think I've done anything yet to warrant such a punishment," Mobius continued being sarcastic as they went in the opposite direction. "It's just my advice but you should have gone with the other group. Kalpas might end up burning everything on this mountain into a crisp."
"If I let you keep some of the extra materials we gather, will you stop complaining?"
"Perhaps~" the scientist grinned before turning serious again. "But really, Sakura might be able to keep him tempered but you shouldn't blindly believe everything would be fine just because he can be handled. You've never seen the fallout of his rampages."
"I have to agree with her. He's always been terrifying even before he got experimented on." RITSUKA shuddered as he recalled a distant memory. "Kalpas was the type to completely reduce those who cross him to dust. Now he does it literally."
"I'll admit you guys know better than me, but that's precisely why I have Mash with him too. She and Sakura can handle him together." And Pardo was there to find them should something go wrong. Hopefully, it won't come to that.
"Well, there's one way to settle things. Aponia, do you see anything going wrong with this mission?" Mobius suddenly turned towards the calm Caster, putting her on the spot.
"N-no. I don't foresee anything troubling…" she answered with the scientist responding by shrugging
"In that case, out of sight, out of mind."
RITSUKA, however, raised an eyebrow at Aponia's response. "Wait, what do you mean by that?"
"Huh? Oh, right. You wouldn't have known," Mobius hummed after a moment of thought. "I think Master already figured it out, but Aponia here is a clairvoyant on top of her other psychic abilities."
"Oh… wait, so is that why you always looked at me funny?"
Aponia avoided answering him, simply slowing down and letting the others move on ahead.
"So is she one of those 'destiny can't be changed' type of people?" RITSUKA sighed which Mobius answered with a nod. "I guess that can't be too surprising."
"Although you were an odd case, from what Aponia told me," Mobius shared. "She mentioned that she saw things playing differently."
"Huh? So I wasn't supposed to be killed by the Herrsher of Binding?"
"Nope, you still died to it. Just in a different way instead of… however you died."
"Oh…" RITSUKA deflated at her reply.
Ritsuka, on the other hand— "Herrscher of Binding?" He recognized the term from reading Jalter's German dictionaries. He then recalled the Fire Moth Servants discussing it back when Mobius gifted ELF-tsuka to him.
"To cut a long story short, Herrschers were responsible for the ultimate demise of our world," Mobius quickly explained. "And RITSUKA here met his end at the hands of the 11th— the Herrscher of Binding. Sakura died to the 12th; and you remember what that cat said about the Flamechaser's final mission."
"Yeah…" Kalpas then Pardo were killed first by the final Herrscher. But… "Wasn't a friend of yours a Herrscher too?"
"Elysia? She was, but she's also a special case. She claimed she was actually the first Herrscher of our Era and I'm inclined to believe her."
"If she was a Herrscher, how come she was fighting for humanity?" Asked RITSUKA. "I thought all Herrschers were driven by their hate of humanity to kill us off."
"You'd have to ask her that. I unfortunately didn't get the chance to ask before she killed herself. With any luck, Master here might end up summoning her and the remaining Flamechasers soon."
Considering his track record so far, that was not a misplaced belief. The only question was a matter of when.
"Oh, that reminds me too. What exactly are the Flamechasers? I keep forgetting to ask." RITSUKA glanced between Mobius and Aponia, waiting for an answer.
"Hmm… Right, you wouldn't know anything about it. After the Tragedy of Binding— when Fire Moth fought the 11th Herrscher —only 13 of us MANTIS were left alive. Elysia wanted us to be part of a single team and coined that name but she never got the approval," answered Mobius with a short sigh. "Quite annoying if you ask me."
"What part?"
"All of it," she simply said before slowing down to join Aponia, leaving the two Ritsukas to lead the way until they finally encountered their first horde of monsters.
While the other team only just ran into their first group of walking materials, Mash's had just completed their third. Either they were exceptionally lucky or unlucky to run into so many so quickly. "And that's 4 more Void Dusts…" They were still at a massive deficit in their stockpile but at least they were making progress.
"Can we take a break first? The heat is killing me…" Pardo was sweating as she sat down against a singed rock. Feeling pity for her, Mash decided that they should take a moment to catch their breaths.
However, she barely got the chance to rest before a voice called out to her. "...Shielder, is that boy always such a fool?"
Even without him mentioning a name, Mash knew who and what Kalpas was talking about. "Master... is always like that." She refused to use the same word he did but she had to agree he was prone to making strange decisions. It was one with logic— split up and cover more ground —but Kalpas should have gone with him. "But I think I know what he's thinking."
"He wants to see if I'll play nice when he's not looking, doesn't he?" Kalpas snorted in amusement.
"I mean you haven't burned us to a crisp so far so— nyaa!" Pardo immediately dove behind Sakura when the masked Berserker turned his gaze towards her. "I mean to say... uhm, I'll just be quiet."
Sakura only sighed in exasperation before letting out a sneeze. "Pardo, go hide behind Mash." Her fellow Servant nodded quickly before reappearing behind the Shielder. "I believe Master based his decision on what I told him," Sakura added as she faced Kalpas. She had shared with Ritsuka that she and Kalpas were partners back in Fire Moth; it wouldn't be surprising if he believed she knew how to handle him.
"He puts a lot of faith in people he just met. Has that ever come back to bite him?"
"A couple of times, yes. But they always work out in the end," Mash quickly added. It was a miracle that Ritsuka's faith in others remained strong— even for those that hurt him in the past. Still, she wished he could have reservations too from time to time. "Kalpas, do you dislike him?"
Her question made him snort again. "He's an idiot, but I don't dislike him. If I had a problem with him, I wouldn't be dancing around the questions." He had Mash there; she could tell he was the blunt and straightforward sort of person. "I'll play along with his wishes for now. But he better drop that all-cheery attitude soon. It annoys me."
"If he ever does stop, then things would be terrible…" muttered Mash before they heard a deep growl coming from within the trees.
"Aw man, already?" Whined Pardo as she knew what that meant. At least it means they were closer to finishing their expedition.
"And that should be enough for my research~" Mobius smirked as she had Klein and ELF-tsuka bring her share of the excess materials back to her lab. "I ask that no one disturb me while I work."
"No one would want to."
"I heard that."
"Nyaa!" The glare made Pardo duck behind Ritsuka this time. Her skittish reaction put a grin on Mobius's face as she left the room. "Next time, can we not bring her along?" She muttered after the door closed behind the scientist.
With Mobius's departure, the others left to do their own things: Pardo to her shop, Kalpas to the simulator with Sakura following to keep an eye on him, and Aponia… well, he still didn't know what she did in her free time. Maybe he should look into that?
Mash stuck around and helped him complete some reports before going on her way. "So now what?" Ritsuka asked himself as he wandered the halls. When he passed by the summoning room… well, he had no choice, did he? "Well, in for a penny." He was halfway through completing the collection as it were. Might as well go all the way.
Ritsuka had to admit his luck had been better than usual; the first summon was already a Servant. The card depicting an archer drawing their bow faded away to reveal a beautiful young woman with flowing maroon hair and deep yellow eyes. Her ornate dress, which complimented her figure well, was dark in colour with golden accessories. "Greetings, dear Master. My name is Eden, fourth of the Flamechasers. If you'd like, I'd love to put on a show for you… Excuse me, but do I know you from somewhere?"
Well, at least she was upfront about being a Flamechaser. Though he did wonder what she meant by show.
A couple of Craft Essence later, another Servant card appeared: the Berserker. This one turned into a horned young man with dark green hair and orange eyes. For the most part, he was dressed rather normally, with a dress shirt that matched his hair and black pants. He also had a gray scarf and a black cape wrapped around him with a single pointed pauldron sitting on his left shoulder. Lastly, he wore a pair of black gauntlets with sharpened fingertips. "Berserker, Kosma. I— Wait… RITSUKA?"
"Oh, that's who I was thinking of." Eden— who moved to the side as the summoning continued —lit up in recognition.
"Eden's here too…"
"I'll… explain later." Ritsuka requested that they be patient until then. It shouldn't take that much longer for this specific summo—and the triple bands appeared again. Looks like things were going to be even more exciting around here than he thought.
The light faded to reveal a Class he was not expecting. The twin jesters revealed a woman with big… hair vents. Her hair was a shade of silver and her eyes were interesting— being gray with pink pupils. Her outfit had cog-like designs woven into it, the overall aesthetics reminding Ritsuka of steampunk movies and games. She'd probably get along well with Babbage. "Yahoo! I am Vill-V, an engineer for— Oh! Eden and Kosma? I wasn't expecting to see both of you so soon."
Well, that made eight... His unintentional collection of the Flamechasers were going well.
A/N: I really should get working on the next chapter of the Kousei side. I've been leaving that hanging a while now... Anyway, yet another chapter had been sent to the editing room so gotta wait on that. In the meantime, Chaldea continues to be the unintentional new home of the Flamechasers. We have the next three cause as far as I have planned, this eight plus RITSUKA would be in rotation for this sidestory.
...Damn, RITSUKA really ended up being a side character in his own sidestory. This whole series really got out of hand so quickly (T.T)
In any case, see you all later!
