Sometimes, he'd ask her if she wanted to train together. An innocent request, but it only exacerbated certain rumors. She tried her best to ignore them, with moderate success; it was just another thing on her list of "ignore for the sake of your sanity." Occasionally, one of the less hostile soldiers would ask either of them if there was anything going on. Their answers were always the same.

"He's just a friend, nothing more."

"Hua? Oh, she's… a friend. Yeah, that's it."

When Senti woke up, it took a moment for her to register that she was on her own. After bunking with Fu Hua for the entirety of their travels, having her own room— one that was near-identical to "her" old one —was a bit odd. Regardless, as much as she wanted to sleep in a little longer, she forced herself to get up and ready. She took her time, mainly because she knew Ritsuka was likely still sleeping.

The Herrscher exited her room and knocked on his door; she'd learned her lesson from last night. "Yahoo~ Ritsuka! Wake your lazy ass up!" She shouted while banging on the door. That boy sleeps like a log and requires a heavy hand to be woken up.

Senti continued knocking for a couple of minutes, probably waking up the entire dorm building in the process, before figuring there was no possible way he could sleep through all of that. An annoyed frown spread across her face as she decided it was worth the risk. She reached for and turned the doorknob, entering Ritsuka's room. The lights were off and, as she had suspected, he was nowhere to be found. 'Alright… guess I have to check on the old timer.'

She exited Ritsuka's room and over to Fu Hua's, opening it with much less care— that is to say, none at all. Fu Hua should already be up and ready by this time anyway. However, her room was just as vacant as Ritsuka's, making Senti grumble. 'Did those two ditch me?!'

Oh, they are going to regret it! For now, she'll have to wait for them to come back. If they decide to get breakfast without her… 'No, you're good now. Don't think like that.' She reminded herself but felt no less frustrated as she plopped down on Fu Hua's bed with crossed arms.

Making breakfast— or cooking to be more precise —was always one of the things Mei enjoyed doing. It was an activity that was the perfect blend of simplicity and complexity for her to start the day with. The right timing and attention to make the perfect eggs, knowing the correct moment to flip the pancakes for that nice brown finish. It helped soothe and prepare her mind for the stressful day ahead of her.

She knew being a teacher here in St. Freya was no easy task; she was once a student here after all, and is familiar with how chaotic things could be. Fortunately, things have been relatively calm for a while, barring some incidents every now and then. Either way, she knew the status quo would soon be turned on its head.

'Fujimaru Ritsuka…' still unable to shake the odd feeling, Mei believed there was much more to him than he showed to others. She didn't want to say the others were wrong in trusting him, as she knew him the least out of everyone, but she had to be realistic and keep a critical eye on the whole situation. As outwardly friendly as he was, Ritsuka was still an unknown who brought too many questions with him.

As she contemplated more, a stray thought soon crossed her mind— 'If you were still here… what would you say?'

She paused in her motions for a few seconds before shaking the thought away with a wistful smile. "You'd probably tell me to take it easy, wouldn't you?" She chuckled to herself before resuming making breakfast for herself. She won't let her guard down, but she'll keep an open mind— Ritsuka deserved at least that much…

After finishing the most important meal of the day, Mei left her quarters to take a walk before heading to class. She liked taking the time to enjoy the morning air before spending hours cooped up in a classroom. There weren't many, but she passed by a couple of students who were also up on a morning stroll.

"Good morning, Miss Raiden!"

"Good morning," she replied, returning the wave as she passed them. However, they quickly got her attention again.

"Oh, um… before you go, is it alright for us to ask something?" The student nervously asked, her friend nudging her to continue speaking. "It's about that boy that arrived yesterday."

That naturally caught Mei's attention. "That boy? You're talking about Fujimaru Ritsuka, yes?"

"Is that his name? We were just wondering 'cause we've heard others talking about him," the student continued. "Is it true he's enrolling into St. Freya? The headmistress was showing him around yesterday, right?" She asked, curiosity evident in her voice.

Mei wasn't that surprised to hear that Ritsuka had entered the rumor mill. When a young man suddenly appeared, escorted by Theresa among other important people like herself, that was the most natural assumption to make. "Oh, no. He's not enrolling here." Probably. "Fujimaru will only be here as a guest temporarily."

"Is that so…" The gossiping students hummed, accepting her answer. "Then what was that talk about a guy enrolling in the academy soon?"

"Who are… oh, you're talking about him. That's supposed to be a secret, you know," Mei chuckled. She was not surprised that had also gotten out. "If it stops more rumors from spreading, he won't be entering the academy for a few more years. But you didn't hear it from me."

With a wink and a smile, Mei bid farewell to those students and resumed her walk.

The jog was nice and enjoyable. They did not talk much, just a light conversation about how it was a nice day and such, and returned to their dorm before the students started their day. They headed to their respective rooms to freshen up before going to get breakfast. When Fu Hua turned on her lights, however—

"Well, well, well. Where have you been, young lady?" Senti was sitting in the corner, having grabbed a chair and waited for her to come back. "Enjoying some alone time with Ritsuka, hmm?"

Fu Hua only rolled her eyes but didn't say anything.

"I was asleep and you decided to run off with him? Didn't think you'd take the initiative like that, old timer." She was trying her best to be serious but Fu Hua could tell Senti was close to breaking down in laughter. "And you're back all tired and sweaty. Just what exactly were you two up to?"

"Are we really doing this?" Fu Hua grumbled, rolling her eyes again at Senti's teasing. "If you must know, Ritsuka and I were only on a jog around the school."

"Uh-huh, and that's all—"

"For your own safety, I suggest you don't finish that sentence." That was enough to shut Senti up but the Herrscher still had her shit-eating grin on her face. "Now get out and go get ready. We're going for breakfast."

"Finally!" Senti hopped out of her seat and rushed past Fu Hua to wait outside. Fu Hua swore she was just like a little kid half the time. In any case, she continued her initial plan and changed her sweat-drenched clothes for a fresh set…

If things weren't going badly before, they certainly were now if not infinitely worse. Sion developed a headache trying to figure out what could have possibly happened to Nemo and the others. She anticipated them to have problems on their mission, but the worst-case scenario— losing contact with them nearly immediately after their dive —was yet another issue on top of their pre-existing one.

"Alright… look on the bright side…" She told herself, taking long deep breaths to calm down. "If previous incidents track, then it is likely they would end up where Ritsuka is." That would be a good thing… if it was the case. Right now, she had to believe it's so as she worked on finding a way to contact them. Their Saint Graph hadn't disappeared from the registry so they at the very least weren't dead even though they couldn't be tracked in other ways anymore.

"Any news, Sion-san?" Mash asked, concern written on her face as she came to Sion's side.

The Atlas researcher apologized and shook her head, saying that there was nothing new yet on her end. "What about on your end? Did any of the Servants discover anything yet?"

"There's no change reported by anyone. Although, Merlin-san…" Mash trailed off before clearing his throat. "No, there's nothing yet on their end."

Her answer only made Sion sigh in contained frustration, rubbing her temples to ease her migraine. "Is Merlin still acting strangely?" She questioned. Ever since Fou went missing as well, the Magus of Flowers had been acting a little differently. Was it due to worry that his familiar had gone missing or happiness that he wasn't getting kicked in the face at least once per day anymore? It was hard to read the Caster at times.

…Oh that's right, Fou was gone as well. He and another Servant had snuck onto the submarine before they left and subsequently went missing too. That was just… great…

"AHHHHH! SAVE ME GU SAMAAA!"

"Oh shut up already. You'll just attract more of them," Yu Mei-ren grumbled as she rescued her distressed superfan. Fortunately, it was only one of those shadowy things going after the Alter Ego and easily dispatched. "I told you not to wander off too far, didn't I?" She scolded her as the two, along with Xiang Yu whom the Assassin was riding, rejoined the others in their makeshift hideout— the mostly intact but unmoving Nautilus.

"It's the same in that direction, Captain," Xiang Yu reported as his wife dismounted him. "None of my working sensors detected anything that could lead us out of this… dimension."

This strange reality where there was no real up or down, drifting rubble acting as platforms connecting chunks of buildings, and shadowy monsters that frankly weren't that much of an issue. That was until the Servants realized that they were mostly cut off from any mana sources and had to conserve what energy they could. All they could do now was hope to locate a way out of this strange place and soon; at the same time, they also had to find any traces of their missing Master.

Because as they all agreed on… Ritsuka most likely ended up here after his disappearance. Enough incidents had taught them that was the likely scenario.

"All that's left is for the Valkyries to return from their reconnaissance," sighed Nemo, sitting back down on his seat as a headache threatened to form. Together with the Berserker, they continued to discuss, trying to figure out what their next step should be. While Yu Mei-ren chose to stay with her love, Xu Fu went ahead and left the room. She was of little use to them right now and wasn't even supposed to be there anyway.

As soon as she exited the bridge, she heard the cry of the tiny white rat-squirrel…thing that somehow managed to convince her to sneak onboard. If she knew things would go sideways like this, she'd have just stayed back at Chaldea and done her own thing. "Oh, what do you want now?" She grumbled, looking down at Fou.

"Fou!" He cried again before jumping up on her shoulder and started poking at her cheek.

She got the message and sighed. "Alright, alright, fine. But this is the last time, okay? I don't have much left." She fished out a small bag of sweets she brought from her pocket. "Here, you annoying little furball," she huffed as she offered one of the treats to him.

"Fou!" He happily replied before eating the piece of candy.

It was cute, admittedly, but Xu Fu was still annoyed that she let herself get dragged into this mess, even if it meant she would be with her idol. She continued down the metal hallways, Fou perched on her shoulder in the absence of his usual rides, before she came across one of her fellow stranded Servants. "Ah… Kama."

"Oh, the stowaway," the Indian deity responded with an annoyed frown that morphed into a scowl upon seeing what was on her shoulder. "And the little beast too."

"Fou! Kyu!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, furball," replied Kama before addressing Xu Fu again. "So did your group find anything out there?"

"Sorry, no. It's just as confusing as you and the Archer said it was," Xu Fu replied with a shake of her head. "Not a way out in sight, and we don't even know how we came in here in the first place." All they could remember was a strange light before the Nautilus crashed onto a large floating rock. The submarine itself seemed to now be considered part of the environment as none of the strange local creatures here paid it any mind.

"Typical, just typical, isn't it?" Kama grumbled to no one in particular. She had called it earlier and now can't even be happy about being right. Whatever, at least it couldn't get any worse. She went to lean against the nearby wall, "Can't things just go right for oncaahhh—!" The Servant wasn't able to finish as, instead of finding support, she ended up falling through the wall.

Instinctively, Kama reached out to grab the closest thing she could to hang on to… unfortunately, it was Xu Fu. "Hey, wai—!" "FOU!" She, along with her passenger, got dragged through the wall with the goddess.

The hallway once again fell to silence, as if there hadn't been two Servants conversing a few moments prior…

A/N: And now the fun stuff begins. The Servants will start to slowly appear in Honkaiverse cause dropping them all at the same time would be a bit too soon. Also, you may be wondering why I decided to throw Xu Fu in too. Simple, I liked her and thought it'd be fun to add her in too especially since she just got released on NA. Fou came along as well cause... Fou. Either way, shenanigans will soon ensue as two Servants and a not-Beast will be running for a bit. How long before find Ritsuka? Who knows

(hint: not actually that long considering my current plans...)