Back then, Hua should have insisted on it. They came out of the cryo-chambers, and she did as she was told: Project EMBER, one of the plans left behind by Dr. MEI. It was supposed to be helmed by Eden, but she…
But that was not what she regretted. Early on in the project's life, a question came up. "The people of this Era have two names. It sounds like what Kevin did caught on." One of her assistants brought the topic up with her sister sharing her thoughts on the matter.
"Carrying on legacies seems to be a priority in this new age. They now all have an obvious connection to the past, not only sharing blood but also a name that gives the children a purpose."
"It makes it a lot easier to know who we're talking about too."
Though the two continued talking, Hua paid little attention to their words; her own mind was preoccupied with something else. No one here besides the two knew her real name, instead bequeathing her with the title of "Phoenix." Even her assistants called her that, believing she preferred that now. The only one who called her Hua now was him. Even when she told him her new title, he insisted on calling her by her real name.
"I like your name better." The gentle but charming smile he had when he said that still made her heart flutter.
"Phoenix, what do you think?"
"Hm? I'm sorry, did you ask me something?" She shook her head before turning her full attention to the two.
"We were just thinking if we should do the same thing Kevin did to fit in better," one of them explained before immediately reconsidering. "Then again, we don't really need to. It's not like either of us are planning to start a bloodline like the others."
"That's something the two of you need to discuss among yourselves; I have no opinion nor is it my place to do so," she answered concisely. Frankly, the topic of names was something that didn't matter to her all that much.
Then, Nuwa asked that question: "Well, what about for yourself, Phoenix?"
"Fujimaru." The name had come out so fast that it took a few moments before Hua realized she had answered without thinking.
"Oh, so you were thinking about it." The grin on their faces irritated her, but all Hua could do was turn away to hide her face. "What made you settle on that name?"
"There's no particular reason." Hua knew what she said was a lie, but they wouldn't understand why she liked that name specifically.
However, Fuxi was quick to share her thoughts on her choice of last name. "Fujimaru sounds a little too long, don't you think?"
"What do you mean?" She replied in a passive voice but deep down, some part of her felt offended in his place.
"Four syllables for your surname and one for your original name. It's unbalanced."
"Since when were you an expert in the nuances of names?" Nuwa tried to tease her twin but Fuxi only rolled her eyes. "But I can't disagree. Fujimaru Hua sounds too long."
Hua held her tongue and showed no emotion. "What would you propose as a better surname then?" She asked instead.
"Hmm… Fujimaru… Fu… What about only Fu?" The (former) MOTH scientist suggested.
"Fu… Hua…" The name did roll off the tongue easier, but that was not what was on her mind. A distant memory replayed in her mind— of a meeting from so long ago.
"Fu Hua?"
"You called me that again. It's just Hua."
'So this was always meant to happen…' Hua thought, no longer sure what she felt anymore. Once again, she could not help but wonder if her fate had long since been written down. Since that day they first met, he knew how things would end. However, she could not hate him for keeping such information from her—or to be more accurate, she could never hate him in general, especially as she kept her own knowledge of his future to herself.
"What do you think, Phoenix?" Fuxi's question temporarily took her out of her ruminations.
Though she liked the name since it still connected her with him, the tiniest part of her wanted to reject it. To accept the name "Fu Hua" would be her accepting that what was the simplest slip-up by him was something that was inevitable. Their war from so long ago was meant to end that way so that she would end up here, deliberating on something so small— Hua didn't want to accept it. That tiny part of her wanted to hold firm and reject that notion, to keep her initial idea as it was.
However… that part of her was not strong enough.
"It's alright," she accepted without any hint of resistance. "But I have no intention of introducing myself as such to anyone."
Looking back, Fu Hua should have insisted on it…
Fu Hua's new room had the complete opposite vibes from the one before; instead of sterile metal, the wooden floorboards and furniture along with the painted walls gave the room a more cozy feeling. It was still lightly decorated like her old room, but Ritsuka felt more at home here than the last time. 'Maybe feeling at home is too much…' he mentally admonished himself for that.
"It's not much to look at, I'll admit, but it serves its function," Fu Hua stated. Ritsuka could be overthinking, but it seemed she was a bit embarrassed at how he was inspecting her room.
"Oh, it looks great. Definitely beats mine," he quickly said to lighten the air. "The only thing I have that could be better is the shower," he further joked, managing to draw out a small laugh.
"That may be true, but I have more happy memories in your room than here."
"...What?"
"Huh? Oh! Um… Forget what I said," Fu Hua immediately backtracked upon realizing what she said, her face turning as red as Ritsuka's. She hurried past him to sit down on her bed. Without any prompt or direction from her, Ritsuka sat down next to her. The room fell into an awkward silence as both waited for the other to say something. Despite being the one who wished to speak to him, Fu Hua wasn't one to start a conversation, especially when compared to Ritsuka. As the silence continued, it became clear Ritsuka was not going to say anything until she did. "…You kept your promise."
A small chuckle escaped Ritsuka as he smiled at her. "To be honest, I wasn't sure if I could have done it. When I asked the others about visiting Baker Street, they— Well, Mash told me that Sherlock Holmes was fictional and that 22B Baker Street didn't exist yet."
"But you still ended up coming."
"Yes, Jekyll told us that Holmes was real… and that you were his assistant. When we learned that, we came here as soon as we could."
"I see…" Fu Hua muttered, thinking about what he said. "So Holmes will be famous in the future. That's not too much of a surprise considering how well-known he already is locally, even before Doyle published his book about us."
"The most famous detective, to be exact." Seeing as she already figured that out, Ritsuka saw no need to hide that bit of information. "So that makes you— or Watson —to be one of the most famous assistants in history."
"Hmph. Compared to my other accomplishments, that's rather belittling," Fu Hua jokingly replied with a scoff before falling silent again. "...a part of me is still in disbelief about this. You're here, right next to me."
Ritsuka nearly said that was how it usually is, but he knew what she meant. "It's the same for me too," he said instead. "…Fu Hua, can I ask you something?"
"Of course you could. There's no one here besides us," she replied while looking at him expectantly. "But I think I could guess already what it is... It's about how old I am, isn't it?"
"Yes," Ritsuka slowly nodded. "You remember the time you told me about the Herrschers but back then, everything was... modern, I guess. It was not like this."
He watched her close her eyes, seemingly in deep thought over something. She wasn't going to dodge the question this time, but was thinking of how to answer it in a way that would make sense— at least that's what Ritsuka believed. After another few moments, she spoke again. "We lost the war. That was what happened." A more solemn air washed over them at Fu Hua's revelation. Ritsuka wanted to say something, but Fu Hua continued on. "The world was essentially rendered near inhospitable to human life while some of us survivors went into cryosleep to wait until the time was right for us to come back out. That was about 50,000 years ago."
"50… 50,000?" If Ritsuka's eyes weren't already wide before, they were like dinner plates now. "Wait, so you're older than all of human civilization?!"
"Yes," Fu Hua nodded like it was a normal fact about herself. "But even before that, the experiments done on me during my time with MOTH made me unable to age. We came out of the cryochambers about five thousand years ago yet I look the same as I did back then."
"I can tell…" Ritsuka muttered the first thing in his mind as he processed what she said. "So when you said I'm your longest and oldest companion, you weren't kidding."
"Yes," she nodded again with a small, more melancholic smile. "All the way from back then to now, you've been here for me. Not always when I wanted you to be, but always when I needed you."
"Like now?"
"...Maybe," Fu Hua answered after a moment of thought. "Although, I think it's more that you need me. After all, London is now a Singularity, right?"
"Yes, it seems to be that way," Ritsuka agreed with her assessment. It was more likely she was here for him rather than the other way around. "But that just worries me more… I don't know the full extent of your skills, Fu Hua, but from what I've seen, I can tell you can do a lot."
"That's an understatement." It was rare for Ritsuka to hear her sound anything besides collected and supportive, and this was the first time she sounded arrogant, if in a light manner. "...But I think I do know why. This… is your fourth mission, right?"
"...Yes?" Ritsuka suddenly had a sinking feeling in his chest at the foreboding tone Fu Hua had. "You know what will happen here?"
"You— that is to say, your future self —he told me of something important that happened in the fourth Singularity." It went unspoken that it was not about meeting her, which begged the question of what he meant.
However— "But you won't tell me, will you?"
"No… you'll have to discover it yourself. The only thing I can do is stand by your side until then." It was clear keeping such a secret was eating her up inside despite the neutral mask she was putting on. Ritsuka could tell from hearing her voice. "...Does knowing that frighten you?"
Ritsuka didn't know if he'd answer differently if someone else asked, but with Fu Hua— "Of course. That wasn't exactly reassuring to hear, you know." He tried to joke but he didn't think that came across well. Either that, or Fu Hua was waiting for an excuse to hold his hand.
"It'll be alright, Ritsuka," she promised as she gently squeezed his hand. A warm feeling quickly replaced the anxiety he had, bringing back his small smile. "You and Chaldea will get through this. I know you can."
"...Thank you," he replied gratefully at her unwavering faith in him. While it did come from a strange place of knowledge, it did help him with believing he could do it. Speaking of which, now that she had revealed how long she had known him for, there was another question Ritsuka wanted answered. "Fu Hua, how far apart are our meetings for you?"
It's usually in the ballpark of a few days to a few weeks for him, but Fu Hua had lived for about 5000 years. He wasn't going to live even 5% of that (hopefully), so he came to the one logical conclusion he could. And judging from the way Fu Hua looked down… he was right. "Our last meeting, when you told me you'd be coming to London, that was earlier this year… and this might as well be the shortest gap we've ever had in recent memory."
Ritsuka felt her grip tightening, nearly painfully so.
"Back then, when I was still a part of MOTH, we met semi-regularly. There was a reason I believed you to be someone working for them too. My mind was a lot more troubled then... but after I went to sleep, it slowed down to a crawl." Fu Hua's voice grew quieter and quieter with each sentence. "I was so focused on my mission that I didn't let myself mull over what I was doing or how things were. Maybe that's why I rarely saw you. There was even a time... it took a few centuries before...
"..." Ritsuka couldn't come up with a way to respond to that. All he could do was try comforting her with a gentle squeeze of his own.
Nearly a whole minute passed before Fu Hua made any more noise. She took a deep breath before continuing, "To be honest, I no longer remember most of what happened in the last few millenia."
"That's to be expected, isn't it?"
"Yes, but not with what they did to." Fu Hua inhaled deeply again before explaining what she meant. "The experiment done on me ensured I wouldn't be able to forget anything like a normal person would. Under normal circumstances, I would have lost my mind from remembering every moment of every day. That's why I was given this."
She raised her other hand before summoning a brief flame within her palm, revealing several white and crimson feathers that reminded Ritsuka of her first appearance as well as how she looked in France. Of course, even if she didn't say anything, he could tell they weren't ordinary feathers and waited for her to explain their true nature.
"It's another Divine Key— the Key of Sentience," she said, giving the name of the ancient relic within her hand. "Over the centuries, I've given and sealed my memories within the feathers as a way to keep myself sane. It started with the more inconsequential moments, like what I ate for dinner or a passing conversation, but the more important memories started to pile up and I was forced to give them away too. Important memories… as well as important people."
"I… couldn't begin to imagine how hard that would be." Choosing who she needed to forget must have been painful. Even if she kept a single memory of someone she cared for, it would hurt knowing she had to forget every other moment they had shared. Following that train of thought, Ritsuka's mind conjured up a possibility that he didn't know how to react to.
Fortunately, Fu Hua knew where his mind must have gone. "Yes, it was difficult, but to be honest... I don't regret it as much as I should. It was either my memories of them… or my memories of you." Once again, Ritsuka felt his face heat up at her confession. "I hold some memories of those I've cherished over the years while most are now kept within Fenghuang Down, but none of the feathers are about you. If there was a positive about our scarce meetings since I've left the cryochambers, it's that it let me hold on to everything about you."
"Re-really?" By this point, he could feel how fast his heart was pounding; he now had a clearer understanding of why she cared so deeply for him, but it also made him wonder what he said or did lead to her desire to keep all their meetings in her head.
"...Here." Without much warning or even forethought, Fu Hua presented Fenghuang Down to him. "Take one."
"Take… what?"
"I've given feathers to many others, but not to you yet," Fu Hua avoided his gaze as she explained. "I believe now is the right time to do so."
Ritsuka stared at the few feathers before hesitantly plucking one. "Is there anything particular in this one?"
"No, I believe that one was just a normal week I had a couple years ago. Not that you could look into it. You'll need a bit of training to see what I put inside," Fu Hua answered with a shrewd but warm smile. "But so long as you keep that feather, a part of me will always be with you."
"I'll cherish it then," Ritsuka shared her smile before putting the feather away.
That seemed to be all Fu Hua wanted to talk about as she pulled her hand away from his as she stood up. "I think we've kept the others waiting long enough. Dr Jekyll should be done with his examinations by now."
"Right, we should join them before they try to eavesdrop on us," Ritsuka chuckled as he followed after her. Well, assuming they weren't already but he had faith they had some sense of privacy. Regardless, the moment had now passed and they needed to return to work; he could only hope whatever Fu Hua was referring to was something that they could all get through together…
A/N: Had an easier time writing since it was all just character interaction within two scenes so here's the next chapter! Originally, it was meant to just be the second scene in Fu Hua's bedroom but brain decided for me to tack on that opening scene for… reasons. I just went with it cause why not?
In any case, yay for more RitsuHua fluff! Ritsuka finally learns just how old his future wife is, and she gets to reveal some things that were weighing on her mind. I was also deliberating on whether to have her keep all her memories of Ritsuka to herself or do a thing in the future where Kiana and Bronya stumble onto a feather containing one of her memories of him. Decided to go with the former cause that's fluffier but who knows, maybe I can come up with an excuse to have the latter still happening.
Anyway, that's all I have to say so see you all next time!