045 - A chat

Mashu Kyrielight

While Senpai and Olga took the lion's share of the burden that is the Grand Order, the rest of Chaldea's crew didn't sit idle either. It's kind of amazing how much they managed to get done, understaffed and convalescent, while the exploration team was away.

Sure, they are short on meeting rooms, the West Dormitory Wing is still a collapsed ruin and she's heard some of the crew bemoan the loss of the Central Entertainment Server that stored all the publicly available movies and videogames, but everything that's actually vital works now and they've finally wound down from active crisis status.

They've even started to work on more frivolous pursuits in the name of stress relief and quality of life, like Vinci-san's OTOHIME Graviton Chamber that provides them aged foodstuff through a time-dilation process whose finer details Mashu could never hope to to understand.

Or the Hot Springs.

Mashu is pretty sure there weren't any hot springs in Chaldea's original plans. In fact, she's fairly sure Chaldea used to lack the basic geological requirements for hot springs to exist at all, but Vinci-san explained that one -while physically dragging her into the baths- It doesn't matter that the building was originally built atop of a non-volcanic mountain in the middle of Antarctica. When you're currently stuck inside a Chaldea-sized time bubble floating freely through the Sea of Time, suddenly your foundations were built wherever you want them to have been built.

… Actually, Vinci-chan's exact words were 'Wherever you can trick reality into thinking they are'.

It's all far too complicated for someone like her, but she can't bring herself to begrudge the results. She thought that time back in France had been nice, but this is much better. Now she understands what everyone was talking about back then.

Feeling her lips curl up into a small smile, she slowly lets herself sink into the warm water until it covers her mouth. She then lets out a slow, measured breath, causing a stream of bubbles to burst out and rush towards the surface. This is fun!

Now, if only she wasn't all alone here…

If there's one thing she misses from back then, that's the many people with bright personalities sharing the bath with her and livening up the place. But just because she's useless outside field deployments doesn't mean everyone else is too and she has no right to begrudge them being busy. Maybe she's grown selfish and spoiled with all the good times she's been having lately?

That thought brings Jalter's sacrifice back to mind, and how it made Mashu feel that a glorious grand purpose could be attained even beyond death. For some reason, she doesn't really feel like that anymore. No, she knows exactly what the reason is. The idea of a worthy sacrifice has lost a great deal of luster after her latest experience with the Dream Cycle.

Haku-senpai had tried to do that same thing, and it nearly became a tragedy.

Maybe… maybe that's what Mashu wants for herself, too. Not to fade away in a grand gesture protecting her loved ones, but to survive the deed and to go back to them. For dying to save your precious people is to subject them to pain and she could never bring herself to do that now that her eyes have been opened.

A case remains to be made about remaining unloved and alone, so nobody will miss her absence. She has experience with that, after all. With being little more than furniture, a human-shaped failure without a right to be respected or hold dreams of her own. And yet… Her heart aches at the mere thought of going back to these times now that she's finally left them behind.

Truly, Mashu Kyrielight has become a spoiled and selfish girl.

"Mashu, you're still here." A familiar voice calls her name. "Good, I don't consider soaking up all on my own a good use of my time."

Looking up, she finds Olga standing on the edge of the hot springs, a white towel held in front of her naked body. There's a rather cute blush on her face, only made cuter by the way she tries her best to project a confident image in spite of the circumstances.

If even someone like Mashu can tell that much, she must be failing horribly.

"Ah… Good evening, Olga." Mashu pulls her head out of the water to greet her friend. "Are you here to enjoy the hot springs too?"

"I didn't have much of a choice." Olga huffs dismissively, even as she carefully dips a toe into the warm water. "A certain someone insisted I give her newest masterful creation a try."

"Vinci-san got you too, then?" Mashu muses, wondering if he should feel commiserating or amused. "She looked really proud about this."

"Well, the underlying principles at work are a wonder that stretches our current understanding of Rayshifting Technology to the limit." Olga acknowledges distractedly, nodding to herself before finally stepping into the water. "But I could've done without the manhandling, I have an image to— Oooh, yes. That's the spot."

Mashu can't help but giggle at the somewhat over the top reaction, but she's honestly glad to see Olga relax for once. With the fate of Human Order at play, she can only imagine how much stress her friend is dealing with on the daily.

"The water is perfect, isn't it?"

"It is, and I'm incredibly annoyed by that fact." Olga grumbles out, making her way towards Mashu's side to take a seat there. "I'll find something to complain about even if it kills me."

"Please, don't die out of spite, Olga."

The only answer to her plea is a noncommited grunt.

The two of them spend a while in silence, simply enjoying the warm bath and each other's presence. Well, Mashu is enjoying Olga's presence, it might be a bit presumptuous of her to assume the feeling is mutual. After a while, though, the silence is finally broken.

"Olga?" Masu asks softly, throwing a tentative side glance towards her friend. "Actually… There's something I wanted to ask your advice about."

Olga Marie Animusphere

When Caster had the sheer audacity of pulling her out of her office and try to drag her into the latest of a quickly growing list of harebrained schemes, Olga has to admit that she… Didn't protest as vehemently as could have.

Her life has been… (hard) busy lately. Her days are a frantic whirlwind of activity as she tries to squeeze the duties of a baker's dozen recently deceased Chaldea operatives into her already tight schedule. Her nights are spent with eyes wide open in the dark as she counts the minutes, sleep elusive and restless as she stresses over the future of humanity and whatever new antics her more… colourful subordinates might try to pull off next.

Why must she be surrounded by so many weirdos? And why are they all so capable? She couldn't justify pulling them off the active roster when they're so short-staffed, but the fact they're somehow doing a great job in spite of everything is simply adding insult to injury!

But that's fine, she's fine! Times are hard, everyone needs to do their best and she refuses to demand from her subordinates something she shouldn't demand of herself. As a proud and capable magus bearing the distinguished Animusphere Magic Crest, she can do more than most. It's only proper that she does.

(Her very best should be more than anyone else's very best, after all.)

And yet… she found that she didn't have it in her to resist too hard when Caster came looking for her. Maybe the Renaissance Woman was in full form today, easily countering all her protests as soon as they left her lips. Maybe her mind wasn't fully into it, a heavy and sluggish feeling permeating her thoughts as she tried and failed to conjure rational arguments. Maybe it was her heart that wasn't up to the task, the blazing indignation she has learned to wield like a weapon to cow her subordinates into submission simply refusing to come to the fore.

Whatever the case, her resistance amounted to little more than some half-hearted physical struggles that wouldn't have mattered against the strength of a Servant anyway.

"A leader can't look like death warmed over, that'd be terrible for morale." Caster quips cheerfully as she pushes Olga inside the changing room. "So get in there, kick back and enjoy some rest and relaxation. Don't make me go to Roman to make it official doctor's orders, I will if I have to~!"

And the man would do it, soft-hearted traitor that he is.

"And I expect a full review of the installations later!" Caster continues, talking over the noise of the door slamming shut behind Olga. "I love to hear other people telling me how amazing I am!"

… Damnit Caster.

Unfortunately, throwing a death glare at a closed door failed to cause any effect on the cheeky Servant on the other side and she's feeling too emotionally drained to escalate any further. Well, she's already here, she might as well enjoy herself. Knowing Caster, the place will be a masterwork of engineering and a completely over the top piece of art.

Undressing quickly, she grabs a towel and makes her way into the baths, only to freeze when she finds out she won't have the place all to herself. Mashu is already there, submerged all the way to the nose and looking like she's having fun by blowing into the water.

Now, it's not that Olga has anything against sharing the hot springs with Mashu… at an intellectual level. But this caught her by surprise when she was expecting to be alone and her brain is tired and sluggish and, for some unfathomable reason, she suddenly can't keep her mind off what she saw through the other side of the screen, back during the Water Nymph incident.

(The fact Mashu's body doesn't lose even against Servants is just plain unfair.)

"Mashu, you're still here." She calls out, doing her best to pretend she was expecting this and that her mind is not in the gutter. "Good, I don't consider soaking up all on my own a good use of my time."

Her friend perks up at her call as big, soulful amethyst eyes open to look in Olga's direction. There's something… Incredibly tantalizing in the way the water's surface gives way to reveal Mashu's features. Simply watching someone's nose and lips shouldn't be anywhere near this suggestive. In fact, Olga is going to blame it on her mind going to weird places and do her best to ignore it altogether.

"Ah… Good evening, Olga." Mashu greets back with a bright smile, painfully unaware of what's going through Olga's mind at the moment. "Are you here to enjoy the hot springs too?"

"I didn't have much of a choice." She shrugs while doing her best to keep herself together, she doesn't have so many friends that she can afford to make them uncomfortable with her (sexy) weird, sleep-deprived delusions. "A certain someone insisted I gave her newest creation a try."

"Vinci-san got you too, then?" Mashu tilts her head cutely, making Olga's heart skip a beat. "She looked really proud about this."

This isn't working, this isn't working at all! Stupid Water Nymph incident, stupid mind stuck in the gutter, stupid Mashu and her stupidly cute charm and stupid Haku that's somehow to blame for everything!

She makes some intelligent-sounding comment, just to keep the conversation going while she considers her options. Above all else, she wants to avoid making this weird. That means she can't simply turn around and (flee) leave without an explanation. She also needs to sit down sooner rather than later, for the same reason. But the longer she watches Mashu being (a naked and wet) an adorable cinnamon bun, the higher the chances she'll end up blurting out something she'll regret.

When you put it all together, the course of action becomes clear. There's only one spot you can take during a conversation without looking at the other person that won't make it all weird: right beside them. Decision made, she makes her way across the deeper parts of the spring with unhurried but resolute steps.

"Oooh, yes." She groans as she sinks into the water, sounding far more sensual than she had intended to. "That hits the spot."

Fuuuuuuuudgecake, that moan wasn't part of the plan! B-but it couldn't be helped! It's not even anything perverted! The water just feels that good! She hadn't even noticed how sore and stiff her body was after days of constant stress and nights of poor rest until she found herself submerged in warm volcanic water.

It feels like her whole body is burning, but it's a good kind of burning. A sign of her body relaxing in ways she hadn't allowed it to for far too long and finally getting to work on solving little aches and cramps it had been simply enduring until now. Hell, even the dull headache thumping at the back of her head seems to be lessening!

Mashu's musical giggling pulls her out of her reverie, causing her eyes to snap open -when did she even close then in the first place- and her entire face to erupt into a fierce blush. Thankfully, a flushed skin is to be expected in these circumstances and will hopefully help hide the real cause, allowing her to reach her seat before doing something else to embarrass herself with.

"The water is perfect, isn't it?" Mashu asks innocently, bless her pure and untainted heart.

"It is, and I'm incredibly annoyed by that fact." Olga lies out of her teeth. As soon as she gets the chance, she's giving Caster a raise. She'll also make sure Caster regrets putting her through this mortifying situation, but this is this and that is that. "I'll find something to complain about even if it kills me."

"Please, don't die out of spite, Olga." Mashu pleads in a worried voice.

Heh, if only she knew. Spite is the fuel that keeps the world turning.

The two of them fall quiet after that, Mashu softly humming some random tune while Olga… Well, Olga has a lot on her plate. On the one hand, she's sitting incredibly close to the girl she's doing her best not to see in a sexual light at the moment. On the other hand, the potentially magical properties of the hot springs are doing wonders for her mood, mind and body.

In fact, as her head clears up, she's starting to feel more in control of the situation. To the point she's feeling confident she can bring up some harmless topic to talk about and fill the silence. Mashu's fight against the Servant Gilles de Rais back in the last Singularity produces some interesting data, with the Demi-Servant girl performing far above her observed baseline and—

"Olga?" In the end, Mashu is the one to break the silence. "Actually… There's something I wanted to ask your advice about."

"Of course, I'm glad you came to me." Sure, it's not the topic Olga wanted to bring up, but it works just as well. "What kind of advice do you need?"

Besides, Olga can't help but feel a bit touched about the show of trust. It's the first time anyone has come to her for advice outside a professional context, so she'll do her very best to be a reliable friend and not disappoint.

"It's, ah…" Mashu trails off, hesitating for a moment. "Romantic advice."

Oh, dear.

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