21 My Name IS Ritsu-
Mash walked through one of Chaldea's many corridors with light footsteps, glancing back at the curious red-haired teenager following her with a barely noticeable smile tugging on her lips, "I would show you around but... the Director's called everyone."
After her pseudo-senpai Nicholas had maimed and technically 'killed' Beryl Gut, Chaldea had sort of gone on overdrive to get a 48th Master Candidate, resorting to using the sort of methods normal companies would apply to fill up their rosters and with the arrival of the young girl behind her, all positions were filled... even if the Director herself seemed to doubt the possibility that there would be another Master.
That meant Chaldea could officially undertake it's first mission so Olga Marie Animusphere had called for all necessary staff to be in the central operations room, including her and the 48th Master who was looking around at Chaldea's interior design in awe and wonder.
"Um... it's alright." The girl was startled but recollected herself quickly and nodded, "It's just, I haven't seen anything like this before."
Mash glanced back curiously.
It was nice to have someone who was eager to get along with someone like her. She'd helped Nicholas too but... Well, it would be wrong to think of him as less experienced than her at this point.
The eccentric A-Team member hadn't even been at Chaldea for a full year but knew just about everything there was to know about magi, politics, and the way Chaldea worked, everything they did, he even knew the names of every single staff member, from the lowest ranked individuals to the Director herself... except for the little white, fluffy squirrel-like creature sitting on her shoulder.
But, Mash guessed that was because he actually never forgot anything.
He wasn't one of those people with a really good memory, it was literally a mutation.
As if her senpai wasn't enough of a loose cannon already.
Unfortunately her life was all spent at Chaldea and she never came to know the saying, "Speak of the Devil and he shall appear." Because as soon as they turned a corner, she spotted a certain pale haired teenager shoo'ing away Professor Lev with his hands like an animal.
"You're not getting into the newbie's head, fuck off."
"Tsk, your impudence will cost Chaldea much."
Nicholas disregarded the words and flipped the older man off with both hands, face stuck in involuntary deadpan.
He'd ruined the technician's formerly good reputation completely by spreading strange rumours and pictures and for some reason, Mash could never find it in herself to deny his accusations, "Ah, Nicholas." She waved shyly, trying to guess what he'd say, "Are you headed to the Director too?"
"Oh hey, Mashmallow." He waved back, before tilting his head for a moment and then giving her a thumbs up, "You're getting better at talking, good job."
Mash averted her gaze, feeling slight heat on her cheeks, embarrassed by both the praise and the nickname he'd arbitrarily given her, "T-Thank you."
He'd chewed her out about how she kept talking too logically and explaining too much just the day before and his words were still fresh in her ears, "I'm trying."
Nicholas nodded with closed eyes, radiating pride, "And yeah, I am or else she's gonna bit-... I mean, 'try to get me to better my ways', again." He shrugged as he walked over, "Who's this?"
"This is..."
"Er... I'm Rits-"
"Ohhh, it's Gudako. Shoulda known with how hectic things got all of a sudden." Nicholas slightly smiled, staring at the newcomer in expectation, "You wouldn't happen to have an obsession with gacha, would you?"
"No, I don't... Wai- Who's Gudako? My name's Ritsu-"
"Yeah, Gudako, that's what I keep saying. Did you hit your head or something?" Nicholas narrowed his eyes at the last non-magi Master. With her here, the count was 38 elite magi and 10 compatible civilians.
The only problem for Nicholas was that it was Gudako and not Gudao.
Mostly because he distinctly recalled reading that the former had killed a being that could destroy the world by choking it to death, and that she was a gambling addicted freak of nature. The responsible and sensible male from the movie he'd seen would be much better... now he'd actually have to work.
Mash put a hand on 'Gudako's' shoulder and shook her head, pity visible on her usually emotionless face, "It's useless, senpai. You can't argue with Nicholas-senpai."
"But he's clearly mistaking me for someone else..." 'Gudako' walked to the front and pointed at his eyes, "Look at those smug eyes you'd look at a toddler with!"
Huh, it seemed all that embarrassment earlier was gone.
"Can you drink vodka?"
"What kind of question is that?" Gudako turned around to look up at him with fiery orange eyes, "Of course I can't."
Nicholas deadpanned at Chaldea's newest Master, "Then you're a minor."
"How does tha-..." Gudako's words stopped midway and she slowly lowered her hand, "That still doesn't mean my name's not Ritsuka Fujimaru."
He didn't think it was possible, but Nicholas deadpanned even further, "That's what I keep saying lady, Gu-da-ko. You tryna start something?"
Mash's eyes widened suddenly, "Senpai, please stop. He's gonna hit you if you say yes."
"What kinda brute would hit a girl over words?" Gudako tilted her head in confusion, proving just why she was a newbie.
It had become an unspoken rule at Chaldea at this point to not give any reason to Nicholas to start a fight.
Because he would do it.
...And the Director couldn't even punish him for it... No, she could, she just refused to.
It was just blatant favouritism.
"Wait... Maybe he'll give you a warning first." Mash wondered aloud, confusing herself.
Nicholas rubbed his chin profoundly, his gaze cast downwards, "Hehe, you know me so well Mashmallow... With thighs like those, it'd be heresy to not give a warning, maybe it's the stockings."
He got no answer for his words.
Gudako looked at Mash, visibly dumbfounded by her lack of response, "You're not going to call him out?"
"H...He's not talking to me."
...
..
.
"W-W-What the hell is wrong with you?!?" Gudako turned crimson, trying to pull the edges of her skirt down with her hands to cover her legs while also trying to make sure it wouldn't come off, "W-Who are you anyway?!"
"He's a mem-"
Mash was cut off by Nicholas himself, "Grunt A, pleased to meet you. You can usually find me in the training room or the cafeteria, mostly the cafeteria." It was true too, lately he'd been eating a ton cause Martha started cooking and the Saint was a damn good cook, granted she did throw a fit over having to make a single meal once and then became happy when that single meal wasn't nearly enough.
Women were weird... but hey, at least he was eating good.
Mash tilted her head in confusion at that, "I guess... it does make sense."
The Masters were kind of grunts cause they'd be doing the field work... but, wasn't grunt supposed to mean a low ranking soldier?
"T-Then go do grunt things or something, stop harassing girls!"
"...Damn, my bad, sorry." Nicholas scratched the back of his head, "I forgot where you came from..."
Gudako crossed her arms and nodded her head, "That's righ-"
"How do you people live with those fucked up heads? And what's the obsession with cheating and getting cucked?"
Gudako froze in place, paling rapidly.
"Senpai, did you just insult an entire country over something you saw on the internet?"
"Google lied to me?"
"..."
Mash found out that day that she could indeed make the same expression as her eccentric senpai.
"You get google in Antarctica?"
Mash stared at Gudako in awed silence, had her new senpai somehow just deleted the whole ordeal from memory? ...Why did her tone sound so silly? Why did she look so aloof?
"Pshh..." Nicholas discreetly nudged Mash with his elbow, "I think she broke."
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Anyone who's played FGO knows the story Ritsuka is a Kirito level SI for the player, so I'll use the 'Manga de Wakaru' personality with a tweak or two from another source.
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You can find up to 7 chapters ahead at patre0n.com/Bleap
