"Well, you seem to be in pretty much perfect health," Roman said, tapping away on his tablet. "I admit, it's almost easier to monitor a Saint's Graph with our equipment here than it is to give a regular person an in-depth exam." Olga Marie gave him a flat stare. She hadn't even wanted to come back out yet, but Ritsuka had refused to let go until she came out to tell her that she was okay. She was not in any way good at dealing with children. "And you'll never have to worry about wrinkles now that we have you hooked up to Chaldea's magical energy supply."
Her stare turned into an outright glare. "I don't have time to care about that," Olga said, shrugging his hand off her shoulder. "Status report."
Roman rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we didn't actually lose too many of the Masters. Most of them are still alive." Olga immediately perked up a little. Maybe their efforts weren't a complete wash out after all. "But we had to stabilize most of them with our cryogenic systems. Until we restore the rest of the world and can get them to a dedicated medical facility, I can't do much more than that. Additionally, we lost most of the command staff and the technicians working on the reyshift systems. Da Vinci has taken over operations for now so we're getting back on track."
And there was the other shoe. "I see. So we really are just left with Ritsuka and her… family."
Roman smiled. "That's not so bad. We've gotten them settled into a suite and they seem to be taking things rather well, all things considered. Mrs. Tohsaka has been working with the research team to try to track the next anomaly and Mr. Emiya has apparently taken over the kitchens. Rits-chan was headed there with King Arturia last time I checked."
"Then I'll go over the rest on my own." Olga stood abruptly and pushed past the doctor. "Thank you for your hard work Dr. Romani."
"Wait just a moment," Roman said, reaching one hand out toward her. "Olga… I'm sorry."
The director froze in place. "You have nothing to apologize for," she said, not turning to meet his gaze. "You've performed your duties perfectly adequately considering the circumstances."
"I meant…" Roman sighed again and hung his head. "I'm sorry about Lev. I'm the only other person who's been here as long as he had. I should have noticed something was wrong before now."
Olga Marie's teeth ground together and she forced herself to stay calm. "He was lying to everyone. Especially…" The 'me' died on her lips and she clenched her fists. It would have been so easy to just smash something. Her punches were more damaging that most simple combat spells now.
"Miss Marie?" She jerked her head up and her eyes flew open to see Ritsuka's head poking around the doorframe of the infirmary. "Are you feeling better now?"
Olga shook her head and quickly wiped her eyes to make sure they were dry. "Of course, why wouldn't I be? As the head of Chaldea, it's my responsibility to keep a level head at all times."
Ritsuka smiled brightly and skipped into the room. "Papa made us lunch," she said, holding up a covered plate. "Wanna eat with us before you go back to work? It's a Japanese style omelet with rice," the child continued. "I did the writing on it myself."
Olga Marie's resolve lasted for a few seconds before she pulled the cover off the plate to take a peek. The food was still steaming slightly and smelled better than anything the kitchens usually put together. She took a second to decipher the slightly messy Japanese text written on the eggs in ketchup.
Feel better soon Auntie Marie!
She spent a few more seconds trying to find words. "A… Auntie Marie?"
Ritsuka nodded firmly. "Mama and Ishtar are the same person now. And you and Eresh are the same person now. And Ishtar and Eresh are sisters. That makes you my auntie now!"
Olga gaped like a fish for a moment, then hurried wiped her eyes again. That Archer must have put some strange spices in the food for it to make her eyes water. She'd have to yell at him about messing around too much later. "That's… I'll eat it in the control room while I'm working. Thank you Ritsuka." She rushed out of the room before the girl could respond.
Roman smiled and patted Ritsuka on the head. "I think she liked it," he said with a little chuckle.
"Mama Sakura was adopted by bad people," Ritsuka said, her smile vanishing instantly and replaced with a surprisingly somber frown. "Papa always said that having us as family helped make things better for her. I wanted Miss Marie to be better too. So I made her my Auntie."
Roman looked down at her curiously. "You're a good girl Ritsuka. I think your papa would be very happy."
Ritsuka nodded. "Papa likes to help people. Mama always says he tries too hard, but I think it's nice."
Roman looked distant for a moment. "I remember my father. He tried to help people too, but he always had far too much to do. He had a lot of problems, but he always tried his best for everyone's sake." He knelt down in front of her and their eyes met for a moment. "I think you'll do just fine. Why don't you run along and find Mash? She can give you a tour of the rest of the facilities while everyone is getting things back in order."
The ten year old nodded and ran off, leaving the doctor to his work.
------------------------------
Rin was examining the SHEBA system. If it really had been designed entirely by the Lev person, it was the most likely thing to have been sabotaged, and they needed it to continue tracking the Singularities. She groaned as hit another bug. Some of the functions reminded her of her work viewing worlds through the Kaleidoscope's refraction, but other parts were a complete mystery to her. At least they had some more reasonable clothes for her to change into. She had missed wearing real pants.
"Miss… Tohsaka? Ishtar?" Rin turned to see one of the few remaining techs behind her.
"Tohsaka is fine. Or Rin if you must. Did you need something?"
The man jumped a little. She'd have thought that they'd be more used to having Heroic Spirits around than this. "Ah, yes. We've found Professor Lainur's research notes. I believe the original design documents for SHEBA are in here."
Rin took the papers from the man and glanced over them once. "Hopefully this gives us what we need to re-tune the blasted thing. Is that all?"
"I think so ma'am. I'm just dropping things off for Da Vinci before I get back to work."
"Thank you for your hard work," Rin said absently as the technician ran off. It was like working at the Clock Tower again, with skittish apprentices running around for whatever professor had given them chores. She had actually missed it a little bit. But trap the Department of Archeology into a pocket dimension one time and you were apparently 'kindly requested' to set up your workshop someplace else. Pricks.
She refilled took a sip from her tea and sat down at the desk she'd managed to salvage to go over the notes. At least EMIYA was still just as good of a cook as ever. She just hoped that the others eventually made it along as well. She didn't want to consider what would happen if they were stuck between realities when the Human Order collapsed. She just had to hope that they managed to anchor themselves to something and pull through. At the very least Rider should have been fine.
"Hi mama." Rin looked up from the papers as Ritsuka and Mash walked into the room.
"Hello there sweetie," Rin replied with a smile. She pulled Ritsuka up into her lap. "What have you and Mash been doing?"
"Mash has been showing me around," Ritsuka said, tapping her heels against Rin's legs as she swung her legs back and forth. She leaned up a little. "She's super nice," she stage whispered, letting Mash hear what she was saying.
Mash blushed furiously. "I'm just helping senpai get acquainted with the facilities," she said quickly.
Ritsuka giggled. "I'm a senpai now!" she said proudly.
Rin laughed and Mash's blush deepened. "I know it's strange," the Demi-Servant said quickly. "But Ritsuka is so responsible and she's my Master so it just… felt right."
Rin just shook her head. "You remember that a senpai has to help her kouhai too," she chided her daughter. "So don't make Mash do all of the work."
"I won't mama," Ritsuka promised. "We're a team now. We'll work together to take care of anything we have to."
Rin smiled proudly. "That's my girl. Now, how about you tell me what you favorite part of the tour was so far."
The little red-head had to stop and think for a minute. "Da Vinci showed me her workshop. It looks so much different than yours mama. There were lots of paintings and weird machines and stuff, but no gems or smelly potions or anything. There were still lots of books though."
Rin chuckled. "Any magus with half a brain has plenty of books," she said.
"Like what you're reading?" Ritsuka asked, squirming forward to look at the pages on the desk.
"Actually yes," Rin said. "I'm trying to fine tune one of the systems so we can find where to go next to fix whatever that Lev character and whoever he's working for did."
"Oh, where are we going next mama?"
"It's more a question of when than where," Rin admitted. "We have the location locked in France but we're having trouble correlating with the time period. Once Da Vinci can help me, I think we'll have it solved no problem."
Ritsuka's eyes widened. "We haven't been back to Europe since the last time you and Mr. Zelrecht were visiting the Association and I've never been to France! Will we all be going?"
"That depends on if the reyshift is full repaired," Rin said. "But that's not going to happen if I don't get back to work. Finish your tour and I'll make sure to take a break for dinner with you, alright?"
"Alright mama. Good luck." Ritsuka hopped down and grabbed Mash's hand, dragging her off to explore another part of the facility.
