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The summoning of Francis Drake was finally underway, it had been difficult but a catalyst for her summoning had finally been acquired, the rotted steering wheel of The Golden Hind. This all but ensured that the legendary pirate would finally join Chaldea’s roster of heroic spirits, much to the enthusiasm of Ritsuka and Mash, ready to be re-acquainted with their Okeanos guide.
Ritsuka placed the catalyst onto the summon circle, before standing back along with Mash to prepare to watch as the Chaldea facilities took care of the rest. After a large amount of anticipation, the ritual finished in a flash of light and Francis Drake stepped forward, a confident expression on her face as she looked around the room she was summoned into. This was as expected, but what was less expected, was that a boy looking to be around 8-years-old with a blue colored seaweed hair style would soon follow, his confused expression a stark contrast to Drake’s own expression.
The young boy looked up to Drake, “Where have you taken us Rider, last thing I remember…” There was a short pause, as if he was unsure if he should finish his statement, “Nevermind, that’s beside the point, stop just sitting there and figure out where we are Rider!”
Drake looked uncharacteristically shocked as she noticed the young boy beside her, very obviously not expecting the figure to have been summoned with her, although her confident expression quickly returned, “No clue what you’re doing here Master, but the good news is that we’re in good hands!” She answered, before looking back towards Ritsuka and Mash, inwardly reading over the memories of the version of her that had traveled with them in Okeanos, “It’s good to see you two! The other me seemed to have made some fond memories with the both of you!”
As happy as he was to see her, Ritsuka was of course shocked by the sudden development, not recognizing the young boy whatsoever. Dual summons weren’t unheard of in Chaldea, at this point a few servants had joined them in pairs. Even among those who traveled with them in Okeanos he had become well acquainted with Mary and Read as well as Artemis and Orion. However, such dual servants always had some sort of rhyme or rhythm to them, did Drake have a younger brother that was lost to the history books? He supposed it wouldn’t be the only sudden development they had learned about Drake…
Mash tapped Ritsuka on their shoulder, knocking him out of their inner monologue so he could actually welcome the new recruits, “A pleasure to see you again Drake!” he greeted joviolly, before looking down at the young boy, “And you are…?”
“None of your business!” the young boy quickly retorted, obviously not interested in reciprocating Ritsuka’s attempt at approaching this in a friendly manner, “What about yourself, who are you?”
Before he could continue, Drake quickly interrupted, smothering his mouth with a free hand and glaring at him until he stopped talking. When he finally did, she looked back towards Ritsuka, quickly dropping her glare and grip on the young boy’s face before she began speaking, “Sorry about that Master! This little brat right here is named Shinji, he is, or at least was, my Master in a different grail war. As for why he’s here now…” she trailed off as thought to herself for a moment, before she shrugged her arms in an exaggerated manner, “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Ritsuka sighed as he collected his thoughts, “Oh boy Da Vinci is gonna have a field day figuring out what to do about this…” he mused aloud. This wasn’t the first time they had seen a previous master before. At this point there were a noticeable number of pseudo servants in Chaldea, and among those a couple like El Melloi and Reines had managed to retain their complete human personality. Perhaps this young boy was a pseudo along the same lines, Poseidon perhaps? His hair did look remarkably like seaweed…
Sensing that Ritsuka had become lost in thought yet again, Mash decided to interject on his behalf, attempting another friendly greeting, “Well, since you’re here it’s a pleasure to meet you Shinji, welcome to Chaldea,” finishing with a smile.
Not letting Shinji sully the kind gesture a second time, Drake interjected before he could respond, “Well, doesn’t this seem like a nice place, eh Master? Or should I just call you Shinji now?” she asked inquisitively as she realized the confusion that might arise if she had to call two people Master.
Shinji thought for a moment, he didn’t particularly like the idea of a servant calling him by his own name, but he supposed the statement wasn’t particularly accurate anymore.
“Shinji is fine,” he answered curtly.
Drake let out another laugh as her smile got just a bit bigger, “Oh lucky me, I’ve officially been promoted to addressing you by your name! I guess being dual summoned with you thawed that frozen heart of yours just a tiny bit,” she teased, letting out another laugh as she saw Shinji cringe at her statement.
Before Shinji could respond however, their banter was suddenly interrupted by a loud thrashing sound coming from the hall. It was silent for a moment longer before Mordred was suddenly knocked directly through the wall, creating a large hole in their wake. They looked absolutely pissed, blood pouring down her face as they scanned the room looking for their sword.
Without missing a beat Drake ran in front of Shinji. She quickly began taking out both of her pistols and aimed them at the traitor knight. Not even blinking, she prepared to defend the young boy should the situation escalate any further, “Make sure you stay behind me, Shinji!” she yelled assertively, with the young boy offering no resistance to her demand.
As kind as this gesture was, it was quickly discovered to be unneeded as the group was interrupted by Mori poking his similarly bloody head through the new hole. A stark contrast to Mordred’s own expressions, he had his typical smile on his face, which grew wider once he noticed Ritsuka.
“Oh hey there Master, good to see ya! I was just helping Mordred work off some steam! That is assuming they’re not ready to call it quits!” he finished with a wild laugh.
Mordred quickly rose to their feet. Then set off to retrieve their blade from the expensive piece of machinery it had lodged itself into. It’d be easy to assume that this battle was doing the opposite of helping with their anger issues, but the corners of their mouth curving into a smile betrayed their true feelings.
“Oh don’t think you’re getting out of it that easy!” they yelled back, charging forward as the two warriors continued their fight in the hall.
Upon seeing the scene transpire, Ritsuka smiled nervously as he looked back at Drake and Shinji, an apologetic look in his eyes.
"Sorry about this, I'll show you to your rooms later, the cafeteria should be serving lunch about now if you need to pass the time!" he explained quickly.
Soon after he gestured for Mash to follow him in chasing after the warriors, desperately trying to prevent any drastic actions as he shouted after them, "At least go to the simulator please! Nemo is gonna kill us if you destroy the place again!"
Shinji quickly shouted after them, “Hey! You didn’t even tell us where it was, get back here, now!”
His cries fell on deaf ears, as the running figures turned a corner and disappeared into the winding corridors of Chaldea. Already this place was getting on his nerves, it was beginning to remind him of The Moon Cell… or perhaps this was just another section of The Moon Cell? He gazed down to his wrist, part disappointed and part relieved to see the complete lack of command seal present. All it said for sure was that he was no longer contracted with Drake, but it still gave him a bit of hope he was out of that cursed simulation.
Drake dropped her defensive stance, putting her pistols back in their holsters before turning around to make sure Shinji was alright. Scanning the young boy’s body for any injuries, she took advantage of their solitude to take a closer look at him. She hadn’t had much of an opportunity to do so in the previous moments. Seeing her former master so young was a strange experience for her, even if he did say he was 8-years-old back on the Moon Cell. The fact that someone so young managed to sneak their way into a grail war still amazed her, in a grim way. As she looked closer she started to notice other things not present on his virtual avatar, large bags under his eyes, thin even for a boy his age, her expression turned to a grimace as she wondered what kind of parental supervision this boy had.
Noticing Drake suddenly staring at him he decided to break the silence, “Why don’t you take a picture, it’ll last longer!” he spat at her.
He was getting more and more uncomfortable as she looked closer at him. He wondered why he was even in his normal appearance, back on the moon cell he looked exactly as he wanted to look. Shinji hated when people saw his normal appearance, even in real life he preferred to attend most meetups virtually one way or another, people always seemed to think less of him when they realized he was 8-years-old.
Suddenly knocked out of her observation, Drake could only laugh at the sudden outburst, even for him that was an immature comeback.
“That’s all you could manage eh Shinji? Getting summoned must’ve dulled your wit too!” She teased
Deciding not to dignify the statement about his wit being dulled with a response, Shinji approached the other part of her statement, "Why do you keep saying I got summoned?" he replied incredulously, "What are you stupid? I'm not a servant!"
Drake only smirked, not even caring to rebuke the insult. Suddenly a funny idea popped into her mind, that would hopefully calm the young boy down. Or failing that it would provide a good laugh. Reaching towards Shinji she quickly grabbed onto his waist and began lifting him up. He didn't even have time to realize what was happening as she placed the boy onto her shoulders, like a big sister would with her little brother. She looked upward as she spoke again, "I can't believe I had such an idiot master," she teased, "You're obviously a rider class servant, just look at yourself!"
Shinji began blushing in embarrassment, before gripping tightly around her head with his arms as if he was worried he would fall off.
"H-hey put me down at this moment, Rider! Don't make me use a command seal!" he threatened ineffectually, forgetting that he didn't even have them anymore.
Drake let out a laugh as she continued to hold him in place, "No can do, you're the servant now after all, remember? And stop calling me Rider! Servants call servants by their name, Shinji," she continued to tease.
Shinji’s face went even redder, Drake was evidently not planning on putting him down anytime soon. Eventually he stopped freaking out, merely adopting a grimace to show his discontent as he rested his arms on her head.
Drake personally thought the childish grimace was more adorable than anything, but she decided not to relay that information. He seemed to have calmed down at this moment, she could stand to cease her teasing for just a bit. Then she began to think of what else she could do to get his mind occupied, before reaching the obvious conclusion.
”Now then, onto the snack bar, it's been far too long since I've had something good to eat!" she chanted, pointing her finger forward as she began to walk towards what was hopefully the way to the cafeteria, careful not to drop him as she walked forward.
Shinji remained silent during the walk, half wanting to mock her for trying to go to a place she didn’t even know the location of, but ultimately decided against it. He started thinking about the strange occurrences that had suddenly transpired. It certainly wasn't a pleasant experience to be treated like a child or be so readily seen as one, he was a world class hacker after all, he deserved to be treated with just as much respect as an adult. An adult wouldn’t ever be put on someone’s shoulders! It was embarrassing, not even own mother had never put him on his shoulders like this… but that thought was cut short as he began to remember his own mother hadn't done much of anything for him. Not even visiting when he was bedridden in the hospital, or on his many days where he remained in his room trying to cover his tracks from the Plutocracy. Quickly inwardly changing the subject, he thought that this experience was certainly at least better than the grail war had been, shuttering as he remembered dissolving into the moon cell, his only comfort being... Drake. She was a jerk sometimes, but she was the only one who seemed to actually care for his well being, despite his own attitude, even if she wasn’t very nice about it.
This train of thought was suddenly interrupted as Drake suddenly shoved an ice cream cone towards him. The boy realized they had arrived at the cafeteria, before musing to himself that he should've expected that the woman who circumnavigated the earth would be able to find the cafeteria without any directions. Giving a small “T-thanks" he grabbed the treat, before he began to notice whispers coming from the servants in the room who had started to notice the pair. It was nothing too bad, just some coos from Irisviel and Boudica, some other miscellaneous chatter about the new servants, as well as a certain pirate claiming the pair reminded him of Mary and Anne, although that voice was silenced quickly. In spite of the seemingly low severity of the situation however, immediately his face went red in embarrassment as he tried to hide himself from the crowd, this was exactly what made him nervous about going out in public in real life.
This was immediately noticed by Drake, who frowned as she noticed him immediately recoil from the public eye. Sure he was a bit of a brat, but he was only a child, and a part of her just felt uncomfortable seeing him reacting like this. And so as expected, Drake came to his defense yet again, as she began yelling at the crowd.
“Next person to stare at the boy is getting robbed blind, now shut up and get back to eating!” Immediately the crowd obeyed, some out of common decency, others out of fear, satisfied with her work Drake looked up towards the boy and smiled.
Noticing the sudden silence Shinji looked around the room, and upon seeing Drake smile at him, he smiled back, “Thank you again, Drake,” his polite words were something that surprised both Drake and himself, although neither of them commented on it. He continued eating his ice cream in a content silence, completely over any of the initial fear or annoyance from being forced onto the pirate’s shoulders. Perhaps it wasn’t too bad to be treated like an 8 year old.