章 6: Downtime

The sound of battle echoes throughout the training room as Hancock and Mei consistently attack Ramiel, the two women utilising an astounding amount of teamwork that should be impossible considering the short amount of time that they have known one another.

Blocking a punch from Ramiel, Mei angles a palm that easily redirects his second punch. As she takes advantage of the opening created for her by Mei, Hancock launches a kick at their opponent's side only for him to vault over it, grab Mei's arms and pull them behind her back as he lands behind her.

"Oh my! Is this the action that is called 'cuffing' in this world? How very forward of you my dear." says Mei with a faux scandal gasp. "Now that you have me in your grasp, am I to bend to your whim and pleasure you?" asks Mei as she looks back at him with a heated gaze and a sultry smirk, causing him to slightly avert his eyes away from her.

Taking advantage of his momentary lapse in attention, Mei makes use of her superior flexibility to reverse their position.

"Oh my. Is our host a blushing virgin himself." laughs Mei as she reverses their position before pulling Ramiel close enough for her to place her lips next to his ears and smell the burning concoction from his cigarette. A smell that is surprisingly pleasant, Mei thinks to herself.

"I can fix that." she whispers to him while placing a kiss on his cheek before quickly letting him go and jumping away from him just as Hancock appears and smashes her foot against his face and sends him crashing into a wall.

"That was well placed." comments Mei as she appears next to Hancock.

"Unfortunately it was not strong enough to shatter his aura and hurt him." replies Hancock as they watch him climb out of the indent in the wall caused by his body while his aura quickly flickers between on and off before ultimately shattering.

"That was actually clever. Using the fact that I have zero experience with a flirtatious opponent to help the Empress get the drop on me and break my aura." says their opponent as he cracks his neck and rolls his shoulders before putting out his cigarette. "But since you want to play like that, the warm up is over." he says before exhaling a massive flame towards Mei and Hancock.

Stepping up, Mei rapidly cycles through a series of hand signs "Water Style: Water Pillar" she says as she spits out a wave of water that easily extinguishes the flame. "Water Style: Water Dragon Missile" she says as she changes the wave into a water dragon that swallows her opponent.

As Ramiel reorients himself within the water dragon, Hancock summons a pair of Nameless Daggers with a chain attached to them before slightly crouching and lowering her upper to be horizontal to the ground and launches herself at Ramiel just as he escapes the dragon.

Seeing Hancock's speed and posture, Ramiel's eyes slightly widen as he tilts his head to dodge a dagger stab. "Is that…" he begins to say only to stop as Hancock slashes towards his face with the second dagger, forcing him to block with his forearm.

As the dagger slashes a cut into forearm, Ramiel grabs Hancock's hand and throws her at a wall only for a chain to appear tied around his arms and drag him towards her where Mei appears and smashes her foot into his back, stomping him into the ground.

Pulling on the chain, Ramiel tries to use it to tie up Mei only for it to disappear within his grasp and leaving him open to a kick from Hancock that sends him smashing back into the previous wall and destroying it.

Not giving their opponent time to recover, Mei cycles through another set of hand seals "Lava Style: Lava Monster" she says before spitting out three globs of lava that quickly melt and harden the broken wall around Ramiel into a prison.

Knowing that the prison will not hold him for longer than a split second, Hancock launches her dagger at him and tightly wraps the chain around his neck, buying her another second to appear behind him and place the tip of her second dagger on his jugular.

"Yield." she tells him as Mei approaches them.

"You survived the lava unscathed, good. I prefer men who don't melt or burn" says Mei as she looks at his shirt reduced to burnt rags while his body remains unscathed.

"It was a close call to be honest." replies Ramiel as he slightly tilts his head to point at a burn mark on his left shoulder. "By the way, what was that? Your lava has never been this hot before." he asks.

"Oh, did you get hurt? Let me give you a kiss to make it better. Although, it may just melt your heart entirely." she says as she blows him a kiss.

Whispering something under his breath that Mei is fairly sure is "This woman will be the death of me," Ramiel tilts his head to get a glimpse of Hancock behind him.

"You've been holding back." he tells her as he warily looks at the dagger pointed at his jugular. "That dagger is obviously a Noble Phantasm, and if not, then a weapon belonging to a servant." he says.

"I was not holding back. I simply wasn't comfortable enough to use these yet." she answers as she dismisses her daggers and chains, and steps away from Ramiel as he easily breaks out of his lava created prison.

"So, you're a demi-servant." he comments. "How exactly did that happen?" asks Ramiel.

Biting her bottom lip, Hancock looks at him with an uncertain expression for a few seconds before turning her nose up at him and leaving the training room.

"She's still mad at me." says Ramiel with a sigh before he lights a cigarette and places it in his mouth.

"You're not very intelligent when it comes to women's feelings." comments Mei.

"In my defense I didn't start interacting with the opposite gender until I was around 14, at least not when it came to women who weren't either family members or family friends." he replies.

"I wasn't criticising you, just making an observation, and to be fair, we tend to be complicated." says Mei. "My advice to you is to give her some space. She's trying to figure things out right now." she advises before walking out of the training room with a teasing smile that she flashes Ramiel when she feels his eyes on her naturally swaying hips and butt.

Admiring some of the paintings and pictures that hang in the hallways of the house, Mei can't help but notice the somewhat lacking appearance between Ramiel and most of the other members of the Kaname family, especially between him and their first documented ancestor; a samurai by the name of Yasuke.

Like most of his ancestors, both male and female, Ramiel reaches a height of six feet. The similarities end there however as even his brown skin, which his ancestors also possess, is lighter on him. Unlike most of his male ancestors who possess a hardened and somewhat gruff appearance, Ramiel's features are softer and more mellow while his musculature is more streamlined and lean as opposed to their bulging muscles that makes them seem bigger than they really are. His hair, which is fashioned into the same styled dreads as Yasuke and tied into a ponytail in the back, has a dark purple coloration to it as opposed to the normal black hair that his ancestors possessed. All in all those features make him resemble his mother more than his father who looks like the spitting image of Yasuke.

It's an appearance that Mei honestly prefers as it makes him more handsome and doesn't remind her of the Raikage, A. It also helps that it makes his smiles softer and kinder.

Without realising it Mei arrives at her destination to find that she is the last one there and that everyone had started without her.

"Everyone, sorry for making you all wait." she says as she enters the recreation room where Dinah, Emma and Natasha can be found lounging on a couch or seat with a drink in hand while Konan quietly reads a book in a corner while Hancock lays down on a couch with a conflicted expression on her face as she tunes out the room.

"You're on time, they were just impatient." says Natasha from her position behind the bar. "Want anything?" she asks.

"Something sweet." answers Mei as she looks at the people present. "I'm not surprised that Raven and Esdeath decided not to attend again, but where are Susan, Lady Tsunade and Karin?" she asks.

"Apparently they had a major breakthrough in the lab." replies Natasha as she passess her a yellow drink.

Taking a sip of her drink, Mei can't help but appreciatively nod towards Natasha in thanks.

"Speaking of which, does anyone know what exactly those three are working on? They haven't exactly been open about it." says Dinah, earning a shake of the head from most of them.

"They are working on a form of performance enhancement treatment using Ramiel's blood. If they're successful it should, theoretically, enhance our physical parameters to keep up with the average servant." explains Emma, shocking most of the others.

"And how exactly do you know that?" wonders Natasha with a raised eyebrow.

"I asked." deadpans Emma causing them to slightly chuckle.

"So what? They're going to turn us into dragons?" asks Dinah jokingly.

"Vampires actually." corrects Emma as she takes a sip of her drink, silencing the room. "Oh, did none of you know that our host is also a vampire?" asks Emma.

"But he doesn't drink blood." says Dinah.

"Well he's not an undead vampire. He's a living vampire who needs magical energy to survive instead of blood. Honestly the only reason they're called vampires is because drinking blood is the most efficient way for them to replenish their energy." explains Natasha nonchalantly as takes a bottle from the bar and makes herself comfortable next to Dinah.

"And you found this out by asking?" asks Mei.

"He's not exactly secretive about himself or his world." replies Natasha. "Ask him anything and if he knows the answer he'll tell you."

"Not exactly what you would imagine when you think of 'dragon' or 'vampire' is it?" asks Emma.

"Definitely not. I think of something more along the lines of Dracula from Castlevania without the murdered human wife backstory." replies Dinah.

"Really? The animated one from Castlevania? I was thinking more along the lines of the Master Vampire from Dracula Untold." says Natasha earning a doubtful glance from Dinah before the blond superheroine shakes her head.

"I tell you that we might be turned into vampires and the two of you are arguing about what the better representation of a vampire is." says Emma with a slow shake of her head.

Before the two can answer, Mei interjects. "While I do not know what Castlevania is nor what Dracula Untold is, I do agree that Ramiel isn't what I picture when I think of 'powerful undead bloodsucker' he's too… I can't think of the right word." she says before taking a sip of her drink.

"Too nice?"

"Not seductive?"

"Open."

Suggests Dinah, Emma, Natasha respectively.

"All of the above except for seductive. I've never thought of vampires as seductive." answers Mei. "Based on the false memories I imagine vampires to be powerful, cruel and secretive, not…not him." she says.

"The only similarity between him and what I imagine vampires are like is good looking." says Dinah.

"Yes, he is pretty handsome." agrees Emma. "Though surprisingly it isn't why that one already fell for him and another is crushing on him." says Emma as she steals a glance at Hancock who currently has her head in the clouds.

"Oh yea, she's crushing on him hard and the poor girl doesn't even know it." agrees Natasha

"Now, it's not that bad. This is after all her first time experiencing such an emotion." says Mei with a light laugh as she comes to the defense of her new friend.

"Well she needs to either get over it or do something about it. I don't want to have someone with their heads in the cloud looking after our backs in battle." answers Emma.

"You're being too harsh, especially since you're not going to be on the battlefield as often as us." admonishes Dinah. "Hancock just needs time to process this."

"It has been six days." deadpans Emma.

Before Dinah can answer Natasha intervenes "Alright, that's enough you two. This is supposed to be a relaxing time. No fighting." she says with a light glare.

"I was just saying that if she wants to have sex with him she needs to hurry up and get it over it." says Emma.

"I think that you might be projecting Emma." says Mei with a teasing smirk.

"Excuse me?" replies Emma. "What gave you that idea?"

"Oh? Are you saying that you wouldn't want to enjoy a night with him?" asks Mei as her teasing smirk gets bigger. "Just the two of you, alone."

"Sweat rolling off of you two as your skin makes contact with one another and he passionately…." "Enough!" exclaims Emma as she interrupts Natasha who flashes her a smirk.

"Is that a blush that I see Emma?" teases Dinah as she points at Emma's very much pale cheeks.

"If you continue to send me mental images of Ramiel and I having some very passionate sex, I will lobotomise you." says Emma as she glares at Natasha.

Shrugging, Natasha returns to her bottle of alcohol only to notice that it is empty.

"How much did you drink?" wonders Dinah.

"Not enough. I wanted to get drunk once before we had to leave for Chaldea. Saving the entire world is stressful and I doubt that they have a bar in Chaldea." answers Natasha.

"There is always tomorrow. We don't leave until the day after." says Mei as she finishes her drink.

"That's true." answers Natasha.

"So, a 'vampire' uh?" says Dinah. "My only issue with that is the need for blood."

"Honestly that's the only issue. Without the need for blood it would just be a magical super soldier serum." agrees Natasha.

"Well according to Karin they are trying to see if they can bypass that, but so far they've had no success." says Emma before they fall into a comfortable silence.

The rest of the night is spent in such a manner before the group eventually breaks up for sleep.

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AN: Alright, I know that the chapter is kinda late compared to when I wanted to but in my defense FGO has an event going and I need a lancer other than Cu cause I keep getting him in the gacha.

In all seriousness though this chapter was difficult to write since I wanted to show how the relationship between these characters has evolved but it was hard for me to imagine what they would be like if they had 'girl talk'. So I'd really appreciate it if you guys left comments or reviews on what you thought about it.

Also if you guys have suggestions for what servants should be summoned and who in the group should be their master I would love to hear them.