Chương 8: Welcome to Chaldea...

Welcome to Chaldea…

Center of Antarctica

Chaldea Security Organisation

2015 AD

"So this is Chaldea's headquarters." comments Tsunade as the group looks at the white metallic building that blends in quite well with the mountainside. "It's a bit underwhelming to be honest. Having a memory of it is one thing, but seeing it is a different experience altogether." she says.

"I'm a bit salty that all of your false memories include you already working here for a few months now." comments Ramiel as he tightens the scarf around his neck despite not needing it. "Being the only 'newcomer' to Chaldea makes me feel left out." he says.

"Stop whining, you know that those false memories can't compare to real ones." says Karin with a punch to his shoulder that doesn't even phase him.

"Why do you think I had you do all those sessions with Emma?" he asks rhetorically. "Now you can all use the skills and knowledge from those memories as well as you can your real ones." he says.

"That's all well and good, but not all of us are impervious to mother nature." interjects Emma as she steps in front of the door ready to be scanned.

"Basic sequence: human genome confirmed. Alignment: Lawful-Neutral." says a female mechanical voice as a light scans Emma from head to toe.

"Welcome to the data center for the future of humankind. This is the Security Organisation for the Preservation of Humanity, Chaldea. Fingerprint, voiceprint, and DNA authentication cleared. Magical assessment complete. Username matched. You are recognised as a member of the primates. Nice to meet you." says the voice as the metal door slides open, allowing the group to see the silver and spartan hallway inside.

Walking in, Emma begins to make her way down the hallway before stopping as if remembering something "Ramiel, follow me. You need to speak to the director." she tells him.

"I'll see you guys later." he tells the others before catching up to Emma. "You know the director?" he asks.

"I do. As one of the higher ups of the administrative staff, the director and I are frequently in contact." she tells him as they walk down the hallway where workers passing by occasionally greet her. "In fact, she is expecting you today. My main purpose for leaving the headquarters after all was to recruit."

"I don't remember 'false memory' you recruiting me at all." answers Ramiel as he lights a cigarette and places it in his mouth. "In fact, my false memories stop after seeing you at my door. That must be when we were 'inserted'" he says.

Nodding her head in agreement, Emma leads them down another set of hallways before stopping in front of a door with the sign "Director's Office" engraved.

Stopping in front of the door, Emma glances at Ramiel "Now, even though you skipped quite a few cutscenes in the game, you should still have some measure of her personality, so the most I'll tell is to be less casual and laid back; otherwise you'll give off the feeling of not wanting to be there and being bored." she says before knocking on the door.

"Come in." says a female voice from the other side.

"Director, I'm back." says Emma as she steps into the room, a dimly lit office with a bookshelf next to the director's desk and a set of couches surrounding a coffee table.

Sitting at the desk behind a computer is a beautiful woman in her early twenties. She stands at around five feet seven inches, possesses white hair that falls down to her lower back, and beautiful hazel eyes. She wears a white dress that reaches the middle of thigh, showcasing her full legs covered in brown stocking along with the black heels on her feet, and a black and yellow coat over the dress with a red handkerchief tied around the collar.

"Frost, you're late. You were supposed to be back here a week ago, explain yourself." demands Olga.

"My apologies, director, but something came up that required my attention." says Emma politely as if she is unbothered by Olga's words and attitude. She would have fooled Ramiel if he did not know her well enough and couldn't see the slight tightening around her eyes as she forces herself not to roll her eyes at the younger woman.

"What could possibly be more important than the fate of humanity itself?… Actually forget I asked" she says before finally looking at Ramiel. "Is this the master candidate?" she asks as she gets up from her desk and makes her way to them.

"This is Kaname Tōsen, head of the Tōsen family and second owner of Tokyo in Japan." introduces Emma.

"Hmmm, were people of Japan always this dark?" asks Olga with genuine curiosity.

"No ma'am. My family is an oddity amongst the people of Japan. I must say, however, it is quite the pleasure to meet such a capable director as you. Emma could not stop singing your praises, and I am happy to confirm that the compliments did not do you justice." says Ramiel with a charming smile before gently taking one of Olga's hands and kissing it with a bow.

The gesture catches the director completely off guard and all she can do is stare and stammer at the cause of it while her face becomes completely red from blushing.

"I-I am-I…" stammers Olga as she tries to regain her bearing. "W-well, it's only natural for one such as me to do the best of their abilities." she finally says after clearing her throat with a fake cough. "Anyway, Emma has also spoken well of you and I hope that you don't disappoint." she says sternly with a hand on her hips.

"I can assure you that not only will I meet your expectations, but will also exceed them." answers Ramiel.

"Hmph, if you are merely spouting words I will have you thrown off the premises with no way to return civilization, so tread carefully." replies Olga. "Now come, your master potential still needs to be tested and you need to be put into the system before the briefing. I'll take it from here Emma." commands Olga while she walks out of the room with Ramiel following her after saluting Emma goodbye with a smirk, only receiving a humorous eyeroll in return for his manipulation of Olga.

"Tell me, Tōsen, what did Emma tell you about Chaldea?" asks Olga as they make their way through the hallway.

"Chaldea's purpose is the preservation of the future of mankind. Using the various inventions of Chaldea masters are sent into the past to resolve singularities, instances in human history that have deviated from their course." replies Ramiel.

"Somewhat of an oversimplification, but that's correct. We ensure humanity's future by protecting the past." she says. "Now tell me, what makes you think yourself worthy of this Grand Order. Here the greatest minds of humanity are gathered, what exactly do you have to offer?" she asks

Seemingly unbothered by neither her question nor her attitude, Ramiel keeps pace with her while answering "For one, I do believe that I have more magical energy than everyone here combined." he says, causing her to stop and glare at him.

"Stop spouting nonsense and answer me seriously." demands Olga.

"I assure you my lady, I'm quite serious." he tells her with a smile that causes her to blush.

"Hmph, we'll see." she says she quickly looks away and continues to lead him down the hallway and into a staircase that leads downwards.

The rest of the walk is in silence as Olga seems to be doing her best to ignore Ramiel for the time being, at least until her blush completely dies down. Soon enough they arrive in what seems to be a medical room mixed with a testing lab filled with what seems to be scientists/researchers.

"Director, how can I help you?" asks Karin when she sees the pair walk in.

"This is the final master candidate, I want him tested for his master potential and magic energy output." answers Olga.

"Right away." says Karin as she gestures for Ramiel to follow her into the lab where she tells him to stand on a circular stand attached to a console. "I'm going to need to hold this." says Karin as she takes a single strap bag that resembles a sheathe with the words "seal" engraved.

"Now just stand still." she orders as she and Olga stand behind the console before starting the process.

As the process begins, a ring of light rises from the platform and slowly travels from Ramiel's head down to his feet two times before stopping.

"This…" mutters Karin as she stares at the results.

"What is it?" asks Olga while finally looking down at the console. "This is…" repeats Olga as she sees the results.

"Isn't this a little absurd?" whispers Olga as she looks at Ramiel's absurd stats. "He might as well be a servant. How could someone like this have gone completely unnoticed?" she asks.

"It's not really surprising. Unless someone does a deep scan like we just did, he just seems like a normal magus, albeit a really hot one." says Karin before whispering the last part to herself. She knows that she shouldn't be surprised by Ramiel's stats considering that she's seen him spar with the others, but seeing them quantified puts everything into perspective.

"Don't just dismiss his absurdity this easily. Stats like those don't belong on a human being at all!" exclaims Olga as she tries to make sense of the absurdity that is Kaname Tōsen. "You! What are you?! With your red eyes I knew that you weren't completely human, but this is absolutely ridiculous." she says as she points at the anomaly.

"Ah, that's a conversation that is to be had in private." answers Ramiel as he takes a drag from his cigarette.

"Fine, I still have to do the briefing and we have a mission today, so it can wait." says Olga as she takes Ramiel's bag from Karin and gives it to him. "That doesn't mean that you're off the hook, however, we will talk after." she says before irritatedly walking out of the lab and into an elevator with Ramiel in tow.

Once again the journey is in silence, but it's quite tense and Ramiel can tell that it's taking all of Olga's willpower not to interrogate him. Eventually they arrive in front of the assembly room.

"Since we're running low on time, you'll have to make do without the non-mission uniform." she says as they walk into the room where dozens of masters sit in front of a low stage waiting for the director's arrival. From their position in the back, Ramiel can already see Tsunade, Hancock, Mei, and Esdeath.

As Olga makes her way to the stage, Ramiel sits himself on the only available seat in the front row, right between Esdeath and Hancock.

"Welcome to the Chaldea Security Organization. I'm Olga Marie Animusphere, the director of Chaldea." begins Olga with the flair of her hair

"And all of you have been chosen or discovered from around the world for the rare talent you possess. By talent I mean the potential to do a Spiritron Dive. You possess magical circuits and the qualifications to become a master. That being said, it's a special talent but you yourselves are not special people." she says before sending a slight glare at Ramiel before continuing. "Make yourselves aware that you are no more than tools whose sole purpose is to protect humankind's history." she says, causing the crowd to become animated.

"Geez…"

"Tools?"

"What does that mean?"

"Who does she think she is?" says a few voices in the crowd.

"Silence!" commands Olga, silencing them immediately. "If you don't like what I have to say, leave Chaldea immediately!" she says as she points to the door.

Seeing no one get up from their seat, Olga gives a self-satisfied nod before continuing "Fine then. Chaldea has never seen this many…"

For around fifteen minutes Olga continues in such a fashion as she talks about the purpose of Chaldea and how they plan to achieve their goal using their various inventions.

Soon enough her speech comes to an end and the masters switch into the combat uniforms, a form fitting black and white outfit that also serves the purpose of being a mystic code.

"It looks like you and the director were getting along quite well." says Tsunade with a chuckle as the group of masters assemble near their coffins, machines that Chaldea's masters use for transporting their spirit to the past, also known as rayshifting.

"Right, because sending someone death glares simply oozes friendship." replies Ramiel with a roll of his eyes as he starts a new cigarette.

"So what exactly did you do to enrage our dear director?" asks Natasha.

"She had me scanned to see my stats." he answers, drawing looks of understanding from the more normal members like Natasha.

Before their conversation can continue, Olga orders everyone into their coffins.

"Do you still don't know what goes wrong?" asks Esdeath as she enters the coffin next to Ramiel's.

"No. I skipped that cutscene and for the life of me I can't figure it out. I know that Lev is a traitor, but I haven't seen him yet and telling Olga would be pointless. She relies on him for everything." he answers as the coffins close and the engineers in the control room begin the rayshifting process.

As the system begins to countdown, Ramiel feels his senses go haywire as they try to warn him of an unseen danger. Before the countdown can finish, he smashes the door of his coffin open and launches himself at Olga who is observing them from the front. Tackling her before she can even realise what is happening, Ramiel finds himself very thankful for his very durable body and danger senses as the Chaldea becomes engulfed in flames and explosions.

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AN: I'm back. I know that I didn't update last week, but I was sick and I had finals. Now that I'm better and am done with school for now updates will be more frequent. So as usual, tell me what you guys think of the chapter, I love having discussions with you. Some of you may be bummed out that Esdeath becoming a vampire wasn't explored, but we'll get there very soon. Also, I'm still accepting suggestions for master/servants pairs.