AN: Hello and welcome to the first chapter of Chaldea Selects! Getting it out of the way: This was made before I had properly read SIN, however, upon reading most of it I feel like this still holds up. Further explanation will be given in the bottom author's note for the obvious question.


A Tale of Two Consorts

Stare

Yu Mei-ren considered herself a patient soul. She had to put up with humans day after day, so that was a given.

Staaaare

She had even opted to entertain the idea of that First Emperor and willingly submit herself to the throne of heroes.

Staaaaaaaaaaaaare

Now, she finds herself as having been summoned by the very master who caused the fall of her lostbelt. In hindsight, she should have seen this coming due to their pre-existing "connection". To make matters more complicated, she has somehow been summoned before he had even properly met her, during the original grand orders.

But, even more annoying...

Staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare

He refused to cease staring at her so intently!

She slammed her palm down on the cafeteria table, startling her new "master" out of his reverie. "Oi! Master!" She said, a clear tone of annoyance in her voice.

"Ah-Ah!" Ritsuka yelps, surprised by the outburst. "Y-Ye-"

"Don't give me that innocent treatment! You've been staring at me so intently these last few minutes!" She huffs and crosses her arms. "I understand that you would be in awe at a servant such as myself, but there is only so much I can bear!"

He quickly shakes his head. "A-Ah, that's not it-"

"Haaaah?" She raises a brow, narrowing her eyes. "Disgust, then? Fear? Despite being a heroic spirit I'm not human so-"

He shook his hands in front of him, furiously shaking his head. "No! No! Of course not!"

"Than what?" Yu huffs again, thoroughly annoyed at these events.

"I-It's just, um..." He scratches his cheek and Yu feels another spike of annoyance at his dillydallying.

"Out with it!" She ordered.

He lets out a breath. "This sounds weird, but you look a lot like my girlfriend."

...

Yu had to take a few seconds to process that. Then she scoffed. "My resemblance to the dead unnerves you, then?"

"No," Ritsuka shakes his head again, his mouth flattening out as his eyes soften. "Thankfully, she wasn't hit by Lev's sabotage."

Yu raised another brow. "Hmm? So she's a magus?"

"Yes, a good deal more competent than myself." He scratches the back of his neck, the edges of his mouth curling upwards as if remembering a funny memory. "She was actually against my involvement and wanted me to have nothing to do with mages." He chuckles, it's a soft thing that sounded surprisingly unburdened. "Despite that, she insistently tagged along. To make sure I stayed out of trouble."

Yu resisted the urge to gag, settling for a simple roll of the eyes. "Ugh, you two sound like such a lovey-dovey couple..."

He chuckles again, either ignoring or simply not noticing her distaste. "She should actually be joining us soon, I'm not sure what's taking her so long..."

Their table was near the entrance so the telltale 'whoosh' of the doors drew their attention.

If Yu was eating or drinking something at that moment, she was sure that she would have choked on it and died despite being a servant. In fact, she almost would have preferred it.

Dark brown hair that almost bordered on black done up in long twin-tails. A bulky mix between a dress, sweater, and chaldea uniform that hid any hint of curves. Steely brown eyes that were hidden behind black-rimmed glasses.

"Ah! Hinako," Her master gave the all too familiar girl a dazzling smile. "I was worried something had come up on your end."

Hinako Akuta's face softens and she gives an equally pleasant smile to her boyfriend. "I'm sorry, darling-" Yu wanted to activate her noble phantasm right then and there to remove herself from this strange situation. "Mash stopped me in the halls for a short chat so I had to obli-"

Her face freezes as her eyes then notice the uncomfortable form of Yu Mei-ren.

Ritsuka blinks at the sudden interruption, looking between the two girls. "Um, this is Yu Mei-ren," He points to her. "The assassin class servant I've summoned."

Hinako nodded dumbly, barely registering the words of her partner. "I... see..." She managed to grate out.

Ritsuka felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead, unsure about this suddenly tense atmosphere that has descended. "Y-Yu, this is my girlfriend, Hinako Akuta."

Yu stayed silent, simply staring dead-on at the girl who shared her face.

"...Well," Ritsuka stretched his back, getting up from his seat. "I'll get some food, Hinako-"

Hinako interrupted him. "You know what I like, darling, I trust you to order something I'll enjoy."

Yu let out a choked noise that sounded like an animal being strangled. 'You know what I like' such a saccharinely sweet sign of a strong relationship! She'd have no problem aside from mild envy annoyance at such things but not when they came from her face!

Ritsuka nodded, then turned to his servant. "And, anything you would like?"

Yu remained silent, her staring now paired with an eye twitch.

"...I'll just get some dumplings." He says, slowly backing away from the table.

Once he was out of earshot, Hinako finally sat down. "...This is quite unusual." She said.

Yu wanted to strangle her. "Unusual!? That's all you have to say? This is downright crazy!"

Hinako blinked slowly at that. "I guess it could be called that."

"Why are you so calm about this!"

She glared at her servant self. "Haaaah! It's not as if I'm not freaking out! I'd just prefer not to make a scene in front of my boyfriend." She snapped.

Yu let out a strangled cry at that. "And what is all this about you two being... being... like THAT! Boyfriend!? Girlfriend!?" She slammed her palm on the table. "Such a thing would be preposterous for me!"

Hinako scoffs at the display by her doppelganger, which in turn riled her further. "The same could be said about becoming a heroic spirit."

"Tch!" Yu scowls at her. "Me becoming a heroic spirit sounds tame compared to me getting lovey-dovey with some teenage human boy!" Her frown deepens. "I should be attempting to summon lord Xiang Yu if I were in your position, not fooling around with some boy."

"Xiang Yu is dead." Hinako's eyes turned cold, for a moment revealing the ravages of time she has been through as an elemental. "Whether or not I could summon him is a flight of fancy that I should not cling to. I have moved past his death, and thusly I have no interest in the ability of Chaldea to dig up the past except where it concerns protecting the human order." She recited cooly.

Yu was rendered near speechless at such an outrageous declaration from herself. "M-Moved past- Ridiculous!" She slams the table again. "Even more ridiculous is the idea of me- of you starting a relationship with such a mediocre boy!"

"Please do not insult Ritsuka like that..."

Yu frowned at her counterpart's reaction. "Really? What could you possibly see in such a boy! How did you even meet?"

Hinako's cheeks flushed lightly. "Well... I was visiting Japan as a tourist-"

Tourist?! ME!? Yu thought incredulously.

"I was having quite a bit of trouble getting acclimated to all the new tech like the subways and phones and such. We were never the most literate in terms of technology."

Yu silently agreed, despite her age she never saw fit to mingle with the wider world. So she ended up being as tech-illiterate as any modern magus, perhaps even more so.

"Ritsuka saw me struggling," Her blush intensifies, much to Yu's annoyance. "It was quite a shameful moment for me, but Ritsuka helped me through it all. He was patient, concerned." She lets out a soft chuckle. "Despite me being a little rude with my assurances, he wasn't willing to leave me until he was completely sure I could handle myself out in the city."

"Ugh," Yu rolls her eyes. "He sounds like a pest."

"I thought so too, at first. But, well," She scratched her cheek in mild embarrassment, avoiding eye contact. "He grew on me, I grew on him, and, well..."

Yu was thankful that her counterpart's saccharine recital was interrupted by her master's appearance at the table.

"Okay! Here's the food, I hope you're both fine with what I got." He sits down, ignoring the atmosphere and handing each woman her respective serving.

Yu scowls and stabs one of her dumplings as she recognizes Hinako's servings as some of her more favored selections in terms of food. Her scowl deepens as she watches her doppelganger eat with a lovey-dovey smile.

Hinako's eyes raise up from her meal and meet Yu's. The message of 'We'll talk later' was silently relayed.


AN: Don't you just love summoning timeline shenanigans? The Hinako Akuta in this world is one that moved past Xiang Yu's death and became a little less of a misanthrope. Originally posted on QQ I'm still pretty proud of this, though it could probably use a bit of touching up.

Anyways, see you guys next time!