Grand Foreigner (Chapters 1- 200)

Chapter 152

Cu Chulainn realized he was in trouble when the very moment he had met Scáthach, his teacher and mentor, at the very beginning of the Singularity. That the matter somehow became even worse when he was then confronted by Nero, was par over the course of his luck. And it was not just the usual Nero, someone that is already a headache and a half, but some new, special version of Nero, that dresses just as scandalously.

He shuddered to imagine what would happen if the two Nero would meet...

But as bad as the situation was, Cu Chulainn was met with the sudden realization that it could get much, much worse. A realization he had when he crossed paths with the short, fragile girl in a red military jacket and with white hair gathered in a long braid. They had met coincidentally when they had crossed paths, and she froze in front of him with the look of a berserker ready to kill and, as expected, barked the most appropriate of phrases. "DID YOU WASH YOUR HANDS?!"

And by that he meant something appropriate for a Berserker to say...

Cu Chulainn blinked at the girl. "What?"

"YOUR HANDS! YOU JUST WALKED THROUGH A RADIOACTIVE WASTELAND! YOU MUST WASH YOUR HANDS IMMEDIATELY! THEN GO SHOWER! WASH YOUR CLOTHES! MOVE! MOVE!" The girl's voice was not only loud, but also abrupt, clear and extremely commanding.

"Huh?" Cu Chulainn didn't have the time to even answer her, when he suddenly realized that what he thought were girlish hands that seemed to him so fragile, was right now raising him in the air. "Wait a second, I understood, understood! Please unhand me! I'll wash my hands! Honest!"

Fortunately, this was enough for the unknown entity with a cute girl's face to put him down to the ground, but it was not enough for him to let him go completely. And so he found his hand gripped by an iron vice. "FULL DISINFECTION! FOLLOW ME!"

"Sure, I'll follow you!" Surrendering under the pressure and raising his hands in a symbolic attempt to defend himself, Cu Chulainn took a step back. Luckily, that was enough for the girl to let go of her tight grip.

Oh, he should have known that following after Teacher was a bad idea! He should have believed his gut when he noticed the smirk on Scáthach's face and booked it! Curiosity killed the cat as they say it, Cu Chulainn remembered the saying too late, when he decided to visit an unremarkable tent, proudly named as the infirmary in search of new Servants.

Damn it, if Scáthach herself didn't want to come here — of course, he should have guessed that this place was somewhere he shouldn't go to!

"Where did you go?!" The girl pulled at him with bone rending force. "The shower is on this side!"

"Um, yeah?" Cu Chulainn looked at the small place to the side the girl pointed towards and could only wince. The 'shower', if it could be called that, was more like a watering can, placed on a dais. He was about to object before he noticed that the girl wouldn't take no for an answer, and so he could only hang his shoulders. "I... I can do it myself, right?"

For a second, the Servant seems to be pondering these words, clearly weighing the pros and cons of such a decision, forcing Cú Chulainn to mentally pray to all the gods in which he did not believe...

What a pity that Jeanne was not in this Singularity with him! She clearly would not have missed such a sharp leap in Cu Chulainn's interest in higher powers!

It is impossible to establish for sure whether or not the higher powers helped Cú Chulainn, but after several unforgivably long minutes of reflection, the Servant nevertheless slowly and seriously nodded, looking at Cú Chulainn with an appraising glance. And not at all with an appraising look of a girl that Cu Chulainn would have liked to see, no. If he were to describe it, it was more like how an experienced butcher would examine a juicy beef tenderloin for defects. "Yes, good... If the patient is healthy enough, then there is no reason to limit his independence. You can go to the shower, patient."