The Heart To Stand Up To Fate

Chapter 3: Blissful, Peaceful, Wonderfully Naive Days

I have been an informant for nearly a decade now. I still recall the day I opened my eyes, seventeen and lost in the world, yet with an opportunity I did not deserve. I wondered every day why I was granted such a chance. If it was a blessing or a condemnation. Yet I still moved forward, dead on my feet as it were.

When I was given the chance to see this world in its entirety, I took it. To understand what I had been missing, but I never imagined I would still be enraptured by it, and all that I have seen. Every day feels like a dream, like I'm living in a wonderful, breathing painting. It makes me wonder when it will end, but those thoughts get more distant as more time passes.

I never thought I'd feel like this again, and it's all thanks to the things this world has allowed me to have. The sights I have seen. The people I have met. Bit by bit, I was granted more and more, until I arrived here, to the person I am now, in this place where I am now.

And in all my years, living on this Earth, no part of my life could ever hope to match the blissful, peaceful, wonder days I spent at Chaldea. Nothing could ever encapsulate what I felt and experienced during the time between 2013 and 2015.

Honestly, those days...they were beautiful. Because it was normal, everyday life. Lived in our own little way in our own little part of the world.

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"Hmm..." Ritsuka hummed loudly as she walked down the sterile white Chaldean halls, ignoring the strange glances the few passerbys gave her as she exaggerated each step forward with a small pout on her lips and her eyes narrowed.

They didn't matter. Because she was on a mission.

"Warmer..." Ritsuka muttered to herself as she examined every little insignificant detail around her.

There were no markings left behind. No prints to be seen, whether it be from shoe, hand, or finger. No dirt or snow was tracked anywhere in the hall. The air didn't feel disturbed, either, nor did anyone Ritsuka passed by seem bothered by anything aside from her, the strange commoner girl who was now working there (kinda sorta, things are a bit complicated since she technically only works under her teacher, but that's an issue for Quinn and Olga to deal with!).

To the naked eye, nothing was out of place, and if this was what Ritsuka was dealing with even a few weeks ago, she would have thought so too. Unfortunately for her target, she was not the same Ritsuka from those last few weeks. No, she had grown now, and she could now spot the tiniest little differences that no sane person would bother noticing.

Good thing she wasn't sane. Not the normal kind of sane, anyway. An important part of being an informant, or so her teacher had taught her.

"Remember, keep all your senses alert and ready to pick up any discrepancies around you. Feel your surroundings, look for strange smells, keep your eyes primed and ready, allow your ears to pick up even the most minute sound, and even keep track of how your tongue feels and whether you taste something strange in the air. And, of course, make sure you can pick up any changes to the prana around you, whether it be the mana in your environment or your own od. All of it is the very basics of scouting for an informant, and you'll have to sharpen all of these senses to complete mastery if you want to be a good informant."

That's right. Even the most innocent of changes, no matter how tiny, could be a vital clue in her search. After all, she had been at Chaldea long enough to have memorized how these halls should feel to her. How they should smell. Sterile would be how she described the typical Chaldean smell, but with all these people working here, walking through the halls, it's normal for that to be overpowered by other smells. Right now, Ritsuka's nose was finding a hint of citrus perfume. Not strange at all, since plenty of workers at Chaldea, men or women, might care if they smelled nice or not.