“Miss Fujimaru, I’m terribly sorry.”
Having learned the full details of the incident, Megure immediately apologized to Ritsuka.
In any case, it was the police who had arrived late this time.
If the hostage the criminal had seized was not this unusually skilled young lady but some other ordinary citizen, it was hard to imagine just how badly things might have developed.
“It’s fine, it’s fine.
As long as the case was solved,” she waved her hand dismissively, then smiled.
“And just Ritsuka is fine.
Calling me Fujimaru sounds a bit awkward to me.”
“Ah, because it sounds like a more masculine surname, right?
Understood.” Megure caught on and nodded knowingly.
The evidence for the entire chain of events was crystal clear, and she was only asked a few simple questions.
As the police bundled the criminal into their car and left, Ritsuka also departed the restaurant, just like everyone else.
Fujimaru Ritsuka, huh?
Conan filed the name away in his mind.
There was no particular reason for it—just the curiosity of a detective that made him inexplicably take note of this mysterious girl.
“Hmmmmmm.”
Walking down the street, Ritsuka furrowed her brow.
She had discovered a serious problem—
She could not return to Chaldea.
First, an explanation: the reason she could transfer to this world was due to an unknown innate constitution she possessed, an ability that Leonardo da Vinci had provisionally named Rayshift.
Originally, she had been selected by Chaldea to become a Master because she had a 100% Rayshift compatibility constitution, allowing her to pass through the Rayshift apparatus without hindrance and transfer to various Singularities.
But later, she and those around her gradually came to realize that her constitution was not so simple after all—
During an accidental incident, she discovered that she could undergo Rayshifting on her own, without the aid of the Rayshift apparatus.
Not only to Singularities, but even to Lostbelts, parallel worlds, and even completely different worlds unlike the Type-Moon universe—she could consciously or unconsciously achieve transfer.
This was her Rayshift ability.
Because this ability was not completely under her control, sometimes while she was sleeping, dozing off, or even walking down the street in broad daylight, Rayshift could activate involuntarily and unconsciously, sending her to some Singularity, or even another world.
The time she went to Shimousa was like that, and so was this instance.
Although she did not know why she had such a peculiar constitution, Ritsuka optimistically classified it as her own “cheat ability” and gladly accepted it.
Furthermore, after discovering this ability and following a long period of research, she had now gained a degree of mastery over part of the Rayshift ability.
While she still could not control the instances of passive transfer, she could at least actively use Rayshift to travel between known worlds, return to Chaldea, or randomly transfer to unknown worlds.
And a situation like now, where she could not return to Chaldea—this was the first time since she had gained control over the ability.
“What’s going on here?”
With far too few clues, she couldn’t figure it out, so she temporarily abandoned the train of thought and decided to deal with the situation at hand first.
“First things first, I should solve the accommodation problem,” she resolved.
After all, as a newcomer, having a stable base of operations was very important.
Since this was a modern world, as long as one had money, something like accommodation was hardly a problem.
After thinking it over, she decided to buy a house of her own.
After all, if one could afford to buy a house, who would want to rent?
Besides, right now, she was indeed wealthy.
Setting aside the fact that she had received rewards of considerable gold and jewels while playing games with King Gilgamesh, Chaldea also housed not a few Servants capable of hand-crafting Holy Grails, and manually creating gold and gems was obviously well within their power.
If worst came to worst, she could also make a wish on a Holy Grail.
A wish of this magnitude shouldn’t cause any problems.
Having made up her mind, she took out her phone, searched online to select properties for sale, and simultaneously looked for offline sales offices.
Don’t ask how she was able to connect to the internet—just put it down to Chaldean technology.
A passerby walking near her couldn’t help but glance an extra time because of her cute face, but immediately after, his gaze was drawn to the highly technological smartphone in the girl’s hand, which clashed somewhat with her adorable aura.
So cool!
What brand of phone is that?
The man muttered to himself, deciding to go home and look it up online.
But unfortunately, the result was destined to disappoint him.
Because this was a Valentine’s Day return gift from the Servant Minamoto-no-Tametomo, given to Ritsuka.
It was named Mini Tametomo with Smartphone Transformation Function, or Mini Tametomo for short.
As the name implies, it possessed two forms: smartphone mode and robot Mini Tametomo mode.
The smartphone mode goes without saying—its performance vastly surpassed even the most advanced phones of this era.
And when transformed into robot mode, it could replicate the attack patterns of the Servant Minamoto-no-Tametomo.
While maintaining low output, it could even unleash a Noble Phantasm.
Of course, the attack power was also a scaled-down version, only capable of incinerating everything within a three-meter radius.
Still, as an emergency self-defense item, it was more than sufficient—in fact, somewhat excessive in firepower.
Back to the main topic.
After browsing back and forth, she eventually settled on a detached single-family house that looked quite nice.
Two floors, fully furnished, occupying over one hundred square meters of land, in a decent location with well-developed surrounding infrastructure.
The interior spatial design wasn’t cramped like other traditional Japanese layouts but rather followed a more open, Western-style layout.
During the selection process, she also saw a rather bizarre house listing note: “Whether a murder has occurred on the premises.” And a significant number of houses were marked “Yes,” their prices a whole level lower than normal properties.
Just as expected of you, Beika Town!
The house she selected was one without any murder history.
Apart from being a little expensive, everything else about it was perfect.
House chosen, then pay the money, sign the contract—the entire purchasing process went incredibly smoothly.
After all, the vast majority of problems could be solved with money.
“I hereby declare: New Chaldea – Beika Town Branch, established today!”
Standing in the living room of her new home, Ritsuka declared with great satisfaction.
Even though the place was already fully furnished, there were still plenty of things that needed to be bought.
Thus, for the next two days, she busied herself.
“Ah, this must be what they call the joy of moving into a new home.”
Beyond daily necessities, what she naturally needed to buy were things like a computer, a game console, manga, light novels, figurines…
and so on.
Today, she had gone to a comic convention and discovered that this world had some works she was familiar with, along with many new ones.
A whole day spent browsing yielded a bountiful harvest.
As evening approached, she carried a huge bag of spoils onto the road home.
Carrying these completely full items, slowly walking home, the weighty sense of a fruitful harvest in her hands—this is the true essence of shopping!
No more pretending.
I am the hidden otaku, one of the Three-Otaku Alliance formed together with Osakabehime and Jinako—the Otaku Master, Fujimaru Ritsuka!
That being said, ever since she arrived at Chaldea, she had either been saving the world or on the path to saving the world.
Even during rest periods, she was forced to participate in all sorts of bizarre events cooked up by the Servants’ antics.
She had trained herself into a physique and stamina that were quite excellent; she had almost forgotten that she was once an otaku.
Savoring this ordinary yet precious day, Ritsuka couldn’t help but sigh with emotion:
“How wonderful…
peaceful, everyday life.”
The moment she finished speaking, she inexplicably shuddered.
So she mumbled quietly in her heart: Did I just raise a flag?