"GET AWAY FROM HER!" A high feminine voice screeched as a few curses flew Medusa's way.
Lancer jumped back across the street, dodging the magical reddish-black bullets. Her magic resistance might be able to handle a few curses but any curse that a magus sent towards what they knew to be a Servant were probably powerful ones.
The curses streamed down towards her like bullets shot out of a machine gun, forcing Lancer to turn and face the person.
It was a girl in partially unbuttoned yellow pajamas with the face of cats on them. A jacket, one sleeve on, the other hanging free, flew out behind her along with long unbound hair. One sandal for wearing indoors was on her foot and Medusa could spy its partner on the sidewalk behind her.
Ah, the Tohsaka Master. Shinji had pointed her out while her older self had been there. But right now, she looked a lot more slovenly.
Yet Medusa had only rarely seen a person look both this enraged and this terrified.
The Tohsaka continued shooting curses at Medusa even as she took up position between Medusa and Sakura, breathing hard from her sprint.
Medusa felt a stab of annoyance.
She was trying to keep Sakura petrified but still alive. She couldn't do that if she had to deal with someone attacking her.
She ran along the wall, jerking and swerving to avoid the projectiles, aiming for a spot that would make sure that Tohsaka alone was now firmly in her gaze. Sakura's body had to be completely behind the other Master.
It felt like she was doing some of the wilder dancing from back at one of those festivals the humans had put on for holidays when she had been alive. Some of the dancing that had amused her older sisters because the humans looked crazy and so foolish doing it. The entire reason that they had gone to those festivals really.
But Medusa couldn't risk hitting Sakura with a strong blast of her Mystic Eyes.
So she danced along the wall, Rin's bullets pounding out the beat, until she was in the perfect spot, where she couldn't see the mostly-stone Sakura behind the living Tohsaka.
It wasn't easy. Tohsaka had quickly caught onto the fact that Medusa wanted to Rin to be in the line connecting her and Sakura and had quickly set to making sure that Medusa didn't get there with a will.
But now Rin was stuck. She obviously refused to step too far away from Sakura. But Lancer was so much faster than Rin that Rin couldn't step out from the middle of the line between the three women fast enough.
Which meant it was now time.
Even as a new flurry of bullets flew out of Tohsaka's hand, at least one aiming for her head, Medusa let her power rage out of her eyes towards Rin Tohsaka, her target.
Rin shuddered but the Magic Circuits flared to life across her body, repelling the petrification before it could set in, her arm moving half as swiftly as before being exposed to Cybele. But the enemy Master didn't fire the spell at her fingertip, only held it there.
Zeus. Of course, it wouldn't be that easy.
She was a child; her Mystic Eyes weren't as strong as they would be in the future. If she hadn't been affected by the potion of youth, Rin would have needed the equivalent of C rank Mana to resist being turned instantly into stone.
But for Rin to not even be slowed down to a crawl…
Rin must have strong circuits.
Rin's eyes narrowed. "Petrification by means of Mystic eyes. Only one being in legend is famous for having the eyes of Cybele. Medusa."
Medusa tsked.
Rin not only was stronger than she expected, but she was in between her and Sakura and now knew her True Name.
Things just wouldn't be easy, now did they?
* * *
"Wee-wah! Wee-WAH! WEE-WAH!"
Rin froze as she heard the familiar sound.
It was the sound of a fire truck. One that was getting closer.
And despite staring at Medusa, who looked like she was summoned into a Lancer class, Rin could easily see the flames now licking the Matou Mansion behind the Servant.
Wait, why were people aware of what was going on?
Rin groaned as she realized something.
Shirou Emiya, her Servant, must not have put up a Bounded Field to obscure what was going on inside the mansion. Despite being a modern magus with magecraft skill, he hadn't set up a protection against mundane attention.
Now because of his failing, everyone now knew that the Matou Mansion was suffering from fire and-
CRAAASSH!
-structural damage, to put it lightly.
How were they going to hide this?! Kirei would—
Oh wait. The overseer was a prisoner in her prison—she means, she was hosting the overseer while he was in a state that he couldn't carry out his duties.
Which means she would have to cover this up.
"Archeeeerrr," Rin growled as she realized how much work it would be to cover this up.
"WEE-WAH! WEE-WAH!"
The fire truck was getting closer and she didn't have the time or resources to cover this up.
Which meant she would have to break off this fight with Medusa.
"Tch," Rin clicked her tongue as she let her Gandr dissipate.
Wouldn't have done any good. Medusa's Magic Resistance would render her curse useless.
Rin guessed that Medusa didn't realize that or she would have just taken the curse head-on and ignored everything.
But she couldn't hold a bluff now. Not with the need to hide magecraft from everyone coming.
Opposite her, Medusa's eyes darted to the where the sound was coming from, before astralizing into something that could only be detected through magical senses.
The Servant didn't leave though. She just jumped diagonally across the street to the same side that Rin was on.
Which meant that Rin couldn't leave either.
She refused to leave Sakura out here where the hostile Servant could kill her.
Okay, that's most of them, Archer Lily commented suddenly into Rin's mind, making her jump. His soul should be in pieces now that all of the worms here are dead. We'll still need to hunt down the rest but shouldn't take long as he can't leave the estate.
"Archer!" Rin demanded. 'What is going on and why did a Servant attack Sakura?'
"Hmm", Archer hummed in though. "Oh, you're talking about Medusa. Yeah, she decided that in order to remove the last of Zouken's worms out of Sakura, we needed to stop him from killing her or having the Crest Worms eat her. Medusa seemed to have a plan so we let her go take care of that."
"Wait, what?" Rin asked as the fire truck turned onto the street. "Medusa just petrified her! Also, the fire truck is here!"
WEE-WAH! WEE-WAH! WEE-WAH!
"Oh", Archer commented. "Well, I guess we should make sure that the—Hold on. That doesn't sound good…"
Rin took a chance and dove through the familiar bond to perceive through Archer's senses even as odd creaks and pops started to mix with the sound of sirens.
Rin had just enough time to see the entire ceiling of the room Archer was in fall down towards him.
Rin opened her real eyes in time to see the entire Matou Mansion vanish.
Into a brand-new sinkhole.
"Guess we shouldn't have used so many Noble Phantasms", Shirou Emiya remarked as he astralized to avoid getting hit by a mansion.
* * *
Gilgamesh sat upside down on his ship.
Well, he was sitting right side-up. But only from the perspective of Vimana which was upside-down to the earth.
You see, since he was in a human body, he couldn't astralize. Since he couldn't astralize, he couldn't do as the Archer of the Fifth War had done and just shift his existence out to avoid getting hit by mortal matter.
And he really, really, really didn't want to touch the ground of Zouken's basement.
So flipping Vimana upside down was the best call he could make to protect himself from the falling wood, rocks, and everything else that made up a mansion.
Okay, he could have pulled out a shield or something, but sitting upside down on Vimana was cooler!
"Well," He said to the empty air as he pulled out a satellite connected wireless laptop. "I did warn them that I might do some collateral damage."
Opening up the first-rate, mystical laptop, the boy started typing.
Nobody asked me to hold back, you know.
Wait, what, that isn't what I-
If nobody cares about the Matou mansion, why would I care about leaving it intact?
I think I-
So nobody should be surprised that I ended up destroying it. Be grateful that I let you see such a spectacular explosion.
Wait, are you talking about the explosion when Sakura walked out of—HOLD ON! WHO IS WRITING HERE?
And I'm bored.
Gilgamesh?! Who let you at the computer?
I let myself!
Aren't you a child now? And inside the story?
Fool, nothing, not even age or being changed inside a story can restrain the King of Heroes—ACK!
"Gilgamesh, your mom wants you to finish your vegetable! Then you can go outside and play!"
Mwahahaha! I have brought forth my secret weapon, Enkidu!
NOOOOOO! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME EAT MY VEGETABLES!
* * *
By the way, the boy got second place in the art contest when he submitted his photo.
The comments were "That can't be real." "Wait, is this why the fire department was out that day? I remember them going past my house." "Very fortuitous timing, young man. Very fortuitous." "Excellent contrast. The sudden end of peace in a single moment. And yet, it is an event that happens daily." "Too bad this is a contest for everyday moments. You would have taken first place in any other contest."
And of course, "Rejoice, shonen."
* * *