Hotaru woke up to a slightly unusual situation.

There was someone pressed up against her with a bigger bust than Sakura's. Blearily, she turned to find... Gil-chan?

Hotaru reluctantly sat up and looked at Gilgamesh.

When the hell had the blond snuck into her room? More importantly why did she only have a thin shirt and a pair of panties on her and no pants?

"Master, are you awake?" asked Saber.

"Why is she sleeping in my room?" asked Hotaru. She wasn't awake enough to cause a fuss.

"Ruler and I agreed that someone should be at your side at all times. She won the coin toss," said Saber.

Actually it was less of a coin toss and more along the lines of Ruler had bound her in chains and then took the spot herself when Saber tried to object. Saber would watch over Hotaru during school hours, but Ruler would be at her side in between those.

So long as they were forced to work together, she (reluctantly) would trust someone as dishonorable as Gilgamesh.

Though as Hotaru started to wake up enough to prepare breakfast, she had to fight the blush on her face as Gilgamesh gave her quite the view down her shirt. She wasn't wearing a bra or anything, just the shirt and panties.

As Hotaru got breakfast ready, she noticed Archer was reading the newspaper out of boredom.

"Morning."

"Hmph."

"Just remember to vanish when Taiga shows up. I don't want to explain why there's an adult male in a house full of girls...especially with Sakura around," said Hotaru. She wasn't awake enough to be insulted by his dismissal.

Archer looked highly amused. He had thought he would miss the show of a zombie-Rin in the mornings, but a half-awake Hotaru Emiya was almost as entertaining. The fact she was cooking enough food to feed a massive army was also amusing.

By the time everyone was at the table, Archer was somewhat surprised to see it was little more than barely controlled mayhem over who got what.

Saber ate with a controlled grace, only fighting with her chopsticks for food.

Sakura, who made the most terrifying face whenever someone tried to steal her food from her plate.

Gilgamesh ate at a sedate place, growling if anyone tried to steal her food.

Taiga and Hotaru ate with a barely controlled pace, and the only thing that he could qualify as table manners was the fact they used chopsticks instead of their hands. Though they still ate like they hadn't seen food in weeks.

It was a good thing Hotaru had expected this, because she told Archer he was free to make his own breakfast and dinner if he wanted.

Lunch, of course, was primarily whatever leftovers they could scrounge up on short notice. Well, that and the girls would buy some store bought lunches to add to it. Usually by the time they were done with breakfast (which always started two hours before school did so they had plenty of time to eat and actually ENJOY the food) there wasn't much food left.

"Oh man, that hit the spot," said Hotaru, patting her stomach.

"Good as always, Hotaru-chan! Sakura-chan!" said Taiga, flopping down on the ground.

"Who's turn is it to do the dishes?" asked Sakura.

"Let's leave them until after school," said Hotaru, though she knew Archer would likely have to do them because she had used up pretty much all of them making breakfast.

Shinji, as usual, made her skin crawl. But that was before she got a good look at his hand. Idiot didn't even try to hide the command seals.

"Hey Sakura... we're allowed to kill other Masters, right?" asked Hotaru.

Sakura paused, but then relaxed. Hotaru would never kill her.

"We are, but normally one waits for them to summon a servant," said Sakura.

"Where's the fun in that? If we wait the little shit might summon something that's strong enough to take us. Besides, maybe we can net an extra if we kill him now," said Hotaru. As far as she was concerned, Shinji ranked about the same as a bandit, which made him fair game.

Besides, no one would actually cry a tear for that little shit stain if he were killed.

Then they ran into Rin, who was looking particularly happy about something. It was Hotaru who saw the command seals the girl tried to hide, or rather, felt them.

"You got dragged into this mess too, Tohsaka-san?" asked Hotaru.

"What mess?"

"The Grail War. Sakura and I are fighting, and apparently so is that shit-stain Shinji. We're thinking of taking him out and summoning an extra with his seals."

Rin paused and looked at her in disbelief. They were blatantly going around the rules of the Grail War? Just like that? And why tell her their plans?

"Hotaru-chan, why are you..."

"I figure if we're going to kill Shinji, then we might as well take out Zouken in the process. Meaning there'll be plenty of loot to go around. And if we had someone of Rin's devious nature we might come out with an ally in the war as well," said Hotaru rather bluntly.

Rin stared and stared some more.

"Besides, as I recall you've always wanted to be on good terms with your real sister as well as with me," said Hotaru, shrugging. Sakura couldn't look Rin in the eye.

Rin's brain finally caught up to her.

"To be honest, if I had known what that bastard put you through I would have come myself as soon as I got father's crest. Hotaru beat me to it," said Rin finally.

"So we're agreed? Destruction of the Matou line?"

"I'll have to summon my Servant first, but I have no problems with it," said Rin. To be honest she had hoped to end Shinji ever since she heard what he had done to her sister. Killing Zouken and robbing the place would be bonus. Then she remembered something.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a small problem. I can't actually help destroy the place or kill the Matou. It would go against the treaty we have with them not to summon Caster."

"Who was stupid enough to make a deal with Zouken?!"

"My ancestors. It goes back all the way to the first Grail War. In exchange we've never really gone after each other...well, except for Uncle Kariya."

"Does that include you Sakura?"

"I can't fight Zouken," she replied.

"Fine. You can be my scout. Saber and I can storm the place and once they're both dead we can all raid the house and burn it to the ground."

"Sold!" said Rin eagerly. Payback and ending that bastard Shinji? What's not to like about this plan?

"No," said Saber flatly.

"Why not?" asked Hotaru.

"It's dishonorable is why! I refuse to kill a Master before they've even summoned a Servant!"

"Gilko, what do you think of the plan?"

"Why are you so dead set on killing them and burning their mansion to the ground?" she replied.

"Because Zouken ordered Shinji to rape Sakura repeatedly, and threw her into a pit full of crest worms. Do you have any idea what those do to females?"

Saber's expression went cold. She stood up and went to talk to Sakura to get the full story about why Hotaru hated the Matou so much. When she came back her objections to killing Shinji were gone.

Gilgamesh didn't really care. All she knew was that Hotaru planned to show a weak Magus family who the real top dog was. The fact she planned to steal his command seals to give to one of her allies to summon extra Servants was just bonus. Considering what she saw of Shinji while she walked around town waiting for the others to come back, he didn't deserve to have a Servant.

Besides, she was more interested in a blond man she had seen while in town. A man who reeked of arrogance and could have passed for her twin. A man that practically screamed "Servant".

The fact he never saw her was a point in her favor. It would certainly explain why Saber had reacted as she had when she saw Ruler.

The question was...did this other Gilgamesh deserve to live under her Master or should she end him before he had a chance to realize the potential Hotaru possessed?

After all, very few Magi could summon two Servants at once, especially such prana-intensive Servants like Ruler and Saber, who were admittedly on the same level (cost wise) as a high-level Caster!

Something inside of Hotaru seemed to click into place as she stood before the Matou mansion. Shinji, according to Sakura, couldn't summon his Servant until roughly around ten at night. That was when he hit his peak, magic wise.

Rin had summoned her Servant, Rider, who would help keep anyone from noticing the flames until it was too late to save those inside. She didn't know which Heroic spirit the purple-haired woman was, and frankly she could care less. So long as they were on the same team she wouldn't question her motives.

There was a strange expression on her face as she stared down the manor doors.

"What's the time?"

"Sunset, so about 7:23," replied Saber.

"Which means we have roughly an hour and thirty-three minutes before Shinji is at the optimal time for him to summon his Servant."

"If he's smart, he'll just surrender the seals. If not...well, I'm sure I can find someway to express my displeasure at the way he treated his 'sister'."

Hotaru's mind went into a calm state. She almost felt detached about what was about to happen.

She felt herself putting one foot in front of the other, almost observing it as a third party.

Ruler had decided to remain astralized because the less Zouken knew about the second summon Hotaru had, the better off they would be for any surprises.

It was when they reached the door that Hotaru finally did more than just rely on Saber.

"FIREBALL!"

A ball of flame roughly the size of the average car slammed into the door, turning it into splinters upon contact.

Saber blinked when she saw the fireball.

"How did you do that? Without any incantations?"

"Who said Magecraft was the only skill I had? Besides, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can wash the feeling of this place off me," said Hotaru flatly.

Saber nodded in agreement. This place made her skin crawl and she didn't think it was entirely because of the bounded fields around it.

The further in they went, the more Hotaru felt like throwing up. The air in the place was that foul.

"Suddenly any complaints about burning this place to the ground are vanishing," deadpanned Gilgamesh in disgust.

"The very air feels more foul than her workshop. Even she never delved into this level of depravity," said Saber in disgust.

They finally found Shinji in a room above the crest worm pit. He looked terrified and pissed at the same time. Close to him was a summoning circle. And hidden in the shadows was Zouken himself.

"Oh look, both rats are right where we want them."

"You think you can kill me, girl?" said Zouken with a sneer. Not like Hotaru could kill all his crest worms.

"Who said anything about me killing you? Remember, we need his arm intact in order to use the seals. I'll go deal with the pit," said Hotaru.

"Understood," said Saber, her eyes darkening. Considering what she heard about Shinji and Zouken, she wouldn't lose any sleep over their deaths.

Hotaru headed towards the worm pit. It was even worse than she had imagined. It felt like something vile was crawling all over her skin even being this close to it. She couldn't even imagine how Sakura had felt being thrown into this almost every day she lived at the mansion, or having those things inside her.

"Hotaru-chan, do you want me to destroy them...?" asked Gilgamesh, eying the pit with open distaste.

"No need. I can purify them and really cause that disgusting bastard some pain. Killing them outright would be too good a fate for him," said Hotaru, furious.

Hotaru began a chant in a language that actually caught Gilgamesh off guard.

Because she was born during the time of the Universal Language, she automatically knew every human language upon being summoned.

But the language Hotaru was chanting in was completely foreign to her.

The longer she chanted, the more Gilgamesh could feel some strange power build up in her Master. It was almost addicting.

"Ra Tilt!"

From the other room, they could hear Zouken let out an ear-piercing scream of absolute pain. The worms in the pit below began to burn with an unearthly flame, almost like the spell was setting them on fire. Everywhere the worms touch was on flames...thankfully they were in a stone pit.

When there were no more worms, they went back up...only to find Zouken dead and Shinji gone.

"The worm managed to distract me. I'm sorry Master," said Saber.

"And Zouken?"

"I never got close. He had some sort of Mystic Code that made it impossible for me to approach...however he started screaming without warning."

"We can deal with Shinji later...was he able to summon a Servant?"

Saber pointed to something Hotaru hadn't noticed. There on the ground was a severed hand.

"The fool tried something. I was faster."

"Good work. Let's rob the place and then set it ablaze...then we can all take a nice, long bath to wash the stench of this hellhole off," said Hotaru flatly. Saber nodded in agreement.

By the time morning came, the only thing left of Sakura's childhood hell was the rapidly decaying corpse of Zouken and the burnt remains of the mansion.

On the plus side, Rin's desire to fight for the Grail was rapidly vanishing. With the cash she could get selling the books and artifacts she didn't want from Zouken's personal collection (Sakura had zero interest in the Matou family magecraft, as she preferred Hotaru's strange other magic) to other Magus clans, she had little reason to actually fight. The entire reason she was even in the stupid Grail war was to restore the Tohsaka clan back to their former glory.

Hotaru just wanted to prove her dad wrong...that you could save everyone without killing people who weren't even involved.