A/N: Here's chapter 5! Just wanted to quickly say that if you've been enjoying so far, then thanks! I'm glad the fanfic I came up with just for the sake of pairing two girls is entertaining for you. But if you aren't, I guess all I can say is errr... sorry? Okay let's continue!

"Chaldea Security & Consultation employee and magus, Miss Scathach, I presume? I hear you're one of the company's strongest." Drawing his claymore, Sanson points his blade at the tall girl behind her. "I'm only going to ask once, hand the girl over."

"If you know that much, then how about you get out of my way and I won't have to kill you. Chaldea doesn't negotiate with criminals, and definitely not with idiots who thought a daylight raid was in any way a good idea."

"Believe me, I thought drawing this much attention was a dumb idea as well. But as the circumstances are, I'm being paid enough to where I'll simply do as I'm told, and apparently my employer has more than enough pull to get away with a needless spectacle like this. Regardless, seeing as negotiations have failed..."

"Get down!" Pushing Medusa out of the way, Scathach dodged the four reddish claws coming down at her from above. "Anzus!" Kicking the Phantom into the executioner, she fired several rune flares in their direction. Detonating in a fiery explosion, the heat kicks in the fire suppression system, sprinklers raining water from the ceiling.

Cutting through the fiery explosion, Sanson charges forward through the smoke, the deranged singer following behind. Ducking the grey claymore coming at her, Scathach knocked the executioner down with a leg sweep. Intercepting the claws coming for her throat, she grabbed the Phantom's wrist, twisting him around before throwing him into a nearby bench. Ehwaz runes applied to each hand, Scathach quickly turned around to catch the T-shaped blade coming at her, her other hand blocking his fist.

"I have to say... I never expected this for Chaldea's strongest. Rune magic or not, only the crazy or stupid would take on a blade with their bare hands. So which are you?" Pushing down against her, the claymore slowly inched closer and closer.

"...Try calculated action."

"Call it whatever you want." From behind, the Phantom came running in, claws ready to dig into the crimson haired woman. "With your arms occupied, you won't be casting anymore runes-" Mere seconds before death could reach her, the floor around them lit up with symbols. Blowing up the ground around her, Sanson and his partner are sent falling down a floor.

"Opening your mouth in the middle of a fight... Who's the stupid one?" Dropping a runestone after them, Scathach moved away from the hole before the tiny rock released a blast of electricity. Running up to Medusa, she quickly helped the purple haired girl onto her feet before continuing their escape. "Come on, let's hurry before they get back up."

...

"Senpai!" Dodging the blue creature's swipe, Mashu slammed her foot into the homunculus chest. Kicking off its entire upper body, the torso went flying towards Boudica's waiting sword, the blade tearing the creature right down the middle. Destroying the glowing organ underneath, the rest of the creatures body breaks down into harmless grey sand. Raining down from the sprinklers above, water turns the remains muddy.

"Boudica, Mashu, what is going on over there?! Is that the sprinkler system going off, and what was that explosion just I heard?!" Olga could barely make out anything over comms.

"For the record, that wasn't me." Kiyohime responded from the first floor. Unaffected by the indoor rain, scorching fireballs fly through the narrow hallways, smashing into the blue creatures around them.

"Ushiwakamaru here. We're making our way through the first floor, no sign of the hostages." With holes burned into their artificial flesh, the homunculi cores are left vulnerable. With a sword draw, the tactician cut down two more with her katana before proceeding forward alongside the dragon-girl. "Sounds like the explosion is over on our side of the mall, a few floors above us. Emiya-dono, do you-" Dodging another swipe, Ushiwakamaru cuts off another homunculus arm, driving her blade straight into its heart. "-Do you see anything from your end?"

"Man these things are freaky..." Readying another volley of projected arrows, Shirou plugs two more targets in the back, turning them into walking pincushions. "Right, I've located the hostages. West wing second floor, they've been locked inside a restaurant, that overly expensive italian place. I've no eyes on Sanson or Phantom, they're out of my line of sight- Wait..." Through a window, he barely caught sight of his crimson haired colleague along with a purple haired girl darting past, with two more figures following after. "East wing fourth floor! Scathach's there with Medusa, Sanson and Phantom are pursuing them!"

"East wing... Ushi-chan, Mashu and I are closer to the hostages, can you and Kiyohime get to Scathach?" Round the next corner, the redhead swung her sword at another gunmen. As the transformation took place, Mashu tackled it into a wall, turning the semi-morphed torso's inside into mush. "Shirou-kun, do what you can to support Scathach until they get there."

"Got it!"

...

"Medusa, stay behind me!" Rounding the next corner, Scathach let go the tall girls hand, quickly turning around to fire back another wave of rune flares towards their purseurs. Runes bursting into a flame pillars that wall them, although she managed to stop the executioner, the deranged singer didn't slow down. Continuing towards the burning pillars, he ran right through, completely unconcerned that parts of his clothes had caught fire.

"Hum hum hum! Come now ladies! There's no need to run away! I just want To Sing Along With You!" Screaming nonsensically like a madman, the Phantom's red claws swung through the air, randomly swiping at her again and again despite missing. "Let Me Hear That Voice Of Yours SCREAM!"

Dodging another swipe, Scathach quickly planted her knee in the gut, pushing him back a distance. "Sowilo!" Applying a rune of fire on top of her reinforcement runes, flames covered both of her hands. Intercepting his next strike, the crimson haired woman grabs him by his finger-talons, breaking off two claws. Grabbing his other hand, she quickly snaps his wrist before firing a volley of Anzus runes point blank into his face, the force and explosion sending him crashing into a pillar.

"ARRRGHHH! MY EYES! MY EYES! YOU BITCH I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Scrambling onto his knees, half of the Phantom's mask had been blown off by the rune. Holding his grotesque face in pain, his finger-grafted claws did him no favors except worsening his injuries. "ARRRRGGGHHHH! MY EYYYYYYEES!"

Going in for a killing blow, her flaming fist was instead met with a grey claymore. Swung at full force, the blade slightly cracked into her Ehwaz rune. "Tch!..." Although Scathach barely winced, the impact left a line running across her fingers. Placing himself between her and the Phantom, the executioner quickly spaced them apart with another swing. Quickly switching to a thrust, Sanson send the T-shaped blade flying at her, reminiscent of a guillotine blade coming down on its victim.

"Short Steps With The Heavenly Blade!"

Blitzing in between them, a surprise attack collides with Sanson's blade. A thin blade grinds itself alongside the grey claymore, coming at speeds too fast to dodge, aimed straight at his wrist. Unable to avoid the attack, he turns his wrist, choosing an area for the attack to cut. Taking on a non-lethal wound is better than losing function of one entire hand.

"Scathach-dono, are you alright?" Ushiwakamaru appeared, joining her crimson haired colleague's battle against her opponent.

"Yea, thanks."

Forced backwards, the executioner quickly returns to a guarding stance. His sword hand, although injured, was still functioning. But rather than continue his attack, Sanson stood in place. One hand reaching into his duster pocket, he pulled out a pager, glaceing at it before sheathing his weapon. Turning his back to his opponents, Sanson plants his fist into the Phantom's gut, knocking him out before he could further worsen his already destroyed face. "Well then, Miss Scathach. I'm afraid I must bid farewell for now. To have held me and the Phantom off this long with nothing but rune magecraft, you definitely aren't called Chaldea's strongest for nothing."

"Being called back already? After all this?"

"I know when I'm beaten, and orders are orders. Your friends went through our cannon fodder faster than expected, that is all." Picking up his unconscious partner, the executioner moves to a nearby window, smashing open a makeshift exit, jumping out of the mall.

"Communication via pager? Talk about overly cautious..."

"Is it... are they..." Turning around, Medusa was peeking out from a corner. "Are they gone?"

...

"Here, Medusa-senpai."

"Thank you, Mashu-san." Drying herself off with the small towel she received, the purple haired girl started gulping down from the bottled water she was also given.

"Whoa, easy now." Scathach took a seat next to her. "Drink slowly, the water's not going anywhere."

"Oh, sorry. I was just- Scathach, you hand!"

"Hmm? Oh." Raising her right hand, a red line ran across her fingers near her knuckles, from index to pinky. Back from when her punch met a claymore. "It's fine; skin deep, nothing to worry about."

"But-"

"Really, Medusa, I'm okay. See?" To stress her point, Scathach started closing and opening her hand, showing that she was completely fine, or at least she wasn't in any pain.

"Okay, mall's completely clear." Doors of the back employee entrance opening, Boudica returns from her final sweep of the mall.

Out at the back of the mall, nearly an hour had passed since the enemy had retreated, Sanson and the Phantom were long gone. The hostages were successfully rescued by Boudica and Mashu, placed in safe hands but not before a little memory manipulation to ensure their recollection doesn't extend past 'random hostage situation'. The mercenary-turned-homunculi were all dead, scattered around the mall as harmless piles of muddy grey sand, which will be disposed of discreetly by a cleaning company with ties to Chaldea. "Shirou-kun, we're all done over here. Anything new on your end?" The redhead called to their lookout, still sitting at the top of the radio tower blocks away.

"Nope. Most of the bystanders and the media have cleared out of the area. I think we can leave the rest to the local authorities, nothing much else to- ...huh?" Out of the corner of his eye, Shirou caught a glimpse of something in the distance. It was hard to make it out against the sunset sky, but he was sure he saw a yellow ball of light. "Wait, was that a...- Crap! Trace-"

He could finally see it clearly. A small, yellow ball of magical energy was speeding through the air, bolting straight for him like a fighter jet. With a partially projected Kanshou in hand, he barely blocked the bolt of magic, but stopping it was something else entirely. It was small, about the size of a baseball, but the strength of the spell was something else entirely. The force alone was the equivalent of a bullet train, easily pushing him towards the edge of the radio tower platform.

Unable to stop it, the ball of magic practically shoves Shirou off the edge, continuing on it's flight path as if he were never there. "Dammit This Is Baaaddddd!"

*crash*

"Emiya-kun?! What's wrong?! Shirou?! Please Respond!" Hearing the loud sound, Olga yells over comms.

"Senpai?!/Shirou-kun?!"

Breaking the silence, a pain groan comes in response. "Uggghhhhh... Damn... that hurt... I'm- I'm fine, just... owww." If luck were one of the things stored in a human body like magical energy or blood, he's definitely drained at least a dozen years worth of it. An open dumpster of all things had broken his fall.

Granted, he had successfully reinforced his entire body just moments before impact, but landing on solid ground would've hurt a whole lot more. But at the same time, misfortune struck like a bullet the moment his nose caught the stench around him. There was an odd damp feeling on his head as well as scurrying on his chest. Looking up, there was a rat, holding a smaller dead one in its mouth. Momentarily making eye contact with it, the rodent quickly scurried off. Taking of whatever was on his head, Shirou held a rotten banana peel in his hand, and he could still feel some of it in his hair. "Hah... You have got to be kidding me..." And his shirt was brand new too.

"Enough pull to get away with a needless spectacle, seriously?" Boudica couldn't help but sweat-drop.

"Word for word, exactly what the Sanson person said about whoever is hiring him. There's no guarantee he wasn't lying of course." Scathach replied from her office desk. "What do you think?"

"Well, based on what Marie and Chevalier have told us about him, I'd assume he'd never pull such a thing regardless of how much he's being paid given his reputation, not to mention the hiring regular mercenaries only to have them infected with a homunculi mutation. But, we both know humans are capable of far dumber things whenever money is involved."

"No argument there. How are the others?"

"Well, none of us were injured, save for Shirou's little skydiving experience. He was of course already on his feet acting like he didn't just free-fall off a radio tower. He is so amazingly sturdy it's almost unbelievable."

"Any idea what attacked him?"

"He said it was some sort of magic bolt, strong enough to overpower one of his albeit partially complete projections. Not sure from what though, according to Shirou it might have been from at least five blocks away, but he was caught of guard so probably won't find the shooter anymore. But, I can venture a guess as to who."

"Probably whoever hired Sanson and his friends. Anyway, I'm gonna stay over tonight. Medusa's still slightly rattled from the attack, and I'm not taking any chances after today." Finishing her report, Scathach turned off her laptop, standing up to stretch.

"Then you'll need this." Turning to the office door, Olga stood at the doorway, tossing a small item at her. "Here."

Catching the item, it was a key to one of the spare dorm rooms. "This is..."

"It's only temporary, can't have you sleeping in the lounge all the time. Do me a favor, try not to make a mess of the place." Turning around, Olga started walking away towards the main elevators.

"Well then, I'll be going too. See you tomorrow, Scathach-san." Grabbing her bag, Boudica quickly chased after the silver haired lady.

...

Turning off the faucet, Medusa stepped out of the dormitory showers, walking over to one of the countertops in the changing room. Drying herself body off, she wrapped the towel around herself before grabbing another one for her long hair. As her hands worked, her mind wondered off elsewhere.

"Couldn't you at least cut off some of it?" Stheno and Euryale were always telling her she should cut her hair since drying it off always took so long, even when she had her sisters help. Sliding her fingers through one of her long bangs, the strands were still partially damp. "I guess I could- huh?"

Her ears catch something out of place, a sound. She thought it to be something else but it wasn't. A hissing sound that sent shivers down her spine, like that of a snake. It was unnerving, but at the same time, it was as if she'd heard it before. Sort of like when someone hears thunder for the very first time, the next time they heard it, they would know it to be a crack of thunder.

"...EAK..."

"Wha-?" A voice could be heard among the hissing, coming from the steam covered bathroom mirror. "Was that..." It was most definitely her voice, but Medusa could swear she didn't utter a word. Moving closer to the mirror, she used her hand to wipe the steam off, revealing her own reflection like a mirror should. But as she stared at herself, the hissing continued. "What is-"

"wEAK!" For a moment, the mirror reflection changed. Her own reflection had morphed into something else. Skin had paled like snow, her grey eyes were glowing. Not just shimmering purple, they were filled with rage and malice Her hair had slightly darkened, parts of it were moving on their own, the tips morphed into snake-like appendages, with blood red markings. "wEAKLING!" The person in the mirror spat at her, shocking Medusa back.

"AH!" Stumbling backwards, one of her legs lost its footing, sending the purple haired girl down to the ground with a loud crash.

"Medusa!" The door to the changing room slammed open, Scathach ran in, quickly closing the distance between the two of them. "What's wrong, did something happen?!"

"Sca...thach...?"

"Mashu told me you were in the showers, I was waiting outside when I heard the noise." The crimson haired woman explained as she helped Medusa up. "Are you okay? Did something happen?"

"Well... I...-" Receiving Scathach's outreached hand, Medusa slowly got back up, one hand rubbing her bottom. Looking back at the countertop mirror, the purple haired girl could only see her own frightened expression. Whatever she saw wasn't there anymore. "I-... It's nothing, I'm fine. I just slipped and fell, that's all." Changing into her sleepwear, Medusa headed back to her room, accompanied by Scathach.

"Are you sure you're okay?" The crimson haired woman once more.

"Yes, Scathach. Really, I'm fine." She replied.

"Okay... well if you need anything, I'll be in the room next door."

"Sure, thank you. Good night." Closing the door, Medusa flopped onto the bed, her mind still on the reflection she saw just now. "Was I... seeing things?"

"Good morning, Scathach-san." Looking up from her laptop screen, Boudica entered through the office entrance.

"Morning, Boudica."

"I figured I'd come in early today, but you're up even earlier. Need any help?"

"I'm trying to find out where exactly Medusa's from, which isn't much since we're only going off whatever she remembers for now."

"Well... I did ask a favor from one of my friends back in London, even she wasn't able to dig up anything on Medusa. No identification papers, missing person of a matching description, not even a photo. Unfortunately, until Medusa-chan remembers more, we can only go on what she can recall since we met her."

"Since we met her... nine days ago... wait-" Dropping whatever she was doing, Scathach quickly looked up for the article from that morning before she met the tall girl. "Boudica, do you know anything about this?"

"Hmm?" The redhead walked over towards her colleague's desk, taking at look at the laptop screen. "Lets see... Natural gas explosion? Wait, something like this happened? I thought the station front was closed due to concerns about the aged train tracks."

"Conflicting information... Did Chaldea receive anything related to this at all nine days ago?"

"No? The only explosive related thing that day was the job assigned to Shirou-kun, Ushi-chan and Kiyohime-chan, where we assisted an enforcer with taking down a magus. Wait, you don't think..."

"I think that someone somewhere may have tried to cover something up."

Later in the morning, after everyone else had arrived, they were gathered in the offices where they'd be assigned their respective jobs for the day. But before that, Scathach and Boudica explained their theory to the others.

"Well, there's no denying that we have conflicting information here." Shirou added. "As far as I know, Fuyuki City hasn't experienced anything like that in the nineteen years I've lived here."

"Emiya-dono is correct. If this really was just a natural accident, there'd be no reason to have differing sources of information. What do you think, Director?" Ushiwakamaru asked.

"All right. I won't deny that it's does sound suspicious. Very well, I suppose it's worth a look." The silver haired lady replied. "Boudica, look into this with Marie and Chevalier. The rest of you-"

"Well well... you sure are doing a much better job at running Chaldea than I had expected, Director Olgamally Animusphere." The voice came from the office doorway. A German man in his forties, with long fuzzy brown hair, dressed in the exact same forest green clothing he wore years ago.

Olga's eyes were wide in shock. "L-Lev?"