"Beatrice..."

The figure of the girl called Beatrice by Angelica was frowning at them. "Hey, hey, what is this, Angelica? What are you doing just standing there?"

Before Angelica could answer, Issei was the one who replied first. "Angelica-san here is following our agreements."

"Agreement?! So you're betraying us, Angelica!"

Once more, before Angelica could mutter a response, Issei replied first. "Not really. Look, Beatrice, right? Can we make it simple? I hate explaining things, and I can say for everyone here that we're tired. So can we just, you know, fight or something? Leave whatever drama you have with Angelica out of this. I'm too tired to care."

Beatrice looked towards the little boy who interrupted her conversation with Angelica.

"if it's a fight you want..." She took out the Class Card and muttered a small 'Install'.

"It's a fight you'll get," she finished after Installing her Class Card. Her normal right arm became gigantic and it was also holding a hammer.

"Miyu, Rider. Sona, Caster."

Miyu looked back at Issei in surprise but nodded and both transformed into their magical girl form before Installing Rider and Caster on their Kaleidostick. Each clad in their Heroic Spirit's clothes, Miyu and Sona maintained their distance from their enemy.

Then, without any cue, both sides moved towards each other.

"Nice tactic, Ise-kun. By the way, why aren't you joining them?" Serafall asked from his side. Indeed. Issei did not summon Boosted Gear nor asking for Archer Class Card from Sona. He just stood there observing the fight from the side.

Sona as usual bombard their enemy from above, while Miyu engaged Beatrice in mid-range. It was why Issei asked her to Install Rider instead of Saber. While Saber was definitely stronger, he was trying to not face whoever has a gigantic arm and a hammer in a contest of strength. Rider had enough agility to stay out of the hammer's way while at the same time she could disrupt the enemy's movement with her eyes.

"I'm taking Angelica out of the fight," Issei replied to Serafall who blinked and looked closely.

It was hidden by his body from Serafall's perspective, but Issei's left hand was gripping Angelica's wrist.

That answer made Gil laughed. "Astonishing. Truly astonishing. The belief you hold for your companion, the clever way you use everything to your advantage, the line between a fool and a genius is blurred. Tell me, Doll. He is weak. You can easily overpower him. Why aren't you?"

"I am honoring our agreement. I shall lead them towards where Emiya Shirou is held captive and then I will be released."

"So even a doll has an honor, huh?"

"It's not an honor. It's gratitude," Ajuka commented. "If it weren't for him you'll still be held underground and in chains. You can easily betray him, but you don't want to disappoint someone who actually is amicable to you."

Angelica did not say anything.

From Issei's eyes, he saw Sona shot a bigger magical beam towards Beatrice who in turn shot lightning and forced the two forces to collide. Seconds later, a big explosion covered the landscape.

"Miyu! Lancer!"

Miyu heard his shout and changed her Install. Now having Lancer's spear, Miyu changed her tactic and engaged the hammer-user in close range. A blow of the hammer was diverted slightly using her spear and Miyu used her agility to spin her body and strike Beatrice with the bottom of her spear.

"Why now, Ise-kun?" Serafall asked him.

"Because now that Beatrice has shown that she has a long-range attack, the purpose of mid-ranger like Rider is obsolete. Like it or not, Miyu's chance is better with close range. Next is 'why not Saber, right?' I feel like I'm doing a test."

"Indeed!" Serafall replied.

"Indeed to what? You're testing me or the question?!"

"Yes."

Issei wanted to scream but felt it has no use so he just sighed instead. "Whatever. Saber and Lancer have different advantages and disadvantages. Lancer has better agility, which I think suits this fight. I would rather Miyu dodge than parry the blow from the hammer."

As Issei said that, Miyu deftly dodged another blow and just in time to get out of the blast zone of Sona's bombardment.

"As of now, Beatrice has two choices. Either engage Miyu and be a target to Sona-san's attack or face Sona-san and get blindsided by Miyu."

Beatrice sent another lightning upwards and had to hold back a scream because Miyu's spear left a big gash on her left arm, just as Issei said.

"Why didn't you go for Lancer from the start?"

Miyu tried to deflect another incoming blow from Beatrice, but had not enough time to dodge. The crack was reverberating in the silent night, and not a second sooner, Miyu's cries of anguish as her body was thrown away from the impact of Beatrice's blow entered everyone's ears.

"...That. Sona-san, don't let go of your attack!" Issei gave a command to Sona who stopped firing to take a look at Miyu. She took a look at Issei before her expression softened and continued to engage Beatrice.

"Now what would you do, Ise-kun? One of your allies is wounded hard and cannot continue battle while the other ally who can heal her is engaged to the enemy?" Serafall questioned him. In her mind, Issei's decision was correct. Allowing Sona to look at and heal Miyu was a no go in this kind of situation. However, she was curious about what made him choose that.

Issei dragged Angelica who was still on his grip to Miyu's side. "Miyu, Saber now."

Miyu just groaned in pain, not registering Issei's words, the red spear who had once stabbed Issei's heart was laid on the ground as she used her left arm to hold her broken right arm. Issei picked it up and spoke to it. "Sapphire, can you force Uninstall now?"

"Will do, Issei-san." Miyu's entire body was bathed in white light and Lancer's outfit now changed back to Miyu's regular magical girl outfit. Issei then took something out of the card holster and put it on Sapphire.

"Sapphire, Install this now."

Sapphire followed his order and Miyu now was clad in blue dress and body plate of King Arthur (Female).

"Ghhhh!" Miyu let out a groan as she was transformed. But now she was conscious of what was happening even though she was still in pain. "...Ava...lon..."

The sheathe of the mighty Excalibur was materialized and Miyu used her remaining functional arm to grab it and hold it to her body. Seeing Miyu completing his objective, Issei let out a sigh of relief.

Feeling someone looking at him, Issei turned towards Angelica. "What?"

"...Nothing."

The two left the healing Miyu and went back to the sideline. Upon there, they were greeted by Serafall and Gil.

"You still hold something back from us, Ise-kun! Who knows King Arthur can heal himself with the sheathe of Excalibur? Certainly nothing in our world recorded the fact that the sheathe of Excalibur itself is magical, it was always the sword! This world is interesting!"

"Hyoudou Issei, you are truly an interesting human."

"That, by the way," Issei pointed at Miyu. "Is the reason why I still do not accept Sona-san's offer. I don't know about Miyu, but if I accept her offer I can't use Saber again for fear of the holy energy backlash to me. It's also why we never let Sona-san Install Saber."

Hearing that admission, Serafall glomped Issei and suffocated him between her boobs.

"That does it! Ise-kun! After this matter in this world settled, we'll formalize it! You're going to be my little brother!"

"Mfffmffmfff! Mffmffff!"

"Serafall, calm down. You're killing him." Only the warning from Ajuka saved Issei from certain demise. Once Issei was released and took a deep breath. Sweet, sweet air, the short time he was deprived of oxygen was honestly a heavenly hell.

Even now after he was released from Serafall's embrace, his cheek still could feel the softness that was Serafall's boobs, making all the blood rushed towards his face when he tried to relive the heavenly sensation without the hellish experience attached to it.

No, that was not the time for that kind of thinking, Issei reminded himself. There was still a fight going on and their entire mission depended on it. Issei looked towards Miyu who had finished being healed by Avalon. She dismissed the sheathe and picked up the invisible Sword of Promised Victory.

With a burst of magic, Miyu entered the battle again. This sudden entry relieved Sona of the taxing magic of Caster. Now she had a small gap of time to recover.

Miyu's sudden entry also managed to startle Beatrice and as a consequence, she took a slash of Excalibur to her chest, which made her stumbled.

"Go, Miyu!"

Miyu did not waste the opportunity to attack. Relentlessly, Miyu swung Excalibur to push Beatrice to the back foot. Beatrice could not counter-attack because every swing was properly chained to another swing. Honestly, seeing Miyu's attack was like seeing a dance, Issei admitted to himself. Such was the grace of Saber's swordsmanship. And then there was the matter of invisible Excalibur. Beatrice could not have known the length of the sword so Miyu used that to her advantage.

Finally, Beatrice stopped the onslaught and launched a single counter-attack. However, before the blow could connect with Miyu, Both Miyu and Beatrice were enveloped with pink light courtesy of Sona's spell.

"So-tan! Be careful!"

"No need. Saber has high magic resistance, so without a doubt, Sona would tone down her blast so Miyu wouldn't be hurt," Issei explained. It occurred to him then, despite them telling Serafall everything about the Class Card hunt, they never outright told her about the skills the Heroic Spirit had like Saber's magic resistance or Lancer's anti-projectile skill. "I'll tell you the complete spec of the cards, later. I just realized we never told you about them."

Indeed, the scene that they saw was as Issei said. Despite being caught by the same attack, Beatrice's body had singed in several places. In contrast, Miyu's armor was completely pristine. The nature of the magical attack tailored to completely resisted by Saber while wounding their enemy, it was a desperate combination born out of sheer desperation when they were sparring with Gil before. But even these combinations could not scratch him.

Gil was completely correct when he stated that were their enemy not him, they could win.

To Serafall's eyes, the sight of the two little girls working together, overcoming their difference in strength with wits, was something so beautiful. Unconsciously, her eyes let down a single tear of happiness.

Were she left alone in the Underworld, Sona would still grow, but she doubted the growth Sona had would be as immense as this. In the Underworld, Sona would have so many tutors their parents hired for Sona. However, as they said, experiencing it firsthand was something completely different from being taught by someone else's words.

In involving Sona with the Magical Girl debacle, she made the perfect decision. She had to thank Ruby later for accidentally revealing herself to Sona.

"What?" Issei heard Beatrice talked to air. "Tch, fine. As much as I hate this, I can't exactly disobey Darius-sama."

Beatrice then Uninstalled her Class Card. "Angelica. We'll be waiting." Then she left.

"No need to pursue," I warned Miyu who was ready to cut her path. "We still have Angelica-san and Beatrice clearly did not want to retreat. Let's go to your house instead, Miyu."

Miyu nodded and Uninstalled the Saber and dismiss her transformation. Sona did the same in the air and used her Devil wings to fly back down.

"So what's the verdict?" Issei asked Serafall and Gil.

"Five from me," Gil scoffed. "Your basic strategy is logical but you only respond to your enemies instead of making the first move."

"I personally think it's seven. Hyoudou is restricted from the actual battlefield and to communicate, he needed to shout, which made his intention known to their enemies," Ajuka made his opinion known.

"Six. Because no matter if Miyu-chan recovered, that was still a fatal blow and there are different ways it can be avoided," Serafall held up six fingers. "Speaking of, Ise-kun. Apologize to Miyu-chan."

Issei looked towards the approaching Miyu and immediately bowed to her. "I'm sorry, Miyu!"

"It's okay, Issei. Just let this be a lesson so I wouldn't experience getting hit by the hammer of a Heroic Spirit again," Miyu said with a grimace. "Which Heroic Spirit has a hammer again?"

"None at the top of my mind," Sona replied when she came beside them.

"Don't worry too much about it, everyone. Let's just enjoy the sights of a parallel world!" Serafall cheered.

Issei, Miyu, and Sona looked at each other before they looked at the sight around them. Cold spring night with nobody around them, not even the sound of insects made the scenery looked like it was scary.

"Is somebody going to pick at her attempt of cheering us?" Issei whispered to the other two.

"Let Onee-sama have this moment, Ise-san," was Sona's reply. The four children and two adults plus two Mystic Code then walked leisurely towards Miyu's house.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived in front of the gate of the Emiya residence.

"We've arrived," Miyu said. She moved towards the gate and then froze.

"What's wrong, Miyu-san?" Sona who sensed Miyu's frozen body asked her in concern, but Miyu did not say anything. "Is there something wrong with the... gate..."

Suffice to say Sona also froze.

"Sona-san? Miyu? What happened?"

He looked towards the two frozen bodies and the gate. It took Issei two other people who realized first to see what made them froze in surprise.

"We're an idiot," Issei concluded. "Nobody has the key to the house."

"Oh, it's just that. Well, with Ajuka-chan here it's no problem."

In the end, they entered the residence with the help of Ajuka's spell. After that, they entered the house and Miyu pointed out some spare bedroom they could use. The girls were sleeping in different rooms because Sona did not want to sleep with Serafall and Miyu had her own room. Meanwhile, the boys let out three futons in a single room.

"You can sleep first, Hyoudou-kun. I'm going to have a talk with Gil-kun here," Ajuka said to Issei who yawned and nodded. He was too tired to be curious about the content of their talk.

And so the eventful first night in a parallel world came to a close.

Beatrice sat upon a dining table big enough to feed five entire families. Once upon a time, the Ainsworth family had enough members to fill all the seats, but nowadays, it was only Darius, Angelica, and her. And now since Angelica for some reason was with them, only she and Darius remained.

"Darius-sama. If I'm allowed to know, why did you order me to retreat? I had them!"

"You had the two Class Card users. What about the others? Can you say for certain?" Darius answered her inquiry. "And besides, she is the one you were facing. For some reason, that Holy Grail is back here again. No doubt, her companions know about it, if Angelica were to say anything to them. I do not doubt her loyalty, but until she is with us again, consider her part of the enemy."

Beatrice looked like she wanted to say something, but held back her urge.

"What, Beatrice? Do you have something to say? That display of yours is good enough for me to gauge their strength. So it's not like I pulled you out of a failure in your part. No. They must be here for something, and that something is obvious."

"That faker that upsets Angelica?" Beatrice guessed after a few seconds.

"Indeed. There is no doubt that they are here for him. No, it is because the Holy Grail itself is here that I know what they want. Continuing facing them there has no benefit for us, therefore I implore you to retreat. Is that enough?"

Beatrice nodded with great reluctance.

"The next time we attack them. You won't tell me to retreat again? The card..."

"Is that card troubling you? Do you want to switch cards?"

"No. The spirit inside that card. He just hated to retreat from battle." If it weren't for her overcoming her sense, at that time she definitely would not heed Darius' order. But she definitely would not admit this to the man in front of her.

"I see. Very well, then."

Darius left the dining room, leaving Beatrice alone to stew on her thought.

Issei was soundly asleep. Therefore it was the best time for the two other men to have a talk. Or at least, for Gil to entertain Ajuka's speculation.

"Speak, Ajuka Beelzebub. What do you want to talk about?"

"Tell me everything about this world. I am content with you leaving everything out back in our world because it is of no consequence. But now that we are here..." Ajuka looked seriously towards the smiling golden child.

"Very well. Since I am feeling quite generous, let me tell you of this world, and the answer as to why your recovery feels slower than normal and your spell to deteriorate faster than you would like."

Ajuka widened his eyes at Gil's last statement. "Hmm, that smile is hiding some quite important things, just as I thought."