8 Chapter 7: 8th Meets 5th

Erica Blandelli was not experiencing the day she had expected. Sure, she was seen publicly intimate with Godou and she hadn't needed to hypnotize anyone to get in his class.

But there was two things she hadn't foreseen. The first was the other two magically involved girls in her class. The brown-haired one was clearly a Hime-Miko but the only thing she could tell about the white-haired girl was that her magic reservoir was enormous for a human, even compared to her own. But she couldn't tell anything else about the girl, not her specialty, not even what style she had been taught in. She could sense heavy interference but couldn't even identify what type was used. The second was that the Gorgonian had vanished!

She had played politics to make sure that it would be entrusted to Godou so he would come into conflict with Athena. He would defeat her and grow stronger because of it. But not only did the idiot lose it, he wasn't aware it was gone until she pointed out that it was.

The two girls were the primary suspects but Erica didn't think that either could disguise the aura of the grimoire from her at such a short distance. Neither had left so they couldn't have handed it off to someone involved in the magical and not even a Campione would be stupid enough to give a grimoire to someone not involved. None of the other Campione should be nearby either. Athena had been spotted in Rome almost four hours ago, so it was unlikely she had gotten to Japan in the timezone of the theft.

While Erica was struggling with what to do, Illya was struggling to not break out laughing at her. Erica was good at not being read but Illya was far better at reading people. Illya wasn't worried about being found out. Erica would never notice the flaw built into every type of magic of this world, one that her brother and the other girls noticed immediately. Magecraft was designed to be undetected by the world, which was required in their former world if they wanted magecraft to work, and magic utilized the world in order to work so a mid-grade concealment bounded field could fool even a god of magic. Against a teenage magic user a basic bounded field was almost overkill. The bounded field and distance from Rome to Japan should hide the grimoire from Athena long enough to get it to Shirou.

Illya was also patient enough to wait for school to end before moving. By the end of the day, Erica still couldn't figure out if Yuri and Illya were the ones who stole the Gorgonian or if it was someone else. The one thing Illya couldn't disguise was her skipping club. Waiting till the end of the day was risky enough, but she wouldn't push her luck. A basic bounded field wouldn't fool a god like Athena for long, Illya would be surprised if she wasn't already back on track of the grimoire already.

It was the act of skipping the club alone that would inform Erica.

She and Godou were heading out from school when Godou spotted Illya.

"That's odd, Emiya-san never skips the Tea Ceremony club," Godou said with a frown. He like Illya because she was a good role model for Shizuka.

"Who?" questioned Erica icily. During research about the school she learned that the Tea Ceremony club had only female members and was not pleased that Godou took notice of another girl when he was with her.

Godou didn't notice Erica's tone and replied, "she's the girl with the white hair. Shizuka is a member of the Tea Ceremony club and she said Emiya-san is never late or absent to any meeting, at least until now."

Erica had stopped listening after Godou had said the worlds white hair. Illya was one of the magic users and was deviating from her schedule. She had to be the thief.

"We're following her," stated Erica in a tone that indicated that no disagreement would be accepted.

"Wha, why?" Godou was dragged by Erica into following Illya.

"She's a member of the magical community and likely the one who stole the Gorgonian," Erica explained, never taking her sight off Illya.

After following Illya for several minutes, Illya reached a massive gate and entered. Erica dashed to the gate and tried to force it open only to discover that it was guarded by several powerful wards.

After Godou opened the gate and in doing so broke the wards, the two dashed up the road, leading to an estate that was impressive even by Erica's standards.

"We should get a mansion like this sometime soon. Maybe this one if it isn't leveled getting back the Gorgonian," said Erica upon opening the front door and being greeted by a room that while it was expensive, it wasn't overdone.

Before Godou could protest, a voice rang out, "how rude, to think that a newborn Campione and a slightly talented brat would dream of reaching beyond their capability and desire our home."

Both Godou's and Erica's gazes were drawn to the source of the voice. At the top of a large staircase, a woman in red looked down on them. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties and had long black hair down to her waist.

"How does is a Campione desiring a mere mage's possession dreaming beyond his capability?" Erica asked angrily, unused to and greatly disliking the feeling of being looked down on.

A new voice rang out, "for a mage's possession will depend on the mage, but for something belonging to a much stronger Campione, the only result will be defeat, followed by humiliation or death." The source of the voice was a violet haired girl dressed in purple.

Another new voice rang out following Sakura, "especially one who is incapable of being a threat on his own." The source was a blonde short haired woman dressed in a blue and silver combination of a dress and armor.

Erica was rapidly losing composure. Not only were the three woman as unreadable as Illya, all had magic reservoirs well above her own, and not only did the blonde's approach Godou's level, her breasts were bigger than her own. She had no control over the situation and the feeling that she had made a mistake was growing in the pit of her stomach.

That feeling was confirmed when a fourth person entered the room carrying the Gorgonian and giving off the same feeling as Salvatore Doni and Godou. The person was a man with red hair and was wearing red and black body armor.

"You're the 5th Campione aren't you?"

Her question echoed around the room as her thoughts ran to the information regarding the 5th Campione.

Identity: Unknown

Subordinates: Unknown

Number of gods killed: At least 4, total amount unknown

Authorities: Unknown

Damage due to combat: None confirmed

Notes: Believed to be able to predict when gods will appear

Has defeated all of the other Campione in combat except Aisha due to never encountering each other

Close friend to John Pluto Smith

Has destroyed multiple magic organizations, reasons why unknown

Erica could only shiver as she waited for an answer. She knew absolutely nothing of use to bargain with the 5th!

The man finally responded, "I am he, my name is Shirou Emiya. We must speak. Follow me."

Shirou turned to leave and Godou and Erica followed, not sure as to why they automatically followed Shirou's orders, with Saber, Sakura, and Rin following them.