"I have a plan."
The nurse was already rising from the rubble,
her smile as gentle and unsettling as ever.
Dust slid off her uniform as she straightened, brushing fragments of broken tiles from her sleeve as if the blast had been nothing more than a mild inconvenience.
Her head tilted slightly.
"One down," she said softly.
Her eyes shifted and settled on Emiya.
A faint smile curved her lips as she lifted another finger.
"And one to go."
Emiya's jaw tightened.
"The one going down will be you."
He raised his hand sharply.
"Attack."
The five barbarians surged forward instantly.
The nurse lifted her oversized syringe calmly, stepping forward to impale the first barbarian—
Thwip.
An arrow struck her wrist.
The impact jerked her arm sideways as the arrow buried itself through the joint of her wrist holding the syringe.
Behind Emiya, the archers stood in formation, bows already releasing another volley.
The nurse looked down at her wrist.
The flesh was already crawling.
The arrow shaft snapped as bone and muscle forced themselves back together.
Before the wound fully closed—
A barbarian reached her.
She lifted her free hand just as the sword came down.
Clang.
Her palm caught the blade mid-swing.
For a moment as the two stood locked—muscle against steel.
Then another barbarian jumped in from behind the first.
His sword flashed downward.
The nurse's head tilted slightly.
She slipped out from the clash with eerie ease–
But another barbarian was already moving.
He came sliding low across the blood-slick floor.
Slash.
His sword cleaved clean through her ankle.
The lower half of her foot separated instantly, spinning across the tiles as her body lurched off balance.
The two remaining barbarians rushed in immediately, blades thrusting forward, aiming to drive their swords through her torso and pin her down while she had lost her balance.
Yet.
Both blades stabbed through empty air.
As she pushed off the remaining leg and jumped backward—
Another volley arrived.
Three arrows slammed into her stomach.
The force twisted her body mid-air.
She landed roughly, coughing as dark blood spilled from her lips.
For a split second her torso hung open with arrows lodged inside—
Then the wounds began closing.
Flesh sealed.
Bones knitted.
The arrows were slowly forced out as the body repaired itself.
But she didn't get the time to finish.
Another volley of arrows sliced through the air toward her.
She vanished.
One moment she stood there—
The next—
She appeared directly in front of Emiya.
The syringe thrust forward like a spear.
"Wall!"
Stone erupted between them.
CRACK.
The syringe went straight through it.
The wall exploded into fragments as Emiya stumbled backward.
"Wall!"
Another slab of stone rose in front of him.
But the nurse was already moving.
She blurred around the barrier, appearing at his side in split second.
The syringe pulled back—
Before she could thrust—
BOOM–BOOM
The cannons fired.
The blast struck her squarely and hurled her across the ICU again.
But this time—
She reacted instantly.
The syringe stabbed downward.
SHUNK.
The needle pierced deep into the hospital floor.
The syringe screeched across the tiles, carving a long scar through the floor—
Then it struck the ground and stopped.
Barbarians immediately flanked her, forming a tightening circle around her.
Before they could strike, she planted both hands on the syringe still embedded in the tiles and kicked herself upward into a handstand.
Her long legs whipped outward like blades.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Heads snapped back as her kicks smashed through the barbarians surrounding her, the force sending them staggering across the room as they disloved into cursed energy.
From behind the line, Emiya groaned.
"… Not again."
She turned toward him smile resting on her lips.
The moment her eyes met his—
Twang.
The archers fired.
Arrows screamed through the ICU toward her chest.
She reacted instantly, pushing off the syringe still stabbed into the tiles and vaulting upward. Her body flipped through the air with unnatural grace, the arrows slicing through the space she had just occupied.
Mid-flip—
BOOM.
One of the cannons fired.
The blast caught her square in the side.
The shockwave ripped her out of the air and hurled her backward across the room—
Toward the wall.
Before she could collide with it—
Two massive arms closed around her.
The giant had been waiting there.
His massive back pressed against the wall as his arms locked around her.
This time—
The nurse spoke.
"... Not again."
Emiya smirked faintly.
"Nah."
He lifted a hand and pointed at her.
"This time… it's different."
"DEPLOY."
In a split second—
The air around the giant rippled.
Bones rattled.
More than a dozen skeletal figures materialized in a circle around the giant and the trapped nurse—thin frames clutching oversized bombs against their ribcages. Their empty sockets glowed faintly as they began rushing forward, their bones clattering together with a dry rattle-rattle-rattle.
Both Shoko and the nurse saw them.
The smile on the nurse's face vanish—
Feeling uneasy.
She twisted violently inside the giant's grip, muscles tightening as she forced its massive arms apart inch by inch.
She was stronger.
Her fingers pried the giant's arms wider.
Almost free.
Then she heard Emiya's voice.
"Checkmate."
The skeletons had reached her first.
"KAMIKAZE."
He yelled.
For one silent heartbeat—
Everything stopped.
Then—
BOOM.
Light swallowed the ICU.
One explosion became ten.
Ten became a single deafening blast as cursed energy detonated in a chain reaction around the nurse and the giant.
The shockwave ripped through the room like a hurricane.
But at some point during the chaos—
Emiya had already moved.
Stone walls slammed up around him and Shoko in a tight dome just as the explosion reached them.
CRASH—BOOOOM.
The curse territory barrier already gone.
The hospital shook.