Matou Sakura sent Medusa out again, having her continue to investigate information about other Holy Grail War participants.
This made Medusa feel very troubled. She felt that Matou Sakura currently seemed to have little need for the Grail, instead constantly obsessing over investigating the status of all participating Heroic Spirits.
As a Rider, Medusa wasn't actually very good at intelligence gathering, so during this time she had only investigated two Heroic Spirits.
One was the Tohsaka family's Heroic Spirit—Saber. Medusa didn't know her true name, only that she appeared to be a relatively young tomboy with an impetuous temperament.
The reason she could investigate Saber was because she was too impetuous, and seemed to have a grudge against someone, always planning revenge and frequently running out from the Tohsaka house to wander around. Medusa noticed this Heroic Spirit during her wandering.
The other was the Heroic Spirit of Bazett from the Mage's Association—Lancer, a male Heroic Spirit wearing blue tights and using a red spear.
Investigating Lancer's intelligence was pure coincidence. It seemed that Lancer's Master also required him to investigate intelligence, leading to Medusa encountering him at some construction site.
The two had a battle that ended with Medusa's retreat—but afterward, Medusa secretly investigated and found that Lancer's base was a place rented by a woman named Bazett.
After she told Matou Sakura about Bazett's name, Matou Sakura immediately revealed the other party's background.
After all, this world's Matou Sakura had studied at the Mage's Association and had some understanding of the relatively famous families in the Mage's Association. She had also heard of Bazett.
However, neither Saber nor Lancer seemed to be the person Matou Sakura was looking for, so now Medusa was again driven by Matou Sakura to continue collecting intelligence.
"This aimless searching isn't a solution either..."
Standing on the rooftop of the Hyatt Hotel's top floor, Medusa gazed at Fuyuki City's night scenery, couldn't help but mutter to herself with some distress.
Matou Sakura seemed to have some obsession that Medusa couldn't understand—but since it was the Master's request, Medusa would still execute it seriously.
Just as she stood on the rooftop thinking about where to search for information about Heroic Spirits next, a voice suddenly came from behind her, as if echoing her words:
"Yes, searching for targets aimlessly wastes too much time."
"Exactly, but my Master hasn't returned to this town for many years, so she can't provide more valuable intelligence now..."
Hearing someone echo her thoughts, Medusa instinctively replied—she didn't have any complaints against Matou Sakura, just felt somewhat distressed about wandering around like a headless fly.
Matou Sakura had said she lived in Fuyuki City when she was small, but then went to study at the Mage's Association for ten years, only recently returning to Fuyuki City.
So the intelligence Matou Sakura could provide to Medusa was merely the locations of the Tohsaka and Matou families, with almost no other valuable information.
She had investigated the Tohsaka family and learned about that Saber's situation. She had visited the Matou family once but investigated nothing, only knowing that Matou Shinji had disappeared last night.
But after responding, Medusa suddenly realized something was wrong—when she had come to the rooftop just now, there was clearly no one on the rooftop.
So where did this voice behind her come from? Someone had approached her without her noticing at all!?
"Who's there!?"
Medusa immediately turned around, simultaneously swinging her right hand, causing the silver spike bound by chains to viciously stab toward the direction the voice came from.
However, her attack had no effect—the spike she threw was instantly caught casually by Zuke behind her, not even touching Zuke's skin.
Feeling her thrown spike being caught, Medusa took advantage of the momentum to forcefully swing the chain on the spike, swinging the chain in a circular arc, then wrapping it around Zuke's wrist that caught the spike.
"Come here...!"
Seeing her chain successfully wrap around Zuke's wrist, Medusa said coldly, then pulled hard, trying to yank Zuke's body over.
However, embarrassingly... when she pulled hard on the chain in her hand, she found she couldn't move the chain at all.
The chain wrapped around Zuke's hand was like being wrapped around something rooted to the ground—her pulling couldn't even make Zuke's wrist shake slightly.
In an instant, Medusa realized the seriousness of the problem—Zuke's strength far exceeded her imagination. Even with her B-rank Strength, she couldn't even make him budge.
"Competing in strength?"
Zuke looked at Medusa seemingly trying to drag him over with the chain wrapped around his wrist and laughed.
"Your little bit of strength isn't enough. If you want to pull someone over... you need to use this kind of power!"
Speaking, Zuke pulled his chain-wrapped right arm backward—terrifying force instantly yanked the chain, and the irresistible pulling force violently dragged Medusa toward Zuke's direction!
"Such strong power... could this guy be Berserker!? But he clearly has reason..."
Medusa felt her body flying uncontrollably toward Zuke, her heart filled with horror at such unreasonable strength.
But of course she wouldn't surrender—as her body flew toward Zuke, she activated her Noble Phantasm:
"Bellerophon!!!"
A silver-white steed instantly manifested beneath her—that was a Phantasmal Species from the Age of Gods, whose accelerated charge had power that few Heroic Spirits could take head-on without preparation.
Although using her Noble Phantasm to eliminate the opponent without first understanding their situation was somewhat extreme... but the Holy Grail War was such a cruel battle, and Medusa would never show mercy at such a time.
With this thought, Medusa's Pegasus violently charged toward Zuke, white light almost enveloping the entire rooftop of the Hyatt Hotel.
However, just as the Pegasus was about to hit Zuke, Medusa clearly saw the expression on Zuke's face.
It was a completely unconcerned expression—even facing the full-force charge of a strengthened Phantasmal Species from the Age of Gods, Zuke seemed completely unperturbed, not even making any defensive preparations.
He just stood there, looking at her and her Pegasus charging toward his body with a half-smile.
To be continued…