Chapter 223: Tokiomi Tohsaka—Who's Really Taking Advantage Here?
"I'm back—! Ah, sorry, sorry! I was late because I went to pick up some offerings from Issei's family's Buddhist altar."
On the big screen, a familiar red-haired boy walked into the room, carrying shopping bags stacked like a small mountain.
Inside the room, two beautiful young women were already waiting for him. When their eyes met, they both broke into silly smiles.
"Yo, Emiya-kun. You're still the same as ever, looking full of energy."
Rin Tohsaka, now sporting long, straight black hair, greeted him with a forced sense of composure. However, without realizing it, her voice wavered.
"Hehe~"
Sakura Matou, standing beside her, glanced back and forth between Rin and Shirou before covering her mouth with a giggle.
"Senpai, Nee-san, you two really are two peas in a pod~"
"Hey, Sakura!" ×2
"Hehe~"
The three of them naturally teased each other, their faces lighting up with genuine happiness.
It was nothing more than an ordinary conversation between family members—but for these three, this was a life they had fought desperately to obtain.
This scene took place two years after the Holy Grail War, when Rin Tohsaka had just returned from studying abroad in England.
Two years ago, Illyasviel had sacrificed herself to shut down the Great Holy Grail.
In the final moment before the void closed, Illyasviel used the last remaining function of the Grail to extract the completely destroyed soul of Shirou Emiya and store it within a vessel.
Later, Rider, Rin, and Sakura discovered Shirou's soul container and purchased a work from a certain Grand Puppeteer, transferring Shirou's soul into a blank puppet, allowing him to continue living almost indistinguishable from a normal human.
At the same time, due to her connection with the Grail, Sakura gained immense magical energy, allowing Rider to remain in this world indefinitely.
Now, in the spring two years later, Rin had returned from studying abroad, and the four of them—Rin, Sakura, Shirou, and Rider—decided to go out and enjoy the cherry blossoms together.
As they walked through the streets, petals fluttering in the air, Rin watched her family and smiled from the bottom of her heart.
"Nee-san? What's wrong? Why do you have that evil smile on your face?"
"Huh? Do I? You must be imagining things, Sakura."
Rin waved her hand dismissively before asking with serious intent, "Sakura, are you happy?"
"Yes."
Looking at the radiant smile on her sister's face, there was no need for words to explain further.
That smile—
It was the greatest gift to Shirou Emiya, to Rin Tohsaka, and to every Heaven's Feel fan who had followed their journey to the very end.
As the camera gradually pulled back, the figures of the four walking up the sloping road grew smaller and smaller.
Winter had passed. Spring had come.
And so, the theatrical version of Heaven's Feel came to an end, bringing the story of the Holy Grail War to a temporary conclusion.
The reason it was only "temporary" was because Shinji had filmed two versions of the ending—the "Spring Song" version and the "Lost Butterfly" version. He just chose not to use the latter.
Given the heavy and oppressive atmosphere that had persisted throughout Heaven's Feel, Shinji felt that torturing the audience any further at the very end would be too cruel. So, he opted for a happy ending instead.
"This is the downside of commercial storytelling—having to make compromises for the audience's sake."
Shinji crossed his arms and muttered under his breath.
"My original vision for Heaven's Feel was a nested ending, intertwining 'Spring Song' and 'Lost Butterfly'—where Sakura would first dream of the happy ending in 'Spring Song,' only to wake up and realize that Shirou had actually died and she was still waiting for him in vain."
"Master, please, have some humanity." ×4
In the small meeting room, four voices chimed in unison, roasting him mercilessly.
Shinji waggled his finger and replied, "Now, now, don't call it inhumanity. Call it the artistic sensibility of a true literary mind."
"No, you just enjoy using tragedy to torment people," Jeanne coldly and accurately pointed out his twisted nature.
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As the credits rolled on the big screen, the special piano version of "disillusion"—prepared specifically for the Heaven's Feel finale—began to play.
From North America to Britain, from Europe to Japan, in every theater hosting the Heaven's Feel marathon event, almost no one left their seats.
Everyone remained, listening intently to the flowing melody, bidding farewell to the Fate/Stay Night story one last time.
No matter how wondrous the journey, every adventure must come to an end.
No matter how beautiful the reunion, a farewell must eventually arrive.
Back in the spring of 2003, they all met because of a single question—
"Are you my Master?"
Now, in the winter of 2006, they had reached the conclusion of this story.
Was it bittersweet?
Absolutely. Compared to the previous two routes, Heaven's Feel carried a much heavier tragic weight.
But at the same time, it was precisely because of the darkness in the journey that the audience cherished the happy ending all the more—it fulfilled their longing for the three young souls of Fuyuki City to finally find happiness.
Fortunately, the audience was unaware that the Heaven's Feel story almost had a different ending—one where the protagonist dies and the heroine spends the rest of her life waiting in vain.
Otherwise, instead of quietly listening to the ending theme, they'd probably be storming the post office, sending razor blades to a certain director in Fuyuki City.
"Ah... it's over."
As the theater lights turned back on, Kuonji Alice remained seated, unmoving.
Disillusion continued to play softly, and the end credits still scrolled across the screen.
She felt as though she had just awoken from a dream—
A three-year-long dream.
Her emotions were a complicated tangle that she couldn't quite put into words.
Before encountering the Fate films, she had never imagined she could be so utterly captivated by something outside of magecraft.
But one thing was certain—
The Fate/Stay Night movie, the UBW TV series, and the Heaven's Feel OVA—
She was definitely going to watch them all again. More than once.
At this moment, the friends who had accompanied her to the theater had long since disappeared.
Judging by Fujita's parting yell of "Lock Shibamatsu in the basement!", those troublemakers were probably messing around outside.
Alice, however, had no interest in chasing after them.
Rather than wasting energy on those rowdy fools, she would rather take this time to properly savor Heaven's Feel—
This fantasy story infused with real magic.
"As expected of that genius..."
Even though she had already said this countless times, Alice still found herself sighing in admiration once more.
Because only someone like Matou Shinji, a genius in both magecraft and cinema, could seamlessly integrate true magic into a film—
Both in narrative world-building and technical execution.
Matou Shinji had an unwavering reverence for magecraft, yet he also possessed the spirit of a bold innovator.
Rather than becoming trapped in the rigid dogma of traditional magecraft, he took the essence and discarded the outdated, daring to reimagine magecraftin ways never seen before, and he presented that vision to the entire world.
"Sigh… I'm a little jealous of Touko."
Alice let out a soft sigh.
The more she thought about Matou Shinji, the more thoughts kept surfacing in her mind.
Her friend, Aozaki Touko, was undoubtedly going to become a major name in the world of magic.
In fact, it was very possible that she would truly become the world's Grand Puppeteer, just like the Heaven's Feel story had suggested.
Even if Touko's actual skill level wasn't quite that legendary, the Fate franchise's influence alone would make people in the magic world believe it to be true.
After all, when it came to crafting magical tools, Touko was unquestionably one of the best in the world, or perhaps, even among the absolute top elite.
But Touko had an advantage that no other magus could hope to match—Matou Shinji's unparalleled publicity machine.
"Though… wouldn't Lord Aozaki be a little upset?"
Alice chuckled softly, resting her chin in her hand.
"Even though they explicitly mentioned Touko's name, they never actually said 'Aozaki' out loud. But then again, that old man probably doesn't care about fame and titles anyway."
What Alice didn't know was that in the near future, Shinji would be releasing a film where Touko played a major role—The Garden of Sinners.
If that film became a hit, then this situation would go far beyond a passing name-drop in Heaven's Feel's credits, Touko's influence in the magical world could reach unprecedented heights.
At that point, it wouldn't matter whether Lord Aozaki cared about fame or not.
Even though Alice was still unaware of The Garden of Sinners, she already envied the attention Touko was getting.
"Hmm… I need to find a way to get closer to Sir Matou. Just being a fan club organizer isn't nearly enough."
As she stepped out of the theater and gazed up at the bright, full moon, Alice clenched her fist with determination.
And she wasn't the only magus thinking this way.
It didn't take a genius to realize how beneficial it was to use movies and media as a platform to promote one's own magical lineage.
Even if some magi were stubborn traditionalists or completely ignorant of modern mass communication, the sheer amount of valuable magical knowledge displayed in Heaven's Feel was enough to make them drool with desire.
The Second Magic's Jeweled Sword, Touko's masterful dollcraft, The Church's thaumaturgy…
Every faction in the magical world desperately wanted to know more details about these mysteries.
For one reason or another, with Heaven's Feel now concluded, the Matou Family had once again become the hottest topic in the magical community.
Magi all over were scrambling to establish connections with this once-obscure but now highly influential family—
Some wanted to uncover their hidden thaumaturgy,
Some wanted them to boost their own reputation through film,
Some wanted a shortcut into the Clock Tower's Modern Magecraft Department…
Regardless of their goals, one thing was certain—
For the foreseeable future, both Zouken and Shinji were going to have a lot more visitors knocking on their door.
Of course, compared to those who had no connections and needed to scheme their way in, some individuals had a much easier time.
For example—the Tohsaka family, one of the Three Founding Families of Fuyuki.
"Thank you, Lord Matou and Shinji, for your generous support."
Tohsaka Tokiomi wore a perfectly refined nobleman's smile as he graciously thanked Matou Zouken.
"Thanks to Matou Family's assistance, the Tohsaka name will soon have a firm foothold in the Clock Tower. With this, my lifelong dream of revitalizing our family can finally be realized—either in my generation or in Rin's."
Seeing how thrilled Tokiomi was, Zouken burst into hearty laughter.
"Hahaha! Tokiomi, there's no need to be so formal! I only had to put in a few good words at the Clock Tower—hardly worth your gratitude!"
With a boisterous wave of his hand, Zouken continued—
"The Three Founding Families of Fuyuki are like branches of the same tree. Your success is our success! As your elder, I've always regarded you like my own son, you know!"
"Is that so…? Well, thank you, Lord Matou. I—... Hm?"
Just as Tokiomi was about to express his gratitude once more, something about Zouken's words felt off.
'Wait… If I'm your son… then what does that make me to your grandson, Shinji?'
His uncle…?
His godfather…?
Or… his father-in-law…?
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