Chapter 345: Ryougi Shiki: Between Warmth and Cursing, I Chose the Former
This was destined to be a special kind of shoot—something that would stand out not only in this world, but even back in Shinji's pre-transmigration Hollywood days.
Plenty of movies had scenes set during typhoons. Disasters and storms were hardly rare in cinema.
But no one—no one—had ever actually tried to film during a real typhoon.
A storm that tore everything apart.
A flood that swallowed everything whole.
Combined, they could perfectly satisfy that primal, destructive urge buried deep inside every human being.
Even though Shinji's films had already featured many intense duels between two people, this one… this one was different.
Because Ryougi Shiki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception was something that defied all logic.
"Props ready!"
"Lighting ready!"
"Equipment ready!"
"Explosives ready!"
…
"Camera ready!"
Hearing Archer's final confirmation, Shinji gave the order.
"Remaining Sense of Pain, Scene 105, Cut 3—"
The clapperboard snapped shut in front of the camera. Everyone held their breath.
"Now… Action!"
Wearing a kimono, a long sword strapped to her back and a dagger in hand, Shiki slashed open the wall and leapt into the parking lot.
A second later, the far side of the ceiling began to twist unnaturally.
BOOM!
The distortion couldn't hold—it ruptured, leaving a gaping hole. Through it dropped a woman in a nun-like school uniform, her hair wild and tangled.
It was Okita, playing Asagami Fujino.
One hand clutching her stomach, the other covering her face, her expression was pure madness.
She took one slow, deliberate step after another toward Shiki.
The few pedestrians who had been sheltering from the rain in the parking lot froze for a moment—then bolted for their lives.
Their instincts were correct.
Behind them, cars began to twist as though caught inside an invisible blender.
The screech of tearing metal filled the air. Glass and steel shards burst upward in a storm of debris.
At first, the destruction was localized. But as more cars were crushed, leaked gasoline ignited—and fire erupted.
Flames roared. The heat rolled through the lot like a living beast.
The fleeing extras ran even faster, as if their lives depended on it—which, frankly, they did.
They say real men never look back at explosions—but that's only in movies, where the heroes walk away in style.
These extras didn't look back either… but their sprint was anything but cool. It was all panic and desperation.
Fortunately, the gasoline in the cars was limited, so the explosions weren't catastrophic. The fire looked intense, but the main structure of the parking lot held up.
Still, just because the building survived didn't mean everyone inside would.
At this point, aside from the two heroines, no one wanted to stick around in this hellish scene.
Yes, it was raining outside. But getting soaked and catching a cold was infinitely better than being roasted alive in here.
The parking lot had turned into a scene straight out of hell.
And yet, Okita—as Asagami Fujino—looked utterly pleased with herself. She was enjoying the destruction she'd wrought.
A stray extra stumbled into her line of sight. Without hesitation, she activated her Mystic Eyes.
"AAAHHH—!"
The man's scream echoed through the concrete chamber as his body was pulled in two different directions at once.
"Twist!"
Okita's mouth curled into a wide, manic grin—a laugh that fit Fujino's descent into madness perfectly. Truly, a performance born of chaos.
But then—
Squelch
The twisting stopped.
Okita froze mid-laugh, confusion flickering across her face.
The man—who should have been crushed into a grotesque spiral—was still running.
She turned her head slowly toward him, her expression saying it all:
Why… did the twisting stop?
Okita spun in place, baffled, then finally fixed her gaze on Ryougi Shiki a short distance away.
"So it's you…"
She didn't know how Shiki had done it, but since this other woman was of her "kind," it wasn't surprising she could pull strange tricks.
"That just makes me want to kill you even more… Ryougi Shiki!"
Asagami Fujino's eyes suddenly widened; the cars between her and Shiki began to warp all at once.
A thunderous explosion ripped out. Scarlet flames and billowing black smoke shot up toward the parking lot's ceiling.
Shiki saw the fire rushing at her and slashed with the dagger in her hand. The blade of light split the inferno cleanly in two.
But more detonations followed—a chain of explosions as frenzied as Fujino's current state of mind, trying to destroy everything she laid eyes on.
Shiki frowned slightly. While cutting the flames open with her dagger she pushed forward toward her enemy.
Just as her blade was about to touch Fujino—
"Twist."
A huge hole opened in the left wall of the parking lot, as if some giant outside had hammered it hard.
The gale and driving rain poured through the breach, hitting Shiki like a living thing trying to sweep her away.
"Cough—! Cough!"
Shiki fell to the ground, coughing; the rush of water had choked her.
"Perfect, everyone."
Seeing the sequence work in one take, Shinji actually stood and breathed out in relief.
Sure, the part where Shiki ended up on the floor would be unusable as-is, but that could be patched with a small insert later—no big deal.
Shinji gave a thumbs-up to Archer, who was soaked through, and called out, "Nice work, Archer."
Then he turned to Shiki. "You did well, too."
"…"
Shiki's lips trembled; she glared at Shinji with simmering anger, like she wanted to say something but couldn't force the words out.
"Uh…"
Only then did Shinji notice both of Shiki's hands were shaking, her whole body a little unsteady. He scratched his chin awkwardly. "Shiki-nee, go get yourself dried off. Don't catch a cold."
. . .
"Ryougi-san, let's get you warmed up."
As the film's female lead, Shiki had a personal assistant on set. The assistant wrapped a dry towel around her soaking body and helped her toward the rest area.
Probably because cold mattered more than fury in that moment, Shiki chose warmth over cursing Shinji out.
She hugged the heated gem Rin Tohsaka had pressed into her hands and followed her assistant off the set.
"That little gadget you invented actually came in handy." Shinji ribbed Rin, "Way more useful than one of those disposable heat packs at times like this."
Rin pursed her lips. She didn't like Shinji's tone—it felt like he was treating her as if she were dumb.
So Rin shot back with a teasing voice: "Alright, Shinji. Quit staring at our drenched star. What, you thinking you'll get a peek at her underwear or something?"
"Of course not. Shiki's outfit won't turn see-through just because it got wet."
This wasn't some lewd film—the wardrobe the production provided wouldn't become transparent even when saturated.
Shinji wasn't just protecting Shiki's privacy; he was also avoiding something worse: accidentally filming something that would fail censorship.
If anything embarrassing slipped past the reviewers, the whole world might suddenly know what Ryougi Shiki wore under her clothes.
Don't count on the human reviewers catching everything—people make mistakes, which is why bloopers and continuity errors still show up in finished movies.
It's not exactly unheard of for the censors to miss things.
Back in Shinji's previous life, in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, there had actually been a scene where one of the actresses had a wardrobe slip—and somehow, the reviewers completely missed it.
He had no idea how much psychological damage that one fleeting frame might've caused to any kids watching.
Though, realistically, the kids probably blinked and didn't notice a thing. It was gone in an instant.
"Still, you're seriously heartless," Rin said, a tinge of sympathy in her voice. "Ryougi's face was practically turning blue."
"I think I was being plenty gentle," Shinji replied, sounding entirely too smug. "Other directors wouldn't have treated her that kindly. Most of them would've made her stay in the water until she caught a cold—all for that perfect shot."
The "other director" he referred to, of course, was none other than the infamous truck-driver-turned-perfectionist James Cameron.
When filming the sinking scenes of Titanic, Cameron had kept his actors in freezing water for so long that several crew members caught nasty colds.
Kate Winslet, the female lead, had it worst—she actually came down with pneumonia.
Compared to that obsessive madman behind the camera, Shinji's approach didn't seem too bad.
But that kind of comparison was like saying, "Hey, at least I'm better than those saintly African warlords"—as if that made a thief a model citizen.
Crime was still crime. No matter the benchmark, wrong was wrong.
"Shinji, my dear little brother!"
As expected, Shiki's voice rang out—she had changed into dry clothes but was still fuming.
"You trying to turn me into some sickly ghost girl like Okita-chan?!"
Her foot connected squarely with Shinji's backside.
"Even though I finds Ryougi-san's logic somewhat questionable," said Okita calmly, dressed in the same kimono costume Shiki had just worn, "I must agree—Master, you were absolutely being too cruel."
She looped her arm around Shiki's in solidarity.
"Heh… Okita," Shinji chuckled darkly, "I'll remember that."
When Shiki herself was on camera, Shinji held back a little.
But when it was Servant Okita's turn to perform—that restraint evaporated.
Suddenly, the fight choreography took a… creative turn.
Aerial 36,000° spinning slashes? Check.
Triple unnamed combo attacks in a half-collapsed parking structure? Check.
Swinging her sword in hurricane-force winds while rain battered her from all sides? Absolutely.
Okita performed every physically impossible move Shinji could imagine.
Forget "Weak Constitution"—what was a little blood? Cough it up and keep going. It's not like she'd actually die and return to the Throne of Heroes.
And if she did collapse, well… there was always Command Seals. A little magical "adrenaline shot," and she'd be good as new.
After all, Command Seals don't reproduce if you save them—might as well spend them before the holidays.
So, after bleeding and collapsing through scene after scene, Okita finally understood what her senpai meant when they said:
"When it comes to not acting human, Shinji truly excels at not being human."
By the time she finished filming her final stand-in shot, she was crying as she fled the set.
"Hijikata-san! Help meee! I'd rather eat your pickled radish than film another movie! Uwahhh— cough–splurt!"
Shinji swore—in two lifetimes, he'd never seen anyone who could run, cry, and spit blood all at the same time.
The parking lot sequence took four entire days to wrap.
And with Shiki finally plunging her blade into Okita's stomach, the battle between Shiki and Fujino reached its bloody, perfect conclusion.
Ryougi Shiki not only defeated her opponent—she also, at long last, found meaning in her own existence.
With that climactic fight completed, The Garden of Sinners: Remaining Sense of Pain was officially entering its final stretch.
Shinji had kept to his schedule perfectly—finishing the entire shoot before the New Year.
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