Although there were always rumors that it was a monster-themed drama, when Ye Man watched the trailer, she didn't feel that the monsters were particularly cruel.
Instead, they seemed a little... pitiful.
"So lonely... so alone."
A monster whispered emptily.
In its eyes flashed memories—memories of its past with a smiling schoolgirl in a high school uniform.
A promise to meet again.
An endless, empty wait that eventually turned into resentment.
At the end of the trailer, Wu He—no, the character Natsume Takashi played by Wu He—held a piece of paper between his lips. With a gentle breath, he blew on it, and as ink spilled from the page—
The scene looked like a painting.
The title logo of 'Natsume's Book of Friends' appeared.
In just one minute, the trailer revealed nothing about the plot. Yet the feeling...
In the fan group—
"Have you guys watched the 'Natsume's Book of Friends' trailer yet!?"
"Yeah! It actually looks really interesting!"
"Monsters? But not scary monsters. What kind of story is Teacher Jing Yu trying to tell?!"
"No idea—but this trailer has me hooked for some reason. That Natsume Reiko is so adorable!"
"Natsume Takashi is adorable, too! Wu He does a great job portraying him."
"It's not the actor—it's the character Teacher Jing Yu created that's lovable!"
"I was worried that anything Teacher Jing Yu didn't personally act in wouldn't be that good... but now? I'm seriously intrigued."
On Great Zhou's major drama forums, discussions about the 'Natsume's Book of Friends' trailer kept going into the night, right up until the final episode of 'Fate/Zero' was about to air.
Ye Man was still looking up everything she could find about 'Natsume's Book of Friends' online.
Her curiosity had been thoroughly stirred.
"I'm doomed. There's no way I'm escaping Teacher Jing Yu's clutches two weeks from now! Once 'Fate/Zero' ends, I'll probably fall straight into the 'Natsume's Book of Friends' pit."
Ye Man let out a long breath.
But now wasn't the time to be thinking about 'Natsume's Book of Friends'.
After all, the 13th and final episode of 'Fate/Zero' was about to air.
She set aside her restless thoughts.
On the TV screen, the final episode of 'Fate/Zero' began. The opening theme song was the same, but the visuals had completely changed.
And when the OP ended, the final stage of the 'Fate/Zero' story began.
After defeating the King of Conquerors, Gilgamesh had not yet reappeared. The focus shifted to two one-on-one battles: Artoria vs. Lancelot, and Kirei Kotomine vs. Kiritsugu Emiya.
This part of the story was pure special effects combat. It didn't push the plot forward much, but ironically, it was exactly this kind of visual spectacle that had a massive impact on ratings.
During the duel between Kotomine and Kiritsugu, the Holy Grail overflowed—its corrupted contents seeped through the floor, cascading down onto the fighters below.
That's when everything changed.
Kiritsugu's soul entered the Holy Grail and began a conversation with its will.
He asked how the Grail would grant his wish.
And the Holy Grail... answered by simulating an illusory world to show him.
All things come at a cost. Yes, the Holy Grail is a wish-granting machine—but it isn't an illogical godlike object beyond understanding.
To fulfill someone's wish, it must follow logic.
For example, if you wished for grilled chicken legs, that's simple—the Grail could find the best ingredients in the world and make the theoretically perfect dish.
But if you wanted grilled Super Saiyan...
Leaving aside whether the Grail could overpower a Saiyan like Vegeta to make a dish out of him, the Saiyan race would at least need to exist in the universe to begin with.
In other words, the Holy Grail cannot create something out of nothing. It needs a logical path to make wishes come true.
Kiritsugu wished for world peace, a world without conflict.
Then, logically, the method the Grail would use to grant that wish... had to be one that Kiritsugu could understand.
And Ye Man's pupils shrank.
"Kiritsugu's understanding of world peace... is sacrificing the few to save the many."
But how do you define "few" and "many"?
Human nature is in conflict. Say nine people are in a dispute—eight side together, and one is isolated. According to Kiritsugu's logic, eliminating that lone individual so the eight could survive would be the right choice.
But do those eight really live in peace after?
Wouldn't they start fighting among themselves again?
And so, to preserve the peace of the majority, the minority is sacrificed again. The survivors fight again. Repeat the same logic each time, and eventually, only two people are left.
Then one.
In the end, of nine people, Kiritsugu's choices lead to only one survivor.
From another angle—did Kiritsugu actually choose to sacrifice eight people to save just one?
Looking at each decision individually, yes—it was always the few sacrificed for the many. But from a higher perspective, as a god-like overseer, were his choices really helping more people?
What if you argue that "bad people" are the minority—if the Grail wipes them all out, the rest must be good people, right?
A world of only good people equals peace?
But no. Even if there were 7 billion people in the world, and the Grail erased 2 billion bad ones—
Would the remaining 5 billion suddenly stop fighting over survival, resources, or power?
Impossible.
Even if there were only 10 million left. Or 1 million. Or 100 people. Or 10. Or even just 2...
Conflict is inevitable. It's the nature of the species.
Even married couples fight—how could two strangers, even if both were "good," not clash eventually?
In that simulated world, Kiritsugu finally understood: his belief in sacrificing the few to save the many... was meaningless.
The definition of "few" and "many" constantly shifts. So do "good" and "evil."
If he wished for "world peace" here, the Grail—interpreting the wish through his flawed logic—might end up killing far more people than natural conflict ever would.
It might kill until only Kiritsugu himself was left.
A world of one would be peaceful.
No one left to fight. No war. No struggle.
Kiritsugu finally realized: the path to peace he'd believed in all along was a mistake. And the Holy Grail—a dangerous and absurd device—would produce an equally flawed result.
Ye Man was stunned.
Until the Grail revealed the essence of Kiritsugu's actions, she hadn't seen anything wrong with what he had done. But now—now she was shaken with him.
Kiritsugu, crying, put his hands around the neck of the Grail's avatar—taking the form of Irisviel—and strangled it.
That moment signified his refusal.
He would not make a wish to the Grail.
"All the evils of the world will curse you. Die. Die..."
The Grail's will, inheriting Irisviel's personality, cursed him before being extinguished.
That scene was eerily similar to when Diarmuid cursed Kiritsugu as he died.
And now, Diarmuid's curse had come true. Kiritsugu's wish could never be granted. Even if he won the Holy Grail War, the wish would fail.
Because world peace—peace without conflict—doesn't exist.
After awakening from the Grail's dark sludge, Kiritsugu, in grief and emptiness, pulled the trigger and shot the just-awakened Kotomine Kirei.
In the fan chat group—
"So that's how it is!"
"Damn... Kiritsugu's so tragic. He sacrificed so much only to realize that world peace was impossible. All he did... meant nothing. Killing is still killing."
"Teacher Jing Yu absolutely nailed this show!"
"This hit me hard. When Kiritsugu strangled Irisviel's avatar, he must have been in so much pain, realizing his dream could never come true."
"But even so... he was still a hero. Everything he did came from a desire for justice. It's tragic, but not laughable."
"Yeah. He just realized it too late. To get here, he had already killed who knows how many 'minorities' with his own hands."
"Teacher Jing Yu's plot and characters are incredible. It hurt so much to watch—but I couldn't look away. I need to know what happens next."
Meanwhile, without anyone noticing, 'Fate/Zero's viewership had already climbed to 12.3% just halfway through the final episode.