About Bug Grandpa, Sakura, and Some Plot-Related Ramblings

First of all, completely killing Bug Grandpa was not that simple.

The conditions for truly "redeeming" Bug Grandpa were rather tricky.

Although the original material stated that all of Bug Grandpa's magical energy was used to sustain his body, leaving him with few offensive methods, permanently dealing with him was still extremely troublesome.

To put it simply, every single worm was a container for a fragment of Zouken's soul. As long as even one survived, Zouken could transfer himself and continue living.

Unless the attack specifically targeted spiritual bodies.

The Brain Worm was essentially the final soul container, or rather, insurance. Only when all the worms outside had died, or when Zouken's consciousness outside had been directly destroyed by an attack targeting spiritual bodies, would the Brain Worm awaken and automatically upload Zouken's consciousness.

So even if Zouken was wiped out with an attack aimed at spiritual bodies, like Kirie's Baptism Chant in the Heaven's Feel route, the Brain Worm would still activate its mechanism and revive him.

When Rin said Bug Grandpa was not difficult to deal with in the Heaven's Feel route, she was only talking about raw strength. Actually killing Bug Grandpa for good was still very difficult, and Rin probably could not manage it.

Also, the combat power of magi was really hard to discuss. Take Rin, for example. She was indeed an outstanding magus, but imagine if someone got close, locked her throat, and prevented her from chanting. She would be useless.

Take Shinji in this story as an example. Shinji truly was not strong, and the System also had a huge trap that would be written about later. Roughly speaking, it felt like it only gave him bullets without giving him a gun, and even the bullets had some issues. It had also been said that this System was not Shinji's real cheat. One Gundam hit could take away my ability to fight, but conversely, if you missed and I got close, and you failed to defend against my attack, then getting your chest smashed and throat locked, leaving you unable to chant, would also cost you your combat ability.

So Shirou was still absurdly overpowered. The protagonist's plot armor was invincible.

To be honest, many years ago, when I had just started playing the game, I also could not understand why Shirou became so ridiculously strong in physical ability, movements, and techniques just by using Projection. He could even fight Kuzuki, who had been enhanced, head-on.

Yes, yes, yes, he could project amazing weapons, but what about the techniques? With my combat experience as an eighth-class teacher, I could not even dodge the weapons of some little brat? Couldn't I just use skilled techniques and combat experience to knock away your weapons? If we were only comparing physical ability, could you really go toe-to-toe with me?

So Projection could even enhance your physique and reaction speed? It was really hard to understand.

But later, when I read the settings for Projection, I saw this line—when copying something, it could even read and obtain the original owner's skills, allowing it to be used immediately, as though it were a sword one had wielded before!

Holy shit! As expected of the protagonist! His combat experience was instantly maxed out!

That meant even if I projected a three-thousand-jin iron staff, I could still twirl it around with fancy moves!

How were you supposed to lose with a setting like that? Tell me, how were you supposed to lose?!

Also, Bug Grandpa's magecraft.

I had seen quite a few claims that Bug Grandpa used butterfly magecraft or water magecraft when he was young. Let me clear up the rumors: they were all made up.

Makiri's magecraft had only a few key points: skilled at creation, controlling familiars, inventing Command Spells, the trait of absorption, and the element of water.

The element "water" did not mean the Matou Family controlled "water." The water element was merely tied to the trait of "absorption."

Magecraft Element—Water: the element possessed by Matou Family magi from generation to generation. The Matou Family exercised and passed down the trait of absorption.

Magecraft Trait—Absorption: the magecraft trait passed down among Matou Family magi. Magecraft using this trait had the characteristic of "always returning its results to one's own body." Absorption could also be used in bindings that restrained others.

Makiri: a renowned magecraft family skilled at creating familiars. Makiri's achievements included devising the familiar system of the Holy Grail War, namely the Servant system, and inventing the technique of "restraining them with Command Spells."

After reading those three points, it became clear why Makiri could create the Command Spell system, and why he could later absorb other people's Life Force to extend his own life.

Absorption could also be used in bindings that restrained others, plus skill at creating familiars—the Command Spell system.

Always returning its results to one's own body—extending life.

The original material also said that Makiri had supposedly been an outstanding worm user six generations ago.

That meant he was already a worm user when he knew Nagato Tohsaka.

It was really that simple. There was no record whatsoever of Bug Grandpa ever using butterfly magecraft. That was fabricated nonsense.

Those pictures of him playing with butterflies were all fanworks.

A thousand words could be summed up in one sentence: Zouken had always been a worm user. He had merely once been a righteous worm user, whereas now he was a pervert.

Honestly, I did not get it either. If he had merely forgotten his ideals and become obsessed with not dying, wanting immortality, that would have been one thing. Why did he develop the perverted quirk of taking pleasure in tormenting his descendants?

But it just appeared out of nowhere. Wasn't that strange?

I figured maybe his descendants had such poor magical aptitude one after another that they pissed him off?

Now, let's talk about Sakura in this story.

Why had Zouken not realized that Shinji could intensify Sakura's Grail... ahem, Holy Grail transformation? That was actually related to Sakura. It would be explained later, but there was no harm in saying it beforehand.

Because in Sakura's subconscious, she believed—pay attention to the words "she believed," do not argue—that her fate, as a member of the Matou Family, was that one day she would inevitably unite with Shinji and bear Matou bloodline descendants.

For Sakura, this was the only point that she subconsciously accepted as not being too bad.

Even if this brother did not love her, he would definitely still put on an act with her in certain situations, just as he had before. But even if it was only an act, it was enough for Sakura.

So she did not show much emotion. She merely silently accepted the torment and waited for that "destined" day to arrive.

That was Sakura's pitifulness.

Even if Shinji normally had all sorts of interactions with other girls, as long as this outcome did not change—as long as one day he would inevitably unite with Shinji and bear Matou bloodline descendants—Sakura would not show any tendency toward corruption.

This was one of the important reasons Zouken had not noticed, and it was also something Shinji in this story had not noticed yet.

Sakura would only turn dark after being saved, because the outcome she believed had originally been destined suddenly disappeared.

However, this darkness would still differ from the original Heaven's Feel route. It would be more like being secretly manipulative or something.

Actually, aside from the Heaven's Feel route, Sakura's endings in the other two original routes really would not be very good.

At the very least, she would continue suffering for another ten years, until the twin-tailed girl and Zhuge Liang completely dismantled the Holy Grail System, and Zouken's obsession with using the Holy Grail to achieve immortality was completely shattered. Only then might things get a little better.

Finally, I did not start writing from Fate/Zero because forcing it together with Fate/stay night, the original work, would create far too many plot holes. There were all kinds of inexplicable contradictions and out-of-character portrayals in the plot and characters before and after their appearances.

So Fate/Zero would be written as a Parallel World. I selectively skipped over the Fourth Holy Grail War from the original Fate/stay night, since Fate/stay night provided too little material on the Fourth Holy Grail War, making it difficult to handle. I had considered writing it at first, but later abandoned the idea.

For example, Tokiomi. If I built his characterization entirely from the tiny amount of material provided in the original Fate/stay night... I might get flamed to death by some Tokiomi fans.

Let me say this: Fate/Zero was indeed an officially recognized prequel, but official recognition did not change its nature as a fanwork. There was no need to argue over that. It was simply a fact.

Anyway, I had always treated it as a Parallel World.

The official stance said they could be viewed as the same world, so how would you explain the Irisviel issue?

As long as someone could explain that clearly to me, I would view them as the same world.

In short----

Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero had both been integrated into the Type-Moon world arc, or simply put, the Type-Moon universe. Fate/stay night would get more focus, since the story began with a weak protagonist who had to use his brain more. There would be some flashy maneuvers, but not many, and he basically would not participate much in combat.

Naruto and the like would be other arcs, meaning other universes.

This fanfic felt like it would be quite long, and the protagonist would not level up too quickly. If he got too strong too fast, I definitely would not be able to keep it under control.

That was all. If there were any worlds you wanted to see, feel free to mention them, and I would arrange them where possible.

Some worlds would be visited for a long time, while others would be shorter. In any case, I would try to satisfy everyone. If there was a character from some world you wanted the protagonist to mess with, you could mention that too. If it fit, I could do it. This was an unlimited lighthearted story, so there was no need to be so rigid.

What I actually meant was that there was no need for every world to involve fighting solely to become stronger. Sometimes he could travel to a relaxing world and unwind, play around, stir up trouble, trigger plot events, or tease people. Even relaxing worlds had plenty of good stuff.

Lastly, the matter of the true female lead...

For now, it was mainly about having fun. We would take it slowly.

Rest assured, Shinji was not the type who would take only one sip from three thousand weak waters, reject anything less than perfect, and then jump into the lake.

In the end, he would probably be the type to take the best few scoops—or perhaps just one scoop—from three thousand weak waters. But since he still could not tell which scoop was best, he might occasionally ladle out two scoops from the lake to cool himself off.

That was only a rough idea, though. It was not certain.

That was all.