Shinji: Doesn't This Make Me Look Pathetically Weak?!

"Your expression is too obvious," Shinji. "You should learn from your father and become a cold-blooded killer."

Shirou shook his head. "I could never imitate that kind of face of his."

Shinji wicked smile, "Idiot, at a time like this you should be saying 'Is he a cold-blooded North Korean killer?'"

Shirou retorted angrily, "Shinji, don't tease me!"

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it, Shirou, you're just more fun."

Shinji smiled, a smile similar to Sakura's.

"Stop talking about me, tell me how you are doing?"

Shirou, determined to get his revenge, wore a playful smile as he subtly observed Shinji.

"Let's talk about why you, Great Director Shinji Matou, aren't home yet, it's so late. You usually stay home watching TV dramas, don't you~"

However, compared to his gaze, Shirou's tone was even more subtle. It was a teasing tone that rarely appeared on him.

"Well..."

Shinji was clearly wavering; the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

"Well, since the HF route is Restricted rating drama, I think it's better for a few of us guys to watch it together..."

Shinji coughed twice, managing to come up with a reason that wasn't really a reason.

"Hehe, did you make Sakura angry again?"

Shirou looked like he'd seen through it all; he'd guessed it when Shinji called him to watch TV during dinner that evening.

"It's about that weight-loss Magecraft trick."

Shinji looked utterly dejected.

"Sakura knows?"

"Lizzie told her."

Shinji sighed deeply, and even the background around him seemed to turn gray.

"That's why you don't want to fast forward..." Shirou nodded knowingly, "If we finish early here, we'll run into Sakura who's still awake when we get home, right?"

Shinji didn't speak, but the expression on his face said it all.

"Luckily, my little sister is less troublesome than yours," Shirou with a proud smile.

"Yes, Illya won't punish you, she'll just cut you into pieces."

"Don't talk about such terrifying things so calmly!" Shirou retorted. "And wasn't that a script you wrote on your own initiative, Shinji?"

"But when Illya gets sullen, her smile is really amazing. Don't believe me? Just look!"

Shinji gave Shirou a thumbs up, and at that moment the plot reached the point where Illya and Shirou met for the first time.

"..."

Shirou didn't know whether he should admit he was scared or admit that his sister was cute even though she was dark-skinned.

In the end Shirou decided to shut up, because he simply couldn't argue with Shinji.

However, Shirou was not discouraged. He planned to wait until all the Heroic Spirit had arrived before joining everyone in complaining about Shinji.

After all, there's just too much to criticize about Shinji himself in the Heaven's Feel script.

Fortunately, Shirou didn't have to wait too long; Illya's appearance was relatively late in the prologue.

Soon, the Fifth Holy Grail War finally began for the third time.

Bite!

The red spear and the black and white swords sparked brightly as they rubbed against the screen.

"Hey, Shinji."

Shirou lay on the table, resting his chin on his hand.

"Was that first clashing sound of swords a bit too loud?"

Shinji shrugged. "I did it on purpose. Just to remind those who are already asleep that the story has officially begun."

Shirou's face darkened. "Aren't all the people who buy DVDs hardcore fans? Would anyone fall asleep?"

Shinji gave a cryptic smile, "Who knows? Maybe someone will be convinced by it?"

His guess was correct, because there was indeed someone who was put to sleep by Shirou and Sakura's romantic scenes and then woken up by Cú Chulainn's battle with Red A.

"What happened? Did those bastards from the Matou Family come to assassinate me?"

Under Aoko's disbelief, Aozaki Public, who had been woken up, jumped up from the sofa.

Chapter 141 Shinji: Doesn't this make me look incredibly weak?!

Aozaki Public looked around his living room in a daze until he saw the battle between Lancer and Archer playing on the TV screen, and then he realized what he had been doing before he fell asleep.

"Hmph, Aoko, that's not right of you. Why didn't you do anything?"

Despite realizing that he had made a mountain out of a molehill and even embarrassed himself in front of his granddaughter.

But what kind of person is Aozaki Public? He's always the one who has to apologize to others, never the one who has to apologize to others.

"Grandfather..."

Aoko's eyelids twitched involuntarily twice.

[What can I do? If I wake you up, you'll definitely yell at me for disturbing your sleep; if I cover you with a blanket, you'll surely say why I didn't move you to the bed; turning off the TV won't work either, you'll probably say I didn't wake you up so you could keep watching...]

Aoko knew she absolutely couldn't argue with her grandfather's unreasonable arguments.

Otherwise, the old man will only get more and more excited and eventually start arguing with you.

In Aoko's eyes, her grandfather was the most troublesome and stubborn old man who was impossible to communicate with.

If the other person wasn't her grandfather, Aoko would have already shoved a Magic Bullet into his face.

Unfortunately, Aoko was simply not cut out for anything, so she had no choice but to ignore Aozaki Public.

Aozaki Public's reaction was not much different from what Aoko had expected. Seeing that his granddaughter did not refute him, he obediently shut his mouth.

[Hmph, Aoko is Aoko, she only knows how to reflect on her own mistakes. Completely different from that unfilial granddaughter who only makes excuses for herself.]

[As expected, my judgment was correct; Aoko should be the successor.]

Feeling Aozaki Public leaned back on the sofa and began to focus his attention on HF.

The battle between Lancer and Archer didn't last long, after all, this was already the third time. Not to mention Shinji, Cú Chulainn and Red A didn't know what would happen if they clashed again under these circumstances.

That being said, Shinji didn't skip over it like in the movie; at least he explained the background and consequences of this part of the story.

The Type-Moon anime adaptations before the Second Master's time travel had two very serious problems: either they completely deviated from the original work or they were too obscure, making them incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with the original setting.

The former adaptation was quite bad, and only core fans would watch it; the latter was completely incomprehensible to casual viewers, and only core fans could understand it.

As a result, Type-Moon's anime works eventually became topics of discussion only among Type-Moon fans.

Generally speaking, adapting games and novels into anime should be a great opportunity to expand the fanbase, but Type-Moon's anime works have struggled to capitalize on this advantage and have been forced to rely on their existing fanbase.

Fortunately, Type-Moon has a solid financial foundation, and with FGO as a money-making machine, the company is unlikely to go bankrupt.

Of course, forget about going any further; Nasu whose only goal is to avoid starvation certainly don't have that kind of ambition.

Shinji's ambitions far exceed those of any fungus, so his expectations for FSN film and television works are also much higher.

Although HF was released through relatively small channels, namely OV and pay channels, he still hoped to gain a new audience—those viewers with more extreme tastes—through this work.

There's no way around it; aside from Fate fans, any new viewers who watch HF through these two channels are definitely not respectable people.

Who in their right mind watches HBO?!

For these new viewers, Shinji explained the setting in fairly detail, although not in great depth, but at least enough for newcomers to understand the general idea.

Even Aozaki Public, whose mind was practically frozen in stone, had no major problems understanding it.

Of course, it's also possible that Aozaki Public himself is Magecraft, and he already knew many Magecraft theories, so he didn't need to understand that much new knowledge.

At least he understood the plot and still had the leisure to criticize the Matou Family's insect burrow.

"Tsk tsk, how can the Matou Family still keep so many Engraved Insect? Did they empty their pockets to make this movie?"

Aozaki Public's values are those of a typical old-school Magecraft. He doesn't care whether magic is heretical or not; as long as it gets to the root of the problem, it's good Magecraft.

"Perhaps they aren't all Engraved Insect..."

Aoko rubbed the goosebumps on her arms—the excessive number of insects made her a little uncomfortable—and answered cautiously.

"I've heard that a lot of props are used in filming movies and TV series, and these Engraved Insect might just be props that are all show and no substance."

Aozaki Public turned to his granddaughter. "Aoko, do you know a lot about movies?"

Aoko was startled, but she tried to remain calm and replied, "Well... it's common knowledge among young people; anyone would know that."

Is that so?

Aozaki Public didn't suspect his granddaughter, but he still reminded her, "Aoko, you can't waste your energy on such improper things. You are the heir of the Aozaki Family; you should focus more on the Magecraft."

"I see."

Aoko nodded obediently, then secretly took out her phone and sent a message in the discussion group.

Red-haired Blue: [Are you guys watching Heaven's Feel? What do you think? (?? )]

Aoko was cunning enough not to mention that she had already read it in advance. She planned to wait until Azu finished sharing their thoughts before she would switch sides and say that she had read it even earlier than them.

However, Aoko miscalculated. When she sent the message, Azu and the others had already started watching HF. At that moment, everyone in the club was focused on the TV, and no one noticed Aoko's message.

By the time everyone was distracted by the "pure love between Shirou Emiya and Matou Sakura," a long time had passed.

Everyone, assuming that Aoko was already asleep, tacitly refrained from speaking in the discussion group.

After all, the other people you need to talk to are in the same room; isn't talking faster than typing on a phone?

As for Miss Aozaki's message, I can reply to it tomorrow.

So Aoko and the others were just waiting in vain for replies, but Azu, including her friends, didn't care about Aoko's feelings. At this moment, they were already shocked by the almost full screen of insects.

Although insects are a standard feature in horror movies, the sheer number of them was still quite startling.

Due to censorship, Shinji does not include the scene of young Sakura being disciplined, which means that the Fate/Zero movie does not show any specific scenes of the Insect Cave.

When HF truly displayed the Matou Family's insect burrow on the screen, the dense swarm of insects genuinely startled everyone.

"This part is truly terrifying!"

A young Magecraft instinctively covered her eyes, her voice sweet and coquettish, giving her a soft and gentle appearance.

Shibamatsu, who knew his true nature well, scoffed at this.

[Who are you trying to impress? Everyone knows your family's Magecraft involves vampire plants. You've seen this kind of thing countless times.]

Shibamatsu muttered to himself.

[Especially since you're covering your eyes while peeking through your fingers, are you trying to fool a ghost!?]

Although Shibamatsu knew that many girls did indeed have a contradictory psychology when watching horror movies: they were so scared that they dared not watch them, but the more scared they were, the more they wanted to watch them.

But such a situation would never happen to these young Magecraft.

Of course, it would be a lie to say that Shibamatsu had no reaction at all when he saw the insect burrow—at least, when he saw swarms of insects crawling all over the screen, he also felt goosebumps.

This has nothing to do with fear or trypophobia; it's purely a physiological discomfort.

"I never expected that Director Shinji Matou would be so talented at making horror films."

Shibamatsu really didn't expect such a heartwarming love scene at the beginning, but as soon as the Holy Grail War started, it immediately switched to a thriller mode.

"Just based on this scene full of insects, it wouldn't be unfair if it were classified Restricted rating."

Shibamatsu turned to look at the girl Azu shining eyes and asked curiously, "Miss Kuzunoha, what do you think?"

"I already knew about using Engraved Insect to modify Magic Circuits from Fate/Zero, but I really didn't expect that Magecraft could extend their lifespan by relying on Engraved Insect. Is that even possible?"

"I'm sorry... I don't know..."

Seeing that the eldest sister had entered "study mode, "Shibamatsu quickly retreated.

Compared to ordinary viewers who watch films for thrills, and Magecraft like Azu who watch films for academic purposes, a few viewers find a unique enjoyment in watching HF.