Shut Up, You're Interrupting My Movie

"Could you move aside, please?"

The red-haired woman asked Udagawa Nao.

"Sorry."

Udagawa Nao quickly pulled her feet back.

The red-haired woman hurriedly led the black-haired woman to the seats on Udagawa Nao's right.

Perhaps the movie theater's atmosphere made them feel less guarded. After sitting down, the two beauties chatted away as if no one else were there.

Of course, most of the talking came from the lively redhead. The black-haired woman only responded now and then, or asked brief questions.

From the way they addressed each other, Udagawa Nao learned that the red-haired woman was called Aoko, and the short-haired brunette was called Azu.

"Luck~"

The girl called Aoko set down her phone, looking pleased with herself.

"Having a sister who works here is such a stroke of luck. If Touko hadn't reminded me, I might not have gotten a ticket at all."

"Aoko..."

Kuonji Azu, seated to her left with the air of a literary girl, spoke quietly. "Why are you so interested in this movie? Touko wasn't involved, was she?"

"It has nothing to do with my sister." Aoko grinned. "I just want to see what kind of movie the director who made the old man furious has made."

"It'll probably be terrible. I can't imagine how a mage could make a movie." Kuonji Azu sounded concerned. "I regret coming, Aoko. I shouldn't have come with you."

"Don't say that. It's free, so we might as well watch it. Just think of it as a way to kill time, Azu. Here, have some popcorn."

"You know I don't like that stuff."

Azu pushed away the popcorn her friend offered.

Hearing their conversation, Udagawa Nao smiled. She took Aoko and Azu for ordinary moviegoers, and assumed they weren't excited about the film because it lacked big-name stars and a famous director.

In fact, neither of them watched movies often. If Shinji hadn't made such a strong impression on Aoko at the banquet that day, she wouldn't have bothered coming to the theater.

As for Azu, she wouldn't have come if Aoko hadn't dragged her along. Azu had never liked crowded places, and she especially disliked enclosed spaces like movie theaters, where people were shut in together for a long time.

Udagawa Nao stopped paying attention to the two beside her and turned her focus to the other moviegoers around them.

As more and more people entered, the theater grew noisier.

From the chatter all around, Udagawa Nao could tell that hardly anyone was genuinely interested in FSN.

The audience consisted of people who routinely applied for tickets to new movies and had been selected in the draw. They had come with the mindset that, since they'd won tickets, not using them would be a waste.

If the audience still reacts like this after the movie starts, this film is in trouble.

Udagawa Nao let out a quiet sigh. Even though she personally had high hopes for FSN, she couldn't help worrying.

Snap.

The theater lights went out, and the big screen came to life.

"The movie's starting."

Aoko muttered from her seat, but she didn't stop sipping her cola or chewing popcorn. Most of her attention wasn't on the screen.

"Azu, if you don't want your cola, can I have it later?"

Aoko shook her paper cup, saw that she had already drunk two-thirds of it, and asked her friend.

"Do what you like."

Azu leaned one arm on her chair, looking impatient.

"Thanks."

Without hesitation, Aoko placed Azu's cola on the armrest to her left, then set the popcorn on her lap.

The big screen had just finished showing the logos for TYPE-MOON Film Company and Bandai, and the feature was beginning.

"The Holy Grail War: a bloody battle fought by mages over the Holy Grail, a wish-granting machine capable of granting any desire..."

Father Mapi's deep, steady voice came through the theater speakers, introducing the most basic premise of the Holy Grail War.

"Mm-hmm..."

Aoko took a long sip of cola, then grabbed a few kernels of popcorn and tossed them into her mouth.

"Hey, Azu. Have you ever heard of the Holy Grail War?"

Azu thought for a moment before replying. "Mm... The magecraft ritual in Fuyuki City? I've heard a little about it. It was abandoned a long time ago because the Heroic Spirits were too weak to meet the requirements."

"Huh? It's real?" Aoko stuffed more popcorn into her mouth and commented, "That Matou kid really isn't afraid of trouble. He actually dared to reveal something like this?"

"Pff—"

Udagawa Nao, sitting beside Aoko, struggled to hold back her laughter.

Are these two girls still going through their chuunibyou phase? They actually think the movie's premise is real? And they're getting into it way too quickly.

Udagawa Nao glanced at Azu out of the corner of her eye.

I never would've guessed that quiet girl was the imaginative type. I've heard that reserved literary girls tend to have vivid imaginations, but I didn't expect her to get this carried away.

Aoko and Azu had no idea that, in someone else's eyes, they'd become hopeless chuunibyou. They continued chatting about the movie on and off, still from the perspective of professional mages.

By then, the film had reached the middle of its opening sequence. Rin discovered a magic circle on the school rooftop and realized that a Blood Temple covered the entire school.

"Interesting, but barriers like this are usually all show and no substance, right?" Aoko commented. "They'd absorb magical energy, but probably only convert a tiny bit of it."

"More trouble than it's worth."

Azu summed it up in a few terse words.

Before Aoko could respond, Lancer appeared on screen, followed by the first fight scene in the movie.

When Lancer and Archer collided on the athletic field, Aoko raised her eyebrows.

"I wonder if these Heroic Spirits..."

She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes fixed on the screen...

Azu reacted almost exactly the same way beside her. She stopped slouching in her seat and sat upright, placing both hands properly on her knees.

Azu had never liked movies. Her only impressions of them were noisy, childish cartoons and art films where people were constantly taking their clothes off.

She had never understood what was artistic about two people pressing their bodies together and exchanging bodily fluids. The mage world was full of rituals far more stimulating than that.

So Azu preferred reading. She felt that books let her commune with the souls of their authors.

But FSN was completely different from the movies she'd seen before. There were no long-winded conversations, no sluggish pacing, no baffling shots—just an exciting plot and spectacular battles.

More importantly, as an experienced mage, Azu was captivated by the dazzling magecraft on screen, the kind that couldn't be performed in reality.

"Matou Shinji... He must be a master mage."

Azu murmured as she gazed at the screen, enthralled.

Shut Up, You're Distracting Me from the Movie

Archer and Lancer's battle was FSN's opening action sequence, and it had captured every audience member's attention from the very first frame.

Ordinary viewers were amazed by the incredible special effects and thrilling fight. Mage viewers like Azu focused instead on how the various magecraft techniques were used on screen.

And then there were a few unusual viewers whose attention was on something else entirely.

"Twenty times... I knocked your weapon away twenty times!"

Cú Chulainn chuckled and jabbed the Red A beside him with his elbow.

"I'm telling you, Archer, your projected weapons aren't sturdy enough. If the Master hadn't yelled 'Cut,' I bet I would've beaten you to death."

The Heroic Spirits were such skilled fighters that Shinji rarely choreographed their moves. When filming these action scenes, he gave them a rough outline of the fight and let them improvise the rest.

So the fact that the Man with a Back View—the Red A—had been getting beaten down by Big Doggy wasn't a problem with the script. He really couldn't beat him.

Even so, Red A wasn't pleased to hear the dog beside him making fun of him.

Determined to lose the fight without losing face, Red A folded his arms and leaned back in his seat, looking utterly composed. "You're comparing yourself to a ranged fighter in close combat. Don't you feel ridiculous?"

"Wasn't that your own choice?" Cú Chulainn rolled his eyes. "You're an Archer, but you like rushing in with two short swords and hacking away."

"That was just the Master's order."

Red A said it without so much as blinking, as if he really would do such a thing.

"Mm-mm... Mm-mm..."

On the other side, Artoria shoveled handful after handful of popcorn into her mouth.

"Their fight's going on a bit too long," Artoria complained. "Hey, Rider, call me when I come on screen. I'm going to eat for a while."

"You're so noisy. Can't you just watch the movie yourself?"

Medusa shot her an annoyed look, wondering if she should use her Petrifying Eye to quiet the Big Eater down.

Fortunately, the movie had a limited runtime, so Archer and Lancer couldn't fight for too long. After a few minutes of symbolic combat, they were interrupted by the intrusion of Shirou Emiya.

"Mm-mm... Am I about to show up... I'm excited... So excited..."

Seeing the plot move forward, Artoria quieted down a little and focused on the big screen. She stopped wolfing down the popcorn and nibbled at it like a hamster instead.

Apart from Artoria herself, the heroine, not many viewers were happy to see the movie's first battle end so quickly.

"Hey, hey, keep fighting!"

"It ended just when it was getting good?"

"I still want to see what that blue Bodysuit-wearing pervert is going to do!"

Listening to the audience around her, Udagawa Nao nodded in satisfaction.

The fact that the audience was voicing their opinions meant they were invested in the movie. That was a good sign.

Now, what about the two ladies beside me?

Udagawa Nao turned to Aoko and Azu, only to find them watching the screen with serious expressions.

Aoko stroked her chin and asked quietly, "Azu, could something like that really happen?"

By "something like that," she meant Rin using a jewel to save the mortally wounded Shirou.

"Mm... It's hard to say." Azu answered seriously. "In theory, it should be possible, but no one has performed magecraft of that caliber in nearly a hundred years. That's why ordinary people wouldn't even think of it. Matou Shinji really is an incredible mage..."

As she finished speaking, a trace of admiration flashed in Azu's usually calm eyes.

Azu knew the movie was fictional, of course. But the fact that Matou Shinji could use his imagination to simulate magecraft of that caliber meant his skill as a mage had to be exceptional.

"..."

Udagawa Nao could only give the two young women an awkward but polite smile.

Whatever makes you happy.

As the story continued, the next scene naturally showed Shirou Emiya trying to outwit Lancer in his own home.

Though this brief scene was nowhere near as intense as the battle between Heroic Spirits, Shinji had filmed it with plenty of suspense.

The camera raced through the narrow hallway, and the shot kept cutting between terrified Shirou and carefree Cú Chulainn. The audience, who had thought Shirou was safe, grew tense all over again, until—

"Servant Saber, I have answered your summons."

At that moment, every theater in Japan showing FSN fell completely silent, as if time itself had stopped.

"How beautiful..."

A number of viewers murmured those words.

Bathed in moonlight, Artoria made her entrance.

Thanks to Shinji's careful editing, Artoria's entrance was beautifully paced. The young knight's cool, striking features captured nearly everyone's attention at once.

She was so beautiful, so dashing, so dreamlike... There simply shouldn't be a girl like her in this world. She was the perfect knight, belonging only in a story!

It wasn't just the male viewers. Plenty of women were captivated by Artoria at first sight, too.