Tonight, We're All Knights of the Round Table

"She's so cool! Is she a white knight prince?"

Shinji clearly heard the exclamation from a girl in the row ahead.

[Heh. I wonder if they'll start calling her Lady King of Knights someday.]

Shinji glanced toward the back row.

The "white knight prince" the girl had mentioned was watching the big screen with a serious expression, but her hands were shoveling popcorn into her mouth with elegant speed (second bucket).

Watching Lady King of Knights focus on eating amid all the commotion in the theater, she seemed to embody the attitude, "Human joys and sorrows aren't shared. I just think they're noisy."

Unlike Artoria, who ate quietly, the male Heroic Spirits were busy making fun of Lancer.

"Hahaha! Your Noble Phantasm didn't even hit! That's what happens when you force yourself to use one despite your low Luck!"

Gilgamesh slapped his thigh and laughed maniacally.

"Hmph. Not bad."

Red A didn't laugh out loud. He only curled his lips into a faint smile.

Cú Chulainn shot back sarcastically, "The guy who got wrecked by Saber in one move has no right to talk!"

"So noisy..." Medusa muttered beside them. "I'm definitely not sitting next to this bunch next time."

At the time, Medusa hadn't realized that the loudest thing in a movie theater was never the people talking nearby, but the theater's sound system.

Especially when FSN was a movie packed with fights and explosions.

The opening clash between Red A and Cú Chulainn on the school grounds had been small potatoes. So was Saber's debut at the Emiya Residence, which was playing now.

The movie's first real set piece was the scene where Shirou and the others encountered Illya and Berserker on their way back from the church.

"■■■■■----!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Berserker's roar and the nonstop explosions filled the theater. The audience was stunned by the wild succession of shots, as relentless as a runaway train.

Even Udagawa Nao, who had already watched the movie several times, patted her chest, still shaken.

"That was... intense..."

The few times Udagawa Nao had watched FSN before, she'd either seen it projected in a conference room or watched it on a monitor in the workroom. She still hadn't experienced the movie's full audiovisual spectacle on the big screen.

"That little boy... he's amazing."

Recalling the smile of a certain young director, Udagawa Nao gave her assessment with a complicated expression.

Beside Udagawa, Aoko kept running her hand along the armrest. The immersive scene had made her instinctively feel as if magecraft had thrown her onto a street in Fuyuki City.

The battle on the screen continued, and Shirou's side was at a complete disadvantage. Saber was no match for Berserker in a direct fight, and Red A's ambush after getting injured hadn't done much good. He couldn't even keep Berserker occupied.

With the tense, thrilling background music playing, Aoko felt the movie's plot tugging at her heart.

When the scene reached its final moment and Berserker sent Shirou flying with a single blow as he tried to protect Saber, Aoko almost felt as if her heart had shattered.

"Isn't that a bit too brutal?"

"Hey, hey, is this guy called Shirou Emiya really the main character? He's been through nothing but trouble all night."

"Maybe that's the price of summoning Saber."

Exclamations and worried comments rose around them. Most of the audience was concerned about Shirou's serious injuries, though a few fans who'd already fallen for Saber seemed almost delighted.

The audience member with the most extreme reaction was probably Shirou's adoptive father, Kiritsugu. When he saw his foolish son charge straight in, he covered his face with a slap.

"That really is the kind of thing Shirou would do," Kiritsugu said helplessly. "He didn't think it through at all. If he wanted to save someone in that situation, he should've found a way to draw the enemy's attention first. He didn't save anyone—he just got himself hurt too."

"Come on, Kiritsugu. Don't dwell on it." Irisviel smiled at the screen like a doting aunt. "Isn't it wonderful that Shirou and Illya can get along so well?"

Did she really think that counted as getting along?

Kiritsugu glanced at his bloodied godson on the screen again and tried to figure out what his wife meant.

Shirou's injury marked not only the end of the battle, but also the end of the movie's prologue.

The movie then moved into its second part, the Rider Route, with a relatively gentle transition.

As the plot truly got underway, Shinji's role as the second Master finally made its entrance.

If she hadn't met him at the banquet, Aoko would have found it impossible to connect him with the greasy playboy on screen.

He was far too different in both cunning and manner of speech.

Seeing that the movie had slowed down a little, Aoko turned around slightly. "I didn't expect the young master of the Matou Family to be such a good actor. His acting skills are pretty good, too."

"Of course. He's a prodigy of the mage world." Kuonji Azu spoke with obvious pride. "Don't judge him by a mortal's standards."

Aoko took a long sip of cola and let out a small burp, utterly lacking in grace.

"Well, I'm not denying his talent in magecraft. Otherwise, Grandpa wouldn't have sought him out... Huh?"

On screen, Shinji arrogantly challenged the protagonist, Shirou Emiya, to a duel, repeatedly mocking him as inferior.

Second Master's somewhat comical performance amused Aoko. She gently nudged her friend. "Azu, do you think the Matou boy has some kind of scheme?"

"Be quiet!"

Azu said with irritation, "It's rude to disturb other people while they're watching a movie."

"...Since when did you like watching movies?"

Aoko remembered that her friend hated crowded places like movie theaters.

"Since forty minutes ago. Is that not allowed?"

As Azu spoke, she held out a faintly glowing finger.

"If you keep talking nonsense, Aoko, I'll use magecraft to make sure you can't speak."

"...Okay, I get it."

Aoko obediently backed down and took a glum sip of cola.

Tonight, We're All Knights of the Round Table

Fortunately, Aoko's frustration didn't last long. As the battle at the school began, a series of earth-shaking explosions made her snap her attention back to the screen.

Saber and Rider darted through the narrow corridors. The explosions caused by the two Heroic Spirits clashing flared into brilliant bursts of light that surged out from inside the school building.

Aoko had the illusion that the flames on the screen, along with the shards of glass, were sweeping toward her outside the big screen. Her heart started racing before she knew it.

The final scene, where Rider and Saber unleashed their Noble Phantasms, was especially spectacular. The dazzling curtain of light nearly filled the whole screen. The massive shockwave tore through the sky and shattered every window in the school building, sending glittering shards raining down like scattered flower petals...

Only after the battle ended and the scene returned to the panting Artoria, exhausted from the drain on her magical energy, did Aoko finally relax a little.

But her heart was still pounding hard. Aoko felt as if her blood were on the verge of boiling.

"Now that was good." Aoko licked her lips, panting slightly. "I really want to fight one of these Heroic Spirits. What do you think, Azu?"

"Be quiet."

Her friend responded coldly.

At the preview screening in Fuyuki City, Medusa was mourning her on-screen demise.

"My role... it ends just like that."

Medusa lowered her head slightly and sighed.

To keep the movie's runtime and pacing in check, Shinji had cut quite a bit from the Rider Route. He'd removed many transitional scenes outright or reduced them to a brief mention.

In the original story, Rider and Saber had two battles, but Shinji combined them into one, making Rider exit the story during the school battle.

After all, movies were different from games and anime series. There was neither the time nor the need to flesh everything out in detail. Filling the film with minor side plots would only make it a mess.

Shinji's approach gave the movie a faster pace and made it more enjoyable for the audience.

But it wasn't very friendly to Rider. Not only had her role been reduced, but Artoria had stolen the spotlight that should have gone to her Noble Phantasm.

"Ah, so that's it for me."

Rider sighed, stroking her book with a wistful look. A trace of reluctance showed on her face.

"You've got it easy," Little Yi Ge complained beside her. "At least you got one scene. My entire role got cut! I even spent so long practicing Japanese swordsmanship..."

The Caster team had very little screen time in the Fate Route, and their contribution to the main plot was negligible.

So when editing the movie, Shinji had simply minimized the C Team's role, keeping only Caster Medea's scenes in the second half as a lead-in to Gilgamesh's appearance.

Yan Qing was naturally unhappy with Shinji's decision. It was bad enough that he couldn't show his face, but now more than two-thirds of his scenes had been cut!

"Come on, come on, Little Yi Ge, don't be angry~"

Hearing Yan Qing's complaints from behind him, Shinji hurriedly turned around to placate him.

This versatile stunt double would be an important moneymaker for Shinji in the future, so he naturally had to keep him happy.

"There's only so much room in the movie, so I had to cut your scenes," Shinji explained. "You're not the only one. I cut all of Red A's exit battle, too."

"Hey, what did you say?!"

Red A immediately lost his composure at that.

He'd only appeared in two fights in the entire movie, and now one of them had been cut?!

"I couldn't help it. There's only so much room in the movie," Shinji explained with a wry smile. "But don't worry. I'll put your scenes back in the extended DVD edition."

[Extended editions usually just add a few dialogue scenes. I'm adding spectacular fights—and two of them, no less. This is going to be the extended edition's biggest selling point! Hahaha~]

Though Shinji was laughing like a swindler inside, he put on an apologetic expression.

"..." "..."

Red A and Yan Qing exchanged glances. What Shinji said seemed to make sense, but they still felt that something was off.

"But my role really ends here, doesn't it?"

Rider gave a cold snort. She didn't remember filming any extra scenes.

"Well..."

Shinji rubbed his nose helplessly.

Unlike Yan Qing and Red A, Medusa's role had been decided in advance to be cut down before filming even began.

"You really are a heartless Master," Medusa said scornfully. "Maybe I should just switch to Sakura as my Master."

"I wouldn't object."

Shinji shrugged. After all, Rider being a Sakura fan was just like Saber being a glutton: it was a setting written into the very Root of the Nasuverse.

His little sister wasn't an outsider anyway. Even if Medusa really did choose Sakura as her Master, the meat would still be in the same pot.

The interactions among the cast members didn't draw the attention of the other audience members in the theater. By then, they were already completely absorbed in the movie.

From Shinji challenging Shirou to a duel, to the rescue, their argument, the danger they fell into, Saber's arrival, and the Servants' clash... The thrilling, nonstop sequence of scenes had the whole audience at the preview calling out in excitement. They'd never seen such an exhilarating movie.

There was nothing particularly novel about how Shinji had filmed this part of the story. He'd simply followed the standard approach of the traditional Hollywood effects movies from his previous life.

But the people in this Parallel world had never seen anything like it. The dazzling fights and tense plot gave the audience an oppressive intensity they'd never experienced before!

"Phew..."

Azu pulled out a handkerchief and gently wiped the sweat from her temple.

Even a rational viewer like her, who paid more attention to the magecraft spells in the movie than the action, had seemed a little tense.

"It's hard to catch your breath... Is this really a movie?"

Azu put her reaction plainly. Before today, she'd never imagined that a movie could be made like this, let alone that she'd one day find it more immersive than a book.

Quite a few audience members felt the same way as Azu. As they watched the school building, nearly destroyed in the clash between the Heroic Spirits, it seemed to represent the entire screening perfectly—wild destruction.

"Phew... phew..."

Risei Kotomine was panting like an ox. Feeling overheated, he simply took off his coat.

He didn't have high blood pressure or heart disease, but the theater's thunderous sound system was still too much for the elderly Risei Kotomine.

"This movie is a little too intense for an old man like me."

After several deep breaths, Risei Kotomine's chest gradually settled.