Don't Call Me Master, Call Me Director

"Now, I want you to head to the Tohsaka Residence immediately."

"You mean..."

"With your abilities, even the Tohsaka family's fortress-like barrier should be easy enough to overcome."

"Is that really alright?" Cú Chulainn asked with a hint of flippancy. "You and the Tohsaka family are allies."

Kirei Kotomine's tone remained calm. "You needn't concern yourself with that. Even if you face Archer, there is no need to fear him."

"Hmph, saying there's no need to fear Archer, one of the three Knight Classes."

Kirei's eyes remained utterly still. "I leave it to you. Eliminate Tokiomi Tohsaka swiftly."

It had to be said, Kirei Kotomine's emotionless voice really had a certain flavor to it. Listen to it too much, and it was easy to get addicted.

If Artoria had not been the core of the promotional campaign, and Kirei Kotomine had not been focused solely on Mapo Tofu, Shinji, the original lead of the late-night food drama, would have favored Kirei even more.

After all, a stone-faced middle-aged man whose heart churned with the passion of a foodie—such a stark contrast between outward appearance and inner self gave him an unexpectedly endearing charm.

Compared to him, Cú Chulainn's performance could only be called average. He had not truly immersed himself in Hassan's role; instead, he simply felt like Cú Chulainn in the Assassin class.

Watching the footage on the monitor, Shinji gave a slight shake of his head. "And you said you wanted to be the lead. You're still far from it."

Fortunately, Zaid had very little screen time, and Cú Chulainn had not shown his face. Audiences would not connect the two when watching the film.

More than his Acting Skills in Drama scenes, Shinji cared more about the upcoming Leap of Faith.

Cú Chulainn sprang into the air, spun three and a half times midair, and entered the water in an exceptionally elegant pose.

No, he landed in the bushes.

Immediately afterward, Cú Chulainn raced through the bushes at incredible speed, charging toward the garden of the Tohsaka Residence.

After easily vaulting over the "wall" with a high jump, Cú Chulainn revealed a disdainful smile beneath his mask.

"Hmph, this is child's play."

However, the instant his toes touched the garden tiles and he prepared to perform some gymnastics—

Boom!

A massive firework blossomed beneath Cú Chulainn's feet, bringing the first wave of art to the FZ filming set.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

More explosions swiftly followed, instantly turning the area around Cú Chulainn into a sea of "joy."

"Damn it, Master! You really don't act like a human being!"

Ten minutes later, Cú Chulainn rubbed his injured hand as he complained to Shinji.

Cú Chulainn's hand had been injured when Gilgamesh stabbed him at the end of the shoot, but that had been agreed upon before filming began.

What Cú Chulainn was complaining about was Shinji planting explosives in the garden of the "Tohsaka Residence."

That chain of explosions had not been mentioned beforehand. Cú Chulainn had been completely unprepared at first.

Fortunately, Cú Chulainn was an old hand under Second Master, and familiar with Shinji's tricks. He quickly calmed down and performed an even more dazzling gymnastics routine amid the explosions than had been planned, before being unceremoniously taken out by Gilgamesh.

Although the shoot had gone very successfully, Cú Chulainn still had to complain. Otherwise, Master would only push his luck further in the future and come up with even more ways to torture him.

Yet faced with Cú Chulainn's words, Shinji merely shrugged as if it were only natural.

"I did it in pursuit of realism."

"Putting realism and explosions together means something is definitely wrong somewhere." Cú Chulainn shook his head helplessly. "And Master, don't you think you went a little overboard this time? It's way more exaggerated than the last movie."

"That's because the two films have different styles." Shinji patted Cú Chulainn on the shoulder. "You have to keep giving the audience something fresh, or you'll be left behind by the times."

"But it still feels a little too exaggerated."

Thinking of all the large-scale scenes still to come, Cú Chulainn felt an indescribable sense of weirdness, as if the FSN and FZ scripts had not been written by the same person.

Naturally, Cú Chulainn was right. The storytelling styles of Miss Mushroom and the Warrior of Love truly differed greatly, so putting them on the same person naturally felt awkward.

In fact, if someone completely unfamiliar with the settings of the Nasuverse and Fate watched only the FZ and FSN adaptations, they would most likely come away with the impression that FZ's Heroic Spirits were stronger than FSN's.

Only after delving into the setting would they suddenly realize it.

Oh, so the Fifth War was actually much stronger than the Fourth War.

This gap existed because the two authors presented their writing differently.

After all, settings only gave people an intuitive impression when they were fully displayed within the story. Otherwise, they remained nothing more than settings written on paper.

That was how the famous Nasuverse joke came about—the floor tiles of Ryuudou Temple.

They had been hit by Caster Medea's beam cannon, Gilgamesh's Ea, and Saber's Curry Stick, yet the floor tiles remained completely unharmed, sturdier even than Mash's dining table.

At the end of the day, Nasu and the Warrior of Love were simply not the same kind of writer.

From Tsukihime to Kara no Kyoukai to FSN, one could see that Nasu wrote about secret battles between urban magi under the constraints of rules during that period.

As for Urobutcher...

Why bother with secret battles? Just blow everything up. If everyone was physically wiped out, the secret would naturally stay secret.

The largest battles in FSN—whether it was the beam clash at Ryuudou Temple, the Jewel Sword on Mount Enzou, or even Saber and Shirou killing Uncle Hai with seven strikes in one blow—took place either deep in uninhabited mountains or on a magus's private property.

The only decisive battle between Saber and Rider that could be considered to have occurred in a populated area was on a rooftop where there would be no bystanders.

No matter how he counted it, throughout FSN's three routes, the incidents with the greatest impact on ordinary people were only the school gas leak and several mysterious murder cases.

Now look at Urobutcher's FZ: blowing up buildings, blasting the Sea Monster at sea, fighter jets battling Vimana in the sky—it was a completely different style.

In Shinji's view, the difference between Nasu and Urobutcher's styles was like the Black Organization in Conan's TV series versus its movies.

In the TV version, I sneak around, terrified of leaving behind even a fingerprint. In the movie version, I just spray bullets at Tokyo Tower to silence witnesses.

Of course, as literary works, neither author's style was superior to the other; they simply emphasized different things.

Some people preferred Nasu's sense of mystery, while others liked the sheer thrill of Urobutcher's grand-scale scenes.

But when it came to film and television adaptations, Urobutcher's style was obviously more popular.

After all, visuals differed from literature. The more direct and lively they were, the more likely they were to win over audiences.

Shinji felt this especially strongly.

Urobutcher's FZ was clearly more difficult than FSN in terms of scene blocking, yet the resulting visuals were better instead.

Rip.

With a sound like brocade cloth tearing, the yellow spearhead sliced open the Sea Monster model's body.

"Cut! Alright, that's it for today's shoot. Good work, everyone."

Shinji called out in satisfaction from behind the monitor.

"Whew..."

Diarmuid let out a long breath. He set his twin spears aside, then wiped his face with a towel.

To make the scene feel more realistic, the sea monster models had been filled with slime, so that when they were destroyed, they would resemble real creatures being killed.

But that was hardly friendly to the actors doing the fighting.

Diarmuid was not particularly germaphobic, but even he was not used to all that slime.

"Honestly... Hm? Master, didn't you say filming was over?"

As Diarmuid wiped his face with a towel, he noticed Shinji still holding a handheld camera and filming him nonstop.

Without even looking up, Shinji answered, "The movie shoot is over. I'm filming behind-the-scenes footage now. With a face as stunningly handsome as yours, it'd be a waste not to get more material."

Gilgamesh's reception had made Shinji realize how attractive pretty boys were to female fans, and he planned to replicate the same tactic with the new movie.

And as a handsome man himself, Diarmuid naturally became FZ's best weapon for drawing in female viewers.

Shinji had actually considered launching a male Heroic Spirit idol group, but with his current roster, he had no candidates besides Lancelot and Diarmuid. He was still one person short of the minimum three-member idol group.

There was no helping it. Uncle Hai was not idol-star material;

Big Doggy had already been trained into a comedian by Second Master, so he was not suited for acting cool;

Red A's appearance value was still a little lacking. He was handsome, sure, but not enough to make girls gasp like Diarmuid and Lancelot;

Little Yi Ge had too little presence, practically on the level of an invisible man. Adding him would make no difference;

As for Gilgamesh, Shinji would already be thanking heaven if he behaved himself while filming. Asking him to put on some concert would probably end with him hanging Shinji up and whipping him with the Chains of Heaven.

"Honestly... I should've summoned Gawain sooner."

Shinji complained first, then asked, "Come to think of it, would your mole work in photos and video clips too?"

"I don't know. I've never tried."

Diarmuid said he could not help. He genuinely did not know; after all, such things had not existed when he was alive.

"Then we'll deal with it when the time comes."

Seeing that he had filmed enough, Shinji finally lowered the camera in his hand.

"Alright, now it's really over."

Shinji handed the camera to the assistant beside him and crooked a finger at Diarmuid.

"Hurry up and clean yourself off, then come with me."

"Come with you? Where to?"

Diarmuid asked curiously.

Shinji grinned at Shuazige. "Of course, we're going to pick up your Master."

Fuyuki City Train Station.

Since the Heroic Spirits could not leave Fuyuki City, Shinji had not chosen the airport in the neighboring city as the pickup location, but Fuyuki City Station instead.

"It feels a little inconvenient," Irisviel muttered as she came along to pick them up. "If we have to pick people up from the airport often in the future, should we build one in Fuyuki City?"

Shinji replied casually, "Sure. It'd make things more convenient when I go to Europe or America, too. Does your family still have a large stretch of empty land in Fuyuki City?"

"No, no! There's no more!"

Before Irisviel could speak, Kiritsugu cut in first.

Knowing his wife loved making a fuss, Kiritsugu refused while pulling Irisviel away, keeping her far from Shinji.

He knew that if Shinji kept sweet-talking her like this, Irisviel might really build an airport in Fuyuki City.

It wasn't that the Einsbern family lacked the money to build one, but no matter how rich they were, they couldn't just squander money like that.

Seeing that his pitch had failed, Master Shinji regretfully shrugged.

According to his future development plans, if Fuyuki City really became this world's film and television center, it truly would need an airport.

But it was still too early to think about that. Shinji decided to wait until Fuyuki City's film and television productions had gained tremendous influence worldwide.

Since Kenseth and the others had informed Shinji upon arriving in Japan, everyone did not have to wait long before they saw the British group emerging from the station exit.

"I thought that noble lord would arrive in a private car," Diarmuid commented, rubbing his chin.

"I did ask, but Kenseth thought this would feel more ceremonial. Typical Aristocratic Faction concern for pomp and circumstance."

After quietly snarking once, Shinji took the initiative to step forward and greet Kenseth.

"Director Kirei, welcome to Fuyuki City."

As he spoke, Shinji proactively extended his hand toward Kenseth and the other two at the front.

"Matou Shinji, we have finally met in Japan."

Kenseth still cared greatly about his image in public, and was not nearly as uninhibited as he had been in the Clock Tower office.

Of course, that was only Master Shinji's own opinion. From Director Kirei's perspective, if Shinji had not been such a bastard, he would not have needed to yell.

"Kenseth, Waver," Shinji said with a smile. "Treat Fuyuki City like your own home. When you're not filming, feel free to play, eat, and drink as much as you like. Japan's water doesn't have excessive calcium, so it definitely won't affect your hairlines."

A vein bulged on Kenseth's forehead. "Are you seriously not done with this hair business?"