The 500-Yen Mindset

Soon, everything on set was ready. After checking it all over once more, Shinji immediately announced that filming was underway.

"Tokiomi Tohsaka!"

On camera, Kariya let out an enraged roar, his hoarse voice like that of a demon from the depths of hell.

"His acting is so good. Is this what a professional actor can do?"

Standing beside Shinji, Artoria sighed, her words carrying a hint of envy.

Master Shinji gave a dismissive snort. "What acting? He's just letting out years of pent-up resentment."

"Is that so?"

Artoria sounded confused. She didn't know the truth about Kariya.

"Uncle Kariya's been fed up with Uncle Tokiomi for ages. He finally found his chance." Shinji narrowed his eyes as he watched Kariya on the monitor, now consumed by rage. No one could tell what he was thinking.

Meanwhile, Kariya's performance had hit its stride. His resentment and fury stirred his magical energy, and countless insects emerged from the shadows, swarming around him.

"Tokiomi Tohsaka! I'll never forgive you! I'll kill you!"

As Kariya roared, the Winged Blade Insects shifted into attack formation and flew toward Tokiomi like an army.

Facing Kariya, Tokiomi calmly raised the ruby-encrusted walking stick in his hand, ready to unleash a Fire Spell at the insects charging toward him—

"Heh heh!"

Kariya grinned triumphantly. Using the insects to block Tokiomi's view, he pulled two pistols from his coat and fired straight at him.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

A steady stream of gunshots rang out across the soundstage.

As he fired, Kariya laughed wildly. "Hahaha! Tokiomi! These things work a lot better than your magic wand!"

But every shot missed.

Tokiomi dodged Kariya's fire with an unbelievably quick sidestep, leaving the bullets to fly past him.

Then, before Kariya could react, Tokiomi rushed up and punched him in the stomach.

"Ugh—"

Kariya went flying and landed on a padded mat a short distance away.

"Impossible... Tokiomi... Why...?"

Lying on the mat, Kariya stared blankly at his old rival, seemingly unable to believe his ambush had failed.

"Hmph."

"Tokiomi" gave a cold snort and transformed back into Yan Qing.

"I knew you'd try something, Uncle Kariya. Having Yan Qing play your double was the right call."

Shinji walked over and proudly tapped Kariya on the head twice with his director's megaphone.

"Didn't see that coming, did you? I predicted your prediction."

"Shinji... I'm your uncle." Kariya clutched his stomach. "You didn't have to hit me that hard."

"You brought it on yourself, Kariya."

Just then, the real Tokiomi stepped out. He looked at Kariya and the two pistols on the ground with an air of haughty disdain.

Thank goodness Director Shinji had been one step ahead. Otherwise, he might really have embarrassed himself.

For Tokiomi, who had elegance etched into his very DNA, that would have been worse than death.

As the saying went, your head could be severed and your blood could flow, but your hairstyle must stay in place. That summed Tokiomi up perfectly.

"You're the one who brought pistols! How many times have I told you not to pull this kind of stunt?" Shinji said in exasperation. "What if you'd hurt Uncle Tokiomi?"

"Mm-hmm."

Tokiomi nodded repeatedly at Shinji's words.

I didn't know Director Shinji had such a responsible side.

"If someone gets hurt, I'll have to pay the medical bills, and filming will be delayed for ages! Every extra day on set costs money!"

I take back what I was thinking! Director Shinji hasn't changed one bit!

Tokiomi decided that after the movie wrapped, he ought to take a long vacation to recover. The Matou family members were all out of their minds.

Meanwhile, Shinji picked up the pistols Kariya had dropped. "Uncle Kariya, where'd you even get these?"

Kariya rolled his eyes. "I got them from Kiritsugu Emiya. They're loaded with Rubber Bullets. They can't hurt anyone. I just wanted to scare Tokiomi and give him a surprise."

Shinji's mouth twitched. Fighting back the urge to point the pistol at Kariya's forehead, he said angrily, "Explain to me what you mean by 'surprise'! You keep saying my Japanese is bad, but I think yours was taught by a gym teacher!"

As he spoke, Shinji tucked the pistol into his waistband.

"Anyway, I'm confiscating these. Just focus on your acting, Uncle Kariya. No more clever tricks."

Kariya pouted. "Fine, I won't use them. I've got plenty of other ways."

"Hm?"

"I mean, I promise I'll act properly."

"..."

Shinji's eyelid twitched twice. Kariya's smile, exactly like Chen Peisi's, gave him a very bad feeling.

Soon, the second take began.

"Fate Zero, scene 271, take 6... Action!"

The moment the clapperboard snapped shut, Kariya's expression turned crazed once more.

"Tokiomi Tohsaka! Go to hell!"

Kariya thrust out his hand, and swarms of Winged Blade Insects flew toward Tokiomi.

"Mm... Uncle Kariya's acting really is impeccable."

He was a professional actor, after all. Kariya's performance was so natural that Shinji couldn't find a single fault.

But the very next moment, Shinji had to get up from his director's chair again.

Because when Tokiomi swung his walking stick to cast fire magic, the Winged Blade Insects began dropping little balls on him.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The little balls exploded as soon as they touched the flames. White powder billowed through the air with the force of the blasts, enveloping Tokiomi.

"Cough, cough! What is this...? Why can't I use my magic...?"

Choking on the white powder, Tokiomi coughed and waved his sleeve vigorously to brush it away.

"Hahahaha!"

Kariya burst out laughing again.

"Tokiomi, those are automatic Fire Extinguishing Balls! You're always looking down on technology from your lofty perch! Now bow before the wisdom of ordinary people! Hahaha!"

"Why don't you go meet your ancestors first!"

Shinji leaped up and landed a clothesline on the back of Kariya's head.

"Ow! Shinji, are you trying to kill me?"

"You useless uncle! You might as well just die!"

The entire crew tacitly chose to ignore the uncle and nephew as they tussled.

Only Rin was still worried about her father. She grabbed a towel from the break area and handed it to Tokiomi.

"Father, you'd better wipe yourself off."

But Tokiomi seemed not to hear his daughter. He crouched in the corner, drawing circles on the ground with his walking stick.

"I lost... I, the head of the Tohsaka family, lost to a mere Fire Extinguishing Ball... A mere Fire Extinguishing Ball..."

"..."

Miss Rin felt the smile on her face was about to crack.

"Honestly, why are all the mages in Fuyuki City like this? Is the feng shui bad here? Hm? What are you doing?"

Waver noticed Kiritsugu beside him writing something down in a notebook.

Kiritsugu didn't answer Waver. He just chewed on his pen and muttered to himself.

"So this is how you deal with a mage who specializes in fire magic..."

These people really are nuts!

Waver quickly came to that conclusion.

Fortunately, although Kariya was mischievous, he knew better than to push his luck.

Before Shinji's patience with him ran out, Kariya wisely put on the brakes.

During filming afterward, Kariya still liked to tease Tokiomi about the Fire Extinguishing Balls whenever he got the chance, but he never disrupted a take again.

When it came to his neurotic uncle, all Shinji could say was, "Men stay boys until they die"—and in Kariya's case, one with a chuunibyou streak.

The rest of filming went smoothly. After another two days, Shinji finished shooting Tokiomi and Kariya's fight scenes and moved on to the battle between Kiritsugu and Director Kirei.

Ever since Shinji had "trained" him during the dialogue scenes, Kiritsugu had found the action scenes much easier to perform.

He'd found a good way to show his disdain: holding a cigarette between his lips. It gave his narrowed eyes a cool, cocky edge without compromising his aloof image.

But according to Shirou, the real reason was that Irisviel had recently been limiting how many cigarettes Kiritsugu could smoke, so his father could only sneak in a couple more under the pretext of filming.

Besides filming, Shinji had other work to oversee, such as supervising construction of the Einsbern family's film studio lot.

In Shinji's vision, the studio lot would be Japan's "Hengdian World Studios," just with more modern sets.

To give the lot as many different settings as possible, Shinji was considering much more than just the locations needed for the FZ movie. The FZ sets were simply being given higher priority during construction.

Chapter 57: The 500-Yen Mindset

Thanks to thorough pre-production and the actors being in good form, filming FZ was going exceptionally smoothly, moving faster than Shinji had originally expected.

Kariya's antics weren't without their benefits. He gave the crew plenty to laugh about, keeping the atmosphere light despite the tragic story they were filming.

After messing with Tokiomi, Kariya also played pranks on everyone he shared a scene with.

Most were harmless little jokes meant to liven things up, so Shinji didn't stop him.

Zouken was the one exception.

Kariya really was a Matou through and through. When it came to holding a grudge, he was every bit as bad as Shinji.

To get back at his old man for dragging him into this mess, Kariya had somehow gotten hold of a can of insecticide.

When Zouken came near him, Kariya sprayed the old man right in the face.

The result was a draw, more or less. Kariya successfully killed the two Magic Insects Zouken carried on him, at the cost of nearly having his own head beaten into the shape of a dung beetle.

"Given how things are going, as long as everyone keeps this up..."

In the temporary cafeteria on the lot, Shinji ate a pork cutlet rice bowl while discussing work with Udagawa Nao across the table.

"I can wrap filming before October and finish the first cut before the end of the year." Shinji told the Bandai representative seated across from him about the movie's progress.

Udagawa Nao nodded happily and calculated, "Then we can start promoting the movie in the new year. We've got plenty of time."

With FSN already proving its worth, Bandai was giving FZ its full support and had become the movie's biggest investor in Japan.

As a result, Bandai was very concerned about FZ's filming schedule and would periodically send someone to Fuyuki City to check on its progress.

In truth, there was no need for a middle manager like Udagawa Nao to handle something so minor. They could have sent a junior employee.

After all, under the agreement between Shinji and Bandai, Bandai couldn't interfere with the movie's production. Anyone could check on the schedule.

As Udagawa Nao put it, she was simply showing the proper level of commitment.

But in reality...

"Udagawa, you're here again?"