Note: This Chapter is Re-Translated on 7 / 10 / 2025
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Chapter 59: Instrument Of Murder
Late night — Matou residence, Shinji's room.
"Haa～～～"
Shinji let out a long, heavy sigh as he sat at the desk in his room.
In front of him was a stack of shooting schedules, but his mind wasn't on the paperwork at all.
Instead, his eyes kept drifting toward the wall to his right.
Behind that wall… was his little sister Sakura's room.
And right now, three freshly showered girls were gathered there.
Of course, Shinji wasn't peeking because he was interested in their wet, glistening bodies or anything indecent like that.
What had him worried… was whether Cloris might blurt out something she really shouldn't be saying to Sakura and Arturia.
"Geez, Jiji..."
Zouken Matou had left—truly left. He hadn't just disappeared himself; he'd taken every single being under the Matou household's roof along with him.
Well, almost every one.
He left Sakura and Arturia behind.
Which, of course, meant he'd cleared out every single possible third wheel ahead of time.
Why? Probably because he couldn't control Sakura anymore… and maybe he was scared Arturia would eat him into bankruptcy.
"Tch, seriously, Jiji! Couldn't you have just taken everyone with you?! Then I'd at least have an excuse to lock Lissy outside the house…"
He sighed again, shooting another glance toward the wall.
"Lissy and Sakura… They're gonna be okay, right?"
Something told Shinji tonight was going to be a very long night.
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On the other side of the wall, in Sakura's room, the atmosphere was far more lively.
Sakura, Cloris, and Arturia were sitting together in their pajamas, huddled for a classic girls' late-night pillow talk session.
The moment Arturia heard what they were doing, her first instinct had been to refuse flat-out.
But Sakura had managed to bribe her into staying… with three bowls of pork cutlet rice.
"Um, Flora-san… I'll just get straight to the point."
Sakura, the initiator of the little gathering, didn't waste time.
"What exactly is your relationship with my brother?"
Cloris smiled sweetly.
"Hm～my relationship with Shinji? I guess you could say we're like-minded comrades... or maybe business partners with mutual interests?"
"R-Really?"
Sakura tilted her head in curiosity.
"But you know～" Cloris pressed her finger to her lips playfully. "That doesn't mean I'm blind to Shinji's charm as a man, of course."
"Eh?"
Sakura froze, her whole body stiffening up.
Arturia, still calmly seated, asked with a straight face:
"In other words, you are saying you like Master?"
"If we're putting it in simple terms like 'like' or 'dislike'—then yes, Shinji falls in the 'like' category for sure. But I don't think he has any intentions in that direction, at least not right now."
Sakura pouted.
"Yeah… that sounds about right. Onii-sama doesn't mind girls in general, but when someone's not his type, he won't even consider it."
Arturia nodded lightly.
"He is Master. He may be a flirt, but he clearly prioritizes his ambitions above women."
Cloris looked over at the blonde knight with interest.
"Then I'd like to ask you too, Miss Pendragon. What is your relationship with Shinji?"
Arturia answered coldly, without hesitation.
"He is my Master. I am his Servant. That is all."
"That is all...?" Cloris leaned in. "So you've never even shared a bed with Shinji before?"
"Sh-Shared a bed!?"
Something about those words flipped a switch in Arturia's brain—her signature ahoge stood bolt upright.
"Sharing a bed is far too improper! Master and I would never do something like that! I mean, I'm nothing like that shameless Sir Lancelot!"
Arturia wasn't some naive little girl who didn't understand these things—far from it.
It's just that, when it came to matters of romance, her attitude was… rather stubborn.
Maybe it was because her romantic history in the age of King Arthur was an absolute trainwreck… But deep down, Arturia had zero patience for philanderers.
Arturia, bound to Shinji by the Master-Servant contract, was loyal to him—loyal like Bedivere was to Arturia.
But sharing a bed with Shinji?
Absolutely not. That was a line she would never cross.
'Tch. And here I thought maybe riding her motorbike so much had made her want to ride something else… like her Master, for example.'
Turns out even the great King of Knights had a surprisingly pure side.
Sakura had always assumed that Arturia was indifferent to such things because of her usual calm demeanor.
But now it was clear—that kind of thing mattered a lot to her.
'Compared to this seemingly battle-hardened but inwardly pure-as-snow knight… the other one is just…'
Sakura turned her gaze toward Cloris, her voice suddenly carrying a quiet intensity.
"I don't know much about you yet, Flora-san. I do hope we'll get the chance for… deeper conversations."
Cloris gave a gentle smile, reaching out to lightly pat Sakura's head.
"My, my. What a formidable little sister you are. Please go easy on me, alright?"
"Would you mind telling me?" Sakura asked, her tone still gentle but insistent. "About you and my brother, I mean."
"I don't mind at all."
Naturally, Cloris wasn't about to pass up the chance to bond with Sakura. She looked up at the ceiling with a nostalgic smile and began,
"It's only been a year, but the time I've spent with Shinji has been… really fulfilling."
"Fulfilling!?"
Sakura's entire body lurched forward. "Please go into detail! I insist!!"
"Well then…"
And so, Cloris began to recount how she and Shinji first met, and how their relationship developed over time.
—Meanwhile, in Shinji's room—
"Ugh… I can't hear anything!"
Shinji's face was a mask of frustration as he pressed his ear as tightly as he could to the wall.
He used to be proud of his room's soundproofing.
Now? He was desperate for it to fail.
"This won't do. I can't just sit here."
After weighing his options, Shinji finally made up his mind.
He had to check on them.
"If Lissy ends up spilling things to Sakura the way she did with Rin… that'd be a nightmare! I've got to at least give her a hint to keep her mouth shut!"
Determined, he crossed the corridor and knocked directly on Sakura's door.
"Yo~ ladies, I'm coming in!"
With a dazzling smile that practically radiated sunshine, Shinji stepped into the room and greeted the girls in his usual warm and friendly tone.
"Lissy, how're you liking that yukata? Getting used to the whole Japanese-style sleepwear thing? I just thought I'd—"
He didn't even get to finish.
The three girls transformed instantly into fire-breathing dragons.
"It's girl talk, get outta here!!"
"Master! This is most unbecoming of a gentleman!"
"Onii-sama! Go back to bed—now!"
"W-Wait a second—!"
Before he could even protest, Shinji was swept away by a raging storm of feminine fury, flung bodily out of the room.
The door slammed shut with a deafening BANG!, and the sound of a magical lock clicking into place made it clear he wasn't coming back in tonight.
"…Please… just don't murder me in my sleep, okay?"
Shinji whimpered as he curled up in bed, a pitiful ball of anxiety.
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In the end, Shinji's worst fear—his little sister plotting a midnight fratricide—never came to pass.
Even though Cloris had arrived in Fuyuki, after the first day, she didn't come bothering him for personal matters.
After all, the Time Group, much like Bandai, had invested money in the Fate/Zero production.
Cloris knew better than to let her private affairs get in the way of filming.
That said, Shinji still chose to work late and leave the set later than almost everyone else.
Part of it was to avoid running into Cloris.
But more than that, it was about the job.
Holding short meetings with the department leads to checking on progress, adjusting plans for the next day—As the director, Shinji was the core that kept the whole production running.
Filming a movie didn't give him the luxury of rest.
If you wanted an easy life, directing wasn't the career for you.
Any director who was having an easy time? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, their movie was going to be absolute trash.
The only exception being those rare, unfortunate souls who'd been completely sidelined by their production crew.
And frankly, that was even more humiliating than making a bad movie.
Right now, Shinji was pouring most of his energy into filming that key battle scene—the one where the Heroic Spirits clash at the docks.
It was the most important fight in the opening act of the Fate/Zero script—and the very first action climax of the entire film.
To do it justice, Shinji had constructed two separate sets.
One was the large-scale dock set, the battlefield for the Servants' clash.
The other was the high vantage point where Kiritsugu would be observing from afar.
Setting up such large-scale scenes usually ate up tons of time and manpower, but it was still far easier than filming at an actual harbor.
Real docks were always bustling with freight traffic day and night. Shooting there was simply impossible.
Even though the Fate/Zero film had a much bigger budget than Fate/Stay Night, Shinji couldn't afford to be reckless with spending.
The dock battle alone had over 300 shots planned in Shinji's storyboards—which meant the crew had a mountain of work ahead of them.
And with the new semester at the Clock Tower about to begin, they had to wrap up Kayneth's scenes fast, before he flew back to the UK.
It was a massive undertaking.
Some days, the staff were so swamped they didn't even have time to grab lunch at the cafeteria.
Archer had to deliver bento boxes directly to the set.
But Shinji had his reasons for being so meticulous.
This was the first fight of the film.
If he wanted to hook the audience from the start, this had to be nothing short of spectacular.
Especially considering the future Fate/Zero audience—most of them would be existing fans who had already watched Fate/stay night.
They were no longer film newbies, which meant Shinji had to deliver something even better than Fate/Stay Night.
Inside the studio, two cameras stood on the same side of the set.
Shinji operated one, and Archer the other.
Both lenses were fixed on the Servants now squaring off: Diarmuid vs. Arturia.
Shinji controlled the primary camera, mounted on a track for dynamic movement—mainly focused on Saber's close-ups.
Archer remained stationary with the secondary camera, capturing full-body shots of both combatants.
It was Shinji's latest discovery—that Heroic Spirits could take on a whole new job on set: camera operators.
Compared to normal crew, Servants had exceptionally steady hands.
Even handheld footage shot by them never had the usual shaky mess you'd get with human staff.
Unfortunately, since they weren't trained in visual composition, the resulting footage often lacked creativity and felt a bit… stiff.
"Sigh… Looks like in the future, I'll need to summon more than just actors and fighters…" Shinji muttered. "Maybe a musician for the OST… and even a painter to shoot the scenes properly."
He let out a long sigh.
"Why do so many technical-class Heroic Spirits end up being Casters? It's like... I never know what to do with my summoning slots anymore!"
"Then just summon more," Archer said with a grin. "Assuming, of course, you have enough Holy Relics for that."
"Why wouldn't I?" Shinji said sincerely. "I've got you, don't I? I haven't even tried summoning with one of your projected Noble Phantasms yet."
"Let's not even get into whether a projection counts as a legitimate relic… And even if it does, the only things I can project are weapons. How are you planning to summon technical specialists with weapons?"
"Who says I can't?"
Shinji casually picked up a book from nearby and held it out.
"If this were one of Da Vinci's paintings, and you projected it—wouldn't that let me summon Da Vinci?"
"That's not a weapon, that's a—"
Before Archer could finish, Shinji casually tossed the book across the set.
Fwip!
"Argh?!"
The flying object smacked Cu Chulainn right in the face as he passed by, sending him stumbling straight into Heracles, who stood in front of him.
"■■!"
With a single, casual slap, the giant Greek berserker swatted Cu into a pile of discarded props.
Only one leg remained sticking out from under the rubble.
"You see?" Shinji said with a smirk. "If that's not a weapon, then what is?"
"…That's not a weapon," Archer muttered, staring at the twitching foot, "That's basically an instrument of murder."