Chapter 362: Trailer For Fate/Apocrypha
At this moment, the image on the television shifted to the interior of the black giant.
Miyu was curled up inside, quietly awaiting the fate that held no future for her.
Drip
Suddenly, in the midst of the darkness, Miyu heard the sound of water.
There was no light here, no sound—so why could she hear the dripping of water?
Darkness. Absolute nothingness. This was the place Miyu now inhabited.
There was no need for chains or any other means of confinement. This place itself was a prison.
Yet Miyu felt no dissatisfaction toward this environment. This was simply the destination of someone who had lost everything.
She had not chosen to be born this way. But since she had been born as a Holy Grail, Miyu's personal wishes had long since become irrelevant.
Even so, there had been people who gave her a place to belong.
They allowed a world meant for someone like her to contain a trace of human warmth.
"…But this illusion of kindness is coming to an end as well."
Drip
"This was never something someone of my status was allowed to have."
Drip
"These three months in this world… must have been the last dream I was permitted to see."
Drip
"I don't feel sad at all. I'm simply waking up from a dream…"
Drip
"If there's anything I regret…"
Drip
"Onii-chan, I'm sorry. In the end, I still couldn't break free from the chains of fate."
In a haze, Miyu heard the words of a certain boy who had once spoken to her at parting.
〔I pray you find a world where you won't have to suffer any longer. I pray that you meet kind people. I pray you find friends you can laugh with.〕
〔I pray you find a warm, small share of happiness.〕
"Yes… I did," Miyu murmured, a faint smile appearing on her lips.
"I made very important friends."
She continued speaking softly to herself.
"Her silver-white hair was truly beautiful, like moonlight itself. Her name was—"
Drip. Drip.
The sound of dripping grew clearer.
A beam of light shone down upon Miyu.
Bathed in that light, Miyu finally opened her eyes and looked up toward the sky.
She had already stepped out of the black mud, and above her, a figure was slowly descending.
Someone who had appeared in her dreams countless times—someone she could never forget.
"…Illya?"
Miyu's voice trembled with disbelief. This was a scene she had never dared to imagine.
Illya simply smiled gently in response.
"This is the first time," Illya said softly to Miyu, "that I've seen you cry."
Drip
Only then did Miyu realize—the dripping sound she'd been hearing was her own tears.
"I'm sorry, Illya."
Miyu wiped at her tears, apologizing through a sob.
"It's okay."
Illya reached out her hand.
"Come on, Miyu. Let's go home."
"…Mm."
The two girls clasped each other's hands tightly, then embraced.
A gentle piece of background music began to play—a tender melody, the perfect reward for everything Illya had gone through.
Soon after, Chloe, Rin, Luvia, and Bazett—who had all witnessed that earth-shaking battle—walked over as well.
After this long night, they had become companions who trusted one another.
At last, beneath the golden morning sun, Illya and her friends welcomed the dawn of a new day.
The camera slowly zoomed in, stopping on a close-up of Illya's face—then pulled back again as the scene shifted to Illya's bedroom.
Just like the opening of the very first episode, an oversleeping Illya dashed out of the house with a slice of bread in her mouth. Everything seemed the same as when the story began.
And yet, something was different.
This time, Illya was no longer alone. Miyu and Chloe were by her side.
"My adventure has finally come to an end, and I've returned to that nostalgic everyday life. But—"
Illya glanced to her left at Miyu, then to her right at Chloe, and broke into a big smile.
"Miyu, Chloe! Let's race and see who can fly to school first! I'm off!"
"Hey, wait! That's cheating!"
"You took off early—that's not fair!"
The camera continued to pull back as the three girls soared through the sky, their figures shrinking into three tiny dots.
And so, the story of Fate/Kaleid Liner Magical Illya came to an end.
Yes, this was the conclusion of Magical Illya as told in Shinji's version.
As mentioned before, Shinji had never planned to adapt the manga's third arc back when the project was first conceived.
Naturally, that infamous scene where Illya and Miyu's handshake is interrupted never existed here.
After all, if the story is already finished, you can't just leave behind a massive unresolved cliffhanger where a main character's fate is unknown, can you?
As for Miyu's identity—honestly, it was enough to give her a rough background explaining where she came from. As long as the audience understood the basics, that was sufficient.
After all, didn't that little girl bound to the Red Sphere in Ultraman Gaia also lack a clearly defined origin? And nobody complained about that.
The background Shinji gave Miyu in Magical Illya wasn't all that different from hers.
At the very least, without touching on the third manga arc, Miyu's identity was clearly explained—while still leaving room for imagination, making it easier for fans to create their own fanfic works.
Of course, in the eyes of the fans, Miyu's "half-hidden, half-revealed" backstory felt less like restraint and more like deliberate setup for a sequel.
After all, Magical Illya had solid ratings, and its merchandise sold extremely well.
With Shinji's notoriously money-loving personality, how could he not make a sequel?
Unfortunately, the fans had no idea that Shinji—fully aware of what the later story entailed—had already decided to end everything in a single season.
As they listened to the ending theme of Magical Illya, imagining what future developments might unfold, they had no clue that this series had already become a "lifetime-unfinished" work.
Still, Shinji wasn't completely heartless.
In the extended theatrical version aired on television, he deliberately added back most of the character endings that had been cut from the TV broadcast due to time constraints.
Irisviel and Kiritsugu never returned to Fuyuki City. Instead, they continued wandering the world, leaving behind all kinds of legends wherever they went.
Rin and Luvia remained as noisy as ever, fighting daily over who had the rightful claim to Shirou, turning the high school division into a nonstop romantic comedy.
Bazett didn't return to the Clock Tower. Using her injuries from the battle as an excuse, she stayed in Fuyuki City to recuperate, becoming a physical education teacher in the elementary division—together with Caren, she diligently "looked after" Illya and the others' growth.
Gilgamesh, remaining in the world in his Kid Gil body, shamelessly used his "cute boy" advantage to freeload food and shelter all over Fuyuki City.
Fuyuki City itself remained the same peaceful, tranquil town as ever.
Aside from a few additional outsiders, nothing had really changed.
"Whew—finally over."
Aoko stretched lazily, rubbing her shoulders without a hint of elegance.
"A good story never gets old, no matter how many times you watch it. That's the charm of a truly good story."
Some fans might think Shinji Matou was just reheating old leftovers—but Aoko saw things very differently.
This was clearly a successful TV movie.
There were newly added action scenes, properly completed endings for side characters that the TV version had skipped, and the broadcast even cut out the original opening, ending, and recap segments.
Only two commercial breaks were inserted—right at the bathroom timing.
Perfect.
"What time is it now? Is the Kōhaku Uta Gassen over yet? I want to catch the ending and clear my annual task before going back to sleep."
As she spoke, Aoko reached for the remote to change the channel.
But just as the movie's ending theme finished—and the credits had fully rolled—the pitch-black television screen suddenly echoed with Illya's voice.
"Hey, Gil. You once mentioned a parallel world where fourteen Servants were split into two teams fighting over the Holy Grail, right? Do you know which side ended up getting it?"
Kid Gil replied in a slightly playful tone, "Well… that's kind of hard to say~ You'd have to ask a certain saintly young lady."
The screen lit up once more.
Inside a car sat five people with wildly different appearances.
At the wheel was a tomboy with a single ponytail. In the passenger seat sat a girl with braided hair.
The two shared remarkably similar faces—at a glance, you might mistake them for the same person.
Mordred and Jeanne d'Arc.
"You've got to be kidding me, right?"
Mordred muttered with unmistakable disgust, shooting a glance at Jeanne as she drove.
"Are you really going to give up the Holy Grail just for a handful of magi?"
Jeanne, who was looking down at the map, replied coldly without even raising her head, "And what right does a Cybertronian alien have to comment on this?"
From the back seat, the white-haired, spiky-headed man in priestly robes chimed in, "We're supposed to be the good guys, we can't just ignore innocent people being put in danger."
The middle-aged man with a cigarette between his lips glanced out the window and spoke calmly, "I think we should be more worried about ourselves first."
"Wha—"
Mordred had only just started to speak when a beam of light slammed down from the sky beside the car.
A violent explosion sent the vehicle flying off the highway, and everyone inside was thrown into chaos, tumbling all over the place.
"Damn it! I told you to let me, the Rider, drive!"
The pink-haired Servant coughed as she complained.
As she roughly kicked the car door open, the short-tempered Mordred shot back coldly, "Shut up, you freak."
In the next instant, a full suit of knightly armor rapidly formed around her body.
Grabbing twin knight swords from thin air, Mordred swung them and blasted away a second beam of light aimed at them.
"Quit hiding and come out, you coward!"
She shouted a taunt toward the direction the beams had come from.
A black shadow leapt nimbly across the rooftops in the distance, arriving before Mordred in the blink of an eye.
It was a horse—no, a centaur.
And riding atop the centaur's back was a small pink-haired girl.
As the centaur drew his bow and took aim at Mordred, he flashed a hearty grin.
"Hey—miss me?"
With that, he loosed an arrow straight at Mordred, a beam of light flooding the entire television screen.
Immediately after, an intense, rousing theme blared out, and the TYPE-MOON logo appeared before the audience.
There was no doubt about it.
What was playing on the TV was the trailer for Fate/Apocrypha.
This was the real trump card Shinji Matou had prepared for this television broadcast.
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