Chapter 349: Illya Really Has WAY Too Many Outfits
Because everything happened far too suddenly, it wasn't until after Arturia knocked Shinji flat with a single strike that the other Servants finally reacted.
—Not that any of them actually moved to help him.
Their Master had been getting way too full of himself lately. It was about time he suffered a little setback—otherwise he'd be floating straight off the ground.
Even Shirou thought Shinji was basically a pea-brained clown poking a tiger with a stick—jumping around asking for trouble. Taking a hit from Invisible Air? Yeah, he totally deserved that.
"Wowwww, seriously? Not a single one of you is going to give me a hand? Since when did my popularity hit rock bottom like this?"
Shinji dragged the sofa back into place and dusted off his now-filthy clothes.
"Those who sow evil shall reap evil, Shinji. Your end will not be pleasant," Rin declared triumphantly, legs crossed as she basked in her minor victory.
Shinji shot back a universally recognized friendly gesture.
"I was just having a little playful interaction with the King of Knights. Why would I need commentary from a complete outsider like you?"
"…What exactly did you just say you were doing?"
"I said I was training with Arturia, Miss Lissy."
Shirou & Rin: "Coward." ×2
"Ah! Look! Look! Shirou, Rin—you two are on TV!"
They only sneered at Shinji's desperate attempt to change the subject.
But Shinji knew better than anyone: at times like this, showing embarrassment was fatal. So he calmly stared at the TV as if his childhood friend and bamboo-horse companion were nothing but sacks of potatoes.
"Hey, Shinji?"
As the girls on-screen "cheerfully" played beach volleyball, Cloris suddenly spoke.
"I heard the original script didn't have a beach volleyball scene?"
"Uh… yeah. It didn't."
Shinji laughed awkwardly.
His first draft was basically Hiroyama's manga plot, which he later modified. And because he had discussed proposed changes with the scriptwriters at Tsuburaya, his early draft of Fate/Kaleid Liner Magical Illya was no secret among insiders.
Anyone who had read Hiroyama's manga knew exactly what kind of content it had—so of course his friends immediately slapped him with labels like "pervert" and "lolicon."
Cloris knowing the original plot wasn't surprising.
What did worry Shinji was: why did Lissy bring this up specifically during the beach volleyball episode?
This volleyball segment had replaced a certain… "drugging" scene involving Ruby.
There's no helping it, such a plot was absolutely banned, even in web novels. The earlier version of the manuscript got rejected during review.
And Japan, with its far stricter standards for children's programming, would never approve such a thing.
Even the notorious connoisseur of heavy tastes, Koichi Sakamoto himself, only dared to play around by having Ultramen get invaded by Gudis cells—hinted, subtle, and using a mid-tier hero like Max.
But if the cast came all the way to the beach and nothing happened besides foreshadowing the final battle, it would feel painfully abrupt.
So Shinji simply grafted the beach volleyball episode from Carnival Phantasm (the Tsukihime arc, episode 2) onto this scene.
Same beach, same "fighting over a guy" (Shirou: WHAT THE HELL!), same comedy—it worked.
Plus, Shinji had already cut the dodgeball scene from the Chloe arc to trim the slice-of-life segments, so this was a perfect place to recycle it.
As for Caren's plotline—Shinji hadn't removed it.
He merely changed the reason Illya and Chloe ended up in the infirmary. Instead of getting drugged, Illya simply got knocked out on her way to school by a random accident.
Anyway, with Tsukihime still nowhere in sight and no release date even on the horizon, if Shinji ever wanted to adapt Carnival Phantasm, the Tsukihime-group episodes would need a massive rewrite anyway. So if something from there was usable—he used it.
His only regret was that when the volleyball flew out of bounds, he couldn't play the classic gag of "Lancer died again."
"Shinji, are you spacing out?"
Noticing his drifting gaze, Cloris tapped his ankle with her toe in clear displeasure.
Shinji straightened up with fake dignity.
"Ah, I was just thinking about the film editing."
"You still haven't answered my question."
"…Which question again?"
Shinji looked away, very guilty.
Cloris arched a brow.
"I asked you about the original version of your script…"
"That… I just felt that sort of development suited the characters' personalities more, you know?"
Cloris's expression twisted.
"So your definition of 'suiting the characters' is… drugging people? Shinji, have the last two years messed you up so badly you've started going criminal?"
"..."
"And I heard that when you were designing swimsuits for Illya and the other two, you even created an extra set—a bikini wedding dress?"
"I was just exploring more possibilities! Not only a wedding dress, I also designed idol concert outfits, Servant-themed outfits, maid uniforms—"
"And bunny suits and qipaos?" Cloris added dryly.
"Those were just concept illustrations!"
What could he say? The figure prototypes for those outfits were way too famous. When he considered making figures, his hand just naturally… drew them.
Most of the designs were purely for looks—zero practicality—and would remain forever stuck in the conceptual stage.
But that was more than enough to make Cloris angry.
"Shinji, you're awfully devoted to designing pretty outfits for these little girls, huh? Planning ahead? Hoping to make them and have the girls model them for you?"
"No! Absolutely not!"
Shinji frantically shook his head, cold sweat pouring down.
What kind of sick joke was that? Those outfits weren't meant for Illya and the others!
Aside from the idol outfit, if he gave any of the others to Illya, the police would arrest him immediately.
"Still saying no?"
Cloris lightly bit her lip and rolled her eyes.
"Then what about Rin's maid outfit?"
Shinji instantly glared at Rin.
Cloris definitely didn't know that one. The only possible snitch was Rin herself.
Unfortunately, Rin had already run off to chat with Arturia the moment Cloris asked her first question—so Shinji was glaring at absolutely nothing.
"Tch—that woman…"
"Shinji?"
"Yes ma'am!!"
Cloris crossed her arms, a teasing smile at the corner of her eyes.
"I mean… if you really like those weird outfits that much, why don't you make me a couple sets? You know my measurements perfectly, don't you?"
"…What?"
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
Just as Cloris was subtly hinting she was open to all sorts of uniform-themed… recreational fun, the beach episode on TV finally ended.
As the final slice-of-life segment before the climax, Shinji had placed it at the beginning of the film to lighten the mood.
After all, what came next was the long-awaited grand finale.
And following tradition, the final pre-battle step was: making a plan.
This time, the team's strategist—the female Zhuge Liang herself, Rin Tohsaka—proposed a plan of breathtaking simplicity:
Hit the enemy with absolutely everything in the very first shot, and end the fight immediately.
In short: blast the hell out of them with one giant shot and end the fight.
But reality and ideal plans never quite line up.
The Tohsaka family's ancestral curse—"breaking down at the critical moment"—was, of course, performing with its usual reliability today.
To take out the enemy with an overwhelming barrage, the first requirement was having enough firepower.
Unfortunately—
"Caster, Assassin, Berserker… They're all hopelessly lacking in firepower…"
Rin and Luvia looked at the remaining cards with equally grim expressions.
Illya using the Berserker card only summoned a massive stone axe she couldn't even lift. Forget being helpful—she'd literally be a liability.
Even so, the four girls understood: this battle had to be won.
Not only because of their wager with Bazett, but because Chloe's life depended on it.
And lurking in all their minds was another heavy question—
What exactly was the eighth card?
According to the logic that the cards corresponded to the seven Holy Grail War classes, there should only be seven.
So why had an eighth—something that shouldn't exist—appeared?
This had been one of the hottest discussion topics back when Kaleid was still serialized.
Amusingly, when Shinji first read the manga before reincarnating, he'd always assumed the eighth card would be Avenger, Angra Mainyu.
After all, the second season of the manga had both Bazett and Caren—total FHA energy—so ending with Avenger wouldn't have been surprising at all.
But fans in this world had guessed correctly from the start: the eighth card was Gilgamesh.
There was almost zero suspense.
And that made sense—Shinji had never made Fate/Hollow Ataraxia in this world, so when people thought "eighth Servant," of course their minds jumped straight to Golden Boy.
Compared to Gilgamesh, who appeared in all three Fate/Stay Night routes, little Angra—who only existed as dialogue mentions, had zero design art, and no presence—simply didn't stick in people's memories.
But Angra wouldn't stay obscure forever.
Since Bazett and Caren had already appeared in Kaleid, then their home series—Fate/Hollow Ataraxia—would naturally have to get on the production schedule soon.
"Fufu~ I knew it. Shinji, you never give me money for free. You were planning to drag me into your trap little by little, weren't you?"
"How despicable. You'll seduce and toy with any woman who has even the slightest bit of beauty~"
Miss Caren Ortensia sipped her ultra-bitter black coffee while mercilessly insulting Shinji.
"Of all people, you're the one I don't want calling me despicable!"
Shinji spread his arms dramatically, striking a full-on Light Yagami pose.
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