I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 439: References. They're All References
Compared to Ritsuka, who was currently playing an extreme version of tag with a gigantic black-clad man in the middle of a ruined city, Mash's situation was considerably better.
After all, Mash was basically Shinji's treasured little sister, naturally, the treatment she received was at least one rank above Charlemagne's.
When Charlemagne's Ritsuka underwent spiritron transfer, there had been no transition whatsoever—the scene simply cut straight from Chaldea to Fuyuki City.
Mash, however, was different.
Instead of arriving directly in Fuyuki, she first entered her own inner world—a pure white space containing nothing but a single hospital bed.
"Senpai…"
Thinking of Ritsuka, Mash stepped down from the bed, only to discover a blurry figure standing before her.
Honestly, it was fortunate that the Heroic Spirit possessing Mash was the taciturn, cryptic type.
And even more fortunate that his identity wasn't meant to be revealed until the Sixth Singularity.
Otherwise, Shinji absolutely would have stuffed the scene full of tokusatsu-style meme lines like:
"Mash, open your eyes. I am Galahad."
Or:
"Mash… do you really like Ritsuka that much?"
Or perhaps:
"This is the Round Table of Britain. With it, you can defeat any Heroic Spirit."
And naturally—
"Thank you, Lancelot."
—And countless other legendary reference scenes.
If she had a choice, Mash herself would've preferred Galahad simply explain things properly.
Unfortunately, her junior partner was physically incapable of speaking.
And so, the little eggplant could only watch helplessly as her other half silently acted like a walking riddle while granting her the power of a Heroic Spirit.
"Just who is this guy anyway?"
It wasn't only Mash on-screen who found the mysterious figure irritating, even the Sakura who's sitting outside the screen looked visibly annoyed by the cryptic nonsense.
The script she'd received never specified which Heroic Spirit it actually was.
According to Shinji: "To ensure your performance as Mash feels authentic, the information you possess will perfectly match Mash's own understanding in the story."
"What 'performance'? You just wanted to laugh at me, didn't you, Onii-sama?"
Pouting angrily, Sakura pressed the issue again.
"Come on. can't you at least tell me who he is?"
Unlike Mash, who could never obtain an answer within the story itself, Sakura had one major advantage.
The person holding ultimate authority over the script—Shinji himself—was sitting right beside her.
In other words, Sakura possessed a privilege unavailable to all other victims of cryptic nonsense:
She could ask the author directly.
Unfortunately, against Shinji's airtight lips, that advantage might as well not have existed.
Faced with Sakura's 154th inquiry, Shinji once again gave the exact same answer for the 154th time.
"Can't say."
"What do you mean 'can't say'? Don't tell me you haven't actually decided yet?"
Sakura attempted to break through his defenses with provocation.
Using the corner of his eye, Shinji glanced toward the Knights of the Round Table present nearby.
Every single one of them was staring fixedly at the television screen with perfect composure, showing absolutely no intention of spoiling anything.
All the Round Table Heroic Spirits knew exactly who the Heroic Spirit possessing Mash was.
But what surprised Shinji was the remarkable unity among them.
Not a single person chose to spoil it.
And it wasn't just Sakura.
Everyone involved in filming Prologue had been intensely curious about Mash's true identity.
But for the sake of Sakura's performance in front of the camera, Shinji had refused to tell anyone.
Of course, besides the Round Table members, a handful of especially knowledgeable Heroic Spirits had also guessed the true name behind the shield maiden's Noble Phantasm.
Even so, they too remained silent.
As a result, the Prologue production team had gradually split into two distinct factions:
Those who knew Galahad, and those who didn't.
The ones who knew refused to speak, and the ones who didn't desperately wanted answers.
Watching the latter suffer had somehow become entertainment in itself.
"So this is the joy Master spoke of when playing the mysterious cryptic guy, huh?"
Gawain nodded thoughtfully before noticing the knight beside him crouching low with both hands over his head.
"Lancelot? What's wrong with you?"
"Obviously I'm avoiding eye contact with that brat on the screen!"
Lancelot answered nervously.
"Who knows if Master's previous magecraft had some kind of reverse setting attached to it? What if that kid in the Throne of Heroes notices me?!"
Gawain's mouth twitched.
"You're really this terrified of your own son? At that point, maybe you should've just shot him onto the wall back then."
"How was I supposed to know he'd grow up with that personality?"
Lancelot muttered bitterly. "If I ever get another chance, I'm definitely raising a different child."
"Yes… I'll raise a daughter this time. A cute little girl like Mash."
Watching Lancelot clench his fists excitedly, even Gawain couldn't bear it anymore.
"You know… before reconsidering fatherhood, maybe start by reflecting on your womanizing problem first?"
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While the audience busied themselves trying to guess the identity of the mysterious figure hidden in the fog, the movie had already shifted back from Mash to Ritsuka.
At the same time Mash was obtaining the power of a Heroic Spirit—Ritsuka's situation, meanwhile, had become an absolute disaster.
Although the Hassan chasing Ritsuka possessed enough strength to turn him into a headless corpse with a single punch, the assassin—having gone so long without encountering a living human—had instead developed the urge to toy with his prey.
Just like a cat playing with a mouse instead of killing it immediately, Hassan merely used his dagger to herd Ritsuka's escape route, or occasionally threw punches near him whenever he started slowing down.
After what felt like half a day of urban Temple Run, the exhausted Ritsuka finally stumbled into a traditional Japanese house.
He had no idea where he was, but since the place looked huge, there were probably plenty of places to hide.
But veteran Fate fans had sharp eyes.
Even though the surrounding walls were crumbling…
Even though part of the roof had already collapsed…
They still instantly recognized the iconic landmark of Fuyuki City—
The Emiya residence.
"Aha~ I know exactly what they're about to fire off next."
Aoko smacked her palm excitedly, the corners of her mouth curling like a smug cat.
"Emiya house. A Master being chased. A Servant hunting him down. That means the next scene is definitely that legendary moonshot image."
"So? Am I right?"
Alice rolled her eyes.
"How would I know whether you're right or not when you haven't even said what you're guessing?"
"You should be able to guess what I'm guessing."
"And why would I be able to guess what you're gue— bleh!"
Realizing her tongue had tied itself into a knot, Alice immediately stopped the meaningless tongue-twister loop.
Blushing slightly, she glared at Aoko as if blaming her for making her embarrass herself.
Aoko simply grinned and announced her answer directly.
"Ritsuka's definitely going to summon Mash in the shed next. Wanna bet?"
"No." Alice instantly rejected the proposal in a tone dripping with disdain.
"That setup is way too obvious."
"The way this plot's arranged, old fans can spot it instantly," Fujita grumbled unhappily, still waiting for more cute Heroic Spirit girls to appear.
"At this point, you can't even tell whether this guy's making references… or just running out of ideas."
Aoko nodded solemnly.
"References. It's all goddamn references."
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Just as the veteran fans had predicted, the story continued marching steadily toward pure homage territory.
Much like Shirou Emiya hiding from Cu Chulainn back then, Ritsuka leaned against a sliding paper door, breathing heavily while trying to avoid the relentlessly pursuing Hassan.
During this brief moment of rest, Roman finally managed to explain the basic premise of FGO to him.
Chaldea was an organization that combined science and magecraft.
Its purpose was singular:
To observe and guarantee humanity's future.
Because beginning from the year 2016 onward, humanity's future had suddenly become impossible to observe.
In other words, Human civilization would end after 2016.
After exhausting countless methods searching for the cause of humanity's extinction, Chaldea had eventually identified a distorted anomaly:
Fuyuki City in 2004.
Singularity F.
To investigate and prevent humanity's destruction, Chaldea planned to send people directly to the source using "spiritron transfer."
However, during the transfer experiment, the explosion occurred.
The elite personnel originally selected for the mission were essentially wiped out on the spot.
And so, the only person ultimately sent to Fuyuki City was the final backup candidate among the backups—
Fujimaru Ritsuka.
Of course, just like how prototype mechs in robot anime somehow always end up strongest, adventure stories usually worked the same way:
It was often clueless rookies like Ritsuka—the ones who supposedly couldn't do anything—who ended up saving the world.
So the audience didn't really question how Chaldea's elite all got wiped out by "an explosion."
Because if that hadn't happened, how was the protagonist supposed to enter the story?
What would everyone even watch?
What the audience didn't know was exactly what kinds of monsters those "elite Masters" actually were.
Once they eventually reached Part 2, they'd discover just how absurdly overpowered the people who got written out at the beginning truly had been.
Compared to them, Ritsuka, aside from possessing Master aptitude, genuinely had nothing special at all.
Even though Roman had explained things as clearly as possible, Ritsuka—who until yesterday had been a firm believer in science—still struggled to comprehend any of it.
But Ritsuka did possess one particular strength.
Even if he couldn't understand the magical terminology, he was very good at grasping the important parts of a conversation.
After listening to Roman's long-winded explanation, Ritsuka only extracted two key points.
First, humanity was facing an enormous crisis.
Second, right now, the only person capable of doing something about it… was him.
"So basically, I just need to give it everything I've got, right?" Ritsuka spoke firmly into the communicator.
"For the sake of surviving."
After all, dead people couldn't save the world.
Only by staying alive could he contribute anything to humanity's survival.
If he died here, then humanity wouldn't even have a chance left to be saved.
Ritsuka's answer made Roman nod in approval.
"That's exactly right."
Unfortunately, peaceful moments never lasted long.
Before Ritsuka could even figure out how to deal with the black-clad monster chasing him, the enemy had already found him first.
What followed was practically a live reenactment of FSN.
Just like Cu Chulainn years ago, Hassan attacked through the sliding door with Ritsuka hiding on the opposite side.
"Damn it!"
Unlike Emiya Shirou—the kind of heroic idiot who saw a Servant and immediately charged in to provide viewers with action scenes—Ritsuka was far more realistic.
A normal person through and through.
The instant before the sliding door exploded inward, Ritsuka grabbed Fou and threw himself out of the way, barely dodging Hassan's crushing strike.
Using the cloud of dust as cover, he bolted toward the courtyard.
Unfortunately, how could a human body possibly compete with a superhuman Heroic Spirit?
Apparently done playing around, Hassan vanished and instantly reappeared in front of Ritsuka before he'd even managed a few steps.
Then—
BAM.
A brutal kick slammed straight into Ritsuka's stomach.
And so, Ritsuka ultimately walked the exact same path as his senior, Emiya Shirou:
Encountering a Servant at the Emiya residence, then getting kicked through the air into the storage shed where he collapsed, coughing up blood.
Just as Aoko had said, it was all references.
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Tn: I updated the story once every 2 days, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
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