After this week's "HEY!^3" aired, "Snow Flower" became a massive hit.
According to data from various record stores, pre-sales for "Snow Flower" surged by over 100,000 copies the day after the broadcast!
This was just one day's worth of pre-sales.
Thus, it was foreseeable that "Snow Flower" would likely become another single with over a million sales!
However, these figures were irrelevant to them for the time being.
Rin continued preparations for her next program, while Akira steadily continued his manga serialization.
Then, on November 23rd, the 51st issue of Weekly Shonen Jump was released, and with it, Fate/stay
night Chapter 20 was published.
Picking up right from the previous chapter.
The day after Shirou and Tohsaka Rin formed their alliance, the two went to school as usual while beginning to investigate the Bounded Fields existing within the school.
After introducing the general situation of the Bounded Fields to Shirou, Tohsaka Rin suggested they split up to investigate, and Shirou agreed.
So, during lunch break, Shirou began his investigation around the school.
After walking around the school building, Shirou went outside and suddenly noticed the Archery Club dojo.
Normally, many people should gather here, but the abnormal aura he sensed here was the strongest.
Realizing this, he intended to regroup with Tohsaka Rin immediately to tell her about his discovery.
However, just then, Matou Shiori suddenly appeared, blocking his path and striking up a conversation.
To Shirou's surprise, after a brief exchange, Shiori suddenly revealed her identity, stating that she was also a Master participating in the Holy Grail War.
But then Shiori expressed that she didn't want to fight others, except to counterattack when someone came for her.
At the same time, she expressed a desire to cooperate with Shirou and invited him to the Matou Family home for a talk, citing the need to prevent eavesdropping or attacks.
During their conversation, Shirou discovered that Shiori could not see Servants in spirit form and assumed he had a Servant following him.
After considering it for a moment, he decided to follow Shiori to the Matou Family home for the talk.
Following Shiori into the Matou Family home, Shirou observed the internal state of the residence.
The Matou Family mansion was built such that even sunlight couldn't penetrate, and there were very few electric lights.
Even during the day, the interior was dim, giving off an indescribable sense of gloom.
Upon entering the drawing room with Shiori, Shirou was shocked to find that the Servant standing behind her was the same one who had attacked him and Tohsaka Rin yesterday afternoon!
"Let me introduce her—"
"This is my Servant, Rider."
End of chapter.
"Shiori, oh Shiori."
Akira also finished reading the chapter in Shonen Jump and couldn't help but sigh, "Just by changing the gender, how can such simple dialogue suddenly become so alluring?"
To people in this world, the Matou Shiori appearing in this chapter probably didn't look like a villain, but more like one of those popular 'bad women.'
Because he used the plot from the Fate route for this chapter, and in the original work, Matou Shinji's performance in this segment was indeed when he was most human.
To put it bluntly, in the original work, Matou Shinji and Gilgamesh were his two most hated characters.
Not only because both were villains, but more importantly, their behavior in the original was somewhat disgusting.
Compared to Gilgamesh, who hadn't yet become Nasu Kinoko's father at this point, it was clear that Kinoko had put more thought into the plot and characterization of Matou Shinji.
But he would have preferred if Kinoko had put in less effort.
Without a doubt, Kinoko designed Matou Shinji's personality to be extremely complex—so complex that it's truly difficult for ordinary people to understand.
For example, in the original work, Matou Shinji's feelings for Tohsaka Rin weren't just simple admiration, but a complex mix of inferiority, jealousy, possessiveness, a desire for conquest, and a morbid longing for a 'perfect genius.'
Toward Emiya Shirou, he viewed him as his only friend, while also harboring a strong sense of possessiveness and control over him, becoming enraged when Shirou didn't treat him as an equal.
Yet, seeing Shirou interact with Tohsaka Rin and Matou Sakura, he would feel jealous of Shirou, viewing him as a competitor to be compared against.
But deep down, he also had a twisted admiration for Shirou.
Because Shirou possessed a steadfast quality that he could never have, which exerted a twisted attraction on him.
However, it didn't end there, as Matou Shinji's feelings and attitude toward Matou Sakura were even more complex.
But he wouldn't elaborate further here.
In short, there was no doubt that Matou Shinji was a particularly twisted psychopath.
And he couldn't understand why Nasu Kinoko defined Matou Shinji as an "ordinary person who commits evil."
In his view, the only thing Matou Shinji had in common with ordinary people was probably just his level of combat power.
However, Nasu Kinoko's other "ordinary people" included characters like Fujimaru Ritsuka, Emiya Shirou, Shizuki Soujuurou,
and Kokutou Mikiya.
For Matou Shinji to be ranked among these "Type-Moon ordinary people" was quite terrifying.
Anyway, considering that in Kinoko's setting, Magi are basically all psychopaths, and he quite likes designing such characters, Matou Shinji's situation wasn't hard to understand.
But it would be one thing if only Matou Shinji was designed to be twisted.
However, in all three routes, any plot involving Matou Shinji—including the other characters in those scenes—would inevitably become somewhat absurd.
That made it very uncomfortable.
Moreover, for Fate/stay night, a commercial work, to feature such a completely anti-commercial, niche character was inherently mind-boggling.
One could only say that Takeuchi Takashi truly doted on Nasu Kinoko.
Therefore, whether out of personal preference or considering the leanings of the Weekly Shonen Jump audience, Matou Shinji definitely couldn't be depicted according to the original setting.
That's why he gave the character a'slash' right at the start, turning him into the gender-swapped Matou Shiori.
And with the change in gender, the personality naturally underwent corresponding changes.
For instance, toward Tohsaka Rin, there would be no twisted admiration, possessiveness, or desire for conquest;
instead, those feelings didn't disappear but were transferred onto Shirou.
Of course, he also appropriately dialed back Shiori's intensity, striving to depict her as a yandere heavy girl and psychopath that the Shonen Jump audience could just barely accept.
Mainly because Kinoko's portrayal of Matou Shinji was far too extreme; for the Shonen Jump audience, he was practically an unspeakable entity that would cause one's SAN value to plummet at a glance.
Those who could appreciate such characterization were probably only the hardcore Tsukihime Fans who were brainwashed by Kinoko.
And as an anti-moon gentleman, he was determined to strike back!
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