Chapter 322: The Adorkable Daughter and the Wasted Housewife
Chanting spells—something that's practically indispensable in most fantasy works—turns out to be rather useless in the Nasuverse.
For magi, incantations are nothing more than self-hypnosis.
Reciting a spell is just a way of "reminding" yourself of the thaumaturgy etched into your body. As long as the necessary keywords are there, the rest can be changed however you like.
If you're not afraid of dying, and the suggestion still works for you, then even chanting something like "Scáthach is a purple sow" will get the job done.
For a seasoned magus, it's even possible to fire off a spell with just a handful of keywords.
On the other hand, when the same spell is chanted with a longer incantation, its power increases—because a longer chant means a stronger, more complete self-suggestion.
Now, the toy staff designed by Shinji and Touko—put simply—works by having the staff repeat the magus's voice back at them. This tricks their body into believing they've already spoken the spell, and thus the magecraft activates instantly.
The key to all this, though, is the contract. Without that pact, no matter how many times you play a recording of yourself chanting, it won't trigger a spell.
Of course, helping magi chant spells is just the surface function of the contract. The truth is, when a magus signs it, they're also agreeing to let the staff chant on Shinji's behalf.
Think about it: just in Japan alone, over a thousand of these staffs have been sold. That's like hundreds—if not thousands—of people chanting for Shinji.
Even if many of them are ordinary people, with little to no magical training, every human still has at least one or two magic circuits. Individually, they're weak. But when piled together? Grain by grain, a sandpile grows into a mountain. Hundreds, thousands chanting for Shinji… that's no small boost.
Once enough staffs are out in circulation, Shinji will be able to cast magecraftinstantly—magecraft far more powerful than most magi could ever hope to achieve.
Having countless people chanting on your behalf… it's a bit like the Golden Alchemy ritual used by Aureolus Izzard in Toaru Majutsu no Index.
But in truth, this technique was born from research by a magus of the Clock Tower. Shinji and Touko merely adapted it. His name—Cornelius Alba.
Yes, that Alba. The magus whose very surname makes men wince. A textbook example of the Noble Faction.
In the original The Garden of Sinners, this guy hated Touko's guts—jealous of her talent in both runes and dollcraft. He came all the way to Mifune City just to pick a fight, and ended up blurting out the forbidden name of the "Scarred Red." The next moment, he was devoured by the familiars inside Touko's cube-shaped suitcase.
In this world, things play out similarly. Alba looks down on Touko, and looks down on Shinji too. To him, Touko's a mongrel, Shinji's a nouveau riche clown. The fact that either of them might be more highly regarded than him was simply intolerable.
So when the war between the Modern Magecraft Theory and the Noble Faction broke out, Alba eagerly volunteered to go to Fuyuki. His plan? Wipe out Shinji and Touko himself.
But fate had other ideas. In The Garden of Sinners, he at least got to act tough for a moment, even teaming up with Araya Souren to destroy one of Touko's puppets.
Here? The poor bastard had it worse. The moment he set foot in Fuyuki, he was spotted by Li Shuwen. One flawless strike later—down he went, without even managing a single villainous monologue.
From start to finish, Alba was nothing more than the archetypal poser in a power-fantasy story—strutting in just to get smacked down.
Especially since Alba had the nerve to dress like a peacock.
A bright red trench coat, a ridiculous stovepipe hat, and a black Doberman trotting at his side as he strutted down the street—acting every bit the English gentleman… only to end up as nothing more than another clown who got smacked down.
To Type-Moon fans, Alba is widely considered Kinoko Nasu's most NPC-tier magus.
In Touko's own words, he's "the most typical kind of pig."
Not because his brain is pig-level, mind you. Rather, he perfectly embodies the template of the traditional magus.
After all, pigs in a slaughterhouse are all made from the same mold—and Alba was the most standard specimen.
Touko wasn't even insulting him when she said that. She was just stating a fact: that your average magus thinks exactly like that.
Still, Shinji didn't quite agree.
After all, in the earliest Nasuverse settings, even Tokiomi and Kayneth were described as "pigs." At best, Kayneth was a slightly fancier boar, thanks to the affection he held for his fiancée.
Sure, later on, thanks to Rin and Sakura, Tokiomi's character settings got a bit of a "whitewash."
But let's be real—if he truly cared about his daughter, he never would've sent Sakura away and then completely washed his hands of her fate.
To Tokiomi, once Sakura was handed over to Zouken, she was no longer his daughter. She was a Matou. Whether she lived or died didn't matter.
For him, the pursuit of the Root came first. Any suffering along the way was just a trial granted by Akasha.
Inhuman? Absolutely. But in terms of being a magus, it was textbook thinking.
Every time Shinji saw magi like that, he couldn't help but feel thankful he lived in an era where mystery was fading.
At least his grandfather, Zouken Matou, had been a normal human being.
…Well, comparatively speaking.
Back to the point: once Alba died in Fuyuki, his research materials at the Clock Tower were immediately split up like loot drops after a raid.
Pig or not, he was an elite pig. His research into magecraft was still worth studying—particularly in the field of incantations, where he was something of a specialist.
As his "executioners," the Department of Modern Magecraft Theory even claimed a portion of his notes as "compensation."
What surprised Shinji was that despite Alba's pigheaded noble mindset, his actual research was quite forward-thinking.
He had even come up with the idea of using printing presses and modern communication technology to revolutionize spell-chanting.
Unfortunately for him, before he could produce any real results, he was already dead in Fuyuki.
And his hard-earned research ended up in the hands of the very people he despised most—Shinji and Touko.
If Alba's spirit still lingered somewhere, knowing this would probably make him burst out of his grave in sheer rage.
—Oh, wait. He didn't even have a grave. So, never mind.
"Either way, the tree is planted by the predecessors, and it's us who enjoy the shade. I'll never forget you, Alba-san."
Shinji raised his head to the clouds, his voice filled with mock solemnity.
Behind him, Shirou looked on, black lines running down his face.
"Oi, Shinji. If you're gonna eulogize someone, could you at least wipe that grin off your face?"
"No way. I'm way too happy that guy's dead."
"Tsk. You're such scum." Shirou clicked his tongue, then asked, "But seriously, Shinji—what's even the point of you going this far? What does this actually get you?"
"Of course it's useful. For starters, setting up my scenes has gotten way easier."
As he spoke, Shinji scribbled a few strokes into his notebook.
A moment later, the filming set was instantly engulfed in a thick white mist.
"See? Now, whatever kind of environment I want, I can create it instantly. Fog, fire, snow, typhoons— you name it, I've got it. Tell me that's not useful."
"That's incredible—wait, hang on!"
Something suddenly clicked in Shirou's head, and he spun toward Shinji in alarm.
"You bastard—you're not seriously planning to use a real typhoon for that final scene, are you!?"
"Of course. A blow dryer and water pumps can't compare to the real thing."
Shinji chuckled as he stood up, strolling past Ryougi Shiki. He patted her lightly on the shoulder.
"Shiki-senpai, I'm really looking forward to your performance."
Just arriving at the set, Ryougi Shiki blinked in confusion.
"…Did I miss something?"
Shirou gave her a sympathetic look.
"No, you didn't. You're just about to experience the whole package yourself."
"…Huh?"
A single question mark practically appeared over Shiki's head.
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When it came to acting, Ryougi Shiki took it surprisingly seriously. The notes she'd taken while watching Magical Illya weren't just for show.
Shinji had noticed her efforts too.
Of course, while he could discuss roles with actors and tell them what outcome he wanted, when it came to actually guiding their performance, he was nowhere near the level of a top-class actor or director.
Fortunately, Shiki's acting lessons hadn't been wasted. As filming went on, her condition noticeably improved.
Her fight scenes began to look polished, and even her delivery in dialogue gradually became more natural.
Finally settling her nerves, she was able to pour her full attention into her performance—closing the gap with the rest of the cast.
Her portrayal of The Garden of Sinners's Ryougi Shiki even sparked an intriguing "mentor-and-daughter" dynamic with Touko.
From Shiki's interpretation, Touko—who took her in during the early stages of the story—was her emotional anchor.
So in the following scenes, Shiki instinctively decided to act as though everything revolved around Touko.
After her initial surprise, Touko herself quickly adjusted and slipped into character. Her natural air of languid charm, in particular, lent itself perfectly to the role.
Right now, the chemistry between Shiki and Touko felt almost like the pairing of an adorkable daughter with a decadent housewife.
It wasn't the dynamic Shinji had originally intended, but he made no objections.
After all, the relationship between Touko and Shiki was one of the film's key highlights.
As Shiki's guide after her awakening, Touko might often come across as unreliable, but she undeniably played an important role in Shiki's growth.
If Shiki could bring out that subtle, unconventional bond between the two, Shinji wasn't about to complain.
Actors always had their own interpretation of their characters. As long as it didn't run completely counter to the script, most directors encouraged it.
Because only when an actor breathes their own life into a role does the audience truly feel the magic of live performance.
Some directors might prefer to lock their actors into rigid molds, but Shinji definitely wasn't one of them.
With Shiki's performance blossoming and Touko perfectly in tune, Shinji moved on to filming the most important early scene of the movie—
Shiki and Touko's very first meeting.
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