Chapter 321: Bringing Change to Magic Chants!
"Ahhh, the next episode is just a recap...? Ugh, the most boring thing ever."
Staring at the preview on the TV screen, Aoko let out a long sigh.
If there's one thing anime fans dread the most—aside from deliberately rage-inducing plot twists—it has to be recap episodes.
At least Magical Illya's recap happened right at the end of a big story arc, at the season finale.
In that kind of timing, a recap could still be excused as a handy summary for those who hadn't kept up with the season.
But if a recap dropped right in the middle of the broadcast? That would be nothing but the production team buying time.
Of course, there were special cases. Like Zeta. That series pulled off recap episodes every now and then, but only because its situation was unique. Tsuburaya, when planning Zeta, had already anticipated the Tokyo Olympics hijacking TV slots, so they had intentionally planned fewer episodes.
And the budget they saved? They didn't waste a single yen—it all went back into Zeta, which is why it had those battle sequences on par with a full-blown movie.
But no matter how much you plan ahead, reality always finds a way to throw a wrench into it.
Even with all their careful prep in 2019, who could have predicted that the following year the Olympics themselves would be... canceled? A once-in-decades, unbelievable turn of events.
In the end, just having a few recap episodes to fill the schedule was already a miracle.
As for this recap episode of Illya that Shinji had cobbled together—it was clearly also a stalling tactic. But for a half-year anime, slipping in a recap was just part of the usual routine. Even Aoko, as annoyed as she was, only grumbled a bit.
Besides, it wasn't just recycled footage. Shinji had snuck in scenes of daily life and fanservice moments that never made it into the main broadcast—something for the hardcore fans who watched week by week.
Whether or not they'd actually appreciate it was another matter.
Right now, Aoko definitely wasn't.
"Seriously!"
She smacked her palms on the coffee table over and over again, smack, smack.
"I wanna know who that short-haired woman is! And whether Shinji went and hooked up with another shady woman!"
Alice rubbed her temples, already getting a headache. She had long since given up trying to deal with her childhood friend's spoiled tantrums.
Just as Alice was wondering if she should knock Aoko unconscious by force, their attention was yanked elsewhere—by the sudden return of Shibamatsu.
"Eh?! It's already over?"
He walked in hugging a large box, only to be greeted by TV commercials. His face twisted with disappointment.
"Damn it! I rushed here as fast as I could, but I still missed it!"
He plopped the box onto the table and collapsed into the sofa.
But no one paid him the slightest bit of attention.
All eyes in the room of young magi were locked onto the large, pink box.
"So this is the toy Matou designed?"
"Why the heck is it such a flashy pink?"
"Magic revolution! Magic revolution! I wanna see what kind of revolution it brings!"
...
"You guys are way too cold!" Shibamatsu groaned. "Not even a glass of water for me?"
One of the girls shot him a look of disdain.
"You're useless. There's so many of us, and you only brought back one?"
"It's because each person's only allowed to buy one per store!" he defended. "If you don't mind waiting until afternoon, I could go line up again at another shop and get two more."
"Tsk—"
The girls clicked their tongues in annoyance, clearly unimpressed.
But none of them wanted to wait.
They had already been waiting nearly a month for this staff. Waiting any longer was simply out of the question.
The whole scene carried an oddly comical air—like a bunch of bored housewives waiting impatiently for their brand-new massage devices to be delivered.
But for these magi, who spent their lives delving into the mysteries of the arcane, this staff was far more than just a toy.
While the girls were busy complaining at Shibamatsu, a few of the boys had already torn open the box and pulled out the staff inside.
"Hmmm... The craftsmanship is a bit finer than the usual DX toy line," Aoko muttered, rolling the staff in her hands. A trace of disappointment crossed her face. "But it's still firmly stuck in toy territory."
"I really thought they'd make it one-hundred-percent faithful to the movie prop."
"As if that would ever happen."
Even Alice, who rarely ever bought toys, knew the difference between screen-used props and mass-produced merchandise.
Bandai had never been in the same business as high-end companies like Hot Toys. Their strategy had always been simple: sell a ton, keep it cheap.
Even their "extreme accuracy" PROPLICA line, as impressive as it sounded in ads, had never reached the level of genuine film props.
Not that it mattered for kids. To a child, this thing was basically the pinnacle of imagination—the very toy of their dreams.
But aside from Aoko—who actually intended to play with it—the rest of the magi didn't care about its build quality at all.
What mattered to them was the arcane technology hidden inside.
Alice gave it a quick wave, triggering the usual lights, sounds, and effects you'd expect from a magical girl toy. Standard stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Nothing... until they noticed one peculiar feature.
The battery.
Unlike normal toys, the "Ruby Staff" couldn't have its batteries replaced at home. You had to take it to an official shop, where staff would swap the entire battery module with special tools.
According to the manual, this was to protect the new circuitry while preserving the staff's external design.
But every magus in the room could tell the truth at a glance.
It wasn't just a battery.
What the shops were really swapping out was the artificial jewel inside—the core that actually stored magical energy. That was the true power source of this "toy's" so-called new technology.
As for the new functions? Two stood out:
A slime-based transformation gimmick, letting the staff crudely morph its shape, and a voice-simulation chant system.
The slime transformation was... unimpressive. Clunky, awkward, and crude. Even Alice's own slime assistants in her workshop could assume more elegant forms.
But of course, there were obvious limits. If it could turn into something sharp and lethal—say, a real blade—then Shinji and Bandai would've been arrested already.
The one feature worthy of praise was the artificial jewel, which could stably provide magical energy.
And so, what truly fascinated the magi was the voice-simulation chant system.
"Let's see... first, record the voice input... ka... se..."
Alice followed the manual's instructions, reciting syllables as the staff prompted her. According to the booklet, this was to register the user's voiceprint so the staff could process chants correctly.
But to her trained ear, those weren't random syllables.
What she was speaking was, in fact, a rudimentary magical pact—its foundation laid upon rune phonetics.
Her knowledge of runes wasn't deep enough to parse the fine details, but the contract felt loose, almost deliberately nonrestrictive.
So she brushed it aside.
After all, if Shinji Matou himself had designed this, it surely wouldn't be dangerous.
He wouldn't sell something that could harm its users... right?
"qi... mu..."
The syllables spilled softly from her lips as the staff's light pulsed in sync.
The moment Alice finished the final syllable, she felt—oddly—that a connection had been formed between her and the toy staff.
She picked it up and examined it closely, trying to read the terms of that pact.
"Is that it? Nothing happened!" Aoko, who'd been growing impatient at the side, snatched the staff from Alice's hands.
"How the hell do you play with this thing?"
Aoko jabbed at a couple of buttons on the staff without much thought.
"Intensivein as cherung…"
A fragment of a flame incantation—Alice's voice—poured out of the staff.
"Is that it? That's it?" Aoko tossed the staff in frustration. "What now? What's supposed to happen next?"
Sensing the oddity in her own mana, Alice reached out.
Snap
Alice clicked her fingers; a thin wisp of flame spat from her fingertip and nearly singed Aoko's hair.
"Holy—what the hell was that?!"
Every magus in the room stared at Alice with the same stunned curiosity, silently begging for an explanation.
Alice flicked a glance at her hand, then at the toy, and said, "It seems… the toy recited the chant on my behalf."
"What?!" The assembled magi all dropped their jaws in unison.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
Meanwhile, on the set of The Garden of Sinners
"Hey, Shinji." Shirou looked up from his phone and asked while crouching on the floor, "Why did you build that auto-chanting feature into the toy staff? What's so great about having it chant for other magi? Would that benefit you in any way?"
Shinji's smile split his face almost to the ears.
"Of course it benefits me. And the benefits are way better than you can imagine."
"Hmmmm…" Shirou poked Shinji with a finger, adopting a slightly ingratiating tone. "Come on, spill it. What did you get in return? Other magi's goodwill points?"
"It's not something so cheap. It's far more practical." Shinji pulled out his notebook and scribbled a symbol, then read it aloud.
"ветер. (Russian: 'wind')"
As soon as Shinji spoke the word, a gust swept through the studio—so strong several girls' skirts fluttered up.
"The toy chants for them, they chant for me. See, Shirou? We both get a bright future." Shinji flipped his fringe and announced this with peak drama.
Shirou promptly kicked Shinji in the butt.
"What are you looking at?! The very first thing you do after getting that power is to lift girls' skirts?! You idiot—go confess to the police right now!"
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