After getting a clearer grasp of how his consciousness changed, Kamiyā Yuu simply went back to doing whatever he normally did, treating his ability to interfere with data through consciousness as a leisure activity to practice in his spare time after work.
Kamiyā Yuu rested for two days, but the amount of work related to the 'Fate/zero' anime piling up at the company grew heavier by the day. Once he returned to the company, he shut himself inside his office and worked on the key animation storyboards and novel material needed for the upcoming episodes.
The storyboard portion was manageable, but the deadline for Volume Three of the 'Fate/zero' novel was already drawing near. If he wanted to finish all of that work without violating the rest-time agreement he had made with Kamiyā Sora, the schedule was still extremely tight.
By late August, the 'Fate/zero' anime was about to air Episode Nine. Meanwhile, the manga artists who had signed cooperative contracts with Yosuganosora Animation Studio were also releasing their own works one after another.
The response could not be considered particularly enthusiastic, but with the currently popular 'Fate/zero' alongside them, their popularity naturally was not going to be poor.
The main event, however, would still be the joint novel launch event between Kamiyā Yuu and Kirigami Ruri in mid-September. At that time, Volume Three of the main 'Fate/zero' novel would go on sale together with the preview edition of Kirigami Ruri's novel 'Gate of Mystery'.
That period would also coincide with the broadcast of Episode Eleven of 'Fate/zero'. Kamiyā Yuu was quite looking forward to seeing just what kind of impact that episode, with its absurdly extravagant production budget, would create.
Its total production budget reached sixty million yen.
The resulting visual quality represented the absolute limit of 2D animation.
Kamiyā Yuu was confident that, never mind the next ten years, even over the next thirty years, it would be difficult for the industry to produce another anime episode with visuals surpassing this one—unless it was another work directed by him personally.
"Things aren't going to get any easier from here either."
Kamiyā Yuu looked over the key animation storyboards he had drawn and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
He had already started drawing the storyboards for the second season of 'Fate/zero'. Calling it a second season was somewhat misleading, though. In reality, the twenty-four episodes had simply been split into two sets of twelve, airing separately in the July and October seasons so the animation studio could keep pace with production.
If Episode Eleven of 'Fate/zero' could be called the most important bearing supporting the entire anime, then the upcoming plot would be one of the explosive story arcs that demonstrated exactly why that bearing mattered so much.
With the deep-sea monster summoned by Caster at the center, all the Heroic Spirits would gather together.
Berserker Lancelot and Archer Gilgamesh would engage in an aerial battle.
Saber would display the radiance befitting the King of Knights.
And Caster would descend into his final madness.
The animation challenges in each of those episodes were hardly any easier than Episode Eleven.
However, Yosuganosora Animation Studio no longer had enough capacity to keep burning through money at that same rate. As a result, those episodes would still be produced to an extremely high standard, but they would not reach the same level as Episode Eleven.
That did not necessarily mean their visual impact would be inferior to Episode Eleven.
The difficulty of Episode Eleven lay in character movement and grand-scale scenes. The following episodes did not require the construction of such complicated, expansive fully animated backgrounds. With sufficiently strong post-production effects, they could still achieve an equally impressive sense of spectacle.
The key point was the moment when Saber released the True Name of [Excalibur].
The original anime's presentation lacked sufficient impact. On top of that, only Irisviel von Einzbern served as narrator.
As a result, the release of [Excalibur]'s True Name looked flashy, but nothing more.
It completely failed to convey the heroic bearing of the King of Knights, nor did it truly interpret the meaning behind [Excalibur].
Here, Kamiyā Yuu intended to use an extremely simple, clichéd, yet highly practical technique.
Collectively known as a "flashback kill."
The charging period for [Excalibur] lasted only a few dozen seconds.
The flashback would also last only a few dozen seconds.
But during those few dozen seconds, it had to reach the same level as Irisviel von Einzbern's narration—not in terms of narration itself, but in the meaning contained within it.
It needed to depict the knights of England following the figure of their King of Knights, willingly and without regret, fighting to seize victory for their king.
For the remade version of 'Fate/zero', creating that effect would not be particularly difficult.
There was already ready-made material sitting right there—
'Twilight of the Knights'.
They could interweave major plot points from the character side-story novel, starting from Saber drawing the Sword in the Stone and ending with her eternal sleep upon the Hill of Camlann.
Visually, the radiance of Excalibur could serve as the primary animated image, while the flashbacks appeared as blurred animated overlays.
Character dialogue could be included as well.
As Excalibur finished charging, the speed of the flashing images would grow faster and faster, until finally Saber saw the scene of herself falling into eternal sleep on the Hill of Camlann.
Then she would suddenly open her eyes.
A close-up would capture her resolute gaze.
It would essentially be a Saber MAD created using the side-story novel as source material.
It would be the perfect sequence for Saber to prove herself—and to prove the path of kingship she had chosen.
...
Knock, knock.
"I'm here. Come in."
The wooden office door opened.
The person who entered was somewhat beyond Kamiyā Yuu's expectations.
"Ohhh~ You're still working? Is your body really okay?"
Yūki Chinatsu walked into the office with a grin.
Kamiyā Yuu was famously known within the company as a workaholic, so the news that he had not come to work yesterday had quickly spread throughout the entire company.
Kamiyā Yuu put down his drawing pen and flexed his fingers to relax them before asking strangely, "Thanks for the concern. I've more or less recovered. But just because I take time off doesn't mean the amount of work I have decreases. As you can see, I'm still extremely busy."
Yūki Chinatsu stared suspiciously at Kamiyā Yuu and snorted.
"You were obviously playing games the day before yesterday. Speaking of which, Yuu, were you really that medic playing together with Sora?"
"'Modern Battlefield'?"
Kamiyā Yuu froze.
Come to think of it, Kamiyā Sora had indeed mentioned that Yūki Chinatsu also played the game, and apparently she was rather good at it.
"Yuu, don't tell me you still don't know."
"Know what?"
"Move over."
Yūki Chinatsu squeezed her petite body closer, then opened the [Fake Book] website on Kamiyā Yuu's computer and clicked on a video for him to watch.
['Modern Battlefield's Strongest Player! The Ultimate Human Cheat! Live Record of 1 VS an Entire Professional Team!']
Views: 152,617,263
Comments: 1,827,635
Popularity: 1,827,362
This video was currently the hottest in the gaming section of [Fake Book].
Less than a day after being uploaded, it had already seized first place on the entire site's monthly popularity rankings.
The moment Kamiyā Yuu saw the title, he knew it had to be the match he had played together with Kamiyā Sora.
"How in the world did you do it!? That shooting accuracy and game sense aren't even within the limits of what a human being should be capable of! And besides, Yuu barely even plays games normally. Were you really that medic? That's impossible~"
Yūki Chinatsu was both excited and bewildered, her large round eyes blinking rapidly as she stared straight at Kamiyā Yuu.
Kamiyā Yuu's face darkened as he moved the mouse and closed the video.
She had interrupted his work just because of this?
"W-Wait... What are you doing... Mm..."
"Yes, yes, that was me. And right now it's working hours. If you still have questions, ask me after work."
Kamiyā Yuu pinched both of her cheeks and pulled hard.
When he let go, her pale little face had turned bright red.
Yūki Chinatsu rubbed her aching cheeks and glared furiously at Kamiyā Yuu.
"You bastard."
"If you don't believe me, I'll play a few rounds with you after work."
"Mm... Now that's more like it."
That single sentence immediately made her beam again.
Before leaving the office, Yūki Chinatsu waved her small fist at Kamiyā Yuu.
"It's a deal. You'd better show up before seven tonight. Otherwise... hmph, hmph. I'll make you experience the same pain I just did!"