Chapter 39: Man, Your Country Is One Of A Kind

                        

Chapter 39: Man, Your Country Is One Of A Kind

Of course, when Cloris said she wanted to “keep” Shinji, she wasn’t talking about him personally.

She wanted his whole team.

“Lissy, you really are something,” Shinji shook his head with a sigh. “Not only do you look pretty, but your ambitions are just as over-the-top.”

From a short-term perspective, having Type-Moon Studios get acquired by a giant like Time Group didn’t sound all that bad. It’d give them access to a wider platform and stronger infrastructure.

But long-term?

It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Corporate acquisitions always came down to one thing—power balance. And right now, Type-Moon’s size didn’t even begin to compare with Time Group’s. If they accepted the buyout, Shinji would almost certainly lose control of the company.

And don’t come quoting “control clauses” or “contractual guarantees.”

Shinji had lived a previous life. He’d seen enough big corporations break promises the moment ink dried to know how these things worked.

If he were just some guy chasing money, selling the company to Time Group wouldn’t be a bad move.

But this time around, Shinji Matou had a dream.

He wasn’t about to let it all go up in flames halfway through.

“Forget it. You can toss the whole ‘buy the team’ idea, Lissy. One more word about that and I’ll take the deal to a different company.”

But even faced with Shinji’s firm tone, Cloris didn’t flinch.

Instead, she smiled sweetly, voice dripping honey.

“Shinji, darling~ can’t you at least leave the door open for future collaboration? Just signing one movie—that’s like having Time Group do all the work hyping you up, and then letting Type-Moon reap all the rewards with your next release.”

Shinji didn’t respond immediately. He just rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Cloris leaned back, pretending to look troubled.

“I admit, Fate/Stay Night is definitely going to sell. But, as you yourself said, we’ll need to dump a huge amount into promotion.”

“…So?” Shinji looked up warily.

“So~” Cloris narrowed her eyes with a glint. “You need to leave us a bigger slice of the pie. No profit, no company will seriously invest. Business is business, after all.”

Shinji jabbed a finger in her direction. “I already gave up a piece of the profit share.”

“Oh please. That tiny scrap won’t even cover our costs. Box office revenue only goes so far—if you want big distribution, you need to let big sis here earn a little more.”

“Ah?” Shinji blinked, frowning in confusion.

“You do know how expensive distribution is, right?”

Cloris began counting on her fingers, tapping the desk with each point for dramatic effect.

“Ad campaigns—”

“Your family owns a media conglomerate!” Shinji snapped back.

“Theater chain cuts—”

“That’s already factored into our budget, isn’t it?!”

“Ratings and certification fees—”

“You’re seriously bringing up stuff that’s barely a rounding error?!”

“And then there’s marketing materials, magazine features, press kits, physical reels for cinema screening…”

Every item she listed, she tapped the table harder and harder, as if trying to stamp them into Shinji’s brain.

“Lissy, that’s all the basic cost of doing business. Stop trying to nickel-and-dime this.”

Shinji gritted his teeth, like someone slicing off a piece of his own liver.

“…Fine. Since you’re so insistent, I’ll give you another 0.2% of the cut.”

“Shinji…” Cloris opened her mouth again, but this time—

“Hold it.” Shinji cut her off.

“Don’t forget—movie rights don’t stop at theater runs. There’s TV syndication and home video to consider!”

At that moment, Waver suddenly stood up.

He walked behind Shinji’s chair, placed both hands on the backrest, and declared loudly:

“If Miss Flora still isn’t satisfied, Type-Moon is willing to throw this guy in as a bonus. Consider him part of the deal.”

“Waver, you traitorous bastard!!”

Shinji practically jumped out of his seat. He never imagined he’d be turned into a negotiation chip!

“Come on, Shinji,” Waver said with a smirk. “For the good of the team—just make a small sacrifice.”

“To hell with your 'sacrifice'!”

If the conference room chairs hadn’t been so rigid and immovable, Shinji would’ve absolutely swung a kick straight into Waver’s smug face.

“Lissy,” Shinji said, placing both hands on his knees and straightening his back. His voice dropped to a sharp, no-nonsense tone.

“I’ll remind you of something. My film pulled in 2 billion yen in Japan within a single month. Based on typical box office curves in Japan, Fate/Stay Night is projected to reach at least 10 billion yen.”

Cloris narrowed her eyes, locking them onto her old acquaintance like a predator sizing up prey.

“But everyone knows Japan’s box office is weird. That market’s full of anomalies—it’s hardly a reliable indicator.”

By this point, the negotiation had entered its final phase.

Now it was all about pressure, tone, and who blinked first.

Shinji held her gaze without flinching, not giving an inch under the silent pressure she emitted.

After a long pause, Cloris finally shifted gears.

“All right, how about this?” she proposed.

“Setting Fate/Stay Night aside, Time Group gets priority rights to invest in and distribute the next five films by Type-Moon. Same profit-sharing ratio as Fate/Stay Night, and we get global film rights on those five titles.”

She leaned forward with a confident smirk, as if already savoring her victory.

“Three.”

Shinji fired back instantly. “And the copyright terms? Ten years, max. Also—”

He didn’t even get to finish before Cloris suddenly slapped the table and stood up.

“Deal! We’ve got a contract!”

She lunged forward and grabbed Shinji’s hand in a firm shake before he could process her sudden enthusiasm.

“General terms are set. We’ll let our legal teams iron out the boring details.”

With a sweet smile and a wink, Cloris beamed.

“Don’t even think about backing out, Shinji~”

And just like that, she hummed a cheery tune and strolled out of the meeting room, hugging her binder like a satisfied cat that had just eaten a canary.

All the while, Shinji sat frozen in place.

“…Huh?”

He blinked, still in the daze of what just happened.

“Oh right—Shinji!”

Cloris suddenly turned at the door and called back to him.

“About that rumor at the Clock Tower—”

“—Hey, where’d he go?!”

She scanned the room, stunned to find the chair at the negotiation table empty.

“He already left,” Waver said calmly, arms folded as he stood off to the side.

“Seriously?! I was just about to take advantage of his guard being down!”

Clicking her tongue in frustration, Cloris turned on her heel and stormed off.

“Okay, she’s gone,” Waver muttered.

Right on cue, Shinji’s silhouette shimmered into view right beside the seat he had been occupying.

He pinched the bridge of his nose with a groan.

“Tch. Knew it. That damned Rin must’ve spilled the beans about me...”

“Nice camouflage spell,” Waver remarked in a scholarly tone, clearly impressed.

Shinji shrugged it off with mock modesty.

“Just a simple illusion—lasts maybe five minutes max. Nothing special.”

Waver didn’t pry any further into Shinji’s magecraft. Instead, he pivoted back to the topic of their newly formed agreement.

“Still, I didn’t think she’d accept those terms,” Waver said, a bit surprised. “You miscalculated.”

“Hmph,” Shinji snorted. “Lissy probably planned to settle on this deal from the very start. The outrageous terms were just smoke and mirrors—to make the final offer seem reasonable.”

Waver cast a sidelong glance at him.

The look said, “If you knew that, why did you still walk into it?”

But Shinji just chuckled and gave a carefree shrug.

“I didn’t want to work with Time Group in the first place because I was worried Lissy would try to leverage our ‘relationship’ and swallow Type-Moon whole.”

“But now that it’s clear she’s not trying to strong-arm us into a takeover, I don’t see any reason to turn them down.”

Then, with a gleam in his eye, Shinji added smugly:

“Besides… she never mentioned merchandising rights.”

Waver raised an eyebrow.

“Bandai’s been itching to get into the Western market. If Cloris wants to ignore that gold mine, then hey—guess who’s walking away smiling?”

Whether she genuinely forgot, or just didn’t think it was worth much, Shinji didn’t care.

She left it on the table.

And Shinji Matou had no problem picking it up.

Even though there wasn’t a precedent for it in this era, merchandising making more money than box office was a proven truth back in Shinji’s original world.

He'd seen it play out time and time again.

Waver couldn't help but snark,

“Who knows? Maybe Miss Flora was just leaving you a dowry. Don’t you think that’s—wait, huh? …Where’d he go?”

Shinji had truly vanished from the meeting room this time.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

In the days that followed, Shinji and Waver sat through dozens more negotiations, slowly working their way through contracts with international distributors.

While Time Group had a powerful global network, it couldn’t cover everything.

Most notably, their reach in Asia was practically nonexistent.

Because of this, Type-Moon had to negotiate directly with distributors from each Asian country or region.

Fortunately, most of these markets were relatively small—meaning Shinji could sell the rights outright via buyout contracts.

As deal after deal came through, the combined revenue from buyouts far exceeded Type-Moon’s original production budget for Fate/Stay Night.

In other words, Shinji’s goal in bringing Fate/Stay Night to Cannes had already been fully accomplished.

And beyond that, he had gained firsthand insight into the global film industry of this alternate world.

Despite the mixed—okay, mostly negative—reviews from professional critics (especially French ones), Fate/Stay Night’s audience response was explosive.

Only the British press had offered glowing praise, likely due to reasons unrelated to pure cinematic merit.

Yet, none of this stopped the international distributors from eagerly fighting over the film.

After all, people who truly understood the business knew that box office success didn’t come from critics’ words, it came from audience passion.

Unfortunately, critics still hadn't woken up from their self-indulgent dreams.

But for Shinji, it was already clear as day.

From the roaring crowds at Cannes to the heated bidding wars behind closed doors—it was all a sign:

The age of special effects–driven blockbusters… was coming.

And even more exhilarating than the shift itself, was the fact that he, Matou Shinji, was the one who sparked the tidal wave.

Naturally, not all distributors were enthusiastic.

For instance, the representative from Hong Kong passed on the film entirely, citing doubts about its commercial potential in their region.

To be fair, the guy had a point.

Even in Shinji’s past life, Chinese audiences rarely embraced foreign films, mindlessly believing domestic ones were superior.

It wasn’t until the release of Jurassic Park that those perceptions shattered.

After that?

The local film industry took a nosedive and never recovered in the face of Hollywood juggernauts.

But in this world, there was no Jurassic Park, no massive wave of Hollywood blockbusters.

Hong Kong’s market was still dominated by its own proud action cinema.

So when Type-Moon pitched their asking price, the distributor considered it too steep and backed off.

Another region that turned Fate/Stay Night down was India.

The local rep made no attempt to sugarcoat it:

“There’s no singing. No dancing. Our people won’t watch this.”

Shinji’s response?

He gave the man a slow, deadpan thumbs up.

"Man, your country is one of a kind.”

---

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