As the third female character with a significant amount of screen time after Tohsaka Rin and Saber, and a villain who nearly wiped out the protagonist's group not long ago, Illya herself carried a strong level of buzz.
Her excessive focus on the protagonist Emiya Shirou in this chapter, along with her strange attitude that shifted between affectionate and cold, made her existence itself shrouded in mystery.
More importantly, Illya was also a cute loli.
"Illya is too cute!"
"I have a faint feeling that Illya is a woman who could have been a wife to me."
"Jeffrey? When did you get here?"
"Anyway, why is Illya so focused on Shirou? What exactly happened with the Einzberns?"
"The Einzberns should be one of the three great magus families of Fuyuki that Tohsaka Rin mentioned before.
But I don't know why Illya is paying such special attention to Shirou."
"True. Saber's previous reaction to Illya was also strange, as if she knew her too."
"Nothing has been explained yet. But don't worry, because the pits dug by Mochizuki the Old Scoundrel are already more than a few."
"『? How did Mochizuki-sensei become part of the'Scoundrel' category?』"
"He dug so many pits and hasn't filled them yet; can't we call him Old Scoundrel?"
"It's only been a dozen or so chapters. Even if he fills the pits, it certainly wouldn't be now."
"Fine then, I'll temporarily reserve the title 'Old Scoundrel'."
"But with so many pits dug after only a dozen chapters, will he really be able to fill them all when the time comes?"
"Have faith. Faith requires no reason."
"I'm also looking forward to the future plot development—
By the way, the line above is pretty cool. Which work is it from?"
"I made it up myself.
Speaking of which, the first tankobon volume of FSN is about to be released. Will everyone buy it?"
"Buy."
"Buy."
"Buy."
Seeing the uniform "Buy" comments on the forum, Akira curled the corners of his mouth in satisfaction and said, "Well, if you want to call me Old Scoundrel, then so be it, just don't forget to buy the tankobon."
So the time came to October 16th, an ordinary weekend, except it wasn't ordinary for FSN fans.
Because the first tankobon volume of Fate/stay night was officially on sale.
Oshima Ryota had noticed this manga immediately when FSN first started serialization and had followed it all the way until now.
Not only that, he had also posted a reading experience and recommendation thread on the SF Forum at the time, which generated some discussion. Even now, he was considered a somewhat famous figure within the FSN discussion circle on the SF Forum.
By the way, although he preferred Matou Shiori at the beginning, he had now completely become an Illya fan.
This was because the color lead page of Chapter 10 featured Illya and Berserker, and he had completely fallen for her after seeing the color version of Illya.
This is just too cute, isn't it?!
—
.
—
And honestly, is there really anyone in this world who doesn't like a little loli with white hair and red eyes?
In any case, with the release of the first FSN tankobon, he waited at the entrance of the manga bookstore at the first possible moment and snatched up three copies as soon as the doors opened.
One for use, one for collection, and one for spreading the word.
Perfect.
First to catch his eye was the tankobon's color cover, featuring the protagonist Shirou and Saber in battle poses one behind the other. Although he had already seen this color page in the latest issue of Shonen Jump, he had to say that the Saber drawn by Mochizuki-sensei...
...was too beautiful, making it impossible not to want to stare a few moments longer.
And from what he understood, there were quite a few readers who were stunned by the beautiful girls drawn by Mochizuki-sensei and entered the fandom because of it.
tankobon are generally 32mo size, only about palm-sized, and the FSN tankobon was no exception.
However, because the paper used for tankobon is of better quality than the Shonen Jump magazine itself, the art looked much clearer than what was seen in the magazine.
When he first saw the first chapter of FSN in Shonen Jump, he knew that with Mochizuki-sensei's art skills, it would definitely be more comfortable to read in tankobon format.
Now it seemed that was indeed true.
Looking at the clearer art and details on the paper, he couldn't help but marvel, "Mochizuki-sensei's art skills are truly incredible!"
Additionally, the first tankobon volume included the first 8 chapters of the manga, which not only allowed fans to read through 8 chapters more smoothly in one go but also made it more convenient to read repeatedly.
Although he had already read each chapter over a dozen times while following the serialization, he read through it once more in detail with the help of the more refined art.
So far, Fate/stay night had been serialized for 14 chapters. However, as the story gradually unfolded, the foreshadowing Mochizuki-sensei had buried in the story only grew more numerous.
Saber, Tohsaka Rin, Lancer, Archer, Kirei Kotomine, Illya, and even Emiya Shirou himself—
Most of the characters who had appeared so far clearly had more stories hidden behind them, waiting for the author to tell them.
Regarding this, he felt both expectant and somewhat worried.
Just as some netizens on the forum said, with so much content being set up all at once, would he really be able to tie it all together in the later stages?
However, he remained optimistic for the time being, just like another netizen's cool comment: "Have faith. Faith requires no reason."
After carefully reading through the manga content in the tankobon again, he couldn't wait to continue looking at the bonus content at the end.
At this moment, the Servant status screen that first came into view immediately caught his attention:
『Class: Saber』
『Master: Emiya Shirou True Name:???』
『Gender: Female Height/Weight: 154cm 42kg』
『Alignment: Lawful Good. Ability Parameters:』
『Strength: B』
In addition to Saber, the Servant status screens for Lancer and Archer were also released.
At the same time, Mochizuki-sensei also provided specific explanations for the setting of each ability.
Although everything that could be released now was public information, and things like Saber's and Archer's True Names and Noble Phantasms were displayed as "???", there were already many novel settings.
For example, the Class Skill 『Magic Resistance』 was set to be able to nullify all magecraft below a certain rank. It sounded...
...like a quite powerful ability.
And Saber possessed 『Magic Resistance: A』; the description above stated that modern magecraft was completely unable to harm her.
This setting made him click his tongue in amazement:
Isn't this ability a bit too much of a cheat?!
Furthermore, although Saber's basic stats weren't low compared to the other two Servants, except for her Noble Phantasm being C(?) which looked a bit suspicious, her other stats only went up to B at most.
As the protagonist's Servant, weren't these stats a bit too low?
Moreover, thinking about the Berserker who had been wreaking havoc earlier, that opponent likely had Strength and Endurance reaching Rank A, which is why he was so strong, right?
In short, the appearance of the Servant status screens made Oshima Ryota find it very interesting, and he couldn't help but begin to simulate in his mind the situations that might occur when the three Servants fought each other based on these values.
As he thought about it, at a certain moment, a novel idea suddenly occurred to him—perhaps he could try to create Servants that fit the original setting himself, based on the Servant template provided by Mochizuki-sensei?