72. Equivalent Exchange
72. Equivalent Exchange
The Isis episode that Nikolai shot the moment he returned was highly effective.
I said it again—highly effective. Mainly for quelling the fandoms' rampage.
- Sage... save me... It's cold here... I'm hungry...
- Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry
- Almighty Price. Protect Isis with a warm story. AlmightyPriceprotectIsiswithawarmstory.
The suggestion had left them at a sliver of HP, half-dead.
How effective, you ask? Just yesterday the Isis Protection Society was raising hell in front of the studio, and today they aren't protesting—they're making penance instead.
They were probably terrified that Isis was about to be written out of the story.
In this world, where Hero-Demon King stories were once trendy, a Hero party would often cut down a corrupted comrade without hesitation, so they could think that way.
But Isis wouldn't be exiting.
As proof, if you watched the work closely, there were plenty of hints at Isis's potential redemption, and they'd deliberately made sure no one actually died.
No matter how extreme they'd become, they were still fans of our work.
So I'd controlled the intensity just enough that they wouldn't die.
'Looks like they're already running around hunting for the event.'
Right after that installment aired, it was officially announced that an event had been prepared this time too, so anyone grasping for hope would be eagerly searching for it.
Unlike with Dina, the Isis fandom couldn't rely on the irregular force that was the John pursuit squad, but they'd hidden it with that in mind and made it easy to find, so they'd manage.
It didn't matter if they couldn't.
Unlike Dina's suffering, Isis's ordeal would end within two episodes, so their condition wouldn't last long...
Probably.
The ripple effect of the Isis affair didn't end there.
The stronger the weapon, the greater its collateral impact.
And in this case, the Dina Fandom standing next to the Isis Fandom took splash damage from the Arm/cut devastation.
When you thought about it, wasn't the reason the fandoms went this berserk in the first place because the Dina Knight Order kept poking at the other side?
So I took the opportunity to revive their PTSD just once, and discipline was immediately restored.
- Eeeeek!! Her arm!!! Her arm!!!!
- We're sorry! We won't mess around again! Dina did nothing wrong!
- MariFandomwe'resorryDinaFandomwe'resorryIgnosFandomwe'resorryScapulFandomwe'resorryRivFandomwe'resorryMascotFandomwe'resorry.
From what Father told me, even my mother, who'd been the vanguard commander of the Dina Knight Order, had grown humbler lately, so the effect was clearly working.
- Your mother's locked herself in her room again.
They might've become a little too humble, but they'd probably emerge on their own in about three days, so I told Father not to worry.
After that, the Dina Knight Order and the Isis Protection Society signed a peace treaty.
[We shall respect each other's fandoms, just as Isis and Dina respect each other...]
Having concluded a mutual non-aggression pact between their fandoms, they no longer caused trouble in front of the studio.
And the Mari Fandom, which had watched this entire process from a third-party perspective—
"Our Mari doesn't need this kind of thing, so just cherish her."
—stopped demanding events altogether.
Everything flowed in the direction everyone wanted, leading to an outcome where everyone was happy—wasn't this the very definition of a happy ending?
As I leaned back in a conference room chair, celebrating the success of this installment, Leon voiced a question.
"Is it okay for a production company to discipline fans like this? Won't public sentiment turn?"
"Discipline is all about how you do it."
Disciplining fans only hurt public sentiment when the spice tasted bad.
If it was deliciously spicy, however, they'd eagerly gobble it up and public sentiment would rise instead.
Besides, it might sting a little right now, but over time it would get memed as an over-immersion incident caused by the production being just too good.
Leon agreed that this episode was deliciously spicy, then shifted his gaze back toward the front of the conference room.
There stood a chalkboard filled with memos for managing the fallout of this situation.
"Time to wrap up the Isis episode."
Hadn't I already gone as far as I could?
Not at all.
An incident as minor as a subordinate losing an arm was still manageable, and Isis could be redeemed.
The key factor was the screenwriter's capacity and condition, and fortunately, Nikolai was back.
Not Dark Nikolai—the old, naive Nikolai.
Maybe because he'd written the devastation scene to his satisfaction last time, or maybe because he'd been steadily going out for healing—the venom inside him had drained significantly.
The madman who sought courage and hope amid bloodshed, screams, and despair was gone; only a kind writer who loved his work and characters remained.
"Good Nikolai. Now, how are you going to clean this up?"
"The deeper the adversity, the more dazzling the growth. I thought it all through when I wrote the script."
Nikolai insisted that even Bad Nikolai hadn't completely lost his true nature and hadn't charged toward despair without a plan.
The film crew, myself included, listened to the story he laid out and immediately began filming.
'The Isis Fandom's probably done their reflecting by now.'
Now it was time for head pats.
=========<Magical Mari Start>==========
Sorely toyed with by Ignos, Isis suffered deep despair.
Gazing down at Isis from atop a building, Ignos preached his creed.
"I believed humans grow greater in pursuit of happiness and desire. So I indulged in art, indulged in adventure, met countless lovers. But in the end, pleasure has its limit, and do you know what remained? Nothing but base sadism."
And so he reached the conclusion that humanity can sustain ambition only by trampling others.
- That's a wonderful expression, Isis.
With those words, Ignos vanished in a burst of laughter.
Thereafter, Isis's adversity continued.
As if the despair Ignos had prepared for her was not limited to this, the world pointed fingers not only at her but also at her comrades.
In the end, Isis left her comrades.
As a result, the finger-pointing at her comrades ceased, but she had to bear even more condemnation in their place.
No one spoke to her, and no one gave her a roof for the night.
After wandering aimlessly through days of hunger and exhaustion, one rainy night she made her way to a temple.
The elderly priest welcomed her shabby figure without hesitation and served her a loaf of bread and soup while she warmed herself by the hearth.
He even gave her a place to sleep under the temple roof.
Flustered by the first kindness she'd received in days, Isis agonized and at last confessed her sins. It was the guilt of being unable to lie to one who had shown her goodwill.
"I am a sinner, Father."
"I know."
"Then why did you take me in?"
"...Will you follow me, Sister?"
Having heard her confession, the priest led her somewhere.
Following a secret passage leading underground, they arrived at a room filled with grim weaponry.
The priest picked up a single sword from the center and told her of his past.
He explained his former life as an inquisitor—how he had swung the sword to prove his faith, grown drunk on blood, piled corpses into mountains, and ultimately let go of the sword, sinking into emptiness.
His story so closely mirrored Isis's own path that, though frightened, she could not help believing him.
The priest comforted her.
"It is not yet too late for you, Sister. Do you not have people at your side who will hold on to you?"
The priest handed her the sword.
"Go to them. Your friends will be waiting."
*
Having received the sword from the priest, she did not go straight to her friends.
Only after rewrapping the sword's grip and training for days beneath a waterfall did she head toward her comrades.
Isis appeared before Ignos just as he was about to bestow despair upon her comrades as well.
Her magic was still tainted.
Amid Ignos's relentless malice, however, she awakened to the virtue of mercy and perfected a sword that would cut no one.
Her swordsmanship, which severed only illusions and magic while sparing people, cut through all of Ignos's illusions and sorcery and brought him to submission.
Defeated after displaying every trick he had, Ignos beheld the Sword of Mercy leveled at him, erupted in mad laughter, and then sobbed.
He begged her to kill him—to grant peace to this pitiful madman who knew no joy.
But the merciful sword granted mercy even to him.
"Live the rest of your life atoning."
In the end, Ignos offered up his Heart Gem to Isis and vanished into the darkness.
Thus, the battle ended in victory alongside Isis's spiritual growth.
*
When Isis returned to everyday life, the screen shifted to Ignos's perspective.
He was performing a magic show for the children at an orphanage.
As he watched the children enjoying his magic, he suddenly began to weep.
"Mister, why are you crying?"
"This? It's a tear trick!"
Ignos played it off, turning the teardrops into marbles.
Surrounded by children who loved his magic, he gazed up at the sky and murmured.
"So this is happiness. Truly... thank you."
With a clear sky filling the screen, Isis's episode came to an end.
=========<Magical Mari End>==========
After Isis's episode ended, the fandom's reaction was explosive.
In the modern world, 'actually the villain had a tragic backstory' and that villain rehabilitating with a quiet moral lesson were so overdone I could recite hundreds of variations, but here it was a fairly fresh development.
Of course, a quiet ending like this usually didn't lead to fervent cheers.
Normally, it ended with people sharing their interpretations and agreeing it had been a good ending that lingered with them.
In fact, the general audience was staying right at that level, exchanging impressions and being reasonably moved.
Then what the hell were those people raising a ruckus outside the club room?
- *Sob...* It really was a good ending.
- Our princess, cold as ice on the outside but endlessly tender inside—care to give her a try?
- Happiness is not far away!!
- Worship him! The Sage!
Who else? The Isis Worship Group.
The reason they were this fanatical was that the lingering, fresh ending came immediately after the Isis Abuse Episode.
They'd been hit hard by the heartbreak beam and thrown into collective panic, and then we followed it up with a quiet, healing ending—the whiplash was what caused that intense reaction.
Put simply, they'd been gaslit and conditioned.
Nikolai was dumbfounded by the situation too.
"Boss. Is this really right?"
He was probably asking if it was really okay to gaslight the fans to gain popularity.
Of course, if it had been intentional, that would be a problem—but who could have predicted this would happen?
I just soothed Nicol, telling him it was better not to worry and to just enjoy it.
"Just accept it. This industry never goes the way you expect, that's all."
The Isis Worship Group occupying the front of the studio and worshiping him all day might be overwhelming, but this too was a great director's fate, something he needed to accept.
"That's not what I'm talking about. I'm asking whether it's right to leave Ailey like that."
In the direction Nikolai was pointing, a purple-haired girl was flying through the sky, tied to a kite.
Yeah. A kite, not a pole.
High up in the sky, she shouted.
"...!"
I couldn't hear her.
Judging by the shape of her mouth, she seemed to be screaming for help, but rather than trying to do anything to her, the Isis group had launched her up in what felt like an extremely intense celebratory toss, so she probably wouldn't get hurt.
Probably.
*
After the Isis episode ended, we immediately began preparing the next episode.
It was the 'Civil War Episode.'
Someone might raise this question.
Just why did a magical girl story need a civil war?
"Boss. Were there originally civil wars in the magical girl genre?"
As luck would have it, exactly that type of person was right in front of me, so I explained the role of civil war in the magical girl genre to Nikolai.
"All right, Nicol. Where does the magical girl genre's popularity come from?"
"The viewers' empathy and admiration, right?"
People generally go through adolescence as they grow up.
The magical girl genre uses that common ground, letting people project themselves onto the magical girls and feel vicarious satisfaction through their exploits.
Nikolai seemed to understand this much clearly enough.
"Now, the average adolescent kid has probably gotten into a fight with their friends at least once, right?"
"Uh... I guess...?"
"And afterward, they made up and their friendship grew even stronger?"
"You can't mean..."
"So shouldn't magical girls have that kind of event too?"
"Good god."
That was why we were preparing the civil war episode.
Ignoring Nikolai as he clutched his forehead, I organized each magical girl's combat power on the blackboard.
And once I'd finished laying out each magical girl's combat power on the board, Nikolai sighed and picked up the chalk too.
"Well... you're not logically wrong, Boss. In the end, as long as it's fundamentally entertaining, that's all that matters."
"Right?"
"But for something supposedly in the magical girl genre, hasn't a lot of this gone pretty far wrong?"
"Aren't we too far down the road to say that? Especially coming from you, after you put someone through the whole Arm/cut corruption bit in the last installment."
"Ah."
Nikolai kept adding notes to the blackboard as he spoke.
The civil war episode had to provide a rational reason for them to fight with everything they had, while also making sure each magical girl wasn't portrayed as too weak.
On top of that, since it was a major event in its own right, there were plenty of people to recruit and plenty to prepare.
Before we knew it, notes had filled the blackboard.
But one blackboard wasn't enough, so we were so absorbed in adding ideas that we'd resorted to writing notes on top of the desks.
"Nikolai. What about this? Let's start with misunderstandings and then make their convictions clash."
"Hearing you say that, Boss, I think we can tie it into that event from last time. Riv assassinates a Council spy. Dina, knowing the truth, protects Riv, while Isis and Mari just think she's been blinded by her bond to a blood relative."
"We'll say we add a few more misunderstanding elements like that for now. But where are we going to do the final battle?"
That was the biggest problem.
Of course, we could just set the background on Hetairo Island as always and stage the final battle there.
But if we did that, we wouldn't get the picture we wanted.
What we wanted was, how to put it...
We needed a place where they could exert their full power.
It was supposed to be the civil war episode—if it felt like each of them was holding back, the excitement could fizzle out fast.
The problem was that our current set was a bit cramped, the environment was limited, and we couldn't maximize each of their strengths.
Nikolai seemed to agree with my opinion—he wanted to film this one at least off the island.
But no matter how much we searched, we couldn't find the location we wanted.
For now, Nikolai suggested the major sanctuaries we knew as candidates.
"What about the Sanctuary of Parma?"
"It's big and has a lot of usable backdrops, but the natural environment is monotonous. I can tell you right now, there's a high probability it'll turn into a Dina one-woman show."
"What about an onboard battle in Karamzin Territory?"
"We'd probably sink a few hundred ships during that fight. Even I'd be roasted crisp on the outside and tender inside by the Duke if I did that."
"This is tough..."
Beyond the two sanctuaries Nikolai had proposed, I racked my brain for any slightly more special ones.
But even having wandered through plenty of sanctuaries during my John days, I couldn't think of a location that met the conditions we'd envisioned.
After agonizing over it again and again, I finally decided to get help from a third party.
"A set that's spacious enough, with a complex environment that can give an exotic feel?"
That was Leon, and—
"Hmm~ If it's something like that, shall I think about it too?"
Pia.
Why them in particular? Well, because I had a vague expectation that as imperial family members, they'd know the geography well.
The two happened to have free time, and perhaps because they found the episode I'd described interesting, they actively helped search for a location.
"Just hearing about it is fascinating. I'd really like to see this actually become a film with my own eyes."
Leon admired the script as he examined the world map.
The fact that he could personally choose the place where a masterpiece would be filmed seemed to have excited him in a way unbefitting his station.
While Leon was focused on the map, Pia looped a red thread around my finger and sent a telepathic message into my head.
- Isn't there something like a preview screening?
- There isn't. Get a grip. Magical Mari is a drama.
- Aww...
Seeing Pia disappointed, I felt a little sorry for her for no good reason, so I quietly let her in on a detail that hadn't even been decided yet.
- ...If this installment goes well, we might be able to spin this episode off into its own feature film. I'll take you to the preview screening then.
- Thank you!
Our secret communication was ended by Leon's shout.
"Here!"
He yelled, pointing to a spot on the map.
"It's wide, the environment's complex, and it can bring out each person's charm. How about it?"
After hearing Leon's explanation, instead of answering, I extended my fist toward him.
Bumping fists with him, I marked a red circle on the map.
*
Once everything was decided, I called all the staff into the meeting room.
After finishing the briefing on this episode's importance and our future plans, I finally showed them the sanctuary we were heading to.
I spread out the world map, pointed at the red circle, and shouted to the staff.
"We're heading to the Hyphen Kingdom!"
Thud.
The moment that declaration was made, the Hyphen Kingdom native pointy-ears herself, Magical Mari, dropped the notepad she'd been holding.