It was the day of the release of Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel II - Lost Butterfly. Elijah and his best friend, Zach, were on their way to the theater.
"So, are we really going to watch Lost Butterfly?" Elijah asked, glancing at Zach. "Didn't people say there's some weird love triangle subplot?"
"There's no way that's true," Zach waved dismissively. "I think it's more likely that the seaweed-head guy gets what's coming to him. Besides, the Porter's works are always good if you skip over any potential bad parts."
"Well, if you're that eager to watch it... fine, I'll join you," Elijah replied.
Though he acted nonchalant, Elijah was just as curious about Lost Butterfly as Zach, especially after seeing the trailer where Sakura confronted Gilgamesh. His interest was piqued.
So, they bought their tickets and headed into the theater.
By this time, the theater was slowly filling with people.
"Look at these guys—saying they wouldn't come, but here they are," Elijah whispered to Zach after spotting a few familiar faces.
Zach shrugged, following Elijah's gaze.
Those people were their friends from an online group. Just a few days ago, they had loudly declared that they wouldn't watch Lost Butterfly because of the supposed controversial plot. And yet, here they all were—every single one of them.
The two friends chuckled quietly as the theater quieted down. The lights dimmed, and the opening scene began with a little girl with pink hair poking her head out. Flames consumed the logo of Picca Comics, quickly spreading across the screen.
The film began to unfold.
Had this been the original version of Lost Butterfly from Ren's previous life, it would have been like the first part—many scenes that could have explained key plot points would have been cut.
For example, in the original, after Shirou returns home and finds Sakura missing, he immediately rushes out. If you hadn't played the Fate/Stay Night visual novel, you might have been left wondering why Shirou suddenly panicked.
But Ren had restored the missing scenes in his version.
In this one, it was shown that Shinji had kidnapped Sakura while Shirou was away. He even called Shirou, taunting him and using Sakura's safety to force Shirou to meet him at the school. Over the phone, you could hear Sakura's painful cries as she was beaten.
Although the film didn't show exactly how Sakura was being harmed, the audio alone was enough to infuriate the audience.
And when Shinji ordered Rider to attack Shirou—only for Rin and Archer to show up and defeat her—Shinji smashed the pendant that matched Sakura's earrings, causing Sakura to flush strangely and flee the school. This scene angered the audience even more.
"That seaweed-headed jerk!"
"How dare he hurt Sakura!"
"What was that thing he crushed? Sakura's expression looked weird, almost like she was drugged."
Elijah and Zach could hear the audience muttering angrily around them.
The audience had already been upset by the trailer showing Shinji pinning Sakura down on the bed. Now, seeing him actually harming her made their blood boil.
But the movie didn't pause to let the audience cool down. Sakura, who had nearly lost control of herself, used magic to stop her rampage and was taken to the church for treatment.
It was there that the truth about Sakura's past was finally revealed. The audience learned about everything Sakura had endured over the last ten years—the abuse, the torture, and the fact that she was the real Master of the Matou family.
"Sempai, how could someone as filthy as me deserve your protection?" Sakura said, tears streaming down her face, her hands clenched tightly.
The audience could even see her fingernails digging into her palms, drawing blood.
But the next moment, Shirou stepped forward and embraced her tightly.
"I'll protect you," he declared.
The audience felt a surge of emotions—humiliation, anger, and, finally, relief and admiration.
The feelings of humiliation and anger came from witnessing everything Sakura had gone through.
Many of the audience members had seen Fate/Zero, and they remembered the adorable, innocent Sakura from when she was a child. Knowing what Zouken, the Matou family head, had done to her, using that monstrous worm pit, filled them with disgust.
"Damn it!"
"That filthy old man, Zouken!"
"So the worm pit in Fate/Zero was used for something this disgusting!"
In that moment, many viewers finally made the connection to the ominous worm pit from Fate/Zero. They also understood why Kariya Matou had been so desperate to kill Tokiomi back then.
"It's all Tokiomi's fault!"
"Though, Kariya was partly to blame too, right? If I had been him, I would have taken down Zouken first thing after summoning a Servant!"
"Are you kidding? Kariya's magic circuits were only given to him through Zouken's worms. If he'd tried something, Zouken would have killed him first! Honestly, Tokiomi was the real problem—he didn't even check what kind of fate he was sending his daughter into."
Elijah and Zach whispered to each other, ultimately agreeing that Tokiomi was at fault.
Sakura's tragic past, her twisted love for Shirou, and her overwhelming guilt all pulled at the audience's hearts.
It was the kind of love, stained by darkness and pain, that some viewers found hard to accept, especially considering Sakura's tragic experiences. In many stories, a character with such a background might not be embraced by fans at all—especially if that character had been portrayed as "damaged goods," so to speak.
Yet in the Fate franchise, and even more so in Ren's enhanced version of Heaven's Feel, Sakura became a beloved character. In fan fiction, she was often a top choice for writers, who liked to imagine an alternate timeline where she was saved before her suffering could begin.
But this was a different world, and here, Sakura's character resonated with viewers in a unique way, thanks to Ren's careful handling of her story.
In the original version of Lost Butterfly, budget constraints had led to many scenes being cut, which dulled the impact of Sakura's tragic story. But Ren's studio didn't have those limitations, so he added as many scenes as possible to deepen the story's emotional weight.
----------
For 10 advance chapters: patreon.com/michaeltranslates