Shinji Matou (Fate/EXTRA)

Matou Shinji
Japanese name:	間桐 慎二
Appearances
Primary franchise:	Fate
Appears in:	Fate/Extra
Characteristics
Species:	Human, Master
Gender:	Male

Matou Shinji (間桐 慎二, Shinji Matou in the English release of Fate/Extra^?) is Master appearing in Fate/Extra. He the first opponent faced by the Protagonist, and he is the Master of Rider.

Appearance

Shinji looks identical to his counterpart in Fate/stay night; however, he differs slightly by wearing a purple dress shirt beneath his school uniform jacket.

Background

Shinji in front of his virtual castle

Shinji is a different person than Matou Shinji of Fuyuki. While they both exist in the Fate/Extra universe, the only common points they have are their names and appearances. Archer notes the similarity, but calls this Shinji good-natured at heart compared to the one he knows. He thinks it may be fate to encounter him during the Holy Grail War. This Shinji is known as the gaming champion of Asia who won the world game competition 2030 of V.A.M.P, the Virtual Arcade for Massive-multi Players. He also has a notorious reputation as a freelance cracker. He has managed to avoid prosecution from the Plutocracy, while many others have been arrested for breaching International Agreement 404 by accessing unauthorized information.

While he uses the avatar of a teenager within the virtual space of his castle to answer questions in a press conference, he is actually an eight year old child. After a seventy-eight hour long session online, he learned of the Holy Grail War. He was hospitalized for his poor physical condition soon after due to developing somasthenia from staying in the virtual world so long without rest. The exact time of his return is circumspect due to increased surveillance by the Plutocracy. He posted that he was not in critical condition on his blog after being discharged, and noted that "The Holy Grail will be mine."

Personality

Shinji honestly and fully believes himself to be the strongest Master in the entire Holy Grail War. Using his experience as the Asian champion, he believes there is no way for him to lose the competition. His arrogance towards others is almost palatable, and he has taken the natural position that he is superior to all others. While he has a number of friends and followers during the preliminaries, he feels most are simply pretending to be his equal. They simply wish to steal naturally deserved attention away from him because they are all boring compared to himself. He claims to like the initial protagonist out of all of his classmates, calling him the "ultimate sidekick" because someone so boring is unable to steal the spotlight from him.

He thinks he is the best at everything he tries to accomplish, and follows that nobody is born equal and can never reach the level of the naturally gifted even with practice. He holds an especially high opinion of himself, and even if he makes a blatant mistake, he will instantly blame it on others. While he hates the classes, he tries to teach others, only for them to point out he was teaching them incorrectly. He claims with no doubt that he was correct, and the problem lies with them. Even upon losing in battle, he claims that Rider is the sole party at fault for the loss. He simply did what he was supposed to do as the best, so she is the one who ruined everything by becoming his Servant. He is noted as being obsessive compulsive, reflected by his disturbingly organized desk.

He treats people like cattle rather than friends, and believes helping others out of kindness is pointless. Unless there is something to be gained, helping the weak leads to accomplishing nothing. While he is especially popular among the female students, he thinks little of the small posse that follows him around. The popularity seems strange to onlookers, and it feels more unnatural than mysterious to the initial protagonist. He is noted for his super-aggressive approach towards flirting that usually provides results, and he claims that isn't afraid of slapping those who ignore him or talk back to him. Even after the preliminaries end, he is still shown to be popular among some of the female Masters who follow him around.

While he prides himself as popular, he is disliked by most of the other Masters. He is thought of as a socially retarded person when he attempts to speak with others by both them and even his own Servant. Archer calls him so dense that he may actually warp space around himself. The general opinion is that he is a fool, and most make fun of him constantly. They call him clueless and careless, and mention he is easy to manipulate, as insults and flattery can get him to easily spill details about his Servant. All three possible Servants of the Protagonist truly hate him, and wish to put him in his place. The Protagonist notes his annoying donkey bray-like laugh as a defining feature.

Despite all of his arrogance towards others, he is really an eight year old boy who has no idea about the true nature of the War. He simply believes the entire situation to be a well-done game he needs to win. He constantly comments upon the graphics, and believes that the winner will receive a title and prize money. He has no idea that those who lose actually die, and offers the Protagonist the position of his lackey or the chance to forfeit in exchange for possibly getting some of the money later. He is only participating so that he may obtain the title from winning to prove his own prowess. Upon defeating the Protagonist, he is truly happy to see them lose, but lacks any true knowledge of their impending death. He thinks the deletion is simply a well done cutscene for the loser.

Upon his own defeat, he instantly claims to hate the "game" because he lost, and tries to get the Protagonist to let him win because his loss was a simple fluke. It is an obvious fact that only his superiority would allow for him to win the next round. When that fails, he thinks he can simply log out, and find their real identity to get back at them sometime in the future. He quickly falls into absolute despair upon finding out the truth. He believed only the avatars were erased, and refuses to accept the possibility of death in a virtual world. He begs for help from Rider and the Protagonist, still claiming that it is all their fault and that they owe him. Rin claims that he was a moron who didn't have a clue how to fight for his own life, and it was the fate of any magus who treats the Holy Grail War like a game.

Relationships

His persona during the preliminaries, believing Sakura to be his sister, is very possessive of her. He scolds her not to skip Archery to go over to "their" house all of the time, and it is speculated that she wears long sleeves to hide the bruises left by him. She is really just an NPC with a personality loaded to act as a sister to him, and he is able to break free from the simulated memories by realizing that fact. Despite not actually having a sister, he does claim that he has always wanted one. While also under the persona, he thinks Rin is the only one who could understand how lonely he is at the top. This leads to him attempting to flirt with her, but he claims he dislikes her attitude and believes he intimidated her.

The relationship between Shinji and Rider is like that of siblings with Rider taking the role of his wild big sister. The Protagonist thinks of them as a good pair of troublemakers that are perfect for each other. While Masters and Servants are paired by compatibility, the Protagonist don't know if it will prove to be constructive chemistry in battle or not in their case. She berates and makes fun of him constantly much to his own annoyance. She regards themselves as a pair of villains, and mentions that she admires that Shinji is evil enough to give a friend a beat down, commenting that the darkness of his grubby little soul is impressive. He constantly argues with her over the negative comments, but it only makes her enjoy his reactions even more.

The Protagonist regards him as a friend of sorts they cannot bring themselves to hate. He generally treats the Protagonist as an old friend, but also enjoys gloating over them. He constantly comments on their lacks of skill compared to himself, and fully believes that they have no chance against him. He is initially very relaxed about their match, but he becomes more on edge towards them as the days pass and they gain more information on his Servant. He becomes childish in his attempts to block their progress due to becoming more worried about them as opponents. He later admits that he truly hates them, and believes them to be an incompetent piece of trash. He goes as far to propose that they lose on purpose so that he can save energy. The battle is unfair to him because he still has to waste strength as the victor even though the outcome is already decided in his mind.

Role

Shinji and Rider

During the preliminaries, Shinji, stripped of his memories and given those of a student, is presented as a popular student. He is friendly with a number of students including the Protagonist, the initial protagonist, and especially the females of the class. He is close to the initial protagonist, and they have known each other since spring of freshman year. He attempts to flirt with Rin, but their exchange instead comes to blows between them. Once Leo transfers into the class, he is distraught to find that his followers have abandoned him. He quickly gets over the shock, calling them sows sucking up to someone with a bigger pea-brain than theirs. While complaining about Leo, he is intimidated by him, and feigns calmness when Leo apologizes to him for causing him trouble. He manages to break out of the brainwashing on the final day upon realizing Sakura isn't his sister.

Shinji and Rider are the opponents during the first week. The are confirmed to be opponents on the second day due to a system error not deciding the opponent on the first day, and Shinji quickly gloats that it will be easy to defeat them. He claims that even he feels slightly pained due to their former friendship. They confront each other in the Arena soon after, but the fight quickly ends due to SE.RA.PH not allowing battles there. He is shown confronting Rin the next day, where he accidentally reveals details about Rider while gloating to her about his Servant's strength. He begins to become more nervous upon realizing the Protagonist also heard the details, and steals all books possibly relating to Rider from the library the next day. He hides one in the Arena to make it more entertaining, and he is forced to place it somewhere due to the fact that it is constructed with a fairly powerful program that makes him unable to delete the folder.

Before lying in wait for the Protagonist to search for the book, he encounters Dan Blackmore outside of the Church, and Dan, a devout believer, chides him for being loud in a place of worship. Shinji gives an insincere apology, claims to be an atheist, and then becomes angered at being talked down to by him. He and Rider wait in the Arena for the Protagonist to search for the book, and ambush them after they obtain it. He attempts to reclaim it, but he is forced to retreat after becoming injured and due to SE.RA.PH possibly intervening if it continues any longer. He childishly blocks of the Arena with magic sigils the next day, having placed one on his desk and another on the nurse's office door. He modifies the Arena the day after to provide Rider with more treasure in order to increase her strength. They engage in a treasure hunt to keep Rider's power from increasing any further. They engage in the Elimination Battle on the final day, and Rider's defeat strips Shinji of his Command Seals. He begins to be deleted after having just learned the true nature of the Holy Grail War from Rider. His final words are "I'm only eight years old! I don't want to die yet-" before he fully fades away from existence.

Abilties

Magecraft no longer exists in the world of Extra, but those with Magic Circuits are able to digitalize their souls in order to interact with virtual worlds. Shinji comes from a family of magi, and he is known as a talented cacker. While most people dislike him, they acknowledge his abilities as a hacker of incomparable talent and the strength of his Servant. Rin believes they are quite formidable, and comments that the Protagonist doesn't have a great chance against them.

He is able to modify his own looks to match the avatar he normally uses, unlike most other Masters who use the default look of a Tsukumihara student. He displays the ability to hack into SE.RA.PH and disrupt the system, which is could lead to severe punishments if he were caught. His abilities allow him to temporarily block the arena by placing two magic sigils to create an anomaly in the area's programming code. The flow from the sigils, like tributaries feeding a river, needs to be blocked in order to unseal it. He can also hack it to generate more treasure within the Arena to allow for Rider to grow even stronger. During battle he uses the code casts, "shock(32)" to damage and stun the enemy Servant and "loss_lck (64);" to reduce their strength.

References

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