Shirou Emiya

Emiya Shirou (衛宮 士郎) is a character and protagonist of Fate/stay night. The Master of Saber during the 5th Holy Grail War. A magus that specializes in sword creation. His Command Spells symbolizes a sword. Student of Year 2 Class C of Homurabara School and, by the time of Hollow Ataraxia, he successfully graduated to Year 3 Class C. The winner of the Heaven's Feel 5, although he did not make use of the Holy Grail.

Profile
Shirou possesses an extraordinary talent for housework. Home cooking is his forte (especially Japanese cuisine) and he is not a cheapskate when it comes to ingredients to make a delicious meal. He equally likes Japanese tea, black tea and coffee, but he is better with Japanese tea. He does not like plum kelp tea. There are times when he receives liquor from Copenhagen, but he merely tastes it as he is not good with alcohol.

He does not feel good in the atmosphere of a Game Center. He is also weak against blind dates, even though he likes them. He has never gone to the dentist. His English is poor. Has a personality of immersing himself in handicraft. His teacher of Magecraft is Tohsaka Rin, while his teacher of swordsmanship is Saber. Until his second year, his intended academic major was in the field of laws and politics.

Because he almost never denies requests to repair appliances or work, he has many nicknames such as “fake school janitor”, “in charge of mending”, “vacuum cleaner of the Archery Club” and “Homurabara’s brownie”. From his first to his third year of High School, he helped cleaning the swimming pool before its opening.

During the Homurabara School's ball games tournaments in his second year, he participated in sepak takraw along with Ryuudou Issei and Matou Shinji. They advanced to the finals, but when they competed with the team of Year 2 Class A formed by Himuro Kane, Sajyou Ayaka and Mitsuzuri Ayako, Issei caused a quarrel after being harassed with concentrated attacks and made both teams be disqualified.

In simple disputes that do not involve Magecraft, he yields each form of games to their respective specialists, but aims to be the greatest in Homurabara School when it comes to “disputes, like contests of who can lift a root” (in other words, the “who will give up first” type of contest).

He has kept training Magecraft for over eight years not because it was fun for him, but because he thought of someday being of help to someone else by learning Magecraft. To make up to the people that died in the great fire ten years before for being the only one who survived, he admired Emiya Kiritsugu’s dying wish of being a ally of justice who makes efforts to be of aid to others. But differently from the anti-hero that was Kiritsugu, what Shirou has is a distortion of sacrificing himself so that others become happy.

Within his sense of values there is no such thing as “prioritizing oneself”, or rather ever since the great fire Shirou started to think that he has no right to prioritize himself because he was the only one who survived at that time. Someone who possesses a distorted sense of values that does not ask for compensation to helping people, but rather turns the very act “helping people” as his reward.

Works hard to correct any unhappiness and unfairness within the scope of what his eyes can see, but still does not provide help unconditionally; when he concludes that there is a meaning in a person’s ruin he will watch over it from the shadows.

He can get the type of books that young men of similar age physiologically desire through his part-time job ahead of time. These rare articles are hidden deeply inside his private room, concealed behind an album of photos set by Matou Shinji which were not designed to serve as camouflage.

Among the characters of Fate, he is one who eats the most, losing only to Saber, Berserker and Lancer. According to him “one who does not have the stomach to digest breakfast is a failure as a martial artist” or so. Because of this Matou Sakura is conscious of her weight.

Similar to the case between Archer and Lancer, he and Tohno Shiki would definitely get along badly.

He has been going out with Tohsaka Rin since about April after the Holy Grail War, but for an outsider his situation looks more like a harem.

History
Ten years prior, he lost his parents and home in Shinto due to the 4th Holy Grail War and became the adopted son of Emiya Kiritsugu. His true parents were normal people and died at the great fire caused by Kotomine Kirei in the last Holy Grail War. Shirou was mortally wounded himself, but Emiya Kiritsugu revived him by embedding the sheath of the holy sword in his body. Then, 8 years ago, after 2 years of continuous unreasonable requests, Kiritsugu turned him into his disciple of Magecraft.

Furthermore, and perhaps inadvertently, Kiritsugu passed on his philosophy to Shirou. Kiritsugu was benevolent, and strived to protect the innocent from the world's many perils, even at the cost of his own humanity; however, he had come to realize that whenever he was able to spare one life, another person was fated to die. Although Kiritsugu was tormented by his inability to save everyone, Shirou always admired his efforts at attempting to do so. Kiritsugu also viewed Magecraft as inherently destructive, and though he disapproved of Shirou's desire to learn his craft, he advised applying it in secret, where it could only benefit people and not attract confusion or suspicion.

Several years before the 5th Holy Grail War, Kiritsugu suddenly died, leaving Shirou frustrated, depressed, and alone. However Fujimura Taiga, Shirou's longtime neighbor and his English teacher, assumed Kiritsugu's role as guardian, and later on, Matou Sakura started daily visits to help him with housework.

His school before entering Homurabara School was the same as Sakura and Shinji, but a different one from that of Rin and Issei. Shirou first met Matou Shinji around October of his second year of Middle School, when he had to remake the signboard of the culture festival accordingly to the design of third year students in a single evening. Shinji, who oversaw that throughout the evening, said “Hmm… you’re an idiot but actually does a pretty good job.” and started to laugh. They became estranged since the time that Shirou started Archery, but starting from their third year in Homurabara School their relationship returned to what it was before.

He once was enrolled in the Archery Club, but withdrawn at summer of his first year. He missed the target only once during the period that he was enrolled, but even then he said that he saw that “it will miss” before even shooting. He resigned of the Archery Club due a bone fracture in his right shoulder received during his part-time job, which left a burn mark over the skin. The wound itself was nothing major, but Shinji pointed out that it was unsightly for someone with a burn mark to do formal shooting, so he left the club as it was also a period when he was busy with his part-time job.

One night in Homurabara School, he witnessed the battle between Archer and Lancer and was killed by Lancer. However, Tohsaka Rin revived him with a special jewel which was left to her from her father. The jewel from this occasion became his lifetime memento of his life-saver.

Abilities
At first, Shirou turns out to be a magus who can only use a single Magecraft: a Reality Marble which he is unable to deploy or maintain without backup due shortage of prana. Unlike cases like in Unlimited Blade Works scenario, where he forcibly learns about his Reality Marble, for him to master it through normal training would take him ten years to set the foundations and another ten years to reach a point where he can actually use it.

The Reinforcement and Projection Magecraft that he uses are simply small concepts of his Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works. By applying Reinforcement, he can change the form of an object or mend them back together. He also specializes in understanding the structure/design of things (Structural Grasp Magecraft).

Also, while Projection of things other than swords can merely imitate the shape, there are only a few who can identify them as fakes in a first glance. A practitioner that analyzes composition won’t be able to see through them, and even one that works through spiritual mediums would only notice a sense of incongruence. Since only objects with history ever go into the Department of Spiritual Invocation of Clock Tower, there is a low probability of them being discovered.

His body has 27 Magic Circuits but, because of not using what was made, they were left abandoned and his normal nerves turned into Magic Circuits. He himself was not aware of that at first, and thus he started his training period by facing the risk of death to create a new Magic Circuit. Now, the number of Magic Circuits mobilized for Reinforcement are about 1~4.

As a magus he will never leave the level of apprentice, but as a spellcaster, if you count him as a specialist, he would ultimately receive an evaluation in par with Emiya Kiritsugu’s in his prime as a “Magus Killer”.

In the case of him ending up fighting with Tohno Shiki, the probability of defeat is high due to having his projected Noble Phantasms one-sidedly killed, but that is under the precept of Shiki overusing his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception to the point were he will overload and self-destruct after the battle. Also, things would be different if Shirou were capable of an Excalibur-like prana discharge.

In the occasion of him fighting Bazett Fraga McRemitz, because she is a professional that specializes in anti-magus combat who surpass Shirou in techniques, experience and tactics, even if he trains to maximum performance it won’t change the fact that he will be in disadvantage (among his Projection Magecraft, activation of projected Noble Phantasms’ true name, Broken Phantasm, Reality Marble and Nine Lives if available, the Reality Marble and activation of true name are ill-suited due to Fragarach ).

When he was attacked by Lancer, the sheath of the holy sword inside his body became a catalyst for the summoning of Saber. Then, by forging a contract with Saber, the sheath of the holy sword was activated and he became nearly immortal. However, wounds inflicted by Excalibur could not be healed.

In Fate scenario, Shirou discovers the true usage of his Projection Magecraft by following Archer's advice: "If you can't defeat it, then imagine what can." As a result, he becomes capable of reproducing Caliburn after seeing it in his dreams.

In Unlimited Blade Works scenario, Shirou's improvement is caused by extensive contact with Archer. As they are essentially the same person, a natural connection forms between them when they are close to each other and Archer's combat and Magecraft techniques flow into Shirou through it. Furthermore he learns about his Reality Marble after witnessing Archer use it once. At a later time, during his battle with Gilgamesh, he manages to use Unlimited Blade Works himself thanks to the backup from Tohsaka Rin.



In Heaven's Feel scenario Shirou loses an arm in the Einzbern forest, and Archer's arm is transplanted on by Kotomine Kirei. As a result, Shirou gains access Archer's Magic Circuits, battle experience and techniques. Shirou also gains limited usage over Unlimited Blade Works; although he can browse it for a weapon appropriate for a given situation, he is unable to fully deploy the Reality Marble properly because Shirou's and Archer's inner worlds differ greatly. However, this power comes with a high cost: at the moment of activation, Archer's circuits overload Shirou's body leading to his mind unable to record memory and eventually death. But when this happens, Shirou's power increases immensely, allowing him to defeat Black Berserker nine times with a single maneuver based on Berserker's own Noble Phantasm "Nine Lives". This maneuver was fittingly named "Nine Lives Blade Works" by Shirou. In another ending, Shirou uses a serial Projection of Kanshou & Bakuya to defeat Black Saber at the cost of his mind.

Fate/stay night
Shirou has no interest in the Holy Grail, and instead despises its use. However, he is determined to win the Holy Grail War with Saber for he hopes his efforts will ensure that another disaster like the Fuyuki fire will never occur again.

In Heaven's Feel, Shirou body was completely dead to the point that even the Holy Grail could not restore it, but Illyasviel von Einzbern resurrected his soul with an imperfect Third Magic and revived him by giving him nothing else but a basic body. This is not like pouring a spiritual body and consciousness into the brain of another to manipulate it, but a materialized soul that possess human functions which was given a body by the Third Magic. By giving a body to the soul, the flesh is perfectly reproduced after the shape of the soul. However, because Illyasviel Third Magic was imperfect it took half a year was of continuous trial and error, but in the end a basic body made by Aozaki Tohko was purchased with the money from selling the books of the Matou family to the Mage’s Association and things were settled for the time being.

But even in this state where the soul operates the body by remote control while remaining inviolable in the other world, it still does not mean that he is immortal, as he can grow old, still has a lifespan and will die if killed. But the soul cannot remain in this world without the body, because instead of the soul reproducing the body that is dwelling in, it is being fixed by that body. In short is a like the state of a dead Servant that can take action without a Master and is living in the same way as a human being.

However, because Aozaki Tohko had less Magic Circuits than Shirou, the transference of prana is bad. It seems that in this state, the strong point about Shirou’s basic body is that because it was repainted by the soul the original one became ordinary, but the flaws of the original were retained as they were.