List of Fate/stay night chapters

The Fate/stay night manga is a serialized adaptation of the visual novel illustrated by Nishiwaki Datto and published by in. The plot mainly follows the Unlimited Blade Works route rather than the Fate route like the anime. It deviates from Unlimited Blade Works in several places to include scenarios from Fate and some elements of the Heaven's feel route. The manga was licensed for an English-language release in North America by in 2007. Seventeen bound volumes have been released in Japan.

Volume 1
Fate/stay night (1) was released May 26, 2006.

Volume 2
Fate/stay night (2) was released on October 26, 2006.

Volume 3
Fate/stay night (3) was released on April 10, 2007. There was a special edition released on March 26, 2007 that included a figurine of Rider.

Volume 4
Fate/stay night (4) was released on September 26, 2007

Volume 5
Fate/stay night (5) was released on December 26, 2007

Volume 6
Fate/stay night (6) was released on April 26, 2008

Volume 7
Fate/stay night (7) was released on August 26, 2008

Volume 8
Fate/stay night (8) was released on December 26, 2008

Plot
Shirou Emiya is first drawn into the Holy Grail War after he witnesses the Servants Lancer and Archer fighting at his school. Lancer chases Shirou around the school trying to kill him, adhering to a rule of the Holy Grail War which states bystanders must be killed. Lancer corners Shirou in one of the hallways and mortally wounds him with his Gáe Bolg. Tohsaka Rin, Shirou's classmate and Archer's master, feels guilty about involving Shirou and saves his life using her strongest healing jewel (a memento given to her by her father). Rin leaves before Shirou wakes up. Shirou, amazed he is still alive, returns to his home and is ambushed by Lancer. Shirou tries to defend himself using a magically reinforced poster, but Lancer easily disarms him. Lancer commends him for his efforts, mentioning he might be the seventh Master, and prepares to finish Shirou off. Before Lancer can kill him, Shirou summons Saber (albeit incompletely), who quickly drives Lancer away using her invisible sword. She then attacks Archer and Rin, who are outside the house, and badly wounds Archer. Saber starts to attack Rin, but Shirou, confused by the situation, stops Saber before she kills Rin.

Rin, grateful to Shirou for sparing her life, offers to take Shirou and Saber to the church where he can learn about the Holy Grail War. There, the priest and moderator of the war, Kirei Kotomine, explains to him the role of Masters and Servants in the quest for the Holy Grail, the magical object which is said to grant any wish. Kotomine also reveals the Holy Grail caused the fire that destroyed Shirou's town ten years ago. Shirou agrees to participate in the war as the seventh Master, wanting to prevent another catastrophic disaster. As they leave the church, a young German Master named Illyasviel von Einzbern assaults them with her Servant, Berserker. Berserker, whose true identity is the Greek hero Heracles, completely overwhelms Saber. He severely wounds her, but as he lets loose the finishing blow, Shirou jumps into its path, shielding Saber and taking the fatal blow. Ilya, confused by this action, calls off Berserker and leaves. Later, Shirou wakes up fully healed inside his home.

The next day, when all other students and teachers leave the school, Rin starts her assault on Shirou, relentlessly pursuing him with the intent to kill him unless he surrenders Saber's Command Spells. She is interrupted at the last moment by the sudden appearance of Rider, who attacks a student. Shirou and Rin promptly team up to drive Rider away. Shirou catches a quick glimpse of Shinji as they do. While investigating the spell and gathering information on other Masters and Servants, Shirou discovers that his old friend, Shinji Matou, is the master of the Servant Rider. Shinji's ancestors were sorcerers, and, despite the power of their bloodline having weakened over the ages, Shinji still successfully summoned Rider. Shinji states he has no desire to fight Shirou and instead gives him information that another Servant resides in the Ryuudou Temple.

He also sees Rin there and learns she aided him again, caring for him as he recovered. Shirou and Rin agree to form an alliance in order to protect themselves from the pair of Ilya and Berserker, an immediate threat to their lives. The reasoning behind this alliance is simple - each of their servants are operating at a sub-optimal capacity; as part of an incomplete summon, Saber cannot use her full power; likewise, Archer is still recovering from the wounds he received while clashing with Saber. During the course of this alliance, they discover a spell has been placed on the school, one that will drain the life force of anyone within its range.

Although Shirou doesn't feel it necessary to fight the Servant at Ryuudou Temple, Saber disagrees and disobeys him, rushing out to confront the other Servant. At the front of the temple, she encounters the Servant Assassin, and the two engage in combat. However, as both begin to execute their special attacks, Shirou arrives, preventing them from fighting any further. This conclusion is preferable to Assassin, who mentions that he sensed a third enemy hiding in the nearby bushes and waiting to see Saber's Noble Phantasm, which would reveal not only her identity but also her weaknesses. Archer and Rin interrupt and save Shirou and Saber. It is at this moment that Shirou starts to get even more irritated by Archer, who has looked down on his ideals. Archer then attacks Shirou, but is stopped by Saber.

Shirou soon discovers, much to his dismay, that the Master who placed the life-draining spell over the school was Shinji. This revelation is enough to force a confrontation between the two. By this time, Shirou has begun to excel at enhancement magic and melee fighting, a fact which quickly becomes apparent as Shinji's spells prove useless against his foe. However, as Shirou prepares to deliver the finishing blow, Rider intervenes by pushing Shirou out a nearby window. While falling, Shirou uses a Command Spell to summon Saber, who rescues him. Saber then goes after Rider, who is attempting to use her Noble Phantasm to retreat. After a chase, the two clash atop a skyscraper. Rider attacks Saber with her mount, Pegasus, forcing Saber to reveal her own Noble Phantasm, Excalibur. With Excalibur revealed, Saber makes short work of Rider, defeating her with one blow. The area of the building where Shinji was standing suddenly crumbles and he seemingly falls to his death.

After this event, Shirou begins having visions each morning; the first is of Saber in her past role as Arturia, a lonely monarch who devoted herself solely to fighting for her country. The second vision is of himself, being saved by his adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya, in a fire. Shirou's memories of his father makes him determined to become a hero, someone who can save people just as his father did; thus, he finds that he and Saber have more in common than he thought. Just then they find Caster holding Taiga Fujimura hostage. When Shirou tries to follow her demands, Caster releases Taiga and strikes Saber with the Rule Breaker, transferring Shirou's Command Spells to her. At Saber's urging, Shirou leave. Just the Rin arrives with Archer to aid Shirou. However with his Command Spells gone, Rin declares that she will fight Kuzuki and Caster with only Archer. And tells Shirou leave and go to Kotomine Church. Meanwhile, Caster tortures Saber in an effort to break her and make her submit completely. However, Saber's magic resistance proves to be an obstacle for Caster's Command Spell.

After the dissolve in their alliance, Rin moves back to her home and Shirou goes to the Church for shelter after the loss of his servent. Rin begins to have dreams about a hero who was betrayed by his ideals. She begins to suspects that there was another Master in the school, one other than Shinji. she suspects, Issei Ryuudou at first, but it turns out that the Master is their teacher Soichiro Kuzuki, who controls Caster. When Rin and Archer ambush them, Kuzuki surprises them with his innate fighting abilities, enhanced by Caster's enchantment spells, which are able to cripple Rin and hold off Archer. To make things harder Caster calls forth Saber who seems to have given in to Caster. Archer growing weaker and unable to mach both Saber and Caster, decides to unleash his ultimate noble phantasm "Unlimited Blade Works". However before he could finish chanting Kuzuki shows up with a beaten Rin. Caster blackmails, Archer into joinning their team or see Rin tourtured to death. Archer unwillingly allows Caster to stab him with Rule Breaker and Break the contract between him and Rin. But Caster double crosses Archer and orders Saber to kill Rin. Just then Shirou arrives to save Rin. After seeing shirou again Saber's will is restored and she begins to snap out of Caster's control. Following the loss of Archer, Rin begins to go in despair until Lancer suddenly emerges and offers his help to them, which they accept.

They return to the Kotomine Church, where Lancer fights Archer again. Meanwhile Caster who has discovered that Saber's will has returned, tortures Saber again to fully make her submit completely, Shirou and Rin team up to fight Kuzuki and Caster, ending in a stalemate. Caster turns the tables and use a spell to completely dominate Saber and send her against Shirou and Rin. But Saber, resists and tries to stab herself before she kills Rin and Shirou. Just then shirou leaps in and stops Saber before she can stab herself, but he ends up being badly but not fully fatally impaled by Excaliber. Just then Archer admits defeat and retreats into the church. He arrives and attacks Caster with a Storm of Blades. Kuzuki protects Caster but she is badly wonded, her hand which was holding Shirou's comand seals has been severed and The Kuzuki starts dying. A wounded, despaired and crying Caster tries to save her beloved master, just then Archer comes and hacks Caster to death with his sword as pay back for what she did to everyone. He then turns his attention to a wounded Shirou and attempts to finish Shirou just then Rin arrives and convinces Archer to stop from harming Shirou. It is revealed that Archer is really a future version of Shirou Emiya who failed to become the Hero of Justice he desired to become and who offered his soul to the world becoming a Counter Guardian. He suffered a painful end and wanted to be free from suffering, and thus came back to the past to kill his younger self and erasing his existance. Rin who looks up to both Shirou and the Epic Hero manages to convince Archer not to kill his younger self. After passing out both Shirou and Rin remake their contracts with Saber and Archer and their command seals and positions as masters are restore.

A short time later, Shirou again encounters Ilya and attempts to befriend her. Instead, he is kidnapped and taken to her castle there Illya reveals that Shirou's Father, Emiya Kiritsugu was a master of the 4th Grail War and that he was her father. He had betrayed the von Einzbern family who had took him in during the previous war leading to the current war and caused the von Einzbern family a lot of suffering. She offers to spare Shirou's life should he agree to become her personal slave; fortunately for Shirou, Saber, Rin, and Archer quickly come to his rescue. During the rescue, Berserker and Ilya confront them; Archer opts to fight the pair in order to allow the others to escape. He unleashes the full power of Unlimited Blade Works on Beserker. Reducing his many lives before beserker kills Archer. Meanwhile, the trio manage to make it to a rundown shack, where (at Rin's urging) Shirou and Saber have sex in order to replenish Saber's low prana. Rejuvenated somewhat, Saber then confronts and attacks Berserker on a more equal footing; despite this, she is not able to inflict much damage upon him. However, while Saber distracts him, Rin attacks Berserker with a surprise attack which decapitates him. Surprisingly, Berserker regenerates. It is then revealed that Berserker's own body is his Noble Phantasm, God Hand, which grants him near-immortality and the capability to rise from death up to 12 times. Unfortunately for Berserker, it is at this time that Shirou's true magic skills awaken, allowing him to trace a copy of Caliburn, Saber's original sword from her past, the use of which ultimately leads to Berserker's demise. With Berserker gone, Ilya is now out of the War; feeling somewhat responsible, Shirou decides to let her stay at his house.

Soon afterward, the Emiya residence is attacked again by a revived and now insane and vengeful Caster. She had been fully healed/revived thanks to the help of Kirei Kotomine (who turned out to be alive surviving his attack by Caster). Deranged, crazed, angry and filled with hatred for what Archer had done to her Master Kuzuki, she attacks the Emiya residence again to take revenge on Shirou, Saber and Rin. The three along with Illya go outside to fight her, but Caster is killed by someone wearing golden armor before a battle can begin. Saber identifies the killer as an Archer-class Servant. She remembers him as an individual from the previous Grail War, which was ended before its completion because the Holy Grail had been destroyed. Shirou learns that Saber was a combatant in the previous war as well; furthermore, she had been the Servant of his adoptive father and had, under his father's orders, destroyed the Grail. It is also revealed that she became a Servant shortly before her death and that her greatest desire remains to return to her life and relive it. These revelations bother Shirou, as he doesn't like the idea of her dying and redoing her life.

Shirou returns to the church and asks Kirei Kotomine if a way exists to allow Saber a normal life. Kotomine explains that there is no such way, and sarcastically implies that not even the "mighty" Grail could do such a thing and depicting it as less than omnipotent, as the stories state. Dejected by this information, Shirou decides to take Saber out on a date in order to try to cheer her up. During the date, however, the two are attacked by the Archer in golden armor. Saber and Shirou soon find out he is the legendary Gilgamesh, the "King of Heroes". Shirou shields Saber from Gilgamesh's initial attack, barely surviving the blow.