Shirou Kotomine

Ruler (ルーラー) is the Ruler-class Servant of the Einzbern Master‎‎ in the Third Holy Grail War in the world of Fate/Apocrypha. Taking on the name Shirou Kotomine (シロウ・コトミネ), he is the Master of Assassin of Red in the Great Holy Grail War. He later contracts with Caster of Red, Archer of Red, Lancer of Red, Rider of Red, and Caster of Black. He is one of the Servants able to be summoned by Ritsuka Fujimaru in the Grand Orders of Fate/Grand Order.

Identity
Ruler’s True Name is Amakusa Shirō Tokisada, the teenage leader of the. Born in the, he was a boy of miracles who could nearly be called a saint. However, how exactly he was discovered; a good half of his lifetime is wrapped in mystery. He, who concentrated on his studies since childhood, began to perform many miracles at the frontier for a time. Having healed wounds and walked on water, he eventually began to be enthusiastically worshiped as son of God by the peasants that believed in a prohibited religion. In reality, he was merely a Spellcaster. He wasn't taught Magecraft but it was something that came to him naturally but very rarely. His use of Magecraft was mostly subconscious, so he had not even realized it himself. It just so happened that he was born with the power to exercise the miracles called Magecraft, and no one around him ever pointed it out, and so he was revered as a boy of miracles. Perhaps Mori Souiken and his peers had suppressed those whispers.

The Shimabara Rebellion
The rulers of the land, the had drastically raised the taxes causing famine and overtaxation to the people. This action forced the weak to fall in despair as they were unable to even resist. As they continued to be exploited, the people found salvation in Christianity, the words filled with love that couldn’t be defeated by starvation, poverty or despair. However the Matsukura clan tried to take even that from them. For them it was no longer exploitation but it was murder. The people were provoked and they rose up and revolted. They feared of having their right to live taken away overcame their fear of dying in battle.

Amongst them was Shirou, a young boy at the time. Nobody knew whether his presence there was a coincidence or the will of God, but before anyone realized it, Shirou was leading them, though under the instruction of several. Before long, former-vassals of had him as leader established a rebel army against the. Together with the peasants of Shimabara, who were suffering with the harsh environment of the times, they raised a large-scale insurrection. Their battle should have no defeat and no victory either. Because by rising up, they were both losers and victors at the same time. All they had left was the power to rise up, however the act of rising up itself was a necessary act. They rose up for the sake of what they believed in—that in itself was important and what they wished for. They believed the sacrifices would be kept to a minimum, and even if several people including themselves became sacrifices, the world wouldn’t die, but would instead be reborn.

Shirou brought forth a miracle, the possibility of victory that should have been impossible. In his own words, he was granted miraculous power granted by God because God will occasionally exercise malice due to good will. Unfortunately, Shirou attained victory. Everyone went wild and became excited over the victory. They clung to Shirou, who had won a battle where victory should have been impossible, as a child of miracles. That foolish purity of theirs troubled the boy. Shirou believed they shouldn’t have won. Winning was not an option. He had been caught up in saving lives in the near future and averted his eyes from the bigger picture. They may bite a cornered cat—but after being bitten, the enraged cat would retaliate by slaughtering them.

Death
Despite taking the uprising lightly at first, the Edo Shogunate got serious due to its punitive forces being defeated and sent out Elder as the supreme commander. Shirou led the defense of, and defeated the strongest of the Shogunate attackers in a series of coordinated defensive surges. Matsudaira Nobutsuna brought on starvation tactics to the revolting army that had shut themselves in Hara Castle, and estimated the time when they were running out of food and ammunition to start his general offensive. It has been told that 37,000 people, including Shirou were massacred by the shogunate forces, with the exception of a single betrayer (there are various theories about this).

After his rebellion ultimately failed, Shirou was sentenced to execution by decapitation. Before his death, Shirou felt he was naïve and he witnessed a scene like hell as his comrades were slowly killed off. The decapitated heads of the elderly, men butchered up like experimental animals, babies pierced by spears, girls raped in the pursuit of lust and then thrown away afterwards. He was convinced that the countless lives gathered were not taken away by the enemy but by himself. Shirou without once changing expression, accepted this result with a will of steel and it made him impossible to yield and give up. He merely gazed at this scene of ruin. He revealed no resignation or sorrow and even overcame the pain of his dismembered arms. He accepted that he had lost, the responsibility for his comrades death and his inevitable death. But the one thing he could not accept was that everything would fall to ruins after this. He couldn’t accept it. After having wasted so many lives, he absolutely could not accept that nothing would be gained as a result.

"So, God. Give me another chance. Next time, I won’t lose sight of the bigger picture. I will eliminate all obstacles, enemies and hardships in my way. Next time, I will obtain all the good in the world. A world where everyone is happy, everyone is good, and everyone is perfect. I will exterminate all evil and create a new, pure world."

- Shirou Tokisada Amakusa's last prayer

Appearance
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Personality
In his lifetime, Shirou walked the path of suffering and despair. He and his comrades fought for their faith and beliefs, and in return, they failed and died. He once hated everything, from God to humans. He claims that he hated humans, not because they had killed him or his comrades, but how humanity easily accepted it as a repeating system in history where life is priceless yet has no value. He finds humanity to be just like, eating themselves in order to grow. Shirou admitted to his failure, his mortality and his guilt. So, he forsook his heart filled with hatred, for the sake of humankind's salvation. He claims he does not hate humanity anymore, and that he will save the current six billion people and the people from past and future. He desires to make use of the Holy Grail to fulfill his own ambition. He simply wished the happiness of all mankind, for innate goodness to be found in the heart of all humanity and the annihilation of Angra Mainyu: All the Evils of the World.

Shirou appears to be a benign man with an innocent smile; he is in actuality a manipulator who would destroy his adversary with no hesitation in order to fulfill his own ambition. He is essentially a character who looks light on the outside and has a darker personality inside. Kairi sees him as being overly judicious given his supposed age.

Relationships

 * Sieg
 * Jeanne d'Arc
 * Edmond Dantès
 * Semiramis

Third Holy Grail War
Differing from the timeline of Fate/stay night's Third Holy Grail War where the Einzbern family summoned the Avenger-class Angra Mainyu, they abuse one of the systems installed in the Greater Grail and brought forth Shirou as a Ruler-class Servant who was meant to be an impartial authority who regulated the progress of the War. The Einzberns wished to call forth a proper Heroic Spirit befitting of the Ruler class rather than some nameless Eastern hero. However the act of summoning a Ruler was already a severe interference in the normal operating format of the Holy Grail War so he was a compromise with the advantage of his Command Spells.

As the third war drew to a close, the Einzberns clearly stood closer than any other to the Greater Grail. Shirou had fought to the death against the Servant Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia had summoned. While his Master was killed in action, Shirou remained materialized due to Shirou having come into contact with the Greater Grail and managing to receive flesh. As Risei Kotomine rescued the Master of the Tohsaka, Shirou helped him with his rescue work. As Darnic successfully stolen the Greater Grail, the survivors were Shirou and Risei. Risei questions about Shirou's future plans, Shirou lied to Risei about giving up on the Greater Grail but he plans to travel around the world.

Risei prepared a family register, registering him as his son "Shirou Kotomine" (言峰 四郎). He had joined with the Church thanks to Risei's connections. He entered the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament as Kotomine Shirou, but naturally Risei could not acknowledge him as his son there and approached him honestly as a friend. Around the time when Risei's son was born, Shirou had deliberately diminished his contact with Risei. Shirou remained distant from Risei's own son. Shirou consciously avoids Kirei Kotomine because Shirou noticed the "distortion" within his stepbrother. Of course, he would very much like to free Kirei from his anguish, but no matter how he thought about it, it wouldn't end well. Additionally, if the one-in-a-million chance occurred where an event caused him to affirm his own distortion, Shirou was greatly worried that the first person Kirei would target would be him. Thus, Shirou kept his distance from Kirei as much as possible from the beginning to end of their relationship. Risei's funeral was the last time that his son Kirei and Shirou met. He sometimes served as the mediator in some of the subspecies Holy Grail Wars. Taking up a position in the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament, there was little information left to be gleamed about him from those who would search for it. He had almost no interaction with the other members of the Assembly, and was viewed as a curiosity by his compatriots who wondered, "How long has this guy been here?". He concealed himself in the Middle East for nearly twenty years in order to search for catalysts for Semiramis.

As the Mage's Association decided to seek one Master from the Church in order to have their involvement prove the legitimacy of their cause. Having already hypothesized the possibility of a Great Holy Grail War—a situation with seven Servants versus seven Servants occurring instead of a normal Holy Grail War. In such an abnormal situation with seven Servants versus seven Servants and where even the previous Ruler had summoned his own Servant, the Greater Grail automatically summoned the Ruler for this war, Jeanne d'Arc, but Shirou had included even that into his calculations as an event within his expectations. Shirou promptly joined the Red faction as the dual mediator and Master sent by the Holy Church. He received a catalyst for Semiramis from the Sophia-Ri family the moment it was decided that he would participate in the Great Holy Grail War, but it seems he secured three other catalysts on his own after searching for nearly twenty years as a precaution. He quickly summoned Semiramis without delay. He summoned Assassin of Red as his Servant, and she asked him, "Not for naught am I known as the world's oldest poisoner... Are you truly certain that you can wield Queen Semiramis?" He replied to her with, "O Queen of Assyria - in this Great Holy Grail War, I aim not for victory or defeat but for another goal. Will you aid me?" Although initially worried over his strange nature, she eventually came to greatly respect him and decided to aid him without hesitation. He gathered with five of the other Masters of the Red Faction, and Assassin managed to manipulate them into allowing him to control their Servants.

The Great Holy Grail War
The instant when he saw the rising sun as he lay on Semiramis’ lap was a moment of supreme bliss for Shirou.

Fate/Grand Order
Amakusa Shirou is the same individual that was reincarnated in "Apocrypha". He possesses his memories in the Third Holy Grail War. His presence is completely contradictory with the records of the "Grand Order" world. He bonds with Sakata Kintoki, Lu Bu and Fuuma Kotarou in Chaldea.

Amakusa Shirou Trial Quest
Shirou and Child-Gil are fighting over the subspecies Holy Grail.

The Vengeance Demon Howls in the Prison Tower
Shirou is the Heroic Spirit that governs the "greed" in the prison tower.

Salomon: The Grand Time Temple
He is amongst the Servants to assist the Chaldea against Demon Gods Pillar.

Shimosa Province: The Stage of Rivers of Blood and Mountains of Corpses
He is the Sorcerer (妖術師) who is collaborating with Caster Limbo.

Interlude
Let Us Tell a Tale of World Salvation (世界の救済について話をしよう) is his interlude. Amakusa Shirou accompanies Ritsuka Fujimaru and Mash Kyrielight to prevent even the smallest Singularities from emerging. Shirou tells his past to Ritsuka and Mash. They detected a polluted Holy Grail, the black mud oozing out can contaminate Servants. They defeated the remnants of Zouken Matou and his insects. Angra Mainyu pops out from the mud, he asks who wants the corrupted Holy Grail. Shirou betrays them because he has a goal and battles Ritsuka, Mash and Angra Mainyu. As Shirou was defeated, the Holy Grail was about to explode. Shirou insist that he'll destroy the Holy Grail because he was defeated so he'll put an end to this. As they return to Chaldea, Shirou informs the group that as long as there is a Holy Grail, he will claim it. However to his surprise, Ritsuka says he'll stop Shirou as many times as it takes. He and Ritsuka cannot come to an understanding, but Shirou is willing to place his own dream under seal so he can fight alongside with Ritsuka. As punishment for his earlier betrayal, Ritsuka orders Shirou to clean his room, to which Shirou would devote his all.

Other appearances
In Fate/strange fake, he is mentioned in the opening of Rider's narration. It is said that if the Holy Grail War had existed when Shirou lived, he may have even been able to summon his more powerful future self, an icon of heroism.

Abilities
Amakusa Shirou Tokisada was summoned as a Ruler-class, he was a figure whom had been as close to a "Saint" as you could possibly find in the Far East, the sainthood of this tragic youth had never been recognized. Amakusa Shirou was made to become a Ruler by foul play, his summoning in the Third Holy Grail War fooled the system into thinking he was qualified. If there wasn't the case of the Human Order Incineration Protocol, the chances of summoning him would be very low. As a Servant, he would be third-rate if he weren't Ruler. Shirou was neither outstanding in combat nor proficient in Magecraft to the level of a Caster-class Servant, but he continued to win, and survive, in the Third Holy Grail War. He is more of a Spellcaster than a Magus. He may barely be able to qualify as a Caster. He was ever heedful and never gambled, fulfilling his duties even as he thoroughly cemented his defenses.

By the strange device called faith, after dying and becoming a Heroic Spirit, he became capable of exercising miracles. Therefore he possesses two Noble Phantasm, Left Hand - Xanadu Matrix and Right Hand - Evil Eater. Due to the unique nature of his Noble Phantasm, his arms are connected to the Thaumaturgical Foundation which allows him to effectively use any sort of Magecraft with its.

As a Ruler class, he gains True Name Discernment (真名看破) class skill. Status information such as the true identity, Skill and Parameters is automatically revealed when he directly encounters Servant. There are certain limits, Servants with hiding capacity such as Saber of Red's Noble Phantasm Secret of Pedigree can mask out her identity, however it depends on his luck level to bypass this. As he was dispatched by the Church with the duty of being the overseer of this Great Holy Grail War, he possessed the Spirit Board (霊器盤) that was given to the overseer and could perfectly grasp the state of all fourteen Servants. As his "True Name Discernment" skill makes him need to directly encounter Servants to see their status, Shirou must rely on Spirit Board to track down any Servants and learn their identity. It was particular useful when Saber of Black had committed suicide and Shirou suspected something was odd since his name was not entirely gone from the board.

While he holds a Magic Resistance skill equivalent to a strong Saber-class, he does not cope with the sacraments of the church.

God's resolution (神明議決) is the highest privilege for the Ruler class skill. Normally Ruler-class would possess two Command Spells for each Servants that participated in the Holy Grail War. However, as Shirou is not a participant of the Greater Grail War, this skill has been lost. As he participated as a Master, he only has three command spells for Assassin of Red. While he leads the Red Faction, he made sure that the Red Faction Servants do not interact or meet with their respective Master. While he could steal the command spells by cutting their arm but Shirou decided to avoid this method. The reason is that he wants to avoid lying to Lancer of Red who excels at perceiving deceptions. This is the main reason why he'd manipulated the Red Faction Masters into his puppet, so they could peacefully hand over the three command spells of their Servants and provide enough Magical Energy until his connection to the Greater Grail. Eventually he obtained their Command Spells, his arm was engraved with eighteen Command Spells of Archer, Lancer, Rider, Berserker, Caster and Assassin.

Revelation (啓示) is a personal skill equivalent to "Instinct". Instinct is a sixth sense regarding battles, but "Revelation" accommodates all matters related to the achievement of a goal (for instance, choosing the most suitable path while traveling). Because there is no basis (so he thinks), it cannot be explained well to others. His Revelation comes from a vision from his arm, if he studied under Thomas Edison, he would be undergoing Conceptual Improvement until it became a rocket and the birth of Shin Amakusa Shirou.

Charisma is the natural talent to command an army. Although he cannot run a nation, he can share those with his like-minded and strong ties comrades to death. Thanks to his charisma, it is possible to make others believe in the contents of the "Revelations" skills without basis.

Baptism Rite (洗礼咏唱) is a type of magecraft that changed style into a church form. It is effective on a spiritual body. By linking his two Noble Phantasm, it is even possible to make a Servant go through a sublimation process. His Baptism Rite was extraordinarily powerful that it wasn’t possible for a human. He used this chant on the nameless monster, who had once been Lancer of Black and Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia. The nameless monster very existence was melting away as he began to emit white smoke, the vampire evaporated away right down to the final fragment of himself.

Combat
As part of the Church's Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament, Shirou is skilled at using Black Keys (黒鍵). These were the thrown-type Conceptual Weapons favored by agents of the Church and they were strong enough to purify Dead Apostles but the power of his Black Keys was far too extraordinary and abnormal. The Black Keys were particular useful against the Nameless vampire. He is seen capable of running and throwing four Black Keys without even looking back when he used it to slow down Berserker of Black.

He is an adept swordsman and he wields the enchanted Miike Tenta Mitsuyo when Black Keys are not effective against his opponents. Shirou’s sword technique is average, but he manages to fight extremely well due to his Noble Phantasms.

Incarnation
Upon being incarnated, he had the abilities of a regular human for sixty years until again establishing a connection with the Grail in Romania. He still displays superhuman capabilities in that state, easily running at speeds exceeding sixty kilometers per hour.

Development
In the Type-Moon franchise, he was first mentioned in the opening of Rider's narration in Fate/strange fake.

If ever the Third Holy Grail War were made into a Visual Novel, the ending would greatly differ depending on the choice of the Einzberns. Just as said until now, if they chose Avenger, events would follow the official history—that is, the "Fate/stay night" route, but if they chose Ruler, the story would follow this "Apocrypha" route.

Creation and Conception
Yuuichirou Higashide mentions that in the process of choosing the mastermind in Fate/Apocrypha, all the characters in "Fate/complete material IV" along with the original setting were deemed to have too weak of an impact as a mastermind. The idea of "doing something that would have been impossible in the original game setting" was one of the concepts of "Apocrypha". "" served as an even further impetus that made Higashide think, "How about bringing out Amakusa Shirou?" (Shirou Tokisada Amakusa was the major antagonist who commands the historic figures from around Japan in Makai Tensho), from which everything started. He was planned to be a complete contrast to Jeanne d'Arc as one was a young boy and a young girl. Both of their battles were heavily connected to flags. One who never became a saint, and one who did. Their points of commonality and difference were so clear and contrastive that Higashide selected him as the last boss. At that point, Nasu approached Higashide and whispered "...Speaking of which, the name of the protagonist of the original Visual Novel is... and their age is almost the same too...", and thus Shirou Kotomine was born. Before Nasu wrote Fate/stay night, he claims he was a big fan of "Makai Tensho".

Ototsugu Konoe explains that he had troubled over designing Shirou in terms of balancing him in various ways but he believes he succeeded well with the final design. He further claims that he is interested in Kotomine's family home life like in this universe.

Reception
Higashide said that not only readers, but even his friends retorted, "Really?", when they discovered his true identity. Higashide apologizes and calls this coincidence to be like destiny.