《 application 》

[moes]

PLAYER INFO
Name: Len
Contact Information:

( AIM ) hightouches
( PLURK ) endlesseight

Time Zone: PST (UST -8)
Characters Played: N/A

CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Shirou Emiya
Character Canon: Fate/stay night. I would like to note, however, that I will be taking Shirou as a 12 year old and using supplementary materials to show his personality at that age; while his 17 year old self is not too much different from his younger self, I just wanted to note that in case the mods needed any clarification.

History: Wiki.

AU History:

Emiya Shirou was not always known by that name. In fact, he used to have a different last name, and that boy was a Caldera native. For a short time, he lived a rather normal life as a citizen; he went to school, learned as much as he could, and he appreciated his life. He was pretty much a normal child at that point. However, in the midst of the war, his house was caught on fire, and the destruction of the house caused his parents to die right in front of his eyes, while he still managed to survive.

While Shirou contemplated on giving up on his life due to the fact that his only family was pretty much dead, he was then found by a strange man with the last name of Emiya who saved him and allowed him to recover in the nearest hospital. During his recovery, that same man came into his room and told him something that he would have to keep a secret. "I am a maagus." Shirou, having no other family to turn to and was, therefore, going to become an orphan, was asked if he wanted to go along with this strange man or be sent to an orphanage. Taking no time to think, he decided to go along for the ride and became Emiya Shirou.

He soon began to travel the world with his father, learning many things about magecraft, Pokémon, myths, and other things. He even learned his father's ideals, which was to become a hero of justice. Shirou himself idealized that and decided that he'd become one as well, even if he didn't know how. He just knew that this was the right path and that he should use what he knows to help out both people and Pokémon.

And then, he arrived at Union.

Canon Personality:

❝ But Emiya Shirou has to become a superhero who goes around saving people, just like Emiya Kiritsugu. ❞


At first glance, Shirou seems like an ordinary high school student. However, the further you delve into his past, the more you find out how abnormal Shirou really is.

As a young boy, Emiya Shirou was not Emiya Shirou. He was not born with the last name “Emiya”, instead, being born of a normal family. But then everything changed at the end of the fourth Holy Grail War - that’s when he stopped being the Shirou of that household, and subsequently, that’s exactly when he stopped being an “ordinary person”, at least beneath the surface. The truth is simple: on the day the Holy Grail unleashed the great fire, there was absolutely nothing left but corpses all around; there were only dead bodies of the people who had suffered all around him, and he could do nothing to help them, to save them from their deaths. After all, he was only an eight year old boy; someone who had become completely traumatized by the events that had occurred - to the point where he constantly sees it in his dreams and even has flashbacks of the event - and hated himself for it, if only because he was the only one there who was saved.

After the events of that day, he was sent to the hospital, where he then met his new father - whom Shirou affectionately refers to as “old man”, Emiya Kiritsugu. And that was the beginning of Emiya Shirou’s new life as a new and completely different person.

However, even though he was now Emiya Shirou, the son of Emiya Kiritsugu, a magus who Shirou looked up to and adored because he was special, Shirou had absolutely nothing inside of him. He was a completely empty individual who had absolutely nothing - he had already lost his parents once and could no longer remember anything past that day. And regardless of how many times Shirou himself attempted to forget about it, the trauma still stuck with him for a lifetime. But then, Kiritsugu told Shirou his dream, to become a hero of justice, and out of respect to his new father as well as redemption for his actions out of survivor’s guilt. This survivor’s guilt is actually a huge part of who Shirou is, mostly because his whole life revolves around it.

❝ That’s difficult. What you want is to save everyone. ❞

Shirou, in accordance to Kiritsugu’s will, decides that his duty, and the only reason for living is to become a “superhero”, or rather, a hero of justice. However, he doesn’t exactly know how to do that outside the fact that he doesn’t want to see someone die in front of him; the idea that people will die and he cannot do something to stop it disgusts him so much to an extent where he finds himself doing ridiculous things that may or may not get himself killed just for the sake of fulfilling that dream. After all, Emiya Shirou is an empty shell -- no matter how much he acts like a normal person in everyday life, acting carefree, enjoying his life, he only lives for one purpose. That purpose drives him forward and keeps him alive. He even says it himself that, “I don't think my wish is inferior. So I have to fight against the wishes of others, even if they are five hundred or a thousand years old.”

Basically, the reason why he gets along with most people is because he coherently believes that everyone is good. Basically, he tolerates people to the extent that he trusts easily. Of course there are exceptions to the rule -- most of them having to do with people who relate to him personality-wise or obviously conflict with him; the best two examples being Archer, who is someone who completely rejects Shirou’s initial dreams, and Kotomine, someone who is just as empty as he is. Even though he does get along with people, and this naivety does, at times, lead him into dumb situations - for example, the fact that he can’t tell that Sakura has feelings for him until she actually says it aloud, and the fact that he tries to do things such as cooking while he’s still sick - that doesn’t mean that he won’t do something if he sees someone doing a horrible thing. However, Shirou is somewhat of a coward, meaning that even though he will stop people if they’re doing bad things, he doesn’t necessarily want to kill them. Unless he’s really pissed.

Although Shirou isn’t exactly what you call an ordinary guy, he’s still a teenage boy. He tends to be stubborn when it comes to his own ideals, especially when it comes to his thoughts and feelings. So when it comes down to it, he usually won’t say no unless he’s brought down to a corner. He also shows that he can be swayed by girls just because of their appearance - he describes Saber as beautiful and enthralling when he meets her, and he outright states in his inner monologue that he admired Tohsaka Rin, the most famous girl of his year at his school. He also has a tendency to be a little (read as: a lot) dense when it comes to other people's feelings, and he doesn't always understand other people's motives behind things. It's one of the reasons why he doesn't see through Rin's tsundere side along with many amounts of other people's feelings; he does see through them, sometimes, but he just doesn't see through things that well.

❝ "I have a better opinion of you [Emiya Shirou]. It seems you can at least feel hostility. Wow, I thought you were a pacifist who wouldn't even kill an insect."
" Don't mock me. I'm a magus. If my enemy wants to fight, I'll fight back." ❞

Emiya Shirou is a pool of contradictions, and this line alone is one of the starting lines on how contradictory he truly is. First and foremost, Shirou has only one goal, one meaning to his life, and that is to become a superhero. Ever since his father, Emiya Kiritsugu had told him about his dream just as he was about to die, there was only one choice that he could make. There was only one thing that he could do. And that was to fulfill that dream for himself. It's an ideal that isn't his own, but is instead borrowed from his own father. And there mere fact that Shirou's idea of a superhero is someone who can save others so that people won't cry is something that's considered an impossibility. Nevertheless, Shirou is a stubborn idiot; once he's decided on something, there's no going back for him. He knows his own path, and he plans on following that ideal to the bitter end. Of course, he understands that he cannot save everyone. He says to himself that he'll try, but because he's an adult now, he knows better and that saving someone means not saving someone else. Regardless, he decides that since this is Emiya Shirou's only reason to live, he has to follow through on that, even if it means living his life out as a machine, as someone whose life is filled with hypocrisy.

However, even though Shirou does want to save everybody, there are just some people who he cannot "save" and rejects with all of his might. The sheer reason that he ends up fighting other people in his impossible ideal to begin with - one which Shirou himself doesn't deem as "impossible", while everyone else believes so - is because that concept and idea is the only true emotion he has left (according to Archer) even if it's something that never belonged to him in the first place. The first is Kotomine who he just deems unlikable at first - he later finds out in the Heaven's Feel route the reason for this was because the two of them were similar in some ways; they're both empty men whose only drive for living is this one thing, and one thing alone. The second is Archer, who he rejects because of the sheer fact that his true identity is Heroic Spirit EMIYA, an alternate universe version of him from the future, the embodiment of his ideals. However, Shirou does not reject him merely because he's his ideals (if it was just that, he wouldn't have a problem with him, being who he is) but the fact that Archer is someone who regrets his ideals to the point where he was to kill Emiya Shirou to prevent him from becoming the superhero he's always dreamed of. But because Archer is the one who rejects his own ideals, the dream, his whole entire self being - Emiya Shirou knows that he must reject him. After all, Shirou doesn't just want to become a superhero. He says it himself, "What I don't want to become one. I'm going to become one…!" showing Archer that there is absolutely nothing that's going to stand in the way of his dreams.

❝ I start the spell so I could be proud of myself.
Emiya’s words hurt Emiya.
He accepted that fact and chose to kill me.
That’s the only thing he ever wished for in the end. ❞

However, unlike Archer, who is filled to the brim with regrets, Emiya Shirou has nothing to regret. Regardless of how he knows that he himself is a contradiction and that there's something wrong with him as a person. But Shirou doesn't care about that at all -- the reason he decided to go on this path, to decide that his ideals weren't wrong. That his decision to confront his dream is to continue on being Emiya Shirou. Any denial of this fact is to become someone that isn't Emiya Shirou to him, because the basis of who he is that alone. Nevertheless, he continues to keep on going, no matter what. Because that's who he is. Someone who clings stubbornly to his ideal; someone who believes that is right. He admired it because it was beautiful to his eyes, therefore there's no way that can be wrong.

After all, the reason why he decided to follow this was because, as he admits, "I admit at first it was admiration. But that admiration was built upon a wish. A wish for this Hell to be undone. The unfulfilled wish of a man who only wanted to help others, but who lost everything in the end." Basically, he says that he's doing it because he's seen through hell. He's been there and back, and he's even seen the hell that he could possibly be in if he continues to follow this path. But since he was the one who was saved by a man who he thought was emptier than him himself and died with an unfulfilled dream, it was only right for Emiya Shirou, who looked up to Kiritsugu to fulfill that dream himself. Plus, Shirou would never wish that hell upon anyone, nor does he want to. Which is why he continues on this journey, this path: so that nobody would ever again have to see a hell like that. If a superhero like him can save lives and prevent such a travesty from happening, then so be it.

❝ Hmm, I don't know. I don't know if it was fun for me or not. I just wanted to be like my father. ❞

One of Shirou’s biggest problems is one that he doesn’t see for himself a good portion of the game is the fact that he doesn’t consider anything as fun. He just simply did things not because they made him happy, necessarily - putting into consideration the fact that he almost only smiles when others are happy, a fact that is outright stated by Shirou. He doesn’t care about his own body, as long as he’s able to help others. He doesn’t put himself before others, other people are just simply more important than he is; Shirou simply just doesn’t care about his well being -- he’ll say that he does care if he dies or not, but the fact that he jumps into things recklessly without thinking, for example, when he jumped to push Saber out of the way when Berserker attacked. He is ultimately the biggest selfless freak who will ultimately do anything it takes to help out the people he cares about the most. And that is both his biggest strength and weakness, along with his stubborn way of thinking.

One of the reasons why he doesn't see things as fun isn't because he doesn't comprehend them as 'fun', however. He does understand he likes and dislikes, and even tells himself as such, saying, "…It was really fun. The town I only used to walk by… I didn't know all the things I didn't involve myself in were so meaningful." However he then goes off to tell himself that he's undeserving of all this happiness, of all this joy. Of any of the fun that he could be having. A huge part of this is because of the fact that his mind is so ingrained with his ideal; why should he be happy when others aren't? There's no point in him indulging in such a selfish thing when people could possibly be crying elsewhere. Having "fun" is not a job of a superhero. Yet, he can't help but experience it for himself and have a taste of it, something that he sometimes feels guilty about.

When it comes to Shirou's daily life, he tends to be the type of person who tries to be the man of the house - mostly because, well, he's living alone and he honestly is the only guy who is at his place, considering the fact that everyone who tends to visit are all girls. And as the man of the house, Shirou tends to take charge, being the one to do all of the chores, cooking - he's usually the back up for Sakura when she's not well, but he's pretty much housewife material to a T, to the point where he actually can criticize someone's cooking just by tasting it. He's just that good.

Another thing about Shirou is that he cares a lot about his friends and the people he considers his “family”. Ever since Kiritsugu died, the only people Shirou has considered family are the ones who have visited his house constantly; meaning Fuji-nee - Fujimura Taiga, his homeroom teacher - and Sakura Matou, one of his close friends, who he soon ends up having a stronger relationship with later, as he considers her as both a good junior (as her senpai) as well as someone who he considers as somewhat part of his family, considering that he's lost his.

❝ Man, what's so fun about making fun of me!? ❞

Even though Shirou has a lot of problems, he is also ridiculously easy to tease, especially by people he likes a lot. One of the few things he's easily teased about is his height. Shirou himself is not especially tall, which makes him prone to jealousy towards guys (and quite possibly girls) who are taller than him; he even complains that his height is not average and that he should be as tall as Issei - the student council president and someone whom he considers as a friend. The fact that he's easy to tease is abused mostly by Tohsaka - whom he likes - and Fuji-nee. And the reason why they tease him is because Shirou is horrible at hiding his emotions; he can barely contain them as they are written all over his face. But because Shirou can be read like an open book, that causes yet another problem: the fact that he is, at times, brutally honest. Sometimes he just lets words slip out without thinking and that tends to get into good to honest trouble because of it. Which usually leads into getting the evil grin from Tohsaka followed by getting roped into something.

❝ Right. …It's just a reason I made up afterwards.
To confess, I've been admiring Tohsaka Rin for a long time.
And this is a problem, but I got to like you even more after I talked to you. So I didn't want you to die, and I jumped down even before I realized it. ❞

In the Unlimited Blade Works route, where Tohsaka Rin is pursued, Emiya Shirou decides to go for his feelings while deciding not to abandon his ideal. At first, Shirou sees her as the perfect honor student, as something that completely and utterly unattainable by him. She's a beautiful, intelligent young woman the same age as him. He barely even knows her, but he is infatuated with her regardless. When the Holy Grail War begins, he starts to get to know Tohsaka Rin for who she is, understanding entirely that there is more to her than just the facade that she seems to show on her face. And the more time he spends with her, the more he gets to know her and fall in love with her even more. She may not be the Tohsaka Rin he's imagined all this time, but that won't stop him from loving her regardless of that fact, even as warped as he is.

She's the only girl who can fluster him, tease him, and make his heart race like crazy. She is completely dazzling to him, as both someone he loves and as his magical teacher. He can't imagine being with anyone else, and truly wants to be with her. He never even once thought about leaving her to begin with. And while it may be a part of his heroism that he even at a point tells her that his wound doesn't hurt because the person that's truly in pain is Tohsaka Rin herself, it does not mean that his feelings are any less genuine. He even states to himself that it's completely fine for her to act like herself and that there's no need for her to pretend to be someone else. After all, he likes her as she is, even if he sometimes considers her as a red devil who has caught his weakness and his heart, something that's difficult for a person who's supposed to only have one emotion in play. As someone who's saved him at the beginning of the Holy Grail War, he knows that this girl, who he had deemed completely unattainable at first is someone who he can never repay; and as someone who's worked alongside this whole time, she is his anchor alongside all this madness, someone who he sees as a good person, no matter what she tries to tell him. She's one of the few people who keeps him on the straight path when he's about to crumble.

All in all, Emiya Shirou is someone with a warped personality: while his only true emotion is the dire need to desperately save others, he is also a teenage boy with clear hormones; someone who can get embarrassed, flustered, teased, and even fall in love. He has people he cares about enough that he'd attempt to save them even at the cost of his own life. This boy, as hypocritical as he is, as someone who might end up living out his days as a machine, as a man made of steel, has the determination and belief to believe that the path that he walks on is right. After all, "I have no regrets. This is the only path. My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works."

AU Deviation:

While Emiya Shirou still suffers from PTSD due to having seen his parents die in front of him, it is not to the same extent as his canon counterpart. This is primarily because while he did see his parents die, he did not see lines of corpses all around him, meaning that he is not desensitized to seeing dead bodies, nor can he tell who's dead or alive at a glance like his older counterpart. However, he does hate the concept of war or any sort of fighting and still wishes to put it to an end so that everyone can be happy.

Shirou also cannot use magic at all in the slightest. He does, however, have an immense amount of knowledge on the subject, as he believes that this will help him find a way to help and understand others better. He is rather knowledgeable about things in general

Also unlike his canon counterpart, this Shirou actually knows how to make swords without magic. Basically, he isn't a faker. He does still have the same strange fascination for swords that his canon counterpart does to the point where he has had dreams about it (that are not Avalon induced dreams!) and these dreams are primarily there so that he doesn't have nightmares about the day his former parents died.

He is also a child! Which means that he is innately curious about literally everything. Mostly things to do with weapons - swords, shields, sharp pointy things - and is willing to learn about them. Though he won't say no to learning about other things, too. Anything to help him in becoming a proper Hero of Justice! Even though he is a child, he had to learn to be a grown up rather quickly, as he does all the cooking and cleaning. He's rather mature for his age, but at the same time has a childlike innocence that admires the ideal of becoming a hero of justice. He does share that ideal, but it's not in such a corrupt way as his UBW counterpart is, it's more akin to childlike innocence. Because he is a child, his stubbornness is more evident, as he shows it both physically and in his words. While Shirou still tends to be polite, when things don't go his way, he will lash out either physically or verbally - this also happens when people disagree with him as well. Basically, he still has that stubborn streak that won't let go of something once he's decided on it.

Shirou also has a tendency to use Arias, or chants/mantras to make sure he's successful at something. He usually uses "Trace, on," to make sure he wins a battle, and he uses the UBW Aria to make sure that when he uses his Engineer skill that it creates a perfect object.

Another thing to note is that Shirou actually smiles, unlike his canon counterpart. While he does have times where he smiles for others, a good majority of his smiles are for himself, and not for the people around him, something that definitely shines through in his mannerisms.

Canon Abilities:

Magecraft — Shirou is able to, essentially, use only a few types of magecraft due to his nature. The two main types are projection and strengthening. While it may be possible for him to use other types, it is possible that using them might kill him, considering that his Magic Circuit was made for only one purpose alone. Strengthening does exactly what the word means, he can strengthen any object with prana. He is also able to see into the composition of objects and see exactly what is wrong with them and expose them. Of course, this only applies for anything that he can touch that isn't organic. While he can also see into his own body's composition, it is more dangerous and can actually harm him. He is able to use his magic to remove another person's magic from within him, but he will lose some blood from doing so.

Projection — Shirou is able to project any weapon that he sees and bring it into reality. This mostly applies to swords, for that is his Origin. Although with practice, he is able to project things like Rho Aias (a shield) and other weapons, though his focus is primarily swords / melee weapons. However, he has a more powerful form of Projection, called Tracing, that he is able to use. The concept of Projection is based around the fact that Shirou creates weapons from his imagination, thinking that “this is a sword that cannot be broken”, but when the weapon breaks, his thoughts and the reality clash, making the weapon disappear.

Healing — Shirou has two ways of healing. The first one is Avalon, which is the sheath that Saber originally had; it only activates when Saber is around him, regardless of them having a pact or not. Shirou’s natural healing ability pretty much turns the inner parts of his body into swords as it tries to repair his body. This is caused by Unlimited Blade Works. While in the "Unlimited Blade Works" route, Avalon's healing ability trumps over his natural ability, it does not mean that his natural ability won't kick in, seeing as it has been shown in several DEAD ENDS in said route. This doesn’t mean that he’s invulnerable, just a little more difficult to kill. If his head is chopped off, it's game over, regardless of his healing ability.

Reality Marble — It’s known as a forbidden magic that creates a world within a person’s mind and makes them real. Basically, whenever this magic is utilized, Shirou's mindscape protrudes onto the world; for Shirou, his Reality Marble is a hill of countless swords. In order to utilize Unlimited Blade Works, the true name of his Reality Marble, he must chant an Aria, a spell to change himself and activate it.

Eyesight — Shirou has amazing eyesight that can see pretty far, even to the point where he can see who’s on top of a building without straining his eyesight too badly or seeing someone attacking from a rather far away distance. He is able to do this because he uses magic, however.

Death Perception — Not really a supernatural ability, but Shirou is able to tell when someone’s dead at a glance (or not dead) and tell when he himself is going to die or not depending on the injuries.

Archery — Although Shirou has not been doing much of it as of late, he is rather skilled at it. Shirou has the ability to hit or miss his target with just the strength of his will - and perhaps a little magic - without too much problems.

Enlightened Abilities: Shirou will be a Far From Ordinary trainer, with the secondary ability being an Engineer, seeing as Shirou really loves swords.

Starter Pokémon: He will have two level 10 Honedge as his starters named Kanshou and Bakuya.

Notes/Special Considerations: I actually have future plans (not anytime soon, I promise) in the far future that if I wanted to awaken Shirou if I could awaken him as a Child of Unyielding Steel, since he's from Caldera. It's okay if I can't, I just wanted to ask just in case.

SAMPLES


What do you think your Pokémon respect most about you?

I think they respect my ideals. I plan on becoming a hero of justice, and my Pokémon understand that and wish to cooperate with me on that.

The gods of old have returned. How would you be judged if you were chosen as a representative of humanity?

[ He chews on his inner lip at this question, not really sure what he should say. ]

I'd like to hope that they'd think that I'm a good person. I've been trying to help out both people and Pokémon, after all.

A human has attacked a wild Pokémon who retaliates in defense. How do you respond and whom do you defend?

Hmm.

[ Shirou places his hand under his chin, frustrated. ]

I guess I' d jump in to try and stop both of them! It's no good for either of them to be fighting, and I'd want both of them to try and understand each other. I'd look at both sides of the story. That's important after all in finding peace.

What would you say is your greatest duty, and why?

Becoming a hero of justice. I want to be just like my old man, and I want to pursue the same ideals he does. I think it's a beautiful thing, honestly, and I don't think it's wrong to believe in them, either.

When encountering a rare and powerful Pokémon, what is most important? Researching it, bonding with it, or defeating it? Why?

Definitely bonding with it. I wouldn't want to defeat it unless it was dangerous, and I'm not really god at researching it... actually, why are you calling the Pokémon an it? Don't most Pokémon have genders?

What do you do to ensure we never again awaken the wrath of the gods upon humanity?

I want to stop wars before they begin-- and I want to stop the bad guys from trying to harm other Pokémon... and other people, too.

In your eyes, what is absolutely unforgivable?

[ With that question comes a completely dead look in his eyes, gritting his teeth and clenching his hands so his knuckles turn white before he answers, bitterly, ]

Killing other people or Pokémon. It's unforgivable. I won't allow such a thing to happen in front of me.

To what lengths would you go to rescue your allies if they were lost in the wilderness?

I'd do everything I could. If they're in trouble, then it's my job to go and save them. That's what a hero of justice would do, right?

[ He laughs a little, rubbing the back of his head. ]

What do you seek for humanity’s future?

For people and Pokémon to get along together. ... And for nobody to cry because of it. [ He nods to himself. ] Mm. That's what's right, isn't it?

What strengths make you most qualified for your role within your city?

Well, me and my old man have been travelling for a while, so I can't say I've actually been to my hometown... but I guess that, well, the fact that I'm helping others? I know how to build a lot of cool things, like swords and shields, and a bunch of other things..! A lot of people on my journeys have appreciated our help with those things, and other stuff, too.

I also sometimes cook for people and help them that way, too. I guess you can see me and pops, we're like a mobile soup kitchen when we're helping out others.

[ His smile brightens a little. ] And I like seeing everyone's faces when I help them out! Just seeing them smile and say thank you-- to me -- I just really appreciate it.