Short red hair, dark eyes, a youthful face...
(Note: The original had brown eyes.)
Standing before a mirror, Emiya Shirou stared at his young body, deep in thought.
He had been just another otaku—obsessed with anime and addicted to sugary soda. One night, while binge-watching a new series, he suddenly died from exhaustion.
Now, the memories in his mind told him his name was Shirou. And as far as he could tell, he had become the young Emiya Shirou, only this version hadn't yet been adopted by Kiritsugu.
There was no doubt—he had transmigrated into the Fate universe.
> "Since the old me is dead... from now on, I am Emiya Shirou."
He muttered quietly to himself.
But then, he noticed something in his left hand.
Opening his palm, he saw a golden shard quietly resting there.
In the next second, the shard dissolved into his hand. Suddenly, dark red mud, radiating the malice of all the evils of the world, surged around him, swallowing him whole.
In that instant, Shirou's mind raced uncontrollably. Countless thoughts exploded within him.
He remembered what had happened during the Third Holy Grail War—how the Einzbern family had cheated by summoning an eighth Servant, the Demon God Angra Mainyu. But in truth, Angra Mainyu had been just an ordinary young man wrongfully branded as the embodiment of "All the Evils of the World" by his Zoroastrian village.
The weak youth had been defeated. A defeated Servant's spirit would normally be absorbed by the Grail. But Angra Mainyu wasn't a person—he was a collective wish, and when he entered the Grail, that wish activated its full power.
The Lesser Grail's purpose is to absorb the souls of fallen Heroic Spirits, and at the war's end, serve as a vessel to draw forth the overwhelming magical energy from the other side of the world.
With that power, any wish could be granted.
The Lesser Grail is the key to summoning the Greater Grail.
But in the Third War, the Lesser Grail was destroyed.
That golden fragment Shirou held was a piece of it.
Why did he have a fragment of the Lesser Grail?
Why had it fused into his body?
By absorbing the Grail fragment, Emiya Shirou had become a Lesser Grail himself—or rather, a pseudo-Grail.
But the Greater Grail of Fuyuki—the Heaven's Feel—was already tainted. The Lesser and Greater Grails are connected like a passage; the Lesser Grail channels power from the Greater.
That meant Shirou had become the vessel for a corrupted Grail.
The taint was beginning to infect him, to transform him. Without intervention, the corrupted Grail would consume him entirely.
His mind would break. He would be lost.
He would become... someone else.
> "Am I... am I going to die again?"
In his heart, Shirou struggled desperately, resisting the chaos spreading through his consciousness.
And then, in a flash, he found himself in another world.
A blank void.
Suspended in the air was a massive golden chalice—intricately engraved, seemingly crafted from pure gold, radiating mystery and divinity.
> "Is that… the Holy Grail?"
It matched his memory exactly.
The Holy Grail—a wish-granting device, the omnipotent cauldron that could make anything come true.
Just as his consciousness was on the verge of collapsing, Shirou spoke:
> "I wish… to gain complete control over my body and soul!"
The Grail shimmered with divine light.
At that moment, his wish was granted.
The Grail dissolved into a cascade of light and vanished.
Shirou had successfully reasserted control over his body and soul—his will, completely unshaken by the influence of Angra Mainyu.
The void disappeared, but the Lesser Grail fragment still remained within him.
Terrifying magical energy surged through his body, reaching every corner of his being.
His magic circuits began to expand rapidly.
There was no time to question what that empty world had been or why the Grail had appeared.
All he could feel was unbearable pain—
as if every single cell in his body was being torn apart.
The agony was overwhelming.
And then, Shirou lost consciousness.
That wish, born from instinct in a moment of desperation, had allowed him to contain the corrupted Grail's power without losing himself.
In the world of magecraft, magi use magic circuits to transform life energy into usable mana, drawing from external sources.
Magic circuits are like nerves—without them, one cannot perform magecraft.
They are innate, and the number and quality of them often determines a mage's potential.
Most people are born with their circuits—new ones are almost never formed later in life.
Still, certain methods exist:
Crest Worms can forcibly implant circuits, and the Holy Grail, with its godlike power, can reshape the very rules of magic.
The burst of magical energy from the corrupted Grail was so immense that mages all across Fuyuki City felt it instantly.
They were left shocked, trembling from the intensity of the mana wave.
Naturally, this phenomenon drew the attention of Fuyuki's three great mage families:
the Einzberns, the Matous, and the Tohsakas.
(Note: The Matou family were originally the Zolgens. After relocating to Japan, they changed the pronunciation of "Makiri" to "Matou.")
Morning sunlight streamed through the window, falling across Shirou's body.
The black mud slowly sank into his skin.
Exhausted, Shirou opened his eyes and pushed himself off the floor.
The world around him felt… different. He could feel the mana in the air itself.
> "Why did I see the Holy Grail? Was that the real Grail?
Why did I have a fragment of the Lesser Grail in my hand?"
He was overwhelmed with questions.
> "I'm just a shut-in otaku who got isekai'd into another world… I only wanted to stay alive.
But now… if I don't figure something out, I will die."
He muttered to himself.
At first, he had fantasized about staying uninvolved. With his knowledge of Fate, he thought he could just avoid the Holy Grail War, lay low, and survive.
He didn't want to die.
He wanted no part in the bloodshed of that brutal war.
But now that he had become the Lesser Grail, there was no escaping it.
Fate had chosen him.
If that was the case, he would fight to live—
in his own way, by his own rules.
And if there was a chance to change those tragic fates, he would give it everything he had.
That thought set his blood on fire.
But almost immediately, the fire was extinguished.
As if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on him, the chill pierced his bones, freezing him to his core.
He had just remembered something terrifying.
His strongest opponent in this war... was none other than Gilgamesh—
King of Heroes, the apex of power, the ancient sovereign of Uruk from Mesopotamia.
With his Noble Phantasm EA, the Sword of Rupture,
Chains of Heaven, and the Gate of Babylon,
Gilgamesh was the final boss—the most broken of all Heroic Spirits.
And Shirou... wasn't the real Emiya Shirou.
Could he even summon Unlimited Blade Works?
Could he use a Reality Marble?
He didn't know.
Not yet.