Characters / Wandering of a Sword Hero

Due to wiki policy, characters pages contain numerous unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned.

Main Characters

In General

• Badass Crew: To the public eye, Shirou has two of them depending on which one of his main secret identities were are talking about. The Sword Hero's party, a very secretive group of masked combatants that act more like Ninja and kick major ass whenever they do fight in the open during the Waves. There's also the "Mercenary Saints of the Holy Bird", a group of Hired Guns hailed as heroes among Demihumans for freeing all the Slave Gladiators of the East Gate Colosseum and escorting them to safety, and for helping the Shield Hero when he needed it the most.
• Big Eater: Firo and Azu. Rita was also one during her Rapid Aging phase.
• Family Theme Naming: Invoked. Shirou picked "Sol" and "Aurora" – brother and sister gods of the sun and the dawn, respectively, in Roman mythology – as aliases for Fohl and Atla when working with "Issei" the Sword Hero.
• Foil:
  • Firo and Azu. They are both Badass Adorable Child Prodigies with obvious Little Bit Beastly physical traits who ended up under Shirou's care and took a liking of him and especially his food. However, whereas Firo was acknowledged by Fitoria as her potential successor, Azu was marked for death by her due to potential danger the girl represents to this world's inhabitants and only stayed her hand thanks to Shirou's intervention. Firo and Azu also have opposite personalities, with the former being a Genki Girl and the latter The Quiet One, and are Younger Than They Look but at distinct apparently ages. That is, whereas Firo looks like a 8-year-old girl when being barely weeks old,, Azu is a 8-year-old girl that looks in her early twenties due to all the EXP she passively gained due to being in Shirou's party during his first Wave and Demihumans' Level-triggered Rapid Aging.
  • Also Subverted. Firo and Azu are a Filorial and a Draconic Humanoid, respectively, which should make them natural enemies and foils of each other, but they quickly grew pass that, likely due to them being children and Azu being a Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid between a dragon and birdwoman.
  • Rita and Atla. They are orphan Demihumans girls in their teens that were rescued by Shirou from very awful circumstances, ending up in his party, falling in love with him, and do not like it when anyone doesn't show him the respect he deserves. However the way they go about it is completely different. Rita thinks of Shirou as a good man that doesn't give himself nearly enough credit for all the good he does, tries to be his Honest Advisor even though that mostly consist in trying to rein in his Chronic Hero Syndrome, looks up to him as her combat teacher, and wishes he would notice her romantic feelings for him. Atla, on the other hand, thinks of Shirou as good demigod and all but worships the ground he walks on, considers right and wrong in terms of how she thinks it benefits him, is likely to get physically violent if anyone barely looks wrong at him, and has made it abundantly clear she's sexually available to him should he wish it.
  • The reason for their divergent Character Development can be traced back to their Backstories and the way they got to learn more about Shirou. Rita was a normal 15-year-old Demihuman girl that was recently orphaned and sold to slavery, but rescued by Shirou before anything worse than getting a Slave Seal drawn on her could happen to her and got to slowly know him over the course of a few weeks. Atla has suffered for years a chronically ill orphaned slave that was used as leverage to get her brother to fight as a gladiator before Shirou suddenly appeared out of nowhere and changed their fates and that of thousands of slaves for the better, on top of her Aura Vision giving her an instant and too complete first impression of the kind of person he is, which not only made her utterly fascinated with him but also seems to have been almost too much for her mind to handle. As a result, whereas Rita is similar to Rin by the end of the Unlimited Blade Works who wants Shirou to love himself more (or at all) despite his issues, Atla is more like Medea to his Souichirou in that she would do anything to make him happy and remain by his side.
• Priceless Paperweight: A Zig-Zagging Trope. Shirou takes advantage of the relaxed rules to his Tracing in the new world to outfit his party members with priceless Noble Phantasms that they can barely wield to a fraction of their true capacities. One because even at that level they're still superior to any normal weaponry they could use, and two because it's still possible that his teammates could someday grow powerful enough to get more out of the Traces and becoming used to them over a long time could help on that front.
• Younger Than They Look:
  • Every non-human member in Shirou's party (which is most of them) is this due to being a demi-human with Rapid Aging induced by level-gain, or in Firo's case, a shapeshifter.
  • Shirou wears a white-haired wig to hide his distinctive red-and-white hair, which makes him look a lot older than he really is. He would've preferred to wear a more common hair color, but he'd have to keep his already white eyebrows dyed to match, thus making the disguise more difficult to maintain.
• You Remind Me of X: When Shirou unlocks the Job System and has to select one for each of his party members, he's reminded of the Servant Classes in the Holy Grail War and notices a number of parallels between them. To wit, he sees Rita as a Lancer, Azu as a Caster, Firo as a Rider, Atla as an Archer, and Fohl as a Berserker. He wonders if Yami could agree to the team's Assassin and for some reason he doesn't even try to make himself to be their Saber. Eclair later becomes the Saber.

Shirou Emiya

The Mercenary Saint / The Legendary Hero of the Sword

Level: 95, Job: Chef (Level 31), Teacher (Level 31) (as of Chapter 45)

An Older and Wiser Shirou from an AU True Ending of Heaven's Feel with five years of experience as a mercenary/freelance magus to secure funding and knowledge on how to cure Illya's deteriorating body. He is unwillingly summoned as the Legendary Hero of the Sword three days before Illya's operation to save her life, to an RPG Mechanics 'Verse that make little to no sense to him and is effectively Trapped in Another World to protect it and its people from the Waves of Calamity, while being De Powered by his rather clingy new partner, the Legendary Holy Sword itself.

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• Accidental Pervert: In Chapter 24, he requests to be given a single large room rather than having to separate his party for the night for unstated tactical reasons. Shirou then notices the amused look that his host is giving to his attractive female party members and he asks Her Majesty Queen Mirellia Q Melromarc to get her royal mind out of the gutter.
• Adaptational Badass: Shirou had five years after the Holy Grail War and the motivation to improve his Magecraft and develop the Proper Paranoia to keep himself alive as a mercenary/freelance magus. It helps that he's a post-HF Shirou that didn't overuse Archer's arm, thus allowing his body to slowly adapt to it.
• And Then What?: In an early chapter he wonders whether Rule Breaker would be enough to sever his contract with the Legendary Holy Sword and make himself able to wield other weapons again, but decides against testing it because he still wouldn't have any means to return to his home world and remaining a Cardinal Hero at least comes with the promise to send him back once the Waves of Calamity are dealt with.
• Animals Hate Him:
  • For some reason dogs hate Shirou on sight, which unfortunately includes dog-type Demihumans like Keel. Given that this started after the Holy Grail War, Rin came up with the hypothesis that Lancer cursed him like this. When asked why, she said is probably envy due to Shirou's luck with the ladies whereas they were a great source of trouble in Cu Chulainn's life, but they don't know for sure.
  • Subverted with other canid-like Demihuman races. For example, Rita likes him a lot and while he doesn't interact much with Raphtalia, she's very thankful of all the help Shirou has given her and Naofumi.
• Battle Harem: Played With in several ways in his case:
  • Shirou Lampshades that he feels "cursed to forever be surrounded by grossly overpowered women", even commenting that he's learned to fear trick questions like "how do I look in this dress?".
  • Also Discussed by Motoyasu about Shirou's Mercenary Saint persona, who considers a shame how "Oyaji" treats his beautiful party members like he's their adoptive father.
  • Played completely straight in his AU backstory, where he ended up in a polyamorous relationship with Rin, Sakura, and Rider.
• Bedmate Reveal: How he meets Firo's human form. He also comments that Illya Invoking this trope one too many times is the reason why he got into the habit of wearing full body pajamas.
• Blood Magic: He learned to take advantage of his "Sword" Origin to imbue drops of his blood with the "concept" of a specific blade, and then use that blood as a magical reagent. For example, in Chapter 41 he Traced Yawarakai-Te, the "Tender Hands" katana from Muramasa and Masamune myth said to have holy/healing powers, imbues a bit of his blood with it and lets the drops fall in a water basin. The water is then used to wash the Shield of Wrath's curse off Raphtalia's burns. It's noted that this watered down solution is even more effective than top-grade Holy Water and Shirou even warns Raphtalia to not let it get on her Slave Seal because the latter is technically a curse and it could become undone by accident.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: How Shirou looks from Yami's perspective. She thinks of him as an insufferable cocky jerk too fond of making fun of her and seemingly doesn't take important matters with the seriousness they deserve, yet she can't deny his unconventional solutions do manage to turn things for the better in ways a conventional hero just couldn't have done. As such, she forces herself to tolerate his antics and work as a sort of liaison agent between him and the Queen.
• The Chosen Zero: The Summon Everyman Hero ritual picks people skilled with certain videogames across the multiverse to ensure certain level of competence as one of the Cardinal Heroes in the RPG Mechanics 'Verse they are summoned into. Shirou matches the criteria even less than Naofumi as he's no gamer at all and simply was holding the videogame's hardware at time of the summoning, but his intrinsic affinity with blades apparently made him too compatible as a prospective Sword Hero for the ritual to ignore. It's later revealed that the Legendary Holy Sword forced the ritual to pick him after basically falling in Love with him (for a lack of a better way to put it).
• Cool Old Guy: His general reputation under his Mercenary Saint indentity, particularly in the eyes of Naofumi and Motoyasu after helping them get better at utilizing their own Legendary Weapons and grinding up levels and weapon masteries. Heavily averted in the eyes of Itsuki, whose pride was badly injured by Shirou giving him a Comedic Spanking.
• Destructive Saviour: In his AU backstory, Shirou's solution to end the Holy Grail War caused a three-year long drought in the Fuyuki region as a side effect. A small price to pay compared to The End of the World as We Know It, but the Emiya household pointedly does not like to talk about that.
• Determinator: Shirou, naturally. No matter how much he gets zapped for it, he keeps trying to push the limits of the "no wield" rule. This is also what allows him to snap out of the Sword of Sloth's effects once he noticed what it was doing to him.
• Discard and Draw: Shirou loses access to his archery skills until Jian unlocks [Create Arrow] sometime before Chapter 45, all the Noble Phantasms in Unlimited Blade Works, and a good chunk of the regular ones, just from receiving the Legendary Sword. Despite recognizing Jian's enormous potential in the long run, Shirou considers that the exchange weakened him a whole lot in the short-to-medium term, especially because he's a videogame illiterate and has trouble figuring out the new world's RPG Elements.
• Doom Magnet:
  • Discussed. According to Zelretch, Shirou just can't lead a normal life and cites as proof that any Alternate Self of him he's aware of either "goes off the radar or dies heroically" if left alone.
  • He's also a living example of Encounter Bait. His latent Reality Marble is an intrinsic violation to the world's natural order, making him an anomaly that monsters are instinctively drawn to in order to snuff it out. On the bright side, it makes Level Grinding a lot more time-efficient. On the not-so-bright side, it makes traveling to places yet to be unlocked by Jian's Warp Whistle a pain to get to in a hurry.
• Dual Wielding: Shirou as in canon, but he had to first learn the [Dual Wielder] skill in order to replicate the style in the other world without breaking his Legendary Weapon's rules, which costs SP to maintain to boot. Later he unlocks [Dual Wielder+] to summon up to four of Jian's forms at the same time, which doesn't help much in a fight compared to the regular version – at least until Jian learns how to move the extra pair with her newly-unlocked Telekinesis skill like a pair of bladed Attack Drones. Furthermore, they can also stack the unmastered Equip Bonuses and Enchantments of the four weapon forms while they're summoned. For example, to stack SP reduction and SP-regeneration effects in preparation to use an SP-intensive Skill like [Ten Thousand Swords], or just have the forms out in order to master them.
• Encounter Bait: The other world recognizes Shirou's magic for the anomaly that it is, thus monsters are instinctively drawn to him in an attempt to "correct" it by killing him dead. While this would be an all-but-lethal curse for anyone else, it's a convenient perk for the Sword Hero as it makes Level Grinding a lot more efficient. As long as Shirou can keep up, that is – which almost doesn't happen against a Level 106 Mutant Griffin.
• Evil All Along: In Chapter 39, Shirou pretends to be the "Demon of the Sword" all along in order to pull off a jaw-dropping Zero-Approval Gambit.
  • Though this is later downplayed when Shirou revealed "Issei" was 'corrupted' after being consumed by the Curse Series
• Evil Makeover: Shirou spared no Evil Makeover trope when it comes to making his "Demon of the Sword" persona as Obviously Evil as possible: Black Armor Evil Costume Switch? Check. Prominent Red and Black and Evil All Over tattoos based on Aŋra Mainiiu? Check. Good-to-evil Expository Hairstyle Change and general arrogant demeanor based on Gilgamesh, with an extra of Body Horror by having blades grow from under his skin just to give himself Horns of Villainy? Check. Doing all of this, Transformation Sequence style, right in front of a numerous, already horrified audience because he just stabbed the Spear Hero in the back? Holy crap, check.
• Experienced Protagonist:
  • The Four Heroes Summoning Ritual picks up a version of Shirou with five years of adventures after the Holy Grail War under his belt. Specifically, one who's worked as a freelance magus and mercenary in order to gather the money, connections, and magical knowledge necessary to keep Illya alive.
  • Also Subverted in that Shirou is summoned to an RPG Mechanics 'Verse that makes very little sense to him about half of the time, which directly interferes with his effectiveness in battle. For example, he complains that something like the Defense stat makes no sense in a real fight as any living being should die if accurately stabbed in a vital point, not simply lose a certain amount of HP determined by arbitrary numbers such as level and stats. That it, 22-year-old Shirou may be experienced in fighting as he knows it, but he's a complete rookie to videogame logic at the beginning and he has to fill the knowledge gap the hard way. Furthermore, his New Life in Another World Bonus is a Clingy MacGuffin that won't let him wield any other weapon, forcing him to slowly unlock most of his arsenal in Unlimited Blade Works and forbidding Shirou from using his top-notch archery skills until Chapter 45.
• First-Person Smartass: Shirou is a lot more polite in speech than in narration.
  Just like the spear wielder, he seemed to be getting some kind of kick out of this. What was it about Lancers and Archers being assholes?
• The Gadfly: On occasion, especially when Yami is involved. One time he dispelled the Projection of the chair Naofumi was sitting on just to explain how his magic works – Naofumi accused him of conjuring up all the furniture in there just to set up that one prank.
• Guile Hero: Shirou is this, playing all sides so he can get them to focus on the big picture.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Jian pretty much forced Shirou the job "Chef", probably as a joke. Shirou actually wanted to get a different job that gives him more benefits unlike Chef that only improves his food's quality. It turns out to be a case of Magikarp Power as once it reaches level 20 the food he makes starts to give temporary buffs that last for a few hours. If he uses a rare ingredient, it gives permanent boosts to whoever eats it for the first time, making it useful for pre-battle preparations. The only downside is that the temporary buffs don't stack, only applying the latest meal's effects to the person.
• Home Field Advantage: More like Away Field Advantage. Projections suffer from the corrective force of the Planet, which means they require a constant source of magical energy lest they disappear. Shirou's Tracing is a different version of Projection that gets around this, which allows him to copy the swords' blueprints in his Reality Marble as near-perfect replicas and with no energy upkeep.^note The caveats being he can only do it with Swords and other Weapons (and other non-Weapons like Shields at a higher cost), Noble Phantasms have a ridiculous cost to Trace, let alone activate, and that they suffer a rank-down due to the limits of his sight-based Tracing in getting all the composition details. However, this other world lacks Gaia's influence, so even if Shirou uses regular Projection, the constructs do not suffer from magical energy intake and can be maintained for as long as he wills. This is less convenient than it sounds because his Legendary Weapon doesn't let him wield other weapons as a rule, but it does allow him a rather Mundane Utility of making clothes and tables. It's later revealed that the other world does have its own system of sorts to deal with magical anomalies like him. Namely, monsters are instinctively driven to try and "correct" the distortion by means of his bloody murder, making Shirou a living example of Encounter Bait.
  • Played With. Once Shirou was informed of the Skill Point function, he unlocks upgrades for his Magecraft spells Tracing and Alteration, which would reduce their degradation. Jian cheerfully upgrades them before Shirou can say no as that would also increase the level requirements.
• I Call It "Vera": Shirou names his Legendary Holy Sword "Jian" (lit. "sword" in Chinese) since he got tired of using the full name all the time, even in his head. He also treats Jian like she's a Clingy Jealous Girl, although not without motive.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Shirou is able to bombard thousands of monsters with thousands of swords with pinpoint accuracy miles away from his targets. Other characters don't know it, but just to rub salt on the wound, Shirou is canonically an archery prodigy who never missed a shot^note Technically, he did miss one shot during training, but he already knew that one was going to miss. despite only relying on his non-supernatural skills.
• In-Series Nickname: Shirou has gotten a few due to his several identities, like "Sword Hero" that comes as default, plus "Rogue Hero" and "Mercenary Saint" depending on his disguise. He's also "Sensei" to Rita, "Master" to Firo, "Oyaji" to Motoyasu, and his one-off Adventurer disguise in the Colosseum got called "Kerry" because "Kiritsugu" was a bit of a mouthful for another participant.
• It's All My Fault: While his plans in Chapter 39-40 go mostly exactly as planned, he blames himself for overestimating Itsuki's mettle by a long shot, pushing him to fall under the influence of the Bow of Pride, who in turn pushed Rishia to try to commit suicide. Doubles as Dramatic Irony because he's got no way to know that both things would have happened regardless of his intervention, just at later points in the canonical timeline.
• Kung-Fu Sonic Boom: When he stacks everything he has into powering up a single jump – Reinforcement, speed buffs, and using [Dual Wielder+] to have four of Jian's best speed-boosting weapon forms out – Shirou can almost reach Mach 2. He used this at night in Chapter 42 to prevent Rishia's suicide, destroying the wall of the building he jumped off from, and the sonic boom was mistaken for an enemy attack that startled awake a good chunk of Castle Town and even soldiers were mobilized to deal with the alleged threat.
• Lightning Bruiser: Shirou isn't the strongest in his party stat-wise nor is he the fastest (that's Firo), but he is without a doubt the strongest out of the Four Cardinal Heroes and his own party due to his skill and can dish out a lot of damage while also having an ungodly amount of pain tolerance and can move very fast when needed. And that's while being held back by the Legendary Holy Sword.
• Lover Tug of War: Finds himself as the rope in Chapter 13 when Azu's first appearance makes Firo feel territorial about him.
• Magically Inept Fighter: His magecraft is so specialized around Swords that he sucks badly at traditional elemental spells in two different worlds. For example, Shirou tried to cast [Faust Aqua Edge] in Chapter 14, and even with Jian amplifying his affinity to water a lot, the supposedly offensive water-type spell looked as intimidating as a spout coming out of a squirt gun. A small squirt gun, at that.
• Master of Disguise:
  • Subverted. Shirou can disguise himself pretty well but perceptive people can see through it, especially if they spend some time with him. That's precisely why he kept "Issei's" interactions with people to a minimum.
  • A bit Zig-Zagged with his "Issei" persona too. Shirou makes a convincing act to throw off Naofumi, but even then Naofumi thinks that the Sword Hero is an "evil parallel universe version of Shirou".
• Metaphorically True: The backstory he tells to Naofumi and Motoyasu in his Mercenary Saint identity. It's mostly the same as his real backstory, but the facts are changed to fit the world they're in. For example, rather than being implanted with Avalon by Kiritsugu, he was implanted with a previous Hero's iteration of the Legendary Sword by Fitoria, explaining away why he has the powers of a Sword Hero. He also uses this to explain his Demon of the Sword persona, by borrowing Angra Mainyu's corruption of the Holy Grail and claiming that "Angra Mainyu" was a former Hero whose death corrupted the Cardinal Heroes' summoning ritual, brought back by "Issei" falling to the Sword of Sloth and having his soul replaced by "Avenger".
• Memetic Badass: An In-Universe example in both of his identities. For example, Naofumi has no trouble believing the Mercenary Saint when the latter matter-of-factly talks about breaking prisoners out of the royal castle's dungeon like he's doing a milk run, there is the one time he spanked the Bow Hero for being incapable of owning up to his mistakes, and Motoyasu has to be told that no, Shirou is not a God in Human Form no matter how much Isekai Wrong Genre Savvy logic it makes to him.
• The Mentor: Shirou acts as one for the other heroes while in his Mercenary disguise. Well, for Naofumi and Motoyasu, at least. Itsuki's too full of himself to even listen. He even gains a Job and Title related to it later on.
• Mysterious Backer: Naofumi sees Shirou as this to himself, helping him out with critical information and letting him copy particularly useful shields and even borrow his high-leveled party members to grind EXP and fight the Waves, but only because whoever hired the guy needs the Shield Hero to survive and become stronger due to some hidden agenda that Naofumi doesn't particularly care for as long as it continues benefiting him. Unaware to Naofumi, this is actually a Subversion, as Shirou has no ulterior motivations other than fighting the Waves, going home, and hopefully making this Crapsack World that they were summoned into a little less so in the process.
• Older and Wiser: Shirou is naturally this in this story due to being summoned five years after the Holy Grail War.
• One-Man Army: Shirou, or rather "Issei Fugimura" the Sword Hero, earns this reputation after people see him making literally thousands of swords fall like rain during the second Wave in Melromarc with not a single blade missing its target or injuring something he didn't intend to kill. The display of overwhelming personal power paired with deadly precision on such a large scale was so humbling and terrifying that it gets cases like Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Malty to just shut up and walk in uneasy silence in its aftermath.
• Papa Wolf: Shirou acts like this when someone tries to harm his party who are all considerably younger than him, if not in appearance.
• Pragmatic Hero: Shirou is pretty pragmatic already, but he plays it up for the upper brass of Melromarc because it's easier to justify his actions as the Sword Hero that way. For example, when King Aultcray tells him about the actually False Rape Accusation against Naofumi as it was a fact, Shirou figures out that what he really wants to know is whether he would try to defend the Shield Hero, whom the king obviously hated from the beginning. Instead of agreeing or disagreeing, Shirou claims that he doesn't really care whether the accusations are true or not, stating that "even scum has its uses" and that his only concern is whether the Shield Hero will do his job once the next Wave will strike or not. He even takes advantage of the fact that Aultcray doesn't know Shirou found out the alleged victim was one of the king's daughters to comment that the whole incident should have been covered up because a "single raped adventurer" doesn't compare to the thousands of lives that could be lost in the Waves by making the Shield Hero too hated to move around and level up properly.
• Prematurely Grey-Haired: Shirou has white eyebrows and patches of white hair despite being only in his early twenties, as a result of looking more and more like Archer as the years and battles go by.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • This is an Older and Wiser Shirou who still believes in the best of people but knows better than to simply expect it. Upon arriving in Melromarc and hearing he and the other three have been summoned as Heroes, he comes up with dozen of ways, both magical and mundane, that the locals could be planning to exploit and/or screw him over in as many seconds and just in case assumes the other Heroes could be magi like him. It says a lot about the other world that his guesswork is completely right about a third of the time and at least partially correct about a good chunk of the rest.
  • He correctly suspects that the party members chosen by the government are agents in one form or another intended on manipulating the flow of information to and from each of the Cardinal Heroes. This is why he politely declines to accept any, and when that fails, he mops the floor with a few and presents himself as a Might Makes Right warrior to give himself an excuse. He then leaves Melromarc outright as soon as he gets the money promised to start his adventure, plus an extra to allegedly hire mercenaries.
  • He makes a point to completely avoid using his Curse Series after unlocking it, due to its implied risks outweighing the potential gains. His caution is later proven to be right on the money when he notices the Sword of Sloth veering his thoughts toward apathy, which would have been a lot worse had he used it even once.
  • Shirou deliberately takes the scenic route before going to the Hourglass of the Dragon's Era for the first time, but not without losing sight of Motoyasu and Itsuki in order to see what they will do in there just in case they know something he doesn't. Sure enough, he notices them requesting a bit of sand from the Hourglass and decides to follow suit, then realizing that feeding a part of it to Jian unlocks a Warp Whistle skill called "Transport Sword". He does quite the Eye Take when he realizes from the skill's description that his Legendary Weapon is now capable of a form of teleportation, which is an act near the level of True Magic on Earth as far as he knows.
• Psychic Link: Slowly develops a one-way link to Jian. Chapter 42 shows he can even give telepathic orders to her.
• Red Baron: Thanks to the Title system, he actually gets benefits from having these titles, with the benefits and strength of them being tied to the knowledge of the title. Because titles are subjective and given to various personas of his, they vary in effectiveness.
  • Rogue Hero (Issei) gives him +2 to speed and a minor boost to Presence Concealment.
  • Mercenary Saint (Shirou) gives a decent Charisma boost.
  • Father of the Holy Bird (Shirou) gives a +6% boost to the stats of Filolial allies.
  • Griffin Slayer (Kiritsugu) gives +2 to attack and a +2% damage bonus to Griffins.
  • One-Man Army (Issei) adds 10% to his attack when facing over a thousand foes.
  • Prophet of the Bird God (Shirou) gives another +20% boost to Filolial allies' stats.
  • Ancient Hero (Shirou) adds 5% to his stats when fighting a younger opponent - even though he's only 28.
  • Teacher of Heroes (Shirou) adds 1% to the stats of all his students.
  • True Saint Hero (Shirou) makes him deal 15% more damage to Demons and increases his healing effectiveness by 50%. The irony is that demons don't exist and that he doesn't actually have healing magic.
  • Demon of the Sword (Avenger) adds 20% to his stats when fighting a Hero.
  • Fireproof Demon (Avenger) adds 10% resistance to fire damage.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: In Chapter 26 Shirou doesn't bother rescuing the gladiator slaves the traditional way and creating plenty of political problems in his wake. Instead, he simply throws 50,000 gold coins (about a third of the money he got by basically betting on himself in the arena) at the owner of the Colosseum to buy them outright, plus enough Filorials and wagons to transport them. The slaver temporarily stops breathing when he sees Firo start to unload that much cash and he moves to comply at once.
• Stage Magician: Yes, really. Unlike what most characters thought, the ending of Chapter 40 was actually Shirou pulling a Stage Magician stunt for their sake without them realizing it. It goes like this: when King Aultcray prepared to launch a powerful fire spell at "Avenger" with his Seven Star Cane, Shirou pretended to lunge at him to stop him before he can finish casting it, only to get "trapped" by "Shirou" (actually Yami) wielding a Traced replica of the Legendary Weapons Replica to activate [Shield Prison] around him. Everybody thought "Shirou" was immobilizing "Avenger" so that the King's attack would hit him head-on, but [Shield Prison]'s real objective was to hide the real Shirou from sight while he traced Svalinn in order to shield himself from the prearranged fire spell.
• Storm of Blades:
  • Shirou could do this even before becoming the Sword Hero. He becomes unable to for a while due to the Legendary Weapon rules until gained access to a similar, albeit weaker, family of skills as he unlocks new forms for his sword, starting with [One Hundred Swords] and [One Thousand Swords]. Even then, the new skill scales with his level and stats so that is only temporary.
  • He uses the [Ten Thousand Swords] skill to great effect during his first two Waves, as it is a perfect method to kill a large number of weak-to-medium monsters en masse before their numbers can get overwhelming thanks to his unerring accuracy with each shot.
  • Shirou's usage of [One Hundred Thousand Swords] singlehandedly ends the Wave, though he has to take an SP potion halfway through casting it and leaves him completely drained afterward because the Sword Hero isn't meant to be able to unlock that skill at his level. Yet Shirou can, due to the endless weapons in UBW.
  • Shirou's Unlimited Blade Works takes even that to ridiculous levels as he never lost access to it even after becoming the Sword Hero, though has yet to fully use it.
• Supreme Chef: Right out of the gate, Shirou's highest Stat is "Cooking". Even Jian agrees considering she forced the "Chef" Job on him.
• Took a Level in Badass: Pun intended. Normally, Shirou wouldn't be able to Trace, high-grade Noble Phantasms like Excalibur or Avalon without killing himself due to the required magical energy to not only replicate such Divine Artefacts, but to also compensate for his missing knowledge on their construction and composition details with an extremely high, but appropriate, amount of magical energy. And that would be just to make them, not counting at all actually activating them. However, the Leveling system of Shield Hero allows him to increase his magical supply until he can do things that he wouldn't have been able to do unless he was his EMIYA Counter Guardian incarnation, such as the Trace of Excalibur or even imbuing his very blood with a Noble Phantasm's effects.
• The Unfettered:
  • Invoked. Shirou actively makes most people think the Sword Hero's one and only concern is fighting the Waves and going back home without a care for methods and morals. For example, "Issei" tells King Aultcray that it's all the same to him if Naofumi raped his first party member or not, so long as the Shield Hero will fight the Waves as he's supposed to, and even makes the utterly pragmatic and morally grey observation that the whole incident should have been covered up, lest Naofumi become too hated by people and compromise his ability to move around and level up.
  • To elaborate, "Issei" shot down Naofumi's offer of friendship in the church harshly, saying that while he knows Naofumi was framed, the Shield Hero doesn't have enough to offer to justify making an enemy out of the Church and the Royal family. It sours Naofumi's opinion on the Sword Hero, but his assist by firing swords to lower the pressure during Naofumi's defense of Lute Village clues Naofumi in on the fact that the Sword Hero isn't quite as heartless as he lets on. After the Demon of the Sword event, Shirou "reveals" that it was actually him who helped Naofumi during the Wave.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Shirou's Magecraft is basically this which he uses in creative ways. His matching Sword Aligntment/Origin allows him to Trace near-perfect fakes of weapons, including Noble Phantasms, especially if they are closer to the concept of "Sword", but he has abysmal ability when it comes to pretty much everything else. Five years under Rin has allowed him to Downplay this as he now knows basic Runecraft and a few more things, but he's mediocre at them at best. Which is why he passed all the elemental spells he learned to Jian once she is able to act separately.
• You Need to Get Laid: Shirou was used to a very active sex life in his homeworld, making the resulting dry spell one of the many changes he had to adjust to in the new one. A Downplayed Trope because he's got a lot of other, more important things keeping him busy most of the time, but in Chapter 19, Azu's Innocent Fanservice Girl behavior in her recently acquired grown-up body forced him to leave in a hurry to literally dump a bucket of cold water on himself over and over until his pent-up libido receded.
• You Remind Me of X: Yami's Tsundereness reminds Shirou of Rin, which would explain why he goes out of his way to annoy her by acting as The Gadfly to her.

Jian

The Legendary Holy Sword

Level: Null, Job: Sword Maiden (Level 31) Self-Evolution Level: 7 (as of Chapter 45)

The Legendary Holy Sword herself. She was named "Jian" by Shirou as he got tired of using the full name all the time. Jian begins as little more than the Legendary Holy Sword's operating system and user interface just like the other three Legendary Weapons, but slowly Grows Beyond Their Programming and develops a human-like personality. Now she has become her hero's trusted partner and party member in their mission to Save the World.

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• Blank Slate: As stated above, Jian starts as this and slowly develops a human-like personality due to Shirou actively talking to her and constantly feeding her Noble Phantasms to copy. As it's often the case with Blank Slate characters, she latches emotionally onto her first person and becomes deeply afraid Shirou will find a way to end their contract and go back home.
• Character Development: Jian undergoes one, going from a Blank Slate to an Empathic Weapon with quite the personality.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Beyond the "no wield" rule, Jian personally does not like her wielder using any weapon other than her, even if it's just a knife for eating (although the last one is due to Shirou's Combat Pragmatist mentality), or even in cases where she would risk permanent damage were not for Shirou using a disposable blade for the job. Word of God explains that Jian's over-possessiveness on Shirou is due to the fact that the first weapons with a strong personality that Jian copied is the Married Blades Kanshou and Bakuya.
• Equippable Ally: In reverse order. Jian started as Shirou's (sole!) equipped weapon, but becoming more and more self-aware allowed her to qualify as a "Companion" for the Job system from Chapter 35 and on, even though the concept of Level doesn't apply to her even in this capacity. The original reason for giving her a Job was due to the passive bonuses from the Job class, which in practical terms means Shirou gets twice the benefits from the Job System as her wielder, but later on they discover that setting her up as a Companion gives Jian a share of the EXP. This unlocks an exclusive System for her called "Weapon Evolution", that allows her to earn and spend "Evolution Points" to buy skills for her own use, like a specific form of Mind over Matter called "Telekinetic Sword" to move herself around.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: As revealed in her mini-chapter, Jian is well aware that she is currently holding back her hero from employing most of his power. She was forced to acknowledge this during the encounter with the Mutated Griffin as she wasn't strong enough to be fully relied on. She makes it a point to prove herself useful as she's afraid that Shirou would abandon her as soon as he can use his Noble Phantasms, scared that Shirou might hate her for taking him from his world and family. It does not stop her from acting smug and teasing Shirou from time to time.
  Jian didn't just want the Hero. She wanted him to want her.
• Love at First Sight: For a lack of better word to describe it, this is one of the biggest reasons why Jian forced the summoning ritual to choose Shirou due to his soul's resonance to her very being.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Her mini chapter has her resolved that, despite being created to protect her World, Jian would abandon it if it means she could find a way to send Shirou home, hoping that it would be enough to make Shirou bring her with him.
• Magikarp Power: As the Legendary Holy Sword, Jian has the potential to become very powerful in the long run. This is a very sore spot for her as this also means she is going to hold back Shirou for a long time. She's working hard to fix this.
• Mind over Matter: She unlocks [Telekinetic Sword] in Chapter 37, which allows her to move around on her own.
• Not the Intended Use: Played With. Shirou is forced to use her as a kitchen and table knife due to his own pragmatic mindset not being able to stop treating them as weapons.
• O.C. Stand-in: The Legendary Holy Sword goes from being just that to become an actual character.
• Robot Buddy: Jian may not be able to move on her own, but she grows so smart at handling the ever-increasingly complex RPG Elements and features of, well, herself for Shirou that she counts more as this than just as his weapon. Played straighter when she learns a specific form of Mind over Matter called "Telekinetic Sword" to move herself around.
• Snarky Non Human Side Kick: Jian grows into one as her Artificial Intelligence evolves. Shirou has only himself to blame because she picked up her snarky ways from him.
• Third-Person Person: Jian uses the alert pop-ups to communicate with Shirou, but the help message system seems to be hard-formatted to avoid the use of the pronouns, so she usually refers to herself as "a/the Legendary Weapon" in the text instead of "I" or "me", and Shirou is "a/the Hero" instead of simply "you".
• Tsundere: Jian has spades of being one when being teased by Shirou especially when she thinks he's acting like an idiot or if she is caught in an embarrassing situation.
• Yandere: Shirou jokingly describes Jian as this due to her possessiveness of Shirou when it comes to wielding other weapons aside from her. It's actually quite true, given how her growing attachment to him made her decide to abandon the world she's supposed to protect to its luck and leave with Shirou if he ever finds a way to go back home before the Waves are dealt with. The word itself is banned by Jian, as in he gets shocked whenever he tries to use it.

Firo

The Crown Princess of the Filorials

Level: 83, Job: Beast Master (Level 31) (as of Chapter 45)

A Filorial hatched from the egg Shirou bought. Due to being hatched by a Legendary Hero, Firo is a Filorial Queen and so stronger, smarter, and faster than most Filorials and allows her to shift between Filorial and Human form. Much like her Canon counterpart, she was chosen by Fitoria to be a Queen Candidate.

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• Adaptational Badass: As her Levels show, she sees a lot of more battles under Shirou compared to canon.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Firo is born a full month earlier than canon.
• Animal Jingoism: She doesn't get along with Azu at first because Filorials and Dragons are natural enemies. Subverted soon afterwards because they fall into a sibling sort of relationship slightly because of their bird blood.
• Badass Adorable: She's the same Firo from Canon raised by an older Shirou Emiya. She's every bit as adorable and even more badass than she was in the original story.
• The Beastmaster: One of the abilities granted to her as the chosen successor of Fitoria is the ability to command other Filorials.
• Bedmate Reveal: Her human form's debut as in canon. Unlike canon, a half-asleep Shirou first mistook her for Illya because that was far from the first time a small naked girl had snuck into his bed.
• For Want Of A Nail: She ended up in Shirou's party rather than Naofumi's because he visited the Slave Trader days ahead the Shield Hero, and his magical senses made him realize one of the eggs was different from the rest.
• Happiness in Slavery: Averted. When her default Slave Seal breaks once her Royal Filorial traits manifest as in canon, Shirou sees no point in getting her a new one since food is a less painful and more successful replacement.
• Idiot Hair: She gains one the moment she was chosen as successor by Fitoria, much to her chagrin. It also allows her to ease the Curse Series' effects on Shirou.
• Naked First Impression: How she introduces her human form to Shirou.
• Rule of Cute: The author admits that the only reason why he based Shirou's first Wave Boss on the Nemean Lion was to justify giving Firo an adorable set of Saber Lion-styled pajamas as an item drop.
• Semi-Divine: Shirou noticed that Firo has developed a low level divinity and it will keep increasing the stronger she gets.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Her relationship with Azu, if you consider them Shirou's adopted daughters. Firo is a Genki Girl that looks Azu's age, whereas Azu is The Quiet One who looks around Shirou's age.
• Spell My Name With An S: The author opted for "Firo" as in the English translation of the web novels, instead of "Filo" as in the official localization of the light novels and the anime. The author also notes that "Firo" is easier due to his dyslexia.
• Unskilled, but Strong: When it comes to Magic, Firo (and Azu) are this as they are able to use a lot of mana at once, but lacking the finesse to use more complicated spells, likely due to her age.
  • Also in physical fighting. She might have a strong physical prowess in her Filorial form, she still can't beat an unarmed Shirou.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Downplayed. The fact Shirou was forced to fall back to his bow in order to save Firo's life in Chapter 11 made it perfectly clear to Jian that she's holding her wielder back.

Rita Aselia

The Two-Tailed Fox

Level: 77, Job: Free Lancer (Level 31) (as of Chapter 45)

Rita Aselia is a 15-year-old Kitsune Demihuman girl who joins Shirou's party shortly after he rescues her and other Demi-human children that were sold as slaves. Shirou originally didn't intend for her to permanently join him, but she managed to convince him otherwise. She was originally a regular Kitsune but later grew a second tail during her Class Up, an indication of her potential to grow nine tails.

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• Asian Fox Spirit: Kitsune Demihuman girls are considered to be very beautiful In-Universe, once the Slave Trader commenting that kitsune slave girls tends to sell for high prices even if they're a "couple of spokes short of a cartwheel" like Raphtalia was. This is exactly the reason why Rita almost ended up Made A Sex Slave before Shirou intervened.
• Cool Big Sis: To Raphtalia, from the time she helped her to refine her swordsmanship.
• Ear Ache: Inflicts this on Shirou in Chapter 41 when she finally gets a chance to complain to him about his Zero-Approval Gambit.
• Jack of All Stats: If Shirou assigning her the "Freelancer" job later on is of any indication, Rita is this in the party. While she often uses a spear, she was trained by Shirou to use different weapons, so she can fill in any position if needed, which was often the case back when she was the only party member (aside from Firo).
• Luminescent Blush: Rita gets one when Shirou loses his wig for the first time during a fight and she realizes the Age Gap between them is considerably shorter than she thought.
• Multiple-Tailed Beast: She grows a second tail after her Class Up in Chapter 18. She has to keep it hidden with illusion magic almost at all times due to the surviving tales of the mythical Nine-Tails Beast Transformation that "once made the Kitsune race known as the seventh most powerful species in the world". Shirou is warned that if the Kitsune Clan ever learns about Rita, she could be used to rally up their numbers and the entire balance of power between Clans in Siltvelt could go down the drain.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: She has the odd fortune of having uniquely powerful people as party members. Played With in that both Firo and Azu are still kids despite their power and usually defer to her when Shirou isn't around. Although, there are several hints that hers is more a case of Magikarp Power.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Her hair goes from blonde to a soft red color after her Class Up. That and her second tail makes her match the image of the mythological Kitsune rather than just a kitsune-type Demihuman.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Rita really wants this to happen between her and her "Sensei". Raphtalia is quite surprised to learn of her crush because she sees it as a Age-Gap Romance just short of a May–December Romance in the making, due to Shirou under his Mercenary Saint disguise looking considerably older than he actually is.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: As a source of conflict with the target of this trope, unusually enough. Rita can barely stand knowing that Shirou doesn't consider himself a hero despite all the good he does, or even a good person due to his past decision to put Sakura's life over The Needs of the Many in the Holy Grail War. She's prone to get cross whenever someone cast doubt over the strength of his character, especially if that someone is the guy himself.

Azu

The Daughter of the Dragon God Tyr

Level: 78, Job: Priestess (Level 31) (as of Chapter 45)

Azu is the 8-year-old daughter of the Dragon God Tyr and the Birdwoman Demihuman Rhea. She initially joined the party as a joke from Jian and later permanently after Fitoria's revelation that she inherited her father's fragment of the Dragon Emperor's Core, one of the Four Sacred Beasts, the equivalent of the Beast of Gaia in Shirou's world, as an alternative to killing her off due to her potential threat.

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• Big Little Sister: She looks older than Rita but she's actually around half her age.
• Boxed Crook: In a way. Fitoria wanted to execute her because Azu's inherited Dragon Core makes her a potential threat to sentient life on a planetary level, but instead put the girl on probation under the Sword Hero's care. In the meanwhile, Azu helps out as a combatant in Shirou's party to deal with the Waves.
• Broken Bird: She lost her parents at a very young age. It was revealed in her father's mini-chapter that it was even worse^note Tyr had to take over her body from time to time just to get her to eat. prior to meeting Shirou and that Azu wasn't always the quiet and reserved girl everyone knows her as and was more active in the past. She only became one after her traumatic experience of her mother being burned in front of her and her being stoned to death, with her body being heavily injured. She survived long enough for her father to arrive and save her by merging his fragment of the Dragon Emperor's core to her and teleporting her to her grandfather's home, but by then the damage to the young girl's mind was already done. It was only when she met Shirou that she finally started to improve.
• Draconic Humanoid: Azu is a 8-year-old Demihuman girl with draconic features, like golden horns and white scales from her father's side who was an actual dragon. Firo, naturally, doesn't like her at first.
• Dragon Hoard:
  • As a Draconic Humanoid, she's got a natural inclination to hoard treasures. Being a 8-year-old girl, what counts as a "treasure" to her is mostly just shiny, pretty stuff, which is something she has in common with Firo. This almost comes to blows in Chapter 23 when a group of soldiers searched their carriage and found their hidden collections of knick-knacks, forcing Shirou to step in explain things out before the pair of overleveled kids could try to defend their treasures by force.
  • Also Discussed. Azu took an immediate liking of Shirou because his presence feels "like a big mound of treasure", referring to how she perceives his Unlimited Blade Works through her magical senses.
• Dragons Prefer Princesses: The reason Azu exists. One day the Dragon Emperor simply kidnapped her mother and added her to his harem. Deliberate Values Dissonance applies heavily here because she and her family followed the Faith of the Dragon and considered this to be a great honor, even priding themselves that she was Tyr's only known Demihuman wife in over 600 years.
• Enemy-Detecting Radar: She can use Dragon Pulse techniques and thus she's innately sensitive to the flow of natural magical energies in the environment. As a side effect, this allows her to tell if there are monsters nearby drawing power for themselves.
• Gaia's Vengeance: Azu bears her father's Dragon Core, effectively making her serve a similar function to the Beasts of Gaia. In her case this means potentially killing a large percentage of human population to harvest the power to protect the world from the Waves.
• Generation Xerox: It turns out that this isn't the first time Fitoria entrusted a fragment holder to a Cardinal Hero. Her father Tyr was the companion of a previous Shield Hero who brokered a deal with the Bird God to leave him alone as long as he keeps his promise to not look for the other fragments of the Dragon Emperor's core, to which he had no interest of doing and kept his sense of self due to the bond he formed with his Hero.
• Green-Eyed Monster: The root cause of her Orphan's Ordeal. A group of women of the Aotatsu Clan didn't like it at all that Azu's mother was chosen to be their god's sole Demihuman wife in his harem, especially because she wasn't even a pureblooded Aotatsu, and conspired to get her killed. This made the Dragon Emperor furious and he rampaged their lands until four of the Seven Star Heroes had to team up to kill him.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Her mother was an Aotatsu/Shusaku hybrid Demihuman and her father a Pureblooded Dragon.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Azu is unaware of the effect of her now-mature body on other people, since she was a reclusive 8-year-old girl only a few days before, and thus had not been taught any of the things an adult woman should know.
• Love at First Sight: She pretty much latched on Shirou the moment she meets him as she sensed his Reality Marble. This also finally allows her to slowly go out of her shell after her traumatic past as described in Broken Bird.
• Nature Versus Nurture: Her continued survival depends on the latter winning out. Fitoria trusted Azu to Shirou in hopes her experiences in his party will teach the girl to subvert her latent nature as an agent of the planet mean to kill a large percentage of sentient life to power up a barrier that would isolate the world from the Waves.
• Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Azu is the daughter of the Dragon God Tyr, a Pureblooded dragon, and a birdwoman Demihuman named Rhea. Her mother's side likely contributed to Firo and her getting along quickly.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Her horns turn golden after her Class Up in Chapter 18.
• Raised by Grandparents: Azu was raised by her maternal grandfather after her parents died.
• Sharing a Body: Part of her father's mind lives in Azu's Dragon Core, but he cares a lot for her and only takes over when there's an important reason for it.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Played With. While an Original Character, her Back Story says that her canonical counterpart, should she have existed, would have been killed by Fitoria because her existence alone is a potential threat to humanity's survival as a bearer of her father's Dragon Core. Shirou of course argued against condemning Azu for actions she could commit rather than actual crimes, and after subjecting his character to a test through how Firo has grown under his care, she decides to effectively put Azu on parole by trusting her development to him.
• Unskilled, but Strong: When it comes to Magic, Azu (and Firo) are this as they are able to use a lot of mana at once, but lacking the finesse to use more complicated spells, likely due to her age.

Atla

The Blind Huntress

Level: 72, Job: Huntress (Level 31) (as of Chapter 45)

A 10-year-old blind Hakuko (white tiger) demi-human slave whose illness was healed by Shirou by using Avalon powered by Excalibur. She falls madly in love with him due to this, and joins Shirou's party alongside her brother Fohl shortly after being freed from slavery.

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• The Archmage: Like Rishia^note An Average One, she has the potential to be one. She is even more talented than her when it comes to learning about Magic. Her affinity with magic is so high it's like breathing for her that Shirou puts her on the same level as Firo and Azu, who have Magic Cores and can easily produce the same amount of Od as the Blue^note Aoko Aozaki. Unlike those two however, she has finesse in using it.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Atla and her brother Fohl join Shirou's party instead of Naofumi's due to his actions.
• Aura Vision: Atla as in canon. Unlike canon, Shirou figures out the exact nature of this. Namely, Pure Eyes produced by inheriting the purpose of her Hero ancestors.
• Blessed with Suck: Her Aura Vision is a really cool power, but it comes at the cost of being blind in a conventional sense and unable to physically cry even when in deep pain.
• Detect Evil: Atla's Aura Vision lets her "see" people's intentions through their aura. Played for Laughs when she took upon herself to screen people wanting to talk to the Sword Hero at the first post-Wave celebration and got in the way of any with ill intentions toward him. Being this Atla, lust from women who simply wanted to bang the guy counted as "evil" as well.
• Fille Fatale:
  • Subverted. She tries really hard, but her attempts to seduce Shirou just fall flat. Both because she looks like a 10-year-old, and because while she does seem to have an idea of how sex works, her understanding of romance and seduction is next to nonexistent. Shirou treats this as seriously as a regular 23-year-old guy would a Precocious Crush for a 5th grader, which is to say, not at all unless she's bothering other people because of it.
  • Double Subverted in Chapter 42. Atla herself realized her approach wasn't working, so she looked for outside refinement from people she knew wouldn't hesitate to give her that sort of advice. Namely, the Sex Slaves from the caravan of liberated slaves from Zeltbull, who due to a combination of Conditioned to Accept Horror, Deliberate Values Dissonance, and perhaps feeling Vicariously Ambitious about one of the many girls Shirou saved getting together with him, saw nothing wrong with teaching a girl that looks no older than 10 how to convincingly behave like a High-Class Call Girl and even gave her thin white nightie to wear and a sleeping potion to keep her overprotective brother from interfering. This is every bit as creepy as it sounds, but at least it seems Atla was taught to not keep pushing when Shirou doesn't respond to her advances.
• Hopeless Suitor: For Shirou. Pretty much the only ones who think she's got a chance is herself and her overprotective brother.
• Instrument of Murder: Shirou Traces Failnaught ("Fail-Not") for her, Sir Tristan's Noble Phantasm in Fate/Grand Order, which is both a bow and a harp and she uses it in both capacities.
• In the Hood: When acting as "Aurora", one of "Issei's" party members.
• Living Lie Detector: Atla's Aura Vision is even better than most examples of this trope as she can discern intentions, not just the physiological signs of lying. Not even Princess Malty's Master Actress skills can fool her. Also Played for Laughs in the Detect Evil example above.
• Love Makes You Crazy: She's preserving the remnants of the Traced Avalon and Excalibur in her body that Shirou used to heal her, basically only because they're a memento from him that can't be taken away from her. She may not be carrying the entire real deal like him in canon, but at the very least this is causing her to experience something akin to the Dream Cycle from the visual novel. Shirou isn't sure whether she's dreaming about him or Saber, but watching either's Back Story is very likely to be Harmful to Minors. Worse, Shirou can't remove or mentally dispel the Traced objects because Atla's very soul is clinging to them with everything she has, leaving them with no other option than weathering the side effects as they come.
• Mundane Utility: In Chapter 42, she uses her Aura Vision to correctly time when to start running in order to give Shirou The Glomp just as he crosses the inn's door.
• Psycho Supporter: Subverted so far. While she's very likely to commit any number of questionable deeds in Shirou's name, she knows where he would draw a line and is mindful of not crossing it. That said, Atla still considers that an armor-piercing punch to the gut is the proportional response for taking a tone when talking to him in her presence.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: She has no sense of modesty whatsoever when it comes to Shirou. For example, one time she stripped right in front of him just because she stained her clothes with blood from defeating a monster with a new technique. Shirou tried and failed to stop her and quickly conjured up a blanket to cover her instead.
• The Straight and Arrow Path: Shirou teaches her archery after they realize it makes good synergy with her Aura Vision.
• Unable to Cry: She tells Shirou she literally cannot cry, even if she wants to, likely due to the condition of her eyes.
• White Magic: Her elemental Affinity is Holy, which Shirou speculates is due to being descendant from a Hero and, due to her Pure Eyes, inheriting that Hero's "Fate" (basically their quest and will). And due to her soul stubbornly clinging on to the Traced Excalibur and Avalon, her very Origin is becoming twisted into "Holy" as well.
• Yandere:
  • The only reason this trope remains Played for Laughs is Shirou treating her like a kid and chastising her whenever her Hero-Worshipper and Violently Protective Girlfriend tendencies are about to get out of hand.
  • With that said, there are times when this trait of hers is shown seriously, such as when she admits to using a sleeping potion on her brother so he won't interfere on her talk with Shirou without any hint of remorse whatsoever.

Fohl

The Brawler

Level: 71^note Formerly 31 before Level Reset, Job: Brawler (Level 31) (as of Chapter 45)

A Hakuko (white tiger) demi-human slave who Shirou bought and freed in Zeltbull along with his sister Atla. Since a little after the fall of his family, he has been the one taking care of his sister even as a slave and his loyalty lies solely with her. He later joins Shirou's party alongside Atla, mostly to stay close to her.

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• Adaptational Early Appearance: Fohl and her sister join Shirou's party instead of Naofumi's.
• The Berserker: Shirou certainly thinks he's one and it's expected that he will learn Beast Transformation sooner than later.
• Big Brother Instinct: He's very protective of Atla, which puts him at odds with Shirou, the object of her sister's affections. He actually thinks highly of Shirou, but even he's not good enough to Atla for him.
• Broken Ace: Is skilled enough to win in Gladiator Games with a low level at a very young age, but that affected his mind as he was forced to kill to secure medicine for his sister, and becomes unstable if you try to separate him from her.
• Character Development: During the two-week Time Skip between Chapters 44 and 45, Fohl seems to have become a bit more open in regards to learning from Shirou seeing as Shirou is currently teaching him Magecraft. He also seems to think of Firo in high regard, being a frequent sparring partner of hers during that period of time.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Deconstructed. The only way Fohl has to keep the guilt he feels for the people he killed in the Gladiator Games from crushing him is clinging to the fact his sister's life depended on him bring earning enough money for her medical treatments. Shirou is well aware of this and that's why he lets him behave like an overprotective older brother to Atla and weathers his constant distrust as the object of her affections.
• In the Hood: When acting as "Sol", one of "Issei's" party members.
• Stealth Insult: His alias "Sol" refers to the Roman sun god, who happened to have a bit of an obsession with his sisters. Chapter 33's Author's Notes confirm that Shirou picked Fohl's alias with this in mind.
• Stellar Name: Shirou named his alias as a companion of the Sword Hero after the Roman equivalent of Helios, the sun god.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Shirou offered to teach him how to fight, but he rejected it out of arrogance and pride. Shirou counters by pointing out that Atla's going to become stronger than him at this rate. He still didn't want Shirou to train him so Sadeena offered to teach him Beast Transformation instead.
  • This is Subverted once Fohl starts getting taught by Shirou how to use Magecraft.

Yami

The Shadow

Level: 68^note Formerly 77 before Level Reset, Job: Shadow (Level 31) (as of Chapter 45)

One of the Shadows serving Queen Mirellia and one of the best out of them. Shirou first met her while she was assigned to secretly watch and help the Shield Hero, who captured her for interrogation after she tried to do the same to him. After the Shield Hero left Melromarc's capital, she was reassigned to follow Shirou, who the Queen found out to be the Sword Hero in disguise. The name "Yami" was given to her as a nickname by Shirou to differentiate her from the rest of the Shadows.

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• Calling Me a Logarithm: Shirou once told Yami that she was acting like a "tsundere". His Translator Microbes left the word as it sounded, so she asks him if "tsundere" some kind of monster from his home world. Shirou thinks of Rin and can't help but tongue-in-cheek confirm that yes, tsunderes are indeed very dangerous creatures. The Shadow doesn't like the sound of that and complains in a very tsundere-sounding way.
• Female Gaze: Yami is usually a no-nonsense Consummate Professional of a Shadow, if a First-Person Smartass in private, but her attention got stuck for a moment too long in Shirou's shirtless form during his brief Gladiator Subquest. Of course, it was only to be 100% certain it was really him under the disguise, you see.
• First-Person Smartass: Yami, normally a Consummate Professional Ninja, is revealed to be this, especially on the subject of Shirou.
• Guest-Star Party Member: After finally giving up on trying to follow Shirou unnoticed, she becomes something akin to a liaison officer between the Sword Hero and the Queen rather than an actual member of his team. However, she has joined his party in battle on occasion and helped him to set up his Zero-Approval Gambit in Chapter 39-40, however reluctantly. She has officially joined his party by Chapter 45 as per the Queen's orders.
• Identity Impersonator: She disguised herself as Shirou in Chapter 40 just so people would see the Mercenary Saint and the Sword Hero at the same time and place.
• Named by the Adaptation: Shirou refers to her as "Yami", which simply means "darkness" in Japanese.
• Not So Stoic: Shirou manages to reduce one of the Queen's Shadows from a Consummate Professional to a tantrum-throwing young woman during their first meeting by 1) Managing to detect the Stealth Expert without any apparent difficulty, 2) Getting full truths out of her without breaking the magic seals drawn on her body preventing exactly that from happening, and 3) Then disappearing from her senses in way that left even someone like her scratching her head about how the heck he pulled it off. Oh, the small joys of having Wrong Context Magic at his disposal.
• O.C. Stand-in: Yami, as Shirou (and by extension his party) calls her, in canon is one of the Shadows serving the Queen who is notable with her Verbal Tic "Degojaru". Here, she is a Recurring Character who appears in a frequent basis. In fact, most of the chapters she does not appear on-screen after her encounter and subsequent interrogation with Shirou doesn't mean she's not around. She also decides to join Shirou's party for Melromarc's Second Wave since hiding to observe him is useless, she might as well observe him in plain sight. Her registered name in the party is "Yami". She has no idea why that happened. Or so she claims.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Yami" is simply how Shirou calls her to differentiate her for the other Shadows. Although it seems she has to come to accept it as her own name in some level based on how she appears listed as Yami when she's a Guest-Star Party Member during Melromarc's Second Wave. Or simply it could be Jian messing with them.
• Overrated and Underleveled: Despite being 7 levels above Shirou in Chapter 40, she needed some serious buffs cast on her to match his stats in order to pull off a convincing Identity Impersonator trick as the Mercenary Saint during battle.. She had to get six "Revelation" level buffs, one of the most powerful levels of magic that only Heroes can use, each one tripling her stats, along with the Legendary Weapon Replica in order to fight evenly with him.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Yami is a great Shadow, probably one of the best around, but Shirou has a Wrong Context Magic skillset – namely his sensitivity to magical energies, a form of sword-based clairvoyance, and experience with magic users trying to screw him over – that perfectly counters most of her best techniques. Atla is also shown to be better than her at scouting, granted she has her Aura Vision.
• Truth Serums: Shirou uses a Noble Phantasm to get full truths out of her the first time they meet in Chapter 20. She holds quite a grudge against him for it because that made her reveal several of her Queen's secrets, which she seems to consider a worse kind of violation than actual molestation.
• Tsundere:
  • Shirou's perceived Bunny-Ears Lawyer behaviour ticks Yami off and prompts her to act much like as a Tsundere when interacting with him. It gets to the point you wonder whether she will either ask to be reassigned away from him or just smother him in his sleep. It's hard to tell whether she would use a pillow or her lips for the latter, though.
  • Further Played for Laughs in that Yami thinks a tsundere is a dangerous monster due to Jian refusing to translate the word as it is too close to her banned word^note Yandere. She also never calls him by name, but refers to him as "Shirou" in her mind, as her mini-chapter reveals.
• Verbal Tic: Yami says "Degojaru" at the end of her sentences a lot unless she's in disguise (and sometimes even then, if you push her buttons). As her mini-chapter reveals, that's because she was bodyguard of the second Princess Melty for over ten years, who finds it funny. Somewhere along the way it just stuck. Shirou uses it to tease her and call out her disguises.

Eclair Seaetto

The Knight

Level: 68^note Formerly Unknown before Level Reset, Job: Knight (Level 31) (as of Chapter 45)

A knight of Melromarc kingdom and daughter of a lord who died during the first Wave. Like canon, she was imprisoned by the King for speaking against the enslavement of demi-humans displaced by the same Wave, and was later broken out of prison by Shirou by the request of Queen Mirellia shortly before the start of the 2nd Melromarc Wave. She joins Shirou's party shortly before Shirou left Melromarc after Chapter 44.

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• Adaptational Early Appearance: She appears before the second wave.
• Badass Normal: She's very skilled with the sword and has no talent when it comes to magic as described below, as Shirou notes. She seems eager in becoming more of a Magic Knight even after Shirou says she sucks at it, much to his chagrin.
• Un-Sorcerer: Downplayed. It's not that she can't use magic, it's that she has very bad affinity with it, having only 3 low-quality Magic Circuits. It doesn't stop her from trying.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: She's at the level where she reminds Shirou of his younger self, which worries him.

The Shield Hero's Party

In General

• Adaptational Badass: Zig-Zagged. Naofumi and his Party get this the most out of the canon Cardinal Heroes due to Shirou's actions, reaching a much higher level compared to the canonical timeline, getting Sadeena and Keel earlier, plus other powerful Filorials, but it comes at the cost of losing out on Firo, Atla, and Fohl to Shirou's Party.

Naofumi Iwatani

The Legendary Hero of the Shield

Level: 41 (as of Chapter 39)

Naofumi Iwatani is a regular college student and otaku who found a book titled "Four Heavenly Weapon's Manual" which told the story of four Heroes summoned to defend another world. In an instant this became his reality as he found himself in a new world and declared one of the Legendary Heroes. Summoned as the Hero of the Shield Naofumi briefly fantasized about the adventures he would lead only to be betrayed and have his name dragged through the mud. His eyes opened and filled with deep anger, Naofumi vows to get his revenge.

Unlike his Canon counterpart though, his luck turns for the better when he meets the "Mercenary Saint", who unbeknownst to him is the Hero of the Sword in disguise, who informs him of many of the functions of the Legendary Shield that he wouldn't have known until much later.

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• Adaptational Badass: Naofumi was already one back in his home series, but with Shirou helping him, he manages to catch up with the other heroes in a shorter period of time, which ultimately culminates in him winning the duel against Motoyasu.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: More like "Took a Level in Cynic can't believe in genuine kindness", but Shirou runs into the problem that he can't help Naofumi because the Shield Hero just won't believe he's not just trying to sucker him in to screw him over somehow. So Shirou decides to pretend he has obvious self-serving motivations that just so happen to also benefit Naofumi. For example, at first Shirou pretends to be a mercenary who wants to take advantage of the Shield Hero's Experience Booster blessings by lending Naofumi his party members for some Easy Exp while he's busy with "business" in Castle Town, on top of using his Cardinal Hero status to have them Dungeon Crawl in a government-controlled Peninsula of Power Leveling where mercenaries like himself aren't normally granted entry. By the end of the next day, Naofumi and Raphtalia went from level 7-8 to the mid-20s, and were left with a greatly improved how-to of their weapons.
• The Power of Hate: Due to Shirou's warnings, he manages to become aware of the Shield of Wrath much earlier, along with its dangers. However, when out of options against Issei as the Sword Demon, he not only activates it, but combines it with [Dual Wielder+] to create four Shields of Wrath. This would have permanently twisted his mind to that of a hate-fueled demon, had Shirou not stepped in to save him.
• Science Hero: Shirou realizes that Naofumi has shades of this upon discovering that he breaks down a monster into individual pieces for his Shield to absorb, each one unlocking a different Weapon form due to taking advantage of the idea of a single existence being a composition of many smaller parts, along with his method of breaking down materials to "master" weapons faster. Shirou himself had only been unlocking one Weapon form per monster, and even after discovering the other Heroes' Enchantment Methods, he considers Naofumi's multiple-parts method to be the most useful.
• Sizeshifter: Chapter 40 reveals that Naofumi's Legendary Shield has an unexplained unique ability – probably unlocked when he got a shield the form and size of a large ring that his Legendary Weapon nevertheless recognized as a shield – to change the size of his Weapon forms. He uses this in conjunction with [Dual Wielder+] to turn two Shields into pauldrons and two onto his arms.
• Took a Level in Badass: As a result of Adaptational Badass, Naofumi manages to strengthen himself and his party much sooner. This leads to him being able to keep up with the rest of the heroes (sans "Issei").
• Took a Level in Kindness: As a result of Shirou's Cruel to Be Kind ploy, Naofumi snaps out of his brooding much earlier. This allowed him to connect with people sooner. He's still a Jerkass, but he's noticeably nicer to people who don't antagonize him or has helped him in the past.

Raphtalia

The Sword of the Shield Hero

Last known Level: 40* (Chapter 37)

A sickly Tanuki demi-human child enslaved by humans, Raphtalia had given up hope after the deaths of her parents and several abusive masters. Like canon, she was purchased by Naofumi at a discount due to her mental issues and given a weapon she was made to act as his sword, attacking where he could not. Quickly cured of her sickness, Raphtalia became a skilled fighter and fell in love with Naofumi.

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• Action Girl: Like Canon.
• Adaptational Badass: She and Naofumi level up faster early on thanks to the Mercenary Saints' help, up to and including their first Wave. To illustrate this, when soldiers tried to subdue her during the post-Wave celebration, she simply broke free on her own thanks to her superior stats, even accidentally sending one of them flying.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: She really likes when Naofumi pats her heed, but complains every time he does it because she wants him to stop thinking of her as a kid.
• Hypocrite: Played for Laughs. She's a bit scandalized when Rita tells her she likes Shirou, despite their age gap (7-8 years) being in fact shorter than the one between herself and Naofumi (10 years). Although most of it comes from Shirou's disguise making him look considerably older than he actually is.
• The Straight Man: She halts Naofumi's strange and/or sadistic tendencies by reprimanding him.

Midori

The Carriage-less Baron

Level: 35 (as of Chapter 37)

Midori hatched from the egg that Naofumi bought shortly after meeting the Mercenary Saint. Midori is biologically male but identifies as a female. She's a rare sub-type of the Filorial that can spit poison.

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• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Very much so. She runs with it.
• Gag Penis: Midori has "one fit for a king" as per canon. Everyone commented on how gigantic it is when Naofumi revealed it to get Motoyasu to stop hitting on Midori once and for all.
• Master Poisoner: Midori is part of a rare Filorial sub-type that can spit poison, so she knows a lot about it.

Sadeena

The Water Dragon Priestess

Level: 21^note Formerly 98 before Level Reset (as of Chapter 37)

A large, Orca type Demihuman. She hails from the same village as Keel and Raphtalia, but was away when the First Wave manifested right beside it. She is one of the older, more mature slaves that Naofumi has. She also likes to drink. She joins Naofumi's party shortly after reuniting with Raphtalia.

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• Adaptational Early Appearance: She is one of the slaves that Shirou bought en masse from the East Gate Colosseum and promptly released. This allowed her to look for her village's survivors and finally reunite with Raphtalia in Chapter 33.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: She loves to drink. In fact, its a part of her criteria for marriage.
• Magic Knight:
  • She's proficient in both casting magic and fighting. She also knows Choral Magic - a high-level and exclusive type of magic.
  • She is also proficient in fighting and using both conventional and earth pulse magic.
• Secret-Keeper: Is the only member of Naofumi's party to actually know that the Mercenary Saint and the Sword Hero are the same person.

Keel

The Shield's Dog

Level: 19 (as of Chapter 37)

A dog type Demi-human and childhood friend of Raphtalia. Shirou's actions in Zeltbull incidentally caused Keel to end up in Melromarc's slave market, which allowed her to be found by Raphtalia and bought by Naofumi. She is perhaps the most immature member of Naofumi's party.

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• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: The effective collapse of the illegal slave trade (thanks to Shirou) made their market price skyrocket. On the bright side, this meant that Keel's former owner saw the opportunity for a quick buck and sold him to the Slave Trader, allowing Keel to reunite with Raphtalia a lot earlier than canon. On the not-so-bright side, Naofumi had to spend like 20 times more money that he expected to for a new slave.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Shirou's butterfly stomping incidentally allowed Keel to reunite with Raphtalia much earlier than in canon. See Adam Smith Hates Your Guts for details above.
• Hate at First Sight: She instantly hates Shirou due to Cu Cuchulain's alleged curse of being hated by dogs. This is to the point that their first encounter has Keel bite down on Shirou's arm, and refusing to let go until Naofumi forcibly separated them. Since then, Keel always glares at Shirou whenever they meet, refuses to believe him as anything other than evil, and doesn't consider his cooking to be as good as Naofumi's.
• Raised as the Opposite Gender: She was never given a good explanation about the difference between girls and boys by her father, so she acted as a boy since it felt right to her. Not even Raphtalia knew "he" was a "she". Though Sadeena knew, which is why she laughs to herself when Naofumi celebrates that there's finally another regular guy in the party.

Sakura

Level: 19 (as of Chapter 37)

A pink-feathered Filorial, the second in Naofumi's party. Her egg was given to Naofumi by the Slave Trader as an incentive in buying Keel. She spends the Second Wave in Naofumi's backpack due to her then-current size and age. She originates from the official Shield Hero spin-off, The Reprise of the Spear Hero.

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• Head Pet: Small enough to comfortably be in Naofumi's bag at first.
• Leaked Experience: The reason Naofumi left her in his bag during their first Wave.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Just like in the spin-off, Naofumi names her "Sakura" after the Japanese word for Cherry Blossoms based on her pink feathers.
• One-Steve Limit: Shirou is reminded of his Sakura when he witness Naofumi naming his second Filorial.

The Spear Hero's Party

In General

• Can't Catch Up: One of the reason Motoyasu's original party (with Malty) gets disbanded is due to them holding him back.

Motoyasu Kitamura

The Legendary Hero of the Spear

Level: 53 (as of Chapter 39)

A 21-year-old college student that was chosen to be the Spear Hero. When Shirou met him as the Mercenary Saint, he thought of him as an idiot, but a well-meaning one whose heart is in the right place as a hero.

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• The Ace: After getting some pointers from the Mercenary Saint, Motoyasu is quick to apply what he learned in battle. This is shown during his duel against Naofumi, who closes in the gap to take advantage of the Spear's weakness in melee. Motoyasu immediately reacts by changing his grip on the spear to compensate for the closer range, something that he learned from Shirou a few days ago and practiced it for hours, if not days, until it became natural.
• The Beastmaster: After his failed attempts to unlock the Companion Series, Shirou tells him about the Beastmaster Series as they have the same effect, only that it works for Tamed Monsters instead. Motoyasu decides to try it as soon as possible. Word of God says Motoyasu will be getting quite a lot of Tamed Monsters.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Discussed. Shirou points out that the "pervert" part of the trope is one of the things he doesn't like about the guy. While Motoyasu himself is aware that his skirt-chasing tendencies bring him trouble (and was in fact killed because of it, back in his world), he just can't seem to help it.
• Determinator: One his better traits. Shirou is actually impressed by the fact that he will not stay down in a fight, comparing his tenacity to Lancer. He recovered from Paralysis much earlier than Shirou expected while pretending to be the Ax-Crazy Avenger, bringing complications to his plan.
• Hidden Depths: Motoyasu isn't as stupid as he acts. He's the only hero that took heed of "Issei's" Properly Paranoid warning during their first night in the new world. He is also a battle genius in the making as he was able to apply the things he learned from Shirou in a matter of hours after practicing it. Being unable to unlock the Companion Series hits him hard as shown when he tells Shirou about his confusion at being unable to unlock while drinking together. The same talk also reveals that Motoyasu's insecurities about everyone leaving him and doesn't want to lose his current party too, as they're all he has left.
• Honor Before Reason: Motoyasu insists on getting Midori and Raphtalia treated first even though he was more injured, something which Shirou notes.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Motoyasu gets hit by this hard when the King admits to the fact that Naofumi was indeed falsely accused of raping his daughter and had been a Jerk to a guy that was actually innocent and had a hand at causing the originally Nice Guy Naofumi to turn into a vengeful bastard. This also causes him to realize that he hadn't been acting like the hero he thought he was.
• Took a Level in Badass: After getting some info from Shirou about the Legendary Weapons' functions and getting some much pointers on how to use a spear correctly, Motoyasu visibly becomes more skilled with the spear mere days after applying the corrections.

Malty Melromarc

The Evil Princess

The firstborn daughter of the King and Queen and an experienced adventurer. Hides her true monstrous nature from everyone behind a kind face and crocodile tears. Everyone except the parties of the Sword and Shield Heroes, that is.

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• Charm Person: Myne/Malty is this. In fact, it's almost at the level of Mind Control as even Shirou began to entertain the thoughts of adjusting his plans a little to help her despite fully knowing that it's an act to gain his sympathy. The Author jokingly mentions in a note that, in Tabletop RPG terms, Malty's Special Power is for "all males around her to roll 1's for all perception checks and wisdom saving rolls".
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Like canon, She betrayed Naofumi and stole all his equipment. She attempted to do the same with Motoyasu once it's clear that "Issei" is the greater hero as described below.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In addition to the stunt she pulled with Naofumi in canon, she tries to get in with the Sword Hero Issei after the Wave by claiming Motoyasu was abusing her. "Issei" only buys it for a second, and going by the face she makes, it seems that's the first time she's ever failed to deceive a guy in her life.

The Bow Hero's Party

Itsuki Kawasumi

The Legendary Hero of the Bow

Level: 44 (as of Chapter 32)

Itsuki is a 17-year-old boy who was chosen to be the Bow Hero shortly after being hit by a truck. At first glance, Itsuki is a good-natured person who wants to do good, siding on justice. Deep down, he hides an inferiority complex due to his ESPer ability being deemed useless back in his world. Being summoned as the Hero of the Bow made him think that it's a chance to make things go his way due to the compatibility of his ESPer ability with the bow.

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• Deer in the Headlights: Happens to him when "Avenger" targets him during the battle against the other three Cardinal Heroes. His Inferiority Superiority Complex and the fact that Rishia of all people stood her ground to defend him makes him very bitter in the aftermath of the battle.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: After what happened to Rishia, he becomes this to the other three Cardinal Heroes. Even if Shirou is the one who knows the circumstances and explains it to the others, he still thinks rather lowly of him because of his attitude.
• Heroic BSoD: Itsuki suffers a panic attack the moment Avenger decides to focus on him. The aftermath of the encounter broke him so hard he unlocked the Curse Series, specifically the Bow of Pride, much earlier than canon.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Itsuki, as Shirou notes, never seems to miss a shot even though he's not even holding his bow right and thus should not be able to be hit anything. As Canon reveals, it's because he has an ESP that gives him perfect accuracy. As Shirou demonstrates as Avenger, perfect accuracy means little when the target can dodge faster than what it takes him to correct his aim.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex:
  • Shirou notices that Itsuki may be this right after meeting the other three Cardinal Heroes. For all his arrogant speech and demeanor, Itsuki has the "fake eye contact" act down pat and his head slightly down, kinda like a bullying victim acting tough to keep small-time bullies from targeting him while simultaneously avoiding challenging someone more dangerous. Shirou then discards that idea and guesses that a more likely explanation is that Itsuki is aware of Mystic Eyes and is avoiding direct eye contact to prevent falling for the common variants that have that as an activation condition.
  • On a more serious note, the aftermath of the encounter with Avenger caused him to unlock his Curse Series.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: More like he stopped being polite, but unlocking the Bow of Pride doesn't help.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Like in canon, he kicks Rishia out of his party for doing better than him in battle. Unlike canon, this happens a lot earlier and he's a lot more malicious about it because he feels she humiliated him by defending him from "Avenger" when he was having a panic attack.

Rishia Ivyred

The Lady of Great Potential

Level: 67^note Formerly 8 before Level Reset, Job: Jack of All Trades (Level 31) (as of Chapter 45)

A 17-year-old young woman from an Impoverished Patrician family rescued by the Bow Hero... if only so he could act out his "Ally of Justice" fantasy. Having nothing else to live for, she devoted herself to him and joined his party. She's the only one among them who seems to get along with the "Mercenary Saint". After Shirou temporarily erases her memories, she joins his party.

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• The Archmage:
  • While not yet one, she certainly has the potential to become one in the future. She is an Average One capable of Elemental Magic, in addition to Ether. Furthermore, she has a talent for Healing and Support Magic in addition to her Elemental Magic, having already learnt the Third Level of said spells in a month's time^note That's the Third Level out of Four, with a Fifth Level only being able to be used by Heroes and her Magic Circuits Quantity rivals an Elite Magus and her Circuit Quality is greater than Rin's. For perspective, Rin would, in canon, go on to become one of the Top 100 Magi in the entire history of Mage Association!
  • It was even greater when the chapter with this info first came out, before the Author edited it out. Originally, Risha would not only have had an affinity for all Elements, but she would have also had an aligned Origin for all elements too! This would have boosted her magical talent to unseen heights had it been kept, as not even Rin had an Origin that was the same as her Element affinity. However, the Author was quickly forced to Retcon the Origin part after Reader complaints on how stupidly broken that would make Rishia, as well as correcting his definition of what an Average One is.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: She's a much happier person without her memories, especially those of the last few months when her entire life went to crap. However, this was only a temporarily arrangement from the start.
• Bungled Suicide: Subverted. Shirou tells people that she lost her memory when she hit her head trying to commit suicide, but confides to Naofumi's party and part of his own that he used magic to temporarily lock away her memories to keep her from trying again, at least for the time being.
• Catch a Falling Star: How Shirou prevents Rishia's suicide in Chapter 42. Subverted as because Shirou doesn't manage to catch her before she's built up enough momentum to injure herself regardless, so he has Jian teleport them over a body of water to break their fall, but even then it's a close call.
• Defiled Forever: Unlike canon, it's confirmed that she was treated like a Sex Slave during the three weeks she was held hostage as "collateral" by the Count that used mafia tactics to force her parents into debt. It's a big part of the reason why she thinks repaying Itsuki for saving her is the only reason she has to keep on living.
• Driven to Suicide: After a Pride-affected Itsuki kicked her out of his party in even worse circumstances than canon, up and including having her thrown down the stairs, she attempted to throw herself off one of castle's tall towers. Shirou got their in time to stop her.
• Elemental Powers: Just like in canon, she has an affinity to use Elemental Magic, able to use Earth, Fire, Water and Wind magics and even combine them. With the addition of terminology from the Nasuverse, it is revealed that she is an Average One, thus capable of using Ether as well.
• Go Through Me: She pulls this off twice to protect Itsuki from a disguised Shirou.
• Happily Failed Suicide: Tearjerkingly Subverted. After Shirou barely manages to save her life, Rishia begs him to just let her die. That's why he temporarily locks her memories away.
• Identity Amnesia: Given to her temporarily after she attempts suicide when Shirou seals away her episodic memory to keep her from trying again. However, her personality, preferences, and procedural skills like languages remains the same.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Unlike canon, it's stated outright that her captors in her Back Story holding as "collateral" for her parents' debts took advantage of her Slave Seal to sexually abuse her.
• Interrupted Suicide: Shirou catches her mid-air after she jumps off a tall tower.
• Jack of All Trades: Has this as her Job. Her stats are also quite spread out making it lower than the rest of Shirou's party. She makes up for it by having a ridiculous amount of talent when it comes to Magic.
• Memory Gambit: After she's Driven to Suicide, Shirou uses a Noble Phantasm to lock away her episodic memory because he fears she will try again, likely successfully, the first chance she gets. The seal is temporary and he expects that she will slowly recover her memories on her own over the next few weeks, but he hopes that the forced change of perspective will allow her to think things through and decide against killing herself this time around.
• Older Than They Look: She's 17, but characters often mistake her for someone younger.
• Sixth Ranger: In Shirou's party. This is apparent since she doesn't fit the Servant Theme Naming.
• The So-Called Coward: Rishia stands up to a disguised Shirou under the mistaken impression that he wanted to hurt Itsuki despite knowing she has no snowball's chance in hell to even slow him down at all. Twice. The second time in Chapter 40 is particularly impressive because Shirou was playing the bad guy as the "Demon of the Sword" and seemingly effortlessly kicking everybody's collective asses on his own, and unleashing enough Killing Intent to have veteran adventures and soldiers literally tripping over themselves to try and run away from him, yet Rishia still managed to put herself between him and Itsuki despite being terrified out of her mind. No wonder Shirou almost breaks character at that.
• Token Good Teammate: Seems to be the only nice member of the Bow Hero's party. That goes down the drain when they kick her out.
• What Does She See in Him?: Shirou doesn't mince words when he says Itsuki has never been worthy of Rishia and that the only reason she doesn't see it is because she crossed the Despair Event Horizon.

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