Fanfic / In Pursuit of a Single Ideal

In Pursuit of a Single Ideal is a crossover between Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA and Lord El-Melloi II Case Files written by KnightOfTheEnd. It's hosted on SpaceBattles.com and fanfiction.net - however, that version is not currently up to date.

The story starts when Shirou Emiya, a perfectly normal high school boy with a perfectly ordinary life - adopted status and hardly present parents notwithstanding - finds a strange card laying on the ground on his way home from school. Then, he is almost immedietely transported into some kind of other realm, where he is almost killed by a man holding two spears - only for the card he just found to reveal its true strength.

Thus begins Shirou's violent and traumatic introduction into the world of magecraft, as he and a mysterious girl named Gray, with her even more mysterious weapon Add, take on the strange wraiths that sprouted from the cards scattered across the city in order to prevent anyone else from encountering them - having no idea that his little sister Illya started hunting them long before him.

For another fic from the same author, see Charlemagne and Asia's Magnificent Journey.

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This work presents examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: Shirou, big time. He was just an ordinary civilian in the source material but here he's steadily gains levels in badass, first with his Saber Install and budding forging and fighting skills, and later with his Projection magecraft.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In the source material, Illya was a fan of the Magical Girl genre, but she wasn't a fan of being an Ascended Fangirl and at the beginning she went through a phase of I Just Want to Be Normal. Here, Illya goes to the exact opposite route of I Just Want to Be Badass and is extremely excited to be a magical girl.
• Agony of the Feet: In his fight with Diarmuid, Shirou stomps on his foot hard enough to break it.
• Alternate Self:
  • Shirou has his counterpart from the other universe where Miyu comes from, even though Miyu is the only one who knows that info. This greatly affects Miyu's behaviour towards him, as she is subtly seeking affection from him because she misses her brother so much.
  • Shirou also has Emiya Alter. Initially he is convinced that he is doomed to go down the same path as him, but Muramasa manages to snap him out of it.
  • The Assassin card is an alternate version of Kiritsugu. Shirou and Kiritsugu figure it out when the former starts recounting their battle to the later, including a description of his trademark gun and Origin Bullets.
• Ambiguous Situation: The flashbacks related to the second Caster card make it unclear if the Heroic Spirit within is Caster Artoria or Tonelico (aka Lostbelt Morgan).
• Ascended Extra:
  • Shirou has been elevated from a completely uninvolved and clueless civilian to the protagonist.
  • In the Prisma Illya manga, Kiritsugu never once shows up in person. Here, he and Irisviel return home as soon as the maids tell them that something is wrong with their children.
  • Leysrit becomes a Guest-Star Party Member against Artoria Alter, while in the original she was simply a background element.
• Big Brother Instinct: Upon finding out about her involvement in the class card hunt, Shirou's primary motivation is to protect Illya no matter what. This motivation is in fact what allows him to stand up to Emiya Alter.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Shirou shows up just in time to help Grey fight Assassin Kiritsugu, though even together they both struggle against him.
  • Shirou and Grey show up just in time to help Illya and her friends fight against Caster Medea.
  • Grey manages to get out of her funk just in time to save Shirou from being killed by Artoria Alter.
  • Shirou rushes in to save Grey from Artoria Alter just as she's about to receive a fatal blow.
• Bloody Horror: Shirou's injuries after being shot by Unlimited Lost Works are described in a fair bit of detail. Some chunks of his flesh apparently fell off, and there was bone visible at places. The narrations describes him as looking more like a mangled piece of meat than a person. Illya understandably pukes at the sight.
• The Cameo:
  • Fou is occasionally spotted by the characters spying on them during emotionally charged moments. It's currently unlcear if it's the version from Fate/Grand Order or the one mentioned in the Tsukihime continuity.
  • Caren Hortensia appears to help Kirei heal Shirou's injuries.
• Chick Magnet: Rin, Luvia, Grey, and Illya all have a crush on Shirou. Out of them, Illya knows that it's wrong of her to crush on her brother so she does nothing but ignore it to the best of her ability, Grey has very little concept of what a crush even is and she doesn't have enough confidence to pursue it anyways, and Rin and Luvia know that they have completely ruined their chances with him by keeping secrets.
• Close-Call Haircut: Grey's hair are cut to around chin length during her fight against Saber Alter.
• Combination Attack: Illya and Miyu can combine the blasts of their Kaleidosticks, with incredibly destructive results. Artoria Alter only suffers Clothing Damage.
• Crossover: Between Prisma Illya and Case Files - both of which happen to belong in the same franchise.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Emiya Alter proves himself to be overwhelming, sentient opponents with full access to all his strength as a Servant and incredibly brutal in his approach. Even though Rin, Illya, Luvia, Miyu, Shirou and Grey face him together, they get all but curbstomped and barely get away with their lives. They won, but at a huge cost.
  • The battle against Artoria Alter goes down a very similar route. Ruby even points out that she's as bad as Archer.
• Cuteness Proximity: Lampshaded when Ruby tells Illya that following the Ridiculously Cute Critter Fou to an unknown location after yet another battle that almost got them killed is a bad idea. Illya doesn't listen.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Kiritsugu admits that he wanted Shirou and Illya to grow up as far away from the world of Magecraft as possible, which is why he and Iri are almost always away hunting down their enemies. He admits he did not think or realize how much their absence would damage their children.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Using the Class Cards becomes one for Shirou after he's infected with Emiya Alter's Reality Marble, as using his magecraft slowly erases Shirou to replace him with Emiya Alter.
• Dark Secret:
  • The mere existence of Magecraft is treated as one by anyone who knows about it because the world of the magic is full of danger, killers and backstabbers.
  • Shirou treats Emiya Alter's identity as one and refuses to even acknowledge it in his own head.
  • Shirou figures out that his dad must have one - or several - because as the Assassin servant he must have done something to qualify for it.
• Death by Adaptation: Kiritsugu murdered the Mackenzies.
• Declaration of Protection: Sella and Leysrit declare that their duty is to protect the Emiya family no matter what.
• Deconstructed Trope: There's quite a bit of this going on.
  • Shirou's status as an actually Ordinary High-School Student - that is, no trauma, no real underlying mental issues, no suspicion that something supernatural is happening, nothing - means that he's not prepared at all for the world of magecraft. His encounter with Diarmuid leaves him traumatized, and so do all the Class Cards except for his Saber card. He judges all magecraft based on that experience and it hits him even harder when he finds out that everyone he cares about was secretly involved in the world of magecraft all along and kept him Locked Out of the Loop. Overall, he was absolutely NOT prepared for combat of any kind and he ends up with both mental and physical issues because of it.
  • Shirou's Big Brother Instinct very rapidly devolves to an incredibly unhealthy combination of Knight Templar Big Brother and Chronic Hero Syndrome after he finds out that Illya was forced by Ruby, Rin and Luvia to get involved with the class cards. His own traumatic experiences against them push him to the breaking point, and he ends up begging Rin and Luvia to use him as a Meat Shield so that Illya doesn't have to fight, while simultaneously acting like a bully to Illya so she wouldn't go fight the class cards without ever explaining to her WHY he doesn't want her fighting them or even talking to her at all.
  • Rin and Luvia's Sitcom Archnemesis relationship is deconstructed as their refusal to work with each other completely hinders the chase for the class cards and leads to loads of Poor Communication Kills that lead to unsuspecting civilians get involved. It ends up costing them both Shirou's trust and their chances at the Clock Tower, as they are now seen as petty, childish and immature despite being prodigies.
  • Illya's status as a Kid Hero gets a much nastier deconstruction than in Prisma Illya, owing to one simple change: that she Jumped at the Call instead of having more grounded reservations like in canon. Her entire motivation for hunting the Class Cards here is that she wants to be a magical girl, and as such she is the only one who has no idea just how big the stakes really are. In addition, several clues that other people pick up completely go over her head, and she doesn't even register The Reveal that she's a Homunculus because she's too confused to understand the situation. On top of that, because of her age, the other characters do not want to explain her situation to her which means that she has even less understanding of the severity of the situation, and from her point of view Shirou treats her badly for no real reason. She only understands just how much danger she's in when Shirou and Grey almost die at the hands of Emiya Alter. While she is magically gifted and a hard worker who wants to cooperate with others, her positive qualities absolutely do not counterbalance her naiveite and ignorance.
• Detrimental Determination: All Shirou wants to do is get rid of all the Class Cards because the spirits inside them are extremely dangerous and could kill someone the same way they almost killed him. It's already very bad that Shirou's determination is driven by his trauma, but then he finds out his little sister is involved, and suddenly he's literally begging to be used as a meat shield just so nobody else has to get hurt.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In Fate/Zero, Tokiomi was killed by Kirei, who then tried to shift the blame to Kiritsugu. In this fic, Kiritsugu really did kill Tokiomi, and Waver was an eyewitness.
• Distant Prologue: The fic opens with Muramasa at his last days - or at least at a very advanced age - pondering on his life while gazing at the moon. The rest of the fic takes place in the modern age, centuries after his death.
• Dramatic Irony: None of the characters know about the identities of the Heroic Spirits in the class cards - most prominently, nobody has figured out that Shirou's Saber card is Senji Muramasa. However they do figure out the identities of the black Archer, the Assassin and the second Saber.
• The Dreaded:
  • Kiritsugu built such a reputation as a Mage Killer that even the Kaleidosticks are familiar with his methods. Waver, who saw him kill Tokiomi and found the Mackenzie family's corpses, has actual nightmares about him.
  • Rin and Luvia are completely and utterly terrified of Waver.
• Drives Like Crazy: True to form, Irisviel. By Shirou's narration, Kiritsugu struggles to drive in a legal manner, but he's far better choice than being subjected to Iri's driving and he'd pick Kiritsugu over her any time.
• Dying Dream: Possibly combined with Dreaming of Things to Come. While fading after her defeat, Artoria Alter sees a vision of the Ainsworths - battles that have yet to take place - and for some reason Tiamat.
• Elephant in the Living Room: After the Internal Reveal, Shirou decides that if he ignores what happened then everything will go back to normal and absolutely refuses to talk about it. This attitude is NOT helping.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Not even Ruby, the resident Blue-and-Orange Morality character, can take seeing the Emiya's falling apart. It's actually relieved when they start talking again.
  • Even Rin and Luvia are willing to work with each other when under life-or-death or otherwise equally dire circumstances. Especially once Shirou's involvement made them realize how badly they screwed up.
  • Played for laughs when Shirou admits he would never force Rin and Luvia to suffer Iri's driving even after the utter betrayal of his trust. Nobody deserves that.
  • Waver has issues with Rin due to her association with Fuyuki. However, even he couldn't bring himself to tell her about how her father died to Kiritsugu, partly knowing that it would shatter her and partly because she was uninvolved and he didn't want a repeat of what would have happened to the Mackenzie family.
• Everyone Is a Tomato: Shirou is faced with this reveal when he finds out that Illya is hunting class cards, as now he's confronted with the fact that his friends (and his crush) are all magi, and his family members are not even human.
• Face Death with Dignity: Emiya Alter, upon being defeated, warns Shirou about the Ainsworth family, though he was prompted by the Counter Force to do so.
• Flash Sideways: The second he comes in contact with Emiya Alter, Shirou starts getting flashes and then full-blown memories of Emiya Alter's endless killing. Especially the incident where he killed Kiara Sessyoin. It also goes the other way when Shirou manages to beat him, as Emiya Alter suddenly sees parts of Shirou's memory of Illya.
• Glamour: Leysrit and Sella make one for Shirou so he can appear normal after being Locked into Strangeness.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Everyone except Shirou - and Gray when under pressure - has this mindset regarding the class cards, to the point that Rin is seriously considering using Shirou's emotional breakdown as a distraction to take the Saber card from him. However, since Shirou has no such qualms, and Gray when fighting operates solely on survival instinct, the Medea card and the Emiya Alter card are both destroyed.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Leysrit joins in everyone else in the battle against Artoria Alter.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Thanks to Muramasa's influence, Shirou is an incredible blacksmith, but he STILL thinks that there's something missing even when he can find no errors inspecting his own work. Mind you, Muramasa has the exact same attitude regarding his creations...
• I Am Your Opponent: Grey says that to Artoria Alter when she stops her from killing Shirou.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: The reason Illya is so obsessed with being a Magical Girl is because she wants to feel as strong as the magical girls she sees on her TV shows. She wants to know what it feels like to be that powerful.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Waver's reaction after he's told by Grey just how badly Rin and Luvia screwed up the class card hunt and that the Emiyas are involved.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Shirou imitates Muramasa's fighting style from Fate/Grand Order. However, in FGO Muramasa is entirely reliant on Shirou's Reality Marble for his abilities. THIS Shirou has no reason to have a Reality Marble, because his parents died in a simple accident instead of the dramatic ending of Fate/Zero. So who exactly is the source of Muramasa's skills now?
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Even though the Fourth Holy Grail War never properly happened, Waver still ended up with the title of Lore El-Melloi II and the head of the Modern Magecraft Department, for the exact same reasons as before (debt).
  • The hotel where Kayneth stayed at still turned into a pile of rubble.
• Insult of Endearment: Muramasa calls Shirou "brat" even as he gives him a pep talk.
• Instant Costume Change: Shirou has used the Saber card enough that he no longer has a Transformation Sequence, it just happens in a flash.
• Internal Reveal: Basically everyone's secrets come crashing down once Shirou finds out that Illya knows about the Class Cards. This includes stuff like the Einzberns being Homunculi, the real reason why Grey is in Fuyuki, and Kiritsugu telling Shirou about Shirley. The only one's whose secrets have NOT been revealed are Miyu's and a good chunk of Grey's.
• It Can Think: Something that has been becoming increasingly apparent over the course of the fic is that the second set of Class Cards is - or is slowly becoming - sentient. Diarmuid acts like any other Class Card, but slowly we are treated to Muramasa influencing Shirou, to Assassin Kiritsugu recognizing Shirou just enough to take his own life rather than hurt him, to Muramasa and Emiya Alter being fully self-aware and talking.
• Loss of Identity:
  • Shirou almost completely loses himself to Emiya Alter's Mind Rape, until Muramasa manages to snap him out of it.
  • One of Grey's greatest fears is losing herself completely to Artoria. This actually does happen when she finally faces Artoria Alter, as she realizes she needs to lose more and more of herself to keep up.
• Locked into Strangeness: As Shirou presses on against Emiya Alter, his hair and eyes start changing to match his colouring due to overabuse of Projection Magecraft.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Several instances:
  • Shirou, as per canon, is Locked Out of the Loop regarding his family's magus status and Illya's activities, as well as Rin and Luvia being Magi. As far as he's concerned, his only magecraft-related contact is Grey. This is despite Gray being aware of all the above and her being on friendly terms with Shirou. He only finds out when he spots Illya leaving in a magical girl outfit out of the window.
  • Likewise, Gray chooses not to tell Waver about Shirou's involvement despite her being supposed to report this sort of thing to him. She is forced to tell him everything after Shirou confronts Rin and Luvia.
  • Unlike canon Prisma Illya, Irisviel and Kiritsugu are unaware of Illya and Shirou's activities. At first.
  • The identity of the black Archer card is one of Shirou's most closely guarded secrets. He barely admits it to himself. That said, Miyu also knows that card and keeps its identity a secret for her own reasons, so we have two people who don't know the other knows.
  • Between Shirou and Kiritsugu, they manage to figure out the identity of the Assassin card, but they keep it between themselves.
• Mind Rape: Shirou is subjected to this by Emiya Alter after being shot with his Reality Marble.
• Mirror Match: The Grey vs. Artoria Alter match turns into this, as Grey loses more and more of herself over the course of the fight to the point that she emulates Saber's style perfectly.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Rin's reaction upon realizing that she basically treated Illya like her slave once the Kaleidosticks switched control.
• Mysterious Backer: Merlin decides to give Illya the Caster Artoria Class Card along with Fou, for entirely unclear reasons (as he never speaks in his appearances). It's also unclear if the Class Card is Caster Artoria in the first place, and not Tonelico.
• Mythology Gag: This fic has a number of references to other Fate Series entries.
  • Shirou's Saber card is Senji Muramasa.
    • During the fight against Emiya Alter, Shirou basically unlocks Muramasa's second ascension.
    • Much like in Fate/Grand Order, Muramasa complains about Emiya Alter's treatment of his weapons.
  • The fight against Diarmuid takes place at the site of the hotel his masters were staying at in Fate/Zero.
    • Shirou mentions that the hotel was destroyed for some reason.
  • The second Assassin card is shown to be able to manifest as many heroic spirits, including but not limited to Jack the Ripper, the First Hassan, and even Counter Guardian Kiritsugu.
    • The fight against Assassin Kiritsugu takes place in the Emiya house from Fate/stay night.
  • Shirou sets up a workshop in in the shed of an abandoned traditional Japanese house.
  • The blackened Archer card is Emiya Alter.
  • Emiya Alter blocks Gae Bolg with Rho Aias, exactly like the original Fate/stay night.
  • Rin heals Shirou with her pendant exactly has she did in both stay night and Prisma Illya.
  • Caren Hortensia makes a cameo.
  • Kirei wraps the Shroud of Martin around Shirou's arm exactly as in Heaven's Feel.
  • Artoria Alter says that Shirou seems familiar to her. Not that it stops her from trying to kill him.
  • Shirou attempts to use Triple Crane Wings against Artoria Alter.
  • When Artoria dies, she sees a vision of Tiamat.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kiritsugu admits that he used to make things worse for other people because he was under the illusion that his actions would help them, and while he is more careful about that now he still doesn't really succeed in helping.
• Noble Demon: Artoria Alter may be trying to kill the squad without remorse, but she acknowledges their courage and openly praises Shirou for his efforts and tells him to die with honour.
• Noodle Incident:
  • We are initially given very few details regarding how exactly Irisviel and Kiritsugu stopped the Fourth Holy Grail War. There is the obvious "Iri, Illya, Sella and Laysrit don't live with the Einzberns anymore", but beyond that the information is little more than... snapshots. We know that Kirei is alive even though he was a participant, Kiritsugu killed Tokiomi and Kayneth, Waver made it to Japan and saw the above murders, and the hotel in which Kayneth resided in during Zero still ended up blown up, but no information on who did it or if Kayneth was in the building. All of this poses the question on both how and when did Kiritsugu decide to end the War.
  • Artoria Alter has something against magi in general, and says that they did "horrible things".
• Not Me This Time: When Kiritsugu first finds out about Shirou being heavily injured and Illya being extremely distraught, he immediately goes to interrogate Kirei. Kirei truthfully tells him that he had nothing to do with this whole situation, but he can't resist mocking Kiritsugu over the circumstances regardless.
• Not Worth Killing: The entire reason that Waver survived what would have been the Grail War ten years ago. Kiritsugu noticed him hiding on the way to the Tohsaka's manor, but decided that he wasn't worth the effort since he wanted to prioritize going after Tokiomi and Kirei.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Shirou was a this at the start of the fic, as he had absolutely no knowledge of magecraft whatsoever and nothing unusual going on in his life.
• Personality Powers: According to Word of God, the second set of class cards changes which Heroic Spirit manifests from them depending on what kind of person is using them.
• The Scottish Trope: Shirou refuses to think of Emiya Alter as "Emiya" and always calls him "the blackened archer".
• Screw Destiny: In true Fate fashion, Muramasa tells Shirou that just because [Emiya Alter] is his future it doesn't mean he has to follow it. And then be encourages Shirou to kick Karma's ass.
• Security Blanket: Shirou admits to himself that he's kind of treating Saber's igote as one, though he'd never admit it out loud.
• Serious Business: For Muramasa, forging is such serious business that not only he basically abandoned his family to perfect it and worked for anyone who would demand a sword, he pushes Shirou to pursue the craft and even helps Shirou deal with Emiya Alter just so he can "give him crap about butchering good steel".
• Ship Sinking: Much like the source material, both Luvia & Rin have a crush on Shirou, but both girls keeping secrets from him ended up straining their relationship. It's more downplayed and invoked with Gray as she even tried to actively shut down her interactions with Shirou to focus on the mission and was complicit with Rin and Luvia's business, but if him admiring Gray while she was fighting Artoria Alter was anything to go by, it hasn't sunken completely yet.
• Ship Tease: Shirou has shades of this with Gray, as they were able to hit it off quickly enough when fighting Assassin. Some of their later interactions involve the former feeling awkward around her and Gray easily blushing around him, with Add adding fuel to the fire by teasing her. In chapter 6 after their fight with Assassin, Shirou’s last thoughts were cooking food for Gray before letting his Post-Victory Collapse take over while Gray thinking about Shirou’s smile made her heart thump. Even in an Alternate Universe, Shirou’s Chick Magnet tendencies still kick in.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: When Shirou asks why Rin and Luvia don't take the Kaleidosticks back by force, they admit that the Kaleidosticks are the ones that forge and break their contracts with the wielders and they have no say in it, so it's impossible.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: This trope, taken from the Prisma Illya manga, is deconstructed in this fic. First of all, Waver absolutely doesn't trust that Rin and Luvia will be able to work together, and thus sends Gray to monitor them. In addition, due to their personal rivalry, not only do Illya and Miyu get caught up in their fight, neither of them ever owns up to her own mistakes because they don't want to look weak in front of one another. Eventually this leads to them actively hindering their mission, and it all comes crashing down when Shirou confronts them about Illya's involvement. Their chances at success in the Clock Tower are shot down because they just can't stand each other and never attempt to.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In Prisma Illya canon, it is heavily implied that Kirei was killed at some point, as he is completely absent and Kiritsugu with Irisviel "put a stop" in the Fourth Holy Grail War. Unfortunately, in this fic he is alive.
• Spotting the Thread: Kiritsugu immediately realizes that he was the Assassin that Shirou fought when he starts describing the fight. His response is to pull his gun out as proof. Shirou takes it surprisingly well, but he internally he wonders what exactly Kiritsugu did to become an Assassin class card.
• Starter Villain: The first thing that happens to Shirou after he obtains Muramasa's card is get into a fight with Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. He almost gets killed in that fight, and later he shows PTSD symptoms when reminded of it. This is also what motivates Shirou to start hunting the other class cards - he doesn't want anyone else to get caught by them.
• Sword of Plot Advancement: As per canon, the class cards. Unlike canon, there are two sets of them.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • Rin and Luvia force themselves to stop fighting each other after Shirou confronts them over Illya's involvement in the class card hunt.
  • Shirou only tolerates Kirei because he can heal. No other reason.
• Title Drop: Not a word for word one, but Muramasa tells Shirou to "pursue that ideal" (meaning to keep his sister safe) when giving him a pep talk during the Emiya Alter fight.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Rin and Luvia become much more considerate of other people's feelings and circumstances after Shirou turns against them for keeping secrets involving his sister. They come to explain themselves to the Emiyas in person, never make any demands from them, and do not try to take their class cards either.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Miyu, despite being barely older than ten years old, always acts cold and robotic, never protesting and never questioning orders, focused entirely on the class cards. It's not like she cannot feel emotion; she just contains it. Other characters ponder on it but they're generally too distracted by whichever class card they're fighting or the entire Emiya family drama.
• Uniqueness Decay: Illya and the others decide to test if It's possible to install with Cards other than Shirou's Saber. It works.
  Rin: Well, I guess Shirou is not unique after all.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: And Mom. Shirou and Illya's parents are hardly ever present in the house, to the point that both of them are shocked to see them. This has created issues for both siblings as they feel a lack of support from their parents.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Like in canon, Gray is terrified of ghosts and agrees to help stop the Class Cards because she thinks being a Servant, essentially a superpowered ghost, is the most horrible existence and she must put them to rest. She is also terrified of becoming a ghost herself if she dies.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • Illya is convinced that she is in a plain old Magical Girl Warrior show where everything is going to be fine, and she really, really wants to be a magical girl. Unfortunately, she is in a Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction, and the true danger and violence of the genre only occurs to her when Shirou is nearly killed by Emiya Alter.
  • Rin and Luvia assume that Emiya Alter will be weak because he's an Archer without a bow. This coming from the franchise that coined the meme "the Archer class is really made out of Archers".
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Muramasa tells Shirou that unlike Emiya Alter, who is nothing more than a butchering machine, Shirou has something important to protect, with that being his sister Illya, and that this makes all the difference between the two. The speech works, as Shirou gets a Heroic Second Wind.

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