Prologue

Shirou Emiya lay on the ground, bleeding to death from his wounds. About 5 meters in front of him, was the dead body of Gilgamesh, the king of heroes.

He had done it. He had finally done it. The Holy Grail War was now soon to be over. No one more had to suffer from the devastating bloodbath. There would be no more Illyas, no more Casters or Lancers, no more people dying.

It was finally done.

He had personally killed Gilgamesh with the black blade of Kanshou, which was now resting on his torso, his hand barely gripping the soft leather handle of the masterfully crafted sword. It had been his final trump card. He now realized that Rin was right. Gilgamesh had been afraid of him, and afraid of Archer. Although Shirou could never realistically defeat any other spirit with his blades, it served as a perfect counter for the King of Heroes.

How utterly convenient.

In the sky, a dazzling golden cross made out of brilliant light blazed the skies above, replacing the filthy creature that had once stood in its place. Shirou instantly knew what it was. Only one person he knew had access to the power to destroy a grail, and he was proud to consider her a friend. Saber, as odd as she was, had a persistent charm, and he couldn't help the fact that the blonde had grown on him, despite the fact that she was a spirit, summoned from a magic circle and not the stomach of a human being. After all, all spirits were once humans, and heroes nonetheless. He would be sad to be leaving her behind, even if it was with someone as kind as Rin.

Rin...

His friendship with the girl was rather odd. They had almost started off as straight up enemies, allying with one another for the simple reason that they shared the same foes. And yet, the girl grew on him. As the Grail War raged on, he found himself getting closer to Rin Tohsaka, and began to trust her. Now, it was to the point where he would gladly trust her with his own life, and even throw it away for her sake. She had truly become one of his close friends, and the fact that he had developed a genuine friendship with her was one of his personal highlights of the Grail War.

'It's odd how conflicts draw people together. I guess, if you're forced to trust someone with something as big as your life, you're almost forced to develop a friendship with one another, even for the simple task of doing a tiny task.'

He sighed. It wasn't the time to dwell on such thoughts.

But the way he was dying... He was rather satisfied with it, as sick as it might seem. It was a hero's death. An honorable one, despite all the circumstances. He was finally achieving his goal. To sacrifise one life, or rather, his own, for the sake of many others. It was the ideal he had been pursuing his entire life, but one that could never be achieved.

Even this death wasn't fully enough to satisfy the ideal, but in the end, that ideal, the ideal of being a hero, a champion of justice, was a foolish one, just like Archer had said. It was full of foolishness and hippocracy, and could never be realistically achieved, no matter how hard he tried. So maybe, it was better to cut him down here, giving him a satisfying, honorable way to die, rather than to let him chase a naive, idealistic passion that wasn't even his.

And yet... What was this... This... This regret?

His life... His entire life, had been a lie, to some degree or another. A fake. A copy that could never hope to be equal to the real deal. He had spent his whole life, as short as it had been, chasing his ideals, no, Kiritsugu Emiya's ideals of being a hero of justice, from the moment he had set eyes on the man's happy eyes as he was rescued from the terrible fire, 10 years ago. He was never living for himself. He was living for Kiritsugu Emiya. And yet, maybe that was what a being a hero of justice was about. After all, no one could commit to the life of helping others, without being inspired to. Hell, nobody could do anything without being inspired to do something. Humans were simply humans that way. But Shirou had dedicated his entire life to another man's dream, and had committed his blood and bones to fulfilling a wish that wasn't even his. At least, that's what Archer had said.

And yet, despite what Archer had said, and despite the fact that Shirou Emiya thoroughly believed what Archer had said, it was the simple foolishness, the immaturity of the ideal of a hero of Justice that made it beautiful. It was that single trait that made it so admirable in Shirou Emiya's eyes, and that was the one pivotal fact that Archer had completely forgotten, leading to his unfortunate state. Despite being filled to the brim with hippocracy, immaturity, and foolishness, the ideals of being a hero were so damn beautiful to Shirou Emiya, and that beauty, and not the pursuit of perfection, was what led the young boy to chase the path of a hero. After all, a work of art, or a painting, was not known for its ability to perfectly copy every single detail in a landscape. It was utterly, completely, and foolishly flawed, and that was what made it a work of art. In a way, the ideals of being a hero were the same. There was no real end goal in sight. No reward expected either. And where others had turned away, Emiya Shirou had seen the path of a paragon and had desired it, either because of guilt, or because of admiration. Maybe even both.

Maybe he was truly a coward. After the devastating fire 10 years ago, he had done everything in his power to avoid the terrible feeling of guilt. After seeing strangers sacrifise their lives in daring acts to save lives, and to see all of them fail, devastated the young boy. Even worse, he had turned down and ignored every single request, every single plea for help, shutting down his guilt by covering his own ears to avoid the screams of the dying. It was a cowardly act. To minimize pain for oneself while others were suffering by the masses. And there came Kiritsugu Emiya, trying to save everyone he could, not wanting anyone to die, and gaining so much happiness in the simple act of saving a young child, and seeing that at least one person survived.

That look of happiness... Emiya Shirou admired it.

And maybe, in the process of avoiding guilt, he had taken Kiritsugu Emiya's ideals and in a way, made them his own. After that day, for a while, he simply helped out everyone he could, to redeem himself from his own crushing guilt. To assure himself that his soul, and his sins could be forgiven by doing good deeds. But somewhere along the way, it changed. Although he could never truly become like his father, Shirou's ideals were Shirou's and Shirou's own. It didn't matter who was the one who invented the idea of a hero of justice. In that case, even Kiritsugu Emiya was a faker. What mattered, was that someone was doing this for himself, and not living for someone else. And for a while, Shirou had been doing the latter. Hell, he believed that he had been doing the latter until his very dying breath.

But that was wrong.

Maybe at first, he was living simply for Kiritsugu. To fulfill a dead man's last wishes, to chase his ideals, no matter how impossible they were. But as time passed on, maybe Shirou realized, that he simply couldn't be anything else anymore. Maybe he could have chosen another path if he had changed early on, but he was no longer knee deep in the endless pursuit of the ideal of a hero of justice. He was fucking diving in the deep ends. If he gave up his ideals now, he would have no purpose to live. The idea of a hero of justice lived in him, breathed in him, conquered every single inch of his heart and brain. He would be no less than a hollow shell, devoid of a reason to live. A waste of flesh. It was what Archer had almost become.

He could almost understand why the white haired bowman had tried to kill him. It was a natural reaction, something he only realized after looking into Archer's own memories. Years after years, the man had only faced suffering, commiting murder after murder, cleaning up after humanity's own mistakes. And despite the fact that he was the greatest victim of all of the conflicts, he was betrayed. Killed, hanged, stoned, tortured. It was enough to break any normal man, and for a while, even Emiya Shirou's spirit wavered in its utter foolishness.

And yet, in the end, Archer had saved the very thing he hated so much. He had saved Shirou, protecting him and the others from the blades of Gilgamesh. It was an honorable death, laying one's own life down for the sake of another. Dying so that others could live. Something that only used to come naturally to Archer, back in the days when he was still called Emiya Shirou.

And that was when Shirou realized, his ideals, despite being so completely, utterly wrong and foolish, were his own ideals. Maybe Kiritsugu had a part in forming said ideals, but they were his own. And that was why he would chase after them, no matter what, to the bitter end. Even if he was running in pursuit of a foolish ideal, in an infinite path filled with only pain and suffering. If Shirou was anything, it was stubborn. And he would never sacrifice his ideals of a hero for anything.

He would follow his path to the bitter end, and see everything through until his dying breath.

The cross in the sky started to dim, the brilliant golden light slowly starting to disintegrate into snow like particles, seperating into pieces, making them seem almost like stars. It was a beautiful sight.

His thoughts dwindled to what Gilgamesh would so frequently say to both him and archer.

'Faker.'

He scoffed at the thought.

It was true, to be completely frank. Emiya Shirou was a faker in life, and a faker in death. His weapons, were copies, traces of another's that could never match the original's true ability, no matter how hard he tried. His ideals, were copied from Kiritsugu Emiya, and his entire life had revolved around the dream that another man had planted in him. It didn't matter if he had eventually taken on the ideals for himself willingly. It was still a copy, a rip off of the original that didn't quite match it.

He chuckled. Despite everything, he didn't regret it. Bringing others joy had given him so much happiness, and gave him a sense of satisfaction and purpose that made him feel like he was part of something so much greater than what he was. And his friendship with Sakura... Rin... Saber... Issei... They had been genuine, if they had been anything. He had loved everything his life, whether it be his struggles or his successes, and that satisfaction could never be taken away from him, no matter what Archer or Gilgamesh told him.

He was a naive fool, and he loved it.

The faker breathed in deeply, knowing that it would be his last, and brought a sad smile to his face, his eyes starting to water.

The air... It was so fresh today.

He would miss his life. He would miss Rin, Sakura, and even Fujimura Sensei.

But missing something was different than regretting.

Exhaling, the faker breathed his last, finally succumbing to his wounds.

He closed his eyes, his last sight being the golden flakes of sparks that descended from Saber's final attack.

'The stars are beautiful today.'

And with that, Emiya Shirou died without regrets.