A man, dressed up in clothes made up of cheap cloth was sweating, sitting on a wooden bench with scorch marks pasted everywhere without a distinct pattern or purpose… The man was surrounded with tools of every sort, hammers of different mass and use laid haphazardly around on tables and on the floor. Around the man given a place of honor were a group of swords, made with the highest quality of metals, with the best craftsmanship, awaiting a time where they would be inserted into a grip. They were humble swords, swords of the greatest beauty without any visible signature or clue that they were not of divine make. Nearby was a furnace, with the hottest of fires burning, while not the most desirable place to be, there was no questioned that it was constantly used, iron rods were inside, heating up, desiring for the time where they would be transformed into something…more…

Steel, of the highest of purity, containing the perfect balance was combined, from the most delicate layer of soft steel, surrounded by steel of the increasingly robust make, in steady layers, building up to become an unbreakable sword, resulting in the most resilient of weapons...

Seven layers, repeatedly quenched, cooled and heated. Hammered constantly, creating a rhythm resulting in a metal melody...

The sharpest edge… the hardest make… the most desirable flex… The sword possessed an otherworldly aura, able to become a legend simply from its craftsmanship, simply from its quality, simply for its effectiveness at what it was made to do...

The man...no...blacksmith...had made several hundred more metal art pieces, most would be lost, some would remain, all would be legendary...

One of the swords would be different however, gaining a superior status not just from its maker but also gaining and playing a role in the creation of a unique legend...

The legend of the Sword Saint...

The sword spent its first few hundred years being passed around, decades at a time, it had dozens of wielders, all either royalty or military dictators of prominent provinces, it had been wielded by powerful and talented swordsmen, it had been wielded by mediocre sons of nobles, it had been involved in dozens of conflicts, used constantly.

It retained its edge, every time the sword was swung, it cut. It bit into flesh, it bit into bone and it shattered other swords. It remained as sturdy as it ever was, never bending permanently, never being chipped, remaining flawless as ever.

It had carved out a legend on its own, with its wielders becoming nameless and lost to history. After the first few centuries. It had gained a rival with others of its make against swords of great but ultimately inferior craftsmanship.

Cursed swords they called them, cutting indiscriminately, drawing blood every time they were drawn from their scabbards. They were called Demonic swords too, driving their wielders into madness.

The sword had no sentience, but if it did it would question.

"Haven't I done the same? Haven't I cut everything I was pointed at? Haven't I caused uncountable deaths?"

As great as the sword was, as divine as its wielders assumed it may be, it was still a sword, unquestioning, continuing to be as lethal and worthwhile as it was made to be, not to question its purpose, but to carry out its purpose.

Somewhere along the line, it had gained reputation as a sword with minor holy qualities, while its rival had retained its cursed status. All from tales of the common folk, nothing but faith in the stories known by every peasant presenting it with a mystery, raising it to greater heights.

The Sword was still prominent however, having not been held by a legend greater than itself. That was all due to change however as it made its way through nobles to a loyal vassal swordsman, the father of its true owner...

The Sword was passed down from father to son. The father, a local swordsman with a legend accompanying had passed down its teachings to its owner, tutoring its owner up to a young age of seven, where the father passed away, relived that his teachings had been inherited by a worthy individual.

The father had been a formidable swordsman, creating his own school of swordsmanship as well as winning numerous duels, eventually he won a duel containing a trio of bouts against another founder of a school of swordsmanship. He won a duo of bouts, emboldening the local military dictator with the title of 'Shogun' to grant the father the title of being 'unrivaled under the sun'. This started a rivalry among the different schools of swordsmanship.

The son had continued his training in the ways of the sword in a local temple under his uncle. He had deemed his training sufficient and had set off to travel in order to further hone his art. At a nearby town, he had spotted a public challenge set by a local swordsman for a duel. Even at the age of thirteen, the owner of the sword, had been self-assured, possessing great faith in his skills and wrote his name down.

The challenge had been accepted by the local swordsman, a fit man in his twenties. His uncle had been informed of the duel and was worried on behalf of the owner of the sword and had rushed to stop the match, arriving on the day of the duel. The uncle had begged the swordsman on behalf of his nephew, asking for forgiveness having feared for the safety of his nephew due to his young age.

The sword had still not seen action under its owner however, having been sheathed while its owner had produced a quarterstaff and charged at the local swordsman, the young prodigy had quickly concluded that the local swordsman was rather arrogant and as a challenge to himself had been able to rapidly disarm the local swordsman without taunting or taking advantage of his weakness in character. The arrogant swordsman was also a combat maniac, quickly getting up and charged at the owner of the sword. The thirteen-year-old took the situation in stride and was forced to beat the swordsman to death with the quarterstaff in order to end the conflict.

The owner of the sword had been forced to return to the temple and had resided there until his mid-teens where he left his possessions with his family and set out back on his travels… The young prodigy had spent his first-year of his travels challenging sword experts from different schools of swordplay.

He was recalled in his second year to serve in his father's combat battalion in which the young swordsman fought in several battles and assaults eventually ending the war having been forced to retreat by his lord. Having been responsible for countless deaths, the young prodigy had gained valuable combat experience from the war.

After the war, the young swordsman had secluded himself on a nearby mountain, spending half a decade refining his swordplay and developing a new sword style developed from his experiences. Upon re-entering civilization, such was the skill of the owner of the sword that even having just reached the age his second decade of life, he might as well had been unparalleled with no individual ever developing the level of skill required to even pose a minor threat to the gifted swordsman.

The first task he set out to do was to arrive at the capital and challenge the rival school of swordplay that his father defeated. The School was one of the most prominent schools in swordplay, having been founded by eight different gifted martial artists, combining the best of their craft into the teachings of a single school.

The swordsman initially challenged the master of the school, conducting a duel in which feeling a bout of mischievousness arrived late to the duel, angering the master. Through an intense but one-sided bout, the swordsman stuck true and crippled the master's shoulder, knocking him out... The next duel was against the brother of the master who was incensed on his brother's behalf. The brother had arrived armed with a steel bow staff with a greater reach. The duel ended the same way, with the swordsman arriving late and easily defeating the brother by disarming him. Forcing him to abide to his personal code and retire his position.

The new head of the school of swordsmanship had issued another challenge, this time accompanied with a squadron of archers, musketeers and swordsmen... With the debut of his new school of swordsmanship based around dual wielding, the owner of the sword arrived early, assaulting the gathered force. The undefeated swordsman was using both the sword and a newer primary weapon with a greater reach to fend off the larger groups of swordsmen easily at a time massacring the forces and killing the last heir of the sword School, thus ending the line of teachings.

The swordsman had gained a reputation admired throughout the country at this point and had set out to attempt to find someone who could stand up to his skill. While the swordsman had still kept the legendary sword with him, the sword would never henceforth be drawn in the life of the swordsman for he had reached a new realm of swordsmanship, only ever using a wooden katana or bokken, to duel, such was his prowess that he did not care the tool in which he used to compete, only the amount of skill in which he deigned to use.

He had continued to be undefeated with over sixty duels before the age of thirty, not one opponent having the ability to force him to draw his true sword… He had met a friend, a vassal of a major lord who requested for the Swordsman to duel a man known as the demon of the western provinces. Much was known about his opponent. The swordsman was excited to duel upon hearing the skill of opponent to be great enough such that he was able to cut and bring down a flying swallow at full speed. The rival swordsman was said to have reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship by refining his skill and movements so as to bring his efficiency to greater heights than there ever was.

The duel was scheduled to be conducted on a deserted island. The Swordsman had arrived by rowing a small raft and had timed his arrival perfectly so as to allow for a possibility of a return trip to solely rely on the currents of the sea to bring him back. Shortly before the duel, the Swordsman had carved a bokken or an imitation of one with the remains of the oar used to row the raft. While slightly spent from rowing the raft, the Swordsman nonetheless carried out the duel with crafted bokken with the rival legend.

The duel had been what the swordsman had been promised with the skill of the rival legend indeed being the greatest challenge the swordsman had ever been faced with in his life. The bout would not be described as duel being carried out by mortals; such was the mutual skills of each of the parties involved. The swordsman had even been presented with the daunting prospect of blocking a strike from the signature move of his rival, the strike and execution of the stroke was so skilled, it had managed to cut into the realm of gods and carry out three attacks at once. Even tired, even armed with just a wooden bokken, such was the skill of the undefeated swordsman that he was able to block the attack that by all rights was could not be blocked or defended against. It had turned out that even as confident and justifiably arrogant that the undefeated swordsman was, he had in fact underestimated his skill and had still defeated and vanquished his rival in time to return to the raft and ride the currents back to the mainland.

This was the sadly the peak of the adventure of the now titled sword saint, having to know no equal. Having participated in countless more duels, taught numerous disciples and having mastered more weapon practices even with throwing objects. The sword saint spent the later three decades of his life pursuing his own interests, eventually also becoming an expert artist, sculptor, calligrapher and architect.

His disciples would be the founder of numerous martial arts Schools while many monuments would also be dedicated to him, advancing his legend... At the end of his life, he had written down his teachings in several scrolls and books, his teachings of philosophy, strategy and the arts would continue to be valued greatly even in the modern era but his teachings in swordplay would know no equal and yet no student of the arts or any other swordsman would ever come close to a slither of his abilities.

He had passed away peacefully, the legendary sword held securely on his belt, his longer sidearm at his side, holding a cane in a carefree posture. He was greatly respected in the minds of the people, with a private tomb located on the side of a mountain and many more monuments being dedicated to him.

The sword would be passed down among royalty, having gained a greater legend, it would be used on occasion in conflicts, still retaining its perfect properties, the sword eventually would be classified as a national treasure of Japan.

The sword would be one of the rare swords made by the blacksmith not to have been lost through the passage of time, having been easily the most famous sword made by the blacksmith.

The legend of the sword saint had easily overshadowed the great legend regarding the sword, eventually even bestowing upon the nameless but unparalleled sword with the same name as its owner, the unparalleled sword saint.

The sword had never known a greater swordsman and the swordsman had never known a greater sword with its quality. The sword had been forgotten to be nameless by history, with it being only known by the name of its wielder, both having carved out a great legend…

Musashi Masamune

Authors Notes:

The content of this chapter is basically around what Shirou saw when structural analysing the sword in the museum. The flow of the chapter is largely based around the requirements to perfectly trace an object, starting with its make and eventually going down to all the experiences.

In this chapter, I wanted to facilitate a major change with regards to the style of fighting by Shirou Emiya, the weapon both he and archer chooses, Gan Jiang and Mo Ye or kanshou and bakuya reflects the mentality of Shirou and Archer to a frightening degree.

As such, while I want to show a difference by changing my Shirou's main weapon, I wanted to also reflect some of his original path so I chose this legend of the Masamune sword regardless of the fact that whether it was owned by Miyamoto Musashi is greatly debated in real life.

I had wanted to choose a Masamune sword as none of the swords have been mentioned in any of the Type-moon releases and it provides a rather interesting contrast as by all accounts, Masamune is rather humble and has no special branding on any of his swords with the exception of the select few, rather reducing them to nameless swords with the most famous swords being named after their wielders.

While Shirou has been all but confirmed to be muramasa's descendent, this also isn't canon Shirou so that doesn't really factor in.

I had decided on Musashi as the actual design seemed to be the most discreet of the remaining Masamune Swords as well as the legend surrounding it.

Any other sword would made by Masamune would still be a noble phantasm of a higher rank than the twin married swords but having this legend attached to it brings in an interesting prospect to write.

Shirou can replicate skills from swordplay used by the owners but he will have the greatest compatibility with himself. Nothing has said that Shirou would not be able to practice from the swordplay he replicates and adapt the legendary swordplay into one more befitting of his own self. Shirou just somehow isn't very interested in swords in canon.

I made quite a few fascinating literary choices in this chapter as you can see the language starting to prioritise Musashi instead of the sword more and more which reflects the legend of the wielder overshadowing the legend of the sword. Also I feel that the character of Musashi reflects what I want the more human side of Shirou to be like as he does what he sets out to do, which his purpose is becoming undefeated and then pursues other interests for his own enjoyment which is contrary to the self-sacrificing Shirou on the path to being a Hero and harming himself for the sake of others.

Shirou can still have a noble path, but he just won't be so stupidly self-sacrificing which he still is to an extent even if he develops a healthier ideology after UBW.

Keep in mind that this Miyamoto Musashi bears no relation the fem Miyamoto Musashi in fate. This is the real Miyamoto Musashi in the universe of Sasaki Kojirou which relating to the legend of real life, easily defeats Kojirou even just with a bokken/wooden sword...Yes...his swordsmanship is that overpowered.

Also here are the stats of Musashi Masamune, keep in mind that the legend of this sword is based upon the skill of the wielder and the rank of this sword is based upon its real legend in which it is one of the best crafted swords ever. As such, it's a highly ranked noble phantasm with only unique techniques for different wielders. The rank of the sword is solely based on its craftsmanship. It doesn't actually have death beams.

Noble Phantasm

Musashi Masamune (Unparalleled Sword of the unparalleled Sword Saint)

Type: Anti-Unit

Rank: A

Range: 1

Maximum amount of Targets: 1