The legend of Shirou Emiya

Guardian of Ulster (Ireland)

Born the son of the blacksmith Culann, Shirou grew up rather similarly to most boys of Ulster. Until, one day, while making an errand for his father, Shirou was injured by the boy Setanta. He was twirling a spear to impress the other boys of the village, but he lost hold of the weapon and it sailed directly into Shirou's chest. Fortunately, it did not pierce very deeply and only left a light scar. Still, this accident sparked a great dislike for Setanta within Shirou, one that he would bear for most of his life.

Shirou's resentment for Setanta only increased. One night, Setanta was walking on a hill which overlooked Shirou's home. He accidentally kicked a pebble which rolled down the hill, through the household's kitchen window and directly onto the fire. Sparks and embers flew up from the hearth and flames spread throughout the house before anyone could try to put it out. Miraculously, no one was badly injured, but no one could understand what had caused the fire. No one except Shirou, who noticed Setanta in the distance and suspected that he was somehow the cause.

Sometime later, Conchobar, the king of Ulster, and his court visited Culann in his home to make reparations for their near-death experience. All was going well until the death cry of the family guard dog was heard and it was revealed that Setanta had killed the hound in self defense. Blind with rage over the death of his childhood friend, Shirou had to be restrained by his father to prevent him from killing the other boy. Knowing that his son would likely die should he face the boy now, Culann placed a geas on Shirou that prevented him from fighting Setanta unless Shirou had been wronged by him three times. However, unknown to all, the restrictions were lifted almost as soon as they were placed. After all, it was Setanta who had caused the fire that nearly took Shirou's life, though no one knew of it. After this event, Culann told of how Setanta would grow to become the guard dog of Ulster, earning the boy the name Cu Chulainn.

As compensation for all the wrongs done to him, king Conchobar ordered the knights of the red branch to train Shirou into the finest warrior of their order, with Fergus mac Roich being the boy's greatest teacher. Despite not wanting his son to be in harms way, Culann gifted his son a magical shield which would deflect all but the blows of the greatest weapons back upon Shirou's foes.

During his training with the knights, Shirou attempted to learn how to pole vault. While he had no success, his efforts did catch the eye of a young noblewoman and sorceress named Rin. His determination to learn this method of combat, despite his constant failures, intrigued her. They became close friends throughout Shirou's training and, over time, fell in love. When Shirou finished his training, he requested her family's blessing for their union, which was happily granted.

However, some did not take kindly to the couple's happiness. One such person was a brash nobleman named Shinji, who abducted Rin while Shirou was out gathering guests for the wedding ceremony tried to force her to marry him instead. Luckily, though, Cu Chulainn happened upon them while returning from his training with Scathach. He correctly guessed Shinji's intention to rape the woman despite her lack of consent, so he killed the young lord's thugs and then Shinji himself. Yet as he was freeing Rin, Shirou arrived and mistook Cu Chulainn as Rin's abductor. At once, a duel commenced between the two warriors. Shirou refused to see reason until Rin freed herself and ended the fight, clearing the misunderstanding and scolding Shirou for his rash actions. Cu Chulainn, for his part, was confused as to why Culann's geas hadn't worked on Shirou, until he finally realized how he had accidentally started the fire in Shirou's home so many years ago.

While the two warriors never truly became friends, Shirou did agree to end hostilities with Cu. But only if the latter would serve as Rin's personal guard for one year whenever Shirou was away while, of course, not making any advances on her. The terms were agreed upon and both men were guests at each other's weddings and would often be seen on the same missions as knights of the red branch. As the respect between the two warriors grew, Cu suggested that Shirou train under Scathach so that they could truly be equals in battle. Following his advice, Shirou and Rin traveled to the land of shadows and spent a year in her company, each of them learning new skills.

However, it was during their absence that queen Medb of Connacht invaded Ulster until she was defeated by Cu Chulainn. They only returned in time to save Cu from Medb's many attempts to avenge herself against the guard dog of Ulster. Unfortunately, Medb finally succeeded when Fergus, who had defected to Connacht, was sent to distract Shirou so that her assassins could hunt Cu Chulainn without interference. Yet Fergus was beaten by his former pupil and shamed for his betrayal. In an attempt at redemption, Fergus gave his sword Caladbolg to Shirou so that it might be used by a man more just than he. Despite his new weapon, Shirou was unable to save his fellow warrior, but he charged none the less into the battlefield to protect Cu's corpse from desecration.

Baring witness to Shirou's success, Medb desired to bed him and soon offered a proverbial olive branch to Ulster. She offered reparations for her attempted invasion in exchange of having Shirou as one of her lovers. Rin, however, would not stand for this and challenged Medb to a duel, one which would be judged by the kings of the other three kingdoms of Ireland. If Rin won, Medb was to provide the aid she offered to Ulster and not to lay a hand on Shirou. Should Medb be victorious, however, Ulster was to submit to Connacht, Rin would become her servant and the queen would be able to do with Shirou as she pleased. Shirou was unable to do anything as the two women fought with his future and that of Ulster in jeopardy. To his immense relief, despite it being a difficult battle that would leave scars on both combatants, Rin was the ultimate victor. Shirou and Rin would live a long life until dying peacefully in their sleep, with Shirou only wishing that he had been able to save Cu Chulainn so that they truly could have been friends.

Classes: Saber, Berserker, Shielder

Titles: Guardian of Ulster

Pride of the Red Branch Knights

Son of Culann

Sex: male

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Noble Phantasms

Caladbolg, the rainbow sword: a noble phantasm that he shares with Fergus due to him giving it to Shirou in an act of redemption, this spiral shaped sword releases a wave of rainbow coloured energy that is ranked as an A+ anti army attack that can target at least 300 people.

Gift of Culann, a father's protection: the shield created by Shirou's father which was meant to turn any blow aimed for the wielder back upon the attacker. As a defensive noble phantasm, it will turn the effects of any anti unit and anti army attack back upon the offender even if they are EX rank. Anti fortress attacks will be outright stopped but will not deflect them, and Anti divine and Anti world attacks will only be weakened by a decrease in rank.

Fulfilled geas, thrice wronged: In life Shirou was cursed by his father in order to protect him from a fight to the death with Cu Chulainn, the curse would only allow Shirou to fight his foe if Cu Chulainn wronged him three times in his life, while Culann believed that the hound of Ulster would do nothing to provoke Shirou, no one knew that the curse's conditions had been met even before it was caste. Therefore, this noble phantasm will grant Shirou complete magic immunity, even EX rank Magecraft will not work on him directly. It can only be activated if Shirou fights an opponent three times and Shirou does not truly win, it has no limit to how many enemies it can apply to, but the activation must be applied to each one.

Author's note: Well this was something, a couple of reviews in chapter 1 said that Shirou was rather op. I just want to point out that the Babylonian Shirou in particular was made to fight Gilgamesh so of course he needed to be op to beat that no good piece of horse manure. Pardon my language but I really hate that demigod. Hopefully this time Shirou will only be powerful and not over powered.

I wanted the fight between Rin and Medb to be similar to Rin and Luvia and Medb wanting Shirou as a lover being the cause of the fight seemed a plausible one.

Now for a spot of bad news, I'm afraid that the next chapter will only come out after the English sub release of the third Heaven's feel movie. I'm sorry but I'm going to be relying upon it for inspiration for the third chapter, once this has occurred, I will publish the remaining chapters in short order. In the mean time I will publish other stories to make up for it, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.