Shirou Emiya (่กๅฎฎ ๅฃซ้, Emiya Shirล?) is the main protagonist of Fate/stay night, a teenage Japanese Magus who acts as the Master of Saber during the Fifth Holy Grail War. He is the adopted son of Kiritsugu Emiya, the adopted brother of Illyasviel Von Einzbern, and the younger self of EMIYA.
Due to the trauma he suffered during the great fire, Shirou has a constant emptiness in his personality and suffers from tremendous survivor's guilt. He feels that, as the only survivor, it is unfair to the deceased to prioritize his own needs before those of others. He has a distorted sense of values where he only finds self-worth from helping people without any compensation, feeling that the very act โhelping peopleโ is its own reward.
He believes it is highly unfair that some people survive and others do not. When it comes down to receiving an injury or even giving up his life to help someone, he will do it without a second thought. The people who see this side of him are often very worried and attempt to correct his behavior, though they are unable to change his opinions. Kiritsugu often talked about how he used strive to protect the innocent from the world's many perils, even at the cost of his own humanity, and how he was saddened by the reality that whenever he was able to spare one life, another person was fated to die. Although Kiritsugu was tormented by his inability to save everyone, Shirou always admired his efforts. Right before Kiritsugu's death, Shirou pledged to be a Hero of Justice in Kiritsugu's place and strive to protect everyone at the cost of his own life.
