If doing that means no one will cry, then...
#19 Idealism's End (The Answer)
You certainly took your time getting here, Emiya Shirou.
Yes, it finally occurred to me.
There can't be two of those pendants.
It was originally—
That's right.
After your life was saved, you carried it for the rest of your days.
A bequest of Tohsaka Rin's father, unique in all the world.
When summoning a Heroic Spirit, a catalyst is needed.
But Tohsaka Rin did not have one for the invocation.
Because of that,
she assumed she'd summoned a Servant at random.
But no Heroic Spirit is summoned by chance.
A link is always required between summoner and spirit.
If Rin had no catalyst, that means...
Yes.
The summoned Heroic Spirit, not the summoner, possessed the catalyst.
The concept of time does not exist where the Heroic Spirits are recorded.
Heroic Spirits from the past are treated identically to those of the future.
In short...
Yes.
It means that it's possible to summon someone who exists in the future.
Archer...
Where's Tohsaka?
I handed her over to Matou Shinji when he stopped by earlier.
You what?
Relax, kid.
Leave the little lady to me.
Lancer?
I have my Master's orders, you see.
Keeping her alive has always been my reason for working with you.
Actually, it's been really nice.
For me, it's rare to enjoy a task I've been given.
So until this is over, let me look after her.
After that, we'll be enemies again.
Take care of Tohsaka.
Will do.
I shall remain here, Lancer.
Are you serious?
Your Master is the little lady now.
I understand that.
But I must bear witness to this battle.
Really now?
Have it your way, then.
"Bear witness," huh?
I'm glad to hear that.
If you interfered now, severing my pact with Rin would have been for nothing, Saber.
Yes.
Come what may, I shan't interfere with your battle with Shirou.
But in return, I want you to answer one thing.
Why are you so intent on killing Shirou?
Why do you even ask?
Just as he can't accept me, I can't accept him. That's all.
That cannot be true!
You should embody Emiya Shirou's ideals in Heroic Spirit form.
Why would that ideal reject itself?
Unlike you, I didn't become a Heroic Spirit entirely on my own merits.
I became one by selling my posthumous self.
I'm nothing but a Guardian.
A Guardian?
Off you go.
What's with the stink eye?
You still can't read a situation, can you, Tohsaka?
Can't you see the position you're in?
Try looking in a mirror.
I'd say you're the clueless one here.
Oh, drop the tough act.
It's pathetic.
Unbelievable...
Looks like nothing I say will get through to you.
Good! That's more like it!
So you've finally figured out you belong to me?
Man, I love legs that have just enough muscle...
It'll make tormenting you all the more fun.
Ow!
Sorry about that, punk.
My fist went flying before my words.
Lancer?
Hey.
Wh-What are you doing here?
Save it.
I'll have those bonds cut in a jiffy.
After that, do as you like.
Go to the hall and stop those idiots from fighting,
or slip out the back and go home. Your call.
Lancer, behind you!
What?
That's quite enough, Lancer.
I said to work with them.
I never said to get emotionally invested.
Kirei?
A Guardian?
I heard that, after their deaths,
Guardians become a Counter Force to protect humanity.
Even if your circumstances differ,
you are a Heroic Spirit, regardless.
That's where you're mistaken, Saber.
Guardians don't protect humanity.
They're simply cleaners.
Archer?
You're right...
I did become a hero.
Just as the man called Emiya Shirou always wished,
I became a true hero of justice.
A hero of justice...
And that is exactly why I know that that reality is a mistake.
That that man's life had absolutely no value.
No value?
None.
Surely you understand, Saber.
You, who wants to change the past, to take back her decisions, more than anyone.
Saber?
What?
You never asked her what her wish was?
Why she desires the Holy Grail enough to commit herself
to this pointless bloodbath?
Then allow me to tell you. She is—
Archer!
Shirou...
I wanted to use the Holy Grail, the all-powerful wish granter,
to undo a decision I once made.
To undo my mistake...
To alter the fated destruction of Britain...
I could not allow myself to die yet.
That is I why I want to win the Grail.
I did not live up to my ideals.
I should never have become king.
But you are different.
Are you not the ideals of Emiya Shirou fully realized?
The realized ideals, huh?
It's true that I did become my own ideal hero of justice.
But as a result, I gained nothing but regrets.
While alive, I made a pact with the Counter Force.
After death, having become a Guardian,
I acted as humanity's Counter Force,
fighting those who disrupted the world's balance.
Obeying my orders,
I killed.
And killed...
And just kept killing.
I killed so many, I ceased to care.
For every life I took, I saved thousands.
I fought again and again, whenever I was called upon.
Again.
And again.
And again...
But there was no end to it.
It never ended.
It wasn't as if I dreamed of a world free of fighting.
I just didn't want anyone to cry in the world I knew.
That's when it finally hit me.
The ideal that Shirou Emiya embraced was only a shallow idealism.
Why do you say that?
It's impossible to save everyone.
Saving the many means leaving the few to perish.
You should know something about that, Saber.
Those who were bound to fall from the seat of happiness,
I quickly cut down with my own hands.
That is the proper course of action for a Heroic Spirit, for that man's ideal hero of justice.
Saving as many as possible is what a hero of justice does, is it not?
And so, still wishing for no one to die,
I would have one person die for the sake of many.
Even as I said that I couldn't let anyone be sad,
I ultimately drove more than a few to despair.
That is my true identity.
Of the Heroic Spirit Emiya.
Don't you think if such a man died, the world would be better for it?
Kill yourself, Emiya Shirou.
Ow...
Wasn't it my Master's credo to never reveal himself?
I have no such policy.
In fact, you are the one disobeying orders, Lancer.
I seem to recall ordering you to terminate Archer.
He'll do himself in without any help from me.
More importantly, did you put that kid up to this?
It's nothing so sinister.
We have an arrangement.
We've reached a mutual accord for the sake of winning the Grail.
Figures.
I knew you wouldn't die so easily.
What's the point of winning a harmless loser like Shinji to your side?
You take him for harmless, do you?
Even in this situation, you remain Tohsaka Rin to the core.
If you were a less capable pupil, this would be less regrettable.
Hang on, Kotomine.
Was that talk about wanting to save your pupil a lie?
Nothing of the sort.
She is an important pawn that I have taken great pains to nurture.
I've deceived her these ten long years,
so what fun would it be if she left the battle so easily?
That was why I entrusted her safety to you.
You fraud of a priest.
Participating in a game that you're also the referee of
is so unfair, it's not even funny.
And yet you don't seem all that surprised, Rin.
Then you suspected me?
Of course I did.
Admittedly, it never occurred to me that I'd been tricked from the beginning.
From the beginning?
What?
Oh, when you said, "From the beginning,"
I was wondering how far back that was.
Kirei, you...
Since after this Holy Grail War began?
Or does the "beginning" you speak of
refer to the previous Holy Grail War?
I see...
You were the one who killed my father.
Of course.
After all, he was my beloved teacher.
Catching him by surprise was child's play.
What's the matter?
Now that you know what you are, why hesitate?
Archer,
you have not gone against your ideals.
Did you not simply lose your way
when the very ideals you protected betrayed you?
Were that not the case,
you would not consider killing yourself atonement for your sins.
Oh, this is rich.
Atone for my sins?
Don't be a fool, Saber.
You're right, I was betrayed and deceived countless times.
You can't expect anyone to understand a man
willing to lay down his life for others.
In the end,
I was set up as the mastermind behind a conflict and sent to the gallows.
You must be lying, Archer...
That was how you died?
If I had any sins, surely I fully atoned for them in that moment.
It's not as if I ever wanted gratitude.
I never wanted to be celebrated as a hero, either.
I simply wanted an outcome where everyone was happy.
But that was never given to me, either.
Neither in life, nor afterward.
I knew that Guardians were, essentially, automatic-defense mechanisms.
That after death, those who offer themselves to be Guardians
are removed from the cycle of death and rebirth,
becoming tools that safeguard human history.
I thought it would still be worth it if I could save someone,
one person who was in trouble.
But it's nothing like that!
Bastard!
I hope you get lost in the afterlife, you crappy priest!
Even Hell wouldn't want anything to do with you!
Purgatory would call you a bad influence and pass you off somewhere else!
And you aren't suited to Heaven,
so a eunuch like you should tangle himself in a bed of thorns outside the gates!
Kotomine, you know that Tohsaka's been given to me, right?
I'm the only one who has business with her.
No, I have business with her, as well.
You see, I require her to become the Holy Grail.
Once Archer and Saber are gone, the time will finally be right.
I do not want her to lose her freshness through unnecessary fighting.
Let us get this over with quickly.
Lancer, dispose of that trash.
The vessel has no need of a heart.
Guardians don't save humans.
Guardians simply clean up the messes.
They're beings that use their power
to negate events that have already transpired,
disasters of humanity's own making.
They're butchers that kill anyone who threatens the human world,
without distinguishing good and evil.
What a joke...
How is that any different than when I was powerless?
To save as many lives as possible...
Are you saying that you were unable to fulfill that wish even once?
I am.
I've culled the very people I wanted to save.
Because of the stupid ideal of becoming a hero of justice.
I'm sick of cleaning up after humanity.
But as a Heroic Spirit, I'm doomed to repeat that for all eternity.
If I'd never existed...
If I could disappear, that might...
If you kill a human destined to be a hero,
you think that that hero will never be born?
I've waited for that opportunity, hoping the day would come.
It will not work.
You already exist as a Guardian.
You are outside the confines of time.
Even if you eliminate this Shirou, you will not disappear.
Perhaps...
But it isn't beyond the realm of possibility.
If I destroy not only his flesh, but also his spirit,
at the very least,
the mistake that is the hero of justice will not appear in this world.
What's the matter, Emiya Shirou?
If I'm so unacceptable to you,
kill yourself right here and end it!
Shirou!
What's the matter, Lancer?
Your target is a little girl.
Killing her should be simple.
I refuse.
I can't obey you this time.
What?
If you want to make me do it,
you'll have to use a Command Seal.
You leave me no choice, then.
In that case, I order you by Command Seal.
Sorry, Emiya-kun...
I'm leaving this fight before you.
Kill yourself, Lancer.
Lancer!
Archer, do you have regrets?
Of course I do.
Then I guess we're two different people, after all.
What?
No matter what happens to me, I'll never regret a thing.
And that's why I'll never accept you.
If you're my ideal,
then I'll just have to get rid of that mistaken ideal myself!
That way of thinking is where all of this started.
One day, you will reach the point where you become me.
I won't.
That day will never come.
That's true...
I suppose it won't.
If you won't run from here, in any event, you have no future.
Archer!
It's okay, Saber.
Thanks.
But I'd like for you to stand back.
This is a fight I need to have.
Trace...
on.
Can you keep up with my blade works?
If your precision is even slightly off, it will spell your death.
I will take your heart.
Once useless, always useless, I suppose...
I admired his wish to save someone because it was beautiful!
I don't want to become one... I'm going to become one!
Next Time Unlimited Blade Works.