Now, here is how the HGW would have ended, or what the plans I had for it were. After that battle with the Kotomine duo, Shirou Emiya would go on to have a fight with his Servant counterpart and struggle to defeat him even harder than canon Shirou. It wouldn't be anything physical, because this Shirou is as strong as a low-tier servant and the fight would be a lot closer on that end. The reason he's losing is because Archer will throw everything the MC has done as the Steel-Eyed Raven in his face and combine that with his own experiences to mentally crush him. All this time the MC has been acting like EMIYA Alter after the incident with the cult, just killing everyone in some perverted notion of justice. Pieces of himself being thrown away to become some kind of Saber-class Servant without embodying any of the ideals or actions that a good Saber-class Servant would have.
The MC breaks down, and in full view of Rin, Medea, and Artoria, he confesses to EMIYA about being a transmigrator, about being someone who came from a world where all of this was fiction. This information would incense EMIYA and he would continue to brutalize the MC both physically and mentally, all while blades sprout from his wounds and Rin, Artoria, and Medea are having a breakdown from finding out the MC was from a world where they were 'FAKE'. The MC fights back as best as he can, but even his projections fail him as his resolve wavers and the parts of Shirou he didn't even know were there start to rebel against his body, like Geto did with Kenjaku.
As the MC tries and fails to defend himself, Medea comes between a killing blow from EMIYA and takes the hit, professing her love for him and letting him know that her being fake in his world doesn't matter, because what they had with each other was real. This information fully breaks the MC and he detonates into blades, all fully covering his form as a statue. Artoria stops standing on the sidelines and rushes EMIYA, who is shocked by the blades and barely dodges. He retaliates and unleashes UBW to hold her at bay.
We cut to a black space where the original body of the MC is floating in the void, he closes his eyes and opens them to hellfire. The MC thinks it's over, but is pulled up by a 15-year old Shirou Emiya. It turns out that all this time, a part of Shirou's soul was in the MC, but most of it was combined with the MC's to save him. This whole time, when the MC transmigrated into Shirou, Shirou had felt some intense kind of pain and was pulled into his subconscious where he saw the MC's memories, his desires, his weaknesses, and his regrets. Looking at all the pain and suffering, Shirou decided to use his own soul to merge with the MC's so the transition would be instant and so the MC wouldn't have to be ridden with guilt from "killing" Shirou. He only kept a part of himself separate so he could guide the MC when he hit his lowest and be his guardian angel. The merger is the reason why the MC can use UBW, he has a dual origin and element, that being sword and traveller. Traveller came from himself transmigrating and Sword from Emiya merging with him.
The only reason Shirou decided to show up now is because he wanted to save the MC from his despair and fight his future self to spare him the suffering brought from EMIYA. After learning this, the MC breaks down and hugs Shirou, all while apologizing to him for what he did and profusely thanking him for his help. Shirou just smiles and forgives him, while also thanking him for helping Shirou fulfill his dream to be a hero. He reminds the MC to not forget all the good he brought from his scourge on crime, the fact the crime rate is a staggering 0.1% in Fuyuki speaks of his efforts alone. He reassures the MC, and lets him know that it's not about how you start your journey, it's how you end it that really matters. With that final assurance, he asks who the MC is, and he responds with Shirou Emiya, Shirou smiles and bursts into light and flows into Shirou Emiya and everything goes white.
Back to the battle, EMIYA is bleeding and sweating while Artoria rages at having to see Shirou die again, especially against this bitch EMIYA. When suddenly a white light catches their vision and they turn to see the statue of swords start to fall off one by one as Shirou Emiya emerges with white hair, slightly tanned skin, and molten gold for pupils. Shirou has Artoria step aside as he starts speaking his UBW chant, all as EMIYA watches in disbelief at the drastic changes to Shirou's appearance.
I am the bone of my sword.
Steel is my body, and fire is my heart.
I have forged countless blades.
Tempered by loss,
Unshackled by regret.
Have withstood pain to craft this legend
Yet, those hands shall shape my destiny
I have no regrets. My path is clear.
Unlimited Blade Works
UBW comes to life in a flash of light that cracks the ground and forms into a field of green and fresh grass, clear blue skies, warm sunlight, and an altar with Caliburn and Avalon resting. EMIYA feels tears fall from his eyes as he remembers all the good times he had with his father, the happy feeling after training, and the accomplishment of getting better. EMIYA gasps in pain as memories flood his brain, he sees his first knife, Kiritsugu's favorite teacup, all kinds of trinkets that are not swords displayed on a neat shelf. EMIYA vividly remembers his time with Artoria as a young man when sees Avalon again after so long, and his regret in failing to save her.
While this is happening, Shirou walks to the altar and equips Avalon to his waist and Caliburn to his back, his armor and undersuit melting and reforming into a long, flowing crimson coat, edged with black and patterned with flame‑like designs. It has a high collar and wide tails that flare out behind, black and gold armored plating reinforces the shoulders, chest, and forearms. Gold accents run throughout—on belts, clasps, and trim. After the transformation, Shirou awakens his mystic eyes which grant the ability to comprehend information normally beyond human processing, from high-speed movements to alien logic, enabling feats like understanding Divine Constructs. This allows him to trace and project the Excalibur in Artoria's hand into his own, wielding it with the same skill as her.
He lunges at EMIYA who under severe mental debuffs just projects hundreds of swords and sends them at him, Shirou sends his own blades back and travels to EMIYA. Letting him know that he has found his own ideal and still wishes to become a hero, even though it may be a borrowed ideal, he sees the beauty in pursuing it and modeling his actions behind it. Speaking of the ideal breaks through EMIYA's pain and he roars in mental agony as he projects Kanshou and Bakuya and clashes with the MC.
In a battle for the ages, EMIYA and a revitalized Shirou clash blows and ideologies, Shirou constantly reminding EMIYA of the good he has done and the beauty of his ideal, all while EMIYA tries and fails to retaliate, until he can't anymore and falls to his knees. EMIYA proclaims Shirou the winner and offers his head, but Shirou relents, he cannot allow his ideal to begin with the death of another hero, so he cancels his reality marble and EMIYA's UBW collapses. Shirou gives EMIYA mercy and tells him to spend whatever time he has left in this Grail War to find what he really wants.
After that, Shirou leaves with Artoria and confronts her about her knowledge of him and talking to him like she already knew who he was. Artoria tries not to speak, but Shirou threatens to use his first command spell and she folds. She informs him that she's from a war where Shirou and her had a more developed relationship, but that Shirou died in his battle with EMIYA. She unleashed a full power Excalibur on the mansion before dying and then faded, waking up back on the battlefield until she was called once more. Shirou didn't know how to react and just compartmentalized that for later, right now he had other things to do, and that was to destroy the grail. Although, he did give her his memories of the fight in his original world, hoping she could find what she was looking for.
For the next two days, Shirou and Artoria would find and kill Heracles and Cu Chulainn, both servants Shirou gave a chance to surrender, with only Cu Chulainn taking the offer and Illyasviel too entrenched in her hatred to even think of surrendering. With their defeats, Shirou and Artoria faced Kotomine and Gilgamesh with the corrupted grail manifested behind them. Shirou easily dealt with Kotomine and sent Artoria to destroy the grail, Gilgamesh didn't hesitate to unleash EA on Shirou, but he blocked it with Avalon and travelled to Gilgamesh with such speed that Gilgamesh in his incarnated body blinked and Shirou was right there. Mirroring Artoria in the Fate route, Shirou cut Gilgamesh down with Excalibur and traced EA and Gil's armor, both resting in UBW. He met back up with Artoria who sliced the grail but the mud poured all over like it did at the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War. Artoria was drowning in the mud, but was saved by Shirou who employed Rho Aias, using his memories from the anime and wiki to save her. He then used all 3 command spells to destroy the grail and live.
The pure holy power coming from Artoria eclipsed the mud and purified the grail as she swung Excalibur for what may have been the last time. With that, Angra was erased from the grail and all that remained was the pure grail itself. As Artoria faded, Shirou walked forward and touched the grail, transporting him into a white space where he saw Justeaze von Einzbern and opened his mind to the grail so it could see Hollow Ataraxia and all the servants and masters alive without the strife and suffering. The grail, using its power made that wish true (without the time loop) and when Shirou opened his eyes it was to a clear blue sky and the purple hair of his goddess.
With the Grail War over, Shirou married Medea and held a ceremony in the church, where Kotomine was the pastor and the attendees were all the servants and masters, even the duo Angra and Bazett showed up, having been brought to life. Shirou would spend the next two years at home with Medea on his millions in US dollars made by robbing criminals and training his body up to peak human on the level of DC. He would start preparing for the 2008 financial crisis by reading up on Investment broking using his reinforced and peak human brain, learning it all in 5 months.
When summer of 2007 came along, he started with shorting financial sector ETFs (like XLF) and buying put options on major banks (Lehman, Bear Stearns, Citigroup) using $2M. He would then park $5M in US Treasuries to keep safe in late 2007 and in March of 2008 he would double down on shorts against Lehman, AIG, and mortgage‑exposed banks with another $1M. By October he turned $3M in shorts into ~$20M+ and in December he deployed $10M into broad index ETFs (SPY) and blue‑chip survivors (JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, GE, Apple, Microsoft). In March of 2009 he added another $5M into equities, especially tech and consumer staples, and in the mid-late of 2009 he gradually rotated some gains into corporate bonds and REITs, which are recovering as credit markets thaw. By 2010, his portfolio was:
$25M+ in equities (from ~$15M invested at lows).
$7–8M in Treasuries/bonds.
Total net worth: ~$35–40M.
Now, he wasn't just investing, while all this was happening, Shirou went across the globe dealing with wars and natural disasters to save people in need. He fought in the Iraq War for all of 2007 and made sure to keep civilians safe by protecting them from rubble with his magecraft and healing them with avalon since Artoria is still alive, but only minor wounds because of distance. He earned himself the name of al‑Munqidh al‑Aḥmar by those he saved and Nāṣir al‑Damm by those he faced in the protection of civilians. He was described as a young man with white hair and golden eyes that wielded a sword of gold and blue and protected with a shield of flowers. He saved over 50,000 thousand civilians and defeated, not killed, 2000 soldiers of either side fighting endangered civilians.
In 2008 he was fighting the triad when he saw the Steel-Eyed Raven, shocking him, what shocked him even more was seeing Artoria wearing her HSR design in black alongside him. It turns out that EMIYA still wanted to be a hero and decided to save those in the dark while Shirou fought in the light. So EMIYA took up the mantle of Steel-Eyed Raven and Artoria joined him, becoming the The Raven of Avalon, as they set out to annihilate the underworld and save the people Shirou couldn't be there for. Shirou was happy for them and gave them his best wishes as he helped people suffering from the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China and destroying the military blocking relief supplies for Nargis in Myanmar. The Ravens gained notoriety across Asia for the elimination of the Triads, the Yakuza, the Bamboo Union, D-Company, the Golden Triangle, the United Wa State Army, Bahala Na Gang, and Red Wa. What was even crazier was that they defeated all these gangs from 2007 to 2009, survivors even described them as being faster than lightning, stronger than 100 men, durable enough to take missiles, and most of all, lucky.
After this, there would have been a side story where the MC was chilling and suddenly summoned in front of Iron Man in the middle of the Civil War arc. There would have been multiple chapters detailing the MC giving Tony Stark future knowledge on multiple avengers and Iron Man arcs after Civil War. With this knowledge, Iron Man would have swept the Civil War and come out on top without the death of Captain America. As thanks, Iron Man built a suit that looked like the Model 74, sword and everything, it also came equipped with an RT Node and modern systems that worked unlike the original Model 74, for Shirou, who returned home with it and found out that Medea was pregnant.
For the next 10 years, he would raise his son with Medea and become a global phenomenon, his legend would spread across the globe with barely anyone not knowing him. When he turned 30 a new arc centred around dead apostles and the rise of the Crimson Moon would start. Across the globe, Dead Apostles rise, and a few hidden True Ancestors seek to become Crimson Moon so they can destroy humanity. They would never have attempted such a thing, but with Shirou starting the Age of Heroes, they realized the plan must start now or they'll have to fight an even stronger humanity in the future.
So the arc would be a global chase where Shirou works with the US Military and the Ravens to systematically destroy the Dead Apostles for good and cement Humanity as the dominant species. Unfortunately, they would be too late, and the Crimson Moon would descend into the body of Altrouge Brunestud, and begin preparing an extinction level spell to wipe out humanity with humanity as the tender. With cameras in the sky and drones broadcasting the footage across the globe, Shirou and the Ravens go all out, killing each and every single Dead Apostle and True Ancestor on their way to reach the Crimson Moon. Even Alaya jumps in by bringing in a copy of Counter Guardian EMIYA to fight alongside them, creating this weird feeling for all three Emiya's.
The Raven of Avalon (Artoria) with her use of Excalibur is cutting through waves of them when she takes a nasty hit and The Steel-Eyed Raven (EMIYA) is left to defend her from the attacks of two True Ancestors. This leaves just Shirou to face the Crimson Moon, and he doesn't hesitate to unleash his Reality Marble, which after years of experimentation, he's able to leave it open, like an open barrier Domain Expansion. This allows other people to jump in and join the fight alongside him so he's not fighting by himself. The US military tries to fight with him, but they're slaughtered and added to the spell, CG EMIYA is throwing everything he has, but whatever mana being supplied from Alaya isn't enough to take on the descended Crimson Moon, especially since Gaia herself wants him there, so the Counter Force can't operate at full power like it does against humans, beasts, and normal Dead Apostles.
Seeing the dire circumstances, Medea teleports in after placing a spell on her son and starts to shield Shirou; they had talked and prepared for such a circumstance. Seeing Medea there, Shirou was confident and projected Excalibur, but not just that, Shirou started to remove the seals on them, which would allow him to fully defeat Altrouge and by proxy the Crimson Moon's lingering will. So Shirou begins:
The enemy must be more powerful than oneself
2. The battle must be one-on-one
3. The enemy must not be an elemental
This restraint was removed because technically speaking, the True Ancestors even after possession from the Crimson Moon aren't Elementals, they are a hybrid of Elemental and Crimson Moon design.
4. The battle must be one against evil
5. The battle must not involve personal gain
6. The battle must not be against Humanity
After the 6th restraint was removed, Crimson Moon finally took notice and started to send attacks themselves, trying to stop Shirou from defeating them once and for all.
7. The battle must not be inhumane
8. The battle must be for truth
9. The battle must be to live
10. The battle must not be against one pure of heart
11. The battle must be an honorable one
After the 11th restraint was removed, Shirou found himself empty, he just could not pour anymore Od into the projection. So Shirou got desperate, he decided to pour everything, and by everything, he meant his magic circuits themselves and the parts of him that made up Shirou Emiya. Shirou started pouring it all into what may be his final projection, with the world as his witness, he felt and saw as his reality marble started to fade into motes of light and be absorbed into Excalibur.
12. One's comrades-in-arms, should they exist, must be courageous
13. The battle must be to defend human order
With the final restraint removed, everything that belonged to Shirou was removed, the golden eyes, the white hair, the tan skin, the mystic eyes, even the armor he was wearing all faded into motes of light to be absorbed by Excalibur. The black haired man, Abdur, raised the sword and chanted,
"You, who have strayed...
Giant of Darkness that threatens the Human Order...
Look upon it,
And feel its full wrath!
This light is the planet's hope!
A torrent of life that illuminates this world!
EXCALIBUR!!!!!!!!!!"
Abdur swings down and unleashes a beam that can only be dirtied by the word beautiful, in front of billions, the beam slices through the spell and completely annihilates Altrouge and the Crimson Moon possessing her. The beam finishes its task and flies upward before exploding into numerous motes of light that fall onto corpses and bring them back to life, ending the life of the Crimson Knight with one last miracle. Abdur falls forward where Medea catches him and teleports him away back to their house. The Ravens make a quick exit, and the US military comes to a broken landscape with no hero in sight. Across the globe, in a world where COVID never happened in 2020, everyone is sharing the captured footage amongst themselves and the Crimson Knight's legend only grew bigger.
After that, there would be an interlude about Abdur and his feelings on losing Shirou Emiya and his magic circuits. He would become depressed, but with the support of EMIYA, Medea, Artoria, and finally his son, Abdur gets out of his slump and takes the mantle of Iron Man using the Model 74 armor gifted to him from his adventures with Tony Stark. While Abdur may have lost his circuits, he didn't lose his peak human body which made operating the suit super easy and helped him further establish the name of Iron Man in the world, piggybacking off of the MCU's fame.
A funeral was held for the Crimson Knight and the world mourned for him, always remembering him as humanity's savior. Iron Man (Abdur) would continue being a hero for another 30 years before retiring to live his life with Medea and spend time with his grandchildren. EMIYA and Artoria would get married shortly after the Crimson Moon incident and have children of their own, living right next door to Abdur's family. They would all live happily ever after, and I would then end the story out with a bunch of side stories centered around Abdur being summoned as the Crimson Knight and his shenanigans with Chaldea during the singularities all the way to the Ordeal Calls.
Man, I had a really fun time writing this all out, I see all this and think about how daunting my story would have been. I'd have to write over 100 chapters to really capture the essence of what I'm portraying and that's just too much for me right now. Well, it's been fun guys, I want to thank all of you who gave me power stones and collections for this story. When I started writing in April I didn't expect so many people to like it, but you did, and that means so much to me.
This is the end for this story, and if I ever do come back, it will be with a new CYOA, new timeline, and plenty of expanded world building and character interactions.
I had fun! Peace Out!