A calloused hand ran through silver hair as a man stood silently in the middle of basement lit only with candles. A strange sight, considering the eponymous man's preference for regular light. Looking down upon the ground, he observed the circle drawn into the ground. Carefully recreated from the one in his old house, and double checked by his partner and master, he was confident that it was ready.

"Rin, we have a problem," he said, entering their apartment. When he saw her sitting down on the couch, turning her head to look at him, he lifted a hand, showing her the command seals etched into his skin.

She sighed at that. "So they finished it earlier than I thought, huh?"

He gave her an incredulous look at that. "Rin, what do you mean?"

She closed her eyes, taking one of her various poses. "Well, the Wizard Marshall Zelretch had taken an interest in purifying the Greater Grail of the taint within, which I allowed him to do, given his own hand in helping make the cursed thing. However, I requested that if they wanted to restart it, to get that thing out of Fuyuki. Not only would the ley lines be useless thanks to your father, but in the case they failed, I wanted that thing as far away as possible from home."

He shook his head in disbelief. "You're okay with someone trying to restart the war? After what we went through?"

"What we went through won't happen again," she assured him. "Especially since I ensured that they're no longer using a Homunculus for the Lesser Grail. No one is going to have to suffer like Illya would've. There's no living Heroic Spirits left from the wars prior. Without the taint, only True Heroic Spirits should be reasonably summoned, so no Bluebeards or Medeas, no Counter Guardians, nothing like that."

"Unless somebody screws with the system again," he pointed out.

"Relax, The Second was determined to reset the system. He'd leave well enough alone…"

The silence was palpable after that as they both digested what she had just said. And it only took her a moment to realize the error of her thoughts. "Oh god, He's going to make it worse, isn't he?"

"Well, this is Zelretch we're talking about," he reminded her.

She groaned. "Look, just… come back to me? I can't go with you, too many of my experiments are at a sensitive point right now…"

"Not gonna try and force me to quit the war?", he asked, giving her a skeptical eyebrow.

She scoffed at that. "Shirou, I tried that before, and the stupid false priest managed to convince you once before. You're still the same kid from before, wanting to save everyone you can. The only difference is now you're stronger than you were during the war."

He smiled. "And I've got a few new tricks up my sleeve…"

Fuyuki's Second Owner rolled her eyes at that. "Yeah, despite the amount of pain it caused you to get those tricks… Look, I can't stop you from going. You're a hard headed idiot with your own Independent Action skill, I swear. You'd just ignore whatever I did because you wanna go insure that you can limit the number of casualties. Just, be careful okay? There's no Avalon to save you unless you summon Saber again, you'll probably be dealing with worse masters with less morals than Shinji, and if you use the Unlimited Blade Works and the Association catches wind of your Reality Marble, you will get slapped with a sealing designation and I won't be able to save you from that."

"I don't need to use it for every fight," he reminded her. "I've gotten a lot better at what I do."

"Yeah, yeah, I know…" she sighed, finally giving in and showing a small smile. "Go be a damn hero, okay?"

"Trace on." Warming up his Magic Circuits, he took a look at the seals upon his right hand. The seals held the same shape as the ones so long ago, he realized. But in the end, that didn't matter. He slowly filled the summoning circle with his mana. Without even realizing, a symbol shone from under his clothes upon his back.

"Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation. Let blue be the colour I pay tribute to. Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall. Let the four cardinal gates close. Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate. I hereby declare. Your body shall serve under me. My fate shall be your sword. Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail. If you will submit to this will and this reason…Then answer! An oath shall be sworn here! I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven. I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell! From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, Come forth from the ring of restraints, Protector of the Holy Balance!"

The symbol upon his back glowed brighter for a moment, causing the summoner pain, before it faded away, as did the glow of the circle before him. Inside the circle knelt a man, a few centimeters shorter than the summoner stood, with spiked hair colored black in opposition to his master's silver. Where the master stood wearing black armor, the servant wore regular black clothes, including a button up shirt and dress slacks. Where the master was without sleeves, the servant wore a trench coat. The master in his combat boots looked stunned to see the servant in dress shoes. "You're…"

"I am… Emiya Kiritsugu, the Magus Killer," his servant said, eyes closed. "I ask of you, are you my master?"

"...I am," he said. "...father."

That sent the Killer's eyes shooting open as he stood, having to look up to his son. "...Shirou?"

He smiled. "Yeah… it's good to see you."

The two of them were soon sitting out on the roof, overlooking a city they were in. "So… been a while since I was in America…", Kiritsugu admitted.

Shirou nodded. "Welcome to D.C. Where the politicians make Magi look humane and the monuments cover up the class disparity on the outer reaches of the city." He sighed. "It's killing me that I can't really help them…"

Kiritsugu looked over to him. "Oh?"

He nodded. "Yeah… guess you could say I want to be their hero…", he admitted, giving a strange sort of smile.

Kiritsugu sighed at that. "I see… A hero, huh?"

"Yeah… like you were, that day you found me." Shirou raised a hand to cut off any reply. "Dad… when you found me in the fires, I was empty. My only thought was… I wanted to be as happy as you looked, when you saved me from that Hell. I held onto that dream for years now, being a hero… a decade ago I had it put to the test in the fifth war. Rin… the Tohsaka representative, managed to summon… well, someone who had held our dream and regretted it, even though he reached it. I was forced to face the pinnacle of my ideals… And I've accepted that even if I'm a hypocrite… even if I put others before myself, for myself… That doesn't mean it's not worth doing. There's still something beautiful about trying to become a hero of justice."

Kiritsugu couldn't help but smile at that. "...you've really grown up, you know that?", he asked softly.

He drew a chuckle from Shirou with that line. "Yeah, well that tends to happen when you're forced into a grail war…" he admitted.

"Shirou… during your grail war… did you ever notice something off with the grail?", he asked.

Shirou nodded. "Yeah… something to do with the third war's Avenger? Either way, it ended with Saber destroying the grail, and eventually Zelretch purifying the grail, so now we don't have to worry about dealing with the tainted version. This grail is the grail as it should've been."

The Magus Killer sighed. "That's good… and what about a girl named Illya?"

His son froze at that. "...Dead," he whispered. "I couldn't save her… I'm sorry."

Kiritsugu closed his eyes. He just needed to know. "...It's okay."

Shirou nodded, looking at his father. "So then, what class did I summon you as?"

"Assassin," he admitted. "Yeah, despite being a magus myself, I'm more known for killing them, so it figures that this would be my class… what confuses me more, is how I've even been summoned in the first place. I didn't think I would be recorded on the throne of heroes…"

"Neither did I," the silver haired magus admitted. "I almost thought I'd be summoning Saber again…"

"How was she, by the way? During your war?", he asked, curious more for his son's opinion. He knew that he himself wasn't the best master back in the fourth war…

"Upset about how you handled things," the Sword revealed to him. "But we got along well enough. I owe her my life many times over… I ended up losing her though, thanks to Caster severing the bond and stealing the command seals. Rin's Servant had willingly severed the contract as well, but Rin formed a new contract with Saber, and she was able to stick around to help us face off against the Grail…"

Kiritsugu nodded. "Fair… Avalon serve you well?"

"Yeah, that came into play. It saved me during my final fight with Archer."

He shook his head. "Fighting Servants… you're reckless."

"I'm just unique," the faker disagreed. "I can't fight every servant out there, but there are some specific servants I can fight. Those who like me are exceptions to rules…"

Kiritsugu sighed. "So then what's the game plan?"

Shirou grinned, confidence brimming. "Simple. Step one, find the masters."

Howdy howdy! So, here's my first time posting to FF. Don't usually post here, but given the SYOC nature of this story, It's looking like I'm going to have to.

So then, background information: This is following the UBW route, based more on the Ufotable adaptation than the visual novel. As stated in the story, Zelretch has overseen the purging and repair of the Greater Grail, and those working with him have seen to the creation of an inanimate Lesser Grail that will hold steady. This takes place approximately a decade after the fifth war, thanks to a helping of the second magic to charge it, and is hosted in Washington D.C., because I'm familiar with the layout of there best, and the added security of the city will add an extra challenge for the magi participating.

As you can see, Shirou has summoned Kiritsugu as Assassin. This is not Counter Guardian EMIYA (Assassin) from F/GO, but he is similar in statistics and skills, adjusted for his changed history. Why he can be summoned will be explored, I promise, but assume Zelretch for now.

Now here's the ground rules for this story:

-I'm looking for MASTERS ONLY. Six, specifically. I will not be accepting servant forms. That being said, there is an optional spot on the form for a preferred Servant Class.

-There are no age, gender, or nationality restrictions on any character.

-Please no Mary/Gary Sues. Nobody is perfect, and everyone falters at some point.

-The more detail you include, the more likely the character in story (if accepted) will be close to how they formed in your head.

-Please send this form through PM, with the subject "F/AS:A Master Form"

-The tentative deadline is going to be June 14th, 2019.

-The Form is on my profile!

Feel free to contact me with any questions. I honestly can't wait to show you what is in store~

Saber: *** | Master: _

Archer: *** | Master: _

Lancer: *** | Master: _

Rider: *** | Master: _

Berserker: *** | Master: _

Caster: *** | Master: _

Assassin: Kiritsugu Emiya | Master: Shirou Emiya (UBW)