Shirley

Shirley was born as a native of Alimango Island, growing up in an extremely poor educational environment that did not even allow for her to attend elementary school. She relied on the teachings of Father Simon, the local priest, to learn reading and writing, but that was enough to stimulate her ample intellectual curiosity. She was able to obtain a Master's Degree through correspondence courses by the age of thirteen, causing Norikata Emiya to take an interest in her as an assistant when he arrived with his son, Kiritsugu Emiya. She became put in charge of handling the Emiya household's miscellaneous daily tasks like cleaning and shopping, picking up traces of magecraft due to Norikata not bothering to hide his true nature from her. Two years older than Kiritsugu, she became close friends with him. Still close with Father Simon, he often lectured her that working in their household would cause her to be "ensnared by the devil", giving her a silver knife and telling her it is a useful talisman with which she should never part. Shirley possesses an extremely inquisitive mind, causing even the normally reclusive Norikata who normally strictly obeys the practice of keeping magecraft secret to trust in a complete stranger to a large degree. She displays a cheerful temperament, gentle attitude, and virtue. In finding Kiritsugu's name to be too complicated to pronounce on a regular basis, she nicknames him "Kerry." Due to that he constantly helps her with shopping and other errands on a daily basis, the villagers see him as her younger brother, much to his disappointment with his budding feelings of love for her. Feeling close like family, she views them as her own father and younger brother. She greatly admires Norikata, although she understands that he is not a normal person and the reasons for the villagers' guarded nature towards him and his reclusive ways. She believes that he has come to the island simply for the sake of being away from the city for his research, amazed by his knowledge and discoveries that she feels could change the world if even one of them were released. Knowing that they still need to remain secret, she is hopeful that they'll be able to be put to use. Kiritsugu notices that she becomes much more mature and sensible for her age when speaking of his father.