Ayako Mitsuzuri

is a student at Homurahara Academy in Fate/stay night.
==Profile==
===Background===
Born into a well-respected family in the martial arts world, she is the older sister of Minori Mitsuzuri, a stellar athlete, and captain of the archery club that Taiga Fujimura advises. Ayako is a student of Class 2-A in Homurahara Academy. Ayako and Rin Tohsaka actively compete to see who will be the first to snag a boyfriend. Although she wants to find a boyfriend, it seems like she wants to stay single as long as possible.
Ayako forms a team with her classmates Kane Himuro and Ayaka Sajyou and competed in the Homurahara Academy's ball games tournaments in a match of . They faced Shirou Emiya and his classmates Issei Ryuudou (who managed to gets both teams disqualified) and Shinji Matou.
===Appearance===
She has a strong-looking appearance, but privately she is actually pretty feminine. This clashes with her image so she doesn't go around advertising it, but she doesn't really think it is a big deal herself.
Ayako studio deen character sheet.png|'s character sheet of Ayako in Fate/stay night.
Ayako Himuro no Tenchi 2.png|Ayako in Fate/school life
FGOCEAyako.png| in Fate/Grand Order, illustrated by Kinuta Kouji.
Ayako_Character_Sheet_Emiya-san.png|'s character sheet of Ayako in Today's Menu for Emiya Family, illustrated by Toko Uchimura.
===Personality===
Ayako is an honourable and manly sort, but not violent. She is a dreamer and has some pretty high standards when it comes to potential boyfriends. Most of the boys at her school like her well enough but view her as more of a big sister, and their exaggerated respect sometimes gets on her nerves.
She hides this side of herself in public in order to keep up appearances for her family, but she is a total gamer. Her family is quite strict about anything that is not related to martial arts, so Ayako is forced to play her video games secretly in her room. Ayako plays video games because she enjoys them, and practices martial arts out of a sense of duty. That is not to say she hates martial arts or anything, as she would not have become as skilled as she is if she didn't enjoy it on some level.
In Fate/school life, it is shown that she likes to play , reserving and lining up to buy a copy of "Distant Love Revolution: Hazakura Romantic ~My Excalibur~".
She is friends with both Shirou and Rin. While she treats Rin as her friend, she treats Shirou more like a rival. The three of them haven't noticed what a delicate relationship they have with each other. Her big-sisterly disposition exceeds even Rin's, and she is considered one of the top three students at Homurahara Academy to avoid picking a fight with. Even though her room at home looks more like it belongs to a little girl than a teenager, she has no qualms about inviting Rin over to hang out. After all, it is not that she has no interest in romance, it is just that she has a thing for older men. She holds the belief of a heroine that "Beauty must do martial arts".
The whole "strict family" thing may be something she has in common with Kaede Makidera, but compared to Ayako, Kaede is a total free spirit.
==Role==
===Fate/stay night===
In Fate/stay night, she is first seen in the prologue when Rin encounters her in the morning. She was practicing her archery for the first years.Fate/stay night Prologue - Day 1 Ayako often asks Shirou to come to the archery dojo and watch them practice. She informs Shirou about Shinji bullying the male first year students when he was in a foul mood due to Rin rejecting him.
She was seen arguing with Shinji Matou in the Archery Dojo before her disappearance. She was later found unconscious in an alleyway in Shinto. She was victimized by Rider when Rider chased her down into a back alley and sucked her blood on the spot, in order to extract Magical Energy. When Shirou asked if Shinji was involved, Shinji denies it.
After the Rin route, she is still alive and as energetic as ever.
In the prologue for the movie Fate/stay night - Heaven's Feel - I. Presage Flower, she is seen admiring Shirou's Archery skills and paying rapt attention.
In the Heaven's Feel route, Shirou and Saber decide to patrol the city around the time Rider is stalking Ayako, and stops the process midway. Shinji than reveals himself as a master and challenges Shirou to a fight, though Saber easily defeats Rider. Shinji begins to panic, which causes Zouken to show himself to interfere having watched the events transpire. He ridicules Shinji for failing so early and attempts to take Shinji and Rider away. Saber decides to allow this because she does not believe that Shirou is ready to fight Zouken as he is now. This is also the series of events that convince Zouken to enter the war himself thus kickstarting the Heaven's Feel route. Shirou, after picking up Ayako, takes her to be treated by Kirei Kotomine. After loosening Ayako's collar causing Shirou to blush and look away, he treats her to the best of his ability while also explaining what has happened to her.
At the end of the Heaven's Feel route, she is seen with her brother Minori enjoying the sakura blossoms with everyone else, being a bit jumpy around Rider.Fate/stay night - Heaven's Feel route - True End: Return to the spring
=== Manga ===
Ayako's role is the same, but there is a portion after the events where she runs into Shinji at the hospital after he lost to Shirou and Saber in their last fight. Shinji hints at being remorseful to Ayako, but she plays it off telling him that it would be okay, though she did not hear all the details.
===Fate/hollow ataraxia===
In Fate/hollow ataraxia, she first appears in the prologue telling a ghost story about Person A.Fate/hollow ataraxia - 10/11 - Temple - That night: ghost stories She is in her third year and has already retired from the captain position of the archery club. She is very uncomfortable around Rider, who shows a disconcerting attraction to her like an animal fond of its prey.
She later appears in several slice of life parts of Fate/hollow ataraxia. In one story, where the track team trio spy on Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka wondering why they fought and seeing several girls around Shirou and his house, they assume Ayako may have had a relationship with Shirou Emiya. They approach her to find out what happened; however, the notion of Ayako dating Shirou Emiya causes Minori to be quite displeased as he has a crush on Sakura asking her to not date him of all people. Ayako laughs telling them that if Shirou wanted to date her, he would have to try much harder and put in some effort. Ayako reveals that while Shirou and Rin fought, they made up the same day causing her and Kaede to go into an angry spiel about people who break up and get back together right away. The story ends with them chasing Kane, who was poking fun at her own romantic status.Fate/hollow ataraxia - Eclipse - Himuro The Love Detective
In another story, while Rin and Shirou are cleaning Rin's house so it can be ready for Issei and Ayako to come over, they end up trapped in Zelretch's Treasure Chest. They only escape because Ruby had taken over Rin's body and forced them out as Rin becoming Kaleido-Ruby though she pops out and comes to her senses right in front of Issei and Ayako who had let themselves in. The four just gawk at each other, with Issei and Ayako eventually deciding that Rin was preparing for some special event, and then the story ends with a mortified Rin.Fate/hollow ataraxia - 10/09 - Streets - Mimic Rin/Tohsaka Lvl 3
===Other appearances===
School ppl.png|Her appearance in Carnival Phantasm.
She makes a brief cameo appearance in Carnival Phantasm. She also appears in Episode 10 of Today's Menu for Emiya Family, apparently blushing when Lancer offers a flower he delivered for his job.Today's Menu for Emiya Family Anime Episode 10: "Fried Chicken: Yummy Even When It's Cold"
By the time she enters college, she is interested in Mikiya Kokutou but she was turned down by him.
Ayako was mentioned by other students in Fate/strange Fake while talking about the tale of Mr. A and Little Red Riding Hood.Fate/strange Fake Volume 2 - Interlude: "The Little Red Riding Hood of Semina Apartments"
She is a recurring character in Fate/school life.
==Abilities==
She is skilled in martial arts in general and is learned in most forms of it, but her forte is using the .
==Development==
===Creation and Conception===
Her character design is based on Rider's earlier concept. During the preliminary stages of development, the scenario director was obsessed with a movie called "Vi(…)ck", and kept on insisting that Rider should be more like a certain black-caped character. Ayako's design was an attempt to meet his demands that unfortunately ended up being rejected. Nasu says that it is forbidden to say she resembles Shiki Ryougi.
===Reception===
*In the first Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2004, Ayako was ranked 11th.
*In the second Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2006, Ayako was ranked 17th.
*In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Ayako was ranked 60th.
==References==
Category:Characters in Fate/hollow ataraxia
Category:Characters in Fate/stay night
Category:Normal humans
Category:Homurahara Academy students
Category:Introduced in 2004
Category:Residents of Fuyuki City