Mash Kyrielight (Mashu Kirieraito), is a Shielder-class Servant contracted with Ritsuka Fujimaru in Fate/Grand Order.
Personality:
Mash is a mysterious, kind-hearted girl. She refers to Ritsuka Fujimaru as her senior (senpai) even before Ritsuka becomes her Master, feeling that something about them is especially easy to relate to. However, that smile belies a deep sorrow and resolve that has accepted her fate as a person with a set life-span since day one. As she has spent nearly all of her life in an isolation chamber within Chaldea, she is somewhat naïve and lacking in worldly experience. Despite this, she knows about a wide variety of subjects due to her education via Sheba, and she is especially knowledgeable about historical figures. Mash was initially designed to have no personality whatsoever in order to facilitate the Demi-Servant creation process, but Roman encouraged her to begin expressing her own opinions, allowing her to begin forming a sense of self.
Mash often fears that her Demi-Servant state makes her inferior to true Servants, and until she learned how to use her Noble Phantasm she thought herself to be all but useless to Ritsuka. Even before her Demi-Servant abilities manifested, she was devoted to the cause of Chaldea and sought to assist it however she can; when she is unable to participate in battle, she keeps a close eye on Ritsuka as a navigator. She does her best to hide her fear when in battle, and prioritizes keeping Ritsuka safe above all else. It has been hinted that she has romantic feelings for Ritsuka as she is often seen blushing when compared to a couple or getting jealous whenever their interactions with other female Servants get intimate or they show affection for Ritsuka (like the few times Ritsuka got kissed or were on a fake date). Even Habetrot, both the Lostbelt version and the summoned version, can see how stong their feelings for each other are and consider Ritsuka the bride's prince making it her goal to help and support them. However, Mash's naivety means that she does not yet realize what those feelings are.
Background:
A Demi-Servant human fused with the Heroic Spirit Galahad. She herself initially does not know the identity of the Servant fused with her. In the year 2000, Mash was created from artificial fertilization and genetic editing. She is actually a Designer Baby, a magus genetically engineered under the orders of Chaldea's late director, Marisbury Animusphere, to be a prime vessel for a Heroic Spirit's soul. The project aimed to control the powers of Heroic Spirits by binding them to a compatible mortal vessel in order to produce Demi-Servants.
In 2010, when Mash was aged 10, Chaldea performed their second Heroic Spirit summoning. While the project succeeded in summoning and binding a spirit to Mash, the spirit failed to awaken. Galahad decried Chaldea's brutal experiments, briefly taking over Mash's body in an attempt to escape, but when Mash began to resist his control he stopped. Galahad realized that she would die if he left her. He remained in her body so she could survive, but refused to awaken. Although Mash could not manifest her powers as a Demi-Servant Marisbury assigned her to Team A, with the goal of using Galahad's shield - which was formed from the Round Table - to act as a "place where heroes gather" that could be used to summon more Servants. She would accompany Team A into the field so they could use her as a catalyst for Servant summoning. Galahad would not form a Demi-Servant contract with her until the events at Singularity F, and even then he immediately vanished without revealing his True Name to Mash after bestowing his abilities to her.
After the research team deemed the project a failure, Mash was left to Chaldea's care. However, due to being a genetically engineered organism not dissimilar to a Homunculus, her life-span was set since her conception. She was given eighteen years to live and while she was aware of this fact, she kept it a secret between herself and Dr. Romani, her physician. By the start of the story, Mash has already lived sixteen years of her life giving her a mere two years left, at best.
During this time Beryl Gut one of the members of Team A show up one day, and started to torture her by breaking her fingers. The incident causes Romani to kick Beryl out in anger, and Mash to develop a strong dislike of him.
At the same time, another member of Team A Ophelia Phamrsolone tried to be friends with her, but Mash didn't notice due to Ophelia's meekness. During a conversation with Scandinavia Peperoncino who is also a member of Team A, he noticed her broken fingers. And quickly deduce that Beryl was behind it.
