Risei had never been an Executor. Not that he had anything against the order – there were those in the Church that disdained what they thought of as heretics and fanatics, but Risei had seen that they had their place, and the day his boy Kirei had decided to join them had been one of the proudest of his life. Being an Executor was a fine thing, but Risei knew it wasn't for him.
That said, in this strange and hostile world of mages and monsters, the life of a priest wasn't always a simple one, and Risei had seen some shit. Demons, dark spirits, things he couldn't even put a name to. He'd muddled through somehow, with help from Kirei or Tokiomi, and considered himself a little hardened to danger.
He'd started his career in the dark side of the Church by moderating the Third Holy Grail War, after all. The horrors he'd witnessed there would stick with him until he died. Nothing could top it.
But, this day of devastation…
Alone in prayer in his church, he'd heard cruel laughter from behind and turned around to find the Devil in a yellow kimono.
Small, hardly even coming up to his chest, and appearing in the guise of a beautiful woman, but Risei knew the Devil when he saw it. He didn't need the wicked horns or the grasping, black-nailed claws to let him know, either – one look in the yellow, hate-filled eyes was enough.
Even the red claw closed around his neck, he couldn't stop himself from focusing on the sharp, sharp tusks gleaming in the candlelight. What would happen to his immortal soul if it were mutilated and devoured by those tusks before it reached its eternal rest?
For the first time in a very, very long time, Risei feared death.
If he made it through this, the Fourth War would take a comfortable second billing in his nightmares.
But it seemed Berserker did not wish him dead just yet. Instead, she had marched him to the bell tower and forced him to summon a conclave of Masters once more. When he'd dared to ask why, she had only said, "Justice," and tightened her grip on his neck. The feral gleam in her eyes dissuaded him from asking more.
And now, here they all were, Masters and Servants both. A sorry congregation, each so suspicious of the other. Into a place of community and togetherness, war had come. Into a house of God, the profane and the heretical held sway. How could he be surprised that a demon now stood ready to conduct her own sermon?
Risei did not recognise the young redheaded man who introduced himself as Berserker's Master, but he spoke like a local. How had he failed to notice such a tortured soul in his own city? If he had only reached out sooner…
But the time for kicking himself was past. His life was literally in Berserker's hands – all that was left was to see what she wanted.
At the head of the church, there was a raised dais around the altar. It added ceremony to what would otherwise be a man standing in a room and talking. It was a little crass to refer to it as stagecraft, but that was what it was. The speaker was elevated above the congregation, separated even by something so little as a foot of height. Now Berserker held the room, and it served the same effect.
"Well met, heroes," she was saying. "Now. While I've got the Moderator's ear, let's talk about how unfairly this War has been proceeding, shall we?"
"Unfairly?" spat Rider, incredulously. "You're a monster! Look at what you have done, just today! How many lie dead, because of you? How many lives ruined, homes destroyed, supports ripped away, because of you? How can you possibly claim yourself to be unfairly persecuted?"
Berserker growled, and Risei felt the tension in his neck rise ever so slightly. "If I am a monster, it is because you – all of you – have made me one. I say again, I have been persecuted, hunted down for actions that would earn anyone else a slap on the wrist at the very worst. Unfairly forced into combat so, small wonder that I resort to desperate measures to acquire the power I need to defend myself."
"If you have not the power to acquit yourself in battle, the correct response is to make up the difference with guile," said Archer, her face hard as stone. "If you have not the guile to overcome the difference in strength, the correct response is to seek allies to aid you. If you have neither strength nor guile nor allies, you are unfit to obtain the Grail. Fail and fall to those who do."
Berserker sneered. "The law of the jungle, is it? Then why object to my preying on the weaklings who make up the citizens of this measly city? If anyone, I thought you would understand, Atalante of the Argonauts. I am an oni of Mt. Ooe, and I take what I want – and what I wanted was power. That you responded with outrage for my having the temerity to try and stay alive shows only your hypocrisy and insecurity. But this is not the injustice I speak of."
"Well, do tell, dear," said Caster. "We're all just dying to hear whatever nonsense you've got to say." She brushed her hair over one shoulder with a nonchalant shrug. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can squash you, after all."
The other Servants nodded. Risei breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Berserker held the floor, she wasn't liable to crush his neck like a rice cracker. His eyes darted to meet Caster's, and she shot him a little wink.
"You are the worst of all, Caster," said Berserker. "Shall I tell everyone what you tried to do to me? How you tried to manipulate me for your own ends?" Caster's relaxed smile slid off her face. "Oh, yes. If it is monsters you are after, Rider, look no further than the Servant of the Spell."
Rider did not look at Caster. "Your attempts at deflection will get you nowhere. Speak swiftly. What do you want?"
Berserker smiled sweetly. "What do I want? Why, what I want is acknowledgement. I am not the only one with a crime to confess. In this place, in this company, there is much that needs to be said, and to be heard. But since you ask – I will begin at the beginning.
"I found myself summoned to this time weak – weaker than I have ever been. My Master, pathetic fool that he is, could never supply me with the prana I needed to fight. And yet, did I not have a wish I would stake everything to obtain? I ask you, Servants of the Fourth Holy Grail War – who among you would have denied the wish the Grail chose you for, in the very instant of your summoning, just because the power to grasp it was not handed you on a silver platter? Well, heroes?"
Risei looked out among the Servants. None spoke. For a moment his eyes lingered on Rider's… before she looked down.
Berserker smiled, and swiped her hand to the side. "Never! You would not give up so easily, and neither did I. All the strength I needed was mine for the taking, in the city so ripe for plunder. And so, I devoured the people of Fuyuki, yes. As I had, at need, in life, so was my need now. Moderator, I bid you speak – was my action against the rule of the Grail War?"
The iron grip on Risei's neck eased, just enough. The awful pressure in his head ceased, and he coughed, and spoke. "What you did was never something intended by the Founders – only a necessary consequence of a Servant's spiritual form-"
Berserker shook Risei like a dog with a toy, and his words choked off. "I did not ask the opinion of fools long dead, who sought to bind the monsters of old to their will! You are the Moderator. You are the sole arbiter of what is and is not legal. You are the one man who dares to tell those beyond humanity what they may or may not do. Rejoice, take pride – and answer me. I asked you once, and ask you once more – was my action against the rule of the Grail War?"
Speaking the words was hard, and not just because this time Berserker had not loosened her hold on his throat. "…no."
"Very good," Berserker smiled, and released Risei. Several of the Servants stirred, but Risei made no move to escape. How could he? No matter where he went, his sin would follow. He had always thought of the Moderator's role as being the one to curb the worst excesses of magi. How naïve. The rules he enforced were laid down by none other than those magi – how could they be anything but monstrous?
Risei could have made to step down from the raised dais and escape. Instead, he remained where he was, on the same level as the oni Berserker.
"And here is where the injustice of those who hold themselves to be heroes rears its head," Berserker said. "Indeed, I preyed on those within the town – as is my right as a Servant, my right as the strong," she nodded at Archer. "None could object. And yet you did."
"My Master and I seem to have been left out of the loop a little, wouldn't you say, Moderator? Tell me – tell the room, in fact – just what was the discussion that led to your declaring me anathema, and placing a bounty of a Command Spell on my head?"
"Who says we did?" said Tokiomi, leaning back in his pew. "The fact that you can think of no reason for anyone to want you gone other than for compensation… well, it seems you are projecting a little. Can it really be so hard to imagine that all these," he waved a hand to indicate the gathered Servants and Masters, "simply objected enough to your actions, legal or not, to wish to destroy you first? I know Rider was outraged at your depredations – as all decent folk would be, I'm sure. There is no need to invent a conspiracy where none exists."
Berserker laughed, a high, mocking laugh without an ounce of mirth in it. "Well said, Master of Rider. Indeed, what self-respecting hero would suffer an oni to live? I may well have just thought that all these paragons of humanity simply wanted me gone, were it not for the fact that Saber let slip the existence of the reward."
All eyes turned to the Knight of White Lilies. "Ehehe… oops?" they said, with a sheepish smile. El-Melloi put a hand to his head.
"What I do not know is why," said Berserker. "You surely did not believe I was a threat to the secrecy of the War, not with Archer throwing her Noble Phantasm around as though it were seeds on a field – and besides," she smiled. "I made very sure to remove all witnesses. Speak, priest! Why come after me?"
"You were a danger," began Risei. "You had no intention of participating in the War-"
"Lies!" In a flash, Berserker seized Risei's hair and twisted. Risei sank to his knees, bellowing in pain.
"I have heard enough excuses, priest," Berserker snarled. "The truth, now – or shall I pull your head from your shoulders and shake it to see what secrets are inside?" Her claws tightened on Risei's scalp, hair coming out at the roots.
"You will do no such thing," hissed Rider, rising to her feet. "You are mad, not stupid. Kill Father Kotomine, and I promise you will suffer retribution the next instant. Father, do not speak. You have no reason to do anything this creature says."
Berserker growled, and for a moment Risei wondered if Rider had doomed him. Then with a thrust, she released him, and Risei was left on his knees, not daring to move. His eyes met Kirei's, and the burning shame ate at him. For the boy to see his father like this, a plaything to a demon… Kirei looked stoic, but Risei could tell it was bothering him.
"I suppose we are at something of an impasse," said Berserker, stepping back and raising her hands placatingly. "Then, how about this? I will spin a tale, and the Moderator will say yea or nay. Before that, though…"
Risei felt claws between his shoulder blades, and was roughly pushed down to a prostrate position. Berserker sat down on his back, and Risei held still, face reddening at the indignity.
"Let me tell you exactly what I've been up to."
Serenity crouched in the rafters of the church, listening to Berserker make her demands. Ever since the oni had appeared, she had been ready to strike.
But not to strike Berserker. That was too risky.
Serenity wasn't worried about accidentally hitting the Moderator – she could shave the wings off a fly in mid-flight, so accurate was she with her thrown daggers. Instead, the risk was that Berserker would not immediately die from something as simple as a poisoned knife. Even in the second she took to die, she could very easily rip the Moderator to shreds. Or, worse, let loose a last-ditch burst of fire.
While Kiritsugu was nearby, Serenity would not take the risk.
Instead, she was shadowing the redheaded man who had called himself Uryuu Ryuunosuke. Killing a Servant's Master would choke off their supply of prana. Berserker might well have enough left to not immediately disappear, and even to destroy the Moderator on the way out, but she would cause no more damage than that.
Uryuu Ryuunosuke seemed to have no idea of the danger he was in, leaning against the double doors into the church with a wide grin on his face. Foolish of him to appear before the assembled might of the War, if he truly was Berserker's Master – uncharacteristically so. Berserker had, so far, been playing the war very cannily indeed. Even while throwing caution to the winds and creating chaos, she had done so tactically. In the end, she had eluded both Serenity and Saber, moving too quickly to track.
There was every chance this was a simple dupe, a stalking horse meant to attract attention while Berserker and her true Master maintained the advantage of surprise. If so, killing him would not slay Berserker, and would not solve the standoff in the church.
Not worth revealing herself, then.
Nevertheless, Serenity positioned herself to strike. At the command from her Master, this Uryuu Ryuunosuke would die, Master of Berserker or not. In the meantime, Serenity held herself ready – and listened to what Berserker had to say.
"I can only think of one incident that would have provided the reason – the excuse, rather – for why I was singled out for the righteous punishment of the august heroes. A couple of nights ago, yes. Unsatisfied with my progress with piecemeal prey, I decided to seek better hunting grounds." Berserker looked down, pensive. "I suppose you, Rider, will call it my monstrous nature driving me to greater evil, but the truth is I simply wished to secure myself. You claimed I did not intend to participate in the War? How wrong you were. I was trying to drag myself to the starting line, as quickly as possible…"
Berserker blinked, and straightened, her face hard once more. "My Master made himself useful for once, and selected the perfect target. Some tavern somewhere, I do not recall the name. I feasted – not unkindly, though I doubt you will care – and when I was done I burned the place to the ground. Thus did I remove all witnesses and conceal the secret of magic in a single stroke. None should have been aware of my actions that night.
"And yet, when I ventured forth I was beset by both Saber and Archer, and I was informed that there was a bounty on my head. Long have I thought on how my actions became known, and I can only think of one option. I was observed."
Ah. Serenity could see where this was going. The messages Berserker had left at her crime scenes over the course of the day…
Master… she started. We may be about to be put in a difficult position.
Agreed, came Kiritsugu's response immediately. Berserker has outmanoeuvred us splendidly. …I never thought I'd be saying that, he added wryly.
"Yes," Berserker said with a nasty smile. "I was quite sure that no human could have escaped the trap my Master and I set – which leaves six obvious culprits. Now, if a Servant watched what I did and still did not see fit to intervene, that is hardly my fault, or so I reasoned. All it shows is what I have suspected all along – that heroes are more interested in persecuting the oni when it suits them, and not at all in protecting the people they profess to serve. However…" She trailed off and scanned the room, her eyes landing on Saber, Archer and Rider.
"I was wrong. I now believe that some heroes, at least, would have stepped in to confront me – out of hatred for the oni or a self-righteous belief in absolute justice, if nothing else. So now I ask myself…" Berserker's eyes flashed.
"Which Servant is the best suited for spying on the deeds of others? Which Servant may well be too weak to face me in open battle? Which Servant would think it a grand scheme, a perfect murder, if they instead tattled to the Moderator and got others to do their dirty work? To be sure, the lion's share of the blame lies with the Moderator, who had his own reasons to agree – but the one who gave him the excuse, who provided the pretext for all these fine heroes to pick on the oni… yes, you have indeed earned my hatred as well."
In a flash of fire, Berserker was on her feet, bone sword in hand, and she pointed that great twisted blade down the length of the Church. Servants stood ready to defend their Masters in the next instant, but Berserker wasn't looking at any of them.
"Assassin!" she roared. "I accuse you of conspiring to manipulate the War against me with the Moderator! Come, deny it, and face me, or else hide and prove yourself a coward and weakling!"
