Chapter 20 - Consultation
Despite his extensive experience with the Church, Risei had never met a murderer.
Okay, that wasn't
strictly true. In his line of work, there were monsters wherever you went, and death was something you… didn't get used to, but something you accepted as part of the job. Certainly there was no end of fanatics or heretics who'd gotten hold of some religious artefact and used it for the worst of ends. And, of course, there was always the Third War.
Risei was also pretty sure that Kirei had killed, as part of his duty as an Executor. He'd never brought it up, but it was just one of many reasons he found to be worried about his son. Kirei was such a good-natured boy, and it couldn't have been easy for him, but Risei had decided to let him process it at his own pace. When he wanted to talk about it, his father would be there.
But Risei had never deliberately gone to have a chat with someone he knew to be a murderer. This wouldn't end in an arrest, this wouldn't end in a fight; this was Risei, simply talking to someone who had killed people.
He opened the door, and stepped into the tiny kitchen at the temple.
"Yo," said the killer, sitting at the table, raising a hand in greeting.
Given Caster's apparent flair for deception and illusion, Risei had suspected she might have been pulling a multi-layered con, by giving her golem back in the church an entirely different appearance to the real Master of Berserker. But no – the man in front of him was a perfect double, from the red hair to the purple jacket down to the tips of his… leopard print shoes? Risei couldn't understand the fashions of the young these days.
Of course, if he was going to far as to suspect Caster, he had no way of knowing if the man in front of him was real and not just another illusion. He sighed, and pushed away the thought. That way lay madness.
"Good afternoon," he said, taking the chair opposite. "Uryuu Ryuunosuke, I take it?"
"That's me," said Uryuu with a grin. "And you're the Moderator, I hear." His eyes dropped a fraction, to peer at Risei's collar. "Oh, man. You're not here to 'save' me, are you? Because I've heard the good news, and it wasn't very convincing, gotta say. I'd have started off with 'Forgive me Father, for I have sinned', but honestly? I'm not after forgiveness, least of all from God."
Well. That was a lot to unpack. It wasn't the first, second or thousandth time Risei had dealt with angry atheists picking a fight, though, so he simply leaned back in his chair and smiled.
"You can relax… my son." He caught Uryuu's grin, amused despite himself. Good. "I'm here as the Moderator of the Holy Grail War, not as a priest. Though, in a way, perhaps you could consider this an attempt at saving you."
"Yeah? Hey, I'm all ears, old man. You might not have noticed, but I'm in a pretty shitty situation here." He leaned in and lowered his voice. "Caster makes absolutely dogshit tea."
Risei chuckled. Despite knowing the man in front of him was a murderer, there was something charming about Uryuu. "Dire straits indeed. Whether or not this conversation ends up being good for you or not is up in the air, however. The sad truth is that not everyone can be saved in this life, and whether or not you can be depends on you. As it is, you're heading down a road there's no coming back from. If there's even a possibility of changing that, you're going to have to be the one to change. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I get it. Going on the way I have been lands me captured and with a priest telling me I'm not long for this world. That's, uh, pretty clear. If you've got a way I can maybe make it through this in one piece, well…" Uryuu spread his hands. "What do you need, chief?"
"If you wouldn't mind my asking – just how did you end up in this position?" Risei asked. "As the Moderator, my job is to keep tabs on the state of the War, but I know almost nothing about your movements. Berserker did mention some of your exploits at the church, but I was… understandably distracted at the time. I'd like to hear it from you."
Uryuu put his hands behind his head and let out a long, deep breath. "Whoo boy. That's a long story, you know?"
"Neither of us is going anywhere."
"Ain't that the truth." Uryuu drummed his fingers on the table, his eyes on the ceiling. "OK. Sure. I'll tell you how I got here, but gramps, two things. First, you gotta let me tell this thing my own way, because if you break my flow we're gonna be here all day."
"Not a problem," Risei said.
"Cool. And, also… look, I'm not stupid, and I know a lot of this is gonna rub you the wrong way. Just… save the outrage for the end, alright? Again, we don't have time for you to freak out over every little thing."
Just ignore those awkward little mass murders, huh? Well, Risei had expected attempts at self-justification when he requested this conversation. "Well, you said it wasn't a confession, but I'm not in the habit of interrupting those, regardless. If you've got things to get off your chest, I'm here to listen, not to judge."
"Right… I guess I'll find out how far that goes soon enough, huh? Okay. So, for me, all this started when I found a book on demon summoning at my folks' place in town…"
Risei listened with a growing fascination and horror as Uryuu talked. How he'd figured out the Servant summoning ritual by bloody trial and error. How he and Berserker had destroyed the temple, then set out to prey on the townspeople. Their attack on the Copenhagen. Their fight against Saber, just last night, interrupted by Archer, and how they learned there was a bounty on their heads. How, upon learning they were marked for death, they threw caution to the winds and gathered as much power as they could. And, finally, how Uryuu had received panicked instructions from Berserker to pull her out of a losing fight with Caster, only for her to immediately attack him and knock him out when his back was turned.
It was just as Risei had feared. He'd set the bounty, at Tokiomi's request, and set off the day's chain of events. Berserker and her Master had been dangerous and heedless of civilian casualties before – but he'd given them the reason they needed to disregard the rules of the War entirely.
Berserker had said as much, in the church. Risei had been holding out hope it was just another ploy by Caster to sow doubt, but here it was, straight from the Master. He couldn't keep on denying it.
Fuyuki had been brought to its knees in a single day, and it was his fault.
"I see," he said heavily, when Uryuu had finished. "Thank you for telling me, Mr, Uryuu. You've certainly given me a lot to think about." He looked at the floor, but all he saw was the burning city, and the ash cloud covering the sky. His fault. He blinked, and pushed the image away. He would pray for forgiveness later. Now, he had a job to do. He looked back at Uryuu.
"I said I wouldn't judge, and I won't," he said. "So please take this in the best way when I ask: how could you do this? What possible reason is there for countenancing the death of hundreds?"
To his surprise, Uryuu laughed. "Well… I'unno. It just seemed like a good idea at the time."
"It… just seemed like a good idea?"
"Yeah! You know, Berserker needed the magical energy, we needed to sow chaos and keep everyone guessing, we didn't have anything to lose… I mean, I thought we pulled it off quite well. It was, you know, go big or go home, right?"
Risei studied Uryuu, his face still as stone. "Ordering the deaths of hundreds didn't bother you? Morally speaking?"
"No." Uryuu replied immediately. He'd seemed almost whimsical before, but not now. "Not one bit. Old man, I think we're coming at this from two very different places."
"I believe you're right, young man."
"You're getting all caught up in 'how could I do this' and 'don't I get that it's wrong' and all that. But, see, I just don't think that way."
It clicked, finally. Risei kicked himself for not understanding before. "You're a psychopath," he said. "A literal psychopath. You don't –
can't – care about anyone but yourself." Risei sighed. "This makes things a lot more complicated."
"Really? I think I'm pretty simple." Uryuu chuckled. "Oh, man, don't take that the wrong way. I don't mean I'm
stupid, I mean… look. I see something I want. I go for it. I see something I like to do, I do it. My levers are not all that complicated. If you want me to do or not do something, well… just make it worth my while, know what I mean? Hell, I'm cheap to feed. Money, sure, I can use that. Not getting jailed or dead is a big motivator.
"In the end, all I want is to be able to live my life how I choose. That's not so crazy." Uryuu lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "And, come on, I'm like ninety percent certain that's how most people live their lives anyway."
"Oh? What do you mean by that?"
"What do I mean?" Uryuu spread his arms. "I mean, look around you, gramps! Look at this world! Everyone's out for their own little slice of the pie, and they don't care who they have to trample on to get it. Everyone does what they want, and anything else is just," he waved his hands, "window dressing. The politicians are all corrupt, and everything they do only ends up getting them more power. They want it, they get it. The businessmen don't care who has to suffer so they can improve their bottom line. They want it, they get it. And that's
before I even start getting into the organised crime side of things. The Yakuza in this town are freakin' insane, let me tell you. Well, I guess a priest wouldn't know anything about the Yaks…"
"As it happens," Risei said, trying not to smile, "I have always found Fujimura Raiga to be a man of character with his a very strict sense of honour. But, please continue. As a sheltered priest I, of course, know nothing about the world, and I'm finding your take on it fascinating."
"You know the Tiger? Well, shit…" Uryuu whistled and raised an eyebrow.
"All old people know each other, didn't you know that? But never mind me. Don't stop now, young man," Risei said. This was an old argument, and Risei never got tired of young people who thought they had it all figured out. "As such an experienced cynic, why isn't everyone screwing everyone over all the time? I could point to countless times where people have done me a good turn – and, be honest, you can too."
"Well, sure," Uryuu, said, nodding vigorously. "Maybe people treat
you with respect, cause you've got something they want, or because they want to show how goody-goody they are to the world. Making nice with a priest gets you big points because that's what you're
supposed to do, but no-one actually believes in God, right?"
Risei quirked an eyebrow. "I feel I am professionally obliged to disagree… but please, carry on."
Uryuu did. "So, as a priest, maybe you only ever saw that side of people, which is why you're such an optimist, I guess. There's all kind of reasons people might
act nice. But take it from someone who's been knee-deep in shit his whole life, most people are just going to do whatever they want and fuck whoever else."
"Interesting." Risei nodded, as if considering Uryuu's words. "So, why isn't everyone a murderer? Why doesn't everyone do what you do?"
Uryuu rubbed the back of his head. "Well… for me, it's because I just find death fascinating. It's not a sex thing," he added quickly. "Just in case you were wondering. I've just always been interested by death, and what people go through when their last moments arrive. I mean, you have to have done some last rites in your time, right?"
"More than I care to remember," said Risei.
"Right! So you get it. There's something special in the act of dying, something that makes it significant. It's the last thing we do, of course it's worth commemorating. You choose to make it a religious thing, and sure, I dig that. As my way of showing appreciation, I just choose to make it happen more often."
Risei raised one shaggy eyebrow. "You don't kill for the enjoyment or satisfaction of it? You don't have some secret grievance with the world? You just… like death?"
"You got it. Always have. It's not about the victim, just so long as they start out breathing and stop halfway through the process." Uryuu sniggered. "But, having said that, I'm not exactly Mr Atlas here, and having a fight tends to cause a scene and attract cops, so it tends to be women and children I kill. But, again, it's not a sex thing."
"Alright."
"It's important you understand that."
"I understand."
"Right." Uryuu leaned back, apparently satisfied.
For his part, Risei had a lot to chew on. He'd requested this conversation in order to get the measure of the Master of Berserker, but what he'd found wasn't what he'd expected. A power-hungry magus, throwing people's lives away for a wish, he could understand. A grim nihilist, secure in his belief that life was so much chaff on the wind, sure. Even a bloodthirsty monster, killing for the sake of it just to revel in the carnage, Risei got.
But Uryuu Ryuunosuke wasn't any of these. He just liked to see things die, same as another man might like to see sunrises or ocean views. Bad luck for the world that such a man had been born unable to empathise with others. Worse luck that such a man had been chosen by the Grail.
In that sense, it wasn't even Uryuu's fault. He wouldn't,
couldn't, ever understand that what he and Berserker had done was wrong, so there was no point in castigating him. Put like that, it was a miracle that Berserker had been as restrained as she had been. Risei rubbed his burned cheek absently.
"You're taking this pretty well, old man," Uryuu said suddenly. "To be honest, when I heard the Moderator was coming, I thought you'd bust your way in here and put the fear of God into me before demanding I repent."
"Fire and brimstone was never my style," Risei said, shrugging. "I prefer to come to an understanding with my flock – to inspire others to follow the path of the Saviour, instead of punishing humans when they inevitably stray from the Divine ideal. Or, if you prefer, put it like this: everyone's got issues, and nobody's perfect." He smiled.
Uryuu leaned forward. "Wow, you… you really aren't angry, huh? I thought you'd have to at least act like you were. I guess you don't have to keep up appearances with me, though, so hey, that's cool."
"Oh, I'm furious," Risei said, still smiling. "There's a part of me that'd like nothing better than to beat your murdering punk ass senseless."
Uryuu scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"You don't think I could? I'm an old man, and I don't have the time or energy to boast, so believe me when I say I'd eat you for breakfast, kid. In the long list of shit I've seen, you don't even rate, believe me." Risei sighed. "But, that's hardly the Christian thing to do, and I'm supposed to set an example. This leaves the problem of what to do with you…"
Risei hummed in thought.
"Mr. Uryuu, are you aware of the Moderator's role in the Holy Grail War?"
Uryuu looked blank. "Well, you… sort out the bounties and stuff? Yeah, no, I have no idea."
"I'm not surprised. If Berserker had not told you, there would be no real way for you to know. It is no accident that I am a priest as well as the Moderator. When the First Holy Grail War was in the planning process, almost two hundred years ago, the Church came to know about it. Don't ask me how," he added, holding up a hand. "I don't know, and our internal histories don't record it. Obviously, we – that is, the Church – were very interested in the prospect of the Holy Grail manifesting itself."
"Oh, right," Uryuu slapped a fist into his palm. "The whole 'blood of Christ' thing, yeah? Like in that movie."
Risei smiled. "Like in that movie, yes. Although that story is apocryphal, in the literal sense that it doesn't appear in the Bible. The Holy Grail is from Celtic myth originally, where it appears first as a cauldron in Irish and Welsh legends, before becoming a chalice somewhere along the line as it migrated to the Arthurian canon."
He paused, aware that he'd been rambling, but to his surprise Uryuu seemed rapt with attention. Risei went on.
"I don't know where the wish-granting aspect of it came in, but Arthur and his knights' quest for it gave the Holy Grail the secondary meaning of 'a highly sought-after object'. It certainly is that, no matter the truth as to its origins, and the artificial Grail created by the Einzberns is no different. The Church could not simply stand by and let a divine relic appear at the behest of a group of godless magi, so we stepped in and offered our aid."
"Huh," said Uryuu. "So, first, I just realised that King Arthur and his knights were probably actually real, and that's like the coolest thing in the world to me." He grinned at Risei, but only briefly. "I am listening, I promise. What aid did the Church give? Cause it seems a pretty wizard-led enterprise so far. Like, they… or we, I guess… provide the Servants, provide the magic, provide the Grail, everything. What does the Church actually bring to the party?"
Risei chuckled. "In all honesty, very little. In reality, as you said, the Grail is not ours to give away, and the fact we pretend it is is perhaps simply arrogance on our part. However, we do provide a neutral party, and the possibility of settling disputes without normal magus power dynamics coming into play. Admittedly, within a Holy Grail War, power dynamics largely consist of 'people with Servants' and 'people without', and the Church is contractually on the latter side of that scale."
"Yeah, that seems like a flaw to me," Uryuu said, nodding. "Like, how do you even enforce what you say?"
"That, young man, is the problem every Moderator has had to face," Risei admitted. "Fortunately for me, my job is made much easier when the sanctioned party insists on making enemies." He finished with a hard stare at Uryuu.
The killer raised his hands in mock surrender. "My bad. In fairness, weren't you conspiring against me? Berserker did mention she thought that was what was going on."
"Believe me, I have paid the price for that." Risei rubbed his cheek again. "In any case, acting as a neutral party is one of the most important tasks of the Moderator, but not the only one. We hold additional Command Spells, to use as rewards to incentivise certain tasks – for example, the bounty we placed on Berserker. In the early stages of the War, we keep track of which of the participants has summoned their Servant and formally entered – and, should any inexperienced Master need an explanation of the rules, we perform that task also. In fact, your failure to do so was a major factor in why you in particular were selected as our scapegoat."
Uryuu didn't look thrilled. "Aw, man, so I could have gotten in your good books early on by just showing up and letting you know I was here? Yeesh. How was I supposed to know that?"
"Your Servant could have told you. I understand it is part of the information package they receive from the Grail in order to function in the modern world. However, the decision not to do so is understandable from a tactical point of view, I suppose."
Risei hesitated.
He could leave it here. Break off his conversation with Uryuu Ryuunosuke, call for Caster, and have him put back into his magical sleep. He didn't
have to tell the man what he'd planned on telling him ever since he'd started talking. In fact, it was a downright terrible idea.
But if he did that, he may as well beat Uryuu to death with his bare hands right now and save everyone the time and trouble, because to withhold this information was a death sentence for him. And Risei just couldn't bring himself to do that.
Uryuu was a killer, unrepentant and gleeful. It was very unlikely he'd be able to change. But he'd been open and honest, and while hardly self-aware had shown at least a modicum of good sense. There was a spark of genuine curiosity about the world and its miracles, just a hint of a man who could care about something other than death. A man who could, just possibly, make something of himself, given a second chance and a lot of careful supervision.
And in the end… it wasn't Risei's place to decide when it was or wasn't someone's time. No man knew the day or the hour, and all that.
He made the call.
"In any case, the Moderator – which is to say, the Church – also fulfils one more important task." Risei looked straight at Uryuu, because this was important.
"What's that?"
"If a defeated Master – that is, one whose Servant has been destroyed – seeks sanctuary at the Church, it is the Moderator's duty to grant it. Until the end of the War, they will be under the personal protection of the Moderator." Risei smiled. "For whatever that is worth, of course. As you point out, the Moderator has very little actual power. However, you might expect that anyone breaking the rules to kill you would be treated just as harshly as you yourself were. More so, in fact."
Uryuu had gone very still. "You're saying… I could live through this after all?"
"That is what I am saying." Risei inclined his head. "If you should happen to outlive Berserker, and you manage to request sanctuary, I will guarantee your safety up until the end of the War. If you show me that you can be more than a blight on God's creation, if you give me something,
anything to work with… you may well survive a deal longer than that. You said you wanted to make it through the War in one piece?
"Rejoice, Uryuu Ryuunosuke. Your wish will be granted."
