ACCOUNTABILITY.

[blackmass]

[The sound of footsteps is slow, but deliberate and without hesitation. And as they echo through the room he walks into view lacking fear, lacking hesitance, lacking...much of anything at all.]

[He's tall--perhaps taller than his profile had implied--wide-shouldered and built like an unbreakable fortress wall, wearing the solid black of a priest; the light catches a gold cross around his neck to confirm the fact. And as he steps forward, his long coat (the deep purple of poisons and nightshade itself) trails behind him before coming to a stop as he does.]

[A smile cut across his gaunt and pale face, but it was far from a pleasant one. It was the enigmatic smile of someone witnessing a joke only they found humorous, and yet it did not reach the dark and emotionless eyes that scanned the room briefly as though the priest was carefully calculating what course of action to take.]

At last we meet face to face, my Apprentices.

[The voice that leaves him is recognizable as the same one that was heard only moments before, but clearer in person. Now it seems to ring like the largest, deepest bells of Notre Dame itself, no louder than an ordinary speaking tone--the result sounds more like distant thunder heralding an oncoming hurricane.]

[The real difference lies not in how he speaks, but what he says. The short, impersonal sentences of the weeks prior are at last discarded, and the man before them speaks as a true preacher--a true wordsmith--would address his congregation.]

Rejoice and be proud of your accomplishments. Each and every last one of your number, dead or alive, has truly exceeded all expectations I had for this group. And now you have clawed and scratched your way here, on the backs of your fallen friends' struggles and failures. You have proven that their own accomplishments would not be in vain simply by standing here before me--I do not doubt that your success is the wish most of them held in their hearts, at the very end of their lives.

[He places a hand over his own heart, taking on a tone that nearly sounds genuinely proud...until a patronizing current begins to run through each syllable like a deadly undertow.]

Do you perhaps feel satisfied? You would be right to, for making it so far. Your sorrow, desperation, joy, determination...all of it has been a magnificent thing to behold as you fought to reach this point in time. Each second of it has served its purpose, and served it very well. I am one who believes such struggling and effort deserves to be rewarded, and so this alongside my own endless gratitude is what I will grant you in return for all that you have done for me.

My name is Kirei Kotomine.

[He holds his arms out slightly to his sides, a gesture that would almost seem welcoming if 'Kageshirou' did not react and coil--completely harmlessly--around his arms like a black serpent. The smile he wore turned to a razor-edged smirk, the challenge set before the remaining Apprentices clear even without his next words:]

And now that we have properly met, tell me: shall we continue our discussion?

Comments

[oyashiromama]

But... But Angra Mainyu is the one who controls their fate...is that so? If they are inside it.

[blackmass]

And it is as I said. We are one and the same.

[oyashiromama]

...I'm not sure...that's entirely so. When I offered a hand...the shadows seemed to react independent of you.

Angra Mainyu, can you hear me?

[blackmass]

[The shadows around Kirei moved at that, still more flickering from the priest itself yet again.]

In a literal sense, perhaps not. But if anyone can stop their souls from being erased, then I am the only one with that ability.

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . No, that's not true, is it?

If it's not literal- ]

No.... No, actually. We could bypass you and appeal to it directly.

[blackmass]

...You have got to be joking right now.

You can not all be this stupid.

[matchbreaker]

Why not? You're our "enemy."

That thing might be "pure evil," but it's at best your "cohort" - and a childish, unborn one at that.

[ She smirks. Yes, yes, this sounds like a viable means to pursue. ]

[blackmass]

Elda Marker.

You are appealing to the concept of 'evil' given tangible form. If I can be said to have no humanity to appeal to, Avenger has even less.

I took you for someone smarter than this.

[matchbreaker]

But that "evil" hasn't been my enemy before now! Oh, sure, I brought a means to hurt it [ She pats her bag, which ha cyro-bombs in it ] but if I can believe in appealing to it, then that's all the better, right?

So go on, Kagehirou! Whatever you want to be called! Hear out Hanyuu!

[elepe]

...I do wonder...

Sportacus, [She'll turn to the man to address him.] you still have those fruits, do you not?

[sportadork]

[nods] A whole bag of them. I thought they might help!

[oyashiromama]

Angra Mainyu has that ability too...wouldn't you say? [She takes a deep breath, and continues to address the shadows.] I was not lying before. I will reach out a hand to you...and help you discover the world. I- I know, from your creation...this is all you've known, but that doesn't make it impossible... You can find something else. Please...just let them go. Don't doom them.

Avenger. Kageshirou. Angra Mainyu.

[blackmass]

[he genuinely can not believe this is happening.]

[Avenger, however, does nothing in response.]

[oyashiromama]

[...She keeps going.]

He said you lack my will, but I...I don't believe that. I believe you can develop on your own...outside of what humanity created you for, and imbued you with. I... I was thought to be an evil, vengeful god once. For centuries, for such a long time...and I almost believed it. To be stuck in that place, it's horrible.

I- I know what it's like to think...that's all you're able to do. That there's a role for you. But there's not! Look at Jasper, who before this by her own admission didn't know who she was. You don't have to be what they created you for! I- I will... I will open my heart to you, I already have. Not just...because you control the fate of those we care about, but- but because every creature deserves a chance!

[blackmass]

That's enough.

[Kirei snapped that much at the entire room, voice like a crack of thunder overhead. The shadows around Kirei's arms stilled, but the ones coming from himself were near-frantic.]

All of you are...just like her. You see what you choose to, rather than accept Avenger for what it is. You expect it to be something other than it was made to be, something against its very nature, and you dare to act as though you care for it at the same time?! What you care for is a fantasy. Your idealized version of Avenger that can connect with others and...coexist, instead of destroy.

[His hands gripped the lectern tightly, putting cracks in the material as his voice increased in frustration.]

You don't even care that you can not even manage the basest form of respect for it by acknowledging what it is!

You're exactly like Claudia and you may as well die as blissfully ignorant as she did!

[firstaid]

So you're asking that we accept you and Avenger as you are without asking you both to change...

[There's a 'but' hanging there, however, she remains silent since this is rocky territory.]

[blackmass]

I don't care if you accept us or not.

Do not ask us to be anything other than we are.

[matchbreaker]

[ Honestly, she winced a little at Kirei's outburst.

... She was enjoying Hanyuu's line of reasoning there, but- ]

....Claudia was "Gretchen."

[ Let's knock that out, a bit hesitantly, first ]

[blackmass]

...You are correct, Elda Marker.

Claudia Ortensia.

[sportadork]

[... man it's probably quiet enough to hear a pin drop in here--]

Your Gretchen. Claudia. [pause] It is a very pretty name.

[blackmass]

...

She was a good woman. As pious and well-intentioned as Gretchen herself.

[oyashiromama]

[if only she had the ability to stop time here so she could catch a breath and think]

These words...have they been- have they been said to you, in the past?

[blackmass]

...She knew what I was. What I still am even now. And despite all of it, that woman was a saint who loved me unconditionally.

[His voice was even now, back to the calm and quiet tolling like funeral bells.]

She was wrong. She saw what wasn't there. What was never there from the start.

[elepe]

[...oh.

Well, that was...certainly interesting, but also very...weird. She doesn't like this feeling. She didn't want to feel this weird, almost pitying feeling--]

What...happened to her?

[blackmass]

She's dead. She died what must be over a decade ago.