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MMMS 16
🕑 Added 2025-04-05 23:23:02 +0000 UTC"I ask... are you the Master who summoned me?"
When that clear voice echoed through the cathedral, Kirei Kotomine felt his heart skip a beat.
This couldn't be happening.
Why would he summon something like this?
Kirei stared with a grave expression, his heart pounding in his chest.
What stood before him was definitely not a hero.
In the middle of the church, under the colorful and sacred stained glass windows, stood a monster.
Its massive body towered over two meters tall, with a face resembling some kind of magical beast, complete with long twisted horns and sharp fangs.
Its skin was a striking blue-purple color, like a bizarre mix of blueberries and venomous insects.
At the ends of its unnaturally long arms were razor-sharp claws.
Enormous, frightening wings extended from its back, and a tail covered in spikes dragged along the floor.
"You're... a demon?" Kirei asked.
While he kept his eyes fixed on the Servant he had just summoned, Kirei instinctively reached for the Black Keys he kept hidden against his chest—weapons meant for exorcism.
…
Kirei Kotomine was a priest who worked for the Holy Church. He joined their most violent division, becoming an "Executor" when he was still just a teenager.
Executors were basically extremists whose job was to hunt down and kill heretics.
Getting the title of "Executor" meant Kirei was a top-tier killer who had survived the brutal training program designed to turn people into living weapons.
Since then, Kirei had naturally eliminated countless non-human monsters during his career. And now, standing on the summoning circle was clearly the form of a demon.
In the Type-Moon world, demons belonged to a category called Phantasmal Species, specifically in the lowest classification known as "Magical Beasts." But their ranking didn't reflect how dangerous they were in combat. A demon's power far exceeded that of regular phantasmal beasts, which was why demon hunting typically wasn't assigned to "Executors" like Kirei. These dangerous creatures were usually handled by the Church's elite special forces—the "Burial Agency."
"Oh, I'm sorry. If I scared you, I should apologize, Master."
The demon scratched his bluish-purple head with an awkward smile.
Though he seemed to be trying to look apologetic, anyone would see it as the terrifying grin of a monster about to eat its prey.
"This is just one of my abilities. I can change how I look whenever I want. Before you summoned me, I had this quick idea to make myself look like whatever my Master would prefer, but... looks like I got it wrong. Hmm, that's weird—why would I turn into a demon? This should be..."
"Stop." Kirei's voice was shaking. "That doesn't matter... just tell me who you really are."
What kind of creature was this?
The young priest felt deeply disturbed inside: what sort of "thing" was this monster that was supposedly compatible with him?
Kirei had spent years dealing with all kinds of unholy creatures, but he knew in his heart that the Heroic Spirit he had summoned was "something" even more terrible than any demon.
"Well, let me introduce myself properly. My true name is—"
Kirei swallowed hard, anxiously waiting for the creature's answer, but—
"To be honest, I don't know my true name either."
"What… did you say?"
"Like I said, I don't know who I am. But even though I can't tell you my real name, newspapers once printed what they believe I called myself."
The demon addressed the young priest who had summoned him.
He isn't "Hundred Faces," and not a nameless assassin, but the most infamous murderer in human history.
This Heroic Spirit left behind no name, yet there's definite proof he existed in this world.
His title is familiar to everyone, but no one knows what he truly looked like.
His appearance, gender, real name—none of it is known.
In fact, no one even knows if he was human at all.
As a symbol of terror that made the world tremble, even his gender remained a mystery. "He" was quickly imagined in countless different forms through various interpretations, continuously described in endless stories and newspaper articles.
Perhaps a doctor. Perhaps a nobleman. Perhaps a prostitute. Perhaps a butcher. Perhaps a demon. Perhaps a monster. Perhaps a conspiracy. Perhaps just madness itself.
When you think about it, no one even knows if "he" was just one person. Even while terrified, people freely speculated about his identity until he evolved into legend.
But he wasn't simply a legend or myth—he truly existed.
Only the evidence of his existence is widely known.
The undeniable proof left behind in London's Whitechapel district: the mutilated bodies of five prostitutes.
"People call me Jack the Ripper."
…
Since having a demon standing at the church altar wasn't very practical, Jack the Ripper first changed into a gray mist, then completely disappeared from view.
"So you're not in the Assassin class?" Kirei asked, sitting on a bench and staring at the large cross on the wall.
According to what his teacher Tokiomi Tohsaka had told him, the Assassin in the Fuyuki Holy Grail War could only ever be Hassan.
"No, not at all. I'm in the Berserker class. Since I became a legend that represents madness itself, the Berserker class is the only one that really fits my nature."
"Berserker? Really?"
Tokiomi had explained that Berserkers traded their sanity for increased fighting power.
Yet this "thing" he had summoned seemed completely rational by all appearances.
Everything that had happened tonight kept shocking Kirei, making him question everything his master had taught him.
As a legend from modern times whose actions couldn't possibly be considered heroic, Jack the Ripper should have been quite weak as a Servant.
Yet the demon form he showed earlier seemed powerful enough to hold his own even against Servants from the Saber class.
Jack the Ripper observed his now composed Master and remarked with surprise, "You're taking this rather well, Master."
Most people would be horrified to discover they summoned a notorious murderer based on personal compatibility, but Kirei seemed to accept it without much trouble.
"A former man of the cloth summoning Jack the Ripper—this isn't exactly a joke I can laugh off. To be honest, I don't understand why I summoned you either. Maybe it has something to do with summoning you in a church?"
After all, when people think of the mysterious Jack the Ripper, the only definite associations are prostitutes, thick fog, and churches.
"Who knows."
Kirei changed the subject. "Berserker, what is your wish?"
"Well... I should probably tell my Master, but please don't laugh."
After hesitating a moment at the priest's question, he finally answered:
"I want to know who actually killed those five prostitutes in Whitechapel. In other words... I want to find out who I really am."
Kirei looked away from the cross. "You're troubled about your true identity?"
"Exactly! Wow, this really does feel like confessing to a priest in church." The invisible murderer spoke with unexpected sincerity.
"The version of me you see now is just a legend, not the real thing. Not knowing who I am, constantly changing my appearance based on stories people made up and theories they came up with—it's really, really terrifying. Though I guess someone like you, who has a body, a name, and a past, probably can't understand that."
In response to Jack the Ripper's somewhat melancholy sigh, the gloomy young priest shot back: "That's ridiculous. What's the point of knowing your true self?"
Hearing this, Berserker responded with irritation. "Are you seriously a priest's son? Aren't you supposed to be comforting me right now?"
"Hmm, I may find your wish a bit childish, but I'm still grateful to you. Berserker, you might actually be the perfect Servant for me."
"Why's that?"
The corner of Kirei's typically expressionless face turned up slightly. "Because thanks to you, I've started to understand myself a little better."
