Facing the affectionate address from his old friend, Kotomine Kirei didn't know what expression he should use to respond.
The Holy Grail War is a fratricide among magicians. One should not give any trust to the Masters who come with desires.
But the moment he saw Roland smiling and greeting him, the uneasiness in Kotomine Kirei's heart disappeared, as if this was not a battlefield, but the tree-lined path where the two of them had established their friendship.
"Assassin, stay where you are."
"Master!"
Faced with the situation where his Master had to go into danger alone, Assassin seemed very anxious, but in the end, he still loyally obeyed Kotomine Kirei's orders.
Kotomine Kirei stood beside Roland, one body length away from him, and said in his usual distressed voice, "From a decision-making perspective, Master's choice was not wrong. Since we didn't gain the upper hand against Lancer the first time, even if we released our ultimate Noble Phantasm, we wouldn't necessarily be able to reap the rewards. There are two Servants waiting nearby, so retreating is the rational choice."
"From the Master's perspective, perhaps that's the case."
Roland smiled helplessly: "After all, the Command Spells were originally created to restrain Servants. It is normal to use the Command Spells from your own perspective, just like the roles of a chess player and a chess piece."
"But unfortunately, the Holy Grail War is not a game of chess. In this game, compatibility is more important than data on paper. This Hero King is a person who cannot be controlled. Using Command Seals to force him will only backfire. Instead of doing this, it is better to offer the Command Seals as pure magic power and sincerely serve as a vassal. Even if the Holy Grail cannot be obtained, the reward the Tōsaka family will receive will probably be enough to benefit them endlessly."
Kotomine Kirei fell into a long silence. After a long while, he spoke seriously: "Perhaps it is indeed possible to do so, but Master is a very proud magus and cannot have a sincere attitude towards the existence of a Servant."
If one wants to fulfill his wish, this may be the best option, but to reach the root, all seven servants must die. Under this premise, from the very beginning, Tohsaka Tokiomi planned to use Archer and then kill him.
To Tohsaka Tokiomi, his Servants are merely tools that are indispensable for reaching the source and that he has to deal with personally in the end. Rather than wasting precious Command Seals to let the other party play with them at will, it is naturally more in line with the magician's thinking to prioritize the safety of the tools.
"Yes, this combination is fundamentally terrible," Roland said calmly, "Forget it, let's not talk about this. Since we last met, Kirei, have you found the answer?"
"I..."
Faced with such a simple question, Kotomine Kirei muttered to himself as if he was struggling with shame.
Ever since Roland reminded him, Kotomine Kirei quickly found a way to please himself.
In fact, he had realized long ago that Kotomine Kirei was a person who could only draw happiness from the pain and misfortune of others.
In other words, was he born as a miserable person without value and who did not understand happiness? Being so twisted, could he only repeat this process over and over again, just like sucking in filthy dregs, in order to keep the pleasure going until the day when his sins were judged?
After a long while, Kotomine Kirei finally smiled at himself.
"I've found the answer, but I still can't understand it."
The process of searching for answers actually killed Kotomine Kirei's last bit of hope. At a very young age, he realized that he was different from ordinary people, but he still worked hard.
Fall in love with someone, accept God's teachings, and be a good priest.
This ascetic life lasted for more than thirty years.
But the irony is that after Kotomine Kirei himself accepted the fact that he could not be happy, he suddenly discovered that it was his own nature that could alleviate the emptiness in his heart.
He is an evil person by nature. In order to prove that he can be happy like ordinary people, he fought against himself for so long, but in the end he got such an ending.
This taciturn man showed his true emotions for the first time in front of the only friend he could trust. A fiery fire ignited in his pupils and surging emotions rose in his chest.
"Why are there happy and unhappy people in this world? And what is the true happiness of those unhappy people? When I was confused about my own nature, I devoutly sought answers from the Lord countless times, but in the end I still got nothing…"
"Why did fate allow someone like me to be born? What is the meaning of my existence till today?!"
At this point, some fanatical emotions flickered in Kotomine Kirei's empty pupils.
He was not as open-minded as Roland, who recognized his own nature early on and was able to live freely the way he wanted. What he longed for was true happiness.
The current Kotomine Kirei is bound by the pain and persistence of the past and is teetering on the brink of collapse. For this reason, he is willing to make demands at all costs like a drowning man, just to grab that life-saving straw.
But in the face of Kotomine Kirei's somewhat anxious questioning, Roland did not answer, but only made an invitation in a gentle voice.
"Kirei, do you believe in Gravity?"
"Do you think our meeting that day was meaningful? I think encounter itself is a kind of attraction. You who lack answers and I who have nothing, this kind of meeting is a coincidence, right?
"If that is also the choice of fate, then our encounter today may be the meaning of your survival until today."
As if he had been forgiven, Kotomine Kirei stared at Roland's sincere smile.
"So, does true happiness really exist?"
"Of course it exists. It is a unique realm called Heaven. Once we reach that place, even if the world does not allow us to be happy, we can create a world where we can be happy."
Roland smiled, his mouth corners raised, his pupils were bright red like blood, and the dark red color flowed like the magma of hell, making people feel burning and fearful.
Then, he extended his hand toward Kotomine Kirei.
"So, my friend, even if you have to entrust your life to me, even if the suffering on this road is even worse than your previous empty life, even if you have to betray everyone around you, will you choose to come to me?"
"Then, there is only one answer," Kotomine Kirei bowed his head respectfully, his eyes full of pale fanaticism. He half-knelt down and kissed the hand that Roland extended.
"I will be loyal to you until the world falls apart and the paradise of true happiness finally comes."
"In that case, Kirei, enjoy yourself."
The most critical condition has been half achieved. Fuyuki City is really interesting.
Looking down upon everything that Kotomine Kirei did, Roland said calmly, "Go and release yourself to your heart's content. By then, maybe there will be a way to go to Heaven."
______________________________
[Fate" is a recurring theme in JOJO. Fate draws a person to their destiny, it "pulls" them to their destiny if you will. Gravity and Fate operate at a level that only God has authority over. Pucci calls "Fate" "Gravity" because he believes it is the natural pull of the universe that draws one person to another. He famously implies that it is "Gravity" that caused Pucci to meet DIO.
There is also the personal state of heaven, through enlightenment you obtain power over fate ie, power over reality. Through the same process DIO would get this power and obtain god-level reality overwriting as seen in the game Eyes Of Heaven.
DIO does to some extent want everyone to come to terms with fate, however he himself never came to terms with the acts of fate in his own life, and would want to get personal heaven to overpower fate itself, so, Eyes Of Heaven.]