Kariya Matō
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Kariya Matō is a character from the Japanese novel Fate/Zero, the prequel to Fate/stay night.
He is the Master of a Berserker class servant in the 4th Holy Grail War.
[edit] Character
Kariya Matō is the uncle of Shinji Matō, though he has actually severed ties with the Matō family for about ten years out of disgust. Disappointed with the lack of sorceric potential in Shinji and his father, Byakuya, Zōken blames Kariya for allowing the Matō's magical lineage decline since Kariya is the first in many generations to be naturally capable of sorcery.
While he loved his childhood friend Aoi Zenjō [1], he peacefully gives up trying to pursue her affections because she seemed to be happy accepting her engagement to Tokiomi Tōsaka. Aoi would later have two daughters, Rin and Sakura, who both came to like Kariya a great deal. [2]
However, because mages only traditionally raised one child as an heir since training a second child would introduce competition, Tokiomi agreed to allow his younger daughter to be adopted by Zōken Matō, who made the request considering the blood of the Matō had thinned and was no longer capable of producing heirs naturally capable of becoming mages.
Enraged that Tokiomi throw his daughter away to the Matō, Kariya makes a deal with Zōken: Kariya will win the Holy Grail in exchange for Sakura's freedom and to allow the girl to return to her family. Perhaps because she is the daughter of his childhood love, Kariya is the only member of the Matō who truly loves Sakura.
However, because Kariya has not had any formal training as a magus, despite the fact he likely has greater potential than Byakuya, Kariya must have Zōken's worms implanted into him in order to boost his magical circuits. Combined with his accelerated training, Kariya's own lifespan has significantly shortened and his body is constantly weakening as it is being eaten alive by the worms in his bloodstream. He seeks to defeat Tokiomi Tōsaka.
[edit] Servant
Kariya's servant is a Berserker-class servant whose identity is known simply as the Black Knight.
The black armoured knight appears to have a Noble Phantasm that allows him to use any weapon (even objects like telephone poles or the Noble Phantasms of other Epic Spirits) as his own Noble Phantasm, which gives him the power to defend himself against Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon and hold his own against Saber. However, this Noble Phantasm demands a higher level of mana from Kariya in order to materialize (several times higher than other Servants) and tends to be difficult to control because the Black Knight's presence is unstable as a result of Kariya's weakening body and the higher amount of mana required to materialize Berserker-class servants.
