Claudia Hortensia

is the deceased wife of Kirei Kotomine and mother of Caren Hortensia.
==Profile==
===Background===
Claudia was a terminally ill woman with only a few years left to live. Kirei Kotomine met her while trying to overcome his innate evil nature, believing that being with a woman would be his last attempt to find normalcy. He wished for the ordinary happiness of love and a family despite having no interest in it, ultimately picking a woman with no future. She came to love him, eventually bearing a child, Caren Hortensia. Kirei tried to love her, but felt happiness at her and Caren's suffering and despair. Claudia, knowing of his mentality, tried to save him, but that only made him want to see her grieve all the more. He understood that she truly meant to save him, and despaired that not even she could fill the void within him.
Their relationship lasted two years, Claudia ending up as a disheveled mess of skin and bones in the hospital. Kirei, having given up hope, planned to end his life after saying goodbye to her. He felt it was his duty as the one who "made her his wife as an experiment." He bluntly told her, "I could not love you", to which she responded, "No, you love me" with a smile while taking her own life. As she died, she looked up at him, smiling while saying that Kirei crying was proof of his love. Despite hoping to use her death to prove that he was capable of love and that he deserved to live, he was not actually crying. He only felt sad at the idea that he was not able to kill her himself. He silently left the room after her death, breaking away from the teachings of God.
===Appearance===
Claudia was an albino and immune deficient, making it so that she could die from even a tiny wound. Her body always appeared tattered as a result. Caren inherited the aspect of "prone to be plagued by illnesses."
===Personality===
Kirei thinks of Claudia as a saint, understanding his anger and remaining faithful in trying to save him. He believes nobody will ever understand him to such a degree as her.
==Role==
===Fate/stay night===
Claudia is mentioned in the Heaven's Feel route in Kirei's flashback. He recalls their brief time together, thinking that he cannot even remember her face or voice. He occasionally reminisces that "I wanted to kill her", but he cannot tell if it is pleasure or the grief of having wanted to kill her. He tries not to thinking about it, concluding that her death was meaningless but not wanting it to have been worthless.Fate/stay night - Heaven's Feel route - Day 15: limited. - Interlude 15-4: Death of a saint
===Fate/hollow ataraxia===
She's mentioned in Caren's flashbacks about her childhood. With Claudia dead and Kirei gone, Caren was adopted by a devout priest. The priest looked down on Claudia for comitting suicide and assuming she married out of wedlock, due to Kirei abandoning Caren.Fate/hollow ataraxia - 10/08 - Streets - Caren II
==References==
Category:Characters in Fate/stay night
Category:Humans
Category:Introduced in 2004
Category:Voice - Ai Kayano