Kirei Kotomine

## The False Priest

"Love thyself. Love thy neighbour. Forgive sin, and accept punishment. All the nourishment a life needs. The things people of your ilk call 'happiness'... they never brought me any joy."

### Occupation

Overseer of the Fifth Holy Grail War, Priest

**Kirei Kotomine** is a major antagonist from **Fate/stay night**. He made his series debut in *It's So Wonderful*.

## Canon

Kirei Kotomine is, in a word, defective. He was born defective, and has lived out all of his life defective. Despite being raised a devout Catholic and being consistently exposed to the teachings of the Holy Church, Kirei Kotomine is, for lack of a better term, evil, although it is not by choice - Kirei’s emotions are inverted in a sense. What brings other people joy, causes Kirei to feel absolutely nothing. The despair of others is one of very few things Kirei is able to derive joy from, a fact that he has faced his entire life and despises in line with his teachings. For his entire life, despite his commendable accomplishments, Kirei has felt absolutely no joy from them, describing himself as a hollow human being.

However, Kirei still devotes himself fully to his teachings, going as far as to become a Priest of the Holy Church as well as an Executor, further bringing into the light many of his doubts; Kirei believes himself to be defective, and desperately desires an answer to his prayers, clarity to wash away the cloud that hangs over his emotions - over time, as he matured, he threw himself into all manner of pursuits in an attempt to “correct” his defect, none of which worked. He threw himself entirely into his work under his father, despite feeling absolutely no sense of purpose from it - he could consider no ideal noble, and was physically unable to believe in the inherent goodness of God, although he still believed in a supreme being, and prayed often that he would be given salvation by God. His inner conflict stems from this, in part; his true nature goes against what he has been taught all his life, and Kirei came to believe that the act of feeling joy in and of itself is a sin, branding himself monstrous and inhuman for deriving joy from others’ suffering and devoting himself instead to his correction, going as far as to start a family.

Kirei met his soon-to-be wife, Claudia Hortensia, as she was terminally ill, with only a few years left to live. He strove to overcome his evil nature through the mundane pleasure of starting a family, and while she eventually fell pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Kirei could still feel no joy, save for the joy of watching his wife suffer in pain due to the nature of her illness and the sorrow of inevitably leaving Kirei and her daughter behind. Claudia understood his nature and desired to save him from it, but even she could only amplify his desire to see her suffer. Eventually, Kirei planned to end his own life, feeling immense shame over starting a family “as an experiment”, visiting her in the hospital to say goodbye, stating that he could not love her no matter how hard he tried. Claudia denied the claim, stating that he did love her before taking her own life. As Kirei wept, Claudia declared it proof that he was capable of love as she died. In truth, Kirei only wept for one thing.

He had wanted to kill her himself. However, this grief was not born from being denied the pleasure - it was the climax of his own inner conflict, feeling such immense guilt that for the first time he was brought to tears as a result of his condition, knowing that even toward the woman he loved, he felt pleasure from nothing but her suffering. After this event, Kirei threw himself fully into the teachings of the Church, burying his inclinations deep and refusing to indulge himself, digging his heels in on the belief that the experience of joy was itself a sin for one such as himself.

That was, until the Fourth Grail War.

During the Fourth Grail War, Kirei was chosen as the Master of the Assassin-class Servant by the Holy Grail. He expressed genuine confusion at this choice, claiming that he had no wish, no ideal and no aspiration for the Holy Grail to grant, but agreed to serve as an agent for another combatant in the war, the master of Gilgamesh, Tokiomi Tohsaka. During the course of the war, Gilgamesh and Kirei became more and more well-acquainted, with Gilgamesh bemoaning Tokiomi’s cowardly and traditional nature to Kirei and encouraging him to explore what brought him joy, potentially in a manipulative manner to remove Tokiomi from the fray. No matter the cause, eventually, Gilgamesh encouraged Kirei to kill Tokiomi after the death of his Servant, Assassin, stabbing him in the back with a dagger gifted to Kirei by Tohsaka as a result of his training under the Tohsaka mage as an apprentice being completed. After this, Gilgamesh and Kirei forged their own pact, and Kirei eventually came to accept his own nature, deriving joy from the suffering of those such as Kariya Matou who had entered the war entirely for the sake of someone else and endured tremendous agony to save them.

Kirei then went on to become the overseer of the Fifth Holy Grail War, acting as both an ally and enemy to Shirou Emiya in the aftermath of Sakura Matou’s transformation, offering his assistance and recognising the threat that Sakura poses and demonstrating his sensibility and pragmatism. During this time, he spoke to Shirou of his father, Kiritsugu Emiya, who he had become obsessed with over the course of the Fourth Grail War due to their perceived similarities. Kirei spoke of his envy toward Kiritsugu - Kiritsugu and Kirei, to Kirei’s knowledge, were very similar in that they were both hollow people in search of higher meaning. Kirei envied Kiritsugu for throwing away his humanity for his ideals, while Kirei desired to do exactly the opposite deep down.

Over the course of the Fifth Grail War, Kirei’s goal changed - he desired, more than anything else, to bring forth the birth of Angra Mainyu via the Holy Grail, to answer the question he has desired to know all his life; whether it is possible for a being to be born evil. If Angra Mainyu did not feel regret for destroying humanity, then Kirei’s condition would have been justified, and his doubts finally removed. Through the answer to this question, Kirei would have finally attained his enlightenment - that is, if he lived to see it through.

## Pre-ArcRift

Kirei's final moments were spent fighting Shirou Emiya, in an effort to facilitate the birth of Angra Mainyu and dispel Kirei's doubts surrounding his nature - if Angra Mainyu did not regret destroying humanity, given that that was its purpose, then Kirei believed it could not be evil. Kirei lost the fight due to a difference in time, dying before he could kill Emiya, and declared him the victor of the Fifth Holy Grail War before dying.

## Plot Involvement

*This information will be elaborated upon within further progress of the Arc.*

## Character Relationships

*This information will be elaborated upon within further progress of the Arc.*

## Trivia

* Kirei's favourite food is spicy mapo tofu - he enjoys it because of its intense burn, finding that it is one of very few foods capable of stimulating him.
* https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/908192647997427732/937853799601688616/kireiketamine.mp4