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Kuzuki is the Master of Caster, but he is not a magus nor does he have Magic Circuits or Command Spells. He only acts as her anchor to the world, while she must subside off of the magical energy taken from the leylines and the town in order to upkeep her existence. His sperm was still capable of stabilizing her enough to establish their contract after she was brought within Ryuudou Temple’s Barrier.[3][4] Due to his martial prowess and Caster's reinforcement, he is a rare Master capable of only fighting opponents directly rather than acting from a support role.[5]

PhysiqueEdit
Kuzuki is a master martial artist whose strength is above that of regular humans, able to deliver blows to a man's temple with enough force to crush their skull.[6][7][8] In his pursuit of mastering his martial art in his daily training, he has come upon the ideal form of breathing and walking techniques for a human that not even the talented Saber could attain through training. While not in the realm of those who naturally possess the ability to replicate potent thaumaturgy, his training has "affected him in the perfect way", bringing about a natural and controlled way of breathing and steps that produce no wasted movement. Saber admires and praises him as the greatest she has seen in that one respect.[9]

Despite his strength, he, as a regular human, cannot fight Servants on his own, showing an inability do more than slightly budge the head of one with a strike.[8] Caster uses Reinforcement magecraft to strengthen his fists and body to ten times that of a normal human, making him even more fearsome when combined with his already superhuman base strength. Even with that, he is still a human at his core, so fighting and overwhelming a Servant barehanded is an unthinkable feat that even leaves all those around him, even including Caster, in pause.[5][7][10] His fists become "iron clubs" to crush opponents and physically strike Servants.[5][6] He is able to physically repel threats on the same level as Assassin, so he is referred to as a "front-line Saber-class defender" who can help support Caster even against a threat like Berserker.[11] The strengthening requires Caster's upkeep, so his strength immediately drops upon her death.

His fists are strengthened to the point where they can be called steel. He is able to destroy Rin's head with a single blow, removing everything above her neck, and he is able to create a hole through Shirou's chest with a single strike. He can shatter Shirou's wooden sword, reinforced to where its can be considered a metal rod, with his fist. He can strike and deflect Shirou's projected Noble Phantasms, and attack with enough force to damage Shirou's arms just from defending against his attacks. While his fists do not have enough strength to destroy a Noble Phantasm, he is able to destroy Shirou's imperfect replications with pure force. He can catch a full powered slash from Invisible Air between his elbow and knee without suffering any damage, and he can strike Saber's armor directly with no effect to his hands.

While enhanced by Caster, he is still only a human with no magic resistance, so a magus able to attack from a distance is more of a threat to him than a Servant. He fights on the front line while Caster is to support him and deal with enemy projectile attacks.[5] Caster must protect him from effects such as the drain from Blood Fort Andromeda and the effects of her own magecraft while in her temple.[7][12] Despite the weakness, he displays quick judgement in being able to easily close the distance to Rin before she can even realize it, strike the center of her body to render her unable to breath or use magecraft, and then decapitate her in an instant.[13] Against Caster in a serious fight, it would be a "conditional battle" where the winner is decided by whoever gets the first strike, Kuzuki with a quick, unseen strike or Caster with her overwhelming magecraft.[14]

AssassinationEdit
Kuzuki was tempered by his origination to become a "lethal weapon", acting as a "tool" for their usage and trained in his one primary "function", murder, until they needed to utilize him. Normally kept from regular human knowledge due to it being excess "extra functions", it was necessary to allow him to become a "pseudo-human" to fulfill his primary "function." Those handling him felt that such common knowledge would make him inconsistent, acting as dead weight to slow down his primary function of finding the target without being detected, killing the victim before they are even aware of it, and then killing himself. He is able to use a social position as a teacher granted by the organization to blend in with the area, and even after leaving his duties, finds himself able to master the basic knowledge and skills to keep up with the job without difficulty.[3]

He is extremely unassuming in his daily life, appearing to be completely ordinary at first sight. The insightful Saber notices him to be "no ordinary man" at first glance, but cannot help feel "the more I look at him the more ordinary he feels" as she confidently declares that Kuzuki is not a Master. She only notices that his breathing is too natural and too controlled for a regular person. This trait is not enough to make her suspect anything "special" about him other than praising him for the extraordinary ability. She ranks him as physically being on par with Shirou, and not knowing of his fighting style, feels that he would do as well in battle as any regular human.[9]

He uses his normal appearance to gain an advantage over opponents who underestimate him, quickly moving to strike to kill the opponent before he is even noticed.[14][15] When ready to fight, he does not radiate any enmity or bloodlust, and simply enters his battle posture while giving off a clear murderous intent that hides his scariness. He is called more like an assassin than Assassin due to this. Kuzuki is able to surprise Caster by appearing before her without making the sound of footsteps or showing any sense of his presence. He is the only one to notice Shirou observing them at the church, and as he does not have any emotion towards enemies, he is able to quickly attack without hesitation. He is unable to notice Archer before he kills Caster because he cannot detect magical energy.

SnakeEdit
Snakestrikes
Various curving strikes.
Snake
Kuzuki's striking the back of Saber's head.
Kuzuki uses a fighting style called Snake (蛇, ?) that was the basis for his means of assassination, keeping him without a weapon so as to allow him an easier chance at getting close to his target. He is an extremely fast learner, having mastered the art years before he was set to fulfill his "function", all while still keeping up his daily routine to perfect it over twenty years. Despite such aptitude, he was not taught any new techniques due to only being "created" to be a "snake tool."[3] It is a fighting style that aims at vital weak points like the forehead, throat, heart and spine, each strike launched with extreme precision and quick speed to the point where he can deliver three fatal strikes in a single breath. He has a policy of always attempting to deliver deathblows to the opponent, so those like Shades that can move even without heed of things like destroyed heads or spines require him to change his tactics to disabling their limbs.[6]

The crux of the fighting style is to keep his arms flexible like whips while quickly moving at unexpected right angles in order to keep it from having a concrete shape. He keeps his arms and stance steady like a rock while waiting to strike, and he is able quickly close in without revealing any hints as to how he advanced. His arms quickly extend, and his forearms move even more quickly from that point to strike with his "mountain-like fingers." The strikes come from the outside to the inside, the swinging arms changing direction using the elbow as the fulcrum to strike from impossible directions. He can easily strike the back of the head from a very close distance completely unbeknownst to the target. Even if that strike is seen through, he can easily alter the circular orbit of the path into a straight line directed from above to smash down on their head. He can quickly reach through an opponent's guard to strike them with the "serpent's fangs", and then use the "body of the snake", an elbow, to deal an additional blow.

Each is accurately aimed at the target's vital points and weak spots, and under Caster's reinforcement, they can damage Saber bluntly through her armor to directly target the core of her body. They are heavy and rapid in their intensity, rendering them almost invisible to an unexpecting fighter, but they are not an instant kill to someone like Saber. They are dull and sharp, and contain a poison that will lead to death, allowing him to go for the kill if the opponent even drops their guard for a second. Dodging the attacks does little, as his fists are "live snakes" capable of changing path to come back to the target. Saber is damaged badly because she has the reflexes to dodge the strikes, thus she got repeatedly "bitten", differing from Shirou who cannot see the fists and does not posses the reflexes to dodge them. He can only desperately parry and receive glazing blows. Kuzuki can also use the style in defense, making him able to react to a perfect surprise attack, in charging speed, footwork, timing, and the attack itself, from Saber and catch an invisible sword horizontally slashing at him with only his elbow and knee. While techniques to stop an enemy's blade with bare hands are practiced by experts in the present, the idea of a human doing such to a Servant is unbelievable to Saber.

KuzukiSaber
Kuzuki lifting Saber.
All of the strikes up until that point are performed with only his left hand, as he does not use his right hand until the final strike. Unlike previous attacks that follow an arcing line, he executes the attack as a point and thrusts his fist like a lance directly at his target. Using precise accuracy, the attack can pierce through a throat, break bones, and smash a head to pieces. The attack managed to slay Rider, ripping her neck apart in one blow as if someone used a jack to rip off the meat and bone by crushing it, and it is capable of destroying Shirou's Kanshou and Bakuya guarding his chest and still blow him five meters away into a wall from the impact. Even if the strike is dodged, he can instead dig his fingers into the target's neck, as they can easily forget that a hand is originally something used to grab rather than punch. He can lift Saber with just his hand from this position and throw her at a speed of two hundred kilometers per hour due to his enhanced strength, knocking her out of the fight for a time after she collides into a wall. He mentions that he underestimated her, and that should have applied one more attack afterward.

He is able to accurately adapt his attacks in order to defeat opponents. He focuses his attacks on Saber's body and arms due to her protective armor, all while waiting to launch a fatal strike at the head. He does not attempt to follow her while she retreats, but instead uses various blows to keep her from escaping his range to keep his advantage over the reach of her sword in close quarters. The blows are not too heavy even though she cannot avoid them, but the pain from each blow numbs her mind. She becomes unable to counterattack from the heavy rain of attacks, and even her Instinct eventually fails her during the final moments of the battle. Kuzuki recognizes that Shirou relies on his Noble Phantasm to defend, so he makes it his goal to destroy the Projections in order to land a fatal blow.

The main idea of the style is to confuse the opponent and slay them before they can understand the mechanics of it, and it is further backed by his normal appearance that does not give away the idea of him being a trained killer. As an assassination technique only meant to be used once before the assassin kills themselves, it is something that must be fatal on the first strike. While the blows are strong, they are too odd and easily seen through if the opponent is not confused, showing the difference between a "technique" that is trained to an art and an "action" that is trained to the utmost limits. Catching Saber's blade and striking her in the back of the head unsettles her greatly due to her belief that he is just a normal human and her inability to understand the nature of such techniques. Due to experiencing the strange attacks for the first time, she is not able to understand the fighting style with her eyes, leading to her taking most of the attacks, and must rely on her honed Instinct simply to avoid the decisive blows.

While easier to comprehend on subsequent battles, it is still strong enough of a style that Shirou is barely able to hold him off for a minute at most even with Noble Phantasms and Archer's fighting style on his third battle with Kuzuki, as he cannot even begin to comprehend how to fight against the style. It would not work on Saber twice, so he retreats from her with haste once she is ready to fight again. While Shirou could never cope with it no matter how many strikes her receives, Saber is already used to them after their one exchange. Rin believes Archer would have no trouble with him due to having knowledge of it. Servants are more emphasized by their talent than their hand-to-hand prowess, so Bazett Fraga McRemitz, an expert at hand-to-hand combat thought of and developed by human beings, may be able to adapt to the style more quickly. He would likely win their first fight, very easily if Bazett underestimates him for a normal person, but she would be able to completely win against him in a second engagement. Out of himself, Bazett, and Kirei Kotomine, he would win as long as it is limited to one fight and he starts with a surprise attack.[15][16]

Even with repeated sparring matches against the skilled judo practitioner Reikan Ryuudou while Reikan goes all out against him, Kuzuki, who holds back on connecting with his strikes, can easily defeat him without being hit a single time. Otoko Hotaruzuka is amazed that someone Reikan cannot even hit exists, while Reikan comments that he needs another decade of training before he is worthy of being Kuzuki's opponent. Kuzuki comments that they are overstating his ability because he is only a "master of one art" and that if they were fighting with judo holds being accepted that Reikan would likely defeat him without issue

in was born capable of manipulating all five great Elements, an extremely rare trait for a magi. Her potential is such that she will eventually be considered as one of the top one hundred ranking magi throughout the entire history of the Mage's Association.[13] Compared using simple numbers, someone with an abnormally high potential like Ciel is at one hundred, someone who is eternally at apprentice-level like Shirou is at ten, and Rin falls from seventy to one hundred.[13]

As the successor to the Tohsaka family, Rin excels in Conversion of power, which includes storage of magical energy in objects, typically jewels for Jewel Magecraft. She uses them as disposable, limited-function Mystic Codes.[5] Because the amount of energy a magus can release at one time is restricted by bodily limitations, Rin has been able to accumulate all of the magical energy generated by her body during her lifetime through jewel crystallization. As with practicing of sorcery, charging these jewels has become a daily process for her turning them into powerful bullets. However, in the end they are merely disposable items. Because their sorcery reduces expensive jewels to ash after a single use, the Tohsaka magi are fated to be chronically afflicted with a lack of funds.[14] When Rin's stored power is needed, she can utilize the jewels for an instantaneous release of A-rank magic capable of countering a spell from Caster's magecraft from the Age of Gods or taking one of Berserker's lives by using five jewels. Their speed of release is great enough that it can match Caster's High-Speed Divine Words. She can also use small statues of amethyst in form of Owls (梟, Fukurō?) as familiars for reconnaissance purposes.

Her most common offensive spell is a Finnish technique known as Gandr, which concentrates magical energy into Rin's forefinger, resulting in a hazy black orb to be subsequently fired like a bullet. Originally intended to be a curse, Rin's variation on Gandr takes on an unusual, corporeal form. Additionally, Rin has bypassed any need for a verbal component to initiate this spell due to having inherited and infused Magic Crest of her family, and she can fire as many Gandr shots in an instant, even set up a barrier and rain them on an opponent if she so chooses. Since Rin's Gandr Shot was particularly violent, capable of punching through and disintegrating a large portion of a concrete wall with just a single shot, it could be considered on the level of Finn Shot. Or, Finn Gatling Gun.[15]

While statistically superior to Kirei Kotomine, he would win eighty percent of the time by psychologically exploiting her past traumas to keep her from fighting at her full potential. Even without such knowledge, Kirei would still have a substantial combat advantage over Rin due to possessing over ten years of experience as a professional killer of magi.[16] If Bazett Fraga McRemitz had been able to participate in the war, she would ended up being a threat to Rin.[17]

Rin is also proficient with reinforcement sorcery, allowing her to strengthen her legs so much that she can run over one hundred meters in less than seven seconds, fast enough to be perceived as a blur to a regular human. She is also able to use it on herself for a few seconds to deal critical damage to even a Servant like Caster with physical blows in a situation where Rin has her off-guard. She can also make use of one of her jewels for a large amount of protection, and by placing it on her stomach to form a protective cover, she can even last a long duration of time being crushed in Berserker's grip.

Rin practices pseudo-karate as a form of self-defense. Her instructor in martial arts is Kirei, his teaching was responsible for the sequence of moves she used to corner Caster.[5]

EquipmentEdit
Inheritance
Tokiomi's inheritance
Rin has inherited everything that belonged to her father, including heirloom jewels, jewels inherited from Zelretch, and the wares and knowledge to manage her workshop, the basement of the Tohsaka household. She originally would have had possession of all the commercialized spiritual lands that brought in more money than most Second Owner families elsewhere, but Kirei's mismanagement as her legal guardian has caused the most valuable properties to have been lost to others.[3] She still obtains royalties from magical patents held by the Tohsaka family, "\*0,000,000 yen" annually without including additional revenue, so she can be considered relatively wealthy.[9] She obtains jewels for her craft through exclusive channels used by her family, leaving her each day wondering "whether she could've gotten a better price from the buyer if she had just become friends with that lady."[18]

In preparation for the Fifth Holy Grail War, Tokiomi left her a special inheritance in his will that requires her to solve a special puzzle to find and open a box of his effects. The most prominent items are a pendant and the catalyst, having been smashed at some point in time, he had used to summon Gilgamesh.[19] Opening it also causes all the clocks in the household to immediately become set one hour fast as a bit of playfulness as if to say, “if she can’t even notice a slip-up as trivial and close to home as this, it’s too soon for her to fight in the Holy Grail War.”[20]

Azoth SwordEdit
Main article: Azoth Sword
Jeweled Sword of ZelretchEdit
Main article: Jeweled Sword of Zelretch
JewelsEdit
Rin buys a variety of jewels, and those she utilizes in combat can reach prices of 500,000 yen each. Those that are made of crystals that are naturally able to easily store mana are made of precious metals and come with a very high price.[18] As of the beginning of Fate/stay night, her savings consists of twenty jewels containing the energy she has saved for over ten years, each costing ten million yen to create in total.[21] She uses ten during Archer's summoning ritual, and uses the remaining ten during the battles of the three routes.

Rin's PendantEdit
Rinspendant
Rin's Pendant
Rin's Pendant (凛のペンダント, Rin no Pendanto?) is a powerful, one-of-a-kind jewel pendant left to Rin as part of her inheritance from her father, which she considers to be her father's memento. It is a one hundred year old Tohsaka family heirloom that is the greatest jewel within the household, far stronger than anything else with the equivalent of ten years worth of Rin's magical energy. As one of the best artifacts of its class that she believes Tokiomi left to allow her to win the Holy Grail War, Rin decides to utilize it as a last resort, believing anything to be possible with the amount of energy it possesses. It contains enough magical energy to revive a human being on the verge of death, which she uses early in the war to revive Shirou Emiya by restoring his damaged heart.[10] She lacks the skill or ability to perform such a feat on her own, so it requires using the great energy of the pendant to make up for that. She creates a new heart to use as a substitute, believing the feat exemplary enough to be accepted to the Clock Tower instantly.

After it is drained, it loses much of its weight and only retains a small amount of energy, less than her ten remaining jewels for battle. She leaves it by Shirou by accident, deciding not to retrieve it because it has no true worth without any remaining energy. It is simply an ordinary, expensive jewel like that, even though it has some value to her as a memento. Shirou picks it up after regaining consciousness, keeping it as a memento of his unknown savior. Archer, a future version of Shirou from another timeline, kept the jewel all his life, making it a catalyst that connects him to his summoner. The jewel she holds during the ritual has no worth as a catalyst, but the jewel held by Archer allows for him to be summoned. It is one of the objects materialized with him, allowing him to give her his own pendant after they arrive home with Rin not knowing the difference. The pendant held by Shirou has a small amount of energy left, not even enough to use a single Reinforcement spell according to him, while the one held by Archer has none.

The connection is never discovered during Fate. Both pendants are revealed during Unlimited Blade Works after Shirou finds Archer's pendant at Rin's house and tells her of the one he kept, allowing for the connection between Shirou and Archer to be deduced due to that there should only be one such pendant in existence. Shirou eventually connects it to Rin during Heaven's Feel when thinking that she is the only person who could have saved him at that time. He brings it with him to the final battle with Sakura, later saving him by allowing Rider to use it as a landmark to locate him