Fate Kirei Kotomine

Kirei Kotomine - Fate

Profile

Kirei Kotomine is the main antagonist of Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night. Kirei has a twisted, evil mind and is said to have been that way since birth. He cannot find joy in the positive aspects of life and prefers negative emotions including others’ pain and suffering. Kirei is said to be the direct opposite of Shirou. They are both shells of people with no real sense of self, but while Shirou gets joy from helping others, Kirei gets joy from making others suffer. He is the Master of Assassin in the Fourth Holy Grail War and the Overseer and Master of both Lancer and Gilgamesh in the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Appearance

In Fate/Zero, Kirei is 28 years old and has short, spiky hair and wears a simple black outfit with a gold cross necklace. In Fate/stay night, he is 38 with medium length hair parted in the middle and wears a cassock over his black outfit. In Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya he switches from his religious garb to wearing a blue bandana and apron once he becomes a ramen shop owner.

Abilities

Kirei is both an Executor with the Church and a magus who specializes in healing magic. He has undergone brutal training to be a human weapon in order to earn the right to the title Executor and is a fierce opponent and a combat expert.

He is extremely proficient with the weapon Black Keys, long daggers that he uses as projectiles. The blades are created using magical energy and he carries an unknown number inside his cassock. He can wield four in a single hand. He is also proficient in a martial art technique known as Super Bajiquan that fuses Bajiquan and magecraft into agile, powerful strikes. After being revived by Angra Mainyu at the end of the Fourth Holy Grail War, he can also control and manipulate the cursed mud of the Holy Grail.

Kirei does not come from a magus family. Though he was born with Magic Circuits, he is unskilled as a magus. He studied extensively with Tokiomi in a variety of subjects, but the only one he had a natural inclination for was healing magic. However, he would go on to become quite skilled in this area of magic, even surpassing Tokiomi.

Role

Fourth Holy Grail War
Kirei participates in the Fourth Holy Grail War as Assassin’s Master. At the end of the war, he is able to wish on the Holy Grail, which results in the massive explosion that almost kills Shirou and would come to define his participation in the Fifth Holy Grail War. During the fire, the Grail is destroyed by Saber, and the curse of the Grail washes over Kirei’s body, resurrecting him.

After the war, he becomes the guardian of Rin, whose father Tokiomi was killed in the war. He also begins taking in orphaned children under the ruse of running an orphanage, but in actuality he is stealing their life energy to give to Gilgamesh. He continues to work with the Church until the Fifth Holy Grail War 10 years later.

Fifth Holy Grail War
Kirei is tasked by the Church to be the Overseer of the Fifth Holy Grail War, someone to ensure the fairness of the war and give refuge to Masters that had lost their Servant. Several times throughout the war, Shirou goes to him for advice, once about Saber and another time trying to gain information on Gilgamesh. However, Shirou finds out that he is up to his own nefarious scheme when he finds an underground room in the church with orphans Kirei had been draining the life force from.

It is revealed that Kirei killed Lancer’s original Master and made a new contract with him and that he plans to use Illya as a vessel to summon the Holy Grail. He is also the Master of Gilgamesh, whom he formed a contract with shortly after his participation in the Fourth Holy Grail War, allowing him to stay in the world and participate in the Fifth Holy Grail War.

In the “Fate” route, he attempts to use Illya to summon forth the Holy Grail. He knows of the Grail’s corrupted nature due to Angra Mainyu and wants to use it to spread suffering. He is ultimately defeated at Ryudou Temple before the portal to the Grail could be fully opened by Shirou using Rin’s Azoth dagger.

In the “Unlimited Blade Works” route, he is killed by his own Lancer Servant when he orders Lancer to kill Rin and replace her heart with a vessel of the Holy Grail and he refuses.

In the “Heaven’s Feel” route, Kirei attempts to use Sakura as a Black Grail to complete the Holy Grail and bring about the birth of Angra Mainyu through the Third Magic. However, he is ultimately defeated in battle by Shirou.

Other Appearances

Aside from Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero, Kirei also appears in Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya in which he is a member of the Church in Miyu’s World and later becomes a ramen shop owner, in Fate/Grand Order in which he appears as Alter-Ego Grigori Rasputin, a Psuedo-Servant in Kirei’s body, in Fate/Extra as an NPC in the Moon Holy Grail War, and in Fate/tiger colosseum.