A tall, slender figure in a dark, silver-crossed priest's robe, with short black hair and a face as rigid and expressionless as a stone carving, immediately suggested a stubborn, old-fashioned, and emotionally detached person.
Kirei Kotomine, Tohsaka Rin had thought of a thousand possibilities but never imagined that her 'long-awaited' nominal senior brother would actually come knocking on her door himself.
Was this truly a case of finding what you seek after a long search, or was he delivering himself to her, with a heavy gift and even heavier sentiment?
Tohsaka Rin found that her senior brother's behavior was completely incomprehensible compared to the original work/canon. He neither chased Kiritsugu Emiya all over the map, which led to Tohsaka Rin's wasted half-night in the Einzbern Castle's back forest yesterday, nor did he stick to the script by sending Assassin to disrupt the banquet with her as the target, which resulted in her having to kill those mere pawns herself.
Tohsaka Rin did not believe that her father had ordered Kirei Kotomine to send Assassin after her. From any perspective, this was impossible. The only explanation was that Kirei Kotomine had defied Tokiomi's orders and privately issued command spells instructing Assassin to target her.
Forget it, I don't want to talk so much with you. The right thing to do is to go up and chop you down directly. Anyway, regardless of whether he will harm Father now, this kind of beast, without human emotions and wearing a human skin, will sooner or later be a scourge.
Kirei Kotomine himself was a very contradictory existence. From a young age, he didn't know what happiness or joy was, unable to feel human emotions from the normal daily lives of people.
He became an Agent in pursuit of happiness, but day after day of training only made his heart more numb, or rather, there was no way to change it in the first place.
What humans called happiness was a kind of pain for Kirei Kotomine. His joy, however, was witnessing the suffering of the world. Happiness was synonymous with completeness, but the happiness he wanted to see and pursue was only incomplete, dark disaster.
In Kirei Kotomine's eyes, the painful cries people emitted in moments of despair were the most dazzling light in the world. Only by seeing destruction and faces twisted by pain would he no longer be lost.
Therefore, there is no need for such a fellow to exist in this world. No matter what he has done now, as long as he lives, all he will bring to this world is disaster and tragedy, because that is the happiness he pursues.
The church Agent advanced alone through the quiet, eerie winter night forest, his face, sculpted like plaster, frozen in an expression devoid of any emotion. Just as he caught sight of the distant lights of the mansion, a dark shadow suddenly darted across his field of vision in the night—
Bang!
The sudden attack in the darkness was like a head-on collision with a full-speed heavy motorcycle. The black-clad Agent was sent flying back ten meters like a cannonball. As he landed, a small, knee-high boot stomped on the area between his ribs, half the boot sinking into the midline of Kirei Kotomine's chest.
The flash of magical energy in the attacker's hand was fleeting, and a black knight's sword, emanating a purplish-black glow, pointed at the heavily wounded Agent. The tip of the sword, barely a hair's breadth from his nose, exuded a suffocating aura of death.
"Good evening, Senior Brother Kotomine. I looked for you for so long in the Einzbern Forest, but you stood me up, which truly saddened your junior sister. I came specifically to kill you, but you weren't there. Then, you sent assassins while I was drinking. I originally planned to visit the church directly tomorrow, but I didn't expect you to deliver yourself."
Tohsaka Rin, holding the projected magic sword, looked down at Kirei Kotomine beneath her feet. With the enemy who would kill her father now trampled underfoot, a strange, wicked smile played on her lips, impossible to suppress.
Even if Kirei Kotomine hadn't acted yet, just like Tohsaka Rin's actions against Matou Zouken, some grudges, even if they haven't happened, are unforgivable if the possibility exists. Even if Tohsaka Rin didn't feel much closeness to Tokiomi as a father, as they hadn't spent much time together.
But the grudge of a father's murder is irreconcilable; there's nothing to discuss. Moreover, even if one sets aside Tokiomi's death in the Holy Grail War, dying due to carelessness at the hands of a competitor is understandable. However, Kirei Kotomine later used the deceased Tokiomi to toy with the feelings of her mother, Aoi, and Matou Kariya, ultimately leading to Aoi's mental breakdown and death before the Fifth Holy Grail War—that is unforgivable!
It could be said that Tohsaka Rin's hatred for Kirei Kotomine was no less than her hatred for Matou Zouken. If Matou Zouken's cruelty ruined her sister's life, then Kirei Kotomine was the murderer of both her parents.
If it weren't for him, the Tohsaka Rin in the original work/canon would not have had to support the Tohsaka Family alone and desolate for ten years, and even more ironically, be looked after by her father's killer.
The more Tohsaka Rin thought about it, the more her hatred surged, an overwhelming tide of enmity. The force of her foot grew heavier and heavier. Under the immense pressure, Kirei Kotomine's internal organs were already crushed, and blood gushed from his mouth like a fountain.
"As for why I'm killing you, I don't want to explain it to you, as you wouldn't understand anyway. I also don't care if that Gilgamesh taught you methods of pleasure. Asking for a dying wish from someone without human emotions would be foolish. Farewell, Kirei Kotomine."
The projected magic sword pierced through Kirei Kotomine's heart. From beginning to end, Kirei Kotomine was not given a single chance to speak. Tohsaka Rin turned and walked towards the mansion without looking back.
However, if Tohsaka Rin had looked back at Kirei Kotomine's expression at that moment, she would have been terrified. Because at that moment, Kirei Kotomine, whose heart was pierced and who was on the verge of death, showed no fear or pain, and his face was no longer its usual blank expression. Instead, it was—
Satisfaction, unprecedented satisfaction! This feeling, more thorough than death, more extreme than destruction, more hollow than nothingness, more despairing than despair itself! It shattered all the so-called ultimate limits, bringing everything perceivable back to a single point before ending. This is what I was searching for, and it even surpassed what I was searching for.
Hahahahaha...!!!
This sense of pleasure, this ecstasy where every single cell in his body was trembling with excitement! The emptiness was instantly filled, overflowing with an explosive satisfaction! Even experiencing it a hundred times through Assassin wouldn't have been this real. What is the cost of a mere life?
Holy Grail, Kirei Kotomine praises your grace, this is what you guided me to find!
I am satisfied... When Tohsaka Rin was a hundred meters away from Kirei Kotomine, who was pinned to the ground, the hidden spell in the projection activated.
Phantasm Collapse!
Boom!
Compared to the myriad difficulties of avenging her sister against Matou Zouken, the death of Kirei Kotomine felt unrealistically easy to Tohsaka Rin. Kirei Kotomine, whose strength was only that of a first-rate Agent, actively coming to her door after losing his Servant, was truly unimaginable. Compared to the twisted, treacherous, scheming character in the Fourth Holy Grail War and Fifth Holy Grail War of the original work/canon, why did this Kirei Kotomine act like an idiot?
Unfortunately, Rin couldn't understand the two people who had never exchanged a single word; in fact, she was the one who caused Kirei Kotomine's abnormal and highly unreasonable behavior. Rin would never comprehend that her magical attribute would bring Kirei Kotomine the ultimate pleasure, leading him to directly seek death in pursuit of this pleasure.
Forget it, it's better not to know such things...
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