BANG BANG!!
Two shots fired. One grazed Kirei's cheek, leaving a vivid red streak. The other nicked the edge of his left shoulder.
"Tch. Not clean hits."
Two rounds landing mere grazes on the face and shoulder. Kiritsugu's brow furrowed at the difficulty.
Even with Kirei's right leg out of commission, neither his iron will nor his razor-sharp mind had dulled in the slightest.
'Assassin is dead.'
'If I stall any longer, Saber will come.'
Sheltering behind a barricade, ignoring his bleeding leg entirely, Kirei had sensed Assassin's disappearance.
The Geass sigil flashed briefly in his eyes. He forced himself to rise.
He couldn't afford any more delays.
Before Saber arrived, he had to kill Emiya Kiritsugu.
Failure would mean betraying "His Majesty." For Kotomine Kirei, that was unacceptable above all else.
An opening. That was what he needed.
Conventional tactics wouldn't work against a man this cautious. A higher-value "chip" was required to draw him in.
He would use his own life as bait.
His bulletproof vestments had been partially shredded by grenades. He could no longer charge headlong through gunfire.
'Bringing this was the right call.'
He glanced at the object bound to his flank beneath the ruined vestments. Its presence steadied something manic in his expression.
"?!"
Kirei suddenly launched himself forward on his one good leg, arms pumping for balance, hopping straight at Kiritsugu's position.
Kiritsugu froze.
He couldn't fathom the priest's reasoning.
A lame, crippled man charging headlong into the line of fire? This was practically gift-wrapping himself.
Even suspecting a trap, Kiritsugu would never let the chance pass.
He raised the pistol, aimed at the bouncing priest, and pulled the trigger.
BANG BANG BANG!!!
Swoosh swoosh!!
Anticipating the shots, Kirei barely dodged the rounds targeting his left leg and head. But a bullet punched clean through his chest, leaving a bloody crater. The impact staggered him.
Yet only for an instant. Then he was moving again, lurching forward with agonizing determination.
'Regular rounds: seven remaining.'
Calculating his ammunition, Kiritsugu's mind accelerated.
His back was literally against the wall. Kirei leapt, fist descending. Kiritsugu made his call.
Time Alter -- Double Accel!
A vice-grip sensation around his heart. His body bore a burden it was never designed for.
Despite the agony sleeting through him, he evaded the fist that cratered the wall where he'd stood.
BOOM!!
The shockwave threw Kiritsugu sideways. Stone fragments slashed his cheek.
But in that moment, his eyes dropped to Kirei's feet.
Two grenades with their pins already pulled, tumbling lazily through the air.
KABOOM!!
The detonation engulfed both of them.
"GAAUGH!"
Even knowing he'd suffer too, Kiritsugu had accepted the trade.
Crackle...
Black smoke choked the space. Visibility was zero.
Kiritsugu dragged himself upright, squinting through the haze, pistol never leaving his grip.
Cough cough...
The smoke thinned. His guard never dropped. The gun stayed raised.
'It's over.'
Kirei lay face-down on the ground. Both legs were gone. His body was a canvas of blood and burns.
Kiritsugu had secured the decisive advantage.
Click-clack!
Splurt!
Prone, coughing blood, Kirei made no sound. But he could sense the muzzle trained on him.
Blood pooled outward like a crimson carpet.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!
Squelch!
A sustained volley. Every shot finding meat.
To prevent any last-second surprise, Kiritsugu specifically targeted the brain, heart, and other vital organs. Every remaining round spent.
Only after confirming absolute silence did he allow himself to exhale.
This fight would have been unwinnable without thorough preparation. Kotomine Kirei was that formidable.
His hand rose again. The ghost of a cigarette that would never be there. An old habit, stubbornly persistent.
"You were right, Saber."
"I need to change."
A bitter, flickering smile. Kiritsugu staggered toward the fallen priest.
He still needed to check whether Kirei had brought the Dragon Ball.
The man's clothing was shredded, but a search was still necessary.
Clunk!
Then he spotted it. An orange sphere strapped to Kirei's flank.
He hesitated.
Something this important... he found it hard to believe Kirei would carry it into battle. By all tactical logic, Kirei should have left it with Tokiomi beforehand.
Bringing it along might be interpreted as confidence in victory, but Kiritsugu couldn't quite convince himself.
The man's brain and heart had been destroyed. He was unquestionably dead. And yet... something felt wrong.
The enemy who'd tormented him. The man who'd killed his wife and assistant. Now lying here, finished--
"!?"
In the instant his guard wavered, the ruined corpse moved.
"FOR HIS MAJESTY!!"
Eyes blazing with a crimson light Kiritsugu had never seen before. His blood ran cold.
'Impossible! I shot through his brain AND his heart!!'
Reflex screamed at him to retreat. Too late.
The monstrous "corpse" raised the orange sphere overhead, voice thundering.
"ALL GLORY BE TO LULOU--"
The crimson light lasted only a heartbeat. The body collapsed again. And the orange sphere detonated.
'A disguised bomb?!'
Realization hit. By then, Kiritsugu had frozen completely.
He'd anticipated some kind of failsafe. But a dying declaration of loyalty followed by a suicide bombing? That was something no version of Kotomine Kirei he'd ever known would do.
Throughout their entire vicious duel, Kirei had used nothing beyond standard combat and magecraft.
And then, after "dying," he'd played dead only to rise and commit this?
It was utterly inconsistent with the man's character and methods.
Especially those two phrases.
"For His Majesty!!"
"All glory be to Lulou--"
Something was at play that Kiritsugu didn't know about.
But it was too late for that now.
At point-blank range, there was nothing to hide behind. Nowhere to run. No time to think.
BOOOOOM!!!
A massive explosion rocked the docks.
That was the cruelest gift Kotomine Kirei had prepared for Emiya Kiritsugu.
To let him taste the same agony his loved ones had felt. The same despair.
A death identical to his wife and assistant's.
A "parting present" from Hell.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]
PS: Kirei's final act was a Geass-induced forced revival -- a momentary "resurrection" that animated his corpse long enough for one last action.
Under normal circumstances, Kirei would never have fought this way against Kiritsugu. But Lelouch's Geass imprinted an absolute commandment to kill Emiya Kiritsugu by any means necessary. So he entered the battle fully prepared to die, carrying a bomb disguised as a Dragon Ball, intent on a mutual-kill scenario.
Kiritsugu confirmed the kill, double-tapped every vital organ, and still couldn't have predicted the "corpse" rising again. The behavior was so far outside Kirei's established profile that it blindsided him completely.