Is it really strictly limited to short range? I'm going to need citation here.Originally Posted by Santo
The thing about an origin bullet is that there is no orthodox method to guard against it. Infact trying to guard against it generally makes things 'worse'.If they survive, they would know that he has something which causes magic to backfire on them. And if they survive it, they'll know to guard against it.That right there, is a trump revealed.
The only way the contender fails is if the magic came from an external source. Even if Kiritsugu had to consider such a possiblity, the odds of his targets relying on an external source to use magic is miniscule. He has worse odds of his gun locking up. Anyway this is a pretty bad generalization. Your line of thinking could apply just as easily to a Nasuverse mage as it would a Mid-childa, leaving Kiritsugu a reluctance to use the contender at all in fear the magus/mage was aware of the mystic code and prepared some kind of feint or counter measure. At least the magus worry is legitimate. Here he has a clear target and no reason to believe the contender would fail.As to the difference in magic styles. The fact remains, he does not know beyond a shadow of a doubt. He has a very good reason to believe it will be different than Nanoha's, this being because the only mages he knows that does not use Magecraft is Nanoha, Yuuno, and their enemy. Three is not exactly the greatest pool to draw knowledge from. And because he can't be sure, he would not pull out the Contender, get to the range in which he can hope to hit something with it, and let it rip.
A barrier would narrow down the search quite a bit and they now know to search for him. Bardiche may even be able to track him. Kiritsugu loses much of his ability to launch a surprise attack and he's in no condition to fight Fate or Arf head on.The chance of failure is higher, but so are his chances of getting away clean.
His enemy learns there is someone with guns out to get them, and that this new enemy is willing to use lethal force. And they have no idea who this person is, how they look like, or any of their other capabilities. Forcing them to act much more cautiously seeing as to they do not know when this new enemy might strike and from where.
And yes, Kiritsugu would slow down Fate/Arf's Jewel Seed hunting a lot or atleast until Precia starts cracking the whip.
See above.Kiritsugu in turn learns that he needs something with more oomph. And he gets away clean. Not to mention that he was most likely not found, seeing as to he'll be using a suppressor and be in a concealed location, he'll get away without having revealed who he is seeing as to "I got shot in the back while fighting" is counter intuitive to calmly analyzing the exact location that the shooter had when they shot you in the back. Which in turn means that he'll still have the element of surprise next time he tries to shoot at Fate.
If he takes one of them out in the first try, fine. If not, his job likely gets a lot harder.No matter how you look at it, its much more advantageous for him to not go balls in with the Contender, which is what this whole thing is about.