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Book: An Untimely End
Though Kiriyama is not the nicest person in the world it is a sad time when any favourite character falls. He is however one of the very last people to die within the game which shows he did infact 'play' well in comparison to the rest.Kiriyama is part of the most complicated and lengthy death scene in the entire book which involves tricks, running, wire, car chases and good old shoot outs. Quite obviously this shows how formidable a foe he in fact was for all those on the island and his strength is seen through his death as well as his body count.
After overhearing Hiroki explain how to contact Shuya's group to Kotohiki Kazuo finishes off Mitsuko and goes into an open area to start up fires to trick Shogo into revealing his position. After lathargically taking care of Inada (he didnt even look before shooting her.. thats just so COOL) he lights the fires and begins to follow the bird call that sounds every 15 minutes. Since he doesn't know where exactly the remaining three players are he lays some traps around the general area designed to namely take out the biggest threat, Shogo.
Unfortunately for Kiriyama his plan is interupted when Sakamochi announces he is the only one outside of Shuya's group still alive and Shogo realises they are being tricked and runs with Noriko and Nanahara. Kazuo follows them with an onslaught of gunfire and Noriko falls prey to one of his wire traps which cuts deep in her face and hand.
The foot race continues until Shogo comes across a vehicle and hot wires it. Shuya, Noriko and himself jump in and race off. Surprisingly Kazuo also finds a minivan, jumps in and follows them always using the oppurtunity to fire at his opponent. Shogo does some tricky driving, swerves his truck and ends up stopping Kiriyama's van. Immediately he fires almost all their bullets into it, two to three hundred of them. And yet Kazuo still is alive and well within the van.
Retreating once more Kawada ends up parking the truck at the point where they had first fought Kiriyama and discovered he was the one slaughtering a good portion of the class. He fires his shotgun at Kazuo's minivan which resulted in a tire blowing out. The boy abandons the van and lands in the field, shooting at the three other students.
While in the open Shogo shoots Kazuo directly in the stomach and he is thrown back, landing on the ground and laying completely still. Of course he is playing dead but the others don't know that. Believing they have defeating him the group lower their guard. However moments later a bang is heard and Shogo doubles over in pain, Kiriyama had shot him from his sitting position on the grass. Just before he also shoots Shuya, Noriko whips out a gun and fires, hitting the boy in the head. So Noriko doesn't have to feel any guilt Shogo wanders over and shoots Kazuo point blank in the head saying he was infact the cause of death and not Nakagawa.
Though Kiriyama dies in the battle he also wounded Kawada enough for him to die when on the boat escaping the island later on.
Even if his last battle was no short of epic there is something that bugs me about how Kiriyama ultimately dies. It seems completely unreasonable for someone as amazingly intelligent and talented as Kazuo to stand out in the open when facing down a foe with guns. Even though he has the Kevlar vest that is no excuse for such a move. It irks me like crazy that he is shot down so easily at the end when he hasnt been previously injured by another player.
The movie version of his death though not quite as epic and not involving cars is far more believable since he is only able to be taken down after he is blinded. (there is nothing to suggest Shinji's explosion in the book had any effect on him so we shall assume he was perfectly fine.)
You may have been a murderous psychopath Kazuo, but we will all miss you!
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