Sword Whisperer

Kchatu.

It was a name I've heard for a very long time, but Van never forgot it. A magnificent beast that admired Van's strength and imitated his examination.

"How could you..."

Van's voice trembled. Kchatu certainly looked different than before. Not to the extent of being clumsily human. He was so intact that no one could say he was human. Kchatu answered the question neatly.

"Following you, I went to Sam."

"......!"

Van's eyes widened. K'Shatu opened his mouth before he thought hard.

"You don't have to worry about them. It wasn't just that sword I wanted to learn from you. Wherever the tooth touches, the animal that tried to bite anything died a long time ago."

"... I understand you've changed. Why are you trying to follow me like that?"

"At first, it was just because you were stronger than me. It was very intuitive."

After facing Van, K'Shatu realized how powerful a human with a knife can be. As a result, he abandoned the form of an animal with a blade armor, and took the form of a man.

But that was not enough. I couldn't get half the power by imitating him.

K'Shatu continued to pursue Van. I saw myself soaking in a spring, fighting a ball and constantly planting it, facing a ball with my arms cut off…… Instead of being happy facing a helpless enemy, I saw my heart ripped open and I looked like I was in pain and crying. And questioned.

'How painful is his life?'

K'Shatu asked. It was strange. Van was strong enough that K'Shatu could not dare to overlook him, and if he had such strength, he deserved to live with happiness and pleasure more than anyone else. Nevertheless, Van was always facing away from happiness.

If someone had been by his side, he would have told me that man lives by the weight of his power. But K'Shatu had no friends. No teachers, no family. And so no one could teach him about the human heart. His troubles remained in one corner of his chest, not so unraveled.

Van enters Pendel, K'Shatu is captured by Anya and sent to the Revolutionary Army. The Revolutionaries did not take a more hostile attitude towards him than they thought. They were human beings, but they knew how to be with demons.

K'Shatu asked them a question. For him who had no proper contact, it was quite a pleasant thing to be able to talk to them, even as a prisoner. At first, the revolutionaries who treated him as absurd took out my heart as if they had waited in front of the war.

We're going to die soon.

How can you go there knowing it's a place to die? K'Shatu, I don't understand.

To get something more precious and beautiful than life.

…… cannot be. There is nothing beyond death. Just a corpse.

Maybe you're right. But there's a future. Our deaths will make the future of this world even more hopeful.

The guard told K'Shatu that you don't seem to be a bad monster enough to die, and released him just before the war. 'Just once, live a meaningful life.' The last thing he said, he stormed into Pendel. No one survived. They regard not dying as a disgrace, and fight against the kingdom until their last life is on fire. In the corner of the battlefield, K'Shatu watches the revolutionaries die one by one.

K'Shatu was a monster. He had no human heart yet. And so I did not weep that a relatively kind human being would have died after talking to him. However, the last words of the guard who released him only hovered in his ear.

Live meaningfully.

Chewing the words, K'Shatu saw the sun that Van summoned at night.

Under that light, his flesh burned, and his eyes were blind. I couldn't even hear the sound properly, and even the scream would just disappear when it came out of my mouth.

But in the meantime, my heart was pounding.

The moment the sky, which was always blackened, was bitten blue, the moment man saw the sun with his own eyes,

K'Shatu realized what life meant by lightning.

"I wanted to get away from everyday communication."

"..... So you found Sam?"

"The master of Sam understood my heart."

Falling in love with Sam doesn't make you human. And even if you were human, that would be quite different from what you thought. You'll feel more helpless than you can. A stiff piece of paper will split your flesh, and a tree club will break your bones.

Having a human form doesn't mean having a human mind. You may die as a stranger in the middle of nowhere, not as a monster or as a human being.

Are you okay, though?

K'Shatu nods. He had nothing more to lose. He threw himself into the fountain, and even man came out of the fountain as a demon, and the demon came out as a man.

"I am still learning your minds."

You are meant to be human. Kchatu spoke quietly.

"Act conforming to the regime. How to face reality. How to discern what you can from what you can't. I learned to give up. I learned to spare petty things. I learned to turn my eyes away from great things."

"..... You are truly human."

"And from you…… I think I can learn the last mind that can complete me."

K'Shatu posed. It was pretty decent. I didn't see any signs of learning from anyone, but in a clumsy posture, it was hard to find any gaps.

'Is it the sword instinct that led you to do it?'

In some ways, this may be a true swordsmanship. A swordsmanship that focuses solely on stopping attacks and breaking the other person's breath. In that sense, K'Shatu practically only lifted a knife, but still nothing like a beast tearing his opponent apart with teeth and claws.

The world was watching K'Shatu with its eyes half open. Behind that trajectory is the history of K'Shatu. His life was a day of survival, a day of homework, and a warrior's attack through such a day was simply an undivided feat of strength and speed.

K'Shatu's blade scatters dark light. The crowd saw the light and felt a vague turtle, but Van could see through the essence of the light. While blurring the rules, at the same time, the power to conform to the rules was in its light.

'Let's test it.'

Like the seed of a dandelion, his remains emanate from the half-blade. The statue holding the hallucinogram was facing K'Shatu in the sunlight. Beyond the scattered sunlight, his blade shifted to the atmospheric flow and emitted enormous wind pressure to Kchatu.

My feet are about to fall from the ground. K'Shatu did not retreat, even in the face of the anxiety that seemed to fly away like a leaf. In his eyes, the dark light from the blade became darker.

K'Shatu, who was halfway up in the air, sank again. And the next moment, with a knife in front of the ground, he immediately approached half the table.

"!"

A billionaire's fist burst out of K'Shatu's mouth. He was facing a man, but his mouth was not even a man's, as he was trying to show that his nature was still a beast.

K'Shatu's Black Blade is facing the bloodbath of Remnants. The man who smokes the blade collapses before the blade. It would have been such a development.

'No...!'

Just before the blade touched Van's statue, K'Shatu felt the horror of piercing his soul. However, it is already too late. His blade was already trying to cut off half of the statue, and.....

At the next moment, K'Shatu had to watch the sky and the earth roll and degull a few times, with a shock that seemed to crush the whole body.

"......."

The crowd is silent. I've seen a lot of sculptures bloom around it while Van is training, but I didn't think that would be the price of taking a knife to that sculpture.

'What just happened?'

I don't have the power to enter my whole body. K'Shatu looks up at the blue sky as he barely spits out his mouthful of bloody water. Take the knife to Van's remnant, and.....

"If you were going to target me, you should have targeted my neck."

Half a face appeared in the corner of the sky. K'Shatu opens his mouth to say something, and now he realizes that he's not even breathing. But Van already knew what K'Shatu wanted to ask.

"Even if you look human, it's my sword. Did you think you'd be okay with me and the knife?"

"…… Ah……"

"I know I have a lot to say, but let's start with the treatment."

Seeing the beast that had become human, Van sighed as if he could not dry it.

"Otherwise, you die."

§

"You'll be fine now. But since there may still be sequelae, you might want to avoid rough workouts for a while."

"…… Thank you."

"This is my job."

Galette's therapist shrugs. Van glanced at the therapist and asked discreetly.

"I..... but didn't you feel something strange?"

"What are you talking about?"

"That guy used to be pretty sick, so he said," It's a peculiar personality. He's a very unusual friend. That guy. "

"…… I don't know. I didn't feel anything special. It was normal."

"Oh, yes. Okay, thank you."

"Then if you see anything bad, please contact me again."

The therapist leaves. Van lays in bed and looks down at K'Chatu, staring at him with horrendous eyes. Van stares at K'Shatu with a ridiculous expression.

"Do you know where you are now?"

"Citadel. It's in the capital of the kingdom."

"In other words, something like you can die at any time."

"…… Is there any place you can not die at any time?"

K'Shatu seemed surprised and asked. Even in Abyss, he lived with the nobles of the night. It might be a better paradise to live in by Citadel. Van sighs.

"That's not what I'm saying... Ha, why the hell are you here? What the hell is that?"

"There have been a number of things. I wanted to resemble my father, so……"

"Shut up about his father. What looks like a similar age to me, what a gross father."

"But my father taught me life in its true meaning. Humans call the one who gave Bondi life to me Father.."

"That's not the life. So stop calling me Dad."

"......."

Somewhere K'Shatu kept his mouth shut with a gloomy expression. And soon I looked at Van with my eyes shining again.

By the way, Father... "

"One more time, I'll ring the bell. It's not a joke."

"…… Van seems to have become stronger. I'm ruined just by putting a knife to it."

I wanted to live a bigger life than I wanted to call my father. Van leaned against the wall.

"Then you became quite human."

"It was hard. Humans are each other, and it's too complicated."

"What I could change in Sam would have been the look of it."

"…… until I came to Citadel, I wandered around. I think I learned a little bit about what human beings are like on that journey."

"It couldn't have been easy. There must have been a lot of people doubting you. Have you ever caused any trouble?"

"…… are you asking me if I hurt anyone?"

"Even if you use your pharynx, the monster will be a monster. I didn't forget you were a man-eating animal. And maybe it's different now."

"Yes, I was a monster."

K'Shatu's voice sank. Otherwise, the black eyes looked particularly darker. K'Shatu looks straight at Van.

"I tore everything that touched my mouth and turned it into my flesh and blood. I wanted to be strong, because I didn't want to die. Survival has always been my homework, and so..... I wanted to go the furthest away from death, so I became a slave to death. My day was always filled with the fear of death, and so I survived every day, but I never lived a single day."

"So?"

"…… I met the Revolutionaries at night."

In front of death, they were not as frightened as K'Shatu. Of course you weren't scared. But they had a life they couldn't even erase. By not stepping back in front of death, by running towards death, they were clearly alive, just as jealous of that moment.

"It's a good day."

K'Shatu's voice trembled. The truth of his life was revealed in his eyes, expressions, and crooked fingers.

"I want to have a meaningful life."

"......."

"I want to be human……. Father."

K'Shatu called him father again, but this time he couldn't say anything to K'Shatu like that.

K'Shatu understood what life was, and Van understood it to some extent. However, his gaze on K'Shatu was forced to become even sharper.

"Can you handle it?"

"What do you mean?"

"As soon as you become human, your last four days of living as an animal will be hard to handle."

"......."

"As soon as I get my life, I want to die. You want to be human, though?"

It was not an easy question to answer. Nevertheless, K'Shatu had nothing to do but nod.

"I want to be a doctor. Arbor, turn it off……!"

"If I say father, I'll cut it off."

Van, who punched K'Shatu's prestige, looks down at K'Shatu with annoying eyes.

"Hang in there, you monster. That's human suffering."

"Off, clean……. Yes, yes, yes……"

"And you."

Van adds. As if this moment didn't feel right at the moment, he remained silent until the end, but he finally said it.

"Don't call me father, call me brother."

"I see, brother...! Cup!"

K'Shatu won one more prestige before calling him brother. When I looked up at Van with tears, he replied in a loud voice.

"I'm just a friend."