To Victor’s disbelief, he had never seen this side of her before, “Keiko?”

“I guess the charade is over,” sighed Keiko.

The grandma let the dagger slip out of her hand. She sobs furiously against her granddaughter’s chest. Her skirt was wet solely by fear. Keiko only smiled as she left the room. Victor glanced between the old woman and the door, he gritted his teeth and ran through the door. When Victor entered the second room, Keiko already had her Katana and bag ready over her shoulder as she left the second door that led to the outside.

“Keiko, tell me what happened. Come on, you can tell me. Whatever it is, there must be an explanation.”

“Do you know that my Katana has only one rule? The moment I unsheathe it, a life must be taken, either my own or my enemy. I live by that rule, and it’s better this way.”

“This is not like you. You are a kind, sweet woman who is always grumpy for some reason. You’re not the type to intimidate a defenseless old woman.”

Keiko sighed after she stopped again, “Kid, I’m no saint. I’m not a good woman nor an ordinary one. Please, just leave me alone.”

“I won’t leave you. Please, you can tell me anything, we can sort this out. There must be a misunderstanding,” Victor took another step forward.

“Stay back, I just can’t get through you, can I? It bothers me when you have no idea who I am. So let me get this fact through you. I’m a murderer, a killer! I slaughter people! Women, children, old, young, infants, I don’t care. They called me; Jigoku no Senshi. Hell Warrior. The things I've done deserved a spot in hell. Don’t you get it?”

“Keiko... maybe I don’t know about your past that well, but I know what kind of person you are.” Despite all of that, all that push, Victor still took one step closer to the woman.

“What is it that you want? You won’t leave me alone. Oh, right, you wanted to learn how to fight. I can teach you one surefire way to do that. It is a move I invented. It goes like this,“ Keiko swirled her hand in front of her as if she was orbiting an imaginary ball. After she pulled back that arm, a palm strike pushed against Victor’s chest.

A burst of air exploded from impact, Victor was flung straight back and caused him to roll on the dirt. After he stopped rolling, a sure amount of blood was coughed out. He used his hands to cover his chest, that hit alone felt like his rib cages had pressed against his inside. It forced every air in his lung to disperse, but this attack was different from the other time she had hit him. If she had gone an inch stronger in that palm strike, surely his ribcage would be broken instantly and he would have died on the spot.

“Happy now? You always have been a burden to me anyway.”

“You called yourself a killer, then why did you hold back?” Victor stood up while holding his chest together while she stared intensely at Keiko.

“A child like you infuriated me. You keep asking questions that I don’t want to answer, and you always start something you can’t finish. Do you even know what fate you had gifted upon those two after your so-called saving?”

“What are you talking about? I save them.”

“You didn’t save them. You only make it worse by getting involved. Tomorrow they will come, more people, more weapons, this time no forgiveness, and only death awaited them.”

That is when something perked inside Victor’s head, the two thugs that had escaped will bring more people and more weapons to destroy this shop. Victor didn’t help them, didn’t save them, he only made it worse. The teen dropped to his knees as that horrific realization dawned on him.

“I always finish what I started,” said Keiko as she started walking, further and further away from Victor until she was lost in his sight.

“Keiko, don’t leave, please!” She had already left.

Before Victor could run after Keiko, he glanced back at the shop. “Nona, Grandma, I need to warn them.”

Victor barged into the shop, heaving his breath furiously, he turned to the side and a frying pan nearly hit his head. Nona stood there with clenched fists and looked at him with tremendous rage, “Get out of my shop! Get out of my life! Because of you and your friend, my grandma is bedridden. Get out. Get out now!”

“Nona, please listen to me.”

“Get out!!” Shouted the girl.

Victor backed away, and she closed the door in front of his face. The young man couldn’t leave or risk the two of them getting hurt, so he had to stay and fight. However, the last time he fights, it doesn’t end well for him, but what choices does he have under these circumstances? Victor dug his own fingers into his palm and then grabbed a wooden stick and a stool. He brought the stool in the middle of the road and waited.

He waited.

And waited.

One giant hairless man under the moonlight strode down the path with a gigantic mace over his shoulder. A cruel smile on his face was as obvious as the sun despite being shrouded in darkness. This man could be the most challenging obstacle he had ever faced. The man stopped and looked at the boy with a sadistic smile.

"Only the boy? I was told there was a woman who managed to beat two of my friends so easily.”

Victor glanced away, and back at the man, “There was no woman, it was me. I’m the one who beat those guys.”

“Don’t lie boy, or this won’t end so miserably for you.”

“I’m not lying. You after someone, right? Here I am. Nobody else has to get involved.”

The man laughed aloud, “You have balls kid, but balls are nothing more than bravado, so let's put your strength to a test.”

Everything felt heavy, every jitter, every step they both took was similar to a chess move. No information on the other, every risk was reconsidered over and over again. This enemy that Victor faced was more than a dumb brute, he was calculating. He had experience in battle judging by the scars on his body in which Victor had none, but he does have the element of surprise, and so does the Brute.

“To be frank, you don’t seem the type…”

“The type to be apart of a dumb bandit gang? If that was what you were gonna say, then it’s true. I had my own reason. You have a pretty great teacher, the way you move, the way you took your stance, and judging by your scars. She must have drilled those habits deep into you, but I do wonder, why did you lose the fight with my two guys?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Victor tried to dismiss the validity of the information the Brute had on him so his opponent would have a second thought and caused him to be more careful.

“Oh, you were holding back, but why?” The man tilted his head to the side.

“I still don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Feign ignorance all you want, but if you try that shit with me. I can guarantee you that you won’t make it out alive.”

The Brute brought his mace down with absolute strength, Victor avoided it by stepping to the side. The ground cracked upon impact and sent a shockwave of dust up to the air. However, Victor unintentionally backed away quickly from the crater because he could feel the bloodlust that was coming toward him. That man had planned his next attack even before he landed his first strike. If Victor didn't back away from his area of attack, then he would be trapped in his opponent's unending assault.

“Clever but no retaliation? Are you sure about that choice?”

Victor turned to the stick in his hand, this stick isn’t going to do much against that brute, but he knows what it could be used for. He tore a straight line down his sleeves and used it as a rope to tie the stick to the outer part of his arm; in an attempt to make a makeshift gauntlet. After he tied the stick, Victor was shocked to see the man had taken a few steps forward toward Victor without him even noticing it.

The Brute swung his arm at Victor’s head, the boy ducked quickly but a second attack was coming toward him in the form of a mace. Going in the opposite direction of his first attack, the Brute swung his mace. Victor lifted himself up and used his feet to land on the mace. He used it as a momentum to launch himself over the Brute. Victor landed a multiple quick succession of punches against the Brute’s back but he quickly stepped away when his enemy brought down his mace again.

“Now I see the reason…” snickered the Brute.

“What?”

“She didn’t teach you how to hit. What kind of martial art teacher doesn’t teach his student how to land a hit?”

Victor gritted his teeth, he had lost a card in this game. Yes, after all his time training under Keiko, she never taught him how to actually hit someone, she only taught him how to dodge and get hit. The Brute laughed again, but this time he made his way closer to the boy and swung his mace at a repeated succession until Victor was occupied under the Brute’s attack. Victor could do nothing but dodge at every chance he is given.

However, Victor’s unending dodges weren't a waste, it was minimal at best, but he managed to land a dozen quick punches against his enemy’s body. Yet, Victor had mistaken this fight, it wasn’t about who would last long. It was about who managed to be one step ahead of their enemy. In his movement of thought, his foot had slipped against broken rubble and when he glanced down, he had realized his own doom; the ground under him had cracked. The Brute had used his assault to lead him to unstable ground. There was no stable foothold for him to balance on.

It was quick, a mace lunged toward Victor, but using both his arms as a shield; they took the full blow of the hit, but it wasn’t enough as his arms were pushed against his chest and his entire body was thrown back in full momentum. The sticks tied to Victor’s arms were broken from the impact before his entire body was dragged and then rolled a few meters from where he stood. Dust encompassed the area and created low visibility for both of them.

“You’re done. No one could stand after taking the full force of my attack,” bellowed the Brute as he rested his mace on his shoulders.

In that cloud of dust, the Brute suddenly heard a faint sound of heavy breathing. The nightly breeze blew away the cloud of dust and revealed: Victor. He stood there with both hands dangled beside him and legs wide apart. He spat out the blood inside his mouth and raised his chin with a calm gaze and flattened lips.

Without thinking the Brute took one step back. Something was amiss about this boy because never once in his life, he saw a man take a direct hit like that and still be on his feet. His bones should have been crushed from the impact alone, but why is it he is still able to stand?

There’s one thing that the Brute did not foresee.

Victor closed his eyes and remembered everything Keiko had ever taught him. He needed to be like water, every hit he took mustn’t deter him, she had trained him for this, and she had trained him to attack. Yes, before she had left, she showed him with that one hit. It was hard to recall it through the emotions buried on top of it, but he had to dig in and pull it out.

His eyes were closed as he began walking toward the Brute at a slow pace

Her hands…

Victor imitated her movement flawlessly, seamlessly like the flow of water; rotating around an invisible orb in the center of his chest. The Brute was confused, but he knew that whatever it was wasn't good for him so he had to rush in, to stop whatever the boy was doing.

At that moment, Victor’s perception of time had somehow begun to crawl.

He remembered his home.

His mom.

Gabriella.

Jin.

Commander Julius.

Muffin.

His father

The blood spilled on his hand.

The lives he had saved on that ship.

The betrayal he felt that day.

and...Keiko.

Victor screamed his lungs out as he pulled both his hands back. The Brute brought his mace down. However with both of injured hands, Victor brought it full force against the ball of spikes, and no one had expected what came next

At first, it was a tiny crack then it grew larger and larger in a matter of milliseconds.

The Brute’s weapon exploded into smithereens and he was thrown against a tree at high speed. The Brute had broken the tree he crashed against. The foliages shook from the burst of force before calming back down and there was nothing else except pure silence.

“Amazing…” The Brute coughed out blood as his body remained unmovable with his back against the broken tree.

“But foolish.”

Victor looked at his hands, the attack had shredded the skin on his palm. Blood leaked like the rain while the meat underneath the thick skin can be seen moving inside as his hands trembled. One of his pinky had pointed in an awkward direction, he took hold of that pinky and forced it back in place. Victor screamed before dropping to his knees, he had almost fainted from that sheer pain alone.

“Did you think that this was the end? Defeating me won’t mean shit. We have a couple of dozen men and they are coming. You only prolonged the inevitable.”

Tinder rose in the east, a lively light can be seen coming from a tree-filled hill nearby. Suddenly, ashes began raining down on both of them.

“W-What? That is our camp. How?!” The Brute looked in disbelief.

“Keiko… Did she?”

‘I always finish what I started.’ Those words kept playing his mind

“Keiko!” Victor raised himself and started running toward the hill despite the aching pain.

Truly a grotesque sight to see when he arrived. Blood-drenched furniture was everywhere. decapitated bodies littered all over the ground. burning camp and more bodies. The land had never seen such horrendous sight, it could be years before the blood-soaked ground could lose its dark-red color. Victor was frozen in place as he watched the flame engulfed everything, he could not believe it, no, he didn't want to believe it that this horrific sight was the doing of his teacher. A cough caught his attention, Victor makes his way to the legless man; leaning against a rock.

“Who did this?” Though it was a foolish question, Victor had to confirm it.

“There was a woman…”

“The woman did this?”

“Yes, isn't it obvious! Also, there was a young man. He tried to stop the woman...”

“A young man? Who?!” There was another person here, and Victor needed to know who he was; he grabbed the legless man by the lapel.

“I don’t know. He had the same tattoo… and they seem to know each other.”

“Where did they go? Tell me!” He shook the legless man.

“The Shrine. Deeper into the forest. You need to go around because the path is blocked by a raging wall of fire.”

Victor let go of the man then quickly ran into the burning camp. It was hot, he felt the moisture on his skin saturated to evaporate at an alarming rate and it got only worsened as he passed by a couple of lively fires, even the tip of his hair was slowly singed. That’s not all, it was getting hard to breathe through the thick smoke. After tearing a cloth from a nearby banner, Victor covered his nose and mouth to prevent himself from inhaling more smoke.

After examining his surroundings, the path he sought was as the legless man had told, blocked by a raging wall of fire as tall as the castle wall back home. There wasn’t a way to go through it, and his only option is to go back, but Victor can’t waste more time. At first, it was a single droplet of water landed on his head then it became a few then it became a thousand and finally, it was uncountable; thunder roared across the sky above, but it wasn’t enough to calm the fire. Victor proceeded to tore a drenched banner and wrapped himself with it.

His body was soaked from the rain, but that was his plan. He took off into a run and leaped through the wall of fire. It only took a few seconds, but Victor felt the scorching hot fire embraced his body. Appearing on the other side, his drenched fabric was steaming, Victor took off the fabric and followed the path deeper into the forest.

Pouring wet from the rain, Victor’s body was cleaned from blood and dirt. He stepped through the red shrine gate. It was a small shrine just like the legless man had foretold, a small open building with a wooden box inside and white braided ropes that tied to each main support beam. However, his heart dropped when his gaze rested on the steps. He ran as fast as he could and dropped to his knee by her side. His heart tightened, his arms were shaken as his lips parted with disbelief.

“Keiko?”

She leaned on the shrine's steps while her sword slant against the beam and the blood underneath her was washed away by the rain.

“V-Victor is that you?”

“It’s me.” Victor took hold of her hand.

“Ah, I’m sorry, but it’s hard to see right now. Hey?”

“Yeah?” His grip tightened.

“Do you hate me? Are you scared of me? Am I a monster?”

“No! You’re not,” answered Victor as fast as he could.

Keiko chuckled but stopped quickly when it ended with heavy coughing, “Such a wonderful lie. I don’t deserve you, Victor. I don’t deserve your admiration, your respect, your kindness, your warmth.”

“That’s not true. You taught me everything I need to know. You make sure that I could survive even in the toughest situation fate can throw at me. You even care for me more than I deserved, and you need help right now. Please let me help you.”

“I do wonder if my life would change if I ever accepted your offer and left everything behind me. Now it’s too late, but it’s better this way.”

“You kept saying that it's better this way, but it’s not! What is it so better in dying and leaving me alone? Do you hate me so much that you are willing to die to get away from me?”

“No! Of Course not.” Keiko tightened her grip.

“Then why?”

“I’m a bad apple. I don't want to drag you down with me.”

“No, you won’t. I’ll keep both of us afloat, I'll make sure of that.”

“Hey. Hey. One last lesson?” A comforting smile appeared.

“No, please don’t. Just stay awake. I’m going to find you a healer. You just need to hold on, okay?” Her body was slowly getting cold in his arms, and it was the undeniable truth that she won’t make it.

“Don’t be like me…”

Suddenly, Keiko’s body became heavy, and her head tilted against his chest. Victor's jaw dropped as she leaned her lifeless body against him. He froze; it was...too late. Again.

“Keiko?”

She had exhaled her last breath, there was nothing left, except for cold flesh. A truth that Victor denies so furiously. A truth that shouldn’t come to be, was it his fault? Was his meddling caused all of this? It seemed to be pointed toward that truth. Once again, he had taken someone he cared about away from this mortal world. He was the reason Keiko fought all this enemy because Victor was too blind to see past egotistical ideals and saw the consequence of his actions.

“Keiko!”

“Keiko!!”

No matter how much he shouted her name, there’s no way he could bring her back. It was pointless. There he was, his tears were invisibly blinded by the rain, but most of it was there, dripped down to his chest. There’s nothing more painful than losing someone, not even the injuries he had suffered, the humiliation he had experienced, the betrayal of the people he trusted, nothing could upset the feeling of a life being taken away from you. Especially when that life you had grew to care for it so much.