When the Butcher
Comes to Hate The Slaughter
‘Ah, good
evening, gentleman. Do not worry, I am not here for you.’ Said the man in the
top hat, his face hidden away behind a white mask depicting joy. He had
appeared without warning, dropping in from the ceiling to land with a small
click of his shoes. When he straightened up, his arms were crossed behind him
and an initiator had landed beside him with blades in hand. ‘I am here for that
little lass you have been listening to. Though, I fear she may be older than
you can imagine for a twelve year old.’
Without
thinking, I already reached down toward my sword as everyone else grabbed their
various firearms and drew them. Without thinking, they opened fire on the man
and the girl at his feet, the bullets stopping mere inches from him before
being sent back in a hail of lead. I drew my blade and, stepping in front of my
friend, I parried and cut down every stray bit of metal that came our way… and
accidentally destroyed a rather gaudy lamp that was standing nearby. No one
would miss it.
As bodies
fell to the ground in resounding thuds coming from every point around the table
and even the guards that had been present in the corners of the room. I held my
sword up, the tip of the blade pointed down toward the ground as I usually did
whenever I planned on striking first. “Ah… Fuck… Not you. Shouldn’t you be dead
by this point in the story?” He simply chuckled to himself, one of his hands
casually drawing one of his pistols to point it toward Edmund, right over my
head. ‘Oh, Rentaro keeps me busy, but I would feel ashamed not to give someone
of your reputation a proper greeting, Regret. After all, I am a fan of your
work.’
He brought
his free arm around and clapped roughly three times to show his approval, his hand
thudding against the gun as he did. Though, that act simply made me rather sick
to my stomach at the thought. “What do you want, hmm? Here to stop my advances…
If not, then you have done such a thing… or at least brought them to a speed
bump. Though, why shouldn’t I kill you where you stand?”
I couldn’t
tell what he was feeling because of the mask, instead, he simply brought his
gun back up toward Edmund… and then snapped down toward me to fire a few of
those varanium bullets and then back up toward Edmund, firing a few more as a
follow-up. With a quick thought and a shift of my body, I hopped just high
enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Edmund and deflected the bullets, a
few managing to slip through my defenses as I was distracted by Kagetane and
his daughter leaving through the hole in the roof that they came through. To
make matters worse, I honestly think that I was… tired. Just… Tired. I didn’t
have time to think about it, however, as I fell to the ground and, as that rare
sensation of pain started to seep in, I fell forward onto the ground with a
light thud. “Dang it, Edmund… Need to work on your reaction speed. I think I am
going to take a nap…”
It took a
full day for my regeneration to kick back in after that, as I was too exhausted
mentally to force it through the use of my other abilities. I am not sure what
was causing this, but I simply did not feel like fighting this time around, so
I took my chances with remaining in bed most days until they forced me to climb
out of bed and return to healing those that were infected.
This lasted
for six full years… I just… I just had a hole in my desires. I couldn’t enjoy
combat or challenge. It was as if I found no reason in it anymore. Why should I
continue fighting when I have already killed more people in more ways than even
a middle schooler’s edgy favorite character ever think of doing? The desire to
fight was simply gone, even when I ran into the situations where I had to
fight, I simply, took them out as quickly as possible. No thought, no try at
giving them a chance or making their death creative, I simply slaughtered them
in the quickest, least painful way possible.
There were two years left before I
ever ran into the chance to redeem myself and reignite my passions… At least
that was what I told myself as I watched everyone turned into Gastrea before my
eyes.
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