Doc
New Member
Purpose
An extremely late followup to thisWC : 1,183
The echoing sound of clashing steel was unmistakable. A samurai and his personal god of war fought without end, cloistered within a boundless domain filled with tools of ancient wars long forgotten. Hardly a minute had passed in the physical world since Gorou had slain his adversary, but Gunshin afforded him a battleground completely devoid of the passage of time. An axe adorned his right hand, as it had since their battle had begun and it had been battered to its breaking point. Finally, the weapon shattered which thereby created a pause in their brutal combat.
“WHY DO YOU HESITATE!?” In stopping the battle the eighteenth seat had angered the armored go, but by the time it had asked it had already known the answer to the question. All that kept it from attacking its wielder was that it knew what was coming.
“I...I’ve killed...” the ronin trailed off nearly in awe of his own actions, “I saw the life drain from her eyes. It was because of me. And...” Just then he’d become still and begun staring intently at the ground beneath his feet. To some his stance may have been mistakenly interpreted as one of sadness or regret, but Gunshin knew better.
“AND WHAT!?” Again the war god’s voice boomed with enough power to fill the entire realm. The force of its shouts rattled the weapons in place, kicking up dirt and dust into a wild maelstrom. When the storm had died down, Gorou was clutching on a zanbatou in one hand and a zweihander in the other and he had already begun charging.
“AND IT FELT INCREDIBLE, GUNSHIN!” The samurai’s cry would have overcome his spirit’s voice had his lungs allowed for it, though it too traveled throughout the realm. Just as the attack came at it, Gunshin grunted out of what might have been brief surprise. Its red spear came up in defense, but there was a quality to Gorou’s strikes that were new to their battles. Rather than attack with one weapon in preparation to defend with the other, he swung both massive blades in a downward arc.
Steel crashed against steel, but the defending god hadn’t been fully prepared for Gorou’s newfound ferocity. Hardly a moment was allowed to pass before the blades were brought to bear again, and they repeated in this fashion tirelessly.
For each enraged strike Gunshin’s defense weakened, as well as the rapidly-decomposing spear with which it could do nothing but block or parry. Both blades came down yet again and cut clean through the spear’s handle, allowing their deadly edges to make contact with and cleave through Gunshin’s left arm. The strike caused the God to retreat and yield time for another short pause.
“You can never know what it is to have lost, living within the confines of a blade. I had only become a shinigami to find a purpose. After three hundred years without war...I never could have imagined that I would find it—truly find it within my heart again. I can feel it in my bones: a desire for bloodshed that had become so foreign that I actually feared it,” Gorou’s voice had become quiet and contained by a strange calmness.
“I was afraid of everything. Afraid of battle, and of bloodshed — I even feared the sight of a blade! But you taught me the way of war once again...you showed me what it is to exist only for bloodshed...” as the old man went on and on his voice became quieter and quieter. He was fascinated with his own thoughts, and with the revelations he’d come to of late.
“And then I killed...after centuries, I’ve killed again,” he paused and readied his weapons again, “I finally can feel the ancient bloodthirst in my veins. And I don’t want to lose this feeling ever again,” he spoke through clenched teeth. Anger had suddenly possessed him and before Gunshin could utter a syllable in response the battle had begun once again. A halberd materialized in the armored deity’s remaining hand, but it did little to help.
“I’VE MOURNED TOO MUCH,” his voice boomed as he fought, “PLAYED A VICTIM TOO LONG,” his twofold attacks relentlessly smashed against his spirit’s defenses, “BUT NO LONGER! I WAS A MAN OF WAR AND DEATH ONCE, AND I WILL BUILD THAT REPUTATION ONCE AGAIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND, GUNSHIN!?” With each declaration Gorou’s attacks became more violent, to the point of knocking Gunshin’s weapon out of its hand and severing its arm at the shoulder.
For all of its talk of war and teaching Gorou about regaining his old skills, Gunshin hadn’t been prepared for what was happening. Throughout the battle it had felt its wielder’s thoughts, and they had been filled with memories of carnage and death. It seemed as if the old man had never died, or spent three hundred years wallowing in self-pity. However, what stood before the disarmed god was not the red samurai known that had led troops into battle and kept his wits about him throughout. He seemed more akin to an animal that had been let out of its cage after starving for days.
“Gorou the red samurai,” for what may have been the second time in its entire existence Gunshin spoke without shouting, “IS THIS THE MAN YOU WISH TO BE!?” Even without arms, the god of war stood its ground and faced its wielder down.
“THIS IS WHAT YOU DEMANDED OF ME, GUNSHIN! TO BECOME THAT DEATH-MONGERING KILLER ONCE AGAIN!” Once again Gorou had begun to charge with his massive weapons raised up at his sides. The ever-resilient combat deity followed suite, although it could do little more than vault into the air and aim an axe-kick down at its wielder’s head.
“AND YOU HAVE TAUGHT ME,” both weapons flew up and swung into the armor’s flying path, “THAT I AM NOT A FATHER, OR A HUSBAND, OR AN OLD MAN WITH A HEART FULL OF PEACE!” Both the zanbatou and the deadly zweihander cut clean through Gunshin’s battered armor, cutting it into three clean pieces. They turned in the air thanks to the change in weight, and flopped onto the ground just behind Gorou.
“I am a killer. That is my reason for being,” the enraged samurai muttered the admission. Bitterness and anger resided behind his words, but he could think only of violence. Nothing of the subconscious forces affecting his decisions so much as occurred to him.
In the blink of an eye he found himself back in the golden field, standing just a few feet away from the corpse he’d put down moments ago. Violence raged in his heart and mind, and regardless of his wounds he began to move one once again.
Isolated within its inner world, Gunshin couldn’t stop going over what had happened during their battle. It felt proud to have had such a profound impact on Gorou, but it hadn’t taken into account just how much more violent he would have become. Silently, it thought to itself that it may—just a little bit—have gone too far.