The Pleasure of Slaughter

It was midnight, in the cemetery...

Bai Junyi stood beside Kuina's coffin, his clothes neat and intact. In his hand was a long sword buried as a grave offering. It wasn't Kuina's original sword, Wado Ichimonji, but it was still a fine blade. He gazed at Kuina, whose clothes inside the coffin had been restored to their original neatness, and smiled tenderly.

After a long while, Bai Junyi slowly lowered his head and kissed Kuina's delicate, cherry-red lips once more. Her slightly cool tongue was drawn into his mouth. Bai Junyi's eyes slowly closed as he greedily took in her scent, as though he wanted to engrave this moment deep into his soul.

At last, their lips parted. Bai Junyi gently smoothed the stray hairs across Kuina's forehead and whispered, "Remember, Kuina, my name is..." He paused, and a seemingly unhealthy longing surfaced in his eyes.

"Bai Ina. My name is Bai Ina. I'll carry the talent and knowledge I inherited from you, take up your dream, and become the world's greatest swordsman alongside you." Bai... Bai Ina gently caressed Kuina's face, his expression full of love. "Kuina, you rest well here, okay?"

"From today onward, you're my wife. Whether you admit it or not, Kuina, you're my wife—the wife I love most in this life, the wife of me, Bai Ina."

As he spoke, Bai Ina slowly slid the coffin lid closed.

But he didn't notice that, just as the coffin shut, Kuina's tightly closed eyes gave the faintest twitch...

He gradually filled in the soil and tidied up the area, making sure it looked much as it had before. Then Bai Ina turned around and slowly disappeared beneath the cover of the pitch-black night...

The cemetery fell silent once more, yet somewhere in the darkness, it seemed a heartbeat stirred...

At the Frost Moon Village pier, a dim oil lamp hung from a post at the end of the bridge.

In the lamplight, four young men dressed as Marines huddled together, playing Old Maid.

"Damn it, it's getting colder and colder at night!" one of the crew-cut young men complained.

The Marine beside him gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "Put up with it. We have to, no matter how cold it gets. If that little bastard escapes, all four of us will be killed by Master Kudri."

"Yeah, what a miserable little brat. If it weren't for him, I'd be home cuddling my wife and sleeping by now."

"Oh? You have a wife? Just say you're cuddling your right hand. No one'll laugh at you..."

"Hahahaha—"

"..."

They traded jokes and insults.

"Isn't Master Kudri going a little too far?" the youngest boy asked quietly.

"..."

The group fell silent at once. Their gazes snapped toward the boy, and the crew-cut man even stepped forward and clamped a hand over his mouth. After glancing around, he scolded him angrily, "Idiot, if you want to get yourself killed, don't drag us down with you! You just joined the Marines, so you don't know yet—Master Kudri isn't someone you want to cross."

The boy pulled the crew-cut man's hand away, his face clouded with concern. "But he's only a nine-year-old child who doesn't know anything."

"So what?" An older Marine sneered. "If it weren't for the Marines, pirates would've ravaged this place countless times by now. What does it matter if we kill a little bastard? Besides, he has no parents. If he died, no one would even look for him."

"Enough with the 'buts.' I don't think that kid's got the guts to run anyway. If he doesn't, we won't even have to lift a finger. So just relax and play cards. When the next shift arrives in the morning, you can go home and cuddle your right-hand wife."

"Exactly, exactly. Hahahaha—"

Clop, clop, clop—

Just then, the sound of approaching footsteps reached the Marines' ears.

"Who's there?!"

They each grabbed a standard-issue Marine sword and warily stared toward the sound.

In the direction they were watching, a small figure approached, gradually entering the oil lamp's light.

The moment they recognized the figure, surprise flashed across their faces, but their tense bodies relaxed.

"Well, well, look who it is!" the older Marine said with a mocking expression. He didn't move, but watched Bai Ina's small figure draw closer with an amused look. Only when Bai Ina stood before him did he sneer. "Heh, you really had a way out of heaven, but you chose not to take it. If you'd stayed away, you could've lived one more day. Why not make the most of it? And besides..."

The older Marine's gaze shifted down to the long sword in Bai Ina's hand, at his waist, and he burst out laughing. "Hahahaha... You even brought a crappy old sword... Hahaha, did you come here to entertain us?"

"Hahaha—"

The others joined in, laughing at the sight.

Bai Ina's expression didn't change. He simply gazed at the Marines before him, as calm as if he were looking at the dead. The older Marine felt a chill run through him, and his laughter gradually died away.

But in the next instant, humiliation welled up inside him. His mocking face flushed red, and he sneered at Bai Ina. "Forget it, brat. Time to die. Don't blame me after you're dead. You brought this on yourself by walking into your own death and ruining Master Kudri's plans."

As he spoke, his hand closed around the hilt at his waist. Grinning viciously, he was about to cut Bai Ina down.

Clack—

Rattle—

But something unexpected happened. The Marine's standard-issue sword was still sheathed when a hilt suddenly blocked it with a clack, forcing it back with the metallic rattle of a blade sliding into its scabbard. The older Marine followed the hilt that had stopped him from drawing his sword.

Bai Ina had reversed his grip on the hilt, and his blade was almost halfway out of its scabbard. He leaned slightly forward. If the older Marine could have seen Bai Ina's lowered face, he would have been horrified.

For the porcelain-doll face was now filled with bloodlust and a sinister aura.

Smack—

In almost the blink of an eye, Bai Ina stepped back slightly, and his sword slid fully from its scabbard.

"One Sword Style—Draw Sword Technique—Iai Slash!"

The cold words rang in the older Marine's ears. They were the last words he would ever hear. Bai Ina's sword swept sideways in an instant, tracing a crescent through the air before him.

Shing—

His sword slid back into its scabbard. Bai Ina didn't even look at the older Marine as he walked past him and headed toward the other three Marines.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye, so quickly that the three Marines behind him hadn't even realized what had happened.

"Hahaha, what's wrong? Did you spend too long with your right-hand wife last night and wear yourself out? Did a little kid's fake swing scare you so badly you can't move?"

The crew-cut Marine saw Bai Ina pass the older Marine and walk toward them. He froze for a moment, then jeered.

But what happened next made him and the other two Marines stop breathing.

In the dim lamplight, a thin line of blood slowly appeared across the older Marine's neck. In an instant, blood soaked his throat.

The next moment—

The older Marine's head rolled to the ground, coming to a stop at Bai Ina's feet. With his head gone, blood burst from the stump of his neck, painting the space behind Bai Ina in red.

Smack—

The headless corpse fell flat into the pool of blood, splashing it everywhere.

Blood spattered across Bai Ina's tender face. Beneath the dim lamplight, he looked like a murderous elf beneath the setting sun...

"W-what? Th-this..."

The three remaining Marines stared dumbfounded at the shocking scene, their minds going blank...

They couldn't believe it... They couldn't believe their comrade, a Marine trained to fight, had died so easily from a single strike. If it had been someone else, perhaps they could have believed it for a moment. But the one who had killed their comrade was a child of only nine. Their shock was accompanied by an overwhelming terror of Bai Ina...

Bai Ina casually wiped the blood from his cheek. His gaze shifted to his shoes, now soaked in blood, and then to the head beside his feet.

At that moment, he felt no fear... nor the nausea of killing for the first time. Instead, a fervent craving for strength and the thrill of his first kill rose within him—

He slowly looked away, then turned his gaze back to the three remaining Marines. "Now... it's your turn!"

His bone-chilling voice reached the three of them. Their bodies trembled slightly, but the sound also snapped them out of their stupor...

They felt an overwhelming wave of terror. Under Bai Ina's cold, bloodthirsty gaze, they instinctively stepped backward... They had witnessed their comrade's horrific death, and the sight had left a shadow in their hearts. Now, seeing that they might suffer the same fate, they had no desire to die. They steeled themselves and decided to fight to the death!

"Attack together! No matter how strong he is, he's still just a nine-year-old brat!" the crew-cut young man roared. His muscles bulged as he threw himself into the fight, charging at Bai Ina with his sword raised. The other young Marine followed close behind, while the boy who had spoken up for Bai Ina hesitated, then charged too.

Bai Ina didn't change expression. He calmly lowered his body, letting the crew-cut Marine's sword skim past the tips of his hair. Without stopping, Bai Ina stepped back and narrowly dodged the sword another Marine swung in from the side. Then the sword at his waist flashed out of its scabbard.

"One Sword Style—Fang Thrust!"

Gripping the sword with both hands, he thrust it forward like a soaring dragon. In the blink of an eye, it pierced the crew-cut Marine's heart before he could pull back his blade. The tip emerged from his back, trailing strands of heart muscle.

But his movements didn't stop there. He stepped back again, pulling the sword from the crew-cut Marine with a spray of warm blood. In the same motion, he swept it sideways at the other Marine.

The crew-cut Marine toppled to the ground. A line of blood appeared across the neck of the other Marine charging in. Blood poured uncontrollably from his mouth. He opened his lips as if to say something, but he could no longer force out a word. He fell just like the crew-cut Marine, twitched a few times, then lay still, dead.

It had all happened so quickly that the Marine boy, who had fallen behind after hesitating, was terrified. He stopped in his tracks, staring fearfully at Bai Junyi's small figure, which was nonetheless surrounded by a terrifying aura.

Bai Ina didn't even glance at the two bodies. He turned and walked unhurriedly toward the only Marine boy left in the clearing, sword in hand.

Tap, tap, tap, tap—

His crisp footsteps seemed to pound on the boy's heart, making it hard for him even to breathe. His body collapsed to the ground, and he didn't have the courage to move an inch.

Bai Ina walked up to the boy and looked down at him. The sword in his hand suddenly rose—

Whoosh, whoosh—

The blade cut through the air, and blood sprayed.

"Ahhhhhh..."

The Marine boy's agonized screams rang out. Bai Junyi stepped right over him and continued toward the pier.

But... the Marine boy behind him hadn't died. One of his arms and one of his legs had been severed, and now lay on the ground in a pool of blood.

Bai Ina paused. His cold voice rose over the boy's screams. "Tell Kudri that I... Bai Ina will return one day! And that will be the day he dies." With that, he jumped off the pier and landed on a small sailboat about five meters long.

But as soon as he landed, his body trembled. He staggered several times, and the moonlight revealed how pale he had become.

Although Bai Ina had inherited Kuina's talent for the sword, her understanding of swordsmanship and her memories—even the instincts she had developed from years of training—he hadn't inherited her physical strength. As a result, he couldn't perform many of the sword techniques in Kuina's memories. The few moves he had just used had already exhausted him. Anyone could have cut him down now.

The little boat slowly drifted from shore. Bai Ina slumped against the mast, watching the island where he had lived for four years gradually recede.

After Bai Ina's boat disappeared into the darkness, two people stood silently at one side of the pier, watching in the direction he had gone.

"Kids these days really can't be underestimated, Dragon..." said a man with a large head, a purple afro, and... an eccentric outfit... He was probably a man.

Beside him stood someone wearing a hooded cloak.

"The tide of the age is rising. It's bound to create one generation of outstanding figures after another. But I can't say whether such extreme behavior is good or bad..."

The man called Dragon murmured.

The man with the dark-purple afro smiled at that. "Everyone has their own opportunities. You can't force them. But Bai Ina... heh, what an interesting name!"

"..."

The two fell silent. Their figures gradually faded into the darkness, while the Marine boy screaming where he lay didn't notice their presence at all...