“Hey, Fourth, as a Japanese man, what is your preferred weapon?”

“A gun.”

“I bet for some lazy reasons.”

“Nineteenth, you already knew the reason…why asks?”

“No, it’s just funny.”

Nineteenth smirks at me as I frankly said my answer which in return, I made a scowling gaze.

We are currently dining in a hotel in Dubai for another mission which we have paired up once again. The heat is unbearable for someone like me so I really prefer staying at an expensive hotel with air conditioner.

Water is sparse but as expected of such place, fuel is much cheaper. However, I don’t have any use of fuel so it doesn’t really matter. As for Nineteenth, she said that extremely hot or cold places don’t bother her anymore.

I kind of adore her for her adapting abilities to such extremities.

“What were you saying again?”

“Geez Fourth. Like what I said, aren’t Japanese people should be fond of swords like katana?”

“I am pretty sure that’s a shitty generalization. Do you like it when I say that Americans are all hamburger eaters?”

“That’s a strange thing to add to the conversation but yeah… that pretty much summed up Americans.”

“Tsk.”

“Come on now, I’ll stop with my subtle racist remarks!~ Let’s just eat okay? And later, eat me up will you?”

“If I am in the mood.”

It has always been like this between us. Paired up in a mission, lodge in an expensive hotel, dine, then have a long night.

I don’t dislike it but I don’t think I can get used to Nineteenth’s whims. For example, in my first mission, she made me attempt and assassination using only a pencil. She was flabbergasted when I made the target swallow the pencil whole while sleeping.

She laughed for the whole day while saying how I really did obey her stupid order. As her assistant that time, I had no choice but to bid every single thing she say.

“Hey Fourth, what do you think of the organization? Aren’t we all just murderers? Or do you feel like we are some kind of heroes?”

“Does it matter? We kill…for a certain goal.”

“That’s how you always think. However, don’t you think that we those who weed out bad crops that won’t let others to flourish? We are live very heroic existence, don’t you think?”

“Heroic huh, that’s funny. I think if I give it a little thought… we are those who keep the balance of this world, no, we the protectors of balance. If you put the perspective to our target, we are the reapers.”

“Hahaha! You do have a romanticist side after all. But, I like that. We are the Protector of Balance and if we turn it the other way around, Reapers.”

“Well, if I can give a brief answer, we just shit mowing down more shit. I don’t complain though as long as I make a huge sum of money out of it.”

“Speaking of shit, the food here tastes horrible! Do these middle east people cook nothing decent at all? Like hamburger.”

“It’s not really funny anymore Nineteenth…you and your dark sense of humor.”

“Well, what can I do? I do not have anything special to talk about. Flirting with you is useless.”

I only scoff at her words as I forced to eat the horrible food in my mouth. Then again, maybe the food here is not palatable for us. Overly cooked and with weird strong spices…

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Hey Fourth, don’t you think people are attracted to death?”

“What is this out of nowhere again?”

“If you think about it, almost all of the people in the world follow a culture that visits the dead even once a year?”

“I don’t know. Do you see anything beautiful about death?”

“Nah, I just thought that one people’s secondary instinct is to admire death.”

“Why is that?”

“If someone just got run over by a car and die, people will start flocking. They already know that it is dead yet, they flock out of curiosity.”

“There are various reasons for that and one could call it bystander effect.”

“That’s not it. Don’t you think that death drives people to live? That those onlookers are looking at the dead body to strengthen their will to live?”

“I couldn’t give much thought about other people, less, the dead. You are asking the wrong person.”

“I know right.”

“Tsk.”

The possibilities of Nineteenths words are seemingly believable. She is wise but not morally adjusted person. I can’t say for sure that I have morally adjusted myself, however, I can see where she is pulling this question from.

PING

A weird sound suddenly beeps from somewhere. I am guessing it came from her phone. Nineteenth pulled her phone out and skid through the screen.

She reads something from it and a smile blooms from her face.

“Hahaha! The soggy old Chinese is still well huh…”

“Hmm?”

“Ah, an old acquaintance of mine just sent me a message. It’s a noodle loving man named Yang. It seems he has gone and adopted some kids!”

“That’s interesting. This man named Yang, what about him?”

“Ah, well, he is some sort of an ex-member from the organization. He is now a traveling exorcist or some sort that uses Feng shui or voodoo whatsoever.”

“Oh? Such thing exists?”

“Yeah, this man is really good at it! However, to adopt kids at his age, I think he just thought of retiring huh.”

“Kids?”

“Yeah, some kids with a surname like Murayama or something blah blah Japanese thing. Do you know what that means?”

“That closest to rang is mountain village or something.”

“Or something…Are you really a full pledge Japanese man?”

“I am not.”

“Well, anyway, I am full. I don’t want to eat more of this. Let’s go.”

“Hmph.”

.

.

.

CLANK!

The Devil I stagger as our swords met.

I immediately propelled my body to dodge the upcoming thrust of Devil II and land a kick on its face. I then twist my body fling myself out of the upcoming hammer’s way which made a thundering sound.

One by one, devil after another devil, our weapon clashes with synchronized rhythm. My bones, my muscles, and my nerves regenerate instantaneously with every attack that my body and torso withstand from them.

Devil III’s axe flew above me which I dodged with a little margin.

I won’t last long if I keep exchanging blows with them. My body will wear down and I don’t even know if these atrocities have any stamina to speak of.

It wasn’t even a minute since we clashed but the land seemed much desolated than before.

Tsk…

Firstly, I don’t like this power. It keeps me fully awake and it forces me to open all of my senses. Some of my previous abilities became temporarily dormant. Second, it’s a little pain that it will only last a few minutes so I should do something about my situation.

I created a mini warp below me and slip through it which leads very far away from the devils.

I already thought of an idea that will let me deal with them.

I started connecting alternate dimension to this reality and created a crack. A branching world that connected to more branches has opened up in a form of a small distorted space.

Thousands, not only…hundred thousands of an alternate reality are now connected to this world. My arcana magic alone cannot do such feat, however, the power of that man enables me to interfere with reality created by the gods of this world.

Through the torn fabric of space and time continuum which I will later fix, I created loops.

In front of me, a single warp opens up.

I thrust the ten-span sword in my hand through the opened warp with all my might. It feels like I am planting a legendary sword back to its stone slab. From the very tip of the blade up to its very base of the handle, the sword went through the murky void of repetition.

The air around me started cracking and a violent surge of otherworldly power enters this world. Hundred thousand of cracks peek to this world and from the very core of it, the ten-span sword came out from it, duplicated by how many of the cracks are appearing.

This is my own version of Apocalypse…

“[Nineteenth Revolution.]”

Thus, a rain of swords hails down towards the devils with no chance of escape.

They weren’t able to do anything even if they put up their weapons as a guard. The rain of swords was too much for them and their defense collapsed in no more than three seconds. They were able to put up some little resistance as they tried to activate their prized magic that could collapse the land, however, I am no dunce to give them the chance.

I, by no means, am not holding back against the enemy. I just simply miscalculated some factors. If that help didn’t come, I would have been a fanciful carcass.

The land made of sword grave is a tantalizing sight for me. However, as they served their purpose, the swords slowly dissipate to nothingness. Everything was just an image made to become real for a brief time through magic.

The torn fabric of dimensions started to slowly return to normal and the power escapes from my body.

THUD.

I fell on my back.

I feel so heavy and the wounds that I recovered earlier didn’t completely heal. It was just temporarily sewn together. For the meantime, it slowly regenerated to a level where I won’t die.

The graveyard of swords reveals the body of the devils that are now akin to a beehive with all the holes in their bodies. Not soon after, their body started disintegrating to ashes that prove that a devil is defeated.

And I just lay bare here, helpless, unable to stand up anymore and would probably sleep if the adrenaline that my body felt earlier subsides.

I am not a fan of a battle getting dragged, sudden powerups and such.

I am a hitman who does everything swiftly. I am never meant to fight head on or even cross swords with someone. That’s always the truth back in my world.

But since coming here, all I did was to move around.

I am not saying it is bad. It is just tiring…

Well…whatever…

Protector of Balance or Reaper…

I think I choose none.

“Are you satisfied now…hero? Are you satisfied, Nineteenth?”