-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Eight Trigrams Organisation(3): Kenshin’s answer-

“That’s a very nice proposal, this would even benefit all sides. A hunter can even do more service to their home country this way, but, I refuse!” he didn’t even take half a minute to consider before refusing.

Lily who was preparing to introduce him formally into the group as per the standard procedures took a step back in surprise. Her eyes widened, and her mouth opened unconsciously. She felt like she was having hearing problems for a second.

Refused! He refused?

“Why?” taking a few seconds to gather her wits, she looked at him incredulously and asked. From what she knew, given the position and benefits, no one would decline it. Many people of varying status apply for this organization regularly, only to get rejected. But here was someone who declined it even when the organization itself was calling for him! How can that be considered normal?

“I admit the benefits and respect that would come from this would be huge. Most importantly if one held the ID of this organization, he could do almost anything in Japan without much trouble…” Kenshin slowly said making Lily, who was thinking that he was ignorant, frown. She shook her head and looked at him in the eye “Then why? If you know all this then why are you rejecting this hard to come by chance?”

Looking at her face for a second, he sighed and turned around to look at the DCB office where Yuki works at. Then he shifted towards the direction of Mrs. Yui’s house, giving a sidelong glance towards that direction, he finally looked at her in the eye before saying. “I just don’t want to be tied down.”

“Huh!?” Lily made a face that said that she didn’t understand what he was talking about. Smiling at her, Kenshin replied

“A position with power always has a responsibility attached to it. Although talking responsibility was not a bad thing, but sometimes this responsibility clashes with personal happiness. If a person goes forth and does things for others putting aside his personal happiness, people call him a hero. A martyr if he dies.

But, me! I don’t want to be a hero.

I just want to smile with my family. I want to joke around with my neighbors. I want to return home to that smile of my family. I want to sit down and play games or watch movies on Saturday night. I want to go to the Sunday market and haggle for the prices with the shop owner, and in the end, only manage to reduce the price by a dollar or less. I want to go to a long drive whenever I want…all these things are small and mundane, but I want to be a guy who does these mundane things.

Being Hero is not my cup of tea.”

All these things that Kenshin spoke of were all normal things, but it had a profound meaning behind it. And he spoke them without any shame, he spoke his deepest wish of becoming a mundane man without any shame being ridiculed. But Lily didn’t think like that.

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“You…I am really disappointed in you Muto Kenshin. I have never thought that you would be a spineless coward. No wonder you are suppressed by other people.” Gritting her teeth in anger, Lily shouted in rage. Her face was red with veins showing on her forehead. She never thought that the person his boss was looking for had such a mentality.

Kenshin, who was just preparing to go on his way suddenly stop hearing Lily’s curses. His body tensed for a second before relaxing as a calm look appeared on his eye. He didn’t look the least bit angry or conflicted after hearing Lily’s curse. Without even turning back, his calm voice broke the silence of the night “Coward! That may be so. I might be a coward, after all, to think only of myself when there were people like you, risking their lives every day for the sake of others. But, this is who I am! I will no longer hesitate.”

After that Kenshin used his full agility and vanished from the spot, leaving behind a very surprised and angry Lily behind. Gritting her teeth in anger and disappointment, she kicked the road beneath making a large dent on it, before turning around and vanishing from the spot. The night again fell to silence, only deep trenches remained as a proof of an epic battle of wills.

Running across the road at his full speed held a unique pleasure for Kenshin, which he just found today. He never knew that it would be this relaxing to exhaust his stamina and then allow it to recover slowly. It made him feel alive like a normal person. Although he had no interest in being a normal human, he couldn't get used to the strength increase this soon. Although he wanted to do everything a mundane and normal human does, he never wanted to be a normal man himself. His wish was contradictory like that. If he strives to be a normal man, how can he protect his loved ones?

He had enough of placing his fate in other’s hands. For once he wanted to control his own fate and decide what he does. But in this world, if he wants to control his own fate, getting stronger was the only option. Without strength you cannot save yourself, let alone others. Only strength can bring change.

Kenshin streaked across the empty road like a tornado wind as he pushed forth with his full power. To the world, he was but a blur, but in his eyes, the scenery didn’t change from when he was only walking. With an increase in perception, it was like he was living in a different time dimension than others or even the world’s. Although he was yet to find out the true use of [Sensory perception], whatever side effects were already proving to be very advantageous to him.

In a high-intensity battle where speed matters, the worst thing that can happen was having a tunnel vision and becoming unaware fo the surroundings. Not only the opponent might take advantage of this, one even susceptible to other sneak attacks. That’s not a good thing, most of the time monsters never fight alone, even if it might be a boss monster. Dungeons that were above level 10 always had many mini-boss level monsters around the main boss. If one intended to challenge the boss alone, they might have to keep track of these lesser monsters, or else their sneak attacks would be fatal.

Rarely ever hunter hunts a demon alone on those dungeons. Only absolutely strong hunters like those who surpassed level 200 would dare to do so. Since their bodies had already undergone second Awakening, their body wouldn’t be any lesser than these monsters. These people can even survive having a bullet firing at their eyes without any trouble or wound. Even heavy weaponry wouldn’t be of any use against them. Only someone of equal or stronger than them can contend against them.

There were even people who could crush diamonds, which was considered to be one of the hardest minerals found on earth, to dust with their bare hands.

Shaking his head of these useless things, Kenshin speeds up towards his home. Tomorrow, a very arduous battle awaiting him in the form of sea monsters. He must prepare before that.