Every person out there has already wished for someone else to die at least once in their life. That pesky person who keep bothering us, that awkward person who can't do anything, that lazy person that keep pushing their work onto us, and many other examples.

Like how we have people we love, we also have people we hate. We cherish the former while we curse the latter. However, few would actually give their life away to save their loved one. And inversely, few would go out of their way to kill those that they loath.

Life is precious after all. It is difficult to throw or to take it away. That's a general consensus of the entire world. In fact, that is why law and order has been put in places. To prevent the needless loss of life.

But, what if a certain situation were to appear. What if your life was targeted by another one? What if, by some kind of twist, you could not escape nor call for help. What would you do?

Would you choose to throw or to take?

◇

Rin liked challenge. She didn't show it much on her face but that was an undeniable truth. She liked to face difficulties. An easy life isn't interesting— or so is her way of thinking.

However, she still had her limit. Past a certain level of difficulty, she wouldn't find it as fun anymore. For example, if a real meteor were to suddenly fall toward her right this moment, she, obviously, wouldn't find that interesting. That kind of situation would be outright impossible for her to deal with and even if it wasn't, it still wouldn't be a good time for her.

In short, a life that is way too difficult isn't interesting either. Though, unfortunately, Rin didn't have the power to regulate the hardships that comes her way. And right now, she was facing a very difficult one.

“—Ack!” Rin hissed in pain, trying to get away from her enemy.

A bright red blood line was traced from her shoulder down to her hips. The taste of iron surged up in her mouth and her vision blurred. Nevertheless, she didn't have the time to focus on her injuries.

Bolt of electricity keeps coming her away, prompting her to continue running.

“You could have won already.” The voice of the blind man echoed in her ears. “Why are you still hesitating?”

Keeping the word away from her mind, she increased her speed. The girl judged that she couldn't win this fight. That's why her best option would be to run away. And of course, that was easier said than done.

A second of inadvertence was what cost her her chance. Pain and numbness suddenly spread through her back. Sparks of lightning shone around her, clarifying the fact that a ray of electricity had struck her.

Unable to contain her balance, she stumbled on her knees. She let out heavy breath after heavy breath, showing her exhaustion.

‘Damnit.’ She thought.

The footstep of the blind man reverberated behind her. Contrarily to her, her opponent wasn't running, he was calmly walking.

“You're stronger than me and you know it.”

Forced to hear his word, Rin simply closed her eyes. She didn't like the thing the man was talking about.

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“So why won't you do it? That's your only option, you know?”

She didn't understand him, in fact. ‘Why are you saying that to me?’ were the word that kept appearing in her mind. It really weirded her out.

Frowning at Rin's unresponsive silence, the blind man finally arrived in front of her.

“I'll say this just in case, but if you run away here, I will expose your underworld relation to the whole world.”

The black haired girl opened her eyes at the threat. With an angry face she glared at the man.

“What's wrong with you?!” She asked in a hoarse voice.

Like the man had said earlier, Rin could win this fight. The two people's strength was heavenly matched. Although, the blind man had some notion about martial arts, it was apparent that Rin's own was far better than his.

All the man had against Rin was his singularity. And honestly speaking, it wasn't much of an advantage. The black haired girl could easily adapt to it. This wasn't an impossible fight for the girl.

However, from the very beginning, the problem wasn't about her strength. If it was, she wouldn't be on the losing side right now.

The only reason this fight was so difficult was because—

“Do you want me to kill you!?” Rin shouted in an incomprehensive tone.

—To win, she needed to kill her opponent.

Throughout the second half of the battle, she was constantly on the defensive. Her opponent's movement became more decisive and her stamina kept on decreasing. Nonetheless, it wasn't like she couldn't counterattack. She totally could but she didn't.

To be more precise, she didn't want to. Why?

[You lack will]

The blind man's words are the perfect answers. Rin didn't have the courage to kill someone. And that weakness was what led to her current position.

Her opponent had blatantly taken advantage of her. Every time she tried to attack, the man would place himself in a disadvantageous position. He would intentionally move to a position of certain death.

Hesitation would then hinder Rin's movement which was easy to exploit. Of course, this strategy would devastatingly backfire on the blind man the instant the girl gets rid of her hesitation. However, as of right now, she still didn't.

To win, Rin needed to kill. Which could also mean that if she lost, she would die. Incapable of accepting any of those two choices, she decided to flee. To her horror, though, that option just got cut off.

In other words, she had to either take a life or throw her own.

“Yes.”

The weirdly determined response of the man startled Rin. Furthermore, this time, the sadness in his voice showed itself clearly.

“But if you won't,”

The man raised his sword above him.

Despite the fact that he was blind, the girl somehow saw a deep emotion from his eyes.

A desperate one. As if he, himself, was deeply tormented.

“I'll have to kill you.”

After declaring so, he swung his sword downward. Contrarily to the girl, he didn't have any hesitation. He used all of his strength in his attack, genuinely trying to kill his opponent.

The sound of blade clashing against blade echoed. Having recovered enough, Rin used her own katana to block the swing.

Her 'nano-mask' retracted itself upon a command and the girl looked straight at the man.

“Who...” She trailed a little, flinging away the enemy weapon. “Are you?”

Rin stood up and stared at the man. She had already asked this question. Nevertheless, it was little different this time. This time, she 'genuinely' wanted to know who the man in front of her was.

“My name is,” The man began with a wry smile. “Achille.”

With a complicated gaze on her face, Rin listened.

“Would you please,” Formulating a wish, he continued. “...Kill me?”

◇

No sane person would want to die readily. The thought may cross the mind, but no one would go through with it.

Life is precious.

Although Achille asked for it, Rin knew that he, too, didn't want to die. His action proved it. He was and is still fighting the girl with all his strength. He was contradicting himself with his wish.

However, Rin didn't ask for any of his reason. She knew that she wouldn't understand him. And more importantly, the fact remain that this was a death match. Whatever it was that drove Achille forward, Rin similarly didn't want to die.

The choice was still either to kill or be killed.

Though, if one were to be on any of these two people's shoes, that question would be fundamentally wrong. In the first place, it shouldn't even be a choice.

Which of these two results would you be able to achieve? That is the real problem.

“I...” Rin pronounced, exchanging blow with Achille.

The blind man was on the offensive while the girl was on the defensive. The former's attack was still backed with killing intent while the later was still hesitating. It was obvious who had the upper hand.

At the rate it was going—

‘—I will die.’ Rin sadly concluded.

Clenching her sword tightly, the girl deflected her opponent's attack.

Once again, life is precious. And in order to protect it, Rin didn't have the leeway to be a coward.

“...I'm sorry.” She expressed.

Taking hold of her own sub-consciousness, the girl stood firm on her place. Breathing out a long breath, she looked one last time at Achille.

Then, with a resigned face, she ordered herself to kill.

There was just no other way.

She wasn't strong enough to just render her opponent unconscious.

She wasn't strong enough to flee away from him.

And even if she did have enough strength, the man's threat of exposing her connection with unchained was still present.

‘Aren't I pitiful?’ Rin thought self mockingly. ‘Even after I obtained this power. Even after I choose this path.’

Slowly, the girl began to hate herself. But even so, she wasn't courageous enough to accept death.

‘I wonder why.’ She asked herself. ‘Why do I want to so desperately cling to this cruel life?’

Blood finally spurted around signaling the end of the fight.

One life extinguished while the other survived.

However, by no means was there a victor