Chapter 421: Matsuo's Ideals
Chapter 421: Matsuo’s Ideals
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“Stop!”
He generated a blade of holy light pointing it at her, and about to slice her in half!
“No! Please!”
However, he stopped before killing her.
“Ah…”
Her face was filled with tears, her lips were trembling, her entire body was trembling like a little animal.
“Stop… Sniff… Please don’t kill us… Sniff… Please!”
“What… what are you doing, Sakura?! He’s… the enemy…!” muttered Uehara.
“Shut up, you idiot!” cried the Oni girl, hitting Uehara’s chest.
“Ungh…!”
Matsuo was left surprised, he never expected to see an Oni, such a barbarian race filled with man-eating demons to cry before a human.
“Please… No more… I don’t want to fight anymore… I just want to live in peace…”
“Peace…?”
“Please forgive us! I implore of you…”
The Oni girl kneeled before Matsuo, as his legs felt weak.
“Don’t kill us please… Sniff…”
“Stop, Sakura! He’ll kill you if you kneel! You bastard…! Agh…”
Matsuo suddenly felt like his concept of Onis was moved upside down.
His hands began to tremble as he felt disgusted with himself.
He was about to slice in half a girl?
What was wrong with him?
The blade dissipated as Matsuo fell to his knees.
“I also don’t want to fight anymore…” he sighed.
“You… don’t?” she asked.
“No… Promise me that… You won’t fight us anymore either,” said Matsuo.
“I promise!” she cried.
Matsuo smiled a bit as he petted her head.
“Sometimes I wonder what’s the difference between both of our races… Can you show me that… I was wrong about the Oni?” asked Frank.
“Sniff… I will…”
“That’s good…” Matsuo suddenly knocked out the Oni girl.
“You bastard! STOP! LET HER GOOOO! I AM… AGH…! STOP! D-DON’T KILL SAKURA! KILL ME INSTEAD!”
“You care about her, don’t you?” asked Matsuo.
“Tch…! What would a senseless human like you even understand about feelings?!” roared Uehara.
“Ah… You’re the bastard that ate people back then! Don’t speak back to me like that!” roared Matsuo, kicking Uehara’s stomach and then carrying him over his shoulder.
“Ugh…! I didn’t kill anyone… Why would I even eat the disgusting humans? Your flesh tastes like shit!” roared Uehara.
“What? You didn’t kill the people in the shrine?” asked Matsuo.
“I was staying there, it was already abandoned and run by Yokai when I got there, I don’t know what people you’re even talking about!” said Uehara.
“Well, even then, you bastard still tried to kill me!” said Matsuo.
“Because you killed those Yokai! Those were my friends!” said Uehara.
“You were friends with Yokai?!” asked Matsuo.
“Do you think that Yokai is just senseless monsters?!” asked Uehara.
“Then you should have told me that they were your friends!” said Matsuo.
“What would a barbarian human understand?!” roared Uehara.
“…”
Matsuo felt both angered and… sad at the same time. The dispute between races, his bias against Oni, and Uehara’s bias against humans made all these misunderstandings end in such a fight where Uehara almost died.
“Sigh… Why do we even fight?” sighed Matsuo.
“Why? I fight to protect my people!” said Uehara.
“Well, I do the same…” sighed Matsuo.
“…”
Uehara and Matsuo stopped talking, as Matsuo gave orders to the troops.
“Stop fighting!”
The entire battlefield shook.
Oni was already losing, and there were many of them with mortal wounds, but the Monks stopped fighting.
“What are you talking, Matsuo?! Why are you giving us such orders?!” asked one of the Monks. Matsuo was in the position of General, if he said so, everyone should stop fighting.
“Matsuo reached to the wounded Oni and began to heal them one by one. Those that were in the border of death were left speechless, and those that were still oaky had stopped fighting as well after they saw their comrades suddenly being healed by the enemy itself.
“Why…?” asked an old and rugged Oni.
“I am tired of fighting,” said Matsuo.
“…”
Uehara glanced as Matsuo saved his comrades.
“Why are you doing this? What… why…”
“Because I want to give you guys an opportunity,” said Matsuo.
“Wouldn’t it be better to just kill us ruthlessly and just… end the war instead? What’s the point of keeping us alive, will you enslave us or something?!” asked Uehara.
“No, we are just going to stop fighting. If the Elders of my Clan refuse… I’ll fight them and force them to accept,” said Matsuo.
“What? You’re nuts…” said Uehara.
“Maybe… She changed me a bit…” sighed Matsuo.
“Sakura? She’s… always been a dork…” sighed Uehara.
“Maybe we need more dorks in our clans. At least they’re more intelligent than us to understand that our conflict was just pointless. Our ancestors died long ago, we keep fighting for them, for honor, for… a bunch of crap. Who cares what happened in the past? What’s important is the present… If we can just forgive each other for our biases, can’t we change how we live and… keep living? You want to live, right? And we also want to live. We want to live both in peace. We are just… actively making conflicts and wars for each other, we don’t even need each other’s resources. They are just stupid grudges…” said Matsuo.
“You sound like an idealist asshole…” said Uehara.
“Yeah, I am.” Said Matsuo.
Uehara smiled a bit.
“You almost killed me twice and now you’re spitting all of this nonsense. You bastard… But I can’t help but agree with you,” sighed Uehara.
“Oh? You were not as nuts as I thought, you gave away the Battle Junkie trope a lot,” said Matsuo.
“The fuck are you talking about?” asked Uehara.
“Haha, nothing… I guess we all are more complex than we seem,” sighed Matsuo.
…
Time rewinds itself a few seconds in the past, as Frank confronted the furious granddaughter of Shuten Doji.
A powerful fist hit her stomach, making her vomit a mouthful of blood, and ending up clashing over the ground.
However, her fury exploded like a blazing bomb of infernal flames, rushing towards Frank.
Frank glanced at her with a calm expression.
“I’ll defeat you and end this.”
“RRAAAAAAAH!”
CLAAASH!
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