He looked at the ground.
He saw what remained on it — blood, splinters of a sword, and a dream that had broken.
His elbow was still nearly severed. He froze where he stood for a stunned moment, then — with the very hand that had nearly separated from him — drove his fist into the earth with everything he had.
*Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.*
More blood spattered. His hand detached completely. And still he kept striking the ground, harder and harder.
Until his father arrived.
Atomic stopped Monsler from what he was doing and told him he would lose his hand this way. And when he reached for it to examine the damage, Monsler recoiled. "Don't touch me." He yanked his arm back with tremendous force.
This time, the hand did not stay where it was — it remained with his father.
Monsler lost his hand completely. No hand, no fingers — only a forearm bleeding from its end.
With that same severed arm, he tried to stand and punch Sai.
But Sai — cold as ice — stepped on his face and pushed him back to the ground, saying: "Don't raise your voice at me ever again. The loser stays down there on the ground, writhing. I'm the leader now, not you, and the first order I issue to you is never to speak to me again. Since you were ready to kill me just seconds ago, swallow something worse than death down there, you lowlife."
Then Sai walked in the opposite direction.
Atomic shouted in a tone he had never used before: "Sai! Talk to your brother. We didn't agree on a fight like this. Didn't you both promise me you'd remain brothers after the match?"
Sai replied without turning: "Yes, I just remembered that promise. But Monsler broke it first." Then he paused for a moment. "And you should know that I am now the next leader, on the same standing as you — so you don't have the right to give me orders."
And before Atomic could say another word, a cry rose from behind them.
"He ran! He ran! Catch him!"
And some were laughing as they said it: "What a disgrace — the most arrogant boy in the village losing! And to lazy Sai of all people, who barely knows how to hold his sword!"
Sai shouted with a seriousness that silenced every voice: "Be quiet."
Then he turned to trainer Kenji and asked him to follow Monsler and bring him back by evening.
Kenji said "Alright — won't you go yourself?" Sai replied "Go where?" Kenji answered "Actually, King Reidence has rewarded the winner with a two-day sightseeing trip to Luna Maris." Sai smiled faintly. "Well, that's another reason to leave this wretched village for a while. Alright then — I leave you with the task of calming Monsler, Kenji. As for me, I'll go on this trip — and who knows, I might be back by tonight if I don't like it. Alright, goodbye!"
And before anyone realized what was happening, Sai left the village, leapt from the top of the island, and vanished entirely — leaving Kenji to say: "H-that idiot didn't even ask who would be taking him."
---
On the other side, Monsler was running.
Running and running and running.
He didn't know why, and didn't know where to. But he could not stay another moment amid that humiliation, in that place, in front of those faces.
And after running aimlessly without direction, he suddenly found himself before the Kitsugi Tree — the very tree he was used to sheltering beneath.
He looked at it with fury.
He raised his fist.
And began slamming it savagely, for no reason. He himself didn't know why. But the more he struck it with his good hand, the more its bones shattered, the tree cracked, and many of its branches fell.
And with them fell his father's sword, which had been driven into it.
The moment the sword dropped, Monsler sat and stared at it. Then he reached out to take it.
"Oh. Hello there, great samurai."
A voice from behind him.
Monsler picked the sword up from the ground with his left hand — a hand he was not accustomed to fighting with, on top of being already worn out from striking the tree. He turned.
He found a strange man before him.
Dressed in a formal black suit, a tall hat, and an even longer cloak. And stranger still — the mask on his face. A pitch-black mask, like a black hole — no, worse than that — like a void in space, its color so black it was terrifying.
The man continued: "I see you're having a difficult time. Would you like some help?"
Monsler replied. "Hah? You're helping me? And who are you to help me? How dare you look at me with pity in the first place? I... I didn't lose..."
The mysterious man cut him off calmly: "No, sir, don't misunderstand. I'm not a hero who came to rescue you." A smile behind the mask — Monsler could feel it without seeing it. "I'm simply offering you a service in exchange for a small gift from you. It's nothing more than give and take..."
Monsler raised his broken sword with his trembling left hand, pointing it at the stranger. "Get away from me or I'll—"
The man laughed a low laugh — not a cheerful laugh, but one that resembled the rustle of dry leaves. "Or what? You'll stab me with this?" He pointed at the sword in Monsler's grip, then continued: "No — this sword is too precious to be stained by the blood of someone like me. A sword like this shouldn't be used for trivial matters like these. So why not set it down?" "You're in a pitiable state, boy. You're not in any position to be making threats."
The man took a step forward, showing no trace of fear. "My name doesn't matter right now. But what I'm offering you does. I see a fire in your eyes that hasn't gone out yet. Hatred, fury, and an overwhelming desire to crush everyone who laughed at you today. I see someone who is prepared to do anything to reclaim what was taken from him. And I... I respect that kind of ambition."
Monsler said nothing, but his grip on the sword did not loosen.
The man continued in a voice as seductive as a whisper from the dark: "Do you want power? Not some pathetic speed trick like your brother's. Real power. Power that brings them to their knees and keeps them there. Power that finally makes your father look at you — not as a shadow, but as the sun itself. I can give that to you. I can give you everything you've ever dreamed of."
"And what's the price?" Monsler whispered, his voice hoarse from screaming.
The man smiled beneath his mask. "The price... a very simple service. Later. When the time comes. All you have to do right now is accept my offer."
Monsler hesitated. He looked at his severed arm, then at the gleaming sword, then remembered Sai's cold gaze. Remembered the crowd's whispers. Remembered the shame.
*What do I have left to lose?*
"I don't trust you." Monsler said, though his tone held less edge than before.
"I'm not asking for your trust." The man replied. "I'm only asking for your consent. Think about it. You can stay here, alone, broken, and eventually return to the village as your lazy brother's 'deputy.' Or... you can return as the 'nightmare' that no one can stop."
Monsler raised his head, and in his eyes, something else began to take shape. It was no longer grief — it was a cold, hard decision. "And what do I have to do?"
The man reached beneath his cloak and produced a sword that hadn't been visible before — sharpened with terrifying precision, its edge gleaming even in the darkness of the forest as if carrying its own light. He placed it before Monsler with complete simplicity, the way one sets a cup on a table.
"Well, since you're eager — let's get straight to it." The man said. "What I want in return for my service is very simple. That sword in your hand." He pointed one finger at the samurai leader's sword in Monsler's grip. "May I have it?"
"No." Monsler replied with a coldness unmarred by any trembling. "I don't even know who you are. I can give it to you after you show me what you claim — not before."
The man showed no annoyance. He laughed quietly, then said: "I think you've slightly misunderstood. I'm not going to give you energy — that's not what I'm offering." He paused, as if choosing his words with a kind of deliberate pleasure. "What I'm going to give you is magic. Magic that makes whoever stands before you lose without fail — regardless of their size, their strength, or their resolve."
Monsler froze.
"M-..." Then in a voice trying to conceal the shock and not entirely succeeding: "Magic?! Are you a practitioner of forbidden sorcery?"
"Yes." The man said without a moment's hesitation, without shifting his tone by even a fraction. "And does it make sense that you'd fear me for it?"
Silence. Then — with a hesitation that leaned more toward certainty than fear, or at least that was how Monsler wanted to appear:
"O-of course not." He looked at the man with his remaining eye, then at the new sword placed before him, then finally at his father's sword in his grip. "Either way — show me what you've got."
And in that moment, in that forest far from all eyes, the true price began to be calculated.
---
By nightfall, when darkness had settled over all of Anthorland, Sai finally returned.
He was walking and talking to himself: *Oh. I never actually went on any trip — I spent entire hours trying to find where it was, and after I got tired of that I came back. Hah... I'm so tired. Even though running doesn't drain anything from my physical abilities at all. I hope Mom didn't reorganize the room — I really hate that. I can't tell where anything is in the dark when someone else arranges it their way and not mine. Wahhh — I wonder what happened to that narcissist? Probably nothing. But... somehow I feel guilty about him. I think a simple apology might be enough — or probably not, actually yeah probably not. So what do I do? Can I just give up the position? Well, whatever — all I took from him was one hand, while he was going to take my whole life. I still don't understand why I didn't just let him kill me...*
He raised his eyes.
The floating island was on fire.
He rubbed his eyes, thinking it was an illusion or the effect of alcohol. But reality doesn't erase itself.
*Who did this? Who could it be? Is Monsler alright? Is Dad — wait — Mom.*
One second of terror, then it settled: *Yes — who could possibly harm my father? That's impossible. A single punch from my mother nearly killed me yesterday. My family is fine, at the very least. As for the others — to hell with them and their lives. Death suits them better. Well not all of them — I mean I don't want Ken— to die—*
Something struck his foot. Something fell and shattered against him.
He looked down.
Kenji's head — severed, crushed beneath his foot.
Sai froze where he stood.
*W-wait. Kenji... is dead?*
Then the thought spread through his chest like a cold wave: *That means even my parents might not be safe.*
Sai ran at a speed he had never run before — with everything he had — until he reached the wind current that bore the island, and prayed from the depths of himself that he had not arrived too late.
---
When he arrived, he wished he hadn't.
Heads lay strewn everywhere. Literally heads. But he noticed something — every last one of them, every samurai of the village, had been killed the same way: a clean beheading, the body left untouched. As if a mass execution had been carried out on everyone with quiet, deliberate method. And every house was burning — without exception.
*This was no random attack. And this is not Monsler's work — it's impossible that he would think with this kind of precision. He's a reckless, impulsive brute who doesn't plan. This is a full extermination operation, executed by a fully-equipped group. This is a massacre.*
A few more steps — his house. And fortunately, it was not burning.
One second of relief.
Then he found the front door ripped clean from its frame.
He entered.
Amid a mountain of corpses — Atomic and Lilith sat. Not moving, not speaking. Their mouths moved as if they wanted to scream, but no sound escaped, and their bodies obeyed no command they gave. Bound by something invisible.
"Who..." Sai's voice cracked. "Who is the bastard who could do this? And — where is M—"
"Yooo! Welcome back, Leader!"
He turned.
It could no longer be called a brother. What stood before him was something else — a beast drenched in blood from head to clothing, holding in his left hand a long gleaming sword that nearly reflected the fire burning outside, his right arm wrapped in a white bandage long since overtaken by red. His eyes burned with something that had no name — not just fury, but something deeper and more terrifying than fury.
Monsler. "The Red Beast."
He continued in a fabricated innocent tone that made the voice more frightening than any scream: "Were you looking for me?" Then in a tone sharp as a drawn blade: "For your dear... *brother?*"
"M-Monsler..." Sai's voice wavered, carrying something he was not used to feeling. "Is this...? Please tell me this isn't you. Tell me you can explain—"
Monsler's teeth showed as he tightened his grip on the sword. "An explanation?!" Then he sighed — a terrifying sigh of relief, as if he had finally arrived somewhere he had long been waiting to reach. "Fine. You fake leader — after the performance you put on for us in the tournament, I started to wonder: is it fair that you alone use what others call cheating? I believe that's an injustice unworthy of our honor." He took one step forward. "So — as your punishment — I will make you regret everything in your final moments before you die."
Sai still didn't understand anything. But he understood what the direction of those footsteps meant.
Monsler was walking toward Atomic and Lilith.
He advanced with steady steps toward them and raised his sword. "These two are the ones I hated most. These two are the reason I lost. These two made me feel — me, of all people — as if I were somehow lesser than a wretch like you." He looked at them with cold eyes. "And so these two deserve nothing more than this."
And before Monsler could move, it seemed that Atomic managed with tremendous effort to move his head — he turned toward Sai with agonizing slowness, and said in a voice torn out from between what seemed like invisible teeth:
"Sai... save your brother. His arrogance has blinded him."
The words provoked Monsler. He drove his sword powerfully toward his father's neck — an imprecise, hesitant strike that pierced the neck without severing it completely, and blood sprayed across Sai and Lilith's faces. But Atomic's smile didn't shift, as if he had not been struck at all.
Monsler raised his sword again. On his face was grief — and yet he brought the killing blow down.
Atomic's head fell.
Monsler approached Lilith in silence. He raised his sword.
Lilith looked at Sai. In her eyes was an innocent smile filled with tears — a smile that wanted to say a million things, but could not say a single one.
Before Sai understood anything, both his parents' heads rolled across the floor.
Sai froze where he stood. Saying nothing, doing nothing. Only looking down — where his parents' heads looked back at him from the ground.
Monsler tore his gaze from the scene with a look of disgust. Then he walked toward Sai, grabbed him by the hair, and pulled his face toward his own.
"I am your worst nightmare. I am the destroyer of your dreams. I am the monster that hunts you in the dark, and the fear that shakes your heart." His eyes didn't blink. "I am the leader and you are the follower. I am..." He paused for a moment. "I am the one who will be the Last Samurai."
He dropped him to the ground and drew his sword.
"So then — what are your last words?"
---
Amid the corpses and the smoke and the suffocating silence, Sai sank into his own mind.
*Why? What? How? Did I really create this monster? Damn it — I wish I had died in that moment and never seen any of this. I think the time to die has truly come.*
And he closed his eyes.
But in that darkness, the sentence echoed again:
*"Sai... save your brother. His arrogance has blinded him."*
He asked himself for the first time with genuine seriousness: *What did he mean? As if I'm the last samurai — that's why he asked me specifically. He could have asked anyone — wait.*
*Am I... actually?*
And Monsler's sword was already on the verge of severing his neck.
At the last possible moment — Sai moved.
At blinding speed he pulled his head back, grabbed a sword lying beside him, and tried to rise from where he sat and raise the blade toward his brother.
He didn't hit Monsler precisely. But the sword reached — and took his right eye.
And Monsler didn't hit Sai precisely either. But his sword reached too — and took his left eye.
At the same moment.
Blood. And silence. And one eye from each of them.
Sai spoke — and in his voice was something that had not been there before, something closer to certainty than anything else:
"What a forgetful slacker I am. I forget my promises so often — but don't worry. I'm certain I will not die before I've kept every last one of them." He looked at his brother with his one remaining eye. "Because I am the Last Samurai. Not you."
"And do you even know what that means?" Monsler shot back with fury.
Sai smiled. "Who cares?" Then he paused. "No — not this time. Yes — I actually do care about that question specifically. And to learn its answer — and the answer to every question in my mind — I absolutely must defeat this narcissist a second time."