Re;Blade

Chapter 13 - The soul in the sword

My new wielder better than I imagined, Tetsuko admitted she watched the lord deflected a bandit's ax with ease before cutting him down with her edge.

The nobleman didn't just know how to use a sword; he was good with one. He knew how to end his enemies' life with Tetsuko.

Every bandit that managed to slip past the circle of soldiers defending the lord didn't live for long.

Instead of the fame or the reward they could get if they killed the nobles commanders, they died at the hand of either Alonso or Enrique.

Tetsuko smiled in her mind.

Guess appearances can be misleading, she thought as Alonso slashed another bandit. Even if they're mostly weaklings, to fight and kill so many people at once in this tight space... that's not something many could do.

But as Tetsuko was swung around and hit metal, leather, flesh, and bones, the former blacksmith noticed something strange.

Unlike during Fael's fight, when she was entirely focused on to help her first wielder survive as much as he could, this time paid more attention to herself.

As a sword, Tetsuko realized something she didn't before.

I still don't feel pain when I collide against metal or leather, but I can feel something whenever my edge cuts anything human, the soul residing inside the blade realized.

It wasn't just that the energy inside her was moving faster.

Tetsuko felt more awaken, sharper, more... alive...

As the bodies piled up, with each swung, she was aware of all the weight of her metal body.

She could feel each part of her colliding with another metal or flesh.

She could feel as her edge cut the air before hitting a target.

The sparks that flew whenever she struck metal were like a warm bath on a cold day.

But even if she acknowledged that, there was Tetsuko was struggling to admit.

She had no idea if it had happened during Fael's fight, when she had just arrived in this new world and still had ties with her old life.

But now it was impossible to ignore.

She was enjoying the sensation of cutting a human being.

Not as a swordswoman.

Tetsuko never liked taking a life, even if she didn't hesitate when her life was on the line.

But as a sword, the sensation felt different.

The blood spilling and running down on her blade felt as if she was rubbing the red liquid on her skin.

The red drops dripping from her tip felt as wine falling from her lips.

The bones trying and failing to stop her as she went through felt as twigs she broke to feed a fire.

Tetsuko could feel all that.

And despite how scared of herself those feelings made her, she also felt something else.

A laugh.

A hollow, dark, and heavy laugh.

In mere moments, she couldn't stop laughing in her mind.

I always thought it was stupid and foolish when those idiots soldiers said how they'd bathe in the blood of their enemies...