{MIHO'S POV}
Tulip Village is silent. Too silent. It reminds me painfully of the Lost Town. I have to remind myself that this time will be different.

There are two guards at the entrance, nobody else in sight. The assassination is too easy. Aoi-kun takes left, I take right, and two throats are slit before the guards can even think to shout.

Aoi-kun and I are a well-oiled killing machine after fighting side by side constantly for the last few years. I know what he's thinking as he thinks it.

Asahi isn't bothered with the death she's witnessing. In fact, she very calmly follows us as we kill as many soldiers in secret as we can. I might be tricked into thinking she's enjoying it.

Finally, someone sounds the alarm. Several people run out of houses, crumbs on the fronts of their shirts and mouths stuffed, hollering in muffled confusion through mouthfuls of food that isn't theirs.

"Asahi... take Aoi-kun... to the meeting hall. Rescue... your dad and... the others."

They both nod, and Aoi-kun follows Asahi towards a big building in the center of the village. I step out into the open. Everyone recognizes me immediately, because of my telltale strawberry pink hair.

I fall into a pattern. Stab, slice, stab, hack, stab, chop. Heads and limbs fly in all directions as the air is tinged red. Some scream and try to run. Other fall to their knees and plead for their pathetic lives.

I give them the same amount of mercy they gave the villagers. None.

I'm aware that I'm covered in the blood of their comrades and I relish the fear in their eyes. They deserve to feel every ounce of pain they inflicted. I'm their judge, jury, and executioner. Does this make me evil? An interesting question.

Not that I care how stained my soul is.

Too soon, I stand alone. Everyone around me is dead. Satisfied, I head towards the meeting hall to regroup, quickening my pace after I hear a scream that sounds suspiciously like Asahi.

The door is open. I poke my head inside, staying low. A man, who I can only assume to be General Daku, has a sword pressed to Aoi-kun's throat.

He dares to touch my shield?

Asahi is wrapped in the arms of who I can only assume is her mother. They have the same cocoa skin, the same almond eyes, although Asahi's mother has multi-colored beads braided into her dark hair.

The two sides face off from either side of the great room. Daku's back is turned away from me. Asahi's mother sees me, and her grip on her daughter tightens almost imperceptibly.

I creep up behind Daku, and wack him hard with the hilt of my rapier. He wails and falls, dropping his sword to clutch the side of his head. How could such an incompetent man become a general?

I level my rapier so it's flush against Daku's adam's apple. I want so badly to run him through right now and be done with it.

"What happened?" I ask Aoi-kun.

"He told the villagers that Asahi was dead. He said his men caught, raped, tortured, and killed her, in order to keep the rest of them in line so they wouldn't try to escape again." Aoi-kun informs me.

I fix Daku with a scathing glare. He stares shakily back up at me, his crotch wet with piss. "G-Go on then! Kill me already!" He yells.

I look at the villagers, then back at Daku.

"No."

"Oi, Miho—" Aoi-kun starts, but Daku laughs.

"Oh? Is the great rebel Commander too chicken? I'm just too amazing of a general for you to take from this world, is that it?"

"Make no... mistake." I snarl, digging the blade point into Daku's neck and making him yelp. "I would love... to finish... you off. But that... would be too pleasant... of an end. Too... fast. There are... people here... who hold a much... bigger grudge than... I do."

Several people grumble in agreement.

I look up at the villagers. "Which... one of you is Asahi's... father? The village... leader."

A man with long dreadlocks steps forward. "That would be me."

"When... Daku told you... he tortured... your daughter... did he explain... how he killed... her?"

Fear dawns in Daku's eyes. He tries to back away but I pin him with a cold glare that makes him freeze. The stain around his crotch grows darker.

Asahi's dad eyes me for a second. He purses his lips and nods. Pent-up anger from weeks of abuse burns in his eyes. "Yes, he did. Explicitly."

Asahi's mom squeezes her tighter still.

I gesture to the fallen general at my feet. "Here's your... chance for revenge. Do... to him what he... was going to do to... Asahi if she... wasn't fast... enough."

Asahi's dad swallows. He looks at his wife and daughter, then back at his people imploringly. Four other men step forward, grinning maliciously and cracking their knuckles. Eager to help.

The five men walk towards Daku. Aoi-kun and I back away, giving them space while covering the door to make sure he doesn't escape.

"I remember every word as if you branded them onto my soul." Asahi's dad says tightly. "First, you said you had your goons pin her down."

The four villagers each grab a limb, holding Daku to the floor as he struggles and whimpers.

"Then you took turns—but I would have no pleasure in recreating such indecent acts."

I remember what Asahi and Aoi said earlier, about group rape. I'm sincerely glad that she was fast.

"Once you all had finished—" Asahi's dad struggles to find the right word, "—defiling her, you broke all of her fingers. One. By. One."

Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.

Daku screams.

"Then you broke both bones in her forearms."

Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.

"And her upper arms. You laughed quite maniacally as you described it."

Snap. Snap.

"And then you let her get up. Said you were done with her. And of course she tried to run, because she was scared and her legs still worked."

Daku makes a break for the door as soon as the four villagers release his legs and mangled arms. He's foaming at the mouth, a crazy glint in his eye.

I tense, prepared to intercept, but there's no need.

"But you wouldn't let your plaything go so easily. No, you took perverse pleasure in it. Watching her painful struggle to escape was enough to turn you on again. And so you all had another go, which I recall you said was more enjoyable than the first."

Daku shrieks as the four men catch him and drag him back to Asahi's dad. His hands are clasped behind his back and his face is stern. He looks like he's scolding his daughter for staying out too late again, rather than instructing how to torture a man.

"As punishment for trying to escape, you unsheathed your sword and sliced off all her toes."

Asahi's dad sneers at Daku's sword. I toss him mine, which earns me a look of gratitude.

Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash.

"But why stop there? You cut off both of her feet too, so she really wouldn't be able to run."

Slash. Slash.

"And then you returned to breaking bones. But of course, there are two in the lower leg so once again it was twice as fun."

Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.

"The upper leg bones were much harder break. You really had to try with those."

Crunch. Crunch.

"You had plenty more bones to choose from, but by then it was becoming quite bland. So you had a different idea. You dislocated her shoulders."

Pop. Pop.

"At this point, she'd been begging you to kill her for quite a while. But why give her what she wanted? That would be too good of you, for you are a rotten man. Instead—ah, but I am a kinder man than you. While you claimed to have done many other evil things, I fear that if I continue then my beloved daughter will never look me in the eyes again."

I look at the expression on Asahi's face and know that he's wise to quit while he's ahead.

"So I will end you, the same way you said you ended my daughter's life. You said you cut out her heart."

Daku makes a pleading, whimpering noise, and it's the last sound he ever makes. Most of the villagers look away. Even Aoi-kun grimaces, but I stare on. It's the least I can do for the man who thought this exact thing had happened to his daughter.

After Asahi's dad is finished, he holds up his prize with bloody hands and studies it for a second before letting it drop to the ground in disgust.

He turns to me, the only one who looks at him without a trace of emotion.

"Well, that felt surprisingly good. Although I do admit, I'm a bit nauseous."