The Laughing Swordsman

Talon remembered the reason he pushed through so much pain and difficulty in the first place. Yes, he could choose to die here and leave it all behind.

But he promised his sister.

He was going to protect her.

Talon brought his face closer to the blades of his scissors before sliding them into his eye socket.

He had no intentions of breaking his promise.

And so, he slipped in the blades even further. They cut against both his eyeball and the wall of flesh in his socket.

Talon grimaced from the pain, heaving ragged breaths. His nose was running with mucus while saliva leaked out of his mouth.

He was a disgusting mess.

Yet, Talon was at his strongest in this very moment.

"AHHHHHHHHH."

His eyeball reddened considerably from how much he was pushing it to the side. Right when it seemed like it was going to burst, Talon finally wrapped the blade around the nerve of his eye.

...But to do so, he had to open up the scissors. That meant his eyeball pressed against the blade, cutting itself against the blade.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

Another roar of pain escaped him.

Talon couldn't help but see her sister's smiling face. He knew that if he closed the blade of his scissors, he would partially cut into his eyeball first, which was far worse than cutting through it completely.

Instead of a clean cut, Talon would have to deal with a partially cut eyeball as he tried to cut off the nerve.

Yet, Talon still firmly grasped the handles of his scissors and pressed them together.

A muffled cry of pain resounded throughout the halls.

As expected, he cut partway through his eye in an attempt to cut off his nerve.

It was unbelievably painful.

Talon felt like his head was about to burst at any moment. The pain overwhelmed his senses, making him believe the only thing that existed was his head and the blade of scissors.

It was as though the blade of scissors was actually an air pump, while his head was a basketball. The basketball was already full of air, yet the air pump kept going, determined to continue until the basketball directly burst.

Talon wanted to give up.

He wanted to give up so badly.

Talon's breaths became sobs. A nasty frown formed on his face, one that only those that fully broke down would have.

It was as though his mentality went from an imposing muscular man to a whining and crying baby.

Talon used a fair amount of strength to close the blade of his scissors. It was enough force to cleanly cut through the muscle of his eye.

...Yet, it could only nick the outside of his nerve.

It was as though he was trying to cut a thick and sturdy rope. One that could withstand more than it had any right to.

Talon wanted to give up.

But he just couldn't.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

Against every instinct screaming at him to stop, Talon pressed the handle of the blades together.

His knuckles whitened while his hands uncontrollably trembled.

There was a time when Talon wondered if life would ever get easier.

Sometimes he would tell himself it would get better to help him get over the pain.

Yet, deep in his soul, he always asked...

Does it ever?

Talon didn't believe so.

If it did, then why exactly was this happening to him right now?

There was a time when Talon could only desperately think of one thought.

'Somebody help me.'

'Someone, anyone.'

Talon felt like he needed someone else to push him forward, else he wouldn't be able to continue any longer.

And it was now, that those thoughts almost seeped into his mind.

Almost.

Talon saw his sister once more.

When she was laying on the table, emaciated and half dead.

After Talon's proclamation that he was going to protect her, Lena slowly turned her head to the side.

She blinked. A bit of light returned to her eyes, and a weak smile formed on her face.

Lean's lips parted ever so slightly.

"...Thank you, brother."

The veins on Talon's arm bulged violently, almost like little snakes wrapping themselves around him.

At the time, he only muttered the words.

But now, he screamed them with everything he had.

"JUST TRUST YOUR BROTHER."

The scissors violently trembled under the strength Talon was exerting.

He felt like he was crawling in his skin.

Like the walls around him were caving in, trying to crush him into nothing.

But Talon came to a realization.

He always wanted someone's help in order to continue on, and his sister did just that.

However, there was something that pushed him farther than anything else.

Wanting to help someone else.

Slowly but surely, the nerve was being cut through.

Talon was sobbing, but right now, it wasn't for himself.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

It was for something greater than himself. A reason to push him to live past his own reasons.

Something deep in his blood.

A soft snip echoed, like the soft snap of a hypnotist that dispelled an illusion.

Talon cut off his eye, which splattered onto the ground soon after.

The pressure suddenly disappeared.

At this point, Oddryl lost his composure. The yellow eye glowed brightly.

"You're mad! You're absolutely mad! Who in their right mind would do something like this?"

Talon slowly pulled out the scissors from his eye socket.

He raised the scissors with two hands, ready to smash it down.

Talon chuckled softly as a small smile emerged on his face.

"I don't know but..."

He slammed the scissors down on the eye, causing it to splatter across the floor.

"...I don't feel mad."

Talon cut away everything holding him down.

For the first time in his life, he was free.

The price for this freedom was by no means small, but he was free nonetheless.

Talon shakily got up to his feet before dashing down the hallway.

He still had his sister to save, after all.