Killing and Gaining

I looked over the man, my eyes capturing all of the micro-twitches in his horror-filled face. I could hear his heart beat picking up. He must have finished off many people with whatever power he just used and I'm the first to survive and act like nothing happened.

My eyes looked over his hands, where the fire had presumably came from. Magic? No. His body heat around his hands and arms is unnaturally high...The fire comes from his body.

A subtle vibration of his forearms gave me a tell and I quickly dashed out of the way.

Just because I could heal the damage doesn't mean I always have to take it. Plus, dodging makes the fight more fun.

Anyway, I kept my eyes on the fire man but opposed to what I thought would happen a blast came from his hands instead of a plume of flames. I had thought his power would be more like a flame thrower but it seems more like instant combustion aka an explosion. Feeling the air unsettle behind me I swung my sword back and despite my arm twisting and contorting in an utterly inhuman way, I felt no strain and my sword took another head off.

Hearing a slap of mud - the dirt below us running deep with blood - I spun around and grabbed the man with my free hand, crushing my fingers through his flimsy facial armor, I continued spinning, building up momentum before finally throwing the poor guy at the explosion man.

He shot through the air and the sudden movement and acceleration had killed him instantly but I didn't need him alive for the test I just did.

I wanted to know how this explosion guy reacted. What kind of person he is.

Seeing him not use his powers to stop the corpse coming at him and instead just throwing himself out of the way, I felt a savage smile spread across my face.

While the man was getting up, I burst into action, a red blur swinging it's sword and smashing with it's limbs. I was a machine of death and slaughter. I remember in my past life that I was so normal, so mediocre. I wasn't talented or clever or strong. But right now...I knew I'd been sleeping on my biggest talent.

My ability to kill.

The method showed me how to use these talents, and I embraced them. The pain of those swords...the pain of having my neck slit...the pain of pulling those swords out...I don't ever want to feel that kind of pain again.

The only way to get away from that pain was strength. The way to strength was through fighting and killing. That's what the method told me, at least.

And it was right. With every kill, I knew more and more weaknesses with the human body. With every kill my crude yet effective technique was polished and my power was used more efficiently.

Crushing the last person's neck, I turned to the now sweating and shivering explosion man. He'd tried to stop me and his use of his power was actually quite good. He'd only ever hit his comrades when I threw them in front of his attacks. But his main problem seemed to be his body's weakness.

He couldn't withstand the rebound of his own explosions for too long. Which further cemented the idea in my head that this was a biological power.

"I thought you'd be...well, a better fight," I mumbled to myself, my voice having changed along with my body becoming deeper and smoother. It sounded charismatic but the lack of emotion in my voice took away from a lot of that charisma and made it less effective. But hearing me speak seemed to unsettle the man.

Which made sense, I guess. I hadn't spoken in...well, I just haven't spoken in a while.

"You speak English?!" he shouted in very heavily accented English and it was my turn to be stunned.

I hadn't heard anyone even reference English in all my time here, and with how everyone looks at me with horror or confusion, I took a guess and figured that they hadn't seen a western person before. Well, that's what I got from confusion. Horror was because they knew what I was.

I had often heard the words 'Aka Oni' being said or rather shouted at me lately. If memory serves me right, Oni are some kind of Japanese folklore monster, right? Have horns and eat people, I think? Who knows what the hell 'Aka' means.

"Yes, I speak English," I smiled as I took a step closer to the man, an idea coming to my head.

Before he could react, I grabbed him by the neck with my hand and with the other, I broke his arms at the elbow joint. He screamed out in pain but I silenced them with a squeeze of my hand on his throat, cutting off his airway and stopping his vocal cords.

"But the real questions is...where did you learn English?" I asked peering into the mans teary and fearful black eyes.

He struggled against my hand and I loosened it slightly so he could speak. The first thing he did was take in a few trembling breathes - the pain of his arms just being broken still fresh and affecting him - before he spoke to me in slightly broken and heavily accented English, "I learnt at Temple! It's...it's mandatory for nobles! Please, don't kill!" he gave out a fear fearful cries as he saw my smile getting wider and wider.

"And where is this temple? I assume in a town nearby, yes?" I asked and he rapidly nodded which confused me; I'd searched for miles around the space I'd woken up yet I'd found no sign of a town or city, "Which direction is this town in?" I asked and waited for him to show me.

He looked at me with confused eyes before realizing what I wanted him to do; point the way.

Knowing that I would kill him if he refused, he lifted one of his broken arms, whimpering and shivering in the process, a few cries of pain coming about when he moved his arm in a certain way.

Following his arm I saw he was pointing over a pretty big hill far in the distance.

Right. Good to know.

I thought this before I killed the man and ripped his head off. I don't know why I felt inclined to end such a helpful guy in such a brutal manner but when some of his blood landed in my mouth, I was surprised by how my mouth swallowed the blood on reflex alone. Like some kind of instinct I never knew I had.

As soon as the blood hit my stomach I felt the immediate urge to sit down and meditate. So I did. I sat down surrounded by corpses and blood and looked inside myself, only to find the darkness and the currently merging 'strings'.

But there was something else as well. A small star, light purple in color, was orbiting the 'strings' in the middle of this dark space.

Pulling on it with my willpower, it started to break up and sprinkle onto the merging 'strings'. I felt odd when this happened as knowledge I shouldn't have began to appear in my mind. Knowledge of Japanese customs. Japanese language, writing, literature, stories. A life of a middle-born noble son who wanted to be a strong Samurai. Of the countless years training with the sword, training with the bow, and learning how to ride a horse before finally finding out that he could produce explosions from his hands.

He was lauded as blessed by the Gods and was taught by many masters who wanted to be associated with such a blessed youth. More training of the sword, more training of the bow, and now even training for hand-to-hand combat which worked especially well with his power.

Not that I got to really see that. But even if the fight was more disappointing that I thought it would be, this information was worth it all.

Opening my eyes and seeing that the carrion birds had begun to swoop in, I stood up and sighed.

I finally knew what the year was and how I'd been here.

It was the Sengoku period or the Warring States period for Japan and the year was 1597. The new Emperor's coronation had been 10 years ago. Emperor Yozei. Him coming into power was why this field was so filled with war and killing.

Looking up at the darkening sky, I let out a sigh as I realized that whatever universe I was in now was completely different to my own. If I were the only one with powers, it could possibly be the same universe but with the appearance of the man I just killed...I'd say with no doubt that there are definitely more people like us.

Looking down at my hand, I followed the memories I had and a few small crackles rippled across my hand, crackling like fire crackers.

Smiling, I wondered what kind of method I'd gained that it would allow me to take powers from people after just a small amount of genetic material.

Stopping the crackling, I turned back to my grassy hill where I usually slept and started walking toward it. There was no point in going to town, which turned out to be in between Edo (Which I recognized as Tokyo's old name) and a new and upcoming city called Sendai. The noble house that control Sendai was really going for the push. The noble I killed was part of that Noble house.

It was called Date or whatever. Not that it matters to me.

Picking up my sword that I'd stabbed into the ground before walking over to the now-dead explosion guy, I continued walking up the hill before I lay down and played about with my new powers.