If we're doing Vietnam, then we're doing it Viet A Fucking Nam.

  “When the truth is found To be lies

  And all the joy

  Within you dies,”

  Bang!

  “When the garden flowers

  Baby are dead, yes and

  Your mind, your mind

  Is so full of red,”

  Bang!

  “Don't you need somebody to love?

  Wouldn't you love somebody to love?

  You better find somebody to love”—Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane.

  Bang!

  I may have finally had too much to drink, but while Miyamoto and I continue to put rounds in any VC we find throughout these blood-soaked, limb-filled halls, we move to Celeste and some of our students holding up in the library.

  Bang!

  Why, whenever we go somewhere, does it end up with bodies piled to the heavens and enough blood to create a lake? Maybe death is just following those two nut jobs…

  BOOM!

  No, it's definitely just V having death hunting him or, more likely, just a real pissed-off god. Being around that man-person-thing, whatever V is, for this long, it's obvious life itself is either trying to kill him or enjoys torturing him with anyone near him. Like an immortal tragedy.

  Gods, I should be out there. Why the hell did I close the library off? With all this gunfire continuing to fill the air and explosions causing the building to shake, sitting still is just getting people jumpy, antsy, or raising fear. This group of five: Takeshi, Yuki, Rayden, Aoto, and Mitsuki with me could go out and fight.

  It’s not like I could do any worse than how V does during one of these things. How does a person even lose their whole eye and not know how it happens? Well, the leg I can much blame him for due to getting shot in the leg to get my dumbass who got caught. But eye thing just is impossible. Miyamoto told me how V got the limp, or at least that's what we believe happened. As always, V didn't tell us anything about it or how he got it.

  None of that stuff really matters; I got “troops to handle,” so no more wasting time thinking about the two-man war that is happening right outside.

  Before anything happens, it's best to start with what has happened so far; getting the mind all straight. A few hours ago, when this clusterfuck started, the students and I used the bookshelves to barricade ourselves in, and now we're holding up here. Yuto MIA Takeshi and Yuki said that he was supposed to have come, but he never showed. So when I said I have troops to handle, I was just fucking lying.

  I’m as useful as a damn fly on the wall. All we can do is to shoot dice, play cards, or let our minds wander. Just let the war play out. I pull out a cigarette from one of my overrobe's pockets and light it with a flame spell from the tip of my pointer finger. I wear this robes over top normal clothes… Guess I shouldn’t have been shitting on V for wearing his coat all the time because I do the same thing with my robes. I got these cigarettes from that town where Miyamoto got that giant scar across his chest from.

  They are always getting their selfs ripped apart but never tell me beforehand. It's really goddamn annoying, definitely when it V. It almost seems like he tries to destroy every part of his body.

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  I hope Violet and Bear are doing well. A kid and her dog shouldn’t be in the middle of this shit. She's been through more than anyone should. I was once washing her when we were near a river and the water was warm enough to get in. (Normally I would make a bucket and dump it over Violet and Bear when it was time to wash up, and dry them with some wind magic mixed with fire magic to warm the winds.) When washing her, I found that there were these two long scars on her back creating this X on her back. Don’t really like imagining what she went through in that cave. Well, it seems she doing better now so that… That's good.

  The smell of smoke felt rather fitting due to the sound of combat gaining more and more momentum toward our barricades. As if war is knocking on the door like that old man.

  “Okay, everyone get ready for combat.”

  Takeshi was standing in front with his katana ready.

  Rayden creates an ice blade in the shape of a rapier, and Aoto creates a pair of wind daggers.

  Mitsuki made these gloves covered with spikes using compact dirt (with Earth magic).

  Yuki and I pulled our staffs out.

  Keeping my smoke in my mouth, we all just stood there waiting.

  “AHHH!”

  Bang!

  A scream, then a gunshot; finally, silence fell from the halls. The sound, not of a footstep, was bounding through the halls right outside. As well, at least four pairs of footsteps start to fill the silence as well.

  “Do you smell smoke?”

  “I smell guts, blood, and, I believe, a good sum of human waste, so my nose is a bit taken up. So the answer is no, I do not pick up the smell of smoke anywhere.”

  “Well, I smell smoke.”

  Weirdest goddamn guy ever. Any tension that we were holding disappears with V and Miyamoto's weird-ass banter.

  Knock, knock, knock.

  “Are you guys cooking people in there?”

  “What? V it a library… why would we be cooking people?”

  “Celeste is in here.”

  “Yeah, V, we knew that.”

  “...We did... Sure, fuck it, whatever. I’m so goddamn tired and that Vietnam shit didn’t help at all… Like trying to recreate one of the worst modern wars was something.”

  “Celeste, would you open the door?”

  “Yeah, we’re opening it up right now.”

  “We? Do you have more people than just you in there?”

  “There are about four of your and Miyamoto’s students in here with me.”

  “Is Yuto in there?”

  “No, Takeshi and Yuki acutely brought up that it was odd that he wasn’t here.”

  Yuki and I removed the bookshelves while I was talking to V and Miyamoto and opened the doors.

  With that.

  The Devil and the Lone Ronin came in.

  Bodies lay all around us before, and when Celeste opened the door, about an inch of blood from all the corpses came flowing into the library, getting everyone's feet a bit damp.

  The bleeding moon bled into the room; the leakage of light came from the stained glass at the back of the library. A blade was being formed to the shape of the glass, so any light that dared seep in created the shape of the blade. A blade that hung over us all…

  Pretty fucking heavy-handed symbolism. Miyamoto and I gutting about eighty people walking around this school has to be one of the most fucked-up things I have done so far. God, what the fuck am I doing? Why do I keep asking this fucking question when I know the answer is as simple as kill or be killed? Most of the people I kill can’t matter to this world, like that slavey whose skull I crushed in couldn’t have been a net positive to anything. At this point in my life, with all the things I’ve seen, the sanctity of life means nothing to me. The bodies I've been pilling to the moon are all just meat and bones.

  “You brought the kid with you!”

  “What… oh… Yeah, well, I’m not going to leave her in some closet when a war is going on all around us, and it’s not like she killed anyone. She also has earplugs in and has her face a centimeter away from Bear’s body.”

  “Miyamoto, you just let him do this?!”

  “She was already with him when I tried to cut V’s head off.”

  “...What the fuck were you two doing out there?!”

  “Just trying to survive a war. We should close these doors, but there’s no reason to blockade them again because we’re leaving in a few minutes.”

  “That’s an awful weave. Answer my question, V.”

  “We killed.” The screeching sound of heavy wood meeting the ground filled the room. While watching the doors close, the smell of smoke came to my nose, and I found the smell was coming from Celeste.

  “When did you start smoking?”

  “This is my first one, but after that time I almost died; I felt like picking up the habit.”

  “Smoking kills.”

  “So does Keyser.”

  “Yeah… yeah.” I clap my hand to get all eyes on me and myself on track. “All right, kids, here’s what we’re going to do! First we are going to get the rest of you classmates. Then Miyamoto and Celeste will help you get out.”

  “Is that it?” Raylen asks.

  “It’s not like we’re fighting the cold fucking war…”

  “The what?” Mitsuki yells out.

  “It doesn’t matter. We just gotta get as many people the fuck out of here as quick as possible. That's it… Also, we're going to kill anyone who tries to kill us, like in any war. So get yourselves ready.” With all pieces of the puzzle finally lying in front of me, but not Yuto, which is strange. Maybe he's out there already fighting off the forces.

  It is now time to lead children into one of the oldest sins of men.

  Maybe I really am the bloody Devil.