Kuni no Senso

Chapter XXVII: Which Tells Of A Series Of Realizations

Zenpan sat at his desk in his office, filing all of the paperwork that had built itself up into large structures upon his desk. After finishing up with at most three documents, he heard a knock upon his door.

"Come in," he called out to the person who knocked upon his door. Just as he said that the doorknob turned to open. After Yukan entered his room, Zenpan decided to put aside his paperwork to chat with him.

"Ah, Yukan!" he gleefully exclaimed. "You're looking well. How is your recovery going? Last time we sparred, you gave me a hell of a right hook-"

"When can I return to the front lines?" Yukan abruptly asked, cutting Zenpan off. The general froze.

"You've just reconverted, Yukan," he told his visitor, trying to talk him down. "I think it would be best if you rested-"

"I'm ready," Yukan bluntly interrupted Zenpan again. "I need to go back to the battlefield. You can't keep me here forever, Zero."

"Three weeks," Zenpan sighed. "You can return to the battlefield in three weeks." He knew that he likely wouldn't be able to fix his army to not depend on the swordsman, but he was trying to get as much time as possible before any conversion was thrown to the side and abandoned for the rest of their lives.

"What?" Yukan was appalled by this. "Kadaina said I'm fine. My hand is healed up enough to fight-"

"Yukan-"

"I need to be out there fighting!" he continued, entirely ignoring the pleas of his general. "Kunshu is out there, slaughtering people left right and center."

"I will not allow you to go back any sooner," Zenpan growled at him. The air around the two of them had grown tense. The general was no longer messing around. He knew that Yukan was too stubborn for his good and that letting him fight would be catastrophic to the well-being of their army. Despite how many times he'd tried to get him to stop, he still wouldn't budge.

"Yukan," he continued, "you need to learn your physical limits. Last time, Kadaina risked his life to save you. You're going to give Ite a heart attack. You just started using your prosthetic hand to fight. You need to slow down or you're going to burn out again."

"I can handle it!" Yukan yelled out in defense. "If anything gets out of hand, I can just access Deity Mode."

"Deity Mode will not save you from every situation, Yukan," Zenpan snapped once more, trying to talk him down without having to reveal his secret. "You can't depend on that to save yourself or others! You need to be in extreme rage or a hopeless position. Your life or someone else's must be at risk. I will personally never allow these conditions to befall."

"You have no idea how powerful the Omega Blade is!" Yukan lashed out. "You have no idea what it can do! It could kill everybody in this camp and still have a sharp edge!"

Zenpan stood up suddenly and decided to reveal what he had been hiding from the entirety of Akuni's military. His skin grew pale and his hair turned blonde. His ears began to point outward, much like an elf's ears would. His outfit had entirely changed to something that wouldn't look out of place in a cyberpunk convention, with his right arm changing from flesh to steel and his right eye becoming robotic. At this sight, Yukan collapsed backward in shock.

"Sit down, Yukan," the strange elf-like being said to him in a voice that was noticeably much deeper than that of Zenpan's. "We have much to discuss. Since you are so eager for answers, I will do my best. Zenpan Imoru is not my real name and, as you can tell, I'm not exactly human. My birth name was Zeronius Kantoku III and I am what you might refer to as a Maila*. I have been around much longer than you have. I have many things to share. First of all, I am well aware of what the blades can do."