I stepped in and thrust my sword. The man tried to sweep it aside, but his strength was weak. He could not finish the sweep, and my sword pierced his chest.
"Guh!"
A muffled sound came from the man. He tried to cut me with his sword, but the blade I had stuck in him got in the way. The path of his sword shifted and he swung through empty air. Lily leapt in and swept his neck. Lily jumped back, and blood sprayed from the man's neck.
"Kuwa…"
The man made a sound that was not a voice, sank down, and gripped my sword. His fingers dripped, drop by drop. Paying that no mind, his hands slipped, and the man collapsed.
I lit a very weak lamp so as not to stand out. No one seemed to have come out. The man fallen in the road was bleeding from the neck. Was he already not breathing? Was he not playing dead? No last stroke as a souvenir for the other world? I pulled the sword from the man's chest. Perhaps because the blood had run from his neck, little came from the chest.
"He seems dead."
