At morning, a wet weather, a samurai had been given a mission to execute a peasant for "stealing", an absurd request, yet it was his job, he had do it, so he did, approaching the poor man's home and revealing his sword, his empty gaze stood upon the man on the ground alone, at his side, there was another samurai, his companion, looking at him with an surprised gaze thinking to himself:

"Why?

"This is not honorable at all"

"why is he killing an innocent man?"

"none of them stole anything, i saw it, i know it, but they didn't even tried to listen to me"

His name was Daichi, he stayed there looking at his friend that was about to sever another person's head for no reason, on shock, he was unable to try and defend that man. The man was looking at the ground shaking with fear, so he plead to the samurai in order to be spared:

"Please, i can't die now, i have a family, i need to take care of them, please, don't kill me, please don't do this..."

Yet, the samurai's gaze remained empty slowly taking a look at his wife and kid that was looking at both him and the man, with eyes that showed nothing but pure and complete fear and shock. The samurai at last, swiftly moved his blade gaving a clean cut between the man's head and body, his head flew towards Daichi's feet where he could see his face, and at his face had nothing but pure confusion, fear, sadness, tears and blood. Even though he did his best to take care of his wife and kids, his life was taken as easy as it seemed, that strong man killed because of the word of another man who deemed himself better, that had more than him, all because of nothing. Something snapped inside Daichi's head and more thoughts came into his mind:

"Why is the daimyo doing this?"

"Why do we have to kill those innocent people?"

"He had a family"

"Why are we so cruel?"

"Why are samurai so heartless?"

"Am i wrong?"

"Am i the crazy one?"

"My arts, my effort, my life, was all wasted?"

"All i learned was for killing other man?"

"Take lives of the innocent?"

As his gaze returned from nothingness, he took the man's head and cut his chonmage as proof of his finished job. Then he looked at Daichi and gave him a few cold words:

"Don't think too much about it, we're not heros, this is just work, now we have to report to the daimyo"

His voice got a bit calmer and he gave, Daichi a gentle look:

"Remember Daichi, being a samurai is much more than just killing people, its about honor"

Daichi looked at that man's wife and kid, they were too shocked to scream, yet tears could be seen slowly falling from their eyes, he swallowed his own saliva feeling a little bit dizzy by the weather and the whole situation by itself, alternating his vision from the man's head, his family and to his friend's face:

"What is even honorable on this?"

"We killed a man... a family's head"

"This kid will grow up without his father, that woman lost the love of her life"

"What is this?"

His voice cracked for a second:

"Are we just... killers?"

His friend touched his shoulder trying to stop him from going any further:

"Calm down Daichi, not here, we can talk later, for now, our job is done, thinking if it is a success or not, doesn't matter, but we did the deed we had to, now lets go to the daimyo, calm down"

Desperate for the moment he saw through his friend's words and calmed down, it wasn't time, because the man was already dead, they had to just keep going and report their deed to the daimyo.

It started raining, the executioner took an umbrella and looked at Daichi's face:

"You forgot yours?"

Daichi was still shocked after realizing what his life turned into, he wanted to be a hero, someone who people looked after, but now he was a servant, a mere killer, he didn't felt like protecting anyone, even worse, he failed at protecting that man, he failed completely. His messy mind kept hammering him in the head with those thought, until his friend realized it, giving him some space on the umbrella and putting a hand on his shoulder once again:

"Daichi, i know you're not ok, but have some manners, i'm talking to you, stop zoning out"

Daichi felt his heart miss a beat after realizing what was going, timidly responding to his senior:

"Oh, sorry Senshi, i got too distracted again"

The weather got worse with time, until they finally reached the daimyo's home, they took off their sandals and carefuly headed to the room where the daimyo was at. He patiently waited for their report on position, both of the samurai bowed to him and carefully started the report:

"The man was executed as promised my lord"

He showed the man's cut chonmage that has been cut off earlier, Daichi gave it an complete empty look hiding his true feelings in front of the daimyo but ready to burst at any second.

"Congratulations i must say, doing your job as i told to, your payment will be even higher"

Carefuly choosing his words at the servants, the daimyo seemed really happy and grateful, the tatami was comfortable and cozy unlike outside.

"You two have achieved my trust, now i know we can work well together"

He took a bottle of sake and already had a few cups in the room

"i must say, i'm in a good mood today, we shall drink together"

But, seeing that man so comfortable didn't seemed right for Daichi. That man struggling to live every day got killed leaving his family without a father, yet the other man who told them to kill was there, holding a bottle of sake, completely fine without any harm, peacefully trying to compensate for taking a life with a simple bottle of sake, all for food and alcohol, it was humiliating, there was no honor in serving such a disgusting person.

Daichi threw the bottle away with a slap, breaking it into pieces and dropping all the sake in the ground, his friend on shock couldn't even react, the daimyo shrunk himself in fear as Daichi slowly took both his swords out of their sheeth. One of them was a small but sharp, a wakizashi and the other a beautifully crafted katana. He stood in front of his daimyo prepared to slash but the other samurai pushed him ripping the walls, ready to take his own blade out of the sheath:

"Daichi you dumbass, what have you done?"

"Are you crazy?"

"You almost killed our lord!"

Daichi in the other room, slowly standed up trying to argument:

"Are you sure this is the way of the warrior?"

His tone slowly started getting more and more agressive:

"That man, that thing, wanted us to kill that person who did nothing, he did nothing, yet we killed him, only to satisfy that man's needs, to get us to be worthy of being his servant?!"

His voice trembled in anger:

"If thats having honor, I'll gladly become ronin, instead of serving such a rat like that, he doesn't deserve my life neither yours sensei!"

The other samurai slowly unsheathed his blade too, a nodachi sharper than his wakizashi and even more beautifully crafted than Daichi's katana, a work of a life, that took the life of that simple peasant, so he prepared his guard. The daimyo was disappointed, not only daichi had disrespected the bottle of sake, he disrespected him and tried to kill him in the same day, he didn't even had to order the Senshi to kill him. Already aware of his fate, the samurai looked at Daichi, nervous, yet prideful of seeing on what he grew into, yet he were the one who had to take his life, all for his lord:

"Daichi, i hope you don't regret this..."

In that second both their blades met as if the world stopped, the rain fell slower, the first attack shaked daichi's balance giving a chance to be killed, yet he took his ground and parried the hit from the nodachi completely using both his blades, as a result of his unbalance he got a cut above his eye, covering it with blood, both of them got distance getting out of the room and fighting on the rain, Daichi remembered his time, the time where he learned the way of being who he is, the man who he is, the day he wanted to become a samurai, and that man who inpired him into those ways, not only killed an innocent man in front of him, but also were fighting him. But he didn't had too much time to think as his sensei again showed his superiority in real battles running into his blind spot to attack, but somehow he managed to parry again, now leaving an opening to attack, giving a cut in senshi's shoulder deep enough to make him squirm and lose his balance and then he kicked his leg. The samurai started falling in the ground and the duel was seemingly over, the daimyo started to think it was a good idea to run, but the senshi was a samurai, he didn't fell yet, despite his harmed leg, he held himself on his place and brutally made a cut from from up to down on daichi's arm as the first cut dettaching it and a second slash also vertically but now down to up cutting his chest. But the cut on his chest wasn't deep enough, Daichi started falling in the ground but his will remained:

"it isn't over yet"

He just needed one final slash, so he did with his remaining arm, using almost all of his strength left, he cut in half the man he most respected in life. The rain's speed got back to normal as both his and senshi's blood started to disappear from the flowing water. He approached the Daimyo whose strength wasn't enough to compete with that injured Daichi, and just like earlier with what happened to that peasant, he cut the daimyo's head off, the head slowly fell in he ground, he saw the daimyo's face till his very end looking at his eyes. The door opened and the one who opened was no one other than the daimyo's wife, she dropped in fear seeing her dead husband without his head, starting to run and cry:

"What?"

"Why?"

"Why is that?"

Daichi looked at his bloody hand in confusion

"What did i do?"

"I really am a killer, i'm not better than him"

The bleeding took the best out of him, as he lost his counsciousness.