As he pressed the young man for more information, his sister stirred in the distance, her eyes filled with fear. She was watching with worry, as if she knew that this situation threatened to destroy something that could never be restored.

  Suddenly, she screamed out loud:

  “Kotaru?”

  Her eyes were full of terror, unable to understand what was happening, but she realized one thing—her brother was no longer the same. There was something dark inside him.

  “Kotaru... stop... please...” she screamed, writhing in her restraints, trying to save him from himself. But her cries couldn’t reach through the darkness clouding his ears. Kotaru had entered another world—a world of revenge he could no longer escape from.

  He paused for a moment, glancing toward his sister, but no human expression appeared on his face. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but the pain he carried made everything feel blurry.

  Then he turned back to face the man, saying coldly,

  "I'm done."

  In that instant, the sword struck directly into the man's body, and the young man collapsed in his own blood.

  But in that moment, amidst all the chaos and bloodshed, his sister’s voice still echoed in his ears: “Kotaru... stop...”

  Those moments were critical—it felt as if his whole world would spiral into chaos if he didn’t stop now.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  As Kotaru still held the sword, his mind was hazy, his eyes blank. But suddenly, within that darkness, her voice echoed: “Kotaru...” She was calling out to him from afar, her words slipping into his mind as if trying to wake him from a deadly dream.

  “Kotaru!” she kept crying out, but he couldn’t respond. Her tears were falling, though he couldn’t see them, lost in a storm of conflicting feelings—between vengeance and regret. His mind slowly began to realize what he had done.

  “I did it again...” he whispered to himself in a sorrowful tone, “I can’t take this...”

  Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced his chest, as if his heart had torn apart. A burning ache forced him to fall to his knees, while his mind began to spin. His heartbeat quickened, and that terrifying feeling returned.

  “Ah...” Kotaru cried out, his voice laced with agony. His legs gave out beneath him, and he collapsed to the ground, as if his entire strength had vanished. In that moment, it felt like the world had stopped around him.

  His sister kept calling out, “Kotaru! Kotaru! Are you okay?” She was approaching him with fear, but there was nothing she could do. “I’ll call an ambulance!” she cried desperately, trying to save him somehow.

  But he raised his hand slightly, showing he could still speak. In a faint voice, he said, “Don’t... don’t call them... I’ll be fine, just wait... until I wake up...” The words came out slowly, heavy on his tongue.

  Then he passed out, collapsing to the ground, unconscious from the pain, while his sister cried beside him. All she could do was hold onto him, but she felt utterly powerless in the face of what had happened.

  His heart was racing, but no one knew what would come next.

  ---

  After he passed out, Kotaru began to regain consciousness gradually. And in the moment he opened his eyes, he felt something strange in his mind, as if his memory was trying to go back, retrieving something from the past.

  Suddenly, a flashback took us to his childhood days, when he was training under his old grandfather. Despite the suffering and pain he went through during those times, his love for swordsmanship kept him going. His grandfather trained him in combat with a strict style, knowing it was the only way for him to become strong.

  One day, there was a match between him and his grandfather. Kotaru’s strength had started to come close to his grandfather’s, but the old man always had the upper hand. Still, Kotaru was determined to win and kept fighting stubbornly. In the final moments of the duel, his grandfather struck him hard, sending Kotaru flying into a tree, where he hit his head.

  The grandfather said sternly, “That’s enough for today. You can’t win anymore.”

  But Kotaru, in a burst of frustration, stood up and shouted, “Where do you think you’re going, old man? I’m not done with you!”

  His grandfather felt something strange, but didn’t have time to respond. Kotaru lunged at him again, trying to attack, but the old man’s experience gave him the advantage. The fight went on for a while, showcasing Kotaru’s growing skills, and his grandfather couldn’t stop him easily.

  In the end, the blows Kotaru dealt were powerful, and just as things were getting out of control, his grandmother stepped in and struck him on the neck, knocking him unconscious.

  When Kotaru woke up, he found himself lying on the ground, with his grandmother beside him. He asked in a confused voice, “What happened? Is the training over?”