Chapter 93: The Desire to Nurture
Taoist Liu turned around and was about to implore, but he saw a bright flash of a blade striking his face.
He knew that saying anything was futile.
He reached into his pocket with his right hand and pulled out a gun.
Facing a second-class warrior, he was unsure of how much impact a firearm would have. However, in a desperate struggle for survival, he pulled the trigger.
A loud blast erupted from the barrel of the gun, and the bullet shot through the rifling, spinning as it flew towards the young man's forehead.
It hit the target.
Taoist Liu was delighted, but in the next moment, the figure disappeared, and what was hit was just a lingering shadow.
Buzz! The gleaming blade lightly brushed against the front half of the firearm, cutting it in half like a sword through steel, and also causing three fingers to fall.
Taoist Liu fell to his knees, clutching his hands, screaming in agony. He then heard the sound of a blade, prompting him to hurriedly raise his eyes and desperately plead for mercy.
"Please spare my life, I will surrender my lineage to you."
Bai Wei simply said, "If you have any last words, feel free to speak them."
"I…" Taoist Liu didn't want to die and had never pondered when he should utter his last words.
Most people in the Ming Country didn't have this habit, but the people of Yingzhou had long prepared their farewell words for when they departed from the world. They would either express themselves through haiku or poetry. The executioners who committed heinous acts, the fearless warriors who killed without hesitation, the renowned figures who shook Yingzhou, and the generals, all of them would set aside the worldly fame and attachments before their death, singing verses about the beauty of nature and their homeland, as if this kind of death was pure and pristine.
In reality, those who refused to accept even when faced with imminent death were the true embodiment of humanity.
Taoist Liu had lost his weapon, how could he have struggled desperately in his dying moments?
He himself didn't know, but he simply picked up the metal shards that had fallen to the ground and fiercely thrust them towards Bai Wei.
In the very end, he surprisingly didn't employ any Taoist techniques, but resorted to a humorous yet clumsy stab. Perhaps, deep down, the core of his being was not that of a Daoist proficient in reciting ancient scripts and summoning supernatural entities; instead, he was just an ordinary mortal.
The youth swung the sword.
A big head flew up, and blood flowed along the filthy water.
Decades of longing, extinguished in an instant.
Even when dealing with evil individuals, Bai Wei pursued a method of killing that was painless, aligning with his fundamental moral principles… after all, it was a painless procedure.
He retrieved a lighter from the corpse and tossed it towards the body. It emitted a magical flame, completely incinerating the soul and leaving no lingering attachments.
…
Bai Wei returned to the ramen stall.
Sato Zaki leaned against the wall, with his severed limbs sticking to him, but at that moment, he had already started to lose his ability to regenerate.
It was evident that he was also going to die.
It was completely normal because the Taoist had passed away, and with no one practicing the art, as an undead, there was no longer anyone capable of sustaining his dwindling trace of life force.
Bai Wei moved a chair and sat down at a distance of five steps.
"Do you have any final words?"
"Yes, and many," Sato Zaki squeezed out a difficult and bitter expression. "So, I won't say them…"
Bai Wei, without uttering a word, nodded silently.
"Am I, going to die?" Sato Zaki asked.
"Yes."
"Quite good, quite good…" he murmured, saying, "Before dying, at least there should be some semblance of dignity. Otherwise… how can I face my wife?"
"Do you truly believe that your son was still alive?"
"Do you think I'm a fool?" Sato Zaki hoarsely exclaimed, "I believed he was still alive, not deceiving myself. I knew he had died, but the one who died… might not have been my son. On that evening, I received a phone call and heard an unfamiliar voice… yet it felt so familiar. So even if I saw the corpse, I still believed he must be alive, that he would come back to find me. I just didn't anticipate that in the end, I wouldn't be able to wait."
The elderly father clenched his teeth, tears streaming down his weathered face. After many years of bitter waiting, it turned into a silent wail.
"I still couldn't wait for him to surely forgive me, to be willing to see me again…"
"I knew, it was all my fault."
"I made a mistake, I truly realized my mistake…"
"I simply wanted to see him one more time. I just wanted to give him another hug…"
Sato Zaki's body fell to the ground, landing heavily and making no sound or movement thereafter.
His time had come.
Bai Wei remained silent for a full fifteen minutes this time. Eventually, he slowly raised his palm, intending to wipe away his traces completely.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps could be heard.
A figure threw itself onto the side of the corpse.
"Wake up, sir, wake up!"
Heita knelt beside the lifeless body. He tightly grasped the icy hand of the corpse, cradling it against his face.
He tightly embraced the increasingly cold corpse, burying his face and sobbing uncontrollably with a heart-wrenching grief.
"Please, please wake up and talk to me," he pleaded, desperately hoping for a response.
His voice sounded so mournful, as if he were weeping and shedding tears not for an acquaintance, but clearly for the sorrow and grief one experiences after losing a loved one.
He finally stopped concealing his emotions. He gazed at the middle-aged man, whose tear streaks had not yet dried, and slowly uttered the word he hadn't spoken in six years.
"Father…"
…
Six years ago, he was not Heita Hojo, but rather Sato Daitake.
His mother tragically passed away, in reality due to emotional exhaustion. He resented his father's excessive focus on work, which led to negligence towards the family, ultimately causing his beautiful and kind-hearted mother to deteriorate and eventually die. At the funeral, he caused a scene, passionately berating his father.
Then he received a slap and subsequently escaped.
During his journey of escaping from his family, he encountered another individual, and the two teenagers were both disillusioned with life, thus becoming friends.
The two made a pact to go to the Sea of Trees and find a scenic spot to commit suicide.
On the evening they arrived at the Aokigahara Forest, they both heard a voice asking if they were willing to exchange their lives with each other.
Therefore, Sato Daitake became Heita.
This enchantment made them decide to live for a little while longer.
The two spent approximately a month swapping their lives… They agreed to meet again after one month to end their lives.
The transformed Sato Daitake, who had become another person, spent a month of time. He didn't want to continue with the act of suicide.
He discovered that Heita's family was actually very good. He wanted to commit suicide because he had been bullied at school.
He wanted to comfort his friend, persuading him to keep on living, but his friend stubbornly acted as if he had gone mad.
One late night, he discovered that the other person was missing. He frantically searched everywhere and ended up witnessing 'himself' jumping off the cliff.
At this point, he could no longer go back. He couldn't return to his previous identity as Sato Daitake, but instead, he had become Heita Hojo.
He had to live the lives of two people, pretending to be Heita Hojo while also trying to find a way to go home and see for himself.
Approximately four years ago, after moving the entire family from Chiba to New Tokyo, he specifically chose a school that was closer to home.
He discreetly inquired about the current situation of Sato Zaki.
He secretly stood at a distance, watching his father posting missing person notices everywhere. He felt that his father had completely changed, no longer resembling the former image of a career-driven professional. Instead, he appeared aged, exhausted, devoid of everything, and lacking vitality.
Even though his son was already dead, he continued searching, being labeled as insane by others. Whenever he heard this rumor, he would rush up and ruthlessly beat the person, releasing the frustration of not being able to reveal his true identity.
After he turned sixteen, he finally mustered the courage one day to approach his father, introducing himself with a different facade, and reestablishing their friendship. They discussed their worries and gradually became very close friends.
The more this was the case, the more he felt uneasy, agitated, and hesitant to express his thoughts clearly.
…
"I was a despicable person, I stole Heita's life."
"I watched as he died, it felt as if he died in my place. I deeply regretted it, so I had to take his place, living on as Heita Hojo."
"If I had told my father that I am Sato Daitake, how would I have faced Heita Hojo's parents? They loved their child so deeply, taking care of me in every possible way for six years."
"I was afraid, I was afraid that my father wouldn't believe me and would mistake me for a fraud."
"I was also afraid, afraid of losing my current environment. I feared being rejected by Heita Hojo's parents. Whenever I thought about being a counterfeit, it would make me wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in cold sweat and filled with terror."
"And perhaps, I was being a bit overly dramatic… I hoped that he would recognize me on his own, so that I could acknowledge him without any reservations."
Heita… No, Sato Daitake knelt on the ground, crying in sorrow, embracing his father, tears streaming from his eyes.
"I regretted, I truly regretted…"
"I shouldn't have overthought things so much, I should have spoken up earlier."
"I have always been by your side, I didn't go far, I have always been there… Dad…"
