The moon tonight is full. A full moon coloring the night.
Its light blankets the crumbled hill in a silver glow, passing over jagged stones and dry trees leaning weakly. Once majestic ruins now sit in silence. A silence heavier than time itself.
Then, something moved.
From the ashes, dust rose not like a storm, but slowly, swirling like memories returning. It moved as if recalling the body it once had. A body thought destroyed, now healing, reborn into the state it had before the wound.
The heart was the last to form. Transparent at first, then solid, beating slowly. Not with blood, but with emotion… once pure.
Then, the eyes opened.
Motionless.
He lived.
Kyle.
Once called Master. Once called GreatMaster. Now, only… Kyle.
His gaze moved slowly across the ruined landscape, as if searching for something he knew no longer existed. A cold wind touched his tattered robe, strands of white hair drifting above skin untouched by age.
He raised his hand to his chest, to the place where a sword had pierced him a hundred years ago.
"Hmph… after you killed me, my former student," his voice was soft, more like wind than words, "you still haven't understood the principles of this world."
His eyes lifted toward the moon, white and perfect.
"The moon looks beautiful tonight. But warmth never comes with yesterday."
No reply. Only stillness.
"Fate… it always walks with mankind. But humans... ah, humans... they scream at it, deny it, curse it… and still chase it when it falls."
His lips curved slightly—not a smile, not sorrow.
"Human nature… is beautiful. Precisely because it is full of flaws."
He stepped forward. Dust whispered beneath his feet. The world did not welcome his return. The world only watched. Just as he always had.
The wind carried the scent of blood.
Kyle stopped. His eyes narrowed slightly, then turned toward the dark forest below.
In the forest beneath the hill…
Branches slapped the boy's face as he ran. His breath was harsh, pulled through clenched teeth. His body screamed in pain, but he kept running.
He couldn't stop.
They would kill him like they killed his parents. Burn everything. Including his little sister…
The boy stumbled into a clearing, falling to his knees. He tried to rise again, but his body refused.
Tears mixed with blood ran down his cheeks.
"Why… why didn't I die with them?"
Behind him, dogs barked. Voices shouted.
He had only minutes. Maybe seconds.
He forced himself to stand, turned and froze.
Someone stood on the hill.
The moon behind him cast light around his form, like an illusion. Long white hair danced in the wind. A robe made of ash and light. And eyes… eyes like mirrors of eternity.
The boy's mouth opened, but no words came out.
The man began to walk toward him.
Not fast. Not slow. Just… with purpose.
The boy stumbled back. "W-who… who are you?!"
The man didn't answer. He only stopped a few feet from the boy and looked down at him.
There was no sympathy in his eyes.
Only understanding.
"A lost soul hunted by hatred," Kyle said quietly, "meets another who once was the same."
The boy blinked, too shocked to move.
Kyle's voice was low, like a river's flow at night. "You have seen death. You have felt powerless. Now… you seek fire."
"I… I want strength," the boy said. "I want to kill them. Every single one of them."
Kyle tilted his head slightly. "So young. Already caught in the thorns of fate."
"I don't care about fate!" the boy shouted. "They took everything from me!"
He dropped to his knees again. "If you're not going to help me, then just leave me!"
Kyle looked at him. Then slowly, extended his hand.
The boy looked up.
"I won't give you strength," Kyle said. "But something far more valuable."
"...What?"
Kyle's eyes met his.
"Understanding."
---
The boy didn't sleep that night.
He followed the strange man back to the broken hill, where shattered stones still held whispers of long-lost peace.
Kyle sat cross-legged on the cold ground, hands resting in his lap.
The boy sat before him, still trembling, still full of fire.
"Why did you save me?" he asked.
Kyle didn't answer immediately. His eyes were fixed on the stars.
"I didn't save you," he said. "I witnessed you. There's a difference."
"...Then why?"
Kyle sighed.
"A hundred years ago, I believed clear mind could be taught. That emotion could be shaped like stone… if one tried long enough."
He looked at the boy.
"But I was wrong. Emotion must first be understood."
The boy clenched his fists. "My only emotion is anger. Revenge. Hatred. That's all I have."
Kyle's smile was faint.
"Then that's where we begin."
---
Days passed. Then weeks.
The boy remained on the hill, far from the world. Kyle didn't teach him anything about swords or techniques.
Instead, he gave him silence.
He told the boy to watch the wind move the grass. To listen to the cracking of tree roots. To sit in the rain, in the heat, in the cold.
"Emotion is not a weapon," Kyle said once, "but a map. You must learn to read it."
And slowly… the boy changed.
Not softer. But clearer.
He began to speak less. To listen more.
And sometimes… when the moon rose, Kyle would sit beside him and whisper things that would make no sense to others.
"The stars remember names long forgotten."
"Hatred burns brightest in calm water."
Or…
"Truth is not sharp. It is heavy."
But peace does not last.
Not in this world.
Not in a world where strength is everything.
They came at night. The boy's enemies. Seven men in dark cloaks, carrying spears and fury.
They followed the trail. Found the forest. Found the boy.
But what they found… was Kyle.
He stood before them like a statue from the hill itself.
"Step aside," one growled. "This is not your concern."
Kyle blinked once.
Then calmly…
"No."
Their leader grinned. "Then die with him."
They charged.
The boy tried to rise. "Master!"
But he never saw Kyle move.
Only felt the wind change.
When he looked again, the men lay unmoving. Not dead. But destroy to dust. What happen? No one can see clear... It just like flashmemories.
Kyle turned to him, moonlight on his face.
"You still cling to revenge," he said. "But revenge is a cage."
The boy lowered his head. "Then… what should I seek?"
Kyle looked at the stars.
"Truth."