Monogatari Series - Volume 16 - Chapter 12.02

002

“The solution is for you to die.”

“Huh?”

“Sacrifice your rook to strike at the king─is not what I mean, though.”

“Huh? Huh?”

“Don’t worry, it’ll only hurt for an instant,” Ms. Gaen said as she swung her sword.

I felt like I’d seen that sword before.

No, not quite─not at all. I’d never seen that particular sword before in my life, but it resembled one with which I was familiar.

Resembled?

That’s not right either.

That makes it sound like the one I know is the real thing─but the sword I’d seen in the past, that I’d known in the past, that I’d cut and been cut with, that was the replica.

While the katana she was presently swinging─was the real deal.

A katana─known as the Aberration Slayer.

The Aberration Slayer.

The original Aberration Slayer, supposed to have vanished long, long ago.

That katana.

That real-deal katana─slashed through me.

Through my fingers, my wrists, my elbows, my biceps, my shoulders, my ankles, my shins, my knees, my thighs, my hips, my waist, my belly, my chest, my collarbones, my neck, my throat, my jaw, my nose, my eyes, my brain, my scalp─it cut all of them.

Into slices.

In an instant.

I tried to scream─but my mouth, my throat, my lungs, had all been sliced into rings like the kind you use for a ring toss.

The instant part hadn’t been a lie, but Ms. Gaen had told one, and a whopper at that─because that sword moves so fast.

So blazingly fast.

That I didn’t feel any pain at all.