226 Chapter 226: A Hero’s Duty

"You okay?"

Shun Yin nodded silently, but he continued to stare blankly at the staff of the Porter clan going in and out of the aquarium, moving black body bags. One of them contained Mei's body, but he could no longer tell which one.

His mind had almost completely shut down from shock and guilt.

Glen looked at him in concern, and reached out to grip his shoulder reassuringly. However, Shun Yin didn't respond. He was still lost in his own world, unable to accept what had happened. He was still unable to come to grips with reality.

"Let's go home and get some rest." Glen tried again. Shun Yin nodded and rose to his feet, but he felt as if he was moving underwater. His mind continued to be fuzzy and…slow.

If only he had killed the female Assassin instead of allowing her to live, Mei wouldn't have died. His act of mercy had cost Mei her life. He had been so naïve, thinking that it was over as long as he had incapacitated the enemy, and that they wouldn't try anything. That it was fine to spare a killer's life and that she would have somehow surrendered.

How naïve. Now that he thought about it, he found it laughable. He couldn't stand his stupidity and naivety.

If he wanted to save someone, he had to kill the people who threatened the lives of those someone. There could be no compromise. Otherwise, it would be too late. Just like in Mei's case, there was no bringing her back.

"Damn it…!"

Shun Yin cursed under his breath.

"Whoa! Are you all right?" Glen turned to stare at him, shocked by his sudden outburst. In any other time, Shun Yin would have felt embarrassed, but right now he just felt enraged. Clenching his fists, he struggled to suppress his rage.

"Yeah." Shun Yin inhaled deeply and closed his eyes briefly to calm himself down. "Sorry. I'm just feeling…"

"I understand." Glen nodded sympathetically and lowered his head. "We weren't able to save Mei."

"No. Not we. I failed to save Mei."

"Hey, you weren't the only one there," Glen protested. "I was there too, and there was absolutely nothing I could do…"

"If I had killed that Assassin instead of naively sparing her life, Mei wouldn't have died." Shun Yin wasn't listening. "I should have killed her…by taking her life, I would have saved another person's life. I can't make this mistake in future."

Kill the few to save the many. Shun Yin was beginning to understand what that meant. It was not possible to save everyone. In this world, there existed people who refused to compromise, who were determined to kill others and were more than happy to drag innocent victims to along with them to the underworld. If he wanted to save people, if he wanted to prevent the deaths of countless innocents in future, he had no choice but to take the lives of those few who threatened them.

Locking them up wouldn't make them repentant. Even though he showed mercy to the female Assassin, she did not turn over a new leaf. A leopard would never change its spots. If they were determined to kill, murder and plunder, they would continue to do so, regardless of whether their lives were spared or they were shown mercy.

For the sakes of innocents, some of the guilty should not be allowed to live.

"Dude, you have a scary look on your face."

Glen turned slightly pale and gulped when he saw Shun Yin's hardened expression. He shook his head and sighed.

"Relax, man. Don't start getting reckless and think that you should go after the Assassins Guild and hunt them all down. That's a job for the adults. Kids like us will be getting way over our heads if we get involved."

"I know." Shun Yin gritted his teeth. "We've to become stronger. That battle earlier…we were lucky. If you didn't summon White Tiger, we would have been obliterated by that huge Assassin. If I hadn't trained under my master at the Miyamoto dojo, I would have been killed several times over by that female Assassin."

"Yeah, she used poison, didn't she?" Glen shuddered. "A single cut from her and we would have died. Good thing you were the one fighting her instead of me. I have no idea how you did it, but I would never have been able to escape completely unscathed."

"Master trained me to fight in such scenarios." Realization was dawning upon Shun Yin now. "That was why he was so fixated on ensuring I master the basics of martial arts and swordsmanship instead of teaching me advanced magic or powerful spells. He was aware that no matter what sort of magic I wielded, if I get cut by a poison user or come in contact with a curse, everything would be over. The foundation is the most important thing. Having a strong foundation will prove the difference between life and death."

If he had focused more on magic than martial arts and swordsmanship, he would have died the moment the female Assassin grazed him with her poisoned weapons. Shun Yin couldn't help but feel grateful to his master.

"You should introduce me to your master sometime," Glen joked. Shun Yin, however, nodded seriously.

"I'll bring you to Miyamoto dojo."

"Uh…one day. I've my own master." Glen hastily raised his hands and tried to divert the topic away. Taking a deep breath, he glanced back at the aquarium the two of them had exited. The Porter clan's staff were still all over the place and cleaning up the scene, but they mostly ignored the two young high school students. "We'll just get in the way if we stick around. Let's go home. And as you said, we're going to need to train more to become stronger. So it's best if we return home early and rest, so that we can begin tomorrow."

"Yeah."

Shun Yin's eyes dropped to the body bags that were being loaded up in what seemed like hearses, and his chest tightened. Even though the majority of them belonged to the enemy, he still couldn't erase the image of Mei from his mind.

"Speaking of which, what do you make of their research on spirit technology? Using a human or monster as a host…a vessel for the spirit?"

"Ethically? Hell, no." Glen made a face. "Did you hear what they were saying? Did you see the data? It's certain death for the host. Once the spirit fuses with the host, it will burn his or her life out very rapidly. In exchange for…what?"

He then glanced at his smartphone, as if remembering something. Conjuring a holographic screen, he skimmed through it, and his expression darkened.

"Worse…it seems that the majority lose their sanity. Even those who don't go mad from merging with the spirit lose their humanity…they lose their personality and huge segments of their memories." He glanced at Shun Yin. "Mei…she wasn't able to remember who her parents or family were after the experiment."

Shun Yin balled his fists, his hands trembling uncontrollably from anger, but he managed to prevent himself from howling in frustration.

"What do they take human lives for?"

"They are Assassins," Glen reminded him. "They kill for a living. To them, human lives are something to be taken. Just like…currency."

"Fuck this!" Shun Yin furiously punched a lamppost. The entire metallic structure caved in and crashed downward, the glass shattering as it impacted against the ground. The Porter clan staff turned to stare at him in shock, but Glen quickly intervened, gesturing for them to ignore them, and escorting Shun Yin away.

"I know how you feel, man, but calm down. Yelling and breaking public property isn't going to stop them."

"You're right. Sorry." Shun Yin took a deep breath. Raising his head, he glared at the sky. "But I swear, I'll stop them. Whether it's the Assassins Guild or whoever, as long as they are villains, I will stop them. I will prevent them from killing any innocents…even if I have to bloody my hands and wipe every single one of them out."

If he had to be evil to become a hero, then so be it. If he had to kill every single villain in the world in order to save countless innocents, then he would happily bloody his hands. He didn't care if people label him a hypocrite.

At least they were alive to call him a hypocrite. That was more than enough for him. That was the weight…the burden he had to shoulder as a hero. So that others could keep their hands spotless and clean. He should be the only one to take on the sins of everyone, so that every innocent could live freely, cleanly and happily.

But to do that, he had to become stronger. Much, much stronger than he was right now. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to withstand such a tremendous burden.

"Let's go," he told a visibly relieved Glen, and stalked toward the nearest train station.

*

"This seems like a dead-end," Glen remarked as he stared at the empty office. There was no sign of anyone ever having occupied it. The desks were empty, the seats were deserted, the cubicles were lifeless and the shelves were vacated. No documents, no computers, no files, no stationary, nothing at all.

It had been two weeks after the raid on Vermillion Aquarium. Shun Yin and Glen had continued to track down the locations on the map that Michael had gotten from the warehouse. Often, they had close brushes with skilled Assassins, who managed to escape before the two could defeat them. Not that Shun Yin and Glen could easily beat them, of course. Often they had close brushes with deaths before the Assassins bolted.

Only for Michael and the staff of the Porter clan to arrive minutes later, finding a dazed and surprised duo standing in the remnants of the room.

"You two are too reckless!" Michael would often reprimand them. "Do you really think you can fight Assassins at your level?"

"But we survived, didn't we?" Glen protested. Michael snorted.

"If they wanted you dead, they would have killed you already."

That got Shun Yin wondering. Why wouldn't the Assassins want them dead? They had been raiding their bases and headquarters, causing quite a huge amount of disruption, and in all probability being a thorn in their side by delaying their research and trying to save test subjects. However, other than Mei, they found no other survivors.

And just a few days ago, Shun Yin and Glen ran into the same pattern. They would often find themselves in clearly emptied and vacated bases. As if the Assassins or the enemy within had known they were coming and quickly evacuated or abandoned their bases. It was occurring far too frequently to be a coincidence.

"This is weird…"

Shun Yin realized something was amiss. If the enemy knew he and Glen were coming, why didn't they just prepare an ambush and lure the two of them into a trap? From the few times he and Glen fought against them, he was aware that they were highly skilled enough to defeat the both of them…or at least had the numbers to overwhelm the both of them.

Yet they didn't. It was as if they were doing their best to avoid killing the two of them. Why? It made no sense.

The main bulk of the enemy comprised of Assassins. It was their calling to kill others, to take lives. So why would they spare him and Glen?

"Damn it! Not again!"

Glen was cursing behind Shun Yin as he kicked a desk in frustration. Not too hard that he would break the furniture. At least the blond mage knew how to hold back.

"We always miss them! Why do they keep running away?!"

"Yeah…wouldn't it be easier for them to lure us into a trap and ambush us if they know we are coming? They should be finding us quite the nuisance."

"You have a point there." Glen was looking stumped. Their confusion didn't last long, however, because Glen's smartphone rang. He sighed and answered it grumpily. "Hello? What's up?"

Then he turned extremely pale, his eyes widening when he heard what the other party had to say.

"Yeah, I'll be there immediately."

"What happened?" Shun Yin asked after Glen hung up. His friend turned to look at him gravely.

"There has been an attack on the main Porter's manor. Assassins are killing the clan elders and the current Clan Leader right now."