[KONNO]
The battlefield was raging in a way that had never been seen before.
The red helmets were furious.
The black helmets were confused as hell.
No one knew what to trust, and in the one moment where confusion seemed like the only choice, the warriors leaned into rage.
The rage of the Sondra Dynamite leaving them there without so much as an explanation.
Of the unmasking of Craenia's greatest and most protected secret. It was a defeat on both ends, and nothing was comforting about it.
As the Sondra realm helmets battled each other to the death, fueled by pure hatred and spite, there was one warrior still standing, his blade in his hand, his sword on the other.
And he stayed staring at the emptiness as if he had wanted to appear in an instant. On his weapons were the drops of the blood of a warrior no one had ever managed to draw blood from.
It should've felt like victory.
Making the undefeated Sondra Dynamite bleed and make a run for it.
But all that Konno felt… was nothing.
"What the hell was that?" The Craenia King, Yuma Ishida, growled in anger even as he fought the red helpmeets who were closing in.
The black helmets had tried their very best to hold the fort, but there was nothing worse than dealing with the red helmets, who had watched their greatest warrior, the real threat to Craenia, leave.
It was a different sight, and it was unsettling. But it would never match the feeling that they all had. And the questions that lingered for all of them.
Why had Sondra Dynamite left through a portal?
And worse, why had the masked warrior of Craenia let him go without a fight?
"We fought; he ran. That is what happened," Konno said dismissively, like his heart wasn't already hammering in his chest at the way that Haruki had looked at him.
It was the sight of distant familiarity, and he couldn't shake it.
"You let him go! You do realize he will still come after us?!" King Yuma bellowed.
"Then we will fight again. He is injured. He won't be appearing on many battlefields. You wanted him gone; I got him gone. What else do you want from me?" Konno asked angrily.
King Yuma Ishida froze.
This warrior had never questioned him. Never asked anything about everything. Never spoke when not asked to speak. Never retaliated. Never defied any order.
He had never done a lot of things, and raising his voice at the king, while staring at the king like this man was the enemy, was certainly on top of the list of things that King Yuma Ishida had not been expecting.
But the outburst didn't just reach King Yuma alone.
The black helmets heard him.
The red helmets, too. And yet even then, no one understood the trigger for all of that.
"Looks like you forgot who you were fighting," King Yuma said, disappointed.
Konno scoffed.
"Is that what you think this is? That I let him go because he was injured? You didn't fight a man who has fallen on his own. That is not what victory can ever look like, on any battlefield.
"Striking a man when he is down is an absolute weakness. You taught me that," Konno bit out forcefully as he glared at the king, another thing that the king didn't understand.
No one had ever seen the masked warrior like this.
"We will talk about this when we get home," King Yuma said stiffly.
"Whatever your majesty wishes," Konno said grimly, like he couldn't care what the king wanted and what the king didn't want.
His mind was filled with thoughts of his fight with Haruki. How Haruki had been fighting him. How he had made sure not to harm Konno in the worst of ways.
And Konno, he couldn't believe what he had just done himself.
He had the chance to end the war, too. To make Craenia a kingdom that was respected and valued by many. To remind everyone, Craenia had always been. Yet when he had that chance, he had made a different choice.
It was like his body had moved before his mind could catch up. And now he didn't know how to explain what had happened.
"Get back to the war. This is not over," King Yuma insisted, and to that, Konno just stared at him blankly.
"No."
"What?"
"These warriors are no match for me. I will not fight with ants just to give us false glory. I will fight the Sondra Dynamite, and I will kill him. That is what I was made for.
"I am going home," Konno said, not leaving any room for argument. The black and red helmets who were close heard the king and the best warrior left on this field talk, and it was unsettling. Because this had never happened.
No warrior had ever confronted their king openly in battle like that.
Yet Konno had done it and with pride, too.
"You will respect your king," King Yuma said forcefully, but then there wasn't any weight to it. He knew better than anyone that honor had only one purpose in his life, and that was to eliminate the Sondra Dynamite.
With the Dynamite gone from the battlefield, it was a long gamble trying to make the man focus on anything.
"I said I am leaving. If you want to fight so badly, you have tens of thousands of warriors waiting to see how well you can fight," Konno said cruelly.
The king's mouth opened and closed, ignoring the droplets of blood in the air that fell on his tongue and face thanks to the brutality of the battlefield.
King Yuma faltered openly.
As if that wasn't enough, Konno continued:
"You can use this chance to show your powers. Maybe you could remind them that Craenia didn't become big and powerful just because we captured smaller kingdoms and eliminated them, hmm? I am leaving.
"You can try to stop me, but I assure you, you will lose. You already know that," Konno said coldly as the king faltered in his steps.
Everyone around them, dying, injured, or even still fighting, saw it. Yet for some reason, they couldn't even blame the man. King Yuma was up against the most lethal weapon Craenia had ever come up with.
And it would be really stupid to engage on the battlefield.
Konno didn't need to look into King Yuma's face to see the moment the man realized that he could really be crushed and reduced to nothing by his subordinate inner battlefield that reeked of blood and death.
So, he walked away.
Konno moved forward, and the warriors made way for him.
Even those who were already dying scrambled to move to the side just to not be stoned by the man. They watched the unmasked warrior leave the battlefield, and it was unsettling to them.
Not that Konno cared.
He had other things to worry about.
Like the reason he had only delivered non-lethal wounds to the Sondra Dynamite. Why had he felt his chest ache when the portal closed behind the man he had wounded?
Why did General Kira not strike him as cruelly anymore when the helmet came off? The ache of distant realization didn't make it any better for Konno, because that was not what they had taught him.
Not what he had been made for.
Hesitation, care, and worry were never part of his programming. His skills were never tied to emotions.
So why was he feeling?
Why was he confused and angry at the fact that the man who was his enemy had chosen to leave instead of finishing the fight?
Konno had seen it too. The opening that could have killed him, but one that Sondra Dynamite had not exploited.
"AAAHHHHH!!!" Konno shouted as he swung his sword aimlessly, cutting down everyone who was in his way regardless of what they were like or looked like or even the state of their lives.
His rage knew no loyalty because his sword struck both the red helmets and the black helmets.
He was that angry.
King Yuma knew that this was not going to end well. So in one final attempt to make the mad warrior see sense, he tried the one thing that could have gotten him killed.
"Haruki Iwata!!!" King Yuma bellowed.
And Konno still.
He didn't turn. Didn't step forward. Hell, he didn't swing his sword either. In that moment of hesitation, Konno looked at King Yuma Ishida.
Shamefully, the king signaled for the warriors to run and leave the battlefield.
There was nothing to be won here.
Not anymore.
Not when Konno was slicing down everyone. It was truly the first time such a gesture had been seen from the king of Craenia. And frankly, it was surprising to say the least.
The black helmets made a run for home, using a different route.
The red helmets, they sheathed their weapons and ran off the battlefield. They didn't need to be told anything more. Because even they had eyes. This was no longer a battle for Craenia and the army that Sondra Dynamite led.
This was something else. Something was so dangerous that the king, who took pleasure in seeing people dead, had chosen to tell everyone to leave with their lives. The injured were helped by their comrades.
The dying had the unfortunate fate of waiting helplessly for their lives to leave them.
Slowly, the battlefield was reduced to three entities: King Yuma Ishida, the dying helmets, and Konno.
"What?" Konno voiced once the helmets were gone.
He didn't need to hide anything anymore, but even if he tried to, this king knew him better than he even knew himself. Better than what he had learned in the years he had been fighting for Craenia.
"You said he wouldn't be a problem. That was why I gave you a hint from your past. So, what the hell was that today? What were you playing at?" King Yuma asked, every word from his mouth a confusing stab to Konno's chest.
"You're hilarious, your majesty," Konno said as he turned to look at the king, who had gotten to where he was standing. The man looked stressed and disappointed, but Konno wasn't going to give a damn about that right now. So, he continued.
"He abandoned me for the rank of general. He doesn't even remember our brotherhood. Even if I stepped forward and told him I was his brother, Daikiro Konno, he wouldn't believe it," Konno scoffed angrily.
"Perhaps I should be asking you the same question. What is your play in all this, your majesty? Why did you give me that hint from my past?" Konno continued coldly.