Your road to freedom that you build with flesh and bone.
The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for May 21, 2008.
It's odd, but ever since he stopped walking alone and started letting Angelica tell him where to go and what to do without ever really saying anything, it's become harder and harder for Mifune to wield his swords. His blades used to be an extension of his own body – he was so attuned to them that slicing and dicing people became about as natural as breathing, and killing was as effortless as moving. They were feather light, virtually weightless, so much a part of him as his own arms and legs were.
Nowadays, he drags the case carrying his blades around like they're deadweight, and the leather strap burns a line right up against his skin, much like the heat of Angelica's small hand nestled against his palm. Nowadays, he makes his battlefield and every time he swings his sword against another living being he can feel the body pushing back, resisting the killing intent in the edge of his weapon. They are no longer corpses, no longer a means to an end, and sometimes, on particularly bad days, their eyes look exactly the way his witch's does, every time she turns to him with a smile.
He knows that it is just a matter of accepting the weight of a life, but every time Angelica's curled in his lap and he stops himself from touching her hair because there's blood on his hands that no water's ever going to be able to wash out, Mifune knows that it couldn't be that easy. He'd brood on it if he had the time, but somehow Angelica always wakes up just before he can get started on it and in the act of offering her candy, he forgets to think or to feel guilty all over again.