Oneshot The Last Minute Essay

If the world was to turn on the hero, was that hero truly their saviour?
Or could it have been, that the hero was acting without truly knowing his purpose?
And if the Hero did not know his true purpose, then why was he acting?
Was he simply a pawn, played by people of true power?
Was he a child, acting out of self-interest?
Was he an idiot, acting under the impression that he could make a change by killing a single individual?
A strange sense of nostalgia swept over Shinji as he wrote in a hurry. His teacher had assigned the task weeks ago, and only now had he gotten to it.
‘Write an essay to define yourself.’
A stupid task, for stupid people, is what Shinji thought of it. Yet, he still knew he needed to rush it. If he didn’t get it done, it was possible his teacher would hold him back again. He could not afford for this to happen, so he chose to write a fictional story.
The Demon King was a young man, leading his people. He never believed that the way he did things was wrong. War was a way of life for his people, ensuring they always had the ability to live a good life. Without it, they had nothing.

“What an idiot”, Shinji muttered to himself.
“War has its place, but....”

The hero was equally as stubborn. Although war was bad, the world required it in certain times. That was simply how it was, yet he refused to believe. He chose to increase his power, in order to rebel against the Demon King.

Shinji was interrupted by a voice.

“Ya din’t d’ya ‘say, didncha?”

Shinji recognised the voice straight away, and let out a small breath of air. At the same time, the owner of the voice stuck their head in front of Shinji’s face.

“Hey, Aoi. Your fake accent is as grating as always.”

Aoi’s face warped into a pout hearing Shinji’s response.
“Huh!? Doncha think I’m cute with it???”, she sobbed.

Shinji did not even respond to his friends question. He instead chose to continue writing his essay.

The conflict between the Demon King and the Hero, went on for a long time. Villages were burnt in fire, children were enslaved and their parents killed. Just why did the hero think he was saving the people? For, after all, were there not as many people as harmed by him as there was by the enemy?

Shinji could feel Aoi reading over his shoulder but was not bothered. They had been friends a long time and this was something he was used to her doing.

One day, a leader of a village came up to the hero who was resting in an inn. He had decided to speak to the hero, in order to get him to understand. He began to talk to the hero respectfully.
“Hero, why do you fight?”, the leader asked.
The hero’s face contorted in confusion.
“In order to save people, is it not?”, he said.
“If it’s to save people, hero, then why is it you hold the aura of death?”
“Because sacrifices are made in the name of the greater good.”

Aoi, reacted strangely to Shinji writing this exchange. A tear had formed and fallen onto Shinji’s shoulder. Feeling it, Shinji turned to her and hugged her.

“What’s wrong, Aoi?”
“I-I’m not sure? I just, felt sad?”

They simply stayed like that for some time, before Aoi finally separated from Shinji.

“Ya’d betta get tah ya ‘say!”

Hearing the fake accent, Shinji knew that Aoi was feeling better and so, continued on his work.

The Hero went out on an expedition, to fight the men of the demon king. His mind rung of his conversation with the village leader.

‘Why do I really fight?’, thought the hero.
He approached the enemy and soon his mind was devoid of anything except the thought of fighting them all. He drew out his sword, and killed them all.
‘Doesn’t matter why!’, the hero firmly concluded.

“Who’s right, Shinji?”, Aoi asked curiously.
“I don’t know...”, he said sadly.

Watching as the hero killed his followers, the Demon King echoed the thoughts of the hero.
“Why do I fight?”, he spoke aloud.
“For your subjects, my lord.”, his loyal advisor replied.
“Then why is it that I must send them all to their deaths?”
A voice of sorrow came from the demon king, as he watched the blood spill on the battlefield.

“Is the demon king not evil? Why does he care?”
“...he must consider his subjects, must he not? If he doesn’t, then why is he the king? The hero, he needs not to think about it. That’s what I think.”, Shinji explained the essay. At least, what he understood of it.

‘Is this really okay to submit this as an essay?’, such a thought slipped into his mind.

He shook the feeling off, as he knew that at least submitting something would get him more marks than not submitting anything.

The hero looked at the blood on his blade, and wiped it off. A cruel smile appeared on his face as he put the cloth away.
“Soon, I will kill that bastard...and save the world!”
Laughter which the people surrounding would call ‘terrifying’ in the future.
The man who was called ‘Hero’, was in fact, a demon. Such a legend would spread.

“Is that spoiling the end, Shinji? Shouldn’t you avoid revealing that?”, Aoi seemed to have a deep understanding of the essay he was writing. He shook his head.
“The hero...was the cruellest out of everyone.”
A pained expression could be seen his eyes.

“I surrender!”, the Demon King called out to the Hero.
“Now why would I let you go and do that?”, the hero smiled.
“I don’t want my people to suffer! If I surrender, then you win!”
The hero laughed at the Demon King then spat on his face.
“Don’t you see? Demons are evil! They poison the world with their views that war will fix everything! Am I not proof that they are wrong?! War will create monsters like me! Can’t you see that?”
The Demon King began to cry, not caring about image.
“Just...if you know, then why do you do it? Why do you fight? Why?”

“Didn’t you skip something, Shinji? Something important?”
“Important? I don’t think so?”
“Or could it be, you don’t remember?”
Shinji shook his head, disturbed by the conversation, and continued writing.

“I wonder? Should I tell you, my lord? Should I explain as to why I fight against you, even when I cause more pain than you ever did?! Why I parade as a hero, when in fact, I am not even human?”

The Hero began trembling, and resolved herself.

“Then look... LOOK UPON YOUR OWN DEMON’S FACE!”

“I really think you missed it, Shinji. The point of this exercise. Why did you miss the important part?! STOP WRITING!!!”, Aoi began freaking out.

“Really? But I thought it was fine...”, Shinji muttered while ignoring Aoi.

“My own demon’s face, is it? Nice to see you, my love.”
“You killed me, you bastard. Just so you can keep the throne!”

“Was that it? Did I kill you for something like that? I can’t remember... in fact, what’s your name again?”

Shinji felt something sharp stab him in the back.
He felt his back with his hands and when he looked at them, he could feel blood.

“Aoi, was it? Oh, of course. Well, this is torture in itself? I cannot remember until she kills me and then I live it all over again? Why was it? Why did we fight? And what did she mean by important part?”

“M’be ya’ll work’t out nextime?”

“Ahahaha. That fake-ass accent again?”

Shinji began laughing uncontrollably as he could feel the life flow out of him.

“What’s so funny, Shinji?”

“How many times does this make it, Aoi?”

“... This is the six hundredth. Why?”

“I really am weak, huh? Then, let me say it once again.”

“I will never hate you.”

“And you, yet again, fail to do me kindness.”, Aoi cried.
“Why must you save them instead of me, every time?!"

 

This is really good.

 

It felt good, good mindfck btw.

 

kinda remind me with Tale for Demon Lord

 

dem feels bro

 

Damn that was pretty good...first time I read something this long till the end

 

O when you titled it Last minute Essay, I thought you were going to ask for help in an essay. Just finished a shit ton of last minute lab reports (like 3 lol.) and I'm almost dead. Just need to finish this chapter of Dungeon Defense and I can die happy. (not really, I'll just resurrect when the next chapter comes out.)

 

Hahaha. Inspired by the fact I have never really done an assignment early. Always at the last minute!

 

Damn that was good, I hope you write more

 

I'm a bit confused as to how Aoi and Shinji fit in?

 

Shinji = Demon King
Aoi = Hero

 

Wow this is already better than Emperor's Domination kappa.

 

No seriously though. This is amazing. Penning a unique storyline that uses the cliche Hero vs DL in such a way that is neither bland nor gaudy, using simplicity of structure to convey profundity of your idea. As a writer myself, (albeit way too shy to share his work) this is just very amazing to me. All four of my thumbs are standing straight saluting you!

 

The title drew me in because I just finished a 7 page analysis essay on the domestic and systemic causes of war in 4 hours. My best record so far.

 

well done!

 

Wow, That was an interesting read. Thanks for writing it!

 

Good stuff, if you make it into a series instead of one shot tell us where to find it cause I'll keep on reading

 

I'm curious as to how this could ever be written as a series, but it amuses me

 

I found the structure of the story to be quite grating and lacking in point. There isn't enough background to really make the story meaningful. It caught my interest, but it was too ephemeral to really create any lasting impression

 

Thanks for the criticism I appreciate it, I'll work on it for my next work.