Real Name: Eiji KASHII
Born: February 2
Height: 181 cm
Weight: 72 kg
Nickname: The Natural-Born Slayer
From his first battle at the age of five, Eiji has killed every enemy he faced. From the start, people called him a natural, and his claim over the title became absolute—so much so that to this day, the only time anyone else is discussed as being a natural is in comparison to him.
His use of the saber is as magnificent as it is precise. Despite lacking any other weapons or remarkable abilities, Eiji can turn the tide of any battle. He has earned the reputation of bringing certain victory to whichever camp draws him to their side.
Eiji himself feels no particular allegiance to country or ideology and acquits himself as a common soldier. To him, winning is a foregone conclusion—what he holds far more important is how to end war. As the warrior who brings a swift end to any conflict, he would have liked to talk to Monkey, who kept wars from reigniting.
He calls his saber Gobōken—bayonet—and though the weapon isn’t anything special—it was a mass-produced item—he treats it with great care and respect.
Eiji is slim but has a rather large appetite. He doesn’t know how to cook and chooses to dine out instead. As a warrior, he abstains from alcohol and knows a lot about restaurants where he can eat alone.
This was no time to wallow in sentimentality. Besides, mercy killings such as this were a common occurrence on the battlefield—now there had merely been one more. Killing Tiger before she turned into a zombie hadn’t significantly changed the situation Ox was in. He needed to remain calm and clearheaded and make his next move.
Ushii, the Fighter of the Ox, knew all this. And yet, for one uncharacteristic moment, the Natural-Born Slayer held his gaze on Tiger’s lifeless body. Except he hadn’t been himself for more than just this moment—yes, an ally suffering a grave injury was cause for distress, but he had never before lost control like he did when Tiger was stabbed.
He had carved up Rabbit’s corpse without regard for the consequences. He fled combat, and he shouted. None of these were familiar experiences to him. Maybe it was because he saw something in her that reminded him of that girl he met on the battlefield.
Maybe Tiger wasn’t her after all, Ox thought.
The girl’s questions carried the unsophistication and purity of youth. How do you do everything so right? How can I do what’s right?
Ox still remembered being taken aback when he was confronted by the questions, which he had never asked himself. Mostly that was because no one else would have been so rudely presumptuous as to spring such sweeping questions on the Natural-Born Slayer—but the encounter was refreshingly unexpected. Practically everything in his life went as expected and according to plan, and he had been starved of anything bearing an element of surprise—and so he met that refreshing question with a serious answer.
“First, decide to do the right thing,” he had said. “Then do it.”
By giving form to his outlook and saying it aloud, he felt as if he’d had an awakening. If his genius had been lacking in any way, this was the moment it became complete. In truth, after this encounter, his accomplishments became even more remarkable than before.
I had been rude to treat such a strong warrior as if she were a naive, innocent child. Even though I never drink, I should have liked to make an exception and share one with her.
Though he had been shaken, Ox was still the Natural. Tiger’s body only captured his eyes and his empathy for one brief moment, and his mournful prayer lasted just one more, then he refocused his attention on the matter at hand. He was not so overcome by sentimentality to consider giving the woman a burial. He was in the middle of a war held only once every twelve years, and another corpse than hers more urgently required being put to rest.
Usagi, Fighter of the Rabbit … even dead, you’re still fighting. In a way, death is supposed to be a release for us warriors—but I suppose a necromanticist wouldn’t understand. Even so, to make a puppet out of your own corpse is beyond insanity.
But as much as Ox rejected Rabbit’s thinking, he understood it to a point. He knew what the necromanticist was attempting to do. Rabbit, recognizing his certain defeat, had chosen to take his own life, but not because he figured he was going to die anyway and could at least take the other fighters down with him and spoil the war’s outcome. No, it wasn’t that at all.
In death, Rabbit sought victory.
Rabbit found a loophole in the Zodiac War’s rules—or if not a hole, then part of its intended design. The judge, Duodecuple, had stated that the only condition for winning the Twelfth Zodiac War was to collect all twelve poison jewels swallowed by the combatants. As much as the contest was a battle royale, direct combat was ultimately not required to win—the only need was to collect the jewels. The rule was simple and broad in scope, capable of providing an exceedingly fair match between greatly varied competitors.
But for all that the rules didn’t mention killing, the only way to obtain another fighter’s jewel was to reach into their stomachs for it, which made killing a logistical inevitability. The only exception came from challengers like Sheep, who didn’t swallow their jewels—but that tactic was clearly out of bounds.
The war would conclude with one of two possible results: all eleven fighters aside from the winner were dead, or the battle went on past the time limit, and any fighters still alive at that time would succumb to the poison and die a pitiful death.
Certainly, some fighters might have survived the poison—though Ox was not among them. Dog, whom Ox hadn’t encountered, had neutralized the poison inside his body with the intention of outliving its effects. Ox could imagine the slim possibility that Horse—whose skin had been tough enough to repel the Natural-Born Slayer’s attacks—might have been resilient enough internally survive the poison, but even had Horse survived—or if any other fighter did in some other way—they wouldn’t have been able to collect all twelve jewels and would not have qualified as the winner.