Kill No More
Eep, reading novels is so dangerous. I start reading and then I just don't stop (or if I do... then I never finish). I finished reading all 13 volumes of Kill No More (不殺) in less than a week. Kill No More was Yu Wo's second series, and she's been posting it in her blog. I tried reading it before but couldn't get very far with it as a lot of things feel very arbitrary and somewhat forced (I again got bored with volume 1), but after getting past a certain point, the characters grew on me, and the plot started coming together. I ended up liking the main character a lot.
Kill No More is about an assassin who swears never to kill again because of a promise. (Kenshin, anyone? XD;; ) In the midst of a fight with another assassin, he falls into an alternate dimension into the apartment of a lazy young man. This suits his needs, as he was attempting to run away from the assassin organization of his world. Where better to run than to an entirely different world? Except in this world, his promise never to kill is tested over and over again.
Translation of official summary:
"Killing is for survival; not killing is for a promise."
An assassin who promised never to kill - Liaula, falls into a different world while he's being chased for his life. In this chaotic and lawless world, can Liaula truly keep his promise?
The world's laziest guy - Kaiser, who knows if its misfortune or fortune, picks up an assassin who doesn't kill. A lazy guy plus an assassin who doesn't kill - what kind of muddled story will result from this?
The world's last hero? The courageous, evil-slaying Silver Mask? What the heck is that? Isn't our protagonist the cool and handsome assassin who doesn't kill, Liaula? Hey, hey, my god, don't tell me, Silver Mask, that righteous do-gooder with such a lame name is actually...
Anyway, this is the story of a downhearted assassin + a lazy guy who wouldn't move a finger more than he has to to make money as long as he is able to survive. This is the first page of their story.
What neither summary covers is that there are dragons. XD; Dragon mounts! The powers in this world are divided into three types - knights, mobile suits (mecha), and warlocks. Magic has fallen to technology and is often looked down on. There are three strong powers - the empire of the Dragon Emperor, the Aklan Empire, and the Commerce Alliance. The main character of course gets himself involved with something that sweeps across the world, pfft. Even though this is a futuristic world where trees are rare and valuable, I often get a medieval vibe from the setting with all the knights and dragons and magic. It's like Yu Wo took guns and machines and magic and dragons and smushed them all together. I don't think anyone rode a vehicle after the first volume...
I feel like I was led to believe that Kaiser's world is technologically advanced, with hover cars and tubes that transport you from your apartment to the streets, etc, except all this technology seems to fade as the series advances... I completely forgot trees = rare when they had to go out and survive in nature for a month. I don't think trees were mentioned... but I sure imagined them on my own.
The beginning of the story is sort of focused on school life. Yeah, school. Liaula and Kaiser somehow end up at a school (after being threatened by an X-class criminal...he'll let them off if they go to school). The school teaches the three different types of powers. Liaula and Kaiser enroll in the warlock division, though Liaula doesn't know an ounce of magic since magic doesn't exist in his world. They run into all sorts of obstructions when they try to attend classes though, so they never make it to class until a good way into the story. (And then class isn't ever shown again after that, haha... and no one else ever talks about their lessons). Anyway, seems like what they learn at school isn't important at all (plot-wise). The school's just a necessary setting for bringing people together, including princesses and future leaders. Liaula takes up on donning a silver mask whenever he shows off his prowess. His "Silver Mask" identity quickly becomes famous, and he even ends up accidentally making a contract with a white dragon. I love second identities, hehe. Liaula's is pretty fun, and it gets him into a lot of trouble too, like double dates. Though the series started off in a school setting... the school setting quickly became unimportant. This story is fairly messy, haha (it completely lost me the first time)... but still fun.
I was reminded of GOD a lot. Kaiser is very like Shooting Star. Liaula (taking care of a young child), reminds me a lot of the elf from GOD. Daylight is a lot like Bai Saiya with his unrighteousness. There's also a lot to do with royalty and prophecies. Oh, and there's always the Demon King. I think a Demon King has been present in all of Yu Wo's works I've read so far... and of course things are never as they seem. I do so love that the bad guys aren't evil evil, and that characters aren't vilified or given the idiot ball.
Characters!
利奧拉 / lì ào lā / Liaula (...since that sounds a bit manlier than Leola)
Main character, an assassin from a different world who promised never to kill again. "I am not dead yet because suicide also counts as killing, and I don't kill." He's very expressionless and does not understand feelings very well, as his world used to only consist of assassination lists and killing. Has black hair and silver eyes. Kaiser remarks that his name is strange, but his name actually means "Silver Moon" in his world. Kaiser only knows the sounds. Liaula is supposedly 25.
I wasn't very attached to Liaula in the beginning (even though he's the main character!), but he slowly grew on me when we got more of his POV later on rather than Kaiser's. Again, we have a character who's not good at interacting with the world. He's a bit like Daren from Eclipse Hunter, but colder and less childish (and less extreme...I say less extreme because Daren gets into "does not compute" situations while Liaula just becomes lost from the conversations). Both are tremendously strong. (Liaula pretty much did all of his training before the series and didn't have to train at all during the series. Other characters trained a lot though). Liaula seems to have extreme bad luck and gets into near death situations all the time despite being one of the strongest people in the series.
I loved his character growth. He changes a lot by the end of the series! The latter half of the story is really all about him discovering who he truly is. He became my favorite by the end... especially since he has a case of "I can't drag them into this. This is all my fault" etc. Ah, self-guilt...
凱司 / kǎi sī / let's just call him Kaiser for now... (Though it could also be... Case? Castell? I have no idea)
A laaazy guy who loves money. He is very stingy. (think Yulian, haha...) He knows how to talk his way out of things and can be a manipulative bastard (think Sun). He often finds trouble, but people end up looking to him to get them out of trouble. He has green hair and blue eyes and a baby face. Used to live in an apartment on his own before Liaula fell into his apartment and they enrolled in school together. Is a magic user though his magic is very unstable. He has a mean mouth but his actions speak differently.
I thought he was the main character at first, but he's not actually, though he does push the story forward and provides a lot of the dialogue since Liaula doesn't talk much without prompting. Kaiser also serves as a guide for Liaula, since Liaula doesn't know anything about the world he landed in.
清清 羅伯特 / qīng qīng luó bó tè / Chastity Robert (Since her name means "pure/quiet", I'm just going to call her Chastity for now...)
The first student Liaula and Kaiser meet at Aklan School. She's a timid girl who seems to be picked on. She hires Liaula and Kaiser to protect her from school bullies. She has a brother who's a Silver Knight. She often sneaks in at least one of his outfits with her. Liaula dons Chastity's brother's outfit when he first hides his identity as Silver Mask, causing many to mistake him for a Silver Knight, one of the highest rankings for a knight. (rankings go Red - Blue - Silver - Gold...something like that... I need to dig out this info again, I don't remember all the rankings). She's a mage whose most powerful spell is a black hole... she doesn't know where the black hole sends people (meaning she has no control over it).
梅南 / méi nán (His name sounds like "beautiful man". I believe Bishounen would be the closest to that, haha... maybe I should just call him "Handsome").
Handsome is a warlock who specializes in protective barriers and has no offensive magic. He is very narcissistic and carries around a mirror with him all the time to fix his hair and marvel at himself. He thinks highly of women and treats them with care. He's the fourth to join the group of troublemakers.
I find his narcissism quite amusing. I also didn't think he would be such an important character when he was first introduced.
白天 / bái tiān (Character by character, his name means "White Skies", but together, the characters also mean daytime/daylight. I'm going to call him Daylight.)
Daylight is a well-respected Blue Knight from the knight division of Aklan School. His battle aura is turning silver on the edges, meaning that he is close to becoming a Silver Knight. He is also a Dragon Knight and rides a red dragon who goes by the name of 烈焰 / liè yàn / Fiery Flames. He is very righteous and does not like lying. He is an orphan, and is the fifth to join the group of trouble makers.
Daylight totally grew on me, and I did not expect that he would end up having so much screen time (much more than Chastity and Handsome).
寶利龍 / bǎo lì lóng / Polystyrene (寶 = treasure, 利 = li, from Liaula's name, 龍 = dragon... but pronounced together, it sounds like Polystyrene).
Polystyrene is a young white dragon, the holy white dragon, with white hair and pink eyes in human form. Has a huuuuuuge appetite. Polystyrene chooses Liaula as zer master, and takes to calling him "Daddy", causing many to think Polystyrene is Liaula's son. Dragons don't have gender until they choose their gender once they come of age, but Polystyrene is viewed as a male. Dragons can communicate non-verbally with their masters, and dragons can communicate with other dragons non-verbally. Dragons can also locate their masters and other dragons. Dragon and master can also learn dragon magic.
GOD also has a child-like character, much like Kill No More. Polystyrene and Liaula totally reminded me of the little girl and the elf from GOD.
藍瑟琪 / lán sè qí (no idea how her name would translate. it feels very traditionally Chinese to me, but this is her first name and she also has a surname. First character in her name means "blue", and the middle character of her name is the same as Anse's)
She's the princess of the Dragon Empire, the original rider meant for Polystyrene. Angered by Silver Mask who stole her mount from her, she challenges him to a match. Somehow, she looks exactly the same as Anse, the woman Liaula made a promise with. This confuses Silver Mask.
冰絲莉 / bīng sī lì (冰 = ice/cold 絲 = silk 莉 = white jasmine... I'm just going to call her Jasmine)
Lanseqi's friend. She comes across Liaula with Polystyrene and thinks he's a great dad. Like the princess, Jasmine is also a knight. (I was rooting for her if romance was going to be involved!)
米哲瑞 / mǐ zhé ruì (米 = rice 哲 = wise 瑞 = auspicious)
An X-class criminal (and one of the best mages of the world), Liaula and Kaiser run into him on a bus. Kaiser wants to capture him to turn him in for reward money, thinking that Liaula should be able to do him in, but he is much deadlier than Kaiser thought. He promises to let the two go if they attend Aklan school, or else.
I felt his scenes were very arbitrary (he just seems to pop up everywhere) but he gets more solid scenes later in the story.
祕羅 / mì luó / Miluo
A black dragon who's lived for over a thousand years, he is Polystyrene's real dad. He has a grudge against the Dragon Emperor. He's normally seen in dragon form.
龍皇 / lóng huáng / Dragon Emperor
The Dragon Emperor has three sons and a daughter. His original name before he became the Dragon Emperor was pronounced the same as "Coffee", so he named all of his sons after coffee too (Mocha, Latte, and Cappuccino), causing them to be known as the three coffee princes. The daughter had a twin, but the twin was lost at birth. The Dragon Emperor used to be kind and silly, but time seems to have changed him.
Mocha
Mocha is the first prince of the Dragon Empire. He has the ability to see the future. He has purple eyes just like his father. He has long holed himself up in his tower, so few have seen him over the years.
Lancelot
Lancelot is the Light Knight, known for his justness. He is one of the strongest in the world. He rides a white unicorn as his steed. He serves the Dragon Kingdom.
The man who raised Liaula into becoming a cold-hearted assassin, he is the leader of the assassin organization back in Liaula's world.
烈焰 / liè yàn / Fiery Flames
Daylight's red fire dragon. Around 50 years old. Usually seen in dragon form and cannot maintain human form for long, unlike Polystyrene who is the holy white dragon. Has not come of age yet.
Anse
Anse was a miracle healer from Liaula's world who was captured by the assassin organization. She talked a lot with Liaula and kept telling him to find her when the day came that he could kill no more. Eventually, Anse is released. Later in time, Liaula finds her, deserts from the organization, and tries to escape with her, but Anse dies along the way, making it so that Liaula is the only one who manages to escape into a different world. Liaula promises Anse that he will never kill again.
Blood Wolf
Blood Wolf is Lancelot's good friend. He is an easy going knight who doesn't follow normal knight rules. He rides a black wolf as his steed and serves the Dragon Kingdom, more specifically, the third prince, Cappuccino.
Only his drawing is different since I grabbed this from the latest merchandise that'll be released. XD; I love this pic! He looks so easy-going~
Cappuccino
The third prince of the Dragon Empire, he appears airheaded and likes to drink and flirt. He has a red dragon who he calls "Little Fireball" even though his dragon is far from little.
Barbarosa
The principal of Aklan School. He is an old man and an acclaimed mage.
Might blab about more spoilerish stuff in another post~. And expand the character list. But anyway, whoot, I caught up with Kill No More. Now I can read the side stories for it that's being updated right now. :D
Ahhh, it's already 13 days into 2012 and I've yet to post any fic... looks like 150k as my word count goal this year will be...very hard. (I jotted down 6 new ideas for Legend of Sun Knight fics this week, but nooo, I'm not going to start a new story! Must finish Bittersweet Sweetness first!) Reading Kill No More makes me want to work on my original stories some more... maybe I can make something out of my messy beginnings too? XD;
Kill No More is about an assassin who swears never to kill again because of a promise. (Kenshin, anyone? XD;; ) In the midst of a fight with another assassin, he falls into an alternate dimension into the apartment of a lazy young man. This suits his needs, as he was attempting to run away from the assassin organization of his world. Where better to run than to an entirely different world? Except in this world, his promise never to kill is tested over and over again.
Translation of official summary:
"Killing is for survival; not killing is for a promise."
An assassin who promised never to kill - Liaula, falls into a different world while he's being chased for his life. In this chaotic and lawless world, can Liaula truly keep his promise?
The world's laziest guy - Kaiser, who knows if its misfortune or fortune, picks up an assassin who doesn't kill. A lazy guy plus an assassin who doesn't kill - what kind of muddled story will result from this?
The world's last hero? The courageous, evil-slaying Silver Mask? What the heck is that? Isn't our protagonist the cool and handsome assassin who doesn't kill, Liaula? Hey, hey, my god, don't tell me, Silver Mask, that righteous do-gooder with such a lame name is actually...
Anyway, this is the story of a downhearted assassin + a lazy guy who wouldn't move a finger more than he has to to make money as long as he is able to survive. This is the first page of their story.
What neither summary covers is that there are dragons. XD; Dragon mounts! The powers in this world are divided into three types - knights, mobile suits (mecha), and warlocks. Magic has fallen to technology and is often looked down on. There are three strong powers - the empire of the Dragon Emperor, the Aklan Empire, and the Commerce Alliance. The main character of course gets himself involved with something that sweeps across the world, pfft. Even though this is a futuristic world where trees are rare and valuable, I often get a medieval vibe from the setting with all the knights and dragons and magic. It's like Yu Wo took guns and machines and magic and dragons and smushed them all together. I don't think anyone rode a vehicle after the first volume...
I feel like I was led to believe that Kaiser's world is technologically advanced, with hover cars and tubes that transport you from your apartment to the streets, etc, except all this technology seems to fade as the series advances... I completely forgot trees = rare when they had to go out and survive in nature for a month. I don't think trees were mentioned... but I sure imagined them on my own.
The beginning of the story is sort of focused on school life. Yeah, school. Liaula and Kaiser somehow end up at a school (after being threatened by an X-class criminal...he'll let them off if they go to school). The school teaches the three different types of powers. Liaula and Kaiser enroll in the warlock division, though Liaula doesn't know an ounce of magic since magic doesn't exist in his world. They run into all sorts of obstructions when they try to attend classes though, so they never make it to class until a good way into the story. (And then class isn't ever shown again after that, haha... and no one else ever talks about their lessons). Anyway, seems like what they learn at school isn't important at all (plot-wise). The school's just a necessary setting for bringing people together, including princesses and future leaders. Liaula takes up on donning a silver mask whenever he shows off his prowess. His "Silver Mask" identity quickly becomes famous, and he even ends up accidentally making a contract with a white dragon. I love second identities, hehe. Liaula's is pretty fun, and it gets him into a lot of trouble too, like double dates. Though the series started off in a school setting... the school setting quickly became unimportant. This story is fairly messy, haha (it completely lost me the first time)... but still fun.
I was reminded of GOD a lot. Kaiser is very like Shooting Star. Liaula (taking care of a young child), reminds me a lot of the elf from GOD. Daylight is a lot like Bai Saiya with his unrighteousness. There's also a lot to do with royalty and prophecies. Oh, and there's always the Demon King. I think a Demon King has been present in all of Yu Wo's works I've read so far... and of course things are never as they seem. I do so love that the bad guys aren't evil evil, and that characters aren't vilified or given the idiot ball.
Characters!
利奧拉 / lì ào lā / Liaula (...since that sounds a bit manlier than Leola)
Main character, an assassin from a different world who promised never to kill again. "I am not dead yet because suicide also counts as killing, and I don't kill." He's very expressionless and does not understand feelings very well, as his world used to only consist of assassination lists and killing. Has black hair and silver eyes. Kaiser remarks that his name is strange, but his name actually means "Silver Moon" in his world. Kaiser only knows the sounds. Liaula is supposedly 25.
I wasn't very attached to Liaula in the beginning (even though he's the main character!), but he slowly grew on me when we got more of his POV later on rather than Kaiser's. Again, we have a character who's not good at interacting with the world. He's a bit like Daren from Eclipse Hunter, but colder and less childish (and less extreme...I say less extreme because Daren gets into "does not compute" situations while Liaula just becomes lost from the conversations). Both are tremendously strong. (Liaula pretty much did all of his training before the series and didn't have to train at all during the series. Other characters trained a lot though). Liaula seems to have extreme bad luck and gets into near death situations all the time despite being one of the strongest people in the series.
I loved his character growth. He changes a lot by the end of the series! The latter half of the story is really all about him discovering who he truly is. He became my favorite by the end... especially since he has a case of "I can't drag them into this. This is all my fault" etc. Ah, self-guilt...
凱司 / kǎi sī / let's just call him Kaiser for now... (Though it could also be... Case? Castell? I have no idea)
A laaazy guy who loves money. He is very stingy. (think Yulian, haha...) He knows how to talk his way out of things and can be a manipulative bastard (think Sun). He often finds trouble, but people end up looking to him to get them out of trouble. He has green hair and blue eyes and a baby face. Used to live in an apartment on his own before Liaula fell into his apartment and they enrolled in school together. Is a magic user though his magic is very unstable. He has a mean mouth but his actions speak differently.
I thought he was the main character at first, but he's not actually, though he does push the story forward and provides a lot of the dialogue since Liaula doesn't talk much without prompting. Kaiser also serves as a guide for Liaula, since Liaula doesn't know anything about the world he landed in.
清清 羅伯特 / qīng qīng luó bó tè / Chastity Robert (Since her name means "pure/quiet", I'm just going to call her Chastity for now...)
The first student Liaula and Kaiser meet at Aklan School. She's a timid girl who seems to be picked on. She hires Liaula and Kaiser to protect her from school bullies. She has a brother who's a Silver Knight. She often sneaks in at least one of his outfits with her. Liaula dons Chastity's brother's outfit when he first hides his identity as Silver Mask, causing many to mistake him for a Silver Knight, one of the highest rankings for a knight. (rankings go Red - Blue - Silver - Gold...something like that... I need to dig out this info again, I don't remember all the rankings). She's a mage whose most powerful spell is a black hole... she doesn't know where the black hole sends people (meaning she has no control over it).
梅南 / méi nán (His name sounds like "beautiful man". I believe Bishounen would be the closest to that, haha... maybe I should just call him "Handsome").
Handsome is a warlock who specializes in protective barriers and has no offensive magic. He is very narcissistic and carries around a mirror with him all the time to fix his hair and marvel at himself. He thinks highly of women and treats them with care. He's the fourth to join the group of troublemakers.
I find his narcissism quite amusing. I also didn't think he would be such an important character when he was first introduced.
白天 / bái tiān (Character by character, his name means "White Skies", but together, the characters also mean daytime/daylight. I'm going to call him Daylight.)
Daylight is a well-respected Blue Knight from the knight division of Aklan School. His battle aura is turning silver on the edges, meaning that he is close to becoming a Silver Knight. He is also a Dragon Knight and rides a red dragon who goes by the name of 烈焰 / liè yàn / Fiery Flames. He is very righteous and does not like lying. He is an orphan, and is the fifth to join the group of trouble makers.
Daylight totally grew on me, and I did not expect that he would end up having so much screen time (much more than Chastity and Handsome).
寶利龍 / bǎo lì lóng / Polystyrene (寶 = treasure, 利 = li, from Liaula's name, 龍 = dragon... but pronounced together, it sounds like Polystyrene).
Polystyrene is a young white dragon, the holy white dragon, with white hair and pink eyes in human form. Has a huuuuuuge appetite. Polystyrene chooses Liaula as zer master, and takes to calling him "Daddy", causing many to think Polystyrene is Liaula's son. Dragons don't have gender until they choose their gender once they come of age, but Polystyrene is viewed as a male. Dragons can communicate non-verbally with their masters, and dragons can communicate with other dragons non-verbally. Dragons can also locate their masters and other dragons. Dragon and master can also learn dragon magic.
GOD also has a child-like character, much like Kill No More. Polystyrene and Liaula totally reminded me of the little girl and the elf from GOD.
藍瑟琪 / lán sè qí (no idea how her name would translate. it feels very traditionally Chinese to me, but this is her first name and she also has a surname. First character in her name means "blue", and the middle character of her name is the same as Anse's)
She's the princess of the Dragon Empire, the original rider meant for Polystyrene. Angered by Silver Mask who stole her mount from her, she challenges him to a match. Somehow, she looks exactly the same as Anse, the woman Liaula made a promise with. This confuses Silver Mask.
冰絲莉 / bīng sī lì (冰 = ice/cold 絲 = silk 莉 = white jasmine... I'm just going to call her Jasmine)
Lanseqi's friend. She comes across Liaula with Polystyrene and thinks he's a great dad. Like the princess, Jasmine is also a knight. (I was rooting for her if romance was going to be involved!)
米哲瑞 / mǐ zhé ruì (米 = rice 哲 = wise 瑞 = auspicious)
An X-class criminal (and one of the best mages of the world), Liaula and Kaiser run into him on a bus. Kaiser wants to capture him to turn him in for reward money, thinking that Liaula should be able to do him in, but he is much deadlier than Kaiser thought. He promises to let the two go if they attend Aklan school, or else.
I felt his scenes were very arbitrary (he just seems to pop up everywhere) but he gets more solid scenes later in the story.
祕羅 / mì luó / Miluo
A black dragon who's lived for over a thousand years, he is Polystyrene's real dad. He has a grudge against the Dragon Emperor. He's normally seen in dragon form.
龍皇 / lóng huáng / Dragon Emperor
The Dragon Emperor has three sons and a daughter. His original name before he became the Dragon Emperor was pronounced the same as "Coffee", so he named all of his sons after coffee too (Mocha, Latte, and Cappuccino), causing them to be known as the three coffee princes. The daughter had a twin, but the twin was lost at birth. The Dragon Emperor used to be kind and silly, but time seems to have changed him.
Mocha
Mocha is the first prince of the Dragon Empire. He has the ability to see the future. He has purple eyes just like his father. He has long holed himself up in his tower, so few have seen him over the years.
Lancelot
Lancelot is the Light Knight, known for his justness. He is one of the strongest in the world. He rides a white unicorn as his steed. He serves the Dragon Kingdom.
The man who raised Liaula into becoming a cold-hearted assassin, he is the leader of the assassin organization back in Liaula's world.
烈焰 / liè yàn / Fiery Flames
Daylight's red fire dragon. Around 50 years old. Usually seen in dragon form and cannot maintain human form for long, unlike Polystyrene who is the holy white dragon. Has not come of age yet.
Anse
Anse was a miracle healer from Liaula's world who was captured by the assassin organization. She talked a lot with Liaula and kept telling him to find her when the day came that he could kill no more. Eventually, Anse is released. Later in time, Liaula finds her, deserts from the organization, and tries to escape with her, but Anse dies along the way, making it so that Liaula is the only one who manages to escape into a different world. Liaula promises Anse that he will never kill again.
Blood Wolf
Blood Wolf is Lancelot's good friend. He is an easy going knight who doesn't follow normal knight rules. He rides a black wolf as his steed and serves the Dragon Kingdom, more specifically, the third prince, Cappuccino.
Only his drawing is different since I grabbed this from the latest merchandise that'll be released. XD; I love this pic! He looks so easy-going~
Cappuccino
The third prince of the Dragon Empire, he appears airheaded and likes to drink and flirt. He has a red dragon who he calls "Little Fireball" even though his dragon is far from little.
Barbarosa
The principal of Aklan School. He is an old man and an acclaimed mage.
Might blab about more spoilerish stuff in another post~. And expand the character list. But anyway, whoot, I caught up with Kill No More. Now I can read the side stories for it that's being updated right now. :D
Ahhh, it's already 13 days into 2012 and I've yet to post any fic... looks like 150k as my word count goal this year will be...very hard. (I jotted down 6 new ideas for Legend of Sun Knight fics this week, but nooo, I'm not going to start a new story! Must finish Bittersweet Sweetness first!) Reading Kill No More makes me want to work on my original stories some more... maybe I can make something out of my messy beginnings too? XD;