Roseate Desire (before battle)

<We keep running into these... manikins...>

<Are they made by those "Nursefathers?">

Yes. To be more specific, it's just the Ring Nursefather.

Corporism - an art movement that utilizes the interaction between human bones and muscles, the contraction and the elongation thereof. ... With a splash of Cubist technique, it seems.

... Nasty.

Observe closer - do you see them?

Writings, carved into their... bodies.

These corpses were engraved with a wild scrawl of a message, carved with a blade.

They began shuffling at us in that uncanny rhythm entirely devoid of any semblance of will.

"Dearest..."

Dearest daughter of ours,

please pay close attention to the way the line curves.

From ribs, we can make blades keener than any sword; from femurs, we can make bludgeons sturdier than any mace.

The thoracic cage has taken this prepossessing yet hardy shape of an arch to keep the heart and the lungs from harm.

Preserve this natural beauty of the human corpus and do not infringe upon its primeval, precise value...

That is the reverence with which the act of creation must be handled - just as musicians handle a priceless instrument.

Touch it, if you will. Do your fingertips feel the contour of a blade along the grains of musculature, its tendons and sinews?

…….

The bones of the one most desperate for life... have become a blade best fit to reap it.

Indeed it has, hasn't it? I knew from the fathoms of my heart that you could appreciate the true value of this piece, Yoshihide.

The care put into this piece I have so painstakingly birthed into the world is greater than that of any other work of mine. The smallest fracture or imbalance could instantly render it useless.

Once this piece is complete, dearest Yoshihide, I would like for you to wield it.

I will.

Never got to finish that precious piece he'd always ramble about... did he?

Ryōshū muttered to herself.