All You Need Is Kill

by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

If there’s a heaven, it’s a cold place. A dark place. A lonely place.

Good ideas don’t stand a chance against good bureaucracy.

At the end of the day, every man has to wipe his own ass. There’s no one to make your decisions for you, either.

“You ever hear the expression kiri-oboeru?” “What?” I asked, startled to hear the Japanese. “It’s an old samurai saying that means ‘Strike down your enemy, and learn.’

Martial arts use every scrap of strength the body has at its disposal. In martial arts training, you punch and shout at the same time. Your “Shout louder!” command helps to override the “Less power!” command. With practice, you can throttle the amount of power your body holds back. In essence, you’re learning to channel the body’s power to destroy itself.

“Our lives should be written in stone. Paper is too temporary—too easy to rewrite.”

In war, fear is the woman your mother warned you about. You knew she was no good for you, but you couldn’t shake her. You had to find a way to get along, because she wasn’t going anywhere.

My body never changed, but the OS that ran it had seen a total overhaul.

“You shouldn’t assume everything you don’t understand is a message,”

There is what we desire to do, and what we are able to do. When those two things don’t coincide, which path should we pursue to find happiness?

“They use professional modelers. All they need is a glimpse to make something almost exactly like the original. The models made in Japan are the best. They can auction for a lot of money.”

Seems like figures and garage kits are still alive and kicking, even in the middle of a war!

“America’s at war, and we still find the time to turn out terrible movies.”

... True.

“Your mother must have been disappointed when the abortion only killed your conscience,”

What this nightmarish time loop from the bowels of Hell hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

Another group we walked past was playing gastronomic chicken with a mystery liquid that looked like a combination of ketchup, mustard, and orange juice.

Uh... eww?

Maybe I should have tried the kitchen sink instead.

“I’ll stay with you until you die. I—I love you.”

Red was your color, yours and yours alone. It should rest with you. I will paint my Jacket sky blue, the color you told me you loved when we first met.