Isaku from Lair of the Monster: The Mirror Reflecting War's True Cost

A veteran of past battles, even as a child soldier, Isaku carries the deep scars of violence not just on his body, but in his memory and worldview.

He does not speak of the glory of war. Instead, he speaks of the hunger, death  and sorrow that war causes. He does not speak of leaders who win, but of people who lose. “What glory?” he asks. “None for the commoner. None for the fool who dies for a cause. What he gets by fighting in war is only death and silence.”

Isaku does not believe in heroes or villains. In war, everyone serves themselves. No one gets the part they want, no one gets a happy ending. He calls the brave man an idiot, and the dead man a forgotten name.

Even after going through so much agony, he is not bitter, nor cruel. He speaks for the ones who came back broken from war, and he remembers and mourns those who could not.

And that is why he matters: not because he fights, but because he refuses to.

Isaku is not a hero. He is a mirror. In him, we see the cost of every war, of every story, of every dream that ends in blood.

“War is a smell -- a smell of filth, a smell of sweat, a smell of flesh, a smell of blood, a smell of death; war is a smell that never goes away.” 

Lair Of The Monster