The Instructor

**The Instructor** (教官, *Kyoukan*) is the warden of a facility in rural China that trains boys to become human weapons. Xianming Lin and Feilang are two boys to come out of his experimental program alive.

## Characteristics

### Appearance

He is a large, sturdily-built man with a mysterious and intimidating presence. He has hollow cheeks and shadows under his eyes that give him a sickly appearance, but combined with his size, straight posture, and fluid gait, give him an unsettling presence and make it impossible to guess his age. He wears a black military uniform and black boots, standing out among the deep green uniforms worn by the other guards in the facility.

### Personality

The Instructor is a man used to being obeyed, who gives orders in a low, emotionless voice. He has at some point learned the lesson to never trust anyone, a lesson he imparts in the boys under his watch. He does not believe in showing weakness, including tears, and seeks to train the boys under his watch into useful and valuable human weapons, preparing them for the brutal realities of the world and any situation they may face. He is not overly malicious, and in fact shows moments of understanding. Despite the growth of the boys in the facility's five-year program, he still views them as children, knowing they are powerless against him.

## Synopsis

### Shou Wang Arc

After nine-year-old Lin sells himself and spends a long journey across rural China in the back of a truck, he and his trafficker are met by the Instructor at the front gates of the former prison-turned human weapons facility. The Instructor pays the trafficker and brings Lin inside, his first order to Lin being to trust no one but himself. He briefly explains the facility's partner system and shows Lin to his cell as other boys in their cells watch him with apprehension. Later that day, he forces the children to run without stopping and relentlessly beats a pair of boys when one partner twists his ankle, falls down, and cries. He whips Lin when he falls down and invites Lin to challenge him, but he lets him go when Feilang assists Lin in moving on. From a young age, he teaches the boys that they are no match for him and his orders are absolute, and that they and their partners share joint liability in all aspects of life.

At some point during the boys' five years in the facility, they have to undergo a half day of torture training. The Instructor tells them to fight the fear of their own imaginations, rather than the pain of the torture. This lesson turns out to be useful to both Lin and Feilang later in their lives.

Four years later, the boys have grown taller and stronger, but the difference in strength is still obvious. During one monthly combat exam, they are individually locked in a fenced-in area with the Instructor for five minutes, and he orders them to try and kill him. He defends himself against Lin's attacks easily, seeing through Lin's desire to avoid striking a fatal blow. Finally, he warns Lin to never hesitate against an opponent.

The day of the final exam, guards throw weapons into the boys' locked cells, and over the speakers, the Instructor announces that the boys have to fight each other to the death - only one from each team can pass, and they will have to kill their partners and friends, with whom they have been living, studying, and training for the past five years, in order to be let out. The boys are shocked, but fighting begins to break out, and survivors are let into the hallway one by one. When every cell door is opened, the Instructor congratulates them on casting aside their humanity. Despite years of beating the lesson into the trainees that crying is a display of weakness, every boy breaks down in tears.

## Relationships

### Xianming Lin

The Instructor rarely shows emotion toward the boys, neither favoritism nor maliciousness, and only seems to want to tap into their potential. Lin is the top trainee in the facility and earns some words of advice and moments of understanding from the Instructor. When the Instructor recognizes Lin's attempts to avoid fatally striking him in a one-on-one knife fight, he knows that Lin is suppressing his talents and expresses exasperation.

Growing up under the Instructor's eye, Lin viewed him as sadistic and inhumane. He swore that he would one day put the Instructor through the same hell he put the boys through before killing him, and that resentment was one of his motivators during his five years of training. Six years after graduating from the facility, Lin remembers the lessons the Instructor taught him, and the harsh training he endured, and loathes him for it. He believes with his current abilities, if they ever meet again, he could beat the Instructor if he tried.