Killian’s Opponent

Aliases: none Status: Minor

Killian’s Opponent is the headless swordsman Killian defeats in the alley at the opening of There Can Be Only One. He is already dead when the story starts: Chino and Homeboy find him standing rigid, headless, “a gleaming sword still clutched in its lifeless grip,” while Killian kneels beside him with smoke curling off his skin. The text gives him no name, no lines, and no backstory. His entire function in the volume is the corpse and the sword: Homeboy picks up the blade, gets his fingerprints on it, and the duo’s attempts to deal with both set the story in motion.

Description

A headless body in an alley, standing rigid, holding an old gleaming sword. That is the complete text record.

Role in Volume 01

• There Can Be Only One: his only appearance, posthumous. Killian sheathes his own sword and bolts; Chino and Homeboy take the dead man’s blade.

Relationships

• Killian: the man who took his head off.
• Chino & Homeboy: the men who take his sword.

Notes

• The beheading follows the story’s Highlander logic: Killian later explains that decapitation is the only thing that kills an immortal, which frames what happened in the alley.