-???-
A funeral full of people, a growing hatred inside him. The one he considered a role model had become the author of his nightmares.
A devastated clan, a single child as a survivor. Asahi Toru had been left with nothing.
He locked himself in his new apartment for two years, thinking over and over again how he could have avoided that. He imagined all the scenarios in which he encountered that person. He imagined as many times as he would murder him to soothe the hatred in his heart. But every time he thought of killing, his mother's smile would come to his mind, and consequently the blood-stained corpse.
"Okaa-sama..."
She told him that it was better not to become a shinobi, that he should live a quiet life away from war. However, now more than ever he wished to become a shinobi.
It was a desire for revenge, but also a desire for peace. If he could not take revenge, the best he could do was to seek peace and carry the trauma of that genocide deep in his heart, as a wound that would never heal.
Now Sakura understood it. Toru's reason for being was not only based on his past life. Asahi Toru is someone who drags misfortune wherever he goes, no matter if it is another world. And all that misfortune does nothing but continue to damage his mind.
"Again...", a soft stinging pain in her eyes.
Sakura saw it in the memory of the crimson night. When the boy cursed the sky and his eyes glowed faintly.
[When he held death in his arms.]
Soon after Toru entered the shinobi academy. While his twisted personality alienated him from others, that mattered little if this boy liked to be alone. But this also made all his childhood friends stay away from him. No, quite the opposite, for he drove everyone away from him.
'So the death of a loved one won't hurt you again', this girl thought. 'But with that you will end up becoming the person you were in your past life.'
It's kind of inevitable.
As for school, Toru's grades were very good. Although in physical training he was the worst of all, his high grades secured him a place as a shinobi. And so the years went by. Alone, pushing everyone away from his side, for the first time in a long time, he formed a team with two girls from his class.
The Yamato shinobi team had been formed and, with that, Asahi Toru somehow regained confidence that he would have people on his side. He had a teacher who taught him about the life of a shinobi, a childhood friend he talked to again after a long time and a girl who treated him quite badly, but ironically she ended up falling in love with him. Although that was before this boy regained his memories.
After his childhood misfortune, he lived a full and adventurous life with his team. Everything got much better and that filled him with hope. He spoke again to the friends he once abandoned, he became stronger and stronger by his own efforts, confirming what the servant Assassin told little Sakura ten years ago. While it only took Sakura a few days to use the five elements of the Shinobi World, it had taken Asahi Toru a whole childhood of failure and training.
It was during the chunin exams. Toru was already having visions with his past and everything got worse when he faced the most powerful ninja in the exams. Toru almost won, but the hundreds of memories that were unlocked in his brain prevented him from continuing, resulting in him almost being killed.
When he opened his eyes in the infirmary, a couple of tears crumbled down his face. The only thing he said after learning that he had been reincarnated was a simple sigh.
Sakura felt sad for him, but also happy. Even though Alek suffered, Toru has many friends and two powerful girls who care about him. He could go on living, he could be happy. Even if it made Sakura feel jealous, it somehow approved Toru to be happy.
Nothing could be better...
No...
Because this boy's life is always plagued with tragedy.
Although Toru did not follow the path of revenge, a boy who had met the same fate did. In order to become strong enough to kill his older brother, Uchiha Sasuke went along with the enemy of the village. There was a mission to rescue Sasuke, but that had been the beginning of a new stage in Toru's life.
The mission failed and the children who were assigned the mission returned to their village defeated.
And Asahi Toru was framed for something he never did....
-Forest near the Towers of Iselma-
Flat was running away with all his might. Upon encountering Aozaki Touko, he immediately deduced that he could not win, so he could only leave a residual image of his body as a distraction while praying that Svin would also flee from there.
Svin obviously did not flee. Unlike Flat, who knows when he is going to lose, Svin was more impulsive once he entered battle. That was his mistake and he would soon be defeated by Touko.
"A cat?!!!", he shouted when he saw a strange cat running after him.
The cat was not a real cat. Rather, it looked like a 2D cartoon that moved and interacted with the 3D environment. Despite looking so weak, the cat was quite large and could break trees with its claws very easily, which scared Flat a lot.
"I have to run away, I have to run away...", he repeated to himself increasing the speed.
Everything was going well until Touko appeared, and most likely this strange cat was her doing. Not only was she able to hit Svin with an invisible magecraft more than three times without even breaking a sweat, but she was able to see through Flat's stealth. That proved that this woman is dangerous. To top it off, she didn't move an inch from where she was.
If there was anything to be afraid of, it was that woman.
The cat continued to destroy everything in its path as it followed Flat, who at a crucial moment tripped and fell face first into a tree root. His forehead turned red from the blow, and when he stood up, his eyes widened as he saw that the cat was already in front of him.
"Oh, no. This is the end of me...", he smiled nervously and the cat raised its paw to kill him, but a black cloak appeared in front of him and a scythe appeared piercing the cat.
"Are you all right?", asked Gray.
Flat immediately latched onto Gray's leg. "You saved my life. I really appreciate it."
"Looks like this is no time to say thank you."
Black particles materialized in front of the two teens and Toru wielded the daggers looking at the cat.
"Do you have any idea what it is?"
Toru shook his head. Gray's question was a very good one, but... "Even though the cat has death lines, there's no way to kill it. It's just a projection of light."
Besides, earlier Gray's scythe pierced the cat, but it didn't hurt it, as if the cat was just a hologram.
"But we have a good way to end this", he concluded, making both Gray and Flat wonder what he had in mind.
At that, the cat began to attack again. Gray and Toru dodged the cat's claws with great dexterity, moving across the ground with perfect coordination.
As they both wore black cloaks, Flat seemed to see two dark ghosts floating in front of him. It was a sight to behold. At that, Flat took the opportunity to support from the rear by keying the ground to find out what the hell that cat was, but he didn't need to.
As if he were a sensor-type ninja, Toru not only sensed the actual target, but could also hear it flapping its wings above them.
He dodged the cat one last time and threw a dagger into the sky. A second later, the cat vanished as if an old movie had been turned off in a projector. Consequently, some kind of light projector in the shape of a bird fell in front of them.
"That was amazing, why are you here?"
"Sensei sent us here", Toru replied, to which Gray nodded.
"We also foresaw the Grand's presence in the fight," Gray added.
However...
"The contents of that box are going to be a problem", Aozaki Touko's voice trailed off. She looked at Gray's scythe.
Gray and Flat turned around when they heard and raised their guard. Unaware of the woman's power, Gray looked at Toru, but Toru was no longer at his side....
'Why?", she wondered. Although Toru had told her that he would be her bodyguard, he disappeared the moment Touko approached the place.
She felt disappointed, but now was no time to hesitate.
"I'm sorry. It's nothing personal, but it seems I've become your enemy."
Touko smiled subtly for Gray. If she is the enemy, then what Toru said earlier made sense. This woman could be the culprit in the murder, as well as one of the prime suspects. Working for Galliasta, she was now on the side that offered the best price.
"What happened to Svin...?"
"Uh, the wolf boy. He brought back good memories so I left him alone. Can't say the same for Iselma's boss, though."
In any case, there was no danger for now.
"Although that thing you're holding in your hands interests me a lot. It's perhaps over a thousand years old. I'm sure it's not even designed for human hands."
"Please withdraw from this battle."
"Ah... I'm sorry, but I'm doing my job. I can't make the customer look bad."
After denying, Touko raised her index finger and dozens of spiky ice columns appeared from the ground. Gray moved nimbly shattering the ice that turned to frost, filling the area with an icy air.
Touko didn't need to keep moving her hands or use runes, she just kept giving her mana and burning flames, powerful blizzards, even invisible shields were summoned.
"Looks to me like you're not trying", Touko said as she kicked back. With that Flat, who was sneaking up behind her, fell and slammed into a tree, knocked out on the spot.
Gray groaned painfully. She understood that prolonging this fight was certain defeat, so she put all her physical strength into the next attack, but before she could hit Touko, her hands shook and she stopped dead in her tracks.
Touko smiled subtly once more and Gray's eyes widened in horror.
"For a summoner to be strong he must summon the strongest, or create them."
Touko's briefcase made a strange noise and a kind of black mist began to emanate from it, spreading like tentacles around the edges of the briefcase.
Gray understood that, at that moment, she couldn't move because she was afraid of what she felt inside that briefcase. She could only understand it when the darkness embraced her. She felt the tears of fear fall down her face and the last thing she said at that moment echoed through the forest like the faint whisper of a ghost.
"Toru..."
In the darkness of his dematerialized form, Toru remained silent as he stared at that dark entity that emerged from the briefcase. If that was the strongest thing Touko had, defeating it wouldn't pose a problem. This was the reason he left Flat and Gray alone. If something bad happened, he would have no problem jumping in to help, but in the end no one got hurt. Although Gray is now traumatized walking like a zombie next to Touko, who is carrying Flat over her shoulder.
"I'll apologize to her later. Now I felt like scaring this woman", a soft dark smile formed on his lips. There was still something of the 14-year-old Toru living inside him. However, this was already part of his nature, after all he is the descendant of a vampire.
-???-
He fled the place he once called home. The people of his hometown want to capture or kill him. In a world where all is war and death, a twelve year old boy runs through the night in the hope that he can save himself.
However, the man who was his teacher finds him and they start a battle. Yamato, Toru's teacher, was brutal from the start, being far superior in strength to the boy.
But when he saw his student wounded, bleeding and frightened, he somehow felt defeated. He may have beaten Toru, but he lost his student that night.
After that night, in order to survive in this hostile world, Asahi Toru became a mercenary training the hidden art of the sage, senjutsu. With that, Toru's power skyrocketed and he could finally feel confident that no one would kill him.
But there was something strange about him...
Every time he faced someone, every time blood covered his hands, a strange pleasurable look took shape in Toru's eyes. A deep-seated instinct hidden in his DNA was awakening. He craved to cause death and destruction, he enjoyed exerting death on other living beings. That was something that stuck deep in his soul, something that was never erased from his being.
'I don't understand', she had seen the calm and brave Asahi Toru, but this was a new side of the boy she had never seen before.
It reminded her of when Toru faced the shadowy beast in the castle of separation. They were exactly the same in the way they acted and fought.
-Inside a forest near the Towers of Iselma-
As Touko returned to the site of the war, she found Byron on his knees, defeated from his fight against Galliasta. At her side Gray followed her in terror, staring blankly, thinking of how Toru abandoned her. She also thought about what might happen to Svin and Flat if she didn't do something.
But Gray is afraid. Whatever Touko is hiding inside the briefcase was too scary for her.
She was supposed to be the closest to a hero, who can face adversity by coming out victorious, but she realized that right now she is powerless. She can do nothing, just as she could never do anything to stop the people of her hometown from treating her like a god.
If ever there was a chance of living a quiet life as a country girl, now all that chance was gone. This is the world of the magus. Something like this had to happen sooner or later.
'Even if I am afraid... I... must fight.'
He closed his eyes and breathed. Add quickly warped to become the spear Rhongomyniad.
'Right now I am not me, I never was. I will become that hero that has become my curse...'
"Gray..."
Golden particles began to rise from the depths of existence, calling out to the spirits of ancient eras to chant the name of the King of old and one of his most powerful weapons.
"Rave..."
However...
[No need, Gray. Don't waste mana in vain. We'll need it for later. For now, leave the rest to me]
Toru's voice echoed in the forest causing everyone to look around. Suddenly, endless voices began to whisper and the forest darkened along with the incessant rain.
From among the trees he appeared, materializing his body as if it were black mist adopting the humanoid form. He walked relaxed, hidden in the darkness of his old cloak. His eyes then glowed and Touko smiled subtly.
In fact, the woman hesitated for a moment as she sensed the presence rising in the atmosphere.
"You are a being full of surprises, Assassin", Touko said. Seeing such a strange spirit had caused her more amusement than she would have gotten from working for Galliasta.
"Aozaki Touko, Atrum Galliasta."
Whispering voices repeated Toru's words.
"I've been wondering something for a long time..."
[By the time they saw their eyes had lost.]
"Everywhere I go blood is spilled. When my feet touch the earth, it is rotting in an inevitable tragedy that merges with the death that spreads in blood..."
His footsteps were relaxed, but with every step he took, the ground was stained with blood. The sky had darkened completely and Toru's form changed to that of a shadow-like monster. Sharp-fingered hands formed on the ends of his arms and a grin of sharp black fangs widened on his dark face.
"Is he a hero who saves people?"
Everyone froze the moment they felt the blood warp beneath their feet. Hands of blood came out and grabbed everyone by the limbs. Galliasta screamed, but hands covered her mouth.
"Is he a hero who saves the world?"
Gray until a moment ago wanted to act like the hero this face belongs to, which was overlapping with Toru's words at that moment.
She thought that somehow these were words directed just for her. Even though she was scared to death, she found some peace in Toru's voice.
In any case, Touko replied, "Whatever you ask, you're not a hero."
"Exactly."
The shadow approached Touko until it stood in front of her. It reached out with its sharp hands grazing Touko's cheek, giving her a small cut.
"I am mindless destruction, imminent death and the deepest nightmare of the collective subconscious..."
That's right...
[Asahi Toru is Chaos]
Then suddenly the scenery cleared and returned to normal. The rain fell on everyone again and Touko could finally see Toru's expressionless face.
"Is it some kind of riddle?"
"No because you had the answer from the start."
Touko closed her eyes and sighed. Her body trembled and she couldn't move. She felt death close to her throat. She knew better than anyone that, against an opponent like this Assassin, victory is impossible.
The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are the enemy of any mage and of existence itself. Touko is completely vulnerable to this servant.
"It seems that the war that has not yet begun already has a winner. I have high expectations of you, Assassin."
"Assassin?"
Galliasta couldn't believe it. However, the truth was right in front of his eyes. Anyway, this would be something to be explained in a moment. For now Toru turned his back on Galliasta's stunned henchmen and approached Gray.
Gray looked at him with lost eyes. She ducked her gaze and clenched her fists tightly.
Without a second thought, she rushed over to Toru and hugged him with all her might. She touched her forehead to Toru's chest and closed her eyes tightly.
At this gesture, Toru raised his eyebrows in confusion. After that, his expression turned somber. Even though she was hugging him so fearfully, he didn't return her embrace like any man who considers himself a gentleman would do.
"Good job, Assassin", his signature cigarette let out a small stream of rising smoke. He held his briefcase wearily and suddenly entered the scene next to Reines. The magical clothing designer was also there accompanying Maio. "It's better that we didn't have to intervene. At least you didn't kill them all."
"I swear I thought about it, but I thought you were going to scold me like that time in Adra."
No one likes to be scolded, unless you have strange tastes. The point is, Waver approached Touko cordially and looked her in the eyes.
"So..."
"I was pleasantly surprised, no doubt."
"Looks like Assassin changed your mind."
"He gave me quite a scare. I forgot what I was doing when I saw him appear as a monster in front of me. This little guy was pretty amused too," her briefcase shook as she said that. "There's no way I can beat such a special heroic spirit so now I guess I'm open to negotiation."
"That's a good thing."
Waver turned around to see Gray hugging Toru. He just looked at them as if he didn't understand what was going on. Still, Waver isn't so insensitive as to interrupt them. Besides, Gray had gotten a horrible fright. For a fearful girl like her, it was normal to cling so desperately to someone she knows.
"And you. I take it you're Atrum Galliasta?"
"What do you want, Lord?"
Waver took another puff on the cigar.
"I want my students back."
To be continued...