"Who do you think you are? That boy tried to kill me. Even if you're a Lord, there's no way I'll let this go unnoticed", Galliasta was indignant, but with an arrogant smile on his face.
Waver remained composed as he answered him.
"I know what you want here. There's no reason to hold my students back."
"Well, it's not like I'm hiding my motives or anything. It would be really weird if you didn't know."
"Hm... last month you and Iselma competed for the relic of a Heroic Spirit."
That meant that Galliasta wanted to enter the War for the Holy Grail, which at this moment makes him Toru's enemy. Indeed, hearing this, Toru looked at Galliasta, who swallowed saliva as he looked into his eyes, eyes which were still glowing with death in their pupils.
"So what?"
"Well, if my suspicions are correct, threatening Lord Byron would be pointless, since he doesn't know where the relic is."
"What...?"
"However, I can tell you where the relic is."
Galliasta laughed. "Ha, ha. As if just a little clever deduction would be enough to free those children. I should remind you that I am strong enough to take you and your students down anytime I want."
"No, that's not true, did you forget who's here?"
Galliasta looked at Toru again.
"If what you want is to enter the War for the Holy Grail, keep in mind that he will be there too. What you saw is only a small fraction of what he can do, for it is best to hide as much as possible before the war. In that case, the only option you can take is to accept the terms I will propose and thus save us the useless bloodshed. At the very least, what I can promise you with this deal is an even better relic than the one you wanted."
"What, no, that's not possible... Wait..."
"Teacher?", Gray finally realized that she had been left hugging Toru for quite a while. She felt embarrassed, but what her master said brought her back to reality.
Waver looked at Reines and she guessed what he was going to ask her. "That relic is your property. The El-Melloi family has nothing to do with it."
Then.
"How Lord El-Melloi I swear, I'll bet the relic I have on my promise."
Galliasta laughed nervously. "I can't believe it. A relic from the Fourth War..."
"The only reason I survived in that war was because of the Heroic Spirit that awaits in that relic."
"Ha, ha... Who would have thought it. You would sacrifice such a valuable object just for your students. However, I am not so rude as to step on the beliefs of others. If you're willing to pay a much higher value than the initial one, I have no problem accepting."
Gray sighed. She thought that relic was everything to her teacher. No, it still was, but that man would be willing to sacrifice his dream for the welfare of the people he cared about. He might be a coward, but even he could act like a hero.
Without thinking he had taken Toru's hand. The servant looked at his hand and then said, "Don't you think you're skipping a few steps?"
"What, Ahhh?", she immediately let go of his hand and hid behind her teacher.
Although it is already well known that having shared mana with a kiss, the steps they skipped could fill a baseball field.
On the other hand, if Svin, who is currently lying on the ground on top of Flat had seen this, no doubt the veins in his forehead would have popped upon seeing the scene.
***
Later that evening, Assassin found himself on the roof of the Moon Tower. As usual, he was alone looking out into nothingness with the cold night wind making his cloak dance. You could say he was taking full advantage of the epic effect that high places can offer.
"What are you, Batman?", suddenly Add laughed.
"You look like you've been reading some comics."
When Toru turned around, Gray was standing there next to her Mystic Code.
"Something wrong?"
"Uh... Everything is already prepared. My teacher sent me for you to come and see the evidence of the case..."
"Hm... there's no need. I don't care anymore who the murderer is or who ate the sandwich that was in the fridge. I'm satisfied with what happened before. And even if I go watch, I'd feel bored. For now, I'd rather stay here until everything concludes or something bad happens. There's an invisible clone down there anyway. If something happens, I'll know instantly."
Although if something happens it would be the equivalent of skipping the cinematics in a video game. Suddenly you'll be fighting god without knowing the context of the fight.
"Oh... I see...", Gray ducked his gaze.
At the girl's silence, Toru sat on the edge.
"He's going to be fine. He's not going to lose the relic. There's no need to be mortified."
"It's just that I..."
"What he doesn't have for brawn he has for brains. He knows what he's doing and when he's doing it. I've never seen a person like that before in my life. Well, I think I have, but I don't remember."
At least Gray understood that Waver had left a strong impression on Toru. That boy is always so weird, and a lot of people see him that way. That's already the way he is, he would very hardly change the way he is for other people, but it was that very thing that made Gray so curious. Lately she's been surrounded by such eccentric people that every day is an adventure.
"Right. I just remembered that. Sorry about earlier with Aozaki-san."
Gray's gaze turned grim for a second. Though she was able to calm that fear she felt earlier so she sat down next to Toru.
"I was really scared... I was so scared that I couldn't move... I called you, but you didn't show up until the last moment... Being honest, it made me angry despite the fear I felt. You-"
"I told you I was going to watch your back, not your mind. I was sure you weren't going to get killed, so I took advantage of that to scare Aozaki-san. Look on the bright side. At least Aozaki-san got a good scare too."
Gray tightened the ends of her cloak. "What I don't understand is why you waited until that moment, you could have prevented what happened."
"Hm... I wanted to know what that woman was capable of. You were the perfect opponent. She showed a bit of her tricks and that was very helpful in gauging my limits with her. When I knew that I could defeat Aozaki-san easily, I went into action. By that time, you were about to activate Rhongomyniad."
What happened next was very embarrassing for Gray. Even if fear made her vulnerable, Gray had no right to act so close to Toru. At least, that was her own thought. Though that was also why she felt angry. Feeling so weak made her even weaker. Hugging Toru in such fear was, in itself, the act of a cowardly child.
Gray clenched her fists again. Every time she talked to Toru, Gray felt all her weaknesses come out in the open. It was Gray who wanted to find out what Toru kept deep in his heart, but he somehow managed to make it the opposite.
Thinking of so much, yet nothing, Gray sighed. She fell silent, a silence so long and uncomfortable that she could even hear Toru's soft breathing.
"... You used me as bait."
"You're very insensitive, Assassin boy. Though that's something we all already knew."
Toru seemed to ponder on that. Before replying, he removed his hood and loosened his scarf. As he did so, his jet black hair was gently tossed by the breeze of the wind.
Down there is the forest, where the fireflies flicker their lights. The large lake reflecting the moonlight and the dark sky whose moonlight enveloped the scene.
"Yes. I used you as bait even though I didn't need to, are you going to be mad about that?"
Gray felt offended. She looked Toru in the eye, but was surprised to see that this boy was smiling. It was a soft smirk, as if he was amused by the fact that he was pissing Gray off.
"You always have the same expression on your face", Toru said. His silver eyes matched nicely with the girl in gray standing next to him. "It's good to see that you can put on another kind of expression other than that sad face all the time."
Add started to laugh. He understood what Toru was getting at with this. Meanwhile, Gray opened her mouth and frowned. Although it didn't look like it, he had taken great offense.
"You have no right to say that! Who always wears the same expression on their face, that's you! You always have the same zombie face, you fool!"
Toru let out a small chuckle that seemed more like a half-hearted sigh. He looked away as he pulled his hood back on. Before the hood covered his face, a stricken expression showed in his gaze.
"Why are you laughing, that it's funny? No, have you ever laughed? You're so weird!"
"You still have time..."
A muffled voice...
"Huh? What...?"
He didn't look at her again, but kept talking.
"You're young, you have a lot of people who respect you. You still have time to rethink your life", he stood up looking into the void. "You're not going to be alone... You'll be able to get through this..."
It was a very sudden change. Gray was confused, but Toru's words were filled with a lot of seriousness.
"What do you mean?"
"That you can go on living so you're not stuck in the past. You are strong... very strong..."
"..."
There was a child who cried alone....
A child who turned into a monster...
-???-
Akatsuki was a criminal organization that sought the Bijus, beings born as forces of nature that took the form of mythical beasts of Shintoism. Asahi Toru was forcibly recruited by that organization and eventually became part of Akatsuki.
There he met many people with whom he lived for a while. They were all different people, so different that Toru never felt bored. Every day was so different from the previous one, so much so that sometimes he used to forget everything that ever hurt him.
They smiled even though they were criminals. Each one had a different dream, as well as a past that led them to Akatsuki.
They were all special people to Toru....
All those people who died...
...
...
He always acted cold to the news of the deaths of his Akatsuki associates. He even used to call them "fools" for dying so easily at the hands of Konoha village, but inside the trauma of the death kept growing. He came to fear that people who were close to him would die just because they were related to him.
So he thought of something...
If everyone hates him, there was no way anyone would get close to him. That was why he attacked the place he once saw as his home along with Pain and Konan, the last people closest to Toru during his entire stay in Akatsuki.
He committed atrocities and the world began to see him as a monster, as well as the growing hatred in the hearts of his childhood friends. But even with all the hatred he earned, even if he was a ruthless criminal, Uzumaki Naruto forgave him, just as he forgave the man who murdered his family.
Circumstances made him a villain, and Asahi Toru will never justify his actions because he knows that everything he did was wrong. Even if he suffered in two lives, his suffering is never going to be a justification.
Toru is a bad person, from the beginning he was and that's the way he is. He will never be a hero, but somehow he never wanted to become a villain either.
His life was a cruel irony, but still the hope in him was not extinguished. His will was still strong, just as that World programmed it into his mind.
With Sakura seeing every aspect of this life, she could only maintain her silence. But there was something that disturbed her quite a bit and what became the explanation for Toru's existence in her world.
An ancestor of Toru bore the name Zelretch. What the fake Uchiha Madara told him sounded like the presence of a magus from her world in the world of the shinobi, which in turn explained the reason why Toru sometimes seemed to wish to cause harm to others. It was the primitive instincts of a vampire, the heritage of the founder of the Clock Tower, the only thing the Asahi clan inherited from the man who came from another world.
Though they do not have the blood of vampires coursing through their veins, they have the instincts of one. But up to this point, does it matter? Everyone close to Toru ends up dying. So it was with his family, his Akatsuki friends and the one he once considered an older brother.
Toru's life is a tragedy, but no matter how far he falls into the same abyss as always, there will be someone to help him up. Although he feels lonely being surrounded by so many people, it didn't stop him from loving. Asahi Toru knows that love is one of the most painful feelings anyone has ever felt, because when that love is extinguished in his hands, he falls down again as always.
It has always been this way, but...
"If you're so concerned about my safety, then I'll make you a promise."
A scene inside a hut of the Okami clan. A young boy holding the hands of a woman who, until recently, had lived as an emotionless puppet.
"I will stay with you forever... If I am willing to keep that promise, I will not die. If my life worries you, I will live and stay by your side. I don't have a place to go back to anymore so is it okay for me to look for that place with you?"
It was a promise that Toru won't be able to keep... Still, the woman asked, "Forever?"
With a soft voice that Sakura never heard, Toru only answered with a "yes" before they both seal their love with a kiss.
Thus the days passed, Sakura saw how Toru kept thinking about his place in this world. He is an invader, he has nothing that belongs to him, everything was simply a constant emptiness. But there was Konan, who guided Toru to never feel the same way again.
Although Toru and Konan were an unusual pair, the two somehow looked happy, together and at peace.
'I'd like to think that would be that way...', it really bothered her that Toru was in love with another woman, but seeing him so different from how she knew him, her mind was conflicted. She wishes for Toru's happiness, but this bothered her too much, so much so that she felt a certain amount of hatred towards Konan.
But she put that aside because if Toru is a heroic spirit, that means he died. Besides, the Asahi Toru she was seeing was exactly the same one she summoned, so she understood that the time of Toru's death was very near.
And so it was...
One last war; one last battle where Toru discovered his identity.
As he fell engulfed in the flames of his own ultimate power, he thought of everything, as if the world was in slow motion.
"I am someone who sacrifices himself for what he loves. No matter what I have to suffer, no matter how much I get hurt, no matter how many times I break my heart. Nothing matters, not even if my mind can't take so much suffering. If others are happy, I will be happy too."
It was the wish of a broken person who had once again attempted suicide. Only this time...
If it worked...
-Moon Tower-
"I should stop talking about those things, shouldn't I? It seems like everything got weird from one moment to the next."
Gray shook her head at Toru's words. "No, there's no need. It's just that, whenever we're alone we always end up talking about weird things", she stood up from her seat and looked at Toru's back. "Let's keep talking about this kind of stuff. I like it when we talk no matter what we feel... It's... it's something that makes me feel normal."
"I understand", he looked at Gray. "Then I'll keep talking to you. Although there's not much for me to talk about, certainly."
"Well... you seem to know a lot of things. You can start there."
"Uh. I see. So... Did you know that the human brain generates enough electricity to light a small lamp? It generates 20 to 23 watts of power."
Gray tilted her head in confusion.
"Isn't that enough? I know a lot more than that."
"Assassin Boy, what this girl wants is for you to talk about yourself. It's amazing how you can ruin such a romantic moment."
"But what are you saying, Add?", pulling out the cage, Gray shook it hard making Mystic Code scream in despair. "I have no such intentions!"
"Ahhhhhh! Help me!"
Toru looked at Gray silently, but then frowned as he felt his clone disappear. Consequently, all the information came to his mind.
"Let's leave this for another day. We're needed down there."
Before Gray could feel confused, Toru jumped down from above and landed on the ground like a feather. Then he dashed back inside the tower.
'... I...', she still couldn't get what Toru had said a while ago out of her mind. 'Am I strong?"
We don't know how strong we can be until someone realizes it....
***
It was a scene that brought back a bad memory for Gray. Although it happened not long ago, she still trembled with fear at the sight of it. That monster that resembled darkness itself, silently staring at her spreading its grotesque tentacles.
Even though she didn't know why this happened, Gray looked at Toru standing next to her. She thought about what he told her and sighed.
"Looks like I don't have to do anything after all", though disappointed, she smiled softly under the hood. There was no need for her to intervene in this fight, for if Toru is here, victory will belong to all of us.
Aozaki Touko was no longer there, for her body was destroyed into pieces as she let that monster out from inside her insides. She wasn't dead, it would be too easy for everyone, it was just another one of her many tricks.
In the end it was just a visual spectacle for everyone. Even Waver was pretty calm.
"Looks like I asked a killer for medicine", Toru said, making obvious reference to the beginning of this arc. Maio turned out to be the killer of Diadra and Rejina, as he was obsessed with the beauty of both women.
But that mattered little. He threw himself into battle without hesitation. His eyes glowed under the darkness of the hood and his daggers flared in the blinding sunlight. Two radiant stars moved across the stage inside this tower, slashing and tearing, one attack at a time.
From their eyes you could see the golden lines in existence, moving discontinuously, writhing in "life itself". Each cut shattered a line, which consequently disintegrated the monster's tentacles. Each tentacle is a separate existence, a new life that is extinguished along with its lines of death.
The monster could do nothing against an unknown power. In the end, it disintegrated with the last slash of the daggers, causing its strange bush-like body to vanish.
After that, Assassin looked at those present, and in the end set his eyes on Galliasta.
"I'll see you in the war. I hope your servant is strong enough to face me because I won't let myself be defeated easily."
It might sound like a very self-centered proposal, but Toru wasn't bragging about his power. He was sure that there will be strong enemies to face, so leaving a warning was feasible. Besides, after all, he had not shown his most powerful tricks.
So, with this denouement that no one cares about in the least, the end of this arc came. But this was not the end of a story, as there was much more to tell from Gray's point of view, who still wanted to find out what Toru is still hiding.
'Come to think of it... I never tried to look up his name in the history books.'
To be continued...