'This is not the Throne of a Hero,' Sakura thought.
Up there in the sky was another entity similar to the one that took away Alek Gusev's emotions. This time, instead of looking like a teenager, it had the figure of a woman of about 28 years old. Her gaze was quite soft and amused as she watched Toru cry.
From one moment to the next, that glowing being disappeared. It left Toru alone after that, and the repetitions of his past stopped occurring for a long time.
That was the moment when Toru was summoned.
Two years of blurred memories were suppressed in this boy's mind after that.
-London, United Kingdom-
Whether or not there was a reason for Gray's proposal, that didn't matter at the moment. Toru crossed his legs on the table. He folded his arms, closing his eyes.
Gray understood what Toru was thinking even if it made her embarrassed. She looked at him closely. In fact, she somehow expected Toru to accept this proposal. Gray couldn't get the feeling of their first kiss out of her mind.
'Don't make me wait so long...', she was anxious. She was crying a while ago, but she managed to calm down after saying that at the end.
A kiss... It was a very romantic word, but after experiencing it, Gray thought of the meaning of a kiss as a slightly lewd act....
After a few seconds, Toru opened his eyes. "Are you sure about that?", his voice was still the same as always as was the expression on his face, only this time his gaze was softer than usual.
"If I wasn't sure I wouldn't have made that proposal in the first place."
"I see. I won't ask any more, since you're the one who loses out."
Gray didn't see this as a loss. Moreover, Gray felt that this is like one of those experiences in life that you can't miss. Her feelings are still uncertain. Every time she thinks about how she feels about Toru, she just feels confused.
Perhaps it is a love born out of confusion and curiosity. Gray is a very innocent girl, so every experience she has regarding romance always leaves a big impact on her. She is nervous, but still she goes forward.
[Someday Gray will die] Gray is aware of that. Those kinds of thoughts still scare her a lot, but by looking at Toru she learned something new.
'He suffers a lot, but he keeps fighting even though he has already given up.'
Toru is nothing but a very twisted person. Gray couldn't see that, but it's not like it's important to her either because she thought of something else when Toru grabbed her by the shoulders.
Gray closed her eyes and contracted her body as much as she could. Toru's hands gripped her small shoulders. Gray felt the strength in those hands and was finally able to say it inside her mind.
'Let me save you,' was when she felt Toru's lips touching hers. A shiver ran through her whole body, but she still clung to Toru like the day before. She put her hands on Toru's chest, and opened her mouth waiting for this boy to do what he did that time.
Gray is not an expert at these things. This would be her second time kissing someone, but she still knew more or less how she was supposed to kiss.
Gray opened her mouth and, before Toru did, she touched her tongue to Toru's tongue.
She tasted Toru's saliva as she let out a weak voice.
Gray could barely breathe and, despite the lack of oxygen, she kept moving her tongue inside Toru's mouth.
Somehow...
'It feels good...'
Gray felt Toru's breath. It was like tasting a vanilla cookie. Even though Toru doesn't like sweet things, ironically his mouth tasted sweet to Gray.
It was like that for a few seconds. When Gray felt she could no longer breathe, she pulled away from Toru leaving a thin trickle of saliva between her tongue and Toru's.
She opened her eyes and her face turned red. The only thing she could see afterwards were Toru's mystical silver eyes. The boy still had that emotionless look on his face, but that didn't matter to Gray.
Gray ducked her gaze and clung to Toru. She took a second to breathe and again looked him in the eyes.
At that moment, this girl thought of something. 'I want this to last longer', the constant thoughts and sensations releasing dopamine from her brain drove her to hold on to those feelings.
"I think that was enough", Toru said. He tried to let go of Gray, but he didn't expect that at that moment this anxious girl would kiss him again.
[Throws embarrassment out the window] Maybe it would be something Add would say right now, but he didn't. While Gray felt the urge to continue this moment, Mystic Code was only thinking about all those souls he will eat in the future.
She's a girl who held on to what she first felt and wouldn't let go. Gray would have to worry about embarrassment later, for now she got up from her chair and pushed Toru against the table.
Toru's eyes only widened slightly, but he didn't refuse this. Instead he put his hands on Gray's waist and guided her into this.
Neither of them is an expert at this, but if it feels right, there's nothing wrong with continuing.
"Mh...Ah...Ah-"
"Gr...ay, wai-", he was unable to speak in the face of Gray's aggressiveness. She was very desperate in this and that, to some extent, was adorable. Toru could sense how lonely this girl was, so he simply accepted her as she is.
Gray was letting out her voice in little wet moans, while Toru's gasping breathing was constant. Even he felt like he was running out of oxygen. These were the urges of a woman Gray was unconsciously repressing.
She was a teenager was very curious about this until it finally happened.
And as if sensing what Toru was feeling, Gray stopped. She touched her forehead to Toru's chest and stayed like that for a long while.
***
Toru removed Gray's hood and stroked her hair. Gray, instead of feeling embarrassed, just felt at peace with herself. Toru's warm body was comforting to Gray. She closed her eyes breathing relaxed.
"Asahi Toru...", she said. She called him by his full name, as if she wanted to memorize it forever. Toru is the first boy she kissed and the first boy she felt more than appreciation and respect for. "There are a lot of confusing emotions in me right now."
Toru, using his fingers, played with Gray's hair. "Sooner or later you'll understand how you feel. I hope it's not too late, though. Nothing good happens when you procrastinate."
That was an obvious reference to what happened with Sakura though this time Gray didn't get it, but she took this as good advice to follow.
"I'll remember that..."
"Sounds good to me."
...
...
...
Squinting, and leaning his head on the table, Toru said, "I think we were doing something before all this. Maybe we forgot."
The truth was that Toru actually forgot what he was doing before that passionate kiss. No doubt what Gray had done left a strong impression on him. All Toru could do was say that hoping that Gray would remind him, which was odd because Toru always had a good memory.
"I was trying to find out more about you by looking you up in books..."
"Ah... I remember", and he didn't like that because that brings back the subject of his past.
"I won't ask anymore..."
"Hm...?", interesting statement....
"Just like you have things to hide, I used to have things to hide too. Although I told you a while ago how I feel. I really feel that way. And you... you told me that the fact that I think being dead is better makes you angry", Gray clung tightly to Toru. "At the time I felt that made you very sad", she closed her eyes. "I thought I shouldn't bring it up anymore."
"..."
Toru sighed. From one second to the next he turned around, which caused Gray to be underneath him.
"You talk too much."
Gray flashed a subtle smile at that. She already knew better than anyone what was going on. To think that Toru is not seeing her "face", but all this time he was seeing "Gray" made her feel happy. It didn't matter if Toru was hiding his past, because if they both continue to develop their relationship sooner or later they will know themselves and they can walk together into the future.
Gray will die, but that is paradoxical. Everything that is alive has to die, whether in a day or in a thousand years. Everything comes to an end. Whether it's because of this teenage romance, or the experience of a ninja, things change and life dies.
This girl is afraid of that, but she used to be afraid of death because she was always alone. Gray understood that she is only making the problem bigger, but she also understood that if she doesn't do something about it her life will remain just as monotonous.
So she looked Toru in the eyes, put her hands behind his neck and brought her face close to his once more.
"And I'll keep talking for you", she said, her face red with embarrassment, but with a faint smile that showed she was slowly getting over everything that once hurt her.
Gray allowed himself to love, as well as to go on living to someday die.
Toru could only remain silent at what Gray said. To stop her from talking further, he kissed her again and Gray didn't reject him.
Today was a very strange afternoon for these two....
-Fuyuki, Japan-
The war was still a little while away, but Rin was already preparing everything she was going to need to summon Assassin. While Assassin is not the most powerful class, she knew that if she could summon Asahi Toru she would have a great chance of winning.
Right now Rin was in the backyard of her house, in the same place where Toru and Kirei used to train. She looked at the place remembering the fancy fighting moves Toru used to use. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she had adopted the same stance that Kirei used to fight.
"Someday I'll be as strong as you", she threw a punch in the air and stepped forward.
In the past few years she had been instructed by Kirei to learn the techniques of magus killing. A magus who knows how to kill other magus without using magecraft was a great advantage, so a twelve-year-old Rin focused on training in that aspect. It had been five years since she started this training, and thanks to her talent Rin had managed to improve quite a bit.
Her magecraft is quite good and some people in the Clock Tower consider her a great promise for the future, plus those people know Rin's father, so a good result from Rin was to be expected.
She trained non-stop this afternoon. She pushed her body's capabilities to the limit until she was exhausted.
After training she took a hot bath and, still dressed in her pajamas that looked like a classic white dress, she went down to the basement of the mansion. She opened the door and moved some things around. When she had everything clear, she opened a trunk with many things and among those things she found a necklace with a crimson jewel.
'I've been storing mana here for a long time. I hope it will be enough to strengthen Assassin's stats.'
As such, Assassin is a servant with very low stats. Trying to summon him in the best conditions could greatly improve his stats. And it is best when it comes to using a large amount of mana aside from the prana that the Holy Grail grants masters.
At all this, Rin took off her engagement ring and placed it on the lid of the trunk.
"You have the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. If I can bring you to my side, I can get what my family has sought for years, but..."
For Rin there was something more important than that.
"Sakura..."
She had heard many rumors that there was a girl by that name in London. It's obvious that it's Sakura, but Rin is afraid to go looking for her. It was something even she herself didn't understand, but she didn't feel worthy of being next to Sakura.
"A girl with violet hair..."
It was something she had been thinking about for a long time....
-London, United Kingdom-
After making out with Toru for a whole hour, Gray fled to her room to think about what she did. As it was late at night, Gray was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling with her face lit crimson.
"I didn't know you like that, girl", as usual, Add had comments to give and give away.
"Shut up...", but she could only pull the blanket over herself to hide from everyone.
"Well. At least we know he's never going to reject you. You could even say he likes you. Although crying in front of him... That was a pathetic moment. Assassin boy is the only one you've shown that side of you to, though. Someday he'll show you who he really is too..."
Gray didn't know if those were words of encouragement or just a nicely worded insult.
"Besides, he's ahead of us."
"What?"
Gray pulled the sheet off her back and looked up to see Toru standing in the doorway.
"Hey. I knocked on the door twice, but no one answered."
"Hahaha. It's obvious why this useless landlady didn't notice. She's been thinking about you ever since-", before he could finish what he was saying, Add was shaken next to his cage, which ended up knocking him unconscious.
Toru admitted that this had been weird, but the weirdest one here was him, for raiding a girl's room late at night was very strange and dangerous. Besides, as much as Toru had no bad intentions, to others he might look like a predator.
After that Gray did her best to keep her composure.
"What brings you here?", her voice was shaky. You could sense in the air that Gray is nervous.
"I was bored. I sensed you were awake so I came to talk a little."
That shook Gray's heart. Toru wanted to talk of his own free will, without anyone having to force him. At the thought of that the embarrassment vanished into the darkness of the night.
"That's really weird...", she said almost whispering.
"Is it?"
"Well, it's not something you would do... I was very surprised."
"So, should I leave?"
"Ah? No! You don't have to leave! I just didn't expect this. It makes me a little happy that you want to talk to me."
Toru nodded and sat down on the corner of the bed. His eyes looked at the door for a second and then he looked down at the floor.
As much as he wanted to talk, he couldn't find a good topic of conversation. Gray realized that and tried to find something to talk about.
"We always end up in this kind of situation", she said. Being alone, silent, and with strange uncomfortable feelings had become more normal than it should.
"For me this is the most normal I've experienced in a long time."
"What do you mean?"
"Uh... I wouldn't know how to explain it. Everywhere I go very disastrous things always happen. Maybe for me it's a relief to be able to have these kinds of moments, although at the same time it's extremely boring."
-???-
A story repeated itself many times in a place full of white flowers. In the middle of it Asahi Toru was holding his head with pain and tears on his face.
His own story became his nightmare and the mistakes he made became his punishment.
"Those glowing things...", Sakura looked up. "What are they supposed to be?"
They are the authors of the stories, the awakening consciousnesses in the Worlds and the creations of an abstract concept.
Those shining beings are the World itself.
To be continued...