'It's been a long time since I've felt something like this', was a brief thought inside his mind. He felt the warmth of something surrounding him and it brought back a memory of the past.
Ah... the past. It's already something Toru thinks about too much. That's what has ultimately made him so depressed. As well as thinking about the future, which in turn generated a slight feeling of anxiety.
But back to the above, Toru was immersed in the ocean of blood. At the same time, he felt that he was close to something that gave him enough security to be relaxed. It was a warmth that reminded him of the hugs he used to get from his mother, Kyoko.
'For some reason... it hurts...'
A strange headache, overshadowing the warmth that held his hand.
That was how he opened his eyes and suddenly found himself on the ceiling of the lobby of this house. It was a lonely and confusing moment, but that wasn't the strangest thing here.
He looked to his side and there he saw her. Gray was curled up next to Toru, who was clinging to his arm comfortably. Outside the daylight was shining as usual, which told Toru something.
"It's already the next day..."
Looking at Gray, Toru noticed how innocent and helpless this girl looks. Her hood had fallen off, most likely due to the involuntary movements the human body usually has when sleeping, and such calm and pleasant breathing showed how Gray was in a state of deep sleep and relaxation.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door outside and Gray heard the sudden noise. She opened her eyes sleepily and looked around. At this point, Gray met Toru's eyes as he scanned the scene with her gaze.
The boy merely said, "Good morning, Lady."
Strangely enough, Gray did not feel embarrassed.
"Good morning..."
What Gray felt when she woke up and saw Toru was a mixture of guilt and happiness. The guilt came from that failed attempt to mug a poor drunk boy and the happiness came with knowing that he is still by her side.
The emotions in her heart are still confused, but that doesn't mean she's going to act embarrassed all the time. That could become stressful, so she just gave up and relaxed.
"Looks like there's someone at the door. I'm going to see who it is, could you let go?"
Gray nodded wordlessly and pulled away from him. For a moment she looked down at her hands remembering the warmth of Toru's body.
Toru, on his side, got up from the couch and opened the door. A pretty maid with brown hair and blue eyes was waiting with a shy expression. Toru obviously recognized her, she is the girl who comes every day to take care of Sakura's needs, so he nodded his head stepping aside and the maid entered the house.
Gray watched the maid go up to Sakura's room and remembered everything that is going on. For a brief moment Gray had forgotten all the problems around her and had concentrated on herself. While the feeling that brought her that was satisfying, coming back to reality was heavy for her, more so than usual.
"Are you going to school today?", asked Toru suddenly.
Gray opened her eyes slightly blinking a couple of times. She looked at the time on a wall clock and realized that it would be a little while before necromancy classes.
"Yeah... Just because my mentor isn't here doesn't mean I should skip class. I should go."
Toru nodded his head. "I see. I'll accompany you."
"Huh?"
Gray was surprised. The nonchalance with which Toru says things will always be surprising and strange to her.
"I don't have anything to do. It'll be like yesterday."
"Like yesterday...?"
Sitting on the couch, Gray ducked her head hiding from Toru. Her face had turned red from remembering everything.
Yeah... That's what she wanted.
"Don't you think that's a good idea?", asked Toru and reached over to pick up the bottles that were on the small table.
She then looked at him in denial. "If it's okay with you, then fine."
With that expressionless face, Toru nodded again.
After that, nothing interesting happened. They both left home without breakfast.
***
The routine was the same as the previous day. Toru watched the class from the shadows while Gray thought about what she would do next. The moment was boring for many, but not for Toru. As someone who was obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge, he was attentive to the classes.
Toru silently lamented for not being able to raise his hand to ask questions.
"That disgusting smell again..."
Svin squirmed in his seat as he gave Gray a sidelong glance.
To him, the entire classroom was infested with the putrid smell of millions of corpses. The atmosphere was also very heavy and Svin could sense that there were entities silently watching him. He felt disgusted, even felt like vomiting.
"Hey, Le Chien", Flat said, gently hitting Svin on the arm with his elbow. "Do you think the same thing that happened yesterday will happen again? If you want, I can go with you to spy on them again. I'll be like a ninja."
Svin touched his forehead painfully. His heart was squeezing at the thought of that monster taking his beloved Gray away from him. Everything was getting worse just listening to Flat talking in his ear.
"I told you not to call me that."
In the end, they both followed Gray and Toru.
***
Just like yesterday, Toru walked alongside Gray through the busy streets of this city. Behind them, hiding among the riff-raff, Svin and Flat watched silently.
"I always wonder the same thing - does Assassin ever make any expression other than that squidgy face?"
"Squid?", Svin made a strange face combining disgust and confusion. Imagining a squid, he couldn't find the similarity with Assassin.
"Ah, look, Le Chien!"
Flat narrowed his eyes as he put his hands on Svin's shoulders. In turn, Svin clenched his fist as if he had been defeated a thousand times.
It was strange to see something like that. Toru held out his hand in front of Gray, who looked him in the eyes. Gray was confused, but from one moment to the next she was confident enough to take Toru's hand.
Svin didn't know if Assassin is doing this on purpose or it's just something he's doing without realizing it, but the fact that Assassin is flirting with Gray like that ignited the flame of jealousy in Svin.
"They look good together, don't you think? They're both always so gray. I can tell they're both more alike than they look. Just look at them, they both have the same cool and lonely aura."
Svin found it hard to accept Flat's words. Gray and Toru have that same air of loneliness and depression. He doesn't know if that's good or bad, but he still felt hurt for some reason.
The first time Svin met Gray was a ridiculous moment for Reines, who was present at the time, but for Svin it had been the best day of his life for meeting this 'gray girl'.
After pausing to think and silently lament, Svin looked up and noticed that Assassin and Gray were gone.
Suddenly a cold voice whispered from behind his back.
"Do you like spying on people, Glascheit-san?"
It was Toru. His sudden appearance caused Flat to fall backwards as the expression on Svin's face hardened. Even though he had been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do, Svin straightened his back and looked Toru in the eyes. Since they are both of the same height, both of their eyes were pointed in the same direction.
"Why are you following us? You were also doing the same thing yesterday. I want to know the reason behind your actions."
Svin clenched his fist and looked at Flat, realizing that Gray was there too.
As if the words weighed on him, Svin said, "You're no good..."
Yes, it was the excuse of a five-year-old, but Svin didn't know what else to say. But that answer was something that somehow convinced Toru, as the guy blinked a couple of times as if he had been waiting for a more complicated answer.
"Okay...", was all he said before turning to leave. "Let's go home, Gray."
Gray wasn't understanding anything, so she didn't say a word. Besides, Svin is here and that made her a little uncomfortable. In the end she obeyed Toru's words and followed him.
Svin was left with nothing more to say. Watching Gray walk away together with Assassin tore something inside his chest.
"You're right", Toru's voice. As he walked Toru looked at Svin out of the corner of his eye saying, "I never said I was anyone good. So you're right."
'Someone good...', Gray thought about those words. As she did she remembered what she wanted to do to Toru the night before and felt disappointed with herself.
***
The encounter with Svin and Flat was strange. Svin was spying on Toru just because he didn't consider him someone good... That didn't make sense. At least that was the conclusion Gray came to.
It started to rain as they followed the road home. Some people ran for shelter, others pulled out some umbrellas, but Gray and Toru did nothing about it. They both walked in the rain, as if the wetness on their clothes didn't matter.
"Don't you consider yourself to be any good?"
With his hands in the pockets of his butler's suit, Toru nodded. "The existence of good and evil is a creation of mankind. If I measure myself by that standard, then I'm not someone good. Although I don't think I'm that evil either."
In history there are only people. There is no good, there is no evil, just people with different points of view. As a person who was raised with a very distinct concept of good and evil, Gray could not quite understand Toru's analogy.
With raindrops hitting her hood, Gray came to another conclusion based on what Svin said.
"If a person considers you evil..."
"It's that person's point of view", Toru finished the sentence.
"I understand. Then, your point of view is that you are not someone good."
"You understand quickly."
Gray was walking behind Toru, so she couldn't see the expression on the boy's face, but she could already guess Toru's dull look as he said those words.
Gray was walking in a gray rain surrounded by unknown people, while Toru was walking through a vast ocean of blood whose souls in pain whisper many twisted thoughts in his ear.
Toru hears all those voices at the same time, but one of the voices is louder than all the others.
Inside that ocean of blood, Biserka walks next to Toru. She was moving her blood-covered mouth as if she wanted to say something to Toru, but he just tried to ignore her.
He had already heard all that crap many times and with the encounter with Svin that moment was heavier.
'What should I do', to Gray the answers Toru gave him were a bit sad. 'It seems that sometimes you don't mind saying what you feel...'
She didn't know, but it was something she could sense. Toru is aware that Gray already knows his emotions. Hiding the obvious would be a waste of time.
Gray then walked over to Toru and took him by the hand like a moment ago. She looked him in the eyes and Toru did the same.
"You're a good boy."
Toru turned his gaze back to the road and smiled slightly.
"Someone should buy you some glasses."
They weren't serious words this time. Gray felt Toru said that as a joke. So she smiled along with him and together they walked forward until they reached home.
***
"You're both very strange, but I'm glad this depressing owner looks happier than ever", Add said from the little table beside the bed.
Gray, who was putting on her clothes after getting out of the shower, didn't respond to that.
Add could be an insensitive fool all the time, but having been through various human hands, he knew many facets of human emotions. So this time he had some words of encouragement for his owner.
"Child... You must stay where you feel happy. In all the years I've been by your side I've never seen you smile. Not even when I tried to tell my best jokes. The only thing you showed for the last ten years was a cute and annoying expression of sadness."
Add saw an unfortunate little girl with an equally unfortunate fate.
"Keep growing, keep living. Love like you never have before and allow others to be able to love you. All it took for you was someone else's love. You're getting there, keep it up."
With the towel in his hands, Gray stood thinking. The last thing Add would tell her would be something that would change this girl's life.
"Assassin boy told you, but you seem to forget. You're not the face you have, but what you decided to do with that face, or something like that."
Gray, a distant descendant of the Pendragon bloodline, bound in chains to the fate of a lonely death.
She closed her eyes and allowed herself to listen to herself.
"I know", she said, looking down at her hand. She thought of the warmth of Toru's hand and understood all she had to do. "Thank you, Add."
"Hahahaha. It's strange to hear you thank me", Add closed his eyes to rest. Before falling asleep, he whispered. "Gray has to be Gray. That's the way it has to be until the end."
***
The rainy days reminded him of the days he was in Amegakure. This day especially reminded him of the time he forgave Itachi.
"The world is full of misunderstandings."
Again he found himself in the ocean of blood.
'I can see all of you. I can interact with all of you in a more solid way.'
Toru has a hypothesis. The fact that he can communicate with souls in this way is because he learned to use Bounded Fields. When Toru learned to use this magecraft, Waver taught him to give 'special properties' to each Bounded Field. Toru tried to give him the Shigan ability, which didn't work, but as a result gave him the power to summon the Ocean of Blood in reality.
'I used to think this place wasn't real...'
But Toru understood that these souls were always part of his history and sins.
[All your mistakes were and are real, my son. This is the fruit of your life]
"Huh... what a bitter fruit..."
His life was like a cruel joke that repeats itself endlessly. Something so predictable that it's not even entertaining anymore.
"Mother..."
From the window of Sakura's room, Toru saw his mother reflected.
"I hate you..."
...
...
[Even you know that's a lie...]
To be continued...