It's the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, days off with nothing to do. Gray was reading while waiting for news from her mentor, but she could already guess that the man would be very busy.
Waiting for him like this, she thought of herself as a puppy waiting for its master behind the door and, in turn, that thought depressed her.
She ran her fingers through the pages of the books. She read each line with analytical dexterity and her emerald green eyes glowed dimly thanks to the library lights.
'Today everything is lonelier than usual.'
She feels it is that way. With no one around, she quickly thought of depressing things. Realizing her own thoughts, like a tired person, Gray could only sigh.
However, this time she was not going to be alone. She would never ever be alone again...
The door opened revealing Toru. He was holding a wooden box with food inside.
"I brought breakfast. It's something simple, but I don't think you'll dislike it."
"Thank you, Toru", she sketched a soft smile at the sight of him.
Gray had been smiling more lately than she had in all the years she had lived. The reason for this was obvious, for this reason had brought breakfast.
As Toru set the box down on the table, he opened the lid revealing four tuna sandwiches. In a small compartment of the box were two small bottles of juice.
Seeing the contents of the box, Gray set the book aside. She doesn't usually eat much due to the fact that usually the food Sakura prepares is very heavy, but with these sandwiches it's different. It's a simple, light breakfast, something anyone could eat.
"It looks good, doesn't it? I bought them at the supermarket and put them in the oven to heat them up. The bread is browned, but the tuna is still juicy. I didn't know what kind of drink you liked, so I bought orange juice."
"So that's why you disappeared this morning", that was also the reason why Gray was feeling so depressed and lonely this morning.
Toru narrowed his eyes. He felt that he had experienced something similar before (a moment together with Konan). Remembering that event, he sighed tiredly, but relaxed, and sat down in front of Gray.
"I don't need to eat to live, but I'm used to eating. So I'll eat some too", the boy said taking one of the sandwiches from the box.
"Since you took the trouble to go and buy all this, I can't refuse. Thank you..."
"Don't thank me. I didn't prepare this. Maybe you should thank the companies that package this food."
"Fuhahaha. What ridiculous things you're saying now, Assassin boy", Gray's cloak shifted and Add's voice turned to Toru. "If you had said you prepared it yourself you would have earned some boyfriend points for this pathetic girl."
Gray ducked her gaze. She didn't even bother to refute Add's words. This time she was just confused. There was no room for anger in her mind.
Then, Toru responded to Add with something that intrigued Gray.
"If only I had prepared this meal", he said, as he chewed the bread. "If I had made this with my hands, it would have no taste at all. It would be like chewing water."
...
...
A brief, one-second silence. Those words had confused both Add and Gray.
"How is that possible, kid? That doesn't make sense."
Toru replied matter-of-factly, "I don't know, it just makes sense to me. I've had the same thing happen to me for as long as I can remember", and finished eating the sandwich.
Neither of them knew what to say in response to that. It was a random tidbit of information that Toru mentioned. Although it seemed like it wasn't something relevant, Gray thought that was enough to find out more about Toru.
"Anyway", he got up from his seat and grabbed a bottle of juice. "I'll take this. Enjoy your breakfast."
As suddenly as he appeared, Toru walked out the door as he drank the juice.
"No taste..."
It was strange, but Gray thought of something curious. She now wanted to eat something cooked by Toru. Although she is someone who consumes very small amounts of food, this time she wanted to try Toru's tasteless food.
"It only took a few words from Assassin boy to leave you drooling, didn't it? What a simple woman you are..."
Add was right...
***
A few hours later, someone knocked on the door. The maid who usually takes care of Sakura opened and, like in a cartoon, the door almost fell down after Trimmau kicked it.
"You shall not pass!", the mercurial maid shouted, referring to a book Flat showed her.
Whoever accompanied the mercury maid, Reines, touched her forehead in pain. She had forgotten that Flat usually taught that sort of thing to Trimm.
"I'll have to kill him later", she mumbled. Then she looked at the maid.
"Lady Reines...", the maid showed Reines respect. After that, she stepped back giving Reines access to the house.
"How is my dear little sister?", she asked.
The maid replied with an expressionless face.
"Lady Sakura is healthy. Her vital signs are steady. There is no danger, for the moment."
"I see. That's good news."
Coming up the stairs, Toru appeared drinking juice from a bottle. Seeing Reines, he gave a small nod of his head as if greeting her.
"You got here sooner than I thought. It's been a while since I last saw you."
Reines smiled confidently. She walked up to Toru and looked him in the eyes.
"Yes. It's only been a few days though. I came to visit Sakura now. After that I'll have to return to my daily duties."
"And what about Waver-sensei?"
"Oh, him. He's busy with a lot of things right now. I'm sure he's suffering a lot. It's a pity I can't be next to him to see that", Reines shook her head as she said that. She looked disappointed.
Just then, Gray came up the stairs saying something.
"Toru, the juice has no sugar in it."
Gray had the bottle in her hand. Reines saw this and looked that both Toru and Gray came from the same place.
"Ho...", Reines smiled mischievously. She knew nothing intimate could happen between these two, but she liked to fantasize about the possibility. "Looks like some interesting things happened when I wasn't around."
Reines' innuendo made Gray's face turn red with embarrassment. Although an innocent and childish girl to a certain extent, Gray understood Reines' innuendo.
"It's not what it looks like", she shook her hands at the bottle. She shook her head multiple times emphasizing that nothing strange had happened.
But Reines, as always, was like a snake spitting venom. With a subtle smile, Reines stood behind Gray and whispered in her ear.
"You seem to have misunderstood me. But still, I know from the way you reacted, all this time, you were waiting for something between you and Assassin to happen."
Assassin heard that, but only blinked a couple of times as if he didn't care.
As soon as he said that, Reines broke away from Gray and went to go upstairs.
"I'll go check on Sakura. You guys do whatever you want. Just clean up when you're done."
"I already said it's not what it looks like!", the gray girl complained. This was the first time she had ever yelled like that, so she quickly covered her mouth with both hands and then looked at Toru.
Surprisingly, he looked at her with a subtle smile. There was something in his gaze that showed a nostalgic moment.
To lighten the mood, Add stepped in as he always usually does.
"I don't think being around that girl is good for both of us. How about we go for a walk? Walking after breakfast is good for the body."
That seemed like a good idea. The detail that everyone except Toru didn't notice was that Reines heard everything from the top of the stairs.
"How nice it is to be young."
She was a total sadist. Teasing these two teenagers had become her favorite dessert.
"Plus Assassin looks good in the tux I bought him."
It was like dressing up an adorable doll to place in her dollhouse.
-Northern Ireland-
There was blood staining the bandages on his arm. There was still a long way to go before this mission the Clock Tower had given him to complete.
Waver Velvet sighed wearily as he removed the bandage from his arm.
"I guess I should have called Lady...", he regretted that. With no one to protect him, Waver is helpless. Well, that's not entirely true.
A woman passed him a bottle of antiseptic alcohol as she said, "It's no big deal. I'm here. You're not going to die that easy."
That woman is Aozaki Touko.
"If that were true, I wouldn't have an injured arm", the man complained. This time, while changing the bandages, he held an unlit cigarette with his lips. Touko saw it and with a gentle flick of her fingers the cigar was lit. "Anyway. Dealing with magical monsters isn't something I haven't gotten used to. I'm scared to death, yes, but someone has to do the job."
"Your voice brims with confidence, Lord El-Melloi II."
"Huh... how I wish those words were sincere."
"Don't be discouraged. At least we won't be bored. On the other hand, while you were on the run, I managed to finish the artifact you told me to make. Here you go."
Touko pulled out a mask from her briefcase. The mask had the appearance of a worn white skull, with subtly sharp teeth. The design of the mask was somewhat reminiscent of the masks Hassan used to wear in his golden age.
"With this they won't be able to recognize him. He will be able to change his voice and to hide his aura and personality. This mask can also serve as a mana battery in case of an emergency. Since you asked me for something simple, I didn't do more than that."
"That was quick... I'll pay you when this is over so keep the mask until then", Waver said handing the mask back to Touko.
She denied and with a wave of her hand pushed the mask against Waver's chest.
"I'm not in a hurry. You know I'm not doing this for the money. What does intrigue me is that even though you don't want your daughter to go to war, you're preparing everything you need for her to go fight. It's paradoxical."
Waver sighed looking at the mask in his hand. "When Sakura wakes up, I'm sure she'll want to go to Fuyuki. I have no way to stop her. Besides, Sakura's wish..."
The wish Sakura has is exactly the same wish Waver has.
Sakura wants to revive her Servant.
-London-
Gray and Toru went for a walk while Reines talked alone in Sakura's room. How everything that happened before was somewhat awkward, they both accepted Reines' suggestion.
What neither of them expected was that they would run into Svin and Flat near a park.
"What a tragic coincidence", Toru said, hands in his pockets.
"Good morning. Hum... It's a strange coincidence."
Gray ducked inside her hood as she backed up a step. Toru looked at her and then looked at Flat.
"It's great to be able to meet outside of school, how have you guys been doing? Because Le Chien and I have been researching some things about the weather. We plan to summon a powerful beam to recharge a battery."
From the way Flat was saying things, it sounded like he genuinely thought her idea was a good one. To Toru, that was something completely unnecessary and it seemed Gray thought the same thing.
Svin, on the other hand, kept quiet trying not to look Gray in the eye. When he tried to speak, his voice was choked in his throat.
'It's frustrating...', Svin thought.
Flat started talking about a lot of things as if he didn't care how his friend felt, which irritated Svin.
"Anyway, do you guys want to join us?"
At Flat's question, Gray looked at Toru.
What happened next was so strange and fast that Gray's brain could barely process it. In the first instance, they were among the streets full of tourists walking leisurely and talking about life, after a few minutes, for some reason, they boarded a train.
"Huh...?", Gray didn't understand anything. She could only see Svin, who was furtively looking at Toru. Maybe Svin proposed something to Toru, but due to the confusion, Gray didn't hear anything.
The next thing Gray could understand was that they were in a forest. It was the same forest that Sakura and Svin usually train in.
"You two are going to fight?", said Flat, looking at the trees that stretched throughout the forest. With his hands behind his head, he looked at Svin knowing what was going to happen next. "Le Chien, don't you think Assassin is going to kick your butt? I'm just saying, he's a hero from the past and you...you're Le Chien."
"How many times do I have to tell you that he didn't call me that!"
"Le Chien is and always will be Le Chien. No matter what planet we are on."
A vein sprouted on Svin's forehead. "You seriously make me lose my patience."
"I think...", Toru stepped closer, "I think this isn't right. You asked me for training, but I don't know if you can take it. Gray could barely keep up with me the first time we trained together."
"Hahaha. That's right. That stupid girl's face was hurting all day. After the punch you punched her, anyone would be bleeding from the nose," Add said, jerking inside his cage.
Svin's gaze darkened as he heard the Mystic Code's voice. "You did what?"
Gray interjected. "Uh, well... At the beginning of it all it was really hard to match Assassin's speed. After trying so hard, I couldn't even give him a scratch."
Toru denied. "You slammed me to the ground using judo in a very clever way. At that moment that I understood that you're good at taking advantage of other people's weaknesses."
Flat laughed at that. "You say that like Gray is a villain."
"Villain?"
In the end Gray didn't understand what kind of attitude Flat could relate to a villain. Toru even tilted his head in confusion at Flat's illogical statement.
On the other hand, Svin frowned and stopped the conversation "How about we get started at once?", the impatience in his tone of voice was very noticeable.
For a man with a broken heart, Svin was taking this too far. He proposed to Toru a training session with the intention of calming this jealousy and anger that flared like a flame in his heart. It was the perfect excuse not to hold back his strength.
Toru just nodded after that and positioned himself a few meters in front of Svin. Gray and Flat backed up a little. Gray sat in the shade of a tree and Flat waited standing with his hands in his pockets.
"This is going to be awesome. It's not going to be any better than what we saw at Iselma, but at least we get to see the hero fight again!"
Flat was excited. Gray, still, somehow was worried about Svin. She knows Svin's strengths and the strength he can reach, but never in a million years will he be able to connect a blow against Toru.
"We Assassin's are not heroes", Toru said. "We are simply well known in the world, which allows us to be 'heroes' under our own history."
That was information the Holy Grail granted Toru upon being summoned as well as the ability to speak and understand all the languages of the human world.
"Uh, yeah. I once heard Professor Waver talk about something similar", Flat replied sitting down next to Gray. "He sure knows a lot of stuff. That's like having Internet Explorer installed in his brain."
"Let's stop playing games. And you, Flat, stop disrespecting our professor. If anything, the professor's brain would be better than Internet Explorer because he knows things you can't find there."
Before the argument between these two guys could escalate, Toru raised his hand. "If you still feel like training, we should get started at once."
Svin looked at Toru. At the same time, Flat nodded his head a couple of times. Ignoring the fact that Flat was very curious about the outcome of this situation, Gray was still worried.
"I'm going to start", Svin said. He clenched his fists and the mana began to fluctuate undulating around him. His gaze sharpened and a kind of blue prana covered his body.
Toru also braced himself. The color of his eyes changed and he tried to remember the fighting style of someone specific. He raised his right hand with his palm facing the sky and sighed. His fighting stance was very similar to Hinata's.
'With this there won't be a problem', at least the chance of hurting Svin will be less.
"Ahhh!"
Svin lunged forward throwing two consecutive punches. Toru only dodged it by moving his upper body accordingly to the punches. Svin's fists were passing very close to his face, but Toru's reaction speed was far superior.
No, in fact, Toru is superior in every possible way. Being a Heroic Spirit gave him a lot of advantage. It was like watching a newborn trying to hit an abyssal dragon. The difference was clear and Flat and Gray could see it in the front row.
No one knows the reason why Svin does this. He is simply jealous of Toru. After seeing everything this servant could do, Svin felt weak and pathetic. But not only that, from the very beginning Svin could sense something horrifying in Assassin. The putrid smell of thousands of corpses, all those strange blood creatures coming out of his Bounded Field and the most powerful eyes known to magus.
'Someone like you...', Svin kept punching nonstop, but Toru just kept dodging it. 'Someone like you can't be someone good. I can't allow you to keep getting close to Gray.'
From one second to the next, when he least expected it, Toru spun on his own axis in a split second. The last thing Svin saw before he was brutally thrown into the trees was Assassin's knee coming like a missile at his face.
Svin was thrown brutally, smashing through the trees and breaking them on the way. Flat opened his mouth aghast as Gray got up from the ground to go help Svin.
Toru, on the other hand, blinked a couple of times as if he didn't understand what had just happened. In fact, Toru didn't understand what had just happened.
"I contained my strength as much as possible", his poker face was the same as always.
Seeing the destruction, he put his hands in his pockets and walked following the traces of broken trees. He quickly came across Svin lying on the ground in front of a tree that had a shattered trunk.
Toru crouched down and looked at Gray who was standing next to him. She didn't say anything to him, but Toru for some reason could understand that Gray was a little disappointed.
Just like that, Toru touched Svin's neck and frowned.
"Le Chien, are you alive?", said Flat, who had just arrived. "You hit him too hard, Assassin, didn't you kill him?"
Toru denied with regret.
"He's dead. There's nothing we can do now. I'll have to get rid of the corpse."
"No way...", Gray muttered.
"You killed him...", and Svin fell to his knees in a very dramatic fashion.
"It's unfortunate that someone his age has to die", Toru said, standing up as he shook off his clothes. "But in a war anyone can die."
"..."
"..."
"Hm..."
Toru tilted his head in confusion.
"I thought you'd get my joke. It's so obvious."
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
Toru blinked a couple of times as if he was hoping the joke would be funny to these two teenagers.
"Did I misphrase my words?", he touched his chin as he thought. "Something must have gone wrong with my clever choice of words."
"Le Chien isn't dead?"
"Oh. He obviously isn't. Look, Glascheit-san is still breathing. I'm even beginning to think he's somehow very relaxed after the blow he took. I'm sure I held back my strength, but in the end, I felt a current of mana propelling my body."
Uh...
Gray understood that. He looked up at the sky thinking about Sakura and how she's close to waking up. This, though it wasn't something obvious, is a sign that her brain is already recovered. Otherwise, Toru and Sakura's connection shouldn't be strong right now, but....
"It even seems kind of convenient. Anyway, we'll have to wait for this guy to wake up. Luckily his brain didn't melt from the blow."
"Is that possible?", asked Flat, a little surprised and excited. It seems that Toru's unfunny joke somehow did please Flat.
***
He felt a severe headache. He groaned a little as he opened his eyes and the first thing he felt was a putrid smell near him.
"Ahhhhhh!!!", Svin cried out as he noticed that his head was resting on Toru's thigh.
The servant looked at him silently.
"You woke up already", he said. "It took you long enough. The blow shouldn't have been that hard."
Leaving aside that for some reason Svin a while ago was resting on Toru's lap, Svin touched his head painfully.
"Whose big idea was that?"
"Uh, you mean that. Flat told me you'd rest better if I did that."
"Of course... it had to be him... I don't see him anywhere, let alone Gray. Where are they, why am I alone with you?"
Toru blinked a couple of times. After that he looked ahead. Two voices in the distance sounded.
"They're chatting over there."
"...", Svin looked at Toru. "You, for some reason, are too mysterious. Everything you do... being with Gray... You... You love Gray?"
It was too sudden a question. Toru's eyes widened slightly. He didn't know what to answer. Despite the question, Svin continued.
"You two are always together. Gray has never been so... beautiful since I last saw her. I figured something was happening to her. In Iselma... Gray changed. You did something to her, didn't you?"
"... You could say that the whole change in Gray was due to coincidence. It was simply a coincidence for me to be there, as well as everything Gray did with me since then."
"That's not fair..."
"Why?"
"Because to me she... she's very special."
"... I really don't understand what you want to tell me. Were you jealous? Is that why you wanted to kill me a while ago?"
Svin looked at the ground staying silent. That answered Toru's questions.
"I've never felt that way about another person. Gray is not only beautiful, she possesses a very different scent than any living or non-living being. She is a gray girl surrounded by bright, vivid colors. When I see her that way, I can't help but get close to her. I want to be with her, but Reines always stopped me", Svin leaned his back against the tree letting out a big sigh. "You showed up and she stopped being gray..."
"... I understand...", he stood up and wiped his clothes. "Gray is a very nosy, immature, depressing girl. But she's someone who knows me."
That was the answer to Svin's first question.
"But she doesn't know me like normal people do. It would be strange to say that she is someone normal. I don't think anyone is normal. That's why she knew me in a stranger way than anyone else. She could see inside my being. Through the blood and corpses that make up my story, she knows who I am...", he closed his eyes and was surrounded by the blood of that ocean. "And that bothers me a lot", when he opened his eyes they were glowing with the dim light of the Shigan.
[You're just playing with that poor girl's feelings, my son.]
That woman's voice mingled with his words.
Svin just looked at the expression on Toru's face. A serious look on this servant's face, with a strange aura of loneliness.
"But what can I do about it. I'm just a prisoner soul of a magus. For me there's not much to do in this world, so I mostly spend my time being bored. But when Gray is there, somehow that boredom vanishes."
Toru never said he loves Gray. Toru's emotions are always complicated so to assume that right off the bat would be a mistake. What Toru felt was more of a strange dependency for people's company.
"What good does that do me? She only sees you and no one else", Svin stood up and grabbed Toru by the shoulder. "What do you want to do with her?"
"Hm... I've hurt a lot of people. It's boring to repeat the same cycle. So, I guess everything will continue as it is. Nothing is going to change. Besides, I'll have to leave for Fuyuki shortly. The War for the Holy Grail is coming. Who knows, maybe an enemy servant will end up assassinating me."
What he meant was that, until that happens, Toru would simply continue to live on as before, after that, Toru probably won't come back alive.
"Are you telling me that when you die I'll take advantage of that?"
"You can interpret my words any way you want, it's your decision. I'm just a ghost. Bye."
After saying that, Toru vanished into thin air. Svin stayed thinking about that for a long time.
When he finished pondering, he hit the tree hard. He sighed tiredly and then smiled calmly.
"What a depressing day."
With the sad reality hitting him hard, this Svin's day came to an end.
***
"You didn't say anything all the way", Toru said. Now they were both walking homeward bound.
Before that they had already said goodbye to Flat and Svin. The latter was quite respectful to Gray as they said goodbye. His attitude was the complete opposite of what Gray had seen before.
Somehow, that sudden change was refreshing and comfortable for Gray.
"I was just thinking about what happened earlier. I still don't understand what Svin wanted to accomplish by asking you to train. Did he say anything to you before?"
Toru hurried his pace. He suddenly stopped in front of Gray and, without looking at her, said, "That... is a secret between men", and kept walking as if it was nothing.
Now Gray was much more curious than usual, but considering how Toru is, making him say something would be impossible, so she just ducked her gaze and ran a few meters to keep up with Toru.
"...Can you give me your hand?", said Gray. Doing this kind of thing had become a habit. Although it also hadn't been long since the two of them had started walking down the street holding hands.
"Yes, I can", Toru replied. He took Gray by the hand and they walked home as the sun glowed golden in the sky.
***
As they reached home Toru noticed a presence.
"Is she still here?"
"You mean..."
"Yes. Lady Reines is still here. I thought she'd be leaving any minute considering she herself said she had things to do."
Curious, Toru opened the door and headed for Sakura's room. Since Gray had nothing else to do, she followed Toru closely.
As the two of them walked up the stairs, Toru narrowed his eyes.
"Looks like she didn't even notice we arrived. It's been a few hours since we left. This is strange."
"I think so too. But I don't think it's something bad, right?"
"We'll know that right now."
Toru opened the door to Sakura's room and stood there because what he saw seemed strange.
Lying next to Sakura, casually hugging Sakura, Reines was asleep. Sitting on the side of the bed, Trimmau watched quietly.
"Good afternoon", the mercury maid said. "Lady Reines canceled all her plans for today to stay by Lady Sakura's side."
It was as if Trimmau was already expecting the questions that Toru and Gray would ask, so that clarification was the first thing that came up in the conversation.
"Took you two long enough."
Due to the noise, Reines woke up. Sitting up in bed, she yawned and rubbed her eyes. Her hair was disheveled and her clothes were a bit wrinkled.
"It's strange that you decided to stay", Toru said.
"Were you worried about Sakura?"
After Gray's question, Reines smiled subtly.
"You could say that I was. There were a lot of things I needed to tell her. Such as the fact that I've been taking very good care of her servant as well as that same servant has been taking care of me."
"Your words have hidden intentions."
"Oh? Assassin... I'm not as evil as you think. When I'm not bothering someone, I like to be quiet. And while talking to the oblivious Sakura, I heard her mention your name many times. You can tell she's very fond of you. Surely she would want to give you an award for all you've done, but since she's in that state, how about if I'm the one to grant you that privilege?"
Toru frowned. "Questions always arise from your words. You are very dangerous."
Reines laughed at hearing that. She walked up to Toru and looked him in the eye.
"Thank you for the compliment. But this time my words are not a game. I'm sure Gray knows that."
"We've seen what you're capable of and we've seen everything you've done. I think Reines is telling the truth."
Toru sighed wearily. He arranged his hair to one side and replied with an "Ok..."
Reines smiled and instantly put her hands behind Toru's neck. As she did that, she brought her lips together with Toru's.
The boy opened his eyes not knowing what to do. Suddenly he felt Reines' tongue inside his mouth and, with that sensation, he grabbed Reines by the shoulders and stopped her.
"Congratulations, Assassin. Your prize is the first kiss from a pretty maiden."
At that moment Toru's expression changed drastically. It wasn't a disgusted face, but it resembled that. With a confused look, Toru turned his gaze to Gray.
Upon seeing Gray, Toru noticed how she had frozen in the same place she was. At this reaction, Reines smiled in satisfaction and approached the exit.
"I'm going now. It's very late and I've put aside my responsibilities. I'll see you someday. Let's go, Trimm."
The door closed with a slight whip, generating a slight draft of wind that moved Gray's cloak.
'At that moment I felt something I didn't like', she thought. It was all so sudden that she had trouble processing the information. 'And that was... painful...'
To be continued...