"Following the events of their talk, it didn't take long for people to know that the two of them were leaving. This, obviously, was met with controversy. On one side you have people saying that it wouldn't be right for them to just leave, especially when no explanation was given. The other side accepted this, but were still skeptical.
"He's helped us get back on our feet, we should respect his wishes and let him do as he pleases." Yelled one side.
"But what if something like that happens again? Who will be here to lead and protect us."
While it wasn't officially stated, Gil was technically the pseudo head for the time being until Blake had found a replacement.
But regardless of what you think or what everyone else thought, the two of them had no reason to stay. Thinking about it logically, its not like anyone in the village knew anything about fragment energy or fragment control apart from Blake, Akame, Gil and Maybe Catherine. The rest were clueless about the existence of sorcerers. So none of them were going to help Gil.
"I can't be your teacher, I'm not as good as others." Blake commented.
"I can't either, for personal reasons." And as such Akame had refused to teach him.
So obviously with all this in mind, they had to go on a quest to find Gil a new teacher.
That same day (January 1st ) Gil was in his room, sited on his bed as he stared into space. It was already getting dark outside as stated by the sounds of crickets in the distance.
KNOCK!
Joy slowly opened the door and turned on the light catching Gil's attention.
"Yoo." She said.
"Yoo." Gil responded.
She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, she then walked to a chair in the middle of the room and sat on that.
"You nice and packed?" She asked, probably referring to the dump of clothes that were suppose to be in his duffle bag but now just lay there dormant waiting for Gil to do something with them, if anything.
"Clearly I am." Gil said laying on his bed staring straight at the ceiling.
"Since when did you get a sense of humor?" Joy teased, "You always used to be so forth coming and seriously honest."
"Am I not now?"
"Honest? Yes, forth coming not too much. Seems your withholding something."
"I can say the same for you, right." Gil turned his head in her direction, "Like how you didn't tell me you were working with Blake."
"First, we're not married so I'm not obligated to tell you were I go and what I do."
"Mh." Gil puffed his cheeks with his arms crossed close to his chest.
"And secondly, I just thought if I was good, like real good, before you found out you'd think I was… what's the word? Cool."
"I think your plenty 'cool' already."
"Thanks." She responded with a smile.
Gil waited a moment before asking one more question, "What about the whole Joy thing?"
"You mean my first name?"
"Yeah, you hated using it, why the sudden change?"
"Ha! Your looking too much into it, its much easier for people to pronounce, that's it." She got up patting him on the knee.
"Hurry up or else we'll start dinner without you." She walked back out the door.
'Liar, I know there's something more going on." Gil got up, 'Its not hard to see when your upset, just because you got a little better at hiding it doesn't mean that I can't see right through you.'
He walked outside his room following her, 'What are you hiding from me… Njeri?'
"Cheers! Kila mtu (Everyone), let's drink." The men chugged down beers and the women danced to the music over the stereo. A plesant evening.
"You ok?" Akame asked seeing how a bit down he was.
"Yeah, but there's something bugging me, although I'm sure it isn't too much of a problem." He answered, although Akame could barely hear what he was talking about over the music that boomed.
"Whatever it is best make sure you deal with it tonight, but if its not possible then keep it in your heart and try getting through it day after day."
Great advice, and it would've worked if Gil was worried about himself, but perhaps whatever it was that loomed over him like a thunderstorm was much more complicated than anything he'd ever experienced. But even with all that weighing on his mind he was till able to get some sleep.
************************************************
SOMEWHERE AT SEA,
A ship, one as big as four life sized supermarkets and as tall as a mountain, painted white. Its turbines turned with electrical precision which was established by the giant battery at its core.
It was stacked with the most modern of hunting equipment, sonar for tracking things deep under the sea, GPS to check location on the sea, heat vision to detect Uranium powered submarines. Hell, they even had a giant telescope at the ship's crown to be able to see a vast distance away, and this one even had a zoom feature.
Yet even with all this their captain still opted to use a spyglass to look at features from far away.
He was a man of class, a higher class than people liked to admit. He had long white hair and piercing gold eyes that looked like the sun if you looked at it from the right angle. His skin was pale and his top incisors were sharp, so much so that they extended outside his mouth, but he kept them in check when need be.
"There you are." He whispered, "The Loliwean Islands, I have arrived."
A FRIEND OR FOE