A memory from ten years ago now. She had just woken up dressed in pajamas so classic they looked like they were straight out of the medieval era. It was simply a long white dress that covered her body. In the background she could hear her mother singing a song as she prepared breakfast. She smiled at the thought that this everyday day was still like the others. So calm and cheerful...
The first thing she thought of when she woke up was to wash her face. So without haste she headed for the bathroom. She turned on the sink faucet and wiped her face, but when she looked up and saw herself in the mirror, the person she saw in the reflection was not her....
She screamed in fright. She touched her face with both hands realizing that it didn't feel the same as her face.
From that day on Gray's life changed completely. Everyone in the village started to treat her as a savior, who will bring back the old glory of the King of Knights, Arthur Pendragon.
***
She opened her eyes after dreaming that. She felt tired because she couldn't sleep at night because of what happened with Toru. She thought deeply about everything they talked about and how the talk ended. She touched her chest in pain. She could still remember clearly what Toru felt at that moment.
'He can't take it...', her dull gaze wandered around the room. She didn't meet anyone there. Reines was not in her bed. There was a note on the bedside table. She got out of bed and read the note.
[Wait for me outside the Moon Tower at 8 a.m. If I don't show up it's because something bad happened to me.]
"Eight o'clock... Looks like it's only a quarter past six. It's a long way off."
She took advantage of the time she had to get dressed and brush her teeth. Seeing her reflection in the mirror, she remembered the dream she had and clenched her fist tightly. The toothbrush broke as a result.
'What a mess...'
The morning had started in the worst possible way.
"Hey, child! Assassin boy didn't show up", Add said from the bedside table. "You seem to have an unmistakable talent for scaring boys away, huh. You should fix that a little."
Gray paid him no mind and tucked it away inside her cloak. By the time she had everything ready, it was almost seven in the morning. It was an hour away. She still wasn't hungry, so breakfast was out of the question. Instead, she thought about going to look for Assassin. That was a bad habit of hers. She wanted to know everything when her little brain couldn't handle that much information. Well, Gray isn't dumb, she just has too many inferiority complexes about herself that prevented her from bringing out her full potential.
She didn't say a word as she left the room. She walked down the long hallways and down the stairs as the expression on her face only grew more somber. Loneliness was a part of her that had already stuck in her mind. When she was alone, she somehow reverted back to being the same Gray of the past. This wasn't right, one way or another.
As she left the Moon Tower, she felt a slight stirring in her heart. She felt Assassin nearby. She looked around, but found no one. The boy was nowhere to be seen, but his presence was very close, or was it far away? Gray at no time thought to look up. When she happened to look at the sky to make sure of the time with the position of the sun, she saw a shadow at the top of the Tower. It was Toru. He stood there, staring into nothingness with the wind gently buffeting him.
"He's wearing the cloak again."
Toru wasn't wearing the fancy butler's suit. He had reverted to his usual Assassin garb. Gray again had flashes of the previous night's conversation and steeled herself to go confront the servant. She held Add tightly and took a long leap upward. She quickly began to run along the walls of the Tower until she reached the top.
When she was close, the feeling she felt before intensified and a couple of tears fell to the ground. She reached her hand towards her face and again felt what Assassin felt.
The servant was not someone weak enough to not notice Gray's presence. He only sighed as he said something.
"Almost every time I'm alone, you show up to ruin my peace", he didn't even turn around to look at her. He just spoke casually in his deadpan voice.
"I wanted to talk to you. We may not have much alone time today."
Though it seemed Gray wanted more than just to talk, Toru paused before answering.
"What would you want to talk to me about? I think we talked enough last night-" he turned around to look at Gray, but stopped his words as he saw her crying with a calm expression on her face. He touched his forehead painfully after that. "Didn't I tell you last night to stop doing that? I mean stop poking around inside my mind."
"I told you too that this is not something I can control", she wiped her tears with her knuckle. "And... what were you thinking to feel this way? How can you manage to keep the same expression almost all the time?"
"... I don't know. It's just something I know how to do."
"Oh... I thought you weren't going to answer me."
"Why?"
"Whenever someone asks you a personal question, you force them to shut up. You've done that to Add many times"
"Hm... I don't know. I'm like that, I guess", turning his back on Gray, he sat on the edge of the tower's tip and watched the scenery in silence.
"You're so weird..."
"... Many people have told me the same thing. You're weird when you're different from everyone else. At least that's something I've understood for a long time."
...
"I see... And... Well... Why?"
"What?"
"Well. About last night. Why did you decide to say that to me?"
"... ... I don't know. It's something that just came out on its own..."
Gray ducked her gaze. She remembered what Assassin was like when she first met him and then compared that Assassin from the past to the Assassin standing in front of her right now.
"You've changed", she said suddenly.
Toru was silent for a few seconds before continuing the conversation.
"We all change. Whether we want to or not, we're always going to change, no matter how minor the change", he said from the darkness of his hood. His eyes glinted silver in the reflection of the sunlight. "It will always be that way. He change is something we all must face."
"That is something I can understand. Still, you are so different from the first time I saw you. What made you change so much?"
...
...
"... ..."
"Toru...?"
...
"A nosy girl with her annoying questions. That's what made me change."
"Uh?"
Assassin seemed to chuckle under the darkness of the hood at Gray's reaction. It was a small chuckle that sounded more like a shorn breath. He glanced over his shoulder at her. His eyes glittered with Shigan.
"I'm kidding. There was nothing special that made me change. Maybe it's just me being myself. Though that's so contradictory it doesn't seem like a logical thought", he turned his gaze back to the landscape. "Everything used to bore me. I guess now I desperately seek a form of entertainment. Maybe that's what made me change."
Gray silently sat down next to Toru and pulled Add out to look at the scenery as well.
"You called me by my name before", Toru said. "Don't do that in public again. It's dangerous for anyone to know who I am. That Aozaki Touko found out I'm a servant, no, more than that, she knows many things about me and I don't know how that's possible. For me it's better to keep a low profile."
"I'll keep that in mind. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize... Just be better."
After those words, they both stood in silence for a long while. They were looking at the scenery of the forest, a lake in the distance and the sky of white clouds and the blazing sun. Gray looked at Toru at times. She could only see his mouth through the shadow cast by the hood. When she saw his lips, her face blushed at the thought of her finger being in this boy's mouth before. Then she shook her head trying to get that thought out of her mind. This was a good time to close this cycle of awkwardness, not to think about such weird and... kinky things? Gray really didn't know much about such things. She was always such a loner. She never approached any guy to talk to and be a normal girl. In that respect, she was like a saint. Her mind had been far from those kinds of thoughts until recently.
"Let's talk some more about what happened yesterday."
"You're very insistent. What do you want to know anyway?"
"I want to understand you. Just as I want to know what happened to my mentor ten years ago, I also want to understand your heart, what you keep deep down that hurts you so much. For someone like me to tell you this may sound ridiculous, but you are always so lonely. Your presence shows that, and your emotions affect me just as much. I wonder what's different about you. The other ghosts just evoke meaningless mixed negative feelings that cause me so much fear, but your emotions are more ordered and complex."
"Huh... So much you want to know about me, and I know nothing about you, practically. I'm sure you wouldn't like to tell me how you feel. I guess that way you'll understand what I'm getting at."
...
...
She looked at Add, who looked at her in response. The Mystic Code said nothing. He was being considerate this time. Add actually considered this to be a romantic date on top of a tower. Dating is about two people getting to know each other. That's exactly what's happening. From Add's eyes, this is the perfect date. His owner was definitely going to have this infinite soul container at her feet, or at least that's what Add wanted.
"I wouldn't know where to start", she said. Really, if she thought about anything in her life, it would all be the same old same old. Everything is boring and depressing. Gray couldn't tell Toru how she thinks of herself. It seemed Toru was right, after all.
"You see? Still, that's okay. It's okay to not want to say what you want. It's okay not to be okay", he stood up and looked at his hand. "It's a normal thing, after all."
Gray for a moment thought she saw something strange emanating from Toru's hand, like a strange black and red dust fading into the air, but the servant clenched his fist and that stopped.
"Well, I'll go check on Lady Reines. I left a clone with her just in case."
As usual, Assassin vanished into thin air leaving Gray with more questions than answers. It had all been so quick and strange that she felt sad. She sighed looking up at the sun to see the time and then looked out at the landscape.
"Human emotions are more complex than you think, child", Add's voice accompanied the landscape. "Even you know that. Assassin Boy will not be an easy opponent. Carry on as you have been, and at some point you will be able to see what he keeps that no one else can see."
The rendezvous at the top of the tower had come to an end.
-More later-
Eight o'clock. The three teenagers look out into the forest in silence. They were all mindful of something that happened the night before. Reines had received a visit from Mick Grajile, who had offered him a place in a strange plan to take down the Iselma family. Grajile in question had turned out to be some kind of spy. The spy mentioned something about retrieving a talisman that is in the care of the Iselma family, a talisman that is supposedly laced with the blood of a mysterious ghostly species.
Reines refused the request and Grajile left saying some things that sounded like a direct threat.
"If there are more people involved in this, then finding a suspect could become either easier or more difficult. It all depends on how we handle the case", said Toru, who had returned to wearing his butler's clothes. His sharp gaze was close to Trimmau, who in turn was searching the floor for clues.
"There are footprints", Trimmau touched the floor with her fingertips. "Ten individual people."
"Perfect", Reines raised her fist in victory. "Let's follow the prints."
If there was a culprit, whoever was mobilizing very early in the morning could be a suspect.
They all moved forward without another word. Concentrating on the tracks, they moved deeper into the forest. Trimmau moved ahead, leaving the others behind. If anything turns up, she would find it first and give a warning to her master.
***
Following tracks was very classic detective work, however, it is also a very important part of investigations. Gray felt like she was in some detective novel. With the events in Adra, the mystery had been solved in the blink of an eye, ending with a denouement that left the castle in ruins.
"... Something is following us...", Toru stopped. He looked up at the trees and clenched his fist tightly. His eyes flashed the color of Shigan and his breathing became slow and steady.
Gray was beginning to think that the assassination was going to be solved by some crazy thing Toru would come up with, but this time it would be different.
"You should cover for Lady Reines", Toru suggested to Gray.
Already having moved deeper into the forest, they were, arguably, in one of the territories most used by magus, forests rich in magical energy and 'mystery' that would serve as workshops for practicing magecraft.
At Toru's request, Gray led Add out of the cage. With the scythe in her hands, she stood in front of Reines as she surveyed the surroundings. Soon the entire stage began to fill with fog, blinding anyone.
"They must stay close. It's coming!"
Clang!" resounded metal against metal and a flash of black changed Toru's clothes to samurai cloak and garb. In a split second, a strange person-sized figure appeared brandishing its sharp sword-like arms. Toru parried the attack with the daggers and stepped back next to the girls.
"A puppet?", Toru's puzzlement was resolved as the strange puppet twisted from its joints with monstrous agility.
"It's an autonomous puppet", Reines added to Toru's thought.
The puppet lunged forward again. It seemed to be aiming at Reines. Toru wasn't going to allow that. He struck with the daggers deflecting the puppet's attacks again and again with great speed. His eyes moved around the field analyzing the movements. Each prediction became more wrong than the last, and he felt a dizziness the further the fight progressed.
Gray noticed how Toru was getting weaker as the act went on. So she stepped in to help him. Just as the blade in the puppet's arm was about to hit Toru's daggers, Gray swung the scythe across the blunt end and struck hard. The puppet recoiled and Toru took advantage of that. The daggers disappeared from his hands and with his hands he held the puppet's arms.
"Help me hold this thing!"
Gray let go of the scythe that turned back into Add and held the arms of the wriggling puppet looking for a way to escape. Receiving the girl's support, Toru touched his ankle and in a quick motion that formed a hand seal in front of his face, he said:
"Seal!"
Puff! the puppet vanished enveloped in a layer of smoke. Toru fell to the ground clutching his hand after that. Gray approached him, but noticed that same strange fading dust again.
"Assassin..."
The servant looked up. It almost seemed ironic to him, as he sighed wearily. "There's nothing wrong with me. I can control it to a certain extent."
"You're running low on mana", Reines said. She reached over to look at Toru's hand. "Why are you letting this happen to you? You know my lovely little sister will be sad if her prince charming disappears forever."
"I'm not going to disappear. I'm fine. I feel like I'm used to this already. Like it's happened to me before. I'll be able to get over it on my own."
"You won't be able to", Gray wanted to understand this. "You need mana. If you keep fighting and using magecraft, sooner or later you'll run out and disappear."
Reines smiled as she watched these two interact. She could tell that Gray really cared about Assassin. She found that adorable. She was going to suggest something, but felt Trimmau calling out to her.
"Let's leave the mana thing for later. For now we need to concentrate on this."
Toru stood up and shook out his clothes. He was still wearing his Assassin's clothes, but he was soon back to wearing the butler's outfit. Silently he continued to where Trimmau stands.
"Are you going to stand there?", asked Reines as she saw Gray looking at Assassin's back.
Gray shook her head and followed her. What they found next only made Reines' situation worse.
To be continued...