Chapter 187: Chapter 182: The Tōsaka sisters.
The sound of the alarm clock annoyed this girl quite a bit. She shifted between the sheets trying to ignore the sound of that demon machine, but to no avail. She reluctantly got out of bed and blinked a couple of times as she tried to wake up 100%. This led her to frown at the sunlight. Also, she noticed that her hair was quite messy and even covered part of her face. She had a bad look on her face, having gone to bed very late last night.
"It's all the fault of that piece of junk they brought Kirei..."
If she hadn't meddled in Kirei's business, she would have woken up even before the alarm clock starts ringing, but since her curiosity got the better of her, she couldn't help it.
"It doesn't matter anymore. I have to eat breakfast and study..."
It was Saturday morning, so there was no problem getting up a little late since there was no school, but for Rin this wasn't right. Still, on this day, Tokiomi, her father, would have some free time and she could hang out with him studying some magic, so, forgetting that she was still in her pajamas, she stood up on the bed and smiled.
"Now I'm going to brush my teeth."
***
Outside the mansion, Kirei looked up at the ceiling noticing that Assassin was still up there watching all around him. He raised his eyebrows a bit puzzled. Even though his Servant is of Assassin class, he looked quite committed to his role. He doesn't disobey orders as long as those same orders are tied to his personal interests. Kirei felt that would be good for him.
"Assassin."
Hearing Kirei's flat voice, Toru lowered his gaze and watched his Master. He nodded his head once then jumped up and landed in front of him. He bowed after doing this.
"Good morning, Kirei-sama."
A rather respectful Servant. That was what Kirei concluded as part of Assassin's personality.
"Good morning..."
On second thought, maybe it was a bad idea to summon Assassin prematurely. Kirei couldn't think of any orders to give him. Thinking of it this way, he went blank as he looked at Assassin. While a Servant may have many utilities, at the moment Kirei couldn't manage to find any use for his. Hence the thought of this premature summoning. The war was still two years away, it was too early.
'I should have thought better of it...'
What's done is done. There is no way to change past decisions except with some mystical power. The only thing he could do was to think things through better and act with a cool head. Although, thinking about this a bit, remembering that Assassin was instructed in the craft of shinobi, and remembering that he had neglected his physical training due to his magical training, Assassin's usefulness seemed to be obvious to Kirei. Because of that, he looked at the back of the mansion was quite spacious and closed off from the eyes of others, it was quite convenient.
"Follow me."
Toru obeyed and silently followed Kirei inside the mansion.
***
Last night he couldn't see the inside of this house clearly, but now that he could walk around this place behind Kirei, he noticed that the interiors looked nothing like a Japanese house from the 90 's. It was more like a luxurious European house, which in itself had Toru's eyes everywhere. Still, this place brought back memories of the mansion he lived in during his life as that boy turned research scientist. He ducked his gaze to remove the bad thoughts, and when he realized where he was, his eyes caught sight of the large garden of this mansion.
"There is something I want to do and I need you to help me."
"At your command."
Toru certainly didn't like following anyone's orders, but compared to that hellish loop of lives, this was much better. If he could get his wish, he could finally rest in peace. So the best thing he could do was to win the war and make the wish.
"Because of my magical training, I have neglected my physical training a bit. Being an Assassin, you must know a lot about stealth assassination and hand-to-hand combat, am I wrong?"
"You're not wrong."
"Good. With that cleared up, I want you to train with me from now on."
Toru raised his eyebrows upon hearing this. He folded his arms and thought carefully. He didn't know how far a human's strength and power can go. Besides, he also didn't take into account the rules of this world. He was completely unaware of his Master, so now he realized that he is following the orders of a stranger. The Grail only gave him the essential information for the war, but no advantages for it.
After careful thought, he came to the conclusion that he should first see his Master's capabilities. This involved a one-on-one encounter where Kirei's abilities would be seen.
"There will be orders from him that I will not be able to follow, as I really don't know his way of thinking to come to a final conclusion before obeying an order, but since I was summoned, my only mission is to help him win the Holy Grail. If this training benefits us, I have no reason to refuse."
Kirei nodded at Toru's confirmation. Now all that was left was to prove what they were both made of. An Assassin is weak in physical stats and since he is a mage assassin, he deduced that he could more or less land some quick blows against Assassin.
With that concluded, Kirei stepped back a bit and then looked Assassin in the eye.
"Then let's start with an unarmed encounter."
"As you wished."
Toru bowed before starting, but nearby he sensed a tiny presence. So, curious, he looked in that direction before starting and Kirei followed him in this.
...
...
A girl, Sakura, stood quietly looking at the hooded boy. Her expression simply showed astonishment and confusion. The ghost was real, it wasn't her imagination. Moreover, due to the daylight, she could see this strange boy's face better.
"Kirei-san... who is he?"
Kirei let out a sigh. No one in this house knew of Assassin's existence and that was his mistake.
'I should have informed Tokiomi-san that Assassin's summoning has been carried out.'
At the same time, Toru blinked a couple of times before addressing the girl.
"I introduced myself yesterday. I'm Assassin. Hi."
The girl frowned slightly. There was no way she could trust someone who called himself 'Assassin'. It didn't make any sense. Well, she wasn't that deep into the world of magic, so she didn't know a lot of this stuff. Although she couldn't deny that she was interested in knowing who that onii-san was, for his existence, as well as those beautiful rainbow-colored eyes that glowed in the dark, ignited her curiosity. After all, she was only 4 years old, unlike her older sister, who is 5 years old.
"Hello...?"
She shyly looked the boy in the eyes, but that pretty rainbow glow wasn't present so she was a bit disappointed. Instead of mystical eyes, her saw peculiar silver eyes.
"He is a Heroic Spirit summoned as a Servant."
Kirei answered Sakura's earlier doubt. She more or less remembered that her sister had mentioned things like this before, so she quickly came to the conclusion that this mysterious boy being here was due to magic. Though she still wanted to see what she saw last night.
Looking into his eyes, she prepared to make her request.
"Can you show me your shining eyes?"
This request... Toru couldn't help but think that was a bad idea. Well, he had already shown the Shigan to this girl the night before, showing her these glowing eyes now wouldn't affect the situation at all. He bent down and looked Sakura in the eyes. Slowly his pupil deformed into an X that extended to the edges of the iris, while the color of the iris was changing from silver to a strange and mystical dark rainbow color.
Sakura opened her eyes in surprise.
"Cute..."
These words also surprised Toru, who also felt a bit awkward as he felt Sakura touching his cheek curiously.
"You're cold..."
Toru hadn't noticed this, was his body colder than usual? Surely it was due to what he spent all night on the mansion's roof. But leaving that aside, Sakura's hand was quite warm and gentle, which left Toru with a doubt.
"What's your name?"
At Toru's question for the girl, Kirei raised his eyebrows as he admired a new part of his Servant's personality. He seemed to get along quite well with children, which was rather odd considering he is an Assassin. However, this could also be beneficial to him.
"Sakura... Tōsaka Sakura."
Toru nodded his head.
"I can't reveal my name to you, but you can call me Assassin."
"Assassin... I don't like the sound of it..."
Sighing and turning away from Sakura, Toru turned his back to her and then looked over his shoulder at her.
"But... Assassin... that's what I am."
Sakura couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated by Assassin's cold stare, but still she wanted to know more. She was quite curious about this being referent of magic. So she took a step forward to speak to him again, but something happened.
"Stay away from my sister, weirdo!"
Out of nowhere, a girl with hair tied in twin pigtails appeared and looked at Toru contemptuously. Instantly, she readied her leg to throw a kick. She was Rin, and in her mind, she is protecting her sister from a stranger who snuck into the mansion. Toru, in response, just kept quiet and received the kick from Rin, who after kicking Toru's leg crossed her arms and turned around.
'It hurts!'
With small tears peeking out of the corners of her eyes, Rin felt like she had broken her toes, for as she hit that strange guy, it felt like she had hit a wall of pure steel. She looked at her sister, trying to hold back tears, and noticed that Sakura was looking at her in confusion. Her pride wouldn't allow her to show tears in front of her younger sister, so she sighed heavily and walked over to her.
"I've told you many times not to talk to strangers, do you want to get hurt?"
"No... I'm sorry, Onee-san..."
Rin smiled at the sight of her grieving little sister and then turned around to glare at Kirei.
"May I know what's going on here, who is this guy?"
She said as she looked at Toru. The boy only went back to looking behind his back as if Rin wasn't looking at him and cocked his head in confusion.
"He's Assassin. I summoned him yesterday."
"Assassin? You summoned a Servant even two years before the war, are you a fool?"
"I'm sorry to tell you this, but I summoned Assassin because I have plans for him before the war."
Kirei certainly lied to Rin. He only summoned Assassin out of curiosity, but then he found a use for it. That's why he molded his lie a bit into the absolute truth. Besides he didn't like this capricious girl at all. So, if this will go against Rin, he will say whatever he thinks is necessary. This could be considered childish behavior on Kirei's part, but he was getting tired of this girl bothering him every time he was studying.
"What use can you find for a Servant considering how boring you are? It's pointless. It was an abysmal waste of prana."
"I don't have to argue with you anymore. Assassin, prepare yourself."
"As you wished, Kirei-sama."
Toru got into position and Rin made sure not to take her eyes off him. Besides, her younger sister seemed to be engrossed in watching the hooded guy.
'Well, at least he's respectful...'
That was all she could see in Assassin (Toru).
Right after this, Kirei raised his guard and sharpened his gaze before attacking. Toru, on his side, relaxed his arms and waited for the attack. A deep silence flooded the scene, causing Rin and Sakura to look at each other wondering what these two were planning to do. Sakura arrived after Kirei said about training, and Rin arrived even later, so neither of these two sisters knew anything about what was going on.
"He has bright eyes, like rainbows."
Sakura suddenly said. Rin looked at her in confusion.
"Rainbows?"
"Yes. He was very beautiful. You have to see him. It's quite strange."
'Hm... bright eyes... rainbows...'
Puzzled by her younger sister's strange combination of words, Rin looked at the two men in front of her. In less than a second, Kirei propelled herself against Toru with intentions of punching him, but then....
"¡¿?!"
It was in a small split second that Kirei could see it. Toru appeared in front as if he had teleported, aiming his knee at Kirei's abdomen. The latter tried to avoid it, but Toru was extremely fast and managed to connect the blow. This knocked the air out of Kirei's lungs, and as he fell to the ground after the blow, Toru moved again at that overwhelming speed and delivered a kick to Kirei's face that sent him flying a few meters rolling on the ground.
...
...
...
"What just happened...?"
Neither of the two girls could see what happened. Everything went so fast that they only caught a glimpse of the end, when Kirei started rolling on the ground after being hit. After that, Toru just walked up to his Master and reached out to help him.
"You have incredible physical endurance, Kirei-sama."
He didn't use his full strength, as he wanted to check how strong the humans of this world are, and from the looks of it, the ones they train are pretty tough, but they are nothing compared to the humans of the Shinobi World.
'I guess their strength is mostly linked to magic and not physical.'
Kirei was strictly trained to kill Magus using pure melee combat. Not for nothing was he one of the best, but Toru had no way of knowing this. Still he lowered his strength so as not to cause serious injury to his Master. In the end, Kirei accepted Toru's help and stood up, dusted off his clothes and sighed wearily.
'I underestimated him. I had no idea Servants would be so strong. Surely there are Masters whose Servants are even stronger than Assassin. I must take that into account'
He touched his abdomen in pain. Kirei thought Assassin hit him with everything he had, but that wasn't the case. Despite the limitations imposed by the Holy Grail on Toru, he was still extremely strong for the average of this world, only now his abilities were restricted so that this would not be an unfair war. If Toru was summoned here with his full power, it would have been an immediate victory for Kirei.
"Are you alright, Kirei-sama?"
"Yes. It was nothing."
Toru nodded his head. His Master had no injuries. If Kirei dies, Toru will disappear in a matter of time if he doesn't find another Master. The Grail has imposed too many limitations, so many that it made Toru feel strange. He was already getting used to having the Rinnegan, but now that is blocked along with most of his abilities.
"You seriously got beaten in one punch? Hahaha. You got beaten, seriously. How does it feel to lose, Kirei? Has reality hit you in the face yet? Wait, no, it was the weird guy who kicked you in the face."
Rin looked at Kirei with a smirk. It was surprising that the Assassin had managed to defeat the Holy Church's Executor in less than a second, but she decided to put that surprise aside to take advantage of this and tease Kirei for a while.
Kirei, totally expressionless, just stared at her in silence. He had no way of knowing that he would be defeated in such a pathetic way, which made Rin find the perfect excuse to tease him. Well, she's a girl, it's normal for a girl to pick on someone she dislikes, but there are limits to this as well. Fortunately, Kirei was quite patient, so he didn't say anything to her and simply walked silently into the mansion.
Rin took this as a victory and smiled proudly at herself.
"You are very strong..."
However, having paid so much attention to Kirei, she neglected her little sister, who was already talking to Assassin.
"Sakura?"
She was obviously confused, because it seemed Sakura had ignored her to talk to the Servant.
"What did you do to move so fast?"
"Uh..."
Toru didn't quite know how to respond to this. This girl was no more than four years old. He could even see the curiosity in Sakura's gaze. She was a bit shy, but when she wanted something, that shyness seemed to vanish into thin air.
"Well... I've been training since I was four or five..."
"I see..."
Sakura felt a bit of admiration towards Assassin, as a small smile formed on her face. If he was telling the truth, then since he was just a child he trained to be so strong. Rin was already studying magic, however, Sakura... the smile she had turned sad from one moment to the next, which made Toru narrow his eyes.
"Stay away from my sister, you fool! Do you want me to kick you again?"
Toru reacted to Rin's words and took a step back to get away from Sakura, after that he bowed.
"My apologies."
"Onee-san. It's okay, he's not bad."
"And how can you know that, Sakura? You just met him."
"It's not that. I saw him. He's just following Kirei-san's orders."
"Him following Kirei's orders makes it even worse. So don't go near him. He's just a Servant, there's nothing special about him."
Children's words can be cruel at times, but this doesn't affect Toru. Having been reliving his past over and over again at the Throne of Heroes reminded him that he is used to being belittled. To him, that was fine, and so he could let it go. "It's okay because I'm used to it" that was his way of thinking. This, however, was just a lie he kept repeating to himself. That was his way of coping with the suffering that still torments him inside his mind.
The human mind is quite easy to mold, even more so if it is the mind of a child. Toru grew up with those thoughts, those thoughts that were buried deep in his subconscious. That's why, as stupid as it seems, he would keep making the same decision over and over again, just because he doesn't realize that his thoughts are wrong.
"I'm sorry..."
He apologized again, because that was what he always did in his past life, before he lost his emotions. Because of the Throne of Heroes, Toru's personality changed again. Living beings are able to adapt to their environment. Toru had to adapt to the environment he was locked in and that made his personality change again. He was now kinder than in Shinobi World. And, just like the end of his life in that world full of ninjas, he was going back to being that idiot child.
Rin watched this with a frown. It was the second time Assassin had apologized.
"How weird you are..."
They all tell him the same thing. Toru didn't say anything else after that.
"Let's go back home, Sakura. Breakfast should be ready."
"Uh? But, Onee-san..."
"Let's go, I said."
Rin took Sakura by the arm and led her to the mansion. Before passing through the door, Rin looked back and saw Assassin's face clearly thanks to the sunlight. He had a blank stare with an expressionless face. His posture looked tired and he spoke no more than necessary. In Rin's eyes, this Assassin is....
"Pathetic."
After the Tōsaka sisters returned to the mansion, Toru stared into the void in silence. He closed his eyes and breathed in the abundant air.
"I'm really not someone good, but it's not like I can be either..."
To be continued...
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