Arriving at his Master's room, Toru didn't have the slightest hint of embarrassment and entered with all the confidence in the world. With an expressionless face and the typical pose with his hands in his pockets, he looked at Sakura, who was lying seated at the foot of the bed.
"You woke up, Master. I felt that your will would make you wake up at any moment. Now that the worms are no longer in your body, your health should improve with time. Congratulations."
The Assassin was cordial, but Sakura said nothing. She looked at the ground silently, as if waiting for Toru to approach.
"Changing the subject. Before I got here, I called your father. It looks like he'll be here shortly. I guess with him will come some doctor who can check your physical condition. Shouldn't be a problem, I think. With the maid's care, you should be healthy."
Again, Sakura didn't answer him for a few seconds.
It seemed like the silence was going to eat Toru. The way his Master was silent with a totally expressionless face was quite uncomfortable. In that respect, Toru had finally gotten his comeuppance, as he usually does the same thing.
"You talk too much." Sakura said suddenly, in a soft gentle tone of voice. "I don't remember you being a person of so many words, but you talk quite a bit now. why?"
She looked him straight in the eyes. That girl's gaze was so deep that it looked like it was going to pierce Toru's face. Sakura even looked like a different girl than the one Toru had met. Sure, the kind Sakura was still there. She was still a pretty violet flower in a field of war, but something changed.
"In all this time, I just changed. I think people change depending on the environment they are exposed to. It's a natural human thing."
"I see..."
"It must be hard for you to wake up after so long. You should rest and-"
"You and Gray get along very well, don't you?"
Before Toru could finish saying anything, Sakura interrupted him. Her eyes were empty, staring straight into Toru's soul, unraveling all the secrets the boy was hiding. All the pain, suffering, sadness, anger, hatred, loneliness and guilt, all of it was like an open book to her.
"Uh... About that. I should explain, but-"
Toru again was interrupted before he could finish speaking, but this time a loud slap was heard echoing throughout the house. After the noise, Toru found himself looking to the left, his cheek reddened and bleeding. He then noticed that, despite having woken up a few minutes ago, Sakura's strength was still monstrous.
"You hit me," Toru whispered turning his gaze back to Sakura.
She still had the same look on her face. Her eyes empty, face expressionless, but with an aura of deadly hostility. Her presence generated that sense of danger and death that, for some reason, made Toru recoil for a millisecond.
"You are my servant."
She whispered and Toru reacted to that by responding matter-of-factly as blood trickled down his cheek.
"I am, but..."
"You belong to me."
Toru certainly belongs to Sakura and Toru didn't hesitate to reinforce that fact.
"Yes. As long as you have the command seals-"
"Then why with Gray?"
But Sakura kept looking at him with those empty eyes and that dark aura that seemed to devour all sunlight. There was something Toru wasn't understanding that was somehow shattering everything inside Sakura's mind.
"'Why?", but in the end Toru simply was himself and answered logically. "It just happened. I don't understand the reason for your anger. I am your servant, your tool for the war, but after that I am nothing more, I can do as I please. The war has not yet begun, so I fail to understand the reason for your anger."
"That you don't understand my motives? Didn't you promise that you would be with me? All the promises you made to me were just lies... Didn't you save me because you wanted me by your side?"
The expression on Sakura's face grew darker the more the conversation progressed. Her instability after suffering Toru's memories was noticeable. Even she couldn't bear the pain Toru keeps in his heart. Something in Sakura's mind changed, or rather, something that had been sleeping in the depths of Sakura's heart awakened.
She was always a good girl, kind and pure in every way, but deep down she kept all the darkness that her mask of kindness tried to hide. Emotional dependency, trauma with abandonment, lack of self-love, all those were the problems that were hidden for a long time.
All of that was slowly coming to light....
"Promises? Me? I think there's something you're not understanding, Master."
Sakura stepped back after Toru took a step forward, looking down at her from above with his eyes lost in death.
So far, Toru has only served one Master and that's all he knows and remembers. Whatever he experienced in the past is not part of his life now. It seemed that Sakura was trapped in that memory, that's why Toru didn't understand anything Sakura meant.
"From the moment you summoned me you brought this version of me. It's me, in the present, I have no memories of the past, I didn't live in your past. I am not part of you and you don't have the right to reproach me for a promise I never made. Maybe I saved you, maybe I lived by your side, but that was not me, because that is in a past that I never lived. Look at me, compare me with that Toru you knew. Are we the same? Do we have the same personality? Do we have the same desires?"
Sakura couldn't answer, but that silence was answer enough for Toru.
The slap he received earlier may have made Toru lose his composure, but he was rational enough to articulate the words necessary to make his Master understand that the desires of Toru se ten years ago and the Toru of the present are completely different, that she is now trapped in that memory trying to bring back someone who died long ago.
Those words hurt Sakura very much. She still believed that Toru is the same. He is, she's not wrong, but Toru doesn't think the same and that was the worst part. For Toru to reject his own nature only made it clear to Sakura what a shattered mind the spirit of the man who destroyed mankind has.
"No. That's not it!" said Sakura, grabbing Toru by the wrist. "You're mine! I summoned you! You're forbidden to be with anyone else but me!"
Another time.... This girl's broken voice, accompanied by a grimly terrifying look. Toru didn't understand anything Sakura meant. And if there was anything that can make Toru uncomfortable, it was things like this, moments that his brilliant mind can't comprehend.
People's minds are indeed still the most complicated field of science, at least that's how it is from Toru's point of view.
"I don't understand, Master. I don't understand your jealousy. I hardly know you. I don't know anything about you. You're just my Master. I am your tool for war. I don't understand..."
Toru's expressionless face this time showed his doubt. That made Sakura, who was squeezing Toru's wrist with all her strength, loosen her grip.
Their relationship was that, there was nothing else. Toru is a weapon and Sakura is the one who carries that weapon. After that, nothing that happens with other people should matter, but Sakura didn't want that.
Then, Toru let go of Sakura's grip and turned around to leave. Not before saying something else.
"What you think of me is wrong. Cool your mind, think and come to a conclusion. When you do that, we'll be ready to go to Fuyuki. got it, Master?"
Sakura didn't answer. She turned her gaze to the ground as she whispered. This caused Toru to shake his head. He hadn't expected his reunion with his Master to be this way. Disappointed, he walked out of the room through the wall.
"You didn't call me by my name..." Sakura said, sitting down on the bed.
***
Walking down the hallway, Toru put his hand on his cheek and healed himself using ninjutsu. This ninjutsu was still mediocre, but it was enough to close the small cut on his face. When he went downstairs, Gray was there, waiting for him.
Toru said nothing to him and walked past him.
'Toru... your face...'
Gray came to an immediate conclusion. Sakura hurt Toru. That had to be it, for there was no other explanation for the blood spilling from Toru's face. This made her feel anxious and upset. The thought of someone hurting Toru made her heart darken momentarily. However, she was not the kind of person to lose her composure so easily, at least, not now. She first had to talk to Sakura and clear things up.
In that case, she looked at the top of the stairs and asked herself, 'Is it possible that we can go back to the way we were before?'
The answer to that was simple enough. A single two-letter word.
No.
Still, Gray mustered up enough courage to face Sakura. She climbed the stairs and opened the door. On the other side the final boss awaited her. If she didn't prepare, she would quickly be crushed by the boss's arguments. But it was hard, so hard that she felt the pressure would sink her to the ground.
With a puff of air, Gray looked Sakura in the eyes after passing through the door.
Sakura was silent, sitting at the foot of the bed, as if she was already waiting for her.
"Sakura...," she let out her weak voice.
She really hadn't done anything wrong. There was nothing to blame her for, nothing to feel guilty about. She had just fallen in love with a boy. Is loving a crime? Well, it seemed that for Sakura it was.
The violet-haired girl looked at Gray and narrowed her eyes. Silently, he blamed her and judged her for everything that happened. It couldn't be that someone had seduced Toru, much less Gray.
Gray, however, was firm and would be. She straightened up in her place and frowned just like Sakura.
"I love Toru," she said without hesitation. She was so sure of what she was saying that she wasn't afraid of the consequences of her words.
At that statement, Sakura clenched the sheet tightly. She thought that, after the Shinobi World girls, she would be the only one in Toru's heart, but because of the worms, that changed. Now Toru had Gray, that emotional pillar he had been missing so much these past ten years....
"I love Toru and I'm not going to let anyone hurt him again. Least of all you, Sakura."
"What?"
It was strange. Gray seemed to know that Toru had been hurt many times, but how? Sakura shivered and felt a tight pressure in her chest. Did the advantage she has over all the girls in the world also have Gray? That's not possible, unless Toru himself told her everything, but that wouldn't make sense. Toru is never going to tell anyone how he feels.
"I'm sorry this had to turn out this way. I never thought that the first time in a long time that we would talk would be about this. I apologize for that. I never meant to hurt you, but I can't deny how I feel either. I'm not going to hide anymore. I hope you can understand."
Gray waited for Sakura to say something, but to no avail. The girl was left with a shadowed look on her face. Anyone would expect that, in light of what happened earlier, Sakura would try to hit Gray, but that didn't happen.
Everything Gray said left Sakura speechless. There was no way she could refute anything. However, she didn't want to lose. No one was going to take Toru away from her.
Sakura looked at the Command Spells on the back of her hand. She stood up and looked at Gray.
"As long as I have these spells, Toru belongs to me. He is my servant. I summoned him to be by my side. You are not going to change that."
The authority of the servant is whoever possesses the Command Spells. Sakura has those three spells in her hand; she is Toru's owner. Gray, however, doesn't think so.
"What you summoned was the broken soul of a boy who became your slave. Those spells make him a servant, but he is a person. You can't believe that just by giving him orders he will blindly follow you. That's not how people work. He must be free, but as long as you have those spells he will only be your slave, your tool for war. Did you summon him with those intentions?"
In the first instance, servants are the tools of the magus, but they too have a conscience and a will, just like a human. They are heroes summoned from a bygone era, so they are more than slaves to the magus. That's why Gray thinks Toru should be free to choose the path he wants. Only Toru can decide who to love; who to follow.
"You are wrong. Toru is more than that..."
"Then why are you treating him like he's an object?" she clenched her fist. She tried to hold back the urge to yell at Sakura about everything that's wrong with her.
Both Sakura and Gray have changed a lot since the last time they talked. Gray learned to stop hiding thanks to Toru, but Sakura seemed to have sunk into a dark pit.
In light of Sakura falling silent again, Gray sighed. This wasn't going to get anywhere.
"I just don't want either of us to end badly over this. I apologize if you strongly disliked what you saw earlier. I would feel the same way in your place too, but that's all... Hopefully our friendship won't be destroyed by this, but it's too late now."
The brief friendship they had was broken.
Gray walked out of Sakura's room with her heart racing. She couldn't believe that she had confronted Sakura like this. She felt like her heart would burst out of her mouth at any moment. She touched her chest painfully and took some time to process all the things that came out of her mouth.
She didn't have enough courage to look back once she left the room, so she didn't see the expression on Sakura's face. If she had only seen the darkness in Sakura's eyes, she would have understood that, with her own words, she signed her death warrant.
To be continued...