The Last Rising Sun

-By Sakura-

It felt like a distant memory; a nostalgic and sad experience that filled my heart with pain. Everything is dark. I can't hear or see anything. That nostalgic feeling was the only thing different about me.

'I'm scared,' I kept telling myself. 'I don't want to be alone,' I tried to hide my tears by covering my face with my hands.

Suddenly, I heard something finally and felt a solid surface under my feet. I stopped covering my face and realized that I was now in a large garden with green grass and bushes cut in adorable animal shapes under a radiant sun. A rabbit, a cat, a dog, a bird. Animal figures adorned the gardens displayed around a gigantic mansion with gray brick walls and a brown roof. Each wall had large colorful windows. It even looked like a church.

I walked down a long stone path that ran along the edges of the walls. I'm a little confused at the moment. I remember lying on my bed. I remember when Toru started burning the inside of my body. After that, I don't remember anymore.

I walked thinking about my memories and where I am, but suddenly I heard a scream. As if time had sped up, the clouds in the sky for a second moved out of place, as if a few minutes had passed in the blink of an eye.

The siren of an ambulance was heard. That caught my attention, so I followed the sound. Walking along I felt the ticking of a clock near my ears. When I reached the source of the ambulance siren noise, the ticking stopped.

There were people gathered in one place in a circle. Most of them were maids and two butlers. They were all speaking in a language I could understand.

I approached them asking what was going on, but none of them answered me. In that case, I pushed my way through them and apologized for the intrusion, but none of them seemed to react to my presence. When I reached the source of the commotion, what I saw made my breathing stop for a few seconds.

There is blood, rectangular glasses, a shoe a few inches from what looked like the corpse of a boy lying on the ground. The boy had blood-stained brown hair, tears on his face and a sad, mournful expression of half-open eyes pointing to the sky.

At the sight of him I was overcome with a sense of pain and sadness....

That boy... I know him.

He was the boy who has been appearing in my dreams. I finally remember his face. I remember his silver eyes...

[...............]

A voice in my head. I looked around confused. I felt that I had heard that voice in the past. A girl's voice; mechanized and expressionless voice.

When I heard that voice, everything went black again.

-London, United Kingdom-

She felt strange after making that deal with Toru. Now she heads to her mentor's office. She thought about many things as she always usually does, she thought so much until she reached the office door. She knew that her mentor was waiting for her inside there. After Reines left, the man locked himself in his office waiting for his mentee.

She knocked twice and then opened the door. The man was waiting for her on the other side of the desk.

"I thought I needed to tell you a few things regarding what you wanted to do," he began immediately. Waver crossed his arms on the desk with a slightly worried look on his face.

Gray nodded. The look on her mentor's face a few minutes ago confirmed to her that they needed to talk about it. She didn't object. She stood in front of the desk waiting.

"I think this should have been one of the first lessons I could have taught you, but I realized it too late. I apologize for my incompetence as a teacher."

"You shouldn't apologize... You are a good teacher, but...," she felt guilty, but her mentor continued.

"First let me show you," he pulled out a couple of sheets of paper. He examined them as he arranged them on the desk. "There are ways to share mana with someone. Especially with a servant. Just by being near your master the servant can get mana. That's different when the servant can't get mana from his master by that method. That leaves us with the first point of this topic. As magus that we are, mana flows through our magic circuits and our entire body, especially when it comes to the fluids that the body produces. Do you understand what I'm getting at?"

She denied. She didn't know anything about that. At least she hadn't studied that subject. Well, knowing that a magus' body has mana is common sense, but sharing that mana is a separate matter.

"What I mean is that both our sweat, blood, saliva and body fluids in general contain that mana that can be bestowed. If a magus consumes the fluids of another, he can obtain that person's mana to a small extent. now do you understand?"

She fell silent. Her body stiffened and in her mind a lot of strange situations began to float like clouds. The reason her mentor told her to think better of her decision made sense.

"So...," she squeezed the cage with one hand and with the other she tightened the fold of her cloak. Hiding her face under the hood hoping that what her mentor was going to say wasn't what she was thinking at the moment.

"Perhaps a few drops of blood will do for the moment. But since you don't form the pact with Assassin yet, I don't think you should worry. You might as well apologize to him and ignore the idea of giving him your mana. Somehow or other I'll see to getting him some mana, or at the very least, a mediator who can take care of his needs."

Hearing that, she felt her legs lose strength. She squatted down looking at the ground and let out a small choked groan, as if she had choked on saliva. Her face was tinged crimson and the shame of her actions came crashing down on her like a bucket of cold water.

"I... I don't think I can anymore..." she muttered causing her mentor to raise his eyebrows. "He accepted..."

Waver put his hand to his forehead. He let out a long sigh and then stood up. He approached Gray, who looked up as she noticed her mentor standing in front of her. He too squatted down to speak to her.

"By accepting, he formed the pact with you. It may seem like an overly simple act, but that's how it works," he tried not to look at her face, so he glanced at the door behind her. "Don't be afraid of having made the pact, for you can undo your decision whenever you want."

"Don't listen to him child," Add suddenly snorted. "All those juicy souls are mine-...I mean, you don't have to take it back. You'll still be a coward if you back out," his shrill voice made Waver feel overwhelmed.

At the same time, the word 'coward' echoed in her mind, resonating in the confines of her psyche. A word that described her personality to perfection. A cowardly, fearful, pathetic child with the responsibility of dying in the future.

She looked down at the ground after that. A heavy feeling took place in her heart. She thought that, at that very moment, Assassin was probably in Sakura's room. Possibly alone, looking out the window in complete solitude, waiting for his master to wake up; waiting to see if his existence would vanish into thin air. At least that was what she thought.

She wanted to speak, but something stopped her. That confirmed what Add said. Sometimes she couldn't even say what she really thought. She locks herself in her own mind for extended monologues that get buried deep in her memories. She criticizes people without being able to tell them what she thinks straight out.

The cowardly, pathetic child with a name just as depressing as her entire life.

"I've never heard him laugh," she said, referring to Assassin, referring to herself... 'He never says anything he thinks...' she shrank back to the ground. She looked like a sad, embarrassed little rabbit, hiding her presence from predators.

It didn't matter if Add just wanted the stock of souls Assassin had. She knew that the harsh words of that Mystic Code, no matter how much they make her angry, are true.

"Lady, are you going to make a decision?" he asked in a calm tone of voice. "What will you do about it?"

The words her mentor said that day in church came back to her mind. This somehow gave her the strength to look up again. She still doesn't know how she will give her fluids to Assassin, but if she backed out of her decision she would still be the same coward she always was.

Although making a decision doesn't mean to stop being afraid....

"I... I couldn't back out of what I've already decided," her voice trembled. Her eyes looked at her mentor as if searching for a way out of muddle. "Even if it's hard, I'll do it. This will be my way of repaying Sakura for everything she's done for me..."

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to be so influenced by this Mystic Code, but..." He looked at Gray looked back down at the ground in embarrassment. "Haa... I wouldn't know..."

"Accept the decision of my pathetic mistress, Lord of the Clock Tower. If she wants to help the Assassin boy, there should be no problem," Add shifted inside the cage causing Gray's cloak to shift as well. "You said that, with a few drops of blood, that's enough, well, that's settled! This silly owner may be afraid of ghosts, but she's not afraid of the color of blood. I'm sure she can do it. And if something else comes up with the Assassin boy, well, we should support her in everything, don't you think?"

'That last one was surplus to requirements,' Waver thought.

It seemed Gray also thought the same thing as she stood up suddenly, her face flushed with embarrassment. She had also considered the blood thing as an option. That way she didn't have to think of some way to get other 'fluids' out of her body.

'I guess there's no way to change her mind,' for, though unbecoming of her, Gray was determined. Obviously it was all due to Add's words, Assassin's need and Sakura's poor condition. Put all that together and you get changes in the perception of people close to the situation. Even Reines seemed to be quite serious at times. That surprised Waver.

"So, we have nothing more to say, I think so," Add said under the cloak. In his voice you could hear that he was very happy with his owner's decision. He was silently celebrating the victory "Let's go, child. I can see it in your face that you want to be alone."

"Uh? Me? Ah-...."

"If you stand there like a surfboard in the sand you might make the Lord uncomfortable."

"Okay..."

"I feel like you're listening to me more already. That's a big step," he celebrated. "I'm sure this incompetent mistress will be coming to ask you questions later."

"Of that I have no doubt," Waver replied. He knew that inconveniences would arise with all this.

"Then, with your permission, Professor."

Trying not to drag out the conversation any longer, Gray fled the office, leaving the man alone. The latter let out another long sigh. This day had been a heavy one for him, and that was barely ten o'clock in the morning. All the rest of this day was missing.

Since Reines would be sending someone from the family to take care of Sakura, he didn't have to worry. She will wake up. She has to wake up, for it is only a matter of her own mana healing her from her wounds.

As for Assassin's lack of mana, that was only going to get worse with time.

'Assassin will need more mana as time goes on. I don't think she'll be able to satisfy that need for mana with just a few drops of blood. Haa...', he is tired of having his mind so full of troublesome situations. 'I'll have to find a mediator to take over when she can no longer.'

A day full of work.

***

After leaving the office, she walked aimlessly throughout the house. She went downstairs to the basement and found the door in front of her room. The sanctuary of knowledge lay behind that door. Her mentor's library.

She looked at the door and reached her hand to the knob. She opened the door hoping to find tranquility there, but when she entered the library, she stood still as if time had frozen.

-By Gray-

I'm sure this shouldn't surprise me, but the presence of that servant still frightens me at times.

There are a lot of books on the table, and among that big pile of books was Assassin. His eyes had that strange multicolor with the black X that seemed to want to rotate on its own axis. When I saw him, he instinctively saw me. Our eyes met for a second, but then he ignored me as if I didn't exist.

He is reading the books at an overwhelming speed, turning the pages in two to three second intervals as his eyes dance watching the lines of text being painted on the paper.

'Here you are...', I thought. It had been almost an hour since he disappeared. Now I meet him here, as if by chance.

I moved forward as if he wasn't there and approached one of the bookshelves. I searched through all the books for some topics related to everything that is going on. I think it would do me good to get better informed about everything. I don't want to be lost again. At least knowing things will keep me out of more trouble.

I found three books related to mana and servants. I took them in my hands, but when I turned around and saw Assassin, I felt a chill. Being near him gave me that feeling of fear, but having felt his 'presence' inside my body; my magic circuits, fused with my being as if we were one, I remembered everything that happened that night at Ashbourne Castle.

I sighed and walked over to the table. I took a seat and opened one of the books. I was ready to read, but the quick succession of pages made me look at Assassin.

"You're materialized...", I said. He looked at me, as if I had said something obvious. In fact, it was. I didn't think it through. Now I felt embarrassed.

"If I don't materialize, I can't turn the pages," his voice was calm and soft, but he seemed a bit nonchalant in his gestures.

Still, he was able to answer me without taking into account my earlier mistake.

Then I didn't know what else to say. The library turned into a strange silence that depressed me. I took advantage of that silence to read.

A few minutes passed. The only noise in the library was the sound of sheets of paper passing one after another. I'm sure this was all simple, but somehow it helped me to understand some things. In this silence, as I read, I look at Assassin repeatedly.

The first thing I notice is that Assassin, while reading, turns the pages with the ring finger of his right hand. His gesture is somewhat strangely elegant, as if he were some son of nobility. His gaze was absorbed in the books the whole time. Like me, he did not remove his hood at any time.

"You two... you're so boring...", that voice again. Add was surely bored. "You do nothing but read silently over and over again. Talk about something. Maybe they could talk about the weather, new technologies, magecraft, I don't know. This silence is so sad it makes me want to cry."

"Add...," I prepared to use my final attack on him, but stopped when I realized Assassin saw me take the cage.

"If I had something to talk about, I would have mentioned it already."

And after those brief words he went back to reading.

"That makes it even sadder!" cried Add. He rattled inside his cage as if Assassin's words had offended him.

In the end I thought that with Add and Assassin here, this was never going to end....

To be continued...