Although Kizuna was sleeping, he felt as if a hand crept up on him. There was a hand touching his face.
No, not a hand. Never mind the softness of a female hand or the hardness of a male's, this hand didn't even have the heat of a living being. Yet, Kizuna knew it was someone's hand.
"I am patient, so I am not here to give you a time limit. I am here to remind you, you have a mission, which is the reason why you still live, why you came back to life. Do not forget that."
Kizuna couldn't mutter his voice, nor could he move. Maybe it was because he was sleeping, but… somehow, it felt like it was because of that "thing's" presence there.
Kizuna didn't know why, but he didn't want to stay near whatever this was. He tried shoving it away, but his body didn't move. There was nothing he could do, and fear just started building up inside Kizuna.
But, as it had said, it didn't come here to do anything to Kizuna, so Kizuna was able to wake up a few seconds after whatever it was disappeared.
"B-boss, are you finally awake?"
Kizuna woke up to find Gertude on top of him. Her hair was still wet, so she probably just finished taking a bath. That would also explain why her appearance was composed of only her panties and loose bra.
Kizuna could catch a glimpse of Gertude's breasts due to how loose her bra had been put on, and she was on top of him, so that only contributed to the misunderstanding. That made the scene look quite sexual, but it really was no one's intention there.
"W-what?"
"Boss seemed to be having some kind of nightmare. At first you were just mumbling some stuff, so I thought about waking you up. But then you started to move, like you were trying to hit something. I tried stopping you before you hit yourself, and I ended up in this damn position."
After Gertude explained, Kizuna understood what had happened. She got off of him and Kizuna also got up.
"Sorry about that. I didn't hit you, did I?"
"Just a little. It's not even enough to make a bruise, so don't worry about it. I'm more worried whether boss is fine or not."
"I'm fine. I don't understand it, but it was just a dream, nothing to worry about."
Kizuna looked at Gertude's arm, and there was indeed a red spot there. Kizuna's chest felt heavy, so he apologized again and Gertude once again told him it was fine.
After that, Kizuna left the room so that Gertude could finish getting dressed. He figured he might as well take this chance to take a bath.
Kizuna's mind was busy trying to figure out what was that dream, so he didn't even payed attention as he took off his clothes. Once naked, Kizuna entered the bath, not noticing the sound of water running.
"E-eh? W-what are you doing here?"
Kizuna didn't hear that voice and just continued walking. His mind was deep in thought. But he was soon forced to notice that person's existence once he bumped into her.
He soon felt the soft touch of a woman's skin, but the part his body touched first was soft in a different way and had a pointy tip. Kizuna took notice of her existence once their bodies were almost nearly hugging. He noticed Thanatos' presence.
"O-oh…"
In his battles until now, Kizuna had shown many feats of great speed, but this might have been his fastest. As soon as he noticed how his body was almost pressing on Thanatos', Kizuna turned around, said "sorry" and ran out of the bathroom. It was such a great speed Thanatos had a hard time catching that.
Not long after, Thanatos came out of the bath with a towel wrapped around her and found Kizuna just outside.
"S-sorry, I was distracted, so I didn't mean to…"
"J-just don't worry about it. But pay more attention from now on!"
Thanatos tried to voice out anger, but her voice only really showed that she wasn't really mad at Kizuna. Thanatos told him that he could use the bath now, so Kizuna once again entered.
He spend some time thinking in the bath, but realized he wasn't going anywhere, at least not alone. If only there was someone who could help him with this, but who would believe such a dream? After getting dressed, Kizuna decided it was best to start the day at once.
After all, this strange dream wasn't the only thing in Kizuna's mind. It had been a while since he had been thinking about what happened between him and Reiri. They hadn't been talking for some time now, and Kizuna wanted to solve this, but didn't know how.
That was the other thing in Kizuna's mind, but for now, he had to clear his mind for a little bit.
Surprisingly, once he left the house, Kizuna found Thanatos waiting at the front.
"Hey, are you waiting for something?"
"Y-yeah. I-I figured that it would be good for us to…"
"Nii-sama!"
Out of nowhere, Grace appeared. She jumped towards Kizuna, who was barely able to catch her. Grace took that opportunity to hug Kizuna.
"Grace, that was dangerous you know."
"S-sorry, I guess I got a bit worked up. But anyway, nii-sama, come with me."
Grace started tugging on Kizuna's arm, but he stood in place for a little bit.
"Wait just a little. Thanatos, what were you saying?"
"E-eh? Ah, n-no, it's nothing, just go with her."
Kizuna thought there was still something Thanatos wanted to say, but didn't for some reason. But, since she had told him to go, Kizuna decided to just go with Grace for now.
As for Thanatos, she decided she'd find something to spend some time.
"So, what do you want to do, Grace?"
"Well, after I thought about how much time nee-sama and everyone else spend with nii-sama recently, I also wanted to spend time with nii-sama. So I'm thinking about picking a fight with some god."
"A-ah, I see. T-there's not much to do around here, but how about we just talk as we walk around and forget about that fighting thing."
"If nii-sama insists, I guess I can let them off while nii-sama keeps me company."
Kizuna knew Grace had been joking when she said she planned to pick a fight with a god, or at least he hoped that was the case, so he understood that she just wanted to spend some time with him.
"Have you visited Aine today?"
"Not yet."
"Then how about we go together later? Then, after I check on everyone else, we can continue walking around like this."
Grace nodded excitedly.
Aine and the girls from Amaterasu fought with the god Thor a few days back. They were still resting in the infirmary building, but most of them would be back to normal in one or two more days. Aine would take a little longer since she had been a bit stubborn, but it should end with her only spending one more day resting.
As they walked Kizuna and Grace passed by a plain field where Thor was. From what they could see, it looked like he was in the middle of training. Looks like the Masters are doing a training against Thor.
After Odin "convinced" Thor to help them, he was put in charge of helping everyone train for the case of another attack. Well, that training mostly amounted to Thor doing mock battles with a group of people, but some growth was starting to become visible.
"Don't you want to train for a little bit? I might not be able to do much, but I'll even accompany you if you want."
"I-I'd rather not, nii-sama. I already tried a mock battle yesterday, and my body still hurts."
After a little bit, the mock battle ended. Thor saw Kizuna and Grace and decided to approach them.
"Are you two up next?"
At the same time, Grace and Kizuna shook their heads to the side. Both of them were thinking "please, nothing but that" as they refused Thor's offer.
"Heh, maybe some other time then. By the way, Kizuna, right? You're friends with that Gertude girl, aren't you? You should be proud to have such a hardworking friend. No matter how beat up she gets, she always comes back in order to get stronger, she's the only one to keep coming every day. That being said, the others aren't half bad either. Heh, maybe you all won't die next time you get attacked."
"Yeah, Ger-san isn't the type to give up easily. But don't be too harsh."
"That's going to depend only on her."
Thor then went back to training the Masters. Kizuna then noticed that Grace was pouting at his side, probably because he ignored her for a little bit.
"S-sorry. Anyway, let's go visit Aine and everyone else."
Then…
"Kizuna, are you finally here for your check-up?"
"M-maybe some other time."
"Nii-sama."
Although Grace had only said his name, her intonation was one that indicated she wasn't exactly happy.
Kizuna and Grace had already visited Aine and the other girls from Amaterasu, but Kizuna wanted to finish things off by visiting Hokuto. Landred happened to be on that same room.
"How have you been, Hokuto?"
"I've been doing fine these days. Apparently, I'll be able to go out soon. How about you? Did my sword help during that time?"
"Yes, it was really helpful. Thank you. Has anyone else come to visit you?"
"Your mother did just yesterday. She said something about working on a way to find Hypnos and asked if I could help once I got better, obviously I said I'd help."
Kizuna thought that was interesting. He hadn't heard about anything like that yet, but he was sure he was going to get filled in once he needed to, so he didn't ask for anything more.
"Well then, I only came here to see if you were dine, so I should let you rest now. Bye."
Hokuto waved Kizuna and Grace goodbye while Landred said "I'll be waiting to do that check-up" though Kizuna had to pretend he didn't hear a thing.
Then, Kizuna and Grace left the infirmary building. While they were deciding what to do next, they didn't even notice that Thanatos was observing them.
"A-ah."
She thought about calling out to Kizuna, but then gave up. Then, she could only watch as Kizuna and Grace walked off.
Once it was starting to get late, Kizuna left Grace at her house and went to his own. Once there, the first person he met was Gertude.
She was visibly tired from her training with the rest of the Masters today, so Kizuna decided to help her take care of her injuries.
"Thanks for the help, boss."
"No problem. Besides, isn't this one the one I gave you? It wasn't my intention, but it's only fair that I help take care of it."
As Kizuna said that, he was wrapping a bandage around Gertude's arm that he had injured while he slept today. It wasn't something that really needed treatment, but Kizuna insisted on doing it.
While he was at it, he also helped her with the few scratches she got at today's training. In the meantime, Kizuna talked about how she always tried so hard she always ended up injured, which made Gertude pout and mutter "it's because if I don't do that, I won't be able to help when the time comes" but Kizuna couldn't hear it.
While they were doing that, Thanatos entered the house.
"Oh, hey Thanatos."
"Hey."
Thanatos said only that and then went right to the bedroom. Gertude was the one to call Kizuna's attention.
"I don't believe boss is so dense."
"Eh? What?"
"Haven't you noticed she spent the whole day trying to talk with you, but kept getting interrupted? Go talk with her, right now!"
Gertude urged Kizuna to go talk with Thanatos. He didn't think it was anything too big, but if Gertude's tone was any indicator, he should see to this as soon as possible.
Kizuna went to the bedroom and tried to start a conversation with Thanatos.
"Hey, hum, is there something you want to talk about?"
"Not really."
Kizuna's shoulders dropped after being rejected so easily, but he didn't give up.
"Didn't you try to say something earlier today? What was it? You can tell me even if it's nothing important."
Thanatos seemed like she wasn't going to talk, but Kizuna insisted a bit more, so she gave in.
"W-well, I was just thinking that, since we're supposed to be partners, and we'll likely have to do that Heart Hybrid thing sooner or later, I thought we should try to get a bit closer to each other, or something like that."
Once Kizuna heard Thanatos say that, he felt really dumb for not having noticed this before.
Even with Aine, or Yurishia, or Hayuru, it was awkward to do Heart Hybrid while they didn't know each other too well, so it should be the same for Thanatos. For both of them, they should try to get a bit closer before they have to do it.
"Alright. I have something to do tomorrow, but, the day after that, what do you say we spend some time together? I'll try to find something for us to do."
"S-sure. Yeah, that's good."
Thanatos looked like she had gotten rid of a heavy weight. Kizuna hadn't noticed how much she was thinking about that. Well, it's only natural. It's not like they are complete strangers, but it couldn't hurt to at least get a little bit closer before they have to fight Hypnos.
Kizuna then went back to taking care of Gertude. After that was done, it was time to call it a day.
