Nobody can bullsh*t my girl Valory! Off she goes reading Toji like a darn Friday's magazine.
She gonna go off and warp him onto the better side, the good side, all with the power of love and friendship.
Oh sorry, I had to-
The first two Fanfiction were quite meh, I had to warm up, but now I want to do those two new ones with more creativity and attention to details.
Especially the Sukory (2) one... It kinda has something about it I don't know... But I have to think what do do next, that's why my new Tory for now!
Enough talking, more getting into it. How will she react to Toji's story?
~
Chapter 13- Tory (2) Part 3
"I was born into the Zen'in Clan, while growing up I've gathered my reasons to despise them... So I've left them, when I had the chance. I married outside of my clan for the name I have today, started working for assassination contracts and now live my daily life hunting down whoever I get paid for. I don't care about anything, but my payment and my betting games. I'm living my life with no guilt or regrets, doing whatever I please"
Toji explained, choosing to tell the truth, as she would somehow smell out his lies anyways.
A moment of silence run in the air, while Valory was processing what he had just revealed to her.
"So... Like... You kill people to earn your bread basically?" She then asked, looking at him with a mixed expression.
"You could say that, but I don't like bread much, I prefer fried octopus balls" Toji replied and chuckled amused.
Another moment Valory processed everything, while watching him chuckle to himself. She didn't know if she should rather leave and never talk to him again, or just accept it and continue sitting on the bench with him.
He was literally a paid serial killer.
And laughing about it as if it was just another office job.
Toji noticed her silently judging him and he sighed. "That's why I asked if you were sure if you wanted to know this"
"Do you never like... Think about what person you are killing? If they deserve it, if they are innocent...or do you just not care?" She asked.
"Now why would I do that?" Toji's face became serious.
"Its my job, I get paid to pull the trigger and that's it. If I were to research what kind of person they are, or show any type of sympathy... That would be unprofessional and bringing emotions into something I shouldn't, eventually making my work even harder"
A moment Valory though about his words before speaking again.
"I mean, I technically kill people as well... But I don't see it as killing, rather freeing of their pained bodily prison. The people I guide into eternal sleep, are the ones who asked me to help them. Only after making sure they truly wish to pass on, I do what I did earlier"
She spoke, while looking down on her hands, clenching them into fists.
"Of course... From time to time it feels like my hands are drenched in blood I can never wash off... But I know it's not lives I have taken for nothing, but out of mercy. So... I can't understand how you could... Kill just anyone and sleep at night"
Toji didn't speak for a moment, he thought again about how different she was from other people he knew.
He slowly started to accept and belief that she might truly just be 100% good to the core...
"You asked me why I seemed to have a fixation on you, right?" He suddenly spoke and gained a nod from her.
"That is, because you somehow seem so untouched by the evil rotting within our society. You don't even seem to carry a shred of it inside yourself. You looked so displaced in this world and it confused me, I wanted to see what was truly behind that smiling facade"
"And what did you find behind it?" She asked, curiously listening to him.
"That maybe not everyone in this world is a parasite... Maybe some truly do carry kindness inside their hearts"
A smile ran over Valory's lips and she laid her head to the side. "That's very genuine and beautifully said. Thank you. I also do agree that most people aren't quite...gentle let's say. But some indeed are diamonds of a human! Rare but truly remarkable"
Toji nodded and a little smile found itself on his own lips. "Maybe there isn't just darkness, maybe there are blessings too" he mumbled and seemed to think of something else, very much dear to him.
"You seem to hold someone quite fond, who is it?" Valory couldn't help her curiosity. That sudden gentle expression on his face was totally different from his usual cold one.
"Ah... It's nothing much, just a blessing I've left behind to shine brighter than it ever could in my grasp" he responded, sighted and looked up to the dark night sky.
"Maybe if I've had a bit of that kindness you have, I could have held onto it"
Valory looked at him, her eyes turning sad, she could clearly see that he had lost something very precious to him and she felt empathy for him.
"Sometimes, even if they are gone for whatever reason they might be, they'll always stay with us in here" she lifted her hand and poked into his chest over where his heart was. "We just have to learn to keep it a loving memory and not a painful nightmare"
Toji lowered his eyes and looked down at the woman who was trying to comfort him. It drove a smile on his lips and he chuckled. "I don't think I know how to do that"
"You can learn it" she replied and made him laugh.
"Ah I very much doubt that, I'm pretty far away from being able to, I can't even remember his face correctly anymore" he sighted. "I guess I'm a disaster of a father"
Valory's eyes widened as she realized who the blessing was he had refered to.
His...son?
"You seem surprised about that, I can understand, I don't cut the type to have a child, or family if my own. Believe it or not, I used to have both... But as I said, I'm not cut out to be the type of guy for that"
Toji chuckled, but there was a heaviness behind it. Valory could see the faint hint of sadness below his carefree seeming chuckle.
"What happened, if I may ask?"
"My first wife, the mother of my child died, which I suppose, left quite an impact on me, so I became a person that couldn't be father. Therefore I remarried and left him with a stepsister and a good stepmother"
Toji explained and Valory smiled at him, which confused him at first.
"You said you didn't have any kindness inside of you, but then you gave your son away for a chance on a better life? Knowing you weren't capable of giving him such one? I think that's pretty caring and kind from you to do. He is your son after all, your own flesh and blood. Also, regarding you saying you live without guilt or regret... it sound's quite regretful"
Toji's eyes widened surprised and he started at her in quite a shock, not having expected to hear such words.
"I mean... If you didn't care or felt guilty, why even go though the whole trouble of remarrying and finding a family he can grow up in loved? Maybe you couldn't be the father you should have been, but you realized that and did the choices you had to, to assure he'd grow up well regardless"
Not once in his life had he thought he had ever done anything right regarding his son, the one that he had abandoned and pushed out of his life to a point, he barely could remember his face.
Hearing her perspective, hearing words of understanding for his decision, an understanding and acceptance not even he had himself... It moved him in a way he could not explain.
It caused him to feel something close to what he only once had felt before, with his first wife. A strange feeling of being seen and accepted on a different level, a judgemental free und weightless one.
"I don't really know what to reply right now" Toji said and looked still rather flabbergasted.
"No need to, I just wanted you to have heard that" Valory replied and laughed.
She truly was something else...
Toji thought and watched the woman sitting next to him laugh. Her eyes were glowing full of joy, while the sound of her laugh echoed so carefree though the air.
He couldn't lie, it felt good seeing her laugh like that, it was almost as if her energy swapped over to him like an infection.
Before he realized it, he joined her laughter and felt his heart become a little lighter, while forgetting for a moment everything else.
She had that kind of effect, a very contagious one.