34 "No"

"So, what's your name?" the specialized officer asked.

Reese Lerose held out his hand, his arm covered with blood and bruises, and Emrys couldn't help but grimace at the wounds all over his face and body as he hesitantly shook the officer's hand. "...Emrys," he answered quietly.

Officer Lerose brightened. "Nice to meet you!" he beamed. "Say, you don't mind me walking with you, right?"

"No."

Emrys cast a quick look at the officer as he began walking down the streets back towards Althea's shop, wondering why he was following him instead of getting his wounds treated. The officer was a mage too, that much he could deduct. He turned his head back and focused on the road, figuring that since he hadn't done anything wrong, he didn't have to worry about the officer tagging along.

He felt relieved to be out of the station. From the moment he stepped inside, there was this weird, distorting feeling that seemed to mess with his senses. It was uncomfortable. It wasn't until he was face-to-face with the old man behind the bars that he figured out what the suffocating pressure was coming from.

It was the cuffs.

And if it really were the cuffs, it must've been a means of restraint for a mage, for he couldn't sense even a bit of the old man's mana. Hell, the old man must've been a really powerful mage for Officer Lerose to end up all bloodied trying to keep him under control.

A chill ran down his spine. Whatever the path he goes down in the future, he made a mental note to not end up getting one of those locked around his wrists.

If it weren't for Jade's phone call telling him that Gray had returned with her aunt, he didn't know how much longer he would have to stay in the suffocating station. The old man's maddened reaction when Emrys told him that he had to leave without even answering his first question left him unnerved.

It was just one question...why did he get so worked up only to get knocked out cold to be put under control?

He recalled the old man asking him why 'he looked like him'.

But...he looked like who?

Emrys scratched the back of his head in confusion.

Was he looking for someone?

He seemed so desperate...

Emrys shook the thoughts out of his head and jogged across the crosswalk as the light turned green. He didn't know him, and that man was a caught criminal. Why was he feeling a bit bad for him?

"Your classmate is waiting at her home?" Officer Lerose asked, trying to wipe down his blood on his clothes. For some reason, he didn't seem too bothered with his injuries, but lucky for him, there weren't many people around to stare.

"No."

He let out a laugh at Emrys' one-worded answer, saying 'no' for the second time. "I see you're not the talkative type," he teased. "Where'd ya get such a personality from? Can't you be a little more welcoming?"

"...no."

He sighed, patting down his logo t-shirt. "Fine," he said, and defeatedly, he decided to change up the topic. "Did you know who that old man was?" he tried asking instead. "They say he's quite a famous drunkard around these areas." He and Emrys were about the same height, so he stared straight into the back of his head as he waited for some reaction.

But to his dismay, he received none...and only the same answer.

"No."

'But surely, Gray would know, wouldn't he?' Emrys thought to himself.

The corner of the officer's mouth twitched, starting to really get ticked off with his dull responses. "You've got to be kidding me. It won't hurt to say more, you know."

"..."

The man sighed. "Fine, fine," he said, running his hand through his hair in disappointment. "I get it. You're in your moody teen phases while I seem like some nosy officer who- hey, is that someone sitting on the roof?"

On the roof?

Emrys came to a stop and looked up to see that he had arrived back at the store without even realizing what street he was on, noticing that the sign now read 'closed'. But through the glass panels, he could see everyone still inside, crowded together near the front counter. He let out a breath of content as he caught sight of Jade's lightened mood now that her aunt was by her side.

'Fast,' he thought to himself.

Then he inclined his head towards the sky, glancing up at the building top where the officer pointed out. He expected to see something that only resembled a person and wasn't really a person, thinking the officer's eyes were just playing tricks with him, or maybe some delinquents that climbed the walls...

But to his surprise, it was Gray who he found sitting casually on the edge of the tall building, a good couple, dangerous meters above level ground, though that height shouldn't be much of a problem for a mage as powerful as him.

Emrys wanted to raise his hand to make himself known but stopped before his hand even left his pocket, his face falling as he took note of Gray's eerily still figure. His head was bowed, his face hidden by his pitch-black hair, his limbs sagged as if they had no more strength to hold up the invisible burden on his shoulders...

He was alone, his lonely, bleak figure making him seem way older than he was.

Yet, there seemed to be a different kind of loneliness about him that set him apart from the world around him.

Isolated.

"...Gray?" Emrys called out hesitantly. Why did he seem so down?

No answer came.

"Gray," he said again, this time louder. "Hello?"

Beside him, Reese Lerose was left in utter confusion. From this short distance between him and the man on the roof, he felt some sort of strange aura about him that he was almost sure he was a fellow mage just as he and this high schooler named Emrys. The mana was there, he was sure, he could feel it. But he couldn't read him in the slightest.

He couldn't sense a solid core; it was all blurry and distorted as if it were...

Hidden. Deliberately concealed.

His eyes widened, astonished. How could he hide it so well? It was like the complete opposite of Emrys', whose overabundance of mana poured out from his core into the invisible space around him.

He cast the boy next to him a quick side glance before looking back up. What were they? Brothers? Cousins? If not, then friends at least?

Emrys frowned.

Did something go wrong? What happened? Or is he...ignoring me on purpose? ...is he daydreaming again?

With a flick of his wrist, a thin, iced shaft formed above his palm and he aimed it towards the sky, taking the officer by surprise.

"Hey, what are you doing-!"

The sharp arrow launched away before Officer Lerose could even protest, zipping through the air within a blink of an eye. It flew straight at Gray's head, and he reached out an arm, ready to stop it with his powers thinking it would hit and kill this oblivious person...

But to his relief, Gray turned his head the last second possible, and the shaft pierced the air beside his ear, continuing higher into the sky.

Gray finally looked up, his dark stare catching Emrys' eyes before he shifted his gaze and narrowed his eyes at the beat-up officer he came back with.

Slowly, he seemed to return to 'normal', as if he was rebuilding the facade of his usual easy-going and reliable self around the moment of helplessness Emrys caught him in. Gray reached up and scratched the back of his head, stretching his limbs before he threw both legs over the edge of the building, leaning dangerously forward as he raised his eyebrow at the startled officer.

"Who's this?"

_______________

'Fox and her gang are dead...'

Titus' words played and played in his head as Gray sat on the rooftop alone in dead silence. The others inside the store were probably looking for him, waiting for him to come back inside, but he wasn't in the mood for them. Not now.

Fox is dead.

Cereus killed her...

Gray watched as his hands slowly curled into two tight fists, his knuckles turning white as a black, crackling mist squeezed out between his fingers, threatening to explode. Inside him, a soundless storm raged, waiting for the moment that it could be released, to wreak havoc on the ones that deserve more than death.

Among all the members in the underground that raised him, Fox was the closest there was to a mother figure to Gray. Aside from the others, she was the one who gave him clothes, the one who gave him sweets, the one who raided the store of children's movies so he could watch, the one who tried hardest to let him experience the bits of life of a normal kid...

He thought, as long as he was gone, then everyone else would be safe. Why did this have to happen? Knowing Fox's personality, she must've openly rebelled...

Cereus, that motherf*cker, who else did he kill in these past three years?

At this point, Gray didn't even know if he did the right thing, staying away from the criminal organization. He left his people behind under the rule of Cereus, he didn't even know who was alive and who was dead.

But what was the use of going back? He's sure they could take care of themself. It's not his problem anymore, was it? That old drunkard alone was enough to take care of most problems.

He could return, but he could be making things worse just by exposing himself. Did he really want to risk that? Titus and the old man may want him back, but what about the others? Who knows if he'll even be welcomed? It was they who drove him out of his own home anyway...

Besides, as long as he is alive, he didn't want to become a burden for Zeke. Zeke must be well off on his own without having to risk his life at every turn, like back then when he knew he was in danger as long as Gray, his best friend, was on his back.

Gray heaved a sigh, trying to calm himself down as ran his hands through his hair and pulled.

He wanted to go home, so bad. Back there, he barely restrained himself from just turning around and telling Titus, 'it's me', and he regretted not doing so, but-

'Commit yourself,' Gray thought as he slapped himself hard across the face. 'You've tried so hard to start a new life, don't ruin it. Revenge won't happen. You've already died once. That place is no longer home. This is home.'

'You're Gray,' he pressed on. 'Gray, your average lowly citizen, who lives in a shitty little apartment, broke as hell, low-paying job, lives off one meal a day, no social life-'

He tilted his head to the side as a blur of mana whizzed past his ear, nearly impaling his head.

Hm?

He looked up to see two figures standing below him on the ground, one waving a hand at him to get his attention.

Gray blinked down at the kid who he had taken under his wing, looking up at him with an expectant look in his eyes.

This kid, that annoyingly innocent girl, and that overly bright, kind-hearted human of a neighbor...

That's right. He can't risk dragging the innocent people around him into his mess either.

How long has it been since they've met? A bit over a month now?

The tight knot in his chest seemed to loosen just a bit. Though the life he was living wasn't the best, it was the closest to normal that he'd ever gotten. Fox would've been proud, no?

'...maybe this life ain't that shitty after all...'