Chapter 252: The Crest Worms Part 4

-By Sakura-

In these last few weeks my mind has been plagued by strange dreams that become blurry when I wake up. I don't remember anything I saw in those dreams, but I do remember how I felt when I woke up. I felt angry, lonely, but most of all, I felt too much sadness. That sadness was enough to make me cry, but I repressed my desire to cry because somehow I felt that this crying, this sadness, does not belong to me.

I want to know what those dreams are about.

I want to know what all this is that I am seeing and forgetting.

And at that moment... I heard his voice. Toru's voice was speaking inside my mind.

"I hate you..."

At first I thought those words were directed at me, so I was quite scared. He kept repeating it over and over again in a brittle voice. Without stopping, as if he wanted to emphasize his hatred inside his mind, wanting to engrave that hatred deep inside his subconscious. But I finally heard that, which made me understand that this hatred was not directed at me.

"I hate myself..."

And I woke up... All those things happened. My father hit Toru, who said some things that made me sad. It was as if he didn't care about my life.

Why are you so cruel, Toru? Why do you hate yourself? I want to know. I want to know more about you. I want to know everything about you. I don't want there to be a single detail of your life that I don't know. This is my love for you. No one will take my love away from me. No one will take away this that I feel.

But I can't see anything. Feeling like I'm suspended in infinite darkness. I feel so cold and I hear distant voices. I know they are my father's and Toru's voices. They are trying to do something because we really have no options anymore.

I am going to die...

My time with you, Toru, always becomes too short. Before I know it, we are already separated. That's so sad. I'd like to know everything about you before that happens.

Tell me about you...

Let me get to know you...

Let me know who you are...

I love you, Toru...

***

She opened her eyes once again feeling a lot of pain. She felt that these kinds of scenes were already repeating themselves too much. It had become a formula that had become burned into her brain. Her blurred vision came into focus and she realized that Toru was at her side. He had removed his cloak and scarf, making way for his very old-fashioned Japanese garb that made him look like a noble warrior from some world-renowned clan of samurai or shinobi.

'We should go shopping...'

Because those old-fashioned clothes didn't fit him very well once he took off his cloak. Thinking about that relieved some of the pain she felt in her body, but she could no longer move a single muscle. She felt sweat pouring down her body soaking her pajamas. Her body temperature was so high that even she felt her skin burning.

"Can you hear me, Sakura-sama?"

"I hear you... I can hear you..."

Her voice sounded very faint. Every word came out of her mouth as if she was short of breath.

"I see. You woke up at a very opportune time. I was about to start your treatment."

"...Treatment...?"

"In view of you not waking up, I thought I might perform this without your permission. Since you will die anyway, we lose nothing by trying."

'What cruel words,' she thought, but she just let this pass as if it was nothing. She didn't feel bad about it because somehow she felt that Toru speaking in such a cruel and cold way made sense. It was as if she knew him without knowing anything about him. This was curious.

"What will you do to me?"

"I'm going to burn the inside of your body. And it's going to hurt a lot."

"Uhh... that doesn't sound good. Where's my father?"

To answer that, Toru stepped aside. Behind him were Gray and Waver, who were looking at all this very worried.

"I had a clone bring them chairs, but they wouldn't sit down."

Toru paused briefly.

"I won't waste any more time. We'll start right now. I need you to do two things, the first is to hold on to the bed as long as you can. The second comes with the next object."

A small cloud of smoke gently exploded in his right hand. It was one of the daggers. He brought the dagger close to Sakura's mouth hoping she would understand.

"In order for you to better withstand the pain, bite down on the hilt of the dagger."

She obeyed and put the hilt of the dagger between her teeth. She looked at her father and Gray, ready for whatever was about to happen.

"Are you afraid?"

The Assassin asked. Sakura nodded. He, strangely enough, was sympathetic to her. He leaned in to get a closer look at her.

"Fear is something we rational beings made up. Although I cannot tell you anything that will help you relieve your fear, I will see to it that I do what I must do. I will give you hope that everything will be all right."

Gray heard that. She tightened her grip on Add's cage and looked down at the floor. It was like a low blow to her. Assassin sometimes pampered Sakura and sometimes was cruel to her. No one understood this boy's way of thinking. Mostly because he almost never shows any emotion on his face.

Finally Sakura nodded. If they're going to burn her insides, that means the pain is going to be unbearable. She tried not to let fear control her and clenched the sheets tightly, but that attempt failed when Toru said the following.

"Waver, you hold her legs. Gray, you hold her arms."

"Hhaah?"

Sakura was confused.

As if they had rehearsed it, Waver and Gray appeared to grab her limbs and prevent her from moving. This was getting scarier the more time passed. She felt a shiver accompanied by the pain of the worms nibbling at her body.

Toru placed his right hand on Sakura's abdomen. His left hand went near her chest and began to glow in a faint blue color. The X in his eyes seemed to focus on the scene like a camera. With a whisper that reminded her of that scene in Separation Castle, he began the deadly cure for this disease.

"Shimikomaseru."

A deep silence. Waver and Gray looked at each other not knowing what to say while Toru remained focused. His eyes were absorbed in Sakura's body. His pupils were moving from side to side with speed. He began to see all those little monsters and attacked the problem from the root.

At first, she felt nothing a few seconds after Toru whispered that word, but suddenly, the muscles in her body began to ache strangely. It was an increasing pain. First it was like feeling small needles pricking her abdomen, then like putting hot metal under her skin, ending up having a sensation similar to scratching her skin against a whetstone. Finally she felt all those pains at once, and as a product of that sudden pain....

"Hmmmm! Hgmmm!"

With agony-filled whimpers, she arched her back writhing from left to right on the bed seeking to rid herself of the terrible, sudden pain that assaulted her. It was a common response to something like this as her brain is letting her know that she is being burned alive. Toru saw to it that she did not break free. He exerted pressure on Sakura's abdomen with his right hand and forced her to stay glued to the bed.

Gray was struggling to keep Sakura's hands together. Waver was in pain trying to make her not move her legs, but that's when they realized the superhuman strength this girl has.

Groans of pain were heard. Tears fell down her face, but these began to evaporate as well as all the liquids in her body, which came out in the form of sweat that rose to the ceiling as vapor that could hardly be distinguished among so many sudden movements.

"Listen to my voice..."

He said. She looked up at Toru. Her gaze was begging for this to end quickly, but he just looked at her coldly. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to watch this and tried to hold on to the bed.

It burns like hell. She is screaming with her voice drowned out by the hilt of the dagger, a tool she is biting with all her might. She feels Gray squeezing her wrists tightly and her father struggling to keep her there. Toru's hand sends many mana signals to her body, which react by lighting up like a night lamp. Her skin quickly reddened. It even came to glow as if it were red-hot metal, showing her veins under her skin.

This was more than being burned alive. This was the worst pain she could have ever felt in her life. Her tears came, but they faded and evaporated. She opened her eyes, closed them again. She tried to escape, but again clung to the bed. She tried to scream, but could only whimper in tears.

She regretted agreeing to this. She thought dying was better than feeling this way. But she could no longer turn back. Right now all of this was burning those beasts that had hurt her since she was a child.

From Toru's eyes the whole scene was different. Sakura's death lines were moving slowly. Intertwined with her death lines were small death lines moving like insects under the ground. They were trying to escape from his murderous flames, but there was nowhere to escape to. They could try to get out of Sakura's body, but they would be killed instantly.

With his right hand he was emitting that faint blue light that relieved Sakura's pain a little, but that did not prevent her from screaming and suffering. Being burned alive is an experience that Asahi Toru himself went through. A part of his legend as a hero, that was. And even if this whole situation was annoying and boring, he was at least going to try it so he wouldn't get in trouble in the future.

Medical ninjutsu is used on one hand. You use shimikomaseru in the other. A crazy and ineffective idea, but being the only salvation for this girl.

At that Sakura began to bleed from the nose. That was a reaction Toru expected, so he did nothing about it and continued. He expelled his mana through his hand, sent it all over Sakura's body and imbued it in shakuton. Blades that burn, cut, shatter and kill.

Ironic that this is someone's salvation when this same ninja art has taken many people's lives.

"They are beginning to disintegrate."

Toru announced. This gave hope to Waver, who looked at Sakura. He thought over and over again what his daughter is strong and will be able to come out of this. Gray for her part only limited herself to look at Sakura's hands hoping not to see the suffering of this poor girl.

They are almost eighty insects that are distributed by Sakura's body. Most of them were near the abdomen. This is the reason why Toru put his hand there.

"More than twenty have died. It will be over before long."

And so it was. The death lines of those monsters were going out. They were weak to fire and to their bad luck they encountered a user of this element. They faded away like dust. Each death line was erased from existence and slowly they began to die one at a time. Some of those worms held out a little, but were soon overcome by the embracing heat.

There were ten more. Then twenty. Thirty. The number of dead worms increased rapidly. But Sakura was suffering too much. She was passing out and waking up again from the pain. Again and again, without stopping.

It looked like Waver was suffering with her, as his look was one of pure anguish and pain. Perhaps this Assassin understood what Waver meant by Sakura's death.

...No. He didn't understand it yet.

"It's almost over."

A few more and that would be it. Three. Two. One...

...

...

Sakura's body was purified...

...

Seeing that there was no longer any worm inside Sakura, Toru deactivated shimikomaseru at once and increased that faint bluish light in both hands. He surrendered much of his mana for that. Even if his medical ninjutsu was mediocre, this would serve to ease Sakura's pain. Even though she had passed out by the time he finished the treatment, that didn't mean she doesn't feel pain. So he gave it his all to eliminate that girl's annoyances.

"So much trouble you give me. What a troublesome master I've come up with."

After those words, Waver and Gray released Sakura. The questions didn't take long to come.

"Will she be alright, will she be able to live?"

The man is afraid to hear the answer, but he was still attentive to the Assassin's words.

"It all depends on the person who will heal the internal burns. If you called someone who is a prodigy in healing, then all that's left is to wait. We will simply wait to see how the burns turn out and what side effects they will have on her."

"Haa...and she did it. That's amazing"

Add's voice was heard from the small table next to Sakura's bed. The talking cube watched this whole event and found it amazing.

"You're an amazing Magus, brat. Not just anyone would have the skill necessary to use four magics simultaneously. Why don't you invite Gray to the amusement park or to see a movie? I'm sure she'd like that!"

Gray was about to pounce on Add with a red face of embarrassment to grab the cage and throw it out the window, but Toru beat him to it by saying a few things. His gaze still showed the organic X of the shigan. This made him look a bit intimidating.

"You talk too much. You say things that annoy others."

"Hahaha! Look who's talking about annoying others. If you're the first one to act so cruel with your words. Still, I like you. Keep it up, Assassin boy."

Toru ignored this and continued to use his ninjutsu on Sakura. All that was needed was to wait for whoever Waver had invited.

"Let's wait..."

Because there was something Toru didn't say that he somehow expected to happen. That negative effect on the girl lying on the bed.

To be continued...