Servamp: Betrayal and Forgiveness

Chapter 24

(A/N: You guys can still suggest what the Servamps and Eves and Shiro are going to do for the one week bodyguard trial! I'll be sure to promptly credit you for your contribution and I'll make a chapter out of it! So please suggest some ideas! >~<)

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"Seriously? You saw him and talked to him? Like, had a conversation with him? A conversation that goes 'hey, how are you?' with actual words and not just hand-motions or whatever?" Yumikage gawked at the seated-Mahiru from his spot across the table as he pressed on for more details, to which the latter nodded, although reluctantly.

Mahiru grumbled as he nodded to their stupidity, feeling a sense of annoyance from how many times they asked this question; they asked him three times already after they ate their breakfast because he had told them after they ate since he felt a bit better talking about it with a full stomach. One question from Shuhei, one from Junichiro and the last from the questionnaire just now, Yumikage.

Tsurugi snickered at Mahiru's visible depleting patience from the trio who kept throwing him the same questions over and over again, and seeing the helpless damsel in distress be overwhelmed by the three knights who claimed to be her sole saviour, he decided to step in and save the day.

"Alright," He clapped his hands together and brought the attention to his form, not missing the twinkle of gratitude in Mahiru's eyes as he winked in return,"Mahiru-chan has said yes to your same question three times already. What more do you want from him? Isn't it obvious that he's already stressed out from what happened just now and you're adding more to the mix?"

The three then realised what they had been doing and turned to Mahiru at once. The brunette nodded to Tsurugi's direction, reconfirming his words, and they sighed together.

"I'm sorry Mahiru, but it just shocked us all. It would have been better if you had ran into the other Eves or Servamps, but due to your bad luck—" Junichiro decided to take the initiative to apologise for their behaviour and continued his speech, cutting off Mahiru's 'hey!',"you met Sleepy Ash himself. Are you sure you're okay? I'm sorry if we sound like overprotective moms, but we're just worried."

'Why do I get the sense of déjà-vu and the feeling that you've said that before? Wait, isn't that the exact meaning of déjà-vu? Never-mind, but I swear that you've said those same words before,' Mahiru noted down in his head, having the feeling that Junichiro said that in chapter eighteen or nineteen.

Wait, chapter eighteen or nineteen? What does that even mean? What 'chapters' was he talking about? Maybe he finally has gone delusional after all to describe moments in his life as 'chapters'.

Mahiru shook his head; maybe the others have been right, maybe he has been alone for too long that he was starting to get delusional. He sighed as he looked off to the side, getting lost in his own thoughts for a while.

Why had he said those words to Sleepy Ash on the rooftop? What was he aiming to achieve by talking to him? Why did he say his thoughts that he had buried a long time ago in fear of being outcasted and humiliated on? He had bottled his feelings up — more like he was forced and trained to — for the sake of fighting, but everything just seemed to gush out from that bottle once he saw Sleepy Ash alone.

He could've stayed quiet, like he has always done when he wasn't behind his mask of Shiro. However, it seemed that his vow of silence broke at that moment and he finally spoke his thoughts out loud, like a caged beast breaking out from it's confinement in the circus.

Sure, maybe he wanted to distract Sleepy Ash for awhile to make his grand escape, but something else nudged him from the back of his mind, telling him that no, that's not it and it was telling him something else.