"Me? Oh, yeah, me. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?", Tomoe blurted out after a moment of realizing that he was being addressed once more.
It wasn't every day that he cried, and even more rarely for him to cry without feeling sad as if his body was running in an automatic state. He wiped the last of the emotionless tears away and looked back at the lady knight with his usual toothy grin, one of his front teeth being chipped slightly in an incident he couldn't remember. A shudder echoed throughout him at the reveal that Fairy Tail had become more and more obscure as of late, though he couldn't pin down why. It simply felt like the sort of thing that would come up later, and he didn't question it for the moment.
Inside, the Joyan felt himself slipping somewhat from what he thought was his true self. There was something conflicting within him about his actual identity, as if it was being torn one way and the other by something. The mere mention of Fairy Tail brought back flashes of a place unfamiliar to him yet all too familiar at the same time. The outlines he had seen in the past grew clearer, gaining some colors and even identifiable features. As lights spun around within his own mind and bringing forth more images at a rapid pace, as well as a deafening ringing constantly booming through his entire being, he had to stop it somehow.
With maddening swiftness and his eyes closed, Tomoe drew the blade on his back and took steps back while swinging blindly in a slow retreat nowhere near the knight herself.
"Stay back! Stay the hell away from me!", Tomoe spat out in a panic, the slight glint of lightning shining off the tip of his sword.
Taking many short, gasping breaths in a frenzy, the Joyan eventually opened his eyes calmly once more assuming nobody would try to restrain him in that time. Sweat dripping from his brow, Tomoe looked towards the lady knight once more with stress clear as day in his eyes.
"Hey, you. Whatever your name is.", Tomoe started, moving towards her again with a mix of concern and intent in his eyes.
"How do I know you're prepared for this task? It ain't my business, but if Earthland's really countin' on ya, I need to know that you're the type with willpower enough to fight through everything. The drama, the law, the mental toll, and most importantly...", Tomoe paused as he stopped two meters from Judina with his weapon limply dangling in his right arm.
"The combat. As a knight you should be ready for those types o' things always. And especially as whatever type of entity-chosen pseudo-villain you're gonna become.", the Joyan finished as he slowly pointed his sword towards Judina, not with malicious intent but with the concern of her worthiness.
For the Joyan, it wasn't anything to do with the murderous urges often felt by other members of the Midnight Cult. Rather, Tomoe had simply felt an emotion he didn't know how to deal with, his mind seemingly breaking down by the minute. Was his love of HER even real? Or was there always something that felt equally as important in his heart? The warrior's blade wavered slightly at the thought, but continued scanning the knight before him to see how she would react. In that moment, a chosen one's worth was less his concern than his need to lash out at the world and defy the conflicting emotions he felt in the pit of his stomach.
This was not a test in which he planned to cause any true harm, but he would not hesitate to teach a lesson in the very gardens of Crocus if she responded in a manner he felt was disappointing by his own standards of justice. His body would await any of the more expected outcomes she might provide, instinct taking over like a wild animal in that moment as his gaze grew more resolved. In the silent night of the gardens of Crocus, the maniacal ronin awaited a response.