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The silence in the Occult Research Club was only broken by the sound of heavy breathing.
—Ninety-eight...! Ninety-nine...! One hundred!
Issei Hyoudou collapsed onto the wooden floor, forming a pool of sweat, panting as if his lungs were about to burst.
Seated behind her desk, Rias Gremory watched him with a mixture of maternal affection and a slight, almost imperceptible, analytical disappointment. Several days had passed since the incident with the Fallen Angels. Issei was working hard, of that there was no doubt. He fulfilled his minor contracts, trained his physique, and exuded an enthusiasm that was contagious throughout the club.
However, his Sacred Gear remained a frustrating mystery.
Rias sighed softly, resting her chin on her hands. On the back of Issei's left hand, only a single, weak, erratic red gem flickered. There was no trace of the monstrous aura the Fallen seemed to fear so much. "A Critical," Rias deduced in her mind. "A basic physical power-enhancing artifact. It has potential to grow, yes... but it's not the legendary weapon I was expecting."
The Princess of Ruin glanced out the window. The afternoon breeze rustled the campus trees. Exactly one week remained until the next full moon, the moment when the Forest of Familiars would open its gates. Issei needed a familiar to compensate for his current lack of offensive power.
Rias frowned. The power of her nobility had always been a source of pride for her, but in recent days, a dull, gray shadow had fallen over her territory.
Yugo Hano. Sona Sitri's Pawn.
Rias still felt a chill when she remembered the heat of the magma and the apathy in that man's eyes. Sona had become insufferably arrogant at Council meetings; she didn't show it openly, but Rias knew her childhood friend. Sona walked with the confidence of someone who had a nuclear wiper in her pocket.
—Buchou, the tea is ready.
Akeno's soft, melodious voice pulled her from her thoughts.
Rias blinked, watching her Queen. Akeno placed the porcelain cup on the desk with her usual elegance, but there was something... different about it.
The Thunder Priestess was humming. It wasn't her typical sadistic chuckle or flirtatious croon. It was a slow, melancholic, and strangely warm melody. A foreign lullaby. Moreover, Akeno's aura, which normally held a dark, repressed tension due to her Fallen Angel heritage, felt lighter, almost peaceful. She had been genuinely smiling for days, her eyes shining in a way Rias hadn't seen since rescuing her years ago.
—Akeno... you've been in a very good mood lately —Rias commented, taking a sip of her teacup.
Akeno tilted her head, her black ponytail swaying gently. Her smile became a little more intimate.
—Ara, ara. Can't I be happy, Buchou? The weather is nice, the exams are almost over, and... the academy has a very interesting atmosphere these days.
Rias narrowed her eyes. She had noticed that Akeno was spending less time at the club after school. When she asked her, her Queen simply said that she had found a new candy shop she liked to frequent.
"Just make sure you're ready," Rias said, reverting to her leader's tone. "In a week, we're going to the Forest of Relatives. I want Ise to get something that will help him improve his survival."
Akeno nodded, bringing a finger to her lips.
—Of course, Buchou. I'll be ready.
...
At the same time, on the commercial edge of the city, the "Saturn" minimarket was operating with a normality that defied all cosmic logic.
Yugo Hano leaned against the wall behind the cash register, holding a cup of black coffee. His gray eyes, which had once reflected an existential emptiness, now showed a chronic weariness mixed with an almost paternal exasperation.
—Raynare —Yugo called in a flat voice.
The former leader of Kokabiel's assassins, now wearing her unmistakable green apron, tensed up. She was trying to cram three two-liter soda bottles into a flimsy plastic bag.
"That bag is going to break," the professor pointed out. "Use a double bag. Or better yet, use your arms and put them in the customer's box. If you break the inventory, I'll deduct it from your nonexistent salary."
Raynare gritted her teeth, muttering a litany of curses in ancient demonic tongues, but obeyed, packing the products with a restrained aggression that mildly terrified the poor college customer.
In corridor two, Kalawarner was using a small feather duster to clean the shelves, sighing with boredom. Mittelt, meanwhile, was arranging the magazines in the entrance hall with robotic diligence, terrified that the "manager" would decide today was a good day to be a psychopathic ghost.
The doorbell rang.
Akeno Himejima entered the premises, dressed in her academy uniform.
The temperature of the three Fallen Angels plummeted. They recognized the Queen of Gremory. They knew what the Thunder Priestess was capable of.
However, Akeno completely ignored her former enemies and walked straight to the counter, stopping in front of Yugo.
"Good afternoon, Hano-sensei," Akeno greeted him loudly to keep up appearances. But her violet eyes met his gray ones, conveying a silent message, laden with a devotion and affection that only the two of them understood.
Yugo didn't change her stoic posture, but the tension in her shoulders visibly relaxed. She no longer saw the warrior from the rival clan; she saw the little girl she used to sing to during storms.
"Himejima," he replied, his voice losing a fraction of its usual iciness. "The tea section is in aisle three. If you break anything, the grumpy cashier will charge you double."
Akeno let out a soft giggle that made Raynare's teeth grind. She picked up a box of chamomile tea and paid for it, leaving the exact change. Before leaving, her fingers subtly brushed against Yugo's hand as she handed him a bill.
—See you tomorrow in class... Jose —Akeno whispered at an imperceptible speed, so low that even the heightened senses from the falls couldn't pick it up.
Yugo's demonic heart gave a small, warm jump. He adjusted his glasses, watching her leave. The layer of ice that had covered his soul for ten years was melting, and, to his own surprise, he didn't dislike the feeling.
....
Hours later, the "CLOSED" sign hung on the minimarket door. The employees had been banished to the back room.
On the second floor, the small apartment was permeated with the smell of hot stew.
Yugo and Asia were sitting across from each other at the small dining room table. They had finished dinner. Asia was telling him about a stray dog she had seen near the school, moving her hands with that pure, luminous energy that characterized her.
Yugo listened in silence. He rested his chin on his clasped hands. His gaze, fixed on the golden nun's face, was filled with a shadow of conflict that Asia noticed immediately.
"Yugo-san?" Asia lowered her hands, her smile fading into an expression of tender concern. "Are you in any pain? Are your lungs...?"
"No. I'm cured, Asia," he replied softly. "The power of Sona's pieces stabilized my body. I no longer cough up blood. Technically, I'm no longer human. I'm a low-class demon."
Asia nodded slowly. She had known the truth since the incident in the training room, but he rarely spoke of his new nature.
Yugo lowered his hands and placed them on the table. He took a breath, preparing himself for a conversation he'd been avoiding for days. Vulnerability wasn't his strong suit, but she deserved the truth.
"Asia. As a human pushing the biological limits of the clock, my life expectancy was two years, if I was lucky," Yugo began, staring intently at her. "I was prepared to die. But now... as a demon, my life expectancy has skyrocketed. Demons live for thousands of years. My body will age at an almost imperceptible rate."
Asia blinked, processing the information, and then a radiant, relieved smile lit up her face.
"That's wonderful, Yugo-san!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands together joyfully. "It means he won't leave. He'll be able to live a long and happy life, without pain..."
—But not you, Asia.
The words fell on the table with the weight of a lead slab.
Asia's smile froze.
Yugo leaned forward. The professor's gray eyes, which had witnessed massacres and horrors without flinching, now reflected a deep, primal, and desperate fear.
—You are human. You are a human with an extraordinary Sacred Gear, yes, but your biology remains intact. You will grow. You will age. And in sixty or eighty years, you will die.
Yugo's voice grew hoarser. The block of ice cracked completely, revealing the terror of the man who had lost everything.
"I survived ten years on the streets of this cursed world because I had shut down my soul," Yugo continued, his gaze fixed on her, intense and pleading. "I convinced myself that everyone was just drawings on paper. But you… and Akeno, and Sona, my students… you brought me back to reality. You gave me a home in this shop. And the mere thought of watching you grow old and die, while I remain the same… of being alone again for a thousand years…"
Yugo extended his hand, almost hesitantly, across the small table.
"I can't bear it, Asia. I'm selfish. I'm the most selfish and twisted being in this universe, because I don't want to take care of you just for one human life. I want you to stay with me. I want eternity."
Asia stared at the professor's large, scarred hand extended toward her. Tears began to well up in her large emerald eyes. The man who could terrify the Kings of the Underworld was begging her not to leave him alone in the future.
"That's why..." Yugo swallowed, forcing himself to say the words. "I want to ask you to become a demon."
Asia let out a small gasp of surprise, bringing her hands to her lips.
"I know what this means to you," he said quickly. "I know you grew up in the Church. I know that praying to your God is your anchor. Asking you to renounce your humanity and join the creatures the Bible calls monsters is cruel. But Sona doesn't have the right place or role for you in her nobility; her fighting style doesn't suit a static healer."
Yugo gently squeezed his fingers.
—But Rias Gremory does have it.
"Rias... Gremory?" Asia repeated, remembering the red-haired beauty who had saved Issei, but had left her to her fate in the destroyed house.
"The Gremory clan princess desperately needs a healer for her group," Yugo explained, his analytical logic returning to the forefront. "Issei is there, and he's your friend. If you accept his pieces, you'll gain the absolute protection of one of the most powerful families in the Underworld, you'll have immortality to stay by my side… and the watch and I will continue to be your personal shield. Rias will never demand you fight on the front lines if she knows I'm watching from the shadows."
The silence in the second-floor apartment was heavy. The drone of a car passing on the street below seemed very distant.
Asia looked at Yugo. She understood the sacrifice he was making. He hated the factions, despised the politics of the demons, and yet, he was willing to negotiate with Rias Gremory and tie himself even more tightly to that web of power, just to ensure that she didn't die of old age.
The nun lowered her hands, placed them on the table, and with overwhelming delicacy, intertwined her small, warm fingers with Yugo's large, weathered fingers.
The professor held his breath.
"Yugo-san..." Asia smiled, and this time, the tears that fell from her eyes weren't tears of sadness, but of pure, unconditional love. "The God I prayed to in Europe didn't hear me when I was in darkness. I was abandoned. But when I was in that church, when the exorcist was about to hurt me, I didn't pray to heaven."
Asia squeezed Yugo's hand.
"I trusted you. And you, with all your pain and wounds, descended into hell to rescue me. You are my miracle. If becoming a demon means I'll never have to see the sadness of loneliness in your eyes... if it means I can cook for you, sweep this shop, and scold Raynare-san for the rest of eternity..."
The girl of pure light leaned slightly over the table, her radiant face illuminating the shadows of the room.
—Then I will gladly become a demon. I will be part of Rias Gremory's clan, but my heart... my home, will always be here, with you.
Yugo felt something warm and immense settle in his chest. The ghost of the frightened, nostalgic young man from another dimension finally dissolved. The nightmares of the Ectonurite, the blood, the Battojutsu... all of it was behind him.
He gently squeezed Asia's small hand, and a genuine smile, free of sarcasm and pain, appeared on the professor's face.
—Thank you, Asia.
That night, while Kuoh slept, the "monster" of Kuoh Academy and the former Saint of the Church sealed a pact of eternity.