The morning light filtering through the immense windows of the Gremory mansion no longer felt like acid burning the skin. It was warm, soft, and brought with it the distant song of the birds of the Underworld, a sound that, for the first time in ten years, the man in the bed stopped to listen to.
Weeks had passed since the confession in the cave. Weeks of almost suffocating but necessary care.
Yugo was sitting on the edge of the immense bed, with his bare feet resting on the soft Persian rug. He was wearing a white linen shirt and loose pants. Slowly, he raised his gaze toward the full-length mirror that adorned the opposite wall of the room.
The man who returned his gaze was no longer a walking corpse.
The healing magic of Asia Argento, combined with constant nutrition and forced rest, had worked a biological miracle. His cheekbones no longer protruded under ashen skin; his face had regained color and firmness. The muscles of his arms and chest, previously consumed by starvation, were returning to their natural state, shaped by military discipline, but without that sickly and desperate tension. Even his hair, previously tangled and dull, now fell clean and neat over his forehead.
But the most monumental change, the one that defied all magical or medical logic, was not in his body. It was in his eyes.
For an entire decade, Yugo had maintained an expressionless, empty gaze. It was the gaze of a "dead fish," a dark abyss where feelings entered but never came out. It was the tactical wall he had built to see the world as a simple stage of fiction, to not become attached to the "chess pieces" he planned to sacrifice. That dead gaze had persisted even after meeting his students, even after Asia had given him a glimpse of peace, because deep down, he still felt like a ghost trapped in a book.
Now, looking at himself in the mirror, that ghost had disappeared.
His dark eyes were alive. They reflected the light of the room. There was real depth in them, a mixture of serene melancholy, human tiredness, and, above all, a spark of genuine acceptance. He no longer looked at the world calculating escape routes or points of weakness. He just looked. For the first time since he was twenty-one years old, he was not the "Monster of Kuoh," nor the "invincible Sensei," nor the "apocalyptic terrorist."
He was just a man. A thirty-one-year-old man who had finally stopped fighting against his own existence.
The soft click of the door handle interrupted the silence of the room.
The door opened carefully, and Asia Argento poked her head in. She carried a silver tray with steaming tea and light snacks. Upon seeing that Yugo was not lying down, but sitting on the edge of the bed, the former nun opened her eyes wide.
—Sensei! —exclaimed Asia, entering quickly, followed closely by Rias Gremory, who carried a pair of books under her arm—. You shouldn't force yourself to get up so quickly, you are still in the process of recovery and...
Asia stopped dead in the middle of the room. The words died on her lips. The tray trembled slightly in her hands.
Rias also froze right behind her.
Both girls stared at the teacher's face. They were so accustomed to his mask of apathy, to that expression of a veteran soldier disconnected from the world, that seeing him now left them breathless.
Yugo turned his head toward them. He did not frown. He did not throw a sarcastic comment about paperwork or that they were bothering him. He simply looked at them, and a very small smile, barely a curve on his lips, but incredibly warm and honest, illuminated his face.
—Easy, Asia —said Yugo. His voice no longer tore the air like sandpaper. It was soft, deep, and calm—. I was just... remembering what it feels like to be alive.
Rias felt her heart skip a beat. The weight in her chest that she had carried since the day of the cave finally dissolved. He was there. The lonely outsider who cried for his lost family had finally accepted the anchor they had thrown him.
Asia left the tray on the table with trembling hands and, unable to contain herself any longer, ran toward him. She did not stop to think about the master-student respect; she threw herself into his arms, wrapping her arms around his torso in a tight hug and burying her face in his shoulder, sobbing from pure happiness and relief.
Yugo tensed for a microsecond, an old tactical reflex, but in the next instant, he relaxed his shoulders. He raised his hands, those hands that had been destroyed hitting the rock and that had been stained with blood, and returned the hug with overwhelming delicacy, caressing the blonde girl's hair.
—It's over... —murmured the man, closing his living eyes and breathing in the aroma of reality—. I'm not going anywhere anymore.
Rias smiled, leaning against the door frame, crossing her arms while a tear of joy slid down her cheek. She knew the road ahead was long. Sona Sitri still waited in the human world, the engagement contract was still active, and the watch on Yugo's wrist still had the sealing plate on it, waiting for the moment when he decided he no longer needed it.
But upon seeing the peace in the man's face, Rias knew that the war against the end of the world had ended. Not with fire or explosions, but with the simple act of a broken soul deciding to call "home" the people around him again.
...
The soft clink of the porcelain teacup resting on its saucer filled the peaceful silence of the room. Yugo took one last sip of the infusion, feeling the comforting heat go down his throat, replacing the eternal knot of anxiety that used to live there.
Asia looked at him with a radiant smile, almost imperceptibly leaning forward, as if she feared the man would disappear if she blinked too slowly.
Yugo set the cup on the tray and placed his hand on the former nun's head, stroking her blonde hair with a clumsiness that was strangely tender.
—Asia... —the man began, his voice calm—. I need to ask you a favor.
—Anything, Sensei! —she responded immediately, her eyes shining with devotion.
—Could you go to the human world for a while? Go to the Saturn Minimarket —Yugo asked her, sketching a tired half-smile—. Tell Raynare, Mittelt, and the others to close the store temporarily. Put up the "Closed for vacation" sign. They have endured enough of my mistreatment and paranoia. Tell them to rest... and not to kill each other while I'm not there.
Asia opened her eyes wide, surprised by the gesture. The Sensei she knew would have made the Fallen Angels work twice as hard just to keep them monitored. This new man, however, was showing genuine mercy.
—I'll tell them, Sensei. They will be very happy... although Raynare will definitely complain to hide it —Asia laughed softly, standing up with the tray—. I'll be back soon. Promise me you'll rest.
—I promise.
The former nun made a small bow and left the room, closing the heavy oak door with a soft click.
The atmosphere in the alcove changed instantly. The lightness and warmth that Asia brought vanished, giving way to a dense and solemn intimacy. Rias Gremory, who had remained silent leaning against the frame of the large window, turned her face toward the bed. The morning light illuminated her crimson hair, giving her an almost ethereal aura.
Yugo dropped his hand into his lap. The soft smile disappeared, replaced by an expression of absolute seriousness, but without the icy hostility of the past. His dark eyes, now alive and present, sought the blue gaze of the Princess of Ruin.
—Rias... —He called her by her name, without honorifics, without the tactical "Buchou" he used to maintain professional distance.
The redhead moved away from the window and walked toward him, stopping a couple of steps from the bed, crossing her hands in front of her lap with elegance and attention. —Tell me.
The outsider swallowed, feeling that the words weighed tons on his tongue. —The confession in the cave... what I shouted in front of Issei, in front of Yuto and the others. About my plan to assassinate you, about the slaughterhouse and the Trihexa...
—Sona lied to all of us to hide it —Rias interrupted him, her voice soft but firm—. She said it was a State secret of the Sitri House. But we heard everything. We know what you did and what you planned. And my decision does not change.
—I know —Yugo nodded slowly, gripping the sheets—. But I'm not referring to that. I mean what happened afterward. Here, in this room.
Rias held her breath. The memory of the night when he had collapsed at her feet, begging for death to wake up in his true universe, returned to her like a torrent.
—What I told you about not being from this world... —Yugo looked at her fixedly, with a vulnerability that cut off his breath—. About my family. About you being... a story. Only you know it.
The man lowered his gaze to his own hands, as if he feared seeing rejection in her eyes. —I didn't tell Sona. Never. Sona knows I'm a frustrated genocidal. She knows my mind broke... but she believes I went crazy from discovering the supernatural factions. If the Kaichou finds out that her universe is a work of fiction written on paper... her logical strategist mind wouldn't bear it. She needs order. She needs to believe that her political calculations are real. If she discovers that her movements and her destiny were already traced by an author... it would destroy her worse than me.
Yugo raised his gaze again. His eyes silently pleaded. —And the boys... Issei, Asia... they deserve to live their lives believing they are the owners of their own future. I don't want to put this weight on them. Rias... Can you keep it? Can you be the only person in this existence who knows who I really am?
Rias Gremory remained motionless. The weight of what he was asking her was titanic. He was handing her the master key to his soul, turning her into the only guardian of his true identity. For Sona Sitri, he was the lethal and traumatized Pawn with whom she had signed a contract. But for Rias, he was a stranded traveler from beyond the stars, a human who had cried in her arms for a mother from another universe.
The crimson heiress took a step forward and sat on the edge of the bed, next to him. She did not hesitate. She raised her hand and placed it gently over Yugo's, intertwining her fingers with his. Her skin was warm and firm.
—It's our secret —declared Rias, and the conviction in her voice was absolute, unbreakable—. No one else will know, Sensei. Not Sona, not Issei, not even my brother. I will keep the story of your world in my heart until the day it stops beating.
The man felt a knot he didn't know he had unravel in his chest. He let out a long and trembling sigh, gently squeezing the demon girl's hand.
—But in exchange... —Rias leaned a little closer, looking at him with an intensity that admitted no objections—, I want you to stop seeing this world as a fake tale. Maybe we started as lines on paper in your universe... but my tears when I almost lost you were real. The warmth of my hand is real. And the fact that you have stayed here with us... that is no longer fiction. You are rewriting the story, Sensei. Our story.
The outsider looked at the intertwined hands, feeling the demon girl's pulse against his own skin. He no longer felt the cold of existential emptiness.
—Our story... —repeated Yugo, and for the first time in a decade, the phrase did not sound like a cosmic curse, but like the first chapter of a life that finally was worth living.
The atmosphere in the Gremory mansion's alcove had reached a point of absolute sincerity. The air, previously laden with the electric tension of secrets and desperation, now felt light, almost sacred. Rias remained sitting on the edge of the bed, holding the outsider's hand, processing the magnitude of being the only guardian of a truth that defied the very reality of her universe.
Yugo looked at her and, for the first time in an entire decade of shadows, a genuine smile, stripped of bitterness and laden with incipient peace, illuminated his face. It was not the grimace of a strategist nor the forced smile of a high school teacher; it was the expression of a man who finally felt seen.
—Rias... —he said, his voice firm and serene—. If we are going to be a family, if we are really going to build something real in this "fictional" world, then I cannot have secrets from you. No more walls.
Slowly, he raised his left arm. The dark metal plate, engraved with crimson and blue runes, still sealed the Omnitrix dial, reminding him of his self-imposed captivity and the protection the heiresses had tried to provide him. Yugo pointed to the locking mechanism.
—Take it off —he asked softly—. I no longer need the watch to be hidden to protect me from my own demons. I have decided to accept what I am and what I have.
Rias hesitated for a second, looking at the plate. She knew that seal represented the security that he would not attempt a desperate escape through dimensions. But upon seeing the determination and light in his eyes, she understood that the man before her was no longer seeking to escape toward death. With an elegant movement of her fingers, Rias channeled a small portion of her power of destruction, disintegrating the magical anchors of the plate.
The metal fell onto the Persian rug with a dull clink, exposing the emerald dial of the Omnitrix. The device seemed to emit a pulse of welcome, a green flash that recognized direct contact with the air.
—I'll show you one more secret —he murmured—. Something that not even Sona imagines exists. Something that explains why, despite all my hatred, I never really needed the Trihexa to destroy this world if I had wanted to.
With a calm bordering on the mystical, Yugo manipulated the dial. His fingers moved with a reverence Rias had never seen him dedicate to the watch. He was not looking for a warrior like Diamond nor a speedster like XLR8. He turned the ring until the core rose and a new holographic silhouette, one Rias had never witnessed in the Rating Game or in battles against the Fallen, emerged from the device.
Rias held her breath. Instead of a monstrous form or a combat beast, the hologram showed a slender humanoid figure, of absolute black, speckled with bright white points that imitated the constellations of a deep night sky. Three small horns crowned its head and its eyes were of infinite green.
—This is Alien X —he explained, while the starry silhouette's glow reflected in the redhead's pupils—. It is a Celestialsapien. A being that inhabits outside of time and space. For it, the entire reality, this universe, yours, and perhaps mine, are just thoughts.
Yugo looked at the hologram with a mixture of respect and fear.
—With this being, I could have rewritten the laws of physics with a blink. I could have erased the three factions, the Maous, and the Gods from existence in a second, without the need for wars or Trihexas. It is the power of an absolute God put into a wristwatch.
Rias felt a shiver run down her spine. The magnitude of the power of the man at her side was incalculable. If he had wanted pure revenge, nothing in her universe could have stopped him.
—But to use it —he continued, lowering the dial without transforming, allowing the room to return to its natural illumination—, a unanimous decision of its internal personalities is required. For ten years, my own mind was so fragmented and full of hatred that I would never have been able to convince anyone to act. Alien X is the power of total creation and destruction, but it is also the reminder that power without will and without peace is nothing more than a crystal statue.
The outsider sighed, closing the dial and letting the Omnitrix return to rest mode. He felt lighter, as if by revealing the existence of divinity on his wrist, he had given Rias the definitive proof of his moderation and his new will to protect.
A long silence fell, where the weight of cosmic revelations gave way to human closeness. Yugo rubbed the back of his neck, a gesture that reminded Rias of the everyday "Sensei," but this time laden with a human shyness that she found heartbreaking.
—Ah... and there is one last thing. The oldest lie of all —he said, looking at Rias with an honesty that seemed to purify the air—. For ten years, I hid behind a name I invented so that no one could trace my existence, a name that would sound common in this country to infiltrate the academy and erase any trace of the boy who arrived here. "Yugo Hano" is no one. It is just a set of syllables without a soul.
The man took a deep breath, connecting one last time with the memory of that mother and those siblings he left behind on the other side of the veil.
—My true name... the one my mother gave me before this tale began... is Jose.
Rias savored the name in her mind. It was a strange name for her world, short, direct, laden with a phonetics that did not belong to the legends of demons nor to the chronicles of the Underworld. "Jose." It was not the name of a weapon, nor of a warrior, nor of a Pawn of the Sitri House. It was the name of the twenty-one-year-old young man who only wanted to be happy.
—Jose... —whispered Rias, and the way she pronounced his name made the man's heart skip a beat—. Welcome home, Jose.
The outsider, now finally identified, closed his eyes and nodded. "Yugo Hano" had died in the cave, but José had just been born in the arms of the Princess of Ruin. The story, fictional or not, finally had a protagonist who knew who he was.
...
The great hall of the Gremory mansion was immersed in a tense and expectant silence. Despite the luxurious velvet sofas and the warm light entering through the windows, the atmosphere felt like the waiting room of a hospital before receiving a vital diagnosis.
Both nobilities were gathered.
On the right side, the Sitri entourage maintained their usual composure, although the cracks were evident. Saji Genshirou bounced his leg compulsively against the marble floor, sweating cold. Tsubaki Shinra kept her arms crossed, her gaze fixed on the double oak doors. And in the center, Sona Sitri was seated with her back straight, adjusting her glasses every few minutes. Her analytical mind reviewed again and again the confession in the office and the state in which her fiancé had been left. She had mentally prepared herself to receive a destroyed man, an empty shell she would have to rebuild piece by piece with bureaucracy and icy patience.
On the left side, the Gremory Clan shared the anxiety, although tinged with an aura of hope. Asia Argento squeezed her hands in a silent prayer. Issei swallowed loudly, while Kiba, Akeno, and Koneko waited standing, ready to receive the man who had taught them to survive, but who had almost not survived himself.
Click.
The metallic sound of the door handle echoed like a gunshot in the hall. All eyes turned toward the main door of the guest quarters.
The heavy oak leaf opened slowly, and Rias Gremory took a step into the hall. The Princess of Ruin dressed elegantly, but what really caught everyone's attention was the soft, serene, and deeply relieved smile that adorned her face. There was no tension in her shoulders. There were no traces of the tragedy of the cave.
Rias stepped aside, clearing the threshold.
—You can stop holding your breath —announced Rias in a light and warm tone—. He is ready to see you.
The entire hall held its breath again. Issei leaned forward. Sona stood up instinctively, her blue aura flickering from the anticipation of seeing the "Monster of Kuoh."
From the shadows of the hallway, a man took a step toward the light of the hall.
He wore dark dress pants and a charcoal-colored knit sweater that fit him slightly loose, hiding the scars on his arms. His hair was clean, combed to one side in a simple way. Physically, it was undeniable that he had gone through hell: he was still thin and the shadows under his eyes had not completely disappeared.
But the true shock that paralyzed the present demons was not his physical state.
It was his attitude. And, above all, his gaze.
The man who crossed the threshold did not march with the stoic uprightness of a military veteran. He did not emanate that lethal and apathetic pressure that made Fallen Angels tremble. Instead, Yugo walked with his shoulders slightly hunched, rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand in an overwhelmingly human and... shy gesture.
He raised his gaze toward the two nobilities that observed him fixedly.
The "dead fish" gaze, that unfathomable abyss of cynicism, apathy, and cold lethality that had characterized him since the day he set foot in Kuoh Academy, had completely evaporated. His dark eyes were alive. They hesitated slightly when meeting Sona's, shone with genuine nervousness when seeing Issei, and softened with guilt when resting on Asia.
It was not the gaze of a monster. Not even that of an implacable strategist. It was, simply, the gaze of a normal man who felt embarrassed for having caused so much commotion.
—Uh... Hello —murmured the outsider, his voice already without that raspy and threatening tone. He raised a hand in an awkward greeting, sketching an apologetic smile that had never crossed his face in ten years—. I'm very sorry... for the spectacle of the last few days. I think I owe you quite a few apologies.
The impact of that image was so brutal that demonic logic collapsed.
Saji dropped his jaw to the floor. Kiba blinked three times in a row, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't under an illusion. Akeno brought both hands to her cheeks, with a genuine blush upon seeing the naked vulnerability of her teacher.
Sona Sitri, the brightest mind of the Underworld, felt her brain short-circuit. She looked at the man, searching for her lethal Pawn, searching for the traumatized killer who had confessed war crimes to her. But the man rubbing the back of his neck nervously in front of her did not match any of her equations.
—S-Sensei! —Issei squealed, breaking the ice, with tears of pure comic joy pouring from his eyes—. Why are you acting like a shy romantic comedy protagonist?! Where is the terrifying guy who threatened to crush my head?!
Yugo hunched his shoulders a little more, laughing softly, an honest sound that made Asia bring her hands to her heart, relieved.
—That guy took permanent vacation, Issei —he replied, glancing at Rias with a complicity that only the two of them understood, before looking back at the group—. From today... it will only be me.