In the flattened, devastated wilderness, time seemed frozen. Most of the yandere remained suspended in the sky, motionless, as if their souls had abandoned their bodies. They could not accept the cruel truth laid bare before them. The only sound aside from the relentless wind was Grayfia's broken groans and muffled moans as she clutched Yusuke's hand, her fingers trembling violently around his.
However, there was one exception to this, and that person was the drill-haired, mature blonde woman, Eleonora. She did not remain in a state of shock and panic for long. Her eyes, which had originally been fixed on Grayfia's hand, involuntarily moved toward Akeno when she caught the falling Rias. For some reason, her gaze lingered on her a moment longer than necessary before moving to Sona.
The more she observed them, the more her eyes narrowed, and the faint light seemed to return to her bleak, dim gaze.
Eleonora knew that Yusuke possessed a strange and mysterious charm that pulled women toward him and made them intoxicatingly obsessed. In short, he could turn women into yandere, utterly devoted to him. She herself was one of them, and she had been happy with that, so extremely happy. Considering the pain tearing through her now at his death, it was only reasonable that the other women should experience the same agony, if not more.
So how could a yandere who had just watched her beloved die still have the leisure to care about someone else, even notice her, and catch her the way Akeno caught Rias in mid air?
It was suspicious! Very suspicious!
Eleonora had already been wary of these yandere, so she always viewed their actions with scrutiny, especially Sona's. Now that she focused on Sona again, her suspicion only grew.
Sona indeed looked panicked and devastated, but the longer Eleonora watched her, the more flaws she began to notice in that display. Her face was not as pale as Rias, Venelana, or even Eleonora's own. She appeared to be shaking, but her movements felt exaggerated, almost deliberate. The more Eleonora studied her, the more cracks she found in Sona's performance.
Back when Sona found Grayfia's hidden place for the first time, Eleonora had already begun to feel that she was hiding something from them. When she managed to locate it again for the second time, her suspicion only grew stronger. Now, watching her put on this act, Eleonora felt certain that Sona was plotting something.
Sona might be smart, even a genius tactician, but she had plenty of flaws. Her acting skills were terrible, to put it mildly. Well... they were still better than her cooking.
Compared to her, Tsubaki and Murayama were far more convincing. The two of them were delivering performances worthy of an Oscar. They looked almost identical to Rias, Xenovia, or Irina in their grief.
Those two had always been good at pretending. After all, they had managed to hide their affection for Yusuke for quite some time before finally confronting him back then.
Akeno, on the other hand, also made a blunder when she caught Rias.
The more Eleonora thought, the brighter her eyes shone. A look of enlightenment crossed her face before it returned to a blank expression. She grabbed Ravel and Isabella and said, "Let's go."
"...No! I don't want to... Yusuke sama! He isn't dead... he must be somewhere... this isn't reality... we are. in an illusion..." Ravel tried to wrestle free from her mother's grip, mumbling in a frantic, hollow voice. Her struggles stopped the moment Eleonora shot her a sharp glare and leaned close to whisper a few words into her ear. Whatever she said froze Ravel in place. The girl stared at her mother in shock, her lips parting slightly before pressing together again.
"..." Isabella, on the other hand, was on autopilot. Her mind had completely shut down.
A magic circle flashed beneath the three of them, and in the next instant, they vanished.
Their sudden departure caught the attention of Sona and her peerage, along with Akeno and the others.
They exchanged quick glances, confusion flickering across their faces. Why did those three leave? Still, none of them reacted. To avoid exposing anything, they maintained their composure and continued their performance..
It would not matter if those three had left simply because their feelings for Yusuke were not genuine enough. But if they had seen through the act, that would be a problem.
"Uhhh... uhhh... uhhh..."
All this time, Grayfia's groans and moans continued to echo as she clutched Yusuke's hand tightly against her chest, tears streaming unceasingly down her face. Then something struck her.
A faint light returned to her bleak eyes.
"If my Yusuke is dead, I'll revive him! I'll bring him back! I can do it... no! I will do it!"
Reviving the dead or communicating with them was not impossible in this world. For example, if someone who believed in Buddhism died and reached the Western Paradise, as long as one could obtain permission from Buddha or a Bodhisattva, they would be able to see and contact that deceased person.
The same principle applied to many other faiths and realms, such as Yama, Helheim, and others. As for true resurrection, most existing methods were flawed and came with heavy drawbacks. However, Grayfia knew of a tool that could truly restore the dead, one of the thirteen Longinus, the Holy Grail, Sephiroth Graal. It was rumored to possess the power to bring the dead back to life.
Grayfia did not know the whereabouts of the Holy Grail, but she would find it. And when she did, she would force its owner to use it to revive her Yusuke.
Hope surged through her heart once more. Her shivering body gradually grew still as the tremors faded. She gently held Yusuke's hand, almost reverently, as if afraid even the slightest force might hurt him.
In the next moment, a magic circle formed beneath her feet and enveloped her figure before she disappeared.
"Where did she go?!" Sona, Akeno, and the others blurted out at the same time, turning to look at one another in alarm.
A few moments later, several powerful auras surged from the distance and closed in at high speed. They arrived shortly after, the one leading them was Sirzechs.
"Mother? Rias! What happened to her?" Sirzechs, followed by three members of his peerage, took in the scene before him. His expression turned complicated when his eyes fell on his mother, but it changed to shock and worry the moment he saw his sister unconscious, blood dripping from her eyes and staining her beautiful face.
The clash between Grayfia and the other yandere had been so devastating that it was impossible not to draw attention. It immediately alarmed Sirzechs and the others.
Still, no one answered him. Everyone remained silent, almost frozen in place. Sona glanced at him and quietly let out a breath of relief.
It was a good thing her sister had not come along. If Serafall were to learn that Yusuke had 'died" because of Venelana's attack, she would lose all sense of reason. There was a strong chance she would go berserk and attack Venelana without hesitation.
...
Yusuke's house had not been repaired from the damage caused by Asia's loss of control. In the living room on the first floor, Yusuke's body lay on his back, completely motionless.
Originally, the plan that Yusuke came up with to get rid of the collar suppressing his power was to flood it with an even greater surge of energy and force it to malfunction. When he raised his level by two, it succeeded, and he managed to perform his 'role'.
He had not been completely certain of his success, so he prepared other methods to pull off his fake death. It was not easy. The most crucial part was the timing, choosing the precise moment to use the Void Pearl to teleport away and make his death appear real,
To him, it was great news that he could recover his power without too much trouble, but he had underestimated the collar personally created by Ajuka Beelzebub. It was true that the collar had been overloaded and stopped functioning for a very short moment. However, its safety function quickly activated and immediately released a suppressing wave that directly shocked Yusuke's mind and body, forcing his power back down once again.
Ajuka Beelzebub had already taken into account the possibility of someone trying to flood the collar with their own power. If a captive managed to escape and find assistance, it would be possible to remove the collar, which was precisely why he added that safety function.
Still, the method Yusuke used was effective. The problem was that he had not poured in enough power to brute force and completely destroy the collar. Instead, he triggered the safety mechanism and was knocked unconscious by the suppressing backlash.
At that moment, a flaming orange magic circle appeared in front of Yusuke's house door. Eleonora, Ravel, and Isabella stepped out of it. Under Eleonora's lead, the three approached the entrance. The door was already open, and they walked inside.
What greeted them was the partly burned interior of the house and, more importantly, the unconscious Yusuke lying there.
"Yusuke-sama!" Ravel and Isabella cried out at the same time, their panic breaking through as they rushed toward him.
They both held his body, checking him in panic. Soon, they breathed a sigh of relief when they realized he was only unconscious. Holding him like this, enjoying the privilege and luxury of touching him so closely for the first time, both girls felt as if they had risen from hell to heaven.
They had gone from absolute despair at witnessing Yusuke's death to finding him alive and holding him in their arms.
'My guess was right after all, Eleonora said as she closed the door behind her and licked her lips, stepping forward slowly, her high heels making sharp tapping sounds against the floor. She had always been perceptive, intelligent, and rational. It did not take her long to piece together the clues and reach a conclusion.
She had not been completely certain that her deduction was correct before coming here, but it seemed luck was on her side. Her love, her man, was not dead. He was alive. What confused her, however, was why he remained unconscious like this. He did not appear injured, and even his hand was intact.