The sunset painted the streets of Kuoh a reddish-orange when the peace of Saturday was shattered.
Yugo Hano and Asia Argento were walking back to the "Saturn" convenience store, carrying a couple of bags of groceries. Asia was telling him, with a radiant smile, about a book she had started reading in the school library. Yugo listened in silence, nodding occasionally, enjoying the rarity of an afternoon without bloodshed.
But his newly acquired demonic senses did not rest.
Suddenly, a fluctuation of viscous, nauseating energy struck his senses. It was coming from the northern part of the city, near a shopping center frequented by academy students. Yugo stopped dead in his tracks. He could hear the burgeoning panic for miles around. Muffled screams, the sound of shattering glass, and the disgusting roar of not one, but two ravenous Street Demons.
"Yugo-san?" Asia stopped beside him, tilting her head as she saw the professor staring intently to the north. "Is something wrong?"
Yugo's mind, a supercomputer forged in paranoia, processed the variables in milliseconds. Two Street Demons attacking in broad daylight in a crowded area was suicide; the Sitri and Gremory barriers would activate immediately. It made no tactical sense. Unless… it wasn't an attack. It was bait.
"They want me to go," Yugo deduced instantly. "They know I protect the students. They're hoping I'll leave Asia behind, hidden or alone for a few minutes, so they can intercept her. It's a textbook distraction tactic."
The Fallen Angels were underestimating him. They believed that, to deal with the problem, he had to physically travel there and leave his only blind spot exposed.
Yugo let out an icy sigh and put the shopping bags on the floor.
—Asia, close your eyes for a moment and don't be scared by the heat—Yugo ordered in his monotonous but firm voice.
Asia, trusting him blindly, nodded and covered her eyes with both hands.
Yugo raised his left arm and turned the Omnitrix dial. The silhouette of the Armored Titan appeared in the hologram. Without hesitation, he crushed the core.
¡FLASH!
The emerald flash illuminated the empty street for an instant. When the light dissipated, the temperature rose dramatically, but a thermal barrier of absolute control protected Asia from being incinerated.
Fire stood tall in the middle of the sidewalk. The colossus of volcanic rock and burning magma raised its gaze to the Kuoh sky. Its blazing eyes calculated the exact distance, parabolic trajectory, and energy signature of the two Street Demons terrorizing the shopping mall several kilometers away.
The adult Pyronite raised its enormous right hand towards the sky.
I wasn't going to run there. I was going to send a message.
The magma on his shoulders glowed with a blinding intensity. All the heat from his body channeled into the palm of his hand. In a matter of three seconds, a sphere of pure plasma began to expand. It wasn't a simple fireball; Yugo was condensing thermal energy into a miniature sun. The sphere, barely two meters in diameter but with the heat density of the Earth's core, hissed, turning the air around it white and distorted.
"Catch it," growled the deep, crackling voice of the fire monster.
With a brutal movement of his arm, Yugo threw the small sun towards the horizon.
The plasma projectile streaked across the Kuoh sky like a blue and orange comet, leaving a trail of vapor in its wake. From the street, it looked like a shooting star in broad daylight.
Miles away, the two Street Demons had just cornered a group of terrified students. Before they could take another step or before Rias Gremory's peerage could intercept them, the sky lit up.
The small sun struck exactly in the center of the two monsters.
There was no massive explosion to damage the buildings, because Yugo had compressed the heat so that it imploded inward. The Street Demons simply evaporated in a blinding flash of white light and superheated ash. The danger vanished before the city's alarms even began to sound.
On the pedestrian street, Heatblast lowered his arm. His chest glowed, and the Omnitrix deactivated at will.
¡FLASH!
Yugo Hano reverted to his human form, his breathing completely stabilized thanks to his new demonic constitution. He adjusted his tie, picked up the bags from the floor, and looked at the blonde girl.
—You can open your eyes now, Asia.
She blinked, feeling the air around her was strangely warm, as if an oven door had just been opened. She looked up at the sky, where a thin line of white smoke was dissipating in the distance.
"What was that, Yugo-san? It was so hot..." Asia asked, tilting her head innocently.
"Early fireworks," Yugo replied without changing his expression. "Come on, the ice cream's going to melt."
Asia smiled brightly and trotted beside him, unaware that her protector had just launched an intercontinental precision ballistic strike that would send shivers down the spines of military strategists from all three factions.
The old abandoned church in the forest was shrouded in a sepulchral silence, so dense that it was almost suffocating.
Raynare stared through the shattered stained-glass window toward the city center. Her violet eyes were bloodshot, and her hands trembled uncontrollably. Dohnaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt were looking in the same direction, completely pale. Father Freed, sitting on a bench with his arms mutilated and bandaged, had stopped laughing.
Everyone had seen the small sun cross the sky.
Everyone had felt the energy signature of the two Street Demons vanish in the blink of an eye, atomized from the other side of the city.
Raynare's tactical plan had been shattered by a display of power so absurd and humiliating it bordered on the divine. The human hadn't fallen for the trap. He hadn't even bothered to walk there. He had simply thrown a star from his position to obliterate the distraction without letting go of the nun's hand.
"This... this is madness," Mittelt stammered, backing away and bumping into a stone pillar. "It's going to kill us! That thing is going to incinerate us from the other side of the city if we try to go near it!"
Raynare clenched her teeth until her gums bled. Her plan was perfect. She had spent favors and risked her position to lure those Street Kids.
"We can't go back..." Raynare murmured, despair choking her voice. "Without Twilight Healing, Azazel-sama will demote us. We're the laughingstock of the Grigori."
—You're wrong. You're already a laughingstock, and not even Azazel-sama cares what you do.
The voice, deep, arrogant and charged with an overwhelming magical pressure, resonated from the shadows of the altar.
The five present whirled around, instinctively summoning their weapons. From the shadows behind the shattered statue, an imposing figure emerged.
He wasn't a low-ranking Fallen Angel. He wore sleek, dark armor that betrayed an aristocratic status within the fallen ranks. But what instantly brought Raynare and Dohnaseek to their knees was the sight of his back: six obsidian-black feathered wings unfurled majestically, filling the church with an aura of lethal power. A middle-to-upper-class one.
The newcomer looked at them with utter contempt, his crimson eyes gleaming in the darkness.
"They've been in this city for weeks, hiding like rats, and all they've managed to do is lose the nun and attract the attention of an anomaly they don't even understand," the envoy said, his footsteps echoing on the cold stone as he approached Raynare. "Kokabiel-sama is losing patience with their failures."
"M-My lord!" Raynare lowered her head to the stone floor, trembling with panic. "That human... possesses a relic that breaks the rules! He can transform into monsters of massive power! He unleashed a sun! We can't go near the girl!"
The fallen six-winged one let out a dry, condescending laugh.
"I've been watching. Their power is destructive, yes, but you are cowards who lack tactical vision." Kokabiel's envoy lifted Raynare's chin with the toe of his boot. "If you can't separate the protector from the nun, then you will besiege everything he protects. Kokabiel-sama has sent me to escalate this operation. We will bring war to Kuoh, and if that anomaly wants to play at being the guardian of humanity, we will drown their precious city in blood until they hand over the girl."
...
Sunday morning at the "Saturn" minimarket, the air was filled with the scent of freshly brewed coffee and fresh paint. Thanks to the efficiency of the human workers—and a couple of tactical "suggestions" Yugo had given the construction company—the store was almost ready for its grand reopening. The first floor gleamed with new metal shelving, and the second floor, the habitable annex, had been transformed into a warm and modern haven.
Yugo Hano sat at the small counter in the second-floor kitchen, watching Asia Argento. The girl wore an apron with the Saturn logo and hummed a religious song as she prepared breakfast.
Physically, Yugo felt like a new man. The power of Sona Sitri's pieces continued to stabilize his body. There was no longer a trace of the weakness that forced him to lean against the walls. He felt powerful, fast... but his mind was still a war zone. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the faces of the people he had murdered to extinguish their souls.
"Here you are, Yugo-san!" Asia placed a plate of French toast in front of him, her smile defying all the darkness of Kuoh. "I've practiced a lot, I hope the flavor is right."
Yugo took a bite. It was sweet. Too sweet for a man who had lived on bitterness and regret, but he nodded with his usual seriousness.
—That's good, Asia. You've improved.
The small light in Yugo's eyes shone again, a phenomenon that only occurred when she was near. Asia sat down opposite him, resting her chin on her hands.
"Yesterday... when I felt that massive heat," Asia began, her tone softer, "I knew you were doing something to protect me. I don't know what monsters inhabit your watch, Yugo-san, but I know they all have your heart."
Yugo stopped his hand with the fork in the air.
"Don't be mistaken, Asia," he replied in his monotone voice. "What you saw yesterday was an act of violence. I am not a hero. I am a man who grew tired of being the victim and decided to become the executioner."
"An executioner who saves lost girls and protects his students," she retorted, unfazed by his coldness. "I will pray that one day you too may see yourself as I do."
Yugo didn't answer. He finished his breakfast in silence, put on his coat, and went down to the shop to check the final inventory details. The rest of the day passed in a deceptive calm. He helped Asia with her academy assignments, showed her how the Saturn's new digital payment system worked, and, for a few moments, allowed himself to forget that he was a demon's pawn and an army's target.
Night fell on Kuoh with an unnatural heaviness. There was no wind, and the silence on Saturn Street was so absolute it seemed suspicious.
Around eleven o'clock at night, Yugo was in the back room, cleaning his glasses. Asia had already retired to her room upstairs. Suddenly, the black crystal hanging around Yugo's neck—a gift from the previous owner—began to vibrate against his chest. It was so cold it felt like it wanted to burn his skin.
Yugo froze. His demonic instincts and veteran hypervigilance screamed in unison.
She swung out the back room light and went to the window overlooking the side alley. As she looked out, her gray eyes narrowed.
The streetlights had been turned off, not by an electrical fault, but by magical interference. A dense purple mist began to seep from the corners of the buildings, sealing the entire block off from the outside world. An upper-class barrier.
Yugo raced up the stairs to the second floor at a speed that would have been impossible a week ago. He entered Asia's room. The girl woke with a start, frightened.
—Yugo-san? What's wrong?
"Get dressed. Now," Yugo ordered, his voice an icy whisper. "They've arrived."
Yugo walked to the second-floor window and drew back the curtain just enough. What he saw below would have made any other man collapse in terror.
The Saturn minimarket was surrounded.
On the main street, lined up like an execution squad, stood at least a dozen men dressed in white trench coats and cloth masks. Renegade exorcists. They all wielded lightsabers or blessed pistols that glowed with fanatical hatred in the darkness. In the center of the group, leaning against a broken lamppost and sporting a twisted grin, was Father Freed Sellzen, his arms still bandaged but holding a new lightsaber chainsaw in one hand.
But they were not the real threat.
Above the rooftops of neighboring houses, beating their black-feathered wings, stood the Fallen Angels. Raynare, Dohnaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt flanked the perimeter, lances of light already materialized in their hands. Their faces reflected a mixture of lingering panic and a morbid thirst for revenge.
And right in front of the minimarket's main glass door, hovering just inches above the ground, was the six-winged emissary. Its aura was so oppressive that the Saturn's windows began to vibrate, threatening to shatter.
The upper-middle-class Fallen Angel raised his right hand. A spear of purple light, the size of a telephone pole, began to form, whizzing with enough power to vaporize the entire store.
"Yugo Hano," the envoy's voice echoed through the walls, amplified by magic. "Hand over the nun and the artifact in your wrist, and we'll allow your human students to attend school tomorrow. If you refuse, this neighborhood will be the first graveyard of your stupid private war."
Asia stood behind Yugo, trembling, clinging to his arm as she watched the sea of enemies through the glass.
Yugo Hano showed no fear. He didn't even blink. His left hand slowly descended toward the Omnitrix, which glowed with an impatient emerald green, as if the watch itself was hungry for battle.
—Asia— Yugo said, without taking his eyes off the six pairs of black wings. —Stay in the center of the room and don't move, no matter what happens.
—Yugo-san... there are too many —she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.
Yugo gave that cold half-smile, the same one Sona Sitri had learned to respect.
"You're mistaken about something, Asia. You don't have me surrounded," Yugo declared, his finger resting on the clock face. "I have them surrounded. I just need to choose what kind of death they want tonight."
The Omnitrix's buzzing began to rise, illuminating the second-floor room with a radioactive light that eclipsed the gleam of the holy swords outside. The tide of the hunt was about to turn.
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Well, this is my first time using automatic posting; I hope it works well. See you in the next chapter. Take care.
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( ̳• · • ̳) ~ ♡ Thanks for reading ♡
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