The darkness in the second-floor room was absolute, but for Mittelt, it was the scene of unprecedented psychological torture.
The little blonde Fallen Angel, dressed in her tattered gothic lolita outfit, lay on her side on the mattress. She couldn't move. She didn't dare breathe too loudly.
Yugo Hano, the monster who had evaporated an upper-middle-class envoy as if he were a trivial nuisance, was fast asleep beside her. And, to add the worst insult to her already massive trauma, the history professor had turned over during the night and, unconsciously seeking something to hold onto after the physical exhaustion, had wrapped a heavy arm around Mittelt's waist, pulling her against his chest.
Grigori's ancient warrior, the sadistic assassin of the Church, had been literally reduced to the function of an anti-stress plush toy.
Mittelt's eyes were wide open, bloodshot with panic and lack of sleep. She could hear Yugo's slow heartbeat. She felt the warmth of his human body, now amplified by the demonic vitality of the Sitri pieces. If she tried to break free, if she woke him from his well-deserved rest, she was certain he would incinerate her with blue fire before she could even open her eyes.
"Please, let it be dawn already... please, let it be dawn already..." Mittelt pleaded in his mind, praying to a God he no longer believed in, as a solitary tear slid down his cheek.
The night advanced in a deathly silence.
But then, something broke the monotony of the room.
It wasn't a noise, but a light. A faint, flickering emerald-green glow began to illuminate the sheets.
Mittelt gasped, glancing down at Yugo's left arm, which rested directly in front of his face. The immense metallic device, the Omnitrix, was reacting.
It wasn't the steady, clean light that indicated a full recharge. It was a static glow, a sickly green that crackled with tiny arcs of harmless electricity. Forcing the direct switch between Cannonbolt and Fire without going through deactivation had wreaked havoc not only on Yugo's human body, but also on the prototype's own firewalls. The operating system was attempting to recalibrate the damage to the genetic code.
With a very low mechanical click, almost like a sigh, the watch dial rose up by itself.
Beep... clack... zzzzt...
The hologram was projected into the air, mere centimeters from Mittelt's nose. The little girl swallowed hard, paralyzed with terror, watching as the doomsday machine began to cycle on its own.
The silhouette of the crystal giant (Diamond) appeared, slowly rotating. Then it flickered and shifted into the armored mass of Cannonbolt. Then into the magma monster (Fire). Then into the gaping sea beast (Aquatic) and the blind predator (Beast). Mittelt remembered those forms; they were the demons that had slaughtered his pride and his army.
The clock continued to flash rapidly through the other forms that Yugo had not yet shown them: the four-armed colossus, the giant insect, the swift alien.
Suddenly, the holographic rotation jammed.
The image flickered violently. The emerald glow darkened, taking on a grayish hue. The clock stopped on a blank space in its database—a slot the system had kept locked and sealed for the user's sanity. But the crack in the software had already been created.
Little by little, the pixels of light began to group together, forming a new silhouette in the air.
Mittelt's eyes widened. The temperature in the room plummeted. It wasn't the winter chill of Kuoh; it was an unnatural cold, the kind of frost that seeps into your bones and smells of crypts and disturbed earth. The Fallen Angel's breath condensed into a small cloud of white vapor.
The hologram finished forming. It showed the figure of a floating creature, covered in what looked like a torn sheet or dead skin, with a single, solitary eye peeking through a crack and long, sharp claws. Ghostly (Zs'Skayr).
Unlike the other holograms, which simply rotated like inanimate 3D models, this one was different.
The one-eyed silhouette stopped rotating. And, slowly, it turned its holographic head to look directly into Mittelt's eyes.
The heart of the fall stopped. He felt an invisible, icy hand squeezing his throat. That thing... that thing inside the clock was alive. It was conscious.
From the Omnitrix's small speaker, a static distortion began to take human form. It was a dry, rasping sound, like two stone slabs rubbing against each other in the dark.
-Hehehe hehehe...
A laugh. A macabre, whispered laugh, laden with a malice so ancient and sadistic that it made Mittelt's blood run cold. It wasn't Yugo Hano's monotonous voice. It was a real demon, a cosmic parasite laughing at its own impending release.
—Soon... —whispered the static voice from the clock.
CLACK.
The Omnitrix's core sank sharply, retracting into the wristband. The green light went out completely, plunging the room back into absolute darkness. The temperature returned to normal within seconds.
Yugo Hano grunted softly in his sleep, adjusting his grip on the little Fallen Angel's waist and pulling her a little closer to him.
Mittelt stood there, her eyes brimming with tears she dared not let fall, biting her lower lip until it bled to keep from screaming. Now she was not only the slave of a human who could transform into different apocalyptic monsters, but she slept clutched to an artifact that housed a soul-devouring specter on the verge of awakening.
Never in her entire life had she so longed for six in the morning to arrive so she could go mop floors.
...
Sunlight filtered through the blinds, hitting Yugo's face.
The professor slowly opened his eyes. His mind, usually clouded and exhausted by the morning pain of his failing organs, felt incredibly clear. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with air without coughing up a single drop of blood. The power of the two Pawn pieces of Clan Sitri was still doing its work.
He tried to sit up in bed, but felt extra weight on his right arm and chest.
He lowered his gaze, expressionless. Curled up against him, trembling occasionally in her light sleep, was Mittelt. The Fallen Angel's face was stained with dried tears, and she clutched Yugo's shirt as if her life depended on it.
Yugo blinked. The memory of the previous night, the extreme exhaustion after atomizing Kokabiel's envoy and kidnapping the three women, returned to his mind. He had been so exhausted that he had literally used her as a gothic pillow and forgotten she existed.
Without the slightest hint of shame, compassion, or discomfort, Yugo raised his free hand and placed it on the fallen man's head.
"Get off," he said in his monotonous, morning voice.
Mittelt let out a high-pitched shriek. She woke with a start, pale as a ghost, rolled out of bed, and fell backward onto the wooden floor. She scrambled to her feet, kneeling down and pressing her forehead to the floor.
"I-I'm sorry, Master! Forgive me! Don't burn me, please!" the girl pleaded a thousand times a minute.
Yugo completely ignored her. He stood up, stretching his back (which let out a couple of satisfying creaks) and walked over to the small closet to find a clean shirt.
"Go down to the shop. Tell the other two pigeons that opening training starts in ten minutes. Today is Sunday. The Saturn opens to the public in three days, on Monday, and if the shop doesn't shine brighter than the sky they fell from, I'm going to use them as fertilizer for the park plants."
Mittelt nodded frantically, getting up clumsily. "Y-Yes, Master! Right away!"
The girl ran out the door, stumbling in the hallway before tumbling down the stairs.
Yugo adjusted his glasses and sighed. He looked at himself in the closet mirror. Physically, he looked the same. He didn't have bat wings or horns, but he knew his humanity had been extinguished at a cellular level. Now he was a demon. Souna Shitori's Pawn.
His gaze dropped to the Omnitrix on his left wrist. The device was green, seemingly normal. However, for a split second, Yugo had the strange sensation that the metal of the watch was colder than usual.
He dismissed it as a side effect of reincarnation and went down to the first floor.
The scene in the main area of the minimarket was worthy of a surreal painting.
The new white shelves were spotless, the refrigerators hummed with perfectly aligned drinks, and the cash register gleamed under the fluorescent lights. The Saturn was finally ready for its grand reopening.
Standing at the counter, in her immaculate school uniform and holding a clipboard, was Asia Argento. The petite nun wore an expression of absolute concentration, assuming her role as "supervisor" with endearing dedication.
Facing her, in military formation, were Grigori's three warriors.
Kalawarner, the voluptuous woman with blue hair; Raynare, the ruthless former leader; and Mittelt, still trembling from the night's events. But what destroyed any aura of threat they might have had were their uniforms.
Yugo, in an act of calculated administrative cruelty, had ordered specific sizes last week. The three Fallen Angels wore garish green aprons with a small, smiling Saturn logo on the chest and matching fabric visors. Kalawarner stared at the floor, her eyes bloodshot with pure mortification, while Raynare looked five seconds away from having an aneurysm from the humiliation.
"Good morning, Yugo-san," Asia greeted, giving a small bow as he came down the stairs.
Yugo nodded. He walked over to stand next to Asia, crossed his arms, and gazed at his three new slaves with his gray eyes.
"Tomorrow at six in the morning, this place will open its doors," Yugo began, his voice echoing in the empty shop. "It will be the only safe place in Kuoh, because I say so. That means the three of you will be the face of that safety."
Yugo pointed at Kalawarner.
"You. You're in charge of inventory and restocking. I want every can of soda aligned with the label facing forward, down to the millimeter. If I see a bag of chips out of place, I'll break your arms."
Kalawarner gritted his teeth, swallowing his pride. "Y-Yes... understood."
Yugo moved his finger towards Mittelt.
"You'll be in charge of the cleaning. You'll mop, sweep, and clean the refrigerator windows. If I find a single fingerprint or a black pen on the floor, I'll turn you into a torch."
Mittelt, remembering the face of the fire alien and the whisper of the ghost in the night, nodded so fast it seemed his neck might snap. "Yes, sir! It will glow, I swear!"
Finally, the professor's cold eyes locked onto Raynare. Her cascading black hair met his gaze with murderous resentment, but she dared not say a word.
"And you..." Yugo murmured. "You almost murdered one of my students at my school on a whim, you tricked this girl into giving up her soul, and you sent your henchmen to attack my house."
Raynare held her breath, waiting for him to raise his arm and disintegrate her right there.
"Therefore, you have the worst possible job," Yugo declared. "You're at the cash register. You'll smile at every human customer who walks in, greet them, bag their groceries, and thank them for choosing Saturn Minimarket. And if any customer complains about your bad attitude..."
Yugo took a step forward, bringing his face closer to hers, his crushing aura of a veteran assassin completely enveloping her.
—...I'm going to use all four of my arms to dismember you so slowly you'll wish Princess Gremory had killed you. Is that clear, cashier?
Raynare's lower lip trembled. The fallen one who aspired to rule the Grigori with Twilight Healing closed her eyes, humiliated to the core of her being, and nodded.
—Y-Yes... manager.
Yugo straightened up, satisfied. He looked at Asia.
—If any of them disrespect you while I'm at school, Asia, just tell me.
Asia nodded, though her kind nature made her feel a little sorry for the women. "I'll make sure everything goes well, Yugo-san. They'll learn the value of hard work."
"You'd better," Yugo said, adjusting his glasses. "The grand reopening is tomorrow. You have twenty-four hours to clean every last speck of dust from this place. Get started."
The three ancient warriors took their brooms and mops with their heads down, dragging their feet towards the corridors, defeated by capitalism and cosmic terror.
As Yugo surveyed his new and efficient empire of slave labor, the watch on his wrist emitted a faint static sound. Almost inaudible. A tiny "tick" that sounded eerily like a dry chuckle.
The eyeless monster, the magma colossus, and the unstoppable armored vehicle had given him control of the city. But Yugo was unaware that, by forcing Azmuth's machinery, he had just awakened the only creature in the catalog that didn't need him to press the dial to go hunting.
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Well, I'm uploading this chapter as a thank you for the two power stones from OneBeyondAll and the great first review for my fic from Meleager. I'm so grateful for your support. As I mentioned, this chapter originally had about 8,000 words, so I've reduced it to just 2,000 words, which means there will be more chapters from now on. With that said, see you in the next chapter. Take care.
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( ̳• · • ̳) ~ ♡ Thanks for reading ♡
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