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The silence in the Occult Research Club was so thick that Issei Hyoudou felt like he was going to suffocate. He sat on the edge of the sofa, his hands on his knees, avoiding looking toward the door at all costs.
Rias Gremory stood behind her desk, with Akeno to her right and Kiba and Koneko standing guard. All eyes were on the man who had just entered without permission.
Yugo Hano walked to the center of the red carpet. Her expression was the same as always: a bored block of granite. But what broke the atmosphere of epic tension was the blonde bundle perched on her head. Mittelt, the Fallen Angel, was curled up in a ball, clinging to her hair, acting as a living gothic hat that quivered every time Rias exhaled.
Beside him, Asia Argento held the professor's arm, looking at the club with a mixture of curiosity and shyness.
"Hano-sensei," Rias said, breaking the silence. "Sona informed me that you would be coming. I must admit that seeing a Grigori officer used as a fashion accessory is still... disconcerting."
"Let's skip the pleasantries, Gremory," Yugo replied, adjusting his glasses with his middle finger. "I have a shop to open tomorrow, and I don't like to waste time. I've come here to negotiate the future of Asia."
Issei looked up, his eyes shining. "Asia...? What do you want with her, Professor?"
Yugo didn't even deign to look at him. His contempt for the wielder of Critical was absolute. "Shut up, Hyoudou. The adults are talking."
Rias interlaced her fingers on the table, her blue-green eyes locking onto Yugo's gray ones. "Negotiate? I heard you took her under your wing. Sona says she's your 'light.' What do you mean by negotiating her future?"
Yugo took a step forward, releasing a tiny fraction of his aura, enough to make Koneko's invisible tail bristle.
"I want you to reincarnate her," Yugo declared. "You possess two empty Bishop pieces. Asia has a healing affinity that your peerage desperately needs. Her Sacred Gear, Twilight Healing, is an anomaly that only a Bishop piece can properly empower."
Rias blinked, surprised by the human's frankness and tactical awareness. "It's a tempting offer. A healer of that caliber is a treasure for any clan. But... why are you, the Pawn of Sitri, asking this of me and not your own Queen?"
"Sona is a highly mobile combat strategist. Asia is a static target," Yugo explained with clinical detachment. "In the Sitri clan, she would be a tactical liability. In yours, surrounded by a brute-force Tower and a swift Knight, she's the missing piece. Besides…" Yugo paused, his gaze softening slightly as he looked at Asia, "…she considers Hyoudou her first friend. She'll be more comfortable here."
Asia nodded vigorously, her cheeks flushed. "I want to be helpful, Rias-san! I want to be someone Yugo-san can be proud of!"
Rias smiled, but her high-class demon mind was searching for the fine print. "I accept that you be my Bishop. But you know that, as my servant, you must live in the Gremory residence, deliver flyers to secure contracts, and carry out my training orders."
"No," Yugo interrupted, his voice like the blow of a hammer on an anvil. "This is where my conditions begin."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. Mittelt, above his head, let out a whimper.
"Asia will continue living with me on the Saturn," Yugo decreed. "You won't waste her time handing out flyers around town like some cheap pizza delivery girl. She won't be involved in petty contracts with perverted humans, nor will you expose her to unnecessary dangers for the sake of your ambition for rank. She's a Saint, Gremory. I won't allow you to defile her with the cheap bureaucracy of the Underworld."
Rias stood up, her crimson hair whipping with indignation. "That's unacceptable! A servant must fulfill their duties to strengthen the clan! If they don't live with me or honor contracts, what do I gain, besides a powerful asset I can't use as I please?"
Yugo Hano took it a step further, invading the princess's personal space. He removed his glasses, revealing those gray eyes that held the memory of twenty-one monsters and a decade of murders.
"In exchange for your freedom and your protection..." Yugo whispered, his voice carrying a weight that made Issei shrink in his seat, "...I, Sona Sitri's Pawn, will owe you a favor."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Kiba's eyes widened. Akeno stopped smiling. Rias froze.
A "favor" from Yugo Hano was not a mere promise. It was a blank check signed by the man who had evaporated a six-winged Kokabiel envoy in seconds. It was the commitment of a force of nature capable of tipping the scales of a civil war.
Rias looked at Asia, then at Yugo, and finally at Akeno. Her Queen gave her a slight nod, with a look Rias couldn't quite decipher: it was a mixture of approval and something akin to envy.
Rias sighed, sitting back down, feeling strangely small in front of the "mere teacher".
"A favor from you..." Rias murmured. "I understand. That price is, in fact, much higher than a million human contracts."
Rias took a velvet box from her desk. Inside, a crimson bishop shone with a pure light.
—Asia Argento—Rias called solemnly.
The nun approached, letting go of Yugo's hand. She knelt before the demon with angelic grace.
—Under my name as Rias Gremory, I grant you this piece. Be my Bishop, heal our wounds, and live under my protection, but under the laws of the one who watches over you.
The Crystal Bishop sank into Asia's chest. A burst of crimson and emerald-green energy enveloped the girl. Her humanity vanished, replaced by the eternal vitality of demons. When it was over, Asia stood, looking more radiant than ever.
"I feel... great!" exclaimed Asia, looking at her hands.
Yugo put his glasses back on, resuming his facade of indifference.
"Deal, Gremory. You have my favor in your pocket. Don't waste it on foolishness."
Yugo turned around, ready to leave. But as he passed Akeno, he stopped for a millisecond. Their eyes met.
—That was good tea yesterday, Himejima—he murmured, just low enough for only her to hear.
Akeno shuddered with pleasure, her cheeks turning pink. "Ara, ara... I'll always be ready to serve you more, Jose."
Rias frowned at the unintelligible whisper, but said nothing. Yugo took Asia's hand and walked toward the exit.
"Let's go, Asia!" Yugo shouted at her head. "Mittelt, stop drooling on my hair or I'll turn you into a rug!"
"I-I'm sorry, Master! It's just that the Bishop was so shiny!" squealed the little blonde girl.
The club door closed behind them.
Rias slumped back in her chair, exhaling the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She glanced at her peerage, who was still in shock.
"Buchou..." Issei stammered. "Did you really just let Asia live with that guy in exchange for a favor? He's scary!"
Rias looked out the window, watching Yugo and Asia walk around the schoolyard in the light of the full moon.
"Ise... that man isn't a 'scary guy,'" Rias replied seriously. "We've just secured the most powerful alliance in Kuoh. I only hope that, when the time comes to ask for that favor, the world will be able to survive whatever he unleashes."
Meanwhile, in the corridor, Yugo squeezed Asia's hand. The pact of eternity was sealed. Asia was a demon, immortal like him. The fear of loneliness was gone, replaced by the certainty that, no matter how many centuries passed, Saturn would always have its Saint, and he would always have his reason to never extinguish his soul again.
...
The underground of Kuoh Academy smelled of ozone, sweat, and residual magic.
In the center of the immense training hall, Yugo Hano was doing something that, just a week ago, would have been a death sentence for his fragile human anatomy: he was stretching.
He bent forward, touching the tips of his shoes with his hands flat on the floor. There was no agonizing crack in his spine. No stabbing pain in his lungs. He straightened, rotating his shoulders and neck, feeling the demonic energy of Sona Sitri's Pawn pieces flow through his veins like perfectly lubricated oil. To be alive, and truly healthy, felt almost like a trap.
He adjusted his glasses with his index finger and let out a long sigh, adopting his usual posture of strict boredom.
He glanced up at the line that had formed in front of him. The entire Sitri clan nobility stood there, dressed in athletic wear, tense and sweating profusely before the warm-up had even begun. Surviving the ten hellish lessons the previous week had conditioned them; now they viewed their history teacher as the walking equivalent of a natural disaster.
Up on the observation platform, Sona Sitri held her ever-present clipboard. Her gaze met Yugo's. There was a millisecond of silent understanding, a spark of complicity that Sona quickly concealed by adjusting her glasses.
"Very well," Yugo's flat, emotionless voice echoed in the room. "Today we'll be working on the Gamma Interception Formation. Tsubaki will take the lead with reflective mirrors, Reya and Momo will provide covering fire, Tomoe and Tsubasa will close the flanks, and Genshirou..."
Yugo stopped.
His gray eyes, sharp as a hawk's, scanned the line of servants from left to right. His brain processed the image. Something was wrong with the visual symmetry.
He remained completely silent. The Sitri nobility held their breath, fearing they had made a fatal mistake simply by breathing.
Yugo closed his eyes, exhaled slowly, and opened them again. He scanned the row once more.
"Tsubaki. Momo. Reya. Tomoe. Tsubasa. Saji," he mentally enumerated. Six servants. That was the canonical inventory of the Student Council before Riser Phenex's arrival.
But next to Saji, looking at him with a pair of enormous, bright eyes, was a girl with short brown hair and a tiny figure, barely reaching the blond boy's chest. She seemed to be vibrating with pure, pent-up hyperactivity.
Yugo tilted his head. He raised his right hand and, momentarily losing his majestic and terrifying composure, began to physically count by pointing with his index finger.
—One... two... three... four... five... six... —Yugo's finger stopped pointing at the new girl—... seven.
The professor lowered his hand. He turned slowly toward the observation platform.
"Souna," Yugo called, his monotone voice taking on a hint of genuine administrative confusion. "Someone left a goblin in the training room. Please tell them to come and pick it up before I accidentally step on it."
Saji choked on his own saliva to keep from laughing. Tsubaki discreetly covered her mouth.
Sona, from the heights, coughed into her fist to maintain a serious demeanor.
"She's not a goblin, Sensei," Sona replied, placing her hands on the railing. "She's Ruruko Nimura. She's a first-year student, and since last night... she's my new Pawn."
The "goblin" in question took a step forward and bowed so quickly and energetically that he almost hit his forehead on the ground.
"It's an honor to meet you, Hano-sensei!" Ruruko shouted, her voice echoing throughout the Underground. "The Student Council President has told me so much about you! And Saji-senpai said you're a soul-devouring monster who breathes blue fire and laughs in the dark, but I promise I'll do my best not to be a burden!"
A deathly silence returned to the room.
Everyone present turned their heads to look at Saji Genshirou. The blond man paled until he became translucent, feeling as if his life expectancy had just been reduced to zero.
Yugo fixed his gray wells on Saji. He said nothing. He didn't need to. The promise of eternal pain was implicit.
"Genshirou..." Yugo murmured with a terrifying gentleness. "You and I are going to have a very educational talk about psychological horror later."
Then Yugo turned his attention to the new girl, and his analytical mind began to connect the dots. Ruruko Nimura wasn't supposed to join the Sitri clan so soon. In the original story, her reincarnation happened later.
But the butterfly effect of Yugo's existence was rapidly altering the chessboard.
He had atomized a Renegade Demon and an upper-middle-class Fallen in a single weekend. Sona had realized just how hopelessly outmatched her peerage was in terms of brute power. And furthermore, thanks to the intellectual thrashing Grey Matter had given her at chess, Yugo had secured a massive budget for the Council. With unlimited funds and the paranoia of an impending war, Sona had accelerated her recruitment plans, seeking out pure physical talent.
The "Canon" was cracking, and Ruruko Nimura was living proof.
Yugo sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He already had enough on his plate running a convenience store with Fallen Angel slaves, looking after a Saint, and dealing with an accidental demonic engagement. Now he had to train a hyperactive little girl.
"Good," Yugo said, lowering his hand and retrieving his ice mask. "Extra cannon fodder. Listen carefully, Nimura. In this room, I'm not your teacher, I'm your test executioner. Your fighting style is hand-to-hand combat, right?"
Ruruko nodded vigorously, bumping her fists together. "Yes, Sensei! Physical enhancement magic for the legs!"
"Perfect." Yugo rolled up his white shirt sleeves, revealing the recalibrated Omnitrix, which glowed a deep green in the dim light. "Then you're going to learn rule number one of fighting someone bigger than you: if you stand still, you die."
Yugo placed two fingers on the touch dial of his watch. The green hologram appeared instantly, rotating until it stopped on a robust, crystalline figure, but different from that of the original Petrosapien. It was a magenta rock figure.
"Ready, goblin?" Yugo asked, without waiting for an answer.
He crushed the dial.
¡FLASH!
Emerald light flooded the room, blinding Ruruko for a moment. When the girl opened her eyes, the history teacher had vanished. In his place, a giant composed of purple crystals and dark space rocks, with a single glowing eye, stood before her.
Chromastone crossed his arms over his chest, radiating a dense and heavy energy.
"Gamma Formation, now!" roared the deep, resonant voice of the Crystalsapien. "Nimura, attack me with everything you've got. Show me if you're worth the piece they gave you."
Ruruko grinned, baring her teeth with reckless excitement, and charged forward, closely followed by the rest of the Sitri nobility.
From the platform, Sona watched the scene unfold, jotting notes in her notebook, a small, undeniable smile of pride curling her lips. Her Pawn was a constant headache, but for the first time, Sona felt her family was truly complete and ready for whatever the Underworld threw at them.
...
The basement of Kuoh Academy looked like it had been the epicenter of a natural disaster. The linoleum was torn apart, there were craters in the walls, and a smell of burnt ozone hung in the thick air.
Scattered across the ground, in various positions that spoke of utter agony, lay the members of the Sitri nobility. Saji was curled up in a ball, murmuring incoherent pleas. Tsubaki leaned against her broken naginata, breathing heavily. And in the center of a small crater, Ruruko Nimura, the new and energetic Pawn, lay face up, her eyes spiraling. Yet her right hand trembled until it rose, offering a thumbs-up in a sign of unyielding spirit before falling limply to the ground.
In the center of the massacre, the colossus of purple crystal and dark rocks exhaled a deep sigh.
The enormous hand of Stone (Chromastone) reached for the symbol on his chest and pressed it.
¡FLASH!
The emerald light bathed the room and compressed, leaving Yugo Hano standing amidst the chaos. His white shirt was immaculate; he adjusted his glasses with his index finger and gazed at the fallen with his usual apathetic expression.
"Formation broken at four minutes and thirty seconds," Yugo declared, his monotone voice echoing in the silence. "They've improved. Nimura, excellent pain tolerance. Next time, try dodging the laser beam instead of trying to headbutt it."
"Yes... Sensei...!" Ruruko moaned from the ground, smiling foolishly.
Yugo remained silent, his hands in his pockets. His mind, freed from the adrenaline of battle, began to function at a purely analytical level. The gears of his memory, those that held the knowledge of his past life regarding the High School DxD "Canon," began to turn.
He looked at Sona's servants. Saji Genshirou consumed four Pawn pieces because of the Dragon King Vritra. Ruruko Nimura consumed one. He, with his worn-out body and the Omnitrix, had required two.
"Four, plus one, plus two... seven," Yugo calculated internally.
The Sitri clan had eight Pawns in total. That left exactly one Pawn free on Sona's board. She knew, from her memories, that Sona kept a Knight and a Rook for two other students she would recruit in the future (Loup Garou and Bennia, or something like that; the names escaped her). But Sona's Pawns, in the original line, ended there. That remaining piece was going to gather dust in the President's velvet box.
Unless he gave it a tactical use.
Yugo closed his eyes for a second. He knew that the Fallen Angels Kokabiel would soon send would search for Raynare and the others to execute them for treason or failure. Enslaving them on the Saturn humiliated them, yes, but it didn't legally protect them from the Underworld or Grigori. If they were killed, he would have to clean up the mess and find new cashiers. That was inefficient.
Yugo opened his eyes.
"Sona," Yugo called, turning toward the observation platform. "You have a free Pawn piece."
Sona Sitri, who was noting down the survival time of her peerage, blinked and looked up, surprised by the sudden change of subject and the accuracy of her Pawn.
—That's right. Why do you ask? Do you think Nimura needs reinforcements on the front lines?
Yugo didn't respond. He raised his left arm. The new, sleek black Omnitrix glowed. Two quick turns of the dial and the silhouette of a humanoid manta ray was projected into the air.
It crushed the core.
¡FLASH!
Jetray appeared on the sand. Before Sona could ask what he was doing, the red alien opened his yellow wings.
¡BOOM!
A sonic boom broke the sound barrier inside the venue. Jetray vanished from everyone's sight, leaving only a gust of hurricane-force wind that nearly knocked Sona off the platform.
"Where did he go?!" Saji shouted, covering his head.
Three seconds later. Exactly three seconds.
¡BOOM!
Another shockwave shook the room. Jetray reappeared in the exact same spot where he had been. The red alien brought his hand to the symbol on his chest.
¡FLASH!
Yugo Hano was back in his human form. He was completely calm; there wasn't a single bead of sweat on his forehead. But he was no longer alone.
At his feet, lying face down on the floor of the training room, was a figure writhing in dizziness.
She was wearing a bright green apron with the Saturn logo on it. In one hand she held a barcode scanner tightly, and in the other, a bag of potato chips.
"Aaaaahhh! My head! What the hell?!" Raynare shrieked, trying to get to her feet as the world spun around her. She looked around, seeing the bruised Sitri nobility and Sona staring down at her, mouth agape. "Where am I?! I was collecting money in corridor three!"
Yugo Hano looked at his head cashier, then looked up at Sona.
"I present to you your latest Pawn," Yugo declared with absolute administrative detachment. "High flight capability, advanced handling of light weapons, and combat experience. Furthermore, his customer service has improved by three percent this week."
Raynare paled upon hearing the words, dropping the price scanner.
"WHAT?!" screamed the former leader of Grigori's assassins, staring at Yugo in horror. "Pawn?! I am a Fallen Angel! I will not become a filthy demon! I'd rather die!"
The cold, gray wells of Yugo pierced her. The temperature around her seemed to drop drastically.
"You have two options, Raynare," Yugo said, his tone devoid of any empathy, perfectly concealing the fact that making her a demon was the only way to shield her from Kokabiel's wrath. "Option A: You accept the Pawn piece, gain legal protection from the Underworld, stay alive, and I'll give you Sundays off."
Yugo took a step towards her, his shadow covering the terrified woman.
—Option B: I deny you reincarnation, I leave you at the mercy of Azazel's death squads, and in the meantime, you will clean the Saturn's toilets with a toothbrush until they come to behead you. Choose. You have three seconds.
Raynare looked at Yugo, then at Sona (who was holding the box of Evil Pieces with a mixture of shock and pure tactical fascination), and finally at the ground. The pride of a Fallen Angel fought against cosmic terror and savage capitalism.
"Give me Sundays off," Raynare murmured, lowering her head in complete surrender.
Sona, still unable to believe that her Pawn had just kidnapped a former enemy commander in the middle of her work shift to force her to join his family, sighed and took the last Pawn piece out of the box.
As Raynare's reincarnation ritual began, filling the room with a crimson glow, Yugo disengaged from the matter. His tactical work was done.
He looked towards the farthest, darkest corner of the training room.
There, huddled behind a pile of mats, Mittelt was shivering. The little blonde gothic lolita hadn't participated in the training; she'd simply been dragged there because Yugo had forgotten to tell her she could stay in the tent. She was hugging her knees, eating a chocolate chip cookie from Asia's bag, trying to make herself invisible.
Yugo's eyes lingered on her for a long moment. He assessed her tactical usefulness, her range, and the fact that, canonically, she was the weakest of the group but the loudest.
"Too many pieces change the game," Yugo thought listlessly. "Sona doesn't need any more scum on her team right now. Besides..."
Yugo continued to stare at her, taking in the details of her frilled dress and her fearful demeanor. He remembered how she had clung to his head the night before.
"It's always useful to have a spare tactical hat," his mind concluded with twisted logic.
Mittelt, feeling the monster's dead gaze fixed on her, choked on her cookie. She raised a trembling hand and placed the giant plush toy Asia had given her over her face, praying that the manager wouldn't decide she needed another Pawn, or worse... a new mop.