"Yugo, you’re...!"
"Hey, Ryuga. Sorry for making you worry in more ways than one. But I kept my word."
Yugo gave a firm thumbs-up, a faint smile playing on his lips as he spoke.
Ryuga looked between Yugo and his sister—who seemed anxious but appeared completely unhurt—and let out a long, heavy sigh before finally speaking.
"Honestly... you really are straightforward to a fault, Yugo. To go to such reckless lengths just to keep a promise to me..."
"Didn't you save Fee back at the Insect Museum? That makes us even. Tit for tat."
Yugo laughed without a care in the world. Ryuga returned the smile and knelt down beside him. As Ryuga offered his shoulder to help him up, a flustered Yugo protested.
"Whoa, hey! You don't have to go that far! I can walk on my own!"
"Don't push yourself. Let me show my gratitude for saving my sister, partner."
"Ngh...! Heh, if you put it like that, I can't exactly say no..."
Sensing the absolute trust in Ryuga’s tone and expression, Yugo finally accepted the help and leaned his weight against him. Ryuga led his partner out of the hospital, offering his thanks once more.
"Thank you, Yugo. If you hadn't been there, Yui would have been in serious trouble. I owe her safety to you."
"You don't need to keep thanking me. Besides, I think there's someone else who deserves the credit more than I do."
"Eh...?"
Raiha looked on in surprise as Yugo turned his gaze toward her. Yugo gave a wry smile at her reaction and spoke to his partner.
"She’s the one who scouted the location and number of the bombs. She protected Yui and the others while we were recovering them, and she even deployed a barrier to dampen the blast's impact... That was all Raiha. I might be the one standing out, but she’s the hidden hero of this operation."
"Eh? Ah...!? N-no, I didn't do anything that impressive..."
"...I see. You were the one who saved Yui."
Ryuga murmured, his eyes fixing on Raiha. As she stiffened under his gaze, Ryuga offered her his heartfelt thanks.
"Thank you so truly, Utsusemi-san."
"Ah..."
It was a short sentence, but the depth of Ryuga's sincerity was unmistakable. Her face flushed a deep crimson. Raiha stood frozen for a moment, her mouth agape, before responding shyly.
"I-I didn't really do much... I'm just so glad Yui-san and everyone else are safe!"
"Yeah, you're right. That's a wrap on this one!"
The strange tension between Ryuga and Raiha seemed to have dissolved, bringing them closer together in the best way possible. Yugo watched with satisfaction, pleased that the incident had ended with the ground hardening after the rain. As Raiha and Ryuga helped him toward the waiting Relief Unit, he reflected on how, despite the chaos, everything had been resolved for the better.
The rest of the group watched their backs, but Anhel suddenly voiced a nagging doubt.
"Still... that Yugo. How is he even alive? Even with the high defense of that Purple Armor, taking an explosion like that from point-blank range... he shouldn't have walked away from that."
"Wait, really? But Yugo seemed pretty energetic, didn't he?"
"Maybe he used another one of those weird tricks of his? Did any of you see anything?"
"Sorry, but we couldn't confirm what happened. Between the shockwave and the flash, we were completely blinded."
As an engineer, Anhel understood the Blaster’s capabilities better than anyone—even Yugo himself. She knew he could push the specs through sheer willpower, but she couldn't fathom how he could have completely neutralized the impact of those bombs. Her words sowed seeds of doubt among the others. No one knew exactly what Yugo had done in that split second. Not a single person had seen his actions.
...Except for one young girl.
"Ah, that was...!"
"Hmm? Yui, did you say something?"
"N-no! It’s nothing! You’re just hearing things, Fee!"
"Huh? Are you sure...?"
Because everyone had squeezed their eyes shut at the moment of detonation, they couldn't see what Yugo had done with their physical eyes. However, Yui—who had been observing the souls from the start—knew exactly what had transpired.
She was about to speak when she noticed Yugo staring back at her. He held a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. Realizing he wanted it kept a secret, she dodged Fee's pursuit and scurried away from Anhel and the others. Fee followed her, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
The area was still chaotic, but the crisis was ostensibly over. All that was left was to let the Security Force handle the aftermath... or so it should have been.
Looking back, this incident had been a series of disasters that struck just when they thought it was over. The Level 2 Gigantrose had appeared right before their escape; then, just when that was dealt with, the bombs had detonated. Malice kept striking whenever they let their guard down.
Twice now, the pattern had repeated. And as the saying goes, what happens twice will happen a third time. At the very last moment, a mechanism prepared by the masterminds to lock all the gears of fate into place was about to descend upon Yugo and his friends.