"Ugh... nngh...!"
"Yugo-san! You're awake! Thank goodness...!"
Yugo felt a biting chill against his skin. Groaning from the agony radiating through his entire body, he forced his eyes open. As he took in his surroundings and saw Yui hovering over him with a worried expression, Ryuga spoke up.
"Are you back with us, Yugo?"
"Ryuga... where are we?"
"A cave a safe distance from the academy and the city. We’re using it as a hideout while we treat your injuries."
The realization that he had lost consciousness during their flight hit him. Simultaneously, the memory of everything that had happened at the academy surged back—proving it hadn't been a dream. A look of bitter regret clouded his face.
He was haunted by the fact that he had left Fee and his friends behind. Ignoring the flare of pain, he forced himself into a sitting position and looked Ryuga in the eye.
"Ryuga, you said it back there, didn't you? You said Dogma's Group wouldn't lay a hand on the others... What did you mean by that?"
He remembered the words clearly. As Ryuga had carried him out, he had insisted that the enemies wouldn't harm the hostages. Yugo desperately wanted to believe that wasn't a lie, yet he clenched his fists, terrified it had been nothing more than a convenient excuse to ensure his retreat.
"I can't very well refuse to answer that," Ryuga said quietly. "Rest easy, Yugo. It wasn't a lie. They won't touch them."
"How can you be so sure, Brother?" Yui asked, her voice trembling.
"Because Dogma's goal is a Complete Victory—one that requires Yugo to suffer first."
Yui was clearly just as worried about Fee and the friends they had left behind. Seeing his sister’s distress, Ryuga moved from his brief reassurance to a more detailed explanation.
"If her only goal was to kill Yugo, she could have simply used Fee and the hypnotized students as shields to seal his counterattacks while her group struck. But she didn't. Dogma's Group forced Yugo to weigh Fee's life against Marcos and the others, thrusting a choice upon him specifically to torture him. Her Original Plan was likely to crush a wavering, broken Yugo in front of Fee and the others to drive them into Despair. Then, she would have brutally murdered them before his eyes while he was too powerless to resist. Losing his brother and his friends would have left Yugo in a state of permanent, crushing agony. That is Dogma's true intent."
"B-but!" Yugo interjected. "That might have just been the masterminds playing around! What if they're angry the plan was ruined? They might kill someone just to make an example of them!"
"No, they won't. If they did that, they would be handing you a Righteous Anger. They know that if you were fueled by that, they would lose."
Yugo frowned at Ryuga’s cryptic reasoning. Ryuga motioned for his partner to sit back down before taking a seat himself to continue.
"Dogma's Method is predictable. First, she shakes the opponent's resolve. While they're confused, she pulls them into her pace and takes control of the situation. It was the same when she was hunting for Reincarnators, wasn't it? She understands perfectly that a human is at their weakest when they are paralyzed by hesitation."
"Now that you mention it... you're right," Yugo admitted.
"She used the same trick this time. Forcing you to choose between Fee and Marcos was a tactic to agitate everyone there, not just you. The plan was working perfectly... until I intervened. In that moment, contrary to Dogma's Intent, Fee and Marcos found a definitive spark of hope."
Had Fee and the others remained captives while watching Yugo be beaten into the dirt by the other Reincarnators, their hearts would have surely succumbed to Despair. The trauma of watching their precious brother, friend, and Hero be trampled and broken because of their existence would have been beyond endurance.
But Ryuga had appeared. Yugo's Partner, a comrade as dependable as the Hero himself, had arrived to save him. That single act had reset the hearts of everyone who had been spiraling into confusion under Dogma's Strategy.
"Because of that, none of them fear death anymore. They believe that as long as you survive this, you will eventually avenge them even if Dogma kills them. They are prepared to die with a smile, trusting in you."
"But that’s exactly why...! I can't let them die!"
"Of course not. And more importantly, Dogma doesn't want them to have a Hope-filled Death. Above all else, Dogma is afraid of you. She is in such Fear of your genuine rage that she allowed us to escape without a fight."
If Dogma had truly intended to stop Yugo's retreat, she should have killed a few hostages on the spot as a warning. That would have frozen Yugo in place, or at the very least, bought her more time. But she didn't.
The reason was simple: she was terrified that Yugo would accept the sacrifice and transform his grief into a singular, lethal drive for vengeance.
"To have a man like Hugo Clay take up the fight while shouldering the deaths of his friends—comrades who died smiling for his sake—would be a nightmare for her. The difference between zero sacrifices and one is a chasm that would collapse her entire plan."
"So her goal is to win only after she's made Yugo-san suffer and fall into Despair," Yui summarized. "Killing the hostages now would make her own objective impossible to achieve."
"To the villains, the hostages are a sword to corner Yugo, but they're also the armor that protects them from him. Killing them or breaking their spirits prematurely would be like damaging their own weapons and gear. They won't do it because it would only lead to their own destruction. Dogma's Group will only kill them... Yugo, when you have finally knelt before them."
Yugo let out a long, slow breath, finally finding a measure of conviction in Ryuga’s logic. He wasn't entirely at ease, but he could accept the reality that the hostages were far too valuable for Dogma to harm immediately.
As the tension in the cave slightly ebbed, a familiar voice echoed from the shadows.
"...Has the conversation finished?"