"To find my brother...?"
Under normal circumstances, the remark wouldn't have made any sense.
One might feel compelled to point out that the man named Hugo Clay was the speaker himself, but the reality was different. Proceeding on the premise that he was Yugo, the soul that had inhabited Hugo's body, he continued his explanation.
"Hugo is the brother Fee is proud of. He's a strong man whom Fee trusts and respects from the bottom of his heart. There's no way someone like that would just vanish without a trace before anyone knew what was happening. I'm certain he's still out there somewhere in this world."
"That is nothing more than wishful thinking," Dogma retorted. "I believe I told you already. You are merely grasping at possibilities you hope are true to flee from your own guilt."
"It's true I don't have proof for this theory. But... you don't have proof that Hugo is gone either, do you?"
"...!!"
"That's why I'm going to believe. And I'm going to find him. I'll show you—I'll bring back the Hugo who used to inhabit this body. Right after I've finished blowing you all away."
He couldn't say for certain that this was the right path. However, it wasn't an idea that could be proven wrong either. Having voiced an argument that even Dogma couldn't dismiss, Hugo stared directly at her.
"I don't know the reasons or the history behind it, but it seems I was a variable even you hadn't anticipated. You don't even know how I was reincarnated into this world. That's why you don't actually know what happened to the original Hugo's consciousness. Thanks for that, Dogma. Your rotten personality finally put my brain cells into top gear."
"You...!"
Hugo adjusted his posture with a sharp snap, like someone tightening a loosened tie. At his words, Dogma's voice flared with intense irritation.
Unlike the antagonist, Fee was beginning to find a flicker of hope as he listened.
"Big brother didn't disappear... There's a chance he's still alive somewhere! If that's the case...!"
"Tch...!"
Watching Fee's reaction, Dogma clicked her tongue. He was regaining his hope.
To her, Fee was supposed to be the ultimate weapon to break Hugo's spirit. She hadn't expected that weapon to be neutralized in a matter of heartbeats. More than anything else, Hugo's recovery had been far too fast. Dogma had expected him to waver much longer; the fact that he had bounced back so quickly and was already deducing her weaknesses was completely outside her predictions.
(Is this because he made contact with Zenon Ash—Seto Haino? Did he gain too much information from a regular reincarnator?)
Hugo likely knew other reincarnators existed the moment he fled the academy, but her mistake had been allowing him to hear the details from Zenon and giving him the time to process them. Because of that, Hugo had realized the nature of his status as an irregular reincarnator and was now exploring various possibilities.
(I revealed too much of our hand! Because of that, he can now easily identify the gaps in our knowledge!)
The plan Dogma and the others had orchestrated relied on the absolute control of information held by the masterminds. By instigating the Great Hole Incident to incite public anxiety, revealing the reincarnators, and using the ensuing chaos to hypnotize the students, they had maintained an advantage by keeping everyone in a state of constant agitation.
The culmination of those efforts had been the moment they took the students and Fee hostage at the academy to surround Hugo. In hindsight, however, that moment had been the peak of their plan. Since they had failed to finish him then, the period of their absolute dominance had come to an end. Hugo and his allies, having endured the initial assault, were now moving with a clear understanding of their enemy's tactics and abilities.
There were certainly other irregular factors, such as the townspeople rallying to Hugo's side and the recovery of Marcos, who should have remained under hypnosis. But if one traced it back to the source, Dogma's greatest failure had been allowing Zenon's group to intervene and letting Hugo escape.
Armed with information from a fellow reincarnator, Hugo had stabilized his mind and realized the truth. Dogma's earlier dismissal—that leaving Zenon alive wouldn't be a problem—was true in only one sense: even if they had killed him then, the tide had already turned against them anyway.
Although she still held the Shadow Army as a trump card, the very fact that she had been forced to deploy it was proof that she was being cornered. She still had moves to play, but she knew she couldn't allow Hugo's side to gain any more momentum. She turned back to Fee, determined to shatter his newfound resolve.
"How naive, Fee Clay. You're a child, so you're far too easily swayed by pretty words."
Fee winced. It was true that Dogma lacked the evidence to refute Hugo's theory. However, there were other vulnerabilities she could still exploit. Dogma shifted her focus back to Hugo's transgressions, intent on making Fee see his brother's faults once more.