"Yugo, are you free today? If you don't have plans, I was thinking we could—wait, huh?"
A few days had passed since the chaos Dogma and her followers had unleashed upon Luminous Academy, and peace was slowly returning to the campus.
The school buildings were in a state of severe disrepair, and more than a few of the students manipulated by Dogma had sustained serious injuries. As a result, the academy had entered its second long-term closure in just a matter of months. However, considering the sheer scale of the disaster, the fact that there had been no fatalities—aside from the reincarnators—meant the school had been remarkably fortunate.
While classes were suspended, the students spent their time as they saw fit.
Marcos was throwing himself into intensive special training to master his newly acquired Grace Lance. Anhel and Fee had sequestered themselves in the workshop to toil away on a new Blaster, and the Warrior Shrine Maidens were leveraging their family connections to gather intelligence.
Amidst the somewhat frantic atmosphere of the closure, Melt visited Yugo’s room, hoping to invite him out for some fun. But the man herself was looking for was nowhere to be found.
Instead, she was greeted with a wry smile by Ryuga, who sat in a chair engrossed in a book. Puzzled, she asked him where her friend had disappeared to.
"Good morning, Ryuga. Where's Yugo? Did he go out somewhere?"
"Yugo? He went to fulfill a request. He left quite a while ago."
"What? Really?!"
Ryuga added a polite request for her to knock before entering next time, but Melt was too busy staring at him in shock to pay much mind.
Setting his book down on the desk, Ryuga continued.
"Between the battle with Dogma and everything we heard from Adam, he's had a lot on his mind. I think he just needs time to organize his feelings. I know that’s probably disappointing to hear, since you were kind enough to come all this way to cheer him up."
The revelation of Yugo’s true identity had sent shockwaves through everyone who had heard Adam’s story. He wasn't the otherworlder Yugo Kurei; he was the original Hugo Clay, a boy who had suffered genuine memory loss and spent his life believing he was someone else entirely.
Melt had been stunned, but no one had felt the impact more than Yugo himself.
Immediately after their discussion, he had sought solitude to process the truth. He seemed to have reached some level of peace since then, but this wasn't the kind of problem that vanished overnight. It was a burden he would likely struggle with for a long time to come.
Melt had come here specifically to brighten his spirits, but it seemed he had already moved on to his next task.
She didn't mind the wasted trip, but she couldn't help but worry. Was it really wise for him to take on a request alone while his mental state was so precarious? Sensing her anxiety, Ryuga—Yugo's partner and roommate—spoke up.
"He'll be fine. It would be a lie to say he isn't troubled, but he isn't in the state you're imagining. If he were that unstable, do you really think I would have let him go off on his own?"
"I guess... you're right. But I still can't help but worry..."
"Truly, he’s okay. I think Yugo is simply in the middle of re-evaluating himself. He believes this path will lead him to the answers he needs regarding who he really is."
"I see..."
Though he hadn't shared it with anyone but Fee, Yugo had remembered his starting point—his original dream of becoming a hero. Now, he was trying to walk that path again from zero.
If he could truly return to being neither the old Hugo Clay nor the otherworlder Yugo Kurei, he would have to find a new self. He was currently in the middle of a struggle to move past his doubts with a newfound sense of resolve.
As Melt continued to fret, Ryuga gave her another small, wry smile.
"Honestly, I think you're worrying for nothing. If you saw the way Yugo looked when he left, you’d probably feel the same way I do."
"Eh...?"
Something about Ryuga’s phrasing felt loaded. "The way Yugo looked"... he seemed to be speaking quite literally.
Just what kind of outfit had Yugo worn when he headed out today? A faint sense of dread began to pool in Melt's stomach.
Despite her growing suspicion, she looked out the window at the sprawling blue sky and whispered to herself.
"Yugo... I wonder what you're up to right now?"