The next morning, the hallways of the academy were still thick with the aftershocks of the previous day's duel. But as Saori walked through the gates, her expression was a mask of perfect, crystalline calm—the kind of composure only a Yotsuba could maintain after staring into the abyss.
When she saw Satoshi waiting by the lockers, her heart twisted with a grief she refused to show. She didn't see the "Demon of the Zero" or the "Perfected Magician." She saw the eight-year-old boy who had tried to unmake his own heart just to stop the pain.
"Good morning, Satoshi-kun," she said, her voice warm and steady. She reached out and took his hand, her grip just a fraction firmer than usual.
Satoshi looked at her, his deep eyes searching hers for a moment. He sensed no change; to him, she was still the kind, "normal" Shiba Saori who had accepted him. He remained blissfully unaware that she had seen his darkest files—unaware that she now knew the secret of his dual-capacity brain and the nightmare of his childhood.
"Good morning, Saori," he replied, a small, genuine smile softening his features. "You look... especially bright today."
"I just realized how much I enjoy our time together," she said, and for the first time, there was a protective edge to her affection.
They spent the day like a "normal" couple. They shared lunch, laughed at school gossip, and walked home through the orange glow of the sunset. To Satoshi, it was a rare day of peace. To Saori, every second was a silent vow to protect the boy the Senate wanted to turn into a weapon.
While the children played at normalcy, the true masters of the Yotsuba Clan sat in a room shielded against even the most advanced satellite surveillance.
Yotsuba Miyuki, the Head of the Clan, sat perfectly still as Tatsuya finished his report. The digital files on Hanamiya Satoshi and the Reikage legacy remained projected in the air between them.
"Decomposition and Regrowth," Miyuki whispered, her voice like ice. She looked at her husband, her eyes filled with a complex mixture of love and haunting memory. "The exact same innate abilities as yours, Tatsuya-sama. But without the restrictions. He can use normal spells properly... he is the perfected version of what the world feared you were."
"Yes," Tatsuya replied, his gaze fixed on the data. "He is the god who can still walk among men. But he is a prisoner of the Zero Institute."
Miyuki stood up and walked to the window, looking out over the estate. "And our daughter has fallen for him. She sees herself in him, Tatsuya-sama. She sees the girl who had to hide her power just to survive."
She turned back to Tatsuya, her eyes softening. "And in Satoshi, she sees you. She sees the boy who was called a monster by everyone except the girl who loved him. She wants to be for him what I was for you."
Tatsuya looked at his wife. "The Reikage and the Senate will not let their 'Zero' be compromised by a Yotsuba. Satoshi doesn't know she knows, and he certainly doesn't know who we are. He thinks he's protecting a normal girl."
"Let him believe that for now," Miyuki said, a dangerous glint appearing in her eyes. "But if those 'shadows' try to hurt him or Saori, they will learn that the Sun and the Moon do not tolerate those who dwell too long in the dark."
The announcement of the school trip to Okinawa had been met with explosive cheers. For the students of Minato Academy, it was a rare chance to leave the heavy atmosphere of the city behind. Even Saori and Satoshi allowed themselves a moment of normalcy, joining the excited chatter on the plane about the tropical sun and the legendary coral reefs.
But Okinawa, the island where magic and history often collided in blood, had other plans.
The first few days were a blur of white sand and laughter. But on the third afternoon, while the students were scattered across the beach, the peace shattered. A high-pitched, mechanical wail erupted from the island's early warning system.
"Attention! This is not a drill! A hostile force has been detected in the coastal waters! All citizens and students, evacuate to the designated shelters immediately!"
The scene turned into a nightmare in seconds. Teachers screamed for order as students scrambled for their belongings. Out at sea, the water began to churn. A black hull breached the surface—a New Soviet Union (NSU) submarine, a ghost of the Great Asian Union wars that had pushed its influence further south.
"Look!" someone screamed, pointing at the horizon.
A streak of white smoke ignited from the submarine's vertical launch tubes. A heavy, anti-surface missile was arcing toward the beach, its target clearly the crowded shoreline.
The few students who were trained magicians froze. They lacked their CADs, and the distance was too great for their standard systematic spells. Even Saegusa Ayato, standing paralyzed by the water's edge, could only watch in terror as the missile grew larger, the roar of its engine filling the air.
In the center of the chaos, Satoshi stood as still as a statue. He didn't run. He didn't reach for a device. His Double-Capacity MCA was already processing the missile's Eidos, reading the structural data of the warhead, the fuel, and the casing in a fraction of a second.
"Satoshi-kun!" Saori cried out, running toward him, her heart hammering.
Satoshi didn't look back. He simply raised his right hand, his palm open toward the sky. To the untrained eye, he was doing nothing. But to Saori—who was watching with her Elemental Sight wide open—the world was about to be unmade.
He didn't need a CAD. He didn't need a sequence. He simply willed the Decomposition to occur.
"Mist Dispersion."
The sound wasn't an explosion. It was a soft, haunting hiss, like steam escaping a valve. The massive missile didn't detonate. Instead, it began to fray at the edges. In less than a second, the steel, the high explosives, and the liquid fuel were dismantled into their constituent atoms.
A cloud of fine, glittering dust rained down onto the ocean, vanishing into the waves. The threat was gone. The sky was empty once more.
The beach fell into a stunned silence. Students and teachers stared at the empty space where death had been a moment ago, then at the quiet boy standing by the shoreline.
"What... what just happened?" Ayato stammered, his face pale. "Did the missile... just vanish?"
The other students were confused, whispery voices asking if it had been a malfunction or a miracle. But Saori stood behind Satoshi, her breath hitching. She knew that spell. She had seen it in the restricted files of the Yotsuba. It was the signature move of her father—the "Demon's Right" that had turned a fleet to dust on this very island years ago.
"Mist Dispersion," she whispered, her eyes fixed on Satoshi's back.
Satoshi lowered his hand, his expression returning to that distant, lonely calm. He turned to Saori, his eyes softening the moment they met hers.
"Are you hurt, Saori?" he asked, as if he hadn't just rewritten the laws of physics.
Saori didn't answer. She just looked at him, realizing that the "Demon of the Zero" wasn't just a name in a file. He was a boy who could unmake the world—and he had just done it to keep her safe.