"I'm..."
Skull waited.
Cecil waited.
"...confused."
Pause.
"What do you mean by 'what are you.'"
The silence that followed had weight.
Skull didn't move.
Didn't speak.
Tetsuo held the expression.
Steady.
Unbothered.
The mask gave nothing.
The presence gave everything.
Then—
"DON'T GIVE ME THAT."
The room changed.
"I KNOW WHAT I SAW."
Tetsuo didn't flinch.
Just looked at him.
Which somehow made it worse.
Skull's gaze shifted to Cecil.
Something resolved behind the mask.
"Fine."
He moved.
Blade clearing the sheath before the word finished.
Arc aimed directly at Cecil's face.
Close enough to be real.
Real enough to not be a question.
Cecil didn't move.
Couldn't.
The grip came first.
Then the stop.
Skull looked at the hand around his forearm.
Then up at Tetsuo's face.
The confusion was gone.
Every bit of it.
What replaced it had no name that was polite.
"DON'T..."
Not screamed.
Ordered.
"...TOUCH HER!!!"
The grip tightened.
Skull felt the pressure climbing past reasonable.
Past human.
He looked at Tetsuo's eyes.
Found what he came for.
Slit pupils.
Vertical.
Thin.
Gone three seconds later.
Tetsuo blinked.
Released his arm slowly.
Stepped back.
Skull sheathed his blade.
"Confirmed."
He turned toward the door.
"So you are one of them after all."
Tetsuo stared at him.
"One of what."
"If it were left to me you'd already be dead."
He walked.
Stopped at the door.
Turned slightly.
"Get well soon."
Pause.
"Our unit isn't complete with you in that bed."
Another pause.
Quieter.
"Cecil."
She looked up.
"...My apologies."
Then he was gone.
The room exhaled.
Cecil stared at her book without reading it.
Tetsuo sat on the edge of the bed beside her.
Reached over.
Patted her head once.
She went still.
Then the color crept into her face quietly.
She pushed her glasses up.
Opened her book to a random page.
"I'm fine," she said.
"I know," he replied.
Silence.
"Thank you," she said.
"Don't mention it."
She turned a page she didn't read.
He looked at the door.
*One of them.*
*Who knows what he's planning.*
He pressed two fingers against his chest.
One beat.
Then normal.
.
The corridor was not what he expected.
Dozens of exorcists.
Both sides.
All looking directly at him.
Then the sound started.
His name.
Then more names.
Then just—
sound.
He stood in the middle of it for approximately three seconds.
Then turned around.
Went back through his door.
Stood against it.
"...No," he said to no one.
Cecil raised an eyebrow.
"They're still there," he said.
"Yes," she confirmed.
He looked at the window.
Then the door.
Chose the window.
.
He found his unit behind the eastern scaffolding.
Ren was already laughing.
"THE WINDOW."
"The corridor was compromised," Tetsuo said.
"There were PEOPLE—"
"That was the problem."
Ren pointed at him with his entire hand.
"This man defeated a demon prince."
"And escaped his own hero's welcome through a window."
He wiped his eye.
"Peak."
Amara looked Tetsuo over once.
"You look terrible."
"Three months," he replied.
"Fair."
She looked away.
That was her version of saying she was glad he was alive.
Cecil stood slightly behind the group.
Head bent toward her book.
Ren noticed.
Looked between them.
His grin shifted into something more knowing.
Tetsuo looked at him.
"Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"You were about to."
"I was simply—"
"Don't."
Ren looked at the scaffolding.
Said nothing.
Which was somehow worse.
Skull stood apart from all of them.
Watching Tetsuo.
Not with the threat from earlier.
Something that had moved slightly in another direction.
Slightly.
They looked at each other.
Nothing said.
Everything communicated.
Then a junior exorcist appeared around the corner.
Slightly out of breath.
"Tetsuo."
Everyone looked at him.
"The Paladin."
Pause.
"He's asking for you."
.
The office was at the top of the central tower.
Kaguren stood at the window.
Back turned.
Arms behind him.
He didn't move when Tetsuo entered.
"I heard," he said.
"That you took down Belial."
"That's what they tell me."
"You don't remember."
"No."
Silence.
"A demon prince of the fourth rank," Kaguren continued.
"Alone."
"Without H-Light."
Tetsuo said nothing.
Kaguren turned slightly.
"What significance does Lucifer hold for you."
Tetsuo blinked.
"None," he said.
He paused.
"I'm just... drawn to the painting."
The memory arrived the same moment he said it.
The funeral.
The bell.
The silence that was too silent.
The painting.
The grin.
He went still.
Kaguren turned fully.
His expression carried something Tetsuo had seen only once.
After the evaluation.
When he had stayed behind alone.
"Has the painting ever looked back at you," Kaguren said quietly.
The room held completely still.
Tetsuo thought about the fog.
The voice.
The slit pupils he hadn't known were there.
Three months he couldn't account for.
A demon prince who shrieked at the sight of him.
"Yes," he said.
Kaguren looked at him for a long moment.
Then turned back to the window.
"Sit down, Tetsuo."
Pause.
"There are things you need to hear."
Another pause.
"I should have told you sooner."
Two floors below—
Lucifer's expression remained perfectly still.
Perfectly neutral.
Except for the faintest curve at the corner of the mouth.
That hadn't been there before.