Damian didn't add a single word more and simply gripped the still-stunned Marin's hand tightly and began forcing his way through the crowd.
Dragged along by his momentum, Marin stumbled forward, never stopping from looking at him with confusion and concern.
"Damian-kun? Where are we going? Weren't we going back?"
"Follow me." Unusually, despite the clamor, his voice sounded very clear in her ears.
And he seemed to mean it. With sure movements, he turned through several crowded streets and, after a few quick detours, managed to pull them out of the constant flow until they were lost in a side alley.
As soon as they crossed the entrance, the temperature seemed to drop suddenly and the noise was muffled as if an invisible wall had come between them and the rest.
The alley was barely lit by a streetlamp at the entrance, whose yellowish light flickered at intervals. The walls were covered with faded posters advertising past events, forgotten concerts and expired campaigns, along with stickers and meaningless scribbles scattered about.
In the corner, some metal garbage bins were piled up, stained with dark liquids and scraps of rotting food that gave off a sour, unpleasant smell.
"What's going on?"
Finally regaining her balance, Marin looked around in confusion. The alley was ugly and silent. Only the two of them were there. "Why did you bring me to a place like this? It's dark…"
Though it sounded like reproach, her eyes were filled more with curiosity toward Damian's strange behavior.
He slowly turned to face her.
The arrogant smile returned to his lips and, without taking his eyes off her, he set the bags down against the wall.
"What comes next," he finally spoke with a hint of haughtiness, "is the moment when you will witness a miracle."
"..."
Marin was left bewildered, but she didn't have time to ask anything before she saw him step back a few paces, putting distance between them. His expression changed in an instant, replaced by absolute concentration.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and sank into a strange calm… Then he stretched his right arm forward, his fingers curved as if already holding something.
"Yamato"
The word left his lips like an oath. And with it, in the center of his empty palm a dark blue spark suddenly ignited.
At first it was no more than a glimmer, the size of a coin, but unusually it radiated a sensation that it was about to cut you.
In the next moment the light began to stretch slowly, condensing into a defined line.
Each particle was highly condensed, each fragment of energy trapped in the form it was slowly taking.
The only warning of the power residing there was the constant hum.
In seconds, the silhouette was complete: a katana. A long and slightly curved blade, a tsuba golden and deep navy blue, in the shape of an octagon with two trapezoidal halves, and a handle with a traditional diamond pattern in the negative space, clearly designed to be held with both hands.
Zmmmm~
With a deep sound, as if the katana were claiming its presence from the depths of the underworld, it rumbled in the silence of the alley.
And just then, the light contracted in a final flash and vanished as if it had never existed.
The only thing left was the real katana, firm in Damian's hand, now with a black scabbard bound to it by a dark blue strap.
The entire sword emanated coldness.
It was none other than the legendary weapon of Vergil, YAMATO!
"..."
Marin was completely petrified.
Her wide eyes were now opened to their fullest, and in her pupils was clearly reflected the figure of that beautiful katana that had appeared out of nowhere, an object that clearly did not seem to belong to this world… just like the boy who held it.
Damian, with the katana in his hand, suddenly seemed like someone different… someone strange, wrapped in a presence that no longer felt familiar.
In that instant, Marin's universe shrank to two things: the katana and the arrogant smile curving on her boyfriend's lips.
Everything else faded away.
The bustle of Halloween kept filtering in from outside, but it was a distant murmur, as if it came from another dimension.
Marin's mouth hung open, her throat locked, and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't make a single sound.
Her body was still trapped in shock.
But that stiffness lasted no more than an instant.
The olive-green contact lenses suddenly shone with a different gleam. Fear and confusion fused at once, transforming into pure euphoria.
"WAAAAHHH—!"
With a shout, Marin bounced in place like a spring, then planted herself right in front of Damian.
She was smiling so brightly it seemed to compete with Shibuya's brightest lights, illuminating the dark alley.
"D-DAMIAN!" she exclaimed, trembling from the emotion, without taking her eyes off the katana he held. Then she lifted her gaze, locking her eyes on her boyfriend's face. "Then… ARE YOU A HERO!?"
"...?"
Damian's hand holding Yamato froze for a second.
"Huh?" he muttered, unable to process what he had just heard. "Hero?"
He couldn't follow her train of thought at all.
Marin flailed her hands wildly, "Those guys! A hero who fights against monsters! Someone who protects the peace of the city!"
In her mind, a thousand images burst forth at once: men in tight suits, capes fluttering in the wind, heroes flying between skyscrapers and defeating giant beasts with a single blow.
"..."
Damian looked at her, even more confused.
"Monsters?... Hero?..." he repeated with a frown. And inside he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. …this sounds way too much like One Punch Man. Could it be that there are mangas like that here too?...
Seeing Damian's face of "what are you talking about?", Marin simply let it slide.
Her attention went straight back to the katana he was holding in his hand, and curiosity shone across her face.
"Then… what superpower do you have?" she asked. "Can you only 'shuaa' pull out this katana from nothing? Or after that do you turn into… hmm, a super swordsman?"
In her mind she already pictured him brandishing the katana, slicing buildings in half with a single swing.
Her eyes filled with stars.
"..."
Damian couldn't help but laugh at her exaggeration.
"Watch closely," he said calmly, lowering his voice to give more weight to his words.
He turned, giving Marin his back, and planted himself before the empty wall of the alley. He positioned his feet, gripped Yamato's hilt firmly with one hand and the scabbard with the other, and without hesitation, drew.
Shuaa
The blade slid out of the scabbard, tracing an icy arc in the gloom, so fast it left only a blurred trail behind.
And without gathering momentum, with a natural movement, he swung the sword in two simple cuts: a horizontal slash followed by a vertical slash.
!
The air tore apart with a sound like fabric ripping.
And then...
Right at the point where the two cuts crossed, space OPENED.
It LITERALLY opened in the shape of a cross.
Its edges crackled with bluish lightning, vibrating and snapping in an electric hum.
Inside the rift there was no wall anymore.
What opened before them was a dark void, where sparks of multicolored light floated, flickering and swirling like stars.
With just two slashes in the air, Damian had opened a portal!
"..."
Marin was speechless.
Unable to utter a word, and her eyes, wide open, clearly reflected that cross-shaped door suspended in the air.
The unreal lights dancing within the rift crackled and intertwined like an ocean of living stars.
In her pupils, those lights looked like fireworks exploding.
For her, this surpassed a hundred times any anime she had ever seen or any cosplay fantasy she had ever dreamed of.
Damian, on the other hand, calmly sheathed the katana with a smooth movement, as natural as if he had practiced it thousands of times.
As he turned toward Marin, a relaxed smile curved on his face. He extended his hand toward her, who was still frozen between shock and ecstasy.
"Come on, let's go home."
"Y-Yes! Yes, yes!" Marin reacted all at once, as if waking from a dream.
Without hesitation, she gripped his hand tightly. Clinging to him, almost skipping as if she couldn't contain herself, she followed his steps.
Together they stepped into the cross-shaped portal.
And in the blink of an eye, their figures were absorbed by that passage of multicolored lights and darkness.
In the alley only the abandoned shopping bags remained and the old streetlamp that kept projecting its yellowish light, indifferent to what had happened.
Just a few meters away, the bustle of Halloween in Shibuya continued as if nothing had occurred.
The edges of the rift crackled a few more times before closing in silence. The cross-shaped opening vanished without leaving a trace.
….
Marin barely had time to process what was happening.
A shower of multicolored lights clouded her vision, and dizziness ran through her whole body. Before she could react, her feet were already firmly on a familiar wooden floor.
Her sight cleared immediately.
The dark alley had disappeared, replaced by the cozy warmth of a lit interior.
The sour and rotten smell vanished completely, replaced by the fresh aroma of cleaner that filled every corner.
"...."
Marin blinked, stunned, realizing that she was in Damian's living room: a typical Japanese single-family home, with the sofa, the low table, the television on the wall… and the decorative stickers she herself had placed.
"Eh?!" she exclaimed, turning sharply toward the entrance.
There, suspended in the air, the cross-shaped opening hadn't completely closed yet. It seemed to hang on the wall like a window leading to another world.
"Damian-kun!" she shouted excitedly, pointing enthusiastically at the glow. "Can we do it again? Just once! It happened so fast I couldn't even see it properly!"
But Damian gently ruffled her hair. "Next time, for sure."
Marin puffed her cheeks in slight disappointment. However, excitement still overwhelmed her, and that small annoyance vanished instantly.
With a cheerful spin on herself, she twirled quickly and let herself fall backward onto the sofa, sinking into the cushions with a cry of pure happiness.
"Ahhh—!"
Lying there, she stared up at the familiar ceiling. "I can't believe it! MY BOYFRIEND IS ACTUALLY A SUPERHERO!"
Damian smiled and quickly approached the sofa.
With a natural movement, he took her by the waist and pulled her toward him, making her sit on his lap. He wrapped her in a firm embrace, wanting to bury her in his warmth.
"Calm down, Marin," he murmured, brushing his chin against the little devil horns. "Don't get too excited, or you won't be able to sleep later."
She, nestled against his chest, let out a nervous giggle and little by little began to calm the whirlwind of emotions that had shaken her. However… curiosity soon returned.
She remembered how he had behaved in Shibuya. So she quickly lifted her head to look straight into his eyes.
"A little while ago, back in Shibuya…" she murmured, still with a trace of excitement in every word. "All of a sudden you got weird, you looked at the sky like you had seen something… did you discover something? Is a villain going to appear?!"
Hearing this, Damian unconsciously tightened his arms around her, and his gaze shifted toward the clock hanging on the wall.
20:40.
He barely nodded, as if confirming her suspicion.
But the warmth that had shone in his eyes a second before quickly faded. In its place appeared a distant calm.
In his mind, the images of Shibuya replayed: the crowd celebrating, dressed up, laughing, drinking, and filling the streets.
Their lives?
Even if they all died, what did it matter?
Honestly, he didn't care about their lives, even if it sounded cliché, but it was the truth.
The vision of the blackened sky returned strongly to his memory and, among it, the fleeting silhouette of a white-haired man with a bandage.
That guy…
The one who sooner or later was destined to be cut in two.
Halloween… Shibuya…
Everything would align in its time.
A playful smile curved on his lips.
Why rush?
He had discovered something, but there was no reason to intervene yet. It was strange to coincide exactly with the start of that "plot."
Maybe it was best to let things ferment a little more.
And besides… what better opportunity to test how far his own strength could reach?
Lose, you say?
Damian lowered his gaze, observing Marin's face, still flushed with emotion and feeling the warmth of her body vibrating against his.
Lose? What a bad joke.
He quickly gave her a few soft pats on the back, trying to dispel any tension. "It's fine, don't dwell on it. Today we were lucky to get back early. Now… do you want us to put on a movie or would you rather play something?"
The calm and simple words were like a balm.
Marin was still carrying the curiosity of what she had seen minutes earlier, but the serenity in Damian's voice eventually rubbed off on her. Besides, the experience of passing through that portal, with all the vertigo and excitement it brought, had drained a good part of her energy.
"Mmm…" she murmured, lowering her gaze a little. Her cheeks began to heat up little by little, until at last she lifted her eyes toward him. "Do you want to see my… Liz cosplay?"
The blush on her face suddenly intensified, painting her ears and neck.
Damian looked at her and a smile drew across his lips, but his gaze shifted back to the clock again.
20:42.
It was still early…