After Souji Okita's departure, there was a brief silence in the laboratory room.
Gorou could see that Rei wanted to talk to him.
However, the young man was hesitating for some unknown reason, and his eyes showed a certain reluctance when looking toward Souji.
'A competitive spirit? Jealousy?'
Neither Gorou nor Claud had any experience managing family rivalries.
In the end, Gorou decided to use his fictional knowledge to handle the situation.
"Don't forget, Rei, I'm meant to lead a lot of people."
He approached, then placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm counting on you not to lose your place, and to play fair. After all, I trust your personality to manage and protect my back."
Yes, Gorou had chosen the path of the Emperor of Humanity.
Tolerate and stoke the competitive spirit among his subordinates, but set roles and limits.
Rei had literally just received the role of Horus, and he had to face the arrival of Leman Russ.
'There's no Warp here, so everything should go fine.'
Rei seemed to think for a brief moment, but ended up nodding to his creator.
A gesture interpreted by Gorou as the success of his little plan.
"If you really want to urgently contribute to my objectives, you can always follow Souji to retrieve any interesting objects or knowledge."
As if he was waiting for this signal, Rei immediately left outside.
Unlike Souji, he's not human.
The devil passively emits special demonic energy when engaged in supernatural activity.
This ability makes ordinary people ignore them, unless they're connected to their purpose.
Thus, a teenager covered in blood in the middle of the street won't attract the attention of ordinary people.
The only exception in this town: Rias and Sona's groups, but they'll avoid trouble, especially after the recent incident with the Fallen.
"So, Asia."
Maybe Gorou had turned too abruptly toward her, but the young blonde girl trembled slightly with surprise at his call.
"Uh... yes?"
Gorou displayed a confident and calm smile, then approached Asia to discuss more easily.
"Do you have somewhere to go? A house? Or a family? I'll take you there."
Although he already knew the answer, this was the first real discussion between him and Asia.
Gorou preferred to have a calm and casual conversation to create a normal relationship, after recruiting her.
As for Rias and Issei?
He doesn't plan to leave this girl to them.
She's simply too useful.
"Anyway, I can push Asia to quickly reach her full potential, while allowing her to completely maintain her religious habits."
Something impossible with Rias in the canon story, because she had hesitated too much to go save her due to political constraints related to her clan and the supernatural world.
He can even make Asia a supernatural creature, if she still wants it in this timeline.
The process will be slow, because he must be careful to prevent an organic rejection phenomenon.
But it will help Asia better use her Sacred Gear.
"I... I was driven out of the Vatican because of an incident. My new Church... no, that place had accepted me... despite my sins."
She paused in her words.
Her eyes were hidden by her blonde bangs, while a particular atmosphere invaded the room.
"But... that was until Issei arrived."
At the mention of Issei, Asia's gaze shifted from sadness to an indescribable tenderness.
A gleam that Gorou had only seen until now in Miki.
He clicked his tongue slightly with annoyance in his head. His recruitment target was dangerously leaning toward supernatural creatures.
Something unacceptable.
That she loves Issei? He can accept that... but joining him? No, no.
'Azazel mentioned that she's the best user of the Sacred Gear Twilight Healing.'
Asia had reached such a high level of mastery that Azazel had speculated that her Balance Break would bring almost nothing, except greater mastery of her existing abilities.
He was partly right.
Asia gained greater mastery, but also an enviable bonus ability: cancellation of received damage.
Asia is just too compatible with this Sacred Gear... which wasn't even unique.
Gorou had speculated that this Sacred Gear could theoretically be used in attack.
How?
Asia could project her healing toward specific targets in the original story, so Gorou imagined a "Deadpool" version of this power.
In short: exaggerated healing!
If cells regenerate too much or excessively, it can create several problems in the organism: tumors, cancers, cellular overgrowth, and bodily self-destruction by rejection due to excess cells.
The list of healing-related powers is long.
She could even recreate the most deadly ability of Keyaru, the healer hero.
In this case, Asia could kill anyone by touch, like Tomura Shigaraki.
Even worse: if she accesses her original Balance Break, then a death zone around her combined with damage cancellation on herself is possible.
'Too bad, Asia will never accept such a path.'
She's just too kind.
Gorou had even considered stealing Asia's Sacred Gear to give it to Alpha or, erasing her memories to restart her education.
But he didn't want to enter that territory.
Power gain is important, but not losing oneself along the way is too.
'Anyway, if Azazel could aspire to create an artificial Sacred Gear from this one, then why not me?'
At worst, Gorou will decide to find a person possessing an identical Sacred Gear and steal it from them.
The power he glimpses in Twilight Healing is too tempting.
Fortunately for the DxD universe, Asia was too kind... and weakened her own Sacred Gear because of her perception.
She was literally incapable of choosing to heal only her allies and not her enemies.
"Hmm, I understand your situation now."
Gorou caught Asia in a hug.
An instinctive reaction, coming from his... Gorou side.
"You've suffered, huh? Now, you're safe."
Tears.
"*Sniff* Thank you sir... I-I'll try not to be a bother..."
At the touching words of the young girl in his arms, Gorou forgot all his dark ideas.
He instinctively wanted her to be okay.
...
"Well... here I am again."
Like after his transformation into pseudo Sieg, the head of the Hyoudou family stood in front of his house door.
His hand hesitated whether to enter or not.
"Is she still angry? Should I go back and settle things with Souji and Rei?"
Surprisingly, his academic intelligence couldn't find a real solution.
After a sigh, he turned around to leave.
Sound.
Familiar sounds approached his location at a rapid pace.
Gorou knew the identity of the person coming toward the door, but he didn't turn around.
No, he didn't want to turn around.
Because of his internal debate, he didn't immediately realize that two arms were hugging him from behind.
It didn't take long for his shirt to become slightly damp, because of silent teardrops.
"Stay... don't leave anymore."
At that moment, the man of science sketched a smile of self-derision at his stupidity.
'Yes... feelings can't simply be summarized by formulas and pure science... can they, Rick and Stanford?'
Even if emotions are reproducible brain reactions, humans need them — and can't really understand them.
Gorou turned around and hugged his wife back.
"Let's go inside... it's raining."
Unfortunately, Miki didn't understand her husband's emblematic words.
The moment she looked up at him, he didn't want to speak further, nor let himself be seen completely in this state.
He simply caught her cheeks cupped with both hands, and kissed her tenderly.
'A man shouldn't show his weakness... You thought you'd see this fragile side of me? You're wrong!! Haha...'
That day, Miki missed the opportunity to see a facet of Gorou that he himself had ignored until now.