"You're wrong..."
Yuan listens, face impassive, to the steady drip, drip of blood on stone as it trickles in an incessant flow down the arm dangling uselessly at his former student's side. His siblings' protests at his speech have died away as their adopted brother becomes the new focus of their disbelief.
After that last attack, Keikoku shouldn't be able to move; yet, his geta scrapes against the rubble, he braces his good arm against the floor, and he manages, despite devastating injuries inflicted by Yuan himself, to push himself upright. His breathing is ragged, but his voice is filled with as much conviction as pain.
"You're wrong, Yunyun..."
Those golden eyes, usually so apathetic, are now fixed on him in a piercing stare, and with no time for such handicaps Yuan pushes away the fondness that spawns in his chest at the observation that some things will never change. That unwavering resolve (Resolve? No. More like sheer bull-headedness.) radiating from Keikoku in waves even as the younger man struggles to stay on his feet, is exactly the same as that which had impressed Yuan on their first meeting all those years ago-the resolve of a boy who had claimed with utmost confidence that he would defeat the Taishirou.
"I, too, once thought I had to get stronger by beating everyone else, but I was wrong. No..."
It hits him abruptly: the realization that, no, it's not the same. It's not the same, because while the strength of Keikoku's determination has not lessened in the least (if anything, it's increased), it is no longer driven by anger or that overwhelming sense of hatred.
"True strength...is not something you can achieve on your own."
The day the little punk ass kid who clung so stubbornly to the idea that only solitude could make him stronger would request that his friends be allowed to leave unharmed was one Yuan never thought he would live to see. As aggravating as it had been to be forgotten in favor of arguing over whether they were going to leave Keikoku to face one of the Elders alone, he's undeniably glad that the kid has at long last discovered the desire to protect the people who are important to him. While there's no doubt his former student still holds his own personal reasons for going against the Mibu clan, more than that, Keikoku fights out of a desire to help his friends.
Of course, neither can Yuan deny the spike of exasperation at the fact that after all he's done trying to get his student to realize that, after all the crap the little shit gave him and the family who had unreservedly welcomed him as one of their own over the years, in the end, it was the Demon Child, of all people, who managed to succeed (never mind the fact he's never really made an effort to teach the kid shit).
He is so going to plant his foot in his student's face again.
"Oh? Fascinating." Yuan grins. "Well, then...you'll just have to prove it to me!"
And with that he lunges, arm drawn back to strike. Demon Eyes Kyo may have taught Keikoku more than anything the blind Elder ever could, but it's Yuan who will test him to the depths of his limits.