He reached for the phone beside him.

One unread message.

Shizuka: kai 🙁 i saw what happened. i’m sorry. i was right there and i couldn’t do anything. i just watched. i couldn’t help at all

Another appeared before he could answer.

Shizuka: i’m sorry kai. i felt so useless

He stared at the screen for a few seconds, then typed with one hand.

It’s fine. Nothing serious happened.

The typing bubble appeared instantly.

Shizuka: IT IS serious 😭 you’re literally in a hospital. I promised to always protect you.

I’m fine.

A pause.

And it’s good you didn’t come in.

Shizuka: But... You are bleeding because of those idiots.

If they had noticed you there.

He stopped typing.

It would’ve turned into a bigger problem.

That’s true.

If Hiro or Natsume had realized Shizuka was nearby, things would’ve escalated immediately. Questions. Umbral detection. A fight. Sealing.

Three dots appeared. Vanished. Came back again.

Shizuka: does that mean kai didn’t want to be separated from shizuka~? 🦊💕

He pinched the bridge of his nose.

No.

Shizuka: then whyyy~

Because you’re my target.

A few seconds passed.

I’m not letting anyone else seal you.

Another pause.

I will be the one to seal you.

The reply came back instantly.

Shizuka: THERE YOU GO 🦊🦊 you’re such a tsundere kai honestly i can’t stand it

Shizuka: "nobody else can have you" "i’ll deal with you myself"

Shizuka: soooo possessive

No I am not.

Shizuka: yes you are 😭

Shizuka: it’s actually really cute

You’re a dangerous Umbral.

Shizuka: wow

Shizuka: reducing our relationship to labels now

Shizuka: too late i already kissed my screen

Then immediately after.

Shizuka: as an apology you can squeeze and play with my boobs as long as you want when you get home 🦊

Kaito immediately sent the sticker with the flat expression and thumbs down.

Shizuka: rude

Then:

Shizuka: my ass then?

He sent the sticker that said PLEASE STOP TALKING.

Three dots appeared again instantly.

Shizuka: what about my feet. i could do wonders for you with them honestly

Kaito sent the sticker of a frog physically kicking another frog out a door with BYE stamped across it.

Shizuka: WOW 😭

Shizuka: after i spent hours outside a hospital worrying about you??

Kaito looked at that message for a second longer than the others.

Then typed

thank you

The typing bubble vanished completely.

Appeared again slower this time.

Shizuka: ...kai just thanked me

Another message appeared immediately after.

Shizuka: wait now i’m emotional

Then.

Shizuka: I have something to keep you company.

Shizuka: 📸

Kaito looked at the notification silently.

Photo attachment.

He already knew this was bait.

And now that he was dating Mei, opening it felt weirdly close to cheating somehow.

Kaito put the phone face-down on the mattress.

Looked at the ceiling.

One second.

Two.

Three.

Then curiosity got the better of him.

He picked the phone back up and opened the image.

Shizuka stared deadpan into the camera with her tongue slightly out, silver hair loose around her shoulders, red eyes fixed directly at him through the screen.

Shizuka: did you think it was my nudes 😇

His expression flattened instantly.

Shizuka: pervert

Shizuka: disgusting man

Shizuka: hospitalized and still horny

He locked the screen.

Another vibration.

Shizuka: but if kai was disappointed i could send another one 🦊

He threw the phone onto the blanket this time.

Immediately another message.

Shizuka: HE THREW THE PHONE 😭😭😭

He breathed out slowly through his nose and looked at the window.

The hospital grounds outside were dark and quiet.

A few weak lights along the paths.

Bare tree branches moving slightly in the wind. Nothing else.

He could not see her out there.

But he felt her presence anyway.

That familiar sensation of being watched by something that had attached itself to his life so completely that part of him noticed it automatically now.

Constant attention. Constant awareness.

He could never tell how long she had been there because she always seemed to already be watching before he noticed.

It was unsettling.

It was also strangely reassuring in a way he did not like thinking about too carefully.

He looked at the dark window for another few seconds.

A smile formed across his face.

The monitor beside him gave its soft rhythmic beeping.

Somewhere farther down the corridor, wheels rolled briefly across the floor and faded away again.

A few more minutes passed.

Then something entered the area around the room.

Kaito felt it immediately.

His eyes shifted toward the door before his thoughts caught up.

The feeling was completely different from Shizuka.

Heavy.

Cold.

Oppressive in a way that settled directly into the chest.

The air in the room changed first. He felt it against his skin. A pressure spreading slowly through the space, thickening the atmosphere little by little until even breathing started to feel deeper than normal.

His gaze fixed on the small glass pane in the hospital door.

The corridor outside was dimly lit for the night shift. Pale overhead lights. Empty hall.

The pressure increased.

The lights outside became weaker.

Not flickering.

The brightness itself seemed to lower little by little, as though something in the corridor was consuming it.

Kaito’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Dark energy.

Dense.

Far denser than an ordinary wandering ghost.

The room became colder.

Not physically.

The temperature itself had barely changed.

His instincts reacted before his body did. The same sensation as standing near something dangerous enough that every nerve quietly prepared itself before the mind fully understood why.

The glass pane darkened.

A figure stood outside the door.

Kaito went completely still.

The shape filled the narrow window without fully fitting inside it.

Blackness gathered around it in slow shifting movement.

No face. No visible eyes. No clear outline. Parts of it seemed solid for half a second before loosening again into drifting darkness.

Dark spiritual energy rolled off it in slow waves.

Each pulse spread through the room heavily enough for Kaito to feel it pressing against his chest from several meters away.

Thin strands of black mist slipped through the gap beneath the door.

They stretched over the floor toward the bed.

Then dissolved.

A ghost.

Strong enough that he recognized it instantly.

And it still had not possessed anyone.

That alone made his attention sharpen.

Most ghosts weakened while separated from a host. This thing standing outside his room carried enough spiritual density to distort the atmosphere around it without one.

The figure remained motionless.

Watching.

Kaito stared back through the darkened glass pane without moving a muscle.

Several long seconds passed.

The pressure kept building little by little.

Then the shape moved.

A slow shift sideways.

The darkness disappeared from the glass.

The corridor lights returned immediately to their normal dim state.

The pressure vanished with such suddenness that the room felt strangely empty afterward.

Kaito kept staring at the door.

Beside him, the mattress shifted softly.

Natsume lifted her head from the edge of the bed, eyes already awake before she fully straightened.

Her breathing was uneven.

She pressed two fingers lightly against the center of her chest as if checking her heartbeat.

Then she looked toward the door.

Her expression had lost all trace of sleepiness.

"What was that."

Her voice came out quieter than usual.

Kaito stayed silent for a moment.

Then he looked back at the dark hallway beyond the glass pane.

"I don’t know," he said.

Hiro’s eyes opened and he was already moving.

No groggy confusion. No slow return to awareness.

One moment he had been asleep across the chairs beside the wall.

The next he was standing in the middle of the room facing the door, shoulders tense, eyes fully alert.

Kaito barely had time to register it before Hiro crossed the room in long quick steps and pulled the door open.

The corridor outside was empty.

Dim nighttime lighting stretched across polished hospital floors.

A cleaning trolley stood abandoned near the wall farther down the hall.

Half the overhead lights were switched off for the night shift, leaving long sections of shadow between the pale pools of light.

Nothing stood outside the room anymore.

No pressure.

No dark energy.

No trace of the thing that had been watching them through the glass pane seconds earlier.

Hiro leaned out slightly and looked both directions down the corridor before stepping back into the room.

His expression stayed tight.

"You felt it too."

Natsume nodded first.

Kaito gave a small nod after her.

Hiro stayed quiet for a second.

Then he rubbed once at the side of his neck and spoke without changing expression.

"I had a nightmare while I was asleep."

His voice sounded flat. Controlled.

"Lot of screaming. Pain. Couldn’t move."

A pause.

"Wasn’t mine."

The room fell silent.

Kaito looked at him carefully.

Natsume’s gaze had sharpened.

"A ghost," she said quietly.

"Strong one," Hiro answered immediately.

Kaito shifted slightly against the pillow, feeling the ache in the back of his head pulse again.

"You exorcised the ghost here yesterday."

"We did," Natsume said.

"So it wasn’t the same ghost."

Silence again.

Hiro’s jaw tightened slightly as he thought through it. Natsume kept staring toward the open doorway, eyes distant in concentration.

Then Hiro exhaled once.

"There’s more than one."