Kaito exchanged a glance with Airi, silently agreeing it was best to let Haru rest—if only for a little while. Wordlessly, they helped him to his feet, guiding him through the winding corridors until they found a forgotten chamber.
After a few minutes of walking, they found a room that was surprisingly grand for a place so eerie—a large, ornate four-poster bed draped with faded velvet curtains, dust motes swirling in the dim light. It looked like the kind of bed a prince or queen might have once slept in, regal even in neglect.
"We should sit him down," Airi whispered, voice gentle. Kaito nodded.
"Please sit down Haru" Airi said, with concern in her voice. Haru ignored, but then he saw Kaito was concerned to, he just sighed annoyingly and said "Fine..whatever."
Haru finally allowed himself to collapse onto the bed, the mattress creaking under his weight. Airi sat beside him, placing a steady hand on his back and beginning to rub soothing circles—not romantically, but like an anchor in the storm.
She broke the silence, her voice soft yet firm. "Remember when you comforted me… after my dad was possessed? After he killed my mom and then himself?"
Haru didn't answer, but the tension in his body eased just a little.
"Ever since that day," Airi continued, "I wanted to be a good friend to you. To help you. And right now… I really want to help."
Kaito was already scanning the room, searching for anything that could help tend to the scratch on Haru's ribs—the wound from the spirits that killed Haruka, from which the Watcher had taken the emerald hairpin.
His hands found nothing suitable, but then he spotted something on the bedside table—a folded cloth, old but clean enough.
"Here," Kaito said, holding it out. "Can I try to help with your wound?"
Haru's lips pressed into a thin line, reluctant, but after a few moments of quiet, he nodded.
As Airi continued rubbing his back, her tone softened further. "I'm going to stand just inside the door. Halfway open, so you can see my arm. I'll watch for spirits—no one's going to get in while you're resting."
Kaito nodded, but his eyes flicked between tending to Haru's wound and watching Airi as she stood guard.
Suddenly, Airi's gaze snapped to the left hall for a split second. When she looked back, something was there—too fast to react.
A massive, shadowy spirit lunged, grabbing her leg and dragging her across the floor with terrifying speed. The only sound was a faint, cruel screech as flesh tore from bone, leaving a streak of blood and skin across the cold stone.
Kaito's breath caught. "Sakura?!" he shouted, panic thick in his voice.Throwing open the door, he saw the gruesome trail of blood and torn flesh disappearing down the corridor.
Kaito's voice cracked with terror as he called out again, "Airi! Please, answer me!" But the silence that followed was worse than any answer. His eyes locked onto the bloodied streak across the floor—the brutal proof that she'd been taken.
"Haru!" Kaito's shout was sharp, urgent.
At once, Haru's head snapped up from the bed. His exhaustion was wiped away by raw adrenaline. Despite the pain from his rib wound, he pushed himself up, eyes wild and blazing.
"No," Haru growled through gritted teeth, fists clenching. "Not again. Not her."
Without hesitation, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, muscles tense, ready to fight whatever had done this.
Kaito scrambled to his side, desperation thick in his voice. "We have to find her. We can't let that thing win."
Seconds passed.
Then something shifted — not loudly, not suddenly. A quiet distortion in the air. A change in pressure.
Airi's shoulders tensed. She turned toward the left hallway. Slowly. Not with fear — with purpose.
"Kaito," she said without looking back. Her voice was firm again, but not cruel. "No matter what happens, you stay with Haru. Do you hear me?"
Kaito stood, heart pounding. "Wait—what's wrong?"
She finally turned her head slightly, just enough to meet his eyes.
Her expression was calm.
And sincere.
"I never said it before," she said. "But you're not weird kid, you're pretty cool.."
Before he could respond, a dark shape erupted from the shadows.
It wasn't a lunge. It wasn't a scream. It was fast and final — a spirit, massive and half-formed, emerging in silence like a blade through water. It came for Kaito.
But Airi stepped into its path.
She didn't hesitate.
Her blade lit up with magic as she ducked the first strike and sliced across its side. Shadows bled black smoke. It retaliated fast, swiping a massive claw toward her — she rolled, sparks flying as it raked the concrete.
"You're not touching them," she growled, raising her free hand. A magic barrier snapped into place just in time to block the next blow, sending a shockwave down the hall.
The spirit shrieked again, louder now.
Airi slammed her heel down and launched forward. Blow after blow — she dodged, slashed, shielded. Her magic was sharp, angry, alive. And for the first time in a long time, so was she.
But the spirit adapted.
It struck harder. Faster. Her shield cracked. Her ribs burned. Blood ran down her side from a gash she hadn't even felt until now.
She stumbled. One knee hit the ground. The spirit reared back for the kill—
And she remembered.
The way her "friends" back home had praised her, only to laugh behind her back. The way being beautiful and popular never stopped her from feeling alone. The perfect grades. The polite lies. The emptiness of it all.
None of them ever saw her.
But Kaito had.
Even when she ignored him.
Even when she was cruel.
And Haru, for all his sarcasm and judgment, had trusted her to lead when he couldn't. Even Daichi, despite them not being as close, he never insulted her.
And Haruka, for always being so kind to her when she wasn't the best kind of person.
And for Yui — she didn't need Airi to change. She let her.
For Ayumi, she wishes they could have become closer friends, she wished she could have had more moments to cherish with her.
They were real friends, and they were worth dying for,airi stood, bloodied but furious.
With a defiant cry, she cast one last attack — raw, unstable, powerful. Pink light surged up the walls. The spirit screeched in protest as the blast burned through it — not killing it, but wounding it enough to stagger it back.
Airi dropped to one knee, chest heaving. Her body was giving out. Her vision blurred.
But she smiled.
She turned her head — just enough to see Kaito watching from the cracked doorway, mouth open, eyes wide.
Her voice was barely more than a breath, but she knew he'd hear it.
"Live. Got it?"
The spirit lunged again.
She didn't move.
This time, the shield she cast wasn't to protect herself.It was to protect them.
And as the world went white, Airi felt the warmth of her own magic one last time. Not the cold applause of false friends. Not the praise of teachers or boys or hollow titles.
But the warmth of doing something good. And for once, Airi Sakura Hoshino felt whole.
——————Aftermath—————
The spirit still lurked just beyond the veil of flickering pink — but for a few seconds, the world felt frozen.
Kaito stood just beyond the cracked door, fists clenched, breath shallow. The fading light of Airi's final spell bathed his face. Her voice still echoed in his ears.
"Live. Got it?"
He didn't even realize he was crying until the tears hit the edge of his jaw.
Across the room, Haru stirred.
Blood seeped through the bandages on his side, but his eyes fluttered open — dazed and blinking. "What…?" His voice was hoarse. Then he saw the look on Kaito's face.
The magic in the air.
The stillness.
"…Airi?"
Kaito didn't answer.
He turned away — his expression unreadable now. He picked up his staff, the top of it flickering with dormant energy. His hands shook, but it wasn't fear anymore. It was something deeper.
Haru tried to push himself up, wincing hard. "What happened?" he asked again, struggling to breathe. "Kaito—where is she?"
Kaito looked at the hallway where she'd vanished.
The shield was gone. The spirit wasn't.
Only her blood and body remained.
"I wasn't strong enough," he whispered, almost to himself.
Haru gritted his teeth, shifting upright despite the searing pain in his ribs. "Then don't waste it."
Kaito blinked, startled.
Haru's hand pressed to his side, but his voice sharpened. "She held it back for you. For me. That wasn't some dramatic goodbye — that was a command. So either you stand here shaking, or you finish what she started."
Kaito looked down at his trembling hands.
He remembered all the times she called him weak. All the times he believed it.
But he also remembered her standing in that hallway. Smiling. Saying he wasn't useless.
He lifted his staff.
The spirit reemerged — mangled but alive, its form twisted from the damage Airi inflicted. It was slower now. Weaker. But still dangerous.
Kaito took one shaky step forward.
Then another.
His eyes burned, but his voice was steady.
"You won't get away with murdering Airi..."
The spirit roared through the shadows, fractured and furious. Its form was less stable now — thanks to Airi's sacrifice — but still monstrous. One arm dangled loose, melted from her magic. Its face, if it had one, was twisted in rage.
Kaito stepped into the center of the corridor.
His heart pounded against his ribs like it wanted to flee. But he planted his feet and lifted his staff, the crystal at its head flickering with unstable power. He didn't care. He wouldn't run.
He gritted his teeth and raised his voice, not for the spirit — but for himself.
"You don't get to take anyone else…
Kaito stood frozen at the threshold, her blood still fresh on the floor. The crystal in his transformation cuff glowed faintly. His sword — a sleek, glowing blade that extended from the hilt on his hip — felt heavier than ever. His sidearm rested holstered at his thigh.
The creature wheeled around and swiped — he dodged, fast,
His sword clashed with its claws in a burst of sparks. Blow after blow, he weaved between its strikes, slashing at tendons, at joints, the same way he'd practiced alone when no one was watching. But this wasn't practice, this was for Airi.
Kaito gritted his teeth, twisting his wrist, and threw his blade upward, slicing into the creature's arm and forcing it to recoil. He used the opening to roll away, panting, blood slicking his side. He could feel the sting. His ribs were bruised — maybe cracked. The creature screamed — but with a wild thrash of its arm, it slammed Kaito against the wall. His body hit the concrete hard, his vision flashing white. His sword clattered to the floor beside him.
The spirit was reeling. Barely holding itself together.
But so was he.
Just as the spirit was about to finish him off, fast footsteps that made the sound of running were heard from Kaito's ears.
A sword went right through the spirits stomach, as the spirit was impaled the sword quickly twisted in the spirits stomach, making the spirits stomach rip open. Black liquid oused out.
The spirit instantly dissolved into dust. Haru fell to his knees beside Kaito, gripping his ribs with one arm.Kaito lay on his back, panting, staring at the ceiling.
————Ayumi, Daichi, And Yui————
Yui, Ayumi, and Daichi walked slowly, cautiously, their steps echoing like whispers in a mausoleum. The palace's walls had changed — the shadows stretched longer now, curling up from the floor like fingers. The air was heavy. Sour. The scent of rot clung to every breath.
Daichi stopped first. "This way," he said, more certain than the others.
Down the hallway, the walls began to glow faintly — not with magic, but from the flicker of two small, broken lanterns. Their flames danced low and orange, barely touching the cracked marble tiles.
What they saw made them freeze in place.
It was a small alcove — a room tucked into the palace's side, quiet and dim.
And there, laid carefully beneath a broken stained-glass window, was Airi's body.
Someone had cleaned her up as best they could. She was no longer a tangled heap of limbs and blood — she had been positioned, her back straight, her hands folded over her chest like a knight at rest. Her hair had been smoothed down, her wounds mostly covered. Her pink jacket, bloodied as it was, had been draped across her like a blanket.
Her cracked bracelet lay beside her, the emerald faintly pulsing.
The floor around her was swept clean. A single glowstone sat at her feet, faint and flickering, like a candle in mourning.
Ayumi's breath hitched. She stepped forward slowly, hands shaking.
Yui was frozen.
Her mouth opened, but no words came out.
Daichi's face tightened. "They… they brought her here," he said, barely above a whisper. "Kaito. Haru. They didn't leave her."
Ayumi sank to her knees.
Yui followed, but not out of control this time — not screaming or sobbing, but quiet. Shattered.
She reached out with trembling fingers, brushing the edge of Airi's jacket. Her voice cracked as she spoke, barely audible:
"…She looks like she's sleeping."
But she wasn't.
Daichi looked around, as if searching for something to say. Anything. But he was too young to know how to bury a friend. Too young to understand why the world felt colder than before.
And then they heard footsteps.
Shuffling. Dragging.
Kaito appeared at the far end of the hall — his hair matted, his face pale, his uniform torn and stained with blood. Haru limped beside him, one arm slung tightly across his chest. His ribs clearly hadn't stopped bleeding.
They stopped at the edge of the alcove.
Yui looked up at them.
She didn't yell. Didn't ask what happened.
She already knew.
Kaito's voice came out low, hoarse, like it had been scraped raw.
"We couldn't save her."
Haru rested his hand on the wall for balance. "She fought alone so we wouldn't die. We didn't have time to bring her far… but we couldn't leave her like that. Not in a hallway. Not like…"
He swallowed hard. "…Like a nobody."
Yui's eyes filled with tears again.
But this time, they fell slowly. Silently.
She looked at Airi's face — still, pale, peaceful. And for the first time, she understood what it meant to love someone you didn't always like.
Ayumi reached out and gently tucked a strand of Airi's hair behind her ear.
Kaito dropped to one knee at the base of the alcove, beside the glowstone. He didn't say a word.
But his hand hovered over the bracelet for a long time before he let it go.
"We need to keep moving." Kaito said. The rest of the group looked at him and agreed, and they all left together. And as they did, the hallway became empty, quiet.
Out of that blackness, a long hand emerged.
Thin. Gnarled.
Its fingers were too long. Its nails were too sharp. The joints didn't bend in ways that made sense. The hand alone radiated power that felt cold and greedy and forever.
It hovered over the cracked bracelet lying beside Airi. The pink emerald still pulsed faintly—like a heartbeat with nowhere left to go.The Watcher emerged from the black void without a sound, its towering form barely touching the ground as it reached forward.
Its fingers, too long and jointless, curled around Airi's bracelet — the one with the pink emerald pulsing faintly like a dying heartbeat.
Then, with a single fluid movement, it brought the bracelet to its mouth.
There was no tongue inside. Only teeth — thousands of them. Thin and needle-like, overlapping in rows that seemed to go on forever, like a monstrous sea of bone.
The sound that followed was not made for human ears.
A shluck. A crack. A wet-grit grind that sent nausea down the spine.
Like marrow-soaked glass being chewed slowly between a grinder made of bone. Once it was done, it disappeared into the void. Closing it, leaving behind nothing.
—————THE PALACE'S HEART————
A breath of cold air that smelled like wet leaves and old stone — real air, not the soulless kind that recycled through the palace halls. The group had barely made it down the corridor when Ayumi stopped, her eyes wide.
"Do you feel that?"
They all did. Something had changed. The walls weren't shifting anymore. The floor wasn't breathing. For the first time since Airi died… the palace was still. At the end of the hall, a door stood open,not a gate, not some portal swirling with magic or blood. Just a simple, wooden door, cracked slightly, letting the gray light spill through.They pushed it open as one, and found themselves outside.
The rain was falling, slow and steady. It clung to their shoulders and hair like silk. A wide courtyard stretched before them — grass, overgrown and yellowed, surrounded by tall arching palace walls. The sky above was thick with clouds, the color of steel. No birds. No sun.
But it was outside.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
Yui stepped into the grass first. Her shoes sunk slightly in the damp earth.Ayumi followed, her fingers twitching like she didn't quite trust it to be real.
Daichi tilted his head back and closed his eyes, letting the rain hit his face.
Haru limped out slowly.
Kaito came last, walking slowly, one hand on his sword hilt.
And then they saw it.
Tucked into the far corner of the courtyard, resting where the cracked foundation met the earth, was a mass of pulsing, rotting flesh. It was shaped like a heart — not metaphorically. Literally. The veins were wrapped around the cracked statues and grass like vines, pulsing with every beat.
Daichi's voice broke the silence.
"…That has to be it."
They turned toward him.
He didn't look scared this time — just quiet. Thoughtful.
"I think it's… a way out. If we destroy that—maybe the palace dies with it. Maybe we will go home."
No one argued.
Kaito glanced at the heart again, his expression unreadable. The rain blurred his glasses, but he didn't wipe them.
"I think you're right."
Haru exhaled slowly, nodding. "Let's get this over with."
Ayumi crossed her arms, hugging herself against the rain
Kaito, still trembling from everything they'd been through, stepped forward, his sword shaking in his hands. "If we destroy this… maybe we go back. Maybe this nightmare ends."
So Kaito stepped closer. And with one breath, one swing he slashed it. The walls trembled. The air pulsed. Blood erupted from the walls, weeping out of the ceilings and dripping like acid. Shadows twisted and twisted until they broke into shrieking knots of spirit matter, dissolving as light bled through the cracks in reality.