Once the car had pulled far enough away Ms. Kasami broke the silence.
"Something isn't right with that boy." She stared at the road ahead, turning the thought over. "He's hiding something." She shook her head, filing it away for now. "Luke. The Ripper they found dead yesterday — what did the report say?"
Luke pulled up his tablet. "Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the chest. Internal organs completely destroyed — crushed beyond recognition. Whatever hit it, hit it once."
Ms. Kasami's expression didn't change but something behind her eyes did. "Put everyone on high alert. There's something out there we don't know about yet and whatever it is — it's stronger than anything we've catalogued." She paused. "Tell Mary to issue a warning to all S-Ranks."
Luke was already typing.
Kagekami arrived at the hospital and gave the receptionist his name. Three nurses directed him to an examination room.
"What seems to be the problem?" the first one asked.
"I fell from a tree," he said, "and landed on a stump. Cut my chest pretty badly."
The three of them exchanged a glance that communicated several things at once.
"Could you remove your shirt please?"
He did. There was a brief silence of a different kind.
He reached for the bandage on his chest and began unwrapping it layer by layer. When he pulled back the final piece he stopped.
Smooth skin. No wound. Not even a mark.
He stared at it.
Emily. He turned the thought over slowly. Could she have healed the chest wound too without saying anything?
"Are you sure you were injured?" one of the nurses asked, stepping closer with an expression that had shifted from clinical to something else entirely.
Kagekami became aware, somewhat belatedly, that all three of them were looking at him with significant interest.
The nurse who had spoken closed the remaining distance between them and traced one finger slowly across his chest. "If you just wanted our attention," she said, "you could have simply asked."
Heat rose up the back of Kagekami's neck. He stepped back. "May I take my leave?"
"You can," she said, eyes still fixed on him. "But we'll meet again."
He left quickly.
He could feel her watching from the window as he turned the corner. He picked up his pace.
He was waiting at a traffic light, still thinking about Darkness, his hand drifting unconsciously to his chest, when movement in his peripheral vision made him look up.
A young girl had stepped into the road.
The truck was already there.
Kagekami moved before the thought fully formed. He covered the distance in a fraction of a second, scooped her up and had her back on the pavement before the truck had finished passing. The crowd that gathered happened too fast and closed in too tight — by the time the girl's father turned to find the person who had saved his daughter, the space where Kagekami had been standing was empty.
He was already a block away, walking at a normal pace, hands back in his pockets.
His phone lit up.
[1 New Message — Saito ♡]
Hello Kagekami. It's been a while. I hope you're doing well — and more importantly, I hope Sora is too. I'm on my way back and should be arriving at the central train station in about an hour. Hope to see you there.
— The one and only, Saito.
Kagekami read it twice. A smile appeared on his face before he could do anything about it.
A full year, he thought, already changing direction toward the station. She must have changed so much.
The memory of the Ripper fight surfaced briefly — his useless punch, the tree, Saito's parting words. He let it pass.
I've changed too.
On the train Saito stood near the doors, luggage at her feet, watching the city pass through the window.
A man had positioned himself behind her some time ago and had been speaking to her in a way that made the other passengers quietly find reasons to look elsewhere.
"Leave," Saito said. Her voice was completely calm. "Or else."
He didn't leave.
When his hand found her, Saito moved with the economy of someone who has long since stopped needing to think about this kind of thing. She took his head and introduced it to the steel pole beside them with considerable force. He slid to the floor and stayed there.
The other passengers studied the ceiling, the floor, their phones — anything other than the burning stillness radiating from the young woman by the door.
Saito looked back out the window.
I wonder how you've been, Kagekami.
The station was busy when she stepped onto the platform, luggage in tow. She scanned the crowd.
No sign of him.
She pulled out her phone and called. Heard it ring. Then heard — close, nearby, almost beside her — a faint echo of the same ringtone.
"Hello?"
She turned.
There he was.
Saito went still.
She had left behind a boy — lean, shorter than her, still carrying the shape of someone who hadn't fully grown into himself yet. The person standing in front of her was taller than she was. His shoulders had filled out. He stood differently — like someone who had made a quiet decision about who they were going to be and had started becoming it.
He looked at her with the same eyes. "Hello, Saito."
She realised after a moment that she hadn't said anything back.
He helped carry her things to her apartment. When he stepped inside he stopped.
"It's still clean."
"I left a housekeeper," Saito said simply, disappearing into her room to change.
Kagekami looked around. His eyes landed on the sword propped against the wall — deep red, black flames carved into the blade, the kind of weapon that looked like it had a history.
"Where did you get that sword?"
Saito walked back out in a long shirt, hair loose. Kagekami looked at her and then found something very interesting to look at on the wall behind her.
"My stepfather gave it to me," she said, settling onto the sofa. "He said he found it in my old village — right after he found me lost in the forest. He held onto it until he thought the time was right."
She tilted her head. "Why are you blushing?"
Kagekami opened his mouth. Closed it.
A glint appeared in Saito's eyes. She stood, crossed the room and sat down on his lap with the casual confidence of someone conducting a very deliberate experiment.
Kagekami went completely still.
She leaned forward until her face was inches from his, eyes holding his with great seriousness. Then she reached up.
"You had a web in your hair," she said softly, plucking at nothing, and stood back up with a smile. She walked back to her room to finish getting dressed.
Kagekami sat there for a moment.
It's good to have you back, Saito.
Later that afternoon Sora and Lily were walking back from the mall, the easy quiet of two people who have known each other long enough to be comfortable with silence.
Then Lily stopped.
"I don't like your attitude sometimes, you know that?"
Sora turned, brow furrowed. "It was just a pen, Lily. I'll get you a new one."
"I bought that pen for you," Lily said quietly, arms crossed.
Sora looked at her for a moment. Then she walked back and took both of Lily's hands in hers.
"You're right. I took your kindness for granted and I'm sorry. That wasn't fair to you."
Lily's expression softened. She pulled Sora into a hug and held on for a moment. "I forgive you."
She released her and started walking again. Then she looked back over her shoulder.
"Hurry up, you're making us late."
Sora stared after her. "You literally just stopped walking—"
Lily's laugh floated back down the street.
A few minutes later Lily glanced back over her shoulder.
Two men. Same ones she'd noticed at the last corner. And the one before that.
Three turns, she thought. They're still there.
"Sora," she whispered, keeping her voice low and her eyes forward. "I think we're being followed. Walk faster."
Sora's hand moved to her phone. Her thumb found the emergency button and pressed it quietly.
They turned another corner — and walked straight into him.
The gang leader smiled down at them like he'd been expecting exactly this. "Watch your step, cuties." He spread his hands in a gesture of mock generosity. "Why don't you stay with us a while? It's dangerous out here at night. Lots of bad people around."
"I know my way home," Sora said. Her voice trembled slightly despite her best efforts.
The leader's smile didn't move. He stepped forward and pressed her back against the wall, casual and unhurried. Lily moved to push him away — and the rest of them closed in around her. He reached into his jacket and produced a knife, holding it lazily between them.
"Give me everything you have."
Sora didn't move.
He raised the knife toward her face.
"Let them go."
The voice came from somewhere behind the group — low, quiet, and carrying something underneath it that made the air feel different.
The leader turned. A young man was walking toward them through the dark, unhurried, hands loose at his sides.
The leader laughed. "Come and get them then."
One of his crew peeled away and moved to flank Kagekami from behind. Without turning or breaking stride Kagekami's hand shot back, caught the incoming arm, and drove his fist into the man's gut. The man folded and hit the pavement.
The rest charged.
Then Saito was simply there — appearing between two of them as if she had been standing there the whole time, one hand on each of their shoulders, blade pressed lightly against the side of the nearest throat. She looked at them with an expression of genuine curiosity.
"You've made a terrible mistake tonight," she said pleasantly. "I've been wondering what heads are going for these days."
The two men stopped breathing.
The leader, his face dark with rage, turned from Saito and charged Kagekami directly.
Kagekami caught his fist, pulled him forward into the momentum and brought his knee up hard into the man's chin. The crack echoed off the walls. The leader dropped.
Kagekami crouched over him. When he looked up his eyes had changed — something dark and depthless moving behind them, like a light going out in a very large room.
"If you touch them again," he said quietly, "what's left of you won't be worth identifying."
The gang gathered their leader off the ground and left at considerable speed.
Sora crossed the distance to Saito in three steps and wrapped both arms around her. Saito patted her head once, which for Saito was practically a declaration of love.
Kagekami walked over to Lily, who had pressed herself against the wall and was staring at him with an expression she was not entirely in control of.
"Are you alright?"
"Y — yes," Lily managed. Sora's brother is—hot.
"Saito." Kagekami glanced back. "Take Sora home. I'll walk Lily to her place."
Saito looked at him for a moment, then at Sora, then back at him. "Don't take too long."
They walked in comfortable silence for a while before Kagekami spoke.
"How's Sora doing at school?"
Lily hesitated just long enough to be noticeable. "Academically she's great. But socially—" She stopped. Started again. "She gets bullied. Almost every day. I try to stand up for her but she always tells me she's fine and to leave it." She looked up at him. "Is something going on at home? Something that might explain why she just... accepts it?"
"Everything's fine," Kagekami said. The lie came out smoothly and tasted like something else entirely. "She never tells me these things either. I'll talk to her."
Lily nodded slowly, not entirely convinced.
She pointed at her house across the road
Then she threw her arms around him in a hug that surprised them both.
"Thank you for saving us, Sir Kagekami." She stepped back, cheeks pink, and pointed at her door. "I hope I see you again!"
She turned and ran for the entrance. When she reached it she looked back.
The street was empty.
She stared at the spot where he'd been standing for a moment, then smiled to herself and went inside.
Back home Sora had appointed herself head chef and Saito her reluctant assistant.
"So how has Kagekami been?" Saito asked, chopping something with the focused efficiency of someone who approaches everything the same way.
Sora leaned against the counter. "Well — he got attacked by a Ripper that he said looked human. Split ears though, so." She waved a hand. "Oh, and he joined the Rankers today. Am pretty sure he got B-rank. He's already declared he's going to be the strongest one there ever was."
Saito said nothing. But something in her expression shifted very slightly.
Kagekami walked in to find dinner already on the table and both of them seated, waiting with the energy of people who have been talking about him.
They ate. It was comfortable in the way that meals are when everyone at the table actually wants to be there.
"So," Saito said, not looking up from her bowl. "You joined the Rankers."
"I did."
"What rank?"
Kagekami moved some food around his bowl. "B."
"Sorry?"
"B," he said, slightly louder.
"I knew it." Sora said, pointing at him. "I said B-rank. I said it."
"You said I'd be lucky to make B-rank," Kagekami said. "That's not the same as predicting it."
"It absolutely is."
"What does a B-rank actually do?" Saito asked, with the tone of someone steering the conversation somewhere useful.
"Cleanup mostly. Support for higher ranks in the field."
"So you don't fight in the main engagements."
"Not yet. But you can upgrade your rank by taking down high level monsters."
Saito nodded slowly, processing this.
Sora looked between the two of them. A grin was forming that neither of them had noticed yet.
"So," she said casually, "have you two started dating?"
Kagekami inhaled his drink.
Saito looked at Sora. Then at Kagekami, who was coughing into his sleeve. Then back at Sora with complete composure.
"Unlikely," she said. "I'd want someone selfless. Someone strong enough to protect me when it matters."
Sora frowned. "Aren't you already strong enough to protect yourself?"
"There are forces out there that make my strength look like nothing, Sora." A pause. Then she glanced sideways at Kagekami with a look that lasted exactly long enough to mean something. "But — I suppose I could give him a chance."
Kagekami suddenly found his bowl very interesting.
Sora's face lit up like a festival.
Later Saito pushed back from the table. "It's getting late." She looked at Kagekami. "Walk me out."
Sora gave her brother a smile so aggressively encouraging it was almost threatening. He ignored it with great dignity and followed Saito out the door.
They walked through the quiet neighbourhood, the evening air cool around them. Kagekami kept pace beside her and turned the words over in his head — arranging them, rearranging them, finding the right way in.
Tonight, he thought. I'll tell her tonight.
Saito spoke first.
"Kagekami." She kept her eyes on the road ahead. "You and I — it wouldn't work. You're not the kind of person I'd date." A beat. "I think it's better if we stay as we are. I hope you understand."
The words landed quietly. No drama. No cruelty. Just the simple, clean truth of them.
"Yeah," Kagekami said. "I do."
They walked the rest of the way without speaking. The silence wasn't hostile — it was just honest, the way silences are when both people are thinking about the same thing and neither has anything useful to add.
Eventually Saito slowed. "Do you know somewhere we can spar?"
Kagekami looked up. "Yeah. Not far from here."
The field was dark and open, the city a low glow at the edges. Saito turned to face him and rolled her shoulders.
"Don't hold back," she said. "Give me all you've got."