Kato Ginjiro left the room without saying a word.
Not with a slam of the door, not with any drama — he simply stood, put his hands in his pockets and walked towards the door with the expression of someone who has decided they have nothing left to add to this conversation.
Kirino Yuna stayed a moment looking at the space he had left behind. Then she turned towards Mizushima Kana with a brief bow.
"Please forgive him, Maestra Kana. His attitude is quite—"
"I don't mind," said Kana, with her usual definitive calm. "You should go too."
Yuna gave a second bow, shorter than the first.
"Understood."
And she left.
Oribe Tatsu waited for the door to close before speaking. He stood to Kana's right, with his usual impeccable posture and his hands behind his back.
"Do you believe sending the students is a good idea, Maestra?"
Kana did not look at him. She kept looking at the space in front of her with an expression that was not doubt but something closer to the weight of a decision already made.
"No," she said. "But I have no other choice, Tatsu."
Oribe Tatsu said nothing more. He nodded once and returned to his silence.
Kato walked along the outer corridor with his hands in his pockets and an expression that was not exactly anger, but came fairly close.
Yuna's footsteps caught up with him before he reached the corner.
"Kato."
He did not stop.
"Kato." Yuna quickened her pace until she was level with him. "You can't just leave like that. Kana is the deputy head of this headquarters. The least you could—"
"I don't care," said Kato, without modulating.
"What you said to her was—"
"What she asked of me was irresponsible."
Yuna opened her mouth. She closed it.
They walked several steps in silence.
"You're right," said Yuna at last, in the tone of someone who finds that difficult to say, but says it anyway because she is honest. "Sending seventeen-year-olds to a place where experienced hunters barely made it out alive makes no sense whatsoever."
"No," said Kato.
"But there is no one else."
"I know." Kato let out a slow breath. "Which is why I didn't say no. I said I think it's madness, which is different."
Yuna glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
"I'm going with my students," she said. "So do the same. You're in exactly the same position I am."
Kato smiled. Not the supermarket smile, nor the corridor one — something quieter, more his own.
"I have other plans," he said.
Yuna looked at him.
"What other plans?"
"Someone else will go in my place."
"Kato—" Yuna let out, without sounding as angry as she might have.
"Someone very strong. There won't be any problems." He paused. "And mine aren't going somewhere as complicated as yours, so don't worry about that either."
Yuna looked at him for a moment with the expression of someone counting to ten internally.
"Who could possibly understand you," she said at last, in a tone that was not a question but a conclusion.
Kato took his phone from his pocket.
"I have a call to make," he said. "I'll leave you to it."
And he turned the corner before Yuna could respond.
Yuna stood in the corridor looking at the empty corner for a second. Then she exhaled sharply, straightened her hair, and went the other way.
In the compound garden, Mura Kaito and Yūta had been at it a while with the training sticks when Kato Ginjiro appeared through the side door with his phone in his hand and the expression of someone who had just finished an important conversation.
"Good work, both of you," he said.
Yūta lowered his stick and turned.
"Master."
Kaito nodded.
"Kato."
"Kaito," said Kato, "you can head off. Yuna was looking for you."
Kaito looked at Kato for a moment with that quiet attentiveness of his. Then he turned to Yūta.
"Keep training to improve," he said.
"I will," replied Yūta. "Kaito."
Kaito picked up his stick and went inside without adding anything further.
Kato looked at Yūta.
"Go and shower," he said. "Then I'll see all of you in the hall."
"Right, Master," said Yūta, and headed off at a quick pace.
The four of them sat facing Kato in the usual hall — the wooden chairs, the blackboard, the afternoon light coming through the tall windows.
Tsukino was the first to speak.
"Why did you call all four of us?"
"I spoke with Kana," said Kato, with his usual smile.
Shirogane and Tsukino exchanged a glance. Yūta frowned slightly.
Ishida looked straight ahead.
"Kana is the deputy head of the Tokyo headquarters," he said, with the neutrality of someone stating a fact.
"Exactly," said Kato.
"So it must be important," said Yūta.
Ishida glanced at him.
"Not always. Sometimes she calls about things of no importance."
"I hope it's a mission," said Tsukino, with an energy she made no effort to conceal. "I want to fight."
Kato coughed once. The silence arrived on its own.
"This time it's different," he said. "A strange and powerful remnant has appeared on the outskirts of Tokyo. Kana has asked us to go."
Shirogane looked at him.
"If it's strange and powerful, why aren't other hunters going?"
Kato smiled slightly.
"Because there are no other hunters available. The second-years are going on another mission that is even more complicated."
Yūta sat thinking, a smile growing on his face without his looking for it. This time he could show them something. The training with Kaito, the mana in his right hand — this time he would not just be someone watching from the side.
Tsukino looked at him with a slight frown. She leaned towards Ishida.
"Why is he so happy?"
Ishida did not take his eyes off Kato.
"I don't know," he said. "He's been like that since he came back from training."
"This mission will be complicated," said Kato, and his tone shifted enough for all four of them to notice. "And I won't be there."
The four of them looked at him.
"Again," said Tsukino.
"Always the same," said Shirogane.
"You're the master," said Yūta. "Why are you never on the missions?"
Kato raised a hand with an expression of feigned hurt.
"Don't be hard on me."
"Kato," said Ishida, without the others' tone, but with the same question behind it.
"I have things to do," said Kato. "But I know someone very strong who will help you and teach you. Someone I trust."
The sliding door opened.
The man who entered was slightly taller than Kato, with a physical presence that did not need to impose itself because it was simply already there. Black hair, calm expression, a presence that filled the space in a way completely different from Kato's — without humour, without carelessness, without anything that was not exactly what it was.
Tsukino looked at him. Then she looked at Kato.
"He looks more like a master than you do."
"That hurt," said Kato, hand on chest.
Then he smiled.
"This man is Kagami Ryo. Hunter. Very powerful." He paused. "And one of the few people I genuinely respect."
Kagami looked at the four of them with the direct assessment of someone who does not need much time to form an opinion.
"I will be leading this mission," he said, in a voice that was not cold but held nothing warm either. "I expect you to give everything you have."
Kato stood. He looked at the five of them — the four seated and Kagami standing — with that smile that was more genuine than it usually appeared.
"He's in charge now," he said. "Take care of yourselves."
Kato turned, raised his right hand in farewell, and walked out.
"Get ready," said Kagami. "We're leaving now — they're waiting for us outside."
When they stepped out they saw the cars waiting for them, and Yūta's eyes lit up, because the cars were extraordinarily elegant and beautiful.
"They're incredible," said Yūta, with an enormous smile.
Shirogane and Tsukino nodded in agreement, while Ishida did nothing — he simply looked at them.
The village on the outskirts of Tokyo smelled different from the city.
Not bad exactly, but different. Quieter. Heavier. As though the air held something it did not hold back at the compound, something none of the five could name until Tsukino said it aloud as she stepped out of the car.
"There's a strong smell of death in this place."
Nobody responded, because nobody had anything to add.
Kagami looked at the temple at the end of the dirt path with the same calm with which he looked at everything.
"You can feel a presence in there," he said. "Let's go in."
The temple was darker inside than it should have been given the light still remaining outside. The five of them moved along the central corridor in silence, their footsteps echoing against the old wooden floor.
Shirogane turned round.
The door was not there.
Not closed — not there. The space where it had been was a wooden wall with no sign that an opening had ever existed there.
"I don't want to alarm anyone," said Shirogane, "but the door has disappeared."
"What?!" said Yūta and Tsukino together, alarmed.
"It seems the creature has trapped us," said Kagami, without changing his tone.
The floor began to shake.
Not an earthquake — something more specific, more deliberate, as though the floor itself were choosing where to move. Kagami reacted first, grabbing Yūta by the arm before the movement could carry him off on his own.
And then the floor swallowed them.
When everything stopped moving, the temple was silent.
Somewhere in the east wing, amongst shadows and walls that no longer corresponded to the layout of any ordinary temple, Tsukino Hina and Shirogane Mei found themselves standing in the same space — with no idea where the others were, weapons already in hand.
In the north wing, alone, Ishida Taro looked at the corridor stretching before him with no visible way out.
And in what appeared to be the centre of the temple, surrounded by a darkness that was not natural, Kagami Ryo and Amane Yūta stood side by side.
Yūta looked at Kagami.
"Thank you," he said. "For grabbing me before."
Kagami did not respond immediately. He looked at the dark space before them with that calm that was not indifference but something closer to total concentration.
"Kato told me about you, Amane," he said at last. "He asked me to look out for you. Said you were new and still couldn't take care of yourself."
Yūta said nothing for a moment.
Something in that stung in the specific way that truths one already knows tend to sting when heard aloud.
Then he smiled.
"I won't be a burden to you," he said.
Kagami looked at him for the first time since they had landed there. With that direct, unadorned assessment that was simply his way of seeing things.
"I hope not," he said.
The darkness of the temple did not respond. But somewhere inside it, something was moving.