Free Web NovelChapter 66: 5 tails
A vibration.
Deep enough that it came through the concrete instead of the air.
Another impact followed.
Closer.
The Umbral moved backward one step.
The entire stairwell shook violently.
Then the wall exploded inward.
Concrete detonated across the stairwell.
Something enormous tore through the opening at impossible speed.
Five massive tails whipped through the debris behind it.
Darkness rolled off its body in dense waves thick enough to swallow the emergency lighting around it.
White bone showed beneath parts of the black mass wrapped around its frame.
Six red eyes burned through the dust cloud.
The Umbral turned—
The creature hit it before it could react.
The impact folded the stairwell sideways.
One gigantic limb wrapped around the Umbral’s torso and crushed it through the opposite wall in an eruption of concrete and twisted metal.
The Umbral fought immediately.
Dark energy burst violently from its body as it struggled in the creature’s grip.
It did not matter.
The creature dragged it straight out through the building and vanished into the night beyond the hospital.
A dull impact shook the hospital grounds.
Then silence dropped over everything.
Cold night air poured through the shattered wall.
Dust drifted slowly through the emergency lighting.
Hiro stayed frozen on one knee near the edge of the landing, staring at the hole in the wall with his mouth slightly open.
His heartbeat still had not slowed down.
Beside him Natsume had not moved either.
One hand pressed tightly against her shoulder. Her breathing shallow. Her eyes fixed on the darkness outside.
Wide.
Hiro had seen her angry. Focused. Exhausted. Bleeding.
He could not remember the last time he had seen her look shocked.
"What..." Hiro said quietly.
The word died halfway out.
Nobody answered him.
He forced himself upright using the stair rail and stepped toward the opening in the wall.
Three floors below, the hospital grounds were torn apart.
A massive circle of flattened grass spread across the lawn beneath them. Earth pushed outward around the edges in uneven ridges. Broken concrete littered the ground.
Nothing moved down there.
No sign of the Umbral.
No sign of the thing that had taken it.
The night looked empty again.
That somehow felt worse.
Hiro stared at the impact zone for several long seconds.
Then.
"What the hell was that."
"An Umbral," Natsume said.
Her voice sounded quieter than usual.
Hiro looked at her immediately.
"I know it was an Umbral."
His breathing was still uneven from the fight.
"What kind of Umbral does that."
Natsume did not answer.
Hiro looked back down at the ruined lawn.
His ribs hurt every time he breathed now.
"Did it come for us?"
No answer.
"Was it hunting the other one?"
Still nothing.
Hiro laughed once through his nose.
Short. Unsteady.
"I really don’t like that you don’t know."
Natsume kept staring outside.
Neither of them spoke after that.
The wind moved slowly through the broken opening in the hospital wall.
Behind them Kaito sat against the stairwell wall with his head lowered.
Blood had dried near the edge of the bandage wrapped around his head.
He had not spoken since the fight ended.
Hiro finally looked back toward him.
"How did you even get out of the room."
Kaito answered without lifting his head.
"The door broke."
"You broke it."
A pause.
"I kept pulling."
Hiro stared at him for a second.
Then looked away again.
Too tired to argue about it.
Natsume walked over carefully and crouched beside Kaito despite the pain in her shoulder.
Her hand rested briefly against his hair near the bandage.
Checking.
Making sure he was still conscious.
Kaito stayed still.
"The patients need checking," she said quietly.
Hiro nodded once.
He stayed near the opening another few seconds looking out into the dark hospital grounds below.
The flattened grass had already started moving again in the wind.
No sign anything had ever been there.
That felt wrong.
Hiro turned away from the opening.
Natsume walked with him down the stairs.
Their footsteps faded slowly into the lower floors.
Then the stairwell became quiet again.
Kaito opened his eyes.
For a while he just sat there listening.
Distant hospital machinery.
Emergency lights humming faintly overhead.
Wind moving through the broken wall.
Nothing else.
Then his gaze shifted toward the corridor beyond the stairwell door.
Dark hallway.
Rows of closed hospital rooms.
Weak emergency lighting.
One door near the far end.
Second from the corner.
Something was pressed against the small glass pane.
Small shape.
Low to the ground.
Dark energy leaked around it in thin uneven strands that kept fraying apart at the edges before pulling back together. Weak enough that its form struggled to stay stable.
It stayed perfectly still against the glass.
Looking directly at him.
Kaito looked back at it.
Neither of them moved.
Three seconds passed.
Then the thing jerked backward suddenly.
The dark energy around it fluttered violently.
Fear.
It retreated away from the door fast enough that the shape disappeared almost instantly from the window.
The thin dark energy leaking beneath the door faded a second later.
Gone.
Kaito stayed against the wall without moving.
.
The hospital room had three beds.
All three were occupied. freēwebnovel.com
Morning light pushed weakly through the window blinds in pale grey lines.
Outside, the hospital grounds looked washed-out and damp from the night rain.
From Kaito’s bed near the window he could see the corner of the stairwell exterior.
The hole in the wall had already been boarded over.
Fresh plywood.
Too clean against the concrete.
Hiro lay in the bed closest to the door with his arms folded across his chest and his head tilted back against the pillow.
A thick bandage wrapped around the right side of his ribs beneath his black shirt.
Another sat across the bruise around his left eye, the skin there darkened blue underneath it.
Natsume sat upright in the middle bed with one leg folded slightly beneath the blanket.
Her dark coat had been folded neatly over the chair beside her despite the tear at the shoulder.
Fresh bandaging disappeared beneath the collar of her shirt where her shoulder had been treated.
A few loose strands of dark hair rested against her cheek.
She had been staring at the wall for almost as long as Hiro had been silent.
Kaito leaned back carefully against his own pillow.
The bandage around his head sat straighter now.
Hiro finally spoke without looking away from the ceiling.
"You came out of a locked room."
Kaito looked at the window.
"I told you. The door broke."
"You’re weak."
"The door was old."
Silence.
Hiro slowly turned his head toward him.
Kaito kept looking outside.
Natsume spoke before Hiro could.
"You arrived at the right time."
Her voice stayed even.
Hiro looked back at the ceiling.
"Yeah," he said quietly.
The room went still again after that.
A cart rolled faintly somewhere down the corridor outside.
Kaito watched movement in the hospital grounds below. Security staff near the stairwell exterior. Construction tape still hanging around part of the lawn.
The flattened grass from the impact site was gone.
Either repaired.
Or hidden.
"What was it," Hiro said.
Natsume looked over.
"The Umbral?"
"Obviously the Umbral."
He shifted slightly against the pillow and immediately regretted it.
Pain crossed his face before he flattened the expression again.
"What kind of Umbral does that. Where did it come from. Why did it take the other one and leave us alive."
"We don’t know."
"We should know."
Hiro’s eyes stayed fixed on the ceiling.
"We’re exorcists."
Natsume was quiet for a second.
"We seal Umbrals when we encounter them," she said. "We don’t study them. Most exorcists never even see one in person."
"We saw two in one night."
"Which is exactly why this situation isn’t normal."
Hiro exhaled slowly through his nose.
"Fujino reported a possession case. One ghost."
Nobody answered.
His jaw tightened slightly.
"Three ghosts in the building. An Umbral already active on the premises."
His eyes finally shifted away from the ceiling.
"He knew something was wrong before we got here."
Natsume did not disagree.
Kaito stayed quiet.
Hiro stared at the ceiling again.
"Maybe it wasn’t interested in us at all," he said. "Maybe it came for the hospital Umbral from the beginning and we just happened to be standing there when it arrived."
"Possible," Natsume said.
"Then why leave afterward."
Neither of them spoke.
"We were finished," Hiro continued. "No energy left. Couldn’t even stand properly."
His fingers tapped once against his arm.
"If it wanted more spiritual energy, it could’ve taken it. We were easy prey."
Natsume looked down slightly at the blanket over her lap.
"I know."
"So either it had no interest in us..."
Hiro stared at the ceiling.
"...or it got what it came for and decided we weren’t worth the effort afterward."
Silence settled over the room again.
Morning light shifted slightly across the floor.
Natsume eventually spoke.
"I don’t think that’s reassuring either."
"It isn’t."
Another pause.
Then Hiro muttered.
"I never want to see this hospital again."
