Free Web NovelChapter 67: Hospital Bad
"I never want to see this hospital again."
Natsume glanced at him.
"You said that after the Yokohama morgue case."
"I meant it more this time."
Kaito’s phone buzzed quietly against the bedside table.
All three of them looked at it.
Kaito picked it up.
Mei: good morning 🙂 are you at the university yet?
He stared at the message for a few seconds.
Then typed back.
Had a family emergency. Some relatives showed up unexpectedly so I’m going home for a bit. I’ll explain later. Hope you have a nice day.
Set the phone back down.
The door opened almost immediately afterward.
Fujino entered the room.
He looked worse than the night before.
His suit was perfectly arranged as always. Dark tie straight. Collar clean.
But his eyes were red around the edges.
His jaw looked tight enough to crack.
Two men entered behind him carrying hard black cases.
The same kind as before.
Payment cases.
They placed them beside Hiro’s bed.
Two this time.
The metallic latches clicked softly against the floor.
Hiro looked at the cases.
Then at Fujino.
"Nobody warned us about the scale of this job," he said.
His voice stayed calm.
That was usually when he was angriest.
"You told us it was one ghost."
Fujino said nothing.
"We exorcised one ghost," Hiro continued. "That should’ve ended the assignment."
The room stayed quiet.
Fujino’s expression changed very slightly.
The polite attention he had entered the room with disappeared from his face.
Everything flattened.
Careful.
Controlled.
Empty enough that Kaito noticed it immediately.
"The payment covers all work performed," Fujino said.
His eyes shifted briefly toward the cases.
Then back to Hiro.
"Both cases."
Nobody moved.
"I trust this concludes our arrangement," Fujino said.
Natsume looked at him steadily.
"What happened in this hospital," Natsume said.
Fujino looked at her for a second.
His expression barely changed, but the polite layer he’d walked into the room with was gone now.
His jaw looked tight. Tighter than before.
"I’m not at liberty to discuss patient or operational information," he said. "Confidentiality applies to all hospital incidents."
His tone had flattened out completely. Every sentence sounded prepared before he said it.
"The payment covers the work performed. I would appreciate discretion regarding the events here."
Nobody answered.
Fujino adjusted the sleeve of his suit once, gave a small nod, then turned and walked out.
The two men followed him immediately. The door shut behind them.
Hiro kept looking at it after they left.
Then he leaned his head back against the pillow again and stared at the ceiling.
"Something bad happened here before we showed up," he said.
"Yes," Natsume said.
"And he’s covering it."
"Probably."
Hiro rubbed a hand over his face carefully, avoiding the bruise around his eye.
"You know what’s annoying? He’s bad at hiding it too. The second I mentioned the ghost count his whole face changed."
Natsume didn’t disagree.
Kaito looked toward the window.
The hole in the stairwell had already been boarded over outside. Fresh plywood covered the opening cleanly enough that it stood out against the concrete around it.
Too fast.
The hospital wanted it gone before people started asking questions.
"You think they knew there was an Umbral here?" Hiro asked.
"I think they knew something was wrong," Natsume said. "Whether they understood what it was is different."
Hiro exhaled slowly.
His ribs still hurt when he breathed too deep. Kaito had noticed him adjusting carefully every few minutes without realizing he was doing it.
"I hate hospitals," Hiro muttered.
"You always hate hospitals."
"Yeah, but this one’s earned it."
The room went quiet again after that.
Doctors came and went through the afternoon. Nurses changed bandages, checked vitals, asked the same questions three different times.
Natsume redid the herbal wrap around her shoulder herself after one of the nurses left.
The whole room smelled bitter for ten minutes afterward.
Hiro spent most of the afternoon pretending his ribs didn’t hurt anymore.
Kaito watched him reach for a water bottle too quickly once and stop breathing halfway through it.
By early afternoon Natsume’s shoulder had loosened enough that she could move it normally again.
Kaito’s head healed slower.
When the bandage finally came off, the skin underneath had already sealed cleanly.
The nurse looked mildly disturbed by that.
They discharged them a little after two.
The hospital corridors looked completely normal again.
People visiting family members. Reception phones ringing. Somebody laughing near the elevators.
Kaito kept expecting to hear someone talking about the stairwell.
Nobody was.
Construction panels blocked the area off entirely now.
As they walked past, Hiro glanced toward it once and kept moving.
His car was still where he’d left it in the parking structure.
The drive back stayed mostly quiet.
Natsume sat in the passenger seat with her elbow against the door and her eyes closed. Her coat was folded in her lap now instead of hanging over the seat.
Hiro drove one-handed.
Kaito sat in the back beside one of the black cases and watched the city outside.
People going to work. Students walking in groups. Someone arguing outside a convenience store.
Nobody out there knew an Umbral had torn through a hospital twelve hours ago.
The thought stayed in his head the whole drive home.
Hiro eventually pulled over outside Kaito’s gate and left the engine running.
Nobody got out immediately.
Then Hiro reached back and shoved one of the cases toward him.
"You helped. Take some."
"I don’t need it."
"It’s Fujino’s money. That should make it easier."
Kaito looked down at the case for a few seconds before opening it.
Stacks of bills.
He took several bundles from the top. Rent money. Food. Utilities.
Enough.
Then he closed the case again.
Hiro looked at him through the mirror.
"...Seriously? That’s all?"
"It’s enough."
"You almost died."
"So did you."
Hiro stared at him for a second, then laughed once through his nose.
"You’re still exactly the same."
Kaito already knew what was coming next.
"No confidence. No self-preservation instincts. No idea when you’ve done something useful."
Kaito reached for the door handle.
Hiro looked at him through the mirror again.
"How does your girlfriend even know you like her?"
"She asked me out."
Silence.
Then Hiro started laughing hard enough that he immediately grabbed his ribs.
"Oh my god. Of course she did."
Natsume opened one eye slightly.
"She seemed proactive."
"From the texts alone," Hiro said.
"Incredible."
"Get lost," Kaito said.
"It’s my car."
"Then I’m leaving your car."
He stepped out and shut the door behind him.
Hiro lowered the window.
"We’re visiting again sometime."
"Don’t."
"We definitely are."
The car pulled away from the curb. freewёbnoνel.com
Kaito watched it disappear down the street, then turned toward the gate.
He had the front door unlocked and one foot inside when Shizuka hit him from behind.
The force carried both of them through the doorway.
The door slammed shut against the wall as her arms wrapped around his chest and locked there instantly, pulling him hard back against her.
Her face buried itself against the back of his neck before he fully caught balance.
A sound kept coming out of her throat.
Low.
Continuous.
Not crying.
Just strained breathing pressed into his collar between words she couldn’t get out properly.
"Kai~~"
Her grip tightened harder.
"I’m sorry."
The words came out muffled against the back of his neck.
"I’m sorry, Kai. I watched you fall and I couldn’t — I had to stay back, I had to, but I watched you go down and I couldn’t—"
Kaito caught himself against the wall with one hand.
"I’m fine."
"You were bleeding."
Her voice shook on that one.
"You hit the table and you went down and there was blood and I couldn’t come in—"
She stopped there.
Her arms tightened again instead.
Kaito stood still for a second.
Silver hair spilled over his shoulder and down across the front of his chest where she clung to him from behind. He could feel her breathing against the back of his neck.
Fast. Uneven.
"I’m standing here now."
"I know."
The answer came out immediately.
Too fast.
"But I saw it."
Her hands moved over him restlessly while she spoke. Across his chest first. Then lower across his ribs. Checking injuries. Feeling for damage through his shirt.
When her fingers brushed the place the bandages had been earlier she slowed down immediately.
"Here?"
"It’s fine."
"You had blood all over your face."
"It’s healed."
She kissed the side of his neck.
Then the corner of his jaw when he turned slightly.
Then beneath his ear.
None of it felt playful.
Every time she touched him it was careful in a way she almost never was.
"You were watching the whole time," he said quietly.
"Of course I was watching the whole time."
There was genuine confusion in her voice now, like she couldn’t understand why he would even ask that.
Her fingers curled tighter into the front of his shirt.
"I listened to your heartbeat through the wall."
Kaito went quiet.
The entryway suddenly felt very small.
Shizuka pressed closer against him again before he answered.
"...That’s a little disturbing."
"I know."
No embarrassment.
No hesitation.
Just honesty.
She rubbed her face slowly against the side of his neck, silver hair sliding softly across his skin.
