The sterile, antiseptic air of the hospital hallway washed over Hozuki Nozomi the moment he stepped inside. It was a scent laced with quiet desperation and institutional cleanliness. Beside him, Misaki Mei moved with a silent, determined grace, her eyepatch a stark contrast against her pale skin. They had not taken more than a dozen steps when a familiar, internal chime resonated in Nozomi's mind.
[Ding, Damage Doubled Rebound triggered!]
The effect was immediate and subtle. Misaki Mei's measured stride hitched, a fraction of a second out of rhythm. Her hand flew to the edge of her eyepatch, pulling it back slightly as she turned to cast a long, searching look at him. Her expression was inscrutable—a blend of sharp curiosity and profound wariness—but she offered no explanation. After a tense pause, she simply turned and resumed leading the way, her silence more telling than any words.
Nozomi followed, his own mind now fully alert. Something just attacked me, he concluded. He activated his Spiritual Eye, its enhanced perception sweeping over Misaki Mei's form. He saw the faint, intrinsic glow of her unique vitality, but no clinging malice, no spectral signature of a traditional evil spirit. This absence was the clue.
Since his Spiritual Eye Special Strike had not automatically charged, it confirmed the attacker was neither ghost nor conventional apparition. It was something else—an unseen, intangible presence that could harm without being seen. His only defense had been the passive rebound. He could only hope the doubled damage had struck true against whatever it was.
They arrived at a private room. Misaki Mei entered without ceremony, and Nozomi followed decisively.
Inside, lying still on the hospital bed, was a girl who was Misaki Mei's mirror image. Fujioka Misaki looked fragile in her medical gown, her face pale against the white sheets, existing in a silence that felt heavier than mere sleep.
With his Spiritual Eye active, Nozomi saw the truth her sister could not: two pale, vacant-eyed ghosts—one male, one female—leaning over the sleeping girl, drawing a faint, misty essence from her parted lips with a parasitic lethargy. This, then, was the source of the illness.
[Ding, Spiritual Eye Special Strike charged!]
The system prompt was all the permission he needed. Silently reciting the activation phrase, Nozomi willed the skill forth. A shaft of pure, cleansing white light, invisible to normal sight, descended upon the two specters. A soundless scream seemed to echo in the spiritual stratum as their forms wavered, grew transparent, and dissolved into nothingness.
Misaki Mei, who could perceive only the aura of death and not the spirits themselves, started slightly. She saw the twin shroud of mortality around her sister vanish abruptly. Her sharp gaze snapped to Nozomi. She gave him a brief, acknowledging nod, her gratitude unspoken but clear, before rushing to her sister's bedside to check her vitals.
"Uh… Sister?" Fujioka Misaki's eyelids fluttered open, her voice weak but lucid. "You came to see me." She managed a frail smile, her eyes gaining a spark of life as they landed on the newcomers. "Are you Mei's friends? Wow, there's even a handsome guy."
Nozomi stepped forward with a gentle, disarming smile. "Hello, I'm Hozuki Nozomi, a friend of your sister's."
"I am Yukino Yukinoshita.""Hi, Fujioka-san! Nice to meet you! I'm Yui Yuigahama," Yui chirruped softly, gesturing to the others. "This is Asuna Yuuki, and Sanshokuin Sumireko. We're all friends with your sister.""Hello everyone," Fujioka Misaki responded, her sweet smile belying her obvious exhaustion. "Thank you for coming to see me."
The girls chatted with her gently, their hearts aching at the sight of the lively girl struggling against profound weakness. The conversation was light, but the effort soon took its toll. Before long, Fujioka Misaki's eyelids grew heavy, and she drifted back into a needed sleep.
Misaki Mei's attention shifted to a small doll resting on the bedside table—a gift she had brought. Her gaze darkened, clouded with grim knowledge. She turned to Nozomi, her voice low and solemn.
"Hozuki Nozomi, thank you for what you did just now. I saw the two death auras around my sister disappear. But…" She paused, her visible eye locking onto him with intense focus. "…the aura of death clinging to you has grown significantly stronger."
A wave of palpable concern swept through the other girls. Yukino's composed facade tightened with worry. "Nozomi, what should we do? Can this be resolved?"
Nozomi raised a placating hand. His eyes, thoughtful and calculating, lingered on Misaki Mei's eyepatch for a moment before he replied, his tone deceptively calm. "Don't worry. It's not an insurmountable problem." A faint, dangerous smile touched his lips. "It remains to be seen who brings death to whom. In any case, we will be guarding this ward tonight. I have a premonition our strange… visitor… will show itself."
Yui Yuigahama's face paled, and her legs gave an involuntary tremble. "We have to wait until night…? U-un… I should probably call my mom…"
Nozomi's smile turned into a playful grin, the tension breaking momentarily as he glanced toward Asuna Yuuki. "Isn't your mom right here?"
Asuna shot him a flat, unamused glare. "I have been to Yuigahama-san's house. The resemblance is merely superficial. I am not her mother."
Yuigahama's eyes, however, lit up with a mischievous spark. She immediately latched onto Asuna's arm, clinging like a koala. "Moooom~, you have to stay with me!"
"I am not your mother, okay?! Yui, really!" Asuna protested, though her exasperation was softened by clear affection.
"But your voices are so similar too! Both so gentle and kind!" Yui insisted, nuzzling Asuna's shoulder.
The lighthearted bickering between the two friends served its purpose, dispelling a layer of the heavy, creeping fear that had settled over the group.
Hozuki Nozomi fetched a few spare chairs from the hallway, and they settled in to wait. The plan was simple yet tense: wait for the 'fish' to take the bait.
Unconsciously, time slipped by. The sterile white light of the hospital corridor gradually dimmed, replaced by the deeper shadows of evening. Night had fallen.
Yui Yuigahama, in the middle of a whispered conversation, suddenly fell silent. Her cheeks flushed a delicate pink. She leaned closer to Yukino Yukinoshita, her voice a mortified whisper. "Yukino… I… I really need to use the restroom."
Yukino rolled her eyes, though a hint of sympathy shone through. "Nozomi said it's safest not to go anywhere alone. You could… just go here."
"Wuwu! How could I possibly do that?!" Yui squeaked, horrified. "Yukino, don't tell me you don't need to go either!"
With that pointed comment, Yukino Yukinoshita's own composure wavered. A faint blush colored her cheeks as she suddenly became acutely aware of a similar, pressing need. "…We'll just go out for a moment."
Hearing the hushed discussion, Hozuki Nozomi immediately intervened. "No. It's too risky. What if you encounter something?"
"Then…" Yukino proposed, her pragmatic mind seeking a compromise, "you come with us. You can wait right outside the door."
Hozuki Nozomi reluctantly agreed, but his unease persisted. As a precaution, he retrieved a stack of protective talismans from his pocket—small, intricately drawn slips of paper that hummed with a faint, warm energy. He handed four each to Asuna Yuuki and Sanshokuin Sumireko. "Keep these on you. Do not let go of them."
The remaining two, he gave to Fujioka Misaki, the sleeping patient, placing one gently on her bedside table, and the last to her vigilant sister, Misaki Mei.
…
Watching the trio—Hozuki, Yukino, and Yui—disappear down the shadowy corridor toward the restrooms, Asuna Yuuki instinctively shifted closer to Sanshokuin Sumireko on their hard plastic chairs.
"Sumireko… do you really think such things exist? Ghosts, curses… all of it?" Asuna's voice was barely above a whisper, her usual scientific certainty fraying at the edges in the oppressive hospital quiet.
Sanshokuin Sumireko offered a gentle, knowing smile. "I believe they do. The world is wider and stranger than our textbooks say." She patted Asuna's hand reassuringly. "If you're too frightened, you can always ask Hozuki-kun to escort you home later."
Asuna shook her head, a flicker of determination in her eyes. "It's a rare club activity. I don't want to miss it. And… if none of you are running away, then I won't be scared either."
…
Meanwhile, in the women's restroom, Yukino Yukinoshita and Yui Yuigahama finished their business and emerged together, feeling marginally relieved. They stepped into the hallway to find Hozuki Nozomi waiting for them, his expression strangely blank.
"Let's go. Time to return to the ward," the figure said, its tone flat.
Yui, still embarrassed, moved to follow.
Yukino Yukinoshita's hand shot out, grabbing Yui's wrist and pulling her back. Her icy blue eyes were narrowed, fixed coldly on the 'Hozuki Nozomi' before them. One hand was clenched tightly around a talisman in her pocket.
"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice cutting through the silence.
The figure turned, its face splitting into a grin that was all wrong—too wide, too devoid of Hozuki's characteristic warmth or mischief. "I'm Hozuki Nozomi. Who else would I be?"
Yui Yuigahama whimpered, her arms wrapping around Yukino's in a death grip. She felt it too. The smile was grotesque. The eyes watching them held a glint of pure, predatory brutality.
Without another word, Yukino Yukinoshita acted. She withdrew her hand from her pocket and flung a small, laminated card directly at the impostor's chest. It was the Demonic Flame Card Hozuki had given her for emergencies.
Upon contact, the card ignited. Black flames, cold and silent, erupted, engulfing the figure. It didn't even have time to scream properly—just a distorted gurgle—before it was consumed, crumbling into a small pile of ash in less than three seconds.
Yui stared, her mouth agape. "Y-Yukino… that card… is it really that powerful?"
"Yes," Yukino stated calmly, retrieving another similar card from her pocket, her movements steady despite the adrenaline. "Nozomi gave them to me. I have several more. Let's go back. Don't be afraid. The real one will come find us."
"O-Okay."
…
Back at the restroom area, the real Hozuki Nozomi was leaning against the wall by the door, waiting patiently. Suddenly, the door creaked open.
A figure that looked exactly like Yukino Yukinoshita stepped out. However, there was a glaring, absurd discrepancy: a pair of feminine panties was draped over her slender calves, which were sheathed in her signature black over-the-knee socks.
The sight was so blatantly, comically wrong that Hozuki Nozomi's lips twitched in disbelief.
Are the supernatural nuisances these days so utterly lacking in creativity? Trying to scare me with… wardrobe malfunctions? How pathetically boring.
He didn't even bother engaging. He simply turned on his heel and began walking away, back toward the ward.
The Yukino-doppelganger, however, was not content to be ignored. With a rustle of movement, it produced a gleaming surgical knife from somewhere and lunged, aiming for his back.
Hozuki Nozomi didn't look. He simply pivoted on one foot, his leg lashing out in a blur of motion. A powerful backward kick connected solidly with the attacker's midsection.
"Ack—!"
The figure let out a choked cry as it was launched through the air like a ragdoll, crashing through the open restroom door and landing in a heap with a sickening thud. It twitched once and lay still.
Expressionless, Hozuki Nozomi raised a hand. A flicker of concentrated, golden flame sparked to life at his fingertips. He flicked his wrist, sending the small, superheated orb sailing through the doorway.
The moment it made contact, the figure on the floor began to convulse violently. Its form warped and twisted, the illusion melting away to reveal something dark, scorched, and skinless beneath—a visage of pure malice. It struggled feebly against the purifying flames before crumbling, like its predecessor, into nothing but inert ash.
Hozuki Nozomi curled his lip in disdain. "What era is this? Still pulling the 'playing dead' trick? Don't you know I specialize in reducing things to ashes and making sure they stay that way?"
Having dealt with the nuisance, he focused inward. Activating the search function of his Game Life System, a faint, golden arrow materialized in his vision, pointing unerringly down a specific corridor. Following its guidance, he quickly caught up to Yukino Yukinoshita and Yui Yuigahama, who were advancing with cautious, vigilant steps, their eyes scanning every shadow.
"Oh, it seems you two are managing just fine," he called out with a warm, familiar smile.
Yukino Yukinoshita immediately froze, her body tensing. She pulled Yui behind her slightly, her gaze sharp and wary. "Don't come any closer. Prove you are Hozuki Nozomi."
Hozuki Nozomi raised an eyebrow, a surge of pride mixing with his amusement. As expected of my fiancée. Excellent situational awareness.
He took a deliberate step forward, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial murmur. "How about this: that night, when you and Haruno-nee together, you were both wearing…"
"AH! STOP! SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!" Yukino Yukinoshita exploded into motion, a scarlet flush consuming her face as she rushed forward and clamped her hands over his mouth, cutting off the incriminating details.
She had encountered several fakes already. None had been able to answer her personal, intimate questions, and each had earned a Demonic Flame Card for their failure. This one, however, knew things only the real Hozuki Nozomi could.
Satisfied, Hozuki Nozomi smiled against her fingers, then gently pulled her hands away, wrapping his arms around her in a firm, reassuring hug, stroking her hair. He then waved at the trembling Yui Yuigahama.
Yui could hold back no longer. With a relieved sob, she threw herself against his other side, burying her face in his shirt, her whole body trembling. "H-Hozuki-kun… it's really you…"
"Sorry, I was delayed dealing with an imposter," he said, his voice softening. "The environment seems to be shifting. Let's get back to the ward now. Both of you, hold my hand and don't let go."
With the golden arrow of his System illuminating the true path through the hospital's now-distorted geometry, Hozuki Nozomi led his two precious charges forward, their hands securely linked in his.