"Guh—!"
A spasm shot through my hand. Crack! Just a twitch, but pain lit up my arm like a live wire. Worse than any broken bone from training. Worse than the old man's bamboo sword cracking across my knuckles
thwack!
This was deeper, like my own bones were turning against me.
"Huff..."
Breathing wasn't working right. My lungs hitched—tight, like I'd swallowed a bag of nails. Each pull of air felt thin and sharp, wheezing in and out.
Did I burn myself from the inside out?
Vision cleared slowly. White ceiling. White walls. Morgue-bright, sterile, and cold.
There was a woman by the window. White coat. Hair scraped back into a bun so tight it looked painful. Glasses catching the light, hiding her eyes.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A pen against a clipboard. The sound drilled into my head, steady as a heartbeat.
"Shoko Ieiri. The Nurse."
Her voice was flat, cutting through the quiet like a blade.
"You're lucky I was here."
Lucky. Right. The word tasted bitter, like ash on my tongue.
I tried to sit up. My body said no way. A wave of dizziness slammed me back down.
Thud.
"Don't."
Not a suggestion. A fact. Her tone brooked no argument.
"Your nervous system's fried. Electrical burns, inside and out. Frostbite. Minor concussion."
She said it like she was reading a grocery list. Milk. Eggs. Frostbite in July. Bread. No emotion, just cold recitation.
"How long—?"
"Three hours and change." She pushed her glasses up. Click.
"Question. How'd you give yourself frostbite and lightning burns at the same time?"
The room got very quiet. Hummm—the lights buzzed overhead, mocking the silence.
She knew. Her eyes pierced through, sharp as needles.
My throat closed. Swallowed hard—gulp.
"…I don't wanna talk about it."
Shoko just stared. Her look said everything: Idiot. Fool. Moron.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"Fine. But if you use your Cursed Technique like this again, 'recovery' won't be in the cards."
I froze. "My… what?"
"The Technique that did this."
She gestured at all of me—bandages, bruises, the mess.
"The energy signature's all over you. Two different patterns, actually. Weird."
Two. Yin and Yang. She could see them both.
My heart thumped.
ba-dum, ba-dum.
Before I could think, her voice changed. Sharper. Like a cop, interrogating.
"Why are you at True Cross?"
A tilt of her head. Swish—her coat shifted.
"A sorcerer with an innate technique doesn't belong here. You should be at Jujutsu High."
Questions, fast and hard. Barrage incoming.
"No enrollment? Which family? Zenin? Gojo? Kamo? And why are you hunting Curses alone—you got a death wish, or are you just stupid?"
"My enrollment's for 2015!"
It just blurted out. Spill—words tumbling free.
Shoko stopped. Blink. Blink.
"2015?"
"Yes! I'm a first-year! I just found out about Cursed Energy a month ago! I didn't even know about Jujutsu High!"
Silence. Thick, heavy. The hum of the lights grew louder—buzzz.
"…Huh."
She pinched the bridge of her nose. Sighhhh—a long, weary exhale.
"You got a Technique. In a month."
"Yeah."
"Most people train for years. Some never get one."
She let out a long sigh. Whoosh—air escaping like steam.
"Explains why your control is garbage. Keep this up, and you'll be dead before 2015."
"I know."
"Do you? You look pretty damn clueless from here."
thunk.
I had nothing to say. She was right. Nail on the head
"You're only in one piece because I know Reverse Cursed Technique. Otherwise, you'd be damaged for good."
She turned to leave, coat swishing.
SKRRT—!!
The door opened hard. Creak—hinges protesting.
"Stay put. Two days. No moving. No training. Don't even think about Cursed Energy."
She paused, a shadow in the doorway. Silhouette stark.
"Oh. Norikashimo-kun?"
"What?"
"A Visitor. She's been waiting."
Before I could ask who, the door opened wider.
Click.
latch catching.
Purple hair. Pink eyes. Standing perfectly still.
Kamiki Izumo.
"…"
"…"
Shoko looked between us. I saw a tiny smirk—curl of lips.
"I'll leave you to it. Try not to break anything else."
Click.
The door shut. Thud—finality in the sound.
Silence.
The hum of lights—buzzz.
The weight of her stare pressing down.
The girl I'd followed like a lost puppy. The girl who told me to get lost.
Now, here, in my hospital room. Why?
The sterile quiet of the room was broken only by the low, persistent hum of the fluorescent lights overhead.
Buzzz—
The sterile quiet was broken only by the low, persistent hum of the fluorescent lights overhead—a sound that seeped into the silence, thick and artificial.
That heavy silence was now cut by the soft click of the door closing behind Shoko. And there she was, left in the doorway.
Purple hair. Pink eyes. A face that gave nothing away.
Kamiki Izumo.
She stood perfectly still, not even seeming to breathe. Mike, her spirit familiar, was a silent puff of white fur stationed at her heel like a tiny, living statue.
No sound. No greeting. Just the hum of the lights and the weight of her stare pressing down on me from across the room.
The girl I'd stupidly trailed after. The girl who'd looked right through me and told me to get lost not an hour ago.
And now she was here. Standing in the doorway of my hospital room.
My mind blanked, the ache in my body fading behind a sharper, more confusing throb of pure bewilderment.
Why?
The hum of the lights seemed to grow louder—buzzz. My mouth was dry. I couldn't think of a single thing to say.
She moved first.
A slight shift of her weight. The soft shhh of her school slippers on the linoleum.
Kamiki stopped a few feet from the bed. Her gaze wasn't clinical like Shoko's had been. It was sharp, suspicious, sweeping over the IV stand and the bandages as if they were clues in a puzzle that offended her.
Finally, her eyes—a color that didn't seem quite natural—landed on mine. Cool. Assessing.
"You look like hell."
Her voice was different. Not flat like Shoko's, but edged with a blunt, irritable curiosity. It wasn't a nurse's observation.
It was a person looking for answers.
She was curious.
One moment, a perfectly healthy guy. The next, not even a full day later, bedridden in a hospital.
Like a detective scanning a crime scene, she was here for clues.
But…
A weak sound escaped me. Sighhh—barely a whisper.
"Feels like it."
She was quiet, arms crossed. She glanced back at the door—swish—then at me, her brow slightly furrowed.
"That woman in the coat. The nurse. Who is she?"
"Shoko Ieiri. She's… the school nurse."
'Did she notice something…?'
"So are you an exorcist too?"
Exorcist…?
The word hit me like a physical blow.
Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
My pulse jumped, echoing in my ears. The IV machine beeped.
She leaned closer, slippers shifting softly against the floor.
Shhh.
"Well?"
Her pink eyes held mine, unblinking.
"Are you?"
The question hung in the air between us.
My throat closed up, like daggers being pressed upon my throat, it was hard to make my words come out.
Silence.
"Well?"
Kamiki's pink eyes bore into me, unblinking. Waiting.
I could feel my pulse hammering in my temples.
Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
Tap.
Her finger tapped once against her arm. A slow, impatient beat.
"Well?"
Her voice was low. Insistent.
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out but a dry rasp.
Khh—
I swallowed, throat clicking.
"I'm… not an exorcist."
The words felt clumsy. Inadequate.
Her eyes narrowed—just a fraction.
"But you hunted that demon?..."
"H-how did you know...?"
"I didn't, but you just told me..."
"..."
Her face instantly lit up.
a small smirk stuck to her lips, like saying I caught you.
The smirk didn't reach her eyes.
It was sharp. Knowing.
Like a blade that had found its mark.
"…Tch."
She clicked her tongue softly, straightening up. The faint amusement drained from her face, replaced by something colder.
"So you are?."
I clenched my teeth. Damn it.
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
"Normal people don't end up with lightning burns and frostbite after 'falling down the stairs.' And they definitely don't get treated by that woman."
Her gaze flicked to the IV, the bandages, the machines—then back to me.
Her pink eyes lingered on his body.
"One doesn't recover at the speed you do."
She instantly noticed that there was no Blackened skin or any signs of frostbite, the only signs on his body were bandages, no burned skin.
"So let me introduce you to Mephisto."
A/N:
Kamiki Izumo: A character from Blue Exorcist, known for her summoning abilities and tsundere personality.