Yuki kicked the door shut behind her with her heel. Her backpack slipped off her shoulder and hit the floor with a heavy thud. She didn't bother picking it up. Her arms ached. Her legs were sore. The faint smell of bleach clung to her hands. But at least she was finally home.
Yuki stepped over a pile of crumpled clothes and an empty instant noodle cup without even looking down. The house smelled worse than before.
She dropped onto the living room floor in front of the TV, where it still lay face down. For a second, she just sat there, staring at it. Then she leaned forward, grabbed the cracked edge of the frame, and set it back onto the stand. It wobbled, but stayed up.
She pressed the power button with her thumb. Then a blue glow flooded the room.
A man in a sharp blue suit appeared on the screen. Apparently, Yuki had the news channel on screen and the news anchor was standing in the middle of the streets of Kyoto. The man had short black hair, tied neatly at the back and beautiful brown eyes. He wore a brown suit and black tie. And a large black coat over his suit.
Below him, bright red letters screamed: KYOTO MASS DISAPPEARANCES.
The man started talking.
"Authorities have confirmed over twenty thousand individuals missing across Kyoto, based primarily on clothing and belongings recovered from various sites."
The man's hand started twitching as he was holding the mic.
"Sources close to me have reported that among the missing are my own parents and younger brother."
He paused. His mouth opened like he was going to say something else. Instead, he swallowed.
"But... personally, I don't remember ever having a family."
The remote slipped from Yuki's fingers and clattered against the floor. The screen flickered as the channel switched to a blonde woman in a red dress talking about tomorrow's weather.
Yuki didn't hear a word of it. Her mind spun, faster than she could catch.
Ah, I understand it now. It's like a curse that makes everyone forget the people they cared about as soon as they vanish.
However, after thinking about it a little longer, she pressed the palm of her hand against her forehead. She realized there was a big flaw in her theory.
"But…this does not explain why me and Riko still remember Igaguri," she said.
Her hands dug into her sleeves, clutching tightly as she grew annoyed that her theory was possibly completely wrong.
There might be something I'm missing. Damn it.
Yuki grabbed the remote again and turned off the TV. She pushed herself upright, the floor creaking beneath her. The silence of her house was apparent.
Then—
Yuki's phone buzzed against the floor.
Yuki flinched and snatched the phone without thinking. The phone screen flashed: Miss Nishimura's name.
Her thumb hovered for a second. Then she answered.
"...Hello?"
There was a pause, long enough to tighten her chest.
"Yuki Ayano," Miss Nishimura said, "I'm sorry for calling so late."
Miss Nishimura's voice came carefully, like she was walking on thin ice.
"I wanted to apologize... for the punishment today. I know it must've felt unfair."
Yuki stayed quiet, her eyes locked on the dead TV screen.
"But... as a teacher, I had to do something. When someone disrupts the class like that... even if I understand you had your reasons..." Miss Nishimura hesitated. "I still have to take control. I'm sorry, Yuki."
Yuki squeezed the phone tighter. There was no point in getting angry. Miss Nishimura was just doing her job and it's not like she was faking her reaction. She truly did not know Igaguri.
"You're right. Sorry. It won't happen again," Yuki said.
Miss Nishimura let out a breath, almost like she had been holding it.
"Thank you, Yuki."
Another awkward beat of quiet passed.
"So... how did your therapy session go? Was it helpful?" Miss Nishimura said.
Yuki's mind flashed back without warning.
The dolls. The way they moved. The way their faces smiled.
Her throat tightened until it hurt.
"It was... okay," Yuki said. "But... can I ask something?"
"Of course."
Yuki twisted her skirt between her fingers, holding on tighter than she realized.
"Did you tell Sasaki Shin anything about me before I met him?"
"No — of course not. I only recommended his clinic to you. I didn't even give him your name," Miss Nishimura said, sounding genuinely surprised.
She does not sound like she is lying to me. The answer had come too fast, too real to be fake.
Miss Nishimura hesitated, then gave a nervous laugh.
"He's just... strange. The kind of strange where he can figure you out just by looking at you."
Yuki closed her eyes.
"Tell me about it," Yuki said.
"You've been through a lot. Please take it easy tonight, okay?" Miss Nishimura's voice softened again.
Yuki mumbled a goodbye and ended the call.
She sat there, staring at the dead phone screen, her mind whirring so loud it made her skin crawl.
Across the edge of her vision, just beyond the TV screen, something moved.
Yuki stiffened. Slowly, without turning her head, she shifted her eyes toward the living room window.
Outside, across the street, a figure stood under an old streetlamp.
The individual had a long brown trench coat and no face or eyes. He was completely dark.
Yuki's hands grabbed at her skirt. She blinked once, twice, then scrubbed her hands over her eyes, trying to see the individual's face.
Maybe I'm just tired. I should really go to sleep.
Then the streetlamp started flickering.
Once. Twice. On the third flicker—
the figure disappeared.
Yuki's eyes widened as her heart raced. When the streetlamp light re-illuminated, the figure was standing a few feet closer.
Yuki's mouth went dry.
No, no, no… it's not happening again. Not another evil spirit!
She scrambled for her shoes with shaking hands, shoving them on without tying the laces. She ran outside, feet slamming against the overgrown yard. She circled wide, cutting across the cracked sidewalk. She didn't dare look back.
The figure in the brown trench coat didn't move.
Yuki kept running, her chest rising and falling fast. The longer the figure stayed still, the more her panic eased, bit by bit.
Wait...It's not following me?
A shaky breath escaped her lips.
Before she could untangle her thoughts, something wet-sounding echoed behind her — a slimy, dragging noise.
She spun around fast but there was no one behind her. The streets were completely empty.
What is going on, I'm i hearing things?
She stopped moving, standing still in the middle of the broken sidewalk, heart hammering against her ribs.
Then, out of nowhere two black, slimy tentacles shot out from the shadows and wrapped tight around both of her ankles.
Yuki screamed, stumbling as she tried to kick free.
"LET GO OF ME! LET GO!"
She beat at the tentacles with her fists, but it was like punching wet rubber. No damage. No effect.
The tentacles yanked hard, dragging her backward across the rough street. Her screams echoed into the empty night.
"HEEEELP! HEEEEELP!"
But no one answered. No one even looked.
Her skin scraped raw against the concrete as she thrashed, arms flailing, legs kicking.
The trench coat figure stood ahead—unmoving—as the tentacles dragged her toward it.
I have to do something. I have to—
Frantic, her eyes scanned the ground. Her hand caught on a loose rock—the size of her palm.
She grabbed it and slammed it against the tentacle wrapped around her leg.
"TAKE THIS!"
It flinched—but didn't let go.
Gritting her teeth, Yuki kept swinging again and again, tears stinging her eyes. She was getting closer to the creature. Only a few feet away now.
"PLEASE! LET GO!" she said, as she kept slamming the rock against its tentacle.
Sadly for her, she didn't realize that she had come face to face with the creature. All she felt at that point was fear. Her entire body locked up, and the rock slipped from her hand.
The trench coat creature towered over her now.
It stood at least seven feet tall, more tentacles spilling from underneath the coat. Its face still couldn't be seen—still dark, still blurry.
The creature slowly reached down and grabbed Yuki by the neck with its claw-like hand.
Yuki gasped, fingernails scraping at its wrist as it lifted her off the ground. She couldn't breathe, and her kicks against its chest did nothing.
i-i'm about to die... i-i-I can't breathe...
Her eyes began to close. The world blurred into a gray haze. The creature's grip tightened, and it didn't stop.
As it squeezed harder around her neck, Yuki stopped resisting, her body hanging useless in its grasp. Her eyes began to turn red from the pressure. She could feel everything fading, her mind slipping into blackness.
Then, out of sheer luck, she was saved.
The figure ended up dropping Yuki like dead weight onto the ground. She crashed onto the pavement, coughing violently as she held her throat, gasping for air.
I—I'm alive...?
Still choking, she blinked through the tears. The trench coat figure turned and bolted in the opposite direction, its slimy tentacles slipping back inside the coat as it ran.
Shaking, she crawled to her knees.
What... what just happened...?
She barely had time to think before a red flash shot across the street from out of nowhere. A glowing red energy cage slammed into the figure, trapping it in place.
Yuki's eyes widened in shock as she stumbled upright, still clutching her neck.
The figure let out a horrible screech, thrashing against the cage. Its coat tore apart, revealing a mass of shifting darkness underneath—a body covered in twisting black tentacles that whipped at the cage bars.
A swirling portal tore open beneath the figure as it tried to cling to the cage bars using his tentacles. However, after a few minutes, the figure's tentacles burst into flames.
The creature screeched louder, the sound it produced was sharp and awful. Yuki clapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. She stayed that way until the noise stopped.
When she opened her eyes again, the streets were completely empty.
Yuki tried her best to stop shaking, but at this point, what she was feeling wasn't fear anymore—it was failure. It was worse than the fear she had felt when the doll spirit was hunting her. At least then, she had hope. But now?
Now, all she could think about was how useless she felt. She couldn't help Igaguri Kenji. She couldn't even protect herself.
Yuki sat on the ground, looking at her trembling hands.
However, she knew what she had to do. She had promised herself to go see Sasaki and get these creatures to stop attacking her once and for all.
Once she made up her mind, she suddenly heard rustling in the distance.
Her head turned quickly, just in time to catch a shadowy figure slipping behind the bushes from across the street, and for a split second, Yuki saw something glowing red in their hand. It almost looked like the red energy that formed the cage—the one that had just saved her—but the figure ran from her.
"HEY! COME BACK!" she yelled.
But the figure kept running.
Was that... Sasaki? Was he really the one that saved me...?
She attempted to get up, but her legs were barely holding up. Yuki's mind raced.
Ignoring the pain, she tried one more time to stand, but her knees gave out the second her foot touched the pavement.
Her socks were soaked in blood, and every cut along her legs burned like hell. Only now that everything had calmed down did her body finally register the pain, and it was impossible to ignore it anymore.
Her eyes were getting heavy as they slowly started to shut.
Yuki collapsed on the street, face-first, from blood loss.
And that was it.
Everything went dark.