The respite was fragile, shattered by the shrill ring of Aoi's phone.
She finished taping the last sterile pad over the worst burn on Yuki's forearm and reached for her phone on the coffee table. She glanced at the caller ID – her mother – before answering.
"Hi, Mom… Yes, I'm fine… No, I'm just… studying with a friend." She shot Yuki a quick, apologetic look. "Yes, I'll be home soon. Okay. Love you too."
She hung up, sighing. "I have to go. Family dinner." She looked at Yuki, her expression softening again. "You can stay here if you want? Rest? I won't be long."
The offer was tempting. The warmth, the safety. But staying felt dangerous. The exorcist could track him. The darkness he carried could taint this place. Taint her.
"No," Yuki said, pushing himself up. The movement sent fresh pain lancing through his arms. "I should go. Thank you… for this." He gestured vaguely at his bandaged arms, at the apartment.
Aoi stood up too, concern etched on her face. "Are you sure you're okay to be out there? You look exhausted."
"I'll manage." He moved towards the door, eager to escape before the fragile peace shattered completely.
"Yuki-kun," Aoi called softly as he reached for the handle. He turned. She bit her lip, hesitating. "Be careful, okay? Whatever's happening… please be careful."
The simple plea, filled with genuine worry, twisted something inside him. He nodded curtly, unable to speak, and slipped out into the dimly lit hallway.
The moment the apartment door clicked shut, the cold rushed back in. The warmth of Aoi's presence vanished, replaced by the familiar chill in his veins and the low hum in his bones. The respite was over.
He took the stairs down, avoiding the elevator. He needed to move, to think. He needed to understand what was happening. The Spider. The exorcist. The crack in reality. Hana's transformation. They weren't random. They were connected.
He stepped out into the cool night air. The city was alive with lights and noise, but it felt like a facade. He felt exposed, vulnerable. He needed information. He needed to understand the enemy.
He remembered the exorcist's reaction when he'd shattered the Purification Chains. The flicker of disbelief, the wary respect. The exorcist knew things. Understood things about the supernatural world Yuki was only beginning to grasp. Following the hunter might be the only way to learn.
It was insane. Suicidal. But what other choice did he have?
He focused, reaching out with the senses Kage's power had awakened in him. Not sight or sound, but something else. A feel for supernatural energy, for malice, for the unique signature of the exorcist's pure, scouring light.
He found it. A faint, distant trace, like the scent of ozone on the wind. It was moving. Fast. Towards the industrial district. Towards the undercity.
Towards the Spider's lair.
The zealot seeks the other abomination, Kage observed. A fool's errand. The Spider is wounded, but not destroyed. And it knows the taste of its hunter now.
Yuki didn't need the warning. He knew the risks. But he had to see. Had to understand. He moved, keeping to the shadows, following the faint trail of the exorcist's energy. The journey took him back towards the decay and grime of the industrial zone, the scent of Aoi's lavender and baking replaced by rust, oil, and decay.
He reached the edge of the undercity entrance he'd used earlier. The faint trail of the exorcist's energy led downwards, into the darkness.
He descended, the familiar damp chill wrapping around him. The air was thick with the lingering smell of smoke and burnt things from the junction fire. He moved silently, a ghost in his own right, following the traces of pure light like a bloodhound.
He found them in a vast, echoing chamber deep beneath the city. It wasn't the Spider's web-chamber, but something else – a natural cavern, its walls slick with moisture.
The exorcist stood in the center, its back to Yuki, facing a figure huddled at the cavern wall.
The figure was the Spider.
But it was changed.
One of its massive legs was gone, severed cleanly at the joint, weeping thick, black ichor. Its bloated body was scarred with burns, the chitinous plates cracked and blackened. Dozens of its multifaceted eyes were dim, shattered, or weeping fluid. It was wounded, crippled. But it was still alive. And it was afraid.
The exorcist held the etched rod, the symbols blazing with intense light. It wasn't attacking. It was… questioning.
"Where is the architect?" the exorcist demanded, its voice cold, sharp, echoing in the cavern. "The one who orchestrates the incursions? The one who weakens the veil?"
The Spider shuddered, its remaining legs scrabbling against the rock. Its proboscis-mouth twitched, but no sound emerged. Only a series of low, gurgling clicks.
The architect, Kage whispered, the cold voice sharp with interest. So. The zealot seeks the master. Not just cleansing, but intelligence.
The exorcist took a step closer, the light from the rod intensifying, washing over the wounded Spider. "Speak, abomination! Your kind serves it. You know its name. Its location. Tell me, or I will unmake you piece by piece, until your suffering is a legend whispered in the dark!"
The Spider let out a sound that was part shriek, part gurgle. It raised one trembling leg, pointing not at the exorcist, but… past it. Towards the cavern entrance where Yuki stood hidden in shadow.
Yuki froze. Had it seen him?
The exorcist spun around, its flinty eyes blazing, the rod sweeping up, the pure light flaring like a star, illuminating the cavern entrance.
Yuki was exposed.
The exorcist's eyes locked onto him, burning with cold fury. The Spider, seeing its chance, let out a triumphant shriek and lunged, not at the exorcist, but at the cavern wall behind it. With a sickening crunch of chitin and rock, it burrowed into the earth, disappearing in a shower of debris.
The exorcist didn't even flinch. Its full attention was on Yuki. "You," it hissed, the word dripping with venom. "The corrupted one. The source of the chaos."
It raised the rod. The symbols flared. "You will not escape purification again."
Yuki didn't wait. He turned and ran, back the way he'd come, the exorcist's light blazing behind him like a vengeful star. He was the prey again. But this time, there were two hunters. And one of them knew he was the key to finding the architect.