Downtown Spectres

Hoshino slowly opened his eyes.

Oh… Oh fuck. What happened? There was a white ceiling. Above him. Hoshino faced a white ceiling further brightened by a steady stream of sunlight beaming from the side. Probably a window. Because if not… He did not want to think about the implications right now. He tried to shake his head to clear the thought, but he was wearing a neck brace, apparently. On top of that, his limbs were numb, their tips tingly. His breathing was fine, though a bit raspy. The blipping of the monitors didn’t bother him; he even wondered if he could dance to the rhythm and if it would be funny if he did. And his entire body was weighed down by a thick blanket, which was useful because the temperature in the room made him feel like he was in a morgue—

Hoshino pulled himself up from the bed. His body burned at the sudden movement. Some of his joints screamed, too, hinting that whatever the fuck happened after… that… Hoshino pressed his hand against his face, gritting his teeth. What happened, anyway? To start… he got Hoshikuzu’s help. The rest was a blur. And oh wow, he was actually not in a morgue or hallucinating. Good.

The room was simple. The tiles on the floor were white as his teeth. Shiny, but not so shiny that he could see the undies of people walking over them. His bed was in the corner of the room; at its side was a table with some cute pink flowers, and under the table was a mini-fridge. On the opposite side of the room was a bench with some bags on it. On the left side was the door, and on the right side, by the window, was a malevolent spirit… Nagamori Arisa.

Hoshino’s throat tightened. He took his first and last chance to make his lips smile as a tear ran down his cheek. Usually, this was the part where Nagamori Arisa would notice he was looking her way and gaze back, eventually noticing that he was crying. Then, she would tilt her head and smile at him like he was some kind of poor, sad puppy. Then, she would come up to embrace him, maybe shove his face into her pair of boingy badonkers. Well, that didn’t happen. Hoshino chuckled to himself. Basking in the sun’s glow… it felt good to notice that she was turning her gaze back to the world. He… Hoshino had won.

But on a side note, why wasn’t Hoshino healed? Like, what the fuck actually happened? He contemplated breaking Nagamori Arisa’s immersion to see if he could communicate with her. But before he could ponder the thought further, there was a knock on the door—it was Ishigami. He let himself in the very next second, making Nagamori Arisa hiss and try to swipe at his arm like a house cat. Adorable.

Hoshino met his gaze. Ishigami’s eyes were… well, surprised. Happy, perhaps? But a bit apologetic—too much for his taste. Though he smiled. Then, he fished for an item in the pink kitty-cat tote bag he was carrying and showed it to Hoshino.

“I brought you toothpaste,” Ishigami started. “It’s triple action.”

Hoshino’s face froze. He glanced at Nagamori Arisa and back at Ishigami.

“Right—” Ishigami chuckled as he fished for another item in the bag, which turned out to be a small pack of cheese bread. “Y’know, it’s pretty funny. I kept bringing Deez Bunz here for the past week, thinking that its smell would wake you up or something, but I had to keep eating them at the end of the day. And on the day I decided to change things up a little bit… you woke up.”

Ishigami tossed the pack over to his side, which he was thankful for. BUT ON ANOTHER NOTE—

“A week?” Hoshino mumbled, his words ending with a bit of a laugh.

Ishigami tightened his smile and sat on the side of the bed, giving Hoshino as much space as possible. The man’s weight made Hoshino fear that the bed would turn over. Again. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. There, he pulled up his smartphone and spent the next few seconds in silence typing down a few words. The moment stretched into a minute where he complained about the slow internet speeds at hospitals and how cold the room was. Hoshino had to agree. Hoshino, in fact, would have liked to get his hands on the remote, but he was wearing a hospital gown, so he might accidentally flash Ishigami with his fine ass.

“I’m sorry,” Ishigami said.

There was also the fact that Ishigami might’ve thought that Hoshino liked his room cold. Which Hoshino didn’t. There was also the thought that Hoshino could just ask Ishigami to hand him the remote or turn the room temperature up… but that was what losers think.

It took an awkward while, but Ishigami got to show him a news article. It was about the abandoned factory where they fought the Butterflies. Great cover-up on their part. Hoshino took the liberty of scrolling through the page as Ishigami held the phone in front of him.

Basically, no one knew what really happened. The public thinks that a crater—that happened to level more than half of the buildings—just popped there. The article wasn’t also linked to Shiba Miyako’s kidnapping or even Shiba Kakeru’s murders. And though the comment section mentioned the possibility of malevolent spirits throwing hands against each other, the Butterflies weren’t mentioned at all.

“You lost control.”

Hoshino lowered his head. Suddenly, he couldn’t bear the thought of looking at him. He clenched his hands into fists; the only way to make his restless fingers firm and still. There was something. A feeling. And it grabbed him by the neck. It was still good, right? He woke up in a hospital instead of in jail, albeit injured. This meant that everything ended well, right? Hoshino smiled a bit. Ishigami and Hazama were there. If something happened…

“Did I…” Hoshino swallowed. “What happened?”

Ishigami breathed through nose, looking straight at him. “Satoru managed to slip through your attack, so Hajime pretty much remained active; the ones you smashed got reassembled like nothing happened and for us… we had proxies. If anything, you actually smashed the ones that got turned into burnt trees by Ono no Komachi, so… Hajime was able to bring them back too. So… that’s good.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Man…” Ishigami smiled and pointed at his neck. “You already had to fight me and Hazama, and I punched you… HARD. That’s enough of a punishment already, I think.”

Hoshino forced out a laugh. His hands had become less shaky, so that was good. He resisted the urge to touch his neck brace. But if it felt this uncomfortable now… then imagine what it would’ve felt like a week ago. For a moment, he was thankful that he slept through most of the pain.

But in his brain was another thought. A fair one. His eyes glanced at Nagamori Arisa—no. Not that again. He had already decided that his plan was stupid, especially since he went on to save Nagamori Arisa anyway. But, he really did create more trouble for them…”

“Besides, it tends to happen.” Ishigami pointed Hoshino toward Nagamori Arisa. “Ephemeral Resonance. It’s a pretty complicated technique where you attune with a malevolent spirit and use your body as a medium. As a result, you get to use an improved, stronger version of the malevolent spirit’s curse. The drawback is that if the spirit’s will is stronger, it takes over the medium. I checked—I mean, Hazama did—your curriculum and found that this wasn’t taught during your training. The mere fact that you pulled it off in a high-stress situation is nothing short of a miracle. And you did this twice.”

Hoshino raised his head. “I—”

“Just take the win, man.”

Ishigami placed his firm hand over his shoulder. Whatever Hoshino looked like right now, it couldn't be anything but bad. Because if not, Ishigami wouldn’t look so worried—that, or he pitied him, or he would like to punch him in the face again.

“But how?” Hoshino’s eyes wandered. The tightness in his throat was back. “How is this a win?”

“You saved Larry.” Ishigami widened his smile. He didn’t let him go. “You saved Shiba Kakeru—he’s in jail right now, but he’s fine. You saved Shiba Miyako. There’s also that student and a bunch of faculty in Sakuramine. If you’re worried about the collateral damage, Hazama volunteered to be in charge of filing the reports; you can be sure as hell that we’re blaming Satoru and his people. And most importantly… Hazama didn’t need to work overtime this Sunday.”

Hoshino shrugged. “Wait, where’s Hazama, anyway?”

“Doing an investigation. A small group of armed personnel raided Kanzaki Inn a few days ago to assassinate Kanzaki Mirai, the owner. They failed because of a particular person—a spellcaster. He took care of these people, without killing them, and tied them up. The witnesses weren’t able to recognize or remember his face, but they remembered what he said: ‘I am not into armpits and younger sisters. I don’t even have a sister.’ It’s stupid, but he’s being treated right now as some kind of vigilante.”

Hoshino covered his mouth.

Ishigami tilted his head. “Do you know something about it?”

“I don’t…” Hoshino definitely did. He nodded to himself. But he was not going to say that. That would be too hard to admit. This could also be another case for another day. “But it is stupid.”

“In any case…” Ishigami got on his feet and walked toward the door, stopping right before making his exit. He turned his head over to Hoshino, his face a bit annoyed but gentle and worried nonetheless. “I’ll give you some time to process things. I don’t know what you’re going through and I think there’s nothing I can say that would let you magically pick yourself up. But if there’s something I’d like to say or leave you with, it’s this: grow up. Stop acting like you don’t deserve anything good that’s happened in your life. I’ve seen the shit you did, and I think you’ve suffered enough for it. Hoshi—nah.” Ishigami cleared his throat. “You’re strong, Tsukishiro Arata. We’re glad you’re there with us and we need you back as soon as possible. Get your shit together.”

Ishigami left right after. Hoshino never bothered to reply, and his desire to do so disappeared the moment he heard the door close behind him. It would be SO NICE to be comforted by boobs right now, but… Nagamori Arisa was still probably trying to blind herself while staring into the sun.

Hoshino covered his mouth and this time, it wasn’t to hide a smile. Yoshiya being mentioned almost ruined this moment, but as if Hoshino would let that happen. And to be fair, it wasn’t… about something stupid this time. Or maybe it was. He remembered Hoshikuzu’s words at the bridge.

Ishigami saved him from the slit-mouthed woman in the back alleys. To save his pride, Hoshino had really thought she was just a freaky customer who wanted to be "worked on" in a somewhat public place. But no. She asked Hoshino if she was pretty. Yadda yadda. Then Hoshino was scarred. Hoshino had to admit that she was actually kinda ugly. And before he got himself killed, Ishigami stepped in, grabbed the woman by the head, and crushed it against the wall like a watermelon. Hoshino really thought that he just saw a murder happen, but it wasn’t the case. By then, he was “encouraged” to become an exorcist… and then this… this shit was his first case.

A small, sad laugh escaped Hoshino’s lips. It really was stupid. He really thought he could be like Ishigami or even Hazama in just a small amount of time. That he had something special in him… but there was nothing. There was nothing he could offer. But Ishigami was right. It will be hard for him to overcome his own thoughts but the fact was that… he was able to save people this time—the biggest reminder would be the malevolent spirit in front of him.

Hoshino’s face broke, his vision blurring as it pained his chest to breathe. Would he let himself cry over things like this? Probably not. But he chose to, anyway. It was a step forward, nevertheless.

Because right now, Tsukishiro Arata was considered strong.