The grocery bag was cutting into his fingers by the time Kai turned onto his street.

He saw Shizuka immediately.

That was wrong.

She never waited where people could see her.

Usually she appeared after he reached the house. Behind him at the door as he takes out the key.

Beside him when he looked away for half a second.

Never like this.

She stood behind the gate with her arms folded, silver hair loose in the evening wind.

The last light of sunset caught faintly along the edges of it. Her red eyes locked onto him from the far end of the street.

They did not leave him once while he walked closer.

The neighborhood was quiet.

A bicycle rattled somewhere in the distance. A television played faintly through an open apartment window nearby.

The sounds felt far away by the time he reached the gate.

Shizuka watched him approach without moving.

The iron bars split her into pieces of silver, black, and red.

Kai stopped in front of her.

"You already know."

A small sound left her throat.

Not surprise.

Not denial either.

Just acknowledgment.

His grip shifted on the grocery bag automatically. The plastic handles had dug deep red lines into his fingers during the train ride home.

"Are you angry?"

"I hate it."

Immediate.

Flat.

No hesitation at all.

Kai exhaled slowly through his nose.

"Yeah. That’s expected"

Neither of them spoke after that.

The evening dimmed another shade around them.

Shadows gathered near the gate. The air cooled against his skin. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Shizuka kept staring at him.

Not blinking much.

That always got worse when she was upset.

"Can I come in?" he asked eventually.

"Yes."

She did not move.

Kai waited.

Nothing happened.

"...Shizuka."

Her eyes lifted slightly.

"Move."

"No."

Her voice stayed calm enough to raise the hair on the back of his neck.

He looked at her for another second. Tall. Motionless. Arms folded under her chest. Black crop top stretched tight from the pressure.

The jacket hanging open around her shoulders moved lightly in the wind.

Normally she liked being touched. Leaning against him. Hooking herself over his shoulders from behind.

Resting her chin on top of his head just because she knew it annoyed him.

Right now she looked untouchable.

"You’re blocking the gate."

"I know."

"You’re doing this on purpose."

"Yes."

At least she was honest.

Kai rubbed a hand down his face.

He was tired. Very tired.

His feet genuinely hurt. He had kissed a cute girl at a metro station two hours ago, spent most of the train ride home folded into his seat trying not to overheat from delayed embarrassment, then walked twenty minutes carrying groceries through the cold for Shizuka.

"Come closer and open it yourself," she said.

Kai looked up at her.

"What are you planning?"

No answer.

That bothered him more than if she had smiled.

"...You’re not going to kill me."

Shizuka’s chin dipped once.

"Of course not."

Too smooth.

"How could I kill you, Kai?"

Warm voice.

Gentle.

"I love you."

There it was again.

That disconnect.

The words sounded real every time she said them. Honest. Soft enough to sink straight into him before his brain remembered what she was.

Then he looked into her eyes and found something ancient staring back at him from a very long distance away.

A car passed somewhere nearby. Headlights swept briefly across the street.

Red flashed in her eyes.

Gone.

The dark settled back over the gate.

"I can stand here for centuries," Shizuka said quietly.

Kai believed her instantly.

That was the problem.

If this became a contest of patience, he would die first. Not metaphorically. Literally.

He looked at the latch.

Looked back at her.

She was bluffing.

Probably.

When Shizuka truly wanted to hurt something, there was never theater beforehand.

No dramatic setup. No warning.

She would just do it.

This felt different.

Which meant she wanted something from him.

or not.

He still couldn’t read her.

That felt less safe.

"...Fine."

He stepped closer to the gate.

Shizuka watched him without moving.

Closer.

Still nothing.

Kai reached for the latch.

Opened the gate.

Stepped through—

He stepped through the gate.

Shizuka caught the back of his collar.

The world vanished sideways.

His groceries ripped from his hand. Something shattered across the pavement. Grass slammed into his back hard enough to empty his lungs.

Then darkness hit.

Pale spiritual light burst violently across Kai’s body before he even understood what had happened.

Armor.

Thin strands of energy crawled over his skin in frantic uneven flashes, spilling weakly through the grass beneath him.

Fear had dragged it out on instinct. A reflex from a body trying to survive.

Cold pressed down over the yard.

Dark energy rolled off Shizuka in dense silent waves. Shadows deepened around the house until the street beyond the gate looked strangely far away.

Black mist drifted low across the grass around them.

She was already on top of him.

His wrists hit the ground beside his head.

Pinned.

Kai jerked violently against her grip.

Nothing moved.

Shizuka sat over his waist effortlessly, silver hair falling loose around both of them while dark haze curled from her body and spread through the night air.

Her expression stayed calm. Red eyes fixed on him without blinking.

The light of his spiritual armor barely reached past his own body before her darkness swallowed it again.

"Khh—"

His lungs finally dragged air back in. He twisted hard enough to tear grass loose under his shoulders.

She pushed him down slightly.

Not hard.

Easy.

That frightened him more.

The pressure around them thickened. Kai felt it against his chest now. Heavy. Ancient. Predatory.

Run.

Every instinct in him screamed it at once.

Her crop top had ridden up during the throw.

Pale skin showed above the waistband of her shorts.

One side of her jacket hung loose off her shoulder.

Her thighs pressed his waist tighter.

Warm.

Wrong thing to notice.

The darkness around her pulsed again and his pulse lurched with it.

Shizuka watched his face quietly.

Then.

"So," she said softly. "A girlfriend."