The family war the Divine Ling Family started against the Single Leaf Clan dragged in a tangle of forces. Even the Flamebu Family and the Magic Institution got pulled under like boats in a whirlpool. The human cost, the money burned, the materials swallowed were a flood without a shore. What was lost couldn’t be tallied with numbers.

When the Crystal Tower of the Divine Ling Family fell, the tide flipped. The lines broke like reeds in wind. In the end, the Divine Ling Family lost.

No one was shocked. The Magic Institution kept its foothold in the Underworld. Yet their own losses were grave, like winter frost biting through silk. For a long while, they wouldn’t meddle in power struggles.

The Single Leaf Clan rode the current and won, but only kept their house afloat. They knew what they paid, even if they didn’t say it. As for the Divine Ling Family and the Flamebu Family, that was their storm to weather.

When the war ended, an open-air pavilion thrummed like a festival drum. Witches and Single Leaf Clan members filled the wide space like a tide of lanterns. They sang, drank, and flung joy like fireworks.

While the crowd roared, a quiet corner hid under leaves and shadow. No one stood there, except a girl in Goggles by the lake, her gaze lonely as a moon on still water. The surface lay flat, no ripple, only the hush of peace. Green around it jeweled the scene like jade.

She wore no cloak today. Without it, she showed the awkward dawn of her age. A body on the cusp of bloom, carrying a restless, budding hunger like a closed flower at first light.

“What are you doing here?”

Another girl broke in like a bird landing, voice edged with a question.

“Just looking at the view,” Yun Shi said, voice drifting like mist.

“And you? What are you doing here, Yie Caiyin?”

The distant way she said it made Aya’s smile go bitter, like tea left too long. Of course. It was only right. She had done what she’d done. Forgiveness wasn’t a fruit that fell into your hands. She had brought this on herself.

But…

“Night Phantom, if you ever need anything, come to me. Here’s my number.”

“…”

“I know it’s shameless, but…”

“Is this an apology?”

“…”

Silence spread like ink. Aya’s tongue knotted. No words came out.

“You don’t need to,” Yun Shi sighed, like wind over reeds.

“Eh?”

“I’m only a ghost. Plenty of people hate me already. One more doesn’t change the sky. But you came to apologize first. That’s enough. Let it rest.”

“Listen… I… I went too far. I know that.”

She bit her lower lip. Her fingers clenched like a fist around rain. She forced the words out.

“Hibiki is my friend. Seeing her like that, of course I lost it. No one smiles watching a friend bleed. I… forget it. Whatever I did wrong, I deserve what comes. I don’t care if you don’t forgive me, but please hear me out.”

Aya laughed at herself, thin as paper. She admitted fault, but didn’t run. In that moment she had lost reason, yet the wrong remained. The hurt she dealt this girl, no words could cover it.

Yun Shi’s feelings knotted, and she went quiet.

“People say friends fight, then make up, and end up closer,” Yun Shi said, out of nowhere, like a pebble skipping water.

“Huh…”

“You and I aren’t friends. But remember this. You owe me a favor.”

“Of course.”

“And don’t forget. I haven’t forgiven you, Aya. Be ready.”

“Yes. Thank you, Night Phantom!”

Joy burst across Aya’s face like sun through rain.

Girls are strange creatures. After a fight, their bond can turn tighter, thread pulled and smoothed. Yun Shi didn’t know if she had forgiven her. But for this kind of story, maybe that counted as a sideways kind of youth.

Her eyes drifted to another side of the grounds. There, the head of the Single Leaf Clan spoke with the commander of this operation.

“We owe you greatly for your help, Major Bena Sovaren.”

“You flatter me, Clan Head.”

“No, no, that’s not modesty. Major, so young, and already so accomplished. I can’t compare…”

A middle-aged man and a woman sat at a stone table, clear tea set between them like a pale lake. Yun Shi also saw a boy with delicate features standing by, topping up their cups now and then. She didn’t know him, and her gaze held a curl of curiosity.

“That’s my younger brother, Haruto.”

Catching Yun Shi’s look, Aya smiled and explained. Yun Shi nodded, a small dip like a leaf in breeze. She didn’t ask more.

“Then I’ll go,” Yun Shi said suddenly, the way a cloud slips the sun.

“Mm. Take care. See you next time.”

They had each other’s phone and email now. Aya didn’t stop her. She waved her off with a smile like a lantern.

After leaving Aya, Yun Shi walked until the path cooled into a graveyard. Incense smoke and quiet filled the air. People were honoring the dead, their backs bowed like willows. She stepped closer and saw Mizuki. But Mizuki’s eyes weren’t on the tombstones. They were set to the side. Yun Shi turned, curious, and saw Sham wrapped in an embrace with a young woman.

“Long time no see, baby. Have you been well?”

The woman teased with velvet in her tone. Her white-violet hair lifted in wind, and her face couldn’t hide the look of indulgent love.

“Mm. Everything is great. My friends take good care of me, Mommy.”

“Wonderful. I worried you wouldn’t get used to living in Japan. Now I can breathe easy.”

The woman’s hand rubbed Sham’s head with infinite gentleness, doting like a warm quilt.

They spoke in English, words falling quick as rain. Mizuki stood at a distance, trying to catch each term, translating in her head like chasing butterflies.

“That’s Sham’s mother. She came from England to see her today.”

“Huh?”

Yun Shi’s sudden voice startled Mizuki. Yun Shi didn’t mind. She went on, her words light, her eyes calm.

“Sham’s from the Magic Institution. About a year ago, they tested her and found she had compatibility with an Artifact Spirit.”

“Compatibility?”

“You know Witches need a proxy to sign a contract. For Artifact Spirits, that’s even stricter. A normal proxy can’t seal a pact with one like ours. Sham was the exception. She passed the trials and became the highest-compatibility proxy for Artifact Spirits. Once that radiance was found, she came to Japan to seek an Artifact Spirit’s owner. Later, she found me.”

“I see.”

Mizuki only half understood. Yun Shi’s eyes had already slid to the tombstones behind, where names slept like seeds under soil.

“Special Task Force…”

Yun Shi said it faintly, like breathing on glass. Mizuki knew exactly what she meant. Those were the early days of the Special Task Force. Back then, everyone was still here.

Reading the names, Mizuki felt a weight settle, heavy as rain-soaked cloth. Her life had been paid for with theirs. The fact she still stood was because they had fallen.

“Tyrant. Real name, Anta Leiter D’Eil.”

“Hawk Hunter. Real name, Ruth Valansis.”

“Comet. Real name, Lengers Fumkiv.”

These were dead Witches, and those were their true names. Callsigns serve as titles, but they aren’t names. A name carries meaning, no matter who you are.

“Remember them well. Don’t forget for a lifetime.”

Yun Shi’s tone was even, like a blade kept oiled. She hadn’t known them all closely. Two had once been her enemies. Still, they had crossed her life like meteors. That was memory you couldn’t sand away.

“Mm. I won’t forget. My life was bought by these seniors. From now on, I’ll watch this world for them and walk the road they left. Even if it takes my whole life, I won’t quit. I promised them. I won’t die. Never.”

Mizuki spoke with a face like carved stone. Her eyes shone with a resolve she had never carried before.

She had changed. From naive and green, she had grown into a strong girl who shouldered weight. She had stumbled, been hunted, watched companions die, and been forced to kill with her back to a cliff. She turned each hardship into a step, and walked upward, stubborn as grass splitting rock.

That was her. Miyuki Kiseki. Just a simple person, simply unyielding.

Even dragged into darkness, she didn’t lose her clarity. Her smile stayed clear water, no sediment. She didn’t fall. She stayed herself.

Yun Shi felt a pinch of jealousy, a thorn under skin. Why could this girl keep that innocence, unbroken? She didn’t know.

But you couldn’t deny it. Mizuki had done it. She didn’t bow to the dark. She faced it, broke its grasp, and kept her own light like a lantern cupped in two hands.

And she could do it because she had companions she wanted to protect. As simple as a heartbeat. Yun Shi didn’t. So she had sunk into the dark, and still couldn’t climb out.

“By the way, where’s Thunder Lady?”

Yun Shi didn’t want to keep thinking. The more she compared herself to Mizuki, the wider the gap yawned. She lacked that innocence. She grabbed for a new topic like a branch in a river.

“Thunder Lady came to see Miss Hawk Hunter just now. She went back. She said we’ll meet later.”

“I see.”

Silence spread again, soft as snow. Yun Shi didn’t plan to speak. The air turned awkward. Mizuki scratched her head, fingers raking hair like a small gale.

“Um, Night Phantom.”

“Mm?”

“I’ve decided what I’ll do in the Underworld.”

“…”

“I can’t change everything in the Underworld. But I want to protect my world. My friends. In the Outer World, that’s where I belong. I’ve decided. I’ll guard it well, even if that makes me the Underworld’s enemy.”

“…How will you do it?”

“I’ll get stronger. Strong enough to protect everything I care about. It sounds naive, I know. But I won’t give up. This is my resolve. No matter the trials, it won’t change. Oh, and you too, Night Phantom. You’re something I want to protect.”

“…Ahem. Then you should go home now, right?”

Heat brushed Yun Shi’s cheeks like a hidden ember. She coughed and slid the topic aside like a shoji door.

“Mm. I haven’t been home in a while. I miss Mom and my sister. I’ll probably get scolded.”

Mizuki gave a wry smile, crooked as a bent reed.

She hadn’t planned to be gone so long. She had said one week, and it had stretched to nearly two. During wartime, communications were tight as knots. She’d made only a handful of calls. The missed calls were enough to drown a phone.

Not getting scolded would be the miracle. Still, being scolded meant warmth. Compared to the battlefield, that was bliss like spring sun.

“I see…”

Yun Shi felt a small envy, cold as a fingertip on glass. She didn’t say it. She wished there was a home waiting for her. She wished for someone who could scold her, and keep her warm doing it.

Only she was alone. Mizuki would return to her own house, where family waited like lamps in windows. Aya had a home. Thunder Lady had a home. Sham’s home was far, but her mother had flown across oceans like a migratory bird to see her. In short, only Yun Shi stood solitary as a pine in snow.

It couldn’t be helped. She had no home, no family. Yes, there was a house. The two who birthed her still lived. But Yun Shi felt none of it was hers. Those were shells. She had never tasted a real family’s love, not once in this life.

She wouldn’t say any of that. She was that kind of person. She stowed everything in her chest like letters in a locked box. She took it alone. Stubborn. She told no one. She did everything herself.

Because she believed it was hers to carry. The Yun Shi who once lived with the Clan Head, and the Yunshi Bianqi of now, both walked under the same weight.

“Goodbye.”

She left the word like a dropped leaf. Only the same old back remained, solitary and thin, fading into the path like dusk swallowing a lone figure.

Mizuki watched Yun Shi walk away with a smile; just the sight warmed her like sunshine. Her hand settled over her chest, a blush blooming like dawn.

In their days together, Miyuki Kiseki had come to understand many things—most of all her own heart. For that girl in the black cloak, she felt a rare tie, like the first spring after a long winter.

Whenever she saw her, her heart drummed like rain on a roof, and her cheeks flushed like peach petals. If the girl was sad, clouds gathered in Mizuki’s chest; if she was glad, the sun broke higher.

So that was it. A lantern flicked on in the dark—Mizuki liked her Night Phantom.

It’s strange, isn’t it? Two girls, and yet love, like twin moons sharing one sky. But Mizuki didn’t mind; she truly liked her Night Phantom—her first bloom, her first love.

She didn’t dare confess yet. She feared Night Phantom couldn’t accept it, so she’d move slow, like a tide that knows the shore.

“I like you.”

She didn’t know how long this love would last, but she wouldn’t let go of it. She could wait, like a pier lantern through seasons, however many winters it took.

One day, she’d hold her close, arms closing like a ring of spring, and never loosen her grip. A lifetime at her side, loving her well.

And then, for as long as the world keeps turning, she’d write it into her life—Miyuki Kiseki’s own love story. Let everyone know: her other half can only be Night Phantom.