Chapter 18 – Part 4: The Thing That Watches
The scream wasn't Xavier's.
It came from the spirit—if it could still be called that. Its body twisted in midair, arms convulsing, mouth split wider than it should've been. Inside wasn't flesh—just rotting flower petals, clinging to something alive.
Yuji moved first.
"Get down!" he shouted, surging forward with a burst of cursed energy.
Xavier didn't move.
Yuji slammed into the creature's chest with both fists. The impact didn't land clean—it recoiled violently, not from the strike, but from Xavier's proximity. Like something in the air itself pushed back.
"Wait—!" Xavier tried.
Too late.
Megumi's shikigami burst from the shadows. Nobara moved with her nails raised and hammer tight in hand.
"Don't let it touch him!" Megumi barked.
It wasn't said with hate.
But it felt like fear.
Xavier stepped forward instead of back.
Right into the chaos.
The cursed spirit's frame collapsed inward. Whatever was keeping it together broke down—legs buckled, skin flaked, and its limbs shriveled as the air around it grew hotter and thinner. The alley floor cracked.
Then it turned to him.
"You're... the breach," it rasped. "You don't belong."
It lunged.
Yuji reacted, striking upward.
But Xavier didn't brace.
He moved toward it. Hand out. Palm open.
He touched its shoulder.
The spirit buckled.
No light. No explosion. Just a shift in pressure, like something invisible uncoiled beneath the surface. Its flesh tore soundlessly. Petals flared. Then ash. Then nothing.
No remains.
Just silence.
And a ring of scorched concrete lined with flowers that hadn't bloomed in years.
"You killed it," Nobara said, voice quiet.
Megumi's gaze narrowed. "How?"
Xavier didn't answer.
Yuji approached, slower now. "That wasn't cursed energy."
"No," Xavier said.
"Then what was it?"
"I don't know."
They stood in a tense circle. Not angry—cautious. Like they'd seen something they couldn't name and were afraid it might look back.
The ground still shimmered slightly beneath their feet. Ash curled around cracks in the pavement. Most of the flowers had wilted. But not all.
At the center, a single stem remained.
Thin. Rooted. Not cursed.
Something new.
Only Xavier saw it.
He turned.
And ran.
High above, on the edge of a crumbling rooftop, something watched.
It had no eyes.
No name.
But it watched.
Not Xavier.
Not the trio.
But the bloom.
And it remembered something it hadn't known before—
It was time to begin.