The night air was thick with tension.
Kaito had barely recovered from his fight with the mirror version of himself, and though the clone was destroyed, something lingered in the space it had occupied — like a scent that refused to fade.
Momo noticed it first.
"Why can't I cleanse the area?" she muttered, holding her blade over the disturbed earth. "It's like the land itself is sick."
Seiko arrived a moment later, pipe glowing, wards unraveling around her ankles.
Her expression turned grim.
"This isn't just residual energy," she said. "It's a spiritual infection. Something was left behind."
---
Echoes Beneath the Skin
Back at the Ayase home, Kaito sat shirtless, inspecting the strange black lines that had begun to crawl from his shoulder down his chest. They weren't part of his mutation — they pulsed with different energy. Colder. Wrong.
Rin hovered nearby, scanning him psychically.
"It's spreading," she whispered. "But I can't stop it. I don't think it's hurting your body… it's trying to rewrite your spirit."
Kaito looked up at her, calm but alert.
"So they couldn't beat me physically. Now they're trying to overwrite who I am."
Momo frowned. "But how do we fight something we can't even punch?"
Seiko stepped forward, holding an ancient scroll.
> "You don't fight it with fists. You fight it inside yourself."
---
What Is a Spiritual Virus?
Seiko unrolled the scroll and placed it on the floor.
"It's an alien concept — literally. Not yokai, not ghost, not psychic. It's a spiritual virus crafted by beings who understand soul-code. Meant to erase will, identity, even memory."
She glanced at Kaito.
"They sent this to break you from the inside. A slow rot. Not death, but fragmentation."
Kaito studied the growing pattern on his chest. Each movement he made sent flickers of the virus deeper through him.
> "Then I need to go inside."
Rin stepped forward immediately. "No way you're doing that alone."
Momo nodded. "We're going with you."
Seiko's smile was small — but proud.
---
Entering the Spirit Core
That night, with the scroll active and Seiko chanting, Rin linked their minds into a shared psychic space — a deep, inner realm shaped by Kaito's memories and spiritual defenses.
They opened the gate…
And stepped into his soul.
What they saw chilled them.
His spiritual core, once golden and radiant, was dimming. Black tendrils wrapped around it like barbed vines. Whispers filled the air — in his voice, and others. Mocking, taunting, tempting.
> "You're not real."
"They'll leave you."
"You were born to be a weapon, not a person."
Momo drew her sword — but it flickered, unstable.
"Even our powers are distorted here," she growled.
Rin's psychic field fluctuated. "This virus knows how to twist our perceptions."
Kaito looked around.
His past selves — child, teen, broken fighter — flickered in and out, all caught in the vines.
> "I have to free them. Or I'll lose myself."
---
The Heart of Contagion
They moved deeper into the spirit space until they found it:
A black chrysalis, pulsing, buried at the base of Kaito's soul tree. It leaked despair, illusion, and memory-maggots that crawled across his mind.
Rin reached out — but it lashed back, hissing in her voice.
> "Why do you care about him? He'll outlive you. Evolve past you."
Momo slashed the illusions apart. "Because we choose to care. That's what makes us more than weapons!"
Kaito stepped forward, one hand over his chest.
"I'm not afraid of what I was."
> "And I'm not alone anymore."
---
Mutation Reacts
Suddenly, the markings on Kaito's chest began to glow — not black, but blue. His adaptive body recognized the virus not just as an invader… but a challenge.
> Adaptation Triggered: Spiritual Immunity Constructing.
Developing counter-virus from soul memory integrity.
Resistance Level: Climbing… 40%... 67%... 89%...
The chrysalis pulsed wildly.
It screamed.
Rin and Momo fell to their knees, clutching their heads — but Kaito walked through the storm, toward the heart of the infection.
> "You were never a part of me," he said.
"You were a fear they planted."
He reached out—gripped the chrysalis—
And crushed it.
---
Healing Begins
The soul space shimmered, golden light replacing the black corruption. The tendrils burned away. The whispers fell silent.
Rin's eyes opened wide. "He did it. He fought a soul-virus with willpower alone."
Seiko's voice echoed faintly from the outside. "No. Not alone."
Kaito turned to them, breathing hard, but smiling.
"I don't just evolve from pain now," he said.
"I evolve from connection."
---
Epilogue – The Hunter Watches
On the dark side of the moon, the Culler ship hung silent.
Inside, sealed in stasis, a new figure opened its eyes.
Unlike the Harbinger, unlike the Mirror…
This one breathed. It lived.
> "Subject Mutation: Immune. Reinforced by tethered bonds."
"Deploying Hunter-Class Interference."
Its eyes glowed red.
> "Objective: Break the bonds. Cripple the mind. Bring him to his knees."