Her black jacket split along the spine.

The crop top beneath it tore open as five tails of dark energy forced through her back, pushing outward with enough force to snap the remaining fabric.

They extended in the same motion and struck the Umbral before it could reach him.

Three tails drove into its upper mass, tearing through what had formed as a head and forcing it sideways.

The structure there broke open under the impact, the shadow splitting and struggling to hold shape.

The other two pierced straight through its torso.

They did not slow.

They held.

The Umbral’s forward motion ended in that instant, its body compressed against the restraint as the momentum was forced out of it and locked in place between the window and the floor.

It fought.

Its limbs twisted and struck at the tails, bending around them in attempts to pull free.

Its form shifted rapidly, collapsing and reforming as it tried to slip around the points of contact, but each change failed before it could complete.

The tails did not move.

They held exactly where they were.

The Umbral pushed harder.

Its entire body tightening as it forced against the restraint, the layers inside its mouth turning faster, widening as if to close the remaining distance to him despite being pinned.

The distance did not change.

The effort failed.

The motion stopped inside its own body.

It followed the tails back.

Shizuka had not moved.

She was still on the floor, still wrapped around Kaito, her arms locked across his chest, her chin resting on his head, her body pressed fully against his back.

Her own back was torn open.

Through it, the length of her spine was visible.

Muscle.

Dark energy running through it in dense, controlled lines, contained and stable.

Nothing spilling.

Nothing lost.

The tails extended from her without shaking.

She had not released him.

Not for a second.

Then she turned her head.

Only her head.

Slow.

Toward the Umbral.

Her silver hair shifted and fell aside.

One red eye.

Glowing.

The Umbral stopped.

It had consumed things that fought back, old things, strong things that resisted for long stretches before they were broken down and taken apart.

It had never hesitated in front of any of them.

It hesitated now.

It felt fear.

Its body held in place mid-motion, the shifting mass freezing where it was, the layers inside its mouth suspended halfway through movement, its limbs bent at angles that did not correct.

It tried to move.

The command went through it.

The movement did not follow.

The eye on it did not change.

It remained fixed.

Red.

Still.

The Umbral pulled back.

The motion started.

Its body folded instead.

The shape collapsed inward along the lines of the tails, the structure failing where it had tried to move away.

That was the moment.

The struggle changed.

It no longer tried to reach him.

It tried to escape.

The tails pressed deeper.

All five.

They drove further into its body with steady force and held it exactly where it was.

Dark fluid began to gather along the torn edges of its form and fall in heavy strands.

Each drop broke apart before reaching the floor, dissolving into nothing in the air.

The first sections of its body gave way.

Around the tails, its mass thinned and opened, and from those openings its substance began to move along the dark energy and back toward Shizuka.

It stretched away from it.

Held for a moment.

Then gave.

The flow began.

Long strands of its body pulled free and slid along the tails in a continuous motion, drawn back into Shizuka without breaking.

The Umbral convulsed.

Its limbs lashed once and lost structure midway, folding as the mass beneath them was removed.

Its torso sank inward as it was hollowed out, the outer layer collapsing as the interior was stripped away.

The mouth distorted, the layers inside tearing loose and being dragged along the same path.

It tried again to pull back.

The effort failed before it completed.

The pulling increased.

More of it moved at once, the strands thickening into a steady draw as its shape reduced visibly, sections collapsing in on themselves as they were taken.

The dark fluid continued to fall and vanish before touching anything.

Nothing of it remained behind.

The core held for a moment.

Dense.

Compressed.

Then it broke.

The remaining mass tore apart and followed everything else along the tails.

It disappeared.

The last of it moved into Shizuka, the flow thinning and then ending.

Nothing of the Umbral remained anymore.

The tails withdrew.

They slid back into her body through the torn opening in her back, the skin closing behind them, the fabric of her jacket and crop top restoring along the split as if it had never been torn.

The wounds across her body followed.

The split across her cheek closed.

The blood disappeared.

The swelling along her jaw settled back into place.

The marks across her arms and shoulders faded as the damage beneath them repaired, the dark energy that had been leaking out reversing and settling back under her skin.

Her breathing steadied.

The weakness left her completely.

She had not released him.

Her arms remained around Kaito the entire time.

Her hands stayed pressed flat over his chest.

She moved now.

Her grip tightened and she pulled him back into her more fully, turning him slightly so his weight settled into her instead of away.

Her forearm locked across him, holding him upright as his body tried to fold, while her other hand slid higher across his chest and pressed firmly over his heart.

Her chin lowered against his head again.

Her cheek pressed into his hair.

He was still shaking.

His breath broke in uneven pulls, his shoulders jerking as he tried to control it and failed.

She adjusted him.

Her hand left his chest and came up to his face, firm but careful as she turned him toward her, not forcing, but not allowing him to turn away either.

Her thumb moved under his eye, wiping the wetness there, then again across the other side, clearing it as it came.

She brought him closer.