Healing was never linear. Sometimes, it took one step forward, one step back. Other times, two steps forward, one back.

And there were times when you just regressed.

That was how it was for Kize when he started. Laying in that room, the mattress uncomfortably soft on his back and side every time he tried to close his eyes.

And every time, he saw her. That pocket watch peeking from her lab coat, that crass smile she always had whenever he starts going on a tangent. How her glasses glinted when she found a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist.

And her voice...

'Katashi, we should head to the park. You need fresh air. No, it's not a date.'

She claimed that as she proceeded to dry out his wallet for crepes. She looked happy, though.

He let out a sharp inhale. Why now?

"Sensei?"

Shun called out from the doorway. His eyes opened, and he glanced at the sliding door. Shun stood there, one hand holding his dented thermos, the other closed into a fist... With an oversized ring wrapped around her middle finger.

A split ring?

He sat up, his back leaning against the wall, while his eyes continued to look at Shun's. Warmth radiated ever so casually from her.

"May I come in?"

Kize didn't answer her verbally. Only a blink.

Shun took that as his permission.

She took one step in, careful not to cause any further issues for Kize, before gently placing the thermos onto the desk. An audible clunk was heard.

Kize didn't say anything still.

"Sensei. You left this."

She threw to him something, and he was barely able to catch it with his right hand. His palm felt it first. Cold steel. Detailed. The oversized ring Shun wore now biting into his palm.

Then, his thumb felt it.

An Arius emblem.

His eyes widened ever so slightly.

The keychain Arius gave him when he left.

"How did..." He trailed off. Shun smiled.

"You keep leaving things behind, Sensei. And if that ever happens again, I will remind you."

Slowly, he opened his palm. There it was. Encircled, a small handgun was made in the middle. Stainless steel, yet clearly made from a detailed memory of those that only knew how to fight. Arius's emblem was branded into the barrel.

Almost like it was never touched.

"Where..."

"Arius Satellite School. Back when the garden was under attack by Kaiser drones." Her finger circled around the dented thermos's lid. "They found it in the faculty lounge. Right beside your plaque."

Plaque. That lounge. The destroyed desk that was caused by him being flung into that room by a drone's IED.

The very same plaque that rendered his right arm to bleed.

Slowly.

"You never really seem to mention or take notice of the keychain being missing, so Arius Squad personally visited and sent me that."

Shun's words slapped his soul awake. Arius Squad. In every waking moment, they had always had his back. He gripped the keychain, reminding himself of that Stranger. Of Kaiser.

Reminders that they had the audacity to use their paperwork to ruin children.

'Katashi, go easy on them. They're just learning.'

A gasp left his lips, his left hand reaching up to his temple, clenching it tightly. His lungs felt like they were burning, a kind of forceful emotion that spilled all wrong and messy.

One step forward. Two steps back.

Shun noticed this dilemma almost immediately. She glanced beside him, almost reaching to touch him, but stopping herself. Words of assurances usually mean nothing for Kize.

Instead, she sat down beside him.

It was slow. Gradual. As if testing new grounds despite their closeness. Despite her sitting beside before.

Their shoulders touched. He stilled, her warmth unfamiliar, yet ever so close.

'Colleagues.' Shun's response to Arius Squad during the Ghostly Revival Festival. The lines were blurring itself.

He glanced. For a few milliseconds, he didn't see Shun. Her facial features resembled more like Miharu, her green eyes replaced with dark brown. Her qipao replaced with a lab coat and her smile the same warmth. The smell of plum blossom perfume replaced with the familiar stench of sterility and perfectionism.

He flinched. And then, it was Shun again.

"Sensei?" Shun's voice, concerned.

'Sensei?' Miharu's voice, playful.

He seemingly shrunk. The similarities were starting to get to him. Why were they so similar?

Why do they inflict the same pain?

Shun seemed to recognize this dissociation. She slowly reached out. She hesitated, her hand visibly recoiling. Would he hate her if she did this? Will he inevitably change? For the better or for worse?

There will be no turning back, if so.

First, it was just her fingertips, touching his cheek like it was something that scalded. She waited if he made any reaction.

Nothing.

"Sensei?"

'Sensei~'

"........"

Shun looked into his eyes, looking, searching for where the line was drawn in Kize's eyes. She couldn't see it. She wasn't able to.

He had always drew lines within himself. But not in this instance. As if he was letting her through his emotional barriers. A rare hint of vulnerability.

She steeled her resolve. With a deep breath, their eyes never breaking away from each other...

She cupped his cheek. Warmth spread across his face like no other. Like a sense of longing too stretched out to have been noticed.

"I'm still here, Kize," Shun declared.

"....." For once, it was silent. His mind played no tricks. This wasn't Yoshikawa Miharu.

She was Sunohara Shun.

"......"

His eyes looked away. He took hold of her hand, before slowly pulling it off of his cheek. It was here that he realized.

She hurt way more than Miharu could in this very moment. Not because he sees Miharu in her. Because he now sees Shun for who she truly is.

And that terrified him.

"... It's okay to tell me if it hurts, Kize."

He hesitated to answer. But what came out instead was a deflection.

"Why does it matter to you?"

She didn't even hesitate.

"Because you matter to me as much as everyone is to you."

————

Shanhaijing's sun brightened under the afternoon sun of a new day, but Shun's words lived in his head without paying its rent.

Every single day, those words were cycled in his mind. Constantly cycling as of forcing him to remind him of his role.

Not just as a utility.

But as a person.

But how does one become a person when you turned into a ghost for too long?

It was Shun that guided him. She left his room after that declaration to tend to the children of Plum Blossom Garden. And for the next day, he only stayed in his room, mulling it over while she brought him Shanhaijing's specialties while refilling his thermos with oolong.

Every so often, he escaped back into the Shittim Chest, trying to douse himself in his work, only for Arona and Plana to have him sit down and think of nothing instead.

Shun's words still echoed.

'You should see them, Kize.' Her expression was soft, as if desiring him to do so, yet respecting his agency.

Them. The children who idolized him.

'But if you're not ready, go get some fresh air in Shanhaijing.'

That, he did. He still remembered how he walked through the streets of Shanhaijing, glancing at the gourmet restaurants in display.

It reminded him of Miharu dragging him for lunch break, and went ahead for a full course meal on his expense.

He made sure to get her back with the dessert in the form of an entire red velvet cake that they split in half, paid in full with her own money.

'Damn you, Katashi, you asshole!' She would exclaim in dramatic fashion while stuffing her face in a slice of red velvet.

What a petty memory.

A near close reminder of Hyakkiyako if not for the Genryumon standing by here and there for reasons he didn't understand.

Always an invasive force. Like a triad eyeing their territory. He thought one even stole a glance at him and another kept eyeing him like a ghost that shouldn't exist.

And then, the confrontation, wherein he noticed an argument broiling over between members of the Genryumon and Akeshiro Rumi.

"Why does it concern you when Black Tortoise Promenade starts diversifying?" Rumi questioned the mob of black suits that were lined up in front of her.

Genryumon.

"It compromises the tradition of Shanhaijing, Rumi." One of the members answered. "You understand the consequences of it?"

"The only consequence I know is that you're actively hurting the business of feeding my customers."

Rumi's eyes then darted to that spectral figure, who proceeded to walk away like he wasn't an observer just seconds ago.

"Oh, Sensei!"

Rumi's call out caused him to stop in his tracks, right as all the attention and eyes came towards him, much to his chagrin.

So much for a walk.

"We're having a bit of a disagreement here and I think you'll be the perfect mediator for this!"

He could feel their eyes intensify, as if they were aiming bullets to his back. And they might just literally do so if he kept walking. With a sigh, he slipped the Shittim Chest into his hand and switched it on, ready with Shanhaijing's list of paperworks already in the ready.

And so, he turned around, bureaucracy his current language.

Stepping into the restaurant via the parted Genryumon mob, he stood between the two groups. He could hear knuckles cracking, as if attempting to intimidate him.

He didn't spare a glance to either side, eyes focused solely on the Shittim Chest.

From the profiling he acquired at his request, the AIs revealed Genryumon's head as Ryuuge Kisaki. Supposedly should look older than she is now, all due to a temporary antidote that, if not applied any sooner, would effectively end her life.

Poisoned by one of the Seven Prisoners who held a grudge against her. Shintani Kai, who is currently imprisoned in efforts by Sensei and these two groups who cooperated with him.

He already concluded that the Seven Prisoners were a lost cause, but to know that some of the prisoners were genuine psychopaths were a very slight eye opener.

Very slight.

"Tradition, or innovation." That was his first statement. An indicator that he listened to their conversation whether they wanted to or not.

"Yeah, the very fact that they're beginning to do this is going against Shanhaijing's values!" A Genryumon member argued.

"Tell that to your President."

"....."

Kize's statement shut them up nearly immediately. No one had the right to address their head with such immediacy.

Kize doubtlessly did just that.

"... Wow, even I wouldn't have stooped that low," Rumi quipped. Kize didn't glance her way, instead focusing his eyes on the dealings their president made, before setting down the Shittim Chest on the table. On it was a digital paper that he would explain effortlessly.

"Your President had allowed the Black Tortoise Promenade to flourish with their business transactions since five months, one week and two days ago, as per the written and signed agreement between both the Genryumon and the Black Tortoise Promenade's leaders, overseen by Sensei."

The Genryumon all blinked behind their shades. An agreement that was formed that long ago, formed purely during the time period where both rivals cooperated with Sensei to resolve the smuggling of a ten thousand year ginseng.

It should have brought them closer, but with Sensei knocked out of commission...

Then they looked closer to the fine print, highlighted in pale yellow.

In the event of Shanhaijing's rigid value is under compromise by the Black Tortoise Promenade, look upon their priority. So long as it provides and is intended to provide satisfaction to its customers, there shall be no conflict to cause over.

"..........."

Rumi blinked. She didn't think twice about that statement, but she then remembered. She wasn't the one who left that clause in. As far as she knew, even Kisaki would notice and point out its discrepancy.

So either Kisaki allowed it to slip in, Sensei wrote in that fine print...

Or both colluded to allow this very occasion to happen in the first place.

Convenient, if so.

One of the Genryumon members stepped forward. He identified her quickly as Konoe Mina.

"That is a past agreement. Without Sensei, it shouldn't work."

Kize raised a hand.

"The agreement had no specified end date. And considering its approval requires Sensei, it would also require Sensei to be fully conscious and reasonable in order to rescind the agreement."

Finally, he glanced at Mina. And that plain, almost robotic expression of relentless neutrality sent shivers down her spine.

"Unless you would like to argue against your own President?"

"..."

Mina's shades faltered on her face. Kize took the Shittim Chest into his hand once again, before he left the scene.

Rumi watched as Kize walked away, slowly dissipating into the crowd while the Genryumon dispersed in quiet conversation, leaving only one to stand there.

Mina.

"... Are you hungry?" Rumi questioned.

"... No."

Her stomach became her enemy, growling in defiance of her lies. Rumi only chuckled, while Mina stood there, flustered.

"F-fine. Maybe I am," Mina confessed, crossing her arms.

"Then take a seat. The Black Tortoise Promenade isn't going to let you go on an empty stomach."

As she left to tend to the kitchen, one thought stayed in her mind.

Even if he was a ghost, his statements always stayed.

For a ghost who didn't like connections, he's had too many to count.

————

No one heard much nor knew where he was. Kokona and Shun had their lips sealed to ensure that nothing escaped them.

And yet, as the morning sun dawned upon Shanhaijing in two day's time, Shun peeked her head at the doorway again.

"Kize, you have a guest."

Kize leaned against the mattress, scrolling through Shanhaijing's paperwork trails and constant updates to ensure that the moment this came, he was prepared.

"It's Genryumon's head."

He glanced up. He didn't say anything else.

"... I'll be greeting the children then. Do play safe, Kize."

But when Shun's head peered away from the doorway, closing the door behind her, he proceeded to pull out the negotiation table.

And so, he waited. Watched the doorway as the creaking from the stairs went louder and louder. Each step following the static beat of his heart.

And then, a petite figure emerged behind the door

And then, her voice.

"May I come in?"

Strange. Almost archaic sounding.

"Come in."

Neutral. As always.

The door slid open, and there she was. A black qipao that hugged her slim figure concealed under a black coat, her black hair tied in two buns with twin tails trailing out. Her grey eyes seemed perpetually half lidded, with a butterfly accessory framed at the right side of her hair.

Not exactly what he expected for a 'President'.

"You are... Not Sensei."

Her first statement was met with a half lidded gaze as she sat down at the opposite end of the table.

"You're not the first to say that," Kize replied.

"And certainly will not be the last," Kisaki finished for him. He anticipated her words, and all he gave out was just a sigh.

"If you're only here to give thanks, save your breath."

"I am here to provide you with an offering of your desire."

He stilled. What the hell could she mean by that? And in an economy like this, spoken contracts are as void as forgery.

A risk he will never take without absolute certainty.

"Elaborate."

"I have heard of your paperwork. How you capitalize on the fine prints to establish Arius as its own sovereignty," she began. Her hands rested on the table, her wrists stabbing onto the edges. "And how you used it to resolve my overzealous underlings with Rumi. I must confess, I never thought the fine print would see the light of day."

Kize didn't say anything in response. He didn't need to. Platitudes will take him nowhere. Empty words are padding.

Only the truth matters here, but even then, one's subjective truth may as well be another's opinion.

Kisaki closed her eyes, her shoulders slumped as if the debt of responsibility lifted off her shoulders. And then, she opened them.

Her grey, half lidded eyes stared intently into Kize's icy blue's, also in half lidded motion. There were no motion of expressions; just two beings sitting at opposite ends who are now engaged in a wordless conversation.

It was Kize who spoke first.

"I have nothing I want nor need from your offer."

Kisaki tilted her head, a calculated move to coerce more from Kize.

"Phantom beings need to be tethered, do they not?"

"......"

He sighed. Ghost motifs. It tired him at this point.

"Enough discussion."

"Oh? But I could provide protection for Plum Blossom Garden, if you would so like."

Kize stared at her. Protection racket? It sounded like it, but it was also painfully false.

Why protect a sanctuary for children?

And then, a thought crossed his mind. Kaiser Corporation. And that Stranger. They saw Shun's every move. They watched her.

He must've shown an expression he never made, because Kisaki's head was slightly raised.

"Say your piece. I assure you, my word is my bond. And I do not say such a thing lightly."

Kize could feel his scarred hand pulsing under the table, constrained by the mere thought of letting himself slip. A single micro second of emotion was all it took to unravel everything he had ever done.

He looked away. The words formed into his mind in its most bureaucratic form, just as he slipped the Shittim Chest onto the table. The screen lit up silently, an empty form written in digital paper. A stylus pen popped up from underneath.

"Kaiser Corporation. Ensure they never take a foot, sky or water within Shanhaijing."

"What of those who purely intend to visit Shanhaijing to unwind?"

"..." Words failed him for three whole seconds. And then, he replied.

"Reconnaissance." Silence. "Kaiser Corporation don't use manual labor for their surveillance these days."

"So drones."

A beat of silence. As if mulling over those possibilities, the very chance it could ever happen.

Kisaki may have offered her word, but Kize's contract was the one constant between the two.

"Understand that if I sign this, you leave too many holes of miscommunication between Plum--" she silenced herself when Kize raised his hand.

She didn't need to say more, because Kize had more to say.

"I rescind the previous offer."

"Oh?"

"Sign the contract, and your offering of any desire will be passed to Plum Blossom Garden instead."

"......."

She faltered for all but a micro-second.

How unexpected. She did expect the ghost to be tethered by Shun.

She just didn't expect him to be held so strongly by them.

Even the ghost has lines he dare not cross.

How human of him.

She didn't ask for confirmation. She knew this is exactly what he desired. And with a movement of a stylus, the contract was formed.

"You are... Not Sensei."

Kize didn't reply. A mantra he heard too many times.

"But you are special."

Kisaki watched as he flinched at the sentence, as she then stood up and bowed.

"A pleasure to have this conversation with you, Shanhaijing's Phantom. You are... Exemplary."

And so, she turned around, and wordlessly shut Kize's door behind her. She walked to the stairs, and stopped.

"Your choice of a husband is odd, Shun," she stated, glancing at the woman who stood beside the doorway all along.

She overheard their conversation, and Kisaki can see that smile Shun had was unlike any other kind.

"Even you get caught up in the rumor mills too, Kisaki?" Shun replied. Kisaki smiled.

"I cannot deny its fascination." She continued. "Why Kize?"

Shun's smile only widened. "Kize Seikato. He is a man with baggage. And he can't unload it all at once. At the very least, I would like to be there to slowly put down each and every load on his shoulders until he knows he can't carry it all alone."

"... You have a strange way of showing your affection."

"Is that how they see us? A married couple?"

"....." She would usually answer her. But she could see it. She could feel it.

Their relationship was something far more than just romance.

And soon, she carried herself down the stairs with grace.