Haroku didn't hesitate. The moment I flashed the retreat signal, he pivoted and moved for the door. No questions, no arguments.
I followed right on his heels, my expression locked into a calm, unbothered facade. But before I stepped completely over the threshold, I slipped one of my legendary papers from my sleeve. With a quick, covert flick of my wrist, I pinned it against the lower doorframe. A silent, high-tier tripwire.
Then, we were out.
We cleared the storefront quickly. Haroku immediately spun toward me, his brow furrowed.
"Why did you tell me to drop everything and run?" he demanded, keeping his voice low. "And why did you burn a legendary paper? The place looked completely empty."
I looked at him dead in the eye. "Haroku, when we got near the back of that aisle... I felt a presence."
Haroku's stance shifted, his hand instinctively dropping toward his gear. "A presence? What kind?"
"It wasn't normal," I said, my voice tight. "It was heavy. And it was familiar."
Haroku's expression changed instantly. "Who?"
"It felt like Koshido."
Complete silence fell between us. Haroku stared at me, struggling to process the name.
"Koshido?" he repeated in sheer disbelief. "Jason's servant ? "
"I'm not entirely sure, but the spiritual pressure... it felt exactly the same as our encounter in the hills."
Haroku shot a hard look back at the weathered shop, trying to sense the anomaly himself. "Let's not stand out here in the open," he said sharply. "We need to leave. Now."
I agreed without hesitation. We moved fast, sliding into the car where Makeno was already waiting in the back seat. I slammed the car into gear, and within seconds, we were tearing down the road, putting distance between us and the shop.
For the first few miles, no one spoke. The tension in the cabin was coiled tight.
Finally, Haroku broke the silence.
"So, Symen... how much distance is left to the Palace ?" he asked, deliberately shifting the tactical focus.
I checked the dashboard. "Around thirty kilometers."
He leaned back against his seat. "Alright. We're close." A short pause hung in the air before he circled back. "By the way... do you really think that was Koshido back there?"
"Yes. When I faced him before, I felt that exact same frequency. The same crushing pressure. It wasn't an ordinary spirit."
"But if it was really him," Haroku argued, "why would he be lurking in some abandoned roadside shop? And more importantly, why didn't he do anything when we walked out? He could have easily ambushed us."
"That's exactly what's bothering me," I admitted. "If it was truly him, the behavior makes zero sense. Koshido isn't the type to just sit quietly in a corner and let a target walk away."
From the shadows of the back seat, Makeno finally spoke up.
"I do not believe it was Koshido," she said calmly.
Both Haroku and I glanced at the ancient guardian in the rearview mirror.
"Why?" I asked.
"Sometimes the human mind connects new anomalies to past traumas," Makeno explained, her feminine voice cutting cleanly through our paranoia. "Or, it was simply an entity mimicking his energy signature. It felt familiar, but didn't it feel different to you?"
I thought about it carefully. "You're right. The frequency was the same, but it lacked his actual density. It felt like Koshido... but much weaker. Spirit."
"A residual copy, perhaps," Makeno noted. "Or he was suppressing his true power to observe you. Either way, it is a distraction."
Haroku nodded firmly. "She's right, bro. We need to drop it for now. We have a much bigger problem to focus on."
I looked over at him. "The one-year deadline."
"Exactly," Haroku said. "The fight with Jason. That is what actually matters right now."
Makeno nodded in agreement. "We cannot afford to waste mental energy on uncertainties."
I let out a slow exhale, feeling the lingering paranoia finally bleed out of my system. "Yeah. You're both right."
The atmosphere inside the car leveled out. The immediate spike of adrenaline faded, replaced by a cold, calculating determination.
Haroku stretched his arms forward. "We have exactly one year. That's not a short amount of time, but it's definitely not a long one either. We have to make every single day count."
"We can't take any risks," I replied, pressing my foot down on the accelerator. "If this war is really happening, we have to be flawlessly prepared."
"Not just prepared," Makeno corrected from the back. "You need to be stronger than any hunter who came before you."
Haroku smiled, a sharp, confident grin. "No mistakes this time."
I looked straight ahead at the asphalt blurring beneath us. "We train harder. We break our limits. And when the time comes... we'll be ready."
The car surged forward. The strange encounter at the shop didn't matter anymore. Whether it was Koshido, a mimic, or just a trap, it was behind us.
What mattered was the thirty kilometers left between us and the Spirit Hunter Palace.
What mattered was the fight.