Eli woke up, still enveloped in Nozomi's warmth. The lights in the room were off, causing it to be dark due to the lack of light outside. Careful to not wake Nozomi up, Eli snaked out of her arms, sitting on the edge of her bed to look at her phone. The brightness of the screen after just waking stung her eyes, even more than it already did from her crying the previous night.

According to the time on her phone, it was only a little after 5 am. Eli shut off her phone and looked back at Nozomi, who was still fast asleep. She could just barely see Nozomi's face in the dark room. Her expression was so gentle and peaceful, Eli could just barely resist the urge to caress her cheek. Instead, she found her hair band to put her hair up and picked up her clothes off the ground to change into them.

As Eli straightened her jacket, she could hear Nozomi begin to stir behind her. She quickly stopped what she was doing to look back at her to make sure she was still asleep. Luckily, she had only slightly adjusted her position, still asleep. Now fully clothed once again, in her own clothes, Eli quietly walked over over to the bathroom. She shut the door behind her to block out the light and sounds of the room.

Eli looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were slightly red and puffy from the tears and her hair was a bit messy, as expected of putting up her hair without brushing it. She leaned down to the sink to splash some cool water on her face to help soothe her eyes. After a couple splashes, she shut off the water and looked back at her face in the mirror. She looked like a mess, but honestly, she didn't really care. Eli used a hand towel to dry her face before shutting off the lights and walking back into the dark hallway.

She peeked back into Nozomi's room to see her one last time before she headed off. In the short time she was in the bathroom, the world outside had already began to brighten. Eli smiled at Nozomi, who was still sleeping soundly on her bed, unaware of the fact she wasn't there besides her anymore. With that, Eli turned for the entrance and headed out.

It had gotten significantly brighter outside, though it was still early morning. The air was crisp and the birds were already singing their morning songs. She hurried back to her car, not wanting to be there when Nozomi woke up.

Eli quietly opened the door to her motel room, not wanting to wake Umi up. She was a demon when she's awoken, Eli having first-hand experiences with how demons behaved from previous hunts. Thinking about it, she could even be worse than a demon.

She slowly shut the door, not wanting it to slam and wake up Umi. Once she had closed the door, silent for the most part besides the clicking of the lock, she quietly began to walk to her bed. As she began to approach it, Umi shot up from her bed, gun aimed at her. As soon as her mind processed who she was looking at, she sighed and set the gun back under the pillow, where she pulled it out from.

"Jesus, Eli. Why are you back so early? I could have shot you right there." Umi groaned, wiping a hand down her face. Umi stopped and squinted at Eli, her eyes still tired from sleep. "Wait, have you been crying? What happened?"

Eli sighed. Umi had always been extremely observant, being able to notice every little detail around her. Of course she would notice that.

"It's nothing to worry about, Umi."

"Eli-" Umi tried to push forward, but was cut off by Eli.

"Really, it's nothing. Don't worry about me, especially when we're on a case where people seem to be dying daily."

"Eli, you're my best friend, and one of the few friends I'm able to have and keep in this life. I will worry about you because you're important to me." Umi's serious gaze showed Eli that there was no way to stop her.

"Honestly, I just let my emotions get to me, Umi. I'm alright now, so you don't need to worry." Eli finished with a small smile. She knew Umi understood when her gaze softened.

"Alright... Anyways, I didn't find much last night about the case. I think we should give another check at the apartments. We must've missed something there. All of our evidence leads to that place." Umi replied, bringing up the case to avoid talking about the touchy subject.

"Do you think that a resident brought it in?" Eli asked, sitting down on the bed across from her.

"I would say that there's a huge possibility that someone did. I already have a list of the residents so all I need is to search them up on the database to see if they had a recent family death that could have caused a ghost to link onto an item."

"Alright, that sounds good. It'll make this search much more efficient for the most part. If we finish empty-handed, we'll just have to search everyone else again..."

"Correct. I'll get to that right now so we can begin as soon as possible." Umi said, grabbing her laptop from the bedside drawer in-between their beds. Eli kicked back in her bed and took the remote from the drawer. She turned on the television and began to browse through the channels. Nothing really interested her, seeing the vast majority of them were cartoons and boring dramas.

She continued to click through the channels, quickly passing the news channel. A couple channels past, Eli stopped, coming to a realization, and flipped back to the news.

Eli swore under her breath as she watched the broadcast, that had now gained the attention of Umi.

"Another one already...?" Eli muttered. She sat up, poised for action, diligently watching the news. Another person, this time a man, was murdered while closing up shop for the night. Soon after, the reporter disclosed name of the shop where the body had been found..

"Umi, find the location of that place so we can put it down on our map." Eli ordered, getting off her bed.

"Already on it." Umi answered back. Eli found her suit from the previous day, getting ready to change into it. Umi stood up a few moments later, making her way to the closet where their map was hidden.

"Huh, that's odd... This one is located outside of the original radius that we have... Could I have been wrong?" Eli moved over besides Umi to look at the map.

"Since we're assuming it's linked onto an item, someone could've just worn a piece of jewelry of something that it was linked to which could be carried it out of the apartments. Since this is the only strong lead we have, we should follow up on it with that idea in mind. The deaths because of this ghost are racking up, so we should follow this with a chance of succeeding instead of being left with nothing." Eli looked over at Umi, who was clearly troubled by this. Eli could see her gears turning just by looking at her facial expression.

"That does make sure lot of sense." Umi finally said. "This would mean the carrier of the item would've been out last night." Eli froze in her spot. She took Nozomi out the previous night. She looked on the map, following the roads she took to yakiniku restaurant. The murder wasn't far from there.

"W-Well, that is if the murder is even linked to our case. I'll have to go check out the scene and body to make sure." Eli said, stumbling a bit on her words as she thought of the chance of Nozomi harboring a dangerous ghost in her apartment.

"And the chances of it not being our case when, yet again, no one was spotted on the crime scene?" Umi replied sarcastically. Eli took slight offense to the comment, even though it was a ridiculous thought. She turned away from Umi and walked into the bathroom.

"I'll get ready and head out then." Eli closed the bathroom door behind her. She placed her hands firmly on the sink and stared into the mirror.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Eli muttered to herself, ashamed of what she had said. She splashed some cold water on her face to help wake her up further, though she was already wide awake. Eli changed into her suit, chalking her stupid remark up to her not thinking properly because of the early morning.

She left the bathroom to grab her gun and holster, almost always going out with it by her side. Of course with situations like the previous night, Eli knew to keep it elsewhere. She clipped the holster around her waist and checked the clip of ammo to make sure it was loaded, putting it in the holster afterwards.

Umi had already begun her search, so Eli left the motel room and into her car to head to the crime scene.

Eli slammed the door to her car shut. She walked to the door of the small shop, having to duck underneath the police tape preventing entry. If it wasn't for the large pool of drying blood on the ground, Eli wouldn't have suspected anything went wrong in the shop. The shelves were neatly organized and everything was clean. No sign of any struggle could be seen anywhere. Eli turned her attention to the three police officers that were scattered around the shop. She recognized one from the other day from the hotel.

"Hello. Care to fill me in on the details?" Eli asked, approaching the familiar police officer. At the sound of her voice, he turned to face her.

"Oh, Agent Hiraki, right?" The man asked, obviously remembering her as well. Eli responded with a nod of her head. "Let's get straight into this then. The murder happened sometime last night. The victim, Tachibana Hikaru, was supposed to be the last one to leave, having the duty to close up shop. The murderer entered soon after his co-workers left and did what he came to do. The victim was stabbed multiple times in the chest, just as the others were. We already held brief interrogations with the co-workers, but they honestly had no clue what had happened until we told them."

"Are there security cameras here?"

"Ah, yes. The footage is a bit strange, but I'll show you what was caught. Follow me." He replied. Eli followed him to the managers office, where the footage held. He went onto the computer and began to skip through the video.

"Alright, this is about right." The officer said as he stepped away from the computer. Eli took his spot, leaning on the desk to get a better view. She watched as two of the employees waved to another, presumably the victim, disappearing off the camera and out the door. The man was acting perfectly calm, not at all expecting his ill fate. The man was walking towards the exit when the cameras suddenly cut to static.

"Right there. The cameras just stop recording right in time for the murder to happen. I'm guessing the murderer had some type of hacking system, but then it brings up more questions. Why would they put that much effort into this one guy? Did the victim get himself involved with the wrong crowd?"

Eli ignored the man talking behind her and replayed the scene over and over, trying to find anything useful. She paused the video, catching a glimpse of something strange. Right before the cameras cut out, right behind the man was a faint, shadowed figure. If she hadn't been in the business of monster hunting, she wouldn't have even noticed it.

"Did you find something?" The officer asked curiously behind her.

"I'm not sure. I'm going to print out a picture of this frame to have it further looked upon." Eli responded. She began to print out the image, focusing mainly on the shadow figure and the man. Once the paper was out of the printer, she folded it up into a small square and put it in an inner pocket on her suit.

"Now if you would excuse me, I'm going to take a quick look around." Eli said to the officer. She left the managers office and proceeded to the main room where the death happened. She made her way past the police to the drying blood pool on the ground. She squatted down to get a closer look at the bloody area to see of she could find anything else, such as some ectoplasm. Unsurprisingly, nothing was there but blood. Eli stood back up and looked around the room once again. Since there were quite a few cops looking at the scene, she couldn't exactly pull out her EMF to look for more clues.

Eli decided her work there was done. Since this was a ghost they were dealing with, no actual clues would be hidden to find. Without anymore words to the police, Eli left the building and got into her car. She started the engine and drove towards the morgue.

The drive seemed shorter than it was due to the fact Eli couldn't stop thinking about the case. Nozomi could be living with a dangerous ghost right under her nose. Her life was in danger, especially with the rate of which the ghost has been attacking. These thoughts made her even more determined to find and get rid of it.

Once again, she got out of her car and entered the morgue. This time, an assistant was sitting at the desk, Sora most likely in the back with the body.

"Hello, I came to see the body of Tachibana Hikaru." Eli said to the assistant. He just stared at her, clearly not amused. Realizing she had never met this person before, she pulled out her badge to show she was a part of the FBI. Of course she wasn't actually FBI, but to him and almost everyone else, she was.

With a sigh, the man allowed Eli entrance to the back room. Although she remembered where to go, she still followed the man.

"Sora-san, an FBI agent is here to look at the body." He called into the room. Eli happened to arrive at an interesting time, as Sora had already begun performing an autopsy on the body.

"Well, you can let them in. It's their job to find who's doing this after all." She called back, still focusing on the corpse on a table in front of her. Sora's back was turned to her, but she probably already had a good idea of who the agent was. The man motioned Eli to go in and walked back to his desk in the other room. Eli approached the table where Sora was working and stood on the opposite side of the table, not wanting to get in her way.

"Find anything interesting?" Eli asked, watching as the girl examined the dead body.

"Oh... yes, actually. There's this weird tar-like substance in the knife incisions. I noticed it on the previous bodies as well, but wasn't entirely sure what it was then either..." She answered. She grabbed a small tool and buried it into the stab wound, pulling it out to show Eli a sample of the mysterious substance. Just like the previous bodies, the victim's injuries were coated with ectoplasm.

"Hmm... Do you have any clue of what it might be?" Eli asked, acting as if she had no clue what it was.

"Not yet, but I can have some tests ran on it and find out soon. The other bodies had it as well, so the murderer must be using it on their weapon..."

"Alright. Thanks for the info. I'll get out of your way now so you can continue your work." Eli began to walk towards the exit.

"It was no problem, Agent. You're welcome to stop by whenever you need to." Sora said from behind her. Eli walked back to the front room and left the morgue.

She sat down in her car and dug in her back pocket for her phone. She went into her contacts and found Umi, hitting the call button.

"Done already?" Umi voice answered after a few rings.

"Yep. There wasn't much to it. I just needed to confirm it as our ghost." Eli replied, sitting back in the seat of her car.

"I finished composing a list of the residents that have had recent family deaths, dating back at two years maximum. They're actually only a few of them, so if this is correct, we should find the ghost relatively quickly."

"Okay. I'll drive over there and pick you up so we can get started right away. Start getting ready."

"See you soon." Eli placed her phone back in her pocket after Umi hung up. She placed her hands on the steering wheel, although the car wasn't started. What was she going to do if Nozomi was on that list? There was something about Nozomi that made Eli want to protect her even more so than the others. Eli closed her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling a couple seconds later once she opened her eyes again. She placed her hands on the car key and turned it, starting the engine. Eli drove off before she let her thoughts take over.

Eli honked the horn of her car a couple times to gain Umi's attention. Within a couple of seconds, Umi came out, dressed up in her suit, a piece of paper in her hand. Umi made her way to the passengers side and slid into the seat besides Eli.

"Umi, here's what I found while I was out." Eli pulled out the paper she had folded and placed in her pocket. She unfolded the paper and showed Umi the image on it. "The camera just barely caught the ghost. It's a bit hard to make out the figure, but from what I see, it appears to be male."

"Then, this is what I found." Umi replied, handing the list to Eli. She quickly scanned the small list, looking for one name in particular, one that hopefully wouldn't be on that list. Eli froze when her eyes landed upon that dreaded name.

Tojo Nozomi.

"Eli... Is something wrong?" Eli handed the paper back to Umi. She shook her head.

"Everything's fine. Let's just go to the apartments and try to find this ghost before it hurts anyone else." Her voice was much more serious than she expected it to be. She was sure Umi was staring at her, confused by the reaction, but she was too busy trying to drive out of the parking lot and to the apartments to look at her.

The chances of Nozomi harboring the ghost unknowingly worried Eli. Eli didn't want her to die. She didn't want to lose that mischievous twinkle that appeared every so often in those captivating emerald eyes. The most recent murder, being out of the original radius Umi had found, provided information pointing straight towards her. The only thing that made Eli doubt that was the fact she was still unharmed and completely unaware of the ghost.

Besides the fact of Nozomi potentially living with a malevolent ghost (though it was highly likely), Nozomi did have a recent death in her family. She would understand to some degree how she felt the previous night when she let her true emotions loose. Eli didn't understand how she was able to stay so calm about it as well as comfort her. Along with that, Eli realized she was living completely alone, not having anyone to confide in when it came to things like that. Eli had Umi to talk to when she really needed it, but who did Nozomi have?

Eli blinked hard, focusing completely on the road once again. Nozomi has been consuming her thoughts lately, and Eli was aware of it.

"Isn't that person you were with last night at the apartments?" Umi asked.

"Yep."

"Are they on that list?" Umi asked once again. Eli frowned, not wanting to believe it.

"...Yep."

"Well, we need to figure out who's searching which rooms. I'll leave you to their room and I'll handle the other two." Eli was surprised by Umi's response. Umi sighed, most likely noticing the look on Eli's face. "Don't make me regret my choice."

"Thank you, Umi. I really appreciate it." Eli said, looking over at Umi to show her appreciation.

"It's no big deal. Just focus on the road so we don't crash, please."

"Right away, ma'am." Eli grinned.

After a couple more minutes, they finally reached the apartments. Eli drove into the parking lot and parked the car in an empty spot.

"I'll start checking the room of Tojo Nozomi then." Eli said as she unbuckled her seat belt. Umi did the same and stepped out of the car.

"Alright. Don't do anything stupid." Umi began walking towards the apartments, looking at the paper to find the room numbers. Eli stepped out of her car and shut the door. She looked up Nozomi's room door and began to walk towards it. She quickly stepped up the stairs and continued towards Nozomi's room.

Eli knocked on Nozomi's door and waited. The door was pulled open, Nozomi most likely knowing it was her from the eye hole.

"Hey, Nozomi." Eli greeted casually. She couldn't help but notice the slight pout on Nozomi's face.

"You left so early that I didn't get to say 'good morning' to you."

"Sorry, I had to leave because of my work." Eli partially lied. Sure, she was on a case, but she still didn't have to leave. If she had stayed, she and Umi most likely would have missed the news, causing this search to be delayed. With any case, it would be best to finish them as quickly as possible to prevent more deaths. "And that's also why I'm here, Nozomi."

"I would've guessed since you're in that suit. Well, come inside if you need to." Nozomi stepped out of the way and pulled the door farther open for Eli to come in.

"Nozomi, there was another death yesterday." Eli told her as she walked into her apartment room. Nozomi closed the door behind her.

"Another one? Why are you telling me this?"

"It happened not far from where we went out last night. Umi, my partner, had set up a map showing the crimes and noticed they were happening within a certain radius of this apartment complex. Last night's death happened out side of that radius. Not too long ago, Umi gathered some information about the residents here to see who could be a possible match." Eli explained. She could see Nozomi come to an understanding of what she was saying.

"This may be hard to talk about, but can you tell me how your dad passed?" Eli knew the pains of this topic, so she tried to be as gentle as possible.

"He was walking home from his office late at night after working overtime. Not far from the office he was attacked... He was completely defenseless against the attackers, having weapons of their own. They stabbed him to death..."

"Stab wounds? It's just like how the victims died..." Eli thought aloud. "Were the people that killed your father caught?"

"The suspects were found dead in their motel room, both stabbed to death. We don't know who killed then though." Nozomi told her. Eli pieced the story together in her mind, immediately knowing what must of happened.

"Nozomi... I think it's your dad's ghost who's killing these people."

Nozomi stood silent, eyes lowered though Eli could see the conflict on her face. She didn't like seeing Nozomi like that. Eli stepped forward closer to Nozomi and embraced her.

"I honestly don't want to believe it myself." Eli murmured.

"I've always had a slight suspicion of this..." Nozomi said, voice slightly muffled from being buried in Eli's suit. Eli let go of Nozomi as she began to move away.

"People have been dying around me, all in the same way since maybe a month or so after his death. I also had the feeling of being constantly watched. When I moved here, I thought it all would change."

"If he's following you, you must have brought along something he's linked on. Ghosts tend to link onto items meaningful to them."

"Nothing here had any real meaning to him. I only brought a few photos and the necessities."

"Alright... Did he happen to be buried or cremated?" Eli asked.

"He was buried so couple hours away from here at Shibuya Cemetary. Why?"

"With restless spirits like him, salting and burning their bodies usually puts them to rest. It's possible he's just using something as a mode of transportation. Umi and I will head over there and take care of it." Eli said. She turned around and walked towards the door, ready to get Umi to head to the cemetery.

"When will you be back?" Nozomi asked from behind her.

"I'll try to get here as soon as possible. I plan on staying afterwards as well to make sure he's really gone, if that's alright with you." Eli responded, smiling as she looked back at Nozomi. She noticed a faint pink blush appear on Nozomi's face before she continued out the door. Her smile tends to have that effect on people. "See you later, Nozomi."

Eli shut the door behind her and began to look for Umi. It wasn't that hard to do since Umi had to investigate the rooms with their owners outside. Eli quickly hopped down the steps and into the open room door right besides them.

"Umi," Eli called to the girl diligently scanning a shelf with her EMF. "You can stop now. I know who the ghost is."

"So it was Tojo-san's father?" Umi turned off her EMF and placed it back inside her suit.

"Yep. He's buried not far from here too. We should hurry up and burn his body before something else happens."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's go." Umi began to walk out the door, Eli following behind her.

"Once again, thank you for your time and cooperation." Umi said to the room owner who was waiting patiently outside.

"It was no big deal. Good luck with your case." He walked back inside his room and shut the door. The two continued to walk to the car, taking their usual seats. Eli started up the car and quickly input their destination, Shibuya Cemetery, in the car's GPS. Once it loaded, she reversed out of the parking spot and onto the road towards the cemetery.

The two hours of driving went by quickly, the two being used to drives that could take up a whole day. The cemetery was located in the outskirts of the city, closer to the forested mountains that made up a majority of the surrounded area. Usually, digging up a grave would be a problem during the light of daytime, but with the isolation of the place, they had nothing to worry about.

Now out of the car and onto the concrete pavement of the small parking lot, the two walked to the trunk of the car to grab the shovels that were kept there. Eli pulled the trunk open, holding it for Umi to grab a shovel. She grabbed the other and slammed the trunk closed once again. She swung the shovel over her shoulder and rested it there, beginning to walk into the graveyard alongside Umi.

"Take the right side, I'll take the left. Call me if you find his grave." Eli ordered. They walked through the gates and onto the cobblestone pathway of the cemetery, splitting up to their planned sides.

Within a couple of minutes, Eli had found the desired person's grave.

"Hey, Umi! I found it, come over here!" She shouted to her partner. She took the shovel off her shoulder and drove it into the dirt, using her foot to force it even farther down. She shoveled the dirt to the side and began to repeat the process.

"Do you want to get the salt and other supplies now?" Eli asked, grunting as she forced the shovel into the ground once more.

"Yeah, I'll go get them. I'll be right back then." Umi replied. She pushed her shovel into the ground, standing it for easy grabbing once she returned. Eli continued to shovel out the dirt, Umi joining in as well soon after.

Eli continued to dig, forcing the shovel down once more when she was greeted was the familiar clunk of the shovel head meeting the coffin. It took over an hour for the two of them to get a good sized hole where they could actually open the coffin. Umi lifted herself out of the hole so that Eli could open it and reveal the body.

Eli tossed her shovel on the ground above and cleared away the remaining dirt resting on the top of the coffin and maneuvered herself so she would be able to open the coffin. She lifted the lid, handing one side up to Umi to lift it out of the hole. Eli hopped out of the hole and looked at the corpse below her.

The body, being only a couple months old from how things looked, was gray and rotting, maggots crawling throughout holes they created in the skin. The sight was disgusting, most people not being able to look at something so grotesque without vomiting, but Eli and Umi were used to it. They had to look at bodies, some even more nauseating than this, on a daily basis.

Eli stared down at him. This was the father of Nozomi, a maggot infested corpse buried six feet under the surface. Eli bent over to pick up the salt, lighter fluid, and match box on the ground besides her. She handed the salt container to Umi and began to douse the body with the flammable liquid while Umi was dumping the salt onto him. Eli tossed the lighter fluid to the side and opened up the match box, grabbing a single match and striking in on the side. She flicked the lit match into the hole, the corpse bursting into flames with contact.

Eli placed a hand over her nose and took a step back. While she could get used the the sight of the corpses, the smell of rotten, burning flesh wasn't something she, or anyone for that matter, could handle. She glanced over at Umi, who had done the same thing, disgust apparent in her hardened, amber eyes.

They waited for the flames to completely consume the body and destroy as many bones as possible. They threw the lid back over whatever remained in the pit and began to shovel the dirt back over the hole.

Once the corpse was covered once again, the two picked up their supplies and headed back for their car.

"Hopefully that took care of him." Eli said to Umi.

"Yeah, let's hope. It would be a pain to have him angrier than he already is." Umi replied. They cleaned the majority of the dirt off their shovels before placing them back into the trunk with the salt and lighter fluid.

Eli stopped by their motel room to drop off Umi and to change out of her dirty suit into something more comfortable, before she drove back to Nozomi at the apartments. She knocked on the door, earning an immediate response and a girl jumping into her arms for a hug.

"Good, you're back." Came Nozomi's muffled voice.

"N-Nozomi?" Eli stuttered, flustered over the sudden, unexpected intimacy. She was used to people throwing themselves at her, but not literally throwing themselves at her like this. "Is something wrong?" Eli realized how stupid the question was immediately after she asked it.

"It's a little bit eerie living alone, knowing your father's murderous ghost is hanging around you, ya'know?"

"It'll be fine now. We burned his body, so his ghost should be gone now. Plus, I won't let anything harm you on my watch." Eli wrapped her arms around Nozomi, holding her close. The two stayed like that for a couple minutes before Eli decided it was time to stop.

"Hey, Nozomi. We should head inside now. If we hold the door open any longer, bugs will come inside."

"O-Oh, you're right. Let's go inside then." Nozomi rushed, apparently flustered once she realized how long they've been standing there. Eli followed and closed the door behind her.

"Would you like something to drink?" Nozomi asked from inside the small kitchen area.

"Yeah, just water will be fine. Thanks." Eli replied. She walked over and leaned on the wall by the kitchen entrance, watching as Nozomi grabbed a glass of water for her.

"Here you go." Nozomi said, handing Eli the glass. Eli thanked her and took a sip of the cool water. It was much needed after an hour of digging under the hot sun.

"So, do you want to watch some television? We could find something interesting to put on." Nozomi asked, sitting down on her small couch.

"Yeah, that'd be great." Eli sat down on the couch besides Nozomi, setting her glass on the coffee table besides it.

"Is there anything in particular that you would want to watch?"

"I don't really get into a whole lot of TV shows since I'm constantly on the road or taking up a case. I'll be fine watching whatever you like to watch." Eli replied. She was curious to see what Nozomi liked to watch anyway.

"Hmm, alright. Well, there is this one drama that everyone's been watching. We might as well give it a shot." Nozomi said, finding the series so she could play the first episode.

The two sat on the couch, watching the episode without exchanging words. Soon enough, the episode was over.

"What did you think of it, Nozomi?" Eli asked, looking over at the woman. Instead of watching the show, Nozomi had fallen asleep. As if her words moved her, Nozomi's head came sliding down the couch and onto Eli's shoulder, which she didn't mind at all.

Nozomi was perfect to Eli, a goddess in her eyes. She knew what was she was beginning to feel and knew she couldn't allow it. She couldn't become close to her in fear of dragging her even farther into the whole monster mess. She couldn't do that to anyone, no matter how much she grew to care for them.

Eli watched as the girl slept peacefully on her shoulder. The whole situation could just wait until another time. Eli leaned her head against Nozomi's, shutting her own eyes as well. For now, she'll just enjoy the moment.