"Kai."
"Hm."
"I'm sorry I waited."
He understood immediately.
The stairwell.
The Umbral.
"The twins were there," she said quietly. "If I entered too early they would've stopped trying to save the possessed humans and focused on sealing me instead."
Her voice tightened again.
"But you kept getting hurt."
Kaito leaned his head back lightly against hers.
"The timing worked."
"It didn't."
"It did."
She shook her head immediately against his shoulder.
"The right timing would've been before the Umbral hit you."
"The chains needed to happen first."
Shizuka went quiet.
"If you came in before I restrained the possessed bodies, Hiro and Natsume would've had no opening for the extractions."
Silence settled between them again.
He could feel her thinking through it.
Could feel the frustration still sitting inside her anyway.
"The timing was right," he said again.
This time she didn't argue.
