This is a story I heard from my aunt, who is a nurse.

She told me that back when she had just started out as a nurse, working night shifts was the hardest part of the job.

Apparently, there was plenty to do—making rounds on a set schedule in the middle of the night, responding to patients whose conditions suddenly took a turn for the worse. Her body hadn't gotten used to the schedule yet, so she was always drowsy, and as a rookie nurse, the hospital at night felt a bit creepy to her.

One night, while making her usual room-by-room check, she reached a room on the third floor and noticed a patient sitting up in bed, staring blankly out the window. It was an old man in his eighties.

When my aunt spoke to him, the old man replied,

"Isn't Nozaki-san doing night rounds tonight?"

with a cheerful smile on his face.

Thinking 'here we go again,' my aunt helped the old man lie back down in bed. Ever since she began working on this ward earlier that year, she had occasionally heard patients mention a nurse named Nozaki-san.

The one thing they had in common was that Nozaki-san was incredibly popular. Patients had even told my aunt, 'Nozaki-san is much better than you,' which had annoyed her a time or two.

What bothered her, though, was that as far as my aunt could recall, there was no senior nurse named Nozaki. Still, being a newcomer, she assumed it was someone she simply hadn't met yet and didn't give it much thought.

When she returned to the nurses' station, she casually asked a senior nurse about Nozaki-san while making small talk. Sorting through paperwork, the senior nurse gave a distracted reply.

"Oh, Nozaki-san. She used to work here, but she died last year. Suicide. Sounds like she was going through a lot."

My aunt felt a chill run down her spine. Hoping there had been some mistake, she brought up her recent conversation with the old man, but...

"That happens all the time."

The senior nurse answered bluntly, her expression unreadable.

After that, it wasn't just the old man—she would occasionally hear Nozaki-san's name from young male patients and children as well. At first, just hearing patients mention the name gave her the creeps, to the point where she even thought about quitting.

Human adaptability is a terrifying thing, though. As she got used to the work, even my easily spooked aunt stopped caring about minor paranormal occurrences. On the rare occasion a patient mentioned Nozaki-san, she even had the composure to shrug it off as 'here we go again.'

Besides, for some reason, Nozaki-san was deeply beloved by the patients. My aunt decided to take a positive view of it, thinking that ghost or not, Nozaki-san was still a senior colleague who was continuing to look after the patients.

As I listened to her story, I was just starting to think that maybe ghosts weren't all bad, when my aunt chuckled amusedly and continued.

"Except, you know... every patient who meets Nozaki-san dies within two or three days."