Kitty Killer Isn't So Cold

"So does that mean I can go back to the fourth floor?"

"...What are you talking about? The Medical Department's rounds have only just begun..."

Completely bewildered, Nana followed Kal'tsit into an open area on the third floor. Though the black soundproof flooring had yet to receive its final surface treatment, it was already enough to block out the noise coming from the unfinished lower decks.

Tall industrial floodlights temporarily served as illumination. Under the harsh light, Nana saw Su Sulo and Touch, whom she had met before, using Arts units to treat a screaming patient. Meanwhile, scattered figures gathered in small groups nearby seemed utterly unconcerned by the situation. They sat in the shadows cast by the floodlights, hugging their luggage, forming a stark contrast with the fully armed Rhodes Island Operations Team standing in the light.

"Ah, Nana!~ And Kal'tsit..."

Blaze instinctively wanted to salute again, but this time, she held herself back.

As ACE, standing nearby in a tactical vest and holding a shield, gave a light cough, the big cat lounging beneath the work lights as though sunbathing merely stuck out her tongue. Nana nodded in response, then waved before taking a few quick steps to catch up with Kal'tsit, who was striding toward the crowd.

"What happened to them...?"

"During our stopover, we took in some Oripathy patients from Raisington City. A few of them are in critical condition. It looks like they've had an episode... Stop talking and come help. Touch, report."

Kal'tsit pulled a mask and protective goggles from her pocket and tossed them to Nana. After the cat girl put on the equipment and entered through the path ACE and Blaze had made for her, she quickly saw Su Sulo holding down the struggling patient on the bed, gripping his hand and speaking words of comfort.

The cat girl and little fox met each other's eyes, but neither had time to speak. Kal'tsit was busy talking with Touch and had no time to mind her, so Nana could only make her own judgment...

"Oripathy episode... Stage Three, acute... Pain-relieving Arts?"

"No! His Originium Crystals are showing an active reaction. Normal medical Arts can't be used!"

Hearing Su Sulo say that, inky black energy began gathering in Nana's black right eye. The orange-yellow light occupying nearly half the patient's body made her frown deeply.

"...Then... Inhibitors, while removing the dangerous lesions... That should be the standard treatment."

"Yes, yes... But the Landship hasn't installed a dynamic imaging system yet... The imaging equipment on the fourth floor gives off intense radiation. The crystals in his body are too active, so those machines can't be used... And if we only use inhibitors, the isolated active crystals will immediately enter a disintegration state..."

Mm. The disintegration of Active Originium... That was the primary mechanism through which Active Originium powered modern machinery. Put simply, it meant an explosion.

Normally, even Oripathy specialists... when faced with a patient who looked ready to explode at any moment, could do little more than administer euthanasia. Touch and Kal'tsit were discussing whether they should do that. Rhodes Island currently lacked the means to treat such an acute case.

But this man was lucky. Nana was here.

"It's fine. I can see it..."

As she spoke, the killer cat girl swept up her bangs and used a hairband to comb all the strands away from her face. Her remaining right eye seemed ready to spill ominous black mist from its corner.

"I'll use Originium Arts to point out the clustered active crystals."

"...Miss Nana, can you really do that?"

Nana could do more than merely nod in confirmation. If she used Blood Demon Sorcery as well, she could even directly reduce the activity of the patient's Originium Crystals and have him lively again.

But that sorcery looked far too bloody and sinister, and it did nothing positive for the body's Originium integration rate. If they wanted to reduce this patient's suffering while preserving his life, removing the Originium Crystals clustered densely enough to cause active reactions was the best approach.

Still, after hearing Nana's proposal, Su Sulo hesitated instead.

At its core, surgery to remove Active Originium Crystals demanded precision down to the millimeter, even to the level of a single filament. Having one person verbally direct another meant preserving that precision, as well as the trust and coordination between them, would determine whether the patient lived or died... and whether the doctor herself survived.

After all, what they were removing was a first-rate explosive. Su Sulo's hesitation was perfectly normal.

"And your vision right now..."

Listening to Su Sulo and Nana's exchange, Kal'tsit and Touch looked at each other and immediately made their decision.

"It's not a major problem... Having her perform the procedure herself will eliminate any possible visual discrepancies... The only issue is... Medic, are your surgical skills sufficient for this kind of removal?"

"If you expect me to perform minimally invasive treatment, then definitely not... What I'm proficient with is still conventional equipment... Does Rhodes Island currently have the supplies and environment to support battlefield treatment? Blood bags, mainly..."

Hearing Nana's question, Kal'tsit shook her head...

Just as Medic, on her first day at work, was about to declare that the patient's fate rested with heaven, Su Sulo seemed to make up her mind.

"I can perform minimally invasive treatment... That was what I studied in school... But I need the equipment... and a very detailed description of the lesions..."

"The equipment won't be a problem. There's an advanced eight-arm operating table on the fourth floor... As for the lesion descriptions..."

Seeing everyone look at her, while the patient on the bed wheezed as though each breath might be his last, Nana blinked. Then she took a pencil and a pencil sharpener from her weapon-filled shoulder bag.

"Give me some printer paper... To make treatment easier, I'll draw it as close to a one-to-one scale as possible."

As Nana and Su Sulo began drawing beside the patient and marking his body with pen, Kal'tsit looked at Touch. After examining the patient as well, Touch nodded... the visible rise in the patient's Originium activity had suddenly stopped.

In other words, the operation could proceed.

"Then prepare for surgery. Ace, go see if this patient has any family..."

The preparations lasted from morning until noon. Nana followed Kal'tsit and observed the entire surgical preparation process.

Although Su Sulo, as the lead surgeon, remained incredibly tense throughout, the accuracy of Nana's diagrams and markings made the entire active crystal removal procedure go smoothly.

The patient was even able to get out of bed and walk after leaving the operating room and receiving a little Arts treatment. Compared to him, Su Sulo, collapsed beneath the operating table, looked more like a patient herself.

The patient himself even loudly teased Su Sulo in high spirits, kindly of course. And while Nana was being tugged by the hem of the teary little fox's clothes as Su Sulo cried about how nervous she had been, how she had practically stopped breathing...

Touch, who had watched the whole process—or rather, had deliberately come to observe it—was hiding nearby and speaking with another Senior Operator known publicly at Rhodes Island.

"To achieve results comparable to the most advanced imaging equipment with the naked eye, then draw an X-ray image with a pencil... Outcast, you really did find a treasure."

"Heh, drawing with a pencil is nothing. Yesterday, I saw this little one kill three fully armed combat personnel with a pencil while unarmed. I originally thought Kal'tsit had found her to put her in a combat team..."

With a lollipop in her mouth, Outcast said nothing further. Her gaze toward the black-haired little cat was full of concern.

"If Kal'tsit had sent her to a combat team, I might actually have been more at ease... The Medical Department is Rhodes Island's core department. Working there means she'll inevitably come into contact with matters concerning the Tower."

"Outcast, you're worried about her..."

"Though she may look fallen, she is still acknowledged by the Law... I can be certain that she used Judgment at the end yesterday..."

"Acknowledged by the Law... I see. Outcast, are you worried she might clash with our Sarkaz colleagues?"

"That child is very innocent... Maybe it's because of her amnesia, or maybe she has simply lost all hope in life... Loken Watertank might once have been a release for her, but we dragged her back into conflicts she had already left behind..."

With a sigh, Outcast watched the two little girls laughing as they hugged each other and could not help showing a faint smile as well.

"...Perhaps when one gets old, one always starts thinking about all these 'what ifs' and 'maybes'... Kal'tsit, at least, made it very clear that she intended to protect her..."

Watching the two future doctors follow Kal'tsit away to continue their Medical Department work, Outcast slightly lifted her hat in salute...

Whether it was Su Sulo or Medic... she hoped everything would go well.

PS: Today's cat girl picture.

Nana's Security Bureau equipment. Haha. Don't ask why the armband says Griffin... I still haven't decided whether I actually want to write Griffin into the story...

PS2: I wasn't feeling well... so I rested for a day... But it seems the plot didn't progress much... I'll write another chapter this afternoon...

The Mystery of the Second Medic: Nana's Work

Nana flicked her cat ears in response to Outcast, who was waving her hat at her from afar... The Medical Department was even busier than Nana had imagined. After the operation, there was not even time to rest before she had to follow Kal'tsit out of the operating room and meet up with Touch, who had taken over the rounds.

According to Kal'tsit, Touch had nearly completed the follow-up rounds by herself... Now, they needed to confirm whether there were any other patients in danger like the one they had just treated.

Nana was beginning to understand why Kal'tsit always looked like she had dark circles under her eyes and had not slept. According to the Medical Department handbook, rounds like these took place twice daily, morning and evening. If there were acute patients to handle, that would mean several more hours of treatment... At night, there were meetings for the Medical Department's research projects, followed by organizing and filing medical records in the middle of the night, then late-night rounds...

Could this potted-plant-colored Feline really be working around the clock without sleeping at all?

"...Na... Medic!"

"Hm? Ah, yes, I'm listening..."

Coming back to herself, Nana looked at Su Sulo beside her. The little fox was tugging unhappily at her sleeve. Though she had just collapsed from exhaustion, she somehow still looked energized beyond belief.

"You're in pretty high spirits. Didn't you just collapse and become unable to move...?"

Seeing Nana look as though her mind had wandered off somewhere far away, Su Sulo finally remembered that the person who had just completed such a difficult operation alongside her was not a professional physician.

The little fox with pink hair tied into low twin-tails tried her best to restrain her excitement, but the smile on her lips remained obvious.

"Before working at Rhodes Island, I had experience working at Siracusan Public Hospital. Although being the lead surgeon for the first time was even more mentally exhausting than I expected... this was Medic's first time participating in surgery too, wasn't it?"

"Mm... In the past, I never worked in an operating room..."

More specifically, she had never worked in an operating room to save people. She had undertaken missions to kill people in operating rooms, though... Naturally, that was not something she could say here. But Su Sulo could not understand the real reason for Nana's hesitation. The way she looked at Nana was like a little fox that had always occupied the bottom of the Medical Department food chain suddenly seeing a kitten even smaller than herself... In short, it was the gaze of someone looking at a junior.

"So, how did it feel? Your first time participating in an operation, and it was such a successful high-difficulty Active Originium removal surgery. Do you have any thoughts?"

"Thoughts?"

Nana lightly touched the bandage over her left eye and decided to tell the truth.

"...It went... smoothly enough? Though that was only to be expected."

"Uwah... That doesn't sound like something a doctor who had saved a life for the first time would say... Don't you feel excited about saving a patient?"

Nana hesitated at that question. She nodded first, then shook her head. Saving someone felt good, but excitement... that definitely was not there.

Although this was Nana's first time participating in surgery, she was not unfamiliar with a process like this... one in which a decision determined someone's life. Kitty Killer only felt sorrow over how people could not control their own lives. As for whether they lived or died, Miss Assassin had long since become numb.

Perhaps realizing that the cat girl using the name Medic did not care much about a doctor's duty, Su Sulo recalled that Nana had essentially been forced to come to Rhodes Island as a refugee. After putting herself in her shoes, she sighed and patted the companion who was about the same height as her.

"It's okay. Little Cat will get better too... You're so capable, and we have famous doctors like Kal'tsit here. We'll definitely find a way..."

"...Actually, the little one is perfectly fine. She's doing well..."

"...Then why do you look so worried?"

Before Nana could answer, Kal'tsit, who had finished handing over matters to Touch, spoke without even raising her head.

"She's hungry... She got up this morning, went to the temporary shelter, found an acute patient, and was dragged into intensely using Originium Arts without eating breakfast... Though I was the one who woke Medic up, as a fellow Rhodes Island doctor, I suggest that you either carry snacks with you or prepare breakfast in advance."

"Uwah..."

Hearing Su Sulo make another strange noise, Nana gave her a confused look... The little fox once again touched Nana's cat ears as if comforting her.

"I see. Get used to it. This is the difference between practicing medicine in the wilderness and working in a city hospital."

"But even if you say that, there's nothing in the ward area to cook with... I didn't bring any emergency rations when I came."

Seeing Nana habitually reach into her shoulder bag only to find nothing, Su Sulo pulled out a piece of chocolate from her pocket. But just as Nana was about to accept it, Kal'tsit intercepted it midway... Kal'tsit stuffed it back into Su Sulo's pocket.

"Lunch is about to begin. Eating sweets will affect your appetite and interfere with the afternoon's work schedule..."

"Not even one bite?"

"...Medic, you only look like a child. You aren't actually a child. Do you really need to crave this piece of chocolate right before lunch?"

"But Su Sulo gave it to me... This is the first time I've ever received snacks from a friend..."

At Kitty Killer's words, neither the living nor the dead around her could quite hold themselves together. Su Sulo sighed and rubbed the corner of her eye before stuffing the chocolate into Nana's hands.

Kate's voice appeared beside Kitty Killer's ear once again.

[Come to think of it, I said I'd treat you to red bean paste bread that I just learned how to make... Once Mia wakes up, take her to the kitchen. We should be able to affect reality while near Mia, so I can make it for you then.]

Nana ignored Kate's following chatter about her experience as a bakery girl. Hearing the crucial word "kitchen," she remembered what Kal'tsit had told her... that she needed to feed the little cat.

"Come to think of it, I still need to prepare lunch for the little one, right...? Are we going to the cafeteria next?"

Kal'tsit nodded, but her expression seemed to darken a little further.

"Though calling it a cafeteria... Forget it. You'll see for yourself when we get there."

The potted-plant big cat's tone did not sound reliable at all. Once they arrived, Nana discovered that perhaps she had misunderstood the meaning of "unreliable" from the start.

Even by the standards of Columbia's frontier era, Nana's definition of a cafeteria required at least trays, tables and chairs, and food that might unavoidably have dust in it but was still edible... But what did she see in Rhodes Island's "cafeteria"?

Wind and grit blew in through gaps, making the dining environment feel like a sandblasting machine.

Everyone brought their own food containers. Since there were no tables or chairs, the sheltered patients and Rhodes Island's own operations teams ate as they walked... Along the way, Nana saw plenty of food spilled on the floor or grease stains smeared onto the walls.

The "cafeteria" itself, where the food was being cooked, sent Nana's blood pressure soaring even higher. Especially when Ace, wearing an apron, saw Nana and raised a hand with a "Yo," the slightly hypoglycemic Nana truly wanted to roll her eyes back and faint on the spot.

This was not a cafeteria at all. It was plainly just a few tables pushed together, not even enough to count as a proper cooking station.

The heating stove was a field kitchen truck discarded by some unknown country. Several E3 Operations Team members who had picked Nana up onto the Landship the previous night were currently stirring a mush on the heater that looked like it might be porridge or stew, but whose color utterly destroyed anyone's appetite.

Ignoring the black big cat beside them, who was also wearing an apron and holding an entire block of dry cheese with a miserable expression, though her cat ears immediately sprang upright upon seeing Nana, Nana's attention was entirely captured by the mysterious items in the small serving area of the kitchen truck.

"...Kal'tsit, when you said I needed to prepare food for Little Cat... did you mean that if I can't cook, we'll have to eat this stuff...?"

"Hey, I'm standing right here."

Ace tapped the container full of mush with the large ladle in his hand. Wearing an expression that said, I didn't volunteer to make this either, he gestured toward the empty canned-food boxes behind him, which had been flattened and packed away.

"These are all the ingredients we have, and this is all the manpower we have. The kitchen isn't finished, and our only cooking equipment is a Victoria field kitchen truck... We want to make something decent too, but honestly, without using those... instant foods, isn't thick meat soup the best option for feeding over a hundred people?"

"...Didn't we have fresh vegetables yesterday?"