Hesta's Eagle

"Where are we going next?" Hesta asked.

"The last step. It might hurt a little." Chiba raised her right hand and lightly rubbed the inside of her wrist. "We'll implant a chip containing your identification number here. But there's no need to be afraid of the procedure itself. There'll be local anesthesia, so you won't feel—"

"No anesthesia."

"Huh?"

"No anesthesia," Hesta repeated.

"...Are you sure?" Chiba looked at Hesta.

"Yes."

On the semi-open operating table, Hesta sat upright on the raised padded seat, extending her right hand beyond the partition, where mechanical arms precisely cut into her thin flesh.

Chiba was also wearing sterile clothing. Standing several meters away, she watched Hesta thoughtfully—the girl's forehead was beaded with fine sweat, and her face gradually turned pale. It was clearly all caused by pain.

After the procedure, the two went to another sterile room for observation.

"Why didn't you want anesthesia?" Chiba asked.

"...I just didn't."

Chiba looked at Hesta's exhausted, haggard face and stopped questioning her for the moment. After a while, she suddenly asked, "Have you heard the story of Hesta's Eagle?"

Hesta stared at her wrist. "...A little."

"How little?"

"The Hesta people... live in the north of District 14," Hesta said quietly. "They... regard the eagle as their totem—"

"Hahaha, I knew it." Chiba interrupted with a laugh. "That's a very typical misunderstanding outsiders have about the Hesta people. The eagle is their guardian deity, not their totem. Their totem is the horse."

"Is that so?" Hesta's voice was nearly a whisper. "This is... the first time I've known."

Chiba continued, "The Hesta people have a custom. Whenever one of their children turns twelve, they tattoo an eagle on the child's wrist to show that they've come of age... How old are you again?"

"Eleven," Hesta answered.

"Then you're a year early." Chiba smiled. "When I saw you refusing anesthesia just now, I thought it was because of that custom."

Sister Gurdin once warned us that medicines injected directly into the bloodstream make people's reactions... duller," Hesta said quietly.

"Hurry up and forget all the things those old nuns taught you." Chiba folded her arms. "Trust modern science, Jane."

Hesta adjusted her breathing slightly and looked at Chiba. "Would you be willing to tell me the story of Hesta's Eagle?"

Chiba did not answer immediately. Telling a story itself was not difficult, but telling one to Hesta in this situation gave her the strange feeling of a mother caring for a daughter, or an older sister caring for a younger one.

"Is it inconvenient?" Hesta asked again.

The observation room was completely empty. Chiba looked up at the clock hanging on the wall directly ahead—there were still twenty minutes left in the observation period.

"All right." She answered stiffly. "Anyway... there's nothing else to do."

"Hesta's Eagle is a story widely told across the northern snowfields of District 14," Chiba said softly. "It says that long ago, on the snowfields of the northern frontier, there was a giant eagle. Its beak was as large as a mountain peak and thousands of miles long. Whenever the entire bird took flight, its shadow filled heaven and earth.

"The eagle's name was Hesta. Its shadow possessed a certain magic: every living thing in the world, so long as it rested beneath that shadow, could attain the greatest happiness in the mortal world.

"At sunrise, together with the first ray of morning light, Hesta's Eagle would take flight from the southernmost edge of the world to the northernmost. Thus, every day, all creatures newly born upon the earth would be bathed once in the eagle's shadow.

"Because of this, there was no conflict in the world then. Whether birds and beasts, grass and vines, all things were immersed in peace and contentment.

"But Hesta's Eagle was slowly consumed in the process. Gradually, its beak shrank from the size of mountain ranges to the size of a lone peak, then to the size of a lake... During that time, its wings also gradually shrank, until they could no longer shelter everything in the human world beneath their feathers.

"Even so, Hesta's Eagle still took flight each time the morning sun rose.

"Until the last time, it had grown too old to lift its wings. So it descended upon the snowfields of the northern frontier. Its wings became arms, its talons became feet, and it became a human infant. The flocks of sheep and fine horses on the grasslands, along with all the creatures it had once cared for, came in droves and raised the child together.

"In the myths of the Hesta Tribe, that was how their ancestors came to be. It was a little absurd, but most myths are like that... Do you like this story?"

"It's very interesting." Hesta leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and softly echoed, "Thank you."

At around three in the afternoon, Chiba left the reserve training base.

Before she left, Hesta looked up at the woman who had rescued her from the convent and had now become her guardian, unsure for a moment what to say.

Chiba crouched down and gripped Hesta's shoulders with both strong hands.

"This is where we part."

Hesta gazed into Chiba's gray irises—at certain moments, like now, when her eyes reflected bright light, they seemed to shine with an almost silvery luster.

"...Do you have any advice to leave me with?" Hesta asked quietly.

Chiba furrowed her brow, clearly giving the question serious thought. After a while, she stood and patted Hesta's little head.

"Nothing really. If I had to say something..." Chiba reached out and pinched Hesta's nose, suddenly breaking into a smile. "Don't fall in love too early? Train hard. I'll keep an eye on news about you. Maybe we'll meet again soon. Goodbye, Jane."

Hesta considered Chiba's advice and nodded solemnly.

"Goodbye, Miss Chiba."

After Chiba left, Hesta stood alone behind the transparent window wall on the fourth floor and looked down. Her gaze remained fixed on the building's exit until Chiba appeared there. She watched Chiba walk all the way to the parking lot, open the car door, get in, and drive away.

Valenti, who was carrying documents back and forth, soon noticed the little girl over there.

"Miss Hesta?" She walked over. "You should take your information card to the dormitories and check in."

"I know."

Valenti followed Hesta's gaze outside, but saw only patches of ground and the rather empty road in the distance. She crouched down and looked at Hesta from slightly below her height. "What are you looking at?"

"...Miss Chiba's car."

Hesta pointed toward the hatchback that had brought her here, which had just disappeared at the end of the road.

The girl stared at the place where the vehicle had vanished, and an indescribable loneliness suddenly rose in her heart.