Hekla

When Hekla saw Chiba again, it was already Thursday evening.

Chiba had originally suggested taking Hesta out for a drive, but Molly had directly refused.

"I protest, Molly," Chiba frowned. "As her guardian, why can't I take Hesta out for a stroll? Must the base interfere even when I'm fulfilling my obligations?"

Molly said calmly, "If you truly cared about your obligations as much as you claim, you should have familiarized yourself with the base's regulations beforehand. To take a trainee off-base, you need to make a reservation at least a day in advance—not just show up expecting to take someone away on a whim."

Chiba pouted for a while longer, but seeing Molly's firm refusal to bend the rules, she eventually gave up.

"There's nothing else for it," Chiba shrugged slightly and looked at Hesta. "Then let's just walk around the base."

Hesta didn't say anything, silently following behind Chiba as they left.

The two walked near the training grounds, where groups of young people were running in the sunset. In the golden twilight, Hesta suddenly noticed a black tattoo around Chiba's neck. The last time they met, it had been hidden by her sweater's collar, but now, looking closely, Hesta realized it was a sentence composed of letters, each stretched thin and tall, like a row of dense black bars.

The sentence formed by these letters was not in a language Hesta was familiar with.

Chiba dangled a small silver key in front of Hesta. "Here, take it."

The key landed in Hesta's palm. The girl looked at her, puzzled. "What's this for?"

"That scrapbook," Chiba replied. "I stored it at Gray Scale Bank under your name. If you need to retrieve it later, just bring your identification and this key."

Hesta froze, her gaze dimming slightly. "...Thank you."

"How have you been feeling lately?"

"Hm?"

"You seem a bit out of it," Chiba chuckled. "Don't tell me that brat scared you."

Hesta looked up at Chiba. "What do you think, Miss Chiba? Why did you lift the restraining order against Shawn?"

"Because that thing is useless," Chiba glanced at Hesta. "Is it?"

Hesta didn't answer immediately.

She quietly recounted her experience the night the teaching building lost power, and how Shawn might have been observing her using the building's surveillance system for over half a month.

"See, I told you," Chiba snapped her fingers. "Holding onto unrealistic fantasies, pinning your hopes on this system, expecting it to protect you flawlessly with all sorts of complex rules, ultimately just gives those who do wrong a stronger incentive to bypass the rules. They'll prepare in the shadows until they feel the time is right… and then you'll face even bigger trouble."

"But what's the use of your 'little gift,' Miss Chiba?" Hesta asked. "Shawn has already undergone Secondary Awakening."

"So what if he's undergone Secondary Awakening?"

"If his power is enough to contend with a Chelated Being, then it makes no difference whether I carry a gun or not," Hesta tilted her head up, but deliberately lowered her voice. "Once he enters Bullet Time, he can easily catch my bullets, or even take my gun and threaten me with it."

Chiba smiled. "Since you're so afraid of Bullet Time, have you tried to understand its limitations?"

Hesta paused. "...I asked Liz, but she didn't tell me."

Chiba looked ahead. "Liz has always been a well-behaved, rule-following child. It's perfectly normal that she didn't tell you… What about other channels? Have you inquired about this through any other means?"

"I went to the archives, but my clearance was too low, and many reference materials related to Quicksilver Needles research were not accessible to me. Then I searched the base's official news, trying to find records related to combat casualties, but the news lacked detail, so I changed my approach. I went to the library and found all the memoirs written by survivors from the infected zone that I could find, and compiled a reading list—"

"That might not be of much use," Chiba interrupted. "Publications are reviewed before they're released. Any sensitive descriptions of Quicksilver Needles would be removed."

"Alright… then you've saved me a lot of time," Hesta replied. "Because I haven't had a chance to read those books yet."

"That's good, Jane," Chiba's voice softened slightly. "The more you fear something, the more you should actively try to understand it."

"So… what's your answer, Miss Chiba?"

Chiba didn't answer immediately, instead asking, "What about Shawn himself? How much do you know about him?"

"I don't know," Hesta said softly. "If I request his file from the base, he'll definitely know… I don't even want to look at him right now."

"Isn't that a bit too pessimistic?"

"...How so?"

Chiba raised an eyebrow slightly. "Even if Shawn has the advantage now, as long as he hasn't completely defeated you, he'll have to worry about your counter-attack. He's already unilaterally declared the start of the fight, yet you think it's just a childish squabble and don't even bother to understand your enemy. Does that seem reasonable?"

"But you said it was just a 'normal argument between trainees'—"

"Strategically, it's certainly just a normal friction," Chiba interrupted Hesta. "But that doesn't stop us from devising a meticulous counter-attack strategy for it—think carefully with your little head, what kind of rules do you want to set for the other party?"

...Rules.

Hesta pondered the word and looked at Chiba again.

"Shawn invaded your life with his methods. That's an act of violence, Jane. Violence has no boundaries; its limits are determined solely by the reactions of both parties."

"For example, if he punched you," Chiba clenched her fist and made a boxing ready stance. "If you don't fight back, but just run away trying to get further away, you're telling him 'I can't fight back, come on and throw your second punch.' Or if you gather a few friends and try to hide behind them, you're telling him, 'Direct assault is out, find other loopholes.'

"The more you try to hide behind something, the more you expose your weaknesses. If you continue like this, you'll either spend your days crying and clinging to Molly or Fletcher, complaining that Shawn is bullying you, or you'll live in constant fear. Your good days will then depend solely on when he gets busy with something else, or when he completely loses interest in you—do you want to live like that, Jane?"

"Um… no."

Chiba nodded with satisfaction. "Then you need to understand your enemy. Shawn is actually quite interesting. When he and Calvin were first brought over from Hekla, they caused quite a stir, making headlines in every newspaper."

"...Really?" Hesta asked, a little confused. "I borrowed Liz's computer to search the archived newspapers, but I couldn't find any news about them."

"What keywords did you use?"

"Shawn, Calvin, Grangua… I tried them all."

"You should have used 'Hekla'," Chiba replied. "Most of the combat codenames for external use are used instead of names. Reserve members don't even have codenames until they transfer. The outside world referred to those two as the 'Hekla Brothers.' Of course, you wouldn't find them using their names."