Severed Limbs

"Mm, I know." Hesta nodded.

"Then I have nothing else to do." Tulan took a step back. "Get some rest early."

"By the way, why didn't Miss Tulan go train with the main group tonight?" Hesta suddenly asked. "...Was it because you had to take care of me?"

"Haha, not really." Tulan turned back with a smile. "That kind of physical training doesn't mean much to me anymore. If I want to improve my Bullet Time... I'll have to find another way."

Hesta did not understand what she meant and only said softly, "I hope it goes well."

"Let's hope so." Tulan grinned and raised a fist at Hesta before striding briskly toward her room.

Hesta watched Tulan leave. Tonight, she had truly come to know this brown-haired, green-eyed Katra girl.

Over the next few days, Shawn did not come looking for trouble again, even with Liz absent.

Her first initiative had yielded decent results, which made Hesta rather pleased. She had intended to tell Chiba about this change as soon as possible, but strangely, Chiba did not show herself for several days in a row.

During those days, the person who took Hesta to the city center for shooting practice was an elderly man in a suit. He always appeared during gaps in Hesta's classes and took her out of the base for target practice.

The old man's hair and beard were both silver. His neat little mustache was carefully groomed, and over his snow-white shirt, he wore a black waistcoat, tailored black trousers, and a morning coat.

His eyes were narrow. When he did not smile, he looked like a gentleman, but whenever he smiled, his slit-like eyes inevitably brought to mind a fox with ill intentions.

Molly seemed to know him, because she showed no surprise when she saw him arriving in Chiba's place to pick Hesta up.

When they greeted each other, Hesta heard Molly call him "Mr. Elu."

Hesta overheard them chatting. Molly asked whether Chiba had recovered, and the old man answered blandly, "More or less."

"Is Miss Chiba sick?" Hesta asked.

Neither of them answered her.

Another week passed before Chiba finally appeared again, this time in a wheelchair.

Bandages covered the left half of Chiba's face, concealing her entire left eye. Mr. Elu pushed her from behind, as silent as ever.

Only when they got into the car did Hesta notice that Chiba's right pant leg and left sleeve hung empty. Only then did Hesta finally understand what Molly had meant when she asked whether Chiba had recovered—apparently, Chiba had been badly injured, badly enough to lose two limbs.

After getting into the car, Chiba did not mention her condition at all. Hesta glanced at her several times and found Chiba resting with her eyes closed.

She was indeed quieter than usual today, but the moment they entered the shooting range, the spirited Chiba returned. She had prepared special targets for Hesta—the circular targets twenty-five meters away had been replaced with human silhouettes, each depicting a hostage held by a criminal.

The "criminal" showed only one arm and half a head, with the rest of the body completely concealed behind the "hostage."

During training, Hesta could not stop herself from glancing behind her. Miss Chiba stood there balanced on one leg, supporting herself with a crutch in one hand.

For half the afternoon, Hesta remained distracted. She truly could not decide whether, in the Habitable Zone, directly asking, "How did you lose your arm and leg?" would be rude when the other person had not brought it up herself.

Just as she agonized over this, Chiba's crutch suddenly struck Hesta across the back.

"Don't slouch!"

The slender crutch felt scorching as it lashed against her. Hesta snapped back to attention and realized she had shot the "hostage" again.

Chiba sighed.

Hesta glanced at Chiba. "Sorry."

Chiba suddenly smiled. "That... is one approach."

Hesta could hear a trace of mockery in Chiba's words, but she did not understand why.

Holding her crutch in one hand, Chiba hopped forward. "When you actually run into kidnappers someday, just call out, 'Listen up, criminals inside! I've already shot the hostage dead. Come out and surrender now!'... What bad guy wouldn't surrender immediately?"

Hesta's face flushed bright red.

She took a deep breath. "...I'll try again."

Chiba neither agreed nor disagreed. She stared at the newly erected silhouette targets in thought—she could tell Hesta had something on her mind today, but she had not expected Hesta's shooting to deteriorate so quickly under these circumstances.

"Focus," Chiba said sternly. "No matter how many distracting things happened before this, once you hold a gun, put all your attention on your target—if you still want to live."

Mr. Elu wore earmuffs throughout the entire session. He stood straight at the side, a professionally cordial smile on his face.

On the way back, they went to the White Ship again. This time, Chiba ordered only two canelés. Hesta tried a new fruit tart, and as usual, the shop sent over a cup of hot cocoa, which she drained in one gulp.

That night, Liz discovered a fresh welt across Hesta's back while Hesta was bathing. She immediately asked whether some instructor at the base had violated procedure and physically punished Hesta.

Hesta tried to change the subject, but Liz clearly intended to get to the bottom of it.

Seeing that she could not bluff her way through, Hesta had no choice but to improvise. She said that while she and Chiba were out that afternoon, they had stepped in to stop a robber, and she had unfortunately taken two blows from him.

Liz's hands, which had been working shampoo into her hair, froze. "Chiba just let you go play hero alone?"

"She helped too. It was mostly thanks to her," Hesta hurriedly added. "It was just that I rushed in first, so..."

Liz sighed. "When I went to see Ligo today, I found out Chiba booked a surgery at the base this week... Is she sick?"

Hesta fell silent for a moment. "Maybe... she was injured."

Liz made a thoughtful hum amid the steam, then said softly, "Anyway, it's pretty rare for active-duty Quicksilver Needles to come back to the Reserve Base for surgery."

"Why?"

"Even though our underground hospital is advanced, it still falls a little short of Core City's. After all, the Mother City is inside Core City, and some equipment is not convenient to transport remotely." Liz lowered her voice. "I heard the doctor operating on Chiba this time was temporarily sent over from Core City."

Hesta thought of the Chiba she had seen today. "I see."

That night, Valenti finished work and immediately changed clothes before hurrying to the base's underground hospital.

The clock pointed to nine at night. Two hours had passed since Chiba's surgery ended. It was already far past visiting hours, but Chiba's ward was always an exception. No matter the time, nurses would enter to notify Chiba of every visitor, and she herself decided whether to receive them.

Valenti waited outside for only a short while before a nurse came out to tell her she could go in.

Chiba was still awake in the white hospital room.

Chiba had let her long hair down, a rare sight. Today, she wore another pair of spare rimless glasses that looked rather old. A red pen was tucked between her middle and ring fingers, swaying rhythmically with the movement of her hand.

All kinds of paper documents lay scattered across the bed. Some bore brief red annotations, while Mr. Elu silently organized old drafts on the bedside table.