Chapter 25: Hekla

It was Thursday evening when I saw Chiba again.

Chiba had originally suggested taking Hesta out for a drive, but Molly flatly 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 am fulfilling my obligations?"

Molly said indifferently, "If you truly cared about your obligations as much as you claim, you should have familiarized yourself with the base's regulations beforehand: taking a trainee off-base requires at least one day's notice—not showing up and expecting to whisk someone away on a whim."

Chiba pressed for a while longer, but seeing that Molly would not budge, she finally gave up.

"Can't be helped." Chiba shrugged lightly and looked at Hesta. "Then let’s walk around the base."

Hesta said nothing and silently followed Chiba as they walked away.

As they approached the training field, where small groups of young people were jogging in the twilight, Hesta noticed a black tattoo circling Chiba’s neck. It had been hidden by the collar of her sweater the last time they met. Up close, she saw it was a string of letters, each drawn thin and tall like a row of dense, black bars.

The phrase formed by these letters was not in a language Hesta recognized.

Chiba pulled out a small silver key and dangled it before Hesta. "Here, take this."

As the key landed in Hesta's palm, the girl looked at her, puzzled. "What is this?"

"That scrapbook," Chiba replied. "I’ve deposited it at the Grayscale Bank under your name. If you ever need to retrieve it, just take your identification and this key."

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

"How have you been lately?"

"Hm?"

"You look a bit dazed," Chiba chuckled. "Don't tell me you're still spooked by that brat."

Hesta looked up at Chiba. "What were you thinking, Miss Chiba? Why did you cancel the restraining order against Shawn?"

"Because that thing is useless," Chiba glanced at her. "Has it done any good?"

Hesta did not answer immediately.

She spoke softly about the night the power suddenly went out in the academic building, and how Shawn had likely been using the building's surveillance system to monitor her for the past half-month.

"See?" Chiba snapped her fingers. "Holding onto unrealistic fantasies, placing your hope in this system, and expecting it to protect you perfectly through complex rules—the end result is just giving those predators a stronger incentive to circumvent those rules. They will prepare in the shadows until they decide the time is right... and by then, you’ll be facing even greater trouble."

"But what good is your 'little gift', Miss Chiba?" Hesta asked. "Shawn has already achieved his second awakening."

"And so what if he has?"

"If his power is already enough to rival an amalgam, then there’s no difference whether I carry a gun or not," Hesta tilted her head, lowering her voice. "Once he enters 'bullet time,' he can easily catch the bullets I fire, or even take the gun and use it to threaten me."

Chiba smiled. "Since you’re so afraid of bullet time, have you ever tried to learn about its limitations?"

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

Chiba looked ahead. "Liz has always been a good girl who follows the rules; it’s natural she didn't tell you... What about other channels? Have you tried digging elsewhere?"

"I went to the archives, but my clearance is too low; many references regarding Mercury Needle research are restricted. Then, I searched the base's official news, hoping to find records of combat casualties, but the reports lacked details. So, I changed tactics—I went to the library and found every memoir written by survivors of the infected zones that I could, and made a reading list—"

"That probably won't help much either," Chiba interrupted. "Publications are vetted before release, and all sensitive descriptions of Mercury Needles are scrubbed."

"Fine... then I’ve saved myself some time," Hesta replied, "because I hadn't gotten around to reading them yet."

"That's good, Jane." Chiba’s voice softened slightly. "The more one fears something, the more one should proactively try to understand it."

"So... what is your answer, Miss Chiba?"

Chiba didn't answer immediately. Instead, she asked, "What about Shawn? How much do you know about him?"

"Nothing," Hesta said softly. "If I applied to the base for his file, he’d definitely know... I don't want to give him even a glance right now."

"Isn't that a bit too pessimistic?"

"...How so?"

Chiba raised an eyebrow. "Even if Shawn has the upper hand now, as long as he hasn't completely defeated you, he has to worry about your countermoves. He has unilaterally declared war, yet you treat it as a farce and don't even bother to learn about your enemy. Is that reasonable?"

"But it was Miss Chiba who said this was just 'an ordinary squabble between trainees'—"

"Strategically, of course, it is just an ordinary friction," Chiba cut her off. "But that doesn't stop us from formulating a rigorous counter-strategy. Use that little head of yours and think carefully: what kind of rules do you want to set for him?"

...Rules.

Hesta pondered the word, looking at Chiba once more.

"Shawn invaded your life using his own methods; that is an act of violence. Jane, violence has no boundaries; its limits are defined only by how the other side reacts."

"For instance, if he punches you," Chiba clenched her fist in a boxing stance, "and you don't fight back, only run away trying to hide further, you are telling him, 'I have no ability to resist; come hit me a second time.' Or, if you gather a few friends and try to hide behind them, you're telling him, 'I can't stop a frontal assault, so go find other vulnerabilities.'"

"The more you try to hide behind something, the more you expose your own weaknesses. If this continues, you'll either end up crying all day, clutching the sleeves of Molly or Fletcher and complaining that Shawn is bullying you, or you'll live in constant terror. In that case, your quality of life will depend entirely on when he gets busy with something else or loses interest in you completely—is that the life you want, Jane?"

"Um... no."

Chiba nodded with satisfaction. "Then you must understand your enemy. Shawn is actually quite interesting. He and Galvin caused quite a stir when they were first brought over from Hekla—the kind that makes the front page of every newspaper."

"...Is that so?" Hesta was puzzled. "I used Liz's computer to search the base's archived newspapers, but I didn't find anything about them."

"What keywords did you use?"

"Shawn, Galvin, Grangois... I tried them all."

"You should have used 'Hekla'," Chiba answered. "Most Mercury Needles use combat codenames rather than their real names when deployed, and reserve members don't even have codenames until they are officially assigned. The outside world calls them the 'Hekla Brothers.' Of course you couldn't find them using their names."