With her patient unable to move as she pleased, the assistant nurse, Bolin, placed one hand upon Blue's chest and the other upon the girl's forehead before closing her eyes.
Then, a subtle current began to flow between them as the mass of their authorities intertwined.
Tyson was somewhat familiar with the sensation.
Cosmo had once done the same to him. Calming his Authority at the end of their last game of scramble by similarly touching his forehead.
It seemed the difference between this nurse and Cosmo's approach lay in the depth of interaction as well as the sheer proficiency.
Blue appeared to drift entirely into slumber, her nerves settling almost at once.
"The hill…"
Bolin suddenly spoke, and Cherry diverted all her attention toward the words that followed.
"It could never reach the summit. It was naught but a frivolous effort. What can be tempered with a broken hilt?"
The statement caught Cherry off guard.
She had witnessed and endured all manner of conditions from thousands of officers before, meaning the most shocking aspect of Bolin's words was not the afflictions revealed, but the one who suffered them.
"How horrible," she muttered before turning to Tyson.
He, however, could only lower his gaze.
It wasn't due to her stare, but because he shared the same sorrow.
"I've known from the start that you two have chosen to withhold as much as you could. Whether it was advised by someone else or done of your own volition, I don't fault you. But I'll ask regardless. What happened to her? What could have possibly driven her into an endless cycle of false deaths?"
Qinqua had apparently identified the physical memories etched in Blue's brain and body, meaning denying Cherry's claim was no use.
Tyson wanted to answer. He truly did. But the reason he wouldn't was less about their differences and more about the need to protect the Nebula.
He could not allow even a hint to slip. Anything that might lead back to Rita had to be kept confidential if he wished to avert a catastrophic outcome.
"Ngh!" Cherry could not press further before Blue suddenly began to struggle.
Her eyes remained shut, making it appear as though she were trapped in a terrible nightmare. But the reason she was restrained became painfully clear.
"Perverse corruption. Unseen hands glorify the gift of life. Those lights must not wane, for blood is their executioner. The chick must not leap so far from the nest, yet wings of steel shall make it walk the land."
Tyson couldn't simply watch any longer. It was obvious the examination was losing stability.
"What's happening? What is she saying?" he asked Cherry, clueless, and she seemed nearly as lost as he was.
"Well… I'm not certain, but it sounds like there's a mysterious protective force that's only causing more harm than good. It seems to be interfering even now. Do you know what it could be?"
Tyson's eyes widened.
'The Intent.'
The moment clarity struck him, Tyson scrambled toward the two.
"Stop it now! You have to get away!"
Before he could reach them, multitudes of blood‑red blades erupted from every direction, piercing through anything and everything around Blue.
The clamor of crashing steel was deafening, and the sparks that flew as the blades crossed were impossible to ignore. And by the time it ceased, there was only eerie silence.
And when Tyson examined his bleeding figure and forced himself upright, he was not granted the chance to celebrate his survival.
Oddly enough, the blades had completely avoided piercing his body. His wounds came from refusing to slow down before reaching Bolin, crashing instead into the rigid array of blades before him.
At that moment, he could neither see Cherry behind him nor Blue and Bolin ahead, and he struggled not to accept the worst.
He attempted to break the blades despite the harm they inflicted upon his hands, but they proved far too unyielding.
Seeing the futility of brute force, he prepared to melt them with his own Authority.
But as soon as he summoned his flames, a hand tapped him from behind.
He turned to see a woman in a beautiful blue‑and‑white qipao smiling at him.
It was a strange sight, to say the least, because the woman looked unreal.
Her form was nearly transparent, glimmering faintly amidst the chaos.
Tyson watched her equip a hand fan and sweep it gracefully through the air.
Following the motion, the crimson blades crumbled into fragments, clattering across the floor of the now hole‑ridden medical room.
Then, the metal remnants dissipated as though they had never existed, and so did the woman.
"Must one echo the futility in minding the fate of the skies?"
Tyson saw her, still holding Blue as though nothing had occurred, the supposed assistant nurse.
"Bolin… No…"
He now understood, and wondered why he hadn't realized sooner.
A woman who only spoke in cryptic, strange phrases and possessed the greatest medical proficiency on Earth.
In addition to that invaluable standing, she was rumored to wield a mystic summoning ability.
The woman before him could only be one person.
"…Captain of the 56th's branch of healing and restoration. Qinghua, Guardian of the Azure Chalice," Tyson stated, certain he would not be refuted.
"Wow, so you figured it out?"
He heard Cherry's voice behind him and felt relieved to see her unharmed.
"Are you alright?" he asked anyway.
"You're the least qualified to worry about anyone right now. Although…" she replied, eyeing him up and down.
Then she suddenly peered at him through a rectangular frame formed by her fingers.
"…It would seem my answers have come sooner than expected."
The blood flowing from Tyson began to reverse its course, and every cut and gash upon his body closed, along with the torn fabric of his uniform.
"So those really aren't nano‑machines. Are they organisms? I don't sense any bio‑energy, yet they move intelligently and with unreal coordination. What exactly are those?"
"First, I would like to know why your Captain is impersonating a nurse?"
"You're unreasonably stubborn, aren't you?"
What Tyson was truly asking was whether the current arrangement had been targeted toward the two of them.
The Captain of another branch had managed to lay a hand on his comrade, and without being able to identify the implications of that occurrence, he had no choice but to remain vigilant.
"The seeds of spite must be quelled before their weeds overrun. In the eyes of the ignorant, it shall appear no different from the fruits of the harvest."
Cherry sighed after Qinghua's statement.
"Right, this is simply a hobby of our Captain. Being forced to keep away from minor occurrences leaves her bored and frustrated, so she disguises herself and assists however she can at times. I trust this stays between us? It wouldn't be damning, but it would be slightly inconvenient if word of this gets out."
Cherry showed no intent to intimidate him. But it was clear the words came as a warning rather than a request.
"I understand only as long as it remains believable."
Tyson responded, prompting her to shake her head in disappointment.
"Such a disrespectful child you are," she muttered. "Since I've satisfied your curiosity, it is only fair that mine be met, no?"
She tilted her head in expectation.
"…No, they aren't nano‑machines. Yes, they work far better."
"…"
"…"
"And?"
"That's as far as I can say without my Captain's expressed permission."
"You're climbing quite high on that blacklist, child of Jarul. My curiosity might have fostered the illusion that you hold some form of leverage. But my courtesy can only tolerate so much rudeness."
Tyson noticed a strange pattern among every experienced woman he knew associated with Veil.
They could all utter quite threatening words while maintaining a perfectly blank smile.
"What's going on?"
Blue woke up just in time to interrupt them, not that she knew what she had stopped.
When she looked around and saw the several profusions on the walls, floor, and ceiling, she stiffened, unable to react calmly to what it meant.
"Did I–"
"No one was hurt." Tyson quickly reassured her before panic could settle.
However, she wasn't so easily convinced.
"Don't trouble yourself so much, girl. We do not attempt these procedures without expecting these manners of trouble."
Cherry said as she removed the buckles around Blue.
"So… what's happening to me is normal?"
"Well…" The nurse hesitated. "Yes, somewhat."
When Blue asked her so hopefully, Cherry realized she was in a predicament.
She found herself unable to disappoint the girl, especially as someone with a soft spot for honest children.
She didn't believe in white lies, but she would have to compromise with her conscience just this once.
"A.H.I." Cherry called, and immediately after, Blue and Tyson heard a hum.
A white box that had somehow remained unscathed in the corner suddenly unfurled into a completely different form.
It was a robot resembling a rover, and it wheeled toward Cherry before its head expelled a sheet of paper that she picked up.
Then, after adding it to a folder she had been compiling from the start, she handed it to Tyson, who stood closest.
"This is to be handed directly to your Captain. Without delay, might I add."
Tyson nodded and tried to take the folder from her, but she wouldn't release it.
"Excuse me…"
Tyson was about to ask what the issue was, until he saw her eyes glued to it.
Then she turned to Blue.
"Sweet girl… What did you say your name was?"
Blue wore a puzzled expression before responding.
"It's Blue," she answered. "Blue Acciari."
Cherry released her grasp on the file, causing it to drop to the floor.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm Italian, from Umbria."
After Blue's answer, Cherry's eyes shifted toward Qinghua, whose expression they couldn't decipher.
And without moving her gaze, Cherry asked Blue one more question.
"A large‑scale worker's camp was located on a great plain far to the east…"
"That's… where I was born. How'd you know that all of a sudden?"
Blue's question went unanswered, and she felt the warmth of someone's body envelop her.
"What a wonderful turn of events…" Cherry covered her mouth as her face tightened, while Qinghua embraced Blue tightly, almost as if she might lose the girl to the wind.
"The ink has long dried. And the scar left upon the Earth could never fade," Blue heard her speak. "It only stands to reason that one would believe those unbendable laws. So why must fate taunt its children so?"
At first, Tyson could not make heads or tails of the sight.
A Captain they had never met before was now embracing Blue as though they were more than acquainted.
Cherry had spoken about Blue's birthplace, but even with access to her background information, there was no obvious explanation for her speculation so soon after learning the girl's name.
At least, he couldn't figure it out until he racked his brain a moment longer.
"We were born in a camp near the construction site of something codenamed the Chalice that holds the Codex of Heroes…"
Then, the only knowledge he had about the twins' birthplace, spoken by Red, came to him a moment too late.
It should have been obvious.
Out of all the Nebula's recruits, excluding Clarisse, Tyson was the only one with extensive information regarding Veil and the Conmundia.
Meaning he should have pieced those details together far earlier.
A Chalice 'constructed' on Earth. Followed years later by the emergence of a Captain whose official title tethered them to one.
Even if it would have been too straightforward a speculation, or simply a coincidence, he should have at least noticed the possible connection.
Even more frustrating was that someone he knew had likely made that connection far earlier. Likely before he had even met the twins.
This made Tyson feel like an imbecile.
"Listen." Cherry suddenly spoke to them. "You can forget about the terms. Instead, we have a proposal for your branch. One in which we stand to gain more than we could have burdened your Captain with."
She picked up the file she had clumsily dropped, then looked at Blue.
"Actually, it's for her sake as well."