The first ray of morning light came in the form of a McDonald's Chicken McGriddle and a fragrant peach pie.
Personally, I could've gotten by with just the burger.
"Nom~"
"Anby, if you keep eating junk food like burgers all the time, you're never going to grow up," Twiggy said, watching Anby wolf down yet another burger from her seat. There was no small amount of exasperation in her voice.
This was Twiggy's temporary lab. Sitting there, she found herself wondering — just how had her flawless, impeccable Captain Anby ended up as this burger-brained wreck of a person?
"Burgers are not junk food. They've got protein, carbs, and a green leaf all in one, they taste great, and on top of that they're incredibly cheap. There is nothing else."
Hearing that, Twiggy had a nagging suspicion the second half of that sentence was the real point — but then she looked at Anby's face, glowing with pure bliss over her burger, and thought maybe the first half was the real point after all.
"So — can you still fit into your old uniform?"
Anby, who had just been about to take another bite, froze. The burger in her hand suddenly lost all its appeal, replaced by a glare of pure resentment directed straight at Twiggy.
"Twiggy~"
"Okay, okay, I'll drop it, geez."
Twiggy let out a quiet internal sigh. Captain Anby was a lost cause at this point — she would never have pulled something this adorable in the old days.
Not that Twiggy minded.
"Here — I've finished servicing 'Gemina.' Swapped out the resonators inside for brand new ones too."
Twiggy lifted Anby's signature weapon from the workbench and passed it over — the twin blades known as Gemina.
These blades had been custom-forged by the Silver forces' munitions division, built from the ground up to match Anby's needs perfectly.
"Thank you, Twiggy. It's been a long time since I last picked these up."
The day she left the Silver forces, Anby had sealed these twin blades away and never touched them again — never properly maintained them, either. Today, at last, they saw the light once more.
"Speaking of which — are you doing okay, Twiggy?"
After stowing the weapons away, Anby looked at Twiggy with an expression that carried a faint edge of worry.
"Me? What do you mean, what's wrong with me?"
Twiggy didn't understand why Anby would say something like that. Anby pressed on.
"About Geno."
The moment Geno's name left Anby's lips, Twiggy's expression stiffened — just for an instant — before she smoothed it back into place.
"What does that have to do with Geno? If you mean the engagement, he already explained everything to me. And honestly, I'm not really bothered by that sort of thing."
Twiggy's voice was perfectly calm, as though the subject under discussion wasn't her own boyfriend but some irrelevant stranger passing on the street.
"You know that's not what I mean."
Anby held Twiggy's gaze, unflinching. Twiggy deliberately looked away.
"It's fine. Geno will understand."
Twiggy closed her eyes, no longer meeting Anby's.
Seeing that, Anby said nothing more — only the look she gave Twiggy carried a few shades more of concern than before.
"In that case, I'll head back. I'll come find you again soon."
She still had work to do helping Nicole handle the Vision Corporation case. This visit had been a stolen moment between tasks — a chance to check in on Twiggy.
Only when she heard the door click shut behind Anby did Twiggy finally crumple — the strength draining out of her all at once, leaving her slumped in her chair.
"It's fine. He'll understand."
She leaned back, silent. But no matter how hard she tried to hide it, the worry written across her face simply refused to go away.
— — —
Weifeidi. The Timefield family's private hospital.
Geno was no stranger to this place — he'd been brought here for treatment before. Or rather, he hadn't actually been discharged yet to begin with.
"Mr. Geno, your recovery speed is nothing short of remarkable — but as your physician, I am obligated to remind you: you are a patient. An not-yet-recovered patient. So would you mind telling me why you went back into a Hollow? Even if you're chasing thrills, you cannot gamble with your own life!"
The doctor pushed his glasses up his nose, face set in stone — he looked less like a man addressing a patient and more like one passing judgment on a criminal.
"I'm sorry. I promise it won't happen again."
Geno scratched the back of his head. The doctor wasn't wrong — and faced with that kind of genuine concern, he simply couldn't find it in himself to be annoyed.
"Alright, Geno still needs his rest — let's not pile on."
"As you say, Master Timefield."
The doctor who had been every inch a stern professional a moment ago did an instant one-eighty into a posture of enthusiastic deference. The transition was so seamlessly practiced that Geno found himself wondering whether the man had taken formal lessons in theatrical role-switching.
"By the way — what's the situation with Hali?"
After Alice, Yuzuha, and Lucia had brought Yidhari out of the Hollow, they had quickly contacted the Timefields. Then all three had gone back in, following Cili's guidance, and found Geno collapsed on the ground — bringing him back as well.
Compared to Geno, who had regained consciousness fairly quickly, Yidhari — still deep in a coma with no certainty about her condition — was the one in real danger.
"Hali's going to be fine. She just lost a lot of blood, and her blood sugar was already running low on top of that. Some rest and an IV drip and she'll be right as rain."
Alice came in through the door. The doctor, demonstrating an impressive talent for reading the room, recognized his cue and excused himself — not forgetting to pull the door quietly shut behind him on the way out. Admirably tactful.
"Good. Now it's just the three of us. Tell me — what actually happened?"
Old Master Timefield leaned on his cane, regarding Geno with an utterly unreadable expression.
The cover story they'd used on the way back was that they'd had an accident while investigating the urban legend and tumbled into a Hollow Fissure.
That kind of story might fly with uninformed bystanders — it wasn't going to work on him.
"Here's what actually happened..."
Geno and Alice took turns filling in the pieces, walking Old Master Timefield through everything that had unfolded over the past day and night.
When they got to the rebel army attack, Old Master Timefield's brow drew tight, and a visibly troubled look crept across his face.
"Those jackals had the nerve? And I didn't receive so much as a whisper of it — their operation must have moved fast. Very fast."
No matter how Old Master Timefield turned it over in his mind, he couldn't believe it: the Ravenlock bastards had actually colluded with the rebel forces. And they'd acted so swiftly that even his intelligence network hadn't caught wind of it before things went wrong.
"It seems the time has finally come, after all."
Old Master Timefield let out a long breath, something still churning behind his eyes — a last moment of hesitation.
But he looked at Geno lying in the hospital bed, and at Alice beside him, still so untouched by the world's ugliness — and made up his mind.
"Xiao Jie. Alice. It's time. Prepare to come back to the city with me."
Old Master Timefield's eyes were filled with resolve. This man, who had lived to the very edge of old age, still carried that same force of will he'd had in his youth — undimmed.
"Back to New Eridu."
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting in The Long Dark with My Waifus
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