Can You Finish It All?
The Prophet woke as if she had been waiting for precisely this. In a white patient's gown, her hair whiter than white itself, she held a small smile at the corner of her mouth.
"You're awake..."
Queen Knight's voice trembled, thin as a thread. Without realizing it, she took a step toward the Prophet.
"Mother, stand by a moment. The reunion can wait."
"What?"
The Prophet raised a hand and barred her way. Refused so coldly by her own daughter, TERA's matron—steady as a pillar—froze where she stood.
Setting her mother aside, the Prophet turned to the rest of them and bowed low.
"It is an honor to meet you. I am Nona Moira Saint-Pierre, nothing but a girl who can divine a dim road ahead. To look upon the miracles of this age is a glory."
It was a courteous greeting, nothing like someone who had only just opened her eyes. White hair spilled down like a waterfall and gave the white bedding still more bulk.
The crown of her bowed head rose by degrees. From eyes pressed shut in a level line, a gaze made itself felt—fervent, hungry, and brimming with expectation.
"I waited a long while in the dream sea. For the miracle that changes fate. For the moment that miracle would reach me."
Nona singled the party out one by one, pointing as she went.
"The warrior who can save the lives of all."
"The miracle born of Heaven."
"The Mountain King whom Heaven forgave, who overcame evil."
"The goddess who laid down order upon the plains of earth, volcano, fire, and sea."
And then—
"Child, you mustn't."
Pele caught Nona by the collar and yanked. Nona's neck jerked, and she flopped face-down onto the bed.
"G-Goddess..."
"You don't have to blurt it all out in a rush by yourself. There's plenty of time to sort it through and listen."
"Th-there isn't. Even now—!"
"Don't know about that. Just lie down and rest. You've been flat on your back for half a year. You're thin as paper."
Grrrgle...
"And now your body's throwing a fit about being hungry. Keep talking and you'll pass out before you finish a sentence."
Pele pulled the blanket up over Nona's face. From underneath it Nona protested something or other, but the goddess did not see fit to grant her plea.
"Call the doctor back, and have food prepared. Leave the one who's frozen over there."
Whether the shock of being refused by the daughter who had woken after half a year was simply that great, Queen Knight still had not come back to herself. The rest of them quietly left mother and daughter alone and stepped out.
Tough Guy shut the sterile room and sighed.
"I've served at TERA more than ten years, and I have never had days this bewildering. Learning a U.S. senator was actually a villain was less of a shock."
Dan Miryu offered a bitter smile.
"It seems we've caused you trouble without meaning to."
"The rambling of a man getting old. I welcome this. Doesn't all the noise feel more like moving forward than keeping things exactly as they are?"
Tough Guy laughed, loose and easy, and touched a finger to his ear.
"Wait just a moment, if you would. This place is going to be loud for a while."
"I wasn't hoping it would get quite this loud."
At the complaint, Tough Guy looked away.
"GWAAAAAH!!! Just the bastards I wanted!!! I'm back!"
The Doctor, escorted in only minutes before they arrived, was howling.
"Doctor! You need to calm down!"
"I know my own body better than anyone! Right now I am at peak HIGH!"
Researchers and physicians who had chased the escaped Doctor bickered inside the narrow room. Tiny as he was, he shook off the hands of grown men and smashed his face against the window that looked in on the sterile chamber.
"Damn it! I thought it was a lie when I heard it! Nona actually woke up! She slept just fine through every ass-kissing circus I pulled! How the hell did you do it, you little shit!"
"Doctor, please, your language!"
A researcher with deep circles under his eyes clung to the Doctor's waist, tears welling. The Doctor dragged him along and swept his eyes over the medical figures compiled across dozens of monitors.
"For someone who slept straight through half a year, she's in decent shape! Nothing but porridge for two weeks, then a balanced diet to plump the kid up! A lot of muscle will have died off, so drill her hard in rehab and daily life won't be a problem! Diagnosis complete! I don't need you anymore! All of you, out!"
Breathing fire, the Doctor forcibly drove the researchers and physicians from the room.
"Doctor, those are people who work under you. Couldn't you treat them a little better?"
"You think I treat them badly? Perish the thought! Where are you going to find a better boss than me? Do you have any idea how much I hand out in bonuses—and the number of times I've danced a courtship dance at that auntie just to shake budget money loose is up there with the atoms!"
"And you work them every bit as hard."
"Of course they ought to suffer. If they want a rest, tell them to outwork me. I can give them a month off."
"Which is why so many of them apply to transfer..."
"Hmph!"
The Doctor snorted. Tough Guy let out a sigh he had lost count of.
"Well. What I had to do is finished, so..."
Those fiery eyes turned on the group. He tapped the talisman stuck to his forehead.
"Anyone going to tell me how you did this?"
Flinch.
Dan Miryu had given himself away before he could help it. The Doctor crawled over on all fours and latched onto him.
"It's you...! Head of the Dan clan!"
"Wh-what are you doing!"
"How did you treat me? A recovery-type superpower? Some medical art that belongs to the Dan clan alone? Or a mystery hidden from the world?"
He scuttled up onto Dan Miryu's shoulder and poured the words out like a machine gun.
"Let's share the good stuff. I'll heap the service on thick and pay you back! Call it saving one person's life, yeah?"
"Get off, please!"
Dan Miryu used a little strength and forcibly peeled him loose. The Doctor's eyes rolled, whites flashing, locked on Dan Miryu.
At this rate, it would never end.
Unable to watch any longer, I brought out the surefire cure.
Clap. Clap.
"San-gun, if you would come out."
"Hrrrng..."
Looking thoroughly put-upon, San-gun ambled around behind the Doctor.
Housed in a child's body, the Doctor never noticed the stealth of it.
"Huh?"
The moment San-gun deliberately let his presence show, the Doctor turned at the sense of something ominous—
"KUHUHUHUHUNG!!!"
"KYAAAAAAAH!!!"
He was granted the glory of taking heaven's roar an inch from his face.
The Doctor foamed at the mouth and fainted. The talisman on his forehead burst into a fierce green bloom.
"The little brat's KO'd!"
WHAM!
"Do not put Lord San-gun to such a use!"
Hong Yumin brought her hand down hard on my head. My face was stamped into the solid steel floor like a personal seal.
"Hmm."
Pele brushed a finger beneath her nose.
"What a shitshow."
"Nona. How's your body? Does anything hurt?"
Unlike the chaos filling the outside, the sterile room was peace itself. Queen Knight had built the protective walls exceedingly thick, all for her daughter's sake. The soundproofing was thorough enough that neither of them knew what uproar was breaking loose beyond the door. Had they known, Queen Knight would have gained two or three more wrinkles.
"I am well, Mother."
Nona flexed, presenting a bicep, and showed off how sturdy she was. Queen Knight pressed a relieved hand to her chest.
"If anything feels wrong, tell me right away. Mom will take care of all of it."
"I am fine. If I must wish for something, I would like to deliver the prophecy to those outside as soon as I can."
Nona clasped her hands like a cleric at prayer.
"The prophecy—you mean there's more than what you said before you collapsed?"
"Yes. Were you able to interpret that prophecy, Mother?"
Queen Knight shook her head.
"To my shame, many tried, and none of them came to anything worth mentioning. Forgive your poor mother. I fought it through to the very end."
"Do not say so. That, too, was fate."
Nona looked outward.
"My first prophecy has already advanced some way. Of the countless futures I saw, only the best result has come to pass. It is heartening. The errors of the past will not be repeated now."
"The errors of the past...?"
Did that mean something like this had happened before?
Perhaps because she was the Prophet, Nona said things whose sense could not be followed.
"It is a matter already gone by. An ended matter, as well. A dreadful conclusion that must never be allowed to occur again."
"...What did you see, to speak so?"
"There are times when the future becomes the past, and the past becomes the future."
Queen Knight broke into a cold sweat. Quite apart from any show of force, a prophet who watched the future carried a presence that overwhelmed a person simply by being human before it.
Vrrrm.
Into that awkward lull, the door opened. Tough Guy came in with a tray, and on it a bowl of porridge that looked, at a glance, handsomely cooked.
"Mr. Tough Guy."
"I told you to call me Uncle."
At the fresh brightness of Nona's voice, Tough Guy's face went slack in a foolish grin.
"Just as the Doctor said, your body seems normal. Here. You must be hungry, so I brought porridge."
"Made from only the finest ingredients, carefully chosen. I trust?"
Queen Knight glared at the porridge. She could not possibly feed her daughter anything ordinary. At the very least, a dusting of gold powder...
"Not the finest ingredients, but I did leave it to a cook of proven skill. I hear Miss Hong Yumin makes excellent porridge."
"The Immortal cooked it herself? All the better. Give it here at once!"
Nona shot both arms straight out.
"It's hot. You may not."
Queen Knight took the tray and stirred the porridge with the spoon. The heat inside bled away, and the surface folded properly into the depths.
"This porridge is awfully clear. Are we certain it was made right?"
What had been done to it? She could not fathom why it was transparent as water. Without the smell and the cling peculiar to porridge, she would have taken it for hot water.
"If the Immortal made it, it can be trusted. She is the very concept of an immortal."
"So she is..."
What an immortal had to do with porridge, she could not imagine, but her daughter was pleased, so she let it pass.
Queen Knight scooped a spoonful and cooled it with one breath.
Nom.
Nona ate, closed her eyes, and turned the taste over.
"..."
"What's wrong? Is something off?"
"Th-that is..."
Nona smiled awkwardly.
"It tastes... exceedingly nutritious..."
Queen Knight tasted a spoonful herself.
"...So it does."
The ingredients tasted entirely too alive. Like eating vegetables raw.
"Can you finish it all?"
"...I cannot refuse a kindness."
Nona clenched her fist and set her resolve.
They say it took a full hour to empty the bowl.