Throughout the morning, Chiba wandered around the inner court.
In order to avoid looking suspicious, she asked an old classmate who she had worked with at the reserve base to take her around.
The old classmate was obviously flattered. She hadn’t seen each other for many years. She didn’t expect that people like Qianye would come to her door one day. What made her even more unexpected was that Qianye’s voice would be so loud now. This scene reminded her of those with hearing loss. Old people - because they can't hear what others are saying, these old people always raise the volume of their own words in a way that affects others.
Perhaps Chiba's hearing was damaged from years of fighting. The old classmate speculated so, so she also took the initiative to raise her voice.
The two walked very noisily through the garden in front of the Criminal Court. Chiba showed great interest in an old chestnut tree here and walked around it several times. When no one was around, she even looked at it three times. I turned up the branches twice to see if the bird's nest above was empty or if there were birds living there.
This kind of behavior may be a bit strange for others, but Chiba is different. She used to not care much about other people's opinions and would often do whatever she pleased.
It was approaching twelve o'clock, and the old classmate wanted to keep Chiba to eat in the cafeteria. Chiba bluntly expressed her refusal and quickly left through the north gate - she didn't even give a reason for her refusal.
In this regard, the old classmate was very emotional: after so many years, Chiba still seems to be as unreasonable and unsophisticated as when he was thirteen or fourteen years old.
In the afternoon, it started to snow in the city of Bruno.
It started with just fluffy specks of snow, then within two hours it was snowing heavily. Pedestrians on the street walked in a hurry, and Chiba walked carelessly. She walked aimlessly through the city for a while to observe whether she was being followed by non-target people.
Near three o'clock, Chiba found herself near a cemetery. She pondered for a moment and walked directly in.
Outside the cemetery, there was an administrator taking a dog for a walk on the main road, while Chiba walked along the path between the stone monuments and walked deeper into the cemetery.
White snow has accumulated on the moss-covered tombstone. The sky is overcast and there is silence all around.
This cemetery was bigger than Chiba had imagined. She walked to a stone chamber with the family crest engraved on it. These slightly dilapidated stone houses were like an open coffin with some artificial flowers and small flowers placed inside. stone statue.
Chiba stopped, closed her eyes, and focused all her energy on her hearing.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of very light footsteps. It was something stepping on the rotten leaves mixed with the mud.
Qianye turned around. In the gap between the stone chambers, a black hand was leaning against the edge of the wall, and a shadow was hidden in it.
Immediately afterwards, a slight friction sound was heard, and the figure in the gap suddenly lost strength and slid downward along the only gap.
Chiba stepped forward quickly, and she grabbed the arm - the person in front of her had her head lowered, and her whole body was standing leaning against the wall like a puddle of soft mud.
"……simple?"
There was a bubble sound in the throat of the man in black, and she seemed to be trying hard to raise her head, but failed.
Chiba reached out and slowly took off the hood and mask of the person in front of her, and a familiar face appeared in front of her.
Hesta looked so tired, so weak, she seemed to be trying to make a smile, but the end result was a little scary.
"...Miss Chiba."
Chiba originally had eleven million questions to ask, but at this moment, she suddenly felt that those things were not important anymore. Some of the contradictions that had troubled Chiba before were suddenly revealed.
——Jane is obviously in a moment of conditioning. It turns out that she has awakened for the second time.
…
This guess was quickly confirmed by Hesta himself.
"When did this happen?"
"When we killed Fernando," Hesta replied.
Although he has awakened for the second time, Hesta still doesn't know how long his bullet time is.
From her awakening to now, the longest bullet time she has experienced is about four hours. After that, her restraint time is about 24 minutes - this length is obviously incomplete restraint. It can be seen that the total length of her bullet time is at least It's more than eight hours.
Chiba felt mixed after hearing this - it turned out that Fernand was really killed by Jane, and Ava did not wrong her.
...Why does this old lady have such poisonous eyes?
"Is Fernan infected?" Chiba frowned, but she immediately denied this sentence as soon as she said it. "No, if so, there will definitely be relevant clues in his report."
Hesta recalled the situation at the time, "I don't think it has much to do with whether he was infected, because the feeling when facing Fernan... that feeling of about to enter bullet time, I had experienced it once before at the base. .”
"Which time?"
"That time I punched Sean, but Liz stopped me," Hesta said softly.
"...Why haven't I heard you say that before?"
"I wanted to find an opportunity to talk about it at the time, but I forgot about it several times after we met... By the time I remembered it, you had already gone to other regions," Hesta picked at his scalp, "and then back to the base. A series of special combat training for aberrants were arranged, and I no longer thought about the second awakening..."
Chiba's two fingertips faced each other, touching anxiously.
At this moment, she suddenly realized some more dangerous facts - strictly speaking, Jane had actually been exposed, but no one had discovered it yet.
As long as there is such a mercury needle, this person not only understands Hesta's fighting method, but also smells that Jane no longer has the special smell of the first awakening when he enters bullet time, then the fact that Jane awakens for the second time will be obvious If exposed.
It doesn't even have to be such a coincidence, as long as another wave of chelates emerges in some wasteland at this moment, and Jane is drafted to the front line alone like before, everything will be over.
"No wonder, no wonder..."
Many unintentional details began to connect in Chiba's mind.
"When I went to Ava's place last time, you suddenly spilled the perfume. Are you afraid that I--" Qianye's words stopped abruptly, and she suddenly fell into another question, "No, why did you spill the perfume? At that time There’s no way I’m going to be in bullet time.”
"I'm not afraid that you will find out that I have awakened for the second time," Hesta said softly, "I am afraid that Miss Chiba will remember the smell of the basement. After all, there may be residue on me, and if something happens to me later -"
"This is nonsense," Qianye clenched his fists, "Do you know how risky what you are doing is?"
"All actions have risks," Hestad replied unhurriedly, "Even if you don't act, there are risks -"
"...Are you going to be tough again?"
Hesta lowered her eyes silently.
"Who is the person behind you? Who encouraged you to stand in this position?" Qianye said solemnly, "During the time you were imprisoned, who helped you avoid Ava?"
Hesta hesitated, "I...can't say."
