Triela anger was kindled when she saw Angelica's prone body lying motionless on the floor of the abandoned observatory, paleness tinting her friend's fair face. The blonde's gait became slightly altered when she picked up the object from the floor, running toward the path of light.
"Triela," Hilshire called, cupping his hands to his mouth. His voice carried against the breeze, and his black hair kept blowing in his face, "What happened?"
"Angelica's injured. Rico and Henrietta are still in there." Triela answered in abrupt accuracy. "I'm going back in…"
"Don't!" Hilshire's ordered caused her to pause briefly. "I want you to stay out here and keep an eye on that exit. Nobody has watched it for a while, except for me, and I was going to check around back. Just stay here until I get back."
"Fine," Putting her shotgun to her shoulder, Triela stood ramrod still, blue eyes suspiciously eyeing the dim brown door.
Suddenly, out of nowhere came an explosion. Triela clapped her hands to her ears and dropped to the floor, escaping the smoke. A dark figure ran past her before she could reach out and grab it. Spluttering, jumped up and easily overtook the fugitives steps. Using deft movements, she was able to apprehend his desperate attempts to get away.
"Triela? Are you okay?" Hilshire asked, fanning away the annoying and suffocating smoke.
"Yes sir. Just a scratch or two."
Checking over the man Triela had caught, Hilshire nodded approvingly. "This is our suspect Adriano Gostilli. Good job, let's go." The duo got into one of the waiting vans and exited the area.
As Hishire detained the man in the agency's prison before calling the Italian police, Triela arrived back at her room, where Claus was casually reading a book on meteorites. "What's with the grim face."
"Oh, nothing." Triela waved it off with a little laugh. But as soon as she reached the bathroom of the dormitory, she doubled over, holding her stomach as if it contained a tiger. The pain was intense, like fire, but it wasn't going away, not like other injuries she had sustained.
She undressed; she knew the sight was going to be hideous. A large wound nearly covered her entire, toned abdomen. The area around it was angry yellow and oozing blood from the action it received that day.
"I-I guess I'll put some iodine on it." Smearing the white paste over the injury proved to be much more painful than she had anticipated…causing her to do anything she could from crying out. The stoic cyborg killer did not remember a time she felt pain like this. Maybe when she fought Pinocchio? No. When falling from a four story building? Maybe…but not quite.
It was as if someone was burning her alive, alive with piece of melted iron pressing against her chest.
"Triela?" Claus voice echoed in the small room. "Are you okay? You've been in there a long time."
"Yeah, I'm okay." Triela replied, contradicting herself again. "I'll be out in a moment."
The agency is running out of money, so how can they afford to fix a simple injury like mine. If Hilshire finds out, he'll get mad. I have to keep this a secret. The pain is something I can cope with for a while.
But little did she know, what a disaster that would turn into…