Cold water droplets slid down her hair tips, dripping onto Kal’tsit’s collarbone, then winding down her fair skin and finally disappearing into the shadow of the collar.
Kal’tsit looked down at the girl in her arms, her tone calm yet unquestionable: “Himeko, prepare a set of clean clothes. Mon3tr, go to the medical room to preheat the life support pod.”
Mon3tr nodded, its gaze still lingering on the girl when it turned around, its green pupils contracting slightly as if analyzing something.
But soon, it withdrew its gaze and hurried away from the Observation Car.
Himeko watched Kal’tsit’s back and chuckled: “It looks like our Astral Express is going to get lively again.”
“So cold… so cold…”
In my chaotic consciousness, only the piercing chill remained, constantly eroding my perception.
I didn’t know who I was, nor did I know where I was.
A trace of orange light faintly penetrated through my eyelids, like a distant bonfire in winter, warm yet out of reach.
I wanted to open my eyes, but my heavy eyelids seemed to be sealed by frost, unable to budge no matter how hard I tried.
Suddenly, something rough and heavy wrapped around my body.
Immediately afterwards, I was steadily lifted up by a pair of strong arms, my whole body sinking into a warm embrace.
The cool scent of disinfectant mixed with a faint hint of coffee bitterness drilled into my nasal cavity, making me instinctively want to get closer.
I buried my face deep into that embrace, coveting this hard-earned warmth.
However, a strong sense of drowsiness suddenly struck.
My consciousness began to sink, as if being swallowed bit by bit by soft darkness.
I wanted to resist, wanting to open my eyes to see the person holding me clearly, but my body betrayed my will, and in the end, I could only fall unwillingly into a deep sleep…
I don’t know how long passed, but in my haziness I heard intermittent voices.
“Doctor Kal’tsit… when will she… wake…”
The sound was near and far, as if separated by a thick layer of frosted glass.
I tried desperately to concentrate to hear clearly, but could only catch scattered words.
I slowly opened my eyes, and three swaying figures appeared in my blurred vision.
The one right in the middle was particularly eye-catching—among her silver-white hair, a pair of fluffy cat ears were twitching slightly. This chapter was copied from novelping(.)com without permission.
Although I had lost most of my memories and didn’t even remember who I was, certain common sense was deeply branded in my mind.
An inexplicable sense of familiarity surged into my heart, and that word engraved in biological instinct squeezed out uncontrollably from my dry throat: “Ma… Mama…”
Mon3tr was leaning over to observe the pink-haired girl on the hospital bed, its slender fingers gently brushing aside the stray hairs blocking her forehead: “Doctor Kal’tsit, when will she wake up?”
Himeko stood to the side holding a coffee cup, and upon hearing this, she nodded: “Mhm, actually I want to ask that question too.”
The white cat ears on top of Kal’tsit’s head twitched slightly, and she lowered her head to check the medical terminal in her hand: “I’ve checked, she just triggered the brain’s self-protection mechanism and is currently in a deep sleep state.”
Her voice was calm and professional, “She can wake up in a few minutes at the fastest, or a few hours at the slowest.”
Just at this moment, Mon3tr suddenly noticed the girl’s eyelashes trembling slightly: “Doctor Kal’tsit, she’s awake!”
Kal’tsit immediately stepped forward to prepare for an examination, but met a pair of just-opened eyes that looked like pink-blue crystals.
The girl’s pale lips gently parted and closed, and that unexpected address slipped out once again: “Ma… Mama…”
In an instant, the air in the medical room seemed to freeze.
Himeko’s coffee cup dropped to the floor with a snap, and the dark brown liquid splashed across the ground.
She opened her mouth wide, but could not make any sound.
Mon3tr froze in place entirely, its breathing even stalling.
And Kal’tsit—Doctor Kal’tsit, who had always been calm and self-possessed, had her cat ears completely flattened backward, a state of shock she rarely displayed.
The girl seemed completely unaware of how huge an impact she had caused, weakly raising her hand and gently tugging at the corner of Kal’tsit’s lab coat with her fingertips: “Mama… cold…”
Kal’tsit’s throat rolled, and she took a deep breath, her voice half a tone lower than usual: “Mon3tr, prepare for a neural link examination.”
She paused for a second and added, “It might be cognitive disorder caused by hypothermia.”
When her consciousness was completely clear, the pink-haired girl tried to prop up her body, only to find her limbs soft and weak with no strength to use.
Only then did she realize with a start that under the warm quilt, she was actually stark naked.
Her long pink hair scattered across the pillow, and she hurriedly pulled the quilt up higher, a faint blush blooming on her cheeks.
“Dr. Kal’tsit, all physiological indicators are within the normal range.”
It turned its head to look at the young girl curled up inside the blanket, “No hypothermia sequelae or organ damage was found.”
Himeko finished wiping away the last coffee stain, and as she stood up, she gave the hospital bed a meaningful look.
“This child’s condition…” She shook her head, hesitating to speak, “I’ll leave her to you; I’m going to go notify Welt and the others.”
Along with the sound of the automatic door sliding shut, the infirmary suddenly became quiet enough to hear the ticking of the drip bottle.
Kal’tsit’s lab coat hem brushed across the metal stool surface, producing a slight friction sound.
As she opened her notebook, her pen drew a deep ink mark over the item [Memory Loss].
“Name.” She suddenly spoke, her voice as precise as a scalpel, “Do you still remember?”
The pink-haired girl shook her head blankly, her hair rubbing against the pillow and making a rustling sound.
Her gaze swept past the annular light on top of the medical pod, the green plants placed in the corner of the wall, and the crystal buttons on Mon3tr’s uniform cuffs—every single thing carried an unfamiliar sense of novelty.
Kal’tsit suddenly walked toward the reagent rack, the sound of the glass bottles colliding crisp like wind chimes.
When she turned around, the blue liquid in the test tube in her hand was shimmering with a faint light.
“Open your mouth.” She supported the back of the young girl’s neck with one hand, her movements as practiced as if she had done it thousands of times.
The icy potion slid down her throat, and March 7th suddenly discovered that the starry sky outside the window was slowly rotating—it turned out the Astral Express was traversing a warp passage.
“‘To… day…'” She tried to make a sound, her throat moistened by the potion uttering words tinged with sweetness.
The blinking date reminder screen on the console happened to catch her eye, “‘March…
7th…'” As if grabbing a life-saving straw, she repeated this number that suddenly intruded into her mind, “My name is…
March 7th…”
“Mn… March 7th? Using the day of awakening as a name?”