Chapter 17: Forever Grateful

  Kazuya had only been a resident of the Sanctum for two days, but he had been bombarded with visitors. In his room were two girls who ambushed him while he was on his way to the garden outside his ward. At her side prowled a massive mechanical dog, with a bespectacled girl in tow. The bespectacled girl had a magazine rolled up in her hands.

  The girl with the dog set a hefty case down and glowered at him. “Hello, Kazuya, I’m Leonhart Euler. This is Jude Lee. Both of us and another guy saved your ass, but he is kinda in a coma.”

  The other girl, introduced as Jude, lightly smacked Leonhart’s head with her magazine. “Don’t mind her, she’s like this,” Jude said in an exasperated voice.

  “I’m just annoyed that they won’t let us visit him!” Leonhart sighed as she reached for the mechanical dog. “Gauss, table.”

  The dog transformed itself into a small desk. Leonhart slammed her tools on it so loudly that it made him jump in his spot. “Kazuya,” Leonhart gestured to the bed, “could you take a seat?”

  Kazuya’s eyes darted between Leonhart, the transformed dog and the bed. “What are you doing?” he asked nervously as he noticed that Leonhart had laid out a prosthetic leg on the table.

  “What does it look like?” Leonhart fired back. “I made you a leg. How else are you going to walk?”

  “With my crutches?” Kazuya found himself stating the obvious. “I haven’t had many problems moving about with them…”

  He braced himself for a lecture from Leonhart, but it never came.

  “Oh well, I can respect that.” Leonhart simply shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll be here in case you ever change your mind.”

  “She said that she can’t ever say no to such a cute face like yours,” Jude said flatly.

  “Shush! I only said that he has a baby face,” Leonhart rebuked. “Stop putting words in my mouth!”

  As the two girls exchanged banter, Kazuya studied the mechanical leg laid out on the table keenly. The leg had a black finish and was embellished with silver carvings. The carvings swirled and looped, just like cartoon clouds. “How long did you spend on this?” he asked, interrupting Jude and Leonhart.

  “Oh, the whole night. No big deal, actually,” answered Leonhart.

  “Wah, and you made this?!” Kazuya asked incredulously. “It’s amazing!”

  “She’s the resident engineer. Not even the guy at the Ironkeep can stand her. She keeps pestering him for feedback on her designs,” Jude said.

  “It’s not like Chakrit minds,” Leonhart rebutted.

  “Could I try it on?” There was no particular reason for it; he merely wanted to feel what it was like to stand with two legs. He told himself that if he did not like it, he could always take it off. There was simply no harm in trying.

  “Sure!” Leonhart beamed.

  Kazuya sat on the edge of the bed and let Leonhart do what she needed. She studied his stump carefully, muttering to herself. She fetched a jar of gel and spread some on it. He could not help but shiver at the coldness of the gel. “This is just some lubricant for the sheath,” Leonhart grunted as she helped him put on a rubber sheath. “How’s it? Feels good?”

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  “It’s a bit tight.”

  “Any pain?” Leonhart asked, to which he shook his head.

  “Good, good.” Leonhart nodded enthusiastically and fetched the leg. “This is the part that might cause a bit of discomfort.”

  “Discomfort?”

  “Oh, what a worry bug!” Leonhart shook her head. “You would probably feel a pinch. Now count down from three with me!”

  Leonhart lined the socket of the leg up with the stump. “Three,” she started.

  “Three.” Kazuya gulped.

  “Two.” The stump was already halfway into the socket.

  “T-Two…”

  “Heave-ho!”

  Kazuya let out a yelp as an electric jolt coursed through his body. The socket tightened around the point of connection. The leg snapped straight with a loud clack. If not for her quick reaction, he could have taken out her eye.

  “W-W-W-Why i-is it w-w-wiggling like t-that?!” blustered Kazuya as the toes of the leg started moving wildly, making little clicking noises.

  “This is something I’ve been working on for a while now. It might be a bit wonky cuz I didn’t test it out. The receiver on the prosthetic reads minute muscle and nerve signals, and the leg would move accordingly. It just needs a bit of calibration… Or you could stop freaking out.”

  Kazuya took a couple of deep breaths, and the twitching slowed. “Much better,” Leonhart chirped. “Hey Jude, put down the Chronicles and help out!”

  “What are we doing?” Jude asked as she peeked over her magazine.

  “Taking this bad boy out for a test run!” Leonhart chirped. “Or should I say, test walk!”

  Jude and Leonhart took their places. Kazuya gulped as they sandwiched him. “I think I can do this myself,” he said. How hard can standing up be?

  “Trust me, you would want to hold on to someone,” Jude said as she offered her arm.

  Kazuya held on to Jude’s arm gingerly and hoisted himself up. He felt his weight shift forward slightly too much. He quickly seized her arm and held onto it with a vice-like grip. “Told you,” Jude said, hardly flinching. “A prosthetic takes a lot of getting used to. Suddenly being able to stand on two feet is disorientating.”

  “Do you want to take it off?” Leonhart asked.

  Kazuya shook his head vigorously. “I want to keep it on for a bit more,” he said. “M-Maybe if I keep at it, I can walk.”

  He looked over at his crutches. It was brand-new, but it was different walking without them. It was neither a sense of liberation nor a relief. Rather, it was a matter of having an alternative for himself. “I will get my dad to arrange for some physiotherapy sessions,” Jude said, interrupting his thoughts.

  “Thank you so much!” Kazuya felt his eyes water. “You all have been so kind to me.”

  “There is one more person you should thank,” Jude said. “Ace pulled you from the brink in the nick of time.”

  Kazuya bowed his head and wiped the side of his cheek, unsure of what to say.

  “It wasn’t your fault in the first place,” Leonhart said. “All’s good.”

  “Is there any way for me to thank you?”

  The two girls turned to look at each other first. “What? All we did was exorcise the phantom,” Jude said.

  “B-But–”

  “I mean… We got some money out of it,” Leonhart said.

  “Could I at least buy something to pay you back?” Kazuya asked. “I could also make something since you guys can probably buy stuff for yourselves…”

  “Whatever fries your rice,” Jude said.

  “What does that mean?” Kazuya asked.

  “Just a figure of speech,” Jude explained. “Do whatever makes you happy.”

  For the rest of the day, Kazuya squeezed his brain dry trying to think of how he should properly thank his newfound friends. Leonhart stayed with him throughout, tinkering away. As he watched her thread wires through holes, the most wonderful idea dawned on him.