F Grade Healer Becomes Strongest Biomancer-Chapter 49: Special Delivery

Mio

"Mio-oo-oo—"

The door kicked open. Shizuka stood there holding an arm.

Mio’s arm.

"Special deliv—" She stopped. Looked at what she was holding. Looked at Mio’s new one. "Oh."

Nana was still touching the obsidian. Water dripped from her hair onto the hospital sheets.

"Took you long enough," Mio said.

"I stopped by the market. The ice cream was on sale." Shizuka tossed the arm onto the bed. It landed between them. "Want me to throw this out?"

"Got an upgrade."

"Pretty." Shizuka’s eyes traced the obsidian. "Test it later with me. Promise."

She turned to leave, then paused. "Segawa’s on his way."

The door shut.

"You’re getting water everywhere."

"You’re missing an arm." Nana’s thumb kept tracing the obsidian. "We both have problems."

"Had. Past tense."

"It’s black now."

"Obsidian."

"Same thing."

"It’s not."

"Is Can in there?"

Mio didn’t answer.

"He is, isn’t he." Nana’s voice got smaller. "That’s why it hums."

"Why are you wet, Nana."

"Bath."

"In your clothes?"

"I was in a hurry."

They looked at each other. Neither could hide their smiles.

"Go dry off."

"No!"

Segawa stepped in. He looked at Nana, then held the door open wider instead of letting her pass.

"Stay. You should hear this."

Nana’s fingers curled at her sides. Water dripped onto the tile.

Segawa’s eyes moved from the arm on the bed to the obsidian one on Mio’s shoulder, then to Nana, still dripping.

He sat.

The severed arm lay between them. Nobody mentioned it.

"You owe me," Mio said.

"I know."

"Level 30 clearance."

"You’re Level 23."

"I cleared the debt."

He didn’t reach for his cigarettes. That was new.

"Fine."

"Nami."

Mio waited.

"Pontos-Marked. Imprisoned below this building since the Flood."

"Why?"

"Getting there." He leaned back. "What do you know about your father’s family?"

"Nothing."

"He had a sister."

Mio glanced at Nana. Her sister’s face was blank. Too blank. Like she was trying hard to contain a laugh but looked mildly constipated.

Mio tapped her shin with a light kick.

"Are you okay?"

"Yep!"

The word came out too fast.

"Didn’t you want to hear this?" Segawa checked his watch.

"Yes sir, sorry."

"Tamei Nami. Your father’s younger sister."

We have an aunt.

Mio looked at Nana again. Still doing the constipated thing.

"She’s downstairs. Has been since the Flood."

Dad never talked about family. Not once. Not even when mom asked.

"They were estranged. Before Integration. Before any of this."

"Why is she locked up?"

Segawa’s jaw shifted.

"Six months ago. Mainland China. You heard about the flooding?"

Mio shook her head.

"Three hundred forty-five thousand dead. One typhoon. One woman."

Somewhere to her left, Nana went very still.

"Nami did that?"

"Yes."

Mio waited for more. Nothing came.

"Why?"

"That’s above your clearance."

"You said Level 30."

"I said I’d tell you what I could."

Three hundred forty-five thousand. She couldn’t picture that many people.

She watched his face. The way his eyes stayed fixed on hers, unblinking.

He hadn’t said innocent. Hadn’t said unprovoked.

"Is there more?"

"The assassins. We recovered samples from the apartment." He pulled a folder from his coat and slid a photo across the bed.

Cells under a microscope. She didn’t understand any of it.

"Nana, what do you think?"

"Beats me."

"Human DNA," Segawa said. "The markers don’t exist in any database. The lab report used the word ’otherworldly.’ First time I’ve seen that in an official document."

Mio looked at the photo again. Human, but from somewhere else entirely.

"Why do they want Nana?"

"We don’t know."

His hands spread on his knees. Just slightly.

Lie.

"Is there anything else?"

"That’s all I can give you."

"Fine."

He stood. Stopped at the door.

"Tamei."

"What."

"Leave it alone."

He paused with his hand on the frame.

"Show Ishida that arm before you leave. He’ll want samples."

"Anything else?"

"Kaito’s out of surgery. Recovery wing, third floor." Segawa didn’t look back. "He asked to see you."

The door shut.

Nana was still standing by the window, dripping onto the tile.

She stepped onto the marble. "Let’s go, Nana."

They found Ishida in Champion Research. The same basement office, same space heater humming in the corner. Still cold.

He looked up from his clipboard when they walked in, eyes moving from Mio’s obsidian arm to Nana’s wet clothes.

"You’re dripping on my floor."

"Sorry," Nana said. She didn’t move. Her eyes had found the stumps where his fingers used to be — pinky, ring, middle — and she couldn’t seem to look away.

Ishida ignored her. He was already circling Mio, grabbing the obsidian wrist without asking. He turned it over, pressed two remaining fingers where a pulse should be.

"The Chimera didn’t just bond. It replaced." He let go and picked up his pen, cramped grip tilting left to compensate. "Unprecedented. I’ll need samples later."

"It was that or stay one-armed."

"What about the original?"

"Shizuka found it. You can keep it."

"Where is it?"

"Infirmary. On the bed."

He made a note. "I’ll send someone."

"I’m not criticizing. I’m documenting." He pulled up her file on his tablet. "Pull up your status."

[Status]

Level: 23

VIT: 105

STR: 64

AGI: 40

INT: 25

SPR: 29

HP: 2,205/2,205

Reservoir: 82,058/287,500

[Unallocated Points: 35]

"Read the stats."

"VIT one-oh-five. STR sixty-four. AGI forty. INT twenty-five. SPR twenty-nine."

His pen stopped.

"One-oh-five VIT."

"The Vigil added twenty-five."

"I can do math." He wrote it down, the scratch of pen filling the silence. "You’re now at the baseline of a normal B-grade delver."

"So I’m as strong as Kaito?"

Ishida sighed. He dropped his pen, took off his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"You need to understand something." He looked at her directly for the first time. "Grades aren’t just numbers. They’re experience. Equipment. Prowess. Grit. Months of knowing how to not die."

He put his glasses back on.

"Kaito-san wields an incredibly powerful relic. I’m sure you’ve heard of it by now. When he equips it, his strength and speed increase tenfold." He picked up his pen again. "A-grade, if you will."

"And me?"

"Even now, a competent C-grade can kill you. Maybe even a fully decked out D-grade party."

Four people like Rin. That’s all it would take.

No, never again.

She pulled up her allocation screen.

Poured all of it into VIT.

[VIT: 105 → 140]

[HP: 2,205 → 2,940]

[Unallocated Points: 0]

"How about now?"

Ishida didn’t blink. His eyebrows rose a fraction.

"Maybe not."

He must have seen her face.

"Grades aren’t classified by individual strength. They’re based on incursion metrics. What you can clear." He picked up his pen. "Four D-grades working together can handle a C-grade incursion. That’s the math."

He waved them off with his two-fingered hand.

"Take care of yourself, Mio," he muttered as they left.

Kaito’s room was on the third floor, recovery wing. The door was open.

He was propped up in bed, silver hair limp against the pillow, hospital gown hanging loose on his frame. Bandages wrapped his chest where the lung had been replaced. A machine beeped beside him.

"Kaito!" Mio crossed the room before she could stop herself. She’d spent the last few hours half-convinced she’d find a body bag instead.

He looked up. His eyes moved past her.

"Is that your sister?" He squinted. "Why’s she soaking wet?"

"Yeah — Nana." Mio glanced back. "I dunno."

Nana waved one hand from the doorway.

He waved back. Something almost like a smile.

Nana stayed where she was. Mio could feel her working through it — this was Aoi’s brother, the Aoi who used to braid her hair, and now he was lying in a hospital bed because of Mio.

"I meant to visit sooner," Mio said. "Segawa was being a jackass."

"Don’t worry about it." Kaito shifted against the pillows, wincing. "You look good. Is that your Chimera?"

Mio raised the obsidian arm, flexed the fingers. "Yeah. It’s fused now. Permanently."

"Any drawbacks?"

"Not yet."

"Different from mine, then."

She remembered the sword — the weight of it in her hands when she’d thrown it across the gym, trying to reach him. "Your sword — "

"It’s here." He held out his palm. The blade materialized, golden and curved, but duller than before. Hairline fractures ran along the edge like old scars. "Whatever belongs to someone stays in their inventory. Don’t you know that?"

"No..."

He dismissed it. The fractures bothered her more than she wanted to admit.

"How did you kill it?"

"Lord Daimon’s Farewell." He said it like he was reading off a menu. "Every strike takes a year off my life. Three consecutive strikes executes the target. Doesn’t matter how strong."

The machine beeped. Nana’s wet shoes squeaked as she shifted her weight.

"Why?"

"Because you would have died." He was looking at the ceiling now. "And then I’d have to explain to your sister why I let that happen."

The room was quiet except for the beeping.

"I’m cleared to leave tomorrow morning," he said finally. "Then we can formally act as a squad. You, me, Mori."

"Okay. See you then."

"Get out." He closed his eyes. "I’m tired."

Nana was already at the door. Mio followed.

Their room was on the second floor.

Nana finally peeled off her wet clothes and wrapped herself in a towel. Mio sat on the edge of her bed.

"Nana, lock the door."

Nana did. Then she turned around and saw what Mio was holding.

"It’s the key!" She bounced on her heels. "Can I try it on the bathroom knob?"

"No, come here."

Nana padded over, still wrapped in her towel, and sat beside her on the bed.

Mio looked at the white metal in her hand. Geometry etched into the surface, lines that seemed to shift when she blinked.

[Would you like to use the Marrow Key?] 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

She pressed confirm.