"Thanks to your timely rescue, the corruption they suffered wasn't too severe. Aside from Kosma having some injuries, overall, there aren't any major issues."
Outside the infirmary, Su shared the diagnosis for the two. He closed the medical chart and looked towards Mei.
"However, Kosma has multiple scorch marks on his body. Miss Mei, do you happen to know how those occurred?"
"Ah..." Mei instinctively averted her gaze, looking a bit awkward. "I did that."
"I see." Su nodded thoughtfully and reassured her, "Don't misunderstand, I'm not blaming you. A MANTIS's Artificial Cascade can, in a way, be considered a loss of control, especially for a teenager like Kosma."
"Besides, the electric shocks weren't the primary cause of his injuries; he had already sustained severe impacts before the burns. I asked because I hoped you might have clues about the target that forced him into the cascade."
"His semi-cascaded state was forced?" Mei frowned slightly. Having been attacked immediately upon arrival, she'd assumed he ambushed her. Now, it seemed Kosma might have already fought someone before she reached the studio. "Sorry, at the time, all I saw was the unconscious Griseo. As for Kosma, I didn't even notice him initially."
"So, he forced the cascade to protect Griseo?" Seemingly struck by a thought, Su raised a hand to his chin, lost in contemplation. After a moment, remembering Mei was still there, he quickly offered an apologetic smile. "My apologies. It seems we'll have to wait for Kosma to wake up to learn the full truth."
He held the chart against his chest and gestured towards the door behind him, stepping aside for Mei. "Kosma might remain unconscious for a while longer, but Griseo has actually woken up. Perhaps you could ask her what she saw?"
Through the glass window, Mei saw the girl in a patient gown, leaning against the headboard and staring blankly out the window. Seeing this, Mei felt a pang of reluctance. "Since she just woke up, maybe let her rest more. I can come back later."
"No, Miss Mei. According to Elysia, you are the only outsider among us. As the saying goes, 'the onlooker sees most of the game'. Only by gathering enough information yourself can you deduce the truth. Furthermore, with even the Deep End so severely corrupted, I fear we don't have much time left. Therefore, logically and emotionally, contacting Griseo sooner is beneficial for everyone."
With things put that way, Mei couldn't really refuse. She knocked gently and entered the room.
"Big Sis... Mei... Thank you for saving me." Before Mei could speak, the girl on the bed greeted her timidly, her pale fingers tightly clasped together, clearly feeling awkward and nervous.
Seeing the girl like this, Mei was reminded of herself as a child attending her father's banquet for the first time—facing stranger after stranger greeting her, filled with the same panic, desperately trying to hide behind her father.
Silently suppressing her usual assertiveness, Mei approached Griseo as gently as possible. With a soft smile, she took out a paintbrush she had acquired from Pardofelis.
"Hello, Griseo. It's nice to meet you. This is a small gift for you."
"Th-Thank you." The paintbrush looked familiar, as if she'd had an identical one long ago. Griseo looked puzzled, but her fondness for paintbrushes couldn't be contained, and she unconsciously relaxed her guard around Mei.
A smile bloomed on her face, and she instinctively glanced beside her. "Kos..."
However, the familiar response didn't come—only the empty room and the unfamiliar Mei. The joy from the new paintbrush quickly faded, and Griseo's spirits visibly sank.
Kos... does she mean the green-haired boy?
"Don't worry, your friend Kosma is okay. Su just treated him; he should wake up after a little while."
"That's great! Kos is okay too!" Just hearing his name made Griseo's eyes light up again. It was clear the two children were very close.
Understanding this, Mei subtly guided the conversation towards Kosma. She didn't immediately press about the incident but took a roundabout approach to build rapport first. Thanks to her natural warmth and approachability, Mei managed to completely ease Griseo's wariness. From their conversation, she finally learned what had happened.
"I wanted to go find Mama Aponia, but Mama seemed really busy then, like she was fighting someone. Kos told me maybe an enemy had broken into the Elysian Realm, so he pulled me into the studio to hide."
"I sat on my chair and kept painting, but strangely, no matter how I painted, the colors seemed faded. And then, I don't know when, an ugly blob of color appeared on my canvas. At first, it was just on the unfinished one, but then there were more and more."
"Faded?" Mei raised an eyebrow. She'd had a similar feeling when fighting those monsters—they didn't seem like simple creatures derived from the painted world, but more like products of the corruption itself.
"Mhm, I can see the colors in everyone's hearts. Kos's is a warm, light yellow, like bright morning sunlight. Mama Aponia's is a dim gold, holding back the Discipline inside. But when I was painting, the pigments felt... empty, like they were faded."
"And then later, black stains appeared on the canvas somehow, more and more, until everything turned black. That's when my chest felt really tight, and then I fainted."
Griseo's description was a bit abstract, so Mei tried to extract the useful information. "So, the corruption appeared suddenly? And the Mama Aponia you mentioned...?"
"She's the master of the Deep End. She's always taken care of me."
"Do you remember seeing anything else before you fainted?"
"..." Griseo tilted her head, thinking hard. "I think... there was a big sister with pink hair?"
"Pink hair? Was it Sakura?"
"Not Big Sis Sakura." Griseo denied Mei's guess, then hesitated, seeming like she wanted to say more but stopped herself.
Pink hair, but not Sakura... Judging by Griseo's reaction, she seems to have someone in mind. Could there be another Flame-Chaser with pink hair?
Unfortunately, Griseo didn't voice her suspicion in the end. Perhaps she wasn't sure, or perhaps she wanted to protect the person. Either way, Mei would need to keep searching.
After leaving the infirmary, Mei decided to go ask Elysia again. After all, besides Kevin and Hua, there was still one Flame-Chaser whose identity remained completely unknown.
"Hi Mei! How did it go? Find anything useful?"
Elysia's voice rang out. Mei looked up sharply, staring at Elysia's light pink hair. Suddenly, a thought struck her like lightning.
Of course! Elysia has pink hair too! She's so familiar that I completely overlooked it.