Tammy raises his head from his pillow and looks around, rubbing his eyes with his oversized sleeve. “Hngh… Avi? You’re still not back from the bathroom?” He flops his head back onto his pillow and curls into a ball under the covers. “This sucks… I still can’t sleep on my own?” He extends his hand and rubs the spot Avi should be. “I’m so tired, but I can’t fall asleep.” He sits up, “wait, should I go look for her? It’s been a while.” He thinks for a second, but shakes his head and lays back down, “no, no. Avi’s a delicate maiden who went to the bathroom. She probably went to the farthest one possible just to get away from me. I need to be patient. She’ll return on her own.”

Meanwhile, Jozou rushes into the ship’s infirmary. A sterile, clean room with bright white walls, floor tiles, and all the bulbs cast fluorescent white lights. There are three beds on the left side of the room, separated by thin curtains, and the right side has a few cabinets full of medicines and equipment.

“MHHMHHH!”

Jozou winces at Kizhan’s muffled scream.

Hardening his heart, he walks forward to see the middle bed. Kizhan is tied down, with Pandin covering her mouth. She’s sweating and crying, and the doctor roughly grips her leg, one hand on her shin and the other on her thigh, and forces them back into place with a nightmarish crack that makes Jozou’s skin crawl. Kizhan’s scream is so loud that Pandin’s hands barely suppress it.

“There!” The doctor says cheerfully. “Now to wrap it up. I could go with the cheaper gauze, but if you have the money I’d have to recommend buying a real cast, with the locking brace for immobility and the internal medical gel.”

Helger perks up, “the cast! We’ll pay, just give her the best stuff!”

Kizhan frantically shakes her head. Locking eyes with Pandin, the boy removes his hand. Every syllable is a struggle, “n-no. No cast, no gauze, no gel. I’m fine… like this, right? Bone reset, we’re good!”

“Ah,” the doctor rubs the back of his head, “nope. Not good at all. Your knee was, like, toootally shattered. It might take years to heal, or you might never walk again.”

Kizhan’s eyes round.

“If you can’t go for the cast, you really need the gauze and gel. Wrapped tightly it could be ‘fine’. But having nothing? Ehh, you’re really playing with fire. Practically begging for a lifetime of limited mobility.”

The room is silent, but Kizhan’s chest starts convulsing with every exhale. She closes her eyes tight as the waterworks flow. Pandin, Helger, and Ghzan move in to comfort her, either grabbing a hand or shoulder.

Jozou clears his throat, directing all attention to him.

“J-Jo,” Kizhan’s weak voice mutters.

He flashes a smile full of confidence that he doesn’t truly feel, and turns to the doctor. “How much for the best treatment available?”

“Jo!” Kizhan cries.

The doctor smiles, then nods to his desk, “come on over and I’ll tally it up for you.”

Jozou follows.

Helger leans in, “Ki, we need you at your best.”

Ghzan nods, “the dance routine doesn’t work without you.”

Pandin pats her shoulder, “no matter how much it costs, it’s worth it.”

“It’s not worth it if we run out of money and get sold into-“ her jaw drops. Stepping into the infirmary and following Jozou to the desk is a small girl. She’s wearing Kizhan’s shoes, clicking with every step on the tiled floor, her face devoid of emotion. The bag prevented Kizhan from seeing who attacked her, but she weakly raises a hand, “h-her… it was her…”

Pandin looks over, “that girl? She broke your knee?”

Kizhan frantically nods her head.

The three musicians scowl at the small girl standing behind Jozou.

Pandin gets up first and stomps over, with Helger and Ghzan backing him up.

“Hey-!” Before Pandin can say anything else, the girl flicks her tail out and points the needle at the boy’s jugular.

Jozou turns, then his eyes round, “ah! Stop! Stop!” He moves in front of the girl, grabbing her firm shoulders and shaking his head. Slowly, she lowers her tail.

“J-Jozou?” Helger narrows his brow. “What’s going on?”

He turns to his friends, covering his face with both hands and slowly sliding them down his chin. “This… Okay, Ki? This girl is the one who broke your knee.”

Kizhan clenches her teeth, the other three look ready to kill her.

“From what I’ve gathered,” Jozou continues, “she’s a rich girl who watched us perform. She got interested… then broke your knee for some reason. She’s willing to pay us to have me teach her, and she wants to perform with us on stage.”

“What?” Ghzan’s soft voice says.

“Are you kidding me?!” Kizhan cries. “Why didn’t you just ask!? We would have taught you!”

Pandin shoves a thick finger in the girl’s face, “what is wrong with you?”

Jozou gulps, “she doesn’t speak. I don’t think she knows our language. But it’s not all bad! I mean, it is bad, but we can salvage this.” He jostles the girl’s shoulders, then holds out his money, pointing to her pocket. She takes the hint and pulls out the large wad of bills.

Pandin, Helger, and Ghzan’s eyes widen, but Kizhan is too far and can’t see past Pandin’s body.

“That’s… a lot of money.”

The doctor smiles and moves in, looking past Ghzan’s shoulder. “Ooh! Yep, according to my calculations, that’s the perfect amount of money. That much will pay for Kizzard’s treatment.”

Jozou frowns, “Kizhan.”

“Isn’t that what I said?” The doctor reaches forward, but the girl pulls the money away. He frowns. “Tell your friend to hand over the money or your other friend won’t be given her cast.”

“Wh-whoa, what? Why’s it so expensive? That’s so much!”

“Yeah? And? Who else will you go to? The second infirmary on this ship that doesn’t exist?” He smiles.

The others start complaining, but the air is knocked out of Jozou’s lungs. He turns to the girl as the others start yelling at the doctor, who’s just leaning back on his desk with an obnoxious smirk.

“S-so, girl.” He gives her a pained smile. “I need you,” he points to her, “to use that money,” he points to the money in her hand, “to pay the doctor,” he points to the doctor, “so he can heal my friend,” he points to Kizhan, “and fix her knee.” He taps his knee.

The girl stares up at him blankly, the gears in her head silently turning. She rhythmically taps her foot.

He shakes his head. He raises one finger, points to her money, then the doctor. He raises two fingers, points to the doctor, then Kizhan, then his knee. He raises three fingers, and finally taps his feet.

The girl continues staring, then nods. She walks forward, easily breaking free of Jozou’s grasp, and pushes past the others until she’s standing before the doctor. He looks down at her with a smile and extends his open hand. His smile quickly fades once the girl raises her leg and launches it out at the man’s knee. It cleanly breaks with a vicious crunch, reversing the joint, and the doctor crumbles.

“EEH-HIIIIIAAAAAA!” His piercing screech echoes in the infirmary, and he reaches down to grip his leg.

The others step back, too stunned to react.

The girl grabs his thinning hair and drags him across the floor.

“N-no! Please! Stop! AAH! My leg!” He cries.

She’s substantially stronger than she looks and throws the doctor to the side of Kizhan’s bed, then wraps her tail around his neck and hoists the grown man up.

Kizhan is trembling. Eyes open wide, tears flooding down her cheeks.

The red-eyed girl stands at the doctor’s side and taps his face with her small hand, then points to Kizhan’s knee.

The doctor nods, “I’ll heal her! I’ll fix her knee! I’ll- I’ll-!”

“Do it for free?” Jozou blurts out, seizing the opportunity.

“I’ll do it for free!” The doctor cries.

The girl turns to Jozou. Despite the intense violence she inflicted on the doctor, her face is unchanged.

Jozou taps his feet in the same motion the girl has been doing thus far.

She releases her tail from the doctor’s neck, then walks over to Jozou, standing before him. The doctor grips the bed to prop himself up but quickly crumbles to the floor.

Jozou has to gulp hard and tighten his fists just to look the little monster in the eyes. “Alright, uh…” He claps his hands and looks to his friends, “we can salvage this trip!” He’s out of breath, just barely avoiding a panic attack. “You guys, please, stay with Ki and… him. Maybe help him set up his own cast, or something. Uh…” He gulps, “I’ll take her back up to the room and teach her how to dance.”

Kizhan forces herself to speak, “do you… want to be alone with her? Maybe you should teach her here-“

“Nope!” He blurts out, his eyes bloodshot. “I…” He considers his words for a moment. “Well, she can’t understand us. I want this as far away from you guys as possible, ha-ha. So don’t worry, I’ll handle her.” He rubs his chin. “We’ll have to perform tomorrow night though.”

Helger narrows his brow. He stares at the girl, but when she looks back at him, he averts his eyes, “r-really? We have to go on stage with… that?”

“If you don’t want your leg broken too, uh, yeah. That’s what she wants. I need to teach her how to dance, then we all need to perform on stage, then we get her money.” He runs the calculations in his head. “We don’t need to pay for treatment now, so… The next three days will be about dancing to pay off the debt, and with her money we should be able to survive for a bit without work, since Kizhan’s leg means… no jobs for a while. Yeah, yeah. This will work out!”

The four look at him, then glance to the girl.

“G-good luck, Jo,” Ghzan says.

With a reassuring smile, he pats the girl’s back and leaves the infirmary.