Aoi awakens on a narrow bed in total darkness. This isn’t her bed at New Eden. Mercifully, her Soul Gem is tucked into her hand. It isn’t much good for light. It is mostly black. 

Her recent memory comes back to her before long. She was lying in her bed in the gym basement when the Melati woman came in. With Yui gone, Aoi figured she was dead. 

Melati: No, I’m not here to kill you. We need a healer’s assistance, actually. With a patient.

With that, Melati had produced a strange Soul Gem. It was completely different from any Aoi had seen. Oblong and flat, and mounted onto some kind of metal band. It seemed too large to fit on an arm or a neck, too small to fit around a leg. And, of course, it was almost all black. It was impossible to tell what color it was supposed to be. 

Melati: Unfortunately, regular Grief Seeds won’t work. I’d normally never do something like this… but I’m afraid a healer like you is the patient’s only hope. 

Aoi had sighed. She wasn’t in any condition to fight anyone off. She didn’t even feel like it. What now? Spend the rest of her days aboard some Incubator spaceship, poked and prodded at like an animal? She would doubt there even was a patient, if not for the Soul Gem. Strange as it was, Aoi could tell it was genuine. 

Aoi agreed. Saying no hardly seemed like an option anyway. She turned to a notebook by her bedside. She could at least leave a message for Yui, if she cared enough about her healing gravy train to go after her. 

Before she could write anything, Melati was at her back, with something cold like the muzzle of a gun at her neck. She couldn’t quite remember what Melati said– an apology, maybe, something about not being allowed to know where she was going. A sudden, sharp prick at the side of her neck, and a plasticky, sweet smell. Faster than any Earth drug should work, the world spun before her eyes and went dark.  

Aoi sits up in the darkened cell. When she moves to put her Soul Gem in her pocket, she notices they changed her clothes. A halter top and a short skirt like she used to wear before she met everyone from Tomatsu’s group, with a strange, glassy feel to the fabric. 

She gets up and her shoe soles glow with rainbow colors on the plain white floor. She spends the next few minutes feeling around in the dark, tracing the perimeter of the room. A large, rectangular room, all made of the same featureless, smooth, white material. The bed is tucked into one corner, and the opposite wall feels like it has a large window, although it’s still pitch dark. 

At length, she finds a luminous square in one wall. A light switch. She presses it, and the room fills with bright light. Squinting, she only has time to get an impression of a bare white room and a large, dark window.

Aisha: Well, hello there! Good morning!

Aoi: (She squints at the dark fairy flying just above eye level) You’re… the new Incubator. 

Aisha: Aisha here! As you can see, this facility has everything you need to perform your job! Over here… (She flies to a small recess in the wall, like a water dispenser) Grief seed dispensary. One per day outside of emergencies. Don’t get any ideas about spamming it. Next to it… food synthesizer. (She taps a square panel with the back of her hand) A bed, and of course… (She flies to a rack, holding several copies of the same outfit that Aoi is wearing.) Your uniform! Containing lots of specialized technology and the latest in Incubator fashion for off-worlders. (She taps a square sewn into the fabric on Aoi’s chest, and it lights up with a strange pattern) That’s your name in Incubator script, by the way. You look for all the world like a proper nurse for your patient!

Aoi: … Is there actually a patient? It wasn’t just an excuse to bring me in? 

Aisha: Hmm? (She looks toward the darkened window, speaking with obviously faked surprise) Oh! I left the shutter closed. Let’s introduce you two, shall we? 

Aisha claps, and the black shutter behind the window lowers. Curiously bright blue water sloshes around at the top of the chamber beyond the glass. It isn’t a window, but a glass wall into a flooded tank. As the shutter lowers, more of the aquarium is revealed. Inside swims a luminous serpent, ten or twelve feet long. Its smooth body glows with all the colors of the rainbow, and its head is shrouded in a mass of iridescent feelers. It idly coils and twists through the water, a captured animal in an enclosure too small for its size.

Aoi: Wha… what is that thing!?

Aisha: Don’t be rude. You’re looking at the patient you’ll be treating. 

Aoi: That’s— it’s not human! 

Aisha: Yes, well spotted. 

Aoi: I can’t heal something like that!

Aisha: Oh, do you have some experience healing alien creatures to know that for sure? 

Aoi: It’s an alien?? 

The feelers surrounding the creature’s head part briefly, and Aoi catches a glimpse of a deep blue eye staring at her coldly. 

Aisha: Oh, come on. I know human oceanography is bad, but you really think this thing lives on this planet? 

Aoi: You think I can heal a space alien? 

Aisha: Give it a try?

Aoi: Is it— (She spots the Soul Gem Melati brought with her, now adorning the creature’s tail) It’s a Puella? 

Aisha: Yes, she’s made a contract. 

Aoi: (She gestures to the Grief Seed dispensary) What about your infinite Grief Seeds, if it’s so important?

Aisha: Yes, well, those are human Grief Seeds. They don’t work for healing one of these. And there aren’t any Witches of this species to gather any from. 

Aoi: No Witches?

Aisha: She is the first of her kind to make a contract. (She raps on the glass with annoyance) And she darn well better be the last! 

Aoi: Why would you… what is this? 

Aisha: It’s a creature from another planet, honey. It’s not gonna have a name in Japanese. 

Aoi: What do you call it, then?

Aisha: Incubators don’t speak Japanese either, but I guess it would translate to something like… (She goes rigid and rattles it off robotically) “Species A015-10028770-190612.” Not charming enough for you, is it? 

Aoi: …

Aisha: Oh, fine! This here is a… rainbowy… whaleworm. There you go. 

Aoi: (She glares at Aisha, not commenting on the obviously made-up name) 

Aisha: Anyway, I can’t hang around all day. You have your instructions, get to it. I’ll know if you start slacking off!

Aoi: … And if I can’t do it?

Aisha: (With no hesitation, she gestures with her thumb across her throat) Death! … The last Balancing was supposed to have gotten rid of you anyway. Bye now! (Aisha flies upwards, and with an aerial somersault she seems to disappear into thin air)

Left alone, Aoi turns back to the aquarium. The serpent swims in circles, seeming frustrated with its confines. Aoi looks down and closes her eyes in disbelief. Even just from a glance, she could tell the mind and soul of this “whaleworm” were too different from a human’s. She had no idea where to even begin healing whatever was considered pain in this creature’s mind. 

Aoi sits down on her bed. She imagined her patient as a fellow captive of the Incubators, maybe someone she could connect with and be friends. A girl could always hope. She didn’t expect… this. Aoi laid down. No point in even trying.