Luciela still remembered fighting the Northern Abyss. That was a battle where the skies and earth lost all light, sun and moon fell, the ground shook, mountains crumbled, the heavens flipped, the world turned upside down—just total chaos. Since becoming a Claymore, she had never faced an opponent like that.
The Northern Abyss lived up to the name. The Seven Knights of the Dragon's Lineage were strong too, but they had the numbers. Isley, however, fought her alone for thousands of rounds. In the end, she lost.
Suddenly opening her eyes, Luciela saw a white, unfamiliar ceiling.
A light. She'd seen lots of these glowing glass tubes at the Earth base. Where was this? She realized she was lying on a soft, snow-white bed. Strange objects surrounded her, and there was a mask covering her face.
Hiss—hiss—
Luciela quickly tore off the oxygen mask and all the IV tubes. She didn't like weird things stuck to her. But she hadn't fully recovered yet. Her body was still weak. She dropped straight to the cold, hard floor.
Only then did she realize she was wearing a pale blue hospital gown. She didn't care about clothes though. Lifting the gown, she saw thick gauze tightly wrapped around her chest. Pain throbbed from below it.
Isley's final strike had been nearly fatal. She hadn't expected to survive. Someone must have saved her.
But where was she?
She spotted the door, walked over, and found herself stumped—she didn't know how to open it. The lock was unlike anything she'd seen before. No clue how it worked. But she was still an Abyssal. A thin wooden door couldn't stop her. With just a bit of force, she knocked the whole thing down.
In the hallway, doctors, nurses, patients, and family members all turned and stared dumbfounded at Luciela standing in the doorway.
The door had collapsed?
No one suspected her strength. They just figured the door had malfunctioned. A doctor came over holding a device, trying to guide her back to bed and examine her. "You can't get up. The wound will reopen."
Luciela didn't understand. Her translator had been taken away. She recognized the tone—it sounded like Earth's language—but she couldn't make out a single word.
She shoved the doctor aside. Everyone and everything around her felt unfamiliar. She had no clue what had happened to her. "Where am I?! Rafaela??!!"
Charging forward, enduring the searing pain from her wounds, Luciela desperately tried to find her way back—back to something familiar, back to her sister.
But nothing around her looked like the planet Einstein at all.
She pushed through everyone in the corridor, stumbling forward in panic. Up ahead, she saw the color of the sky—an outdoor area. Maybe outside she'd recognize something.
"The patient in Observation Room is awake—emotionally unstable. Get the sedatives," a doctor shouted. In no time, four or five doctors and nurses gathered. They tried to inject Luciela with a tranquilizer to calm her down.
But Luciela was a wounded lion. Even with people grabbing her waist and arms, they couldn't stop her. A doctor managed to jab a syringe into her neck, but the sedative didn't kick in right away.
She still made it to the glass window—and saw a shocking sight.
Under a blue sky stood towering buildings, packed one next to another. The hospital wasn't even the tallest. People bustled through those massive towers. Luciela's vision was sharp. She realized she was inside one of those skyscrapers.
This definitely wasn't her home world. How were such gigantic structures even built? Between the buildings were roads, and on those roads, strange things zoomed back and forth. What were those?
Everything was so unfamiliar. Where the hell was this place?!
Luciela's strength faded quickly as the sedative finally kicked in. She slowly collapsed to the floor.
"Get the patient back to the room, run a full examination!"
'That woman is seriously strong,' the doctors thought, still shaken. But now that she was asleep… she really was quite beautiful.
Luciela was carried back to her bed. Thankfully, her wound hadn't reopened. "The critical phase is over. She can be transferred to a regular room." With Bruce the billionaire footing the bill, she got a private room, of course.
"But her emotions are unstable. What if it happens again? Shouldn't we monitor her for a few more days?"
"No need. Emotional issues can be managed over time. She's probably not local. Assign an experienced nurse to her, and it'll be fine." The doctor sounded confident. He'd seen all kinds of patients and could tell right away—Luciela just hadn't adjusted to the unfamiliar environment yet.
[An exclusive special report 'Kaitou Kid' presented by renowned journalist Iselin will be airing soon…]
The nurse in charge of Luciela was nearly forty, with twenty years of experience. She knew the sedative would wear off soon, so she turned on the TV. The distraction would help ease the patient's nerves.
But when the report started, the nurse scoffed. A thief getting a special feature? Appearing on TV like it was nothing? What was the world coming to?
Clearly, this nurse was a conservative. Her view of thieves was stuck in the days when everyone wanted to beat them down.
A thief on TV—so arrogant it left people speechless.
In fact, plenty of people who hadn't paid much attention to the recent online debates felt the same. Hearing that Kaitou Kid was getting interviewed made them raise their eyebrows. A thief on national television? Was this a joke?
Thieves should be sneaky, hiding in the shadows. Not proudly flaunting themselves. Still, after seeing the teaser, a lot of people were curious to find out just who this Kaitou Kid really was.
So, plenty of people—especially outside Gotham City—were looking forward to the upcoming Kaitou Kid special.
Luciela woke up and opened her eyes just as an image of Kaitou Kid appeared on the screen. She couldn't understand what was being said, but she recognized him right away.
She instinctively looked away, feeling guilty.
But then she noticed Kaitou Kid wasn't talking to her. Curious, she glanced back. The screen had already changed. 'What is that? Why is Kid inside that little box? What even is that box?'
She had a lot of questions. But seeing Kid helped calm her down. She thought, 'This must be Earth. It has to be. Only Earth has all these weird things. That guy Kid must have brought me here—to treat my injuries.'
Once that clicked, she relaxed. These Earthlings weren't stronger than her. Once she healed, she'd be more than capable of handling them.
"You're awake? Can you understand me?" the nurse asked. But seeing Luciela's puzzled look, she knew that was a no. "Just stay calm and lie down. I'll call the doctor for a check-up." She used both gestures and words before stepping out.
Luciela stayed in bed, quietly observing everything in the room—especially the TV screen, where the images kept changing nonstop.