Hinata Haibara's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Hinata stepped back from the binoculars and reached into her jacket. The polaroid was still there, edges soft from years of handling. She pulled it out and held it flat against her palm. The little girl in the photo smiled up at her, holding a doll with jointed limbs that bent in impossible directions. Her sister had loved that doll. Hinata had found it in the rubble three days after the building came down, one arm twisted backward, the other folded sideways. She'd been practicing her first spell three blocks away when it happened. No warning. No signal. Just the instructor's voice telling her the evacuation zone hadn't reached far enough. The stranger's notebook was still open, filled with diagrams and timestamps. They were waiting for her to make the same mistake again. Hinata folded the polaroid and put it back in her pocket. Then she walked to the edge of the perimeter and looked at the creature without the binoculars. It was massive, its body shifting like colored gel poured into a shape that couldn't hold it. One of its limbs bent backward, then forward, then sideways—exactly like the doll's broken joints. Her hands were shaking, but not from fear. She'd spent ten years trying to control magic that gave no warning because she couldn't bear to hurt anyone else. But this time, the target wasn't a person. It was the thing that moved like her worst memory. She turned to the stranger and held out her hand. "Give me the notebook," she said. The stranger hesitated, then passed it over. Hinata flipped through the pages, scanning the diagrams and notes about impact points and dispersal patterns. There—a sketch showing the creature's center mass, marked with a small circle. The stranger had already done the math. She closed the notebook and handed it back. "I'm not going to miss," she said. "But I need you to clear the perimeter. If I'm wrong, I don't want anyone close enough to see it." The stranger stared at her, then nodded and walked toward the radio station at the far end of the barrier. Hinata stayed at the edge, watching the creature move between the buildings. For the first time in ten years, she wasn't practicing for a future version of herself. She was aiming for right now.