[SS] Friendship Is Fate's Craft

It was an unusually warm week-end day even for summer. Some people would be at home at this hour. However, most people just weren’t so lucky. Life wouldn’t stop because of hot weather after all. And even fateful meetings could happen on such days.

For a certain girl, today was just like any other day. No troubles, no adventures, no new faces, no new places; just the usual boring routine. Even the exciting medical life becomes monotonous when you get used to the most reoccurring accidents. In a word: Nothing new.

Until now, that is.

A girl with dark purple hair, wearing a white lab coat, was walking through the hallway with a folder in her hand. It was a specific folder you would only find in hospitals. Yes, this 18-year-old teenager was right now in the hospital. However, she wasn’t a patient here. She was a medical student. And right now, she was undergoing her training.




Her tutor, Masao Teppei, had told her she was assigned to the room number 256 today, and gave her this folder. It contained all of the information about the patient themselves and the health problems they had.

Yamaguchi Hiromi was having a look at the folder again, to remind herself of the most important details before going to the patient she was in charge of today. It read: “Ashton-Li Guy”.

Since the first time she read it, the name felt oddly familiar. Has she heard it somewhere before? She tried hard to remember, but she couldn’t get a gasp of a face corresponding to the name. So she let go of the matter for now, deciding she would discover who it was when she reaches the room.

Arriving in front of the door, she knocked gently.

“Ashton-san, I’m coming in.”

Hiromi opened the door and greeted him.

Then the image of the face in front of her finally sank in.

He was a man who seemed to be of the same age as her. He had a seemingly Asian and Caucasian mixed looking face. His already carbon-black short hair was accentuated by his dark blue eyes.

‘Where have I seen him befo--? Ah!’

She finally remembered where she heard that name before, and why his face was familiar. She had actually seen this person a lot of times. In reality, she had never talked to him before, but she passed across him several times at the university grounds.

However, she wasn’t entirely certain, so she decided to ask him rather than base her speech on wrong assumptions, just to be sure and to avoid any embarrassing and awkward situation.

“Um, excuse me, are you maybe a student in Dangai University?”, she asked hesitantly, while taking out the disinfectant, the bandages and the other necessary material to take care of his wounds and change the old bandages.

His injuries had been extensive enough that the pain alone should have kept him bed ridden for at least a day or two. But the young man was standing beside his hospital bed, already changing back into his regular clothes. He glanced up at the open door and the girl he assumed to be a nurse.

"Hmm?" He fastened the buttons of his shirt over his bandaged and bruised torso. "That's right." Guy answered with cautious uncertainty. "Have we met?" He asked, studying her face. "No. I always remember a pretty girl." He commented with a shake of his head and an amused smile. "Are you here to check up on me? I don't want to waste anyone's time, so I was just going to walk it off."

Was he trying to sound tough? Or was he really that foolish?

"Have we met?", asked the young man after confirming her guess. Hiromi was about to answer, but before she could say anything, he made his conclusion.

"No. I always remember a pretty girl."

"..."

She looked at him with wide open eyes. It took her a moment to register what he said. What made it worse was that he was smiling in an amused way. She then felt both embarrassed at the random compliment - or flirting, depending on how you look at it - and frustrated at the guy's attitude.

'He's toying with me!'

Face still red due to both of anger and embarrassement, she tried to calm herself down. After all, all sorts of people came here. But it was her duty to attend to any of them without complaints.

"Are you here to check up on me? I don't want to waste anyone's time, so I was just going to walk it off."

"... huh?"

This literally was the finishing blow to her already confused mind.

'Just what's wrong with this guy?!'

First he had been teasing her. Now he was going to leave because he didn't want to waste the doctors' time?! Just who would think staying at the hospital was wasting their time...? That was like saying going to school was wasting the teachers' time!

That was just nonesense!

Was he an idiot or was he just that considerate...?

Realising she had just blurted out a 'huh?' earlier, she decided to apologize first.

"Um, sorry about that. It just... surprised me. Why would you think you are wasting anyone's time? It's our duty to look after you until you recover completely. Your injuries haven't even closed up yet. And, even if you insist on leaving, I won't let you do that anyway. And of course none of the medical staff here would allow it either."

She was serious about what she just said.

"Ah right. To answer your earlier question. Well we haven't met face to face. But I am a first year student at Dangai University, so I have seen you at the university grounds sometimes. My name is Yamaguchi Hiromi, a medical student and a trainee in this hospital. Nice to meet you", she introduced herself with a smile.

"Now then", she finally added, with a more serious but still friendly tone, while approaching him, "please lay down on the bed and remove your shirt, I have to take care of your wounds."

"Um, sorry about that. It just... surprised me. Why would you think you are wasting anyone's time? It's our duty to look after you until you recover completely. Your injuries haven't even closed up yet. And, even if you insist on leaving, I won't let you do that anyway. And of course none of the medical staff here would allow it either."

Guy opened his mouth to speak but Hiromi quickly cut him off as she continued.

"Ah right. To answer your earlier question. Well we haven't met face to face. But I am a first year student at Dangai University, so I have seen you at the university grounds sometimes. My name is Yamaguchi Hiromi, a medical student and a trainee in this hospital. Nice to meet you"

"Now then please lay down on the bed and remove your shirt, I have to take care of your wounds."

"Well, when you ask so nicely..." He replied with a sardonic smile of his own. He was muttering something under his breath about pushy girls as he unbuttoned his shirt.

"Really, I'm fine." He protested. With this nurse making a fuss over him he felt like a kid crying over a scraped knee. "A couple of days rest and I'll be good as new." That wasn't exactly true. Though he was blessed with a remarkably tough constitution, even he would find that it difficult to ignore the broken ribs that currently made his the apex of every breath a sharp stabbing pain and as he said those words he winced a little, coughing pitifully in an attempt to play it off.

The guy started unbottoning his shirt while she prepared the necessary materials. However je seemed to be willing to protest once again.

"Really, I'm fine. A couple of days rest and I'll be good as new."

Just as he said that, he winced, but quickly coughed in an attempt to hide it. Bit Hiromi had already caught sigh of his painful expression by the time he hid it.

’There’s no need to make a strong face. If you were truly alright you wouldn’t be here.’, She commented in her mind. However, she didn’t say it out loud.

That was for a very insignificant reason though. She simply respected his effort to not worry others about him. When patient come to the hospital, they would generally be affected, not only physically, but mainly psychologically by the situation itself, rather than the sheer pain itself. They would become quickly sensitive and they would start exagerating the smallest pain.

To be honest, it took a huge amount of courage and patience to maintain a straight face when going through what they were going through. So Hiromi didn’t blame them for complaining. Far from it. But because she knew how hard it is, she regarded the few exceptions who resisted the pain with high esteem.

Not wanting to crush his resolve, she refrained from commenting.

She just smiled slightly, amused by the idea that might really have expected that act to deceive her.

“Yes you will be fine after some days, but only if you stay here and undergo the necessary treatment. Leaving before the doctor’s official permission would only worsen your state and make it harder to heal later. So don’t do anything hasty please”, she told the boy, a slight hint of concern in her voice.

She got near him and warned him, in a friendly tone once again not to scare him, so that he readies himself psychologically:

“This is going to sting, but it’ll be alright once I finish. So please bear with it.”

She then cleaned the wounds with the desinfectant and applied new band-aids and bandages on them.

“I’m done, you can put your shirt on”, she finally said after finishing.

She then registered the necessary information on Guy’s medical folder.

‘Come to think of it, quite a few Dangai students had already been hospitalised in close intervals of time recently. Ashton-san is probably the fourth this month.’

In fact, the number of hospitalised Dangai students’ students increased drastically in the last few weeks, not only in this hospital, but all over Academy City.

Of course, Hiromi had no way of knowing even the other hospitals were having a similar issue.

Nonetheless, she felt deeply concerned by seeing the sudden hospitalisation of four Dangai students, for she was a Dangai student too afterall.

For some reason, the four patients had mentioned the same cause for their state: They all got into a quarrel. This made her worry that there might be some gang fight that involved students from her university, a fight that involved her schoolmates.

“We’ve had a couple of other patients from Dangai who also suffered injuries because of a quarrel just like you”, she declared, “have you all gotten yourselves in something dangerous? What is going on?”

He laughed self-effacingly.

"I don't know. Really." He waved off her suspicions. "I guess I just rub people up the wrong way or something." He said with a shrug and an oblivious smile as he slipped his shirt back over his shoulders and buttoned it up. There was an undercurrent of sarcasm in his voice that only served to prove his assertion.

"But really. I don't see what difference staying here will make. I mean, it's not like you can do anything more for me here. I can rest at home rather than take up a bed someone else could be using." He continued to try and talk his way out of the hospital, already spying the open window to his left.

"Yamaguchi-san. We could use your help with the patient in 332." One of the nurses said, practically rolling her eyes in exasperated stress as she flung open the door. She had ducked out again before the purple haired girl had a chance to reply.

"I've got to go attend to another patient..." Hiromi finished with Guy's chart and looked back at him, aiming her pen pointedly at him. "But don't try anything while I'm gone. Just rest up like a good boy." She kept her eye on him as she backed out of the room.

The instant she was gone Guy had already paced towards the window. One foot braced against the windowsill as he gauged the distance to the ground. Not too far. Easily survivable. He might even be able to do it without making any noise.

He stepped out into thin air and prepared himself for his landing.

“That should be all, Kira-kun.” A familiar frog-faced doctor exited the patient records of the girl sitting opposite to him across the office table. “It looks like your body and immune system are all in order so you can feel free to head out and enjoy the rest of the day. I’ve already submitted your discharge form so you have no need to wait here any more.”

It had been almost two years since Kohaku had her incident and surgery. Ever since then, she had needed to go to a number of follow-up appointments to make sure her body had not been negatively affected by the operation. After all, surgery is something that should generally avoided, especially at a young age. But, luckily, the prevalence of these follow-ups had long since decreased to the point that she could call them infrequent.

“Thank you, Doctor.” A simple, short closer with a smile was all she really needed to give as she walked out of the office.

It was said that a person begins to see the more rough edges of another, especially those they admire, the more they interact but Kohaku could say that her view of him had not changed too much since that first day’s debriefing. Aside from hearing the floating rumors that he had a nurse fetish, the girl failed to see any change in her view of him: admiration and respect.

Quickly, she made her way to a single room in the same wing of the hospital—Room 332. As she opened the door, she peered in and called for a girl’s name. “Haruka?”

“Kohaku-chan? Come in~”

After hearing the welcome, Kohaku walked in further to see a smiling girl sitting in bed. The girl had quickly put down a book that reminded her of what she imagined an old tome to look like.

“The occult club brought you another book?” Kohaku asked as she pulled up a seat next to her friend.

“Yeah. Though since I’m getting discharged next week, they’ve been bringing less than usual.” Haruka shrugged, giving off a look of resignation and a sigh. “They say I should be focusing more on catching up on my schoolwork since finals are coming up soon.”

“Well, you can at least say that they care for you enough to warn you of that.”

“I guess. I never really had time for studying since this hospital room just made me feel tired most of the time...or it could have just been the medicine.” Haruka chuckled prompting a reciprocation from her friend.

It was a simple thing, but one would be surprised how little of it one got when they were confined to a hospital room. Visiting hours were always limited and were prone to getting cut short by a sudden entry by a doctor or nurse.  

For the girl in the hospital gown, the simple act of talking to someone else was a wonderful reprieve from the monotony of being held in the hospital in the long-term. It was one she would make the most out of indulging in.

---

It was almost scary how a person could easily get caught in the flow of a conversation to the point where they’d lose track of time and how far in a completely different direction than intended that conversation could flow.

“But Rina-chan had forgotten that she wasn’t wearing underwear and the rest was history!” The two girls broke into fits of laughter the moment Haruka had finished her story, though it seemed Haruka was having a hard time keeping a straight face during the latter half.

The flow of conversation truly was a terrifying thing.

But all conversations eventually needed to come to a halt.

“Haruka-san?” A tall man in scrubs walked through the door. Given the color of his scrubs, he was likely a nurse. “We need to do a couple of tests, check-ups, and dosage replacements,” he said, pointing to the IV that was connected to the girl’s arm.

“Ah. I see.” Kohaku replied. It was time for the visit to come to an end, sadly. “Haruka?”

“It’s alright. This happens a lot.” Haruka simply waved a hand in front of her face. “You should probably head out since I’m not sure if they’ll sedate me or not.”

I see...” Kohaku could only wonder what the heck was going on with Haruka’s body for the doctors to be constantly watching her. It seemed to contradict the fact that she was going to be discharged relatively soon. Though, with patient confidentiality regulations and the like, it would have been difficult for her to really find out.

“It was nice seeing you again.” Haruka said, giving one last smile.

“I’ll see you next week, okay.”

“Please do.”

With those last words, Kohaku walked out of the room and left the nurse to his business. As she pondered over her business, she made her way down to the second floor to pass through what was her regular short route to the exit.

But, as she was walking down the hall, she noticed a familiar purple-haired girl jumping out of a hospital room and making her way towards her general direction.

“Ah! Hiromi-senpai!”

“Kohaku-san! Um, I can’t talk right now. I need to get upstairs quickly. I’ll see you around.”

With that, the Hiromi had quickly moved past Kohaku and into the staircase Kohaku had just come from.

She seems to be super busy, huh.

With that, she continued down to the end of the hallway—at least that was the plan. It was only then that something strange had caught the corner of her vision.

In the room Hiromi had just come out of, Kohaku saw a young man readying himself to jump out of the window.

Is he…

“Hey! What do you think you're doing?!” Kohaku cried out. But, she was a moment too late. The idiot at the windowsill had already taken his step out of the window. His first step towards flight had already been complete. Without thinking, the girl ran to the window and pushed her head out of the window to see exactly what had just transpired.

The rear of the hospital was quiet, owing to the storey high wall that spanned the perimeter of the building. Not many people would bother to visit the narrow, secluded alleyway.

To him, this seemed much easier than taking the front door and having to deal with discharging himself. And it saved him the risk of running into that pesky nurse again. Or worse, the endlessly interfering Heaven Canceller, who perpetually seemed eager to have a word with him. The young man dropped casually from the window.

“Hey! What do you think you're doing?!” He heard someone call out just as he disappeared below the window frame. Guy cursed his luck, falling softly to the ground below. He looked up at the window of the room expectantly, waiting for the owner of the voice to poke their head out.

"It's okay. I just took the quick way down." He spread his arms in a shrugging gesture.

“I’m sorry, what?!”

Kohaku would have been perfectly reasonable to have responded to the jumper’s answer with  just a simple slacked-jaw. She was not the type to do that, but it would have been perfectly reasonable given the last minute of events.

“You can’t just jump out of a hospital before you’re discharged!” It was fairly obvious that this guy was just trying to escape the hospital before discharge. After all, nobody who was discharged would escape out of a window without some absurd circumstances surrounding them. “Don’t you realize how much stress you’re going to put on the staff here by triggering a Code Yellow? The doctors and nurses here already have enough to deal with.”

There was a certain philosophy hospital administrations usually had instilled in their workers.

CYA, aka ‘cover your ass’.

A hospital was a facility in charge of numerous lives. If even a single thing went out of order or a single issue was left undocumented, administration would tend to go crazy and place more stress on the workers. After all, nobody enjoys or is willing to permit being at the center of a scandal or lawsuit.

“You shouldn’t be putting an extra burden on them just because you want to leave. Don’t you realize the burden you’d be putting on them could be better used tending to patients who need care?”

Tactless as always, the girl just laid out the cold, hard consequences before the jumper.

“I’m sorry, what?! You can’t just jump out of a hospital before you’re discharged! Don’t you realize how much stress you’re going to put on the staff here by triggering a Code Yellow? The doctors and nurses here already have enough to deal with."

Guy rolled his eyes with a sigh. What was it with all the bossy women in this hospital? Hell, the city in general. So many rules and so many people willing to enforce them, it beggared belief. Did this woman even work at the hospital or was she just a busybody?

"What can I say? I needed to get some fresh air and stretch my legs." He kicked one leg out to the side to demonstrate his point. "I was only in for a quick checkup. It's not like I was checked in as a patient." He moved around vigorously, stretching his arms over his head and twisting around like an athlete warming up for an event. "See? I'm fine."

"You shouldn’t be putting an extra burden on them just because you want to leave. Don’t you realize the burden you’d be putting on them could be better used tending to patients who need care?”

"You worry too much. This sort of thing happens all the time. Now shouldn't you be keeping your voice down or do you want to disturb the rest of the patients?" He was eager to quiet her down in case she attracted more attention to his escape attempt.

Kohaku pressed at the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. The man seemed to be missing the point entirely.

“Look. I’m not telling you that you’re not allowed to run away from the hospital. There’s not much the hospital staff can do if you want to.” Kohaku began to make a quick elaboration on consent and autonomy. “They’re legally not allowed to prevent any patient from just up and walk out if they’re not in some urgent care.”

In other words, he would have been perfectly within his rights as a patient to leave unimpeded, especially if he was just at the hospital for a check-up.

“All you really need to do is walk through the front door. The nurses and doctors may try and stop you but they can’t physically restrain you. Sure, it’ll cause some initial headache to them but you’d be alleviating a lot of their work by making it obvious you’re leaving on your own so they can document it. Otherwise there’ll be a panic, a Code Yellow, and fear that a patient may have been abducted.”

For some odd reason, the girl decided to reach her hand out of the window towards him. She was unable to tell whether or not there was even a way back up the side of the window. “So, at least come back in and walk through the front door.”

"Good grief, you're persistent." He muttered, rolling his neck in exasperation. It was becoming apparent that he wasn't going to win this one and she was starting to make him feel guilty. A rare feat considering his usual laissez faire attitude. "Look, if it'll keep you quiet then I'll come back inside and let someone know I'm leaving before I go."

"You're joking, right?" He looked up at Kohaku's offered hand. "You expect me to climb all the way back up there?" The truth was he felt climbing back up would be like admitting he had done something wrong in the first place. "I'll see you at the front desk." He nodded in the direction of the door. "Unless you want to follow me down and escort me the whole way?" He held out his arms, wordlessly offering to catch her. "It's fun..." He said as though trying to entice her.

Kohaku stared a bit at her outstretched hand before realizing what she was doing. Of course, the young man was hardly going to climb back up to the window. There was hardly any room or stable footing for him to climb back on so trying to climb back would, in all reality, be a more dangerous act than the one of jumping down.

Kohaku pulled her hand back as a light flush of embarrassment began to show on her face. Even the most observant of people have their off moments in the end. She was human, after all.

But, he decided to go down to the front desk in the end. At least, he claimed to do so. Still, there was no guarantee that he would keep his word.

There had to be some way to keep him to it.

“Unless you want to follow me down and escort me the whole way. It’s fun...”

The man, while presenting Kohaku a way to keep an eye on him, held out his arms in what seemed to be an offer to catch her.

It was a risky move, though. But, Kohaku was firm enough that she was not going to let the opportunity pass.

“I’ll trust you on catching me, alright?” She asked, before taking a few steps back, checking to make sure she would be unseen, then making a quick running start and jumping out of the now open window.

Guy stepped back, angling himself to intercept the girl's fall. She landed neatly in his arms, cradled like a bride being carried over the threshold after her wedding day. One arm tucked behind her knees while the other supported her back.

She actually did it... He commented to himself, a little surprised at her boldness.

"You're braver than you look. For someone who was so worried about the rules, you're a real risk taker, huh?" His naturally good natured smile took a devious turn. "Or maybe you're just awfully trusting?" He bounced her up and down in his arms.

"It's a good thing you're so light." He held onto Kohaku for a few moments longer than was necessary before setting her down on her feet.

Despite her calm front throughout the lead-up to her jump, her heart was beating like a taiko at a festival throughout. It was natural, though. One could only remain so calm when taking a leap of faith like that. Even though she trusted him to catch her, she could not control her sympathetic nervous response.

“You’re braver than you look. For someone who was so worried about the rules, you’re a real risk taker, huh?”

Kohaku was firmly ready to deny that as she felt her sympathetic nervous response finally shut down and the blood finally rushing back to the arteries on her skin. She placed an arm on his shoulder and around his neck so she could get good enough physical contact to do a quick reading. After all, he had caught her after jumping out of a second story window in a hospital.

“Or maybe you’re just awfully trusting?”

?!

With the advent of the sudden bounce in the man’s arms, her focus was immediately thrown into disarray as her arm unconsciously tightened around his upper back until she was finally let down.

“It’s a good thing you’re so light.”

“I have to agree with that. Really, that was unnecessary.” Kohaku, with her arm still placed on Guy gave off a sigh. “Sorry about this. My legs are feeling a bit wobbly at the moment.” Turning to look towards him, she continued to speak. “But what about you? Are you feeling alright after all that?”

Overall he was in good health, his vital signs suggesting someone fit and able-bodied who got plenty of exercise. Considering the mess of injuries currently plaguing his body it wouldn't be wrong to say that he was in remarkable shape. Several fractured ribs and bruises penetrating deep into his muscle tissue.

Thankfully it appeared none of his internal organs had suffered much, though the state of his liver suggested a heavy drinking habit and his lungs bore the telltale signs of a regular smoker. Even more surprising then, that the young man was as fit as he was.

“I have to agree with that. Really, that was unnecessary. Sorry about this. My legs are feeling a bit wobbly at the moment.”

He shrugged unapologetically and helped steady her a little.

“But what about you? Are you feeling alright after all that?”

"I may not look it but I'm pretty resilient." He flashed her a smile. Given the numerous scars both big and small across his body and the signs of previously broken bones it was clear that he was no stranger to injury. Catching Kohaku hadn't helped though, and several of the fractured ribs and bruises pulsed with a stabbing pain that radiated outwards in hot waves. Still, he didn't appear to show any signs of discomfort. "I'm fine, really." He said, and had she not been able to sense the damage she might have been convinced.

"You know I normally like to know a girl's name before getting so close." He said, noting her arm around his neck still.

“I may not look it, but I’m pretty resilient. I’m fine, really.”

Well, it was not like he was entirely incorrect. His body showed signs of taking numerous injuries and recovering. Signs of internal fracture repair seemed to be prevalent in great numbers.

However, Kohaku was a hundred percent sure that was a lie. The combination of various cracks in the bones that were still recovering combined with the firing of certain nerves made it plainly obvious that he was not, in fact, fine.

“You know, I normally like to know a girl’s name before getting so close.”

Only just then realizing that her arm was still around his neck, she immediately pulled off, cutting herself off from anymore data she could pull from his body.

“R-right!” Clasping her hands together, she forced down any embarrassment that may have arisen from keeping too close to him and being princess carried, albeit for a few seconds. “Kira Kohaku.” Without any excess words, she gave her name to the young man.

“I take it you’re not going to just rest and let those numerous fractures on you heal, right?” She asked, pointing to his ribcage. It was plain to see that this guy had no intention of sitting still. Granted, he was an adult and knew the consequences of doing so well enough, considering the past injuries he seemed to have.

“R-right! Kira Kohaku.”

"Guy Li." He replied in kind.

“I take it you’re not going to just rest and let those numerous fractures on you heal, right?”

His eyebrows raised and he blinked in surprise. For a moment he had to check and see if he had any bandages visible.

"You're pretty good if you can tell just from looking." Did she work here? Or was that just his tendency to picture any girl he met in a nurse's outfit speaking? "You've been reading my charts, haven't you?" He eyed her slyly. "Well, I appreciate the concern but I'm in perfect health, really." He stretched his arms out emphatically only to wince as something painful twinged in his chest. Maybe he'd overdone it a little that time...

"See... good as new." He said, a little less convincing for the slightly stiff way he stood, as though moving might trigger another stab of pain. "Now, I believe you were checking me out?" He said in an apparently unintentional double entendre that hung in silence for just a moment too long before he gestured in the direction of the hospital reception.

He approached the front desk with Kohaku in tow. The main reception was busy in an orderly, quiet way. Guy once again noted the sterile, chemical scent. Just one of the things that bothered him about hospitals. A nurse greeted them both cheerfully.

"Are you here for an appointment?" She asked, typing away at the computer in front of her.

"Oh, no." Guy stated. "Actually I'm just discharging myself."

The girl looked a little confused, looking between him, Kohaku and the door as though trying to figure out why he was coming into the hospital if he hadn't been discharged properly.

"I just stepped outside to have a smoke." He said to avoid further confusion. A slight stretching of the truth, as he hadn't gotten around to lighting his cigarette before Kohaku had collared him with her highly effective guilt trip. "I know. It's a terrible habit..." He said as though preparing himself for a double-pronged lecture from Kohaku and the nurse.

Her suspicions about Guy were quickly confirmed. He was definitely the type of person who would pretend they were alright and try moving on about their day as if nothing was wrong. In other words, he was stubbornly reckless to a fault.

“I can’t tell by looking, but I do have other means,” Kohaku said, extending the fingers of her hand out and displaying her palm before bringing them down, in response to his quip about charts and his eying of her. That was as overt as hint as she was really willing to give. Whether he would figure out what she had meant by it or not was something in which she had no interest.

Missing the unintended double entendre that followed Guy’s self-affirmation that he was feeling fine, Kohaku stared in silence, wondering whether it was just time to give up on preventing him from doing anything reckless.

As if.

If there was one thing Kohaku could take pride in, it was her own refusal to give up on things—a stubbornness to almost mirror the one of the man she was dealing with.

Still…

At this rate, he’s going to--

Her train of thought was soon cut off as they reached the receptionist’s desk at the lobby of the hospital. Unfortunately, Guy’s attempt to inform the nurse that he was walking out of the hospital had went about just as smoothly as she had expected.

Not at all.

“He thought it would be a bright idea to jump out of a second story window and leave the hospital without letting anyone know. To this moment, the reason for not just walking out the front door when he could still eludes me.” With the subtlety of a sledgehammer, she smashed into Guy’s disorderly and inconsiderate conduct. Though, she refrained from saying anything about his smoking habit despite the temptation burgeoning inside her to do so.

“Nursing school did not train me to deal with this at all...” The nurse muttered. “There were at least 6 red flags I could hear in the entirety of what the two of you said and half of them make no sense. You’re aware of that, right?”

“I can’t tell by looking, but I do have other means,”

I see, so that must be her 'ability'. He thought. It was unnerving to think that she could divine that sort of information without his awareness. Just what else could she detect with that power of hers?

***

“He thought it would be a bright idea to jump out of a second story window and leave the hospital without letting anyone know. To this moment, the reason for not just walking out the front door when he could still eludes me.”

His head swivelled to face Kohaku and he gave her a pointed look without changing the carefree expression on his face. Altogether the gesture conveyed his disbelief in entirely silent terms.

“Nursing school did not train me to deal with this at all...There were at least 6 red flags I could hear in the entirety of what the two of you said and half of them make no sense. You’re aware of that, right?”

"Haha, really, you don't need to worry about that..." He was quick to wave off the nurse's concerns. "My name's Li. Guy Li, room..." He started her back on track before he was interrupted by an older man's voice.

"Ah, Li-san. I should have known you'd be causing trouble." Heaven Canceller admonished him in the good-humoured way of a pensioner who secretly found himself amused by his grandchildren's antics. "Still indulging those bad habits of yours, I see?" The doctor gestured to the unlit cigarette in Guy's hands.

"What can I say? I'll quit after I finish this pack, I swear." There was no sincerity in Guy's voice but Heaven Canceller didn't press the issue. It was likely that this was a long running source of disagreement between the two.

What unfolded before Kohaku continued to amaze her. There were only so many ways she could ever observe patient non-compliance, or so she thought, but surprisingly, just so much of it was in full display before her.

She may have been tactless in terms of her own communication, but she could read the signals going between Guy and Heaven Canceller quite easily.

Though, this was hardly her own battle to fight and the most she could do while the two of them were talking to each other was stay the wallflower she was being. At least that was how it seemed.

While she at first brought out a hand and thought to pull down on lobule of his ear to make her point, she decided quickly to rescind that action and merely cross her arms. After all, there was no need to give him further injury. With a stern scowl and a bit of a blush, she just spoke up the only line she could think of. “If you’re going to lie, at least make it somewhat believable.”

It was hardly the girl’s brightest moment, but it was all she could find to blurt out despite her hero standing in the vicinity—or perhaps due to his presence. A young girl’s heart was fickle, after all.

“If you’re going to lie, at least make it somewhat believable.”

"Hey! Why are you getting involved all of a sudden?" Guy pouted, feeling put upon from all sides. This was one of the reasons he hated hospitals. It felt like walking into enemy territory outnumbered and alone. "Don't tell me you two are in collusion? Did you put her up to all this?" He narrowed his eyes in an accusatory glare levelled at the elderly doctor.

"I don't know what you mean." The frog-faced doctor smiled simply as he ignored the accusation.

"I mean, did you send one of your nurses to lull me into a false sense of security with her charms only to lead me to you?"

"Are you trying to say you've been avoiding me?" The old man asked calmly. The question caused Guy to falter a little. "Kohaku-chan. Has he been causing you undue trouble?" Heaven Canceller asked sympathetically.

"You're free to leave." The nurse behind the desk tried to interject only to be thoroughly ignored. She shook her head in disbelief and returned to her work.

In retrospect, seeing how much of a troublesome patient the man was, giving him the ammunition to walk out of the door of the hospital at his own leisure was likely a poor choice. After all, he was the troublesome type who would show up at the hospital injured and then bolt out of there when nobody was looking.

Well, there were pros and cons for either choice and what was done was done.

No point in worrying about those consequences. It’s probably for the best anyway.

That being said, Kohaku directed her gaze towards the doctor who was giving such a sympathetic gaze that he even dropped the usual honorific he used to address her for it. It was definitely a bizarre sight for her.

That and the nurse’s reaction in tandem were definitely a new facet to the hospital. Human nature was truly an odd thing but it inevitably painted certain facets of a hospital and its workers.

“Wait, how normal is this?” In actuality, the answer was fairly obvious from the context, but Kohaku couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and ask. Was this her developing some sense of tact? Well, it was her developing something, heavens knew what it was.

"Avoiding is a strong way of wording it. I've just been trying to save you the time and hassle of telling me things I already know." Guy waved the accusation away. "Eat better, don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, don't get into fights. I know all that stuff already."

"Wait, how normal is this?"

Heaven Canceller sighed and shook his head. It was a gesture that told more than words could, like the parent of a naughty child finally getting a moment's peace after putting them to bed.

"More than you realise. Many people seem to think of doctors as bearers of bad news when the truth is we're just trying to help." He lamented. "This man is one such person."

"Hey, how about you don't talk about me like I'm not here?" Guy grumbled. "Or should I take that as you telling me to leave?"

"I can't force you to stay, but I do recommend you take the time to visit again soon. You do realise you don't need to seek out injury just to get a doctor's appointment, don't you?" The older gentleman added wryly.

"Very funny..." Guy muttered under his breath as he turned to leave. He stopped briefly as though remembering something. "Oh, Kohaku was it? I didn't get your number..." He pulled out his phone with a smile as he addressed the young lady.

Heaven Canceller did not even need to speak for Kohaku to be fully aware of what the answer to her question was. Every word that ended up rolling off the old doctor’s tongue was exactly what she expected.

Given how far things had rolled, Kohaku began to question if, just maybe, going with the flow here would probably be more prudent than what she was already doing. Her mind seemed to focus on unraveling the answer to the question as the doctor and the young man had their banter.

Just as Guy had began to turn around, she had finally come to her answer. In the end, going with the flow and taking that oh so wonderful path of least resistance was the best choice for this scenario, even if she wasn’t a particular fan of it.

“Oh, Kohaku was it? I didn’t get your number...”

She saw the Guy pull out his phone with a smile and reflexively pulled out her own to initiate the NFC. “Oh, sure. Give me a sec--” She began to reply but quickly cut herself off as she realized what she was saying.

Damn going with the flow.

She stared at her phone and then back to Guy. “Is this some new method for flirting?” She was never particularly in the loop with that kind of thing after all.