Chapter 86
[117]
“C’mon Ryuji! You can do this!” Ryuji Sakamato pepped himself before shutting his locker. “Just. Don’t. Be. A. Coward!” He slammed his head into the door repeatedly.
“Um, Ryuji?” Ann Takamaki asked, concerned for her friend. “You okay there?”
“Ann!” He turned to his friend, embarrassed. “Uh, yeah I’m fine. How are you?”
“Good. You wanna tell me what your locker did to make you so mad at it?” She eyed the dented metal door.
“Um, well y’see…” He scratched his neck, unsure of where to begin. “Y’know that girl in our grade, Hifumi Togo?”
“Kinda. Is she the one with that red ribbon in her hair? What about her?”
“Well I...I want to ask her to the dance, but I’m not sure if she’ll say yes. I mean, we’ve only hung out like three times...We don’t know each other very well...Oh who am I kidding, this is a horrible idea!” He slammed his head into his locker once more with a look of despair.
“Wow, I never thought I’d see the day.” Ann said, chuckling to herself.
“See what day?” Ryuji asked, turning his eyes towards her.
“Ryuji Sakamato is overthinking the situation. If you like this girl, just ask her out! The worst she can do is say no. And as for not knowing each other, there’s no better time to learn about one another than on a date.”
“For real?” Ryuji asked, lifting his head. “It’s that simple?”
“It is if you make it that simple.” Ann replied.
“Okay! Here we go! I’m gonna ask her out today in class!” He said, his usual energy returning to him.
“Attaboy!” Ann patted her fellow blond on the back.
“By the way, how are things going on the Ren front? Are you guys going to-”
“Don’t.” Ann stopped him, suddenly in a worse mood. “We don’t need to talk about that right now.”
“Oh? I thought you said it was simple. Maybe you should take your own advice and-”
“I will punch you.” She threatened.
“Look, all I’m saying is, quite a few girls seem interested. If you don’t hurry then someone might-OOF!” Ryuji was stopped as a fist connected with his gut.
“I warned you.”
“Hey kids, try to refrain from fighting in the halls.” A voice chided the two of them.
Turning toward the voice, the two teens were surprised to see a familiar man in a lab coat, finally back from his sudden and unannounced hiatus.
“Dr. Maruki!” The blondes exclaimed, excited to see him back.
Maruki was well known in the school for being the cool teacher, handing out snacks and playing movies during class. Everyone enjoyed his cool demeanor and the fact that he went out of his way to help students who struggled in his class.
“Glad to finally have you back.” Ann said, smiling.
“Glad to finally be back.” He replied back, taking a sip from his juice box. “You two should hurry on to class now, and Takamaki...try not to hit Sakamoto too hard in the future.”
“Yes sir.” Ann replied.
As the man walked off to his classroom, Ryuji couldn’t help but feel something was off.
“Hey Ann,” He turned to her questioningly. “Did Dr. Maruki seem...different to you?”
“Different how?”
“I don’t know, just different!” Ryuji exclaimed, frustrated.
“Seemed pretty ordinary to me, but then again I don’t know him too well. I’m not in his class afterall.” Ann stated before turning back to face Ryuji. “Hey, weren’t you going to go ask Hifumi out? Don’t try to change the subject! If you don’t ask her out by the end of the day, I’ll punch you in the gut again!”
“Please don’t.” Ryuji replied, covering his now aching stomach.
Meanwhile, upstairs in the nurse’s office, Tae Takemi sat behind her desk, waiting for a certain young man to enter her office. She’d received the text early this morning, Ren had been injured by a villain last night just after the Rainbow Bridge fell. Honestly, how much trouble could one boy get into?
Luckily, he’d already been treated last night, though he spared her the details of where and from who, much to her annoyance, so he wasn’t in any immediate danger. As the doctor sat, waiting for her patient to arrive, she tapped her fingernails against the desk impatiently. Checking the clock revealed that classes would be starting within the hour, so if Ren didn’t want to skip, he’d need to hurry his ass up.
Being a school nurse felt odd for Takemi, back when she ran her own clinic, she never used to have this much free time, it honestly drove her crazy. There were a few upsides too however, it allowed her to see her favorite patient more often, though she had to be careful when operating on him as his usual state of undress when she’d operate on him was frowned upon by the school.
Another upside was the new roommate this job had brought her, while at first Tae had worried that her small apartment would be too cramped for the young girl to live there with her (especially considering the size of her previous residence) but things were going surprisingly well between them. Haru Okumura was quite possibly the sweetest girl in the world, always trying her best to not be a burden and going out of her way to present Tae with expensive gifts she wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.
The final upside to this new job was that all of this free time allowed Tae to work on her main focus at the moment. The doctor opened her desk drawer to examine the small vial containing a bright pink liquid. This vial was the key to the future of medicine, made from blood extracted from Ren while he was still undergoing his mutation, this single vial could eventually be used to create a medicine strong enough to allow someone to heal from wounds the same way Ren did. Though in its current state, it was anyone’s guess as to what it would do if injected into the bloodstream. Tae had her theories, but no solid proof to go off of.
“Takemi?” A voice called as her office door cracked open revealing the boy she’d been waiting for.
“Cutting it a little close aren’t we?” Tae responded, quickly placing the vial back in her desk.
“You know me. I like to live on the edge.” Ren replied though his humor seemed somewhat forced. Before Takemi could ask what was wrong, he was already removing his shirt.
“Oh my, how forward of you.”
“I know the drill by now. Can we hurry? I really do need to get to class.” Ren asked impatiently.
“Sure, take all the fun out of it, why don’t you?” The doctor sighed before taking her seat next to him and beginning her inspection.
Ren’s morning was pretty normal from that point on, up until the end of homeroom that is. When Ms. Kawakami called on Ren to stay after class, he found it to be pretty strange. He didn’t remember doing anything particularly bad, though she may have noticed his attention was somewhat lacking during the lesson. His mind was still plagued by thoughts of last night's events, what he could’ve done differently. If he’d been slightly quicker, maybe his uncle would still be alive.
“-amiya? Amamiya? Hello?” Kawakami’s voice asked, annoyed.
It took a moment for Ren to register that his teacher was trying to ask him something.
“Sorry Ms. Kawakami, I know I’m a little distracted. There’s just been...alot going on lately.”
“Tell me about it. Did you hear about the Rainbow Bridge collapsing last night?” Kawakami asked before shaking her head. “That’s not the reason I asked you to stay after. There’s um, something I need to ask you.” Her cheeks became pink as she averted her gaze.
“Oh? What’s going on?” Ren said, intrigued.
“D-Do you still have that flyer? The one for the…” She turned to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “Maid service?” She whispered.
“Um no?” Ren raised an eyebrow. This conversation had taken a weird turn.
Kawakami rolled her eyes before reaching into her purse and pulling out a pink slip of paper and handing it to him discreetly. Ren recognized the slip from a few months ago, advertising Victoria’s Maid Service. Honestly, the events from that night had been so long ago by now, Ren had nearly forgotten they’d happened to begin with.
“I need you to call that number and ask for Becky.”
“Why-”
“Ssh!” Kawakami held a finger to her lips. “No questions. Just...Look, do this for me and I’ll make sure that no one finds out about your little secret.”
“My...My secret?” Ren said, his heart suddenly racing.
“Surprised? That’s right, I’ve got connections so I know things. And if you don’t want it to get out, you’ll call that number at 8:00pm tonight, got it?” Kawakami felt bad about blackmailing one of her students, but she was desperate.
“Y-Yeah. Got it.” Ren replied, taking the flyer and putting it into his bag before exiting the classroom.
‘How does she know? Did I slip up? Did someone else who knows say something by accident?’ Ren pondered the thought for a moment. ‘Goddammit Ryuji!’
Now wondering how he would reprimand his friend, Ren didn’t even notice the person directly in front of him until he bumped straight into him. The figure turned towards him and Ren cursed himself for being so distracted today, as he was about to apologize, he got a look at the man’s face and recognized him instantly.
“Dr. Maruki? You’re back!” Ren said with a smile, glad to finally be receiving some good news.
“Ren! Good to see you again.” Maruki stuck out his right hand to shake which Ren gladly accepted...Before finally realizing what was wrong with that.
“Wh-Dr. Maruki! Your arm!”
“Oh?” Maruki looked down at the arm. “Something wrong?”
“You’ve got two of them!”