The bell for the end of the first period had just rung when Rei ran over and lightly poked the back of Qiluo's hand. “Go now, before Ms. Tanabe gets surrounded by other students.”
Was Ms. Tanabe actually that popular?
Qiluo closed her textbook and stood up.
She had originally planned to go during the lunch break, but Rei's eyes clearly said that if she didn't go, Rei would go in her place.
Qiluo, of course, didn't want to trouble Rei.
She walked down the corridor and knocked on the door of the staff room.
Ms. Tanabe was sitting at her desk grading homework, her red pen making a soft rustling sound against the paper.
She looked up, her glasses sliding down to the middle of her nose, casting an inquiring gaze over the top of the lenses.
“Tian Gong-san? Is there something you need?”
Qiluo briefly explained what had happened last night.
Working the night shift at the convenience store, the Erosion Body attack, the Magical Girl arriving...
Ms. Tanabe put down her red pen, took off her glasses, and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
“Yano-san ran into me in the corridor this morning and already told me about you.”
There was a hint of expected understanding in her tone. “She said that if you came to ask me about the compensation, I must make sure to comfort you.”
“...When did she say that?”
“Before the warning bell for the first period. She probably came straight to the staff room as soon as she arrived at school.”
So Rei had told her after all?
Rei was simply too sweet.
Ms. Tanabe put her glasses back on. “The school can submit the victim compensation application on your behalf. Trauma is also covered under the claim. The Association has commissioned a specialized insurance agency to handle these incidents.”
She pulled a form out of her drawer, her fingertip tracing across several lines of items on the paper.
“In addition to property damage, there is also an item for a health checkup. The Association has designated several hospitals to provide free health checkups for victims of Erosion Body incidents.”
“Most general hospitals don't have this specialized detection equipment; only the inspection agencies designated by the Association are equipped with them.”
She turned the form around to show Qiluo, lightly tapping her finger on a certain line. “Although this hospital is a bit far from the school, it has the most complete equipment.”
Qiluo glanced at the hospital's name, a glint flashing in her eyes.
The University Medical School Affiliated Hospital.
Hmm... She knew this hospital.
She had scanned through it while looking up information last time. It was an affiliated medical institution directly under the Association, and its mana detection equipment used the exact same lineage analyzer as the Observation Department.
If even the Association's equipment couldn't detect any abnormalities, then she would never have to worry about exposing her main body in battle ever again.
So when Ms. Tanabe suggested going to the largest hospital, Qiluo actually agreed in her heart, and was even a little expectant.
“I suggest you go today.” Ms. Tanabe's tone left no room for negotiation. She tore off a leave slip, her pen gliding quickly across the paper.
“Erosion Body contact can have delayed effects, and some symptoms might appear within twenty-four hours. You seem to be in good spirits today, but we can't judge these things based on feelings alone. I'll approve your leave for this afternoon's classes.”
Ms. Tanabe handed her the leave slip along with the form. “Are you okay going alone? Do you need me to accompany you?”
“I'll be fine going alone. Thank you, Ms. Tanabe.” Qiluo took the leave slip and the form, bowing slightly.
The teacher directly writing a leave slip for her to go today was a bit of a surprise.
It seemed she had also been influenced by Rei, thinking that while Qiluo appeared calm on the surface, she must have suffered a significant shock inside.
Which was fine; it saved her the trouble of finding another time.
Qiluo folded the leave slip and put it in her pocket, returning to the classroom first.
The bell for the second period had just rung, but the teacher hadn't arrived yet.
She quietly slipped in through the back door and stuffed her textbooks and notebooks into her schoolbag.
Rei turned around from diagonally in front, mouthing 'how did it go?' Qiluo raised the leave slip in her hand, and Rei immediately gave her a secret thumbs-up under the desk.
“Take notes for me during this afternoon's classes,” Qiluo whispered.
“Leave it to me! Send me a message once you're done with the checkup, and don't bottle things up by yourself.”
As for Yuki...
If she told her she was going to the hospital, Yuki would probably take a leave of absence directly to accompany her.
But Yuki probably already knew she was going for a health checkup, right?
...
The physical examination center of the University Medical School Affiliated Hospital was located in a separate building behind the inpatient department.
A faint smell of disinfectant drifted through the first-floor lobby, where a guidance robot was directing an elderly man to his destination floor.
Following the signs, Qiluo found the floor for the Mana Residue Detection Department. After registering her basic information at the nurse's station at the end of the corridor, she received a health checkup flow chart and sat on a bench in the waiting area, flipping through the precautions on the back of the form.
It was common knowledge in this world that even if ordinary people were not injured after close contact with an Erosion Body, a trace of mana fluctuations would still remain.
If her reading was truly a flat zero, it would instead draw unnecessary attention.
So she could release just a tiny bit.
There were only a few scattered people in the waiting area, and the sound of footsteps in the corridor was muffled softly by the floor.
The phone at the nurse's station rang, and the nurse on duty picked it up, keeping her voice very low.
After a few whispered words, she glanced toward the waiting area and turned around with the receiver.
Covering the mouthpiece with her hand, she whispered, “Yes, I have the reserved health checkup form here... Dr. Shimoda said it's fine, let the intern doctor do the initial examination first.”
Qiluo didn't pay attention to any of this, staring blankly at a plane's vapor trail outside the window.
She simply thought that being able to fly without magic was a very impressive thing.
Meanwhile, in the doctors' lounge at the other end of the corridor, Rin Kurokawa was heating up a coffee she had just bought from the convenience store across the street in the microwave.
With a beep, she took the coffee out. Just as she was about to sit back down on the sofa, there was a double knock on the lounge door.
“Dr. Kurokawa—sorry, Dr. Shimoda asked me to get you.”
The nurse's tone was somewhat urgent. “The high school girl who made an appointment for the mana residue detection today has arrived. Dr. Shimoda said this is her appointment, but Dr. Shimoda is still in a meeting.”
She put her coffee on the table and picked up the medical examination clipboard from the desk.
The clipboard held the appointment slip and a blank detection form, and the name column on the very top sheet clearly read 'Qiluo Tian Gong'.
Rin Kurokawa froze for a moment. Qiluo Tian Gong...
This wasn't the first time she had heard this name.
Could it be such a coincidence? What if it was just someone with the same name?
Rin Kurokawa flipped open the health checkup flow chart, quickly scanning the basic data while suppressing the slightly inexplicable, complex emotions in her heart.
“She's waiting outside. The appointment form was filled out by a teacher from her school this morning, and the emergency contact field is blank,” the nurse added.
Coming to the hospital alone for an examination, with no family to accompany her.
Was her family not around, or did she simply not tell them?
Rin looked up. “Did Dr. Shimoda say if there's anything we need to pay special attention to during the initial examination process?”
“She said to just follow the standard procedure. However, this girl had close contact with an Erosion Body last night, so even though she has no external injuries, it's recommended to do a more detailed mana residue detection.” After saying this, the nurse turned and went back to the corridor.
Rin Kurokawa stood in place, took a deep breath, tucked the clipboard under her arm, and pushed open the door to the lounge.
She stood by the door for a moment, her gaze sweeping past the row of light gray benches in the waiting area and landing accurately on the seat by the window.
Qiluo Tian Gong was sitting there, her head turned to look out the window.
In her mind, Rin quickly compared Yuki's description with the person in front of her.
The girl sat there, her head turned to look out the window.
Her posture wasn't particularly formal; one hand rested on the armrest of the bench while the other was casually draped over her knee. Instead of waiting for a medical checkup in a hospital, she looked more like she was sunbathing on a park bench.
Her expression was very faint, as if she were thinking about something interesting, though it didn't show on her face.
This was Qiluo Tian Gong?
She had assumed Yuki would like the kind of gentle, well-behaved girl who smiled sweetly.
Someone who would take the initiative to hold Yuki's arm, wave and call her name in the corridor, speak in soft whispers, and have her eyes curve into crescent moons when she smiled.
But the person sitting on the bench looked neither gentle nor well-behaved.
She was indeed very good-looking, though.
Rin Kurokawa wasn't the type of person to be easily swayed by appearances.
There were too many attractive people in medical school, and there were plenty of outstanding looks among the patients' family members coming and going in the wards.
But Qiluo Tian Gong's beauty wasn't the kind that needed to be described as delicate.
Her facial features were more defined than those of the average Japanese girl, the lines of her profile from her eyebrows to her nose and then to her chin looking as if they had been drawn with the simplest strokes in a sketching class.
There was a sense of composure in her temperament that didn't belong to someone her age. Though the glance just now had been brief, those eyes had left a deep impression on her.
Even when watching a plane, she possessed a focus that made people feel she was contemplating some crucial issue.
No wonder Yuki liked her...
Rate on N.U.
