"You're doing surprisingly well now." The doctor said as she finished her examination. She stepped back slightly, clipboard resting against her hip. "I was expecting more confusion. Maybe some lingering disorientation. Either you got very lucky with how you were hit… or you just happen to have a body that recovers faster than most."
She turned toward the shelves lining the wall, grabbed a small tin of ointment, and pressed a bit into her palm before returning. Her touch was firm but careful as she gently worked it into the bruises along his cheekbone.
"This should help with the swelling." She said, matter-of-fact. "And with the discomfort. It'll also help the bruises fade faster than they normally would." She straightened, wiping her hands before handing him the tube. "Try to take it easy for a few days. No unnecessary stress, get proper rest. If you feel headaches or anything unusual, over-the-counter painkillers are fine. But if it lingers, come back. Don't try to tough it out."
After stopping by Untouchables Airsoft and dropping the guns off in his room at Leblanc, Ren had returned to the clinic just like she'd asked. Part of it was obligation. The other part was curiosity. He wanted to know how much the twins had actually done for him.
Other than the occasional dull headache, he felt… fine. Too fine, honestly. Even the bruising had gone down far quicker than he expected.
Takemi studied him in silence for a moment, her eyes narrowing just slightly.
"Did you take any medicine other than what I prescribed yesterday?" She asked.
"Huh?" Ren blinked, then shook his head. "No. Nothing."
"I see…" She tapped her finger against the edge of her desk, gaze drifting away as she thought. The pause lingered just long enough to feel deliberate. Then she looked back at him. "Tell me… would you be interested in a part-time job here?"
The question hit him strangely.
For a brief moment, Ren felt a pull deep in his chest, subtle but unmistakable. And when he blinked, he saw something he hadn't before. A thin, nearly invisible thread stretching between them. Fragile. Unsteady. Like it might snap if either of them moved the wrong way.
"A job?" he asked, forcing his attention back to her. "What kind of job?"
The thread trembled, quivering softly, but it didn't break.
"I'm working on a new medicine." Takemi said. There was hesitation in her voice now, just a trace of it. "The side effects have been… problematic for the previous test subjects. But you seem resilient. I think you might be able to handle the discomfort."
She paused, eyes meeting his directly.
"Your help would mean a lot."
Ren thought of the Velvet Room. Of the words he'd been told there. That his bonds would become his strength. And now, he could see it. Literally. The longer he hesitated, the more the thread between them shook, growing taut and uncertain.
"…Sure." He said at last.
The moment the word left his mouth, the thread went still, settling into place as if it had always belonged there.
"I wouldn't mind being the Igor to your Frankenstein." Ren added, a faint smile tugging at his lips as he leaned into the theatrics just a little. "At your service, Doctor."
A faint smile crossed Takemi's face as she rolled her eyes, clearly amused despite herself. Without another word, she stepped out of the clinic, the door swinging shut behind her. She returned a moment later holding a small cup filled with a strange red liquid.
"Oh really?" She said, holding it out toward him. "Then prove it."
Ren took the glass from her hand and brought it closer, giving it a cautious sniff. It had that unmistakable medicinal smell, sharp and artificial, faintly reminiscent of flu syrup. Not pleasant, but familiar enough.
He glanced back at her, then lifted the cup with a confident smile.
"Cheers." He downed it in a single gulp.
The reaction was instant.
His face twisted as the taste hit him, sour and bitter, his tongue tingling unpleasantly as he swallowed. It burned on the way down, not painfully, but enough to make his eyes narrow. Definitely not something meant to be enjoyed.
"Wait, wow…" Takemi muttered, reaching out as if to stop him before freezing mid-motion. She stared at him, eyes widening slightly. "You actually drank that? And you look fine…" Her lips curled upward, excitement bleeding through. "Not bad—"
Ren would have liked to keep the act going, but another wave of revulsion rolled through him before he could respond. His expression soured further as he clamped a hand over his mouth, barely holding back the urge to gag. His mouth burned now, sharp and acidic, like he'd just swallowed battery acid. Then the headache hit, sudden and heavy.
Yeah. This was a bad idea.
Maybe experimenting with experimental medicine right after getting beaten half to death by Kamoshida hadn't been his smartest move. But the thought slipped away almost as soon as it formed, his head growing fuzzy as discomfort crept in and dulled his focus.
"Ah, never mind." Takemi muttered, already moving. She was at his side in an instant, guiding him back onto the bed. "There it is."
Her movements blurred as she rushed to grab her tools, starting another examination without missing a beat. Ren could feel sweat forming along his skin, heat spreading through his body. It wasn't painful, exactly. More like standing under the sun for too long while wearing a thick jacket.
Uncomfortable, but manageable.
At some point, the fog lifted.
Ren wasn't sure when he'd drifted, but when his awareness returned, Takemi was sitting beside him, gently wiping sweat from his forehead. She jotted a few notes down before glancing back at him, a small smile tugging at her lips when she noticed his eyes refocus.
"Seriously…" She said, shaking her head. "What kind of idiot drinks that in one go?"
The teasing was unmistakable as she handed him a glass of water. Ren didn't hesitate, taking it and draining it just as quickly.
When he turned back to Takemi, he noticed that the smile on her face was unexpectedly warm. The strange thread connecting the two of them, which had been all but invisible just moments ago, had also changed. He could faintly see it now, and it looked a little less thin than before.
"I know." Ren said with a quiet chuckle. "Pretty sure that kind of stupidity usually comes from getting dropped as a kid."
Takemi let out a sharp exhale, not quite a laugh, but close enough to count.
"Alright then." Takemi began, shaking her head. "If you are good enough to joke around with me, then you can probably head back home. Since you are going to help me, I'll send you a message once I have the next version of the medicine ready." Then, her expression turned slightly more serious as she continued. "Don't hesitate to come back if you feel any strange side effects, alright?"
"Alright." Ren answered her with a nod, then before he left, he stopped. "Hey, Dr. Takemi, I have a strange question. Did you happen to study any psychology when getting your degree?"
"A bit." She answered, somewhat puzzled. "But it wasn't something I focused on. Why?"
"Ah, it's nothing major." Ren answered, hiding his disappointment. "I was actually interested in becoming a psychologist in the future, so I've been doing some extra research for when I go to get my degree. There was one thing I was trying to find out more about."
"Really?" Takemi asked, the smile returning to her face. "Well, I don't remember much about the classes, but I might still be able to help, what are you trying to research?"
"Personas." Ren answered her, it was a shot in the dark, but he'd decided to trust his gut.
Thankfully, Takemi's eyes did light up with some recognition of the word.
"Actually, it does sound familiar." She muttered, thinking for a few moments before continuing. "I remember someone in my class got some recognition from his research, he even got to give a lecture in front of the class about his research while still being a student. Our professor really liked him. I think his name was Maruki? To be honest, you'd probably have some better luck going to the library for books related to the subject."
Ren couldn't help but perk up slightly at her answer, because it meant that he was hopefully on the right path. It also gave him a thread to pull, a name. It was a thread he couldn't wait to pull, so after finishing up with Takemi he quickly ran back to Leblanc and up into his room.
Pulling out one of the spare notebooks he had, he quickly began to scroll the internet using his phone. It wasn't ideal, but he didn't have a computer at the moment, and after buying the weapons for their next trip to the castle, he didn't have any spare money to buy even a cheap laptop.
To his disappointment, there wasn't much on the internet about Dr. Maruki. Only a few vague papers and experiments that listed his name as someone who used to be involved in the research of something called "cognitive psience." His research appeared to have some positive feedback at first, but then the university had cut his funding.
After that, the most he could find was that Maruki had left the university and his research to become a counselor. For a moment, Ren wanted to try to book an appointment with the man, but after seeing the price he couldn't help but curse.
He really was too broke at the moment. Depending on how everything went the next time they entered the castle, and how much more they could learn, they were really going to start needing far more income.
Though, having to manage a job and school work with that other world would probably become a nightmare, given just how many other things he would have to start preparing for in the future. For one, he'd have to start training his body, he couldn't afford to be running out of breath in the castle.
Then there was the other thing.
Closing his eyes, Ren tried to "focus on his heart." It took a few moments, but soon enough he could feel it… or them? His connections to Igor, Sojiro, Suzui, Takemi, and… Kawakami? Well, perhaps his teacher had more to her than he'd previously thought. She did seem to be one of the few that had gone out of their way to check up on him when he'd returned to school.
However, the people he had connections with weren't the thing that caught his eyes. No, it was how they were connected. The Fool, The Hierophant, The Tower, The Death, and The Temperance.
He had a feeling that there was more to it, so after googling the words he found his answer. Tarot.
Each of the names were connected to one of the major arcana, and after some more wandering around the web he began to make a list of the rest, something to give himself a better idea as to what it might mean. To be honest, the search felt a bit tenuous at best. It all appeared to be superstitious things, and most of them just seemed to spiral from one thing to the other.
Was he supposed to start learning about astrology too?
Before he could get too lost in his research, he found a small unassuming post on the internet about a "miracle worker." A woman in Shinjuku who was an expert in tarot. The poster mentioned that she had successfully warned him about the times when things were going to go wrong in his life multiple times.
"Shinjuku…" Ren whispered to himself, tapping his pencil on the desk a few more times before walking downstairs to meet with Sojiro.
"Hey there, Sojiro, my friends just invited me to stop by their house tomorrow night to study and eat some pizza. They were thinking of watching a movie afterwards too, so I might run a bit late. Would you be fine if I went?" He asked, trying to look slightly nervous.
"Friends?" Sojiro asked as he wiped one of the counters. "Could it be that Suzui girl is going to be there too?"
Ren raised an eyebrow, and then, deciding to play along, he let out an awkward cough.
"Uh… maybe…" He answered, making himself look somewhat embarrassed.
"Hoo boy." Sojiro remarked, a slight grin appearing on his face. "Look, it gets quite busy on Sundays during the afternoon. If you agree to help out then I'll let you go. That also means you are gonna have to spend the evening on Saturday learning the basics. I can't have you messing up customers' orders because you don't know what you are doing."
"Sounds like a deal." Ren answered him with a smile. "But you owe me some of that advice you mentioned before."
"Advice?" Sojiro asked, looking slightly confused before the smile on his face grew to a wide grin. "Ah, well, you came to the right place. Stick around me long enough, and by Valentine's Day you're going to be swarmed by the ladies."
~Confidants~
Tae Takemi (The Death) Rank 2