The first thing I noticed was the smell.
It didn't smell like a hospital. It smelled like lavender, formaldehyde, and... arousal?
I opened my eyes.
A blinding white light shone directly into my retinas. I tried to shield my face, but my hands wouldn't move.
I was strapped to a cold steel table. Leather cuffs bound my wrists and ankles. My shirt was gone.
(Okay. I've been kidnapped. Again. Is it Monday?)
"Subject is conscious," a voice purred from the darkness beyond the light. "Pupil dilation normal. Heart rate... elevated. Fascinating."
A face leaned into the light.
She was beautiful in a terrifying way. Messy purple hair tied back in a loose bun, thick black-rimmed glasses that slid down her nose, and a white lab coat that seemed a size too small.
Under the coat, she wore... well, a black lace camisole and very little else.
Dr. Mai Shinozaki. The "Witch of the Ward." An unlicensed genius who operated out of the sewers because the Medical Association deemed her methods "unethical."
"Where am I?" I rasped. My throat felt like sandpaper.
"In my playground," she giggled, tapping a scalpel against her chin. "You collapsed in my alleyway, Renji Amagiri. Your hand was rotting off. So naturally, I dragged you inside."
She grabbed my right hand. The black necrosis had spread to my wrist.
Most doctors would look at it with disgust. Mai looked at it like I had just handed her a diamond.
"Mana Void Syndrome," she whispered, tracing the blackened veins with a gloved finger. "But... mutated. It's not just dissolving mana. It's converting it into... something else."
(It's converting it into System data and my impending death.)
I needed to establish dominance. Being strapped to a table was bad for the "Sovereign" brand.
"Release me," I commanded, forcing my voice to be steady. "I am merely... resting."
"Resting?" Mai laughed. She pressed a finger against my bare chest, right over my heart. "Your heart is beating at 140 beats per minute. You're terrified."
(Crap. She's smart.)
"I am trembling with anticipation," I lied smoothly. "It is rare that a mortal dares to bind me."
Mai's eyes widened behind her glasses. A flush crept up her neck.
"Oh? You like being bound?"
She pressed a button on a console. The table tilted up slightly.
"Let's see what else you like," she murmured.
She picked up a device that looked suspiciously like a mana-infused vibrator, though I prayed it was a stethoscope.
"This is a Mana Resonance Probe," she explained, her breathing hitching. "I need to map your internal pathways. To do that... I need to stimulate the core."
She placed the cold metal tip against my solar plexus.
BZZZT.
"Ah!" I gasped.
It wasn't pain. It was a jolt of pure, concentrated sensation. It felt like someone had hooked my nervous system up to a car battery made of pleasure.
"Fascinating!" Mai cheered, looking at a monitor. "Your mana circuits are convulsing! The Void is hungry!"
She slid the probe lower, down my abdomen.
"Stop," I gritted out, sweating. "That tickles."
(That does not tickle. That feels like my soul is being milked.)
"Don't fight it," Mai whispered, leaning close. Her loose lab coat hung open, offering a view that would have killed a lesser man. "The more you resist, the more data I get."
She moved the probe lower. Just above the waistband of my pants.
"Your mutation," she panted, her face flushed red. "It's reacting to my proximity. It's trying to... eat me?"
She bit her lip, looking at my necrotic hand.
"Does it hurt?" she asked, suddenly serious.
"It feels like burning ice," I admitted, my mask slipping for a second.
Mai dropped the probe. She pulled off her glove.
Before I could stop her, she placed her bare hand on my rotting black skin.
"Don't!" I shouted. "It's contagious!"
"No," she whispered, her eyes losing focus. "It's beautiful."
My Void flared. It sensed her mana—high-grade, medical mana—and latched onto it.
Usually, this would kill the donor. But Mai... Mai pushed back. She fed her mana into the rot voluntarily.
"Yes..." she moaned, her knees buckling. "Take it. Take my energy. Show me how you devour."
The sensation was overwhelming. I felt her mana flooding into my arm, pushing back the necrosis. The black skin faded to grey, then to pale flesh.
[System Alert: External Mana Source Detected.] [Void Corruption Stabilized.] [Donor Status: Ecstatic.]
Mai collapsed onto my chest, panting heavily. Her glasses were fogged up.
"Incredible," she breathed into my ear. "You're a biological impossibility. A living black hole."
She looked up at me. Her eyes were swirled with madness and scientific lust.
"I want to study you," she declared. "I want to take you apart and see what makes you tick."
"I prefer staying in one piece," I said, trying to ignore the fact that a very attractive doctor was straddling me while I was tied up.
"Then let's make a deal," Mai purred.
She ran a finger down my jawline.
"Your condition is terminal. You have weeks, maybe days. But I..."
She licked her lips.
"...I can brew a serum to slow the rot. I can buy you time."
"And the price?" I asked, dreading the answer.
She smiled. It was the smile of a child who just found a new favorite toy.
"You become my test subject," she whispered. "Weekly visits. Full body examinations. And..."
She leaned down, her lips brushing against mine.
"You let me watch when the Void finally eats the world."
(She's crazy. She's absolutely insane.)
"Fine," I said. "But unstrap me first. My nose itches."
Mai giggled.
"Oh, Renji. We haven't even started the rectal temperature check yet."
(God, please save me.)