Beyond Recovery
The infirmary was spotlessly clean. A woman in a crisp white blouse that accentuated her full breasts and a neat black pencil skirt was on the phone with what appeared to be a friend. The doctor's coat draped over her shoulders made it immediately obvious she was the one in charge here.
She sat at her desk with her work laptop open, legs crossed arrogantly, leaning all the way back in her chair. Her phone was on speaker as she glared at it with pure boredom.
Yeah. She was slacking off instead of working. Blatant dereliction of duty.
"I heard the academy was finally getting its first male student, but I didn't think he'd be this fucking hot."
"Right? It's making me wonder who the hell created a creature that's both this cute and this ridiculously fuckable."
"I knew another guy was supposed to enroll too, right?"
"I overheard it in the last staff meeting. When the acceptance letter arrived... pfft... he killed himself at home!"
That was right. Besides Siwu, another male student had been scheduled to enroll. But the poor bastard had taken one look at the reality of attending a school crawling with terrifying, dangerous women and chosen the ultimate way out.
"Honestly... if I were a man, I probably would've done the same~"
Even after hearing the news, the woman on the phone didn't show a shred of pity. She mocked the stranger without a hint of shame. She had her reasons, though.
She had just withdrawn from the marriage information company she'd registered with—what people called the "marriage agency." She'd had some desire to actually get married, and the chance to even look at men who were normally impossible to see had been worth the steep registration fee. Or so she'd thought.
Instead of eligible bachelors, she'd only been granted interviews with their wives.
The marriage agencies in this world operated on a completely different system from the one Siwu had known. Even after being matched with a man, you didn't get a one-on-one meeting right away. First came the wife interviews. A brutal, high-pressure process that felt exactly like a corporate job interview—questions about age, wealth, education, career, Individuality, sexual appetite, everything. Only after surviving that gauntlet could you meet the man himself in the second round.
This poor woman hadn't passed a single first-round interview. She'd burned through her money and withdrawn after just one month. When she'd complained to the staff, their response had been ice-cold and brutally honest: "It's unavoidable, ma'am. Your qualifications simply weren't sufficient to pass the first screening."
One might wonder why she didn't simply target never-married men without existing wives. But that was naive. Women would never leave such a rare prize alone. While a handful of never-married men did occasionally register with agencies, those men were never matched with ordinary commoner women. Aristocratic families with titles went absolutely feral for bachelor husbands. The agency had no incentive to waste them on regular women who paid far less.
Yes. This woman's misandry had officially broken through the stratosphere.
"Fuuuuck. A gender that gets to live life on easy mode just by being born. Good fucking riddance, you worthless vermin."
"Hahahaha! Your sudden rage is hilarious~ So you really spent all that money and never even got to see a man's face?"
"Don't remind me. The way those wives grilled me about assets and abilities—fuck, just thinking about it again makes me want to scream, those bitches!"
She was furious. Her face had gone beet red as vulgarities poured from her mouth without any concern for who might hear.
"So you're giving up on marriage?"
"Are you insane? I refuse to die a virgin."
"Who's supposed to pop that cherry for you?"
"You wanna die, bitch?"
"Puhahahahaha! Ehhh~~ Too bad I already have a boyfriend~~"
She was already irritated, and her friend kept gleefully pouring fuel on the fire by bragging about her own lover.
"Yeah~ You're on your tenth girlfriend, aren't you~ Not jealous at all~"
"Yeah~ Still better than having none~"
She tried to fire back at her friend's teasing, but it did nothing to improve her mood. The truth was she desperately wanted a boyfriend—even a tenth one would do.
"Ha, fuck. I'm so jealous. Hey, can't you let me join your group?"
"Our Oyakano said she's not accepting any more members, so it's probably impossible. Keep trying, though~"
Oyakano: A portmanteau of "oyabun" (yakuza boss) and "kanojo" (girlfriend). Refers to the most powerful and influential girlfriend within a man's harem. Typically, no one can date the man without her explicit permission.
"Haaaa... fuck..."
She was exhausted from her own anger. She let out a deep sigh and dropped her head.
"...Cheer up, dumbass. Spring will come for you someday."
Her friend seemed to feel a little guilty for pushing too far and offered some half-hearted comfort instead of more teasing. It didn't help much.
"Haaaaaaa... If only that new male student would take my virginity, I'd have no more wishes in this life..."
"Haaaaaaa~~~ I'm going crazy wanting to get mine taken too."
"Wait, what? You have a boyfriend now and you still haven't done it?"
"It's not that I haven't. I can't. Our Oyakano only allows it after six months minimum... fuck..."
"Pfft... That's some strict-ass hierarchy."
It seemed her friend had plenty of her own frustrations too. The woman who had been staring at the ceiling let out several heavy sighs before her gaze returned to her phone screen.
It displayed a photo of Siwu unconscious on the infirmary bed. She licked her lips as she stared at it again.
It was like a painting of a feast just out of reach.
"By the way, who even took this picture?"
"Ahaha! Oh right, I hadn't told you yet. The one who was on night duty yesterday was..."
Just as she was about to explain how such a lewd photo had been taken, the sound of footsteps echoed from the hallway outside the infirmary door. The building housing the infirmary didn't see much foot traffic, so visitors were easy to notice.
"Hey, someone's coming. I should probably pretend to work..."
The woman straightened up in her chair and gave her friend the signal to end the call. Since her friend worked the same job, she immediately understood.
"Oki-doki, I'll call you later~"
"Yeah, yeah~"
She tapped her screen to end the long call. By then the footsteps were growing louder. Someone was about to walk in.
"Sigh..."
You had to work if you wanted to eat. That was the fate of every woman in this world.
Her attention naturally shifted toward the door. From the sound of the footsteps, it seemed like only one person was approaching. But while there was only one set of footsteps, there wasn't only one visitor.
The people who entered the infirmary finally came into view. One was a female student wearing the familiar uniform of the academy she worked at, and...
"........Huh?"
"Excuse us! This friend of mine isn't feeling well, so..."
Carried piggyback on the female student's back was a pretty, adorable boy who looked like a small, delicate animal.
Yes. The exact person from the photo she'd been drooling over had just appeared right in front of her!
Her brain momentarily short-circuited from the shock of the unexpected situation. But in that brief moment, her eyes drank in every possible visual detail, all of them locked onto the boy being carried on the student's back.
Small frame, tiny face, perfectly proportioned features like a beautiful doll... He matched the photo exactly.
...Fucking adorable.
Even that pitiful expression that triggered every protective instinct!
"Um..."
"O...oh?! Ah... y-yes! Why don't we get him seated first?"
The woman, who had been staring at the boy with a dazed expression, finally snapped out of it and responded to Senka.
...
...
...
What's with that look on her face...
Thanks to Senka's help, I had made it to the infirmary. It was the same place where I'd woken up last time. I hadn't seen the medical officer then, but I could see her now. The doctor's coat over her blouse made her position clear.
...That said, her expression was kind of terrifying. Her face was flushed bright red with a strange, giggling smile as she stared intently from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.
Fuck. It felt gross. Was this what they called eye-fucking? I never thought the day would come when I'd be on the receiving end.
It might have been rude, but no matter how I looked at it, she didn't seem to be examining me medically. Senka must have sensed the weird atmosphere too, because she stood behind me with sharp, mother-in-law-like snake eyes, watching the woman closely.
Thank you, Senka!
"...Are you... examining him right now?"
"O...oh? Y-yeah! I am!"
"I haven't even told you where it hurts yet?"
"Uh... what?"
Senka, apparently unable to watch the woman continue spacing out while staring at me, delivered a sharp rebuke.
"Wh-where does it hurt... that you c-came to see me, student?"
"Haaaa... My ankle..."
Senka let out a sigh and spoke for me. The woman looked unreliable, stuttering and acting like an idiot, so Senka shook her head in disbelief.
...Even if she was an adult, was this really okay?
"R-right... Your ankle... huh?"
Only after hearing Senka did the woman finally shift her gaze to my ankle. The clumsy idiot from moments ago vanished instantly, replaced by a serious expression and focused eyes as she examined it.
"...Can you lift your ankle just a little higher?"
"Yes."
I lifted one leg and rested it across my thigh so she could see my ankle better. A pure white light and aura began flowing from her eyes.
...This had to be an Individuality. I wondered what kind.
"...Who would do something like this..."
"Sorry?"
Do something? What did she mean?
"Your Achilles tendon is completely severed. It looks like it was deliberately cut."
It was as if she could see straight through my ankle. She began describing its condition in detail. Wait, what? Cut?
"C-cut? You said it was cut?"
"Yes. It's not torn. It's been sliced cleanly."
My heart began pounding rapidly. Fuck. What the hell had happened to my foot?
"This could never happen from a natural injury... Whoever did this was extremely vicious..."
The serious look on her face only made my anxiety spiral even worse.
"C-can... can it be fixed?!"
Please... please say it can be fixed... please... please...
My eyes locked onto her mouth, desperate for her next words.
But—
"I'm sorry..."
She apologized with what looked like genuine regret.
Fuck.
"H... huh?"
An idiotic sound slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
"If it were just a tear or partial severance, maybe... but this would require at least three specialized healers with Rank 1 Healing Individualities working together to have even a chance. And even if they could fix it, the minimum time before you could walk again would be..."
"M-minimum?"
"At least five years of consistent rehabilitation..."
Five years. Five years? Fuck? They might be able to fix it... but it would take five years minimum?
"Th-then... if we call those people...!!!"
Senka placed a hand on my shoulder. I turned to look at her. She wore an incredibly sad expression as she said my name.
"Siwu..."
"Th-then it can be fixed, right? It can be fixed, can't it? Right? Yes?!"
"...Heroes with Rank 1 Individualities are incredibly rare talents that the nation counts on its fingers. Calling even one for personal healing costs an astronomical amount, and many refuse even if you offer money because they're so busy... And if you need more than one..."
When I seemed unable to fully grasp it, the woman sitting in front of me continued the explanation. To summarize simply, she was telling me that healing was nearly impossible.
The shocking truth left my head completely blank. My mind went pure white.
"...Unless His Majesty the Emperor himself calls for them, it's probably hopeless, Siwu..."
Senka seemed to say something behind me. I barely heard it.
Why? Why? Just why? Who? What the hell did they do to my ankle?
