Chapter 18 - The Doctor #4
The Doctor #4
Translator : Elizabeth
"Doctor, why aren't you happy...?"
At the words I spat out, the Doctor with the terrible lower face stared at me for a long time in place.
"Haha, our little nurse. Me not happy. There's no way that's possible."
He made an excuse for now, but I have been feeling an unknown sensation flowing zzzt zzzt along my skin since earlier.
Strangely, the source of the sensation is connected to the Doctor.
Just since when had I realized this sensation.
'Anomaly.'
「▶ You have now become a full-fledged Anomaly.」
As the status window informed me, maybe it's because I became 'something' other than human now.
'For the Daycare Director, I put a flower crown on her head.'
And like that, unknown memories flowed in mak mak, and I really almost died.
...In reality, it was just because I was super flustered experiencing it for the first time though.
Now, even if I go through the events of that time once again, I don't think I'll struggle that much, yeah.
'...Or not?'
With such thoughts, I looked at the 'Huge Saw' the Doctor was holding in front of my eyes.
An object very closely related to the subject of the Anomaly.
For the Director it was a flower crown, and now it might be that huge saw.
Since he considers surgery this sacred, and also important.
Swish.
Wiping my stinging eye corners with my arm, I looked back at the Doctor again.
"Our cute little nurse seems to have a very tender heart."
"...Sniff."
"But I am really okay. Whether angry, or sad, I am really not feeling such emotions."
"Then, why..."
"Indeed. Just why are you looking at me with such sad eyes."
No, you are right now.
Denying your own self.
A sorrowful yet suffocating sensation, just like when I touched the Daycare Director, tormented me continuously.
Accordingly, I shook my head side to side shake shake.
Braided hair on both sides fluttered alternately and tickled my cheeks.
"Nuh-uh... No."
"Yes?"
"You're crying."
"Yes, you are crying, right?"
"...No, the Doctor is."
"...Since earlier, you are saying truly incomprehensible words."
My gaze headed to the 'Huge Saw' he was holding before I knew it.
A tool he used directly and possessed to execute surgeries for patients.
Thump! Thump!
Lumps of meat attached on the saw blade were still pulsating disgustingly, but—
I think I knew now.
Grab.
An energy like instinct keeps forcing me to act.
I willingly grabbed the saw held in his hand, intending to cause 'a certain phenomenon'.
Ding!
「Condition achieved.」
「Receiving rewards.」
Like that—
"....!"
「- Reward: Little Lamb's Embrace (F)」
「▶ You have a rare realization continuing from the Daycare. A heart understanding and caring for the opponent's pain. You can view a part of the memories of the entity that achieved the 'condition'.」
'Ah.'
Reading the phrases of the status window floating in my vision, unknown information flows into my head.
A familiar sensation, a feeling similar to when I connected with the Daycare Director assaulted me, but.
'Different from then.'
Unlike when it messed up my identity without notice, right now a contact point called 'Understanding' was being created newly between mine and the Doctor's identities.
It seemed thanks to the ability of the skill I just obtained.
Like that, continuously like that...
"New nurse, you right now—"
At the abnormal phenomenon that started suddenly, the Doctor raised his wariness belatedly, but.
I didn't let go of the huge saw touching my hand.
Zzzzt.
Along with a sound like noise intervening, consciousness drifted away gradually.
.. ... ....
September 10, 19XX - Men in neat black suits visited the hospital. They introduced themselves as a special medical institution under the government. They promised unconventional support funds to our hospital, and in return asked for one ward for 'New Drug Clinical Trials'. I tried to refuse, but as someone suffering from financial difficulties, I inevitably decided to make a deal to save at least the patients remaining in the hospital.
Memories continue to flow in.
They weren't mine.
"Phew, phew..."
Blood cooled down coldly, and it was hard to breathe, but I endured hugging the doll containing the Crying Child detached from my waist tightly in my arms.
"....."
October 25, 19XX - After they visited, the hospital became no longer a hospital. What the men in black suits spread under the pretext of 'Clinical Trials' was a black curse. Patients are screaming and tearing off their own flesh. These devil-like bastards were driving patients to death.
December 10, 19XX - The hospital door was welded from the outside and firmly closed. They said it was the government's guideline to prevent the infectious disease from spreading. Food and medicine are running out. I wanted to save the patients even by transfusing my blood, but the black curse was taking patients in the hospital away from me faster than that.
January 20, 20XX - Just now, the youngest patient in the hospital breathed their last in my arms. The tender body that should have lived in a bright future died groaning asking to rather kill them while their skin turned black. I killed them. I killed them. I'm sorry. Sorry—
February 5, 20XX - The black curse occurred in me too. Auditory hallucinations are heard continuously, and hallucination symptoms are severe too. Patients are howling from all directions. Patients living a life worse than death were screaming asking please kill them. I made them like this. Surgery, I had to save them somehow.
March 14, 20XX - Selecting patients with the most severe symptoms, I proceeded with surgeries to forcibly incise the parts where the black curse spread. To liberate them from the disease, to save at least their lives, I had to do so.
March 16, 20XX - There was a patient with only the upper body remaining after surgery, but the patient was no longer screaming that it hurts. I did it. I succeeded in treating them.
July 29, 20XX - There were no longer patients remaining in the hospital. Everyone is laughing. They were smiling at me thanking me for treating them. From some time ago, the firmly closed hospital door also opened. I immediately to receive the next patients...
"...Hic."
The breath I was holding bursts out forcibly.
The body craving oxygen blurred my vision mistily and took away the initiative of the body.
Before I knew it, I became a state sitting collapsed in place as if hanging onto the Doctor's saw.
'It's okay.'
Cold sweat is pouring, and I feel like I'm losing my mind, but—
Still, it was much more bearable than experienced before. Is it thanks to the difference in perception.
Or, it might be thanks to the skill newly obtained this time.
"Ugh, Bleeaaargh...!"
And simultaneously, an anomaly occurred from the Doctor in front of me.
The Anomaly flinching as if in pain soon began to vomit black thick liquid through the lower face with only bones remaining.
Splatter!
Vomiting that sticky mucous-feeling thing on the floor several times, the Doctor staggered and looked back at me.
"Ah..."
"Pa, patient. Is the door open, have to go out quickly... Ugh."
As if confusion of memory came, the Anomaly groaning holding his head muttered alone several times even after that.
"Healing, at least the young patient, no, clearly on the contract... Shouldn't have accepted. Shouldn't have accepted...!"
Gurgle!
Vomiting thick liquid again, he struggles painfully.
'Black Curse.'
I recalled information in the log that flashed by in the fragments of memory.
It said people in black suits left a black curse in the hospital.
That thorough isolation measures followed is a tragedy and disaster that happened after that.
"Nu, Nurse."
"Ah."
The approaching Doctor asked while grabbing my shoulders as if to crush them.
"Right now, the patients' symptoms, how are they...?"
To that, I looked around.
Everyone was seated.
All of those are victims and monsters created by the Anomaly here.
Nurses and patients have all crossed a path of no return.
The content in the log read from his memory was about things already too late.
"...."
And, and it hurts too much...!
Squeeze!
Whether force control doesn't work because his mind became unstable, the force grabbing my shoulders is no joke...!
"Hi, hic. It hurts..."
"Ah."
Therefore, at the reaction I made unknowingly, the startled Doctor took his hands off hurriedly.
"So, sorry. I didn't intend to hurt you. Hurt, shouldn't hurt—"
Staggering in place, the Doctor wandered as if confused for a long time like that—
Suddenly, he swung the huge saw held in his hand roughly.
Where that murderous blade headed was none other than his own head.
Swish!
"Hiek."
At the disaster that will happen in the future, I ended up closing my eyes reflexively.
Crunch!
When I opened my eyes with difficulty again, most of the blade had dug into the Doctor's head.
Flowing brain fluid and blood drip drip downward, the Doctor who stopped action in place smiled with his eyes looking at me.
"Ah, only now I come to my senses. Seems I had a dream for a moment. To play a prank on me, our little nurse seems to have a mischievous side."
"Do, Doctor."
"You do not need to worry about me. Everything will find its place again. Please return to your seat now. I will end today's public surgery here. Thanks to you, my head feels clear."
No.
It shouldn't end here.
"Ca, Can't..."
"Please return."
If you go back like this, you will be in pain again and at the end of pain, enter hell again.
Catching good people, operating terribly, and binding them to this hospital.
'You.'
Is it okay for the doctor who wanted to protect the patients in the desperate log to become a monster again.
"...."
I closed my eyes tightly.
Memories from the Daycare flash by.
Our Director Teacher was like that too.
Wanted to protect the children, and even while crying waaa because she was so sad, she remained in her seat and tried to protect the Daycare and children continuously.
And I couldn't let a person walking a similar path return to that path again.
「▶ You seem to have something you want to convey to the entity in question.」
"Ah..."
Something I want to convey, that is.
Flash.
Suddenly, discovering something falling fluttering from the sky, I caught it and checked.
**「▶ Bloodstained Patient Gown (C)
It belongs to a patient who was in Sungjin Mental Hospital. The black curse took everything away from the doctor.」**
"...That."
The outfit that was there when he was a normal human.
Holding that, pushed by instinct, I opened my mouth.
"Teacher, hic. I hurt..."
"No, no, no no no no no no."
Don't go please live live live I shouldn't have accepted that deal sorry I was wrong please don't leave me please, everyone...
"Aaaaaaaah!!"
Creak.
The bodies of the audience who stood up from their seats before I knew it twist all at once.
As the center of the Anomaly wavered, they acted instinctively to eliminate the cause itself.
And that center.
"Ah."
Receiving everyone's murderous gazes, I ended up dropping my head unable to endure anymore.
No matter how reassuring Ung-ae is, it won't be able to protect me from this much quantity, nor let me escape.
'...What do I do now?'
The moment nurses and patients who stood up from seats were about to narrow the distance to me slowly—
Rattle!
The door connected to the outside opened rattle.
And.
"Hmm, hmm~"
A very familiar voice was heard.