ch261-ch280 · 270-ch270
Chapter 270: The Blood-Sucking Girl 【Nishino Miki】 Part 4
SIDE: Nishino Miki (the girl with the 【Blood Suck】 special skill)
"Miki, what the hell were you thinking! I told you NEVER to use that skill!"
Once I'd finished explaining everything, Coco-sis showed up.
Only now does she come, only now does she say that.
Only now do I notice, but even Coco-sis's smell is kinda meh......
"Calm yourself. If you've been hearing the circumstances, we'll continue the discussion as is. Here—take a seat."
Chided by Anego-san, Coco-sis takes a seat.
Technically she's our guardian of sorts—when we cause a problem, Coco-sis is the one who answers for it, which is why we're allowed to work at Mia-san's shop.
Considering that, I suppose her anger is only fair......
"Far as I can tell she's only used it on Hina, and if she doesn't use the skill from here on, there's no problem. But she did break a promise, once......"
"I'm against raising her level. Working at Miyako's shop from here on is fine by me, but give up the adventurer's path. If so, I'll even put up some money."
Laid over Mia-san's words, Anego-san speaks in a hard tone—but that actually makes me glad.
Hina wouldn't listen to anything except that she'd be just like Coco-sis, so I only kept coming to the dungeon because I had no choice.
"Put up money, you say? For you to go that far, Anego...... They should earn it themselves!"
That's Coco-sis for you—never offering her OWN money.
"Kokoa, there are treatment costs too. Dungeon-derived stuff probably isn't covered by insurance, right? I can't support you two without limit either, but I'll pay properly for the work you do. Still, these two have to save money for university as well. What they earn normally won't be enough."
Mia-san is always on my side.
But treatment costs......
I hadn't thought about that at all.
I'd been thinking that as long as I could eat here, everything would be fine......
Money, huh......
In the end, it always comes down to money.
Maybe I should give up on university and just take a job here?
If I could eat Soushi-kun's cooking while breathing in THAT one's scent, there could be no greater happiness......
"It is an inhumane method, but there IS a solution."
The moment I shoot a glance at THAT one, Watanabe speaks up.
Inhumane?
What is she planning to make me do?
Don't tell me—sell my body?
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"Muhoho. And you're truly fine with doing as you please with two high school girls?"
Just when I thought I was being sold off to some greasy old man, the other party turned out to be a beautiful woman doctor.
This one doesn't smell very tasty, though.
Watanabe brought me and Hina to a hospital inside the Chiba Dungeon.
I thought it'd be treatment first, but this doctor is definitely weird, right?
Maybe I really was sold off after all?
"Dr. Amamiya, I did not say 'as you please.' We are only providing data. I ask that your experiments stay within the bounds of not disrupting daily life."
So we ARE to be test subjects.
"The more I hear, the more interesting it gets. I had no idea a 【Chef】's skills were that useful. Perhaps I'll start taking my breakfasts in this dungeon myself? Well then, first things first—let's have an examination. Go on, change into the examination gowns. Muhoho."
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"Doctor, how are the results?"
The examination is over.
I was on guard, but the doctor's hands seemed perfectly normal.
The only unusual thing was being shown bags of donated blood.
Asked which looked tastiest, I pointed to the one with the best smell.
Can you really smell through the bag? I did wonder......
Asked if I wanted to drink it, I shook my head.
It was so obviously a trap question......
I'd rather have Soushi-kun's cooking than blood.
"Long story short, Higashi-kun is in worse shape than Nishino-kun. Better to keep some distance between you and observe. Ishikawa-kun is with her on that side, so even if something happens, she'll be fine."
"Eh? Hina is? Why?"
Wait—why was Hina even brought here and examined in the first place......
"You've heard the stories, haven't you? Get your blood drunk by a vampire and you become its thrall."
"That's...... that's just stuff from storybooks......"
"Dungeons are the things that came out of storybooks. Anything goes. In any case, Higashi-kun is showing symptoms of dependence on having her blood drunk. No matter how she begs you, you must not drink her blood. If it happens, come straight here for an examination."
The gravity of it sinks in.
I'd thought there were no victims......
"Is Hina...... going to be okay?"
"I can't say until we examine her on the surface as well. We'll retest at the university on a convenient day. For now, I'll say only this: she is not in a state of absolute obedience to your word, and it is nothing life-threatening. From here on, we'll test how far she obeys by having you give her orders she hates...... Muhoho."
Can that illness even be cured......
It won't stay like this forever, right?
"Dr. Amamiya, what about Nishino-san?"
Watanabe asks the doctor about my symptoms.
"The biggest worry—the craving for blood—isn't showing so far. On that front, we can breathe easy for now. Aside from taste, no particularly unusual symptoms have appeared either; as far as what we checked here goes, she's fine. Her weight has dropped over ten kilos, which concerns me, but you could call her present state the healthier one. For a closer look, we'll need the university again. Her taste seems manageable with a 【Chef】's cooking—and that 【Chef】 has already been arranged. Her treatment can proceed at a leisurely pace."
So I'm okay, apparently......
"Only taste, though? What about smell?"
"Ah, the 'sensing the scent of blood' thing. Her sense of smell showed no problems. That is synesthesia. The phenomenon of perceiving information gained through one sense through another—seeing colors when you hear sounds, tasting them, that sort of thing. A kind of talent, that. Skills are a sort of extra sense to begin with, and the original five senses are strengthened by stats as well. A dungeon-limited synesthesia linking skills and the senses—there are several case reports. In her case, she can tell the taste of blood by its smell. Her special skill and her sense of smell must have linked up."
"I see—synesthesia....... Like seeing presence as color, then......"
"Hoh? So you know someone like that? Someone whose skills are linked to sight. Assuming presence means sound is just preconception, you know. The fascinating thing about synesthesia is that it gains you MORE information than the single sense would ordinarily provide. For the present Nishino-kun, identifying someone by smell alone, without even looking at them, would be easy, no? In the same way, couldn't that acquaintance of yours identify people by presence color even from far away?"
THAT one, that person, Soushi-kun, and the smelly woman—I could pick them out in a heartbeat......
Ah—the blood bag from earlier might be that person's!
Did he donate blood? What a nice person!
"So that's all for today? I'll explain things to Higashi-san and send her home. Bill me for the two examinations—"
Lending out a person......
A watcher, I suppose.
I caught a bit of it earlier—apparently Dr. Amamiya is a VERY important person.
Something about how if anything happened to the doctor, not just this branch manager but bigwigs at headquarters would lose their jobs.
"Hm? Ah, no need to worry about money. If anything, I'd gladly pay for this. I'll rent her a room near where Nishino-kun lives too. On expenses—ah, no, we can't announce that, can we. For now it'll come out of my own pocket."
With "until we find her a room" as the reason, I've been living in a hotel since that day.
A hotel just outside the Chiba branch.
Adventurers can apparently stay there cheap, though it sees little use.
Shiraishi-san handles breakfast, Soushi-kun makes dinner.
Every need seen to.
All I have to do is humor Dr. Amamiya's "examinations" once a week—and apparently there's no treatment fee; I even GET money.
Honestly, Soushi-kun's cooking is better than blood anyway, and I'm the one without problems.
Now if only Hina would go back to normal......
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Several days since then.
I haven't drunk any blood with 【Blood Suck】.
Dr. Amamiya has me run skill verifications now and then, but it's only been showing my fangs, or manipulating my own blood.
So 【Blood Suck】 isn't just a skill for drinking blood, huh.
No change in my condition, and my sense of taste hasn't come back......
The "craving for blood," the vampiric impulse I was told was the problem—there's next to none, I'd say.
No problems. Yes, on MY side......
"Mikiii, please, I'll do anything, 'kay? Just a little?"
Hina, on the other hand, is not doing so well.
Even if she rolls up my sleeve, the skill won't activate outside the dungeon.
In the dungeon Hina obeys me docilely, but outside, it's this.
The problem being that her symptoms are worse outside......
I haven't gone back to the facility, so Hina and I live apart now, but we're together at school and at Mia-san's shop.
She works seriously at the shop, and Mia-san praises her to the moon.
Eh? We're stopping by the dungeon on the way?
Whoa—Hina's pulling me along with incredible force.
According to Dr. Amamiya, the limiter on Hina's brain has come off.
She can put out amazing strength even outside the dungeon, but she injures easily too, so I've been told to be careful.
Well, same for me, I suppose......
I dig in my heels and hold out, and tell her the truth of things.
Too bad for you.
My license has been confiscated, see.
So that I can't sneak off to another dungeon and use 【Blood Suck】.
It's being kept by an Association staff member—though once, by mistake, they handed me THAT one's license.
They noticed the error right away and swapped it, but apparently THAT one's license is confiscated too.
When I looked closely at the staff member's hands, that person's license was there as well.
Maybe those two hold some special skill of their own too.
Three special people...... thinking of it that way, a smile spills out on its own.
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October arrives—the stretch where tests begin the moment break ends.
I'm at Dr. Amamiya's for my experi...... examinations.
Whenever I come to the doctor's, I often end up paired with that person.
Up close, he really is my type.
A shame my nose goes dead around him, though—the smelly woman is always nearby.
The smelly woman seems to be this hospital's 【Healer】.
Shiraishi-san is a 【Healer】 too, and gives off the smell I can't stand.
Maybe 【Healer】 blood just doesn't taste good......
That day, too, I was being a test subject alongside that person when an emergency patient was carried in.
It was THAT one......
He's walking normally, and looks healthy enough.
But from what I overheard, he apparently can't leave the dungeon for a while.
Their school has tests starting after break too, right?
Poor him......
Ah, wait.
That thing you always see in movies—could I do that?
Maybe I could, even now......
"......In that case, I will kill you."
I'd only offered it with the best of intentions, and Watanabe says something terrifying to me.