Monster Girl Doctor Vol. 3

by Yoshino Origuchi

  “W-wait just a second! That’s a bit much, isn’t it?!” replied Glenn.

  “Of course, I won’t let you die alone. I’ll immediately cut open my own stomach. I’m the one who arranged for this to happen. I will take responsibility and go with you to the grave.”

  “What point is there in you committing suicide?!” asked Glenn. Considering she was made out of a collection of corpses, he couldn’t believe what the flesh golem was saying.

  But he understood. Kunai had gone mad. She had probably lost control at the unfamiliar sight of her master’s tears. However, even if that were the case, Glenn wasn’t sure he could stop her. Kunai Zenow was a seasoned warrior and had reached the top rank in the Lindworm Arena.

  “Heh heh heh! I beg your apologies, my Lady Draconess—I will make this matter right this very moment…”

  “Don’t start parading out those eastern customs!” Glenn said. He couldn’t even laugh at the idea of committing double suicide with the undead.

  “W-wait just a minute, Kunai. It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m fine.” Clinging to Kunai, Skadi was able to hold her down.

  “Understood,” Kunai replied. Skadi’s pleading seemed to be the trigger. Kunai finally appeared to get a hold of herself. The usual calm shine returned to her eyes. “M-my Lady Draconess. Has any harm come to you?”

  “I’m okay. Calm down a little,” Skadi replied.

  “I am always calm,” Kunai declared nonchalantly. She probably tried to remain calm at all times, but because of how serious she was, it had truly looked like she was going to mete out justice against Glenn.

  Anyway, Glenn thought, he had gotten out of trouble for now.

  “That’s enough, right? The exam is over. I’m… I’m going to rest a bit more,” Skadi said, rubbing the leftover tears from her eyes.

  “Certainly—forgive me for interrupting you during your rest,” Glenn replied.

  Skadi separated herself a little from Glenn. She seemed to be saying something, but with even just the small distance between them, Glenn could no longer pick up her voice.

  That second heart—it was putting a burden on Skadi’s original heart. Glenn thought that her inability to speak louder could also be due to the pressure that the second heart was putting on her chest. That second heart had laid roots inside Skadi far, far deeper than what Glenn had been able to see from the surface.

  “…I wonder if dying would fix that adulterous habit of his,” Sapphee muttered to herself, watching the exchange. Glenn was sure that Sapphee didn’t intend for him to hear, but for some reason those words came to his ears much more clearly than normal.

  From Glenn’s perspective, this casual murmuring of Sapphee’s was many times more frightening than Kunai brandishing her sword at him. He swore to himself that he would no longer give any easily-misconstrued examinations.

  ***

  It was still dark when Glenn and Sapphee left the Council Hall. Since it had grown quite late, Glenn and Sapphee both prepared for bed as soon as they got back to the clinic, but Glenn lay awake the rest of the night, thinking. How could they get rid of that second heart? Could he even heal such a rare disease?

  The tumor had resembled a blue jewel. He wondered if the light was peculiar to the tumor, or if, perhaps, all dragons’ hearts were accompanied by that metallic luster.

  They had to get rid of the tumor. If they didn’t, Skadi’s life was truly in danger. Glenn wondered if he would be able to remove it using the surgical methods he was familiar with. Throughout the night, the thoughts swirled around his head.

  ***

  “…And?”

  Glenn went into action the next day. After finishing the day’s appointments, he headed straight for the director’s office at the Central Hospital. His expression was so grim that he looked as though he were a soldier marching into enemy lines. Following behind him, Sapphee had a rare look of worry. She hadn’t thought he would be doing something so direct right on the heels of what had happened last night.

  In the director’s office, Cthulhy was grappling with the innumerable documents on her desk. Behind her glasses, her pupils bore the same languid luster they always had.

  “What are you asking of me?”

  Glenn hadn’t kept anything back from Cthulhy. He told her everything about the selfish examination he had given Skadi—and the second heart he had found out about as a result, as well as the fact that Skadi would die if the cause of her disease wasn’t surgically removed.

  And in addition to that, Glenn told her how it was impossible for him to treat her by himself.

  “I’d like to ask for your assistance, Dr. Cthulhy,” Glenn replied.

  “Can’t you just work together with Sapphee? You can’t keep relying on your teacher forever, you know,” said Cthulhy, curtly.

  She was right. Sapphee was his partner. If Glenn sincerely asked her, she would lend him her aid. But he knew that wouldn’t be enough this time. Of course, he knew that Sapphee’s assistance would be necessary, but that didn’t change his mind.

  “That second heart of hers has already connected itself to the major blood vessels in her body. The fact that it’s beating steadily is proof of this,” Glenn began.

  The fake heart had already become a part of Skadi’s body. If they simply excised it, the blood flowing into it would hemorrhage. With that, there was no doubt the blood loss would prove fatal.

  “To excise the tumor, it will be necessary to sever the blood vessels in the tumor and immediately connect them back to their original blood vessels. In order to connect the blood vessels without placing too much stress on the patient and to avoid hemorrhaging, it will be important to have speed and a lot of hands on deck,” he continued.

  He wondered if blood transfusion research was still being done at the academy. When Glenn had been there, blood transfusion as a treatment still wasn’t ready for clinical practice. He remembered that there hadn’t been anything more than a few successful animal trials.

  If transfusion treatments were more established, they would be able to supplement the blood Skadi would lose in the surgery. However, when Glenn thought about it longer, he realized there was no way for them to procure dragon blood in a hurry anyway.

  “That’s why, with all your hands, I wanted to ask for your help, Dr. Cthulhy,” Glenn said.

  If they just had Cthulhy, she could use the eight legs of her lower body and the two arms on her upper body to effectively perform the surgery. It would be possible to perform multiple operations simultaneously—linking blood vessels back together as they excised the tumor. With her cooperation, Glenn was sure they could manage the surgery with twice, or even three times the speed.

  Cthulhy listened in silence, not looking up to face Glenn.

  “If you performed Skadi’s surgery with me—”

  “Thirty points,” Cthulhy said, cutting Glenn off.

  Glenn had been graded, just like when he was in the academy. He felt a twinge of nostalgia, but it was gone in an instant. His time studying under Cthulhy had long since passed.

  “Glenn, you’re talking about surgery, but did you get the patient’s permission? Skadi doesn’t want to be treated. That’s, well, her own egotistical decision to find herself a good place to lie down and die, but… No matter what, you can’t administer treatment so long as you don’t have the patient’s consent,” Cthulhy continued.

  “For that, well… I’ll convince her.”

  “Come back to me when you have,” Cthulhy replied.

  Her argument was sound. Glenn, however, had no plans to acquiesce quietly. He had faith in his own convictions.

  “In that case, suppose I’m able to convince her—will you lend us your help, Doctor?”

  “Um, Dr. Glenn. You shouldn’t be too unreasonable. I’m sure Dr. Cthulhy has her own ideas,” said Sapphee. She looked worriedly between Glenn and Cthulhy. It appeared to Glenn that she couldn’t side with either of them. He continued on, unconcerned by Sapphee’s objections.

  He wa
sn’t convinced. Cthulhy was supposed to be Skadi’s close friend. Despite that, Skadi remained without treatment and didn’t even try to turn to Cthulhy for help. Cthulhy, for her part, had named herself as Skadi’s primary doctor, yet hadn’t forced anything on Skadi and was neglecting her.

  Glenn couldn’t understand it. He wondered who would be left with the most regrets if Skadi actually died. It was obvious, of course —Cthulhy would. If she acquiesced to Skadi’s wishes, Cthulhy was the one who would regret it most of all. Glenn had no idea how the two had formed their deep friendship, but what he did know was that when Skadi had become apprehensive about the lack of capable doctors in Lindworm, it was Cthulhy she had hired as the hospital director.

  Skadi was sick, so all she had to do was rely on Cthulhy. If she did, then Glenn was sure Cthulhy would respond. If the two of them had had a proper doctor-patient relationship, he was sure that he wouldn’t even have had to be involved to begin with.

  “I will convince her,” he said. “I will change Miss Skadi’s way of thinking.”

  “……………”

  “So please lend us a hand. Let’s save Miss Skadi together. You know you’ll regret it… So please don’t even think about saying those sad things about not saving her, Dr. Cthulhy.”

  She was thought of as a lazy woman. She would immediately give Glenn any annoying job she had, and Glenn had heard that even at the hospital she only dealt with a small fraction of the patients. “Bothersome” was declared to be her favorite word, so she was often misunderstood. Even at the academy, she was said to often leave her students to their own devices.

  But Glenn knew—it wasn’t laziness. No matter who she was dealing with, Cthulhy would draw the line somewhere. She didn’t venture past doing only what was necessary because she, herself, didn’t like it when people pushed her. But what his mentor hated most of all was when someone bluntly interfered with her own ideas and shouted unnecessary things at her—exactly like Glenn was doing now.

  “You’re just an amateur. You sure make it sound simple, don’t you?” Cthulhy replied, glaring at Glenn as though a tempest raged inside of her. Her tentacles wiggled back and forth like they were a flame expressing her anger. If something sparked her ire, her tentacles had enough force to tighten themselves around Glenn in an instant.

  “Glenn. You’re talking about excising the tumor, but you’re being presumptuous in thinking the three of us can even do that. Do you even understand how deeply that heart clinging to Skadi has taken root inside her body? That isn’t just a tumor. It altered her blood circulation on its own, and is continuing to beat and take all of Skadi’s blood for itself. It isn’t even accurate to call it a tumor. That thing is like a heart-shaped parasite.”

  A parasite. Glenn understood at last. That heart wasn’t something that grew from within Skadi—it was caused by some external factor. The heart itself might just be the parasite. Although—he had never heard of a parasite mimicking a heart.

  “That thing is almost like a mollusk, slowly spreading its limbs little by little. Day after day, it pulls in her blood vessels and eats away at Skadi’s arteries. Finally, it will replace Skadi’s heart. That fake heart has already stretched its limbs into close to a hundred of her blood vessels. Listen, Glenn, do you think you can deal with all of those blood vessels with just those two arms of yours?” Cthulhy continued.

  “That’s why, with your help, Doctor—” Glenn replied.

  “If it were something that could be done with my eight legs, I would have done it a long time ago!” yelled Cthulhy.

  Glenn nodded. She had finally spoken her mind. Without a doubt, he knew Cthulhy’s sorrowful voice had said what she was truly feeling. Glenn’s blunt, impudent words had finally gotten Cthulhy to open up to him.

  His mentor was quite the handful.

  However, Glenn himself was quite the handful of a student. Thus, it was only natural that Glenn took great pains when dealing with his mentor, just as much as she had taken pains when dealing with him. Fortunately, while they were both a handful, the two of them shared over ten hands between them. That was more than enough, Glenn thought.

  “…Hey, Glenn,” Cthulhy said. Her octopus legs smoothly spread outward. Glenn instinctively took hold of the tentacles as they wrapped themselves around his arm, but the way they tightened around him was somewhat gentle. There was no pain, and Glenn only felt the sensation of the suckers holding fast to his arm as if they were relying on him for support.

  “Yes, Dr. Cthulhy?”

  “Can you really…convince her?”

  “I’ll do everything in my power to,” Glenn said. He still didn’t clearly understand either the suffering Skadi was enduring or her reason for refusing treatment. He guessed that the reason was something only Skadi knew.

  However, he would do everything in his power to treat his patients. If treatment was necessary, then he simply had to convince the patient as well. Of course, with Skadi being the patient, he knew she would be a very tough person to deal with.

  “I tried to convince her too, you know. I told her she wouldn’t be cured without surgery. Of course that bodyguard… Kunai, was it? I’m sure even she’s suggested it every chance she could get. We said all of that, yet the stubborn little dragon girl didn’t once even consider changing her mind. You’re saying you can do it despite all of that?”

  “Yes, I can. I’ll try my best,” replied Glenn.

  “Why are you doing all this? You aren’t that close with Skadi, right? You’re not like me at all— you aren’t her friend or anything like it.”

  “…That might be true.”

  “In that case, why?”

  The two hadn’t known each other for a long time. To Glenn, Skadi wasn’t just the city representative, but the relationship they had formed together wasn’t one of close friendship, either. Nevertheless, Glenn had any number of reasons for his actions.

  “Well, because…” Glenn began. As a doctor, he couldn’t overlook Skadi’s illness. Nor could he overlook it as a human being. However, the biggest reason was… “You’re the one who wants to save Skadi the most, aren’t you, Doctor?”

  A jolt of surprise ran through Cthulhy’s extended tentacles. She looked hard at Glenn. As one would guess from the high-quality glasses on her nose, Cthulhy was extremely near-sighted. As such, her sharp looks weren’t because she was in a sour mood, but because she was trying to ascertain what the person she was talking to was thinking.

  “What did you say?” asked Cthulhy.

  “You’ve already come up with a surgical plan. You’ve even been trying to convince Miss Skadi already, correct? Why is that? The answer’s obvious, isn’t it?” Glenn replied.

  “…I suppose so.”

  “You want to save Skadi more than anyone else does, Dr. Cthulhy. The reason I’ve come all the way here is because I know that. I feel the same way, Doctor.”

  Next to Glenn, Sapphee heaved a deep sigh. But while it was a sigh of exasperation, there wasn’t any fatigue or bewilderment mixed with it. It seemed to be defending Glenn’s actions, as though she was reassuring him that while things would get tough for them, she would still stay by his side.

  He had been able to boldly challenge his mentor precisely because he had Sapphee at his side.

  “You two.” Cthulhy’s tentacles rushed forward. She rose up from her desk and crept toward Glenn and Sapphee. Her spreading tentacles stroked Glenn’s face and began sticking themselves to his cheeks with a loud popping sound.

  “Huh… Wha—Me too?! Eeek!” Sapphee cried.

  The tentacles of the scylla were expandable, and had much more volume than it seemed. They were quite long if they were stretched out to their limit, and with these tentacles, Cthulhy had also been able to apprehend Sapphee.

  With the octopus legs and snake tail entangling one another, Glenn couldn’t tell what was what, but Cthulhy began sticking herself to Sapphee’s scales with her suckers to try and ascertain something.

  “You really have
aged, haven’t you?” said Cthulhy.

  “I-I am still quite young!” Sapphee protested.

  “No, you have aged. You’ve aged more than I would have ever imagined when I was teaching you at the Academy. You’ve grown up,” Cthulhy said, not giving any heed to Sapphee’s rebuttal.

  Glenn simply stayed quiet and let the tentacles stuck to his arms and face do as they pleased. He knew from the many times he had been showered in this tentacle baptism before that this was his mentor’s way of giving a hug. Despite wanting to show her gratitude, it was too embarrassing for her, and her hugs took on this shape as a result.

  “Dr. Cthulhy, if you stick to me that much, I’ll… Ah … W-wait a second, where are you touching… Ahn!” Sapphee said, struggling.

  This was Cthulhy’s awkward expression of affection. Glenn tried as much as possible not to look toward Sapphee as strange noises escaped from her mouth. He had a feeling that if he carelessly looked at Sapphee at the moment, he’d be scolded by her once again. No matter what sort of cries she made, he would do everything he could to avoid paying her any mind.

  “W-wait… Ah, Hng…!”

  Glenn pretended not to notice. Nothing was happening, he thought.

  “Ah, that’s my—Hng… Ahn! D-Dr. Glenn… h-help me…”

  He kept trying not to pay any attention to what was happening—but it would have been impossible for him, even if his heart were made of steel. He didn’t know what in the world she was doing to Sapphee, but the mucus-lathered tentacles had been making some suspiciously sticky sounds for the past several seconds.

  “Saphentite. He’s given you a lot of trouble, too, hasn’t he?” Cthulhy asked.

  “Huh… What…?” replied Sapphee.

  “Glenn is so young and reckless, it must be hard for you, right?”

  “Ah—hng! Um, what are…you talking about?”

  “I mean, it’s gratitude, it’s gratitude from your teacher.”

  The viscous sound of mucus on scale echoed through the office. It felt good to be appreciated, but Cthulhy’s show of appreciation was far too peculiar, and if anything, it seemed to Glenn like Sapphee was the one exhausted by the whole affair.