“Now, if that’s the case, then the time’s finally come, hasn’t it?”
Whatever the truth was, it meant that Dr. Glenn had likely also seen through my attempts to hinder Arahnia’s schemes, which I had kept hidden from him.
Men truly did mature before one knew it.
Nevertheless, while that may be true, I wouldn’t take my eyes off him.
I’m on the lookout, so don’t think I’ll let you flirt with other women, Glenn.
***
That night, Dr. Glenn returned to the clinic and happily announced that the date of the surgery had been set. He truly looked like a child in his triumph at being able to save Miss Skadi.
At long last, all the plans made for the big operation were heading toward their final conclusion.
CASE 04:
The Dragon with a Heart Condition
The operating room in Lindworm Central Hospital had been built to be quite large. Even with the bulky frames of a scylla and arachne and the long body of a lamia in it, there was still space left over. In the middle of the room, surrounded by beings both monster and human, was the operating table on which lay a single young girl.
She wore a simple surgical gown without a single decoration or adornment. There wasn’t any sign of nervousness or anxiety on the patient, Skadi Dragenfelt’s, face.
“Now, then, Miss Skadi, we’ll start with this,” Sapphee said, and handed her an inhaler made of rubber and glass. It was another item born of the advanced technology of the Kuklo Workshop. “The anesthesia will gradually make you sleep, but please just allow yourself to relax. When you wake up again, the surgery will have finished.”
“…………” The small dragon gave a nod of her head.
The anesthetic had been specially made by Sapphee. Glenn had heard that the main ingredient was an eastern variety of liquor. The results of her experiments had determined that alcohol had an anesthetic and analgesic effect on dragons. He had also heard a story of a fire-breathing red dragon that fell into a deep sleep under the influence of mead. Although they were said to be the strongest beings alive, they seemed to have quite a surprising weakness.
Sapphee’s skill was truly marvelous, to be able to use this weakness and produce a practical anesthetic in such a short time. Glenn was sure that if she hadn’t been there, Skadi’s surgery would have been impossible.
No, he thought, that wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t just Sapphee. The same went for Cthulhy, Arahnia, and the two who weren’t present for the surgery, Memé and Kunai, as well. And there were countless other people who had striven to help the cause, without whom the surgery would have truly been impossible. That alone showed how much everyone wanted to help Skadi. Of course, Glenn himself felt the same way.
“One… Two… Three… Yes, just like that—take deep breaths…” Sapphee said, speaking to Skadi. She appeared to be counting and confirming the depth of the anesthetic.
With each breath she took, Skadi’s eyes began to sleepily close. Her breathing became shallow. As the concoction affected the dragon’s central nervous system, the minimum amount of life-supporting functions inside her body would be maintained. Together with the anesthetic Sapphee had made, the technique seemed like something Glenn would have written a paper about back at the Academy.
But now Sapphee’s skills were being used to actually save a life.
“I’ve administered the anesthetic, Dr. Cthulhy,” said Sapphee.
“Thank you,” Cthulhy said, nodding.
Anesthesia was normally used to ease a patient’s pain, but this time the aim was to sedate both the patient’s body and mind so she wouldn’t move no matter what was done during the surgery. Since the patient was a dragon, if she acted violently during the surgery, no one there would be able to stop her.
With her mouth covered by a cloth mask, Cthulhy used only her eyes to tell Glenn to steel himself. Taking deep breaths, Glenn mentally reviewed the surgical plan and his role in the operation.
It’s okay, he thought. He could do it.
“…It’s time to begin.”
At Cthulhy’s command, the operation to excise the dragon’s second heart had begun.
***
The surgery was proceeding smoothly.
Making the incision in Skadi’s chest, first up was exposing the diseased area—the fake heart. Clinging to the top of her ribs, the fist-sized heart beat steadily. The inside of it flickered with blue light, as if it were burning.
Excising the fake heart was Cthulhy’s role. First came separating it from its roots—the fake blood vessels that extended from a number of different areas. Cthulhy immediately determined the best position to make the incision and began severing the tumor and blood vessels. There wasn’t a hint of hesitation or disorder in the movements of the single most skilled physician on the continent.
Glenn used an instrument to grab the severed blood vessels and connect them to where they originally should have been. This was to minimize the blood loss incurred from severing them.
It was a fight against time. They couldn’t waste any of it. It was Cthulhy’s view that with Skadi’s physical strength as it was, she wouldn’t be able to endure a long surgery. They had to curb the blood loss and finish the operation in the shortest time possible.
Thus far, they had yet to experience any real problems with excising of the tumor or suturing the blood vessels.
Glenn wasn’t working alone. Arahnia utilized her four arms to connect the blood vessels as well. While she wasn’t a proper medical professional, her handling of a needle and thread was indeed wonderful. The practice had been effective, and even though she was now faced with her first real surgery, there was calmness to her technique.
Glenn took a peek at Arahnia’s face. She wore a transparent mask made of organdy cloth, and her straight, taut mouth was visible through the material. She seemed to be a little nervous, but she remained focused on her work.
“Dragons are strange organisms,” Cthulhy said as they progressed through the surgery.
There wasn’t a single acknowledgment of her words. Glenn and Arahnia were focused on their hands and didn’t have any energy to spare on conversation. Glenn was sure that Cthulhy herself hadn’t been expecting any answer. It was simply that she couldn’t calm herself down unless she said something.
“Dragons can greatly alter their appearance depending on their location. Wyverns, wyrms, naga, orochi, mizuchi… In human territory, they were all revered as gods or subjugated as monsters. The first generation of dragons all possessed unique biology that allowed them to alter their appearance according to where they ended up living. Whether they continued to possess extreme intellect, or lost their reason and became nothing more than true monsters, was a product of a way of life that they individually chose. However, if you trace them all back to their source, there aren’t actually many different races of dragon,” Cthulhy continued, speaking almost as if she were giving a lecture back at the Academy.
Glenn then realized that this was something she was used to talking about. That was why it unconsciously spilled out of her mouth—she wanted to pay close attention. She couldn’t let the operation fail.
“One way of classifying dragons is by the type of breath they have. Namely, water dragons, fire dragons, poison dragons, and those dragons that cannot use any sort of breath attacks. Four kinds in total. Skadi is representative of the fire dragons, and by combining the gas made inside her, the air from her lungs, and the spark created from mashing her teeth together, she can ignite the gas. From there, she can let loose a blaze of fire.”
If anything, listening to Cthulhy’s lectures calmed Glenn’s nerves as well. While he had become independent from Cthulhy as a doctor, it felt for a moment like he was a student again.
“For both fire breath and poison breath, the essence of both comes from the combustible, noxious gas that is generated inside them. This is why, in order to protect the inside of their bodies from the noxious gas, the various dragon races protect th
eir organs—whether it be with pyrite, vivianite, et cetera. Even though she’s changed into a human form, Skadi still has iron content left over in her organs.”
It appeared Glenn’s guess had been correct and the glowing blue area of Skadi’s body had been created with a type of mineral. However, the real question was the fake heart that Glenn and the others were in the middle of removing. If he assumed it had been formed from her somatic cells swelling up inside her, then it wouldn’t be completely out of the question for the vivianite in her tissue to mix with the tumor and cause it to glow blue.
That being said, Glenn wondered if a normal tumor would be so precise in shaping itself into the form of a heart. Furthermore, he pondered whether a normal tumor would then send its roots out into the host’s blood vessels and behave like it was a real heart.
The tumor mimicked both the heart’s color and shape. The more Glenn thought about it, he couldn’t describe the way the tumor was acting as anything but mimicry. It was absurd—he knew there shouldn’t be any way for a tumor to have a will of its own.
“…I’ve cut away all of its outspread roots. How are you doing, Glenn?” Cthulhy asked.
“We’ve finished the suturing on our end as well,” Glenn replied.
Next to him, Arahnia sighed heavily through her mask. Although she was incredibly skilled, Glenn felt sure that, since she had never participated in an abdominal operation before, she must be under a considerable amount of mental anxiety.
“Okay, I’m going to begin on the tumor itself,” Cthulhy declared. Now they just had to remove the tumor that was stuck to the top of Skadi’s rib cage. It didn’t require as much delicacy as the work of suturing the innumerable amount of blood vessels. It was quite an easy process.
“Dr. Cthulhy.”
“What is it, Sapphee?” answered Cthulhy.
“Her blood pressure and pulse are rising,” Sapphee replied. In addition to overseeing the anesthetic, Sapphee had also taken on the job of watching Skadi’s vitals during the surgery. By watching Skadi’s blood pressure and pulse, she constantly verified that there were no abnormalities during the surgery. With her pulse and blood pressure rising, Glenn considered the possibility that their increase signaled some irregularity in Skadi’s original heart, when—
“Glenn, look,” Cthulhy said. She was pointing exactly at Skadi’s chest, past the ribs that had been cut open and exposed, to the other side of those bones.
It was glowing.
Glenn wondered what was shining—the fake heart was blocking his view, so he couldn’t really see. While he looked inside, some sort of steam-like gas rose up from beyond her rib cage.
“What the…?!” Glenn said in surprise.
“When fire dragons find themselves in danger, they raise their body temperature. In doing so, the flammable material inside their fuel sacs grows hot and spontaneously combusts, filling the insides of their esophagus, lungs, and stomach with flame. With this, they then start shooting out an endless stream of flame and violently struggle in anger. It’s said the scales on the outside of their bodies become like a burning frying pan. It’s the peak of a fire dragon’s rage, used to make sure they can deal with any foreign threat,” explained Cthulhy.
“But I thought she was supposed to be anesthetized…” Glenn replied.
“It’s an involuntary reaction. It’s fundamentally the same as a human’s body temperature increasing when faced with a cold. Seriously, dragon biology is just as foolish as ever. Step back a little, all of you.”
Before Cthulhy had said anything, Glenn and the others had already put some space between themselves and Skadi.
They couldn’t verify whether or not there was any flame, but Glenn imagined the fuel inside Skadi’s body was on the brink of igniting. The fact that she was fine even if the inside of her body was on fire illustrated to him just how tenacious the organs of a dragon were.
“Her body temperature’s rising, but the fuel still hasn’t ignited. Glenn, we’re going to proceed with the operation immediately,” Cthulhy declared.
“W-while she’s like this?!” Glenn replied.
“A doctor shouldn’t lose their nerve!” Cthulhy’s harsh rebuke startled Glenn. “If her body temperature keeps climbing and gets to the point where the fuel ignites, Skadi’s organs will light up in an instant! She may be a dragon, but not only is she in a weakened state to begin with, she’s in the middle of surgery with her body cut open—Skadi won’t be able to endure such temperatures! We have to finish the surgery before she ignites! Hurry up!”
There came a crackling sound. The smell of live flesh being scorched filled up the operating room.
“Hng!”
“D-Doctor!”
Cthulhy was holding the scalpel and forceps against the fake heart. However, Skadi’s body had already become hot enough to pose a danger to other living organisms. The heat passed through the metallic surgical tools and burned Cthulhy’s tentacles. Arahnia let out an involuntary groan of nausea at the sound and smell of burning flesh.
Cthulhy didn’t take any notice of her own burning tentacles.
“Glenn, cut it off,” she said.
Glenn steeled himself.
“My tentacles are holding it down. If it’s severed in an instant, then you won’t be burned at all. Hurry. Please…”
Cthulhy had already used her eight tentacles to anchor the fake heart. All that was left was to quickly sever it from Skadi’s body. Glenn knew the more time he took to sever it, the worse Cthulhy’s burns would become.
Cthulhy hated fire to begin with. Glenn couldn’t imagine the pain her tentacles were suffering from the heat.
The final job had fallen into Glenn’s hands.
“…I’ll do it,” he replied.
Glenn could feel Sapphee’s gaze on him. It was an anxious one. Just by taking one step closer, he could feel the heat from Skadi’s burning body. The heat was so intense that he doubted the inside of her body hadn’t already been ignited. It was only natural that Sapphee would be worried.
“It’s okay. You can do it.”
Glenn didn’t know who it was who said this. Whether it was Sapphee, Cthulhy, Arahnia, or even himself, he didn’t know. Perhaps the words had come from Skadi.
He took up the scalpel and quickly brought it up against the fake heart.
It was hot. Nevertheless, Glenn would finish in a flash.
The fake heart pulsated. He couldn’t say why, but it seemed as if it were groaning in pain. He asked himself if it was Skadi that was groaning—or were the groans his own? He assured himself that he was calm. In the hand holding his scalpel was all the skill and technique he had accumulated, concentrated together into a central point.
As he was hit by the heat, Skadi crossed his mind for some reason—specifically, the memory of the moment when Skadi finally decided she would undergo the surgery.
***
It was half a month ago.
Glenn was troubled. Naturally, he worried about Skadi.
He had tried again and again to convince her, but she refused to give him so much as a nod of her head. He had gotten the cooperation of the Kuklo Workshop. With the plan for the surgery firmly established, all he needed was to convince Skadi. But her feelings on the matter had nothing to do with the completion of the preparations. If Glenn couldn’t draw out Skadi’s will to live, then it would all be for nothing.
Even Cthulhy had left it up to him to convince her.
“…So you actually came.”
That day, Glenn hadn’t been called to the Council Hall like usual. This time, he came to the tall spire that stood next to the Council Hall. It seemed to have been used as a part of a church back when the city had been a fortress town, but now that a multitude of monster races had come to Lindworm, the beliefs of the residents had become multitudinous as well. As such, it was forbidden to erect designated religious institutions in the central plaza, and the church spire’s role changed to only ringing its bell to announce the time.
&n
bsp; Glenn had heard that sometimes Illy would take a break during her deliveries on the roof of the spire.
“Do you not get tired of this, day in and day out?” Skadi asked, at the top of the spire.
She had deliberately called Glenn out to the place where one could get a sweeping view of all of Lindworm. It was a spot usually thronged with tourists, but at the moment there was no one else around. Glenn imagined that Skadi had had the area cleared out for their discussion.
The story of her disease had spread across the whole town via the city newspaper, but Glenn assumed it was a delicate topic of conversation for her—one she didn’t really want others to hear about. She didn’t even bring Kunai with her when she spoke with Glenn about the surgery, and always met with him alone.
“I’m not tired at all,” Glenn replied.
“Because it’s your job?”
“No… Because I still have yet to accomplish my goal.”
“I see. A reasonable response.”
Glenn had become accustomed to conversations with Skadi.
At first, he had thought her voice seemed fragile as glass, almost impossible to pick up, but once he got used to catching her words, he could hear her even outside. Of course, that being said, he still needed to draw extremely close to do so—practically huddling up against Skadi’s shoulder.
“Golden dragonscales, huh?”
Skadi’s conversations lacked any chain of reasoning. This time, she shifted her attention to the scale charm that was attached to Glenn’s medicine bag.
“This? I got it as a gift from Sapphee when we graduated from the Academy,” Glenn replied.
“You haven’t worn it up until now. Were you trying to be sensitive?”
“Y-yeah, pretty much…”
“In that case, why wear it today?”
“It’s kind of a long story…”
Glenn didn’t know everything about the disturbances Arahnia had been causing. But he thought that since Sapphee hadn’t said anything to him about it, it meant he didn’t need to know the details of the matter. Nevertheless, ever since Arahnia had started coming and going from the clinic, Glenn had seen signs that she had been eying his personal belongings. Thus, he decided to keep the one precious thing he would be distraught to lose close to him at all times.
Monster Girl Doctor Vol. 3 Page 19