Arc 1: A Witch’s Request||Chapter 2: Call the Doctor

12:10 am, June 19, 2483. The Clinic.
The woman tied her long, brown hair up into a ponytail as she made her way over to the operating table where a cyborg was lying, in pain, but calm enough. That was good. She hated patients who panicked and whined.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be quick.” she said flatly as she looked at the tangled wires in her patient’s arm, “nothing important is broken, your joint module got tangled in your pain receivers so it hurts a lot more than it actually should.”

“S-so I’ll be okay, doc?” the cyborg said.

“Yes, we’re just going to untangle the cords and add a few screws in. Won’t cost more than a couple thousand RMB.”

“I can’t thank you enough!”

“Yeah, yeah, save it.” the doctor grumbled to silence the bemoaning, as her attention fell on a humanoid android who had walked into the operating room.

“What’s wrong, Splice?” she said while placing the mask over the cyborg’s face to put them under.

“Mr. Declan Chan… he wants to see you,” Splice said, its metal head bowed in respect.

“Does he now?” the doctor said, “If he’s sick again, I’ll have you know I told him to follow my instructions about magic use very carefully-“

“It’s not about that. He says it’s for another matter entirely.”

“Another matter? Not about his cyborg girl either?” the doctor said, her chair completely turned around now, as she regarded Splice’s words with a strange, lethargic kind of interest.

The android shook its head.

“Hmm, well, that’s weird.” the doctor put on a headlamp, and reached for a pair of tweezers. “Either way, tell him I’m busy with a patient, so he’ll just have to wait.”

The android once again nodded.

“Yes, Reiaura.”

Declan tapped his foot, waiting impatiently for the tin can of a doctor’s assistant to return. Turns out the witch hadn’t been lying about the price of the ring. His jaw had dropped when he had been given an estimate of two hundred and eighty thousand RMB, and he was still sure that he might have been scammed.

If only that witch wasn’t rich, then I wouldn’t have to be doing all this stuff…

Declan looked up to glare at the flickering, fluorescent lights of The Clinic. He was sure that the ‘doctor’ had an actual name for her establishment, but he couldn’t be arsed to remember it. Besides, The Clinic was just what everyone down here referred to it as. It was a dingy place, and Declan often debated the legitimacy and safety of the procedures and practises going on here. But it was the only medical facility that would allow Outcasts to be treated down here, so it was his only option as a patient himself. He personally didn’t like the ‘doctor’, as she called herself, but he had to admit the general public opinion of her was high, and there would also be a good chance this Ou girl they were looking for was under her care at some point.

Thankfully, today seemed to be a slow day at the clinic with the waiting empty completely empty apart from him and Tori, and all for the better, since, frankly, he would rather die than be seen here.He leant forward to put his head in his hands.

FUCK- why do I have to deal with two of my least favourite women at the same time???

Speaking of Tori, she didn’t see half as troubled as he was, as she flicked through a few of the dog-eared and stained magazines in the waiting room. Tori was one of those who had a positive opinion on the ‘doctor’, or at least one better than his, as she quite frequently asked about The Clinic, but it was mostly in relation to whether it would be feasible to get a new mod done, so Declan wasn’t entirely sure whether she actually liked the quack or not.

But he didn’t have to ponder that line of thought for much longer, as the click of metal against ceramic tile foretold the return of the assistant android.

“The doctor is busy right now,” the white and gold robot said curtly, poised and rigid. It seemed strangely ornate for a hospital bot, which was probably because it used to be a top-of-the-range mechanical seamstress. Some of its heritage still peeked through its design, with the emblem of a pair of scissors painted on its back being the most obvious. Declan didn’t care to ask why that quack had chosen a glorified sewing machine for an assistant. He had long given up on finding a method to her madness.

“So you will have to wait.” the android tilted its faceless head, as if waiting for a response.

“Just say she doesn’t want to see me…” Declan grumbled, but as he was about to turn away, Tori moved forward.

“Hey, do you recognise this girl?” she held up one of the photos the two had been given to the robot’s face. Declan could practically hear the whirr of the hidden cameras in android’s face kicking into gear.

“Yes. She was a patient.” it finally said, stepping back a little.

“That’s good. Can you tell us more about her? She’s gone missing and we’re tryin—“

“No, I cannot. That would be a violation of doctor-patient confidentiality.”

“Forget it,” Declan warned, “that android’s hard-wired to do anything that quack orders it to do. It isn’t going to budge. Only way we’ll get information is from her.”

As he spoke, a woman in a white medical coat walked out from behind the curtain leading to the examination area of The Clinic. She undid her ponytail, letting her long brown hair hang messily over the body.

“Splice,” she called, pulling a cigarette pack from her pocket, “get back there and make sure all the vitals are balanced, alright?”

The android nodded and click-clicked its way out of view.

“Hello, Reiaura.” Declan said firmly.

“It’s Dr Reiaura to you…” she gave him a once over before sighing: “What do you want?”

“We’ve been paid to find this girl,” Declan said, taking the photo from Tori’s hands, and gave it to Reiaura, “and we suspected that she was a patient of yours, so we decided to come to see if you can shed any light.”

“Mmh…” Reiaura said with a nod, looking over the photo carefully.

“Well, your robot, uh… Splice was it?” Tori added, “Managed to confirm that she was a patient, but it said it cannot reveal anything more due to doctor-patient confidentiality, so maybe you, the doctor, could have more information?”

But Reiaura seemingly ignored her words, and turned to Declan again.

“Have you been following all my instructions?” she asked, pulling out a cigarette from the pack, as if the missing woman was nothing, “You know your issue will only get worse if you keep over-using it.”

“What? How does my condition have anything to do with-“

“What medical condition?” Tori immediately started prodding, as inquisitive as ever.

“Uh, it’s none of your concern!” Declan said quickly, immediately before throwing Reiaura an accusatory, withering glare, “What the hell was that for?”

“If I didn’t do that, then you would never have understood,” Reiaura said with a tight smile, “I cannot tell you anything about my patient, as a doctor. There are a lot of things that my patients trust me with that I would and can not give you, under any circumstance. Like right now, how would you feel if I went out and told your friend here your reasons for seeing me?”

“Not good?!? Are you daft? I told you to keep everything under wraps!” Declan snapped at her.

“Exactly,” Reiaura said with a flick of a lighter, bringing it to the cigarette pressed between her lips, “this patient of mine, I remember her well, and she was also one who wanted her details and affiliation with me kept ‘under wraps’. And such, I will not tell her information, especially not to you.”

“We have been consulted to find her,” Declan said, growing impatient.

“I know that, and that is precisely I must refuse,” Reiaura took a puff of the cigarette, “I know what you’re like, Declan Chan, and I refuse to sell out my patients to someone as unprincipled as you.”

“You…” Declan grumbled, looking ready to pick a fight, but Tori was instead much more focused on him. A medical condition? What could that be? Declan had always been a bit lazy, and was more than happy to offload any work that needed to be done onto others. But could that be a result of this condition they spoke about? Of course, a part of her wondered if it was something else entirely, maybe a business partnership? She had only assumed that it was a medical thing.

But, Dr Reiaura here was also someone who cared little for money, and was purely in it for the want to help people. Tori remembered many a time watching her letting her patients go for free. Then she would turn around and bill Declan a hefty amount. Though, that was probably since she knew that he could afford it…

Tori shook her head, shaking away those thoughts. No, she could wonder about that stuff later. Right now, there were here to help find that missing girl. So they were going to try their hardest to get Reiaura to at least let something slip.

“Could you at least tell me?” Tori asked, motioning for Declan to can it, at least for a little while.

Reiaura just chuckled.

“Ah, you misunderstood. As much as I don’t like your boss here, for his business practices, I’m not hiding information from him as some targeted attack.” Reiaura said, shooting a glance at Declan, though with her deadpan demeanour it was hard to tell if the jab held any real malice, “I wouldn’t tell anyone this information to begin with, just with him, I’m even less inclined.”

Oh, that was it. Well, it appeared that it wasn’t just an Declan thing. They were going to need a different approach if they wanted to figure anything out. Tori reached for the photos again. There had to be something else here, some other piece or crumb of evidence that could bring them closer to the truth… maybe something else they could ask Reiaura that could prove to have some relevance for their investigation.

However, Declan seemed much more interested in fighting with Dr Reiaura right now.

“Look, ‘doctor’, you can talk about your precious principles all you like, but we both know it’s those principles of yours that killed your… friend. Seriously, it’s been two years, you still haven’t learned?”

Reiaura, who had been listening to Declan’s attempts to argue with the same flat, emotionless face up until this point, suddenly stood up, gaze hardening. Tori was certain she had never seen Dr Reiaura show this degree of emotion, and she almost thought an actual fight might go down.

“Get out.” she said. It wasn’t a request. Tori wasn’t sure if Reiaura was a magic user, but the way the air in the room changed denoted the same sense of power magic gave off. Tori chided herself for not stopping Declan from speaking mid-sentence. He just snorted.

“Yeah sure, threaten me. Well, you have nothing more of substance for us anyway, so I’ll be on my way.” With that, Declan stalked outside.

Oh. My. Stars. What the fuck is wrong with that kid?

Tori looked at Reiaura in a panic, expecting to get the same treatment, but the doctor just sat back down, looking resigned.

“Well,” she took another puff of her cigarette. It would be wrong of me to say I didn’t expect a reaction like that.” Reiaura said with a half laugh, before straightening up, immediately going back to the same, stern doctor, as if nothing that had just been said happened.

“So, Miss Tori, I heard you wanted to discuss a more efficient gun attachment?”

Tori sheepishly stepped outside to where Declan was waiting.

“Alright, I’ll look into a rifle add-on for you, Miss Tori,” Reiaura said, noting something down on a clipboard, “I’ll contact you once we can get a hold of one.”

“Ah, okay, thank you,”

Reiaura nodded, then shut the clinic door behind her.

“That ‘doctor’ finally finished interrogating you?” Declan said, walking up to her.

“It’s not an interrogation. Why’d you argue with her? We could’ve gotten her to tell us something another way.”

“I doubt it. That woman’s almost more of a hardass than her robot. But the story of her friend is really funny though. Maybe I should tell you sometime.” Declan noted, “But, I guess we’re back to square one. Shame.”

“Mhm.” Tori wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear what that story entailed. Instead, she flicked through the photographs, looking for any sort of clue. She found herself pausing on a picture of Ou, taken presumably near her workplace. It looked so mundane that Tori had simply skimmed past it the first time, but now, on second glance, something about it just seemed… off.

“Hey, Boss,” she nudged the boy, “isn’t this what butchers wear?”

“Butchers?” he squinted over her shoulder.

Butchers were rare in New Kowloon, with fresh meat usually being a delicacy reserved for the upper classes, so if Ou was a butcher, that would be strange indeed.

“Wait, no, you’re onto something…” Declan suddenly said, “look in the background here.”

He jabbed a finger at blurry, red shapes in the back of the image.

“That’s meat.”

“How could we have missed it?” Tori asked, though it was probably more directed at Declan than herself. Maybe if they had just seen it earlier, then she wouldn’t have had to witness Declan getting kicked out of The Clinic…

1:34 am, June 19, 2483. The Clinic.

“That will be 8000 RMB, thank you.” Splice said calmly, holding its white metal hand out for the payment, “5500 was for the joint module, 2500 for the labour.”

“Ah, yes, hold on.” the cyborg rifled in their pocket for a few crumpled bills. Linkage to the electronic banking system was not something that could be afforded by many in these parts.

“Is the doc still here? I want to thank her.”

The android shook its head.

“No, she is quite busy with another matter at the moment, but I will pass on the message,” it added.

“Oh, well, that’s okay then. Thanks again.”

The cyborg walked out, closing the door with a click. Splice sat in silence for a few moments, before standing up to go click-click off to Reiaura’s office.

“Reiaura? The payment.”

“Yeah, yeah, just put it on the desk.” she said, not looking at the android at all. “Do notify me if another patient comes.”

“Yes, Reiaura.”

The doctor sighed as the android left the room, and reached for one of the bottles of vodka she kept under her desk. It was already half-empty.

Being a doctor, or at least someone that dabbled in health and medicine, Reiaura noticed a few things. One of those being this: All magic had side effects. Some were mild, others horrifically severe. Someone mild would be like that kid, Declan. Slight dizziness and nausea were the only things he would face, even after extreme overuse and strain of his abilities. Someone moderate would be like her, having to fill her body with all these toxins just to keep the magic flowing. Though, now it was debatable whether she did it purely to sustain her magic, or to fill some other void in her. Reiaura took a long swig from the bottle.

Someone severe would have been him.

Sometimes Reiaura wondered if he knew that his magic would transform him into something no longer human eventually. Maybe that was why he sought her out: he wanted her to fix him. And maybe back then, the young and overconfident doctor she was, believed she actually could. But no amount of healing can fully stop the inevitable. Sometimes Reiaura wondered if he gave up towards the end. If some part of him knew there would be nothing left to save, nothing to fix.

The bottle was empty now. She tossed it into the wastebasket, getting up. Perhaps the kid was right, perhaps it was wrong of her to keep pressing on, keep doing things on the straight and narrow. It was her insistence to never hurt him, to never do anything too risky or too invasive, that led up to this point.

She turned to the back wall, covered in papers, pinned-up taxidermy beetles, analysis charts and her own rambling theories on how such a transformation could even happen. This probably constituted a scientific study by now. Not that there was any way of publishing it here. Not that she wanted to.

Reiaura brushed her hand over the photo at the centre of this self-constructed shrine.

“Guess you’re right, guess I still miss you, Touki.“ she laughed, as if it were some shameful admission. But she soon stepped away, turning instead to her shelves of files on her other patients. Much more neat. Much less mad. Her eyes fell on the file of that girl that Declan and Tori had been so insistent to get information on.

“What is it about you?” she pulled the file from its spot in the third row, only for a tarot card to fall out and hit the ground. Reiaura picked it up and examined it.

“Number VI…” she said, monotone as usual, “hmph. Well, that explains a lot. Should those two fail, I expect I will get decent business from them.”

Before she could ruminate (or relish) in the prospect of that outcome any longer, she heard the muffled sound of a click-click, coming closer.

In the ‘City of Eternal Night’, as some called New Kowloon, a doctor has little opportunity to sleep. So with the lighting of another cigarette, Reiaura prepared herself for whatever else might come her way.