First Tests

Kyourin helped him apply the bandaid on his neck, after he saw Shohei struggling with it, confirming it was indeed an insect bite. The disinfectant stung. Kyourin showed him where he kept the spray to keep insects away, which he always used before going to document the termite mounds, before leading him to them.

A new growth was happening. Shohei looked at a whole cluster of tiny, white caps, pushing out of the reddish soil. It was still a miracle to him. Kyourin stood to the side, looking at his achievement like a proud parent.

“You can harvest that batch and do with it whatever you deem suitable,” he said. “I’m curious to see what you come up with.”

Shohei looked at him with shining eyes. “Already?” Kyourin would trust him with working on these delicate colonies after just a few weeks?

“You’ve been methodical and careful. The initial results speak for themselves. I’m glad you’re here to help me.”

Oh. No.

Shohei looked away before his expression could give away the weird jump his heart had made at those words. It was rare for anyone to compliment his work, and to hear it from someone as accomplished as Eisaku Kyourin was… suddenly overwhelming.

“Matsumoto?”

“Ah… I… I was just thinking about how to go about it. Sorry.”

“Head in the experiment already… I can’t fault you. I’m the same, after all. Then I’ll let you explore your thoughts.”

When Kyourin turned away, Shohei reached out automatically, catching his sleeve. Kyourin looked at him in surprise, and Shohei drew his hand back as if it was burnt.

“Yes?”

“Uh. Thank you. For trusting me with this.”

“Of course,” Kyourin said, and his smile made Shohei feel warm long after he was gone.

—--

Hero worship? Simple loneliness? Stockholm syndrome?

No, wait, the last one didn’t fit.

Shohei sat at his desk, staring at the flask, in which his mushroom specimens were marinating in ethanol. He could've done something else while waiting, but his mind was elsewhere. Checking on the timer again, he got up from the table and slowly moved along the length of the room.

Pro: Kyourin is very accomplished, and Shohei admired that in him

Con: He is his boss

Pro: Kyourin is nice to him

Con: He probably is nice to everyone

Pro: Kyourin already trusts him

Con: He could just be a good boss

Pro: Kyourin is very handsome

Shohei ended up in front of Kyourin’s desk. There he was, younger, but still handsome. And next to him, Ran Saikawa. If they had separated so badly, then why did Kyourin put the photo up on his desk? Too many questions that he shouldn’t be asking in the first place.

Con: Kyourin is his boss

And that was the end of it.

The alarm clock signaled the end of the waiting time. Shohei went to prep the centrifuge, thinking of mushrooms and mushrooms alone.

——

The moment of truth. There were three glass cylinders with suspended rats in front of him. One had gotten the usual nutritional supplements. Two more lay in front of Shohei, the powder piled on glass slates. One an extraction from dehydrated mushrooms, one from fresh. This was his baseline experiment.

Shohei was acutely aware of Kyourin on the other side of the room as he transferred the powders into their respective tanks. The man had taken to grinding something in the mortar again, as he often did in the evenings. Shohei had never asked him what that was about, and Kyourin had never offered telling—as opposed to the many other of his ongoing work experiments.

Finally, everything was set up and Shohei set in to record the changes in the tanks over the next few hours, settling in on a chair in front of them. He was still amazed by the setup in general. The life-supporting liquid, the natural remedies stimulating the body to heal itself. It was a miracle in and of itself. As he watched the powder sink into the tank, he didn’t realise the grinding noise had stopped.

And then Kyourin’s hands were on his shoulders, and his head next to Shohei’s. He watched the tanks while squeezing Shohei gently.

“Congratulations on starting the first test series,” he said.

His voice raised goosebumps all over Shohei's body. He didn’t dare move.

“Thank you.”

“You’ll just stay here, I’ll get us coffee.”

“Us?”

“Do you mind if I watch with you? I’m curious too.”

“No, I mean, it’s your lab.”

“It’s yours too.”

Kyourin drew back and Shohei felt the ghost of warm breath on his neck. He was still frozen in something akin to shock when Kyourin returned with the coffee and settled in next to him. He took a few notes to camouflage his nervousness.

“Our primary focus is rehabilitation support, since these mushrooms cannot be produced at scale… but this is foundational research for supplements of all kinds. Not only nutritional.”

“I know,” Shohei said. “Antioxidants, anti-inflammatory… there’s so many uses. It’s what drew me to these mushrooms in the first place.”

“That's why we focused on them. Why I worked for years to get the cultivation right, and only managed to foster four measly mounds.”

“That’s more than anyone in the world managed!” Shohei said loudly.

“You know you’re quite endearing when you get worked up. You don’t show much emotion, do you?”

Shohei dropped his notepad.

“What?”

“I’m sorry. That was out of line. We don’t even know each other that long, and even if we did, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“I’m… No. It’s fine.” Shohei bent down and picked up pen and paper. “It’s just I’ve been told that before, by people comparing me to… to a robot. I don’t like it.”

Kyourin’s face fell. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m… ah. I hope everyone told you I’m not good with people.”

Kyourin looked so crestfallen, Shohei had to laugh, which in turn made the other even more anxious.

“Yeah, I was told. I get it. I’m not the best with people either. I forgive you.”

“Thank you. I will take care in the future. For the record, I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. Not showing emotions doesn’t mean they’re not there. I can see how much you care about the work, how much diligence you put into it.”

Shohei looked away before Kyourin could see his eyes water. It wasn’t fair. Why did he always say exactly what Shohei needed to hear?

“Matsumoto?”

“It’s nothing.”

“No, I mean look at tank number three.”

Shohei turned to look at the liquid, which had taken on a green tint, obscuring the rat inside partially. A bloom. A bloom of something…

“That’s the algae!” Kyourin said excitedly. “We usually have to put in way more supplement powder to get an algae boom like that, and then it oversaturates the system for the organism. If the rat survives this, we’ll go with tank three. That was the fresh specimen extraction, right?”

“Yes.”

“It shows how carefully you’ve worked on your thesis for the last few years. The extraction was immaculate.”

“Please, I—”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Matsumoto.”

Shohei hoped his blush wasn’t visible, but in the clinical lighting it most likely was. Ah, it was hopeless. Kyourin disarmed him at every turn and made his heart beat faster. He didn’t stand a chance… and it didn’t even look like the doctor knew what he was doing.

“Alright. I’m just not used to…” he sighed, opting to tell the truth. “I wasn’t the most popular in university. At least there was no one around to say anything positive about my work, except my supervisor, but he rarely had time to even see me.”

“Then we shall remedy that. Keep an eye on the tank. I’m going to get Ito. I need his input.”

Shohei nodded. And then he was alone again. He distracted himself with taking temperature readings, samples and photos to properly document the tests. Just as he was bottling up the last bit of liquid, Kyourin arrived with Ito in tow.

It only got worse from there. Ito was over the moon, especially since the lifesigns of the test rat were stable, the sensors connected to it still registering the reduced heartbeat. Only… the oxygen concentration in its blood was rising. Ito hugged Shohei as he saw the numbers.

“That’s amazing! We desperately need more oxygen to speed up some processes in the body!”

“But if it’s too much, the plants may suffer…” Kyourin said.

“Maybe if we take these ones instead of…”

They drifted off into their own world, discussing details Shohei had not yet learned about. But it didn’t matter. Right there and then, with his experiment running and an in-depth scientific discussion happening right behind him, he felt so warm. He was more at home than he had been in a long time. These were his people. A knot unravelled inside him and tension sank away from his shoulders. He felt his whole frame relax.

This felt right.

And when he looked up at Kyourin, who had made it all possible, he knew it was too late for him to stop it.

He was already falling.