SOMETHING UNUSUAL

     Mirai, now shiftily dressed in nurses’ attire, navigated her way through the hospital. Slowing her steps as two curious employees passingly questioned what a nurse from the ER would be doing in neurology. Mirai glanced down at the sleeve of her shirt, only to notice a patch clearly identifying her division. The two employees, one wearing a doctor’s cloak and the other in nurse’s uniform, stared on as Mirai ominously stood center of the hallway without saying a word. Just as she shifted her foot towards the two’s direction, a deep and weighted voice bellowed from the far end of the hall. “I asked her here. One of my patients ended up in the ER earlier.”

     A doctor that looked to be in his late 40’s stepped forward casually, his every step prominent as the sounds of his feet grew closer. Mirai was peering at the employees over her shoulder as the man’s steps came to a stop a few feet from her. She gave a quiet nod as the they went on about their way before turning to face the man in front of her.

     She stared at him in the eyes with a stern look, but the doctor simply turned his back and headed down the hall. Mirai calmly followed behind him, and as they approached a door, she questioned “Do we know each other?” With his hand firmly gripping the doorknob, he said, “You and Doctor Tsumibiki look very similar.” Intrigued, Mirai fixed her lips to interrogate the man, but found her words lodged in her throat as the doctor beat her to the line.

“Let’s talk about what you’re snooping around here looking for, shall we?”

He then pushed the door open and stepped into an office. One that eerily resembled Yukue’s study back at her home.

     As he took a seat behind his desk, he slightly leaned back into his chair and watched Mirai as she stood frozen in the doorway.

     She let the edge in her demeanor settle before responding with a stern voice, “No, I don’t think so.” The doctor audibly exhaled through his nose as he rested his arms atop his desk. Yukue didn’t show up to work yesterday, something tells me that you standing in front of me isn’t a coincidence.” He continued, “I think I might be someone you should be talking to.” Mirai gazed at him as she stepped into his office. Reaching for the door handle, she eased it shut and stated bluntly, “I’m not your patient.”

     “I have a feeling your definition of ‘patient’ is skewed,” the doctor cautioned. Mirai, still twisting the doorknob in her palm, retorted, “I’m going to walk out of here and you’re going to mind your business.”

     Back at the lobby, Laia tremblingly gripped a tablet in her hand ripe with the words RESIDENT ID, followed by a blank space.

     “Hey!” she grabbed onto the nurse’s arm just before she could walk away, “I’m not actually a resident of Inagi, I’m just visiting a friend.”

     The nurse turned to her with an easing smile, politely replying, “Oh just put the ID of the woman you came here with. I’m assuming she’s the resident, right?”

     Laia returned a blank grin to the nurse who struggled to fight the awkward air brewing between the two.

     “Resident IDs aren’t something that people just talk about, so I actually don’t know… So, yeah… Maybe we could save the form for after she gets her intestines stitched back up?”

     Letting her anxiety imbue her with a feeling of frustration, Laia then passively snipped, “Honestly, why would you need something so redundant?” as she pointed to the biometric scanner at the entrance.

     With an off timed chuckle, the nurse kindly tapped the bottom of the tablet which displayed text about access to medical history. “It’s for the patient. It’ll ensure we can give her the best medical attention. Believe it or not, privacy laws are in full swing here in Inagi. That scanner at the door is simply to track personnel movement. Some patients wander around out of sight of their caretakers, and that tells us whether they’ve left the hospital or not.”

“Staff can request it from the town administrator through biometric confirmation, but for our internal system we just need her full name for the moment.”

     Hearing this, Laia choked on her tongue as she nearly blurted out Mirai’s name. Secret mission! She yelled to herself in her own head.

     Now caught in a twist, Laia resorted to following up with another blank grin.

     “You should talk to me,” the doctor then repeated as he switched on the desk lamp beside him and calmly tapped his fingers at the surface of his desk. He then gestured towards the chair in front of him, and as Mirai solemnly indulged him, she locked the door and stepped towards the doctor’s desk. Standing over the chair and looking down upon him.

     Leaning back in his seat he returned a similar gaze towards her. “What are you here looking for?” 

“I need to know who my sister’s patients were.”

“You worried something happened to her?”

“My worries are none of your concern.”

     The doctor followed with a small acquiescing gesture before continuing, “If you wanna fix something, then find out what the unusual things are. Your sister seeing patients is normal.”

     A waft of confusion touched upon Mirai’s conscience, but she soon found herself stuck focusing on the footsteps coming down the hall.

     “You wanna tell me what ‘unusual’ is for guy like you,” she returned to the doctor.

     “Try removing the walls of the box that your thought process is encased in. You won’t accomplish much if your mind is as rigid as it is,” he measuredly stated.

     “I don’t take kindly to riddles,” Mirai pressured.

Kerchuk

     The door handle began to shuffle back and forth. Briefly glancing at the door before turning towards the doctor, Mirai stated, “That was a lot faster than I wanted it that to be.”

The doctor gawked at her. “Needless to say, you’re not as talented at this as you seem to believe.”

“You shouldn’t make any reservations about me, doctor…” Mirai bit back.

     Raising from his seat, the doctor straightened his coat and stepped out from behind his desk.  "I’ll keep all of that in mind the next time I catch someone randomly lurking through the hospital halls,” he peppered as he walked towards the door.

     “Doctor, I may not like what’s on the other side of that door.”

     Looking at her with a defeated grimace, the doctor slipped in one witty remark of his own, “You should work on the suspense a bit more.”

     As he swung the door open, he was surprisingly met with…

     Nothing.