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The moment Asakura entered the hospital, the smell of disinfectant pierced his nostrils like an icy blade.
At first, he sensed Yukino activating the Scale Flash Pattern and thought she had encountered some trouble. Just as he was about to rush over, he received a text message from her.
Well, in a sense, the girl indeed encountered trouble. At least, the 'favor' Asakura had promised her, the girl seemed to have already decided where to use it.
He glanced at the map of departments and inpatient wards on the wall, then turned and walked towards the adjacent corridor.
The ceiling lights in the hallway cast a murky glow on the frosted ceiling, as if someone had poured the viscous sunset of dusk into this stark white passageway.
Unlike the somewhat bustling outpatient department, the inpatient ward of the expensive private clinic was much quieter. The only sound came from the rolling wheels rumbling over the floor tiles around the corner.
"Please move aside."
A nurse pushing an equipment cart hurried past him on his right. Surgical forceps and bone saws clinked together on the cart, and he could vaguely hear the monotonous beeping of an electrocardiogram machine from a nearby room.
Asakura had always disliked the atmosphere in hospitals, and today was especially so—aside from the low pressure formed by the patients' anxieties about their future, there was also a strange, inexplicable malevolence flowing in the air.
He stopped and looked at the door in front of him.
Room 404 was exactly where Yukinoshita Yukino had asked him to come.
It was also the source of the malevolence permeating the air.
He didn't rush in—not because he was wary of the malevolence or anything, after all, something that couldn't even break through the Scale Flash Pattern he left for Yukinoshita Yukino naturally posed no threat to him, the rightful owner of the genuine Curse "Scale." The main reason was fear of scaring the source of the malevolence, saving himself from having to engage in an unfamiliar chase if it ran away—he simply stood at the doorway and knocked on the doorframe.
A moment later, Yukinoshita Yukino came out of the room.
"What's the situation exactly?"
He looked at the girl and noticed that her face didn't seem to show any worry, so he asked curiously, "Didn't you say your sister was sick? Why do you look completely unconcerned?"
Could it really be a superficial sisterly bond?
Yukinoshita Yukino systematically told Asakura in detail about her elder sister's condition, including how she was infected.
Actually, when she first thought Haruno was terminally ill, Yukino was indeed worried and anxious, as she wasn't sure if Asakura's supernatural powers could cure others' illnesses.
However, once she realized that her elder sister's situation wasn't an illness, but rather being entangled by some anomaly, she actually felt relieved.
Perhaps for ordinary people, being entangled by such a supernatural entity is an even more intractable situation than being ill.
But for Yukinoshita Yukino, who knew of Asakura, the ultimate weapon against the supernatural, solving anomalies was much more likely to succeed than curing diseases…
"A lump with a human face, huh…"
Asakura stroked his chin. It seemed the source of the malevolence should be this thing Yukino mentioned. The malevolence that had leaked out was probably the way and medium for this anomaly to seek, or rather, 'infect' others.
Given that, this thing shouldn't be the type that can grow legs and run away.
"How is your elder sister?"
Asakura said, "I don't really want to involve other Muggles in our world, so the treatment process definitely can't be shown to her… If it really comes down to it, we can only…"
He extended his palm in a hand-blade gesture, making a 'chop down' motion: "We can only knock her out first."
"You even have this kind of…"
Yukinoshita Yukino had clearly seen martial arts films from East Asia, as Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts films were quite popular in the island nation during a certain period: "Chinese kung fu?"
"Although I haven't practiced it, I think it's pretty much the same—" Asakura said confidently, "As long as I chop her one… three… no, at most fifty times, I can definitely knock her out successfully!"
"Rather than whether you can knock her out, I'm more concerned about her cervical spine…"
Yukino sighed helplessly, putting a hand to her forehead: "You don't need to do anything extra. Big Sister has already taken her medicine and fallen asleep."
"That's great."
"Your face isn't saying 'that's great' at all, but rather that you're disappointed you didn't get a chance to act."
"What evidence do you have?!"
"Just put your hand-blade down first."
Only after entering the ward did their childish argument come to an end.
Asakura looked at the girl on the hospital bed. Compared to when he saw her at the Founders' Festival, the sleeping Yukinoshita Haruno now had less of her feigned sunny cheerfulness, and her pale face showed a touch of fragility.
After a moment of silence, Asakura looked at Yukino beside him.
The girl gave him a puzzled look.
"No, what good does looking at her face do? You should show me the lump on her body!"
Seeing that the other party was so out of sync with him, Asakura indicated helplessly, "Could it be those two on her chest?"
"…Although it is my fault for reacting a bit slowly, I don't think this is the right time for dirty jokes."
"No, I'm just stating a fact. It's perfectly normal to suspect those two on her chest are lumps, given she's your sister, right?"
"Can I punch you?"
The girl, whose reputation was being damaged, squinted at Asakura and asked.
"Then my favor will be repaid."
Asakura turned his face, offering his cheek to the girl, his irritating expression as if saying, 'Come on, come on, hit me here.'
Yukino took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling slightly.
But that's how a seller's market is; no matter how angry she was, she could only temporarily swallow her pride, puffing out her cheeks like a squirrel. She turned the deeply sleeping Yukinoshita Haruno over, lifted her hospital gown, and revealed the lump.
Beneath the surface invisible to ordinary people, the grotesque face on the lump seemed to be howling and screaming something.
At first glance, it was indeed somewhat horrifying, but Asakura had no reaction to it. He simply took off his glasses and activated Truth Vision—solving the other party wouldn't be difficult. Whether by cutting it off with "Scale—" burning it with "Candle—" or even directly turning it into a snake, it was probably achievable.
But that would only be 'curing a strange illness.'
More than that, Asakura was more curious as to why this thing suddenly appeared and spread so inexplicably.
If it was just like the Mirror Abnormality, merely a supernatural existence born by accident, that would be one thing, but if this thing was man-made, then the problems behind it would be immense—ever since the mysterious foreigner who tracked him appeared last time, Asakura had become slightly more vigilant.
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