Hanafusa laughed softly. His gaze slid to Nozomi, lighting with sharp interest.
"Oh? And who's this?"
"Tenma Nozomi. The girl I mentioned. The one who has a detached retina." Ying said.
Ying glanced at her. "And, this is Hajime Hanafusa. The best doctor I know."
Nozomi gave a small nod.
Hanafusa clasped his hands together, delighted. "Ah. The fighter who lost an eye. How wonderful."
Nozomi blinked. "Wonderful?"
"Oh yes." He stepped closer, leaning in without touching her. His eyes traced the damage clinically.
"I read your file. It was a brutal injury but the detached retina, neural stress, and scar tissue along the optic nerve is clean enough to live without needing surgery. Any normal doctor would leave it alone. Safer that way."
"And you're not normal." Nozomi said flatly.
Hanafusa beamed. "Exactly."
She looked at Ying, hope flickering in her eye. "Last chance to tell me this is a joke."
Ying shook his head. "It's not."
Nozomi let out a slow breath. Then she nodded. "Fine. Let's do it."
Inside, the cabin didn't match the outside at all.
Steel walls, glass panels, and monitors humming in soft harmony, with surgical lights hanging overhead and equipment that definitely wasn't registered anywhere.
Hanafusa moved with contained excitement, laying out tools with careful precision.
"Lie down." He said pleasantly. "You'll be asleep for the most part. So get yourself comfortable."
Nozomi didn't hesitate.
As she settled onto the table, Ying stood off to the side, arms crossed.
She glanced at him. "I'm choosing to trust you. Don't let me down."
Ying met her eyes and nodded once. "I won't."
That was all.
Hanafusa chuckled as he adjusted the overhead light. "Trust is such a fragile thing. Fortunately, skill is not."
He slipped on his gloves, movements steady despite the gleam in his eyes.
"Now then. We'll begin with sedation so that you don't feel the first part."
"And the rest?" Nozomi asked.
"Oh, you'll feel that later but by then, I guarantee it'll be worth it." Hanafusa replied cheerfully.
She smiled. "Yes."
A mask settled over her face. The faint scent of chemicals filled her nose, sharp and sterile. Her vision swam, the ceiling lights blurring into halos.
"Count to ten." Hanafusa said.
"One… two… three…" Her voice slowed. "Four…"
By six, she was gone.
Hanafusa straightened. The cheer drained from him, replaced with focus.
"Detached retina. Neural strain. Scar tissue along the optic nerve." He tilted his head slightly. "More blunt-force trauma than the file suggested. She kept fighting after it happened, didn't she?"
"Yes." Ying said.
"A shame," Hanafusa murmured. "But admirable."
He went to work.
Precise injections around the eye. Then another syringe, faintly luminous under the light.
"What you're seeing here," He said casually, as if lecturing an absent class. "Is a regenerative stimulation paired with forced neural recalibration. Most doctors avoid this because if the brain rejects it, the feedback can fry the optic cortex making it a gamble."
"That's why, I'll override the rejection." Hanafusa smiled thinly. "Violently."
The machines hummed louder as he activated them. A lattice of light scanned Nozomi's eye, projecting layers of data across the monitors. Her brow twitched. Fingers curled slightly.
"She's reacting." Ying said.
"As expected." Hanafusa adjusted a dial. "The body remembers the loss and so it resists the correction."
A laser engaged. Low but more controlled. It traced along the damaged tissue, burning away scar interference cell by cell. Nozomi's breathing hitched even under sedation.
Minutes then stretched into hours.
Sweat formed along Hanafusa's temple but his hands never shook. He worked with obsession, murmuring to himself, recalculating, injecting, cutting, and regenerating.
Ying didn't move. His thoughts drifted back to his own operation, years ago, under the same lights.
Finally, Hanafusa stepped back.
"…Done."
The machines settled into a steady rhythm. Nozomi lay still, one eye covered, vitals glowing green.
Hanafusa removed his gloves and flexed his fingers. "She'll be out for a few hours."
Ying nodded, eyes still on her.
Hanafusa studied him briefly, then smiled.
"…You picked an interesting one. Most fighters with this kind of damage break long before this point. They fear, hesitate and in the end stop fighting."
His gaze sharpened.
"She reminds me of you."
Ying looked at him.
"Your will to keep fighting." Hanafusa tapped the side of his temple lightly and he went on.
"Mirror touch synesthesia, you feel what you see. Every strike you watch or induce, your nervous system echoes it. Pain without contact and damage without injury."
"Those people that had it stop at anything violent the moment they realize what that entails."
Hanafusa continued. "They avoid matches, avoided crowds, and avoid life altogether."
He let out a soft laugh. "You didn't."
Ying remained silent.
"You chose not to stop even when you feel that pain, multiplied all over you."
"You kept fighting while your brain screamed at you to stop. Every match doubled the pain. Every impact stacked. Your body begged you to quit and you ignored it."
Hanafusa stopped and calmed down his excitement. "It's just so fascinating... That's why I agreed to our little deal, you still remember it?"
Ying spoke. "Of course, it was a turning point that helped me tremendously, you lowering my pain sensitivity in exchange for a life that needed ending anyways. Huge benefit for me I'd say."
Hanafusa's smile barely shifted. "Needed ending?"
"He was your adopted father."
"Like we don't know whats going to happen either way, he was going to burn half the country to keep control. I simply let you end him instead of me personally dealing the blow."
Yes, back then when my adopted father's control of the cult started slipping, he had made one final, desperate move. A plan to detonate chemical bombs across Japan. It would have slaughtered hundreds of thousands and restored his absolute power in one stroke.
Of course, I know of it and that's why I tipped the government with information on his plans, that was also how I met Hanafusa. He was a special agent of the Japanese government, who specializes in secretly eliminating enemies of the state.
We clashed a bit due to a misunderstanding in his part and upon noticing my blindfold, he couldn't help but ask.
"You're not blind." he had said lightly, though his eyes were calculating. "So why the blindfold?"
"Nothing much." I told him.
He didn't lower his weapon.
"Take it off."
"I'd rather not."
Hanafusa tilted his head. "If this is some dramatic villain reveal, I assure you, I'm not impressed."
"Hmph, It's for you and also for me." I replied.
That caught his interest.
He studied me for a moment longer, then stepped closer.
I tensed up until his right arm gave a small twitch.
Shnnk.
The thin matte-black blade that had been resting between his palm eased back into place, vanishing beneath skin and bone with a quiet mechanical click.
I understood the gesture and loosened my coiled stance.
He wasn't preparing to kill anymore.
Hanafusa watched the change with a faint smile.
"There. That's better. No need for murder, you're not my target anyway."
With his left hand, he thumbed the safety on the pistol. A small click. He holstered it without looking.
Only then did Ying fully relaxed.
Hanafusa studied him for a moment, head tilting slightly.
"So why the blindfold?"
"If I said I feel everything I see, will you believe me?"
"Feel everything you see." Hanafusa repeated, slower this time. "Be specific."
"When someone takes any kind of damage, my body reacts like I took it too. I feel the pain. I feel the weight of it, the fear they felt, the tension, everything they feel, I feel it."
Hanafusa didn't look surprised. Just focused.
"What you are experiencing is called, Mirror-touch synesthesia and most cases are faint. A ghost sensation. What you're describing though is an intense version of it."
Ying gave a small nod.
"And still, you decided to make a career out of watching people hurt each other? You're something else kid."
A corner of Hanafusa's mouth lifted.
"Take the blindfold off."
Ying hesitated at that.
"For science." Hanafusa added.
Ying sighed and pulled the cloth free.
Both his eyes open. His pupils was shaped like a star, glowing with a faint warmth.
Hanafusa moved without warning.
He slammed his own forearm against the edge of the steel railing.
The sound cracked through the corridor.
Half a second later Ying jerked, hand snapping to the same spot on his own arm. His breath caught, sharp and involuntary.
The delay was tiny.
But it was there.
Hanafusa watched him recover. Watched the way Ying's muscles tightened and forced themselves calm.
"So sight feeds the loop." Hanafusa murmured. "You see it and your brain treats it as yours."
He stepped closer and tapped lightly against Ying's temple.
"If I lower the amplification here, slow the signal before it floods the rest of you… I can dull the pain."
Ying held his gaze. "Without dulling me?"
"It won't gut your instincts. Pain is useful sure, it keeps you sharp and awake but I can turn the volume down to a level you can live with."
Ying didn't hesitate. "Do it."
Hanafusa studied him a moment longer.
"There's a cost." he said quietly.
"Name it."
"Tell me where your leader is, so I could assassinate him."
"Deal."
No pause. No negotiation.
After that, I told him that I'm the one who tipped the goverment. His looks at that time says it all. A deal for something that would've been done already.
The memory of the past then faded.
Back in the cabin, machines hummed steadily. Nozomi lay still beneath the lights, breathing even, bandage clean.
Hanafusa flexed his fingers once. Those same hands had ended a man and rewired another.
Hanafusa's gaze softened just a fraction.
"Her brain is still adapting, so when she wakes up, there'll be a struggle with the eye before things properly settle. The procedure's over. It just needs time to stop aching before she can properly see again."
He leaned back against the counter.
"So anyways, tell me. Why go this far for someone you don't even know well? I wouldn't ask if it's someone very close to you. Like Roberta, people you owed, and your so called Stars."
Ying was quiet for a moment.
"She was wasted. A fighter who couldn't fight properly even when she had the will. That kind of thing bothers me." Ying said.
Hanafusa chuckled. "That's not the real answer."
Ying didn't deny it.
"You could've chosen anyone. Plenty of half-broken monsters roaming the underground rings. Yet you brought me her."
He glanced at Nozomi again. "And now she'll see clearly again. That changes people."
"Everything changes people, this just gives her a chance." Ying replied
"A chance for what?" Hanafusa asked.
Ying's voice stayed calm. "To decide what she's worth."
Hanafusa studied him for a long moment, then laughed softly.
"You're doing it again. Gathering unstable and dangerous pieces and for what? To satiate the boredom you have."
Ying smiled. "I didn't expect that you of all people to call me out. Fine. I chose her because she's interesting. Her fighting style intrigued me and I intend to see it's peak."
Hanafusa's smile thinned. "And you think she'll survive what you're dragging her toward?"
Ying looked back at Nozomi, her expression peaceful and unaware.
"That depends on her. Not me."
Hanafusa fell silent for a moment before speaking.
"The world's moving again and this time, it won't stay underground."
"I know."
"And about him? Still on your mind?"
Ying didn't answer right away. "…Always."
Hanafusa sighed, pushing off the counter. "If your plans spiral out of control again, I won't be able to help you this time."
"I wouldn't ask you to."
Hanafusa smiled. "Good. She'll wake up in a few hours."
He paused at the door. "Try not to ruin her too quickly."
Ying didn't respond.
He stayed where he was, listening to the machines, watching Nozomi sleep.
Waiting.
==========
AN: I'm not gonna lie, this got me stuck for a while. I considered just not finishing and wait for a week but I pushed through, is this what they call a writer block lol. Sigh, I want to stop yet also don't want to give up, such a strange feeling this is.
Word Count: 2,062