Chapter 20 - Doctor Hoffman
Chapter 20: Doctor Hoffman
It took her a lot longer to reach the dorm as she didn’t want to hurt her right arm.
Scanning her student ID, she saw Lyrica there with a worried frown.
"Shiro!" Lyrica called out as she stomped towards her.
Seeing the ice brace Shiro created for herself, Lyrica felt her worry and rage increase.
"Why are you going out this late? A beautiful girl like you could get kidnapped ah!"
Shiro smiled wearily seeing Lyrica’s worry.
Pulling out her phone, she tapped away.
[Sorry, I just wanted to level up a little. But look, I’m back and I’m a level 25 now.]
"Yeah that’s great and all, but look at the state of you." Lyrica pointed towards Shiro brace.
"What if you didn’t return one day? I was really worried you know!"
Shiro smiled as she stood on her tiptoes and patted Lyrica’s head.
"Patting my head doesn’t make it any better!" Lyrica complained with a pout but her anger decreased significantly.
[I know, thank you for worrying about me.] Shiro smiled.
"Haa... what will I do with you." Lyrica shook her head as she held Shiro’s hand.
Shiro flinched a little feeling pain from her arm.
"Ah? Are you alright?" Lyrica was anxious seeing Shiro react so visibly from a gentle touch.
Even when they were fighting, Shiro would barely flinch. Yet here she was, flinching from a tap.
[Yeah I’m fine. Just the boss did a number on my right arm.]
Lyrica frowned as she turned to the receptionist.
"Excuse me, is the school healer still awake?" Lyrica asked.
"He should be in his office. Do you want me to call him over so she won’t have to walk over?" The lady asked pointing at Shiro.
"It would be a great help if you can." Lyrica smiled.
The lady nodded and picked up the phone.
"Doctor Hoffman. I have a young lady injured in the dorm reception. Are you able to come here and make a diagnosis?" The lady said.
They couldn’t hear what the doctor said but the lady eventually nodded back towards them.
"Doctor Hoffman will be coming here in a few minutes." The lady said as Shiro nodded.
There were a few chairs in the reception so Shiro walked over and sat down slowly.
"So Shiro, how did your arm even get like this?" Lyrica asked sitting next to her.
[Got hit a little too hard.] Shiro shrugged with her left shoulder only.
"Can getting hit a little too hard reduce you to a flinching and sweating mess?" Lyrica asked with a raised eyebrow.
[Why do I feel like you’re getting more sarcastic?]
"Just your imagination." Lyrica looked away. She felt really relaxed around Shiro as she could joke around with her and play around. Something which she wouldn’t be able to muster up the courage to do with other people.
"That being said, Shiro, how did you level up to 25 so quickly?" Lyrica asked.
[I soloed the Frag Ant’s burrow.]
".... At this point, you can tell me you soloed the level 35 Necron Hollows and I’ll believe it."
[I’m not that insane. There are still limits.] Shiro chuckled slightly before flinching from the pain.
"And so it seems." Lyrica said looking at her arm.
They continued to chat for a little while before they saw a man walking towards them.
[Hans LVL 43 – Combat Medic]
He had long brown hair tied into a low ponytail, brown eyes, a slight stubble and a small cut scar on his chin. He looked to be 6ft 4 and his build was rather robust. His outfit consisted of a pair of black-rimmed glasses, a white lab coat, black t-shirt and black work pants.
Adjusting his glasses, he looked at Shiro.
"From what I’m seeing, you’re the one who needs the diagnosis."
Shiro nodded as she pointed to her right arm.
Lyrica sat anxiously as she wondered what extent of the damage was needed for Shiro to flinch with a light touch.
Crouching down, Hans observed the arm. There were no visible damages except the palms and fingers being a little bloody.
"Can you undo this ice?" He asked.
Shiro nodded as the ice started to thaw.
"Hmm..." Hans frowned as he could see Shiro holding back the pain.
Pulling out a tablet, he aimed it at Shiro’s arm before pulling back.
The tablet was like a transportable X-ray machine as it used mana to take an internal diagnosis of the patient.
"What the f*ck!?!!!" He cried out in surprise at the extent of the injury.
"How the hell did you even get this injured just on your right arm!!" He asked looking at Shiro.
Shrugging as a response, she didn’t let him know about the nano bots.
"What’s wrong with her?" Lyrica asked.
"It seems like your friend decided to drop a f*cking house on her arm. Every bone in her right arm is fractured if not broken. The muscles are ripped to shreds, and hell! Her tendons are on the verge of snapping!" Hans said as this was one of the most insane injuries he had ever seen.
"This type of injury isn’t something the potions can heal. If you use the potions, there is a chance that the injury will become permanent. However, her body seems to be actively trying to heal her. I guess it would take anywhere from a week to a month for her arm to heal so, the best course of action is to not give the arm any shock. Let it heal naturally." Hans concluded standing up.
"The most I can do for you is to give you some pain resistant pills." Hans offered.
[Please, that would help a lot.]
Whilst Hans went to get the pain resistant pills, Shiro refroze the cast on her arm.
"Shiro, tell me honestly. How did your arm get that injured? I want to know the truth." Lyrica asked with a deep frown.
[Just an accident when fighting, I’ll be fine after 10 days.]
"But what if something happens in the 10 days? What are you going to do about that?"
[Then I trust my safety to you.] Shiro smiled looking at Lyrica.
"Shiro..." Lyrica muttered feeling a little overwhelmed yet happy that Shiro could rely on her.
"Ahem... here are your pain resistance pills." Hans said interrupting their conversation.
[Thanks.] Shiro nodded and took the pills with her left hand.
Hans walked away as his work was done.
Looking back at Lyrica, Shiro saw that her face was a little red.
[Did you fall in love with Doctor Hoffman or something?] Shiro teased with a grin.
"Blerg, as if." Lyrica shook her head and walked back to her room.
Shiro chuckled before flinching again.
Walking back to her room, she examined the pills.
[High-Quality Pain Resistant Pills]
Pills of high quality that will dull your pain senses.
"Heh~, I didn’t think he would have pain Resistant Pills." Shiro muttered in surprise before popping the pill into her mouth. She felt the pain dull as she sighed in relief.
Sitting up on the bed, she fell asleep.
###
"Doctor Hoffman, why did you make such a reaction earlier?"
"You don’t understand. That degree of injury isn’t normal. When you get hit but something that breaks your bones, there would be a cluster at the point of contact before the injury would disperse. The further it is away from the impact, the sparser the fractions get.
However, her injury was like something made sure everything was broken before stopping. The level of detail to make sure every part of her arm was broken but not disabled astounds me." Hans replied.
"This level of injury is self-made. It’s impossible for a monster to cause this. And knowing her class being just an Ice Mage, that level of detailed self-inflicted damage is impossible as well." Hans sighed.
"Then what do you think happened?"
"Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before." Hans shrugged.
"You think she’s hiding something?"
"Maybe. Who knows?"
###
[Urggggg........]
"Shiro, you don’t need to write down your boredom. I can see it." Lyrica replied with a slight giggle.
She understands that Shiro found it boring in the close quarters combat lesson, the knowledge they taught were rudimentary. Not to mention, she was currently injured so she couldn’t join in on the sparring session either.
[I just wanted to verbalise/visualise my intense boredom in this lesson.] Shiro typed.
[Lyrica, you should already know a little more than what’s being taught in this lesson. Since both of us know your power with the dual ended blades exceeds the current curriculum.]
"Eh~ That’s true. But we still need to focus for formalities." Lyrica smiled.
[I want to melt... It’s hot and boring.] Shiro sighed as she laid her body flat on the desk. She did so in a way that her right arm wouldn’t hurt as much.
In addition to her boredom, the day was quite hot as Shiro felt stuffy just being in a room.
"Hahaha, so you can’t deal with the heat?" Lyrica giggled slightly.
[No I can’t. I hate the sun.]
"But your passive is really helpful isn’t it?" Lyrica commented as she felt cooled down next to Shiro.
[Yeah yeah... just treat me like a walking air conditioning.] Shiro waved her left hand lazily.
"Wow~ You really feel different when it gets hot." Lyrica muttered seeing the unreactive and ’whatever’ vibe Shiro was emitting.
[I’m just not too good when it gets too hot. I’ll be fine when it cools down or when the sun gets blocked.] She just wanted to curl up into a ball and retreat to the corner.
"Shiro, for the spar do you just want to watch by the side?" Lyrica asked as they had to go change for the sparring session.
Shiro didn’t even type out a line as she pointed to her arm.
"..." ’Fine... Pretend I didn’t ask.’
[I can probably join if you want. I’ll just be standing in the same spot using my ice though.] Shiro said as Lyrica shook her head.
"Nope. You should just be good and recover for 10 days. Well 9 not including today." Lyrica said as they walked towards the changing rooms.
There was a mini test today as they had to try touch the teacher once. The main task wasn’t to touch the teacher as it suggests, but rather what the students like to term. SURVIVE.
Shiro was quite interested in the mini test. Unfortunately, her arm didn’t exactly agree with her sentiments.
Rather than fighting outside, they opted to be inside the sparring hall as it was a little too hot. Some students may suffer from a heat stroke.
The hall was huge as Shiro was sure it could fit 4 football fields in a 2 by 2 format. Surrounded by high walls and powerful lights which illuminated the area, this was by far one of the biggest buildings of this school.
Walking away from the group, Shiro sat down and watched the teacher split the teams up for sparring before grabbing a few students for the mini test.
Minding her own business, Shiro browsed the net for anything interesting.
Halfway through her search, she saw someone walking towards her and looked up. It was a boy a little taller than her. With average looks and a pair of glasses. In his hands was a bottle of water.
[Ted LVL 14 – Archer]
"Erm... f-for you!" He stuttered before putting the bottle down and ran away.
’How cute.’ Shiro thought with a giggle. Seeing the boy work up the courage to give her a bottle of water made her smile a little.
During his run, he turned around slightly to check how Shiro reacted.
Shiro only smiled and gave him a light wave. This in turn caused him to blush a little and had a dumb smile plastered on his face.
Looking at the bottle, Shiro picked it up and inspected in.
[Water Bottle]
Just a water bottle, what else do you expect? Vodka?
’This god damn description...’ Shiro thought with a sweat drop.
However, Ted’s actions seemed to have sparked a chain reaction amongst the guys. They walked over and handed her items like towels and chairs. Shiro was getting swarmed by the mob as her annoyance slowly increased.
[Thanks, I’m fine. I don’t need all this.] Shiro typed out with a weary smile.
One of the boys looked at the foldable bed he carried behind him. He sighed slightly before muttering, "Such a shame..."
’********!!! WHY DID YOU BRING A BED?!’