Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 5 (section)

===Record 51: But I Hesitate===
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'''02/14/1998

'''20:05

I accidentally got in on the latest fad of “catching a cold”, so I visited the science room that doubles as the science clubroom. The science room uses the adjacent chemistry room as a drug room so they can run a black market of student-made drugs late at night.

“I’m less worried about the ‘black market’ part as I am the quality of the doctor,” I said to the Professor when I saw him seated in front of me.

He nodded, pushed his glasses up his nose, and looked me straight in the eye.

“What have we here? So even the apes are visiting doctors in Tokyo these days?”

“Shut up and give me my medicine. You have one that will heal me right up, don’t you?”

“They say a cold is the source of all illnesses, so logically speaking, you should take every medicine we have. How does that sound?”

“No, thanks. Just give me something normal.”

“We have one you snort and one you heat with a lighter and inject into a vein. Which one would you like? I guarantee you they will both make you feel much, much better. And I beg you to take it where I can watch.”

“You should probably rewrite the sign out front to say ‘street price’ instead of ‘standard medical fees’.”

“Oh? Do we have an arguer? We do, don’t we? Then you get the one that goes up the butt. You’ll feel like you lost something afterwards. It’s made from wasabi harvested from an utaki on a full moon. That stuff is great for the butt. Really, really great.”

“What’s so great about it?”

“It stings on the outside and stings on the inside. For a clinical trial, I forcibly tested it on a cat in the courtyard and hoo boy was it effective.”

“You’re the one who messed up the vice principal’s cat!?”

“That is another way of putting it, yes.”

I made sure to punch him. He is not who I needed to be speaking with when I’m sick.

I looked to the partition curtains on the left and right.

“This place looks like a hospital. Do you get girls here too?”

I pulled back one curtain and saw you with half your clothes off.

“Hey! Wh-what do you think you’re doing!?”

“It’s called peeping. And I warn you, I am unmovable when I get stubborn. People do call me crazy strong, after all. With an emphasis on the crazy.”

“Why don’t you ever make any sense? Are you here to fix your broken brain?”

“Wow, that’s not a very nice thing to say. Also, what are you doing here when your parents run a pharmacy?”

“All of our medicine has caught the cold that’s going around. Even Daitarou is collapsed on his back.”

“I see.” The Professor approached. “So you need some medicine, 1st Special Duty Officer?”

“Y-yes. I’ve been chilled since last night.”

''But you have so much fat in your boobs and butt,'' I thought when you glared at me while holding your clothes close.

“Why do I get the feeling you just had a really rude thought.”

“No, no. Of course not. You’re imagining things.”

I was clearly flustered, so you sighed and looked aside just long enough for me to activate my Mobilized Writing.

'''If you throw a punch with belief in your heart, all things will receive the blow in accordance with the conservation of energy.

I punched out your cold.

Your shoulders shook just once and you looked up at me.

“What did you just do?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Liars never prosper, you know? As thanks, I’ll send you some medicine that doesn’t have a cold.”

“I don’t need any,” I said before saying goodbye to you and doing more stupid stuff with the Professor.

After we made a promise sealed in blood to have an official showdown later on, I went home.

I found a package from you in my apartment’s mailbox.

I opened the package in the elevator while it descended upwards and found a single chocolate bar from the supermarket.

“What kind of medicine is this?”

'''Author Comment:

The protagonist never did get his medicine, but maybe that’s for the best.