Recovery

September 16, 2016.

"This is truly a miracle..."

At Toito University Hospital, Doctor Daimon Michiko marveled at the fully recovered Shiraishi Kuro before her.

When he had first been transferred there, his sensitive identity and grave injuries had put Toito Hospital in a difficult position. From the director to the head of surgery, no one wanted to get involved. But Daimon Michiko, already a freelance doctor, had eagerly volunteered...

As the lead surgeon, Daimon had removed over forty bullets from Shiraishi. Known for surgeries that "never failed" and were "extremely fast," she had actually spent an entire day connecting blood vessels, reattaching nerves, stitching external wounds... and had needed to redo parts of the work several times over the following week!

"It was all thanks to Doctor Daimon's skill," Shiraishi said gratefully.

During the twenty-four hours when he was Lv11, his vitality and recovery ability had also been Lv11. He had survived the most dangerous day, and afterward they had remained at Lv10. But... injuries like those could not be healed through "self-recovery" alone!

It really was thanks to the superb skill of this female surgeon...

"No, it was true that I never failed. But... I originally thought you would recover enough to walk at most," Daimon said frankly.

"Considering your injuries at the time... over forty gunshot wounds, more than twenty knife wounds, eight of them stab wounds, and too many blunt-force injuries to count... While I was removing the bullets, I kept thinking there was a four-character phrase to describe your injuries. What was it again... Ah! It was... Borrowing Arrows with Straw Boats!" Daimon came up with an appropriate idiom.

Shiraishi Kuro: ...

"Luckily, there must have been something wrong with those guns. Nearly all the bullets were lodged in your muscles, and your muscles were thick enough that they did not directly damage any vital organs. Even so, many of your nerves had been severed." Daimon recalled just how troublesome it had been.

She had once served as a battlefield doctor in a Caribbean island nation and was well versed in gunshot wounds, so she had immediately seen that those bullets lacked power.

Of course, the quality of the 3D-printed guns was one factor. Another was that after Shiraishi Kuro's [Physique] had reached Lv11, all the muscles in his body had undergone a qualitative transformation. He could control every muscle in his body and tense them completely. When standing still, they could even provide something close to "low-grade body armor + stab-resistant armor + padding," which was why all the bullets had lodged in his muscles.

Still...

Even so, Shiraishi Kuro had not looked like someone who could survive at the time!

Besides Daimon's exceptional surgical skill, it was also because his Lv11 vitality had been extraordinarily tenacious, allowing him to survive the initial emergency treatment...

Ironically, nearly twenty hours after being transferred, his various indicators had begun to turn dangerous!

Yet despite that, he had escaped danger. Three days later, he was out of life-threatening condition and had regained consciousness.

When he had first awakened, everyone in the hospital besides Daimon had broken out in a cold sweat—because... not only had he suffered multiple bone fractures, but several knife and gunshot wounds had also damaged his nerves. Under normal circumstances, all they could do was comfort the patient by saying, "Work hard at rehabilitation. You may have a chance to regain mobility."

By then, the Minister of Justice's case had already been concluded. Regardless of what some people thought, Shiraishi Kuro was officially considered "a great hero," which put even more pressure on the hospital.

In the end, only Daimon had dared to operate...

On one hand, Shiraishi Kuro's nerves seemed capable of regenerating on their own, and their regeneration appeared guided. On the other hand, Daimon worked alongside his self-healing to perform multiple autologous nerve grafts, transplanting healthy nerves from one part of his body to another that had completely failed.

With both factors combined, and accompanied by rehabilitation, Shiraishi Kuro miraculously regained his mobility at a rapid pace!

And now...

On the twenty-eighth day since Shiraishi Kuro's admission, aside from the many scars left on his body, his motor functions had fully recovered, and every physical indicator was exceptionally good!

"No matter what, thank you for all your trouble these past few days, Doctor Daimon," Shiraishi said.

Today, he would officially be discharged, and he had already changed into a new uniform...

In truth, based purely on his physical condition, he could have been discharged long ago. Obviously, a person did not need to recover enough to punch a cow to death before they could leave the hospital!

It was only because his injuries had previously been so severe that he had been forced to remain hospitalized for observation. Until yesterday afternoon's examination... there had truly been nothing left to observe, so they finally let him leave.

"If you really want to thank me, then the next time you get hurt this badly, remember to come find me again!" Doctor Daimon said without ceremony.

Shiraishi Kuro: ...

"It probably... won't be that easy to get hurt like this again!" Shiraishi Kuro said helplessly—wasn't that a bit too much for an expression of gratitude?

Of course, Shiraishi Kuro ultimately said, "If such an opportunity really arises, I naturally hope I can find Doctor Daimon again!"

Shiraishi Kuro understood how severe his previous injuries had been...

Though Doctor Daimon was merely a freelance doctor, essentially a temporary hospital employee, Shiraishi Kuro estimated that if her surgical skills were measured in levels, they had probably already reached Lv10.

The main abilities related to surgery should be [Insight] and [Control]. Shiraishi Kuro had already maxed out the former, while the latter was also quite good due to his high [Physique].

And...

Though he could not operate on living people, Shiraishi had already become highly proficient at operating on corpses—after all, he held a master's degree in Forensic Medicine from the University of Tokyo and had passed the forensic examiner qualification exam!

In that regard, it would actually be relatively easy for Shiraishi to switch to adding points to [Surgery], but his points were limited, and for now, Shiraishi Kuro had no intention of "teaching himself."

Shiraishi's system allowed him to add points directly to "basic attributes," but for "skills," he first had to encounter them and gain an initial grasp before he could begin adding points!

Shiraishi's usual method of earning points was to follow his already sufficiently high "basic attributes" to learn suitable "skills." Then, as he studied and added points, he would earn points by "obtaining certificates" or "completing achievements"...

This allowed him to "use points to generate points"!

But this time, Shiraishi Kuro had spent all his points at once. Without capital, it would temporarily become harder to earn more points...

"Then... see you next time!" Daimon gazed intensely at Shiraishi Kuro—she was also fascinated by such a rare human body.

Shiraishi Kuro: ...

Could she not hope for something better?

After agreeing with Daimon that "he would come find her again next time he was injured," Shiraishi Kuro went to complete his discharge procedures.

After leaving the hospital, Shiraishi had no luggage to speak of and directly got into the Metropolitan Police Department vehicle that had come specifically to pick him up.

On the second day after Shiraishi Kuro had been hospitalized, before all the bullets had even been removed, Superintendent General Haku and the Director of the National Police Agency had already signed an extraordinary promotion order—raising Shiraishi Kuro's Police Rank from [Inspector] to [Chief Superintendent], promoting him two ranks at once and skipping [Superintendent]!

Today, Superintendent General Haku would also formally commend Shiraishi Kuro...

At the very moment Shiraishi Kuro stepped out of the hospital...

[Achieved S-rank achievement "Indomitable"—suffered more than 20 fatal injuries, remained in a near-death state for 24 hours, and fully recovered. Reward: 10,000 points.]

Note: Police Rank and position are different things. In terms of Police Rank, examples from low to high are: [Patrol Officer (the bicycle-riding patrol officers at police boxes)]-[Patrol Sergeant (Takagi)]-[Police Inspector (Sato)]-[Inspector (Megure)]-[Superintendent (Kuroda, Matsumoto before his promotion)]-[Chief Superintendent (Matsumoto after his promotion)]-[Superintendent General (Toyama Kazuha's father)]-[Deputy Commissioner General (Hattori Heiji's father)]-[Commissioner General (Hakuba Tantei's father)].