"Sample 0016 processed."
"Sorry for the trouble, Dr. Yamada."
The prepared beef jelly was poured into a flat petri dish. Once it had naturally set into a level surface, the target bacteria were streaked onto it for isolation under sterile conditions.
The procedure for the entire biological bacteriostasis test was not especially complicated, but it demanded considerable skill from the operator.
Fortunately, Soji had always been willing to devote time and effort to fields where hard work brought visible results. So even though the operating conditions inside the simple fume hood differed slightly from what he was used to, Yamada-kun quickly found his rhythm, and his overall testing efficiency surpassed that of his colleagues.
But the Field Hospital's workflow was ultimately different from the village's. All kinds of unexpected emergencies tended to strike before anyone was ready.
So, just after the boy had handed over his sixteenth sample, he had to change into more protective biohazard gear and hurry to the emergency treatment room, where he took over the care of a critically ill patient who had just arrived.
The young man lying on the operating table wore the black stretch outfit and military-green combat vest commonly used by Konoha shinobi.
His left hand, left arm, and entire left side of his torso bore obvious external injuries. His face showed signs of cysts rotting away. If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, it would have been hard to tell that he was alive.
Under normal admission procedures, a critically ill patient in this condition should have been attended by at least three teams of medical personnel, including surgeons, internists, and an anesthesiologist.
But due to the limitations of the circumstances, when Soji arrived as the attending physician, the only person available to help him was an