Resentment from Xavier

The next day.

Dr. White showed up at the clinic with two dark circles under his eyes.

Ava Ellis carefully took Sean's coat and helped him into his white coat, not daring to say a word. She even forgot to bat her eyelashes at him.

"Ava, go across the street to the car dealership and bring back a catalog~"

"Sure, Dr. White."

"Mm~"

Watching Sean head into his office, Ava Ellis and Linda Carter exchanged glances and struggled to hold back their laughter.

Dr. White's eyes had clearly been punched~

Now that was a rare sight!

Sean felt pretty put upon, too. What had he done to deserve this?

Was it so wrong to fool around with his girlfriend until dawn?

Elektra, did you really have to come charging out first thing in the morning and give me two punches right in the eyes!?

As expected of a top assassin. Those two punches had left him with a perfect set of blue-black eye circles, perfectly symmetrical.

Sean suspected that if he closed his eyes, people might mistake him for wearing sunglasses.

Linda had already put today's newspapers on his desk. Sean took one look at the front page and broke into a grin. The frustration over his two black eyes seemed to fade away.

"X-Men Brutalize Bystanders!"

"X-Men Attack Ordinary Citizens!"

"The X-Men Are Not What They're Cracked Up to Be!"

He flipped through a couple at random. They were all about what had happened at Lincoln Center yesterday.

What was strange was that there wasn't a word about Python Princess's robbery. The papers only emphasized that four Mutants had fired rifles recklessly in the street. Everything else was about Cyclops hitting Sean and Sean hitting Cyclops.

Tsk~ The reporters these days sure had a lot of hostility!

Mutants... were indeed a social problem. The hostility between ordinary people and Mutants had already been stirred up, and the United States government hadn't exactly helped.

It was easy to stir up this kind of hostility, but hard to resolve it. On top of that, the Mutants had the Brotherhood, a notorious group of villains that specialized in driving a wedge between ordinary people and Mutants.

Sean had inadvertently helped the Brotherhood this time, thoroughly dragging the X-Men's reputation through the mud.

The TV was showing yesterday's events, too. Sean thought he looked pretty cool on screen.

Dr. White sprang into action, and in the blink of an eye, he had subdued Cyclops. He looked so cool!

Especially when he put on the mask. That was insanely cool!

Sean was feeling pretty pleased with himself.

But the news ended soon after. Terrible! They could at least have shown a replay in slow motion!

Next came a segment about Mutants attacking the White House.

Hm?

Mutants trying to assassinate the president?

A Mutant suspected of having teleportation powers...

Why did that sound like the plot of X2?

Would the next thing be... William Stryker attacking the Mutant school?

Sean shook his head, dismissing the idea.

This was the real world, not a movie!

The X-Men movies didn't have demons or Spider-Man's girlfriend.

The playboy Tony Stark's latest scandal was still splashed across the newspapers!

There was no way something like that would happen!

Tsk~

But Storm and Cyclops looked exactly like they did in the movies~

Sean was instantly torn.

It wasn't that he was unsure whether he should get involved. He was wondering what this world really was. Could it be some kind of movie crossover?

"Dr. White, here's the catalog you asked for~"

Ava Ellis crept into the office, keeping her distance as she set the materials on the desk.

She acted as if Sean would eat her if she went near him.

(ー`′ー#)

"Get over here!"

Ava froze, even her body, which had been shrinking back, coming to a stop.

"Treat my eyes~"

"Oh~"

Ava breathed a sigh of relief. That had scared her to death.

She'd thought he'd heard her laughing.

Ava Ellis's healing powers were impressive. In just a few seconds, the dark circles around Sean's eyes disappeared.

"Did anyone come looking for me last night?"

Sean was still thinking about the money Gwen Stacy owed him. He wondered whether Chief Stacy had passed the message on to Gwen.

Every day that passed, the interest added up.

"No. After you left yesterday, nobody came to the clinic~"

Ava answered quickly, looking at Sean with hopeful eyes.

She was asking whether they could stop doing night shifts at the emergency clinic!

But Sean completely ignored her look. He only nodded coolly and told her to leave.

The clinic averaged only two or three patients a day. Half the day had gone by, and nobody had come in.

Ava made lunch, and Linda helped out a little.

The demon woman had plenty to grumble about while cooking. She had to treat patients, take shifts, cook, run errands... She felt like a slave, with no freedom at all.

Linda just listened with a grin. She was used to it by now.

In the afternoon, the front door opened!

A patient had finally arrived. Even Linda was looking forward to it; the last couple of days had been far too quiet.

A young woman with dyed green hair came in. She looked to be eighteen or nineteen.

"Welcome to White Clinic~"

Linda greeted her warmly.

"I-I'm looking for Dr. White~"

The young woman had asked for Dr. White by name. It seemed she'd come prepared.

Linda led her to Sean's office.

"..."

White looked up and saw Lorna, Polaris, looking timid. He was at a loss for words.

"You're here."

"Mm~"

"What is it?"

"I-I want to ask you for a favor~"

Polaris was a little apprehensive. When she was alone with Sean, she couldn't even summon the energy to feel angry. In her mind, Dr. White was practically a great demon king.

She didn't know when this impression had formed, but it had taken root in her mind as if it were only natural.

"Oh? What do you want to ask me? Don't bother asking me to reduce your debt."

"No, it's not that. It's about Ms. Ororo."

Polaris quickly waved her hands as she spoke.

"Storm~ She got thirty thousand dollars for free. What more does she want?"

Sean thought of it and felt a pang. He'd handed over most of his profit to Storm.

Lorna wasn't usually an easygoing girl, but Sean's question left her at a loss for words.

"Lorna, you wouldn't have come all the way here on your own, would you?"

"Ah~ I-I did."

"Tsk~ Are all the teachers at Xavier Institute dead? They sent a student to plead for her teacher?"

Sean didn't believe Polaris had come up with this on her own.

"Ms. Ororo is having a hard time managing... If possible, could you take back some of the... um, 'gift'?"

Polaris forced herself to get the words out. There wasn't much she could do about the outcome.

"Your school has plenty of teachers. It's not like nobody can look after Storm. Don't worry, she won't starve."

Sean didn't care whether Storm was having a hard time. If she hadn't made things difficult for him back then, none of this would have happened. She'd brought this on herself by running her mouth. She could deal with the consequences.

"The teachers are all busy, and Ms. Ororo can't manage by herself... I asked Ms. Ororo, and she should be willing to accept... treatment."

Polaris struggled to say it. What treatment? It was obviously just a shakedown!

Storm really was willing to accept... well, treatment. Her condition was now practically no different from that of a patient in the ICU. Everything had to be hooked up except a breathing tube. It was agonizing.

Her neck was so fat she couldn't even swallow. She was ready to kill herself.

"Then bring her over."

Sean didn't mind getting another job. Storm had weighed sixty-six kilograms, and with the extra hundred and fifty kilograms, she'd weighed two hundred and sixteen kilograms altogether. That meant sixty-six kilograms of profit. In the end, he'd still lose eighty-four kilograms, but that was much better than letting the whole hundred and fifty kilograms go to waste.

"Could you come to the school?"

Polaris asked tentatively.

"Enmmm..." Sean hesitated. A house call meant double the price! He could earn back the loss right away, with plenty left over.

But the Professor was there, and Sean was honestly a little afraid to go.

"I have a bald-head phobia. Let's forget it..." Sean replied, conflicted.

"The Professor?" Polaris was puzzled that Sean would be afraid of the Professor. As for his supposed bald-head phobia, she figured he'd made it up.

"The Professor isn't there today. He went out with Mr. Scott. They said they were going to visit an old friend."

Polaris's words made Sean's heart skip a beat. Could they be going to see Magneto?

He remembered that in the movie, the Professor had been captured by William Stryker in just this way. Then, that very night, Xavier School had been raided.

"What about the other teachers?"

"The other teachers are all there."

"Oh~~~"

Sean relaxed. So it wasn't that awful X2 plot.

"Then let's hurry. We'll go and come back before the Professor returns!"

Sean got up at once, not even planning to change out of his white coat.

"How did you get here?"

"By car."

"..." Envy!

The clinic was thirty-seven kilometers from Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. By car, it wouldn't take long.

But Manhattan was a real pain to get around, so they took a little longer.

They arrived at the school a little after four in the afternoon. Sean was in a hurry, worried that the Professor might suddenly return.

Just hearing that bald man's name made Sean uneasy, never mind actually meeting him.

Storm had been placed in the school's underground infirmary. It was the only place with a door that made it convenient to move her in and out. With her size, moving her anywhere else would be a real problem.

"Hehehehehe~ We meet again, Ororo~"

Sean looked delighted to see Storm. She was sprawled on the bed, covered by nothing but a white sheet.

He realized that the hundred and fifty kilograms of fat was practically miraculous. Next time he got the chance, he'd treat another fat person and hit two hundred kilograms! Then he could double his earnings!

Sean would make back a hundred and thirty-two kilograms from Storm's treatment this time!

Colossus and Polaris had come down with him.

They both looked helpless at Sean's attitude toward Storm. This grudge was probably here to stay.

"Sean White!"

Storm's voice had grown muffled, as if it came straight from her throat.

But the hatred in it hadn't been dulled one bit by her weight.

"Hehehehe~ That's me. Are you sure you want to lose weight?"

"...I'm sure!"

Sean thought he heard her teeth grinding together.

"Fine."

He flipped through the ledger. Mm, Ororo Munroe's page had been created. Minus a hundred and fifty kilograms of fat~

Storm, lying on the extra-wide bed, instantly returned to normal.

She was once again as sexy as before, her curves clearly outlined beneath the white sheet.

Sean took a couple of extra looks.

The lights in the room began to flicker...

Sean pursed his lips. The woman had quite the temper. It had to be stormy outside.

"Everyone, step outside for a moment."

Colossus reacted the fastest and immediately headed out. Sean and Polaris followed him.

"Does the school have lightning rods?"

"It should, right?" Colossus wasn't sure.

"Hehe~ Lorna, take me back."

"Dr. White, can't you get back on your own?"

"???"

(⊙o⊙)...

Was this little girl already so good at using people and then tossing them aside?

How was I supposed to get back?

Fly back?

It was over thirty kilometers. Was I supposed to run all the way back?

Sean: Tsk~ Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

Storm: Because you're not getting away!

Sean: ...

The story's about to get going~

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