Awakening

He stepped through the doorway. Compared with the darkness outside, the room held an added chill.

Once his eyes adjusted, he made out the layout. It was an operating room, and a human figure wrapped head to toe in fungus lay on the cold surgical table.

It looked like something out of Resident Evil. For all he knew, the figure might sit up as he walked past and give him a nasty surprise.

Tsubaki Kuruoka was almost certainly inside. This was where Tsubaki's nightmare had begun, the starting point of everything.

If her parents had not experimented on her, if she had not been born into a family of mages, if she had had a few more siblings...

But there were too many ifs. Otherwise, she would not have ended up like this.

He carefully cut open the fungus encasing her. The face beneath was indeed Tsubaki Kuruoka's, though she was completely naked.

He projected a sheet over her and asked, "What do we do next?"

Yustica said, "Now that we're here, we can wake Tsubaki. It's only a question of how long it takes."

"The question is how to wake her from this deep sleep. After being wrapped in fungus for so long, most of her bodily functions have shut down."

"To wake her completely, she'll need mental stimulation from within and physical stimulation from without. I just don't know whether the Servant outside can manage her part."

"I'll use the Third Magic to nurture her soul. In the meantime, clear away any fungus that closes in. Talk to her, too. It'll help her soul wake faster."

Yuan Shikai asked, "Can I say anything?"

"Say something that'll encourage her, something that'll get a reaction."

Meanwhile, Xu Fu was poring over this era's medical books in the hospital room.

*Medicine