Would You Do That to Me?

Ririko instantly composed her expression, returning to her meek, fragile demeanor.

Hugo approached the bed with a small flashlight and bent down. Gently lifting her chin with one hand, he shone the light into her right eye, which was not covered by gauze.

Ririko instinctively squinted as the light hit her eye.

"Pupillary response normal," Hugo murmured, as though making a note.

The instant he released her, Ririko distinctly felt his gaze sweep from her nose to her lips.

The system's reading shifted.

[Current Infatuation Value: 21/100]

Ririko sneered inwardly.

She knew men all too well.

Hugo was Arkham's chief physician. If she won him over, she would not be tortured, and she could leave this hellhole without lifting a finger.

With this system, she might actually be able to turn around her "beautiful, fragile, and tragic" lot...

Even being a little less "tragic" would be good...

She tilted her head, looking at him with her uncovered right eye.

Her right eye was beautiful, with a deep black iris and a slightly upturned outer corner.

Her left eye had been beautiful too. Unfortunately, it was gone now.

She made her gaze look harmless and innocent, with just a hint of a plea for help.

"Doctor, my hands are numb. Could you untie me?"

Hugo was adjusting her IV tubing. At her words, his movements briefly stalled.

He straightened and looked down at her, maintaining the impassive professionalism of a doctor facing a patient.

"Your neurological recovery requires continued monitoring. Removing the restraints prematurely could pose a risk."

His voice remained steady, but Ririko noticed that he did not quite dare let his eyes linger on her face.

Whenever he looked at her, his gaze would unconsciously stray a little, landing beside her ear or on her shoulder.

"But... lying here all this time is a little uncomfortable~~"

She deliberately raised her pitch a fraction, her voice soft and tingling, like a kitten's gentle scratch.

Hugo hesitated, then offered a compromise that would not make him seem to have any ulterior motives.

"Which hand is numb? I can massage it for you."

Ririko lowered her lashes and said softly:

"Both of them~~"

Behind his lenses, Hugo's gray-blue eyes studied the woman in the hospital bed.

Then he reached out, his cool fingertips touching the skin of her right wrist.

But the coolness did not discomfort Ririko. Like a little mint leaf, it soothed the skin that had grown hot with tension.

His fingertips were gentle, as though testing the limits of where he could touch.

With extraordinary slowness, he moved along the soft skin of her inner forearm toward her elbow.

The touch felt like an exquisitely fine brush gliding over paper, its ink spreading-

An itchy, tingling sensation traveled from her skin to her spine, then up to the back of her head.

She even let out an involuntary, soft little hum, like a kitten.

At her reaction, Hugo's breathing grew heavier, and even his palm began to warm.

"A little higher... up to my upper arm."

Ririko offered the suggestion at just the right moment.

Hugo's fingers stopped.

His thumb rested in the soft hollow inside her elbow. Clearly, he did not want to go any higher.

A few centimeters higher would bring him level with her chest.

Even through her hospital gown, even with most of her body covered by the sheet, the rise and fall of her curves remained clearly visible.

Hugo's gaze touched that spot for an instant, as though he had been burned.

He refocused on her forearm, pressing its muscles a few times with his thumb and forefinger.

Although things had not gone as smoothly as she had imagined, Ririko felt that, as long as he was willing to do this, winning over Arkham's chief physician was only a matter of time.

"Do you often give people massages?" she asked.

Hugo weighed his words. "I usually... give people a new lease on life through my hands... though the process may not be particularly pleasant."

Ririko felt his fingertips press a little more firmly, as though he were enjoying touching her body.

Her heart pounded.

She knew perfectly well that Arkham did not treat people as human beings.

What he did here in Arkham would never be permitted by law.

But no one in Gotham knew-

No, perhaps someone knew, but no one could do anything about it.

The man before her was certainly no benevolent doctor. He was merely a monster wearing human skin.

She truly was afraid of staying here.

But being afraid and exploiting that fear were not mutually exclusive.

"Would you do that to me?" Ririko asked, pretending to be casual.

Hugo's hand trembled slightly.

"I'll observe you... you're very special."

Ririko deliberately tipped her head back.

Her hair spread over the white sheet like spilled ink, just enough to expose her entire neck beneath the fluorescent light.

"What's so special about me?" she asked.

Her right eye was half-lidded, her gaze slanting toward him from beneath her thick lashes.

Hugo swallowed.

He released her forearm, an instinctive flicker of wariness rising within him.

"Do you... feel anything different in your body compared to before?" Hugo asked.

He spoke faster than before. "Any... sensations, thoughts, or... desires you've never had before?"

Ririko tilted her head thoughtfully. A few strands of hair slipped from her shoulder onto her chest, settling at the open neckline of her hospital gown.

"Didn't you notice anything different about my body when you changed my clothes?"

An extremely faint, almost imperceptible flush appeared on Hugo's face.

"The nursing staff changed your clothes," he explained.

"Oh," Ririko said.

The sound was like a puff of breath that set the air on fire.

Hugo finally looked at her.

This time, he did not avert his gaze.

He stared at her face, then from her lips to the little lock of black hair above her collarbone.

As though pulled by an invisible thread, his gaze shifted a little lower.

Her hospital gown's neckline hung slightly open. From that angle, he could see the shallow hollow above her breastbone, but anything farther down was concealed by the folds of fabric.

His upper body leaned forward slightly, as though something inside him were tugging him, drawing him inch by inch toward the woman lying in the hospital bed with gauze wrapped around her head.

His breath fell against her neck as he greedily inhaled her sweet scent.

When the air brushed the most sensitive patch of skin along the side of her neck, she felt the fine hairs there rise one by one, like grass stirred by the wind.

With him acting like this, he must be infatuated with me, right? Ririko thought.

She glanced at the system panel.

[Current Infatuation Value: 25/100]

It was still a long way from 100.

But the man before her already resembled a plant drawn toward the sunlight.

Her lips curved slightly.

Suddenly, a scream came from outside the door, tearing through the room's heated atmosphere.

The scream, like the howl of a wild beast, made Ririko instinctively shrink back.

Immediately after it came a burst of crazed laughter.

Ririko's blood froze in that instant.

During her previous NPC resets, she had heard that hollow, piercing laughter, slithering through her nerves like a venomous snake.

It was Jerome.

Gotham's most terrifying madman. Perhaps he was not quite that mad yet, but he soon would be.

She knew full well that without Fruit Bat Man, this city would sink faster and further than ever before...

Hugo seemed to regain his reason in an instant.

He quickly straightened and took half a step back.

The flush vanished from his face, replaced by an expression as ashen as a concrete wall.

"Professor Strange!"

The door was pushed open.

A woman in a white coat hurried inside.

She was very young, her blonde hair pinned back to reveal a full forehead and a pair of sharp, dark brown eyes.

"The test subject across the hall has gone out of control. Two layers of the control mechanism in Isolation Room Three have been destroyed. We need to intervene immediately."

[Number of core characters currently accessible: 2]

A new name appeared on the list, beneath Hugo Strange's.

[Core character: Harley Quinn]

[Current Infatuation Value: 0/100]