"I refuse. I don't like war. I just want to be a doctor. If there's nothing else, you can leave." With that, Chen Yu stopped paying attention to Hyoga.
Seeing this, Hyoga gave him a look and left.
Before long, Tsukasa returned with a woman wearing a hair accessory that looked like headphones.
"I brought her. She's a reporter, so she knows about a lot of things," Tsukasa said, pointing to her.
"Her?" Chen Yu looked her over. She was quite pretty, with blonde hair and big eyes. She was cute, too, and had a nice figure. "You're a reporter?"
"A reporter?" Hearing that familiar word, Minami Hokutozai felt her heart give a sudden jolt.
(Wasn't her name spelled with "winter" instead of "east"? I forgot.)
"Yes, I'm a reporter!" Minami Hokutozai said excitedly.
How long had it been? Since she'd been revived, no one had called her a reporter in ages.
"I need people who are particularly good with Chinese herbal medicine and various other medical matters. I'll need at least two women," Chen Yu said after some thought.
"Women?" Tsukasa and Minami Hokutozai asked in confusion.
"Yes. Apart from Yuzuriha and you, I've hardly seen any quiet, gentle women here. I saw one on the way, but she seemed more like the athletic type, maybe a boxer or something," Chen Yu explained. "Yuzuriha's reputation accidentally took a hit because of me before, and you only get called in when someone needs reviving, so you don't show up much. I think I also saw Tsukasa revive some women who worked at nightclubs. They're here to help keep those people under control and stop them from rebelling. Since that was their line of work anyway, it isn't much of a problem. I need two women to help me as assistants. For an injured person, a gentle woman is more reassuring than another man."
After saying that, he looked at Tsukasa.
Tsukasa was a little embarrassed, too. After all, having nothing but men around would get boring, so he'd had little choice but to revive a few nightclub women to keep them company. That also made them easier to control.
Minami Hokutozai, meanwhile, was embarrassed because she'd never expected her idol to have done it for that reason. She'd been involved throughout the process, after all. He'd said they would be useful at the time, but she'd never imagined he meant this.
"Tsukasa, you really need to keep those people in line. You know what? Before I went down the mountain, I ran into a woman who worked at a nightclub. Do you know what they've been getting up to? They actually asked me whether I had any contraceptive medicine. I checked her pulse, but it was too early for anything to show. We don't have the conditions to have children right now," Chen Yu said, scolding Tsukasa.
He didn't know why, either. He didn't remember anything like this happening. Why had it started happening once he arrived?
"I'll set some rules for them," Tsukasa said, lowering his head.
(I got scared, so I deleted part of this.)
"All right, I'll go right away." Minami Hokutozai cheerfully went off to find people to revive.
"Is she a fan of yours?" Chen Yu asked.
"I don't know. I saw her when I was boxing. She's a reporter, and I'd seen her on the news before, so I knew she'd learned about a lot of people. She's picked everyone I've revived, and she's never made a mistake," Tsukasa replied after some thought.
"There's no fear in her eyes when she looks at you. It's admiration," Chen Yu said with a smile.
"Really?" Tsukasa asked, puzzled.
"I could tell. Otherwise, I wouldn't have said she was your fan. Don't underestimate me." Chen Yu patted Tsukasa on the shoulder.
"Are you really reviving women just to be your assistants?" Tsukasa asked after a moment's thought.
???
"Why would you ask that? What else would they be?" Chen Yu couldn't understand.
"Looks like I misunderstood." Seeing Chen Yu's puzzled expression, Tsukasa thought it over and realized that made sense. Chen Yu was a year or two younger than him and still a minor. Even if he had those sorts of thoughts, it was probably nothing more than teenage hormones.
"I get the feeling you're thinking about something inappropriate," Chen Yu said, watching Tsukasa's expression.
"Wh-what? Of course not." Tsukasa grew a little flustered. He'd forgotten that one of the diagnostic methods Chen Yu had learned was called observation. He'd previously understood it as examining a patient's symptoms, but hadn't expected Chen Yu to be able to read someone's thoughts from their expressions, too. Although he wasn't a professional at it, he could still make a rough guess.
Chen Yu stared at Tsukasa for quite a while, but couldn't make out anything more. He gave up and waited patiently.
After about an hour or two, Minami Hokutozai came over with three women.
"I brought them. One is a medical intern, and the other two are still students with pretty good grades. They were about to be disposed of, but I stopped it," Minami Hokutozai told Chen Yu.
She also wanted to use this opportunity to tell Tsukasa not to kill innocent people indiscriminately.
After hearing that, Chen Yu turned to look at Tsukasa with an incredibly piercing gaze.
Embarrassed, Tsukasa pulled Minami Hokutozai outside and told her to hurry and stop any other useful people from being killed.
"All right, you should already know about our current situation. More people are living here now, and I can't handle all the work by myself, so I'll need your help." Watching the two leave, Chen Yu addressed the three women.
"Um... excuse me... are you Chen Yu? The award-winning genius student from that great nation in the East?" A rather cute girl raised her hand and asked in a trembling voice.
"If there's no mistake, that would be me," Chen Yu said, recalling his past.
"Wow! My idol! I finally get to meet you!" the girl shouted. She threw herself at him, clung to his arm, and refused to let go.
"?" Chen Yu stared blankly at her, then pulled himself free with force.
"Let's leave that aside for now. The situation is that I can't manage all the medicinal herbs by myself. I need your help. What are your names?" Chen Yu asked the three of them.
"I'm Suzuki Reiko," said the cute girl.
"Kitano Miwa," said the girl who looked rather unapproachable.
"..." The medical intern was the oldest woman present and looked very mature, but she kept her mouth shut, afraid to say anything.
"What's wrong?" Chen Yu asked curiously.
"Shiraishi Koki," the woman said with difficulty.
???
Did she say anything?
Chen Yu tried to recall what he'd heard. "Could you say that again? I didn't catch it."
"Shiraishi Koki," the woman said again.
This time, Chen Yu heard her clearly. Shiraishi Koki.
"Is there something wrong with your throat?" Chen Yu asked.
The woman nodded, her expression shifting repeatedly. When she was revived, the woman who'd revived her had told her she was only being brought back to serve as a doctor's assistant. Otherwise, she would probably already have ended up among the rubble nearby.
Hearing that had frightened her. She had a problem with her throat and could barely speak. Even when she did, her voice was extremely faint. It was a congenital condition, and she feared they would drive her away for being practically mute. That would be the best-case scenario.
"I see..." Chen Yu pondered.
The woman knew that the moment that would decide her fate had arrived.
"Hold out your hand," Chen Yu ordered.
The woman extended her hand. Chen Yu took hold of her wrist, waited a while, then said, "It's been like this for too long. It'll be a little troublesome."
Hearing that, the woman lost all hope.
She was just about to thank him when she heard his next words.
(It should be fine for me to add a few other people, right? They'll appear later, but not very often.)
Before you continue