“You…” Issak grumbled, looking ready to pick a fight, but Tori was instead much more focused on him. A medical condition? What could that be? Issak had always been a bit lazy, and was more than happy to offload any work that needed to be done onto others. But could that be a result of this condition they spoke about? Of course, a part of her wondered if it was something else entirely, maybe a business partnership? She had only assumed that it was a medical thing.

  But, Dr Reiaura here was also someone who cared little for money, and was purely in it for the want to help people. Tori remembered many a time watching her letting her patients go for free. Then she would turn around and bill Issak a hefty amount. Though, that was probably since she knew that he could afford it…

  Tori shook her head, shaking away those thoughts. No, she could wonder about that stuff later. Right now, there were here to help find that missing girl. So they were going to try their hardest to get Reiaura to at least let something slip.

  “Could you at least tell me?” Tori asked, motioning for Issak to can it, at least for a little while.

  Reiaura just chuckled.

  “Ah, you misunderstood. As much as I don’t like your boss here, for his business practices, I’m not hiding information from him as some targeted attack.” Reiaura said, shooting a glance at Issak, though with her deadpan demeanour it was hard to tell if the jab held any real malice, “I wouldn’t tell anyone this information to begin with, just with him, I’m even less inclined.”

  Oh, that was it. Well, it appeared that it wasn’t just an Issak thing. They were going to need a different approach if they wanted to figure anything out. Tori reached for the photos again. There had to be something else here, some other piece or crumb of evidence that could bring them closer to the truth… maybe something else they could ask Reiaura that could prove to have some relevance for their investigation.

  However, Issak seemed much more interested in fighting with Dr Reiaura right now.

  “Look, ‘doctor’, you can talk about your precious principles all you like, but we both know it’s those principles of yours that killed your… friend. Seriously, it’s been two years, you still haven’t learned?”

  Reiaura, who had been listening to Issak’s attempts to argue with the same flat, emotionless face up until this point, suddenly stood up, gaze hardening. Tori was certain she had never seen Dr Reiaura show this degree of emotion, and she almost thought an actual fight might go down.

  “Get out.” she said. It wasn’t a request. Tori wasn’t sure if Reiaura was a magic user, but the way the air in the room changed denoted the same sense of power magic gave off. Tori chided herself for not stopping Issak from speaking mid-sentence. He just snorted.

  “Yeah sure, threaten me. Well, you have nothing more of substance for us anyway, so I’ll be on my way.” With that, Issak stalked outside.

  Oh. My. Stars. What the fuck is wrong with that kid?

  Tori looked at Reiaura in a panic, expecting to get the same treatment, but the doctor just sat back down, looking resigned.

  “Well,” she took another puff of her cigarette. It would be wrong of me to say I didn’t expect a reaction like that.” Reiaura said with a half laugh, before straightening up, immediately going back to the same, stern doctor, as if nothing that had just been said happened.

  “So, Miss Tori, I heard you wanted to discuss a more efficient gun attachment?”

  Tori sheepishly stepped outside to where Issak was waiting.

  “Alright, I’ll look into a rifle add-on for you, Miss Tori,” Reiaura said, noting something down on a clipboard, “I’ll contact you once we can get a hold of one.”

  “Ah, okay, thank you,”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Reiaura nodded, then shut the clinic door behind her.

  “That ‘doctor’ finally finished interrogating you?” Issak said, walking up to her.

  “It’s not an interrogation. Why’d you argue with her? We could’ve gotten her to tell us something another way.”

  “I doubt it. That woman’s almost more of a hardass than her robot. But the story of her friend is really funny though. Maybe I should tell you sometime.” Issak noted, “But, I guess we’re back to square one. Shame.”

  “Mhm.” Tori wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear what that story entailed. Instead, she flicked through the photographs, looking for any sort of clue. She found herself pausing on a picture of Ou, taken presumably near her workplace. It looked so mundane that Tori had simply skimmed past it the first time, but now, on second glance, something about it just seemed… off.

  “Hey, Issak,” she nudged the boy, “isn’t this what butchers wear?”

  “Butchers?” he squinted over her shoulder.

  Butchers were rare in New Kowloon, with fresh meat usually being a delicacy reserved for the upper classes, so if Ou was a butcher, that would be strange indeed.

  “Wait, no, you’re onto something…” Issak suddenly said, “look in the background here.”

  He jabbed a finger at blurry, red shapes in the back of the image.

  “That’s meat.”

  “How could we have missed it?” Tori asked, though it was probably more directed at Issak then herself. Maybe if they had just seen it earlier, then she wouldn’t have had to witness Issak getting kicked out of The Clinic…

  1:34 am, June 19, 2483. The Clinic.

  “That will be 8000 RMB, thank you.” Splice said calmly, holding its white metal hand out for the payment, “5500 was for the joint module, 2500 for the labour.”

  “Ah, yes, hold on.” the cyborg rifled in their pocket for a few crumpled bills. Linkage to the electronic banking system was not something that could be afforded by many in these parts.

  “Is the doc still here? I want to thank her.”

  The android shook its head.

  “No, she is quite busy with another matter at the moment, but I will pass on the message,” it added.

  “Oh, well, that’s okay then. Thanks again.”

  The cyborg walked out, closing the door with a click. Splice sat in silence for a few moments, before standing up to go click-click off to Reiaura’s office.

  “Reiaura? The payment.”

  “Yeah, yeah, just put it on the desk.” she said, not looking at the android at all. “Do notify me if another patient comes.”

  “Yes, Reiaura.”

  The doctor sighed as the android left the room, and reached for one of the bottles of vodka she kept under her desk. It was already half-empty.

  Being a doctor, or at least someone that dabbled in health and medicine, Reiaura noticed a few things. One of those being this: All magic had side effects. Some were mild, others horrifically severe. Someone mild would be like that kid, Issak. Slight dizziness and nausea were the only things he would face, even after extreme overuse and strain of his abilities. Someone moderate would be like her, having to fill her body with all these toxins just to keep the magic flowing. Though, now it was debatable whether she did it purely to sustain her magic, or to fill some other void in her. Reiaura took a long swig from the bottle.

  Someone severe would have been him.

  Sometimes Reiaura wondered if he knew that his magic would transform him into something no longer human eventually. Maybe that was why he sought her out: he wanted her to fix him. And maybe back then, the young and overconfident doctor she was, believed she actually could. But no amount of healing can fully stop the inevitable. Sometimes Reiaura wondered if he gave up towards the end. If some part of him knew there would be nothing left to save, nothing to fix.

  The bottle was empty now. She tossed it into the wastebasket, getting up. Perhaps the kid was right, perhaps it was wrong of her to keep pressing on, keep doing things on the straight and narrow. It was her insistence to never hurt him, to never do anything too risky or too invasive, that led up to this point.

  She turned to the back wall, covered in papers, pinned-up taxidermy beetles, analysis charts and her own rambling theories on how such a transformation could even happen. This probably constituted a scientific study by now. Not that there was any way of publishing it here. Not that she wanted to.

  Reiaura brushed her hand over the photo at the centre of this self-constructed shrine.

  “Guess you’re right, guess I still miss you, Touki.“ she laughed, as if it were some shameful admission. But she soon stepped away, turning instead to her shelves of files on her other patients. Much more neat. Much less mad. Her eyes fell on the file of that girl that Issak and Tori had been so insistent to get information on.

  “What is it about you?” she pulled the file from its spot in the third row, only for a tarot card to fall out and hit the ground. Reiaura picked it up and examined it.

  “Number VI…” she said, monotone as usual, “hmph. Well, that explains a lot. Should those two fail, I expect I will get decent business from them.”

  Before she could ruminate (or relish) in the prospect of that outcome any longer, she heard the muffled sound of a click-click, coming closer.

  In the ‘City of Eternal Night’, as some called New Kowloon, a doctor has little opportunity to sleep. So with the lighting of another cigarette, Reiaura prepared herself for whatever else might come her way.