The medicinal bath left a very thin, faint yellow layer on her skin, making her already fair hands look even whiter.
Dr. Nanase reached out and cupped Rinna’s wrist, gently pressing her thumb on the web between Rinna’s thumb and index finger, feeling the blood reaction at the tips of her knuckles.
The fingertips showed a faint trace of blood color, neither dry nor rough, feeling soft and supple.
It’s almost ready. Rinna’s skin tissue had already improved at a preliminary level.
The medicinal effect on the epidermal circulation was indeed effective, though she was still far from a normal metabolic rate.
Dr. Nanase made a brief yet comprehensive assessment of this response, then gently placed Rinna’s hand back into the medicinal bath.
The air was silent for about three seconds.
Dr. Nanase withdrew her hand but didn’t stand up immediately.
She shifted to a more comfortable squat, resting her fingers on the wood grain of the bath’s edge, lightly tracing the polished rounded rim with her fingertips, then looked up at Rinna.
When she spoke, her voice carried a more relaxed, conversational tone than before.
The topic was… She had a younger sister around Rinna’s age named Nanase Suzune.
When she came home from abroad on Friday, her sister must have heard the sound of her suitcase wheels rolling in the genkan, and came clattering down from the second floor, not even wearing her slippers properly, grabbing her sleeve and pulling her to sit on the sofa.
Her sister said that on Thursday afternoon, on the train, a middle-aged man elbowed her, making her stumble, and her shoulder hurt the whole way. Everyone around pretended not to see…
Except for a white-haired girl from the same school who stepped forward and cursed that man into silence.
Her sister was utterly impressed. Her sister said, “That girl was so cool, I really admire her!”
Dr. Nanase told this story in a calm and comfortable manner, without force or exaggeration in praising Rinna’s bravery at the time.
She simply replayed the scene that her sister had replayed to her like a recorder several times that night, using her own gentle and calm voice.
At this point, Rinna’s hair stood on end.
When Rinna heard that line “stepped forward and cursed that man into silence,” a familiar sense of shame instantly arose in her heart: ‘Oh no, my shameful past has been dug up.’
She certainly remembered that girl. Short flaxen hair with slightly upturned ends, steamed by the train’s heat and sticking to her forehead, brows tightly furrowed, too scared to speak after being bumped.
After cursing the man, she also added, “Stuck in this crappy train for the rest of your life,” in a tone that was both punchable and piercing.
Looking back now, that girl was probably grateful someone stood up for her, but she definitely didn’t know the real reason Shirase Rinna had stepped in—just to earn ninety malice points.
Dr. Nanase’s grateful look made this reason grind out a pang of embarrassment in her heart.
“So that girl was Dr. Nanase’s sister!” Rinna blurted out.
As soon as she said that, her gaze fell back on Dr. Nanase’s features, and she remembered.
No wonder she felt a sense of familiarity the first time she saw Dr. Nanase.
Her face shape was somewhat similar to that girl on the train, especially her eyes—the upward tilt from the corners, the contour of the inner brow bone—all seemed carved from the same mold.
However, Dr. Nanase’s eyes were softer and more restrained, while her sister’s eyes always held a bit of alarm and tension, with a glimmer deep within that life hadn’t yet worn away.
Dr. Nanase said her sister really admired little Rinna.
She said out of all those people around, only little Rinna helped her.
She said little Rinna was brave and amazing.
As Rinna listened to these words, something unclear—whether guilt or emotion—began to ferment slowly in her chest.
Was she brave? She was only thinking about earning points at the time.
The Zako system would give her points every time she successfully attracted malice, and that man had just walked into her crosshairs.
When she cursed him, her mind was entirely occupied with calculations: ‘Was that remark accurate enough?’ ‘Will the malice value increase a bit more?’ She had almost never acted purely to “stand up for that girl.”
Without the system, without this frail physique constantly pressuring her for a reason to live, and without Fei by her side to intimidate the other party at any moment…
She would probably just be an ordinary bystander.
Afraid to step forward, afraid to speak out, afraid to act so arrogantly.
She wasn’t brave. Rinna let out a soft breath, lowered her eyelids, and looked at her wet fingertips resting on the edge of the bath.
Dr. Nanase didn’t seem to notice the small flicker of self-doubt that crossed Rinna’s face.
She was reaching into the inner pocket of her white coat, pulling out a dark blue cloth pouch tied with a thin ribbon at the opening. She placed it on the empty spot of the small stool beside the bath, then continued speaking.
If possible, she hoped that little Rinna would become friends with her sister, Nanase Suzune, at school, as long as it didn’t put any strain on Rinna.
Her sister would be extremely happy. When Dr. Nanase said this, her tone was almost identical to when she had been explaining the precautions earlier—gentle, calm, and well-measured.
But her eyes betrayed that calmness. Those light blue-gray pupils held a thick, heavy light—not the eager hope for an immediate agreement, but rather the anxious yet gentle solemnity of an older sister carefully delivering a letter to its recipient.
As Rinna listened, her fingertip unconsciously traced a small circle in the water.
A friend? She only went to school about ten days a month, spending most of the time on leave.
Her physique was so weak that she always sat out in physical education class, and during breaks, she would need to stop to catch her breath just after reaching the end of the hallway.
In her world, the time available to make friends was always much shorter than others.
Most of her classmates, after prolonged lack of contact, maintained a kind of silently understood distance from her.
Polite and friendly, but never able to get close to each other.
So at school, she only had Fei as a true close friend.
In the shadows, there was also Kiryu Kikyo.
The world beyond those three was quiet, not disturbing her, but never filled either.
Actually, this question left no room for refusal.
It was never a free-choice question of “do you want to make a new friend,” but a favor carefully wrapped in request and goodwill.
But strangely, Rinna didn’t want to refuse. It wasn’t that she was truly cornered by Dr. Nanase’s demeanor.
More so, she thought that girl on the train was actually quite adorable.
She remembered the back view of that girl quickly stepping off the platform when the train doors opened, and before hurrying down the stairs, she turned back to glance at Rinna, her lips moving as if she had said “thank you.”
That was the kind of look someone who had been overlooked in the crowd for so long would only show after being finally picked up.
Rinna was not unfamiliar with that gaze.
She stirred the medicinal bath with her finger twice, then looked up at Dr. Nanase’s face and gave a faint smile.
“It’s not a strain. I don’t go to school much each month with my current body, and I have few friends. I’d be very happy to have one more.”