Roaming the seas of the Pacific on its standard route would have been one of the handful of massive supercarrier school ships built by Japan. Ships built for a myriad of reasons which vary depending on who one asks about it. At the moment, the new year was underway, students transferring to and from the large vessels en masse in some cases as they move on in their lives. Either arriving at these ships for the first time to attend as a student or contribute to the community otherwise, or leaving as a graduate for greener pastures. For plenty more, it was just the start of another new academic year. Especially those returning for another season of Sensha-do.
On the school ship servicing Saint Gloriana Women's Academy, a select number of students were getting a somewhat more in-depth medical examination than the rest. A more or less clean bill of health was required for any would-be student to attend the school, and that required a yearly examination. However, the health requirements and tests called for by any athletes planning to also participate in Sensha-do were different enough that those who had picked the elective were examined twice in total. Once for entry into the school at all, and once more to be verified healthy enough for safe participation in the sport. The choice was one of many in the tower of duct tape that was the rules and regulations of the Japanese Sensha-do Federation. Not that anyone would make a big stink about it, given it was all in the name of safety in a combination of proactive and retroactive alterations to that end.
Given the central focus of the school and students above all others to any school ship, health checkups and full examinations of Sensha-do team members were preformed not just by the regular medical doctors that worked at the on-ship hospital, but by the head doctor themself. In the case of Saint Gloriana, a gentleman by the name of Victor Koveryn. He was a somewhat tall and thin man who was in decent lean shape for his age, not looking much past his early thirties or late twenties in spite of pushing forty. Being in the field as soon as he was able had the benefits of knowledge which allowed him to maintain such a physique, even if it was a pretty average one.
The doctor was on the actual school campus for this secondary examination, which thankfully had a decidedly smaller list of patients to look over as well as plenty of familiar faces to boot. While the bulk of the prior primary examination was done at the actual hospital, it was much more convenient for just about everyone involved to perform secondary examinations in the clinic at the school. It was quicker and easier for students and less disruptive of their schedules, and all that the good doctor would have needed to bring was a binder's worth of papers. Any equipment he needed would have been there already.
After getting for the most part settled in his temporary office and exam room, Victor summoned the first girl in the first group of Sensha-do members to be called to the clinic for their checks. Promptly entering the room was the one and only Orange-Pekoe, a girl with decidedly orange-red hair with somewhat extravagant and elegant styling. She bowed her head to Koveryn briefly while giving a somewhat sedate smile.
"Another year, another exam, right?" She began, "Doesn't feel any different even though this is my third time," she said, gaze shifting briefly around the sterile, clinical room which was devoid of color.
Doctor Koveryn chuckled, holding out a hand which one of her own met and grasped, giving her a firm but gentle handshake. "I wouldn't imagine so, procedure is procedure, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Typically the interesting checkups are the bad ones," he said as he let go of her hand, "mostly embarrassing ones."
That got Orange-Pekoe rather red-faced, the girl preemptively expecting mention of some previous happening she'd forgotten or blocked out of her mind while Victor seemed to think nothing of it, his own focus shifting to his clipboard which seemed to be a mostly blank note sheet and checklist.
"Alrighty, have a seat on the table," he said as he made a gesture to the cold metal thing, still not making eye-contact with her again yet. "I assume you've not changed too much since I last saw you? Still not feeling sick at all or experiencing anything out of the ordinary?" He inquired, finally looking over to her again as she got 'comfortable' on that flat metal platform, her legs dangling off the floor due to her height.
The girl shook her head, a somewhat blank expression adorning her face as she maintained eyes on the doctor. "Nope, can't say so. Just the normal nerves of a new school year, you know? Though I'm pretty sure I had that last time too..." She said, considering as Victor made brief notes of her response.
"Okay," he mumbled, green eyes moving from his clipboard to her as he continued with his questionnaire which included such things as "Have you been sexually active recently?" "If so, are you using protection?" "Are you on any form of birth control at the moment?" "Are you taking any other kinds of medications, prescription or otherwise?" "How would you describe your relationship with your mother?" And a plethora of other questions which ranged from intrusive to trivially so to seemingly completely unrelated to anything medical, but each question was delivered with just as clinical of a monotone as the last.
Of course, there was a point to it all. The list of questions was designed to be an overall test to get out any information that Victor needed outright as well as probing questions to get an idea of the tested person's psychological state and behavior. Things which weren't as needed with returning players, but Koveryn wasn't one to slack with such things, and a once yearly test for such a potentially dangerous sport should be thorough every time as far as he was concerned.
Meanwhile, the responses Orange-Pekoe gave varied depending on the question. Her face went red to any questions regarding sexuality in any way, but she answered the best she could, albeit vague in places. She held very few things back, but didn't go into extreme detail by any means. Unsurprisingly, her answers marked her as 'passing' the examination so far.
"Riiight," Victor somewhat croaked, placing his clipboard and pen down on the counter which covered the wall opposite the metal examination table after noting her reply to the final question. After this, he grabbed some disposable, characteristically purple-pink gloves from a nearby container which dispensed the gloves in an almost tissue-like fashion. Upon getting the things firmly on his hands, he approached Orange-Pekoe proper. "Now for the more physical part," he said flatly, offering a brief smile before his hands moved to her neck, gently kneading the sides before moving up to where her throat meets her head and jaw - ensuring no swollen lymph nodes or other abnormalities were present.
"So how was your summer holiday? Get up to anything interesting?" He asked, quite a bit less cold and clinical now that he wasn't asking questions he wanted serious answers to.
Pekoe swallowed and blinked, having adjusted her head slightly and tilted it up out of instinct while his fingers softly pattered on her skin. She shrugged to his question, "I wouldn't say so... I learned a couple new tea brewing recipes and preparation techniques, but other than that nothing much more than reading and lazing around."
Victor nodded, his fingers moving lower and onto her shoulders, before he practically just gave them a brief massage - the girl straightening her posture and her head position once he was done examining her up there. "Interesting," he replied, "though I can't say I'm surprised. I swear at the rate you're going, you're going to know how to prepare more types of tea than there are British tanks to serve them in." With that, he removed his hands from her body for now, grabbing the stethoscope around his neck and putting it on himself proper before testing the listening device and pressing it to his patient's chest - ever so slightly to the left of her sternum.
Pekoe smiled at his remark, giving a small shrug. "It's not impossible," was all she could muster as a reply before she hushed herself while he listened to her heart.
Following some small adjustments in positioning in the same general area, Victor soon moved around her to place the stethoscope receiver on her back, occasionally giving a simple command of "Inhale" or "Exhale" as he listened closely to her lungs. He nodded a bit to himself after that, soon enough pulling away from the girl who was now a bit lightheaded to take off the stethoscope and drape it around his neck once more. "Well, your lungs and heart sound fine as they did before. You and most of the other students here have pretty open airways, I'm assuming because of all the tea you guys take in here." He mentioned as he briefly jotted down his findings, or rather lackthereof.
"That's a theory," she said with a raised eyebrow. "Should get one of the aspiring doctoral students to do a thesis on that..." She considered aloud, looking off into space for a moment before the good doctor was once again standing before her, getting a penlight out of his pocket and shining it on his hand to test it for a moment before he leaned a little forward - his face nearing Pekoe's that much more as he moved a hand up to his face to adjust his black, rectangular rimmed glasses with one of his knuckles.
"Now for the more interesting part," he said before going to work. He checked her pupil responses first, making sure their dilation and contraction were as reactive as they should be before he pulled back and instructed her to follow the light with her eyes. She passed with flying colors, and soon enough he pocketed the light before doing resistance testing with her - having her hold her arms out and resist him pushing them down or up.
Eventually, the testing was done, and Orange-Pekoe was released with a departing bow from both parties, and the next patient to be tested arrived. A few patients later, the doctor laid his eyes on a very familiar face - the overall commander of the Saint Gloriana Sensha-do team for a couple years now, Darjeeling.
Darjeeling and Victor had a somewhat special relationship. Not necessarily a romantic one mind you, but there was a bond between them none the less. One that was somewhat apparent given the friendly hug they had exchanged once the blonde-haired blue-eyed woman had entered the room.
"Good morning, Victor," she greeted with a gentle smile, already moving to have a seat on the table. "Lovely to see you again so soon, even if it's for school reasons again," she continued, seeming to be less than thrilled with the double examinations but not very openly whining about it.
"A good morning it is," he replied, quick to once again grab his clipboard for the barrage of questions and answers, "and I would agree. Perhaps we should have a drink together sometime," he said before clearing his throat, pen at the ready to write as he began questioning.
"Indeed, maybe I'll finally be able to find a tea that you like this time," she joked, smile still resting on her lips. The established 'relationship' between the two was one that formed out of simple familiarity. An occupational hazard, more or less. Darjeeling transferred to the school and started her education going on four years ago, as a freshman, and it took some growing and experience before she became the calm, collected strategist and leader that she was now. A big part of the issues she was having during her first year was being so far from her parents and having to be so independent, which was jarring for anyone their first time.
While some may have merely gotten over the situation in a trial by fire for better or worse, forgetting crucial things and messing up and retroactively trying to fix them, Darjeeling was the opposite. She was almost too on top of everything that was going on and that she had to take care of, one such thing was her health. This worked somewhat in her favor, as the strain put on herself from being so overly paranoid and active in making sure she checked, double-checked and triple-checked everything essential and otherwise that she needed to do did cause her to become ill rather frequently.
Victor was a bit lower on the totem pole in the medical bureaucracy until more recently, and as such it was not uncommon for him - still not being much more than a recent transfer himself from another school ship's medical facility - to be the one to treat Darjeeling whether she needed it or not.
Now of course, with the help of Sensha-do and general experience and time, Darjeeling has become the strong and independent woman she was today. She aced her classes, knew how to properly act as a refined individual, and could probably command an entire platoon with her eyes closed and a cup of tea in her hand.
This was reflected during the examination. Darjeeling had naturally had a bit of 'experience' with such exams a few times over the years, and given how clear and level her head was, this would be no different. She answered every question clearly and concisely with little to no pause to even think, and she didn't have more than the faintest blush grace her cheeks when anything relating to sexual activity came up. She almost looked smug with the resting smirk on her face, as if she memorized the answer key to a test and was dishing out all the right answers without even thinking about it.
Further, the more physical portions of the examination left the room more or less silent as Victor didn't need to so much as instruct her or state to her what he was going to do next. The commander ended with a clean bill of health, as expected, and in record time at that.
"I'm not sure if I should be impressed or insulted that you have this routine down to a science now," Victor commented as he scribbled his remaining notes down after discarding his gloves.
Darjeeling gave a short, dignified giggle, "I would hope you'd take it as a compliment that I pay enough attention to memorize the steps of the exam so well. Though the fact that I had a refresher a couple days ago probably helps," She said with a brief roll of her eyes. The double testing was great for medical and record keeping purposes, but nothing else about it was convenient or desirable for sure. Now standing, the commander gave a bow to her doctor, who bowed back once he sat his clipboard down.
"The quicker the better, I suppose. Have a wonderful day, Commander. I hope to see you again soon under less sterile circumstances," He said with the faintest hint of a smile.
Nodding her head, Darjeeling exited the room, and Victor's next patient arrived very soon after. Trading one blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl for another, Assam entered with her hands clasped in front of herself, head slightly bowed downward.
Victor attempted to keep a chipper expression once Assam entered, gesturing to the table in the room with one hand as he flipped the papers on his clipboard to the appropriate sheet. Given she was seemingly nervous about the whole thing, Victor was going to try his best to make her feel comfortable. Darjeeling had always been a breath of fresh air in that respect, a seemingly perfect patient and a good friend to hang out with. Go figure that came with a speedy examination.
"Good morning Miss Assam," Victor began, pulling on a new pair of gloves. "Hope you had a lovely summer, been up to anything interesting?" He asked, breaking the ice in the way that he had been doing all day. The experience was already an inconvenience, may as well try to make it a friendly and engaging one.
Assam twitched as she was addressed, and... Blushed? Her face looked a shade redder at any rate, her hands curled up in fists in her lap as she sat there and Victor began his examination, going in the same order he had been all day. "Yes! Very lovely. And, nothing too-too interesting... I mean, not to normal people. Er- Most people, sorry." She stammered, seemingly less composed when without her team or a 75mm cannon between her and others she doesn't know.
Victor raised an eyebrow, but kept his eyes off her face for fear of making her somehow less comfortable. "Go on," he said, "I could be one of the ones who finds it interesting."
Nervously, Assam shook her head a bit, "Nawh... Wouldn't wanna waste your time talking about it," she said, soon finding the doctor looking up at her with eyes that could only be described as 'completely unamused'.
"If you say so," he said as he stood, taking his stethoscope from around his neck and beginning his check on her respiratory and cardiovascular systems. The room was silent for a moment, as it always was for this portion, and before long the stethoscope was back around Koveryn's neck as he notated his findings. Or lackthereof.
"It's just uh, research stuff," Assam spoke up after the multiple minute long silence. "What I've been getting into, I mean. Looking things up, reviewing data, compiling it all, getting statistics and probabilities, that sort of thing," she said with a keen interest in her legs and hands, rubbing one now looser fist over her knee.
"Really?" Victor asked with a risen eyebrow. "Wouldn't have expected you'd be into that sort of stuff. Maybe you can help me with organizing sometime if you want another 'extra-curricular activity' under your belt beyond Sensha-do," he joked.
This caused Assam's eyes to brighten a bit, "I will if you need me to! But, ah, I guess I'll probably be pretty busy with Sensha-do, yeah." She said, getting herself somewhat excited and then calmed down again with impressive speed.
Following this was the dreaded questionnaire, which took quite a bit longer than the median if for no other reason than Assam being vague and Victor needing her to repeat herself with a better answer for him to log it. Victor also had to make additional semi-unrelated notes for her physical reactions to certain questions. For example, the poor girl blushed so red - and in gradually more and more severe stages - with each question relating to her sexual activity that she looked like a ripe tomato.
More interesting still was the implication that she may have indeed been seeing someone and getting frisky. Though Victor didn't press further given that it frankly wasn't his business and he didn't want the girl to red out from so much blood in her head at once.
Following the remaining physical exams, Assam was soon released with Koveryn having another crisp and clean bill of health to file for later. Moving the paper to the 'completed' section in his binder revealed a patient he knew he wouldn't be seeing today. At least not here. He blinked and sighed, closing his eyes as he moved the empty sheet to the back of his 'incomplete' section. He'd find it later and remember then, but the last thing he wanted was to have that on his mind right now.
Soon enough, the door opened with another student to be examined, and Victor tried his best to not think about it. It would already be bad enough when he finally went to visit her.