"Aren't you polite?" Inui-san said.
"What do you want?" The boy repeated.
"I happened to hear about what was going on, so I decided to come see for myself. You are kind, Tezuka-kun." Inui-san replied.
Tezuka sighed. "If I had been paying more attention, that little girl wouldn't have gotten hurt."
"If she hadn't been alone, she wouldn't have gotten hurt."
"It wasn't her fault."
"No, it wasn't, but now, we have another member for Dragon."
Tezuka was shocked. They were going to recruit Hazuki the same way Dragon had recruited him. He had been saved by Dragon when he was six-years-old, becoming indebted to Dragon. The only way to repay that debt was to join Dragon. It wasn't as if he was unwilling, though, but then, something clicked in his mind. Tezuka asked, "Was it all a set-up?"
"You're quick, Tezuka-kun. Yes, it was a set-up. We're always looking for new members. We found her on the Eligible List a few weeks ago. That drunken man was actually a criminal we had caught a few days ago. He was going to receive the death sentence anyways. He had murdered his wife and daughter."
Tezuka wasn't exactly surprised. The Eligible List consisted of the names and information of young children whose parents weren't around very often. Dragon did what they could to get those children to join, and they could do almost anything. A few years after joining Dragon, he had learned that he had been on the Eligible List. It hadn't just been a coincidence back then, and it wasn't one now.
Inui-san stood up and said, "Well, I believe you know what to do.
Tezuka replied, "You want me to recruit her."
"See, you are quick." He walked out of the hospital, leaving him to his own thoughts.
Tezuka sighed. It wasn't that he was unhappy with being in Dragon. In fact, he was glad to be in Dragon. It gave him pride to be in the organization that helped the government. He revealed a half-smile; he had caught a thief earlier today. He had been going home from the police station when he saw Hazuki.
"Excuse me," a woman from behind him said.
Tezuka stood up and turned around. It was one of the nurses. "Hayashi-sensei will be out in just a moment. The surgery is almost done."
"I see. Thank you." Tezuka replied.
"May I ask your name?" The nurse was holding a clipboard and a pen.
"I'm Tezuka Kunimitsu." Tezuka replied.
The nurse wrote his name down. "And the name of the little girl you brought?"
"Narita Hazuki."
The nurse wrote Hazuki's name down. Then she paused and looked him in the eye. "What happened, exactly?"
"I was walking home when I heard a scream. I ran to the source of the scream, and I saw her on the ground clutching her eye. There was a man with a knife in his hand standing above her. Then, he stabbed himself with the knife and fell face forward. I ran over, picked her up, and ran here. " Tezuka answered.
The part about the man committing suicide wasn't completely true though. Nor was the part about him running over after the man fell. Tezuka had run over as soon as he saw what was going on. He had kicked the man's arm when he reached the other side of the street. The man had lost balance and plunged the knife into his chest on accident. Then, he fell over.
Of course, the nurse didn't need to know that. There were no witnesses anyways. He knew that Hazuki hadn't seen; she had been in too much pain to notice anything else. The nurse finished writing everything down and looked at Tezuka again. "How old are you?"
"I'm fourteen-years-old." Tezuka replied.
"Fourteen? You're awfully mature for someone so young." The nurse replied.
"Thank you." Tezuka replied.
Tezuka sat back down. He waited for what seemed to be hours. When he looked at his watch, he realized that it was now one in the morning. He had been at the hospital since six-thirty. "Thank goodness it's Friday…or well, Saturday." Tezuka thought. He heard footsteps behind him and automatically stood up. It was the doctor.
"You must be Tezuka-kun. I'm Hayashi-sensei." Hayashi-sensei said.
"Thank you for helping her." Tezuka replied.
Hayashi-sensei laughed. "I am a doctor after all. It's my job." Tezuka nodded.
"About Narita-chan, she should be waking up anytime now. The surgery itself was only an hour long, since her only injury was her eye." Hayashi-sensei continued.
"So it was just the anesthesia."
"Yes, it was. Now, about her right eye…to put it bluntly, she'll never see out of it again." Hayashi-sensei looked regretful.