Standard Disclaimers Apply

*Sannan-sensei's cheesy truth behind his creepiness
*Yamazaki
*No Kazama

Hijikata-sensei is much better in my opinion," Yamazaki declared confidently. "He's strict and responsible."

Chizuru shuddered. "I don't think he likes me very much."

They had been chattering mindlessly about the teachers in their school for the past bit, sharing their opinions of which teacher was better in terms of teaching, and which teacher was better in terms of being a cool person to talk to. So far, Nagakura-sensei won by a landslide as the cool teacher. Now they were discussing everyone's favourite math teacher.

"Oh?" he paused. "And why is that?"

"He…glares at me, a lot."

"He glares at everyone, myself included. I think it's his natural expression."

"It always looks like he has something to say to me, but he never says it! Recently, he looked me in the eye, opened his mouth, and then shut it and scrunched his eyebrows like this." She demonstrated it and Yamazaki stifled a chuckle. "It's a little irritating, to be honest."

"Why don't you just talk to him then?"

"Easier said than-"

"Ah, Yamazaki-kun."

They both turned around to the sight of Sannan-sensei.

Seeing the girl beside Yamazaki, he smiled. "Well, hello there…sorry, what is your name?"

"Yukimu-"

"Sensei, is there something you need from me?" Yamazaki interrupted, voice firm.

"I was just seeing what you were up to." There was a questionable gleam in his eyes as he smiled. "What a cute little friend you have here."

At his gaze, Chizuru shifted closer to Yamazaki who had unconsciously taken a step forward.

"You don't need to be so defensive. I won't do anything to my precious students." She couldn't tell if it was genuine or not. "I'm also here to tell you that you have the day off, Yamazaki-kun. No need to come help me after school."

He gave one last little knowing glance before he turned around a corner and disappeared.

"Yamazaki-kun…"

"Yeah?"

"He's creepy."

"…I think so too."

She glanced up at him with a worried expression. "What did he mean when he said he wouldn't do anything to us?"

"His experiments. There's no doubt about it," he replied, voice laced with disgust.

At that, she became even more concerned. "What experiments?"

"I don't know," he brushed off.

She wasn't having any of it.

When she didn't say anything, he looked down and studied her. Her jaw was locked tight, eyes staring daggers at the infirmary door. Realizing that this was Chizuru and that there was no way in hell she would listen to him, he gave up. "Curiosity killed the cat. Are you sure you want to find out?"

There was no hesitation in her words. "Let's meet up after school."

"You really shouldn't be here if you're not sick, children."

They both immediately froze. Well that was quick, Chizuru thought.

She had been planning on sneaking into the infirmary with Yamazaki after school to uncover just what was so unsettling about their school doctor. Rumours about him have always been rotating around, but no one had really taken the initiative to discover the truth behind these rumours…or at least no one would openly declare the truth.

Hiding around the corner, they had spotted him leaving the infirmary and had both assumed he was heading towards the staff room. Once they were sure he was gone, they sneakily made their way to the infirmary but had barely even entered before he had returned.

"And may I ask what you two are looking for?" He turned to Yamazaki. "I've told you that I was going to be busy, have I not?"

Yamazaki swallowed but was at a loss for what to say, so she decided to be the brave one this time.

It was hard though.

"Um!" she started. That got Sannan-sensei's attention and he turned to look at her.

"Ah, Yukimu-san, was it? What is it?"

She would've laughed at his mistake if not for the fact that this was Sannan-sensei in front of her right now.

"I was just…interested in becoming a volunteer like Yamazaki-kun, so I asked him to show me around." She was improvising on the spot, but it seemed to have worked.

He smiled. "As nice as that sounds, you have to get approval from me first…but since you seem so eager, I'll let you off this time. I'll be going back to the staff room, so why don't you show her around, Yamazaki-kun?" His sharp gaze landed on her classmate. Though his intent was shrouded in mystery, his eyes held a glint to them. Just what was this man plotting?

Without another word, Yamazaki pulled Chizuru in and slammed the door shut. They waited until his footsteps could no longer be heard before speaking.

"What was that?" he asked.

"Improvisation at its finest?"

"Well congratulations. Welcome to the club," he sighed. "You just got yourself in a whole lot of trouble. If Kazama-san finds out, you're doomed."

She gulped nervously at that. Kazama had warned her many times to never approach Sannan-sensei unless it was an emergency. The man is dangerous, he had told her. He would kill her if he found out she volunteered to be his assistant. "Uh…He doesn't have to find out! I'll just tell Sannan-Sensei that I'm not interested after all! He can't force me to stay, though it might seem obvious that I'm only here to investigate his work…"

"I think he already knows." He had an inkling that he knowingly let them in. He never planned to stop them in the first place. He had probably just tried to scare them for his own sick amusement. "Let's quickly look around so we can leave as soon as possible." There was no point in thinking about this anymore. If he let them in, that meant either he was absolutely certain he hadn't left any clues lying around, or he was letting them know on purpose.

They searched the room for a silent ten minutes when Chizuru spoke up. "Uh…Yamazaki-kun?"

"You found something?"

"Come here."

He hurried over to where she was kneeling. She made room for him so he could kneel down beside her. Sannan-sensei had a mini bookshelf both on the top of his desk and at the bottom. While the top held more recent medical books, the bottom held older ones. He probably kept them just for reference and had rarely reviewed them as they had collected much dust over the years. However, amongst these records was a thick book. It was handwritten.

Only this book did not have any dust.

Chizuru gingerly pulled the book out, carefully avoiding all the other books about the human body. "The Water of Life," she read off from the cover. "Sounds suspicious to me." She flipped to the table of contents. "Purpose…Procedure…This is a lab report for his experiment."

She then flipped to the first section to scan the purpose and introduction. "Basically, the water of life is the absolute antidote to every illness ever recorded," she summarized for him.

"And his goal is to concoct this elixir?"

Nodding, she elaborated for him. "Much of the knowledge mentioned here had already been found by previous researchers. These people seem to be his ancestors, and he is merely continuing their incomplete studies."

"Does this kind of potion even exist? It sounds too good to be true."

"Who knows? From what I can see in the data and results section, he hasn't gotten very far." She pondered further. "If this water of life is so good, why is he keeping quiet about it? Shouldn't having more people help speed up the process? Yet he's being so secretive about it that I feel there's more to this elixir than just what meets the eye."

As Chizuru flipped the page, something caught his eye. "Wait, what's this?" At this point, the format of the report began to change. Instead of a standard formal lab report, the recordings became almost like a journal entry, or like a diary. "It's dated. This is quite recent."

Her eyes sped through the page. "He failed. There's something missing in the elixir. He tested it on ill lab rats, but they had an adverse reaction to it."

"What happened?" At this point, he wasn't even going to try reading it. Chizuru was much faster at him, and she summarized the points quite well.

"All subjects healed from their diseases and wounds. Healing time ranged from an hour to a week. However, they would turn violent shortly after they fully healed. The rats put in seclusion clawed at the walls, while the rats put in the same container attempted to feed on each other."

"Wow."

"Yeah, wow," she murmured. "The last entry was a few years ago. He's probably stumped."

Suddenly the door slid open. "You should be a scientist, Yukimu-san. I can tell you have an affinity for such a thing." Sannan-sensei walked in, closing the door behind him.

And join you? No way.

Calming her rapidly beating heart at being jump-scared like that, she forced herself to smile. "No thank you. I plan on pursuing a more community oriented career. After all, I'd hate to observe rats all day."

Beside her, Yamazaki winced at the indirect insult she had just spouted towards the doctor. She…may or may not get punished for that.

Surprisingly, Sannan-sensei was more impressed than angry. "Oh? In the medical field?"

She hadn't really thought about it that much. She had always just studied everything that came her way. "Perhaps. It really isn't any of your business though, Sannan-sensei." The suffix almost seemed like an insult coming from her at this point. "However I must admit that your research is very interesting. Why haven't you published it yet? I believe this report deserves to be shared with other researchers rather than gathering dust down here under your desk."

The skin around his eyes crinkled as he smiled. If Yamazaki didn't know any better, the smile would have almost looked genuine. "I'm glad you understand the joy in my work. As much as I would love to publish it, I still haven't gotten to the point where I would be even the least bit proud of it. The cons outweigh the pros, and the scientific community may only scorn me for it."

"Are you afraid?"

Yamazaki choked. "Chizu-"

"Having more minds working on it may open up new ideas. You shouldn't be afraid to let out your ideas. If you're truly doing this for humanity, then surely someone would find justice in what you do and assist you, no?"

Sannan-sensei was no longer smiling. "I am not afraid. It is the others that will be afraid."

"Afraid of what? Rat violence? Enough with the excuses. What are you truly doing this for, Sannan-sensei? I don't believe a thing you wrote in your purpose section. For the benefit of human kind? If this was truly for human kind, you would be desperate to share your ideas with the world." Chizuru was fuming and she had no idea why. Something just didn't sit right with her, and the more she argued the more she knew she was correct in thinking this way. He was hiding something, and she would get to the bottom of it. "There's a second part to your purpose. Tell me what it is."

His expression was serious, but his voice hadn't risen a fraction. "Why should I?"

"You've let us read this much into your research already. What's the harm in telling us more? It's not like we'll steal the recipe from you. We're not plagiarizers."

"I know that. You are both good students." This Yamasaki knew to be genuine. At this point, Sannan-sensei looked just like your average middle-aged man, tired and weary from all those years of working alone. He almost felt bad for him, but definitely felt a sense of renewed respect towards Chizuru for talking him down to this state.

The doctor sighed and started working towards them. Yamasaki moved in front of Chizuru but they both knew he would never hurt them. He sat down on the chair by his desk and leaned back. Holding a palm out, Chizuru realized it was a signal for her to hand him the book. She closed the book up and placed it in his hand without a word, patiently waiting for him to speak.

"I let you two know because you were the first ones to come this far just out of pure curiosity. Everyone else would run away at the idea of finding out the truth. This experiment…it was passed down in my family. The idea originated from one man who lost his child to a fatal illness. His wife soon came down with it as well. He was afraid of losing another loved one so he dedicated his time into making the elixir. 'It would heal her. It would heal everyone. No one would have to leave me ever again.' Those were his wishes, wishes that were originally for good but eventually for selfish reasons. Instead of spending time with his wife, he became so absorbed in his research that he didn't even know when his wife had passed away."

At the point, Chizuru rose from her position on the floor to sit on one of the infirmary beds. Crossing her legs, she paid him her full respect. Yamasaki mirrored her actions and sat beside her.

"Overcome with grief, the man began to detest his work. He locked away what little information he found, claiming that what he had discovered was a monster. It made him a monster. He swore he would never continue writing it. The book was stowed away for another few decades until someone else found it. Rewriting the information onto a fresh set of pages, he continued where the man left off. Little progress was made before he too became obsessed. This happened many more times until it landed into my hands.

"These men sacrificed much to make this miracle. Their efforts and grief would have gone to waste if I hadn't continued. Over time, the pages will definitely lighten until the words become illegible. I felt it was my duty to finally complete this research once and for all so no one else would have to go through what these men had gone through. Even for me, I am starting to feel the pull, the desperation, as though the laboratory is constantly calling out to me. It must be a curse," he chuckled lightly.

It didn't look like he was going to say anything else. "How did you…find out about all this?"

"Did you finish reading the whole report?"

She shook her head. "I skimmed what I could."

He closed his eyes and smiled. "Of course you wouldn't be able to finish it. It took me many hours to get through the whole thing." He looked up at them, opening the book as though he was telling a story to a pair of kindergarteners. "If you read from the front, you get the research data, the lab report, the research progress, information like that. If you read from the back however," he flipped all the way to the back and turned the book upside down. "It's a diary. Each researcher in my family rewrote what the previous researcher wrote and attached a copy of the original script."

He carefully showed them the attached originals. They were definitely illegible, and the paper honestly looked quite nasty because of how ancient it was. However, that was just her personal opinion. She could tell just how much this book had been cherished. After all, why else would somebody keep such old documents lying around anyway?

"So you hiding it from everyone…is to make sure no one falls into obsession with this research?" Yamazaki spoke softly.

"When you are trying to find the solution to the world, anyone would become obsessed." He smiled tiredly, the evidence of stress and exhaustion crinkling on his forehead in lines. "Whether it is the prospect of the fame and fortune, or just the idea of being humanity's saviour…anyone would grow obsessed."

They left soon after that with Sannan-sensei kindly reminding Yamazaki of their meeting tomorrow. Obviously, the doctor had known all along that she was never interested in joining so he had merely waved her off when she asked if she had to come. "Secretaries should keep doing what secretaries do and work with the student council. Leave the infirmary to the nurse." His hand had been warm and comforting as he patted her on the shoulder.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! Thanks for reading!