Ladies and gentlemen! I humbly welcome you to the twenty-first chapter of this story!
Please enjoy and review!
After the door closed behind Saguru's back, Kaito sort of deflated as he sunk into the pillows behind his back with a heavy sigh. The last thing he wanted was to do Saguru's bidding but much to his annoyance knew that it was the best course of action. With a grimace on his face, he picked the phone from the covers and dialed Jii's number. The old man deserved more than a measly call but Kaito supposed that it was better than keeping him waiting for who knows how much longer. It only took a few seconds for the call to go through.
"Hello. You have reached the Blue Parrot, how can I help you?" Jii's voice inquired with that professional, pleasant tone that he reserved for his customers. There wasn't much background noise to be heard, which regarding the hour wasn't that surprising.
Kaito couldn't help the small smile tugging on his lips. He was relieved to hear the old man, sounding just fine that he didn't bother masking the fondness from his tone when he replied. "Hey Jii-chan~ It's me~" His throat was still kind of scratchy but hopefully he was able to mask it through the phone enough to not be noticeable.
He heard a rustle on the other end and figured that Jii had cradled the phone in both his hands to not drop it. "B-Botchama, is that really you?" he asked with a hushed, trembling voice.
Kaito pursed his lips, the guilt of causing Jii so much grief thuggin on his heartstrings doubling. "Yeah. Sorry for not contacting you sooner."
The answer was immediate. "It doesn't matter. Are you alright? Do you need me to come-?" The readiness in his tone to just drop everything and rush to help was overwhelming and Kaito couldn't help but worry for the old man's health.
"It's ok Jii, calm down. I only called to tell you that I'm fine now." There was no point denying that he wasn't fine before. "I'm sorry for not coming in person but I got some things that I need to do. I'll swing by tomorrow after school and explain everything, alright?" Or rather, he'd explain as much as he could, he thought bitterly. The last thing he needed was for Jii to start worrying about his mental health…
He heard the man take a breath as if he wanted to argue but then release it as a heavy sigh. "Alright, Botchama. Thank you for calling. Please take care of yourself," he replied with a resigned tone.
"Will do~ But again, don't worry. I'm not planning anything risky." Jii would probably argue with that statement if he knew what Kaito was up to, which was more of a reason to not tell him. "I'll be going now, later~!" He finished with a cherry tone to ease any remaining worry Jii might have had.
"See you soon, Botchama."
Kaito didn't really have time to process his feelings after the call ended, as nearly immediately after there was a knock on the door. So much for pretense of privacy, he thought to himself as he slapped on the easygoing and full of confidence poker face he used as KID.
"Come in~" maybe using the tone reserved for his criminal persona wasn't the best choice when he wasn't wearing a disguise but with all that already happened, he couldn't really be bothered care about it anymore.
The door opened, revealing a surprisingly tall, black skinned man, in what must have been his thirties, with brown eyes, with brown eyes and black, short and curly hair. He was carrying a leather bag in his left hand and a notebook, pressed to his white medical coat with his right. Seeing Kaito, he smiled widely, showing a strikingly white set of teeth.
"Hi Kuroba-sama. My name is Jerry Elliot. I am a doctor and I am here to check on you," he spoke in Japanese but the awkward intonation and tone sounded like he was simply repeating previously rehearsed words.
Kaito bowed politely, choosing to not mention how the man didn't take off his slippers before stepping onto the tatami mats. "It's nice to meet you, Elliot-hakase. Your Japanese is good but can we speak in English? I could use some training," he replied, the lies slipping off his tongue as easily as it was for him to switch languages, while making sure to speak with a thick accent and limit himself to using simple words.
While it would have been amusing to, as Saguru called it, 'be difficult' with the doctor and start adding olden Japanese phrases or simply slang and acting like he knew little to no English, it would have been counterproductive. He wanted two things from this conversation. First was to get it over with as soon as possible and second was to get as much information as he could without arousing suspicions. He wasn't sure how trustworthy Jerry was obviously, but it wouldn't hurt to probe him for answers before speaking with Saguru. Acting like he wasn't near fluent in English would help him to cover for his own lack of knowledge by blaming any mishaps on translation issues.
Oblivious to Kaito's schemes, Jerry paused mid-step noticing the teen bowing and bowed back with a somewhat troubled look on his face. "I appreciate your kind words and your offer, sir. I'm afraid that my Japanese language and social skills are severely lacking, so I apologize in advance for any mishaps on my part."
Kaito held back an urge to raise an eyebrow, surprised by his nervousness. Instead, he smiled pleasantly, hoping to calm him down and motioned for him to come forward.
"Do not worry about it too much. I understand that you are here to examine me?" When the man nodded in response, Kaito hummed and narrowed his eyes curiously at him. "I guess then that you were the one who took care of me after I was brought here? Sorry, I just never met a dragon's doctor," he added and scratched his cheek with an awkward smile.
Jerry laughed sincerely. "There's no need to apologize, sir. Your curiosity is justified as there aren't many physicians who even know about dragons existence, much less specialize in them. Just like you guessed, you were put under my care after lord Sa-Saguru brought you here. I'm glad that my efforts proved to be enough to bring you back to health."
Kaito held back the urge to frown when he heard Jerry hesitate with Saguru's name but decided to leave it for now, as he was more interested in something else. "Does that mean you are familiar with my kind?" he asked with a polite smile, despite how weird it felt to sort of admit out loud to being a dragon.
He was pretty sure that Jerry would answer in negative, seeing how determined and desperate Saguru was to find any dragons like Kaito, but he was curious what this doctor did know. At this point, any tidbits of information felt more valuable than any gems he had ever stolen.
Jerry's lips twitched minutely, as he tried to hold a neutral face. "I'm afraid that while I've read up a lot, you are the first one that I have met personally. Despite that, I can assure you that I am highly qualified. I have studied medicine and veterinary at University of Cambridge and was fortunate enough to be scouted and had my residency at Lady's Powell estate. There I had the opportunity to broaden my knowledge with anatomy and physiology of Draco Occidentalis Magnus. Both in theory and practice. After Lord Saguru told me of the Loong Orientalis species I did a lot of research into your kind as well as similar subspecies. Thanks to all of the materials which I have read, I feel fairly confident about my skills, if you were to require them, sir." As he finished, he gave a proud looking smile, as if he believed that he had passed some sort of an exam.
Kaito kept the facade of polite curiosity adoring his features, while nodding his head slightly as he listened to the other. In reality, he was actually feeling very uncomfortable right now. While Jerry was trying to hide it, his researcher fascination was seeping through his words. The last thing Kaito was interested in was becoming a guinea pig for anyone, thank you very much. But aside from that, there were a few interesting gems of knowledge. He was extremely curious just who 'Lady Powell' was and what her connection to Saguru was. On top of that, the existence of research materials on his species indicated that there were people (hopefully people, that is) who had firsthand knowledge about the serpentine dragons. That meant that there was a chance he could find someone else aside from Saguru or his mother to help him figure out what was going on and what he should do about it now. But that was for the future Kaito to think about.
Apparently the current Kaito had been staring and giving non-answering sounds in response that it made Jerry uncomfortable as he cleared his throat. "Do you have any other questions, sir? Or may I start examining you?" he asked, clenching his fingers tighter around the notebook in his hand, as if he was worried that he might have overstepped.
Kaito held back the urge to click his tongue, annoyed by his unusual tardiness but figured that at least he could use Jerry's renewed nervousness. His lips crooked in a sly smile that he perfected during his heists to make others believe that he already had all the answers. "Just one. Why do you think I collapsed?" He wanted the doctor to think that he was testing him.
Jerry paused and seemed to start sweating under Kaito's watchful gaze like a student during an exam. He moved his weight from one foot to the other and glanced at his notebook but didn't actually open it. After just a few seconds of fidgeting his back straightened and he spoke up, doing his best to sound confident.
"Well, sir, I'm fairly certain that the reason was you exhausting yourself while being malnourished," he said with initial carefulness, which quickly dissolved as he started laying out his reasoning, his tone befitting more and more a presentation. "Based on records that I have studied, as well as simple observation, you are, or rather your true body is, unlike your human form of course," he added hastily, his throat bobbing, as he swallowed nervously, "excessively thin. While I didn't want to risk trying to extract too much of your blood to run full tests, a drop was more than enough to confirm that your sugar level was dangerously low. To combat it, you were given an IV with glucose which resulted in your awakening and transformation back to your human form. With the scales gone, I was able to conduct USG imaging and confirm that you weren't suffering from any obvious organ damage. With that excluded, I attempted to further stabilize you by supplying your body with macro and micronutrients via IV and feeding tube. While I still need to confirm that the treatment didn't cause any nutrient overdose, your current lucid state makes me believe that it was at least partially correct. Which furthermore would confirm the initial diagnosis. Sir," he added as an afterthought and his throat bobbed again when he swallowed thickly, obviously anxious to see if his answer would satisfy the boy before him.
Normally at this point, Kaito would be tempted to ask Jerry why he was so obviously scared of him, but he was too busy trying to make sense of what he had just heard while not letting himself look too shocked. He was pretty sure that he understood most, if not all what the doctor just said, but it didn't make much sense. Malnutrition was probably the last thing he would suspect. Because how on Earth could that be possible? He was more than fit or it would have been physically impossible for him to be able to do what he did during each time on heists. Then again, Jerry did point out that Kaito's human body was fine as it was. But how was he supposed to improve his other body condition? Weren't both basically the same? Should he just start eating more and hope that it would be enough? But it's not like he could afford to get fat or his disguise-
"Lord Kuroba? Is everything alright, sir?" Jerry's worried voice snapped Kaito out of his thoughts, making him twitch. He realized that he had dropped his poker face so he tried covering the apparent shock by rubbing his face.
"Yeah, sorry. I'm just feeling kind of dizzy." He was regretting not having anything to occupy his hands with and take off the edge.
Wait, what? Had Jerry called him 'Lord Kuroba'? He used the term to refer to Saguru before, didn't he? Was that how people addressed dragons? Kaito didn't know how to feel about it. The doctor hummed thoughtfully and came closer, scrutinizing the teen under his watchful gaze. Kaito steeled his body to prevent himself from leaning away.
"I'm guessing that your sugar level could have gone down again. It has been a few hours since we removed the IV and feeding tube. Would you allow me to check?"
Kaito opened his mouth, wanting to ask more questions but thought better of it and nodded instead. "Yes, sorry to have kept you waiting."
Jerry just smiled softly and took out his stethoscope, instructing Kaito to breathe deeply. After that, he checked the electrodes on Kaito's chest, correcting the positioning of a few before flicking the switch on the heart monitor, turning it on again. He watched the read on it for a few moments before opening his bag and taking out a few items. Kaito kept himself from cringing at the sight of a syringe, his inner kaitou rebelling against the idea of having his blood taken for testing. However, he did nothing to stop the doctor as he knew that it would be pointless.
Aside from taking two vials for further testing, Jerry used a drop of Kaito's blood on a glucometer and frowned. "You definitely should eat soon. Would you want me to bring you something?"
"No thanks, I'm eating with Hakuba after this," he mumbled momentarily forgetting to keep up his KID persona.
Jerry didn't seem to mind, however, as he only smiled and nodded in response. "That's good to know. Please bear with me a little longer, I would like to examine what I can tell of your stitches, before letting you go," he explained and walked to the right side of the bed.
This reminded Kaito about the gunshot and he looked curiously when Jerry uncovered and lifted his leg that hurt suspiciously little. He had expected that he was given some sort of painkillers that somehow didn't affect his mind (he was very keen on obtaining some!) and was about to ask about it when the sight effectively shut him up. He expected to see some kind of dressing, despite that he didn't feel any, covering a patch of swollen, stretched skin, held together by spider-like threads along the closed gash. But there was nothing of the sort.
He watched with a slightly open mouth as Jerry dragged a finger along what Kaito could only describe as a strange scar. It was more like a reddish, evenly dotted line of irritated skin. Under touch, it felt somewhat more sensitive, like a freshly healed wound. But that didn't make any sense. His first thought was about the off comment made by Saguru about Kaito apparently healing Aoko. He supposed that it was possible that he healed himself at the same time. But Jerry clearly said that he was inspecting stitches. Which was it then?!
With a satisfied look to his face, Jerry laid his leg back down and covered it. Kaito just barely remembered to close his mouth when the doctor turned to him. "Seems fine enough from what I can tell. Please make sure not to exert it too much. If you do notice any bleeding, make sure to contact me as soon as you can. Otherwise, it would be best if I could fully examine and possibly remove the stitches after a week. If that is alright with you, of course, sir."
"Yeah, sure," Kaito replied numbly, more busy with trying to wrap his head around that these were apparently stitches. Did it look like that because he was a dragon or was the doctor… not human..?
Unaware of his confusion, Jerry turned off the heart monitor, gently removed the electrodes from Kaito's chest and then the cannula from his hand, replacing it with a small band aid. That done, he gathered his equipment back into his bag and smiled pleasantly at Kaito again.
"That will be all from me, or do you have any further questions before I leave, sir?"
Kaito held back the urge to laugh hysterically. He had so many questions that he didn't really know where to start. Thankfully, he somehow managed to form a sensible and hopefully unsuspicious sentence.
"How should I take care of the… stitches?" He covered his hesitance by motioning his hand in a vague gesture and copying Jerry's intonation when describing his closed injury.
The doctor blinked in surprise after hearing his own voice but just shook his head minutely and replied. "Don't worry about it, please. The actual stitches are on your real body, so you can't really reach them, sir. Just try not to…" he hummed, as if searching for the right words and finally settled for: "use this leg too much and it should be fine."
Kaito nodded, feeling even more confused about how the transformation worked. "Ok. Thank you then."
"You're most welcome. Also, I believe that it would be best if you referred from transformations until you fully recover."
Kaito held back a wry laugh. That was advice he should rather tell Saguru. At least the bitter amusement broke him out of his stupor. He smiled and bowed his head. "I'll see what I can do about it. Hopefully I'll be in better shape the next time we meet."
Jerry didn't have such reservations about laughing. "Yes, let's hope so. Goodbye then."
"Goodbye," Kaito replied, switching back to Japanese and stayed in bed until Jerry left the room.
After the door closed, to prevent himself from screaming from the confusion inside of his head, Kaito decided to busy himself with finding new clothes. He was not going to roam the Hakuba manor in a hospital gown. Too breezy for his liking.
He unlocked the railing on the side of his bed to slide it down and got up, stumbling to the side nearly immediately after he tried applying pressure to his right leg. He reached down to rub on the strange scar. His calf didn't exactly hurt, it just didn't seem to work properly but he could work around it. He tried walking again and with enough focus, he managed to not limp too much. Satisfied, he dove into one of the wardrobes in hopes of finding something decent to wear.
A little late but Happy New Year! I'm terribly sorry that it took me so long to update but sadly yeah - life sometimes does get in the way of fun and I can only hope that you understand and will forgive me ^^"
By the way - don't worry about Jerry making too much aperances in the story. I was frankly speaking thinking of skipping this part and have only a small entry about 'Kaito being examined now let's get back to the story' but I figured that there was no way for our beloved kaitou not to at least try and fish for some answers and here we are xD
If you liked the chapter or have anything to say about it please do consider leaving a comment - reading them makes my day, so I would greatly appreciate it! :D
Hope to see you next chapter *bows*