September 3rd, 2016: Saturday
Tae Takemi turned around on her chair and leveled a gaze at her patient. He was an elderly gentleman who had come in complaining about a runny nose and pain in his face.
She pulled out her clipboard and scribbled a note on it. "You have sinusitis. I wouldn't worry too much, it's pretty common. Some bacteria must have gotten into your nasal passageways."
"How do I make it go away?" he asked.
"It goes away by itself, though cold medicines and nasal flushes will help along the process. Just pick some up at the pharmacy and take the recommended dosage until it goes away." She handed him a slip of paper of the various medicines she would recommend. "If it doesn't go away in the next twelve weeks, reschedule an appointment."
"Thank you, Takemi-sensei," he said, pocketing the note. He looked around. "Say, where's that kid? I haven't seen him around lately."
Takemi frowned. Not a topic she wanted to discuss with her patients. "He's… on sabbatical."
"I hope he's doing okay. I see him every now and again at Leblanc. I think that Sakura feller has him working there."
"I'm sure he does."
They bid their goodbyes and Takemi closed up the clinic for the night. Another busy day. She could hardly believe there was a time where she dreaded such a thing.
Now with no more need to focus on formulating the cure for Miwa-chan, she had all the time in the world to help her patients. She truly had forgotten just how much she enjoyed doing her job.
In fact, over the last two days, she had been grateful that her work had kept her so busy. It meant she didn't have to think about the big, glaring elephant in the room. It was a nosey ass elephant, too.
Her ever-reliable guinea pig had confessed to her. Confessed feelings of… love.
She gripped her hair and growled. "That idiot… what was he thinking?!"
Christ, she needed a smoke.
What exactly was he hoping to gain? He had to have known they couldn't be together, no matter how much either of them—How much he had wanted it?
It was obvious to her that she needed to turn him down. That was the simple fact of the matter. She didn't want to hurt him, but what else could she do? It's not like he wouldn't find someone else. Any girl would be lucky to have him. He was cute, charming, funny, reliable, his voice was so smooth—
She swore and hissed, "Stop!"
God, she was sounding like some lovestruck high school girl. Why was it so hard to just figure out a way to turn him down? He was a big boy, he could take it, so she just needed to woman up and set the record straight!
She reached over to her coffee mug and took a sip. It had gone cold hours ago – she really needed to get better about letting that happen – but she would never let a drop go to waste.
The black mug was a gift from Akira – from Kurusu. At the time, she thought it was just a kind gesture. But now she couldn't help but wonder just how far back these feelings inside of him went.
She supposed it explained his anger over Oyamada. No normal patient would be full of such righteous fury over needing to find a new physician. Maybe get a little upset and complain for a few days, but to storm out determined to fix it? Heaven no. She'd never even do such a thing.
But just as she was on the edge, ready to throw herself off and give up entirely, there he was. Her beacon of light. Her ray of hope. Her guinea pig.
No one had ever cared for her like that. Her parents wrote her off after she chose to pursue a degree in medicine. All the other students treated her, at best, as an interesting anomaly. So to know there was someone out there who fully, genuinely loved her for who she was… Takemi thought she was immune to getting butterflies in her stomach. These last few days proved her wrong.
Seeing Akira—
Takemi rolled her eyes and let her head fall to her desk. Now she was referring to him by his given name inside her head. Great.
Seeing Kurusu stick by her side through thick and thin, no matter what, gave her no doubt in her mind that he loved her. The kid was a terrible liar, at least after you got to know him, but that was said with his heart.
But she couldn't return the feelings… at least, she really shouldn't.
All this hemming and hawing over trying to do right by him was really just to bury an uncomfortable truth that was doing everything in its power to burst out: she had developed feelings of her own.
There was no one in the world she would rather be with. He was there for her when no one else would have given her the time of day and by god the way he stood up to Oyamada for her was the hottest thing she'd ever seen in her life.
He gave him her life back. He was there for her when she was on the precipice of giving up completely and utterly. Whatever he did, and he had to have done something to make Oyamada confess, he did it for her. And that meant something.
She pursed her lips. That thought had been nagging at her for the longest time. What exactly had he done to clear her name?
Oyamada was a bastard, and a kindly worded letter wasn't going to be what changed him. Aki-Kurusu had mentioned he had some friends who could help, but did they dig up some blackmail?
No, that couldn't have been it. She had went to see Oyamada in prison about a week ago. When she saw him, it didn't look like the face of a man who had been defeated, who had lost everything and was forced to confess. No, there was real, genuine remorse, a man pleading for forgiveness. Not the asshole she had known.
"Could it have been the Phantom Thieves?" she asked herself.
Tokyo's resident vigilantes, a group she never gave too much thought over. She knew of them, who didn't at this rate, but she never cared to really look into them.
She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone to do a quick search, rapidly stumbling upon the so-called "Phan Site". She rolled her eyes. Who thought of a name like that? From what she was reading, any name put into the Phan Site would be put into a list of people that the Thieves would potentially go over.
Most of the names and problems submitted were complete nonsense. A brother who was mad that his sister got a bike for her birthday while all he got was an RC car, a wife complaining about her husband's snoring habit, so on and so forth.
But after scrolling through the list, she found that not one single person had submitted Oyamada's name to the site.
Takemi leaned back into her chair and chewed her lip in thought. If the Thieves were behind it, and she was certain they were, they weren't informed on the website. How did he get word to them otherwise? Did he know them personally?
More pieces began to fall into place. Ever since he first arrived, he was constantly worn down. As if he hadn't gotten much sleep, constantly exhausted. As hard as the life of a high schooler was, he didn't give the impression that he was burning the candle at both ends just to stay up to study.
And there were the meds that he constantly bought. Enough for a small army. Due to their deal, she didn't feel the need to ask many questions, but she was asking them now. What were they for? Certainly not for his exams. Whatever silly ideas he had gotten into his head about loving her – and boy was she kicking herself about having those same thoughts – there was no way he developed those before coming to see her.
These pieces were beginning to form one hell of a puzzle, and they all fit together to form a single conclusion.
"Oh my God," she breathed, her eyes widening. "He's a Phantom Thief."
Well. That certainly explained a thing or two. Her little guinea pig who went above and beyond the call of duty was also a known criminal and active vigilante.
Somehow that just made him all the more appealing. He was already on thin ice with the law as it was, and he just turned around and broke it again, just to help people. She recalled all those times she had to patch him up after he got into fights. Was that from being a Phantom Thief? There was no word on the how of their methods. It would stand to reason they needed to get physical.
And he did it for her without thinking.
She thought of his fury over her being screwed over with the initial development. His unwavering stance on doing the right thing, no matter the cost to him. Telling Oyamada off to his face when he threatened her. Putting himself on the line just to see the medicine through.
That smile, that beautiful smile of his.
She buried her face in her hands. "Oh, no. No, no, no."
She loved Akira Kurusu. The Phantom Thief. Her guinea pig.
And she couldn't say no to him. Because she wanted him as much as he wanted her. She just hadn't realized it.
Was that her answer then? Be with a high schooler? He was still seventeen, that was… it would put her career in jeopardy if anyone found out, to say the least. Who knows what problems would befall him if word got out.
Could she wait for him? Should she wait for him? That would be the logical move.
But love was so rarely logical, and Tae Takemi was not a woman who did anything by half measures. To Hell with what other people thought. If the day comes when it all comes crashing down around them, they'd stick through it together.
She glanced at the clock on her desk. It was too late to message Akira, he was probably sleeping. Well, maybe. He had trouble with that.
What with being a vigilante and everything.
Tomorrow then. He would get his answer. And they would face whatever came together.
A/N: If you're expecting the next chapter to be the actual rank 10, I'll save you the disappointment and say it isn't. I already wrote that, it's called Hero/Heroine and you should go read it, I'm still very proud of it.