The next day, the morning air carried a crisp, clean chill.
Kiryu Kazusuke was awakened by hunger.
He sat up from the single bed, then stepped barefoot onto the cold floor and walked to the bathroom. Turning on the faucet, he scooped up a handful of cold water and splashed it onto his face. In less than three seconds, he was fully awake.
He raised his head and looked at himself in the mirror.
Kiryu Kazusuke, twenty-five years old.
His parents had both died in a traffic accident when he was in high school, leaving behind a sum of compensation money.
It had to be said: capitalist society truly harmed people.
He had studied for six years at the Faculty of Medicine of the national Gunma University, and tuition alone had cost several million yen—not even counting his other expenses.
By the time he finally graduated, the compensation money had been mostly spent.
Now he could only get by on the meager salary of a resident doctor each month. It could be said that life was rather tight.
If nothing unexpected had happened, this should have been a story of struggle, of climbing upward from the bottom.
Enduring the years, building seniority, waiting for his residency to end, becoming a full-fledged doctor, and then rising step by step… If he was lucky, he might become a professor and stand at the pinnacle of the department.
But unfortunately, he had met Nagata Ayaka.
She possessed the gentleness and charm of a mature woman, and to the original owner of this body—fresh out of school, sensitive and lost inside—that had been fatal.
What crushes the camel is every single straw.
The death of his parents, the long-standing financial pressure, the high-intensity work, and his confusion toward the future had always weighed on the original owner until he could hardly breathe.
Nagata Ayaka just happened to be the final straw.
On Thanksgiving night, the original owner saw with his own eyes the beloved Senior Nagata get into a Toyota sedan and never return.
In a moment of despair, he had hastily ended his own life.
Regarding this, Kiryu Kazusuke had no position to say anything. After all, it was precisely because of that that he had the chance to come and take a look at Tokyo in the Heisei era.
Besides, everyone had the right to choose their own life.
Since the original owner had that right, so did he.
The current Kiryu Kazusuke believed that loving one person could not be hidden, while loving two people had to be.
He returned to the bedroom.
Kiryu Kazusuke took from the wardrobe the coat he had worn yesterday, preparing to put it on.
When he reached into the pocket, however, he felt something like a slightly stiff slip of paper. Pulling it out, he saw that it was a ten-thousand-yen bill printed with Fukuzawa Yukichi’s portrait.
This was from last night…
In Kiryu Kazusuke’s mind appeared the girl named Saionji Mina, as well as the timeline convergence plan.
His heart stirred, and a thought flashed through his mind.
【Saionji Mina’s worldline has been converged】
【Reward: 10,000 yen】
Immediately afterward, a screen of light that only he could see unfolded before his eyes.
【Name: Kiryu Kazusuke】
【Assets: 73,850 yen】
【Items: None】
【Skills: None】
Assets referred to money. That much was very clear.
Late last night, when he returned home, he had simply treated Saionji Mina’s wound after she fell, and his assets had directly gone from over 60,000 yen to over 70,000.
However, that was not the main point.
The skills section still showed “None” because he had not yet reported Nagata Ayaka.
Then what were items?
Were they consumables that provided one-time effects, like in a game?
For example, a bottle of potion that could keep him full of energy even after working forty-eight hours straight?
Unfortunately, two consecutive worldline divergence events had occurred, and neither had produced any item reward.
But it was not a big problem.
He planned to first go to the hospital and report Nagata Ayaka, obtaining “Kirschner Wire Fixation · Perfect.”
That was right. Even though he had only just finished a twenty-four-hour shift yesterday, Kiryu Kazusuke still had to go to the hospital today.
According to the rules, he was allowed to rest for an entire day.
However, rules were rigid, while people were flexible.
In Japan, graduating from medical school and passing the national examination merely meant obtaining a medical license.
To become a true doctor, there was still a very long road ahead.
And at present, Japan’s medical system had not yet undergone major reform. It still implemented the old physician training system.
In other words, the vast majority of graduates would choose to join a university hospital and select a specific medical office or department to work in as resident doctors.
It would not be until ten years later, in 2004, that the new clinical residency system would be implemented.
At that time, an initial clinical residency known as the “super rotation” would become a legal obligation for all medical students, requiring them to rotate through various different departments.
The old system was like an apprenticeship, allowing doctors to grow rapidly in their own fields and put down deep roots.
The new system placed more emphasis on breadth, producing doctors with stronger comprehensive abilities who could handle more emergencies.
It was hard to say clearly which of the two systems was better.
In any case, from the day Kiryu Kazusuke joined First Surgery, he had taken on every miscellaneous task: writing endless medical records, changing endless dressings, rotating through emergency outpatient duty, and assisting senior physicians.
And this was only the beginning.
Only after accumulating several years of clinical experience within the department would one be qualified to sit for the “certified physician” or “specialist physician” credentials.
After passing the rigorous examination and obtaining the qualification certificate, one could be considered a true professional who had mastered the specialty and gained the right to diagnose and treat patients independently.
Only then could one be said to have truly made it through.
…
Kiryu Kazusuke pulled open the door and walked out.
He glanced next door. The door to Room 301 was closed.
Today was Saturday, so an event like accidentally running straight into the girl next door would at least not happen right now.
Kiryu Kazusuke walked down the stairs and left the apartment building.
There were almost no people on the street in the early morning. Only the occasional sound of cars passing by came from afar.
He entered a convenience store, bought a rice ball and a bottle of milk, then quickly finished them at the table by the entrance. At last, there was something in his stomach.
After arriving at the hospital,
he first went to the Medical Affairs Section.
The investigation into Nagata Ayaka’s medical accident had officially begun.
The person receiving him was a middle-aged staff member from the Medical Affairs Section.
“Doctor Kiryu, regarding what happened in the First Surgery ward on the night of December 13, please recount in detail what you saw at the time.”
Kiryu Kazusuke did not embellish, nor did he deliberately conceal anything.
He merely gave an objective account of what he had seen and heard as a witness.
From Nagata Ayaka entering the ward, to her manually adjusting the infusion pump’s speed, to the patient’s sudden emergency, and then the subsequent resuscitation process.
The staff member responsible for taking notes wrote rapidly on the paper, interjecting with questions from time to time.
“Very well, Doctor Kiryu. Thank you for your cooperation. We will proceed with further verification based on your testimony.”
After Kiryu Kazusuke finished speaking, the man closed his notebook.
And it was at this moment—
【Nagata Ayaka’s worldline has been converged】
【Reward: Kirschner Wire Fixation · Perfect】
In an instant, Kiryu Kazusuke felt as if countless pieces of knowledge and experience had been forcefully stuffed into his mind.
Everything about Kirschner wires.
Kirschner wires of different diameters and lengths, and the different fracture types they were suitable for.
The selection of the entry point, and how to accurately locate it on the body surface based on X-ray images.
When holding the electric drill, how to counteract the recoil through minute adjustments of the wrist in order to control the angle and depth at which the Kirschner wire drilled in.
And also those sensations that could only be understood but never conveyed in words.
The layered changes in resistance when penetrating the skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle, and cortical bone were all as clear as if he had personally performed the procedure hundreds or thousands of times, forming distinct muscle memory.
He subconsciously raised his right hand and made a needle-holding gesture in the air.
The movement was so standard that it looked like an illustration from a textbook.