Sinnesspiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sinnesspiel) wrote2021-03-29 09:04 pm
sinnesspiel) wrote2021-03-29 09:04 pm
Shiki Novel Translations 3.17.4
Mutou was in the office tapping at the calculator when he heard the sound of something falling from the pharmacy. Hurrying to dodge around the shelves, when he peered into the pharmacy, Ritsuko had collapsed there.
"Ricchan!" He cried out hurrying towards her. Maybe having overheard, the single patient in the waiting room came to peer in from the counter. He asked them to call for Toshio. Immediately, Toshio and Yasuyo rushed in.
"......I am fine," Ritsuko said, rising up. Mutou was positive he saw Toshio's expression change as he looked into her eyes.
Mutou could feel himself getting goosebumps. He knew it, he had a feeing this morning that it didn't look as if Ritsuko was feeling well. She wasn't talking much, clearly lacking in her usual vibrancy. Her color was poor and everything seemed to wear her down.
Toshio and Mutou supported Ritsuko, carrying her to a treatment room. Ritsuko was laid out on the bed repeating 'I am dizzy' several times while her doll-like, vacant eyes looked up at the ceiling.
"I'm just so tired......" Ritsuko murmured with her gaze still fixed on the ceiling. "I will quit."
Will you, Toshio said, gripping Ritsuko's hand. What had happened---what was going to happen, he knew far too well.
And so with this it would finally be just Mutou and Yasuyo, he thought. A hospital couldn't operate with only one nurse. That said, because the number of patients was on the decline too, it might not have been the case that it'd be completely impossible. But by now his willpower to maintain the hospital had withered. In the end the time had come to close down, he thought. ---Didn't sound all bad.
"Ricchan, why not be hospitalized?"
No, Ritsuko said. "I do not want to. Please take me home. I do not want to be in the hospital anymore."
Yasuyo turned her eyes away and Mutou hung his head. Toshio turned back to Yasuyo.
"Yasuyo-san, how many patients are left?"
"I think there are still two more. But they're both here for physiotherapy, so by all means, Doctor, please do take Ricchan and get her home."
"I'll do that," Toshio nodded. He would take her home and then that would be where he would part ways with Ritsuko.
Mutou assisted in getting Ritsuko into the car, which he used to drive to her house. Being Saturday evening, her mother Yasue and her little sister Midori were both at the home, and they came out, shocked to help take in the completely exhausted Ritsuko.
"It's because she's been so busy," Yasue said with a glare at Toshio. "I thought it might come to this. This girl, she's so generous with herself. I mean, I know that being a nurse is an important job but that's no excuse to not have any days off at all!"
"Mom, come on. It's not something to blame the Junior Doctor over."
"I am blaming him. ---The doctor is a doctor, he should have known better. Even Ritsuko's health couldn't hold out forever like this! You can think of your patient's health, but you don't bother to think about your workers health, is that it?"
Toshio hung his head. He had nothing he could say back to such an accusation. ---Yes, under these conditions, he should have known that his staff wouldn't be able to hold out. It wasn't just their physical health, he should have given more serious consideration to the fact that the danger that had invaded the village and was spreading like cancer cells wouldn't just overlook Ritsuko and the others.
When he drove the car back to the hospital, full of melancholy, he saw Mutou riding to a house on a bicycle. In the basket of the bicycle was what looked to be a pharmacy bag. He was going through all the trouble to deliver medications, he thought. And all this time, Yasuyo was probably handling the patients.
Thinking back, Mutou had lost a son. The mourning period hadn't even passed when he had returned to the hospital since they had lost Towada, and he'd been working without stop since. Mutou's wife Shizuko helped out part time in the office, and had helped out with the morning and evening cleaning too. The only one who could be said to be unaffected by the calamity was Yasuyo but with all of her colleagues having gone, leaving her completely alone, did you still call that unaffected?
Despite being Saturday, the village was quiet and empty. Of course there was no sign of anybody once night fell, but just the approach of evening now made the streets empty. He hadn't seen what looked like too much of a decrease in the daytime but you still didn't catch sight of anyone standing and talking on the street corners. There was the fact that the population of the village itself had declined but more than even that was likely that nobody wanted to leave their house if they didn't have a reason to.
Three whole months and it's come to this, Toshio thought. An atrocity: that word didn't seem like it was inappropriate. Yes, while Toshio was working himself up, struggling in vain time and time again, the village had ended up being ravished away to this extent.
Returning to the hospital, confirming that there weren't any signs of any patients still being kept waiting, Toshio went into the antechamber. He gathered up the documents, the medical charts and memos he had left out. He had to begin looking over and sorting them from the very beginning.
Salvation was necessary. The village had no way to escape this disaster. He had to get the attention of the outside, had to implore their help. This was the only thing left that Toshio was capable of anymore; at last, he understood that.
8D
(Anonymous) 2021-03-30 02:40 am (UTC)(link)(Now what I’m curious abt is how Toshio overrides Chizuru’s hypnosis. If he achieved it thru sheer will and pettiness alone, then it’s rly commendable. Like shounen protagonist suddenly powering up, haha)
no subject
I believe in Toshio's supremacy
(Anonymous) 2021-03-31 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)Re: I believe in Toshio's supremacy
(Anonymous) 2021-03-31 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)Re: I believe in Toshio's supremacy
(Anonymous) 2021-04-02 01:31 am (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2021-03-31 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)