CH 54

Kashiwagi Yuri, 16 years old.

She has overcome every problem with extraordinary efforts to save the precious person she met in her childhood.

She skipped from junior high school to college, became a drug developer, got her medical license, developed a new drug, and successfully helped that loved one.

— And now she is facing the biggest challenge of her life in the women’s restroom of the university hospital.

(Okay… like this!)

Kashiwagi was looking in the washbasin mirror, there, the face of a prodigy, looked as if it had been scribbled on by a child.

“Kya—!”

And that’s when a woman in a white coat who just entered the restroom saw it and fell on her hips.

“W-what the h**l are you doing? Are you trying to get back at me for all the mean things I’ve done to you!”

“… Mean? I don’t know, Eliza always helps me out though. How’s that? Pretty, right?”

Kashiwagi approached the lady —her colleague Eliza —and asked.

“Hiii! Oh, a slit-mouthed b***h! Japanese horror film! I’m not scared at all!”

She brought her face close to hers, but Kashiwagi tilted her head when she saw Eliza looking at her, with tears in eyes and shivering.

“Hmm… this isn’t good enough then…”

“I mean, what are you doing! It’s not even Halloween yet!”

While helping Eliza, who was finally beginning to regain her composure, Kashiwagi muttered the reason why she was smudging her face.

“I want to be beautiful.”

“Ha? You say that? What kind of sarcasm is that… I thought you were really good at putting on make-up!”

Eliza managed to get up and look at Kashiwagi’s face, which was covered in terrible makeup.

Even to Eliza, an American, Kashiwagi’s well-defined face could only be described as that of a rare beauty.

“I think I did a great job for the first time…”

Kashiwagi looks at her badly stained face in the mirror again, as if unconvinced.

“First time! You’ve never worn makeup before! You’re only 16, right? I can’t believe you’re a young maiden!”

“All I’ve ever done is study and research.”

Eliza, in dismay, took a makeup remover from her handbag and started removing the makeup from Kashiwagi’s face.

“You’ve been working hard on hypertrophy all this time. Why did you suddenly start wearing makeup? Did you find a guy you like? Or did you just get desperate because things didn’t work out?”

“Oh, I was about to. But to tell you the truth, actually, the clinical trial went well. Hypertrophy is now a curable disease.”

“Ehh? That’s amazing! There was a patient who completed such an unreasonable training! It’s a commendable thing! Then you can treat that childhood benefactor you mentioned!”

After Eliza rejoiced as if it was her own thing, she cleared her throat and calmed down.

Her cheeks were still stained red.

Kashiwagi continued her story.

“In fact, I got to meet him. Moreover, it was he who succeeded in the clinical trial for the first time —Yamamoto!”

“Oh, really! How romantic!”

Eliza cackled with her hands on her cheeks.

She saw herself in the mirror, cleared her throat again, and calmed down.

Kashiwagi lowered her eyebrows while having her makeup removed.

“But… I failed to realize during the treatment that Yamamoto was the benefactor of mine. I made him do a lot of reckless things to complete the clinical trial. I was on the verge of desperation due to a series of failures until I met him, and my language and attitude were both bad too…”

“Ah~, well, I guess it’s inevitable. If it were me, I’d be absolutely heartbroken.”

After having her makeup completely removed, Kashiwagi muttered to herself.

“Umm… I didn’t care if Yamamoto hated me. If his illness could be cured, I would be fine with just that. But when I came to know that it was him who saved me… I’m now afraid of him hating me.”

Seeing Kashiwagi’s weak appearance, Elisa listened without saying a word.

“Yamamoto is so wonderful. He’s like a hero straight out of a picture book. I’m just not good enough for him. That’s why I want to put on makeup so I don’t feel embarrassed to be next to him.”

Eliza let out a long, exasperated sigh.

Then she flicked her forehead with her finger.

“You know, you’re in love right now. If romantic feelings are there, of course Yamamoto would look like the coolest guy in the world, no matter how ugly he is.

Eliza took the liberty of taking a cigarette from the breast pocket of Kashiwagi’s white coat and continued her advice by sucking on it.

“But you’re actually pretty. And if you put on makeup and become even prettier, Yamamoto will not be able to touch you. It’d be him who’d think he’s no match for you.”

“Oh, really? But Yamamoto’s really, really cool, you know? No, he’s kind of cute, too, but the old scar on his forehead that you can sometimes glimpse is wild and exciting—”

Elisa silenced Kashiwagi, who looked like she would talk for hours, by making her suck a Ramune ciggerate in her mouth as well.

“Ah~, yes, yes. You’ve never been interested in men, and this is the first man you’ve ever seen as a man. Of course I’ll support you if you fall in love with him.”

“Yeah, well… it’s certainly possible that I’m just overestimating it when I think about it that way.”

“Alright, you should introduce him to me. I’ll help you make it work.”

Eliza said it like she has no choice but to help then laughed.

“Well, then! It’s your first time in love, and you don’t look like a girl. You don’t have to wear makeup, but you need to prepare yourself for all the things you need to do as a woman so that this Yamamoto guy doesn’t get bored with you!”

“I had it all figured out, except for the makeup!”

At Eliza’s words, Kashiwagi confidently lifted up her skirt.

“Look, here’s lucky underwear! You need something like this, don’t you? I bought some awesomely cute ones yesterday!”

“You’re too early for that! And what’s with these bear pants! I wonder if you’re still in elementary school with your sense of aesthetics…”

Eliza let out a sigh at Kashiwagi’s difficult future ahead.

[PostScript]

Also, sorry for the side stories…!

Yamamoto is reborn, and it will be Kashiwagi-san’s story the next morning!