Chapter 470: 468
Yuriko Takagi could tell that the man who had disrupted her world was beginning to change.
More importantly, he was changing in the direction she had hoped for.
His unhealthy tendency to treat life like a game was fading.
Before, he had viewed their world as something akin to a virtual reality game, with himself as the player and everyone else as little more than characters.
Yuriko had roughly narrowed down the people responsible for breaking through that mentality and awakening genuine emotions in him.
One was a woman named Aerith. The other was probably Lacus.
From the videos Saeko had shared, Kain's attitude toward those two women was noticeably different from the way he treated everyone else.
Yuriko couldn't help sighing.
How wonderful would it have been if Saya had been the one to break through the patient's emotional walls and force him to truly confront reality?
It would have meant that Saya occupied a place in his heart far above every other woman.
Unfortunately, Yuriko had to admit that neither Lacus nor Aerith was someone her daughter could easily surpass.
Saya could probably defeat Aerith in a contest of intelligence.
Lacus, however, was another matter entirely. Saya simply couldn't compete with her.
Now that it had become difficult for Kain to continue treating this world like a game, they needed to deepen his connection to it.
The simplest method was to give him more things here that he genuinely cared about.
That was why Yuriko had agreed when Saya approached her with this proposal.
Even so, when the time actually came to carry it out, Yuriko felt terribly awkward.
Last time, she had faced Kain alone.
This time, Saya was right in front of her, watching every difficult-to-describe aspect of her mother's performance.
In her daughter's eyes, Yuriko had always been elegant, dignified, and morally upright.
Right now, she couldn't have been further from that image.
After their "patient" entered the hospital room prepared especially for him inside the Takagi family's villa, the two nurses asked where he needed treatment and assured him they would cooperate fully.
Kain immediately began proposing his treatment plans.
The central objective was supposedly to produce a special substance similar to Earth Elixir.
Earth Elixir was capable of curing nearly every disease in this world. It could prevent infection by the biohazard virus and even cure infected people who had yet to transform into one of Them.
The substance Kain now spoke of only resembled Earth Elixir on the surface, yet he insisted it was even rarer.
His first treatment plan required the two nurses to work together.
The second demanded even closer coordination.
Because they were acting together, Yuriko could feel Saya's nervous breathing nearby.
Watching each other participate in this ridiculous role-play from such a short distance left Yuriko light-headed with embarrassment.
When the second treatment neared its conclusion, Saya hurried to complete her part. She then gave her mother a meaningful look, silently urging Yuriko to take over without interrupting their rhythm.
Yuriko sighed inwardly.
Her daughter clearly didn't intend to let her escape halfway through.
What would the third treatment require?
Just thinking about Kain's next request made Yuriko's heart race with nervous anticipation.
His third proposal left both women confused.
Only after he explained it in greater detail did they understand.
He wanted the three of them to arrange themselves like the hands of a clock at precisely twelve o'clock and thirty seconds.
Kain would represent the hour hand, while Yuriko and Saya would serve as the minute and second hands. Both of them would face the center of the imaginary clock.
As for which woman would overlap with the hour hand first, Kain left that decision to them.
They settled the matter with rock-paper-scissors.
Yuriko won.
Since she had already committed herself this far, there was no reason to surrender her victory to Saya. Her daughter didn't want her to hold back, either.
Even so, this new arrangement made Yuriko more self-conscious than before.
Their faces were so close that she could see her own embarrassed expression reflected in Saya's eyes. Neither mother nor daughter dared maintain eye contact for long.
Eventually, the third course of treatment ended.
"And what treatment will our patient require next?" Yuriko asked with a gentle yet captivating smile.
Kain responded with the name of another unusual treatment.
Yuriko blinked in confusion. The word didn't sound like proper English. Perhaps it was a Japanese term written in katakana?
"If you don't know, Mrs. Takagi, you can ask Saya. She looks like she understands the treatment."
"W-Who understands it? I have no idea what you're talking about!"
Saya glared at him and pinched him viciously.
She absolutely refused to admit that she understood.
Since neither nurse would acknowledge knowing the term, their patient had no choice but to explain his latest treatment plan himself.
This time, the imaginary hour hand would remain at twelve, while the minute and second hands would occupy opposite sides of the clock.
The explanation alone was enough to leave both nurses speechless.
By the time they reached the fifth treatment, Saya was staring at the patient with open disdain.
"Go ahead. Let's hear it."
She wanted to see what other ridiculous plan he could possibly invent.
Considering how many treatment methods he knew, countless people must have spent far too much time researching them.
Kain seemed to notice the contempt in her eyes, and his expression became strangely serious.
"The Triple-Stack Treatment Plan."
Saya stared blankly at him.
She had no idea what that meant, although she was certain it would be another proposal designed to make their hearts race.
"Saya, do you see those chairs with backrests over there? There happen to be three of them."
Was he seriously turning this into a riddle?
Between the words "triple-stack" and the chairs Kain indicated, Saya's brilliant mind quickly worked out the basic concept.
Ordinary chairs occupied far too much space during transport, so many were designed to nest together in a compact stack.
Kain's plan appeared to follow the same principle.
His further explanation confirmed Saya's suspicions.
The fifth treatment soon began.
It resembled the previous treatment, except the three participants now followed the arrangement suggested by the stacked chairs.
Time passed in a blur.
"...And that's the next treatment plan."
Yuriko had long since lost track of how many different "treatments" Kain had proposed.
At last, however, they reached the special treatment Saya had secretly been anticipating.
They had prepared the room specifically for this moment.
The two nurses exchanged a final, nervous glance. Kain stepped forward, and the villa's hospital-room door quietly closed behind them.
The remainder of the treatment stayed between the patient and his two unusually devoted nurses.