"...why didn't you tell us sooner?" Tatsuhito asked in disbelief.

Nearly on the verge of tears, Koga could only shake her head mutely as she bowed her head low in apology.

"Please forgive us!" she repeated.

Ito knelt by her side and comfortingly patted her mistress' hand.

"You must understand, how... sensitive the matter is," she said, shooting a significant look over to Law, who stood leaning against the doorway. Though his attention was trained prudently into the adjoining room, it was clear the pirate was listening closely to the conversation.

Ito cleared her throat and lowered her voice.

"It was imperative for Mototatsu-sama to take all the necessary precautions."

Tatsuhito let out a ragged breath. Arisa hid a sigh and directed her gaze down to her lap. Of course it all went back to politics. Everything had a cause and an effect. The peace ensured by Mototatsu and Koga's marriage alliance came at the price of a target emblazoned on their son's back. There were already plenty of outside factions who had a vested interest in dissolving the Amatsuki clan's ties to the Amenoka-ji Uzuki for their own material gain. If the news of Tatsusada's ailing health were to leak to the other clan remnants, it could easily be interpreted as a sign of weakness, thus emboldening hostile actors to make their move. And that wasn't even considering the Kyōgui. The Kodera-Ikki in particular would certainly use the situation to their advantage if they were to find out.

This was often the reality for families borne out of arranged marriages. Some called it duty. Others called it a death sentence.

Tatsuhito's brows had drawn together into a faint scowl. Arisa didn't miss the exhaustion veiling his eyes as he slowly brought a hand up to his temple, and felt a sharp pang of sympathy. From their student days, Tatsuhito had always seemed a rare exception from his peers in his patience and quiet tenacity. But even he had his limits, and Arisa suspected that he was running close to the end of his tether. First there was the proposed marriage alliance Shiori had mentioned yesterday, and now this...

"We'd like to break the news to the elders as gently as possible once we get to Amenoka-ji," Koga was saying, wiping at the corners of her eyes. She bowed again. "So please, if only you could keep quiet about this until then...!"

Arisa cleared her throat.

"Please don't worry about that, Koga-sama. It's not our place to say."

"...what happens to Waka-sama after this?" Tatsuhito finally looked up, his voice defeated.

"There are still a few specialists we want to follow up with. Dr. Yotsuji was doubtful as to their abilities, but Mototatsu wants to be as thorough as possible. We plan on visiting them on our way home. And besides..." Koga faltered. "...we thought it would do Ta-chan good to see you and Father..."

Because this may very well be his last visit.

The words were left unstated, but the implication was as clear and palpable as a blade twisting into flesh.
Koga seemed to read the worry on their faces. She straightened and mustered a weak smile.

"Please... Both of you don't need to worry so much!" she burst out. "Waka-sama is in good hands, I promise you! Dr. Yotsuji has been with us since the very beginning. Really, I don't know what we would have done without him!"

Arisa shot a warning look over to Law but to her secret relief, he didn't react. In fact, it seemed he had long since tuned out of the conversation, though puzzlingly enough he showed no visible indication of impatience.

Koga and Tatsuhito continued talking while Arisa silently listened. With the surgeon's presence in the background effectively quashing all discourse around the state of the Amatsuki-Uzuki alliances and the Kyōgui, the conversation remained mostly repetitive, consisting of Koga's feeble attempts to assuage her brother-in-law's worries with the ever-dutiful Ito chiming in occasionally to give her insights.

Law remained unmoving at his spot by the doorway. He too kept his silence, though that was mostly due to the fact that his attention had eventually roved over to the adjoining living room, where Hachinobe Tatsusada had been left alone at the table to idly doodle on a piece of paper. By all appearances he seemed blissfully unaware of the adults' discussion.

Eventually, the pirate captain let out a small sigh. He narrowed his eyes at the adults over his shoulder, before casually pushing away from the doorway and approaching the boy at the table.

"Here. You forgot this yesterday."

Startled, Tatsusada looked up from his drawing when Law came up and tapped the notebook on his head. A visible shadow crossed his features when he recognized the surgeon.

Law dropped the notebook onto a nearby cushion. Tatsusada snatched it up and hugged it protectively to his chest, brows furrowing in a small scowl.

"Even for a brat, you must be pretty absentminded to leave that behind," Law said coldly. "You should be more careful - you'll grow up to be less of a nuisance that way."

He started to turn back. But Tatsusada grabbed his pencil and flipped the book open to a new page. Law paused in his tracks, his attention flicking down to the page.

Why did U tell, Tatsusada wrote.

Law didn't answer right away. His cryptic gray eyes scanned the large, crooked letters, before flicking up to take in the writer's unhappy face.

I told u not to tell!

The surgeon broke his gaze with a sigh of annoyance.

"If I could have treated you back there, I would've," he said.

Tatsusada remained still, his face averted.

"It's a bothersome case. But once we get a donor -"

Law trailed off as Tatsusada presented another message.

does it work?

will I get better

"Of course you'll get better."

This earned a small huff.

thats what everyone says

Law fell silent again. The little boy had been glaring up at him defiantly, but now he couldn't quite hide the hurt in his expression as he flipped the pad and wrote out the following words:

Im not stupid, u know

His lower lip starting to wobble a little, Tatsusada let out a sniff and spun back around to the table.

"...hey, Trafalgar?"

It took a second or so for Law to turn at the familiar voice. Arisa had risen from the table and come up next to him, leaving Koga and Tatsuhito to continue their conversation. Her blue eyes flickering momentarily over Tatsusada's sulking form, she gave a slight nod towards the door.

"...we should probably get going," she finally said.

──────────────────

Shiro's hands itched for a cigarette. Anxiously, he watched Tsubu pace the drawing room like a caged lion. He could only hope that his inner agitation wasn't apparent to his colleagues.

Thankfully, Tsubu was an open book. It was clear that the surgeon's - no, pirate's - words had pissed him off, so much to the point that he could scarcely think straight.

"Ridiculous - patently ridiculous! That bastard, how dare he insult Dr. Yotsuji?"

"To the contrary, maybe we should have been expecting this," Koshi reflected haughtily. He leaned back with his hands clasped behind his head. "Now that we've left the sheltered environment of the university system, we should see the world for what it is. No respect or common sense, just chock-full of misinformed jellyfish who can't distinguish a professional degree from used toilet paper."

"No wonder the medical field is in such an anarchical state," Shiro weakly added, with a surreptitious glance out the window. Secretly, he wanted more than anything for the conversation to end. The burgeoning feud came off as petty and unseemly to him, especially when considering the fact that the health of a small child lay at the heart of the matter.

There was also a sliver of inferiority contributing to the young doctor's unease, though Shiro would never admit it aloud. He had first become very uncomfortable when Tsubu and Koshi had mocked Finch Island - or wherever Trafalgar Law had claimed he'd been trained. Shiro couldn't help but inwardly flinch at the jab, knowing that he himself came from a tiny, rural island community in the West Blue.

Hell, it wasn't as if his own career as a doctor had started so conventionally either. Shiro originally had been an enlisted Marine. He was a former field medic who, in his own mind, had only managed to get into the system through dumb luck. Being raised dirt poor, the thought of higher education - much less becoming a doctor, of all things - hadn't even crossed his mind until his supervisor had convinced him to apply for a veteran scholarship program at a university hospital in the 43rd Branch.

Like most others, Shiro's experience as a medical student and later a resident was decidedly a mixed bag. Enjoyable in some aspects, downright hellish in others. The discipline drilled into his head from his time in the service helped make the hectic work schedule somewhat tolerable, but that same military background also worked to his detriment in other ways. Imposter syndrome quickly proved to be one of the biggest hurdles. To the self-conscious Shiro, people like him were doomed to always stick out in the university environment like sore thumbs. All of his peers were so refined and well-spoken and cosmopolitan, coming from respectable families associated with high-flown World Government officials and wealthy merchants. They breezed through the professional environment like eagles soaring through the sky. Surely they had to be laughing at him behind his back because really, what was he in comparison? Just another country bumpkin from the West Blue who bumbled his way through all the necessary notions without fully understanding them, who couldn't hide his funny accent no matter how hard he tried. If they were eagles, then he was just a fish. A fish flopping gracelessly about in an arid wilderness, to be more exact.

Considering Shiro's humble upbringings, it had truly been a miracle that Tsubu and Koshi had taken to him - a miracle that the young man was determined not to squander no matter what. They were two were the elite of the elite, hailed as the sharpest whizzes in the Department of Surgery, for crying out loud! To be in their good graces - why, that had to mean he was doing something right! Besides, for someone like Shiro, who had pretty much been a social outcast up to that point, their company was invaluable even despite all their personal flaws. Koshi was crude and dismissive to a fault, and Tsubu... well, the bullheaded Tsubu was a whole different story. Tsubu's reputation as a 'nightmare doctor' was cemented from the first very operation he presided over, when he berated a nurse to tears over dropping a scalpel. When it came to speed and technique he was an absolute monster, earning the nickname "Blitz" for the record number of procedures he could clear in a single day. But with that skill came arrogance and an unhealthy dose of competitiveness. Pairing those things with a short temper got you the ....well, explosive overreaction to Trafalgar Law's intervention put on display a little over half an hour ago.

Shiro was glad that Tsubu's scorn wasn't directed at him, but there still lingered a heavy feeling of misgiving churning at his gut. Now that the Surgeon of Death had left, he couldn't help but harbor the lingering fear that his friends might direct their ire to him for failing to defend Dr. Yotsuji as vocally as they had. They had already come dangerously close to hitting a sore spot with their insults at Trafalgar's background...

"Tch, pirate doctor, indeed! Talk about a misnomer."

"It'd almost be funny if this didn't concern the life of a poor innocent child."

"And remember how easily he suggested it, too - oh, a lung transplant!" Tsubu threw up his hands. "How cute! As if it's really going to be that simple, you dumbass!"

"Hah! That's how you know you're talking to a real phony who can't comprehend the complexities of the real world."

Shiro felt his shoulders slump slightly in disappointment as Tsubu continued to fume and Koshi laughed along. His mind wandered back to the earlier exchange. It was all very perplexing. His own feelings of inadequacy didn't dictate his feelings regarding Hachinobe Tatsusada's diagnosis and treatment. Shiro had seen the charts. There was no way Dr. Yotsuji was mistaken in his assessment. And besides, like Tsubu and Koshi, Shiro had no reason to believe in Trafalgar Law's claims of being a legitimate doctor.

But if there was one thing about that man that had been particularly remarkable to Shiro, it was how...how confident he'd been. Not in the brash, arrogant way Tsubu and Koshi had been back in their university days. Not even in the paternal, knowledgeable sort of way, like Dr. Yotsuji. It was inexplicable, but Shiro had first been struck by it when he saw Trafalgar's unflinching reaction to Tsubu and Koshi's insults - the same sort of insults which would have mortified Shiro had he been in his shoes. That sort of unaffected demeanor didn't match the profile of the typical pirate at all - at least not the ones Shiro remembered having to deal with back home in the West Blue.

In Shiro's mind, your typical pirate was mindless and impulsive and cruel. Your typical pirate would have lost his head and gotten physical at Tsubu's first provocation. Your typical pirate didn't show the sort of calculated restraint Trafalgar Law had - the same sort of restraint Shiro found himself almost envying the pirate for, to his secret shame.

Maybe Tsubu and Koshi were right. Maybe Trafalgar did get his start catching babies at some no-name backwater clinic. Maybe he was a fool. Or maybe he did have nefarious intentions. One thing was for sure, though - he wasn't ashamed of his origins, whatever they may be. He wasn't afraid to speak his mind - even to someone as respected as Dr. Yotsuji! And he certainly wasn't the type to ingratiate himself to others for social approval, like Shiro had with Tsubu and Koshi...

"What do you think, Shiro-kun? You've been pretty quiet."

Shiro looked up hastily. Koshi eyed him nonchalantly over the table as Tsubu paused to light a cigarette.

"Ah, sorry. It was nothing. It's... eh... Yeah. Pretty messed up situation all around."

"That's a fuckin understatement," Tsubu mumbled, a fresh cigarette perched at the corner of his lips.

Shiro hesitated.

"I wonder if that guy's really a doctor like he says he is."

"Looking like that?" Koshi answered immediately, rolling his eyes. "Do you remember all those creepy tattoos on his hands? He's a criminal! There's no way."

"The term doctor gets thrown around too loosely nowadays," Tsubu said irascibly, blowing out a lungful of smoke. "Forget the years of education and training it takes - no, anyone can be a doctor if that's what they claim!" He snorted. "Maybe we can partially thank our dear Gol D. Roger for that, kickstarting the Great Pirate Era bullshit and all that."

"Do you really think piracy has something to do with it?" Shiro wondered, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

"Everything to do with it. It goes hand in hand with lawlessness." Tsubu took another drag. "Anyone can become a pirate, so it follows that anyone can become a so-called doctor on a pirate crew. Doesn't matter if they're qualified or not - what authority figure is there to ensure that, anyways? The captain? Okay, but how is he to know? And as time goes on, your average layperson's perception of doctor will start to shift."

"Likely for the worst," Koshi reflected.
"Oh, certainly for the worst. The very profession becomes diluted to include frauds and charlatans - ineffectual, meaningless! It's only natural that anarchy blurs the line between imposters and those of us that are competent."

"A charlatan, eh?" A small frown flickered across Shiro's face. Well, if Trafalgar Law was a charlatan, he was a self-assured charlatan. That much was very evident. "If that's the case... then I wonder why Dr. Yotsuji let him take a copy of Waka-sama's file."

"That's what I wanna figure out," Tsubu nodded, his scowl deepening.

"Maybe he just wants to see what he'll come up with," Koshi pointed out. "That wouldn't surprise me. He's mentioned that he's interested in doing some more research into the Ope-ope no Mi before. And this is the first time he's stumbled across the actual user."

"He should know that it's too risky!" Tsubu exclaimed.

"Well, I wouldn't go as far as to say he's actually planning on letting him operate on Waka-sama. That'd be preposterous! He probably just wants to see what he proposes. If he even gets that far."

Tsubu only shook his head.

"I'm telling you, that guy is bad news. Nothing good will come out of humoring him." He paused, eyes slitting through translucent drifts of smoke. "I wonder... Could it be that Dr. Yotsuji hasn't heard all the rumors about him?"

Koshi and Shiro paused and glanced at each other. The latter dubiously shook his head.

"What rumors?"

"You guys don't know either?" Tsubu narrowed his eyes and leaned in deliberately as he stubbed his cigarette out on the ashtray. "Well, it goes like this..."

──────────────────

Arisa was annoyed.

In any other circumstance, it was safe to say that she would have been furious - the fact that she had quite literally been stalked here was more than reason enough of a justification. But the sombering revelation about Tatsusada's condition had blunted much of her wrath, and now all that remained was a simmering irritation that gnawed away relentlessly at the pit of her stomach.

The streets were busier now that it was early afternoon. Paired with the moderate distance of Isseki Yanjirō's personal guesthouses from the shore, the trek back to the dock was made somewhat tedious. They were mostly reticent as they traversed the thoroughfare, though the silence could hardly be considered civil on Arisa's end. Her anxiety was mounting invariably with every step taken. The longer she spent mulling over the morning's events, the worse the situation seemed to become. And of course, the worse the situation grew in her head, the more alarming Law's behavior appeared in retrospect.

(Maybe she and Isseki Yanjirō were more alike than she'd thought. Not that she'd ever admit it aloud, though.)

"Why didn't you tell me?" That was the first question she posed, lethally quiet, well into fifteen minutes of their trek back to the harbor.

But Law neither answered nor slowed his pace. He appeared to be deep in thought again. Arisa narrowed her eyes and raised her voice ever so slightly.

"When did you diagnose Tatsusada? It had to have been at Takanotsume yesterday, right?" She paused and slowed as she made another connection. "Is that also why you agreed so readily to go to Tsukinoya?"

It had to be! I thought it was strange that he just let Shiori drag us both over there. He was looking for an opportunity to go ashore to gather more information on the sly!

But still - no reaction. Arisa hesitated and slowed further, somewhat taken aback by his pointed silence. Then she drew herself up sharply and hastened to match his long strides.

"Why didn't you just say something?" she went on, her voice sharpening. "If you'd told me-"

"If I'd told you," Law finally answered, his voice brusque, "you wouldn't have listened."

"You don't know that for sure."

"Then, I didn't. But your reaction from this morning now tells me everything I need to know."

Arisa narrowed her eyes at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

They had both come to a stop at a busy intersection. Law turned and looked at her as they waited for a merchant's cart to rattle past them.

"Look at you now, even." A small, mocking smile captured the surgeon's lips as he took in her glaring face. His tone flattened, growing matter-of-fact. "I don't believe in a second that you would've let me see Yotsuji-ya, not to mention the brat. You would've accused me of ulterior motives."

"How-?!" Arisa shook her head in growing frustration. "If I didn't trust you to some extent, I wouldn't have agreed to let your crew here to begin with! And this is how you repay that trust? By hiding things from me and... and stalking me?"

"So what? I'm not obligated to tell you everything. We're allies, not a married couple."

Arisa's eye twitched, her hands balling into fists.

This bastard-!

"Besides, this is a medical case," Law went on impatiently, shouldering his nodachi. "Don't take it so personally. It's completely separate from our agreement."

"I don't believe you even think that," Arisa retorted. "Of course it's relevant! You should have told me."

Law let out a sigh of annoyance and resumed walking again. Arisa scowled and hurried after him

"Have you considered how much trouble you could have caused by just... just barging in there this morning like that? What if -!?" Arisa cut herself off short. She was about to invoke the scenario in which Hachinobe Tatsuhito - who was infinitely more suspicious of the Heart Pirates than Shiori or Riyu - had been present, but quashed the thought upon remembering that Law didn't even know who Tatsuhito was. Grudgingly, she changed tactics. "And what was that even? There's such a thing as propriety! If you really wanted to convince Dr. Yotsuji, you shouldn't have insulted him to his face!"

"I didn't insult anybody." Law shrugged dismissively. "I merely gave an interpretation of what that other guy said."

"Don't be pedantic!" Arisa snapped, now nearly at her wit's end. "He was clearly very annoyed. I saw it in his face!"

"And why does that matter so much?" Law stopped and turned abruptly again, nearly causing her to collide into him.

Her anger quickly turned to confusion.

"...what?"

The look on Law's face was still annoyingly neutral, but for a fraction of a second she could have sworn to have seen a glimmer of mischief in his eyes.

"Why does it matter to you..." he repeated slowly, "...whether or not Dr. Yotsuji was offended?"

Arisa sputtered incredulously, nearly choking over the implication in his words. She couldn't tell if he was genuinely curious or if he was merely trying to get a rise out of her. She wanted to believe it was the latter - no, it had to be. There was no way he'd seriously entertained such a ridiculous prospect!

But what if he did?

Is that really how we came off last night?

"Th-that's -!"

There it was again, now unmistakable - another flicker of amusement.

Now he's just messing with you!

The corners of the surgeon's lips twitched upwards again, ever so slightly, and Arisa momentarily longed to strangle him again.

"Don't feel compelled to answer if you don't want to," Law said smugly, turning away. "It isn't any of my business either way."

"It isn't like that!" Arisa grumbled, hugging herself protectively as she continued after him. She hesitated, before adding in a small voice. "Dr. Yotsuji is just a family friend. He... He saved my life several years ago."

Law considered this, his teasing smile giving away to a look of genuine interest.

"You were sick?"

"No. Injured." Arisa swallowed dryly, her eyes shifting to her feet. "It was an emergency surgery."

Law nodded once, his lack of immediate response plunging them into another uneasy silence. Arisa let out a small breath of relief. As egregious some of his behavior had been earlier that day, she at least appreciated his ability to read the room just this once.

It wasn't until they were close to the docks that she dared to speak up again.

"...hey, Trafalgar?"
They were waiting on the bench for the ferry. Law raised his chin and glanced at her, his expression long having reverted back to his usual impassive mask.

"Is Tatsusada-sama really dying?"

He thought for a moment.

"You heard what Yotsuji-ya said. He at least was correct in his diagnosis."

Arisa grimaced and fixed her gaze to the horizon. The sun hovered high in the sky now. The waves rippled and shimmered beneath its blinding glare.

Law spoke up unexpectedly as he watched the sea.

"It was the brat who asked me not to tell."

Arisa looked up in surprise.

"...Tatsusada asked you?"

"You could say that he understands his own situation," Law said. He kept his gaze fixed to the waves beyond the crude stone railing. "The repercussions of it. He knows far better than one would give him credit for."

Arisa thought back to Koga's request and felt a familiar pang of guilt.

"Of course it wasn't as if I could keep my word. Not in the way that he wanted. But still..." Law paused.
But still, you wanted to adhere to his wishes - at least until you couldn't anymore.

Despite the thick coat she was wearing, a sudden coldness lanced down her spine and she found herself shivering in spite of herself. Her arms tightened over her ribcage, Arisa gave a barely noticeable nod and slowly lowered her chin. They exchanged no further words, instead watching on together as the darkened, rectangular shape of the ferry forded its way across the pass.

Beyond the railing, the waves continued to thrash. Perpetual and unheeding.

──────────────────

"I'll never, ever, ever forgive them, those pretentious assholes!" Ikkaku raged, slamming down a can of soda onto the table.

"How dare they say those things about Captain!" Clione growled, his voice muffled momentarily as he savagely scarfed down an onigiri in one gulp.

"Completely unprovoked, too!" Uni shook his head. The fabric of the bandana drooping over his lower face bobbed rhythmically as he worked his jaws over a bite of ham sandwich.

"Midwits! Babbling, elitist midwits! That's what they are!"

"Dr. Yotsuji should be ashamed to even be in the same room as them!"

"I expected so much better from that guy!"

The med team trio had returned spitting mad on an earlier ferry - though not quite angry enough to neglect their ravenous appetites. They were just on time to snag leftovers from lunch before Rakko could clear the mess hall, and had now congregated in one of the break rooms near Captain's office to air their grievances to whoever had the patience to listen and sympathize.

"They were that insufferable, huh?" Azarashi chuckled. He had just come off on break from a repair job in the engine room and had stuck around, clearly finding this entire spectacle to be quite entertaining. "Whew! Who would've known that the university hospital system had gotten so bad!"

"Aren't they ex-Navy?" Shachi commented off-handedly, cooling himself lazily with a decorative fan. One of the cute hostesses at Tsukinoya had gifted it to him last night. What was her name again... Akane-chan or something? He grinned stupidly to himself at the memory.

"Dr. Yotsuji, at least. Who knows about those snobbish shitfaces he has as students, though." Ikkaku grimaced as she bit aggressively into her sandwich. "Ugh! Just thinking about them makes my blood boil! How dare they insult our roots?"

"Now, now~ Take deep breaths, all of you-teia!" Riyu chided. She snagged an onigiri from the plate and jumped onto the sofa next to Shachi. "No need to get so riled up! Mr. Dots is an adult; he can handle himself!"

"Speaking of that Dr. Yotsuji fellow," Azarashi went on unexpectedly, his tone turning thoughtful. "I checked the library last night 'cause I was curious, but it turns out we have tons of his books and papers archived there. Captain's been following his research for years."

Riyu snorted. Shachi sweat dropped, looking up from his fan.

"So much for only reading a few papers by him then..."

"Yep. Though I guess it's understandable, given how influential that guy is." Azarashi leaned in conspiratorially. "You wanna know something else I learned that's pretty interesting?"

"Eh?"

"Dr. Yotsuji is currently world renowned for his research in internal medicine, of course. But many years ago, he also used to be the highest ranking surgeon at the GR 66 branch hospital."

"Eh?" Shachi repeated. "Surgery?"

And GR 66... His eyes narrowed in recognition. Why, isn't that the base at Sabaody Archipelago?

"Yep. His ability to simultaneously excel in two specialized fields - surgery and internal medicine - is what earned him such widespread attention in the first place. At the time, the media proclaimed him as a prodigy and a miracle doctor, a 'jack-of-all-trades' of sorts."

"Yeah, yeah. We know," Ikkaku grouched. "All of that stuff is common knowledge for those of us in the medical field!"

"So what happened then?" Shachi asked. "Did Yotsuji quit surgery after he left the Navy?"

"We can assume that, but no one really knows for sure," Uni said with a shrug. "He never publicly gave a reason for resigning so suddenly. But looking at his published work afterwards, it's easy for any reasonable person to conclude that he'd mostly shifted his attention away from patient care to medical research."

Riyu finished cramming the remainder of her onigiri into her mouth.

"Man, you-teia guys are so nosy!" she exclaimed, whiskers twitching suspiciously as she chewed. "It's none of our business what Dr. Yotsuji chooses to do with his life! Maybe he just got sick of dealing with patients constantly - have you-teia ever considered that?"

Ikkaku frowned sharply while Shachi blinked, mildly piqued. Now this was interesting. He'd never seen the Mink get defensive over anyone other than her aneki.

"Have you ever met him, Weasel-san?" he asked pointedly.

"Hah?" Riyu went rigid, looking taken aback.

"Dr. Yotsuji," Clione explained patiently. "Arisa-san seemed to know him, so what about you?".

"That's... that's none of your damn business, either!" The little Mink puffed out her cheeks childishly and began to speak rapidly, her voice growing suspiciously higher pitched. "B-besides, what makes you-teia think such a thing to begin with? That guy's a world famous scientist for crying out loud! W-what business would someone like that have with little old me?"

Everyone cringed.

What a terrible liar...

Uni eventually cleared his throat before swinging his gaze away from Riyu. It was clear he felt rather sorry for her and was intent on shifting the topic of the conversation to something else.

"Hopefully Captain will come back in...er, better humor than we did," he said with a meaningful look over to Clione and Ikkaku.

The latter scoffed.

"He doesn't give a shit about that sort of stuff, as satisfying as it would have been to watch him dice those bastards up into mincemeat. You know how he gets when he latches onto a case."

"Ah, yes." Azarashi nodded wisely, a knowing grin surfacing. "In other words, his mood will depend on... heh... whether or not he gets rejected."

"Exactly~" Shachi punctuated.

"Mr. Dots... rejected...?" Riyu stared blankly for a moment, before letting out a small giggle. "Pfft, what are you guys even talking about? Though with that attitude, it's pretty much a given! Shiorin always says that a good face hardly matters in courtship and that most women care more about what's on the inside -"

"Hah?!" Clione nearly spat out his drink laughing. "Wait a second, not like that!"

"We're talking about patients, not women," Ikkaku deadpanned. But her lips gave a slight quiver, as if she were barely holding back a smile herself.

"Captain has always had a bad habit of so-called patient poaching wherever we go," Shachi laughed. "When was the last time he got this invested in a case?"

"Was it for Rakko, perhaps?" Uni supplied.

"Maybe. Though I remember he was pretty pissed at my old doctor for his antics too," Ikkaku snorted and rolled her eyes fondly.

"Now that's a trip down memory lane..." Shachi paused and looked up upon detecting a flicker of motion from the doorway at the corner of his eye. "Oh, Bepo! What's up?"

The navigator was standing in the hallway to the side, peering cautiously into the breakroom. He looked at them all with somewhat of a sheepish air.

"Is Captain back?" he asked.

"Not yet. Is anything wrong?"

"Well..." Bepo's round dark eyes flickered rightwards momentarily. He hesitated, before shuffling sideways to make room in the doorway. "We have a visitor waiting for him."

Shachi's brow furrowed in confusion as a familiar figure shuffled into view next to Bepo's imposing frame. A shock of bright, messy orange hair. The crooked sash and wrinkled haori. That scrawny profile and slouched posture...

"Er..." Himuro Kōyō let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his head self-consciously. "Please excuse me for the disturbance. But this is an urgent matter."

No additional notes this time around, other than to mention that we finally went over 100k words in this chapter!  So yay for me I guess :D

Thanks for reading!

-shiba