Dr. Smith

[Zero's Pov]

'Finally...'

My teacher was back today too, but now she didn't come alone. This time, she had brought with her the one person I truly wanted to come, the one person I needed more than anything else.

A fucking doctor!

How crazy was it that I had been awake for a day now, and I still hadn't gotten to see a single nurse or a doctor, or even a health teacher during my stay here? But finally, the time had come!

Walking into the room, a middle-aged man with hair that had just begun its journey to mimic the color of snow came in, clad as one would expect of a doctor: A white lab coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck and a pair of round glasses sitting on his nose. The finishing touches was the short beard that framed everything quite neatly.

"Greetings, Mr. Adler. I am Dr. Smith, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Ah, nice to meet you too, Dr. Smith."

While I was a bit surprised by his overly polite entrance, the man just continued on as if this was how he acted around everyone. Bringing out a clipboard, he quickly wafted through a couple of pages stuck on it before he spoke.

"So, before we begin, I want you to know that Ms. Turner has been chosen as something you could regard as your supervisor. Both the principal and the church have approved of this after I suggested that it might be a good idea. Therefore, she will be present during this little talk, but she will also be present during future check-ups."

'Uh-oh, that can't be good, now can it?'

"Of course, Aksel will..."

"Please refer to him as my father. Ah...!"

Without me thinking, as I had been lost in thought for a bit, I unconsciously blurted out those words, now making everyone feel slightly more awkward.

"Cough! Alright. Well, your father and the pope will of course be informed about your conditions in real-time, but I'm afraid to say that he will probably not have many chances to see you in the near future."

Somehow, the little boy inside didn't cause an uproar when hearing this, and so I followed what I felt he wanted us to do. Smiling, I turned my eyes down to the bed, "It's okay. He has already comforted me so many times... I understand."

'Hmm, well aren't you all mature about this? Or I guess we are?'

Sadly, there was no voice to answer me. After that one time yesterday, I hadn't heard his thoughts at all, as if he was now submerged once again. Scratching his chin, Dr. Smith didn't appear to have thought this would be the reaction he would get, most likely having already gotten all the information there was about Zero.

"I see. That's good. Now, although I did talk a bit with Ms. Turner, who for the record has been strictly informed not to talk about this with anyone but the principal, I wanted to hear it from you as well before I give my diagnosis."

The man was quite careful with his words this time, forcing me to think for a second before I realized what he meant, "Ah, I'm aware that my time is limited if that's what you're asking. Or at least, that's what I believe. Hahaha, after all, I'm not a doctor, now am I?"

"Hmm... Guess there's no need to beat around the bushes then. Mr. Adler, I am afraid to say that our tests could only find out one thing. Your body seems to be slowly breaking down. It's quite a bizarre thing. It's a body that's filled with vitality and strength, but it's almost like the body can't handle whatever is happening to it."

'So, I guess I was right? That this body won't be able to last...'

"But I do believe that there might be a solution."

'What?!'

Once again, he was turning through the pages on the clipboard, trying to find the right one for whatever he was going to tell me. "Now, I'm not saying this for you to get up your hope for nothing. My theory is quite far-fetched, but in theory, it might work."

Unconsciously, my fists tightened when I heard him speak. "Please, tell me..."

Fixing the glasses that had slipped a bit further down on his nose, he then told me a solution that he must have known we could never accept. "There are ways for us to make it so your body can't inhabit mana anymore. Though the surgery is quite dangerous and you would become somewhat of a cripple, I do believe..."

"I can't accept that."

He took a second to look away from his paper and met my gaze. Silence swept the room as he appeared to be looking for something in my eyes, and after a moment had passed, he sighed.

"Haaa... As expected. You're just like they told me. Alright, then there is just one more thing. I've seen the recordings from the stadium, and although it's just a suspicion, do you have some kind of strange skill that forcibly increases your mana capacity?"

'Ah, we can't tell him about this, can we? If we do, then the principal will also find out... if he hasn't already.'

Noticing my silence, he took it as his answer, creating a need for him to clarify a bit, "Seems like this is something that is something you regard as a secret? You don't have to worry about that, this conversation, there is no way for anyone but us three to hear it. Not even the principal can afford to spy on me if he doesn't want to suffer some quite harsh repercussions."

'Is he some kind of bigshot? Was that why it took so long for him to get here?'

It wouldn't be a surprise that if the son of god was ill, there were probably a lot of actors that would make sure that the best of the best got on the case, but I had never heard about someone called Dr. Smith.

Although I had no idea why, it felt like I could somewhat trust his words, an action that James would never have had the courage to do, but something Zero adamantly believed to be the right thing to do.

"Okay... Yes, even though it might be hard to call it a skill, I do have a way to increase my mana capacity. And... This is also the reason why I'm a lot more powerful than I should be, as well as the reason why my body will not be able to keep going."

*Sniff!*

Having been lost in our own conversation, we had completely missed the fact that there stood an incredibly emotional teacher on our side, now struggling to keep her tears from falling while biting her lips. 'She might even be worse than Zero...'

There had been so many tears falling from so many different people these last two weeks that I had begun suspecting that during my body transfer, I had gotten relocated to some alternate dimension where everyone was a crybaby.

And we were both sick of it. Not only tired of the fact we ourselves cried but also that we were the cause of the tears of others.

Like the professional he was, my doctor ignored the sad teacher and kept speaking to me, "Hmm... Seems like you do know more about your condition than I do. However, I do want to inform you that I would like to have regular meet-ups with you to check the state of your condition. Even if your body is breaking down, I think I want to do some more tests and see if we can at least slow it down."

I honestly liked Dr. Smith, not only because he seemed quite adept at his job, but because of the way he presented himself. Factually and concisely, feeling no need to make things overly dramatic for no reason, while also not acting too distant.

"Ah, thank you, doctor."

"No need to thank me. After all, that's not why I'm doing this. Hearing that someone that the people believe could be a pillar of humanity in the future... There was no way I wouldn't do everything I can to help."

'He is a good man...'

"I mean, could I really pass up the opportunity to earn a shit-ton of money? Haha!"

'... or not.'

"But money aside, it is true that I want to believe that you are genuine and I want to believe that the thing you said in the stadium is true. A world where the weak don't have to obey the strong, a world where everyone can be equal? I like the sound of that."

Something in his eyes told me that there was a lot more behind his words than he let on, but I couldn't quite figure out what. Luckily, there was a person inside of me that could.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Dr. Smith. I don't know who it was or how it happened, but trust me. I will do everything I can to create a world where people don't have to die just because someone else decided it would be so."

Flinching a bit, he didn't seem to be ready for Zero showing that we understood what he was feeling. In the end, he just gave us a wry but warm smile.

"I would like that. A lot."