“Hello?” When there is no response after a few seconds, you move. You approach the man timidly, taking care to avoid getting any blood on your shoes while closing in a few steps at a time, pausing to see if there is any movement. He continues to remain still, curled up on the floor, even after you have stepped right next to him. He is
probably dead, but your hands are shaking nonetheless as you give his shoulders a gentle push. The man’s posture changes as his arms fall to his sides. His eyes are fixed wide, staring blankly ahead, and his jaw hangs half-open. The front of his shirt is soaked with blood.
Clearly dead, you adjust your spectacles and revise your initial guess. You should begin inspecting his body, but first… Looking around, you find a box of rubber gloves lying nearby. They snap onto your hands in a very satisfying manner – safety and hygiene should take priority – and you kneel down to begin your inspection.
***
A. You take a couple of shots of the body with the phone before you begin. Just for the record, of course.
B. Why would you want pictures of dead people on the phone? That’s a creepy thing to do.
***
The body belongs to a middle-aged man of non-descript features – he would not look out of place as a salaryman in any bar down the street. The white coat marks him as a doctor of the hospital, and the staff tag on the front of his coat confirms it: Dr. Usui Hiroki, of the general wards. That is probably where you are at the moment. A clipboard lies cradled in his lap; when you pick it up, you find that only a single sheet of the notes clipped to it remain legible.
Interns on duty today:
Kousaka Mafuyu
Makiri Natsuko
Tokigawa Kou (sick leave)
Furuda Jun
Turning your attention back to the corpse, you take a closer look at his wounds. There are holes in his shirt and in his flesh, consistent with what you would expect to find from a bullet. A gun? You are not sure if it was fired at close or long range, but from the size of the entry wound and the lack of an exit wound, it would appear to a small caliber firearm. Why would there be a shooting in the hospital?You freeze up as you consider the worst possibility.
Could this place be run by the yakuza? If so, it is a very shady place for you to wake up in. Thankfully, all of your organs seem to be in your body.
From the colour of his skin, and the condition of the blood, you think that Dr. Usui likely bled out after dragging himself into this ward. He could not have died more than a few hours ago. You cannot remember whether you were here at the time – the part of your memory that pertains to this hospital, in particular, only seems to stretch back as far as the last few minutes since you woke up. It would be disturbing to think that he died in here while you were sleeping blissfully, unaware of the events happening around you.
Rummaging through his pockets, you find little else of note. There is only a single 10,000-yen note in his wallet, and two bank cards. Of course, that is more than what you have at the moment, but it still feels quite threadbare to you. Besides the obvious stethoscope hanging from his neck, you also find a thin little torchlight the size of a pen, and a pocket thermometer. None of these seem to be very useful in defending yourself. Still…
***
A. Loot the body.
B. Don’t loot the body.
***
You stand back up, stretching your back. It is then that you hear the sounds of hushed conversation from the outside, and soon after, the door to the ward swings open. The boy that has just opened the door yells at the sight of you, bloodied gloves and all. He tenses up – you can almost perceive his brain ticking away furiously, trying to decide whether to run or to fight – and he is about to make that decision when his opportunity is taken away from him. A girl close to his age appears behind the boy, preventing him from making a hasty retreat even if he wanted to.
“What’s that, what did you find, Sakimura? Another body?”
“Uehara! What are you doing? Get out of here, it’s the murderer! Quick, I’ll hold him off!” shouts the boy in a panic.
Uehara peers over his shoulder, and at you. A slight gleam of fear shines in her eyes – understandable, given how you must look right now – and she backs away, pulling at Sakimura’s hand. In the next second, however, she blinks and her expression suddenly becomes more resolute. “Who… are you?” she calls out nervously.
Sakimura, who had been ready to flee with her, twists his face in disbelief. Still, when she shows no signs of retreating, he stands his ground next to the girl and glares at you. “Y-yeah, that’s right! Who are you? Did you kill all these people? Answer us!”
***
00:15
A. “I… this isn’t what it looks like. I’m… I’m a doctor.” You try to spin up a lie to explain what you have been doing in the ward.
B. “I didn’t kill anyone. I just… woke up in this room, and the body was already there.” You explain that you don’t know why you are here in the first place.
C. “Get... get out of my way!” You try to run past the teenagers before they attack you. They might be younger, but the boy looks rather strong for his age.
D. “…” You remain silent, looking at the floor and hoping they will just go away.