[Did you get it all on camera?]
Suddenly an unexpected statement was heard. When a brief “yes” answer was heard, the patient on screen suddenly twisted her body as if having a seizure.
Clawing at her chest, gasping for breath and rolling on the floor, she only got up after quite some time had passed.
[This is… no, it’s not! It’s not.]
Her voice muttering in disbelief was desperate. Rather, she seemed more filled with madness than when intoxicated by the drug, but the color of emotion had returned.
A gloved hand covered the screen. The camera filming the video was moving. It flew through the air and the mosaicked face of the addict who inadvertently caught it came very close.
With a clattering sound and the screen going dark, Yuri’s voice was heard.
[Do you understand now? Why you need to quit Guiding drugs.]
The video cut off there. The woman probably confirmed her own wretched appearance.
Since the sound disappeared, Chris thought it was over. But the next video played immediately. Instead of rolling around on dirt ground, the patient was in a gray room that was gloomy but equipped like a proper hospital room. Sitting on the bed, she was even wearing a patient gown.
When she begged for medicine and a figure that appeared to be Yuri’s back appeared, she became quiet like a ghost. Chris could vaguely guess that Yuri had performed non-contact Guiding.
The patient’s thoughts gradually became clearer. To the extent that even while awake she didn’t cry out but waited obediently. However, every time she lifted an object, she couldn’t properly apply strength to her hands and dropped it, and all she did was stare blankly into space as if she had no energy to do anything else.
As the video progressed, the date in the upper right corner flipped rapidly. A video from about six months after the beginning played.
The patient was sitting up.
On the stool beside her bed, a man’s back could be seen that was unmistakably Yuri even just looking at his back. Though the awkward height of the stool might have made him look crouched, Yuri looking down at the patient with his legs crossed seemed relaxed as if sitting in an armchair.
[If you tell patients to quit drugs as brutally as you do, all the patients who were coming will run away.]
There was resentment in the patient’s voice.
[What doctor in the world kidnaps and confines someone because they won’t quit drugs? And then when they look for drugs, you actually give them some and film the process of how they change in detail before showing them—it’s too extreme a treatment method. In a state where motivation is reduced due to drug aftereffects, it could lead to self-destructive thoughts rather than motivation, and it can leave trauma.]
Telling me to kill my own patient with my own hands, she added, shaking her head as if the thought alone was chilling.
[Unfortunately, I’m lacking in that field of study. If you succeed in rehabilitation and decide to help Espers in the same situation, the treatment method will be different starting with the patients you take on.]
Yuri’s voice was subdued but not irritated.
[How about it? Are you interested?]
[I’m not even a proper doctor. I performed various surgeries in back alleys because my senses are sharper than others, but…]
[I’ll make you a new ID card. Sophisticated enough that no one can tell. And I’ll write you a letter of recommendation too.]
Yuri said calmly.
[Take that and go to Nightingale Medical Academy on the August Continent. You’ll be able to complete the entire course.]
The woman asked if the recommendation letter was also forged, but when Yuri didn’t answer, she shut her mouth tight.
[Why are you doing all this for me? Before this incident, we were strangers who’d never even exchanged words, weren’t we? Even if you want loyalty, I don’t know anything about mafia ways. I’m just a fake doctor who only engaged in illegal medical practice.]
Though the face was mosaicked so the expression couldn’t be seen, confusion seeped through her rambling voice.
Yuri stood up and replied blandly.
[Because I can’t fight this goddamn war alone.]
The video ended there. Chris didn’t hear how the patient answered, but he felt like he knew her choice. Because on the back of Jessica’s hand manipulating the device was the same scar as the patient in the video. Though she’d mentioned an internal seminar, since Chris had discovered the scar, he could tell this was Jessica’s personal record that she kept privately.
“This is the most detailed record you can see at level 2. It sparsely contains the state of addiction, right after getting out, and during the rehabilitation process.”
While Chris was a bit dazed, Jessica explained step by step.
“Because of drugs, people steal or betray or kill others by taking contracts. But not everyone does that. The addiction stage has to be quite advanced too. As you saw, Guiding drugs break an Esper’s will. We’re speculating that the combination of drugs and Guiding disrupts the nervous system and causes cognitive decline. And when you threaten them with the medicine like the boss in the video, it becomes imprinted in their minds. If I don’t do this, I’ll die.”
In the very first video, Jessica, who had shown refusal to Yuri’s demand, rapidly became docile when the medicine appeared and promised to commit murder.
Because of ‘just’ those few pills.
Though he was trying to disparage it by using the word “just,” Chris knew that Guiding drugs weren’t something that could be taken so lightly.
Being an Esper was like a curse from heaven. Others would see them as superhumans wielding omnipotent power, but in reality they were mayflies who couldn’t live without Guiding. So in the winter continent where Guides were relatively scarce, they became addicted to unverified narcotics like Guiding drugs.
Chris also remembered that vivid fragrance he’d felt at Guiding Delight. He’d never tried drugs even once, but his body was already excited with anticipation.
Now he’d received full Guiding from Yuri’s hands, but if the time suffering from energy imbalance had been prolonged, he too might have succumbed to that temptation.
“Guiding drugs are classified as narcotics because of the euphoria they bring, but they’re a bit different. Some other synthetic substance goes in… We haven’t been able to analyze it yet with the facilities and personnel we have.”
Jessica said, pointing to the mountain of papers on her messy desk. All kinds of papers and research results were piled up. Among them Chris saw several Esper-related articles he’d read at Northern Light.
“To use existing drug formulas and modify the chemical formula to produce a Guiding effect requires scholars with considerable skill, and several teams at that. Why would researchers of that level come to the underdeveloped and abandoned November Continent? The infrastructure is lacking here, so the money required to procure research materials is enormous. Well, if you want something a bit dangerous, you have to solve everything through smuggling.”
Chris had also seen the schedule of airships going to and from the November Continent. With the blockade order issued, no one except the absolute minimum personnel could enter or exit. The fact that a person wearing a doctor’s coat in broad daylight brought up talk of smuggling wasn’t just because this was White Night, but because of the unavoidable reality of the November Continent.
“It wasn’t made on the winter continent but it’s only circulating on the winter continent.”
“That’s right. But would an Esper who’s struggling to survive each day think to dig into those roots? Even if they knew such a conspiracy was in progress, they might just use it anyway. Because they want to live, no matter what.”
“…When people are cornered, they’ll do anything.”
At Chris’s words, Jessica, who also swallowed a sigh, changed the subject.
“As you probably guessed, the patient in the video is me. I nearly threw my life to the bottom because of Guiding drugs.”
What Chris had deliberately pretended not to know, Jessica openly spoke about.
“I was a C-rank Esper, so I didn’t have such great abilities. I had the power to sharpen my five senses, and this was very advantageous when performing surgical operations. While drifting through illegal medical activities in back alleys, I got my hands on Guiding drugs.”
Jessica, reminiscing about those times, shook her head.
“I thought, what if I could help more people by using Guiding drugs well? I planned to experiment on my own body to find a stable ratio.”
Judging from the part about working as a doctor in back alleys, Chris thought Jessica had probably watched numerous Espers die from Guiding deficiency. From Jessica, who deliberately didn’t delve deeply into her emotions, he felt the unique atmosphere of someone who had buried their past.
“I was arrogant. The danger of Guiding deficiency was less than for high-ranks, and I had medical knowledge I’d picked up, so I thought it would be okay. Then I became addicted.”
Just because you do good things with good intentions doesn’t always mean there are good results.
For Jessica, Guiding drug research was such a thing.
“That’s when I met the boss. He was really crazy…”
At that muttering, Chris felt anew that White Night wasn’t an organization that demanded absolute obedience in hierarchical relationships more than expected.
“I think he somehow found out I was researching Guiding drugs and came looking for me. If not for that, I would have died. And here I meet Espers addicted to Guiding drugs every day. Helping their rehabilitation… Trying to reduce trauma and such as much as possible.”
“…Are you okay now?”
At Chris’s cautious question, Jessica chuckled.
“No.”
It was a firm denial.
“Like drugs, Guiding drugs can’t be quit all at once. If you’re not careful, you can go into shock. So you have no choice but to gradually reduce it. Even when you reach what others call a ‘drug-free’ state, you have to keep being careful. You’re essentially treating addiction for a lifetime.”
Jessica pulled out the ID card roughly stuck in her coat pocket, showed him the front that said “Doctor, Jessica O’Neill,” then flipped it over.
Chris slowly read the letters engraved there.
[Patient, Jessica O’Neill]
“It’s so I don’t forget. That I’m no different from the other Espers who cry, break down, and fall to the bottom. And to remember.”
She said, putting the ID card Chris returned back in her chest pocket.
