21st Century Necromancer

For Ayajichi Shoubu, the past few days had been exceptionally depressing and uncomfortable, with her emotions thoroughly filled with indignation.

It began with a professor in charge of a neurosurgery making a mistake and severing a patient’s nerve. She had expended enormous effort to successfully reattach the severed nerve, yet instead of thanks, that leading professor shifted all the blame onto her.

This unbearable humiliation made Ayajichi Shoubu consider resigning in anger and exposing the incident to the newspapers, but in the end, the matter was suppressed. There were even rumors that, to silence her, the hospital planned to relegate her to the Shiretoko Branch Hospital.

Shiretoko, of course, Ayajichi Shoubu knew of the place. Like Wakkanai, it was located in Hokkaido, but one at the northernmost tip and the other at the easternmost tip of Hokkaido. It was an area of great natural beauty, the lowest latitude in the world that presented sea ice phenomena, and it was even inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2005.

However, this also meant it was a very remote place, with not even an airport. While Wakkanai at least had an airport, Shiretoko... The only way to get there was by bus, a place not serviced by railroads and where the natural scenery was the most pristine in all Japan. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

If it were for a vacation, visiting such a place would certainly be most pleasant and satisfying, admiring the natural scenery—an excellent occasion for Ayajichi Shoubu. But to live year-round in a place that could almost be described as uninhabited... Just the thought was enough to drive one insane.

Fortunately, at this time, an order from the hospital director allowed Ayajichi Shoubu to stay in Tokyo for the moment. The director assigned someone from neurosurgery to assist another professor from general surgery in treating a patient with nerve damage due to cervical spine fracture.

Whether it was out of a sense of compensation, or a desire to oust her from neurosurgery, that task fell upon the head of Ayajichi Shoubu.

Still influenced by the unjust blame from the original surgery, Ayajichi Shoubu instinctively thought that Chen Yu asked for her assistance to deal with another mess and take the fall. She believed that these professors were all the same—claiming credit for achievements and pushing responsibility onto the doctors below. Not a single good person among them.

Although she had heard about Chen Yu’s paper being published in The Lancet, Ayajichi Shoubu instinctively didn’t believe that a surgeon skilled in thoracic surgery could have developed a broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug. In her view, Chen Yu must have stolen the research from someone else. Read new chapters at empire

Ayajichi Shoubu knew it was her own prejudice, as such research achievements couldn’t possibly be stolen, especially since Chen Yu was previously just an ordinary surgeon who was promoted to associate professor after publishing relevant research papers. But she simply couldn’t change her internal view, resulting in repeated rudeness in front of Chen Yu and Jounouchi Hiromi.

However, when she saw the treatment plan that nearly overturned her understanding of nerve damage healing, Ayajichi Shoubu’s view of Chen Yu suddenly shifted dramatically. She finally believed that there were indeed such remarkable people in the world, capable of discovering a broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug and developing such impressive techniques for treating nerve damage.

Ayajichi Shoubu certainly doubted the origin of the treatment plan, but it was precisely because the plan was so revolutionary and impressive that she understood it couldn’t have been plagiarized. It didn’t seem like the work of one person, but rather like something accumulated through the painstaking research of countless individuals.

Take those several nerve suturing techniques, for example, any one of them taken alone would be enough to cause a sensation throughout the entire medical community, yet she had not heard of any of them, which was enough to explain the problem.

However, just when Ayajichi Shoubu was filled with hope, wishing to seriously study the treatment plan, a disappointing event occurred. Chen Yu split the treatment plan into two; the part about the surgery completely disappeared, and the only thing handed to her was an auxiliary treatment plan.

This made Ayajichi Shoubu, who had been full of expectation to study the treatment plan thoroughly, feel disappointed, and she couldn’t help but blame Chen Yu, thinking he was really too stingy.

He had such world-changing research results in his hands, yet he insisted on keeping them hidden and unpublishable for the benefit of all humanity, clearly he was a selfish person who only knew his own interests.

But Ayajichi Shoubu couldn’t bring these complaints to Chen Yu’s face. After all, it was his property, and he was free to deal with it however he liked. She had neither the position nor the right to demand Chen Yu to make his research public.

It was with a heavy heart that Ayajichi Shoubu arrived at the ward, intending to first visit the little girl with the cervical spine fracture and study how to proceed with her treatment when she unexpectedly found Chen Yu and a female doctor she had not seen before attending to the little girl, examining her body.

Surprisingly to Ayajichi Shoubu, the way Chen Yu examined the little girl was not cold or bureaucratic like a typical doctor’s, but rather he kept softly reassuring her, telling her it would be alright, her eyes would not go blind, and she would be able to stand up again. His gentle and attentive manner caused Ayajichi Shoubu’s biased perception of Chen Yu to vanish.

After Chen Yu finished examining the little girl and left the ward with the unfamiliar female doctor, Ayajichi Shoubu instinctively shrank back and hid in a corner, a bit reluctant to face Chen Yu.

But as she hid in the corner, Ayajichi Shoubu inadvertently heard the conversation between Chen Yu and the unfamiliar female doctor.

"Her autonomic nervous system hasn’t sustained any damage, so there won’t be any life-affecting sequelae, but the damage to her motor nerves is not looking optimistic. Although I reconnected her nerves during the previous surgery, based on her current recovery, it’s very likely she’ll end up with quadriplegia, which will greatly affect her mobility in the future.

Doctor Chen, are you planning to perform another surgery on her?"

The female doctor described the girl’s condition, and the possibility of quadriplegia also made Ayajichi Shoubu feel a surge of concern.

"Yes, according to her recovery situation, I will develop a surgical plan, and when she recovers enough to undergo another operation, I will perform the surgery. At that time, I’ll need Dr. Daimon’s assistance with the surgery."

However, Chen Yu had anticipated such a situation and was even prepared to perform another surgery.

"Don’t worry, I won’t fail," he reassured.