Time passed. For a while the hospital was peacefully quiet as James, seeing no need to stay any longer, left. Even though there was more than one hospital, the number of sick people was very small. That's why there were always few people.
About half an hour after James left, Siren entered the hospital. Her long pink hair flew in the air as she walked. She wore a fox-like dark purplish mask that stretched across her face: nose, eyes and forehead. Where the eyes should have been, there were three pairs of blood-red lines.
Compared to James, her height was undoubtedly a little short. She was wearing purplish clothes that matched the mask she wore. It covered her entire body, so it was very difficult to see her skin, except for her face. She was wearing black gloves and a darkus-colored gauntlet on her arm.
Just before she entered the hospital, two people could be heard talking:
"Isn't that Siren? Is a relative sick?"
"Siren? The girl who made it into the top fifty?"
"Yes, but what is she doing in the hospital?"
While the two fans discussed their theories among themselves, Siren went to the first receptionist she saw when she entered. She spoke as she opened her hand and placed a bakugan on the table:
"Hello, I'm here to inquire about James' condition."
At Siren's voice, the receptionist looked up and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. The moment she looked at her, he panicked.
"I-I'll be right there, Ms. Siren. Please wait!"
As this was happening, the receptionist panicked and didn't even notice that the bakugan had rolled out of sight. Siren smiled in exasperation at the receptionist's behavior. She had always been like this. Her status had undoubtedly reached a level that commanded admiration and respect.
It was really hard to reach the top fifty. The challenge and excitement of defeating so many strong brawlers and moving up was indescribable. Undoubtedly, up to this point, Siren had experienced some of the most fun she had ever had in her life.
But she couldn't taste it anymore. That's why she stopped aiming higher unless she was challenged.
She had also overheard the rumors about what James had said.
'Mentioning Spectra Phantom's name when you're almost beaten even in matches like this...'
Siren had personally witnessed the Spectra Phantom and its bakugan in tournaments. Helios...
It was a real beast. It was a dragon-type bakugan, black on the outside and red on the inside. That bakugan was such a thing that when she first saw it, she gasped. It wasn't out of admiration or fear. The presence of the bakugan was simply authoritative for her.
Still, Siren could not judge James. It was normal for him to be overconfident after two consecutive victories and, unlike her, he had not experienced the beast.
As she was thinking about all this, the receptionist spoke:
"Ms. Siren, James seems to have left the hospital."
Siren was surprised.
"He left? Is he?"
Thinking she was doubting him, the receptionist replied in a panic:
"I mean, he's already registered here as a patient who needs to be checked at least once a week."
Siren was even more surprised:
"Why?"
The receptionist hesitated, but finally shook her head in hasty denial.
"I'm afraid we can't tell you because of doctor-patient confidentiality. If you are a relative, it would be better to ask him."
Siren paused. Her face, or rather the lower half of it, took on an expression of dissatisfaction, but finally she sighed:
"Very well. But in the end he's all right, isn't he?"
The receptionist nodded:
"I can assure you that he is physically fine."
With that, Siren breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well then, thank you."
With that, she turned around and started to walk away, step by step. The receptionist breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him leave without further ado.
Siren, meanwhile, opened her palm and looked at the bakugan in her hand.
"My friend, did you learn anything?"
As the bakugan opened, it was a strange darkus bakugan with what appeared to be a one-sided wing, two conspicuous bird ears where it was supposed to have a head, but with a human-looking face.
She answered in a relaxed voice:
"How many times do I have to tell you that I am not comfortable with you using me for such things?"
Siren replied with a smile:
"Come on! You make it sound like I'm always using you for stuff like this."
Instead of answering, Bakugan gave the information she wanted:
"He said that this James had short-term memory loss. I didn't hear the details."
Siren patted her bakugan on the head, keeping her smile.
"Thank you Xayah, who knows what I would have done without you?"
The darkus bakugan named Xayah shook her head in annoyance.
"Just give me some space."
With that, it turned into a ball. Siren's smile was wiped off her face. She snorted.
"Grumpy thing."
Then she thought about what she had learned about James.
'Short-term memory loss... The fact that he dropped everything and battled through it... Very, very strange.'
This strangeness made Siren even more curious about James and she headed home. It was getting late and it was long past time to go back. After all, she couldn't tell her mother where she was going. The sooner the better.
In the next few days, she could pay a visit to the Moonlight Restaurant.
…
Time passed in the blink of an eye. Day after day. A total of five days had passed. James had really only accepted the challenges that came his way, apart from taking care of the restaurant, as he had said he would.
Well... He had been challenged by many more people than he had expected, but since most of the challengers were novices, he had only fainted once.
He was unlucky this time, though. He didn't get proper SP, nor did he get a module. And his absurdly optimistic approach had also failed. For a moment he wondered if he had been daring enough.
But in the end he decided that it might be because of his ranking. Amateurs didn't care about the rankings of amateurs, as long as it wasn't said directly to their faces. Although he remembered that a fanatic like Gus was a bit exempt from this situation...
So in that respect things had not gone as he had hoped and he had not been challenged by the people he had hoped for.
On the bright side, his clientele increased every day. There were two important factors in this. James, the mascot of the restaurant, had taken over the service and so everyone had a chance to talk to the rising brawler.
The second factor was, of course, the food. He had prepared many dishes following Fox's recipes. Most of them were unheard of here. He made many dishes such as baked potato, stuffed leaves in olive oil, manti.
Although some of them were extra burdensome to prepare, James had plenty of energy to spare.
According to Fox, these dishes belonged to a culture spread by an old hero in her world. It was clear that it had a long history.
As a result, the food had become quite popular and the number of people who came just for the food had increased considerably. Of course, he was still nowhere near the necessity of the system, but he was sure he was close.
In two or three days at the latest, James was sure he would complete the task, and one day when he least expected it, a visitor arrived.
"Hello."
And this was, of course, Siren, whose mere presence would make a noise.