"D-Doctor!" The nurse called, her voice shaking from shock. "T-The patient... he's awake!"
The doctor turned to "Quinlan Gaudin's" naked body, giving it an evaluating glance. It didn't take him long to notice that, as the nurse said, his eyes were opened slightly.
"...!"
The doctor rushed to Quinlan's side, flipping his brown hair to the side, away from his eyes. With a small penlight, he performed a few tests over his eyes, determining that he really was conscious.
"This is a miracle! Come on, hurry up! We'll take him to a few tests, just in case!"
The nurses were already done pushing a stretcher nearby. As the doctor was the only male inside the room, and he was too busy tapping away at the keyboard, the nurses joined forces to pull Quinlan up and lay him on top of the stretcher.
*Gulp!*
The nurses, who were supposed to have been accustomed to seeing naked bodies, gulped hard while staring at Quinlan's body. Well-formed muscles, not out of selective exercise but built through manual labor. A handsome face. And lastly, a... big reason for the nurses to stare.
"Alright, I'm done!" The doctor finally completed what he was doing, running to the stretcher and seeing the nurses who were staring at Quinlan in a daze. "What are you doing? Cover him up with a blanket, quick! If his temperature falls and causes hypothermia, then we'll have more problems to attend to later!"
"""Y-Yes, doctor!"""
The four nurses moved fast, covering his body with a white blanket, albeit reluctantly. After doing so, their group pushed the stretcher forward, leaving the room and heading for the examination room to perform a few basic checkup procedures.
The entire time, Meng Yinuo was keeping still. She had little to no information about Quinlan's world, after all. She was observing everyone, listening to their conversation, and trying to pick up fragments of information from it.
'Looks like I'll be heading to someone like a physician to have my physical state checked,' she thought.
A few seconds later, they reached the examination room.
Without wasting time, they sent Yinuo over to get her MRI, X-ray, blood tests, radiation checks, and so on. Yinuo wanted to run away, seeing the weird instruments she was brought to, but since nobody had even a sliver of killing intent, she decided to go along with their procedures.
After almost an hour, the tests finally ended. Without any delay, the information was compiled, analyzed, and presented to the doctor, causing him to raise a brow as he read the result.
"He's... completely healthy... Even the after-effects of raising the curing rate were almost nil!" The doctor cried in surprise, ruffling his brown hair as he scratched his head, confused.
When they brought him in a week ago, Quinlan was literally on the brink of death. It was a gamble to see if he could even survive the healing procedure. But now, looking at his almost normal results, the doctor almost doubted his eyes.
"Still..."
The doctor used his penlight once more, shining it over Yinuo, who was still lying on top of the stretcher, unmoving.
"I wonder why his eye color changed to blue? Could it be due to the prolonged radiation exposure? However, the damage to his DNA was completely repaired, as per the result of the scan... Weird."
Finally deciding to simply accept the current situation as is, the doctor stashed his penlight back into his breast pocket before waving his hand slowly before Yinuo's face. "Hello, Mr. Quinlan. Can you see me? Can you hear me? If yes, please move your hand."
Yinuo, seeing that the doctor was finally talking to her, decided to follow his instructions. Just as she was about to move her hand, she noticed how hard it was. For a long time, Quinlan's body was unable to take in proper nutrients and was sustained only by the mysterious liquid inside the medical pod.
In short, Yinuo is currently unable to move freely!
With difficulty, she managed to raise her left hand, about an inch high, before letting it fall down a second later. Just with that, she felt like all the energy in her body was gone.
"Good, it seems that you really are conscious. Then, can you speak?"
When the doctor asked, Yinuo also wondered if she could. Talking should be less straining than moving her hand, at least. Yinuo opened her mouth, trying to voice out words, but a scratchy voice, as if someone who had been dehydrated for a long time, escaped her lips.
"I... Why... I... here..."
Some words were left out, coming out as nothing but gasping sounds, but the idea was quickly comprehended by the doctor.
"You forgot? Your Doppel's Energy Cores exploded, giving you almost fatal injuries."
"Dop... pel...? What... that..."
"...?!"
Upon hearing Yinuo's innocent question, the doctor almost fell off his seat. With haste, he rechecked the results of the scan, but as expected, Quinlan's brain shouldn't have any damage. "Memory loss? Did his brain lock out the events that caused him severe injuries?"
To double-check, the doctor asked basic questions, checking if she was only confused or was missing a part of her memory. After a thorough back and forth, the doctor could only lean against his chair, his hand on his face, lamenting.
"God... to think he'd lose all memories but his name..."
Meng Yinuo knew nothing about Quinlan other than his name, after all. So, no matter what the doctor asked, she couldn't answer them. Rather, she couldn't even understand half of the jargon that the doctor used!
The doctor wished he could just bash Yinuo's head against the wall and magically return all the memories she had lost. Still, doing so would mean he'd lose his license as a doctor, so he held back. "I can't let him return to school like this... What should I tell the Chairman?"
Quinlan was a scholarship student, one with a promising future ahead of him. But he, for some inexplicable reason, had completely lost his memories. It wouldn't only be a loss to the school but would also spell "Quinlan's" downfall.
"I... I'll return... to school," Meng Yinuo commented, her voice still cracking a little.
Although she had no idea about Quinlan, she knew that staying in school was imperative if she were to resolve his unfinished dreams.
When he heard her words, the doctor was overjoyed but felt like his heart was being pricked at the same time, tears threatening to overflow from the corner of his eyes.
"I'm really sorry, Mr. Quinlan. If only I could return you your memories..." he lamented as he pinched his nose bridge. "Anyway, I'll do everything in my power to support you. I'll make sure you'll be able to return to school without any problems!"