Talent Reborn
Episode 8: Chaos in the ER
A New Challenge
The hospital emergency room was always chaotic. But today, it felt like war.
Nurses rushed from one bed to another. Monitors beeped. The air was thick with the scent of antiseptic and blood.
Haruto barely had time to breathe as he pushed through the crowd.
"Dr. Kuroda sent me to assist!" he called out.
A resident doctor, Dr. Yuki Sato, glanced at him. "You're an intern?"
"Yes!" Haruto confirmed.
"Good," she said. "Because we need every hand we can get."
She pointed to a stretcher rolling in.
"Multiple accident victims. A building collapsed downtown. We're getting over a dozen critical patients."
Haruto's chest tightened. A mass casualty event.
This wasn't a simulation.
This wasn't an exam.
This was real.
Thrown into Action
A nurse ran up. "Patient with a punctured lung—we need an immediate chest tube insertion!"
Dr. Yuki cursed under her breath. "Damn it, all the senior doctors are in surgery. We don't have enough hands."
She turned to Haruto.
"Do you know how to do a thoracostomy?"
Haruto's breath caught.
Of course, he knew. He had seen it done multiple times. He had copied the technique from some of the best surgeons.
But he had never done it himself.
This was different from a controlled surgery room.
The patient—a middle-aged man—was dying right in front of him. His breathing was shallow. His skin was turning blue from lack of oxygen.
Haruto couldn't hesitate.
"I can do this."
He grabbed the scalpel.
The man gasped, his eyes rolling back.
"Haruto!" Yuki's voice snapped. "Do it now or he dies!"
Haruto's hands moved instinctively.
A swift incision between the ribs. Blood welled up. Haruto inserted the chest tube with precise movements.
For one agonizing second—nothing happened.
Then—
A rush of air escaped the tube.
The patient gasped, his chest rising. The oxygen monitor beeped.
Breathing stabilized.
Haruto exhaled, his heart pounding.
"You actually did it," Yuki murmured.
She stared at him like she was seeing him for the first time.
But there was no time to celebrate.
Because another stretcher was already being rushed in.
And the next patient was in even worse condition.
A Race Against Time
This time, the patient was a young woman, barely in her twenties.
Her leg was crushed under debris, bone protruding through torn flesh. Blood soaked the sheets.
Haruto's stomach twisted. She was losing too much blood.
Dr. Yuki pressed down on the wound. "We need to stop the bleeding! Where the hell is surgery?!"
"The OR is full!" a nurse shouted.
Haruto's mind raced.
If they didn't operate immediately, she would bleed out.
Haruto turned to the medical cart. He already knew what to do.
"I can copy anyone's talent…"
He grabbed the suturing tools and clamped the artery, just like he had seen Kuroda do in surgery.
Yuki's eyes widened. "Wait—you're not actually going to—"
"I have to."
With steady hands, Haruto began stitching the ruptured artery.
Blood soaked his gloves. His vision tunneled. The beeping of the heart monitor echoed in his ears.
His mind screamed—one mistake, and she dies.
His fingers moved flawlessly.
Suture. Clamp. Close.
The heart monitor normalized.
The bleeding stopped.
Haruto stepped back, chest heaving.
The girl was alive.
Yuki stared at him.
"Who the hell are you?" she whispered.
Renji Watches
Unbeknownst to Haruto, someone was watching him.
From across the room, Renji Kujo stood in the shadows.
He had seen everything.
The perfect chest tube insertion. The flawless arterial sutures.
No intern should have been able to do that.
Renji's eyes narrowed.
"Haruto Aizawa... What are you hiding?"
End of Episode 8.