Author name: Stanley O'Shea

Part 2 Fig. 08 My body entered the second stage of the cat-human fusion. My two arms merged with my two front legs, which saved more energy that way. The stream of water coming out of my mouth became much stronger. The flow rate increased, and so did the pressure. By now, the hallway floor was already covered in water, and the air was full of vapor. The matrix made of his 0s and 1s was almost blown apart by my water stream, but it still held together with surprising toughness. His suit was already soaked through. He took off his suit and tie, then pulled off his shirt too, facing me directly in just a tank top. He said, “Not many people can push me to the point where I have to strip down this much to fight. Last time was with my old man. You cat-clan folks really are a pain.” Fig. 09 Then he released a new fire-style move: Fire Chain. He said, “The temperature of my Fire Chain is high enough to burn straight through the walls of this hospital. Once it wraps around you, I’m afraid your soul won’t be able to escape from your body.” I said, “Wow. What you’re showing me is the chain of side effects. A drug prescribed by the doctors in Department A causes side effects managed by Department B. Then to treat that side effect, you have to take medicine from Department B, which creates another side effect managed by Department C. And on and on it goes, with no end.” He said, “That’s how it is in the 4th-tier city. In the 1st-tier city, that kind of thing doesn’t happen. You just haven’t seen enough.” I said, “Oh really? Then why don’t you go to the 1st-tier city for every problem, whether big or small? Do you think the subway there has enough room for you to sit on the floor and play with your phone?” He said, “Who was playing with a phone? We were reading documents sent down by our training supervisors. Every second counted.” I said, “What I don’t get is this. Sure, Brandon Superior was an internet celebrity. But what made you think he could cure your autoimmune disease?” He said, “Brandon was already a genius student back when we were in school. He knew I was always missing classes because of pain, and that I often couldn’t even take PE. On exam days I still had to take medication. Back then he told me he would definitely develop a method to cure my problem at the root. And last year, he told me that method was already close to success. But then you killed him.” I said, “What method? Brainwashing? Suppressing local pain through the central nervous system?” He said, “Cut the crap. It was chakra thread embedding. He told me that this original method had already worked successfully on you. Once he built up a few more cases, he’d dare to use it on me. But you got him killed, and now the hope in my life is gone again.” I said, “What? At the time, he told me that method was already very mature. That’s why I dared to do it. So he was using me as a lab rat? And honestly, it wasn’t that miraculous anyway. It only lasted a month or two. Then the pain came back. At first I thought he could fix the root of the problem, but later I realized he had never even found the root cause. He was just trying out these self-invented methods at vulnerable targets. At the time he even pulled a shadow-clone-style move. It was like two of him were holding me down together.” He said, “Stop talking nonsense. He told me that method would definitely work. Just because it didn’t work on you doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work on me. Enough talk. Let me show you a stronger jutsu.” Fig. 10 Then the flames coming out of his mouth began to change shape and expand, turning into a tree structure. He said, “See that? This is Fire Tree. Once a tree starts expanding, it can reach more space. There’s nowhere to hide.” I said, “Fire Tree? So is this a decision tree or an evolutionary tree?” He said, “Of course it’s a decision tree.” I said, “Oh, I get it. Kind of like AI diagnosis. You ask the patient one question after another, rank the questions by how much variance they can explain, and in the end AI replaces all the internal medicine doctors in your hospital.” He said, “In your dreams. This is just clinical support. Doctors aren’t that easy to replace. Seeing patients is not just about filling out a questionnaire.” I said, “Or maybe it’s like those pyramid schemes in the wellness industry. Senior members recruit junior members, and the business keeps getting bigger and bigger.” He said, “Don’t lump our legitimate hospital together with those pyramid-scheme people, OK?” I said, “Don’t forget, back then Brandon Superior was running training sessions at your hospital at night, preaching to female medical staff. That was also a structure where old members pulled in new members, right?” He said, “I won’t let you talk about Brandon like that! The things he taught were way beyond the understanding of someone like you!” I said, “Right, so you definitely knew about all that too. You weren’t his accomplice, were you?” He said, “No. Don’t talk nonsense. That was his business. It wasn’t my place to interfere.” I said, “Oh, so you were covering for him, just so he could cure your illness? In that case, I’d better upgrade my water-style jutsu too, so I can deal with your tree structure.” Fig. 11 The stream of water coming out of my mouth gradually turned into bubbles. They spread in the form of transverse waves, some big, some small, with different wavelengths, different amplitudes, and different frequencies. When the bubbles hit his high-temperature

Fig. 01 Two weeks had passed since Mrs. Kokoro Superior and her dogs took Dr. Superior’s body back home. I came back to this ninja-run hospital for another test, to see if I could find the root cause of the weird chronic problems in my body. Some young specialists in the 4th-tier city and the 1st-tier city had told me to give up. But because of the expectation treadmill, I kept feeling I was getting closer and closer to a breakthrough. So I still came back, following online recommendations, just to try my luck again. This test only took five minutes. The sample had to be sent to another place for analysis, and the report would take a few days. So I got ready to leave. But in the hospital hallway, I suddenly ran into a young man. His hairstyle had changed, but I recognized him right away. He was the one who had used the Sharingan on me in the subway in that second-tier city. He said, “Uh, it’s you? You’ve got some nerve coming back to our hospital.” I said, “Aren’t you the guy who was sitting on the subway floor playing with his phone? I thought you were a college student. What, are you here to see a doctor too?” He said, “I’m Gary. I work here. People call me Director Woo. Some people also call me Vice Professor Woo. Back then, those people in the subway were all under me.” I said, “So you people were doing training in that second-tier city? You don’t dress like a doctor. You don’t look like security either. Don’t tell me you work in administration. If someone who uses genjutsu works in admin, and uses it to mentally control medical staff, that would at least make sense.” He said, “I’m not with those people. I’m in charge of IT at this hospital.” I said, “Then did I ever do anything to you?” He said, “You still have the nerve to ask? You killed Dr. Superior. Blood has to be paid with blood. I saw the whole scene of your fight with him on the surveillance system.” I said, “No. That was self-defense. Other staff in your hospital said Dr. Superior got what he deserved. They said I was getting rid of a public menace. Even his wife, Mrs. Kokoro Superior, didn’t blame me.” He said, “Mrs. Kokoro Superior had already become a stranger to him long ago. What I had with him is not something outsiders like you can understand.” I took a sharp breath. I thought to myself: wow, Dr. Superior’s true love has finally shown up. Looks like I won’t be getting back to work that easily today. I said, “So Dr. Superior didn’t just go after those female medical workers. He also had a boy toy in this hospital? Does Mrs. Kokoro Superior’s family know about this?” He said, “Don’t talk nonsense. We were roommates in college. You killed my old roommate. I’m not letting you go that easily today.” I said, “I already told you, that was self-defense. Otherwise he would have turned me into a specimen. You work in this hospital, and you can see the surveillance footage. There’s no way you don’t know that. So why are you standing with an evil man?” He said, “Cut the crap. I don’t care about any of that. I’m going to avenge my brother. You don’t get to decide what’s justice and what’s evil.” Fig 02 Then he launched his first move: Fire Style: Fire Fall, trying to block my way out. It was the first time I had seen a fire-style attack in real life instead of in anime. Honestly, it did not look that different from a stage act. That was when it suddenly clicked for me: right, you’re a descendant of the Uchiha clan. Of course you can use fire-style jutsu. So when Dr. Superior was trying to kill me back then, you were the one who set the fire, weren’t you? That day Mrs. Kokoro Superior told me that sooner or later, you and I were going to meet. So this was what she meant. But if you were helping him, then why did you save me? He said, “I wasn’t helping him hurt people. I was stopping him in secret, so he wouldn’t make an even bigger mess inside the hospital again. Every time he killed an innocent person, the hospital director, Dr. Divine, and I had to spend a lot of effort cleaning up after him.The president had to wine and dine the people who came to investigate, and I had a ton of IT work to deal with. There’s no point explaining any of this to you. You wouldn’t understand. I’m not wasting more words on you. You’re not leaving here alive today. Let me show you a new fire-style move.” Fig. 03 Then he launched Fire Style: Fire Tornado. It was several times more powerful than the last move. I could already feel the temperature in the hospital hallway rising fast. At the same time, his phone turned into a light saber. I said, “Is your light saber made of plasma? What happens if someone gets hit by it?” He said, “What, scared now? Once it hits you, it’ll cut off your chakra pathways. Then you won’t be a threat to me anymore. I know that once you lose control, you’re capable of stabbing Dr. Superior to death. And I heard you can also use summoning jutsu. If you dare summon those two stinky shoe insoles again, I’ll slice them apart with this light saber.” I said, “Do you smoke? Cigarettes? Cigars? Or hookah? Your smoke rings are pretty good.” I thought to myself: this guy has the Sharingan. I can’t let him control me again. It’s already this late, but looks like I still have no choice but to fight. Fig. 04 At that moment, the cat on my shirt jumped out and fused with me. We