Crisis of Authority Part 1
Title: Crisis of Authority
Pairing(s): RyoShige
Rating: PG-13 (for some cussing and boys kissing)
Genre: comedy, AU
Word Count: 10,852
Summary: He’s been assigned to work with (more like work under) Nishikido Ryo-Sensei, the infamous jerk who would send you to get an MRI just so he can have fun with coming up with new in-hospital puns.
A.N.: Inspired and largely based on the American drama series HOUSE. Character personalities are largely founded on characters in the show. Note, frequent use of psychology and medical terms that may or may not be used correctly lies throughout the story. Check asterisked footnotes for explanations. Pardon any misuse of the terminology. Many thanks to P for the beta work and T for helping with the title.
When Sakurai-Sempai greets Kato Shigeaki, it’s with smiles and promises of a bright future. Who knew that that demeanor was only set up to ease a large bomb over his head and drop it without warning?
He’s been assigned to work with (more like work under) Nishikido Ryo-Sensei, the infamous jerk who would send you to get an MRI just so he can have fun with coming up with new in-hospital puns. MRI scans are expensive and they’re not toys, something that Kato thinks Nishikido really should learn to understand. Someone of his stature in the company should know that very well. But clearly, Nishikido doesn’t give a damn because he has that kind of power and he’s intent on abusing it. He has already tried to send Kato to get an MRI done a few weeks into the job because honestly, what normal person trips over his own feet THAT often in one day?
But Kato’s digressing.
The first day on the job seems easy. Almost too easy actually. Granted, that is also because Nishikido-Sensei just wandered off to go stalk a patient with schizophrenic tendencies and has no time to actually greet his new underling. Instead, Kato meets some other people around the hospital, gets comfortable with talking to the nurses and is getting situated in this chrome-sleeked hospital.
He runs into a Yamashita-Sensei who, despite his space case appearance, is actually very in tune with the happenings of the hospital. He talks with Yamashita and he is given a tour of the hospital, with Yamashita pointing out all the locations to which you can exit the hospital in case a psychopath was on his way to “visit” you, advice on what the best preset meal is at the cafeteria and who you should definitely stay away from. His answers end with a few names that Kato would rather not have heard.
“They’re really harmless, but to the newbies, they’re quite the demons. If I were you, stay clear of Physician Matsumoto-Sensei, Psychological well-being diagnostician Nishikido-Sensei, Nurse Ninomiya and the rehabilitation aide Yokoyama. They’re my friends and so I can give you a very clear idea that they are quite…unpredictable. They’re also kind of “S” if you know what I mean.”
“You mean they have sadistic tendencies.”
“Yes, but don’t say that out loud. There are those in this hospital who are actually suffering from paraphilias*, you know.”
“Understood. And if I had to stay away from one of these four?”
“Definitely do NOT talk about something boring. When they’re not amused, they usually go and scour the hospital to find entertainment. Oh, and don’t ever let one of them try the punishment and reinforcement trick on you.”
“I’ll have to keep that in mind. Nishikido-Sensei’s the head of my ward.”
“Tough luck! Well I’ll be on my way now. I have to give a lady a CAT scan because she thinks she’s ‘seriously ill’.”
“Isn’t that more of a disorder? She’s probably just hallucinating- ”
“Yes, but we don’t tell patients that until AFTER we show her the scan indicates she’s fine. Anyway, you should acquaint yourself with the nurses. They’ll be your lifesaver when you’re running around the hospital trying to figure out something out of the millions of people you’ll end up seeing.”
Kato nods and steps off to journey through the halls. Occasionally, a few nurses leer at him while others stare at his head without much interest. Kato isn’t sure he wants to befriend them, what with their fiendish glint and all. He turns a corner and is sharply greeted by ramming face first into what must be a stick of a person because it HURTS. Kato looks up and finds himself held up by a tall man who seems all too enthusiastic to be in a hospital looming with people missing a screw or two.
“Ah, are you okay? Sorry about that.”
“Nah, I’m fine. Sorry about crashing into you.” Kato gears himself up to walk away but this new stick figure seems adamant in stopping him for a chat.
“It’s cool. I’m Koyama by the way. I’m a nurse. Your face is new; I take it you’re a newcomer?”
Kato is only slightly wary of Koyama’s close, touchy-feely persona. The blinding smile and crinkle in his nonexistent eyelids are a bit unbelievable. But Koyama’s sheer sunshine-like optimism cannot be ignored and so Kato sticks around to exchange a few words.
“Yes, I will be working with Nishikido-Sensei in working to diagnose patients with abnormal psychological behavior.”
He thinks Koyama’s either trembling with excitement or about to have a seizure when the man speaks again. “Ah I see. You’ll be in for a fun ride then! But you must remember-” here he stops to look at Kato’s nametag. “-Shige, that a lot patients here are…special. Try not to use the really blunt terms. We kind of have enough trouble tending to the in-patients; it’d be a lot easier if we don’t disrupt the mental stability of the patients who are here only for checkups.”
Shige-Kato nods, a little dumbfounded by his new nickname, but he forgets about it. Koyama bounces in front of him, rattling off things that Shi-Kato should and should not do. He’s only half listening to Koyama; there’s some sort of magnetic force that won’t let Kato walk away from this chatterbox of a man, but it doesn’t mean he has to listen to everyone he gushes about.
With his halfhearted concentration on Koyama’s rambling, Kato catches sight of a shadow sliding right by him and Koyama. He sidesteps Koyama and tries to take a look, but the shadow is gone almost instantly and all that’s left is the swishing noise of a glass door closing.
Koyama turns as well and sighs, stepping forward to follow the disappearing shadow. Kato follows, not knowing what else to do and slightly curious. They see a few doctors in their white lab coats standing and watching something by the door.
“Ne Ryo-chan, what is going on here? I thought you were trying to find Rika-chan who ran away from home thinking her parents wanted to lock her in a box and ship her off.”
Said man turned around all smiles. “But Jun called me to tell me that one of the Kame’s patients is being diagnosed with overexposure to aggressiveness; he’s beating up that inflatable clown as we speak!” Kato can’t help but think this man is slightly rude in his way of treating the people with psychological illnesses as a show.
So he says precisely that. “Excuse me, but I think you should stop watching the poor boy like he’s some sort of circus act. We’re here to help him and it’d be done a lot more quickly if you didn’t stand here and egg on the negativity.”
“And who are you?” the man turns to address Shige, unimpressed.
“Kato Shigeaki, and I’m a doctor here. And I’d like it a lot more if you don’t roam around the hospital like it’s some sort of fair or amusement park.”
“I can roam the halls if I want Kato Shigeaki because I work here. As a matter of fact, I’m your boss.”
“You’re my boss?” Kato inquires, unsure of whether to cry or throw a fit or quit on the spot. Koyama elbows him and he stops glaring daggers into the smaller man.
“Yes, I’m your boss. And seeing as you’re not very content to work under me, clearly, I should make you go do some dirty work. Get you acquainted with our line of work, so to speak.”
“You’re just abusing your power.”
“Yeah, so? I do it often. I practically run the place. This floor and the next are entirely my territory. Deal. With. It.” And with a feral grin, Nishikido turns around to watch the kid again.
-x-
Second day on the job, where actual introductions are made, Kato faces a more serious looking Nishikido sitting in his seat (albeit the feet propped up on his desk diminishes the severity in Nishikido’s eyes, but it does nothing but increase the authoritative air about him). It’s like he’s a big boss in journalism, about to slap an article across Kato’s face because it isn’t a “juicy enough” piece. He’s waiting for it to happen, arms crossed and eyes watching.
Except Nishikido doesn’t even bother to shift a muscle in his body; he merely smiles that evil smile, lifts the phone and barks down an order for his lackeys to show up.
A shorter, almost boy-ish, looking guy charges in almost immediately while another wanders in nonchalantly.
“Kame, Tego-nyan, meet your fellow slave. He’s Kato Shigeaki, my new subordinate in this crazy nuthouse. We’ll be working together to fix the kinks in people’s brains.”
“How many times have I told you to stop calling me Kame. It’s Kamenashi to you!” Kamenashi grouches, turning to eye Kato.
“I am going to call you Kame as many times as I want until you stop walking and working as slow as your namesake.” Ryo replies. The boy-ish guy turns to Kato, completely ignoring Kamenashi and Nishikido.
“TEGOSHI DESU. Yoroshiku Shige!”
“Shige?” Kato and Nishikido both exclaim. Though one is out of incredulity while the other is in amusement.
“YEAH! I heard Koyama call you that when he told us about the newbie who pissed of Ryo-tan.”
“Ryo-tan?” Kato and Nishikido both blurt out. This time the roles reversed.
“Mhmm!! Take care of me okay, Shige? I’m pretty new here to. It seems like they assign all the beginners to Ryo-tan.”
“Must be because we’re the only ones who don’t have a say in anything.” Kato hisses and the other guy in the room, Kamenashi is it?, laughs. Kato shakes Kame’s hand, more for courtesy’s sake, but also because he thinks he can probably form an alliance against Nishikido with Kamenashi on his side.
“Now if we’re done with the greetings, let’s talk. The hospital in the next town passed over a case to us. Teenage girl Sugimoto Yui doesn’t seem quite normal in the head. It seems the parents are extremely worried about her because she keeps locking herself in her room and is frequently seen to be emotional, or as we’d call it, depressed, as well as unnerved. She thinks she’s going to get killed or something because her sister was killed not so long ago. It’s probably a case of comorbidity**-schizo and more than likely depression or some sort of mood disorder. Any guesses?”
“Well, we can’t make assumptions that it’s schizophrenia without scanning her to check dopamine levels.” Kame states flatly, looking at Nishikido as if he should have known this.
“Yeah, well go tell her that. Her parents can’t even pry her out of her room. I bet you she’s probably holed up in her room getting high and hallucinating beyond recognition.”
“Then what do we do? We can’t help her if we can’t even see her.” Tegoshi interjects.
“I say we plan a stakeout and when the time is right, we go in and kidnap her.” Nishikido smiles evilly.
“That is probably against every single rule and law out there about medical practice.” Kato retorts lamely, unsure of how he’s going to ever get along with a psychological diagnostician if the man himself seems like a psychopath.
“Life isn’t all about rules. You need to loosen up, you old man. There are times when different and extreme measures must be taken.”
“Different and extreme measures, yes, but not completely disregarding consequences.”
“So it’s decided then! Stakeout and then we make the abduction happen. We’ll keep watch and meanwhile, Tegoshi, you talk to the girl from beside her bedroom door and keep her distracted. Kato and Kame can infiltrate her room and nab her.”
“And what’ll you do?” Kame asks, still not particularly interested in Ryo’s plot.
“Me? I’m the boss. I’ll watch over the entire plan. Meet me a seven here tonight, no excuses. Now…get out!”
It takes Kato about ten minutes after he leaves the room to discover two things:
One, Kamenashi and Tegoshi are apparently well aware that when Ryo says kidnaps, it actually means that they have the permission of the parents to drag their daughter out of the room by any means.
Two, Nishikido is so smug about it that he doesn’t even budge his foot a centimeter from where they are propped on the desk.
-x-
And despite his protests, Kato does show up at seven at Nishikido’s office. He isn’t sure of what attire would be appropriate for a patient-kidnapping task so he sticks with the casual slacks and dress shirt. Nishikido raises his eyebrows upon first sight of Kato, looks down at Kato’s shiny, shiny shoes, and then begins to laugh and mock him.
“We’re going to break into a room and kidnap a patient by force and you dress up as though you’re going to DINNER?” Nishikido chortles.
“I don’t kidnap people on a daily basis. I don’t know what the dress code would be.”
Kamenashi and Tegoshi take that moment to casually flounce in, dressed in the same street clothes as Nishikido. Kamenashi says nothing regarding Kato’s choice of outfit, but Tegoshi manages to stare until the man is uncomfortable enough to squirm in his skin.
“WHAT?”
“Nothing, I think you just look really nice, Shige. Good choice in outfit.” Tegoshi smiles seemingly genuinely before Nishikido speaks up. The plan is, despite Kato’s disagreement, to take the girl by force. Tegoshi will still serve as the distraction, Kamenashi and Kato will be the kidnappers.
Kato really thinks he’s going to lose his practicing license after this, but says nothing under the intense stare Nishikido gives him. He can imagine the headlines of reports now. “Diagnosticians abuse power and abduct teenage girl for experiment”.
He doesn’t think that sounds very appealing to him. Not when his resume is still empty and in need of adorning.
But in the end, he finds himself leaning against a wall along with Kamenashi while Tegoshi tries to reason with the half delusional, half anxious girl on the opposite side of the door. Nishikido is relaxing in his office, watching them through a video conversation on Kato’s phone.
“Ne, Yui-san, won’t you open up the door? I promise there’s nothing that can hurt you here.”
“YOU PEOPLE ARE ALL UP TO NO GOOD. I CAN HEAR YOUR SNEERING.” Comes the answer. Tegoshi, leans gently against the door and wiggles the knob lightly. A panic-stricken voice sounds again.
“GO AWAY YOU FREAKS!!! DON’T YOU DARE OPEN THE DOOR.”
“Yui-san, I told you. I’m Tegoshi and I’m here to help!”
“I don’t need help…..no one actually wants to help me anyway. That’s not sympathy I hear. It’s mockery. You don’t know what it’s like to be hunted after. They already took my sister!”
Kato looks at Kamenashi briefly before averting his attention back to Nishikido on the screen of his phone.
“Tegoshi isn’t being much of a diversion! He’s telling her that we’re here to take her. I don’t think anyone in her state of mind would like to know she’s getting taken to a hospital where she’d get checked in as a loony.”
“Be quiet and let Tegoshi work his charm. Newcomers shouldn’t question the way we do things around here. You listen, you learn.”
Kato looks back at Tegoshi who seems to be pondering over something. He hopes it’s some magical plan of breaking down the door without alarming the girl, but all the methods that come to mind involve a lot of kicking or wood chopping and that would definitely alarm someone, regardless of their mental state.
“Yui-san, you’re being silly. I just wanted to invite you out. I’m a friend. It’s no fun being stuck in a room, you know? Your sister would have agreed. How about karaoke? I’ve been told I sing great love ballads and I have amazing imitation capabilities. You know those lip-synching idols out there? I can totally replicate it. You just have to hear it. And oh my gosh! Imitations! I want to show you my ‘Terminator’ face. Come out! No one else is willing to watch and rate my performance here.” Tegoshi croons.
Kato thinks Tegoshi’s lost his mind if he thinks Yui would open the door just to see his ‘Terminator’ face. He has heard from Koyama already about how his rendition of the act is actually a complete dud.
That being said, he has also heard of Tegoshi’s amazing charming skills and methods of persuading people into getting his way.
The door clicks open after a minute of utter silence and a frail girl shifts from the shadow to the crack of the door, looking delirious, but slightly curious.
“She would have said that?”
Tegoshi nods, offering her a hand. She cracks the door open a little bit more. Kamenashi takes the chance to pull the door open wider. Yui automatically shrinks and freaks out, but Tegoshi calms her by humming some sort of love song. Kato cannot believe his eyes and fights the urge to roll his eyes and scoff.
Kamenashi motions for Kato to help restrain the girl before she runs off so he tries, but it all ends in a complete mess with him tripping over his own feet when Tegoshi twirls magically in front of Yui and rams Kato into the wall. He also drops the phone and a series of cursing from Nishikido is heard, albeit slightly muffled by the speakers hitting the ground.
Ignoring the situation at hand for a moment, Kato spares a thought for the scratches his new phone will probably have. He wishes the static during the drop would really scribble over Nishikido, but gives up and returns to his position.
When Kato recovers, Kamenashi already has her arm held tightly, the small knife she armed herself with safely disposed elsewhere. Tegoshi swings her other hand and looks positively convincing as a schoolmate. She looks distressed, but not nearly as bad as when she had first started screaming that people were trying to kill her by breaking down her door and using an axe to “cut her down”.
It’s then that Kato thinks that he’s probably never going to get used to this job, especially if it entails so much hand-eye coordination and acting.
Nishikido seems to agree. When they get the girl to Nishikido’s office, it’s an hour and half later and he’s sitting in his swiveling chair, looking pleasantly amused by Kato’s failure and content with the progression of girl-napping. Kato busies himself by disinfecting the little scratch he got from when she clawed at him and ignoring Nishikido’s blatant staring at his oncoming bruise.
“Get her a bed upstairs and get her parents to check her in. Actually, Tegoshi, you take care of that. Kamenashi, you go back to their house and try to dig up dirt. Tegoshi, try to keep them here as long as you can; ask them why, where, when, how their daughter started acting that way. Then tell them everything in complicated medical terms, throw them off for a bit and then explain again in simpler terms. I expect them to be here for at least an hour. Meanwhile, Kamenashi, go back to the apartment and get the information that I need. What the girl’s been on, suspicious meds, alcohol, the general idea. Check the parents too. You have an hour. I’ll have Tegoshi call or text you when the parents leave.”
Kato stares, Tegoshi and Kamenashi nod and disappear off to complete their assigned jobs.
“First you girl-nap and now you tell Kamenashi to go raid the house without permission?” Kato drops his cotton ball and stares at him incredulously.
“Yeah, so? You think the parents would just let you wander into their house and let you dig up stuff on your own without trying to hide any sketchy shit they might have? If she’s reached such an unbelievable state under their supervision, something must be up with their way of child care.”
“And what about me?” Kato huffs, a bit mollified, but displeased by Nishikido nonetheless. He reaches for the container of cotton balls to finish disinfecting the scratch. Dang, that girl has long nails.
“What about you?”
“What job do I have to do? I assumed you were going to assign me some kind of crap work seeing as I’m the newest.”
“No. I don’t like idiots messing up my plans and you haven’t been around long enough for me to entrust you with the ever-important snooping. Your acting obviously fails and so you can’t take Tegoshi’s job either. If you really want, I can have you do something tonight.” And here, Nishikido winks.
"I think you have some kind of psychosexual disorder that needs fixing."
"Maybe by your standards, but don't trust everything you hear from the nurses down the hall. I most assuredly do not have paraphilias, regardless of how "dou-S" that fat nurse describes me."
"When I first heard it, I thought he was joking. But now I think Nurse Akanishi was merely stating the obvious."
"Well I think Nurse Akanishi can go to hell because no one would want to be S towards him." Nishikido pivots on his reclining chair and looks at Kato in the face, eyes looking positively cute and innocent.
“Point taken, but not like anyone would be after you either.”
“I’m sexy, well off, sarcastic and a great joker. Why wouldn’t I be greatly sought-after?” Nishikido questions, turning sad puppy eyes on Kato. Kato momentarily stares into those drooping eyes and almost gives in. That is, until he remembers that Nishikido is famous for manipulating others. He’s thinking that Nishikido tutored Tegoshi on the how-to’s of being secretively conniving.
Your personality is really something else and I don’t know how you manage to be an ass but still come off to be so damn smart, alluring and persuasive. Or at least, that is what runs through his head before he comes back to reality out of Nishikido’s entrancing eyes. Instead he says: “Your personality is not charming at all and neither is your way of getting what you want.”
“Oh my personality is the best part. You’ll learn to love it. Since we’re basically done for the night, what do you say we spend some quality time together?”
“No thanks. I’d rather go home, unwind and hopefully forget about the bad day I had working under you.”
"Aw, Shige! Are you chronically depressed? Because I can prescribe you some anti-depressants if you're suffering from any mood disorders."
"I might as well be if my fate is to be stuck here working alongside you."
"Aw, I didn't know you felt that way, Shige. But really, learned helplessness***...it's actually not that attractive."
"That's Kato-Sensei for you, not Shige. And I am not in a depression, nor interested in you."
"Oh, but how I'd love to psychoanalyze you."
“You have a strange way of trying to hit on someone.”
“It worked on Uchi.”
“Who’s Uchi?”
“Nurse. Or, I should actually say, ex-nurse. Got caught for doing something sneaky, got in a load of trouble and is transferred somewhere I don’t even remember.”
“It figures working with you ruins lives.”
“Relax; he didn’t even get into trouble because of my snooping work. I have my way of getting things done and no one in management calls me out on it. Or more like they can’t.”
“Do I even want to know what you do to get your job done?”
“No, but I want to know why you’re so naturally rigid in terms of rules and the conscience, but so immensely clumsy when it comes to actual coordination.” Nishikido smiles, tugs on Shige’s scratched arm and yanks him over. He takes the cotton ball away from Kato and applies medicinal ointment on Kato’s arm.
Kato’s face flushes from remembering his many self-induced accidents in just the span of a day and then his ultimate awkward fail when he tumbles to the ground over his own two feet. He doesn’t know how or what to answer Nishikido, knowing that more taunting awaits him. However, when he meets Nishikido’s eyes again, Nishikido seems genuinely interested and the creepy smirk is gone.
The cotton ball is chucked into the trashcan and Nishikido kindly wraps up the scratch marks. He gives a lopsided smile when the job is done and Kato is pondering over what evil plot Nishikido has in mind, perhaps itching powder in the bandages, but Nishikido just pushes him back into the general direction of his chair and kick his feet back to prop on his desk. Kato thinks Nishikido isn’t as scary when he smiles like a dork and is genuinely nice about his coworker’s wellbeing.
The moment is disrupted though by Tegoshi bouncing in. “Job completed, Ryo-tan. I’ve also contacted Kamenashi-kun already.”
Ryo hops out of his chair and makes himself a nice cup of hot coffee.
“Good. Go fill out a form for Sugimoto for scans. First thing in the morning tomorrow, we’re going to send her over for a co-registration****. Give her the MRI and PET and see what’s going up in her noggin biochemically. That’ll help determine what kind of disorder she might have, if any and what we can do about her fluctuating behavior. Did you keep her in a room alone?”
“Yes, sir! And yes, I did. Though I had the window and door locked just in case she gets ideas about people trying to kill her and pull some random stunt. Probably have to check up on her every hour or two to make sure she doesn’t break something down to protect herself from nonexistent trouble.”
“Naturally, but I sure hell am not staying here the night. Watch over her for the first hour or two and then get the nurses from the night shift to check up on her. You, come in early tomorrow morning so she doesn’t think her little friend has deserted her and has left her with crazy people who think she’s missing a bolt or nut in her head.” Nishikido downs the rest of his coffee and reclines in his chair once more.
“Uh, so what exactly am I suppose to do as one of your little subordinates?” Kato pipes up.
“You…can entertain me. Like the jester trying to entertain the king or the comedian attempting to please the crowd. Humor me. Keep me amused. I hate it when I’m bored. I look for things to do when I’m bored and you won’t like that.” Nishikido winks again, the feral smile back on his face.
“I’m not funny and don’t intend to be for your sake.”
“There’s still much for you to learn. Follow me. I’ll show you how to live a little.”
-x-
Nishikido is weird in that instead of taking Kato to some sort of bar to drink the night away or go to some casino and gamble his and Kato’s paycheck away, he ends up dragging Kato to a coffee joint to smell coffee beans and pick out some nice ones.
“I wouldn’t have pegged you for a coffee lover.” Kato states dully, watching Nishikido float around the store and sniffing handfuls of various coffee beans.
“Well, I do give off that mysterious, night crawler kind of feel I suppose. I assume many would assert the only place to find me is in a bar, drinking to my death and molesting girls with shapely figures.” His facial expression doesn’t change. “But I think people should learn to not take things at face value because it’s stupid. And what’s wrong with coffee anyway? It’s lovely. Dark and smooth and positively awakening.”
“You sound addicted.”
“It may be so, but better caffeine than other things.” Ryo settles for the Columbian Roast and starts packing it into the bag.
Kato says nothing, but follows Nishikido when he lifts coffee beans to Kato’s nose. He can’t deny the fact that the scent is alluring, even if the bitterness at first taste might turn him away. Nishikido is still staring at him when Kato looks up and into his eyes.
Kato thinks he’s starting to understand why Nishikido has a loyal team and why he’s suddenly interested in staying to find out more about the quirks of this weird, narcissistic physician.
-x-
A few days pass before Sugimoto’s scan reports come out and Kato does not have much to do in the meanwhile.
In between then and now, Kato runs into Sakurai-Sempai and is asked about how he’s been feeling working out under Nishikido.
“Sakurai-Sempai, you didn’t mention how insane it would be to work under him. He wanted to go KIDNAP a patient to bring her to the hospital.”
Sakurai Sho chuckles and pats Kato on the shoulder.
“Nishikido-Sensei’s methods may be a bit…unorthodox and the higher ups might complain a bit, but in the end, he’s pretty good with staying JUST inside the loopholes of the hospital’s rules and he’s really good at diagnosing the right thing. You can learn a lot from him.”
“I’m not even sure if that’s true. He just stays in his office while he gets his lackeys to do the work. If this is the case, I think his subordinates should get more credit.”
“That is true, but would you and the others know how to approach a hard to deal with patient if it weren’t for his ability to think outside the box and construct some intricate, troublesome plan?”
“I suppose so. But his behavior is just…I don’t even know where to begin.”
“If you mean he has a weird way of showing interest, affection and curiosity, then yes he’s quite strange. But trust me, if he doesn’t like your company, you’d actually feel the sting of his comments. Plus, I hear he quite likes you.” Sakurai laughs.
“Hah, yeah right. I’m the target of all his crude jokes. Just because I tend to shuffle when carrying things or trip when I walk, he finds that he has the right to treat me like one of his crazy patients.”
“Well, maybe think of it this way. He treats his patients pretty nicely, even if it’s usually masked by his sarcastic personality. If he treats you like one of his patients that must mean you’re already getting pretty nice treatment.” Sakurai looks at his watch.
“Look Kato, I have to get going to a meeting. If you really want, I’ll look into what departments I can switch you too. Granted, Nishikido is one of the few doctors who need extra help so I don’t think any requests to switch will go through anytime soon, but I’ll help you look. I’ll see you around.”
He gives Kato another reassuring pat before walking off towards the conference room. Kato thinks that with what Sakurai just said, he’ll never be rid of Nishikido, but he keeps Sakurai’s information about Nishikido in mind. Hopefully, like Sakurai said, Nishikido isn’t really as bad as he thinks. He considers getting a cup of coffee in for the time being.
-x-
Nishikido spins in his chair, face contorted in thought, Kamenashi, Tegoshi and Kato can only wonder if the girl is okay.
“Girl’s reports show extremely high levels of dopamine from when we took her scan. Koyama tells me that the girl’s gotten a lot less hyperactive and is suddenly emotionless now. I’m assuming that this scan is no longer an accurate reading. Ideas?”
“I raided the house and caught sight of some bottles of medication that have the labels removed. Upon investigation, the medicine is actually used for regulating the correct release of dopamine. There were also signs of alcoholism because I saw countless bottles of liquor lying in the house, in her room and in the trash. Traces and substances of cigarettes, weed, crack, blunts were left hidden in drawers, pillow and anywhere else no one would catch sight of.”
“Well that explains the extremely high dopamine.” Nishikido rolls his eyes and stops spinning.
“That would mean that all the drug intake, alcohol and stress built up her delusions.” Kato concludes.
“Yes, that would be the case. And it seems that after talking to her parents, they were very lenient with her with her alcohol use and they were also aware of the cigarettes. They wanted her to “try” only under their supervision or something. Honestly, what kinds of parents do that?” Tegoshi remarks.
“Crazy ones. Well at least we’ve got a diagnosis down. From the information the parents gave, she’s also suffering because she took the news of her sister’s death pretty badly. Her sister was killed a few months ago after having been drunk and wandering in the streets as a car came. Assumptions were made that the sister insulted someone and as revenge, she got hit. Don’t have the full details though. Regardless, she’s thinking that she might be next. Kind of like a sequential family killing to come or something.”
“From all the stuff she’s on, I wouldn’t doubt that such a thing came to her mind. So we can conclude that this is a case of schizophrenia in the context of delusions of persecution***** and depression over sibling’s death and inability to properly cope.”
“That would appear to be the case. Now go and prescribe her some antipsychotic drug to tone down the psychosis.”
“But she’s suffering from withdrawal right now. She’s extremely detached and her mind is a blank. If we use antipsychotic drugs, it’ll only increase her unemotional state.”
“Yeah well she’s in two major extremes. Either we make her high again or just keep letting her sit there like an animate vegetable and won’t cause problems. Since it’s like this, I suppose we can only try to give her anti-depressants and try to wean her off the drugs. LSD might do the trick as well. Given that it gives the psyche some reprieve, it can fix the alcoholism and work on helping her get over the depression and accept her sister’s death. Take things the slow way.”
“Fine.”
“Get to it.” Nishikido dismisses them with a wave of his hand, drinking his new Columbian roast and relaxing against his seat.
-x-
Kato, Kamenashi and Tegoshi spend the next few days watching over Yui and checking on others in the ward. They spend extra hours at the hospital because all three of them are needed. They rotate when not all of them are needed, but are present when Nishikido commands them to have a powwow about a patient’s diagnosis.
Kato thinks he understands why Nishikido’s ward needed him and possibly more people. The patient’s various chemical levels keep changing and there are always new surprises for them to take care of.
He thinks maybe that’s why Nishikido has those crinkles at such an early age.