Chapter 41: Sickness is in the Air - Part 1
I received a text early in the morning from Kanako.
come over please
This was the first time she'd ever asked me to go over. Based on the message, I didn't really know what was going on, but it sounded important. It wasn't like I had anything else I wanted to do. Fujiharu wasn't going to be inviting me to go out any time soon. I put on my normal clothes and began making my way over.
A few minutes later, I arrived at the front of her grand apartment complex. I scanned my keycard to enter the main reception area before getting on the elevator. I had hardly ever seen a receptionist at the desk, I guess they must only be working during weekdays around school hours.
Eventually, I was at her door. I knocked a few times but received no response.
"Kanako, can I come in?"
Still no response.
I decided to just scan my keycard and enter. I doubt that she'd get mad if she was the one who called me over. The door clicked and I walked into a very messy house.
For some reason, Kanako was still nowhere to be seen.
"Kanako, why did you call me over?"
I walked around the apartment looking for her; I checked basically every room, and the only room left was her own room. Her door was closed, so I knocked a few times. Finally, I managed to hear a faint voice.
"...Mizuhara..."
I decided to open her door. I was met by the sight of a very tired and unwell Kanako huddled up in her bed. I slowly walked over—it was obvious that she was definitely quite sick.
"How are you feeling?" I asked
"...not great..."
"How come you called me? Couldn't you have called your father?"
She hid her face under the blanket.
Oh well.
"Are you hungry?" I asked
"...yes... can you make some rice gruel?"
"Rice gruel?"
"...yes please."
I guess I could make that—it wasn't exactly a complex dish.
I made my way over to her very large kitchen and looked through a few of her cupboards.
She sure has a lot of junk food.
From chips to biscuits to chocolate, her pantry was chock-full of these foods.
After a little bit of searching, I managed to find where she kept her rice. I scooped some into a pot before washing it through. Then, I filled the pot with a large amount of water.
Now, I assumed I just had to cook this at low heat.
It usually took quite a few minutes to cook, so I made my way over to the living room couch. I contemplated going back into Kanako's room, but it'd probably be better if she got some rest.
I honestly wasn't exactly the best person to invite over to take care of a sick person.
I probably should tell her father about this, but I guess I'll hold off for a little while. It seemed she didn't want her father to know for some reason.
A little while later, I walked back over to the kitchen and checked on the rice gruel I was cooking. From what I could see, it seemed to be done. I poured it into a bowl and added some chopped-up spring onion. Steam was radiating from the bowl yet there wasn't much aroma. Such was the nature of rice gruel.
I put a spoon into the bowl and made my way into Kanako's room again. It seemed that she was still awake.
"I've got your food."
"...thanks."
I placed it on her bedside table as she slowly got up to a seated position. Now that more of her body was out of the blanket, I could see that she was sweating quite a bit. I placed my hand on her forehead—she definitely had a fever. Based on what I could see, I assumed that she either had a cold or the flu.
"...sorry for making you do all this."
"It's fine."
She leaned over and grabbed the bowl of rice gruel from the bedside table. After scooping a few mouthfuls into her mouth, she smiled a little.
"I-it's good."
She continued to slowly eat the food I made.
"Do you have any medicine?" I asked.
"Eh... I don't think so..."
"I'll go get some, you just stay here and rest."
"A-are you sure...?"
"Don't worry, your father will pay me back."
"Hehe."
With that, I left as she continued to eat the rice gruel.
There was a convenience store nearby where I could get some medication. It was around a five-minute walk before I arrived at the small corner store. Inside, I looked around at the medications they had on sale. I guess all I really needed was something to deal with the symptoms. I got some anti-inflammatories and decongestants and took them over to the counter. I also grabbed some green tea.
"That'll be $17.99."
I tapped my phone.
I made my way back to the apartment complex and made the pointlessly long journey from the entrance to her room again. I scanned my keycard before opening her front door. With the medication in hand, I made my way over to her room.
It seemed she had already finished the rice gruel I made and was lying down in her bed again.
"Kanako, I've got some medicine for you."
"Oh, um, t-thank you."
I poured the medicine out onto her spoon and fed it into her mouth. I left the green tea and anti-inflammatory tablets by her bed.
"If you're thirsty or your throat hurts, you can have these."
After that, I began making my way out of her room.
"...Mizuhara, can you stay...?"
"You want me to stay here?"
"...y-yes."
"I suppose."
I decided to take a seat on the ground, leaning against her bed. I didn't bring anything with me aside from my phone, so there wasn't much I could do.
"...Mizuhara."
"Yes?"
"...sorry about all of this."
"You know, I'm going to have to bill your father extra for all of this overtime."
"...eh?"
"Just kidding, I don't really mind."
I looked over at her and saw a faint smile on her face.
I decided to take this moment to relax. The last few days have been a bit more action-packed than I'd have liked.
Chapter 42: Sickness is in the Air - Part 2
A few minutes later, I looked over at Kanako who was fast asleep.
I guess I can go somewhere else now.
**
I was sitting on her couch, watching some random stuff on the television. A few hours passed since she fell asleep and it seemed that she was awake again. She had gotten out of bed and was standing at her doorway.
"Mizuhara..."
I looked over.
"Yeah? You're awake?"
"Yes..."
"How are you feeling?"
"A little bit better... my body is still a bit sore..."
I made my way over.
"You should probably get some more re—"
"Mizuhara, teach me..."
"Teach you?"
"We have some exams next week..."
"You should rest up until you feel better."
"No... we don't have much time..."
That was true.
I guess doing some schoolwork wouldn't be too much of a strain on her body. I made my way over to her desk and looked at the books she had. From what I could tell, it seemed that she was seriously studying even when I wasn't here.
I had taught her English, maths and science to an extent. The last thing was humanities, which shouldn't be too difficult. I grabbed her history textbook and had a quick read of it. Most of the questions were somewhat subjective, so I tried to select a wide variety.
Kanako was standing beside me, looking somewhat lethargic.
"Alright, complete the questions I set."
"O-kay~"
She took a seat at her desk and began working hard on the work I set for her.
She's come quite far from the first time I worked with her.
"You can take a seat if you want," she said.
"I'll go grab one."
"It's okay. You can sit on my bed if you want."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I guess."
I took a seat on her soft pink bed and looked over as she worked.
She was still struggling quite heavily with the questions I set her. However, she was constantly reading through her textbook trying to find the answer. Every few seconds, she'd flip through her textbook, rereading paragraphs and highlighting sentences. Even though she took almost 10 minutes to do a question, she appeared to be quite satisfied with her answer.
"Have you done the first question?" I asked
"Yeah, I just finished it."
I got up and looked at the work she did.
"It's right."
"Really?"
"You might want to include the phrase primary evidence, but aside from that, it's correct."
She showed a beaming smile, and immediately after, her expression went back to normal.
She turned back around, looking down at her page, happily reading the next question.
I sat back down and looked at my phone. I had received a text from Okamoto.
—We're going to the beach this afternoon, do you want to come?
I guess it could be fun.
"Hey Kanako, will you be alright this afternoon?"
"Huh? What's the matter?"
"I want to go down to the beach with some friends."
"Well, I might die, but aside from that, I'll be fine."
"Eh?"
"You can go if you want, I guess."
She gave me a glare and then turned around to continue doing her work.
What was that supposed to mean?
She scribbled down answers as she read through the textbook. For almost 30 minutes straight, she didn't look up at anything else. She was completely focused on her work.
I got up and brought the green tea I had bought over to her.
"Here, stay hydrated."
"O-oh, thank you."
Suddenly, she looked away from me.
What?
She took two large gulps of the tea and then turned her attention back to the questions she was doing.
Almost an hour later, she finally finished all of the questions I set her and she handed her workbook to me.
"I'm done."
"Good job."
I read through her answers.
From what I could see, she was clearly struggling with some of the more complex questions. Most of her answers were missing keywords and specific key points which would've definitely cost her marks in a real test. However, compared to the first day, she was much better, almost getting half of the questions correct.
I put the book in front of her and began explaining some of the mistakes she made.
"You need to focus on including all of the keywords."
"How do I know what words to include?"
I flipped through a few pages of the textbook and started to highlight some words.
"You can generally find the keywords by seeing and identifying the most important words in some of the dot points."
I gave her an example by highlighting some of the words which were in the textbook.
"Just make sure you include these words in your answers, this is quite important to ensure you get full marks for the questions you understand."
"I see."
I had a look at a few of her other mistakes. It seemed that she struggled to make conclusions based on specific pieces of information. I decided to write down some tips for her like I did the previous few subjects and left it as a note beside her.
"Take a look at these tips before answering a question."
"Okay."
I picked up her textbook again and circled a few more questions. Now that I knew what she needed to focus on, I could target those specific weaknesses. I was surprised that none of her other tutors was able to identify her common errors like this. There was a pretty clear pattern to the things she struggled with.
I placed the textbook down and allowed her to try the questions.
She was making progress pretty quickly. At this rate, she should be able to pass her next exams.
Now that I thought about it, I guess once she passes her exams I'll be relieved of my duty for the most part. Her father could technically continue to threaten me and force me to continue but I wasn't going to let that happen. I only begrudgingly accepted the first time because he offered a good salary and I felt a little bit of gratitude for his funding of the Ideal Human Project.
He wasn't going to be able to manipulate me again.
Forty minutes later, she finished the next set of questions I set for her.
She improved quite a bit from the first set. From what I could see, as long as she continued to practice with my advice, she'll be able to improve on her own.
I guess I'll get ready to go to the beach.
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