章 180: Chapter 51.1
A/N: This chapter takes place right after chapter 44 and during the events of the previous few chapters, just from several other characters' perspectives. So basically, we see what everyone else was doing while Jason was running around.
"Touchan!" Asami rushed to her father, weaving past the bodyguards and paramedics as she ran towards him. "Are you hurt? What happened? OMG, you are, like, bleeding, really badly. Oh, oh my god, are you gonna die?"
"Chibi, you're panicking. Calm down and take a deep brea - ouch!" Mr. Chiba was sitting in the back of an ambulance and he raised a hand to stop Asami from screaming before he himself yelped in pain. A Medi-bot stood over him and was dabbing the cut that was above his eyebrow with antiseptic while Mrs. Chiba, who stood next to him, began frowning when she saw him wince and whine.
"Stop squirming," she scolded Chiba lightly in Japanese. "It's just a flesh wound, it shouldn't hurt so much."
Chiba smiled but said nothing in response; he was aware that his wife was simply fussing over him in her own tsundere manner. He gazed at her with a stupid smile, filled with infatuation, on his face and Asami visibly gagged at their reaction.
"Ok . . . seeing as you two can flirt, it's obvious that you're, like, totally fine," Asami rolled her eyes and moved away from them. "So, I'm just gonna move over here. You know, away from you two lovebirds. Die, riajuu."
Asami whispered the last part under her breath, but Chiba failed to hear it. Her mother, on the other hand, heard it clearly and glared at her daughter who laughed it off with a nervous chuckle.
"Ah, wait a - ouch!" Chiba tried standing up but fell back down almost immediately, holding his head with gritted teeth and both his wife and daughter looked over him with worry while the Medi-bot examined his eyes.
"Please refrain from excessive movement until you've had a checkup," the Medi-bot said mechanically. "We've yet to determine if you have suffered a concussion."
"What he said," a paramedic, who emerged from inside the ambulance, said while chewing a piece of gum and gesturing at the Medi-bot. "Protocols are to have you sent to the hospital, Mr. Chiba."
"First, I'm busy: I have a meeting with General Sato in two hours. In case you haven't noticed, there's a diplomatic crisis going on and I have a duty to protect my people, possibly from this very city," Chiba said slowly. "Second, I'm not wasting eight hours in the ER waiting for a doctor to do a checkup then say there's nothing wrong. I just need an aspirin." [1]
Or . . . you could just pay for the VIP ward, Asami thought with a roll of her eyes. Her father's stinginess has never ceased to surprise her.
"Yeah-huh, awesome," the paramedic barely listened to Mr. Chiba and instead went through a handful of digital notes that were holographically floating in front of her while blowing a bubble with the gum in her mouth before popping it. "Right, we gotta check if you had spinal damage too. After all, that was a nasty crash and you did fall on your head."
"Did you not hear a word I said?" Chiba asked, completely exasperated at how crass the paramedic was.
"Hmm? You say something?" the paramedic pretended to not hear Chiba and instead asked sarcastically. The latter looked on speechlessly while Asami raised an eyebrow and examined the feisty paramedic; she was already liking her. "Oh, you agree to getting a checkup? Great! That's perfect. Let's get a move on, M guy."
The paramedic spoke to the Medi-bot, patting the robot on the shoulder before moving to help Chiba into the ambulance trunk. Mr. Chiba turned to look at Asami and her mom for help, but both shrugged nonchalantly like it couldn't be helped.
"The patient hasn't confirmed his approval of transportation to the hospital," the Medi-bot stated overtly and the paramedic paused and rolled her eyes.
"You see his family complaining?" the paramedic asked while blowing a bubble with her gum as she cocked a thumb towards Asami and her mom.
". . . No," the Medi-bot turned to Asami and Mrs. Chiba for a moment before turning back to the paramedic.
"Then that's your answer, M guy. Now stop whining and help me get him in the stretcher."
"Wait a sec, at least let me speak to my daughter," Chiba tried to protest as the paramedic eased him into the stretcher.
"You can have a nice chat with your daughter as we drive you to the hospital," the paramedic answered before gesturing at Mrs. Chiba and Asami to enter the ambulance as well. "They're both welcome to come along."
[1] Free healthcare like how it is in Canada, but with the same lousy waiting times due to a lack of doctors. Of course, this is only for those looking to use the free healthcare, there are also private wards that are faster but much more expensive.
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