University Hospital of South Baden, Southern US.

I arrived in America and was invited to a room in a huge hospital, relying on the letter of introduction Renji-san gave me.

After being introduced, I was confronted by a beautiful doctor wearing a large white coat.

She was also Japanese, her name was Yuri Kashiwagi.

She was 16 years old, the same as me.

After coming to the U.S, she apparently skipped grades and became a drug developer, and offered to take charge of the clinical trial for the new drug for “hypertrophy” that she had developed.

What a story of an American prodigy. No wonder she’s so pompous.

Such a girl was crossing her beautiful legs and languidly speaking in English.

“You’re gonna have one h**l of a time.”

“ —Eh?”

I questioned, sitting in the chair in front of her.

I must have misheard her because I was busy admiring her beautiful legs and face.

I guess she got “h**l” and “health” mixed up or something.

“I’m sorry, my English is still inexperienced and I don’t understand… What does it mean in Japanese?”(E/N: Not sure about his level of fluency in English so I’ll leave his sentences in English as it is even if there are grammatical errors.)

I asked in faltering English, and so she replied in fluent Japanese.

“You’re gonna have a h**l of a time.”

“Well, how about in French?”

Unfortunately, it’s the same in every language. The meaning doesn’t change.

“I was just wondering if going through a few languages might make it a little better when you come back to English.”

“The ‘h**l’ part can be changed to ‘heaven,’ but then it would be too late.”

While listening to what sounded like a genuine American joke, I decided to ask for more information about the treatment.

Kashiwagi-san opens her mouth looking troubled.

“You do know that ‘hypertrophy’ is a disease in which fat expands as it absorbs water, don’t you? This could certainly be remedied with medication…”

Kashiwagi-san continues her story with a Ramune Candy in her mouth, perhaps as a substitute for cigarettes.

I listened quietly, thinking I kind of missed it.

“But your own body has to do the work of pushing the water out of the fat. To burn and sweat from the inside out. In other words, you need to exercise.”

Next, Kashiwagi-san spread out several documents from her desk showing the past test subjects.

The word ‘retired’ was printed on the paper in both cases.

“The drug will not be effective with half-hearted exercises. And the longer you wait, the less effective the medicine itself becomes. More than 90% of hypertrophic patients are shut-ins because of their appearance, and they have never exercised. And then suddenly they’re put on a drink restriction, and they have to work out intensely every day…”

Kashiwagi-san took the Ramune candy away from her mouth and let out a sigh as if she were exhaling smoke.

“As you can see, most of them gave up on the treatment along the way.”

I’m beginning to understand a little more about what Kashiwagi-san means by “h**l”.

[Postscript]

I’ve got a good plot for the treatment section, so I hope you’ll read it all the way through! (I plan to keep it short!)

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