Getting to work on the patients, he was about to start with Gabbie, but after one look, he turned to the detective.
Eyes narrowing, Riven reached out and grabbed the doctor's arm. "I said I need you to save Gabbie; she is more of a priority," he stated.
"I know what I'm doing," he shot back before snatching his arm away.
"She has more time than him because of what I assume is your handy work," he said, referring to the seal on her back.
"However, he is going to get blood poisoning by that spike in his torso soon. If you indeed want to save both of them, let me work or take them to a new doctor," he said before turning his attention back to the detective.
Relenting, he sighed shortly before apologizing, briefly shocking the doc because he never heard an apology or even a thank you come out of that boy, not even when he grew back his arm after getting it blown off in a fight with Ryuji.
"Don't apologize; just get over here and help me remove this spike," he said while gesturing for him to come over.
Walking over, the doc took his hand and guided them to the base of the giant spike.
"I need you to pull it straight; any other way and you'll clip something very vital, and he'll die before I can use my magic to save him."
"Okay," Riven replied while nodding.
"Alright, on three."
"One...two..." he said as his hands started to glow green.
Three
Instantly, Riven ripped the spike straight out, and in the same instant, the doc's hand glowed a bright green, and before the blood could gush out, the muscle and tissues formed at an almost instant pace, quickly closing the body up.
Breathing a sigh of relief, the doctor wiped the sweat that formed on his brow.
"Time to get to the real work," he stated as he cracked his knuckles.
The doctor began with the burns. Placing both glowing hands an inch above the detective's ravaged backside, the green light spread outward in fractal patterns that looked half-organic, half-circuit-board.
"Third-degree bordering fourth," he muttered. "Charred muscle, exposed fascia, nerve death in patches. Standard regen would take weeks or months."
"But I'm me," he said with a grin.
Then with a low hum, the green energy sank into the tissue like roots seeking water.
Dead skin sloughed away in fine ash-like flakes that the doctor's secondary spell vacuumed into a sterile collector jar. Beneath, fresh pink granulation tissue bloomed at an accelerated rate, knitting upward in visible waves.
Capillaries spiderwebbed across the new surface, then veins, then thicker vessels. Not even taking a second, he quickly moved on.
"Science and magic aren't really that different," he said, more to himself than to anyone else.
"Both have their own laws that have to be followed for a proper solution, and while both contradict each other, they can't outright beat or disapprove of each other," he said, muttering his favorite quote that he came up with to focus and take off the buzz he was just drowning in not five minutes ago.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Reaching for a sleek chrome injector on the nearby tray—his own design, a hybrid of nanite delivery and alchemical catalyst.
Pressing the needle into the detective's neck, he pushed down on the syringe, unleashing millions of tiny blue machines that flooded the bloodstream, racing like rats to the worst-damaged zones.
Where the detective's own magic was used as a power source to rebuild the macrostructure, the nanites targeted cellular repair.
Looking down at his patient, he muttered to himself, "Mitochondria reactivation, DNA fidelity checks, scar-tissue suppression."
The burns visibly receded, layer by layer, being replaced with healthier and healthier cells until only fresh, unscarred skin remained—paler than the rest of his body.
Riven watched in silence, arms crossed. The detective let in a full breath while color slowly returned to his face.
"Now the woman," he said, while already in motion.
Turning his attention to Gabbie, he gazed at her as she lay on her side, her breathing slow and her eyes fully closed.
"She held out as long as she could," he thought.
Gabbie lay on her side, still pale, the smoke seal on her lower back a glossy black patch that pulsed faintly with Riven's heartbeat. The doctor peeled it away with a gentle wave—Riven let it dissolve without protest—and immediately pressed his palms to either side of the spinal injury.
"The renal arteries were nicked, the vena cava was slightly grazed, and there are possible aortic micro-tears. Which has been leaking into the retroperitoneum.
"Your quick thinking bought her thirty minutes and a definite possibility of a full recovery," he said while looking up at Riven just to see if his face would react to this.
But no, not a hint. Just a plain glare that seemed as if he were a statue or something.
"What happened to him?" he wondered. But that thought had to be put on pause as a groan from his patient took him back to his task.
"After this is done, you're going to answer all my questions," he said more as a statement than a request.
Raising his hands as before, green light erupted from them once again, but this time it split, with one stream tracing the spinal cord like a glowing filament and the other diving deep toward the major vessels.
The doctor used his free hand to operate a holographic interface that projected above the bed while he whispered coordinates—L1-L2 vertebrae, T12 nerve roots. Scans rotated in midair, revealing a fractured spinous process pinching the cauda equina, a slow seep from the vena cava, and a torn intima of the renal artery.
He began with the bleeding. In a matter of seconds, a concentrated green energy pulse cauterized and regenerated the vascular endothelium, sealing the renal arteries with fresh, supple tissue. Then came the vena cava, which was made up of muscle fibers that, like threads on a loom, wound back together in the light.
To treat the microtears in the aorta, he employed a different injector that contained precursors of regenerative stem cells combined with a clotting factor analog. The blood pressure almost instantly stabilized, and all of the holographic vitals spiked green.
It was more difficult with the spine: "Edema pressing on the nerves, cord contusion. Because the signals are not getting through, the legs are numb. He made a circuit with one hand at the base of her skull and the other at her sacrum.
A slow, oscillating wave of green light moved up and down the cord like a purifying tide. Inflammation markers decreased on the holo-display, and swelling was clearly reduced. While the nanites removed cellular debris and encouraged remyelination, damaged myelin sheaths rebuilt themselves strand by strand under the guidance of the magic.
Gabbie's breathing deepened. Her fingers twitched—once, twice—then curled weakly.
Narrowing his eyes, he moved down her body before lying on her legs and pinching hard. Seeing a wince of pain cross of her face and her leg jerk away from his grasp
Exhaling hard, a temporary smile crossed his face before he stepped back. "She'll be up and walking again by tomorrow. But the man, he might need a couple of days of bed rest," he said as he turned to him and wrapped up the finishing touches.
With a final sweep of green light, he erased the last traces of internal bruising and stabilized fractured ribs; the spike had cracked on its way through. The man's chest rose and fell evenly now, color returning to his lips.
"Are you sure that it's—" Riven asked, only to get an ugly look from an ugly face.
"Do I look like an amateur to you? Who do you think you're talking to, brat?"
Looking at him, he just apologized.
Stripping off his gloves, he tossed them into a biohazard chute.
"Stop saying that; if you're going to say it with that tone, it's like you're mocking me," he said as he turned to look at Riven, who was still looking at Gabbie with a blank stare.
"Now," he started, grabbing his attention. "Are you going to tell me what the hell happened to you, brat? Because whatever you are now... it isn't what you were."
