While I wait, I use a bit of my vampire vision to see what's happening on the other side.
Through the wall, I can see Miss Marikawa on the couch. She's lying down with a medical textbook open on her stomach, wearing yellow pajamas covered in little chick prints.
Little chicks. This woman is twenty two years old.
When the doorbell rings, she lifts her head with a dazed look, glances at the screen connected to the doorbell camera, and her eyes blink twice before flying wide open.
"Huh? Arata-chan?"
She drops the book to the side and jumps up from the couch. She starts trotting down the stairs. On one of the steps she misses her footing, lets out a "uwa~", and grabs the railing just in time.
This woman seriously never changes. Well, as long as she doesn't break her neck.
She reaches the door. I hear the click of the lock, and the door swings open.
"Arata-chan, what a surp—!"
Her voice cuts off mid-word. Her amber eyes travel from my face down to my arms and lock onto Meiko. The dried blood, the bare feet covered in cuts, and the pale face.
"K-kyah! W-what happened?!"
"Good evening, Miss Marikawa. Sorry for the late hour."
"That doesn't matter right now! Come on, come on, get inside, quick!"
She steps aside and practically shoves me in with her arms, then closes the door behind us. She leads me up the stairs to her room.
We reach the fourth floor. She opens the door and ushers me inside.
"Lay her on the couch, on the couch, quick. Wait... no, better on my bed. Yes, my bed, follow me."
Her bed is a single and neatly made, white sheets with a folded blanket at the foot. There's a big stuffed bear sitting on the pillow.
"Move the bear, please."
"Got it."
I set the bear aside and lay Meiko down on the bed carefully. Her head rests on the pillow, and her silver hair, stained with blood, fans out across the white fabric. Her forehead still bears a dark red mark, and though my blood manipulation is sealing the wound, it's clear she needs real treatment.
Miss Marikawa is already running to the back room where she keeps her study supplies. She's back almost immediately, carrying a large first-aid kit, and sets it on the nightstand. She opens it and pulls out gloves, a small penlight, gauze, alcohol, saline solution, and bandages.
"How long has she been like this?"
"Around... seven or eight minutes."
Shizuka sits on the edge of the bed and leans over Meiko. She gently opens one eye, checks the pupil, and shines the penlight on it. She does the same with the other. Then she presses two fingers to her neck and goes still for a couple of seconds counting.
"Pulse is a little fast but stable, pupils are reactive, no asymmetry. That's good."
"I see."
I don't understand any of that.
She pulls on the gloves and begins cleaning the area around the wound with the saline solution.
"How strange... it looks like the bleeding stopped before she could lose too much..."
She furrows her brow as she works. At the same time, she speaks without looking up.
"So what happened? For her to end up like this..."
"She was attacked."
"Attacked by who?"
"Parasytes."
Shizuka's hands go still over Meiko's forehead as her eyes lift to meet mine.
"P-Parasytes? The ones with the heads that... open up and...?"
She makes a strange gesture with her hands over her own head. It's honestly kind of cute on her, even if Parasytes themselves are ugly.
"Umu. Those ones."
She looks back down at the wound and keeps cleaning.
"I thought those things were rare to run into..."
"Heh. There are plenty of them. The news just says they're scarce."
"And her, this girl... did they bite her? Scratch her? Any saliva in a wound? Because those aren't contagious like zombies, right? Or are they? I always mix up the details..."
"No, Parasytes aren't contagious like that. She's fine on that front. The wound is just from the blows."
Though from what I've observed, a Parasyte that has just taken a host can sometimes transfer to a new one. But there aren't many of that type left anymore, because most of them have evolved due to RC Cells and fully integrated with their host's body.
"Good, good. Thank God."
Miss Marikawa finishes cleaning and starts applying antiseptic. Meiko furrows her brow slightly in her sleep, as if it stings, but doesn't wake. Then Shizuka takes out a fine needle and thread.
"I'm going to put in a few stitches. Not many, I don't think she'll scar much if she takes care of it."
Once she finishes, she clips the thread with small scissors and places a clean piece of gauze over the wound. Then she checks the rest of her body.
"She has a lot of small cuts on her feet. She was running barefoot, wasn't she?"
"Yes."
"Alright. I'll clean those up too. I don't want them getting infected."
While she tends to the feet, she briefly looks up at me.
"She has a slight fever from the shock, but nothing more serious. Her blood pressure is stabilizing too. I think she'll wake up within a few hours."
"That's good, isn't it?"
"But there's a significant blow to the head. If I were being cautious, I'd take her to the hospital, do a scan, rule out internal bleeding, all of that. She looks fine on the outside, but you can never tell what's happening inside."
I focus on the blood flowing through Meiko's body and note that it's very stable.
"Is it necessary?"
"Necessary, necessary... mm. If no unusual symptoms show up in the next few hours, then no. But I'm not a doctor yet, Arata-chan. If something happens and I don't catch it in time..."
"If it comes to that, we'll take her."
"Huh?"
She looks up at me in surprise.
"You don't mind? I thought you didn't like hospitals."
I scratch my head. Have I given her that impression? Though it's true that in the past, every time she tried to take me to one, I'd refuse, and probably made a face about it too.
"No. What matters more to me is that she's okay."
I just didn't want to take Meiko to the hospital on my own, without an adult around. If she goes with Miss Marikawa, it's fine. I'll just need to nudge a few people's minds so they don't start asking whether I was the one who found her, and all the questions that would follow, because that's a headache.
"...Mm. Alright."
Shizuka presses her lips together for a moment, then picks up the stethoscope and moves it across Meiko's chest. She closes her eyes as she listens. Then she listens at the neck, takes her pulse again, and lifts her eyelid with the penlight.
"She's going to be alright, you know? I think she didn't lose much blood because of that strange effect on it. I'll stay up tonight to keep watch, if anything strange comes up, we take her to the hospital. Does that work for you?"
I smile.
It's a pretty wide smile, so she's a little surprised to see it.
"Then we're good. Honestly, I trust you more than I trust any other doctor."
Her cheeks go red. She looks away for a second.
"Fufu... don't say things like that, Arata-chan. A girl might start to believe them."
She leans forward slightly, and as she does, her boobs beneath the loose pajamas sways in a way that briefly pulls my attention. I get caught on those hypnotic movements for just a moment, only snapping back when she runs a hand through my hair and ruffles it.
"Ah... I didn't say it to make you believe anything. Miss Marikawa, you should have more confidence in yourself. I think you have incredible talent as a doctor."
"Sure, sure. Whatever you say, Arata-chan."
She keeps petting my head for a few more seconds, and I let her, because Shizuka's hand is warm and soft and I really don't mind at all.
After a while, she withdraws her hand and looks at Meiko again.
"By the way, Arata-chan. Who is this girl?"
"Her name is Meiko. She's my friend."
"... I wonder just how many girl friends you have at this point."
"Umu? I don't know."
She lets out a long "huuu..." sigh and shakes her head, probably worried about my future.
Well, if she ever found out that some of those friends have tried to kill me, I wonder how she'd react, this beautiful, clumsy onee-san of mine.
"Even so... poor thing. Look at what happened to her today."
She pulls another blanket from a drawer below and drapes it over Meiko up to her chin. She gently runs her hand through the silver hair as she watches her.
Then she turns to me with a more serious expression, as if remembering something important.
"Oh, right. Her parents. Do you have a number for them? We need to let them know, they must be worried sick if she hasn't come home. Or if you want, give me the address and I'll go find them myself, I don't mind. You stay here with her while..."
"That won't be necessary."
"Huh?"
"There's no need to call them or look for them."
She blinks, tilting her head to the side.
"But, Arata-chan, her parents..."
"Her mother was the parasyte."
Miss Shizuka's mouth falls slightly open as her eyes go wide again.
"...Huh? Did I hear that right?"
"Her mother. The woman she's lived with for years. That same woman is the Parasyte. And tonight, Meiko found out and was attacked by them."
"...Were there more? Her father..."
"The other one was a neighbor. He'd bring her mother 'food' in bags."
She brings her hands to her mouth without saying a word for several long seconds.
"...My God."
She looks down at Meiko. At the same time, her hand moves to gently brush the silver bangs away from the wound.
"Poor thing... poor thing..."
Her voice saying those words is very quiet.
"And... and her father? Anyone else in the family?"
"As far as I know, there's no father. She only lived with her mother. She didn't mention any aunts, uncles, or grandparents."
Shizuka lets out a long, slow sigh and looks up at me.
"Alright. Then she stays here."
"Just tonight?"
"Tonight, tomorrow, however many days it takes. She stays here and I'll take care of her. You do what you need to do, but she stays here with me until she's well, and until we talk to her and figure out what comes next."
"..."
This woman.
I smile.
Honestly, I expected nothing less from Shizuka, but even so her speed surprises me a little. She didn't stop to think for even two seconds.
And it takes a real weight off my shoulders. Taking her to the Takagi mansion was out of the question. Saya would throw a fit. Touka's place was out too, because Touka is a ghoul and it would get complicated.
I'm not even counting Rize, who would probably put a knife in her back just for being someone close to me.
"Thank you, Miss Marikawa. Truly."
"Don't thank me, don't be silly. And stop calling me Miss Marikawa, I've told you like a hundred times to call me onee-san."
"Shizuka, then."
My face twitches a little as I try to remember whether onee-san is what I would have called her originally.
"Mou~ Arata-chan, you're so mean to your onee-san. But fine, Shizuka is better I suppose."
She smiles a little, then stands, peels off her gloves and drops them into a small separate bag.
"I'm going to put the kettle on for tea. Want some? You look tired. And your clothes are in tatters, do you want a change of clothes too?"
"Yes, please."
That's Mrs. Kiriko's fault. She had absolutely no qualms about tearing me apart.
"Looks like you managed to get away without getting hurt, huh? That's a relief. Alright, come to the kitchen then. We'll let her rest, I'll come check on her every twenty minutes."
I nod and follow her out of the room.
Before I leave, I glance back at Meiko asleep beneath the blanket, forehead bandaged, silver hair spread against the white pillow, beside the big stuffed bear that Shizuka must have quietly put back at her side at some point.