I Do Not Dream Of Eating Your Pancreas (IWTEYP x Seishun Buta Yarō)

Chapter 9: An Impossible Mission

Joining with everyone else at the table, I noticed there seemed to be someone missing. "I asked Kaede if she wouldn't mind going to her friend's a little earlier tonight, I figured it would be for the best." Sakuta spoke up as I had looked around the table, noticing the empty chair. I nodded, still a bit shaken up from my encounter with Kyoko.

Mai and Rio had a look of concern on their face, clearly Sakuta had given them a brief rundown after he had left his post outside the bathroom door. Rio spoke up first. "If it's any consolation, tomorrow will be a fresh start and that whole situation will have never actually happened, unless you boys plan to romp around the beach again."

I cracked a slight smile, appreciative of the effort. Mai, however, was a bit harsher. "Just because she's upset, she shouldn't have lashed out at you like that. Unfortunately, you can't exactly expect an apology. But the nerve of her, if she knew what you were going through..." Sakuta cut her off, placing his hand on hers.

"It is what it is. I think it's best if we move on to hopefully better news, you do have some better news for us, right Rio?" I noticed that instead of the one notebook that she had brought to lunch, she now had three stacked in front of her.

Rio quickly flipped through the first notebook in the stack, finding her starting point. "In regards to having an ultimate solution, I'm sorry to say I don't have one for you. But, I think I may have found a way to merge the two versions of you once you figure out how to save her."

I immediately sat up. True, saving Sakura was my ultimate goal. But what if I saved her only to still wake up trapped in this loops? Trying to not sound over excited, I asked the only question that mattered. "What do I have to do?"

Rio pulled the magnets she used during our lunch out of her pocket. "You remember what I said regarding how you essentially are reversed from Sakura? Well, again this is just a theory, but it may be possible to reverse that effect which should merge the two versions of you back to one."

She flipped a few more pages in her notebook before continuing. "Throughout history, medicine has been practiced both through pharmaceutical as well as natural, and sometimes considered mystical methods. I don't think you'll be able to go to a pharmacy and pick up a prescription, but after doing some research, I found references throughout history of medicine men treating cases that couldn't be explained any other way than unnatural."

I felt a shiver as she spoke those words, as though we were speaking of things that were best left undiscovered. She had turned the notebook around so the rest of us could see. On the open pages, there was an anatomical photo of a man, with lines pointing out specific areas of the body. I tried to read what they said, but it was too small for me to make it out clearly.

"Acupuncture has been used as a healing method for years, but from my research it looks like things were done to focus on a more metaphysical level in those days. Most of this research is buried and hard to find, thankfully the lab I work at has a direct access line to the local municipal office, so we are able to access it."

I thought about all of the needles used during acupuncture, and instinctively flinched. I never had an issue with needles before, getting shots over the years was never a big deal. But simply having a needle in your arm for a few moments was a lot less scary than having to lay down with dozens of needles in your body.

"Don't worry, it wouldn't require a ton of needles like normal acupuncture, but it still will require using a decent amount." She turned the page again, this time showing a similar photo but with certain areas highlighted. "From the research, these would be the areas required for this to work."

I quickly counted how many spots were highlighted, giving up once I got to thirty. "And how sure are you that this would work?" She quickly did some mental math. "I give this plan a 60% of working. It's not perfect, I'll admit it. There's some more steps involved but none of them involve anything like needles being poked into you."