COTE : Parasite in Love.

Chapter 11 : So Good It Bugs Me

The car stopped outside a medical clinic on the outskirts of town. The trip felt like about 15 minutes, but maybe having so much to think about numbed Ayanokouji’s sense of time, and it was really several times longer. Or maybe the opposite, and it was less than half that.

At any rate, they surely hadn’t traveled too much of a distance, but in that span of minutes or dozens of minutes, the scenery changed completely. It was white as far as the eye could see.

The area was surrounded by mountains, and the clinic was the only building within view. A sign marking a bus stop stood out on the roadside, and next to it were two pathetically old wood seats. The sign and the seats were covered with thick snow, so a bus driver would be liable to overlook it. Suffice to say, it was a cold place.

The car stopped, and was enveloped with silence. After a breath, Tsukishiro opened the door and got out of the car. Ayanokouji and Hiyori followed. When their feet touched the ground, there was a crunching feeling of stepping on snow. Only the front entrance had been plowed, so most of the large parking lot had snow piled up high enough for your ankles to sink in.

The clinic was a tidy but melancholy-feeling building. The outer wall was milk white as if intentionally trying to blend in with the snow, so its shape was fuzzy from a distance. The numerous icicles hanging from the roof were over a meter long at longest, and looked ready to fall from their own weight any moment.

On the wall by the entrance was a sign reading “Urizane Clinic.” Through the door was a cramped waiting room with three brown sofas in a row. The fluorescent lighting’s life seemed almost up, as the room was dim, and the linoleum floors with a slippery glow were an impure greenish color, giving the impression they were growing mold. In the corner was a decorative plant that was so tall, it really didn’t mesh with the small room.

There were three patients in the waiting room, all old people. They were talking about something quietly, and looked toward Ayanokouji and the others when they entered, but quickly returned to their conversation.

A women in her thirties with a face like a Noh mask operated the reception desk. She bowed her head lightly when she saw Tsukishiro, then as if that were the end of that, lowered her head and returned to work.

Tsukishiro stopped outside the examining room, and urged Ayanokouji to go inside.
“Urizane has something to talk to you about,” Tsukishiro informed him. “We’ll be out in the waiting room. Come right back once you’re done.”

Ayanokouji nodded, then looked to Hiyori. It seemed she was about to look him in the eye, then she averted her gaze and headed to the waiting room, leaving Tsukishiro behind.

Ayanokouji knocked on the door, and heard a voice inside say “Come in.”

He opened the door and entered the examining room. At a desk left from the entrance sat an aging man who looked like a doctor. His short-trimmed hair was pure white, and his eyebrows and thick mustache were similarly so. On his brow was a deep wrinkle like a scar from something. He must be Director Urizane, Ayanokouji guessed.

Urizane looked up from the desk and turned around. His revolving chair creaked as he moved.

“Take a seat, please.”

Ayanokouji sat down in the patient’s seat.
Urizane looked all over Ayanokouji’s body as if appraising him. At the time, Ayanokouji didn’t know that this old man was Hiyori’s grandfather, so he didn’t think deeply about what those looks meant.

“How much have you heard?”, Urizane asked.

Ayanokouji recalled the conversation in the car. “There’s a new kind of parasite in my head, and that "worm” is making me fall in love and become unfit for society. That’s it.“