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The Dao Guild cafeteria at late afternoon was past the lunch rush but not quiet enough to be empty. Hunters back from morning gates, guild staff on rotating shifts, and Henry Hess, who had claimed an entire table for himself and was working through two plates of food with complete focus.
Ren spotted him from the entrance and immediately pivoted to leave.
"Ahh, No—"
Ren's hand clamped over Henry's mouth before the second syllable.
"Shh," Ren said. "Just call me Doctor now, Henry."
Henry blinked. Ren removed his hand.
"Ahh, okay, Ren."
"No shit I'm Doctor. Duh. Are you deaf?"
"Ahh, sorry, sorry. My mouth is zipped."
Ren looked at him. "I don't know if I should trust your zip or not."
"Whoa there." Henry held up both hands. "I'm a Grandmaster of the Dao Guild, bro. Have some faith."
"Yeah, yeah. Power and brain are different things, my dear Henry."
Henry opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
"Pfft. You're still the same No—"
Ren's death glare arrived before Henry finished the word.
"Ah." Henry cleared his throat. "I guess you're right, Doc."
"Haa."
They went through the food line. Ren took whatever looked least likely to require explanation and Henry added a second plate on top of his first without breaking stride. They found seats at Henry's table and sat down.
"Sooo, Doc." Henry pointed his chopsticks at Ren's face. "Where's your mask."
"It's like this." Ren settled back in his chair. "Long story."
He told it. He covered the confrontation with Malvick, the declared death, the four months, the clinic on the forty-fourth floor, the Abominations, the military report, Bone Saw outside the door at this exact moment wearing a titanium skull over his own skull, all of it.
Henry ate through the whole thing. He was quiet for a while after Ren finished.
"Shit, Doc." He set his chopsticks down.
"Why the hell would they do that? Even if you were wrong about something, they should have at least contracted the guild to handle it. That's what protocol is for." He stabbed at a piece of meat.
"And if you really are Legendary rank and you decided to fight without holding back, how many civilians would have died? Those stupid bastards."
"Thank you for getting angry on my behalf," Ren said.
"Even if it's already too late."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I have a plan. It'll take some time but it will work."
"Sure, sure." Henry picked up his chopsticks again.
"Just make sure you don't die again, Doc. You're probably the only person who has ever survived a confrontation with both Malvick Siven and Gregory Hood and come out doing better than before." He pointed the chopsticks.
"You don't even hunt. You went dark for four months and came back with abilities that make Legendary hunters nervous." He shook his head.
"Han became a Chimera Alchemist. Full S-rank." Henry pointed the chopsticks again. "You're a surprise, Doc."
Ren smiled. "I'm quite great, aren't I."
Henry narrowed his eyes.
"Man, when you say it like that I don't want to praise you anymore."
"That was the intention."
"Hahahaha, you're funnier than before, Doc."
"I was always funny."
"Pfft." Henry pulled his second plate forward.
"Tell me about your patients. I want to hear about a fellow survivor."
"You talk like getting cured by me is a bad thing."
"Well, if they didn't come out as a functional human being afterward I consider them survivors. Like me."
Ren looked at him. "You were fully conscious during your procedure and you screamed for forty minutes."
"Survivor," Henry said firmly, and kept eating.
.
.
.
"Hmm." The voice came from two tables over, where a middle-aged man in an alchemist's robe had been watching their table. He squinted.
"That man sitting with Henry seems familiar."
"Old Han!" The girl beside him grabbed his arm. Irene, twenty-one, A-rank hunter, had gone slightly pink in the cheeks. "That's Ren. That's him."
"Who?"
"Ren. Nox. The Doctor. The one from the black gate." She was already standing up. "Let's go talk to him."
"Ah, Irene, wait—"
She was already moving. Han followed.
They arrived at the table. Henry waved. Ren looked up at them.
Old Han shook Ren's hand with both of his. "It's genuinely good to see you alive," he said, and meant it.
Irene immediately called him Doc. The name stuck in about three seconds.
"I have new abilities," Ren said. "Do you want to see what I can do?"
"Ahh, I actually have something I need to get done," Old Han said.
"Me too," Irene said, moving half a step toward the exit.
"I forgot to flush the toilet," she said.
Three people stared at her.
"That came out wrong," she said.
"I'll let Old Han and Henry go," Ren said, looking at Irene.
"But you're still A-rank, aren't you, Irene?"
Irene's face changed.
"I have things to do," she said.
"I can give you a power-up. Bring you to S-rank range, at minimum."
"Important things. Urgent things."
"It won't take long."
"I need to call my mother."
"Irene."
"I think my plant is dying."
Henry leaned over to Old Han.
"Should I tell her she's not actually going anywhere?"
"Give her a moment," Han said.
Irene looked at the exit, then at Ren, then at Henry, then at the exit again.
Henry stood up.
"If you don't go willingly," Henry said
"I'll go instead. Then you'll have to explain to the guild why you let me get dissected while you went to flush a toilet."
"You wouldn't."
"I very much would."
Old Han sighed. "Sorry, Irene."
Before she could move, Henry had her by the back of her jacket and Old Han had her feet, and she was horizontal and off the ground in about two seconds.
"Put me down. Put me down right now. I will file a report. I will file seventeen reports. Henry, I know where you live. Old Han, I thought you were on my side, you traitor—"
"Sorry, Ms. Irene," Han said.
"NOOOOOOO—"
Ren was already walking toward the clinic wing. He turned once to look at his companions: Henry holding Irene's upper half over one shoulder, Old Han carrying her legs, Irene continuing to enumerate her grievances at volume.
"Let's go, comrades," Ren said, and turned back.
Henry and Han followed.
At a table near the wall, two junior guild members watched the entire thing unfold.
"Did you just see Master Henry and Master Han tie up Irene and carry her away with that new doctor?"
The other one thought about it. "Those three all came back from the black gate together, right?"
"Yeah."
"Han said the inside of that gate was wrong in a way he couldn't describe. Henry said he doesn't talk about it." She watched Irene disappear around the corner, still audible.
"I think the gate did something to all three of them. Brain damage, maybe."
"That explains a lot, honestly."
"It really does."
They went back to their food.