A 30 Year Old Virgin (One Who Haven’t Even Interacted with Women) Took an Exam to Become a Wizard.

Volume 2- Chapter 08: A Stroll in a Wheelchair

My body reacted to the sound of something falling, and I instinctively opened the door and rushed into the room. It was a four-bed room, but there was only one patient—Sakuragi Mika, sprawled on the floor between her bed and a wheelchair.

She must have knocked the wheelchair over herself. She was trying to get up, but she didn’t have the strength in her arms or legs, so she couldn’t get up. She just struggled helplessly.

I knew that she couldn’t move her legs, but I didn’t realize how much it affected her daily life. Tears welled up in her eyes as she tapped her uncooperative legs in frustration.

“Why won’t you move? It’s pathetic that I can’t even move just because of bone cancer… Move, please move.”

Mika’s illness is osteosarcoma. It’s a type of cancer that forms in the bones. It commonly affects people in their teens or twenties. If it’s discovered before it spreads, the five-year survival rate is 70%. For someone like me, who isn’t knowledgeable about medicine, I don’t know if that’s high or low. Is the surgery still to come, or has it already ended?

Mika’s death was initially announced as a medical error, but 10 years later, the truth came out. A note left by the late Saenai Yousuke was found, revealing his plan to kill her. Was her illness or surgery related to his plan? Either way, the murder was still carried out before she died of natural causes. Nurse Saenai Yousuke would kill her the day after Mari was discharged from the hospital, which was in four days.

Mika struggled to get up, and I hesitated, unsure if I should help her. I silently cheered her on, but she was stuck, unable to get past the spinning wheels of the wheelchair. She suddenly looked up at me, her eyes glaring.

“Hey, Stalker-kun. Is it that funny to see me fall?”

Stalker? In a way, it was true in multiple senses. So, I couldn’t really deny it.

“I was cheering for you in my heart.”

“Instead of cheering me on in your heart, why don’t help me, Stalker-kun. You’re Morishita-san’s stepson, right?”

“You know my identity?”

“Don’t underestimate the network of nurses. You were trying to put panties on your own stepmother, weren’t you?”

This woman… Her expression was usually blank, but she had a sharp tongue. And damn that Mari.

I wondered why I hadn’t realized it earlier. She had told me that she had been talking to Mika about her situation, so it made sense that Mika would know about me as well.

Mika was 22 years old and was a nurse at this hospital. As an enemy on her turf, my identity was bound to be exposed.

“I’d rather leave now though, is that okay?”

“If you do, I’ll spread all sorts of rumors about you.”

I moved the wheelchair aside and crouched down, lifting her by the shoulders. I pulled her up with all my strength and got her to sit on the floor. From there, I tried to lift her by the underarms, but she wouldn’t budge at all.

It seems she has been hospitalized for a long time, as her legs are thin and her body is small. It looks light to me, but I just can’t lift her. I felt pathetic for my lack of strength.

“Uguu.”

“It hurts, and you’re clumsy. Don’t you know how to hold a patient with lower body paralysis?”

“How would I know that?”

“I’ll teach you the basics of caregiving. It’s good to know these things. There are six phases to lifting a person, so follow my instructions in order.

Can the action of lifting someone be broken down into six steps? I’ve never done caregiving and have no interest in it. But, to close the distance with Mika, I had to do it. I was told to first sit on the floor in a formal seiza position, so I placed my knees on the floor with a white wooden salt shaker and checked the arrangement of the salt.

“I take the position of sitting with my legs extended. Since that’s done, next. Put your hands under my legs, which are extended and aligned, lift my knees, and insert your knee into the open space. Knees. You’re inserting your knees, okay?.”

Why was she emphasizing “knee” so much? I didn’t understand.

“Mika is wearing a thin hospital gown. It’s a type that ties with strings in the front and reaches up to her knees. She isn’t wearing any pants, and naturally, she isn’t wearing stockings on her exposed bare feet. It’s as if she’s asking me to touch her perfectly bare feet.

Touching a woman’s bare legs was a high hurdle. As I hesitated, the part between my knees, which had been standing upright, began to swell. I finally understood why she had emphasized “knee.”

“That’s why I told you. Suppress any feelings of embarrassment. Regardless of age or gender, professional caregiving means treating everyone equally. For the moment, forget that you’re a stalker .”

A stalker as a job? Well, she wasn’t wrong. And damn, this nurse was efficient and to the point.

I was embarrassed, but I pushed my feelings aside and put my hands on her legs.

“Put my hands…?”

Her legs were cold to the touch, and while they were soft, they lacked warmth. Was this related to her translucent white skin? Her body didn’t seem to have the warmth of a living person.

“You’re like a vampire.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? But yes, I’m cold. If you don’t exercise and just lie in bed all the time, your body will deteriorate. Your body’s systems will decide that your muscles are unnecessary.”

“I see, so your body has decided that your muscles were unnecessary anymore since you are barely able to move?”

Come to think of it, at 30, I’m constantly being outdone by Sugumi. Is it the result of accumulated decline, or is it the outcome of muscle reduction over time? I seriously need to start exercising. Before old age catches up with me too quickly.

“Now, lift my knees, then put your knee in. After that…”

Following Nurse Mika’s precise instructions, it took some time, but I was able to get her into the wheelchair.

“Haa, haa… It takes a lot of energy to move a person.”

“With that level of strength, you wouldn’t even pass the initial training for a caregiver. I’d give you three points out of ten.”

“Caregiver… What’s that?”

“It’s like the old-fashioned term ‘Helper Level 2.'”

“I don’t want to take that. Why didn’t you call for a nurse?”

Earlier, when I was lying on Mika’s things, she called Saenai through the nurse calling system. Mari was also told that she can call the nurse to come to her aid when needed. If there’s something you need to do with a wheelchair, you should just press the button without hesitation or so they say.

“Saeuchi-kun is currently on a break. The other nurses seems to be busy too.”

“But considering Saeuchi-san is a nurse, shouldn’t he–”

“Well, even if he’s like that, he’s still my boyfriend. So I do want to let him rest.”

“Huh?”

Boyfriend? Saeuchi was her boyfriend?

So, he was going to kill his own girlfriend?

I had only interacted with Saeuchi briefly, but he seemed to care about Mika. He was under her thumb, but their relationship seemed good. How did it escalate to the point of murder? Did he fall in love with another woman and see Mika as an obstacle? Did his affection turn into murderous intent?

“What? Why are you looking at me like that? It’s making me uncomfortable.”

And should I tell her that Saeuchi is going to kill her?

I couldn’t say it. It was already a done thing. If I did something wrong, it might create a paradox. It might even cause a huge distortion.

I was time-leaped to this time where she was still alive simply so I could fulfill my exam, or trial of putting panties on her. Everything besides that is something I shouldn’t concern myself with.

“Sorry.”

“You don’t have to take it that seriously. I want you to take me for a walk. There’s somewhere I want to go.”

Ah, she had tried to get into the wheelchair and ended up falling from the bed.

“You might get kidnapped though, I am your stalker as you say.”

“The only place you can escape to is probably just Morishita-san’s house anyway.”

“Or the warehouse at Something-something Pier. Bases are everywhere.”

“If you’re talking about ‘Nan-something,’ your base is already exposed.”

“Gununu.”

***

I pushed Mika’s wheelchair out of the room and out of the building through the main entrance. We took the elevator down to the ground floor and stepped outside into the hospital’s spacious grounds. The well-maintained garden had small paths for strolling, and it was almost like a small park.

I wanted to take a walk in the garden, but she ignored my suggestion and led me to a courtyard surrounded by hospital wards. There was a roofed bench in the middle, providing shade from the strong June sun.

“I didn’t know this place existed. It’s unexpectedly cool and breezy here.”

“It’s like an azumaya pavilion, isn’t it? It’s inconvenient because the entrance is far away, so not many people come here. It’s a hidden spot.”

“You wanted to come here?”

“Yeah. I wanted to see it before I die. It’s a memento before I go to the underworld.”

“That’s quite the stretch.”

“The surgery won’t go well. Hmm. Even if it succeeds, it will only prolong my life a little. The tumor has spread all over, and there’s nothing they can do. My survival rate has dropped significantly.”

The five-year survival rate for bone cancer was 70% if the tumor was discovered before it spread.

“My family knows, too, and they recommend the surgery as a comfort. Yousuke does, too. He says that if I stay calm, the success rate will increase, so he won’t let me out of the room. He knows more about it than I do.”

She flashed a bitter smile, and it wasn’t a forced smile. With the certainty of death, her smile seemed far removed from sadness or happiness. I felt ashamed of my selfish purpose, and I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. What kind of wizard was I?

“Stalker-kun. Are you free tomorrow at this time? I want to ask you to help me with something before the surgery.”