JACG Chapter 104 (Nurse Ashley on the case) (Patreon)

“So how being a cripple treating you?” Ashley asked the Argo as soon as we got a handle on the room. Argo gave her a flat look but other than that she did not react much to that.

I knew it was coming but it was still pretty odd hearing something like that.

“It’s fine, how’s being a bitch treating you?” Argo asked in an equally flat tone. Ashley took in the jab and shot a bright smile at the frail girl.

“It’s the best you should try it more often.” Ashley let out with a smug smile as she walked towards Argo’s bed and gave the girl a comforting pat. Argo let out a light smile at the support and a hint of amusement played across her eyes.

“Heart warming as always, are we going to be good for a bit or should I set up some defenses so no one barges in?” I questioned as I looked over the room. It was fairly standard for a hospital room but there was only the one bed in here and it had several amenities that I was not used to seeing. I guess Argo’s family sprung for a private room.

“We should be good for about an hour. I told the nurse I wanted some privacy. The staff here walks on egg shells with people coming out of Sword Art Online. I think they don’t want to push any buttons with the traumatized teens.” Argo explained with a small shrug. I guess that made sense the players came from a world in which they had to fight literally monsters just to eat for the day. The amount of emotional instability coming from there would be insane. That was coming from me so you should get a feeling for how bad they were.

“Well, I should not need a full hour to heal you. Here just take this and you should be better rather quickly.” I took out several potions that I had already prepared. The various potions shined with multiple colors and seemed to glow but that was pretty standard for magic potions. Argo just gave me a flat look from her bed as I held out the potions to her. There was an awkward moment where it was just me standing there and Argo giving me a flat look.

“Dude, she can’t move. How the fuck is she supposed to take those potions from you?” Andrew asked from the side as he gave me an equally flat look. Ashley just started laughing at me and Argo’s flat look made more sense now.

I did not really think this one through but I was used to my patients taking the medicine I prescribed. Granted my patients were not this bad but that did not make my actions not stupid. I even knew how bad her condition was so I really did not have a good excuse here.

“Right, that tracks. Here Ash just fed her the potions while I take care of the staff.” I explained as I handed the potions to Ashley who took them with a gleeful look. Argo shuddered from her place on the bed and gave Ashley a worried look. Andrew let out a sigh from his position but did not say anything else.

“Hey, random guy I never met, how about you feed me the potions?” Argo asked in a begging tone as she shot Ashley a wary look. Ashley’s smile just grew as she took in the fear Argo was radiating. Andrew just looked between his sister and Argo and gave her an apologetic look.

I felt my own lips twitch in amusement from the byplay. I considered sticking around and feeding Argo the potions myself but whatever Ashley did would not be too bad. Argo was her friend and while she was probably going to mess with Argo the entire time she would make sure she drank all of them. So I figured letting her have her fun was fine.

So I turned around and started to walk out of the room.

“Don’t be like that Argo, Nurse Ashley is here to take care of you. All you got to do is take your medicine.” Ashley let out with a dark tone dyed in amusement. I then heard Argo letting out a muffled yelp and then the room was filled with gurgling sounds as Ashley forcefully fed Argo one of the potions.

I let out a small laugh as I exited the room. Ashley could have slowly fed the potion to her but I guess she found this method more amusing. As I left the room I hit the room with a sound barrier and a notice me not charm. Argo said that she was good for an hour but the hospital staff might not stay by those terms.

It was better to plan for things going poorly instead of just accepting that the terms you thought were right would follow through. I wandered around looking for staff members, which was actually rather difficult.

It just seemed like every single member of the staff was really fucking busy which made sense. This hospital had a large amount of patients they had to deal with right now. The thousands of victims of Sword Art Online had to go somewhere and this place had a good chunk of them. Sure the staff had them before they left as well but the Players might as well have been coma victims before now they were awake and had needs that had to be taken care of actively. 

Still, I managed to find a couple of tired nurses. So I read their minds as I passed by them. As I examined there minds to find out if they had regular contact with Argo or if they knew of people that might have known Argo’s current situation. As I shifted through their memories I realized that this was going to be easier than I expected. Like I said the staff was overworked and honestly far too tired to remember most of their patients. 

Although Argo has made her self an exception as her family sprung for a private room so she became a face that was easier to remember. It was not too bad as people in the single rooms only had a couple of staff members taking care of them.

So I would only need to modify a couple of people's memories. I did not know which doctor or nurse took care of Argo so I needed to search for them. Usually, I would use a point me spell but I did not have names or faces to search for so that door was closed for me. So I was just going to have to rely on the old trusted method. Wandering around aimlessly and stumbling across the one person I needed to find.

That method really did wonders for me as I found a the doctor that was in charge of Argo almost instantly. One look into his mind told me everything about her from the name she refused to tell me to her family's situation.

Argo always struck me as someone who put money above anything else so I thought she came from a poor background. That was a misconception on my part and the fact that she was in a private room should have already hinted at me that I was wrong.

I dismissed her family's wealth as it was really not that impressive. Her family ran several businesses but she was just moderately wealthy, nothing compared to the heiress that was Asuna or close to my mountain of gold. So it was not that important to know even if it was a little interesting.

Her name was Hosaka Carina Tomo which was rather confusing for a Japanese teenager but she was mixed. I should have figured that out from blonde hair but that feature kind of just went over my head. Asuna had orangish hair and she was a pure Japanese person so I kind of just wrote hair colors off as not important. I should have figured blonde would be different as the mixed and foreign characters always had blonde hair.

It was nice knowing her name now but I was not going to say anything about it to Argo. She wanted to withhold that information until she felt comfortable and I was not going to break that notion. So I was just going to feign ignorance until she felt comfortable sharing her name with me.

As I continued to rifle through the doctor's memories I realized I was overthinking this whole operation. I did not need to alter the memories of several individuals I just needed to mess with this guy. 

Some of the SAO victims were signed out of the hospital for different methods of care. The Hospital was more than fine with the patient family signing them out as they were already swarmed with victims. So all I had to do was rewrite his memories to show that Argo’s family had signed her out. He would then take care of the paperwork and if anyone had questions they would be pointed at him. Not that it looked like anyone would really care too much if Argo was signed out.

I did just that and left that guy with a dazed expression. He would recover in a little bit and get on my little mission for him.

I walked back to Argo’s room with the good news brewing in my mind. I mean she already knew what I was doing but it would still be nice to hear everything was in the clear. Well not everything but we could get to that when it pops up.

I walked back into the room and saw the scene that I should have expected. Argo looked a lot healthier in comparison to how she was before. She had several bottles balanced on her head as Ashley fed another one of those potions down her throat. Argo was struggling to get out of the bed but Ashley was capable of holding her down with a single hand as Argo was just a regular human. Judging from her struggles she should have recovered enough to drink the potions herself but Ashley decided this method was more fun.

Andrew was watching his Sister mess with her friend with a flat look on his face but I noticed he was a bit farther than he was earlier.

Argo finally managed to drink the potion Ashley was forcing down her gullet. Ashley then stacked that bottle on top of the others.

“Just three more Argo, but don’t worry nurse Ashley has you covered!” Ashley announced with a bright smile as she opened up the next potion.

“Mercy!” Argo yelled as she struggled to get out of bed. The bed was shaking from the force she was using but it did not work out.

“I managed to get everything clear on the hospital side, so you should be good to leave,” I announced out with a small cough as I might as well tell her now. Ashley paused her torture and looked back at me, when she did that she released the pressure she was putting on Argo so she was able to scramble out of the bed.

She ran across the room and hid behind me and shot Ashley a wary look. I gave her an amused look as she hid behind me. I’m not sure what she had going on in her mind as I would probably hand her over to Ashley if she wanted me to.

“Oh, That’s great! Argo can come with us to kill monsters!” Ashley announced brightly as she walked towards Argo excitedly. It looked like she gave up on forcing the potions down her throat as she found something more interesting to do.

I raised an eyebrow and looked over at Argo. I was just giving Argo shit for not trying to get stronger and this was a good opportunity. We were already taking Andrew of all people so bring Argo along should be fine.