Professor Denka had only been recently employed at the Pokémon Genetic Research Institute, but he already had taken on far more then his job originally described. Because of his knowledge in the medical field as well as the technical, his colleagues would often come to him, asking for his help with the occasional injuries they would incur upon themselves. In a way, Prof. Denka had become somewhat of a nurse, although no one would ever say it to his face.
He knew the others he worked with vaguely, as he only saw them generally once, but one person he knew was more familiar then the others. Her name was Dr. Kagakusha, and it would have been a stretch to call her his friend. She was more of an acquaintance. Prof. Denka viewed her as a temperamental, immature woman, at times being incredibly selfish and at others desirous of attention, but he was curious about her. She complained of constant headaches and at times waking up in places she didn't remember going or not remembering what happened over the period of an hour or so. If this frightened or bothered her, she did not show it. She simply told Prof. Denka what she thought may help him alleviate the painful, almost consistant headaches she was afflicted with. He wrote, in his computer file that he had dedicated to Dr. Kagakusha, as he made files for all the odd cases that came to see him, that her mental state was slightly abnormal, but was not a danger to herself or others at the present time.
Once she stumbled to him in his office, as all the people he had to help always did, with her head bleeding, unable to speak. Dr. Kagakusha had always worn her hair tied in a large, bushy ponytail, but now her hair was free. He bandaged her head, getting the story of what happened out of her slowly. Apparently she had been attacked by one of the more recent experiments, a psychic type. She had felt confused and disoriented ever since and had somehow made her way to him for help. Prof. Denka had expected this and told her that she should have been more careful. He conjectured that it was the attack that caused the scarf that held her hair to disappear.
As he was giving her advise as to rest and stay off her feet for a few days, Dr. Kagakusha then started talking as if she was someone completly different. She had no recollection of anything she had said previously and not even of her name. Prof. Denka was startled by this, but continued questioning her. Within the midst of questioning this frightened, submissive woman, she abruptly switched demeanors within the midst of her sentence. She became angry, belligerent, vengeful. She immediately became hostile to anything he said to her, even if it was beneficial. Soon, however, the angry voice subsided to the more controlled, perhaps even too much so, weaker voice.
He continued to question both of them, finding that now Dr. Kagakusha had three different, distinct personalities, able to interact and speak with one another. Prof. Denka supposed that they had evidentally been fractured out of her psyche by the psychic attack. He knew that psychic attacks could do horrible things to people, but hadn't expected something this extensive. He decided that Dr. Kagakusha was lucky to be alive and it was perhaps her previous unbalanced mental state that saved her from death. As an alternative to trying to understand or withstand the attack, Dr. Kagakusha simply split into three different people. Prof. Denka recorded this all carefully.
He named the three of them. Namida, teardrop, was the one who was angry and dedicated absolutely to what she did, even to the extent of killing someone. She was fanatical once she decided something. However, below this angry, hateful exterior Prof. Denka could sense fear and resentment, anger at those around her for her treatment and fear of their rejection.
The second was Hana, flower, who was overly compassionate towards everyone, a incredibly sensitive person. She was also rather submissive and never would stand up for her opinions. She was constantly trying to please everyone, even Namida, who never gave a thought to her feelings. Prof. Denka would often, when Hana appeared, find her to be crying, then stop once he began speaking to her, as if crying was some unpleasant function.
The third almost never appeared, but Prof. Denka knew she was there. It seemed that it must have been the remnants of her original personality, so he called her Nokori, what's left behind. He rarely ever spoke to her, so could not determine how she acted.
The three personalities rarely ever agreed on anything, and the way to distinguish one from the other was the tone of Dr. Kagakusha's voice. Namida's voice was harsh, while Hana's was soft. When Nokori appeared, her voice was almost as it had been before Dr. Kagakusha had been split.
Despite all his attempts to rejoin her, Dr. Kagakusha was a shattered person and there was nothing he could do. She remained a brilliant researcher, both Namida and Hana working beautifully together when they decided to do so, therefore he worked hard to convince his superiors not to fire her, despite her mental problems. All three of them were grateful for this, and she continued to come to him with minor injuries, none as serious as her fractured mind. No doubt she had learned her lesson with the psychic attack and had transferred from that field of study, even thought Prof. Denka knew she loved it. He doubted she could keep herself away for long.
Prof. Denka wrote a formal report on her mental disability and saved it as a file on his computer, which was networked to the other computers in the facility. He did this so that those who were confused to why she acted the way she did could read about her and find out why she was so moody. There was no reason for undue hate, confusion, or inefficiency caused by those who did not know that the woman was actually three, but predominantly, two people.
Prof. Denka was younger then, thinner as well, and was generally a happy, laid-back kind of person. He rarely got angry, nor seemed impatient with Hana's whimpering, Namida's insults, or the headaches they both suffered. Nor did he ever lose his patience with the others that came for his help. He was tolerant to the extreme.
This was before Dr. Dowasure appeared.
The long-haired man just seemed to show up one day in his office, his arm slashed badly. He seemed extremely young, innocence shining in his bright brown eyes. Prof. Denka bandaged the wound as usual, asking where it had came from. The young man replied that he had tried to touch one of the creatures that he had seen as he walked by. Prof. Denka berated him for being a fool, surprised at his own strong reaction that seemed to instinctually manifest around the other man, but wasn't too serious about it. He barely knew him, anyway. He asked him his name then sent him away.
After he left, he promptly forgot about him, believing the long-haired man to simply be another person he saw only once. He was wrong.
He kept coming, repeatedly, almost daily, with injuries that ranged from mild to almost the loss of one of his limbs. It always seemed to be because he made stupid mistakes. Prof. Denka was almost positive that if he could only prevent Dr. Dowasure from being so careless, he wouldn't nearly see him as often. Also, it seemed as if Dr. Dowasure barely knew who he was at points or what he was doing. It reminded him frighteningly of Kagakusha before her mental partition...a sign of an unstable mind. Dr. Dowasure needed guidance, in Prof. Denka's opinion, and he decided that he might as well give it.
The next injury the long-haired man came with was a bad cut across his forehead. He sat down on the metal table in Prof. Denka's office, as he usually did, and smiled brightly, seemingly ignorant of the blood that was slowly running down next to his eye.
"Hello again!"
Prof. Denka could not understand how he could be so happy. Wasn't he in pain? He could never tell with him. He sighed. "What did you do this time?"
"I was looking in a cabinet..." It seemed a struggle for him to remember. "And then I bent down...and then when I straightened up, I hit my head on the door."
"How can you be so careless?" Prof. Denka began to inspect the wound, moving the messy black hair that always seemed to be in Dr. Dowasure's face. It wasn't too deep. "Honestly..."
"It was an accident. I forgot it was open."
"If it weren't for me, you'd be dead by now." Prof. Denka dabbed some antiseptic on the wound, causing Dr. Dowasure to wince.
"That was an accident too." Dr. Dowasure tried to protest. "Besides, I still have my arm."
"Because of ME." Prof. Denka began applying the bandages, cleaning the blood away. "You're just like a little child."
"I am not." Dr. Dowasure said sulkily. "I just forget things sometimes."
"That's going to get you killed someday."
"I hear that a lot." Dr. Dowasure smiled again. "Especially from that lady."
Prof. Denka knew only one lady, so he guessed. "Dr. Kagakusha?"
"Yeah, her. She says lots of stuff about me."
"Listen..." Prof. Denka let Dr. Dowasure's bangs fall back in place. "I don't want you to get hurt, okay? Try and be more careful."
"You really don't want me hurt?" Dr. Dowasure seemed surprised.
"No, I don't. It's bothersome to me, having to bandage your injuries all the time. Having to watch over you. Be careful, okay?"
"Okay!" Dr. Dowasure said brightly. Realizing that his injury had been taken care of, he hopped off the table and ran out the door. Prof. Denka shook his head at him slowly. He was just like a small child. He felt a kind of fatherly concern for his welfare. That man really did need someone to take care of him.
Prof. Denka shrugged. He hoped he wouldn't return for a while. His Magnemite floated near him.
"He is like a little kid, isn't he, Gravital?" He asked it. It buzzed in reply. "Let's get back to work on that emitter."

~~~

Prof. Denka rarely left his office to walk around the compound, but he found the compulsion to do so today. He wasn't sure why. He wandered in the hallways, hearing some crackling from a room as he passed by. When he stopped and looked inside, he found Dr. Dowasure trying to mix some chemicals together.
"What are you up to?" He asked, adjusting his glasses as he walked inside. Dr. Dowasure looked up at him, smiling again.
"I'm trying to create this compound, but I'm having some problems."
"Let's see..." Dr. Dowasure looked at the pad of paper near Dr. Dowasure where he had written the compounds. His eyes widened. "Wait...you're mixing Altanius Acid with Polyphemnus? That mixture's-"
A loud bang and a cloud of smoke stopped him halfway through his sentence. He glared at Dr. Dowasure, who smiled apologetically through a face blackened with soot.
"Explosive." He finished.
"No wonder then." Dr. Dowasure looked at the pad of paper. He erased it busily. "That should be Altanius Phosphate."
Prof. Denka wiped off his glasses. "That mixture is also explosive. Try Polyphemnus and Tricitic acid."
Dr. Dowasure paused, then brightened again. "Yeah! That's it. I meant that, but I forget the second chemical you said."
Prof. Denka sighed, taking Dr. Dowasure's glasses with one hand and using his sleeve to wipe away the soot on his face. "You need to be more careful, I told you."
Dr. Dowasure made small noises of discomfort at the fabric rubbing at him. "It was an accident, really. I knew what I was doing."
"It's always an accident, isn't it?" Prof. Denka cleaned off Dr. Dowasure's glasses and put them back on his face, annoyed. "I keep telling you to be careful, but you always ignore me..."
Dr. Dowasure adjusted his glasses. "I don't ignore you, I try to be careful, it's just I always forget..."
"Try and be more careful, okay?" Prof. Denka walked out of the room, sighing. As he left, he felt an urge for some kind of food come over him. He didn't understand why, but he shrugged and went to find something to eat.

~~~

The next time he saw him, he was with Dr. Kagakusha. She was supporting him, as he was limping on one leg. He instructed her to put him down on the table in his room, sighing as he inspected the injury.
"What a stupid fool." He heard Namida's voice. "I TOLD him not to get near it, but he totally ignored me..."
"I didn't hear you, honest!" Dr. Dowasure looked almost sad now, under this much pressure from the others. He seemed genuinely apologetic. This was a different aspect of his personality that Prof. Denka was unfamiliar with. "If I did, I would have moved away-"
"How could you NOT have heard me?" Namida asked indignantly. "I almost shouted it at you!"
"Namida, relax." Prof. Denka felt that she was being exceedingly hard on Dr. Dowasure, who looked almost frightened of her. The injury had been caused by what seemed to be an explosion of energy. Not what he was used to, but he could deal with it easily enough. "If he didn't hear you, then it's not his fault."
Dr. Dowasure smiled at him. "Thank you for standing up for me!"
"Mmhmm..." Prof. Denka distractedly applied some cream to the wound. "Namida, is Hana around?"
"Hana? Why would you want to talk to her?"
"I just believe she may be more benefitial to this situation then you."
Namida muttered for a few moments, then Dr. Kagakusha's voice leveled out and became softer.
"I know what happened! I feel terrible!" Hana took Dr. Dowasure's hand, which caused him to stare at her in disbelief. "I hope you can forgive us."
"Uh...okay." Dr. Dowasure smiled again.
"It's just that she doesn't like things to go wrong. She always wants everything to go perfectly, although sometimes it just can't do that." Hana continued. "I try and tell her that, but she never listens."
Dr. Dowasure was utterly confused. He looked at Prof. Denka, who didn't look back at him.
"Dr. Kagakusha..."
This got Hana's attention instantly. "Yes?"
Prof. Denka knew that Nokori would not show up even if he asked for her presence, as the others stoutly denied her existence. "Could you please leave? I'm sure you're experiment is still running, isn't it?"
"Okay. I'm sorry again." She left the room, still looking at Dr. Dowasure with regret. Dr. Dowasure waved to her.
"Bye!"
"Now..." Prof. Denka stood uneasily. "Tell me exactly what happened."
Dr. Dowasure turned back to him, fixing his glasses. "Um...she wanted me to help her with...something, I forget now. Anyway, I walked near one of things that was going to explode, so it burned me."
"Did she tell you?"
"I don't remember..." Dr. Dowasure scratched his head. "She might've...I don't think she did..."
"How long have you had this memory problem?" Prof. Denka adjusted his own glasses.
"Memory problem?" Dr. Dowasure seemed confused.
"Yes. A memory problem. You always forget things, don't you? Everything is so hard to remember, isn't it? I believe you're losing your memory completly."
"Lose my memory?" Dr. Dowasure looked horrified. "I don't want to lose my memory!"
"I don't think it's permanent and I don't think it'll get any worse then this, but...did the recruiter know about this?"
"I think so....I-"
"Can't remember, I know. He must have been able to guess. Why on earth would you be employed here then? I think this job requires a lot of memory work."
"Well..." Dr. Dowasure looked off to one side. "I can't remember much, but I can think of many things that others can't. Like I've been working on a cloning method!"
"Cloning?" Prof. Denka raised an eyebrow. "That's impossible."
"I don't think so!" Dr. Dowasure smiled. "I think I figured out a way to do it."
"What is it?"
"Um..." Dr. Dowasure put a hand to his mouth. "I don't remember right now, but I wrote it down on the computer."
Prof. Denka rolled his eyes. "I should have expected as much. You wrote it down, you say?"
"Yeah, I did." Dr. Dowasure walked over to the computer on Prof. Denka's desk. Gravital flew away from the chair at an amazing speed, buzzing angrily at the intrusion. Prof. Denka soon joined Dr. Dowasure, to find him typing at an amazing rate.
"See, I saved it under my own name, so I would remember." He opened the file. A long series of instructions was typed. As Prof. Denka looked it over, his eyes widened.
"This...this could actually work! I never thought of that!"
"See?" Dr. Dowasure was incredibly proud of himself. Prof. Denka placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You DO belong here...it's only that memory of yours that's the problem. This is rather ingenious though..."
"I'm not done with it yet. There are still some problems." He fixed a few of his own typing errors while he was speaking. "If I think of a way to fix them, I'll come back and update this."
"Tell me as soon as you do." Prof. Denka was amazed. The theories were radical, but could possibly work. He had to tell his superiors as soon as possible. "This could be very important."
"Really?" Dr. Dowasure seemed to glow under the praise. "It's important?"
"Of course it is." Prof. Denka gently lead Dr. Dowasure from the computer, noting how the smaller man seemed to desperately desire positive attention. "Tell me as soon as you add to it and-"
"Try and be more careful, I know!" Dr. Dowasure smiled brightly, his moment of weakness passed. He limped out of the door slightly slower then he usually did. "I will try!"
"You better..." Prof. Denka sighed as he sat down, absently eating from a bag of chips he didn't remember getting. "There're things in that mind of yours that are too valuable to lose."

~~~

"Have you seen my papers?" Dr. Dowasure poked his head into Prof. Denka's office. Prof. Denka didn't look up.
"No. You left them in the conference room, remember?"
Dr. Dowasure was off within a few moments before Prof. Denka could realize the irony of his statement.
He was working quite busily when...
"Have you seen my papers?" Dr. Dowasure asked again, his tone still genuinely questioning. Prof. Denka looked up at him in annoyance and was surprised to find that he still had his innocent look on his face.
"I just told you! They're in the conference room!"
"The what?"
Prof. Denka put a hand to his forehead. "Look, just give me a few minutes to finish this then I'll help you find them, okay?"
"Okay!" Dr. Dowasure smiled and left.
Within moments, he was back.
"Have you-"
"No! I said to wait!" Prof. Denka was beginning to get severely annoyed. The emitter he was working on was a prototype that was very delicate and these interruptions weren't helping his progress. "Now wait outside until I'm done!"
Dr. Dowasure seemed shocked at this anger which, to him, must have seemed totally unwarranted, but he retreated.
Sighing to himself, he went back to work only to be interrupted by Dr. Dowasure's lilting voice yet again.
"What was I looking for again?"
That was enough for Prof. Denka, who had managed to shock himself by his involuntary jerk at someone else's voice, and he stood. Dr. Dowasure, apparently sensing he had done something wrong, shrunk back.
"What? Did I do something wrong? What?"
Prof. Denka took a deep breath and composed his words. "Listen, I know you have a memory problem, but this is just ridiculous! You've asked me the same question at least twice and perhaps three questions related to it in a ten minute period! You can't honestly say you couldn't remember asking such questions so many times! Some of us have work to do, and these constant interruptions..."
Two things happened at once. Prof. Denka realized both that he was giving a lecture and that Dr. Dowasure was crying.
Guilt flooded over him. Dr. Dowasure looked so utterly miserable as he tried to stifle his tears with his hands. How could he have prompted the seemingly always-cheerful doctor to tears? Was he really that cruel to him? "Dr. Dowasure..."
"I'm sorry!" The young doctor sobbed, sinking to the floor. "I'm sorry, I really am, I didn't know I was doing that, I didn't mean to, I'm really really sorry..."
Prof. Denka kneeled near him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, it's okay. No harm done, alright? I didn't mean to upset you."
"Oh, I shouldn't have forgotten. It's just like you said, it's...it's..." He sniffed, trying to remember what he was saying. "It's like whatever you said it was like!"
"No it isn't, I was just angry. It's okay. I didn't mean any of it seriously. Why don't you go and compose yourself, then come back and I'll help you find your papers, okay?"
Dr. Dowasure nodded tearfully and Prof. Denka lead him from the room.
But he didn't come back.

~~~

While he was walking through the halls, Prof. Denka heard an odd sound. It echoed through the hallways. It sounded almost like a smack.
However, the human cry of pain that came directly after that was unmistakable.
Easily tracking the sound, he found Dr. Dowasure and Dr. Kagakusha. Dr. Dowasure was huddled against a cabinet, his glasses missing, holding his face and crying. Dr. Kagakusha, no doubtedly in the control of Namida, was fuming.
"You stupid, stupid man! Don't you ever hear anything I say to you?! You're an idiotic fool, don't you know that? If you don't fix that memory problem of yours, I'll fix it for you!"
As she raised her hand again, however, Prof. Denka was there. He seized her wrist and stopped her instantly, causing her to spin angrily.
"Dr. Kagakusha, what is the meaning of this?"
"Prof. Denka!" She sounded properly outraged. She tore her hand out of his grasp, although she didn't seem to intend to use it to slap Dr. Dowasure again. "Do you know what he did?"
"I don't know what Dr. Dowasure did but I do know one thing." The severity in his voice was to such an extent that it was able to halt Namida's words. "You should never strike one of your associates here. We're all scientists and we're beyond such childish actions. Nothing he did would warrant you hitting him."
Namida was angrily debating this, but finally decided to stay to her side of the argument. "I TOLD him, I TOLD him several times to take the beaker off the flame! 'Take the Beaker off the flame' I said to him, and you know what he said EVERY time? 'Okay'! OKAY! It wasn't okay! He forgot AGAIN, even though I told him just moments before! The beaker shattered and everything I had been working on this morning was lost! And he..."
Namida pointed a trembling finger of rage at Dr. Dowasure, who was sobbing harder now that they were talking about him. "He had the AUDACITY to ask me why I didn't take it off!"
"Namida-"
"Don't Namida me!" Dr. Kagakusha was furious. "I will not work in the same building as this...this hopeless idiot!"
Prof. Denka crossed his arms and glared at her, his expression halting her in her tracks. "That 'hopeless idiot' you keep talking about as if he wasn't there has created the primary theory of cloning."
She paused, then Hana's voice spoke. "Cloning? Really? Seriously?"
"Yes, cloning. He's devised a way to make it work."
Hana turned to the sobbing man. "You have to tell me! It's important to my life's work! I have to know!"
"He's not going to tell you now that you not only shamed him in front of everyone but actually struck him!" Prof. Denka was righteously angry now. "With your behavior lately, I don't think I should tell you how to find the theory!"
"You can't do that!" Hana sounded frightened. "I have to know, I've dreamed my whole life of using that technology!"
Prof. Denka remained silent. "I'm going to talk to you later. Leave."
Dr. Kagakusha, as Hana, backed out the door, making as many apologies as possible. As soon as she was gone, Prof. Denka was at Dr. Dowasure's side. He fetched the doctor's glasses and put them back on his face.
"How hard did she hit you? Does it hurt?"
Dr. Dowasure choked back a sob and managed to speak. "She hit me hard, knocked me down...it still hurts..."
Pulling a strip of fabric from one of his pockets, Prof. Denka wet it in cool water and pressed it against the burning mark on Dr. Dowasure's face. Although it must have caused some reaction, this time he didn't flinch away. Prof. Denka thought for a moment that perhaps Dr. Dowasure was too frightened to flinch away, and the thought disturbed him deeply. "It'll hurt for a while, but it'll go away..."
Dr. Dowasure was still crying. "I didn't even see her move, she was so fast...she was yelling at me, calling me names, and then she hit me. She hit me..."
Prof. Denka could tell that this had deeply hurt Dr. Dowasure more then physically. He had trusted his fellow scientists at the facility. He had never thought they would hurt him, not even that Dr. Kagakusha would hurt him physically. Now that trust had been broken and no doubt he felt incredibly vulnerable.
"She just...just out of nowhere...she slapped me in the face...it wasn't even my fault! I didn't remember her saying anything about beakers...I just wanted to know why she didn't do it herself, and she hit me for it! Oh, it hurts..."
"Shh." Prof. Denka tried to stop his hysterical crying. "It wasn't your fault, that's one thing for sure. She should have known better then to trust you to do something like that. She knows about your memory. It's her fault that this entire thing happened. Don't blame yourself."
"It hurts..." Dr. Dowasure whimpered. Prof. Denka lifted him off the floor, still holding the cloth to his face.
"Listen, I want you to lie down somewhere and keep this against your face until it stops hurting, okay? Can you do that?"
"I...I don't know..." Dr. Dowasure's voice was small. Prof. Denka sighed gently and began to lead the still crying doctor to the lounge.

~~~

The whole incident remained an area of contention between Prof. Denka and Dr. Kagakusha, and finally they had decided to discuss it in the lounge when Dr. Dowasure was gone.
Namida was now in more control, therefore was allowed to speak. "There has to be some way we can stop that memory problem of his! It's dangerous and inefficient!"
Prof. Denka couldn't argue with that. "Yes, his memory problem is a hazard, but hitting him is not the answer. There has to be something we can do to discourage that behavior."
"I feel bad for him..." Hana's voice was speaking now. "It's not his fault. He probably feels terrible about it."
"Hana, you weren't there!" Namida sounded expasperated. "I don't know WHAT you were doing, but you didn't hear him say in that oh-so-innocent tone 'Why didn't you take off the beaker'? Cha, it still makes me angry!"
Prof. Denka tried to lead the volatile Namida off the topic. "Listen, if we can't stop his memory problem-"
"I know we can." Namida sounded dangerously determined. "There's a way to fix everything in a human being. We can fix that."
Prof. Denka gave her an odd look before continuing. "Well, what do you suggest?"
"There is a shining example in the field of modified human behavior." Namida smiled in a frightening way. "Our Teishi..."
Prof. Denka stared at her for a few moments, then backed away, adjusting his glasses to hide his frightened eyes. "Are you suggesting that we solve his problem by BEATING him?"
Hana broke through. "Namida, no! We can't do that! We can't ever do that to a human again! It-"
Namida broke her off, regaining control. "Teishi learned through abuse to obey all commands. I'm sure Dr. Dowasure could learn through the same method to remember."
Prof. Denka was horrified at the prospect. "Namida, listen to yourself! His problem is not something he can change. It's part of him. You can't destroy things like that through violence!"
"Is free will part of a human, Prof. Denka?" Namida's tone was deadly serious. "We got rid of that. We can get rid of this."
"No." Prof. Denka crossed his arms, stating that this was his stand on the issue and he was not going to back down. "No, I won't let you do that to a fellow member of this facility. It's wrong and it's not the answer."
Namida's eyes flickered with a touch of anger. "Then what? What should we do?"
The question had rebounded back to him and Prof. Denka had no idea what to do. There was no way to fix something that was not conscious...particularly in Dr. Dowasure. He couldn't be beaten into submission like Teishi. There had to be some other way.
What else had hurt him...?
A chilling thought entered his mind. He could see Dr. Dowasure's face dissolved into tears, holding his hands towards his face, staring up at him with a frightened look and he...
He was...lecturing.
He didn't want Dr. Dowasure to be hurt as badly as Teishi was, sensing that Dr. Dowasure could not handle the stress it implied. But he had to be hurt someway, even if to satisfy Namida's strange sense of justice...
That meant he would have to be the one to hurt him. With his words.
"I have an idea..." His voice was halting. He didn't want to do this. Namida stared at him with interest.
"Oh really? What is it?"

~~~

"Prof. Denka..."
"Yes?"
"What am I doing?"
Prof. Denka tried to retain his patience. It was the fifth time in the last ten minutes he had asked him the same question, over and over again. He didn't want to get angry at Dr. Dowasure, as that may lead Dr. Kagakusha to believe that it was the time to test their new "treatment", as she had sickly called it.
Dr. Kagakusha watched him carefully as he responded. "You're checking the results of those tests, okay?"
"Right!" He responded as if he had just gotten the order for the first time and turned back to what he was doing.
There was a silence as the three worked quietly and Prof. Denka breathed an inward sigh of relief. If this continued, there would be no reason for Dr. Kagakusha's sense of justice to be satisified. Maybe Dr. Dowasure's problem would solve itself...
He thought to himself distractedly as he carefully began unwrapping two wires in the electronic device he was working on. Perhaps Dr. Dowasure had some premature form of Alzheimers...it wasn't unknown and it could be possible. It would explain his behavior. If that was the was the case, then Dr. Dowasure wasn't to blame at all for his forgetfulness...it was organic...
"Prof. Denka?" The questioning tone of someone who knew who they were asking had the answer. Prof. Denka could now read more into Dr. Dowasure's words now that he had to study them more intently in order to keep them in perspective. He didn't want to be angry at Dr. Dowasure, but there are limits to everyones patience, even someone with such patience as Prof. Denka. He didn't look up, hoping that Dr. Dowasure was just going to ask him how to solve a problem...
"What am I doing?"
Prof. Denka tried to stifle his natural reaction, but found it escaping him anyway, in a slightly different, more sarcastic form. "Can't you tell from what you're doing now?"
"Um..." Dr. Dowasure sounded hesitant. Prof. Denka placed the tools he was using on the table and turned to face him.
Dr. Dowasure had a hand to his mouth and almost seemed to be biting his sleeve. Nowhere near him were the papers that he had been assigned to study. Prof. Denka tried to think of this as a curiousity, not an annoyance.
"I...don't know...I can't remember..."
Prof. Denka sighed. "Where did your papers go?"
Dr. Dowasure blinked slowly, then in a small voice asked him one final question. "I had papers?"
Prof. Denka took his his glasses and buried his hands in his hair. He struggled to keep his patience.
He jerked almost perceptibly as he heard Namida's voice whispering near him.
"Now. Now teach him. He'll never learn without reinforcement of some kind, and now it is time."
He turned his grey eyes at the young man to find him looking around the room for what must have seemed to him his fantasy papers. Dr. Dowasure took his ponytail in his hands and played with the strands nervously.
He turned back to Prof. Denka. "I...I'm sorry...I...lost what I was looking for...what was it again...?"
"Now." The voice whispered in his ear. Prof. Denka sighed deeply, then turned to Dr. Dowasure, trying to keep himself non-threatening.
It didn't work. The sudden change of angle and position had made Dr. Dowasure suspect something, and he almost seemed to cringe away. He pulled his hands close to his body, leaving his ponytail on his shoulder, and seemed to be considering drawing his knees upward, but decided against it. There was a touch of fear in his soft brown eyes...
"Dr. Dowasure, sit down and listen."
He hadn't intended his voice to sound like that. Somehow, the anger was making it's way out of him, despite all his best efforts to control it. Prof. Denka found himself frustrated at his lack of control, therefore inadvertantly channeling more aggression into his voice.
Dr. Dowasure cringed visibly, sensing that he was in trouble of some kind. "Prof. Denka..."
Prof. Denka didn't know how to start. He thought that perhaps if he focused on what Dr. Dowasure had done, rather then his own faults, then it wouldn't be so terrible...
"Listen, everyone here at this facility has a job to do. I know that you have problems with your memory, but that's not a good enough excuse. There are things that you have to do, that are your job, and those are things that you simply can't forget. Are you understanding me?"
Dr. Dowasure seemed to be petrified, unable to move, his eyes just focused on Prof. Denka, now filled with fear and filling with tears. He nodded slowly.
He could feel Dr. Kagakusha sitting near him, near his back, putting her elbows on the table and leaning her head against them. He couldn't tell from her shaking whether she was laughing or crying. He would assume that Namida was laughing. And Hana was crying.