The Mastermind's Lies | Mastermind Shuichi AU

Chapter 23 - Fever

SHUICHI POV

I was on the train, cap pulled down, mask pulled over my nose and hoodie over my head. I yawned, my eyebags pulling and throbbing under my eyes, begging me to close my eyes and drift off to sleep.

It was Sunday morning and I was on my way to my uncle's office. A day and a half had passed since the man came. The last two nights were terrible, I didn't close my eyes even once, insomnia and stress bitting me in the back. I'd spent the whole day in my room yesterday, finishing up my cases and adjusting the files correctly.

I felt my stomach rumble. I'd not eaten since yesterday morning either; I was overall in a horrible shape. It was almost summer, yet when I woke up I couldn't help putting on a hoodie, shivering nonstop. I was still shivering, even with two layers of clothes, my dress shirt underneath my hoodie.

I felt my throat tingle all of a sudden and I let out a cough. A spark of cold shook my entire body and made me jump in my seat, people around me glancing at me for a quick second from the sudden movement, before they laid back their eyes on their phones.

As I was starting to drift off, my eyes fluttering, the train announced its arrival to my station. I stood up, feeling my body scream at me to sit back down and sleep, and made my way out of the train. I walked through the station's corridors and finally arrived outside, before walking to the office.

When I got there, I opened the unlocked door and pulled down my hood.

"Oh, Shuichi! Good morni- oh my god."

I smiled weakly at the man.

"Good morning sir-"

"You look awful my boy. What happened to you?!" I let out a little chuckle and waved my hands in front of me protectively. "Oh, I'm fine sir, just had trouble sleeping last night." The man frowned for a slight second, analyzing my statement. "I suppose that can explain it. Well then, you can go upstairs, your uncle and aunt are working together on administration this morning so you should see them both in your uncle's office." I nodded. "Thank you Sero. See you later!"

I waved at the man and he waved back, before I slowly headed up the stairs and towards the office.

I knocked and opened the door as I heard both voices calling at me to open. I entered the room and saw their faces light up with smiles when they saw me.

"Shuichi! Welcome ba-"

Both their faces dropped. Immediately, my aunt rushed over to my side and put a hand on my forehead, making me jump in suprise from the sudden gesture.

"You're burning hot! Boiling!" my aunt said as she held my shoulders. "R-Really, I uh- didn't notice..." I saw my uncle coming up to me with a worried sad expression on his face.

"You look awful Shuichi. You're so pale and you're shivering like crazy, did you catch a cold?" he asked.

My mind flashed back to Friday night. After I'd finished my conversation with the man, it had started raining, but I couldn't find the strength to get back up so I just... laid there. That must be where I caught that nasty cold.

"I think so... it rained a few days ago and I was stuck outside for a bit." My uncle removed my hat and moved my hair away from my face to put a hand on my forehead.

"Yeah, your aunt is right, you have a super high fever. We need to get you to the hospital right now."

"Right now?! B-but I feel fine, I-I'm just-"

"I don't want to hear it. We're going Shuichi, period. Your health is more important than anything else and it's our job to make sure you're okay."

My uncle and aunt looked both really worried. It made me feel guilty, so I just sighed and nodded. "Fine..."

[...]

We all got in my uncle's car as he drove me to the nearest hospital, not before going back to the house to get my medical card and records. We waited for about an hour in a room filled with either sick or slightly injured people, before a doctor came to get us. He brought us to a little room and began his check-up on me. He did blood tests on me, an X-ray and left the room a few minutes later, leaving me, my aunt and my uncle in the room alone. There was a silence for a brief moment.

"So, Shuichi, how was your two weeks?" asked my aunt, changing the subject and smiling at me.

I turned to face both of them completely, sitting from the examination chair.

"It was fine, pretty relax actually... nothing much happened, they give us classes from 8 to 2 and we're free the rest of the time, except that we're barely allowed out of the house."

"Huh? Why is that?" asked my uncle, raising an eyebrow.

I gulped, taking notice of the small microphone clipped on the inside of my hoodie.

"They wish to monitor our mental health... to make sure we don't do anything impulsive that could be problematic, I-I think... I'm the only one allowed outside since they didn't mess with my brain enough to possibly give it side effects."

"Sounds complicated... I think they're being a little too harsh on you kids... but I guess they're just being cautious so it's fine." said my aunt, sighing.

I nodded.

"How were the cases Shuichi? Not too complicated?" asked my uncle.

I smiled and shook my head. "They were okay, most of them were simple and easy to solve, but a few of them were more challenging."

He smiled. "Of course, I knew you would find these too easy, so that's why I added these more complicated cases in between them. I'm glad you still got to the bottom of them though."

He looked at me in the eyes.

"You're definitely going to be an outstanding detective when you grow older, you may even surpass me." My aunt snickered. "Of course he's going to surpass you! He's much better than you when you were at this age!"

I giggled as my uncle glared at my aunt. She glared back at him with a grin.

Just as my uncle was about to snap something back at her, the door opened. The doctor came in.

"Hello. I have the blood test results for Mr. Saihara."