Page 223 of Mercy Written in Blood

"Are you?"

"No."

Haruki covered his mouth with one hand. Yumi stared at Renji. Then, despite herself, gave a small sound that might have been a laugh. Renji's expression remained perfectly serious.

"One of us is mistaken," he said.

"You are."

"That is possible."

Haruki leaned back against the pillar. Renji had not seen him. Or, if he had, gave no sign.

The girl looked again towards the surgical doors.

"My aunt has been gone ages."

"Three minutes."

"You counted?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I count most things."

"That's weird."

"So I have been told."

Yumi's feet swung once beneath the chair. The movement loosened something in her.

"Can you stay until she comes back?"

Renji looked down the corridor. A nurse waved towards him from the station, then pointed to the chart he had abandoned. Renji lifted one finger. Wait. The nurse looked surprised. Then nodded.

"I can stay for a few minutes," he told Yumi.

He sat on the floor. Haruki blinked. Renji Takahara, who objected to poorly aligned furniture and refused to place books face-down, lowered himself onto hospital linoleum at three in the morning without hesitation.

He sat with his back against the wall, leaving space between himself and the child.

Yumi watched him.

"Doctors don't sit on floors."

"They do when chairs are occupied."

"There's one there."

"That is your rabbit's chair."

Yumi looked at the empty chair beside her. Then at the toy in her lap.

"He can share."

"I would not want to impose."