Page 67 of Mercy Written in Blood

"I intend for you to."

"That's not certainty."

"No."

Haruki studied him.

"You're very strange."

"So I have been told."

"Married?"

Renji paused. Akiko looked towards the ceiling. Aoi became fascinated by the transfusion line.

"No."

"Partner?"

"No."

"Too busy?"

"Mr Ishida."

"Haruki."

"You are haemorrhaging."

"And?"

"This is not an appropriate time for a personal conversation."

"That wasn't another no."

Renji stared at him. Haruki smiled faintly. The lift doors opened. The surgical team was waiting.

The knife had cut through the lower edge of Haruki's liver. It had also perforated the diaphragm and nicked an intercostal artery before changing direction, likely when Haruki moved or fought back. The injury was serious. It was not unsurvivable.

Renji controlled the arterial bleed first. The liver required packing and repair, but the damage remained localised — no bowel injury, no damage to the kidney, no major vascular involvement. Haruki had been lucky. Renji disliked the word. Luck suggested survival arrived without effort. Haruki had survived because he had remained on his feet long enough to get others out. Because someone had packed the wound. Because the ambulance team had moved quickly. Because the hospital had been prepared for the mass casualty alert. Survival was rarely one moment. It was a chain of people refusing to fail one another.

"How does he know your name?" Akiko asked.

Renji did not look up from the operative field.

"He heard it."

"He reacted before you repeated it."

"He was confused."

"Mm."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Akiko."