CH 35

After changing into my gym clothes, I arrived at the playground with Kashiwagi-san.

Apart from the rehabilitation facilities, the hospital also had a playground, gymnasium, and swimming pool.

It’s America, after all, with its wealth and land mass.

“Now, take these pills before your workout.”

“Yes!”

Kashiwagi-san said and handed me a blue pill.

I drank the pill with a gulp, conserving as much bottled water as possible, as I was restricted in the amount of water I could drink.

“… You really drank that?”

“ — Ehh? Was there something dangerous about it?”

“I’m just kidding. Did you get a laugh out of that? It’s an American joke.”

I let out a big sigh of relief.

I thought she had really given me poison because she said it with a straight face.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t even cuss. So please, no scary jokes!”

“Nah, you know, you’re going to hate me while I’m working you over from here on out. I just thought you might want to get used to doing something you won’t like while you’re at it.”

“It’s for my treatment, I won’t hold it against you…”

Muttering this, I looked into Kashiwagi-san’s eyes.

Kashiwagi-san had cooperated with many subjects in clinical trials and must have seen them fail each time.

I knew what she meant when she said, I should get used to doing something I don’t like.

That was Kashiwagi’s kindness, but I also think that her spirit had already been exhausted long ago.

“So the blue pill I just took is a new drug and I’m going to lose weight in no time while I exercise?”

“No, there are two kinds of medicine. The training you are going to do now with the blue medicine is for ‘bodybuilding’ to make it easier to remove water from fat, and at the end of the three months of training, you will take the red medicine and sleep in a special room overnight.  After going through intense pain as if your whole body is being burned by karmic fire, you will return to your original form, a form with no illness.”

Didn’t she just say something really cool at the end?

“This is not the same as obesity. You don’t lose weight while exercising, which means it’s harder to feel the effects, and people were losing heart and they all failed. They too were satisfied with taking the red pill at the end and losing a good amount of weight, but that doesn’t cure the disease. You have to work through it, or the fat will start sucking up water again.”

“In the end, I will experience intense pain as if being burned all over with karmic fire, right?”

“After the treatment, I will prepare a sumptuous meal for you, and we will share the beef that has been roasted all over.”

“Isn’t there some kind of similar word you’re trying to mislead me with? I mean, that’s steak, isn’t it… Well, I’m certainly flattered.”

“Now, first of all, let’s start with the warm-up exercises. Relax your body carefully so you don’t get hurt.”

Ignoring me, Kashiwagi-san played radio gymnastics music from a boombox.