Hina broke from her thoughts and looked up from the screen. She turned and smiled when she saw the two people staring at her. She stood up and rushed to hug Akira.

"My dear, you came." She stretched out her arms.

Akira ducked behind Seiji and pushed him to receive the hug from Hina. The enthusiastic woman fell towards Seiji, and he caught her with a helpless smile. It seemed his sister was really supportive of him and her friend.

But he did not mind as he held the lithe and beautiful lady.

Akira stepped from behind Seiji with a stern expression. "What have I told you about coming near me with hospital germs?"

Hina detached herself from Seiji. The man was stunned for a moment before he understood. Akira was trying to escape from contact. He did not know she was that afraid of germs.

"Sorry. I missed you. I haven't seen you in two days." Hina chuckled.

"You have been working hard." Akira felt a little pained for her.

Hina chuckled. "If you are feeling concerned for me, you can join the institute and help me out."

Akira rolled her eyes.

"Is Akira a doctor too?" Seiji asked with surprise.

He was starting to wonder if he was the underachiever in the group. Even that annoying Kaito who always stuck to his cute sister seemed to be some sort of busy boss, doing this and that. As for him, he was married to medicine.

"Only in a technical sense." Akira laughed awkwardly.

"Don't downgrade yourself. Akira joined the medical school as a super young teen. She was a rarely seen genius." Hina paused in lament. "There was only one problem. She could not bear to be near sick people."

Akira blushed with increasing embarrassment.

Seiji's lips twitched. "Didn't you know you would be dealing with sick people when you joined? And didn't you deal with cadavers during the initial days?"

Akira puffed her cheeks. "I'm fine with cadavers. It's the living patients that were the problem."

"The first day she went to the hospital and met with a patient, she looked at the man for a moment, turned to the teacher and simply said 'no' before turning and leaving." Hina laughed until tears came to her eyes.

Akira joined the medical school on a whim and due to the Chief's insistence on higher education. She thought it would be fun because Hina was interested in medicine. Also, it was a special accelerated program which would mean a quick end to college.

Who knew she would not like it?

"So what did she do?" Seiji asked.

"She switched to pharmaceutical sciences and completed the coursework in record time." Hina sighed. "After that, she did not have an interest in hospitals. After I completed my requirements and worked for a while, I also escaped and followed her around."

Seiji looked at the two people with surprise. He had always thought he was remarkable, but he was not as ambitious or carefree as them.

"What other hidden strengths do you have?" Seiji asked Akira.

"You will found out in time." She stuck her tongue out. "Now, go away. We have some business to discuss."

Hina agreed and shoved him out of the door. He was speechless when he heard the lock clicking after him. What secrets could they possibly have? They were probably doing it to annoy him.

Inside the office, Hina turned to Akira with a serious expression.

"I finally managed to test the compound. I could not do it immediately because I had an overly enthusiastic assistant who was set on helping me adapt to the institute." Hina said as she opened the door to the inner lab.

"It was not an urgent matter. I understand." Akira responded as she followed Hina.

Each doctor's domain was divided into an office and a separate laboratory. Moreover, the facilities in both sections were quite advanced, and the institute granted their doctors full autonomy over their labs, as long as they did not push the boundaries too far.

"The sample was not too much, but I have managed to analyse the product. I am not sure if my findings will help you." Hina said.

"Anything you tell me could go a long way."

Hina accessed her computer and opened a chart showing the chemical make-up of the compound. Akira looked at it and nodded. The results were as she suspected. It was almost similar to the designer drug, flakka.

"I can see you already had some idea on the type of drug it was." Hina lifted a brow when she saw that Akira did not react.

"If I had told you my information, you would have begun the investigation with a lot of assumptions." Akira looked at her apologetically.

"I am not complaining. The investigation was quite interesting. It even gave me some insight into my coma patients research. I know you already understand the pharmacology of cathinone class psychostimulants, so I will not bore you with the details." Hina said.

"I know you want to see the potential effects of the consumption of the compound." She led Akira to the far corner of the large lab, where there were some cages with white mice.

Akira joined Hina next to the cages, but she could not find anything unusual about white mice. However, there were three covered cages, separate from the rest. Hina opened a small box near the cages and took out a small needle with some fluid after putting on gloves.

She picked a cage with a lone mouse and placed it on a bench, separate from the rest.

"As you can see, this is a normal and healthy mouse. I used the sample to prepare a solution for the test. You will understand the effects of the compound shortly." Hina said.

She took the mouse out of the cage in her gloved hands and whispered 'thank you' before injecting it with the compound. It was her strange habit since she began her research career. She could not deal with the volume of white mice killed every day for research.

Then, her professor explained to her young teenage self that every mouse's sacrifice meant that countless lives might be saved. He told her that she should thank the mice for allowing her to learn and help people.

Of course, he did not mean it literally, but Hina had taken it as such. She would always thank all her mice subjects before using them for research.

She quickly placed the mouse back in the cage and closed it. She stepped back and stood next to Akira.

"Watch!" She said.

The mouse did not react for a few seconds. However, it became agitated shortly after. The small creature exposed its teeth and claws aggressively. It ran from one side of the cage to the other, hitting the walls and clawing everything with strange snarls.

"What happens after a while? That level of energy cannot be sustained." Akira asked.

"That was my original thought too," Hina said before uncovering the three cages.

In each cage, there was a thin and emaciated mouse. The bony bodies were twitching irregularly despite the condition.

"Psychostimulants do not have a sustained effect on their consumers. This variant is unusual because the brain activity of the mice remains elevated even after the physical energy in the mice is exhausted. Simply speaking, the compound allows the brain to remain alive, even when the body is not providing energy to sustain it. It essentially changes the brain chemistry." Hina sighed.

"I know you are often involved in some strange investigations. If someone is circulating this type of drug, they need to be apprehended as soon as possible. I cannot say much because the sample was too small for more testing."

"But I will also let you know that the concentration of the compound is significantly higher than other similar compounds. If it is available in large masses and is consumed by people, I cannot predict the outcome for the world. This is the kind of stuff that changes everything."