Katawa Shoujo - Akira Satou Route

Act 4-5 Imbalance

I pace up each step, examining the clipboard in my hands as groups of men pass me, some still wearing white lab coats while others have theirs folded over one arm. I've come to filter out their speech as their discussions always soar over my head in terms of complexity.

My watch reads out a time of '6:02 P.M.,' indicating the end of a day of important experiments and the beginning of small projects and the scrutiny of the maintenance team.... though 'team' isn't very appropriate since it's a single worker. Myself.

Every so often I pass a man carrying a folder stuffed to the bursting point with reports, data tables, and other vital information -- no doubt destined to wind up in a mountain of papers on Mr. Setou's desk.

My work has nothing to do with gathering data or anything of that magnitude, however. The tasks outlined before me consist of '[X] sort live specimens,' among a few other items. The first item on the list already carries a precise checkmark with a small footnote. "Nakai: I took care of the shipment of lab mice upon Mr. Shuugetsu's request. There are special procedures for testing with living creatures that you'll be trained for at a later date. -Solus"

I'm surprised that Mr. Solus was the one to do it, seeing as how he's one of the project leaders here. Maybe he's just taking it into his own hands so I don't have a chance to mess it up, since like he said, I don't have any formal training with cleaning up things that are still alive.

He's a very helpful person, though. If I remember correctly, he's a friend of Mutou's who also took my side when the decision was made to hire me, not that I'll ever be able to thank him for such a thing.

I trace my finger down to the next task, the usual '[ ] gather and clean glassware and other lab equipment.'

As I make my way up to the fourth floor, the only indicators of what I'm meant to be doing there are a few passing scientists telling me that 'the lab's a mess after that last one.' I have a sneaking suspicion of what 'that last one' may be considering all the paperwork floating around, but- oh good lord they weren't kidding.

There aren't any huge spills or other messes, but none of the equipment has been moved from its workspace as the scientists left. Burettes lay standing, trays have been stacked in random arrays, and dozens upon dozens of test tubes are strewn about in every position possible; lined up on racks, filling entire tubs, and even laying on their sides on the surface of the table. Every so often one can find a plastic sharps container filled with depleted syringes, the amount of trash in each receptacle helping me understand just how major this experiment was.

They were at it for six hours straight; taking samples, retaking them, finding a different approach and then trying again. I never thought it could require this much manpower to test the potency of a new kind of anesthetic, but I guess anyone could be wrong.

And one of the worst parts is that, according to some, the experiment was still a failure -- not due to procedure, but the object they were testing turned out to be a total dud.

Well, good news is that this is all my work for the evening, since this is the only thing that's been going on today. It finished up about fifteen minutes ago, but I still decide to wear a facemask and a pair of gloves in case there's a chance of contamination from... something.

All the valuable information has already been taken away; the 'good' samples, the live specimens that didn't make it through the day, and everything else I'd have to worry about sorting out.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about testing on live animals, though. There's a few different meanings to 'failure' when it comes to anesthesia, and I'd rather not spend too much time thinking about it. There might be a reason Mr. Setou hasn't touched on any of this with me.