Dear Ship of Theseus- Kunigiri (Blue Lock)

Part 1

There was something familiar about the nurse carefully wrapping his new knee that Chigiri couldn't quite place. Fluffy orange hair barely covering a snaking wire connecting head and spine...his right eye obscured by a flickering crosshair-like lens...an animated tattoo of a caterpillar sprouting into a butterfly peaking from under his shirt.

"Ah, that's good. Thanks," he massaged the bandages out of habit, his gaze trailing to the nametag clipped neatly onto the caretaker's shirt pocket. It moved before he could properly read the text,

"See you next time then."

"Wait," Chigiri grabbed the end of his shirt with more force than intended, only to have his hand pried off with the coldness of a plastic arm. Sleek streaks lit up its length in a shade of blue blatantly designed to be comfortably sterile. The design of the arm itself also seemed intentionally made for delicate movements.

"I have other patients to attend to. Now, if you'll excuse me," he glanced behind him, a towering figure over where Chigiri sat. The shadow cast nearly blinded him.

The vast majority of people he'd pass on the street were barely people anymore. Autonomy and all that; sometimes he'd see a mere toddler with screen glasses sucking all the youth out of them, next to a group of friends with matching arms, then a proper businessman with seemingly nothing of note until he collapses on the train. Usually no one paid him any notice, let alone checked on him, since these were the types to get up within a few seconds. After all, that was just his afternoon nap to last him the next month. You could never be too aware of who had them and who didn't, since they could be as small as a switch installed a tooth, to stop cravings or hunger altogether.

Having known this, it was rarer to see someone with as many implants as him, Chigiri frowned as he exited the hospital. He himself was still accepting this new piece of metal where his weak knee once was, but at least it looked cool:

"So glad you've decided to go through with the replacement! This is your first enhancement right? I think you'll find that it'll serve you and your football career well," his doctor beamed, obviously with no ill intentions but Chigiri couldn't help but shiver at the gap between his choppy voice and wide grin. It was a stark difference from the doctor he saw the first time it happened.

"I know you've thoroughly considered your options– extremely thoroughly– and I really, truly think tha-"

"When's the surgery?" he cut in, to his doctor's confusion.

"I mean, you still need to choose the material and colour first. You see, we recently acquired the latest super-lightweight polymers and alloys that you'd love to-"

He mostly stopped listening to the details after that, but thankfully stopped his doctor from assuming a pearly white plastic model that he knew would taint grey within a week. Instead, he sighed and pointed at the pink version of one of the metallic models; that would at least match his hair. Perhaps he could figure out a way to get it to reflect light into his opponents eyes to confuse them, he thought half-seriously.

A week later, he woke up in a hospital bed with a metal knee, drowsily trying to figure out why the ceiling lights were so bright, and just how much of his nurse was human.