Chapter Text
Yuujin Mikotoba puffed heavily as he dragged his trunk along with himself along the corridors of St Bartholomew's Hospital. Sweat forming on his forehead and his legs aching like hell. Oh what a morning!
First, he had to wake up at around three in the morning to get off the boat at Dover, then stand in line for hours while Customs searched through his trunk. Then there was the mad dash with Genshin and Jigoku to Dover Station to get on the train bound for London, and trying to work out what train you're supposed to board isn't very easy when English is your second language and you need to hurry.
Then after a rocky train journey, he arrived at Platform 9 of King's Cross station at fifteen minutes to twelve on the dot. Then there was the matter of having to get the omnibus to the hospital and traipse around the corridors to find the office of the man who would be the doctor-in-charge for the duration of his stay, one Dr John H. Watson.
He finally got to the door he was looking for.
Dr JOHN H. WATSON
M.D
SURGEON
Mikotoba wiped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief as he leaned against the wall to catch his breath, hoping his knees wouldn't go from underneath him with exhaustion. After a few moments he rectified himself and straightened his tie to try and make himself look somewhat presentable.
He'd heard from a number of students that Dr Watson was often in his office at this time of the day, and he prayed he'd be in there. His legs probably would go from underneath him if he had to walk any further without a rest.
With a deep breath, he knocked the door and calmed himself. Remember your English, Mikotoba, remember your English...
"Come in!" called the voice from inside.
Mikotoba opened the door and stepped into the doctor's office. It was somewhat neat, with a medical examination bed next to the window and a large diagram of what looked like an leg next to a framed red outfit—the uniform of a British Empire soldier, he remembered, having seen it in a book on military history once.
On the other side of the room, there were a number of bookshelves packed tightly with leather-bound medical textbooks and books on the military. A wooden chair faced the desk of the doctor, who was sat at the desk beside what he had learned to be a "typewriter."
Middle age was beginning to creep onto Dr Watson, it seemed, but held himself well, if somewhat stiffly, with his brown hair as well-trimmed as his moustache was. "Ah, you must be the exchange student from the orient," he said, shaking Yuujin's hand strongly "I'm Dr John Watson."
He felt his arm would fall out of its socket if it was shook any further. "I'm Mikotoba Yuujin—I mean, Yuujin Mikotoba." Remember, the English have their given names first and their family names second.
"A pleasure to meet you. Did you have a safe journey over?"
"Yes, it was quiet enough."
It was indeed quiet for Yuujin, as he'd spent the most of the fifty day-long journey between the Japanese Empire and the British Empire in his cabin onboard the H.M.S Strangford, unwilling to speak to anyone and spending a fair amount of the time crying to himself over his apparent failure. But then again, he couldn't really say that, could he?
"Good, good. Well I'm afraid that I don't really have anything for you today, as I was under instruction to just make sure you arrived in one piece today. You're welcome to go to any lodgings you may have and to get settled in, and we'll begin officially tomorrow."
Kuso! Yuujin cursed internally. He needed to get that sorted out now too, didn't he? That would be more walking and more money. Then again, he could ask Dr Watson...
"Well, I'm currently in need of lodgings at the moment," said Yuujin, "Do you know where I could find somewhere?"
Watson looked down all of a sudden and began to laugh. "Do you know..." he said "...that you're the second person to say that to me today?"
"Oh. Really?" asked Mikotoba.
"Yes, there's a gentleman down in one of the labs at the moment who told me he's in need of a place to stay since he's being kicked out of his lodgings on Montague Street. Bit of an odd fellow, but his heart's in the right place I should think."
"I see. And is he studying here too?" Yuujin asked. It certainly would be useful to live with a student of the same department. At least there'd be someone to show him the ropes that he'd be able to consult at all hours of the day if he needed to. And it might help to have someone remind him whenever a report is due.
Dr Watson replied "He's not, would you believe it?"
That was that optimistic idea out the window, then...
Watson checked his pocket watch. "He should be still down at the lab if you want to meet him. Don't worry about your trunk, you can leave it in here and I'll lock the door behind us so you don't need to worry about anyone trying to steal it."
"Oh, thank you. I don't think I could bare to carry it any further."
So he left the trunk in the office and Dr Watson did as he promised, locking the door behind him and leading the way down the corridor to the laboratory.
"So what does this fellow do then if he's not a student?" Yuujin asked, hands in his suit jacket pockets.
"Oh, I've heard that he does all kinds of things. Amateur science, really, and has built his own stuff before. I know because I have to keep sending him the bill when something goes wrong and he ends up damaging the lab equipment."
Yuujin supposed that the reason why this strange fellow was being kicked out of his Montague Street lodgings was because the continual bills meant he could no longer afford the rent. That, or he ended up blowing the roof off with one of these apparent strange inventions.
He followed the professor down the stairs and through a set of double doors into a laboratory - the smell of formaldehyde and other disinfectants stinging his nose alongside the faint smell of blood and other various chemical concoctions and medicines used in surgery.
A tall man was leaned over a lab table, hurriedly working away with two conical flasks filled with liquids of strange colours. His blond hair was short, but still rather messy, and he was dressed with a lilac shirt and magenta-coloured bow-tie and a pair of dark brown leather fingerless gloves, his fingers covered in little bits of plaster.
Dr Watson cleared his throat.
The man sprang around, and it seemed as though he was holding a pipe in his mouth. "Oh! Dr Watson! There you are!" he exclaimed, speaking quickly and excitedly. "I was just in the middle of an experiment regarding the new method for blood detection that I'm about to invent."
"This," said Dr Watson, gesturing a hand towards the excitable man, who was fiddling around with the conical flasks again "is Mr Sherlock Holmes."
"A pleasure to meet you," said Yuujin with a forty-five degree bow.
Holmes sat the conical flasks down and turned around again, staring at Mikotoba. He'd gotten several stares similar to that on his way through King's Cross, with a young boy remarking about a man with funny-looking eyes while pointing in his direction. He was obviously talking about either Jigoku, Genshin or himself, as there were no other orientals on the train.
"Now then sir," said Holmes, flicking a finger against his fringe "I deduce that you are from a foreign nation...Afghanistan, is it not?"
Yuujin was quite taken aback. Nani no namae de-?
"Er, no. I'm not from Afghanistan."
"Albania!" Holmes exclaimed then.
"No, not Albania..."
"Algiers?"
"No..."
"Andorra?"
Yuujin surely had to put this man's questions out of their misery. "No, I'm from the Empire of Japan," he replied "in Asia."
"Gah! Why did you not let me reach there on the list then?!" Holmes exclaimed "Honestly, it's like I've memorised the entire atlas for nothing!"
"Anyway, I must get on with this experiment. Do you know of any chemicals that might cause a reaction with the haemoglobin in blood?"
Yuujin thought for a moment, stroking his chin in thought, before concluding: "What about one of the peroxides?"
Holmes snapped his finger and a plaster came off, causing him to grimace in pain slightly, though this was rectified rather quickly, as he seemed to have raided the first-aid box for an immediate supply of plasters.
He reached into the nearest cabinet and pulled out a bottle labelled "HYDROGEN PEROXIDE - WARNING! POISONOUS!" and opened it with a slight pop of the cork, before gently pouring it into a test tube - the noses of Mikotoba and Holmes wrinkling slightly with the bitter smell of it, which quickly spread throughout the small dark candle-lit laboratory.
Holmes took out a needle and looked at his plaster-covered hand to try and choose which finger to draw blood from next. Then he sighed. "Oh dear, looks like I've taken blood from pretty much everywhere I can on my hands. You there, can I borrow a drop of your blood for a moment?"
Yuujin stammed "M-Me?"
"Yes, yes. I'd do it with Dr Watson's blood, but he's already told me never to ask him about it ever again."
Yuujin looked back at Dr Watson, who was nodding. It looked as though he didn't really have much of a choice.
"Alright," he said, stepping next to Holmes and presenting his left hand. He was right-handed, so it wouldn't matter as much if he took blood from his left-hand. Holmes took the long needle and jabbed Yuujin once in the thumb. That was where the most blood could be found in the hand, anyway, next to the palm, that was.
Holmes carefully guided Mikotoba's thumb over the test tube filled with the peroxide, and squeezed gently until a small drop of it landed in the blue liquid and began to fizz and bubble gently, a number of dark brown flakes falling to the bottom of the test tube.
"Hah!" cried Holmes triumphantly, holding the test tube to the candlelight to properly examine it. "I've done it! I, the great Sherlock Holmes, have done it! Yes! The newly-invented Sherlock Holmes method shall revolutionise the way that the police investigate crime in the coming twentieth century! And it's all thanks to the help of my friend, mister...?"
"Mikotoba." said Yuujin. "Yuujin Mikotoba."
"Yuujin Mikotoba. Pleased to meet you. I'd shake hands, but unfortunately I'm too sore with cuts. By the way, help yourself to a plaster."
"Thank you very much," said Mikotoba, carefully wrapping the plaster around the top of his thumb "I heard from Dr Watson there that you were looking for lodgings?"
"Am I? Oh, yes! I am!" said Holmes, who spoke excitedly as though he would die if he didn't finish his sentence within thirty seconds. "With all the medical equipment I've had to buy, I'm looking for someone to share lodgings with. On Baker Street, which isn't very far from the hospital at all. About a ten or fifteen minute walk or so. Only problem is, I'm a bit short on cash at the moment, and so I need someone to share rent bill with."
"Then I am your man," said Yuujin with a nod.
"Excellent. Then I suppose I should probably list some of my habits before you come to a final decision," said Holmes "let's see, do you mind the smell of tobacco much?"
"Not really. I'm inclined to smoke an odd pipe myself every now and then."
"Fair enough. I'm forever experimenting with chemicals and gadgets. Would that annoy you much?"
"By no means," said Yuujin, who was beginning to wonder if he'd ever see the sight of a retort stand in the sink with plates and cutlery.
"What else do I do that people generally find annoying? I can get down in the dumps at times and don't open my mouth for days on end, just curled up in a ball on the settee or in-bed. If I do that, I'm not sulking, so just leave me alone and I'll be as right as rain soon after. And what are your black habits?"
Yuujin laughed. It was like helping Jigoku with practising his cross-examination skills again. All that it was missing was the cry of "Igi Ari!"
"Well, I'm not keen on fighting a lot," said Yuujin, sadly "as my nerves were shook quite recently, and can sometimes wake up in the middle of the night. I've also been told I snore..." he laughed, remembering Ayame teasing him slightly for that habit "But otherwise, those are my main bad habits."
"I see. I also play the violin. Would that... bother you much?" asked Holmes anxiously, pressing two fingers together before giving another cry of pain as he accidentally pressed on a fresh wound.
"It depends on the player. Are you good?"
"Only the best player this side of London!"
Yuujin chuckled "Then I should look forward to hearing you play some day."
"Excellent, then I suppose we can consider the matter sorted out."
"So when will we see our rooms?"
"Sometime tomorrow afternoon. Call here, first, and we can go sort everything out."
"Alright. Noon, then." Yuujin took out a notebook and pen and quickly made a note of it. "I suppose I'll just have to find a hotel for this evening, then, and I'll see you there tomorrow."
Yuujin and Dr Watson left Holmes to fiddle away with his chemicals, walking back to Watson's office to collect his trunk. "Thank you very much for bringing us together," said Yuujin "I do hope we'll get along well."
"So do I. As I've said before, he's an odd fellow. But you're the quiet sort, I can tell. So you and him should be able to get along well."
"Right. Anyway, I must go find a hotel for the night now. I suppose I'll meet you tomorrow morning, then?"
"Yes. I'll introduce you and give you a bit of a quick tour so you can learn where things are. Take care, Mr Mickeytoba."
"Mikotoba," Yuujin corrected, dragging his trunk out the door with him as his search for a hotel began.