Mentioned Characters: Ran, Yachie

In a world obsessed with healers, girls started playing games built around it, wishing each other good health and a speedy recovery. It was this very craze that drew Yachie Kicchou, head of the Kiketsu Family, to accept her old friend Ran Yakumo's invitation and make her way to Eientei. Slender, without an ounce of extra fat to spare, she spent her days hard at work as a trainee aesthetician.

Jidiao oil, rendered from the fat of the mythical jidiao, is a prized ingredient in traditional herbal medicine that's said to treat everything from swelling and malignant tumors to hearing loss. It's practically an Eastern panacea, which, in a roundabout way, makes Yachie a walking remedy herself. True to that, she treats her patients with more warmth and care than anyone else around.

Lately, girls had been flocking to Eientei. Ran wondered if some kind of epidemic was going around. The patients coming in certainly looked troubled enough to fit that theory. And yet by the time they left, they were all but skipping out the door. What was going on? Curious, she decided to keep an eye on one of them. Sure enough, the girl headed straight into the examination room. She really was there to see a doctor. Eavesdropping didn't seem right, though. So just as she turned to leave, the door swung open. "...Ran. What are you doing?"

"That's exactly what I was going to ask you," Ran shot back. She found herself locking eyes with Yachie, who stood there holding an X-ray of a skull. Yachie let out a sigh and grabbed her by the hand. "...Well, there's no helping it now. You've seen too much. You're an accomplice now." Ran was confused. She had no idea what she was being dragged into. Then again, she had dragged Yachie into this whole thing in the first place. She decided not to bring that up. In the end, Ran found herself standing beside the girl she was following, both of them watching Yachie with equally uneasy expressions.

"Leave it all to me. This jidiao will melt away your worries along with your fat." Seated in the examination room chair, Yachie carried herself with such poise while questioning the patient that she looked every bit the accomplished doctor. But Ran knew better than to be fooled. Yachie had started as a trainee at the same time she had. "Yachie... you're not seriously doing cosmetic procedures solo, are you? You're still in training." Ran leaned in and whispered so the patient wouldn't hear. Yachie answered without even turning her head, with just a glance. "Let me ask you something instead. Who else here could possibly handle it?" Ran had no comeback for that. She couldn't think of anyone more skilled at cosmetic treatment than Yachie. Yachie apparently took Ran's silence as an answer and flashed a fearless smile before she spoke. "Changing how you look changes how you feel. And that's exactly my specialty... isn't it?" Ran knew that better than anyone. She'd tasted it firsthand, back when she was still a beast of the Animal Realm. A glint flashed across Yachie's glasses as she watched Ran nod.