“Now then, I will begin,” he said.
“Mmm, ah!”
He pushed the Dullahan’s severed head against the stump of her neck. Molly let out a cry, but her voice was seductive, and sounded almost gleeful. The fact that she was crying out had to mean this was stimulating her—Glenn understood this to mean that he was causing some sort of change in Molly’s soul.
“Er…ugh…oof.”
“Ahh…mmm…oh…ahhh…”
Glenn suspected she was making these sounds on purpose.
He tried wiggling the severed head a bit from side to side. The flames overflowing from the stump of Molly’s neck started to change form slightly. Even close up, the fire had no heat to it. It was probably a completely different phenomenon from flames in the living world.
He remembered that souls were often likened to flames. In the East, they said souls that left their bodies looked like flickering balls of flame.
“Eeeyaaa… Mmaaah… Oww, eee,” she moaned.
He tried wrestling the head this way and that to adjust it. He had no idea what the correct position might be, or even whether he was doing this the right way. He was basically groping in the dark.
“Hmm?”
“Eee!”
Finally, Molly’s body jumped for a second. Her head let out a high-pitched scream, and her hands, which had fluttered erratically, were now quivering.
“Ahh, mmm… O-oh, right there!” Molly cried out, her face now bright red.
Glenn continued moving the severed head, letting the movements of her hands guide him. He discovered something hard in the middle of the meeting point.
Wait, could this be…her spine?
Since she had a human body, it was only natural she’d have a spine. The brain—the most important organ in the human body—used the spinal cord to communicate with the rest of the body. Perhaps the reason just placing Molly’s head on the body wasn’t working was that it wasn’t connecting properly to the spine.
No wonder…
“Mmmm…agh…ohh, I’m trembling!” she declared.
If he could reconnect her spine, it might snap her body out of its current independent mode. It might have been easier if he could see the wound, but it was hidden by the flickering flames. All Glenn had to go by were his own fingers and experience.
“Ahh, yeah… Eee… Oooh…You like to take things slow, don’t you? J-just a little more… There… Oooh…”
It seemed like she was trying to be promiscuous on purpose. Glenn figured that said something about her personality, though it did make him wonder what kind of woman she’d been in life.
“Okay, I got it. Molly, it seems the bones and the nerves that run through them are vital here. I am going to attach your cervical spine and the rest of your spine.”
“You mean, it’s like putting together machine parts?” Cottingley looked puzzled at Glenn’s explanation.
“Not normally,” Glenn answered, as he tried to imagine the positioning of the invisible spine. “Just reconnecting the bones doesn’t fix anything. A human would die as soon as the head and body were severed… But as you said, Cottingley, this is a world made up only of souls. Even if it isn’t biologically exact, if the soul feels like it’s been reconnected, it should work to treat the issue—I believe. What do you think?”
“Well, fine. That sounds smart. It makes sense,” Cottingley nodded. He (or she?) didn’t seem certain either, but Glenn decided to go ahead and try.
“Oh, yeah…Y-you’re putting it in? Are…you going to put it…deep inside me?” Molly asked.
The severed head was really being a bit too much. He needed to concentrate, and this was distracting.
Umm…
Glenn grabbed the collar of his lab coat and ripped through it. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d used it to treat someone’s injuries in an emergency.
“Ahh…faster. Treat me, Doctor… Oo—mggh?!”
“Sorry, just a second,” Glenn said as he calmly pushed a cloth into the severed head’s mouth.
“Mmmhmm?! Mmm! Mgggh!”
“I’m sorry, but as I’m working with nerves, there will be some pain. I need to put this cloth in your mouth so you don’t accidentally bite your tongue during the procedure.”
“Mmmggg?!”
He did mean to give her the cloth to bite on as part of his treatment, but it was also true that he wanted her to shut up. Despite the gag, Molly was still mumbling away.
“Now then, let’s start again.”
“Mggg!”
As Glenn pushed Molly’s head against her torso again, he searched for where he thought the spine should be inside her body.
There…I think.
“Mmm, mm, mmm…Mmmgg!”
Glenn went on to adjust the position of the neck, relying only on his fingers and his sense of touch.
“Mmm, mm, mmmmg…Gg! Ahmmm! Mmgg!”
Finally, he found the sweet spot where the spine and the cervical spine fit together.
“Oof.” Glenn continued with his work.
“Mmm, mmm…mm! Mmmggg!” Molly let out another high-pitched scream. The gag in her mouth was soaked in saliva that was now dripping down her chin.
“Here, then.” Glenn pressed the severed head forcefully into the joint he found.
“Mmm, mmggg! Mmm!”
The head locked perfectly into the torso, as if it had been her natural form the entire time. Molly’s head was facing the sky and she was trembling.
“Mmm, ggg…gwommm!”
Her body and head shook, but they looked reconnected once more. After a bout of trembling, she finally settled down.
“Whoo…” Molly pulled her hair back over her ears and let out a breath as she spit the saliva-soaked cloth into her hand. “Thank you, Glenn, you cutie. You really helped me out… Do you need this?” she asked, holding out the gag.
“N-no, please throw it away.”
“Yeah, right?” Molly giggled, tossing the cloth onto the ground. “Allow me to reintroduce myself—I am Molly Vanitas, a Dullahan, and the cute reaper who murdered you. Would you like me to…show my gratitude?”
She opened her closed eyes just a tiny bit to peek at him.
“I have fiancées, so I’ll decline. Please give me the key,” he answered.
“Ugh! You’re just so good!”
That was when Glenn noticed that, despite her bubbly demeanor, her laugh never reached her closed eyes. His experience with his many patients gave him the feeling he should never let his guard down around her.
“Okay then, two new arrivals, this way!” Molly removed the head that Glenn had just connected. However, the body seemed to be following her head’s intentions now, holding it under her armpit. He saw no signs of the trembling or fear the body had been exhibiting when he first met her.
“Hey, will we really get to meet the Queen?” Cottingley didn’t sound convinced.
“Teehee. I am a Dullahan, working directly for the Queen. I said I’d take you, don’t worry so much,” Molly assured them.
“You are not trustworthy!”
Cottingley and Molly clearly did not get along.
“Buuut make sure you don’t do anything to offend her. As you know, the Queen of the Underworld is the concept of death incarnate. She is moody, she’s unreasonable, and she relentlessly wields her authority… Got it?”
“Err…” The fairy’s face was grave.
Glenn could tell by his expression that the Queen of the Underworld was a truly difficult person to deal with. Regardless of why, he wondered if the Queen would even listen to his plea to return to the living world after he’d already died once.
“Molly…” Glenn called out.
“Wha-at?” she responded in a singsong voice.
“You still haven’t told us why you killed me. Can you tell me now?”
“Why do you ask? It’s already decided that every living being will die someday, isn’t it?” She was stalling.
“If that were the case, you would have said so when Mr. Cottingley asked. Also, you wouldn’t be taking us to petition the Queen.”
“Well, well,” Molly said, sticking out her tongue as if displeased she’d been caught in her lie. “You’re right, I can’t just keep dodging the question…”
“I thought the agreement was that you would tell us if I put your head back on,” Glenn pointed out.
“Teehee, so you haven’t forgotten. That reminds me of when I was talking to Skadi—Okay, I’ll tell you,” Molly said, opening her eyes again only slightly. “That was a test.”
“A…test?”
“I wanted to see how good a doctor you really were. There are two reasons I brought you to the Underworld. Firstly, the Queen hates you. She ordered me to bring you to her right away,” she explained.
Glenn moaned. Cottingley looked up at the sky. An order from the Queen of the Underworld—in other words, the Goddess of Death. It was like she was telling him to abandon any hope that his pleas would be heard.
“The other reason,” Molly said, looking at Glenn with her narrow eyes, “is that the Queen of the Underworld is sick.”
“Er.”
“You are one of the most extraordinary doctors of our time. I learned that when you treated me just now. So it is my personal hope…that you will cure the Queen of the Underworld.”
Glenn was speechless. He had treated a dragon before, and dragons were often compared to gods. He had also treated a gigas, which were often called Giant Gods. But…a real god?
He wondered if it was common for gods who didn’t obey the rules of the living world to get sick. Then he wondered if such an illness could really be cured by a mere small-town doctor.
“I know you’re passionate about medicine. Just put that passion into healing the Goddess. Okay, Doctor?” The first-generation Molly grinned at Glenn. She was incapable of speaking in any other manner.