[troubled, Manabu doesn't answer right away, though he does have that impulse to say something, leading to just an opening and wordless closing of his mouth for a bit as he stares and considers.

after a beat:] He...I don't know if he was ever part of the procedures, I don't remember him scrubbed up, but he would come in...into the room, I mean, and ask about vitals and things. He'd try to get me to answer a bunch of questions. Like, like my medical history...doctor stuff, I guess.

[talking about it makes him uneasy, the creeping feeling under his skin, the ache near his surgery sites reappearing as if on cue.]

I can't remember...how many times, though.