Rina stilled herself, attempting to look suitably serious as she curiously met Genma's eyes, trying to keep her gaze focused on his face rather than letting it stray to the near-microscopic seals patterning the bandages on his hands and feet. She'd need a magnifying glass to view them, but she had one in the pocket of her labcoat. Her fingers itched to reach for it.

Ito-sensei turned to look at her, inviting, and she shifted her feet. "I'm Akiyama Rina, I'll be assisting Ito-sensei on your case." His face, not the seals. "Pleased to meet you!" She added belatedly, and bowed.

She'd been waiting a whole week to see those seals. A week since a hospital runner had rushed into the Seal Division offices in the middle of the night, requesting as many sterilization scrolls as they could make, as fast as they could make them. Rina had been one of the few people still there, along with the ninja on call, so she'd joined in on the frenzied effort, drawing ink swirls and sharp angled kanji as quickly as she could. And if she'd added a few improvements to the standard design, well, what was the problem? She'd still gotten them done, and it had only made them better.

She hadn't been expecting the visit from Ito-sensei the next day, bags under his eyes, demanding to know who had drawn the modified designs. All fingers had pointed towards her--they knew her well by that point--and she'd cringed, waiting for complaints. Instead she'd gotten an offer, terse and to the point: he needed an assistant on a short-term basis, to help with the seal-work on a particularly trying case. She'd been nodding enthusiastically before he even finished; later that day he'd sent an assistant over with a pile of books and records for her to study while she waited until the touch-and-go phase was over.

She hadn't gotten more than a few hours sleep every night this week, studying all the material he'd given her, but it was so worth it. Straightening from her bow, Rina tried not to look too eager.