Culture Shocks

Nuri and the demon slayer continue to battle. Nuri was able to break a couple of the slayer's weapons with her own physical strength, including cracking her boomerang. However, the slayer came prepared and is full of tricks, including patching up her armor every time it gets damaged. The armor increases the slayer's energy and stamina, while Nuri's is slowly but surely burning out. Plus, they are battling in very extreme weather conditions that keep getting worse.

"Pathetic Shila (Nuri). You haven't been in the lava in months, have you? You must be trying to burn yourself out on purpose."

Nuri takes out her very last lava rock and tries to liquefy it. The slayer uses a blast to shatter it.

"I'm going to ask you one more time. Where are the remains of my mother, father and grandfather?"

Nuri's already told her that she doesn't know and refuses to answer a second time. The slayer attacks again while Nuri covers herself in lava, fighting against the extreme snowstorm. Then an avalanche explodes and covers them deep. They both dig themselves out, getting exhausted but neither will let up. With no armor, Nuri's getting more and more vulnerable and getting hurt from the debris. The violent storm soon makes it impossible for her to see, while the slayer wears weatherproof goggles. The vulacish is beginning to get frost bite and came no longer feel the slayer's ki. Plus, the slayer has no magical or supernatural aura to pick up on. Nuri uses what's left of her heat to keep from getting buried alive, and the slayer sneaks up on her when a plant like barrier appears and blocks the attack.

"Leave her alone!"

Merlin, King, Gelda, and Carmine are inside Merlin's perfect cube.

"You think that's going to keep you safe?" The slayer takes out what looks like a knife and throws it at the cube, which creates a hole and goes right through. Then she uses a similar knife to evaporate King's barrier around Nuri. Even Merlin is shocked.

"She's so well prepared;" says Carmine; "She's India's top demon slayer for a reason."

The slayer turns her attention towards Carmine; "So you finally show yourself old bat. Where are my parents and grandfather?"

Carmine can't hear her; "We'll talk away from the mountain. Come now!"

"Answer me!"

Another avalanche is coming.

"Merlin, grab them now!"

Merlin uses her magic to grab the two women. The slayer uses her weapon to nullify the magic and escape. Then the avalanche comes through and buries her. Carmine and the Britannians take off with Nuri, who's decided not to put up a fight when she sees who it is, and soon passes out from exhaustion on the way.

Meanwhile, Gangkhar Puensum continues its wrath.

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Elaine and Diane are with their hosts in a strange restaurant. Everybody here is sitting on the floor, just like they did at their Uda's shrine. Several dishes with small portions are served and shared by everyone at the tables. Elaine tries her best not to breath in the fish, and almost loses it when she sees people eating 'raw' fish.

They are entrained by strange dancers (Shirabyōshi dancers). These dancers have pure white faces, which freaked out the Britannian ladies at first. They are dressed in red and white extremely baggy, multiple layered clothing, the sleeves so wide they look like wings. They are wearing tall, black hats with their long hair hanging down the back. They hold large fans and carrying long, skinny swords. Their dramatic dance moves seen to acting out some kind of battle. Occasionally, they would chant. They are accompanied by special drums and a flute.

The Britannians find the entertainment very odd but incredibly enjoyable, especially Diane. She excitedly jumps up cheering clapping and carrying on like she would at a fighting match. Everybody gives her strange looks. She's confused and sits back down.

"Tough crowd."

The entertainment continues with a small group of Maikos (apprentice geshias). They wear extremely fancy kimonos, extremely heavy makeup, including their entire face and neck ghostly white, and had their hair in impossible hairdos with fancy accessories. Two of them play an unusual string instrument (samisen) while three others dance, sing, and chant very elegantly.

"How do they get their hair like that;" wonders Diane; "It must take them hours to get dress."

"I like this much better than the last dances;" says Elaine.

"It is lovely, but I liked the last group better. It was much livelier."

Across the dining room sits the same 5 people and 'kitten' the ladies had ran into earlier that day. Elaine and Diane are surprised that this place aloud a "kitten" inside. Inuyasha seems extremely annoyed by the entertainment and eats inhumane large portions of food as if he's in a hurry to eat and get out. He's even arguing and fighting with the fox-tailed kid, Shippo, over dessert.

"Inuyasha sit boy;" says Kagome sitting next to him. The purple necklace glows and Inuyasha is once again pinned to the floor, while Shippo grabs the last daifuku.

Miroku is going around the dining room seemly flirting with every young lady, to the obvious annoyance of his group, especially Sango. Suddenly an old lady switches places with a grateful young girl and Miroku unknowingly takes her hand. When he opens his eyes, he's horrified as 'Granny' lights up and flirts with him. Everybody laughs, much to Miroku's embarrassment.

Diane suddenly feels a slight sting on her neck. There on her shoulder is an oversized flea (0.7cm) in a kimono. She goes ballistic and squishes the flea on the floor.

"EW! That bug sucked by blood! Get it away from me!" Diane cries with tears in her eyes.

The flea slowly gets up, aching all over. "(In Japanese) Ugh. My that chick is strong. Her blood is kind of bitter though."

Miroku kneels down; "Well, so you finally showed up Myoga, after the dangers over of course."

Myoga jumps on Miroku's shoulder. "I would have been there with you if Master Inuyasha didn't run so roughly."

"Funny how you have no problem holding on when there's no danger;" huffs Inuyasha.

"Are they talking with that flea?" asks Elaine.

Diane cringes. "How can they stand having a bug on them?"

Kamone suddenly seems distract and says something. Her group gets up and rushes out. Elaine and Diane can feel a large presence of magic drawing near, as do Uda and Kikyo.

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Gowther, Margaret, Jericho, and Guila sit in a diner right next to the beach. They've never sat in a place that overlooks the ocean and Guila is really absorbed in the sight. Jericho gives her best friend the elbow.

"We didn't come here for the view Guila. We came her to replenish our energy and go."

Gowther and Margaret had also been looking at the ocean and snap back to attention. They look at the menu but don't recognize any words. The waiter comes to their table and only knows a few key Greek words and short phrases. Margaret tells him just to bring them what he recommends. A few minutes later he brings tea and four saucers with a strange looking meal. The center dish, which looked like a thick stew made with fava beans (ful medames) looks disgusting, especially to Jericho who's a picky eater. It's surrounded by some kind of pita bread (eish baladi), minced vegetables, and boiled devil eggs. They play it safe by starting with the eggs. Guila can tell these are duck eggs. They taste a little richer than what they're used too, but they are good. They finally work their way to the ful medames. Margert doesn't like it too much, but surprising Jericho does and cleans her plate of it. Gowther in general has little sense of taste but can definitely say he likes the eggs and bread, and that this food is certainly much closer to Ban's cooking and definitely NOT his captain's.

Once they finish eating, they try to ask where the church is, but nobody seems to understand what they are asking. They leave the diner and decide to look for a church. They are passed by a woman in a very light pink thobe and dusty rose hijab that covers over half of her face, along with large black shades over her eyes. She thinks she hears them speaking in British and stops. She turns around and listens. They are indeed speaking British. She hears them say they are looking for a church and are in an urgent hurry to find their friends. She goes with her gut feeling and follows them, staying completely out of sight and doing her best to disguise her key and energy aura.

As the Britiannians go down a busy street, dings are heard and most everybody suddenly stops what they are doing. They all face the same direction, get down on their knees, and start 'bowing', right there on the street.

"What are they doing?" ask Guila.

"I think they are praying;" answers Margaret; "Most people in this part of the world are Muslims, I think, and this is one of their daily prayer times."

"Why are they praying in the streets and not in private like normal people?" ask Jericho.

"This may be normal for them;" replies Gowther.

"Well, they're in our way. Excuse me." Jericho steps over people rather rudely.

"Please don't be rude Jericho;" pleads Guila; "Remember we're the strangers in this land. Maybe we should take this time to pray ourselves."

"In front of all these people?" says Jericho; "I prayed last night and before we ate. I don't care what these people do, I'm not praying in public, or like that!"

They hear shushes from all around. People are staring at them.

"Come on, let's blend in." Guila gets down on her hands and knees like the locals, then yanking Jericho down, forcing her to do the same. Margaret and Gowther do the same. A few minutes later, people start to get up and resume their business as if nothing happened. Some people continue praying and folks are mindful of them. The Britainnians spot a building that resembles a church. They try to go through the main doors, but the men there won't let them and seem to be directing them elsewhere. Jericho picks up one of the men and threatens him. Her friends' reason with her, and she reluctantly puts the confused and startled man down. Margaret and Gowther then try talking to them. Neither man speaks Latin or Greek, but one gestures for them to stay there while he goes somewhere. He comes back a few minutes later with another man, who speaks some Greek. At first, he tells them that the women enter through the side door (Gowther tries to tell him that he's not exactly a woman), but then he realizes they are looking for a church. He tells them they are at a mosque and the nearest church is about a mile up the road.

Unknown to them, the lady in pink is hiding and listening in on them.

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Melidy woke up with a bad cough and running nose, barely able to breath, and feeling warm. Hawk and Wild freaked out and ran to Jasmine for help. She believes the piglet's got a cold and tells the brothers that she'll take her to the doctor immediately for some medicine, but that she should be fine. Beatrice, the human toddler, isn't feeling well either so Jaz takes her as well. None the less, the brothers continue to cry and worry all morning, annoying the others a bit.

Before she left, Jasmine informed their guests that she has some important things to discuss with them, including finding their friends. However, the hog brothers are worried sick, and she rushes to the clinic to get them off her back.

Despite being frustrated by the wait, Ban and Elizabeth decide to explore Amalfi. Zeldris refuses to accompany them since he hates crowds, and while the church sits outside of town on a quite beach, the town itself is an extremely busy and crowded place. Elizabeth has the 4-month-old human infant, Jade, strapped to her, wanting to get some practice with a real live baby. Amalfi lays at the mouth of a deep ravine, with many stairs and hills to climb, surrounded by dramatic cliffs and on a beautiful coastal setting. They have brunch at a local diner, each ordering the sampler plater of various local dishes. This food is quite different and a lot more exotic then back home, but incredibly delicious. Ban hopes he can learn the recipes and take some of these dishes back to Britannia.

Despite now knowing that she's carrying twins, Elizabeth's still having a hard time eating more than bare minimum. Following the advice from Jasmine as well as her own knowledge, she tries to be careful and selective with what she's eating in hopes of decreasing her nausea. Still, Elizabeth has to try at least a bite of each sample, plus a couple local desserts. She ends up with nausea and heartburn, but manages to keep some of the food down, she thinks.

Ban keeps staring at Elizabeth with curiosity, especially as she keeps excusing herself and doesn't take a sip of the Limoncello liquor, which is almost as good as Bernia ale in his opinion. However, he doesn't ask any questions.

When it came time to change baby Jade's diaper, Ban offers to do it.

"No Ban, I've got this?"

"It's ok Elizabeth, I probably need to practice too anyway." He gives the goddess a look with an almost wink. Has he figured it out? Like Meliodas, the fox sin isn't usually the sharpest tool in the shed, yet he does have a great deal of common sense.

And by saying the word too, does that mean Elaine is also pregnant?

Afterward, they visit the big church in the town square, Saint Andrew's Cathedral, or Amalfi Cathedral as the locals call it. It's considered the sister church of Jasmine and Scout's church, or rather brother church since the area's foster and orphan boys reside in the monastery behind the cathedral. It's much bigger than the beach church and far grander and fancier, made from Mother of pearls. It's similar to the big chapel in Liones, but also different. They also visit the shrine of the Apostle Andrew, which contains his relics and made from bronze.

Afterwards, they are exploring the flea market. While Elizabeth can trust Ban to keep his promise to not swipe anything (except a bottle of good liquor), she does have to make sure that he doesn't get too tipsy. Ban promised not to get drunk, but that can be difficult for him, especially because he's such a lightweight.

"Ban, hand that to please. You're getting tipsy."

Ban's looks a little woozy. "Hic-up. I'm fine Princess. I can knock back just a little more."

Elizabeth holds out her hand; "Ban."

The fox sin huffs; "Oh alright. Here."

Elizabeth puts the bottle into her sack. "You know if you and Elaine plan to have children, you'll need to be a lot more careful with drinking."

Ban nods; "Yea I know. Elaine makes sure I don't overdo it too often. It's much harder on my own." Ban gives a little smirk; "I do think something's up with Elaine. I don't believe she knows what's up yet, and I don't really either, I'm just guessing."

He eyes Elizabeth again as if waiting for her to say something. She's aware of the bet the fox sin and Meliodas have of who will siren a child first.

Elizabeth hears Mt Vesuvius roar as if it was angry. A ball of lava and smoke burst through the cone. She has feeling that something's about to happen.

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Willie is beyond frustrated. Not only has Meliodas literally not stopped eating for the past 3 hours, but he's also discovered from the transportation center that not only can they not get a flight to Cario, both transparent mages are away. One having just left for his scheduled Hajj pilgrimage, the other not yet returned from his Lent pilgrimage, both to Jerusalem.

"Why don't they check in once in a while;" wonders Willie; "they're transparent mages for goodness sakes. They probably rondevued at a beach."

"We meet up with your group at the beach during our pilgrimages a couple years ago?" says the Muslim clerk. "Aren't you the one who almost drown?"

Willie coughs and doesn't answer that question; "Tell them that it's an emergency, please."

"Ok, but I don't believe your situation qualifies as an emergency."

Willie just huffs as Meliodas polishes off the last of his barbeque lambs on a stick, then ask Willie for more money.

"Believe me, it is."

"We'll have a magic carpet available tomorrow. I'll contact you if anything becomes available earlier."

Leaving the center, Meliodas says he wants more of those deep-fried balls (falafel), fried doughnut holes (zalabya), and barbeque lamb.

"Meliodas, haven't you had enough?"

The demon shakes his head; "No, I still have room for more."

"Let's do something else. There's lots to see and do here."

"Ok, let's let our fists decide."

Not again. They've already played rock-paper-scissors 3 times, each time Meliodas emerging as the winner. No matter what Willie says in his head, he has an annoying habit of ending up with rock, just like Zeldris when he plays that game with his brother. Meliodas tells the monk that it's because of his serious, uptight personality.

Willie successfully lures Meliodas down a flea market street with no eateries hoping to distract him from food. Fortunately, Meliodas does get interested in some of the items. He looks at some souvenirs and starts asking questions.

"These are the strangest dolls I've seen. Why so many weird looking cats?"

"Ancient Egyptians worshiped cats;" answers Willie; "they're still an important symbol here. Some still believe these statues bring good luck."

Meliodas rolls his eyes; "Now that's silly. Cats are annoying and bothersome, although they do make a tasty stew. By the way, does anybody have any pork in this town?"

Willie slaps his head; "I've already told you NO! Swine is diseased and forbidden in the Arab world, including churches. Nobody's going to have swine here!"

Meliodas thinks that's just plan ridiculous. He picks up a couple more survivors of a pharaoh and a 'beast with a head of a jackal'. "Are these guys? Why are they wearing skirts? What's with the strange hats and long thing on this guy's chin?"

"That's how ancient Egyptians dressed. Do you really want to know why?"

The demon shakes his head. "No, I don't. Even the clothes you wear now are strange. Does everybody here dress like clergymen and nuns? I can barely tell the women from the men. Why does everybody wear such baggy clothes and cover up from head to toe?"

"Modesty and respectably, of course."

"Awfully extreme aren't we, especially the woman. How is any guy supposed to grab their butts and check out their boobs and aroma?"

"Keep your sick thoughts to yourself please."

Willie then realizes they are close to the river. "Meliodas, this way, you really need to see this view."

The demon wipes sweat dripping down his face; "You know what I really go for right now? Ice cream! You could use some too. You've hardly eaten anything. No wonder your all skin and bones."

The monk rolls his eyes; "How could anybody have an appetite around you? I don't need much anyway."

Meliodas swoops behind him and starts massaging his shoulders. "Owe. Stop that!"

"Come on Willie. You really need to loosen up and relax. Stressing out over stuff doesn't help anyway."

He hates to admit it, but the dragon sin does a point.

"Alright, you win."

Several minutes later, ice cream in hand (six triple scoop cones for the dragon sin) Willie convinces Meliodas to look out at the water. "If there's one thing in Egypt you must see, it's this." Meliodas looks out at the water, not to impressed. "It's a nice little lake, I guess."

Willie is offended; "Lake? That's no lake, that's the Nile River, the longest river in the world, about 4,258 miles."

Meliodas nearly chocks on his ice cream. "Seriously, that's a river? 4,000 miles?"

"Yes. Don't tell me you've never heard of the river Nile."

Meliodas shrugs his shoulders and looks at the river again. "Man, I wish Elizabeth was here to see this. That's the widest river I've ever seen. To think a river like this going through a land of dry sand. So, this is how you survive here." He notices the tall 'grass' and trees; "I certainly didn't expect to see any plants in this land." Meliodas gulps down the last of his ice cream cones and takes off the shades and keffiyeh; "Hey Willie, let's go for a dip. It's nice and shaded down there."

"A dip? Here now? I can't swim."

Meliodas removes his tie and unbuttons his vest; "Ah there's nothing to swimming. I couldn't swim until Elizabeth helped me overcome my fear. You were floating completely unsupported in the ocean the other day. You can swim, I'll help you."

He gets undressed, except for his pants, and jumps in, waving to Willie. When Herman offered to teach him how to swim, the harpy purposely held him down underwater until he nearly drowned, and he needed medical attention.

"What do I have to lose?" Willie changes into a comfy, loose fitting, full-body bathing suit and cautiously steps into the water.

Meliodas gives him an odd look; "Is that what you're swimming in?"

"Yes."

Impatient, Meliodas grabs the monk and drags him into the water.

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Diane, Elaine, and their hosts head back to the shrine as the sun goes down. Something has felt off in the atmosphere for a while, but everybody seems calm.

"I really wish we knew how to reach the others;" says Elaine; "I'm worried."

"Yes. I also wish we knew where we are, and how to communicate with these people better."

Uda calls the party to a holt. The gravity is feeling very heavy. She points to Elaine and says something, then signals for Diane and one if her sons to come with her. Elaine tries to fly and feels the gravity getting heavier. Kikyo and her brother grab Elaine and the children and take them another direction. Having heard that unnatural gravity supposedly effects pregnancy, like during a full moon, the fairy wonders if that's why they don't want her near it.

Elaine feels a sting on her neck, and she slaps it. In her hand is a swashed Myoga, the flea demon. She flops him roughly on the ground. "Owe, maybe she's not as safe as I thought. I really should stick to yokai (demon) blood."

Uda leads Diane and her other son towards a what sounds like a battle. The gravity gets stronger and stronger, and Uda has a very concerned look on her face. Diane realizes the area seems familiar. Is this the area near that cave? Sure enough, it is, and a very messy battle seems to have just taken place here. Inuyasha's group is pinned done by extremely heavy gravity, with exception of Inuyasha himself as he struggles against the gravity with an unusually huge and glowing white sword as his support. Herman is there, behind the gravity of course.

"Sit!" Herman gets pinned down, turning off his magic too. Inuyasha gets up and attacks.

"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer."

"Sit!" Kamone shouts, pinning down Inuyasha.

"Stop this fighting immediately;" commands Uda.

Inuyasha gets up furious; "This is none of your business you old witch! This dummy interfered with our battle and let the demons get away with the Shikon jewel shards."

Inuyasha tries to argue with Uda, Diane just stands there completely perplexed and attempts to grab her hair, forgetting that it's in a ponytail. Suddenly, the demons they had been fighting reappeared, three dark glowing bird-dragons with dark drown feathers. Inyusha and company resume the battle. Diane wants to help, but Uda holds up her hand and shakes her head as this is not her battle, but Diane ignores her and jumps in anyway. The second she does, Miroku removes the beads around his right hand, allowing his black hole wind tunnel to suck up the meteor attacks of the bird-dragons. Diane gets in the way and Miroku is forced to re-cover his hand to prevent her from getting sucked in.

"What are you doing?"

Diane can't believe the massive power she just felt, but the bird-dragons attack again. Miroku pushes Diane out of the way and uncovers his hand again. "Wind tunnel." His black hole sucks up the attacks with ease, to the serpent sin's surprise.

"What is that scary thing in his hand, a black hole?"

Sango and Kirara, now transformed as a much larger saber-tooth cat, keeps one of the dragons busy. Diane can't believe that's the same 'kitten' from before. Shippo tries to extinguish some of the meteor and fire attacks, needing help from Kamone's sacred arrows that she shots with a bow. Kamone has located one of the jewel shards they are looking for in one of the demons and Inuyasha starts to activate his wind scar with his sword to slice the creature's leg. While this going on, Herman assumes he can fix everything with his gravity and cracks it up.

"NO! Sit!" cries Uda. Unfortunately, there's too much power going around at once for her command to get through, and Herman cranks his gravity up to extremely overload, colliding with Miroku's wind tunnel, creating a dangerous disturbance. Somehow, Inuyasha's wind scar and Kagome's arrow collide and when the bird-dragon gets slices, it not only regenerates, it clones itself not once, but twice, each with a piece of the jewel shards, and more powerful than the original. The other two bird-dragons also split and clone themselves after gathering power from the other warriors. The disturbance suddenly explodes and creates a distortion gate coming from the sacred cave. The now nine dragons and lots of power gets absorbed by the distortion, and something else, an extremely giant blue dragon, comes out.

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In the Nile, Willie is successfully swimming on his back with no support.

"I can't believe it. I'm swimming!"

Meliodas smlies; "See, I told you just to relax and you could do. Now, let's try floating on your stomach."

Willie's hesitant; "I'm not sure I'm ready for that."

"Sure, you are. You just need to lift you head above the water and quite holding your breath. It's not a dead man's float you know."

Suddenly, they both feel a very large disturbance. It's coming from the direction of the Valley of the Kings and Queens. Then the ground starts to shake, and the sky looks like the northern lights.

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As the lady in pink listens in on the Britannians at the mosque, she's spotted by a Muslim man who ask her where her escort is. She pushes up her sleeve to reveal a small, simple cross on her inner wrist. He apologies and recommends that she watch herself as some like to take advantage of unescorted woman. He also asks her if she's waiting for somebody at the mosque. She nods and he steps away. Before the Britannians leave, Gowther asks the man if he knows of a female Copic monk who may be a vulacish. The man gasps when he hears that and tells them to ask at the main Copic church, which is several miles away. That's exactly wear the pink lady is going, and the mention of Nuri is the confirmation she needs. She takes out her notepad and pen and tries to get up courage to go them.

Suddenly, a very uneasy feeling hits her. She can feel a distortion opening up.

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At the clinic, the doctor gives Melidy a shot, being playful and making her laugh so she doesn't feel the full sting. It works. The toddler needed a bit more coaxing to be exam, but she only needs some oral medicine, fluids, and chicken soup. She plays with a doll while the adults watch Melidy drift off to sleep.

"I believe this is the first time I've had a pig as a patient;" laughs the doctor.

Jaz giggles. "Well, this little piglet will be talking in a few years and thinking like a person." She sighs; "Well, I'd better get these two back so they can rest, and her brothers will finally calm down. They are very emotional."

Jaz's expression turns to a somewhat sad one as she straps Melidy to herself and puts Beatrice in her stroller.

"Jasmine, don't feel bad about it. It's difficult even for the most intelligent people to spot a perfect forgery unless they're specifically trained for it. If that's what it is, our priests have been fooled too. Whoever must be doing it certainly knows them well enough to know exactly what they'd say."

Jasmine looks up; "She suspected something was off from the beginning, but I wanted to wait awhile cause the messages were so perfect. I know better! I should always listen to my sister. Now she's going down there to discover what's going on, all on her own."

"I know you worry about her, but she's got this as you and I know."

They hear rumbling outside, and the ground shakes. "Jeez, that volcano! Are you sure she's not going to explode?"

Jasmine looks at the doctor; "You know I do everything in my power to keep that from happening. I'm just relieved Vesuvius stayed quite while we were trapped."

Jasmine gasps. She can feel something's not right. "That's not an ordinary eruption. It feels like a distortion!"

"Leave the little ones here Jasmine. I'll watch them until you get back."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, go."

With that, she rushes out of the clinic.