The intercom announcement didn't exactly make Ritsuka feel very safe. It was a blatant reference to Pandora and even if it wasn't, the message was ominous enough to send a chill down anyone's spine. Taking the notice, Ritsuka went over to the door and opened it cautiously. He didn't like the idea of forcing the Clinic on Nataku, but for now, he
(
Read more... )
Sanzo tilted his head down to watch. Hakkai was really the only person he trusted with this. He wasn't about to take his eyes off of her hands just because she was a member of some clinic.
At the first gentle touch, he stiffened. Sanzo resisted the urge to bat her hand away. He couldn't force himself to relax though. If either of them was offended by it, tough shit.
A slow warmth started in his chest. It was weird, just how similar this kind of healing felt, no matter who was doing it or the method.
His pulse was starting to race.
Something was wrong. He'd never had this reaction before, not to Hakkai's chi healing, not to whatever Qui-Gon had done before with that Force of his. Healing sometimes hurt, but he didn't remember him getting this tense over it.
Sanzo tried to close his eyes, but couldn't. Couldn't remove his gaze from her hands. His vision had tunneled onto it, his eyelids refusing to close. The hand was changing, scales rippling up and down it, then feathers, youkai claws flickering in and out, flashes of a familar glove on that hand, like Koumyou's, what the fuck was going on-
Sanzo grit his teeth.
It had to be an illusion. He was hallucinating, except even if Zakuro was here, his powers wouldn't work here. Even if they had, Sanzo'd gotten out from them before; it was just a matter of taking control. That dickhead wasn't that good at it, even if he had the ego to make up for it. The only problem was that Zakuro had to verbally tell them how he was affecting them. He hadn't heard anything earlier. Maybe it wasn't even Zakuro; maybe it was just the pain affecting him mentally...
The gradual warmth continued. Almost as if in answer, his heart pumped even faster.
It was getting hard to breath. The monk was only distantly aware of himself breathing hard and fast through his nose. He was almost certain he was starting to bleed from it. He couldn't hear anything over the roaring in his ears. His head was throbbing.
Sanzo's muscles were seizing up. It felt like his heart was trying to pound itself out of his chest. Or those shifting hands were pulling the organ right out from him, he couldn't tell---
A strangled noise squeezed past his clenched jaw. Sanzo's fingers spasmed, then sunk into the blond man's forearm. Unnoticed, a dark red liquid was gathering in his ears, cradled there for a moment, before spilling over, trailing down his neck.
Reply
But... it seemed like she was true to her word. Sure enough, a strange pink glow engulfed her hands. He was in complete shock, not quite understanding what was going on. He'd heard a lot of stupid theories and stories since coming here, some of which involving powers of some sort. And he wasn't about to buy into that sort of superstitious nonsense, but this... Whatever she was doing certainly looked like--
Then catastrophe. The guy was suddenly panting, twitching in obvious pain. The man reached out and gripped Klavier's arm, almost painfully so, and there was blood starting to pool out of his ears.
"S-Stop! Stop!" he cried, though the girl had already noticed and ended the process by the time the words were out of his mouth. He turned an almost accusing look at the woman, but it seemed like she'd taken some kind of toll from the entire process herself. Now he was getting worried... What was going on?! "Are you alright?" he asked both. "What happened?!"
Reply
"I-I don't know," she replied, her voice a little hoarse. "The kidou has never done that before. It was like..." She leaned in to check the man's vitals, hoping he wasn't going to lash out at her, though she would take it if he did; she deserved it, in a way. "...like a rejection or reversal or something."
She put her hand gently to the man's cheek. "Talk to me... please?"
Reply
The man who brought him in was asking the very question Sanzo wanted an answer to. The only thing he could think of was that she'd lied. Or Landel had done something to her ability. Either way, she was dangerous.
"That's what I'd like to know," Sanzo muttered in reply. The girl was reaching out for him again. He caught her hand as it touched his cheek, his grip anything but gentle. The last thing he needed was her getting those hands near him again.
The monk pinned her with a cold glare. He ignored the feel of blood sliding past his lips or down his neck for now.
"Is that your definition of healing? Just redirecting the attention elsewhere?"
Reply
"No. That's not what it was supposed to do. I've healed others many times while here and it's never, ever done that before," she stated. "I-I don't know what happened. I'm so sorry. That shouldn't have happened. The bones should have mended."
She swallowed, trying to stay calm. Was she really that broken that she couldn't even control her own kidou anymore? That couldn't be the case, could it? "Have you ever has healing before? Has anything unusual other than being in his damned place happened to you? I don't have an explanation, but I didn't mean to hurt you. I don't even know how it happened."
Reply
He couldn't trust anyone else's word here but his own, or Goku's.
With a grunt, he released Momo's hand. "I've been healed before without this happening." He didn't care if it came off like an accusation. He wasn't about to tell her anything else; not when he didn't know if she was lying or not.
Sucking in a tight breath, Sanzo closed his eyes, and steeled himself. Slowly, he pushed himself up with his arms. His mouth twitched as his ribs and muscles throbbed in protest.
The Smith & Wesson was lying on the table near his head. Surprisingly enough, the man hadn't stolen it. The gun vanished into his robes.
Reply
He was actually too busy looking at her to immediately notice what the victim was doing. This woman looked dazed. Or perhaps she was frightened? Taken aback? There were still traces of blood coming from her nose. Klavier was about to suggest she go lie down on a bed herself when he noticed the man had sat himself up.
What the-- Was he out of his mind?!
"Achtung! Don't move around! You'll injure yourself even more." Though at this point, it was hard to imagine he could inflict any more harm to himself than the so called 'staff' here. He held a hand up as though to push him back down, but instead only gestured for him to lie back down. If he insisted on getting up, though, he would push him back. "It was hard enough getting you here without your lungs getting punctured. Don't make it worse."
Reply
"I must be broken then," she whispered, barely audible, her voice taking on an almost unemotional tone. "I'm sorry. I'll leave now and let someone else wrap your chest with standard first aid."
Reply
Everything had happened too quickly for Soma to react, which was in itself unusual. But as soon as she'd managed to deal with the shock of Hinamori's hands glowing like that - as soon as she'd managed to quell the little voice that said that maybe the vice captain hadn't been lying about her 'demon arts' after all - she'd been distracted by the injured man apparently getting worse, after that, she was too busy gauging everyone else's reactions to worry about her own.
But surely there was something she could do here. It was, after all, in high-pressure situations that she truly thrived. Pushing aside her thoughts for the moment, she stepped forward.
"I know first aid," she said, quietly but clearly. "Can I help, vice captain?"
Reply
Sanzo didn't say anything as Momo dropped her eyes. The worry and hurt wasn't hard to see in that face, along with something else, the way her tone changed like that. Enough to make him rethink the lying angle. Maybe she really was telling the truth after all; she really hadn't meant for that effect. Maybe Landel'd tampered with her abilities. Who knew?
But it didn't change the end result of what'd just happened. He wasn't about to bullshit to her otherwise, that it was alright, that he didn't feel like he'd just nearly had his heart pulled from his chest. He wasn't Hakkai.
Instead, the monk didn't say anything, dropping it for now. Another woman had showed up, saying something to Momo.
The man next to him - he still didn't have a name to that face - was suddenly protesting as Sanzo awkwardly sat up. It was his turn to get pinned by a glare. Maybe he scored a few points with Sanzo for carrying him here and not taking the gun, but that didn't mean he was spared.
"I have unfinished business: I'm not going to lie around," the monk replied. He looked at the patient's hand where it was, as if daring it to try and stop him. "Where did that son of bitch go?"
Reply
Thankfully, another woman appeared. One using the familiar term of 'first aid.' Maybe he had some hope of surviving yet as long as people weren't going to start trying voodoo and acupuncture.
The victim spoke up while the two women talked, fixing him with a harsh look. It made Klavier frown. Not as though he weren't accustomed to getting such looks from defendants, but it was hardly something to expect from an injured man.
"You're not in any condition to go anywhere," he said firmly. This man's ribs were broken and he'd just suffered who knows how bad of an additional internal injury. What did he possibly think he could do in such a state? And here Kristoph thought Klavier was the one being reckless.
"If you're talking about the man you were fighting with, he left quite a while ago," he continued. "But it's still not safe to venture outside. He said he didn't plan to go very far. He doesn't expect to go any further than the west-most hallway. And from the sounds of things he planning to continue his violent rampage. He said he would be wherever there was fire."
Another reckless idiot if he'd ever seen one. Pressure from staying here was understandable, but going berserk and lashing out like this would only do more harm than good. And what kind of imbecile would even think of setting a fire in this building (or any building really, but that was beside the point). There would be far too many casualties. It was starting to look like even staying in the patient rooms wouldn't be very safe tonight...
"Anyway, you'd best stay in here. If you go wandering around you'll likely run across him again." And there might not be someone to help you next time.
Reply
"Yes, Peries-san. If he will allow it, best to wrap his torso tightly to keep his ribs in place." She slowly got to her feet and turned away, choosing not to look at either the man she'd hurt, the one who'd brought him in, or Soma. She looked for Raine, only to find the half-elf had already left. Taking a cloth from the box she'd brought in, the shinigami set about cleaning her face, coughing a few times in the process.
Reply
There had been plenty of gauze in the box Hinamori had brought with her, and she picked up a roll, turning to the injured man and addressing him directly this time.
"This man - " a nod at the apparently German man - "is right. We don't know how much your condition may have worsened as a result of what just happened. I don't know enough about medicine to treat internal injuries, but I can at least wrap your chest."
Reply
Sanzo roughly wiped at the blood trickling from his nose, frowning at both the new woman and the man. Why the hell did it feel like he was getting ganged up on? It reminded him of the rare times when Goku, Gojyo and Hakkai actually managed to put up a united front. Sanzo had decided that he didn't care for it. He wasn't liking it now either.
At least the woman wasn't completely setting her foot down like the blond was. She seemed to recognize the urgency here, which was something Sanzo approved of. Instead of insisting, she was offering to do the best she could and step back. Which was just fine with him. The last thing he wanted right now was to roll over, even if each breath and little motion was killing him right now.
"Fine, do it," the monk told her. At least bandaging he could keep an eye on.
Sanzo's gaze switched to the man. If he'd meant for that to be a warning of where not to go, it wasn't working. It just gave him a clear picture of where to find that fucker. Running into him again was exactly the point.
What the hell was this about fire?
"I'm not your concern," Even if he'd taken the time to drag him here. Sanzo was his own responsibility in the end. He certainly wasn't going to hide in here. "I'm not letting Homura run around unchecked."
Reply
No matter. Klavier was sure the man wouldn't be leaving. It would be impressive if he could even manage to walk across the room after getting wrapped up, let alone go looking for a fight. Besides, the helpers seemed to be on his side. They likely wouldn't just let him up and leave.
"Perhaps," he said with a somewhat amused laugh. "But it might benefit you more to sit still until you've recovered. There's only so much one man is capable of." He placed his hands on his hips, suddenly all smiles out of nowhere. "But as you said, it's not supposed to be my concern, ja?" He turned his smile to the volunteer helpers as though expressing gratitude before turning back for the door.
Homura, hm? He could have sworn he'd heard that name before. It was so familiar. Whoever this was, it was a dangerous individual. One more person to look out for. Klavier couldn't very well let someone like that 'run around unchecked' himself.
These people. They have to make everything so complicated.
[out to here]
Reply
Moving closer to the door, Momo leaned against the closet. How could that have happened? She'd never heard of healing kidou reversing like that. It wasn't happening to the other shinigami or any of the healers; she'd have heard about it by now. That meant it had to be her.
One thing she knew for certain - she wasn't going to try to heal anyone else. She was broken.
Reply
Leave a comment