je_united gift fic for stormy1990 Part 1/2
Lovely fic for stormy1990
Title: KINCI Kid
Pairing: YasuixTaiga, YasuixFujigaya, YasuixNikaido, KitayamaxFujigaya
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: God yes, everything. Violence, rape, death, mental problems, nonsense
Summary: There's something very strange about the new patient at The Kamenashi Institute for Neurologically Compromised Inpatients.
Notes: When I started writing this I envisioned some grand, thought-provoking masterpiece...what I've ended up with is 11,000 words of brutally violent nonsense. I'm so sorry!
“New patient checked in today.” Ueda informs Yasui as he steps into the break room and shrugs off his bag and coat. He gives a mildly interested nod of acknowledgement as he pulls out his uniform and starts stripping. “I think you'll be pretty interested in him.” Yasui pauses halfway through stepping into his navy uniform pants to fix an unimpressed glare on Ueda who just rolls his eyes and stubs out his cigarette. “Yeah he's a good looking kid but I didn't mean like that...he's a weird one.”
“Solitary?” Yasui asks, gaining a little more interest, it's the code word for dangerous at KINCI - The Kamenashi Institute for Neurologically Compromised Inpatients.
“Kamenashi-san thinks he should be, there's something unsettling about him but he's showing no signs of violent tendencies, heck he's showing little sign of anything but a lobotomy.” Ueda answers and that hardly perks Yasui's interest. They have patients like that, usually ones with some form of extensive brain tissue damage, that are practically vegetables. They're hard work to take care of, they have to be coaxed through the simplest of daily tasks, brushing their teeth, eating, going to the bathroom. It's hard work but boring.
Yasui is more interested in the ones with psychological problems. It only makes sense, his major was in psychology after all and that's where he'd hoped to end up at KINCI, giving therapy sessions or even doing research. Instead he's little more than floor staff, a carer.
He finishes changing and clocks in bang on seven, right on time for the earlier of the graveyard shifts. The graveyard shifts are the least popular shifts because of the hours, both the time and the fact they run twelve hours rather than the usual nine. They're good money though, and they're not as physically taxing. Yasui likes them because he has time to look through the medical records...test his knowledge against the diagnosis, consider how he might change the treatments if he had any such authority.
Yasui notices the new patient the moment he steps onto the main ward, he's standing frozen in the middle of the corridor, dark eyes considering Yasui as he moves closer. Good looking is an understatement. The new patient is stunning, or would be if not for the lank dullness of his almost silver blonde hair, the sallow skin stretched tight over the bones in his face and the deep purple beneath his eyes. He's wearing a hospital issue gown rather than the standard KINCI leisurewear and his feet are bare.
“Hello.” Yasui says kindly as he approaches. “My name is Yasui Kentaro, I'll be taking care of you here. I'm sorry I haven't been told your name yet...”
The new patient's eyes seem to look over every inch of him before fixing themselves on Yasui's eyes, boring into him. It feels like the young man is looking inside him. With a small tilt of the head, the patient turns and walks away leaving Yasui shuddering.
“He's mute.” Ueda says, back in his street clothes and heading for the door. “I left his file on the desk for you.”
There are rounds to do once Yasui has gone through the days hand-overs with the Senga, the carer in with him until Kitayama starts the late graveyard shift at ten, and then there's particular patients that need to be checked on. The 'vegetable' residents need to be bathed and changed for bed and then the lights out checks start at nine. The new patient is in a shared room, two of it's occupants are just temporary, dementia patients that will be transferred out the next day to a specialised facility, and then there's Nikaido.
“This is Taiga.” Nikaido tells Yasui. “He's staying with me for a while.”
Yasui nods and smiles. “Are you going to help him settle in?” Nikaido, who would be Yasui's favourite patient if it were morally acceptable to pick favourites, is a lovely young man of twenty six. He was in the year above Yasui at school and beat him up twelve times over the course of their matriculation before going on to lead the most notorious violent gang in the whole of the Tokyo area. Five years ago a motorcycle accident left Nikaido with no memory of his former self, and a difficulty retaining new memories, but with the ongoing help of the psychology department he's making some progress with the latter.
Nobody is helping Nikaido with the former. The new Nikaido is docile and enthusiastic about life, he's always smiling and ready to reach out a hand the help the other patients, even if half the time he can't remember who they are, and that's why new patients are often placed with Nikaido, he helps them settle in.
“He's my friend.” Nikaido tells Yasui. “But he's a bit shy.”
Sure enough the new patient, Yasui doesn't have enough trust in Nikaido's memory to be certain his name is Taiga, is sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. He's staring at one of the dementia patients with a curious expression while the old man sits on the end of his bed, rocking and muttering “I told you, it's not there any more, I don't know where it's gone” over and over.
“Yamaguchi-san?” Yasui asks gently while walking over to him. “Is everything alright?”
After four years here, Yasui is used to the nonsensical mutterings of dementia patients, but it takes him completely by surprise when Yamaguchi suddenly points at the new patient and shouts. “Tell him he can't have it, I don't know where it is!”
Yasui turns to the corner, the new patient is still staring at Yamaguchi only now it's with greater intrigue. Ueda was wrong about him, he doesn't have the zombie-like mannerisms of a lobotomised patient at all, there's something there under the quiet, something very much lucid and strangely disturbing. Yasui is very interested in him.
Not all of the patients at KINCI are there for memory trouble, and they're not all what people would consider crazy. Every one of them has some kind of neurological problem but there's a whole wing of residents whose observed symptoms are behavioural.
They have patients struggling so badly with obsessions or compulsions or fears that they can't live normally, at least until they've undergone lengthy psychological treatments, in the outside world. Most of them live communally, but just as with the other wings there are a number of solitary patients.
Fuma's problem is aggression, brought on by the traumatic incident of seeing his secret lover being beaten to death for his sexuality. Fuma was in too much shock to react at the time, and as the gang members didn't know about the nature of his and Kento's relationship, Fuma was spared, only to snap at the police station and injure thirteen officers in his fit of blind rage. He's doing a lot better, he now recognises the warning signs of violent episode, but it's safer to have him in solitary confinement than risk him not being able to stop it.
Taisuke is an addict. He's undergoing hormone correction to fix the imbalance that has him addicted to sex. The progress so far is negligible and Taisuke's self-restraint even less than that, so after his fourth arrest on suspicion of rape, Taisuke has been admitted to KINCI until some bigger improvements in his behaviour are seen. In Yasui's opinion, being at KINCI isn't any better for Taisuke, he knows he's not the only carer that has given in to Taisuke's seduction.
When he finally gets chance to sit down at the carer's station, once all the patients are tucked in for the night and Kitayama is starting the first of the hourly rounds, Yasui finds the new patient's file as Ueda promised.
Sure enough the file says Taiga at the top of it, but before it, in brackets is the word 'unknown'. As Yasui reads down he discovers that the young man had been found wandering alone in the woods wearing only a raincoat, one that was far too small to be his and that had the name Taiga stitched onto the label.
The young man hasn't spoken a word to anyone since he was found, and there's no record of him through searching his fingerprints or DNA. His description doesn't match any missing persons report in the area and despite an appeal on national television for information about him, the authorities are still no closer to finding out who he is.
He'd been kept at a hospital for three weeks while all manner of tests were carried out, but aside from elevated brain activity, his inability or unwillingness to speak and the way he panics if anybody tries to touch him, there appears to be nothing wrong with him.
With nothing left to do at the hospital, he'd been transferred to KINCI to look into possible psychological problems until more information came to light. Yasui's never seen a case quite like this one before, but he doesn't need to have done to know that Taiga will likely end up a permanent resident. That thought makes him shudder again, he's interested in Taiga's case, very interested, but that doesn't mean he isn't creeped out. There's definitely something not right with him, with the way he'd seemed to reach inside Yasui with his eyes, with the way Yamaguchi-san reacted to him.
Kitayama comes back from his rounds and brings with him a cup of coffee for Yasui. Yasui had been too absorbed in Taiga's file to notice he was late back, the night time checks should only take twenty minutes but he's been gone almost forty, and Kitayama offers him a sheepish smile as he hands Yasui the cup. His hair is a little messy and his cheeks are flushed, Taisuke's is the last room on the route.
He doesn't mention it, just thanks him for the coffee and goes back to Taiga's file. They take the checks in turn, one every hour, so he has twenty minutes left until his round. The round takes twenty minutes, forty minutes from now he'll get to Taisuke's room, Taisuke will be ready to go again by then for sure.
The thought takes him by surprise because he never pre-meditates this kind of thing, would never, because it's immoral and unethical and just downright horrible and if he's caved in the past it's only been because of Taisuke's desperate and talented attempts at seducing him.
He looks around, almost sure that Kitayama will be glaring at him, knowing what he was thinking, but Kitayama's eyes are on the computer screen in front of him. There are eyes on him though, he almost jumps out of his skin when he looks back out at the ward and there, from the window in the door of Nikaido's room's, Taiga is watching him.
Kitayama sees him jump and follows his line of sight. “What's with that guy? There's something pretty scary about every one of them in a way, you know? But that one's different...”
Yasui doesn't answer, he swallows hard and gets up from his seat. He shouldn't be scared, he's been dealing with mentally disturbed and damaged people for years, he knows what to do if they get violent, he knows how to handle it if they're hysterical. He has no reason to be scared but Taiga just keeps on looking at him with those cavernous black eyes until Yasui is right beside the door.
“Is something wrong?” Yasui asks, his voice only cracking a little.
Taiga blinks slowly and turns from the door, Yasui tries hard to look in through the window but he can't see anything in the darkness, he strains his ears, and then jumps back a mile as another face appears at the window.
“Yasui-kun?” Nikaido asks, and his eyebrows are furrowed in worry. “This man isn't very well...”
Yasui is still too startled to react at first but then he hears it, quiet sobbing and moaning. Yasui nods. He has the keys right there and this isn't even a solitary room, these people aren't deemed dangerous. He fidgets with the keys for a moment and then shouts “Kitayama? Back up please.”
When Kitayama is beside him, Yasui unlocks the door and switches on the light. Yamaguchi is pacing in a tight circle in the corner of the room. “Stop it, get out, it's not there.” he's muttering, crying.
“Yamaguchi-san?” Yasui asks, walking over and placing a hand on Yamaguchi's arm. “It's OK, there's nothing to be worried about...go back to bed.”
“I can't, I can't.” he says shaking his head and then he turns to look at Yasui, looks over his shoulder. “He won't let me sleep.” A cold dread fills Yasui as he somehow knows who Yamaguchi is referring to.
“We can get you something to help you sleep...” Kitayama offers gently from over Yasui's other shoulder.
“I don't want to stay here.” Yamaguchi answers, ignoring Kitayama, he shakes his head faster and faster and faster and then shouts. “Get out! I have to get out!” he bolts for the door but Kitayama is ready, he catches Yamaguchi and between the two of them they manage to tackle the thrashing man to the floor and hold him.
“I've got him.” Kitayama says almost breathlessly, Yamaguchi is a tall man, a strong one and Kitayama and Yasui both are rather smaller in stature. “I've got him, get a sedative.”
Yasui bolts for the carer's station, and scans his card across the security card reader on the medication cabinet, then he types in the pass-code. He selects the general sedative, it's a fairly weak one to account for different body weights but it should be strong enough to pacify Yamaguchi until they can move him safely.
He runs back to the room where Kitayama is still struggling to hold him down while Nikaido and the other dementia patient look on in horror, Taiga watches in that same intrigue he'd been watching Yamaguchi with earlier. Yasui drops to his knees by Yamaguchi's head and positions the sedative.
“No!” Yamaguchi shouts. “I'm not crazy, it's him. He's in my head, he wants to know what I'm afraid of but it isn't there any more.” Yasui falters for just a moment as he looks over at Taiga, he looks creepy as always, but not menacing, he looks both curious and oblivious. “I can hear him in my head.” Yamaguchi cries and Yasui jabs him with the sedative.
Between them they heave the more placid Yamaguchi along the corridor to a solitary room. He's not a danger exactly but he's clearly not comfortable in that room and he's disturbing the other patients. Afterwards they head back to Nikaido's room where they usher the other patients back into bed.
“That man was very upset.” Nikaido tells Yasui, clearly shaken. “He was mean to the one with white hair.”
“Yes, he was very upset, but he'll be alright, we'll look after him. What did he do to Taiga?” He points over at Taiga who is sitting on his bed with his knees tucked up to his chest. “You remember Taiga.”
“That man was very angry at him, but he didn't do anything wrong.” Nikaido tells him, complying as Yasui urges him down into his bed and pulls up the covers. Sometimes Nikaido's memory loss makes him very scared and childlike, it's must be difficult, Yasui muses, to not remember, to not understand things. He gently brushes Nikaido's fringe away from his eyes and smiles, Nikaido smiles back and lets his eyes flutter closed.
“It's OK, I'll make sure Taiga is OK.” Nikaido nods so Yasui heads over to Taiga's bed. Taiga watches him walk over but doesn't react. “Are you OK?” Taiga just looks at him. “I don't know what Yamaguchi-san said to you” he points at Yamaguchi's vacated bed. “But don't listen to it, he's very unwell and he doesn't know what he's saying, do you understand?” Taiga just continues to stare. “Lay down, try to get some sleep.” It almost surprises him when Taiga lays down, he wasn't sure if Taiga understood a word he was saying, but then when he reaches out to pull up the covers, the first real emotion Yasui has seen from him, fear, twists Taiga's features and he shuffles away from Yasui's touch.
The medical file did say he didn't like to be touched. Yasui smiles softly and gives a quiet apology, and then turns to follow Kitayama out of the room, locking the door behind him.
“Well, at least it's been an interesting night.” Kitayama says with raised eyebrows. “Did you see the way he was looking at that new kid?”
“He's not all there.” Yasui says a little defensively. “He said he heard voices in his head...that screams all kinds of not good to me.”
Kitayama nods in agreement. “Yeah, I guess you're right, hey, it's time for your round, you go, I'll write this thing up in the log book.”
It's weekend after that and weekends at KINCI are run by a separate team of staff so Yasui has two whole days off, one technically since shift patterns run in one week rotas and he's switching back around to days for a few weeks. The thoughts of Taiga and his mysterious arrival don't leave him entirely though and he spends most of his full day off looking through newspaper reports, then through missing persons spreading outside of the Tokyo area. Still, by the time he goes back to work on Monday, he has no better idea about where Taiga could have come from than the medical file does.
“Eventful weekend?” Yasui asks Ueda who is on the early shift, it's his duty to go through the weekend logs with the carer from Sunday night's late graveyard shift.
“Not really.” Ueda answers, “Fukazawa and Iwamoto had a pretty big fight but it all turned out fine. Fukka thought Iwamoto was cheating at snap and Iwamoto got all het up about being called a liar. Oh, actually though, Tamamori said Nika-chan's been acting kind of strangely.”
He's not allowed to pick favourites, but Nikaido is a favourite, so he hurries his step along to Nikaido's room to see what the matter is. “Yasui-kun” Nikaido says with a smile when Yasui enters. It's hard to say why Nikaido remembers his name when he usually forgets other people's, Dr. Yokoo thinks it's maybe because he knew it before the accident but Yasui isn't so sure.
“Hey, how are you doing? I heard you weren't feeling well?” Yasui says softly.
“I'm OK.” Nikaido tells him, but there's something sad in his voice.
The communal patients have free reign of the ward through the day and it's not like Nikaido to be sitting here in his room alone. “Why aren't you out with the others...”
Nikaido shakes his head sadly. “I don't want to be with them. I'm not a very nice person.”
That's definitely not like Nikaido. “What makes you think you're not a nice person?”
Nikaido shakes his head. “Dreams...I think...maybe...I don't know, I feel like I'm not a nice person.”
“Well you are a nice person. Everybody likes you, that's why we put new patients in your room because you make people feel better.” Yasui tells him and something changes in his expression but only slightly, and Yasui isn't sure that it's a happy change. “I have to go and do my rounds, but if you want to talk to me I'll be back soon, and Dr. Yokoo will like to hear about this in your meeting later, he'll be able to make you feel better.”
Nikaido nods and Yasui reluctantly leaves. Sometimes patients have bad days, all of them do, they come out of it. Nikaido will likely get distracted by something and completely forget that he was ever in a sad mood, but it's still painful for Yasui to see.
Part 1
Title: KINCI Kid
Pairing: YasuixTaiga, YasuixFujigaya, YasuixNikaido, KitayamaxFujigaya
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: God yes, everything. Violence, rape, death, mental problems, nonsense
Summary: There's something very strange about the new patient at The Kamenashi Institute for Neurologically Compromised Inpatients.
Notes: When I started writing this I envisioned some grand, thought-provoking masterpiece...what I've ended up with is 11,000 words of brutally violent nonsense. I'm so sorry!
“New patient checked in today.” Ueda informs Yasui as he steps into the break room and shrugs off his bag and coat. He gives a mildly interested nod of acknowledgement as he pulls out his uniform and starts stripping. “I think you'll be pretty interested in him.” Yasui pauses halfway through stepping into his navy uniform pants to fix an unimpressed glare on Ueda who just rolls his eyes and stubs out his cigarette. “Yeah he's a good looking kid but I didn't mean like that...he's a weird one.”
“Solitary?” Yasui asks, gaining a little more interest, it's the code word for dangerous at KINCI - The Kamenashi Institute for Neurologically Compromised Inpatients.
“Kamenashi-san thinks he should be, there's something unsettling about him but he's showing no signs of violent tendencies, heck he's showing little sign of anything but a lobotomy.” Ueda answers and that hardly perks Yasui's interest. They have patients like that, usually ones with some form of extensive brain tissue damage, that are practically vegetables. They're hard work to take care of, they have to be coaxed through the simplest of daily tasks, brushing their teeth, eating, going to the bathroom. It's hard work but boring.
Yasui is more interested in the ones with psychological problems. It only makes sense, his major was in psychology after all and that's where he'd hoped to end up at KINCI, giving therapy sessions or even doing research. Instead he's little more than floor staff, a carer.
He finishes changing and clocks in bang on seven, right on time for the earlier of the graveyard shifts. The graveyard shifts are the least popular shifts because of the hours, both the time and the fact they run twelve hours rather than the usual nine. They're good money though, and they're not as physically taxing. Yasui likes them because he has time to look through the medical records...test his knowledge against the diagnosis, consider how he might change the treatments if he had any such authority.
Yasui notices the new patient the moment he steps onto the main ward, he's standing frozen in the middle of the corridor, dark eyes considering Yasui as he moves closer. Good looking is an understatement. The new patient is stunning, or would be if not for the lank dullness of his almost silver blonde hair, the sallow skin stretched tight over the bones in his face and the deep purple beneath his eyes. He's wearing a hospital issue gown rather than the standard KINCI leisurewear and his feet are bare.
“Hello.” Yasui says kindly as he approaches. “My name is Yasui Kentaro, I'll be taking care of you here. I'm sorry I haven't been told your name yet...”
The new patient's eyes seem to look over every inch of him before fixing themselves on Yasui's eyes, boring into him. It feels like the young man is looking inside him. With a small tilt of the head, the patient turns and walks away leaving Yasui shuddering.
“He's mute.” Ueda says, back in his street clothes and heading for the door. “I left his file on the desk for you.”
There are rounds to do once Yasui has gone through the days hand-overs with the Senga, the carer in with him until Kitayama starts the late graveyard shift at ten, and then there's particular patients that need to be checked on. The 'vegetable' residents need to be bathed and changed for bed and then the lights out checks start at nine. The new patient is in a shared room, two of it's occupants are just temporary, dementia patients that will be transferred out the next day to a specialised facility, and then there's Nikaido.
“This is Taiga.” Nikaido tells Yasui. “He's staying with me for a while.”
Yasui nods and smiles. “Are you going to help him settle in?” Nikaido, who would be Yasui's favourite patient if it were morally acceptable to pick favourites, is a lovely young man of twenty six. He was in the year above Yasui at school and beat him up twelve times over the course of their matriculation before going on to lead the most notorious violent gang in the whole of the Tokyo area. Five years ago a motorcycle accident left Nikaido with no memory of his former self, and a difficulty retaining new memories, but with the ongoing help of the psychology department he's making some progress with the latter.
Nobody is helping Nikaido with the former. The new Nikaido is docile and enthusiastic about life, he's always smiling and ready to reach out a hand the help the other patients, even if half the time he can't remember who they are, and that's why new patients are often placed with Nikaido, he helps them settle in.
“He's my friend.” Nikaido tells Yasui. “But he's a bit shy.”
Sure enough the new patient, Yasui doesn't have enough trust in Nikaido's memory to be certain his name is Taiga, is sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. He's staring at one of the dementia patients with a curious expression while the old man sits on the end of his bed, rocking and muttering “I told you, it's not there any more, I don't know where it's gone” over and over.
“Yamaguchi-san?” Yasui asks gently while walking over to him. “Is everything alright?”
After four years here, Yasui is used to the nonsensical mutterings of dementia patients, but it takes him completely by surprise when Yamaguchi suddenly points at the new patient and shouts. “Tell him he can't have it, I don't know where it is!”
Yasui turns to the corner, the new patient is still staring at Yamaguchi only now it's with greater intrigue. Ueda was wrong about him, he doesn't have the zombie-like mannerisms of a lobotomised patient at all, there's something there under the quiet, something very much lucid and strangely disturbing. Yasui is very interested in him.
Not all of the patients at KINCI are there for memory trouble, and they're not all what people would consider crazy. Every one of them has some kind of neurological problem but there's a whole wing of residents whose observed symptoms are behavioural.
They have patients struggling so badly with obsessions or compulsions or fears that they can't live normally, at least until they've undergone lengthy psychological treatments, in the outside world. Most of them live communally, but just as with the other wings there are a number of solitary patients.
Fuma's problem is aggression, brought on by the traumatic incident of seeing his secret lover being beaten to death for his sexuality. Fuma was in too much shock to react at the time, and as the gang members didn't know about the nature of his and Kento's relationship, Fuma was spared, only to snap at the police station and injure thirteen officers in his fit of blind rage. He's doing a lot better, he now recognises the warning signs of violent episode, but it's safer to have him in solitary confinement than risk him not being able to stop it.
Taisuke is an addict. He's undergoing hormone correction to fix the imbalance that has him addicted to sex. The progress so far is negligible and Taisuke's self-restraint even less than that, so after his fourth arrest on suspicion of rape, Taisuke has been admitted to KINCI until some bigger improvements in his behaviour are seen. In Yasui's opinion, being at KINCI isn't any better for Taisuke, he knows he's not the only carer that has given in to Taisuke's seduction.
When he finally gets chance to sit down at the carer's station, once all the patients are tucked in for the night and Kitayama is starting the first of the hourly rounds, Yasui finds the new patient's file as Ueda promised.
Sure enough the file says Taiga at the top of it, but before it, in brackets is the word 'unknown'. As Yasui reads down he discovers that the young man had been found wandering alone in the woods wearing only a raincoat, one that was far too small to be his and that had the name Taiga stitched onto the label.
The young man hasn't spoken a word to anyone since he was found, and there's no record of him through searching his fingerprints or DNA. His description doesn't match any missing persons report in the area and despite an appeal on national television for information about him, the authorities are still no closer to finding out who he is.
He'd been kept at a hospital for three weeks while all manner of tests were carried out, but aside from elevated brain activity, his inability or unwillingness to speak and the way he panics if anybody tries to touch him, there appears to be nothing wrong with him.
With nothing left to do at the hospital, he'd been transferred to KINCI to look into possible psychological problems until more information came to light. Yasui's never seen a case quite like this one before, but he doesn't need to have done to know that Taiga will likely end up a permanent resident. That thought makes him shudder again, he's interested in Taiga's case, very interested, but that doesn't mean he isn't creeped out. There's definitely something not right with him, with the way he'd seemed to reach inside Yasui with his eyes, with the way Yamaguchi-san reacted to him.
Kitayama comes back from his rounds and brings with him a cup of coffee for Yasui. Yasui had been too absorbed in Taiga's file to notice he was late back, the night time checks should only take twenty minutes but he's been gone almost forty, and Kitayama offers him a sheepish smile as he hands Yasui the cup. His hair is a little messy and his cheeks are flushed, Taisuke's is the last room on the route.
He doesn't mention it, just thanks him for the coffee and goes back to Taiga's file. They take the checks in turn, one every hour, so he has twenty minutes left until his round. The round takes twenty minutes, forty minutes from now he'll get to Taisuke's room, Taisuke will be ready to go again by then for sure.
The thought takes him by surprise because he never pre-meditates this kind of thing, would never, because it's immoral and unethical and just downright horrible and if he's caved in the past it's only been because of Taisuke's desperate and talented attempts at seducing him.
He looks around, almost sure that Kitayama will be glaring at him, knowing what he was thinking, but Kitayama's eyes are on the computer screen in front of him. There are eyes on him though, he almost jumps out of his skin when he looks back out at the ward and there, from the window in the door of Nikaido's room's, Taiga is watching him.
Kitayama sees him jump and follows his line of sight. “What's with that guy? There's something pretty scary about every one of them in a way, you know? But that one's different...”
Yasui doesn't answer, he swallows hard and gets up from his seat. He shouldn't be scared, he's been dealing with mentally disturbed and damaged people for years, he knows what to do if they get violent, he knows how to handle it if they're hysterical. He has no reason to be scared but Taiga just keeps on looking at him with those cavernous black eyes until Yasui is right beside the door.
“Is something wrong?” Yasui asks, his voice only cracking a little.
Taiga blinks slowly and turns from the door, Yasui tries hard to look in through the window but he can't see anything in the darkness, he strains his ears, and then jumps back a mile as another face appears at the window.
“Yasui-kun?” Nikaido asks, and his eyebrows are furrowed in worry. “This man isn't very well...”
Yasui is still too startled to react at first but then he hears it, quiet sobbing and moaning. Yasui nods. He has the keys right there and this isn't even a solitary room, these people aren't deemed dangerous. He fidgets with the keys for a moment and then shouts “Kitayama? Back up please.”
When Kitayama is beside him, Yasui unlocks the door and switches on the light. Yamaguchi is pacing in a tight circle in the corner of the room. “Stop it, get out, it's not there.” he's muttering, crying.
“Yamaguchi-san?” Yasui asks, walking over and placing a hand on Yamaguchi's arm. “It's OK, there's nothing to be worried about...go back to bed.”
“I can't, I can't.” he says shaking his head and then he turns to look at Yasui, looks over his shoulder. “He won't let me sleep.” A cold dread fills Yasui as he somehow knows who Yamaguchi is referring to.
“We can get you something to help you sleep...” Kitayama offers gently from over Yasui's other shoulder.
“I don't want to stay here.” Yamaguchi answers, ignoring Kitayama, he shakes his head faster and faster and faster and then shouts. “Get out! I have to get out!” he bolts for the door but Kitayama is ready, he catches Yamaguchi and between the two of them they manage to tackle the thrashing man to the floor and hold him.
“I've got him.” Kitayama says almost breathlessly, Yamaguchi is a tall man, a strong one and Kitayama and Yasui both are rather smaller in stature. “I've got him, get a sedative.”
Yasui bolts for the carer's station, and scans his card across the security card reader on the medication cabinet, then he types in the pass-code. He selects the general sedative, it's a fairly weak one to account for different body weights but it should be strong enough to pacify Yamaguchi until they can move him safely.
He runs back to the room where Kitayama is still struggling to hold him down while Nikaido and the other dementia patient look on in horror, Taiga watches in that same intrigue he'd been watching Yamaguchi with earlier. Yasui drops to his knees by Yamaguchi's head and positions the sedative.
“No!” Yamaguchi shouts. “I'm not crazy, it's him. He's in my head, he wants to know what I'm afraid of but it isn't there any more.” Yasui falters for just a moment as he looks over at Taiga, he looks creepy as always, but not menacing, he looks both curious and oblivious. “I can hear him in my head.” Yamaguchi cries and Yasui jabs him with the sedative.
Between them they heave the more placid Yamaguchi along the corridor to a solitary room. He's not a danger exactly but he's clearly not comfortable in that room and he's disturbing the other patients. Afterwards they head back to Nikaido's room where they usher the other patients back into bed.
“That man was very upset.” Nikaido tells Yasui, clearly shaken. “He was mean to the one with white hair.”
“Yes, he was very upset, but he'll be alright, we'll look after him. What did he do to Taiga?” He points over at Taiga who is sitting on his bed with his knees tucked up to his chest. “You remember Taiga.”
“That man was very angry at him, but he didn't do anything wrong.” Nikaido tells him, complying as Yasui urges him down into his bed and pulls up the covers. Sometimes Nikaido's memory loss makes him very scared and childlike, it's must be difficult, Yasui muses, to not remember, to not understand things. He gently brushes Nikaido's fringe away from his eyes and smiles, Nikaido smiles back and lets his eyes flutter closed.
“It's OK, I'll make sure Taiga is OK.” Nikaido nods so Yasui heads over to Taiga's bed. Taiga watches him walk over but doesn't react. “Are you OK?” Taiga just looks at him. “I don't know what Yamaguchi-san said to you” he points at Yamaguchi's vacated bed. “But don't listen to it, he's very unwell and he doesn't know what he's saying, do you understand?” Taiga just continues to stare. “Lay down, try to get some sleep.” It almost surprises him when Taiga lays down, he wasn't sure if Taiga understood a word he was saying, but then when he reaches out to pull up the covers, the first real emotion Yasui has seen from him, fear, twists Taiga's features and he shuffles away from Yasui's touch.
The medical file did say he didn't like to be touched. Yasui smiles softly and gives a quiet apology, and then turns to follow Kitayama out of the room, locking the door behind him.
“Well, at least it's been an interesting night.” Kitayama says with raised eyebrows. “Did you see the way he was looking at that new kid?”
“He's not all there.” Yasui says a little defensively. “He said he heard voices in his head...that screams all kinds of not good to me.”
Kitayama nods in agreement. “Yeah, I guess you're right, hey, it's time for your round, you go, I'll write this thing up in the log book.”
It's weekend after that and weekends at KINCI are run by a separate team of staff so Yasui has two whole days off, one technically since shift patterns run in one week rotas and he's switching back around to days for a few weeks. The thoughts of Taiga and his mysterious arrival don't leave him entirely though and he spends most of his full day off looking through newspaper reports, then through missing persons spreading outside of the Tokyo area. Still, by the time he goes back to work on Monday, he has no better idea about where Taiga could have come from than the medical file does.
“Eventful weekend?” Yasui asks Ueda who is on the early shift, it's his duty to go through the weekend logs with the carer from Sunday night's late graveyard shift.
“Not really.” Ueda answers, “Fukazawa and Iwamoto had a pretty big fight but it all turned out fine. Fukka thought Iwamoto was cheating at snap and Iwamoto got all het up about being called a liar. Oh, actually though, Tamamori said Nika-chan's been acting kind of strangely.”
He's not allowed to pick favourites, but Nikaido is a favourite, so he hurries his step along to Nikaido's room to see what the matter is. “Yasui-kun” Nikaido says with a smile when Yasui enters. It's hard to say why Nikaido remembers his name when he usually forgets other people's, Dr. Yokoo thinks it's maybe because he knew it before the accident but Yasui isn't so sure.
“Hey, how are you doing? I heard you weren't feeling well?” Yasui says softly.
“I'm OK.” Nikaido tells him, but there's something sad in his voice.
The communal patients have free reign of the ward through the day and it's not like Nikaido to be sitting here in his room alone. “Why aren't you out with the others...”
Nikaido shakes his head sadly. “I don't want to be with them. I'm not a very nice person.”
That's definitely not like Nikaido. “What makes you think you're not a nice person?”
Nikaido shakes his head. “Dreams...I think...maybe...I don't know, I feel like I'm not a nice person.”
“Well you are a nice person. Everybody likes you, that's why we put new patients in your room because you make people feel better.” Yasui tells him and something changes in his expression but only slightly, and Yasui isn't sure that it's a happy change. “I have to go and do my rounds, but if you want to talk to me I'll be back soon, and Dr. Yokoo will like to hear about this in your meeting later, he'll be able to make you feel better.”
Nikaido nods and Yasui reluctantly leaves. Sometimes patients have bad days, all of them do, they come out of it. Nikaido will likely get distracted by something and completely forget that he was ever in a sad mood, but it's still painful for Yasui to see.
Part 1