Well I have recently discovered and fallen helplessly in love with the medical anime Black Jack. So I thought I'd try a crossover. While I am in the nursing program at my college, I cannot offer as wonderfully detailed medical descriptions as I would like. I don't want to put any incorrect medical content so I will not go into accurate detail of the surgeries. As I mentioned above, I am in the nursing program at my school so I'm afraid that updates will be slow!
I'm a bit out of practice with my writing so please don't be put off by this rather sucky set-up chapter!
Kagome Higurashi let out a heaving sigh as she entered her newly built home and clinic. Before stepping over the threshold Kagome cast a quick glance around her home. It felt so strange to call this place hers Kagome marveled to herself as she glanced at the small trickling waterfall besides her home, letting the sound soothe her mind some.
From the outside the structure looked like a Buddhist temple with rich dark lacquered wood and outdoor covered hallways. It had confused her carpenter to no end why a doctor would request such a strange home, but had built it none the less all while wondering the young woman's purpose in doing such a thing. Only Kagome knew there had been a temple there 500 years ago, Master Mushin's temple to be exact.
Kagome was not sure just how the land had come into her possession, only that her name had been written in the previous landholder's (an elderly person she had never heard of, much less knew) will along with a tiny sum that Kagome had used to rebuild Mushin's temple which was now aptly renamed Mushin's Pediatric and Veterinarian Clinic.
After her grand adventures in the Feudal era Kagome had decided to put her abilities as a Miko and her experiences in the Feudal Era to good use. And the best way to do that had been to become a doctor. More specifically she wanted to be a doctor for youkai.
Youkai tended to live in extremely remote areas in order to escape humans. And those who were powerful enough to pass as humans were unable to seek medical attention should the need arise. One of the easiest ways to kill a person was to give them medicine that was not designed for their species. Just as chocolate is lethal to canines but harmless to humans.
In order to become a doctor for youkai, a nonexistent profession for which there is currently no certification or any training, she had to learn as much as she could in fields that already existed. Meaning she had become a veterinarian as well as a pediatrician.
One of the hardest and worst decisions she had made in her life (or so it had seemed in her days of medical school). If she had been smart she would have tackled one degree at a time, but noooo. She had been so confidant that going for both doctorates would be easy in comparison to her shard hunting days. She had been an utter fool to think it would be easy.
She couldn't even recall how many times she had called her mother, crying, because of the sheer stress and suicidal workload she had taken on. But somehow she had pulled through in the end and she was all the better for her hardships, or that was what she told herself.
In Kagome's mind knowing about the animal species from which youkai had either evolved from or were related to gave her some understanding of how to treat her patients.
Kagome was proud of herself for being perhaps the first person to write the book on many youkai, so to speak. Well, she hadn't written a book on it yet… and as far as she knew she was the only doctor who considered themselves to be a youkai doctor. And it wasn't like she advertised herself as such… otherwise she'd surely have no patients! She had to be extremely careful in her profession, as youkai were regarded as complete myths in the modern world and she planned to keep it that way.
Unfortunately her status as a trained miko among the youkai settlements she knew of did not help her in attracting patients in any way or form. It was perfectly understandable given the bloody past between miko and youkai, after all why would you seek help from a person who had the ability to turn you to dust with a single touch? So she had to keep up appearances as a vet and pediatrician to earn money.
To the modern world she was regarded with mixed views. Many believed her to be an unscrupulous doctor and vet, taking advantage of patients by demanding outrageous fees. On top of her fees she was known to abide by her own set of morals that no amount of money could persuade. If you did not measure up to be deemed worthy of treatment she would not treat you. She was also particularly adamant in her selection of human patients (not that they knew she reserved herself to treat youkai) Kagome would never operate on any adult humans, setting her limits to children 12 and under, who had yet to hit puberty. So if say, a 9 year old girl who has started menstruating early were to be brought to the Doctor she would refuse.
The majority of patients/clients and other health professionals she had come in contact with believed her method of choosing patients to be cruel and unjust and had cost her job at many a hospital.
But the truth was that her abilities were essentially useless on humans. She had found out the age limit through many unsuccessful surgeries. Miko powers were designed to only protect humans, meaning they could not be used on humans no matter the intention. However young children seemed to be receptive of her miko ki, although nowhere near the amount a youkai would be.
She had to charge such high fees so that she could afford to treat youkai who had no ability to make money if they were unable to take a humanoid form. There was no such thing as a free lunch, and medical procedures cost serious money. Money that she had to pay out of her own pocket in order to treat someone for 'free'. Humans could merely get more money by working. Most of the youkai settlements Kagome had visited were frighteningly backwards almost as though she had been taken back to the feudal age. The best she could hope for in terms of payment would be barter for magical goods or services. And selling cursed or magical items on EBay was not much of an option for her so she was forced to rely on human patients.
Kagome was by no means a master surgeon, and she knew it. But it was her ability to mix her miko ki in with the medical procedures that allowed her to pull off the seemingly impossible. Her miraculous feats had captured the attention of the medical world. The rumors of the miraculous female surgeon had spread swiftly and out of proportion.
The miko had been given a rather unfortunate nickname; one that she was beginning to fear would all but erase her true name. She had no idea just who had started the awful nickname or what had possessed people to pick it up. It seemed she was very similar to a rather infamous doctor, a man whom she had only heard rumors of during medical school. She could not see any sort of similarity between herself and that doctor that would warrant the name at all!
It had gotten to the point that doctors and vets she had worked with since the start of her medical career no longer called her by her true name. The fact that she was currently in danger of loosing her pediatric license only furthered her new alias.
It seemed that Dr. Kagome Higurashi no longer existed and in her place remained Doctor Red Queen much to the miko's chagrin.
Red Queen-sensei had been accused of using stem cells to produce her miraculous achievements. That she was using stem cells in her patients to further her own illegal stem cell research.
Stepping into her kitchen Kagome spotted a pile of papers she had yet to remove from her counter. Giving a bitter frown at the court summons she had received from the Board of Doctors all those months ago, Kagome had no idea why she had bothered to keep the papers that had all but damned her.
She had known that the Board of Doctors would never understand or even believe her if she were to tell of her miko powers. She had been effectively trapped and cornered, unable to defend herself from the false accusations. She had done the only thing she could; confessed to using her children patients as test subjects to further stem cell research. She claimed she didn't care about the moral or ethic issues surrounding the volatile subject, just so long as she saved her patient's life. That it was unfair to be punished for doing something that save the patient's life.
Of course, the entire matter was hush-hush to the Board. Meaning the reasons for Red Queen's expulsion was never openly released to the public. They merely stated that she performed procedures that were not sanctioned in Japan.
From then on Kagome Higurashi cleverly hid her miko powers behind this stem cell façade, as it could be entirely possible.
Thankfully there had not yet been a ban on animal stem cell research*, meaning she was able to keep her veterinarian license. Having this license allowed her a bit of a loophole in her practice, as humans technically are animals.
Still, Kagome had been forced into the shadows to avoid suspicion, which ironically enough didn't take her away from the public eye. The media had decided to jump on the story of this female Black Jack, heralding her as a dark doctor as pure as the miko robes she wore. Which honestly was a contradiction in itself, but the media loves to spin such tales to sell their goods. The public bought it up and Kagome became a cold martyr of the medical field who took large amounts from the rich so she could treat and give to the poor. Being cast in such a heroic manner had captured the public's attention, giving her an unwanted amount of human's seeking her treatment. Because she had dedicated herself to serving youkai, she had been forced to take on an unpleasant persona to try to deter humans from seeking her out.
The press and more specifically, the tabloids, had been having a field day with Red Queen coming up with the most bizarre stories about her. Kagome read these from time to time, finding the wild speculations to be humorous.
However because she never bothered to correct the stories, the public had a very flawed view of what was 'true' about her.
The most common belief was that she had been viciously attacked by wild animals while camping (a former roommate from medical school had let it 'slip' that Kagome had a great deal of scars on her body) and that her absences during the last year of her middle school were due to some sort of revolutionary psychotherapy to overcome her intense phobia of animals. The tabloids claimed that her therapy had involved living with wild animals, becoming one with animals, and other such romantic crap. The end result was that Red Queen no longer felt any connection to human beings; the reason she refused to treat human adults. Apparently Red Queen was supposed to have seen a little girl killed in the wild animal attack, which moved her to treat children.
Recently, however there was a new twist to the lovely Red Queen. Apparently some photographer had come up with the ingenious idea to play on the supposed connection between the female surgeon and her namesake. The end results were cleverly doctored photos of the two Doctors who had in actuality never met. There was a photo of Black Jack pulling Red Queen to him, making it seem as though the doctor was making aggressive moves on the 'pure' doctor who had a surprised look on her face.
So now the medical world was full of gossip about the two unlicensed (well, one was technically half-licensed) doctors.
With all the publicity and rumors of illegal procedures Kagome had unwittingly attracted some shady human clientele. She quickly learned that she had to treat the medical underworld the same way she approached the remote youkai settlements, plenty of caution and an air of aloofness.
So, how was it? I couldn't bring myself to be happy with this chapter at all. Sorry there's no real action yet- just trying to set up the stage for our Doctor Red Queen A.K.A Kagome Higurashi. I hope the next chapter seems a bit more interesting. Constructive criticism is much appreciated as I'm a bit out of writing shape!