A/N: AHHHH, smell that? That's the scent of ANOTHER REWRITE!
Because why? Because I adored the characters and plot from the original, but it hadn't been playing out like I wanted it to, and my characterization was rather off throughout a lot of the story.
Hopefully, this rewrite will be a lot more in character, improved plot, less all-over-the-place, with a better developed OC and a much more fitting tone.
Enjoy! *hearts*
To be honest, subtlety had never been Hitomi Harimoto's strong suit.
She did her best to be quiet and unassuming – and around strangers, she achieved that. Even so, though, there wasn't any guilt in her heart about being loud, obnoxious, and at times a little immature. There were some people who didn't care for a personality like hers. There were some people who she fit in with perfectly. It was no surprise that she'd not yet met someone who was lukewarm to her. People tended to either love or hate her, and very few were undecided on where they stood.
Perhaps that was why she found herself here, moving into a house that was a little too small just because of a search to belong somewhere. The town she was born and raised in had never really clicked for her. She'd had her family, and a steady job, but she could never just blend in like other people. Nobody saw her as gray like they would with other people. She was never just a face in the crowd. Either she would be adored, or despised. It led to this awful feeling of not being normal that she'd carried with her ever since she was a young girl. Over thirty years later, with her parents dead and sister living far away, that feeling morphed into a loneliness that was stronger than ever before.
Blue eyes roamed around her new home as she cleared out the last book in the current box, and muted hope swelled in her chest. Although she couldn't let it grow too high, it was a comfort. Maybe this place was where she would finally feel like a normal person.
A sigh slipped past her lips, mind filling with all the work she still needed to do to actually get settled in. There was so much that needed to be done. The rest of the boxes needed to be unpacked, she had to see if the stove that the place came with worked, furniture needed to be bought…
"I deserve a break, though," she muttered to herself. The box she'd just emptied was squashed into a pile of flat cardboard and tossed into a corner, and her eyes found their gaze outside the window. That place only a little bit away was pretty big… surely somebody lived there. It might be a good idea to go over and introduce herself to her new neighbors. They might even be friendly. "Yeah. It would be nice to have, like, a regular friendship with neighbors for once."
Part of her thought maybe it would be a good idea to bring something along with her. Staring at the 'house' more, however, she decided against it after a few minutes. If it turned out that the place over there was abandoned, she'd look like an idiot carrying around food or some other gift. She could always go back after she figured out if there was someone there.
Sunlight filtered through the windows onto her new wooden floor, a step up from only a month ago when she'd been living in a home with a floor made of soil. Beams glittered along as Hitomi continued to let her eyes stay fixed on the castle-like building outside. Who could possibly live there? Most villages had leaders… maybe this village's daimyo lived there? If that were the case, it begged the question of why this house wasn't already snatched up. A lot of folks would jump at the chance to live close to what was essentially royalty.
Well, regardless, it would still be a good idea to go over and greet whoever lived there.
Her shoes didn't make much noise as she walked outside toward what she assumed was the door to her neighbors' place. "Ah, don't they have a knocker or something…?" Her musings were lost as she couldn't find anything that resembled a doorknocker, and decided it was probably best to do this the old-fashioned way. The first couple of raps that her fingertips gave against the door were as delicate as she could manage, but after a moment of being ignored, she gave a few louder knocks. "Um, hello? Is anybody there?"
Silence was the only answer she got. Rather than just assume nobody lived here, though, Hitomi would rather completely exhaust all possibilities before going away empty-handed. How was she ever going to make friends with her neighbors if she didn't do her best to actually greet them? Maybe they would appreciate the determination.
To her surprise, the door easily swung open when she pushed to open it. Doing so revealed a long, moderately lit tunnel that led to… where? Where on Earth could that lead to? Perhaps her new neighbors had a flair for the dramatic or something. "Here's hoping that it doesn't turn out I'm the lead in a low-budget horror film," she chuckled as she took a few cautious steps inside.
So far, so good. This wasn't so bad, to be honest… although the tunnel made her a little nervous, it wasn't like she was going to suddenly be attacked. Nobody had a reason to attack her anyway.
It only took a few moments of walking before what looked like a long hallway came into view. It was dotted with multiple doorways, some of them dark and some spilling a faint light onto the tile floor of the hall. Some of the doors were closed off completely, whereas others had the door wide open or partway ajar. As someone with experience working in a civilian doctor's office, this hallway reminded her more of a hospital floor than of somebody's residence. Was that what this place was…? Maybe that was why it was so big and didn't seem like a person's house.
Something in her gut was telling her to just turn back now. It tried to tell her that whoever lived here, it might not be a good idea to disturb them. What if this was a hospital? It would be a bad idea to agitate patients and doctors.
That wasn't the only feeling she got. Despite the fact that this looked like a hospital, there was a nagging thought in the back of her mind that it wasn't. Why would a hospital be in the middle of nowhere in the Land of Sound? Surely there would have been a better place for it. Not only that, but it was eerily empty if it was a hospital. Every other medical center she'd ever been to was always bustling with activity. Nurses and doctors making their rounds, patients taking brief walks through the hallways, pharmacists mixing up medicine. She hadn't seen another soul since she stepped through those doors.
Things just didn't feel right for some reason.
Hitomi pushed down the uneasy feeling that tried to gnaw at her in favor of approaching one of the open doors. It would be better to ask for directions if possible than to wander around aimlessly, looking suspicious, wouldn't it? "Um, excuse me…"
When she peeked into the room, the fact that it did bear a striking resemblance to a hospital room was a slight shock. Could she have actually been right? Was this a hospital? The bed was occupied, even – with a young man who looked as much the part of a patient as somebody could. His silver hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, and even beneath the makeup under his dull green eyes, she could tell he was clearly exhausted. He was also a lot paler than a healthy person should be.
He didn't waste any time getting out of bed, though, even with a brief struggle between his arm and the IV line going into it. The fluidity and speed of his movements, hindered by the medical equipment though they might be, reminded her almost of a… ninja. There was what looked like a knife nearby on the table, and his fingers were around it in a matter of seconds. "Who are you?" he rasped, pointing the blade at her as he took a step closer. "Why are you here? How did you get in?"
The fact that his first reflex upon seeing someone unfamiliar was to grab a weapon was unsettling in itself. Even more surprising to Hitomi was the fact that he was willing to do so despite undeniably being quite sick. "Hey–" Her hands were up in a flash, trying to show him that she was unarmed and not hiding anything. "Put that down, please! My name's Hitomi Harimoto! I just moved in next door, and – and I came over to say hello, and I knocked, but – but nobody answered, and the door was open, so I just… came in to see if I could find anybody… I'm sorry if I disturbed you…"
"… You did not." The tone of his voice softened only an iota, although the knife remained in his hand. After a hard moment of staring at her, however, he lowered his arm a bit. "You shouldn't have come in. It's unwise and, I believe, against the law to…"
Without any warning, the knife clattered to the ground as the boy doubled over; not out of some invisible pain, but out of a sudden, intense bout of coughing. He was quick to bury his face into the crook of his arm, his entire body shaking with breathless, rattling hacks. It sounded as if they were scraping against his throat – even when it seemed he was done, his hand was clutching at his chest as halved breaths ghosted in and out of his lips.
More alarmingly, both his cracked, ashen lips and lavender sleeve were coated with scarlet.
"Oh, my God–!" Hitomi was by his side as fast as she could be, rubbing the heel of her palm between his shoulder blades in an attempt to stave off any further coughing. "Oh… okay, okay, can you breathe? Are you having any trouble breathing?"
For a moment, his only reply was the sound of thick swallowing and wheezing. "… No more… than usual…"
Than usual…? "Do you have trouble breathing normally? How often do you cough like that?"
The look she was getting from him suggested that he didn't understand why some stranger was pestering him with medical questions. His eyes pierced into hers for a moment before he cleared his throat and reached to grab a tissue from the box on the table. "Ever since I… fell ill. Why do you… need to know… any of this?"
"I… I'm sorry." Her face flushed all the way down to her neck, though she couldn't bring herself to step away. What if it happened again? "It's just, I've been a nurse for a while… a-and when that happened, I… I just kind of went into nurse mode. Sorry, I was just… worried. H-How often does that happen?"
"It's not important." He shook his head, spitting into the tissue before trying to clean his mouth up a little. "You said you just moved in. Kabuto Sensei mentioned he thought he saw a young woman carrying boxes into that house this morning."
Hitomi had no idea who this Kabuto character was, but at least this boy seemed less willing to come at her with a knife now. "Ah, he must have been looking at me from behind – I'm less young woman and more aging hag. Are, um… are you okay now? Do you need me to go find the doctor?"
A new voice suddenly made Hitomi's blood run cold, and before she knew what was happening, a hand gripped her arm.
"That won't be necessary. I'm already here."