Yata was patrolling HOMRA territory that night before heading home. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so he started to make his way towards the bar again.
"Hey, look isn't that one of those HOMRA brats?"
"Yeah, let's go teach him a lesson."
"Yeah he'll be an easy target, alone and small." Three men jumped Yata from the alley he was passing and dragged him in, leaving his skateboard outside the alley. He escaped their grasp quickly hitting the guys in the heads. But he wasn't expecting the fourth one coming out from the left with a gun. He heard the bang before he felt the shot. It hit him in the side of his lower left thigh. He fell against the wall and that was all they needed. The man with the gun and one other who he hadn't knocked out lunged at him. Yata dodged sloppily bringing a flaming fist to the guy's face.
Yata realized that he wasn't going to win this fight in his condition so he punched the guy and stumbled to his skateboard. Standing on one foot he pushed desperately trying to keep his balance. He was close to HOMRA but before he could reach the bar, a bullet grazed his upper arm and then finally a third got lodged in his side. This time, when he fell, he didn't get back up.
"Did I 'it 'im?"
"Yeah I think you did. Quick let's go get him." The two thugs ran to him and kicked him all over burying the bullets deeper in his body. He groaned until blessedly he passed out from a kick to the head.
When Yata next woke he could hear the footfalls of Mikoto, Anna, Kusanagi, and Totsuka approaching. He groaned turning his head away from the mouth of the alley he was in.
"Damn, kid." Mikoto kneeled next to Yata and turned his head. Yata looked up blearily, seeing three worried faces.
Yata bit his lip feeling the pain come back full throttle; now that the adrenaline wore of he could feel the bullets in his body. He tried to move his right arm but hissed and let it drop.
"Don't hurt yourself anymore." Totsuka said kneeling down beside his king and Yata.
"Can you walk?" Kusanagi asked with concern in his eyes. Yata nodded even though he wasn't sure. He allowed Totsuka to help him but as soon as he tried to take a step on his left leg he collapsed right into Totsuka's waiting arms. Yata's head spinned, rendering him completely unable to hold himself up. He was vaguely aware of Totsuka picking him up but lost conscious as they began to walk.
Yata wasn't conscious when he was brought into the bar where the rest of HOMRA waited for the return of their injured vanguard.
"Yata!" They yelled worriedly crowding around Totsuka.
"Guys, move. I'm taking him upstairs so that we can patch him up." Totsuka said as Mikoto simply looked at the other HOMRA, making them part like the red sea to allow Totsuka and his charge up the stairs.
Thankfully Totsuka was very capable as a doctor as was Kusanagi. Both of them had to be considering how many times the members of HOMRA get into fights.
Totsuka laid Yata down on what they deemed the medical bed and set to work removing the bullets and stitching him up then wrapping bandages around the wounds.
Yata was out cold the entire time and throughout the rest of the night. He stirred late the next afternoon, opening his eyes to the worried eyes of Totsuka. Mikoto and Kusanagi were both leaning on the opposite wall looking at him.
"Hey, how're you feeling?" Totsuka asked.
"I feel fine." Yata snapped back, not wanting to seem weak in front of his king.
"Yata." Totsuka was unimpressed looking at the young teen skeptically.
"I said I'm fine." He growled looking away from Totsuka.
"What you really mean is that you're probably sore and hurt all over, am I right?" Kusanagi smirked. Yata sighed but nodded.
"Well we got food downstairs so why don't you come down for lunch." Kusanagi said leaving downstairs with Mikoto. Once King had left, Yata let out a shaky breath. He carefully slid out of bed and stood on his own two feet, though shakily. He took a step without falling, but he couldn't make it more than a few more after that. He grits his teeth getting up again only to fall against the wall.
Totsuka sighed before grabbing Yata's good arm and throwing it around his shoulders, helping Yata to the stairs. Yata saw everyone was looking at him, waiting to see if he could make it down the stairs. Yata took a step without falling but he couldn't make it down the stairs. He sighed looking to Totsuka for help. Totsuka laughed helping him down the rest of the stairs.
"That's it I'm not going back upstairs unless I absolutely have to." Yata grumbled plopping himself next to Anna at the bar. Yata felt a sharp pain in his side and looked down, seeing a red stain on the once clean bandage. Yata moaned, his hand latching onto his side.
"Totsuka…the stitches ripped." Yata said through gritted teeth moving his red hand to reveal bloody bandages. Totsuka sighed moving Yata onto the couch and unwrapping his torso. Once he cleaned the wound again and reapplied the stitches he demanded that Yata not move from where he was. He was more than happy to oblige with Totsuka's demands.
The other members of HOMRA, after seeing that Yata was alright, carried on as if nothing had happened to their vanguard joking and rough housing as normal- just no rough housing with Yata.
Getting back up the stairs that evening was tough but Yata managed, with the help of Totsuka, of course. Yata had fallen asleep quickly but didn't wake up when Totsuka shook him. Totsuka put his hand on Yata's forehead, and was surprised to feel a raging fever had developed over night.
Totsuka rushed downstairs and into the kitchen, grabbing a bowl of water, a bucket, and a rag, before climbing the stairs as quickly as possible. Kusanagi and Mikoto shared a worried look before dropping what they were doing and following Totsuka up the stairs.
Totsuka had laid the now wet rag on Yata's forehead and stat nearby occasionally taking it and soaking it again.
"Totsuka what happened?" Kusanagi asked standing over the bed.
"He developed a raging fever. He could die from this, after all his body temperature is already high because he's part of the red clan, for him to develop a fever this high…It's not good." Totsuka said, worried. "Would you mind helping me undress him, we need to keep him as cool as possible." Totsuka asked, beginning to carefully remove the sweater and tank top Yata always wore. Mikoto got the rest while Kusanagi went downstairs to explain the situation to the concerned HOMRA members.
Yata shuddered; his eyes shut tight trying to escape the burning sensation of the fever that assaulted his naturally elevated body temperature. Fire consumed him as he sank further into his fever dreams. Waves of agonizing pain coursed through him and he screamed, oh did he scream. His resilience to fire had suddenly been extinguished when the fever had settled in and he thrashed; desperate to escape the sensations but to no avail.
Totsuka and Mikoto jumped to hold him, forcefully pinning him down to the bed with their body weight.
"Izumo!" Mikoto yelled. He heard frantic, quick steps as the bartender ascended the stairs. He slid into the room and took in the scene before him with sad eyes: two grown men holding down a small young man in the throes of a raging fever. Kusanagi climbed on the bed and hit Yata in the head sending him into a sleep without dreams.
The three men sat back and took a deep breath. They shared a look between themselves and Totsuka buried his head in hands. Mikoto nodded to the two of them and went down to the bar. When asked about Yata's condition Mikoto shook his head because he didn't know what would happen to the boy and that was terrifying.
Three days passed with little to no change in Yata's condition. On occasion the boy would stir from his slumber only to puke his guts out before succumbing to sleep once more. This vicious cycle repeated for days unil finally on the eve of the fourth day when all began to lose hope, Yata's fever broke. He stopped shivering uncontrollably and his hazel eyes peeked out from under his eye lids as he took in his surroundings. Izumo Kusanagi was sitting in a chair beside him and his King, Suoh Mikoto was sitting on the ground leaning his head against a wall. Yata groaned and Mkoto's head shot up at the sound.
"Yata." He sighed, relieved to see those hazel eyes clear for the first time in days. "how you feelin'?" He got up and moved to the boy's bedside.
"Awful." Yata rasped and Mikoto reached for a cup of water, handing it to the young man. Yata drank the water greedily but slowly. Kusanagi stirred at the commotion and grinned, seeing that Yata was alright.
"Yeah, well that's to be expected. You got shot three times, hit your head pretty hard, got a few brusied ribs, your wound then got infected and you developed a deadly fever. If you felt anything by awful then we'd have a problem." Mikoto said sarcastically and Yata grinned.
Three weeks had passed since that day and Totsuka finally deemed Yata healed enough to start going out on patrols again. He came back from his first patrol with a crushed gun in his hand. His answer as to what happened was: 'Sweet Revenge'.