Lately, I've been busy with my exchange package to Keio and Waseda University. Also, I've been learning hiragana and katakana like crazy. No, I'm not kidnapped :) Well, I ran out of ideas for my other stories... but I have a new idea for a new story and here it is.
Fate's Cruel Twist
The paramedic team was in frenzy on scene of a severe motor accident. Debris and particles from the car in flames down the road scattered all over the ground. Blood, there was blood splattered... everywhere.
"Lever! We need the lever here!"
"The fire has been controlled!"
"Roger that."
"One female on site, twenty-nine meters away from the initial explosion. She has her vital signs but her face is terribly disfigured from severe lacerations."
"Can we close the road and set up a detour?"
"Roger, we'll get right to it."
The paramedics transferred the young woman onto a stretcher while surveying her wounds. There were glasses embedded in the flesh of her skin; they needed a specialist surgeon to remove the broken particles from her tissues.
"Can we get an ID?"
The flashing paramedic lights, police lights, and fire truck lights lit the night. The highway was congested with the crush of cars merging into a single stream to avoid the aftermath of the explosion of a vehicle's gas tank leakage. Luckily when the car had its accident, it was the only car on the road.
Beep. Beep.
"Take her to the ER of Tonan University Hospital. I still need that ID!" the police supervisor prompted his team once more. They couldn't do anything until they had found identification for the woman. Stupid bureaucratic policies about medical liabilities.
"Sir, I think this might be the victim's wallet. Have a look."
The police supervisor took the wallet from his investigator and took out a driver's license. He studied it intently and finally announced his discovery, "This is must be her, Kagome Higurashi. 24-years-old from Kansai. Contact her immediate family members and send her into surgery." He handed the wallet back to his investigator and gave him an reassuring look.
"Thank you, Meguru-san, we'll take it from here," the paramedic thanked the police investigator and took the wallet from him.
Kagome Higurashi was half-conscious; she was aware of everything that was happening to her but her head wasn't processing the information. She was driving and lost control of the steering. Everything after that... she remembered smelling gasoline and in a haze she tried her hardest to run out of the car but she didn't get very far.
Now, every single muscle in her body just ached. She could move her right hand. It was slimy and sticky... very sticky. She tried to open her eyes but it hurt every time she tried. Her face felt... taut by something. It seemed like a liquid had dried up and formed a mask on her face. She could smell antiseptics and an overwhelming scent of metal...
Little did she know the metallic scent was all from her own blood.
Just hours ago she was out shopping with her friends. That was the first time she had had fun in years. She was a new graduate student from Keio University's biomedical engineering program. She was supposed to start her doctorate degree to become a neurosurgical physician in a few weeks. Unfortunately, her happiness was short lived with the accident half an hour prior.
Little did she know this was one accident that was going to change the course of her life, forever. In a masochist way, she was going to gain more from her loss.
-x-x-x-
When his phone rang... oh when his phone rang, it was never a good thing. He dreaded that ringing. No matter what ringtone he had, it never failed to make the hair on the back of his neck stand up. The fact that his phone rang was always a bad thing. It often involved an extensive surgery no shorter than 5 hours. He glanced at his clock. It was a quarter to midnight. So much for time off. He never understood why he didn't just move to somewhere like California in the States to open his own practice. He was a groundbreaking surgeon in trauma reconstruction but worked for the Tonan University Hospital.
He worked like a dog through double-digit shifts. Tomorrow was going to be his day off. He had always taken March the 28th off every year for the past 11 years. They knew that at the hospital.
The phone rang again.
Dammit.
"This better be an earth-shattering emergency," he grumbled and finally rolled out of his comfortable bed and picked up his cellphone. He hesitated when his finger brushed over the "answer" button of the touch screen.
"Hello?" InuYasha sounded terribly irritated. He didn't even make an effort to suppress his displeasure in the situation. The hospital should know better to call their doctor during their off period.
"Takahashi-sensei, we have an extreme emergency. We have a woman here, 24, with severe facial lacerations. Complete disfigurement. Only you can save her from mutilation," the ER surgeon, Miroku Kouki's voice was on the other side. He knew how to play it right to convince InuYasha.
InuYasha let out a long sigh and ran his fingers through his short black hair, "I'll be there in 10."
-x-x-x-
"Kagome!" a middle-aged woman ran down the hallway of the hospital panic stricken in tears. The hair rollers were still in her hair; she didn't have the time to take them out when she had gotten that dreaded phone call that every mother feared. "Kagome!" she cried again.
"Onee-chan!" a younger boy in his late teens followed the woman. He clutched to the zippers of his zip-up hoodie as he ran down the hall with his mother. His blue pajama was underneath the hooded sweater. He prayed and prayed his sister would be all right.
"I got the call! Is my daughter alright?" the woman was on the verge of tears, clutching to the sleeves of the ER nurse who was making an effort to calm her down.
"The doctors are trying their hardest in there right now to save Miss Higurashi. Please fill in these forms, Madam. You'll need to wait out here patiently before she's out of surgery," the nurse held Midori Higurashi's hands and took her be seated in the waiting room's seating area. "One thing though, Madam."
The nurse paused and took out another sheet from the clipboard to show the older woman. She bit her lips and hesitated for a moment before she began again, "Miss Higurashi's face had been severely... injured. She will need a plastic surgeon to repair the damage, now. This is a form for you to sign to show that you understand all of the risks associated with the surgeries being performed in there. Her other vital signs have been stabilized. She'll be alright."
Midori Higurashi paused for a moment. Severe facial injuries? Her daughter was only twenty-four. She wasn't even married yet. She didn't even have a boyfriend. How would she live the rest of her life... disfigured? She was going to become a doctor. Modori held back her tears and stared blankly at the nurse. "How... how severe are her injuries?" she finally mustered enough courage to ask her.
"Th-... they are... quite severe," the nurse had to tell the patient's family the truth. "But we have one of the best reconstructive surgeon, Doctor Takahashi, InuYasha."
-x-x-x-
Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep..
"Heart rate 72 bpm. Blood pressures: systolic, 111 mmHg; diastolic, 63 mmHg. All vital signs stabilizing."
"Excellent," InuYasha glanced at the monitor himself again to confirm the numbers before he proceeded to the next step. "Forceps please," he held out his hand to receive the instrument from his assistant.
The bright light of the surgical room kept him alert. He made no mistakes at this. After all, he was the very best at this. He needed to restore this young woman's face. He could tell from her bone structures that she was a beauty. But what he was doing right now was more than just restoring her facial aesthetics; one wrong flicker of the wrist can hit the wrong nerve and cause her face to become paralyzed for life. The trauma was to her face where the tissues were the most sensitive.
He was meticulous in his work. He had been at this for over six hours now. "Dilator please," he requested politely from his medical staff assisting him.
His incisions were second to none. Oh yes, he was that good.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
InuYasha smiled to himself as he removed the final piece of glass embedded in the woman's cheek. "Got it," he whispered to himself as he dropped the small piece of sharp glass in the stainless steel tin. He firmly placed the forceps on the stand by the surgery table.
"Needles and thread, please. I've removed all shattered glass pieces. I'm going to finish the stitching myself," InuYasha held out his hand to receive the fine-gauged needle from his assistant. "Thank you."
With each flicking of his wrist, he carefully stitched the lacerations together. Perfectly straight stitching. He admired his own work as he went. This was another successful surgery.
He couldn't help it but to cringe and lament a little for the patient on the surgery table. He was able to remove the foreign material form her face and stitch the broken tissues together. Unfortunately, he couldn't save her original facial features. He knew the surgery was a success. It was simply beautiful - his stitch work. But no one could know for certain about the surgery until she wakes up and heals in two or three months. Only time would tell.
-x-x-x-
The red light ceased. Midori and Souta ran towards the doors of the surgical room. A handsome surgeon stepped out first, removing his surgical mask and met with the two concerned family members.
"She'll be fine," InuYasha reassured them. "The surgery was a success but we'll have to see how she recovers. She might require extensive trauma repairs after this though, please be prepared. But I assure you this was one of my best surgery."
"Thank you, ..." Midori paused, unsure of how to address the surgeon.
"Takahashi, InuYasha," he held out his hand to the older woman.
"Thank you, Takahashi-sensei," Midori smiled through her tears.
"Onee-san! Onee-san!" Souta directed his attention to the patient who was rolled out of the surgery room. The patient's head was completely wrapped around in bandages. The rest of her body was in casts.
"Kagome! Kagome! Can you hear me, love?"
"Higurashi-san will be awake in a few hours. I'll be doing a round tonight. If you excuse me, Madam, Sir," InuYasha addressed Midori and Souta politely and nodded. He turned his attention to the surgical nurse to give his instructions, "Rin-chan, please take Miss Higurashi to PS102."
-x-x-x-
"Kikyo! Kikyo! Kikyo! Kikyo! I know you're still here! Kikyo! Talk to me! You can't go! Don't you dare leaving me! Kikyo!" he hovered by her bed with tears in his gray eyes.
Beeeeeep...
"Kikyo!" he bit down his lips and quivered. She was gone and he knew it. "Kikyo!" He leaned into her and embraced her while burying his face into the pillows by her head. Of all the people, why her? Why was she the one who was dead? He collected himself and looked at her once more. She was so peaceful and beautiful. He reached for her left hand. Her body was cold like marble. He held her hand by his face and felt her smooth skin with his. He kissed the large diamond engagement ring on her finger and trembled in tears. He was in a mess.
"Takahashi-san?" the doctor gingerly placed his palm on his shoulder console him. "I'm sorry. But there wasn't anything we could have done to help Sato-san."
"I know... I know... But she's only 24..." InuYasha whispered, avoiding the doctor's glance.
"Take Sato-san to the morgue, Miyo-chan," the doctor instructed the nurse.
"Hai, Watanabe-sensei," the nurse began unhooking the monitors from Kikyo. InuYasha watched in silenced torment.
"Kikyo! Kikyo! Kikyo!" InuYasha screamed in anguish. He leaped up and his eyes shot open when his head made contact with the rim of the lamp. He breathed heavily and felt the cold sweat on his forehead. He had a nightmare... again. It's been 11 years exactly since the day of her passing but he could still not forget.
"Takahashi-sensei!" Rin rushed into InuYasha's office upon hearing the outcry. "Are you alright?"
InuYasha realized his surroundings. He had fallen asleep at his desk after the Higurashi surgery... right... He smiled apologetically, "I'm fine, I'm sorry, Rin-chan. Resume as before."
Hm... I might go back and change things... This will have to do for now.
