Leorio made his way back to the hotel after an exhausting evening of studying at the library. He had tried his best to get stuff done in the comfort of his five star suite, but the boys always made such ruckus when he was there, he never was able to concentrate.
It was Friday night in York Shin, which often meant loud parties and police sirens, but Leorio trudged home quietly, mentally exhausted from trying to memorize as much of his anatomy text book as he could. He felt bitter about the contrast of the lively streets and his almost sullen mood. Had it been a weekend back at his college… things might have been different. The cops might have been called for the mess he was making, but he did have an exam coming up soon, and between helping his friends and exploring the city, he really did need to cram.
As the third police car passed him by, sirens blaring, he squinted as he felt the oncoming of a bad headache. The sirens caused a ringing in his ears that continued several seconds after the cops had passed. But as the ringing died down, he heard chatter coming from an alley to his left. Without intending to, he eavesdropped as he passed by.
"I'll keep watch. The wreck she's in, I don't think anyone will notice her missing," came a voice, and Leorio stopped dead in his track, curiosity piqued.
"She's really putting up a struggle though," came a second voice, dripping with amusement. Straightening his back, Leorio turned on his heels and decided to check out the situation.
He walked down the dimly lit alleyway and found three men behind a dumpster.
"Hey," Leorio greeted nonchalantly, and the three men froze. They were all wearing baggy clothing and one of them seemed to sway on his feet- Leorio guessed that he wasn't exactly sober.
"Get lost," one of the men ordered. He owned the first voice Leorio had heard, and had dark brown hair and a pair of shades on, even though it was almost 11 at night.
"What's going on here?" Leorio continued, briskly walking to where the men stood, completely ignoring the man who spoke. He rounded the corner of a dumpster and saw, as he had sadly expected, a mess of clothes and limbs on the floor pushed up against the wall.
"None of your business, man. Now, piss off," repeated the man, much harsher this time.
Leorio's eyes lingered on the broken body of the young girl before him- young, but only a few years younger than himself. She was barely conscious, her body was covered in cuts and bruises, and her left leg stuck out at an odd angle.
He turned back to face them. "I'm a doctor. This is definitely my business. Now, why don't you get lost," Leorio retorted coolly, thankful that he had gotten here now before the situation escalated into something much worse.
"Look," the first man started, taking off his sunglasses to reveal bloodstained eyes. Before he could continue to speak, Leorio landed a punch in one quick movement, knocking the man to the floor easily. As the other two started towards him, Leorio tutted and took out his hunter license, dangling it from his fingers casually.
The men recognized the Hunter insignia, and in a panicked hurry, they grabbed their friend off the floor and made a dash to the street. Leorio had to hold back a laugh. His license did indeed come with many privileges.
Without allowing himself to bask in his triumph for too long, he approached the girl on the floor slowly. He spotted a shard of glass held tightly in her right hand. She had tried to fend her attackers off, but from the looks of her bloody hand, had done more harm to herself than them.
"Stay…there…" the girl wheezed softly, trying to sound threatening, but coming off as almost pitiful.
"I'm a medical student," Leorio told her. "I can help."
The girl was too out of it to deliberate for long. All she wanted to do was give in to sleep and pass out, but in the back of her head she knew this could all be an elaborate plan by her attackers. However, the urgency of her fatigue and the dull throbbing of pain in her abdomen and leg told her that if she didn't get help soon, she probably wouldn't wake up from her sleep.
Slowly, and with much difficulty, the girl found the strength to unclench the glass from her grasp. It fell to the floor with a clatter that echoed through the alleyway, fading into the background of the bustling nighttime of York Shin.
Crouching low, Leorio made sure to move slowly so as not to alarm the girl, but he could see that even if he did do something to her against her will, she was in no condition to fight back.
He set his suitcase on the ground and opened it. "What's your name?" he asked in a friendly tone. He could hardly see the girl's deep brown eyes through the slits of her heavy lids. She was barely keeping herself awake.
"N-nikita," she managed, her voice coming out raspy.
"That's a nice name. I'm Leorio," he introduced himself. "Nikita, can you tell me where it hurts? And I know it's hard, but please try to stay with me."
The man's gentle voice soothed her throbbing head. Every time she closed her eyes, she would see a flash of bright light and hear a deafening clamour, but she could barely fight the temptation of sleep.
"I'll try," she whispered weakly, then after a pause: "I can't really…feel much. But, I think, my chest… my leg…" she glanced pointedly at her left foot. One look and Leorio knew it was broken, probably a clean cut to the tibia. He decided to look at her chest instead, since her voice worried him.
He gently pulled aside the light brown jacket she was wearing, only to see a bruise crawling out from under her tank top. After a few more glances and some prodding, whilst trying to keep the girl as calm and clothed as possible, Leorio sighed.
"You're in obvious shock, and your leg is broken. You might be bleeding internally, too. I need to get you to a hospital," he told her, though his voice was still calm. "Not to mention your bleeding hand, which will need stitching. Do you remember what happened?"
The girl's slip on consciousness slipped for a second, but the flashing lights and crashing sounds forced her back. She shook her head slowly. Pulling out his bulky cell phone, Leorio dialed a few numbers and ordered an ambulance to his current location. When he hung up, he looked at the girl again. She was fighting so hard to stay awake, but he could see that she was losing.
"Is there anyone I can call for you?" he asked, but she didn't answer for a few moments.
"Am I on fire?" she asked him softly. Her question was so sincere, that he thought he misheard her at first. "I've seen… flames around me for a while. Don't really… feel anything though…"
Leorio racked his brain for an explanation for her hallucinations. Shock? Trauma? Head injury? All possibilities that did not seem convincing enough for him. He knew there was something he was missing- something he'd only recently experienced himself.
His head turned with a snap as he remembered the most recent lesson in Nen that Killua and Gon had given him. It was the opening of the aura channels in his eyes- Gyo.
Concentrating hard, Leorio tried to activate Gyo, and when he did, he stumbled back in alarm. From the girl's body came a blindingly bright light that extended for several meters in each direction.
He had no idea what was going on, but he knew that there was something off about her. Most people's aura looked more like smoke or mist, but she seemed to have been fitted with intense spotlights. Squinting his eyes against the light, he deactivated the aura in his eyes and made his way next to her again.
"I want you to follow my voice- think of this as a guided relaxation," he told her, not feeling completely at ease with teaching Nikita something he had only mastered recently. But, he could now understand why she was so exhausted. Her life force was flowing out of her uncontrollably, wave after wave crashing onto him and engulfing him with feelings of doubt, lethargy, and fear.
Nikita was barely able to nod and did as she was told, trying to put out the 'fire' that had surrounded her by sheer will. It took a few moments, but to Leorio's surprise, she managed to stop her aura from flowing so freely. If she hadn't, he knew that would have killed her long before her injuries did.
In the distance, Leorio heard the familiar sirens of an ambulance that made its way to his location. The girl seemed to have heard them, too, for she glanced up at Leorio, gave him a small smile, and then succumbed to sleep.