Chapter 2: Blood-Road Medicine

Warning: yucky illness descriptions ahead!


He law sprawled on the psychiatrist's couch, palms kneading his eyes. Damnit, Rei made him cancel their honeymoon to go to a shrink. Sure, he had fainted when he thought he saw­–

But that was nothing to think about.

He heard the psych sigh and glared at him in annoyance.

"There is no pressure to talk, Mr. Chiba, but the expense is yours. Most patients just talk so as to not waste what time they've paid for."

"Stow it. Besides, I'm not the one who paid. My wife insisted and her grandfather paid."

"Oh, that's right, you're newlyweds. Congrat-"

"I said stow it, doc, I don't need your congratulations."

His psych let out an embarrassed cough. "Mr. Chiba, forgive me for saying so, but you don't talk like a man of your status should."

"Should?" he laughed roughly. "Oh, I do forget myself sometimes, don't I? See, I was born of this world, but it's not where I grew up. I grew up dirt poor, and most of it without any help." He stopped.

The psych looked hopeful. "Go on."

Mamoru sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, after my dad…you know, my mom tried really hard to keep things going for me, she did. But I guess she was just too sad. I found her a year after the day, in the kitchen. The gas was on."

"Ah." The psych scribbled a few quick notes.

"Then why do you think you screa-"

"That's none of your business, okay?"

Time ticked by. The silence was so thick you could've stabbed it with a knife.

"Say, doc. If, hypothetically, I tell you something I don't want to get out, you'd keep it in the strictest confidence, wouldn't you?"

"Of course."

The young man exhaled deeply.

"Provided it in no way affects your wife or-"

"Shut up! If I tell you something–and I know you want me to–you can't tell a living soul, got that? Otherwise, we keep up our little quiet game, get it?"

The pysch sighed and took off his glasses. "I suppose I have to say yes, don't I?"


The women sat in the backyard, neither of them speaking. Rei, the happy glow of marriage still slightly evident in her face, looked drawn and tense. Her friend Makoto, off from her job as a chef, was there for some well-needed coffee and cigarettes.

Rei took a puff, smoke drifting across the lawn and stinging Mako's nostrils.

"Rei-chan, I thought you gave those up."

"This is an emergency, Mako-chan. Besides, it's just this one." She took another drag, feeling much calmer this time, and exhaled the smoke from her nose.

"He won't tell me the trouble, Mako-chan. I begged and pleaded with him, but nothing. He always tells me everything, and I was so frightened when he just keeled over…" She trailed off and put her face in her hands.

The tall brunette swept her friend into a hug. "Hey, hey now, it's all gonna be okay. All newlyweds have some trouble–"

"But never like this!" Rei wailed into her shirt, "It's like I don't know him as well as I thought I did! I tried to wake him up for ten minutes, it seemed like an hour! And when I finally did it, he tried to play it off like it was all some joke. I wanted to scream!"

"Shh, shh, it's okay. You said you sent him to a therapist, that's good. I think you could both benefit from couple's counseling, too."

Rei let out a shuddery breath. "Thanks, Mako-chan. I don't know why I let myself get so worried. You always have such a cool head on you."

Mako giggled as she sat down. "It comes from working in the kitchen. If you can't stand the heat…"


Mamoru stared up at the ceiling for a moment, trying to gather his words together. If he didn't say it the way he rehearsed this morning, it could make him sound like some kind of a monster.

"Y'see, doc, I've been married before."


He came home and slipped his shoes off at the entrance, nose wrinkling at the smell. Disinfectant, baby smells and Usako's humidifier. He stood in the hallway looking into the mirror, preparing himself for the upcoming ordeal. He fixed a cheerful smile on his face and went to the living room. It wasn't easy.

Dirty clothes, old boxes of food, the bassinette, a lot of things were strewn around the tatami mat where his wife lay, a small bundle in her arms. She was asleep, he could tell by the soft rise and fall of her nearly concave chest.

The baby had been hard on her, he knew, but then she had never recovered. She lay sprawled on the mat like a pile of wet laundry, a small crust forming at the corner of her mouth. Her nails, which she had so loved to polish in pinks and blues, were yellow now, and brittle. Her hand resembled a bird's claws, the skin on them was so rough and hardly a bit of meat remained. Her arms and legs, which he tried not to look at, were strange mushy things, skin grown in healthier times hanging off in folds. Her long, yellow hair, that which had been her crowning glory, had begun to come out in clumps, that which remained was coarse and lusterless. Her eyelids now resembled large bruises, one eye had begun to droop at the corners. Her entire face, which had been pink and full with baby-fat when they married, was now wasted, cheeks sunken in and outlining missing teeth.

He reached out to brush her cheek and the sparsely haired pink infant in her arms stirred. It had been a healthy birth, but she seemed to thin out in the months of her mother's illness. He could only afford very cheap formula and Usako could no longer breastfeed her own child with her wasted body.

The infant stirred again, and this time Usako opened her eyes.

It was amazing. No matter what condition her body was in, her eyes were always like chips of sapphire in her face, alert and sparkling. She gave a sad excuse for a smile and tried to greet him, coughing a few false starts before managing. Even her voice was deteriorating, her cheerful birdlike trill now sounded like wind over sandpaper.

"I…tried to fe…feed little Usa today…but…the strength in my arms…just…gave out…" she swallowed laboriously.. It cost her energy to talk, energy she couldn't really spare, but that was Usako. When the odds were against her, she just tried harder. He noticed the bottle on the floor, a now-dry puddle of formula around it

"I brought home some takeout, and some more formula mix. Also, the doctor gave me some more medicine to give to you."

Usako tried to smile again, lips cracking painfully. The medicine hadn't really helped all these long months, but she remained a staunch believer it would, some day, and she'd be back to her old, bubbly self.

He smiled permissively and took the infant from his wife's arms. The babe barely stirred, it slept so deeply compared to other infants its age. Perhaps her mother's illness was catching…


"…she died, doc. After a long sickness. There was nothing I could do, mother and baby, what a horrible thing. And then I get home that one day and I find them…there was nothing I could've done."

"That is a sad, tragic thing Mr. Chiba, and I think you have some severe guilt issues stemming from your first wife's death. You might have suffered a relapse when greeting your new wife for the first time since your marriage, but perhaps time will convince you it's not going to end the same way."

"Hmm." He stared up at the ceiling for another moment, then seemed to recover.

"We done here, doc? 'Cause I've got things–"

"We have fifteen more minutes, Mr. Chiba."

"Fine then." He stood up and cricked his neck. "We'll call it an hour. That's what you want anyway, isn't it? A little more money for your time?"

The therapist sighed. "Mr. Chiba, what I want is for you to be well; I had assumed our two goals were similar."

"Yeah yeah yeah." He flapped his hand. "See you later."

He paused at the door. "Hey doc?"

"Yes?"

"Get a haircut."

He slammed the door behind him, upsetting a rare Tomoe painting beside the frame. Dr. Kou shook his head and got up to adjust it.


At the car, Rei finally hugged Mako goodbye.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay with me for a bit? We could have girl's nights again, I'd call Minako and we could pig out on popcorn."

Rei gave her friend a tender smile.

"Thank you for the offer, Mako, but I think things are getting better already."


Author's note: Man, this got dark, and fast. A few more hints to what this story is based on, and I think I'm making it waaay too easy for you. More cameos in the next chapter!