Chapter 2

The day started as any normal day would, Shen, Akali and Kennen met at the entrance to the Kinkou temple ready for their day at work. These are 3 trained ninjas with excellent precision and talent at the fine arts, so they have been hired to work in a hospital, Kennen the doctor, Shen the surgeon and of course Akali the nurse. There are no greater team in Valoran when it comes to looking after the people's health.

Shen was of course first to arrive at the entrance, shortly joined by Akali and lastly Kennen. "Considering you're supposed to be the fastest one of us 3 you sure take your time getting ready Fuzzball!" Akali Jested to the little yordle as they left for the hospital. Little did they know that today was to be far from ordinary...

The hospital itself was not far from the temple, so the trio were there in no time. Upon arrival they donned their theatre scrubs and began to prepare for the first scheduled case. Shen and Kennen remained in the theatre discussing the upcoming cases whilst Akali went to prepare the patient. The halls leading to the theatre were quite a dark and unfriendly, Akali thought to herself and quickened her pace towards the preparation area, "I would hate to have to come down here as a patient," she muttered under her breath whilst a shiver went down her spine.

"Nurse! Come quick!" A shout came from towards the emergency department. Akali snapped her head round to see one of the other doctors dripping in sweat and looking panicked.

"What's wrong? What's happened?" Akali quizzed the man.

"We have an emergency! Is the theatre ready?" the doctor replied.

"Yes of course, take the patient straight in. What are we dealing with? So I can go and make sure everything is set-up."

"This man has numerous lacerations to the neck and face and is losing a lot of blood. A knife remains in the side of his neck which we think may have split the jugular vein. My thoughts are to remove the knife in surgery so we can sow the vein back up. This is life and death Akali; I hope the team is ready."

"I ensure you we will do everything we can to save this gentleman." Akali reassured the doctor as she turned on her heel back towards the theatre.

As she approached the doors to the theatre, she could hear the distinctive sound of Kennen's high-pitched giggle and couldn't help but smile. What on earth could be so funny? She thought as she entered the room. Shen was stood with his back to the door and Kennen whilst the little yordle was curled up in a ball on the floor clutching his stomach laughing his little head off.

"What's so funny?" She exclaimed upon entering.

"It's Shen... his shoes...haha...look..." Kennen attempted to reply, struggling in between all his laughter. Akali looked down towards Shen's feet, "And?" She replied.

"THEY'RE CROCS!" Kennen blurted out before starting yet another laughing fit.

"I'll have you know they're extremely comfortable and practical for this kind of work Kennen. You're just jealous because you're not allowed to wear them because the infection risk from your hairy feet!" Shen replied whilst turning to face Akali, with a complete straight face with no sign of emotion. Akali couldn't help but let out a small giggle at the embarrassed Shen's response. "Anyway, mind on today's surgery, we have an emergency case coming in from the A&E department, a man who has multiple lacerations to his face and neck, some old, some new, but has a knife stuck in the side of his neck which the doctors think may have severed the jugular so they want to remove it in here so immediate repairs can be performed. Okay Shen?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be okay? I'm a professional." Shen replied rather abruptly.

"I know, it's just because of before, you know?" Akali asked rather quietly.

"I don't know what you're talking about Akali." Shen turned to face away and prepare the room. In dismay, Akali turned and began to get the necessary tools out for the surgery. Kennen finally stopped laughing and could sense the awkwardness in the room, he tootled up beside Akali and asked what was going on as he had been too busy laughing at Shen's crocs to hear the brief. Akali filled him in on what she knew about the case but left out the part of Shen being seemingly upset. With a bang, the doors flew wide open, and a team of doctors, nurses, anaesthetists and the like came barrelling through with the patient on a trolley, Akali and Kennen rushed to aid the doctors in moving the patient on to the operating table yet Shen remained unmoved, focused on the screen he was in front of. Preparing himself for this potentially fatal surgery. The doctor accompanying the patient began reading out what they knew. "This gentleman was caught up in a fire so has burns on his lower limbs but these are only a secondary problem, our main worry is this knife sticking out the side of his neck. He was adamant about his mask staying in place, but we had to remove it. Fortunately his other half was on hand to remove the mask and perform what we needed, but the patient has asked that we keep his face covered if possible."

"That's all well and good, but do we know who we're operating on?" Kennen asked.

"We do, his name, is Zed..."

All eyes in the room turned to Shen, including Akali and Kennen. Shen felt as if he'd been stabbed in the chest. The one he had once called brother, the one who was to blame for his Father's murder, the one family member Shen had left, was on the table behind him bleeding to death. His mind flooded with emotions, for Shen had once loved Zed as a brother, before the temple was set ablaze and his Father stabbed in the neck with one of Zed's blades. Could he save the man who tore his life apart? Could he let his last living kin die at his hand? Could he have the power to stop Zed dying the same way his Father did?