The Healer

CLANNAD

By: Chi

C h a p t e r T h r e e: The Angel and The Warriors

T.A.T.W

-A N G E L-

Usually, there are times that people are not so open minded. Being open minded, as in, "Very aware of the possiblities." Here's an example. You are taking a stroll to the store down the street, wondering what you were going to buy there; and all of a sudden you become aware that it was night. You realize, something could be happening to someone, right then and there, because you knew that predatores and wackos were out late at night. You are suddenly aware, of the possiblity that something different, something horrible is happening, somewhere far away maybe, maybe right next to you, at there very moment that you are taking that stroll.

Well, obviously, it's very forgetful and in-the-box to think like just a normal human being, to not even have a second thought about this concept. Every person goes on with there life, doing their own thing, and not even thinking what would be happening somewhere else. Not even thinking about the fact that, yeah, you're taking a stroll; but someone you know just might be getting hurt or something.

Though, of course, we're only human.

So it was human for Tomoyo, the leader of the Warriors, to cook dinner with her mother, and serve her family; all a while Tomoya is risking his strength and capasity to save a young girl from the Rebels. It was only human for the Warriors, to not think of something happening to Tomoya, at all. It was only human for them to be non-paranoid for once; to finally think, "Oh, the Rebels won't be coming back for a while so, pfft!".

It was only human, that they were wrong.

"--Okaa-san! -- -- ----?... ----?"

"I told you, Nagisa, -- ---- --- ----! Stop --------!"

"I-I'm sor--!...Oh no! Okaa-san! ---- at his -----!!"

"----?"

"His -----!! He...he's ble------! And a ---!"

"----! Where is yo-- ------?!"

What is this he was hearing? It was all muffled. He couldn't make out anything, but small fragments and parts of words. What were they saying? What was going on?

He couldn't feel anything; everything was numb. It was almost as if he was floating; non-existant. He liked this feeling. It was as if everything that life dropped on him; all that life did to weigh him down, was suddenly lifting.

He was gliding. Soaring. He didn't know how, and didn't know when this happened; but for once...he was at pease.

"His shirt!! He...he's bleeding! A lot! Okaa-san, it's getting everywhere!!"

"Crap! Where is your father?!"

Nagisa stopped for a moment, as if to take a small breather, just so she could gather her thoughts. "Ah! He's probably still fighting those guys..."

Sanae, eyes furrowed with concentration, and nervous sweat beading on her head, quickly started to unbutton the blue haired boy's bloody and punctured shirt. "No time then. We need to investigate..." She paused, mid-stopping at the middle button of Tomoya's shirt. She was thinking quickly, thinking of what could happen if the result in Tomoya's wound was critical.

"Nagisa, prepare yourself. You're about to see something...that you won't like to see...just..." she let out a quick breath and started unbuttoning again. "Look at his face; keep your eyes on his face..."

Nagisa knew what was happening. And she did not want to see what his wound looked like; the blood was already making her nausous anyway. She quickly moved her eyes to Tomoya's face, looked at his beaten features. Since his head was resting on her lap she began to stare. And stared at him with apology and remorse. He had risked himself for her; he had saved her from the very beginning.

He saved someone like her.

He seemed so at peace. She moved her always warm eyes around his face, thinking of what he would look like under the red bruises, and minor cuts, black eyes, and broken lip. She figured he was handsome from the start, 'course, she didn't really get a good look. Not really. She did stare at him the time he found her from the beginning. But through blurred vision and fear, she might as well been blind.

He was quite handsome. He had a long face, and well structured cheek bones, chin, and nose. Everything on his face fit him. If she was correct, he had sharp, and narrowed blue eyes.

Her eyes watered out of shame. His face was worse than hers. How could he do this for her? Goodness, she wasn't even bleeding either!

"...No," she heard her mother mutter, suddenly. The woman's brief and whispered remark immediately pulled her out of her shameful fog. Nagisa quickly looked up, looked at her mothers face. Sanea was suddenly getting red with tears. "Oh no," Sanea cried softly again.

Nagisa quickly looked down...

She screamed.

"------ prepa-- yourself. ---'-- ----- -- ---..."

Suddenly, soon after that, there was silence. And then he was confused. Why had the talking stopped? He didn't like it that much, since he couldn't understand it most of the time, but he still liked the precense. He was floating, in a mere world of white now, he was confused. The mindless and non-understandable talk was the only thing that seemed non-alian to him.

Then suddenly he heard a scream. A back-chilling, blood churning scream.

Suddenly, everything went black.

Suddenly, everything was painful to him. Suddenly, he wanted to scream, and thrash, and cry out in agony.

But he couldn't do such a thing. The other pain he was feeling, was extreme exhaustion. Therefore, he could do no such thing.

Except fight to open his eyes...

Nagsia sobbed again, but this time, she had her forehead to his, and her warm tears ran in his hair. Her hands was on each side of his face as she sobbed.

Yes, it was something uncalled for. But obviously, Nagisa is just the kind of girl who just takes everything so seriously. And the fact that his chest and lower torso was so... She couldn't help breaking down like this. She was a nice person, always had been. She couldn't believe he would do this for her though.

"We'll wait until your father gets back...and then we'll..." her mother was sobbing too, but not as much. The woman had to stay somewhat calm in order to act correctly. This was serious. There could be no such thing as a mess up.

Nagisa's sobbing reduced down to small whimpers, but her crying was growing stonger. The more she ran the thought of him risking his strength for her, and how he was so badly wounded just was too overwhelming to her.

"Please open your eyes," she whispered through her sobs. She repeated, just for a while, before her throat felt too blocked by the large lump in her throat.

She quickly leaned back, got her head off of his, and merely buried her head in her hands after. And she wept more.

Who was she kidding? He wasn't going to open his eyes for her; he must be so tired...

"Nagisa..." Nagisa looked up a little, looking at her mother who was the one who said her name. Her mother was staring downward. Sanae pointed.

Nagisa followed it. And then her warm ember depths met dark blue.

Her eyes widened. His eyes were open; they were dazing up at her...

Many things happen when you least expect it. It was something to consider sometimes, if you are curious enough, but most of all, no one pays attention to it. They're either too wrapped up in their own lives, or they just don't give a damn. That's why, the people who don't give a damn, don't know a bad gut feeling when they should.

On the other hand, the busy people, the ones who mostly care, trust that gut feeling.

Which was something the Warriors were feeling at that moment. As said before, anything can happen for you, when something can happen to someone else, at that very instant.

All the while Sanae and Nagisa were investigating Tomoya's wounds, the Warriors were wrapping up their homely activities before meeting up at their usual spot. Sanae found Tomoya's overall wound as the Warriors were individualy stepping into the cafe' they meet at. And at that very moment, right when Tomoyo stepped into that cafe', Tomoya opened his eyes to excrusiating pain.

"It's late," Tomoyo muttered, scanning over the Warriors who usually always meet up. It was 6:34 p.m. Tomoyo noted that usually, by that time, Tomoya would be there, having a cola or sociating with Sunohara. Though, when she found where Sunohara was, she only found the blonde, not the blue-haired delinquent.

"Where's Tomoya?" Tomoyo asked out loud, instantly gather her gang's attention. Kiyoshi, Youhei, Toda, Taro, Hana, and the rest of the gang members looked at one another, searching for the answer. Then they looked at their leader, thus giving Tomoyo the answer that:

They did not know where Tomoya was.

"But didn't he call any of you? Do you know if he suddenly found a disturbance?"

"Uhh, Tomoyo-chan, you know Okazaki doesn't answer his phone," Sunohara said loudly. "He's such a baka for doing that--"

"I don't give a crap! Why doesn't anyone know?!" Tomoyo said, her volume dangerously high, which immediately made the gang cringe. Yet, they were starting to get worried. If she didn't know, wouldn't nobody else know?

Tomoyo stared at them for a brief moment before clicking her tongue, making a angry 'tick' sound, and turned on her heal. She quickly rushed out the door; the gang followed after.

Youhei was the first to get next to her. For once, his face was serious. Tomoyo though it was because him and Tomoya had such a good relationship together; perhaps Youhei thinks of him as the brother he never had?

"Youhei, take Kiyoshi, Toda, and Taro and search up town. Keep your guard up. If you don't find anything, call me immediately. Understood?" She said firmly, her face stern and sincere.

Youhei nodded back and quickly gathered his group. Tomoyo turned and instructed four other Warriors to cover the lower-town. Then, she and three others ran off to cover their current position.

The twelve Warriors went in search for their thirteenth member, and dear friend. So, luckily, these were the people who cared; these were the people who trusted everything that they felt. There was no occational split up or argument or debate against each other. The good thing about the Warriors: They were always together, no matter what the cost.

"It seems that they used knives..." Sanae muttered as she observed at Tomoya's wounds. Yeah, not 'wound'; wounds. "It must have been a sneak attack or something....this really doesn't look fair." She shook her head, and looked up at Nagisa, who was hic-upping and wiping her face.

But she watched her daughters eyes stare at the blue haired boy's. He still had his eyes open, but it was obvious that it was draining him of massive energy just to do such a task. She was surprised that he hadn't closed his eyes yet; he looked horrible. And yet he kept looking at Nagisa, as if she had done something for him; as if he was meeting someone he never knew...or perhaps...he did?

Sanae used all the strength she could muster not to tilt her head out of curiosity. Because, it was either lovers who were being aquainted after their past life, or he was just looking at her to shut up. Or, perhaps he was trying to keep himself from passing out again. Sigh, her hand touched her cheek. It was so hard to choose...

"Sanae! How's Nagisa?!" There was a large amount of crashing and powerful thumps as Sanae's husband, Akio, rushed inside the house in haste. His eyes were blazing a dark amber, probably from the anger he had felt, and probably was still 'trying' to control. Akio carried two bags, and a necktie. The red one that belonged to Tomoya.

He observed the boy's damage immediately. Then he let out a long string of curses before dropping the belongings he had been holding, and ran into the other room. Sanae got up and ran after him, probably to check him over for any injuries.

All the while, Nagisa stared back at Tomoya's stared eyes. It was as if they were communicating, and they weren't even signalling anything. But the way he was looking at her... it was as if he was looking at her for the first time.

Deep down, she didn't blame him for giving her such a look. After all, she had just done the same thing mere moments ago. So, she understood why. But, it seemed as though a good connection between him and her for the first time as well. Since she wasn't so frantic and scared, she could see him in another way. A way that aquaintences look at each other when they meet.

She moved her gaze from his, looked over his wounds. His flesh was slashed and torn on his upper-torso and lower. Perhaps she had over reacted. Just a little; it was true that is truely was tramatizing to her. Of course, she had seen wounds like these...but these wounds he had were only for her safety.

He would need quite a few stitches, and one of his ribs to be checked out...but he would be fine, over all. But, there was still the possibility, that one of the cuts might have gone too deep, and somewhat punctured one of his lungs. She didn't want to know that as a possibility, but there was so much blood that it was just something she had to determine.

If that were so...well. She didn't know.

Nagisa moved her gaze to his eyes once more, and noticed that he was close, dangerously close, to closing them again. She leaned down, and lied a kiss on his forehead. "Thank you," she whispered hollowly. "Thank you so much..."

Tomoya was drifting again, and could no longer really feel the pain he had felt when he had his vision. Yet, his chest hurt. It was throbbing, and it was almost too painful for him to bear.

The girl he had stared at, he could never forget her. She was familiar, of course, because there was tears on her face. And yet, she wasn't familiar. It was as if she was someone else, and he was breath taken.

In the alley, he had seen a regular girl in distress and dispear. But when he saw her this time...

She seemed like an Angel. An Angel crying over him.

Yeah, uh, no. It wasn't a cliche' of a man falling in love with a woman at first sight. It was just the way the light shined over her head when Tomoya saw her, it made her seem like an Angel. So yeah, no corney stuff. Heh, it was still okay right?

Next Chapter...

The leader of the Warriors calls off the search; meanwhile, Tomoya is rushed to the hospital by ambulance...

Next Update...

February 6, 2009

Hope you liked it, and I hope you all get everything. I don't know why I said that, but I'm just saying. Please, review and/or flame. Haha! Excuse the spelling mistakes, by the way. I'll try to find a Beta, so I can come back edit and stuff. Anyone wanna beta for me, by the way? Lol, sorry to ask.