Rina felt like she was floating. She couldn't really feel her body. It was like she was surrounded with a thick layer of nothingness. She tried to speak, but couldn't make her mouth work.

"What the…?" The words echoed. "Why are my thoughts echoing? And why can't I speak?"

She tried to open her eyes, but nothing but utter darkness was the result. After a while, she couldn't tell if they were open or closed. "Well… what now?" And onward she floated.

"Looks to me like a minor case of Leatichi poisoning. Fatal if left untreated, but I think you got it in time," the equine-spirit stated. "Just open the wound some, apply this paste to it and the poison should be drawn to it in no time. What isn't drawn out will be fought off by her immune system."

"And how often do we need to reapply the paste," Suzuka asked while Touya looked at the jar.

"Oh, I'd say about every…"

"Shishi, quit sulkin'. Yer makin' me antsy." Chu twitched as Shishiwakamaru paced back and forth on the coffee table in imp form.

"No." He turned around to walk down the length again. "Why don't you get drunk again like always? That'll pass the time."

"Thank you, doctor. We'll call you if anything changes," Touya said as he opened the door. The equine-spirit bowed his head briefly in acknowledgement of the other demons in the apartment, before taking payment from Suzuka at the front door and leaving.

"Well? Is the lass fine or not?" Jin got too close to Suzuka's face with his eagerness. Suzuka pushed him away some.

"It's a minor poisoning, but we need to open that wound again to give her proper treatment," Touya stated, still in the bedroom door. "Other than that, it's all up to her, really."

"Why do you even care? It's not like we know her; it's not like she's good for anything other than cooking—because we all know that none of us are talented in that area—but still." Shishiwakamaru floated off the table and started jumping up and down on the back of the couch as he continued. "So far she's been nothing but trouble: bringing those idiot bandits and then costing us a lot of our hard-earned bounty money. We owe her nothing!" And like before, he was ignored.

"Touya, can you refresh her ice? I'll apply the paste. Rinku, why don't you go play with your little monkey friend, and Shishi?" Shishi stopped his ranting for just a moment to look at Suzuka. "Just… just continue what you were doing." Suzuka went into the room and began tending to Rina's needs. Chu was already in the kitchen seeking out some food since Rina's fainting spell left the food in the middle of nowhere.

Shishiwakamaru noticed this and rushed over in full form. "No way are you cooking. Gimme that!" He snatched the frying pan from Chu and started making some scrambled eggs with various extras in there. Chu's resulting grin just irritated the overgrown imp, but he kept cooking enough for an army… so just enough for the six of them.

"What about the little Sheila in the other room? What if she wakes up hungry? You're not gonna let her starve, now are ya?"

"Then you can share your helping with her," Shishi snapped. "You eat too much anyway."

"Well, I'm a growing boy, what do ya expect?"

Grumbling, Shishi added an extra egg in the mix. Jin returned soon after with much needed groceries.

Rina still felt like she was floating, but her body was no longer numb. It was on fire.

"It hurts! Someone make it stop, please!"

As if someone had heard her, she felt some slight relief in her ankle. It felt like a band of coolness wrapping around it. "Focus on that. That might be better." And she did. She tried to focus her energy there and soon the warmth was retreating in the wake of the cold. Such relief she felt that she poured as much of it there as she could until she couldn't anymore. Then she was just floating in nothingness once more, half overheating, half in blissful cool.

The five demons in the apartment were staring in confusion at Rina's resting body. Touya placed some more of the paste on the wound. Within an instant it vanished.

"When the paste vanishes, apply some more," Doctor Shun, the equine-spirit had told them. They just didn't know that it would happen so fast or so often.

"Jin, circulate the air some. Her fever is going down, but until she wakes up, she won't be fine," Touya instructed. Jin followed directions. The increased air flow distracted Shishi, causing him to run from the room. In the distance his screams of agony were heard.

"It's ruined!"

His meal would have to wait.