Kamaitachi Chronicles

By: Aviantei

Fourteen

"Like hell are you gonna just slap me on desk work! I think I've more than proved that I'm an asset."

"If you have a plan for being a combat asset with an injured arm, I'd love to hear it— I told you to stay behind and let us take care of things. You're lucky I'm not putting a demerit on you for insubordination!"

"Strictly speaking, what I do when I'm off duty is my business."

"Don't you try to use a loophole on me when you're stuck in a hospital bed because of your recklessness!"

Propped up against some half-stiff pillows, I glared at Mustang from my military hospital bed. It was daytime, and I'd already gotten an official patch up job and orders to not do anything strenuous until my wounds healed up. Lucky for me, I hadn't gotten any infections, though my right arm was all but useless and in a sling for a bit. I could move it, but not without a lot of pain and a chance of fucking up the injury even more.

My arm had no impact on my glowering at Mustang, though. It also had no effect on the stern look he was giving me in return.

"Again, you're lucky I'm not giving you something worse than desk work," he said. "You haven't even been an officer for a week, and you run right into a suicide mission. Try and pull something like that again, Caiman, and I'll see to your dismissal myself."

I blew my bangs out of my face. "I'm sure that would look just great on you. Your recommended State Alchemist getting the boot."

"I'd rather take a hit to my reputation than have your blood on my hands." His tone was more serious than I'd expected, and it killed the next retort building on my tongue. "Yes, you lured out our target, and, yes, you were able to hold your own for a bit. But if it weren't for the light off that transmutation you did, we likely wouldn't have found you, and you would be dead. And I'm willing to bet, Caiman, that you weren't even planning on calling for help with your alchemy." I stared down the open window instead, though the view from the second floor was crap from my angle. The knife hadn't been pressed to my throat, but I had no problems imagining what it would have felt like if it did—both the immediate pain and the ultimate result. "So, yes, Caiman, I am going to stick you on desk work, just like the rest of us. We don't have another pressing mission yet, and you can't continue your training with Rito until you heal. You wanted to be part of our work so bad. This is part of it."

I gave a halfhearted mutter, but there wasn't much I could do to argue. I'd refused to sit on the sidelines and let people get hurt whenever I could do something about it—and these were the consequences for my actions. Whining about it wouldn't get me anywhere.

Besides, Kain and Rito both looked worried whenever they got to me. My vision may have been a bit blurry, then, but I had enough memory to tell that much. Man, when's the last time I even had someone to worry about me?

The answer sprang to mind, as clear as everything else, but I didn't acknowledge it.

"Fine," I sighed, flopping back into my pillows. Maybe this team thing wouldn't be so bad.

Mustang smirked. "That doesn't sound like something a good officer would say to their superior."

I scowled before giving my most sarcastic "Sir, yes, sir."

Nope, still an ass.

Mustang made a point to visit once every couple of days, most often to drop more paperwork on me. I also saw Breda and Falman here and there, both of them arriving with concerned expressions that had just a tinge of exasperation and, in Breda's case, some sandwiches from the nearby deli as a way to save me from the bland repetition of the hospital food that gave the military dorm's cafeteria a run for its money.

Breda was becoming my favorite.

Four days after my admittance to the hospital also made the fourth day in a row that Kain and Rito showed up. They'd been making a habit of checking in on me regularly, which I felt in part was because Maes had caused too much of a racket when he visited me the first time and the hospital staff was wary. Unlike their separate visits before, the two had arrived together, presumably because their shifts had ended at the same time for once.

Rito, expression cheery; Kain, expression unable to hide the guilt flashing in his eyes every time he saw my bandages. It was such an expected sight by now that I had to resist the urge to toss the apple I was eating in their direction—I hadn't quite decided on a target, but I could at least get one of them. Still, I raised the fruit in a threatening stance. "Kain, I've told you every day you've come here: this isn't your fault, plus I'm almost free for getting discharged. They were just confirming that I didn't have any lasting nerve damage, so enough already."

Kain didn't even get to form a retort, as Rito smacked him on the back. Though it was a friendly gesture, I was surprised that Kain didn't fall over from the force in the blow, though he did yelp. "Caiman's right, Fuery. This whole mess is nothing but her fault, you know?" Rito said, still wearing that bright and sunny smile. "Caiman picked a fight with someone she wasn't qualified to get into it with, and this is the result." That comment wasn't about to do my or Kain's mood any favors. Rito just grinned at me, though I caught the predatory glint in her eyes. "I hope you're ready for when you get back, because I'm gonna have to do my duty as your combat instructor and knock some sense into you."

"Sorry to disappoint, but I heard from the doctor to avoid any unnecessary strain for at least another week after they let me out." Rito's expression shifted back towards a pout, but I could tell she was going to kick my ass at least twenty times the moment I was back under her tutelage. And while I could admit I needed the lessons, I was fine with avoiding that beatdown a little bit longer. My ego had taken enough bruising as it was.

Kain had settled himself into one of the visitor's chairs, and he leaned forward. "You're going to need that much time? I thought you said the injuries weren't all that serious!"

I tapped my hand against the top of my injured shoulder, feeling the bandages beneath the fabric of my hospital top. "They're not that serious, so long as I don't strain anything. The only way this is going to cause a permanent problem is if I go around acting reckless."

Rito smirked from the other seat. "Considering your behavior, I think any and all concern for your wellbeing is valid."

I rolled my eyes since throwing up my arms would have just made the situation worse. Losing mobility was just as annoying as I remembered it being. "I'm not someone that'll aggravate an injury I already have," I said, since it was the best defense I had. Rito—and everyone else—had way more of a point than I would admit to out loud. Still, there were things I needed to say. A sigh spilled out of my mouth, preceding my next words. "But…I didn't thank you guys yet for coming to help me. So, Kain, count that as us being even. Rito…I hope you can help me improve before I get myself into another stupid situation."

"Alright," Kain said, giving me the first non-strained smile I had seen on him since before our little encounter in the alleyway. "But you should know by now that we're a team, right? We always do what we can to help our own."

Rito nodded so hard it looked like her glasses were about to fall off. "That's right! I know you were the type to run around on your own beforehand, but you've got us now." That odd warm and fuzzy feeling wandered back into my chest. "Of course, it wasn't just the two of us that came, you know. Everyone else helped—and Roy's the one who managed to pin the culprit down. That means he should get the most credit, so make sure you thank him, too, alright?"

The forming smile slipped off my face. Thank him…?

"You sure do know how to ruin the mood, don't you, Rito?"

"Huh? Huh? Did you hear that, Kain? Caiman's being mean to me!"

"Rito, you should calm down or they're going to throw us out again…"

And so, without much incident, I was released back into the hospital and given the clear to return to desk work. In other words, I was returning back to what I should have been doing in the first place—not that I would admit it out loud. The biggest difference between my time taking up space in the office before and now was that I didn't have the occasional reprieve of having sparring sessions with Rito, as those would still count as "strenuous activity." Not the sort of stuff I needed to be putting my still recovering shoulder through.

The second was that Mustang hadn't been lying about incorporating me into the paperwork chain.

"You've got to be bullshitting me," I said through gritted teeth on my third morning back at the office. With the whole team present in the office once more, they'd taken the time to carve me out a spot around the collective worktable. Both a blessing and a curse, seeing as it just gave Mustang an easy target to dump stacks of paper into for me to process. I hadn't even gotten through it all the day before, and the work kept multiplying. "Isn't hazing illegal?" It had to at least be frowned upon.

"Well, you make a good point there, Caiman," said Havoc from his spot across from mine. As one might have expected, Rito had the position next to me. Both of them had the same shit eating grin on. "However, punishment for disobeying direct orders is a whole other matter. You're not gonna have much luck getting out of this one."

Oh, how I hate it when people are right.

"Jean's right, Caiman," Rito all but sang as she started flipping through the (far smaller) stack of papers in her spot. "Maybe you'll learn your less—"

"Yes, yes, I've heard the same lecture ten times already. If you don't mind letting me be so I can make some progress."

Rito whined a bit to Havoc about something or other, but I was already in the progress of tuning the others out. When it came to the paperwork, there wasn't too much I could do. Even as a State Alchemist, my rank wasn't that high, and most of these things required Mustang's signature as the unit commander. I was playing glorified secretary by reviewing things in advance and organizing them. AKA, Mustang was making me take on the brunt of his work.

I couldn't consider it all bad, though. Shuffling through everything and reading stuff over was the most information I got about military goings-on since I'd arrived. There were still some processing matters connected to a few previous arrests the group had made, plus it looked like they had some connections to patrols as well. Mustang wasn't the highest-ranking officer positioned in East City, but he was high enough that he had his fingers in all the jars—or at least knew someone who did. For anyone else, it would have been mind-numbing to delve through all this info, and it still was for me. The biggest difference was that I could archive it for later, which had its advantages as well.

Mustang hadn't said anything that indicated he'd realized how much I'd retain, so that might have been a slip up. Regardless, he was involving me more in what was going on, so it was a step forward. I'd almost call it a blessing in disguise if it weren't for one little detail.

None of the files I got my hands on had anything to do with the serial killer I'd helped catch.

It wasn't to say I was left out of the loop. I knew there had been a successful arrest, and I'd given Mustang a quick testimony/explanation of my actions from the hospital bed. However, any of the information on our target's motive was right out of my reach. I didn't hear anything about a trial date, either, though there would need to be one.

Considering that I've had everything else dumped into my lap, that has to be on purpose.

Sighing as I sectioned off another batch of priority documents from the rest, my brain drew the conclusion that I might've found the real punishment in this mess. Going further, it might have even been a test of if I was willing to put up with being kept in the dark again. Of course, I might have been stretching things there, but still. The key point was still that I wasn't going to learn anything this way, and I didn't think asking after things would do me any good, either. And while that was annoying, in the larger scheme of things, it didn't really matter all that much to me.

We had caught the person, and they were going to face punishment for their actions, so that was that.

Plus I don't feel like ever having to put up with this amount of paperwork again.

Having made my way to the bottom of one stack, I realized that I'd been hunched over a desk for over an hour and gave myself permission to stretch a bit. Everyone else had settled into their own rhythms, so I just took the chance to stand up for a minute to try and pull the kinks out of my shoulders. While I was up and about, I took over the sorted-out papers so Mustang could take care of them whenever he decided to grace us with his presence.

Which happened to be not too long after I had gotten myself some coffee and was working on the next hulking mass of papers. Greetings fluttered around the room, and I almost just let it pass until I noticed in my peripheral that not one shape had entered, but two.

One of them was our leader, Mustang.

The other was the blonde woman in uniform that had been part of the tailing detail on me the past week.

[Author's Notes]

Hey, look, we're in the falling action of this arc. Almost time for the next one!

Thanks to the-apple-seed for the favorite and the review! I'm glad you're enjoying the story, and I'll to my best to keep delivering.

Ivy is slowly seeing some character development, but she's not done being a arrogant teenager just yet. Writing her like this is probably my favorite part of this story now that I've rebuilt the concepts. I've also rewatched Brotherhood since the last update, and I have some fun ideas for canon! Just...gotta get to canon first, though I don't plan to rush there, either.

Next time is Ivy meeting the rest of the team and moving onto the next arc, and it will release next month during the holiday/fic anniversary bash. Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[11.27.2021]