Chapter 3

Pain shot through her legs as she slowly put one foot before the other; her hands held tightly onto the handrails on each side of her as she focused her strength on holding herself upward. In front of her was Dr. Hiragi, holding onto her waist to help her along as he walked backwards in step with her.

"Good, Ms. Lockhart. Very good," he encouraged. "Just a little bit more."

Tifa grit her teeth as she concentrated on the feeling of the mat underneath her feet, her muscles aching and burning as they slowly but surely started to regain strength.

After having spent well into the new year getting back to a decent weight level, they had formerly started rehab. The doctor had one day brought in some old, but still reliable equipment to help with that; the handrail walkway they were using right now being one of them.

At first she had barely been able to do anything, let alone walk, but he had assured her that was normal. She was glad for his kind words, as they kept some of her more darker thoughts at bay. Her master had yet to return and it caused feelings of abandonment to fester inside her. She really wished he was here with her, giving her his encouraging words. But what would he think of seeing his pupil now, so weak that she couldn't even stand on her own? Would he be ashamed?

Banishing these thoughts, Tifa focused on the here and now, taking the aching of her muscles as encouragement rather than a setback. Feel the burn, as they say!

"I think that's enough for now. Good work! We've made it halfway there, that's very impressive." Dr. Hiragi smiled and helped her sit down into an old and beaten wheelchair.

"Honestly doesn't feel like it," she said as he rolled her over to the surgery couch nearby. His treatment room wasn't the most spacious, and now that he had to build up some equipment for her it was getting hard to maneuver the wheelchair. She felt a bit bad about the other patients that he got on a regular basis because of that.

She was just happy to be out of the sterile patient room, and while this room wasn't too different, it just had a much warmer feel.

"Don't sell yourself short, my dear. With the progress you're making I think we can switch to crutches soon." They stopped and the doctor helped her onto the surgery couch, lying her down on her stomach. "Now today I want to try something that will help along with your progress. But I'm afraid I'll have to expose your back for it."

A blush crept onto Tifa's face and she buried it into her folded arms. In the weeks that she had known the man she had to face quite a few embarrassing situations. Bedpans needing to be replaced, receiving help when she needed to clean herself, amongst other things. But he had always been polite, treating her with the utmost respect and averting his eyes whenever she was exposed.

She had heard stories from her friends, about how men in the big city could he very sleazy, but Dr. Hiragi had been nothing but a gentleman.

"Ok." Tifa nodded to herself more than to him. She heard some metallic rustling as he was searching around for something until he returned with a small wooden box. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that it had some elaborate carvings on it, but couldn't make out anything else. With trained hands, the doctor opened her gown at the back, making her shiver for a moment as she was fully exposed to the air.

She heard the box being opened and Dr. Hiragi spoke to her in a calm voice. "You might feel something akin to a mosquito bite, but please tell me if you should feel any pain."

"What do you me—" the rest of her sentence was cut short as she felt something being inserted right into the center of her back, but instead of any pain, she felt a tingling sensation.

"Does that hurt?"

"No," she breathed out. He hummed and she felt almost the same sensation a bit lower on her back. She felt herself starting to become warm. "What are you doing?"

"In my homeland we believe that inside our body resides a stream of energy, and over the centuries we have invented a technique to channel that energy into areas of the body where it is needed most, to aid in the healing process," he explained to her as he did whatever he was doing, the feeling of warmth spreading to her arms and legs, and it felt like the pressure that had been on her limbs was being lifted bit by bit. "For that, we use very thin needles that we insert into certain points on the human body. In non-Wutaian dialects it's called 'Acupuncture'."

Wait, he was sticking needles inside her?

A small part of her wanted to fly into a panic, to get away, but it was soon suffocated by the feeling of warmth and her body relaxed completely.

"How are you feeling?"

"Warm, and a bit tingly," she murmured, resting her head on her folded arms and closing her eyes.

"Ligh…ter," like she was flying on a soft, warm cloud illuminated by the sun.

She heard him chuckle. "It's alright to fall asleep."

Ah, is that so?

"OK," she murmured again and drifted off, lulled into sleep by a silent lullaby.

Here's a slightly shorter one, but I felt it was good enough the way it was. Maybe some slight world building even?