So, yeah...I procrastinated again...woops...your gain my loss...educationally anyways
Two weeks after her incident with Serizawa, Heisuke came banging on her door. It was late and Kaiya had been sitting at her desk in room, going over the day's medical files.
"Kaiya-chaaaaan, open up! I need help." Kaiya smiled to herself, judging from his slur he was definitely drunk. She slid the door to find him swaying in front of her door. When he noticed that the door had opened, he smiled and stuck out a bloody right hand.
"That doesn't look too good." She grabbed a candle from within her room and brought it to the door so she could better inspect his hand.
"You should see the other guy!" Heisuke gave a bit of a drunken giggle.
"Hopefully it wasn't one of your partner's in crime." She said as she took his hand gingerly in one hers and in her other hand she held the candle as she did a visual inspection of his hand.
"Naw but they just sssat there and watched while I beat the cramp out of two guys."
Kaiya rolled her eyes than pointed to two deep lacerations on the top of his hand. "How did you do that?"
"Oh. I went to punch dis guy and he put this jug in front of hish face. Funny thing is, I hit the jug AND hish face." Heisuke gave another drunken giggle.
"Well, you need stitches and I don't have any of the supplies I need here." She let go of his hand, put her candle down near the door and pushed Heisuke aside as she exited the room and closed her door.
They walked down the sidewalk together with Kaiya holding on to his arm to prevent him from falling off the walkway. Thankfully, it was a pleasant night with a gentle breeze ruffling Kaiya's hair and filling her nose with the scent of nearby orchids. She led him to the medical clinic which was pitch black as Yamazaki had other obligation to fulfill that night. She made such to keep the floor clear of clutter just for this reason, so she could cross the room and not worry about tripping over any hazard. She headed inside and found what she was looking for and lit the candle she had left on her table.
"You should take a seat there before you fall down and hurt yourself more, Heisuke-kun."
She indicated a spot beside the table, then stood up and turned towards the cabinet where she kept most of her supplies. She pulled out her suture kit and a numbing agent and placed them on the table. She then turned and went deeper into the room to fetch the bucket of water she had left out and a bowl as well as a cloth. She finally sat down in front Heisuke who had begun to look sleepy.
"Hey, don't fade out on me. I am not dragging you back to your room when I'm done."
He cracked a lop-sided grin, "Shorry." He said as he tried to straighten up and blinked several times.
She poured some water into the bowl and dunked the cloth in the water. She then grabbed his hand again and began to wipe the blood off so she could see his injuries better. His hand was still bleeding but she cleaned it off enough to properly see the lacerations. The one wasn't as deep as she had initially thought and would only require a few stitches but the other was deep and still had some pottery stuck in it. She applied the numbing agent around the wounds and sewed up the first cut, then she grabbed a pair of tweezers and dug out the pottery from the other cut in his hand. She had expected him to whine but he was so drunk that he probably barely knew what she was doing. After about ten minutes, Kaiya final dropped the suture needle into a small dish with alcohol in it.
Finally, she wrapped his hand and said, "There. All finished! Time to get you to bed." Kaiya grabbed his arm and tried to haul him to his feet but he just hung there limply.
"Awww! Kaiya-chhhaaan, I was gunna go back and finish!"
Kaiya tried to haul him to his feet again and was met with limp resistance once more. "Why do you need more sake?! You are already drunk!" she huffed.
"Hey, take it easy there Kaiya-chan! I got this!" Kaiya nearly jumped out of her skin, she hadn't heard Sanosuke come in.
"Sano!" Heisuke cheered from the floor. "Ready for round two?"
Sanosuke chuckled as he bent over and haul Heisuke to his feet. Sanosuke smelled like a barrel of sake but seemed sturdy on his feet. Evidently, he held his liquor a lot better than Heisuke.
"Sorry, parties over. Shinpachi-kun is probably crawling into bed right about now and I figured I should probably come check on you." Sanosuke looked back at Kaiya. "Sorry for his drunkenness, Kaiya-chan."
"It's no problem Harada-kun, I have a feeling it won't be the last time I sew one you guys up while you're drunk."
Sanosuke laughed and rubbed the back of his head with his free hand as he helped Heisuke to the door. "No probably not. We tend to get into trouble a lot when we're sober let alone when we're drunk. And could you cut the Harada crap? We know each other well enough for you to call me Sano; almost everybody else I like does."
Kaiya smiled, "Alright Sano-kun it is."
Sanosuke let out a big dopey grin as he said, "Good night Kaiya-chan! Oof!"
Heisuke had straightened up enough while they were walking to give Sanosuke a hard shot to the ribs.
"BAKA!" he shouted as he smacked Heisuke in the head with his free hand.
"Shtop flirting with Kaiya-chan! Souji-san will beat you up. Gud night Kaiya-chan!"
Sanosuke continued dragging Heisuke out the door, disappearing quickly. Kaiya chuckled to herself, Heisuke was probably right; if Souji caught one of his fellow Roshigumi flirting with her, he'd have a few words to say. He had already proven quite protective over her despite their disagreement a few weeks ago. If anything, he's gotten more protective since then.
He had a right to be suspicious, though. Serizawa and men like him made her very uncomfortable. She had surprised herself when she arrived. It was unusual how comfortable she had felt with the captains, but they were, like Souji said, quite harmless. But Serizawa and his group of followers, made her very uneasy. The others had even begun to notice. Kaiya shook her head, she didn't want to think unsettling thoughts before she returned to bed; it would undoubtedly bring on her terrifying nightmares.
Kaiya bent over the candle she had lit and blew it out and exited the clinic. When she turned around she saw a figure staggering her way, Kaiya stopped and waited for the shadow to approach. By his shape she figured it must be Shinpachi approaching her with some need but when he got closer, he seemed a little too thick and if it had been Shinpachi he probably would've been hollering out to her loudly by now. Kaiya forced the fear that began to rise back down, they probably meant her no harm. Probably did something stupid to themselves like Heisuke, the man had come from the direction of the entrance.
Then she realized who it was and took a large step back, Serizawa. He was much too close to make a strategic exit, and he was obviously drunk. He finally stopped less than a foot away from her. Kaiya had to work at not crinkling her nose, he stank worse than Sanosuke and Heisuke put together. Thinking of them, she looked to see if they were still in sight, but they had disappeared.
"Now here is a beautiful woman. Those whores all look like ugly pigs! You'll do."
He lunged out and grabbed her by the wrists, pulling her towards him. Kaiya tried to pull herself away, terrified of what he was going to do to her. Nasty images started flashing through her head, causing her to fight him harder.
"Stop fighting me wench!"
His hands were like iron and the more she struggled the more they tightened around her wrists. Finally, he got angry with her struggling and raised his hand to strike her but was stopped by another man grabbing it. Serizawa wrenched his hand out of the other man's hand and turned to face him, keeping hold of her wrists in his left and grabbing for his sword it his right. When Serizawa was out of the way, Kaiya saw Saitou standing in front of them; thankfully he seemed very sober.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Serizawa bellowed with his hand still on his sword. "Back down now or I will kill you!"
Saitou's hands still remained loosely at his sides but Kaiya saw that he too was armed, though apparently unconcerned.
"Consider your threat carefully. Due to your drunken state, I shall show some amount of patience. Consider though, who you are talking too. Do you really think you can beat me? And is it really worth chancing your life over a woman? Because if you draw that sword, I will kill you."
Serizawa stared coldly at Saitou for a moment who was looking back at him with an equally cold stare, then dropped his hand from his sword and practically threw Kaiya at Saitou. Saitou gently caught her as she stumbled in his direction.
"Have the wench, she's too feisty for my liking anyways." Serizawa turned and stumbled off again for the entrance, probably to get more liquor. Saitou sighed and looked down at Kaiya as she watched Serizawa leave.
"Are you alright?" He asked her softly as soft footsteps approached from behind him.
When she looked up at his face it started to blur from the tears forming in her eyes. "Thank you." She choked out.
"Don't just thank me." He said turning to the side and indicated the man who belonged to the footsteps she heard from behind Saitou. "Ryunosuke-kun is the one who alerted me that you might be in trouble."
Kaiya quickly dashed away a tear that threatened to roll down her cheek and bowed. "Thank you, Ibuki-san. I am in your debt and you as well Saitou-kun."
"I'm sorry I didn't find someone sooner. He didn't hurt you, did he? He's one heck of a bastard, trust me I know." Ryunosuke shifted from foot to foot looking like he felt very awkward.
Kaiya shook her head slowly, ignoring her throbbing wrists. "No. I didn't get you two in trouble, did I?" She looked up a Saitou worriedly.
Saitou made a bit of a harrumph sound and said, "Worry about yourself." He was going to leave it at that but even in the dim light he could tell she was still worrying so he finally said. "It's unlikely he'll even remember this in the morning. Even if he does, he's unlikely to say anything because he backed out of a fight, and he doesn't know about Ryunosuke-kun's involvement to begin with."
"Did you want some tea or something to help you sleep? Serizawa-san gave you quite the fright." Ryunosuke took a step closer.
Kaiya shook her head, "No, I'll be ok. Thank you Ibuki-san."
Ryunosuke scratched his head, "You know call me Ryunosuke, Ibuki is what you would call my father…"
Kaiya choked out a laugh, "Alright, I shall call you Ryunosuke-san from now on."
Ryunosuke gave a bit of an awkward smile than turned and left. Kaiya looked at her hands as he left and realized she was still clutching on to Saitou. She suddenly let go and took a couple steps back and mumbled a sorry. She still felt like she was going to burst into tears at any moment but she fought fiercely against them, not wanting to look anymore the fool. Saitou stood there a moment waiting for her to look up again, then realized she probably wasn't going to and was waiting for him to leave as well. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder and felt her tense up but she looked up at him.
"I shall escort you to your room, if you feel comfortable with me doing so." He let his hand drop and tried to make himself as unthreatening as possible.
She remained silent for a moment as she considered. Saitou has never done a thing to make her think he would harm her. In fact, he had been very much a gentleman to her and until tonight she would have never thought twice about being alone with him. She silently shamed herself for even entertaining the idea…and then she realized she didn't particularly want to be by herself right now.
"Yes, that would be appreciated."
He nodded and fell in step beside her as she walked towards the rooms. Suddenly the nice quiet night had taken on a sinister feel. Every shadow potentially held another danger. If Saitou had not been with her she probably would have run to her room in a panic or even to Souji's, which would have created so many problems.
They walked in total silence as Kaiya's mind raced but when they approached her door Saitou finally spoke up.
"You should have screamed."
"It had crossed my mind, but it has never helped before so I decided to save my strength for fighting against him."
He turned and frowned at what she had just suggested…it made unfortunate sense. "It would have helped here. If someone tries to hurt you, no matter who it is, someone will come and help you. It is what we do."
Kaiya put her hands on her door and stood there a moment debating. "Saitou-kun…could you stay a few minutes longer. I…don't particularly want to be a lone…at the moment."
Saitou nodded. "As long as you like."
Kaiya opened her door and picked up the candle she had left by her door and lit it. Then carried it into the room and lit a second candle. She placed one candle on her desk and the second on the floor beside her. Saitou entered closing the door behind him and took a seat by the door. Despite the ending to her evening she couldn't help but laugh inwardly at his attempts to make her more comfortable.
"You don't need to sit way over there Saitou-kun, I know you would never try to harm me…I was just…a little…tense." Saitou got up and started towards her. "Why don't you smell like a distillery, Saitou-k…what?"
As he sat down in front of her, he frowned and then gently picked up her wrists. When she looked at what he was seeing, she saw that they were turning purple, green and blue; in a perfect shape of a man's hand. Her left wrist in particular was starting to swell. Anger flared up in his eyes but he quickly squelched it, worried that he might frighten her. He let her right hand fall back in her lap but gingerly started feeling her wrist, causing her to hiss in pain and pull away.
"I'm sorry. I may not be a doctor but even I can recognize a sprain. Do you have any bandages here so that I might wrap it?"
She smiled weakly at him. "Its fine, the swelling should go down in a couple of days."
He gave her a cross look. "How can we take your advice seriously when you won't allow yourself to be taken care of?"
Kaiya gave a half-hearted chuckle, "You have a point." She sighed then pointed to a satchel sitting by her desk. "There should be bandages and ointment to help with swelling and pain."
Saitou got up and grabbed the bag, then sat down again in front of her. As he pulled out the bandages she asked again, "Why don't you smell like a distillery? You never answered me before."
"I hardly drink anymore." He answered as he unravelled a bit of cloth.
"Anymore? So you use to?" She studied his face as he focused on what he was doing.
"Yes, I was a Samurai before, if you recall."
She looked at him slightly confused. "So all Samurai are alcoholics?"
Saitou gave a bit of a smirk, "Drinking is considered manly, and if you don't you are considered less of a man. That doesn't necessarily mean we are all alcoholics. Now which ointment?"
She pointed to the correct ointment and continued, "Why don't you now?"
He paused a moment while he applied the ointment gently to her left hand and wrist. When he looked up he said with a bit of a light in his eye, "I no longer care what other Samurai think. I rather take care of my own health than feel ill in the morning. I'm not the only one here who doesn't drink. I'll still have the occasional drink, even get drunk from time to time but neither Hijikata-san nor Kondou-san drink at all." He picked up the bandage again and started wrapping it tightly around her wrist. "Why do you ask about the lack of alcoholic stench?"
She smiled again as she began to relax more, "Oh Heisuke-kun came to me less than an hour ago with a busted hand. We went to the clinic so I could sew it up. He was very drunk, but mostly just really relaxed. I was worried I might have to drag him back to his room. Then Sano-kun came and dragged him off. They both stank to high heaven of sake…and…and then Serizawa-san stank like he bathed in it."
"So that's why you were out so late." He looked at her other hand. "Should I apply the ointment to the other hand too?"
Kaiya flexed her right wrist a bit but it didn't hurt more than a mild ache, "No I think it should be fine. And yes, I had been just about to start getting ready to go to sleep but Heisuke-kun came banging at my door."
"Maybe we should instruct the men to either wait till the morning for more minor injuries or go to Yamazaki-kun and let him decide if you're needed. With the newer recruits, I'm not certain all can be trusted to behave properly around you." Saitou returned the ointment to her satchel, and sat there silently for a moment uncertain what to say next. It was Kaiya who broke the silence this time.
"Saitou-kun, should I tell Kondou-san or Hijikata-san what happened?" Kaiya looked down at her hand subtly inspecting his wrapping job.
"I strongly suggest you do…in the morning. They will want to know what happened to your wrists. Even now it's quite evident that a man grabbed your wrists. In the morning it will look even worse. I'd tell them when it's just the two of them, they'll know how to deal with the other four. They'll be very angry, especially Okita-san."
Kaiya sighed at the thought, "That's just what I need an even more overbearing Souji. Did he really threaten to hurt someone if they flirted with me?"
"He's made no such threat to me, but I wouldn't put it past him to say it to the others. Does that bother you?"
Kaiya finally looked up again into Saitou's face, she saw something there but she wasn't too sure what it was. "Mostly no. If it keeps the riffraff away but I also don't want them to be afraid to approach me when they genuinely need my help. I rather you didn't let Souji keep you from talking to me, I think I'd get rather lonely."
Saitou let the first full smile that she had ever seen from him, spread across his face. "Okita-san could never prevent me from doing what it is I want to do. Most of the captains will probably ignore his threat also. He's unlikely to get truly mad at them…he trusts them enough I suppose." Saitou looked away feeling a little awkward.
Suddenly he got to his feet and headed for the door. He placed his hands on the door then stopped and looked back over his shoulder, "If you need anything else, I'm not far away. Don't be afraid to ask, no matter how late it is." He turned back to the door and exited, silently closing it behind him.
Kaiya stared at the door for several minutes wishing he would come back. She thought momentarily of running out the door and ask him to come back but she didn't want him to think she was anymore pathetic than she already felt. She knew she wasn't going to sleep well tonight. Or for the next several nights for that matter…that tea Ryunosuke had offered was sounding like a good idea but now she was suddenly too afraid to leave her room…it was going to be a long night. She shook her head in self-disgust, she was such a coward.
Shockra
