Nanashi had taken Kaze to the Human World earlier in the day for a check up with the doctor. Hiei had insisted they happen and that she bring paperwork back from each one as proof of what happened. It always made her cross to do that, even though she understood why he did it.
Yet her crossness was taken to a whole new level that day when, after returning Kaze to his rooms for a nap before dinner, she could not find neither Hikari nor Takashi. She asked after them from Hotaka, only to find out that Hikari had been out training earlier with Izo, but Izo had come back to the castle alone.
So she tracked down Izo, having freshly showered and changed his clothes. He also looked like he had just recently woke up as well. When she asked him after his sister, he was surprised to hear she was not back yet. She had refused to come back with him after their training, being petty and picking a fight. He had left her with Takashi, who had been watching their fight. He figured they would have come right back to the castle by now.
He was taller than she was, but seemed to shrink down with the earful she gave him after finding all that out. Her shouting brought Hiei coming to them at a jog. He was also raging, all be it internally, at the news. His temper shone through his eyes and voice as he ordered Izo to go with him to find Hikari and instructed Nanashi to remain in the castle in case they came back while the two of them were out looking.
Nanashi waited anxiously on the front steps, pacing to and fro, trying not to fret. She could not sense Hikari out there, but she could sense Hiei and Izo looking for her. She could just barely sense Takashi out there, too. They still had not managed to get at the wolf outlaws. Nanashi just wanted to go track them down and take them out immediately because of the attacks and harassment they had done to the village, but Hiei wanted to be more cautious. Track them down when they were farther from the village and attack them as a group of four, rather than just her or him chasing them down. It was as if he feared a situation similar to the doxy ambush all those years ago.
From the steps, she finally noticed something that made her blood run cold. The faint sounds of screaming; Hikari's screaming. She started down the steps at a run, but halted at the bottom, knowing she needed to stay regardless of if she wanted to or not.
"Find her," she murmured out loud to Hiei and Izo, knowing they would never hear her.
The next several minutes that ticked by were a heavy burden to bare. She could hear Hikari screaming intermittently as the minutes ticked by. She kept her eyes locked on the direction the screaming was coming. The screams were getting softer, but she could tell they were getting closer to her. Hiei came running out of the woods with Hikari whimpering in his arms.
Nanashi nearly ran up to them, but thought better of it and ran up the stairs to through open the front door for Hiei. He kept running at his break neck speed. She ran after him at her painfully slower pace until she found him, breathless in Hikari's room. He sat her down on her bed, ripping off the sleeve that was a makeshift bandage around her neck and shoulder. He ripped off Hikari's sleeve as well, tearing away the ruined fabric around the wound that had already been healed.
"What happened?" Nanashi said, running over to them. "What happened? What happened?" her voice cracked in panic. He grabbed her, holding her tightly, even as she tried to get around him and to Hikari. "What happened?"
Hiei voice was more guttural than anything else. "She was bit by one of the members of the wolf outlaws. Izo healed her, but did not have the time or means to clean her wound first."
She must have calmed down enough for him because he let her go. She went around him and over to Hikari. Hikari was unconscious, but breathing heavily. Her face was pale and clammy, but the healed area on her shoulder was bright red. Infection.
She drew her knife from her hilt, knicking Hikari's shoulder, just enough for her to bleed.
"What are you doing?" Hiei asked, staying her hand.
"Helping her," she replied, summoning up her wind dragon. She shook his hand off of hers.
"You don't have to do this, Izo's on the way with Asa," Hiei told her.
Nanashi laid her hand on the shallow wound she made on Hikari's shoulder. Her wind dragon coiled down her arm and entered into the wound. Nanashi gasped at the heat of Hikari's blood. Her blood's heat ran hotter than Hiei's ever did when it was normal. It was hotter now that Hikari had an infection. Nanashi laid her hand down on the cut, even though the blood on the surface of it burned her hand. She bit back a whimper, telling herself she could handle the heat until Asa got there. She must.
Hiei grabbed her wrist, squeezing it hard, but not trying to yank it away from Hikari. "Stop," he requested. "You help fight of some of the infection yes, but your hand and wrist ended up with internal burns in the process last time. Wounds that hard to find and heal. Asa told you never to do this again."
Nanashi only responded by digging her nails into Hikari's shoulder. The heat hurt, but she could take it. So could her wind dragon. Hiei might not like what she was doing, but he would not dare stop her.
He did however breathe a sigh of relief when Asa, Izo, and even Takashi came running into Hikari's room. "My lady, don't," Asa called out to her. Asa did pry her hand away, making Nanashi remove her hand and wind dragon. "Izo, heal her," Asa instructed as she pushed Nanashi towards Izo.
Nanashi felt a slight sense of vertigo hit her, but she ignored it, making herself stand up straight. She stumbled her way to Izo, trying to ignore the malaise that seemed to settle down around her. "Mother, are you alright?" Izo asked, pulling her over to Hikari's small table and one of the two chairs by it. He was breathing a little more heavier than usual. Must have been all the running he did.
"I'm fine," she breathed out with fake confidence. She looked over to Asa and Hikari on the bed. Asa had set her satchel down on the bed and was rummaging through it. "My hand is burned, but only a little," she said.
Izo took her hand, healing it while he looked over at the bed, hardly blinking. Nanashi watched, too. Asa had dug out a tiny bottle of water from her satchel, put some powdered herbs in it, and shook it vigorously. She then sat down on the bed next to Hikari, pulling her up to a sitting position against her shoulder. She assisted Hikari to drink from the water bottle at a slow pace until she finished it. Hikari was semi-awake during the process, but only enough to shallow the drink. She leaned sleepily against Asa shoulder after that. Asa brought a tender hand to her forehead, checking her over. She laid Hikari back down on the bed, covering her with the blankets. She studied Hikari over, worry decorating her face.
"She will need more medicine, stronger medicine," Asa said somberly. "That was the strongest medicine I had in my stores for a blood infection, but it might not be enough."
"What are you saying?" Hiei asked her, concerned.
"Contact Kurama. Tell him we need strong doses of antibiotics for her from his medicinal company in the Human World," Asa determined. "I don't know what she has, but it's bacterial. I don't have enough medicine for her ready at the moment." Her words seemed to stop time for just a moment.
"I'll go," Nanashi said, even as her stomach rolled. She told herself that it was because she was worried about Hikari. That was all.
She rose up from her seated position and headed for the door. Halfway to the door, the ground gave a sudden lurch, making her loose her footing over the flat surface. She was falling by the time Takashi caught her. She looked up at him in a squint, trying to remember why and when he came into the room.
"My lady, are you alright?" he asked her. He sounded echo-y and far away.
She shook her head, leaning against his forearm. It was a rather large one at that. Was he always so muscular?
"She's infected, too," Asa said out loud. Nanashi felt her feet stumble for purchase on the ground.
"Her blood," Hiei said. "She came in contact with Hikari's blood. When she put her wind dragon in her blood stream. The infection must have gotten in that way." Nanashi's knees gave out beneath her. She felt like a limp puppet in Takashi's arms.
She felt herself sink lower to the ground, but not reach it. She opened her eyes, not realizing they had been closed. Light seemed to bore its way into the back of her skull, but her arm did not feel strong enough to shield her eyes from it. She looked up, seeing Hiei above, like his face was floating in the sky ahead. How did he get taller than Takashi?
"You not only let Hikari get sick, but Nanashi as well?" Hiei accused Takashi. He got her sick? How? When he touched her? She was not sick, just very dizzy.
"How dare you!" Takashi shouted loudly at Hiei. "I didn't bite either of them! It wasn't my nasty mouth that bit her." It was Takashi's fault? It was Takashi's fault...
"Izo," Hiei said, rounding on him. Nanashi felt the world sway sideways. "Contact Kurama. We need two doses of the strongest antibiotics he's got." A brief moment of silence passed, Nanashi closed her eyes again, feeling like the world kept spinning as she did. "What do you mean, no?" No? He had not said anything.
Nanashi heard someone sit down hard in one of the chairs Hikari had by her small table. "We need three doses," Izo wheezed out. "I don't feel well either," he confessed.
Nanashi felt the world rush up to meet her as she was set on the ground in rushed gentleness. She heard something hard hit the wall... hard... "I didn't do this!" she heard Takashi whine out.
Her vision was blurry. It took three good blinks to clear her vision enough to see Hiei holding Takashi against the wall.
"They're sick because of you," Hiei accused. "Should I go get Kaze so you can finish off every human or part human in the castle?"
"Hiei, don't. Please," she breathed as her face rested on the ground. The cold stone felt soothing in its own, hard and unrelenting way. She felt like heat was starting to flow throughout her body. Sleep... Sleep would help... Hiei still had Takashi though... "spare him... forgive him..." she exhaled.
Sleep, in its hot and stuffy glory, finally claimed her after that.