Takashi followed after Izo and Asa into Hikari's room, feeling very sober after all the things that had happened earlier today. On the fly back to the castle he told them the run down of what happened. Hikari picking a fight with him and him yelling at her when he lost his temper. How he went after her. How he found her. How he killed all the wolf outlaw members by himself without being harmed himself. The last part surprised them both. Izo looked like he did not want to believe him.
When they got into Hikari's room, it felt almost crowded. He watched Asa pull Lady Nanashi away from Hikari on the bed, scolding her for trying to help Hikari. He watched Izo, breathing deeply, guide Lady Nanashi to sit at a small table with two chairs across the room from Hikari's bed. He healed her hand while both of them looked over at Asa and Hikari on the bed.
Hikari lay there with her eyes closed. Someone had exposed the area where she was bit on her neck and shoulder. The spot the bite had been was red while the rest of her was sweaty and pale. He watched Asa give her a draft of herbs and water, but after Hikari had managed to drink it down in a semi-conscious state, Asa looked concerned.
Asa spoke, half sounding in defeat, "she will need more medicine, stronger medicine. 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. Takashi considered that this nightmare was about to get worse.
Asa determined, "contact Kurama. Tell him we need strong doses of antibiotics for her from his medicinal company in the Human World. I don't know what she has, but it's bacterial. I don't have enough medicine for her for something like this."
"I'll go," Nanashi said, deciding she would contact Kurama.
Takashi looked over at her, surprised to see how pale she now looked. She headed towards the door, but when she was close to him, she staggered sideways and fell against him. He caught her, trying to hold her up and steady her. "My lady, are you alright?" She hung her head and shook it. She leaned heavily against his left side.
"She's infected, too," Asa said what they all had just realized.
Hiei gasped. "Her blood. 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."
Lady Nanashi's feet slipped out from under her. Takashi pulled her closer, holding her against him. Hiei stepped over to the two of them, pulling Lady Nanashi away from him. He held her under her shoulders, but let her lower legs sink to the floor. Her feet did not even try to find purchase on the ground.
Hiei was not looking at her though. He was staring daggers up at Takashi. His red eyes seemed to bore into Takashi's soul with fire and fury. "You not only let Hikari get sick, but Nanashi as well?"
This was not his fault. "How dare you!" he shouted down at the shorter lord, wishing he was not so intimated by him. "I didn't bite either of them! It wasn't my nasty mouth that bit her." Takashi recalled the noxious smell that had come from the leader's mouth. How it had made him want to throw up by the scent alone. Whatever nasty thing that had bred in there was now in both Hikari's and Nanashi's blood, infecting them.
Hiei broke his gaze on Takashi, looking over to Izo by the small table. "Izo, contact Kurama. We need two doses of the strongest antibiotics he's got." Takashi nearly swore aloud when he looked over at Izo. He was leaning against the table, blinking like his eyes pained him. He shook his head slightly. "What do you mean, no?"
Izo slumped into the chair Lady Nanashi had sat in previously. He swallowed, looking suddenly very nervous. "We need three doses. I don't feel well either."
Hiei moved so fast after that that Takashi hardly registered the movement. He had Nanashi laying on the ground and Takashi slammed against the wall behind him in the span of one blink. Takashi hissed out, "I didn't do this!" as his back made rough contact with the wall. Hiei pinned him there, forearm pressed painfully against his lower rib cage. He felt like he could barely breath. He thought for sure he meant to kill him this time.
"They're sick because of you," Hiei spoke venomously. "Should I go get Kaze so you can finish off every human or part human in the castle?" His sarcasm was just cruel. He pressed harder into Takashi's rib cage. Takashi wondered how long it would take for him to crack one. How long it would take for him to stop hurting and try to kill him.
"Hiei, don't. Please," the softest, murmuring voice came from the ground. Lady Nanashi's voice. Hiei applied less pressure against Takashi's rib cage. His ears drew back and his eyes went wide. His breathing was more like hissing. "Spare him... forgive him..."
Hiei shook his head and stepped two steps away from Takashi. He gave a wordless grunt and punched him across the jaw. That blow brought him down to his hand and knees. He expected more to follow as they had previously, or something worse.
He felt a hand grabbed what remained of his loose hair from the back and yank it back aggressively. "If any of the three of them die, don't think for a second I'll spare you," he threatened. He let his hair go. "I'm going to contact Kurama. You will stay here."
"I'll help Asa," Takashi promised.
"Good, because you don't have a choice in the matter," Hiei informed him. "If one of them dies, you will, too."
Hiei had left the room at a sprint after that, leaving the door open in his wake. Takashi panicked, half wanting to run away himself. He stood up shakily instead, not meeting Izo nor Asa's eyes. He saw Lady Nanashi still laying on the ground where Hiei had left her. He considered picking her up and putting her in the bed next to Hikari, but Hikari's bed was only big enough for her. He reached down and adjusted how she lay so she lay in the recovery position. After that, leaned his back against the wall in a sitting position. He ran his hands through his hair, hating how short it was now. It barely brushed his shoulders. He brought his hand over his eyes, willing them to stop stinging.
He pulled his hand away from his face in a rush when Hiei came back to the room, with Hotaka and his mate, Sayuri behind him. "Kurama's on his way. The three of them need to be quarantined from each other until they are better so neither one of the can accidentally reinfect another." He nodded over to Izo who stood up shakily. "Izo, you'll go to your room with Hotaka and Sayuri to look after you until you are well." He stepped over to where Lady Nanashi lay on the ground and scooped her up in his arms. "Asa and myself will look after Nishi in the spare bedroom next door. Asa, if you have anything you can give Nanashi, you give it to her now, says Kurama. She's full blooded human, so the infection seems to be taking a harder toll on her."
Asa rose off the bed. "I should stay with Hikari, my lord," she protested.
"Kurama will stay with her," Hiei countered. "As will Takashi. He got her into this mess, he will take care of her until she is well."
After those decisions were made, they were implemented. Takashi did not like how it felt to be alone with a semi conscious Hikari, but decided to say nothing against it less Hiei become anymore cross.
Being left alone with Hikari was intense. He felt so uncomfortable or squeamish, that he went into Hikari's bathroom. He ran the tap and ran his hands under the cool water to calm himself. He did not want to be here, in this situation. He turned off the tap and knelt down in front of the sink. He did not want to do this. He did not want to be in this room alone with her. And yet he had to be.
Takashi stood shakily, watching the water trickle slowly down the drain like it was partially clogged. He dried his hands off with her hand towel. Then he looked at the towel, thinking hard and laboriously. He took the towel, dunked a third of it in the water, and grabbed her bar of soap laying idle in the soap dish.
He left the bathroom and went over to Hikari's side. He loomed over her shakily. She did not open her eyes or react to him at all. She was breathing deeply in and out of her mouth. He bent down over her and clumsily washed off her shoulder and neck. He winced when he saw how the bloodied water trickled down her chest, pillow, and blankets, but he did not know what else to do. He wiped it up the bloodied water the best he could with the dry side of the towel.
When the front side was finished, he pushed her upper body and then, like an after thought, her lower body to her right side. She whimpered at him, but did nothing else. He washed the wound on the back of her neck and shoulder. He rolled her back onto her back after he was finished.
When he was finished, he went back to her bathroom, set the soap back in its dish, and did his best to rinse her blood out of the hand towel. A stubborn pale pink stain remained it, refusing to be rinsed away not matter how much or long he tried.
When he gave up on that, he hung the towel halfway in the sink to dry while he waited impatiently in Hikari's room for something else, anything else, to happen. The clocked ticked slowly by, driving him near crazy. She could not die. He could not let her die. Yet he felt helpless to stop her from doing that.
This Kurama, an odd demon who lived in a human's skin, arrived not even two hours later with antibiotics from the Human World. He was the first person to come in the room after the others had left. He carried a bag on his back. Takashi had mixed feelings of both relieved and intimidated when he say him. After stilted and stifled introductions, Kurama got to work.
Kurama had already past off the medicine to the other two rooms, and now set to give some to Hikari.
"Can she swallow anything?" Kurama asked him clinically.
"I- I don't know," Takashi answered. "She did earlier. Herbs and water mixed together that Asa gave her." He started to miss the time spent alone with Hikari.
"Help her sit up," Kurama told him somberly. "Rouse her." His direct intensity made Takashi too frightened to even think of disobeying.
Takashi climbed into the bed next to Hikari, pushing her over to make room for himself first. Next, he pulled her upper body up against his. She grumbled at him nonsensically and did nothing to help him get her up. Once he had her leaning against him oh so carefully, he nodded over to Kurama without disturbing her. She was so close to him and so warm. He was unsure if she was so warm because she was sick, or because she was a fire demoness.
"Wake her," Kurama said, more as a grumble than as a request. He knelt down on the other side of Hikari, shaking her right shoulder and saying softly, "Hikari." She whined, turning her head away from Kurama and into Takashi's shoulder. He persisted. "Hikari," he said a little more firmly.
She batted her eyelids open, looking first up at Takashi. She looked up at him wordlessly. Her face was flushed. She turned her head and neck over towards Kurama. "Uncle Kurama?" she said, confused by what she saw.
"You need to take these," he said, proffering the medicine in its sachet and a bottle of water. "You are very sick."
She looked at his face for a while before reaching over to Kurama. She took the medicine sachet, struggling to tear it open. Takashi reached a gentle hand and took it from her. She frowned and resisted slightly as he pulled the sachet from her hand. He opened it for her and handed her the tablets one at a time. She took them as offered and swallowed them down almost painfully. When she finished, she leaned her head back down on Takashi's shoulder. She closed her eyes as if without a care. He was unsure just how uncomfortable that was. He liked it, maybe, but in a weird way. He decided not to move, for now at least.
"She's better than I thought," Kurama commented, cleaning up the now empty sachet and half full water bottle. "Whatever Asa gave her must have worked well."
"How are the others?" Takashi asked, worried about Lady Nanashi more than anything else.
Kurama hummed under his breath. "Izo is hardly sick, just taking the medicine as a precaution." He lapsed into a dark silence after that.
"And Lady Nanashi?" Takashi asked, nervous about the answer.
"Asa says they can't get her awake," Kurama sighed out. "They plan to crush up the tablets and wash them down her throat."
Takashi gasped, frightened at that thought. "Maybe her rest will help her."
Kurama looked at him, cold and calculating. "Hopefully."
"How much medicine did you bring for each of them?" Takashi asked, wondering how long he would be stuck, no helping, Hikari.
"Three days for Nanashi and Hikari. Two for Izo," Kurama answered. "What exactly happened?"
Takashi had no desire to explain. He laid Hikari back down to the bed, but stayed seated next to her. He did not want to move away from her just yet. "Well... I was watching her and Izo spar..." He willed himself to explain everything rather than skipping anything that made him ashamed. When he got to the part where he killed all the wolf outlaws, Kurama did seem very impressed, making him go off on a tangent. "... I, yes. A bow and arrow is what I am best at, fighting wise. Or least that is what my father has said time and again. He trained me so hard at it. 'Shoot faster, aim faster,' he would say. If I went too slow or shot too poorly, he would knock me down and tell me an enemy got me."
"Intensive way to ensure you can ensure your own survival," Kurama commented softly. "Worked in your favor today. As well as Hikari's."
"Not according his lordship..." Takashi griped, continuing on in his explanation as to what happened. Kurama did look a little cross when Takashi explained each time Hiei attacked him and blamed what happened to Hikari, and then also Lady Nanashi and Izo.
Kurama sighed, muttering under his breath. "He shouldn't... He should have heard you out first, but with what he saw at first glance. He's protective to a fault."
"A very big fault, it seems," Takashi grumbled. He reached up to the end of his hair and wondered how long until he could braid it again. He did nothing to cowardly to warrant that. Especially from a kinsman no doubt. "I hate him," he admitted meekly.
Kurama made no response to that statement. Takashi figured he could not find any words worth saying. Instead, he cleaned up the empty sachet and water bottle.
Once that was done, Takashi ventured to ask him a most curious question. "From what I've heard of you, you are not a doctor. How did you manage to get a hold of medicine like this so fast?"'''
Kurama looked over at him as he sat down in a chair next to the small table. He dug out his bag, pulling out the sachets of medicine for Hikari. He checked them over as he answered, "my step father owns a prosperous company in the Human World. I convinced him to let me head part of the company in which invests and researches in pharmaceuticals. Specifically medicines against illness crossing from the Demon World to the Human World and vice versa. Very profitable and important as it seems."
Takashi blinked over at him. "Do you know what's wrong with them?" He added in, "it's not my fault, whatever it is.''
"Blood contamination from a sick Demon World animal. It sounds like from what you described, the wolf outlaws were eating under cooked meat, the bacteria from it got in Hikari's blood from the bite wound and then passed out the infection when Nanashi and Izo came in contact with her blood. If it is the bacteria I was thinking of, humans are more vulnerable to it than demons are."
"Will they all three be okay?" Takashi asked, hoping for a positive answer.
"Time will tell," Kurama only answered.
Takashi jumped when he heard a servant knock on the door. Kurama went to the door, letting two of the castle's servants in with blankets and pillows and dinner for the three of them to eat. The blankets and pillows were set on the stone floor while the food was placed on the table. Takashi looked at the food, finding little desire to eat. He doubted Hikari could eat either. He looked down at her while he heard Kurama talk with the servants. Kurama spoke so familiarly with them in tone, but Takashi hardly listened. He studied Hikari's face, trying to gauge if she was getting better or not. He hoped she was. She still looked pale. He had also never noticed her face was heart shaped starting at the crest of her shallow widow's peak. Maybe it was because she was boasting so much, he never noticed. She was so quiet now with her sleeping. He wanted to see her crimson eyes open again, to study them the way he was studying her face now.
"I said, are you hungry?" Kurama said, startling Takashi out of his study. Takashi jumped, noticing Kurama standing right next to him. Takashi looked around him, trying to see where the servants left. They must have left without him realizing.
He yawned, feeling a wave of sleepiness wash over him. Shaking his head, he replied, "no, just tired." He realized just how weary his bones felt.
"Rest then," Kurama told him. Takashi looked up at him, surprised by the permissiveness coming from him. "You and I are to stay with Hikari until she is better. We'll alternate sleeping for two hours shifts tonight. And tomorrow night as well if need be."
Takashi thought about grumbling at the idea of that, but said nothing. He nodded silently in agreement. He rose up, a little unwillingly, from the bed and went to the blankets and pillows. There were four blankets and two pillows he noticed. He laid one of the blankets on the floor, threw one of the pillows down on top of it. Next, he brought himself down on the blanket while pulling another blanket over top of him. Takashi found the stone floor hard, but bearable with a thick blanket beneath him and over top of him. He felt like he would hardly sleep at all when he closed his eyes.