11. Consequences
Trouble wasn't even beginning to describe the situation, Isane found herself in. She could literally see the anger in her taicho's eyes gleaming at her. She swore to herself instantly, that she never wanted to make this experience again. But what was there to do right now? Nervously, the fuku-taicho fumbled with her blanket, looking nervously at Unohana-sama.
"Isane, you will tell me this instant, what it is that you have done to aggravate your condition!"
Gulping at these words, Isane realized she had no choice but to tell the truth about her breakout. On the other hand, her taicho would not be pleased about it either. So what was there to do - both options led to hell and the fuku-taicho wasn't anything but scared for her life right now.
"W..W..Well, I got out of bed for a little time", she answered nervously.
"You got up?"
Obviously, Unohana was a little confused here. She had monitored Isane's reiatsu on a regular basis. It had been always in this very room. And then in dawned on her - Itegumo.
"Fuku-taicho, you certainly never fail to impress me. May I assume that you used your kido-skills to copy your reiatsu and ordered Itegumo to help you with your plan?", Unohana asked in a calm but dangerous voice.
"Y-Y-Yeeesss", came the very reluctant answer.
"And where have you been going?"
"Nowhere specific. I just wanted to get out of bed and fetch some fresh air", Isane responded.
However, her eyes were telling a different story, having a will of their own and moving frantically between Unohana and the bedside cabinet. Something, the taicho noticed of course. Following Isane's eyes, Unohana walked over to the said cabinet.
"Is that so? So, if I were to check this cabinet, I would find nothing that would contradict your story Isane?"
At this moment, Isane wished the bottom beneath her bed would open up and she could hide in these depths for about 200 years. She knew, she had no chance of escape anymore, she was trapped. And speechless - she did not even try to answer Unohana's questions anymore but looked silently down on her trembling hands. She did not know what to do next. Unohana on the other hand, knew exactly, what to do. She opened the drawer and instantly found all the things Isane had got out of her office. Counting one and one together, Unohana faced her fuku-taicho once more. Her demeanor was now very firm.
"Isane, I think something else happened. Instead of following my orders, you performed a highly sophisticated kido spell to transfer you reiatsu signature on to your zanpakuto. Being sick as you are, your body couldn't cope very well with this kind of stress and thus you worsened your condition. That however did not bring you back to your senses. You then decided to sneak out of your room, evading all shinigami in this squad and made your way to your office. There you took all available paperwork you were hoping to finish, while nobody would be watching you in this room. Of course the walking to your office and back here exhausted your body even further and thus your fever had risen again. And on top of it, you lied to me about it several times directly into my face. Do you have anything to say for yourself, Isane fuku-taicho? Anything, that would make your recent behavior appear more reasonable? "
Somehow, the way Unohana had described Isane's actions, made it sound so much worse than it really was in the fuku-taicho's mind. After all, she had just wanted to get some paperwork, she could finish while being stuck in this room. It was never her intention to worsen her condition on purpose.
"No, that is pretty much what happened", Isane admitted.
She felt dreadful. Her face was white, except her flushed cheeks, she was sweating and shivering at the same time and of course her headache had returned. Naturally, these all could be side effects of her fever, but somehow Isane knew, that this time, it was indeed her fear that mainly caused these symptoms.
It really hurt Unohana to see her Isane in such a bad condition. Sighing, she calmed down, putting on her usually nice and serene face and addressed her fuku-taicho once more.
"Well Isane, I think you will agree, that I cannot let such behavior go by unpunished. However, given your current state, we first have to take care of your illness. First, as you cannot be left alone, I will call Hanataro to stay here with you, when I cannot. The only things you will be doing are eating and sleeping, until I say otherwise. Is that understood?"
"Hai, taicho-sama", Isane answer quickly, seeing she had no other choice.
So, the next two days passed by rather uneventful. Isane was never left alone, and despite her boredom, she never tried even once to start a conversation - neither with Hanataro-kun nor with Unohana-taicho. In case of the first one, she just felt to embarrassed and in case of the later, she simply was too scared what the outcome of such a talk could be. And there was still the looming matter of her punishment.
After three full days of nothing but bed rest, Unohana was finally satisfied with her fuku-taicho's condition. She had personally seen to it, that Isane got enough rest and sleep and ate sufficiently. All her flu symptoms had gone as well. Only, Isane had decided not to talk to her anymore, so the taicho had been unable to find out more about the reasons behind Isane's strange behaviour for the past months and her lack of sleep. This mystery still had to be cleared. After giving her fuku-taicho a last check-up, Unohana prepared herself to inform Isane about her punishment.
"Isane, you will be glad to hear that you can return back to work. However, as punishment for your disobedience, your untruthfulness and for risking your health needlessly, you will not return to your usual duties. You will instead return to the academy."
"To the academy? You degrade me not only from second seat but you sent me back to school?", Isane was shocked and completely confused about this. She did not understand this reprimand at all.
"No, you are still my fuku-taicho. I just have the feeling, that you do not trust me. Thus I decided you will not be assisting me for a while but instead teach the future fourth's squad shinigami to become professional healers. This includes of course also partaking in their practical work."
"No, Unohana-sama. Please don't do that to me. I promise, I will never make you worry again about me. Please taicho-same, everything but that!", Isane was pleading now from the bottom of her heart.
Unohana could not have found a more severe punishment for Isane. Training shinigami at the academy in medical science was the most boring work in regard to the difficulty of medical cases and the most exhausting work in regard to controlling these students' emotions, temper and attitudes while trying to stay calm and collected.
"Isane, you will be training the shinigami of class three at the academy starting tomorrow. And I expect nothing less but supreme results from this class. Is that understood?"
"Hai, taicho-sama."
The next day, Isane walked over to the academy in a dull mood. Her new assignment required her to first go to the teacher's lounge in order to speak to the former teacher of class three and get the reports of her new students. Entering the room she was immediately greeted by a man, with white hair and beard bowing to her.
"Kotetsu fuku-taicho!" It is nice to meet you. Let me introduce myself. My name is Karito Yaata. Until today I have been the teacher of class three."
"Good morning, Karito-sensei. It is nice meeting you as well. I want to get started with my work as soon as possible. Could you please tell me more about the class three students?"
"Of course. May I suggest we go over there to the table, where I have deposited the student's files?"
Nodding her head, the two teachers walked over to the table and got into work. It turned out, that Isane's fears were not unwarranted. Apparently her class consisted either of students, who think of themselves as all-powerful healers who already know everything or pupils, who seemed to get a heart attack every time they see a drop of blood. On top of it, the class' average grade was the lowest of the academy's year.
Reviewing the reports Isane cursed her luck. Of course, this was a punishment, so it was only logical that she would get the bottom class assigned. Still, she had hoped Unohana would get a little easy on her. Obviously that was not the case. Sighing loudly, Isane steeled herself and faced her associate once more.
"Karito-sensei, according to these files the fresh-men are able to control their healing kido well, but as soon as it comes down to practical assignments, all of them seem to fail."
"I am afraid you are right, fuku-taicho. In this group are students who learn eagerly all the theory, but are afraid of even coming close to a patient. Others simply don't care to learn and I am reluctant to let them see a patient. After all, the well-being of our patients is our top priority, is it not?
"Yes, of course. Alright, I better go greed my class. Thank you for your time, Karito-sensei."
They bowed to each other and Isane left the staff room. No matter how she looked at the situation, she desperately wished she wouldn't have gotten on Unohana's bad site. After all, she had only tried to improve her skills to help her taicho in a more sufficient way. Only she did not want to tell her about it yet. So she had to bend the truth a little bit from time to time. No harm was done. Ok, almost no harm was done as she got herself sick. But that was her decision, wasn't it? And yet, now she was here - being forced to teach these fresh-men, who so far have shown no sense for the duties and obligations of a healer. And worse of all she had no idea, how long Unohana-taicho wanted her to work at the academy.
Taking in a deep breath to calm herself, Isane faced her class room's door. She had no idea, how the students would react to their new teacher, but she was determined to fulfill her order to help all of them to become excellent healers. Slowly she entered the room, starting her new assignment.