14. Forbidden Kido
Kotetsu Isane had done nothing but rest over the weekend. The very thought of being caught by her taicho working and its consequences made her body tremble in fear. So instead she took it easy for once. On Monday however, everything was back to business. The fuku-taicho still had to work at the academy because Unohana-sama had not relieved her of that particular punishment yet.
At first Isane was very annoyed by her teaching task, but over the past weeks she found it quite satisfying to witness her student's progress knowing that some of it was due to her work. Still, she wished she could return to squad four and be of real help to her taicho and treating more challenging wounds than simple cuts and bruises.
On the other hand, these minor injuries gave her an opportunity she would not have had at her squad. She could secretly practice her kido abilities without risking someone's life and more importantly without drawing attention to herself. So on this Monday morning Isane took Itegumo with her to the academy, in order to make sure that she would be really imitating her patients' reiatsu. Seeing the questioning looks on her young shinigamis' faces, she told them that she needed to bond a little more with her zanpakuto. This explanation seemed to be satisfying enough, because all her students nodded in understanding and no more questions were asked about it.
Given that her students had improved in their advertency and their healing abilities, Isane decided for her students to get more hands on experience. So, beginning that week her class would help squad four by dealing with most of the minor injury cases for the main part of the day while they were discussing one to two challenging or interesting cases in the afternoon until class ended. Of course Isane got the idea out of her own case discussions with her taicho. After all, what helped her improve surely would benefit her students as well.
Unohana-taicho was very glad to hear that class three would from now on support her squad in daily work. After all Kenpachi Zaraki never got tired of demanding an extra training session for his shinigami and also hollow activities had noticeably increased. Thus there were lots of injuries to treat.
Isane was very happy as well being back in her former workplace. Entering main treatment room one, she took a moment to breath in the air, smelling the scents of disinfectant and medical herbs. Having done that she order her students to take their respective places and to start treating their fellow shinigamis. She herself also approached a young female shinigami, she had never seen before.
"Good morning. I am Kotetsu Isane. How can I help you this morning?" the fuku-taicho asked politely and with a smile on her face.
"Good morning. My name is Nazomuto Thoru. I had my first training session with Yumichika Ayaegawa-san. He was not very hard with me, saying he had no intention of breaking out a sweat and thus ruining his hair, so we practiced basic sword combat. Sadly, while focusing on the task I did not watch my step and tripped over a boulder and landed rather hard on my back. At first I thought, nothing got hurt but the moment I got up, my lower back felt like being pulled apart in two opposing directions. It is so embarrassing - not only did I manage to get hurt on my first day as a shinigami but also I had to ask permission to come here for a minor injury."
Isane stayed silently up to the point of Nazomuto-chan almost crying about her accident. Soothingly she padded her shoulder and tried to calm her down.
"Nazomuto-chan, I assure you, you are not the first shinigami who got hurt during her first day at squad eleven. Frankly, that happens frequently and also to the older shinigami at this squad. So do not worry about it. Now about your back - it sounds like you hurt some muscle tissue during that fall and, seeing that you can still move all your limbs, I do not think you suffered any nerve damage. Now please lay down here on your stomach and let me have a closer look at your back."
The young woman did as she was asked and laid down on the nearest examination table. The fuku-taicho quickly confirmed her suspicion. Nazomuto Thoru did hurt some muscles in her lower back. Normally such an injury was treated with pain medication and the shinigami had to take it easy for a couple of weeks to let the tissue heal properly.
"This is so perfect," Isane thought. Here was a case, minor enough to try her new kido spell and the young woman would benefit by not having to stop training for the next weeks.
"Nazomuto-chan, I will try to ease your pain by running some healing kido over your back. Please try to relax and also tell me if it begins to feel strange or the pain increases. Alright?"
Seeing her nodding, Isane started to concentrate on the young womans reiatsu. It was a rather strong one, not surprising for a eleventh squad member, and thus Isane could easily detect and feel it. Confirming with her zanpakuto, the fuku-taicho started to manipulate the reiatsu within her hands to match the one of the young woman before her while speaking the spell in a very low voice. As soon as Isane had touched her back, she knew it had worked. The muscles relaxed immediately, the pain on Thoru's face vanished and the young woman started to smile broadly.
"That is amazing. What did you do? My back feels really great, but not only that. Also the stiffness in my neck, which I had for the past three weeks, is gone. Totally awesome."
"I am glad to hear that you are feeling better already. Though I had nothing to do with your neck, I never even touched it, " the fuku-taicho smiled back, though slightly confused about easing pain she did not even know had been there.
"Still, the pain is gone. Thank you so much. Is this permanent? Can I go back improving my fighting skills?" Thoru asked excitedly.
"I think you can return, though if the pain returns, please come back immediately. Is that understood?"
"Hai, Kotetsu Isane."
And with that the young woman left the squad, feeling better than she had been in ages. She decided, if ever she would need medical attention again, she would ask for this tall female shinigami. At that she wondered what rank this woman has within squad four. She had not asked her about it. On the other hand, it couldn't be too high a rank, seeing her treating all the small injuries and not working together with the seated officers in the other treatment rooms.
Watching Nozomuto Thoru leave, Isane felt kind of strange. On the one hand, her very first field test worked out great - the injury was healed completely and there were no side effects. On the other hand it was confusing to hear of having supposedly healed other injuries as well. Thinking about that gave Isane a slight headache. She had not too much time to think about that though. There were still a lot of people who needed her attention and she still had to make sure that her students would not cause any harm.
So the fuku-taicho spent the next six hours healing injuries while helping her students assess and treat their patients in a proper way. This work really tired her out, even though she did not heal all her patients with her new skill. She had decided before, that such actions would certainly draw to much attention to her, and she wanted to avoid that at all costs. But some she did - in all instances it worked out perfectly. All reported to feel better, some of them even stated they felt better than they had been since their time at the academy. This added to Isane's confusion and to her annoyance her headache had decided to go up a notch.
After dismissing her class for the day, Isane wished she could simply go home and into bed. She felt so drained and fatigued. This was not an option however, as she still had to prepare for her tea tomorrow with Unohana-taicho. And she could hardly ask her to skip that meeting. It was very likely that Unohana would then assume, that Isane did not follow her order of taking it easy over the weekend. Ironically that was the very reason, Isane now found herself in trouble: she did not work on the weekend and thus did not prepare a new case to discuss with her taicho. So she had to do it tonight.
The fuku-taicho literally dragged herself home and summoned all left energy to get the task done. Two hours later she was finished, sure that it was not her best work but ok. Isane closed her eyes for a moment to find enough strength in herself to get up and into bed. That however did not work out as she fell asleep at her desk.
"Kotetsu-fuku-taicho! Are you in there? Do you need help?"
Isane woke up to a worried voice yelling and some banging at her front door. Feeling slightly disorientated she looked around until her eyes fell on a clock standing on her table. It read 11 o'clock.
"Oh no, " Isane was wide awake instantly. She had overslept. And now she also recognized the voice outside her door. It was her fellow teacher Karito Yaata-senpai. She got up as fast as possible, ignoring the slight dizziness in her head, and opened the door.
"Fuku-taicho, is everything alright?" Karito asked worriedly.
"Hai, I just forgot to set my alarm and overslept. I am sorry for causing you so much trouble, Karito-senpai, " Isane responded while slightly bowing to her associate.
"Are you sure? You look ill, " the old man inquired.
"Yes, I am fine. I just need a minute to wake up completely and will come to the academy as fast as possible. Would you please return there now and inform my class that I will join them shortly?"
"As you wish, fuku-taicho. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No, thank you."
And with that, Isane returned inside and made herself ready for the rest of the day. She realized, she was in so much trouble now. Unohana-sama would hear about her oversleeping for sure and then she would have to justify herself. Oh, this was so not good. If her taicho merely suspected that Isane did not follow her last order, she could not even imagine what her punishment would be this time. But Isane had no time to think about that right now, so she shook her head to get rid of that thought. Unfortunately that caused her a tremendous headache, something she really did not need right now added to her fatigue.
Fifteen minutes later the fuku-taicho found herself standing in front of her class apologizing for her lateness, before all of them were on their way to squad four. There, Tuesday was pretty much the same as Monday, with the exception that Isane's eyelids felt like having iron weights attached to themselves which made it rather hard to keep said eyes open. Over all her exhaustion increased with each treatment and her head felt like a junior marching band was practicing for its first parade inside. Isane felt dreadful - there was no point denying it. And she had no doubt that this was visible in her face.
But there was no way, she could do something about it before her meeting with Unohana-taicho. As with many healing kidos, the instant healing spell could not be used on oneself. Going into the storage and getting an energy pill was also not a feasible option, remembering the last time she had tried and done that.
Evening drew mercilessly near and the fuku-taicho took a deep breath, bracing herself for whatever had to come, before knocking on her taicho's office door and entering.
"Good evening taicho-sama, " Isane greeted Unohane with a deep bow.
"Good evening Isane. Please come here and take your seat before the tea gets cold, " the warm taicho's voice replied.
Isane made her way slowly over to the low table Unohana was sitting at. She still felt dizzy and had a hard time walking in a straight line and manner.
Unohana Retsu scrutinized her fuku-taicho while said person slowly walked over to her. Having Karito-sensei's report in mind of Isane being late at the academy and looking ill, she could now see, what the old shinigami meant. Her dear assistant looked downright sick and tired. Her face was pale, her cheeks were slightly blushed, she could hear her labored breathing and apparently Isane felt dizzy because she was rather swaying than walking over to the table.
The taicho was very concerned. What could have caused her to become so ill in just two days? She knew that Isane had followed her order of not working over the weekend, because with the help of Minazuki and Itegumo she had observed here for that time. So whatever had happened, it must have been yesterday, probably today as well. But what was it? Isane had finally reached her goal and took a seat, looking tiredly at her taicho.
"Isane, Karito Yaata reported to me earlier that you were late for class today."
"Hai, I overslept. I am sorry. It will not happen again, " Isane immediately interrupted.
"He also said that you looked very ill at that time. And frankly you also look very sick to me. Are you alright?"
At these words Isane closed her eyes for a short moment, debating her chances of getting out of her taicho's office without being examined and subsequently declared ill. Concluding that there was no chance at all, Isane opened her eyes again and looked straight into her taicho's face.
"No, I don't, " she admitted. "Though I do not know, what could be wrong with me. Since yesterday I have a persisting headache and feel very tired. Also there is this dizziness that overwhelms me every time I am walking, " Isane described her symptoms while her gaze slowly dropped to the floor the more she talked.
Listening to her fuku-taicho's fainting voice, Unohana Retsu immediately walked over to her site. Lifting her hand to Isane's forehead she felt the feverish heat coming from the woman beside her.
"Well, you are running a temperature. So this time it is me, who will examine you and not anyone else. Let me help you get up and over to the examination room, " Unohana said kindly to her fuku-taicho.
Seeing that her normally stubborn Isane did not even try to protest made Retsu worry even more. She must be really sick. Arriving in the adjacent room, Unohana helped her to lay down on the examination table. At this Isane's eyes threatened to fall close but the fuku-taicho willed them open with all her might.
Unohana Retsu took her time to examine Isane for every possible illness she could think of. However, apart from the apparent signs of fatigue and her fever she found nothing amiss. It was frustrating. Obviously, her dear Isane was ill and in distress and Unohana, the head healer in Seireitei, was unable to find the cause for it.
"Isane, is there anything you have done yesterday, that could have caused your symptoms? Anything you did not do before?"
Isane debated the answer to this question for a couple of seconds. The only new thing had been her usage of the instant healing kido, but it was impossible that this could have caused her illness. After all it was written in her books that this spell had no side effects and her symptoms did not appear right away after she had healed some patients with it. So looking up at Unohana she shook her head no.
"I see. I could not determine the cause for your symptoms yet. So I will have made a single bed room ready for you to stay in while being so sick. This way I can monitor you and react in case your condition gets worse. And Isane, you are on complete bed rest. If I see as much as a toe outside your bed, I will use all available means to keep you constantly in bed. Is that understood? " the taicho said in a calm but very serious tone.
Feeling like being run over by a hundred people, Isane was too exhausted to even think about disobeying her worried taicho-sama. So she only nodded and let her eyes finally close. Seeing her fuku-taicho falling asleep, Unohana gave out orders to prepare a bedroom for Isane and to carry her over there. Isane did not notice any of this. She was vast asleep and didn't hear or feel anything. Neither of being brought to bed by fellow shinigamis, nor being tucked in once again by her beloved taicho.
Seeing Isane sleeping so peacefully, Unohana let out a sigh in relief. At least her fuku-taicho was comfortable right now. Nonetheless, Unohana decided to stay this night in Isane's room, in case anything unexpected happened or if one of the fishcake nightmares should return. And tomorrow she would try again to find out, what ailed her fuku-taicho.