Chapter 3

Respite

For once, I curse my lame cooking abilities… I can't believe all I can think of making is onigiri. There's some cup ramen I can make as well, but these could hardly be called a good meal. Most of my diet consists of either food I order, or whatever Haruka leaves for me on the fridge once a week. My bento today was the later, and was also the last of my provisions… she didn't prepare much when she came home two days ago.

I'd normally go grab something from a nearby convenience store, but it would be best for me to stay hidden at home until Inori can move properly. I have no other option, I guess… she'll have to make do with the onigiri while I find an alternative. I return to my room carrying a tray with Inori's meal, which includes the rice balls, a glass of milk and the few remains of my bento.

As I sit down by her side, Funell glares at me with its robotic eyes. How did they even program emotions into it? The little bugger fascinates me. That aside, I must wake her. Uh…

"Inori-san?"

She's asleep very deeply, despite having been here for only thirty minutes or so. I fear for her health, though… I don't know how much blood she has lost, and I am no medic to assess her. I have heard a thing or two about medicine from Haruka, but I have no… wait.

"I see… yes, that'd work."

I speak my mind unknowingly as an idea arises, and I notice I accidentally succeeded in waking the pink-haired girl lying on my bed. She looks at my face quietly, slowly turns her eyes down to the tray and then back up to me. For a terrorist, she seems shy.

"I made some food for you… it's not much good, but please bear with my poor cooking."

I explain myself as I carefully hand the tray over to her. She sits up and softly takes it from me to then place it upon her lap. She silently picks a rice ball and raises it up to her mouth to give it a bite.

She glances at me timidly as she chews.

"Thank you… um…"

Ah, I'm so impolite – I never told her my name.

"Shu. Ouma Shu."

She smiles faintly at me, seeming grateful.

"Thank you, Shu… it's good."

That's a surprise. She liked it? There's still some hope in me after all.

I smile back at her stupidly. I've heard that when you start liking a girl, it is almost unavoidable to act like an idiot around her. My social awkwardness has not given me much battlefield experience with the chicks, so if I'm around her too much I'll end up saying or doing something barbaric.

It'd be better for me to keep showing off… I want to save this girl, but parting ways with her would really be a waste. If I land a good impression, perhaps we'll keep in touch after I get her out of trouble?

Man, what am I thinking? This is not the time.

"Shu?"

See? I'm quiet now, and she's noticed. However… now that I realize, I'm not smiling anymore. I believe I look rather grim, since Inori appears to be worried. Good, I haven't stepped on the friend zone yet – I should stay away from it as much as I can.

"How are you feeling? Inori-san, right?"

I ask her and confirm her name to complete introductions.

"Inori… call me Inori."

I think I'll blush. She's skipping honorifics and is asking me to call her by name already.

"Yes, sorry…"

She's also addressing me by name, so it should be a given I speak to her likewise. I scratch my head awkwardly as I turn my eyes away from shyness.

"I'm feeling better now. I'll continue on my own by night, so please don't – "

I'm mad at her words, enough to interrupt her midsentence.

"Don't worry about you? I can't agree to that, we just arrived here. Blood takes days to regenerate; you won't be in condition to move anytime soon."

Inori looks disheartened after I cast her false statement aside. Though she looks like she wants to refute my words, she keeps her objections shut. She knows I'm right – if she left the house right now, she would collapse in no time.

"How's your wound? Is it still bleeding?"

I proceed with my questions, pointing at her left arm. I must understand her health condition to decide whether I have to do or not what came to my mind a moment ago.

Inori touches her bandaged arm softly, slightly rubbing it to ebb the pain away.

"The bullet did not hit any bone or major artery, but I took very long to patch it. The hemorrhage is controlled, but I lost too much blood..."

She objectively describes the nature of her wound and the extent of the damage she has suffered. I still need more information, though – she looks very dirty… I must know where she has been to as well, but I'll ask for that later. First…

"Did you apply disinfectant?"

If she catches bacteria in her wound, she might lose her arm if left unattended. Given how she cannot get professional medical attention, I should prevent infection as much as I can.

"No… the kit did not have any."

Naturally… it was an old and used first aid kit. It wouldn't be strange if the bandages were old as well; they might have already been dusty by the time she applied them.

"Finish your meal, I'll go get the bath ready for you."

I say that as I get up, watching how Inori shakily picks up another onigiri. She's quietly accepting everything I say and following my instructions. I don't know if she's growing trust for me, or if she's playing along because she has no other choice.

I'd say the true reason is the later… she can hardly move. She's eating very slowly, looks pale and dizzy, and still seems to be unable to walk by herself. Her blood pressure seems to be low, but apparently she isn't suffering from shock yet.

I leave the bathtub filling with warm water, and then head for Haruka's room. There's nothing else I can do – I have to recur to a rather drastic measure, but it is necessary to ensure Inori's life is not at stake. Thinking of this, I scramble through Haruka's medical equipment, until I at last find it – the blood transfusion kit.

Long ago, I once asked Haruka how to transfer blood to another person. Now that I remember about it… it seems I have been somewhat inclined towards saving people since longer than I thought. Haruka understood this faster than me, however, and complied in teaching me how to operate the equipment.

The knowledge is here… now I need a strike of luck to have Inori being able to receive my blood – if we're of incompatible blood types, I'll have to find blood elsewhere.

I return to my room and show the empty blood pack to her.

"O+."

She tells me her blood type without missing a beat – she immediately understood my intention. Fortune is in our favor today.

"Excellent, I'm also O+. I'm good and healthy… would you trust taking my blood?"

Inori looks down without replying, seemingly disturbed by my proposition.

"Are you sure about this? Your blood…"

I can feel where this is heading to. Judging from the tone of her voice, I believe she feels like she'd be asking too much of me if she accepted my offer.

"Don't worry about it; I'm giving it to you. Will you take it?"

She stays in silence for a moment, but then softly breaks the ice.

"Please… I need it."

Ah, dear girl… your voice is killing me. She sounds too loveable when she's reluctantly accepting assistance; she might incur a cuteness overload on me if I am not careful around her. I damn you, Inori, for putting my manliness on such a difficult test.

Keeping my thoughts to myself and saying no more, I walk over to her and pick her in my arms, leaving the transfusion kit in the bed. Transferring some of my blood to her is alright, I can manage it, but it will be meaningless if her arm gets gangrenous… I need to care for her injury first.

We head for the bathroom, where the tub is ready for use. I gently sit Inori by its side and prepare to leave back for my room to fill the blood pack – I'll do the transfusion once she is clean and her wound is properly patched up.

"Shu… could you stay?"

Ahh… why so cutely? Why did you say it so cutely, Inori!? I can't possibly say no. As I think of this, she continues adding fuel to the fire.

"If I pass out I may drown…"

Oh God. She won't say it, will she?

"I… need you to look after me."

Boy, she did. I sigh, feigning some resistance to the idea. She'll probably grow suspicious of my intentions if I happily accept her request – staying cool is best for now.

She does look very beaten up, and her passing out is not really out of the question… perhaps I should have anticipated the possibility of this scenario showing up. She does not have much of a choice but to ask me to stay, so I'll be prudent and keep a bit of distance between us since we're still strangers in the end.

"I'll go get some disinfectant and a few bandages to treat you once you're done bathing. Can you get into the tub by yourself? I'll be back in a moment."

At the very least I'll pass on stripping her clothes off… doing so a second time would kill me. Back there on the warehouse we were in a real pinch and had no other choice, but right now… together alone in my house… I'd better keep some distance between us.

Inori nods her head weakly. Is she sulking? Nah, don't imagine things, Shu…

I gather the required items and return to the bathroom. Now that I notice, Funell was left outside… at least the little bugger won't be bothering me. Since the robot is so emotional, in one way or another, I perceive it as if it were a third person… perhaps it'd be awkward to keep Inori company with the metallic quadruped as an observer.

As I enter the room, I notice Inori's back resting against the bathtub. She's sitting with her knees to her chest, so as to keep the blood still inside of her packed and clustered tightly.

Naturally, her wounded arm is outside the water – heating it up would probably cause more bleeding, given the blood vessels open up to the heat. The bloodied bandage lies on the floor, and only a sloppily attached piece of cloth is covering the hole in her arm. I bet it must've been difficult for her to wrap it up using only one hand, especially if I take into consideration the poor condition she was already in when she found the first aid kit.

"I'm back. Do you… need help?"

I mean help to clean her body, of course… but I can't ask the whole sentence, so I'm being vague by giving a largely interpretable question.

"My back… and my hair."

She got my point, alright.

Inori leans forward a little. I pour liquid soap onto the washing mitt and rub it softly against her back while I discretely look away. Shu is being a good boy and he's behaving himself, despite how tempting the girl before him is. Ouma Shu is really amazing.

Right, whatever. I'm starting to like this, though… I didn't know girls were so soft. Inori herself is fairly cooperative – even though I can discern she is blushing even through the paleness of her skin, she is just sitting there quietly, allowing me to do my enjoyable job.

Once done with her back, I apply a fair amount of shampoo onto her hair and gently massage her hair follicles, gradually moving my hands towards her hairs' tips. I just messed up, though… I used my own shampoo on her. I should have used Haruka's; hers smells girly, unlike mine. The girl before me doesn't seem to care, though, as I can sense Inori relaxing - the stress she had built up is finally being lifted.

Her relief passes on to me too, but I won't let the moment distract me. After I finish rinsing her hair, I reach for the disinfectant and the cotton I brought with me. I drench the latter with the yellowish fluid and carefully remove the reddened cloth covering Inori's wound.

The hole looks terrible – judging from the size of the injury, she must've been hit by a high-caliber round. I can't avoid wincing upon the sight of it.

"Inori, I'm about to clean your arm."

The whole bathing process had been silent, so I am now breaking the ice, since I have to get her ready for the pain she's about to feel. The disinfectant is a new iodine-based mixture, and Haruka has told me that despite its effectiveness, it hurts like the living hell.

"Be gentle on me."

I'd most certainly like to be so… but I can't do anything about the disinfectant. I'm sorry.

"I'll brush only the edge of the wound so you can see how it feels."

Saying and doing at once, I slightly touch her exposed flesh with the yellowish cotton. Inori reacts very much, but manages to suppress the gasp from escaping her lips. She seals her suffering down, and nods to me to proceed.

I continue my task in silence, diligently cleaning her wound with utmost care. Inori, despite her efforts, is clearly having hard time with the disinfectant. I cannot stop, however… I have to look after her, even if I have to see her in pain because of it.

In the end, I successfully clean and patch her arm with new and clean gauze. She still needs professional help to stitch the injury closed, as I have no idea how to do that, but I have already exhausted all within my power to assist her… save for one thing.

After helping Inori out of the shower and turning away as she wraps a towel around her, I walk with her back to my room, our arms crossed onto each other to help her in case she gets dizzy and falls.

I lead Inori to my bed and I sit right beside her before I grab the empty blood pack, sterilize the needle and poke it into my arm. Blood flows from me into the plastic bag.

Heh… I'm weak, after all…

"Shu… why are you smelling alcohol?"

The girl caught me red-handed, pressing the open ethanol bottle close to my nose.

"Ah, this? Just to keep focused, don't worry."

I lied. I hate needles – they make me dizzy whenever I use them, and I might even faint if I don't smell this thing in my hands. Moreover, the syringe used for blood extraction is freaking huge! Damn, I can feel the thing poking right through my flesh.

Acting like a sissy in front of the girl I've just rescued is unacceptable, though… so I hope she believed my lame excuse. Ah, the pack is full. At long last I pull the accursed piece of metal out of my beloved veins and stick an adhesive bandage upon the pierced spot.

With everything ready for the transfusion, I pile up my pillows so Inori can lean on them while still sitting down and then help her to accommodate herself comfortably. The plan is to dry her hair while the fluid is transferred to her, so she doesn't have to wait idly feeling nothing other than the needle. She is a girl, after all… I must be considerate.

She lends her right arm to me, and upon minor inspection, I find a vein suitable for injection and carefully place the needle in, allowing my extracted blood to flow into her. With everything in place, I draw a spare towel I brought with me from the bathroom and show it to Inori.

"Would you let me?"

She's quick to understand and swiftly turns her back to me. I reach for her beautiful long hair and proceed to dry it. Upon looking at it closely… I notice something strange about it. I had originally found nothing strange about her hair being pink – it could have merely been dyed that color… even while I was washing it moments ago, I paid little attention to it because I was focused on keeping my racing heart from bursting.

But now that Inori is somewhat clothed and I can look at her more calmly, I realize her hair is pink all the way down to the root – it is actually its natural color.

Yet… does natural pink hair even exist? This is a first for me… I had no idea. Something is nagging me not to pry too much into her personal details, and I intend to pay heed to my intuition for now. I still don't know who I am dealing with, and I may easily stumble into information I did not really want to know.

As I finish doing her hair, Inori softly lies back on the pillows and closes her eyes. The plastic bag is nearly empty, after having replenished roughly half a liter of blood. The transfusion's effect is evident, as the girl before me slowly regains some color in her skin. She should be a bit livelier after getting proper rest.

I extract the needle and patch her vein up with an adhesive bandage like I did to my own earlier. Inori seems to be in dire need of sleep, judging from the spent look in her eyes. She must've spent the entire night running away from the Anti-Bodies… that should've left her exhausted, more so after bleeding for so long. I guess I'll let her be for now… all the questions I have for her can wait until she wakes up.

Yes… I myself need to rest as well. Last night was more burdening than it was refreshing, so I'll just sit here on the couch and close my eyes… peacefully sharing the moment of respite we have before plunging into the flames of hell.