Doctor Yakamura couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the child in the back seat of the car that had come to a screeching halt at the front of the small island hospital where he worked. He'd seen the boy here once before, when the child's friend Krillin had gotten involved in some sort of accident that had somehow involved a sizable boulder that should've by all rights killed him. He couldn't believe his ears when he heard the explanation for the boy's condition that the blue haired girl who'd brought the child had choked out through her tears either. While he wasn't so stupid as to believe that child abuse didn't exist, he rarely had to face it over his career, and never had to face anything of this magnitude before.
The boy's injuries had been caused when the child's father had shown up out of the blue thirteen years after abandoning him, and had beaten the crap out of the boy when he had tried to give him a hug. A swift and cursory examination showed several broken bones and a possible concussion. He had little doubt that further injuries would be found with further examination.
While he raced alongside the gurney that the child whose name was Son Goku had been laid on after he'd been pulled from the car as gently as possible, he wondered how someone could be so cruel as to hurt the small, bright, and cheerful boy that had been willing to sit for hours making funny faces and telling funny stories to distract his friend from the pain he was in. Once the gurney had gotten to the small Trauma ward that probably wasn't equipped enough to treat the boy who would more than likely have to be flown to a mainland hospital as soon as he was stabilized, he told one of the nurses that had accompanied him to call the police and tell them to find the boy's father. Justice for what the man had done to his child couldn't be harsh enough or come swift enough if he had anything to say about it.
Several X-rays revealed that the child had had his left arm broken in two places, had three broken ribs on his left side, and his right wrist was broken. Fortunately, none of the fractured ribs had punctured anything vital and he didn't appear to have any serious head trauma, though there were signs of an old injury. Not knowing the child's medical history, namely if he had allergies to any medication, the doctor decided not to take the risk of giving the boy something that would further destabilize his patient after what else the X-rays had shown.
Wincing because he knew it was going to hurt the boy, he gently stripped him out of the filthy uncured animal pelt he was wearing. A quick glance at the boy's newly exposed back confirmed what the X-rays had revealed. The tail which he had previously believed to be fake was actually real. Considering this, it was almost a certainty that one of the patient's parents was quite likely one of the animal people whose ancestors had suddenly showed up out of nowhere a few centuries back. While they generally kept to their own kind when it came to mating, there had been a few stories over the years. The furry brown appendage which graced the child's backside was the reason he chose not to give the boy any painkillers despite the fact that they were normally given for injuries this serious, as he had lost a patient that had resembled a red fox by doing just that a few years ago.
Swiftly cutting his musings short before he could get lost in memories of a previous failure when there was a potential loss in the making right in front of him needing treatment, the doctor hurled the garment into the trash bin and set to the grim task of setting the worst of the breaks. It was a mercy that the boy was unconscious, as he didn't think he would be able to bear hearing the child scream on top of all of this. After he got the first break set and right when he was about to splint it, someone walked into the room. A quick glance out of the corner of his eye told him that it wasn't an orderly, another nurse or the other doctor who worked with him.
He looked up at the man who had entered and distracted him from his critical work. The first thing he took in was the strangely dressed man's extremely muscular build. There was almost no fat on him, and the development of his muscles spoke of long hours either working out or lifting weights. Based on the way he dressed and held himself, the man was likely either a mercenary or a former member of the Red Ribbon Army who hadn't been caught up in the sweep that had taken place last year following the elimination of their leadership. Heightwise, the man was somewhere between average height and tall. A scar on the man's left cheek marred an otherwise handsome face. The cold eyes that were so black that he couldn't tell the difference between the pupil and the iris added an air of icy arrogance to said face. It was the hair that gave him a clue as to why the man was there; it stuck up in exactly the same pattern as that of the boy lying unconscious in front of him. He had a strong feeling that the furry brown thing wrapped around the man's waist wasn't a fashion accessory either.
"Are you the father?" he asked after getting over the shock of having a musclebound stranger who was more than likely the cause of his patient's injuries barge into the Trauma room.
"Yes." the man said in a flat, emotionless tone.
The man's tone of voice somehow managed to startle him despite what he'd been told about him and what he'd done. If it had been his child on the table, he wouldn't have been so cold. He would've been panicking and begging to know what was wrong with his child. But, it wasn't his child, and he really shouldn't have been surprised.
The blue haired girl hadn't known who the patient's legal guardian was after a few questions had revealed that it wasn't the Turtle Hermit who had forgotten to fill out the necessary paperwork, and the boy - being both unconscious and underage - couldn't fill out any treatment consent forms himself. Since his custody of the boy had not been revoked as far as anyone knew, it would have to be the father who had been gone for thirteen years and had chosen today of all days to waltz back into his son's life and start destroying it who would have to approve his child's treatment after the initial necessary emergency care was done. He calmed himself as best as he could before speaking. It wouldn't do to sound angry and judgmental when requesting parental consent from the man who had beaten the ever-loving crap out of his own child for hugging him.
Based on the man's apparent attitude, it was likely that he would end up sparking a confrontation that would end up with himself injured and further harm done to the boy if he said one word out of line.
"The patient's left arm is broken in two places, he has three broken ribs on his left side, and his right wrist is broken as well. I would like to keep him here a couple of days for observation to make sure he's stabilized and beginning to heal." He said.
He carefully avoided mentioning what he planned on doing when those days were up, as he sure as hell wasn't going to release the boy into the man's custody when it was time for him to be discharged. Once he was done here, he was personally going to call the children's charity that the Briefs family ran on the mainland and do everything he could to get them to come out here as fast as possible and remove the boy. Hopefully, the boy would get a new home before the man who had dared to call himself his father even knew what had happened. He'd be having some choice words with the Turtle Hermit who had been teaching the boy and his friend last year after this as well. Who lets a child run around in a dirty, flea ridden, untreated and half rotting animal skin?
"Acceptable." the man said before making himself at home in the Trauma room. All requests that he leave were summarily ignored.
Knowing there was nothing he could do until the island's police force of three arrived to back up the hospital's elderly security guard who had called them at his request, he did his level best to ignore the man and get back to treating his patient who urgently needed his care. As he splinted the first arm fracture, the child stirred and whimpered. It looked like the child would be conscious before he finished setting all of the broken bones.
"Nurse, get the sedatives for the special patients." He ordered, praying that he wasn't making a mistake. Hopefully, the child would be so out of it when he woke up that he wouldn't notice the pain.
The Nurse handed him some medication approved for patients of simian ancestry from the stockpile he'd built up in the years since the demise of the unfortunate Mr. Kitsune in order to prevent something like that from ever happening again. He carefully measured out the dose in a syringe according to the weight charts for a monkey, praying all the while that he hadn't misguessed the species of the boy's nonhuman ancestor, who was looking to be a grandparent rather than a parent if the rather twitchy furry thing wrapped around the father's waist was any indicator. He had learned his lesson about applying human standards to those who weren't entirely human the day he lost Mr. Kitsune. Now, he hoped that he wasn't overcompensating considering the fact that the boy was quite likely three quarters human.
He was about to administer the sedatives when the syringe was snatched out of his hand.
"What's in this?" the man who was the reason this situation was even happening asked, peering closely at its contents.
"It's a sedative to calm the patient before he wakes up." he replied, amazed that the man was showing even the slightest bit of concern considering the icy indifference he had been displaying until now.
"What's in this?" the man asked again.
"I told you, it's a sedative." he replied not wanting to give anything further than he had already given to this point. He had cowered from this monster for long enough.
"You're not giving it to him." the man said as he crushed the syringe underfoot, carefully avoiding the needle. "In fact, I don't want you anywhere near him."
The last thing he saw was a wall coming at him at an impossible speed. The thought that he carried with him to the other world was:
How could something so sweet and innocent come from something so evil?
Edited 4-18-15