INTERMISSION 15.5: TWO BUNNIES AND A FIRST AID KIT

–––[[ERIN]]–––

"–Hibari, I want you to assist Erin. Ikaruga, I'll partner you with Gabe."

I sigh.

Of course, it just had to be Hibari.

On Kiriya-sensei's announcement, I can immediately see Yagyu staring daggers at me. It's pretty obvious that she does not approve of the arrangement, but instead of paying any attention to Yagyu, I just shrug and zone out while the rest of my squadmates are being assigned to their partners, with Alex apparently getting two partners.

The lull moment continued until I felt a tap on my shoulder.

When I look around, I see Hibari pulling her hand away. "Erin?"

"…what's up?"

"Kiriya-sensei asked us to split up." Hibari replies, and as I look around, everyone else has already walked away from our gathering point with their assigned partners. "Also… he assigned Ayame with us since she's an extra today, but I don't see her anywhere…"

"She'll catch up eventually. Let's go."

I pick up my bag and follow her. As I glance over my shoulder, I can still see Yagyu staring at me but I shrug it off and continue to follow Hibari until both of us are out of her sight and only then I would sigh in relief.

"What's wrong?" Hibari asks.

"…it's nothing, really."

While we're looking for the best spot to stop and put my gear down, Hibari occasionally engages in small talk with me. I would entertain her until eventually we came across a clearing, close to a running creek.

"I think this place's perfect."

"Yeah, it looks good."

I put down my bag on the ground and looked around. Even though I do often go out to play airsoft games in the woods like this, it feels much more peaceful here when the hecticness of a typical wargame is non-existent.

"…so… what are we going to do now?" She asks.

"I don't know… one thing's for sure I'm not in the mood for sparring right now. Considering all I do is just shoot people and patch up my friends, I don't know if I can even teach you the former." It's not just that, I am not very good at hand-to-hand combat but I don't want to say that to her.

Speaking of hand-to-hand combat, I am reminded of her and Yagyu fighting off those monsters during that botched delivery operation. While the latter fights rather competently with her old-school umbrella, I can only describe Hibari's method of fighting as girlish flailing, with her shinobi guardian doing some of the legwork on the side.

Which reminds me I need to see how Jazz works…

As Hibari sits down on a nearby log, she kicks her feet in the air while humming to herself. I watch her for a moment, while at the same time thinking what's the next best course of action.

"Erin?"

"Yeah?"

"You're a combat lifesaver, right?"

"Yep."

"How does that work? If your friends get injured, how do you heal them?"

"I… can't do that. A combat lifesaver's job is just giving the injured a proper first aid to stabilize them, and when the coast is clear, we work for an exfil to get them to a hospital." I explain my standard operating procedure. "Healing is the hospital's work. It's not like I can use magic to actually heal people to begin with."

"You can actually learn that, you know!" She pipes up cheerfully. "There's secret shinobi techniques where you can do just that, using your shinobi scroll."

"…okay. I guess I can learn that if Kiriya-sensei would teach me how to use this scroll aside from just transforming."

"You'll get there." Hibari assures, and I sigh yet again.

The talk of healing and my role in the team suddenly lit up a lightbulb in my head. Now I have something to teach her. "Say, Hibari… how familiar are you with first aid?"

"A little bit. The school has demonstrations for it once in a while."

"I could teach you that. You can treat this as a refresher of basics for you, and I can also teach some advanced lessons for you. You know, just in case."

Hibari nods in understanding. "That sounds good to me!"

"Gimmie a second."

I pull out the Grizzly medical kit bag and unzip it, spreading out the compartments on the ground so that I could show the contents to Hibari. As she sits close by, I would start explaining to her the functions of the individual items while pointing to the items in the kit bag at the same time. She recognizes the basic items like plaster and basic bandages, and would comment on it.

At the same time, I would also check if the contents are still within their expiry date – for the ones that went past theirs, I separate them from the bag, making a mental note to myself to replace them with new ones later.

"Why did you separate those items?" Hibari asks.

"I don't know if you know this, but like food, first aid kit items have expiry dates." I reply to her, pointing out the dates on one of the bandage packaging. "Unlike food, it's mostly in terms that sterile items would eventually lose their sterility, function, and effectiveness over time."

"Oooh. So, you'd need to replace them over time."

"Correct. Lucky for us, we can use these items for our hands-on lesson today, mostly for the more major injuries."

Using the bandages that I unpacked, I then start teaching her on how to bandage her arms, legs and head.

With me being very close to her for the last one, I got good glimpses on the strange eyes that she has. It did strike me as weird, but I pressed on with my bandaging lessons – putting the thought of asking her about it for later, if possible.

After all that, I unwrap the bandages off her body, rolling them up neatly and then handing it to her. I tell her to use it on me so that she can practice. From the get go I can see that she's a lot clumsier than I am, and she even ended up bandaging my entire face. At the very least, after some more quick tutoring later she does it better.

Once that's done with, I gather up the used bandages and discard them into the dump pouch behind me. I then move on to the next item, which is a common combat tourniquet.

"What's that for?" Hibari asks as I remove the tourniquet from the packaging, separating the strap in two and getting it in the buckle.

"This is a combat application torniquet. It's mostly used to stop heavy bleeding in a jiffy. We just call it CAT for short."

"Like the cat?"

I just shrug my shoulders as I strap the band over her right forearm. "Name's the same. Anyways… you strap this over a limb above the bleeding part and into the buckle like this…" I then start to turn the windlass a few times, making sure it's not too tight on her. "And turn the windlass like so until it's tight. Is it too tight for you, Hibari?"

"A little."

I nod as I loosen the windlass. "Normally, you need this to be tight around your limb, enough to slow down the flow of blood so that you can tend to the wound."

"Oh, I know! I heard this before, you need packing gauze to plug up the wound to further stop the bleeding, right?"

"Correct, and it's better that you don't just blindly apply it. Inspect it first, clean it, apply pressure and then pack it up. After that, bandage the area properly."

"I see." Hibari then points to some small olive drab packages with yellow lettering that is grouped with the still-packed gauzes in the Grizzly. "What does this do?"

I picked it up to inspect it. "This one… I think Sarge told me that this works just like packing gauzes but they are in the form of granules instead."

"You're not going to open that?" Hibari asks.

"…unfortunately, no. If I open it, it's not sterile anymore, and I can't keep it to reuse it so it's basically a waste." I explain, and she nods. "Anyways, yeah, just like the packing gauze, the process' basically the same."

Hibari nods. "That's a lot of things you need to work with."

"Yeah. Sarge always told me that everyone in the team needs to be prepared. If there's accidents or emergencies, there's always a need for someone who can prevent things from going worse." I explain.

"I see, I see."

After that, I continue teaching Hibari on how to use the rest of the first aid kit, such as treating broken limbs with splints, treating poisoning with medical injectors and other scenarios, though without physical demonstration for those items for obvious reasons.

Needless to say, despite the more advanced stuff, I can see that Hibari is having fun.

–––

Half-hour had passed and by then I ran out of basics to teach.

With the Grizzly packed up and stuffed back in my bag, I gather up the used items into a portable trash bag to be disposed of later. Even though she insisted on helping, I assured her that it's not a big deal, and that was when Ninto popped out. While Hibari is entertaining her shinobi guardian, I wrap up with cleanup.

I set aside the bag and sit beside Hibari to relax, glancing at her. Now that we have the free time, the thought of asking her about her strange eyes comes to mind again.

"Hibari?"

"Yes?"

"If I may ask… what's with your eyes? They look… so flowery."

Hibari had a little pause before she answered my question. "My eyes… they are called Kagan."

"Oh." Her delayed answer made me think that I had touched on a very sensitive subject, but she continued explaining.

"It's a mystic eyes trait that has been passed down through generations of my shinobi family… though there's no guarantee if you'll ever get one in my family, it is quite rare as I found out. I guess… I was lucky that I was chosen."

"…what do they actually do, if you're training hard in hopes of getting it?"

"Um… to put it simply… it's mind control by any other name."

My eyes widen as I hear her. "Really?"

"No need to worry, though! Ever since me and my siblings were little, we have been training in advance so that we know how to control it should it manifest when we reach puberty…" She chuckles slightly as she sees my concern. "From what I learned Kagan only works with direct eye contact. If it makes you feel better, at the very least I can control it."

"Oh, thank goodness. But did you use it on someone before?"

"Maybe, for a few times." She giggles. "But at least it's not for anything bad."

"…right."

"That also reminds me, now that I had a chance to talk to you… what were you doing in Gessen Girls' Academy that day?"

"…long story short we're supposed to deliver a sensitive package and it turns out that the package was… something that brought all the yoma in, and it turned into an evacuation mission immediately." I recount the events of that day to her. "I think it's sort of a blessing that we stuck around for lunch because we're about to leave when it actually started."

"I'm kind of surprised that you were there in the first place, fighting yoma with your group even before you're recognized as a shinobi."

"…yeah… I think it just kind of clicked in us that we had a hand in this, and we went to fix it. Even though none of us were actually hurt by the monsters… but we still ended up with two injured on our side anyways."

"I heard about Alex and Katsu-nee, it seems like nobody is able to live it down for some reason. What about the other one?"

"Some white-haired lady who had beef with Seo. They ran into each other way back during our capture mission weeks before that delivery mission."

While Hibari ponders who it is, I still remember the time when that lady and Seo returned from wherever they were earlier, with Seo completely unconscious and they are both injured. There're signs of first aid on them both even before the paramedics were involved, meaning she was the one to do it on him.

That was the first time I saw Seo in that state, and it shook me.

"I think I know who you are talking about, Erin."

"Yeah, not surprised. At this point, everyone we met already knew each other. Small world and all that."

She giggles. "That's true."

"Anyways, the small fries go down without a problem but once we met the ringleader. Our bullets seemed to just shatter when we tried shooting at her… and I still had nightmares seeing that woman just suddenly change into a yoma in front of me and Seo…" I shivered a little as I recalled the grotesque scene that unfolded before me in the office, before I felt Hibari pat on my back – that made me feel slightly at ease. "…thanks, Hibari."

"Let's talk about something else then. Ever since Yagyu and I first met you, I have always seen you around Seo. You two look like good friends."

"Well… we both actually go way back, way before this Void Horizon business. I met him in the same school we both attend, and we don't get along instantly even though he's the one who approached me first. We're like 5 years apart in age, after all.

When I finally warmed up to him, he introduced me to airsoft one weekend and I was immediately interested. It was then I would start to follow him around and attend wargames on weekends when we had the time and I had a lot of fun."

"Sounds cool. What's airsoft, though?"

"Think it like this." I lift up my MP5 by the stock and underbarrel to show it to her, which I left unloaded from the start. "You have weapons that look like the real thing here or almost like it, but shoots round plastic bullets, and it's either gas-powered, battery-powered or single-shot, spring-powered toys. It's basically shooting your friends, but for fun instead of for murder." I then put the subgun aside.

"I see, I see."

"Let's just say my dad didn't like it when he found out that I have a newfound hobby. He'd rather have me study on weekends than actually going out to wargames. He wanted me to be a doctor like some of my older siblings already did – but I don't want to be that. I just want to have friends with the same interests as me.

For my birthday, Seo bought me this exact model of a gun, and what I didn't know at that time was that Seo worked part-time just so he could buy me that, and since it's a branded gas blowback airsoft gun… they can be pretty expensive.

Dad found out where I kept the gift and he decided to destroy the gift that Seo gave me – in front of me – no less. And Seo happened to visit the very moment it happened.

Seo was being polite when my dad threw the remnants of the gun in his face, and his breaking point came when he accused Seo all the things he shouldn't have – and that was the time I saw Seo break into a rage and beat the living daylights out of someone that's like four times older than he is.

I had to stop Seo from beating the life out of my dad with the broken gun, and we didn't talk to each other for weeks as result of that, until he gave me a new gun a few months later." When I finally reached a stop, I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry you had to hear all that, though."

Hibari giggles. "It's fine. I can see how you and Seo get along well."

"What about you and Yagyu, by the way?"

"Probably not as wordy as yours, but I met Yagyu when we both attended our first year in this school. I remember that it's rainy day, and she told me this later – that at the time, I looked like her then-recently deceased younger sister. We're so alike, so much that she almost believed her sister came back for her."

Huh. That might have explained why she's so protective of Hibari. "I… see… It kind of makes sense now."

"What is?" She asks.

"Yagyu gave me the side eye when Kiriya-sensei announced that you're to be paired with me."

"Ah, yes, don't worry about that. I know she can be quite protective, but she means well. I think she needs to know you better too, Erin."

"Yeah."

"I'm curious, Erin. How big is your family?"

"I have a dad and a mom, and three siblings and me. I'm the youngest, of course."

"You're like me then! We're both the youngest. Though for me… maybe I have more in the sibling department." Hibari exclaims excitedly.

"Oh, really?"

She nods at my question. "Seven of them. All of them are my sisters too, by the way."

That revelation made me pause. "…huh. I can't believe it. All I had in my family are older sisters too, aside from my parents."

"We have a lot in common, don't we?"

Somehow, I wasn't able to reply.

I guess… now I see why I'm so attached to Seo a lot more compared to my older sisters, not just because he's the only good friend that I ever had, but a small part of me actually sees him as an older brother that I always wanted. It doesn't help but the sisters that I have had already moved on with their life, and I rarely see them around these days.

"Erin?"

"Huh?"

"You suddenly went silent. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just… got something in my eyes, I think." I say that as I just pull my cap down to hide my face.

At that, Hibari pats on my shoulder as if trying to cheer me up. "I still think you're cool, though!"

It somehow worked, as I could feel the blush rising up to my face. "…Hibari, stop that, you're embarrassing me."

The pinkette giggles in response. On the other hand, Ninto wasn't so amused. Without warning, he would snatch away my cap before running away with it.

"Ninto! Hey! Give me my cap back!"

I jumped to my feet and proceeded to chase after the cartoon rabbit, and we did a couple laps around Hibari at the same time.

During one of the laps, Ninto suddenly turned around and tackled me to the ground. I didn't get to dodge and as a result I ended up landing hard on my back and him standing right on top of my chest. Hibari in the meantime tries to get her guardian animal off me, but he wouldn't budge.

While the ground is in my sky, I see a pair of legs quickly approaching us, and as I look up, I realize that those legs belong to Ayame – finally catching up with us.

"Ah! There you guys are! I've been looking for you two since everyone split up for an hour now!"

"Where've you been, Ayame-chan?"

"Like I said, I was looking for you two. I think I got lost… so, what did I miss?"

"Mainly first aid basics. You missed the whole thing." I reply to Ayame while still being pinned under Ninto.

Ayame slumps her shoulders dejectedly, and only then does she notice the scene unfolding before her. "Err, do you need any help over there?" She asks.

"No, I'm good." I declined Ayame's offer.

"…Okay. Well, since you two are done… I guess I'll go look for Katsu-nee now."

"Yeah, be my guest. Don't get lost again!" I yell out to her.

"I won't!"

As soon as Ayame disappeared, I snatched my cap off the distracted rabbit's hands and grumbled at him. "That's mine; thank you very much. Now get off me!"

Despite my demands, Ninto continues to stare at me with that menacing face of his. After delivering multiple bops to the top of my head, only then he jumped off and Hibari pulled me up to my feet. I dust myself off and put my cap back on while glaring angrily at Ninto.

Just as I put my headset back on, Rook approaches us with Yagyu in tow.

"Hey, buddy."

"Hey, Rook." I replied. "Are you done with your training?"

"Eh, I guess you can call it that."

I find it weird that Rook isn't elaborating about his practice with Yagyu, even though they are together for the same amount of time. It's as if they weren't practicing at all…

While nobody is saying a word, I can hear someone's stomach grumbling… and it definitely came from Hibari. She hugs her belly embarrassedly. "Eheheh… I think I'm hungry."

"Why didn't you give her anything for snacks?" Rook teases me.

"Dude, I'm a combat lifesaver, not a field cook." I retorted. "Besides, I think we might be out of the sticks very soon or something."

"Eh, I suppose. Too bad we're not camping, otherwise we'd be needing a field cook very soon."

While I shake my head at Rook's comment, the radio crackles to life, as if on cue. "All units on this net, regroup on me at once." Alex's voice can be heard through the radio. "Pack up your things and gather up at our previous pos – we're going back to the school for lunch."

"Speak of the devil and he shall come…"

"Solid copy, Alex. Me and Erin with the girls will gather up with you in a bit." Rook replies. "C'mon folks. Time to go."

I sigh in relief. "About time."

–––

To complete the school experience, we're gathered on the rooftops for lunch. The girls had their packed lunch, while we're offered extras from Asuka. Even then, it was still not enough, so instead Alex gave us the camping rations that he packed along – flameless ration heaters included. My pack came with a granola bar with raspberries, and I shared that with Hibari while Yagyu was not looking.

While the guys are having a discussion amongst themselves, Hikari took the chance to show her updated shinobi uniform to everyone. Everyone gave her the seal of approval, including me.

Though the cheerful atmosphere didn't last long with the appearance of another older student, who Kiriya-sensei later introduced to my team as Daidouji. Despite the worrying encounter, at least I wasn't being focused on like Hikari unfortunately did. That Daidouji lady felt unnaturally strong, even with her old-school uniform hiding everything.

Once she left and lunch session was over, we went back to more training. The joint exercise finally reaches its end by evening.

After Kiriya-sensei dismissed the class, we all got out of the classroom and walked down the stairs for the exit. Some of my teammates were chatting with their sparring partners, but I kept silent even as I walked beside Hibari. Yagyu following us close behind probably didn't help.

"…Hibari, do you have a moment?" I gather my courage and speak up to Hibari once we reach the ground floor.

"Hmm?"

They both step aside, letting the rest behind us continue their way to the main door while I put down my bag and rummage in it.

"Here." I pull out a black pouch and then hand it over to Hibari. The pouch is adorned with a small, square red cross patch and an American flag on the Velcro strip, with a single zipper on the top. "I originally bought this for my own use, but I think it'll be a good thing for you to use in emergencies."

"Is it a first aid kit like the one you showed me earlier?"

"Yep. That one is for use by multiple people. This one is for individual use."

"Thank you, Erin." Hibari smiles, and I pull down my cap to hide my face.

"…you're welcome." I replied. "Anyways… if you have any items in the kit that you need to replace, just tell me and I'll do it for you next time."

"I'll keep that in mind." Hibari responds, while Yagyu inspects the pack. Seeing her friend's interest, Hibari asks her a question. "Do you need one for yourself, Yagyu-chan?"

"No, I don't need one." She responds as she hands back the pouch back to Hibari.

I just shrug at Yagyu's dismissal. "Anyways… I'll catch you girls next time." I then pick up my bag.

"See you next time, Erin!" Hibari cheerfully waves at me as I jog off, and I wave back at her briefly. I then make a circle around the building, running behind the rest of the Hanzo girls waiting around the parked van and then I hop in the open back.
"Ah, Erin. There you are, buddy." Gabe greets me as soon as I enter.

"Are we leaving yet?"

"We're about to, anyways." Gabe then closes the rear hatch. "Just gotta wait for them to finish talking, I suppose."

I stow away my bags and hop onto my seat to see Alex just about wrapping up chatting with the Hanzo girls. Once he said goodbyes to them, Rook then started his engines. He shifted gears and was just about to pick up some speed when…

THUMP

The van suddenly lurched forward when I heard that noise – the result of Rook slamming on the brakes. That threw me off my seat before I had a chance to fix my seatbelts. Fortunately, Gabe was there to catch me this time. I mutter my thanks to him, and he only nods.

"Son of a… what now?" Rook mutters. "Wait a minute. Hey guys, aren't those the waitstaff at Nanabi's place?"

"Huh, they are. What's going on now?"

I peek up from behind the front seat to see the girl in jeans and white shirt turn towards us. She seems a little bit surprised.

"…what are you guys doing here?"

Alex and Rook stare at each other before the former responds. "Shinobi joint training."

"Really? Didn't know you folks are shinobi, guess you guys getting all buddy-buddy with the Gessen girls yesterday really makes sense."

"…familiar looking van too, reminds me that we saw this exact van during that yoma incident at the Gessen's school a few months ago… Let me guess, you guys are there too?" I can hear a different voice but I can't see who was talking.

Alex pauses before he responds to that. "…yes." Followed by another, as it was somewhat getting tense. "Okay, Homura, look, we're here for shinobi training, and that's all we did. We're done here, so can we go now?"

"Hmph, be my guest. We'll keep my eyes on you guys from now on." Homura then steps away from the front of the van.

"Suit yourself. Let's go, Rook."

"Alright."

Rook restarts the engine and starts driving the van out of the compound. Once we're out and onto the main road, Alex breathes a sigh of relief. "Damn, I don't know what's the deal with Homura, but I don't like the look on her face."

"That's a distrusting face if I ever see one." Rook responds. "God, I hope they don't leave a dent up there."

"Hopefully not."

"By the way, Erin. Were you giving Hibari first aid lessons?"

"Yeah." I replied. "Yeah, I did. Why? Were you watching us?"

"Yup. Yagyu wasn't interested in sparring and my skill set is completely incompatible with her, unfortunately." Rook explains while he turns around the corner. "Instead, she led me to where you two were, and the two of us just recon you both from a distance."

"…you saw the whole thing?"

"Down to you doing the ring around Rosie with that rabbit." Rook chuckles.

"…good grief." I sigh in exasperation. "Did you hear the whole thing too?"

"Yup." I felt like screaming inside until I felt Seo patting my shoulder.

"Don't mind it too much, Erin."

"…right."

"By the way, did you just give away your IFAK to Hibari before we got out of the school?" Rook asks.

"Yeah, I did. I can just buy the pouch and make a new one, or just buy a new set anyways."

"It's only 30 bucks on Amazon anyways, Rook. That's also his money." Alex interjects. "Though, I'm pretty sure it's already been discontinued."

"Heh. Alright then."

"Man, you guys should have seen Seo though. You and Asuka were going at it like crazy. I guess that's what prior training does to you, huh?

"I guess." Seo shrugs his shoulders. "Though I feel like I want to grab an upgrade for a longer blade to be honest."

"You sure you don't want something that's in your style?"

"…to be honest, I would say that I'd be fine with having a katana or wakizashi but I think I just wanna go for something… different you see." He comments. "Asuka already has her double wakizashi, Ikaruga with hers, and Miyabi with hers. If Homura and her gang are also shinobi from what we just saw, I don't think we'd ever seen them fight yet."

"Fair point. I think I can help you with those later. It won't be cheap though, so just be warned." Alex then turns his attention to me. "What about you, Erin?

"Nah, I'm good with what I have."

"Really though, stabbing someone with the EDC shears? I'm beginning to think you watched too much SIX for that."

I just shrug my shoulders. "Maybe."

"Anyways… have you decided on where to go for dinner, boss?"

"Yeah, give me a second. I'll set up the GPS for you."

The conversation went quiet after that, and it remained so as Rook continued to drive towards Alex's restaurant of choice for dinner. In the meantime, Rook turned on his usual choice of music to alleviate the silence, maybe had some idle chatter with Alex, but I tuned out from the latter as I focused on my phone and became sleepy in the process.

Before that, I asked Seo to prepare a takeaway for me when they arrived at the restaurant, and he agreed.

I pretty much dozed off in the van after that.