Chapter 28: Healing hand of a Solemn Man
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Kagome blinked once, twice, and he was gone.
Across the room in a flash, hands folded over themselves as if he had never sat on the bed with her. If it hadn't been for the tingling in her hands, and the indent upon the sheets, she could have bought into his annoyed façade.
Whoever knocked, opened the door slowly, peeking a head into the room before the rest of the man came into view.
He was a bit taller than Inuyasha, smiled without prompt, and had an ease to him as only one with confidence does. His hair was long, but cropped off on the sides, in a fashionable style that was seen among entertainers. The long-black strands tied behind in a bun, showing off the buzzed undercut that started at his temples.
His eyes were an odd indigo too, but there was no threat behind them. His ear was pierced, and from here, she could see the starting of several tattoos; how odd it was to her when he entered the room his atire annuncened itself to her.
His white doctors coat and stethoscope was all he needed in identification for her, but for others who were not so easily convinced, his laminated tag outed him as the physician.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Inuyasha snapped, drawing the stranger's immediate attention, "I told everyone to leave this room alone."
The man only spared Inuyasha but a quick glance, surprising her further by making a beeline for her instead.
"Good evening, Miss Higurashi, a pleasure to see you up and well; if not on your way to it."
Kagome staggered a bit, looking between Inuyasha's annoyed face, and the stranger's calmness. Before remembering herself, "Uh, yes. Thank you, Doctor."
He grabbed the chart that hung on the foot of the bed, flipping over some pages with no rush, completely unmindful of the man whose growl rose in volume the longer he was ignored. Her doctor moved on to the machine that caused all that ruckus, pressing buttons on it as if he could read all those numbers and lines.
"Here, try leaning back my Dear, those injuries of yours are nothing to sneeze at."
She scrambled to do as told, and he in turn, helped move the wires back in place. Careful not to touch her, and with eyes that had only his work in mind.
"Oy! I'm talking here! Didn't I clearly say-"
"That you would handle this patient alone, yes, I'm very aware Inuyasha."
"Then what the hell do you think you're doing here, punk?"
Kagome looked between the two; assessing whatever relationship they had, drawing her own conclusions based on the tightness around Inuyasha's eyes, and the man's less than pleased demeanor.
"Seeing as how the patient's heart rate has spiked a total of four times now; what I'm doing here, is my job, Sir."
Inuyasha scoffed, but approached the man either way, peaking at the machine over his shoulder.
"Bah! That was nothing," his gaze found hers, a telling smirk pulling over his features, "Woman just gets embarrassed easily."
As though his point needed proof, the machine beeped an alert of her traitorous heart, an impossible reaction to hold back, as it seemed it was unavoidable when looking into that fitting smile of his.
The newcomer spared her a glance, before turning all business to Inuyasha.
"You need to leave," as soon as Inuyasha inhaled to protest, the man stopped him by hitting the chart he carried over Inuyasha's head. Heedless of the snarl the action earned, "I need time and Privacy, to assess my patient, please leave."
She expected explosions, if not a full temper tantrum. But to her amazement, Inuyasha just huffed at the man, backing off quicker than she had ever seen.
"Don't know why one of the nurses couldn't do it."
"Really? You'd prefer one of 'them' to handle this?"
The silence stretched, the two men stood in this tension, confusing the girl who at this point could do nothing more but to pout from her spot on the large bed.
"Fine." Inuyasha spat, turning around to blow right out of the room. His pause at the door had not been expected, but when he turned back to them, his eyes found the girl on their own. Taking the steam out of his exit, by quite clearly speaking to her only, "I'll be right down the hall, I'll be able to hear you if you call for me, just say my name."
The girl blushed a pretty pink, twisting the blankets with her hands while giving Inuyasha a coy smile, "I know."
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When the room belonged to the two of them only, the man turned towards her, his shocked expression made her nervous. So that in a petulant tone, Kagome murmured out, "What?"
The man's gaze took much longer to break than she would have liked, his stare was appraising, in such a way that Kagome felt as though he wasn't looking at her directly. Before she had a chance to ask again, he moved away, losing all pretense and going straight into business.
"Forgive me, Miss Higurashi. I've known Inuyasha for some time now, it merely surprised me that he should take an interest in-" he paused, unsure of how to continue.
Rolling her eyes, Kagome huffed out, "A human? You mean?"
Once more the look of shock crossed his face, but he didn't wear it long, shaking his head with a bemused smile.
"Yes, I suppose I do. Now then, let's get down to the needy greedy, shall we? "
He checked her blood pressure, asked her simple questions to test her cognitive memory, and helped her out of the tangled wires that were strapped on to her. She relaxed further when he disconnected her from the noisy machine, sparing her any further embarrassment from its tattle telling ways.
Once freed, Kagome tried her hand at unwrapping the bandages on her arms. Noticing the difference between her half-attempts at wrapping, versus their professional method that left no crease, and no extra flap.
"I wouldn't recommend you do that, Miss Higurashi. Your injuries were not of the regular variety, I'm afraid the tissue hasn't finished healing all the way."
Her hands hesitated, a cloudy look sweeping the girl, "What are we talking about here, Doc?"
The man set his chart down, taking a seat on the edge of the bed, his indigo eyes regarding her with a strange form of apprehension.
"The gouges at your sides are healing easily, but the lacerations in your arms have been filled with a type of tar, it's making the process harder than it should have been."
Kagome lowered her hands, gaze stuck on the sheets, "Tar?"
"In a sense, it's more of a miasma of sorts; nothing I haven't come across before. I can assure you after a few days of treatment, there won't even be any scarring."
She had so many questions, looking at the man now; Kagome seized the opportunity to find her answers.
"How did it get there?"
Half expecting him to avoid her question, Kagome found herself caught off guard when he didn't even hesitate or pretend not to know what she meant.
"No doubt Naraku injected the poison in there himself, seeing as the only areas affected were the ones caused by his direct contact with you, but I have a feeling you knew this already."
Chewing on her lips, Kagome shrugged, momentarily derailed, "Kinda figured, his touch was all kinds of wrong."
"Now, Miss Higurashi. I apologies in advance, but there are a few questions that I need to ask of you."
Kagome leaned back onto her mountain of pillows, her body's fatigue beginning to catch up. Though she hadn't been awake for more than an hour, it felt as though she was sleep deprived.
"Ask away, Doc."
"Any neck pain or stiffness?"
Kagome tested her body now, twisting her neck from left to right. The action pulled at the wounds of her sides, but the pain originated from her ribs, not her neck.
"Nope."
"Headaches or weakness?"
"Inuyasha tends to give me headaches, does that count?"
The man fought back a smile, answering plainly, "No."
"Then, no."
"Okay good, now. While we did treat you and tested against the obvious; this is by no means a place equipped to handle your kind. You'll have to check with an actual hospital should you experience any nausea, vomiting, fainting spells, or loss of cognitive function."
She rolled her eyes, "Hospitals are for the weak and elderly."
His smile was friendly enough, but his next question had tension shooting through her, "One last question; was there a different type of injury he caused, maybe some that we couldn't find when you first arrived? Anything inappropriate, perhaps?"
Shooting back up, Kagome waved her hands around franticly, "NO! Not at all, I thought for a second... but no, I'm okay."
He sighed, patting his chest in relief, "Ah, very good. I'm happy to hear that, although I would be remiss not to suggest you see your resident psychologist, with cases such as these, the post-traumatic stress alone could-"
"I'm gonna stop you there, Doc. It's not like I can talk to my friendly neighborhood shrink, can't really explain the whole kidnapped by demons' situation."
The doctor chuckled, fidgeting with the pen in his hand, "No, I don't suppose so. Forgive me, you're not my usual patient and humans are more- delicate in a sense. The body can heal, but the psyche might take more than it can bear, please keep that in mind and try not to push yourself so far."
As he continued to fidget, Kagome had an intuition that there was more he wanted to say; unsure as to why her doctor would be anxious to ask her anything, she felt it was high time to get the ball rolling.
"So, Naraku-" just as she had been expecting, the man before her startled at the mention of his name, "You know him, I take it?"
"Know of him, more like. Not a pretty character that one."
"Yeah, not at all... Tell me about him."
Her doctor paused for a moment, not as if he was questioning whether to answer her question, but rather searching for where to begin.
"Naraku is an evil as old as time, rooted in the undergrounds of society, he's a destroyer of bloodlines, conqueror and colonizer. It has taken years just to disband his horde of demon followers, in that time many innocent lives have been cut short, families torn apart all for his benefit. And... he's a damn cockroach that just won't die."
"Ya' think!" He chuckled a light soft sound, and she decided then that she could like this man, his direct ways could be useful, "You wouldn't happen to know what his deal with Inuyasha is, would you?"
Again, his light laughter floated in the room, "I suppose I might. Although I don't think Inuyasha would like me discussing him so freely; then again, I don't necessarily care what Inuyasha thinks. Tell you what, I have a few questions myself, I answer yours and you answer mine?"
She tapped her index finger against her chin while she debated with herself, although the decision had already been made from the beginning, Kagome still wanted to drag this on just so he wouldn't think her easy to question, "Okay, I guess that works, so what do you want to know?"
He wasted no time, "I've read the report, your route was breached by a man in alliance with Naraku, but this was not the same person who indelibly captured you; is that right?"
Kagome had to take a moment to gather her thoughts. She was surprised there was a report that could be read, at the same time, battling her desire to go and find this report.
"Uh, yeah. Inuyasha kind'a 'took care' of the first guy," she didn't know what this man knew, could only assume, but didn't want to say anything that might get Inuyasha in trouble.
"When I came to, it was just Naraku and those- things."
"You mean you were able to see his Saimyōshō?" When the girl only tilted her head sideways, he clarified, "The Saimyōshō are demons of his own making, his 'Poison insects of hell' range in power and size, normally they look to be about over-sized hornets."
Kagome sat straighter, "Yes! Those things, I had no idea what they were, but there were hundreds of them."
His face grew pensive, the fidgeting increased. Although judged by that distracted look in his eyes, he wasn't aware of it.
"I suspected as much; by chance, did you see anyone else with him?"
"Anyone else?"
The girl tensed, had she still been hooked up to the machine, a very loud and telling beep would have no doubt sounded off. He couldn't possibly mean... no, even the idea of the second man tightened her jaw shut.
"Someone who might not have said anything to you or even approached you in anyway, but this person would be the one controlling those insects?"
"Controlling the insects? No, it was just-" then her mind played back a specific bit from that night, a memory wrapped in fog, as her mind fought with her to remember. "He was talking to someone just before he left the first time around," her eyes glazed over as she tried to bring focus to the picture, "but when I looked around, it was just those things."
It hadn't been the man at the end, no. That man had carried with him a darkness, a type of twisted aura, like a sickly slimy sensation. It would have been impossible not to feel that from the start, and if that man with the gentle beauty had been there from the beginning; Kagome wasn't sure she would have fared off as well as she did.
"But you didn't see anyone with him?"
It was Kagome's turn to fidget, her eyes peeked past her bangs at the man; if he knew Inuyasha, then he had to be a demon. But just as she was beginning to learn from her interaction with Naraku, not all demons could sniff out your lies.
Although there was a chance that this man in front of her was a demon, what were the chances he too could scent out deceit?
"No, there was no one with him."
She waited, her pulse a heavy drum that made her uneasy. However, the man before her didn't show signs of knowing, he simply took in what she was saying. Slowly, Kagome managed to relax.
"Okay, you asked your questions; now's my turn."
He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, making her think he was going to back out, but then his soft smile returned, "As is the fair thing, please, go right ahead Miss Higurashi."
Her eagerness showed in the way she shifted in the bed, "Why is Naraku so hell bent on brining Inuyasha down?"
"Heh, 'bring him down' what a human way of putting it," before she could ask, he moved on, "Why does the fox hate the hound? Why must the snake strike at the eagle?"
"You're saying their natural enemies?"
"Yes, and no. I've thought on this for some time, and while I do think nature has a hand to play with those two, I don't think that's all there is to it.
If what Naraku truly wanted was power above all else, why go after Inuyasha? There are others who would do more for his cause than him."
'Sesshomaru' Kagome thought, it made sense if Naraku was after power; why not go for the big wolf himself? As far as Inuyasha had explained, Sesshomaru was the head honcho around these parts.
"The best I've ever come up with is a personal vendetta, although Inuyasha denies this, the two have been after one another for decades, if not more. The hate they share seems too great for it to simply be about rising rank."
"I think you're right about that" She mumbled, pulling her knees high up against her, chin resting there as she spoke, "the way he spoke about Inuyasha... Naraku might be a homicidal maniac, but he seemed dead set on finding Inuyasha after... well after me."
Her doctor laughed, waving a hand in her direction when she raised an eyebrow in question, "Apologies, Miss Higurashi; I suppose you ended up being more than what Naraku bargained for."
Her face pulled to one of annoyance, which made his fits of laugh harder to control, "It's not funny you know, I could've died!"
e cleared his throat twice before he stopped, patting a hand over his chest, "Again, I am so sorry Miss Higurashi. It's just-" his next words touched home, "I have waited too long for Naraku to be stricked down and seeing as how all it took was one high schooler. The humor is not lost on me; but you are right, of course, it is no laughing matter."
"So," she interrupted another fit before it could start, "you think he's gone for good then?"
Instead of answering her, he lifted his right hand, it was covered in tattoos, long black marks that spread even to his fingertips. He flexed the hand, turning it this way and that way; the melancholy in his eyes as he stared at his hand, reached her as well.
"One piece down."
She waited for him to elaborate but could see he was lost in his own moment; despite the fact she didn't know him well, his pain was easy to feel.
Kagome leaned forward, hand reaching to pat his shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting gesture, then his indigo eyes caught her movements.
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Instantly he was on his feet, away from her and walking back around the bed, he gave purpose to his moves by checking the last machine she was attached to.
With a huff, Kagome stared at the remaining wires on her; just the two sticky pieces that clung to her collarbones. Annoyed, if not fully agitated by now, Kagome yanked these things lose. Surprising herself with the sharp pain shooting from her arms.
"No! Don't-" his warning was too late, curling around herself, the girl before him shook from the last painful jabs of dark miasma.
No whimper left her, no cries or shouts of any kind; in fact, the only thing that left her was one hissed out curse.
"I warned you. Humans can't take in Naraku's crap without draw backs, and until his tar is fully out of you, you will need to take it easy. Bed rest. Understood?"
Kagome gave a few more quiet curses, some of them directed to the man in the room, "It hurts" she finally managed to say.
"Of course it does; I can prescribe you some pain killers, but they'll be far too strong for your kind. Even with the lowest dosage possible, you must only take half a pill and no more."
She nodded, her focus on keeping tears from breaking surface; when he came back with a cut white pill, Kagome didn't bother questioning it, and just swallowed the thing.
It worked almost instantly, the pull from sleep amped up to a drag, as her body responded within a second. Kagome felt her head hit the pillows, but she hadn't felt herself falling back, and as her mind continued to fill with a thick fog, a different feeling emerged with it.
Her fear crept up beside her, she tried to sit up, but the feel of a heavy blanket over her only increased.
"N-no, I don't, I don't wanna..."
"Miss Higurashi," his voice seemed miles away, but when she cracked her eyes open, Kagome found him to be hovering directly above her, "This is a very powerful drug, do not fight it, it will only make you more tense."
She understood him, but still didn't care, the part of her that was her fear was growing with her rising inability. All it took was one good pull from her lungs, the word had been swirling around her mind as soon as she felt the first touch of unease; and before she went completely under, she released it into the air.
"Inu-Yasha!"
Her eyes fluttered shut, her head tilting sideways without her control; although her breathing was round and even with sleep, there was still a flicker of consciousness within her. It was enough to hear the door slam open, the growl recognizable anywhere, she wished she had the strength to turn towards him.
"Kagome?! Kagome!" his voice was shouting on top of her now, still the girl remained unresponsive, "The hell did you do to her you bastard?!"
"Will you please lower your voice, Inuyasha."
"Tell me what you did, now!"
"I gave her a mild sedative, something a child would take; then I split that in two and gave her the smallest portion."
"Then why is she-"
"This is no place for humans, Inuyasha, you and I both know this. I did what I could; Naraku left plenty of his poison in her, I'm surprised she's breathing at all."
There was a pause, frustration built as the darkness made their voices fainter.
"You said you could fix this, punk."
"Just because I'm a human who happens to have a medical degree, doesn't mean I am trained to handle these types of problems; but she'll survive. Though why you're acting like you care, I'll never know."
"Shut up, she saved my life. I owe her."
"Yes, and we both know how far you'll go for someone you owe."
Another heavy pause, "It ain't like that with her; you'll see."
The feeling of his hand combing through her hair came, she could recognize the feeling of him as if he had his own signature. If more was said, she didn't catch it. Her body was tired and the warmth from his hand was all the comfort she needed, with a small trace of a smile, she allowed sleep to take her once more.
