Sequence 3

Again, he missed his chance to protest as she ripped the bag from his hand and crossed the room to set it down on the table. Shuji was astonished as to how she found a place to set it. However, that wasn’t the issue at hand. Sasaki turned around and seemed more than a little upset at the fact that he hadn’t removed his shirt.

“Okay, if you don’t take it off I will, and neither of us wants that. I closed the shades for you. Now hurry up: before you bleed on my carpet.”

Shuji remained motionless until Sasaki took steps towards him with a determined look in her eye. “Okay! You don’t have to be that eager,” he complained. As she looked on in quiet contempt, Shuji slowly lifted his shirt to reveal the now bloodied bandages wrapped around his midsection.

“So, you did this yourself?” she asked. Sasaki approached him and stooped to stare at his bandaging handiwork. “Not too bad. Not good mind you, but at least it was able to stop the bleeding for a while.” Shuji let out a loud sigh. “Now, I’ll handle this next part. It’ll hurt. Sorry. Kinda.”

With that barely passable warning, Sasaki began to unwrap his bandages. For a while, he thought that she was wrong and there was no pain involved. Then she reached the innermost layer of bandages, which hugged his wound. Every time a bandage came off his wound, he bit his tongue.

After several such occurrences, Sasaki removed all of his bandages. Holding them loosely, Sasaki walked over to her desk and dropped them into a small trashcan. Turning around, she offered a small smile before calmly speaking. “That was the hard part. Now, lay down on your good side so I can heal you.”

Turning slowly, he wearily eyed the bed. He really didn’t want to lay on a girl’s bed shirtless. Not now at least. Even Shuji had that much shame. But, he felt a warm hand push his back lightly. Sighing, Shuji knew he’d give in. He’d been doing that often lately. Reluctantly, he climbed onto the petite medic’s bed and laid such that his wound faced upward. He only complied because she was a medic; that had to be it. Yotogi Shuji didn’t just bend over backward for women.

He heard the slight creak of the bed as Sasaki climbed onto it and sat next to him. “This’s gonna feel a bit cold,” she spoke calmly. Turning his head to view her, Shuji watched as she placed her hands a few inches over his wound. He’d never gotten hurt enough to warrant any soul-based healing. So, this would be a learning experience if nothing else. Sasaki began to take deep breaths and then exhaled slowly. As she did, her hands began to glow a dim, pale blue. This was strange, but it wasn’t feeling cold at all.

Then it did. It was like pouring ice water straight into his veins. This sensation started at his wound and began to disperse slowly across his entire midsection. Taking deep breaths of his own, Shuji tried to keep his body from shivering. It was a futile effort.

“It’s okay. If the worst you do is shiver, you’re a pretty tame patient,” she spoke offhandedly. After a minute more of this “treatment”, his teeth began to chatter, and he was approaching the line of freezing. He wondered if this was a natural reaction or if that depended on the patient. But such intelligent thoughts then devolved into wondering how fast he could find some hot coffee to dive into.

But then a warm hand came down on his wound softly. His face flinched out of instinct, but the hand remained there and then rubbed the small area which made up the wound. This should’ve hurt. This should’ve really hurt; that was his insides. But it didn’t. The pressure on what should’ve been his exposed injury didn’t bring any pain, only warmth.

“All done.” Sasaki removed her hand and beckoned for him to sit up.

He obliged, slowly. Rubbing his hand over what was once his injury, Shuji felt amazed at the effects of the treatment. There were no breaks or tears or gashes. There was only skin. On its own, such an injury would’ve taken weeks to heal. But, it had taken Sasaki less than five minutes to patch it up.

“How did you do that?” he asked in mild bewilderment.

Her response was only a smug smirk as she slid off the bed to stand up. Turning away from him, she began to cross her room to a small dresser on the far side. “The Vanguard teaches chumps like you how to swing your soul around for fighting Oni. In the Medical Division, we’re taught how to use our soul to speed up the body’s natural healing processes. For more intense procedures, we’re taught how to heal using our souls as a medium. But, that is a lot more annoying to do, and I don’t like that you enough for that.” As she spoke, she opened drawers and dug through them.

Shuji’s eyes drifted off of her for a moment. He’d always thought the Medical Division was for flunkies who couldn’t fight or were cowardly. But while not the best fighters, their abilities certainly useful. For instance, as strong as he was, Shuji had no idea how to manipulate his soul to help someone through their injuries. He’d only ever used it to improve his physical abilities...and that was only useful for killing Oni.

She kept digging in her drawer until she spun around with a victorious look on her face. From behind her back, she produced a rather large mess of pale red. “The shirt you wore here is pretty much shot. You can wear this back to your room.” She threw the mass of red towards Shuji who caught it with a slight stumble.

“But I want it back you hear me? That was a gift.” Unfolding the mass, Shuji saw that it was a rather large red coat. She was right; this had to be a gift. There was no way this would ever fit the compact girl in front of him. Sliding his arms into it, he quickly threw on the large jacket.

“This is a little large, Sasaki-chan.”

“Let’s eat.” She ignored his complaints and began to unpack the food at once. Then, using her feet to clear off a spot on the floor, she plopped down quickly. “Just move the stuff on the floor.” She pulled one of the containers from the plastic bag and set it in front of her.

Getting up, he crossed the room carefully and did as she said, moving the clutter with his foot. After he had made a suitable opening, Shuji sat down and reached for his own meal. “What did you get me?” he asked offhandedly as he pulled out a large soup container. Soup. He answered his own question.

“Simple miso soup. I figured I’d play it safe.” She opened her container to show that she had purchased Onigiri. Shuji felt more than a little cheated. “Y’know, you’re not as scrawny as you look.”

“I hear it’s bad practice to eye up your patients while treating them,” Shuji opened his soup, his sad and bland soup.

“If you don’t like getting eyed up, next time I’ll let you bleed out,” she laughed.

“You’re a bad nurse.”

The pair proceeded to eat their meals in near silence. Only exchanging small pleasantries over the quality of food. For some reason, such small talk wasn’t out of place. It wasn’t strained or uncomfortable. It was…surprisingly relaxing. Shuji hadn’t made small talk since he’d arrived.

Nevertheless, it didn’t last forever. Soon the pair had finished their meals and both were at a loss for words. It was a strange jump from what had been such natural interaction earlier. It was as if without food to share there was no reason for Shuji to be there. Perhaps they were both searching for a reason to keep him here. Probably not.

“Well, I guess you should get going then,” Sasaki spoke softly. She stood up and offered him only a blank face.

“I suppose I should.” He also rose slowly, reluctantly.

In a host-like fashion, she escorted him to her door and saw him out. He passed through the threshold of her room onto the balcony and turned back to face her.

“Don’t forget to get that coat back to me. Goodbye Shuji-kun.”

He raised his eyebrows at this. Was she really using his first name after knowing him for only a day? “Don’t you think you’re getting a little too familiar?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have a problem with you reciprocating. And I don’t really care if it embarrasses you.”

“Goodbye, Kin-chan,” he replied. Her name tasted bittersweet.