Ink Stained

98: tests*

She swallowed nervously as Aihara stepped back with a small, triumphant smile, and gestured for Pai to sit up. Aihara looked pleased.

Pai glanced nervously back. Kaede, sitting on the table by the window on the other side of the room, had hardly moved. He hadn't taken his eyes off Aihara for even a moment since they'd walked into Dokokai Hospital. He nodded reassuringly at Pai when he caught her gaze, though his expression remained entirely closed off as he watched Aihara and Kanou talk.

She still wasn't sure why Aihara insisted they all meet here, of all places. Aihara claimed that there were resources at the hospital she could use, but for what, she never said. Kanou told her that when he talked to Aihara the nurse mentioned conducting a few non-invasive tests. She claimed it would be easier to do it at the hospital where she'd worked for three years and still did odd jobs for here and there, as well as the fact that they would have privacy for their meeting.

Then she'd gone ahead to say that she would have invited Pai to her house to do it, but considering her ties with the Tengu, and that Aihara was married to an Ookami, she didn't think it wise on both their parts. Pai agreed, and even Kuniumi admitted sense in that.

For some reason, she felt like Kuniumi agreed to it for different reasons to her own.

Coming back to this hospital, after her last visit here being months ago when she'd nearly died because she'd tried killing herself in her subconscious – surprise, surprise – left her tense and anxious to leave as soon as possible. She didn't like hospitals to begin with, and this one most especially.

Still...being here again, and because Aihara suggested it, made her a little warier than she already was to trust Aihara. This hospital was owned by Kouta, and it was one of several scattered throughout the city that catered specifically to Hengen, as well as humans.

If Aihara had once worked here, she must have known that. And if Aihara once worked here, treating Hengen when she was Hanyou herself...Pai wasn't entirely convinced that there wasn't more to Aihara that the nurse wasn't telling them.

So far, they'd only done two things that she figured could pass for tests. One was Aihara noting down her weight, height, temperature, and blood pressure, then comparing them to the files Kanou brought with him for the meeting. Pai had lost weight – three kilograms in one month. The weight loss led Aihara to asking her a series of questions, including, 'do you have any eating disorders, or a history of it?' to which the answer was a flat no, and 'have you been very stressed for a while?' to which the answer was a reluctant yes.

Pai never thought she would be one of those people who didn't eat when they were stressed. She liked food. She always ate normally – but she'd never been as stressed as she had been for the last few months, either. Worries about how well she would do on upcoming tests were nothing compared.

The second test was her lying down on the hospital bed of the empty room Aihara had led them into (scoped out within seconds of entrance by Kaede to confirm there was nothing life-threatening within) as Aihara poked her stomach in several areas and asked if any hurt. None did. She had no idea why that mattered, until Aihara said that the only parts of a Hanyou's body that indicated any Ayakashi lineage was the stomach (she might have mentioned the word 'diet', which made Pai think of how anthropophagus Ayakashi used to be, which made her nauseas when she wondered how on earth that could have something to do with Hanyou's stomachs).

Aihara didn't go further into specifics, only saying that Ayakashi bodies were biologically different humans. Hanyou reflected that aspect. By pressing in on key points on and around the stomach in a fashion similar to acupuncture, certain reactions would confirm a person being Hanyou. Aihara didn't explain herself, but she nodded several times in satisfaction whenever Pai banally answered her questions after every prod at her stomach. Whatever it meant, it only seemed to substantiate her being Hanyou.