試験
A jittery sensation seeped into her bones as she lay back on the hospital bed in the empty room at Dokokai Hospital, Aihara and Kanou talking in rapid voices over her. Tiny claws scratched under her skin, biting and nipping to break their way out and shred her to bloody pieces.
It wasn't that she felt like a lab experiment laid out in front of two healers with itchy fingers to poke and prod her to figure out what made her tick. It wasn't that she could barely comprehend anything of what the two talked about as Aihara earnestly explained something to Kanou. It wasn't the worry about what would happen once she and Shin got to Kyoto tomorrow that had her scared out of her wits and twitchy to get up and start running.
It was that she was sure that she'd lain on a cold metal slab like this, with far less clothing, drowsy after being doped up on drugs. She knew, she knew, even without properly remembering it. She knew something like that had happened, and lying on this bed, so much softer, so much cosier, still reminded her of it.
She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her hands to tight fists, the curves of her nails digging into her palms as she fought to calm the rising tide of intense discomfort sweeping through her.
This wasn't So Fu.
This wasn't the Doctor, doing whatever it was he did to those who ended up under his scalpel.
This isn't a memory, she chanted to herself, fighting to quell the anxiousness stirring in her gut. This isn't a memory, this isn't a memory, this isn't –
But isn't it?
I hate you, she snapped back viciously.
Love you too, Kuniumi returned in a flat voice, totally uncaring.
She shook her head and tried to ignore Kuniumi's presence, instead focusing outward. She glanced to the side and caught Kaede's eye. The Daitengu nodded, reassuring her that he was there. A small smile of relief lighted her face. He wasn't Shin, but she was still glad for his presence there.
Kaede had come with them, on Kouta's insistence. With his Ability to hear anything, Kaede would be able to more accurately tell if Aihara was lying about something from body tics Aihara made that she wouldn't even be aware she was making. Pai had thought Shin would come, but he was tied up with work he had to do with Kouta regarding their trip to Kyoto tomorrow.
She hadn't Kaede to come because she knew how painful it got for him to be in the city. There were millions of people, cars, animals. She'd heard Haru mention before that such noise had overwhelmed him a few times before. Kaede was the only one at the house who rarely left it, and when he did, he was with Shouta or Ryosuke, who kept him from being run over because Kaede wore spelled ear plugs in an attempt to mute the devastating effect of the noise around him.
But Kaede himself refused to let her and Kanou go alone, joking that Kanou was a healer and couldn't protect the both of them if something happened. Kanou, surprisingly, didn't rise to the bait and agreed with Kaede.
Kanou reminded her that Aihara was not the only one they needed to be wary of. Yori Chiisai still hounded her whenever she stepped too far away from the magical boundary of Ayashi House, and Kanou warned her that a Shimo Oni had once come after her. It would be foolhardy to let something like that happen again.
He hadn't meant to, she knew, but a pang of guilt went through her at his reminder of the Onihitokuchi, the unspoken mention of the Amanojaku that stole Shin's now defunct Mask. If only she'd noticed the Oni, so much pain and suffering could have been avoided.
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.
The thought stung like bile coating the back of her throat.
"What is going on?" she asked, sitting up on the bed and putting her clenched hands on her lap.
She didn't know what the two healers been arguing – debating? – about. Her flighty nerves and perpetual fear of what would happen next, now that everything was out in the open, practically made her deaf to everything happening outside her head.
"Is everything all right?" she went on, watching as Kanou walked around the bed to stand beside Kaede.
Aihara nodded. "Everything is fine. I was just reassuring your sceptical healer that what I'm about to teach you to do now isn't some mind-controlling, brainwashing trick."
She stared blankly at her. She looked at Kanou, who was watching Aihara with single-minded focus, as if he was looking for the odd tail or errant extra ear to indicate she was Hanyou. He had his arms crossed over his chest, grizzly brows lowered to a fierce frown of concentration. He didn't look at ease in the least. That in turn made the ball of nerves in her stomach squeeze ever tighter.
Kaede was so silent that she kept forgetting he was even there. She was pretty sure Aihara was, too. His green eyes glowed slightly with fierce intensity as he focused on the woman. Pai narrowed her eyes when a flicker of pain had him twitching a little. He caught her look, but shrugged it off and nodded back at Aihara.
Focus on her, he mouthed.
Are you okay? she asked.
He nodded, pointed again. She eyed him warily before turning back to Aihara. "What do you want to teach me?"
"Hanyou are half-Ayakashi, and thus, we have special [abilities], powers, if you will, that speak to our Ayakashi halves." Aihara answered, ignoring the silent question she'd seen Pai mouthing. "Before I became Hanyou no Ningen, my [ability] was body tissue regeneration. That is something all Ookami are capable of, and why they're the longest-living Hengen, after the Kitsune. Even though I chose to become human, I can still use my [ability] a little bit. Not as much as I used to, but a little."
Pai was lost.
"What does that mean?" she asked. "Body tissue regeneration?"
Aihara opened her mouth to explain, and then shut it and looked away. She walked over to her purse set on the table by the window overlooking the parking lot of Dokokai Hospital. They were way up on the twelfth floor, five levels above the floor she had been in after the Onihitokuchi's attack. Being back in this hospital stirred up unpleasant memories of a world with an angry sea boiling beneath clouds firm enough to walk on, giant serpents that rose up from those watery depths and screamed to the heavens.
She resolutely fought to keep from dwelling on them as she watched Aihara return with a small but sharp knife in her hand. She tensed and shuffled away from the blade. In an instant, Kaede was no longer sitting at the table, but standing protectively in front of Pai as he glowered menacingly at Aihara, grasping her wrist in a steel grip to keep her from moving another inch.
Aihara froze at his sudden appearance, her hand clenching around the hilt of the knife, before easing her hold on it. Kanou, behind them, watched the nurse carefully from where he perched by her purse.
"Don't worry, Suzuki-san," she said reassuringly, twisting her wrist in his hand. He didn't move an inch. She scowled at him. "I'm not going to hurt her, if that's what you're thinking. I just think it best to demonstrate what my [ability] is, rather than to explain."
"I thought you said you are human," Pai asked sceptically.
"That's what I want to show you." She didn't take her eyes off of Kaede. "I promised not to hurt her, remember?"
"Take care that you keep your word, Aihara-san." Kaede warned in a low voice, his first words besides giving her his name gruffly. He let go of her wrist.
Unease flickered in the depths of her eyes before she straightened her back and tried to mask her malaise with a confident smile. By now she could guess that however it happened, Pai had stronger connections to the Ayakashi world than Aihara had previously anticipated.
Maybe that will make her think twice before trying anything, she thought.
Guess again, Kuniumi maundered. She's married to an Ookami. You have no idea who he is. You'd do well not to forget what his position in the Clan may be.
She frowned behind Kaede, eyes glazing over as she focused on the nuance tones in Kuniumi's voice. Do you know who he is?
Kuniumi laughed, greatly amused by the question. Of course.
Of course Kuniumi knew who he was. Who?
That would be telling, she sang. Another crystalline laugh pinged in her mind. But you would never guess who it is, would you? Even though you know.
Her lips curled. She knew there was no point in pushing for answers she wasn't going to get. It would only lead to a headache pounding through her skull, and equal measures of frustration and loathing for the woman who had so many answers and refused to divulge them because it would make things 'boring.'
Kaede moved to the side, but only to stand by the head of the bed Pai sat stiffly on. Aihara nodded at him, and then slowly approached Pai as if she was walking on eggshells.
"Quite the protection detail you've got yourself, Momozono-san," she murmured, trying to sound relaxed when Pai could tell she was anything but, if only from the strain of her shoulders under her floral-printed blouse and her pursed, unsmiling lips.
"Do you want me to apologize for it?" she bristled.
"No. It's a good thing, so long as you're all right with it. Our scent is invisible to the Ayakashi world, but Oni are disturbingly good at picking us out in the crowd." Her lips twisted in aversion. "They like how we taste. We are a delicacy to them."
She stiffened, as did Kaede and Kanou. "What?"
Aihara nodded, oblivious to their reactions. "Shimo Oni, in particular, actively hunt us to devour our flesh. Okina Oni do little to discourage the practise of Hanyou cannibalism. Apparently, the blend of human and Ayakashi is something they find quite delectable."
Hey, did you know? Kuniumi whispered happily. Oni love meat. Human, animal, Yori Chiisai. It doesn't matter where the flesh comes from.
The Onihitokuchi wasn't after Shiori?
Shiori? Kuniumi repeated, sounding so genuinely stunned that it would have been comical under different circumstances. You think that thing was after Shiori? Please, it wouldn't care for her if the two of you were handed over to it side-by-side on a silver platter. She's the appetizer – you are the main course. And dessert.
She couldn't believe it.
All this time, she'd thought that it had been negligence on her part. That the Onihitokuchi was after Shiori because she was the Koki Sakura Hime, and Pai just happened to be in the way. She thought that all the suffering and pain Shin went through since his Mask was stolen was because she hadn't been paying enough attention.
She'd been wrong about it this whole time? She'd blamed herself for no real reason? For nothing?
It was after me because I'm Hanyou?
Kuniumi cackled, delighted in the shock coursing through Pai at the unexpected revelation. As soon as it caught your scent, the infernal creature would be stupid enough to follow you all the way up to Ayashi House to get its claws in you. Like a tick, it would never stop until you were in its belly, or it was dead. It would have strung you out to last for days, you taste so good.
Pai had to fight off the slow grin itching to spread over her face, Kuniumi's own manic glee leaking into her. Don't you remember how determined it was to get to you, even when facing down a feared Daitengu like lovely Shin? Even when it knew what it faced was death personified?
"It's good that you're protected," Aihara was saying, unaware of the tumultuous roaring in Pai's head from the revelation that the Oni had been after her, for her flesh, had known she was Hanyou and hunted her for it before she knew it herself. "If you die from unnatural causes, you won't be coming back."
Pai stilled. "What do you mean?"
"Hanyou need to die naturally, in their own time and circumstances. If we're killed, whatever it is that allows us to come back to life no longer works. If we're killed, we stay dead, just like anyone else."
That was certainly a game changer. She doubted she'd argue so much against one of the Daitengu accompanying her when she went out now, knowing what it would mean if something like what happened with the Onihitokuchi were to happen again.
It was only then that it struck her. She couldn't believe how obtuse she'd been not to register it before now, what with how many times Aihara had so casually mentioned it.
"How...how did you die?" she asked.
A faraway look crept into Aihara's eyes, her lips thinning. She looked like she was remembering something not with particular fondness, but more with wary caution. Pai guessed that anyone recalling their own death won't do so with warmth. But then again, not many could claim to be able to remember dying. Death tended to be final.
She said quietly, "Peacefully. It happened while I was sleeping. I was lucky, in that aspect."
"Is that how I..." she trailed off, unable to continue.
That was the thing she couldn't get used to, despite accepting that she was Hanyou. She'd admitted it to herself, even said it aloud, but there was still a large part of her that felt like she was stuck in some strange, lucid dream-like state, where her impending death couldn't possibly be real.
She accepted it would happen, but she didn't expect it to.
Aihara shrugged, shaking her head. "I don't know. It's different for everyone. Some die in their sleep, others die painfully. It's not something any one of us are able to predict, what with how rare we are."
Not that rare, she thought, remembering the training room she'd sparred in with Rikuto, in one of her memories. The place was full of other people, some around her age, others a little older, more than a few younger than her.
She frowned as a thought came to her, reminded by Kouta's suspicion; if So Fu used Hanyou as their Agents to carry out their dirty work, how come Aihara hadn't gotten roped into it? Did she know about them? Was it even safe to ask?
Her attention was yanked away from her meandering thoughts as her eyes widened in horror when, with a decisive downward slash of her hand, Aihara sliced the blade of her knife over her palm.
The sound of the blade slicing skin open jolted her stomach. Bile rose up at the back of her throat at the blood-soaked memories flashing before her eyes. She leaped forward with a startled yelp and grabbed Aihara's freely bleeding hand, staring at the wound and then back up at Aihara's totally unfazed expression.
"What are you doing!" she yelled, reaching back for the blanket folded neatly on top of the pillow to press it over the bleeding wound. "Are you crazy?!"
The nurse shook her head and nodded at her hand. "No. Watch."
Pai scowled, but let go of Aihara as she looked down at her hand. A small puddle of blood pooled in the centre of her cupped palm, thick and sluggish. The split seams of her skin were cut cleanly, peeling back as blood flowed out.
Her mouth popped open as she stared at the openly gaping wound now sucking the blood it was letting flow out only moments ago right back in. Her stomach battled against the nausea swimming through her as she watched meaty muscle and skin knitting back together the way cloth would if one were to watch it mending itself, until all that she was looking at was the pale, unmarked palm of Aihara.
"Body tissue regeneration means that, on a small level, I can heal my own wounds. Little cuts and bruises, the like." Aihara shrugged nonchalantly as she wiped her palm against the side of her jeans, as if there was still blood decorating her. "I used to be able to do more before I died. I once healed my own broken leg within a couple of hours. Now, this is all I can do."
"What does..." she swallowed thickly. Kanou and Kaede were mute, just as surprised at the unexpected development as she was. If nothing else did, this confirmed Aihara's story. "Are you saying that I can do something like that, like you?"
"No, not like me." Aihara corrected with a wry laugh. "But you are Hanyou, and you haven't died yet. You have some [ability] that you can use. Hell," she shrugged nonchalantly. "You might even be Ookami, like me."
Pai tensed, instantly wary. "You want to cut me?"
Aihara chuckled drily. "No, no, it takes practise to do even this much. No, we'll do something else to figure out what your [ability] is. I'm sure you're just as curious as I am."
"Why?" Kaede asked suspiciously. He managed to keep his surprise at what just happened in check, donning a face without any interpretable expression. "Why do you want to know?"
"It will help to figure out what kind of Hanyou Momozono-san is," Aihara said to him. "That will be the first step in trying to determine the approximate time period it will take for her to die."
She frowned. "I thought you said it was different for every Hanyou."
"It is, it is," she assured. "But after years of study, I've noticed that there's a pattern. Hanyou live for around the same amount of time according to what Hengen they are. For example, it took me ten years to die. Hanyou no Ookami, all the ones I could find, all died within ten years of making their choice.
"Hanyou no Kitsune die between two to four years. Hanyou no Tanuki, Mujina, and Tsuchigumo all revolve between five and fifteen years. I'm not sure about Hebi and Nue – they're not particularly forthcoming. I'm not entirely sure there are any Hanyou of the like, to be perfectly honest."
Pai's eyes had been steadily widening at every figure Aihara threw at her, until she felt like they were about to pop right out of their sockets. "Are you saying it can take me anywhere between two and fifteen years?"
Aihara nodded. "Yes. If we can figure out what kind of Hanyou you are, that will significantly narrow the scale down." She glanced over her shoulder at Kanou, remaining silent where he sat. "Is that good enough an explanation for you, or do you still think I'm trying to brainwash her for my own nefarious ends?"
Kaede scowled at her. "Very funny."
She winked back. "I'm a great comedian, wouldn't you say?"
I thought she's married? She openly stared at her as the nurse turned back to her.
A little harmless flirting never killed anyone. Oops, wait, she giggled. Scratch that. Get a testosterone-fuelled, jealous boyfriend, and a little harmless flirting might get someone dead.
Your sense of humour is out of this world, Kuniumi, she thought scathingly as she redirected her attention back on Aihara.
Better mad and spontaneous than monotone and boring.
You mean mad and dangerous?
That too.
"Right," Aihara clapped her hands lightly and rubbed them together before putting them on her shoulders.
She winced at the contact, but either Aihara took no notice of it, or chose to ignore it.
Aihara peered into her eyes and said, "I want you to focus inside of yourself, Momozono-san. Go inside your head, in the quiet where it's empty, and breathe."
No peace and quiet where the mad lurk in the shadows of false sanity.
"I thought you said this is not brainwashing." She remarked flatly.
Aihara smiled. "It's not. Trust me."
She glanced at Kanou. He shook his head minutely. He was one of the very, very few (literally only two people actually) who knew the inside of her head was not as empty as it was supposed to be. He knew about Kuniumi, but clearly he didn't want her mentioning that to Aihara.
Pai lifted a brow at the nurse. "Am I meditating?"
A shrug. "If you want to see it that way. Meditation is an excellent way of releasing yourself, and that's what I want you to do. I want you to let go of yourself, feel yourself becoming weightless. That will allow you to tap into the [ability] inside."
"What if I do not want to?"
Aihara frowned. "What could you have to fear from your own mind, Momozono-san?"
More than you can imagine, Pai thought uncomfortably.
Finally, with a hesitant nod, she shut her eyes. The room fell into complete, if somewhat uneasy, silence. Though she focused on her breathing, she didn't heed Aihara's words. She slowed her breath to pretend like she was going inside her head, but her thoughts ran on like a train hurtling over the tracks, unable to stop, turning from one direction to the other at breakneck speed. She was doing everything she could not to let herself relax to the point that the hold she had over her own body loosened.
Because she didn't fully trust Kuniumi. Not after the memory in which she'd met Kagetora, not after she found out that he'd known all along of Kuniumi's presence in her mind yet had never let on to the fact while on the island training Shin. Not when Kagetora knew something about So Fu, and pinned all the blame of its crimes on Kuniumi.
Not when that memory showed her that Kuniumi could forcefully use her body, even just to speak, when Pai was supposedly strong enough to fight her off.
Come now, don't be so mean. We'll help you, Kuniumi said. A cold, invisible arm settled around her shoulders. She resisted the urge to throw it off. We won't do what you don't want us to. We promised you wouldn't hurt.
Her lips tightened. She was not going to let her guard down just because Kuniumi said it was all right to.
She still needed help, though. That was not something she could deny, especially to someone who could flick through her mind like it was a book, who could listen to her thoughts like they were broadcast on a radio for all to hear when only one should have heard them.
Can you help me use my [ability]?
A sharp bark of laughter had her starting in surprise. Oh, just like the first time! You needed our help then, you need our help now. Longwei was right – you need us as much as we need you.
Just answer the question, she snapped, unsettled. Pai needed her? For what? The only thing she needed from Kuniumi was for her to leave. And what did she mean 'like the first time'? And who the hell was Longwei?
Kuniumi sighed heavily. Exasperation crept into her chest, and her lips twisted as she forced herself to separate where the thinning line between her and Kuniumi ran inside them. This was happening too often – Kuniumi's emotions were seeping into her too easily. Her own face moved to reflect Kuniumi's thoughts and feelings, as if it didn't belong to her anymore.
It unnerved her.
Yes. We shall. It'll be such fun to see their faces when they see what you can do.
A deep tug in the pit of her stomach.
Ice crept over her skin, her muscles weighing heavy, as if she was turning to stone. Dark spots danced like manic dragonflies in the edges of her vision, and she opened her eyes to blink rapidly to keep the sudden weakness that overcame her from pulling her under its lulling spell of unconsciousness.
The bolt of black lightning streaking from her clenched fist caught her by surprise as much as everyone else in the room with her. It crackled, alive and writhing in grey shadows of smoke, as it shot from her hand splaying open straight to the ground.
She jumped, muscles twitching in a fight-or-flight instinct that nearly overwhelmed her. Terrible memories – those that plagued her dreams and those that hadn't yet visited her nights – flashed before her eyes in an overpowering myriad of images, so fast that she was barely able to focus on one before another flitted in.
Rubble cracked as the stone floor of the hospital room broke. The errant bolt of lightning, so pure it was black and lined in white at the edges, vaporized almost instantly at the touch. Aihara yelped as Kaede grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the way before another could leap out of nowhere and harm her.
Pai yanked her trembling hands to her chest before tucking them under her arms, wincing at the little electric currents she could still feel dancing over her skin like live wire. Exhaustion crashed over her, and she slumped, listing to the side, awareness flickering.
Kaede caught her before she could fall, an arm around her shoulders to keep her steady as her head lolled. Though a wave of uncomfortable goosebumps rose over her skin at the tactile contact, she didn't push him away, or move. She struggled to keep her eyes open over the burning of a headache pounding in her skull. She doubted that she could lift an arm, never mind sit up on her own.
She shook her head, trying to dispel the black dots blossoming to dark butterflies in her vision. "Sorry," she mumbled tiredly. "I did not – "
Aihara waved her apology away. Instead of looking at her in horror, in fear, Aihara was sorrowful. Maybe it was because she knew what it meant to have an [ability]. Maybe it was because she knew what it felt like to know she was dying and know there was nothing she could do to stop it from happening.
"Well," Aihara said, a calm voice amidst the confusing swirl in her mind. "That certainly does narrow it down a bit."
Pai squinted through the black butterflies that were slowly, steadily, fading. Was that you?
No.
Me?
Yes. We just helped. We're going now.
Kuniumi? Are you...
Too late. She was gone.
Pai forced herself to shrug off the uneasiness she felt at Kuniumi's odd tone, to focus more on trying not to let herself be swept under the tidal wave of shock and muddiness swirling in her at what she'd just done.
"It seems that, prior to losing your memory," Aihara was speaking. "You already knew about your [ability], and how to use it."
"How can you tell?" Kaede asked, worry flickering in his mint green eyes as he looked up from her to the nurse.
Aihara smiled kindly at him, noting the look, and then pointed back at the hole in the ground. "No Hanyou without knowledge of their [ability] can generate that much power on the first try. In fact, it takes several attempts to get anywhere near that level."
Pai's stomach curdled at the reminder of her time in So Fu. That was the only place she could have learned to use this [ability], even if she couldn't remember much of it.
"And what about what I am?" she asked tiredly.
"There are really only two viable options from what just happened. One," Aihara said. "You are Hanyou no Ookami, like me."
"Why Ookami?" Kanou asked. He was no longer sitting at the table off to the right, but standing beside Aihara. Pai didn't know when he'd moved. He looked ready to pull her away and take her straight home, a frown on his face as he worriedly noted the deep circles under her eyes, the pallor to her skin.
"Ookami are masters of black magic. Tissue regeneration is not the only thing we can do." Aihara answered, looking at him as she reached for the blood-pressure arm-cuff she'd used a few minutes ago, lying beside Pai's leg on the bed. "It's not out of the realm of possibility that we can use electric currents in such a manner."
"And the second? You said there were two," Pai's voice croaked as she asked the question. Her throat was drier than a desert, coated in sawdust.
She was so tired. She just wanted to go home and sleep. All her energy had been drained by releasing just one bolt of power like that, even if Kuniumi helped to get it out in the first place.
Yet she couldn't help remembering being able to bend the shadows around her to move as far away from Kagetora as she could. How? How had she been so strong before, and fallen to such depths that she was little more than a weakling now?
"Yes," Aihara gestured, and Pai stuck her arm out obediently. Aihara wrapped an arm-cuff around her arm. She put the stethoscope around her neck and prepared the inflation bulb as she continued, "The second is that you are Hanyou no Kitsune."
For one blissful second, total and complete silence fell upon the room. No one stirred. It was like everyone drew in a collective breath of surprise at the words that left Aihara's mouth. Pai idly wondered if dragons existed, because the roaring she felt couldn't possibly be in her head alone. It was too much, too loud, too close, too deafening.
"Kitsune?"
"Hm," Aihara nodded. She was oblivious to the impact of the possibility it left on everyone. "Kitsune have what you might call 'pet flames' they control, kitsunebi. Those kitsunebi in turn influence anything that generates fire, and electric currents like lightning definitely count. Kitsunebi are more like conduits for that power. It takes years for Hanyou no Kitsune to develop kitsunebi of their own, but in the meantime, they're able to tap directly into the channel of energy generated by the flames within themselves. That's a lot more taxing than kitsunebi, though."
"I...I..."
The ability to form a comprehensible sentence had deserted her. She could only stare at Aihara soundlessly as she tried to digest her words, what it meant if she was half Kitsune.
If her father or mother was Kitsune...did it mean one was part of the attack on the Tengu ten years ago? Did it mean one of them had done such a thing, killed innocent people on the orders of power-hungry Kings like the Ueno's?
She was nine years old when Shin lost his parents, his uncle. She was nine when Daichi's little sister died, when Shouta lost his entire family, when Kaede lost his brothers, when all the Tengu lost someone they loved because of mad Kings lusting for what was not theirs.
Did it mean that while she and Midori were peacefully at home, with no knowledge of what either of their parents may be, one of them had slunk off into the night to stage a bloody attack on the Tengu while their own children slumbered in safety?
An achingly familiar buzzing starting in her wrists, and she put a shaking hand up to her forehead as she shut her eyes and tried to forcefully will the headache away. She was nauseas and dizzy when her eyes were open, too many things moving around.
She was too tired to notice the wide-eyed look on Kaede's face as he stared at her shaking hands, the concerned expression on Kanou's as he watched her carefully, or the confusion on Aihara's as she took note of the trembling.
Aihara stepped forward and placed the back of her hand on Pai's forehead. "You have a fever."
She went to her purse and pulled a small notebook out of it, quickly jotting something down before coming back and plugged the earpieces of her stethoscope to her ear, putting the chest-piece to Pai's thorax. She breathed in deep, then out, on Aihara's command, slow and steady. The rhythm had her almost dropping off to sleep right there, so wholesome was her weariness with everything.
After that, she pumped the inflation bulb several times, took note of the reading on the manometer, before using the air-release valve to ease the tight arm-cuff around Pai's arm. After a minute, Aihara nodded again and said, "Systolic pressure at one twenty-three, diastolic pressure at ninety-two."
"That's not good." Kanou murmured with a concerned frown. "Humans' blood pressure should be lower than that."
"Yes," Aihara nodded, unstrapping the armband and carefully folding it as she set it aside.
"What should it be at?" Kaede asked.
"Systolic pressure should be below one twenty, and diastolic should be safely between eighty and ninety." Kanou answered off-handily.
Aihara gave him a thankful smile, appreciative of the fact that Kanou knew quite a fair bit about the workings of the human body. She turned back to Pai and said, "You should go home now, Momozono-san. I'd like to meet again, if you don't mind, to run some more tests."
She nodded absently. Aihara peered at her, wondering if perhaps she shouldn't have requested Pai to use her [ability] when her condition wasn't at its best to begin with.
"I want you to go home and get plenty of rest, eat well, and take in lots of fluids. You're extremely fatigued. Any more will do more harm than good, at this point." She turned to Kaede, a serious expression on her face. "Take care of her. She's just used her [ability], and that's when Shimo Oni find it easier to sniff us out."
He scowled down at her. "Why'd you make her use it, then?"
"Because we need to know what Hanyou she is to know why her condition is deteriorating so fast," she snapped back. "She's already nineteen. That's three years that have passed since she made her choice. If she's Kitsune, we do not have that much time." She glanced back at Pai, who was already almost falling asleep, hardly listening to the conversation anymore. "And I don't like her hands shaking like that. That's not something I've ever seen before."
Kanou frowned. "What do you mean? No other Hanyou you've met had this?" he asked sharply.
Aihara stared at Kanou for a long moment before she shook her head. "No...to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure that has anything to do with Momozono-san being Hanyou." She glanced back at Pai's hands, trembling as she clasped them together to try and hide it, failing miserably anyway. "That looks like it's something else entirely."
×
Pai and Kaede waited in the hall just outside the hospital room, Kanou still talking to Aihara about something.
She had tried to hide the shaking of her hands before Kaede called her out on it and said there was no point in doing that anymore if everyone knew about it. She nodded, having to accept that with a quiet sigh of frustration, and sat down on the bench with her back pressed against the wall as they waited. She stared down at her shaking hands, waiting for them to stop, counting down the minutes. She was at four minutes and twenty-seven seconds when the trembling ebbed away slowly.
Kaede drummed his feet in an unsteady beat beside her, remaining standing and leaning on the wall. It was hard for her to focus on not nodding off with the beat filling her mind, lulling her to sleep. They stayed that way for three minutes before her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out.
A tired smile broke out when she saw the caller ID. A faint chuckle sounded from Kaede above her. She glanced up to see him smirking knowingly down at her.
"What?" she asked defensively, already pushing herself up to stand, using the wall behind her as support.
"Nothing, nothing," he waved a hand at her, grinning. "Go talk to lover-boy before he accuses me of keeping you all to myself."
She flushed at his words, ducking her head behind her hair as she nodded gratefully to him before scurrying past. She slowed as she neared the staircase at the end of the empty hall. She slid her finger across the screen, already feeling a thousand times better when she thought about seeing him again soon, her stomach curling tight in anticipation to hear his voice.
"Hi," she said shyly.
"Hey, butterfly," she smiled at his personal endearment for her. She never could have imagined how it much she loved to hear him calling her that. "Where are you? Still at the hospital?"
Her smile broadened at the concern tingeing the colours of his voice. She pressed the back of her faintly trembling hand to her lips to keep her face from splitting apart with the force of her grin. "Yeah. You don't need to worry, you know. Kaede-san is here."
He chuckled wryly. Something tight coiled in her stomach at the sound. "And what if that's what I'm worried about? The man's got little to no sense of direction, whatsoever."
"Well," she drew the word out. "I can find my way around a train station pretty well, so I think we'll be all right."
"I don't doubt it." She glowed at the small praise. "Is Kanou-san there?"
"No, he's talking with Aihara-san." She looked down at her wristwatch. Kanou had been in there with her for close to ten minutes already.
"About what?" he asked. Through the faintly crackling line of the phone, she heard the rustling of papers. She wondered what he was doing that had kept him so tied up he couldn't come with her, when she'd seen in his eyes that he'd really wanted to.
Her smile dropped a little as she thought about Kuniumi's leaving after drawing the power out of Pai, how tired Kuniumi sounded. She thought about the dark lightning arcing from her fingers, encompassing her hands in smoky black gloves as it tore a hole through the concrete floor. Someone would have to explain that to the hospital staff.
"I'll tell you about it when I get back home," she answered. She didn't think dropping that particular bomb was something to be done over the phone.
"Want me to come pick you up?"
She shook her head; spoke up when she remembered that Shin couldn't exactly see her doing that. "It's fine, Shin. You really don't need to worry. Yori Chiisai have an indiscriminate fear of Hengen, remember? They're even scared of healers."
It had been quite amusing, on the way to Dokokai Hospital, to watch several Yosei fly as fast as their tiny wings could take them away from Kanou, screeching like small banshees. Even Kaede laughed and teased Kanou about it, asking if the old man had some hidden tricks up his sleeve.
Kanou had brushed it off with a simple, "Try pushing me and see where that 'hidden trick' lands you, dear boy."
That shut Kaede up instantaneously. Kanou had access to every herbal and pharmaceutical concoction in the house, and Obaasan didn't chase him out of the kitchen the way she did the other Tengu. Pai had practically seen the gears turning in Kaede's head as he pondered all the different ways Kanou could discreetly slip something in his food or water in demonstration of one such 'hidden trick'
Shin laughed openly, and happiness bubbled in her chest at the wonderful sound. She only wished she could have been there, in person, right next to him, when he laughed. Hearing it over the phone was no comparison to in person. It had happened several times now, him laughing at something she said, but she didn't think she could ever get tired of his laugh. It was beautiful in ways she couldn't begin to describe, not if she had a thousand languages at the tip of her tongue to use.
"Never mess with the healer," he commented drily. "That applies to both ally and enemy."
"Very true." She nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. Healers had a lot more power than many gave them credit for. They could deny a person life, if they so wished. "I'll see you soon?"
"Might not." Her eyes widened infinitesimally. Did he sound sad? She heard another rustle of paper. "Did you know that Tengu who haven't resided in Kyoto's city limits for longer than six months are required to get something like thirteen visas if they want to simply fly over the city?"
"What?" she blinked, shocked. "Without even stopping in the village?"
"Without even stopping in the city," he added, sighing so heavily that she had to bite back a very loud laugh. "I'm up to my neck with these damn rules and regulations about us entering the airspace in Kyoto, especially because it's on such short notice. Damned bureaucracy."
"Really? Even with Kouta-sama?"
He hummed in affirmation. "It took us months to get the approval to go for the signing of the Treaties. It's hell now. I swear this is just like Kouta, springing this on me without warning, and then foisting all the paperwork on me," he added crabbily.
"Oh," she sagged, though she tried not to let it show in her voice. Shin was working hard. She wasn't going to make him feel bad about it. "Then I'll see you when I see you?"
"Yeah." Was it just her or did he sound actually disappointed, as she was? "And Pai?"
"Mhm?"
"I love you, butterfly. Don't forget that."
The smile she wasn't even aware she had on as she talked to Shin nearly split her face in half. This was the first time he'd said that. For a brief moment she wondered if this was too soon, but the thought flitted away in half an instant. No, it wasn't too soon. She loved him. Plain and simple. What she felt for him transcended mere 'like', or 'let's see where this goes'. She loved him, with all her heart. She would do anything for him.
Even if a part of her still worried about why he hadn't kissed her since she told him of what Akira did to her.
"I love you, too, Shin." She turned as she heard the door to the hospital room opening. Kanou stepped out, shortly followed by Aihara. The nurse wore a concerned scowl on her face as she tapped furiously away on her phone. Kanou call her name, but she still couldn't hide the smile in her voice as she added, "Don't forget that, either."
"Never, butterfly. Never."
×
random A/N: I started out this story intentionally making Shiori out to be this huge deal in the Ayakashi world [she is], and I did everything to make it look like the Onihitokuchi [dear god, who remembers that?? It was so long ago!] was originally going after Shiori and not Pai...welp, I just threw that out the window didn't I.
IT WAS AFTER PAI ALL ALONG.
p.s.; you can bet your ass Aihara's had to deal with her fair share of Hanyou-centric cannibalistic Oni