Crossover Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Reason And Accountability ❯ Icy ( Chapter 27 )

“Honey? Shii is late. Her friends called and they’re worried about her. It’s below freezing. You don’t think she took the creek trail home, do you?” I heard the wifes voice. I snapped awake and queried my host. Smartphone tracer app. Location activated. Last location… in the creek. I rapidly pulled on clothes and boots.

“Bring a hot water bottle, the big one,” I ordered. She did so and I got the car warmed up. She put the bottle in through the window and I immediately raced off for the trail, driving around the sign barring vehicle traffic and through brush two kilometers till I saw the light in the water. It was her bicycle. I yanked the parking brake and rushed down the slope into the stream. The water was icy cold and my toes went instantly numb. I grabbed my little girl and immediately cast Heal Other. Her heart was barely beating and she needed warmth. She had frostbite on her fingers and toes. I got her into the car and out of her freezing clothes, heater blasting, and the hot water bottle tied to her side, under her arm. That was one of the larger veins going back to her heart and would rapidly warm her up again. She started coughing and crying. I continued my healing cast until it wasn’t doing any good, then stepped out to shudder. That was CLOSE. She was almost dead. I don’t care what cheerful anime will tell you. Death from hypothermia is quick, especially for little kids like my daughter. She’s a high school girl, but she pretty much stopped growing in Junior High and would probably be small forever, like my wife.

Her friends arrived, panicked, but relaxing a little on seeing me there ahead of them. I went back into the stream, cursing the cold water and retrieved her bicycle, an exotic and rare model, and her cellphone, which was still working despite immersion in the water. A good thing, really. The charging port would need to be dried out thoroughly, and it would probably die from that corrosion, but it had saved her life tonight.

“C’mon. I’m taking her back to the house and get her into a bath.” I put the bike in the back of the van and damaged the paint to accomplish a three point turn. Koguma and Reiko both followed on their Supercubs behind me, following my taillights in the utter darkness of this winter night. My wife tended to my little girl, and we drank coffee together in the café downstairs, pondering what might have gone wrong. Heavy thoughts.

I’d brought the bike inside, dripping on my clean floor. The frame, very carefully welded scaffold steel and heat treated to proper temper, had broken in the crash. I was disappointed because that is not a repair I can do, and would cost a fortune.

“She said she was too tired to go the long way home,” my wife said. “I’ve put her to bed. Her temperature is safe, and I don’t think she’s got a concussion. It was the shock of the water and the fall. She’ll be bruised and hobbling for a few days.”

I rubbed my beard, considering. “Her bike is totaled. Repairing it will cost more than a scooter. I guess it is time for her to get a Cub, then. A minicub, probably. She is too short for bikes like yours,” I admitted.

I mulled this entire situation while the women talked, pondering what would have happened if I wasn’t a magical healer, here at the right time. That little girl would have died, or been crippled for the rest of her life. It would have devastated her family, and probably her friends.

I crept up to Shii’s room and checked on her. She was sleeping. I healed her some more, down to extremities and found even the side lying in the stream had gotten frostbite from the water. It was technically above freezing, but her blood had slowed so much her cells had suffered oxygen necrosis. Untreated there would have eventually be terrible pain and gangrene. The damage would have been horrific. I checked the rest of her with healing active and found various bits of hidden damage I was able to repair. I stayed awake as long as I could but eventually ran out of mana and passed out.

I hope I saved her.