Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Checkmate: Royal Aquisition ❯ Healing ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7: Healing

 

“Will she live?” King Saitou asked the physician as he leaned over his very own bed, Tokio laying bruised and battered on the drawn back sheets. She looked like death. The horse had not only fallen on her, it had rolled most of its weight on her as well. There were no gashes, no wounds spouting blood, but that didn't mean she wasn't critically injured.

“She's got multiple fractures, a concussion, internal bleeding, a ruptured lung and a broken pelvis,” the doctor said calmly, hoping his diagnosis would not be his death sentence. “I don't know if the concussion is mild or serious. She may never wake again.”

Megumi stood at the door, her face turning ashen white. Good gods! The dose of tranquilizer and bondage had sentenced Tokio to death. For all that she hated King Saitou for kidnapping her cousin, this was entirely their own fault. They had forced her to leave. They had gone up against one of the most powerful mages in the world. They had tied her to a half trained skittish horse. They had dosed her so she wasn't in complete control of her actions.

And poor Tokio, the recipient of all of this, was merely a pawn. The piece upon the chess board fought over so much she had cracked.

“What about Healers?” Megumi found herself asking. “Surely a group of them can save her. The internal bleeding has not gone on that long! There is still a chance!”

“There are only two Healers in this palace,” the physician said calmly.

“Then Gate more in!” Megumi shouted, tears running down her face.

“Idiot,” the king hissed. “We don't even know where they are and to Gate around carelessly like that would be suicide. By the time we locate them it will be too late.”

“You cannot do nothing! I will not let you do nothing!” she screamed. “Get the hell out of my way,” she said, pushing the physician over.

“What are you doing?” the older man squawked, hitting the floor with a thud.

“If she dies I die right?” she asked. King Saitou nodded briefly, a slightly bored expression upon his face as if it was a nuisance to have to reaffirm the obvious. “I was trained as a Healer but not given rank because of my family's position at Court.”

“But lady! Even a full, experienced Healer would kill themself if they tried to heal all of her! It would take too much energy!” the physician protested.

“Either way I die,” Megumi said softly. “At least let me give her a chance to live. This is my fault anyway. I should not have let this happen.”

King Saitou's eyes narrowed a fraction and the physician looked back at him for a decision. Slowly he gave a nod, allowing her to proceed.

“I want everyone out,” Megumi said. “Warm water, a knife, thread, needles, alcohol sterilizer and-”

“She wants surgery prep,” Saitou informed the physician who quickly nodded and made himself scarce. Saitou looked at the guards at the door and indicated they should leave. Now it was just him, Megumi and Tokio.

“I was hoping you would stay,” Megumi said, pulling Tokio's tattered clothes off. Saitou pulled the blankets from the bed and spread them upon the large table, knocking everything off of it in one fell swoop. Megumi managed to get the rest of the clothing off and carefully covered her unconscious cousin with a sheet. “Can you levitate her over so we don't jar her anymore than necessary?” she asked. Saitou did not reply, but suddenly Tokio was no longer in the bed and upon the table in less than a blink of an eye. So he could apparate other people? Powerful mage indeed.

“Anything else?” Saitou asked condescendingly.

“How badly do you want her to live?” Megumi asked, her face white and strained. There was something she wasn't telling him. Saitou frowned. “Listen, I can fix most of the damage, but I don't have the power to fix a concussion, ruptured lung or extensive internal bleeding. If I show you where and how can you….will you?” she corrected herself. There was no doubt he would be able to. Whether he would was another matter.

Saitou said nothing, but briefly nodded. The physician came in with a great big black bag and began pulling out everything, laying it along the table. Megumi followed him, throwing things back in that were of no use. She was hardly going to do dental work; no sense in having those tools. The physician looked like he was going to stay….too curious for his own good, but a glare from Saitou made him scamper off. With a twitch of his fingers the heavy oak bar floated upward and slammed down into the braces across the door, sealing them in from further intrusion.

“Woman, you tell ANYONE of this and you will wish I killed you next to your brother,” he said darkly, amber eyes burning.

“Not a charity type, huh?” she replied dryly, ignoring the threat. At this rate, unless by some miracle Tokio lived, she would be dead. It was just the manner and method that changed. “Ok, stand on the opposite side. I'm going to work on her abdomen first. If her kidneys rupture it's all over in a matter of minutes.”

“What of her concussion?” he asked.

“Your physician might be good with the common cold, but he had no mage sight what so ever. Look at her head. She has light bruising, nothing more. The horse rolled. It didn't rear up and fall on her head. She would have broken her neck if that'd happened. I'm more worried about the other internal bleeding and that lung.”

“Show me where you want the power,” he said calmly. “I have it.”

 

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“How long they been in there?” the replacement guard asked the ones at the door. They looked dead on their feet. Some of the guards were still sleeping off the effects of the drug Megumi had put in their ale so guards were in short supply.

“Since daybreak….about eight hours I think,” the sleepy one replied. “Not a peep either.”

“Think she's killed him?”

“That little woman? Kill the King? HA!”

“Well she is a witch,” the other grumbled. “My head still feels like a blacksmith is making a hundred horseshoes.”

“She drugged us, you dolt. The King has more sense than to eat or drink anything she touches!”

“Suppose yer right. Well, see ya at midnight.”

“Someone else better be awake by then.”

“Don't count on it.”

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Megumi yawned again, her eyes blurring. She'd been stitching for hours. Tokio's breathing had become sure and steady. There was blood everywhere, but there was still color in the pale woman's face so evidently she still had plenty. Saitou was holding a pale of water and occasionally wiped blood from her fingers. It was getting more and more difficult to grasp the needle.

“Can you see the torn flesh here?” she asked, extending the last bit of her power to illuminate the area she was talking about. “I need the flesh to speed heal like this,” she demonstrated, her power inducing cell replication and adhesion. Just as her power was wavering, at the last of its reserve a stronger one took over. Saitou was more than a fast learner. He was bloody brilliant! She didn't even have to finish a demonstration before he was ten steps ahead of her.

The last stitch went in and Megumi tied it off. Tokio would have feint scars across her abdomen but that wasn't half as bad as dieing. Exhausted, her knees gave out and she fell to the floor.

“The pelvic bone will heal, but she'll probably never walk again,” Megumi said quietly. “I can't heal bone. It takes too much energy. And we can only hope waste did not collect enough to do serious damage to her metabolism. Otherwise we may yet lose her. If she dies before I wake….please, just kill me quickly. I don't want to wake with the knowledge I failed.”

Before Saitou could comment Megumi passed out. He picked her up and removed the bar across the door. One of the guards startled, a confused look upon his face as Saitou handed her over.

“Place her in a guest room, guarded at all times. She is not to leave those quarters, understood?” They nodded. “Send Saori to her when she wakes.”

Saitou closed the door again, replacing the bar across it. Tokio was still not healed. The waste in her body and the broken bones could still prove to be fatal. What if bone fragments made it into her bloodstream…or worse, into her heart? Megumi had done all she could.

“And to think I hated my father for making me take something as useless as Healing. A waste of good sword training time, I had claimed,” Saitou said to himself with an ironic smile. Tokio's color was fading. Her body was going in overdrive trying to heal. And yet her vital signs were amazingly strong. This was not a woman who wanted to die.

Which amazed the hell out of him. What the hell did she have to live for? What was so important that she had refused to give up even in the face of certain death? She certainly was stronger than she appeared. And she was under his protection. Something he could not ignore. Somehow letting her just…..die….was not an option in his mind. She was not dead yet, therefore there had to be some reason for her to live.

What it was, he did not know, but that would not stop him.

 

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Tokio wanted to groan. Groaning took energy. Too much energy. Something she had no spare reserve of. She also wanted to move. Muscles were cramped and complaining. And gods was she hungry!

It took a great deal of effort to open her eyes. Then to focus them. Who knew eyes took so much energy? Her surroundings look somewhat familiar, but not from the vantage point she was used to. Her brain fuzzily tried to figure out where she was.

His room. Good lord, she was in the King's room, in his BED! Who the hell had put her in the King's bed?

A patch of black caught her eye and her eyes slowly rotated to the side. From the way she was propped up on the pillows she could see a head of black hair laying on the side of the bed. One arm lay sprawled above it, hiding the face. That didn't prevent her from identifying it though.

King Saitou was sprawled across the bed in an undignified manner, his hair ruffled and unwashed. And if she was not mistaken, that was a very soft, light snore. Tokio tried to giggle. She really did. It came out a wheezy sort of snort and her chest contracted painfully.

Amber eyes looked up, first sharp and accusing, then slightly confused. Wow, emotion flickered across his face. She'd have to remember that. Guess His majesty was a bit of a slow start in the morning. Immediately the stone cold face fell, a blink removing all emotion from hard amber eyes.

“It's about time you woke up,” he said gruffly, sounding annoyed. She knew better.

“I knew I was good at Senryaku, but isn't this a little extreme to keep your adversary alive?” she replied.