The Day of Thunder

"You should know: some things may be done forever." The words are blunt. "Some things may never come back. However." Reo peers intently into the woman's eyes. "You are left with something that is uniquely you. Tell me Ryoshun Yukara, what is it that makes you special? What is it that that separates you from all the others? What made you come out here instead of staying nice and safe behind that walls of your Clan?"

Enrou sent a puff of smoke in Reo's direction. "I think she was very clear about the answer to that being wolves. Or at least that one wolf that's dead now. Not to offend against your intent, but that might just serve to confuse her further. I might have something that could help." He looked towards Yukara. "Would you be able to stand and follow me into the next room over?"

Reo sighs. "You're right. I am. I never got the "bedside manner" part of the job. It's just..." He huffs. "I see more in her now, not less. But that's the sentimentality of an old man." Reo offers an arm to Yukara. "Come on, I'll help you hobble over if you need it"

She seemed to be turning Reo's questions over in her mind, back and forth, worrying it like a cat playing with a partially murdered rodent.

As Enrou interjected, she paused, glancing at him. "You are the healer... should I be walking?"

She certainly hurt, but she was shocked by how... alive... she felt, despite what had been clearly substantial damage. She'd always had an unusual vitality, but it still surprised her sometimes.

As he offered the arm, she sighed, trying to pull her feet off the bed, surprised to find them moving at her command - the lost arm had made her feel they would simply refuse to respond. They hurt, yes, but they moved.

Getting to her feet hurt more than it normally did, to say the least, but she did not lose consciousness or collapse.

"In my unprofessional opinion, you should make attempts to walk whenever you feel up to it, but refrain if it feels like it's too much. Can't push yourself too hard, but if you don't push at all you'll only get worse over time."

A small trail of smoke followed Enrou as he led the others into the next room, in which were a series of instruments that seemed a bit haphazard at first glance. Smoothed stones, elevated planks, and at least one large basin in the corner of the room. What he walked towards, however, was a low table with a bench on one side, and a cloth covering a block that would, on average, come up to shoulder height for anyone sitting down on it. "Please take a seat with your left arm away from the cloth."

Yukara would sit as directed, expression one of bemusement, flavored with an unanswered curiosity.

A few adjustments were made to Yukara's position once she'd sat down, with Enrou nodding once he was satisfied. The low covered block was immediately to her right, almost to the point of obstructing her view if she were to sit just a smidge closer to it.

With a small flourish, Enrou pulled the cloth off the block to reveal a short mirror set into a thick wooden panel. He then placed a set of small wooden blocks by the mirror, within Yukara's reach, and nodded his head. "It's a bit strange, but from what I can tell it's your mind that needs to stop paying attention to the missing arm. So I want you to move those blocks around with your left hand. Don't really mind how you do it, just do whatever. The mirror will let you 'see' your missing arm and should, with any luck, ease the difficulty in getting your body to adapt. I'll be damned if I know how it works, I just ran into this idea on accident with another patient a while back."

Reo studies the setup, intrigued. "A case of "the mind makes it so?""

"Essentially, yes. The inherent expectation of something being there that isn't anymore." Enrou gestured towards Reo's leg. "You've had quite some time to learn your body in the condition it's in now. She hasn't. One day I was helping a patient who fell in front of a polished surface. As he was flexing his hand to get up, he said the feeling of his missing arm feeling tightened dissipated. No idea why, but I think I understand the basic concept of it."

Yukara was skeptical, but she shrugged, and gave it a go.

Pushed the blocks about with her fingers, as if they were massively oversized prayer beads, she initially wanted to say she felt nothing.

After a minute, however, she realized that she did, in fact, feel nothing.

It was gone.

She felt a tear bead and roll from the corner of her eye, and gave a wet sniff, and then chuckled weakly.

"What a strange thing. It truly is gone."

Enrou gave a short half-chuckle, as if he were amused that the idea had worked at all. "I guess there's some merit to the idea after all. I recommend you come back and try this at least once a day for the next few days, just to be sure it sticks."

"That is...brilliant Enrou-san." The respect in Reo's voice is unrestrained. "I wouldn't have thought of this. How did you find out about this again? Someone in town?"

"Pure happenstance, but yes. The individual in question is no longer around, but what they complained of was a feeling of their arm always being clenched tightly around something, even though that arm had been removed a long time ago. Cue incident with the mirror, and there you have it. Never really got to try it out before today though, mostly used the mirror here for other coordination training."

Yukara kept flicking the blocks around, seemingly distracted by the action. It was nice to just... stop thinking about the situation.

It occurred to her that she should ask about her things.

"Did they bring my weapon with me, when they dropped me off here? My armor or prayer beads?"

"If they did, they're in one of the side rooms. I haven't really had much time to look for something like that. Too busy disarming you, after all." The deadpan way he said that, and the casual way he smoked his pipe made it hard to tell what the intent behind that phrasing was.

If it was a joke, she did not laugh.

She did not get angry either.

Instead she furrowed her brow, and glanced toward the side rooms, and then sighed.

"I will inquire later then... There is nothing I can do with them now."

"Easy there. We are going to work something there." Reo slaps the young woman on the back. "Like I've been saying, what's valuable isn't an arm." Reo points at the woman's forehead. "You have something up there, don't you?"

Enrou takes a step closer to Yukara, leaning in closer and squinting his eyes. "Huh, he's right." He then lightly licks the tip of his thumb and presses it to Yukara's forehead, wiping it in a small circle as if trying to scrub off some sort of smudge. "There we go. What do you think, Reo-sama?"

"I think she's in capable care." Reo smiles at Enrou suddenly. "I should let you two have some private time them"

Enrou took a small puff of his pipe, standing up straight and crossing one arm under his elbow as he fixed his gaze on the Spider. "Tell me, Reo-sama. Is there any way you could have worded that more awkwardly? Just genuinely curious how far off center we can get in one conversation."