The Day of Thunder

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara woke slowly. It felt as though she was... pinned down. Tied up. In confusion, she tried to sit up, but felt a sudden burning pain shooting up through her body, radiating from her shoulder.

Something was wrapped around her chest... and her clothes were all... what had happened?

With an agonizing effort, she turned her head, feeling as though her body had been largely replaced with a single, Yukara shaped bruise.

She could see linen, so she was wrapped in bandages. Slowly, the prior day began to come back to her, though it seemed to be mixed up with the dreams she had 'enjoyed' the night before. Surely the wolves hadn't pulled her apart. She was still here after all.

A dampness on her forehead made her try to wipe her brow, and she realized something was wrong. She couldn't move her arm. Why couldn't she move her arm? She felt a flutter in her chest, her heart skipping a beat. Had the dream been real? Was she dead?

Her vision was having trouble coming into focus thanks to her eyes watering, and she tried to blink them away. What was going on!?

[Enrou]

As Yukara was waking, the sound and smell of medicinal herbs being prepared washed into the room. Disinfectant, soft burning incense for relaxation, and the occasional clink of instruments that could Sidney the preparation of anything from tea to astringent. All of this was accompanied by a solitary set of footsteps and the faint, almost imperceptible sound of burning embers.

There wasn't much ceremony when Enrou entered the room. In his hands was a tray holding what appeared to be tea, some clean cloth, and a handful of unidentifiable instruments, at least for anyone my familiar with medical practices. He glanced at Yukara, taking note of her condition, but didn't speak as he moved to check over someone else in the room first. Seemingly satisfied, he traveled back to the tray and picked up a cup of tea, which he carried over to Yukara's beside stand.

Curiously, as he approached, he initially started towards her right side, stopped, looked at the cup in his hands, then moved to place it to her left instead. A short stool was pulled up by the foot of the bed, and the healer sat down on it with a motion that seemed slightly heavier than intended. Then he nodded to the cup of warm liquid.

"That should help ease the pain a bit, but take care getting up. Your body is in a pretty uneven shape, so you'll want to be gentle with what's left of you."

[Hisomu Reo]

There is a familiar 'drag and thump' sound as Reo approached and a gentle scratch at the door before Reo pulls it back and peers inside.

"How is the patient? May I come inside?"

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara leaned forward awkwardly, everything feeling wrong, and reached for the cup.

Her arm still wasn't moving.

Finally, she mustered the courage and took a look, and found herself momentarily lost for words, staring dumbly at the stump. Some very distant part of her brain was complaining that her clothes were also torn to ribbons, but it was overruled by the rest of her brain informing it that her arm was missing, and that was probably more important than a bit of shyness.

After a protracted silence, she sorted through a wave of emotions that flashed into life and then left in rapid fire, leaving only a numb echo behind.

Taking a slow, steadying breath, she reached for the cup with her left hand, taking it with a wobbly, clumsy grasp, and managing a sip that only spilled a little.

Setting it back down, she muttered, "I am sorry... I... I was overconfident. What... what happened?"

The knock at the door didn't seem to register for her, but she didn't say they couldn't come in.

[Enrou]

Enrou glanced over at Reo as Yukara was coming to terms with her new state of existence, and gestured for the man to come inside. "I'd say she's in one piece, but that feels a bit on the dishonest side. She's only just woken up, so try to keep your voice low and your words simple. Mental shock does a lot to complicate things."

Leaning back, the healer lifted one leg until he could rest an elbow on it, idly rolling the end of his pipe between his fingers as he regarded the wounded Bat. "I wasn't there to see what happened, but as I understand it you and a few others dove into a pack of wolves that were attacking the village. I can't say the others did so with the same level of enthusiasm as you did, but if anything the word overconfident does feel a bit...adequate, all things considered." He sighed, taking a speculative puff of his pipe. "There are a lot of things I could say, and a lot of names I could call you for what you did. Brash, foolish, more than a little irresponsible, and the list goes on from there, but I feel like I should focus and say the most important thing first."

Enrou leaned forward, fixing Yukara with an even stare. "Thanks. I know it doesn't mean much in the face of what you've lost, but there are a lot of others who might have lost more if it weren't for what you gave up. It's a rare thing to see in this world sometimes, so it's nice to acknowledge it when it comes along."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara nodded, dumbly, and took another sip, splashing a little more of the liquid on her face as she did, and then she set the cup down to wipe off the mess.

Processing that, she said, softly, "I was hunting her for years. She got... bigger... than she started. I think I did not realize how much until I was enjoying the caress of her teeth."

Was that humor? Or just an overloaded mind misfiring?

"I decided to do this a long time ago... I could not stop now. I was careless. I am sorry... I did not mean to become a burden."

Her rambling seemed to be vacillating between some strange form of guilt and justification for what had happened.

After another deep breath, she gazed closer at the man sitting there. "I do not think we have met... can you tell me where I am?"

[Enrou]

"I'm Enrou, thanks for asking. This is my house, in a manner of speaking, although more precisely this is one of the rooms I have for patients when they're brought to me. I'm the village healer, and I'm at least 90% responsible for you surviving the process of losing your arm. The other 5 percents are Nao and Ayako, so feel free to give them 5% of your gratitude when you see them."

The tip of Enrou's pipe clicked as he tapped it against his teeth a bit, looking somewhere between confused and annoyed. "So you were chasing this wolf down and couldn't stop even after it got large enough to literally bite you in half?"

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"If I stopped, more innocent people would die."

She stated that with absolute certainty. "She was a bandit once, when she was human. I saw her work firsthand - I will not say this was a matter of vengeance, but I would not... could not... inflict the same on others by standing idle and doing nothing."

Yukara winced, having tried to move the arm again, and achieved only a pointless straining. "I thank you for saving my life, and I will thank the others as well. I will try not to be a burden, though... I am not sure how I will be of use now."

Her tone was strangely calm, as if she were still dreaming, or fully disassociating.

[Hisomu Reo]

"You're not a burden Ryoshun-san. No more than I am." Reo plods in, looking at the woman. He sits and pulls out his leg, pulling back him kimono to show his knee and thigh. Even after years, decades since the event it is a sight to behold. Bone growths jut out at off angles, the skin beneath straining in some areas. The reason for the man's limp is obvious, a wound that was never fully repaired. "By the time they found me, a lesser healer would have needed to amputate at best. Very likely it would have turned septic and I would have been another child to not make it to adulthood."

"You are more than an arm Ryoshun-san and your injuries were incurred saving lives and stopping those who would go on to take more. No one here will forget that."

[Enrou]

Enrou glanced over at Reo, taking the sight of his leg in at a glance before turning to put some of his herbs away on their rightful shelves.

"He's got a bit of a point, you know. Things are never quite so cut and dry as we tend to think they are. I may have both legs and both arms, but there's probably a few things you can't see that I'm lacking." Enrou coughed out a cloud of smoke as if to emphasize this point. "Sometimes you just have to knuckle down and see through to something, no matter how painful it is to get there..."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara nodded, expression still strangely serene.

"You are right, of course... I would not say otherwise."

Her eyes had a glassy quality, and she took another fumbling sip.

"I have not experienced this before. What should I do?"

[Hisomu Reo]

"Well, for one, you rest. It will take some time for you to get to your best, even with great healers. Though-" Reo looks over at Enrou. "I hear there is a way she can return her arm?"

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara heard that, but also did not hear it. The sounds passed her by unrecognized - she did not fully identify herself as the woman on the bed yet. Such words only caused her further chaos, inner turmoil spurred of her confusion and doubt.

So she said nothing, just took another shaky sip, expression clouded, before breaking into a cough.

She would learn to use this hand, damn it, and take a drink without spilling or choking. So she swore.

[Enrou]

"From what I've heard, at least. I don't pretend to know exactly what the process is, suffice to say it requires knowledge well above what my measly little plants can accomplish."

[Hisomu Reo]

"Magic." Reo grunts. He sets about making tea, as has become his custom. This time adding a few more pinches of herbs to help numb pain.

"Ryoshun-san, no matter what, life will be different. But any Clan with half a brain will see your struggle and find you victorious. While I am confident the Bat will, if they don't I am sure that I can rustle you up a kinsman to marry and bring you over to our little group of reprobates."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara coughed at that, blushing. "Marriage? I had not even... I mean... I had not planned so far..."

Trying to sort out her thoughts, she added, "I am just trying to make sense of things. I feel... I do not know. I feel itchy, as if my arm had gone numb and at any moment it may be back to normal."

She scowled, and added, "I dreamed all night that wolves were tearing me apart. I had hoped it was just that... a dream, but I do not seem to be waking."

[Enrou]

"Well, fortunately for you the wolves mostly stopped at the arm. You might have lost a bit of extra weight, beyond the arm, but that will come back as you start to heal." Enrou finished sorting his materials and turned to regard Yukara curiously. "I've heard about people losing limbs still feeling as if it were there, receiving sensations as if the limb were being touched invisibly. Some even say they can 'move' it around and feel where it should be. Weird stuff."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

Yukara gazed at the void where her arm should be, and shook her head. "No, I do not believe I can. I just keep... trying to do things it would normally do."

She wrinkled her nose, and belated scratched it with her left hand. "Such as scratch my nose - basic motions my mind expects to do... a certain way."

Oddly, that small, stupid thing made her eyes water a bit, and she trailed off, composing herself.

[Enrou]

Enrou nodded. "Memory of the muscles. Your body is so used to doing things a certain way that it naturally tries to continue doing them that way. Makes it a bit hard to adapt sometimes." A couple of tentative puffs. "It's not impossible to unlearn, but it does present a certain amount of challenge."

[Ryoshun Yukara]

"Yes."

She was already realizing that very personally.

"I will need to change... so much."

Clenching her fist, she mimed a simple motion, the sweep of her bisento, and bit her lip.

How would she even begin to use her weapon now? Her chopsticks? Put on her clothes and tie knots? Tie back her hair? So many things to learn again, and all of them to be learned with her weak hand.

Holding back tears of frustration, she muttered, "I do not know. I do not know how I should do it."