24: A Lingering Cold, A Newfound Warmth

Kana stood back solemnly while a few doctors and medics went about their work. It was an odd sight too, since hardly anyone present was uninjured. Essentially any person who could stand and use one of their hands was assigned to help care for the wounded.

After spotting a person who intrigued her, Kana forced herself to restrain her interest and asked Fumio to introduce her to her fellow soon-to-be traveling companions. A short tour followed which gave the rundown on the Yuka Group's current situation.

Kana met various people in passing as Fumio guided her around, all of whom bore worn out and haggard expressions. It was clear that they had all been pushed to their limits and had suffered greatly to get here.

Many of the able-bodied Yuka were merely glad to have warm beds to rest in, and to not have to worry about setting up camp or preparing a meal. Some went right to sleep as soon as they'd eaten, despite the hour barely reaching midday. Michiko became frightfully busy tending to them all soon after breakfast, as Yuka members finished their tasks and flooded into the inn.

Save for a few medics on a shift schedule, everyone was to rest and recover in order to resume traveling the next day.

It was determined that the Yuka convoy would only stay overnight for a single night. Apparently they were running behind schedule and needed to return as fast as possible before the winter intensified. Kana was a bit mystified about the urgency since she had little to no experience with the changing seasons, having been locked up in a remote mountain for most of her rememberable life.

The atmosphere around the impromptu medical camp in front of the inn was quiet and grim now that the irregular hustle and bustle of the convoy had calmed down. Kana stood equally solemn and silent a few paces behind one doctor, Ryuu was his name, who crouched beside the stretcher in front of them both, performing a routine inspection. On it was the limp form of the red-haired woman, her left arm, left leg, forehead, neck, and torso all heavily bandaged with ointment and gauze for burn wounds.

As soon as she'd laid eyes upon the woman, Kana was no longer as interested in anything else. Eavesdropping could wait. She would be traveling with these people for a while, after all.

Kana'd asked Fumio for some time to observe and acquaint herself with the Yuka members before they set off, to which Fumio had readily agreed before resuming being busied about with his various responsibilities. Kana's real aim here was to get closer to the red-haired woman, but felt explaining why she wanted to do so would lead to questions she could not readily answer given her disguise.

It just so happened that pretty much the only Yuka members who were not asleep by now were those minding the wounded in stretchers or on the wagons. And so Kana had acquainted herself with them, the harried Ryuu and two other nurses, who were currently in charge of minding the wounded and keeping them stable.

Later at night the four surviving samurai guards were supposed to post up in front of the inn, but for now Kana had missed her chance to talk to them. They were apparently among the ones who needed sleep the most.

As she watched the medics at work, Kana witnessed another aspect of war condensed into to cries and pain of others. So many died, and yet even these who had survived only continued to suffer. This woman before her would likely be in terrible pain too, if she were conscious. Her light and shallow breathing was perhaps the only indicator that she was still alive, though it was doubtless a mercy that sleep held her.

As Ryuu finished his inspection and turned to head to the next patient, Kana tugged on his sleeve.

"Ryuu-san, this woman's stretcher. Can I be the one to help carry it when we leave? I don't know why, but... I can't leave her alone..." Her voice was strangely airy, almost wistful as she said so. It was not her intent, but her feelings crept into her tone.

Ryuu took a weary look at her face, glancing between Kana and the woman before nodding, "Whichever you help carry is hardly important. If you feel that strongly about it, I'll let Fumio-sama know and get back to you with the rest of your assigned responsibilities. Again, we're grateful for the help."

"...Likewise" came the soft and quiet response. Over the course of her stay in town, and especially today, Kana had learned that reciprocation was often key to interacting with people.

Returning her gaze to the woman, Kana could not even find the words to ask about her.

Bringing herself closer, she knelt next to the stretcher, peering down at the patient. Her skin, though pallid, looked reasonably youthful and healthy. Same with her thick mid-back-length hair, which was parted far on the right side of her head and brushed over her left. It was a bit hard to tell while she lay down, but her stature was only around twenty centimeters taller than Kana. It was as if she was seeing something that had happened to her future self, though this was obviously a delusion. They didn't look all that similar.

But still, Kana wanted to hear it straight from the woman herself. Who was she? What was it about the red hair? She didn't recognize the woman's face, but could it be one from her vague memories? A whitish face framed by red, it could be possible, couldn't it? They were both caught up in the war, certainly, but what had brought her to such a sorry state? What had happened to the both of them, to bring them together here? What was her story?

For the first time, Kana felt a strange and noticeable affinity for other people welling around within her chest, a sense of understanding for these people who had suffered. It was peculiar to experience, but overall it did not particularly move her to take any particular action.

An ability to relate, nothing more. So what was it that she wanted to do, if anything at all?

Very, very slowly, Kana brought a hand in front of her face.

As she pondered and questioned, this hand drifted toward the woman's unbandaged right hand, gingerly touching their fingers together. Slightly scarred, slightly toughened, the woman's fingers betrayed a past full of training with sharp tools. Was she a medic herself? Fumio had said that most everyone in the convoy who had made it this far was a member of the Yuka. The lightest touch revealed the coldness of the woman's palms, Kana's own were quite hot in comparison.

Was this Sympathy? Empathy? Kana simply had no way to tell, no baseline for comparison. Feelings were twisty and difficult, and so often she was preoccupied with simply not being overwhelmed by them. The range of emotions she had dealt with and understood was too limited.

Fear, terror, longing, despair, anxiety, nervousness, boredom, emptiness, resolve, and faintly, hope. These were the most familiar to Kana. Her time in captivity had intimately acquainted her with these feelings, as well as the tendency to suppress them with pure will and discipline alone.

Of course, she now recognized that this was not healthy in the long run and that she had a need for time to meditate and process her feelings. This was even more so the case now that her spiritual and inner energies had been so excessively amplified. Inner turmoil now had a much more prominent effect and a propensity for much more volatile consequences. Losing her grip before had allowed her chakra to exert enough rampant pressure to nearly destroy the grotto Kana had collapsed in.

Freedom to make choices and freedom to forge her own fate was just as much freedom to make mistakes. Optimally, Kana wished to keep her mistakes to a minimum, but the last few weeks had shown her how emotional stress induced the opposite.

These thoughts clouded Kana's mind incessantly, and though outwardly her gaze was fixed upon the woman lying before her, her awareness of her surroundings had gradually faded away as her thoughts slowed.

By evening the medics were due to change shift, and yet still Kana did not move, eyes lightly closed as she knelt before the woman. Kana had now completely and gently grasped the woman's hand, warming it between both of her own. The nurses took one look at the scene and left her be.

That coldness, the temperature of another's body, was something Kana hadn't ever paid much attention to before, but somehow it reached her heart. Whereas her body was warm, it made Kana aware that she felt that same coldness somewhere deep inside.

From a window of the inn, Michiko stood watching the scene with shock. She witnessed Kana staring at a wounded patient, staring with a look of troubled and lonely pain far more expressive than anything the girl had shown to her in the last few days. And she had kept it up for hours, seemingly unaware of her own expression. Every time Michiko caught a glimpse passing by the window, Kana had not moved a centimeter.

Kana had vaguely noticed her passing, but only now raised her head and peered at the window were Michiko stood, face relaxing as she did so. It seemed that Michiko could not bear watching any longer, coming outside and over to Kana.

She halted off to Kana's side, looking at the girl's hands and their gentle and unfaltering grip.

"Kana-chan, would you... like to come in for some dinner?" She seemed hesitant to interrupt.

Kana followed Michiko's gaze and looked down at her own hands, brows raising slightly as she fully realized what she was doing before softly placing the wounded woman's hand back down on the stretcher and letting go.

A wizened female medic with a crutch and bandaged leg soon trooped up behind as well, nodding to them both before turning to Kana. "I think that would be best. I need to go around and replace all the bandages and reapply herbal ointment. And you'll need to eat if you want to have the energy to help tomorrow, Ojou-chan." her voice was affectionate yet stern, clearly not accepting any argument.

"Ah, sure... then please, Michiko-san" Kana sighed distractedly as she stood and turned to Michiko. As soon as she did so, the medic began her work.

As they climbed the steps to the inn's pavilion, Michiko halted and crouched in front of Kana, bringing their eyes level. Michiko's face peered at Kana with the softest and most conflicted look she'd yet seen.

"Kana-chan, I'm sorry... I- I didn't think it would be this hard to bear it. If you're okay with it... may I please hug you? I only wish to help ease your hurt." It was a voice fraught with emotion and nuance that Kana could not quite fathom.

A- A hug? Hurt? Kana tilted her head again at the inn-matron's words, before raising her hands before her face. Hands that still felt the sensation of holding the wounded woman's. She wasn't sure what she was feeling, but Kana didn't think she would mind. She was more concerned about why Michiko looked so distressed.

Looking up with questioning eyes, Kana gave a tiny nod, ".. O-okay?"

With that one word, Kana was abruptly enveloped in a tight embrace, her still-raised arms pinned lightly to her chest between them as Michiko hugged her close. One long arm folded over her back and the other braced Kana's head as it was pressed into the nook between the woman's chin and chest.

It was... soft. Warm. Not bad at all. So why did that faint coldness and emptiness she felt inside seem so much more noticeable now?

Michiko brought her chin and cheek to rest against Kana's forehead, gently stroking the girl's hair with the hand behind her head. Kana's unknowingly tense shoulders relaxed from their previous surprise and she rested loosely, accepting the embrace.

"S-such a good girl..." whispered Michiko's shaky voice as they stood like this for a few minutes. Michiko softly trembled and for a while Kana felt the dampness of tears spread on her shoulder.

Another... new experience, but one Kana felt she would not forget.