Quaxó (Burns)

St. Apollonia General Hospital and Convent of the Sisters of the Hospitaller Order, Kumamoto. Wednesday, 6:00 PM. Though Apollonia was perhaps not the best patron to have for a hospital, the Hospitaller Sisters were known to do excellent medical work, and all treatments at the hospital were covered by the generous funding of the Kumamoto Diocese. Their staff included religious and non-religious alike, though most of them possessed at least some formal medical education. Perhaps the only exception to this (in actuality, not on the books) was Merry Anjos.

By day, Merry worked in the pharmacy as a technician. At irregular times throughout the day, however, she would be called back into the lab by the head pharmacist, a sister with decades of experience on the job, for “inspections”. This certainly seemed suspicious to her colleagues, but the head pharmacist and most of the other heads at the hospital seemed to like her well enough. Then there was the fact that she had apparently obtained a Bachelor’s of Pharmacy at the young age of twenty from Holy Cross University in Seikyo, and planned to start work on a doctorate soon. She was likeable, but she seemed almost a little too well-liked by the system. Rumor had it she was even sometimes allowed to stay at the convent overnight by the sisters, for God-knows-what reason.

Well, God, the head pharmacist, the mother superior, and a handful of other sisters and brothers at the hospital, which at this time included Leonor Yang.

After hanging up her lab coat for the day and grabbing dinner at the hospital cafeteria (as was her habit), Merry retreated into the wing of the hospital which was connected to the convent, unlocked and opened a heavy steel door with a special key-card, and slipped inside. Here was a stairwell, one which she climbed up two floors.

The hall which lay beyond the door on the landing looked almost like a motel, with door after door after door after door, marked only by a number, on both sides of the hall. These were an additional floor’s worth of rooms for the sisters here, some for sisters already here (one passed her as she walked the hall’s length), and some for sisters yet-to-come. But at the very end of the hallway, six or so of the doors seemed to have a little more space apart from their neighbors. These were the convent’s guest rooms, and Merry was currently occupying the first one on the left-hand side.

She slipped into the room, hopped in the shower, freshened up, changed into something a little more comfortable, and made the hundred-yard trek all the way back down the hall and the stairwell. This time, she went through the doorway which was opposite the stairwell’s entrance. Now the hall here looked not so different from the halls in the hospital. Still that same bluish-white on the walls, and the humming of some expensive equipment.

At the very end of this hall (it was best to make the Alchemist’s Wing look empty for any prying eyes who might stumble in here) was the room for the still-comatose Sachiko Godoh. The last time Merry had personally checked in on Sachi was around noontime, during what was supposed to be her lunch break, at Justo’s bidding. Still asleep. And she had not received any updates from the sisters who were checking in with her every hour, the last one at 6 o’clock. But it was still worth a look, Merry figured.

The moment she stepped in the room, she almost jumped back out in surprise. Sachiko, head propped up against a couple of pillows, was awake and staring right at her. Upon seeing Merry’s reaction, she leaned her head back on the pillows and mumbled something.

“…”

“Eh?” said Merry. Then, after a beat, she realized she had forgotten to bring something very important down here. Frantically she searched through her pockets, finally pulling out a pack of wireless earbuds, which she popped in her ears. A long press on the left earbud, and the room cleared up.

“You can’t hear me, so you put in earbuds?” asked Sachiko incredulously. Her voice was still a little languid, as she was still a little groggy from her two-day nap.

“Ah, no! Sorry,” said Merry. “These earbuds have a hearing aid function. You know, kind of like the opposite of noise canceling. They’re actually great in a pinch.”

“Oh…I see,” said Sachiko. “So, what’s the di-ag-nosis?”

“Right. Whatever attacked you that night—”

“Onryo.”

“Mm-hm, the onryo that attacked you that night…it burned a good part of the front side of you.”

“I know that. …It was the one possessing Noe. I tried to use my Hachimon Tonko on it, trap it in a time-sealed bubble and attack it without harming her, but…the tricky bastard got one last shot in. It was this…wave of fire that came out of its sword. Actually, the sword Noe had. It took it from her.

“Anyways, what’s going on to me right now?”

“Well, it doesn’t look like much, thankfully. Which is a miracle, because you presented with almost third-degree burns. I undid as much of the burns’ effects and your immune system’s responses as I could, and also gave you a boost of proteins to help with building new tissue…and, well, you can see the results for yourself.”

Merry handed Sachiko a mirror and untucked the sheets down to her waist. Sachiko looked at her face first. All good there. Then she peeked down her gown, and in the process caught the back of her hands, too. She grimaced, plopped the mirror and her arm down on the bed, and threw her head back into the pillows.

“Shit…” she grumbled.

“Hm?” asked Merry.

“I said SHIT! Was a whole patch of discolored skin really the best you could do, Anjos-san?”

“Those are called scars, Sachiko-chan,” replied Merry in a gentle but reinforcing manner. “They’ll go away, but it’ll take time. Now, do you feel any pain or discomfort anywhere?”

“No… Just—bleh! My voice is all hoarse. Can I have some water?”

“Sure.” Merry walked over to the sink in the room, fetched the glass that was sitting next to it, and began to fill it from the tap.

“This sucks,” continued Sachiko. “All the makeup I’m gonna have to use just to cover this… Actually, I might as well have a whole new costume made.”

Merry sighed. “You should be thankful, Sachiko-chan. A lot of wounds, even bad ones, heal over time. …But some just never do.”

Sachiko read the tone in her voice, and realized she was complaining to the wrong person. She cleared her throat.

“Sorry.”

No reply from Merry. Indeed, it seemed like she had just frozen on the spot. The water was now spilling over the glass, but Merry still did not shut off the tap. Her gaze seemed to be transfixed in the corner of the room.

Suddenly, the glass slipped out of her grip and made a mighty CLANK! in the sink. Merry put her hands up to her face in terror.