Help in Nokome

Several days passed since Arisa first collapsed, they set North West and passed many doctors but none of them could even grasp her condition.

The state of her body had worsened, with pale skin and sweating throughout the day. Nobody beside Kira was able to see the mana inside her ripping apart and sowing itself back together. Over the last several days it had only grown smaller and reduced to the size of an apple.

As they walked out from the tattered cloth hanging from the doctors home, a group of women passed by. They were wives of the men that lived in the area fetching water and appeared well into their years.

The two women walked at each-others sides and smirked while saying their piece.

“There’s so many injured people passing through today aren’t there, I wonder why?”

“I thought that the whole point of building that doctors den in Nokome was to fix this problem? What are those people doing over there?” The other woman replied bitterly.

Kira pulled out a parcel of paper from his robe and unfolded it, the small compressed piece of paper folded by a measly string stretched out into a large map with detailed markings. It was a travellers map that he swiped from someone while looking for someone to treat Arisa.

‘Nokome huh, that’s the last one we have left.’ Kira thought as he inspected his map.

Kira carried Arisa on his back as she drifted off to sleep, one of the reoccurring side effects from her condition but he was happy to carry her. Most times it would be for a couple of hours but in this case she was out for 32 hours.

When they emerged from the vast open grasslands Arisa opened her eyes and released a light yawn.

“Oh you’re up, good timing we just got here!” Kira pointed out from the clearing towards a collection of figures in the distance.

Short reed houses and small bamboo structures gathered in a large patch of dirt that stretched hundreds of meters to form a camp. Most of the buildings were made from a dark oak wood that matched the trees surrounding the area.

Arisa’s eyes glistened with wonder as she panned her view to take in the sights before her; she slowly lowered herself off of Kira's back and looked as if she was ready to run towards it like a child.

Inside the centre of the camp they noticed three young women dressed in Yukata race past them, blood splatters were scrolled across their clothing. They were heading towards a group of men carrying an injured boy.

One of the women in the group broke past and accessed the boy with a judgemental stare before yelling at the men.

“Set him down on the mat, you two go get the supplied ready so that I can patch him up!”

The two men not carrying the boy snapped to attention and ran towards the tent suspended between two houses.

They placed the boy onto a mat made of bamboo and carried him inside the tent. Kira rushed after them and entered the tent behind.

The boy on the mat screamed out with a blood curdling scream as he gripped hold of the floor and anything he could get his hands on. The men held him down as the woman in white stitched up his back and wrapped it in bandages.

Three large bloodied claw marks stained his back; the boy was no older than 6 years old and covered in a cold sweat.

“Miss Aika, will Tanji be okay?” One of the men asked nervously.

She leaned towards them and slapped the man through his face, leaving Kira stunned.

“What happened to him, with wounds that large he’s lucky to be alive!” Aika yelled.

The man averted his eyes with a distressed expression as he answered. “We were out teaching him to hunt and then ran off ahead saying that he saw a beast that could feed the entire village…we found him like this a few seconds later.”

Aika stood up and tied up her Yukata with a stern scowl at the men kneeling beside Tanji. Both of them lowered their heads with devastated expressions and slammed against the floor.

“Please save him, we are sorry for our ignorance and know that it can’t be forgiven!”

Aika let out a heavy sigh. “Huff~ He will be fine if we monitor it, luckily there wasn’t any dirt under the skin and it wasn’t too deep.”

Before she could finish her thought both men dropped to their feet and lowered their heads. In a perfect unison they let out a large plead of apology to the doctor.

Aika cringed back and tried to kick them away. “Okay fine just take yourselves out and let him rest, quit it with the Zarei stuff already!”

The men thanked her deeply and walked out of the room with their heads still lowered as they fumbled towards the door.

“He needs rest so don’t try and get him to go hunting any time soon!” Aika shouted before they left the room entirely.

As she cupped her mouth to shout she noticed Kira standing by the entrance and glowered at him while growing angrier.

“What now, are you just going to gawk at the front of the tent like that? I don’t need fans right now when there are plenty of sick people that need more attention than me.” She shrugged off.

Kira paced towards her with an aggressive manner as he called out to her.

“My friend needs help, give her medicine or- I mean please. She was hurt a while back and no one else can help, I don’t know what to do.” Kira’s voice grew softer as he spoke and was filled with a desperate look in his eyes.

“I can’t promise anything but it’s my job to try, bring her over to the mat and tell me what happened.” Aika replied.

‘How could I explain this to a mortal…someone like this will probably make her snap at me for not taking it seriously. Do I improvise…?’ He pondered.

“We got into a fight with some bad people, afterword’s she ended up like this. When they attacked us they did something to her, to her…”

“Her mana?” Aika interrupted.

Kira looked at her with a dumbfounded expression, he couldn't sense any trace of mana or aura from her body that would cause her to be a deity. From what he observed she just looked like a regular middle aged woman.

“You know about mana, how is that possible?” Kira exclaimed.

“Deities; demon and even mana, they aren’t exactly secrets you know. When you travel around as much as I have you eventually run into it.”

“So you have experience with mana then?”

Aika reached for a sack of plants and smashed them into a concoction that she mixed with water. She slathered it over Arisa’s body and wiped away the sweat from her head, the pale colour in her skin brightened.

“Nothing to this degree but I have spent a long time with people that use mana. At the most Eastern borders along the shore of the nation are a Temple built over a mountain peak. The temple focused on teaching scholars how to use mana as well as the different ways it could be used to heal.

I learned most of my practice there but sadly I wasn’t up to the task, with no mana I couldn't continue. So I took what I learnt and decided to help people where it mattered most, out in the real world.”

“Why tell me this, it seems like something that should be kept pretty secretive?” Kira inquired.

“Normally yes but I’ve done all I can for this lady, she needs the healers from the Temple if you want her to get better. I’ve made an herbal mix that can stabilise her for now but she won’t be getting better than this without their help I’m afraid.”

Kira’s eyes droped low as he bowed to Aika. He bit down on his lip as it trembled aggressively.

“Thank you.”