Deep Wounds [Medic!]

[Mikaboshi]

Katsuo's vision blurred from the blood loss in his shoulder. The large spike of petrified wood would have been easy to remove and get covered if he hadn't made the dumb move of shattered it in the middle of the fight. It had been the smart move at the time to prevent it from being an easy target for Saiga to punish for him but in the long run it was not working out for him. The remnants of the improvised projectile were too hard to remove on his own and he had no healing techniques of his own to fix the gaping wound once he managed to get it out. It would be much more likely that he'd lose consciousness from blood loss before he could get it to a point where it was safe.

So instead of trying to take care of it himself he did the next best thing: look for a doctor.

The walk from the Elderwoods had been long but it was something he was more than used to. The desert was a harsh classroom and suffering a strict teacher but his body had earned it's superhuman durability at their feet. It was thanks to those long days and nights in the desert that he was even alive right now. So it was that Katsuo showed up at the hospital of Sunagakure-- thankfully one of the few guarded places in the village --with his front caked in dried blood and his weighted coat slung over his shoulder casually like the wound in his shoulder wasn't even there. Still, pain rippled through his body with each step he took through the chaos of the busy hospital. Approaching an orderly who looked utterly shocked that a man so clearly wounded was approaching her with a casual smile on his face that changed into a slight wince with each step.

"Hey. Uh. You folks got any band-aids around here?" He managed a joke before the pain in his shoulder finally overcame him and he promptly fell forward into unconsciousness.

 

[Takahashi Aki]

Some amount of time later Katsuo would find himself not on the floor, but on a make shift bed of sorts. Supplies were limited, but at the very least it was better than being on the floor with nothing. Masashi Chiyoko was volunteering at the hospital and was one of the few who responded to Katsuo's injuries. Bandages, healing salves, and her time was what she had to offer her kinsmen. Unlike her son, and her mother Chiyoko had no idea that Katsuo was even in sand, as she was one of the Masashi who weren't well informed. Reason being that her own mother didn't quite get along well with the clan, and that Chiyoko herself tried to represent the Masashi in what self-made ways she could.

Chiyoko was no medical nin, very far from it she was, but she was certainly trained to deal with some injuries. What she could offer was better than patchwork, but it wasn't professional by any means. Still though it was better than nothing, and given that she found out that Katsuo was a kinsmen, she could not leave him be. The Masashi sat against the wall keeping an eye on Katsuo changing his bandages, and apply more salve if required, but mainly she was in a state of awe. A Masashi. Here? In Suna? Truly a great surprise. Chiyoko always had figured her mother was the black sheep of the family, and thus by proxy condemned her to ... a lack of knowing the more intricate dealings of her household. Certainly when her kinsmen awoke, she had a feeling that she was going to have to answer quite a few things.

To Katsuo he would notice that Chiyoko and her son shared the same hair colour, and a few other features. Unlike Katsuo though Chiyoko did not carry the traditional Masashi brand due to her unfortunate circumstance of never being able to go to the caravans. I wonder if mother has damned us by not truly allowing communications...<i></i> Chiyoko wondered. She had a few missives back and forth, mainly though her son had dealings with a penpal of sorts of the clan. It was an informal family relationship of sorts, but Chiyoko had always expected ... more.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Coming slowly back to consciousness, Katsuo's eyes fluttered in rapid succession as the realization slowly came to him that he was laying in a hospital bed. His head felt hazy and his mind clogged as if he were waking up from a night of hard drinking despite the fact that he felt no pain in his shoulder any longer. And as that notion dawned on him, Katsuo realized something was wrong. There was no way that such a wound healed so quickly and there were no techniques he knew of which could totally dull the pain of injuries of that magnitude. Letting an involuntary groan escape his lips as he battled against the fogginess in his head, Katsuo sat up in his hospital bed and immediately noticed the woman in the room with him.

But that woman was not Chiyoko.

Garbed in a long black dress adorned with silver that showed just enough of her legs to taunt someone trying to appreciate those areas, the woman sat at the foot of his bed with a cup of... something in her hand that she slowly sipped on with her eyes closed. Long viridian hair fell far past her shoulders, framing her thin but strikingly beautiful features as she tilted the cup in her fingers and quietly took a sip from her cup before her eyelids raised revealing a pair of bright gold eyes that were fixated squarely on Katsuo.

Tatsumasa?​

Hello my king.

Her lips did not move but still Katsuo "heard" her words as clearly as if she had and he suddenly knew her identity. He was coming face to face with a personified vision of Tatsumasa's ego-- the personality of the sword manifested in a mental construct. He'd heard of this sort of thing before with sentient artifacts. They could pull their owners into a shared space which wasn't quite totally mental but also not entirely spiritual. It was a place of absolute solitude and intimacy. It was why so many experienced Masashi were wary of sentient artifacts. Accepting ownership of one linked one's self inextricably in both heart and mind to the artifact and if the object were one of malign influence or even worse one of great evil then such confrontations could become battles for dominance very rapidly. And that of course begged the question: why had Tatsumasa decided to call this meeting? And why now?

"I must still be in the hospital. It's the only place where I dream about pretty girls outside my bed." Katsuo joked and despite the lewd nature of the crack, Tatsumasa did not seem to react beyond a knowing expression upon her features that belied the actual amount of time that they'd "known" each other. In truth he'd only possessed Tatsumasa for maybe a week and only actually spoken with the sword in the first moments of their contact. But even given that, it felt as if he'd known the spirit all of his life. It was strange-- and also a little bit terrifying --that she had a presence like that of a childhood friend.

I am glad that you are not dying. I feared for you when you foolishly chose not to wield me against your opponent. Tatsumasa chided him even as she sipped again upon the tea cup in her hand. Absentmindedly, Katsuo wondered what a sword-spirit like Tatsumasa might be faux-drinking in this spirit world. Did she have an impression of what tea tasted like from her wielders? Yes. I do.

Once more she shook her head in mock exasperation and Katsuo became keenly aware that he could hide nothing from her in this place. His thoughts and emotions were open for her to know... but he could feel nothing from her. Suddenly his discomfort towards his situation jumped despite the intense familiarity with Tatsumasa.

Fear not my king. You sense nothing from me because you are not experienced with a connection like this. Your heart and mind are clouded because you are more of a physical man than a spiritual one and that is acceptable for now. I will teach you what you need to know. But for now... that is not why I have brought us here. Tatsumasa lowered the cup in her hand and uncoiled her delicate fingers from around it's handle allowing it to plummet from her grasp to the floor but as she released it the cup simply faded and disappeared into nothing. I brought us together here because I am concerned. You are the first of your kin to be able to hear my words since the dawn of Sunagakure and yet... you flee your responsibility to your people. This will not do, my king.

Katsuo opened his mouth to defend himself but found that the words would not come to his aid. What could he say in defense of his dereliction of his duty? He had told Sousuke that he wasn't Kazekage material. That the people would never follow him. That the frontier folk needed him more. But now the people of Sunagakure needed anything to grasp on to. Sousuke seemingly MIA... lost or for all they knew dead at the hands of the Cabal. Criminals ravaged the streets preying on the innocent. How could he sit here and defend his choice to continue pretending that Sand did not need him?

You see the truth in my words.

"What Sand needs right now is a miracle, not a king." Observed Katsuo with a grimace. Saiga's prowess had proved to Katsuo that the Cabal weren't just some band of jokers that got lucky. Unless Saiga happened to be the strongest one of the bunch by a fair margin, and that struck the wanderer as unlikely since Saiga had described himself as "just a soldier", that meant that the rest of the group were likely just as strong if not stronger than he was and that spelled trouble for Sand even worse than things were already. Shinobi level threats in the city as things were... it made a bad situation next to impossible to deal with.

Tatsumasa's brow furrowed, crinkling her pale countenance in disapproval.

Petulance does not suit you, my lord. Together you and I can be that miracle. She explained to him, a challenging smirk emerging through the scowl which was quickly subsumed by the rising playfulness of her expression. Return to the Kazekage Tower and locate the Diamond Throne and I will prove it to you.

"But the Tower is probably swarming with goons by now, it's too dangerous to go back there alone." Katsuo argued but before he even finished his sentence the strange haziness of the room and the pretty vision of Tatsumasa's personification dissolved away revealing the actual hospital bed he was sitting up in... and almost immediately pain blossomed in his right shoulder as if to notify him right on schedule that he was no longer in a dream. Sitting back in the hospital bed to ease his pain, Katsuo stared at the ceiling for a moment digesting that he'd just had a "face to face meeting" with the spirit of his ancestor's sword. Was it weird that he thought she was pretty? What did she mean that together they could be the miracle Sand needed? Questions danced through Katsuo's mind but even as they did one single resolution bubbled to the surface of his thoughts: it was time to stop running from who he was. He couldn't go straight back to the Kazekage Tower but...

And it was in that moment that Katsuo realized that despite being back in the "real world" he was still not alone in his room. Blinking in surprise as he looked at Chiyoko, the wanderer tried his best to place her in his memories as she was clearly not a medic. Why was she here in his room if she didn't know him? He certainly did not recall ever meeting her before even though he couldn't shake the feeling that she looked very familiar to him.

"This is going to sound really weird but if you're the manifestation of another intelligent artifact you should know that I'm spoken for."

Spoken for? A wave of amusement washed over Katsuo from Tatsumasa, alerting him that the sword was resting comfortably by the bedside. Evidently the sword found a great deal of mirth in the words that Katsuo had chosen to use to describe their relationship. Giving the blade a side-long scowl which only caused her to "laugh" even more at his expense, Katsuo shook his head and blew a drawn out sigh past his lips.

"I'm Katsuo, by the way."

 

[Takahashi Aki]

When Katuso woke up, Chiyoko turned her attention to him. Unwavering and pure it was. It seemed that the younger man needed a moment to gather himself. He had been unconscious after all. Waking up where you did not leave off was perhaps a very disturbing concept. When Katsuo spoke Chiyoko's eyes widened for a moment as what he said was something very curious. Not at all the usual sort of phrase or demands that one would have after waking up. Chiyoko's blue eyes would return to normal as she didn't want to scare her kinsmen with the wide look. It was a moment later then that he had introduced himself as Katuso. "Well met Katuso of the house Masashi." She spoke with a grin of her own. It was the same sort of grin that Katuso would offer others, but this time it was more personalized to female lips and facial structure. "I am Chiyoko of the House Masashi too... daughter of the ... " Oh eyes of the prophet... it was very hard owing up to being the only daughter of Mako. "Well... Mum and I don't get along well. We're estranged really, and I don't know what nicknames Mum has, but it wouldn't surprise me if she was referred to as Mako the Venomous or Mako the Bitter." Chiyoko laughed weakly. Oh yes. She had mommy issues, and to some extent daddy issues considering she never knew her father. Granted really that Chiyoko was raised up alongside Lady Azame, who was more of a mother figure than her own mother, but somewhere she was a sister-figure too.

"Oh right. Yeah... I'm not a manifestation... but I've had dealings with your type before. They often speak of how my daggers appear as a pair of twin-teenaged boys constantly bickering." She paused for a moment. Mako gritted her teeth. This wasn't going half as well she had hoped. "So... Katuso... are spiritual weapon wielders plentiful in our esteemed household?" The word 'our' was spoken weakly. She bit her lip. "I'm not very good at this whole family reunion stuff, and... this really isn't the time to talk about that sort of thing. Tell me the shoulder, how is it feeling? I can apply another layer of salve if needed, or we can change your bandages." Chiyoko while older than Katuso by fifteen years or so didn't really seem to fit her age. She carried with herself a certain bright youthfulness about herself. She was dressed conservatively, save for her shirt which was sported the insignia of a well known rock group in Wind Country.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Another Masashi in Sand? Katsuo thought for a moment. There weren't many of them in the city-- he knew that. The Masashi tended to avoid populated city centers en masse to diffuse any possible threats against the clan as a whole. If they never gathered together in groups outside of the caravan whose very location was considered one of the greatest clan secrets then it was unlikely their enemies could ever stage a large-scale extermination of their people.

"You're Sousuke's mom." He reasoned out-loud. It wasn't a particularly hard deduction given how familiar she looked and her introduction as a member of his clan. Purple hair wasn't what one might call a common hair color. Then again, neither was green. She talked a little bit about her own mother-- Mako, apparently --but the name did not ring a bell at the moment. Katsuo's mind was a mess of intersecting thoughts and concerns and given the grogginess of just waking up it was hard for him to think on any one particular thing too clearly. Moving right along, she inquired about whether or not sentient weapons were common in the Masashi Clan and then asked about his shoulder. Sousuke's mom is right, she's just like him in the way her brain moves.

"Shoulder feels... fine." He said as he swung his legs out from the bed and winced at the painful reply from his body. It wasn't serious, he could feel that much. His body recovered at a naturally quick rate thanks to his training and a special diet that he kept himself on. From the way his shoulder felt, he estimated that he must have been in bed for several hours... almost a day now. Had Tatsumasa been keeping him unconscious? How much real time had their mental confab taken up? He could feel the accusation from Tatsumasa emanate from the sword at the bed next to him: Liar it said. "As for sentient weapons... they're usually considered a bad idea. They can influence your perceptions and take control of your mind in some cases. Mine is..." He looked to Tatsumasa and considered how to describe it. "... a special case. Thanks for patching me up, by the way."

It was time to think about his next move. He'd met Saiga and he'd proven that the Cabal were not a bunch of extremely lucky but otherwise normal guys. Saiga wasn't just well trained. He was exceptionally well trained and had a wealth of experience to draw on. It was safe to assume the others would be as well. With each new piece of information he gained about the Cabal the wanderer couldn't help but reflect back at Tatsumasa urging him to not take to the streets. If he'd done that then he might have come face to face with multiple of the Cabal agents and he knew for a fact that he couldn't beat more than one of them in a fight. Not the way he was now, anyway. Still, the streets were becoming drenched in blood and violence and he couldn't just sit back and wait for something to happen. His first and best lead was Saiga and attempting to turn him from the Cabal over to Sunagakure's side. Surely he would have some information about the unusual method of attack the Cabal were using and perhaps provide some insight on how to prevent it. Even though Saiga wasn't a shinobi, Katsuo had already seen his spirit once-- he could find him again.

"I appreciate your help, Chiyoko but I have to get back out there. Time spent here is time people are being hurt." Reaching down, he wrapped his fingers around the scabbard of Tatsumasa and lifted... only to find that he could not lift it. Pulling at it again, Tatsumasa refused to budge from where it was set against the bed and wall. Furrowing his brow in frustration, Katsuo pulled again and this time felt a response from the sword. She did not speak to him but he felt her displeasure with his decision to hunt down Saiga instead of following her directions of going to find the Diamond Throne. "Are you pouting?"

Unbelievable. His sword was extorting him. They both knew that he couldn't just leave the sword in the hospital. Even though Tatsumasa could not be wielded by those who weren't not Sunahoshi blood it was still a symbol of rulership in Sunagakure and for someone else to have possession of the sword would be sacrilege. Especially if it fell into the hands of a Cabal agent. Knowing that, Tatsumasa's spirit refused to let the sword budge an inch if Katsuo did not submit and agree to take it where she wanted to go. A memory of Tatsumasa's spirit's demand to seek the Diamond Throne flashed through Katsuo's mental sight as if to remind him of what she wanted from him.

"Alright, fine. We'll go there first. But then no more distractions. The longer we dawdle the more people suffer, got that?" Finally the sword lifted and Katsuo could feel the spirit's acquiescence to his terms. He also could feel an emotion which he could only describe as a mental smirk emanate from the sword as he walked from the bed over to where his coat was hanging on the wall. Seemingly reminded suddenly that Chiyoko was in the room, Katsuo gave her an embarassed smile. "I'm sorry that I have to run like this but time is of the essence and my sword is being difficult. Thank you again for your help and I promise you that I will find Sousuke one way or another."

Then the man who should be king turned and confidently strode from the hospital room despite the lingering vestiges of his injury. It was time to make a difference or die trying.

[Topic Left]

 

[Takahashi Aki]

"That I am." Chiyoko would saw lowly. It wasn't that she was ashamed of being the mother of the Steward, no quite the opposite. Her son had done much for her to be proud of. She listened intently to Katsuo's explanation of weapons and how if they were sentient, they could sometimes take control of the weilder or influence them. Her son had shown favour over a simple black long sword, and from time to time it could transform. She oftentimes thought that there was something more to it, but she simply left the matter at that. She didn't want to go grey early due to worrying. Amusingly Katsuo went to state that his weapon was a special case. Of course. The informer usually had to be the exception to the case didn't they? Well this was an informative session of family time. "No worries."

It would seem that the family reunion was to be cut short. Which was understandable. A pout of sorts did appear on her face, which quickly turned into a confused look at Katuso had asked if she was pouting.Well. It wasn't her he was talking to, it was perhaps the sword? Such was evidenced by what he said seeming to thin air to the those who didn't understand the concept of their discussion moments ago. Seconds later he would reveal that it was indeed the sword that was causing this to be even shorter, and more importantly the sword needed him to do things. Without a second thought he promised to find her son, and off he went. The Masashi leaned against her chair. Were people of her family really this ... hasty? It certainly would explain a lot of things. Judori called her hasty.

A nurse would come back and thank Chiyoko for her time here. Chiyoko would nod her head and update said nurse on the status of the three under her supervision. Chiyoko rose up and shook her head. Right. Well. Katuso was older than her son. Was he as responsible? Mmm... probably not. He didn't seem like her son in the sense that Sousuke was cold, and calculating. Certainly Chiyoko didn't want him to run into her mother and open up a can of worms... I guess my mother or sisterly nature is guiding me here, but I certainly can't let Katuso go off like this, on his own. Special sword or not...<i></i>

With that Chiyoko herself made her way off. Doing so without making a scene at all.

[topic left]