The hospital room was quiet despite the hospital itself being bustling as it usually was. In the wake of the Cabal attacks injured folks were being found and brought in each and every day and that was to say nothing of what the cramped living conditions of the shandy town that had taken root at the mouth of the village's cavern were doing to people. The hospital was one of the few places that, despite the damage from the occupation, was still a bastion of relative order even if Katsuo had no metric to judge what a hospital "should" look like in it's daily going-ons. Hospitals weren't a place that he could say that he'd spent a lot of time over the years even though many of those years had been spent battling forces of atrophy in the Wind Country. Often times he made due with what he could find on the frontier or stayed in the house of the local medic or doctor. Frontier towns rarely had hospitals and certainly nothing of the level that Sunagakure had at it's disposal. Typically they had only one doctor and maybe two or three nurses which stayed in the building with them to run the medical "facility" if it could be described as such.
Most of Sunagakure would never know how fortunate it was for that.
For Katsuo's part he had always been a swift healer. Blessed in a handful of ways over the years from friendly spirits and holy men, Katsuo's body had developed a natural healing rate that surpassed the average human beings which meant he usually bounced back faster from wounds than most folk might. But this time was different. The Diamond Maelstorm was dead -- destroyed by the hands of Katsuo and his allies -- but at a cost that the young would-be king had not... could not have predicted. Thanks to an overloading of his body's chakra system due in no small part to the Spark of Primus, Katsuo had suffered grievous injuries and lost his physical eyesight for the time being. The doctors were baffled. Physically there was very little wrong with him despite from the wounds he'd incurred from the battle. It seemed whatever had taken his sight was a malady of the spiritual nature and they were just not equipped to defeat such a condition in the Sunagakure hospital.
Thanks to that condition, Katsuo's nerves still stung whenever he moved with the sensation of pins and needles in his extremities at all times. It was bad enough where he had to use a walking cane to move at what he might consider a reasonable speed and after a few days of rest in the facility it did not seem as if his condition were improving much. Still, the laid-up time had given him time to reflect on the results of his mission and develop some control over the spiritual weapon which had taken his physical sight from him. Using that control he projected his will and desire into the world around him using his own chakra field in combination with his other remaining senses to frame a field of perception around his body that was as accurate, if not more so, than his original physical sight had been. And he was still getting used to it, really. But focusing on his training wasn't the thing that was foremost on the demon hunter's mind at that moment as he rested his fingertips against the door of a hospital room down the hall from his own and gave it a light knock to announce his arrival before pushing through and stepping through the unobstructed portal. His perception field filling the room immediately, Katsuo found that, like she always was, the young woman who was put up in the room was laying on the bed on her side facing the far wall of the room quietly but still conscious. He could tell that despite her best effort to appear to the contrary that she was not in fact asleep from the small way her body shifted on the hospital bed as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.
"Me again, as usual." He announced quietly. To say that they were acquaintances gave the two too much credit -- really he only knew her name from the information that he'd gotten from others that had met her. He'd spoken to her before but she'd always refused to speak back. It seemed that following the final battle for Sunagakure where she'd fought -- arguably -- in defense of the village things were said that could not be forgotten and the poor young woman had shut out the outside world after it. It was understandable why she was feeling that way but Katsuo could never hope to understand how she was feeling. He'd been betrayed before, sure. By people he'd thought were friends even. But never so totally betrayed that he'd felt totally alone in the world. She'd turned her back on the Cabal for Sand and it seemed like Sand had cast her aside in the process leaving her completely alone. Katsuo's heart broke for her as he returned each day and tried to reach out to her.
Each day the young man awoke, went through his morning exercises the best he could and then made his way over to Naganisa's room to take up his vigil. First and foremost, he wanted to get her to open up and talk. To his eyes she seemed like a scared young woman but he had to constantly remind himself that she was a former agent of the Cabal and by all witness accounts an unrepentant murderess. It was entirely possible that once fully healed and rested she would only go back to her butchery and force Katsuo to put her down. But Katsuo did not believe in the same way that his master did that once a person started down the road of monstrosity that there was no hope for them. He'd redeemed a handful of "monsters" before in his travels and set them back on the right path... and he hoped to do so again with Naganisa, if he could. The other reason he took watch over her was because she was, of course, a violent criminal which needed watching. The staff of the medical facility were mostly capable of dealing with a rogue patient with injuries but that wasn't the only concern on Katsuo's mind. Being that she'd hurt and killed so many, Naganisa was also vulnerable here in the hospital. It was not entirely impossible that Naganisa could easily find herself put to death by one of the injured soldiers being brought through or even one of those medical staff who'd lost someone important to the Cabal attacks. She was a criminal but if there was a chance he might be able to save her from herself then he could not in good conscience simply put her to death like a rabid dog.
And so Katsuo came each day and sat with her. Sometimes he was quiet, sometimes he told stories. He had a lot to tell. Monsters and demons and bandits. Exciting chases and heroic deeds. She never so much as acknowledged his presence, verbally or otherwise. She always just kept staring at whichever wall she was most comfortable with starting at while sometimes bothering to roll over or lay on her back.
Shuffling his way across the room, Katsuo took his customary place in the seat next to the bed and "looked" straight ahead even though with the perception field he projected through the room he didn't need to move his head to "see" everything that went on in the room. "Hoping today's the day that you talk to me, Naganisa. We're both starting to get well enough where we won't need these hospital rooms anymore and won't that look silly if we're still doing this after we're both healthy and hale?"
[Requesting Naganisa]
Most of Sunagakure would never know how fortunate it was for that.
For Katsuo's part he had always been a swift healer. Blessed in a handful of ways over the years from friendly spirits and holy men, Katsuo's body had developed a natural healing rate that surpassed the average human beings which meant he usually bounced back faster from wounds than most folk might. But this time was different. The Diamond Maelstorm was dead -- destroyed by the hands of Katsuo and his allies -- but at a cost that the young would-be king had not... could not have predicted. Thanks to an overloading of his body's chakra system due in no small part to the Spark of Primus, Katsuo had suffered grievous injuries and lost his physical eyesight for the time being. The doctors were baffled. Physically there was very little wrong with him despite from the wounds he'd incurred from the battle. It seemed whatever had taken his sight was a malady of the spiritual nature and they were just not equipped to defeat such a condition in the Sunagakure hospital.
Thanks to that condition, Katsuo's nerves still stung whenever he moved with the sensation of pins and needles in his extremities at all times. It was bad enough where he had to use a walking cane to move at what he might consider a reasonable speed and after a few days of rest in the facility it did not seem as if his condition were improving much. Still, the laid-up time had given him time to reflect on the results of his mission and develop some control over the spiritual weapon which had taken his physical sight from him. Using that control he projected his will and desire into the world around him using his own chakra field in combination with his other remaining senses to frame a field of perception around his body that was as accurate, if not more so, than his original physical sight had been. And he was still getting used to it, really. But focusing on his training wasn't the thing that was foremost on the demon hunter's mind at that moment as he rested his fingertips against the door of a hospital room down the hall from his own and gave it a light knock to announce his arrival before pushing through and stepping through the unobstructed portal. His perception field filling the room immediately, Katsuo found that, like she always was, the young woman who was put up in the room was laying on the bed on her side facing the far wall of the room quietly but still conscious. He could tell that despite her best effort to appear to the contrary that she was not in fact asleep from the small way her body shifted on the hospital bed as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.
"Me again, as usual." He announced quietly. To say that they were acquaintances gave the two too much credit -- really he only knew her name from the information that he'd gotten from others that had met her. He'd spoken to her before but she'd always refused to speak back. It seemed that following the final battle for Sunagakure where she'd fought -- arguably -- in defense of the village things were said that could not be forgotten and the poor young woman had shut out the outside world after it. It was understandable why she was feeling that way but Katsuo could never hope to understand how she was feeling. He'd been betrayed before, sure. By people he'd thought were friends even. But never so totally betrayed that he'd felt totally alone in the world. She'd turned her back on the Cabal for Sand and it seemed like Sand had cast her aside in the process leaving her completely alone. Katsuo's heart broke for her as he returned each day and tried to reach out to her.
Each day the young man awoke, went through his morning exercises the best he could and then made his way over to Naganisa's room to take up his vigil. First and foremost, he wanted to get her to open up and talk. To his eyes she seemed like a scared young woman but he had to constantly remind himself that she was a former agent of the Cabal and by all witness accounts an unrepentant murderess. It was entirely possible that once fully healed and rested she would only go back to her butchery and force Katsuo to put her down. But Katsuo did not believe in the same way that his master did that once a person started down the road of monstrosity that there was no hope for them. He'd redeemed a handful of "monsters" before in his travels and set them back on the right path... and he hoped to do so again with Naganisa, if he could. The other reason he took watch over her was because she was, of course, a violent criminal which needed watching. The staff of the medical facility were mostly capable of dealing with a rogue patient with injuries but that wasn't the only concern on Katsuo's mind. Being that she'd hurt and killed so many, Naganisa was also vulnerable here in the hospital. It was not entirely impossible that Naganisa could easily find herself put to death by one of the injured soldiers being brought through or even one of those medical staff who'd lost someone important to the Cabal attacks. She was a criminal but if there was a chance he might be able to save her from herself then he could not in good conscience simply put her to death like a rabid dog.
And so Katsuo came each day and sat with her. Sometimes he was quiet, sometimes he told stories. He had a lot to tell. Monsters and demons and bandits. Exciting chases and heroic deeds. She never so much as acknowledged his presence, verbally or otherwise. She always just kept staring at whichever wall she was most comfortable with starting at while sometimes bothering to roll over or lay on her back.
Shuffling his way across the room, Katsuo took his customary place in the seat next to the bed and "looked" straight ahead even though with the perception field he projected through the room he didn't need to move his head to "see" everything that went on in the room. "Hoping today's the day that you talk to me, Naganisa. We're both starting to get well enough where we won't need these hospital rooms anymore and won't that look silly if we're still doing this after we're both healthy and hale?"
[Requesting Naganisa]