Makoto drifts in and out of sleep, while the night clerk scowls at me. Time passes, the clock’s sounds amplified in this quiet space.
But she sleeps, quietly and without the nightmares I feared would plague her. I stroke her hair and murmur soothing things. I remember my mother doing the same for Yuunosuke that night that Serizawa’s life was ended in the room where the boys slept.
The door opens and I spring to attention… no, it is only the doctor and his assistant, but they are needed as well. I shake Makoto awake, “the doctor is here.”
I let the doctor in the cell, locking the door behind him. I will do so until the Captain or Hajime returns. “This is a dangerous night,” I tell him, but he still looks surprised. I have him first attend to Makoto; she’s bruised and shaken and there’s a scratch on her arm. He sees to that, and he quietly hands me some powders in case she has trouble sleeping. My head wound requires more attention and a few stitches, it’s a low throbbing ache still but at least it is seen to, and now clean. To distract Makoto during the task I turn her away and have her sing to me, she sings me one she said that Hajime sang to her, about a girl in a kimono. So they danced… I smile at that.
He gets up, and I ask, “stay. There may be others here shortly.” Hopefully… The two agree, but do not wish to stay in the cell. Makoto and I settle back down to wait, and I again lower my head in prayers, ones long-forgotten. Her little voice repeating mine… as we wait.
The hours before dawn, Ito Police station
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I get off the wagon first and ask Natsumoto-kun, the driver to help me get the girl down. I motion for Souji-kun to follow us inside. What a night this has been. I’m going to have to investigate the other address Fujita-san gave earlier but before that I’d have to ask Souji-kun what happened. By the looks of all that blood, I doubt that just came purely from Fujita-san, the woman doesn’t have a cut nor does Souji-kun.
My nightclerk came out complaining about a woman who’s locked herself in one of the cels. She must be Yagi Hide. I spot the doctor and tell him to follow us to the infirmary. It is small there with just a bed and a few first aid kit but it should do.
“Let Yagi-san out Inui.” I tell the clerk but he hesitates and I give him a glare. I don’t have time to do everything myself!
Let Yagi-san out Inui
“I locked myself in,” I tell him, looking over at Saya… she looks terrible and Makoto grips onto my other hand as I pull out the key and unlock the door. “We’ll have to help her feel better when she wakes up, ne?” I try to reassure her.
Seta-san comes out from the infirmary where he helped carry Saya, and he spots Makoto. “Did you eat all the manju?” She holds out the package he left, and he smiles at her, getting a little one back from her.
He looks over at me, “Fujita-san is still outside.”
The doctor’s assistant is still standing there, and I grab him by his coat, “come on, he’s injured.”
I run outside, to the wagon where I can see him, sitting up against the side. I come closer… he smells of blood… his entire side stained dark.
“Hajime…” I brush his hair back, hoping for a response. He won’t be able to move, or he -shouldn’t-. “Go get some help to get him inside,” I tell the young man who’s just standing there. It’s been too long already, he needs care -now-.
“Come help me.” I drag the Natsumoto outside. I can’t carry a grown man alone after all. We get to the woman who is looking over that cop Fujita. Serves him right after shouting at me like that. Heh even his woman was a sour puss.
“Move.” I tell her so Natsumoto and I can carry him. Gah this guy is heavy, I pull him by arm and throw it over my shoulder roughly. “Hurry up Natsumoto!” Sheesh…
We finally get inside and bring him into the medic’s room. Ummm we have no extra beds so I put him down on a chair. The doctor is still looking over the woman and then takes a cotton ball and pour something on it and waves it around her nose. Sheesh… Talk about stink. It’s a bloody mess in here. I shrug at the woman and head on out. I did my part.
They treat him so roughly and I want to shout but I need their help… in the cabinets I find a futon, it’s better than the bare floor or that chair.
The doctor’s assistant helps me ease him down… kami… I’ve tried to move him before but this isn’t easy. But finally he’s there and I take his jacket and shirt off…
I’ve tended to his injuries, a bullet wound back in our Tokyo days… but not its immediate effects. Thankfully someone already started some warm water and I begin to clean his wound…
“Okaasan…” I see Makoto-chan standing there, with Seta-san standing next to her. “Souji… Seta-san,” I correct myself, “why don’t you and Makoto sit right outside the door? Where you can’t see… He smiles and nods and I see them slip to the side.
I don’t know this man, I only know some of his past but they won’t be far, and he did come back with Hajime. I might not know his role yet in all of this but they’re both back, and with Saya.
I continue to clean up the blood, the doctor’s assistant preparing gauze and bandages while the doctor is still seeing to Saya. Soon I’ll need help but for now I try to do the basics – clean and apply pressure to keep the bleeding down.
Hajime… My vision blurs a bit but I can cry when he’s better. Now I have to bring him back to us.
I give my assistant the smelling salts and tell the department head the woman will be fine. We just need to wait until she wakes up. I’ve tried to check for internal injuries earlier, she’s received some bad bruising in the abdomen and the on her chest as if someone kept pounding away at her.
I go to check on the other man whom Yagi-san now have on a futon. Her movement is a bit frantic so I take her by the arm and move her away.
“Why don’t you go outside.” I tell her as I look over the wound. I check his neck for a pulse, very faint and I frown. Turning him over, I wipe his back with a towel looking for an exit wound. Nothing. I frown even deeper, if this guy doesn’t die of blood loss, he’d die of tetanus and I can’t help him with that.
“Ozuke… Hand me a scalpel.” I say and get some clean gloves. I need some hot water and something to put in between his teeth in case he wakes up. First thing’s firt. I need to get that bullet out.
The doctor leads me away. I am, as Hajime told me to be, calm.
I check on Makoto, and look down, my yukata is covered in blood… but she’s asleep again, leaning against Seta-san, who is also dozing… again I’m reminded of Souji, of how he’d fall asleep on the engawa on warm days.
I go back into the room, surveying the activity. I know this man is capable but I need to be here.
“I’ve tended to him before,” I kneel down on his other side, by his head, and I nod at the scar of another gunshot wound, “when he got that. I won’t get in your way, but if he awakes I should be with my fiancee.” Shinmoku-sensei is the one that delivered Makoto and has treated us in the years since, hopefully he will realize that I’m not a hysterical woman.
I rip off the lower part of the sleeve of my clean side and roll it up, readying it for him if that does happen. With a damp cloth I mop his face, and watch him breathe.
The hot water and some towels are brought to me. I look over my tools and pick a very sharp scalpel and just in case some pliers. Taking some smelling salts I pass it over his nostrils several times. I see his eyes flutter slightly and it closes again. He should be somehow conscious when I do this or it will be more dangerous if he goes into a coma. I pass it again and he opens his eyes slightly.
“Don’t close them.” I tell him. If he does then I won’t be able to tell accurately. This isn’t the place to perform an operation… If only we were at my clinic.
“Hold him Ozuke take his legs. Captain if you’ll please pin his arms. Don’t let him move.” I look at Yagi-san who insist to stay. Why is it that with my encounters with this woman is always of the “unique” kind? “Roll that into a cylinder.”
After she does so, I pry open the patients jaw and watch as she slides it in. There is no anaesthetic so this will have to do.
Digging into the wound, I make several incisions and cut laterally opening up the wound even further. He stiffens a bit and I’m surprised a normal man would be closing his eyes and biting into the cloth. Well I’ve only started. I press into his wound some more and slid a finger in between the flesh. It’s like tearing up an animal, this is not a task I do everyday. I place two fingers in trying to find where the bullet is lodged. He groans.
I wipe my mouth on the cloth on my shoulder. The wound is deeper than I had anticipated and I wonder what this man has been doing. I take a smaller scalpel this time, I think I can feel the path the bullet has taken. I make a cross incision in his muscle tissue, any lower and it would’ve hit his kidneys. I’m rewarded by a metal lodged into the side of his rib and I take the plier out.
“Hold him tighter.” I look at him, his eyes so stark stare back at me like he was a wild animal. Such striking eyes but they are dilated, he probably doesn’t see me. I would never trade positions with him. I push the plier inside and he flinches but I stubbornly push in and open the mouth of the pliers making him bleed a bit more. Finally I got a hold of the bullet and grab it out in one quick motion. I hear a muffled sound and look back at the man half expecting tears, but all I see is sweat and that look again. I shake my head and inspect his ribs.
It’s torture watching this but I stay, keeping my eyes on his as they open. Doing what pitiful little I can in mopping off the sweat from his face and in making something for him to bite on…
As the operation continues I’m amazed at his strength… the focus in his eyes. A groan that escapes him and I hold onto his shoulder. The sounds the doctor makes under his breath are hard to read, but when I finally see a bullet…
That, at least is overcome. But there’s still so much blood…
Hold on
I keep my eyes fixed on his, my hand always at his face. There’s nothing I can do but be here, even if he’s not aware of anything beyond pain at this moment.
Hajime… hold on. Come back to me like you always have… Calling his name in all of the other places because I must be silent -here- to be by his side. Hear me and hold on…
“Some shattered ribs but I think he’ll be alright.” I plug the wound with what I can only describe as massive amounts of cotton. After which I wrap him tightly with the gauze.
“Let him go.” I tell the others and they do so. He’ll have to stop bleeding soon, I think wryly as spots of blood appear to my newly applied wrappings. “Don’t move him for a few hours.”
I stand up and notice his eyes on me then at the Captain. What a troublesome patient… “You can sleep now.” I tell him. It’s been roughly more than an hour. I think I did well in terms of time at least. I walk up to the Captain and say that we’ll be staying here and he should dismiss the others.
“By the way Buchou, that man looked like he wanted to say something to you.” I tell him just incase.
“By the way Buchou, that man looked like he wanted to say something to you.”
I get up kind of thankful Fujita-san didn’t move unnecessarily. I’m not really sure I could’ve contained it. Then the doctor speaks to me and I give him my thanks. He assures us that he’ll be staying to look after the patients. The morning shift will come soon and I =do- have to work in a few more hours.
“Yagi-san, Fujita-san wanted me to escort you. I think we should leave as I will have several matters to attend to.”
Then I take out the other address and look at it, Yagi Yuunosuke… I would need to pick this man up, most probably they are relatives which would make sense if Fujita-san would direct me to him.
“Buchou would you need me to drive?” Natsumoto asks and I decline. Something tells me this man Fujita would frown if anyone else knew where I was taking them.
It’s over. I mop his forehead one last time and as the others drift away I kiss his forehead and whisper that I love him.
They start to shuffle me away.
Don’t make me go…
But he says that it’s Hajime’s request and I nod, dully. It’s what he wants.
I wake Makoto and the young man. “Thank you for all your help,” I tell him, bowing. Makoto protests at being woken again but I tell her that I’ll let her sleep soon.
I follow the captain outside with Makoto.
Hmmm… That young man, I was supposed to give him a ticket right? I don’t have anything on me but…
“Just a minute Yagi-san.” I go to my office and take a letter head. Briefly I write a note to the station master and seal it with my signature.
“Here you go Souji-kun.” I give him the note, “If anyone on the train asks, you just present them -that-.”
It’s almost daylight out and I get a carriage from out back, we can’t use that wagon. It’s dirty. I sigh thinking what my wife will say when I get home and then -leave- again.
We go on, there’s barely anyone on the streets so it didn’t take long to get there. I look at the address and stop to let them out.
“I’m not sure if you know this place, “Hanafubuki”, but it’s the address he gave me. He didn’t say anything else, so you’ll probably have to inquire inside if Fujita-san has a room.”
I look down for a moment wondering if I should let her know to expect a guest. Fujita-san wasn’t clear whether… But I tell her anyway.
“He gave me the address to a Yagi Yuunosuke. Is he a relative of yours?” I ask.
OOC: Assume the old Ryokan that Hide stayed at in SO 1…. And here’s the place http://japaneseguesthouses.com/db/shizuoka/hanafubuki.htm
“Hai, I know it,” I say, softly, helping Makoto out of the carriage. I look at the Ryoken… one I know -well-. The one I stayed at so long ago with that bright young girl. Is this where he was going to bring me for our time together?
He speaks of Yuunosuke… did Hajime arrange -everything-? Is this what he was doing as he bled in the back of the wagon? -Arranging-? Taking care of us when he should have been focusing on trying to stay -alive-?
“Yes, he’s my brother, he’s stopping through town. He’s someone both Fujita-san and I trust. You can give him this address and tell him to act discreetly. I’ve been estranged from my family so nobody should know he’s my brother.”
I look over at the onsen. This place is isolated away from town. “When Fujita-san and Asuka-san can be moved, can they be brought here? They would probably recuperate better here than at the infirmary at the station.”
“Yes, he’s my brother, he’s stopping through town. He’s someone both Fujita-san and I trust. You can give him this address and tell him to act discreetly. I’ve been estranged from my family so nobody should know he’s my brother.”
“Sou ka.” I nod my head, that’s much better now. I’d hate to leave them but if her own brother is going to be here then that’s much better. “I’ll let him know as soon as possible.”
The woman looks sad and agitated. It’s too bad she’s had to witness that. At least she’s alive. If I recall correctly, Fujita-san had the gunshot wound when he arrived so something has happened. I’ll have to check out that other address he gave me. Then get this Yuunosuke.
“When Fujita-san and Asuka-san can be moved, can they be brought here?
“Most probably. We don’t have room in the Precinct after all and a commotion like this never blows over well, especially if they are at the Precinct. Too many prying eyes and questions you know?” I sigh. To be honest, my jurisdiction has always been one of the most peaceful ones all over Shizuoka. I bow and take my leave after suggesting that they should probably not take any visitors for now.