Aftermath (Gaen)

Gaen was running through the forest as quickly as he could, heading after a little butterfly that flew just ahead of him. He had received the call for an emergency medical response team, and while he wasn’t strictly speaking part of that response team, as the closest medic it was his duty to head in. The response team was a very impressive group as far as Gaen was concerned, jumping into whatever situation they were needed in without a second thought. He’s heard stories of them rushing into active combat at a moment’s notice, which gave the young medic chills, they were like the super heroes of Fourth division. Unfortunately, they were also stationed out of the Fourth division hospital, and while the time it took them to get to a site was remarkable, it wasn’t as fast as Gaen at this particular moment. He had been in Rukongai on one of his many, many little trips where he’d be ‘practicing’ his medical techniques by offering medical aid to the residents of the deeper districts. Whatever had happened, it was only a few minutes with shunpo from where he had been patching up some villagers. When the little butterfly chimed past, delivering it’s message, Gaen didn’t even have time to excuse himself from his latest patient before rushing off after the little thing. All the message had said was that there was a priority one medical emergency, which basically meant drop everything and run.

Gaen stopped running when he breached the tree line, reaching his destination without an uncertainty. The scene before him was grisly, blood everywhere, bodies strewn about like rag dolls. The ground was stained red, whatever slipshod houses had been standing were in ruins offering no protection to whoever may had tried hiding in them. The smell of iron was so thick in the air, Gaen wanted to wretch, turn and run, do anything but stay here.

No running here boy. You have a job to do, get to it. Holla said, snapping Gaen out of his daze and into work mode. He wasn’t helping by standing there, he had a lot of people who needed as much help as he could give them. His mind started taking stock of the wounded and the dead, counting who was hurt and their chances of survival, and seeing what injuries to keep an eye out for from those who had been killed already. It was mostly what you’d expect from a hollow attack, ripped and torn flesh as teeth or claws made their way through with reckless, mindless ferocity. He noted some other injuries as well, what looked distinctly like blade marks on some of the dead, but he didn’t pay it much attention. It could have been startled villagers trying to defend themselves or some ability one of the hollows brought to the table. He’d just have to keep an eye out for such wounds on those still living.

Holla, can you help at all? He asked his avatar, still not terribly familiar with her powers. He knew she could channel his rietsu into a healing energy more potent than his kido, but that was most useful on a single person basis.

Maybe if they were all connected by something living. Grass, even the blood on the ground if it isn’t too old. Holla said, which Gaen had to admit was impressive, and hoped the red soaked ground would work well for this. It was clearly fresh, so there may have been enough ‘life’ left in the blood to work as a conduit.

Let’s hope it works. Grow, Holla! Gaen said, drawing the black iron European short sword his zanpactou had become since he had realized shikai. He stabbed the blade into his right shoulder, the blade changing into a torrent of greenery, thorns and wood that wrapped and wound its way into the shape of a strong right arm. Gaen ran into the centre of the nightmare scene, putting his hand to the ground and forcing his energy through the vines, letting his shikai refine it into potent healing energy. Arcs of green lightning seemed to spark and jut along the red covered ground, and Gaen nearly passed out straight away from the strain. He could feel his rietsu drop sharply as it flowed from him to the wounded he could touch. Anybody in contact with the blood on the ground was getting a sharp charge of healing energy, and from how Gaen was feeling, there were quite a few of them. He just hoped he could keep it up as long as he needed to, at least to stabilize the injured until the response team proper arrived. He started looking around from his new vantage point at the heart of the carnage, noting another rietsu signature, one he didn’t know off hand, but was clearly powerful. His gaze fell to a very distinct captains’ jacket on a slight woman Gaen recognized as the head of the kidoshuu, previously hidden behind one of the ‘shacks’ that made up the village. Under normal circumstances, Gaen would have stammered out an apology/greeting hybrid and requested direction, but seeing as he was otherwise occupied and trying his level best not to pass out, he instead opted to ask for help. Captain, can you bring any of the wounded who aren’t touching the blood on the ground closer? He asked, not really wanting to increase the load he was under, but he didn’t want to leave anybody out.

Gaen had healed several people at once before using kido, it was an altogether pretty trying experience. It was in a ward in the hospital, he had been put on duty to keep a Meiyu field active around five patients to keep them stabilized and healing. He had pulled that particular shift a couple of times, and each time was a little easier, he learned to pace himself, like a long run. Holla wasn't as forgiving by a long stretch of the imagination. It felt like his arm was hungry, and he was the only food around, he felt like he had just as far to run but he had to sprint, there was no slowing down. It was clear that his stamina was reaching its limits pretty early on, he started sweating, trying to hold himself up, his breathing was heavy. Even his shikai, the green arm of vines and thorns looked like it's endless hunger was taking a toll. The thick and sturdy greenery began to wilt, the once strong arm became emaciated, brown and shrivelled. He could see the wooden bones of his fingers poke through the dying plant life, as if his arm was rotting away and his consciousness with it. Everything was getting blurry, the ground seemed to be getting closer ever so slowly and looking more and more comfortable.

Then he was the one to feel a surge of healing energy. It was like a deluge flooding a desert as the energy washed over him. It actually took him a moment to even register what was going on, he had lost track of the captain while his arm occupied most of his attention. She was restoring his rietsu, which he was incredibly thankful for, but he couldn't focus enough to even stammer out a word while his arm was at work. She left as quickly as she had arrived and again Gaen felt the full load of the wounded on his arm and energy as she collected the other injured. It was still unpleasant, but not as bracing and the refill was more than adequate for the time she needed to rush about. She returned after only a few moments work, and Gaen had to admit that a woman of such slight frame hauling around bodies like throw pillows was... scary. He had never really come into contact with a captain, not even his own captain beyond a passing glance in the halls. Seeing one at work was impressive, even if it was just in such a limited capacity. When she started 'healing' him again, she had asked for his name and division, which Gaen actually had to think for a minute about.

G-Gaen ma'am, fr-from... f-f-fourth... division... un... seated... He managed to stammer out, it was still hard to concentrate on anything else than the people connected to his arm. Even Holla was silent in concentration, Gaen could feel his avatar trying to limit the amount of rietsu rushing out through his arm. With the full force of a captain behind his healing ability it was pretty important to keep an eye on how much energy went through at once. Whenever his focus wavered, Gaen could see a part of his arm seem to burn away as if singed by a fire only to regrow once control was regained. He looked up at the captain from the blood soaked ground, concern and sorrow clear in his eyes even past the strain. Wha... what... h-hap... h-happened? He asked, struggling to pull the question together.

The captain seemed to be in relatively good spirits given the situation, another reason that Gaen logged away to continue being unilaterally terrified of all captains. If he had been thinking clearly, he may have recognized the tone of somebody trying to keep up a pleasant bed side manner for the sake of their patient, but he was hardly in a calm state of mind. All he could wonder is how much blood, gore, death and maiming had this captain seen in her life that she could even force a smile when faced with this scene. How long did it take to become numb, to build up a thick skin to the sight of innocent souls torn in half and strewn about like confetti.

Her explanation didn't help him too much either, seeing he had a fairly limited knowledge of the Dangai or what could possibly break into the Rukongai in such a fashion. His first instinct was to assume some sort of hollow that could move between worlds, but he couldn't even think too long about that because of the steep price of concentration healing these people was taking. The most he could gather was that something came from the realm of the hollows, ripped through this place, and was either killed or fought off. Whatever it was must have been ludicrously powerful for a captain to have been part of the fight and for there to be so many casualties afterwards. And then the captain ran off again. Gaen really didn't enjoy the sensation of being used like a power adapter by the captain, basically using her monumental power and changing it to heal those around him. He liked the sensation of being forcibly drained of his rietsu when she ran off even less.

Where the hell is she going? Holla asked, stain in her voice even as she spoke in Gaen's mind. He turned what little he could and watched as she flung some poor soul up into the air before completely pulverizing them. He looked like a shinigami from what Gaen could tell through his stress-blurred vision, and the only thing to remain of the black robed comrade was parts of his extremities. Gaen would have run for the hills if it weren't for a few factors, namely that his sense of responsibility demanded he stay and do his damn job; the second being that she was a captain and if he ran as fast as he could for as long as he could, she could catch him. She went back to fueling his healing technique, saying something about not being able to help when something happens, so was that some sort of mercy killing? Then she mentioned something about hollows, which really put Gaen on edge.

D-deal with hollows? Un... until you're finished w-what? I'm a healer! Gaen said, panic clear in his voice, he was pretty damn busy keeping these people alive, stopping for a quick tussle with a hollow while the Captain worked on... something... didn't seem like a very appealing prospect.

Gaen released his shikai's technique as soon as the captain told him it was alright to do so, the relief was so striking his shikai actually fully deactivated. His sword fell to the ground as a black iron European short sword, splashing into the blood soaked mud with no save for grace. Gaen did likewise as he keeled over from exhaustion, managing to fall to his side and spare himself a face full of dirt and blood. He looked to his right arm, the familiar scar covered stump no longer enshrouded by his shikai, which had the odd habit of eating his right sleeve, leaving his shihakusho a tattered mess on his right. He looked to the ground and saw his sword, something he actually considered quite ugly because as a sword it was a weapon, and that was something Gaen found actually pretty ironic considering Holla's abilities. For her part, his avatar was being suspiciously silent since she would likely have had a few things to say to the captain about the sudden and seeminly random murder of another shinigami. With a quick mental probing, Gaen found that, quite surprisingly, Holla was out cold. He'd have to keep that in mind next time he intended to stress his shikai abilities out like that again.

When the captain mentioned Hollowification, Gaen started to try and comb through his mind for details about the affliction. It wasn't a subject covered very in depth during the academy, just a little mention here or there when recounting the history of Soul Society. To his own credit, he had read a medical thesis based on the subject (you know, for kicks) but it was all theory, nothing concrete since there was so little evidence about the subject since Urahara took his knowledge with him. Nobody in Soul Society would be able to reasonably ask for permission to perform experiments on the subject, and he doubted anybody would really know where to begin if they could. Still, what the captain said rang true, at least for now, in that hollowification wasn't a process you could stop easily, if at all, in the best of circumstances. If these shinigami were undergoing some sort of hollowification, it was a perfectly reasonable action to preemptively extinguish the thread. It was well within the realms of triage morality, focusing the resources available to take care of the most people possible. If that meant allocating a captain to making sure incredibly powerful hollow/shinigami hybrids didn't run amok in the Rukongai, then that was perfectly reasonable. It was also flew in the face of everything that Gaen believed in, that everybody could be saved no matter how bad things looked, that killing somebody was just the lazy way out. Gaen would have argued with the captain if he could, but at the moment he was too busy balling his eyes out like a baby. Despite what he believed, the captain was right, there was nothing that Gaen could do as a healer, he was far too weak, and he doubted the captain would resort to murder if there were any other options available to her. Killing somebody, the ultimate perversion of Gaen's sole purpose, was the nicest thing you could do in this situation and it burned him to the bones.

Gaen wasn't sure to make of her next statement though, that if he questioned her, he'd have to sell her out, that he should save himself. He had already seen enough for there to be a pretty grand inquiry since she just murdered a shinigami into a fine red paste right in front of him. The giant kido hammer wasn't exactly subtle. Not to mention he didn't really have a whole lot to save himself from except the captain since the tidiest way to make sure this all goes her way would be to get rid of the evidence, including the only witness, who happened to be a one-armed medic barely strong enough to keep his eyes open at the moment. He was pretty sure she could atomize this whole area with a kido, leaving nothing but a smouldering crater. If for some reason she didn't do that, Gaen had just been performing his duties as per fourth division regulation. The only way he could get in trouble for this would be to lie to his superiors in his reports and the investigation to turn up his fraud. Which would be likely since Gaen wasn't particularly good at lying. Despite his tears and deep emotional turmoil at the situation, Gaen actually had to laugh at the last thing she said.

Apprehend you? Captain, I can't even stand right now, I'm surprised I'm still conscious. He said, his words slurred a bit, though his eyes drying and he realized that even if he wasn't really in a position to do much, his reitsu was recovering a bit. But I don't think I would if I could, I mean, I don't agree with what you did, I understand why you did it. Just, maybe next time you use your zanpactou, purify the soul and send it to the cycle with a little more grace than with a giant hammer? He said, finding himself trying to cheer the captain up despite everything. He still wasn't really sure if she was mulling over the idea of flattening the scene and going back to work like nothing happened, and yet he couldn't help but try and brighten the mood a little.