Infected Waters I

SHIMIZU, KAWA

VIZARD

FAMILY III: MOTHER

"I was forced to take some paid time off," Kawa admitted in a bold-faced lie, still refusing to turn toward her mother as she moved on to her bookshelf, her slender fingers caressing each individual tome before gently pulling upon the binding of one until it slipped into her grasp.

"Kawa-chan, why aren't you facing-"

"The quality of meals at the barracks has started to decrease as well. To save from losing all sense of taste, I decided I'd spend some time back home," Kawa found herself continuing, hoping to bypass any further investigating by continuing to speak and focus on her book with her back toward her mother. Despite her display of feigned interest with one of her many old medical books, however, her mother continued to push the subject.

"Kawa-chan, turn-"

"They also changed my room assignment again, and you know how long it takes me to adjust to change," Kawa interrupted the woman yet again. "It's just for the weekend. If you could excuse me however, I have to unpack my things and I'll join you down-"

"Turn around and look to me this instant, young lady."

The elder woman finally had enough as she moved forward to grasp her daughter's shoulders and force the woman to turn. Kawa, though looking toward her mother, never allowed their eyes to meet... or rather, one eye. It wasn't uncommon for Kawa to wear a small black eyepatch over her infected eye. During earlier years, Kawa would often return home after healing sessions or when signs of the infection began to physically show...

But mothers... Mothers were always quite perceptive.

VIZARD | ALMIGHTY-LEVEL-ALMIGHTY

SHIMIZU, KAWA

VIZARD

FAMILY V: FATHER

Rarely did Kawa find herself spending time within the plentiful flower garden, freshly flowered by their family’s staff. Her heightened sense of smell always found the garden rather overpowering at times with the variety of seemingly randomly picked flowers planted in no particular order, or rather, one that seemed to gnaw upon her inner obsessive-compulsive demon.

“At least group the same family of flowers together…” Kawa breathed out her visual frustration as she sat upon the bench and gazed upon the variety of colorful plant-life budding before her. “Color and average growth… it’s just...”

“It’s how your mother wanted it,” a gruff voice came out from behind the bench, toward the entranceway into the cobblestone pathed garden.

“Disorganized and cluttered?” Kawa need not turn her head to know the source, though still turned profile to catch the view of her father leaning up against one of the four archways. He was a very tall man, easily towering over all of those within the Shimizu clan, though certainly not the reason behind his current role of family head. A wooden pipe rested between his lips, held up on its own as he kept his arms crossed and began stepping toward his daughter. When he finally approached one of the four benches that lay at the center of the garden, he took a rather large inhale of what burned within the pipe, then let out a fume of pillowing smoke above.

VIZARD | ALMIGHTY-LEVEL-ALMIGHTY

SHIMIZU, KAWA

VIZARD

FAMILY VII: FATHER

Kawa’s frustrated tone grew further, but never beyond any logical point. Each knew the other understood that the younger Shimizu’s anger grew from something beyond the structure of their garden. Nevertheless, Kawa knew her father would not speak nor ask, simply either sit in silence or reflect upon the day as he always did. And the young doctor would follow in suit, masking whatever melt-down, argument, frustrating situation or occurrence of the day aside with a feeble attempt to sweep whatever bothered them under the rug.

“You’re getting worse… and your mother’s very worried,” her father finally spoke after several moment of silence. Kawa remained stoic at first, though was surprised the man would speak on behalf of her mother. Normally, she could always rely on him to keep her mind distracted and deter whatever bothered her for that day. “We all are.”

The word stoic continued to repeat in Kawa’s mind as she attempted to keep herself detached by her father’s words. But the fact that he was vocally expressing his own concern for her wellbeing in such a way caught her off guard and she could feel her forced expressive mask deteriorating before her.

“I can’t contain it anymore…”

And with those spoken words, Kawa’s demeanor completely crumbled. The weight that laid heavily upon her shoulders, the anxiety and fear of what may come, all of it came out all at once… and her father was there to catch her as she fell.

VIZARD | ALMIGHTY-LEVEL-ALMIGHTY

SHIMIZU, KAWA

VIZARD

NANAMI II

“Good, good.” Kawa nodded, unable to resist a smirk in how aggressive her student had become. It felt like only a year had passed since the young apprentice came to her door, trying her best to shadow and study under the elder doctor. Nurses or medics attempting to rise above the ranks within the hospital often took mentors who would offer their services and knowledge as they guided them through the proper training and procedures for such. While Kawa was never known for taking in an apprentice, Nanami alone had been her only exception…

That was right around the time Quinn had…

“And here’s the schedule for surgeries scheduled for today,” Nanami spoke once more, handing Kawa a small packet of paper documents and awoke her elder from her derailed train of thought. “It’s more extensive today since-”

“The Jūbantai, got it,” Kawa hastily cut the woman’s sentence short, understanding full well the rigorous and rather inhumane and… quite frankly, barbaric way the Tenth Division ‘trained,’ if you could even call beating each other to a pulp training. Kawa often found herself refusing to tend to those of the Tenth. Her opinions and personal views often weighed heavily upon her manner of practice, which was always something her own supervisors attempted to train.

In the end, she was who she was; a pain in the ass to deal with and even talk to at times, but damn good at her job.

VIZARD | ALMIGHTY-LEVEL-ALMIGHTY

SHIMIZU, KAWA

VIZARD

THE CREED

She had put her entire career and herself on the line confronting the Captain like that but after some heavily debated items and a move to a more private area later, the elder doctor left with her expected yet certainly less-than-hopeful result. Ultimately, should her condition worsen, unless she provided equivalent use to that of aiding in the overthrow of their most recent yet most fearsome foe in over a hundred centuries, it was likely Kawa would be exiled from Soul Society. And that was the most hopeful response. The noblewoman would like to think that the Gotei had evolved from the prior and more barbaric form of Hollowfication "treatment," by means of complete termination, though certainly wouldn't place her faith in expecting any sort of "farewell" recession. That of course led to the woman's preparations throughout the later months.

When the healing stopped being as effective as it had been, when purification lasted no longer than a week rather than six months and when the infection spread that beyond her eye, she knew an ultimatum would inevitably be faced. Kawa stared at the reflection before her, sight focused upon her infection. It had worsened to some great degree; her patch barely covered the sickly-pale veiny splotches focused around her eye. Her once teal-colored iris now became baron of life, clouded in gray and a sickly pale-red and floating in a mass of near pure, liquid-like darkness.

Even her own reflection sickened her... But the creed held her in damnation.

If the infection didn't end her life...

Even if she underwent Hollowfication through the infection...

Even if she were to control the chaotic sense within...

The Creed of the Gotei 13 was Law. Her life would end. She knew this. She always knew this...

Time. All she wanted was time... and now, she could no longer ask for any more.

VIZARD | ALMIGHTY-LEVEL-ALMIGHTY

SHIMIZU, KAWA

VIZARD

ABANDONMENT

With a hand pressed against her forehead, a soft green glow emitted around her fingertips. A soft, warming sensation was felt upon her skin and attempted to tend to her infection. While there was no cure, she could always treat her symptoms. At the very least, to the point where they wouldn't be expressed so vividly. Slowly but surely, cracked and near-dead patches of skin around her eye began to fill up with life. Blood began to pour and circulate through to her features; her eye and skin around began to fill with color and warmth once more. It was merely a Band-Aid upon a sinking ship, however. Staring into the reflection still, those thinly lined lips arched a bit further downward into her classic "resting-bitch-face" she was well known for and with a light sigh escaping her breath, the elder doctor pulled the patch back over her eye.

She had studied the human world quite a bit and though she mostly spent her life within the realm of the spirits, there was little doubt she wouldn't be able to hold her own. Of course, living amongst the... well, living would only come if the infection didn't kill her before she could face... it.

Her family... her colleagues... her friends... to be honest, she had little, if only a handful of those she could even consider to fall under the title of "Friend." Colleagues; well, rarely did she find those around her anything more than barely competent medical assistants. Family... the thoughts halted as a swell formed within her throat and a light cough escaped her lips. Nanami held the documents she needed. Anything and everything she had was to remain with them; she held very little when it came to personal property though the savings she had earned over the centuries had certainly grown substantially enough that they would, at the very least, keep them well comforted should anything ever happen to their noble status. Though she had forced Nanami to skim through her Will, even her assistant had received a portion of her earnings as well as a few small, personal affects that she held close to her heart.

>>"I figured you would leave without a second thought."

VIZARD | ALMIGHTY-LEVEL-ALMIGHTY

SHIMIZU, KAWA

VIZARD

NANAMI V

Nanami was her protégé, a once young nurse eager to learn and bursting with innocence, right out of the Academy. Okay, perhaps that was a bit farfetched; the woman was as stoic as the characteristic trait could be defined. Look up the definition in the dictionary, and there was Nanami’s emotionless, perhaps maybe sulking, or brooding expression? Kawa couldn’t decipher. Every now and then, she would get a facial twitch here and there, a tweak of the side of her lip or faint pinkish tint to her cheeks.

Beyond that, though, the woman was stone. And stone is exactly what Kawa had expected from her to chisel out the imperfections and create the embodiment of professionalism and do-okay, maybe nothing close to professionalism, but certainly full of all medical knowledge the spiritual mind could possibly process, and then some. Sure, they had graduated the Academy together but Nanami's medical career had started far after, having spent nearly half a century with the Kido Corps.

The sudden change in studies had never been questioned by Kawa herself and had simply always teased to the woman it was due to missing her or being too closely attached to her hip. While she would not only never admit it to the younger, shorter woman but also not even herself in most points of her life, Kawa could not have asked for a better colleague... or friend. Nanami had saved her in more ways than she could count, though such words would never come to surface. After all, she couldn't allow the stoic woman to become as full of herself as some of the other medical team leaders found throughout the hospital.

VIZARD | ALMIGHTY-LEVEL-ALMIGHTY

SHIMIZU, KAWA

VIZARD

NANAMI VII

The dead-tone voice of the near life-time working assistant and professional go-fer. It was once an annoying, squawking, never-joking, always serious; okay maybe not squawking, but the lack of tone was like nails on a chalkboard sometimes. Kawa had put some wasabi in Nanami’s tea once. Her left eye had twitched twice after the first sip. She had looked down to her tea, looked up to Kawa, then back to her tea. She then proceeded to gulp the rest of the tea, squinted her eyes tightly closed, and swallowed hard. It was the most expressive she had ever seen Nanami. Prank after prank brought about more hidden personality behind the blank stare. It also brought about a well-built wall of defense, soon picking up on the pranks and developed the ability to avoid them at times. Still, she never attempted to respond much to Kawa’s awkward sense of humor, berating nor her temper.

Kawa’s temper. She had a cool head and it took quite a lot to set her off, but when Kawa got angry, she was blind to everything around her. And it was moments like that where Kawa’s tongue became most deadly. A lot of dire, frustrated words expressed that Kawa could never take back. To be quite honest, yes Kawa could be quite rude and often immature and disrespectful to her colleagues, but it was something those around her seemed to just… just barely tolerate. Not too much to report to the Captain (though she wasn’t unfamiliar with her name appearing more and more in rollcall for various types of incidents) though just enough to grind one’s gears. Nanami had the tolerance of a saint when it came to dealing with her senior’s antics.

VIZARD | ALMIGHTY-LEVEL-ALMIGHTY

SHIMIZU, KAWA

VIZARD

NANAMI IX

While tongue-twisters were indeed something they played from time to time, the reality of the situation didn’t feel any lighter. It was a rather classic yet dull scenario; a teacher leaving an apprentice without saying a word, a confrontation just before the final door closed. Kawa was surely one for dramatics, but when it came to heavy situations that held her at the center, avoidance was her prescription. Frankly, the cliché scenario seemed to cause an actual strained twitch inside of her chest. Gross. Clichés were stupid.

“Surely the Shepard wouldn’t leave her flock astray,” Nanami spoke after being cut off. “A mess of toddlers running around frantically on speed. This place would burn down without a proper leader. Many colorful scenarios have surely been expressed over the years.”

“Let’s not make this anything more than what it is,” Kawa expressed as she grabbed the bag and swung it over a single shoulder. With a straightened back, the teal-haired woman turned to face the shorter nurse. “We already knew I was running on borrowed time.”

“Cliché lines are quite cliché, are they not?” Nanami caught the elder nurse biting her lip and a frustrated frown formed into a light smirk.

“Well then, you caught me,” Kawa shrugged a shoulder with a playful shake of her head. “But it doesn't stop the fact that it is that that it is.”

“Isn’t running away cliché?”

“It is… so call me a cliché, then.”

VIZARD | ALMIGHTY-LEVEL-ALMIGHTY