Plagued (Closed)

Today was like no other day, at yet at the same time it had the potential to offshoot into something much more. Hayato found himself, where he often did, in the fourth hospital, in particular this day it was the third treatment wing of the hospital. Although he had planned on gaining an apprentice today, apprentice was such an odd word to him it didn’t sound right when it came to this field of work, it sounded more suited to the medieval times of alchemist and blacksmiths, and there was still work to be done though despite his wait.

Patients wandered the halls elsewhere in the hospital varying degrees of health, from those who could barely walk to those who would be released in a mere few days at most, however in the third treatment wing with Hayato this was far from the same atmosphere. The entire area was full of people in beds, barely anyone outside of the medics of the hospital were out and about, and as usual it was the some of the craziest organized chaos that you could witness amongst the Serreitei. It was a surprise they didn’t bump into and hinder each other’s progress more than they did, and to anyone from outside the workings of the hospital it would seem a sheer miracle this wasn’t the case.

Amongst all the chaos though across the far end of the wing Hayato had made out a familiar face, and for once it was one that was not already in a bed. Across the wing was Mana, a younger member of the Kidoshou squad that Hayato had had the pleasure of meeting on a previous mission, although it had been some time since they had seen one another, the experiences they had encountered on their mission had made it so that Hayato had great respect for his, at that time, leader and fellow shinigami.

Slowly but surely, in a kind of dance like pattern, shifting here and stepping there Hayato had finally made his way over to Mana to introduce himself.

“Hello Otsuki-san. Welcome to my humble home.” Hayato would say sarcastically with a small laugh. It might as well have been his home though with how much time he spent in that hospital.

“I’m not sure if this is the most opportune time for you to be learning about the operations of the hospital, for whatever reason we are more packed than we have been in recent days. I mean it means plenty of opportunities, but we might want to wait amount so it can calm down before we go over anything, which it looks like a lot of paper work, based on what you have there.” Hayato said calmly, a hand rubbing the back of his neck, his other hand pointing briefly at the papers that accompanied the shinigami.

Being at the entrance to the third wing, and ever vigilante, well when it came to work, Hayato noticed almost suddenly as what appeared to be another shinigami came stumbling into the hospital collapsing almost instantly upon entrance.

Well I suppose even in the most hectic of times things can get even worse.

Hayato quickly moved past Mana, pushing her lightly out of his way so that he could proceed through to the fallen shinigami.

“Hey…are you ok? Can you hear me?” Hayato would say nodging the shinigami slightly, hoping to at least get some kind of response out of him.

It was then however that he noticed the small less than a foot tall creature darting here and that in a panic, however Hayato was unsure what it was or if it was even a friend, at this point it was more a nuisance, Hayato rather wanting to hear some kind of response from the shinigami instead at this point, something before he began moving him or jostling him about to get him a bed in the already packed wing.

"I'm fine ... I would be the worst Shinigami if I can't handle a little rebellious spirit."



Jirou slammed his left hand to the ground as his cloak moved to help push him to at least one knee as he pulled his papers together. If only for a moment his hair over his left eye would part to show a empty socket. He was in no mood to place the fake eye in today as he just wanted to get the papers delivered and be on his way. Rita slowed down enough to be seen standing on Jirou's shoulder, her wings still slowing down as she did her best to relax. Rita would bolt behind Jirou's head as she was addressed looking over with a light blush. The two had not been the best with social skills yet always had to do the grunt work.



"Sacrifice has always been a little shit and trying to kill me. The last week just seems to be his time. Pass this to some Squad four member, I got other maters to attend to."



Jirou would hand the papers to whoever chose to be closer to him before forcing himself to stand up. Rita moving to stay away from view as her master made his way out of the third wing. She could tell he was doing everything to focus one foot before the other and using everything to keep the cloak around his legs to help him walk. Yet again his body giving out as Jirou felt a sharp pain up his right arm and into his nervous system shocking his senses and making him drop dead in his tracks. Rita panicked again and shot off to the two people that had seen him before and pointed his direction still panicking.



"Master keeps falling down, he won't get back up this time though ... What is going on with him. Salvation never did this extent of harm to him."

Crux. Codename…what is this an experiment or a disease?

Hayato listened carefully to Mana as she spoke revealing the little information she was able to gather and relay at the time involving the mysterious documents the shinigami had handed over to the fourth squad.

If he’s suffering from this, from this ‘Crux’ as it were why would he just leave us paperwork and just leave? Wouldn’t he want to remain to be treated? Nothing about this is really making any sense right now, it all seems rather uneasy like something good could just…

At that moment the shinigami had begun to stir, the green aura of energy surroundings his body slowly dissipating as Hayato stopped the kido gradually, it seemed he was waking up, and if they were lucky would have enough energy to at least allow them to get him back to the wing so that he could more easily be looked at, and by more people in a controlled environment not in the hallway where now a handful of people had gathered staring and gawking at what was going on, whispers filling the hall, people unsure of what to say or wanting to know what was happening.

The man began reaching for his body, pulling at his arm until suddenly it partially detached from him, hanging there small streams of blood starting to form around his shoulder. It was clear this arm was not nature, in fact it was almost robotic in nature the only reason for the blood itself was most likely from the forced detachment from the shoulder of his body that was in fact still “real” as it were.

“Relax. You need to try and relax. I’m not sure what’s going on, but regardless you’re not in the best of situations right now. It looks like it would be in your best interest for us to take a look and try and assess your situation.” Hayato again spoke in a calm manner, taking in everything that was going on.

As he finished he signaled to a nearby fourth squad member to bring a bed to the area from the third wing so that they could easily transport the shinigami. In all honest Hayato was surprised no one had brought one yet, usually they were much more organized working like a well oiled machine, however it seemed this had taken, for whatever reason, everyone by surprise. Although he had asked the shinigami what was best for them to do, making it seem as though it was a choice at this point he would certainly be remanded to the fourth squad hospital, his unexplained collapsing and cryptic behaviors and wording alone were enough for further investigation to be taken.

Hayato turned briefly to face Mana speaking only for a moment before turning back and waiting for the bed to arrive so that they could transfer their patient.

“I suppose we now have a mystery on our hands, Otsuki-san. Seems to follow us around often enough.”

Jirou did not like the hospital, the last time he needed their help it only made things harder for him. His left eye socket and right arm had been prove of how the place failed him. He did however respect the wishes of his invention and allowed them to take him away on the stretcher. It was also no use to struggle as his already low strength was near empty from the recent fits of his Shikai but it seemed to have taken enough of a toll on him as it already was. Lifting his left hand to his mouth as he coughed and quickly pulled out a disinfectant and wiped his hand on it before tossing it to a can close to him.



"So what now ... Gonna rip me apart to see if you can find the cause of my problems like last time?"



"Master they are trying to help you get over this, why do you have to keep fighting that there is something wrong with you?"



"Because the last time I was here and had a *problem* I was cut open and treated like a corpse before I was even legally dead for the second time."



Jirou moved the top of his robes to show his invention the scars he had. They all matched that one would have after a autopsy, a scar across the upper ribs and one down the middle. His right shoulder was covered with countless scars from everything he had to deal with before his Shikai took the place. The fairy flew to run her hands across the wounds before flying up only to get coughed on. A light shout as she flew to get a disinfectant wipe and clear herself off. The two had so much in common aside from how Rita could not get sick.

Hayato patiently listened to Mana as she began to speak; it was another skill the fourth squad or at least most of them innately picked up. A fine sense of listening, when it came to patients sometimes that was the best thing you could do, just listening to them allowed them to be more comforted, it made them feel as though they were at ease in some of the most stressful situations there were. This was a nice skill that translated well to all aspects of Hayato’s life and as such he was often little for words, but much for listening and thinking up what the next action to be taken should be.

“Agreed, finding an overall cure could take days if not longer, making sure that the people are in normal stable conditions will allow us focus on keeping people alive and finding an overall cure. You're thinking like a medic already, not so different as you may have thought.” Hayato said calmly with a bit of a smirk.

Hayato watched again as Mana began quickly flipping through page after page of the documents that the two of them had been given by Jirou only little while before. Turning to a page that seemed to be full of relevant information, at least relevant for what they needed at the time.

Shit. The symptoms of whatever this is began masked by something simple like a flu, that’s going to make early diagnosis of this extremely difficult to determine between normal everyday illnesses. Who knows though how much this disease or whatever it could lay dormant masked by this symptoms till it fully erupts. Essentially it would be like searching a haystack for a needle, Mana isn’t wrong about that. But this is a disease we don’t know how contagious or deadly it will end up even being….but what else can we do…

“Yes. We’ll try and stabilize and assess the situation on patients as quickly as possible. If it is simply the flu in some of them we should see a reduction in patients, making our sampling size and research much easier to do.”

Hayato quickly nodded at Mana on her final comment and proceeded forward into the third wing. It was odd to him, her calling him sensei, a little awkward even. He however understood the formality of it all, but he was by far not skilled enough to be considered anyone’s sensei or so he felt. He would briefly talk to some fellow fourth squad members notifying them quickly of the possible situation, however not keying them in on the documents in hand, rather for the time being wanting to not worry anyone else with the information.

He would simply notify them that it seemed like a strong case of flu like symptoms had hit the hospital that he had recently become aware of, however something that he couldn’t place his finger on with their newest patient, that being Jirou, felt a bit different. He told them to proceed on like normal, but to notify him if there was anything out of the normal that seemed to occur with the patients outside of these present symptoms currently.

“We should get back to our patient though, see how he is doing. Make sure his condition hasn’t worsened, unless of course you have another idea. Besides we can try and stabilize him. I’ve let my fellow colleagues know that I will take charge with the new arrival.” Hayato said with a smile, “Besides this will let us kill two birds with one stone….err…well maybe that isn’t the best analogy for this…but regardless you can see some more healing as well as us trying to figure this all out at the same time. Patient Zero after all is the best spot to start…assuming of course he is patient zero.”

Jirou Was a bit of a grouch when people came to help him out. If it was anything aside from Kido he would tell them to let him deal with it himself. His mind still loose but snapping back when the Girl that had taken his notes had asked about one of his Shikai spirits. His left arm gripping his Dismembered right one and placing it into view and pointed to it while the small cloak around his neck went tense again at the thought the Spirit would be able to reach it again.



"Sacrifice and Salvation are my two Shikai spirits. Im a rare case in many fields. I survived a hollow eating my real right arm and my left eye, I have a Shikai that once belonged to me dead brother hence why it does not like me. Each day Im in a tug of war with the Spirit in that arm there."



Jirou would have kept talking if not for having to clear his lungs out a bit and Rita's return from checking on the house. It was slightly a relaxing moment as they had not left the stove or anything on back in the house. It would have sucked if he went back and had to rebuild the house with what little money he had saved up since the last time they burnt it down. He had the worst of luck like that.



"I have tried running test on the Shikai to find some countermeasure to make it slightly more accepting to me but nothing so far. Most days Im just drained out of energy and have a hard time staying focused. This Crux ordeal, im about as in the dark as you are. My memory of the last few days is gone."