Starring:
Date: October 14, 2015
Summary:
A pair of Genin are tasked with traveling to a small settlement and act as temporary emergency relief.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"A Sandy Medic"
Sukoppu Machi <Land of Wind>
As with most days within the Land of Wind, the air was dry and the skies were unshielded by even a single cloud in sight. A pair of travelers would pause less than half a kilometer out from a small settlement before slipping free of the construct. Waiting for Koemi to step out of the specialized cart, Rikuto began to bind, then take down the sail it used, breaking it down to a small enough bundle to slip into the cabin area. "Site like this litter these lands, unlike before.. you won't need much permission or watchful eyes following you here, we're still within 'familiar' territory" is explained as he continues to work. Unlike before, the young man works on retrieving a large, pale brown tarp along with six small scoop like hooks to use to not only cover what they rode in, but anchor the tarp down securely. "Did you need to fill your canteens?"
Koemi climbs out of the cart and reaches down to brush herself off. The sleeves of her cloak would rarely push up to reveal some bandages binding her fingers, hands, and forearms at least. She listens to Rikuto's explanation and lets her lips dip down into a mildly annoyed frown. He was still going on and on about that trip to Fuuma Alley that he had to spy on . She expels a quiet sigh before she tries to tell Rikuto, "Yes, yes…no permission, no spying because I can see you rather than have to guess where you are slinking in the shadows…it does not change my mind that I will still sometimes need to travel to unpleasant places to help others…" She wanders over to walk towards the settlement, lingering to let Rikuto finish up his work and catch up. "No. I believe I will be fine for the time being."
After a few moments, Rikuto finished the basic setup of the tarp, but then moves sand around the edges, giving the appearance of a oddly colored dune than just something covered over. A light smirk spreads across his lips as he catches up to Koemi, and when he does he more softly says, "If they get used to you working the border settlements, and you disappearing for two.. three days at a time giving treatments, they won't notice if you 'do' cross a border once or twice before returning home." Trailing behind the young woman, he motions lightly towards the Oasis before nodding and lowering his hand into his cloak. "Those from this edge of the Land of Wind visit here, along with those from the Land of Rice from along the border states.. I don't think many would travel from the land of River but, they might in passing." Within view, the settlement was sparse of people walking around, though it held many signs of population, but that many stayed and traded indoors.
Koemi rolls her eyes once more and starts to walk towards the settlement silently. She remains aloof towards Rikuto for now, idly reaching up to check over her fingers. "You can continue to make excuses and justify yourself…I still know how to handle myself, whether or not you are there to try to 'help' me…" She expels an annoyed sigh and shakes her head, "Please, just let the matter drop, it would be better for the both of us if you just let me focus on my own work…" She watches the people pass by an inclines her head politely to each of them in passing.
Lifting both of his hands up, Rikuto closes his eyes in a slightly mocked form of surrender. "Yes yes.. I'll just be watching and assisting if you ask for it." Keeping the pose until Koemi wouldn't be looking to able to glance towards him for a few moments. Canting his head to one side, the motions she makes with her fingers cause him to widen the angle he traveled behind her, his eyes cast low towards her arms but he doesn't seem to speak up. Within the settlement, there wasn't a hospital, the area was simply too small, though a building did have a red plus painted above the doorway but it was far from fresh. The paint, like most of the buildings was cracked, significant amounts of it were sanded off at random points over the years. "The clinic," is said, breaking his silence. "They should have some supplies if you didn't bring enough of your own."
"When I ask for it." Koemi repeats to Rikuto in a short and curt tone. She lets him lapse into silence and continues her trek to the building with the red plus. She doesn't notice him slipping behind her out of her sight, but him speaking up has her looking over her shoulder. "I have most of my jars for curing many ailments with me and bandages. We will have to wait and see if I need more…" She steps inside the building and puts on a pleasant smile for the person attending, "Hello…my name is Tenjin Koemi, I have come to assist your efforts…please direct me to where me and my companion need to be, so I can begin as soon as possible."
Almost before Koemi speaks, an older man motions down the length of the building, "There's a set of cots on the far left.. Huh?" Turning to look at the young woman, he gives her a rather confused look. Looking her over briefly, the man's eyes shift to Rikuto before back to Koemi. "Neither one of you seem to be holding that much supplies. Neither of you seem.." Lowering his gaze, the man stares at the young woman's arm for a moment. "Sunagakure is sending aid, here? I wonder who signed any contracts, maybe they finally did.. Good." A soft smile appears on the man's face as he turns away, motioning for himself to be followed as he walks through the building. "Have you ever treated heat stroke or viper bites before?"
Rikuto continues to follow along Koemi, though as they shift through the building, his posture became more rigid and formal. Bringing his hands together largely under his cloak, he young man began to focus, causing the air around him to warm further, but not significantly as he concentrated. "Hmm.. I'm not noticing many within the area that seem to be skilled with ninjutsu, fewer than I thought."
"Most of mine are concentrated. I do not need to carry around bulky supplies." Koemi attempts to assure the older man. She lightly pats a satchel that's been tied to her belt, "Most everything I need will be in here or on my belt…if there is more that I need I will only take the minimum required." As she notices the man staring, she tries not to make much an issue while she follows him. "I have treated many cases of heat stroke, many illnesses…though…I have not perfected my work that deals with venom and poisons…there should be something with me to assist with neutralizing the venom…or to at least help them survive long enough for the it to be purged by someone else." She glances aside at Rikuto, then looks back at the man to listen to him.
When Koemi looks back towards Rikuto, he simply shrugs his shoulders and softly says, "Don't look at me. I know some basic first aid but I don't know anything about poisons other than cut into the wound, let it bleed for a while.. bandage it up and hope they can recover until a medic arrives." Flicking his eyes between the two for a few moments, he turns his head away, peeking into the rooms that held patients in various conditions.
"Even brought your own supplies? Good, good.. we're already running low on our own." Opening one of the last doors fully, the mostly closed room a rotating fan to circulate the air but did little more, the heat within the building was still rather high, but cooler than the outside air. "We have more than enough bandages, I.V. drips, and packs to keep someone hydrated but beyond that? We're almost out of it." Walking along side the first bed, a man with a soaked cloth over his forehead and eyes laid in the bed, a needle in his arm and taped in place. "If anyone gets rowdy just shout, some trying to fight off high fevers still."
Koemi smirks and shakes her head, looking back ahead of her. "I was not looking at you for advice." She doesn't elaborate what she had really meant. She nods in understanding and frowns quietly in some sympathy. "I see, that is fine. We will try to restrain them until help arrives…for their own good of course. No harm will come to any of them." She begins a walk around the room to become even more aware of her surroundings, and establish a line of priority for which patients needed the most attention to start with.
Rikuto arches a brow towards Koemi's words, though when she doesn't day anything further, he simply grumbles to himself. Walking further into the room, he moves towards the far wall and sits down, looking over the patients. The older man begins to make his way from the room, but as he did he says "Each one has a chart, should be the right one. If you can touch on any one of them, just chart on the ones that you do and what you think they still need. I'll be in room three." With that, the man would leave the pair to the room's patients. In total there were six beds, but only five were filled. Two people laying in bed were charted as 'heat stroke, over exertion' another was 'viper bite, calf' the remaining pair were simply listed as 'Bar' and 'Flu'.
Koemi would squint and considers each chart carefully. She hmms quietly and shakes her head, "Going to presume these ones that say bar are intoxicated…oh well." She sighs and stops by the man who's marked as having a viper bite. "Hello? Sir?" She gently tries to wake him before she sees to inspecting the bite site. "How are you feeling?…I'll let you rest again as soon as you answer a question or two of mine…alright?"
Rather than staying still, when Koemi began to shake the man who was bit, he brings up an arm and half flails, half waves it, trying to force her away. "Leave me alone.. Askin me more gritty questions isn't going going to-" a hiss escapes the man's mouth as he shifts his leg trying to maneuver away from the the young woman. "Just let me rest.. You've already cut into me, pricked me half a dozen times. What else could you really want?" Lowering his arm back down, the man settles down once again, though his left leg moved move slowly though even slight movements at this point seemed to spark pain.
"Sir you are going to need to cooperate with me…I have only just arrived here, I do not know what they have already done, and it would be unnecessary to repeat treatment…" Koemi does consider what little the man has told her and reaches out in an attempt to place a hand on the man's shoulder in a comforting gesture, while subtly letting her chakra travel across him to get an idea of what is left to helping him recover. "It sounds as if the venom has mostly been tended to…I can give you some medication to help numb the pain that you are still experiencing."
Turning his head to the side to look at the hand on his shoulder, he soon closes his eyes and lets out a slow disgruntled sigh. "Just.. ask your questions then. It hurts more than before to even move it.." Studying his body through chakra, Koemi would be able to tell the man still suffered from low levels of poison though rather than running through his body, it was focused within just his leg. The wound itself was not healing well, while it had been sewn, it was done messily and with haste. Worst of what was found, the wound was never redressed or resown, allowing some of the stitching to begin to heal into the wound resulting in tugs and movements around the leg to be increasingly painful but largely clean.
Koemi hmms quietly beneath her breath as she considers and processes the information that comes through to her. "The venom seems to be at low levels…though it is restricted…" She turns her head to look at the leg quietly. "It seems that it should be cleaned once more…perhaps resewn…" She sighs and admits honestly, "It will be painful…here." She turns around to rummage through her satchel to offer a dark bottle to the man. If he took a sip he would find it to be a simple mixture of rice wine and a mild sedative. She smiles a little and tells the man, "It is something I normally only save for severe cases, there is nothing like something to wet the whistle to dull the pain." She then turns her attention to the man's leg and begins to pull out her supplies one by one. "Rikuto, find me a scalpel, I should still have my own needle and thread to work with."
Opening his eyes, the injured man looks up towards Koemi's face before then down at the bottle she offered him. "Looks like bottled rat poison.." is said under his breath but he still leaned forward and takes the offered sip from only to start chuckling. Slowly shaking his head, he lays back down onto the bed before asking, "You act like it isn't that bad, then give a man one last sip before telling him he's a goner, ain't ya?" Settling his shoulders, the man remains largely still until the word 'scalpel' is said, which even raised Rikuto's brow. "Hold on now Tenjin-san.. don't you think he's been bled enough?" asks the young man but it doesn't stop him from walking over to the station set aside connected to assorted cabinets and drawers. Looking through the supplies, he would pluck one from the drawers and bring it up to his lips. Exhaling softly, flames would lick from his mouth and briefly bathe the blade, flash flaming it. "This should make sure it is clean, it will cool fully in a moment."
"No, you'll be fine. Take one more sip, then hand it back to me. It is to keep you relaxed." Koemi tells the man, letting him keep the bottle for now. She looks over at Rikuto and raises a brow, "If you are going to stay and be my assistant, then I will need less questions from you…anyway, the scalpel is to remove and pull out the stitching before the skin heals over completely. It will be no more painful than what it takes to pull the threads out…unfortunately, if there are some that break beneath the skin…they may need to be retrieved. But so long as it is handled slowly and carefully." She looks down at the wound, "I'm not even certain whether or not it will reopen, which is why I may have need to re-stitch it…we will see. What's left of the venom should be ok…though if you experience chest pain or a fast heartbeat anytime during the process…that isn't from the fact that I am handling a sharp object, please let me know."
A smirk spreads across his lips as he gets a curt but then further explaining herself. "Yes nurse," is said softly though he doesn't speak too loudly. Offering the blade to Koemi carefully, he dips his head slightly. "The blade is cleaned and cooled." Moving his hand away, he uses it to tap along his chin gently before moving to the side. The man takes the bottle to drink it again, though when he drinks more than just another mouthful before letting his arm fall limp beside himself, chuckling a bit the limited food in his system allowed the ale to flow through him more readily. Returning to the bedside, Rikuto brings over a metal tray along with a few stock bandages for when the blood would likely begin flowing again.
Koemi reaches out to take the bottle before it ends up falling off the bed. She peeks inside to see how much is left before she sets it aside. "I am going to need to get more from the Sandstorm bar when we return. Thankfully it's very diluted, so he'll just be feeling tired for a little while…" Once all of the materials are ready, she carefully leans forward to begin gingerly cutting parts of the threads in half, preparing to break it apart to pull it out. She doesn't move to actually cut into the skin itself yet. "Technically in this scenario, you would be the nurse." She smiles to herself and once she's done, she sets the scalpel aside and retrieves a pair of tweezers. She uses them to slowly and carefully pull out the thread bits one by one, keeping an eye on the skin and wound there. "If the blood starts to flow, bring me a cloth to pat it down with…if it does start to bleed, I will need to work on cleaning it."
"If you would like help, 'doctor' you're going to have to tell me just what to do." The smirk on his lips spreads a little more as he watches Koemi become solemn as she begins to work. Hovering near by, he rolls a small length of puffy cloth around an index finger. The stitches were sliced in half with very little complication though what the young woman would notice that almost every third stitch would be more difficult to grip. The skin around the thread was beginning to swell and scab over, either trapping the stitch or the flesh of the opened wound was starting to grow around the stitching causing her to open small wounds. Rikuto would wait for Koemi to shift her hands out of the way before starting to apply pressure. "What can be done about causing the wound to heal rather than fester?"
"I have been telling you what to do. Part of the time you just question it or have something very silly to say." Koemi informs Rikuto quietly as she carefully pulls away some of the stitching to open up the wound more. "Well. Some topical ointments can be put on it, after it has been cleansed with some water. It should help to lower the chance of infection and reduce the inflammation.. The inflammation itself should start to slow down now that the foreign object is out of the body.. It looks like it has healed beyond the need for stitches at least.. though I do have a special blend I have worked on, it will help these smaller cuts that are opening up" She reaches into her satchel to pull out a small clay jar. "It is.. basically a very sticky substance made from plant matter. When applied, it will keep the wound shut.. like.. when insects get trapped in sap. The body does not have to heal over it, as it will naturally fade as the wound heals on its own.. For now, please get me a basin so that I can rinse the wounds without getting water onto the bed." She reaches out to put pressure where Rikuto was once pressing down, freeing him to go get what she asked for.
"Maybe.. But I'm all ears now." It isn't until Koemi withdraws a clay jar does Rikuto give the young woman a rather odd look. Mentioning 'sap' sparks the young man to move his free hand up and to his chest, stroking at it slowly. "Great.. so what would normally trap and eat an insect or a person is being used to help someone.. That's awkward to say the least." Stepping away, Rikuto folds the cloth over and sets it down onto the counter while fishing through the cabinets for a curved basin. Plucking it free, he would also get a tall white painted bottle, marked for 'boiled water' and bring it over to Koemi to wash the wound. "How long will it stay 'sticky'? A day, a week?"
"Oh sap doesn't eat insects, at least most plants don't use it for such. Normally it just hardens and fossilizes, trapping and killing them within. It would take a lot of sap to do such to a person…" Koemi tells Rikuto as she sets the jar down within her reach. "There are some carnivorous varieties that use it for such, but this is not from one of them. And again, it would need to be a very large variety to eat a person." She accepts the water, gently lifts the leg to rest it over the basin, and gently begins to rinse the wounds, causing the water to spill into the basin with the faint tinge of red from watered down blood. As she rinses, she gently pats down the wound to keep it try before she reaches over for two other smaller jars. She spreads them both evenly over the wounds, before setting them aside and picking out the sappy substance. She carefully guides each wound to a natural resting place, coats the thin gap in the sticky substance, and holds it in place until it has time to set. "Well. Two weeks at most. It will essentially act as a temporary scab. Once the flesh beneath it has healed, it will fall or rinse away like most."
"Plant, four meters tall.. They said it was an exotic pitcher plant. Others two meters tall with coiling feelers coated with sap to try and coil prey in.. didn't care it touched my arm," is softly said before a brief shiver ran through Rikuto as his face twists for a moment, shaking out the idea that forced its way into his mind. The man that Koemi was in the middle of treating didn't move much though when the warm water touches the partially reopened wound spasms briefly though he would become still once again, but grumbled out a complaint. The young woman would notice the air around her starting to heat up as Rikuto lingers over her shoulder, studying her placement of the combination as well as how she managed not to make it a mess over herself or the bedding. "Sticky for two weeks on a wound? That's interesting.. Where do you get the sap from? A plant you grow on your own or from a different land?"
"It originally had to be brought from a different land, though samples are available at the estate to harvest from and to grow it here. It helps eliminate some of the need for constant trading when we try to take measures to be more self sufficient." Koemi tells Rikuto without needing to look over her shoulder. She pauses when the man spasms and complains, before she quietly continues her work. Once she's finished, she carefully takes the bandages nearby and begins to wrap the leg off in a thin but secure layer to keep the wound closed. "There…see if there are some free pillows or blankets to help keep the leg elevated." She begins to clean up some of the supplies and looks around to try to decide who to assist next. "The victims of heat stroke should be next, but it will take some time…it is best to try to cool them off and rehydrate them gradually…too much at once can send their bodies into shock."
Shifting a hand over and pats Koemi on the shoulder before stepping away, searching around the room and namely under the beds for additional pillows or sheets to bundle up. "We don't really have a cold spring to put them in or any salt water to lower their temperature," is answered honestly but after a few passing moments, a caseless pillow was revealed. "You want to lift his leg near the knee?" is asked when the pillow is placed along the bed while Rikuto places a gloved hand against the man's foot to carefully lift. "As for drips to keep fluid levels high, how much is too much? If they need more do you pressure the bag to cause more to flow in at once or.. what?"
Koemi adjusts the pillow beneath the man's leg and nods for Rikuto to lower it once more. She then stands up and walks over to the person closest to her that has unfortunately been stricken by the heat stroke. "Oh no, pressure on the a bag is never a good idea…not only are you risking getting air bubbles into the veins, you risk damaging them from the inside…Near the tubes there are small seals that can be adjusted to make the water drip faster or slower. As long as it is replaced constantly at first, then there should be no need to worry of whether or not it is fast enough…thankfully introducing it into the system like this is much more effective than trying to get them to drink for themselves." She stops by both bedside to quickly use her chakra to help diagnose then both. Once that's done, she checks both of their rags and moves to gently re-wet them. "I may have something to feed to them to help them recover from the exhaustion and build up strength…but we'll just need to change small things to get their temperatures down…"
With the first man taken care of, Rikuto glances towards the wall where a bag was resting on a hook, connecting to the tube drip into the patient's arm and lightly taps at it. "This?" is asked as his fingers runs along the bag and down the tube to just above the inner drip device. "Something this small would really have more of an effect than letting them drink freely?" is questioned, somewhat unbelievingly but then his fingers slip away as he moves away from the man. "If you say so, still seems odd" is later said, not giving Koemi much time to chide him. At the mention of feeding the patients, Rikuto's eyes focus towards her waist, namely her set of pouches. "Eating, but not drinking? How exactly does that work?" It would be for several hours that the patients would be treated as the pair move from room to room tending to the patients they could. In the end, it wouldn't be until dusk that the young Miira and Tenjin would depart from the settlement and make their way back towards the safe walls of Sunagakure.
