Starring:
Date: December 3, 2014
Summary:
Kenta teaches Michiko the art of poison-hunting.
"Michiko's Medical Training - Poison Control"
Konohagakure - Hospital
Medical Facility - Operation Ward [Konohagakure]
/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|
A very well lit operation ward where surgical procedures for highly trained Medical Ninja take place. There are a few number of tables scattered throughout this ward, each table has its individual space and area where either curtains can close and cleaning material can be stored. This room is kept completely clean and its apparatus are incredible neat and sorted, washed after each procedure. Only Medical Ninja and patients are allowed to enter this area.
/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|/*\|
Contents:
Kenta
Exits:
Out - (O) [Medical Facility - Wing One]
A little after lunch time on Tuesday afternoon finds Kenta alone in one of the smaller laboratories at the Konoha hospital. This particular laboratory is intended for use by up to four people only, but is still well stocked for its size. The equipment within is specialized for studying poisons and antidotes, which means that it's a place that Kenta has a decent amount of familiarity with. The purpose that he puts it to today will be slightly different, in that he'll be demonstrating the process of poison identification and treatment to Kumo's up and coming medical student, Michiko. As Kenta waits for his student to arrive, he does a quick inventory of the equipment to make sure that there's an ample amount of everything that he'll need for the lesson.
Michiko has managed to escape her duties long enough to afford a trip to Konoha. Of course, she brought some of her work with her, and is currently skimming through one of the scrolls Kenta had given her long ago. It was more to refresh her memory, than anything. Once she's in the lab, though, the scroll is put away. "Hello?" she calls out, offering a light knock on the door to announce her presence. "I hope I have the right place… They were kind enough to give me a map, but it was really confusing…" she mutters, mostly to herself.
The small glass bottles in Kenta's hands clink gently against each other as he sets it down on the lab table. He turns to give Michiko a smile and a quick bow. "Please come in, Michiko-san. You're actually a little early, so you must have read the map without too much trouble overall. Join me here." The young medic-nin is sitting on a tall stool and there's another one next to him, which he pats when he tells Michiko to approach. "I heard that you're making great time on your studies. We're going to go over something that you hadn't worked on yet, but the knowledge in the herbals that I had you read will still be a bit helpful for this lesson."
<Public> Mushi has connected.
Michiko smiles and bows slightly in return. "Ah, good. I was a bit worried I wouldn't be able to find the room, so I left earlier than I likely should have," she explains, moving to sit on the offered stool. The girl looks curiously over the items already arranged on the table, then looks to Kenta. "Something to do with herbs?" she echoes, that note of curiosity entering her voice. "Interesting… I remember most of what I read about that, I believe…"
Kenta nods slightly. "Related, but not quite. We're going to go over poisons and venoms, as well as how to identify them today." The young medic-nin leans sideways to pick up a thick book, which he slides over to Michiko. "This contains a list of the most common ones, along with the source, attributes, symptoms and cures. There's a lot of information there and I don't really expect you to learn it all quickly. You're going to use it as a reference guide until you're experienced enough to know most of it by route. It's actually a new book that I purchased for you, so you don't have to worry about returning it to me."
Michiko ahs faintly and nods. Her most recent experiences have lead to her developing a (small) interest in poisons and the like, so this would be 'enjoyable' to read. "I see… I look forward to looking through it, then," she says, taking the book. Upon hearing that it was hers for good, she seems even happier than before. "Ah, thank you very much, Akiyama-san! I always love getting new books." And she isn't disappointed it's more of a reference book, either. She flips curiously through a few of the pages, giving them a quick once-over before shutting it completely.
Kenta claps his hands together and rubs them. "Ok, so now that you have your book, let's get to work!" The young man gestures at a small wooden rack that holds several vials of liquid. Some of them obviously contains blood, others a yellowish orange liquid and the remainder a clear substance. "I have here several samples of poisons and venoms - pure, mixed in with plasma, and mixed in with whole blood. What I want you to do today is get some practice analyzing and identifying what each vial contains. It's only possible to make a well informed decision on what antidote to use after you know what you're facing." Kenta gestures at a pile of scrolls, bottles of labeled chemicals, a microscope and several other pieces of equipment. "And that's what you're going to use."
Michiko looks to the vials, blinking a bit at the strange-looking substance that she wasn't overtly familiar with. "Ah, I see…" she murmurs, looking to the scrolls, chemicals, and other equipment. "So I have to analyze the different poisons in those vials and figure out which antidote would be best to use?" she asks to confirm. "How do I know which poison is which, though..?" she questions, tilting her head slightly to the other side.
"That's where that guide I gave you comes in. All the tests that I'm showing you are standard. The expected result is listed for each poison in there. You might also recognize some things from other materials that you read before." Kenta snaps on a pair of gloves and gestures for Michiko to do the same thing. He pulls one of the vials - a blood vial - from the rack and places it on a separate wire holder. "This blood was freshly drawn from a donor less than half an hour after you arrived. I added a bit of poison to it at that time."
The medic-nin drags the microscope over and starts preparing a slide. "With blood, the first thing that you want to do is to check how the poison affects the blood. Does it break open the red blood cells? Does it increase clumping or cause irregular clumping? Are there any discolorations? Stuff like that." Kenta snaps the slide into place. "Take a look at this one. This poison causes the cells to break down. Knowing that, you can eliminate whole sections from the guide already."
Michiko ahs faintly and nods. "I suppose I should open that book back up, then," she comments, flipping the book to a random page in the middle. With that done, the girl moves to peer into the microscope. She's not used to working with it, so it takes her a few seconds to get used to how to work it, look through the eyepiece, and such and so. The girl takes a few seconds to study what it looks like, then flips the book back to the table of contents. Then again through the pages to the correct section. "Hmm…" she says to herself, pondering which might best fit the current poison's effects. Her eyes scan the pages, noting the various diagrams and pictures as well as any words that stand out to her.
"Poisons from the same family work similarly and have similar attributes. You don't need to remember about specific poisons, but at least know the major groupings," Kenta comments as he unbinds a small scroll while Michiko goes through the book after checking the blood sample. He spreads out the scroll, which has a blank center surrounded by many seals. Then, he fills a small dropper with blood from the vial. Kenta lets Michiko keep researching a little while longer before he gets her attention again.
"Scroll tests can also show you some important things. Each one tests for specific attributes or chemical compounds that might be difficult to detect otherwise. They're also good for detecting chakra based or chakra affecting poisons." Kenta taps the center circle. Then, he lets a drop of blood fall on it from the dropper. There's a sizzling sound, followed by a lemony smell. "You put a drop or two of the substance that you're testing here. Depending on the specific test, you might get colored smoke, a smell, flashes of light, a specially shape stain or something else. You can match the result from each scroll test against the guide also. I find that the tests work most clearly when the poison is highly distill. Additional compounds in blood and plasma can muddle the result slightly, so try separating the poison out first using a centrifuge and distillation process if you can. If you can't, make sure you do multiple tests and pay close attention."
Michiko notes some of the more likely suspects of the poisons, then turns her attention to Kenta when he speaks again. "Scrolls, hmm…" She watches the dropo of blood fall, blinking when smoke appears. And it smells good too! How strange. The girl nods to the further instructions, glancing more to the book to see which contains the description of a 'lemony smell'. Finally she stops at a page, offering it to Kenta. "Hmm… Is this one it, perhaps, Akiyama-san? I think so far it's the closest to what I've seen so far, though… There's a lot of poisons in this book. Difficult to pin them down at the momemnt…"
Kenta leans over to see the one that Michiko picked out. He doesn't confirm whether she's right, but he does smile broadly, which must be a good sign. "The only way to know for sure is to do more tests, Michiko-san. I'm going to show you how to do some chemical analysis. Then, you're going to run through all the scrolls and the remaining chemical tests to verify the final result."
Kenta picks up a bottle of blue liquid and uncaps it after showing Michiko the label, which is marked with the chemical's name. He uses a clean dropper to fill a new glass vial with about an inch of the solution. Then, he drops some of the blood into the same vial and swirls it around gently. The liquid turns from a clear blue to a milky brown. "What does the guide say the result should be when you mix that poison together with this?"
Michiko hmms and nods, watching Kenta as he shows her how to chemically test the poisons that might be contained within the blood. The whole process seems rather easy, at least. It's just a matter of whether or not she picks the right one… The girl looks down at her book, hunting for words that might indicate she has the right poison. Apparently she does, as a small smile crosses her face as well. "Hmm… It seems to describe a similar reaction when mixed with that chemical… So I guess that means I was correct?" she says with a curious look back to the medic-nin.
"Most likely or that it's at least similar to the one you found that a cure for that one might work for this one," Kenta tells Michiko with an approving nod. The young medic-nin quickly cleans up with the sure hands of someone that's done it frequently. All the soiled equipment are packed away in various containers used for hazardous materials. "You don't have to worry about sterilizing the equipment. Someone else will do it later. There's plenty of clean equipment left for the rest of your work. Now that I showed you the basics, I'm going to sit back while you work through the rest of the samples. Work on the vials with blood first, since that keeps the shortest. Do the plasma next and the pure poisons last."
Michiko nods, studying the Akiyama as he cleans up the rest of the things. Everything seemed simple enough, at least. The hard part would be identifying poisons, even with the book to assist her. Someday she'll have to recognize them on her own, too, which would be even more interesting. The girl hmms lightly, moving to the next vial of blood and placing a drop on a microscope panel. She places it carefully under the microscope, peering into the eyepiece to study it for a few seconds. It was different than the last one, so she couldn't go off of the same sections… She hunts through her book for something that seems similar, marking some of the more likely options.
Then the girl unrolls a scroll to see what effects might happen with that. Whatever happens, she marks the ones that are likely not the true target before moving onto the final test. She sets up a few vials with different chemicals, adding a drop of the blood to each one to see the effects before marking which one she believes the poison to be. Overall, the process takes her a bit longer than Kenta. But at least she's thorough …
