Starring:
Amuro, Datura, Mune, Shinji, Kanami
Date: January 12, 2011
Summary:
Infections and suffering abound. How much can be cut out? How much must be left to rot?
Warning: Contains foul language.
"Tao Shih Training Arc - Whispers And Blades"
Level 5 - Location Unknown
It has been about 15 minutes since the Tao Shih arrived in the hidden room on Level 5. Amuro is still leaning against the wall with his left arm looking useless, his right leg is still broken, and Shinji and Kanami are still lying on the two operating tables. Mune has likely been working on the former for the past 15 minutes. The infection is nothing to laugh about.
Up next is Amuro's left arm. His leg can wait. After that it is Kanami's turn. It is likely at least one person present would have protested putting Shinji and Amuro before Kanami, but it is really the best way to go about this. As Amuro would likely have explained more than once. The hidden room is spacious, with medical equipment everywhere, books, notes, supplies, and the two operating tables with restraints. Why this room is here and what exactly is needed to fix Kanami that cannot be found elsewhere is unclear yet. Amuro is just focusing on keeping the spread of toxic Chakra away from his heart. Tomoyo is standing guard outside the room, using her Byakugan to watch for any further 'reformatting' of the hospital by some insidious reality-warping force of evil. She is not happy about it, obviously, but her papa asked her to, so there you have it.
The spider-twins obeyed the instructions of no one other than their queen, who for now had bade them to follow the instructions of the blonde-haired Yamanaka. When the one carrying Kanami is told to put her somewhere, the male merely gets a blank, rather disdainful look from the both of them. Datura, already standing by the indicated table, pats both hands against it, prompting the light-skinned widow to lay the Nogakujin upon the semi-soft surface. Their task done, Datura bids them farewell, though perhaps one a little fonder than the other, and dismisses them in a puff of smoke. Keeping them around for such menial duty as 'standing watch' was rather cost prohibitive.
There had, of course, been objections to the order in which everyone was to be treated. After all, each time Kanami mutated, it might become permanent! But nothing was quite so permanent as death, so eventually, after much back-and-forthing, the blonde-haired kunoichi had relented, though she still sulked about it. She now spent her time alternately trying to get close to the older, dark-haired kunoichi, and convince her to take her hands away from her face.
"Don't worry, Kana-chan. …Everything will be okay." But a yawning pit in the bottom of her stomach was informing her that it very well might not be despite her promising words. She touches as much as she's able, as much as the Nogakujin will allow without slapping her hands away, or other such protestations. A hand on the arm here, a stroke through the hair, an arm around a shoulder. "Mumu can fix this. She can. She can." Somehow, repeating it made it seem more possible, at least to her own ears.
"And afterwards, we'll go somewhere. Just the two of us. Somewhere nice, where it's warm and quiet, and where no one else exists but you and me. And then you can come back with me to the Imperial Palace. Oh, you'll like that. That doofus gave me my own garden. I think it might be bigger than all of Kusagakure. And there are shows, and plays, and servants, and fine foods, and sweet wine…" The list goes on and on.
Mune has finished with Shinji as he lies on his stomach on the left-hand table. The glass shards have only vaguely been attended to. Someone else can pick those out of his back. The bleeding is unfortunate, but nothing IMMEDIATELY life-threatening. It was the scratches on his arms that were the main concern. "The stronger the vector is, the more dangerous the resulting creature," Mune had said simply by way of explanation for treating Shinji promptly. Meaning… If Shinji 'turns' due to the virus, he could potentially hurt or infect most of the people in the room right before being stopped.
If he could be stopped at all. No one except Tomoyo is strong enough or rested enough to fight and defeat some kind of berserker Shinji right now. And Tomoyo lacks a killer's instinct.
So she draws her hands away from the place where scratches used to lie on Shinji's skin. She looks a bit tired. Apparently purging someone of some kind of evil virus is not easy. But there is more to do yet, so she says, "Someone get that glass out of his back. We don't need it severing anything or getting lodged in his spine or anything like that." Then she heads towards Amuro to analyse him and his arm. This is going to be a long, long seven days. It will take about that long to complete everything they came down here for.
Having been placed on an operating table, laying on his stomach the light skinned Tao-Shih member is motionless. "Make sure Kanami-san is taken care of before me," he says as he looks to Mune and telling Amuro if he sees him. The fact that Kanami nearly passed out from using chakra to help them out. Looking now at the scratch that he got from the nurse, Shinji is worried, but he's more worried about the others he was supposed to have been their protector and he did all that he could to make sure the women were protected. But a protector can't always go unharmed and that is what happend to him, his back is all cut up and glass shards embeded into it and the back of his legs.
As Mune works on him, Shinji just lays there motionless. Feeling the glass still in his back, it's not really bothering him he just doesn't want it going any deeper then it was now. But as Mune finishes with his arms, "Thanks Mune-san." he says to her. He's not gotten to talk with her personally and thats something he wants to change with the medic-kunoichi, watching as she moves away. He tries to prop himself and as he does he looks around to find where Datura and Kanami is. Looking to the two, he focuses more on Kanami, worry and concern is etched in his features for Kanami something he's only recently started showing especially during the rescue of Datura, thats when he really shows concern for others. But now he watches Kanami and Amuro.
Kanami uncovers her face partially — but only while lying on her side, so that Datura is the only one who can see. She doesn't really care what the others see. It hurts her more to let Datura see than the others. But perhaps that is why she is doing it. To make sure that Datura knows that she is trusting her not to be repulsed by her hideousness. Her left eye has become 'smoothed over' by dead-white flesh. It looks like just a slight hollow or indentation in her face, rather than an eye-socket. Her right eye is completely reptillian, and surrounded by white scales. Her lips have turned black, and needle-like teeth, ending in sharp points, fill the upper-half of her mouth. Her lower jaw has teeth that closely resemble a cross between a snake and an eel. Her hands are twisted. One is blackened as though burnt, with twisted claws in place of fingers, and the other looks like it is made of porcelain — gleaming, glassy, unnaturally smooth. The rest of her, since she was not wearing her concealing kimono the way she normally does, is likewise disfigured and altered.
As horrible to look upon as she may be, Kanami's imagination torments her worse than what seeing her actual appearance might do to her. She can only see some parts of her. She can't see her face, and so she imagines incredibly horrific things. She looks up at Datura occasionally — listlessly it seems, though in actuality she just can't display much emotion with a face like that — and wishes she could cry. But one eye is gone and the other has no tear ducts that she would recognize as being such.
She keeps thinking silently, 'Why will you not look away, Dat-chan? Look away from me. Show me that I am as freakish as I think I am. Show me that you do not find such a wretched monster acceptable. Aesthetics are everything, are they not? Reject me.' She does not know why she is thinking these things, why she WANTS to be miserable, but she thinks them anyway. Mune finishes with Shinji and moves to help Amuro. Kanami sits up suddenly, the comforting touches from the blonde annoying her suddenly. They were welcomed a few seconds ago. But not now.
The actress slides off of the table, and her legs don't seem to work the way they should, because she has to hobble away. "Ah wan' a miwohr," she says around the mouth full of fangs she possesses. She asked for a mirror, incase anyone can't tell. And either way, she is going to look around until she finds one.
Amuro waits as Mune approaches. He takes no action to stop her from checking him. He is instead looking in the direction of Datura and Kanami. Level 5, he is beginning to suspect, is not fully 'synchronized' with the reality they are all familiar with. Something has happened to make it… 'Disjointed'. Fissures between this world and some other world or worlds where things are just plain… >Wrong<, have opened up. He is trying to sense them all, but even as a Sensor-Nin, he is not able to detect everything. He doubts even Tomoyo can see the breaks in the world. Chakra is one thing, and unholy forces that lie >beyond< the limits of the universe are another…
He turns his head when he thinks he detects something hovering around Kanami… But there is nothing there. So he looks back to her as she rises from the table and goes in search of a mirror. "If any of you start hearing voices, I would recommend ignoring them," he says suddenly in his deep voice. Hearing voices? What? Does he think they're crazy or something!? Then he changes the subject just as suddenly as he spoke the first time. "There is a mirror over the sink there in the corner." Should the masked man >really< be helping Kanami see her own twisted face?
The poisonous Chakra has completely engulfed his left arm. It is a throbbing mass of agony mixed with numbness. He cannot move it. "Is this curable, Mune?" he asks finally.
The murderous Yamanaka looks about casually as Mune instructs someone to remove the glass from the recently-treated male, as if she expected a nurse with a nametag reading 'Someone' to enter the room with gauze and forceps. Given that Shinji couldn't dig things out of his own backside, unless he was remarkably limber in a way that few are, Mune herself was busy, Amuro injured, Tomoyo playing watchdog, and Kanami undergoing something… unclear but troublesome, that left only one logical person. …And she didn't look like she was going to move.
Though she was heartily wishing she COULD move. Her eyes keep returning to the Nogakujin, and then looking away. Looking, and then looking away, and it's a constant struggle to keep a weak smile on her face as she talks about all the pleasant things they can do 'later', speaking through the moisture in her blue eyes, fanning a hand in front of her face as if that would help to dry them. At least, that is the state of things until she is moved away from, her brow furrowing, perhaps misunderstanding Kanami's intent, or perhaps not, but looking decidedly unhappy either way.
The leader of the Tao Shih gets a slightly-startled glance from the Yamanaka teen as he mentions voices, followed quickly by her swallowing hard. Of course, the young woman had been hearing voices for months now! Or rather, a voice, though recently it had taken on a decidedly different tone. Soon enough, the blonde is dashing towards the sink, seeking to get to the mirror first.
"I'll get it, koibito! Just lie down! Please don't strain yourself." Of course, if Datura reaches the looking glass first, there is almost certainly going to be an 'accident' with it, an 'accident' which will involve it 'falling' into the sink very roughly and ceasing to be a proper mirror, instead becoming shards.
Mune is a bit confused by the warning about voices at first… But then thinks she understands. She does not reply, however. She just scans Amuro with her Diagnostic Technique. The extent of the poison's spread is bad. So is its potency. She says as much. "I can't cure it in time. I need time to analyze it properly, I need to compare it against existing samples, I need to know what bit you…" She trails off and shakes her head. "You're doing a good job of keeping it contained, but in about 5 more minutes it will spread into your shoulder. Another 5 and it will be spread out like a hand in your chest. Beyond that… It will be in your heart and you will be dead."
That's a pretty grim diagnosis, and the half-Yotsuki woman knows it. But a sliver of hope remains. "The only real solution is to amputate the arm. I can start right now."
Mune turns around to look and sees no one is removing the glass and Shinji is propped up on the table. She rolls her eyes and then says, "Alright, off the table, Shinji-san. I'll make this quick and then remove the glass myself."
Shinji gets off the table but looks to Datura for a moment, then to Kanami, he couldn't see what Kanami was showing her but he didn't care, Kanami must be showing her face to Datura for a reason, what that reason is he could guess but he turns away not wanting to disturb them. He looks over to Amuro and frowns when Mune gives him the news of needing more time and samples. "Mune-san, I will get what glass I can, you have more to worry about then just me right now, take care of them first. I will be alright." and to reassure her he smiles warmly to the half-Yotsuki woman, knowing she has a lot to do right now and not a whole lot of help.
Shinji does look over to Datura as she starts to head off, and as Kanami says something in jibberish which he slightly understands. 'A mirror?' he wonders. But as Amuro announces that if they hear voice and that they should ignore them, adds even more dread, 'Oh come on.' he sighs and brings his left leg up to this lap and begins looking for glass which he find quite a few shards in his leg. He carefully begins working them out. "Mune-san can I get a pair of tweezers?" he asks.
Kanami starts to turn in the direction indicated by Amuro, as vague as the instructions were. There is only one sink, apparently. Before she can reach the mirror or even get close enough to see a hint of her reflection, Datura is rushing over to bring it to her. Right as the blonde arrives to snatch up the reflective surface, something SLAMS into the wall to the left of the mirror. It looks like a clawed hand attached to a very long and flexible white-skinned arm, with scales scattered across it. The arm leads all the way back several feet to Kanami's left shoulder. The plaster crumbles and falls away as the hand retracts from the hole it has made, and then Kanami offers, "Ah gerr ih muhshelv." 'I'll get it myself,' she said in a fangy-sort-of-way.
The hand grabs the mirror by its edge, but Kanami still lacks physical strength, even with these mutations. When she loses control of that unnaturally elongated arm and she winces as pain racks her body. She drops the mirror in the sink and it shatters. The arm retracts to normal length, but now she is gasping and wheezing as though her lungs were no longer working right. A hissing noise replaces her normal breathing, deep, threatening, bestial.
She fights it off and manages to reclaim her normal breathing, for the moment at least. "Moo'n…" she offers lowly, either a warning or a plea for help. It could go either way.
Amuro hears the prognosis from Mune and just nods. "Hm. Go ahead." He moves to the table that Shinji was just on a moment ago, presumably after Mune has removed the blood-stained sheet from the ex-mercenary's own treatment. Mixing his blood with that of someone previously infected would be… Bad. Standing next to the table, Amuro unbuttons his cloak, and then unwinds the thread at the top, near the collar. The cloak falls open, and he simply slips out of it. Underneath is a partial bodysuit of grey and black mottled leather. It is partial because large sections of Amuro's torso are covered in 'plugs', metal plates that appear to be >bolted< into his flesh, an occasional medical machine of some kind with a gauge or a dial or dully blinking lights, tubes going in one part of his chest and out another… And the parts that are not covered in contraptions or armor are simply huge masses of scar tissue. There are also lots and lots of stitches. Stitches everywhere. It looks like maybe he is literally held together by metal and thread.
His right arm is far more muscular than his left, though that may or may not be due to the poison flowing through the latter. It might be withering the flesh. It certainly is doing a number on the coloration. While the rest of Amuro's skin is greyish or pale-white from scarring, the left arm is dark purple and black as though bruised, and there are two large puncture marks in the forearm that have a mix of dry and fresh blood flowing from them.
Seating himself on the table, Amuro will lie down if directed to. Otherwise he just remains sitting, and waits for his arm to be tied off at the shoulder. At the impact on the wall and the breaking glass, Amuro does not react at first. Then he stands up before anything can be done to his arm and turns around. "Kanami, I have told you already to stop using Chakra. The mutations will only get worse and happen faster if you do. If I have to stop you manually, I >can< put you to sleep until your operation is over. Is that what you want?" Despite his pitch being as deep as over, his tone is like an aggravated parent speaking to a misbehaving child.
"Rest, wait, and do not strain yourself. I would like to have my arm cut off now so that I do not die." He then sits back down.
The news that their leader may be about to lose his arm any moment was rather shocking, but played mostly in the back of Datura's mind, not fully comprehended with other immediate concerns at the for. But she never quite manages to grasp the mirror before something smashes into the edge of the room right next to it, causing her to jump upwards, and a little to the side, in fright, spinning around to find the source of it… Kanami herself. It's instant, the change of expression from worried and insecure to angry, almost a snarl. The young woman gathers her pride about herself like a palpable cloak, turning her nose up and away, away from Kanami as her shoes click against the floor. She only offers a curt 'Fine.' as she stalks away from the sink and towards the male mercenary.
"Don't bother Mumu, she's busy." The Yamanaka snaps as she snatches a pair of forceps from a tray, leaving the Nogakujin to her own devices, waving them about as if she intended to bludgeon Shinji with them. "Are all men this useless!? Turn around and face the wall, baka! And no complaining!" Given her current temperment and utter lack of medical training, glass removal from the blonde-haired kunoichi is not likely to be a pleasant thing.
While waiting for the mercenary to do as instructed, or maybe argue, the Yamanaka rogue takes in the form of their leader once the cloak is removed. It was… grotesque! In it's own beautiful way. Like the body of some sort of Frankenstein's Monster all sewn up from different parts. Of course, were she to ever gain extraordinarily long life, great pains would be taken to ensure she did not have to look like that throughout it. …Wait, was Mune going to cut his arm off!? The thought of their leader as anything less than a whole person suddenly hits her, staggering. In the end, was he really just a man?
Mune nearly snaps at Shinji to get them himself, but Datura beats her to it. 'Focus!' she thinks. When Amuro is seated — for the second time — she ties off his arm just beyond where the poison seems to have stopped with a strip of sterile rubber. Amputations are not 'normal procedure' for Mune. She knows how to perform them — and has more than once — but that doesn't make her any less nervous. And the fact that if she screws up it could harm Amuro or she might not get all of the poison and he might die anyway, or any number of other issues… Even with steady hands, she is not going to be able to ignore the concern. She distracts herself for a moment, and says, "Datura, Kanami is not quite herself at the moment. She'll be better soon."
Then she lets out a breath and puts her hands together to focus her Chakra… A moment later, her eyes snap open, alert and focused. Actually, they are nearly OVER focused. Her hands move precisely, swiftly, and with no hesitation. "Flex your hand," she orders Amuro. Assuming he does so, she says, "Keep doing that." When the blood pressure is pumped up enough, she just starts using the Chakra Scalpels surrounding her hands to 'pinch' shut the veins, arteries, and so forth between the unpoisoned part of Amuro's body, and the arm.
When everything has been sealed off… The wet noises of flesh being sliced open fill the air for a moment, and then Amuro's arm just comes away like it was barely attached. Mune sets the arm aside as some sort of red and darker-red flame starts leaking out of the end of it. Chakra that is visible? It must be quite potent indeed. It also makes the air turn 'painful' in its vicinity.
Mune says, "Gauze pads," and holds out her hand expectantly. There is no medical assistant and no indication of gauze pads nearby. There are some crates of medical supplies, but nothing is labelled clearly as 'gauze pads' except for the inventory lists on one side of each. When nothing is deposited into her hand immediately, she retrieves the appendage.
"No time. I'll have to seal it shut. We can attach a prosthetic later." Unless prevented, she'll prepare to use healing jutsu to at least keep the bleeding under control and seal off any means of infectious agents entering the body.
Sitting on a chair and for the most part just picking at the shards of glass that he was able to get to Shinji for the most part is quiet, he's already said all that he wanted to. For him to be talking this much is a bit out of the ordinary for the ex-merc, but then again it was something he didn't mind either. As Amuro moves to the table, Shinji looks to Datura, 'She looks mad.' he thinks to himself and as she grabs the forceps, 'Yeah this isn't going to feel good at all.' he thinks to himself. 'Mune help….' he gulps and stands up and faces the wall as he is instructed. Granted as she asks if all men were this useless, he didn't know if he should answer or just shut the hell up. Shinji ops for the, 'Shut the hell up or something bad may happen.' And now he knows the pain is about to begin.
Having looked over to where Amuro laid on the table, Shinji winces slightly, how the hell did he manages to survive? He wonders to himself, his body looked like it was just patchwork stitching done. But this only proves to him that Amuro is one determined man. And as Mune prepped to take Amuros arm, Shinji just watches, he awaits Daturas pulling of his own shards of glass from his back and legs. Sighing, he had to wait before he could do anything else to help. As Mune goes about the amputation, Shinji just watches. Granted when it's done, he couldn't move just yet to hand her the gauze she was asking for in fear of Datura possibly digging glass into if he even twitches so a healthy fear of a woman is a good thing.
Kanami turns away when Datura becomes angry with her, trying to hide her face again. Then she moves over to a corner of the room, and leaves her back to everyone as Amuro admonishes her for using Chakra. She does not answer, but she also does not refuse. Chakra use is bad. She gets it. She'll just have to wait while everyone else is treated. Because she clearly does not matter. She is a monster now, so she can be ignored for awhile longer. Bastards. All of them are shallow, self-fixated betrayers! She should kill them all!
Maybe that's why they want her gone. Maybe they know she's going to die if they don't heal her, so they're putting it off! But she figured it out. She won't let them kill her this way! SHE'LL KILL THEM ALL FIRST!
She starts to turn her head to glare with with her reptillian eye towards the others in the room. The sight of the black and nearly-black flames pouring from a severed arm, the stump of Amuro's shoulder and the exposed bits within, and everything else… She sees how seperate she is from everyone right now. She feels that familiar sensation of being isolated… Alone. Like not everything around her is really REAL… Then she snaps out of it and shakes her head.
What is she thinking!? These… Are these her thoughts? Even as she wonders this, she hears a voice whispering in her ear. 'What do YOU think, child?' She turns her head and looks around wildly, trying to find the source of the whispers. There is nothing. The distance she felt between herself and the others vanishes instantly. Shuddering and breathing out through her fanged mouth, Kanami limps over to Datura's side and says, "Forry, 'at-cha'." 'Sorry, Dat-chan' probably. She then does her best to help with Shinji, if permitted. She may be lacking strength but she has graceful hand—No, wait. She doesn't. One is burnt and has claws, the other is made of porcelain. Damn. Well, she at least stands by to help clean up the wounds with the cloth on the second of the two operating tables.
Amuro is used to pain. So much pain every moment, from his old, tortured body is felt all the time that he almost forgets he is suffering. Almost. But when his arm is cut off, he doesn't even grunt. Instead he… Sighs. He sighs as though in great relief. The arm appears to have been very painful when it was attached. Now it just lies there and leaks poison into the air. Probably should dispose of it.
"No need for a prosthetic, Mune." Amuro says as the doctor prepares to start healing the shoulder over. A pinpoint of utter pitch forms in the air where his left elbow used to be. Then it expands, producing a low, hollow, 'whooooOOOOM' noise, before shaping itself into an arm. Air, strands of hair, clothing, and loose objects around the room seem to be sucked inwards and shifted towards the pure-black arm, as though it were producing suction of some kind.
Then the air stops flowing inwards, and resumes being stale and still. The 'arm of nothing' looks similar to Amuro's right arm, but sleek, smooth, and absent of color other than what light reflects off of it. Amuro holds up his right hand and an invisible flame of blue-white Chakra projects from his index finger like a torch. He uses this to inscribe Seal calligraphy directly into his skin along where the cut was made. Smoke rises from the burnt flesh, along with a sizzling noise. Once a line of writing encircles his entire left shoulder, he stops. The arm stays where it is, and he moves it about as though it were made of flesh and blood instead of… Whatever it may or may not be made out of. "I like this arm better than the old one anyway," he offers.
A moment passes and then Amuro says, "Now for Kanami. Shinji, keep facing the wall. I am going to leave the room. When you are done, you do the same. Kanami is going to need to disrobe for this procedure. Her mutations are not isolated to any one part of her body." Then he pauses and says, "My apologies. Mune should be giving these instructions." Getting up from his seat, Amuro stoops to pick up his mantle and slips back into it while heading for the door that appears to be just a wall.
"No kidding." Datura mutters as she uses the forceps to dig into the male mercenary's back. The forceps are large, and perhaps not suited to fine work such as removing small bits of glass, causing the blonde-haired young woman to have to use a bit of excessive force in order to get a grip on the slippery shards and begin prying them out. She doesn't glance over during the sounds coming from the amputation. Her fetish for the weird, gross, and creepy ended where the process of dismemberment began. She might enjoy the fruits of such gory labors, but not the labors themselves.
Unbeknownst to her, the Nogakujin she's distanced herself from is having her own inner struggle. But concentrating on her task, which seems to be causing Shinji as much pain as possible, the forceps slipping, causing a piece of glass to cut even deeper, the blonde-haired kunoichi doesn't look up until a shadow looms into her light, and a voice both familiar and strange speaks. Slowly, Datura lowers her hands from her task, giving the mercenary a reprieve from her damaging ministrations to look up, wiping a hand under her nose with a large sniff.
The Nogakujin needed her, that much was obvious, now likely more than any other time in her life. But Kanami was a beautiful, graceful woman, exactly the kind of person Datura preferred to surround herself with. What she was becoming was… not. Just how shallow was she? Could she stay so close to the older woman if she never returned to her human form?
"…" The silence lingers for precious seconds, before the younger woman corrects the mutating actress. "Ryoko. Here, help me, Kana-chan. I-I need your help." Her hands reach out toward the burned, clawed hand after wiping away something from under each of her blue eyes, pulling it closer, then towards Shinji. "Can you try to pick them out? I can't do it." Surely claws, long and sharp, were better suited than the big, ungainly forceps she had been using! What's more, it gave the older woman something to do, and the younger an excuse to stay close.
And soon enough, the procedure with Amuro is done, leaving the Yamanaka teenager wondering if now was the time to be worried about modesty. She turns quickly, frowning towards an empty corner of the room, searching the dim shadows with her eyes before turning back towards teh mercenary, tapping him on the shoulder and thrusting the forceps at him. "Here." She says bluntly. "Go wait in the hall. We'll finish your scratches in a-" Her head snaps to the side again, scowling once more, this time towards the opposite corner of the room. "…few minutes. You can live that long. Kana, let's get to the bed."
Datura's physical strength was only average, and not even shinobi-level, but she'll still do her best to help the limping Kanami towards the operation table.
Mune snaps out of the Perfect Surgery trance when Amuro moves away from her. She feels weak suddenly — exhausted, really. And she is not just tired physically but also mentally. Overstraining her brain in certain areas while shutting down others is hard on her. It's one of the main reasons she hasn't taught this technique to anyone else. If done improperly, it could kill her. She gradually becomes aware of her environment again after a bout of dizziness that nearly takes her to her knees, when she notices a rush of air all around, pages of a book over on a desk flipping, light fixtures swaying, her own blonde hair fluttering on her head…
Looking towards the source of it, her cyan eyes widen. 'What IS that!?' she wonders as she gasps and backs away from the point of darkness that hangs in the air. When it becomes an arm, she realizes it is not just darkness — it is the utter ABSENCE of anything. Not darkness because there is no light, but black because there is nothing for the light to shine upon.
A tremor of fear passes through the dark-skinned woman for a moment. Then she becomes aware that Amuro is making this arm permanent somehow. Sealing it. Controlling it. The next thing she feels is not fear… But hunger. Amuro can control even something as horrific as this? He can bind and master a force that can nullify the very fabric of reality? Warp time-space at will just to replace a lost arm?
Mune wants that power. She wants the knowledge of how to do such things. Amuro isn't allowed to die yet! He hasn't passed on all his knowledge or all his secrets to her! She'll keep him alive until she has everything he knows and all of his power. Nothing else is acceptable.
Voices penetrate her awareness, and she manages to tear her eyes away from the arm of nothingness when it is slipped into the cloak of Amuro. "Hm?" she asks distractedly, then sees Kanami and Datura heading towards the table. "…Ah, of course. Just… Yes, what Amuro-sama said. Please remove your clothing and lie down on the table. The things we need for this operation are here in the room. I'll grab them and start immediately." Squinting her eyes a bit, Mune smiles. "Don't worry. You'll be back to normal in no time… Or perhaps even better. Have you given any thought to the offer made? To enhance you without changing your appearance?" Mune heads over to the crates of medical supplies and begins to search through them. She lifts up a test-tube holder with slots for six vials. Only five of the slots are filled.
Each one is labelled with one of the following. 'Reptillian Sub-Dermal Tissue Cells - White Snake (Anomaly; Live)', 'Human Osseous Tissue Cells - Kaguya Mitsuo (Chakra Altered; Live)', 'Human Osseous Tissue Cells - Kaguya Inoue (Chakra Depleted; Dead)', 'Human Dermal Tissue Cells - Seishino Merodi (Dead)', and finally 'Human Dermal Tissue Cells - Hitodama Ringu (Dead)'. "There are an awful lot of possibilities…" With tray in one hand and a bag of miscellaneous life-saving equipment in the other, the Medic-Nin turns and heads towards the table, assuming Kanami is already prepared.
PAIN is all that distracts Shinjis attention from Amuros amputation, grunting as Datura goes about her purly painful way of pulling out the glass. But after a few moments Shinji spins about on her, "Your doing that shit on purpose." he all but growls at her. That was hurting him and he didn't care if he was hollaring at her. "How about I use oversized untensils that I know don't help to pull out a splinter and use it on you." he says his eyes narrowing. "I know we are all under a lot of flipping stress, but we have to help one another." he tells her matter of factly.
As Kanami comes over, his attention shifts to her. With her wanting to help and Datura moving her clawed hand towards him, Shinji bows his head to Kanami and rolls his eyes at Datura. Facing back to the wall, but when it's called for him to leave, Shinji sighs and turns back around missing the new arm, but he did notice the sucking of air and stench. But pain tends to keep your attention drawn especially when your ally is not doing it right! Letting the forceps fall to the ground when Datura tries to give them to him. Looking to Kanami, "You will be fine, if you need us we will be right here for you." he says. Looking her full in the face, he's not preturbed by what he sees. He reaches up and if allowed places his hand on her shoulder, she did look alien, but he manage to get to know the person she is before this. "We will be just outside." he tells her and offers an encouraging smile. He then walks over to a tray of equipments and finds some tweezers, he takes them and a small back so he can deposit the blood soaked shards into it. He looks to Datura, "Relax, Mune-san will do what she can." Looking to Datura for a long moment, "Sorry for losing my temper." he tells her, "Go you two got things to do." he says as he follows Amuro out of the room.
Once out of the room, he does glance back to the closed door, "Will she be alright Amuro-sama?" he asks a bit worriedly.
Kanami shivers at Datura's touch. Not due to cold or disgust, though. The exact opposite, actually. Warmth and joy flow through her body. She sees Datura's tears, for a moment worries maybe she is responsible with her hideousness or her prior violent reaction to wanting to see her horrible face… But then she realizes that there is something else there. Datura is accepting her in SPITE Of her ugliness. Datura is touching her because she LOVES her. And Kanami has no doubt anymore… The urge to kill anyone in this room was a temporary insanity forced upon her by the demented whispers of some evil force. She loves this blonde girl and she will not give her up to madness of any kind.
She smiles gruesomely, and repeats, "Rrohkoh." A nod, and then she begins using her left hand to carefully pick out pieces of glass. Unlike Datura, Kanami pays close attention to Shinji's reactions and responses, doing her best not to cause any undue pain. The main problem is that she is not very dextrous with her fingers right now, so it may not help much.
The air moving towards Amuro in a steady manner after being so still and lifeless is disconcerting. The sight of an arm of — Void? Perhaps something gravity-based? She does not know — something dark and featureless is strange. But ultimately, it is time for her to be healed. And that is what she focuses on. Datura helps her over to the table. Maybe Kanami's body is deformed, but it is still light-weight. It does not take much effort to carry her. When Shinji stops her to give her words of encouragment, Kanami merely nods. Talking is difficult, and though she appreciates Shinji's sentiments — she really does! — smiling at him is not going to make her feel any better. Also, she is honestly eager to get back to normal as soon as possible.
Kanami has some difficulty removing her clothing. She can see some of her reflection from here, via the broken glass sticking up out of the sink. She turns to Datura, a bit in shock, and thinks, 'I wish I could tell her how I feel about how incredibly ugly I am now. Ah, well.' She waits for the males to be out of the room mostly so as not to disgust them, rather than because she feels modesty. She can be modest when she is back to normal. Right now… She just wants to spare them all.
Once she has disrobed, possibly with aid from Datura, Kanami manages to climb onto the table awkwardly and lie down. She can't see the vials Mune is bringing over, let alone the labels. She would be very, very… Unsettled if she read the labels. Her mother, a childhood friend she murdered, and a once-companion on a failed mission? Cells from each of their dead bodies brought here and put in tubes? And now they're being brought to her!?
Disturbing indeed.
"Ah wan' t' keeb da heereng and da ehrongah… stwechi'g!" she tries to get out, mangling her words. She probably asked to keep the healing and elongation/stretching. But she also might have asked to keep 'hearing'. She doesn't have enhanced hearing right now though, so that's unlikely. She is trusting Mune with a lot. To restore her to her former appearance and to NOT let her die or to mess her up worse and yet allow her to keep the accelerated healing and the ability to stretch her limbs and body. A lot of trust, and a lot of hope is being placed upon the Medic-Nin.
She better not freaking fail. 'Swear to whatever may be listening. Better not fail, or else!
Amuro continues to limp a bit on his utterly shattered right leg. He nearly forgot about it, to be honest. The sudden relief of no agony from his left arm made the comparatively lesser agony of all those broken bone fragments and torn muscles pale by comparison. The blood trail he is leaving from his boot is glanced back at briefly before he walks right through the wall and out into the hallway where Tomoyo is standing guard. The mechanical defenders of the hidden room remain as sentries. If anything enters the room that is not recognized as Tao Shih…
Shinji joins him sooner than expected. Amuro looks around for his adopted daughter, and does not see her. "…I told Tomoyo >not< to wander off." In response to Shinji's question, Amuro answers somewhat distractedly, "Ah, well. You know. Accidents >do< happen." …That is not really the positive answer that Shinji was probably expecting.
"…But as long as nothing interrupts the operation, there is almost a 100% chance of success." Ah, that is better. "Now where is Tomoyo?" he starts to scan the area with his Chakra sensing technique that makes up for the lack of certain other faculties. But then, only a few minutes into the operation, the sound of senbon machineguns and Chakra-rifles firing inside the hidden room wrecks the silence out in the hall completely. The guards are attacking!? Nothing went by Amuro or Shinji!
He turns and runs back to the wall, but it stays solid. A security measure he designed himself. If intruders are detected within, 'lock' the entrance until the intruder is disposed of. He pounds his fists against the Chakra barrier, causing the entire hallway to shake with each blow, while simultaneously digging through hundreds of lifetimes of memories for the security override codes. The weapons continue to fire loudly.
Then Amuro realizes how an intruder got in. Amuro realizes >what< the intruder is. He pounds harder on the wall and bellows out, "IT IS MY ARM, DATURA! THE ARM THAT WAS CUT OFF! THE ARM THAT WAS FULL OF EVIL CHAKRA! DO >NOT< LET IT STOP THE OPERATION!" His own damn arm might be the cause of Kanami's death. After all his precautions, all his ages of experience, all his paranoia… His own hand is responsible for ruining everything.
