Starring:
Date: October 18, 2015
Summary:
Mushi goes to see Shuuren and find out if he can help on a life and death matter.
"Time to Heal"
Land of Tea, Daimyo’s Office
Mushi had enough of sweating in Sunagakure, both literally and figuratively, as she waited to see if there was some chemical cure for her. Much of the reason she went was for Hibari's expertise, not her leftover concoctions. It only occurred to her that there was yet another option she had yet to exhaust, and she was sure he'd hear her out. He'd helped her out once, and though she hadn't made a call for years, here she was asking to see him right away-urgently. She does esteem Shuuren, but not because he's a daimyo. She's met enough of those as well as kages. But he's the best medic she knows. His methods are remarkably different from hers, but right now her skills have fallen short, even if she could make use of them. That's why she's waiting outside of his office, for a private audience.
With Mushi's presence announced by his secretary, Shuuren would give permission for her to enter. Sitting at his desk, he seems to be going over a mountain of paperwork as per usual. "Well, well, this is a bit of a surprise," his voice rings out as the door is opened for the woman to enter. Of course, as he feels that something's a bit off about her chakra, his eyes narrow. "Judging by that, I suppose it shouldn't be. Shut the door behind yourself… I thought I fixed your issues last time… What on earth happening?"
Mushi goes in with a smile, ready to begin all the pleasantries. That smile wilts when he's able to tell rather quickly that something is wrong with her. He wouldn't sense anything new in her body, just as if she has unusually weak chakra levels. Like a normal person, not a shinobi, and even then her chakra flow is slow…sluggish. Not to mention she looks exhausted. She sighs and sits down across from him. "You did," she says. No point hiding anything from him, when her life is on the line, she supposes so she launches right in. "It's not about that. It's new. I'm…blocking my chakra. That's one problem. I can't use a speck of it. The second problem is that I'm draining chakra from my body. And I say /I/ because, well, some part of me is telling me to. Not sure why. Pretty soon I'm going to run dry, and that'll be it."
"So part of it is intentional, and the other part is something in your body is working against you? That sounds like it may be some sort of subconscious defect since the body doesn't do that on its own normally," Shuuren says, quirking an eyebrow as he looks her over. He finally stands and steps over, going to place a hand on her shoulder so he can get a more thorough read of her diagnostically. "When did this start exactly? And are you blocking your chakra because you're draining it, or are you doing it to try and develop another jutsu?"
Mushi is dry washing her hands while Shuuren is speaking, wringing her fingers, but when Shuuren places a hand on her shoulder she speaks in a clinical tone. "I am unsure. I'm not blocking my chakra on purpose. It may be another ill symptom besides my overall chakra leaving my body. Or it may be a defense mechanism to keep from using up the last bit of my chakra. They began happening at the same time about…half a year ago. It wasn't bad then, it worsened significantly a month ago. I suppose I can show you…once. When I try to use it." So while he is in contact with her she makes a seal and very carefully tries to generate chakra. The reaction is immediate. Her chakra freezes up, reversing not just one part but the entire flow. The more Mushi tries to concentrate chakra, the more erratic it gets until at last she stops. Then it resumes its normal flow. On one hand it'd seem as if nothing besides Mushi is controlled it. On the other hand—who has the desire to try to push their chakra in two opposite directions?
Closing his eyes, Shuuren takes his time to feel out Mushi's condition, specifically focusing on her chakra system. As he feels exactly what's wrong with her, he opens his eyes and looks down at her, blinking several times. "… How on earth did you manage to screw yourself up this badly? This may be as bad as or worse than after your Bijuu was extracted… But it's nothing I can't fix." With that he moves to sit back behind his desk. "It's going to take at least a few hours of surgery, maybe half a day. I'm going to have to insist on sedating you this time."
Mushi has had a number of medics sigh and shrug when they've tried to find the source for her symptoms. Some of them had gone so far as to ask her to stop misdirecting her chakra, as if she was /trying/ to do it. But Shuuren seems to think there's something physically wrong. Not only physically wrong, but /really/ wrong. She stands up and takes a step back. "No, that won't be necessary," she says. "Let's not be hasty. Surgery? That stuff is /completely/ unreliable compared to normal medical healing. And it's just my chakra flow, some mental block, I don't need an extra head stitched to my shoulder." Apparently her imagination is painting a very colorful picture in her mind. And apparently she doesn't enjoy surgery.
"This is NOT something drugs or therapy are going to fix," Shuuren points out with a quirk of an eyebrow. "Self-diagnosis is a leading cause of death among Medical Shinobi. You're not the exception. If you leave without letting me fix this, you're going to die. You might delay it and live like a terminal disease patient for a few weeks, maybe a couple months if you're really thorough, but you won't actually get any better if you don't let me fix you. I'm not going to put something where it's not supposed to be. You need me to put things back where they need to be."
Mushi presses her lips together. It's true about that self-diagnosis leading to death. She'd seen it in medics all the time, particularly the young and confident ones. They thought one symptom must explain an entire illness. She's twisting her fingers. "I /knew/ if I came to you, it'd be surgery," she says a bit bleakly. She grimaces. "At the same time…I knew if I waited for those chemists in Suna to try and find a cure, I'd be dead in less than a month. If only…" She really needs to stop beginning her sentences with 'if only Hibari-sensei…' She looks at Shuuren thoughtfully. "Most medics though weren't able to tell my chakra is running out," she admits. "None besides you, actually. Just that I was blocking it." She fidgets then goes to lean against the wall, arms crossed. "Okay, tell me what you think is wrong, Shuuren-kun," she says.
"A chemist could fix this about as well as they could a broken bone," Shuuren says, shaking his head. "Your chakra network is damaged, in some places so badly that it's misaligned. Think of it like if your circulatory system were misaligned and dumping a portion of your blood into your stomach. You might have enough to live on for a while, but'd slowly lose your strength more and more until you finally didn't have enough left to keep going. You'd slip into a coma and pass."
Mushi is silent after Shuuren's words, thinking that over. Then she blushes. "Oh," she says, very quietly. "If that's true-I think I know what might have happened. I have a rather straining medical technique I used in a village, repeatedly. I saved many people, to my credit, but lost some. After that, my chakra weakened, in a way. When I explained it to a medic they said I was blocking my chakra mentally, due to the guilt of failing to save those people." And thus started a long journey of misdiagnoses, in which Mushi had relayed the medic's words and they never questioned it. She touches a finger to her lip, and then laughs softly. "Now that I think of it, a mental block sounds rather off the mark. Surgery on my chakra circulatory system, you say? Is it possibly fatal?" She squints at him as if to say 'it'd better not be!'
"People who aren't as experienced would call it something like that that they have no idea how to treat because then you think it's something that nothing can be done about," Shuuren says shrugging his shoulders. He then smirks slightly at her question, replying, "In anyone else's hands, possibly. In mine, no. I'm practiced enough in my medical jutsu to use it on myself if I have to. Using it to correct your myriad of issues will be simple enough, if a bit of a tedious process due to the amount of work needing to be done."
"You know, I actually do know how to do a surgical operation," Mushi says. "But I try to avoid it. When I heal something takes over, pushes aside the uncertainty and fear, lets me operate perfectly in insane situations. That's so with my normal chakra techniques. But it's not so with surgery. I know the technique, what I have to do, but I have to force myself into it, it just doesn't come the same." She rummages in her pack and lays out a single envelope. "Don't open that for now," she says. "And like I said I have at least a few weeks. I know you're busy, but if you could do it within the week that'd be best…and I'll pay well." As if she could put a price on life though.
"I suppose some medics have their strengths and weaknesses," Shuuren says, shrugging again. He eyes the envelope, but doesn't reach for it, simply listening to what she says. "I am quite busy, yes, but the things I have planned could take weeks on end. Best to get this done before you suffer any more serious complications. If there's something you need to do that can't wait a day or two, do it now. Otherwise, we should get you back to normal health."
GAME: Save complete.
Mushi looks pleased though unsurprised when Shuuren decides to perform the operation right away. She'd expected as much, but she didn't want to pressure the Daimyo to do anything. Especially since he'd helped her in the past. "Next time I'm about to expire, I ought to come to you first," she says. She shakes her head. "But no, I have nothing that I need to do. The only thing I could do right now is go to the next place, and wait for a reply by hawk from a number of head scratching medics." For obvious reasons, curing herself is her sole priority at this point.
"That would be the wisest course of action," Shuuren says with a smirk at the woman. "Alright. There'll be a room waiting for you at the Suites by the time you can reach it. Settle in there with your things, and I'll contact you in a few hours for the operation."
Mushi gathers what little she has, leaving the envelope on the desk. "Thank you Shuuren-kun," she says gratefully. "You're a good man. And a dead useful one, to have as a friend." She would set off, taking a moment to buy a thing or two in the village before making her way to the offered suite and waiting there. Now that the end of her problems are in sight, time seems to drag more slowly than when she had little idea what to do.
