2025-09-05: Clinical Detachment
- Cutscene: Clinical Detachment
- Cast: Remi Ryuuja, Dr. Taihei Hoson
- Where: Aoba General Hospital, Aoba Ward
- OOC Date: September 05, 2025
- IC Date: Wednesday, July 04, 2012 (Morning)
- Summary: During a rather tense confrontation with Officer Ishiba, Remi, disguised as 'Ariel', blocked a baton hit meant for So-young. The next morning, however, it's clear that there's something wrong, and she needs to go to a doctor. Unfortunately, her doctor happens to be on the NWO's payroll, so the trip isn't as reassuring as it could be...
Remi shivered in the cold examination room, clenching her jaw to try and stop her teeth from chattering. She was always cold, these days. It was a persistent, insidious thing, like fingers chilled by death grasping at something deep inside her, reaching out with little tendrils to suck the heat from the rest of her body. Normally she overcame this by layering and wearing tight, formfitting clothing that would trap her heat. But right now she was in an examination room, dressed in a hospital gown that was wholly inadequate to the task of keeping her warm.
She detested coming here. Normally she only came here when required for her regular checkups: the Suppressants she was on, and the changes they had made to her body, required regular and precise monitoring. But this was not one of those visits. No, last night she had elected to block a baton hit from a by that damnable cop, Ishiba.
Just thinking about it made her blood boil. It had been worse last night, white hot rage flashing before her eyes before she desperately clawed back control of that emotion. It was exhausting to be at war with herself, to have these competing urges struggling for supremacy. But in the end, her need to protect Myunghon and those they cared about won out, if only barely.
And the best plan, at the time, had seemed like it would be to stall. To not give in to the temptation to attack Ishiba, to give him more justification to harass Myunghon. When the Dark Hour hit, Ishiba had become ensconced within his coffin... but so had a bystander, Tsubasa, whom Remi had been forced to add to her calculus when Myunghon had said their name.
It felt like a night full of failures. She hadn't been able to convince Tsubasa to leave, leaving them at Ishiba's mercies once the Dark Hour ended. Shinjiro had stayed behind to protect them, so that was another person she had failed to protect. She had been forced, first, to take Myunghon to a hospital for critical, life-saving care... knowing that the stay itself would traumatize them further.
And to add insult to injury, she felt like she had betrayed Myunghon's trust still further, by giving the receptionist the state-recognized name Myunghon's records would be found under, even knowing how they despised it.
And now... she was here in this detestable hospital, shivering her ass off. And she was only here because of the damn conditioning the scientists had put her through in the first place. She had seen Ishiba move towards So-young, had instinctively moved to keep pace, had seen the raise of the baton...
There had been barely any thought to it before she had found herself in front of So-young, arm raised, blocking the strike. And... She'd barely felt it, to be honest. Not the pain, at least. She'd felt the sudden jarring, the jerking of her arm, the immense effort she needed to match her strength and frame against that of an older, heavyset man drunk on both alcohol and power. (There was, to be sure, a gap in strength between them, but it might surprise most to learn that it wasn't as vast as might be initially assumed.)
At the time, she had been able to shrug it off. There had been many, many other things to worry about, after all, not the least of which had been getting Myunghon to a hospital. (An act she fervently hoped would do more good than harm, in the long run.)
After all that she had gotten home and collapsed. And then... the pain had woken her up. This was, sadly, a novel sensation for her these days. Whereas Yua had been trained as a Navigator, Remi had been made over into a weapon. Through exposure and combat they had inured her to pain, but they had gone one step further by blocking some of the pain receptors in her body. But it hadn't been perfect, and some days... it felt like all the sensations from her body had diminished. She'd had ample time and training to work through this but some days she still felt a disconnect between herself and the world around her, as mediated through her body.
She looked at her left arm. It throbbed, a bright spot of feeling in an almost insensate experience. It was a wretched sensation, and wholly unpleasant in every way. Not just for the pain itself, but for the way the tightness restricted the feeling in her muscles, how it turned her forearm into an angry purple-black mass. And yet...
She'd found herself suppressing a giddy laugh more than once. To feel something so strongly, even pain, was strangely exhilarating.
She would worry about that reaction later. What she had wanted to do was to go visit Myunghon, to reassure them, but waking up with this injury she knew she'd have no choice. Her condition was already precarious, this injury could compromise it. Begrudgingly, she found herself calling the number she had been provided, and following the instructions that followed.
Someone knocked at the door. Remi barely had time to say "Enter" before it opened, and a thin man with a doctor's coat over a suit stepped in. He had severe features: a pair of sharp eyes and an equally sharp nose, and for her almost always a displeased frown. This was Dr. Taihei Hoson,, Remi's personal physician, 'courtesy' of the NWO.
Taihei closed the door and then turned to look at Remi. There was no warmth, just a cold, analytical scan. His eyes lingered on the bruise staining her forearm. "Mm." Remi kept her head ducked, not daring to make eye contact as Raihei finished his visual inspection and then sat down at a terminal to pull up her records.
The question came abruptly. "What happened?" he demanded. He wasn't looking at her, still reviewing notes on the screen.
Remi gathered up her wits. She felt strangely calm., but... as much as she hated that feeling, as much as it disconnected her from the world still further, she could use it. In a softer, meeker voice, and still not trying to make eye contact, she simply said, "I fell, Hoson-sensei."
It was a lie, of course. But Remi suspected it would be far worse to admit she had interacted with Ishiba last night. He had claimed to be on the side of 'bigger things', and Remi had a sickening hunch she knew what those things were.
Taihei arched an eyebrow and finally turned to look at her. "... You fell." It wasn't a question.
"It was late last night," Remi started. "I think... there was some water on the steps? I'm not sure. I felt my arm hit something on the way down, and... w-well, nothing seemed wrong at the time, so I didn't think too much about it, but when I woke up..."
"I see." The doctor turned to the computer and made some notes, then stood up and stepped over towards Remi. "The sensory modifications may have masked the early symptoms. I will inform my colleagues. Give me your arm."
Remi complied, and Taihei carefully examined it, examining the bruise and ordering Remi to report on how it felt, and then to test her range of motion. It was a much duller ache from her elbow and shoulder, though Remi could still tell they were stiff. Finally the doctor sat down to make notes.
"You have a possible muscle contusion," he explained. "You've bruised the muscle in your arm. You may also have a mild sprain. But I want you to get imaging done just to confirm diagnosis and ensure there are no complications." He looked to Remi and fixed her with a piercing stare. "Even though you have been careless with your body, I cannot afford to be. You represent a significant investment of time and resources, Ryuuja. Please try to remember that."
TAihei turned back to his monitor. "And do try to remember you are taking me from my patients. I'm ordering tests for you. Since you are here I am also ordering bloodwork. Assuming nothing else turns up in further tests, you are to use rest, ice, compression, and elevation. I will provide instructions, and the nurse will have some painkillers for you to take home." He began scribbling some instructions down on a piece of paper. "Complete these tests before you leave today. Call if your symptoms get worse and I expect to see you in a wek for a follow-up."
He fixed his stare on Remi again. "Do you have any questions for me?" he asked with a slightly arched eyebrow, as if daring her not to have comprehended something.
Remi burned inside, but kept her voice soft and meek. It was the fastest way to get this over with, to avoid any lectures or more detailed reports to the people minding her, who might examine her 'accident' more thoroughly. "No, Hoson-sensei," she said, her head bowed. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, and I apologize for the inconvenience I've caused you."
It was just another part she needed to play. She was good at that, after all.
"Good." Taihei handed her a list of written instructions. "Do try not to have any more... falls,. was it? And don't forget, you are still expected to carry out your duties." And then he got up and left without saying another word.
Remi let out a tense sigh. She'd been gribbing the edge of the exam table with her right hand, and she let it go, working the fingers and then running them through her hair. These tests would take her a significant amount of her day, and what she wanted was to go visit Myunghon... but she knew better than to disobey instructions.
With a heavy sigh she began to get dressed again. It was going to be a long day.