Fleeting Shadows (KNY x OC)

-22

"Takashi-san, how- are you alright? Does anything hurt?"

"What- where- where am I?" Still quite physically harrowed from the recent events, Sayomi slowly releases Shinobu's wrist and tenses up at the sudden thought of her abdominal wound, running her hands over the region where it should be. The soft feel of the bandage exposed with the lower part of her white, button-up shirt open makes her cease her fiddling. 

Her face blanches all the more as she wonders whether anyone has noticed the gaping hole in her abdomen while she was out. If they did, in their eyes, she should be dead but looking at Shinobu's wide-eyed expression, she doesn't look to be that kind of shocked.

Just relieved that she has awakened.

"I'm...fine." She swallows nervously, flicking her eyes to a concerned Shinobu who was just about to check up on her wound.

"Please breathe," she scoots forward and lays her fingers on the dressing, making Sayomi wince a bit from the contact. "A day has only passed and your wound didn't go as far. It merely tore through the first layer of muscle. Your vital organs are fine."

Sayomi blinks warily at the Insect Pilllar's assessment, thinking that she must have healed almost completely by the time she was dropped off here but given that she had been unconscious and didn't have control over her body to heal in that state, her wound is still open unless she wills it to close.

And it needs to. If she stays longer, she'll be at risk of exposure for sure.  She gives her neck a brief scratch and her fingers glide over the metallic texture of her necklace, giving the accessory a quick once-over.

It's still there, even through the hell of battling the upper rank to death. She forgot that she has had it on the entire time.

A reminder suddenly strikes Sayomi and she snaps her wide-eyed stare to Shinobu's. "Where's Mitsuri? Is she alright?"

Shinobu turns her head to her left and Sayomi follows by instinct, finding two beds close to her side. The farthest one has an unconscious Tanjro with two IV drips hooked into both of his wrists and reasonably, Sayomi is alarmed by the sight and immediately wonders what demon he had encountered to be injured this badly.

The bed next to him cradles a certain pink-haired girl in deep slumber, hooked up to an IV drip as well and dressed in her fair share of bandages. Sayomi inhales sharply at the shallow rise and fall of her chest, indicative of the damage done on her diaphragm.

"Kamado fought an upper rank as well, as you maybe wondering, and Kanroji-san is going to take a while. Her muscles took the trauma well but not without consequence," Shinobu sighs softly and asks Sayomi to lie back down for her to check up on her.

Despite feeling a bit hesitant, she complies and drops her head back on the pillow, red-orange eyes fixated on the ceiling in deep thought as Shinobu palpates the area around her wound.

"Takashi-san, I'm really sorry about your encounter with the upper rank that killed..." As if sensing the raging storm in Sayomi's thoughts, Shinobu muses in a small voice and trails off the moment she sees her eyes fall at the reminder. It takes a while for Sayomi to respond, her right hand mindlessly making its way to her chest as it takes ahold of the pendant sitting on where her heart is.

Four months have passed and yet the pain still feels fresh, worsened by encountering Akaza once again and seeing flashes of Kyojuro briefly suffering in his memories.

Gathering enough strength to acknowledge Shinobu's sympathy, Sayomi screws her eyes shut, taking in a deep breath as her jaw clenches. "It was only a matter of time anyway."