Lost No More

Kusanagi was starting to realize it was becoming more difficult to continue walking.

It wasn't so much that the act of walking through this terrain for long periods of time was bothering her however. After all, she wore no shoes, and yet her steps were usually quite graceful, and seldom hindered. She had long since adapted to traveling through every type of environment in the many thousands of years her incarnate form had walked upon the Earth. The soles of her feet were smooth, but tough. She would daresay she even enjoyed walking half as much as flying, as it gave her time to think to the pace of each fluid step. However, as she walked now, her thoughts were gradually becoming clouded and distracted as she focused now on the sole act of walking as straight as possible.

To prevent herself from festering with the wound on the side of her torso, a cut from one of the airborne beasts of the forests which was now roughly bandaged by her scarf, Kusanagi preoccupied the hand on the corresponding side of her torso by holding Keansi's hand. To further this effort, her free hand hung stiffly on her opposite side.

She kept her head level and still as she stared forward, despite the slight pain and spells of dizziness that were sweeping over her as they walked. She was stronger than this injury, she told herself. Her pride would not allow her to falter or slow her pace, even though her otherwise very intelligent mind told her otherwise.

She was becoming dizzier with each step, and she could feel her makeshift bandage coming loose, but at last, they reached the border of the City. She heard Keansi squeal with excitement beside her, clearly relieved that their tedious journey was coming to a close. Kusanagi had to wonder though, was this the first time Keansi had seen such a place, considering the world she originated from?

Clinic? Clinic...Did she know of a clinic? If she did, she couldn't think hard enough to remember. The buildings were blank of any signs to indicate such a facility as well. "The trouble with this city...is that there are no signs for any of the buildings... One must rely on luck and memory to navigate it," she explained.

There was one place, however, that she was familiar with and recalled medical supplies being stationed. "A little farther down these streets...there's a building which has a first aid kit." She started walking ahead, too focussed on stabling her posture to look Keansi's way.

Just a little further, she thought as she led the way...to a Library.

Left foot. Right Foot. Right foot, Left. 

Slowly and steadily, Kusanagi managed each step despite the growing pain, determined to stay strong, perhaps for her own pride, or perhaps for Keansi's sake. With a pressure applied to her hand, the kitsune girl became aware that Keansi was squeezing it. She glanced over at her to find that, first, the girl was now very close to her side as they walked, and second, she appeared to be quite uncomfortable with their surroundings. Or perhaps, judging by how she seemed to be looking toward the nooks and crannies in the street, she was uncomfortable being out in the open like this?

She was afraid, Kusanagi could see even as she focussed most of her concentration in her footsteps. As a result, the kitsune felt she needed to try and comfort her once more, but did not know where to start, and wasn't confident she had the energy to delve into it right now. Hopefully, Keansi would be able to relax soon however. 

For they had finally reached the building Kusanagi was familiar with: the Library. With a few moments forethought before they reached the entrance, Kusanagi placed a hand over Keansi's arm to steady her, in case the automatic-sliding-doors that served as entry would startle her and continued to lead the way inside.

The floor of the library was carpeted in a material far softer than the pavement outside, and the temperature slightly cooler. Shelves of all sorts of texts, novels, tomes, grimiores, and all of the like filled vast rooms and several floors of the library beyond the lobby they stood in now, which housed an unmaned welcome desk.

Kusanagi had been here once, she remembered, thinking to herself, I wonder if he is still here.


It was then, however, that the kitsune felt her legs begin to buckle underneath her, the pain in her torso felt like fire, and the rest of her long since exhausted from both the walking and having never taken the time to restore her strength from her encounter with the Screechers. She collapsed onto her knees with a groan, impulsively letting go of Keansi's arm and clutching her side once more.

Damn it...I can't go any farther like this... 

"S-sorry," Kusanagi muttered, her head hanging downward so as to hide her wincing face from Keansi as best as she could. "I'm fine, I just...the first aid...could you find it for me? It looks like a white box...a red cross on it...I think there's one nearby, somewhere. I'll wait here..."

Regaining control of her facial features once more, she looked back up at Keansi for a moment, saying, "Don't worry. Everything is safe here."

As Keansi set off to find the kit in question, Kusanagi carefully undid the scarf that was acting as her makeshift bandage and, set it beside her, making sure not to set it on top of Jarod in the process. A whole section of it was stained red with her blood, after all.

A small, brief grimace, almost identifiable as a smile tugged at the corner of the kitsune girls lips as she glanced over toward the stuffed animal. Keansi must have been worried greatly, to leave her dear, stuffed companion to watch over her while she searched for medical supplies. Kusanagi couldn't help but feel guilty over it, as this could have been avoided if she could just keep standing a little longer. She appreciated the young girls gesture, though.

She had just managed to unzip and remove her coat using her free hand, the other holding pressure on her side, when Keansi returned and set out the supplies she would need.

...That just left one obstacle before she could actually treat the wound. Underneath her coat, she had been wearing a long sundress that reached her knees. The wound as at its center, at the side of her waist. What a bother, she thought to herself. She considered shifting her form to that of a fox to avoid the perhaps somewhat awkward act of disrobing herself further to access her wound, but she would need thumbs to work with the supplies she had, and didn't wish Keansi to have to deal with cleaning and dressing the wound if she didn't have to. Besides that, she couldn't be certain that the young girl was experienced with such things.

And so, Kusanagi reach up to the straps of her sundress and pushed them off of her shoulders, the top half of her dress falling slack from her upper torso. She was, fortunately, wearing a wrapping around her chest, keeping it covered. However, it wasn't the potential risk in someone seeing her chest that made her hesitant to undo her dress to get to her wound. Rather, it was in revealing the evidence that this sort of injury really was but a scratch, compared to many others.

With her upper torso mostly exposed, one could now see that her torso was covered with several scars. Some resembled clean, straight lines, some were more jagged and rough, some seemed to resemble indents from closed off holes. There were so many, it seemed unthinkable to see them all on a body that seemed so young as hers. Over the course of countless centuries, Kusanagi had been cut, stabbed, and shot from various weapons from numerous battles between man and beast. She had always prevailed over them, and her wounds would always heal with the right treatment. These treatments would never erase the tell-tale scars of those gruesome skirmishes, however.

Her current wound, bleeding a crimson red against her pale, moon-white skin, would be no exception.

~~~

Several minutes later, with Keansi's help in handing her what she needed, and holding a part of the bandaging when neccessary, Kusanagi's wound was finally cleanied and dressed properly, the bandage wrapped around her waist. Kusanagi's face was covered in sweat, as she had fought the urge to give the slightest whimper in pain during the treatment. Pulling up and securing her sundress once more, she gave Keansi a nod of her head.

"Alright," she said, her voice somewhat faint in tone. "I'm finished now. Thank you." She looked down at the middle of her sundress and at her coat beside her. They both still bore a tear where the cut had taken place, but she would be able to mend it as soon as she found some sewing supplies. The scarf she would have to wash, somehow, or perhaps replace it. "...I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to see all of that."

The kitsune girl blinked, taken aback by Keansi hugging her. Did they all hurt, the girl asked her. Kusanagi could see the tears welling in Keansi's eyes. She wanted to diffuse her concern, but didn't know how. "Only for a while," she tried. Physical wounds were but a trifle to her, something that enough time and treatment could ease. In her lifetime she would have many, many years worth of time to spare for any wound, and treatment could be found and applied with enough diligence, after which a being like her would recover from and become able-bodied again.

It was the wounds that left no bodily mark that were a greater challenge to recover from.

When Keansi offered to help with anything else, Kusanagi stalled in thought. She simply wasn't used to being helped at all, as in any normal situation, her pride would demand she do everything herself. But this was not one of those situations, and she was aware that her body was still weak from the mana exertion of her fighting and the traveling by foot to the city. She wanted to lean against something, to rest for a while, but she herself coudn't will her legs to lift her hardly an inch from the middle of the floor. "If...If you would just help me to a corner to rest against...I should be fine."

It would have been an awkward, half-shuffled-step on the kitsne's part, half drag on Keansi's, but in a few moments, Kusanagi was slumped against the intersection of the two walls in the library lobby. "Thank you," she said following a short grunt, letting her arms lay limp beside her.

Having situated herself, she looked up at Keansi as she commented with wonder of the world she found herself in. She was asking if it was possible that her family could somehow take refuge in this world, away from their own. At this, however, Kusanagi fell silent. Keansi may not have been aware of it yet, but what she was suggesting...would not be so effective as she may have been led to believe.

In truth, Keansi was still in her own world, physically, while her mind was not. It was in a dream-like escape. Supposidly, it would be possible for her family to join her here, but in the end, it would make no difference in their fate. It would only suffice to live a "new life" within a dream. An illusion. A lie.

Frankly, the kitsune could not think of a way to explain this to Keansi yet, and could only be vague in her explanations when they first met in the forest. She could lie herself, she supposed. She could say that it would indeed be possible to leave her world and remain here. But...

 "It's..." she started, thinking. "...It's not so simple as that..." 

The kitsune was thoughtful for a another moment, weighing the child's questions. A child would think the world simple. It was only when they grew with experience that they would find that the world was much more coplex than that. "There is nothing in any world that is simple Keansi. Not everything is as it seems. It is only by looking closely at what we believe to be what we know and understand that we can find the truth." She could practically sense the perplexed look on Keansi's face following that statement, and followed it up with another. "There's no need to see it, right now." She said with a slight sigh. "I'm sure you will grow, and understand those such things one day. What's important is that you learn to search out the answers for yourself, challenge what is known to be fact, and not to forever rely on the words of old to dictate your life."

What's this? Kusanagi thought to herself with a short huff. Am I placing hope in a human? A child, at that? Have I lost more blood than I thought? Or...

She shook her head, pushing her thoughts aside for now. She figured she might as well change the subject to one Keansi could perhaps relate to. "Tell me Keansi, have you ever once looked upon the clouds? There is a tradition, more of a game of sorts where I am from, where people look to the sky and gaze upon them. They would then declare the shapes of what they see in those clouds, animals, objects, whatever their imaginations eye could see in the clouds shape. Sometimes, two would look upon the same cloud and see two different images in them. Curious, isn't it?