Central Tokyo Hospital, 5:30am, Child care wing…
With a silence that was well beyond the typical for her kind, a blue tinted
fur lady wererat walked through the slept wing, noticing the children states,
while making notations on a pad. Her white uniform, shining brightly in the
lessened light, marked her as one of the doctors. Her nametag read ‘Mizuno,
Ami. Ph.D., Director-General’.
Suddenly, her left ear twitched some, bringing a mix of annoyance/amusement.
“You will have to try better Yukiko.” She whispered to her back.
“I could hear you from quite a while…”
A white furred kitsune, looking somewhat naked at first look since her pelt
and uniform shone on the same tone of pristine snow white, smiled somewhat ruefully
to her boss, friend and mentor. “Dang! And here I thought I finally got
it this time…” she whispered back, her three tails twitching in
mingled annoyance and mirth. Together, the two healers silently went on, checking
on their youthful charges. Ami had come to like the young kitsune, which had
become not only one of her closest friends besides the senshi and ‘right
hand’ assistant, but also her light hearted ways.
Her mind slowly brought her back and trough the many changes she and the world
had endured in those last couple of years…
* * * * *
Many would have thought that after
the Purification, the regenerative powers of the average lycanthrope would have
made the current level of medicine a thing of the past.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
While it was true that some diseases all but disappeared, a whole new slew of
troubles came forth.
Cancer, a disease which _basis_ were problems with cellular regeneration, became
once again a great terror, as the normal regeneration of a lycanthrope made
the usual methods, both old like extirpation and new like chemo, very unreliable.
Doctors the world over were having to once again rediscover new ways of treatment.
AIDS and other auto-immune diseases where also giving docs the _worlds_ over
a new headache.
Diseases normal to lycanthropes, previously unknown outside Jade were making
themselves knew in Earth with almost epidemic strength. It would take some time,
before a new balance were found.
Also, the mere fact that people could now regenerate wounds previously thought
to be terminal had made far too many careless. Educational campaigns were in
progress, but it was slow going… They seemed to NOT realize that there
was only so much even a lycanthrope could take. Vehicles crash, dealing with
toxic wastes (SPECIALLY the ones who had to deal with silver, now all but banned
from normal day-to-day relations though still used in certain industries…),
fire, electricity, things that could, and did, overwhelm their bodies’
capacity to deal with.
And THAT wasn’t even counting with the problem of magic.
Magically reinforced objects (and many
did NOT realized at first that it DID include as well the fangs and claws of
their fellows) wounds were NOT regenerated.
So, as one can see, even if the usual doctor’s attributes had changed
some, they were still, a vital part of the world…
* * * * *
Ami’s life in some ways was now the fulfillment of her childhood dreams. She graduated first in her class in med school, all but breezing through the course (given not only her genius level IQ but the knowledge she had compiled from the Luna PC), and right after it joined the guild of healers of Jade, learning their crafts and teaching them theirs, while also enrolling in the High Council of Mages as her father’s heir. Nowadays, though she had not quite ended her training in neither, she had nevertheless achieved the rank of Intermediate Healer and Archmage, meaning her need to daily attendance was waived, giving her free time to pursue other interests alongside those.
But the more important one, by far, was the one she took still during the War:
the leadership of the wererat clan and their re-integrating into society.
After she had avenged her father and finally killed Gothwrain, was that she
truly realized the enormity of the task before her. Even without his curses
upon the clan, which exacerbated to almost paranoid fear the natural reaction
to felines, they had had lived for so long under his twisted rules of secrecy
and brutality that it was much like trying to re-integrate returned soldiers
to civilian life after a decade long war.
And THAT was putting it mildly.
With the help of the Senshi (who could put the more too far gone in line if
necessary, though she was loathe to do it…) her other friends: the Saotomes,
the Kuonjis (even adding Kodachi), the Nyu-Che-Zuu, all were fast to lend any
and all help she could possibly need. Even her mother, which by some whimsical
(or maybe not) twist of fate had ALSO turned into a wererat by the Purification.
Her help and support had been invaluable in bringing the secretive clan into
the open.
Her work was by NO means done: Many of her fellow wererats still tended to a
private style of life that bordered the old hidden ways. She took time and again
in discussions with the other elders of the clan to slowly bring them out of
their shells. Some of them where not bad, just had been pummeled into silence
by Gothwrain’s strong-arm tactics and sheer magical power, but when given
a real opportunity to be heard and _truly_ help their clan, they had grasped
at it with a castaway’s desperation. Those had eventually become her strongest
supporters.
Others, unfortunately, had come to his side draw to the tainted power he wielded
and had, similarly being tainted by his greed and darkness. Weeding them out
would still take some time… Specially because their influence still ran
deep within the clan. But she had hope, specially when she walked the streets
and saw the children of her clan, both the original ones and those who came
after the Purification, slowly but surely coming into the light of the day and
dealing with everybody in equal terms. As a matter of fact, her, rather unexpected,
Ace in the hole, had being exactly those later converts: totally untouched by
the problems within the clan, they brought with them a much needed strong infusion
of new blood, ideas and behaviors. Their encounter with her more reclusive ‘cousins’
were the coming of fresh breath they needed to break the inertia and at least
try…
Suddenly, she realized Yukiko had been trying to get her attention for a little
while. A bit red in embarrassment, she replied: “Sorry, was a little distracted.
What was that?”
Smiling somewhat wickedly, her friend whispered back: “Welll… I
was confirming if our double date is still on, silly!” she replied grinning.
Actually she was asking about a patient’s condition, but it wasn’t
something urgent, and noticing her friend’s distraction gave her the _perfect_
opportunity to try to make some cracks in the virtual ice shell she hid behind.
Someone with such a warm, nice heart could NOT stay alone! Only the fact that
she and her Michaels were still planning it some had stopped them from trying,
but she already had his promise that they would begin trying the coming year.
She could hardly wait to hold a few little cubs in her arms! She always wondered
how their pelts would be, that with her snow white fur and his midnight black.
Maybe some combination?
Interrupting her ‘night’dream about hubbies and babbies, she turned
back to her friend, already marshaling arguments to at least make her come.
She knew a few good eligible bachelors who would make nice partners with her,
if she just give herself a chance…
Deep into discussion, the two friends went on, towards other wings to check
on other patients, while one tried her best to help the other heal a wound she
chose to ignore: one in her own heart. Thankfully, she had friends, as many
of the other senshi, and their closest friends, who were aware of Yukiko’s
efforts, and helping them as well…
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(Posted Tue, 23 May 2006 20:41)
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