Quote:
KAI UCHIHA
He came in through the front door like a bullet. "Momma! I got approved for my promotion because I did all the missions they told me to do and I did the hospital help stuff and they okay'd hospital extra-cirriculars because my chakra control is still really good even though I distract other medical students so much and-" he stopped talking. He had moved through the living room and into the kitchen but his mother still wasn't to be seen.
And then he heard a sob.
He turned on his heels and moved down the hallway to the half-open door where the sob came from. He came in, instinctively clinging to the door frame with one hand resting on the wall in his brother's room just below the mirror. "Ma?" His heart sank at the sound of her being upset. He gently pushed open the door to his older brother's room, but nothing could've prepared him for what he saw. His mother was on her knees, crying over his brother.
"Taurin?" He took a few steps in so that he could see his brother better around his mother's sobbing form, but he immediately wished he hadn't. His brother was lying on his back and his eyes were to the ceiling, unseeing.
It felt like his reaction came from an impossible distance. He was no longer in his body, just watching it nearly in third person as it moved automatically. Kneeling to the ground, hands over the man's stomach and the hands glowed green as they diagnosed the problem - he was asphyxiated and his heart was stopped. Hands glowed as a measured burst of raiton came from the hands to jump-start the heart. Hands rested on the chest but it was still, so still, and the woman was still crying in the distance but it was so loud. Hands were green again, one on the chest and another over the man's mouth but even with the lungs inflating, nothing was happening. There was no obstruction to dislodge. The heart wasn't starting, the lungs weren't effective, the heart hadn't been beating for a while - clear from the paleness of the man's face and the coldness of his fingertips. Hands were delivering a raiton shock again. And again. And again. There was no obstruction. The heart had stopped. There was no obstruction. The heart had stopped.
An overdose.
An unknown, alien narcotic. Diagnosis revealed nothing. There was no way to produce an antidote for an unknown poison. There's no way to mold a lock just from looking at the key. The room had previously been settled in chunks of sunlight and now, now Kai came back to himself, looking at the ceiling, and there was nothing but darkness. His mother had left his side at some point, but her sobs were echoing in his head regardless. It was all he could hear and it buzzed in his head endlessly. She probably was getting help, finding an officer or a medic or a neighbor or a friend or a stranger. But Taurin wasn't a lost cause, he couldn't be, he wasn't someone that died - Kai had never seen his older brother so much as with the sniffles. He was emblematic, a hero, a legend, top of his class, the best of the best.
Kai looked down, and there was no one there.
When did they come in and take Taurin away? He looked down at himself, still kneeling. He looked at his hands as they rested palm-up on his thighs, red and sore fingertips from channeling raiton. He felt like he couldn't possibly have a tense muscle in his body, everything just hung down, his skin felt like it was hanging from his skeleton. Like clothes on a hanger.
The room felt so empty with Taurin in it. He ached as he stood up. It was a slow, laborious process as if trying to move through quicksand. He stumbled a few steps, tripped on his own sleeping feet.
He caught himself by the door frame, looking up to see himself: pale like a corpse with red, empty eyes.
[ one-tomoe sharingan unlocked ]
[ set after chuunin promotion as a youth; happens before the promotion time skip --- will obsess over chemical compounds and narcotics to make sure he understands them and how to make antidotes for his future pharmaceutical crafting tree. ]
title from when i am dead, my dearest by christina rossetti:
And then he heard a sob.
He turned on his heels and moved down the hallway to the half-open door where the sob came from. He came in, instinctively clinging to the door frame with one hand resting on the wall in his brother's room just below the mirror. "Ma?" His heart sank at the sound of her being upset. He gently pushed open the door to his older brother's room, but nothing could've prepared him for what he saw. His mother was on her knees, crying over his brother.
"Taurin?" He took a few steps in so that he could see his brother better around his mother's sobbing form, but he immediately wished he hadn't. His brother was lying on his back and his eyes were to the ceiling, unseeing.
It felt like his reaction came from an impossible distance. He was no longer in his body, just watching it nearly in third person as it moved automatically. Kneeling to the ground, hands over the man's stomach and the hands glowed green as they diagnosed the problem - he was asphyxiated and his heart was stopped. Hands glowed as a measured burst of raiton came from the hands to jump-start the heart. Hands rested on the chest but it was still, so still, and the woman was still crying in the distance but it was so loud. Hands were green again, one on the chest and another over the man's mouth but even with the lungs inflating, nothing was happening. There was no obstruction to dislodge. The heart wasn't starting, the lungs weren't effective, the heart hadn't been beating for a while - clear from the paleness of the man's face and the coldness of his fingertips. Hands were delivering a raiton shock again. And again. And again. There was no obstruction. The heart had stopped. There was no obstruction. The heart had stopped.
An overdose.
An unknown, alien narcotic. Diagnosis revealed nothing. There was no way to produce an antidote for an unknown poison. There's no way to mold a lock just from looking at the key. The room had previously been settled in chunks of sunlight and now, now Kai came back to himself, looking at the ceiling, and there was nothing but darkness. His mother had left his side at some point, but her sobs were echoing in his head regardless. It was all he could hear and it buzzed in his head endlessly. She probably was getting help, finding an officer or a medic or a neighbor or a friend or a stranger. But Taurin wasn't a lost cause, he couldn't be, he wasn't someone that died - Kai had never seen his older brother so much as with the sniffles. He was emblematic, a hero, a legend, top of his class, the best of the best.
Kai looked down, and there was no one there.
When did they come in and take Taurin away? He looked down at himself, still kneeling. He looked at his hands as they rested palm-up on his thighs, red and sore fingertips from channeling raiton. He felt like he couldn't possibly have a tense muscle in his body, everything just hung down, his skin felt like it was hanging from his skeleton. Like clothes on a hanger.
The room felt so empty with Taurin in it. He ached as he stood up. It was a slow, laborious process as if trying to move through quicksand. He stumbled a few steps, tripped on his own sleeping feet.
He caught himself by the door frame, looking up to see himself: pale like a corpse with red, empty eyes.
[ one-tomoe sharingan unlocked ]
[ set after chuunin promotion as a youth; happens before the promotion time skip --- will obsess over chemical compounds and narcotics to make sure he understands them and how to make antidotes for his future pharmaceutical crafting tree. ]
title from when i am dead, my dearest by christina rossetti:
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.