Painful memories (P; T)

Wed Oct 02, 2019 12:15 am

As usual, Midorikawa was reading one of her number textbooks, sitting at one of the library tables; the silence that reigned in the place was interrupted only by the occasional flutter of the pages when passing and the sighs of some tired student. Even those slight noises distracted the girl, but she struggled to ignore them and focus on her reading

Anyone who had seen her there, with only eleven years old, would have thought she was just a reading fan who, with nothing better to do, had visited the children's section in search of some interesting fairy tale, with illustrations and an "And they lived happily ever after "in the end, or how much, they would have assumed that she was a student making a report to deliver it in class... If any of the people who passed by without paying attention would have paid attention to her, they would be noticed a glittering badge on her shirt, with the Medical Nin symbol... If they had seen that detail, people would not have found it strange to find that, among the pages of the book the girl was reading, there were no illustrations of handsome princes or basic mathematical equations, but a neat diagram of the respiratory system, and how the chakra influenced the process of oxygenation of red blood cells.

The girl's eyes roamed carefully through each letter and each detail in the image. From time to time the girl turned to a small notebook to take an occasional note, although several times she had to erase what she had just written, cross out a sentence or directly tear off the entire page; her characteristic clumsiness made her make the most awkward mistakes. There was a time when, trying to erase a sentence, she broke a sheet on which she had written down a series of excellent notes. Midorikawa sighed heavily and returned to her reading.

“... The process of oxygenation in the blood occurs when deoxygenated red blood cells reach the alveoli, a part of the lungs that connects that organ with the organism's Chakra network: the reason for this is that the red blood cells are loaded with a tiny amount of Chakra and oxygen, which will lead to other parts of the body so that the Chakra is used by the muscles and other organs that need it as fuel.This process, together with the production of Chakra (see page 73), are one of the main vital functions of the body: it is through the blood that the organs receive the Chakra, and although more Chakra can be channeled than necessary in the blood or directly in the muscles if it has the necessary control, the body is able to sustain itself perfectly without need to control one's Chakra ... "

Midorikawa frowned as she read that paragraph. Her doubt was: How was that process by which the Chakra was loaded into red blood cells? Would it be something similar to what happens with hand sings? Would the Chakra mold itself to compact within the red blood cells, or perhaps the latter would be composed of a Chakra absorbent material? And how could the muscles absorb that Chakra and use it as fuel? Would it be a process similar to the Chakra Absorption Jutsu, in which the Chakra was naturally subtracted by connecting the muscular to the red blood cell Chakra?

That explanation left the little girl intrigued, giving her more questions than answers, although thinking about it would not help her learn more about the subject, for that she had to keep investigating. The girl wrote down in her notebook, with a very neat calligraphy, the words: "Investigate more about red blood cells and their interaction with the Chakra"

The girl returned to her reading, and although her glasses reflected the tiny and numerous letters of her book, her eyes were lost and absent. Her mind, after so many questions and doubts, began to wander and remember... Before Midorikawa realized, her mind had transported her to another place, several years ago, to a different time, more full of emotion and memorable moments... A happier time, if you want to say it like that...

"Mom, what is this?" She reminded herself asking, pointing with her small hands an illustration, similar to the one in front of her in reality. A sweet voice, which every day became more and more difficult to remember, laughed in her memory, making her feel a strange mixture of longing, sadness and joy ...

"That's the heart, honey," she recalled the sweet words of her mother. Her experience with books had granted her something that could be interpreted as a gift or as a curse: she was able to recreate very lively and real scenes, so much so that she often discovered herself daydreaming, lost in the confines of her own imagination.

"What does that do?" Asked a voice even louder than the one she had in the present, but that kept that tone of innocent curiosity. Of course, Midorikawa didn't remember exactly what her voice was like when she was a child, but her mind did an excellent job replicating a more childish voice.

"The heart is a muscle, a very strong one, in fact, because it sends blood to every part of your body ... Imagine it as ... Imagine a bottle full of water, now imagine that you squeeze that bottle and the water would go off. The heart does something similar with the blood, sending it to every part of your body..."

Of course, not even Midorikawa's memory could remember that kind of detail, but her imagination filled in the gaps in which her memories became diffuse for her... Her mother used to give her examples like that: comparisons with things easy to imagine with parts of the human body. Midorikawa loved those examples, and was not surprised to realize that she was actually smiling at her own invented memory.

"And how does blood get everywhere?" She remembered asking. In reality, she closed her eyes, and for a moment, her prodigious imagination showed her mother's face... Or something similar; a diffused and blurred image was reflected in her mind, as if it were printed on a wet paper, in which she could distinguish a feminine face with delicate features. There was a part of the portrait that was clear and bright: the woman's lips, which at that time outlined a sweet smile.

"You see ... There are some channels (imagine them as pipes) that run through your whole body, and each and every one of them starts and ends in the heart ..." she could almost hear her mother's voice, explaining with all the calmly, the patience and sweetness of the world. The real-world noises were distant discomforts; her senses had already gone out, all her concentration focused on her mind.

"And what does that work for?" She clearly remembered asking; She didn't need a good memory to know what she had said, because even today she kept asking that question every time.

"For many things. Oxygen is like a fuel for many parts of the body, and blood serves to get that oxygen everywhere... In fact, blood has many uses..."

"...Like helping in the healing process, bringing platelets that cover the cuts. That's why the wounds bleed ..." said her own voice in the middle of the memory, much clearer, omnipresent in her imaginary world. Neither herself in the memory nor her mother paid attention to that quasi-divine interruption.

"The heart is quite incredible ... Not only does it beat very hard, but it does so very fast ... Would you like to hear it?" The last sentence became much clearer, because that part of the memory had been recorded in her memory forever like a really happy moment.

"Really!? But ... But I don't want to take my heart out! It seems to be something important ..." the echo of her mother's laughter accompanied her own smile in the present, dulling the memory of fear she felt at that moment. Always so dumb and innocent...

"Don’t worry! We don't have to do that ... The heart is very strong, so much so that it is possible to feel it through your chest ..."

Midorikawa remembered her mother's soft touch by taking her tiny hand and lifting it up. Then, delicately, she helped her press against her chest ... There, surrounded by her mother's protective hug, the young girl felt for the first time the characteristic and rhythmic beat of a human heart, firm, relaxing, alive...

And then, that warm that a foreign body transmitted to her, that feeling of relaxation and protection, faded away ... When Midorikawa opened her eyes again, her vision was completely blurred; her glasses were still in front of her eyes ...

Her hand was perched on her chest, through which she could feel the rhythmic beat of her heart.

Her gaze cleared, and she understood, feeling a tickle drawing a straight line that descended her cheeks, that what blurred her gaze were tears...

The girl took a long time to realize that her tears were soaking the diagram of her book. When she noticed, she jumped and hurriedly took off her glasses and wiped her tears with the sleeve of her shirt. Before anyone noticed her, she closed the book and stood up, hurrying out of the library with her book under her arm... Not realizing that, in a hurry, she had left her notebook, at that he had also dropped a few tears, on the table where he had sat to read...

Always so clumsy... Always so innocent...

Word Count:

Wed Oct 02, 2019 12:59 am

Approved. Gj

Painful memories (P; T)

Painful memories (P; T)

Re: Painful memories (P; T)