Doctor, Doctor, Gimme the News!

Kenshin seemed to be having a jolly ol’ time of the older Tau’s reaction, and more enjoyment yet about the possibility of teaching the elder about that which he knew nothing of. The white haired devil explained about the white godly eye, the way it operated and how the simple mechanisms of the eye made it such a valuable tool. He hadn’t even talked about how the mechanism aided the Hyuuga, which would make the clan itself scarier for the Tau, however the simple explanation of the eye explained why Kenshin’s first words about it had been a monetary offer for the eye. And consequently, Kaworu was quite proud that he had denied worldly treasure for the optical treasure; he only hoped he could hold on to it.

Kenshin then explained how Mystical Palm operated; a medical technique, which was fortunate since Kaworu himself was a medical specialist, even though he was a bad one, or perhaps more accurately an ill trained and ill prepared one. Perhaps this knowledge would make him a more suitable medical operative. He mimicked Kenshin’s hand motions as he spoke, however did not prepare his chakra; once Kenshin explained it was supposed to boost and hypercharge the body’s own healing power, Kaworu knew what to look for in the technique. He would give it a go.

He prepared the tendrils within himself, two tendrils hugging his eye while a third circled the optic nerve behind his right eye and holding on to it tightly; it was fairly discomfortable, but nothing compared to what he would put himself through next. He pushed at the eye with his tendrils while the last tendril tugged at the nerve, the tip of it severing the connection to the eye with it’s spearlike tip. Kaworu pushed through the pain that jolted his entire body and made his knees weak, however, he refused to showcase weakness in front of the young Tau, even though he was leagues beyond Kaworu’s power level.

As the connections severed, he started losing sight and came to see the world with a singular perspective, losing his perception of depth for the nonce, he felt his tendrils pulling the eye away while the third tendril held on tightly to the optic nerve, holding out his left hand to take in the blue eye into the palm. The pain was searing through his brain, and for a moment he felt he might faint or forget how to tell his limbs how to perform the handseals. Yet.

Snake. Ox. Tiger. Ram. Rat.

The chakra coursed through his body and surged through his hands; the handle glowing a gentle, soothing green, albeit a potent glow that extended half meter from each hand. He brought his right hand closer to his face, and from the palm of his hand he let the Byakugan emerge, using his left eye to adjust the angle of the eye so as to make the nerve ending approach the optic nerve. Pushing the eye into the socket with the help of a multitude of threads to hold the eyelids away. He pressed the hand against his face, and focused on the entirety of the eye socket and beyond, aiming the optic nerve against the back of the eye. He could feel it.

Sight was slowly returning, and he could now see the intense glow of the Mystical Palm technique out of his right eye. The pain was still very present, but he could feel the nerve connecting, he could feel the eye becoming one with himself, and albeit he couldn’t see beyond his hand, he could see.

And then, he could really see.

Chakra surged through the Byakugan, as if it’s health now sucked Kaworu’s chakra on his own, and for a second the veins around his right eye bulged as the line of sight expanded beyond the walls of the morgue; the entire world was now under the scrutiny of the Tau. He closed the eyelid, but it was of no use, of course, for the eye peered beyond obstruction.

He could see people lying in beds, nurses and doctors moving around. There, in the distance, a doctor performed an operation on someone, scalpel in hand and body cut open.

So many beating hearts. His own heart picked up a pulse and started beating harder, the inherent hunger of the Tau for more hearts, more elemental natures, more life.

The Tau held the hand to his eye until he was sure there was no more healing happening within him. He pulled the hand away, and allowed the technique to end. He focused his chakra again, and tried calling back the chakra away from the Byakugan so as to allow himself to see regularly; it worked, and the world shrunk once again to the limitations imposed by the morgue’s walls. He looked at Kenshin.

“That… was interesting.”

He looked at his hands, holding them out before him, especially to the left hand where he allowed his blue piercing eye to gaze up at him from the palm of his hand into the mismatched blue and white eyes he now had.

He looked at Kenshin again. “I’m glad this eye still works. And I’m glad I met you, Kenshin. I do have one question though…”

The question that moved his life from crime to the apothecary, and perhaps had always been the only thread holding on to hope.

“Are Tau destined to be monsters? Can we… be cured?”

The younger Tau seemed to have appreciated the older’s resilience in inflicting self-damage and applying proper medical care to himself. Kaworu himself had been surprised that he had managed to pull it off, but perhaps it was his pride that had allowed him to power through, though most likely it had been his need to be accepted that had forced the best out of him, so as to be accepted by the very first Tau he had met ever since his family had been murdered for nothing short of the way they were born.

Also because one of them murdered someone, to be sure. Details.

His own heartbeat had yet to simmer down from the adrenaline forced through him from the intense pain he had endured, and Kaworu now fell under a mild spell of shakes, as the chemicals forced his body into an hyper alert state. The hunger he had felt for the hearts within the hospital had not calmed down either, not after he asked whether he was destined to be a monster, a slave to the whims of his own body and threads, unable to resist it’s siren call and succumb to the slaughter.

Kenshin offered his perspective; a monster not by birth, but by choice. A grim prospect, to be sure; Kenshin held himself not as one his age should, but as one who had seen and done much. That much he could extrapolate from what he surmised was sorrow in his voice. A tale as old as time, that one. Our choices usually show the error of our ways, but mayhaps we’re only able to realize that too late. Kenshin didn’t speak with regret though. Sadness, maybe. But not regret. An important note.

It would seem though the white haired Tau was incredibly powerful, judging by his lack of hunger. Perhaps a mastery over the threads culled the hunger, and mastery over the threads was mastery over his entire being. Not an easy feat, in the eyes of the blonde. He could feel his own threads growing stronger with the years, but he could tell he was still a ways away from controlling them completely, case in point, the way they slithered ‘neath his skin when the Byakugan caught sight of the beating hearts.

Kenshin then started taking his shirt off when the reminiscent smile twisted into a perverse grin. Kaworu worried this might’ve taken a sensual turn when he wasn’t looking, however it seemed the white haired had a different idea. He was skin and bones, if he had bones, so he was skin, and across his torso there were so many stitches he could swear he saw a sudoku pattern somewhere, if only he saw numbers he would be sure. He turned his back, and on it, five masks curiously eyed Kaworu, who curiously eyed them back. Then one mask zoomed away from Kenshin, spilling onto the world with threads as though it had a will of its own, and it hunted for Kaworu’s threads to make it its own. Kaworu took a step back as the creature occupied the room, it’s unnatural features attempting to simulate that of a bird, but coming off as one which had fallen in a pit of acid and tar, something that would freeze hardened battle veterans if they bumped into it in the night.

It was beautiful to Kaworu. It seemed… natural. His own threads shivered for a second in anticipation as he watched the creature.

He almost wished to raise his hand to what he thought was the porcelain of the mask, until it retracted back into Kenshin’s back. The white haired youth appeared to be under some form of distress. Kaworu approached cautiously. “Are you ok?” Even though he now knew the Mystical Palm technique, he didn’t feel very confident he could be of any use to Kenshin, the one who had taught it to him. “Silly question, I know.” He was not very good at conversation, he was more of a listener, which is why Katsuragi had been such a good partner for him. He talked a lot, but he knew what he was talking about for the most part. Kaworu empathized and nodded along, agreeing to a scheme or another. In this situation, in spite of the new knowledge, he couldn’t help but feel helpless.

Kenshin squirmed lightly, as though the pain searing his nerves was beginning to become too much to handle, yet he handled it like a champion. Kaworu couldn’t begin to imagine what he might be going through, and in truth the situation left him feeling powerless, as a child might feel when confronted with overwhelming situations. Kaworu enabled his Byakugan once more, the veins bulging along the side of his right eye, however, as the view expanded, he focused his attention on Kenshin alone, and the eye obeyed the command, as if it tried to damped the entire world and focus only on what was taking place on Kenshin’s body. In truth, his inexperience did not allow him to realize what was happening, nor did he see anything within his body that he could identify as being wrong. He disabled the lilac eye, allowing the veins to gently burrow back into their relaxed state alongside his threads. Of course, if Kenshin himself had a byakugan, he would’ve tried this already, and his expertise would’ve been beyond Kaworu’s surface level knowledge.

When Kenshin assured him that there was indeed something wrong, Kaworu was relieved to know that the man indeed did not know what to do himself. Somehow the sharing of the burden of helplessness made him feel better in this situation. The one pang of panic in knowing he was of no use was quietly smothered in the revelation.

Kenshin sketched a smile in his face, expressing he didn’t believe any questions to be silly. Kaworu was of a different mind. Some questions were definitely silly. “Why is the sky blue?” Well, because the Gods wanted it to be that way, duh. With Kenshin’s request for lonesomeness and rest, Kaworu bid him farewell. “It was a pleasure meeting and learning from you, Kenshin.” He took a curt bow, lowering himself more than he would otherwise to one he did not know. “I… might take you up on that offer. I am enjoying what short time I’ve had in this village. Now, I must go as well. The helpful elder told me about a tea shop somewhere in the vicinity.”