Silence and Salience

Dracoso carefully twiddled the string back and forth between his fingers. A sealed little bag was tied to the string and softly bounced between his fingers. He had been considering where to start with his little bag of hemlock, when he realized that he wasn't quite sure how much he could do with a single bag. He wanted to start researching right away, but he didn't have the right tools for processing hemlock or creating the anesthetics he was looking to make. He dropped the bag into the palm of his hand before slipping it into a hidden compartment in his room. With a frustrated sigh, he slipped out of his clothing for a warm shower.

Once he was dressed again, Sutsui around the back of his shoulder as always, he enjoyed breakfast with his family before heading out towards the academy. He ran into friends and parents alike who chatted with him and tried to ask for his thoughts on possible directions for their children at the academy. He tried to suggest general fields of practice or different books they might find useful in the Grand Library. A few parents who he had not met before introduced themselves and explained that they had seen his artwork at the elementary school. Word of the unique artwork was spreading, and he felt a bit abashed by all the attention from it. He thanked them for their kind words and picked up his pace to try to avoid too much time spent talking.

Some of the guards recognized him from his past missions, either as an intern or guarding Jamil. He asked one or two of them if they knew much of medical jutsu or handling herbs and most did not dabble in the field. He thanked them and continued on. Before long, he arrived at the academy and almost ran right into his old teacher. "Always a fire somewhere for you to put out I take it?" his teacher asked with a smirk. Dracoso smiled back, "I haven't taken on a fire yet, but when I do, I'll let you know." His teacher shook his head, "You know what I meant. What kind of mission are you on today? Off to stop a sea monster, perhaps? Maybe reviving someone from the dead? That one would be interesting to see."

"No mission today. At least, not yet. If I get one that might help, that would be great. I am here to visit the medical office. I wanted a little bit of help with something I received from a mission reward that I am not really sure where to begin with," Dracoso explained. His teacher nodded as he listened and asked, "So you are not here to visit me? I feel almost like you prefer the medical staff over me lately." His old teacher put on a pretend sad face before smirking again. "Well, if you know what you are doing, then that is fine. Just tell me if you are getting into any other trouble or need any other advice. I know you probably have already learned about more things than I care to, but you can't replace experience just with knowledge." Dracoso nodded and smiled as they parted. 

The halls were rather quiet for the number of students that were currently attending the academy. Dracoso figured that it must be either a free day at the academy or the students were training elsewhere. He thought back to his own days at the academy and how quickly time seemed to pass. Most students spent years here while he had done the same in only a few months. As he approached the medical office, he remembered the first time he had visited. He had woken up in one of the beds after attempting to protect the rest of the students in his class from a snake that had approached them. He had felt like he had overdone it at the time, but it had given him a good understanding of measuring his own limits. He wanted to make sure he stayed cautious as he began his exploration into medicines and poisons.

He knocked on the door to the office and he heard a voice tell him to enter. As he slid the door open, a new medical staff member was sitting at the desk. She smiled up at him and said, "welcome, my name is Kushiki, Ku for short. You look a bit old to be a student here?" Dracoso smiled with a small shake of his head, "that is what they told me every day since I first showed up here. My name is Dracoso-" she nodded with a smirk and said, "Ah, yes. I heard you may stop by from time to time. I am stepping in for Kateire while he is away." Dracoso nodded and realized that in all the time he had known the other staff member, they had never swapped names. All the staff that worked there knew students by name who had visited at least once. Maybe it was just Kateire's way of staying professional.

Dracoso closed the door behind him as he stepped into the room. "I wanted to stop by and ask Kateire for some advice handling a material I had gotten my hands on. He had been the one to discuss the idea with me and suggested the mission for me to consider. I was wondering if you knew-" "anything about hemlock?" Ku finished for him. He looked at her confused for a moment before chuckling, "I was going to ask if you knew where he was, but it sounds like he left you with enough information to handle it." She smiled and gestured for him to sit. Once he was seated, she looked him over and giggled behind a hand. "What? Did I not clean something off?" He asked her. She shook her head and took a breath before saying, "you really are not what I expected. From how your old teacher and Kateire talk, I imagined you coming in with books balanced on your head and jutsu flowing from your fingertips." 

Dracoso just hung his head and shook it softly. It sounds like those two were giving him an odd reputation. She continued, "well, and that you would know almost exactly what to say and when the say it. A lot of the parents around town who send their kids here seem to think you are the one to talk to when they have issues with their kids." Dracoso groaned softly, "don't I know it. Do you know how awkward it is when a parent asks you how to handle a teenage girl when you haven't even been on your first date yet?!" She gave him a knowing smile, to which he blushed and turned away. "Anyways, I am not all that. I just do my best to help people and learn whenever I can." Ku nodded and leaned back in her seat before speaking, "well, it sounds like when you were younger, you did it haphazardly, but now you apply it to those around you. Sounds like a common medical ninja to me." 

Dracoso gave a small smile at the thought of becoming a full medical ninja. He turned to her as another thought came to mind, "so where exactly did Kateire go? I thought there were other staff on hand just in case?" Ku gave a soft nod, thinking as she spoke, "with all the issues lately around the country, medical experts have been spread thin. I primarily work in the field as a scout and/or medic, but due to the need, I was pulled back to help here. Even now, missions are popping up where we are looking for support with one problem after another. We even had one that came in yesterday..." her speech petered off. She glanced at Dracoso and raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. He returned the raised eyebrow before asking, "You aren't imagining something strange again, are you?"

She shook her head and gave him a smile. "You came here because you wanted to learn about hemlock. Is that all?" Dracoso was confused by her question and responded, "I believe that is all. I figured Kateire-" it still felt odd to be using a name for the other staff member, "-would know of a good place to start." Ku smiled, "well, he mentioned that if you did come here, to have you understand the weight of its use and to possibly consider the aftermath of what might happen if you aren't careful." Dracoso sighed, "I could end up sick or dead. I might end up hurting those around me if I do not keep it safely secured. I understand all this." She gave him that knowing smile again, "or you could end up killing the person you want to stop. The person you want to save," emphasizing the last word.

Dracoso paused as he considered her words. He knew that he could be putting his own life in danger, but that he wouldn't move forward from testing until he was sure his methods were safe to use in the field. He looked to her curiously and asked, "What makes you say that?" Her smile grew slightly before responding, "well, from what Kateire has told me, you want to use hemlock to make an anesthetic to avoid killing opponents in combat. Yet, in order to do that, you need to process the hemlock in a way that allows you to deliver it either through injury or inhalation. My first thought was 'how might you measure too much or too little?' Especially when other medical conditions and issues could arise which make a lesser dose lethal to someone that a healthy person would live through?" 

Again, Dracoso paused to process what she had said. She leaned slightly towards him as she continued, "the only ways you could know this is either through reading books, testing your theories, and hoping for the best...or..." she paused as she watched him. He looked into her eyes, seeking exactly what she was trying to say and figured he would borrow his old teacher's words. "Or learn it through experience?" he asked her, not fully sure of his answer. "More or less," she said. "You may have some experience with the dead or dealing with those who had died, but I do not think you have actually worked with those who died due to poison or alternative means. Not directly anyways. Would you say that is right?" Dracoso thought back to his time delivering the news of the passed away ninja whose body was oddly bloated and marked up. He had not examined the body himself, so he simply said, "you would be right."

She nodded, as if confirming to herself, before continuing, "then the best place in my mind for you to start would be to do so." Dracoso waited a minute or two for her to continue. When she did not, he asked, "to do what?" She smiled to him, "to examine a body that is dealing with an unknown cause of death. With the lack of medical experts in the village this time, we have a few bodies that have been brought home which do not have cause of death determined. The local pathologist stepped out to deal with an issue by the shore and his assistants are either taking on other work, such as myself, or are dealing with an illness. There is a mission set up in the center with all the details." She looked quite content with herself as she slid her hands into her pockets. Dracoso tried to process exactly what she thought she had accomplished with all this when a thought came to mind.

"Kateire mentioned suggesting a mission and that it might give me insight into how hemlock could affect a body. Would you say that is right?" he asked, using her same phrasing as he watched her response. Her smile disappeared as she looked at him. He raised an eyebrow and she looked away before saying, "he might have mentioned suggesting it to you, but I was the one who found the actual mission for you and figured which would be the best for you to learn from!" She crossed her arms as she finished, daring him with her eyes. Dracoso smiled softly as he realized that he had probably told her a bit about his personality and how to get him interested before leading him towards choosing the mission. Kateire had already done that a few times and Dracoso realized that it was always for the best. He gave a shrug and said, "I appreciate it. I did come here for assistance and that is exactly what I got, so thank you." 

She gave out a tired sigh and let her arms drop to her sides. "I am more used to providing intel and support out in the field. Working with ninjas who want to learn, as well as fight me on my diagnoses, is a bit outside of my experience. I am glad though that we have more prospects who want to learn about medicine than we used to in the past. Plenty of people head to Suna or Hoshi for medical work. The more support we have, the stronger our people can become," she said, taking on a hopeful tone. Dracoso smiled and said, "I feel the exact same way. I may not become a scout myself, but I do plan to provide support wherever I can."

They chatted a bit more before she described the mission to him. he said his goodbyes before heading out for the center. The building was rather empty as he approached. It seemed that many individuals in different fields were busy as of late. With the beach event going on and so many shifts in the overall village system, it seemed like there was quite a lot that needed to be handled suddenly. Dracoso shrugged to himself as he walked into the center and began browsing the board. After ten minutes, Dracoso could not find the specific mission that Ku had mentioned. He found several looking for people to help with bodies or healing, but none to directly examine a body. The assistant at the desk noticed Dracoso's confusion and spoke up, "do you need help finding a mission? You usually seem to grab up whichever one grabs your interest at the time."

Dracoso glanced over and realized that she was the same person who had given him some of his more recent missions. From escorting Jamil to the very same mission he had retrieved the hemlock on. "Well, I am looking for a specific mission that someone had told me was available. She said that the village needed a medical ninja to examine a body for the possible cause of death. Do you have any which sound like that?" he asked. She motioned for him to come over as she opened one of the drawers in the desk. She pulled out a form that appeared to have more detailing and higher standing than the normal mission form. "The mission you mentioned is one that requires a professional to take it on. Due to past incidents where people wanted the higher pay and were upset that they could not take them on, we had to keep many of them on a more case-by-case basis," she explained.

"This mission was sent down by one of our ANBU scouts who had recovered a body with some odd features. The body was brought back yesterday morning and, due to the lack of medical ninjas in the village, was put up as a mission for anyone who might be able to assist." Dracoso nodded to her words and asked, "so how do you determine if someone meets the standards for the mission?" The woman looked to him and replied, "other than having a good track record with the village, being able to show that you have the appropriate training in the field that the mission requires. We are looking for someone who is a professional in the field of medical jutsu and who can at least understand how the body works." Dracoso nodded before smiling and holding up one hand. He made the hand seals and allowed his hand to glow with a thin beam running up to the ceiling of the building.

The assistant smiled and nodded before saying, "that is one way to show your qualification. Though, I will ask that you avoid showing that off to too many individuals. People may take that as a form of bragging." Dracoso was a bit surprised at the idea but closed his hand anyways and let the glow disippate. She then handed him the form to review and sign and gave him directions to where the body was being kept. The details on the form were very straightforward. His task would be to examine the body and, if needed, perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death. He was then to prepare the body for transport and burial once he was complete.

His mind was quiet on the trip to the morgue. If the academy felt like a great place of beginnings, the morgue felt like one of endings. He made his way into the building and stopped by the front desk. The man sitting there glanced up at Dracoso and simply asked, "and what is your business here?" Dracoso glanced down the hallway and back to the man, "I am here for the pathologist mission. I was told that there was a body that needed to be examined?" The man looked up at Dracoso and held out a hand. Dracoso paused before realizing what he was reaching for and handed the mission form to him. The man reviewed it and nodded to Dracoso. "The body you are looking for is downstairs in autopsy room 3. Take the stairs down that hallway-" the man pointed towards a path behind Dracoso, "-and go through the second to last set of doors on the left. The body will be on row 2, column 4 of the shelves."

Dracoso glanced at the hallway before looking back to the man. The man was already immersed back in his work and almost seemed to be ignoring him. He wasn't sure what the man had meant by shelves, but he would figure it out once he got there. Dracoso turned and headed down the hallway before coming to the mentioned staircase. He went down two flights of stairs before coming out to an identical hallway as the one at the top of the stairs. He followed it down until he saw the end and took the second to last doorway on the left. As he pushed them, the doors swung easily with him and then back again. They came to rest after a few moments. He figured that these doors made it easy to move in and out of the room while also sealing the room when they came to rest. He looked into the room and found large tables which came up to his waist. Along the wall, the handles for several large drawers were visible.

The tables were large enough to be small beds and the drawers must have been the shelves the man was talking about. He tested this by sliding one of the drawers out to find it empty. Cold air came out of the closed area and there was more than enough space to fit a body inside. He realized that this must be how they kept the bodies fresh. He counted along the columns and came to the shelf in column 4, row 2. The drawer read: Darian Kelstin, Age 21, Death: TBD. After taking a deep breath and releasing it, he slid the drawer out. The body was held inside a large bag which seemed to seal the air out from causing too much decay alongside the cold. A clipboard rested at the front of the drawer to which Dracoso pulled out. It had several steps and details that needed to be taken in order to fully examine the body and many spots on the chart were left blank where the results of each step were to go.

He started by rolling over a platform to which the body could be slid onto, then lowered and transferred onto a table. After another deep breath, he unzipped the bag and slowly exposed the body. The skin seemed to be a tinge blue, similar to his own but deeper in color along the veins. There were soft marks along the throat and a few cut marks down the individual's side. As Dracoso took notes off, he slowly began a few procedures he had read about back in some of the books back in the library. He explored the internal health of the body and found the lungs to have been constricted with a lack of oxygen reaching other parts of the body. The extremities as well showed signs of discoloration due to a lack of oxygen. 

Each new piece of evidence showed Dracoso that the individual had lost the ability to either take in oxygen or that the body had lost its ability to process oxygen. He tested the muscle groups around the lungs and some of the coagulated blood and found a layer of an unknown substance in the man's veins. The muscles had also tightened up intensely, showing that the body had reacted to something that was inserted into it. As he examined the cuts, he found a similar layer of material over each cut. Once he had noted this, he returned the body to its original condition before slowly turning it over. Strange markings could be found along the individual's spine and along with abrasions along the wrists and ankles which went fully around each spot.

As he finished his analysis of the physical body, he took some samples of the material and placed them in a vial nearby. A small shelf of books sat in one corner outlining topics on medical examinations. He grabbed a couple and began to sift through the pages. As he found similar mentions of the abrasions and markings along the spine, he realized that the individual had been tied up. He also found that the markings were similar to those of a man who had been... interrogated roughly. He skipped a few parts detailing exactly what was done and found no mention of materials. He worked through three more books before he found something similar to what he had seen on the body.

The journal mentioned the nature of material based on the coloration, the viscosity, the effects it could have. From what they had reported, it was likely to be a poison made from a type of flower which caused issues in the heart. As he read further, he found that it could be processed into many formed of antidotes and even to help with some of the most basic stomach issues. The amount in the dosage used to kill someone was only slightly higher than the dosage in a processed batch to help someone. Dracoso sat back as it felt like a scale was weighing in his head. It felt like a feather could fall on one side or the other and that would be all the difference it could take for someone who could recover, to instead die. He glanced back over to the body before looking closer at the vial of material he had collected. The coloration was a little off from the description, and the issue had been in the lungs, rather than the heart.

He sighed and began to read through a few more books, carefully examining the details presented, until he was nearly at the end of the records. From one of the last records, one that dated back nearly twenty years, he found what sounded right. It mentioned a person's lungs having closed on themselves while the person's blood had filled with an odd material. It sounded like person in the older case had received a much higher dosage than the one he was seeing today. It detailed how to cleanse the poison and the need to gather what was possible for future antidotes. The material was a paste which was applied on bladed weapons and could also be released as a cloud if dried and ground into a powder. This poison was made from the eggs of a specific water creature and could be processed easily with the right tools. As he read on, it seemed almost as if anyone could make this, if they knew what they were doing.

His mind wandered back to the fact that so many medical experts were spread thin. He wondered how many in the field who did medical jutsu handled it for the poisons rather than the potions. With a shake of the head, Dracoso ran some of the tests listed in the record to make sure it was the same material. As it came out positive, he grabbed up a larger vial and began to gather as much of the material out of the body as possible without disturbing it too much. Once it was clean, he carefully washed and cleaned the body and used some minor healing techniques to seal the wounds. He checked the rooms nearby and found one to have a few materials for presenting the body. He put a bit of coloring along most of the areas that would be visible when on display and slowly returned the individual's skin to a passable shade. He then applied it around each of the markings on the wrists and ankles and the points on the neck, trying to cover as much of the struggle as possible.

With all this complete, Dracoso sat back with a tired sigh. His mind had been running nonstop before he realized that several hours had already passed. After a short rest, the bag was resealed, and the body was returned to the drawer it had come from. He placed the filled-out chart in the drawer and carefully closed it as he felt the weight shift inside. He washed his hands and face before heading back up to the front desk. The man glanced at him and Dracoso let him know that the work was complete. The man nodded and signed off on the mission form and told him to return it to the mission center. Once the body was reviewed for presentation, notice of his completion would be sent to the center. Dracoso nodded and headed off. 

His body was still a bit sore, but the walk gave him some time to clear his mind. He wondered what it might be like to work at the morgue full time, then decided that it was not for him. What did stand out to him was just how much a few cuts and a small dosage of poison could do to a person. It felt almost like the poison had been a jutsu working inside the person's body to stop it from functioning. A soft shudder ran over him as he decided that he needed to make sure he had reliable methods to measure and track usage of any kind of poison or asthetic he processed and to consider how it could impact each person. He could aim for lower dosages to help reduce the chance of death. A thought occurred to him that he could take several containers of different amounts in order to rebalance based on the opponent's vitality.

Thoughts flowed through his mind as he made his way to the center and handed in the signed form. The person at the center nodded and repeated what the man at the morgue had said about the reward being available on confirmed presentability of the body. Dracoso agreed and headed home, feeling drained mentally and physically by this point. He would stop by the next day to pick up his reward and figured that he still had plenty of time to process what he had been through. He did not remember the rest of the walk home, or the talk with his parents that night. What he did remember, is how peaceful his room was, how soft his bed was, and the feeling of the peaceful sensations Sutsui sent as he fell asleep. His dreams were of ninjas shared medicine and people coming out of drawers to rejoin their families.

{Exit}
B-Rank Mission - The Pathologist: A New Client
Rewards: 9000 Ryo + 30 AP 
Event Reward: 20 Beachside Tickets

WC Total - 4760 (rounded to 4750)
Stats Maxed: AP Chosen - +94 AP

Jutsu Learned:
B > A - Poison Mist - 1000/1000 (950 added to the 50/1000 from the previous post: Layers Upon Layers)
B Rank - Chilling Advance - 1500
B Rank - Organic Particle Destruction - 1500
B Rank - Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death - 800/2000

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