Kikyo had scrubbed her hands twice already, however, the feeling lingered anyway. The awareness of the blood that did not belong on her skin in this quantity outside an operating room. Her scrubs had been changed into old loungewear, but even that did little to erase what had happened on her living room floor hours earlier. The apartment smelled faintly of antiseptic and rain-damp fabric. She stood in the bathroom doorway for a moment longer, staring at the sink, replaying the steps without emotion. In the living room, the guest was still there. The man laid on the couch she had cleared for him, too large for it in a way that made the furniture look temporary. He had not moved in a while, but his breathing had been steady enough for her to risk leaving him unattended for a few minutes at a time.
Kikyo opened the bathroom door further as she wanted to check in on her younger sister. The high schooler had been interested in their guest since the moment he came through the door unconscious and bloody. “Kaede, are you in bed?” she called softly, voice controlled. Her eyes narrowed slightly when there was no answer or noise from her sister’s room. The faint line of light under Kaede’s bedroom door was gone and Kikyo’s expression didn’t change, but something in her posture tightened. “Kaede.” The ravenette stepped out into the hallway, bare feet silent against the floor. The apartment felt smaller than it had before, every corner suddenly too exposed, too close to the unconscious stranger in the next room. The living room came into view with the couch and Kaede crouched near it staring at the man. Her younger sister had clearly tried to be quiet. She was still in her pajamas, hair messy, eyes wide with the kind of nervous curiosity that always got her into trouble. She had been leaning forward slightly, as if trying to confirm that what she was seeing was real.
Kikyo opened her mouth to speak just as the man moved. His hand flexed against the couch, fingers curling with slow intent, and then his head turned as his eyes opened.The change was immediate as the air in the room seemed to tighten around it, like pressure dropping before impact. Her younger sister froze for half a second, she didn’t even process what she was looking at. Just the scale of the stranger, the wrongness of his presence in a normal Tokyo apartment, the way his gaze locked onto her like she was something that shouldn’t exist. Kaede made a sound that was half breath, half shock before it broke completely. “AH!” The scream ripped through the apartment and Kikyo moved before thought caught up. Her body reacted on instinct, the same way it did in emergency situations when silence suddenly turned into crisis. She spun from the hallway and crossed the space in a few fast steps, still wearing the clothes stained with his blood, still damp at the sleeves, still carrying the lingering smell of antiseptic and metal. “Kaede, move!”
Her voice cut through the room as she reached them. Kaede stumbled backward, knocking into the coffee table, eyes wide with pure alarm. “Sis..he—he just—!” The older woman didn’t look at her long enough to let fear settle. Her attention locked onto him instead as the man was fully awake now. The woman stepped between them without hesitation.
Her posture changed as it was protective and calm, the absolute way of someone who had made decisions in worse conditions than this. Blood on her sleeves, bare feet on the floor, and hands steady at her sides. Kaede was still breathing too fast behind Kikyo, but she had stopped screaming. Now she just looked between them, face pale, trying to understand why her sister was standing in the middle of their living room covered in someone else’s blood, treating a man who looked like he belonged in something far larger than their apartment. Kikyo didn’t relax as she reached back slightly without turning her head, guiding Kaede a step farther away with a firm but gentle pressure. “Go to your room,” she said quietly. “But…” “Kaede.” The tone left no room for argument. After a moment, Kaede hesitated, then backed away, still watching the couch like it might decide to stand up and end the world. The nurse was still standing there in blood-stained clothes in the middle of her ordinary Tokyo apartment making sure to be in the middle of her sister and the man at all times as the teenager escaped to her room.
