Chapter Text
Chapter Two:
A High Fever
At around dinner time the next day, Kocho decided to check on Tomioka. It had been a little while since she had checked on him, and she wanted to see if his symptoms had improved at all. She made her way to Tomioka’s room with a pitcher of cold water, and smiled as she entered his room. “Good evening, Tomioka.!” She greeted happily, but quickly realized that the Water Hashira was still asleep.. and didn’t have a shirt on.. Shinobu approached him quietly and set the pitcher on his night stand before going to the opposite side of the bed.
Tomioka was lying on his right side, and his back was facing the door. Shinobu didn’t really care to see his bare back, but she wanted to check his temperature, so she went around to his front and sat down on a chair. She then carefully and gently moved Tomioka’s bangs with her fingers and used her palm to feel his forehead. It was still about as warm as it was the last time she had seen him, but at least now he was asleep with a peaceful expression, one that almost looked cute.
Tomioka’s consciousness began to return after feeling a cold yet very gentle touch to his forehead. He didn’t really do anything as he began to wake up; he didn’t move, he didn’t make any noise, he just laid there and enjoyed the coldness for as long as it lingered. Unfortunately, the cold didn’t stay there forever.. but instead.. he began to feel someone's fingers gently brush through his hair. At first, it felt odd to him and he wanted to move to see what was petting him, but after a brief moment, his mind began to relax again and he simply enjoyed the subtle and sweet touches. For some reason, he liked it. It seemed to remind him of something, but in the moment, he couldn’t quite remember what it was.
He laid there for a long while, enjoying the gentle familiar touches, all until he felt the need to move; he had been lying in the same position for too long. He let out a quiet wheezy hum and moved his face out of his pillow, looking up at the person petting him.
Kocho had withdrawn her hand from his head almost immediately after Giyu let out his hum. She sat and stared at him briefly, watching him look up at her with the most sleepy expression.
“Good evening.” Shinobu said with an awkward smile, seemingly a bit embarrassed by what she had been doing. She immediately deduced that he had been awake for most of it too, considering the way he moved. She just wished she had noticed sooner..
Giyu quietly hummed at her in response, before slowly repositioning onto his back and beginning to stretch his limbs. Once he was done, he sleepily looked at Shinobu, resting his hands on his belly.
“Did you sleep well? I wouldn’t think so, considering the fact that your clothes are on the floor, but I’ll ask anyway.”
Tomioka grunted quietly again as he glanced at himself. He then slowly pulled the blanket up above his chest and huffed quietly, still barely awake. He closed his eyes and laid like that for a few minutes, not really doing nor saying anything, so Shinobu gave his shoulder a gentle poke.
“I brought you some more water. If you’d like, I can bring you some more clothes too. You know, in case you need to get up.”
Again, there was no response for a little while, so Shinobu sighed to herself and got up to leave.
Tomioka wasn’t even really aware that she had left. His mind felt so foggy and the fact that he was still only half awake made it to where he couldn’t really comprehend anything that was happening. He dozed off again for a few long minutes, until he was woken up again by the feeling of something long and thin --almost like a small stick-- be put into his mouth. He grunted quietly and opened his eyes just barely enough to see, and noticed a thermometer sticking out of his mouth. He let out a sleepy huff and closed his eyes again, not wanting to deal with Kocho’s medical exams.
After a brief moment, the thermometer was taken from Tomioka, and Shinobu let out a dissatisfied sigh.
“Your fever seems to be getting worse, Tomioka.” She said, then carefully moved his blanket down towards his belly, wanting to examine his ribs again. “Your fever will likely get worse before it gets better, so prepare to feel really gross and hot for the next day or two.” She added as she moved Giyu’s left arm away from his side, making sure to be very gentle as she eventually began feeling his ribcage.
Giyu huffed with dread at the mention but didn’t really do anything else about it. He allowed Kocho to do as she pleased, and even moved his arm out of her way entirely, just to make her job easier and to hopefully get her to stop touching him sooner. He had brought his arm up towards his pillows and rested his head atop his forearm, with the side of his face resting against his bicep, as if he were lounging. That’s the only pose he could really think of that would help her examine him, so he laid like that for a while with his head beginning to hurt again.
After a couple minutes of Kocho poking and prodding and gently feeling around Giyu’s ribs, she finally leaned away and looked towards his face. Clearly this poison and fever combo was making him exhausted; every time she looked at him, he had dozed off. She let out a huff and poured him a glass of water, then held it on his forehead. He woke up once again, but instead of just lying there pathetically like he had been, he took hold of the cold cup and eventually did his best to sit up just barely enough to where he could drink the water without spilling it everywhere.
“So, Tomoika. With as many times as I've looked at it, I don’t think your rib is broken to the point that it’s free floating, but there does seem to be a crack in it somewhere. It’s closer to a fracture, but it’s still going to hurt for a while.” Kocho explained, then brought her hand back to his side. “If you carefully feel right around here, you’ll know what I’m talking about.”
Giyu did as suggested and began carefully feeling his ribs, immediately feeling what she was trying to say. It was hard for him to describe, but there was a ridge or a general uneven dip on his wounded rib, like it had been chipped, and it hurt to touch. He let out a pained huff as he stopped messing with it, all before taking another sip of his drink and lying back down shortly after.
Kocho took his cup as he laid down, and watched him do his best to find a more comfortable position. “You should try to get as much rest as possible, and I’m sorry for having to wake you up so frequently. If you want, I can leave you alone now. Your clothes are folded on top of the drawers across the room.” Kocho expressed, then gave Tomioka’s head a light pat. “If you need anything, feel free to find me or Aoi, alright?”
Giyu nodded in understanding and soon watched Kocho leave. He let out a broken and breathy groan to himself, his head bothering him more. It took a little while this time, but he eventually fell asleep again and remained that way for a while. Aoi and some of the smaller butterfly girls would check on him periodically --every hour or so-- but unfortunately, no one was around when he involuntarily woke up again.
Giyu’s head and torso throbbed in pain the second his consciousness regained. He let out a few shallow breaths, both from his pain, and the fact that he felt as if he were suddenly overheating. His whole body felt damp and gross, and he could feel a bead of sweat dripping from his forehead. He kicked his blanket off entirely and wheezed with misery. His mouth tasted dry, his throat ached with how arid it was. Honestly, for a moment he thought he was dying, which made him want to call out for someone, but his throat could barely form a sound at all. He closed his weary eyes and began trying to think of anything he could do to help himself, but nothing was quickly coming to mind, his mind was too foggy.. He was stuck lying there, in the middle of a warm day, in the daytime, with a fever, and he felt as if he were actively melting. As he laid there trying to control his pained breaths --his mind and body very overwhelmed-- he felt something pointy poke and peck at one of his hands. It made him look over and he saw his crow, Kanzaborou, standing on his bed, looking at him.
“Giyyuuu..” The old crow whined with worry, then gently pecked his hand again.
Tomioka saw his bird’s concern and stared at him briefly, but eventually decided to reach out and gently pet him. He rubbed his index and middle fingers under his beak and on his chest plumage. At first, Tomioka tried to say something to him, but his throat once again failed to make any sort of sound. After a moment Giyu let his hand go limp as his exhausted brain tried to think, but after a couple long minutes, he eventually managed to repeatedly tap one of his crow’s feet. He was trying to tell him to go find Shinobu, but it took a few tries before he understood.
Once Kanzaborou knew what his master was saying, he cawed and flew out of the room.
Once the crow was gone, Tomioka let out an exhausted huff before forcing himself to sit up. His rib seemed to ache even more and his head stung fiercely as he did this, but he desperately wanted the rest of the water Kocho had left on the nightstand. He managed to sluggishly get himself a drink, although it was now room temperature and not very refreshing. Water was still water to him though, so he drank as much as he could stand without making himself sick.
He sat there for a little while, breathing shallowly and sweating profusely, despite the room not actually being that warm; to any other person, the room temperature would be quite comfortable.
Tomioka had never felt this hot and sweaty before in his life.. and on top of the overheating, his body began to sting in random places for brief periods of time. His head hurt the most, followed by his ribcage and throat.
He sipped his water until he came to the conclusion that he had drunk enough. He then wearily glanced over at the door and realized that it was halfway open. The only reason this was an issue was because he was just sitting here.. naked.. in a mansion full of either women or young girls.
Giyu sighed to himself and reluctantly pulled his blanket over his lap and laid back down. If it weren’t for the fact that he felt as if he were dying, he would’ve either put some clothes on or covered himself with the blanket completely; but with how hot he was, he wasn’t about to willingly make it worse by doing either of those things.
A few more minutes went by of Tomioka lying there, completely melting in his misery, but eventually, he heard his door open more; indicating that someone had come to check on him.
“Oh, goodness..” Kocho said to herself both with surprise and worry upon seeing Tomioka.
He was clearly very sweaty from how overall wet his body looked, his eyes were closed, his face, neck, and ribs were quite red, he huffed and puffed as if he couldn’t breathe properly, and that blanket was hardly covering anything..
Shinobu sighed to herself before quickly going to his side and deciding to push his wet bangs out of his face. “Tomioka.” She started to say, then poked at him gently.
Giyu opened his eyes after feeling the poke and looked at her with exhausted agony. He then let out a quiet breathy whimper, making Kocho look at him with pity.
“Okay, before I do anything.. Answer what I’m about to ask. Just nod for ‘yes’ or shake your head for ‘no,’ alright?”
Giyu nodded in agreement and closed his eyes again.
“Alright, first off.. Is your neck stiff at all? As in, is it hard to move your head around?”
Tomioka huffed and shook his head ‘no,’ then decided to prove it by slowly moving his head in various directions. He then glanced at her once he went back to his normal position.
“Okay, now.. I know your ribs have been hurting, but does your chest hurt?” Kocho asked, then gently placed her right hand on the middle of Giyu’s chest. She used her left hand to grab his blanket and better cover his pelvis. “Right around where I put my hand; does it hurt?”
Another ‘no.’
“Is it your rib that’s making it hard to breathe?”
Giyu nodded and decided to take a deeper breath, but his breath eventually hitched and he was forced to let out a pained wheeze. After this he took hold of the hand on his chest and began shakily tapping it, telling Kocho that he was way too hot, which was part of the problem.
She pulled her hand away after what he had said and went towards the door. “I know you’re hot, Tomioka. I was making sure there wasn’t anything else unrelated to the poison fever. I think you’re alright. I’ll be back in a second, okay?”
Giyu huffed with defeat as Shinobu left, but did his best to rest his weary and achy eyes. Whatever sort of poison that demon had put into him was certainly doing a number on him. It was agitating the general area around his wounded rib, so much so that he couldn’t take a deep breath; and it was making his head feel like it was about to explode. As previously discussed, his rib wasn’t actually that badly damaged, it simply felt worse than it was because of all the poison in his veins. He remembered fighting that big scorpion for what felt like a long time; considering what he was going through now, he was surprised that he had made it that long at all during that fight. He wished he knew how much that thing had pumped into him, because it felt like a lot at the time, and now that his body was struggling so harshly with it, it must have been a lot.
He pondered about it as he laid there, and eventually felt Kocho’s dainty hand grab his arm, all before he felt a small yet sharp poke go into him near the inside of his left elbow. He didn’t tense up entirely, but it did startle him. He started to look over at her, but didn’t really get the chance. A cold wet rag was laid across his forehead and had partially covered his eyes. He let out a wheezy yet satisfied breath at the feeling, absolutely loving the cold water on his hot head. Soon, another rag was laid on his ribs and a broken hum escaped his lips. He finally felt himself begin to relax, and his rapid breaths began to slow down slightly. The lack of heat was certainly helping his pains.
“There.. Is that any better?” Kocho asked, taking note of how the coldness seemed to instantly improve his symptoms.
“- e s” Giyu wheezed, seemingly a bit more relieved. He began reaching for her after he said that however, and Kocho let him touch her hand. He tapped it again, and told her this: “Feels better... head still.. hurts.. bad.” With how he replied, he either didn’t feel like tapping her hand for forever, or he couldn’t think properly. Either way would make sense, but Kocho made sure to keep note of it.
“I’m glad these are cooling you down. As far as your head goes, that might fix itself soon.” She replied, then brought up both of her hands to hold onto Tomioka’s. His hand had begun to twitch and she was trying to make it stop. “I stuck you with a more powerful antidote that has a mild sedative in it. I used some of it when you first got here, but because it knocked you out for a day and kept you somewhat drowsy yesterday, I didn’t want to use more until you had recovered some. But you seem wide awake now, so I thought I’d give you some more. Just know that it might knock you out again.”
Giyu nodded with understanding and began to weakly grab onto Kocho’s hands, wanting to hold one. He didn’t quite get it right though, --because of not really focussing on it-- but he managed to gently hold one of her thumbs and he seemed satisfied with that. With his free hand, he rotated the rag on his ribs, hoping the other side was still cold.
Kocho watched him and used her free hand to redip the rags in a cold bucket of water she had brought and laid them back down on Tomioka’s head and ribs. She had a hard time wringing out the water with one hand, so she unfortunately had to make Giyu let go of her, but he didn’t seem to care too much and simply let her do as she pleased.
A few long minutes passed, and nothing really changed. Kocho kept placing the cold damp rags on Giyu, and he continued to lie there. He kept breathing shallowly, and his hand kept randomly twitching, but overall, he seemed to be doing much better. He wasn’t sweating nearly as much and his body seemed to calm more and more as the minutes went by. His expression began to look more calm as well, and eventually, Kocho gave his shoulder a gentle poke.
“Is your head feeling any better, Tomioka?”
Giyu nodded in response, before raising his twitchy hand and reaching in Kocho’s general direction until she took hold of it.
She assumed that he was about to say something, but for a while they simply held one another’s hands. Perhaps he didn’t like how much his hand was spasming? Kocho held his hand tighter at the thought, and that seemed to help slightly.
“Tomioka.” She started to say, then gave the back of his hand a little pat. He glanced over at her sleepily, and she smiled at him. “Did you have something to say?”
He didn’t do anything in response for a moment, but he did eventually tap her hand. ‘No.. I.. forgot.’
Kocho huffed with amusement and began to run her fingers across his, gently playing with his rough and randomly spasming hand. “Well, that’s alright. Just relax.” She replied sweetly, then watched as he closed his eyes and repositioned his head to be more comfortable.
After he had looked away, Kocho paid more attention to his hand, and inspected it intently. She was honestly a little surprised that he was letting her do this for so long, but maybe he secretly enjoyed her affections.
His hands were very coarse and his fingernails looked worn; A testament to how much he had trained over the years. Honestly, it made her a bit sad.. Really, she didn’t think anyone’s hands should feel that way at his age. Sure he was older than her, but only by a couple years. Adding it on with the fact that he was always so gloomy and lonely, it subtly made her heart ache, but not because of Tomioka himself; it was more so the amount of people in his same position. Families torn apart by demons, not having much to live for afterwards.. It was an awful reality.
She held Tomioka’s hand and played with his fingers for a while, zoning out and pondering. As she zoned out, she held Giyu’s hand with one of hers and began trailing the other up and down his forearm slowly. She wasn’t really paying attention to herself, and allowed her thoughts to wander.
While doing this, Giyu decided to glance at her. Clearly she was staring off into space. Her expression was more blank and she wasn’t blinking much. He didn’t really mind what she was doing, but he had become curious as to why she was now rubbing his arm. He watched her for a couple of minutes, until his head began to sting, which forced him to close his eyes again. He got himself comfy again, and gently tapped Kocho’s hand.
She stopped what she was doing and paid attention after that, even looking down at his hand.
‘What are you doing?’ Tomioka had asked her, then felt both of her hands hold onto his.
“I don’t know, Tomioka. Just getting lost in thought, I suppose.”
A moment of silence hung over them.
‘What were you thinking about?’
“About how demons are the bane of our existence.” She replied with mild annoyance hiding behind her smile.
Giyu let out a huff of understanding, then began to glance over at her again. This time, when he opened his eyes, any light within the room seemed twenty times brighter, and all of the shadows were much darker. It was all dim and bright at the same time. The light stung his eyes, and his head quickly began to sting again. He closed his eyes with discomfort and suddenly felt another wave of pain wash over him. He gripped Kocho’s hand and the bed tightly and took a pained breath. After exhaling, a sharp pain shot through his head, and he let out a pained wheeze.
“A h.!”
“Tomioka--” Shinobu started to say as Giyu yanked his hand out of her hold and put it to his forehead instead.
“Hhh.. Ahh.. A-.. K-o… ch-o.!” He wheezed desperately.
“You’re okay! You’re okay.! Hold on..” Shinobu reassured, then got up from her seat.
Giyu’s breaths became louder and shallower, he began to sweat again, and his body began to tremble. He even began to squirm around, but only a little. Clearly this wave of pain was much worse than it had been previously..
Shinobu did her best to pull Giyu’s hands away from his face, but he didn’t really seem to want to let go. Whether he was just in too much pain to even realize she was interacting with him or if the way he was holding his head was easing his pain in some way, was unclear but Kocho kept trying. After a couple of minutes, he finally moved his arms. He gripped the sheets with his right hand, and grabbed Kocho’s arm with his left. He held her tightly, but his hand shook fiercely.
The air was cold, yet his body was hot.. Every sound seemed distorted.. echoey.. His head felt so light, but also as if it were being crushed by an indescribable force. He winced and whined with agony, as much as his almost nonexistent voice would let him, and held tightly onto whatever was close, despite his shaky grip. He couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t hear nor feel properly, and he didn’t know what was going on.. Why did this keep happening? Kocho’s medicines were previously working, right? What the hell was happening??
As he laid there, he felt whatever he had been holding in his left hand leave, so he instead gripped the sheets, the same as the other hand. His lungs began to hurt as well, and his breaths became more strained. He let out a series of coughs to try and get rid of the odd strained feeling, but that only seemed to make it worse, so he stopped. Soon after that, it became harder to think, to move, and he eventually blacked out..
It was really only a matter of minutes before his consciousness regained, but it kept fading in and out. His brain was just too overwhelmed by everything that was happening, and was having a hard time deciding on shutting down or staying awake. Within this time of going in and out of consciousness, Giyu could feel things a little more clearly, and the pains were a little calmer every time he awoke. He could tell that the cold rags had returned, and something had been stuck in his arm, but no other obvious changes occurred. He could eventually start to hear again, and after a while, he began to open his eyes. He remained in this odd state of waking up and going back to sleep for at least an hour or so, until he finally started to feel normal again, and his body finally figured out what it wanted to do.
As Giyu’s consciousness fully regained, he let out a dissatisfied huff and turned his head to face his left. The rag on his forehead fell off, but he didn’t really care and just laid there. He huffed again, then felt a soft hand move his bangs out of his face.
“Tomioka? Are you awake?”
He grunted quietly in response then forced his eyes open. Kocho and Aoi were at his bedside. Aoi was holding his arm still against the bed with one hand, and holding an IV tube steady within his arm with her other hand. He couldn’t see where the tube led, but he didn't focus on that for long. Instead, he looked up at Kocho and huffed at her with annoyance.
“I know, Giyu.. I’m sorry that all of this is happening to you, but I do genuinely think we solved the problem this time. A lot of the same things happened to you the first time we used that antidote, but you were far more delirious last time, so I doubt you remember it. You were a lot more still last time too, but that’s probably also because of your delirium. I think you’ll be fine after this round. We’ve sucked out most of the gunk in your veins.“
Giyu sighed and brought up his right hand towards Kocho, which she promptly took hold of. He gently tapped her hand, and gave her a slightly annoyed look. ‘Are you sure this is working? That felt horrible..’
“I know it felt horrible, and yes, it’s working. I said it might knock you out again, remember?.”
‘I expected it to make me sleepy, not overwhelm me..’
“Well, I said it would ‘knock you out’ not ‘put you to sleep.’ Sorry for the confusion, but I warned you.”
‘What about the sedatives?’
“You were calm for a little while, right?”
Giyu huffed with discontent and rested his hand on his chest. He then repositioned his head and looked up at the ceiling for a little while.
“I probably should’ve been a little more clear with my explanation. My apologies.” Shinobu said in her usual sweet tone, then redipped the rag that was previously on his forehead.
Tomioka closed his eyes as the rag was laid on him, and he simply took a few moments to enjoy the peace while it lasted. He fully expected another harsh wave of pain --from only God knows what at this point-- to wash over him again, but it thankfully never happened.
For another few hours, not much about Tomioka changed. Other than Kocho’s various medical examinations, everything remained calm. If it weren’t for those inspections, Giyu would’ve dozed off a long time ago, but she kept him awake. She asked all kinds of questions, examined him in various ways, finally took the tube out of his arm, and gave him a few light snacks. She made sure to be gentle and sweet with him throughout all of her exams, and even pet his head once she was done with everything. He seemed to like it before, or at least, tolerate it.. so she kept doing it.
As time went by, and as the sun began to set, Tomioka’s eyelids eventually began to feel heavy and his body was finally calm. After enduring everything that had gone on that day, and after receiving some very soothing head pats, he had slowly begun to doze off. He stared at the wall across the room as he did so, but he finally noticed something that made him wake himself up a little. He hadn’t noticed it before, but apparently Kocho had brought in his haori at some point --most likely when she brought his other clothes-- because it was now on a hanger, hung by a hook on the wall. He stared at it for a moment or so before looking up at Kocho sleepily.
“Hm?” Shinobu hummed with curiosity as she watched Tomioka bring up one of his hands. He very gently tapped the hand on his head and asked her if she would bring his haori to him. She smiled and nodded at him before getting up from her seat and carefully taking the garment off of the wall. She then approached Tomioka and watched him sleepily reach for it with both of his hands. She gave it to him promptly and watched how he draped it over himself like a blanket. Once he was satisfied with that, he reached for Kocho. She gave him her hand and he tapped it gently. He said “thank you” with a look of gratitude in his weary eyes. After that, he repositioned himself onto his right side --the same way he was positioned when she had first checked on him-- and he began to lovingly nuzzle his face into the garment.
Shinobu’s smile turned to a more pitiful one, having an understanding of a possible reason for his actions. She sometimes did the same thing when she was upset. It was always a gamble, however.. half of the time it made her feel better, and the other half of the time it only seemed to upset her more. He seemed happy to receive the garment, so hopefully it continued to give him peace rather than make him mourn. She vaguely knew why Giyu's haori looked the way it did, and she knew he had an attachment to it, which is why she thought of that in the first place..
Giyu snuggled the haori with a sense of comfort in his mind. The haori was warm, but it somehow wasn’t suffocating like the blanket. Its subtle warmth felt like a gentle hug from his friend, and although it stirred a dull ache within his heart, he liked the idea of his loved ones comforting him and he managed to doze off with ease.
Shinobu stayed with Giyu for a little while longer, wanting to make sure he could fall asleep properly. Once he seemed to be peacefully slumbering, she left him to tend to other patients, but she made sure to return periodically like before.