Miina Malina & Ranbu no Izayoi
Miina froze on entering the baths. Not because she had any particular aversion to communal bathing – it would be fairly ridiculous if she did and trying to wrap her head around everyone else's idea of acceptable dress was a chore. It was much simpler: Izayoi was already there. She'd been trying to avoid being alone with the other Mystral… well, since she woke up after the fight.
She already had
one Ospreyan professing an uncomfortable level of guilt for what had happened, she didn't need another. Or want to have that much attention, really.
But it was too late to back out now, coming in wasn't at all unobtrusive. There was nothing for it but to wash and slip in the water and hope the conversation was short.
Evidently, Viscount Breien was somewhat fastidious about his hygiene. Or at least aimed to give the impression of it, considering the size and scale of his keep’s bathing facilities. Regardless, Izayoi made certain to take full advantage of the situation, enjoying her first hot bath ever since she’d left sickbed.
Miina’s entrance was marked with a twitch of Izayoi’s ears as she heard the footsteps, and the samurai glanced over, immediately marking out the unnatural slackness of one of her younger cousin’s arms.
”Still injured? You ought to have said something. Will you require aid bathing, then?”“No…” Without a further word, Miina set to undressing – somewhat inconvenient – and washing – easy. It wasn’t like she really needed both arms for this. Sure, anything that required holding one thing in place and manipulating it sucked, but the actual washing? She was
flexible; the biggest pain was that of course her arm didn’t resist being moved…
Really, it was the strangeness of it that bothered her. It wasn’t something that felt like a part of her body despite obviously
being so; she could imagine what the sensation should be when she touched it but there was nothing at all, just a slight pulling on her torso. This despite feeling every bit as warm as the other arm, or the slightly raised texture of the scars.
In what felt like no time at all, even if it
was slightly longer than she would otherwise have taken, the redhead was sliding into the hot water and for once
not having to make a conscious effort not to look at the older woman’s body, instead conspicuously interested in the ceiling.
Was that a tile mosaic…?For her part, Izayoi had finished actually cleaning herself some time ago, and was merely relaxing in the bath, hair having been worn down for ease of washing. As a result, this gave her more than enough opportunity to evaluate Miina as she cleaned, especially considering the latter was more interested in staring up at the ceiling than anything else.
Miina didn’t appear to be in any sort of obvious pain. Rather, the arm was simply unusable. Some sort of…magical backlash, perhaps? The source was obvious. Only the exact mechanics weren’t. Izayoi was no great scholar of materia or magical theory. But whatever Miina had done to ensure her strike cleaved the Comet had clearly rent its toll.
”Miina.” Izayoi’s voice rang clearly across the bath once the younger Mystrel had finished with her ablutions.
”This was because of the Behemoth?” Her gaze lingered on the ostensibly useless arm. Her tone was neither overly conciliatory nor dismissive, merely focused on the hard facts of the situation.
”How long, by your estimate?”“Mmm,” Miina hummed in agreement, shifting in the water. She really didn’t want to have this conversation
again, but… being evasive wouldn’t do her any good either, would it? Galahad was going to spread the information around whether she liked it or not.
Although, she could hope that Izayoi wouldn’t demand the full explanation of
how this happened. Repeating that would be even more annoying.
“F-Forever, I think,” the mage admitted, giving as much of a shrug as she was physically capable of. Well, forever or as close as made no difference; it wasn’t something that could be healed
now and she knew it wouldn’t improve on its own.
Izayoi remained silent at the admission for several moments, before bowing her head towards her cousin. Compared to the price of one’s own life, a single arm was worth far less. But that wasn’t the kind of sentiment that needed to be vocalized.
”Then we all owe you a debt. Without your efforts, the Behemoth would have killed us all. Thank you, Cousin.”The specifics of how it happened were unimportant. Considering that Miina had been amplifying the efforts of multiple materia users there at the end, Izayoi could hazard something of a guess as to what exactly occurred.
“Would’ve k-killed
me t-too…” Miina muttered, blushing and sinking down into the water. Yes, if she thought about it, without her assistance it probably
would have gotten out of control, or at best the backlash would have been even worse and focused entirely on Izayoi rather than being even slightly diffused… but it was still a selfish choice on her end.
Casting around for a distraction, she settled on the very thing she had just been trying to avoid: as long as Izayoi wasn’t going to be cloyingly sympathetic or bother her about the ‘how’, there were still the practical considerations.
“It
was my d-dominant hand, so… well, d-d-don’t ask me to write, or rrrrreally anything t-too
detailed or… use a sword? I’m n-not sure I would even n-n-notice if someone c-cut this arm, it’s p-probably a bad idea…”
Much like Miina, Izayoi was unconcerned with too many overt displays of emotion regarding this topic. Once the matter was settled, it was back to practicalities.
”You’ll forgive me for saying so, but ‘tis hardly as if I’ve ever seen you wield that sword of yours you carry. Still, with only your non-dominant arm…” She gave Miina an appraising look.
”Perhaps a focus of some sort? Other magi carry staves, no? Or something smaller, mayhaps.”Izayoi was right, Miina had hardly ever
used the sword since joining up – with so many other warriors, it had just been entirely unnecessary. But it was more the point that if someone
did get in close she didn’t even have it as a backup. Or if she pushed herself too far and casting was out of the question.
“Maybe I c-c-could get it modified?I’m used to p-pointing with it,” which seemed to be about half of what any given catalyst was used for; and it would hardly be like the shape of it really mattered, right? Use what you had on hand and all. She imagined most used staves because… well, long stick of wood where its exact physical hardness wasn’t that important.
”One would have to have it reforged at that point. If your concern is self-defense, perhaps a dagger or a shortsword? The castle smithy ought to have both in ample supply.” Izayoi remarked. She sank deeper into the water, unwilling to leave the scalding waters of the bath quite so soon.
”With both Neve and Eve gone from our ranks, we’ve left all matters of magic up to you. Had we the time, I would try to rectify that.” She frowned at the thought.
”But we do not.” She squinted at her cousin, one other thing coming to mind while they were here.
”You’ve been getting along well with my former subordinate, I hear. She is…well? The girl will hardly open up to me, after all.”“You c-could say that…” Miina answered, sinking further in herself and turning her attention fully back to the ceiling. Not that ‘getting along’ with Chisato was entirely bad; it would have made a few things more inconvenient over the past few days. Getting her to go off and focus on her own equipment, though, was necessary to not feel
stifled.
Although maybe she should’ve left that until after dressing. But then she wouldn’t have been able to beat his mistake into Galahad’s head…?
“She feels g-g-guilty for some reason. K-Keeps trying to make it up.”
Guilt from a shinobi? That was a new one. Though Izayoi supposed that the equation changed somewhat when it came to the injury of a comrade, as opposed to the number of heinous acts she’d ordered Chisato to perform years ago in the name of victory.
Regardless, she nodded along.
”Regardless, interacting with those not raised as human weapons ought be good for her. T’would be appreciated from myself, as well.”Was that somewhat hypocritical, coming from a woman raised to be a warrior since she was a child? Perhaps. But she’d had decades to grow past that.
“W-Well, I need the help…” the redhead admitted, shifting in the bath again, “D-D-Dressing and all.”
If it was somewhere warmer, where she didn’t have to worry about
sleeves, it wouldn’t matter, but they were going to Skael, and so it did. Maybe if she could work out some way to do it magically instead…? Was something like that even possible? Well, there might be some materia squirreled away in their destination that could do it, but surely a mage ought to be able to?
Just, from what she’d seen, it wasn’t like mages tended to have such mundane concerns on their mind. The Grovemasters had been busy with being in charge and
healing, and everyone else was rather more interested in combat. Shame they couldn’t look around those ruins…
She
really needed to grab Rudolf some day.
”I can help you once we’ve finished bathing, then.” Izayoi nodded. She’d known men who’d lost hands and arms before, even commanded them. But even that was simpler than having to maneuver a dead limb through clothes. At the same time…
”Perhaps this is ironic, considering what many refer to me as, but I am not unfamiliar with allies who have lost limbs. You can adjust. At the very least, not losing the actual arm would mean that you’ll not have to adjust your center of balance. Regardless, I believe we’ve stayed in here long enough. Ought we leave before we prune?”“Y-Yeah, I j-just have something th-that swings about with
any m-m-movement. K-Keep bashing into things…” And then having to heal the bruises, when she spotted them, because that was
embarrasing.
But Izayoi was right, it was time to get out.
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