Aftermath of a Tragic Bridge Accident

Shigure wakes up with a start on a well-worn wooden operating table in a small room, staring at the ceiling. He's been tied down using multiple layers of bandages as the smell of some disgusting alchemical brew fills the air. A girl with overly long black hair wearing a shrine maiden's outfit looks over it while adding in a variety of herbs from a shelf slightly too high up for her to reach easily. She gets on the tips of her white-tabied toes to reach some blue-colored leaves as Shigure feels utterly drained of aura.

He sniffs the air and recognizes the concoction:
"Melted turtle brains and aged lunar buds? I'm not in that bad of shape," he says as he tries to lurch upward, a jolt of pain following the act.

"I also added crimson ginger roots. You're an Overseer based on what I found on you, so I assume you're strong enough to keep it down. If not, then I'll add some sugar to the mixture," the girl says in the tone of an elderly sage, despite her voice sounding cute and high-pitched.

"The Ageless One, lovely to meet you, but I do not need to be strapped down since I feel perfectly alright. A karmic outlaw-"

"Broke a bridge you were on, and you almost drowned. I've done my best to get Hajun to seek treatment and have to wonder what he could have done to earn such a brutal reprisal from you. He has a bad habit of finding trouble with his every step"

"You're aware he wears those chains as a measure to keep himself in check, correct?"

Shigure gives Iku a withering glare as she approaches him.

"This is the third time you've gotten up, and the less you move when the healing mixture I've made is ready, the better. It's hard to keep down, and I don't fancy cleaning it up."

The man scoffs: "I have no need for your services, Ageless One. No Plates to pay you with, and no desire for a sermon."

"You almost died with mixed Karma, you should be more cautious. I don't need payment today, though I am disappointed that you'd avoid a good sermon. I'm not keen to let you leave without asking you why saw fit to fight Hajun so rashly. I'd assume an Overseer of any merit would prepare some measures to contain his techniques better or at least bring allies. Consider your answer to this payment for me covering your debt to the Six Fingers for breaking one of their bridges."

"And if I tell you, you'll cut the sermon short?" Shigure says apprehensively.

"Should I get a chair?" Iku asks a bit playfully as she gets a spoonful of her healing broth and tastes it, nodding as she lets it simmer a bit more.

"It's quite simple: He was leering at my precious sister, and I was keeping a karmic outlaw from doing anything to her," he says proudly.

"Your sister is more than capable of defending herself, especially from a man she is allied with," Iku says as she cuts up a scarlet ginger root with the precision of a master chef. "And I know you're aware of her reputation and her affiliations."

"What affiliations? She works as a humble housekeeper. So unfitting of her grandeur..."

"Miko's spirits have seen you around the base of the Yahata Mercenaries. One doesn't take a light stroll and accidentally end up there."

"And what of it? They are to be watched like any who may oppose the Yama and the Yodi, no?"

Iku grabs a small cup and fills it with the disgusting healing broth. "Dark desires are what I see in you; the sort that lead you to a fate worse than death."

She plops a sugar cube inside and lets it disperse through the drink on its own.

"It would be best if exorcists never had jobs to do, for it would mean that people had given up their harmful desires and given their few pure ones to the gods to answer. To give into the desires of the flesh is to harm the soul in exchange for momentary pleasure. It's all too common that our work is about educating and preaching as much as it is about tracking down dangerous spirits and sealing them away. You have a choice to swing your Karma up to Heaven or to burn off all the bad Karma you earn chasing your worldly desires in Hell. Some are not so lucky as to be able to make a choice."

She leans the cup down onto the man's lips slowly as he recoils a bit at the taste. Healing medicines never tasted good by the gods' designs, a further reason to avoid the foolish method by which one ended up almost dead. Iku looks toward him, tilting his head to the side as she observes his reaction to the medicine.

The man chokes the medicine down in gulp, taking a deep breath afterward.

"Now please untie me since you've done your community service, Ageless One," he says in a snarky tone.

Iku complies as she undoes the bandages that bound him to the operating table and looks up at him, crossing her arms in her long sleeves with a pout on her face.

"Speak to your elders with some respect, young man!" Iku says in an irritated tone, causing Shigure to smile.

"Oh please, keep going young lady. Any crayon drawings you want to show me before I leave?" he says as he walks out of the back room of the hut into the grey living area.

Iku takes a deep breath as she tries to control her temper at the man's insolence.

"Why do you insist on testing me so? Is this some game the Overseers have?"

"Because you're so upright, you've forgotten the joys in life! It must be so dismal sitting by a market in this rundown shack after all. The pain of the pursuit is part of the reward after, you see; the more it hurts to seek out a desire, the more it gratifying it will be when you finally fulfill it."

She looks at her patient sharply in the eyes.

"That pain is your body and soul telling you to turn back while there is still a light to walk back to. And the polite term is cozy. I'm not a Lunar Temple layabout with a mansion to her name bought off of offerings."

He groans, "You're no fun, Lady Iku."

"Miss Iku is fine, and matters of Karma are rarely fun. Did Hajun look like he was relishing his time in chains?"

"He did, actually. Truly a deviant mind at work there," Shigure comments as he slips on his dried coat.

Iku sighs as she follows him out to the yard of the shrine, the wind catching her colossal ponytail in a gust.

"I hope to not see you back soon," she says as he walks off, the man leaving a small offering of three Plates at the shrine.

Better than nothing: maybe the lesson had some value after all.