Ryouma’s forehead creased. “Buttercup?”

“Too cliche?” Katsuko said, through chattering teeth. “What about sugar-lips?”

“My hero, maybe.” Ryouma tipped his head sideways, resting it against the top of Katsuko’s head, as if holding himself upright was just too tiring. “That was you who cracked her armor and took off her tail, wasn't it? An'— What happened to the lieutenant?”

“He got stung,” Kakashi said, after a quick blink over hero. He glanced back at the mother-demon’s fallen body with a new eye, seeing the way the carapace had peeled open like flower petals, as if something had forced it from the inside… “Did you go through her back?”

“He wrestled with her intestines and won,” Katsuko said. “It was pretty hot.”

Ryouma knocked his jaw gently against her skull, which made them both wince, and lifted his head with effort. “She was falling over on me. It was that or lose the weak point in her armor.” He paused, and added: “I reconsidered that choice a lot when I was inside.”

Kakashi could imagine.

At least that Raikiri-crack had done something.

“Not to interrupt this moment of bonding,” Raidou said, helping Katsuko’s clones settle Genma carefully down onto a cloak spread over the mud. “But we need to pack up and get everyone out of here. Hound, check your teammates—Ram’s head, Rat’s collarbone. I want that break good and strapped.”

“Painkillers,” Genma croaked.

“For both of ‘em,” Raidou agreed. “Don’t give Ram any soldier pills. He’s tapped the limit.”

“The lieutenant—” Kakashi began.

“I’ve got him,” said Raidou firmly, already shucking Genma’s armor off and peeling stained bandages away from the slashed belly wound.

Genma hissed quietly. “B-blood pill,” he said, managing to slur and stutter at the same time. “For Ram, ‘an for m-me.”

Kakashi frowned. “Ram’s not bleeding.” At least, not anywhere obvious.

“C-clotting,” Genma said. “Soldier pills affect clotting. Could be b-bleeding inside. Blood pill’d help.” He took a raspy breath and added: “You said head injury. B-brain bleed?”

Ryouma’s eyes widened in alarm. Kakashi caught the underside of his jaw and tipped his face up into the meager grey light, leaning in to take a closer look.

“Pupils look even,” Kakashi said, and called up a firefly flurry of sparks around his fingertips, making blue-white lights pop brightly, then vanish. Ryouma blinked rapidly. Kakashi let him go. “Constricting and dilating normally, too.”

“Good,” Genma said. He paused for breath. “Blood pill, anyway.”

“You heard the lieutenant,” Kakashi told Ryouma, digging his good hand into his med-kit. He found the pill-container by its ridged, identifying marks, and handed it over to go with the canteen already resting on Ryouma’s lap.

Ryouma fumbled both with blackened, blue-nailed hands.

Katsuko caught the canteen with her good hand. Kakashi rescued his pills, freed one, and for purposes of expediency, pressed it to Ryouma’s mouth. Teeth scraped his fingertips, and the pill vanished. Katsuko offered the canteen, which Ryouma managed to steady and drink from.

Well, if it was a three-man operation for one pill, the journey back to the village was bound to be delightful.

Ryouma lowered the canteen with a sigh. “Blood tastes so much better than rot.”

“Join us in the cuddle pile, Hound,” Katsuko suggested brightly. “Ram needs to keep his body temperature up.”

“You just don’t want me to touch your shoulder,” Kakashi said, pulling the corner of the tent-blanket aside to see what kind of catastrophe had been made of Katsuko’s sling.