After the messenger bolted out again, leaving startled nurses staring at his disappearing back, there was nothing for Raidou to do but discover a brand new hatred for his restraints. Not to mention the airless room, the limited view, the ability to do nothing...

Just when he was seriously contemplating working out a way to garrote himself with an IV line (then they'd have to move him up to the ICU), the messenger came charging back down, danced an impatient jig in the decontamination room, and dragged a surgeons mask over his face as he staggered back in.

"Peri-peri crab!" he wheezed, catching himself on the foot of the bed.

Raidou stared. "What?"

"Peri--" the man gasped and waved a hand. "Crab!"

"I don't--" Raidou began, then abruptly strangled silent. He'd meant the safe-word crack as a reference to their last hospital stay, when Sumire had stormed in and kicked up a fuss, and Genma had almost dissolved in his own anger. When all they'd had to worry about was a fever, a minor poisoning, and Raidou's stabbed shoulder. He hadn't thought about it meaning anything... else.

He shoved the thought aside. Now was an even worse time to be thinking about a stupid kiss that Genma didn't even remember.

"Is he okay?" he demanded. "Is he still awake? I need to see h--"

"He's okay," the messenger gasped. "They had to knock him back out, but he's okay."

"Knock him out?" Leather creaked under tension as Raidou hauled at his bonds, ignoring the shatter-dance of pain through weary nerves. "What d'you mean, knock him out?"

The medic took a hasty step back. "He's fine," he said quickly. "Sleep is good! It's--healing!"

"I'll heal you," Raidou snarled, uncaring that--as threats went--that one made very little sense. "Let me the hell out!"

"We're going to," said a very calm voice near the door. More sterile air washed into the room as three medics stepped inside. "As soon as you calm down."

Raidou's head came up, eyes narrowing at the one who'd spoken. It was the man who'd done the original healing on his burns. "I'm calm," he snapped. "This is calm. Let me see Genma before I show you annoyed."

"Funny," said the medic dryly, and stepped around the messenger to lay four scrolls on the bed. The other medics flanked him silently. "In the interests of getting you both healed as quickly as possible--preferably without losing any of our staff in the process--we're going to try something a shade risky."

A muscle in Raidou's jaw flexed. "What?"

"Patience--"

"I've been patient for four damn days. Do whatever the hell it is and let me see Genma!"

Behind his surgeon's mask, the medic smiled grimly. "Very well. Try to relax, Namiashi-san. When you wake up, the world will be a much better place."

Raidou stared at him. "Are you out of your mind--"

He didn't see one of the flanking medics move until it was far too late; green chakra swept into his throat, coursed down into his pathways, and knocked him neatly unconscious.

"Right," said the first man, snapping out a scroll. "Let's begin."