Genma didn't need a minute, he needed a hospital bed and a team of medics standing by. And to stop telling Raidou to let him go right before he staggered over and ripped something up inside.

"Sit the hell down," said Raidou, already lowering him properly to the ground. Genma didn't resist--he was already on his knees; it barely took more than a nudge to have him sitting back on his rear, braced with the one hand that worked while his other hovered nervously above the grass.

He wasn't the only one. Raidou darted a glance at the darkening horizon, only half able to see it through their shelter of rocks, and fumbled their half-used medi-kit off his belt. Morphine for Genma, soldier pills for them both, and a painkiller Raidou could take without losing the ability to run. Not aspirin--it wasn't strong enough. Codeine, maybe, if they had any.

But Genma first. Even if he couldn't be a medic.

"You need a blood pill, too," Raidou muttered, spreading the kit out between them. He popped the cap off the right bottle and shook out one of the tiny pills, cradling it in his palm before adding a soldier pill. He reached out and slipped them carefully past Genma's lips, following up with a chaser of water from the one canteen he'd been able to salvage. Genma, braced on his only working hand, didn't protest.

Morphine next. Raidou hadn't pre-filled any of the syringes--there'd been no time--but he filled two now, drawing straw-coloured liquid into the plastic needles. One went back in the kit; the other stayed in his hand. "Hold still," he murmured, and reached out to find a vein on the inside of Genma's elbow. "And tell me how your ribs feel."

Speaking without jarring the left side of his face was getting harder and harder. He did it anyway.