Chapter 5: Barely Breathing

The aftermath of the duel.

Fuyukaze awoke in a dark room, an oil lantern flickering as it gave some light. He lay under several blankets and as he tried to lift his head he found himself weak and dizzy, there was a tight sensation upon his shoulder. He pulled away the covers to find his wound had been bandaged. Surrounding him were folding screens, each painted with scenes of nature and lords and ladies talking in court dress. He spent what seemed like an eternity, warm under the blankets drifting in and out of sleep, the sound of the lantern his only companion.

As time passed he felt something sharp, the feeling of pinching upon his wound. The boy opened his eyes slowly to the see the screens parted and an old man kneeling over him. The doctor pulled the stitches from his wound, carefully cutting each thread and drawing it from the line of clotted blood. The man noticed his patient's eyes fixed on him and smiled lightly “You were wounded, and have lost quite a lot of blood. But you're doing better now, your fever is broken and your wound is healing well.” He took a cloth and dipped it in a basin of water, wringing it out before washing over the wound and taking the dark flecks of blood away, just leaving the dark raised band of his wound. “You are in Sanada, within the magistrate's residence.”

“Ayomi?” he choked as he strained to find words from a hoarse throat.

The doctor put his hand to the boy's chest and shook his head no. “Ayomi is dead, your duel was four days ago.” The man looked into Fuyukaze's eyes annoyed, just waiting for the recognition to set in before the youth relaxed and settled back against the mat. “The magistrate has met with the instructors of your school who have come looking for you, I am sure they have questions to ask you but for now I must ask you to rest, lest the wound upon your shoulder tear itself open again and you bleed to death this time.” He left those last words hanging in the air, quietly binding clean bandages over the cut along his shoulder. “You should rest here for three days more, no more activity than sitting and slow walking. It was only by the gods will that you live today, for a wound that deep should have killed you.” He stood, gathering up the bowl and used bandages and strode from the room without another word.

Fuyukaze just laid still upon the floor, trying to bring himself to grips with what he was just told. He tried to sit up but a sudden bout of dizziness caused him to fall back into the small cube-like pillow that supported his head. He laid there silently, biding the time anxiously, his head swimming with thoughts of his school and his family. What would be the results of his hasty actions? He could only lay there and ponder the meaning of this.