Yamaguchi glared at his patient, seemingly annoyed at her lack of remorse. "What did I tell you last night about not overextending yourself?" he demanded, working at her arm once more. To say that he was vexed would be an understatement.

"You told me not to overextend myself," Maria replied, amused.

"Don't try and make light of it, Tachibana-san," he snapped. "Honestly, I do my best to keep you in one piece, and this is the thanks I get. You and your friends go off at the crack of dawn, all fired up for a big fight, and then drag yourselves back home hours later in this horrible condition."

He pointed to Kanna, who was lying on the cot opposite. "You deposit a near-strangled Kirishima-san right at my doorstep with a cracked skull..."

"Thank your stars that it was your hard head that took the hit," Sumire remarked hoarsely to Kanna from beside the martial artist's cot. "Anything else would have left you dead."

"Shut up, you banshee!" Kanna retorted, then clutched at her bandaged head. "Aargh, it's because of your blasted screaming that my head's feeling this bad in the first place."

"Banshee?!"

"Yeah, you heard me -- owww..."

Thoroughly dismissing the rising sounds of argument, Yamaguchi went on, "... She's lucky she didn't dash her brains all over the countryside. Kohran-chan's lucky to have her ribs still intact..."

Everyone except the doctor turned to look at the red-faced Chinese girl. "'Kohran-chan'?" they echoed.

Kohran chuckled weakly, trying not to mind her tightly bound chest. "Er... Yamaguchi-ojiji," she said, "it's really not anyone's fault."

Not that Yamaguchi was in the mood to stop, of course. "Those two," he ranted, transferring his finger to point at Leni and Orihime, "have enough cuts and bruises on their faces to make me suspect you threw them into a pit of starving cats."

"A pit of one flaming demon," Leni corrected him before Orihime nudged her into silence.

"I haven't even gotten to you, yet," the doctor said, returning his laserlike gaze to Maria. "You've got cuts, severe bruising all over your back, and not only did you succeed in reopening the injury on your arm, you go and get one for your leg to make it a matching set." He shook his head, growling. "It's a miracle that you people managed to make it back here at all."

Maria remained silent on the borrowed table that served as her temporary cot, seemingly keeping her gaze on some unidentified spot on the ceiling.

"I should start charging you lot for my services," Yamaguchi said, wrapping up her arm. "I'd be able to make it rich in no time. Heck, with that money I could get a bigger clinic so I can actually have enough space to decide where to put you all."

When he was done, he went to work on the leg. Despite his words, it wasn't bleeding as badly as the one Maria'd gotten from the night before. Her thick boots had apparently taken the brunt of the demon's cut. Once that injury was tended to, he went over to help the nurse finish up with Orihime and Leni.

The door to the clinic slid open and Iris called out. "I'm back!"

Maria stirred. "Iris," she said as the girl walked in. "How did it go?"

Iris' face showed a brief moment of irritation. "Lieutenant Shinagawa's a jerk!" she announced firmly.

Maria hid a smile. "What happened?" she asked gently.

"Well, first he made a lot of noise about having to talk to me and not you," Iris said, ticking off the man's list of offenses on one hand, "then when he finally decides to listen, he doesn't want to do anything at all. I told him what you told me to say, but he still didn't want to help. He only started changing his mind when Ootani-ojisan and his friends talked to him."

"So he's agreed to have his men check out the mine?" Sumire asked.

Iris nodded. "He was talking to some guy on the radio for a long time, then he tells me that he'll give the order. Everyone's getting ready to go over to the mine right now."

Maria nodded. "Thanks, Iris."

"Well, I'm glad that's all settled," Yamaguchi said. "All right. Kirishima-san, you're staying put. You, you, and you," he indicated Orihime, Leni and Iris, "take everyone else out and put them to bed. Make sure they stay there. I'm serious this time," he warned. "I'll be over at the house later to check up on them."

Maria swung her legs off of the table and took the walking cane that Yamaguchi held out to her. Kohran's weird and convenient concoction had worked wonders in chasing away most of the numbness that the demon's barbed touch had delivered. However, she suspected that it was that very same potion that was making her feel so tired. Now that everything seemed to have been settled, Maria could feel the need for sleep rising up to claim her like a tidal wave looming over a paper boat. Shaking the cobwebs from her mind, she carefully got to her feet.

"Thank you, doctor," she said.

He grunted. "Go," he said simply, gently steering her out the door.

As they left, they heard Kanna's voice asking him if he had anything to eat.

The whole lot of them made their way to their temporary lodgings. It took a while to get there, even with the patient help from the less injured members of the Hanagumi. By the time she reached her room, Maria wasn't even sure if she had the strength to resist sleep long enough to spread the futon out onto the floor. Fortunately, Iris had run in before the rest of them arrived and she was already setting everything up.

As soon as Iris was done with the first futon, Maria let the cane fall to the floor. With one last murmured thanks, she sank into the bedding and was instantly asleep.

Evening came and went. Night fell, and then the dawn rose up in its place. Through it all, the village gradually came alive with soldiers and civilians. People were beginning to trickle back in, and the added humanity only made the general scenery more chaotic than usual.

In spite of the ruckus outside, Maria slept soundly and only awoke the next day when the sun was already high in the sky. She lay on the bed quietly for a while, drowsy and feeling lazy, letting the sounds wash over her. Beside her, Sumire murmured something and shifted in her sleep.

The door to the room slid open and Iris walked in quietly. She paused when Maria sat up. "Ah, Maria, you're awake!" she exclaimed softly. "We were wondering when you'd be getting up." She took a quick peek at Sumire and made a face.

"Are the villagers coming back?" Maria asked.

Iris nodded. "Some of them are," she replied.

"The soldiers?"

"Leni and Orihime are talking to Lieutenant Shinagawa now," Iris told her.

"And the mine?"

The girl made a thoughtful noise. "The first bunch of soldiers who went there yesterday just got back this morning. Lieutenant Shinagawa went with another bunch late last night. He just arrived back here this morning, too."

Maria nodded, looking around. "Where are Kohran and Sakura?"

"Up in front," Iris said, "having something to eat. I'd better tell them that you're up." She quickly left.

Maria took a moment to brace herself, then carefully got to her feet. She was puzzled to feel only a slight trace of soreness in her injured leg and back. A few moments of tentative stretching had her pleased that she was well on the road to recovery. She went to clean herself up before joining the others for a meal.

Sakura, Kohran and Iris were still waiting patiently even when she entered the room. With an apologetic smile, Maria lowered herself onto the tatami. Kohran handed her a tall cup of steaming tea.

"Drink it up, Maria-han," she said. "It'll wake you up in a flash."

Maria took a cautious sip and immediately shuddered. Kohran had evidently added a little something to the beverage and, like all of Kohran's wonder drugs, it tasted awful. She managed to swallow it with effort. "What was that?" she asked weakly.

"Just a bit of herbs and stuff," the Chinese said vaguely. "It should neutralise every last trace of that numbness. Make sure you finish it," she said with an openly amused look on her face.

Maria nodded, but placed the cup on the table. "How are you all feeling?" she asked.

"Still a little woozy, but much better than yesterday." Sakura shrugged. "We just got back from visiting Kanna-san at the clinic."

"Yamaguchi-ojiji says that her injuries are healing very quickly," Kohran said, tucking in to her food. "She still won't be able to do anything heavy for a while, but she's all right."

"And you?"

"Heh," Kohran chuckled, "I'll be up and about in no time, Maria-han."

The front door slid open to let Orihime and Leni in. "Ah, just in time for an early lunch, I see," Orihime commented. She sat herself down. "We've had a productive day."

"You spoke to Lieutenant Shinagawa," Maria prompted.

Orihime nodded. "He sent a cleanup team into the mine yesterday. They went through most of the place, but couldn't find anything living there barring a rat or two."

"So those demons really are gone," Sakura said, relieved.

"It looks that way," the Italian confirmed. "The Lieutenant joined them later in the day. He and his team went in a bit further, though. He told me that they found a couple of chambers that still held an egg or two in them."

"And?"

"He said that it's all taken care of," Orihime replied.

Maria sat quietly for several moments, sipping a little more of Kohran's concoction. "Any details on that?"

Orihime hesitated, then shook her head. "That's all he said."

She drank another mouthful, this time succeeding in hiding her grimace. "What else happened in the mine?"

"The Lieutenant said that he and his men came to a chamber that had a couple of hatched eggs as well as a really old body of one of those spider-like things. There were a lot of wolf tracks and human footprints on the ground. They found one more cocoon there as well, fairly recent."

"How recent?" Maria demanded.

"A few days old, I think," Orihime replied, somewhat surprised by the tone of Maria's voice.

Kohran mulled it over. "Tamiko's cocoon, maybe," she said. "And... wolf tracks, you say?" Orihime nodded. "One of those eggs was used for Tamiko, the other probably on something else that eventually became the monster that Sumire-han and Kanna-han killed the other night. That may be why it was so dog-like in the first place..." Kohran trailed off and frantically patted her pockets down for her notepad.

"That's strange. Why was Hiroshi-san's cocoon the only one left out in the forest?" Sakura asked. "Why not in with Tamiko-san's?"

"Maybe the thing didn't want to put all its eggs in one basket," Kohran suggested, writing quickly, then shrugged. "I don't think we'll know for sure."

Iris spoke up, "At least they're dead. We don't have to worry about those icky things anymore."

"Right. Now all we have left to keep us occupied are the regular demons," Orihime said drily.

The Russian was silent.

Maria stood outside the house, waiting for the others to finish getting ready. She was watching the tired procession of civilians as they streamed back into the village, weary from their march beneath the afternoon sun. There were few soldiers on the move at that time of day. Most of them were still at the mine.

She heard the door sliding open. "I see Sumire-han's not ready yet," Kohran remarked, drawing the blonde's attention. She turned to find Kohran standing beside her. "You're quieter than usual today. Is something wrong, Maria-han?"

"Possibly," Maria replied slowly.

"The demons?" Kohran asked.

Maria nodded. "I think we're not done with them yet."

Kohran hmmed knowingly. "You're still worrying about the eggs that you found with Sakura-han's cocoon," she said.

"Yes," Maria admitted. "We still don't know where they came from. It's unlikely that the demon Sakura finished off in the mine was the one that laid those eggs, and I don't think that the one Iris killed could have, either."

Kohran said, "We can't be perfectly sure of that, Maria-han. After all, they did look pretty grown up." She sighed. "But... I can see your point. Orihime-han's account of those soldiers finding even more eggs is too disturbing."

Maria agreed. "There're too many eggs around for just three demons. Even talking optimistically, whichever way you look at it, we're still missing at least one more adult."

"The original," Kohran finished, sounding unsurprised. She'd evidently been thinking about this as well.

"Yes. One that's probably a lot older than those we came up against."

"If that's true," Kohran said, "then this should have been going on for a long time. Why haven't we heard about anything like this before?"

Maria smiled humourlessly. "I don't have an answer to that," she replied.

"What are we going to do?"

"What else can we do?" Maria returned. "We'll have to find out if there really are any remaining demons around here." She paused, then added, "I'll have to speak to the Colonel about this."

"Are you going to request that we extend our stay here?" Kohran asked, sounding a little doubtful. "I don't know..."

"I don't expect him to agree, either, Kohran," Maria told her, "but I still have to ask."

"What are you going to tell the others?"

The Russian hesitated, then replied, "Nothing, for now. I'll wait until I've spoken to Colonel Yoneda."

Kohran frowned slightly, but didn't object. "There's always the hope that all this turns out to be a false alarm," she muttered.

"Yes." But I can't afford to gamble anymore where these things are concerned.

Maria half-listened as Kanna complained about how bored she was. The martial artist was obviously smarting about not being allowed to move around as much as she'd liked. Normally, Kanna wouldn't have taken any of this sort of thing lying down, but Yamaguchi could be persuasive when he really wanted to. The Russian inwardly wondered what it was that the doctor said to convince Kanna to stay indoors for so long.

"Man, I'm even glad to see Sumire here, can you believe that?" Kanna said, smiling widely.

Sumire's eyes narrowed. "Of all the ungrateful...," she snarled. "I come here to pay you a friendly visit and look at what I have to put up with."

"What're you so sore about?" Kanna demanded. "I just paid you a compliment."

"You call that a compliment? Are you really that much of an unsophisticated thug?" Sumire snapped.

"Hey, who're you calling a thug?"

"If they weren't such good friends," Yamaguchi remarked, looking up from his examination of Maria's leg, "I'd actually think that they hate one another."

"Just another of their normal routines," Maria explained. "What's the verdict?"

The man sat back. "Well, your injuries are definitely healing at a very accelerated pace. I have no idea why." He shook his head in disbelief. "At this rate, you should be up and running by tomorrow. Even that slice to your arm is more than halfway healed. You don't need the stitches there anymore so I'll take them out in a bit. If only all my patients could recover this fast." He turned to Kohran. "Any of this your doing, Kohran-chan?"

The inventor shook her head. "I wish I could say that my stuff works this well," she sighed.

"So what about me, doc?" Kanna broke off from her verbal sparring to ask. "When can I get outta here?"

Yamaguchi examined her one more time, then thought about it. "Tomorrow," he said finally. Kanna groaned. "Oh, don't pout. I still want to make sure that everything's all right," he told her. "A head injury is not something to put off lightly."

"Even for one with a skull as thick as Kanna-san's," Sumire muttered, unable to resist the opening. This only earned her another earful of unflattering epithets.

Yamaguchi looked as though he was about to interject into their quarrel when he stopped himself just in time. "Ah, well," he sighed. "It's not much of an improvement, but I suppose anything's better than hearing her complain again." He started work on Maria's stitches. It only took a few minutes to extract them and clean the wound one last time.

"All done," he said, once finished. "You've got a nice scar there, but otherwise, everything's good as new, Tachibana-san."

Maria flexed her arm. There was still a slight ache, but that would fade in time. "Thank you, doctor."

"You're welcome," Yamaguchi replied.

Maria got to her feet. "Sumire, Kanna!" she said sternly. "That's enough! This is supposed to be a clinic, not a warzone!"

"But she--!"

"Drop it."

The two fell into a grumbling stalemate and settled for exchanging murderous glares.

"Thank you," Yamaguchi said, smiling wryly.

"Don't mention it," Maria said. "There're still a lot of things to be done, but if you don't mind having a bit more noise, we'll come back to see her again later today."

"Why not?" the doctor was saying when someone knocked on the door. Yamaguchi left the crowded room to see who it was. He returned a minute later. "Tachibana-san, there's a gruff, manly soldier out there who says that his superior officer wishes to speak with you."

Maria nodded and, with a last warning look directed towards the still stewing combative pair, left the clinic.

Shinagawa was at Ootani's again, speaking on the radio. He was finishing his conversation when Maria entered. "Ah, Tachibana-san," he said, looking up. "I trust you're feeling better today."

"Yes. You wanted to speak with me."

"My men have finished with the mine," Shinagawa told her.

Maria's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "So quickly?"

"We swept through the entire place by evening yesterday," he went on. "Except for some rooms with a couple of eggs, we found nothing else worth reporting."

"Have the eggs been destroyed, then?" she asked.

"They won't endanger anyone ever again," Shinagawa assured her.

Maria stared. She said, "You didn't answer my question, Lieutenant."

"I believe I did," he said. He turned and gestured to the radio. "I've just finished reporting the operations to my superiors. They've instructed me to procure samples of the demon-beasts before we leave. My men and I have already taken what we could from the mine." He looked at her again. "If your people are finished with the demon body here, we'll be taking that off your hands as well."

"Where are they going?"

"They'll be used for research purposes," Shinagawa said. "Our people need to know as much as they can about these beasts. The work you've done here will be a great help to us all."

The Russian was stoic as Shinagawa spoke. Almost involuntarily, her fingers twitched, as if wishing for the comforting bulk of her gun in her hands.

"I guess it's all been decided, then," she said finally.

"Yes, it has. I shall be leaving this area along with the samples we have, but a small complement of my men will remain here to keep watch for a while." Shinagawa hesitated, then saluted her. "Thank you, Tachibana-san. You and your team have done a great service for the defense of our nation."

Maria returned the salute, though the gesture lacked the vigour that Shinagawa had graced her with. "I hope your superiors know what they're doing."

Shinagawa surprised her by cracking a slightly worried smile. "We will, of course, inform your people of any new developments in this... new area of research."

"I'll be waiting." With that, she turned and left.

Maria stepped out of the truck, suppressing a groan. The short trip to and from the training facility had tired her out a lot more than she'd expected.

Kohran was seated outside the house, looking weary and slightly bored. She gave her commanding officer a wave. "So," she said as Maria came up to her, "what did Yoneda-han say?"

Maria sat down beside her. "About the rescue? He was relieved that everyone's back. I didn't give him the full details on how it all happened in the mine. That can wait until we get back to the capital." She looked closely at the other woman. "You've gone to the mine again."

Kohran nodded. "The Lieutenant let me go along with some of his men just now. I got a look at the place where they found the other cocoon and the tracks that Orihime-han mentioned."

"And?"

"Well, from what I can tell, it's pretty much what I thought. The cocoon there looked like it might be about as old as Hiroshi's one, though it's a lot more intact. The tracks didn't tell much, other than the fact that there was a human and a wolf there at some point in time." The Chinese girl huffed, winced, then went on: "There wasn't anything else in there for me to look at. Those soldiers really cleaned the whole place out."

"Have they taken the demon body away?"

Kohran nodded, looking downcast. "I wish they'd let me keep at it a while longer," she lamented. "It really is too bad that Iris and Sakura-han didn't leave anything of the other demon-beasts behind. I'd've loved to take a real close look at those and make comparisons."

"Just be glad we got out, Kohran."

Kohran sighed. "We didn't do very well in the mine, did we?"

"No. Most of us were taken down by the time we got Sakura. We would have been easy targets for any more demons that might have been around." Maria shook her head. "We were just lucky."

"I'm really not looking forward to the next round of training, Maria-han," Kohran told her ruefully.

The Russian smiled slightly. "The Colonel wants us back as soon as possible."

The other woman asked, "Did you...?"

Maria said, "I told him about the eggs, and what we suspected, but he still wants us to come back."

"Did he give you the usual speech about our 'primary duties being the defense of the capital'?" the bespectacled girl asked, chuckling.

Maria nodded. "He was very upset that we... neglected to tell Shinagawa that there might be more of those monsters lurking about. He's going to speak to the Count later this evening about it." She leaned back against the wall. "They'll likely send another group in to investigate."

"Looks like this place isn't going to get any peace for a while," Kohran remarked. She cleared her throat, then added, "I take it that you're not going to tell the others about this."

Maria shook her head. "The Hanagumi are not involved in this case anymore. That's the official word from the Colonel. There's no need to say anything to the others just yet."

"When are you going to break the news to Lieutenant Shinagawa?"

"In a short while. He, Ootani and the rest of the village leaders will be discussing the finishing touches to this whole operation."

"You know, Maria-han, the Lieutenant's going be really mad when he finds out what we did."

"I know," Maria said, somewhat regretfully. "We needed to follow up with a complete sweep of the mine as soon as possible and the team wasn't in any kind of shape to do it. We wouldn't have had to lie about this if we thought that Shinagawa might have given us a hand otherwise."

"Heh, then I guess it's kind of a lucky thing that he didn't find any more of those demons in there."

"Yes," Maria admitted, even though she knew that the reprieve wouldn't last. "But, hopefully, he won't be so inflexible about his duties next time."

Kohran said nothing at that, but the sheer intensity of the inventor's grin was more than adequate to convey her amusement. Maria felt herself reddening slightly. Like I should be one to talk..., she told herself, remembering her own first attempts at commanding her volatile team.

The Chinese stood gingerly, absently putting a hand to her bound chest. "I'm going over to the clinic," she told her friend. "Yamaguchi-ojiji should know that things aren't finished here." She made a face, though the expression wasn't without its share of dry humour. "I can't wait to hear what he's going to say."

Maria gave her a grateful look. "Thanks, Kohran."

"Just relax a little for tonight, Maria-han," Kohran told her before she walked off. "With most of us laid up and out of action, this'll be the quietest time you'll ever have for a while."

Maria surprised herself by laughing.

Starting point | Chapter 7 | Chapter 9