Playing For Keeps - Ch 60 (Adv) - Make A Wish (Patreon)

The next day, Bia and I met Leonardo and SSN at the gates of Haven, and the headmaster escorted us to the hospital. We got a few glances on the funicular, since all of us were wearing our Hunting outfits, but they were primarily directed at Bia, who was wearing a full-on suit of cyan-plated power armor, sans helmet. She certainly caught my attention that way, and once Bia turned to greet the headmaster, Neptune gave me a knowing look and another fistbump.

My own patchwork armor also got some glances, but mostly from people who recognized SSN and then got tripped up when they scanned our group and realized I wasn’t Sun.

Which wasn’t to say Leonardo wasn’t recognized, as plenty of people greeted him, but evidently the headmaster was a frequent sight on public transit because he answered most of them by name.

“I am a public servant,” he pointed out when I asked about it. “Particularly with the places I regularly go, a personal vehicle is more of a hindrance than a convenience. I do own a scooter, but especially since taking the role of headmaster I’ve never felt limited by not owning a car.”

“I suppose it just means the city is designed well,” I mused. “If you can get everywhere you need to go without a car, you only buy one if you want one, not because getting around without one is so impractical it’s a virtual necessity.”

“Indeed,” he said lightly. “Maintaining or increasing public transit funding is something I am certain to advocate for at every budgetary meeting. Quite often, I’ve found that people resist it until it’s already finished, and then find it’s far better to use than they expected. Historically, even the Khagan family turned around their stance on it once the original funiculars were built.”

We debarked at the hospital’s stop, which was on a historic square. Yakushi Hospital was a rather ornate building. It had a marble façade that drew attention even in the morning light, and was decorated with mosaics of the Emblem of Mistral and the Rod of Aesculapius made from chips of deep blue stone. My eyes lingered on the former, the symbolic flame in a round ‘lamp’ was a bit more stylized than the other kingdoms’ emblems, but it was obvious if you knew what you were looking for.

Y’know, genies aren’t really associated with that style of lamp at all, but her name is Jinn. Is she actually an elemental, or just some kind of magical spirit? Did she come from somewhere, or spring into existence with the Relic of Knowledge? Who gave her that name? Do all the relics have an associated guardian djinni or is it just the one that needs to be able to answer questions?

Setting aside the ponderings I had no answers for, I followed the headmaster inside, but not before flexing [Detect Aura] to confirm Qrow was nearby — yep, there he is — and preparing myself to be ‘on display’, as Bia had called it last night, by straightening up, activating [Eagle’s Splendor], and pasting on a smile. I felt a little better after noticing everyone else doing something similar: Bia cracking her neck, Sage rolling his shoulders, Scarlet finger-combing their hair, and Neptune tugging his jacket straight.

Inside, I could see the lapis lazuli mosaics continued across the floor, but we paused at the door when a human woman who was plainly the Huntress assigned to the hospital joined us. She was at least a foot shorter than Bia or me, with a long-sleeved yellow blouse and a floral combat skirt, beaded dreadlocks, and the darkest skin I’d seen on Remnant. Her weapon was a carbine with two barrels she wore across her back, but the eye I’d gained from [Weapon Design] spotted where a second grip would fold out to split the gun into… katars? Some kind of punch dagger, anyway.

‹The Angel›LV 82Deiphobe Honeywell

“Are you sure about this, Sir?” she asked bluntly, none-too-subtly glancing my way.

“I am certain, Miss Honeywell,” Leonardo said firmly. Raising his voice slightly, he added, “I’m grateful to have you accompany us, given Qrow Branwen seems to have bugged off without letting anyone know. I won’t wait for him to get back, this is too important.”

Subtle that ain’t, but the lobby and the square can both hear him, which is the entire point. We don’t know if for sure if he’ll take the bait, so we need to make sure the trap stays hidden if unsprung so we can try it again tomorrow.

That would mean not healing everyone I could today, which was just one more reason I honestly hoped Tyrian would try his luck.

“–Frankly Leonardo, if it weren’t your personal request, I’d have told the Roma to stay the hell out of my hospital.”

The emergency physician on duty, a harried-looking human woman with epicanthal folds and a distinct aquiline nose, had met us at the entrance to the ER and all but dragged me into her office.

‹The Gambler›LV 12Akatsuchi Theoriakolos

Her grip on my wrist would have done precisely nothing if I’d resisted the movement, but I went along because I’d pretty much expected this.

It seemed odd at first blush, but I’d long since learned how uncommon healing Semblances were. I would have expected it to be rare rather than almost unheard-of, but I never realized just how few people in Remnant ever had their Aura unlocked. Even the Kingdoms’ militaries didn’t try to unlock the Aura of every footsoldier, because deploying a full squadron of such soldiers would draw more Grimm than they could possibly bring enough bullets to kill.

That was what ‘No victory in strength’ meant.

Awakening every soul on Remnant simply wasn’t logistically feasible as long as the Grimm remained. Which would promptly render the logistical problem neatly moot.

The entire point of society as Remnant had built it was so that not everyone needed to have their Aura unlocked, but that meant that for your average civilian without combat training, Aura was little more than a screaming beacon for Grimm that they had no chance of protecting themselves from. Medical professionals, even military physicians, tended to specifically not have their Aura unlocked so as not to draw more Grimm to places full of people at their most vulnerable.

As such, it was a fairly small percentage of non-Hunters who had any interest in the kind of meditation and full-contact sparring necessary to develop a proper ‘forcefield’, and that was before considering the requisite overlapping interests in martial arts or marksmanship that would be needed for a hobbyist to survive outside of a well-defended monastery. Anyone who fell into all those categories without becoming a Hunter tended to be the ones already planning to live in such monasteries.

In retrospect, I suppose it makes sense that the type of person whose innermost soul wants to heal others isn’t usually the type to join a combat profession.

“This was my idea rather than my Grandmother’s,” I offered. “I just asked her and the Alexandria if they could arrange it, since I don’t know the appropriate procedures to request something like this.”

The doctor looked at me, blinking. “You’re Valic?”

I guess I must have a Valic accent? No one’s ever mentioned it but I don’t know how else she would’ve guessed that. “I am. I volunteered at Vale General last Winter, supervised by Doctor Amaranth, before enrolling at Beacon. None of his testing has turned up any problems with those healed by my Semblance.”

Her brow furrowed, and she pulled out her Scroll without a word. After checking her calendar, she placed a call. It barely got past the first ring before Dr Amaranth’s face appeared, looking drawn.

“Can this wait, Akatsuchi? I just got off a double.”

“No, but it won’t take long,” she replied. “You had a volunteer last Winter, a young man with a healing Semblance?”

“This is about Jaune…?” He rubbed his eyes. “Yes, his Semblance was quite remarkable. As was his attitude. None of the arrogance you sometimes see from young Hunters, he seemed very sincere in wanting to dedicate part of his time to helping out, and he’s been by nearly every weekend since classes began. I tried floating the idea of joining the profession full-time, but he was quite determined that he belonged with the Hunters.”

“And his Semblance?” Dr Theoriakolos pressed. “There were no side effects?”

“None that we could detect. One of my nurses suffered a cervical fracture during a plane crash that should have resulted in tetraplegia at minimum, but the injury is barely a shadow on x-rays now. Diseases were more hit-and-miss. Some he was able to clear up almost instantly, but for instance when it came to cancer, we found he could only alleviate symptoms rather than treat the tumors — though that still opened the possibility of excision for a few patients who wouldn’t have otherwise survived it.”

“Sounds risky.”

“I asked myself what you would do in such a situation,” he replied, the ghost of a smirk crossing his face. “We tested with the consent of an otherwise terminal patient and his family, and his recovery was notable. That Semblance isn’t precisely a panacaea, but it might as well be for lacerations, punctures, fractures, and blood loss. Akatsuchi, what’s this about?”

“Get some sleep, Harris, I’ll tell you tonight.” With that, Dr Theoriakolos hung up the call and fixed her gaze back on me, tapping her desk with one short fingernail. “I’ve never known Harris to exaggerate, and with Professor Lionheart’s word behind you… I’ve got some patients you can look at.”

Nothing to lose, but so much to gain.A little danger, it goes without saying.But what do you care?You're gonna go in the end!

[BGM Unlocked! – “The Angel And The Gambler” by Iron Maiden]

Hah, probably the same question I’m gonna be asking people all day if Tyrian doesn’t show up. ‘Don't you think I could save you? Don't you think I could save your life?’ At least I’ll get to jam out.

I pasted on a smile with all my CHA behind it. “You won’t regret it, Doctor.”

“See that I don’t.” She didn’t bother elaborating on the implicit threat, just pushing to her feet and surveying the rest of our group. “Honeywell, you can return to your post. If this many trainees, an Atlesian Specialist, and the Headmaster himself aren’t enough to handle a rowdy ER, we’ll have bigger problems.”

“We were hoping that my students and I might visit the children’s wing,” Leonardo cut in smoothly. “I imagine that even if young Jaune isn’t able to reach there today, many of them would appreciate a visit from SSSNburst. At least, most of them.”

“I can call Sun,” Neptune offered. “The idiot’s in Vale, but he’ll probably answer if I text him first and let him know the reason.” Sage shifted in his seat, but didn’t let anything show on his face.

The doctor nodded sharply, turning to head out the door again. “Come with me, Mr Roma.”

“It’s Arc,” I corrected softly, making my way after her with Bia falling in silently behind me. “Is there anyone else in the hospital with an unlocked Aura?”

“Our Hunter detail got double-booked today,” she replied, pushing open the ER’s doors. “So aside from your group and Honeywell, there’s also Mx Choi. Other than that, no one I know of.”

[Detect Aura] bore that out, and I still didn’t sense Tyrian yet, so I just nodded. “That should mean most people can be brought up to good health quickly. I presume you’ll still want to examine them, but we should be able to keep the ER running smoothly.”

Dr Theoriakolos nodded, showing us to a room before giving the triage nurses orders to send us patients who agreed to sign a waiver about being healed by a Semblance. After a glance my way, she added, “–or those who you’re uncertain we can stabilize at all, we’ll take those too.”

“Yes, Doctor.” To her credit, the nurse didn’t hesitate to agree, and soon the first patient arrived: a faunus woman with an apparently severely-broken leg.

“You should confirm it’s set correctly, so it doesn’t heal wrong,” I told the doctor, and she gave a curt nod. “Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes otherwise.”

“General anaesthetic would call for premedication and an empty stomach, but if you’re content with local anaesthesia we might be done inside half an hour,” Dr Theoriakolos proposed. The patient nodded, grimacing. “I’ll get started on that, then. Once you’re numbed, we’ll take x-rays before the Semblance is applied, confirming the bones are aligned, and afterward to ensure the fracture reduction is acceptable.”

The x-ray revealed that the compound fracture had in fact been slightly misaligned, so it took a little over thirty minutes all told, but the patient was able to walk without so much as a limp afterward.

“Quite remarkable,” Dr Theoriakolos murmured, staring at the side-by-side x-ray scans on the illuminator. “I can see why Harris spoke so highly of you.”

“I gather you know each other?” I asked curiously.

“He was the chief resident when I did my residency at Vale General,” she replied absently, sliding one x-ray over the other to better compare them. “He was rather determined to poach me for a fellowship over there– Actually, I imagine you know how he can be.”

“He eventually agreed with my reasoning that having me in the field would mean more Hunters coming home at the end of the day, keeping everyone safer.”

Before Dr Theoriakolos could address that, her Slate chimed and she picked it up, scanning over the new message. Without looking up, she asked me, “Can you do anything for a missing limb? This man’s arm is missing halfway down the forearm.”

“I’ve never tried,” I admitted. “But maybe? How did it happen? Do we still have the rest of his arm?”

She swiped forward a page and clicked her tongue. “Dust explosion. Everything below that was vaporized, and the end was neatly cauterized by it or he’d likely be dead already.”

“I think at worst it would simply heal over the stump,” I guessed, and she gave the same curt nod.

“It’s his dominant arm so he might have to sign digitally,” she said, tapping something on the Slate. A moment later it chimed again, and shortly afterward the patient came in. He was a middle-aged human man with his injured arm in a sling, and Dr Theoriakolos wasted no time rattling off the spiel she’d settled on for pitching my Semblance to patients. “–while we do not anticipate any side effects, we make no assurances about the precise outcome of this procedure. Do you understand and consent to this uncertainty?”

“It’s not like I’d be getting it back any other way short of a genie’s wish,” the man sighed. “Even if this is a long shot… Yes, I consent.”

“Well, hop up and let’s see if we can avoid you having to go by ‘Lefty’ from now on,” I quipped.

That startled a laugh out of him. “Now I know you’re not a doctor, even if your age didn’t tell me that. Never met one with that kinda humor.”

“You haven’t met many Hunters, then,” I replied as he gingerly lifted his arm out of the sling. “Sometimes dark humor is the only kind we have. Also, you’d know that Aura tends to make us age slower. I am just eighteen, but my sister Bianca is 32 and if my hair was lighter we could pass for twins.”

“You don’t say,” he said, eyes flicking over Bia’s exposed face and clearly wondering if she was older than she looked.

He didn’t say anything out loud, though, and Bia didn’t comment, so I refrained from making a macho scene, instead taking hold of his elbow and gently turning his arm this way and that.

“Are you under any anaesthetic?” Dr Theoriakolos asked, checking his chart again. “Any allergies we should be aware of?”

“Just some OTC painkillers,” he shrugged. “I don’t handle narcotics well. No allergies, though.”

“All right, let me get started,” I said, triggering [Lay On Hands] when the doctor gave me the go-ahead. “As we said, this might only seal over the skin here, but if you feel anything different try to describe the sensation.”

Does my intent have any impact on how the healing progresses? I found myself wondering. Normally I don’t have to think about how to heal someone, but… this is technically magic, right? In theory I should be able to guide the process…

“The pain started fading as soon as you started talking,” he answered, tension visibly draining out of him as he looked down at where his forearm ended. “I was trying not to dwell on it, but… I guess I’m feeling that phantom limb sensation they talk about? Under the burns it feels like my skin’s crawling, and I could swear there’s tingles where my hand should be.”

“Paresthesia without accompanying obdormition when pain is reduced upon Semblance application,” Dr Theoriakolos muttered into the Slate’s microphone while squeezing the bulb of a sphygmomanometer with her other hand. “Heart rate getting less elevated despite blood pressure actually slowly rising.”

Mirror the whole arm on the other side, I thought, focusing on my knowledge of anatomy. Between my Terran education and first aid training, my current [First Aid] skill, and the tutoring Dr Amaranth had insisted on, I was pretty confident in remembering all the important bits. Regrow the radius and ulna. Reattach the heads of the biceps and triceps, then start on the other muscles. Tendons and ligaments. Arteries, capillaries, and veins. Median, ulnar, and radial nerves come last so they’re never exposed to the air.

“It’s working…” the patient breathed, watching his amputated forearm slowly getting longer in my grip. Dr Theoriakolos had given up dictating and was straight-up recording with her Slate, and from the corner of my eye I could see Bia had her Scroll out as well.

I shoved all of that out of my mind, able to sense that losing my focus would result in the arm simply sealing itself off at the wrist instead. Eight carpal bones and five metacarpals forming a joint, I recited. Shitload of ligaments. Bring the tendons down along with the blood vessels and then nerves. Now the phalanges, three per finger and two on the thumb. Extrinsic muscles extending from the forearm, intrinsic muscles at the thumb and fingers. Extend the arteries and veins. Nerves last again, then make sure the skin is all grown back. Nails, sweat ducts, and hair follicles… hopefully where they should be.

[Lay On Hands has increased by 1!]

Neat. I glanced at the skill as Dr Theoriakolos ran the patient through some basic sensory assessments. No bonus at this level, but another boost at the next level. I wonder if this’ll prestige in five more levels, or if it’ll go to 100? Either way, looks like intent does matter, at least a little… but do I need to be that precise?

I was fairly well-tutored, but I definitely didn’t remember every single muscle, tendon, nerve, and capillary by name or exact location… but I didn’t need that for sealing cuts either. I generally assumed I was simply overcharging the natural healing process, meaning the patient’s own DNA presumably directed the actual regrowth of blood and skin. Shouldn’t it fill in the gaps here, too? Not sure I want to test it, though.

The patient hissed through his teeth as the doctor pricked his finger with a pin. “Feels like that hurts more than it should.” When she released his hand, he flexed it slowly. “Feels a little clumsy, too. Just a little bit off.”

“These are new nerve endings,” the doctor pointed out, buried in her Slate once more. “New muscles, too. I’m having you assigned to a room for observation and further testing. My guess is you’ll need physical therapy to regain full dexterity in that hand… though if this hadn’t worked you’d have needed to learn how to operate a prosthetic anyway.”

“Physical therapy is a small price to have my actual hand back,” the patient swore, looking back at me. “Thank you, so, so much.”

I pointedly offered my right hand, and he took it gingerly. I didn’t squeeze, but gently shook it up and down. “Dou itashimashite.” And thank you [Linguist] for reminding me how to say ‘you’re welcome’ in Japanese.

Glancing out the door as Dr Theoriakolos led the re-armed man over to a nursing assistant, I surveyed the half-full room. A moment later, I sighed as I heard an ambulance’s siren dopplering closer. “Everything outside of cuts and punctures always takes so long…”

“You can’t help everyone, Jaune, but you’re still helping people,” Bia encouraged me, and I shot her a smile.

“I know. I just always wish I could do more–” I cut off, my head snapping around to stare out the glass door as I sensed something I’d almost forgotten I was waiting for. Tyrian! Thank fuck I can keep [Detect Aura] up. I can feel him moving fast, but where the hell is he? My eyes locked on the ambulance I’d heard earlier as it screeched into view on two wheels. As soon as it landed back on four, the engine revved again, pointing straight at us and showing no signs of slowing down.

“EVERYONE GET ON THE GROUND!”

Name: Jaune ArcLevel: 62 (Next: 13.79%)Title: InitiateRace: HumanAge: 18Job: Journeyman HuntsmanClass: PaladinSemblance: The GamerHP: 8431/8431MP: 4619/4619STR: 229 (100)CON: 293 (105)DEX: 165 (54)INT: 139 (51)WIS: 116 (53)CHA: 162 (53)Points: 117Money: 965,025LStatus: Cursed – Yellow Death [High]

A/N: If you’re enjoying this story, feel free to check out my discord server at https://discord.gg/H6V854Fvbg

I seriously can’t emphasize enough how nice it is to live somewhere with functional public transit. I don’t hate cars, they’re pretty damn useful and I honestly like doing basic maintenance once in a while, but it’s so nice to simply have the option to not own a car if I don’t have to.

As noted previously, the name of Yakushi Hospital comes from Yakushi Nyorai (薬師如来), a god of medicine associated with a precious stone which is generally understood to be lapis lazuli, hence the blue mosaics.Aesculāpius is the Roman name of the god of doctors and son of Apollo, better known by his Greek name Asclepius (Ancient Greek, Ἀσκληπιός ‘Asklēpiós’). The Rod (or Staff) or Asclepius, also known as the asklepian, is one of the most recognizable symbols in at least the Western world: ⚕

Lali Choi is the name of a Mistrali Hunter appearing on Qrow’s Scroll in Volume 5. ‘Mx’ is one possible honorific for nonbinary people (in the vein of Mr or Ms), generally pronounced /mɪks/ (like ‘mix’) or /məks/ (‘muhx’).

I can’t believe I didn’t come up with this earlier, but Slate is the term I’m using for tablet-sized Scrolls. I might go back and edit the earlier chapters to include the term, but meh.

Glossary

Paresthesia is any numbness or tingling sensation in the skin, for example, ‘pins and needles’. Obdormition is numbness caused by constant nerve pressure. Together, they are usually encountered when, e.g., your arm ‘falls asleep’.

A sphygmomanometer is, as implied, the apparatus that measures blood pressure.

Dō itashimashite (Japanese, どう致しまして) is a fairly polite and humble way of saying ‘you’re welcome’ or ‘gladly done’. The literal meaning is something like ‘having done what’; etymologically it seems to descend from a phrase like ‘what have I done to merit this gratitude?’

Discussion Prompt

Are the technical terms a bit much? I wanted to indicate that Jaune has gotten familiar with medical equipment and studied anatomy pretty closely over his internship at Vale General, but he’s not supposed to sound like he’s actually been to med school. I originally had a few more specific muscles and tendons labeled by name (brachialis, brachial, ulnar, and radial arteries, etc) but ended up cutting them.