Shadow Healer [The Blood Phoenix awakens]

A good samaritan’s trouble

“Yes.” Akira nodded, then gave him a side eye. “Or should I have let you hit and kill the kids?”

The man shook his head vigorously.

“No, sir. How could that be?”

He bowed, at angle ninety, startling Akira.

“Thanks for helping me. The brakes suddenly wouldn't work. I don't know what happened.”

Akira sighed in relief. So he was there to show appreciation. Helping people didn't seem that bad after all.

Just that he still couldn't figure out what his new abilities could be. Or did the poison evolve him into a monster?

The kids continued to school, and Akira continued his stroll home. He wanted to see how long he could walk without getting exhausted.

Akira noticed something else. He could see dust molecules, and tiny droplets of water. Everything seemed too strange. Perhaps, after returning to his students lodge, he would clean up and hit the library. Good or bad, he needed to understand what happened to his body.

He had barely gone far when he heard a commotion a little distance ahead. Curiosity made him hurry towards the little cluster of crowd. Like an invisible force left a barrier around him, people parted like the Red Sea, letting him through.

On the floor was an old man, unconscious, his face ashen. Beside him was a young man, around nineteen years of age, rousing him vigorously, his eyes red with unshed tears.

The moment Akira set eyes on the man, his skin faded, and his internals became as bright as day, showing the state of his body.

‘Cardiac arrhythmia, and Aortic dissection.’ The diagnosis appeared in Akira's head, like he had always been a renowned cardiologist.

Even stranger was that he knew exactly how to treat it, though he could swear he hadn't touched a patient with similar conditions in the past. What hospital would let an intern do such complicated surgeries on his own?

But the techniques appearing in his mind had nothing to do with surgery.

The young man who appeared to be the grandson of the collapsed man was desperately making calls, but the closest help was ten minutes away.

Like a remote-controlled robot, he found himself moving towards them. His heart quivered, and he willed his body to stop moving, and not dabble in murky waters. He didn't stop—couldn't—till he found himself standing beside the frantic young man.

“Your grandfather is suffering from cardiac arrhythmia, and aortic dissection. Without medical intervention, he would die within six minutes, and two have already gone by. Let me help you with treatment while you wait for the ambulance.”

The young man looked at Akira, from head to toe, and back again. Akira suddenly felt self conscious. For a very fleeting instance, he regretted stepping forward.

He knew exactly what the young man saw, a disheveled man in cheap clothes, probably a charlatan hoping for quick bucks.

“Are you a doctor?” The boy asked, his tone cold and assessing.

“Not yet.” Akira muttered, his tongue suddenly weighing tons. Actually he didn't know if he would ever become a doctor.

Just yesterday, his ex-girlfriend stole his research work, and colluded with her lover, the hospital director's son, to kick him out and accuse him of negligence.

With his internship at City hospital scrapped, and a stain on his records, he would probably never graduate from medical school in this lifetime.

“You're not a doctor, and you want to gamble with my grandfather’s life?” The young man's eyes were filled with rage as he spoke. “Who gave you the guts?”

Before Akira could defend himself, a woman in the crowd spoke.

“The man's condition seems critical, there's no harm in trial. Without help, he might really die before the ambulance gets here. Even if he doesn't manage to save your grandfather, you would have done your best. If he does, all the better. What do you think?”

Others began to chime in their own words, encouraging the young man to let Akira check. At this point, Akira wanted nothing to do with the old man, but he found himself rooted to the spot, unable to slip away.

A man in the crowd scoffed, and shook his head. “Foolish boy. Even I, a doctor with years of experience, didn't dare to step up, and a kid wet behind the ears actually thought he could handle this? He's ignorant of people and how wicked they could be. A man almost dead. If he touches the patient, he would be charged with murder.”

The words were muttered under his breath, but Akira heard it clearly. Now, he was even more apprehensive.

He tried to leave, instead, he found himself moving towards the old man.

The man's grandson grabbed him by the lapels, just as he grabbed the man's pulse to check. “You better be careful.” He spat through gritted teeth. “If anything happens to grandpa, I will make you accompany him.”

Akira hissed, and turned to the boy, angry.

“If you don't want my help, I'm leaving. How could you be so rude when I'm trying to help? Without intervention he would die in minutes, yet you're threatening me.”

He regained brief control of his limbs and turned to leave. The man's condition was more serious than he originally thought.

“Young man, you shouldn't pay heed to the words of an ignorant child. Do good deeds when you can.”

Multiple voices filled his head, with one person shoving him back to the man. He groaned and sighed in resignation.

‘Fine, I will just try my best.’

Akira took deep breaths and closed his eyes, seeing the memories clearly. He dipped his hands in his pocket, and a set of silver needles he didn't remember placing there appeared in his hands and he got to work.

Acupuncture, massage, suturing the aortic dissection using internal energy string conducted through the needles.

It felt as if someone was controlling his body, someone more powerful and skilled. For the life of him, Akira couldn't remember cultivating internal energy, yet, he could easily use them now to suture internal injuries without cutting open the skin.

The man kept twitching at intervals, his face still gray, lips purplish.

The moment Akita withdrew the last silver needle and lightly tapped the man's chest, the twitching man suddenly jerked and coughed up blood clumps. Then he went completely still.

Akira's heart stopped, behind him, he heard the man's grandson scream in horror and grab his lapel, while one of the people watching from a distance muttered: “He's dead.”