Waking up the next morning I let out a cry of pain, my whole body was throbbing, it felt like I was on fire.
"Hikaru" Zenitsu yelled out in shock while Inosuke also let out a grunt.
"Hikaru, what's wrong?" Tanjiro asked, scrambling out of his bed over to my side.
"Hurts, hurts. Painkiller" I said and instantly he scrambled into my box and grabbed out a pain killing elixir and pressed it to my lips. After gulping that down I laid there for a few more minutes before attempting to even sit up. When I did sit up something caught my attention out of the corner of my eyes and I noticed that there was a vase of sunflowers along with a bag of what looked to be cookies sitting on the bedside table. Not just any cookies but cookies in the shape of stars that I remember very fondly.
"So he does remember after all" I whispered to myself before mentally preparing myself for the day.
A few days later
"NO!" I heard screaming and I looked over to see the girl from yesterday, Aoi, instructing Zenitsu to take his medicine.
"I can't possibly take any more!" He yelled.
"We go through this every single day! Other than Akatsuki-san you are the most severely injured Zenitsu-san. Take your medicine this second," Aoi ordered.
"Good grief" Aoi sighed, walking over to give Tanjiro his medicine with one of the little girls I had seen yesterday.
"Tanjiro, that will be your medicine unless of course you are going to be getting medicine from your friend," Aoi said.
"No, he will take your medicine," I said. There were still some things I was working out in my elixirs and I wasn't sure what would happen if someone took in too much of my blood. I wasn't keen to make Tanjiro into a test subject so he would have to deal with the normal medicine for a while.
"Tanjiro's medicine goes down that easily huh? Is that right? I see it's different from mine! I call it favoritism! I call it favoritism!" Zenitsu yelled.
"Zenitsu please be quiet, this is a hospital" I said with a closed eyed smile that made him freeze, no noise coming from him.
"Of course Tanjiro's medicine is different from yours because he is taking it for different injuries" I continued.
"You seem to be well" a voice said making us turn and Murata was standing there making me smile.
"Murata" Tanjiro beamed happily.
"Hey" He greeted.
"Are you okay? I'm sorry for leaving you alone like I did" I said.
"Well, I came close to getting melted away but I made it somehow but I'm kind of glad I didn't go with you Hikaru-san, I heard you guys got really banged up" Murata commented.
"It looks like it's going to take some time," Tanjiro reported and I glanced down at my wrapped hands. I would have to find something that I could use as a sword and get back to practicing soon and I would also have to look at new swords as well. Thinking about the swords that were in shards and in my box at the moment made me sigh and reach for the box before pulling my hand back.
"I guess the wild boar damaged his throat, huh? Why isn't he responsive?" Murata asked.
"He went through a lot so please let him be" Tanjiro said.
"But for this guy of all people to be so listless" Murata continued to comment.
"Tanjiro, Hikaru" Zenitsu called.
"Who is that?" He asked, which made me remember that Zenitsu hasn't met Murata yet.
"This is Murata, he is one of the ones that fought with us on Mt Natagumo" I explained.
"I'm Murata, nice to meet you," Murata introduced.
"Hey your arm" He started.
"I almost got turned into a spider so my arms and legs are still short," Zenitsu said.
"And that's why you need this medicine," Aoi said, appearing with Zenitsu's medicine.
"But it tastes so gross! There's only so much gross a person can take" Zenitsu cried.
"Don't come crying to me if your arms don't go back to normal" Aoi exclaimed.
"So cold! That's such a cold thing to say" Zenitsu said.
"You don't know how good you have it, I mean if you take this medicine and get lots of sunlight there'll be no lasting effects" Aoi said.
"No way, gross is gross, no two ways about it" Zenitsu said, jumping from his bed to Inosuke's to Tanjiro's so he could hide behind the other boy.
"Looks like fun, I'm jealous," Murata said, getting a weird aura around him.
"I was summoned to the hashira meeting to give my report on the Mt Natagumo incident but it was like hell! Those hashira are way too terrifying, they were all angry that corps fighters these days are dropping in quality since some who were sent to Mt Natagumo didn't follow orders so they wanted to interrogate who their trainers were. What good would it do to ask someone of my rank anyway? The hashira terrify me!" Murata complained, not seeing Shinobu walk up behind him.
"Hello," Shinobu greeted making Murata yell out and jump up.
"Hashira! Lady Kocho, hello! Goodbye!" Murata said before running out the door making me crack a smile.
"Oh my, goodbye" Shinobu said.
"How is your recovery coming along?" She asked, turning to us.
"We are getting a lot better I think" Tanjiro said which was true, the few days taking medicine was starting to do the world of good for me. Some of the small wounds had already closed up and left only scars and bruises in their wake.
"Then let's have you start your rehabilitation training shall we?" Shinobu asked.
"Rehabilitation training?" Tanjiro asked, I really hope that they hadn't realised the exercise I had been doing myself to keep myself in shape.
"Yes, oh Hikaru-san, I see you have been getting a visitor," Shinobu said, looking at the sunflowers that got replaced every two days.
"Yeah they are from.....An old friend" I said stroking the petals.
"Actually Kocho-san, I was wondering if you had a calendar I could look at. Sanemi kind of stabbed mine," I said.
"Of course" She smiled before gesturing to me to follow her. I gave Tanjiro a smile when he looked at me worriedly and followed her to what looked like a sitting room and there on the wall was a calendar.
"It is currently the twentieth day," Shinobu pointed and I nodded.
"Thank you" I said with a stiff bow, being careful of my wounds before heading to the rehabilitation training with Tanjiro and Inosuke.
'So it is in less than a month now' I thought.
