One Bright Day in the Middle of the Night

Chapter 36: Angel's Mercy

"Why? What does it look like?"

My tone was almost mocking and I knew I had a wicked little grin on my face as I opened his cell door. I picked up my supplies and entered, knocking the cell door shut again with my foot as I did. He stared up at me incredulously, his mouth hanging open. He snapped it shut, his eyes filled with caution, as I set my stuff down in front of him.

"Just kill me and be done with it." His words came out in an unfriendly growl.

"If I was going to kill you, I would have done it last night."

I kneeled down in front of him and picked up the carafe of sake, holding it out to him.

"Here. Drink." I held the carafe out and the man looked at me, his eyes going to the bottle of sake before going to me once more. His eyes looked black as his hair in the dim light, and narrow with suspicion. I grinned, and took a swig out of the bottle before trying to hand it to him again. "It's not poisoned."

Slowly he extended his left arm toward me, taking the bottle from my hand. I watched him as he looked down at the sake bottle in his hand before looking back to me, his eyes questioning.

"Go ahead, drink. If nothing else it's a good pain killer." I looked him over as he drank deeply from the carafe, my trained eyes roving over the various injuries as I categorized them in my head in terms of what to deal with first.

He had several cuts and numerous bruises about his arms and face, his left eye swollen and blackened. His right shoulder still looked like it was dislocated from last night, and at least two of the fingers were broken. His left arm was a mass of blood, and it looked like a flap of skin was hanging from his well muscled bicep. First things first. Better take care of the arm wound and stop the bleeding.

"You just locked yourself in a cell with a man who tried to kill the Lord of this castle just last night. Don't you think you should be a little more cautious?" His words came out harsh and full of bravado. I tossed a steely gaze in his direction and his ego deflated just a bit. I gave a harsh bark of laughter, my face twisting into a smirk.

"I don't think I have anything to worry about. You aren't exactly in any condition to try anything, and it wouldn't do you any good if you were." I gestured to the sake bottle in his hand.

"Let me have that back for a second..." The guy looked at me questioning, but said not a word as he handed me the bottle. I poured some of the sake on a clean rag, wetting it thoroughly before splashing a generous amount of the alcohol on his arm wound. He let out a hiss of pain and glared at me as I handed the sake back to him.

"Sorry about that." I took the rag and started cleaning the area of blood, getting it ready to sew the skin back into place. It looked like someone had cut the skin, and slowly peeled it back. It was about three inches long, and it was more than likely the reason the guy talked.

"Why are you doing this, anyway?" His words were laced with confusion and pain. "Why patch me up after I tried to assassinate Kenshin? Why the Hell am I still alive in the first place?"

I paused briefly in my wiping as I considered his words. Why was I doing this? And why does it sound like he expected to be dead already? Was it supposed to be a suicide mission? My hands moved again as I shrugged and finished the cleaning. I threaded a needle as I spoke, putting my thoughts into words.

"Well, in the case of my motives, it's a bit out of guilt for injuring you in the first place, and a bit of my own issues of not liking to see someone in pain when I can do something about it." I started the stitches as he stared at me, completely at a loss for words. "As for the rest, I take it you didn't expect to live through the assassination."