How Far chapter 17: School of repairing hard knocks

	“Come on, I’m tired of running!” I say as I chase Emi up the front stairs and into the building. A lesser woman might consider it whining, but I’d been through a lot today.

	Emi’s pace finally patters out as we enter the building together. I finally reach her. “Oof, hol- hold on.” I extend a hand, slightly leaning on her shoulder for a moment, which apparently catches her off guard. She blinks at me for a moment and an idea strikes me as I lift up my leg, the ach burning. “Hey, were we not supposed to stretch after? I think we forgot.”

	Emi’s gaze goes to the floor and she raises herself on false toes. “I didn’t want to stress you further.” She mumbles. “I know running can be super rough.” She looks up, talking quickly now. “This one time, one of the girls on the track team that just started, she ran too much on one of her first training days and when we stretched she ended up spewing everywhere. It was so gross.” She laughs, but it’s plainly strained. “A-anyways, come on, the room we’ll be using isn’t far.”

	“Will Tezuka be joining us?” I ask.

	“Tez- oh. Rin.” Emi squints her eyes shut and shakes her head, her untied and dirty hair flipping back and forth. “Sorry, I’m uh… Well, yeah, I think. Ugh, I should have checked on her. She’s probably painting or something.”

	“It must be difficult,” I comment, “doing what she does without arms. I’d question how she could learn anything useful about healthcare if she wasn’t such an on the mark painter.”
Emi nods her head. “That’s Rin. Always up for a challenge. If she wants to, that is.”

	“Does she often want to?”

	“Nope.” Emi says. “I’ve had to motivate her to eat more often than not.”

	I remember Rin mentioning something about that once, when our assignment was to paint a picture of food and she painted a picture of Emi holding out a bento box. That painting now hung in the art gallery, though I had to wonder if Rin had ever informed Emi of that.

	We wander up another flight of stairs to the second floor and come out in an empty hall. We walk down, I following Emi’s lead, until we come to an open door with voices on the other side. Emi pushes it open and freezes in the doorway so suddenly I walked into her, and we both stumbled in.

	My sore hip cries out in pain as I try to catch myself with my cane, but Emi’s already recovered.

	“What the hell is he doing here!?” Emi growls. There’s a loud yelp from the other side of the room and I see a boy with bandages tied around his face and his arm in a sling duck behind a stony faced Rin Tezuka.

	“Hello.” Rin says.

	Emi does not return the greeting. “What. Is he. Doing here?” She asks, the menace in her voice distorting the inflections.

	“I asked Kenji to come. I’m sponsoring him.” Rin replied, her face never changing.

	“Why?” Emi asked.

	Rin shrugged. “He asked me to ask him.”

	“And he asked me to ask her to ask him, but I told him no dice on that.” Says the blue haired smiling man who sat at the front of the room with his feet on the teacher’s desk. The nurse wore his trademark white lab coat with something I could only classify as ‘with style.’ It helped him exert this sense of power and control he always seemed to have in every interaction, which she normally found very comforting. “If a student wanted to come to the classes, they’d have to receive an explicit invitation to come as one of our other student’s guests.”

	“You can’t be serious, I don’t want him here.”

	“Now Emi,” the Nurse began.

	“Don’t you go all authority figure on me, you know I hate that.” Emi shot at him.

	“Ibarazaki.” Squeaked a voice from behind Rin. I look over to Kenji, who clears his throat and puffs his chest out, standing up straight. “Ibarazaki.” He tries again with a deep mainly voice.

	“Don’t fake it.” Rin interjected over her shoulder.

	Kenji deflated. His voice returned to its normal scratchy tone. “Look, dude, I’m not… Happy with what happened. My friend nearly died right in front of me, and the best I could do was scream for help as he… as his…” Kenji’s glasses misted up briefly as he whipped at his face. “I don’t want to ever be like that again. To have to standby as the world is set on fire around you and you’re forced to watch it all burn.”

	The man spoke animatedly and yet it came off as pained and hurt, until I noticed that he was also waving around his slung arm. I can't help but feel that this was about more than Hisao, and wondered how close the two must have been for this comradely.

	“I’m sorry, man. I’m sorry.”

	Emi scowled at Kenji. Then she scowled at Nurse. Then she swung her foot and banged the false shin on a desk. “Whatever. Fine.” She grumbled, and took a seat at the desk. “I’m a girl.”

	Kenji blinked a few times before tapping Rin on the shoulder and whispering in her ear. Rin nodded her head. Kenji apparently didn’t see and whispered again. Rin nodded again.

	I took a seat next to Emi, who still seemed hot enough to boil water, and looked expectantly up at the front of the class.

	“Well then.” Nurse says, standing up from his seat. “It seems we have a full house.”

	Just then, the door opened, and a tall white man with a freshly buzzcut head enters the room. I notice immediately how off-putting this man is in his black T-shirt with denim blue jeans, his well-toned pectorals straining the dark fabric over his large muscular chest. His eyes quickly scan the room, landing for a brief moment and sending a grin to Emi.

	Emi smiles a little bit to him, and it weirds me out how uncomfortable that makes me feel.

	“Good evening, head nurse. I’m deeply sorry for being late.” He says with a deep bow. Something about the way that he says it makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

	“Ah, Mr. Price. I’m glad you were able to join us after all.” Nurse says.

	I feel a little bit of the tension slipping away, as he was obviously expected… He walks to the front of the room, taking up position next to the nurse. He smiles at the group but I feel his eyes meticulously scanning over us and it makes me shift uncomfortably in my seat. Emi notices and gives me a questioning look.

	“Security Officer Price has personally volunteered to come in on his off hours to assist my teachings.” Says Nurse.

	Mr. Price bowed his head. “Please, call me Kane.”

	Kenji’s hand flew into the air. “Uh, Setou, we’re not really taking-” Nurse started.

	“Are you THE Cain?” Kenji interrupted. “The one who killed his brother? The ultimate enemy of men everywhere?”

	Kane chuckled. “No, I tend fight for my brothers instead of against them. It’s Kane with a K.”

	Kenji beamed. “A fighter for men everywhere.” He spoke in a hushed tone of reverence usually reserved for pastors and cultists.

	“Uh…” Kane gave a bewildered look to the nurse, who shrugged. “Sure thing, [buddy].”

	I note the man’s use of English for his last word, though everyone else seems to just be letting it go. It all seems so very strange to me.

	“Annnywho,” Nurse continued, “You’re all here for one reason. To make sure you have a place to stay so Yamaku doesn’t kick you to the curb for summer.” He paused for laughter. None came. “Ahem, well, you’re here to learn medical skills that you might choose to expand on in the future, but this is a beginner’s course. Know that every one of you will be First Aid certified by the end of this course.” He smiled to the class, and clapped his hands. “So, who is ready to cut open a dead human body?”
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	Much to the vocal disappointment of Kenji, and to what I suspected was the morbid curiosity of Rin, we did not dissect any human cadavers.

	The Nurse and Mr. Price certainly had different teaching methods than any I’d encountered before. Our instructors commonly used one another as diagrams, showing where important things like arteries were located and what best to do in an emergency situation. It turned out that Kane… Mr. Price, had had a decent knowledge of medical knowledge. I still felt uncomfortable with him though, and was going to mention it to Emi when the shorter girl had stormed off after they had been dismissed.

	I hurried after her, listening to her grumble. “I can’t believe her! Stupid, how stupid can she be.” Emi apparently noticed Saki and threw her hands up. “I mean can you believe that! He’s the one that nearly killed Hisao in the first place, with a firkin suicidal idea of ‘Hey let’s go after your stupid abandoner because it’s not like she won’t do it twice.’” As she spoke, Emi grew more and more red in the face, seemingly not acknowledging the need of trivial things like breathing as her tirade escaladed. “Mark these words, mark them, she’s going to leave him again and then he’ll all alone in some stupid European city without anyone that cares about him.”

	“You mean without you?” I ask, feeling a little annoyed

	Emi’s dagger eyes turn on me and I could picture the bull about to charge as her nostrils flared.

	“I don’t care about him.” She spat.

	“I do.” I replied, softly.

	That seemed to knock her on her back foot. She looked at me with a puzzled expression. I decided to push on.

	“Hisao is a good man. He’s doing what he thinks is right, chasing after a dream and seizing it. I’ve actually dreamt about him the past few nights. About what it must have been like to be on the plane so close to your goal, and then to feel as if it’s all being wretched away from you. I wonder if she was there when he woke up, or if he woke up in handcuffs in some cell somewhere for sneaking into a foreign country.” I turn from Emi, and started walking down the steps, keeping my pace measured. “Lilly isn’t a bad person, not by any means, but I feel she doesn’t know what she really wants. Maybe Hisao can give her that. Maybe this desperate act of love will show her.”
Emi was quiet for a moment. “Do you really think he loves her?” She asked, her voice small and sad.

	I felt bad for her, the little girl with dirty hair in her yellow tank top. I place an arm around her shoulder and pull her into a side hug. “Yeah… I do.” She doesn’t squirm, and after a moment she wraps her arms around me and hugs me full on. We stand there for a little bit, not moving.

	“I hope he’s alright.” She says.

	“Yeah,” I reply, “me too.”

	“Ms. Enomoto?” A voice calls from the top of the stairs. Our hug is cut short and I look up to see the blocky figure of Kane standing, looking down at us. Emi hops back, but I pay it no mind.

	“Yes? May I help you?” I feel my eyes narrowing in suspicion.

	“The head nurse asked me to go after you, he said he’d needed to talk to you.” He replied. “Would you mind coming back up?

	I realized then what had bothered me at first. The way he addressed Nurse, as if it was just a title instead of who he was. “Why wouldn’t he have asked me during the class?” I say warily.

	“He slapped his head after you all left and sent me after you.” He spoke formally with a bow.

	“That man…” Emi says. I look to see leaning against the stairwell wall. “Don’t be long, I’m hungry.”

	“A-are we hanging out tonight?” I ask in a very fine and confident way that in no way was a stammer.

	Emi looked caught off guard. “Oh, uh, I kinda thought… Sorry, are you busy?”

	“No! No, no I’m totally free. To hanging out.” I reply.

	“Oh. Well then, yeah. Let’s hang out. We can talk about how dumb our instructors are.” She says, shooting a side long look up at Kane.

	I laugh, feeling light and breezy, and turn to head up the stairs to follow Kane to speak with Nurse.

	The walk is short, with Kane walking along side me. I feel a little tense about it, he’s just so… different than anyone I’d ever met. He’s far too tall, his hair is too short, his speech is formal but his body language isn’t.

	He opens the door to the room for me, and slightly inclines his head. I walk in to see Nurse sitting at the front desk. He looks up and winks, and the door closes behind me. My head turns to see that Kane did not follow me in.

	“Good afternoon Ms. Enomoto.” Nurse says.

	“Am I in some sort of trouble?” I ask feeling very wary.

	Nurse chuckles politely in a way I can tell is meant to make me feel more at ease. “Why, do anything lately worth getting in trouble for?” He winks again, and pulls a file from a dresser drawer. “I’m glad you were able to be invited to class.” He comments. “Did Emi give you a hard time?”

	“I had to apologize for calling her stupid.” I say.

	It draws the surprised reaction I want, but he quickly follows it up placing his hand over his chest. “She won’t let me put her height without wearing prosthetics on her medical reports, but you get away with calling her stupid?”

	He’s good at word play, and his mocking makes the tension I’ve been feeling finally loosen. “Does she really?” I ask.
He winks in way of reply, but then his expression changes to a more business like manner. “I’ve been meaning to ask you a few things.”

	“Oh?” I ask.

	“For starters, how is your father settling? Has he found a new position yet?”

	Business indeed, then. “Last mother told me, he’s been accepted at the nearby hospital. She’s hinted that he intends to become my primary care physician once more.”

	Nurse nods his head. “The school has received paperwork from the hospital noting his request. Of course, Yamaku’s policy is that the schools staff is to remain your primary care, at least until you graduate. Remind me, how long have you been here?”

	“Around a year and a half.” I reply. “Last Winter is when I was diagnosed with spinocerebellar ataxia. I began classes here shortly after.”

	“By your father.” The nurse stated.

	“Yes, he was my doctor since I was a child. He did a blood test, some genetic research, since he noticed how clumsy I can be.” I held up my cane, putting it on the desk. “He got me this not long after, he says I’ll be finding it harder to move around as I get older. He had it custom made for me, he said.”

	Nurse nodded his head.

	“Do you know why your father had to change positions?” He asked.

	“This sounds like you meant to have this conversation with him…” I pause. “He said he wanted to be closer to me, and said that he was working very hard to try and develop new treatments.”

	Nurse nodded his head. “He wants to look after his daughter, that’s very respectable. My last question is, how are you?”

	I cock an eyebrow at him. “I’m… fine?”

	He grins, raising a hand to his head. “I shoulda been more specific. I mean how are you physically? Did Emi make you go running with her?”

	My head rocks to the side as I picture Emi’s running face. “Oh. Yeah, no real change since last time we spoke about it a few months ago. I mean, I still drop things sometimes, and running today I nearly tripped over my own darn two feet. You know, you didn’t mention the competitive edge she has.”

	Nurse laughs from his belly. “She put you through the ringer, eh? Given that you’re in self-defense classes together, I’d figured you’d know about it.” He beams.

	“How did you know about the classes?” I ask.

	“Emi’s been going on and on about it to her mom. She really likes that sort of thing, she lives for getting her heart pumping and the exhilaration. I’m sure you must have seen it.”

	I flashback to that smirk she’d been giving me, that look that she was so much better than me, and I feel a little fire of my own as the satisfaction smolders within me. “Indeed.” I blink, coming back to the here and now. “Is there anything else I can assist you with?” I ask.

	The nurse laughs. “I don’t exactly have you in shackles, you’re free to go. Thank you for your time.”

	I bow to him and leave the room. Kane nods at me as I turn to walk down the hallway, and I ignore him.

	“Enomoto!” he calls after me. Briefly I feel the temptation to ignore him, but my grooming wins out and I turn to face the authority figure.

	Outstretched in his arms is my cane. “You’d forgotten this.” He says, holding it out and bowing his head.

	I blink at him. He’s so very… foreign, yet he’s obviously making an attempt.

	“Thank you.” I say, taking my cane and turning to head back to the stairwell.

	Emi is sitting on the stairs, one of her false legs on her arm like a gauntlet as she jabs forwards. I can’t help but giggle. She drops the leg, surprised, and fumbles after it with a “Wah!”
I go down the steps as she’s reaching for it, picking it up from the ground. Her face is beat red as I stand up with it, her eyes glancing to the side. She holds out her arm. “Thanks.” She mumbles.

	“Hold out your leg.” I instruct.

	“Wha?? No way!” She protests, looking horrified.

	I fix her with a look, and she bites her lip before sticking her leg out. I bend over and start pulling it into place with the prosthetic, remembering how she’d facened them after the defense course.
Her leg muscles were firm, and tenses to my touch. “This is so weird…” She grumbled. “Ah, not so tight. Here, lemme.”

	She reached down and her hands found mine. After a moment, she guided them to the locking mechanisms, and I locked the leg into place.

	We looked up into one another’s eyes then, and I felt my cheeks touch with heat as I looked into her emerald green eyes. Her dirty shoulder length hair fell over both of her shoulders as she’d leaned forwards to help me, but on Emi it looked so… charming. We couldn’t be more than a few inches apart. I could just lean in and-

	“Come on!” She says, suddenly rising and obviously flustered. “I’m starving, where do you want to go for dinner?” She grips my arm and pulls me up with her, and I have to steady myself from stumbling as she hurries down the final few stairs and towards the building’s exit.