Bungou Stray Dogs ~ One-shots

[Akutagawa xR] Love and duty

            

Having the ability to heal the wounds of others without difficulty was an impressive and extremely useful power. However, there was another side to this unusual ability.

It had no kind of effect on her. Satomi could injure herself as much as she wanted, from a simple scratch to a real open wound, but she could not heal her own body.

She did some missions with other members or even alone if she had to but, overall, the little duo she formed with her black- and white-haired partner was her main concern.

It was for a double reason that she had been partnered with someone like Akutagawa: he was one of the most powerful elements of the Mafia, and having a healing ability by his side was a safety feature as well; if the dark-haired man were injured, he could immediately get treatment and go back fighting.

Also, Satomi's power made the young woman extremely valuable; Akutagawa was strong and was then the most able to protect her if needed.

Well, that is what was planned in the beginning. Because, in fact, things were slightly different. The present day did not depart from the rule, of course.

Akutagawa and she were facing yet another small leader of a rival organization to the Mafia, important enough however to require the presence of two of them. They had not really understood how these opponents were more complicated to eliminate than the many previous ones, until they realized that their leader had an ability.

A slightly embarrassing one at that. The man's blood was indeed poisoned, and anyone who touched him would be immobilized, whether it was a single arm if the dose were small or the whole body if it were larger.

But things had become even more complicated when her partner had just been grazed by one of the many knives thrown at them by their opponent, obviously coated with his poisoned blood.

Satomi could only act on physical wounds. She could not do anything against a possible poison. Akutagawa had been deprived of his left arm for a few moments, which was not very annoying knowing that his ability could replace it, but which nevertheless handicapped him if he really had to use it.

The opponent was agile, and moved so fast that her teammate's attacks struggled to follow him.

Satomi was far from being helpless, having learned to fight and defend herself, if necessary, but the enemy was annoying enough that one wrong move on her part would be a death sentence for both of them.

If Akutagawa were immobilized, she did not know if she would be able to defend herself against their opponent until her partner recovered. And, if she were to be incapacitated in turn, finishing her and Akutagawa would be a piece of cake.

She could not do anything against their opponent, whether it was to counter his poison or to approach him to attack him, and only the ability of her partner could allow them to ensure their victory and especially their survival.

The choice between her and Akutagawa was thus quickly seen. Satomi, dictated by her objective reasoning, had not hesitated for a second to throw herself between their enemy and Akutagawa, in order to protect the latter from a knife that arrived right in his blind spot, and that he had therefore absolutely not seen coming.

She had had the time to deflect this knife with her own sword, and she already felt relieved to have avoided a certain catastrophe. However, she had not noticed that another blade was following the first one, which came directly to plant itself at the level of her left collarbone.

The pain of the blade itself was not so horrible, since she had already known much worse in her eventful life. It was the pain of the poison that was almost unbearable.