Light duty (solo)

One would think with the inclusion of healing kido any injury could be undone in a matter moments. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although shinigami looked human, they are in a sense souls and thus energy. At the same time their bodies functioned like humans in all respects. Things like infections took on another aspect all together. Such was the case with Arawn's most recent injury. His liver and intestines were pierced by the human's strange technique. But the energies of the man had retarded the healing process. Leaving Arawn many days in a bed recovering. The healing had worked to some extent. When the bandages were moved to be changed he saw the marks were he had been struck. The skin hadn't grown back on the spots, and blood seeped slowly through the raw flesh. Still there was much pain in moving.
"Internal injuries aren't easy thing." The attendant said as he changed the dirty wraps. "You'll be up in no time, but we need to keep you here should the holes reopen." The way he said it made it sound like it was a very high probability of happening.

The first day Arawn slept, he was tired from the all the excitement and the medicine took it's toll on him. The next morning found him quite ravenous he tore into his poor tasting food. His room didn't have a window so there wasn't much for him to do. Simone was the only person to visit. She was kind enough to bring some books from his house, but she had gotten ones he had already read. They were books he had picked up from earth, some fictional stories of men seeking power to vanquish evil only to succumb to the very power they craved. He forced himself to read through half of if before the attendant came to change his wraps again. It would seem he was bleeding again. It was hard to tell, the medication dulled his pain. He silently wondered what it would feel like without them, but he quickly shook the thought from his head. The rest of the day was a boring haze. Arawn left the book on his table side as his evening meal arrived. It was much better than the breakfast. A final dose of medicine was his desert, he would have preferred something sweet. Key Lime pie would have been nice. The bitter powder almost made him was to vomit up the pleasant meal. His curious nature made him question what it was he just swallowed, but he remember the slowly bleeding holes in his stomach. Whatever it was it worked; he didn't feel the pain. This dose also made him very tired. It wasn't long before he drifted to sleep.

The third day found Arawn filled with energy, but once more nothing to do. It was rare for him to get a full night's sleep. His work in the lab would end at strange hours. Sometimes he'd get back from a shift only to have his next shift begin. But being bed ridden such energy and wasted. Not being able to move was starting to get annoying. Staying still was too much trouble, the more he thought about it the more he wanted to move. His feet would itch and he’d try not scratch without shifting his body too much. It was during Simone’s second visit that he came up with an idea. After she dropped of a set of books he hadn’t read he sent her to fetch his zanpukto. It took some talking, but they allowed her to bring him the weapon. It had been found on him after his attack and was being stored away in another room. Most shinigami’s weapons were taken for fear they would fight their way out of the hospital as silly as it sounded. It didn’t take much to convince them that this was not the case for Arawn. His zanpukto in hand he drew the silver blade forth. Simone left the room knowing there wouldn’t be much to see. Arawn held the weapon flat in his hand and closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes next it was to a night sky filled with stars. He was no longer laying in a bed but standing on a large rock amidst a sea of smaller stones. He gave a grin. In the center of the rock larger than a football stadium was draped a golden dragon. The mighty the self appointed lord of the realm snored loudly. Huang Long’s eye fluttered open and fixed on the visiting shinigami.
“Ah, so you did survive.” he snorted, sounding disappointed “After that pathetic display I thought I might be free of this place.” Despite his words Arawn knew the dragon was aware of his survival. This place, this world was within Arawn. Should he expire the strange dimension would probably collapse.
“Nice to see you too.” he said in reply. “I’m still in sensitive position, but I’m getting better.”
The black irises of the amber eyes narrowed as if looking through him. “I see.” was the dragon’s response as it gave another snort. “So what brings you here?”
“I remembered when I first came here my body was crushed under all that rubble. But here I was perfectly fine.” He lifted his uniform showing his smooth stomach with no hit of scar nor wound.
“So he comes here to play!” There was no mistaking the dragon’s mirth. Was this the first time he’d heard the creature laugh? The laughter lasted for several seconds and then stopped as quickly at is came. “Fine, do as you will.” The beast’s eyes shut and it took a deep breath trying to get back to sleep.
“Actually now that I’m here there was something I wanted to___” A sudden wind buffeted Arawn knocking him off his feet and floating. As far as Arawn had seen the dragon hadn’t moved an inch.
“You can stay, but I won’t have you interrupt my slumber.” Haung Long said without opening it’s eyes. “And I do recall a promise of a day with Lady Ha-Rhang for my help last time. Until that debt is cleared we have nothing else to speak of.” the beast finished. Arawn sighed. At least he hadn’t thrown him out.

As the dragon stated he did intent to ‘play’ here in the inner world. Away from the main rock formation the rest of the asteroids orbited obediently. Using the same skill shinigami used to walk on air, he was able to stop himself from floating eternally into the starry sky. He kicked off the invisible floor and towards a rock the size of a jeep. He twisted and spun and landed feet first and held on. His soft impact sent the object off it’s simple orbit and collided into another stone. Arawn hopped to the next as the chain reaction continued. From the next rock to another as the asteroids collided and ricochet in different directions. Arawn followed suit. He bounced and moved from side to side getting more and more comfortable with the weightlessness. He would land from his feed and then to his hands. It was like swimming, but the trickier. It was very fun even if he told himself it was training. It felt good to do something even if it wasn’t his actual body. Or was it? He stopped to consider it. Before he to this place and learned how to use his shikai. Upon exiting he had felt tired. So he was expending energy in a way. The more he thought about the more confusing it seemed. He was inside himself and yet not? He let the issue drop and continued with his strange exercises. Arawn was startled by the dragon’s renewed snoring. He smiled. It had taken the dragon this long to get back t sleep? He had a feeling the golden reptile had been watching him the entire time.

And so Arawn spent the remainder of his hospital stay thus. Between the books, his inner world, and short visits from Simon and Bryce the time went by quickly. By the sixth day he was allowed to leave. The recommended that he avoid Living world patrols for another week. Although he didn’t miss fighting hollows, he did enjoy trips to the Human world. With a sigh he headed to the 12th Barracks. After a week of near inactivity he was anxious for something to do besides sitting down. He opened the door to his lodgings and stretched. His stomach was still bandaged. They had told me he could remove in the next day. He grabbed his zanpukto and headed off to Master Sung’s house. He hoped Yuki was willing to give the weapon to Ha-Rhang.