• Chapter 1
    Natsumi types some more information on her computer and then stops for pain begins to swirl around in her fingers. She presses enter on her keyboard and waits patiently. She looks around her office and her eyes come to rest on a picture of her, her dad, and her mom on her graduation day. At 14 years old, she graduated from Sorimika Doctorate School with flying colors on her grades. Everyone said that she couldn’t pass the exam, but Dr. Akila saw more potential in her then all the older people studying for the exam so he took her under his wing.
    He helped her study for the exam and at that time, she didn’t realize that who trained her had been the highest ranking doctor in Sorimika. When graduation time came around, she found out that doctor who helped her had been the most experienced doctor. Each of the students had a doctor that helped them so the doctors had to give a speech about their student. When it came for Dr. Akila to give his speech, he said so many great things about Natsumi. He said that she had great potential, a knack for herbs and medicine, and a caring heart. Natsumi felt so proud and so thankful that he said so many great things about her. That had been a year ago.
    Her computer beeps bringing her out of the past and back to the present. She stares at the computer dumbfounded, the site on the computer had more information then she needed. She sighs happily and places her hands behind her head. A few days ago, one of the village’s top warriors named Akihito had been brought in with an arrow in his chest, but the arrow wasn’t your ordinary everyday arrow. The arrow head had been covered in a poison that no one had seen except Dr. Akila, but Dr. Akila had died of a heart attack 6 months ago. Now that this mysterious arrow had shown up, everything had been chaotic. Doctors said Akihito had only weeks to live which didn’t help at all.
    Every doctor in the hospital had been checking all the files on the computers and books to see if Dr. Akila had left any information to cure the poison; no one had any luck, but Natsumi. Two days before Dr. Akila had died he had given Natsumi a huge hardcover book called Research, Medicines, Herbs, and Antidotes. Dr. Akila had written everything he’d researched and treated in that book, so it had become a reliable resource for her. For 3 days, she went through the book to see if she could find the poison that affected the warrior. Finally, today she had found a pair of symptoms that matched with the Akihito’s. The poison that she found was called, Konu poison.
    Dr. Akila left instructions in the book, telling her of all of the herbs and medicines that were needed to make the antidote, but the problem is that she had heard of all of them except one which was called gressger. She had spent almost an hour trying to find a site on the computer talking about gressger, but all she found were sites talking about different types of grasses and grass herbs. Now she had found a site that had more than enough information about gressger. She scrolls down the sight and finds a place that talks about what it looks like and where it can be found.
    “Gressger looks like a flower, but the petals are in the shape of a star, and the petals have tiny polka dots on them which make it look like there are hundreds of small bugs on the petals…gressger can be found anywhere. You can mostly find it in a field with daisy and shrubs. They might be hidden under the shrubs or camouflaged with the daisies.” She mutters quietly to herself. Then she quickly wrote that information down and she shut her computer down. She quickly walks over to the book and looks at the instructions for making the antidote.
    “Uh…oh here we are…one cup full of gressger.” She writes down on her pad of paper, grabs her back pack and then walks out the door. She quickly walks outside the hospital door and stops for a minute. She looks left and then right, trying to remember where the valley lay. Natsumi had been working in the hospital ever since she graduated and when she didn’t work in the hospital, she sat in her mother’s garden and read about medicine and herbs, so she didn’t really go out a lot and travel around the village. Finally, she remembered that the valley lies to the eastside of Sorimika, so she took a left turn for she faced the southern side of Sorimika.
    Ten minutes passes and finally Natsumi reaches the small gate to the valley. She opens the gate and steps in. She looks around and she sees the forest outside the 12 foot concrete wall that protected the village. Natsumi remembered all the times that she spent with her friends secretly climbing the wall and exploring the outside. She never got caught, but when she graduated she stopped climbing the walls, but she always had an urge to. Her eyes dart around the area and they come to rest on a patch of daisies and shrubs.
    She walks quickly over to the area and she immediately looks for gressger. Natsumi first looks over under the shrubs, but after 30 minutes of searching, she could not find one. She turns around and begins to search among the daisies.
    “Yes,” She exclaims when she finds a whole patch of gressger. She pulls her back pack in front of her and grabs out a huge cloth bag. She pulls all of the gressger in the patch, making sure all of them still had their roots. Natsumi sticks them all in the bag and then she looks around for more. When she thought there were no more left, Natsumi starts to head back towards the hospital quickly.
    When she is a couple of feet away from the gate, Natsumi breaks into a run and leaps over the fence. She picks up speed and gets to the hospital in less than 15 minutes. When Natsumi reaches the entrance, she thrusts open the doors and goes to the front desk.
    “Where is Dr. Tanaka?” She asks. The woman at the desk looks at her and then replies,
    “Dr. Tanaka is…” An alarm interrupts her and a voice on the intercom said,
    “Code red, code red, room 365, code red,” Natsumi’s eyebrows raise as she remembers that room 365 belongs to Akihito. She immediately left the front desk and walks quickly to room 365. When she reaches the room, about 5 doctors already were in the room. Natsumi walks straight in and immediately finds Dr. Tanaka. She taps on his shoulder rapidly and he turns around with a questioned look on his face.
    “What is it? It had better be important since this man is almost on the brink of death!” He snarls at Natsumi.
    “Yes, I have an antidote for the poison.” She says. Tanaka raises his eyebrows and he says,
    “Well go make it, this guy doesn’t have much time.” She nods quickly and runs out of the room. She darts through her office door and grabs out the cloth bag full of gressger. She throws her back pack down and flings the cloth bag onto her counter. She grabs the book off her desk and opens it to the page where the instructions for the antidote lay. Natsumi rereads all the other medicines and herbs before she grabs all the other ingredients.
    “One half cup of juniper seeds…1/3 teaspoon of meatrix roots…one cup of gressger…and 3 cups of honey suckles juice.” Natsumi mutters to herself. She tosses all the ingredients into a stone bowl and then crushes the meatrix roots, gressger, and juniper seeds altogether. After everything had been to a powder, Natsumi scrapes everything out of the stone bowl and places it into a small plastic bowel. Then she pours the three cups of honey suckles juice into the powder and begins to stir it up into a liquid.
    After that she reads the book again, looking to see how the antidote is to be given. Natsumi finds the part where it says it, and it says that it is to be given through a shot. Natsumi quickly brings out a 5 inch perfume bottle and pours the liquid into it which fill the bottle all the way to the top. Then she brings out a small rubber sheath and places it over the top of the bottle. After everything had been done, Natsumi quickly reads about how to give the antidote before she sprints out of the office and towards room 365.
    When she reaches the room, she immediately passes the bottle to Dr. Tanaka and tells him to use a shot to get into his system. Dr. Tanaka grabs out a needle and syringe and sucks out a little bit of the liquid, but it fills almost half of the syringe. After that he rapidly walks over to a cabinet which is right to the now thrashing Akihito and takes an alcohol wipe out. Then he walks over and stands right next to the Akihito. Dr. Tanaka signals three doctors to come over and hold Akihito down.
    As the three doctors hold Akihito down, Dr. Tanaka wipes his arm and sticks the needle through his skin. When all the fluid had been injected into Akihito’s system and the needle and syringe thrown away, Dr. Tanaka took Natsumi outside with the perfume bottle in hand.
    “So what can you tell me about the poison that we just dealt with?” Natsumi takes in a deep breath before she answers.
    “The poison is called Konu and it is made from the poisonous sap of the Kung tree and the toxic resume of Black Palp Mush. Konu poison is very deadly, but the minimum days it takes to take complete control of your body’s system and kill you is 14 days. The enemy that shot Akihito used a lot of Konu poison on the tip of the arrow, so it increased its days to take over the system.”
    “But the Konu poison we found on the arrow was a very small quantity, how come that almost killed Akihito?” He asks.
    “Well, the man who shot the arrow must have put many layers of Konu poison on the tip for Konu poison when slightly hardened is very thin, so the reason why you only found a little bit of poison on the arrow head is because all the rest of that poison was inside Akihito’s system.” She replies.
    “What’s this made out of?” He asks pointing to perfume bottle full of antidote inside of it.
    “The antidote consists of, honey suckle juice, gressger, meatrix roots and juniper seeds.” She says.
    “All of the other herbs are familiar, but gressger has me stumped.” Dr. Tanaka states clearly.
    “Gressger is an herb that is in the shape of a flower, but its petals are in the shape of a star. The petals have multiple little black polka dots on them, so it looks like the petals are infested with itty bitty bugs. Gressger can be found anywhere, but you can mostly find it camouflaged among daisies and shrubs that are found in valleys like ours.” She replies. Dr. Tanaka raises an eyebrow and then he asks,
    “How did you know so much about this?” Natsumi stiffens and takes in a long, deep breath. She knew that as soon as she told him about the book which she kept a secret, she would be in an abyss full of trouble.
    “I know about this because…” She takes in a breath before she continues.
    “Because two days before Dr. Akila passed away, he gave me a book full of things that he researched, treated, and discovered. I never told anyone about it, and now I will go get it. Forgive me doctor for being so selfish.” Natsumi turns around and starts to walk, but Dr. Tanaka places his hand upon her shoulder.
    “No, don’t go get the book.” He tells her and she turns around with a confused look on her face.
    “Why, I kept the book a secret out of selfishness?” She asks.
    “Dr. Akila gave you the book and he didn’t tell anyone else that he had given it to you, so I say that you and only you should use that book and maybe one day, you will earn Dr. Akila’s title as the High Doctor of Sorimika Hospital.” Dr. Tanaka replies. Natsumi beams with pride and she places one fist against an open hand and bows respectfully.
    “Take the rest of the day off, okay.” Dr. Tanaka tells her bowing. Natsumi nods her head and turns around. She quickly walks to her office to collect her bag. She places the book from Dr. Akila on her bookshelf and she places the notebook in her backpack. Natsumi turns off her computer and the lights and then locks the door. She looks at the clock on the wall, 12 o’clock right on the dot. She decides to go have dinner with her best friend, Yukiko. As soon as she is out of the hospital, she walks toward the Lavender Flower Shop. Natsumi opens the entrance to the store and a bell rings. She walks to the front desk and a voice says,
    “I’ll be right there,” Natsumi waits for 3 minutes and then a girl appears from behind some counters.
    “Hello and welcome to…” She begins and then stops.
    “Hello Yukiko, I wanted to know if you wanted to go get some lunch.” Natsumi asks smiling. Yukiko is silent for a moment and then she asks out loud,
    “Mom, can I get some lunch with Natsumi please?” There is some clanging and Natsumi bites her lip. A woman appears from a room and she waves at Natsumi.
    “Hello Natsumi, how are you today?” The woman asks.
    “I am doing fine Mrs. Zama, you know the guy that came in with the mysterious poison? Well, we found a cure for it.” Natsumi replies happily. Mrs. Zama smiles proudly and then she nods.
    “Yukiko, did you finish stocking the shelves?” Mrs. Zama asks her daughter.
    “Yes I did, now can I go?” Yukiko replies. Mrs. Zama raises an eyebrow and then she nods. Yukiko beams and takes off her apron. She hangs it on a hook and grabs Natsumi’s arm. She pushes Natsumi out the door and says good bye to her mom.
    “So, what are you in the mood for?” Natsumi asks placing her hands behind her head as they turned a deserted corner.
    “Well, actually I am in the mood for…” Yukiko begins and then is silenced by a cry of pain. Natsumi and Yuki look everywhere for the source of the cry and then they find it. A boy whose face is covered in blood lay on the floor surrounded by three other boys.
    “Come on Tetsu, get up and fight like a man.” The biggest of the kids says landing a kick in Tetsu’s stomach. Tetsu grunts and spits out a huge amount of blood, bright red blood. Natsumi’s eyes widen, and she throws off her back pack. Yukiko stares at her with a scared look on her face,
    “Come Natsumi, don’t do this, there are three boys and you are one.” Natsumi ignores her and steps forward.
    “Hey you jerk, back away from the boy or you’ll get a piece of your own medicine.” Natsumi yells. The three boys look behind them and one of them chuckles.
    “You’re just a girl, what can you possibly do to us?” One of them asks.
    “Yeah, come on Natsumi, they are stronger then you are.” Yukiko whines. Natsumi clenches her fists.
    “Heck no, they just underestimated me because I am a girl, I am not going to let them get away with that.” Natsumi growls and she reaches into the pockets of her blue shorts. She grabs out black, leather gloves. Natsumi slips the gloves onto her hands and then the boys laugh.
    “Ah, is the kitten mad? What are going to do, give me a hissy fit?” The biggest one laughs.
    “Ha ha, good one Kozu,” The two smaller boys praise the bigger one. Kozu smirks and then Natsumi races forward. She leaps off a building wall and she connects her foot with Kozu’s face. He is thrown sideways and trips over his feet. The two boys stare at Natsumi in surprise and then Kozu says,
    “Mesh, Tel, don’t you dare just stand there like gaping fish, attack her.” Mesh and Tel rush at Natsumi from both sides. She jumps into the air and Mesh and Tel crash right into each other. They fell to the ground hard and Natsumi lands on a line that is between two houses. She has trouble keeping her balance so she jumps off and grabs it. She spins around the line twice and then she does a double back. When she lands, Kozu runs straight at her which surprises her. He swings a punch, but Natsumi leans back just in time. She tries to kick Kozu, but he grabs her foot.
    She spins in air and so does Kozu for he wouldn’t let go of her foot. They both land on the cobble stone ground hard. Natsumi looks behind her and sees Mesh and Tel getting up and she immediately tries to kick Kozu again with her black knee high black boots. He deflects the kick with his arm, but he lets go of her leg. She springs up to her feet and then ducks down to get away from Mesh’s kick. After that she punches Mesh in the stomach and then she kicks Tel in the arm. Kozu tries punch and kick Natsumi, but she does the splits on the ground and blocks the kick by placing her arms together in a X.
    Then Natsumi grabs his leg and flings him toward some crates. He crashes into them hard and breaks every single one of them. Kozu slowly gets up and he wraps his arm around his stomach. Natsumi stands up and Kozu eyes widen in fear.
    “Now, what were you saying about me not being to do anything to you?” She asks teasingly. Kozu signals the others to follow him and they limp off very quickly. Natsumi takes off her gloves and then she walks over to Tetsu. He had begun to try and get up, but he had too much pain swirling around in his body so he kept failing. Natsumi slips one arm under his and she pulls him up to a sitting position. She sits on her knees in front of him and she asks,
    “Are you okay?” Tetsu doesn’t answer. He keeps his head down as he wipes blood off of his face. Yukiko grabs Natsumi’s bag and walks over. She passes the bag to Natsumi, and Natsumi places it on the ground and grabs out her medical kit. She grabs out a gauze patch and she says,
    “Tetsu, is that your name? Do you mind if I help you with your wounds? I am a medical warrior,” Tetsu looks up at her with his eyes, and then he tilts his head upward a little. Under his black, piecey hair, Natsumi could see green eyes that had a lot of hurt and pain in them. Natsumi begins to wipe the blood gently off his face and then all of a sudden Yukiko gasps.
    “What’s wrong?” Natsumi asks, taking the gauze patch off of Tetsu’s face.
    “That…that is Tetsu Isaka! He is the son of the one we call The Scar of the Forest, the one who destroyed a whole entire village alongside others. His father’s stupidity cost us an alliance with the village of Kron.” Yukiko says angrily. Yukiko places a hand on Natsumi and she tries to pull her back,
    “Come on, let’s leave.” Yukiko says. Natsumi jerks her arm back,
    “Yukiko, just because his father did something wrong doesn’t mean that his son is going to do the same thing. Don’t judge someone until you’ve walked in their shoes, don’t you remember your mother teaching you that?” Natsumi asks. Yukiko is stung by Natsumi’s words and she walks away. Natsumi sighs and then she realizes that Tetsu had been staring at her. She looks at him and he turns his eyes away.
    Chapter 2
    Natsumi continues to wipe the blood off Tetsu’s face and then when all of it had been wiped off, she took out some bandages. During the time that she cleaned Tetsu’s face off, she had seen him cradling his right arm. She reaches for his arm, but he jerks it back.
    “Why are you helping me? Your friend just identified me quiet well,” Tetsu asks. Natsumi looks at him and replies,
    “Tetsu, I don’t care what your father did; all I care about is getting your wounds cleaned so they don’t get infected.” Tetsu remains silent. She reaches for his arm and this time he doesn’t jerk it back. As she wraps his arm around in bandages, he asks,
    “What is your name?” Natsumi finishes wrapping his arm up and then she answers,
    “My name is Natsumi Fuji,” Tetsu nods his head slightly.
    “Here, come to my house and I’ll clean your shirt, it has got a lot of blood around the neck line.” She says. Tetsu looks at her with wide open eyes, and then he looks down at his clothes. He notices that he did have blood on his white shirt, and the rest of his clothes, his white sash that went diagonally across his chest, his black pants and vest were just a little bit dirty.
    “What about your parents? Don’t they know about my father, won’t they be mad at you for being around me?” Tetsu asks as if he knew that yes would be the answer.
    “My parents taught me to not judge people, so they won’t mind. They are very kind people,” Natsumi reassures him. Tetsu nods his head and Natsumi grabs her bag, flips it over her back and stands up. Then she holds out her hand and he grabs it. She pulls him up and then he places one hand behind his back. His eyes widen in fear and he begins to look around.
    “What’s wrong?” Natsumi asks.
    “My katana, it’s missing.” Tetsu replies. Natsumi’s eyes dart all around the place and then they come to rest on a katana hidden behind a crate. She walks over and picks it up. The katana had a total length of 7 feet. The handle had a length of 6th inches and the blade had a length of 6 feet and 6 inches. Natsumi’s eyes widen in amazement, she walks back to Tetsu and passes him the sheathed katana.
    “The katana, where did you get it, I have never seen one like it.” She says. Tetsu is silent for a few minutes and then he replies,
    “It was my father’s sword. Haruo sensei, gave me the sword on my 13th birthday. He said that I was ready to have it, the sword has brought me trouble and sometimes happiness knowing that at least I have something of the father who I never knew.” Natsumi’s heart broke inside of her and she turns away so he wouldn’t see the sadness on her face. As they walk to her house in silent, Natsumi quietly looks at him out of the corner of her eyes. He had black piecey hair, tan skin, stood at about 5’6, and had a very muscular build.
    They turn down a path that looks like it lead to the wall only and not to a house. When they reach the house, they find a woman working in a garden full of flowers, vegetables, and small trees. The woman looks up and she waves at the both of them. She stands up and walks over to Natsumi.
    “Hi mom,” Natsumi greets.
    “Natsumi, you’re back so early and you look like you got into a fight, again!” Her mother exclaims. Natsumi blushes, and directs her eyes downward. Her purple tank top that splits above her belly button had been covered in dust and she little spots of blood on her shorts, probably from when she kicked Mesh in the stomach. She could’ve cleaned herself up and her mother would have still known that she got into a fight.
    “Yes I did…” Natsumi starts and then her mother narrows her eyes at her which immediately stops her.
    “Sweetheart, how many times have I told you not to get into a fight? Remember the last time you got into a fight, you sent that boy to the hospital to be treated for huge cuts and gashes. You really need to control that anger of yours!” Her mother scolds.
    “Mom, these boys underestimated me because I am a girl and they were beating up him." Natsumi argues pointing to Tetsu. Her mother finally realizes his presence and she straightens up.
    "Well I'll be, welcome to our home Tetsu. Sorry that you had to see our little fight. My name is Rose," Rose says. She holds out her hand and Tetsu takes a minute and then shakes it. Rose smiles and she gives Natsumi a look telling her they would talk more about this later. Natsumi sighs deeply and nods her head.
    "Will you be staying for dinner Tetsu?" Rose asks him. Tetsu's eyes widen in confusion and he stares at the ground. Rose raises an eyebrow and looks at Natsumi. Natsumi looks at her mom with her eyes and then turns her attention onto Tetsu. She reaches out to place her hand on his shoulder and then clutches it to her heart. Rose looks at her daughter with a questioning look and Natsumi replies with a look that says I'll tell you later. Tetsu finally looks up after a few minutes and he realizes that both set of eyes were on him,
    "Sorry, it’s just..." He begins, but then he stops. Rose closes her eyes and then reopens them.
    "Just say you'll stay for dinner and that’s all you need to say right now." Rose tells him. He nods his head and Rose walks back toward the house. She steps inside the doorway and disappears. Tetsu sighs and then turns to Natsumi. She looks at him and sees that his eyes didn't have that sadness in them; they had a tinge of confusion and a tinge of happiness. Natsumi feels uncomfortable looking up into Tetsu’s eyes that stared into her so she turns away. He stood 3 inches over her and that didn’t make her feel any better.
    “I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable,” She hears him say. Natsumi turns her attention back to Tetsu.
    “Oh, don’t worry you didn’t. I just don’t…uh…hang out with boys a lot if you can see why.” She tells him smiling. Tetsu nods his head and stares at her hair; he loves how her waist length blond hair with red streaks sparkles in the fading sunlight. She notices what he’s staring at and blushes a deep crimson red. His eyes widen and they turn they attention onto a kid standing in the doorway.
    “Oh, so this is the one that mom told me about, Tetsu. Wow sis, is he your boyfriend?” Her brother asks teasingly. The look that Natsumi gave her brother would’ve turned the sun colder then Pluto.
    “Takashi, I got five reasons why you should just shut up right now.” She tells him angrily while putting her fingers down one by one on one hand until it had become a fist. Takashi sticks his tongue out at her and then walks away out of sight. Natsumi irately clenches both fists; her younger brother drove her nuts.
    “Sorry about that, Takashi is still learning how to be mature.” She tells Tetsu through clenched teeth. Tetsu laughs and Natsumi’s frustration immediately vanishes. Tetsu had a deep laugh and it made Natsumi surprised for she thought she would never hear him laugh.