I entered my apartment, the familiar smell of damp and decay hittin' me, and saw Ayaka tending to Genji.
He appeared to be asleep, but it was far from a peaceful or quiet rest, not like how a normal person should be sleeping.
Genji was sweatin' like a goddamn block of ice meltin' under a summer sun, his head thrashin' around restlessly as he laid there, completely unconscious.
Maybe he had some deep, fuckin' internal wounds, some shit festerin' on his insides.
Going to get Quack and Asuka, to come see him would probably be the next smart thing to do.
But with what just fuckin' happened back at the gym a few minutes ago, I don't think I'm exactly welcomed there anymore, not by a long shot.
Even if I somehow managed to reach out to Hoshi or Hanzo, I don't think I can do much to make 'em send that bitch Asuka over here.
She was, ironically, one of the nicest of that whole crew to 'em, especially compared to hardened punks like Razor, Quack, and the rest of those assholes.
Yet, she acted like we got some serious, deep-seated bad blood between us.
I don't fuckin' know why, and it'll be in my own best interest to stir fuckin' clear of that whole ramshackle operation for a good while.
"Was he able to eat somethin'?" I asked Ayaka, who barely even registered me enterin' the cramped room.
"…No, he couldn't… He started behaving like this, all restless and feverish, since this morning," she replied, her voice weak and utterly exhausted; she didn't even bother lookin' at me in the eyes.
"Where is Eiji?" I asked, my gaze falling on the chipped wooden plate of already soured, leftover slug-maggots sitting beside Ayaka and the ailing Genji.
"He… he went out. I don't know where," she replied, her voice barely a whisper.
I dropped my still-wet backpack with a thud and pulled off my equally soaked hoodie, placin' them together in a relatively dry corner.
Then, I walked up to a spot between Genji and my sister, Ayaka, who was sittin' on the floor, facing his side, her shoulders slumped.
She seemed to have suspected my intention, or maybe just my hunger, and said softly, her voice thin, "You can eat the slug-maggots, Oni-san. I don't think Genji will be eatin' it anytime soon."
I took the old, cracked plastic plate and sat down on the rotting floor, but unlike her, I leaned my weary back against the cold, damp wall.
I haven't eaten anythin' solid in days.
I don't even fuckin' know what today is.
So, I dived into the plate of congealed slug-maggots without thinking too much about it.
It was definitely sour, gone off.
So now the usually bland slug-maggots tasted like watery vomit mixed with overly salty, decaying gummy flesh.
But that particular detail didn't matter much to me right now; hunger gnawed too deep.
I was done with the small, pathetic portion of food within a few seconds.
It was only then that I remembered I still had one bottle of that potent healing potion from that underground, whatever-the-fuck-that-place-was.
I quietly stood up, my joints protesting, walked over to my bag, and carefully brought out the remaining potion.
I walked to Genji's side, gently opening his slack mouth with my left hand, and carefully poured almost half of the tube's contents down his throat.
I once heard, on the flickering TV in the train station, that it's very goddamn dangerous to give an injured, ordinary, Non-Evolve human the same high dose of virtually any type of healin' potion as you would normally give an Evolved individual, no matter how low the Grade.
I think they also warned about the risks of administrating any kind of healin' potion without the explicit instruction of some qualified doctor, but they didn't say it was a guaranteed 100% lethal mistake.
Genji doesn't really have a say in this particular matter, seein' as he's currently knocked out cold, and this is pretty much all I can fuckin' do for him right now without stressin' myself out too damn much, or gettin' clubbed to death's door.
Ayaka lazily, almost indifferently, watched me as I made sure the potion went down Genji's throat.
Almost immediately after he swallowed, the delicate branches of his arteries, visible beneath his thin, blistered feverish skin, started to glow very dimly with a faint light.
This eerie luminescence expanded rapidly from his mouth to the rest of his frail body.
Soon, sharp sounds of bones audibly crackin' and resettin' could be heard comin' from Genji's arms, making him suddenly spring up from his prone position and yell out, a raw, agonized sound, as the cracks continued, loud and sickening.
I quickly pushed him back down, forcing him to lie flat, placin' one firm hand on his heaving chest to prevent him from rollin' around too much as he continued to scream in obviously excruciating pain.
Ayaka, startled into action, followed suit, divin' forward and desperately holdin' his thrashin' legs together with all her meager might.
Genji continued to struggle and scream like a man possessed for several more agonizing seconds, his body convulsing, before finally, mercifully, calmin' down and fallin' into an immediate, unnaturally deep sleep.
Ayaka, her face pale with worry, gently placed the back of her small palm on his neck to check Genji's temperature.
"His temperature… it's going down…" she said, a profound sigh of relief escaping her lips.
Then, she turned her wide, questioning eyes to me and asked, her voice trembling slightly, "What… what was that, Oni-san?"
I paused for a little moment, gatherin' my thoughts, before respondin' matter-of-factly, "It is a healing potion," as I stood up and carefully returned the half-empty tube back inside my backpack.
"Healin' potion?" Ayaka replied, her voice filled with utter disbelief and a maddening, confused swirl of emotions.
"I… I hear what healin' potions are, of course, but… but aren't they supposed to be very, very expensive? Oni-san, where did you get one?" Ayaka pressed, looking deep into my eyes, and hers were now full of a confusing mix of awe, suspicion, and a definite, underlying bit of fear.
I just stared back at her coldly for a long moment, my expression unreadable, before deliberately lookin' away, ending that particular line of inquiry.