It was only just barely morning, but Nozomi was already finding something to keep herself occupied. The front wall of sickbay had already had everything removed from the shelves, scrubbed out, dusted, relabeled if it needed it, and put meticulously back in place by her small hands. She was moving clockwise in a small dirth of half-manic cleaning, and looked about ready to tackle the next wall.

Blowing her bangs out of her eyes for a moment, she stretches out a cramp that had been building in one arm, and then begins the process all over again on wall number 2.

A pale figure, clad in the legion 'uniform' shuffled its way to the sick bay, a hand pulling the curtain away as he entered the room. Noting that that room was occupied, the man was a startled, shrinking a little away from the rooms sole occupant, before remembering his manners.

"Good morning, Shiba-san." he bobbed his head to her. He was pale, to a degree that was somewhat unhealthy. His eyes were bloodshot, and his hands shook ever so slightly as the man greeted his fellow shugenja.

"I didn't know you were here.

She looks up, her expression going completely empty. Her small, soft voice has a similar flatness to it."O-ohaiyo, Iuchi-sa-sama. If y-you need a sl-sleeping tonic, th-they're on the l-le-left."

A half-hearted bow from her seat follows and her milky eyes follow him about the room, but fail to meet his at all.

"Thank you..." he noted faintly. Walking to the shelf she had indicated. The man looked around for a while, and then picked up a jar, pouring a small portion of its contents to a small leather bag he had brought with him. "It's the sea, you know. It is in anguish..."

Looking around, the man tried to locate the remedy he wanted.
"And... some ginger." the man added. "I may have an ailment of fire.."

"T-Top shelf, l-left s-side, third b-bin."

All attempts at cleaning stop and she looks at her hands for a while. "I know..."


Much later, and so soft it could have been just a whisper from the damnable wind, "I was almost tensai."

"Thank you." he nodded to her, still too weak to smile properly before reaching for the ginger. The man opened the container, and took a small piece of a dried root, before throwing it into his mouth. Most people might have enjoyed the root by diluting diluting it in a cup of hot water, but Xiao Hua had decided that he needed sterner stuff.

Wincing, he chew on the piece, before finally swallowing it.

"Hmm?" the man asked, curious. Maybe there was something to this minuscule Phoenix. Other than her stubbornly simplistic view of the world.

All of a sudden, she's very preoccupied with the number of things she's trying to do at once. Which, in the instant he indicates he's heard what she said, is about forty. Accidentally jamming a finger against one of the upright shelf supports in her haste, she lets out a timorous cry.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice carrying a hint of concern. Stepping closer to the petite girl. This distance between the two was not overtly intimate, but they were certainly closer to each other than normal interaction required.

"No! No, I'm not a-a-alright. S-suitengu-no-kami is w-wailing n-n-non-stop and there's nu-nothing I can d-do to help h-him." Her petite arm flails towards the side of the ship as she says this.

"Is-Isawa O-Washi-g-gunzo and I-I-Isawa Junpai-s-sama are in p-pain, and there's n-nothing I can d-do to h-h-heal them," The little tanned hand points vaguely in the direction of the crew quarters and then somewhere on deck in an uncontrolled motion. "N-n-nothing..."

She stands and faces the Iuchi, her face stricken, one hand fidgeting with her necklace.

"I d-don't know wh-where I am, I c-c-can't cast any sp-spells, g-getting sl-sleep is difficult, th-there's su-someth-thing out there... wu-wanting to get in h-here... and th-there's no s-s-sun. And then you c-come in here asking me r-ri-ridiculous questions. So n-no, Iuchi-sama. I'm n-not ok. "

Nozomi seems pretty defeated by it all and just stands there looking... lost. A twinge in her finger causes her to look at it blankly.

"... and now my finger hurts." The last point seems so menial on top of all the very real concerns, but for some reason it seemed like the only thing left to say.

Oh dear...

"Erm... "

How did one tell to a nervous wreck that you just tried to be polite. Especially if you weren't feeling too good yourself either. Especially as the nervous wreck seemed to have a temper of an Isawa. The answer dawned to the man. Carefully.

"I am sorry... I just..." he sighed, standing on spot, his shoulders slumping downwards. "I know..." he sighed. "At least about the sea, believe me, I know. It's just awful... well, you know." the man sighed again, shooting a quick glance at the direction of her finger, trying to see if she had managed to cut herself. Blood wasn't something he wanted on himself. Not in a place like this.

"I was just trying to be... kind." he told her, tilting his head to the side, trying to meet her gaze with his.

Her finger wasn't bleeding, just beginning to look a little red. It was hardly a wound at all.
I'm NOT worthless... and I'm not going to cry. Not here, not now... not for this... this...silliness.

She takes a deep, ragged breath. "Ah." She really had no idea what to say to that. Just trying to be kind.

"A-arigato, Iuchi-sama."

Seeing the woman.. girl.. woman calm a little, the man relaxed as well. "No problem." he nodded to her, too tired to smile.

"You said something about Isawa-gunso and Isawa-sanbeing in pain?" he asked her. "Isawa-gunso... is suffering from the same problem as we are,isn't he? But what about Isawa-san?"

Fulmar... I hope that he didn't hit anyone. Xiao Hua didn't mean punches.

"They're essentially t-trained the su-same. Tensai. So it's w-worse... m-much w-worse" Nozomi applies pressure to the finger with her other hand, pressing it against her lap.

"Oh... I thought he was more attuned to the kami of the air... Then again, the air must be bad here as well." he sighed, a beginning of a headache making it's presence know around his right temple. Rising his arm to rub the spot, the man groaned quietly.

"At least this is going to end, sooner or later." he added, meekly. It was all the comfort he could offer.

"If it's a h-h-headache, we c-can make it s-sooner rather than l-later..." She moves some of the things sitting on the floor next to her out of the way and reaches for a few different cans and jars. Rejecting a few in favor of others, she hands them to him one at a time.

"Try th-these."

"Thank you. It's just this... whole mess." Now it was his turn to wave hand in a motion that encompassed the ship and the sea.

"What is this?" he asked her, taking the items to his hand, too distraught to avoid direct skin contact.

"Dried Ab-abalone, Mulb-berry Twig, Cat's Cl-claw, Fushen, and a f-few other things. H-headache re-rem-remedy."

She carefully places her hands in her lap after passing the items off to him, quietly rubbing at the spot where their skin came in contact.

"Taken with hot water, no?" he inquired before pocketing the items, wondering why the girl was rubbing her hand. "Are you sure your hand is fine? I can take a look if you want..."

She looks at him curiously, neatly tucking her hands underneath herself, "No! Er...hai, I'm f-fine... ano... Iuchi-sa-sama... you're supposed to grind them up first... and you d-don't need th-that much..."

Was he really just about to walk out with the ship's supply of those things? Must be a worse headache than she thought...

"Oh erm.. right." the man replied, embarrassed, digging out the jars, laying them on a crate near by. "Sorry... I... didn't get much sleep last night."

Opening the first of the jars, the produced another small leather pouch from his clothes, dropping a pinch of the dried, ground abalone to it. "Really sorry..."

"Maybe you should show that hand to someone...?" he added, the concern in his voice hidden by his drowsy appearance.