Down the bottom of the corridor [ P - Satsuki ]

[Uka]

So it was today. The day she had been feeling so nervous about. When had she been at the academy the last time? Far too long ago was the only answer that came to mind. It wasn’t really the actual place that worried her, no that was no concern at all, but rather whether the newer generation had the same opinions as the previous. There can be no doubt that many of the older citizens of Stone didn’t really like her due to who she was, but somewhere it worried her that younger people would take after them. It was quite possibly a stupid concern, but she just couldn’t get rid of it.

A sigh escaped the young medic as she walked down the long corridor towards the classroom she had been assigned. Sure her lesson would be an optional one, but she was just far too nervous about it. Maybe her choice of clothing was contributing to it? After all she had decided to leave behind her usual clothing and go with something more casual in the form of a pair of jeans with a white long-sleeved shirt. With the absence of the usual cloak her hair was hanging freely just about midway down her back, it really was a rather big difference from the usual. Leaving ones comfort zone really was a difficult thing, but still something that had to be done in the end of the day.

With each step forward her heart skipped more and more beats until she finally stood in front of the door. Badump Badump Badump. Her heart raced as she finally gathered the courage to open the door. It took her a few seconds to finally realize that the room was empty, quite possibly due to the fact that she had closed her eyes. A wave of relief passed her mind as she walked over to the desk, leaving her rather large shoulder bag on top of it. It contained everything she had prepared for the lesson, but by the looks the old rules may still hold true. Even if this was a school for future shinobi students still apparently avoided extra lessons. No surprise really. Then again Uka had arrived a little early so maybe someone would come. If it wasn’t that many people she would probably fare a lot better, but maybe having more would benefit her a lot more. She just had to try and get over her anxiety, but whether this was the day she would or not was still rather questionable.

Uka walked up to the blackboard behind the main desk and carefully wrote the following in white chalk:

Welcome to the optional session on Toxins and Venoms!
Your teacher for the session will be me – Uka
Feel Free to ask any questions you might have​

She placed the chalk back on the desk and took a seat on the empty chair,crossing her legs. Her eyes traced along the multitude of empty desks in front of her. Memories of lessons she had taken here rushed into her mind, but it was safe to say they weren’t the nicest of her life. Maybe now was the time to make some new and nicer ones. Only time would tell.



[Topic Entered/Created]
[Let the Tutorial Begin]

 

[Satsuki]

It was about time for some change, the young girl thought. She has had the same boring daily itinerary for the past what, six months or so? School, studying, errands, missions, home errands for grandma. The only solace the girl had was the occasional pranking of those that hated her for no reason. Even that has steadily declined as the months passed by. It was odd, but the girl found peace and excitement at the same time in reading. Books has brought her to different places around the world. She traveled with old merchants going east to west in search of treasure, fought in the last shinobi war with the heroes of her village, she even hunted mythical creatures both big and small. Satsuki's imagination grew vivid after every book, and this proved to be a huge stepping stone for the girl. Sure, there were a lot of words and phrases she couldn't understand, but her grandmother was always supportive of the girl and explained and taught and nurtured. Yes, books was the only new thing in her life at the moment. She wanted more. She needed more. This sort of child development had its pros and cons. She would grow up sharper and smarter than some other children, but she would be devoid of social learning. Well, she was devoid of it anyway, being an outcast and all. She was still stuck with the term 'traitor's daughter'.

The girl made her way through the familiar halls of the Academy. Her motive a bit different this time. Satsuki doesn't know if she would have classmates in this class or not. Before she started reading she didn't know the meaning of the word poison or venom, not until one of the older books that contained stories was she exposed to such horrible and at the same time beautiful words. This struck a curiosity for the girl. Her knowledge was very limited, almost nil. But this drove her to know more. She needed to know more. Her appetite for knowledge manifested itself the moment she opened the door to her first class and it has never ceased.

When she finally found the room, she knocked twice before entering. She has done this over a hundred times and still, every knock was accompanied by nervousness. Will the door open to a full house? She was terrified by those. Opening the door to find out the class was already full, the teacher already started discussing. The girl cleared her dry throat as she twisted the doorknob. As the door creaked open, she saw no one but a young woman seated at the front of the room. Satsuki blinked; she stared at the lady for a second. She had almost the same hair color. But what caught her attention were her eyes. They have different colors. Satsuki went doe-eyed before she willed herself to snap back to reality. She was here for a lesson, not stare at people. She took her first steps inside the room, closing the door behind her. The girl shook off the nerves, this is a new teacher, she told herself before speaking the first words,

"H-Hello ma'am. I'm Kanzaki Satsuki, I'm here for the class?" the girl uttered nervously. She stared at the blackboard, "toxins and venoms" it said. She knew the word venom, but she didn't know what a toxin is. She made sure to make a mental note of it to ask the teacher later. The girl walked to the chair nearest to her, and paused. Her eyes panned around the room again. Empty. She remembered courtesy. She stared at the teacher again and at one of the chairs in front. The girl swallowed what little saliva she had in her mouth and made her way in front of the class, sitting in front of the teacher. This was most uncomfortable, the girl thought as she rested her small notebook and pencil in her arm rest.

[Topic Entered/MFT]

 

[Uka]

The light knock on the door made Uka jump to attention. She had ended up loosing herself in thoughts about the equipment and materials she needed to restock her workshop with. It was quite the common occurrence and most of the time she ended up going into a world of her own. Sadly it seemed as if this was the case this time, making her almost fall out of her seat in surprise. In all honesty she wasn't actually expecting anyone to show up at all at this point. Somehow it made her both happy and terrified at the same point. "Come on in."<i></i> She finally brought herself to answer seconds before the door swung open. What awaited her on the other side truly was a surprise. If she didn't know better the medic would think someone had placed a mirror in front of her, but not a regular one, no rather a mirror that looked into the past. Just there beyond the door stood someone just as frightened as she was if not even more. Before she could even stop herself a gentle smile overtook her expression. It was just somewhat relaxing to see that she wasn't the only one terrified at this experience. Maybe everything had been useless worries again? For now it appeared to be that way. And so Uka lost herself in the moment, completely ignoring the fact that Satsuki was staring at her with a baffled expression, however that changed quickly. After all there were only two things that could end up making someone act like that - First the girl probably knew who Uka was, the outcast and monster the elders hated or secondly it was her eyes. Not many people were familiar with heterochromatic eyes, mainly due to their rarity. After all it was rare for someone to have partially different coloured eyes let alone two completely different colours, even if Ukas' weren't natural.

"Don't worry I don't bite. Take a seat.<i></i> The young medic said gently with the same smile from before. Luckily it looked as if it was working as the girl sat down and introduced herself. However it seemed like she was still nervous, which was something Uka wanted to try and get rid of, although how could she do that. Maybe some time was all the girl needed? Who knew for now. No matter it was time to continue. "A pleasure to meet you Satsuki-chan. As you can see from the blackboard my name is Uka."<i></i> She began in an attempt to break the ice. " By the looks it seems as if nobody else is coming, so why don't we begin. I am one of the Medics that work in Iwa and to be more specific I am an expert when it comes to Toxins and Venoms.<i></i> Uka said with the same tone as she stood up and walked to the blackboard, resting her back against it. Hopefully giving the poor girl some room would help her. Somehow it seemed as if in her attempt to help Satsuki the previously worried teacher had ended up forgetting her own troubles, but that was really for the best. "Here's a little question for you - Do you know what A medic is and what toxins and venoms are?"<i></i> She asked, her eyes shifting back to the board for a second before falling onto Satsuki.

There was one thing Uka couldn't get off her mind. The name Kanzaki just seemed familiar to her and she couldn't quite put her finger on it. 'Wait wasn't that...oh how ironic life is sometimes.' There really wasn't any surprise to be had as to why she knew it. After all who wouldn't know about someone who had lived such a similar life to herself, a life of struggles and loneliness. The Kanzaki diner was one she often visited with her father before he, well he had to go away. It was quite the scandal when his wife attacked her comrades. Uka had still been very young at that point, just about the time she graduated from the academy and first walked onto the medical scene. She remembered how everyone had treated the poor family and for once she had thought there was someone who knew her pain. Back then she was somewhat happy she wasn't alone anymore, but fear had kept her away back then and now Uka hated herself for having even considered it was a good thing. It really was ironic how similar the two people in the room were, but for now it was something the medic decided to keep to herself, a trump card you might call it for later use.

 

[Satsuki]

There tension in the air. A weird one. It wasn't hostile or violent nor did it bear the possibility of those, but it felt familiar for the girl. She was sitting stiff in her chair for a moment, listening to the teacher talk. This person felt familiar, though this was the first time that Satsuki has met her. This confused the girl a bit, but again she tried to shake it off. Satsuki listened intently to the initial words Uka said, especially the question. What was a medic and does she know something about toxins and venoms. The girl scratched the side of her head as she thought, little tidbits of information was all she has but in a classroom setting, she only needed those to spark the discussion.

"Well... Medics are doctors right? Like, they help patch up people when they get hurt or get sick." the girl answered anxiously. She had been treated by a couple medics in the past. A sprained this and a sprained that. She had been injured minimally for the past couple of years, but now that she has had a bit of training, she's become more agile and more quick-footed. She didn't know about the bigger details of the medical branch or its personnel, but a quick introduction on the basics would be welcomed by the child. Satsuki then thought about the second question, toxins and venoms. She knew what venoms are, but the word toxin was foreign to her.

"Uhm, venoms are poisons from snakes right? Like if you get bitten by a snake you get poisoned from its spit?" added the girl. She was limited. She knew she was limited but that was the reason why she was here. Her curiosity needed to be quenched and hopefully her teacher for this class would be able to help. She then raised her hand by instinct, even though she was the lone student of this class. Satsuki's face flushed, realizing the quirk. She let out a small awkward grin before speaking again. "But I dunno what toxins are Uka-sensei." Satsuki added briefly. It was a good thing that her teacher pronounced the word toxin because if not she'd be having a hard time trying to pronounce it by herself. The girl waited flat-lipped for the teacher's reply or reaction to her answers. She thought of herself as a clever kid, but being smart in some things doesn't make you smart in others.

 

[Uka]

"That is correct. Medics are doctors, which are now getting to be quite more common in Iwa. I am sure you met a Shaman before as well, the well older type of healer that resides here. I won't really go into the differences and how to two work now since that isn't the topic for today.<i></i> Uka didn't catch herself babbling until she had finally stopped. It really was a rare occurrence for her to have a proper social interaction with someone outside of a work environment, so it was technically a very new experience for her no matter how you looked at it. No matter all she had to do was adapt to it as quickly as she could, well they both could by the looks of it.

The teacher couldn't help but smile at Satsukis' small, but rather adorable blunder. It was a good sign that much was for sure, after all if someone is far too uptight they never let their guard down. Maybe the girl would warm up to her yet. " Indeed Venom does come from snakes yes, but I wouldn't quite describe it as being saliva rather a separate thing. As for toxins they are pretty much poisons, which aren't from snakes, but still from a living thing. It can be from plants or a different type of animal. To be completely accurate Venoms are also toxins, but just a branch of them."<i></i> Uka nodded slightly before giving her description. It seemed as if her little companion might actually know quite a bit, especially for someone her age. Not many people know what a venom is unless they have had first-hand experience with a snake, but that was quite rare considering the orientation and position of their home. She gently pushed herself off of the blackboard and walked over to the desk, unzipping her shoulder bag. "To put everything simply both Venoms and Toxins are different types of poisons."<i></i> The medic added as she carefully began taking out different shapes and sizes of small vials with differently-coloured liquids and labels. They were all carefully sealed with both a glass cap and a small amount of tape. She didn't usually secure them this much, but this time they were like this as a safety precaution. Each one had also been carefully wiped clean just to be sure. "Here is a little example of what a poison might look like in the form of a liquid.<i></i> Uka said as she pointed at the small bottles with her right hand. "Considering only you are here do you want to take a closer look at them? They are quite safe I assure you."<i></i> She added promptly before taking out one final vial and a set of two books, which were then placed to the side and away from the vials.

"People encountered poisons a long time ago, during times when we still heavily relied on getting out food purely from nature rather than making it ourselves like farmers do now. Back then they didn't know that poisons existed and there were no antisera or rather antidotes which cured them. Now we have a much wider knowledge base of what different types of poisons there are, how they can be made and we also have cures for them. However there are also many which are either unknown or we have yet to find a cure for them"<i></i> The medic started explaining slowly, trying to give the girl a decent idea of what she was talking about or rather going to talk about. Whether or not she was doing a good job was completely beyond her as she hadn't really done anything like this before. "That is where I come in. My job is mainly based around finding new poisons, cures and improving upon ones we already have, but I won't really bore you with any of the details. By the way do you know of any poison, poisonous animal or plant?"<i></i> The question was pretty much a way to engage Satsuki rather than a test of knowledge, because in the very small experience Uka had she remembered that many of the lessons stuck in her mind were the fun ones. Then again how could someone make a lesson on poisons fun? "Don't hesitate to stop me at any point and ask questions okay? I haven't really taught anyone before so this is a really new experience for me. I can't really say that my reputation around the village is that great......i'm sorry look at me babbling again haha."<i></i> She added quickly before Satsuki could reply. Her gaze dropped down to the floor for a second, but she quickly got her composure back and hid it all with a friendly smile.

 

[Satsuki]

Satsuki listened attentively as the teacher explained a lot of things a bit more in detail. Enough that the young girl would understand the more intricate facets of the subject. She tried to take note of as many things as possible in her doodle-ridden notebook. This was quite interesting, the girl thought. New things being explained immediately so she wouldn't linger for about a day or two before she could get the answer or explanation on something that got her interest. Her teacher explained what venom and toxins really are and where they come from. She also explained a bit of what a medic is, and a shaman, now that was something new. This was the first time the girl heard of that word.

Uka showed vials of poisons to the girl and urged her if she wanted to look at them. Satsuki nodded and got up, walked up to her teacher and examined them closely. As the girl picked up one bottle at a time, the teacher continued to explain the history of these things. She was still listening intently as she stared at the contents of each bottle one at a time. The girl turned to the teacher, "So, how'd you get these? You say from animals and plants 'an stuff?" Satsuki asked, wide-eyed and sparkly. She was having a good time at this point, thought a hint of social brashness started to ooze out a little bit. She was naturally loud and outspoken, but her situation made her keep her words to herself more as she grew older. There was still the small possibility of an accident, though it wouldn't be much of a concern since she was with a medic to begin with. After examining most of the bottles, the girl smiled as she walked back to her seat and the questions flowed. "How do you find new poisons? Like, do you go around crawling around places to look for animals and plants that have 'em?" the girl asked, the stream of thought slowly gaining speed in her mind. "...and how do you improve 'em? Do you make 'em more dangerous? Isn't that erm, dangerous?" the girl added innocently. Then she remembered that the teacher mentioned antidotes made out of poison, "Oh, and how do you make antidotes out of poison? Does that mean antidotes are poisons too?" the girl felt ecstatic and talkative. This was a clear indication that she wasn't anxious anymore. She was loving the topic, the teacher was nice, and she was the sole student inside the room.

Satsuki then remembered Uka's question if whether she knew any plant or animal that are poisonous. "Oh, oh. Yeah, snakes have poi--venom right? That's the only animal I know that has them. With plants... I dunno. But there was this time where I ate these berries in a bush when I went on an errand for the Embassy, I got sick when I got home. My grandma needed to take me to the clinic." the girl correcting herself early sentence. She needed to know where poisons come from so she could be careful not eating stuff or being bit by animals that have them.

"And what's a shaman?"

 

[Uka]

’It seems like it worked.’ She smiled to herself in her mind. It was, well, strange to see someone take an interest in her subject. Many people believed that poisons were a cowardly weapon and preferred not to use them, but in the end understood they were something necessary to increase their chance of survival. Then again opinions changed a bit too rapidly. ”Yes indeed. The thing is that different things are poisionous to different creatures, so for example something might be such for one animal, but not for another. It is a matter of finding an organism which contains a toxin that works no us and even then it is not guaranteed that it will work on absolutely everyone.”<i></i> Uka nodded and answered the question as fully as possible without going into real detail. As much as she wanted to know it was a little risky to teach a student how everything was done, that is for now at least.

When was the last time someone had truly looked at her with such an expression? In fact she couldn’t really remember. It was nice to see someone actually enjoy her presence for a change! Her eyes carefully followed the girl. Uka had taken as many precautions as she could to keep those vials safe for use, but one never really knew. ”You would actually be really surprised about that. In fact you don’t actually have to look that far to find something someone missed. All you have to do is find that something. Another method would be actually mixing different poisons with either similar effects or a wider array of effects in order to create something, well, more potent.”<i></i> The medic took a second to think about that answer. It wasn’t something you could really answer outright as that as there were far too many different variables and possibilities to look at. ”As for antidotes they are made of poison, but at the same time they are not. An antidote, in the case of venoms - antivenom and in the case of toxins – antiserum, is made through giving small amounts of a toxin over an extended period of time to an animal and then extracting the immune resonse it has generated from it to allow for a faster recovery of other patients. There are problems that can occur when using the immune response for a different animal on a human, but I’ll leave that topic for another time as it is a bit too complicated.”<i></i> She added a second later. There was quite a lot more to discuss on that topic, however it was quite doubtful it would be useful to someone as young as the student in front of her. Maybe one day, but not now.

It really was nice to see Satsuki relax as much as she did. In fact it probably helped Uka relax as much as she did even if the girl probably wouldn’t realise that. There was no doubt that no matter who you were the herd instinct always had some effect on you. If someone else around you was tense then you can’t help but feel so yourself. It was just a fact of the world. ” I’m honestly surprised there would be any poisonous berries in or around the village. I might need to check later just in case. After all those can be quite dangerous.<i></i> She added, nodding ever so slightly, but the next question caught her completely off guard? How did Satsuki not know about Shamans? After all they were the medics for the village up until quite recently. ”Shamans have been the medics of the village for a long time now. It was just recently that the actual Medics started working here. The main difference between the two is that the Shamans prefer to rely on the supposed spirits and Gods to heal people along with different herbs and Medics rely on their knowledge of the human body and their own ability to heal someone through medical ninjutsu and herbs.”<i></i> It was somewhat hard not to maintain a bias when explaining what the Shamans were. They weren’t exactly her favourite people after all and that was quite easily explainable when anyone looked at her past. Uka shook her head slightly to get rid of the thought. ”Taking into account there’s nobody else here how would you like to go do something interesting and a bit more practical?”<i></i> She quickly asked, trying to bury her previous thoughts as deep as she possibly could.

[MFT]

 

[Satsuki]

She was amazed with all the explanation. It was a bit hard to fully understand but she grasped most of what was being explained to her by Uka. Her right hand was writing itself off as she stared at the teacher. Her notes might be chicken scratches, but at the moment she didn’t really think about that. She was learning, and she was being schooled, at least with the basics of poisons and toxins.

Uka really explains these things really well especially downplaying the level of complexity for the student. The girl thought that for once there was a teacher who was really eager to teach her, not just having this misdirected sense of prejudice. She had wished she met this teacher a bit earlier. The girl shook off the thought again, she wanted to fully focus on the lesson. It was getting interesting. Having poisons affect one animal and others be immune to it sounded so nice. And how they make antidotes was really unique in the young girl’s mind. But as always she had questions,

“Wait, so to make antidotes, anti-toxins, and antiserum you need to actually poison an animal but in small portions? Won’t that hurt the animal or kill it? And how’d you know if its ready? I mean, do you take their blood or something?” the girl asked. This sounded very interesting to Satsuki, but it sounded odd. In her limited knowledge, poisoning meant death. If you poison someone or something and don’t go to the doctor’s the person or the thing will die. The teacher’s explanation disproves this small tidbit of her limited knowledge and this enthralled her. Satsuki continued to listen as Uka explained about Shamans. The teacher explains that they rely on preternatural forces to heal, which made the small girl chuckle, a bit hard.

“Wait wait, they what? I’m sorry Uka-sensei, they--- Spirits? Hahahaha… I mean sure, God is real I think, but spi---Haha—Erm.” the girl cracked up so hard in front of the teacher. She found this absurd and funny at the same time. She had this sense that a god or gods are real but conjuring spirits to heal was just plain insane to her. She realized that this was the first time she cracked up in a class, and was a bit regretful of it. She didn’t want to offend the teacher, and the young girl was starting to like her. “Uh, sorry ‘bout that ‘teach.” Satsuki said, a bit embarrassed of what just happened.


[sorry it took this long, i was just so tired from work =/]

 

[Uka]

” Yes to make antidotes you pretty much expose the specimen to small dosages of the poison and use the response their body does to create the antidote. It is a rather long and hard process really, but it does work. I really don’t like doing it, but this is really the only way to do it.”<i></i> Uka answered slowly, trying to figure out exactly how to word it. It wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to explain taking into account how difficult the concept actually was to many taught medics let alone a child at the academy. Getting into full detail was the easiest way, but it was also going to be pretty much impossible for Satsuki to understand. It really would be best to show it, but that wasn’t really going to happen now, maybe another day but not now.

”Oh it is quite alright. I myself dislike their mumbo jumbo, but that is the way of our world. Then again who are we to tell somebody else what to believe in? Doing that is far out of our rights. After all everyone has the right to believe in whatever they want to believe and choose to do whatever they want to do. Don’t you agree?”<i></i> The medic waited out the girls’ little laughing fit with a gentle smile. ”Anyway as I was saying any living creature that is exposed to poison has a response to it. The first time you have that response it is very weak and quite possibly won’t save you, but every one after that gets stronger and stronger, eventually making you almost immune to said poison. To explain this a little better….let’s see…”<i></i> Uka began, stopping about midway through. It was a lot easier trying to explain this to someone who was in her field and understood what she was talking about, but making it so a child could understand was rather difficult.

”Ah yes that should work. Do you know how when you get a cold for the first time in the winter you feel really sick, but when you get it again later you don’t feel nearly as bad? The concept is pretty much the same.”<i></i> The teacher finished her explanation. She was rather proud for coming up with that analogy on the spot. At least now she knew that for next time there was a lot more preparation to be done. ” Any questions so far?”<i></i> Uka asked before she went on to pretty much the final section of their little introductory session.


[Real life comes before anything else so don't worry about it and relax]

 

[Satsuki]

Satsuki listened as her teacher answered her questions patiently and explained more about it. The young girl’s attention and focus didn’t waver even when a small group of students can be heard running past the room outside. She wanted to actually see how the process of developing antidotes for venom and poisons are made, but at this point she was a bit hesitant. The girl didn’t want to come off as overbearing as a lot of people tell her so she reserved this thought for the moment. She continued to listen as the teacher found an example to explain how it worked, the common cold. Satsuki nodded, she already experienced this. “So, getting sick again and again makes you tougher against that illness right? I’ve had the worst sniffles one time then after that I never had that worse again. It’s like that right?” asked the girl. Uka then asked the girl if she had any more questions, of course she has.

“Yeah, uh… Are there poisons that have no cure? Like if you use it on an animal it dies? Like, even if you try treating it? And are there animals or plants that have these kinds of poisons?” the girl asked. She was wary of this. The knowledge was a welcoming comfort and burden. Now she has at least a good basic knowledge about these kinds of things but it made her more cautious about going around. “I wanna avoid ‘em as much as possible,” she added. Satsuki waited for the teacher to answer the questions. She was enjoying the class, a rare treat for the girl. She wished she would have classes similar to this again. She would bug Uka to teach her about toxins and poisons again after this, the girl grinned slyly from the thought.

 

[Uka]

There was just far much to really tell and far too little time to explain it all, but also it was just plain hard to try and explain these difficulty concepts so that a young person would understand. At least so far it seemed like she was doing a good job although that might only be because Satsuki appeared to be rather bright. Maybe she would be able to become quite adept at this art later? It really would be interesting to see. ” Yes it does and it is pretty much the same idea. A Poison is quite a lot stronger than a cold most of the time, so it takes more than just one single exposure to gain an immunity and most of the time it can be lethal especially if you happen to be poisoned in combat.”<i></i> Uka nodded and began yet another long explanation. She really had to work on making them shorter and more to the point, because right now there was just far too much information. How the girl was keeping her was absolutely crazy. ”I guess you could call this a cold that you can never really get over and always get the sniffles, but each time isn’t as bad as the previous one.”<i></i> With each metaphor it was just getting more and more confusing that much was for certain, but how exactly do you explain a concept such as this simply? You just plain can’t do it.

”Oh there are many poisons, which we can’t cure quite yet. Most of those are ones we haven’t discovered yet really. If we are only talking about poisons which we already know then not that many in all honesty. Off the top of my head I can think of about two or three really.”<i></i> The teacher answered plainly, her expression shifting towards one of deep thought. ”Of those three I have to say that very and I do mean very few people would actually know how to make them in the first place, so I wouldn’t worry too much about them”<i></i> She added with a light smile. What she said was the honest truth really. Uka was fairly sure that she was one of the very few people who actually know of the existence of some of those poisons let alone having a cure ready for them.

”I think it might be easier to show you what making an antisera takes to understand it really.”<i></i> The medic half-mumbled to herself as she quickly started packing her things into her bag. ”Can you pack your things up, Satsuki? I think I will show you a little bit of a treat as long as you want to see that is.”<i></i> Uka added as she placed the final vial into the bag and picked it up off of the desk. If Satsuki decided to follow then she would lead them towards her flower shop in the Sky Fall, but it all depended upon the girls decision.

 

[Satsuki]

The young girl tried to write down everything as much as possible, though at this point, she didn’t really have the capacity to. Satsuki continued to listen attentively, her focus still strong. One thing that her teacher said caught her attention though, that only a few people know how to make them. This sparked another jolt of curiosity from the girl. She added that to her list, make sure to study the art of poison making. This can come in handy, she thought to herself even if it will take years. Satsuki looked on as Uka continued her small lecture and pausing, telling her that it would be easier to see how these things are made. Her eyes widened in delight, a small catty smile formed on the girl’s face at the same time.

“Yeah I wanna see how it’s done!” the girl said, closing her small notebook, putting her pencil in her pocket before standing up. This is going to be fun, the girl thought. Of course she wanted to see that. She waited for the teacher to lead the way. Satsuki wasn’t just ecstatic; she was giddy as hell too. “So, where are we going sensei??” asked the girl. She waited, although she can’t wait. That was weird.

-MFT-

(Sorry for the short post, not really in the mood at the moment =/)

 

[Uka]

"That is good then. We will be heading to the Sky fall. I really doubt you will know the place, considering how few customers i actually get he hehe he."<i></i> Uka smiled, but soon her expression changed to one of light regret for the blink of an eye. Sure it was rare for her to get any costumers not actually looking for her skill as a poison maker, but she could still hope there was at least some looking for a florist. Well everyone can hope for something no matter how unlikely it was, especially due to reputation, hers being especially bad. It wasn't that Uka was bad at her craft, rather because of who she was. That isn't to see it wasn't getting better, in fact the more work she did as a medic the more people tended to visit her. "Let us go then. Now where was I?"<i></i> The medic nodded towards the door as she walked out. The fact they were moving to a different location didn't mean the learning had to stop, rather it gave more of an opportunity to continue. "If you remember I said that you expose a creature to the poison in order for it to make the antibodies and it is those that are used to make the antiserum? That as you guessed is done is through their blood. I will show you how that works, but pretty much it is ran through a Centrifuge then purified and made into the antiserum."<i></i> Explanations and more explanations. That was all she could really do without either saying too much or too little. Finding the right balance was really proving to be rather difficult.

"Also you need to be very careful about what animals you use. The main reason for this is that you might end up making things worse than they already are. Even though the DNA we have is quite close to all animals one small difference can have a large effect. For example you might actually end up with the so-called serum-sickness”<i></i> And here she absolutely failed to stop herself or even try to make it a little simple to understand. The entire idea of DNA was far beyond what a little girl would have to deal with. ”Whoopsie. I didn’t mean to go into that. Just don’t bother with that concept okay? It’s not something you’ll need for a rather long time if you ever need to worry about it in the first place. Anyway we’re here!”<i></i> Uka quickly tried to cover her little blunder as the two finally reached her little shop. The medic quickly unlocked the door and lead Satsuki to a room behind the counter. An aroma of all sorts of different flora filled the air, melding into what can be described as an overwhelmingly divine smell. After all not many places had this many different species of aromatic plants in them.
The back room was quite a bit different from the actual shop floor. All sorts of different gardening supplies covered the floor and there were only two things of note – a set of stairs leading down and a coat hanger with a couple of lab coats and a rather long dark-green one. Uka handed one of the coats to Satsuki and put a second one on herself before leading them down the stairs to a set of iron double doors. Just before them there was a table with a box of plastic gloves on it. ”Put a pair of these on and don’t touch anything I don’t tell you that you can touch okay? This room is cluttered with hazardous things”<i></i> The teacher said sternly as she put on a pair herself and unlocked the door.

In front of them stood what could be described as an overly-sanitized room. There were three sets of white tables one to the left wall, one to the right and one in the middle of the room. There was a large metal cabinet to the left of the room with a large white desk next to it on the right. In the right corner of the room there was a hatch on the floor with a rather huge lock on it. The table on the right hand side had multiple cages with white mice in them, but surprisingly there wasn’t any real smell coming off them at all. Maybe Uka kept things a little bit too clean at times. Next to those cages there was a rather strangle looking contraption made of glassware of all different shapes and sizes with a couple of metal containers in it for good measure. It was perhaps the most confusing-looking thing in the entire room. The table on the left hand side had multiple potted plants on it, most of which were very rare and wouldn’t really be seen in the wild. They were all in fact poisonous in one way or another…

”Home sweet home.”<i></i> Uka smiled as she opened her arms wide. ”Feel free to look around but don’t touch anything, okay? I’ll explain what most of the stuff is in a minute”<i></i> She added as a smile, letting Satsuki through.

[MFT]

 

[Satsuki]

Satsuki continued to listen as she followed Uka to her place. This would be the first time for the girl to have a lesson continue outside the Academy, which was a breath of fresh air for the girl. Those classrooms were boring her, let alone uncomfortable for her. She tried to keep up with Uka’s pace, but there were times that she couldn't understand what the instructor was saying. She made quick notes on her pad the things that made her confused so that she could ask the woman later. As they reached her shop, the girl became wide-eyed. “Ne, sensei, you have poisons in a place like this? Your shop is pretty…” the girl commented randomly as the woman opened the door and went in. naturally, the girl followed.

The smell welcomed her as she went inside. It smelled really nice, though she couldn't make sense of what this smell was though one thing was certain, it was glorious. Uka led her to a back room and told her to wear a coat which the girl did. She then led the girl down the stairs and told her to put gloves this time. This was weird, the girl thought. After some brief instructions they were in a clean room, one that the girl has not experienced up to this point. It was amazing, this room. It was obscenely clean for one; there were cages and animals and things she didn't know anything about. Satsuki continued to be doe-eyed as her eyes panned the room, still listening to Uka. What caught Satsuki was the table that had a lot of plants. They all looked beautiful and odd. She hasn't seen any of them outside which struck her curiosity yet again. “What are these plants, Uka-sensei? I've been to a lot of fields and forests but I haven’t seen any of ‘em outside. And what are those?” pointing at the glassware. She was giddy with excitement, and she was having a hard time not touching anything. It was against her nature to begin with.

 

[Uka]

Uka couldn't help but chuckle slightly as she stopped just in front of her shop and turned around. She waved her hand back and pointed towards the flowers covering the building. " Beautiful aren't they? An interesting thing is that most of the beautiful things in life are in fact poisonous. Flowers, some species of fish. There are many examples. "<i></i> The lecture began as she struggled to find words to describe what she was trying to say. "But yes This is my home, my shop and my workshop. You'll see what I mean soon enough."<i></i>

***

It was interesting to see how many times Satsukis' expression changed from entering the shop to entering the lab. Seeing someone who is as interested in her art as she was. This was by no means a beautiful art, but it was one nevertheless. All the work that went into making even a single antidote was days upon days worth of time and very few people did what she did. "Those plants are all poisonous in one way or another even if they don't look it. The first one has a toxin within it's stem, the second one within the flower and the third within the roots for example."<i></i> Uka answered, leaving enough time for Satsuki to look around. There was no point in bringing her here if she was just going to rush the poor girl. It was sort of funny how one of the very few people who had seen this place was in fact a student. No matter. The girl seemed to be having fun and that was everything that mattered. "Okay then. How about I tell you what everything is?"<i></i> The teacher said with a smile as she lead the way to the desk. She unlocked the cabinet next to it and took out a rather bulky-looking machine, which she carefully put on the desk before locking the cabinet again. "This is called a centrifuge. Remember how I said the antiserums are made from blood?"<i></i> Uka pressed down on the large button on the lid of the machine and carefully opened it, letting Satsuki take a better look. "This machine spins the blood at such a speed that it ends up splitting into multiple parts, which you can then separate."<i></i>

The medic finished her explanation and moved onto the large glassware contraption, giving her student enough time to inspect it. " After taking the blood out from the centrifuge I put it into this. Its' purpose is to further split the part of the blood that you are using, namely the plasma. You do this pretty much through heating and cooling, but there is quite a lot of steps to it and i can't really explain them well. To put it simply what you get in the end is pretty much the ready anti-serum"<i></i> She explained, not noticing she was starting to use heavy concepts yet again. It was just a flaw of hers, considering how limited her communication with people was, so there wasn't that much to do about it as is. "Normally people doing work like mine would test their serums and poisons on animals, but I've never really done that and I've just kept them as pets. Anyway how about you ask me any final questions before we finish this lesson"<i></i> Uka smiled and waited.


[MFT]

 

[Satsuki]

The girl learned that not all beautiful things were harmless. Some of the most beautiful things that she saw were in the room with her, and they were some of the most poisonous plants out there. She contemplated it for a moment, so, maybe if some of the prettiest things in the world are some of the most dangerous, maybe some of the ugliest might be some of the most beneficial? This confused her a little bit, but she shook it off. Satsuki then turned her attention to the weird contraption. It was a centrifuge, Uka said. It splits up blood many times which the girl didn’t fully grasp. Her teacher’s explanation was simple enough but it still confused her. She didn't know that blood can be split in different bits and pieces. Before this, she knew blood was just a red liquid that comes out of the body, that broadened a little bit.

“So, how do you know which part of the blood you need for the serum? And how do you know if you need to heat ‘em up or let them cool off? ‘sides that I’m good with the lesson sensei,” the girl asked. This lesson was very beneficial for her, and she wanted to know more. But she knew that the woman had other things to do and they were about to wrap up the lesson. This was bittersweet for her, but she had this feeling that she could come by again to learn more from Uka. She looked at the small animals, they were cute. She couldn't fathom why people would test things on these small creatures. Maybe someday she’d find out for herself. Maybe when she grew up a little bit would she get the answers she wanted. The girl rested her elbows on the table, resting her face on her hands in return as she stared fondly at the mice while they played.

-MFT (320 wc)-

 

[Uka]

"Well.... To put it this way, ehm. Our blood is made up of smaller parts, but primarily of Blood plasma, red blood cells and white blood cells. There are many different other parts, but I really don't want to try explaining those right now. What you use is within the blood plasma."<i></i> Uka began a fairly weak attempt to explain, but there really wasn't that much point in doing so. Sure she could go into great detail and explain absolutely everything but that was pointless right now, because Satsuki wouldn't understand even half of what she would say. "I'll leave it at this for now and you should be happy I cleaned this room in the morning, because I was mixing poisons there yesterday evening."<i></i> She noted as Satsuki half-laid down on the table. "Anyway lets head back up. I just hope they don't end up yelling at me for taking you out of the academy."<i></i> The medic sighed and waited for her student to head up the stairs.

[Sorry i'm apparently really writers blocked because i want to go finish my new DLC]

[Tutorial finished]
[Topic Left with Satsuki]