My Second Home Is Where The Heart Is [Erica, Ranma]

There was a noticeable raising of the eyebrows as Erica headed towards the room of her next patient, green eyes glued to the notes that were attached to the clipboard in her hands. She'd come across her fair share of gung ho types in her time but from what she was reading, this guy just seemed to love hurting himself. It was a concerning scenario and while the healer had her usual smile across her face to relax those around her, she was slightly worried. Constantly this Ranma was coming to her barracks with the same injuries and Erica couldn't help but think that perhaps it was deliberate self harm. If it was, then she'd put a stop to that, for not only was it her duty but also because she just hated seeing anyone in pain. Hated it with a passion.

Before she could enter the room, a rather frustrated looking nurse came out to meet her, much to the chagrin of the pink haired healer. She recognised the annoyed expression instantly, having been on the receiving end of it a few times herself in the past. Erica kind of felt sorry for the guy who had just had to deal with this steely eyed gaze and before she could say hello, the nurse spoke first.

"Good luck trying to get Ranma to listen to anything you say because it just goes in one ear and out the other with him."

Before Erica could say a word, the nurse bustled past her and off down the corridor with her muttering and mumbling being easily heard by all those that she walked past.

"Cheerful as always." Erica uttered to herself, once the coast was clear and with a chuckle, before entering the room.

Her chuckle only lasted up until the point that she set eyes on her patient, who was laying on the bed, with the brows of the pink haired healer soon enough furroughing with concern. He looked like he'd been in a fight with a menos or something and she wasted no time in approaching him, her healer senses already running rampant as she began to look him over. The notes had said that he'd managed to do all this from a fall and she didn't even need to look over the details again to understand the kind height that he must have jumped from.

Without any hesitation, she'd place her clipboard on the table beside his bed and start to tap into her kido powers, with the result being that her hands would turn a light shade of blue. Placing them just above his body, she'd then start the process of healing him, her green eyes starting to glow a little as she worked. There'd be no pain for him and more than anything, it should have felt quite relaxing and it was Erica herself who'd probably feel the fatigue later. Yet, she was skilled and hadn't trained in the field for nothing.

Her gaze turning to look at him in the eyes, she'd take the time to introduce herself.

"Hi there. My name's Erica Tolvan and I'll be the one taking care of you today. You've certainly taken quite the battering here and I'd very much like to hear about just why you've been jumping off of so many high buildings. It seems that you've been doing this regularly and I'm concerned about your well being."

… Something about her lifting brows at the sight of him implied that she was someone new here. Also, the fact that this was the first time he laid eyes on this beauty should’ve made it even more likely to be the case. For a moment of silence, Ranma simply glared back at her approach, wondering just how furious this Kidō specialist would be with him if the previous nurse was anyone to go by.

“…”

He really didn’t want to leave such a bad impression on this Second Division member, though. Nay, he didn’t want the entire Squad to be sick and tired of his shit, but… strangely, imagining this bright flower getting angry at him felt utterly painful. She was dedicated to her work, shown by her immediate cast of refreshing Kidō that Ranma had to learn a little more about lat- wait, yeah! He did forget to practice a little more Kidō from that guy back at his barracks! Bollocks…

She introduced herself as Erica Tolvan. Her cherry-flavored hair with watermelon-green edges did intrigue him more than he’d like to admit – an oddly pleasant overall… oh… wait, yeah, his training. Would she laugh at him if he revealed it? Bro, don’t even try! It was a dumb mistake, she won’t like to hear any of that!

Where the hell did you come from?

Me? I’m your thoughts, dumbass. She’s hella cute, though, you shouldn’t scare her away with your ridiculous ideas for ‘training’-

Who the hell are you to call me out on my bullshit?!

I AM YOU!

“… Was just practicing with my Zanpakutō, but it just, y'know, got a little out of hand,” he finally cracked, trying to sound confident under his bandaged mask, “Gotta stay sharp, even when boring myself to death in the Soul Society and all… also, appreciate it. The healing and all.” If he was going to stay here for a bit, he might as well make the best of his time with what was in front of him – a quite attractive Shinigami as his present company. “Erica, eh? Sweet name you got. Mine’s Ranma… Ranma Gekiretsu.”

He didn’t give her much of an answer as to why he was leaping off of buildings and the pink haired woman wasn’t entirely convinced by his story. It showed a little on her face too and didn’t do an awful lot to ease her concerns. Given the amount of times that he’d already been in the infirmary and his seemingly complete lack of care towards his own safety, Erica couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that he’d probably end up back under the care of the second division again at some point.

“You’re quite the sweet talker and I appreciate the compliment, Ranma, yet you didn’t answer my question. I don’t understand why you feel the need to risk your life by trying to leap to your doom. I’m no expert on communicating with zanpakuto and mastering its abilities but there’s surely a safer way to do it. Honestly, it sounds to me as though you have a death wish and that’s something that many of the nurses have written down in your notes too. If you need to talk to someone about what’s going on in your head then I’m all ears. Your mental health is just as much a priority to me as your physical.” Her tone was soft and she spoke in such a way so that it wouldn’t appear to be a scolding. She was just worried about him and from what she’d heard so far, Erica had every right to be.

Her attention would be perfectly split between her words and her actions though, with her hands adjusting slightly as she maintained her focus. She had a lot of work to do here and while for the moment, Erica was focused on his torso, she’d soon enough be moving along to sort out the rest of his issues. His legs were in fairly bad shape and she wasn’t all that eager on leaving them that way for long.

There was something else as well and after a few moments of silence, she’d add with a touch of dry humour. “Unless this is to do with your insatiable lust for booze. That’s something else that’s mentioned in your notes.”

Oh? Well, he could take a compliment anywhere, anytime. It was nice to know that his sweet talk landed we-

Oh. Damn, she called him out immediately… shit. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to be clearer, but he thought that keeping his training hush hush for now was preferred. Y’know, in case people got the wrong idea of him. He wasn’t that besides himself, after all – if you were to ask him, he’d say that he was pretty alright, after all. So why have people worry over someone who deserved no worries?

Yet, her quick reminder of his dodgy nature made his bones freeze up. Well, ain’t that suspicious of me, he thought to himself, seeing what Erica could see when she speculated if he had a death wish of some sort. Nah, nah, noooooo… he was just training, yeah? Training! It wasn’t that seri-…

He didn’t really like being reminded that he’d frequented the Kidō Corps’ barracks this many times, and it really came off as an embarrassing trait of his – yes, at first he found it to be some sort of banter, a joke that they could have fun with, but maybe he was actually, really getting on everyone’s nerves. Just like he used to get on the nerves of those punks back in his District… he was just causing trouble for everyone, wasn’t he? Well, fuck those punks back then, and f-

Huh? She really wanted to talk about it? It… made Ranma blush a little. Or maybe that was his lungs escaping the sore pain from earlier as Erica’s Kidō spell was beginning to work wonders. Or maybe it was because that she was such a beautiful woman treating his sore wounds with such care. Or maybe it was because the sake from earlier was still running in his blood stream.

“… H-Heh?!” he coughed sharply, turning his face to the side with a flustered face and crossed arms upon her sake joke, “Insatiable? I’ll have you know that I can perfectly hold my liquor, Erica… no clue why they’d write something like that down- okay, maybe I brought it with me here, but… listen, I just have some baggage that I’m not good at dealing with, okay? That gourd really helps, trust me…” Help, huh… maybe that was the wrong term. It did help him forget, though.

“If you wanna listen, then… s-something specific you want to know? I love your hair, by the way.”

He was relentless with the sweet talk and if the situation wasn’t serious then Erica might have been a little more responsive to it but as it was, she was determined to keep the conversation focused on where it should be. Ranma opened up a little bit, at least, which was a good start although Erica couldn’t help but believe that he was drinking to get away from his problems. That’s what it sounded like and when you put that together with his numerous accidents, it painted an unpleasant picture and one that the healer didn’t like at all. Whatever baggage he was carrying, it seemed clear that it was having a negative effect on him and the pink haired woman honestly thought that bringing it out into the open would help in the long run. Bottling up your worries never solved anything, it simply made everything worse.

His torso was healing nicely and as she continued her work, Erica began to extend the range of her kaido, so that it began working on his damaged legs and shoulders. The green eyed shinigami adored the healing arts and even though it forced her to face some of the most horrible wounds, the ability to do something about them was enough to bolster her resolve. One day, she truly wished to be able to heal any wound and that was a goal that pushed her onwards every day. There were those who probably wished for the power to destroy hollows but Erica didn’t want it for that purpose. To save a life was so much more rewarding in her opinion. A lesson that she had learned from her mother, when she was just a small child.

“I’m not going to strap you down and force you to tell me anything but you might feel just a little better if you do. We all have periods of our lives that we aren’t proud of, mistakes that we’ve made or choices that we wished we’d picked differently but we can’t change the past. All we can do is learn from it and keep pushing forwards. It sounds to me as though you’re drowning your sorrows in order to shield yourself from the past and are pushing yourself beyond your limits in an attempt to cause permanent harm to yourself or worse. We’re going to be here a while though, so you might as well take the chance to open up to me while you’re here. Nothing you say will go beyond the walls of this room and I won’t write a word of it in my notes. Just tell me a little bit about yourself to start with and we’ll go from there.”

A smile crossed her features then and there was just a momentary sparkle in those green orbs of hers. “You can keep going with the compliments too while you’re at it.”

Would he genuinely feel better if he started opening up to her and actually spoke about the dumb stuff that grinded at the walls of his brain on a daily basis? Like… he desperately wanted proof that it’d work, but all he had was her words. And yet, the more she talked, the more… reassured he felt. He began feeling that she’d be able to help. Her ears could carry his words and give him some form of relief. Maybe this would actually work.

And she even promised to keep it hush hush, which he strongly appreciated at this point. No desire in letting the rest of the Kidō Corps know about what had brought him to this place so many times… they’d all hate him. Definitely. But this lass seemed far friendlier, and… o-oh? Oooohh?

“Well… *sigh* heh, alright, alright. I’ll take you up on that,” he sighed in relief, feeling more validated for his clear attempts at complimenting her earlier, “Where do I even start… my ridiculous Zanpakutō, or my stupid nickname…” His arms felt stingy for crossing them, so he let go and let them rest along his sides until Erica got to treating them as well. He’d really made a mess on himself this time… but he just wanted to get stronger…

“Ever heard of the Venge-… wait, no, that’s a dumb question. Someone as fine as you couldn’t possibly have spent any time at my District,” he began explaining of the very beginning, or somewhere close to that, “I think I still got it in me, y’know… the slum punk. The street fighter. But can you blame me? I had to thrive, somehow.”

He really wanted to cross his arms again, but knowing how much that’d hurt, he refrained from doing so with sheer willpower. He did look visibly upset, though. “I like being a Shinigami, but… I’ve hurt a lot of people before. A lot. I even got a nickname for it – Vengeful Retsu, they called me back then. And here I am, jumping around in your uniform, thinking I’m any better than before… at one point, it just hurts to talk about myself. I’d much rather talk about you and how gorgeous you are… but a promise’s a promise.”

*Cough, cough*

“Okay, I don’t care if it’s sake or a cup of lemonade, I got to drink something.”

The hands of the healer continued to move as she listened, now having moved on completely from his torso and down towards his wounded knees and legs. They’d taken the brunt of the fall and Erica could detect the stress that they were under even now. Dedicating some time to them, the pink haired squad two member would do her utmost to bring him comfort, her reiatsu feeling like a comforting blanket around his own. Of course, she hoped that perhaps it would help soothe his restless spirit a little as well although Erica knew that it was going to take more than that. He had his burdens and from the sounds of it, they were severe. The nickname that he mentioned was not one that she’d ever heard of before but honestly, she didn’t need to. It painted quite a mental image for her and his words only confirmed it.

“I don’t know much about the higher numbered districts, except what all shinigami are told but I can only imagine just how tough it was for you to have to grow up living there. Fighting is key to survival in such places, isn’t it? Where the seediest of the soul society spend their lives. It’s not a place that I’d like to grow up in but the fact that you’ve made it here and want to change is surely a sign that you want better for yourself, right? It’s like I said before, you’re never going to forget your past and it’ll always be a part of you but surely you can use all that experience for good, yeah? You obviously can do it, having got through the academy and into the eight division and clearly you have the potential, so what’s holding you back still? Are you afraid that Vengeful Retsu will appear when you least suspect it and harm those you mean to protect or those in your squad?”

She’d pause her healing then for a moment and move to a jug of water that was placed by his bed, pouring a glass of water for him. “I’m afraid that water is all I can offer you at the moment and there’s no way that I can let you have alcohol while you’re here. I haven’t gotten around to healing your arms just yet though so you’re going to have to let me help you sit up. You don’t mind, right?”

What a strangely comfortable warmth that raced up his legs and torso. It only strengthened his admiration of the cherry-slash-lime-haired mistress of magic treating him, especially when she confirmed his belief that she hadn’t anything to do with the high-numbered districts, including the 71st where he came from. He quickly nodded, agreeing with her words – while it hurt to say so himself, fighting was key to survival there. He couldn’t have simplified it better himself.

… So him getting to this point, as a Shinigami and an Eighth Division member, did prove as a stamp of honor on his soul, no? It sounded obvious! He made it! He made it! So what was poking at his heart, then?! Shame?! Regret?! Sure, he left his parents behind, but they had left him behind ages ago! He’d already lost the two only real parents he’d ever had – there was nothing left for him back in the 71st District.

He'd mourned their deaths the only way he could back then… by punching jaws off. He’d gotten his revenge, and he wasn’t a liar – it felt exhilarating. Something sure as hell snapped in him back then, but was it his sanity or his humanity?

He hated it, though. He came to realize that – he hated losing himself like that. It was so tedious, tiresome, exhausting and braindead! He’d tried to distract himself with delights and fun hobbies like traveling around, getting drunk and sword sparring. Numbing his injuries with what his hands could get a hold of…

All these thoughts were numbing his brain, making it feel sore and bruised as if having been bombarded with loud music for hours… who knew that someone like Erica could shatter his inner turmoil with a single question? A singular hunch… that maybe it wasn’t that he feared wasting his own time.

But he feared inconveniencing others. He really did… he feared hurting others like he hurt those punks back at his District. As if… as if he ever got angry within the Soul Society, then it’d end up in another beatdown. Another incident. Another fit of rage, and another rumor dirtying his name. It explained why he was preoccupied with pleasantries so much – to prevent anger from boiling over. Yet, deep inside, he was angry, angry, an-

Wait… huh, his heart tickled for a moment. He reflexively rested a hand right on his chest as she offered him clear water, feeling his stinging fingers caress the bandages covering his torso. He could still feel his heart beating, but now, he was distracted by the promise of a drink. “… I don’t mind. Hey, you have a pretty good point,” he spoke up, granting her permission to help him refresh his system, “I mean, I don’t speak for Vengeful Retsu here… nobody does. I’m just Retsu- I mean, Ranma… yeah. That’ll teach them all to not fear me – that’s the last thing I want.”

Yeah… he found peace in that statement. He found himself content with his goal to not scare his allies - he wore the bandages over his mouth for a reason, after all.

“… Oh, almost forgot to compliment you again- I feel pushy for flirting with someone who clearly must’ve been asked out a thousand times already. No shot you’re not seeing anyone right now…” Aww, okay, that made his face frown a little, as if the thought of her seeing someone genuinely saddened him. Then again, with her gentle nature, her warm approach and her awe-inspiring looks, it seemed too… obvious.

Now that she had his permission, Erica would take the utmost care in helping him up into a sitting position, doing her best not to cause him any discomfort. She was confident that his body would be alright now but there was still work to do. She’d need to get back to working on his knees soon and the healer didn’t want to waste any more time than she had to in getting to work. So far, the pink haired kaido user didn’t feel all that fatigued herself, mainly due to the many hours that she’d put into increasing her skills in the field. The infirmary was where she wanted to be and Erica had focused her entire time in the academy in achieving that. It wasn’t easy but she’d stayed the course, thanks to her parents' support and her own determination. She took so much satisfaction from her work and every day was another chance for her to help those in the greatest need. It lit a fire under her that never seemed to go out and she experienced such joy in what she did.

Erica only opened her mouth again once she was sure he was resting comfortably. “You don’t need to be Vengeful Retsu anymore, Ranma. There’s no longer any need for you to have to be that scrappy brawler from Rukongai who got in fights all the time. Sure, there are going to be times where you’re going to be under stress while on the job but you’re a shinigami now and we fight to protect the soul society and the innocent. We’re a shield against those who seek to harm us and I want you to remember that whenever you use your fists from now on. Leave Retsu where he should be.”

She was about to help him with the water when he complimented her again and his suggestion simply caused her to shrug her shoulders. “No, I’m not seeing anyone, if you want the truth. I’ve spent so much time with my training and work that I haven’t had much time for it. Oh, I get the odd compliment now and again but it never goes past banter.”

It was then that she raised the cup to his bandaged face, curious as to just why he was wearing them. She didn’t detect that his jaw had taken any damage. “I’m going to need to lower these if you want a drink. Is that alright with you?” It might have seemed like a stupid question but from what she’d learned about him already, Erica assumed that there was a reason why he wore them.