Page 327 of Mercy Written in Blood

Sakamoto turned immediately.

"Start another unit."

"We have. He is not responding."

Renji stepped past him. Sakamoto caught his arm. For one moment, the corridor became still. Renji looked down at the hand. Sakamoto released him. Not because Renji threatened him. Because he saw something in Renji's face and understood that force would be answered.

Renji entered the theatre.

The human body did not care who loved it. It responded to pressure, oxygen, temperature and time. That had always comforted Renji. Grief could not bargain with physiology. Devotion could not seal an artery. Love did not make blood clot. The body obeyed laws more ancient than emotion. Haruki's body was breaking them one by one.

The surgical field exposed the damage beneath his ribs. Blood filled the abdominal cavity despite suction. The liver wound had been packed. The splenic artery remained inaccessible behind swelling and torn tissue.

Dr Nakagawa stood on Haruki's left, hands deep within the abdomen.

"Clamp."

A nurse passed it. Nakagawa adjusted. The monitor alarm changed.

"Pressure fifty-eight."

Renji stepped to the table.

"What is the source?"

"Splenic hilum and posterior liver. Possibly lumbar."

"Possibly?"

"We cannot visualise."

"Move."

Nakagawa looked at him.

"Doctor—"

"Move."

Something in Renji's tone ended discussion. Nakagawa shifted half a step. Renji took his place. His hands entered Haruki's body. Warmth surrounded his fingers. Human heat. Blood. Damaged tissue.

The intimacy of surgery had never felt improper to him before. The body became anatomy under his hands. Not less human. More. Everything unnecessary removed from consideration so the life beneath it could be preserved.

But this was Haruki. Renji knew the shape of his wrist beneath a coat sleeve. The exact pause before his quietest jokes. The way he held coffee when it was too hot and pretended it was not. He knew the warmth of Haruki's mouth. Now his fingers movedbehind Haruki's liver, searching for the place where his blood escaped. The contradiction should have broken him. Instead, calm settled. Not numbness. Clarity.

Renji identified the torn vessel.

"Posterior branch."

Nakagawa leaned closer.

"I can't see it."

"You do not need to."

Renji guided the clamp.

"Here."