It was a hot and peaceful day, and Kosuke hadn't expected anyone else to follow him after the bandits, so when he felt the sharp prick in his neck, he at first thought it might have been a bee sting. All of a sudden though, he felt rather woozy and drowsy.<span style="font-style: italic">I'm not allergic to bee stings,</span>he found himself thinking.<br/><br/>Tentatively, the traveler reached up to his neck and was alarmed to find something sticking out of it.<span style="font-style: italic">A dart?</span>Immediately his healer's mind began a self-diagnosis. Based on the slight churning sensation in his stomach and the increasing effort it took to stay awake, there had to be some sort of sleeping drug in the dart. But he couldn't exclude the possibility of poison. He shouldn't pull the dart out just yet as sometimes that causes any poison that had not yet been released to spread faster.<br/><br/>Carefully he felt the dart. It appeared to be the kind where you filled an inner cavity with poison instead of dipping it. This kind was useful as there was less chance of the user being poisoned when firing it. With one hand Kosuke carefully held the base of the dart in his neck. With the other he broke off the end of the dart. With a slight tip of his head all the poison that hadn't been released poured out the end. And now Kosuke carefully pulled out the dart, straight the way it had come in. Luckily there were no barbs on it.<br/><br/>If the dart had been filled with an exact dosage then he probably had a bit more time before the poison took full effect, but he couldn't be sure. Kosuke took a few seconds to desperately try to identify the poison. It had qualities of several he knew, but it was none of them. Someone must have created this one themselves or else he'd know about it.<br/><br/>He couldn't identify the toxin, but he would still have to do his best to neutralize it. Neutralizing an unidentified toxin is probably one of the most difficult things in medicine. While poisons can be combined, even randomly, and still produce a poison, combining medicines does not always produce a medicine. If you don't know what you're doing you could just put more poison into your body. That wasn't an option here.<br/><br/>Kosuke's eyelids were getting extremely heavy, soon he might not be able to focus enough to treat himself. He could clearly identify two of the main ingredients in this poison, so he took out two neutralizing herbs from his pack. He knew for a fact that these two, fortunately, worked well together. For the rest of the toxin, using his magic would probably be his only option.<br/><br/>With shaky hands, Kosuke picked up his canteen and drained almost all of it. This would help his system process liquids faster. He ground the two herbs between his fingers and dropped it into the rest of his water, drinking it quickly. Hopefully, through his metabolism the poison and herbs would meet quickly and neutralize each other. However that would still leave some poison, the other elements he couldn't identify. If those alone turned out to be a more lethal poison, he'd be in trouble.<br/><br/>Now almost completely unconscious, the healer reached up a hand to the wound in his neck and began healing. He did not direct it at the puncture wound, but intended for it to follow his blood stream, the same way the poison had. In about a minute, with his eyes nearly closed, he could feel all but the poisons he could identify disappear. That was exactly what he'd been hoping for. You can only heal so much with the level of magic he released into his body, so it was able to destroy all but the most prominent toxins.<br/><br/>He would probably have to wait another five minutes for the medicines and toxins to meet, and now he could no longer resist sleep. With a quiet exhale of breath the traveler slumped against the tree. In his urgency to treat the toxin, he'd forgotten that there was an attacker somewhere near him. He hadn't even looked around to try and see where the attack had come from, but based on the angle the dart had pierced him they must have been up in the trees somewhere...<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>In perhaps four minutes the medicines and toxins had met. In another two they had neutralized each other. Kosuke took a shaky breath, sat up and stretched. He wondered how long he'd been asleep, but based on the still sweltering sun, not very long. He hadn't been able to clean up his medical supplies what with passing out and all. So with hands shaky from sleep he put his herbs neatly back into the bag.<br/><br/>The poison had taken effect more quickly that he'd anticipated. He suspected then that whoever had launched the dart had aimed for an exact dose and miscalculated. He was, after all, even more slight beneath his robes than one might guess.<br/><br/>It seemed though that none of his things had been taken, so perhaps the person hadn't intended to rob him, or maybe they just left for another reason. Then again, they could still be near by for all he knew. Kosuke gazed up into the treetops for a moment, but if there was someone there he couldn't see them.<br/><br/>"Honestly," he mumbled to himself, "why am I a target today?"<br/><br/>He took a moment to organize his pack before he was to head off again.