This is the result of loving Tomoe's little quirks, and because Gabriel makes diagnosis procedures so interesting with RONI. Beware of this little one-shot since it has spoilers to the ending of the game…and maybe some more things.

I encourage any ninja and Tomoe fanatic to read and review. ;)

Gabriel VS. The Path of Honor

The fan hanging in the ceiling of Gabriel's messy room slowly circled around to provide refreshing air to said doctor, who was at the time resting by lying down on his personal sofa while some potato chips were scrambled around the table. His hands were folded behind his messy hair, and he was having a very nice nap at the time.

Of course, Gabriel always had a partner in his room who would stay with him for the rest of him career, and possibly even forever. RONI, his diagnosis female machine, stood silently over the upper right corner of his room, her screen showing the usual blue circles. Even though she was a machine, RONI was quite the machine someone wouldn't expect to be so interesting. "Doctor Cunningham," RONI began, "you must begin to write your papers for the diagnosis of Jacob Tillman."

Gabriel mumbled some curses. Even though Jacob helped him to escape that time from the facility, Gabriel thought the old man was so stubborn to agree about his condition. Sure, the government worker helped Gabriel a lot, but outside of helping him, Jacob always complained about telling his illnesses just because the so-called people of the nation needed him so badly. Gabriel avoided thinking about bringing Jacob to the top of a waterfall and push his little wheelchair off the edge. "Ugh, RONI, I'm resting right now," Gabriel said, turning to the left while his mouth held tightly his worn out cigarette. "I can always finish that tomorrow."

"I disagree, doctor," RONI said in disagreement. "Neglecting your work will only increase your incapability to keep working. As your assistant, I must remind you about skipping work."

"RONI, it's fine," Gabriel said, his voice sounding annoyed. "Don't keep reminding me, please."

"I will remind you until you start working," RONI said.

Gabriel chuckled. "Well, I can't work if I don't have the right papers, y'know," he said confidently. "Last time I recall, Tomoe was the last person who operated on that old geezer. She should have those papers I need to make a thorough analysis."

"That is correct, Doctor Cunningham," RONI agreed. "In that case, I will send a notice to Doctor Tachibana right now."

"Please do, RONI," Gabriel said, hearing a buzzing sound he didn't want to hear.

For the past few days, Gabriel had an enemy he was unable to defeat, or, in this case, kill. That enemy was an annoying, fast fly that seemed to like his messy room a lot. Said fly was flying around the room at a rather high speed, occasionally landing on top of some potato chips. Gabriel hated three things about the fly. First, the fly's buzzing sound was annoying. Second, the fly would land on his snacks (and RONI would usually follow this by warning Gabriel about getting ill). And lastly, and perhaps the most irritating fact, the fly would sometimes nest itself in his hair where it would hide away from him.

"Doctor Cunningham, I have located the presence of that fly that you have complained about for the last five days," she said. "I thought you disposed of the fly this morning."

"Yeah, but the little bastard is so damn fast that I can't crush it with the flyswatter," Gabriel said. "I said 'To hell with that!' and gave up on killing it. Guess I should start giving it some hospitality in my chips."

"Understood, doctor," RONI said. "I shall add this to the 'To hell with that!' file so you can analyze the situation."

"RONI, it wasn't… Oh, whatever," Gabriel said as he lazily sat up from the couch and yawned loudly. "Well, better start making those damn papers, then. I don't want to keep listening to that fly while I'm trying to sleep. RONI, you're not helping in that as well."

"My apologies, doctor," RONI apologized. "As an act to ask for your forgiveness, I will point out that you have a mug with hot coffee waiting for you to drink over your desk. It is right besides me."

Gabriel eyed his coffee mug with the emblem of some sort of snowman wearing a blue cape, blue gloves, blue boots, and a blue hood with some twisted horns. Gabriel didn't care much about the snowman-thing in his mug. He cared about the coffee and nothing else. He chuckled and stood up, walking over to his chair where he sat down and grabbed his mug with coffee. "Well, RONI, I forgive you for now," Gabriel said, his fingers grabbing the mug. "Just don't piss me off, okay?"

"I do not understand the concept of pissing you off, doctor," RONI said. "Since I have no means to dispose urine on you, I-"

"Okay, okay, forget about it before I regret it. I'm drinking some coffee here, geez," Gabriel interrupted hastily. "Anyway, did you send a message to Tomoe?"

"I did," RONI said. "She should be outside practicing her marksmanship with Mister Hanzou. This time, they are practicing on the hospital's backside."

"You mean practicing her assassination skills," Gabriel said annoyed. "Did I tell you she almost killed me off with an arrow?"

"I do still have a database explaining your hyperactive statements towards Doctor Tachibana," RONI said. "In them, you have stated the following: That little girl is ought to kill everyone before epidemics strike. I'm pretty sure I'll die if I get in her way."

"That's so true," Gabriel said. "Her Path of Honor is dangerous to everyone else out there. I mean, how the heck would I know that freaking ninjas still exist in this time? I thought they were just Japanese folklore or some kinda fantasy!"

"Unfortunately, doctor, Doctor Tachibana and Mister Hanzou come from a dynasty where your claims are clarified," RONI said.

"Look, let's not talk about them and their crazy Path of Honor thing," Gabriel said. "All I want to do now is chuck this coffee down my throat."

Gabriel sighed as he began drinking his coffee. The coffee itself made him feel very pleased with its taste. His eyes were shut tightly that any nagging thought was drowned away into the coffee itself. He felt that there was nothing to worry about in the world right now. He even though about sleeping and drinking at the same time, but he knew he couldn't do it. For now, he just wanted to relax.

As he continued to drink his coffee, Gabriel took a brief moment to open his eyes and look to his left where Tomoe was standing, a warm smile being given to Gabriel. Gabriel merely smiled back at her as he kept drinking his coffee.

…And then, Gabriel's eyes widened so much like never before, making him spit his coffee on a burst of liquid to his desk. He began coughing and gagging for a moment before he hit his chest several times while Tomoe took a step forward, holding out a hand towards him. "D-Doctor Cunningham, are you alright?" Tomoe asked.

"A-aah, my desk!" Gabriel complained for a moment before he looked back at Tomoe. "Do I look okay right now, Tomoe?"

"Well, you just spat your coffee out on your desk," Tomoe said. "Also, you're coughing. Are you feeling okay? Are you sick?"

'I-I'm not sick! H-hell, I was okay before you appeared out of nowhere!" Gabriel complained.

Tomoe gasped and pulled back her hand over her mouth. "Oh no, then you must be probably starting to have a sore throat!"

"N-no, dammit, I'm okay!"

"That is correct, Doctor Tachibana," RONI said, her calm demeanor annoying Gabriel. "Doctor Cunningham is merely suffering for a sudden shock he received for seeing you. In fact, the door never opened when you appeared. This could imply that you either were here from the moment I was brought to his room for the first time, or you simply appeared out of nowhere as Doctor Cunningham said before."

"S-simply?" Gabriel repeated, coughing a bit. "S-she teleported in here with her scary-ass ninja skills like she does when she has to operate on patients!"

Tomoe looked down in shame. "I'm sorry, Doctor Cunningham. I didn't want to meddle in your private time," she said, showing him the papers he needed to use to write his report. "I just came here to give you the papers you needed for your diagnosis report. Perhaps I shouldn't have come here right now…"

Just seeing Tomoe's ashamed look made Gabriel feel extremely guilty for complaining at her. Everyone at Resurgam knew that Tomoe was always in high spirits, but seeing her lamenting on something would make everyone worry, and Gabriel didn't want to get cold glares today.

"Look, Tomoe…just…don't appear like that in here while I'm drinking," Gabriel said. "Seriously, you need to knock on the door…"

Tomoe's ashamed look quickly brightened up. She smiled happily and nodded. "Okay, Doctor Cunningham. I'll remind myself about that from now on."

"Good girl," Gabriel playfully said. "Now, please, let me clean up this mess I made…"

"Oh," Tomoe said as she set the papers over a free space of the potato chip-covered table, "please, let me clean your desk instead. Think of this as a way to show you how ashamed I am."

"What? Oh no, I'll do it," Gabriel said.

Tomoe chuckled and raised a finger. "If I let you clean your desk, it will go against the Path of Honor." She grabbed some paper towels from the floor and smiled at Gabriel.

"(…No way, that Path of Honor of hers is ACTUALLY going to do me some good? I must be dreaming here!)" Gabriel thought in shock. "(…Better take her apology, then,)" he thought, chuckling to himself. "Okay, Tomoe, I'll let you clean my desk."

"Thank you, Doctor Cunningham," Tomoe said. "Please, feel free to rest on your couch. Oh, I'll clean your table as well. It seems way messier than the desk."

"Okay," Gabriel said with a subtle chuckle.

Gabriel leaned on his chair as Tomoe began cleaning his desk. For once, things seemed to get better for him today. Tomoe was cleaning his desk, and he was going to have a clean table at last (for it to be covered in potato chips in the near future again).

Unfortunately, Gabriel was thinking too far ahead. Right after he hung his head back, he just found Hanzou standing right besides him. "Greetings, Doctor Cunningham," Hanzou greeted.

"UAH!" Gabriel yelped, shocking Tomoe who saw him leaning too much on his chair before the chair tumbled back and made him hit his head so hard on his desk that he lost consciousness.

After a small while, Gabriel groaned in pain as he looked up at the fan of his room. He looked around, finding himself lying down on his couch. "Ugh, what happened? Did I die or was it a dream?" he asked.

"I believe it was not a dream, Doctor Cunningham," spoke Hanzou across the table while Tomoe stood besides him, politely bowing down to Gabriel.

Gabriel panted heavily before he calmed down. "W-why the heck is everyone appearing IN MY ROOM so suddenly?" he asked, quickly snapping out. "I-is this some kinda joke?"

"No," Hanzou responded.

"…Ugh," Gabriel muttered, grabbing a cushion to smack his face against it. "Whatever, you two…"

"Doctor Cunningham, I'm sorry for arriving so suddenly," Hanzou said. "As soon as I learned Lady Tomoe was cleaning your room, I couldn't just let her do some typical household cleaning. As her servant, I should be the one in charge of that."

"(The fuck? How in the name of Joshua did this old man know Tomoe was cleaning my desk? Wasn't he training with her on the backside of the hospital? Are they psychics?)" Gabriel thought, puzzling himself so much that he was going to have a headache for sure this time. "(…Wait, they were training over there and they stopped just to come in here? What the hell is going on here?)"

"Hanzou, it's okay," Tomoe said. "I'm the one who made Doctor Cunningham spit his coffee on his desk. As a member of the Tachibana Clan, I must follow the Path of Honor."

"Well, Lady Tomoe, if you insist, I shall let you do what you wish to do," Hanzou said. "However, may I ask to clean the table for you, milady?"

"Alright, Hanzou," Tomoe agreed. "You can leave the desk to me."

Hanzou took out from behind his own paper towels. Gabriel didn't remember the butler having those before. Heck, the paper towels had Japanese letters imprinted all over them, proving they were not Gabriel's paper towels.

Gabriel gave up. He just sighed and said, "Okay, you two, start cleaning my room, please…"

Tomoe and Hanzou replied with a "Yes," and they resumed cleaning

Now the only thing that Gabriel needed was a nap to recover from his nagging pain on the back of his head. In a matter of seconds, his cocky smile came back to his lips as his worn-out cigarette hung on them. Luckily, he knew that he was easy to get patient before he could start arguing with someone else. For now, the sounds of papers being brushed against his belonging made Gabriel feel much better.

Unluckily, those sounds were soon accompanied with Gabriel's nemesis: Mr. Buzz-Buzz The Fly, as he liked to call it. The fly's bussing sound of its wings made Gabriel open his weary eyes, spotting the fly circling just over him before it dove down for his hair, seeking refuge from any attacks from the diagnostician. The buzzing sounds caught Tomoe's and Hanzou's attention while Gabriel merely sighed loudly. "I'm not gonna do anything about that annoying fly," he muttered.

"Let me take care of it," Tomoe said, a serious look taking over her face.

"It's okay, Tomoe," Gabriel said as the fly peeked out from his hair. "The bastard is too damn fast for a flyswatter to smack it down. I doubt you're going t-"

Gabriel's heart skipped a beat after he found a Japanese sword, a yari, just over his hair. In fact, the sword even went as far as to enter some part of his hair to the point it almost cut open his head. His worn-out cigarette fell to his side as his mouth gapped wide at the sword. Gabriel just noticed that two foreign body parts rolled down towards his cheeks. His eyes slowly looked down, finding the torn corpse of Buzz-Buzz resting on his cheeks.

The diagnostician slowly turned towards the direction of the yari, where a serious Tomoe held it from roughly twelve feet away from Gabriel himself. Hanzou stood besides the spear-sword before he calmly went over to Gabriel to pick up the fly's torn body parts from his cheeks. He stood back up and tossed them inside the trashcan while Tomoe still held the sword's edge over the horrified Gabriel's forehead. "Amazing, Lady Tomoe," remarked Hanzou. "Your accuracy is at its pinnacle, just as I've expected from you to have."

Tomoe's serious look vanished as a happy look took over her face. "Thank you, Hanzou," she said, pulling back her yari's blade from Gabriel. "Doctor Cunningham, I disposed of the fly. You can rest assured that there won't be any more flies to bother you."

Gabriel's mouth still had a huge gap while his eyes just stared shocked at her.

"I know you're surprised," Tomoe said. "The Path of Honor has given so many things in all my life's years to help others. You're no exception, Doctor Cunningham."

The two Tachibana members were oblivious to the fact Gabriel was horrified at having a near death experience thanks to Tomoe. They just remained silent before Hanzou cleared his throat to say, "Lady Tomoe, have you finished cleaning yet? I'm done here."

"Oh, yes," Tomoe said before smiling at the horrified Gabriel. "I hope this is enough for you to forgive me, Doctor Cunningham." She bowed to him once more and chuckled heartily. "Well, we shall take our leave now. I have an appointment for an operation. Hanzou, let's go," she said before gasping. "O-oh, we're going to use the door."

"As you wish, milady," Hanzou said with a nod before the two opened the door and walked out to the hallway, leaving the astonished Gabriel behind with RONI.

"Doctor Cunningham," began RONI, "my sensors indicate that your heart is skipping some beats, and your forehead is showing some traces of high temperature to diagnose a fever. Also, a headache could be producing in your head. This is irregular and unhealthy. You should take some medication if you wish to hea-"

RONI didn't have eyes nor she was using the camera to look, but she did hear the room's window breaking apart while a familiar voice screamed so loudly that Tomoe and Hanzou came back into the room in a rush, finding Gabriel nowhere. "Doctor Cunningham? Doctor Cunningham!" Tomoe yelled.

Several days later…

"He's coming back to us."

"Oh man, the guy's lucky for surviving that fall…"

"Well, that was sure a real shocker."

"It WAS a real shocker! He's the best diagnostician we have in Resurgam! Losing him would mean looking for a new one, and you know how hard it is to find one these days!"

"Chief, calm down. Gabriel will be fine."

"What the heck happened now…" mumbled Gabriel as he slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a room, lying down on a green bed while Maria, Hank, Esha, Maria, and even CR-SO1 were standing around it. "…What is this…some surprise birthday party?"

"You wish it was!" hissed Maria. "What is wrong with you, Gabe? Why are you jumping out from the windows to bare ground? Are you nuts or something?"

"W-whoa, don't get so worked up, please," Gabriel advised. "A-also, why are you the only one so mad about what happened to me? Sure, you're always making a racket, but…"

Esha sighed. "Gabe, you should know better that your room is on the third floor," she pointed out. "Jumping out from a height like that is practically suicide! You're lucky you didn't die from your injuries!"

Gabriel eyed Hank. "Big guy…tell me what happened in a nutshell…"

"U-um…" Hank stammered a bit before chuckling nervously, "W-well, you see, you fell from the third floor to outside. And Maria…well…"

Maria slammed her hands down on the bed. "You crazy mother… You fell on top of my motorbike! It was parked on the same spot where you fell, and on top of that, you broke my mirrors!"

Gabriel felt pain a bit, trying to resist it. He reached out for a mirror to look at his face. Once he did, he saw his reflection. There was a bandage wrapped around his head, and, for some random reason, his right eye was all black. "H-how did I get this black eye? It's huge…"

"Um…" Hank continued, "w-when I found you, Maria was the first one to notice what happened to you…"

"Instead of giving you first response, she proceeded to beat you," CR-SO1 stated bored. "Needless to say, Hank stopped her before she could kill you for good."

Maria crossed her arms and looked away. "I-I admit I should've given him first response, but my damn mirrors! They took me five months to buy them! They're very expensive!"

"Maria, I'll pay for the damages if you promise us to calm down," Esha said a bit harshly, making Maria grunt. "What's important is that Gabe is alive. That's all that matters to me. You should be thankful, Gabe. Thanks to your crazy idea, you reduced our surgeon's life sentence for another year."

"Too bad this doesn't feel really rewarding to me since he did this out of panic, I guess," CR-SO1 said.

"You bastard, why are you jumping off from your office?" Maria asked to Gabriel.

Gabriel sniffed a bit. "I-I don't want to say… You guys wouldn't believe me if I told you…"

"What? Oh, c'mon! You're just chickening out to admit you were drunk or something!"

"Maria!" Esha yelled before sighing to Gabriel. "Okay, Gabriel. You're going to have to be in this room for a week. You had to go through surgery and orthopedics right after the other!"

"Seriously, man, don't scare us like that again," Hank said.

Gabriel sighed and sank his head on his pillow. "Whew, at least I'm still alive… Wait a minute…" he looked around the room, "where's…Tomoe?"

"Tomoe?" CR-SO1 said. "She's currently performing an operation. She was going to come here to visit you, but she said she had to follow her Path of Honor and save her patient. If she came here, she would be neglecting it as she told me before."

Gabriel's eyes widened after hearing the dreaded three words. Those very same words were his ticket to total panic. He began panting heavily fast, alarming Hank. "G-Gabe, a-are you okay?" he asked.

The EKG besides Gabriel's bed suddenly began to show many waves going up and down that made them all gasp. "Oh my god, he's undergoing cardiac arrest!" Esha panicked. "Maria, charge the defibrillator, quick!"

Maria sighed and began charging the defibrillator. "Alright, you bastard, stop worrying us and get better!" she yelled as she pushed the pads on Gabriel.

Meanwhile, in the OR, Tomoe had finished treating her patient while Hanzou assisted her cordially. The butler smiled warmly as Tomoe did the same. "Nice word, milady," he said. "Once again, you've saved a life."

Tomoe chuckled heartily. "Thank you, Hanzou. Your aid was a great help to me."

"Hmm, I know this is sudden to wonder, but I would like to know if Doctor Cunningham's condition has gotten better. It's been a few days ever since he was hospitalized."

Tomoe looked a bit ashamed. "I hope he gets better very soon. I wouldn't like to see him in so much pain…" She brightened up and looked at Hanzou. "Thankfully, I cleaned his room this morning. I don't want him to clean it up himself after what he's going through."

Hanzou closed his eyes and nodded. "Your kind heart is the only cure to make everyone around you happy, Lady Tomoe. I'm glad you're so thoughtful about others."

Tomoe chuckled once more and raised a finger. "Such is the Path of Honor, Hanzou," she said.

"Well said, milady, well said," Hanzou said, the two oblivious of the fact that Gabriel was going to suffer a lot by said path for the rest of his time on bed and even probably forever.

Alyssa had to be in Resurgam for a while longer before she could heal completely, making Naomi look after her. Outside of the hospital, Alyssa played with her cat Chloe while Naomi calmly drank some tea on a table, watching her adopted daughter playing with Chloe. It was not long before they all heard Gabriel screaming from his room. Alyssa stopped chasing Chloe around and looked towards the building. "Naomi, what's happening?" she asked.

"Please, don't pay attention, Alyssa," Naomi advised as the screams kept echoing out from the hospital. "I'm sure it'd be best if we didn't know what's happening in there. Hopefully, it's nothing that bad."

"…Okay…" Alyssa said unsure before she resume chasing Chloe around the garden.

Naomi looked up to the sky and sighed. "I guess this is just another day at Resurgam…" she muttered as Gabriel had to be brought back to the OR for yet another operation.

Moral of the day: While the Path of Honor brings salvation to many, it might bring desperation to a selected few of people, that selected few of people only being famous diagnostician Gabriel Cunningham.

Well, this was fun to write. Tomoe is surely my top favorite Trauma Team character while Gabriel is my third one (Naomi occupying the second spot). After this, I hope to write something else for this section. I guess time will say when, though.

I encourage diagnosticians-in-training to review. :)

…Or Gabriel will have nightmares with Tomoe's Path of Honor.