#JWW: Medicine

[saythenametotheworld]

Timeless | jww

Pairing: SEVENTEEN Wonwoo x Reader

Notes: 2.5k words. Based on a writing prompt I saw today. here's some story written on a whim! Enjoy!

~

The sun shone brightly up the sky, bringing a comfortable warmth to the late Saturday morning at a park by the Han River. Wonwoo sat there, a timeless observer in a constantly changing world. He leaned back on the wooden bench, closing his eyes to the gentle hum of life around him. The soft breeze, the distant laughter of children, and the conversation of people around him that were reduced to soft murmurs in his ears all melded into a soothing symphony. But his thoughts were elsewhere, drifting back through the centuries to a love long past.

Wonwoo had stopped aging a long time ago, a quirk of fate that he had no idea how he came to possess but had left him a witness to the relentless march of time. He had seen the rise and fall of civilizations and empires, cities that crumbled and rebuilt, and the countless faces of people passing in and out of his life. He remembered the grandeur and the bustling markets of ancient Rome, the silent strength of the Great Wall as it snaked through the mountains between China and Mongolia, the rise of the Goryeo Dynasty, and its eventual transition to the Joseon Period.

Exactly how old is he now? He had lost count. Over time, it just didn’t matter anymore. One of his earliest memories was of standing on the shores of a vast, uncharted ocean, the salty breeze whipping through his hair. He had been living his early life on an island with his kin and had no idea there was an entire world beyond the high seas. He had watched as explorers docked on the shores of his home and heard said explorers declare that a whole wide world was out there. Civilizations, society, and people. All of these were foreign to him. Surely, he must set out to see this massive world they spoke of, and he did exactly that.

Wonwoo had set sail into the unknown, his eyes alight with dreams of discovery. That was when he realized that he was no ordinary man. He was someone who was gifted by the heavens with time—a limitless, continuous, endless amount of time.

In the years that followed, Wonwoo lived among these men, never given the chance to find his home again. He watched as men took to the seas, charting routes that allowed Wonwoo to explore the vastness of the Earth. He had walked through the newly founded streets of New Amsterdam, marveled at the opulence of Versailles, and witnessed the fiery birth of the industrial age. 

Wonwoo did everything and anything a man with unlimited time could do. He explored the world, unearthing and discovering its beauty and magnificence. He studied sciences, medicine, engineering, and even advancements in architecture and infrastructure. He dabbled with arts in its many forms. He made friends with some people who eventually passed but would be remembered as important figures in history. Sometimes he liked to think he had contributed to the progress of humanity, however little it may be. And romance, well, despite not knowing exactly how to engage in genuine romantic pursuits, that didn’t stop him from indulging himself with people he found alluring—whoever they were, wherever they were from as long as he has taken a liking to them.

But among these myriad of memories, one stood out with aching clarity. You. 

You had been his heart's desire for heaven knows how long. Wonwoo had met you in a bustling marketplace, your eyes catching his from across the crowd. There had been an instant connection, a pull that neither of you could deny. You had spent days exploring the city together, hours lost in whispered conversations and shared dreams, and nights spent with passion and warmth.

He remembered the way you hair flow freely with the breeze, your eyes that shone in the moonlight, the warmth of your hand in his, and the way your laughter had chased away the shadows of his loneliness. But time was a thief, and it had taken you from him, leaving only memories in its wake. Such was the life of an immortal. People will come and go, friends eventually pass, and the bond between lovers wither away like flowers in October. Athough he had never experienced love the way he did with you, he tried to move on with his life knowing no power on Earth will ever bring you back. Or so he had thought.

Years later, he had been wandering through the streets of Paris when he saw you again, your face unchanged, your eyes just as bright. You did not know him—not at first, but the connection was still there, and it was as undeniable as ever.

“I know you,” Wonwoo had told you at the time.

You were surprised at first, frowning at the man with whom you unknowingly held hands with when he offered to help you board your carriage. You had thought it was your coachman, but it was stranger—an oddly familiar stranger, but still a stranger.

“You do?” you had told him, maintaining a dignified composure despite being intrigued by him. What was that slight ache tugging at your heartstrings at the sight of his smiling face? “Well, I do not know you so it would be best if your refrain from approaching me without any warning.”

“I see. I beg your pardon,” he replied, still smiling as if he was overjoyed to be in your presence. “I am Jeon Wonwoo. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

In that life, you fell in love once more. And like the first, your time together was fleeting, and you were gone once more. This time, Wonwoo was hopeful that you would find each other again.

This became your pattern. Several years after your death, you would reincarnate, always with the same face, the same smile, the same laughter. Fate would bring you back to Wonwoo every time, even when he wasn't looking for you. In the high society of England year 1750, you had been a debutante in search of a husband and found Wonwoo. In the streets of Tokyo, in 1821, you were a painter, your art capturing the essence of the love you shared.  In the serene hills of Tuscany,  you had been a writer, your words weaving your shared story into the fabric of time. In the roaring twenties of New York, you had been a singer, your voice a siren call that drew him to you.

Each time you were reborn, you and Wonwoo would meet as strangers, fall in love all over again, and then, inevitably, you would leave him.

“I’ll come find you,” he told you on your deathbed, sickness has caused your young body to wither away. It had always been this way. You meet Wonwoo, share a couple years with him, maybe a whole decade if you are lucky, and then some illness or accident takes you away.

“I love you, Wonu.”

“I know. I love you more than anything in this world.”

It was a cycle of joy and heartbreak, of fleeting moments to Wonwoo that felt like lifetimes for you. But he was content. He was happy and he finally had something he wanted to keep living for.

But then, suddenly, you stopped coming back. You just… didn’t. Wonwoo waited, searched, and hoped, but you did not return. The decades stretched into a century and even as the 2000s came, still, you were nowhere to be found. He scoured the corners of the earth, looking for any sign of you, but it was as if you had vanished from the cycle of reincarnation. Wonwoo had been complacent. He was too relaxed and got so comfortable that he forgot something like this could happen.

Desperation and longing became his constant companions. His endless life was lonely and devoid of meaning until he found love in you, and now, without you, it felt empty once more.

Still, Wonwoo did not dare give up. In his search for you, he discovered a new passion: music. He found solace in melodies and rhythms, and his talent quickly blossomed. He began composing and singing, pouring his soul into every note. His music resonated with people, and he became a renowned singer, his voice known across the world. While he enjoyed his craft, his fame also served another purpose. He hoped that by becoming a public figure, his face appearing on screens and stages everywhere, you would find your way back to him.

But as the years passed, his hopes began to wane. No one who came to him even remotely resembled you, not your face, not your demeanor, nothing. His frustration grew with each passing day, the relentless search taking its toll on his spirit. The world lauded his music, yet he remained haunted by an unfulfilled longing, his heart aching for the one person who made his endless life worth living. The world around him has changed so much, technology advancing, cultures shifting, but his heart remained trapped in the past, the time so long ago when you first saw each other. His heart stayed broken, yearning and mourning you that he had lost.

And today, Wonwoo opened his eyes only to realize that hours had passed since he sat in front of the Han River. This was your favorite spot in your last life. You made the best memories here together, and as such, this place has become the one place Wonwoo can go to if he misses you. As the sun began to dip low in the sky, casting long shadows across the park, Wonwoo closed his eyes again, the weight of his sadness sat heavy on his heart. He did not notice the figure that had taken a seat beside him, nor the way they watched him with a mixture of curiosity and recognition. It wasn't until the voice broke through his reverie that he was jolted back to the present.

“You're still thinking about me after all this time?”

Wonwoo's eyes snapped open, his heart pounding in his chest. He turned to look at the speaker, his breath catching in his throat. There was no mistaking that voice. Even if it was over a hundred years ago, or two hundred, or four hundred years ago when he first heard you speak, Wonwoo would never forget that voice. And sure enough, it was you, unchanged by the years, as if you had stepped out of his memories and into the present.

“My love…” he whispered, his voice trembling with disbelief and hope. “My love. Is that you?”

You smiled the same radiant smile that had haunted his dreams. “These days, I think it’s cooler to call your lover Babe, or Bub or something short but sweet like that.”

He reached out, hesitantly at first, then with growing certainty, his fingers brushing against your cheek. You were real, warm, and alive, and the floodgates of his emotions burst open.

You reached back to caress his face. “It’s been a while, Wonu.”

Slowly, unbeknownst to himself, Wonwoo’s tears rolled down his cheeks. With both hands, he held your cheeks, pulling you to sit next to him on the grass. “Where were you? I couldn’t find you!” he said, his voice breaking. 

You rolled your eyes, trying to appear aloof even as your own tears threatened to fall. “Silly. You knew you could never find me even if you tried. It is me who must go to you. Always. It doesn’t matter if I don’t recognize you, I will always be the one to find you.”

“But it has been too long. Too much time has passed without you.”

“Why? Did you get tired of waiting?” you asked, leaning affectionately in his hands. You feigned a sulky face. “Has your love faltered after waiting too long?”

“No,” he denied, a relieved smile finally showing on his lips. “I never stopped looking for you.”

“And I never stopped waiting for a chance to come and find you again,” you replied softly. “I've seen you, through the ages. Always so close, yet just out of reach.”

You sat in silence for a moment, the weight of your shared history pressing down on you. Wonwoo’s eyes never left your face, not even for a second. If he could, he wouldn’t even blink in case you suddenly disappeared and he realized this was all just a dream. You let him stare at you as much as he wanted, enjoying his attention and feeling happy about being able to hold him again. The world around you has faded away, leaving only the two of you, bound by time and love.

Wonwoo thought back to the countless lives he had lived, the friends he had made and lost, the wars he had fought, and the empires he had seen rise and fall. Despite having everything, you had been the only one he wanted and loved, a beacon of hope and love that had kept him going. In his long life, he rarely prayed to the heavens who bestowed him the curse of immortality, but he prayed for you. He prayed they bring you back to him. If they really were up there, it seemed to Wonwoo that they had heard his earnest pleas. Or maybe not, but he still wanted to thank someone, whether it was god, fate, or the universe. Whichever it was, they had allowed him to reunite with his beloved once more.

He remembered a conversation with a philosopher in ancient Greece, who had spoken of the eternal nature of the soul. “Love transcends time,” the philosopher had said. “It is the one thing that endures, no matter the changes that come.”

Wonwoo had seen the truth of those words in the faces of lovers across the ages. He had seen it in the way a soldier clung to a locket, a token of his beloved back home. He had seen it in the eyes of a mother, cradling her newborn child. And now, he saw it in your eyes, as bright and full of love as they had been all those centuries ago.

“How is this possible?” he asked, still grappling with the reality of your presence.

“Honestly? I don't know,” you admitted. “But does it matter? We're here now, together.”

He nodded, a smile spreading across his face. “Indeed. Please don’t let this be a wicked dream that I would wake up from eventually.”

You chuckled heartily, leaning closer to kiss his forehead. “It’s not, Won. It’s me.”

“It really is. It is you, my love,” he chimed, lifting your chin to plant a soft kiss on your lips.

For the first time in centuries, he felt a sense of peace, a feeling of coming home. You talked long into the evening, sharing stories of your adventures and the people you had met along the way. As the stars began to twinkle overhead, Wonwoo held your hand in his and brought you home. Finally, he had found what he had been searching for all these years. Wonwoo and you found your own timeless moment, a reunion that transcended the ages. And in that moment, you both knew that love, true love, was indeed eternal.

[fin]

[mahoutokoro-at-nagumo]

is their set up for the hospital wing the same as Hogwarts?

Nope! You can read more about Nagumo (Mahoutokoro) and its basic layout here.

Short answer: The Japanese “castle” includes in its definition the main keep, watchtowers, and castle town. The main keep (the big castle building you’ll see if you search for images of a ‘Japanese castle’) is used as an administrative building that has open areas to host events, meetings, and ceremonies, as well as some offices for administrative staff. 

However, in my Nagumo/Mahoutokoro, this main keep is not used for the school’s day-to-day activities; the space simply wasn’t made to accommodate such things. It was mainly a giant defense tower with some living space at the top for the lord of the castle.

The infirmary would be located in a dedicated building (likely an old pharmacy/apothecary) in the castle town surrounding the main keep. The academic buildings are also scattered throughout the castle town.

The setup I would choose is that of a Japanese machiya (a traditional townhouse), pictured below.

Details under the read more:

The front would look like a store with medicine cabinets (see below) lining the walls, similar to the ones in Spirited Away if you’ve ever seen that movie. Beyond the store space would be an area for examining patients (the green area labeled “reception” would likely be converted for this function) and keeping them overnight, if they need observation. Since much of the space in traditional Japanese houses could be partitioned using the sliding doors, you could narrow or expand the space as necessary.

The wixen doctor (medi-wix?) would live on-premises, in the upstairs living space. 

And, if for some reason they needed more space to house students overnight, there are nearby houses that don’t have anyone living in them that can be used (Nagumo owns the entire island, so this wouldn’t be an issue; the businesses in the castle town are simply renting the space).

[mahoutokoro-at-nagumo]

Wixen Locations: Kasuga School of Medicine [春日医科大学]

Type: Hospital, School

Location: Myōkō, Niigata Prefecture

Name Meaning: 春 means ‘spring’ and 日 means ‘day’

Informational Brochure

Location

Kasuga School of Medicine was established next to the Joshin'etsu Kogen National Park due to the multitude of magical herbs and potions ingredients found in the surrounding mountains and foothills. A muggle resort is located nearby, but rest assured, Kasuga Hospital is well concealed by muggle-repelling spells based on proven western methods and spellwork.

About

Kasuga School of Medicine is a relatively new establishment based on the much older Kasuga Clinic that was previously located in Niigata City and operated in the middle of muggle society. Founded forty years ago, Kasuga Hospital has since expanded its scope and opened a medical school for graduates of primary magical institutes such as Nagumo Academy.

Rather than rely solely on traditional methods, we at Kasuga employ both the old and the new to provide our patients with optimal care. The research performed here strives to improve and challenge the limits of magical medicine every day.

Staff:

Koyama Irie: A wixen doctor working in the internal medicine department. Of her colleagues, she is the most knowledgable about conditions with no magical origin. She is also the daughter of well-known wixen surgeon, Uguchi Tomiko.

Tazaki Shōya: A wixen surgeon specialized in neurosurgery and well-versed in magical-neurological problems. His surname used to be Hirata. During his school days, his origins as the son of a member of the Sisterhood of the Sakura was exposed.

Komakichi: A hainu, a winged dog yōkai, owned by the director of the hospital. He is nicknamed Koma and loves to visit the patients. The children especially love to watch Koma fly around outside.

Notes:

The hospital has 180 beds and room for 20 more in the case of an emergency.

It started implementing modern magical medicine and later, in a controversial move, decided to use muggle techniques as well, after Shibasaki Yōjirō’s New Handbook of the Traditional and Western Healing Arts (1988) was published.

It also uses a lot of western magic that is not as popular elsewhere, for architectural and security purposes.

Needless to day, it is not as popular among the older generation.

Image Sources: Left, Right

[mahoutokoro-at-nagumo]

Magical Diseases: Fox Possession (狐憑き, kitsunetsuki)

The origins of the magical disease known as kitsunetsuki has been subject to much debate over the centuries since people first began noticing the telltale, terrifying symptoms of fox possession: foxlike behavior such as yelping, running on all fours, and changes in diet, to an alteration of physical traits like elongated faces, sharp teeth, claws, and in the latest stage of the disease, appendages of a fox.

Current research proposes that the disease began in mundane foxes, driving them into feral madness and eventually death. Fox spirits of the kiko rank, known to live amongst mundane foxes, likely contracted it and passed it onto fox spirit hanyou whose fox parent was of a lower rank, thus giving their hanyou offspring less potent youkai magic and lower immunity. The highly mutative nature of youkai magic, when combined with the hanyou’s innate human magic, twisted the disease into a form able to infect wixes and non-magical humans alike.

At present, two strains of the kitsunetsuki disease exist: a passive and an active strain. The passive variant, jugitsunetsuki, produces the same symptoms as the active variant, kougitsunetsuki, and is often mistaken for it. It is the active kougitsunetsuki that is the most troublesome, for it can be spread to those who harm or offend an infected fox spirit through the highly mutative and negative youkai magic that interacts with the fox’s resentment. 

It is notable that the disease is not inherently fatal in fox spirits and humans, but the active strain is much more difficult to cure than the passive one. In cases where the kitsunetsuki cannot be expelled, wixes must undergo rigorous treatment to manage the symptoms and return some amount of normalcy to their lives. The rest of this section deals with the methods of curing and treating kitsunetsuki in use today, as well as arguments for and against the most common treatments of the past and present.

– Shibasaki Tsune, Magical Psychology: Current Disputes (現在呪術心理学の論争)

Notes:

It used to be thought that all cases of fox possession were actively placed on the people who suffered from it. In fact, it was once considered a curse that causes a disease rather than a disease itself and the few western wixes who came to the country in the 1600s classified it as an illness of the mind. The particulars of fox possession would not be detailed in native magical medical texts until more research was performed in the late 1800s.

Read more about the active variant here, four paragraphs down, @themonsterblogofmonsters.

Details:

The passive variant is 受狐憑き (jugitsunetsuki) and the active variant is 攻狐憑き (kougitsunetsuki).

(source, source)

[mahoutokoro-at-nagumo]

Mahoutokoro Alumni: Shibasaki Yōjirō [柴崎 陽次朗]

Gender: Male

Birthday: February 5, 1899

Death: January 4, 1936

Residence: Tōkyō, Tōkyō Prefecture

Lineage: Half-Blood

Wand: Alder wood, 32 cm, crane feather

Name Meaning: 柴 means ‘brushwood’; 崎 means ‘cape, small peninsula’; 陽 means ‘sunshine/daytime’ or the principle of yang; 次朗 ‘jirō’ indicates he is the second son in the family

“To have scruples about one methodology or another is the defining feature of a supercilious fool. Whatever the medicine or technique may be, as long as it saves a patient’s life, who cares if it is magical or not, from the West or from tradition?”

New Handbook of the Traditional and Western Healing Arts (1988)

by Shibasaki Yōjirō | ed. Shibasaki Tsune

Preface Shibasaki Tsune

Shibasaki Yōjirō is credited as the sole author of the ten volumes that comprise the most comprehensive multidisciplinary text of medicine and surgery in the modern era, but as his sister and editor, it would be terribly remiss of me to fail to mention the ones whose contributions allowed my brother to compose his life’s work. While I understand the publishers’ refusal to list these men and women as co-authors on the grounds that they are non-magical, it would weigh heavily on my conscience to ignore the value of their research and role in allowing this work to thrive.

When my brother left home and our parents’ practice in the summer of 1922, he initially worked under a family friend who was the head of magical surgery at the Imperial University. In the aftermath of the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923, however, he vanished from the magical world. He was believed to be dead until a muggleborn mentioned him to my younger sister in Kyōto nearly five years later. He and a young muggle man, Haruta Sōha, had opened up an entirely non-magical practice in Tōkyō and were spearheading the revival of traditional medicine alongside the names of many muggle doctors I had never heard of.

(3/12/18: Moved & revamped from themahouproject.)

Notes:

Although he contributed greatly to the advancement of traditional Chinese medicine, his work in the magical healing arts was unknown until his older sister, Tsune, compiled his writings into the books titled above.

Yōjirō struggled with depression for most his life. Though emotionally sensitive and easily injured by the words of others, he never went back on the standards he set for himself. He could be a judgmental, highly opinionated guy around his closest friends (which were all, save for one, muggles) and didn’t have the best bedside manners, but his merits as a doctor were nearly unmatched.

In the last years of his life, Yōjirō was plagued by severe bouts of depression and a sense of foreboding for the future. Ultimately, his friend Haruta came home to the house they shared to find that he had hung himself.

Haruta Sōha was also the one he entrusted all of his non-magical research to. His only friend in the magical world, a girl named Saki from his Mahoutokoro days, received his other writings. Out of respect for his request that she not give them to his family, she held onto them for decades.

He could read and write Classical Japanese and read Classical Chinese, as well as a bit of English and German. He couldn’t speak any of these, though.

Mahoutokoro still provided boarding for all students regardless of age when he attended. The day program did not exist, so he lived away from home most of the year starting at age seven.

He graduated from Mahoutokoro’s (now defunct) general education program at sixteen and began apprenticing at his parents’ clinic in the same year.

Details:

Pictured: (top & bottom) Traditional Chinese medicine, called 漢方 ‘kanpō’ in Japanese. Although they developed their own techniques over the centuries, kanpo at its base is Chinese medicine. (center) Ginzan Onsen.

Name: They bear no relation to the Shiba clan despite their name. The Shibasakis, who were physicians for the imperial court back in the day, are more closely related to the Fujiwara. They were a lot less picky when selecting heirs and marriage arrangements, preferring to have those with talent in the family rather than pay attention to blood purity.

(source, source, source)