Memories of the Past

Chapter 14: Escape Time

Wow, Nagisa, that was some leadership skills back there. I didn't know you had it in ya." Kaarma said, violently patting Nagisa's back. "Ehe, uh thanks Karma, although truthfully It probably wasn't even that great." "Ok Nagisa, now you just need to stop. That was great and I'm pretty sure you know that. Stop trying to be all humble and stuff." "Y-yea, sorry Karma." The two were now walking down the mountain path that led to kunugigaoka junior high. They were behind the rest of the group who were just a little further down. "Although, I can't help but feel guilty." Karma cocked his eyebrow. Nagisa caught a little glimpse and decided to continue on. "I mean, not guilty, well maybe a little. It's just *sigh* I'm really worried about her." Nagisa said. Karma put his hand on the teacher's shoulder. "Hey, Nagisa. We all may not be as close to Kayano as you are, but I can assure you that we all feel the same way you do. You're not in this alone." "Yea, I know that. But it's just I can't stop thinking about her I guess. I mean, she could be anywhere and doing anything. Who knows what they could be doing to her right now." "Hey, try not to think about that. You know as well as I do, maybe even better, that she's strong. Whatever they might do to her, she can handle it, and I promise you, we will find her." "Yea I know, thanks Karma." "Now now, you shouldn't be thanking me for a little pep talk like that." Karma took a second to think. "Well actually, if you want to thank me you could-" "I'd rather not." Nagisa interrupted. "Well y'know, it was worth a shot." 'Wow that's the second talk this week, maybe I should become a psychiatrist sometime.' Karma thought back to all the pranks and dents he put in peoples lives, as well as his current job as a bureaucrat. 'Heh, maybe I shouldn't. As far as I could tell I'd probably make their problems worse.' The two ended up catching up with the rest later on.

Akari once again woke up after her last episode of passing out. She felt hazy and numb, and a mild headache plagued her brain. It took a while, but her eyes started clearing up, giving her a little more context to where she was. From what she could tell, she was in a room about four meters in length and maybe five in width. Her surroundings were well furnished, with a bedside table beside her and a few picture frames hung up upon the walls. The walls were painted a pale light green and a singular window that bore sunlight was placed on the side. Akari found herself in a bed, and a pretty nice one at that. While it wasn't as nice as the one she had at home, she had to admit it was pretty comfy. She then noticed the clear tube leading from her arm up to a bag of Iv fluid, which was hung on a monitor which she assumed measured her pulse. 'Ok, so I guess I'm in the hospital now?' She asked herself. Akari tried to rack her brain to try and find out where she was or how she even got here. Her memory was hazy, it was quite distant to say the least. She could remember some things, but would come upon the thought that it may or may not have been a dream. If differentiating the scenarios in her head was hard, it was even worse with the aching pain in her head. She decided it'd be best to lie down, try not to move until she felt better. As she plopped herself down on the pillow. It was actually a very comfy pillow, maybe even more than her own. Akari started taking deep breaths to help her calm down, after all she didn't really have anything else to help her with her ever increasing headache. Suddenly the door made a light clicking sound, and a person dressed in a nurse's garb walked in with a tray of food. "Oh you're awake, good-" The nurse looked at her wristwatch "morning" Akari bent her head forward to try and get a look at who was talking to her. It seemed to be a young, maybe high school age girl. She had gold eyes kinda like her own and raven black hair tied into a ponytail that reached all the way down to her legs. Deciding it'd probably be rude to lay down while she was being talked to, Akari sat herself up. She smiled towards the nurse and gave her a little wave. The nurse put down the tray of what seemed to be a bowl of jook (Porridge) on the bedside table then a glass of water beside it. "thanks" Akari politely said. "Oh you finally talked! That's a relief, I thought those painkillers might have gotten to you and stopped you from speaking." The girl said. Akari cocked her to the side. "I'm sorry?" she asked. "Sorry, I don't have much context on your condition right, but hey, good news is you're all better right now!" The nurse seems to have a never ending aura of cheerfulness. She always spoke in a high but monotone voice. "Oh uh thanks? Can you remind me what I'm here for. Like, did I get injured and am at some hospital or something?" The girl started giggling and then put on a very chilling smile. "Of course not silly, you were kidnapped. I'll admit my boss could've done a little better on the "retrieval" part, but he means well." Suddenly memories came flooding back to her. She remembered being knocked out at her own apartment and the excruciating feeling that had cursed her in that forsaken cave. Suddenly she randomly noted the last part of the nurse's sentence. 'Kidnapping with good intentions?' Akari only stared at the girl, an intimidating glare more like though. "Hey, don't look at me, I only work here, I don't do anything but take care of the patients." The girl asked. Akari wasn't having it anymore. Despite seeming like a nice person in the long run, it didn't help that Akari knew what was happening and that she might be in more danger than it looks like. She slid out of bed easy enough, but when her feet hit the floor and she tried standing, she could feel pain coming all around her. The initial shock was more than she could bear causing her to fall down before suddenly being caught. "Woah there, I doubt you've had enough time to recover. Tentacle cell removal can be very taxing to the body without a movement speed of mach twenty. "W-what?" Akari asked, trying to recover from the sudden shock she had earlier. "Whoops, my mouth slipped, didn't it." The girl whispered to herself. She placed Akari back in bed then stood back up."Um, sorry, could you pretend you didn't hear that last part?" Akari thought for a little. Now that she knew about her newfound condition, she decided it'd be best to comply with the mysterious "enemy" that she has now been assigned to by fate. Akari nodded and the girl took a breath of relief. "Ok that's good, my boss would kill me if he knew I said that." 'Well she's certainly not the brightest of people, that's for sure.' "So uh, now that we're here and all, mind introducing yourself. My name's Yumi!" She cheerfully said. Akari decided it wouldn't be too harmful to share her name. After all, the girl probably already knew who she was, but what was just being polite. "I'm Akari." She replied. Suddenly Yumi's face went even more happy than it already was, if it was even possible. "It really is you! Oh it's so nice to meet you! I mean, I guess I met you before but I had my suspicions...... Sorry that was rude of me, it's nice to meet you." Yumi gave another huge grin. Akri grinned back and replied to her. "It's nice to meet you too Yumi."