Amaya had completely forgotten just how far away Kunugigaoka really was from her elementary school.

It came crashing down on her as she forewent the hassle of waiting for a train and just ran the whole way.

Trains rarely stopped at Kunugigaoka station while school was in session, so she could be standing there for up to an hour waiting for one of the few between-times trains.

She was completely spent by the time she had reached the school, and yet her desperation to reach the hospital kept her going.

She'd bumped into delinquents along the way - Practically bowled a couple of them over in her haste.

However, just as she'd had the twins learn, being fast on your feet or at least having good stamina and endurance was a very valuable asset; She was already long gone by the time they'd tried to give chase.

She wasn't as fast a runner as Kimura was, however she had a decent enough click to outrun any of the delinquents she'd bump into.

The hospital that Karasuma had written down on the piece of paper was nearly a whole stations jump towards the south of the school, in completely the opposite direction to home.

By the time Amaya had gotten there, it had just gone 3pm.

It may have been faster to just wait for the stupid train, but she would have cracked just standing there the whole time.

The hospital was full, speckled with people as she stumbled in gasping for breath. A few of the staff belonging to the hospitals pay-role had turned to look at the gasping girl hunched over at the door.

One in particular, a man in his late years with greying hair and a wrinkled face approached, dressed in the hospital scrubs that were common for a medical facility such as this.

'Miss, are you quite alright?' The man questioned, his tone filled with mild concern as he approached Amaya. 'Are you in any need of medical assistance?'

Still struggling to catch her breath, Amaya lifted a hand and shook her head frantically.

Seeming to understand Amayas situation, the man waited patiently for the girl to catch her breath without asking any further questions.

Once she felt like she could formulate sentences at least, Amaya straightened up on her feet despite the trembling of her overworked limbs.

Her heart was still racing inside her chest rather painfully.

'S-sorry ... ran here...' Amaya managed to speak, massaging her chest as the man inclined his head.

'I understand.' He responded patiently, casting a glance over at the front counter. 'What is the name of the Patient? I'll get their location for you.'

'K-Katsuragi Reiko ... Sister...'

'Please take a seat, I will be right back.' The man spoke as he turned on his heel briskly, and departed for the front counter of admissions.

Amaya didn't comply - She remained standing where she was, her phone and piece of paper still held tightly in her trembling hands.

If she sat down now, she probably wasn't going to get back up again.

A faint chirping echoed from the charm hanging from her phone, however she paid no attention to it.

She had no idea if her phone had been ringing or not all the while she'd been running, but it honestly didn't matter right now.

She pocketed the phone and the piece of paper as she saw the greying man begin to make his brisk way back towards her.

'She's just in the recovery ward. I'll escort you there, now.' He announced.

Amaya didn't need to be told twice - She forced her aching body to follow quickly after the greying man through the many corridors of the hospital.

All around her, Amaya could hear the sounds of gurneys being wheeled around, heart monitors beeping, and she could clearly detect the scent of chemical solutions and medicines thick in the air, a mix that was quite disorientating if Amaya wasn't already entirely focused on following this man through the hospital.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, the faint chirping echoing for two repetitions.

People were still trying to get in contact with her?

She guessed that it was probably Koro-sensei of all people, since he was always so over-dramatic.

Eventually the man lead Amaya to a room split up into twelve small cubicles by many dividing curtains labeled 22a, stopping at the door to turn towards Amaya.

'She is in the far-right cubicle.' The man informed her, understanding showing across his face.

Amaya gave him a small nod silently as she began to walk inside, ignoring the faint sounds of voices inside.

From the corner of her eye, she could see two men standing inside, one dressed in a grey suit, the other in black slacks and a bright orange button-up shirt.

Nothing else - She honestly didn't care enough to take a proper look.

'Katsuragi-san, a moment plea--' One of the men began, however he cut himself off as Amaya ignored them both. 'Excuse me, how--'

'Thats enough, Yamaguchi-sensei.' The other spoke, his tone holding a reprimanding edge. 'Show some consideration. Her sister has been hurt.'

Amaya ignored them both, a hand pulling the curtain of the cubicle aside gently as she reached it.

Lying on the gurney in the cubicle, Reiko appeared to be in peaceful sleep. Thick bandages were wound in mass around her head, a couple of adhesive plasters over her arms, and in particular, three of her fingers on her left hand were wrapped in bandages. The hospital gown she wore looked overly large for her slight form.

Other than that, Amaya could see that there were no other injuries, and she still had colour to her complexion. She wasn't wearing an oxygen mask, and she had just one monitor hooked up to her by a clip on one of her fingers.

Her school uniform folded up and placed on top of her school back on the floor was splattered in blood and a little torn, but that didn't matter.

Amaya could afford to get her a new one.

The faint scent of what Amaya recognized to be fresh, broken pine came to her notice - She recognized it if for no other reason than she was surrounded by the trees up on Class E Mountain.

Curious, Amaya spared a glance from Reiko to her ruined uniform.

A couple of splinters of wood were caught in the material of the uniform, in the elbows of the long-sleeved top, and as Amaya turned her head back to look at Reiko, she inspected the damage to the girls hand.

They weren't cuts, but rather grazes.

There were also a couple of scratches up the inside of her other arm - Light, but they were there.

'Amaya-kun.' The voice belonging to one of the men spoke up from the opening of the cubicle curtain, drawing her attention from Reiko just long enough to glance over.

The two men had walked over, appearing to require her presence.

The one in the full suit of clothes was Yamaguchi, Amaya remembered. Spectacled, greying with a sharp and narrow face, and a stick-in-the-mud attitude that matched his appearances. The other shorter man with a rounded face, stubbled with unkempt blonde hair, she was far more familiar with even though she had less to do with him in school - Nishimura, the deputy headmaster.

One would expect it to be the other way around, based off of their appearances and the way they spoke. Nishimura was quite familiar with Amaya as a person, rather than the rest of the faculty from the school.

It appeared that Nishimura was the one who had called her this time, for Yamaguchi in the back was scowling like he'd just been talked back to.

'Nishimura-sensei.' Amaya greeted the man, glancing back down at Reiko for a second. 'I take it you got in contact with one of my teachers?'

'Indeed. Karasuma-sensei, if I recall correctly.' Nishimura responded, casting a sharp glance back at Yamaguchi.

The stick-in-the-mud scowled even more, however he turned on his heel and began to stalk out of the room.

'Did you run all the way here from Kunugigaoka?' Nishimura questioned as he looked back at Amaya.

'More or less...'

'I see.' Nishimura responded, burying his hands in the pockets of his pants as he looked down at Reiko for a second. 'The doctors have announced that Reiko-kun will be fine, her injuries are not life-threatening. But she will have to be kept at home for a few days so that she does not exasperate her injuries further.'

Immediately, the painful tearing inside Amayas chest subsided a little, and relief began to overcome her.

Though it did not show across her face.

'Was ... was it a fall, Nishimura-sensei?' Amaya questioned, eyeing the exposed scratches and grazes momentarily. 'From a tree, or something?'

The peculiar man glanced at Amaya for a second, just the smallest bit surprised by her question.

'Yes, that's correct.' He responded, turning to face Amaya after a few seconds. 'From what we have ascertained, she was retrieving something from up in the branches for a boy at the time.'

A boy?

Amaya turned her head to look up at Nishimura again.

'He's not from the same school?'

'No, a nearby school, I believe. We were more concerned about Reiko-sans wellbeing, so we didn't collect his details - I believe his mother came to collect him.' Nishimura responded.

Amaya let out a small breath, running a hand through her hair roughly as she looked back down at Reiko.

Well ... at least she was going to be alright.

Amaya had to be thankful for that, at least.

'In any case, I'll go collect Yuta-kun from school and bring him here on your behalf.' Nishimura spoke, foraging through his pockets before he procured what looked like a piece of paper and a pen. He then passed Amaya the piece of paper after quickly writing away. 'This is my personal contact number - Feel free to contact me if anything comes up.'

And with that, he was gone, leaving Amaya standing there in the silent cubicle.

Everything was eerily quiet - There was not a sound of a monitor beeping in this room.

There was no sign that there was anyone else in this room with her and Reiko, and a part of her shivered at the idea.

She didn't like the idea at all.

An edge of fidgeting overcame Amaya as the minutes ticked by with no response from a motionless Reiko, and before long she forced herself to sit down in the chair at her bed-side.

She pulled out her phone from a need to save Nishimura's contact number before her incessant nerves and fidgeting had her lose the piece of paper altogether.

However she found herself at first a little surprised at the lock-screens condition.

The notification icons for 3 emails, 9 missed calls and 7 voice messages displayed on the screen.

She guessed people must have been trying to contact her since she'd run off like that.

Undoubtedly, most of those would be from Koro-sensei, even though Karasuma said he was going to let the octopus know what was going on.

She hoped that a courteous silence was maintained about this - She didn't want the whole class to know right away.

She didn't want to deal with any of the attached motions and sentiments they would have towards her.

Minute by minute passed, and Amaya had forewent checking the missed calls and notifications in preference for silence.

She didn't want to talk to anyone right now.

Her phone had buzzed a couple of times more, however all she did was turn the device off to save her from having to deal with it.

Amaya had no idea how long she had been sitting there staring aimlessly at the floor of the hospital room, but it had been long enough for her legs to have gone numb.

Some nurse had come in part-way through the waiting, checked on Reiko and left without a word.

They might have presumed that she was asleep, or they realized that she didn't want to talk to anyone except for the doctor.

Either which way, the wait felt longer that it might have really been.

And even though she'd been informed that Reiko should be fine by Nishimura, her chest tightened painfully regardless.

At some point in the span of all her silent waiting, Amaya vaguely registered that it seemed to have been a while since Nishimura left to go collect Yuta from school.

She offhandedly wondered if he was bringing Yuta up to speed with the situation, or if he was waiting for the boy to finish his Head-Boy duties before he broke the news to him.

Or in much the way that Nishimura worked, he might have taken Yuta for icecream to try and cheer him up, much like he had a couple of times for Amaya when she was a student of the school instead.

Such a strange man... he'd rather shout a misbehaving student a sweet snack instead of reprimanding them in the hopes that they'd just be honest with him.

And it usually worked, too.

He even tried that with Karma, although it never worked with the evil redhead - He just upped the mischief with the deputy-principal as the intended victim.

But that never seemed to bother the strange man, either...

Eventually however, something happened to bring Amaya out of her spiraling emotional descent, bringing her to snap her head up in both surprise and relief.

A mumbling groan escaped Reiko as she began to wake up, bringing Amaya to scramble to her feet.

'Reiko?!' Amaya spoke out, hands closing tightly over the railing of the hospital bed Reiko lay upon.

And then a few seconds later, Reiko opened her eyes.

Unfathomable waves of relief overcame Amaya as she watched the girl turn her head slowly, lucid recollection overcoming her otherwise groggy expression as she blinked up at Amaya.

'Good morning Amay ...' Reiko spoke softly, blinking slowly as Amaya felt her composure begin to crack on her.

'Its evening, Reiko.' Amaya responded, her breath hitching slightly as she chuckled breathlessly. 'Do you remember what happened?'

Reiko seemed to blink slowly, before a small, sheepish smile touched her face.

'I fell...' She responded, though she didn't look away. 'I was trying to get a kitty out of the tree ... Isogai-kun was worried about it.'

Amaya flinched at the mention of Isogai, completely shocked.

Was the family name Isogai common, or something?

She honestly didn't know.

However Amaya pushed the oddity out of her mind, finding herself relieved that it didn't seem like anything inside Reiko's head was addled.

'Is the kitty safe, Amay?' Reiko asked groggily.

'I don't know.' Amaya hedged, casting her as bright a smile as she could. 'You will have to ask your friend when you see him next.'

Slowly, Reiko nodded her head.

'A-anyway ... I'm going to go get a doctor so they can check how you're doing, and then I'll get you something to drink, huh?' Amaya hedged, glancing quickly at the bloodied uniform sitting in the corner of the cubicle. 'You must be thirsty.'

'I am ...' Reiko agreed.

'Okay, then just hang tight - I'll be right back, o-okay?'

'Okay Amay ...'

Amaya bit her lip as she cast Reiko a last long look, before she turned on her heel and began to leave the cubicle quickly.

She made a quick move to flag down the first nurse or doctor that she saw, and much as if her luck had decided to be nice to her at that moment, she'd managed to get the same greying man in the hospital scrubs that had lead her here.

And less than two minutes later, he'd brought a blonde woman in a doctors coat, with a clipboard in hand.

Amaya resisted the almost instinctive need to shy away from the woman, pushing it out of her mind as she wandered after her.

'Good evening, Reiko-san.' The woman in the doctors coat greeted, casting Reiko a warm smile. 'How are you feeling?'

The greying man cast Amaya a kind smile before he edged over.

'Everything will be fine.' He assured her, casting a glance at a nearby clock for a second. 'The lounge just down the corridor to the left is open to family of patients to use - there are beverages and snacks free of charge. If anything comes up before you come back, I will come and let you know.'

Amaya hesitantly nodded, turning to do as she felt was recommended.

However she didn't get very far at all.

The moment she took a step out of the curtained off cubicle, she walked into something that had not been there just a few seconds ago - Without an opportunity to actually sight what she'd walked into, she ended up slipping backwards with a faint squeak.

At least until hands had suddenly lunged out from just on the other side, snatching up her wrist before she had even managed to slip half-way.

'I'm very sorry!' A strangely familiar voice had spoken as they pulled her upright onto her feet, startling Amaya so much that she'd jumped. 'H-here, let me help--'

Quickly, the form had grabbed her by the shoulders to stabilize her on her feet, allowing her a second to gather her bearings.

And then she froze dead in her tracks the moment the curtain had been shoved aside, and she managed to look up at who she'd bumped into.

'I-I-Isogai-kun!?' Amaya squeaked out in fright, staring up at an equally as shocked Isogai standing just in front of her, hands to her shoulders to stabilize her on her feet. 'What are you doing here?!'

The Ikemen seemed just as bewildered by the situation, however he didn't have an opportunity to give a response to her bewildered exclamation.

'Katsu-senpai!' A voice Amaya never heard before had suddenly spoke up, and all of a sudden a small form pushed past Amaya and Isogai to sprint into the cubicle towards the groggy Reiko.

Both teenagers stared at the sight of a young boy with similar features to Isogai clambering up onto the empty chair at Reikos bedside so that he could talk to her. He looked rather upset, almost as if he was on the verge of tears.

He had familiar antennae-like tufts of black hair poking up from the top of his head ...

And then Amaya came to a rather ground-breaking realization.

That was Isogai's little brother, wasn't it?!

The two hospital staff cast a warm look at the boy, but continued on with their work.

'I umm ... didn't realize Reiko knew your brother, Isogai-kun...' Amaya spoke slowly, managing to look back at Isogai owlishly.

'This is news to me, as well.' Isogai responded, casting her a somewhat wry smile. 'I guess I don't need to ask what happened during lunch break, anymore.'

'Y-yeah ... I guess not ...' Amaya responded.

And then...

'Nurufufufufu~!'

A hauntingly familiar voice snickered all of a sudden, startling both Amaya and Isogai out of their wits.

'Interesting!' A giddy Koro-sensei in disguise spoke, pink-faced as he jotted down notes in a little red notebook labeled "Developing Relationships". 'Sensei had never expected this! What a scoop! Perfect for my novel~!'

God damn it, why the hell did he suddenly turn up!?

And why now of all times?!

Amaya felt Isogai suddenly release her as she turned her head to fix Koro-sensei with a volatile glare.

The two hospital staff stepped out of the cubicle at this precise moment, halting Amaya's intended string of words from escaping her.

The woman had wandered on her way elsewhere after a particularly suspicious look at the Octopus. The greying man casting Amaya a momentarily smile and a reassurance that they would be back shortly, leaving Amaya and Isogai standing alone outside the cubicle with the poorly disguised Koro-sensei.

'Ne, Sensei?' Amaya spoke softly, catching the Octopus' attention immediately. 'You do realize its that poor disguise that's been having people start to notice you?'

'Nyuuwah?!' He exclaimed, pen flying out of his tentacle as he jumped. 'S-S-Sensei's disguise is fool-proof! Sensei assures you!'

So over-dramatic.

'No, its not, I can assure that.' Amaya responded, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

Koro-sensei seemed to stare at Amaya for a few seconds, before a nervous sweat began to overcome him, and his fake nose fell off his face.

He didn't seem to notice it though.

'Th-then Amaya-san was the one who told Karasuma-sensei ...?' He hedged.

All Amaya did was give a curt nod in response.

Nervous sweat became more profuse as the situation sunk in on Koro-sensei, and all Isogai could actually do was chuckle ever so slightly at the scene taking place in front of him.

Undoubtedly, if a certain redhead was standing here right now, he'd be lost in the throws of laughter.

A faint breath escaped Amaya as she glanced into the cubicle at Reiko and Isogai's brother, before she stepped out and pulled the curtain shut behind her.

She didn't want Reiko to meet Koro-sensei after all.

Panicking Octopus aside, Amaya turned her head to look back at Isogai.

'Umm, do you mind just keeping an eye on Reiko for a minute?' She asked, earning Isogai's attention immediately.

'Of course not.' He responded with no hesitation.

'Thanks ... I just need to get something for her.'

'Worry not about that, Amaya-san!' Koro-sensei announced with great enthusiasm, leaping upon the opportunity to speak frantically. 'Just tell Sensei exactly what you need, and I will be right back with it!'

Amaya blinked in surprise at the rather insistent manner in which Koro-sensei spoke in, and the dramatic way he flailed his tentacles.

'U-umm, I can get it myse--'

'Anything at all and Sensei will bring it right away! Please rely on Sensei for this task!'

Isogai let out a sheepish chuckle as Amaya realized that Koro-sensei was not going to let this drop.

This was probably to put himself back in what he felt were the good books with Amaya, and he wasn't going to let it go if he could help it.

So with a small breath, Amaya gave in.

'It was just something sweet to drink...' Amaya hedged, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly.

'Of course!' Koro-sensei announced in response, straightening up as he turned to leave the hospital room at a human pace. 'Sensei will be right back!'

Of course, Koro-sensei never moved at human pace if he could get away with it.

Because a second later, he'd vanished from sight completely, only to reappear less than ten seconds later with a huge supply of different cans and bottles of the most sweetest drinks Amaya had ever seen in three plastic shopping bags.

God damn it, it wasn't just one, it was a whole weeks supply!

'Sensei hopes that these will suffice.' Koro-sensei announced as he held the bags out to Amaya, his fallen nose back in place, it seemed.

'U-umm ... yeah. Thank you, Koro-sensei...' Amaya hedged as she accepted the bags, though she quickly began to forage for her wallet. 'How much were those ...?'

'Tut-tut! That's not necessary, Amaya-san.' Koro-sensei waved a tentacle in a dismissive manner as Amaya retrieved her wallet, earning a startled look from her immediately. 'Consider it a get well gift for your sister, Reiko-san.'

Wait -- what!?

No! These bags of sweet drinks had to be expensive!

'B-but I can't--'

'Amaya-san.' Isogai spoke up this time, cutting her off with a kind smile. 'We want to help, if you'd let us, of course.'

'That's right.' Koro-sensei agreed, nodding his head enthusiastically. 'It's perfectly reasonable to decline help if that is what you really want, but it's just as reasonable to accept help that is readily offered with no strings attached, as well.'

Amaya hedged, nervous edge overcoming her as she looked from Isogai to Koro-sensei.

She honestly didn't know what to say, what to do, but she reluctantly accepted the offer.

'Th-thank you ... very much.' She mumbled, lowering her hands as she averted her gaze furtively.

The Octopus and the Ikemen both smiled at Amaya's meek form.

'Well then, perhaps we could see how Reiko-san is doing?' Koro-sensei spoke up all of a sudden, startling Amaya into looking up at him again.

It took Amaya a few seconds to realize that Koro-sensei was wanting to be nosey.

But then again, she couldn't find anything in her to say no.

After all, Reiko could keep a secret from anyone if she had been given enough of a reason to do so, unlike Yuta.

There were two meetings that Amaya didn't want to happen more than anything else, and she would fight tooth and nail to stop it from happening.

The first was Karma and Shigure, because that was too terrifying an idea to her, in more ways than one.

And the second was Koro-sensei meeting Yuta purely because her brother could not keep a secret to save his life, and if it was something that intrigued that animanga side of him, he would obsess.

And Yuta wasn't here right now.

So, hesitantly Amaya nodded to Koro-sensei's remark, turning to pull the curtain aside.

However she didn't step through, and she found herself staring at the scene inside with rather wide eyes.

It appeared that Reiko had nodded off to sleep in the time Amaya had been outside the cubicle, and Isogai's brother was sitting on the edge of the bed at her side, holding her hand as she slept.

It was a few seconds before Isogai stepped over to investigate what had caught Amaya's surprise, and immediately so did Koro-sensei.

For some strange reason, Amaya found herself unable to do anything but stare, a faint dusting of colour touching her face as she found herself slowly becoming more and more confused by the situation.

'I-Isogai-kun ... is that--?' Amaya's spoken question left her lips uncertainly.

No words escaped Isogai in response, though he was wearing an expression of shock that rather mirrored Amayas own.

'Nurufufufufu~!' Koro-sensei chuckled under a hushed breath, furiously scribbling away in his notebook. 'It appears that both of your siblings know each other quite well~!'

Yeah, it did.

And Amaya had no idea how that was even possible.

'I have an interrogation to carry out when she's better.' Amaya muttered under her breath, earning a rather strained chuckle from Isogai.

'I would like some answers as well.' Isogai agreed.

It wasn't very long after when Koro-sensei had vanished altogether, having accomplished whatever it was he wanted plus gathering information on the side, and Isogai had decided that it was probably a good idea if he and his brother left for home as well.

Nishimura had returned with a rather quiet Yuta, who was rather silent, and after the doctors had returned with a final examination report on Reiko for the evening, left not long afterwards.

It was late, however Reiko had been given the all clear for discharge.

The sun was beginning to set, and late-evening cool began to sink over the city.

Amaya was exhausted, almost to the point of passing out, though she would not let herself.

She packed all of the sweet drinks into the bags of both Yuta and Reiko, slinging them over her arms once she'd managed to get Reiko awake enough to sling her arms around Amaya's neck.

It was going to be a very, very long walk back to the apartment, and Amaya hoped to whoever was listening that no god-damned delinquents decided to pick them as an easy target.

However she hadn't managed to get the three of them very far from the Hospital before they were spotted. In fact, it was practically as soon as they'd walked out onto the pavement from the front doors of the hospital.

Out of nowhere it seemed, a hand had suddenly latched around her left wrist to pull her to a halt, a familiar form gently prying the exceedingly heavy bags from her grip.

She looked up to find herself face-to-face with Karma as he shouldered the bags without a word, his gaze falling upon Reiko for just a second before he looked back to her.

There was an unidentifiable look across his face, and it only seemed to grow as he let out a breath and tore his gaze away from her.

Wordlessly, he began to lead the way back to the apartments, his free hand lifting to gently tug her along by the elbow.

---=[Authors Notes]=---

Haha, you guys should know after sixty chapters that I wouldn't leave you hanging on a cliffhanger like that for very long :3 Enjoy, and I'm going to go pass out now, cause it's been a long, hectic day and for once I actually feel like I'm gonna sleep for more than just a couple hours.

Setsuzoku - Translates roughly as Connections, which is written as 接続 in Japanese.

<3 you guys, and your awesome, beautiful souls.

<3 Loki-Roki