"Man, I'm feeling kinda down now that I'm done watching Lucky Star," He said.

"I sorta miss the characters already," He said.

"I wish there was some way for me to interact with them, in their world," He said.

Hiiragi Kagami's feeling of guilt was matched only by the searing pain in her leg. As she plodded away from the high school, she attempted to justify the act of supreme cowardice of which she was guilty.

"There was nothing I could have done," she said, feigning her usual air of practicality.

Behind her, the students of Ryoo High rushed from the school, crowding and trampling one another chaotically. Few were certain of what had happened, but the general panic created a positive feedback loop and incited a stampede perilous enough to justify itself. All anyone knew for sure was that there existed a strong incentive to escape the vicinity of the school.

Kagami was nearly a block ahead of the worst of the mob, but was losing ground fast thanks to her injury. For a moment she glanced back at the screaming crowd and smouldering building, as concern for her friend temporarily superceded self interest. A sob welled up in her throat.

Takara Miyuki wondered whether she was going to die. Her memory and vision equally blurry, she lay on the cold floor of what she could be reasonably sure was her classroom. She was certain she had been injured, as her muscles didn't seem functional enough to respond to commands from her brain, but she was far too numb and blind to ascertain her own status. In her confused haze she couldn't even muster negative emotion.

Izumi Konata burst nimbly from the confused crowd, dragging the panicking Hiiragi Tsukasa behind her. The two were able to gradually increase their distance from the wall of students, Konata tightening her grip on Tsukasa's wrist every time the latter threatened to trip. Gasping, the two made it to a grassy hill nearby the school, away from the mob's path. Those running without destination are rarely inclined toward uphill slopes. As Konata turned to gaze at the chaos, Tsukasa fell to her knees.

"What… what happened back there?"

Konata glanced at her wheezing friend. "I'm not sure."

"Do… do you think everyone… made it out?"

Only a shrug in response, as Konata stared absently ahead.

Kagami was startled back into reality by a harsh grip on her shoulder. She looked up to see her friend's cousin, Narumi Yui, looking uncharacteristically severe. Brandishing her police badge, Yui shouted, "Get to the ambulance!"

Behind the policewoman Kagami made out several emergency vehicles, as well as a number of stern looking police officers and a squad of firemen. Suddenly she noticed the blare of sirens, which she had somehow missed in her daze. Uniformed men rushed past her to tend to the burning school and calm the mob.

Yui marched Kagami to the open doors of an ambulance and gestured to a stretcher. Kagami gingerly lay down, her leg dripping blood onto the white sheet beneath her, and asked, "Aren't you a traffic officer?"

"I'm authorized to help where I can," Yui stated, before returning to the scene of disaster.

Without even recognizing her fatigue, Kagami fell fast asleep.

Miyuki hadn't noticed the feeling return to her arm, but now she frantically scoured the floor for her glasses. Her drive for self preservation was also back online. Adrenaline rushed through her system, heightening the feeling of triumph when her hand brushed the metal frame of her spectacles, and the feeling of despair when her fingertips found their jagged lenses. Miraculously, however, only one pane had shattered. Clarity washed over Miyuki's left eye.

Immediately she searched for her wound. Her bloodsoaked uniform indicated a gash on the left side of her torso, but it was not until she lifted her shirt that she understood the severity of her condition. Was it her imagination, or could she see a rib bone? The base of knowledge which had earned Miyuki her reputation told her to stop the bleeding, but her limbs once again failed her, and she fainted a moment before hitting the floor.

As she came to, Miyuki's glasses were handed back to her by a flesh colored blur. Weakly bringing the lenses to her face, she looked about to see a small camp composed of vehicles and stretchers, overseen by unsympathetic looking police officers. Nurses tended to the wounds of students trampled in the mass exodus. To her left she could make out Kagami, sleeping, her leg being bandaged by masked doctors.

"How do you feel?" asked the nurse standing before Miyuki.

"Okay," was the instinctive reply, but it came out as little more that a croak. "Water… water, please," she managed. The lukewarm drink handed to her in a paper cup seemed to burn her throat, but still made her feel somewhat better.

"I… " But she got no further, and entered into a coughing fit. Her hand came away from her mouth red and glistening.