A/N: Sorry to leave y'all hanging for so long. Please enjoy!

Last Chance – Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Azumanga Daioh

Captain Koga was in his office and clearly in a good mood, "Lieutenant Ito?"

"Yes, Captain?" The lieutenant stopped the search he was doing in the database.

"I want you to replace Takino at the Kaneda house. Make sure everything goes as planned and keep an eye on Goro and Danjuro. I don't want any trouble from them."

"Yes, Captain. Also, I think you should know that Tomo talked to someone on her cell phone yesterday. Someone named Kagura for about an hour."

Koga narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Do we know anything about this person?"

Ito shook his head, "Not much. She's currently a swim coach at Tokyo U and she went to high school with Takino."

"Alright," Koga started looking through the papers on his desk, "I don't think we need to worry about her since Takino has taken the liberty to remove herself from the Kaneda house. There should be no more problems. I want you there as soon as possible. I'll be at the convention center the rest of the day setting up security."

oooooo

"Ms. Kasuga?"

Ayumu looked up, "W-What?"

"You fainted. You're in your apartment."

Ayumu sat up slowly giving her employee a confused nod, "I don't remember…"

She turned as she heard one of the baker's coming up the stairs, "Yeah, she's here…one second Kagura."

"Kagura?"

"Ayumu, did you hear about the train bomb?"

ooo flashback ooo

Ayumu met Yomi at the train station. Together they walked back to her apartment which was just a short five-minute walk from the station. Yomi ate the mini-donuts Ayumu had handed her as she got off the train.

"So these are healthier donuts?" Yomi asked between munches, "They taste really good."

Ayumu nodded to her friend, "Yup. They're my new secret recipe. The secret is in the size."

Yomi laughed quietly to herself. Leave it to Ayumu to think smaller donuts are healthier because of the size, she thought.

As Ayumu prepared tea for the two of them, Yomi brought her up to speed as to the goings on in her life since they hadn't talked for over a month. Law School was keeping her extremely busy and that she had applied for an internship over the summer at a local law firm. She had visited her parents two weekends ago and they were doing fine. They still hadn't touched her old bedroom and much was the same in the old neighborhood. She had not had time to visit Yukari and Nyamo but heard that they were doing well. She had talked to Sakaki last week and found out that Maya had been sick for awhile but had recovered and was back to menacing the other animals in the refuge. She heard that Chiyo was thinking of coming home soon but hadn't made up her mind.

"How's Tomo?"

Yomi fiddled with her tea cup while she thought about how to answer that question. She really wanted to tell Ayumu about the fight they had but she was so ashamed at her behavior and she also didn't want Ayumu to get mad at Tomo. From her infrequent talks with her former best friend, she had gathered that the wildcat was enjoying herself thoroughly at the academy. She wasn't surprised that Tomo had chosen the perfect career for herself.

"She's doing well."

"Are you sure?" Ayumu casually asked as she helped herself to a mini-donut.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she's doing well."

"You two had a fight, right?"

Yomi watched as Osaka's eyes started to slowly unfocus. There she goes, she thought, well maybe she'll forget she asked that last question…

"Ayumu, I'm kind of puzzled." Yomi reached out and took her friend's hand to get her attention.

"You're puzzled?"

"Yeah. You're not the same…like in high school, remember?"

"Ha! Kagura asked me the same question just the other night! I know that I was a bit spacey in high school and also in college, for that matter. Well, the simple answer is that my donut shop kinda forced me to be in the here and now. If I wanted to succeed I had to get it together, ya know?"

Yomi nodded, "I know exactly what you mean."

Ayumu smiled at Yomi. This is exactly why she liked the bespectacled girl so much. She, out of all their friends including Kagura, always seemed to understand her even if what she said came from the left field of planet Mars. Ayumu hoped that Yomi would be able to talk about her current problem with Tomo. She knew that those two were soul mates…

ooo end flashback ooo

Sakaki's heart raced as she accepted the kiss. Everything seemed to stand still as they enjoyed their moment.

Screeeeeeeech! Ka-thunk!

Sakaki tightened her hold on Chiyo as their train jerked to a halt. The passengers all started talking, worriedly wondering aloud about their safety. The train bombing from the day before was fresh on everyone's mind.

Sakaki hugged Chiyo, "Everything's going to be okay."

"I know." Chiyo said reassuringly, "Let's wait and see if they make an announcement."

The girls waited patiently talking quietly about seeing Ayumu and hoping they would arrive in time for fresh donuts. Even when the other passengers started leaving to see if they could reach the train conductor at the front, they didn't move. Fifteen tense minutes had passed when the lights in the tunnel and the train went out without warning. Sakaki pulled Chiyo even closer as scared passengers started trying to force the doors open and break open the windows.

"Okay, I'm definitely scared now." Sakaki whispered.

"The emergency lights should go on soon…I hope." Chiyo whispered back.

Ffzzzttt. Everyone was instantly bathed in a red glow as the emergency lights turned on. This was soon followed by an announcement:

Attention passengers! We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please stay seated as we work to restore power. Please stay calm. We will be on our way again once power is restored…

As the announcement was repeated several times, everyone started to calm down and return to their seats. Five minutes later a couple of train employees walked through the cabin reassuring the passengers that they were only experiencing technical difficulties.

"Feel better?" asked Chiyo.

"Much better. Hey, we never called Ayumu and told her that we were coming over."

"Oops." Chiyo giggled, "I'll call."

When Chiyo flipped her cell phone open she saw that she had a couple of messages. One from Ayumu and one from her father. She checked her dad's message first:

Chiyo—uh, well, it's been a busy morning…really busy. I got you're note about going to Ayumu's. Please call me when you get this message.

"My father left me a message saying to call him. Should I call him first?"

"How did he sound? Do you think something has gone wrong with Yomi's surgery?"

"He sounded very tired. I think something must've gone wrong with the surgery…hopefully, not too wrong. All the surgeries today for Yomi were critical. If even one of them doesn't work, it would affect all the rest of her surgeries."

"Oh." Sakaki wiped tears from her eyes. "Let's call your dad from Ayumu's. I—I really think we should wait 'til then—just in case."

"Okay, I'll wait to call—hmm, Ayumu is inviting us to go see Kagura's team this evening. That sounds like fun."

"We might not be able to go…" Sakaki started tearing up again.

Chiyo handed her some tissues, "It's okay. Yomi will be okay. I'm sure it's not that bad."

With a sudden lurch, the train started moving again. The emergency lights switched off and the regular lights soon came on. Chiyo kissed Sakaki's cheek and held her hand as her girl wiped the tears from her eyes. She hoped she didn't sound like a total idiot as she tried to reassure her friend.

oooooo

Kagura had gone to one of the nearby faculty lounges to eat her lunch after she had received a rather longish lecture from her supervisor about missing work the previous day. She had apologized profusely and was glad that he had patiently listened to the reason why she had run out of work. Earlier, she had apologized to the girls on the water polo team about her absence. Luckily, some of them remembered Yomi from last season's games so they weren't too upset about her missing practice and were glad that Yomi had not died in the train bombing.

As Kagura arranged the lunch Ayumu had packed for her, she watched the news and hoped that they wouldn't be hit with another cold snap this evening. There was a nice restaurant near the school that she was hoping they could all walk to after the game. She would have to remember to call Ayumu later and discuss dinner plans with her…

This is a special news bulletin! Another train bombing in Tokyo has just been reported…

Kagura spewed juice all over the table as she heard this announcement. Jumping out of her seat she quickly walked over to the telephone and hastily yanked the receiver from her co-worker.

"Hey there, I need to make an emergency phone call…he'll call you back." Hanging up the phone, Kagura quickly dialed Ayumu's number as she shoved her sputtering co-worker out of the way.

"Ayumu, did you hear about the train bomb?"

"Yeah, I—I just heard." Ayumu answered quietly.

"Do you know where the others are?"

"No. I haven't heard from any of them although I did leave a message on Chiyo's phone about tonight."

"Okay, I'm going to call Tomo and I want you to call Chiyo or Sakaki. Call me back, 'kay?"

"Ayumu? Hello? Are you there?" Kagura wondered why Ayumu wasn't answering.

"Kagura…" Ayumu tried to stay calm.

"What's wrong?"

"Will you come home please?"

"Ayumu, I can't—I just got lectured. Please understand besides I'll see you tonight." Kagura whispered over the phone since her earlier outburst had gotten the full attention of several of her co-workers. "What are you so worried about?"

"I just want you here."

"Look, I'll call Tomo and then I'll talk to my supervisor and see what I can do but I really can't promise anything because of the game tonight. Please understand."

"Okay, I'll call Chiyo."

Kagura hung up the phone and apologized to her co-workers before packing up her lunch and heading back to her office. Why was Ayumu doing this? Kagura dug through the papers on her desk looking for her cell phone. I hope Tomo wasn't on that train. What am I gonna do about Ayumu? …and I still need to eat lunch.

oooooo

Heikichi Mihama checked his watch. Yomi was almost two-thirds of the way through her surgery. Things were still not going smoothly but the circumstances were definitely not as dire as earlier that day. And then there was Tomo Takino…that scamp! Tomo was Heikichi's favorite of all Chiyo's friends. He loved her energy and love for life. He still didn't know why he was so worried about her. Because head wounds bleed a lot, the initial diagnosis was serious but once at the hospital emergency room they were able to quickly take care of the wound. There was a good chance that Tomo would be fine. When he had a moment he would have to have some of the nurses make room for Tomo in Yomi's room.

oooooo

Ayumu thanked her employee's for taking care of her before she excused herself to make a phone call to Chiyo. As she walked into the kitchen she thought some more about her latest conversation with Kagura. Something wasn't right and she couldn't tell if it was her or her friend. Maybe she could talk about if with Chiyo or Sakaki and they could make sense of it all.

------------------------

A/N: I am completely to blame for the lateness of this update. My apologies to all. Also, I wanted to write a longer chapter but I thought that it would probably be better to just get another update up rather than forcing myself to write more. I hope that I haven't 'lost' any of the story because of the time between updates and the unfortunate hectic RL schedule that is tormenting me, ha ha. In other words…please R&R and let me know if the story appears to be moving in the same direction or if adjustments need to be made. Thank you.

Thanks for the reviews!

Nazulleptra: Thank you for the information on the girls' heights. I do have a 'thing' for donuts, ahem…lol

Sista: Thank you also for height information.