A/N: A thousand apologies for the long wait. Writer's block had me crippled for quite some time. But today I found my muse and finished the second half of this chapter in just a few hours! Hopefully my luck will hold out for a bit longer.

In their doctor's office Aida and Kaorin sat with expectant smiles on their faces. After all, the doctor had put Kaorin though a dozen tests. Surely the doctor would have found out something with all that data. Maybe now they would find out what caused Kaorin's condition or even find some sort of cure. "Well," the doctor said as looked around at the various charts, diagrams, and other data from Kaorin's tests, "After sorting through all of this data my colleagues and myself have found…absolutely nothing." Both Aida and Kaorin nearly fell out of their seats. "I'm really sorry," he apologized. "We can try running more tests, but I wouldn't really recommend it," the doctor explained, "With all of this and not one clue, I'm not sure if any other test could possibly shed any light on your daughter's condition."

"That doctor was right!" Kaorin exclaimed in both indignation and disbelief, "You are giving up on me!"

"I was very excited when I learned of your condition," the doctor confessed, "I was hoping maybe it could be a unique case that could help us learn more, but it seems that after all this work we can't figure out anything." While Aida looked almost relieved at the news, Kaorin seemed to be absolutely livid as she continued to glare at him. "Listen, It's not like this condition is any more than a slight impediment and in no way a medical emergency," he explained, "Your medical bills will quickly pile up if you keep pursuing this and I honestly don't see any discoveries to be worth the expense."

Kaorin visibly deflated as she looked guiltily to her mother. "I-I understand," Kaorin mumbled and looked to the floor as her tail and ears drooped.

"You bastard!" Kei shouted as he loudly barged into the office, "You had me paged just to get rid of me!"

The doctor cradled his head in his hands as he let out a long sigh. "If you've figured out that much, then why didn't you take the hint and leave us be?" he rhetorically asked before motioning to Kaorin and her mother, "It would appear as though these two have already decided to forgo further testing, so you're wasting your time here anyway."

"Giving up after half a day of testing?" Kei scoffed as he put a hand on Kaorin's shoulder, "I know Kaori-chan here isn't as quick to give up as you are."

Kaorin slapped the hand away. "I don't really want to give up, but I don't think we can afford to keep pushing this," the catgirl sadly admitted as she cast a glance to her mother.

"Nonsense!" Kei argued.

"Insurance isn't going to cover anything else," Kaorin's doctor pointed out, "Hell, it probably won't even cover half of what we already did!"

"We both know that there ways around things like that," Kei suggested with a knowing smile, "Why just last week you-"

"Enough!" the doctor interrupted as he slammed a file onto the edge of his desk, "If you want this so badly then take it!" As Kei triumphantly picked up Kaorin's file the doctor sat back in his chair and cradled his head in his hands again. "You're wasting your time pursuing this, all of you," Kaorin's doctor seriously warned. "And you," he continued dangerously as he pointed to Kei, "go ahead and bend the rules for this girl, but you know full well that there are a lot of people here that would love nothing more than to see you twisting in the wind."

"Yeah," Kei dismissed nonchalantly as he flipped through the file, "but most of them don't have a pair. And let's not forget that there are also a lot of people here that would love nothing more than to suck up to me."

The doctor shook his head before turning back to Kaorin and her mother. "You two are getting into bed with the devil with this one," he cautioned as he motioned to Kei who was engrossed with the file in his hands. "For a genius this guy is the biggest idiot I've ever seen," he continued to explain, "He doesn't give a damn about you. He's only chasing after his own delusions."

Kaorin looked back and forth between her doctor and Kei as she weighed her options. "It's your decision," Aida encouraged as Kaorin debated.

"I-I'll take my chances with Matsuda-sensei," Kaorin sheepishly announced after a few more seconds of pondering.

"Great!" Kei loudly announced as he snapped the file shut. He made his way to the door and motioned for Kaorin to follow. "We'll continue things in my office," Kei offered with a smile. Kaorin reluctantly got up and made her way towards the young doctor and her mother followed after her. "Send the rest of the stuff on Kaori-chan to my office," Kei ordered as he escorted the two women out of the office.

Now sporting a copious amount of bandages, Sakaki sat down on a bench with a sigh. No way were those cats going to listen to her and if she didn't do something a lot of them could end up in some big trouble. "Should I go to her house?" the tall girl wondered to herself. She didn't have any other way of contacting the catgirl and if Sakaki recalled correctly then Kaorin had astronomy club tomorrow. "If we don't help them today…" she anxiously fretted.

"Help who?" a concerned voice next to her asked.

Alarmed, Sakaki quickly turned to see a familiar face sitting next to her. "Inoue-san," Sakaki acknowledged in a surprisingly calm tone.

Chihiro was baffled by the sight before her. Sakaki was covered in bandages and was mumbling something about helping someone. Chihiro couldn't help but to fantasize an image much more akin to one of Kaorin's fantasies. It took the rattled girl a minute to realize she must've been staring at Sakaki for some time with a stupid look on her face. "Ahahaha," Chihiro laughed nervously as she apologized with a visible blush on her face, "Sorry, I was just thinking about something stupid." Receiving no response, Chihiro nervously felt the need to continue talking to fill the uncomfortable silence. "You said something about helping someone," she blurted out, "Who needs help? Is everything okay?"

"About that…" Sakaki started.

"This is your office?" Kaorin berated as she took in the horrid sight. While the room was bigger and was originally more luxurious than her doctor's, it had clearly fallen into chaos. Junk food, various papers, and a plethora of manga books were strewn all of the room and occupying every available surface.

Kei adopted a smug grin. "Yeah, it's even bigger and nicer than that old fart's office, isn't it?" he boated.

"It's a mess," Kaorin complained as she held her nose in an attempt to ward off the offensive smell that permeated the air.

"It does look as though this room could use quite the cleaning," Aida observed as she tried her hardest to keep a straight face in light of the offensive atmosphere, "When was the last time the cleaning staff was in here?"

"The cleaning staff cleans this room every night," Kei informed them as he flopped down in his seat behind a desk stacked with papers and manga. "That's not the important thing to worry about though," he assured them, "Please take a seat."

"In just half a day," Kaorin thought in disbelief as she looked at the unpleasant prospect of cleaning off a chair to sit on. She debated whether or not she should try to take care of the mess in the nearest chair or simply dump it into the floor. Running out of patience, Kaorin simply grabbed the back of the chair and tilted it to the side causing all the garbage to fall off into the floor. On the top of the newly made pile of junk one of Kei's manga flipped open revealing an image that made Kaorin's face glow red. She quickly kicked the offensive object, thankfully closing it. "Are you even old enough to buy this kind of manga?" Kaorin demanded as a small trickle of blood started draining from her nose.

"Of course I am," Kei scoffed, "I just turned twenty last month!" He then pointed accusingly at Kaorin. "But I know you're too young to be looking at them!" he accosted, "So aren't you the one who's out of line!"

"What?" Kaorin shouted as she dashed to Kei's desk and slammed her hands down on the uneven surface. "You're even more irritating than Tomo-chan!" she accosted the smug doctor.

Kei's self-important smile never faded for even a second as he stared at the flustered girl in front of him. "If you like it so much you can keep that one," he assured with that seemingly genuine smile that was both charismatic and irritating at the same time, "I've already thoroughly read it."

"That's incredibly inappropriate!" both Kaorin and her mother shouted at the same time.

At those words the door to Kei's office burst open revealing a professional looking woman in a suit with a briefcase in one hand and the other adjusting a stylish pair of glasses that adorned her face. She bowed deeply to both Kaorin and Aida. "I truly apologize for anything this idiot may have said or done," the woman sincerely apologized.

"Saeki-san, what are you doing here?" Kei playfully asked, "You weren't eavesdropping were you?"

"Of course not," the woman called Saeki refuted, "My 'Kei is about to incur another lawsuit' sense has been acting up since lunchtime. I just couldn't get away until now."

"Excuse me," a very baffled Aida interrupted, "But who are you and what is this all about?"

The woman reluctantly broke off her angry glare at Kei and put on a smile for Aida. "My name is Saeki Ryouko. I am this hospital's lawyer," she professionally introduced herself, "I used to be in charge of almost all of the legal matters here until this idiot arrived." She then pointed to an innocent looking Kei as her words began to drip with venom. "After he showed up, the hospital had to hire an extra two lawyers and my job has been stripped down to little more than babysitting this idiot and cleaning up all of his messes!"

"D-Don't worry," Kaorin dismissed as she reluctantly moved to the seat she had cleared off. "Matsuda-sensei is the only one that will see this through," Kaorin explained as she pointed to her ears for emphasis, "So I would be reluctant to sue him."

Saeki breathed a sigh of relief at Kaorin's words. She then closed the distance between the two of them and eyed Kaorin critically. "He's really interested in you, huh?" she carefully whispered to Kaorin. Not waiting for a response from the catgirl she continued, "Do me a favor? Can you keep this idiot as busy as you can? It would make things a lot easier for me if he's distracted by something like this."

"S-Sure," Kaorin assured, even though she wasn't entirely sure what this strange woman was asking of her.

"Don't worry about his childish behavior," Saeki assured, this time loud enough for everyone to hear, "Underneath his disgusting, irritating, perverted…um…anyways, despite all of his obvious flaws he really is as smart as he claims. So I'm sure if you can put up with him then he should find the answer for you." With those words of reassurance and a covert wink to Kaorin, Saeki dismissed herself.

The three remaining occupants all breathed a sigh as soon as the door clicked closed. "Is this really okay?" Aida wondered to herself as she tried her best to reclaim her scattered wits. "This place is like a madhouse!"

"This place is as crazy as high school," Kaorin mentally observed as she stared at Kei wondering if they were finally at the end or if more nonsense was going to ensue.

This time, quite professionally, Kei opened the file and spoke with a sense of authority. "Well, from what this says most of the tests that have been performed are focused almost entirely on anatomy," he observed, "Not even one single blood test or even a urine sample." He then snapped the file shut as he shot a stern look at Kaorin. "So that's where we're going to start," he said as his smile quickly returned to his face, "And I'd like to get some DNA samples too."

"B-Blood tests?" Kaorin stammered as she visibly paled and her ears drooped.

"Yep," Kei assured as he got up, "So let's get to it." As he approached the door the two women also stood and began to follow the doctor. "Ah, Aida-san," he started as he held the door open for the girls, "You can wait in the waiting room if you please, or even just go home. You won't be needed any more."

Aida was once again quite baffled. "Don't I need to sign off on any of her tests?" Aida asked skeptically.

"What part of 'off the books' don't you understand?" Kei asked in a low voice so passerby would be unlikely to hear.

Aida understood, but it did little to quell the worry in her heart. And thought of leaving her daughter alone with this man only amplified her fears. "Kaori, are you sure you want this?" Aida sincerely asked her daughter.

After thinking it over for a moment, Kaorin put on a brave face and nodded. "After all, lawyer-san said that we can trust him," Kaorin assured her mother, "And I don't really have any other choice. I'm sure it will work out okay."

Aida looked from her daughter, to Kei, and back to Kaorin. "All right," she reluctantly agreed with a sigh, "I'll be in the waiting room." She then held up her cell phone. "If anything happens you call me, okay?"

"Sure thing," Kei answered in Kaorin's stead. He then opened his file. "Your number should be in here somewhere."

"I meant Kaori!" Aida hissed.

"I will," Kaorin assured her mother as Kei ushered her down the hall.

"Is this really okay?" Aida wondered to herself as she watched her daughter and the strangest doctor she had ever seen disappear down the corridor. At first Aida started back towards the waiting room, but instead stopped a small map to find a much more interesting location.

-Next time-

Kaorin sat restlessly in a small room. Kei had informed her to wait there until a nurse arrived to take her blood. She really, really wasn't looking forward to this. "I really hate needles," Kaorin whined aloud in the empty room. "Why couldn't that bastard just take the blood himself?" Kaorin wondered as she reluctantly looked about the room. Nothing in sight gave even the smallest bit of comfort. The poor catgirl sighed for what had to be the tenth time since she had been left alone. Kaorin suddenly perked up as she retrieved her vibrating cell phone from her pocket. At first she thought it was her mother, but when she looked at the display it was a number she had never seen before. Reflexively her finger moved to the ignore button, but she decided that anything that could get her mind off of the imminent loss of blood would be a good thing. She clicked the phone and held it awkwardly to her mouth. "Hello?" she asked before quickly moving the phone up to one of her cat ears.

A/N: Even though I was able to finish this chapter, I'm not terribly happy with it. Sakaki got very little face time, but cutting her scene short is basically how I defeated the writer's block. So I suppose it's a necessary evil. Next chapter should have more Sakaki and Kaorin development. And it should come sooner, provided I don't get struck repeatedly over the head with writer's block again. The character Saeki isn't an OC. She was my favorite character from the manga Strawberry Shake/Strawberry Shake Sweet. So I guess it's a cameo of sorts. She may reappear, but even if she does it will be a small part again.