It had been a little under a year since they woke up in the real world, and life had finally started looking up for the fifteen of them. They had cleaned up the run-down facilities, started a farm, and had even found some animals to begin domesticating as livestock. Things were finally looking up for them all.
And then Tomi Kisaragi started throwing up.
That normally wasn't a major event on its own. People had lost their lunch before, usually when one of the guys decided to eat something they randomly found in the forest. While the flora on this planet was initially similar to the one they had lived virtually in, between the time it took to fully terraform and for them to awaken, plenty of new species of fruits or berries had emerged in the surrounding ecosystems. Ryoko had made it her mission to analyze these variants for safety reasons, but that didn't stop the others from applying a more… direct method of testing.
Kisaragi was usually the one yelling at people who ate crap of the forest floor though. But it also wasn't uncommon for food to be put together improperly, given their less than perfect environment, so everyone assumed that it was something she ate and left it at that… Until she threw up again the next day.
It had been a week since the symptoms first showed themselves, and it had become clear that her situation was something larger than simple food poisoning. Her sickness had become a daily occurrence, and no one was quite sure what to make of it, so they had decided to play it safe.
Extremely safe.
"Seriously, I'm fine. Don't you think this is a bit excessive?" Kisaragi complained from behind a giant plane of glass. She was currently sitting on a bed in a small white room, the medical facilities quarantine room. She had a hospital gown on and was hooked up to a bunch of machines that were monitoring her heart rate and other bodily functions.
"Sorry, but we don't know the risks yet. This is the first major sickness we've had here, and we need to be careful." Okino apologized from the other side of the glass, looking over her readings for the millionth time. "The information I found said that the nanomachines should help the immune system with protection from virus's and bacteria. If something has managed to breach that protection, then the consequences could be catastrophic."
"Do you have to be such a downer? I thought you said that her readings were fine?" Fuyusaka complained as she set up equipment for another test. Her and Tamao had become the de-facto medical experts, managing the facility and tending to the others' wounds. Ever since Kisaragi had been brought in, the two of them had been on rotation keeping a close eye on the girl while running every test they could think of. So far, those tests had all turned up nothing.
"That's the problem. Her body appears to be in a fine condition, yet she has all these varying symptoms. I thought it might be a problem with her nanomachines inducing a virus's effect somehow, but my analysis is turning up nothing wrong there either." Okino explained, frustration leaking out of his voice.
Fuyusaka put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry, we'll figure something out. We always do."
The door of the medical facility then opened, and in walked Tamao with tray's of food for nurses and patient alike. Strolling in behind her, however, was an irate Nenji Ogata. He had finally dropped his pompadour look a while back and had started to let it grow into a ponytail behind his head.
"Hello everyone. Are you all ready for lunch?" Tamao asked cheerfully, picking up a tray and walking over to the glass, sliding it threw a hatch and transferring it to the patient's side.
"Finally! I've been starving here." Kisaragi moaned, getting up and wolfing down the contents.
"What?! Are not feeding her or something?" Ogata demanded, marching up to Okino.
"We're feeding her fine. It's not our fault she throws it all up every morning." Okino said candidly.
"Well then get her more!" Ogata seethed.
"NENJI!"
Everyone froze and looked over at the source of the shout, revealing Kisaragi standing at the glass with a look of unrelenting annoyance. Everyone looked at her in surprise, and then her eyes began to tear up. She looked down embarrassed, wiping an arm at her tears. "I'm sorry Nenji, I don't know why I'm yelling at you, I've just been so tired lately and-"
Ogata immediately ran up to the glass and put a hand up to it. "Nonono, I'm sorry Tomi. I'm such an ass. I know they're doing their best, I just want to make sure you're okay."
"I already know that, you moron." She said in a loving manner, putting a hand to the glass as well so the two of theirs overlapped.
After Kisaragi calmed down a bit, she finished her food and walked back to the bed, lying down on it. As she did, the four on the other side huddled up and reviewed her condition again, hoping to find whatever they were missing.
"So, do we still not have any idea what the problem is?" Ogata asked. His voice was a lot quieter than before, likely trying not to disturb Kisaragi again.
"Despite our stupidly large list of overly specific symptoms, we have not." Okino sighed.
"Overly specific? What, you mean?" Ogata asked confused.
"One of the first steps of figuring out what kind of condition someone has is to figure out the patients' symptoms." Fuyusaka explained, pulling out a notebook from a nearby drawer. "You then compare their symptoms to the known symptoms of other conditions, find what best matches, and treat the patient based on that."
Ogata brought a hand to his chin. "Alright, I follow you so far."
"The problem is that all her symptoms don't match up with anything in the system." Okino revealed. "We put all her major symptoms in a list and searched our database for diseases based on that and found nothing."
Ogata looked shocked. "Nothing? Really? Isn't she just throwing up?"
"Nope, that would be too easy. Here's the list of symptoms that have popped up over the past couple of days." Fuyusaka said, handing him a page from her notebook.
"Let's see hear. Daily nausea, aching stomach and chest. Aversion and craving of certain foods? Seriously?" Ogata said in surprise. That wasn't even everything listed.
"Seriously. Half the reason Kisaragi's so hungry is because she keeps refusing or demanding certain foods. I've had to start a list for them. There are also her recent mood swings to factor in. We can't tell if they're related or just due to the stress of her condition." Tamao added.
"… Maybe she has a combination of things instead of just one?" Ogata suggested.
Fuyusaka shook her head. "We already checked that. Nothing matches up with that either, unless you ignore a bunch of other symptoms she should display in those cases."
Okino sighed deeply. "And it's not a problem with her nanomachines. In fact, according to them, she's perfectly healthy! My main theory at this point would be a new kind of disease that is undetectable by nanomachines, but for such a thing to develop out of nowhere is near impossible!"
"Hey, keep it down over there!" Kisaragi yelled from her bed.
"Sorry…" Okino said, wincing at the glare Ogata was currently giving him.
"The worst part is that she seems fine. She isn't displaying any deliberating symptoms, and we could pass all these symptoms off as unrelated issues if not for the frequency of them." Fuyusaka finished.
Ogata rubbed the back of his head, looking over at Kisaragi sadly. "Geez, when you say it like that, it's almost like Tomi's not sick at all."
"… Wait a minute." Fuyusaka grabbed the list from Ogata's hand and looked it over again. Suddenly her eye's widened in recognition and her cheeks blushed a vibrant red. She looked up from the list to Ogata with a surprised expression.
"What's up? Did you figure it out?" Ogata asked, confused at the look he was receiving from the girl. "I don't have it too or something, do I?"
"N-No!" Fuyusaka practically squeaked. She jumped up and walked over to the glass. "I mean, I think I figured out what's going on. I'll just have to ask her some questions first. Hey, Tomi?"
"Hmm, what is it?" Kisaragi asked, sitting up from the bed.
"Well, just know I remembered a time when I visited Ms. Morimura one time for an upset stomach. I thought I had gotten some sort of bug, but it was just some funny food." Fuyusaka said, seemingly at random. She was shuffling nervously in front of the glass. "Anyways, she asked me a couple of questions that I thought were a little weird at the time, but she said they were standard questions to ask someone of my age, considering my reason for visiting."
"Iori, your starting to worry me." Kisaragi said, lifting an eyebrow quizzically.
"Sorry, it's just… There's really no easy way for me to ask this, is there?" Fuyusaka sighed, before looking her friend straight in the eye. "Tomi, are you currently sexually active?"
"Iori?!" Kisaragi gasped. Everyone else in the room had similar reactions of disbelief.
"I know it might be embarrassing, but all I need is a yes or no." Fuyusaka insisted.
"I, umm, that is…" Kisaragi stuttered for a bit, before finally throwing her arms up in defeat and sighing. She also rather unsubtly glanced toward Ogata. "I… have."
"What the hell did you have to ask her that for?!" Ogata demanded, getting up and stomping over to Fuyusaka. He looked almost as embarrassed as Kisaragi was, despite nothing actually being insinuated between the two of them.
"Because I needed to confirm my theory." Fuyusaka said.
"And that theory was?" Ogata asked insistently.
"That what you said was correct, that Tomi isn't sick. Or at the very least, she doesn't have some nasty super-virus." Fuyusaka clarified.
"But how did that question have anything to do with- Oh my!" Tamao finally realized as well.
"Ah, that explains why we couldn't find the problem. We were looking under the wrong category entirely. I guess we'll know better for next time." Okino shrugged, in on it as well, apparently.
"Can someone fill in the patient here?" Kisaragi huffed, walking over to the glass. "If I'm not sick then what the hell is going on here? And what could that last question possibly has to do with…" She suddenly stopped, looking down herself and putting a hand to her stomach. A moment later, she looked up at Nenji with an unreadable expression. "I can't believe it. Nenji, you…"
Ogata immediately moved to the glass in front of Kisaragi, despite his growing confusion. "What is it Tomi? I thought they said you were fine. Is something still wrong?"
"Of course, something is wrong…" Kisaragi muttered darkly. "You got me pregnant, you dumbass!" she finally shouted.
Everyone present could see the gears slowly turning in Ogata's head as he processed the revelation in silence. Eventually, he finally computed in his head what that meant, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Woah, no way!"
"Yes way! I can't believe you!" Kisaragi rebutted, closing her eyes while massaging the bridge of her nose in frustration.
"This is crazy…" Ogata's face had a grin growing on it. "I gotta tell everyone!"
"Are you even listening to me? I hope your going to take responsibility for- Wait, what?!" By the time Kisaragi had opened her eyes again, Ogata was no longer in front of her and already sprinting out the door of the facility. "No! You get back here Nenji! Iori, get me out of this room already! I need to stop him before he does something stupid!"
"Isn't that what got you into this situation in the first place?"
"Don't be such a smartass and open this door already!"