"Hello?" He answers. He hopes it's Karamatsu, but the feminine voice that replies tells him it's not.
"Hello, is this the home of Matsuno Karamatsu?" She asks. He can't discern from her tone if he should be worried or not.
"Yes! Did you find him?"
"Er. Well, yes. Has he been missing for long?"
Osomatsu hesitates. "Well, technically it's only been for like, half an hour. But he got… beat up yesterday, and didn't come home last night. I found him outside and sent him home, but he never actually came back. Where is he? What happened?"
"I see. I cannot disclose that information over the phone. Please come to Akatsuka General Hospital and we can tell you more."
The worry that had been growing in Osomatsu's gut suddenly skyrockets.
"The hospital? Why is he there?"
"Again, unfortunately, you have to come in to know more," she says apologetically.
"Okay, we'll be there soon," he hangs up without hearing her reply.
Bursting back into the TV room, he realizes he's clearly not hiding his panic.
"Shoes on, let's go. Now."
"Osomatsu-niisan? Who was that?" Choromatsu asks, but does follow orders, as do Jyushimatsu and Todomatsu.
"The hospital. Karamatsu is there, that's all they could tell me over the phone. We have to go there and find out-"
"Fucking seriously?" Ichimatsu sneers.
The rest pause their movements to look at him.
"What," Osomatsu asks blankly, not sure if he wants to hear the answer, nor how he'll react to it.
"I didn't even hurt him that bad. He's such an attention whore he'll go to the hospital for something like that just to get sympathy? That's pathetic. I'm not going."
Osomatsu does an admittedly marvelous job of reigning in his negative emotions at that comment, walking up to Ichimatsu and grabbing him by the ear, dragging him up to his feet.
"Ow! What the f-"
"We don't know how much damage was done. We don't know if something more happened. But considering the reason he's not here is at the very least because of the damage you caused, we are all, especially you, going to go check on him. Got it?! Now get your fucking shoes on!" Osomatsu shoves him to the front door.
No one speaks on the walk there. Jyushimatsu constantly gets too far ahead of them, rejoining them when Osomatsu whistles for him.
When they arrive at Akatsuka General, everyone lets Osomatsu take the lead.
He approaches the desk, taking a deep breath. His gut tells him it wasn't just the injuries from Ichimatsu that brought Karamatsu here, and he needs to know what happened.
"Excuse me? Ah, we're the Matsunos. We got a call about our brother, Karamatsu?"
The woman at the front desk, who'd been engaging in a conversation with another young woman, looked up at them, doing the double (quintuple?) take that the brothers were very much used to.
"Yeah, sextuplets, I know. What's going on?" Usually, Osomatsu would be amused, but he has more important things to worry about right now.
"Well, I guess I don't really have to ask for your IDs, considering," the woman recovers quickly, picking up her phone and dialing a number. A moment later, she speaks into the receiver.
"Nakamura-sensei? Matsuno-san's family is here, his brothers, sextuplets, by the way," after a pause, she covers the phone and asks, "Your parents?"
"Vacation," Osomatsu answers, trying not to sound impatient.
She relays this information, continuing after another pause.
"Yes, the conference room is ready. Thank you."
She hangs up the phone, looking back at them.
"When you said 'we' earlier, we didn't know how many people would be coming, so we set up a conference room, just in case. I guess it's a good thing we did. When the doctor gets here, he'll lead you all as well as Saito-san there to discuss what happened," she tells them, gesturing to the young woman she'd been talking to previously.
"I already know what happened," Ichimatsu snarls. "I kicked his ass, which he fucking deserved. He's a piece of shit. He made a big deal out of it and came here to get people to feel bad for him. Don't bother. He doesn't deserve pity."
You could hear a pin drop in the silence that follows.
Realizing everyone is staring at him with obvious anger, he shuffles a bit, shrinking in on himself.
"What," he barks, or would have if his voice would do what he wanted.
The girl, Saito-san, speaks to him, absolute vitriol lacing her voice.
"You," she glares daggers at him. "Did you tell him you hate him?"
Despite her obvious disgust with him, her tone is level, appearing as if all of her willpower is going into keeping it even.
Doing his best not to be intimidated, Ichimatsu glares back.
"What, did he cry to you about it? Of course I told him I hate him."
That's when the doctor appears, who notices the tense atmosphere immediately.
"Ah… I'm Nakamura. All of you, please, follow me."
Saito turns and follows him, pointing back at the brothers, who follow as well.
"The one in purple. It was him. He told Matsuno-san he hated him. He's the one who hurt him."
The doctor stops suddenly, looking straight at Ichimatsu, just barely managing to keep the contempt out of his expression.
"I see," he says simply, and continues on. He ushers them all into a room, where they all take a seat at a large table, Saito and Nakamura sitting across from the rest.
After a brief pause, Nakamura sighs.
"We can discuss the abuse-"
Ichimatsu scoffs.
"In a moment. First, to ease any worries you might have, Karamatsu-san is alive and stable. Now, tell me what happened."
Ichimatsu tells his side with short sentences, not hiding the fact he doesn't want to be there, followed by Osomatsu's brief account.
Once the doctor finishes his notes, he motions to Saito.
"Saito-san, whenever you're ready."