Disclaimer:...argh!...I don´t own Azumanga Daioh...maybe I´ll make a new char just so I can own something?...nah.

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As the morning light was shining through the hospital windows the girls around the room started to wake up.

Chiyo stretched her not-so-long body ,rose and walked over to the bed containing her friend.
When she came closer she saw that Osaka wasn´t awake,Chiyo looked at the thin and fragile body.
Osaka was starting to look like she had starved to dea...no...I shouldn´t think like that´ Chiyo chided herself.

But she does look like she hasn´t eaten in months.Doesn´t she?´

The arms on top of the sheets were bone thick and the skin on Osaka´s face looked like it was stretched too tight over it.
Chiyo grabbed one of Osaka´s hands in her own and she felt the tears behind her eyes.
She closed them before any came out though...she´d promised herself she wouldn´t cry again,not untill Osaka grew better.

"Osaka-san...please wake up soon...please?"
As Chiyo spoke , the girl´s eyes started to twitch at the light. She felt someone holding her hand in their´s...

Good,maybe they can tell me something?´

The girl opened her eyes and saw a girl with her eyes closed, clutching her hand, it was the little girl with the orange hair.She looked at her for a few seconds, trying to make out what the girl was muttering to herself, but she eventually grew abit tired of it and decided that she would ask her, no matter how rude it was to interrupt her in whatever she was doing.

"Excuse me,but...could you tell me who I am?"

At first Chiyo thought she was hearing things,but she opened her eyes,just in case,just maybe...

As she looked at where the head should be Chiyo couldn´t help but yelp in joyful surprise.
Without warning Chiyo threw her arms around Osaka and hugged her in what should be a bearhug but wasn´t quite powerful enough.
The little girl threw her arms around her and nearly crushed the girl in the bed.

Warm tears started dripping on her neck,and the girl kept on saying something but it couldn´t be made out between the sobs.Surprised at first,the girl in the bed didn´t know what to do at first, someone she didn´t recall at all was hugging her like...uh...like...well very hard.
Deciding that it couldn´t hurt the girl put her arms around the younger girl and hugged back.

Eventually Chiyo got a hold of herself and released Osaka from her bearhug (or attempt of) and wiped the tears from her eyes.

Before the girl in the bed got to ask anything, the little girl and yelled to the others.

"Hey,everybody, wake up! Osaka-san woke up!"...Osaka?...is that my name? It doesn´t feel right.´

"She´s awake?It was true!"

Before Osaka could say anything (again) her bed was surrounded by the girls from last night,asking alot of questions, but not anyone that Osaka could quite acknowledge.Especially two of them were insistant,the one with the spiky,brown hair and the drooler.
Luckily it didn´t take long before the tall girl showed and made them shut up.
"Hey,take it easy guys...I´m sure Osaka-san can answer your questions one by one,right Osaka-san?"

Suddenly everybody went silent and now Osaka was even more the focus of attention.She looked at one after the other before she finally got out. "I kinda got a few questions myself...?"

Chiyo made her way out from between Tomo and Kagura , as much as she was able to at least.
"Of course,ask away." She said with a bright smile.

The most confused look ever came over Osaka´s face, a very disturbing look.. "Who am I?"

The girls were dumbfounded.
After a few seconds the one with the spiky hair finally got out.
"Uhmmm,what do you mean ,who are you?"

"What do you think I mean? I mean,Who am I?What person?...and another thing...Who are you people?"

Everybody gasped,none of them had considered this...She had forgotten who they were?...How could she forget those years they had been together everyday, their lunches on the roof and their summers at Chiyo´s beachhouse?

They didn´t get any answers but their Osaka looking at them with a confused and partially angry look in her eyes.

Chiyo,who had a quick mind compared to some of the others, hastily gathered herself and decided that Osaka was the victim here,and she needed their support.
"Oh,excuse us for being so rude.You´re Kasuga Ayumu,I´m so sorry for calling you Osaka,but that´s our nickname for you,we are your best friends.We all went through highschool together. I think you are currently suffering from a memoryloss Kasuga-san."

A puzzled look came over Osaka´s face and the girls waited in anticipation for her response.
"Oh..." Was all she managed to get out.
Chiyo was concerned about Osaka-san,she was probably very confused right now.
Looking at her Chiyo couldn´t shake the feeling that something had changed in the Osaka she had grown to know.

Suddenly , a loud growl that seemed to emit from ever fiber of Osaka´s stomach startled Chiyo out of her thinking.
Sheepishly she asked. "Err,Kasuga-san...are you hungry?"

The response came in another loud growl from somewhere below the sheets.

The old,dopey smile appeared on Osaka as she said.

"Yes!"

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Ayumu looked at her meal.There was soup,some kind of mash,juice and a strange green jello that would´ve looked like it had had it´s part in a bad horror movie from the fifties.
Still Ayumu didn´t mind as she ate everything on the table,even though she was starved and hadn´t eaten properly since,well since she could remember, she ate in the usual,slow manner she always had.

All the girls had left,except for the little one,the one who said her name was Mihama Chiyo...
As Ayumu finished her food she couldn´t help but think to herself.There´s something suspicious about those pigtails...hmm...What if I...?´

Without warning Ayumu stretched over and grabbed Chiyo´s pigtails and then proceeded by lifting her right one abit.
When the left one didn´t move as well Ayumu said back in her bed with a puzzled look and an "oh...I guess I was wrong then..."

During the whole event Chiyo beamed with a smile as Osaka did what she had done so many times before.And as Osaka sat back Chiyo couldn´t help but laugh.

Ayumu looked at the laughing Chiyo-chan, feeling just a tad irritated. "What´s so funny?"

Chiyo eventually settled her laughing and Ayumu looked into those big,happy eyes.

"What you just did is something you´ve done so many times before,and when you did that just now you reminded me of the old Osaka-san."

"Am I not the same Osaka-san that you knew?"

The serious question caught Chiyo off guard and she flinched a little,but her cheery smile was soon up again.
"Oh,I am sorry,I´ll try to explain...eto...something is changed about you Osaka-san,I can´t really put my finger on it,but somehow you´ve changed since last I saw you. I cannot explain what it is,it´s just a feeling I have."

"Hmm...maybe,I don´t know...Say,where did all those other girls go?"

"They went to see if we could take you and leave here,you´ve been here for three weeks, and to be honest the doctors doubted you would wake up at all."

Ayumu was shocked...she had been lying here for three weeks?...the doctors doubted she would wake up?...

"Chiyo-chan,what happened to me?Since I ended up like this?"

Chiyo had dreaded this moment, and here it was already.
Maybe it´s best if I try to avoid that question for now?...I mean...it could be a major shock to her if she found out what she´d been doing and how she had been living. Yes,lets avoid.´

"Uhmm,that´s not all that important right now,what´s important is that you get dressed and ready to leave,we´re going to celebrate our anniversary and we´re leaving for my winter hut in Hokkaido,not far from where you live yourself."

"Anniversary?What anniversary?"

"The "8-years-since-we-first-met-each-other Anniversary",that one."

"Oh?That sounds fun,but...I can´t even remember ever having seen you guys before...would it be appropriate?"

Chiyo couldn´t help but feel a little sting of pain as Osaka told her the truth.
"Of course it is appropriate!We will all tell stories about those days and maybe you will remember some of everything that happened."

"Ok,I´ll come,it sounds like it could be alot of fun."

Just as the words left her mouth Kagura came crashing in through the door and grinned widely at the two.

"It took some persuading,but Osaka-chan´s now good to go!"