"How do you make Sea-Salt Ice Cream again?" Shujinkou wondered aloud as he wondered through the halls. He knew the answer was in his head, but no matter how hard he tried to remember it, the answer did its best to stay out of his reach. "Never mind. I should be focused on seeing how Sayori is doing."
It didn't take long for Shujinkou to reach the nurse's office and enter it for the 2nd time in the past 24 hours. The moment he stepped inside, he found Sayori asleep on one of the beds with a flushed face and an even bigger sprain. The sight of his friend in a state worse than she was when he brought her to school effectively rendered him speechless.
"Are you a friend of hers?" the school nurse approached him with a clipboard in hand.
"Yeah," Shujinkou awkwardly nodded his head in response to her question. "I came to see how she's doing with her sprain."
"Well, as you can see, not only has her sprain grown in size, but she's also come down with a slight fever," the nurse explained.
"But it's only been a couple of hours. How could she have ended up like this?" he asked perplexed.
"Sometimes a fever can sneak up on people. Plus, she kinda fell on her sprained ankle during lunch," the look on the nurse's face was enough for Shujinkou to realize that she was embarrassed over SAyori's condition. "But I wouldn't worry about it though. All she needs is a good night of rest and she'll be as right as rain tomorrow."
"I see," Shujinkou scratched his right cheek as he dug into his pocket. He still couldn't get over the fact that someone actually got worse while in the nurse's office… Not that he was blaming the nurse herself. He casually pulled his phone from out of his pocket and sent a quick text message to Monika. The moment it was sent, he turned back to Sayori with a puzzled expression. "How am I supposed to get her home while she's out like this?"
A few ideas roamed through his head, but in the end, he knew what he had to do. One arm flew under her legs, while the other gently slid under her back. In just three short counts, Shujinkou lifted Sayori up from the bed and proceeded to carry her out of the office.
To his surprise, he didn't have any problems carrying her out of the school nor did he have an issue continuing the journey to her house. To him, it was nice that the current situation lacked any obstacles, but that feeling didn't last as soon as he approached her front door.
"How am I supposed to open the door like this?" he fretted.
The solution to his problem would soon make itself apparent to the worried individual as he took a closer look at the door.
"She didn't close the door all the way again…" he slightly chuckled.
Though he was laughing on the outside, on the inside he was worried that this habit of hers would get her in trouble. He then tapped the door open with his foot and carried the sleeping student up to her slightly messy room. There, he gently laid her on her bed and wave of relief washed over him.
"Home, sweet, home…" he sighed in relief.
"Yeah. Thanks, Shujinkou," Sayori beamed.
"No prob-" Shujinkou stared at the giggling girl in disbelief. "You were awake the whole time?!"
"Eh, not the whole time," she diverted her gaze as continued to giggle.
"Okay then," he shrugged.
Without saying a word, Shujinkou walked out of the room and entered the bathroom. He then grabbed a nearby towel and smothered it in a stream of warm water. With the towel completely drenched, he squeezed out the excess liquid and returned to Sayori.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I honestly have no idea," Shujinkou casually admitted as he gently laid the towel across her forehead. "But I have seen a lot characters treat a sick character this way in various media."
To his surprise, Sayori's face began to turn red.
"Maybe it doesn't work in real life…" Shujinkou slightly chuckled as he scratched his right cheek.
"No, it's fine," Sayori assured him while giggling. "Wait a minute… I just realized that we're missing the club."
"Don't worry about that. I already told Monika we would miss today's meeting," he explained. "Besides it's not like you're in any condition to go yourself."
"Oh yeah…" the look of disappointment manifested on her face as she remembered her current condition. "Well, I guess there's still time for you to make it."
"I can't go and leave you here by yourself," Shujinkou shook his head.
"It's no big deal, Shujinkou, you don't need to worry about me," Sayori assured him.
"Your track record kind of makes it hard to believe that," Shujinkou playfully pointed out. "Point is; I'm here to attend to your every need until you feel better."
As if on cue, Sayori's stomach angrily roared at Shujinkou.
"Starting with your stomach," he continued. "I'll be right back."
Shujinkou jumped down the steps and entered the kitchen to prepare a meal for his sick friend. But even though he was ready to take on the task, the realization that he had no idea what or how to cook effortlessly eroded his enthusiasm.
"What am I going to do?" he wondered to himself.
Just then, he heard the doorbell ring and quickly travelled to the front door to open it. Surprise hit him hard as he laid his eyes on Monika, Natsuki and Yuri.
"Hey, Shujinkou," Monika waved.
"Hey, guys. What are you doing here?" Shujinkou asked.
"We came to see how Sayori's doing, dummy," Natsuki answered.
"How is she doing?" Yuri asked.
"Well, she's not too sick, but we're both kind of faced with a problem…" he sighed.
"What is it?" Monika queried.
"She's hungry and I don't know how to make anything…" he sheepishly admitted.
"Jeez, and you thought you could take care of her by yourself," Natsuki critised.
"Yeah, I didn't really think about that,"Shujinkou agreed.
"Well, I think we can help with that," Monika smiled.
Feeling a huge weight lifted from his shoulders, Shujinkou escorted the three into the kitchen watch them inspect the contents that were available.
"I think I know what we can make from this, but…" Monika looked at Shujinkou. "It would be great if it could be a surprise. Do you think you can distract her long enough?"
"I'll give it a try," Shujinkou nodded.
"Alright then," a determined smile formed on the club president's face as she reached for a nearby bowel. "Okay everyone, let's get to work."
With a new task complete, Shujinkou returned to Sayori's room.
"Who was at the door?" she asked.
"Eh, just someone who wanted to sell some chocolate," Shujinkou casually shrugged.
"Did you get some?!" Sayori queried, the look in her eye causing him to instantly regret his misdirection.
"It was too rich for my blood…" he sighed in false disappointment.
"Oh…" the disappointment on her face made it clear that he should have said something else. "What about the food?"
"It's under control. I… got some outside help," Shujinkou sheepishly admitted. "Anyway, I'm here to distract you from your hunger until the food gets here."
"Hmm…" Shujinkou watched Sayori's curious eyes trail down from his. "What's that?"
"What's what?" he asked back.
"That thing around your neck," Sayori reached out and pointed to the necklace Fuyu gave him earlier.
"Oh. This is proof that I'm a Student Liaison," he explained.
Sayori's eyes widened as a giant smile formed on her face.
"You volunteered to be a liaison!? That's great!" she beamed.
"I didn't really volunteer. Fuyu asked me to do it," Shujinkou corrected.
"Oh. Well, who's the student you're helping and what are they like?" the curious girl asked.
"Well, her name is Reizo, but I've been told that she can be called Rei. She's…" Shujinkou paused mid-sentence and attempted to think of a way to explain what the student was like in a way that wouldn't make her come off as rude. "I don't really know why, but she seems to prefer not to speak."
"Really?" Sayori remained quiet for a moment. "Maybe you should bring her to the club so we can meet her."
"Well, I was planning to show her the clubs around the school, but only if she wanted to," Shujinkou replied, scratching his right cheek.
"You should definitely try and convince her," Sayori insisted.
"I can try, but she doesn't really respond to much," Shujinkou said. "I was kinda winging it all day."
"You mean she's that quiet?" Sayori wondered.
"No. It's more like she doesn't emote that much," Shujinkou explained. "She didn't even respond to a hungry stomach."
"Wow… she sounds like she's a rock," the impressed girl said, her eyes widening with surprise and amazement.
Her similar response to the one he made earlier triggered Shujinkou's brain's memory center to remind him of something he intended on doing earlier.
"That reminds me…" he dug deep into his backpack and pulled out a bag of pink cotton candy. "I got this for you."
Sayori's eyes widened with excitement once more as they beheld the confectionary treat in front of her.
"You're the best, Shujink-" she was quickly cut off as Shujinkou nonchalantly thrust his left palm at her forehead and gently pushed her back onto the bed. For the first time in the past twenty-fours, he was able to understand why her face was red and simpered. "Thanks."
He handed her the bag and watched as she wasted no time feasting on the sweet.
"You really know how to take care of a sick person," she smiled. "You make a good nurse."
"N-Nurse?!" he stammered. "I've been your personal physician for a long time and I'm a nurse... Sayori, if you always got to be the detective between us, then I can at least be acknowledged as a full fledge doctor."
"That doesn't sound like a fair thing to say," Sayori pouted. "After all, you always got to be a cool detective to. I think yours also had the title of world's greatest detective."
"That's because I didn't want to be an assistant, even though Watson is pretty cool; I wanted to be an official detective too. Besides, it was a good role me for since…" Shujinkou cleared his throat and began to speak in a more gravelly tone of voice. "I am vengeance. I am the night. I AM-"
He immediately stopped himself from saying anymore and shot a skeptical look at Sayori. Her giggling face was more than confirm his suspicions.
"You just wanted me to say the line didn't you?" he queried.
"Guilty," she grinned.
A slight grin snuck up on Shujinkou's face as she laughed.
"It's kinda hard to believe you have a fever with the way you're acting," he chuckled.
"It'll take more than that to bring me down," she proudly announced. "I'll be back on my feet by tomorrow."
"As long as you remember to stay off your feet today,"joked Shujinkou.
Just then, the bedroom door flung open and the rest of the Literature Club entered with a bowl of chicken soup and a cup of herbal tea.
"What are you guys doing here?!" she exclaimed as turned her attention back to Shujinkou. "Did you invite them here?"
"No, they came because they worried," he answered.
"Plus, it wouldn't look good if our VP was missing for more than a day," Natsuki added in a slightly joking tone of voice.
Yuri approached Sayori and placed a cup of tea in front of her.
"I heard herbal tea helps the body when it has a fever," she said.
"It also goes great with chicken soup," Monika smiled as she placed the bowl next to the tea.
The sight of the home cooked meal prepared by her fellow club members was more than enough to bring a tear to Sayori's eyes. After eating the meal, the club stayed and attended to their vice-president until she was dragged away by the temptations of sleep just as the night arrived.
With her now asleep, the visitors stood up and approached the bedroom door.
"Well, I guess this is where we say our goodbyes," Monika waved as she opened the door.
"Will you be staying behind?" Yuri asked Shujinkou.
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to stay around a bit longer," he replied.
"Just makes sure she doesn't hurt herself again," Natsuki joked.
"Oh, well, my track record regarding that isn't really good…" Shujinkou replied as he scratched his right cheek.
"Okay… Just make sure you keep her alive," Natsuki said.
"That I can do," Shujinkou assured them.
As the girls walked out of the room, Shujinkou approached the sleeping Sayori and pulled the bed's sheets over her.
"'night, Sayori," he said before closing the bedroom door behind him.
"'night, Shujinkou," Sayori whispered to herself.