Hello! It's quite delayed but finally here is the next chapter!

Kasumi72, Guest: Thanks for your concern. I've never been very good at dealing with things so I get easily depressed, that's all. I'm fine now (thanks to all of you)! :)

AmayR, Eclipse of Demons, Violette Whest, Sara Snow,NOQP: Don't worry guys, there's still lots of pain left XD! Karma will have it hard with me but at least he will have his friends and teacher. Thanks for encouraging me to make him suffer more! (well that sounded bad)

angelicpower, Monoka lover, IHaveNoName and IDC: First of all, I love how you symphatize with Karma (I cried too while writing it). And the new chapter is here, so enjoy! :D

Sttaseen - do you mean the horizontal lines? It's one of the functions in docs. And the ants thing is a good idea though I won't let him kill innocent things. He's gonna vent his frustration different way.

Sunshine - well, that was one hell of an encouragment (it was, right?). I'm so happy that you think it's the best but I am quite sure that my writing skills are quite average. And don't worry, I won't discontinue this one.

WOOOH, EVERYONE! HERE IT IS!

Nagisa's P.O.V.

Karma-kun was crying. For the first time in my life, I saw my best friend cry and it felt as horrible as getting pierced with thousands of knives. Maybe even worse.

"Wha-what should we do?" I asked Koro-sensei who however seemed as confused as me.

The boy lying on the couch didn't whimper, sniff or do anything that would give out the fact that he was weeping. But that stream of tears running down his face was just enough for my heart to break.

"Should we... wake him up?" But Koro-sensei shook his head, holding my hands down with his tentacle. Not to stop me, but to calm me down.

"Karma-kun is obviously facing his own demons now. Waking him up would be like helping him run away from them. However, he needs to fight them so all we can do now is to stay with him and support him." Even though this kind of explanation felt a bit too abstrac, I listened to sensei. For now, he needed someone to lean on. A shoulder to cry on. And I would always be there.

Karma's P.O.V.

Soft. I was lying on something really soft and warm. I liked this feeling, I missed it a lot. It felt comforting and nostalgic. It felt like a baby being held by its mother.

I had a dream. About my childhood. My heart felt empty and in pain. I don't know why though, why would I care? For mom? She never really did care for me, she was just doing her responsibility. Dad? Never.

Sleep. I needed to sleep this over. I could ditch school again.

Wait. I was at school.

Opening my eyes, a brown, wooden ceiling greeted me. Well, not really. As I stared at it, I tried to remember what the hell happened. PE. Running. Pain. Tired. That's all I could recall.

Suddenly, a certain blue haired boy appeared in my view: "Karma-kun!" It wasn't only him here. Koro-sensei too. "How are you feeling?"

After hearing that question, I realized how I ended up on this couch with blanket over, ice on my forehead, this headache, the warm cheeks... I collapsed, didn't I? Sigh, such a pain. Such an embarrasing pain to that!

Using my hands, I tried to sit up and to disappear as quick as possible. Nagisa-kun seemed to notice that so he intended to stop me though I fell on my own before he could do it.

"Careful, Karma-kun." Sensei warned me as I hit the pillow. He took out a theromether and measured my temperature. I couldn't resist with how weak my limps felt and how hazy everything was.

After the 'beep' of the device, he showed it to me: "39,8° Celsius (103,64 fahrenheit). You are running quite a high fever, Karma-kun. Don't move too much."

Well, that wasn't the best state to run away in. So I didn't say anything. I just looked up at nothing at all, talking would be awkward. However, they didn't let me be.

"Is there... anything troubling you?" the blue head asked nervously, doing his best to keep his eyes on me.

Did they suspect anything?

"Not really," I lied, still watching the wood.

Silence. It really did feel awkward. But then, the octopus spoke up and I knew this wasn't going to be good.

"Karma-kun, we know you are lying. Something is definitely wrong. First of all, based at your appereance and my observation, you have obviously lost weight."

Have I? Well it is truth that I sometimes forgot to eat and that I mostly ate instant things. But I never noticed any changes.

"Secondly, you look very pale and tired. Have you been sleeping lately?" Wow, this teacher went straight for the kill. No way around, no sweet talk. And he seemed serious too. I could totaly read him - he was confused and worried, inexperienced in this kind of situation. He didn't know which method was the best to confront me with so he just honestly asked.

I still said nothing. I didn't even need to, they knew the answers already, that's why they asked. But... what was this guilt inside of me? It felt as though I have done something wrong. But I didn't do anything wrong, at least not intentionally.

"Well, I will make you something to eat. We need you to gain strenght, no?" The yellow octopus said, disappearing.

Now it was only me and Nagisa-kun. Both of us felt uneasy but he was the one putting it at display.

"I'm sorry for not noticing," The boy whispered, locking his eyes to the ground. The guilt inside of me increased. Why was he sorry for that? It was only normal he didn't. Even I didn't notice the cold, the poor eating habits or the fact that there was something wrong with me. Or rather, I did notice but didn't understand what it meant. I still don't.

"I'm a bad friend for not being able to see through your smiles. I sincerly apologize and I want to atone, Karma-kun. Please tell me what's wrong so that I can help you." This time, Nagisa-kun sat down next to me and watched me with those big blue eyes. It impressed and scared me at the same time. What was I supposed to say? That I hurt? That I needed help?

How could I do that? How could I just suddenly spill out all of my feelings and thoughts since my childhood until now that I have been doing my best to surpress, erease, destroy? How could I believe someone if I learned that I couldn't? That believing would be like giving someone a knife to stab you?

"How stupid." it came out silent. But in it, there was all of the pain, fear and longing that I had. I longed for trust, for something that would make me smile. For something I could always rely on and be sure of.

Something that never existed and never would.

Really.

How stupid.

Okay, I won't say anything much - It's quite late here, I should go sleep. Have a nice day/night!

Satsuki~