The following morning, Nagisa and Gou could be found at Iwatobi train station, waiting for the train that would take them to Tottori-shi. They each held a box full of rice balls. This was their breakfast for today. The sun was shining and the sky was as clear blue as ever.
"The weather is nice today," Gou said to try and start a conversation.
"It sure is, Gou-chan," Nagisa answered while taking a bite of a rice ball.
Gou didn't know what else to say on that topic, so she changed it to something else. "Do you think they have started to miss us… back at home?" she asked. She held up a rice ball of her own with a thoughtful look on her face.
"My family might not have," Nagisa said. "But Momo-chan and Hana-chan probably have," he smiled cheerfully at the maroon haired girl.
Gou nodded. "My mom is probably worried too, I have never went somewhere overnight without telling her where I was," she said.
"I haven't either," Nagisa said.
"Then how come you don't think they'll notice and worry about you?" Gou asked.
Nagisa shrugged, a saddened look appeared on his face. "Mako-chan and Kisu-chan are both busy because Kisu-chan lost his job as model recently, Haru-chan and Rin-chan are thinking about their future plans, and you heard what Rei-chan said the other day," Nagisa answered.
Gou nodded. She had never experienced that people around her were too busy to care about her because she had always just lived with her mother, but she could still somewhat relate to what Nagisa was feeling.
She was snapped out of her thought when the train rolled in on the station and both she and Nagisa got busy boarding it before it left again.
The station in Tottori-shi was, of course, bigger than the one in Iwatobi, but still rather small compared to the one in Tokyo. Nagisa and Gou only stuck around long enough to find out where the general hospital was at and then they headed that way.
The hospital was difficult to find from the station. Gou claimed that it was the one who gave the directions who was to blame, but Nagisa stated that it was Just Gou who forgot where they went. In total, they got lost about twice before reaching the tall light gray building that was the hospital in Tottori-shi.
They entered through the giant glass doors, and then stopped, not being sure of where to go and what to ask in order to get the information they needed, from about 17 years ago.
"Who do we ask?" Gou looked at Nagisa while trying to think her hardest about the problem.
"What about asking in the reception?" Nagisa asked, and before Gou could manage to agree or disagree with the idea, Nagisa had already gone ahead and walked up to the nearest receptionist. Thankfully it wasn't a busy day, so there was no line.
"What may I do for you?" the receptionist asked.
"I would like to ask about a family named Hazuki who had something to do with this hospital about 16 – 17 years ago," Nagisa answered her with his brightest, most innocent smile.
Gou reached them in time to see how the receptionist was taken aback by this smile and automatically smiled back.
"I will see what I can find," she answered before she started to research on her computer for the requested information. She was silent for some time while just typing on her keyboard. After around 10 minutes she looked back up at them with a saddened expression.
"What is it?" Gou asked, sensing there was something a bit off.
"I did manage to find something under the name Hazuki," she said. "But unfortunately, it seems they are not alive anymore. All that is left is their youngest child, Hazuki Nagisa," she said.
"Do you know what happened to them?" Nagisa asked.
The woman shook her head. "No, I don't," she said. "I can't give you more information either unless you are actually a member of the family," she said.
Nagisa smiled brightly at her. "Well, I am Hazuki Nagisa, where do I get more?" he asked.
The receptionist was literally stunned at this fact, and then a kind smile appeared on her face as she looked at her screen again for more information.
"Well, you could ask the nurse who drove you to the orphanage where you was brought," she said.
"Where is she?" Gou asked curiously.
"She retired about 10 years ago," the receptionist answered.
"If she retired, then do you know where she is now?" Gou asked.
"I will have to ask someone who knew her better," the receptionist said. "Wait here for a moment if you'd please," she got out of her chair and headed through a door behind her to a hallway. Nagisa and Gou were left just standing there.
It took some time before the receptionist returned with a soft look on her face. "According to one of my colleagues, she went to live with some family in Osaka right after her retirement," she said. "I don't have an address, but her name was Tamura Shiori,"
Both Nagisa and Gou nodded.
"Alright," Gou said. "Thank you for your time,"
"Yes, and thanks for your information," Nagisa continued. "You helped us a lot," he smiled and waved as he and Gou exited the hospital.
The two walked around the streets for a little while. Nagisa had grown hungry after seeing an expensive strawberry cake, and Gou wanted some coffee, so they went to a small café to satisfy their desires. Nagisa had a cheaper version of the strawberry cake he wanted so badly along with a cup of tea, and Gou had her coffee and a cookie. While they ate they said nothing, until Gou broke the silence.
"Osaka," she said while studying her cookie. "Isn't that where Ryugazaki-san went?" she asked.
Nagisa stopped his movements. He was about to wipe the last whipped crème off his plate, but he turned to look up at Gou. He nodded once in response.
"So we are going there too?" she asked.
Nagisa nodded, again only once. "Yeah, we just have to speak to Tamura-san," he said with a smile.
"You don't think Ryugazaki-san will notice?" Gou asked.
Nagisa shook his head. "No, Rei-chan's too busy with his project to look twice at me these days, he won't even care,"
Gou bit her lip and decided to leave the subject alone. Judging from the dark look on Nagisa's face it was clearly something he didn't want to talk about at all.
"When are we going?" Gou went and asked a much more practical question, hoping that would make Nagisa seem more positive about the situation.
"Tomorrow?" he suggested.
"Then where do we sleep tonight?" Gou asked.
Nagisa thought about that for a bit. "We don't sleep," he said. "We'll party all night!" a laugh escaped him.
Gou shook her head. "Think seriously, Nagisa," she demanded. "I want to sleep somewhere at least. The benches at your old school weren't even comfortable,"
Nagisa thought. "Then you find a place, Gou-chan," he said, figuring he had decided enough for today.
Gou sighed at the hopeless case she had decided to travel across Japan with. Then again, if Nagisa was a hopeless case, what did that make her for deciding to do this with him and support him during this stupid trip? She regretted falling for Nagisa's sad expression that one day outside their history class. Had it really only been four days ago?
"Gou-chan?" Nagisa said while looking down at the teacup he was holding with both hands.
"What is it?" Gou turned to look at Nagisa, even if he wasn't looking at her in the first place. She was surprised at the quiet tone he used when addressing her just now.
"Thank you for traveling with me, Gou-chan," he said.
There he was again, making her emotions grow soft from just a couple of words and a childish attitude. She really did wonder who was the more hopeless case of the two of them.
"You're welcome, Nagisa," she said. "This is the least I could do," she smiled at him as he looked up at her in return. His magenta eyes were shining with joy.
"Gou-chan, I promise we will go home as soon as we are done with this," he said.
"Thanks," Gou smiled. Nagisa had seen through her and already figured, probably long ago, that she wasn't much into the idea of running away as soon as they had left. He just hadn't said a word, and she didn't either until now. She silently thanked Nagisa's adoptive father for the fit of kindness Nagisa had just shown.
So, did anyone think something bad was going to happen? I wonder. I figure a title like "Hospital" is mainly used for chapters when something bad has happened that involve people going to the hospital.
Thanks for reading this story. I know that compared to the prequel to this, Free Parenting, the characters are way more OOC in this story. I'd like to apologize for that. But that's what's expected from a sequel to a good first story. Usually they turn out worse. But it is hard to create something similar to something good, no matter how hard you try, it will in most cases turn bad.
That's the words from me for today.
See you next time
Jackie