When Mochizuki awoke to someone shaking his shoulder, he opened blurry eyes, looking up at Chibiki. The man wore a soft look, almost as if he was about to break bad news to his student. Looking over at Sakakibara and Misaki, the other two students wore similar expressions, their eyes half-lidded as they looked down at the ground, their mouths twisted into a frown.

"What's wrong...?" Mochizuki honestly didn't want to hear the answer, his recently-developed anxiety playing tricks with his mind; what if someone he knew had gotten hurt? Or even... died...?

Chibiki sighed before he spoke, his voice as soft as he could manage. "...Your sister won't be coming to get you."

Mochizuki's stomach did bellyflops at this information, tears welling up in his eyes. Something had happened to Tomoka... "..."

"She had a car accident." The teacher pushed his glasses up his nose before he spoke again. "She died before the ambulance could get there."

Mochizuki looked down at his lap, the need to scream overwhelming him. He reached up and grabbed at his hair, clamping his mouth closed though a long, strangled whine still escaped its prison. Tears slipped down his pale cheeks and splashed against the material of his pants, his body beginning to convulse.

Sakakibara reached forward and placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, trying to calm the other. He glanced helplessly at Misaki, seeing the way she just sat there and watched.

"Mochizuki?" Sakakibara didn't know what to do. He understood that the reddish-brown haired boy probably thought the calamity was back – in a way, he too felt like that. "Mochizuki, I'm sorry about your sister."

"It's my fault!"

Chibiki and Sakakibara recoiled at Mochizuki's scream while Misaki seemed unfazed. The second the smallest boy started thrashing, ripping at his hair while screaming as if he were being tortured, Chibiki forced the boy into his arms, trying to stop the hysterical movements.

"Mochizuki, please stop!" Chibiki tightened his hold on the boy, the writhing making it difficult. "You need to calm down! Stop!"

"It's back!" The grey-eyed boy's voice was nothing but a strangled whimper. His flailing body became harder to restrain as the terror took over him. "T-the Calamity! I-it's back!"

Sakakibara's hands shot out, grabbing the white shirt his friend was wearing. His hands clenched as he spoke, his wavering voice conveying his stress. "Mochizuki, you need to stop. There is no Calamity. It's over. Please. Stop."

Mochizuki didn't relax in the slightest; he only became more frantic. By the time his rapid breathing turned into hyperventilation, a panic attack overwhelming him, his teacher had picked him up off the ground and removed him from the hallway, nursing him in the privacy of an unused classroom. His hand stroked through reddish-brown hair as his eyes stayed fixed on his student, his lips curled in a concerned frown.

The student had since stopped moving, the only sign of him being conscious was the tears that slipped down his cheeks, his eyes blinking more than usual.

"Mochizuki-kun..." Chibiki didn't know what to say or do. Should he let Sakakibara and Misaki into the room? Would they be more comfort for him than he himself would be? Or should he leave him alone and allow him to come to terms with this himself? There were so many choices and all of them seemed impossible.

"...N-nee-san..." Mochizuki's body shuddered as another wave of tears cascaded down his cheeks. He whimpered before he curled up on the older man's lap, burying his face into the black jacket the other was wearing.

Chibiki didn't stop the younger. He instead moved his hand to stroke the frail boy's back, hoping that he could be of some sort of comfort. He hated that he was the one to tell this damaged child the bad news, allowed him to believe the Calamity had returned. It hurt to know that, in a way, it was he who had caused this suffering. The only thing he could think to do was to stay with the boy and try to comfort him however he could.

"It's going to be okay," Chibiki whispered. "It will be."

Mochizuki didn't reply; he instead curled up further, soft sobs the only thing that could be heard from him.

Chibiki wanted to tell the boy that Teshigawara's parents were on their way to come and get him, his mother too stricken with grief to leave the house. He wanted to say that Mochizuki's mother loved him, but despite her daughter having just died, wouldn't a truly loving mother still come to collect their surviving child? What was the right way to handle this? It didn't seem like there was a right way.

~~Teshigawara~~

Teshigawara had been lying in his bed, staring blankly out of the window and watching the rain pelting down, the lightning striking in the sky. He shuddered at every thunderclap, the acknowledgement that he had nearly died during a storm eating at him.

"Naoya?"

Teshigawara didn't even look at his father, unable to take his eyes off the rain. He stayed still, flinching slightly when footsteps approached him and a hand reached out to touch his arm.

"Naoya, I'm afraid I have bad news."

Teshigawara's heart started to race at this, horrified to hear this 'bad news'. What if something had happened to Mochizuki? He had already lost Kazami and he couldn't bear to lose his smaller friend, too.

Pushing himself up onto his elbows, a single tear dripped down Teshigawara's cheek. "...Did... something happen to... Mochizuki...?"

Satoshi Teshigawara looked down at his lap as he reached out to pat his son's head. He was silent for a few seconds before he explained. "...Tomoka Inose passed away earlier today..."

Teshigawara's eyes widened at these words. He shook his head, trying to understand what could have happened. Had the Calamity started again? Was Mochizuki okay?

"M... Mochizuki..." Teshigawara's voice was hoarse, but the panic was still clear in his voice.

Satoshi understood his son's stress and shook his head, trying to bring comfort to his younger child. "Mochizuki-kun wasn't involved. He was at school. But his mother is heartbroken and unable to get him. Your mother and I are going to bring Mochizuki-kun home until Riku-san can take care of him."

Teshigawara nodded and lay back down, turning to stare out of the window. It wasn't that he didn't care about his friend or his late sister, but he just couldn't find the strength emotionally to get out of bed and go with his parents. He would wait for Mochizuki to arrive at his house and then at least attempt to get up. It was true that he had been afraid when his friend had punched the wall, but he knew that the smaller boy had been killing himself slowly trying to take care of him. He couldn't be selfish and ignore the slighter male after all of this. He loved Mochizuki too much to abandon him.

"We'll be back soon..." Satoshi whispered, ruffling light brown hair once more before he turned to leave. "Have a sleep if you need one, son."

Teshigawara didn't reply and instead followed raindrops on his window with his eyes, watching as they slid down the glass slowly, trying to distract himself from the pain he himself was feeling. He couldn't bear to lose someone else the way he had lost Kazami. The memories of the dark-haired boy falling off the balcony were fresh in his mind, the guilt he felt towards the bespectacled male's death nothing but a crushing weight.

Trying to clear his mind of what felt like one-thousand bricks, for the first time since the peak of the Calamity, he screamed. He grabbed his hair and ripped at it, screaming his pain out. His knees curled up to his chest as he wrapped his arms around them, crying hysterically. He didn't know how much more of this he could handle – but Mochizuki, having lost his sister, should surely be worse off, right?

For the first time in his life, Teshigawara hated himself. He hated everything about him. He was selfish to put himself before his friend when they both had suffered. But why was it so hard to get himself out of his bed and do something for Mochizuki?

It was because he was nothing but selfish, right?