Thursday, August 25th

The heat was intense. Even worse for him, Natsuno had missed the bus, and was now walking to school. Ever since the funeral, he couldn't sleep well at all - it seemed like someone or something was watching him, eerily.

Luckily, a white car pulled up to him - and Natsuno immediately saw, and identified the driver.

"Hey, Natsuno!" It was Tohru, and as usual he was smiling, "What're you walkin' around in your school uniform for?" Natsuno replied, "It's not a school day?", then he quickly changed the subject, "Hey, what're you doing driving? You have your license already?"

"Still just a permit." The blonde pointed to the young woman sitting next to him, "Ritsuko here is keepin' an eye on me while I get some driving practice." Ritsuko waved to Natsuno, "Hey, how are you?"

"Uh, fine, thanks."

"In any case, Why're you walkin' around in this heat? Come on hop in back."

Later

"Bus didn't come. I waited for an hour, then started walking to the next stop, and it passed me on the way there."

Tohru chuckled, "Yeah, the same thing happened to me before."

"It's about three hours to Mizobe if you're traveling on foot, isn't it?"

Natsuno laid his head back on the seat, "Yeah...", he said in an exhausted manner, just showing how bad the burning, late summer heat was, "If there were trains it wouldn't matter - There's just the stupid bus."

"Yeah, I know."

Tohru snickered, "What's wrong, not sleeping enough?"

"Pretty much.", Natsuno thought back to the night before, and recalled what appeared to be glowing, red circles outside his window. "Sometimes, all I can think about is how much I want to get out of here."

"Your parents moved all the way out here to be closer to nature, maybe you should humor them a bit."

"Eyes on the road!"

At the next stop sign, Tohru stopped for two more.

"Tomotsu, Masao..."

"Whoa, sweet ride!"

"What's up Tohru?"

Tohru's little brother looked at the lanky Masao and spoke excitedly, "We're in luck, no more walking!"

"Yeah...", Masao paused at the sight of Natsuno, "On second thought, I'm gonna pass."

"Walk back, are you crazy?" Tomotsu was confused by his friend's sudden change of attitude, "The car will be a lot cooler than out here!"

"I said forget it,", Masao said angrily, "If you wanna ride with him, go for yourself!" After that, he ran off.

"Calm down, what's with you?" Tomotsu took off after him, "Wait, I'm coming!"

Ritsuko didn't know what to make of Masao's sudden change of attitude. "That was strange, what's wrong?"

"Masao isn't exactly Natsuno's biggest fan. Not that Natsuno seems to care all that much?" Natsuno hit the blonde on the head, which surprised Ritsuko, "What did hafta do that for?"

"Like I said, I don't want you calling me by my first name."

Ozaki Clinic

Dr. Ozaki was starting to undergo alot of stress - the death count had risen from 4 to 29 in just a week. He was viewing the blood test results of Nao, the wife of his childhood friend, Mikiyasu Yasumori.

Ritsuko worked at the clinic as a nurse, and she was curious about how Nao's results were. "Doctor..." she began to ask him, "Is Nao's condition really bad?"

He calmly replied, "No...but her test results are puzzling. I want them to run the tests again. Can you call her, and schedule her for another appointment as soon as possible?"

"Yes Doctor..." and with that, Ritsuko walked out of the room.

Just as I thought. It's the same as Megumi's Anemia. Results of the Microscope analysis of blood and bone marrow.

Blood: Reticulocyte increase. Nucleated Red Blood cells present.

Bone marrow: Hyperplasia of the erythroblast. No irregular shapes detected.

No abnormality in the structural level. Instead, large amounts of Red blood cells are being consumed, Hematosis is even accelerated isn't it?

But, she's not bleeding externally or internally. The coombs test is negative. The Bilirubin and LOH levels in the serum are both normal...There isn't any Hemolytic either.

The More I think about it, the more I feel I've ruled out every possibility.

It was at this point that Dr. Ozaki was more confused about the matter than ever.

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