"It's been a few days now... is he still not stopping?"

Rio asked the girl beside her as they gave their report to Dr. Koro

"There are no signs of stopping or even a decrease in his activity ever since he started. Although he has done this before, it was never this extreme nor did it take this long!"

Okuda yelled with a slightly worried tone as she showed the other occupants of the room the pictures of his injured fingers.

"But why is he doing this? Is it really because there's a new person taking care of the ward?"

It was a simple question that Kayano asked yet noone seemed to have an answer for it

And the room fell silent

"He might know him.."

Everyone turned their heads towards Dr. Koro whose eyes were hidden behind his dark and curly hair.

"What... do you mean?"

It was Rio who asked the question, knowing what he was thinking but doesn't accept it.

The blonde girl went towards the man's desk before slamming her hands on it

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!"

Dr. Koro remained silent before letting out a troubled sigh

"Him and Nagisa might already know each other"

_________________________________________
"Nagi"

The bluenette in question hummed before looking up at Karma

"Your parents..."

Nagisa hummed again while petting Karma's hair. The bluenette was currently his lap pillow so this is all he could do at the moment

"I wanna hear stories about you and your parents going on adventures!"

Nagisa giggled at this. There are times when Karma would act like a mature adult to an innocent child. The bluenette had thoughts that his behaviour was due to being in this glass room for so long or perhaps it stemmed from even before he was taken here.

"Sure! I remember when dad used to take me to... huh,,, wait, dad used to take me to a nice sushi shop. Did he? Was it mom? No mom took me to some other store. Huh? How come I forgot...."

Karma stared at Nagisa as if what he was saying was completely normal.

It's completely normal to forget about past memories

Karma was confused as to why Nagisa seemed to struggle while remembering his parents.

If it's just his parents then forgetting them is also normal. So why does he look as if he's trying to solve a very complicated puzzle?

Karma tilted his head to get a good view of Nagisa's face, the sudden movement caught the bluenette's attention making him look Karma in the eye

"Did Nagisa's parents disappear too?"

The question threw Nagisa off

They did
They didn't

Nagisa doesn't know the answer to that question

He didn't really think about his family that much. The last clear memory he remembers was his time living in a dormatory as a high school student.

Were they the ones that payed the rent every month?

Were they the ones who payed my tuition?

Were they the ones who left my monthly allowance in my card?

Nagisa asked himself these questions. Everything that required a parent or guardian was already taken care of. His life was going great financially until college when he had to make a living on his own.

He simply thought his parents were the ones supporting him behind the scenes.

But he never really got to confirm whether or not his parents were the ones who payed for everything while he was in high school.

What was their names again? Obviously their surname is also Shiota but how come I never got to hear anything from them?

"I... don't know"

Was all Nagisa could reply with

Karma remained silent before sitting up and hugging the bluenette

"When mom and dad disappeared I didn't know what to do..."

The red head started while Nagisa  simply listened to Karma's heart beat.

It was oddly calming

"I don't know what I did but apparently I did a lot of bad things. I forgot already though!"

Karma cheerfully said as he continued to talk while hugging Nagisa.

"I don't remember anything about my parents"

'same here' Nagisa chuckled bitterly at his earlier realization

"But I never felt sad or confused or anything"

The red head looked at Nagisa's blue eyes as if to say that whatever he was feeling is completely normal

Nagisa grew worried however when he saw Karma's smile turn into a frown

"But...."

Karma burried his face on Nagisa's neck before continuing, tightening his grip around the smaller boy as if reassuring himself

"I don't know what I would feel if Nagisa disappeared on me"

Nagisa wrapped his arms tighter around the red head as he started to sob a bit

Just the thought got him teary eyed, if he thinks about Nagisa leaving him it made him want to cry a river

But with Nagisa hugging him like this right now

It made him happy, it reassured him that he's not disappearing either, there's nothing to cry over
_________________________________________
"Nagisa-san!"

Okuda ran towards the bluenette before jumping at him with a hug

"Woah! Okuda-san? H-how are you?"

Nagisa hugged back aswell before taking a step back

The girl with braids smiled at him before dragging him to the kitchen

"I'm fine! Koutarou asked me to get you. You have been slightly out of it that you forgot to check and deliver w26's lunches"

Nagisa flinched, he has been preoccupied with searching his parents' whereabouts that he completely forgot to do his job

He slapped his cheeks mentally to snap himself out of it

'Focus Nagisa! Instead of worrying about the people who never even bothered to check on you, you should focus on doing the one thing that's putting food on your table'

The bluenette turned both his hands into fists as he looked up with resolve

'Alright!'

He proceeded to follow Okuda to the kitchen where Takebayashi was waiting

"I apologize for coming here late"

Nagisa bowed slightly while Takebayashi simply pointed towards the trolly filled with food for the patients, not even looking at Nagisa as he is busy with his papers

The bluenette raised an eyebrow

"Not to come off as anything weird but... don't new employees get.. I dunno... punished? for not doing their job properly?"

This time Takebayashi did look up from his papers

He gave Nagisa a confused expression

"You are here now are you not?"

"...Yeah"

"You're job currently is to give the patients of ward 26 their lunch yes?"

"That is what I'm here to do at the moment yes"

"It is currently lunch time is it not?"

Nagisa looked at a clock in the room

11:35

Usually he's already done giving out the food and hanging out with Karma at 11:30

"I guess"

Takebayashi looked down and continued his paperwork

"Then I see no problem here"

Nagisa smiled awkwardly

'You say that but I can't help but think that most staff here are spoiling me too much...'

Okuda simply smiled at him before handing him the trolly

"I will be joining you aswell if you don't mind"

Nagisa tilted his head in confusion. Okuda would accompany him for a few days when he first started but not anymore. Until now that is

Seeing his expression Okuda gasped a bit

"Oh don't fret. I won't be in the way of you and Karma's alone time! I'm simply joining you because one of the patients is severely injured"

Before Nagisa could take in mind the last part of her statement he was already red

"W-why did it sound like you were implying that Karma and I are- wait someone's injured?"

Ignoring his outburst Okuda simply pushed him out the room and  towards ward 26

"You'll understand once you get there!"
_________________________________________
"Well, we're here!"

The two went inside as another riot broke out

They all quieted down once they saw Nagisa though but they were making slight ruckus when they saw another person with him

'Koutarou was right. They go silent when Nagisa's around. Since I'm here they're causing some trouble but it was never this peaceful'

Okuda took a mental note on their behavior as she walked beside Nagisa who was giving out the lunch via a small hinged panel installed on the wall of each of their glass rooms

'Of course the most abnormal change is Akabane'

The girl thought as said red head could be seen moving around in excitement but is patiently waiting for Nagisa to finish his job

"So, you never told me who got injured"

Okuda looked at Nagisa before looking at the glass room infront of them

It was the last one before Karma to be given lunch and it held the person with the injured fingers

Just remebering the severity of his injury made Okuda cringe

"We observed this patient to be scratching on the walls of his room, we still don't know if he's trying to get out or is simply bored but he injured his fingers badly and we need to fix it. We can't get it infected after all"

Nagisa hummed as he watched her fumble around with the bag she brought

She kept on looking in it before vigorously searching for whatever is supposed to be inside

Oh she sighed

A long one too, not good

"I seem to have left my pen"

Okuda looked down in emberassement while Nagisa simply stared at her in confusion

"Is that important?"

"Ofcourse it is! I need to write a detailed report on his injuries and behavior! And while I'm here might aswell take note on every patients' behavior! If I gave Nakamura-san only a report on him she would also demand on reports for everyone! I don't wanna be here longer than I'm supposed to"

Nagisa looked at her with wide eyes

'She may have said that she doesn't want to be here longer than she should but I can't help but think she's slightly afraid of Rio"

Nagisa sighed before smiling

"I'll be here for a while anyway"

The bluenette waved towards Karma who waved back

"So you can go ahead and grab that oh so important pen and come back"

Okuda sighed in relief before running out the door

With her no longer in the room the  other patients went dead silent while looking towards Nagisa whose smile remained

"Alright then! Last one before Karma"

He glanced towards the glass room before him

'He's always curled up in a corner'

Nagisa thought sadly as he grabbed the bowl of food and opening the small panel

'Huh?'

He tried opening the supposedly swinging panel but for some reason it wouldn't budge

Eventually, Nagisa gave up before humming in thought

'Well I can't leave him without food...'

He glanced at the locked door of the glass room before looking at the patient who was also looking at him

Nagisa walked towards the metal door and inspected the lock code

'It won't be the same as Karma's won't it?"

He input the code for Karma's door and was rejected

'Ofcourse'

Nagis glanced at the person in the room again, this time he wasn't curled up on the floor in a corner, he was standing still in the middle of his glass room staring at Nagisa with those eyes

'Wait'

Unconsciously, Nagisa's fingers started typing a code

Password ACCEPTED
Room ******** ACCESSED

Nagisa gasped as he took a step back the door was unlocked but it still wasn't open, the resident of the room still hasn't moved from his spot either

Nagisa was suprised he got the password, I mean he was just guessing the numbers... right?

The patient inside flinched while his fingers twitched a bit as he slowly walked towards the door

Nagisa was frightened and couldn't think straight. He didn't even notice Karma banging on the walls of his room

The moment the patient opened the door Karma started kicking his own, albeit locked, door open

Nagisa backed himself towards the exit, he could run and escape but his legs wouldn't cooperate

The patient was frozen infront of his wide open door, as if not believing that he's outside of his confinement

Everything was silent

Until he started to run towards Nagisa

Seeing this Karma started kicking his door harder, a few screws flew out but it was still locked

Nagisa's eyes widened as the patient ran towards him but he wasn't scared

He knows those eyes

".............?"
_________________________________________
"Nagisa-san! I'm sorry I'm late. I ran into Kayano-san and we chatted a bi-"

Okuda's eyes widened as she dropped her pen

It was so silent that she heard it when it hit the floor

Karma's door was broken while another was left open

Karma was kneeling on the floor embracing Nagisa while another person was on the floor beside them

Even without Okuda's experience in medicine and in the hospital, she knew that person is dead. They're face and body mutilated beyond recognition

She placed a hand on her mouth before looking at Nagisa and flinching

The bluenette had a knife lodged in his side, between his ribs and his hip

Luckily he looked like he was still conscious but barely

Nagisa laughed but the blood in his throat made it slightly difficult

Karma ignored him but continued to embrace him as if he was holding onto his last breath

Okuda watched as Nagisa's hand slowly went towards the knife in his flank

"How nostalgic..."
_________________________________________
A/N: I finished writing this at 1 am so there might be some errors