"Hello... Dr. Tomi?" There was no answer, and Rina looked around the office, a little bothered now that she realized there was nobody in. "Hello?"

The clinic was empty, even though the lights were on and it looked like someone had just been here. She sighed and returned to the waiting room. "Huh. It looks like there's no one here, even though the door was open."

Seri, who was sitting on the bench nursing a wounded knee wrapped in a handkerchief, looked back at her. "Should we wait?"

"Sure, but first - come on in," Rina insisted. "We need to do something about that knee of yours! There must at least be something we can wash it with in here..."

Rina helped Seri on her feet and dragged her into the office and the nearest chair in there. Seri watched as her friend looked around for a bit for tools until she found something suitable and got some water. She winced as Rina unwrapped the makeshift bandage and washed the wound.

"There's going to be a bruise on it at this rate," Seri complained, resigned. "But at least the wound looks actually smaller than we thought..."

"Oh, good," Rina replied. "Doesn't look like it's bleeding much anymore either. Now let's see if there's an antiseptic here..."

She couldn't find anything at first glance, and looked around more. There was a document open on the computer with some other files lying around on the side, and she wondered if something had come up and Dr. Tomi had been forced to leave quickly.

The file closest to her on the side table seemed to have some complicated medical records on it, and Rina rolled her eyes at it. Another file on the desk didn't look like a medical one, but more like a data log with a bunch of dates. Probably appointment times or something, she thought as she spotted a tiny bottle on the same table.

"Found anything?" Seri asked, and Rina reached for the bottle - just to brush her hand over the log file and have it drop on the floor.

"Yikes." She quickly grabbed the bottle, only to find it to contain some medicine instead of what she was looking for. "Eh, nothing here. And I better clean that up..."

A random log entry had opened up as she picked up the file again, and she tilted her head, knowing full well that while she certainly wasn't supposed to be looking at anything, she couldn't help but feel a little nosy. She peered at the entry, curious.

"Date: 30/xx/2149," she read aloud. "Experiment on light bondage turned out just as expected. Kazuki did not resist the slightest when I told him to sit down and..." She blinked a couple of times. "...Expressed interest in tying his wrists behind his back and putting a blindfold on him."

Seri gave her a blank stare. "Wh-what?"

Rina snickered and looked at her. "I don't know, but this sounds like... an erotic fantasy, maybe? At first glance I thought this was an appointment list or something but looks like I was totally wrong. Let's see what else it says..." She returned her attention to the file. "Perhaps he's used to having his eyesight obscured, but having his hands restricted as well did not bother him at all," she read on. "Although that kind of blind trust could be considered foolish, it all went as I had predicted. Also, I am uncertain if it had any effect on Kazuki's actual pleasure out of the complete act."

"That's dirty," Seri commented with slight blush on her face. "...What else?"

"Ooh, this is where it gets good," Rina said. "It reads, 'It did, however, partially turn me on, which is interesting to note as self-study. I should talk to Kazuki about this, but somehow I doubt a direct approach will work.' ...Wow. Who do you think wrote this?"

Seri giggled a little. "If it's some kind of fantasy involving Kazuki... Hey, do you think it was...?"

That was as far as she got when Maya's voice suddenly called, "I'm home!" from the other side of the house. Rina looked at her friend who looked back at her, a little panicked. "Mom? I need to head out again though, Kazuki said that they need help at Rakuen."

Seri's panic caught on as footsteps approached, and Rina looked around and finally just slipped the file under her jacket and took a step closer to Seri.

And that's where those two still were, frozen like statues, when Maya, untying a scarf she had been wearing, poked her head into the doctor's office a moment later. "Mom? I was... uh... Hi?"

Seri was the first to recover. She gave her a bit of a smile and a muffled greeting before she gritted her teeth as she accidentally pressed her hand over the wound on her knee. Maya noticed the soon-to-be bruise and was taken aback a little.

"Hey, are you all right?" She asked as she entered the room. "Mom isn't here, is she?"

Rina shook her head a little. "N-no, the clinic was empty when we came in, but..." She gulped. "I mean! We're really sorry to intrude like this, but Seri tripped on something while we were walking on the beach and her knee was bleeding like crazy so I carried her here and..."

Maya raised her hands, holding out her palms. "Oh, no worries about that!" She took a look at Seri, then at Rina again. "Did you clean it yet?"

"Kind of," Seri mumbled.

"I washed it, but I couldn't really find anything else," Rina added. "I didn't really want to touch anything here, so..."

"The normal wound cleaning stuff is... over there, I think," Maya said. She put down the few items she had been holding - a small purse and the scarf - walked across the room and picked up something from the medical cabinet. "Yep, here you go. Wipe it with this, and afterwards we can put this antiseptic dressing on it."

"I'll do it," Rina quickly offered, and Maya handed over the items. Rina moved to where Seri was, turned her back to Maya - and quickly fixed the position of the file hidden under her jacket to make sure it wasn't about to drop out - then wiped the wound clean with what Maya had given her. She applied the bandage and made sure it adhered on properly.

Maya nodded. "Looking good. Can you walk?"

Seri stood up with her friend's help, and though her foot felt a little uncomfortable to put weight on at first, she adjusted to it soon enough. "I should be able to, yes."

"I'll take her home, so no worries," Rina said.

"All good, then," Maya said with a smile on her face. "But first, you two look absolutely drained. Your faces are all pale and everything." She tilted her head and looked worried for a but before the look on her face brightened. "I know! Come with me, I'll get you some juice." With that, she practically dragged the girls with her, without giving them time to reply or react in any other way.

As a result, Seri and Rina found themselves half-forcefully seated at the dining table. Maya went to get something from the kitchen, and the girls looked at each other, their eyes wandering towards what was under Rina's jacket for a moment, but they didn't dare to look for more than a second.

"Here you go," Maya said, placing two glasses filled with juice in front of them.

"T-thank you," Seri managed. She picked up the glass took a small sip while Rina just grabbed her glass, emptied it in one go and put it back down.

"Thank you for the drink!" She exclaimed. "Uh, we should probably go now," she continued, putting on a smile. "Really, sorry for the intrusion, and..."

Maya shook her head. "Don't be silly," she said. "Seri needed medical attention, so you two definitely had business here. Better get you home now, though! I'll come with you just to make sure you get there safely."

"Er, you don't... really have to," Rina tried. Seri just took another sip of her drink then mumbled another "thank you" and got up. She looked at Rina and then at Maya, who was now giving the two a confused look, like there was something she had missed. Rina felt her heart beating faster but did her best to hide her anxiety. "We..."

"Actually," Seri interrupted her. "Uh, weren't we supposed to meet Hiroto in town?" It was but a white lie, and she shot a glance at Rina, who quickly played along and nodded. "So don't worry about us, just..."

Maya waved her hand with a smile on her face. "Oh, but since I need to go out there myself anyway, I'll walk to town with you then."

"But..." Rina started.

"No no, it's fine," Maya reassured them, and neither of them couldn't come up with a good counter-argument. There was just no getting rid of her, was there? "Well, let's go then," Maya continued. "You just be careful while walking," she told Seri. "And tell us if you need help. Okay?"

Seri nodded and gave a questioning glance at Rina, who instinctively pressed the file against her chest and followed Maya to the door. They both knew they had to return the file, but in this situation that was rather impossible, so it was better to just go along with Maya for now.

It was like a perfect déjà vu, and Soushi was starting to feel slight frustration building up inside of himself although he wasn't about to give in to such feelings.

The fact remained though - Dr. Tomi was not at the clinic, and neither was Soushi's file.