This was getting ridiculous. The whole house seemed to be empty, and all Soushi could do was stand there and weight his options. The fact that the clinic was abandoned like this was suspicious, after Dr. Tomi had given him not just one, but three different reasons to be here. First of all, she had some important work to do. Second, she had ordered food in, and third, she knew Soushi was coming here.

The computer was on, there were a couple of files around - except for the one Soushi was here for, obviously. The lights were on and there was a scarf and a purse on the desk. Dr. Tomi had been in, but she had left in a hurry. As such, there was an obvious answer to all this; a medical emergency.

With this logical conclusion in mind, he left a quick message on the desk just in case, left the clinic and headed back to Alvis. He could most likely find out Dr. Tomi's whereabouts from there. He was too rational to panic not that there was really a reason to; the file was either with her, or she had stored it away somewhere, and all he had to do was ask.

The relieved expression on Seri's face only mirrored Rina's when Maya finally agreed to leave them behind, walking in a rather leisure pace, and hurried off to Rakuen.

Without exchanging a word, the two girls knew what they needed to do - go back to the clinic and put the file back before someone noticed. They waited until Maya was out of sight, then waited another minute before turning around and slowly making their way back, both awfully nervous about the whole thing.

"You could just wait here," Rina finally said in a low voice. "I can run back and take care of it." She sighed. "It's my responsibility anyway. I shouldn't have looked, and then I panicked when I thought she was going to notice and..."

Seri shook her head. "I doubt she noticed," she said. "At least I hope so." She stopped for a bit and looked at Rina, thoughtful. "Why do you think that file was there, though? I mean, if it's hers..."

Rina gave her an odd glance. "...You don't think Dr. Tomi is making her write it as some kind of sex ed?"

They both went silent and looked at each other for a moment. Rina pulled the file out from under her jacket after a moment and stared at it. "I wonder what else is in it..." She pondered.

"You want to take another look?" Seri questioned with a somewhat reserved expression which then softened and turned into a curious one. "I mean, I know we really shouldn't... But that was kind of interesting. Really odd format for erotic fantasy, though."

Rina grinned nervously and looked at the file. She closed the current open entry and opened another one from near the previous entry. "Date: 07/xx/2149," it read. "Since light bondage doesn't seem to do much for Kazuki, I decided to take a step further and study up on a traditional one called kinbaku. I spent a few days acquiring the right type of rope and learning the knots, then put my research into action last night."

"I'm starting to think this isn't just erotic fantasy," Seri commented. "What's with all those dates, anyway? It's like it was a record of something that has happened."

"Yeah, you're right," Rina agreed. "Totally weird format, like a diary. But why is this about bondage, again?" She looked at the entry. "As expected, Kazuki had nothing against trying it out," she read. "He seemed to like being tied up, but again, he trusts me so completely that I'm unable to judge if this actually had any particular effect on him aside from the obvious." She blushed slightly before continuing. "However, considering one of the most important points of kinbaku is aesthetics, I have to admit he looks rather pleasing to the eye when tied up."

"O-kay," Seri commented.

"And again," Rina read on. "I must question myself on who is actually getting the most pleasure out of the bondage act when I was the one who ended up straddling him while he was still restrained," she finished the entry. "...Seriously?"

Seri looked at her friend in disbelief. "Straddling? As in... Kazuki was lying on his back and... They had sex?"

"You think she..." Rina trailed off for a moment. "Think she actually did that with him?"

Seri twisted her mouth then shrugged. "Who knows. Whichever the case, we're reading some kind of porn here. Check something else, maybe that will tell us more?"

"Let's see..." Rina closed the current entry and picked another one. "Date: 15/xx/2149," she read. "Kazuki came to my room last night and crawled into bed next to me. There were two noteworthy points about this - first, he already had an..." She paused and snickered at this point.

"What?" Seri gave her a questioning look.

"An erection," Rina finally continued. "Second, he was the one to make the first move, when he usually seems more than willing to wait for me to do so. He practically dragged me on top of himself though, which is a much more direct approach than what he normally goes for. Based on earlier experiences, my personal observation indicated that he was in the mood for something fiery and passionate."

"This porn is so badly written," Seri commented, trying not to laugh.

Rina nodded in agreement and looked at the file again. "Having reached that conclusion, I proceeded after the necessary preparations by positioning myself between Kazuki's legs and inserting my p... pen..."

"Pen?" Seri asked.

"Uh... That." Rina held the file in front of her friend's face, pointing her finger at the word used for the male organ.

"Oh, penis," Seri read. "Penis... Wait." She stared at the file. "The... What now?"

Rina lowered the file, looked at it one more time and took a glance at Seri. "Well, that was not exactly what I expected from this," she commented.

"But... Why would she write that?" Seri wondered quietly. "That makes it sound like... uh... it was about two guys instead of a guy and a girl."

"Maybe it is erotic fantasy after all," Rina remarked, looking thoughtful. "You know, I've seen a definition for something like this before in the archives. I believe it was called 'boys love' or something? It involved erotic stories about two men that were usually written or drawn by women."

"But... uh." Seri looked bothered. "Why is it about... Kazuki and...?"

Neither of them wanted to say it aloud, so Rina just closed the entry and hid the file under her jacket again. They started walking in silence, making it back towards the clinic. Once they were closer, Rina convinced Seri to wait for her - and stand guard for some reason because she had this odd feeling she just couldn't shake no matter what - and jogged to the clinic.

She was unbelievably happy to find the place still empty, and she hastily sneaked all the way into the doctor's office, set the file down on the desk around the same place where she recalled taking it from and escaped.

Soushi had calculated correctly, and little bit of inquiry indicated that Dr. Tomi had returned to Alvis because of a medical emergency. He made his way to the medical room in search of her and found her studying some records and waiting for medical scan results.

"Dr. Tomi," he greeted, and she nodded as a response. "I stopped by the clinic but couldn't find you there. I returned here and heard that an emergency come up. Was it serious?"

Chizuru shook her head. "Luckily, it doesn't seem to be as bad as it could have been." At the moment, it looked like it was nothing more than a bad bruise and concussion, and she was relieved it had turned out this way. "Sorry about this, though."

"It's fine," Soushi replied. He offered her the restricted file he had been carrying around, and she took it. "I wanted to return this, in any case. As for..."

"Ah, that," Chizuru said. "It's still at the clinic, unfortunately."

Soushi gave her a questioning look. "Somewhere out of sight, I take it? I did take a look around your office but didn't see it."

"Didn't I put that on the desk...?" She looked thoughtful. "Or maybe I put it on top of the cabinet. That was only a little before I had to leave, anyway."

"I didn't exactly start looking through the place, so perhaps I did miss it," Soushi told her. "I do need it back though as the information there is..." He took a pause, with Chizuru giving him this odd look. "Did you read it?"

Chizuru nodded. "Took a look, yes. Nothing you should worry about, though. I consider it rather healthy that you're willing to go through all that trouble for your partner."

There was a moment of silence as Soushi took a quick look around to see how many people might have heard them. "Speaking of that," he then said in a lowered tone of voice. "There's something I need to discuss with you about. I'll... get back to that."

"If it's anything I can help with," Chizuru replied, making a mental note to look up some material concerning a certain thing in advance.

The medical scan results she had been waiting came in, and she concentrated on them for a moment before looking at Soushi. "I'll be here for another hour or so; you can go back to the clinic and get your log file. It shouldn't be too hard to find, just take a closer look around."

"All right," Soushi agreed.

So the file was at the clinic after all. Good.