One day, Hikojiro goes to visit Sayo Kujo, an old lady who has been hospitalized. Sayo has been told that she has a year to live by assistant professor Natsuhiko Moriwaki, and insists on returning to the house she was born and raised in. It so happens that Hikojiro will be the one to treat her at home from now on. At the university hospital, Hikojiro runs into a familiar face - Hazuki, the daughter of Tetsuji Tonoyama, the man who taught Hikojiro how to make takoyaki. Hazuki is now a nurse at the university hospital and Hikojiro is surprised to see a strange poster on the hospital bulletin board that implies she's having an affair with Moriwaki. The hospital is currently preparing to elect a new chief surgeon, and the candidates are assistant professors Moriwaki and Shinsuke Noguchi, heads of the first and second surgical department. Both of their factions have been publishing defamatory statements about each other.