Hi guys! I have been following the Karmanami fandom for a while now, and I really enjoyed all the wonderful stories of this lovely pairing that have been written so far by awesome writers. I've always been more a reader than a writer, but since the anime ended, I've been wanting for more Ansatsu and especially more Karmanami because I couldn't just get enough of this amazing manga and its universe and characters.
Before anyone can get confused, this story can be considered semi-AU, which means that it partially has the same settings as in the manga, but the status of some characters will be different (you will see it gradually in the story, I won't spill all of it yet xP). Even though they are in high school in this story, all the students in class-E are still together in the same class at Kunigaoka high school. I'd like to apologize in advance if the characters are too OOC. I'll try my best to keep them in character, but it can be influenced by the plot that I'm planning for the story.
I don't own anything. The characters belong to Matsui-sensei and a big part of the plot is influenced by Nanajima-sensei's works. The image cover belongs to りんたろう on pixiv.
I will dedicate some songs for each chapter which I will put at the endnotes. The song's lyrics and the chapter's content won't always be related to each other, it's just that I feel like listening to these songs while I was writing the chapter haha ;)
« Damn, just a little bit more » Click! Manami looked at the photo that she just took with her cellphone, featuring a bird's nest with a full family of four birds inside. Frowning at the lone branch that got blown in at the last minute and ruined the photo, she made an exasperated sound.
« Guess I have to take it again… », murmured the braided-girl.
Wasting no time, she quickly adjusted her position on the tree where the bird's nest was in order to get another view of it without the branch getting in the way. Another shutter sound was heard, and the young girl looked at her phone contentedly.
« Finally got it! Just 11 more to go! » The raven-haired girl hummed and proceeded to climb down. Unfortunately, she made a faux pas and slipped of the tree, falling promptly down from it.
« Ouch! That was close. » Manami slowly opened her eyes, processing in the fact that the fall didn't hurt her as much as she expected because of something soft that cushioned her fall. « Can you get off me now? » came a deep and masculine voice, which made the bespectacled girl jump. She finally realized that it was a boy who supported her fall and she was actually sitting on top of him. Feeling blood rushed to her cheeks, she quickly mumbled an apology and sprang out of him as quick as a magnet returning to its pole.
As Manami was composing herself and adjusting her glasses, she finally got a chance to look at his face more closely and realized that it was her classmate. « A-Akabane-kun? What are you doing here? »
« I should be the one asking you that question, Okuda-san. Lunchtime is almost over. Why are you still out here climbing on a tree? » asked Karma, eyes filled with curiosity and a hint of mischievousness looking directly into hers.
Manami paused. Even though he was indeed her classmate, they didn't really talk much with each other for the last three weeks since school started. She was actually quite surprised that he knew her name or even recognized her. Manami has never really been the center of attention. She always blended in quietly with the class because of her reserved nature. Not that she minded it though, the raven-haired girl enjoyed a quiet high school life, studying Chemistry and spending times with her best friends Akari and Yukiko, who were also in the same class. Akabane Karma though, was a different story. He has always been the center of attention, in both good and bad ways. Guys saw him as an infamous delinquent involved in many fights with numerous gangs who one shouldn't mess with, while girls swooned over him for his handsome face and intelligence. Manami wasn't one of those girls though, for she just acknowledged the red hair male as her classmate, nothing more, nothing less, even though some part of her couldn't help but compare Karma to him.
Stop that! Stop seeing him in every guy I meet! She berated herself, trying desperately to halt where her thoughts were going. The raven hair girl hated how easily her tears were welling up every single time she thought of him, even if it was just a fleeting thought. Manami! You aren't that same timid girl who wore her heart on her sleeve like before. You can do this! Compose yourself! After some seconds that seemed like forever, Manami managed to get back her neutral expression and looked at her interlocutor in the eyes.
"I was just adjusting the bird's nest on the branches because it was slanted. Thank you for helping me." said the chemist-lover while bowing politely.
While Manami would be able to fool most people by masking her feelings quickly within the span of seconds, Karma was too perceptive to miss how sad and teary her eyes looked for one moment and how they became normal the next. Okuda Manami, one of the very few girls in school who didn't look at him like some gods or idols and the only girl whose name he even bothered to remember, was indeed picking his curiosity. They were practically neighbors in their class seating, his being the last table of the third row and hers being the before last one of the fourth row. Unlike most girls, she was always being quiet and kept her interactions with other to the minimum. The only ones that he saw her really talking to were the two black long-haired girls. He also remembered how she managed to fully capture his attention by being the first person to beat him in Chemistry.
While he didn't really care for other humanities-oriented subjects such as Japanese literature, English or Geography, he always enjoyed Math, Chemistry and Physics and never failed to achieve the highest marks in those subjects, until he met Okuda Manami. He still remembered clearly how surprised he was when his name wasn't at the top of the list for the Chemistry mid-terms exams, while it was featured in the first or second place for all of the other subjects, making him the student with the best overall scores in the whole grade. It could be safe to say that she picked his interest from that point on, and Karma started to pay more attention to her and his eyes always seemed to search for her in the crowd on their own. As someone who never really showed interest in anyone or anything before, let alone interacting with people in manners other than mischief and violence, the red head boy was unsure how to approach her in an appropriate manner, plus the fact that she deliberately avoided too much contact with other people in the class aside from her two female friends. Now that an opportunity finally presented for him to be able to talk to her, no way he would let it pass. He was going to take his time cracking her mask and decoding the mystery which was Okuda Manami by all means.
Finally snapping out of his musing which didn't actually last that long in reality, Karma was quick to grasp her wrist as she was turning away from him about to head back to class.
"I'm good at reading through people's lies, and the reason that you gave me was most certainly one Okuda-san." said the delinquent slowly to punctuate his words.
"W-we're just mere classmates who didn't even talk once to each other before this. Even if I was lying, I don't really need to disclose the real reason because it doesn't concern you." exhaled the bespectacled girl after a moment of silence.
If Manami was taken aback by his question, she did a fairly good job to keep her expression neutral. The same couldn't be said to her stuttering though. It was a habit of her when she was still shy and had difficulty expressing herself, which she managed to break off after meeting senpai. She could always blame it on Karma and his insistence that obliged her to talk with him more than she would usually allow herself to fellow classmates.
Karma, on the other hand, just felt his desire to unravel her increasing after her somewhat cold reply, a far cry from what other girls would have done had they been in her shoes. He was going to figure her out, and Akabane Karma always got what he wanted.
"Well, it does if you managed to injure me after having to cushion your fall from that tree to do whatever you were doing."
As if to prove his points, the young man lifted his white shirt revealing some nasty bruises on the abdomen region, plus the fact that was holding his elbow protectively implying that some tendon in that corner must have been twisted after the small trauma. Weird as it may sound, he was thankful that his wounds from the last fight with some random delinquents two days ago didn't have time to heal completely so that he would have a reason to make her talk, but she didn't need to know that piece of information.
While the chemist was able to stay collected after his first question, she couldn't help but starting to get more flustered now. Even if she should have questioned twice about the impossibility such bruises could have formed from such a light collision, Manami could never get rid of her tendency to trust people a little more than she should, as well as her gentle and considerate nature. She didn't have much things to lose any way, now that she thought about it. The reveal of the real reason behind her actions might even make him draw some appropriate distance and let her going on with her life. Biting her lips to keep her emotions under control which she knew would definitely go a bit haywire each time she talked about him, Manami started softly after being assured by Karma that she didn't need to dress his wounds and that he would do it himself later.
"Just promise me that you will leave me alone after I tell you the reason. You see, I like a peculiar senpai who is really interested in photographing unconventional things. He wanted me to help him find some subjects of his photos in the past. If I can't clear all the photos that he sent me, I won't be able to meet him." started Manami when she saw that Karma nodded his head to agree to her condition.
"What kind of photos are they? And who is this senpai? Is he also in this school?" asked Karma after processing what she just said.
"I can show you some examples on my phone. As for the other two questions, those are personal info so I can't answer them." replied the chemist while opening her cellphone to her list of photos.
Seeing how firm she was on not answering about her crush, Karma decided to let it slide for now while ignoring the unpleasant feeling when he realized that she already liked someone. It wasn't like he was interested in her in that way. She was merely an intrigued mystery that will be solved by him. Growling mentally, Karma directed his attention to the photos on Manami's phones. He had to admit, the photos were definitely original, even in a weird way. The subjects in the photos varied a lot, from a cat with a heart-shaped mark on its butts to a giant daruma behind a Shinto shrine. Judging by the look of them, it didn't seem easy to be able to find these in the first place, let alone capture them on photo.
"So where is the next photo?" The red head couldn't help but ask.
"Near a cliff. On top of a mountain." declared Manami nonchalantly without missing a beat while starting to head back to class. However, before she could advance another step, her shoulder was grabbed by Karma's big, calloused hands. His head was also leaned closer toward hers, a little bit too close actually for her comfort.
"I'm definitely not letting you go there alone. Let's come together after the classes end today."
"W-Why are you involving yourself with this? It-it is my own business. Besides, you just promised that you will leave me alone after I answer your questions! " blurted out Manami, not noticing that her voice raised slightly.
Undeterred by her little outburst, Karma explained, in a no-nonsense tone which left no room for argument, that it was because she carelessly fell on him first, so she would have to let him in on this now that he knew about it, plus the fact that he didn't officially promise her anything just by nodding his head. He also added in a somewhat sarcastic tone that he would have trouble sleeping at night if he ignored someone committing suicidal actions, so it would be for his own sake and not hers.
I shouldn't have told him where I was going.
"That is something important to you right. While I really question your sanity into doing this game blindly just because the guy you like wants you to, it's dangerous to go there and I'm sure that you will still keep going even if everyone stops you." Karma fully knew that he was pushing her to the edge by ignoring his promise in her eyes, but he just couldn't let her doing such reckless things by herself. Despite her subdue appearance, this girl could be really stubborn when she wanted to.
Manami paused. This guy, why is he so different from the others? Some of her more curious classmates like Shiota-kun or Fuwa-san, and even Akari and Yukiko just merely smiled and shook their heads when she told them where she was going in order to take the photos. Not that she blamed them or anything, she understood perfectly that others might think what she was doing was ridiculous. She didn't bother to care though, because she knew how important it was to her. She expected no one's help, and no one ever interfered with what she was doing until now. So why, instead of pulling away like everyone else, Akabane Karma was actually coming along? They didn't even know each other, and Manami couldn't find a logical reason behind his actions at all. He confused her, and she didn't like it one bit, because he was, unknowingly, dragging out her old insecure and shy self in the past. She was painfully aware of how he could get under her skin so easily, and how those amber orbs kept staring intently into her own as if trying to search for something inside of her that she herself wasn't aware of.
The raven-haired girl decided to not say anything for now and slowly nodded her head, while trying to think of ways to escape him as soon as classes would end.
Songs: Kioku (Memories) by The Sketchbook and Jasmine by Yui Makino
Please R&R!
