Hello guys! This is the next chapter of 'Here to Stay'. Truthfully speaking, it was not supposed to be this large and I had quite trouble at more than a few points but somehow, I've managed. I'm still not satisfied but still, decided to present it to you.

Sorry for the stupid chapter title again but it is a parallel chapter to the Karma's one.

Sorry for grammatical and spelling errors. Feel free to point them out.

Disclaimer: Assassination classroom and its characters do not belong to me.

Summary- To survive, she needed to be strong and he needed to be weak. For others, she learned to be reliable and he learned to be dependent. In midst of pain and healing, of failing and growing, they found their hearts connected for ever.

Chapter – 2

Manami's day at high school

Her soft footfalls echoed loudly through the corridors of the school. She was on the second floor. The view visible on the other side was splendid. Trees and golden sunrays always worked together to create magic. Spending an entire year in a classroom surrounded by mountains with a teacher who taught you to discover magic in nature's smallest service made you marvel over the world's tiniest detail. Manami found her thoughts appreciating the beauty of nature. The silence in the wind felt immensely soothing.

Why was she here so early? The answer was simple. Chemistry. That was her reason. Well, more appropriately, she has been called to help her chemistry teacher setting up the lab for today's experiment. She reached her destination and slid the door open.

"Misaki-sensei. I'm here." Her gentle voice reverberates through the almost empty lab, save for one head of black hair popping in her vision.

Misaki Aizawa – a fairly young but extremely talented chemistry teacher. A bright and bubbly educator who could make any person comfortable around her. But her bubbliness never dampened her knowledge in any possible way. She was incredible in her subject. Her enthusiasm to teach and her ability to explain hardest of the laws and theories was something Manami found commendable.

If Yukimura-sensei would've lived, she would've found a soul sister in her high school teacher. Even Koro-sensei would've been impressed.

"Oh! Okuda-chan! You're here on good time. I need you to prepare a ten percent oxalic acid for titration. Are you up for the job?"

"Yes Mam!" Manami found herself moving almost hypnotically to prepare the solution. For some reason, Misaki-sensei always insisted that her students call her by her first name like Karma-kun and Nagisa-kun did. And when they are alone, she always refers to Manami as Okuda-chan. To Manami, who barely had any friends before class E, having her chemistry teacher so amazing and understanding had always made her feel happy? Sometimes, it almost felt like she had an older sister.

Slowly the hustle and bustle around the area increased and a well-known sound of bell ringing echoed throughout the corridor, startling both the teacher and student duo who were neck deeply engrossed in the world of molecules and atoms.

"Oh my god! I didn't even notice the time! Okuda-chan, move to the assembly hall now or you'll be in trouble." Manami nodded and left the room after the teacher assured her that she'll cover the created solutions to prevent them from any spoilage and contamination.

Rushing through the corridor she stumbled in to the assembly hall and joined her class of first years – Class-1 B. Oku Tokyo did not segregate its students on the basis of their grades unlike Kunugigaoka did. The students were randomly picked and separated in four sections, each containing forty five students. Although due to the high level of tests most of the students selected were of top tier. But Manami had been the one to top their tests with almost full marks making her noticeable in the eyes of her peers and teachers. The Principal had personally invited her for the results claiming that this was the highest marks scored in their entrance test in the entire history of Oku-Tokyo. Manami had felt her chest swell with pride.

She remembered that Koro-sensei had celebrated with spreading confetti all over the town. The weird things that their teacher did for them! Well, he was weird in his own right. The monotonous sounds of the assembly had been downed in her head. Memories of their out-of-the-world teacher flooded her mind. His yellow, round, smiling face looked so bright in her mind as if it hadn't been months since he had left them. As clear as if she had just witnessed an assassination attempt on him by her classmates just this morning.

She remembered him. She remembered his words.

…

"Okuda-san! What is the matter? You haven't been making any new chemicals to poison me now a days?"

Manami could not look him in the eyes. For someone, who bragged about how great Science was she had felt nothing but shame and anger at the pain and trouble her beloved teacher had to go through due to someone trying to exploit the subject of natural wonders – her favourite subject - science.

Science had ruined Koro-sensei's life. She sensed a sting of immense pain as she thought about the betrayal she felt, after all, she considered Science as her first friend ever before Kayano-san, Kanzaki-san, Karma-kun and all others of E came to her life.

"I-I don't want Science to cause any more trouble to you." She whispered, her eyes going everywhere except him.

"Ah. I see, so, you think that you're favourite subject is responsible for what happened to me?"

"Of course it is! Is it not? Both you and Yukimura-sensei suffered because of Science. You're now a creature which not even remotely looks human a-and you're going to die and I can't do anything to save you!" All the hidden mess of feelings in her heart jumbled out of her lips, her words choking with her efforts to stop the tears. "I was so naïve. I read debates about Science being a curse or a boon since I was a kid. And I always thought how stupid the people were who could not see that it was due to science that we have been able to conquer so many deadly diseases. I deliberately ignored the counter arguments thinking that Science was always good. But now…after knowing that those anti-matter experiments performed on you and Yukimura-sensei's death, Kayano-san's tentacles and all, how can I ignore all that and embrace science the way I did before. I don't even know the path I wish to take. Your condition is a fault, no, a felony caused by Science and not being able to save you is a blunder of mine, and I don't have enough knowledge to save you!

Unable to hold herself back, she broke down.

A yellow tentacle reached and removed her glasses off her face as they got blurry with the salty liquid running down her cheeks. A white handkerchief was offered to her, she took it to wipe her tears and blow her nose. She was startled when she felt a slight loving pressure on her head, her tearful lilac eyes coming to meet up his own white beady ones.

"Okuda-san. My, my. I feel so touched to see you worry about me. But please don't waste your tears on me. It really pains me when I see you children worry about me. And where till the question stands of me and my condition, you have nothing to do with it. Listen to me Okuda-san. I never said this to you in the fear of coming out presumptuous, but science is not a living being for you to believe that it has a mind of its own to come out as right or wrong.

It is a tool. It can be right, like being able to produce medicines and treatments, and it can be wrong as well, like the destruction caused by weapons. All are creations of science, good or bad, a product of science along with knowledge and morals of humanity.

The way science can be moulded and brought out as different ways solely depends on the heart of its wielder. I can guarantee that you will never use your knowledge to bring anyone any harm. You are a wielder of this great power, this great knowledge, sure, but what makes you different from others is your heart. Especially now that you've witnessed the atrocities of science you're one of those privileged ones who are aware of both the heaven and hell that could be produced by a person having the power of Science at their disposal. You are not Yanagisawa. You are Okuda Manami. Your heart is completely different from him. I know, I know that you will not give yourself up to the 'wrong' because you know what 'wrong' can actually do to ruin other people's lives. I have faith in you Okuda-san. The world needs you to gain more and more knowledge, the world needs you to become the greatest wielder of Science to make a better future out of it.

As long as you know the path your heart wants to take, you'll be fine.

And me? We still have some time to figure out what would be my final destination."

…

Those were her teacher's words before Class E had divided itself in to 'Kill' and 'Save' factions and Manami had decided to volunteer herself to support the 'Save' faction because this is what her heart wanted for Science to do.

But when they had finally gained some valuable research data to save Koro-sensei's from the International Space Station, thanks to the efforts of Karma and Nagisa and others, she had let out tears of joy to know that at least someone out there was doing the 'right' thing. She had been immensely surprised and stunned at the same time that the compound which could save Koro-sensei was almost had been her creation this year. She had honestly thought that everything was going to be okay, never expecting the lash-out from the government.

In the end, they had killed their teacher. This was what Koro-sensei had wanted them to do. This is what they had to do to graduate from him. They were Assassins and he was their target. It was the most painful and hardest thing that she, no, they all had done in their entire short lives of fifteen years. The crushing guilt and pain still haunts most of them every now and then but using all the teachings and memories Koro-sensei had provided them with, they were learning to live.

She was brought out of her stupor when a hand lightly tapped her shoulder. "Okuda-san? You okay there?"

The assembly was already over and Manami unconsciously joined the neat file of Class 1 B which was heading down to their respective class.

"Ah. I'm sorry Suzuki-san. I'm fine. Just a bit, I mean I just remembered something. That's all. Sorry to bother you."

"It's alright. You don't have to apologize. You apologize too much, silly."

Akira Suzuki. The class president. One of the most amazing person Manami had ever met. The girl belonging to a high class family, had been blessed perfect looks and brains. She had a soft and yet confident attitude with a tinge of happy spirited personality which could easily turn in to a serious demeanour if the situation called for it. But she never bragged about her position or authority she held over others. She never looked down upon people and treated everyone equally. If Manami was being honest with herself then it was truth that she greatly admired and adored her classmate, no, her friend, she corrected herself.

With her improved social skills, making friends and talking to other people had become much easier for her, she still had bouts of social anxiety every now and then but thanks to Akira and her other friends, she has been doing well.

She silently moved to join the back of classroom. The seat always brought back nostalgic memories and cherished moments and made her feel connected to her former classmates and teachers, this way.

It was duty of the class president to denote the seat numbers and Manami had previously requested Akira to let her have the last bench. She was denied her request at the first time but later was allowed to move to the last bench. Akira had been adamant about accompanying her stating that she was bound to get lonely there all by herself.

Although they were also accompanied by Izumi Minamoto, who, currently was one of Manami's closest friend here. She was a lovely bubbly person, even bubblier than Kayano-chan and also has a potential to transform into an unstoppable chatterbox in the company of right people. She was not the brightest student of the class unlike Manami who excelled in Science and Akira who did well in every subject. But she was frighteningly tenacious and a dedicated hard worker. Manami deeply admired her will to not back down.

Manami could easily claim that she was happy in her high school life. It was nothing like the first two years of middle school where they only friend she had was Science. Of course, it was still nothing like Class E, but certainly better than the life she had imagined for herself before she had been dumped to the Class which changed her life for good.

All in all, the efforts Koro-sensei had made to turn her life and give her a better future had paid off. She could never thank him enough for all the endeavours and trials he had taken for her. Not just him though, but the entirety of class E. For as long as she can remember, people always were bothered by her – how she talked was annoying to them, how she dressed was annoying to them, how she behaved was annoying to them, everything about her was annoying to them. So, she did what she could do to prevent herself from annoying them.

She had decided to become invisible. She kept her distance and never interacted with anyone unless necessary. Of course, it hurt. It hurt a lot. But this was the best choice, a defensive measure to prevent herself from being cut through the razor sharp words that a few people spewed out, ignorant of the damage they cause.

At least, loneliness didn't let you bleed.

But a class being the epitome of weirdness – weird students being taught by a definitely weird teacher became the most normal thing, a healing sanctuary in her life. She was not invisible anymore. Class E had accepted her for who she was, without any questions. She was not annoying in their eyes because for them, being weird was normal. Being dumped in class 3 E was supposed to be a miserable fate for anyone and everyone, but in her case, it undoubtedly was the best thing ever that happened to her.

Sometimes, she could not help herself but laugh at the irony.

Two periods before lunch hour, was when Izumi decided to have a little fun with her shy sweet classmate.

"Manami-chan! Why are you smiling? Is it because of your date yesterday with your 'Knight in shining armour'?" the familiar voice of her friend reached her ears, getting her back to her senses.

Manami jumped at the question and looked at Izumi with wide eyes.

"W-what?" she stuttered and a little tint of rose coloured her cheeks.

Izumi giggled and Akira simply smirked in response.

Knight in shining armour was the title or code word which had been given to Karma by Akira and Izumi themselves, when the two girls had heard of Manami's titular story about all of them entertaining the children by performing a play. They, at first, were horrified to know that someone gentle and pure like Manami had been given the role of a Witch. But were scandalously amused when they learned that the Witch had helped the Knight to defeat the monster that had kidnapped the princess. But rather sweeping the princess off her feet, the Knight had grabbed the hand of the Witch and thanked the spectators in the end. Funny thing was that none of the audience and performers of the play were much disturbed by the actions of the Knight.

"I-It was n-not a date! Why does everyone say that?! The bespectacled girl exclaimed.

"Did someone say that as well, other than us?" Akira asked intrigued by Manami's words.

Manami's eyes darted around, "We helped an old woman yesterday. She thanked us by buying us cotton candies but before leaving she said that we looked good together."

"Aah! How cute!" Izumi yelled giggling like a kid.

Manami felt a warmth settle in her chest thinking about her meeting with her former Classmate yesterday. Well, more like her best friend. Even though, class E separated after the graduation from middle school, she knows that they will always be an intriguing part of her life.

Those people changed her life, they were those who made her feel completed, the people who made her feel like she existed.

And Karma…she knows that their friendship is quite odd and she didn't know what to think of their bond other than the fact that she needed him to function properly. She knows it sounds weird but it was an honest observation on her part. Meeting him at least once a week, made her feel excited, made her feel relieved, made her feel happy. Sadly enough, she still hasn't been able to analyse the cause of the shift in her behaviour, especially when having Karma around. Even the silence with Karma by her side was companionable. He understands her even when she messes up with her words. He appreciates when she speaks her mind regarding him and his ways of handling things. Her strange obsession with science does not scare him but rather he has never left an opportunity to provide some appreciation to her knowledge.

But one thing she believes that cements their friendship is the mutual trust.

He trusts her enough to let his guard down. He trusts her ample to lay his normally imprisoned feelings bare. He has faith enough in her to admit his greatest fears and insecurities. He has enough belief in her to believe that she'll never stab him in the back like some others had previously certainly did. She knows, deduces, from his eyes that it is not a normal thing for him. And it made her to start respecting her own self to have something in her heart that even someone powerful like Karma would find worthy enough to depend upon. For someone like her, who never had friends before, it is an extremely significant thing.

And for her part, she trusts him enough to know that she would never be hurt in his presence – be it by words or by somebody's actions. Karma, who is still currently famous for his violent tendencies, made her feel the safest with him around. Truthfully speaking, she admired Karma for his strength and his defiance against what he believes is wrong. He was willing to fight for his values and stand up on his own ground and she could not help but respect his tenacity. She had always been a meek and submissive person, words and glares always pierced her heart but Karma, Koro-sensei and all others in class E gave her strength to fight for herself. She is still not a warrior with a sword in hand but rather she still is a witch who has the power to brew deadly poisons. She is an assassin. And she was undeniably proud of it.

The school day went as normal as it could. Manami had been calm, her soul soothed because of her yesterday's meeting with Karma and yet there was a reason that her whole body was slowly getting excited, jittery, because of her upcoming meeting with him.

Wait, is that even possible? To feel calmness and excitement at the same time.

Him, you ask?

Of course, the 'him', refers to the previous topper of the school, her senpai, Yamaguchi Hitoshi. He is currently a third year student of the school and the person who held the pedestal of being the highest marks scorer in the Oku-Tokyo's entrance tests before her arrival. Manami was not being boastful, but she never remembers meeting anyone who could come as close to her when it came to the knowledge she possessed in the field of Science. And becoming the top scorer ever of Oku-Tokyo's tests, had done nothing but increased her delusions.

But all of those delusions were shattered the day she saw him.

Oku-Tokyo is famous for organizing scientific debates on recent and hot topic of researches and controversies of the scientific world. He was in a hot-headed debate with one of other extremely popular senpais, the topic of debate was one of the most neoteric researches on the 'space matter and its properties'. She had been aware about the different theories and the accuracy of each one of them but she never expected his counter arguments and visions regarding them and the reasoning and logics he accentuated them with. They were all flawless!

Manami was absolutely blown away with his gigantic amasses of knowledge of Science. And he instantly became a person worthy of her respect for his intellect, more so, when she realised how humble he was about it.

…

Library and Lab were two of the most favourite places for her in the school. She had a special spot in one of the corners of the library, free from any disturbance, where she could allow herself to drown in the books and journals. She was stunned when one day she found him occupying her reserved desk but an empty chair was placed beside him. He had looked up from his book, straight at her and smiled gratefully.

"Okuda Manami-san, right? I've been waiting for you."

"M-me?"

"Yes! If you are Okuda Manami-san, that is, which I know you are."

It took Manami all the restraint in herself from either jumping up and down on the spot or simply passing out from happiness. She racked her brains to collect all the conversational and social skills she had learned in her time in class E to properly talk to her idol and prevent herself from making a fool out of her own in front of him.

She bowed in front of him politely.

"Yes. I-I'm Okuda Manami. Nice to meet you, Yamaguchi senpai. I'm sorry to disturb you. If you'd please excuse my intrusion." As she readied herself to leave him alone, he quickly spoke up.

"Okuda-san! Wait! I did not come here to just read. I came here to meet you. Didn't I say that I've been waiting for you?"

"You wish to talk to me?" she asked astonished.

"Yes! Well, you see, as soon as I learned that you were this year's topper and the amazing score you've gained in the test, I've been wanting to meet you for a while. But only today I was able to get a lead on you. I hope you're not creeped out, um, I mean I wasn't stalking you or anything. If you don't mind, I request you to take a seat." He said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

Manami felt herself smiling at the level of what he considered creepy, as an image of 'Reaper' came in to her mind. She nodded and placed herself on the seat beside him. And then he continued.

"Actually, the information is confidential but I think I should tell you this. The 'achiever's section' of the entrance paper which contained the highest degree of Maths and Science was set up by me."

Manami felt her eyes widening at his words. What kind of school allowed its students to set up a paper? Maybe realising her train of thoughts, he hastily replied, "Of course, under the supervision of the respective teachers."

Manami released a breath she didn't even knew she was holding, and again found herself staring at him when he said, "To tell you the truth I never expected a middle schooler able enough to solve those kind of questions, I mean some of them were even not known to me before I entered here. And then you came, almost scoring a perfect score in the hardest part of the exam. Your paper was extremely impressive and I was stunned to know that a person who had not even graduated from their middle school back then had solved those questions brilliantly. I really wanted to meet such a great mind myself."

Manami found herself blushing from all the praises he was giving her but then she remembered the only question of the Achiever's section she had not been able to find an answer to, even now.

"Thank you for you kind words senpai. I feel honoured. But there was one question I was not able to solve."

"Ah I remember! It was a question related to 'Equilibrium' if I'm right?"

"Yes! That was the one!"

"It was the trickiest question the paper I must say! And you almost had it! Do you want me to help you with it?"

"Um…only if you are not troubled by it?"

"No, of course not!"

Since that event, Manami had discovered an amazing friend in her senior. He was soft spoken person with a gentle smile and an upbeat behaviour that Manami found herself respecting even more and more with each passing day. They had soon begun to address each other with their first names on his insistence. Their bond solidified over their extreme passion for science and before they knew it, they both found themselves in the labs conducting several experiments in the free period they had just before lunch, and deducing results for all kinds of stuff just for the heck of it.

It was soon after the few months of time in her new school that she had found an extremely interesting organic compound in her parent's journal that she decided to tell him about. And he was so excited at the prospect of finding and researching something new that they actually isolated that compound and discovered its properties of being able to inhibit cell division. They had proudly labelled it as 'Hitman' and laughed over it.

He had exclaimed. "Manami-san! What if 'Hitman' has a possible property of curing cancer?"

And that was why they were on it. That was why she was jittery. They had introduced the 'Hitman' to a bacterial culture and today was the day they'd be noting down the results and observations. Manami found herself actually getting giddy over the possibilities. Finding a cure to a disease that human kind was still unable to defeat sounded as great as conquering over the world. And they were only in high school! She felt that she has so much time. She could do so much more here. She could make Koro-sensei proud. She could change the world.

Ahh! Life was too good, too good to be true.

But somewhere in the back of her mind she could hear a voice, a voice which she ignored again and again, but every now and then it would come back to haunt her.

Manami! Slow down! Don't you dare forget his teachings!

All good things eventually come to an end, sooner or later. Remember that!

So, what did you people think of this Manami-centered chapter? Ad no, before you worry about Manami having a crush on her senpai, please let me tell you that she doesn't. She only looks up to him as an inspiration. And what do you think of Manami's friends, teachers and school?

Another thing is that I'm sorry for the lack of Karmanami content in the first few chapters. Actually, I first felt the need to describe about the bond that they already have before progressing.

It took a lot of time for me to edit it but I hope I was able to bring out the contrast between the way Karma and Manami are handling Koro-sensei's death.

Please, please let me know what you people think of this chapter! I need to know, I really do.

Thank you!

See you again!