Beware of heavy OOCs and grammar mistakes, I didn't really have much time to proofread it carefully.
Disclaimer: Last time I checked, the fact that I own nothing hasn't changed.
How ironic. He was standing right in front of her, and he couldn't even make her lips tilt upward even a little bit, while this senpai managed to make her express such a heartfelt smile just by involving her in this strange game. Ever since he could remember, he never really struggled in anything and always got what he wanted without trying too much. However, the only thought that dominated his mind at that moment was how useless he was for failing to do such a simple task of helping the girl in front of him, a task that he himself especially set out to do.
"No. You're not useless." The soft and clear voice of Manami made Karma realize that he just said his thoughts out loud. Before he could say anything back, Manami continued:
"You're persistent yes, but definitely not useless. Thanks to you finding that hole, I was able to take this photo. So, thank you." sincerely said Manami while lifting her eyes up to meet his to convey her gratefulness and then quickly bowing back down, staring at her feet shyly.
If I didn't get inside, then I couldn't have found the cat. If I wasn't able to find it, it would have been game over. At first I absolutely didn't want to be together, but now I'm glad that he's here.
It was then and there, that an unexplainable longing had entered into his system. Karma simply needed to know more about the female in front of him; he wanted to know all that had helped to create the girl she had now become, he needed to be informed of her fears, her dreams, and her passion. He didn't care about that fact that she would probably never look at him that way because she already liked someone else. He just simply needed to see that smile on her face more often. He would do anything to be able to keep her company, even if it meant helping her clearing the game faster and to see her senpai.
"Do you know what a sixth-magnitude star is?" opted to say Karma instead.
Manami wondered if this guy wanted to pop quiz her a random question each time he asked her something. However, she still went along with it by slowly answering, searching for the right drawer of information in her brain acquired after devouring many sciences books:
"M-my knowledge in astronomy is not as much as in chemistry, but is that the biggest magnitude of stars that can be seen by humans' naked eyes?"
"Exactly. The stars that we can see are classified from magnitude 1 through 6. The brightest stars that we see in the sky are magnitude 1. A magnitude 6 star is so faint we can barely see it."
While she was wondering where he was going with this, Manami's science geek self couldn't help but be interested in this bit of scientific information that she didn't know. Despite not reading a lot of books about astronomy specifically, she has always liked to gaze at the moon and stars at night. She was also slightly surprised that a fellow classmate of the same age at her might also be interested in sciences just like she was, as most freshman high school students were more into sports and makeup than thick scientific encyclopaedias.
"However, sixth-magnitude stars only look tiny because they're really far, far away. In fact, they might be many times bigger than first-magnitude stars." She nodded politely for him to continue, as she didn't know what to reply back at this point.
"You, Manami, are just like a sixth-magnitude star. Unlike most students in our school, you always help out the teachers, printing and collecting papers, and watering the plants from the small garden in the woods next to our campus. I know because I see you do it every day."
The bespectacled girl slowly felt her cheeks warming up at his words. She was not used to being praised like that. In fact, it was probably the first time that someone complemented her in such a direct and straight-forward manner. Aside from Akari-chan and Yukiko-chan, she thought that no one else ever bothered to look at her.
"T-t-thank you." struggled the bespectacled girl to let her words out, being too stunned about what was being said to her.
"Looking at you doing all those great things, I just thought that maybe we could be friends. That's also why I wanted to tag along with you in this game. I don't know why you are forcing yourself to not reach out to others, but I want to know more about you. I can help you collecting information about the photos to help you clear the game faster." Karma was surprised at himself while hearing those words coming out of his own mouth. It seemed that with this girl, he didn't have to hold back at all about asking whatever that came first to his mind. He didn't have to use roundabout ways to ask what he wanted. He knew that no matter he asked or said, she would not judge him behind his back but said it directly to his face. Her honesty was contagious, and he couldn't help but to face her equally with the same attitude.
Reaching out his hand towards her, Karma concluded his request: "So what do you say Manami, will you be my friend?"
Manami, at that time, was having a mental battle within her mind. While her heart was urging her to accept his offer, her mind warned her to not get too deeply involved with anyone because she would only get hurt in the end, just like what happened before.
"I-I-I…"
Seeing as Manami was greatly debating with herself, Karma decided to make it easier for her by suggesting:
"Look, the sun is setting. We should go home now. You still have one more photo to take in the mountains right? We'll meet up here tomorrow afterschool and you can give me your answer then."
"O-okay." muttered the chemistry-lover.
The pair proceeded to exit the forest and head back home. The remaining trip was spent mostly in a comfortable silence. Karma wanted to let her think clearly about his offer, and Manami was brooding about what was the best choice for her to take. As they headed down the mountain trail and reached the main road, Karma took hold of Manami's hand:
"Where is your house? I'll accompany you back."
"T-that's alright. You don't need to bother. My place is not that far." replied Manami.
"My parents would kill me if I let a girl walking back home alone at night." said Karma in a final tone, indicating that he would not budge out on this matter.
"Fine, but can you let go of my hand? I'm not a little kid." retorted Manami in a somewhat defiant voice.
"Oh really? Is the girl who got lost and stumbled many times in the mountain today not called Manami?" teased Karma.
She completely forgot about those times when she was caught off guard of where she was going because Karma just kept surprising her with his pop quiz questions. She could feel his mischievousness coming back full swing at that moment, and she felt that it would be futile to argue further when he got into this mode.
"..J-just until we got to the station then."
"As you wish, Manami-chan." replied Karma while giving her hand a squeeze. Despite his cold attitude towards others most of the time, the class trickster's hands were unexpectedly warm.
Once they reached the station, Karma let go of her hand, keeping his promise this time. Despite her protests, the young lad insisted to wait with her at the platform until her train arrived. When Manami got into the train, she could still Karma staying there and looking at the going train until it was out of his sight.
Manami wondered what was there about her that made Akabane-kun so interested in till the point that he wanted to be her friend. She considered herself pretty plain in appearance. She didn't have the charm or the charisma to interact with people. She felt awkward around them, as she was usually seen as too honest or too blunt with her feelings. Aside from her intelligence in math and sciences, she was pretty much bad at everything else.
As she reached home and went into her room, Manami thought about the day's events. Many things happened in just one day, with herself falling on top of Akabane-kun, his involvement in the game, and then his confession of wanting to be friends with her. She didn't want to hurt other people or getting hurt herself. With many mixed feelings and thinking, Manami went into dreamland somewhat with difficulty that night.
She was so absorbed in her musings that Manami almost slept in the next morning, just realizing that she had P.E class with Karasuma-sensei for the first period. Quickly packing her gym clothes into her schoolbag, the chemistry-lover hurriedly took a toast in her kitchen and sprinted to school.
The sprint has left her so exhausted when she reached their school building that Manami hoped with all her heart that Karasuma-sensei won't make them run too much that morning. Unfortunately for her, their spartan P.E teacher was even stricter than usual that day and ordered the whole class to marathon 8 km around the school's vicinity. Even when she wanted nothing more than to go the infirmary and sleep instead, Manami was reminded that there were a lot of Shinto shrines along the way of the marathon trail decided by their teacher. She may very well find the one with the giant daruma as in senpai's photos if she went on this marathon.
With renewed determination, the raven-haired girl set out to stretch her limbs to prepare for the long run, while waiting for the signal to get started. It was only 10 min after the start that she already felt both her ankles throbbing. Manami painfully realized that she had put on the wrong shoes that morning during her hurry to school. She wouldn't be surprised if there would be extremely bad blisters on her ankle at the end of the marathon. It didn't help that her fatigue from not getting much sleep the night before because of her extreme musings came back at full force. She was trying her best to keep herself going while searching for the object of her photo each time a Shinto shrine came into her sight.
"-ami. Manami!" shouted a masculine voice from her left. The said girl was snapped out of her thoughts as she became aware of the red head guy running next to her who was calling out her name.
"A-Akabane-kun? W-w-what are you doing here? I thought…the boys started… earlier." breathed out Manami between pants.
"I already finished the first 6 km. I'm currently first." coolly said Karma despite the sweat running down his face, not bothering at the awed looks of the other girls around them.
"What…?! Incredible!" uttered the young girl in surprise.
"Are you okay? You're still looking at your phone while running?"
"I-I c-couldn't…sleep much yesterday. I'm s-searching for the giant daruma near… the Shinto s-shrine."
"Show me how it looks like. And rest for a bit." replied Karma while reaching out to grab her phone, halting his run and making the bespectacled girl do the same.
As he was looking at the photo on the phone, the scarlet-haired boy noticed an old lady with a heavy bag trying to get on the steps towards a shrine near them.
"Sorry Manami, can you wait for a sec?" asked Karma while already heading towards the old lady. Manami hesitantly followed closely behind as she realized what he was doing.
"Obaa-san*, please get on my back. I will take you to the top." offered Karma
"I-it's the middle of the marathon, you know? Karasuma-sensei would be mad at you for skipping." reminded Manami.
"I'm not skipping. I'll return later." coolly reasoned the red head lad, already carrying the old lady up the steps.
Manami barely registered Horibe-kun, with Terasaka-kun following closely behind passing by her. The latter was excitedly shouting that he surpassed Karma and was first in line, with the former correcting him in a monotone voice: "You're still behind me, Terabaka."
Even though he was in first place…I thought that Akabane-kun only wanted to show his good sides by getting ahead of others, but that's not it at all.
Slightly smiling, Manami quickly followed Karma and the old lady, offering the latter to carry her bag for her.
"Sorry, - started the old lady- you were in the middle of something, right?"
"It's not a big deal. "Be kind towards females" is a rule in my house." replied Karma nonchalantly.
"Female! Hahaha! I'm already an old lady!" chuckled obaa-san.
"You are a woman!" corrected Manami.
"Such good kids." said the old woman between small laughs, smiling fondly at the young pair in front of her. She then addressed Karma to make sure that she wasn't too heavy for him to carry.
"Not at all. I'm fine." coolly replied Karma despite the long trails of sweats running down his face.
"He's still sweating though, - thought Manami while looking at the class's trickster with a small smile, since he already ran approximately 6 km. He's supposed to be tired though. Guys are incredible."
They continued the walk in a comfortable silence. Manami tried her best to follow Karma while ignoring the accumulating fatigue that was building up inside of her since the start of that morning.
As they reached the last step of the stairs, the lady indicated that her house was just right around the corner and thanked the two young students. Manami insisted to take the lady's bag over to her house, with Karma waiting outside.
When they got into her house, the old lady dropped a surprise bomb by asking Manami if the two of them were in a relationship.
"N-no! We're not!" corrected Manami quickly, with cheeks tinted a deep sakura-color.
"Oh, I see. There are not many kind and gentle people like that you know. –chuckled the old lady good-naturedly.- Make sure to hold onto him. A guy that will be by your side and protect you is the best."
At those words, two pairs of amethyst and golden eyes flashed into her mind. She was snapped back into reality when the old lady thanked her once again and bid her goodbye.
Turning her head around, she realized that Karma was nowhere to be seen at the spot that she last saw him before entering the lady's house. An uncomfortable feeling quickly invaded her, and before she knew it, her legs were already running on their own. She frantically looked around her, trying to spot her classmate's distinct red hair.
W-where did he go?
Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. At that moment, Manami was painfully aware of her loud heartbeats, as well as that dreadful feeling that was eating away at her.
This kind of feeling…I've felt it before.
Will you disappear again? Are you…going to leave me behind again?
"Over here." came a familiar, deep masculine voice that snapped Manami out of her thoughts.
Turning her head towards the source of the voice, the raven-haired girl recognized her classmate's scarlet hair that seemed to burn under the sunlight. He was leaning on a railing delimiting a small piece of heightened land.
Relief washed over her instantly the moment she recognized her mischievous classmate. As if finally unburdened of everything, her brain chose to shut down at that exact instant. She barely registered her body stumbled forward and descending down on the pavement on its own. However, as her eyes were fluttering close, instead of red, a flashing orange was the last thing that she saw.
Instantly alarmed, Karma was quick to jump over the railing and catch the falling Manami. The girl was muttering something even while being unconscious. The young man would have missed it if not for his enhanced hearing:
"D-don't leave. Asano-senpai."
Songs: Hoshi to Tsuki no Sentence (Sentence of the Star and Moon) by KitaKore and Glitter (Starving Trancer Remix) by Another Infinity
*obaa-san: Japanese suffix for aunty, a polite way to address an elder woman
Voilà, I hope that no one got too disappointed/surprised/mad/frustrated about the fact that Asano is the senpai that Manami has a crush on. As this is a semi-AU fic, I gave myself the liberty to change character's age and status as I have mentioned in the very first chapter. I didn't want to use an OC in this story, and I think that of all the canon characters in AssClass, Asano is the best choice for this role.
I also have to confess that I won't be able to update this story for the upcoming months at least until May, as this year is my final year at university before graduating. However, please rest assured that I won't abandon this story and I hope that you will be patient with the updates.
Please R&R!
