HEY ALL YOU PEOPLE! HEY ALL YOU PEOPLE! HEY ALL YOU PEOPLE WON'T YOU LISTEN TO ME-*cough hack*
Hello! This took quite a while since this chapter's extra long (which I am not entirely proud of)
So here's the next chapter! YAY! By the way I'd like to warn you now that the last part of the story is rushed since my dad wants me to sleep NOW. And he's watching me...closely...
OKAY! I'LL GET TO THE REVIEW REPLIES!
eastfall: Hey! Thanks for leaving such a long review and telling me my flaws! :D This was a big help and the rest of my reply was sent through a PM ^_^
KyoRina97: HELLO! Thanks so much for the third review! I look forward to you being a constant reader! I'm so glad you like it and I'm very happy with your patience
I12Bfree: Thank you and YES THAT SHIP IS BEAUTY. And yeah I guess so, more or less ^_^
kawaiichoconeko: TTWTT THANKS! Yes, the karmanami revolution shall take everything over. Thanks for reviewing again! I hope you become a constant reader! And menma has found you~
Akabane - san: Hey~! Thanks for another review! Oh and I'm sorry but Kanzaki won't be in this story ;w; (BOO!) No no thank YOU for reviewing and giving me support!
natsuki DDS: LOL no Mikagura-sensei more into yao-*slapped* NOPE! Thanks for reviewing again and they most likely won't have code names uwu. Gomen
TheRoseShadow21: OMG! ANOTHER KARMANAMI WRITER FOR THIS STORY! *sobs* I'M SO HAPPY I MADE YOU HAPPY! Thanks for leacing such a kind and motivating review, it really got me going into things for this one (though I'm not really proud of this next installment). Again thank you so so much! 8D P.S I love your stories
Mugipyon: I am yet to answer to your last message XD. Again, thank you, your review gave me an idea along with eastfall's and of course it helped a LOT with how I plan to portray the characters.
animeandmangafangirl: Karma and his parents but from Mugi's review I assume they're in good terms? And I'd like to ask if you know what his parents are like? If you don't know then it's fine! ^_^ Thanks for the 3rd review. And I read your latest chapter (KIYOKOCUTIE +KARMANAMI = Love)
Oh well, let's not drag this out any longer. To the story!
*Cockblocked by disclaimer: I don't own Ansatsu Kyoushitsu or its characters. Just the story, some OC's and yeah the place-ish)
Chapter 4: Clubs, More friends and the troubles that come with it (Part II) [End of arc]
"Things are gonna get pretty rowdy from now on…" or so I thought.
Tick
Tock
Seven students were gathered around a Japanese table as they minded their own business. The walls and furniture that used to be so dusty were much cleaner now, but the stove, the sink, and a few drawers and cabinets still needed some working on.
Tick
Tock
This room had in it a peculiar group of people. A bespectacled poison lover currently occupied herself with a notebook filled with scientific terms while the demonic prankster beside her had a book above his face in an attempt to get a few Z's. On the other side of the table rested an orange-haired and dark haired sniper – both of them busied themselves with their textbooks.
On the third side sat a manga-loving detective and a baseball obsessed boy; the former currently worked on a drawing of some intense shounen manga battle whilst the latter played with the ball of his most favored sport. And finally, on the last side was a dirty-minded trickster that worked on a tower of ball pens with a careful eye since it neared completion.
Tick
One of the snipers closed her book.
"Hey, Club Pres…" there was no sign of amusement or positive feelings with the tone she just made. Hayami Rinka didn't talk much or care about anything, but she did have her moments of self-expression. This was one of them.
'Club Pres.' Also known as Akabane Karma, responded with a muffled 'what?' beneath his book – Rinka had to keep her eye from twitching at his behavior. Adult-like as she was, she often finds annoyance in immature objects (Karma's the perfect example of immaturity)
"Now that you've managed to suck us into your little thing, don't you think it's time you did your job and enforced something like, maybe…something to do?" It was the first day of club activities, and Hayami was pretty sure they were the most unproductive students today.
Karma groaned and decided to ignore her question, which really did cause the girl's eye to twitch for real now. Without a second thought, she took one of the ball pens Nakamura had on her side and flung it towards the cheeky redhead. With a fast movement of his arm, Karma took the book off his head and used it as a shield, and to his amusement, the pen went straight through the piece of literature.
Hayami's move caught the attention of everyone within the room, so now all eyes were fixed on the pair. Karma smirked at the method the sniper chose to negotiate. "Something wrong, Hayami-san?" he didn't need to ask, he was well aware of what bugged her at the moment, but he did so just to further annoy her.
"We're not doing anything." She said straightforwardly, her tone now entirely serious. Seeing how the situation escalated already, Sugino tried to stop the ordeal before it could worsen "Hey, you two, cut it out." he sighed when he noticed his attempt was futile. The other members of the room thought it was best not to get in the way, since they all had a feeling they'd get ignored – but that didn't stop Manami from feeling a little worried.
"And that's bothering you?" he pressed, obviously amused to see the usually serious girl pretty ticked off at him. But he also had other plans.
Hayami's brows furrowed and she took another pen to throw, but this time it was from the base of Rio's pen tower which gave the blond quite a shock when her hard work fell apart at that moment. Karma moved quickly and used the cushion underneath him to deflect the next attack.
It wasn't long before Rinka stood on the table to swing another pen at him – which drove the people in the room to a small panic since not only were their businesses interrupted, but a brawl was about to take place.
The sniper kicked the book Karma had dropped off the floor and caught it in her hand to use it as a melee weapon and aimed to use it to hit the prankster's head. But since Karma saw this coming, he took the cushion once more and used it to protect her desired target.
"Why wouldn't it? I could be doing something better if I joined another club."
From this point, it was a (one-sided) battle of strength. Though Hayami tried her best to overpower the tall boy, it was impossible even with the support of being on high ground. She gritted her teeth at the struggle and Karma only gave her a smug look "Why didn't you?"
Rinka refused to answer and just doubled the power she was using to bring the redhead down – but this only made her opponent give a little more effort.
Manami wanted to speak at the time – to tell them to knock it off or stop before someone really gets hurt, but for some reason she just found herself stupidly watching the scene. Before anyone else can get the chance to halt the small fight, the room's door slid open to reveal the vice president in her constant ebullient manner.
"Hello! Just stopping by to…" everyone in the room paused and stared at the unexpected newcomer of the room. After seeing the odd situation she just walked in to, Mai's cheerful smile didn't falter as she slowly closed the door and exclaimed "I'll come again!" on the other side.
But before anyone was able to say or do anything, the council member came back; though this time she opened the door with more force than the first time, making the two gingers straighten up and drop their 'weapons' to face the older girl properly.
"Oh yeah! I came here to remind all of you of the 1st Years' medical check-up you have with Inari-sensei today; and also" her head turned to Karma's direction "I'll need to have a talk with Club Pres." She beamed and gestured for Karma to come outside – he responded with a dull "Alright.", predicting it was going to be another conversation on 'Presidential responsibilities'.
Once the two stepped outside, the gunman returned to her seat with a slightly irritated look and sighed – her chin rested on her palm to further express how she felt at the time.
Even though Rio was disappointed that her tower had been torn apart, she was more dissatisfied with how things were turning out to be. "She has a point, we aren't doing anything at all so why did we bother to come?" she folded her arms on the table and rested her head behind them as a sign of boredom. Hayami nodded to support her statement.
"But from what I heard, you two were 'forced' to join." Sugino looked at the two with inquisitiveness "You could've flat out rejected him, but to repeat what Karma said, why did you all agree to join anyway?" Even Manami was curious about this. Why indeed? If they felt so bitter about it, couldn't they have just left or not attend in the first place?
Both girls blinked after his words and got themselves thinking about it.
"Hm…I wonder why too" The orangehead trailed away and placed a weak fist on her chin in a thinking position.
"Uh-huh." The blond played with one of the pens that used to be part of her makeshift tower until her eyes were downcast and a sad smile made it up to her lips "But it's probably because…like him, we also feel a little empty after everything last year…" Rinka's eyes went downcast in turn as a sign of agreement, which resulted to Chiba giving her a look.
Everyone else in the room got what they were going with and presented their own mirthless smiles in bittersweet memory of their very extraordinary year in middle school. They had an understanding that they all came here for the same reason.
The chemistry lover blinked upon hearing the words escape the blond girl's mouth – even more so when she noticed everyone else' expressions at the memory of 3-E; the 3-E she thought everyone already moved on with, the 3-E she thought they all accepted not being part of anymore. But this sight somehow relieved her.
So the one living in the past…wasn't just me…
"Hey Okuda-san, you've been pretty silent the entire time, anything the matter?" the voice of Yuzuki Fuwa took Manami away from her thoughts which caused the small chemistry geek to jerk up a bit. After having regained her composure, she spotted most of the members staring to her direction and was caught off guard; therefore "Ah— U- uh…" was all she could stutter out.
'What? Say it.' It felt as if her heart told her these words, but her mind and body disobeyed its every desire. And after she failed to even try responding, she averted her gaze from them– eyes clouded with guilt and self-pity.
"Mm?" Nakamura mumbled in a volume no louder than a child's whisper – almost non-existent, but it was there, for only her to hear. Something had definitely been off with Okuda since the time they entered high school, because she knows for a fact that Okuda Manami was one of the most strong-hearted students in class E even with her introverted personality. But compared to that and what she was seeing now, she couldn't really stop herself from thinking about it…
Moments later, Karma was back inside with his hands in his pockets. However Sugino noticed something about his expression – it was the one he always had on whenever he found something interesting or just plain had a plan, so naturally he inquired whatever it was from him "What did you talk about outside?"
The boy looked at him with a face saying 'I'm glad you asked' and turned to the woman he had an earlier squabble with. "Hayami-san, just earlier you were complaining about not doing anything and wasting away our hours right?"
The girl responded with raised eyebrows "What of it?"
Karma only smirked
"Sorry I have to give this to you informally." The troubled Isura handed Karma the envelope that contained their club's budget of 15,000 yen – which he respectfully took from her hands. "It's no problem, but you seem agitated, senpai. Is it okay to ask what happened?"
Mai hesitated, but keeping it classified wouldn't really make a difference to the problem at hand so she nodded. "There's some trouble going on with some third year students and a crew of delinquents at a nearby convenience store. From the witness reports, they're not the first ones to fall victim; those delinquents would often harass anyone in their 'territory' and they seem to find joy in doing so. The student council is supposed to deal with the matter right away once we've figured things out We'd like to avoid any reckless procedures after all." her way of speaking gave the impression that just the very thought of them was enough to make the vice president depressed.
"Again, I'm really sorry for not being able to be with you for today." She bowed her upper body to him regretfully, but Karma gave her a smile of reassurance "It's okay senpai, you have more important things to deal with."
The brunette nodded once more and jogged away to the Council room – but instead of feeling sympathetic towards the sophomore, this just gave Karma a good idea.
"What the hell is that?" Nakamura commented distastefully.
All seven of them were gathered a safe distance away from the school's nearest convenience store and hid behind a few bushes and a tree as they watched a rather unpleasant scene. From their distance, they could see five large, bulky men in school uniforms not of Kimii assaulting two of their schoolmates by the left side of the small shop where the gachapon were – the shadow of the store loomed over the group in an alleyway-like fashion.
The scene was terrible. While four of them ganged up on their male victim – who looked to be calling out the name of the girl being attacked even in his battered state, the last one had his hands full with the other one pinned to the wall – it was clear to everyone's eyes that it was sexual harassment.
"They're all brawn and no brain. If this were our middle school, even Terasaka would be on a higher level than these goons combined." The blond sardonically added, her hand balled into a fist as it stationed itself on her waist.
Yuzuki, Sugino and Rio had scowls on their faces to express their disgust and indignation while the rest kept straight faces; but the 'rest' didn't include the currently distraught eyeglasses-ed girl, who twiddled her fingers about nervously. Not only did they sneak out of the school, but they also skipped out on the medical check-up scheduled for them today (though she's probably the only one that cares or remembers), she had a hunch she was going to be given one heck of a consequence when she gets home. But even if these were causing her to become anxious, she still felt the fire burning in her stomach from the anger she was trying to control.
Right now…there are more important things.
"I can't take this anymore." Sugino rose from his spot behind the bushes and stepped forward as his fists shook with frustration – that was until Karma stopped him.
"Wait a minute, Sugino." And to his request, the sporty boy cut his advance short and looked at his friend questioningly.
"I think I'd like to play with them for a while before we bring about their execution" and that's when a twisted smile crept up to his face.
"Come on, miss! It shouldn't be so hard to stop struggling; we just wanna have a little fun." Said the tallest one of the five as his hands kept the girl beneath him from moving despite the fact she tried her best to thrash the scum away.
"M- Mikuru…" called out the bruised boy who was being held down by the feet of the other four misfits. They had purposely made their victim watch the scene before him to please their sadistic tastes. "Come on, Takeo!" encouraged one of them as the rest cheered on. The girl who obviously had no chance of getting out of the situation like this and found herself crying out the name of the other student that looked to be her boyfriend "S-Souta…" but after this reached the ears of the ones assaulting them, they broke into fits of laughter.
"Did you guys hear that?!"
"It sounded so totally helpless!"
"That's a lover's Romeo and Juliet scene for you!"
The girl named Mikuru now had tears formed at the side of her eyes as she braced herself for whatever hideous plan they had in mind as their wicked laughter filled her ears – she was pretty sure nightmares would come her away after this.
Slurp
But that was until the wretched sound stopped.
Mikuru opened her eyes slowly and was presented with her captivator's eyes fixated to the side. After she turned her head carefully to see what they were all looking at, she was quite surprised to see a blond haired girl with their exact same uniform (save for the red tie) sipping on a juice box casually as she looked to their direction after passing by. This was unexpected for the gang of good-for-nothings because first of all, she's not doing anything to stop them; second of all, she was 'trespassing'.
The tall one named Takeo thought then that she could probably be a new one to mess with as he shoved the girl he pinned down to the soil – which started a few sniggers from the other ones. As the delinquent leader closed in, Nakamura didn't budge and just acted like he was no threat to her whatsoever (and he really wasn't. Not one bit.)
"Hey blondie, you're in our territory." He had an idiotic grin on and his eyes were enthusiastic which made him look even more brainless than his get-up. When he finally got up to her, she looked up at him – and yes he was about 15 inches taller than her "Oh? And?" she sipped on her almost empty juice and stared at him lazily, which of course already made him lose his temper.
"You just chose the wrong day to be a bitch dear sweetie." He cracked his knuckles and grinned deviously at the girl he towered over. 'How generic.' The light haired girl smirked inwardly.
"Oh. Scary." Her expression of boredom didn't falter and she just continued on with her drink – baiting him with a smile that just said 'Whachu got?' After a twitch of his eye, he leaned forward in an attempt to grab her. For a millisecond, Rio caught herself smirking before she ducked under the man's attempt to attack and swiftly pulled her straw out to shove in his nose deeply before she turned around sharply to trip over the man with her leg and keep him down with a dropkick to the center of his back, giving her a few choked sounds from the man.
This fast move alarmed Takeo's 'minions' for they gave her furious faces and animal-like growls. "Bitch!"
They stomped one last kick at their other prey to keep him down before they charged at her recklessly. Once the students were distracted by the golden haired girl, Manami and Fuwa hastily came to the other victim's aid and took them away from the scene to explain things later as well as treat the boy.
Seconds away from the group getting to her, Rio smirked once more when she saw how they suddenly felt pain on their back sides and necks.
"Ah!"
"Shit!"
"What the hell?!" one of the misfits reached for the side of his neck where pain had landed and was left dumbstruck when he found out it was a spitball. 'This tiny thing is what hurt so bad?!'
At a long distance from behind the scene stood Hayami and Chiba with straws in their hands and crumpled paper scattered on the ground. They hid themselves stealthily behind the garden bushes that surrounded the convenience store with their stoic as ever faces on. They hit each one of them with such precision you'd usually find only in men of the armada who had gone through vigorous training.
The moment the four of them turned around to have a look at what on earth shot at them with spitballs only to be greeted by the sight of a spiky haired boy with two bottles in his hand. Not wasting a second, Sugino uncapped the bottles with his thumbs and flung its insides to his target in such a way similar to that of a baseball pitch. This caused them all to wail in pain for those bottles contained boiling hot coffee – especially when the drink was aimed at their eyes
Before they could fully react to the situation, Karma was standing behind them with a look of wicked contentment as he kicked down the gachapon for its ball-toys to roll to the ground and trip them over. His smile grew when he heard some bones crack upon impact with the cold ground.
And finally, with a redhead and blond's combined effort, the first victim was picked up and tossed ruthlessly to where the rest of them lay in confusion. And with a loud 'Crash!' coming from the ball toys and the heavy delinquent, they all groaned in pain
In the duration of this entire ordeal, the unfortunate gangsters could do nothing but yell in agony and choke up at the shock and speed of everything that just unfolded before their eyes. They were absolutely hopeless for they couldn't even land a single move on anyone. They were 100% nowhere near a challenge to their assaulters however.
"What on earth?!"
"Who are they…no whatare they?!" and as they regained enough of their composure to see what was right in front of them, they couldn't have regretted it even more.
What they saw was like those scenes you would see in a movie. From their perspective, it looked like a band of the worst crooks in town – they stood against an all-white background so only their silhouettes showed, but what was more nerve-wracking was the fact that it seemed like their eyes were glowing with a white light that could scare any child away
"T-T-Takeo, get off!"
They were sure that each of their skins grew cold after such a sight because after their eyes looked on in horror, they shoved their leader off of them and just ran off with panic and fear that's sure to haunt them in their slumber tonight– especially after they spotted a murderous glare and wicked smile under the shadow of a boy's red hair.
This sight left the assassins looking pleased with their work. 'Good riddance' was written in everyone's faces after the job well done.
"Aw, that was actually kinda boring." Nakamura commented and didn't fail to display her dissatisfaction with a yawn.
"I'm surprised they were smart enough to not try and put up a fight." Yuzuki stuck a tongue out playfully, earning her a nod of approval from Chiba, who seemed to have thought the same thing – this caught Hayami's eye though.
"Ah—! Ow…" the sound of a weak schoolboy's voice came from the back of the store along with some cries of another "Souta!"
The group walked over to the origin of the voices and found Manami treating the boy who flinched in pain under her caring hands. "U-Uhm, p-please refrain from moving too much." She had in her hands a set of bandages, medical tape and alcohol she undoubtedly bought from the convenience store as she carefully treated her senior's wounds.
"Is he going to be alright?" Mikuru asked with a concerned voice and Manami nodded "Y-yes, without a doubt." She assured the girl and stepped back from her patient once she had finished bandaging his wounds. The boy named Souta gave his girlfriend a weak smile "I'm alright, Mikuru."
"Souta!" the girl flung herself towards him and sobbed on his shoulder, Souta, in turn, rubbed her back and soother her with "There, there." And mouthed them a 'thank you'.
Okay, they were being way too mushy for comfort at the moment, which resulted to a few awkward coughs from the club members. Karma can kind of see why they were messed with, they really were a little too Romeo and Juliet-like.
Okuda, in contrast to the other's reactions, only smiled – she was delighted to help those who had no power. It kind of reminded her of herself back in the days of middle school (and right now really, but it was worse back then.).
"Wow, Okuda, you sure can handle people's health very well." Sugino praised her all of a sudden which caused her to create a small squeak as she went into a tiny panic attack "A-Ah— Uh…erm…" that was all that came out – which left the baseball player with something to wonder about.
It was only this time the store attendant chose to come out after noticing the gachapon balls all over the floor like no one cared and a lot of other messes in the area with his mouth agape in disbelief. This state of shock transformed into a furious one when he spotted the students he assumed did it from the corner of his eye.
That's just great.
"Amazing! You really did superb! You really really did help us out so much back there!" the brunette whose hair was styled with a green bow proudly exclaimed into the poetry room. The sun was orange in color by this time and was on its journey to the other side of the world, presenting a beautiful mix of orange, purple and blue above the townspeople's heads.
Though Mai had praised Combat Club for its efforts, the members didn't pay too much mind to it and were just lazily scattered throughout the room – as if they simultaneously got a massive head ache after the previous events. You can't blame them, they've been yelled at from the store itself and yelled at one more time by their supervisor for sneaking out of class and skipping out on medical examination.
Isura Mai noticed this and sweatdropped "You all seem quite irked about it…"
Rio had her arms spread out vertically by the side of her chin which rested on the table "Hah, not really. It's just that…why did we get reprimanded for store vandalism when they did nothing about the mess before we even came?"
As if on the store's behalf Mai bowed several times while saying "Sorry! Sorry!"
Sugino groaned softly from his seat, his hands entangled above his head "We may have done something to help those two out, but it cost us the budget we just earned today." He sighed when he remembered how they had to buy hot drinks, spitballs, juice boxes and medical materials – what's worse, they were found out only after the group of good-for-nothings fled from the area, so naturally the branch had them pay for the damages, especially the gachapon Karma broke with a single kick. Everyone else just sighed in exhaustion to express their agreement with him.
Throughout the time Karma had been silent and decided to shrug off what happened back there, but that didn't mean he wasn't also disappointed about losing money and being blamed for what happened. It reminded him too much about what happened with his old homeroom teacher, so silence would probably do him some good for the meantime.
"By the way senpai, do you know what happened with the two students from this afternoon?" Fuwa tilted her head from her indian sitting position next to the table.
"Oh! Now that you mentioned it, right now the school nurse is tending to them, and there's a chance they might even be sent to the hospital; they fear not being able to tell you what they wanted to say so here's a message from both of them." She cleared her throat and worded out her next sentences clearly and with a tone that matched how her seniors Souta and Mikuru put it. "We're extremely thankful for what you did today, and surely we'll never forget it. There's no way we can ever repay you for that, so for now…"she paused and grabbed a plastic bag from her school pack and gently placed it on their table for them to check it out. "They're the previous owners of the poetry club, but since it's no longer in business, they decided they'd let your club have some appliances that they didn't to make it more hospitable for you. What's in that bag are some snacks, pocket cleaning materials and with much kindness from them, a receipt you can use to claim a mini refrigerator at that same convenience store"
The member's eyes lit up at the council member's words. They may have lost a number of cash for a day and got told off a number of times, but at least it's paid off on the same day which was very fortunate on their end – even Ryuunosuke and Rinka couldn't stop themselves from looking a little pleased.
"Oh!" Before anyone could give a remark, their vice president suddenly spoke up with her index finger raised in a way that stated she had an idea – which caught everyone's attention as their gaze shifted to the adorable senior. "What you did earlier could be your official club activity! Like when situations such as bullying arise, you can either take requests or just jump into action when needed!" there was no trace of a joke in the girl's voice, but apparently this made Karma, Rio, Fuwa and Sugino (though his was sheepish) laugh – even the two snipers couldn't hide how ridiculous it sounded to them for their lips rose up in an amused smile while their shoulders shook in an attempt to hold it in. Okuda, in contrast with everyone else, actually considered it first before reacting at all. She appeared to be the only one that gave it even a second of thought immediately however.
"No, really! We often see a lot of cases of physical harassment nearby and it even affects Kimii's student body!" Mai continued, confident that they should push through with this idea of hers.
"We're not heroes!" Nakamura managed to say before laughing on the table again.
"We're just…or we used to be students that were on the same boat, that's all." Sugino's laughter died once he began to reminisce.
"It's the one thing we just can't stand." Hayami decided to add to further prove what everyone else wanted to say – but of course she also felt the same way. They all had the same thoughts. They're not heroes or allies of justice, back in that store, they were just students that decided to pick a fight with a crew doing no good, but not for a reason like 'it's the right thing to do.' Or whatever it was the stereotypical heroes would call it.
"That may be so, but…in a weird way it kind of suits you." She gave them a warm and sincere smile with tender eyes "…heroes."
After that, she was greeted with silence. It seemed that her words had gotten the others thinking. Well, they did, if you may call it, 'save the world' one way or another, but should it really be something you can call heroic? That was the last thing the assassination classroom had to be, right?
After more moments of silence, Mai cheerfully exited the room saying she had a meeting to attend to and gently closed the door. As she walked, a thought came to her, and she smiled yet again
'They didn't say no.'
Back in the clubroom, silence was broken by another fit of laughter coming from the blond – but this time it was quite weak. "Hah, heroes she says, pft."
"Our methods aren't even the least bit noble." Fuwa said with a chuckle – she knew too well what a hero was to the public's eye due to her constant obsession over manga, and they didn't fit the bill.
"If anything, we sound more like a revenge club." Hayami stated, which earned her a 'Right?' from her blond companion and a nod from the Otaku.
It was quiet again afterwards, and that's when Manami saw it. Written all over the other member's faces was the flattery of being called such a thing. To her, it looked like they savored the idea, with faces that said 'Could it work out? Maybe? We don't know if we don't try, right?' You can't blame them, after intense discrimination in middle school, to be called that was something you naturally can feel good about – even if your methods weren't exactly ideal.
The redhead noticed this from his members/old friends and smiled. He turned to the window
'Heroes…huh? What a childish dream'
But he didn't say it was a bad one.
"Sorry Karma-kun, but Inari-nee wants me to go home early. Is that okay?"
"Alright, I have to talk to Mikagura-sensei anyway so I'll be going home a little later."
Club was dismissed and the others went ahead to their homes. Karma and Manami exchanged farewells outside of the room against the orange light of the setting sun.
"Mm, see you tomorrow." And with a wave of goodbye, Karma watched her disappear into the halls and exit the building. The old woman must've been pretty ticked off when her co-resident didn't show up, so that must be the reason why.
Karma sighed and prepared to make his way to whatever the twisted chemistry teacher wanted to talk about, but was abruptly stopped when he ran into Sugino not a minute later.
"Oh, Karma." He said mirroring the prankster's expression of mild surprise.
"Ah, Sugino. I thought you've gone home?"
"I was going to but I forgot to ask something from my new homeroom teacher." Sugino rubbed the back of his head in a 'what a drag' type of way.
"I see, well then I'll be out of your way." Karma folded his arms behind his head and started walking again.
"Wait, Karma!" Sugino called which led Karma to pause in his steps and turn his head to his way – his eyes inquired what he wanted to talk about.
"Today…no, ever since I encountered Okuda yesterday she's been a little…off." He began, and Karma stayed put and obliged him to go on judging by his silence "I mean, from what I know, Okuda-san was never as introverted as that. Last year, I saw a lot of improvements with her language skills, and she was also courageous even against students of class A. Anything happen?" he looked concerned from what Karma observed and he sighed, putting his arms to the side. Why wouldn't they notice? She was way too obvious.
"It was shock."
"Shock?"
"Earlier this year, she got into a messy situation. And let's just say it made her revert to, well…that." He shrugged as Sugino understood with a sympathetic look on his face.
"Must've been pretty bad if something like that turned out to be the result." At this, the image of a happy Okuda-san invaded Karma's thoughts. It was her middle school self calling him 'Karma-kun!' with a smile on her face, then next came the Okuda-san her encountered at the beginning of the year – the one with the empty words that had no meaning and the pale, almost lifeless complexion; the one that had her eyes downcast 24/7
'Akabane-san…'
"…Yeah."
The moon was formed into a crescent that night – oh wait, it was always like that.
The poison lover seated herself outside of her apartment and admired the night sky. The sound of crickets echoed through the nearly empty city as work hours came to a close. The barks of dogs on alert would reach her ears at times, but to the four-eyed chemistry geek, everything seemed to be at a quiet standstill of emptiness as she kept to her thoughts.
A yawn broke out to her left which was accompanied by the sound footsteps coming closer against the metal fire escape.
"Welcome home, Inari-nee." She welcomed her guardian politely after she came from her job downtown. The woman with the maroon crown yawned again and ruffled the girl's unbraided hair with an "I'm home. Finally"
"Your dinner's in the microwave oven." She reminded as the older woman opened the door to apartment 560 and shoved her bags inside. Usually Manami would sigh and say 'I'll clean that up later', but right now she was too busy attending to whatever it was that swam through her mind.
Once Inari got what was going on, she lightly tapped the kid's head with the envelope holding the bill for their rent. "Alright, talk."
The small-framed girl turned to her caretaker for a while before she shifted it back to the night sky.
"Our club had their first meeting today…" Inari knew that much – yep, they're the ones that didn't show up during the examination; she's yet to think of the most appropriate consequence for her.
"A lot of things happened today…they were really fun but… I can't shake the feeling of being dissatisfied…" Manami's eyelids lowered, at the same time, her lips formed into a thin line. Inari knew that this was a serious matter to the younger girl, so she chose not to respond to that and kept her ears open.
"I couldn't be happier about the fact I got to see people from my old classroom again, and moreover, we're in the same club but…every time they speak to me and vice versa, I end up not knowing what to do. I want to be with them and be able to talk to them normally again, but I feel really horrible about how I wasn't able to be entirely useful today. I don't want them to think I don't care, if anything, they're the most important people to me but…I think I forgot how to act around them…" she stifled out a half-hearted chortle after she had tucked her head beneath her arms that wrapped around her knees.
The older woman groaned. She can clearly remember how much happier the smaller girl had been during middle school – most especially her last year. She'd come home more energetic than she originally was and talk about some of the friends she made and how each of them was great in their own way; and almost half the time she would talk about her teacher. Inari's never seen him or met him before which was its own mystery, but she can assume he was the special type. At last, the woman spoke.
"Don't worry, for someone like you, it should be normal"
"That doesn't help..." the raven haired girl groaned, not lifting her head from where it was hiding.
She ruffles her head one more time "Dummy, it's because they're important to you, you want to really show them how you feel, and hope they get it right. Getting over-conscious about it won't do anything, especially solve your problems."
Manami's head showed itself. This has happened way too many times before; she couldn't voice out what she wanted to say because she was too afraid and overthought about every little detail too much. Korosensei must be frowning upon her right now (can he frown?), she had forgotten the words he told her to take to heart. In his words, 'you can't tell anyone anything without making an effort'
Inari continued after her silence "They can't reach out to you like that brat did, so you should try doing the opposite." She gave the younger girl a knowing smile and patted her head.
At this, the teen blinked. The only reason she'd been able to talk so well with Karma lately is because he made an effort to bring her out of her cage. Heck, he spent his days just following her around no matter how many times she tried to push him away. She grinned at the idea that she'd been spoiled by the sadist too much.
After she took a deep breath, Manami got to her feet and raised her fists to her chest. "Alright, I'm gonna do my best." She said quietly, but the fire Inari saw burning in her eyes was not a gentle fire that could be blown away just by anything. This was her determination, and the woman knew far too well that if the young girl wanted to do something for others with that face on, she'll do her best and fight on with a strong heart. She was actually a little proud of herself for being able to bring that face of hers out.
Okuda knew exactly what she wanted to do and how she wanted it to play out. But something tugged in her stomach – as if it told her 'not so fast'. There was one more thing – she didn't need to do it…
She just wanted to.
Okuda held the telephone with both hands tightly and awaited the other one on the line to pick it up so she could relay what she wished to. There was a folder on top of the desk where the home phone was stationed which was labeled 'Class Directories'.
The phone continued to ring for a while now, and though it had been less than a minute since she called, she couldn't stop the feeling of the tiny impatience which grew in the pit of her stomach.
At last, a voice came from the other line. "Hello?"
"Karma-kun!"
"Wha— Okuda-san how'd you get my num—"
"I want to tell you something!"
"Whoa, hang on—"
"I— Tomorrow, I'm going to do my best." Then there was silence from his side, which she took as a sign for her to go on. "I wasn't able to be useful today because I was too afraid to act…so tomorrow, I will surely do my best." The last five words were emphasized, but she still was kind enough to put it at a volume that wouldn't hurt the redhead's ears.
On the other end of the line, Karma's eyes were slightly widened as he listened to her – this was so for two reasons. Number one, how'd she get his number? But later on he assumed it was because the old hag had the directory of everyone in the school; and number two, she called just to tell him that? Who does that? But he wasn't able to stop the small smile that tugged on his lips. 'Hah, you're really something aren't you?'
"Well then, I'll look forward to it." he chimed through the phone, which earned him a beam from the chem freak on her side.
Inari looked on from her position leaned by the wall as she observed the conversation going on between the two – a small smile of contentment hovered on her features.
After a few more moments of conversation exchange, Manami gently put the phone down with a smile that didn't waver that night.
They're all here now and everything but…
Combat Club was complete again that day, and instead of lazing around like they did last time, they engaged into conversations and talked about things in each other's class – much different from the beginning of club hours yesterday.
After they received requests from Mai again today, some excitement piled up within the room as some of the things they'd talk about would circle around how they could be able to deal with the school's problem involving the bums in the school that would stir up trouble.
Outside of the rather active room stood a science-loving glasses-ed girl that looked through the window of the poetry club's former room. Said girl currently couldn't control the slow yet strong beats her heart gave out due to nervousness. Her breath was steady and the often would take deep breaths to try and lessen the col temperature she felt on her hands – they were shaking like a Chihuahua along with her knees.
I can't move…
The grip on her bag tightened around its strap. She looked inside the room again to find Karma lazily leaned against the sink as he would listen to everyone's mundane chitchat. 'I can ask Karma to say it for me…' she shook her head vigorously the very second that thought came up.
No, I have to do this myself; otherwise…I would have called and done all of this for nothing.
With a sudden surge of courage, she opened the door way too hard – which inevitably led to everyone's antics interrupted as their attention went straight to her.
All Manami did after that was stand with her hand on the edge of the door as her knees shook even more no matter how hard she tried to control them. Her mouth spread into a wide line while her eyes were wide open underneath her spectacles.
Now what? She gulped and felt the sweat beginning to bead down the side of her head. Unintentionally, her eyes moved to where Karma's were but once she did, she quickly averted.
No! I can't look at him. He's not supposed to help me. I have to…I have to…
"Uhm!" well, it was a start. From that one word, she was able to drop her hand which gripped the door and took a small step forward.
Another silence, no one gave her any form of greeting as they listened to her, nor did they give any 'what's up, Okuda-san?' or 'Yes? Okuda-san?' She was all alone on this – she knew that from the start and was prepared, but now that it's right in front of her…
Then from the corner of her eye, she spotted Karma's lips move for he was about to say something, but she immediately stopped him before he could say anything. "I-I'm Okuda Manami! A-And I'm here to say something to all of you!"
No! You can't help me! Don't help me! I…have to go over this…
By myself!
From this point, she took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders.
First calm down…
And tell them what you want to tell them. Just be completely honest Manami…
Just be honest.
After one last breath, she faced them all with the same determination she did with the stars last night.
"F-…For the past days, all I've ever done was fidget around all of you and become over conscious about what I say. And every time that happens, I end up not being able to talk to any of you. For that…I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the times I ignored you or didn't reply to your conversations with me, and I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like I didn't care about you." She took another step into the room. "But the truth is, I really really do want to be with you! You all were the greatest classmates I've ever had! Even if I didn't talk much or felt a little nervous around you, that doesn't mean I wanted to avoid you! It's just that…it's because I feel this way, I really can't find the right words to use when I talk to you…sometimes I feel like I can never be able to show how much I you mean to me because I'm like this so I…" in the midst of her hand scavenging for the materials she worked on the entire night inside her bag, she'd been put to a stop by Sugino's voice.
"It's okay now, Okuda-san."
"Eh?" This was something she didn't expect, so naturally she'd be quite confused and a little bit scared to know what he meant by that. When she looked at them, in contrast to what her paranoia made her think, they smiled.
The spiky haired boy continued in his polite manner "We understand what it is, come sit with us."
"B-But I…" Manami was tongue-tied for what felt like several moments until Fuwa stood from her seat by the table to gently push the four-eyed girl to where they were. "Come on~"
Once they were seated, the only thing Okuda could do was face them with a rather taken aback expression as she only began to register what was going on.
"So, how do you feel?" Sugino inquired – his beam towards her never faltering.
"Kind of…light…" she blurted out her immediate thought after she placed a hand on her chest.
"That's because you finally got out of your box, right?"
"…box?"
"Yep." That's when Nakamura joined in – which earned her a small sound of surprise from the shorter girl "For days we've noticed you've been agitated and way too scared of everything; but unlike what you said, None of us ever thought you didn't care. Don't say sorry too much, because there's nothing you have to be sorry for." Her hand was lazily pressed to her cheek as her elbow was on the table, but she meant every single word in that sentence.
The chemistry lover kept her gaze on the blond. 'Nakamura-san…'
"Thank you—"
"Don't say 'thank you' too. We didn't actually do anything to deserve that word, after all, the one that got you out of your own troubles was you, am I wrong?" she stated it in a matter-of-fact tone – like it should be obvious, but of course she strongly felt that way.
At that moment, the petite girl felt like those words set something free inside of her. What she said was true, the one who made a move this time was her; right now they only praised her efforts. If she hadn't gathered the courage to tell them how she felt, the succeeding days would have been just as empty as her first month of high school – no, it would be worse than empty: pure nothingness. No progress, no tomorrow, no change. She knew this much, but what she found astonishing about this was the fact that it was the light-haired girl that assured her – and she least expected it for they aren't exactly what you would consider as 'close'.
Nakamura Rio was never a person Manami deemed to be someone she's completely comfortable with, but after what the girl said to her just now, she was beginning to have second thoughts. It felt the same as back then with Karma – whom she originally thought to be scary but really was just a person trying to help others in his own way.
She then realized she was left staring at them and blinked herself out of her trance "I-I have gifts!"
It was Rio's turn to be quite taken aback "Like I said, you really don't have to."
Manami couldn't help but feel a little crushed after that – it's the first time she's ever given a gift with feelings so she's not entirely familiar with how you act in these kinds of situations. "But…"
Fuwa gave an attempt to help Nakamura convince the introvert that things were okay "It's fine now, so—"
"I want to give them!" Okuda absentmindedly yelled, but didn't regret it for it had everyone listen to her – though of course the rest were rather surprised by the abrupt upsurge of her voice; heck, even Karma was caught widening his eyes by the girl's action. But seeing this from her always gave him quite a show so he smiled, amused.
Rio apparently had the same thoughts as Karma and smirked at how the usually quiet Okuda-san finally managed to be courageous enough to speak her mind. Oh what joy she would have whenever the small girl would show her strong-hearted side.
Once the braided girl understood that they allowed her to do whatever it is she desired to do, she placed her hand back inside her bag and brought out a variety of things. First it was a plastic container in which the contents were homemade muffins, followed by a bottle of some orange-ish liquid and lastly, a set of notebooks she neatly set atop the table.
Okuda started with the bottle "Th-This one's for Sugino-kun." She paused and glanced at the mentioned teen for a reaction and was pleased to see his eyes lit up. "I remember how you always look tired during your baseball games but still push yourself to keep going, so I tried experimenting with some formulas last night to make a proper energy drink that can boost up energy like a steroid should and still quench your thirst with a little orange juice like taste." She looked at Sugino and found him staring at the bottle in awe, and that's when she suddenly remembered "I-It's not poisonous, don't worry!" they used to be uneasy around her whenever she would make something back in middle school because of her capabilities as a chemist.
"Th-then there's—I mean…" she arranged the notebooks one by one to show its labels to those in the room. "I spent the rest of the night making notes for each of your hardest subjects. For Fuwa-san, I made a math tutorial since I knew you had a hard time with it last year. I tried my best to make it as understandable as possible." Manami didn't see it, but Fuwa was amazed and at the same time speechless, no one has ever done this much for her except when she had counseling with korosensei – but he was a teacher which was understandable. "The same goes for Chiba-san since I heard you weren't good with biology." She kindly handed him the blue notebook, and though she couldn't see what his eyes tried to say, she assumed he was also a little taken aback just like Sugino was. "Then…Ha-Hayami-san." She started to get a little nervous when she made eye contact with the orange-head but tried her best to keep her composure and not offend the girl when she gave her the notebook "Hayami-san, I made you a notebook for Physics. I…I don't know a lot about you, but I noticed how you tried really hard to understand this subject, s-so I wanted to help you since I find this subject easy." Rinka didn't say anything, but her eyes were wide with the same thoughts Yuzuki had.
"Lastly, Nakamura-san…" she searched for something in her bag again and brought out a plastic bag from the nearest bookstore and laid out its contents on the blond's side of the table "I bought an English novel that I think would suit you…" Rio only stared at it for moments until Manami continued "A-And if you have trouble with reading some of the words, I also bought a Japanese-English dictionary." Once she had finished the distribution of her gifts, she sat back on her cushion properly and took a good look at those gathered around the table – each had their own faces of disbelief.
"I made all of these for you, just to try and relay my feelings. Right now, this is all I can do and…" she gulped and faced them with resolve "I look forward to spending each and every day with you until our next graduation comes."
Once again, the room was enveloped in silence, but the science-lover kept a straight face.
Did they…reach you?
The silence was broken when Yuzuki sniffled all of a sudden. Once everyone's attention turned to her, she was already a mess. There were tears falling through everywhere – even her nose was beginning to drip with her snot as her mouth was formed into a small, upside down crescent.
"Fuwa-san, are you that happy?" Sugino sweatdropped as the girl sniffled a few more times "Well yeah that and…" she wiped her face with her sleeve but it ended up being useless when she showed her tear-stained face again "But what happened just now felt like a scene from a slice-of-life manga…"
Upon hearing this, everyone else gave her their own sweatdrops and awkward smiles
Manami laughed nervously by the otaku only to be glomped a second later by the said girl. "Uwoah!" the bespectacled girl yelped from the impact of the larger girl's body colliding with hers. Afterwards an unsure "Uhh…" was all that escaped the girl's lips as Yuzuki sobbed loudly (and if one had to admit, comically) by her arm.
And though this was rather amusing to watch, the others felt the same level of happiness Fuwa brimmed with right now. Each of them took a look at their new books and felt so much love and gratitude for it – it wasn't something any normal friend would do; heck, they're not even that close to the girl and she made an effort to do this much for them as well as make snacks for all the club members. In fact, this had to be the hardest anyone has tried for the set of people in a long time…
"Okuda-san…" Rio started – in behalf of everyone else. Even if the girl being called out to was being sobbed on currently, she faced the blond and all the others who watched her quizzically.
"Thank you…very much for this." Her smile was genuine and her blue orbs only gave out tenderness and sincerity the mirrored the other three.
"Okuda, you know you really didn't have to but…really, thanks a million." Sugino added and the grip around the bottle with the new energy drink became more firm.
The geek only smiled back, just a tad bit shiny-eyed "No need, this is just my way of trying to show you how I feel about you – and the rest of 3-E. But of course…I'm still really happy." She beamed right then and Karma was sure it's been quite a while since he'd last seen that kind of face from her – and he couldn't help but feel somewhat awed by it.
'Such a nice girl…' Nakamura muttered quietly to herself as she grinned at the girl in front of her.
Meanwhile, Chiba reached for the container of muffins and decided to give one a taste. But once he did, it was like his eyes snapped open when he blurted out "Kind of reminds me of… a mother." As his hand went over his mouth as he savored the taste.
"Mother…?"Hayami blinked when the words came out of her boyfriend but not really boyfriend's mouth.
But the shabby-haired man's sudden statement went through Rio's head a while and she raised her finger in eureka "Ohh! I think I got a title that suits you!" she used the same finger to point at the four-eyed girl and smirked "Combat Club's mother, Okuda Manami-chan!" she laughed at her own joke as did Yuzuki and Sugino – the snipers on their side of the table didn't really find it all that funny.
By this time, Fuwa had let go of the short girl but still had a few tears left on the edge of her eyes – some of which fell due to her giggling "Pft! That means Karma-kun's gonna have to be the father!" and they laughed again. The redhead, in turn, saw this as his chance to join in the hilarious conversation "Oh my, mother, our children must be going through a rebellious phase, let's give them a good spanking." He teased as well as he crouched down and playfully put an arm around the raven-haired girl with his tongue stuck out.
His joke led everyone into another fit of laughter they continued throwing jokes at each other. Meanwhile, Manami contemplated on their words.
"Mother…that sounds nice." This drove the entire room into an abrupt pause and a small surprised sound from Karma. While Okuda was relished in the thought, a blush spread through the redhead's face as his eyeballs shrunk.
Luckily, no one seemed to notice it – or so he thought.
"Hmm?" Nakamura mused when she saw how heat went up the boy's face albeit only for a little while, but this made the blond stretch her lips widely in a mischievous grin. Rinka, having noticed this inquired what it was from her "What's on your mind?"
"I think I just found something that'll entertain me for a long time.
"Hey, Karma-kun, why were you so silent back then?"
The pair was on their daily walk home after another day of classes. As usual, they'd come home at sunset – when the streets were more vacant compared to other times in the city. They didn't stop for juice today since they both had to admit they were a little full from the earlier muffin feast.
Karma looked down at her and smiled lazily "It's rude to interrupt while someone else is on stage, right? I'm not so low as a life form that would do so much as steal someone's spotlight."
Manami stopped walking and took a few moments to thoroughly understand what he meant while he continued. Once she had gotten the message, she beamed from behind him.
Oh Karma.
That night, Hayami came to her room slightly exhausted. She didn't know for what reason why, she just was.
In the midst of her unpacking of her school materials, the clean, yellow notebook she just received a few hours ago was seen from the corner of her eye. It was plain, like the giver – she absentmindedly added.
Curiosity taking over her, she took the notebook and began to browse through it. Amazing, she can actually understand these problems easily because it was put so simply and in such a straightforward manner; what amused her most is that the glasses-ed girl often applied gunning and sniping to the sample problems knowing how much skill and knowledge she had over the weapon. Did she spend her time in middle school observing each of them? Well, that didn't matter anymore, they're not middle schoolers after all.
'And she says she's not good with words.'
Rinka flipped through more pages and found a small note at the very last one 'Shoot it straight through! ^o^)/' this made the edges of the orange-head's lips perk up.
Unbeknownst to her, everyone else did that same thing on that same night.
It's been a week since then, and the days have gone by much more colorfully compared to when Manami first started high school. Her mornings were now filled with delight and anticipation – especially when it got to the end of classes – where she'd be able to spend time with old friends and help people when a request arose (yes, it became official). For the past week, she was able to re-learn how to speak to them as casually as she used to in Middle School (but of course there's still a lot of room for improvement); she was less fidgety now, and she would hesitate less when speaking her mind in front of them.
But the problem was it was only in front of them.
The braided girl eagerly walked in a faster pace than usual to her classroom and hung her bag on the side of her desk before going off to the bathroom. Her mind was bombarded with her expectations for today and she often wondered about how things would plot themselves out; for every single day never really resembled the last.
She hummed a jolly tune as she walked into a vacant cubicle and pursued her thoughts until they were interrupted by a group of snobbish girls.
"Hey, there's that red haired guy in class B, what do you think of him?"
"Oh him? That…Akabane Karma was it?"
"Yeah! He's totally my type!"
"Bad boy, physically attractive and not to mention really smart!"
"There's that but…I notice he's always with this girl every day when classes are over. She's plain though, so she's not really a big deal; still…"
"Oh, that girl, she's my classmate in 1-C, Okuda Manami. Yeah she really is plain no matter how you look at it, and she's got a bad mouth too!"
"What? So that innocent vibe I see from her—"
"Could be a fake one. She's probably acting all weak and innocent like that because she wants to have someone defend her when she gets picked on."
"And I heard he's strong, so you could be right!"
"But either way, a girl with that kind of personality has no chance of winning him over or even any other less cool guy in the school! In fact, I'd be surprised if she was even able to hook up with my classmate Okajima!"
A laughter broke out which bounced off the walls of the almost empty washroom. They echoed in such a wicked manner it would make anyone's eardrums want to malfunction. The stink in the words they just spoke was so bad it would probably have caused korosensei's nostrils to overflow more than it did with the spray Terasaka used on him once.
And after the group left, a small girl remained with her back leaned against the door with her dark bangs hovered above her spectacles to make her expression unreadable; her hands balled into fists against the barrier between her and the cruel, cruel outside world.
Yeah, you know I don't exactly know what I feel about this chapter either.
Last part's rushed cuz my dad forced me to sleep ;w; (Well yeah, it's like 4 am)
SORRY! WILL PERFORM EDITS WHEN I HAVE TIME!
WARN ME IF THERE'S ANYONE OOC!
Hm…I kind of wanna see what your predictions with this question: Who do you think would be the potential best friend/s of Manami from Combat Club? (Karma doesn't count because ship~ 3)
Oh well just answer that if you want to. And like last time if it doesn't take too much of your time, can you tell me some notable parts? (BUT WHY DO WE HAVE TO) It kind of gives me some inspiration in what kind of scenes I can make that fit to what you all found interesting.
OHKAY~ PREVIEW TIME!
Chapter 5: What Did You Say That For?
Things are going well for Combat Club! Yay! But what about outside of it? Rumors, treachery, sabotage and more and all of this directed at Manami? What did she do this time? And what do the others have to say about it? What's a redhead gonna do when his partner in crime says she...doesn't want his help?
FIND OUT MORE IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!
LEAVE REVIEW PWEASE~
Love, TheFlowerWeSawThatDay