HERE'S THE END OF ARC NOT TOO LONG AFTER I POSTED~ (See, I keep promises ^-^)
Now before you go I'll have to warn you that some parts were written when I had a headache or writer's block so I'm sorry if that displeases you. But I pushed myself to write this fast~! Because yeah it was originally supposed to be all in one chapter but yeah. If I let you gulp down too many events it might be bad ;w;
So yeah just warning that. But I hope you enjoy this as much as I did anyway~! ^w^
Disclaimer: I DONT OWN ANSATSU KYOUSHITSU/ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM ARE YOU HAPPY
Chapter 9: School Excursion and Growing Feelings (The Night) [END OF ARC]
"I feel something weird…behind my back..."
"Me too…it's coming from my left side…"
"There's something amiss…and I feel goosebumps on me…"
The freshmen have now gathered themselves in the mess hall for supper time in the small hotel next to the Nagoya Forest – the food was served in a buffet style so students would come and go whenever they pleased. The hotel wasn't all that fancy; it had Japanese style rooms, a wooden floor and clean white walls. The rooms were separated accordingly with three for each gender – girls occupied the left side of the building as boys took the right. In the mess hall, tables were arranged in a regular restaurant style; some were round, some were rectangular. Other chairs were for dining as the tables by the wall had couches for people to sit on – that being said, the students on most of the chairs – whom now had changed into their P.E attire (composed of a green T-shirt and dark jogging pants) had an aura of uneasiness floating about them like a translucent, dark blue-ish purple sea as they had their attention paid to the stoic couple by the buffet table.
"Hayami, you should eat the salmon. It's good for you." Chiba pointed to the other tray with the seafood along with it condiments.
The girl he was with responded with a nod "Roger. But you should eat your carrots. You're aim's been getting rusty." She bluntly stated as she took what her companion suggested.
"When did that become the topic of discussion?" his tone was as dull as his last sentence; there was only but a spec of inquiry laced in it.
"I care about it okay. Stop asking me stupid things." They continued with that kind of talk for a few more minutes as the audience behind them seemed to have backed away a little. It was like everyone had the same face by just watching them – empty, white eyes with blue lines travelling down their heads.
Are they dating or what?!
On the table in the far corner of the room next to the wall, Karma and Sugino watched the couple and their audience – the former had an amused smile whereas the latter sweatdropped with a smile of pity.
"Looks complicated…" the darker haired boy commented upon further observation of how the two serious snipers interacted with each other – it must be their form of 'affection' perhaps; but last he heard they were presumably dating…presumably
The prankster directly in front of him laughed at this – to see the two trying to be a 'potential couple' to the eye of the public was one of the most amusing things he'd seen up to date. Although he wasn't one to be considered interested in these kinds of things, it somehow brings joy to his sadistic heart to see these two and their audience.
"Oh, by the way Karma-kun." Sugino interrupted his thoughts and had the redhead turn his attention to him with slightly raised eyebrows.
"Did anything happen with Okuda?" this caught Karma a little taken aback, but he kept his cool composure and replied as if it was another mundane conversation – it was, but in some way or another he found it not so common when the discussion involved the braided introvert lately.
"Why do you ask?"
"She says you've been acting weird recently. Anything you know about that?"
Karma rested his head on his knuckles as he propped his elbow in the table – his eyeballs moved to the side as he remained silent; an indication that he wasn't exactly in the mood for this.
Sugino raised an eyebrow with mild suspicion "Did you two have an argument or something?"
Before he could respond, a small commotion erupted over at the buffet table and grabbed the attention of the conversing duo. Speak of the devil, it was the poison glasses going through a mild panic as she nearly dropped her tray after bumping into Rinka – that, and there was the addition of her inability to carry things properly.
"S-Sorry!" she exclaimed a little nervously as she pulled herself to a balance with the help of her orange-headed friend. Karma watched as they exchanged a few more words that couldn't be well heard from his distance; but it was obvious that the shorter girl was still conscious when it came to their female sniper. Later came the other two she hung out with most of the time, but he didn't miss how the two light-haired girls seemed to have some kind of conflict between them. Despite catching on with this, he shrugged – it was their problem anyway, he'd rather not expend energy on it.
"We didn't have an argument. It's just…" he trailed off as soon as they arrived to their spot in the mess hall with their trays of food in hand. She was looking at him with a smile of uncertainty – and his lids lowered a bit.
"Yo." Yuzuki was the first to greet them as she set herself down on the table; before she could do so however, Karma lifted himself off his seat and headed towards one of the boy's dorms with a yawn and stretch of his arms to the back of his head.
"E-Eh? You're not gonna eat?" the otaku raised an eyebrow at his sudden departure and only sighed when he replied with "Not hungry." And a lazy wave of his arm.
Sugino frowned when he didn't finish – and here he assured Manami that he'd talk to him. Speaking of which, the girl only moved her gaze downwards hopelessly when he left after she came to him – her head was in an entanglement of feelings and logical thoughts as she settled herself on the table; barely displaying any enthusiasm towards her meal.
And as sharp as she always was (especially when it came to things like these), Rio eyed the bespectacled chemist with a mix of concern and interest.
The tuneful whistles of a redheaded teenager drifted through the barely populated halls to the boy's dormitory. The wooden floor creaked with his relaxed footsteps as they made 'pad' sounds through the hollow material.
He was alone with his thoughts on his solitary path to one of the rooms. He was aware of what Sugino wanted to talk to him about and wasn't all that surprised when he heard how she opened up about it to him. Moreover, he'd be lying if he said he didn't feel a little bad for keeping away from his short friend and leaving her clueless like that; but he found himself not being able to control himself when the situation arose. Lately, he found himself getting a head ache from thinking about it too much – it all began after that incident. He lost his cool, got eaten by frustration and even had something unwanted on his face twice in a day; all of which, because of her.
I need a break from that girl… he deadpanned at the thought as he slid the door open.
No, he was not surprised by the yelling or the group of men having some sort of brawl in the corner of the room (through a game of Karuta). No, he was not surprised when he found them having a 'formal discussion' on the women of their year with flushed faces (yes, Okajima was one of them). Lastly, he was barely even moved by whatever creepy photos or magazines they brought with them on an 'education school trip' as he entered – the lax grin and aloofness of his character had returned.
"Oi! Karma-kun! Come over here!" Karma saw this coming. Okajima had called him over to the group with the formal discussion holding a paper with a few girls and their names scribbled on it – the usual thing a group of boys of a co-ed would do when gathered into one room; this happened everywhere really.
The ginger found nothing else to do and just went with the flow of things. "What's this now?" he smiled even if he knew what was going on.
"Hah! This guy's already got a flock of girls coming for him already!" cackled one of them teasingly as he wiped a tear from his eye – he was soon after prodded by another one of them with the back of his hand "That just makes asking him all the more interesting!"
Karma hadn't exactly familiarized himself with his classmates – he found them much too 'normal' to ever be compared to his classroom of assassins from last year. Therefore he was indifferent with each of them as he didn't bother to get most of their names. When extraordinary things happen in your life, it's hard to pick up the pieces of a life once known.
"So, Akabane, is there a girl you like?" Oh it wasn't the first time he heard this question. Heck, the last time was just in middle school exactly a year ago. And if he remembered correctly his answer was-
O…...ku…...da…...
"Nope~" he kept his composure with a shrug and answered in the cool way he always dealt with things as he lay on the tatami with blithe – this earned him breakout of laughter from the few boys and even the ones from the Karuta section joined in; others however, got into childish angry fits as the rest went into tears.
"You can't be serious!"
"'Nope' he says! And yet the beautiful Touka-chan from class A is head over heels for him!"
"It pisses me off more when guys like him say that when there's a mob willing to kill for him!"
Karma smirked sadistically at how much suffering he had caused the group of males – oh the joys of manipulating people.
This joy had dissipated the moment a certain perverted schoolmate of his butted in.
"But didn't you answer Okuda-san last year? She goes to our school, doesn't she?" Oh if only anyone knew how good it would feel for Karma to rip his jaw off then and there. His mouth twitched upwards from irritation along with a shadow that loomed on his bloodthirsty eyes.
It only irked him more when the others in the room had started to comment on this statement – it only grew more as each one had filled his ears and he found himself clenching his teeth in annoyance.
"Hm, now that I think about I do find them hanging out most of the time."
"And aren't they clubmates too? Also, wasn't Karma the one that she mentioned when she had an outburst the other day?"
His narrowed eyes grew wide once the topic had been switched to the specific happening where it all started. His body stiffened from the shock; the relaxed form he had had died away, especially when the next remark came.
"And rumor has it he was caught blushing at the time."
Shit.
Okajima jolted at the words and crawled over to the redhead with that sleazy grin of his "What?! Karma-kun and blushing?!" This time, Karma's eye twitched – why must rumors spread like wildfire in this school? Right now, he was just about ready to punch the living lights out of everyone in the room.
"How many girls ha—mmphf!" the perverted boy had (finally) been shut up once Karma grabbed his jaw and squeezed on it mercilessly as he smirked viciously – his eyes looked like they were glinting with evil as his brow still twitched from the aggravation he had toward the topic.
"Don't assume things, Okajima. If you like living, don't stick your nose in someone else' business." He wasn't just directing this warning glare at the man in his hold, but the words and his dark aura went across everyone in the room – this led to everyone having some silent agreement to drop the subject (they'll get killed if they don't)
"Y-You're right, Akabane could be just playing around with that."
"Aha, yeah! There's no way it's Okuda after all. And he did say no one so of course it's no one."
After a few more moments of pain, the sadist finally let the poor boy go; but not at all in a gentle fashion as he leaned back on the nearest wall to cool himself off. After he breathed an exasperated sigh, Karma stayed silent and had not been inserted into a few conversations for a while – finding this boring and a complete waste of his time, he stepped out; he could've sworn sighs of relief were released the moment he did.
'…he's blushed at the time' he grit his teeth once the words played again as he balled his fists and quickened his pace a little.
'That was a minor setback of mine –
It won't happen again.'
Rio and Manami were the last ones to leave the mess hall.
"Aw well, so much for dessert. And here I really wanted a taste of that choco-banana pie." The blond pouted as she stretched her arms in front of her and crossed them upon her chest
The shy science-lover smiled, slightly let-down that they didn't get a chance to grab some for themselves "Well, there wasn't anything we could do. Everyone else in our year seems to love them." She walked behind her respectfully. In the midst of their stroll to the dorms, Manami took the time to see if her cookies were still in good shape inside her jogging pants – pleased that there weren't much crumbs or broken biscuits, she happily put the jar back in its hiding.
"If it was such a moneymaker they should've added up their stocks for it" Rio carried on with her complaints while they made their way back to the rooms – that was until something interesting caught her eye and she halted in her steps; this resulted to the small girl behind her to stumble back a bit.
"Uwoah! Na-Nakamura-san wha—"
"Sh." She put a finger to her own mouth and winked at her bespectacled friend. Slowly, she pulled Manami with her as they snuck up on a certain girl with brown hair leaning by the wall – she appeared to be staring at someone while taking cover from it.
"I thought Fuwa-san went to the room…" Manami whispered into the taller girl's ear once she got the message she had to be stealthy so as to not get caught. Rio didn't answer and persisted to have a look at what what exactly her anime-loving friend had her eye glued on. Once the mischievous girl had gotten a glimpse of what it was – rather, who it was – her curious smile had changed into a malicious grin; the braided girl had to admit it looked exactly like Korosensei's face whenever he had green stripes on his big yellow head.
Wondering what it was that got her two friends so intrigued, Manami leaned her head a little more and was a little surprised to find Sugino there talking with a few of his classmates; acting like his usual self. The poison glasses had a bit of trouble catching one with things, but the second she had, Rio crept her way behind the mangaka wannabe in the same type of disturbing way she got the dark-haired girl to play cards – heck, the same expression was there as she inched behind her eavesdropping friend.
Yuzuki only noticed something odd when a low "Hohohohohohohohohooo…" came from behind her. Before the poor victim of this unusual scene could turn around…
"EEP!"
Two hands had already grabbed her shoulders and dragged her away in a fashion similar to that of a horror movie.
"I never came across the thought that you would like Sugino-kun…Fuwa-san~" The golden haired girl mused and found it priceless when the girl seated seiza style in front of her puffed her cheeks and looked away – clearly she was not amused by the turnout of things.
The three were now gathered in one of the girl's dormitories around the square table on the floor. Manami and Rio sat on one side and left Yuzuki on the other for (as Rio put it) 'proper questioning' but the raven-haired chemist just considered it gossip and went with it for the time being – but to say she was not astonished by this discovery would be a big lie.
The brunette grumbled "I've been found out…" and with a sigh she faced the two of them; noticeably feeling unpleasant "Well, what of it then? We all know who he likes anyway." She looked away with a displeased pout and crossed her arms.
Rio rested her cheek on her knuckles with her elbow on the table as she hummed to get something together in her mind "Hmm, I heard she's attending an all-girls high school right now – I mean, she did have terrible luck with men." She said it in a matter-of-fact tone; the other two couldn't agree more for they had simultaneously said "Mhmm…" as the image of their poor class beauty being played around with men popped up.
Manami pondered a bit on their finding. Fuwa-san likes Sugino-kun…
…like…like…
She thought about the word and wondered how it's like to be able to feel that for someone. 'It must be a nice feeling…' she was only able to think this because of the things she'd often see on TV and other posters where people are smiling because they're with the opposite sex in a romantic relationship.
"But for some reason…I kind of feel happy for you, Fuwa-san." The words slipped out of her mouth like nobody's business – but they were honest; she really felt like liking someone had to be a really nice thing.
"Don't say that please…I might want to punch you…"Yuzuki, however, didn't take this as a compliment and gave her a broken smile as her eyes seemed to have bags under then from the sudden change of mood. Instead of this lifting her heart, it was the complete opposite for it felt like she just got shot by a machine gun after hearing that from her straightforward yet way too polite friend.
"Bitter, aren't we?" Rio snickered as her hands were now on both sides of her cheek teasingly as she raised an eyebrow at her friend going through a 'one-sided love dilemma'.
"You're no exception." A vein grew on her forehead as she said the words with a low and dangerous tone – but this only made the blond scoff and continue with her musings "But Sugino-kun's really nice though, I can imagine how you've come to like him. And you sat pretty close to each other too." She closed her eyes and nodded at her presumptions; to which Yuzuki did not waste time in retorting to.
"T-That's not it! It's just that…" she averted her gaze again and puffed her crimson cheeks from embarrassment. Not too long after she trailed off, her hands went to her head as she pulled on some of her hair "AGGHH!Let's put an end to this talk already! Because in other news, what the hell was that?!" she slammed her hand on the table this time as she pointed accusingly at her blond gossip-loving clubmate – her eyes now resembled one of those angry chibi faces you see in anime as her mouth seemed to have canine teeth "What was up with that horror movie trope thing you did to get me here?! Couldn't you have done it in a normal way?! That was really freaking creepy Nakamura-san!"
Rio turned to the side with a pout after clicking her tongue "Tsk, you just don't want to talk about your tragic love. Boring~" she even yawned to stress on the last word.
"GAHK!" Yuzuki slapped her face hard with both hands as an attempt to cover her blushing face and as a result of being caught in the art of changing the subject as she fell backwards and hit the floor face first from embarrassment – if you squint, you'd be able to see some steam coming from the sides of her head.
"Fu-Fuwa-san! Keep it together! I-I'm sure Sugino-kun sees you as a very good friend!" Manami cheered for her with worry all over her features when she saw this type of reaction. 'Liking someone must be a mysterious wreck of emotions…' she observed this from her friend who now had some comical tears flowing out after she tried to encourage her.
"O-Okuda-san…you don't say that to anyone in a situation like this…" her blond friend sweatdropped after her exclamation for a while.
Once Yuzuki got herself back together, Rio had started another conversation just in time "Hm…I've been thinking lately, why don't we start calling each other by our first names?"
This caught the attention of the other two as they turned to her quizzically "First names?" Manami was first to speak after that and was followed by her otaku friend "Sure, why not?" Secretly, she'd thought 'At least the topic changed.' As a sigh of relief escaped her lips.
Rinka, who had been overhearing everything from the very beginning as she sat quietly with a book in the corner, gave out a small, disturbed hum once they had started with this. With the sudden urge to leave the area, she stood from her spot and slowly walked out of the room – she didn't notice how her form had been followed by a pair of curious purple eyes.
'Hayami-san…'
"Well, I'll start calling you Manami-chan then!" the braided girl's shoulders jerked up after her name had been called and interrupted her thoughts. She sharply turned to the light-haired trickster that called her that with small lavender orbs shrunk behind a pair of glasses "M-M-M-M-M-Manami-ch-ch-ch-ch-c-chh-chan?!" she stammered as a shadow seemed to form on her forehead.
"So, Manami-chan, you'll have to call me Rio-chan~" she waved her hand in a 'just do it' motion as her face smiled brightly. Yuzuki decided to help out "Do it like this: Rio-chan~"
"Thank you very much, Yuzuki-chan!" Rio winked at her in appreciation for the helping hand as both turned to check the results.
All they saw was the girl being told to do so stammering and fidgeting around her seat in discomfort. "R-R-R-R-Riiii-o-chaa…..Y-Y-Y-Y-Yu—zki-ch-chaaa-a…" it was obvious that the girl couldn't even speak well enough to say such simple words – she was way too used to addressing everyone by their last name. In fact, the two had to admit she looked terrible at the moment; eyes were wide as if hunted, her shoulders tensed up as she grabbed onto her jogging pants and shuddered as each letter forced itself out – for a moment, she could've been compared to a ghost and not much difference would be found. Rio finally raised her hand in front of the girl and smiled uncomfortably "Well let's leave it at that for now." In all honesty, what the girl was doing had started to become scary.
"O-Okay…" Manami took a deep breath and straightened up on her cushion. For some reason, her face had begun to hurt, but she decided to leave it alone as it really didn't do much harm.
"Anyway, I've noticed something." The blond started a new conversation; but this time the mood had changed somewhat which gained her the attention of the two. Rio tilted her head to her palm as she rose an eyebrow at the girl beside her "What's up with you and Karma-kun?"
"H-Heh?" the eyeglasses-ed girl blinked, taken aback by the suddenness of her question.
"I saw it during supper time; has he been that way all day?" she read her like a book and took her frown as a 'yes'. Yuzuki also found herself intrigued by this and listened in.
"Mm…" Manami started with a nod; she saw this as a chance to finally relay this problem of hers to them – she still had that 'I don't want to bother you' business lingering about in her habits, but her situation now had her mind boggled up so she had to speak up or she fears things might get worse. She kept her head down for the next few moments as her eyes traveled to her memories.
"Ever since that day…I think he's been acting weird around me. He would talk to me like the usual but something always felt off about it…like he's always looking at everything I do now. Then when I just get a little close he just backs away really quickly then leaves me alone, so I might be wrong about that one. Then I had the feeling maybe he was still mad at me because I notice him go away whenever I come, but I also thought maybe not because he still talks to me…" she paused and let a few scenes from her incident flash for split seconds – the walk home, his angry face and finally his form walking home. She watched her fingers tighten around themselves as she said her last words downheartedly "…I don't understand him at all…"
After keeping their ears open for her, the two girls exchanged a few looks, back to their friend in distraught then to each other again. Yuzuki pulled Rio away from the table and crawled not too far away from it to start whispering amongst themselves hoping Manami would stay distracted by her thoughts while they had a brief discussion.
"Rio-chan, could it be because of 'that'?" she whispered it to her as if they were secret agents, but that didn't stop the other from following the lead "It must because of 'that'. No doubt about it." They both knew exactly what they were pertaining to – 'that' means the rare occurrence of the redhead matching the color of his crown from the chin up; yes, blush.
"Yes, you're right." Rio nodded as if she had hit a big eureka but kept her tone in a whisper to not attract attention from her lost small-framed clubmate "Knowing Karma-kun, after what had happened, he'd avoid the cause of 'that' A.K.A…" both turned to the distressed girl by the table who now had her hands occupied as she played with a single braid. They nodded in understanding and crawled back to the table – but this time they left Manami alone on her side.
By this time, the female trickster already had something up her sleeve as she grinned with mock innocence "You should go talk to him when you get the chance."
"I should but…" her eyes moved side to side and she fidgeted once more "What if he—"
"You'll know what to do when the time comes. I'm sure of it." Rio reassured her with a thumbs up which the small girl returned with a half-hearted smile.
Yuzuki however, had seen right through this 'You're totally gonna set them up and get a good laugh from it, aren't you?"
"Well, speaking of Karma-kun." Their blond schoolmate lifted herself from her seated position and stretched her arms up "I haven't been able to get back at him because of everything that's happened. So now…" another devious grin stretched her cheeks up.
"Now, Manami-chan…"
"Eh…?"
"Why did you do that in the first place?" Sugino had a wary expression upon his features as he walked side by side with his demonic prankster friend back to their dorms after catching a small drink.
"Recently, I've found a new joy in manipulating of old women…" at that, it was almost as if the devil's tail wagged behind him as the wicked grin on his face only appeared to grow darker. Ah yes, it was thanks to a particular caretaker of a fragile girl for this new pastime of his – he realized he enjoyed it too much to let it just stick to her (of course he still enjoyed it when the maroon-crowned nurse had every fiber in her body ready to murder him).
"You pissed her off with depressing singlehood jokes I didn't even know you knew about…" Sugino sweatdropped as he remembered how the saleslady from the snack bar they just went to wanted to cost them double for their drinks – had the spiky-haired boy not apologized and kept the two from burning down the hotel, they would've paid an extra 100 yen.
Karma only snickered proudly to himself and was about to talk about something else when a sudden ruckus came from the nearest boy's dorm.
"Yuichi!"
"Hold on buddy! Stay strong!"
Muffled noises like these could be heard through the traditional Ryokan door. "I wonder what happened?" Sugino was the first to make his way there and carefully slid open the door to ask what the commotion was all about. Karma watched him from his spot – he decides he'll only move to see what it is if it's worth it. But the moment he saw the drink fall from his friend's hand and spill all over the floor; his shoulders stiffened, and from what he observed, whatever it was that Sugino saw, it froze him in place. Karma raised his brow at first and just continued to sip on his drink.
"E-Excuse me, I think my glasses are over there…"
Until of course he heard that voice and stepped to the front door.
He couldn't have regretted it any more – the amount of disbelief at how things unfolded before him was too much for him to measure. His eyes widened and along with it his brows crumpled together and twitched from the unbelievable scene – the contents of the drink in his hand spilled out after he crushed it absentmindedly.
Searching for your glasses is a completely normal task – but if you're doing it while caging a man with your body inside a boy's dormitory when you are absolutely not one, something's definitely, in all ways, wrong.
Okuda Manami had her hands travelling across the tatami in search for her spectacles – but her upper body acted as a bridge over a boy who may have woken up to find her there and get a ruby red face; no, she was not aware of this for two reasons: number one, the boy was too taken off guard by waking up to a girl above him to even speak (heck not even the friends in the room could do much about it because there was suddenly a girl inside a boy's dorm.) and the other was because not having glasses for quite a while now made her a little dizzy. The worst part was that her hands went to places all over the boy named Yuichi's body in the midst of her hunt for her frames – and that was already enough to make anyone feel uncomfortable even if they were safe places.
How this had come to be, no one really knew – but all the two combat club members that froze from their shock knew was that-
'This is Nakamura's doing…'
"Yush! I found it— oh!" Sugino failed to notice that Karma already stomped inside and pulled her off of the man by her shoulders and proceeded to drag her out of the room with the slam of the door – he didn't even heed to any of her retorts.
Not too long after they got out of the room, the baseball obsessed boy realized what he had been left to deal with: these boys, the mess on the floor and Nakamura.
Speaking of Nakamura, she was now laughing evilly once her plan had gone accordingly (she couldn't have done it without a certain class pervert)
"She's bound to tell me what happens after this." This time, the devil's horns and tail went to her as she peeked her head to the small open window with Okajima right beside her.
"Rio-chan…" Yuzuki's eye twitched at how inconceivable it all just was as she sat under the window with an irked smile.
"Uh…Karma-kun…?"
Soon, Karma was dragging her by the wrist across the moonlit woods. Crickets created their evening sound as the occasional hoots of an owl would echo through the vast space of trees and other greenery. The stars adorned the dark night sky and filled it with twinkling dots that granted the wishes of children this night. But all of that didn't really matter, for the redheaded teenager that hauled her out of here had not said a word nor turned to face her even once. Manami caught a sense of déjà vu; it hadn't been too long since he'd last given her a cold shoulder, and she just went up and did it again.
She thought back to what just happened – why was she so unfazed? Probably because she hadn't really put much thought into what she had done for her focus was on her glasses. However, once she really grasped the reasons of why this had come to be, her cheeks had gone beet red – as an added effect, her free hand went up to her face from the embarrassment and shame of getting tangled up in such a mess unbecoming of her. If her caretaker ever found out about this, she'd surely have the mini-lab in her apartment locked for a month; that was the last thing she wanted.
But moreover, what was all the more mortifying was the fact that this boy that dragged her outside had witnessed her in such a predicament. Soon enough, she felt her eyes moving down to the moist soil right beside the creek where he had dragged her to – he's probably angered again; and once more it was her fault to get him so worried.
"Um—Oh!" she wasn't able to finish for by this time he had let go of her a little roughly and took a few steps forward for distance – his back still the only thing she could see from him. And another silence came to be; the music of an evening forest's creatures were the only things that produced noise as Karma had been left to deal with his racing thoughts.
Great. Now what?
He lost control of himself back there – just when he decided that he'd take a break from her for a while, that of all the things had to come to view.
"Um…Karma-kun, I'm sorry for this again…" she raised her eyes from the ground but kept her head lowered as she gave him a heartfelt apology. Karma heaved a sigh and rubbed the back of his head after he had somehow calmed down after acting on impulse like that.
"It's not your fault. But…" Manami didn't see it, but his eyes glinted with spite as his hand had formed into a fist in front of him as he thought about what he would do the next time he sees the English-loving blond "The one who is better prepare herself for what's coming her way…"
The bespectacled girl let out a sigh of relief as she straightened up to face his back yet again. He kept quiet; they were alone under the crescent moon's light with only the resonances of nature and the serene waves of the creek not too far downhill from where they were.
'You should talk to him about it…'
She pursed her lips and took a few breaths for courage with gently clenched fists – now couldn't be a better time for her to relay this concern of hers to him. And so with a soft inhale and mild reluctance, she spoke.
"U-Um…Karma-kun about today…erm…" it was a start; she hadn't exactly thought the words through her head as she moved her eyes all over the place. Karma predicted this would come eventually, so he stepped to the side to have a look at her properly with a blank expression.
Manami took a few more breaths to try to slow her fast-beating heart especially when he looked at her as a sign that he was listening. Forcing the courage out, she let her eyes meet his.
"You've…I'm sorry for the word but you were kind of…weird all day. I've wanted to ask you about it but…I wasn't able to find the chance to…" After she said that, she couldn't bear to keep her eyes on him as her fingers twiddled about nervously behind her. "If it's about a few days ago…t-then I'm sorry for making you mad…I didn't mean to snap at you. But in case you're not mad then maybe…" and the words she had tried to form clearly had become lost then and there – what was it she wanted to say? It was all too confusing for her to even get her finger around it, and because of that, the next set of words came without a thought "…I don't understand. I don't understand you, Karma-kun. You know when I'm feeling bad and you can read me easily all the time…I want to be that kind of person to you. I want to know more about you but…" the following words came out with obvious perturbation as by this point the one who listened to her frowned as the bad feeling he hid so well tugged on his chest "But whatever I did ended with you getting away from me. I really didn't know what to do. I thought you were mad but you didn't act like it. Is there something wrong with my face or how I smell for you to want to get farther away? Did I do something bad without realizing it? Are you watching my every move or…did you…"
And she lost it right then and there as her palms went up to slap a cover for her face "Ahhh! I really don't get it!" this resulted to Karma stifling out a small sound of surprise unintentionally – he did not expect such an upsurge; it only added up when not a second was wasted before she said with a loud muffled cry of helplessness and stepped forward "I can't understand no matter how many times I think it through! I'm just really bad when it comes to this! Why are you acting this way? Please tell me! I don't want to be so lost!" Her hands strayed away from her face as she looked up at his mercury orbs taken aback; underneath the bright light of the moon, the tears that threatened to pour from the edge of her shiny lavender glistened like the stars in the sky "I want to know Karma-kun…so…"
She came up to him suddenly, and because of his cautious instincts caused by her abrupt movements, he stepped backwards after the proximity between them increased – however, he least expected what came next.
Her foot had lost balance on the edge of the small hill by the creek because of him and she stumbled backwards to where the body of water was and failed to regain it even though she tried
Thinking fast and out of reflex, his eyes widened and with a sharp movement he grabbed her arm to try to pull her up; but it only made things worse for he had gotten on the bad side of her injury and made her jerk backwards, resultantly taking him with her.
"AH—! K-Kar—!"
After another moment of frantic and panicked movements, the two had fallen into the water with individual splashes.
Lucky for them, the creek was deep enough to lessen the impact and for them to be able to stand up and the fall downhill wasn't very high – though they may have disturbed a few fish that were peacefully rested in the water.
Karma was the first to get his head out of the water as he put the side of his fist on his mouth and coughed – his hair was now soaking wet as the water dripped down his face. Not three seconds later, Manami came out right in front of him; braids in a drenched mess with her glasses hilariously disoriented on her face as her expression told him she was in the process of realizing what had just happened – her eyebrows were raised and her mouth formed into tiny hole on her face. "Uh…"
Before Karma could recover from his own dumbstruck-ness, another unexpected occurrence came – and it was an odd one this time. Just as they were staring at each other, too surprised to even speak, a bubble came from in front of them followed by a…yellow jar lid?
And with a single fwop sound, a dozen rice cracker cookies floated up to the surface of the water – leaving the boy all the more bewildered by these series of events.
"Ah! My cookies!" his attention reverted to his now absolutely dismayed chemistry loving friend who had her hands by the side of her head as she had her eyeballs shrunk by the sight of her now soggy sweets. He had never seen anyone look so terribly – entertainingly disheartened by the loss of food. Not only that, the entire sequence itself since they came here had been one hell of a happening – it was too full of unanticipated scenes one couldn't even begin to comprehend.
And just as Manami was about to fall into agony, Karma couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing – only this time, she noticed there was something new in this laughter of his. It wasn't like the usual chortles or snickers he would do from time to time; no, this one could be compared to that of an innocent child – genuine and full of light.
The sight had the braided girl completely entranced – not only was it rare to see him laugh so openly, but she found the picture before her simply wonderful; and she wouldn't to hesitate to see it one more time. No words could explain what she felt at the time as her eyes were blessed with such a scene (not to mention there was the added effect by the moon), so she found herself joining in with her own genuine laugh. People would probably consider them idiots to be laughing their hearts out in a creek in the middle of a forest at night if anyone saw them.
Karma was the first to try to speak as he barely got the words out properly "Okuda-san, are you an idiot?"
Manami's giggling came to a stop "Wh-What's that supposed to mean?" this only made him chuckle one more time and put a hand on her head "No nothing, never mind. My head's been cleared." His laughter stopped, but the smile remained as he gazed at her – his hand stroked her wet hair once "I made you worry all day. I'm sorry." The words came out with an apologetic smile and such honesty that couldn't be denied. So he had been doing it intentionally.
The petite-framed girl fixed her glasses with both hands as she turned her head up and presented him with a cheery smile "It's okay. I guess it's just my…karma." She giggled lightheartedly, but ended up with her shoulders jerking upwards when he flicked her forehead – but the smile remained; only this time it appeared to be saying 'Nice try.'
"Ow! W-was the joke that bad?" she tilted her head playfully with a slightly nervous grin – but in truth, she was just happy things had been fixed.
Karma chuckled "We should get up, don't you think?"
"Are you cold?"
"No, it's fine. What about you?"
"I can manage."
They'd settled on staying by the creek for the time being. Of course, they wouldn't want to come to the hotel soaking wet after what they had just gone through back there, so it'd be best to let themselves dry in the meantime – besides, the forever crescent moon looked nice with the view they had.
The two were seated about a meter apart on the edge of the plateau they had fallen from. The calm gush of the waves against the rocky shore was music to their ears after a long, eventful day, and when accompanied by the forest's natural beauties and other night creatures, the moon that hovered above them had never appeared to be more striking as both relished in the tranquility of their comfortable silence and refreshing isolation from the public.
"…The moon's stayed the same since then, huh…" the sweet, reminiscing voice of a feeble girl shattered the quietude between her and her scarlet haired companion with that small remark.
"Yep." The mischievous boy stifled a chuckle and stationed his arms behind him in a lazy fashion of sitting.
Manami embraced her knees and rested her chin on them as her mind drifted back to pleasant times "Our school trip last year was weirder than this one…" She started once again, a beam gracing her lips "Korosensei really helped us there back then…and at the same time we were trying to assassinate him."
Karma nodded and had another one of his carefree smiles back on "Our class really was one of a kind to spend such times trying to assassinate our own teacher with the target knowing." When he thought through it, it was weird. Who takes the time to plot the assassination of someone that didn't want you yourself dead.
"I wonder if we still had to do that until now. The castle would've been a good place to ambush him." She suggested and turned to her friend – whom chuckled at this idea "He probably would've seen it coming there. But maybe a trap would work; I have this feeling he could be just as addicted to Shachihoko as you were." He teased and called it success when a blush of embarrassment went up to her face.
"A-Anyway…it would've been nice if I was able to go through with the plan in putting poison inside his sweets. They sold lots outside of the castle."
"Oh yeah! He was such a sucker for those after all. And I'm sure Kayano would've gotten him to do it."
"Speaking of Kayano-san, are she and Shiota-kun…?"
They went on with their reminiscence under the late night sky with ease. The nostalgia of it all made their hearts feel bittersweet as each memory had been revisited. The conversation went from 'if they were to assassinate their yellow octopus teacher in Nagoya, where would the best place be?' to some of the most memorable parts of him back in middle school and with it some of the notable accomplishments and ridiculous antics of specific classmates including incidents with Itona, Ritsu, Kayano, other professional assassins and almost everyone else for that fact – especially Nagisa. Before they knew it, they were laughing the pain in their hearts off at every small recollection of such a wonderful year.
"So many things happened I barely even remember what middle school was like before he came to our lives!" Manami giggled bittersweet-ly and leaned back with her arms for support.
Karma's eyes had gone half-lidded as a glum smile made its way to his face "I'm not sure if I'll remember what happens after…" this had caused the girl to sink her chin behind her arms after she had tucked her knees back in again – talking about this did bring a few beams to their faces, but the fact still stands that there was a hole in their – everyone in 3-E's hearts after everything. It was hard to pick yourself up and keep yourself motivated when something extraordinary ends and you're back to nothing but the common life of an everyday student – or person for that matter. What's more, Karma was not exactly the most expressive person you'd find out there, but if it's a talk about this, it had always been obvious since the day he passed away that this redheaded kid that saw everything indifferently, was devastated.
"Mm…" and the wind flew by just in time to fill in the next silence – it was like even the Nagoya forest itself had chosen to mute themselves just to respect this memory of a great teacher, assassin and person/octopus.
Manami had known from the start that this was a sensitive topic for all those who had been a student of his, so naturally, she was not caught by surprise at his sudden change of subject.
"By the way, I've noticed something." Funny, it was like what they talked about didn't happen at all – like he just had this ability to mask whatever pain that burdened him and kept his blithe demeanor up. Karma now had his quizzical eyes on her with the next question "Why are you afraid of Hayami-san?"
This is what caught her off guard for a bit – where had it come from in the first place? The introvert's eyeballs shrunk as her hands waved themselves out in front of her after she faced him "A-Afraid?! I'd never! Ha-Hayami-san is—"
"You look more uncomfortable with her compared to everyone else, so I assumed it was something like that." He cut her off and kept the same face as he waited for another answer from her. Manami sighed – Karma saw through everyone after all, how could he not notice this?
"I'm not afraid…" Her glasses glinted against the moonlight when she returned to her position with her chin rested on her knees behind her arms. The next sets of words were honest and put straightforwardly – eyes were moved to the side as the orangeheaded sniper came to mind "It's just that…it was in middle school when I thought of this. For some reason I always felt like she was so far away from the world I knew even if she was just right in front of me. She…looks like a grown-up to me – something I may or may not become. It's like…it's like she's so ahead of everyone, that's all. Chiba-kun may be similar but he's more…erm…" she took a few seconds to find the right word and settled with "…approachable. So I guess that's why I'm so nervous when I talk to her…" a second later, she sharply turned to her companion after she studied what she just said "Maybe I am afraid?!"
Karma laughed lightly and pet her head as a sign to relax "No, no. I get what you mean. You have a point." He stopped for a while and faced the moon before continuing with a knowing smile "But when people like that come along…you'll be surprised to find out they're just like anyone else. So don't get too conscious over it." He tilted his head over to her to give her some reassurance and was pleased to see her nod at this.
"Well, now that that's— Oh, woops." He stated this casually, but after he leaned back on his arms and brought out his hand, Manami panicked when she saw blood erupt from a fresh scar – it must've been from the sharp pebbles on this forest path "K-Karma-kun! Your wounds opened!"
"Oh, indeed they have." He responded without a care at all about how the others had also swelled with the red liquid.
"W-W-We need to do something!" she scurried her hands about frenziedly as she tried to look for something to cover it with. "Ahhh, why did you take off your dressing…" she cried out, alarmed and completely clueless and unable to think from her agitation.
"Uh…if you want it, it's right here."
"Oh! Nice work!"
"Are you sure it doesn't hurt?" Manami used the back of the dressing for this round – fair enough, it was much cleaner than most so she considered it to be okay over the opened scars. Karma scoffed at this question of hers and just smirked while she wrapped the material around his hand with care "This? Hurt? You think low of me if that's what's on your mind, Okuda-san."
"I'm just concerned…I know you can take care of yourself Karma-kun, but when things like these happen you have to deal with them carefully." She attempted to scold him, but this only made his grin grow wider with the desire to tease her about such.
"Oh, Okuda-san cares too much. It's just a simple wound." He mused and earned himself another concerned retort from the frail girl.
"Of course I care! Even if it's just simple it still makes me a little anxious…" her eyes moved downwards as she tried to relieve her heart of worry from the panic she had just gone into.
"Hm? Then you should be my personal maid then~" he couldn't help himself with that one, it was fun to tease her about things after all, and it was all the more rewarding when he got a cute pout out of her "I can't drop school to become your maid." She took it seriously – one of the perks when making fun of Okuda Manami is when she doesn't understand a joke. Karma snickered when she continued to pout at him and neatly finished with her work on his hand – in all honesty, that pout of hers was very cute.
"But…" when he looked at her again, his interest was piqued when he saw how her eyes had tenderness in them as her distant eyes seemed to consider something "If I didn't have to…I don't think it would be so bad to become Karma-kun's maid…"
This got him taken aback – eyes grew wide when yet another one of his jokes had been taken seriously with an answer he did not expect. The thought of Okuda-san becoming a maid for him and greeting him in the morning at his house popped up ever so suddenly - along with it the outfit, serving him dinner, telling him good night and so on. But what was more mortifying was when he took notice of her gentle hands still holding onto his even after she had fixed the wound. He took a moment to grasp the situation he had himself in until his train of thought had been abrupt with an exclamation from the cause of this bafflement.
"Oh yeah! I have something for you!" without a moment's hesitation, she ran off to the hotel with a 'wait here!' before she vanished.
Moments passed where Karma was just left there to come to a few realizations and exactly take in what had just happened to him. Soon enough, he felt the heat rise to his cheeks for yet another time in that same week for the same reason; he placed a hand over the red tint on his face and tried to control it – rather than feeling irked, he himself didn't know why, but he caught himself laughing this off by himself "You're really something!"
But even after he laughed it off, whatever heat was on his cheeks did not cease – and the grin disappeared. His head had lowered itself as he faced the ground with shrunk mercury orbs and his hands by both sides of his head, not even then did the red of his face go away.
He heaved a sigh.
'It won't happen again.'
She just proved how wrong he was.
"I'm sorry I took so long!"
And there she came, padding to him with her hands hid behind her to prevent from the recipient from finding out what it was. Karma had regained his composure by now and kept a cool grin on his face "You really ran back there?"
Manami nodded with enthusiasm "Mm! It wasn't so far since I left my bag by the lockers." Her thumb came to view for reassurance "So…" he watched her take a deep breath and clear her throat before revealing the paper bag behind her with a beam that stretched her cheeks "For you! Karma-kun!"
The redhead stared at this curiously and gently took it from her "Thank you, Okuda-san. But you really didn't have to."
She shook her head and crouched down beside him "Mm...This is the least I could have done. You've done too much for me, and I've gotten you into a lot of troubles lately. So…please consider this as a thank you…" her expression softened as her thoughts drifted back to when she first encountered him on a bench and screeched his name out – then to the time where he waited for her by the river on her way home underneath the magnificent, post-rain, spring sunset. From there, the memories of her days alone with him resurfaced as she spoke; their stops by the convenience store, the poisonous frog they examined, the tears she shed that day…
"If it wasn't for you…I wouldn't have everything I have today." She smiled up at him with a sincere smile and eyes that brimmed with immeasurable gratitude. "This…isn't even enough to compensate for it…" gently, she pushed the bag to him with hopes that he would find this gift appeasing at least.
Karma returned the smile and once more, put his hand above her head – in which she grinned to "You don't have to thank me so much for such a simple thing." With that, he neatly pulled the paper bag open; once he did, whatever expression he had on had been replaced with a vacant one, for inside the bag was a comic book – and not just any, it was the latest, deluxe issue of a series he'd come to like called 'Sonic Ninja'. He hadn't even gotten a chance to get a hold of this one yet; how did she know? Moreover, where did she find the time to search for something as rare as this?
"It's simple to you, but to me it's worth a lot." She said this quietly, but there was no ounce of a lie or any form of sugarcoating in her words as he stared at the gift with astonishment.
That's when Manami caught herself and started acting all fidgety "U-Uh I didn't know what you wanted bu-but I heard from Shiota-kun you like some comics so I just went to get some for you. I didn't know what you had b- but I tried my best to get a good one. But I feel sorry for using Inari-nee's credit card…I-If you already have it then…" she stopped mid-sentence once his forehead had collided with hers softly. Having looked up, she saw another expression of the red-haired teenager she is yet to familiar herself with – what was it? His half-lidded mercury orbs were inscrutable, but for some reason or another, she could get the sense of tenderness from it as it was accompanied by a warm smile. This is the first time she had seen him look so…there was no word to describe it, but what came close was 'open'. The girl was quite positive he didn't make this face just to anyone – it was genuine, and it was hard to get past the strong mask this aloof boy had put on all the time. For the second time that night, she was absorbed; all she could do was stare up at him. She didn't even get the chance to think of words to say after-
"I love it."
Just then, by the corner of their eyes, tiny, bright, golden lights that came in millions each expanded gratifyingly. One by one, they lit up the dark, isolated woods with such radiance that had the two's attention taken.
On the porch of the small-ish hotel, a lone, emerald-eyed girl rested with her knees tucked in as she stared at the forest's entrance – thoughts of a depth swam through this sniper's mind, but had been interrupted when a voice came from the door.
"Hayami." It was deep, serious, but questioning – she already knew who it was before he came to her side and looked up at the same patch of trees that were right in front of her; it wasn't so obvious with the hair covering his eyes, however.
Rinka didn't respond and ripped her gaze away from the forest as she moved them to the ground in front of her – this was a clear indication of a disturbance, and enough to urge the taller boy to inquire such from her.
"What's on your mind?" of course Hayami expected him to read her, just like how she could read him. And because it's him, she found herself able to open up easily in contrast with most. Albeit this fact, she only was able to muster the few words that meant everything she felt at the time. Through all that seriousness and adult-like façade, there were the feelings of a lonely girl going through her adolescent years – it may not even be becoming of her to express this much, but with the boy next to her, she knows that he'd be more than fine with it
"I…I want to get along with everyone…" it was a quiet and muffled voice that came out of her rarely used mouth – but her eyes gave off the rest of the words that need not be spoken. Chiba saw it – the shine in her eyes quivered in a sense that tears lay behind them, forever unshed. Upon further study, he observed how they longed for something, but the guilt of a certain event held her back from taking action.
"I see." Was all he said with that dull tone of his – but underneath it was something entirely different. The way she lowered her gaze at this; that was enough to urge him to take that lonely expression of hers away from her face.
He wouldn't want her to continue making that face, after all. He didn't like it one bit.
And in the midst of their comfortable, yet hollow silence, bright lights of brilliant gold aroused around them with magnificence as they moved elegantly through the nighttime breeze. They could easily be compared to the shine of a lantern – but a lantern made by man is no match for the view they had been given by the wonders of nature.
And Rinka, whom had her head lowered, couldn't stop herself from looking at the several lights with awe – something the dark-haired sniper deemed quite lovely.
"I'm telling you! It was a way to get them together! I mean look at those two!" inside a well-lit Japanese style bedroom, a blond yelled from her knelt position in front of a spiky-haired boy that did not look amused.
Sugino was barely the type to get irked by anything – but this was an exception for the two girls and single guy that knelt apologetically to him at the moment had laid their hands in something that shouldn't have been messed with.
The reason those three were able to submit to such a position in front of the boy is because this was the rare occurrence of the baseball-obsessed boy to have become so evidently disappointed by what they had done.
"I just got sucked into this because she asked me to." The perverted boy in between the females shrugged and sat back with blithe.
Sugino sweatdropped at this "Okajima…admit you wanted to get a good show from this too…"
Yuzuki sighed and leaned back on the wall by the window they had been spying from – it wasn't a total mystery how they had been found there since it was an obvious place to watch things unfold; that, and they'd been ratted out by the boys in the room (yes, they were still there.) "Sugino-kun has a point. But…when I saw them today, I think they really needed something to push them to talk to each other. Knowing them, I doubt either would take enough initiative to just confront the other about it…" she deadpanned at the words and leaned back in the same fashion Okajima did.
The spiky-haired boy's crossness faded out after he had taken the girl's words into account and put a hand on his chin. "You may be right about that but…" the image of Okuda crouched underneath a tree from earlier today flashed back in his head – she was lost and confused and the only one who could have cleared that up for her was the reason for it. At the same time the image of Karma back in super time had come up – the way his elbow had been propped on the table followed by the averting of his gaze once he mentioned it; though he had guaranteed the bespectacled girl that he would ask him about it, he couldn't bring himself to. "But it didn't look like something we had to handle. If we stuck our noses into it, it might end up getting worse."
"Oh!"
"Nakamura, are you even listening?"
"Over there!" Rio enthusiastically had her upper body sticking out of the open window as her finger pointed to the beautiful group of fireflies that glowed with such eye-catching gorgeousness that had everyone else she was with pay their full attention to. Soon enough, the other students stopped whatever they were doing to share in the watching of this uncommon yet heart-fluttering occurrence.
"Hahh! Karma-kun! This is the first time I've seen so many!" the petite chemist jumped from her position ecstatically as her prankster companion remained leaned back on the ground – but he too had his eyes lit up by such a pretty sight. It wasn't every day you could see something so beautifully natural come up; it looked all the more entrancing with the added effect of the moon and beautiful indigo sky above them.
"Well, Nagoya forest is known for this kind of thing." He chuckled when he watched the girl's grin grow with wonder – the fireflies seemed to add up by the minute for now, the entire forest had its trees showing off their green and looked like a big golden dome of glowing lights incredibly pleasant to the eye. Each of them had their own unique character to them; some would glow with a brighter light than others, but the said others had more grace to their movements – they differed in size and in brightness, but it was these distinctions that made up the over-all charm of this secluded area. Manami did not regret staying here, for she was sure that she and him would be the only ones to have gotten such a view; heck, the view might not have been better for it seemed that they were in a particular part of the forest that these insects loved to dance around.
And as the braided girl had her eyes locked with the radiant bugs, Karma didn't notice he had been gazing at her the entire time. The way her eyes glistened against the gold marveled him, how the lights reflected against her spectacles was splendid. And that face she made…he didn't know why, but a desire had come to mind – he wants her to make that face all the time. A bright smile that drowned in amazement, eyes that were lit up the way a child would see the world; and it was as if she read his mind when she muttered out-
"Pretty…"
Karma had not taken his eyes off of her as he said "…Yeah."
So...did I make up for my mistakes in the last chapter? 8"3
WELP~ Hope you enjoyed that bit! I had fun writing it and I hope you had fun reading it too! Please do tell me what it is you found notable in this chapter, it really gets me going! ^w^
But anyways thanks for another read! And I'll have to warn you, since this chapter took too long I'll have to rush-ish the next chapter for reasons k? I hope you understand. Don't worry the next arc is just a short one anyway ^w^
Speaking of the next arc, HERE'S THE PREVIEW~!:
Chapter 10: Miss Understanding
Summer vacation's just around the corner~! And with summer, things heat up for our fellow combat club members! Literally and figuratively. So...Chiba and Hayami are kind of odd today. What? THEY had a fight? Usually they're the ones that get along but now Rinka's giving him the cold shoulder and Chiba looks like he doesn't care. What's a group of former assassins gonna do with a lover's (but not) feud?
FIND OUT IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF 'To Reach You'
~TheFlowerWeSawThatDay