OKAY! I'd like you all to get ready for this extra extra long chapter I've put together please! Hope you enjoy it cuz I know I did during some parts!
I'll admit I got vocabulary blocked in some parts so I apologize once more for that fact uwu
Since this is a long read too, It'd be much appreciated if you could point out some notable parts in the story~ And what you think of them, but only if you want though! You don't really have to but it helps a LOT!
Okay since the chapter is already .LONG, let's answer those reviews now:
kawaiichoconeko: HI AGAIN NEKO-CHAN! And I updated as soon as possible! LOL I laughed at that part myself to so I clap for random ideas XD Oh then in that case I'll request some time 030)b
bluemoonbutterfly: *IS GLOMPED* 8D AWWW Thanks very much! And just so you know I love long review too ^w^ Welp~! Guess you can find that out down there (SugiYuzu supporter? 83) LOL I actually laughed at that part too since it came out of nowhere XDD Aw Chiba yes. LOL hurray for Karmana and LOL! Good luck with this overdose chapter then XD And thank you very much you are fantastic as well.
Sweetmoegirl: HELLO MOE-KYU! Oh I see you're shipping it XD Welp the logo will be revealed sooner or later. LOL I found that funny tooXD 'll have those drawings ready by today hopefully (time: 10:04 am)
Quilla The Silent: HEY AGAIN QUI-CHAN! Haha go Rinka XD Lol really? Thanks! and LOL (yes good jab)
Title Unwanted: Thanks bro! And enjoy this one please!
Akikarui: You're assumptions will be put to an end now~ And there's only one way to find out ;D Oh okay~! Ooh the more you know
I12Bfree: AW Thanks man! Thanks for this review again! You're awesome too! And Thanks for pointing those out X'3 Yes it's a dat-*slapped* I mean yeah errand.
Ace Clover: Nakamura Rio exclusively lol XD HELLO AGAIN! Omg long review I love those thanks for putting the time to do so! ;w; Haha I fear that as well...but sooner or later you'll find out! ;D Lol yeah what the hell's a fucking bear-pig hybrid doing on that door XD Yep~! So look forward to that please! PFT LOL is there a secretly perverted side to Chiba-*shot* Yes he's stalk- I mean only one way to find out!
TheRoseShadow21: HEY ONCE AGAIN! Thanks for pointing out the hilarity you found in this chapter XD And I'm glad you found those parts funny as well as I did! Like OMo-chan in the manga shrine! XD I caught myself choking on my cereal when I thought of that. Oh and about that I guess that's a mistake on my part? Well...it's hard to control yourself when you've been forced into being paired up with the one you have one-sided feelings for I guess? X'3 Thanks again! ^W^
natsuki DDS: Haha lol XD Well...idk really I just write whatever I feel like writing and I have quite the high standards when it comes to writing uwu
Akabane-san: Hello again! And lol Hayami XD Chiba good luck with that new discovery X'D Welp, here it is and I hope you enjoy it! and ILOVEYOU for reviewing too!
eastfall: HEY DUDE NO TIME NO SEE! I'm yet to answer your long PM gomen uwu I couldn't find the time to lately so I'm sorry ;w; And thanks for that detailed review once again! I always look forward to yours since they've always helped me X'3 Thanks for all the compliments! I'll take them to heart and improve! And yes I have thought up a plan for both! I'm really excited to write about them! AW! Thanks! I'm very picky with how I do my narrations X'3 And it's relieving to know that you find it nice when you're a pro X"3 And for the drama-humor balance comment thank you very much again! OMG you almost squealed XD Hope this kind of makes you do so? XD
animeandmangafangirl: OH YOU TOO LONG TIME! Thanks again for taking the time to review though I know you're very busy with life and all X'3 OOO~ you'll find out down there~!
Akatsuki-Metal: You're awesome too! And thank you very much!
OKAY! Too long already.
Disclaimer: Ansatsu Kyoushitsu belongs to Matsui-sensei. Matsui-sensei is japanese. Do I look japanese to you? Rather do you think i know much? No, therefore point made.
Chapter 12: If I Were To Tell You…(Part 1: You who I don't know)
"So I can take the Chuo line's rapid service then drop off at Hachioji? Wait…can I even drop off there? And what's the difference with rapid service and the regular one? But if I come from Kanda then how many stops will it take to get there…? Will I have to change stations? Mm…" a quiet and uncertain voice with the mix of light footsteps against the hollow wooden floor of the Fuwa residence' stairs – it was a good thing her parents weren't at home, it saved them less the trouble. But despite this refreshing fact, that didn't take away the confusion the science nerd had as she scrunched her brows together in an intense way of analyzing a railway map she was not familiar of. But even with great effort such as this, a girl who had not been anywhere too far from home for the most part of her life would naturally have difficulty trying to get the hang of things for the first time – especially if it were an introverted character such as herself (who'd rather stay at home than go to places).
"Hashimoto is on the Sagami line while Tokyo is on a…" 'This map is so colorful…' it felt like several question marks just floated right above her as her attention shifted to the number of colors on the map and immediately felt a slight throbbing inside of her head – never trust someone with a lacking in their artistic sense with something creatively plotted out.
Manami heaved a sigh and just chose to wing it and probably ask around instead of deal with it herself when she got there – but knowing herself she'd probably get lost a few times.
Just as she reached the kitchen area just directly facing the front door, she was quite surprised to see Karma helping himself with a few beverages as he looked through the refrigerator he obviously did not own – it didn't take long before their eyes met and he greeted her with a childish smile "Yo."
She acknowledged this with her own smile and a small nod of her head (the idea of stopping him failed to cross her mind). Her eyes traveled to the milk he now had in his hand – but something about him being out here felt a little odd to her; for a brief moment she felt like he wasn't here just for the sole purpose of getting himself a drink.
"You're not going to go back?" she tilted her head as she watched him pour the drink into a glass he got from the sink. The short glance he spared her when she said this told her that her guess was correct. From her constant time being with him, she had slowly begun to read his movements or predict some of his thoughts – but she was still quite far away from getting to know all of him though.
"I was just a little curious about something." He moved to another side of the small, square, kitchen table to lean on – his carefree grin put on as always.
"Curious…?"
His gaze lowered to the drink in his hands as his orbs were fixed on the white liquid he played with by moving the cup back and forth – the grin disappeared and had been turned into a simple line on his face "Are you really gonna be okay going to Hashimoto by yourself?"
The girl should've expected this of him, but was unable to hide her surprise in the end for the question had let her shoulders jerk upwards a bit and had a soft squeak escape her lips. She could always count on him to read her easier than a children's book most of the time; and now that he had her caught red-handed again, it would be useless to even try denying such so as a result she displayed him a sheepish smile of admittance "After thinking about it…I'm not so sure…"
Karma's eyes moved back to her to see her expression before he smiled – contented with her honesty "I figured." All Manami could respond to that was a light laughter of embarrassment as she had her hands tied in front of her and shoulders lifted in that ever-conscious form that made her look stiff to most people wherever she walked.
"Well then, that only means…" he lifted the glass in front of his lips as he displayed her an ingenuous grin "I'll have to go with you~" he chimed before gulping down his drink.
Immediately, the bespectacled girl's eyes grew wide and let her mouth open slightly – she could feel some sweat trickle down her forehead at his request due to the newfound alarm that coursed through her body in her habitual manner of turning down help offered "B-but! This is my job! If you—"
She had been silenced by the loud thud caused by the boy colliding his glass to the wooden table with a notable amount of force. When she lifted her head to study his expression, what she saw were half-lidded eyes and a smirk – this time it gave her the message that his answer was just a flat-out 'No.' to whatever she had to say.
"Hm…" Manami pouted, knowing she couldn't do anything once his mind's been made up. But it relieved her to know that she won't have to deal with this by herself and was grateful for his offer.
A thought unbecoming of her it may be, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't glad that it was him and not anyone else.
Tokyo Station was at its usual busy state – what with the clutter of people making their own noises here and there and the endless tapping of hectic footsteps, you couldn't expect anything less of the central station of such a large city. Though the building may be large and well covered, the light of the summer sun had been able to seep in and give a yellow-ish glow to the glossy floor.
In the first floor of this distinguished building, a pair of 15 year old's stationed themselves in front of the public railway map as they analyzed it for a while. Karma had his arms crossed while he leaned forward and took note of the directions for their travel while Manami also did her best to remember the way around.
The redhead squint his eyes a bit "When I look at it, it's not that complicated to get there, but it's a long way. We'll have to change about twice at least."
The raven-haired girl eyed him with praise "Wow, you really know your way around."
He replied to this by presenting her with another casual smile and straightening himself up for he had finished studying the map "Well, I take trains from time to time since I don't actually drive. And it's not that hard to understand which makes it all the more convenient for me to use." With a stretch of his arms to the back of his head, he began to walk away from the board heard her follow suit with just a spec of agitation – she must've been late to notice him leave "Alright, now that I've gotten the way remembered, let's get you a manaca."
Manami looked puzzled by this and tilted her head by the time she caught up to him "Mana…ca?"
"Yep. It's a card you use to get through. Do you have money?"
"Mhm."
"Yush, let's go."
Getting the manaca card was fairly easy. All they had to do was go to the Fare Adjustment machine and ask for assistance from there on. Karma couldn't bring himself to hide his laughter when he took notice of his companion's face of awe that could easily be compared to that of a five year old whom discovered technology for the first time when she got a hold of her new necessity. Although that had been amusing in itself, what was more entertaining for the devilish boy was when her purple orbs seemed to had sparkled with a few rainbow colors when she was absolutely wondered by the simplicity of swiping the card and getting the doors of the ticket gates to open – he was beginning to think she had forgotten her reason for coming here since she looked to be enjoying herself too much.
However, this fun had been short lived for the both of them – especially for the taller one between the two.
Train Incident #1: 1 Stop
"So once we drop off at Kanda we have to move to a rapid service?" Lavender eyes moved upwards to meet with mercury with inquisitiveness.
They were now inside their first train heading to the aforementioned area. This car had been quite filled since it was about after lunchtime – one of the busiest times of the day day; as a result they were left standing up to hold on to the handle.
"Yep. From there we have a whole nineteen stops to wait before getting off." he assured her with an extra quiet voice since they were in a public area being surrounded by quite a few people. The raven-haired girl nodded in understanding as they waited for their stop – when she gave it enough thought, the trains in this railway were quite fast; she feels that the longest it would probably take them would be an hour and a half. Despite having been in a swell mood since she'd learned a few things or two about the train system, she felt a tad bit disappointed that the view from outside had been blocked by lots of much taller folk; they just had to be in the middle of the crowd.
Her thoughts had been interrupted by an artificial voice coming from a P.A repeating "We will now be arriving at Kanda" as she could feel the train slow down and make her body get into a bit of an imbalance once it had come to a stop.
"Okuda-san, let's go—" Karma had been cut off by the sudden increase of people inside the car that prevented the both of them from coming out. But that wasn't all of it for with this fast rise of the population within this one train had resulted to the two of them getting squeezed by masses of people and eventually becoming separated from one another.
"K-Karma—" this came out a little muffled as they piled up before her and had her pushed to the corner – she wasn't even able to raise a hand to indicate where she was and only watched as he had been pushed to the other side as well; heck, he almost ended up in the opposite corner from her. Luckily he had a forceful side to him that didn't allow for such, but the most spacious spot as of that moment was in the middle; still a little far from where Manami was but good enough for him to see her.
He cursed inwardly – not only did he forget about the fact that 1 pm wasn't the best time to travel due to lunch rush, but they had missed their stop, meaning they'd have to drop off at the next and get themselves back on track. This was annoying enough, but apparently the universe didn't think it was for he felt another pang of irritation turn in his stomach when his chemistry-loving friend got into a tight situation with a few jock-like middle schoolers – literally; she was just pressed in between them like a sandwich with a bug-eyed expression as there appeared to be a quivering in her mouth and blue lines down the side of her head that expressed how uncomfortable she was with her position. Fortunately, she was short and petite so they hadn't noticed her presence due to the size difference.
For now, he sucked it up until the next station with furrowed brows and the click of his tongue.
But next to him just had to be another schoolmate with a crush on him.
Train Incident #2: Change
"You look disgruntled, Karma-kun…" Manami commented in observation as the two now made their way to their train change in the Kanda station after much troublesome matters. To their luck, this station was less filled compared to where they had come from (probably because most of them left on that one train ride).
Karma replied to this with a sarcastic smirk while he tried to forget the very annoying events of their previous ride and scoffed "No, I'm fine. Let's just make sure we're careful this time otherwise we'll spend too much for our fare."
She doubted he was really fine, but decided not to push it and brushed the topic away to agree to his last sentence with a nod. "I think I'm starting to get the hang of it." She said with a bit of confidence as she placed gently curled fists in front of her chest. Feeling a little dismayed that the boy was doing all of the work in taking her there, a particular urge came to her as she had a new, determined face on.
Okay, I have to exert some effort and help Karma-kun if ever we get into another mix-up like that. She nodded at her own thoughts and chose to start helping him out now with an energetic beam on her face.
"Where are we going to nex…?" She blinked after observing how there was no sign of red or a person for that matter to her left where she expected him to be.
"Heh?" Manami stopped in her tracks with a blinking expression and felt the smile dissipate from her features the second she found herself surrounded by strangers walking off in different directions – but for some reason, despite this population, she felt like there was a big space left with her in the middle to deal with her own confusion. Another look around the area and it was finally clear.
Yep, she got lost.
"Where did she go this time?" Karma grunted in exasperation as he briskly walked about the station's main ground whilst turning his head side to side to try and spot anyone who looked clumsy enough to be her.
Of course she got lost – he would not have noticed had it not been for the uneasy gut feeling that she was bound to get into another mess in this kind of area. Another sigh escaped his mouth when he found her by the restrooms and washing areas – although this was a good thing, he didn't take pleasure in finding her there being picked on by (coincidentally) the science nerd of the five virtuosos, Koyama whatever-his-first-name-was (since Karma didn't care about remembering). He wasn't sure how it ended up that they just had to run into each other in here of all places and of all times; but from what he had witnessed, she was taking it rather well by retaliating and using scientific comebacks and the whatnot – he would've questioned her priorities when it came to courage because he found himself wondering why it is that she can stand up to him without fail and with that adorable trying-hard glare and yet can't handle the more normal and less intimidatingly ugly people, but of course he couldn't just stand there and enjoy the show.
If they weren't catching a train in about a minute from now, he would've chosen to lean back on the nearest wall and watch the nerds deal with their controversy – but seeing as the Koyama guy started getting physical by hitting her on the head a few times, (even if it got cute reactions from her) he went over to the line of faucets attached to the wall right next to them.
With fast hands, he turned the lever to a high pressure setting and directed the tube at the virtuoso's face – smirking with delight while doing so and couldn't have found more enjoyment in seeing his startled reaction and hilarious, sprayed face. While the eyeglasses-ed man was busy dealing with the unexpectedly hot water and cursed even louder when he saw the infamous redheaded delinquent running away with his most-hated academic rival. Not only did he just have his nose become runny and glasses blur from the temperature of the liquid, but along with his literally hot head he fumed just by encountering the two banes of his existence and chased after them – cursing again when the scarlet-haired boy stuck a sardonic tongue at him.
In their pursuit, Karma didn't allot time for scanning their cards on the ticket gates and dragged Manami with him as they merely jumped over it – as a result, not only have they angered their previous schoolmate, but now a few heated guards joined in their hunt.
One thing's for sure: They're not going back to Kanda.
Train Incident #3: 19 Stops
To their luck, there were available seats this time – they deserved it after all that havoc. It was quieter by the time they'd settled themselves in, not to mention spacious; but reasons for such were not because it was peaceful. Rather, the type of quiet they had themselves enveloped in was the type that could choke a man – naturally, the rest of the passengers whom sensed the intensity within the vicinity would stray away from it so as to not have goosebumps all over their bodies (and to continue breathing).
Of all the people who had to board the same train and sit directly in front of them, it had to be the former student council president of Kunugigaoka Middle School – Asano Gakushuu.
For several seconds, Manami could do nothing but keep herself straight on her seat while smiling nervously just to ease the tension even she had got caught in just by observing how the two of Kunugigaoka's finest merely stared at each other. Occasionally, she'd involuntarily shiver and feel her body go cold from the inability to breathe properly and the chills that coursed through her.
All the while, Karma had his hands in his pockets as he kept laid back in his seat with narrowed eyes directed at his rival. Asano crossed his arms and returned this with his ever-malevolent violet, sharp eyes and a serious expression as he bore into the other's glint-less eyes with the same amount of abhorrence. They spent what felt like an hour just staring at each other that way when really it had only been five minutes since they got on the same train – it was like not even a spec of the grudges they held against one another last year had dissipated.
The first one to break this all-consuming silence was the boy whom sat by her "What are you doing here?" it came out monotonously and outwardly expressed a sarcastic type of boredom.
The lighter-toned haired boy replied to this in almost the same type of manner but did not falter his glare "I have business in Shinjuku."
"I see."
Just by that small talk, the chemistry-lover felt her limbs go numb; the anxiety inside of her grew which led to her body now constantly shuddering and eventually stiffening to the point she felt like cold, dry cement as her anxiety only grew – not even a brawl between two of the most famous boxing champions could beat the extremity of this regular conversation.
Karma started again "Is your dad well?"
"Go take a hike."
Respite:
By this time, the train had really become peaceful (much to everyone's relief).
They were about nine stops away from their next destination – there were only a few people left and nobody was left standing up, which gave Manami a chance to finally admire the city's view even with the fast-moving train.
From the window, houses, trees, fields of green and amusement parks were often passed by, which brought glee to the bespectacled girl's wondered orbs – she hadn't been this far away from her apartment before, and to perceive such sights under the bright daylight with the added comfort of the tranquil train, it made this first experience of hers more memorable albeit it being very troublesome for the past hour. Next to her, Karma also appeared to be relishing in this momentary lull; after all, he had gotten stressed out a few times so normally he'd succumb to another lazy position with his arms stretched back and eyelids shut.
The girl smiled a little sheepishly "Are you tired?"
He opened one eye to acknowledge her before eventually having both of them reveal themselves after a sigh "Not really. But something's been on my mind." He rested his stationed his palms to the sides of his seat and leaned back on them. "What's so important for you to pick up doing in a far place like Hashimoto?"
"Mm?" Manami blinked at this for a second before putting a finger to her chin "Well… from what I've been told, that's where Inari-nee and my mom used to live so they may have a few things there."
"Now that you mention it…" he tilted his head a tad out of a slight curiosity "What kind of person is your mom?" – she never talked about her with him before; neither did he with his own but after the mention of the person he wasn't able to restrain his curiosity for he felt a bit of regret wash over him when he saw her suddenly flustered state.
"Ah—Erm…My mom's dead so I don't really know..." She said the last three words with an uncomfortable chuckle – and he didn't miss how her shoulders tensed up with the intertwining of her fingers. Her tone made it seem like this was another regular conversation; she wasn't even shaking at this. But seeing as he touched a sensitive topic quite recklessly, he immediately attempted to amend for his mistake and faced the ground sympathetically "…Sorry." He should've figured this much; after all she lived with a nurse. And he took it into account that it would be a good call not to ask about her dad if that was so.
She noticed how her answer had brought him into a bit of a discomfort and decided to ease him of worry with a warm smile – she wouldn't want to leave him feeling that way and decided to answer his question "But I heard stories…" she lifted her head to gaze at the afternoon sky and let her earliest memories come to her.
"Inari-nee described her to be really clumsy, but she was too kind to people around her so she got tricked easily…but when it came to things that mattered…she didn't hesitate to fight for them. That was the kind of person she was, from what I've been told…also…" 'Sounds familiar…' Karma didn't fail to observe how the gaze she had to the sky had become distant by the lowering of her eyelids – reminiscent purple orbs that lost a bit of their shine as he could tell there was a yearning somewhere there; especially with the sudden calmness of her voice "She…smelled good…" what flashed in her mind was the blurred image of a dark-haired woman whose face she couldn't quite comprehend, but a welcoming smile was present. "And had very…" she brought a palm to the side of her cheek and stifled an almost non-existent, lighthearted chuckle "Warm hands…"
'Don't make that face.' He absentmindedly thought as he looked down on her with a blank expression. By his silence, she could tell that she had just bathed them in a bittersweet atmosphere and had brought an awkward air between them; she unintentionally went too deep into the topic. Feeling responsible for this, she faced him and grinned once more.
"Please don't bother yourself with it. In any case, let's talk about your mom." The inquisitive shine in her eyes came back and with it came a more energetic voice. At this, Karma raised an eyebrow "Mine? Well, she travels around the world most of the time so she's rarely at home. There's not much to say about her." He replied casually and shrugged at his last sentence.
"Then, what kind of person is she?" she seemed to be rather enthusiastic about this topic – but he didn't pay much mind to it for he was too busy contemplating on the words to use if he were to describe the woman that raised him.
"…Not like most."
"Hm?"
"We are now approaching Hachioji. Hachioji"
Train Incident #4: 4 Stops
Come to think of it…
They were back inside a train full of people and were left to stand up next to each other once again – but at the very least it was relieving to know that this was their last train.
It was a relatively quiet train – neither person wanted to meddle with each other as only a few mumbles of conversation were the only sounds able to reach the poison glasses' ears as she eyed her companion with interest; he kept his stare to the opposite side of hers in anticipation for the nearing stop, therefore he had noticed her gaze to the back of his head yet.
His hair is a rare color…
Given the silence they were in, she couldn't help herself from becoming a slave to her mind and caught herself wandering to a few trivial thoughts and observing things with more depth – and right now, it was the set of scarlet locks that belonged to her friend.
As opposed to everyone else in this train, she had come to an awareness which regarded the mischievous boy's red crown being different from the rest of them whom had either brown or black hair. Her thoughts had reached a certain depth that had her asking a multitude of questions in her mind that were circled around his hair and only that. And as curiosity had gotten the best of her yet again that day, her hand unknowingly reached upwards and scrunched it gently.
At this, Karma's eyes widened by the sudden touch before he turned to her "What?"
"It feels normal…" was all she said as a response with an expression that looked like she just made a significant revelation.
"Hah?" this time he raised an eyebrow and only found it more confusing when she continued to scrunch his hair up gently as if she was taking in its texture with a look of piqued interest.
"Uh…" his brows furrowed in confusion as his eyes traveled side to side from the strange situation; she didn't say anything back and only pursued with her actions.
A few seconds more disturbing seconds passed before Karma gently put her wrist down.
"Oh!"
Manami expression lit up with awe at the sight of the old fraction of Tokyo she used to reside in. It wasn't anything special – one could easily compare it to the many other divisions of this large city. Tall buildings were aligned on one side accordingly as there would be other, much smaller shops stationed in another nearby street in an organized architecture plan. Houses would be found a little farther from the station's exit but next to it were a few diners and the whatnot convenient for travelers to stop by at. The area was clean, peaceful and spacious, those are a few notable parts – there was a respectful amount of trees of different species too; which wouldn't be a bad place to raise a child.
The science geek jogged ahead just to take all of this in and turned around a few times with a bit of an ecstatic smile "I hardly remember it, but it's so nostalgic!" she exclaimed – she must be enjoying this too much for Karma observed how she found joy in the smallest detail (i.e a mailbox), but it wasn't as if he didn't like the face she made right now; but before she goes out of control again-
"Oi, Oi, we can save that for later if you want. So, where is this place?" he walked over to her side with a casual smile and hands inserted to his pockets. Realizing she had gotten carried away, a small sound of surprise came from her.
"Ah—Well, uhmm…" she turned her head from side to side in search for the way – for a second, he suspected that she had gone all the way here and yet didn't know where the store was; but luckily such had been eased once she pointed to a nearby street to their left "If I remember correctly, it's somewhere there."
"Are you sure? What's the store's name?" he cocked his head to the side in inquiry – he still had a few doubts if she really knew where she was going.
By this time they were already walking side by side to where she had her finger directed to. Manami kept a smile on when she answered; still rather delighted by the fact that she was back to where she spent her primary days after years "I don't remember the name, but I can remember where it was."
"Heh? That's some good memory you have." he mused and gave her an impressed smile which fortunately got him another cute, flustered reaction from her before she gestured to a place.
"Oh, looks like we're here."
His eyes were met with an old, run-down building not bigger than your usual convenience store. From what he could make out at first glance, it was your usual run-on-the-mill café that appeared to be gaining on its age considering there were a few things he could point out that were in need of some revamping – it was lacking in some customers too. If anything, he was a little surprised it hadn't been taken down for a better service; but he guessed there were still a few elderly folk that would take their time to visit the place. That wasn't the only thing on his mind while they walked up the steps in front of the glass door, for he had also been wondering what business a delivery of sorts would the nerd next to him have in this type of place.
With a small push of the door, they entered with the added sound of a wind chime that sounded through the empty restaurant. The place was clean and well preserved for its age – there were a two vending machines standing at the sides and a kitchen over at the back of the room where they spotted someone fixing a few things behind the counter.
Upon hearing the chime, an old man wearing a sailor chef's uniform revealed himself from the said counter while holding a drawer of utensils. He was bald under the sailor's hat and had a bit of weight for the white polo shirt looked to be a little tight on him even under the black apron – but that could be excused by his years. On further observation, he had a bit of a big nose upon his chubby face and all they could make out of his eyes were mere horizontal lines on his face – like how most old geezers look.
"Ah, Welco—!" right when he turned to their direction, he dropped the drawer which made an ear-splitting crash resonate through the room – his jaw dropped to an exaggerated point; like he had just seen a zombie spring back to life.
"Ha- Hanako?!" he managed to yell out of utter disbelief when he faced the direction Manami stood – all the said girl could manage to respond with was "E-Eh?" with the jerk up of her shoulders and an impulsive step back in tremor. All Karma could do at the time was raise an eyebrow in bewilderment.
The old man didn't stop looking at her with an aghast expression but later somewhat came to his senses when another man – a much younger one – came to the scene from the kitchen in a bit of a panic. "What's going on?" it was a calm, middle-aged voice, yet laced with concern. He had brown hair tied with a cook's bandana and a white shirt with the same black apron tied to his back as it covered him from the waist below.
"Ah…er—…" the old man was still far from recovering from his state for he appeared to be dealing with an overflow of thoughts. The newcomer to the area moved his focus to the high school students by their door and acknowledged them with a smile "Oh, welcome." He let himself in fully and approached the two.
"E-Er…w-we're looking for Arata Miho-san?" The braided girl, still a little taken aback after what happened stammered out.
A slight pause came from the man before he laughed uneasily "A-Ahaha. My father passed away a year ago."
Manami felt a pang of guilt in her chest for a brief moment after hearing such "I-Is that so? S-Sorry…"
"Please don't give it much thought. I'm Arata Hifumi. I can take whatever business he had for you. So, why is it you've come?" he put a hospitable smile back on and had this energetic store clerk aura to him that thankfully was comforting for the introverted girl as it let her gain composure quickly.
"U-Uhm, I'm supposed to pick something up under—"
"Oh! So you're the official owner of that case then, right? Please wait here while I get it." And with that he walked off with a wave and to another door which she guessed was a storage room. Manami wasn't sure if he was just that sharp, but something about the way he cut her off just then made her feel like she was an eyesore to him and bit her lip from uncertainty.
On the other hand, Karma took notice of how the old man didn't cease to stare at her even with the shocked face gone "Oi, Old man."
The one who was called came to his senses with a choked sound of surprise before he shifted his attention to the tall boy with the derisive grin on his face "Are you a lolicon?"
"Ah—Eh?! What was that you—"
"You've been staring at her creepily for a while now." Karma continued with a teasing smirk – but he also wanted to get some explanations from his earlier outburst to have some questions in his mind cleared up.
The old man didn't pay much attention to the insult this time for he had his focus on the girl again and appeared to only have become aware of his gaping when the redhead mentioned it "Er—N-no it's just that I mistook her for someone else." After he watched her fidget a bit, all of a sudden he'd gone into grouchy old person mode and turned his back on them. "O-Other than that, once you're done get outta here! We're about to close and we don't serve bratty teenagers!"
Karma just found another source of enjoyment "Cranky, aren't we?"
He only grumbled in irritation as a response and slammed the door – which resultantly shook some of the tables and imbalanced vending machines. The boy had not finished ridiculing him though for with another child-like grin, he put a hand by the sound of his mouth and yelled "Oii~ don't forget to tell your husband to scrub your back well in the salt bath tonight!"
A grumpy and slurred "SHUT UP!" came from the kitchen – leaving the mercury-orbed boy with a grin of satisfaction from the results of his trouble-making. Manami, being so used to his personality, could only laugh nervously and apologize for his behavior in both of their behalf.
Just then, Arata came from the door he disappeared to now holding an old briefcase he must have taken the time to polish "Here it is! Sorry to have you waiting." He grinned at them whilst he handed it over to the petite-framed girl whom obliged to the action.
She shook her head "It's okay."
Before the two can exchange farewells, a thought lingered in Karma's mind – one he had not dismissed since they've entered "Hey, Arata-san."
His interjection to the word exchange had the man look to his direction with a bit of puzzlement which urged him to continue "Who's this Hanako character?"
Manami, whom had her gaze to the briefcase in her hands, felt her eyes widen slowly and ever so slightly –accompanying it was a nearly inaudible hum that led her to keep her head lowered.
"Ah, did Hide-san mention that? Well…how you say…" Arata scratched his head in the process of searching for the words to say about this woman "Hanako-san was an old customer of ours – one Hide-san took a liking to even with his grouchy personality. But I can't say much about her since I was still a boy during the times she visited."
The use of 'was' got Karma's attention so he decided to drop the topic there – plus, the face the short girl made after his question didn't fail to catch his eye.
"Alright." He finished it up with a casual smile and opened the door behind them for his companion to exit first. "Thanks for having us." She bowed and waved in farewell with the briefcase now in hand.
Just as they left, the elder named Hide-san leaned on the kitchen door and listened in to their conversation about the particular girl with one thought in mind as he pictured the one with the glasses just now.
'She looks too much like her…'
A quiet walk ensued between them after they had exited the café with their agenda in hand.
Manami's gaze remained downcast ever since they left the area – and to say this bothered the prankster next to her would be a little bit of an understatement. All that could be heard were the slow paced steps of two fifteen year olds on the stone sidewalk bathed in the shadow of a building which went against the light of the now somewhat orange-hued sun.
Karma was the first to break the uncomfortable silence between them with an out-of-the-blue question that had the dark-haired girl perk up "Hanako-san's the name of your mom?"
A bit of perplexity washed over her – how was he able to figure that out? Then again, it was obvious with what just happened back there; resultantly, she lowered her head again with a quiet "Mhm…"
He decided from her tone that it was best not to pry and respect her feelings towards this by not adding any more comments on the topic. Observing how this was the second time she had gotten him into another unpleasant atmosphere, Manami tried to reassure him thinking he was troubled by her suddenly finding something out about her mom today.
"I don't really know a lot about her…" she displayed him a heartening grin before her next sentence "But I don't think it's a bad thing to get to know her." In all honesty, she had not been aware of this café being something one of her parents used to go to – not to mention to be remembered in such a way. She didn't exactly take joy in talking about paternities she barely remembered anything about, and neither did Inari for whenever she used to ask her as a child she'd answer her with a vague 'They were great people I'm sure you'd love.' It wasn't 100% pleasant to hear more about them, but she didn't take it as such a terrible thing to brood about either.
"Don't let it bother you. I may wonder from time to time, but it'll all be the same." She faced the sky that was now starting to have a mix of orange to its earlier white clouds – in her reminiscence, she couldn't help but admire the now sky that had begun to take shades of orange and a darker blue as the clouds resembled the wings of the feathers of the morning sparrows that soar through the sky elegantly and with freedom. Karma was a little surprised on how well she took this in, but content with the end of the discussion, he smiled.
"Alright. By the way, what's in that thing anyway?" he pointed to the case in her hands – on further inspection, it was like that the container hadn't been preserved very well for the dusty, leather surface around it started to peel off and wither due to what probably had been termites.
"I don't know… Inari-nee said not to open it." She replied nonchalantly, but there was a hint of held-back curiosity. Hearing the name of the woman and her strict instruction only aroused his mischievous side yet again as he felt himself smirk.
"Ho? That just makes things more interesting~"
"But—Wha—Wait!"
She didn't even get a chance to react properly before he took the object from her hands like it was nothing – it only added to her dismay when he refused to heed to her retorts or flustered stammers as she spotted the malicious smirk grow on his face. All she could do after that was twiddle her fingers nervously and feel anxious of the possibility of her guardian finding out about her instruction being disobeyed and privacy invaded (by her least favorite brat too).
"Now, let's see…" without another moment's hesitation, he lifted the case' handle just enough for him to take a peek. At that moment, his smile faded away along with the sense of naughtiness – especially since his eyes were first met with the name 'Okuda Hanako'. It brought him to quite the puzzlement when he reviewed how many times this woman had been brought up in a day and within short time intervals, but the thought died almost immediately when other things inside caught his attention. There were a multitude of items he assumed to be the mementos of the rightful owners of this box, but there were only a few things that had questions rise inside him. First was the folder where he read the name and below it was the logo of a hospital he wasn't so familiar of but was certain within Tokyo. Next, a picture of a man in spectacles and a lab coat which he had to presume was her father, and finally, next to it was the photo of the three year old version of the girl beside him paperclipped to a folded stack of custody papers.
It had only been for a mere four seconds, but Manami noticed how his expression had become blank and wasn't able to stop the growing curiosity in the pit of her stomach "What's inside?"
Thinking fast, he closed the case and presented her with a devilish smirk as he stroked the case tauntingly "You want to know~?" At that moment he resembled what one might think was a demon leading you into temptation that would cost your life while he basked in sadistic pleasure – and something about the tone he gave her had been able to kill whatever inquisitiveness she had as she backed away a little "…I don't think I do…" she managed to mutter out as nervous beads of sweat came down.
Satisfied, he returned it to her – but what he had just perceived did not fail to keep persistent in his mind as he tried to comprehend the sight just now while they carried on with their walk. But just when he was in the midst of his thought process, a glow faded in from the corner of his eye as the noise around them doubled by the sound of a rather large crowd. After turning to inspect it, he was met with a summer festival going on in the shrine on the same sidewalk as theirs.
It was too populated for a simple shrine visit; so it must've been a summer festival for this side of town today. Lanterns were hung on the strings that connected food stalls packed with customers either wearing Yukatas or just simple casual clothing as others made use of their time to hang out with friends while they tried out some of the shrine's charms.
It seemed that his partner had also become intrigued by this judging from the silence the two were brought to. For moments, they only kept their eyes on the bright and alluring area until Karma spoke "Do you want to go in?"
Manami shook her head and intertwined her fingers together behind her "I'm not very interested in these kinds of things. It's too crowded for me." Her eyelids lowered in what he may assume to be a sign of distaste for the event before she turned her gaze up to him "Do you want to go inside?"
"I'm not into these either." He shrugged and stretched his arms up to his head before he proceeded to step forward to continue their path back home – but that was until he sensed that he wasn't being followed by his companion and turned around to find her completely entranced by something.
Following her gaze, his eyes landed on a rectangular piece of equipment containing water, some colorful play-balls and fish as those surrounding it held nets and swiftly tried to catch their prey with the fragile material. A clever smirk made its way to his face when he looked back at the girl "Not interested, huh?" he raised an eyebrow while he came near her.
The reaction he got had yet again amused him for she jolted up from embarrassment before giggling a little shamefacedly to answer his question. He chuckled "Go try it out then."
"But aren't we going home?"
"It won't hurt." With that, he took her wrist and pulled her into the merry crowd.
Because of her five straight failures, Karma ended up getting it for her.
"It's kind of cute…"
The two of them were now walking away from the event with their prize in the small girl's hands. Manami's eyes seemed to glisten in admiration whilst her lavender orbs bore into the plastic containment that held a tiny fish whose silver scales went beautifully with its dark-bluish, violet fins and tail. It wasn't anything all that special, but since Karma had asked her which one she wanted, this one had immediately caught her eye and she was left astounded by how he was able to get it in one try.
The said boy currently took enjoyment by how fazed she was by the small creature – it reminded him of how she looked back in the excursion; where he had discovered the desire to have her make that kind of expression all the time. "Let's give it a name then." he suggested with the tilt of his head and smiled when she adorably went into her thinking mode.
"Hm…what do you think?"
"I'm not one to name things unless they're insults." He replied honestly – heck he even looked a little proud of that fact; to which she responded to with a small laughter before she got herself thinking again. With the touch of her chin using a gently curled fist, she began to contemplate on the perfect name.
"Then…Manaka?"
Karma raised an eyebrow at this before he smiled teasingly "Manaca? You like that card that much?"
Realizing what she just said, she quickly took her free hand and waved it around in front of her as she stuttered out "Ah—N-No no! It's not that! I mean …" she paused for a bit after regaining her composure. At her next words, she had kept a tender gaze on the small creature within her hands as a soft and warm smile graced her lips as she worded them out with a genuine and affectionate tone.
"Manaka as in…Manami and Karma…"
Badump
And that was when he felt a sensation boom inside his chest that caused his smile to die and eyes to go wide. For moments there, he felt as if his body had gone numb as he absentmindedly stopped breathing for that very sentence had somehow created a force that pulsed through his figure and stop in his tracks – he didn't know how it had come to be, nor was he able to understand why such a simple set of words had caused him to react this way; heck he wasn't even sure why his mind had completely gone blank at the time – all he could do then was stare at the back of her form as she continued to take slow steps over a wooden bridge that was now right in front of them.
A few seconds later, Manami noticed how her friend had abruptly stopped once she was in the middle of the bridge; turning around, she presented him a quizzical purple orbs somewhat blocked by the orange shine on her glasses "Hm? What's wrong?"
"Ah—no…it's nothing…" once he had realized he was staring, he attempted to avert his gaze subtly by facing the floor to the side to use his hair as a mask for his vexation – making it a point to walk to her while doing so as to not let suspicions rise; but even then he did not feel whatever emotion he had disappear completely no matter how hard he pushed it down.
The braided girl blinked at his strange response for a bit – wondering whether she had done something to get his mood to suddenly change. But that notion died as quick as it came once her attention had been claimed by the beautiful view of the horizon she found just to her left and let a blissful smile stretch her face "Oh, it's the sunset…"
She positioned herself on the wooden railings to admire the view after she settled the fish pouch on top of it. Soon after, Karma followed the same gesture and leaned himself on the fence next to her – equally intrigued by the sight.
It was nothing short of magnificent – there was nothing that blocked their view of the horizon that had taken a bright orange color that faded away to taints of yellow to blue and to purple the farther it had gotten from the gigantic orb of light harmonizing marvelously with the patches of clouds that were a work of art by themselves; but that wasn't all of it for just then for what made it the most captivating was how the patch of water within the vicinity glowed and sparkled in a magical manner that could easily beguile even the pickiest of art critics. What's more, the trees to the side of this small lake caressed the water to have it make beautiful ripples that only heightened the two's admiration for it while they basked in the comfortable silence and the delicate breezes of the summer that had the sound of waves remedy them.
The girl was the first to speak with a soft yet genuine voice that didn't break the comforting atmosphere one bit "It's so gentle…the sunset I mean." She didn't need to look at the boy next to her to see if he had his eyes to her for blurting that out – but he kept silent and listened to her. "It brings a nice feeling to people as days come to an end…as if it's telling you to cheer up or 'good work today, bye for now'…but even when it leaves it still keeps people happy." Her smile didn't waver one bit in being genuine while she only gazed at the lights and colors brought to them by nature amorously.
It caught him by a mild surprise when he came to a thought that she viewed the world with such depth albeit being an introvert that would rather deal with technical problems with only one answer. He wasn't aware that she held so much love for things so mundane and interpreted them that way since she wasn't one that enjoyed dealing with fussy emotions and the like. But the face she made when she described the nature right in front of them told him that there was obviously more sides to the girl than one would think.
"You want to become someone like that?" he kept his eyes on the view and waited for her response
"Maybe…but…I kind of want to be like Isura-senpai one day…" she had a softer expression when he looked to her – so she finally said it out loud.
Upon realizing what she had said, Manami came to her senses and faced him sharply with a flustered state "A-Ah! I-I mean, well, o-of course I'll never be able to compare b-but well…senpai is a really amazing person. Sometimes I catch myself wondering if I'll be able to be as good as her one day…" her eyes now gave the message that she was relishing a daydream she knew was out of her reach when she turned back to the sky.
Karma kept a serious expression on as he rested his elbow on the rail to cup his cheek before he replied "…I don't think it's necessary to aspire to be someone else."
"Hm? What do you mean?" her gaze shifted to him yet again in a curious manner.
"You're you even in the end of all things, so I don't think we should worry about something like that. If there's anything we can be…it's what we choose to be. And…" he rotated his head to face her properly and present her with a refreshing smile "The you right now is fine."
This had led her to stare at him in a bit of a daze for he was looking back at her with such gentility that led to her having a hunch that there was something more to that statement of his – but he quickly turned that into a mocking grin and turned back to the horizon "But you still have a few things to fix. Like your train curse for example." He stuck his tongue out at the last sentence and found entertainment with her guilt-stricken gulp and sheepish laughter afterwards.
"What about you Karma-kun?" she shared the view with him once more and placed her hands behind her back and smiled.
"Hm? Well…" it took him a moment to grasp what she meant by that but he didn't take too long as he said the next set of sentences with no hint of a lie in them as he faced the sky with resolute, pale-golden orbs "The only one who can ever understand me is me – the only one that's gotten me this far is me, so I don't really have anyone else to look up to and try to become. If I want something done, I get it done. I'll be who I am when I do things and won't let anyone change that."
Manami's lids lowered as her bright smile faded away a tad before she moved her eyes to him.
I'm sure Karma-kun has gone through things…that led him to keep his heart locked away from people…and not trust so easily. But…
"Being yourself, huh…" she mused for a bit before she stepped towards a few wooden steps she found on their side of the bridge which led to a small patch of moist soil just before the lake in quite the child-like manner – what with the hands behind her back and the heel-first steps she took which resounded through the hollow wood, Karma could only hum questioningly when he noticed her unexpected actions.
Soon enough, the braided girl made it to a specific part of the small piece of land that had her directly staring up at the redhead whom had not moved from his spot and only stared back at her in a tad bit of confusion.
I want to get myself in…my own way…
"Karma-kun…" she displayed him a smile that held nothing short of caring for this dear friend of hers. For some reason, she felt like she had stared at him this way once before
'Can…Can we go out for juice again?'
With the same determination, the same emotions but stronger, and with the same genuine resolve that brought about an inducing aura she unconsciously gave out. Inside, she felt a warm and comforting sensation just by gazing at his face bathed in the sunset's rays.
I want to know…what this person holds inside.
Karma was left speechless but took control of his outward features and kept himself blank. But beneath it, he drowned himself in his awe because of the way she looked at him – but that wasn't the most part. Her eyes glistened beautifully underneath the spectacles that reflected himself on them; and to add up to the face he'd always taken joy in seeing, the glimmers brought to them by the lake that shined against her made her form glow in such a way he could not describe with mere words. With the view of the sunset sky and the splendors of the world around her, he couldn't stop himself from just keeping his gaze fixed on her.
And the view he thought could not get any more enticing, only doubled when she cocked her head to the side and beamed radiantly at him again. "You can have Manaka."
'Oh…so that's all you had to say…' he unconsciously let this thought come up– but it wasn't a lie. All of that show she just blessed him with, and that was the only thing she said. He was far from understanding the reasons she had for this, but after deciding that this was just another one of her unexpectedly wondrous actions, a smile came to his face.
'Jeez…this person…'
Manami herself was not entirely sure why she had gone through the trouble of going down just to tell him that, but every fiber in her body just felt like doing so – and after giving it much thought, maybe; just maybe she can start her journey into his heart with that one tiny creature she had named after both of them.
It was as if they both thought the exact same words after another moment of gazing at each other.
'This person…'
"That reminds me, we should buy fish food."
The crescent moonlit sky now hovered above the heads of the two as they headed for their station – but they had to pass by the summer festival again since they sidetracked themselves after all. By this time, some of the stalls had come to a close as the crowds of people from earlier decreased to only small numbers; and even they were the ones to leave the area next since there was not much to do in it anymore. The lanterns from earlier had been taken off and the small food shops began tearing down their stands to store it for the next one – so now, the only sounds that surrounded them were the crunches of the grass beneath their feet and the small chatters of people scattered in different places.
Karma held the small plastic bag in his hand as he would occasionally plump it gently to play with the water (and disturb the fish) "Why don't we just feed it other fish?" he joked with a sadistic grin.
At that statement, Manami halted in her steps – resultantly, he also had to stop to see what had gotten into her and only found her with a haunted expression; like the very thought of fish cannibalism itself came to her just then and absolutely horrified the girl. If he were to make assumptions, it seemed that whatever thought she might've had at the time must've been a brutal scene. Seeing his mistake, and that he had scarred her for life, he patted her head "…Kidding."
It took a few more reassurances before he got her to finally heave a sigh of relief and start walking together again – which in truth was exhausting for him in its own way for he had to treat her like what most would do when you'd try to persuade a five year old into believing the dark isn't scary.
They were back to having a regular conversation as they headed back to the station; fortunately enough, the hour was late, so they'd expect less people to be hindrances to them – the only so-called downside would be that the trains would take longer than when in broad daylight.
Just as they were about to exit the area fully, another pair of girls wearing Yukatas passed them by – normally they wouldn't have paid mind to them, however one of them had stopped in her tracks and turned around "Manami-chan?"
This had caused both of them to turn around simultaneously with the same type of inquisitive expressions. Their eyes were met with a raven-haired girl whose long dark locks were tied into a traditional chinese-style bun with the chopsticks sticking out of it as she let a few shorter strands down in a carefree-like way by the sides of her head. This girl had dark green eyes and a mole placed on her peach-toned skin right about on her neck area – but that was about all they could take in before she jogged over to the chemistry geek with ecstasy and a gasp while she grabbed the smaller girl's hands "It's really Manami-chan! It's been so long!"
Karma, being a little perplexed by the situation, turned to his poison-loving friend for answers and found her with astonishment written all over her features as she tried to let the events sink in before she uttered "M-Meiko…-san?"
"Hahh! It really is you!" the girl named Meiko jumped up and down with the bespectacled girl's hands still in hers and a happy-go-lucky aura as she genuinely looked amazed to find her in such a place "What are you doing here? How long has it been? Five years? Six? Your hair's grown really long! You're wearing braids until now? And when did you get glasses too? Are you still good at science? I'm sure you got better! Ooh! There's so much I want to talk to you about! And…"
As the jolly girl rambled on, the redhead took note of a few things about this girl – like how there was a scar just by the side of her head hidden by the bangs and another, much deeper one just on her arm peeking out of the sleeves of her Yukata. After he had professed this, he proceeded to look to his companion; only to have mercury eyes met with what appeared to be glossless eyes as her earlier shocked expression had not softened since they encountered the girl – even with the positive vibes this Meiko character obviously gave out, Manami only kept her eyes shrunk underneath the pieces of glass and could not bring herself to say anything back to this old friend of hers; and what one would normally want to consider as an ebullient reunion between two long-time friends had not been so due to this.
Karma narrowed his eyes.
'What's with that face?'
"Hey, Rio-chan."
"What?"
"It's been hours, and we haven't decided on anything."
"And?"
Yuzuki clicked her tongue before slamming her hand on the work desk and using the other to point accusatorily at the cheeky blond lazily leaned on the side of the bed with her arms crossed and eyes closed as she had now become the epitome of boredom in the room. "It's because you keep rejecting our offers but not making suggestions of your own!"
By this time, their council member had departed from the house due to the late hour and other responsibilities she had to attend to. So now, those who remained were left to deal with their issue; but were not doing so good a job at it for all they were doing now was lying around the guest room as if there was no issue to begin with – save for the one who had been forced to work on their project.
Rio responded to this with a lazed tone as she had not even faced the girl properly and appeared to be trying to take a snooze but failing – she was practically the epitome of boredom at the moment for she had no spec of pleasure upon her features "Hehhh? Isn't that okay? The longer you could work with Sugino-kun."
The helmet-headed girl had always rued the day this trickster found out about this secret of hers – so at that, she clumsily fell off her rolling chair at the sudden electrical surge that traveled around her body with a "GAH!" and a loud thud for her landing.
With the desire to retort back, she quickly sprung to her feet in another attempt to lecture the girl albeit still a little flustered after that "H-hey! That's not what this is about! We have a club to save!"
At this, Rio's brows furrowed as she leaned forward as if in a pondering stance with her Indian sitting position – however, she kept her loafed expression and only frowned for she found this quite a drag as she groaned "Hmmm…but you really haven't given me anything that's caught my attention…" her voice was similar to that of a whiny child and as if to add up to that comparison, she flopped down to the floor on her side – arms still crossed just to show everyone how uninterested she was with everything.
And to follow this, Rinka – whom laid on the bed stomach-first with manga (that she was allowed to read) in her hands –supported the other light-haired girl on her statement with a blunt and monotonous "What she said."
Chiba on the other hand, only shrugged at her but had the same thoughts from his spot by the desk. And after hearing their opinions on this, Yuzuki heaved a sigh and gave them a mildly distressed look with the slump of her shoulders "I know that, but it's not easy to come up with something that big. Not even I found anything good in our suggestions." With a dismayed hum, she leaned herself on the wall by the door.
"Yeah, you even turned down Sugino-kun's" Rio commented with the wave of her finger to point out her…well, point.
Once again, the otaku had been brought into an agitated state for it was like something just sliced her back in her jerk forwards. And once more, a vein popped on her forehead as she looked down on the lazy blond "Look! I CAN CONTROL MY EMOTIONS PERFECTLY LIKE A DECENT PERSON! UNLIKE YO—"
"Fuwa-san –"
"AH!" it had to be a miraculous coincidence for those in the room for just as she was yelling her frustrations out, Sugino had opened the door – now, after Yuzuki had fallen to the floor to her utmost shock (and misfortune) the boy himself also let out a startled shout and jerked away from her.
"Ah! Eh—A-Are you okay?"
"PEACHY!" she immediately yelled back – clearly still flustered by the fast-paced events for she had practically peered at him when she said that.
Although she said this, Sugino was sure she wasn't at all what she said she was – but judging from the face she made and the loud, hostile exclamation, it would be best not to continue this strange sequence of events as he replied with sweat going down the side of his head "O-Okay…?"
On the carpeted floor where Yuzuki landed, the blond girl next to her sniggered slyly as she now had her palms to both sides of her cheeks and raised her eyebrows at her mockingly – much to the manga-lover's annoyance for she rolled her eyes at this.
Rinka kept a straight face on, but her eyes gleamed with absorption from the entertaining scene as her attention had been taken away from the manga "Things just got interesting…" she uttered to no one in particular – but Chiba, whom was the only one who heard this, still felt very disturbed by 'what turns her on' as an uncomfortable frown crept to his features. It wouldn't be surprising for him not to know that part of her, but now that he did, some of his views on her had changed to the point where he was beginning to rethink a lot of things.
Fed up with all of this (and in her own house too), once Yuzuki regained her composure, she got back on her feet with an irked expression as she grabbed her work partner's arm and began to pull him out the door for them to finally take things seriously and gather some good ideas – and they obviously can't do that when surrounded by them.
"Ah—Woah!" was the last thing he was able to say before the girl shut the door and pulled him to the kitchen area – which was a good call on her end for it was a well-lit and quiet place to be in so that they may focus on the matter at hand. The small fraction of the house was composed of a regular, round kitchen table surrounded by wooden dining chairs which was befitting for her western-style house. So after they had settled down and understood each other's actions, the brunette slumped down to the seat in front of him.
"Still though…we haven't thought of anything notable enough – I'm just not satisfied." She hummed out of dismay as she let her head rest on her knuckles with her elbow on the furniture and eyes filled with discontentment.
Sugino could only sigh and lean back on his chair with the rub of the back of his head "Yeah, neither am I. I normally wouldn't be this picky but my standards 've changed since last year."
"Mhm…" she nodded at this – she too had been the same since then; she never settled for anything less than great, which in itself was an advantage and disadvantage for such situations. Another exasperated sigh came from her as she sat back on the chair a little blithely "It's disappointing but the best option we got so far was using Omo-chan as a mascot and I'm not even sure if I'm still sane after considering it." There was no hint of a joke in her tone.
He gave an uncomfortable smile and another sweatdrop at her statement as his eyes moved to the side – still quite at the disbelief that they even thought of such a thing; true, it was the most extraordinary but not in a sense that would invite people. Rather, it'd do the opposite "I know what you mean. But…Senpai said it should be something that captures our identity. Something that'll be enough to define who we are – or something…" he brooded at the last two words with another exhausted sigh; still in the middle of a mind block.
Yuzuki had to nod in agreement and cross her arms "It's kind of hard when you think about it. I mean if you base it on what we do and each of our special skills, how are we supposed to find a base idea? I mean, what makes us who we are any…way…" she trailed off at her last word when she had suddenly come up with something brilliant – brilliant to the point that her distraught expression had been turned into one of divine enlightenment with the slow widening of her eyes that now glossed against the dining light with a boom of inspiration.
Sugino followed with this and almost made the exact same expression once he had gotten the same idea as she did – it was perfect. And almost in sync, they both slammed their hands on the table and pointed to each other with the most astonishing idea yet
"OH!"
Upon the bed of the Fuwa residence guest room, Hayami Rinka had narrowed eyes as she stared at their club's female trickster whom lied on the carpet stomach first looking pleased as she hummed and kicked her legs back and forth in contrast with how she had looked before the two artists left the room.
"Shouldn't you be outside with them?"
Rio replied without sparing her a glance and just went about with her internal celebrating "She really won't be able to gain ideas if she talks to us too much – and plus, she's still mad at me so that's a distraction in itself. I wanted her to leave us, that way she could focus more." She said this in a matter-of-fact tone but it had been laced with seriousness at the reveal of her true intentions for acting that way – that's a practical genius for you; but this impression vanished inside the sniper when she found another mischievous grin on her face "And I wouldn't wanna disturb the two of them~" at that moment it was like her eyes had turned into stars as she was at it again with her meddlesome plots.
Rinka eyed her in such a way anyone would give when they became thoroughly disappointed after having expectations from someone "What the heck? You gossip-loving pervert." It came out almost monotonously, but there was a sense of disapproval in it as she raised an eyebrow at this.
The blond clicked her tongue and mimicked her like an immature schoolboy "What the heck? Geisha Maniac." Not a second after that, the pigtailed girl's face flushed and had resulted to her dropping the book in her hands just to cover her red face – to which Rio only took enjoyment from as she persistently threw more geisha-related jokes knowing her secret obsession to it.
Meanwhile, Chiba had been in deep thought for quite a while now with his back still leaned on the wall in contemplation. After another few moments, he interjected the girl's small ridicule session "By the way."
"Hm?" both of them turned to the shabby-haired boy with question written all over their faces.
"Have you given the cultural fest much thought?" he tilted his head to the side a tad. Rio was the first to respond to this by sitting herself back on the carpet and leaned on her arms for support – her expression now serious as she gave it thought as well "Mm, I have. But there wasn't anything noteworthy that came to mind so I got stuck…"
Rinka decided to join in with this and sat down properly on the bed to contribute to the discussion. She furrowed her brows and went into a thinking position "Hm…for club-based cultural fests we have to showcase our club's products or fortes. Ours is combat club, but we have our own special abilities. It's a little challenging since we have no specific component that we all follow due to our specialties."
Rio nodded and appeared to be in quite the depth of her thoughts for she had her brows scrunched up together "Mhm. There's that issue of how we're going to put it all to use. How do we come up with something big enough to forever save us from disbandment by showing off our skills just like that?"
All three hummed as they pondered on whatever ideas came up – it wasn't hard to get an idea, but now that they were really picky and had a new standard for work, it was a challenge to themselves to have anything at the top of their heads reach those proclaimed criterion.
That was when Rio spotted something on the only boy in the room's hand "Chiba, what's that?"
The boy in question took a moment before he got what she meant and lowered his head to the manga he held in his left hand "Oh, it's one of Fuwa's collection of touchable manga. The title's hide and seek."
At that moment, something popped up in the blond's head that made her expression light up the same way she didn't know Yuzuki's did for she too had just reached a divine enlightenment at the marvelous idea that came out of nowhere – oh bless such random ideas for existing. The very plan she had in mind had been enough to have her blue orbs widen and let her mouth fall agape.
At the same time, Rinka must've thought of something just as great for she too had come to have this kind of expression. And like the other two, the girls got up from their lazed positions and yelled to each other.
"OH!"
Chiba however, could only stare at them wondering if they had gone insane all of a sudden.
It was quiet in the Hashimoto station's waiting area.
Only the subtle cries of summer cicadas were able to echo through the cemented walls of this no-longer busy station for only two had remained at this specific line. The hour wasn't so late, but since Hashimoto wasn't really a place notable for much, naturally there'd be a big difference to the amount of people that visit the fraction compared to that of other more notable parts of Tokyo (e.g Shibuya).
Manami and Karma enveloped themselves in the evening silence of the quiet area as they rested themselves on a wooden bench and waited for their train to arrive. One wouldn't really consider this as a comforting quietude, but neither was it very bothersome for either of them since they'd just gone through something the redheaded one didn't quite get a firm grip on.
Then, he spoke "So…Are you going to tell me who she was?" he stretched back and laid himself comfortably on the bench, carefree as usual.
The bespectacled girl took a moment to respond for her shoulders had tensed up slightly and kept her half-lidded gaze onto the rails where their train would soon pass by "…If I were to tell you…she's someone I owe a lot to…" this came out quietly and from her voice, a not so pleasant memory. Taking his silence as a sign that he would like to hear more, she sighed and decided it would not be too bad to let him know who she was. After a mild hesitation and a few moments to gather her words, she started "Er…Watanabe Meiko-san. She lived next to me before she moved away to this place…"
With another breath, she turned her head up and let the night sky reflect on her spectacles "We went to the same primary and elementary school together, but she moved away in the middle of our elementary years so she had to transfer. I guess…you can say that she's the longest friend I've had…even if we became distant after she moved." The tone she used had a sense of bittersweetness in them – like this girl was not just a distant friend, and this is what Karma suspected.
"So? What made you look at her that way?" his peripheral sight caught her turning to him with slight confusion – to which he responded to by moving his eyes to her side for a brief second before turning them up to the fluorescent lamp that had moths fly about it "It's the same face you make when you're guilty."
In truth, she was aware that all she had done at the time was look at her childhood friend with nothing but remorse. And at the same time, a significant brunette that reminded her of a bad memory in the beginning of her high school year resurfaced just by seeing the green-orbed girl again – this long-time-not-been-seen brunette who had gone by the initials M.E still had not left her traumatic experience "Mm…are you willing to listen? It's a little long…"
Karma saw the grief she held for such a topic, but letting some of his selfish curiosity get the best of him, he gave her a nod and a heartening smile – just to assure her that whatever it was, he'd listen.
Manami took a deep breath and somewhat stiffened in her seat. Suddenly, the supposed hot summer breeze had been replaced with a cold air that made her fingers harden around each other while intertwined – her heart felt heavy just by discussing this; but she had concluded this would not be a bad time to finally let it out, and it was Karma too, so she'd feel comfortable in a way.
"In our first year of elementary school…Meiko-san got into a fight with a few boys because she retaliated to their arrogant belittlement of the girls in that school." Flashing in her mind were the dim halls of a small building supposedly made a bright, happy place for children to be educated – but all she could remember from it were bad experiences that had her mind view it as a sullen place. And after that, as if like a movie frame the scene flipped to a group of tall and scary older students that looked down on everyone weaker than they were – she perceived them to be silhouettes that only had evil, red glints in their eyes that would haunt a child's nightmares.
Her frown only stretched more when she continued "When I heard about it…I became so…so afraid of losing her that I ran over there to help but…" another memory came – the blurred sight of the braver raven-haired girl's form standing in front of the scary group with her mouth agape once she had seen her come to the scene "It didn't go well…and I only made things worse for her. I did nothing but fall to the floor and cry…too afraid to move…and too clueless about everything to think of anything to do. So when they charged for me…" Manami felt a sting in her chest that became evident when she scrunched her eyebrows together as if she just flinched from the pain after another memory came up. Blood red…trickling down Watanabe Meiko's arm and head after she had gotten hit with tools she could not bring herself to remember – because all she had her mind to at the time was how useless she had been at the time that she had caused such injuries to scathe her beloved friend "Meiko-san protected me…but she paid a price…" she thought back to the scars she still saw never faded away even after all these years at her encounter with the female not too long ago.
Her shoulders were now almost in level with her ears as her head only lowered more from the pang of pain at that memory – just remembering it had caused her to revert to a phase just this year, and to talk about it was a struggle in itself, so hiding the anguish was a bit of a distant for her. But she refused to cry about it for some reason.
Karma took moments of silence to think about her words. Since they had come here, he'd found out much about the petite girl – the one he thought he understood most and whom he thought he was closest to compared to everyone in their club or anyone he knew of the opposite sex. But after hearing all this and recalling everything from today, he knew he was still a ways to go and had lots of things he still didn't know about her. But then he realized…
'I never really did know anything about you…did I?'
"Up until now…" her unexpected statement cut him from his thoughts and caused him to turn back to her – now sitting properly. She was now a little more relaxed as opposed to how she had just been not a minute ago; her distant eyes were trained on the starlit sky with an uncertainty she only wishes to be answered one day knowing it won't as she continued to let her memories flow through her head.
"I had no idea how Meiko-san felt about it. I…" her hand now shivered as she grabbed onto her wrist "I hopelessly couldn't understand how she felt about it." She exhaled to let out a heavy feeling that formed inside of her before she carried on with her next statement in a more relaxed manner – but it still had quite the weight to it "That's when I had a thought…it's easier to handle things that were technical like math or science…than to deal with fussy emotions that I found too hard to comprehend." She blinked for a second as she recalled her resolution that day – that she would give up on trying to understand what a person felt because it was too much for her. Then she lowered her gaze again "And at the same time…I got so scared of hurting people, that I stayed away from them."
Unexpectedly, a smile came when she thought about the present time and of the recent events that brought good memories with them "It became different in Class E. That's why I'm always so grateful for the fact I ended up there. I was able to be myself because everyone had their own failures to go by…it was horrible of me to think it, but it relieved me to know that I wasn't the only one with a problem…And then…" the flashed back to the time she had been cornered by Mikami Erina and the scary expressions she gave her "When it came back this year…it was you…and the others of class E that brought me together again, even though I've broken real bad all over again…you were still able to do the magic on me." Her tender smile never wavered as she said these words, and neither did it for the next when she turned to him "So for that, I'll forever be grateful."
Karma only stared back for a while and pondered on everything she said. But truth be told, he'd heard this 'thanks' from her too many times already that he began to think he'd been spoiling her too much – but this thought was not as strong as the revelation he had that he really did know nothing about her or what she'd gone through until he was given the hints today. Other than that, what surprised him was the sense of nostalgia that formed when she told him her story.
"Okuda-san"
"Hm?"
"If you don't mind telling me more about it…how did you solve the problem with her?" she was given a look of question from him that made it look like this was something he really needed to have cleared up – quite taken aback by such a face, she had to take a moment to remember "Ah…er…"
In the depths of her memory, she could remember how those scary silhouettes moved their attention to something else – shorter than all of them by several inches, but it kept them all busy as she only bawled at her injured friend.
"Ah. A boy came and stopped the fight with his own hands. I couldn't see what he looked like, and I don't think I'll be able to remember considering the state I was in back then but…all I know is he saved Meiko-san and I from becoming too battered up. But even after he did such a good thing he got suspended along with them for becoming too violent…" she brooded over the last sentence once more before she faced the sky again with eyes filled with a yearning that was yet to be eased "But I remember something…I don't think I'll be able to forget this, because right on the day he got suspended…" she brought her hands to her twin braids and held the ends like they were a dear thing to her "He took the time to return my pigtails to me when they fell loose from being attacked…" she could still recall how much it hurt when they pulled on her braids after she had done nothing but whine "From then on, I've worn the same ones…even if I don't remember him or his face…I couldn't bring myself to wear anything else because…"
That was when Karma's memory acted up and had a shock go through his body that resultantly made his eyes grow a little wide for he too had a memory resurface – which in all honesty he didn't know he had it until she started talking about it. Slowly, he turned to her and fixed his eyes on the ties around her hair; and that was when he became sure of it.
Akabane Karma was a transfer student – and the only transfer student in the history of elementary schools that got suspended on the day he did.
But it wasn't the only school that kicked him out for his problematic attitude and issues with violence; heck, that was the reason he transferred in the first place.
And as he was being escorted out of his supposedly new school (not anymore), he caught notice of the two he just defended with eyes that outwardly expressed indifference for he was not at all brought to a let-down for being suspended.
One of them bawled loudly – like a baby as she held onto the back of the taller one's shirt. "UWAAAAHHH!"
He couldn't bring himself not to notice this because of its loud volume, so after that, he took a few seconds to observe what was happening – not even telling his escort to wait as he just strayed away from him.
"C'mon, stop crying."
"B-BUT! I-IT WAS MY FAULT YOU GOT HURT!" the girl who cried loudly had her hair in tangles and just a downright mess – so he assumed that she was the owner of the hairties he found on the floor just when he was about to leave the building forever.
Without any second thoughts or sensitivity and the whatnot, he approached the both of them "Oi."
He didn't take much notice of what they did after he rudely called out to them for he only grabbed the crying girl's arm and put the hair ties in his palm in her hands in a bit of a forceful manner albeit her crying state. All she reacted with was a confused look for it had all been so sudden – and there's the fact she didn't really know who he was.
After he had given them to her, he retracted his hand and looked down at her short form and bluntly stated "Don't cry. You look ugly."
She only stared at him stupidly for a few seconds after that, but after those said seconds she just started bawling again, but louder – to which he reacted to with a raised eyebrow and a scoff when he saw this girl as such a drag to be with. He didn't say another word to her and walked away from the scene uncaringly.
"…because…" he'd been snapped back to reality when the sound of her voice reached his ears. But when he turned to the braided girl – it was as if he saw the same one he gave the hair accessories to from that time inside of her for a while. It was like his mind played tricks on him as it flashed from time to time and shifted from the current Okuda and the one from back then.
"…I never got to thank him…"
All the while, Karma had been stuck to deal with his thoughts on this.
'Her history is something I'm far from understanding. And because of that…she felt distant for a while there. There are a lot of things in this person's past that I don't know about…and I'm not sure if I can merely guess them. But…
Why is it when I realized I was part of it…'
Badump
All of a sudden, Karma placed his hands on his face and rested his elbows upon his knees – resultantly confusing Manami and leaving her to wonder if she had done anything for him to make such an abrupt action "K-Karma-kun! I-Is something wrong?!"
"No…it's just…" through the holes given by his fingers even as he covered his face, a deep red tint could be seen along with mercury orbs and furrowed brows that displayed his struggle to keep it down – but no matter what he did, it remained. Fortunately enough, the area was dark and the girl had not inspected his face, for now. So to hide this flush of his, he forced out a laughter, but kept himself hidden with the aid of his hair and hands.
"I'm sure such a person…is sick of hearing thank you."
WELP. I packed you up with a bunch of moments! By the way if it's not too much trouble, can you tell me which Karmana moments you liked the most and/or what you think of them? That way I can gather some more inspiration and it'll make me feel motivated because YAY~ I worked hard on that scene! Only if it's not too much trouble though! You don't really have to but it helps!
So...shame on me for taking that prompt on them meeting back in elementary school or what? 8"D
HAHA it was one of the first things that came in mind before this story even started XDD
But if you don't like it gomene ;w;
ALRIGHT! LONG READ IS LONG READ! And as excited I am to write the next chapter, I hope you will be too because next is end-of-arc which I fear could be just as long as this or longer. And of course, lots of Karmana (in my perspective)
BUT I CAN'T BRING MYSELF TO SEPARATE THE SCENES TTWTT
HOPE YOU ENJOYED! PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW FOR LOVE, SUPPORT AND MOTIVATION!
Thanks for reading and 'til next update!
~TheFlowerWeSawThatDay