Chapter Two: Relief

Karma stepped down from the stage, grinning cockily. The principal eyed him disapprovingly, but made no comment on the length—or lack thereof—and sharpness of his speech.

Manami sat very quietly as a flurry of whispers broke out once again. She ignored the eager chatter of the girls—"Hey, isn't he hot?" "I'm gonna aim for him, what about you?" "So totally my type"—and simply followed her old classmate (not old, not anymore) with a fixed look. He seemed to be meeting her gaze out of the corner of his eye as he walked back to his seat, hands in pockets. She had to consciously remind herself to stop staring and blink before her eyes dried out and began to tear.

Everything else passed very quickly. The principal addressed everyone with a final welcome, asked them to check their class allocations, then announced the conclusion of the ceremony. As one, the entire student body stood up and began to migrate toward the doors.

"Hey, Okuda-san!"

Manami heard her name being called by his voice and turned herself around, swiveling her head to catch sight of him in the crowd. She didn't have to search long, for Karma made his way toward her very quickly. Despite many people's—in particular, girls'—eagerness to introduce themselves and exchange a word with him, they hung back, making space for the handsome red-headed boy who walked with an air of purpose.

Manami grinned as he came closer; relief had taken over her system, relief at seeing a friendly face in a strange place. She was still immensely surprised by his presence at Kitagawa High School—she hadn't heard that he was to attend there, after all—but it had lessened considerably compared to the initial shock she had received. She was also somewhat happy and excited to see him approach her, since it meant that she had someone to talk to. There would be no more of the awkward wallflower act that she had been counting on to ease her way into the group.

"Karma-kun, I didn't know you were coming to Kitagawa High as well!" Karma, having reached her, slipped into place beside her as they followed everyone else out of the auditorium and into the harsh midday sun. It was only April so it wasn't hot at all—on the contrary, a chilly breeze was stirring the air around Manami's bare legs, making them shiver—but the light was unobstructed by any clouds and painful against her eyes. She lifted a hand to shield herself from the glare, then squinted into Karma's face as he gave a reply.

"That's because I didn't tell you. Actually, I didn't tell anyone. It was too much of a pain."

"You should have! I wouldn't have suffered so much then." Manami paused, emphasizing her words with a reproachful silence, then continued, "Anyway, I didn't think you'd come to such a minor school like Kitagawa. You would have gotten in anywhere you wanted with those grades. Why didn't you go to a more prestigious place?"

Karma sneered, frowning slightly. "That would've been boring as hell. Go somewhere like Kunugigaoka's class A? No way."

"Well, I'm glad we're at the same school," Manami admitted. "I thought I was going to be all alone here."

The two arrived at the bulletin board where the class divisions were posted, and slipped their way through the swarming bodies. Everyone was pushing and shoving at each other, struggling to get closer to see the results, but Karma and Manami slipped through easily. Karma deftly navigated the way, using the physical skills acquired from his assassination training to slither between the jostling people, while Manami swiftly followed, her physical prowess significantly inferior to Karma's but nevertheless improved.

In almost no time at all, they found themselves situated right in front of the first year class lists. Before them were nine sheets of paper neatly pinned to the board, each carrying about forty names. Karma lazily ran his eyes over the papers as Manami pushed up her glasses and inspected each list carefully, beginning at Year 1 Class I.

The voices of the students crowding around her drifted into her ears and buzzed about her brain as she let her eyes scan their way down the list slowly, alert for her name (and Karma's). The voices mostly consisted of exclamations of excitement at being placed in the same class as a friend, or groans of disappointment that they weren't (occasionally, there was a groan from someone who had been placed in a class with a person they disliked). But interspersed throughout all of these voices, Manami could hear the whispers of the girls interested in Karma. She had a feeling she'd be hearing a lot of them from now on.

Pulling her eyes away from the middle of Year 1 Class G, she glanced sidelong at Karma to see how he was responding to his newfound popularity.

He wasn't.

Nothing in his demeanor showed any sign that he had even heard the whispered comments—"He's really hot," "His speech was really cool," "Hottest boy in our year"—let alone cared what they were saying. Manami couldn't tell if he was acting or not, but he was certainly being unresponsive. The girls were, no doubt, hoping that he would hear them and glance over their way. Too bad for them, Manami thought with mild sympathy, placing her attention back on the Year 1 Class G student list.

"Well, it looks like you're not going to be alone, Okuda-san," Karma said, pointing at the list for Year 1 Class F. Manami followed his finger and read, "Akabane Karma" at the top, then a few lines down, "Okuda Manami."

"Oh," she breathed, her chest filling with relief again. She turned to Karma and took hold of his arm, gripping it tightly in her two hands. "That's good. Really. What a relief."

Karma laughed at her and ruffled her hair with his other hand. "Yeah, yeah," he said, eyes glinting. "That's good."

Thank you for reading!

Warning: I am planning on filling this story with loads of cute, clichéd shoujo-manga-y moments. If you don't like that, you might become exasperated with After E. However, it will progress quite slowly, so the real romantic bits won't come till later.

Many thanks to my mom (who doesn't know I write fanfiction) for providing me with information about Japan and the school system there. I'm sure I haven't portrayed everything perfectly accurately, but I'd like to think that I'm close enough.