It rarely happened. Karma couldn't even remember the last time it did. The last time he was anxious and nervous. The last time his palms became clammy. The last time he asked himself 'what-ifs?' and thought about worst case scenarios.

He looked around the room, hiding his own nervousness with a blank expression or maybe even serious. Out of the many sick people in that room, his mercury orbs stayed on a bespectacled girl, fever sky high and beads of sweat rolling down her forehead. Her cheeks were bright red and her vision was hazy even with her glasses on. He had been replacing cold towels on her head for the past ten minutes.

"Feeling better Okuda-san?" asked Karma, sincere, yet seemingly calm. She nodded as he brushed strays of her raven black hair away from her eyes. He clenched his teeth in frustration. How could've I let this happen?

His mind in a flurry, Manami decided to muster all the strength she had and tried to comfort him. "It's ok Karma-kun," she whispered, voice hoarse and thin as paper, "No one saw it coming. Thanks for taking care of me though." Her violet eyes became warm as she looked into his troubled mercury ones.

"You shouldn't be overexerting yourself Okuda-san," scolded Karma playfully. Although he was slightly more relaxed that his poison glasses was ok, he was still very disturbed. He would've given anything to trade places with her.

"Hey Karma-kun?" asked Manami weakly smiling, "Let's go walk around the town tomorrow. We haven't been there yet and this is a place to explore, right?"

"Tomorrow, huh?" asked Karma, chuckling as he patted the glasses girl on the head gently, "Sounds nice. I heard from Kayano that their pudding is good." Despite himself, the boy let out a smile. A genuine one.

"That sounds nice…" sighed Manami, coughing a bit, "and you have a sweet tooth too, right?" He only sighed and gently patted her head one more time.

"Get some rest," he replied, pulling the blankets tightly over the girl, "Sleep and you'll get better soon."

The boy walked outside of the stuffy room to get some fresh air and looked at the cloud covered sky. The moon's rays shone through, despite being completely covered. Cicadas buzzed and the muggy air made Karma sweat. Pulling his collar, he looked back inside. Manami was fast asleep. He smiled once more, but frowned. There was a time limit. And time was running out.

He'd get that cure no matter what.