Bread and Butter (Akabane Karma x Manami Okuda)

reunited

The sound of an explosion alerts the spectacled chemist. She quickly turns to see where it came from, surprisingly, her assistant has cause the fiasco. She hurries towards the almost-burnt co-worker, pulling her surgical mask off. She looks at him, worried. She takes her hankerchief from her labgown pocket and she hands it to him.

"Are you okay?" The braided ravenette asks as the man accepts the floral hankerchief given to him. He first wipes his own face with the strawberry scented hankerchief and smiles in glee.

"I'm fine, Manami-san," he replies, successfully wiping all the ash on his face and neck. He looks at the filthy hankerchief with a frown. He looks at Manami, looking sorry for ruining a perfect hankerchief. Manami shakes her head and smiles warmly at him.

"It's alright," she assures him, patting his shoulder. She pulls her surgical mask where it belongs and strides away from her assistant and she continues to work on her own.

Lately, she has been busy formulating artificial blood that can be transfused regardless of the bloodtype. She has been working on it with her former classmate and her current partner in the laboratory, Takebayashi Kotaro. It is something written from the advice book their teacher gave them years ago. She and Kotaro have been doing different researches and testing just to find the perfect formulation. After all, she used to develop poisons that can kill his teacher back then. Surely, she can manage doing something like that together with her former classmate.

She remembers the time she spent her everyday with Class 3-E and she misses them badly. She remembers all the trips they've gone to, all the sparring with one another, the times they spend trying to formulate the best killing formula for Korosensei, and a lot more of those. They are lovely memories, in which she always treasured. She's never forgotten a single thing about her class. It is the best 365 days she's have eversince. She met a lot of great people and she tries her best to keep in touch.

Upon remembering the class 3-E, she slaps her forehead with her palm. She recalls that today is the day where the whole class will be gathering in their old classroom to preserve the place. She lifts her wrist to check the time from her wristwatch and boy, is she late. She removes her surgical mask and she tosses it in a nearby bin. She rushes to the door to leave but is stopped by a voice that calls her name.

"Okuda-san!" She knows well who owns the voice, she turns to see Takebayashi Kotaro, stalking towards her.

"Kotaro-san," she calls back, releasing the doorknob and turning completely towards him.

"Your formula— i-it sure was something—!" He struggles to speak, stopping in front of her. His face is full of excitement and enthusiasm, which confuses the ravenette. "C'mon!"

Without explaining, Kotaro starts to walk towards the main laboratory, where all the chemists and scientists were located. Manami has a private laboratory, where she works on her own in peace and in whatever way she likes. Leaving her private lab, she sees the head chemist holding a clipboard with tons of paper clipped on it. Okuda fixes her labgown and her braid as she and Kotaro approach their head chemist.

Okuda realizes that their head chemist is holding her research about the artificial blood that could benefit millions of people. She sees their head chemist in a stunned expression as he flip the pages over and over until he finishes the whole thing.

"How many hundreds of millions can be saved by this?" Their head chemist asks, still stupefied.

"Okuda-san did the bulk of development," Kotaro states, gesturing his hand towards Okuda. The head chemist turns to see them both, making Okuda bow with a smile on her face. "I'd like to take it into the clinical realm myself," Kotaro continues as he brings his arm down and he lets Okuda speak.

Looking for the right words, she smiles even wider, closing her eyes in amusement.

"We call it 'Rh slither blood'," she says, tilting her head slightly to show her gratitude and happiness. She is happy that her research has been approved, it's something she worked with blood, sweat, and tears and surely, Koro Sensei is smiling down at her from Octopus Heaven.

She checks her wrist watch again to see the time and it's getting late. She has to go or else she'll miss everything. She bows and excuses herself from their head chemist.

"I have some errands to run," she says, giving their head chemist another bow. "Kotaro-san, aren't you coming?"

"I'll have to miss today's reunion, Okuda-san. I have to take care of the paperwork for bringing your developmemt into the clinical market," he explains, bowing. He turns to his own office, leaving Okuda frown since Kotaro will miss a lot. She's sure Kotaro misses the class too.
She sighs and rushes the building, not caring that she's still wearing her labgown. Her classmates will not mind anyway. She hurries to the bullet train station, struggling a bit because of her high heels.

She barely makes it in the train and boy, is it crowded in there. She's squeezed in between a lot of men and women, she feels her own small body crushed because of the others that surrounds her. Finally, she makes it to her stop. She manages to squeeze herself through the crowd, leaving the bullet train, almost missing the chance to.

'Note to self, never be late again,' she thought, fixing her hair and labgown in the comfort room. After grooming herself, she runs again towards the mountain place, where the abandoned building is located. 'Great, another hike.'

The sun is almost to set, so she will have no problem about hiking with the heat getting in her way. The forest will protect her skin from the rays anyway.

She starts to walk. She feels excited to see her friends again, the classroom. She's excited about everything as of the moment. After a few meters of walking, she feels her feet sore from pain due to the fact that she's wearing heels as she hike. Annoyed, she takes her shoes off and carries them with one hand. She continues to walk with her shoes dangling in her hand and she feels the grass beneath her feet. She finds it rather comforting than bothersome.

She hears someone else behind her, a bit unsure on what to do. As a former assassin, she is cautious. She forms her her free hand into a fist, since she's unarmed. Although, she is not honed with any hand to hand combat nor taijutsu, she still knows the basic self-defense Karasuma sensei taught the class back then. She prepares herself for an upcoming attack, instead she hears a faint voice call out.

"Okuda-san?" She jumps as she hears her own name from a familiar voice. She turns to see the red haired man, looking at her with a creased brow. Her worries that an attack will come behind her disappears as the red head approaches.

※※※

I love this ship and the world needs more of them, so I shall contribute to the underrated ship. I've been lingering around writing sites and I see a few KaruMana fanfics, but they're pretty awesome! I got inspired, so voila!

Also I love romance that happens in the characters mid 20's. It's just so interesting, so I decided to write it in this way. Plus, I could play more with their maturity this way. I LOVE mature characters and romance. Anyway, I speak too much.

Will update when I'm inspired or not busy!

-November 30, 2017