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Toritsuka smiled at the letter he got. It was nice to know that someone actually liked him, but he couldn’t recognize the name. I guess that doesn’t really matter. Beggars can’t be choosers.
After school was over, Toritsuka headed up to the rooftops. He stood by the railing, waiting for the girl who was going to give him the confession.
He wondered what she’d look like. Maybe short, brown hair with big eyes? He hoped she was cute.
Toritsuka could see everyone heading out. He leaned closer to see better. Maybe he could spot someone, preferably a girl, tripping?
Suddenly, he lost his balance and fell over the railing. Well, I guess this is how I die, huh? I didn’t even get to see-
Something was wrong. He had stopped in mid-air. Toritsuka looked down to see Saiki holding him up with his powers. In front of the school. “Fuck.”
=====
Kuboyasu’s eyes widened. How had Saiki done that? He unconsciously took a step back from his friend. Kuboyasu faintly registered the curse that came from Toritsuka.
“Saiki...” Teruhashi sounded like faint. A few people ran towards her.
Saiki camly set Toritsuka down and sighed. He looked away from them.
Kuboyasu opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t seem to make his voice work. He ended up gaping like a fish.
”Good grief...”
By the tone of his voice, it seemed like he didn’t mean to do that.
He hadn’t opened his mouth to say that. How did he hear that? What is he hiding from them?
Someone out of the corner of his eye seemed to snap out of their trance and grabbed Saiki and Toritsuka. They ran.
=====
Aiura used her fortune telling to find a deserted spot. If she saw correctly, someone was recording that. They had around 5 minutes before it became viral, and 23 hours before it made the news.
This was really bad, huh. I guess I can see why Saiki didn’t want to reveal his powers now.
“Kusou, what are we going to do now?”
”We?”
Toritsuka grumbled. “Yes, we! We’re not going to abandon you now.”
“Toritsuka, as sweet as that is, it’s basically your fault. What were you doing on the roof anyways?”
“I got a letter! I thought it was a confession and had some ghosts look out for the girl.”
God, what an idiot.
=====
While they were arguing, Saiki teleported back to his home. Kusuke probably saw the entire thing, which made him even more upset. Not that he’d ever show it anyways.
Saiki considered his options.
He could... No, that would make his mother too upset. Saiki would find another option, just not that. It would be a last resort.
He could use his banana-looking object to erase their memories, but someone had already posted a video online and he doubted the stories would match up anyways.
He could use mind control to make psychic powers normal, but he didn’t want to deal with more supervillains trying to take over the world, or major life-changing events.
He could move to where nobody’s even heard of him, but if Aiura’s prediction was correct and, which they usually were but he’d never willingly complement those idiots, the incident was going to make the news so that wouldn’t be an option.
Time travelling could be an option. He supposes he could try that first. But... The smallest change could have a disastrous effect, so perhaps not.
Saiki was running out of options. He hadn’t really wanted to do this, but he supposes he has to.
Just as Saiki was about to teleport out of his house, he got a headache.
Toritsuka sobbing into his hands while Aiura watches with tears running down her face. Akechi is frowning and is looking out the window.
Teruhashi seems despondent and doesn’t pay attention to the people around her. It damages her reputation as the perfect, pretty girl.
Kaidou doesn’t pay his brother much attention and his sister check in on him once in a while, clearly uneasy with the silence.
Aren and surprisingly Yumehara lashes out whenever anyone mentions his disappearance. Nendou doesn’t help with this. It’s almost as if he doesn’t realize Saiki’s gone.
Even Hairo has his troubles with getting the morale of the group up.
Saiko seems unreasonably dismissive.
Mera waits every day at the café when he normally comes in. She stays in an hour later after her shift ends, staring at the door and seems disappointed when no one shows up.
This won’t be easy, will it?
He sighed.
His parents are waiting by the door every night, waiting for him to come home. When he doesn’t open the door, they go to bed, only to try it again the next night. They look like they haven’t slept in days.
Kusuke works obsessively on his projects. It seems as if a tornado hit his lab while he was inside.
Saiki collapsed on his bed once more and covered his face with his pillow. He couldn’t do that. Not when they’re not going to get over it.
=====
Saiki pulled on his jacket and looked out his window. Reporters were everywhere, trying to get an interview. It’s a good thing he told his parents to say nothing if someone asked about him. He’ll have to ask Aiura when this will pass.
Saiki teleported to the school’s entrance and waved to Matsuzaki. His presence was enough to ward off intrusive reporters, thankfully.
Saiki went to his class. It seemed like everyone had two reactions to his reveal. They were either scared, or in awe. He secretly hoped his fr—those people who always talk to him wouldn’t change how they saw him.
Once he opened the door, all conversation stopped and all thoughts went to him. He was the center of attention. It was the exact thing he was trying to avoid. Good grief.
=====
Hairo saw Saiki walk in. All noise seemed to halt immediately. It was suffocating. He felt the need to fill the silence but couldn’t think of anything to say.
Thankfully, out of all people, Nendou spoke up. “Hey, pal! How you doing?”
Saiki gave a him small nod and sat at his desk.
The talking seemed to slowly trickle in after that.
He saw Toritsuka rush in and drag Saiki out of the classroom with little to no resistance from him.
He wondered what they were doing.
=====
Toritsuka nervously laughed. Please don’t kill me, Saiki... The PK Psychicers and Akechi wanted to host a meeting, don’t kill me please...
”Fine...”
Toritsuka let go of Saiki and opened an unused classroom’s door. Aiura and Akechi were waiting for them on the other side.
“Kusou, we wanted to talk to you about what to do about this.”
”We can’t do anything.
“HUH? What do you mean we can’t do anything!?”
Saiki fixed his glasses, ignoring Toritsuka. ”I could’ve said it was just special effects, but we made too much of a big deal avoiding questions. Aiura, He turned to her. When will this blow over?”
Aiura seemed at a loss for words, but was resigned to Saiki’s answer. She had expected him to ask, obviously. She narrowed her eyes at him, but when she didn’t get a reaction, she turned away and mumbled, “6 months.”
“We should probably get back to class. It’ll be more suspicious if we go late because everyone’ll assume that Kusou was doing something. It’s how rumors spread, and we wouldn’t want to feed into that.” Akechi clasped his hands together and smiled.
=====
Kaidou had to admit, he didn’t know how to react when Saiki showed that he had powers that he so desired.
It was a shock at first. He had always considered him and Saiki to be good friends. He didn’t expect Saiki to be hiding something so big from them.
Now that Kaidou thought about it, it made sense. Why else would he be able to talk without opening his mouth? That camera incident was him, and it explained why he wore his strange hairpins and tinted glasses, although he didn’t really know how that related to his powers.
It explained why there was so many of him at the class trip, how they got saved on the island, and that snake incident... It was all Saiki, wasn’t it?
Kaidou didn’t understand why he would want to keep his powers a secret, but now that he thought about it, Saiki never really liked attention.
Toritsuka and Aiura. They’re psychics as well, aren’t they?
And that transfer student? Akechi? He wasn’t lying when he said Saiki had psychic powers.
In all honesty, Kaidou was confused as to why Saiki hadn’t told anyone. It’s not like they would tell anyone if it was that important of a secret. They were friends! Did Saiki even consider them that? He didn’t think he heard Saiki call anyone a friend.
The classroom was still relatively silent when Saiki came back from wherever Toritsuka took him.
He sat down at his desk, not paying anyone any attention.
It seemed like Yumehara was the bravest one to approach him. She was slowly inching over.
”Apport, astral projection, clairvoyance, cryokinesis, curse, electrification, flight, levitation, hydrokinesis, hypnosis, invisibility, memory erasing, mind conrol, petrification, precognition, psycometry, telekinesis and pyrokinesis. Although this isn’t all of them, it’s some. That’s what you wanted to ask, isn’t it?”
Yumehara faltered in her movement. “I... Yes, is mind reading part of your powers as well?”
Saiki nodded.
Kaidou could see Teruhashi paling out of the corner of his eye.
“...Saiki?” Kaidou didn't even realize he was speaking. “Is this... Is this what you wanted to tell us? After the trip when you didn’t wear your glasses and hairpins?”
Saiki stayed silent. He kept speaking. “This... I don’t know... Why don’t you trust us? We’re friends, right?”
”I’ve never considered someone a friend before, but I suppose that’s what we are. I suppose I’ll have to get everyone after school. Good grief...”
=====
Saiko supposed this was a surprise. Saiki had asked him to go to a classroom after school. When he said everyone, he didn’t think he meant everyone. He didn’t even consider those plebs acquaintances, let alone friends...right?
He opened the door to find his classmates waiting for Saiki. He took a seat.
When Saiki finally did come in, it was with the purple head pervert, the boy with blonde hair, and the fortune-teller.
It was silent for a bit while Saiki prepared himself for whatever he was going to tell them.
”You’ve heard most of my powers before. You’ve seen a demonstration of them with Toritsuka. I won’t disclose my weaknesses, but I will say the most important things. He paused.
There was a beat of silence.
”I can read minds. I know this is an invasion of privacy, so I’ll be wearing a ring that can block out other people’s thoughts while I’m with any of you.”
Saiki started to pace around the room. ”Without my glasses, I could turn living beings to stone. Without my gloves, which are microscopic to the human eye, I would be able to see any history or emotion in an entity. Without my limiter,” He pointed to his left pin, ”my powers would be unlimited, and I would be unstoppable. With just a flick of my hand, I could destroy an entire town.”
Saiki stopped at the front of the room. ”I understand if you don’t believe me or if you don’t want to be around me anymore. Please, don’t make a big deal out of this. I only wish to remain an average person.”
Kuboyashi fixed his glasses. “Saiki, what about when you didn’t wear your equipment? What happened?”
”I removed my powers.”
Saiko felt his mouth flop open, along with some other plebs in the room.
”Unfortunately, my dream of being an average, fragile human was crushed when they returned.”
Saiko had to admit, Saiki thinking of humans being fragile was a frightening thought. It seemed as if he would be able to destroy the world in just 3 days, maybe less if he tried...
He couldn’t even think of anything to say in this situation. He couldn’t go back to thinking that Saiki was just a person with an unusual fasion style. Not with the fact that he knows the truth now. Everyone does.
He couldn’t help but wonder how Saiki would deal with this.
=====
Hairo needed some time to think and process all of this. He still couldn’t believe that Saiki Kusou was a psychic.
If this was his reaction, how was Saiki feeling about this? It couldn’t be anything good.
Saiki had just revealed something about his self to the world against his will that he desperately wants to be rid of, and now he’s expecting them to leave him?
He couldn’t have been the only one to realize this, right?
”Thank you for your time. I’ll be going now. Have a good day.”
Before they could even get a word out or move, Saiki had teleported away. They were just left there. “We need to support him! Saiki just revealed something against his will to save one of us and now he just expects us to forget about him!”
Teruhashi pinched her eyebrows together. “What could we do to help?”
“We have to go big! Let’s make 1000 paper cranes each and give the wishes to Saiki!”
Unknowingly to him, everyone took a step back from his intensity.
Mera cautiously held her hands up. “No? He likes coffee jelly just get him that...”
“We should just give him some support.” The comment would’ve been sweet if Nendou hadn’t been picking at his nose. It did sound like a good idea though, but they had no idea how to go about it.
“Should we invite him out or to one of our houses to take his mind off of things? What do you even do in these types of situations?”
“Kusou just wants some space. Treat him like you normally would and try not to think about how he can read your every thought. Besides, he said he would be wearing a ring. He’s giving us privacy because he trusts us not to put him in danger, which is uncharacteristically nice of him considering that he just told us that he won’t be able to predict anything. Kusou wouldn’t want any attention brought to him, so it would be best to tell the school. He most likely won’t be coming to school tomorrow because of how many reporters are there. Oh, I’m rambling again.” Akechi covered his mouth, almost embarrassed. Almost.
Kaidou cleared his throat. “Does anyone even know if Saiki considers us...”
“What was that? You trailed off at the end.”
“Does Saiki even consider us friends? I would think so because he trusts us enough to not read our minds, but he’s complicated.”
Aiura laughed. “Of course he considers us friends! I’ve caught him smiling at some of the dumb stuff we do!”
“Yeah, Saiki’s just a tsundere,” Toritsuka added. “Don’t tell him I said that though.”
They all laugh at that.
Eventually, it’s time for them to go. Hairo waves goodbye and starts walking home. It was getting dark out, so he had to hurry back. He spared one last look at everyone before he left.
=====
Gossip was spreading around school. It wasn’t because of Saiki this time though. People heard that Rifuta, the cute first-year hadn’t shown up to school.
Most people were convinced that it was just a sickness, but Kaidou was confident that it was the work of the Dark Reunion. It must be their plan to get him tired out.
Nevertheless, Kaidou couldn’t do anything without risking the safety of everyone else. Even if Kaidou knew that the Dark Reunion was a work of fiction, it was still fun to dream.
Eventually class started, and he noticed that Saiki wasn’t where he normally was, which was staring displeased at everyone around him.
Kaidou made a mental note to bring this up at lunchtime.
=====
Rifuta honestly had no idea why this had happened to her. Okay, so maybe she bragged about Saiki liking her better than someone who she considered a goddess, Teruhashi Kokomi.
This didn’t mean that she had to be put in danger though! Luckily for her, Saiki came to her rescue.
There was a flash of blue then they were at school. She thinks it was Saiki’s class since she could see Teruhashi, but there was no way to be sure. Teruhashi was so perfect so maybe she was just visiting some other classrooms.
Could it have been possible that Teruhashi was looking for her, a lowly first-year? She could only hope that was the case.
Saiki let go of her arm and gently told her to get to her class. He said that kidnappings could be traumatizing, but Saiki got her out of there so quickly that she wasn’t sure if it could be considered a kidnapping. She nodded her head and left the classroom, sneaking one more peek at Teruhashi.
=====
Teruhashi’s face paled. A kidnapping? Rifuta must still be in shock, she’ll have to visit her after class.
Is this why Saiki wasn’t here?
She bit her lip. This must be why Saiki didn’t want them to be near him. How thoughtful! He’s just looking out for us. That was undeniably adorable.
She saw Saiki slip on a ring before the teacher came in.
It seemed like Saiki was more trouble than he was worth, but that wouldn’t detour her. It wouldn’t even stop Toritsuka, and he was just about the most cowardly person she knew.
They’ve already decided last night. They wouldn’t leave Saiki even if they were offered their wildest dreams on a silver platter and they could only hope he reciprocated those feelings.
=====
Kusuke frowned. His little brother was never going to have a normal life. Maybe that meant he could challenge him in public, but he could never win against him.
It would be for the best he supposed. Kusou would be a force to be reckoned with. His friends on the other hand?
He pulled up the footage of their meeting after his brother left. He’ll just have to see if they’ll keep their promises.
=====
Nendou thought it was kind of strange when everyone started to avoid his pal, but he thought nothing of it. Like he normally does.
It was weird though. Someone came up to him and said that he could have a lot of money if he left Saiki alone. He didn’t understand the question, so he just left.
It made sense to him.
=====
When Kuboyasu and Kaidou got offered power beyond imagination by a blonde guy with dull eyes they couldn’t believe it. Kaidou almost accepted if it hadn’t been for Kuboyasu.
He knew that the offer was too good to be true, so he asked what the conditions were. The blonde man only asked to leave Saiki Kusou.
They both immediately denied the man’s offer, but he could still see Kaidou second-guessing the decision. That or he was confused. Either was, he was sure he would get over it.
=====
Kusuke scowled at his luck. Kusou’s friends were all very loyal to him, even the one that was desperate for money.
Looks like Kusou won again, without even knowing what was going on.
=====
”I know what you’re thinking. If my annoying brother was behind my f-those nuisances getting offers, what about the kidnappings?
You probably know that when I was younger, a nation kidnapped me because they found out about my abilities. It was in the manga.
What does that have anything to do about it?
Well, some organizations have banded together to try and get valuable hostages in the form of people I spend time with. This was quite obviously a bad move since I could destroy them with a breath their way, and I would’ve but I didn’t want Rifuta to see.
Anyways, I’ve been destroying the organizations in my now limited free time. They should know better than to mess with me. And those other people as well I’d suppose.
Good grief. I guess they are my friends, hm?"