Chapter 1: Unusual Ordinary Days
My ordinary school days had these anecdotes: turning back the English teacher's time by one day to stop a cardiac arrest from happening, locating the bomber's location with clairvoyance and implanting the thoughts to various FBI agents, using hypnosis to make it seem like I was in the beetle-dissection class and teleporting a hundred miles from the classroom.
Do they all seem too heroic for you? (Well, except the last one, but you will change your mind soon enough.) What my actions appear like to others was just an unfortunate consequence of my diligent attempts to avoid attracting attention. You see, I was alone in the men's restroom when my English teacher came in by accident. When she saw what I was doing with my hand, the shock sent her into a cardiac arrest. I knew she was going make an honest mistake (even though sign of the men's restroom looked nothing like the principal's office's), but I didn't think she would have such an overreaction to what I was furiously rubbing up and down with a cream…
That's right. This teacher had an extreme case of carpophobia, the fear of exposed wrists. A mosquito had gotten the better of me and bit me on the wrist. I've never had mosquito bites ever, so the itch was unbearable to my never-been-bitten skin. The water I froze and chopped to perfect ice cubes helped little to relieve me, so I apported Antihistamine cream from the nurse's office and applied it to the bite. It's pretty embarrassing to go to the nurse's office for a single mosquito bite, so I had to do it discreetly.
In any case, I turned back her time for her so that I wouldn't have to be interviewed by the police and entertain the possibility of a mourning family asking me what her last moments were like.
It might have been an unusual fear, but it was still someone else's worst nightmare. What seemed small for you might be important for others. The cause might seemed silly, but it would have been a tragedy regardless.
Having your school explode would be another tragedy, yes. But realistically, that would never happen while I'm around. Among the dreary fog of shallow and mundane thoughts of teenagers, a bomber's hyper-excited fascination with high school-related explosions was like a fire alarm sounding in my head. FBI agents were already hot on her trail, so all I did was feed them the information. This was after I lured the bomber to a ditch I made outside the school gates. I wouldn't want the FBI raiding the school and causing a commotion. Even if the bomber were caught beforehand, the media would make a frenzy of such a threat in the local school.
I don't want any of that. The media, especially, should stay away from me.
And bugs. I'm sort of fine with dead ones. As long as they weren't moving, bugs don't scare me. Our laboratory class required us to dissect live bugs to study their digestion. Naturally, everyone found this revolting. The class suddenly banded together and made a heated debate on animal cruelty. Even Nendou participated, which I didn't find to be completely surprising since he took good care of the hamster I gave him. But before the intellectual discussion could truly develop, that was when the evil started to pour out in waves…
My unquenchable thirst for revenge.
Just as the controversial method for the pursuit of knowledge revealed an unexpectedly philosophical side in my classmates, it also drew out something from my depths… Years of suppressed malice. I was eager to cut open these unmoving creatures and poke their beating organs with a sharp scalpel for all the joy they had slurped from my misery. I can't actually read their minds, so I wouldn't know if they were even capable of emotions. But who cares? Definitely not me.
Consider this twisted side of me as a sneak-peek to what I would have been if my disdain for humanity carried past childhood. Instead of a tranquilized beetle, you would have something bigger and fleshier squirming on the table right now. Except I wouldn't be afraid of skittering meat-bags either. In fact, I might have preferred moving targets.
This malice of mine was so strong that it was making my classmates and the teacher sick. A shout from another classroom that somebody fainted was the intervention I needed to snap out of it. I used hypnosis on Takashi (after having him fall asleep; I don't want to get involved in the debate) and waited it out from somewhere else, or else I would be succumbing to my dark side in the next 20 minutes.
I protected my school for the greatest evil that could have existed, but really, I just didn't want to be the only student who didn't fall to a mysterious illness that day. That would be too suspicious.
Yare, yare. This was just an ordinary day in school. My ordinary days full of trouble and annoyances because I couldn't be standing out in attention. Otherwise, people were going to start suspecting that I have psychic powers.
I wouldn't want to stand out even if I didn't have psychic powers. But the second part was the root of all my problems. If I didn't have psychic powers, life would be simple, enjoyable, and full of surprises.
It was the usual morning with Nendou bothering me before I could even take my seat.
"Oi. Oi. Oi. Oi. Oi."
And this time, he wasn't even speaking human.
Ignoring Nendou never works.
What do you want, Nendou?
Nendou's boorish face darkened to an uncanny grin. Don't worry, this was just how he smiles. On second thought, be worried.
"Oh, I'm glad you asked. I want a million yen. Can you give me some?"
Responding to Nendou never works.
"Oi, chibi!" Nendou waved to Kaidou, who arrived moments after me. "You feel like having a million yen, too?"
Kaidou looked up, confused for a moment. "Huh? What brought this up?"
"Huh?" said Nendou, equally confused for some reason. "I dunno. Aibou was asking."
Yes. I admit to this particular crime. I should have known better than to indulge Nendou.
Kaidou laughed as he set his bag down on his desk. "You phrase things as weirdly as ever."
Does it really have something to do with phrasing?
"Well, it's usually not the phrasing, but the actual content of what you say…" amended Kaidou as though he read my mind (which he didn't. I am the psychic, not Kaidou.)
Nendou paused, as if to think. Emphasis on "as if."
"Oh, I'll keep that in mind then." said Nendou. He noticed something about Kaidou, an evil glint crossing his eyes. "Chibi, where's that seal on your right hand? Isn't the world going to split in half from the immense power locked away in it?"
I'm impressed you kept up with the lore, but it's a bit too early to be savage to Kaidou. It's bad enough that Dark Reunion has most likely noticed Kaidou's mistake already.
"Yeah," grinned Nendou. "We're all in danger now. Don't worry though, Aibou and I can take care of ourselves. Aren, too, probably." (Actually accurate. I'd add Mera in the list.)
Kaidou visibly flinched. "Stop that!" He looked annoyed, maybe even a bit angry. He also said it reflexively, so there were no thoughts for me to read to supplement a better description for his reaction. "Class is about to start…" He excused himself by pretending to be busy with a textbook.
"School isn't over?" exclaimed Nendou, horrified.
Kaidou was determined to occupy himself. I could hear him reading the same line from the textbook all over again. He was reading the preface.
I thought it was already odd that Kaidou came to class after me. To minimize the time I have to spend listening to others before homeroom, I didn't go to school fifteen minutes before the first bell. If I wanted to, I could appear right at the last second with teleportation, but that would attract too much attention. I also prefer to emulate the normalcy of going to school if possible.
Kaidou always came sooner than Nendou and I. His "mama" have him and his siblings be at school an hour earlier. I know Kaidou would walk around the neighborhood and pop out toward the school to make it seem like he was going at the same time as everybody did. He not so subtly asked each of us what time we woke up and left the house. He did it to us individually, recycling the same roundabout script that ended with: "…And what time do you go to school? It's for research purposes I promise."
Fortunately, we all knew Kaidou was a harmless puppy. I heard he responded really well to biscuits.
But throughout the day, I couldn't figure out what might be wrong with Kaidou. None of his thoughts were giving away the exact details. Rather, they only made me worried. Kaidou had been paying attention to class. He did not doze off or skipped off to La-La Land like usual.
Maybe he was finally taking his studies seriously. If so, I'm proud of him… But was that really all?
I have a finale to watch later, so I can't tail him to find out. I'll see what happens tomorrow. If it persists, maybe someone else will take notice of it and the mystery will finally be solved.
When school ended, I got home without fanfare. I was able to watch the satisfying conclusion of an anime I liked and satisfied my sweet tooth with strawberry shortcake from Grandma. It was a calm, satisfying day, my perfect day.
Kaidou had other friends. If something were bothering him, I'm sure he'll be fine.
Okay, it's been a month and no one ever brought up the fact the Kaidou had reformed. As in – nobody. At this point, it wasn't just Kaidou who was being weird. It was everybody else – weirder than usual, anyway.
I could understand if they'd simply come to a quiet understanding in how to deal with this transformation. Kaidou did seem upset when Nendou and I poked fun of him last month. They might be annoying, but they weren't insensitive. They could have chosen to respect Kaidou's feelings.
But not once did I ever hear any of them acknowledge it in their thoughts. Yumehara, who was heads-over-heels to a fantasy version of Kaidou in her head, had happily basked Kaiduo's newfound social power to hold a normal conversation. Maybe her fantasy was coming true bits by bits.
Oooo, Kaidou-kun. Yours words fill my ears with the sweet temptation of a snake… Those devilish eyes undressing me, wishing to make me suffer…
Never mind. It's absurd how she got even more delusional. I don't appreciate the scene that was forever injected in my brain either.
I was relying on Nendou to bring up the obvious with his usual idiocy. He still did, but not with the specific subject I wanted.
"Hey, chibi. Why do you have blue hair? I find it to be very ordinary."
"Yes, blue hair is a very natural colour," said Hairo approvingly.
Since everyone was going about their usual routines, I myself would lapse into forgetting the unsolved mystery. Slowly, even I was getting desensitized by Kaidou's non-eight-grader self. His thoughts were never far from what he was saying. Not once did he ever think back of Dark Reunion and his days as The Jet-Black Wings.
I couldn't rest easy anymore. It wasn't like I wanted Kaidou to be back to normal… Heck, this was normal, technically. But what happened exactly? Did he simply get over the phase? I wanted to know what my telepathy couldn't answer for me for a month. The mere fact that it had eluded me for so long intrigued me.
So I used my psychic powers on Kaidou. I threw in a bait.
This weekend was the premiere of the action-packed Ninja Samurai E-Alchemist. It was a remake of a classic anime that was sure to be loved by the older generation that grew up with it and by the children forced by their parents to love it like they did. I was neither of the two groups, but the big names working on it were enough to pique my interest. I could enjoy the movie by appreciating the animation, voice acting, and musical score. I also liked supporting well-made anime films if my budget could afford it.
With this information, Kaidou was sure to invite me. I had never let him know we had a mutual interest for the anime and manga industry until now. I was concerned he would never leave me alone (I was content with Nendou being Kaidou's go-to.) Since Kaidou had reformed, I feel more at ease with him knowing, even though he would never be able to recall the moment we talked about it. Because I never told him.
Oh, right! Ninja Samurai E-Alchemist is coming out this weekend. I was really looking forward to it five years ago when it was first greenlighted. I think Saiki might like it. It's weird that we never hang out for these stuffs before. Should I invite him? Hm. We're with the girls right now. I might put him in an awkward position.
Ah, that's right. Ninja Samurai E-Alchemist was a magical girl anime. Like you, I'm wondering why they didn't might as well tack in "magical girl" in the title.
Why should it bother me though?
"Hey, Saiki, are you free this weekend?"
That depends, why?
Teruhashi was around. I can't just say "yes" carelessly. I could already feel her presence going to Offu!-predator mode. She was a ruthless opportunist with the heavens by her side.
"There's an anime film premiering this weekend. It's made by some really big names in the industry and I think it's a world-wide release. It might be good."
Yumehara gasped. Kaidou-kun, going to the movies? But he's inviting Saiki! Saiki must have told him he liked anime. Curse you, Saiki! How dare you make such a bold, daring move on my boy?
Teruhashi internally gasped. Saiki-kun, going to the movies? But he's being invited by Kaidou-kun. I didn't know Saiki liked anime. Who would have thought that he would have other interests besides sweets and myself? Curse you, Saiki-kun! How dare you hide this unpopular boy side of you so expertly from me?
I might be able to go. I'll let you know later. (There's 'Kaidou' and 'anime' together, but yet again, neither Yumehara-san nor Teruhashi-san made any reference to the Kaidou we knew.)
"You're not just saying that to be nice to me, are you?" Kaidou grinned. "We can hang out and do something else if you want. Without Nendou making us look bad!"
The former Kaidou would have said the same line, but with more whining and Nendou arguing back. The current Kaidou said it as if it were a punchline. Everyone, including Nendou, laughed.
"What's that supposed to mean, chibi?"
This happy, ordinary picture made me uncomfortable for some reason, as though I could tell that, in this very moment, it wasn't my psychic powers that made me different from them.
