"Saiki, can I have a word with you? Just a moment" Kuboyasu put his hand on the psychic's shoulder, calmly said. Saiki nodded, following him to the classroom door and into the corridor.

So he also noticed, huh?

They stepped in silence for awhile, the former delinquent lost in thoughts, eyes hidden by his pair of glasses, hands clenched into fist. Waiting till nobody was in sight, Kuboyasu turned around, face became serious.

"Who the fuck dare to lay their filthy hands on him?" The words were filled with murderous intent. And Saiki almost sighed, tempted to let Kuboyasu unleashed his revenge on whoever stupid enough to mess with their blue-haired friend. The purple-haired teenager always had short-temper when Kaidou was involved. Cleaning the murder scene would be a breeze to him, but the missing persons would cause too much unnecessary attention.

So, no killing then.

Saiki read through furious Kuboyasu's mind and mused. Some were how dare he think he can keep his wounds hidden from me and Don't you think avoiding me and I don't know or I will kill them

On this sunny Friday morning, everything seems to be in place as they used to. Teruhashi was still graced everybody with her goddess aura. Nendou talked about ramen while Hairo energetically worked out on the floor. Yumehara mumbled something about love and destiny. Kaidou showed up later than normal, smiling apologetically, mouth sprouting nonsense stuffs like Dark Reunion ate his book (huh?). Yet throughout the day, he seems stiff, and winced slightly every time he moved or his hands had to touch something. It were just a subtle signs and normally could be passed as his nerdy usual self. But those streams of thoughts like They mustn't know repetitively easily caught Saiki's attention. Before he could do anything about it, the bell rang and Kaidou bolted outside the classroom, mumbling about using the restroom

"Kuboyasu, even you asked him, I doubted he would have spilled" Saiki said. He could use his power, but at school he was bombarded with every student's thoughts. And Kaidou's mind was frantic just now, so he doubted that his friend would thought about his bullies. The pink-haired boy still used clairvoyance to check on his friend regardless, and found out he was hiding in the restroom, fingers fidgeting nervously with his red ragged cloth, breathing rapidly. His thought was clear

What should I do?

"He clearly was beaten and tried to hide it. Fuck. If I had known.."

You wouldn't, so please shut up.

"Why didn't he tell us?"

Kaidou was always the easy target. He was weak, fragile, had a heavy case of chuunibyou, hard-working, and came from a well-off family. He also put too much trust in others. So much qualities that attracted the wrong type of people. Although he had been stubborn about it. Like at the moment, his sense of misplaced bravery was likely the cause for his avoidance.

When they were mugged months ago, Saiki abandoned him, prepared to brush off this troublesome chihuahua and ended the friendship once and for all. Yet the first thought he received from the boy was relief that he was safe, instead of being heartbroken or betrayed. It was nice, a little bit unexpected to find out Kudou only wanted to befriend him. Saiki was all set to use his power at that time, if not for Kuboyasu. Fortunately.

More so, even though Kaidou had witnessed the former delinquent's brawl. He was still told him to run instead of calling out for help. Stubborn Kaidou. What a moron.

But now, experienced with exchanging blows, the former delinquent instantly noticed the subtle changes in the chuunibyou without difficulty. It wasn't hard for him to imagine what happened. Finding the culprit, on the other hands... The psychic doubted it was because of those manipulated Kaidou for homework. He made sure of that already

Ara ara, so it all lead to this, huh..

He and Kuboyasu followed Kaidou when school ended, ignoring Nendou's request to eat ramen. The blue-haired boy, again, bolted out as soon as possible. Saiki could think of various methods to extract the information out of his close friend, though following him seems like the fastest way at the moment. He frowned as Kaidou turned left when he reached a corner

"That's not the direction to his house" Kuboyasu mumbled, recognized the road to factory area.

Located on the southeastern part of the city, that particular place had the cheapest rent and also was the most dangerous place. This does not end well.

I have to be hurry

Made sure nobody was following him ("He's terrible at that" His so-called stalkers mused), he stopped in front of a gangster, hands nervously holding out a stack of paper money.

"Here, I already brought it." So leave me alone. The words were unspoken due to fear. He thought it was evident enough.

The bulky leader of the gang took the money with ease, licking his finger to count them. They were all seemingly bored, and older than him. Kaidou figured this was his chance to leave, but before he could take a step back, another guy grabbed him on the shoulder and pulled him close.

"Go so soon?" He grinned, "I'm hurt"

"Hey. You got the money. Let me go" Kaidou replied, trying to be tough

"Why? We were having so much fun yesterday" The delinquent had a hold of his hand, and Saiki widened his eyes.

"What are you doing-" Kaidou winced when his bandage was unwrapped, revealing numerous yellow and purple bruises, along with small band aids and dirty blood-stained white bandages which were applied clumsily on the arms.

The psychic put a hand on the strangely quiet Kuboyasu, preventing him from punching a hole in the wall and risked the gangster aware of their presence so soon.

Not yet.

"Let see. I wondered you could still covered your face with your hands this time. If you don't want another mark of paper cutter knife." They laughed "Pathetic"

Think they are tough and try to protect their pretty faces...fuck...This brat pissed me off...Though he still hided his face when I carved on his arms...bitch..Probably use his face to pick up chicks

Saiki could hear their thoughts altogether, and it disgusted him

"Psst, whatever" The chuunibyou tensed for a moment then pretending to snort. He brushed the delinquent off, walked away, tried to cover his injuries for no use.

"I'm going" Crap what if they hold me down? I had to run. Crap crap should I turn around to pick up my cloth? I don't want mama to see my wounds. Maybe if I try to sneak in my room fast she wouldn't noticed

Kaidou panicked, trying to get out of this situation. Without notice, the delinquent forceful pressed his hand on the blue-haired boy's shoulder, and he immediately collapsed, his body struggled from the bone-jotting pain from all the bruises.

"We beat the shit out of you yesterday" The leader smirked, money already tucked safely in his pant pocket "Don't you dare think we can't do it again"

They didn't care about stealing money, they were just sadistic dicks who liked to inflict pain on somebody else. Mugging was just an added bonus

"What the hell" The blue-haired boy blurted "You got what you want, let me go"

"We want a punching bag." The leader said with a bored tone, lying with a straight face "Your money wasn't even enough to buy a cheap one. Guess that I had to use replacement then"

He held up his hand near the scared boy, and cackled while Kaidou flinched violently.

"Or we could beat up the pink-haired freak instead, huh?" Smirked. Always effective, brats tried to be heroes and fucked up for their friends. Weakest of the bunch though.

No

"Don't touch him, bastards!" He bit back, only to be smashed down with somebody's fist, motionless

Fuck I went overbroad. Regardless, such a weakass

String of images appeared vividly inside Kuboyasu's head. An image of Kaidou, wretched and injured on the ground, arms drenched with sticky red liquid, curled up to protect himself. Kaidou, eyes wet with tears from the torment, struggled to pick himself up and went home while his body was burning with every step. Kaidou, shakily cleaned and tried to band aid by himself and wrapped his new cloth on his arms so that nobody could discover the wounds.

At that point, Saiki didn't care whether the recollection the former delinquent had was accidental use of forced telepathy or not. He doubted that the other noticed

The reason Kaidou went to such length to hide was because of him? Was this chunnibyou stupid?

Him? Of all people?

He rolled his eyes while the former delinquent knocked a hole in the brick wall, just like he suspected, successfully gained everybody's attention. Kuboyasu looked beyond pissed, like a wrathful demon just been summoned out of the blue.

"Another one?" Fine, they're no fun if they are unresponsive anyway. The leader spoke up "Hey brat. Your friend owed us 50 thousand yen. Got anything to pay?"

The purple-haired boy stepped slowly forward, knocked out those that tried to move up stop him. Hand pulled up to stop an unknown guy's fist thrown at him, Kuboyasu recognized the guy who pulled off Shun's bandages.

He made sure to grab it so tight that the bones fractured, paid no mind to the scream.

The gang was absolutely vivid. One faced twelve? How could it be possible? Who was this guy? The leader face's turned into completely shock when Kuboyasu came near. Kuboyasu grabbed his head and slammed it down the hard ground with the force of steel.

"I certainly can pay for him" He said, irritated "Just make sure you alive after I finished paying"

One guy escaped, hissing at his broken arm. He pulled out his phone, fingers shakily pressed the buttons, preparing to call for backup. That fucker could be tough, but even he can't deal with the sheer number of his gang

"Oi. Bastards! Come-" That all he could managed to say before the line went dead. "What-"

He gasped when the sky suddenly turned dark, and in front of him, a teenager appeared, his gaze and smile so callous that it made his blood ran cold, like he had met an apex predator.

"You laid your hands on an psychic's possession. I hope you're prepared for the consequences."

And if nobody came or noticed any screaming around this road, it was probably because of the loud roaring sound of the factories, or Saiki's power. Who know?

He really disliked being disturbed.

Feeling his rage died down somewhat, Saiki went back, turned a blind eye to the brutal state of the bullies. On second thoughts, nice work. Now, just a little curse so that they wouldn't dare to come to Kaidou for revenge, just in case.

Finished his job, he returned to Kuboyasu's place, whom only just clean the blood off his glasses and glanced down at the unconscious boy.

It's a bloody miracle that Kaidou didn't twitch a finger during all this sound

"God, he's a mess" The former delinquent sighed and picked up his friend in his arms.

Serve him right, got himself in this trouble.

Saiki thought, gesturing Kuboyasu to carry the boy to his house. His parent went out, Kaidou's house was out of the question and he doubted Kuboyasu's would be anything ordinary. It was not like he had any choices in the matter.

—

He was in a mixed state of bliss and agony.

He was being embraced and carried. The person's touch gentle on his skin. His whole body itself was uncomfortable. He guessed because he hadn't taken great care of his injuries the day before. It wasn't like anyone could master the art of band-aids by looking it up the internet in one night. But who was he? He was Jet Black Wing. It was not like he couldn't handle them.

Oh boy. Saiki mused

His groggily memories returned back. He was being assaulted by the bullies. And he collapsed. While he fainted, judging from the screaming, his power must be unsealed and unleashed..

He opened his eyes, and Kuboyasu looked down while carrying him, happily greeted

"Shun, you're awake"

"You!" Kaidou shouted, heartbroken

"Er? Me?"

Congratulations for breaking his illusions. Again, good job. Saiki mused again, standing beside Kuboyasu, a tiny smile visible on his lips.

"...nothing" Kaidou sulked, his imaginary fight completely shattered, then turned bewildered. His situation registered clearly in his head "Wait?! How did you guys know?"

"About that, we will need to have a little talk after your wounds had been taken care off, Shun" Kuboyasu's look became stern, his grip on his blue-haired friend tighten.

Immediately, Kaidou turned uneasy, squirming uselessly to get out of the other's embrace without avail. Seeing that Kuboyasu weren't going to leave him go that easily for hiding his problem, he turned to Saiki for help, only to find out the other looked back at him, completely emotionless, yet he felt like a defenseless lamb in front of a scary wolf

Traitor!

The blue-haired boy yelped and tried to buried his face into the former delinquent's chest, hope for the best.