A/N: Italics to indicate somebody thinking something. I will attempt to make it extra clear if a thought was something that was overheard.

"Italics in quotes to indicate intentional telepathic communication."

Chapter 8 - The Accident

Aren walked home after beating up Saiki, feeling sick to his stomach. He stopped and threw up in a bush. I haven't beaten up an innocent since I left the gang. I know we were trying to infiltrate the TFC, but I can't go on like this. I can't risk … being who I was before.

Shun headed back home, oblivious to the world, and resumed what he was doing before, as though he hadn't just beaten up his best friend.
Saiki: How was it?
Shun: It was sudden, but it was GREAT!

He even watched his phone for a while, expecting Saiki to write back soon, until he realized that he would be out of commission for a while.

"Oh, right." He mumbled to himself. He reviewed the brief fight in his head. He had arrived at Teruhashi's, and was set to follow Aren's lead and let him do most of the damage, the "making it real". But Aren only hit him once and kicked him twice, and each of his blows was less intense than the previous one, as though his heart wasn't in it.

Shun was the one who knocked him to the ground. He thought that Saiki was helping by taking a dive, but he hadn't noticed at the time how hard he hit the ground. He remembered punching that guy on the beach, and then Saiki telling him later that he amplified Kaido's punch's power, so he wasn't expecting any of the blows to actually hurt. He kept raining blow after blow on Saiki's face. Thinking back, he pictured Saiki's face, and there was legitimate blood, bruising, and swelling. He had actually done it, and done it for real, when he had intended to only do it for show.

He found himself at Chiyo's doorstep. He rang the bell, and she answered. She came outside.

Chiyo answered the door with her hands on her hips, but saw Shun with a choked up expression on his face. He didn't even know what to say. "Chiyo… help me…" was all that came out.

She had just gotten home from Kokomi's house and had witnessed the beating. She was fuming when she answered the door, but then she melted when she saw what condition he was in. She let out a deep breath and put her hand on his back and led him down the street, and decided to withhold judgment until she heard his story.

They made it to a park and sat down, and he told her the story. "I was trying to pretend, but I did most of the damage. I was supposed to make it look real, not really do it." Kaido broke down in tears. She held him in her arms until they decided to go home.

Kusuo woke up the next morning feeling much, much better. He grabbed his phone and looked at his face in the camera image. Wow, that doesn't even look like my face. As he remembered the night before, he noted that Kaido's blows had hurt the worst. When he hit the ground, he felt like a ton of bricks had landed on him, and the punches to the face weren't a picnic either. He had felt major pain in his legs, hips, ribs, and most of his head the night before, but now the pain was just a dull ache, and mostly limited to his face. He could live with that.

He noticed he had a message from Kaido, who looked like he was finishing the conversation he started before the fight. So, that meant that either Kaido was able to truly understand that he did what must be done in the name of friendship, or he didn't understand his true strength.

But what's the deal with that? I know how hard Kaido can hit…

The last thing he remembered about last night was Kokomi being worried. Then she was confused about how they had gotten to his room so fast, and particularly without using the door. He told her he'd worry about it in the morning, and well, it was the morning, so…

He didn't remember trying to teleport. Was it an accident? Or was it something else? He would see what would happen after talking it through with Kokomi, um, Teruhashi, if she was willing to speak with him, that is.

He looked up and saw her sleeping at his desk. He was genuinely surprised to see she hadn't left. He looked closely and saw a little puddle of drool by her mouth. That doesn't look comfortable. He had a sick thought, and decided to go with it before he could change his mind. He took a picture of her looking like that, and sent it to her. Her phone buzzed, and that seemed to start stirring her awake.

Then he sent a picture of himself with a goofy face to the group. Problem was, it didn't look like a goofy face, with all the swelling.

Kaido: I'm so sorry, Saiki! I didn't mean to! I was only trying to make it look real!
Kubuyaso: Forgive me, Saiki.
Kusuo: Oh, can't you tell I'm making a funny face in there? See? I'm sticking out my tongue and rolling my eyes in different directions.
Kaido: We thought that was because your face was that swollen!
Yumehara: Saiki, you can't make them do something like that again.
Kuboyasu: I can't do that again. I'm sorry, Saiki, I have to abandon the infiltration.
Kokomi: You should probably stay home today, looking like that.
Kusuo: You should probably stay home today, looking like that.
Kokomi: Thanks for taking a pic, btw. And didn't you know? I can just shake it off…

Kusuo looked over. She stood there, drooly faced, looking exhausted with snarly hair. She turned around, wiped her face on her shirt, and shook her head in a figure eight pattern a few times, and she looked perfect as ever. Wow. He hung his mouth open.

"There, see? It isn't that hard to say 'wow'." She beamed at him.

"I didn't… I only thought it…" Saiki started. "Wait - why aren't you mad at me?"

She put on a serious face. "After watching you get beaten up, I decided I couldn't be mad at you. I do forgive you, Saiki. But I think I'm still heartbroken," she said sadly. "But don't change the subject. You said you would tell me if your telepathy came back." She pointed a finger at him.

"What are you talking about? I haven't heard anybody's thoughts this whole time. Except something you said when you and Yumehara shut the door on me last night." She tilted her head. "Promise."

"But you teleported us here last night! And then you answered a question I only had in my mind, and then you thought 'wow' just now."

Kusuo rubbed his chin. We did teleport here - how? I wasn't trying to… it could have been an accident… but I've never had an accident bring me home before. I heard her thoughts last night, and she heard mine this morning. Before, others would only hear me telepathically if I was trying to talk to them on purpose. Reading others' thoughts just happened… But I would have intentionally not told her 'wow' on purpose, making her not hear it...

Kokomi watched as his mind worked, and she overheard bits and pieces, not enough to formulate complete thoughts. Suddenly his eyes widened.

"I have an idea. You sit here. Tell me what you hear." He walked downstairs.

Oh, my poor sweet baby! I'M GOING TO HUNT DOWN WHOEVER DID THIS TO YOU. "Oh, Ku! Are you doing okay? Your face looks a little less swollen, but more colorful."

"Yeah, I'm okay, mom. It barely hurts anymore."

Then Kokomi heard a crashing noise.

Dammit, Kusuo watch where you're going. "Dammit, Kusuo, watch where you're going."

"Sorry, dad."

She suddenly understood his experiment and widened her eyes - in order for two people to tell which of them had telepathy, there would need to be a third person involved. Oh no. Kokomi thought. She felt the blood rush out of her head and sat down, face flushed.

She was breathing heavily when Kusuo came back. At first he looked triumphant, but then he saw the look on her face, and it was replaced with concern. "You heard it, didn't you? You heard what they were thinking."

She nodded. He added with a shrug, "I didn't hear a thing."

"I wouldn't want to mess with your mom, though," she added with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah, she can get scary when it comes to me. She sent me after you on Friday with her scary voice, so in a way, I can blame her for me getting sent to the hospital," he said with a smile.

He paused, and put his hands on her shoulders, and said in a grave voice, "So here's my thought so far. This isn't my telepathy, but yours. Sorry. It sucks, I know. But it does come in handy from time to time.

"It wasn't me who teleported us here, but Nendo, and Kaido beat me up with new elevated physical powers. But how?"

Kokomi didn't even have to think about it, and didn't look up, either. "The hairpin."

Kusuo gasped. "The hairpin. But it's supposed to take AWAY powers. But if you're right, then Yumehara and Kuboyasu have some unknown power as well."

"And your brother." She remembered he tried it on, too.

"Oh great. Come here." He grabbed her hand and let her downstairs. She yanked her hand free, but followed anyway.

"Sorry, Dad, for tripping you, making you fall over the couch, and spill coffee on yourself. It was an accident."

"Mm-hmm. Sure."

Kokomi came down the stairs and his mom noticed her. "Oh, hi, Kokomi, did you spend the night?" she said with thinly veiled concern.

"Oh don't worry, Mrs Saiki, my intentions were only physical." Suddenly she flushed, "I mean, I was only worried about his body, I mean - " his mom held up a hand to stop her, smiling.

Then Saiki's mom looked at her husband. Somebody gets to have 'the talk' tonight, she thought.

Crap, Kokomi thought.

Kusuo led the way to Kusuke's room. The door was open, but Kusuke was staring at the wall with a look of abject terror on his face. Kusuo and Kokomi looked at each other, wondering if they should knock.

Suddenly Kusuke shook his head and seemed to snap out of it, and gasped when he saw the two of them together in his doorway. He recovered quickly, and greeted them with his typical intensity. "Hey, little brother, what's going on? Hey, little brother's girlfriend."

"Hey," she said a little too sternly. She still hadn't forgiven him for New Years. "And we're not a couple."

"Do you have more evidence about your powers coming back? Or is it something else this time?" There was something creepy about the way Kusuke said 'else'.

Kokomi could tell that Kusuo didn't want to tell him too much. "I did accidentally teleport yesterday. I was in school one moment, and then I wished not to be there, and I wasn't. I did have one other thing I didn't tell you about," he looked over at Kokomi and smiled, remembering the premonition, "but I want to talk about something else. Can you tell me exactly how your power-removal device worked?"

"Of course. It simply sucked them out."

"That's it?" Kusuo asked.

"What did you expect, for it to inject your body with some kind of toxin that attacked only the parts of your brain that hosted psychic powers?"

"Well, kinda. Okay, so it sucked my powers out. Then what would it do with them?"

"Oh, they're still in there, of course," Kusuke said smugly. "Unless some outside force removed them. You would have noticed if they were absorbed back into the universe or something. Oh! That would have been a great show. Don't even think about getting your powers back that way - for you it's a one-way street."

"For me?"

"Yeah, it basically says, 'if I'm stuck in Kusuo's head, then suck'."

"And somebody else?"

"I'm afraid my design didn't consider anybody else's head, so that would result in undefined behavior," the intensity did not die down.

"Meaning?" Kokomi added, but Kusuo said, "Got it," and led her away again.

Once they were back in his room, he said, "Never give Kusuke the advantage, or any more information than you absolutely need to."

"So your powers got sucked away, and now me and the others are going to get them?"

"Yeah, and faster than I'm getting them back," he said with a little jealousy. "It wouldn't surprise me if he did poison me, though." He looked at his phone. "Oh no! You better get to school."

"I'll never make it in time! Besides, I don't want to listen to everybody's thoughts at school!"

"I think you're only barely getting them. Which means you should only hear powerful or intense emotional thoughts," he said. She gave him an "are you kidding me?" look.

He texted Nendo:
Kusuo: Hey buddy, come to my room, really quick."

He was there in a flash, with his backpack on. He looked confused for a second, but then he said, "Hey, Buddy! Wow you look awful. You should stay home today."

They made small talk about Kusuo's condition, and exactly three minutes after Nendo got there, Kusuo put Teruhashi's hand on Nendo's shoulder. "I'll be fine. But Nendo! What are you doing here? You have to get to school!"

Nendo looked confused again, but then Kusuo's room vanished a second later.

She let go of Nendo. She looked cross for just one second. Kusuo, I better be able to get through this. She looked around, and somehow Nendo managed to get them into the shoe locker area unseen. She was glad for the spare uniform she kept here. Normally I have all morning to get into 'perfect' mode, now I have to just dive right in. Uggh. She sighed and tried to put on her game face.

Kaido got a message:
Unknown: Meet us today between classes, outside the supply closet by the bathrooms on the 3rd floor.

Kusuo sat in his room. Now what am I supposed to do all day? He spent some time wondering if Kokomi would really survive all day listening to bits and pieces of everybody's thoughts.

What's going on? Why aren't my powers coming back faster? Why are the others gaining their powers faster than I am? He kicked the wall, and put a hole in it. Right, I forgot about the 'elevated physical strength' thing. He decided to sit down and take a nap; it had been a long morning already.

So far Kokomi had made it through lunch and was doing all right. As usual the halls were crowded with people and their words, and she only caught bits and pieces of thoughts:
Pretty.
Pretty.
Hot.
Sexy.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.

And only an occasional inappropriate thought. She flinched at those. She could handle this, but she wasn't sure if she could handle full Kusuo-level telepathy.

Shun waited by the closet, and was suddenly snatched into the girls' bathroom, and dragged into a stall.

"For your extreme service to the Fan Club, we are proud to offer you Rank 3 Membership. See, we expected you just to pretend to beat him up, but, can I just say 'wow'!"

"Uh, thanks." Shun was still shocked at the suddenness of being dragged, and being in the girls' bathroom.

"Relax - look at this place. It's filthy. Do you think any girls actually use this? They all head down to the second floor.

"Normally, new members start at Rank 7. Those are the useless ones who don't actually do anything. We would have made your friend with the purple hair Rank 5, for doing a halfhearted job, but he quit already. The council and the president are Rank 1. Every rank in between grants new privileges," and he suddenly made his tone serious, "and has higher expectations. We will have a meeting tomorrow before school at this location." He handed Shun a piece of paper, and shoved him out of the bathroom.

He had just cleared the door when Mera ran in.

Kusuo opened his eyes. He was outside. Crap, I had an accident. He patted down; he was still in bed. He looked around; he was on top of the school. Part of his wall and floor were there, too.

"Kusuo? Are you there? What accident?" came Kokomi's thought in his head.

"Does this mean I can call you 'Kokomi' again? See, and you thought telepathy wouldn't be useful." Kusuo took stock of the situation. He was on top of the school, in his pajamas, with his bed and half of his bedroom.

Kokomi was back in class. She had heard Kusuo's thoughts closeby, but couldn't pinpoint the direction. She closed her eyes, and concentrated, and she saw him in her mind. That startled her, and she jumped.

He was right above her, on the roof.

Then there was a loud BANG, and then there was a gaping hole in the ceiling that opened to the sky. Then it started raining. Hard.

"Out in the hall! Now!" Ms. Shima yelled.

The hallway was open to the sky, too, and so was most of their floor.

An announcement sounded from the loudspeaker. "The building is unstable. Evacuate!" This repeated a few times.

She tried to reach Kusuo with his mind, but he must have been out of range, or she wasn't strong enough yet. Hairo took control and organized everybody into groups for a controlled evacuation, even though they were packed like sardines in the hallway, soaking wet. As they were forming ranks, she happened to bump into Nendo in the hall, and she already happened to be next to Kuboyasu, Chiyo, and Kaido, too. She grabbed Nendo's and Chiyo's arm, and instructed the others to link up, and urged them into the bathroom. Nobody seemed to notice, as they were trying to hurry out of the building.

Still holding arms, she said, trying to imitate how Kusuo had activated Nendo's powers. "Nendo! Saiki's house!"

And then they were there, in his living room.

"Something funny has been happening lately." Nendo finally seemed to be picking up that something unusual was going on. She rolled her eyes, and explained that they were getting some of Kusuo's powers, and she mentioned all the ones she knew about so far.

"So that's how I beat Saiki so hard. Too bad I didn't know. Good thing I didn't unwrap my hands. That would only have been worse," Kaido said.

"That would explain how my punching bag caught fire." Kuboyasu added. He mentioned how he was trying to take out his negative energy on the punching bag, and it just incinerated.

"Saiki's powers are coming back slowly. He can't control them yet, and he blew a hole in the school. So far, I can only use telepathy sometimes, or when somebody has a strong emotion. Maybe he's the same."

"I haven't noticed anything different," Chiyo added, a little crestfallen.

"I'm sure you will. We all tried on the hairpin," Kokomi said, resting a hand on her shoulder.

After a few seconds of contact, Chiyo's eyes rolled into the back of her head. Kokomi let go quickly, and Chiyo collapsed.

Kaido helped her up. "Are you okay?" Her eyes rolled back again. Kaido started to glow a light blue color.

"Kaido, let go!" Kokomi panicked.

Chiyo didn't fall to the floor this time. "I'm okay! Really!"

"What happened?

"When you guys touched me, I felt … a rush of energy. Like a dam being thrown open."

"I felt it too." Kaido said.

"Wait, hang on. I'm going to do it again, Chiyo." Chiyo grabbed a chair, and Kokomi grabbed her shoulder, closed her eyes, and concentrated on Kusuo.

She found him. He was … in Okinawa? By the Snake and Mongoose Museum?

"Ku, can you hear me!?"

"Koko?"

"What happened? How did you get there?"

"I keep trying to teleport. I can't control where I go. How are you doing this?"

"I'll explain later," she thought. "Try to stay there."

"Nendo, grab on," Teruhashi said.

Nendo scratched his head, clearly confused.

"Her shoulder, dummy," Kuboyasu said.

"Nendo, can you see what I'm seeing?" He grunted in the affirmative. "Can you take us somewhere close to Kusuo where we won't be seen?"

He grunted and tensed up, concentrating. Then he let out a disappointed sigh. "No."

Teruhashi sighed. Then she remembered all the times Nendo had teleported so far, he had felt a sense of urgency, and he hadn't actually done it on purpose yet. "Nendo, take us there, now!"

Nothing. Maybe she needed to add an emotional component, or make him snap out of himself. He was still concentrating with his eyes bunched up. So she kicked him in the crotch.

"Youuuuuch!" What was that for? But they weren't in his room. They were in Okinawa, on an empty spot on the beach. A few minutes later, they found Kusuo was sitting on the sidewalk, looking glum.

They gathered around Kusuo.

"And back!" Kokomi ordered Nendo.

Nothing. "DO I NEED TO KICK YOU AGAIN!?" That did the trick.

They all sat down on the couch in the living room. Chiyo looked like she was going to pass out.

"Okay, how did you do that?" Kusuo asked. "Thanks, by the way."

She explained how she figured out she could see other people if she concentrated, and that Chiyo apparently had the ability to amplify powers.

Kokomi's phone beeped.
Mom: Your school called and said there was an explosion?! Are you okay? Are you on your way home? I'll be there soon.
Kokomi: I'll be home in a minute.

So this is how to get my parents' attention. They hadn't even noticed I was out all night. "Everybody check in with your parents before they freak. I better get home. Ku, text us if you can think of anything helpful to get us through this."

"Dude, I just blew up the school. How much help can I be?"

"Don't call me 'dude'". She thought with a fake scowl, and he smiled.

Kaido hung behind while she and the others headed out, but he caught back up to them in a few minutes.

Kusuo turned around after closing the door behind his friends, and saw his mom standing behind the couch, and she dropped a glass.

After she recovered, she said, "Oh, by the way, honey, I just got a message from school - looks like it will be cancelled until they figure out the school is safe. They suspect a gas leak, and I saw a report on the news a few minutes ago." She looked at him in the way mothers do when they suspect something, but want you to talk first. He looked at her for a minute, and ended up just nodding and walked up to his room.

He decided to give "being the group mentor" a shot.

Group message to the Real Teruhashi Fan Club:
Kusuo: Everybody try to find safe ways to practice your powers, minimally at first, and in a controlled environment.
Kuboyasu: So I don't blow anything up?

Is he referring to what I did this afternoon, or is he talking about himself?
Kuboyasu: Winky-face emoji
Kaido: rofl emoji
Kokomi: lol
Kusuo: Um, yes…

What a pain these guys were.

Chiyo had nobody to practice with. She tried to get together with Kaido, but Kaido said his mom was making him do extra study work. 'If you can't be in school, you still need to be learning,' he had told her, mimicking his mom.

Aren started small. He knew he could blow up punching bags, but only on accident. That was what he was trying to avoid though: accidents. After literally spending the rest of the day concentrating, he was able to make a small fire come out of the palm of his hand if he jump-started it by snapping his fingers.

Shun had actually blown Chiyo off; his mom hadn't made him do anything. He went out to practice. He had some small success, but it seemed like only certain emotions could trigger the power. He had tried punching a tree, and that really hurt, so he set his sights lower. He tried to recall the emotions that activated that powers the other night. What had been going through his head?

Chiyo had just kissed him. He had wanted badly to impress Saiki by doing a good job infiltrating the Club. He tried bringing back the memory of the kiss, and kicked a small rock. It went a few feet.

He recalled feeling badly about how much hurt he had caused Saiki, how it felt like part of him had broken beating up his friend, and he could swear he actually stubbed a toe kicking the same pebble. Then as he recalled the pride he felt at skipping so many ranks of the TFC, he tried again, and the rock went sailing over a few houses, and shattered somebody's window, making a cat hiss.

Harnessing that feeling, he started feeling powerful, and went off running. Even faster than Nendo. He practiced all day. He could run faster, punch harder, lift more, and throw farther. Eventually, he decided to call it a night, but he came back to the tree that hurt his hand. It was a little intimidating, as trees are, but he cleared his mind and gave it a solid punch, and it cracked and fell over. If I can do this, I can do anything! He liked how the rush of using the power made him feel, and he craved more.

Riki tried all afternoon to teleport, but with nobody to kick him in the nuts, or yell at him, it wasn't coming. There are some things you just can't fake. He decided to try to figure out what made it work before, but couldn't find the spark on his own. So he decided to try to have the same person around when he had made it happen before - Teruhashi.

She answered the door and he explained his issue. She brought him inside and they tried to plan how to make it work. "So, I knew you were trying too hard. Saiki made you do it by surprising you. I made you do it by making you … redirect your thoughts."

It took a couple hours to practice, but with her coaching him, she was able to gradually wean him off of being surprised, and he got the ability to teleport at will. As he was on his way out, she said, "Thank you, Nendo."

He was surprised. "What for? You helped me. So I should be thanking you."

She replied, "You came over and asked for help without mentioning my appearance. You made me feel needed, and that doesn't happen very often." She smiled at him and reached way, way up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

Wow, maybe I don't understand girls after all.

Kusuo was discouraged. He felt like he was six again, having accidents. Somewhere along the way, Kusuke had made the limiters for control. He didn't want to have to go through that again.

His friends had bailed him out, and he was supposed to be their mentor? What a pain.

He reviewed the day's accidents. He had woken up on top of the school with pieces of his house. He tried to go back home and instead blew a bigger hole in the school. He kept trying different places, and ended up in Okinawa. Then he had given up.

He went through some of his powers he could try that wouldn't leave him stranded.

Invisibility. He tried to turn invisible, but succeeded in making his clothes invisible, and the rest of him not so much. He sighed and put on a visible outfit.

X-ray vision. He tried to look for some manga through his desk drawer. He found it, but only because his eyes shot a hole through his desk.

Shapeshifting. He tried to shrink to the size of a cat, and ended up growing about 15 centimeters. He suspected if he tried the opposite of what he intended, it might work. He imagined being the size of a giant, and put on 15 more. Great. Well, at least he wasn't stuck being the size of a cockroach.

Heat. He tried to heat a package of popcorn, and it just exploded, sending the seeds everywhere.

He would not try telepathy.

So Kusuo came to the conclusion that he could use all of his powers if he wanted to, but using them would probably backfire. But hey! I can teleport again! he thought, trying to cheer himself up. Just not where I want to.

There was an upshot, though, when the others took him, and teleported him back, he had felt a surge of power. He developed a hunch he wanted to follow through with.

He hit his head on the door as he left his house, and went out walking to Yumehara's house. Chuckling a little about never having been to her house before, he rang the bell. She answered the door, a little surprised. "Saiki?" Then she jumped back at the sudden appearance of a 210-centimeter tall Saiki. "What happened? You're huge!" She blushed, and tried to backpedal. "I mean - tall!"

"I need some help," he said.

"Uh sure. Come on in." Kusuo ducked as he went through the door, and they went into the main room. "So, uh, what can I do for you?"

"I can't use my powers. Something wrong always ends up happening instead."

"Okay...?"

"When you guys brought me home today, I think your powers … kind of helped kickstart something."

She put on a big smile and giggled. She was hoping for a chance to practice, as she couldn't do it by herself, and everybody else seemed occupied. "All right, what's the plan?"

"When you guys teleported me earlier, I felt some kind of … power … reconnecting…. I think just by touching … me." Suddenly he felt a little embarrassed talking about it. He remembered she once had feelings for him. All of a sudden he had a worry that in his new state of accepting friends and romance, and especially now after being so vulnerable, he might fall for anybody who had feelings for him.

He shook it off; as usual, he would worry about that later.

"Okay, okay. So we kinda just did this," she tried to reach his shoulder, but couldn't reach that high, and grabbed him by the wrist instead. "And Kokomi told us what to do."

Kusuo felt alive with power. It felt like broken connections throughout his body were coming together again. He figured now or never, and they teleported to the school. For the first time since the volcano, he had successfully used one of his powers. Yes! Yumehara looked a little woozy and sat down.

He felt like he could use any of his powers with her there, so after giving her a minute, he decided to repair the school. He set time back for the building one day, and the ceiling and walls came back together. Yumehara watched in awe as it reconstructed itself before her eyes. Kusuo didn't want to think about what disastrous effects could have happened if he had an "accident" trying to do that.

They back teleported to his room, and they fixed the walls of his bedroom and his desk. They hadn't needed the three-minute cooldown.

Yumehara reminded him he was still extra size. "You might wanna, you know …" as she gestured to his size. He shapeshifted back to normal size.

He asked her to let go. He felt everything fall apart again - all of those connections breaking. He sighed. He couldn't quite tell if he felt better than before the experiment, if even just a little. Maybe it'll be like therapy - Maybe 50 sessions and I'll be good.

He suspected that she might have charged him up enough to do a teleportation on his own. He asked her to wait for him while he tried teleporting, and that if he wasn't back in a few minutes to go get Nendo and find him again. But he came back, and he gave Yumehara some flowers. Hopefully the kind that meant "gratitude" or "friendship", not "love" or "romance".

She reached up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for helping me practice my powers. I can't do it myself. Thank you, Saiki." There was a sparkle in her eyes.

Uh oh. It didn't escape him that the beginning of whatever he had with Kokomi started with a kiss on the cheek. Did everybody do that? What does it mean?

"Let's go show Kokomi," he said. She put her hand on again, but on his shoulder this time now that she could reach it, and a second later they were in Kokomi's room.

He was hoping to startle Kokomi as they appeared suddenly in her room, but she didn't even blink. It was Kusuo who was startled when he saw the scowl on her face.

A/N: This is the longest chapter of the story so far, but the draft of the next one is even longer. It's the best I could do to avoid an awkward chapter break. After that, they'll go back to normal size. EDIT: I ended up putting a chapter break in there anyway, but you might not be happy about it.