Chapter 10 - The Breakdown Part 2

Kusuo wasn't excited about going back to school with telepathy. However, he felt he needed to experience it once before using the ring his brother made. He made it all the way to school, and everybody's thoughts were as stupid as they were a few weeks ago. He rolled his eyes.

He dropped off his shoes and rounding a corner to make sure he was alone. He figured he had experienced enough for now, and he teleported to an empty bathroom stall next to class. He was able to hear Kokomi's thoughts from her bathroom stall, which turned out to be right next to his. Son of a... I should have been paying attention to the surroundings.

He heard a sudden gasp next to him, and he tried for a moment of sympathy, no matter how mad he was. It must be miserable for her today. Already being the center of attention and now with the curse of telepathy. There was a reason I tried to get through all of high school without any attention.

Kokomi heard Kusuo's thoughts and smiled just a little, even though she could hear the bitterness in his voice. She knew he had dealt with this for years, and she could barely survive one morning. But she knew he knew what it was like, and there was sympathy there. Kokomi left the bathroom with just seconds to spare, and made it into the classroom right before the bell rang.

Wait, where's Teruhashi? I thought I saw her coming in.
Is Teruhashi sick again? Oh no.

What? I'm right here. Everybody seemed to be scanning her without noticing her. Everybody except Kusuo. He looked right at her. She jumped when she saw his expression - it was downright murderous. She knew why he was mad, of course.

Except she hadn't actually done the thing he was mad at her for. Whatever he saw yesterday, it wasn't her kissing Nendo. She had tried to tell him, but he didn't believe her. That made everything a little bit worse.

"You don't know you're invisible, do you?" he thought bitterly. "I can't see you, but I know you're there. I can hear your thoughts. My telepathy's back now, too. All the way. What a pain."

There was a lot to process there. First: "Invisible?! I didn't know…" She studied herself and noticed that her hands and legs seemed partially transparent. Everybody else must not be able to see her at all. She wondered if this was why Kusuo and Chiyo didn't see her at her house the other night - she must have been invisible then too, and didn't even know.

Second: Kusuo's telepathy is back? Well, he kept his promise. But I can't even think about that right now. I'm just trying to get through the day. She noticed Kusuo seeming to look at her with a mix of anger and pity.

Third: Kusuo's not smiling today. In fact he looks downright scary. She remembered somebody thinking about him going back to normal. She actually thought it odd, since Kusuo had been generally smiling since school started. Suddenly she worried if he was going to go postal.

"Don't worry about me. I've been here before," he thought. "I made it through then, and I can do it again."

"Oh Kusuo, you have to listen to me, please! Whatever you saw, it wasn't me!"

"I don't want to hear it, and you can call me Saiki."

She burst into inaudible tears. Her shoulders heaved, and she tried to contain herself, even knowing she was invisible. Everything they had gone through so far, that was the first open declaration of going back to last names.

She knew if he weren't mad at her, he would be building her up and not making her feel worse, and that would have made a huge difference in getting through the day.

"Teruhashi - absent," The teacher said. Kokomi wasn't about to correct her at the moment.

I guess the TFC was right about me. Saiki thought. Crap, she can hear me now. Awkward. I'm just glad I didn't tell everybody my secret when I could still do it. But now I know what it's like to live without it, at least…

He looked over at her again, glaring. "By the way, once somebody touches you, you turn visible. It's a miracle you made it here from the bathroom without running into somebody. Oh, and Toritsuka can see you when you're invisible. He can't actually tell the difference. He's actually gotten me twice…"

She recoiled. "If you're so mad at me, why are you helping me?"

"Let's just say I've been there." After a few minutes, he thought, Well, it was pretty fantastic while it lasted, and glanced at her. Then he winced, realizing she heard him, and fell silent.

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"My mom taught me not to break up over texts or telepathy," he answered.

Maybe I can fix this, then. Then she winced, realizing he could hear her.

She took a deep breath, managed an almost-smile, got up, and pretended to come into the room. "Sorry I'm late, Ms Shima."

There, I knew she was here.
Looking good as ever. Even slightly flustered.
I wonder what's going on with her.
Doesn't she know she's supposed to be better than this?
It's nice to know that even she has bad days.

She managed to almost-smile at them. At least in here she was mostly safe. Except maybe from Takahashi and his cronies.

Soon it was time for lunch. What a sad bunch we are, Kusuo thought. Now we're both on edge of accidentally thinking anything around each other. If we weren't fighting, this could actually be something beautiful. Crap, I did it again.

He stayed in his seat for a while. Maybe he'd skip lunch today. Or teleport home and make something there. He didn't much want to drown in the sea of infinite thought either. It had been a gloriously quiet couple of weeks.

He got up and walked out into the hallway, trying to filter out all the thoughts. He looked up and saw Teruhashi down the hall, surrounded by hundreds of classmates, knowing that she was being penetrated by a constant hurricane of thoughts. Even the thoughts that were not outright perverted or selfish had a selfish undertone - he knew nobody really cared about the real her, as she had mentioned earlier.

Let me take you to lunch!
Sit by me!
I don't think she has a date to the dance yet.
I'll never be noticed with her around.
I'm gonna kill Saiki for doing this to her.
I can't believe I have to settle for the uglier girls. I know I deserve her.
I can't keep living like this when I know all the guys pay attention to her, and not me.
I wonder what she looks like without…

And on and on, unyielding, by a hundred followers, while Teruhashi was just trying to make her way to the stairs. She looked over and saw him from all the way down the hall. There was a plea in her eyes.

With that look in her eyes, the panic and desperation, his heart suddenly melted. "I'm coming." He started to fight through the sea of people, but he was just too far away.

He saw her resolve faltering. Her glow was completely gone now. He saw her literally reach out an arm for him. He knew she wouldn't last much longer. Should I teleport her out? That would be too conspicuous. Why can't I do anything useful with these powers? What a pain.

Suddenly the perfect beauty persona faded away and Teruhashi fell to her knees. Years of caring what they thought of her, combined with the emotional upheaval of the last few days and the bombardment of their thoughts penetrating her, caught up with her all in that moment.

"Would you all. Just leave me. ALONE!" She screamed through tears. The entire crowd backed up a meter, gasped, and their minds fell silent. "Do any of you have any idea what it's like? To be surrounded like this with a mob of admirers who DON'T ACTUALLY CARE!? You all come close, but none of you actually are! You all want to hook up, but you don't actually want to be my friend!"

She got quiet and looked down. "I thought if I could deal with all this if I could just have a few good friends. People I can count on and can trust me in return." She looked at Saiki, who was still fighting the crowd. "But I don't."

Kusuo felt a new feeling. Despite her having lost his trust, to know he had lost hers and that he was at least partially responsible for her being publicly reduced to tears felt like a blast of lightning hit him in the chest.

She was suddenly flanked by Yumehara, Kuboyasu, and Nendo. Kuboyasu shouted, "Enough gawking, get out of the WAY!" He pointed to the nearest exit, and the crowd dispersed wide enough for them to pass through. Nendo and Kuboyasu helped her up and supported her while they walked her out, and Yumehara took the lead to make sure the crowd didn't get to her.

"Good job, guys." Kusuo thought to them. "I'm sorry I couldn't get to you in time." He was pretty sure nobody was watching him, so he teleported around the corner to where they were going. The crowd was still in shock, and they were too afraid of Kuboyasu to follow. Once they made it around the corner, he told Nendo to teleport her home.

"I'll be there in a second. I have to deal with these guys." He went back the other way to face the crowd. There was bulletin board right behind the crowd. He hadn't practiced thoughtography yet, but he had touched Yumehara's shoulder on the way and hoped it would be good enough. He touched a medium-sized poster on the bulletin board, and replaced the contents with his thoughts. He had accidentally gone a little further than he intended, but he liked the results.

He teleported to the roof, just like he had done on the day she was sick.

The crowd had started to recover.
Okaaaaay.
Wow, that's awful! I didn't know!
I guess the fame was too much for her.
Another crazy.
I think I have the only video! Wait till the world sees this!
She's so hot.
Not even I have had a breakdown in the middle of the hallway.

Looks like they haven't learned their lesson. Group telepathy time. He wasn't sure he was strong enough for this. Last time, he had to remove his limiter, but so far, he hadn't done anything that would have required a limiter.

Here goes…

"SHE JUST WANTS TO BE A NORMAL PERSON!" Kusuo blasted it out into the minds of everybody who witnessed it. "Turn around and look at the bulletin board." He hoped she would forgive him for it.

On the poster were the words "The Real Teruhashi", with the following images:
Kokomi eating crappy ramen.
Her singing karaoke
Her eating dessert and loving it
Her reading manga
Her baking, being covered in flour, with a broad smile
Her sleeping on a desk with a puddle of drool
Her being sad and having somebody to hold her
Her experimenting with her appearance
Her being excited about a silly mug with a dog on it
Her making faces
Her crying
Her with a face of pure joy (yes, this was with him, but they didn't need to know that)

And then, he realized, it was too much, and passed out.

The group was stunned speechless. Sawakita recovered and was the first to see the poster. "Guys, look at this. Oh, this is great." The crowd gathered in line to see it, like the crowd to see who got the lead in the school play or who was the starting lineup of the basketball team.

They all laughed - some with guilt, some with understanding, and some with derision, but they all laughed.

Sawakita spoke again. "Maybe we should make it up to her." Those who were interested lingered, but there were plenty who were not.

It was Kaido's turn. "Maybe those who think she's lost it should remind her who she's supposed to be." The crowd quickly divided into two groups behind their ringleaders, but Kaido's group was quickly run out of school by Sawakita's crowd.

Kokomi was ushered into the bathroom. "Don't take me home yet, I want to see what he does," she said weakly.

They witnessed his tirade, and she was able to see the poster with clairvoyance. She made a pathetic smile, but was alarmed when she noticed he passed out. She was pretty sure she was the only one who noticed. "Nendo, Chiyo, go get him." In a flash Nendo had gone and come back with Saiki in his arms. They witnessed the dividing crowds of the school, but she was too weak to deal with that right now. "Okay, now let's go."

A moment later, they were in her front room, where both Saiki and Kokomi were placed gently on a couch.

"That hurt, by the way," Chiyo said, pouting. "I thought we were friends."

Kokomi blushed. "I'm sorry, Chiyo. You are my best friend. Frankly, though. I know you - all of you - " Saiki was still out, so she didn't count him, "I know I can count on you. And we're becoming better and better friends. But I feel like - you're afraid of me, and there's still something keeping you from letting me in. But I need you - someone - to need me. Saiki…, he was the only one. And now..." She looked down and started crying again.

"So… you're saying we're friends, but we're not friends?"

"I don't know, Chiyo, I just broke down in front of the whole school. I probably have 10,000 hits by now. Cut me some slack, ok? I guess I know you're my friend, but I don't have any idea how closely you see me."

Chiyo seemed to involuntarily rush over and give her a hug. They both started bawling.

Girls, Kuboyasu thought. He added, "I've been trying to avoid looking like I only want to be your friend because of what you look like. I guess that by itself makes it feel like I don't want to be your friend."

Nendo said, "You are my friend, but Saiki's my best bud. We're good." He reached over for a fist bump.

"Thank you for getting me out of there," she said earnestly to the three of them.

"That's what people do," Nendo reminded her.

Saiki started to come to. "What happened?"

"You passed out on the roof. We sent Nendo to get you," Kokomi explained. She looked at him for a second. "Thank you for doing that. You know, a year ago, I don't think I would have been flattered by those images getting out."

He smiled weakly, and nodded. There was still hurt in his eyes, but it looked like he wasn't angry anymore. That looks familiar - kind of like how I couldn't be mad at him anymore once he was beaten to a pulp. She looked closer. And she knew, like with the way she felt, that, even though he wasn't angry anymore, there was no trust.

Kuboyasu looked back and forth between them. "What's going on with the two of you this time?"

Kokomi met Saiki's eyes. He studied her for the first time in a while. She answered, "Well, I was mad at Saiki over the weekend for … reasons, and then I got mad again when I thought Saiki and Chiyo were putting the moves on each other, and Saiki got mad at me because he thinks I was making out with Nendo."

Kuboyasu started laughing. "Nendo? That's hilarious. Um, no offense."

Nendo pretended to get defensive. "That's right. She knows I'm out of her league." Everybody laughed, but Nendo was serious. "She did kiss me though." Now everybody stared at him, until he pointed to his cheek. "Right here."

Kokomi added, just a little bitterly, "Just like Chiyo did with Saiki."

Ohhhhhhh, Saiki thought.

Ohhhhhhh, Chiyo thought.

"Mm-hmm," Kokomi thought back.

Chiyo said, "Kokomi said she didn't do it, but Saiki showed me his memory. It's real as day. I don't know what to believe."

"Can you show us?" Kuboyasu asked.

"All right…" He walked them through the same process as he did with Yumehara, and replayed the memory in their minds. Nendo chuckled. Kokomi flushed. Kuboyasu watched studiously.

"Okay, two things. One, Teruhashi, I need you to kiss Saiki for comparison." Kuboyasu said.

"Nope," Saiki projected.

"I'm not kissing him," Kokomi projected.

"Ok, ok, I don't need an actual kiss, I just need to see how you would approach it."

Kokomi looked over at Saiki. He shrugged, but thought, "In the name of science…" They stood up, and she approached him as if she were about to kiss him. She didn't actually know what she would do, having never done it before. But she put her hands on him, reached up, and looked in his eyes. She stopped short, and they sat down again. She didn't miss the mixed looks of "don't you dare" and "I kinda hope she goes through with it" in his eyes. She crossed her arms and glared briefly at him.

"Okay, that's what I thought. In Saiki's memory, Teruhashi approached Nendo and leaned left. But this time, she leaned right." Kuboyasu said, as though studying two different versions of a textbook.

"And with Saiki, she was about to put one hand on her waist and the other on his face, but with Nendo, both arms were around his waist," Chiyo added.

What's going on?! Saiki thought.

"Two: Can you take us back in time?" Kuboyasu continued.

Saiki gaped at this one. After he recovered, he said, "I've only time-travelled myself before, but maybe with a boost." This time he looked at Kokomi for permission first, instead of Yumehara.

They all linked up, and Kuboyasu said, "Take us back to where you saw it."

Kusuo got ready for time travel. Hopefully they didn't destroy space-time again.

As long as I'm doing this, I'd better gather as many powers as I can. If I had a few others, I could have gotten Teruhashi out of the hall in time.

They went invisible. Apparently I can make others invisible if they're touching me. Interesting that we can see each other's translucent forms.

"Don't let go, and don't make any noise. If you get touched, we will all be visible again." He went on to explain the fundamental rules about time travel and parallel universes and such. They were alarmed but nodded. "We're going to start two nights ago."

They replayed the events that culminated in Teruhashi kissing Nendo on the cheek, and Chiyo kissing Saiki on the cheek. This time, everybody saw the entire perspective. Then they watched Teruhashi, Kusuo and Yumehara, all in Teruhashi's room, as Kokomi stormed out of the room, and even as she went invisible.

They came back to the present to discuss. "You can go invisible, too? No fair, I only have fire. But yeah, you totally blew that out of proportion," Kuboyasu joked.

"I know! I've never dated before, ok? I knew Chiyo had a thing for Saiki before and I got jealous. I tried to go fix it the next day, but then he wouldn't talk to me!"

Yumehara blushed. "You got jealous of me?" It almost makes me feel like her equal.

"We are equals." Kokomi thought back. More bawling and hugging. Kusuo rolled his eyes.

Kuboyasu nodded. "Okay, to the kissing scene."

Kusuo made them invisible again, and they travelled back to where he was walking to Teruhashi's house. He had them levitate just over the line of houses. Some of them freaked out about falling, but he shushed them.

"Ok, there I am, and once I turn the corner, you'll see it," he said quietly

They watched him turn the corner, stop in his tracks and gape. They followed his gaze.

"I don't see anything," Teruhashi said, accusingly. He landed them on the rooftop to get a closer look. He couldn't believe it.

"Can you pause this?" Yumehara asked.

Kusuo had never paused time before. He imagined that he probably couldn't pause real time, but viewing the past as he was, he figured he might be able to - it would really be exactly the same (but less exhausting) as coming back from the future a bunch of times to see it again or from different vantage points.

"IDK - Maybe." Kusuo made sure Yumehara was still holding on, and reached out with his hands and kind of made a pulsing motion with his fingers. Time froze. He brought them to the ground, and everybody let go.

"Wow, look at this face!" Nendo said, staring at the frozen Kusuo. He started waving his hands in front of the face, and dancing around, as if trying to make him laugh.

Kokomi saw the expression. Whatever Saiki had seen, it had been both real and appalling. They looked down the street again, and they still didn't see anything.

Saiki sat down next to past-Saiki and rubbed his head. What is going on? Am I going crazy? I didn't want to believe that you and Nendo would be kissing, but I know what I saw. Now it's not there? He sat there, gaping just as much as the other Saiki, but this time because there was nothing to see.

She sat down next to him. "Oh, do you believe me now?" She was cross with him, now. Again.

Crap.

She stood back up and joined the others.

Chiyo said, "This whole situation doesn't make sense. Even if Kokomi were pissed at Saiki, she wouldn't just run out and kiss Nendo. And we've established that what Saiki saw isn't the way Kokomi kisses, and that Kokomi isn't actually even here. So, the only thing that does make sense, assuming Saiki hasn't gone crazy -" she paused to glare at him, but continued, ominously - "is if somebody made him see this."

They all stared at her blankly.

Kokomi was the first to catch on. "Saiki, could you have done this to somebody else?"

"I could have…"

"Could you show us something right now, that clearly isn't real, something that would scare us to death?"

Challenge accepted. "Yumehara?" Both Teruhashi and Yumehara were getting used to this routine.

All of a sudden Kokomi was back in Oshimai, on the last trip before the school year started. She was with the others, excited about how they would spend the day. They boarded a helicopter and started flying over Mount Owari. She was sitting next to Nendo. Then, out of nowhere, the mountain exploded and tons of lava exploded upward. It seemed as if the lava would engulf the helicopter, but they flew upward unharmed, always seeming to stay just above the burst of lava, and yet always feeling one second away from destruction. Then they watched as the eruption engulfed all of Japan in just a few minutes.

"Holy shit." Kuboyasu said, as they were brought back to reality. They all stood there quietly for a few seconds to let the fact that it was fake sink in. "The volcano almost made me wet myself, but did you have to have me making out with Nendo?"

The others voiced agreement that they could have done without that. "I spared you that thought, Teruhashi, since you had already seen it, but everybody else had a shot of themselves making out with Nendo. Even Nendo." Nendo chuckled.

"That's what hypnosis looks like," he said.

"So, if somebody did that to you, would they have to be closeby?" Kokomi asked.

Saiki gawked with his mouth open. What? Attack me with hypnosis? Then he shook it off and thought for a moment. "Everybody come here." He called. He had them levitate about fifteen meters off the ground. "Look for somebody out of place. Somebody … suspicious, but concentrating."

They floated around the immediate vicinity, looking at rooftops, windows, alleys, and side streets, and then Chiyo spotted somebody one a rooftop about a block away. He was a middle-aged man wearing a maroon robe with two gold stripes running along each sleeve. He was mostly bald on top.

"That's him." Saiki said. "So what does this mean?"

Chiyo responded, "It means there are more people like you, and that they're not your friends."

A/N: There, you see? Nothing to worry about here. I just hope some of you came back to read this chapter after what I did last time. My kids said they would have put the book down and not come back.

This was the second time where I feel like it was hard to "sell" what I wanted to write, whether or not canon plus the story I've taken you through make something like Teruhashi's breakdown seem plausible. That, and whether I have enough detail - I tend to rush things (but hey, if I added the fluff, this would be a 200,000 word story by the time I was done). And then whether or not the event itself works. The other was whether I built enough foundation to support the "door being open" for their relationship to begin, back in chapter 2.