Chapter 25. Secret Secrets Hurt Someone

Kusuke Saiki could taste it.

The defeat.

It was imminent.

He sighed in ecstasy, swirling around in his computer chair slowly and relishing the feeling overcoming his body.

All four mechs had been destroyed. All four clues had been found. The traitor had made up for her mistakes. The silly plebeians that his brother called friends had been freed. Now they would all gather together to save their precious Kokomi. Oh, it was just so sweet.

He wrapped his arms around himself, smiling like a kid on christmas. "Oh how much effort I wasted in this attempt against you little brother. Months of preparation! Precious resources." He laughed, a little manichally. "The millions I spent on those mechs! Now they're rubble in your school!"

He couldn't take how wonderful he was feeling. Rocking in his chair, arms still wrapped tightly around himself, Kusuke Saiki started to laugh. Loud, crazy, uncontrollable laughter.

He had never felt so amazing.

"So, where is she?" Chyio and Auira were staring at the clues over his shoulder. "Those just look blank..." Chyio whispered, but Auira rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Just wait, Saiki will figure it out."

Saiki had already figured something out of course. It had been immediately obvious that he had to use Psychometry on the papers. He didn't even need to peel off his gloves as they had already been torn slightly in the battle. Psychometry.

"Psychtawhatify?" Nendo asked.

"Ooooh," Toritsuka perked up a bit, "I know that one. Saiki told me about it. It's where he touches his skin to something and learns all of the history about it. He also uses it to see ghosts by touching me, so I am totally useful and cool to him no biggie."

This isn't a popularity contest.

"What good is that gonna do?" Aren scratched at his head, "Isn't it just gonna tell him that the paper was made in a factory or some shit."

"Hmm," Kaido pressed the top of his fist to his chin in thought, "Unless the history also includes the person who left the clues to begin with. And assuming that that person is the one who took Teruhashi then we would learn something about him!"

Wow, you got it exactly right, Saiki was honestly impressed, but he supposed that Kaido had a lot of experience with this kind of thing in all of his fantasies.

Chyio beamed at him, "Wow Kaido, you're so smart!"

Kaido immediately turned a bright red and began talking much quieter, "Well uh ... you know... I just... want to help my friend... hahah."

Auira rubbed a hand against her knee, trying to remember how much longer she had before it would split open again. "So, what do you see?"

Saiki's eyes looked a little messed up. Figuring he was in the process of figuring that out now, she gave him a second as he pressed his skin to each clue in turn.

Saiki did not like what he was seeing.

The first piece of paper that he touched showed a man, dressed all in black. Black jeans, black hoodie, black shoes. He was talking to Kusuke. "You want me to do what now?" Saiki couldn't see his face, nor, he imagined, could his brother with how low the hood was hanging over his eyes, but his voice was gruff and aged. Saiki assumed the man was at least in his mid to late thirties.

"I want you to take this girl and hide her somewhere," Kusuke's eyes looked crazy even for him. He was too excited and childlike, even when asking a man to perform a serious crime. "I don't want to have any idea where she is."

The man hesitated a second and then glanced down at Teruhashi. Duct Tape bound her wrists together in front of her and covered her mouth, though there wasn't much need as she looked like she was passed out. Saiki was glad he couldn't read this man's thoughts, he didn't want to know what the man could possibly be thinking about right then. "How much are you paying?"

"How's two million yen sound?"

The man coughed and stood up a little straighter. A small scar on his chin became visible as the shadow slightly lifted from his face. "T-Two million yen!? Are you serious?"

"I have the cash right here," Kusuke whipped out a wad of money from his pocket, "Now do we have a deal or not?"

There was a long silence. Teruhashi wriggled slightly in her sleep, letting out a small moan of pain.

"Ok," The man reached out for the money but Kusuke moved it out of his reach with a grin.

"You better hide her away good. If you don't, I'll want a full refund."

Saiki could imagine the chill that must have gone down that man's back at his brother's words. Mixed with the face of someone that looked heavenly and happy to be there. He could be, and often was, a terrifying monster.

"You got it. She's as good as gone."

Kusuke just grinned and handed him the money, along with four white slips of paper. "Oh, and one more thing..."

The vision ended. Breathing deeply, Saiki shook off his rage, he had to keep going. He pressed his hand to the next clue.

"W-where am I?" Teruhashi's voice sounded out. "Hello?" There was a rustling sound as she fidgeted with her bindings. "Is anyone there? Saiki?"

It pained him greatly to hear his name pass from her lips with such fear.

Saiki couldn't see anything. He wondered briefly if they had shoved Teruhashi into a dark room or closet. Each possibility was making his blood boil, though he assumed they were at least both better than her actually being tied to train tracks. Then a light shone from above, lighting up his girlfriend and showing her bound and blindfolded, sitting with her legs crossed up against a brown tarp... A bag. She was in a brown bag. The bag jostled, causing Teruhashi to fall onto her side, grunting in pain at the uncomfortable position she was in now.

A hand reached into the bag. Saiki could tell right away it was the man from before from the black leather gloves and what must have been the arm of the black hoodie that adorned it. He was holding the small slip of paper that would become the second clue. He pressed it to the bare skin of Teruhashi's arm, still in her sleep clothes from the night she was taken.

She gasped at the contact, attempting to move away from it. "Who are you!? Why have you kidnapped me?"

The man said nothing, he just continued to press the piece of paper to her skin. Had Kusuke given him a time limit or something for the contact?

Teruhashi sniffled, tears streaming down from behind her blindfold. "You know, my boyfriend won't like this. He'll come for me. He'll come for you."

"Whatever toots," The same gruff voice from before. Then suddenly a rough kick against the side of the bag, connecting squarely with Teruhashi's ribs. She let out a pained gasp, toppling back over against the floor. "You idiot! Don't hurt her." So there was two of them...

"I still think it would just be easier to kill her man."

Saiki's blood ran cold.

"The guy said not to actually hurt her you fucking dolt. Now just shut up for a bit, I'm gonna start driving again."

That man was a walking tombstone. Saiki was seething, still seeing the kick and hearing her pained shout in his mind. If they touched another hair on her head, or even thought about killing her... As soon as he figured out where they were...

Driving. Saiki blinked, his eyes focusing back on the four clues on the roof. He had to focus, he had to keep watching to find out where they were. But was she still in Okinawa or had they come back home before being handed off to a criminal?

There was no time to waste, he pressed his hand to the third clue.

"What are we doing out here Frank?"

"Shut the fuck up," The gruff voice of the first man Saiki hated sounded again. They were standing in a wooded area, in front of a cabin. The man's hood was lowered. That was bad for him. Saiki could see the scars and the freckles adjourning his average face, he could see the blue eyes and the black hair. He would hunt him down.

"Don't swear at me douche!" The other man, younger than Frank, rolled his eyes. "I just wanna know why this job was worth it." This was the man who had kicked her, the one who thought it would be easier to just kill her and move on. This man, blonde haired and muscled, looking like he had been fighting from the moment he fell from his mother's womb. He was going to get it so much worse than Frank when Saiki found them.

"Just trust me." Frank pulled out the slip of paper that would become the third clue and pressed it against the wood of the door to the cabin. He held it there silently for a minute.

"What... are you doing?"

"What I was paid for."

"... You were paid to hold paper to a door?"

"Shut up."

Back to the present.

Saiki squinted. That was less of a clue and more of a direct answer. What was his brother even playing at?

He pressed his hand to the last clue.

"Hey Brother!"

Oh good god.

The last piece of paper was propped up against a television with his brother's face on it. "Obviously this is a pre-recording that I paid my guy to play. I don't think he really understands why though so you don't have to worry about him ok?"

Saiki grit his teeth.

"Anyway, I just wanted to congratulate you on your win! You did fantastic, probably, I wouldn't really know yet would I? Not unless that feisty little friend of yours is still hanging out with me that is. But if not then whatever." Kusuke shrugged, "I don't really keep friends like you do Ku."

Don't call me that.

"Now now, there's no point in arguing with a vision from the past brother," Kusuke laughed merrily, "In just a moment I am going to go dark and give you your prize! No hard feelings brother, I'll have to get you next time!" The older Saiki smiled wolfishly one last time, before the screen went dark, and there! The most glorious site finally awaited him.

There was his answer.

In the reflection of the TV screen was Teruhashi, still blindfolded, bound to a chair, and hands and wrists taped in a way she was forced to hold up a sign. A sign with a location.

"Well Saiki?" Auira's voice called out to him, "Did you find her?"

Saiki blinked and focused his eyes back onto his friends, waiting so patiently.

Yes.

"Oh that's great!" Auira clapped her hands together and turned to the other five, "Listen up you simpletons, we found her! So now we gotta get a plan ready and probably prepare for battle!"

No, there won't be any need for that. Saiki knew where she was, all he had to do was teleport to her and teleport back. He didn't even have to become a murderer.

... Yet, anyway.

His friends could remain safe.

"What do you mean there's no need f-" Auira turned, and with the blindingly fast reflexes that only a fortune teller could have, the answer came to her and she screamed. "OH NO YOU DON'T! EVERYONE GRAB SAIKI NOW!"

What?

Suddenly there were hands. All. Over. Him. Following Auira's orders all of his friends had lunged at him, grasping onto whatever part of his body they could. Auira had clamped her arms around his neck, and Toritsuka had managed to grab his left arm, while Aren took hold of his right. Chyio basically just tripped, not quiet prepared to move as quickly as she was being told to, and grasped onto his stomach. Then Nendo did this weird little jump hug that had him basically holding onto everyone, and poor Kaido seeing no room, slid across the ground to be able to clasp onto his ankles. Saiki was pretty sure this bordered on sexual assault.

A second later a flash of blue light engulfed them all, and they all disappeared from the roof of P.K Academy.

Good Grief.