Chapter 1: A Peculiar Morning

"Saiki's thoughts"

"Telepathic speech"

"Others' thoughts"

"Damn it."

Saiki held up a pencil on his desk with perfectly controlled telekinesis from his bed, something that he shouldn't be able to do anymore after putting on his power removal hairpins. He had a premonition that morning, another thing he shouldn't have had, so he had a suspicion that his powers were coming back, and unfortunately for him, these suspicions weren't unfounded. His powers were coming back. He set down the pencil on his desk and shifted his position, now sitting at the edge of his bed. He knew that he had a premonition, but why couldn't he remember it? Whenever Saiki had a premonition, it was always to warn him of some awful disaster about to occur involving him. This was the first time that he couldn't remember the contents of the premonition that he had, and that was bad. Very bad. While he tried to get himself to remember that day's premonition, his parents' thoughts from downstairs started to leak into his head.

"No! I'm gonna be late again! Shit shit shit shit"

"And to think that this hasn't happened in three months… how he's grown…"

"And my mind reading is back. Great. I've got a lot of things to say to my brother now."

The pink haired psychic opened the door to his room and trudged downstairs. He was met with absolute chaos. His dad had one foot on one of the chairs at the dining room table, stuffing his briefcase with who knows what, all while screaming "shit shit shit" in his mind, which the psychic could hear more than perfectly, and his mom was in just as much of a rush, making scrambled eggs in such a way that you would worry that the eggs would develop motion sickness. His mom was the first to notice his presence.

"Ooh, Kuu-chan! Good morning! How'd you sleep?"

"Fine", Kusuo lied, which his mom noticed, but decided to say nothing about.

Right after Kusuo responded to his mother's inquiry, his father noticed that he was there, and without wasting any time, he called to him, stopping his frantic packing,

"Ku-su-o! Please! I'm running super late! Could you tele… wait you can't do that anymore…", he sighed in disappointment.

"Actually-"

The psychic put a hand on his father's shoulder, and teleported in a flash of blue light to an alley adjacent to his father's workplace to avoid prying eyes.

"Woah! Kuu, you got your powers back? Thank-"

"That's 1000 yen."

With a stupefied expression on his face, Kusuo's father replied, "B-but that's like 10 times more expensive than before!"

Kusuo replied immediately and nonchalantly, "What, it's literal instant travel, and it's still cheaper than a taxi- what more do you expect me to do?"

"B-but-"

"You know I can send you back. Easily, too."

Kusuo's father, realizing that what Kusuo was saying was completely true, caved into his demands.

"O-Ok ok! Just… one moment…" He started to pat himself down.

"Uh… Kusuo-"

"If it's your wallet, you left it on the dining room table. Along with your briefcase."

His father immediately went back into panic mode.

"Ku-su-o! PLEASE!"

Kusuo put his hand on his father's shoulder again, and teleported back home.

Kusuo and his father appeared in a flash of blue light in the dining room.

At this point, Kusuo's mom was finished with the scrambled eggs.

"Ooh! Kuu-chan, papa, I wondered when you guys would be back to pick that up! And Kuu-chan, when did you get your powers back?"

"Just this morning."

"That's so recent! Are you sure you can use you powers ok? You don't have your limiters!"

"It's ok. It doesn't look like I need them."

"How about glasses? Do you need some?"

Looking at the pattern for how Kusuo's powers were coming back, it seemed as if his powers were coming back one by one- so he should probably put on a pair of glasses before he accidentally petrifies someone.

"Actually, yeah. Do you have a spare pair of glasses?"

Surprisingly, she actually did. She rummaged around in a cabinet next to the sofa, and pulled out a pair of completely normal black square rimmed glasses with fake lenses. She brought it to Kusuo, and answered his question. "Actually, I do."

She handed Kusuo the glasses, which he promptly put on.

"Wow, thanks."

Kusuo's mom was frozen in place. To Kusuo's relief, she wasn't petrified.

"Uh… Mom? Are you ok?"

At those words, Kusuo's mom immediately sprung back into action.

"Oh my God, Kuu-chan, you look so CUTE!"

Kusuo was confused. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Teruhashi chan will think you're just the cutest thing!"

At that, Kusuo took off the glasses in a swift, violent motion, but remembering the repercussions that would occur if he didn't have glasses on, he begrudgingly set them back onto his face. Looking at Kusuo's ALMOST flustered face, Kusuo's mom smirked.

"Ooooh, so that's how it is…"

"Whatever it is you're thinking Mom, it's not that."

Kusuo's mom simply snickered in response. While all of this was happening, Kusuo's dad was trying to elicit a response from his son by making awful poses and screaming "KUSUO!" on more than one occasion. After his fifth scream, his son finally responded with,

"2000 yen please."

"Wha-what? I-I don't understand-"

"I teleported twice. 1000 x 2 = 2000. Your point?"

"Come on Kusuo-"

"2000 yen please."

"At least let me finish my sentence!"

At this point, Kusuo's mom interjected.

Smiling, with a friendly tone, she said to Kusuo, "Kuu-chan, don't be mean to Papa."

"2000 ye-"

"Kusuo. Don't. Be. Mean. To. Papa."

Kusuo froze.

In the background, Kusuo's dad could be heard screaming "Thank you Mama!"

Kusuo, absolutely terrified of his mother's wrath, teleported himself and his dad to his dad's workplace, this time with both his dad's briefcase and wallet present.

"Thank you Kusuo!", his dad said cheerfully.

"...No problem." Kusuo was still under the effect of his mother's terror. After the three minute timer finished, Kusuo teleported back home, wondering what he would do about his returned powers, his lying brother, and most of all, that morning's dire premonition that he still couldn't remember despite his greatest efforts to do so.

"Well, no real disaster has happened yet, so the premonition definitely wasn't about my dad."

After eating his breakfast, which was surprisingly delicious for a non-coffee-jelly substance, Kusuo said his goodbyes to his mom and walked out the door, and almost immediately ran into… Teruhashi?

"Wait, hold up. This isn't the usual pattern. I'm supposed to run into the two idiots, not her. Does this have something to do with the premonition? If so, that would be really, really bad." He wasn't exactly wrong.

While Kusuo was thinking, he didn't notice that he was staring at Teruhashi- but she didn't really notice that he was staring either, because she was staring at him.

"Oh my God those glasses are so CUTE! I just want to cuddle with him and… what am I thinking? I'm the perfect pretty girl, I'm the perfect pretty girl, I can't have those thoughts…"

"My mom was right…"

Teruhashi was struggling to keep up her perfect pretty girl facade- she had been standing in front of Saiki, staring for a full 15 seconds before she actually said anything.

"G-good morning Saiki-kun!"

Saiki snapped out of his inner thoughts and replied. "Good morning."

"Now that was on a new level of awkward for her."

Kusuo walked around her and started walking to school, and she quickly followed him. Dying to start a conversation, Teruhashi asked Saiki, "So… how did you sleep last night? It was… really windy, wasn't it?"

"I slept fine, and it wasn't really windy."

End of conversation

Meanwhile, the two idiots were in front of a shiny new Ramen shop. The ramen shop was closed though, so they had been standing there for 15 minutes.

"Hey, Nendou, why are we here?", said Kaidou, about 15 minutes too late.

"What, it's a new Ramen shop, runt, we're gonna eat Ramen."

"Um… it's closed."

"So we're gonna wait for it to open.", Nendou shot back, as if he had said the smartest thing in the world.

Kaidou made a face. "It opens at 11:00. It's 7:30 right now. And plus, who eats ramen for breakfast?"

Nendou didn't respond for a full 10 seconds, until he finally gained an ounce of common sense and replied, "Good point, runt, let's go eat Ramen for dinner or something. Now where's Partner?"

Kaidou replied after a bit of thought, "Knowing him, he's probably walking to school by himself."

"I wish."

"Hm? What was that?"

"Oh, nothing."

A couple minutes passed, and Teruhashi was still walking with the pink haired psychic. He started a conversation to try to get Teruhashi away from him.

"Don't you… get tired?"

"What do you mean?", Teruhashi replied, obviously confused at the broadness of the question.

"You know, tired of… being you?"

"Tired of being me? What do you mean?"

"Is that supposed to be an insult… or does he mean what… I think he means?"

"You know what I mean. Remember that time you collapsed last year?"

"Y-yes… didn't you carry me to the infirmary?" Teruhashi mentally slapped herself for stumbling on her words.

"So you do know what I mean. You seriously worry me when you do those types of stunts."

"I… worry him? Stunts?"

"Um… yeah… I guess I get tired of… being me sometimes." She told him the truth.

"Yeah, me too."

"Wait, what's that even supposed to mean? And… I worry him? Does he actually care about me that much?" She started glowing even brighter than before.

Kusuo's honesty had the complete opposite effect from what he was hoping for. He honestly didn't know what to think of it. He should've been disappointed… but he wasn't.

"So Kusuo wants me to stop being a perfect pretty girl? Is he saying that he'll like me for who I actually am, then?" , Teruhashi thought to herself. She wasn't exactly wrong.

"Saiki-kun, what did you mean by, 'me too'?"

Saiki sighed, thinking that he might regret answering, but he answered anyway. "I have a mask too. " Saiki paused. "And I'd be lying if I said that it doesn't make me tired at all. Oh look, we reached the school gate. See you in class."

"Oh, see you…"

Saiki walked off at a brisk pace. There was no denying it- he had avoided Teruhashi. Usually, simply the concept of Saiki avoiding her would haunt her overly self-conscious mind, but as Saiki walked through the main gate, all Teruhashi could think was,

"Mask?"

She would see it crack very soon.

Saiki entered the classroom and sat down with a sigh. He glanced over to the desk to his left, where Teruhashi sat, which was currently empty. He sighed again and looked down at his feet.

"What the hell did I just do?"

Saiki had the strangest feeling- he felt like he should've regretted saying something like that, something so raw, so personal, yet he didn't. Why was that? He flashed back to that morning, and remembered his mom's sly smile as she thought,

"Ooooh, that's how it is."

He thought about it a little bit, and looked back at Teruhashi's empty desk.

"It can't be, can it?"

Before he had a chance to think more, a torrent of "offu"s filled the hallway adjacent to the classroom, which could only mean one thing- Teruhashi was here.

"Hiiiiiiii!", Teruhashi burst into the classroom with about 3 times more energy than usual. She started skipping towards her desk, which was next to Saiki's, gaining gawks and stares along the way. What made her so happy, nobody knew- except for one unamused pink haired psychic.

"Again, what the hell did I just do?"

Right as she reached her desk, she stopped, turned to Saiki and bent over, putting her elbows on her desk and resting her chin on her hands, and said with an infectious smile, "Hi Saiki!" Everybody in the class gawked. Why was Saiki getting such special treatment?

Saiki responded with a bit of a delay, but still nonchalantly as usual, "Hi."

"Shit, that was close."

He had almost smiled. If he had smiled, Teruhashi would've taken that as a sign that he enjoyed her presence, and would've kept bothering him for the entire day. Fortunately, he didn't smile, meaning that he wouldn't be subject to such treatment… or so he hoped.

"Really, not even a smile? I have to try harder then."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

After she said her greetings, Teruhashi plopped down in her seat, still glowing far brighter than usual, making Saiki wonder how long she could keep it up.

After a couple of minutes, Kuboyasu entered the classroom, and made a beeline straight to Saiki's desk.

"Hey, Saiki, um… where are those two?"

Saiki knew exactly where "those two" were, but feigned ignorance.

"I don't know. They might be running late."

They were.

"This is because you insisted on going to that ramen place that wasn't even open, you IDIOT!", Kaidou said to Nendou in between breaths, sprinting to school, as he had realized that he was running late.

"I mean, you followed me, so I don't think you can say anything." Nendou was only speed walking, but his speed walking was somehow at the same pace as Kaidou's sprinting, which showed that either Kaidou was slow, or Nendou was just that fast- or both.

"You're not supposed to say something that… makes so much... hagh… sense! You're supposed to be the stupid one, remember?"

"And you're not supposed to break the 4th wall."

"Wait what? Never mind. Just run already! We're late!"

"Ok." Nendou started running, leaving Kaidou, and some cars, in the dust.

"HEY, WAIT UP!"

Even with his superhuman hearing, Nendou was already too far away to hear Kaidou's desperate cries. After about a minute more of running, Kaidou eventually slowed to a stop, too tired to run any further.

"Maybe I'll get a taxi."

Nendou entered the classroom, and made a beeline straight to Saiki's desk, just like Kuboyasu did just a minute before.

Kuboyasu, with his superhuman instincts, was the first to notice Nendou's arrival.

"Speak of the devil, it's Nendou! Um… where's Kaidou?"

"Oh hey Kuboyasu, hey Partner! If it's Runt, he told me to run so I don't know where he is."

Kuboyasu, noting how fast Nendou was at running and how slow Kaidou was in comparison, realized that Kaidou was in a dire situation.

"Hey, Saiki, this is really bad. Kaidou probably won't get to school in another 30 minutes!", Kuboyasu said to Saiki in a panic.

Saiki of course knew that Kaidou was in a taxi, and that he would get to school on time, so he replied to Kuboyasu, "Don't worry, Kaidou will be fine."

Kuboyasu, obviously unconvinced, replied, "Are you sure about that? You know-"

As if on cue, Kaidou burst into the classroom completely out of breath, and screamed, "Am I late?!"

Everybody just stared at Kaidou with a blank expression. Noting the lack of teacher in the room, Kaidou sighed in relief. "Oooohhhh thank God I'm not late…" he collapsed to his knees. "The Dark Reunion truly is relentless…" This only gained more blank stares. After regaining his senses, Kaidou stood back up and joined the group around Saiki's desk.

"Hey Runt.", Nendou had his usual clueless face on. Kuboyasu, on the other hand, was in shock.

"Kaidou, how the hell did you keep up with Nendou?"

Kaidou snorted, and replied, "I-I took a taxi. There's no way I could keep up with that idiot. He's simply on another level."

Kuboyasu nodded in agreement. "...True."

Kaidou continued, "You'd think he's like the pinnacle of Dark Reunion's experiments in genetics or something."

Nendou, meanwhile, was picking his nose.

"Pinnacle of Dark Reunion's experiments? If he wasn't so stupid, maybe I would've believed that."

Saiki chuckled, and looked around the classroom as Kaidou and Kuboyasu continued their talk on Nendou's ridiculousness.

"Looks like everyone is here today. Hairo is giving workout tips to everybody like usual, (I hope he doesn't come to me) Yumehara… hasn't approached Kaidou yet. Weird. Mera… is in the back eating somebody's potato chips. I'll just ignore that… oh the teacher's here."

The teacher walked into the room, and the people around Saiki's desk scrambled back to their seats. The classroom went quiet.

The teacher reached the center podium, cleared her throat, and started talking.

"Uh, settle down class… Oh, everybody's quiet already, I guess I didn't have to say that."

The class let out a subdued chuckle.

The teacher continued talking.

"So… we have a new student."

"...What?"

Heya! Author here! The new student is a bit of a weird one... well, I'll update soon!