AN: I wrote the next three chapters already. Then I realized that the transition was very bad, made no sense to the story. It was so bad that I was ready to print it out and burn the thing. Or smash my computer. Then this came to me and all is well again.

I've come to love Aiura quite a bit. She's so fun to write. She's such an underrated character.

Chapter 8 - Confirmation

The unusualness of the day put Aiura in a foul mood.

It had started with Kusuo's odd request last night. In her recollection, it was the first time Kusuo had asked for a fortune-telling of his own fate.

Aiura did as was directed and found Kusuo's fortune to be very dull indeed: continue going to school, wearing the same uniform, looking even unhappier than he usually was. Knowing Kusuo's usual self-absorbed tendencies, he probably had to spend too much time with Teruhashi or Cafe Mami closed.

Then he said, "thank you."

At the time, Aiura brushed it off a common courtesy. Once she got up in the morning and had the time to process the words, she realized that not even helping Kusuo with the whole end-of-the-country volcanic eruption had gotten a "thank you" out of him.

It could have been the fact that she automatically asked him if she could kiss him, after he and his clones stopped the eruption. Did she expect a "yes" to the question?

Absolutely.

Aiura, unlike Toritsuka, generally did as Kusuo instructed and did it well. She avoided talking to him at school. She did a favor for a romantic rival, Teruhashi, per Kusuo's directions. She deliberately screwed over her cash cow by lying at her fortune-telling job after he saved her from a gang. She pretended to be Kaido for an entire day when Kusuo accidentally turned Kaido and Nendo into stone. She risked her life by trusting Kusuo's clones and finding eruption locations. Without her help, Japan would have been destroyed.

None of that got a "thank you."

It never bothered her because he usually paid her back by not telling her to leave when she ambushed him at a cafe. On certain rare occasions, he actually paid for her cafe snack and admitted that she was reliable. He was her soulmate and he appreciated the fact by ordering her around.

Kusuo really was an asshole.

A god-like asshole. But an asshole nevertheless.

His telepathic voice last night, though, did sound distracted. His immediate gratefulness to her was completely out of character for him. His answer to her question of possible future doom and gloom sounded uncertain.

If Kusuo was anything, it was that he was perturbed by nothing.

The volcanic eruption that would've ended the lives of millions did get him to clench his teeth as he suppressed the raw power of a planet, but that was understandable. With everything else, he was always as unmoved as a statue.

Then today, Aiura woke up to rain.

And it rained, all day long.

That was something that was not an Aiura's radar. It was supposed to be hot and sunny, perfect for her to show off the glow of her perky boobs.

As a powerful fortune teller, Aiura had never missed the weather forecast. She was one of those rare chicks who never had a bad hair day or forget an umbrella because she usually checked the weather the night before and lo-and-behold, the weather was exactly what she predicted.

If that true miss in fortune-telling did not give her the willies, the effects of Kusuo's coincidental absence from school did.

Everything at school seemed to be going wrong.

First, in the morning, there was a metal fire in the school cafeteria because one of the self-proclaimed geniuses in freshmen class decided to show off by throwing a piece of purified sodium into an udon noodle soup. That got three people sent to the nurse's office.

That sodium fire led to a fire alarm, for which a lot of people got wet not just from the sprinklers, but the fact people had to stand outside in the pouring rain. Actual firefighters tried water first, which made the fire worse, before trying a chemical fire retardant.

At some point, there was lightning and weird coronas in the sky. It was all pretty looking, until the lightning struck the main power substation in town and the power went out. Not exactly a problem, until lunchtime when there was no power to make actual food.

The weather was so bad that a tree fell into the gym, narrowly missing the boys who were playing basketball at the time. Good thing Nendo, Hairo, and Kuboyasu were there. Their instinctive thinking got most of the kids to a safe hallway. Akechi was smart enough to slip out to the library and avoided the whole situation but it was too dark to read because the power was out.

In the afternoon, a tanker truck full of diesel fuel crashed into the front gate of the school and started a second fire. This time, several people had to go to the nurse's office and a couple to the hospital.

The number of people asking her to fortune tell break up scenarios went through the roof.

Let's not even get started on misfortune to people's pets.

Then that no good, horrible-improved-to-bad luck Suzumiya from 3rd year, Class 2 decided that she wanted to talk with Toritsuka about doing a temple visit to increase her luck. Without Satou's incredible ability to stay average and mitigate her barely manageable useless guardian spirit, Toritsuka had somehow tripped, crashing into Aiura, for which there was a bucket of dirty mop water that got thrown up in the air and got all three of them wet.

Aiura was so fed up by the day's all-around bad karma that she went down to the 3rd year's Class 4, took a minute to find Satou, dragged him to Suzumiya who was now looking grosser because another student who was carrying a trash can tripped and dropped trash all over her.

"Get your girlfriend out of here and back to your class!" huffed Aiura, not even caring about the amount of attention was at her.

Satou blushed at the mention of "girlfriend." Suzumiya blushed slightly too, but was preoccupied with her current state.

Toritsuka, being the hormone-addled young man that he was, tried to get sympathy for his sorry state.

Aiura saw this and felt like strangling Toritsuka. She dragged him out into the near-empty hallway and yelled at him. "And you, Toritsuka, why didn't you channel an actual firefighter spirit in the morning instead of letting those idiots use water and worsen the fire?"

"I was in the bathroom when that happened," said Toritsuka. "And that's a really dangerous situation. You know those things can really hurt us, even if we are the PK Psychikers."

Aiura felt like drop-kicking the monk into next week, despite the truth in his words.

Where was Kusuo when you needed him? All of this bad luck was something that Kusuo could've easily dealt with without anyone noticing. Aiura herself was almost dragged into those messes. She never liked seeing the death sign across her own face. Trying to keep accident-prone Chiyo and Chisato out of it was even harder.

Why did Aiura have to be the responsible Psychikers at school? Toritsuka had been here longer than her!

"Um, Aiura-san," came that overly soft angelic voice.

Great. Just great. Now her romantic rival was initiating conversation with her. What now? Did Teruhashi want to know if she marries Kusuo in the future? Or compete with Aiura and see who becomes Kusuo's mistress? Aiura wouldn't mind the one-man, two-women arrangement, but she was certain that Teruhashi would mind.

"Can you do a little fortune telling for me?" asked Teruhashi in her slightly trembling, help-me voice that worked on pretty much everyone. She was working that angle so hard that the crowd about her was on the verge of tears. They fawn over her, many promised right then and there that they'll sacrifice their entire year's worth of allowance to the temples to get a good fortune for her.

Aiura wanted to say no. This was Teruhashi, someone that gave Kusuo trouble and therefore, Aiura's enemy.

Plus, Aiura was not in the mood. The events of last night, a day of actually missing the weather forecast, and weird accidents at PK academy where she had to do something because that good-for-nothing pink-haired esper was absent was positively pissing her off.

Something about Teruhashi, though, needed placating. The goodness of her aura pulsated to overwhelm even the powerful fortune teller's aura.

"Fine. Whatever," puffed Aiura.

The two of them were able to get away from the student crowd between a break period. They went to the usual upper landing area before the personnel access to the roof. It was quiet and anyone coming could easily be heard. Teruhashi, being the perfect girl, would never suffer the indignity of having her fortune told in front of an audience.

"Could you check on Saiki-kun? See where he is? See if he's okay?" asked Teruhashi. She looked nervous.

Aiura gave her a look. Seriously? That's it? Was this chick playing her, mocking her for not being a damsel in distress because her man who happened to skip a day of school? Well, Aiura can play the same game. "What for?"

"I heard from the administration that he's at home sick," explained Teruhashi. Her lips were still trembling, even without an audience. Seriously, her acting was way too good. "He did not seem to be doing well yesterday so I want to make sure that he's okay."

Aiura nearly rolled her eyes. Kusuo was indestructible. Using her ocular gift just to see if a god is 'okay' was almost like an insult.

Still, the day had started oddly and since Kusuo was one of the few people who could defy Aiura's fortunes, she was curious herself. It probably would not hurt to do her romantic rival a favor, for a price.

"Four thousand yen," said Aiura, holding out a hand.

"You're going to charge me?" asked Teruhashi, aghast.

"You have two questions and a chick has to eat, ya know," said Aiura, lightly touching her breasts. "And these babies need maintenance."

Aiura almost laughed to see Teruhashi's magnificent white ball glowing aura diminish a tiny bit. That was one thing that the perfect pretty girl did not have over Aiura, an enviable womanly chest. It made Aiura feel just slightly better about the day overall.

Teruhashi stiffened, but pulled out one a small money purse and forked the money over. She didn't say anything. She looked very much to be on the verge of tears with worry.

The gesture made Aiura doubt herself. Did Teruhashi actually, truly cared for Kusuo? Did Teruhashi not see Kusuo as just another "offu" conquest? Or just another male classmate that she must demonstrate her absolute perfection for the world to see? Maybe Aiura misjudged Teruhashi.

Wordlessly, Aiura accepted payment and stared into her decorated crystal ball, summoning her clairvoyance. "He's at a hospital," Aiura began.

Teruhashi gasped and covered her mouth, her eyes liquidy.

"Calm down! I haven't seen everything," said Aiura. Geez. What's with people and their automatic assumption of the worst? "Ah. He's with his grandparents. It looks like he's just sitting in a chair, listening to some spiel about medication schedules. He's in street clothes." He was in track pants and a hoodie sweater, the kind that people wore when they wanted to be comfortable or slovenly. He also had on a baseball cap, as if trying to hide his eyes. It's odd since Kusuo typically took care to dress appropriately.

"So he's okay!" Teruhashi said, automatically brightened.

Aiura made a face. Upon closer inspection, Kusuo looked tired and haggard, like he hadn't eaten or slept in a while. The way he sat was also odd. Normally upright with good posture, he slouched in the chair and wrung his hands. Then, without warning, he looked straight at Aiura through the crystal ball. His voice flittered through Aiura's mind.

"Not now."

Damn freak of an esper. Of course Kusuo would know if someone was looking at him through clairvoyance.

"He's okay," Aiura made a final determination, looking away from her crystal ball. "It looks like one or both of his grandparents are having health trouble and he's at the hospital trying to sort it out with his mom. He's fine."

The final fortune made both young women concerned and relieved. Both of them had met Saiki's grandparents so there was a person in their minds to relate too. Still, it did confirm that the alleged "sickness" was probably simply more like the Saiki family taking time off to help resolve the health issue of the grandparents. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Teruhashi took a breather. Much of her earlier restlessness vanished. "Oh. I'm so glad. I'll just call his house a little later, asking how he is. Thank you for helping me out."

"Why are you so concerned for Kusuo?" Aiura finally had to ask, point-blank. "Aren't you way out of his league? Like, by a thousand times?"

Teruhashi was startled by such direct question, and a little miffed too. People, men, and women tend to be gentle and fawning over her every need due to how irresistibly perfect she was inside and outside. But this gyaru chick was being difficult for the sake of being difficult, praying on Teruhashi's inner torment and concern for Saiki. It was a challenge that Teruhashi was not going to back down from.

"He sits next to me and I want to know how he's doing," said Teruhashi. "Isn't Saiki-kun way out of your league by a thousand times?"

"Oh, I definitely know that," Aiura yielded quickly. She had seen the many of hair-raising things Kusuo could do, things that barely scratched the surface of Kusuo's psychic abilities. "Kusuo is totally amazing in every way. There is no one comparable to him. But you seemed to act like you have a chance, strangely enough."

It took a moment for Teruhashi to realize that Aiura was saying. That the most perfect pretty girl in the world was the one who was less than Kusuo, not the other way around.

"You...you're the second person to say that to me," said Teruhashi, looking slightly unsure of herself. Why was everything about Saiki-kun made her doubt her perfect self so often? He made her so confused and act so embarrassingly strange. Just being in his presence made her happy and his absence made her heart ache. "I...just...never mind. It's not worth it. Not with you. Thank you for your help Aiura-san. I won't bother you again."

Aiura looked at Teruhashi's retreating steps, feeling like she had won one against the world's most perfect girl. A rare victory indeed.

On a whim, Aiura indulged herself with another peek at Kusuo a little bit into the future. Surely he'll forgive such a small infraction.

Ah. It looks like he'll visit her at the fortune teller's house later. How exciting!

Aiura hugged her crystal ball with a wide smile. She would have to wear her most showy dress, most glittery lips goss and fabulous heels tonight. To think, Kusuo would be willingly come to visit her. The gods are definitely in her favor.


For the expected occasion, Aiura decided on a bare shoulder wine-red evening gown with tasteful slits cut to reveal her supple thighs. She re-did her nails to be of the same color as her dress and picked her favorite cherry-flavored lip gloss. She paid close attention to her eyelashes and eye shadow. Her hair was curled perfectly. She put on a new hair clip and facial glitter. To complete the effect, she used a bittersweet perfume that mimicked the scent of a cafe.

Business was slower these days, now that she ranked 4th in the fortune teller house. She did not mind too much, since she still made enough money to buy the stuff she wanted and that it may get Kusuo to like her a little more. Kusuo never showed much expression in the first place, so it was hard to know if he even noticed.

The first couple of customers was as expected. Someone was about to give a presentation and wanted to know how that went and how he could improve. The second person wanted to know if coins would ever make a recovery.

There was a lull between the customers so Aiura took a moment to look outside the window.

It was still raining. Damn. How long was it going to rain? The humidity is going to be through the roof and make her hair frizzle.

The door clicked right on time. Aiura prepared her most winsome smile.

"Kusuo!" Aiura cheered, running over and hugging him. She made sure to press extra hard with her boobs, swung her thigh to brush between his legs. "I missed you at school today!"

Per expected, he stood there stiffly. His arms were loose about his side. He was still in those jogging slacks, sweatshirt hoddie, basketball cap, and sneakers. Come to think of it, his clothes were of an odd choice, considering that it was summertime. Rain or not. Wasn't he hot in it?

"Come, sit," said Aiura. She grabbed his hands and led him to the customer's chair and sat him down. "What brings you here? Another gang attack? You want to adjust the accuracy of my fortunes? You're going to vow eternal love to me and take me right here? "

"I need your prescience," said Kusuo, completely ignoring her other questions. He fished out a sheet of paper from the kangaroo pouch in his sweatshirt.

Aiura watched in amazement as a life-like portrait developed on the paper. Thoughtography. Another ability that Aiura never knew about. Honestly, how many abilities did Kusuo have?

"Can you find this man?" Kusuo asked, handing her the paper.

Aiura took the paper and studied it. The portrait was a man with shoulder-length blonde hair styled to cover his left eye, wearing a button-up lavender collared shirt and a lab coat. The lips were slightly smiling. The single hazel eye was tinged with intelligence that bordered on madness.

"Why are you asking me?" asked Aiura, waving the photo. "If you've seen this person before, then your clairvoyance can find him just fine."

"It's never been simple with this person," said Kusuo. "I can't find him with my clairvoyance. I was hoping that you can."

"What? Is he an archenemy or something?" joked Aiura. "You need to find him and go beat him up or something?"

"...You could say that..."

There was it was again. That sense of uncertainty. In a way, that made Aiura slightly apprehensive. What would disturb such a powerful esper like Kusuo?

"Well, search no further as Mikoto-chan provide you a foolproof fortune."

Aiura felt extremely pleased with her psychic abilities. She had become someone whom Kusuo could depend on. No doubt a plus in his books. She looked into her crystal ball as it glowed. Aiura was already happily imagining Kusuo's second-ever "thank you" to her.

The next fifteen minutes turned out to be one of the most frustrating experiences in Aiura life. She looked. She glared. She stared. She begged. She cursed. She demanded her power to show her something, anything.

Kusuo seemed to stare off into the distance, as if his mind was somewhere else completely.

Aiura kept on trying and trying and trying. Her crystal ball glowed, groaned and nearly cracked. The images would be foggy, blurry even, as if straining against fate, but always ended with nothing. It was not even black or white. Just blank.

Aiura had seen this result only a three of times before, when she had to locate some shut-in's imaginary girlfriend, someone's long-dead great, great, great, great, great grand whatever and a woman whom Aiura later found out was cremated and the remains scattered in the ocean.

Kusuo's attention eventually came back to the present. He was the one who broke the uncomfortable silence. "Well?"

"Are you testing me?" asked Aiura, irritated, looking up from her crystal ball. "This man is either a figment of the imagination, or a completely not-even-a-body-exists type of dead and gone."

Everything in the room that was glass sudden cracked and shattered. Aiura looked away quickly as her crystal ball suddenly cracked and fell into a mass of glass shards. She felt the wind and rain from the shattered window behind her blow in, causing a minor windstorm inside her fortune teller room.

For a split second, Kusuo looked angry, like towering fury type angry. His usual blank expression returned quickly enough, after a deep breath.

It was all over soon enough. With a negligent wave of Kusuo's hand, the window, the decorative paperweights, Aiura's crystal ball, were restored as if nothing happened. The only evidence of it was the raindrops that were now on the floors and walls from the outside and Aiura's now wind-swept hair.

Aiura let out a breath that she did not know she was holding. For that same split second there, her ocular vision showed a desolate world, humanity destroyed. It was frightening.

"Kusuo, what the hell was that!?" she demanded.

Kusuo shrugged. "I heard bad news and I reacted."

"What? I've failed your stinking little test?" Kusuo was such an overly demanding soulmate.

"No. Your prescience is just reliable as ever," Kusuo said.

"Then what is it? Why are you toying with me?" Aiura demanded. "You've been acting weird since last night, you missed school today and now you test me by asking me to find something you know that doesn't exist."

Kusuo just stared at her with his blank face, looking way past her.

Suddenly, the stressfulness of the day got to Aiura. It was like she used up all her positivity reservoir and all that was left was the crud at the bottom.

"What the fuck, Kusuo? Why do you have to always act like an asshole? If this was a test, then say so. And next time, don't fucking miss school on the worst karmic day of the year. You're prescient too so I know you've seen what happened at school. Several people went to the nurse and hospital because of a bunch of freak accidents. I know you don't give a damn about helping people unless you help yourself in the process, but do you have to be so selfish!?"

There was a moment of silence between them. It was long enough that Aiura doubted her outburst.

Was it not her place to say those things?

Kusuo was a freakishly powerful esper. She did not doubt that he could kill people with a simple blink of an eye if he was annoyed. He could do anything he wants, really, good and bad on a whim. Did she strike a cord? Tell him something he did not want to hear and reap his ire?

"You are right. I can do anything I want," said Kusuo, his telepathic voice sounded more hollow than before. "As a child, I estimated that it would take me about three days to destroy humanity. It's probably down to hours, maybe minutes by now."

Aiura shivered at the coldness of that voice.

"But all that power isn't not going to wake me up from this nightmare," continued Kusuo. He retrieved the photo. He stared at the portrait as he activated his pyrokinesis, the image burned up, slowly consuming the image.

"My temporal abilities will not change the conclusion," said Kusuo. "I've been trying all day. I've seen it, and now you've confirmed it. He was never going to see his 20th birthday."

The paper was completed burned up now, leaving a delicate shrunken black sheet.

"This gulls me. I can change humanity's fate at any time with a thought. Destroy the Earth, save it, at my will." Kusuo let go of the sheet, and watched it fluttered, turning into dust and settling on the ground. He lightly swept his eyes with his sleeved forearm and took a shuddering breath. "But for this one life that mattered to my person, this one fate that I absolutely want to change, I am powerless. It angers me."

He stood up.

The lighting hitting the young man's face differently, Aiura noticed that the paleness of that face, the heavy bag, and slight puffiness about the eyes. He looked somewhat thinner. His posture had a wounded animal quality to it.

Kusuo turned, walking toward the door.

"Thank you, Aiura-san," said Kusuo, his telepathic voice back to a monotone. "For trying to find him, and everything you did today at school. I am grateful."

With that, Kusuo disappeared, likely teleported home.

Aiura felt like a lightning bolt struck her. It was not that she received the second-ever "thank you" or the elusive word "grateful" out of Kusuo. She felt like the worse soulmate in the world. How did she miss the signs?

Kusuo was not angry, as he had stated. No. Far from it. He was grieving.