Chapter 30 - Toritsuka's Conclusion
A little bit later, once the Teruhashi siblings went about their way out of the temple, the emergency rescue staff had extricated the poor high schooler who was nearly crushed, the three active members of the PK Academy Psychikers went around a corner of one of the temple's empty absolution buildings. It was a location where they could not be heard.
"Aiura, what happened?" were the first words out of Toritsuka once they found their more-or-less private hiding spot.
Unused to Mr. Pevert calling her by her actual name, the fortune teller stared at the spirit medium, honestly dumb. "What do you mean by 'what happened?'" she asked. The woman tightened her grip on Akechi, who was predictably quieted by her womanly wiles.
Toritsuka hugged himself as he looked furtively to the right and left, up and down. He took a moment to make a circle with his thumb and pointing finger, looking through to make sure that he was truly seeing the absence of ghosts. His expression indicated that he was uncomfortable about something.
"A few weeks ago," Toritsuka began, "you made me 'fess up about Saiki-san's scary older brother. Then you said something about Saiki-san not coming back to school soon. I didn't think too much about it since it's Saiki-san and you're always saying weird fortune telling shit anyways. You didn't tell us something, at the time. What have you left out?"
Aiura was taken back by such questioning. Normally, Toritsuka was not this perceptive. "What are you talking about, Toritsuka?" asked Aiura with a veneer of wariness.
"I just saw a ghost," said Toritsuka as he hugged himself again, goosebumps visible on his arms and neck. "I think it's the ghost of Saiki-san's older brother."
Aiura sucked in a breath.
Toritsuka shook his head a little, grimacing at the memory. "But he is all wrong. Ghosts typically take on the form they had when they died, or something close to it. They have no recollection of their past life and generally, the worse they can do is poltergeist activities or say means things to each other.
"Saiki-san's older brother didn't do that. He seemed to have reverted to a different state, a different age. five to seven years old? Maybe? He looked at me and..." Toritsuka became silent, as if the image was too vivid for him to put into words. "He...oh...god...he must've died a horrific death."
The group was silent for a brief moment, taking in what appeared to be genuine fear from Toritsuka. It was unusual, as this was Toritsuka, the guy who was dumb enough to demand a whole slew of unreasonable, disgusting, favors from pretty much everybody.
"But, Toritsuka-kun, if what you've said is true, then how can you tell it was him?" asked Akechi thoughtfully. "From my research, Kusuo's older brother is a couple of years older, so that would place Kusuo's older brother right at twenty years old. But you said that Kusuo's older brother looked like a child. Generally, it takes some time to recognize a person at a different age. The hairstyle could've changed. The face shape definitely changes. It's not always easy to discern between an adult look and a child look."
"Oh, come on," groused Toritsuka. "That's like saying that it's hard to tell between a kid Saiki Kusuo and an adult Saiki Kusuo. No one else is that striking looking or give off that distinctive of a creepy, craptastic, oppressive vibe." Torituska beat himself on the head. "Arg. No wonder Saik is nonstop 'I don't want attention.' People must've looked at them like they were looking at a freak show. They must've always used some sort of psychic suggestion so that people don't notice them."
Aiura frowned at Toritsuka's continued insistence. "Are you sure you're not seeing things due to oxygen deprivation in your perverted, sex addled brain?"
"Look. I know what I saw," said Toritsuka, ignoring Aiura's insulting jab. "That barely detectable presence, but still oppressively there. That feeling of someone who sees people as playthings. It's not an impression that anyone can just forget." Toritsuka rubbed his arms to mitigate the goosebumps. "I think I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of my life. I might need to move back to my father's temple if I ever want to sleep again." He looked at Aiura intently. "Aiura. What have you not told us?."
Aiura bit her lips at that question.
It was true.
She hadn't told anyone about Kusuo's visit to her fortune teller house out of her usual habit of more or less keeping her mouth shut about Kusuo's activities. Kusuo was her soulmate, after all, and she would do anything to curry his favor, even if it meant keeping some of their friends in the dark about something horrible he did.
Not there were any major secrets to keep other than Kusuo's generally overpowered psychic abilities.
Right?
"Aiura. Last time. Spill!" demanded Toritsuka.
Aiura felt nervous sweat forming on her brow. She recalled Kusuo's unsteady mood that night at the fortune teller house. That moment where Aiura thought that her soulmate was about to lose it.
"Fine," said Aiura, finally relenting. "The day after mid-terms, you know, the day when we had all those weird accidents at school, Kusuo came to me to look for a random blond person." There was a pause as Aiura thought through what details to tell and what to keep to herself. "I told him that person is either a figment of his imagination or someone that's so dead and gone that there's not even a body left." Aiura took a breath and shook her head as she recalled Kusuo's reaction. "He seemed so angry about it for like, two seconds, but went back to his usual 'I don't give a damn' resting face, you know. I thought he was just testing me."
Toritsuka just stared at Aiura, as if she was guilty of withholding such an important piece of information.
Aiura did not let the Toritsuka's gaze bother her. The spirit medium was so undependable that it was hard to take him seriously.
"Then Kusuo said some mysterious shit," continued Aiura, "like how he can completely destroy the world in hours or save it but he can't even change the fate of one person or some dramatic nonsense like that. Then he thanked me for helping him out."
Now that got a reaction from both Akechi and Toritsuka.
Akechi said nothing, but his eyes widened.
"He actually thanked you!?" exclaimed Toritsuka. "Well, that confirms it, doesn't it?"
"I guess," Aiura said with a shrug.
"Saiki-san threatened to wreck the world, after he spent so much effort to save it, and you didn't think it was something big!?" blurted out Toritsuka incredulously.
Aiura shrugged nonchalantly. She was the cool, responsible Psychiker. "Kusuo can do whatever the hell he wants. Plus, I got nothing to confirm whatever happened. You saw what happened to the crystal balls when I tried to look for Kusuo. I can't find him. It's like a cloud of camouflage had covered him. Miko-chan only speaks of the true future, you know."
Toritsuka was barely listening to her, his mind racing through the possibilities. "No wonder Saiki-san withdrew from school," said Toritsuka to himself. He ran his hand through his hair in nervousness. "His older brother just died. They're both telepathic so Saiki-san must've known down to the very moment and completely freaked out."
Aiura looked at Toritsuka like he just lost his mind. "Kusuo? Freaked out? That's impossible. Nothing ever bothers him."
"Did you not hear a thing I've said all those weeks ago?" asked Toritsuka, frustrated. "Saiki-san's older brother created those hairpins of his! How would you react if the thing that makes it possible for you to be around normal people suddenly becomes impossible to get?" Seeing that Aiura was not getting it, Toritsuka tried a different tactic. "Like, how would you react if there were suddenly no more crystal ball makers in the world?"
Aiura waved a hand, dismissing Toritsuka. "Oh. That's just preposterous. That can't happen. I can get a pack of twenty pocket crystal balls for 100 yen each! There are hundreds of merchants, websites, that I can get crystal balls from. There's got to be other people who can make hairpins, right?"
Toritsuka nearly rolled his eyes. He kept on forgetting that Aiura had never seen the brothers interact and could not appreciate Toritsuka's instinctive understanding of the Saiki brother's innate dynamic. "Yeah. Right. You think you can go online and just search for devices that suppress Saiki-san's god-like psychic powers?" asked Toritsuka rhetorically. "Never mind that Saiki-san just lost his older brother. He lost the only person who can help him deal with his powers." Toritsuka began to beat on his head again, feeling so stupid for not realizing something so important about his close friend. "Arg! No wonder the weather and the karma around the school had been so bad lately. Saiki-san must've been so freaked out that he probably wouldn't have cared if he accidentally flooded this town and killed everyone."
Aiura only stared at Toritsuka like he was some screeching zoo animal, somewhat incredulous and somewhat dismissive.
Akechi seemed abstracted. He had heard parts of Toritsuka's He seemed thoughtful when he said, "Toritsuka-kun. I have a question for you."
"What?"
"Why would you say that they're both telepathic?" asked Akechi. "In the past, you've said that you're not sure if Kusuo-kun's older brother is an esper or not. You've said that both are telepathic at least twice now, wouldn't that suggests that Kusuo-kun's older brother is an esper too?"
At that question, Toritsuka went silent. He seemed to mull over the question, while periodically taking a look to make sure no mysterious ghost had popped up.
"I'm not sure," said Toritsuka after a while. "I can't explain it. He always seems to know what I'm thinking. It was strange since the ghosts at the lab don't know who he is..." Toritsuka stared at Akechi as if he just pressed one of those red press-here-to-end-the-world buttons. "Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Fuck fuck fuck."
"Toritsuka-kun?" said Akechi, his expression in his usual manic but robotic half-smile.
"Saiki-san's older brother is the kishin," realized Toritsuka. "Oh my god! Why haven't I figure this out until now? That explains a fuck tonne of shit."
Now, it was Aiura's turn to look confused. "Wait. What do you mean?"
"Because that explains so many damn things," said Toritsuka.
"You've just said that!" reminded Aiura. "What are you talking about?"
Toritsuka took a moment to calm himself and think back on that one wacked-out time that he had spent with Kusuo's older brother.
"You guys knew that I spent an entire week with him, right? At his home which is some sort of mad scientist's lab?"
Aiura nodded gingerly while Akechi blinked and barely nodded.
"In the entire week that I was with him, I never saw his guardian spirit," said Toritsuka, his own eyes wide. "Even the ghosts around his place were these disembodied blobs without identities. It's like, those ghosts were there because he wanted them to be. And there were so few around, and never any in his presence."
"Wait, but didn't you say that ghosts are all around us, all the time?" asked Aiura.
Toritsuka, still with wide eyes, nodded, while continuing. "Yes. Ghosts are around us all the time, but not around Saiki-san's older brother. Now that I think about it. It was really spooky. Saiki-san's older brother is an amazing person so ghosts should naturally congregate around him. But it's like the ghosts avoided him..." Toritsuka's jaw suddenly dropped. "Holy shit. He must be the reason why I never heard about Saiki-san until now."
Both Aiura and Akechi blinked, looking to Toritsuka for more answers. "I don't understand," verbalized Aiura.
"Think about it. Espers are so rare that they are celebrities in the spirit world and ghosts are naturally drawn to them," said Torituska. "That's how I learned about Saiki-san in the first place, because one of the ghosts blabbed about him to me. Granted, it was because that ghost said that Saiki-san can see through clothes and into people's underwear. When I first heard about Saiki-san, I was 15 years old and the I remember the ghosts telling it to me like it was news! But that doesn't make any sense! It shouldn't BE news!"
Aiura just stared at Toritsuka like he had grown a second head. "What are you talking about? You're not making any sense."
This time, it was Akechi who caught on. "You're saying that Kusuo-kun had powers and exercised those powers all his life," stated Akechi. "If ghosts can see everything that the living are doing at all times, then why did it take years for Toritsuka-kun here to hear about it?" Akechi looked to the spirit medium. "You think it's because Kusuo-kun's older brother had prevented the ghosts from seeing Kusuo-kun, because kishins are the fierce deity, the god of ghosts. You're saying that Kusuo-kun's older brother was able to make sure that no ghosts can witness Kusuo-kun's usage of his psychic powers and effectively hiding him from spirit mediums like you."
Toritsuka nodded, expression of incredulous horror and shock on his face as he thought through some more of the details of that one week he had spent with Saiki-san's older brother. "And that same freak taught me demonic possession during that brief time that I was at his lab," realized Toritsuka. "I had no one to practice it with except him and he freely kicked me out of his body once I succeeded." Toritsuka facepalmed. "I've been trying to learn from the wrong Saiki-san this entire time! ARG! No wonder Saiki Kusuo's abilities are so versatile, so controlled and exercised so easily, despite how dangerously powerful he is."
The two other psychikers only stared at Toritsuka. One in confusion. The other had a thoughtful frown on his face.
"Guys! Don't you know what this means!?" asked Toritsuka as he had happened upon the Rosetta Stone to decipher ancient text.
Sure enough, it was Akechi who, again, quickly made the mental connections. "I think I understand what you mean," said Akechi.
By now, Aiura had unconsciously let go of Akechi. Still, distracted by the mystery in front of them, Akechi had yet to lapse into his usual distracted, rapid narrative.
"What you're saying is that because of Kusuo's older brother's instructions, you were able to learn demonic possession, a new skill set, in a short time," said Akechi. "In that same vein, you're saying that Kusuo's psychic powers have always been so well controlled, so precise because Kusuo always had his older brother as a teacher."
Toritsuka nodded. "It's the only thing that makes sense. The best teachers are the ones who push you to expand and hone your abilities without you realizing it. I certainly never realized that Saiki-san's older brother taught me a new spirit medium skill until now. And it only took him less than a week."
"Well, to be honest, you don't have much talent to begin with," said Aiura. "He didn't have to get creative."
"Oh, shut up," said Toritsuka with unusual irritation. "You know, Aiura. I'm annoyed with you. Saiki-san is our friend. You should've said something. We could've been there for him."
Aiura felt a bubbling tenseness from Toritsuka's uncharacteristically harsh tone with her. She was not about to let it go. "Well, with Kusuo's shitty personality, you think he would even allow us to get close to him?" Aiura pointed out blandly. "Besides, the problem at the moment is that Kusuo's older brother is still here as a ghost. Don't people only come back as ghosts because they have some sort of regret? Or lingering will?"
Toritsuka shook his head. "No. Not always. Most have lingering will, yes. But their memories are so bad that they forget why they stayed in the living world. Some manifest as poltergeists but most just hang out. Eventually, they disappear into the next life. Saiki-san's older brother had that look of determination...like...he's free from something and was going to cause some mischief." Toritsuka shivered again. "Some really bad mischief."
Akechi and Aiura were about to say something more but there was a rustling from somewhere close.
It was the adept monk, Junpei. "There you are, Reita. I've been looking everywhere for you. We're having a temple meeting right now." He looked to Akechi and Aiura. "I thought I've told you that High Priest Kasunao wanted all guests escorted off the premises."
"I'm getting to that," said Toritsuka to his fellow monk. He turned to his two fellow PK Academy Psychikers. "Sorry guys. You have to leave. This meeting will likely take the rest of the day so let's meet up again at school. If you figure out anything more, text me."
With that, Aiura and Akechi left the Desire Temple, leaving a couple of serious-looking monks to the business of damage control.
