Chapter 39 - Shoddy Memory

When Saiki Kusuo opened the front door of his house and wordlessly allowed Toritsuka, Aiura, and Akechi inside without his usual tirade about how he didn't want them here, or straight slamming the door in their faces, the three visitors looked at each other incredulously.

The four of them were all still in their PK Academy uniform, having recently come from school.

The moment of surprise was brief as the three visitors realized that Saiki was scowling at them for standing at the front door too long, keeping the door open, allowing time for bugs to fly into the house. So the three followed Saiki into the foyer of the house, going about the polite habit of removing their shoes and putting on house slippers.

Akechi, the loudmouth, began talking, at full volume, while putting on the house slippers. "Kusuo-kun! Is this so unexpected! Did...!" Akechi suddenly could not open in his mouth, causing his words to come out in grunts and mumbles from his throat. His eyes pointed inwards toward his noise as he grabbed at his mouth, trying to determine what invisible force kept it closed.

Aiura and Toritsuka watched, and slowly realized that this had to be one of the few times that they've seen witnessed Saiki used psychokinesis to force an action on a person.

"Talk quietly," said Saiki in a whisper that was barely loud enough to hear, "My mother is asleep."

Toritsuka gave Saiki a queer look. "It's two o'clock in the afternoon," he said with a volume that seemed a measure above whispering.

"And?" asked Saiki impatiently.

Toritsuka had no answer.

Akechi huffed once he no longer felt the pressure on his mouth. He did look at Saiki, a hurt look on his face.

But, as usual, Saiki had his characteristic blank expression.

The brief exchange caused Aiura to stare at Saiki. "You're...talking," Aiura pointed out, her long pink acrylic-nail finger pointed to him as if he was a circus animal. "Did something happen to your psychic powers?"

The answer was flat. "No."

Aiura unconsciously glowered at her pink-haired friend. "Yeesh. Attitude!" Aiura said through her teeth, controlling the volume. "We've skipped last period, on the last day of first term finals, to follow you home because you completely disappeared without explanation and you've worried us. And this is how you respond to your friends' heartache and concern for you?"

Saiki narrowed his eyes and seemed ready to answer with a blistering remark before Toritsuka interjected.

"Nevermind Saiki-san's shitty personality, Tits. He's always like that. Saiki-san! Are you okay?" asked Toritsuka. "Since..." Toritsuka made a vague gesture at the air in front of him. "You know...your older brother's..."

"Not here," Saiki cut in. He nodded faintly toward the steps to the second floor of the house. "If you want to talk about that, then we should talk elsewhere."

"Why?" asked Toritsuka.

Saiki gave the spirit medium a withering look.

The overly intelligent Akechi covered his mouth with his hand to reduce his natural speaking volume, filled in for Toritsuka. "Kusuo-kun's mother is here." Akechi looked over to his childhood friend. "Our current location in the house allows for sound to travel to the bedroom on the second floor. You do not want your mother overhearing because the topic will distress her. It is the reason why you did not want me to speak too loud." Akechi looked about the main living room and his hyper-observant skills went to work. "She hasn't been taking the news well. The dust level in this house is high. There appear to be quite a lot of take-outs and cooking mishaps. This doesn't seem normal for a domestic housewife. You should..."

"Okay. That's enough out of you," said Aiura, automatically standing closer to Akechi and held his arm, lightly pressing her body against him.

Sure enough, Akechi uttered a tiny "offu" and shut up immediately.

Saiki did look around the house a bit, eyes immediately zooming in at the dust bunnies that had gathered around the corners of the house. "I should clean..."

Toritsuka, feeling impatient, interrupted. "Wait. Saiki-san. If you don't want us to talk out loud, why don't you just hear our thoughts instead?" asked Toritsuka. "With your..." Toritsuka made a stirring gesture at his own temple, which looked much like the universal gesture for 'crazy.' "telepathy thing, and we can talk that way?"

Saiki seemed to consider it. "The idea does have merit. but that would be faster," he said to himself. Then, seeing the confusion on the three visitor's faces, he said, "Come with me."

Without any warning, Toritsuka, Aiura, and Akechi saw the world blur and swirl about them like they were being shoved through a distortion in space and time.

The next second, they felt much cooler air shot up from below, tossing their hair and uniform about.

They were now on the top circular maintenance deck of a metal guy-wire tower, several hundred meters above the ground. The entire structure itself, appearing immobile, rocked and swayed from the wind and to relieve pressure on the joints. Red strobe lights secured to the railing, flashed, warning of aircraft of a tall, metal communication tower in the air.

Aiura herself quickly held onto a handrail with an arm. She pinned her buttocks to the railing. She used her other free arm to hold down her aquamarine-colored school uniform skirt from flying up and flashing everyone. She felt the jagged rough edge of the grated decking on her sock-covered feet. She looked down for a single moment before deciding that it was a stupid idea.

They were very far up.

They had so much airspace beneath them that Aiura did not notice how Toritsuka had immediately grabbed onto her, trying to make sure that he did not accidentally slip through the gap between the handrails of the maintenance deck.

For Toritsuka, it appeared that putting his arms around Aiura's waist and chest like a monkey was mostly a self-preservation gesture.

Mostly.

There was a momentary flash in Aiura's future sight where she flung Toritsuka off the platform to his death for squeezing her boobs a little bit too long.

Toritsuka, though, had wisely chosen to prolong his life by being more afraid of heights than being attracted to boobs.

"Where the heck are we!?" demanded Torituska, half panicking. Spirit mediums and heights did not get along.

"The local WKTV transmission tower," answered Akechi mildly as he wisely lay down low as to hug the grating, an arm clung to the handrail like Aiura. He made the mistake of looking through the gaps in the grates, feeling immediately nauseous. "From the looks of this, it's a 10-second flight if we were to fall off."

"10.1 seconds," corrected Saiki.

Like a bird in its natural habitat, Saiki was standing on top of the handrail, looking down at the town of Hidariwakibara. He looked at his finger and discreetly removed a ring on his right forefinger and placed it into a pocket. He barely blinked as the numbing cover on his telepathy lifted.

Akechi, who was still stuck on Saiki's earlier statement, looked like he had his calculation cap on. "That's about how much in distance? If acceleration is 9.81 meters per second squared?"

"A kilometer," offered Saiki. "It's the right telepathy radius for me. Not too many thoughts, human or otherwise, to distract me at this distance." He looked up, taking note of the number of airplanes in the sky. He then hopped off the top of the handrail like he was hopping off a curb on the ground. "Now. Think of what you wish to tell to me. Don't bother putting it into words. I will know enough from the peripheral psychometry."

The three PK Academy Psychikers looked at each other, trying not to be too troubled by the fact that they were a thousand meters up in the sky and that the gaps between the posts and bars of the handrail looked large and the grating seemed more than slippery enough for skinny high schoolers to slip and fall through gaps between the handrail posts. Why couldn't Saiki teleport them somewhere that was a little more height-friendly? Like a deserted island, or a bare mountaintop, or a frozen wasteland? Like Siberia?

"In case you do go splat," mentioned Saiki placidly. "At least your family doesn't have to go far to find you."

"Err...you wouldn't really let us fall, would you, Saiki-san?" asked Toritsuka, still clinging to Aiura.

"Would I?" Saiki hummed as placed a hand on Toritsuka's shoulder first.

There was a brief stiffening of Saiki's posture before he went back to his nonchalant demeanor. Not even a telepathic utterance as Toritsuka momentarily tried to recall his panic when he saw the creepy ghost kid and the realization that something was happening in the spirit realm. He tried his absolute darn best to recall the conclusion that Saiki's older brother must have some sort of psychic power and was a teacher in the usage of those powers.

Aiura was next. She tried to place as much of her emotions into her recollections. She recalled the hurt feelings that she had experienced back at the fortune teller's house. Then she relived her frustration and unease when she realized that her psychic powers no longer revealed Saiki to her. She recalled her chagrin when she tried to figure things out by going to Toritsuka and realized that the shit for brains was only going to give her shit for answers.

"Noted," remarked Saiki like he was being told that the 'grass is green.'

Lastly was Akechi.

Akechi carefully pulled himself to a standing position, despite his immediate fear of falling over, so that Saiki did not have to bend over.

Though he was manhandled earlier by Saiki's psychokinesis, and now stuck on top of a radio tower where they could fall to their deaths, Akechi only looked at Saiki with liquidy black eyes, full of trust. Akechi did not flinch as his childhood friend held a hand to his shoulder. The touch reminded Akechi of all the times that Akechi got beat up and a touch from Saiki would make the hurt go away. He made sure he cleared his head and thought of the interactions that he had with PK Academy Psyickers at Toritsuka's temple. Akechi tried not to give in to the intrusive thoughts of other activities in the day like finals, the whispering of Saiki's normal friends, the teacher who had a stain on their shoes from the car repair shop, or the fact that the leafy vegetable served that day at the cafeteria had a couple of worms in it.

Okay. Perhaps that was too much detail, judging by the tick on Saiki's face, but Akechi could not help but let his hyperactive mind meander through the disparate minutia. The human mind was incredible at finding patterns. Perhaps some of the trifles could be helpful to Saiki. Akechi could never forget the debt of personal gratitude to Saiki for lessening the bullying back when they were in grade school.

At least this time, Saiki did provide a reactionary commentary of a "humph."

There was a painfully awkward silence after the psychometric exchange.

Saiki seemed so calm, so nonplussed that his PK fellow PK Academy Psychikers all had the idea of grabbing Saiki by the shoulder and shaking him.

"You know, somehow, I'm not surprised," said Saiki, finally. "It's befitting that he's still causing trouble, after he's dead."

Toritsuka, despite holding onto Aiura for dear life, caught that. "So our guess is correct? Your older brother did..."

Saiki merely shrugged. "Die? He did. I personally saw it."

The complete nonreaction caused a shiver to go down Aiura's back. Was her soulmate truly so unaffected by the loss of a sibling? She knew Saiki to be emotionally flat. This, though, seemed to be on the verge of sociopathy. "You seemed awfully calm," she remarked with confused incredulity to her face.

"There's no reason to get excited," Saiki reasoned impassively. "It didn't change anything then. It's not going to change anything now."

Aiura and Toritsuka stared at Saiki then at each other.

What Saiki said was logically true.

But still, Aiura recalled Saiki's momentary lapse of control back at the fortune teller's house. Even if Saiki seemed unaffected now, Aiura knew that he felt the loss deeper than he would ever say.

Akechi had no filter. He quickly asked. "But how did he die, Kusuo-kun? When did he die? It was a while back, wasn't it? If I recall correctly, you were having a headache on the day of midterms, weren't you? Isn't that when you get premonitions of the future? Usually ones at a risk to you? Your complexion was a strange shade of gray at day. You stopped coming to school the next day so that must be when that happened, right? Why couldn't you save him with one of your powers?" Something small doinked Akechi's head. "Ow!"

Aiura had picked off her weighted red chair clip in the shape of the alchemy symbol for Libra and threw it at Akechi's head. The hairclip and Akechi's head connected, momentarily stopping Akechi from going off on one of his long tangents. "Shut up, dumbass," uttered Aiura.

"What was that for, Aiura-san?" said Akechi, rubbing his temple. "I'm only trying to help Kusuo-kun figure things out."

If Aiura was not fearful for her life, she would have been livid at how emotionally neanderthal Akechi was. Did Akechi not realize exactly how powerful of a psychic Saiki was? And that Saiki was probably not in the right frame of mind? Considering that Saiki had so indirectly suggested that he wouldn't mind letting them fall to their deaths? Well, probably not that. Saiki always had that mildly sadistic side that didn't mind toying with people.

More seriously, Saiki was acting as if he was just talking about what type of rice he wanted for dinner, not the permanent loss of a sibling. That simply screamed repressed emotions that were likely about to spill over and no one in their right minds would want to be around Saiki when that happened.

Aiura bit out. "Does it look like he wants to talk about it?"

Before Akechi could spew another stream-of-consciousness-style soliloquy, Saiki had held up a hand, a gesture that effectively shut the brewing argument. Simultaneously, Aiura's red hairclip that had ricocheted off Akechi's temple and the maintenance platform flew back up to Saiki's hand like a baseball was thrown his way.

Saiki touched the red hairclip firmly, like how he touched his fellow PK Academy Psychiker's shoulders, reading the item's psychometric memories.

"It's fine, Aiura. I don't mind clarifying," said Saiki. With a negligent wave of his hand, the red hairclip flew back to its original position on Aiura head, pulling her into a neat space on the left side of her face.

Saiki had now hopped up to float into the air, positioning his body so that it appeared that he was sitting on an invisible chair, facing his three fellow self-proclaimed PK Academy Psyhickers. He laced his fingers together before he spoke. "Ani," he paused for a moment as if he was unused to saying the word, "died in a fire, on the day of midterms."

Toritsuka's eyes widen at that. "So that's why his ghost looked like he was burned!"

Saiki seemed impassive at Toritsuka's realization. Instead, Saiki kept on talking. "On that day, I thought my psychic powers were malfunctioning. A headache means coming on of a premonition and I would see images of the future where things could harm me. It's usually accompanied by a dream but not always. Once I see it, I can prevent it. But all I saw were bits and pieces of the past and not all of it from my memories. It took me an entire day to figure it out. By then, it was too late."

The three other PK Academy Psychikers, riveted by the rarest instance where Saiki expounded on a subject, momentarily forgotten about the fact that they were a kilometer up in the sky. Each had questions, but as usual, Akechi beat everyone.

"That doesn't make a lot of sense, Kusuo-kun," said Akechi. "Didn't you just say that headache was supposed to signal danger to you?"

"It is very dangerous to me." Saiki looked down. "Ani made my control devices. Devices that make my life possible. I've been trying to duplicate his work but I haven't been completely successful."

"Well, why couldn't you have used one of your powers to save him?" asked Akechi. "So he can make your control devices? It should've been simple for you, isn't it Kusuo-kun? You could've just blown the fire out."

"If it was that simple, don't you think I would have done it now?" was Saiki's sarcastic retort.

Unaffected by Saiki's sour mood, Akechi kept pressing on. "Then why didn't you, Kusuo-kun?"

As if suddenly asked an uncomfortable question, Saiki took a moment to gather his thoughts. "It wasn't for a lack of trying," Saiki said finally. "And now, I'm not sure if changing his fate was ever possible in the first place. Power against power creates dead spots."

The other three PK Academy Psychikers looked at each other with confusion. For all their intimate knowledge and experience in psychic powers, none of them delved too deeply into its workings and its intracate unspoken rules. "Dead spots? What's that?"

"It's an eddy in the current where psychic power manifests in the physical world," said Saiki. Upon seeing puzzled faces, he further explained. "Similar powers can only bypass each other but never directly meet. Any attempts to do so nullifies or alters the ability's effects. An example is Aiura's clairvoyance and my premonitions. It allows us to affect the future at the same time, causing the failure of each other's predictions.

"Ani had...many abilities. What they were, I don't know. I only know that it likely rendered his fate immutable to my efforts. I tried." Saiki looked to Toritsuka. "And it seemed that he likely had many more abilities, judging by your conclusions about spirits in his presence and my memory gaps."

That seemed to be a lot of new concepts to digest for the three PK Academy Psychikers, except for Akechi.

"Hum...Psychic dead spots I can understand. But memory gaps?" echoed Akechi. "What do you mean by that?"

Saiki took a deep breath before speaking. "There are time periods where I do not recall how events progressed from one point to another. Events that I should have clear recollections of."

"Give an example, Kusuo-kun," said Akechi. It was probably the most focused he had ever been.

Saiki's gaze turned unfocused, seemingly shuffling through thick tomes of memories. "Remember how I transferred out of Thirty-third Elementary School at the end of second grade?" he asked. "The destruction of our classroom."

Akechi touched his chin thoughtfully. "Yes. Everyone in our class and the school have a slightly different recollection of what happened. I keep on wondering about which version of the truth was real."

"The activities after that school transfer is one of the major memory gaps."

At this point, Aiura interrupted. "Um...for the sake of the rest of the audience, can you give a background?"

Akechi perked up and his characteristic look of soul-sucking stare returned, completely ignoring the height issue of their present situation. "Oh. That's right. We don't talk about it. Well, you remember that Kusuo-kun and I went to elementary school together, right?"

Aiura and Toritsuka looked at each other. They did not remember that. It had partially to do with their habit of completely tuning out Akechi whenever he went on one of radio-commercial disclaimer speed chatters. "Um...yeah. Sure."

"Well, more specifically, we had first and second grade together," said Akechi, completely unaffected by the fact that his 'close friends' at PK doesn't listen to him. "During that time I was picked on a lot.

"I'm sure you've heard the rumors. I used to soil myself a lot as a defense mechanism. I would get into arguments and embarrass people by exposing them for their lies, even if it's innocent like one guy trying to show off to a girl he likes. Then they would try to beat me up. I would soil myself and they wouldn't touch me because who wants to touch someone who just urinated on themselves? Pee Boy was my nickname. That habit got me into trouble with my peers because, well, I talked even more than now."

Aiura and Toritsuka felt sweatdrop form. Akechi used to talk more than now? And Saiki did not do anything permanent to Akechi? Saiki must have been a saint back then!

"I became the target of bullies early on," continued Akechi, completely unaffected by the trip down a bad memory lane. "I wasn't a big kid so I used to get beat up a lot but Kusuo-kun would heal me. At the time I thought Kusuo-kun was a cleric or a healer from one of those role-playing games because I was a kid and didn't know better. Eventually, I had it in my head that he was a psychic, even when the adults had told me countless times that psychics don't exist.

"Anyways, we became friends and I knew that he'd look out for me. Even if he tries to toughen me up by not stopping the bullies' punches, he's always there afterward to make sure that I was okay.

"Eventually, the bullying got worse and the beating happened about every other day. Then, one day, around the end of second grade, my primary bullies, Takashi and his two goons cornered me in our empty classroom. They were beating the crap out of me. Kusuo-kun came to look out for me like he usually did. At that time, I begged Kusuo to help me, to blast those bullies away, to make it stop. Getting hurt isn't fun and I normally could take it. But they were beating me to unconsciousness! The last thing I remember was Takashi asking Kusuo-kun to join them and threatening Kusuo-kun with a beating if he didn't join.

"By the time I came to, the classroom was completely destroyed! Desks and chairs were all blown to the edges of the classroom. The ceiling tiles loose, broken wires, the linoleum floor tiles all over the place, loose pipes, the concrete floor underneath shattered, and loose rebar. My bullies were all on the ground, unconscious and hurt.

"Everyone had a slightly different version of what happened. Takashi and his goons thought that I became a monster and wrecked the classroom. The kids all thought that I was an esper, finally showing my powers by beating back the biggest kid in the grade. The school thought that the classroom was too old and a recent earthquake caused the support structures to break and that was what the school told the parents.

"I figure out much later that the destroyed classroom was probably Kusuo-kun's work. At any rate, rumors spread everyone started to fear and respect me because they thought I was a psychic. The bullying completely stopped."

At that point, Aiura and Toritsuka swallowed hard. They never realized that Akechi was the victim of such bullying. Being called names, hit by a spitball, or ostracized by their peers during the early days when their powers were first manifesting was common enough. But to learn that Saiki did nothing directly to stop the bullying when it could have been so easy for a powerful psychic like Saiki to do, seemed to contradict Saiki's nature. Akechi must have been a true friend, since Akechi's tone in describing the events indicated that he never begrudge Saiki for inaction.

"There was something weird that happened immediately afterward, though," Akechi kept on speaking. "I didn't notice that Kusuo-kun immediately stopped coming to school. I didn't think too much of it until I advanced to third grade and he wasn't in any of the third-grade classes.

"I asked my classmates about what happened to Kusuo-kun, but no one remembered that we had Kusuo-kun at our school. It was like I was the only person who remembered him. When I asked a teacher, she only said the same thing. Not a single teacher remembered him. Finally, I made her look at the previous year's grade book and there was Kusuo-kun's name! But she only said that ''Whatever-kun' had transferred out.'" Now at the end of his storytelling, Akechi looked to Saiki and asked. "Is that more or less what you remember?"

Saiki seemed impassive when he spoke. "That was what I remember, but the issue here It isn't what I remember. It's when I remember." He took to Akechi meaningfully. "You see, Akechi, I don't remember who you were until recently."

Akechi seemed taken aback by the statement and mentally scrambled for a reasonable explanation. He quickly came to one. "Well, that's because we haven't seen each other in so long. Like, I don't even remember the names of Takashi's goons. I guess I could look them up but they were not worth my time. Plus, isn't your telepathy always on? Isn't that incredibly distracting?"

Saiki shook his head. "No. I remember you clearly. My memory is near eidetic. Once you've transferred to PK Academy and we had the time to interact, I recalled everything you've just said," Saiki shook his head. "But before that, it's like you never existed in my recollection. Hell, I barely recall attending Ten Star Academy until Tanihara reminded me two days ago."

At the mention of Ten-Star Academy, Aiura and Toritsuka immediately frowned, like they could not comprehend the idea.

"Ten-Star Academy?" repeated Aiura gingerly. "The Ten-Star Academy? Isn't that a super-elite school? Like, it's hellishly hard to get into?"

Before Saiki could answer, Akechi spoke first. "Yes. It's one of the schools that I had thought about attending and realized that I have no chance. Don't get me wrong, I'm a genius, but I did not test THAT well and I don't have the connections. Kusuo-kun got into it because he had perfect grades for his third year of junior high," Akechi said it as if knowing such detailed facts about a person's grades was normal.

Akechi looked to Saiki, now as if understanding. "And you've aced the high school entrance exams. Both general and school-specific. Didn't one of the kids swapped one of the school-specific tests and give you a college entrance exam as a prank. Then you aced that too? I mean, that makes perfect sense, since your older brother went to study at Cambridge at age fourteen and took the same test at age thirteen to broaden his collegiate options and he got a near-perfect score. You would've been fifteen when you took those tests so it would've been inconceivable for you to do anything less."

Aiura stared at Akechi and Saiki incredulously. Just exactly how academically superior was Saiki? Aiura interrupted with a question of her own. "Then how the hell you end up at PK Academy? " asked Aiura. "PK is a little above mid-tier, but nothing like Ten Star."

"I don't know," said Saiki flatly.

When three pairs of eyes all stared at him like he was some sort of alien creature, Saiki reiterated, "I honestly don't know. I have some very serious memory gaps that have never caught my attention until now." Saiki pursed his lips. "It's the same for the end of my second year in elementary school. I remember wiping the memories of people who saw me destroy the classroom. I remember something about transferring then I was at another school like nothing had changed."

Aiura and Toritsuka both gazed at Saiki, a frown on their face. There was a change in Saiki's demeanor. It was difficult to describe, but there was an undercurrent of distress in Saiki's tone.

"I don't remember the details between that day of the destroyed classroom and a couple of weeks into the beginning of third year," said Saiki. "I don't remember telling my parents that I've screwed up. I don't remember moving to a new town. I don't remember making the traditional greeting to the class for being the new kid. It was like I had always been one of their classmates."

Akechi, now in the throes of the mystery, had completely forgotten about their physically precarious location and was now in his detective mode. "That is curious. You say that you wipe the memory of yourself from people who saw you destroy the classroom, but from what I remember from that time, it's pretty much everyone in school except for me. And I didn't notice that you were absent until well into the third year of elementary school."

"Everything you've said is right Akechi. I've noticed that discrepancy too." Saiki held his head now. "When I thought about it since Ani died, I concluded that only Ani who could've done this. He must have telepathy similar to mine, in ability and reach. It explained so much. He must've done something to everyone, me included, to make the entire transition seem like nothing noticeable happened. It explained so much of other memory gaps. I think it's why, on the day of midterms, all I saw was the past. It was like his influence was finally lifting." He looked to Toritsuka now. "And If what you've seen and concluded is true, then perhaps Kuusuke's ghost can explain it all to me. Why he thought that the mind control over our parents, over me, over everyone was so necessary."

Toritsuka blinked, as if he was having a hard time comprehending Saiki's words. "Kuusuke...? Who is that?"

"Saiki Kuusuke is..." there was a catch in Kusuo's throat before he corrected, "was...Ani's given name."

"Ohh! So THAT's his name," said Akechi almost excited. "I was reading up a bunch of his patents, but could never recall the name. Wasn't he the owner of a multinational conglomerate? I was reading the Economic Times and his name popped up often enough. Didn't he deal with a lot of weapons, heavy machinery, communication equipment and..."

At that point, Toritsuka interrupted. "Um...I think there is a major flaw in all of this. Ghosts don't have memories of their past lives."

"It's Kuusuke," reason Saiki. "He's a ghost who can set fires. He probably caused the temple bell to collapse and fall on someone as a joke. He would needle people to within an inch of their lives to relieve his boredom. I have to try and see if his ghost remembers anything." He bit his lips again. "My life depends on it."

Saiki's last words were lost on the Aiura, Toritsuka, and Akechi. Instead, the said three PK Academy Psychikers were conspiring with each other, thinking of ways to help Saiki.

"Well, how do we make him appear, then?" asked Aiura. She turned to Toritsuka. "You haven't seen him, have you?"

Tortisuka shook his head in confirmation. "No. I haven't seen him. Thank god. But the ghost population is still extremely low. So his presence is still being felt."

"Well, maybe there's a way to summon him," said Akechi, a hand to his chin. "I mean, you must've done something to cause him to appear in the first place, didn't you?

Just then, a gust of wind reminded everyone that they were all still very high up in the sky and caused Aiura, Toritsuka, and Akechi to grab onto the handrail again, to steady themselves.

At the same time, there was a high-pitched beep from Saiki's left wrist.

Saiki brought his left arm forward, revealing one of the modern smartwatches, the type that told time, monitored a person's heartbeat, movement, and the works.

Saiki took one look at the watch and silently cursed to himself. "Not good. I'm sorry, but I gotta go and get this fixed now."

Aiura, Toritsuka and Akechi stared at Saiki. It was one of the few times that they've seen Saiki seemingly in a hurry to go somewhere.

Was that...heat mirages that they were seeing about Saiki? The same type of mirages on a hot summer day, when the asphalt road became hot enough to cook eggs with due to solar radiation?

"I work from about three in the afternoon to about midnight," said Saiki, responding to their unspoken question. He fumbled with something in his pockets now and immediately reached up to pull at his limiters.

It was then that Saiki's friends noticed that his hairpins looked a little different from the usual blue, white base piece with a pink ball at the top like antennas. The ones that Saiki was wearing had a black base piece. The pink ball, though, was the same.

From what looked to be sleight of hand, Saiki changed out the hairpins back to the original blue and white base piece.

"Wait, you got a job?" asked Aiura. The words "Saiki" and something as menial as a "job" did not seem to belong in the same sentence.

"Yes," Saiki said quickly. "I don't have time today or maybe even the rest of this week or next to deal with this right now.

"Well, summer break starts in a week!" exclaimed Aiura. "We seriously are not going to see you? You're not coming back to school for the rest of the first term?"

Saiki was shaking his head faintly. "Unlikely. My agreement with the school is taking test and turning in homework. I do not need to be present."

The answer left the PK Academy Psychikers crestfallen.

"Look. I promise that we'll get together and figure this out once I can carve out some free time. Meanwhile, please watch over the school on my behalf. I'm sorry that I haven't been around to prevent the disasters."

Before anyone could respond to that, everyone saw their world blurred and swirled again.

The next second, they were all back home, in their own bedrooms. Aiura was back in her girlish room, decorated with many pink and girly things. Akechi was back in his bedroom, filled with books. Toritsuka was back in his bedroom at the Desire Temple. Luckily, in each instance, none of them were in sight of other people so no one saw the teleportation.

None of them could contact Saiki for the rest of the afternoon.