Oop, I actually got yet another chapter done. That's really strange, it may be like midnight right now, but I have to stay up. I need to watch Falcon and the Winter Soldier as soon as it comes out! I will be waiting for it, I don't care that I have class in the morning! So anyway, I hope you like this chapter!
UNLIKE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS, INSTEAD OF FOLLOWING AKARI and Kusuo at the start of their day or at school or something else, we are mixing it up. Oh, look at that, an original chapter, how fun! So like I said, we're not at PK Academy today, instead, we are at the local junior high school. It's not that far away from PK, actually just a small walk away from it.
If you can't guess already, but today, we'll be following a different Watanabe! A trio of junior high school boys were crowded around a few desks in the back of their classroom. School just ended for them and they were all starting to gather their things to leave. Among this trio is obviously Rikuto, who was talking to two of his good friends.
"Did you see it?!" One of the boys, with bushy brown hair buzzed in his seat, "Did you see it?!"
The other, who looked identical to the first boy, nodded his head rapidly, his blue eyes lit with excitement, "The newest volume is on sale today!" He reached out to show the two a flyer that he had grabbed.
"No way!" Rikuto gasped as he jumped up from his desk, "Really?" His messy black hair swaying as he jumped up.
The first twin, for these two other boys were twins, you can't deny that, hummed happily, "Mhm! It's only ¥2,500!"
Rikuto groaned in dismay, "Man, I don't have that kind of money. My parents don't give me that much of an allowance…" Well, more like he already blew his allowance on some mangas already. He has no sense of money management, honestly. Pretty sure he used it all the day that he got it!
The two brothers shared a look, already knowing Rikuto's issue with money, and shook their heads. One of them shrugged his shoulders as he stood up, "If you save up you'll get enough for it next week."
"But it won't be on sale then!" Rikuto whined as the trio headed out of the classroom. It's your fault there, buddy. Should have saved your money.
Both of his friends just shook their heads at his misfortune, "Oh, well."
A thought then struck him as he slyly looked at his friends, "You don't think you-"
One of them shook his hands frantically, "No way am I lending you money!"
"Drat." Rikuto groaned before looking at the other boy who just shook his head again.
"Don't even ask me!" The other exclaimed.
Rikuto sighed, though he's not that surprised. People know not to lend him money, least they'll be waiting quite a long time before he pays them back. The twins then looked down at their watches to see the time, and one said, "Well, mom wants us home early today."
"Oh, okay," Rikuto said as he waved to the twins as they headed in the opposite direction of him, "see you guys tomorrow!"
"Bye, Watanabe!"
So Rikuto started his walk back home. As with any normal day, it was nice out and perfect for Rikuto to walk on his own. However, since he was by himself, it meant that there was no one around to stop him from heading into town and stop by the shops. More specifically, the book shop where he can get his mangas. As if he were on autopilot, Rikuto may or may not have started to walk towards the shop and walked in. He scurried over to the manga section and stared at the piles of books that were just taunting him.
He quickly shuffled through all of his pockets and his backpack to find every last pit of yen that he could find. After rummaging for quite a bit, he eventually found about ¥1,800. Not a whole lot, but enough to get at least a few cheap mangas. So he browsed the books and compared their prices to try and find as many mangas that he could actually buy for the amount of yen that he has. His bright green eyes were drinking in all of the mangas that he would more than love to actually buy, but without having that much money, he wouldn't be able to get them all, like he wants to.
Eventually, he found the one book that he couldn't actually afford but desperately wanted. "The Adventures of Bubble Girl and Gummy Bear," he practically drooled at the fresh manga staring at him in all its glory. It's basically some silly cliche story of a superhero and her pet bear… that was also made out of candy? I don't know. MJ may be too lazy to try and come up with an actual manga series or something. Though you can imagine that all this manga really is a ploy to get people to but the other merchandise that goes along with it.
Though along with the shiny new manga, there was the price glaring at him; ¥2,500. Rikuto huffed and deflated. He stared at the few mangas that he already had in his hand, basically these three that he has were already equal to ¥1,800, so he wouldn't be able to get them at all. Such a sad day.
Just as Rikuto was lamenting the fact that he couldn't get the one manga that he wanted, a certain pink-haired teen spied the junior high schooler. He was at the shop just to browse some books and such as he may normally do. Since he didn't have that much to do today, and Akari was taking a nap, he thought it would be a good idea just to check out the shop. The last thing he wanted was to run into his friend's little brother.
Even if he wanted to try and keep himself out of sight from the manga-obsessed boy, he certainly forgot that MJ likes putting him in these kinds of situations. So while Rikuto was drooling over the manga, he caught the sight of pink hair from the corner of his eyes. He brightened up, "Kusuo-nii!" He hopped over to the older teen with a wide smile, "What are you doing here?"
Kusuo cringed at his voice and slowly turned around. Sadly his escape was now paused since he was caught. Darn. He grunted, "Nothing. I'm leaving now." Kusuo didn't not like Rikuto, but he also didn't like him completely. He tolerates the young boy because he's Akari's brother, but it's not like Kusuo goes out of his way to have a relationship with Rikuto. Though that doesn't mean he can't avoid the way that the younger boy latched onto him and tried to have a brotherly relationship with him.
"Oh, oh!" Rikuto jumped after the older teen who continued to try and get out of there. He grabbed Kusuo's arm to stop him, much to Kusuo's chagrin, "can you help me out!"
"No," Kusuo's eyes twitched.
Rikuto pouted, still not letting go of him, "You don't even know what I need help with."
"You want me to buy you this new book since you don't have enough money," he deadpanned since it's obvious and perhaps something like this has happened before. No, yeah, this has definitely happened before.
The young boy smiled sheepishly, "Ah, well." He finally let his hostage go and rocked back and forth on his heels. He flashed Kusuo his most innocent-looking smile. "Either way, can you help?"
Kusuo stared at him for a moment before answering with no hesitation, "No."
Rikuto deflated slightly, but certainly wasn't going to give up now, "I'll give you a bunch of coffee jelly! Dad just made a whole batch of it, I'd be willing to get it to you by tonight."
"Tempting." Kusuo pursed his lips, which caused Rikuto to brighten. Though he still didn't cave, "No."
Seeing that Kusuo really wasn't going to help him out, Rikuto grew desperate. His seeming addiction to manga certainly needed to be fed today with the volume that he wanted right now. Sure he could just wait a few more days to get his allowance and then buy it then… but why do that when he could just harass Kusuo now and get it. Rikuto pursed his lips, though finally came up with something to try and convince him to help him out. The junior high schooler shrugged his shoulders and glanced away, "Guess I'll just have to bother Akari about this when I get home. No doubt she'll want to hear about how horrible big brother Kusuo was to me here."
The psychic stared at him, with his eyes hardening behind his glasses. "Demon." Rikuto certainly knew how to play Kusuo to get what he wanted. The last thing he needed was for Akari to bother him because Rikuto decided to run off to her complaining about him. On one hand, he knows that Akari wouldn't be necessarily happy to know that Rikuto once again blew his money on some manga. However, on the other hand, he knows that she doesn't want to hear her brother, probably for a long time, talking about how "mean" Kusuo was.
"So?" The boy smirked, seeing how he backed Kusuo into a corner. "You'll do it."
Kusuo eyed him, though he had to admit it was impressive how Rikuto could extort him like this. Well, it's impressive and concerning. Let's just focus on the impressive part though. "Shut up." He grunted and started to walk away, "Let's go."
"Yay!" Rikuto exclaimed as he snatched up the newest manga that he wanted and followed after him. After the two boys bought the manga that he had wanted, they finally left the book shop. Now, Rikuto had spent all his money once again and Kusuo was now missing ¥700. Rikuto was smiling ear to ear as he admired his new book, he turned that happy smile up to Kusuo. "Thanks, Kusuo-nii! Since you helped me out, I'll help you out too!"
Kusuo side-eyed the boy, actually walking him home since he knows Akari would want him to keep an eye on her brother. "What could you help me with?"
"You and Akari," Rikuto said in a 'duh' tone, "don't you need help wooing her or something?" He doesn't know all that much about romance, but he's been forced to watch enough American rom-coms to know that the guy usually has to do something to woo the girl he's interested in. Of course, Rikuto knows that Kusuo is interested in his sister. He's not an idiot. Well, that's debatable. Except he may not be wrong here…
Kusuo grimaced, "Why would I woo her?" There's no reason that he needs help to woo Akari, nor does he actually want to do that. What makes Rikuto think that he wants to do that?! He glared down at the boy, "Don't make me regret getting this for you."
Rikuto raised his hands in surrender but laughed, "Ok, ok! I'm sorry! Sheesh, why are you so uptight?" He shook his head, "No need to hide the fact that you like my sister. I won't tell her if that's what you're afraid of." He then gave Kusuo a closed-eyed smile and flashed him a big thumbs up. "I approve!"
The older teen clicked his tongue, "Whatever."
What does Kusuo care if Rikuto approves? He's not looking for approval for anything about this. A relationship with Akari would never happen. As far as they would go is friends. That's it. They would never be boyfriend or girlfriend or anything like that. They're friends. Maybe best friends, but Kusuo wouldn't say that out loud. Sure, he appreciates Akari a lot, is glad that there is someone else who understands him in certain ways. It also helps that she has supernatural abilities. Perhaps the only reason that he befriended her in the first place was because she has the powers. Though deep down he knows that he probably would have tried to talk with her even without her powers. After all, he does like her as a person. Well not like. No. Don't look any further into that statement.
Though even if he wanted to deny it, Rikuto's vibrant green eyes were lit with excitement. Much like his father, he liked the idea of Akari getting married to Kusuo. Really, the psychic is the only one that Rikuto would trust to be in a relationship with his sister. After all, an all-powerful being such as Saiki Kusuo would definitely keep Akari safe. Blame it on the overprotective nature of being a younger brother, but Rikuto doesn't want anyone to hurt his sister in any way, even if she has supernatural powers. Kusuo is someone he already views as an older brother, so it wouldn't be that different if he actually became his brother-in-law. Though only time will tell. Also, how often this story is updated. You'll just have to wait and see how this progresses. Oops.
So Kusuo started to lead Rikuto back home. The junior high schooler talked excitedly about his new book as the high schooler just listened to him and complained internally. Though Kusuo never once stopped him or tried to quiet him down. He just let Rikuto nerd out as much as he wanted as they headed back home. No doubt after this, Kusuo is going to head right over to Akari and complain to her about it. Which will probably end up with him being scolded for caving into Rikuto but laughing at how easily he let a thirteen-year-old manipulate him so easily.
Ah, yet another original chapter, this time it's Rikuto centric. I definitely wanna give all of the Watanabe family a bit of their own original chapters, just so you can understand their family dynamics. You know, Akari is the superpowered daughter, Rikuto is the nerdy son, Yamato is the enthusiastic father, and Miku is the workaholic mother. Those are basically their short descriptions, but I want them to be fleshed out further than just those simple descriptions. Look at me, actually trying to improve my character development skills. Anyway, let me know what you think of this chapter! Until the next update!