Part One
Chapter Eleven
If you're expecting an in-depth look at our war council at Café Mami, don't hold your breath. Nothing important happened anyway. We all got coffee, cakes, and coffee jelly with Mera stopping by our table more often than should be allowed while on the clock, but no new information came about. Teruhashi-san and I did, of course, fill in the rest about Amamiya and his weird ramblings about Talents, Reborn, and Dark Reunion.
Surprisingly, Kaidoh looked more upset than excited by the idea that his chuunibyo dreams were coming true. Of course, since I can't read his mind anymore, I couldn't tell you why. He went through his usual Dark Reunion monologue about how it was a secret organization out to purge mankind by stealing the ancient power known as Black Beat currently sealed inside of his right arm. Kaidoh was also apparently a part of Dark Reunion in his past life but stole Black Beat from them once he learned about their plans. Using the Phantom Technique, he fled his own body and hid inside the unborn body of Kaidoh Shun or some other such nonsense; honestly, it still doesn't make much sense.
Anyway, once everyone was filled in, we talked about some plans, but there really isn't much to do until we can discover some actual, solid information about the real Dark Reunion. Unfortunately, that can only happen when Amamiya, or one of his companions, shows up again, and who knows when that will be? In the end, the only thing we could do was stick to the original plan: spend the summer training. Except, instead of training myself to be normal, I'll be doing everything I can to get my powers back.
Yare, yare; I guess this is what happens when an all-powerful psychic tries to be ordinary.
A Boring Family Trip
"Hey, Kusuo? Do you think I did this?"
Kusuo glanced over at Kaidoh, who sat motionless on the next swing over. His hands were tight on the chains, but his head was low as he focused on his feet.
"Did what?"
The two of them were loitering outside Konpaku Yochien waiting for it to let out. Today was the Thursday after Yuuta's party, and after a combination of notes from both his parents, Yuuta's, and the police, Kusuo had been released early from last period every day that week to pick Yuuta up from kindergarten. Today, Kaidoh had made excuses about being ill and cut class to follow Kusuo to Yuuta's school. It was a shocking act for the otherwise stalwart teen.
"Do you think I created Dark Reunion?"
Kusuo stopped swaying on his swing and shot Kaidoh an incredulous frown. "What?"
"I'm not an idiot, Kusuo, I know I'm not actually special." Kaidoh kicked the ground with his foot, causing his swing to rock slightly. "How could I not know after everything I went through in elementary school and middle school? But then I met Nobuaki-senpai after the first-year entrance ceremony, and he showed me that it didn't matter that I was nobody to the rest of the world as long as I was somebody to myself."
Kaidoh frowned and kicked the ground hard with both feet. He swung backward but skidded his shoes across the pavement to a sliding, dusty stop before his momentum kept him going. Kusuo said nothing.
"And now I'm wondering: is there a group of people out there who found out about my stupid game and thought it was real?" Frustrated tears beaded the corners of his garnet eyes. "Is that kid in real danger just because I needed to feel good about myself for once in my miserable life?"
Kusuo scoffed. "There's no way that happened."
Kaidoh's head shot up, his eyes wide and almost wild. "But—"
"I'm serious." Kusuo shook his head. "I don't know how you found out about Dark Reunion—maybe you heard it in passing on the street or read something shady on the internet—but if Dark Reunion really exists, then it's been around for a while; way longer than just a year."
Kusuo looked his friend square in the eye with a resolute frown. Kaidoh was a sensitive soul, and he needed real proof that Kusuo, at least, didn't blame him for this mess. And while every solitary cell in his body cried out for him to stay silent if he wanted to keep what little peace he had left, Kusuo shoved it aside and made his choice. "This isn't your fault, Shun. You didn't do anything wrong."
Kaidoh's—Shun's—lower lip started to tremble, but he held himself together admirably. "Th-thanks, Kusuo." He scrubbed the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand before striking as strong a pose as he could with his face covered in tears and snot while sitting on a kindergarten swing. "But whether it's my fault or not, I swear on this right hand of mine that I will see things through to the end! Thick or thin, good, bad, or worse, I've always got your back!"
Kusuo looked away to hide his fond smile. It was nice to know that not everything about Shun's fantasy world would fade away with his new-found maturity. Not immediately, anyway. Maybe someday the Jet-Black Wings would retire completely, but Kusuo wasn't in a hurry. Shun was fine just as he was.
"Cyborg Cider-man #2! You're back again!"
Kusuo stood up just in time to catch Yuuta as he hurled at his stomach like a human bullet. Yuuta laughed and snuggled Kusuo's chest, knocking his uniform's yellow bucket-hat askew. It had been strange, at first, to see Yuuta in the required blue smock and yellow hat that the rest of his classmates wore, but he'd quickly gotten used to it. What he hadn't gotten used to were the kindergarten teachers.
"Yuuta-chan!" Nakamura Himawari stopped her brief, incredibly feminine run only a few steps away from Kusuo. Her pale blue eyes were shiny with tears and her matching blue hair was pulled over one shoulder in a loose ponytail. "Oh, Yuuta-chan, you know better than to run off on your own!"
You say that like you didn't point at me and shove him out the door.
"It's such a good thing you're always so diligent, Saiki-kun. It would be awful if something happened to Yuuta-chan because he got too excited and ran out before you arrived."
Kusuo resisted the urge to glare at the woman, but it was very, very hard. "I'm sure you wouldn't let that happen, Nakamura-san."
Nakamura blushed and fidgeted with her oversized apron. "Oh no! Of course not!" She looked up at him, widening her eyes with a small pout. "I would never let anything happen to Yuuta-chan."
Does she think she's being cute?
Shifting his grip so Yuuta was settled comfortably in his arms, Kusuo offered Nakamura a polite nod before looking at Shun and inclining his head. "We should go."
"Oh! Cyborg Qoo! I didn't know you were here too!" Yuuta grinned at Shun and waved almost wildly. "Hi, Cyborg Qoo! Where's your hat?"
Shun blushed and looked away with a cough. "I…ah…I don't wear it when I'm dressed as a civilian. I wouldn't want to give away my secret identity, after all."
Yuuta nodded as sagely as a six-year-old could. "That's a good idea, Cyborg Qoo. Who knows where Baron Cola might show up next?"
"Um! Saiki-kun!" Nakamura caught the back of Kusuo's white uniform shirt, making him stop mid-step. He turned and raised an incredulous eyebrow. Nakamura blushed and let him go, tucking both hands behind her back with a nervous smile. "It's just…um…I was wondering if you're busy this weekend? There's a new Mugami Toru movie and—"
"Thank you." Kusuo bowed. "But I'll be watching Yuuta over the weekend."
"O-oh…" Nakamura wilted, her sapphire bangs falling over her eyes. "I see…"
Yuuta was ecstatic. "You're really watching me, Cyborg Cider-man #2?"
Kusuo nodded.
"Whaa! That's so great! We should let Peach-T Girl come too!"
"What about me?"
"Peach-T Girl!" Yuuta launched at Teruhashi, nearly falling on his head when Kusuo tried to hold onto him so he wouldn't bowl Teruhashi over and injure them both. Fortunately, Kusuo was able to get close enough to grab Teruhashi around the waist to steady her as she got a firm grip on Yuuta.
"Yuuta." Kusuo frowned. "I've told you not to jump at her like that. What if you hurt her?"
Yuuta slumped in Teruhashi's arms, sniffling. "I'm sorry, Cyborg Cider-man #2."
Kusuo inclined his head at Teruhashi. "And?"
Yuuta rubbed his cheek, blushing lightly as he looked up at Teruhashi. "I'm sorry, Peach-T Girl."
"Hey, Kusuo!" Shun hurried over, flustered. "Offu, Teruhashi. Are you okay?"
"Yes, Kaidoh-kun, thank you. Yuu-chan just got a bit excited is all."
"Ah, S-Saiki-kun?"
The three teens looked back to see Nakamura standing awkwardly a few feet away; her face looked a bit green as her blue eyes darted from Kusuo to Teruhashi and back.
"You know her?"
"Oh! How rude of me." Teruhashi didn't bother to step away from Kusuo, but she did turn enough to offer Nakamura a polite bow without ever letting Yuuta go. "My name is Teruhashi Kokomi. You must be one of Yuu-chan's teachers, right?" She brought out her killer smile, which struck Nakamura like a deadly arrow. "Thank you for always taking such good care of him."
Nakamura looked nearly dead with defeat as Teruhashi turned her smile on Kusuo. As usual, it did nothing for him. He may not be able to read her thoughts anymore, but there was no denying the triumphant gleam in her indigo eyes.
Yare, yare.
"We should hurry home, Saiki-kun. Your mother has a neighborhood meeting this evening, and your father will be back late from work. I promised to get dinner started so they won't have to worry about anything when they get home." Reaching out, Teruhashi pinched the front of Kusuo's shirt with two fingers and tugged just enough to get him moving. Letting him go, Teruhashi turned her smile on Shun. "You're welcome to come too, Kaidoh-kun. I'm making curry."
"Thanks, Teruhashi-san, but I have to hurry to cram school. We have a mock-exam tomorrow before we're let out for summer, and if I don't do well, mama won't let me train with you all this summer."
"That's a shame, but maybe next time?"
"Definitely!" Shun waved as he hurried off toward the train station. "See you tomorrow Kusuo, Teruhashi-san!"
"Bye-bye, Cyborg Qoo!"
Once Shun rounded the corner, Teruhashi turned her attention to Yuuta, who was chattering on about his day. Kusuo fell into step behind the pair, keeping his eyes and ears open as they traversed the crowded streets. He supposed it should bother him how casually Teruhashi had invited Shun over to his house for dinner, but it was hardly the first time. In fact, Teruhashi had become such a fixture over the last few months—what with her using their project as an excuse to invade his home—that she had started to walk home with him, Shun, Kuboyasu, and Nendou. Naturally, Yumehara took this as an opportunity to tag along and spend more time with Shun—which had been working out pretty well for her, especially since she still attended his cram school. The two of them usually broke away from the pack at the train station nearest Kusuo's house before heading off to cram school together.
On at least six separate occasions, Kuboyasu and Nendou—sometimes together and other times individually—had accepted Teruhashi's invitation to join them for studying and dinner, much to Mom's delight. It had caused Kusuo excessive amounts of annoyance the first few times before he realized she wasn't going to stop, no matter how much he protested, so he stopped trying to stop her. Why waste the effort?
Tucking his hands into his pockets, Kusuo followed a few steps behind as Teruhashi led the way home. "Hey."
"Hm?" Teruhashi glanced over her shoulder, which made Yuuta pause his endless chatter to catch his breath.
"Why are you coming to my house anyway? We finished our project last week, so there's no reason for it."
Teruhashi blushed a brilliant red before swinging back around. "N-no reason. I just…I got a call from your mom that she would be late, like I said. And since I wanted to see Yuu-chan before…"
Her blush faded and her purposeful stride slowed to a near stop. Yuuta looked up at her in concern. "Peach-T Girl?"
She shook her head and smiled. "It's nothing, Yuu-chan. Anyway!" Her pace picked up again as she shot Kusuo a quick glance over her shoulder. "I wanted to see Yuu-chan before he and his parents leave on Monday."
Uncertainty knotted Kusuo's stomach at the mention of the Iridatsu family's trip. His parents had been planning a three-week summer vacation for over a year now to coincide with their tenth wedding anniversary. Since they were taking a cruise, their original plan was to leave Yuuta with his maternal grandparents, but they were worried that wouldn't be enough now that someone was looking for Yuuta. Kusuo, to everyone's shock, had offered to take care of him, but it was too late—the Iridatsu-sans had already bought a third ticket for Yuuta to join them on their cruise.
"We'll be on a boat in the middle of the ocean, Saiki-kun," Kouta had said with a pacifying smile. "Plus, I've alerted the cruise line that there is a risk with Yuuta, and they're making special accommodations for him. He'll be just fine."
Kusuo wanted to believe that, but it wasn't in his nature to be optimistic. Still, Kouta had promised to keep Kusuo posted via email with the ship's on-board Wi-Fi—even though he really didn't have to as Kusuo was just a neighbor—and that would have to be enough. Hopefully, Kusuo's weeks of training would keep him busy enough not to think about it.
Yare, yare. When did I get so soft?
Teruhashi laughed at something Yuuta said and tapped his nose with her finger. Against his will, Kusuo felt his perpetual 'meh' expression soften to an almost smile. If he had to guess, Kusuo would say he started getting soft around the same time Teruhashi did; whenever that was.
"Of course!" Teruhashi spun around, grinning at Kusuo with a devilish gleam in her eyes. "If that's okay with you, Saiki-kun."
Crap, I wasn't paying attention. This meant one of two things: either Kusuo would be forced to agree and save face or he would have to endure Teruhashi's relentless ridicule for his failure to adhere to social convention.
Or he could take back the trick Teruhashi stole.
"Hn." Kusuo looked at Yuuta's expectant face. "What do you think, Yuuta? Is it a good idea?"
"Oh yes! Yes, yes, yes! Universal Studios Japan is the bestest place in the whole wide world! And they're having a show there with Cyborg Yakult! Peach-T Girl said she would even get me an autograph since he couldn't come to my party!"
Kusuo turned a flat expression on Teruhashi, who had the gall to look perfectly innocent. "Did she, now?"
"It's all expenses paid," Teruhashi said so sweetly, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. "Train fare included with two full days in a luxury suite as well as tickets and meals and desserts all taken care of."
"Uh-huh! And since we get to stay overnight, Peach-T Girl said we can go around the park again before we leave on Sunday!" Yuuta suddenly realized that Kusuo didn't look at all excited by either prospect. He shrunk into Teruhashi's arms with a subdued pout. "Or never mind, I guess. Mommy and Daddy probably wouldn't want us to go so far."
Kusuo's gaze sharpened to a glare. Damn you, Teruhashi. Why was it that Kusuo hated to see this kid so depressed?
"It's fine, Yuuta. I don't mind taking you." It would take over his whole weekend, but what did that matter? Besides, he'd never been to Universal Studios Japan, and without his telepathy, he wouldn't have to worry about the shows or rides being spoiled before experiencing them for himself.
Yuuta perked up. "Really?!"
Pulling his eyes from Teruhashi, Kusuo pinned Yuuta with a firm frown. "But we'll have to talk to your parents first, and if they say no, that's it."
"Okay!"
Because God hated him, of course Yuuta's parents said 'yes.' And Kusuo's own parents had been so thrilled, they tried to shove him and Teruhashi out the front door before Kusuo reminded them that the trip would start on Friday evening, and it was currently still Thursday.
Around nine o'clock—his parents weren't kidding when they said they would be home late—Kusuo was roped into washing the dishes because Dad wouldn't stop whining about how he had spent all day licking shoes and it was the least Kusuo could do when God's beloved ones, Kurumi and Kokomi, spent so much time taking care of the house like guardian angels.
Yare, yare. If he still had his powers, Kusuo would have teleported to a deserted island or to his abandoned training grounds and left Dad with the chore. Well, actually, he probably would have used telekinesis to wash the dishes since, if Kusuo disappeared, Dad would undoubtedly find a way to charm Mom or Teruhashi into it.
Yare, yare. Kusuo ran warm water over the plate he'd just scrubbed. Honestly, this wasn't the worst chore. Teruhashi didn't make much mess when cooking the curry, and it wasn't any harder to wash five plates than three. It was also kind of nice to hear the television playing the adventures of Cyborg Cider-man #2 on low volume since Dad had fallen asleep in the armchair after dinner. Mom was sitting quietly with Yuuta, who was watching with his usual—if more subdued—enthusiasm since he was spending the night. That wasn't usual, this was actually the first time, but his father was on a business trip until Sunday and his mother was taking care of her sick mother—hence the reason Kusuo was taking care of him over the weekend.
Finished rinsing the plate, Kusuo held it out and Teruhashi took it to dry. She was humming contentedly, her hair pulled up by a pale pink ribbon in a loose, side-pony, and she still had on Mom's spare apron. She looked like a young wife. Scowling, Kusuo snatched up another plate to wash.
"If you keep making faces like that, it will freeze." Teruhashi grinned as she stacked the plate and reached for one of the five glasses sitting in the drying rack. "Goodness knows that after seventeen years of using zero expressions, your face muscles aren't used to the exercise."
"What are you doing, Teruhashi-san?"
"Hm?" She tilted her head with false confusion as she worked her drying rag slowly across the wet cup. She could finish drying what few dishes there were in seconds and be done with it, but she was dragging things out on purpose. "What do you mean, Saiki-kun?"
"Why are you drying the dishes?" He finished the plate at the same moment Teruhashi finished her glass. She plucked it from his hand to dry. "The whole point of me doing it was so you and Mom didn't have to."
"Oh, that!" She giggled. "I don't mind. It's kind of relaxing, don't you think?"
He didn't believe her for a second, but he grunted without comment and grabbed another plate. "And the other thing?"
"Other thing?"
He glared down at her, and she shrugged. "If you're asking about Universal Studios, I thought Yuuta might enjoy it."
"And what about you? You really want to take 'a boring family trip' to Osaka?"
Teruhashi had the grace to blush as she bent over a bit and scrubbed the plate in her hands even though it was already dry. She set it slowly atop the other plate and picked up another cup.
"It's going to take a while to get used to the idea that you knew all of my thoughts the last two years."
Seven years, since she was obviously counting their freshman year (which was only done once; thank you, God), but thanks to his brainwashing, she would never know that.
She finished drying the glass and accepted the wet plate he handed over. Neither of them said anything for the next few minutes as Kusuo worked his way through two more plates that Teruhashi dried with a distant look on her face.
"Have I told you much about my family, Saiki-kun?"
"No."
"Hm." Teruhashi motioned for him to set the chopsticks in the drying rack so she could finish the cups. "But you do know some things?"
"I know about your brother." The sick pervert. "And that your parents both travel a lot for work. Telepathy doesn't really work the way non-telepaths think it does. People don't think in full sentences unless they're focusing on something specific." He set aside the last pair of chopsticks and started on the rice bowls. "Most of the time, it's mental images with a few half-finished phrases or a sudden, shouted word. Stuff like that tends to blend together until it's one big haze; sort of like the sound a white-noise machine makes."
Teruhashi frowned and took Mom's washed rice bowl to dry. "That must get very annoying."
"Less annoying than hearing actual thoughts. I can't tell you how many times I heard people think about poop on a daily basis. Explicitly."
Teruhashi giggled. "Yeah, I can imagine how awful that could be."
"No; you really can't."
Surprisingly, Teruhashi didn't push back. Instead, she hummed lightly in agreement as she finished the bowl and set it aside. "Well, you're right about them always traveling for business, but honestly, it's way more than just that. In fact, I haven't seen my parents in…" She counted on her fingers. "Almost three years?"
Kusuo nearly dropped his rice bowl. "What?"
"Well, I mean, of course I've seen them; everyone has! And I talk to them pretty regularly—twice a month or so—but they haven't actually come home in years."
"…Why?"
"You know my brother is Mugami Toru?"
Kusuo would have been insulted by the question if he didn't know it was rhetorical. He nodded anyway.
"Well, my parents are Eien Megumi and Kanpeki Koiichi."
Eternal Goddess and One Perfect Love? Kusuo shuddered. What awful names!
"Wait." Kusuo did drop Dad's rice bowl. The garish orange ceramic shattered on the kitchen floor. "The actors?"
Teruhashi nodded. "That's them. Also, I know you did that on purpose." She crossed the kitchen to grab the broom. "You better not do the same to mine."
"I have no idea what you mean." Kusuo grabbed Teruhashi's bowl next. Mom had bought the white ceramic bowl with a pink interior and an exterior cherry blossom pattern after the second time Teruhashi stayed for dinner.
Many of Kusuo's favorite dramas starred either one or the other of Teruhashi's parents, and looking back, he really should have made the connection earlier. Eien Megumi was considered the most beautiful woman in the world by every major magazine with her naturally black hair—a real rarity these days—and deep, indigo eyes while Kanpeki Koiichi had been voted the sexiest actor in Japan for the last twenty-two years, and he was only thirty-nine. Both played mostly in historical dramas and romantic stories with lots of action and were often paired together because of their fantastic yet mysterious chemistry.
Guess that mystery is solved.
"Okay, then." Kusuo finished washing Teruhashi's bowl and set it aside. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Teruhashi frowned, incredulous. "Really? I just told you my parents are the two most perfect people in the world, and you want to know how that's affected my life?"
"Ah." Kusuo picked up Yuuta's Cyborg Cider-man #2 bowl. That actually makes a lot of sense.
Teruhashi finished sweeping and leaned on the broom handle with an overdramatic sigh. "Yes, it's so very difficult belonging to such a perfect family. I am the Andromeda to my mother's Cassiopeia—more beautiful, more intelligent, more—"
"Humble?"
The broom handle was suddenly at Kusuo's throat like the point of a sword. "Don't judge. Do you know how hard it is to pretend like I don't know how pretty I am all the time? To smile at everyone? To laugh at the right time without going overboard? Yes, I may have let it get to my head since I started high school—"
Kusuo quirked an eyebrow.
"—since I started middle school, but I am, overall, a nice person with good intentions. If people want to admire me like I'm an exotic bird, then who am I to stop them?"
"A person?" Kusuo set Yuuta's washed bowl inside Teruhashi's. "I went to the zoo with Yuuta a few…during second year, and surprisingly enough, not one cage had a human inside."
Teruhashi lowered the broom and scoffed. She pushed her bangs aside as she searched for the dustpan to pick up the pile of broken ceramic. "Again, you forget who my parents are. I was raised to be seen, to be admired. I'm supposed to be an actress; you know? Just like my parents and brother. I've been taking extra classes every day since before I started elementary school to prepare for it: drama classes, kendo classes, archery classes, koto classes, flower arrangement classes, tea ceremony classes."
Yare, yare. Were they preparing you to be an actress or a Daimyo's wife?
"I finally put my foot down during my third year of middle school and told them I wasn't interested in acting. They were shocked. After all that effort, was I really going to let it go to waste?" Dustpan now in hand, Teruhashi crouched down to sweep up the broken bowl. "I told Onii-chan something about being a wildflower and being prettier than shop flowers or something. I don't know. It was stupid."
Kusuo remembered that. Makoto had been thinking about those exact words when he ordered Kusuo to tell Teruhashi to stay away from home during their second round of year 2 so she wouldn't accidentally get caught up in filming. Teruhashi ended up using Kusuo's carrier pigeon impression as an excuse to ask him on a date that he'd then done his best to ruin. Somehow, despite his best efforts, Teruhashi came out the other side liking him even more than before.
Teruhashi dumped the dustpan and put it away with the broom. "My parents practically disowned me after that, so I thought that if I threw myself into being the perfect pretty girl, it would smooth things over. Dad came around pretty quickly, but Mom is being stubborn. She always tells me about her modeling or the places she travels to for her different jobs."
She sighed, looking distant, before her eyes caught his, and she blushed again, waving her hands in denial. "Don't get me wrong! I know my parents love me I just…I just wish being me was enough, you know?"
Not really. Kusuo couldn't imagine anything like what Teruhashi was explaining to him right then. Like her, he never doubted that his parents loved him—even Dad at his idiotic worst—but he'd never felt compelled to do anything to earn that love either. How different would he have been—would the world have been—if Kusuo ended up with overreaching parents like Teruhashi's instead of his own?
"That's why I tried so hard to get you to notice me." Teruhashi pinned him with an amused glare and jabbed at him with one finger. "Because you, Saiki Kunio—"
My name is Kusuo.
"—never once acknowledged that I was the perfect pretty girl my parents trained me to be. And if there is even one person in the world who doesn't recognize how amazing I am, then I must not be all that amazing after all."
Kusuo honestly had no idea what to say to that. "…Sorry."
"Oh no!" Teruhashi waved him off with a laugh. "Don't be. It's because you ignored me so handily that I was able to get so close to Chiyo and Mera and even the other boys. For the first time in my life, I have real friends who actually like me, not just looking at me. I have people like Chiyo, who care enough to know that I prefer udon over soba and that I find radishes disgusting.
"It's because of you that I have Auntie and Uncle and Yuu-chan, who don't care one bit about my beauty and instead like me because of who I am as a person. It's because of you that I can go on a boring family trip to the amusement park where I get kidnapped by a crazy man in a ginger costume and have it be one of the greatest, most wonderful, most memorable experiences of my life.
"Because of you, Saiki-kun, I found myself, found that I can be myself, if only in these four walls." Teruhashi smiled that soft, sweet smile at him that he'd been seeing for months—years?—and somehow hadn't recognized for what it actually was: a real, honest, happy smile. "So please, Saiki-kun, don't be sorry for ignoring me. I'm not."
Silence followed except for the low buzz of the television from the living room. Kusuo didn't know what to say; he didn't know what to think. Teruhashi had just dropped so many bombs on him, Kusuo was amazed the world was still right-side up. It was a very good thing his powers were gone, if only for that one moment, because he didn't doubt he'd have blown up Tokyo, or at least the house, out of sheer shock.
I'm the most important person in Teruhashi-san's life. That thought should have made Kusuo feel incredibly presumptuous and arrogant, but it didn't. He wasn't trying to be a jerk or stroke his own ego, he was just stating a simple, undeniable fact. Just as Teruhashi was the most beautiful girl in the world, Saiki Kusuo was the most important person in her life; it was as simple (and complicated) as that.
Teruhashi, on the other hand, didn't seem the least bit affected as she turned back to the sink and picked up Yuuta's Cyborg Cider-man #2 bowl with careful, almost reverent, hands to dry. She was humming again, but it was a different song from that one with the awful lyrics she sang at every end of year 2 class karaoke party. It was softer, sweeter. Sadder.
What are you thinking?
And suddenly, so suddenly Kusuo would swear he teleported, he was behind her, and his arms were around her waist, pulling her flush against him. Teruhashi gasped. "S-Saiki-kun?"
What am I thinking?
"Teruhashi-san."
"Y-yes?"
Say something, idiot. Preferably something not stupid.
"You're welcome."
Sigh. Idiot.
Teruhashi giggled and patted his hands with hers. "I didn't actually say thank-you, Saiki-kun, but I understand."
Really? Because I don't.
"Come on." She patted his hands again, then held up her cherry blossom patterned bowl. "We still have work to do. Those dishes won't clean themselves!"
"Aa." Letting her go, Kusuo went back to the sink and turned on the water. There was no way she was as chill about that as she acted—her mind must have been going crazy. Or was he pulling a Teruhashi by thinking there was more to her non-reactions than there actually was?
Yare, yare. Kusuo rinsed the last rice bowl—his own—and handed it to Teruhashi to dry. This wouldn't be happening if I had telepathy.
