Part Three
Chapter Twenty-Two
This is getting ridiculous. I'm serious. First Dark Reunion is real, then my friends and I are all reincarnations of some all-powerful beings, then psychics are apparently a dime-a-dozen with everyone I know having some sort of power to their name, and now I'm fighting random rapist thugs in alternate dimensions. How could trying to make myself more ordinary make my life even more disastrous than before?
Yare, yare.
And, of course, there was that weirdness with Teruhashi. She's supposed to be God's perfect angel, so why the hell is everyone suddenly treating her like she some sort of...of...fallen Geisha? Just thinking about it ticks me off. Fortunately, we were able to make it to our hotel without any more problems.
Well, except for one.
Yare, yare.
The Honeymoon Suite
"If there is anything more you need, please don't hesitate to call upon any of the staff, Teruhashi-san." The concierge bowed as he offered Kusuo the card keys. "We do hope you enjoy your stay."
His work done, the concierge bowed himself out of the room, leaving Kusuo standing in front of the door with a sleeping Yuuta held up with one hand and three cardkeys held in the other.
Yare, yare. Since when am I Teruhashi-san?
Beside him, Teruhashi was tomato-red with both hands pressed to her mouth. Not in horror, though, oh no. Kusuo didn't even need telepathy to know she was fighting hard not to grin extatically through her embarrassment.
"S-so..." Teruhashi lowered her hands just enough to offer Kusuo a wonky smile that trembled at the edges as though she wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry. "It looks like there's a bit of a misunderstanding..."
Kusuo turned to eye the enormous suite complete with a full kitchen, two bathrooms, and a sitting room. The sliding rice-paper doors leading to the bedroom were wide open and perfectly framed the single king-sized bed that almost seemed to glitter at them mockingly. Kusuo sighed and shoved the room keys into his back pocket so he could situate Yuuta more comfortably.
"Yare, yare." He shouldered his and Yuuta's bags before quirking an eyebrow at Teruhashi. "You should probably take a bath tonight. I'll take care of Yuuta in the morning before we go to the park."
"Oh! Um, yes. Of course, Saiki-kun. And, um..." She tapped her pointer fingers together and looked up at him through her bangs with a faint blush. "I'm really, really sorry about this. I didn't expect my brother to book the Honeymoon Suite, of all things. Especially since he knew I was bringing a friend."
Kusuo's eyebrow twitched at the mention of her pervert brother. "Forget it. I'll get Yuuta dressed for bed while you're in the bath."
"R-right. While I'm...in the...bath..." Blushing from head to toe, Teruhashi turned on the balls of her feet to walk robotically toward the ensuite bathroom.
Yare, yare. Kusuo shook his head, a small smile trying to tug at his lips as he stepped into the bedroom to lay Yuuta out on the bed.
He was snoring slightly, his mouth opening and closing with every deep inhale and exhale. Kusuo carefully pulled off Yuuta's hat and brushed aside his long green bangs. He was actually pretty cute when asleep and not doing his best to be annoying. Not that Yuuta could really help being annoying; he was just a kid after all.
"All right, Yuuta. Let's get you changed."
Setting Yuuta's Cyborg Cider-man #2 pajamas aside for a moment, Kusuo reached to pull of Yuuta's shirt. Yuuta rolled over in his sleep, making Kusuo miss.
What?
Kusuo reached for him again, and again Yuuta moved, and again Kusuo missed.
What?
Kusuo tried again, faster this time, but again Yuuta moved. Kusuo stared at his palms, dumbfounded.
What the heck is going on?
While he certainly wasn't moving his fastest, Kusuo should have no problem taking off the clothes of a sleeping child.
(That came out way, way worse than I intended it to.)
Again and again, Kusuo tried to snag Yuuta's shirt, but again and again, Yuuta just rolled out of the way. Yuuta wasn't even tossing or turning, there were no sudden or swift movements, he just rolled over like normal, and Kusuo somehow missed him. Almost as if Kusuo was slowing down even though he was deliberately speeding himself up.
What—miss—the hell—miss—is going on—miss—right now?
"Yuuta," Kusuo snapped, losing his patience as he hovered over the bed sweating and panting from exertion (Again, you know what I mean). "Stay still."
Yuuta went still, curling up on his side with a small, sleepy sigh. "Yes, sir...Cyborg Cider-man...#2...sir..."
Suspicious—had Yuuta been faking it the whole time?—Kusuo reached for Yuuta's sleeve. He hovered experimentally for a moment, but Yuuta didn't move. Eyes narrowed with a slight frown on his lips, Kusuo snapped his hand forward and grasped Yuuta's wrist. The boy didn't move.
What the heck was that all about?
"Saiki-kun? I'm done with the bath if you—Eh? Why is Yuu-chan still in his day clothes?"
"Teruhashi?" Kusuo turned. "That was quick..."
"Not really," Teruhashi said, still rubbing a towel through her damp hair as she eyed him curiously. She was dressed in a pair of cotton summer pajamas—a loose pink tank top and a pair of matching shorts—leaving her arms bare from shoulder to wrist and her legs bare from the tips of her pink painted toes all the way up to midthigh. Kusuo traced the soft curves of her muscular calves up her well-toned thighs to her wide hips and tapered waist. He continued upward to the swell of her breasts and suddenly realized that the thin straps of her tank meant she couldn't possibly be wearing a bra...
Offu...Kusuo snapped his attention back to her confused face and prayed his nose wasn't about to start bleeding. And why was it suddenly so damn hot in this room?
"Saiki-kun?"
The sound of his name shot through Kusuo like a zap of electricity that made his fingers and toes tingle. What the hell? It wasn't like this was the first time she'd called his name before. It wasn't even his given name! And even if it was, she always called him 'Kunio,' so it's not even like that would matter.
Not like what would matter? Kusuo demanded of his subconscious. What even is this?
Cliché as it was to say, Kusuo had never felt anything like this before.
No, he had once. During his precognitive episode at the beginning of year 3...
That was a hallucination! Not precognition! No way in hell!
Except now he couldn't get that moment out of his head, and Teruhashi was still staring at him with her petal pink lips parted in concern as she took a step forward and lifted her hand. What was she even—?
The soft, fragrant skin of her inner wrist pressed against Kusuo's forehead before trailing down to his cheek, his jaw, his neck. She frowned in confusion as she stood right in front of him, balanced on her toes so she could reach him.
"You don't seem to have a fever, Saiki-kun, but you're all red." She dropped her wrist from his neck to rest her hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"
How could he possibly be okay with her standing so close to him that he could smell her shampoo? When he could still feel the brush of her bath-warmed skin against his face and neck? When there was a bead of water trailing down her clavicle to the curve of her left breast as it made its way closer and closer to the valley between—
"S-Saiki-kun...?" Teruhashi sounded breathless, almost anxious. Kusuo's eyes snapped back up, and he realized he'd started leaning in to...to...to do what?
What the hell was I trying to do?!
Kusuo took a quick step backward and turned around. He could feel the heat radiating off his face and scowled. Was he blushing? Since when did he blush?!
"Yuuta was moving around in his sleep," Kusuo said as he shifted Yuuta out of his day-clothes with ease and into his footy pajamas. "I had a hard time getting him to settle down."
"O-oh." Teruhashi cleared her throat and stepped beside him, making Kusuo tense. "It was a pretty stressful train ride. I'm not surprised he's having trouble settling down."
Which just served to remind Kusuo of that purple-headed bastard. He gritted his teeth at the memory of Purple-hair's sick confession and just what exactly would have happened to Teruhashi had he and Yuuta arrived even a second later.
"Hey." Teruhashi's small hand pressed against the middle of Kusuo's back, and he went ramrod straight. Teruhashi didn't seem to notice as she continued speaking. "I'm okay, you know. And so is Yuuta. Nothing happened."
Like hell nothing happened.
"You're coming with us to the Sanctuary on Monday."
"Eh?"
Kusuo forced himself not to look at her as he zipped up Yuuta's pajama's and lifted the sleeping boy into his arms. The concierge had mentioned a toddler cot being brought in for the boy to use.
"I mean, yes," Teruhashi said as she crossed the room to unfold the small cot in the far corner. How did she know what he was looking for? "But you know I was already planning to."
"Good." Kusuo knelt to carefully settle Yuuta on the cot and tucked him in. "You need to learn how to control your territory or more of what happened today will happen again."
Kusuo could hear Teruhashi's frown when she responded. "You mean with Satoru?"
Kusuo twitched. He turned to frown up at her, one knee still on the ground. "You know his name?"
"Well, yeah." Teruhahi's brow furrowed. "He told it to me."
"Forget it."
Teruhashi blinked, surprised. "Eh?"
"Forget it." Kusuo was suddenly on his feet, Teruhashi's arms held firmly, but carefully, in both hands. "Forget that man's name right now."
"Saiki-kun, what—?"
"His name!"
Only a few feet away, Yuuta groaned and curled in on himself as he slept, obviously disturbed by Kusuo's volume and tone. Gritting his teeth, Kusuo grabbed Teruhashi's wrist and dragged her into the sitting room, sliding the doors closed behind them with his spare hand and one foot.
"Saiki-kun, what's gotten into you?" Teruhashi said the moment the doors were closed. "You're acting nothing like yourself."
Kusuo knew that—of course he did. But when she'd said that man's name so casually, and his given name at that, like they were friends or, or something. Kusuo's stomach rebelled against the implication. But it's not like it's Teruhashi's fault. That man had probably only given her the one name—it's easier to track someone down with a family name than just a given one—and kami forbid she tack on a suffix like she somehow respected him.
Gritting his teeth, Kusuo paced the length of the room while flexing and unflexing his right fingers in and out of the shape of a gun.
Even more than all that, how could Teruhashi know what that man planned to do to her? What he told Kusuo straight up he would do the second he released his Territory? Just remembering that bastard's smug grin, his casual reference to his 'other subs,' the ease with which he had planned and executed something so thoroughly and disgustingly despicable like it was his right—
"Saiki-kun." A warm hand on his accompanied her warm voice, snapping Kusuo out of his spiraling thoughts. He was somehow sitting on the couch with Teruhashi kneeling beside his bouncing right leg. She had his right hand clutched in both of hers with a soft, concerned smile on her lips that reached all the way to her glimmering indigo eyes. "Something happened, didn't it? Something that the rest of us couldn't see."
Kusuo swallowed the sudden lump in his throat but managed a short, sharp nod. Her hands tightened around his, her smile softening even further to something almost pained.
"Tell me?"
"He was a psychic, Teruhashi." The words spilled out on their own with no input from Kusuo. "Like you, Mera, and Akechi. He had this Territory that lets him go into another dimension. For people on the outside, barely a second passes, but on the inside time keeps going. That man said he could hold his Territory open for days without anyone knowing."
Teruhashi stiffened, her expression turning concerned and almost angry. "What happened? Are you okay?"
Kusuo stared at her, uncomprehending.
Concern trumping anger, Teruhashi seemed to wilt as a spark of terror backlit her darkening eyes. "H-how long were you in there?"
"Are you insane?" Kusuo asked really wanting to know. How could she possibly be worried about him?
Teruhashi frowned. "What?"
"I just told you that man could make an unbreakable Territory that sends him and his victims to an alternate world."
"Which means he took you there because I'm pretty sure I'd remember if he told you that on the train." She sat up on her knees, putting them almost eye to eye. "What happened? Because he must have done something to get you so freaked out. I've never seen you like this before, Saiki-kun."
"You don't get it, do you, Teruhashi? That man wanted to take you there. The only reason he took me first is because he wanted me to know what he had planned."
Teruhashi leaned back in shock, as if the idea literally hadn't occurred to her. Her lack of self-awareness only stoked the fire in Kusuo's belly all the hotter.
"He..." Kusuo's jaw tightened just remembering that smug bastard's grin as he talked circles around what he'd do to Teruhashi once he was finished with Kusuo. "He's taken other girls there before, and he...does things to them. Days and days and days of being his plaything with no way to escape."
"Oh, kami..." Teruhashi's hand went to her mouth as she dropped fully on the floor, her legs bent to either side. "Those poor girls..."
"Are you even kidding?" Kusuo scowled and dropped to one knee in front of Teruhashi so he could take her shoulders and shake some sense into her. "Teruhashi, he was going to do that to you."
"But he didn't," Teruhashi said firmly, her eyes narrowing on him as if in sudden realization. "He didn't do anything to me because you didn't let him. You stopped him."
"Only because he took me first! And then bragged about it like the sick, twisted fuck that he was. Is. Shit." Kusuo looked away and dragged a hand through his hair. "I should have killed the bastard."
"Hey!" Teruhashi grabbed the front of his shirt before he could stand and start pacing again and pulled him back down to her level. He could have resisted, but honestly, Kusuo wasn't in any state of mind to be giving his body orders right now because his every cell was screaming for blood, and he had no idea what to do about it. Or why it was happening. Or how to make it stop.
"None of that, okay?" She dug her fingers into Kusuo's jaw and turned him toward her until they were once again eye to eye. "You saved me. Do you hear me, Kusuo? You. Saved. Me. It doesn't matter if it was a coincidence or an accident or whatever. It doesn't change the fact that you stopped him from hurting me. Probably from hurting anyone else ever again." A sly grin tugged at her lips. "What did you do to him anyway? I mean, the way he just collapsed like that, you must have done something...What?"
Kusuo's eyes almost hurt from how wide they'd gone, and considering how fast his heart was hammering in his chest, he was pretty sure he was half a beat away from a heart attack. He tried to talk, to answer her question, but nothing came out when he opened his mouth. Her eyebrow quirked, and he cleared his throat to try again.
"What did you call me?"
Incomprehension slowly morphed to realization on Teruhashi's face, triggering a brilliant, luminous blush bright enough to light the nearly dark room. "I...it...ac-accident! Sorry, I didn't...it won't...um..." She bit her lip and looked up at him through her long, dark eyelashes. "S-sorry, Saiki-kun. It won't happen again."
Oh, screw that. Now that she'd said it, there was no way in hell she was taking it back.
Going up on his knees, Kusuo cradled Teruhashi's jaw with both hands and tilted her head back until he was hovering over her, his eyes boring into hers. "What did you call me?"
Teruhashi trembled and swallowed hard. She licked her lips, giving them an irresistible shine as she stared back at him with apprehension and hope. "I...I called you...K-Ku—"
The front door slammed open, and the sitting room lights snapped on. "Kokomi, my love! Did you miss me?"
Damn it!
