[ Kenritsu 31st Elementary School, 1 - 2 ]

"Wow, so cool!"

"How'd you do that?!"

"You're so cool, Takashi!"

A six year old Saiki Kusuo sat bored at his seat, his eyes resembling those of a dead fish.

"I guess so." said the boy in question, Takashi, voice all smug.

"Show it again!" Someone prompted.

"Look closely! First you hold the pencil like this. And then-'' He let out a Houpp as he got the thing to twirl on his fingertips.

"Show me how to do it too, Takashi!"

"Heh, ten years too early for y'all!" Boasted the boy.

Idly grabbing a pencil off his table, little Kusuo had the thought to try it out himself. A careful application of telekinetic angular acceleration and a moment to tune its PID variables, he had it spinning like a propeller.

"Takashi is so cool!"

"Yeah!" The other kids continued to rave.

Little Saiki, despite himself, couldn't quite completely crush that masculine urge to get up and show off his pencil propeller. But of course, he couldn't.

'Kuu-chan,' his mother's usual warning flashed through his mind, 'no matter what, you mustn't let anyone know that you're a psychic.'

'Wow, Takashi!'

'You're the only one who could pull it off!"

Little Saiki settled back into his seat, his eyes dead as ever. When-

"All this fuss over a spinning pencil? So stupid." Said one six-year old Asumi Touma. "Being good at useless things just means you suck at studying." A remarkably keen insight, as far as six-year old boys go.

The boys reacted as well as you would expect.

"What was that again, Asumi?! It's stupid, you say?!" One miffed Takashi-kun barreled up to the boy, grabbing him by the collar. "You asking for a beating?" A bit of an over-reaction perhaps, but a leader had his dignity to protect.

"Oh, you should back off while you can." Asumi returned undaunted. Seemingly. "Before it's too late for you to regret it."

Takashi-kun hesitated. "Before... what?"

"You'll ruin your shoes."

His stoic face hardly betrayed the expedience with which his threat made manifest below him. Waterwork artillery. Quickly spilling through the floor. The spectacular flight-or-flight adaptation it was, it quickly succeeded in deterring his aggressor.

"Ew, gross!"

"Teacher, Asumi peed himself!"

"Peed himself!"

"Peed himself!"

The spectating kids chorused as their teacher walked in.

"What the..."

"Someone get a rag!"

Indifferent to the chaos around him, little Kusuo sat, unflappable as ever.


"Come on, hurry! Hurry!" Little Kusuo looked over to see two boys running past him. "We gotta run or we'll miss Super Fun Time Land!"

"Oh man! Super Fun Time Land is about to air!" the second kid corroborated.

Reminded of that important info himself, little Kusuo looked around for a second, before finding an inconspicuous little spot behind some bushes to Instant Transmission his butt home, when-

"Take us for fools, will ya?"

"Who do you think we are?!"

Looking through the fence into the adjacent playground, Kusuo saw Takashi and friend ganged up on one familiar looking mop of hair.

"Never talk back to us again!"

"You stupid pants wetter! Don't you dare make fun of me!"

As Takashi's friend was in the middle of delivering another highly dynamic kick to the prone Asumi, his chronoceptive senses began to tingle. "Wait, a sec. Hey Takashi, Super Fun Time Land is about to start!" The boy reminded him.

"Oh crap!" Looking Asumi over, "We'll let you off the hook for today, brat," he spat.

Already unconscious, Asumi has no words to give as the two boys made off.

As the two disappeared into the distance, a reasonably concerned Kusuo walked up to Asumi. Taking a second to make the coast was clear, he gave the boy the faintest prod with his right foot-


"Huh?!" Asumi's eyes jerked open. Getting up, he quickly looked himself over. "It... doesn't hurt?" he observed. "But why? My- My bruises are gone too! Was I dreaming?"

Taking a moment to look around, he just happened to catch, among other things - a certain name tag. Kusuo, it read.

How plot convenient.


"Do five pull-ups then switch with the person behind you when you're done." The teacher said over the excited chatter of kids.

"Hey, look! Takashi is spinning around!" Suspended by his arms criss-crossed, with his butt poking into the sky, and his head facing the ground, Takeshi had suspended himself in quite a fashion. Uncrossing his arms, he could make his body turn around.

"Cool! Super cool!"

"There's no one as cool as you! Takashi!"

"He's spinning around so much!"

Little Kusuo looked over his shoulder with a disinterested look. Though a thought idly popped to mind. The image of Kuniharu barking at little Kusuo to stop as he Mach-1'ed on the bar on his toes like a propeller was comical, though wishful.

'Kuu-chan, whatever happens, you mustn't let anyone know that you're a psychic.' The thought and the little smirk it had elicited, vanished as his mother's usual warning came to mind…

"Kusuo-kun!" He looked over. "This is your name tag, isn't it?" One familiar bowl-cut head of hair jogged up to him. "You dropped it in the park yesterday." It was Touma.

Little Kusuo was quick to realize the implications of the boy's words, eyes widening. Quickly grabbing the tag off him, he made to leave.

"Wait! I want to ask you something."

Uh-oh.

"Are you actually-" Kusuo looked over his shoulder in a moment of suspense.

"A priest?!"

What...?

Kusuo's expression said as much.

"I got hurt yesterday, but I was all better before I knew it. I thought you were the one who healed me. Am I wrong? If you were, you're really amazing, Kusuo-kun!" In typical Touma fashion, he prattled on like a machine-gun. "If you can heal someone's injuries like that, you deserve a Nobel Prize! Just kidding! As if someone would just have such a convenient ability."

"Oi, Asumi!" a boy called over, his voice as exaggeratedly nasally as you'd expect of an elementary school goon. "Where you looking at, fool?"

"Takashi's doing the propeller," another boy chimed in.

"Look at him spin! Isn't that cool?!"

"Clap for him!-"

"What's the big deal about it?" Touma dismissed, seemingly not having learnt his lesson at all. "I'll be able to do it too, when I get bigger.".

True. But truth was pearl before swine.

"So you haven't learned your lesson from yesterday..." Takeshi said darkly, still suspended on the bar. "Oi, hold him down!" He commanded his goons, who were quick to comply.

"There's nothing cool about using force to make people listen to you," Touma said gallantly, only to get a smack to the face by one of the goons. "Shut up!" The nasally-voiced boy said.

"Takashi, make him shut up!"

"Get him Taka...shi...?"

The trio look up to find Takashi... a propeller.

Whirrrrrr.

Whirrr-Whirrr.

You could hear as he spun about on his crotch, gaining speed rapidly.

"Takashi-kun!"

"Whoa! Is that a new move?!"

"N-No, my hands won't let go! They're stuck!" He screamed feebly. "It's making my butt hurt! Hot! My- My wiener's on fire! My wiener's on fire!" He said as his hands finally let go.

"It's burning up!"

"Whoa! What? Did you hurt your wiener?"

"My wiener!" The boy cried as he rolled on the dirt, helplessly holding onto his crotch.

"The nurse needs to check his wiener!"

"Help carry his wiener to the nurse's office!"

"Move it! A weiner's coming through!"

"That was really cool though!" Beside Touma, someone remarked. "How'd he do that?"

"I hope Takashi does it again!" A girl swooned.

"Wow," Touma unexpectedly chimed in, "it's like you're a psychic!"

Touma's gaze wasn't on Takashi however. Little Kusuo froze.

"What? Si-Kick?" One of the kids nearby tried to parrot.

"No, not Si-Kick! Psychic!" Touma corrected enthusiastically. "It was Kusuo that did that! Not Takashi!" he declared, as more and more kids followed his gaze to the pink-haired boy. "Hey, you have psychic powers, right? That's so cool, Kusuo!"

Pausing, Kusuo slowly turned on his heel.

Whooooa, whatcha talking about, dawwggg?

His expression conveyed as much.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Kusuo... what happened to your face?"


"Good morning! Kusuo! Did you finish your homework?" Seven-year old Saiki Kusuo's eyebrows twitched. "Don't make such an annoyed face. You'll hurt my feelings. So, did you finish the art project? I spent a lot of time thinking about what I should make. By the way, what's that trash that you're holding? What? That's your art project? Oh. Ohh. W-w-wooooow. I-It's a roboooooot! I think i-it's reeeeally niceeee!" Touma said persuasively.

Kusuo's frown persisted.

"And, um. I'm sorry."

Frown disappearing, a soft smile crossed the boy's face.

"Oh, that's right! I made something too! Wanna see? It's right in my bag..." He pulled it out, just as one crisped-wiener boy took the opportunity to 'accidentally' knock him into the floor, getting him to drop it, where the crisped-wiener boy proceeded to 'accidentally' step over it.

"Will you shut up already?" Takeshi said, his usual entourage covering his back. "Don't bring your garbage to school."

"Don't be so mean, fire-ween." Touma brushed him off as he diligently picked up the remains of his art project. "I put a lot of work into this."

"Who're you calling fire-ween!" Takashi gave him a solid punch on the shoulder. "I'll punch you if you do it again."

As the trouble-makers took their leave, "...Are you okay?" one of the kids nearby asked as he helped Touma up.

"I'm used to it," he said, shrugging.

"You should talk to the teacher about fire-ween," another boy suggested, as he looked the boy over.

Though his face remained impassive, from his vantage point, little Kusuo had his own little monologue going.

Saiki couldn't use his powers to bail Asumi. That's what the predicament boiled down to. The boy was too sharp, and would be onto his psychic powers in an instant.

Though, as little Kusuo watched the boy try to put on a tough face, dusting himself off, the faintest hint of doubt crossed his mind.


"Huh? My shoes are gone!" Little Touma cried, looking his shoe-rack up and down. "Where did they go?"

Little Kusuo wore a frown at the clairvoyant image of the shoes sitting in a trash-can on the other side of school, courtesy of Takashi and co.

He said nothing.


"-so, then I said," Touma was making idle talk as he followed Saiki to the classroom, when the pink-haired boy froze. "What's the matter?" Touma prompted, looking over his shoulder as he slid open the classroom door.

Asumi's a pant wetter!

Moron!

Poop-head!

Asumi and piggy, sitting under a tree. K. I. S. S. ing.

All manner of insults populated the blackboard, in all colors of chalk.

Touma gaped. Saiki couldn't help but scowl as he looked away.


"Ow!"

Little Kusuo had been on the way home, when his telepathy tuned in to Touma's distressed cry. "Stop! Why are you doing this?! Let me go!"

Little Kusuo's body began moving before he could rationalize all the reasons he shouldn't. Tossing his bag by the road, he burst over to the school in a hurry.

Pulling up to the classroom, he slid open the door with uninhibited force-

"Oh?" Takashi looked over. "Kusuo?" His usual two goons flanked him. The bucktoothed one with that awful, nasally voice. And that other one, his head resembling a stupa. They stood, pointing and laughing.

"What? Want a turn too?"

Stupid. Read the characters scribbled on Touma's forehead. Bruises lined Touma's body, red running down his nose. Touma's collar scrunched in his hand, Takashi's other hand held a black marker. While stupa-head poked Touma with a mop.

Touma's head looked as if it might topple over any second.

Kusuo saw red.


When he came to, Kusuo found himself standing in a scene of devastation. Glasses shattered onto the floor. Curtain ripped to bits. Cracks gouged through the walls. What he'd done... he couldn't recall. But he could quickly piece it together from the scene around him.

Takashi and co... were fortunately still in one piece.

Their memories. He had to erase their memories, the boy immediately thought. Summoning Nanana, his trusty harbinger of memory loss, he made to do just that.

In fact, why stop with just the memory of the present incident. He could do better.

The catalyst for it all. The reason why the boys had begun harassing Touma in the first place. The thing that had sparked Touma's interest in Kusuo in the first place. Kusuo's one moment of careless indulgence.

The day of the fire wiener.


Their memories erased, and holes left in its wake, the boys woke up and came to their own conclusions as they saw the devastation around them, blaming it, quite conveniently, on a berserk Touma. As for Touma himself.

"What are you talking about, it's got to be Kusuo- Wait... why did I just say Kusuo-kun's name right now? Now that I think about it, why did I even hang out with Kusuo-kun so much over the last year in the first place? I'm pretty sure it had to do with some kind of secret he kept, and that I wanted him to show it to me. Oh! I remember now! I remember! I heard people say that Kusuo-kun's wiener was really big, and I wanted him to show me-"


[ Back to the Future ]

"It's not too bad. It might swell a little. But it should get better in a day or two." Timidly, the girl pulled down her shirt as the woman let go. "But, either way, I think you should call and let your parents know," the woman said as got up to grab something off her cabinet.

"Whatever happened back there?" The woman asked idly.

Seated on the bed, the girl made an awkward expression. "It was a... bit of a difficult situation," Kokomi answered for her, standing beside her.

The two girls were over at the infirmary, Kokomi having accompanied the girl there. Outside, one Rifuta Imu paced, waiting on her senpai.

"Uh huh?" The woman said as she handed the girl on the bed some ice packs. "Matsuzaki wanted me at the staff room, you said?" She asked to confirm, to which Kokomi nodded. Grabbing a first-aid kit with her, the woman made to leave, looking back only for a moment.

Kokomi gave her a reassuring smile and the woman finally stepped out, sliding the door close behind her.

A soft silence reigned as the girl on the bed laid back down, looking completely exhausted. The ceiling cast a dull reflection on the pale blue of her eyes. Evening light filtered in from the window, dyeing red the snow white of her hair.

Looking the girl over one more time, Kokomi nodded to herself. "I'll leave you to rest," she said, making to leave.

"Ne, Teruhashi-senpai." The older girl paused at the door.

"Is... is it selfish of me? To think that they should make up? Get back to becoming friends?"

Kokomi wasn't sure how to answer her.

"I... I hate it." The other girl continued. "Not getting along with people." A small sniffle injected itself into her voice. "It's just so… frustrating."

Kokomi lingered on the other side of the room, not quite sure what to say.

The other girl shook her head. "S-sorry. What am I even talking about? I-I'm sorry we kept you. Senpai must have had all sorts of things to do-"

"Yamashita-san," Kokomi had a kind smile on her face. "You really do treasure your friend a lot, don't you?" It prompted a small, shy smile from the other girl.

"I-I wonder if I could ever be like Teruhashi-senpai.."

Kokomi cocked her head. "?"

"So that I would never have to worry about losing any of my friends." Yamashita said earnestly, fingers fiddling in front of her, missing the expression that briefly crossed Kokomi's face. And the next moment it was gone.

"Oh, surely you exaggerate," the girl played it off, returning to her usual soft smile. "Ichijou-san could have hardly asked for a better friend than you."

The other girl returned a tentative smile.

"I hope so."


Bidding the girl bye, Kokomi finally stepped out. Only to spot a very anxious looking Rifuta Imu pacing around.

"Imu-chan? What are you doing here-"

"I finished searching the entire first and second floors." She cut her off. "I even got some boys to keep watch in case he slips out from the front entrance. If Saiki's still in school, he's got to be on the third floor or up." She hurriedly prattled on.

"S-Slow down, Imu-chan."

Said girl responded by grabbing Kokomi by the hand and pulling her along. "I think the best possibility is that he could still be somewhere in the third-floor left-wing. I'll take right. Senpai, you take the left-wing." She said, dragging the bluenette along.

Shaking her head, Kokomi jogged to match her pace, breaking out into an exasperated smile.

"I'll take you up on your offer then."


Perched on top of the school roof, ready to teleport at a moment's notice, Saiki sighed an exasperated sigh, though even he couldn't help the small upward tug of his lips.

The girl was relentless, if nothing else.

Yamashita, from what he could gleam from his clairvoyance, was mostly alright. She had mild bruising around her ribs, but was mostly just fine. As for the other two girls, Matsuzaki was chewing them both out in the staff room, but the mood between the two had certainly improved. One of two girls had considerably worse injuries than the other, but even she'd probably come out just fine on the other side of winter break.

As for the senpai and kouhai duo actively scouring the halls, well, they were going to be in for some disappointment.

Across from him, a wintery vista of the school backyard convolved with the full breath of electromagnetic spectrum as it went into his eyes. A waste of perfectly good scenery.

A careless thought crossed his mind as he made to teleport.

'Friends, huh?'