There were significantly more people out today than yesterday. Most normal jobs had resumed, but thankfully school was still out. Saiki sat in his room and pondered on yesterday's events. He had tossed and turned in his sleep, and as a result woken up late. He wanted the time to relax that he had missed yesterday, but he had too much on his mind to focus. Why did this always have to happen to him? He groaned and got up to start his day. He had not used clairvoyance or telepathy on Teruhashi to protect her privacy. That was a lie; it was mostly because he wanted to avoid the hatred she likely held for him now. For once he didn't try to get a leg up on his opponent if only because he couldn't be bothered to face the consequences. She could do a few things. She could:
A) avoid him until school and never speak of this again
B) avoid him until school and out him
C) march right up to his door and tell him off
D) manipulate him for her personal gain via blackmail.
He could feel his stomach drop when the last option crossed his mind.
He would prefer if she never spoke to him again, but that was very unlikely. He had already revealed his powers to the group once before. It had gone better than expected, he mused, but the circumstances had changed. She also did seem to have genuine feelings for him before, but once again the deal had been altered. He prayed she would not alter it further. Once all the mystery broke down, would she toss him aside? What made him different from the other refuse? She did have good justification to choose the bad endings. He had scared her so badly she broke character and then he delivered the coup de grâce with his troublesome powers. He understood why he needed to keep his powers hidden, but the act had long become tiresome. Was it so wrong that someone else knew about them?
She had won a resounding victory despite his best efforts. She was able to infiltrate his life and become closer to him with minimal interaction between them. If he recalled correctly, they had never actually talked before this altercation even on their one-sided dates. He had grossly miscalculated. She was not a threat level dragon, she was a threat level god.
Still, she hadn't seemed angry when she said that she'd see him tomorrow and she hadn't had any thoughts to read because she was half-asleep. She had been dazed in the latter half of their time yesterday so reading her was next to impossible even then. He was truly in the dark. He quickly removed his pajamas, got into the shower, and brushed his teeth all at the same time. His hands danced as he used telekinesis as easily as breathing. He didn't bother doing anything else because he could use his powers to easily mitigate any other problems that arose. He put on some casual clothes that he didn't really try to coordinate.
"Ku-chan! Breakfast is ready!" he heard his mother call from downstairs. Her call was enthusiastic as always, but bore a palpable undertone of uncertainty and contrition.
Saiki shuffled downstairs and sat down without a word. His father had left for work as well, so it was just the two of them. His mother asked, "Are you alright? It looks like you had a very rough day yesterday." She looked more uncomfortable than he had seen her in a long time as she pondered how to tell him what he already knew. He threw her a lifeline by cutting her off.
Yes, I'm fine. Teruhashi figured out I had powers though, he said, picking at his food absentmindedly.
"I'm so sorry Kusuo, I let you down." She hung her head in shame. "I accidentally let it slip when I was talking to her."
It's ok, Mom. It's unfair of me to ask you to keep that secret without a single mistake. You could have used me for your own personal gain very easily. His face contorted when he realized the impact of his words, unable to settle on the correct expression. He cursed his inability to communicate without leaving burrs behind.
His mother nodded her head in understanding.
"I know he's trying to console me in his own way." she thought. Her face showed a small smile, grateful for his attempt at reconciliation.
He felt relieved that she had picked up his slack. He swallowed and continued.
Regardless, Teruhashi knows about my powers now. The only thing we can do is try not to let it get out of hand.
"Ok, Kokomi, focus! You can do this!"
Teruhashi had entered Saiki's telepathy range. He was not prepared for her this early.
_
Teruhashi glided down the street toward the Saiki residence proceeded by a trail of Offus not unlike a military gun salute. Business as usual. While she was all smiles on the outside, inside was a very different story. She had been attempting to counteract her nerves and arrhythmic heartbeat by psyching herself up, but she was barely holding it together. She approached the door and timidly knocked. Saiki's mother answered the door.
"Kokomi-chan! It's so great to see you! I assume you're looking for Ku-chan? He's upstairs in his room."
She lightly stepped past the threshold and removed her shoes. Saiki's mother cautiously shuffled aside, pushing her shoulders together nervously. Teruhashi headed upstairs, each step more laborious than the last until she finally reached the event horizon of the growing weight in her chest. She meekly knocked at his door, venturing past the point of no return.
"Saiki-kun? May I come in?"
"Yes," he said robotically.
His room looked as plain as she remembered it. A desk, bed, carpet, a bookcase, and a TV console were the only furnishings. Pictures or personal decorations were nowhere to be found. There was a large, harsh light in the center of the room. It felt like a prison cell with the exception of the TV.
"So, why are you here?"
Saiki's sudden question snapped her out of her reverie. She carefully observed him. He had been sitting in the desk chair, which he had turned around to face her. His arms were stretched and his hands tightly gripped his knees. His face sported a tight grimace.
"I came to talk about yesterday," she said softly, narrowing her eyes and bowing her head.
His expression loosened and he appeared to study her closely. She ducked her head and played with her hair under his intense gaze. It felt like he was peering through her very soul. Well, he had already done that so it's not like this was anything new.
"So you know who I really am, don't you?" she asked. She chided herself for not coming up with a question she already knew the answer to.
"Yes." His vision remained straight ahead again with that distracted stare that seemed to peer through her instead of at her.
She paused, unsure how to continue. Finally she spoke.
"Then why did you let me come over? Is my true self not detestable to you?" she whispered through tightly pressed lips and a tremulous brow.
"No," he said in a tone so neutral and noncommittal it bordered on sociopathy.
She was very careful not to let her more petty thoughts come out. One slip up, and he'd be gone. She was luckily able to play off her thoughts as nerves. She had been practicing this morning in between her psych-up sessions. She didn't understand the extent of his telepathy and she didn't want to find out. She was more concerned about him anyhow. The memories of him and their friends flashed through her mind. She had worked so hard on becoming a better person. She had made actual friends for once. She wouldn't give up that easily.
"Why don't you hate me?"
The question came as a complete surprise to her. His face was still coiled into a tight scowl, but his narrowed eyes told her he likely felt more regret and sorrow than he wanted her to see.
"W-Why would I hate you?" she stammered as she flinched back and her eyes shifted back and forth.
"I read your thoughts for a very long time. I may not have wanted to hear them but I still invaded your privacy. I also mentally bludgeoned you by following you and overwhelmed you with my baggage. I also..."
His face strained very subtly and then reset almost immediately. If she wasn't Kokomi Teruhashi she likely would have missed it. It looked like he was holding back again. She wouldn't push it.
"What do you mean you didn't want to hear them?" she inquired softly, taking on her soothing expression from before.
"I can't turn off my telepathy. I can hear everyone's thoughts within 200 meters. All I can do is try to tune them out or focus on a few people's thoughts." He was as clinical with his responses as yesterday it seemed.
"That's really tough," she whispered kindly. "The only thoughts I can read are 'offu' or some variation of praise. Well, usually. I messed that up once." She smiled weakly.
He moved his hands from his knees and folded them around his chest. She could see his shoulders relax a little bit. She thought back to this morning where she had monologued about how lonely it was at the top and how hard they had worked to put on masks. Thanks to god's grace, she somehow avoided thinking about her breakdown. She, for the first time in her life, felt sympathy.
"You beat me fair and square. To me that means we're equals. For all his blustering about everyone being beneath him, my annoying brother has never beaten me. It's not like he tried once, he's tried over 4,000 times. You can do a lot of things I can't do. Your ability to sway people, your luck, and quick thinking in social situations are far beyond my own. I tried to rearrange the lots when we went on the Okinawa trip and I was successful in not having you in my group initially. However, when those girls wanted to switch to get away from Nendou, you seized the opportunity to get into my group anyway. You foiled me at almost every turn. Now we're here."
She forgot he was reading her thoughts.
"Then why did you try to avoid me?" she detested this question more than anything, but she had to know the truth.
"You're too dangerous. You always have people flocking around you and even have your own fan club. People would find me out very quickly." His grip on his arms tightened so hard that it should have broken skin. His face retreated into itself with enough pressure to crush diamonds.
She felt the word "dangerous" stab through her gut like an arrow.
"You really know how to pick me up and then drop me off a cliff don't you?" she spat followed immediately by a loud slap as she covered her mouth.
"I'm simply stating facts."
She paused pensively until she felt a fleeting wave of inspiration. It was now or never.
"So what you're saying is you want to be normal?"
She swore she saw his eyes go wide and flash bright blue even through the green glasses.
"I knew because I've thought about it too. I've decided that I'm fine with who I am, but I do still wonder sometimes about what it would be like to have someone like me for something that wasn't my beauty, my connections, or what I could do for them. As you know, I initially latched onto you because of my ego and competitiveness, but I stayed because you stuck around. I felt like a normal person for the first time in my life."
She looked down bashfully and start to play with her hair, embarrassed by her candidness. It felt odd for her to speak so frankly about her own ego, but she couldn't hide anything from him anyway.
"I imagine it's similar for you, sans the people liking you. Anybody who knows about your powers is probably always asking for help. Who wouldn't want help from someone who can defy common sense at a whim? Your brother certainly would not have challenged you if you were a normal person. I don't know what Toritsuka is like when he's with you, but I imagine he's just as insufferable as he is when he's chasing women," she said with a slight falter in her voice.
"You're not wrong," Saiki said as his shoulders and grip on his biceps relaxed ever so slightly more.
"Not wrong about what?"
"All of the above," he said. His expression remained characteristically lukewarm.
Teruhashi felt a small giggle escape, relieved that the tension had started to dissipate even a little bit. This time it was real. Before her true personality had started to crack the dam holding it back; with that comment it started to burst at the seams.
"Look, I think it's painfully obvious that I still would like to be around you in whatever capacity that is. I can't hide that I want to be friends at the very least and I'm coming to terms with the fact that it's unlikely that it will ever be anything more," she said, casting her eyes down wistfully.
Saiki sighed again, mirroring her bow and shaking his head.
"I tried being a normal person too, but that didn't work out very well. Not only did my powers come back shortly after I tried to seal them, I also couldn't handle being so helpless."
"That was when you stopped wearing your glasses, correct?" she observed.
"Yes."
"So why did you stare at me for so long?" She probably shouldn't have asked that question, but she wouldn't be Kokomi Teruhashi if she didn't.
"Like I said yesterday, my x-ray vision made people look like muscles and skeletons most of the time. I could see people as they were sometimes, but it was never enough to stick. I stared because I was looking at your face essentially for the first time." He offered her no quarter in his expression. It was to be expected.
She figured asking if he liked what he saw was inappropriate. Her eyes widened a bit when she realized her mistake, but she heard no response from the telepath.
"And losing your telepathy is why you were frightened when you didn't notice people approaching you?" she said gently.
"Correct."
She thought back to the incident at the library where Nendou had saved him by stopping a bookshelf from falling on him.
"It must have been scary to have to rely on others when you were so powerful before," she mused thoughtfully.
Saiki furrowed his brow, lost in thought. After around a minute of silence, he finally spoke. It was the longest minute of Teruhashi's life up to that point.
"It's interesting that I was never able to keep you away from me no matter what I did. I thought I would be able to sway you by having those guys at the mixer do exactly what I thought you would want. I assumed knowing everything about someone and manipulating that information would yield my preferred results, but that assumption turned out to be incorrect. No matter what I did, you always came back. I assume you'll keep coming back to have this conversation over and over again until I submit to your demands and your cheat ability will ensure that I never have the upper hand."
That one really hurt. She had wondered why the guys somehow knew everything about her, but it made sense after he explained it. She was no better.
So this is what it's like when the shoe is on the other foot.
"What happened to the guys then? They went to the bathroom and never came back…" He cut her off.
"That was also my doing. When I realized that people's thoughts and actions are not deterministic, I took it upon myself to correct my mistake."
But the only time that could have happened was when I said that I wanted him around…
"Don't get any funny ideas."
Of course, his goal was damage control. Getting used to someone being able to read your mind was very tough.
"Regardless of how and why you went about navigating our interactions, you still think I'm too dangerous to keep around. I'll leave you alone if you want…"
She felt tears well up. It could be over before it even began. So much for luck.
"No. I am the world's most powerful psychic. My condition will not change, so the only thing I can do is learn to live with it. If the world stands against me, I will rise to meet its challenge. I don't plan on letting that happen though."
His eyes shone and the corners of his lips pulled into a mischievous grin. Teruhashi's eyes widened in surprise and then softened as a warm smile embraced her countenance. She saw the sparkle from her deep blue irises reflect off of the dull green of Saiki's glasses.
"Pleased to meet you, Saiki-kun."