This is Saiki

This is Lotus

Hot-Blooded Dodgeball!

Lotus made her way to school various thoughts going through her head. To be more specific the events that occurred over the weekend. She was really grateful for Saiki in agreeing to "tutor" her. They already had their first lesson where Saiki went over the basic psychic powers.

Lotus was a little worried though. Saiki had an array of powers and just being near him meant she was going to be learning all of them. But Lotus promised she was going to work hard to keep her new powers in check and keep Saiki's secret. Plus she still had her own goal of making the pink-haired teen boy her friend.

Physical Education Saiki's least favorite class. He was a decent athlete but if you factor in those psychic abilities, Saiki's an unstoppable machine. A simple task like tossing a ball can cause a severe amount of destruction.

Saiki casually tossed a ball into the ball bin and the thing was crushed.

"What was that crazy loud sound just now?!"

"Was it a meteor?!"

Coach Matsuzaki got all the boys gathered around. "Okay, guys! For today's PE class, we'll be playing dodgeball."

Murmurs and complaints went off amongst the boys.

"Hey! Don't complain!"

A redhead with sharp eyebrows and sports tape over his nose popped up with a determined look.

"Let's give everything we've got! Who cares if it seems childish!" The boy started running back and forth getting more pumped up as he continued to shout. "Let's relive our youthful days! Now lets play till we're dripping with sweat!"

Some of the boys seemed a little apprehensive as they soaked in the loud boy's words.

"Well, seems Hairo really wants to so right?"

"Guess this means we've gotta get serious."

"Just hold on a second," A boy called out getting everyone's attention. He pointed to his left, "Not that I'm complaining but….what's she doing here?"

Everyone looked to where he was pointing to see Lotus in her gym uniform. Which consisted of a white shirt with red piping along with red gym bloomers.

"Hello." She smiled and waved.

The boys all looked shocked seeing the relatively new girl present in the boy's gym class. Many starred and blushed enjoying the view her gym uniform provided.

"What are you doing here?!" Coach Matsuzaki shouted

"That's what I'd like to know too."

"Oh. There was a mix up with my transcript papers and I got put in the boy's gym class. Its okay because I really love sports." Lotus got an excited look with a fire in her eyes. "So what are we gonna play volleyball? Basketball?! Soccer?! BASEBALL?!"

"She really loves sports."

"Yes, I do!"

"So you like sports new buddy?" Nendou asked

"I love sports! Just thinking about it gets me all fired up!" Lotus had a happy smile as her face lit up red from the sheer excitement she was feeling.

"You're going to overheat."

"Hahaha!" Hairo appeared next to Lotus laughing. "I love that hot-blooded fired up spirit! You gotta be on my team! Were playing dodgeball!"

"All right! Let's play!"

Lotus along with Saiki were on the Paper Team, being led by Hairo. The other team, Team Rock, had Kaido plus Nendou on it.

With the teams decided it was time to start.

Coach Matsuzaki held the ball standing in the middle of the outside court.

"We'll start the match with a jump ball."

Matsuzaki tossed the ball in the air and Hairo jumped high grabbing the ball with an animalistic war cry.

He tossed the ball as hard as possible beaming someone in the chest.

"All right!"

"We got one player out!"

Everyone on Team Paper minus, Saiki, started cheering.

"Is getting a single player out that exciting."

Saiki looked over at Hairo who was dripping with sweat.

"And what's with all that sweat already? The match just started."

A boy from Tema Rock grabbed the ball.

"We get the ball now." He looked over at Saiki. "Okay, Saiki. We'll get you out first!"

The boy tossed the ball with full force at Saiki's face. It hit him dead on, smack dab in the middle of his face.

Everyone minus Lotus winced as the ball smashed his face.

"Dude are you okay?" A teammate asked

"Saiki, at least pretend that hurt."

"At least that takes me out. The more time I spend on the bench the better."

Saiki went to walk off the field.

"Hold on, Saiki!" Saiki turned around facing Hairo. "Were you really trying to catch the ball?"

"I guess I made it too obvious."

"Ya think?"

Saiki nodded to Hairo.

"Really? Well, no matter." Saiki went to walk away again but Hairo stopped him. "Where you going? You're not out. The face safe rule keeps you alive."

"There's a rule like that?"

"Yup. That there is. Also because of that rule…."

Saiki was put in front with the ball.

"...you gotta throw first."

"Just great. This bites."

"Saiki! Throw it like you really mean it!" Hairo shouted

Lotus looked at Saiki. "Yeah, that's a terrible idea."

"She's right. If I threw it like I really mean it-"

"-Someone would die!"

"Forget the face safe rule they won't have a face anymore. Well, I suppose I can throw a weak ball. But just in case I'll aim for Nendou!"

Saiki tossed the ball and everyone watched. Lotus clenched her fist wondering what the outcome could be. Well, at least Nendou seemed more durable than the average person.

Lotus didn't have anything to worry about as the ball easily landed in Nendou's hands.

"Too weak maybe?"

"What the heck was that?! This is a serious match! Put your heart into it!" Hairo shouted

"Fine, I get it, don't get so worked up."

"Pal, did you go easy on me because we're friends?" Nendou questioned

"Did you go easy on him because he's your friend!?" Hairo shouted

"Obviously that's not true."

"He's super crazy fired up. It's almost scary."

"Get use to it. He's like that every day."

"Wait a second I just thought of something. If you have to control your psychic powers to not crush people while playing sports does that mean I have to do the same thing?!"

"Wait you're just realizing that."

"I was blinded by the excitement of playing sports don't be mean!"

Now you may be thinking why are Lotus and Saiki having a conversation via telepathy. Well, there were two reasons. The first reason being Saiki was using this as a way to help train Lotus in using her telepathy, so she wouldn't accidentally send her own thoughts into someone else's head.

The second reason being that this was the only way Saiki was willing to communicate, he especially didn't wanna be seen talking to Lotus. The girl was quickly rising in popularity, even though she didn't even know it herself.

"Just try to avoid playing as much as possible."

Lotus was now crouching on the ground sulking drawing circles in the dirt.

"Are you really that sad about not being able to play?"

Lotus didn't answer and just drew more patterns in the dirt.

Saiki gave a mental sigh.

"It's just for today. I'll teach you how to control your powers so you can play from now on."

"Yay!" Lotus was back and up on her feet a happy smile on her face.

"Just watch yourself for today."

"Can do!"

The game started up again and it was Nendou's ball.

"All right! They don't call me 'Nen the Dodgeballer' for a reason!" Nendou declared

"There's no way anyone-!"

Lotus's thoughts were silenced when Nendou threw the ball and was able to take out six players with the one shot.

"Holy crap! Is this the same Nendou?!"

"There are only three players left on the Paper Team!"

That's right the only people left standing on the Paper Team was one overzealous loud fire-haired boy, an over-powerful destructive psychic who can destroy anything with a single thought, and a girl with the ability to copy people whose just learning to control the powers of the other psychic.

"So what do we do now?"

"Nothing absolutely nothing."

"I'll leave my pals for last," Nendou said

"That look Nendou's sporting is unsettling."

Nendou lifted up the dodgeball pointing it at Hairo. "Your next captain! Here I come! Dodgeball!"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! I'm gonna catch it! For my team, especially my friends who sacrificed themselves!" Hairo planted his feet holding his arms up prepared to take the full force of the ball. "I'm gonna catch it even if it kills me!"

Hairo didn't get the chance to catch the ball as a body appeared before him. All the boys were surprised to see Saiki had slid in front of Hairo, getting hit with the ball. Although to Saiki with his powers he didn't really feel anything.

"S-Saiki?!"

"Sorry, but I'm going to the outfield before you. I'm sorry that I couldn't play seriously, Hairo. I have my reason."

Lotus just stood still watching the ball fly up into the air. In reality, she would have ran after it and caught the ball, but Saiki told her not do anything, so that's what she was going to do. Nothing.

"Don't give up!"

Lotus jumped when Hairo shouted.

Hairo jumped and did a faceplant slide catching the ball crashing into the metal ball pen.

Lotus squealed covering her eyes seeing how Hairo had landed, his shorts having slid down showing off his rear end.

"Whoa! Look!"

"He caught it!"

"He saved Saiki!"

Saiki's eyes had gone blank, upset that his plan had been foiled.

"You have gotta to be kidding me."

"Sorry. Guess your still in."

"Ah! Hairo's injured!" A boy yelled pointing at Hairo's scraped knee.

"Can someone tell him to pull his pants up."

"That means Saiki and Lotus-chan are the only ones left!"

"At least they're using my name now-wait chan?!"

"You have got to be kidding me."

Hairo shakily held up the dirtied ball to Saiki and Lotus. "Looks like this is it for me."

"Don't you give up."

"I give this ball to you. Stop holding back. Let loose! I wanna see all you've got!"

Hairo coughed and blood poured out his mouth.

"You do realize you just scraped your knee, right?"

"Please, Saiki, Lotus. All our hopes rest with you now." Hairo said

Lotus sweat dropped when she saw the rest of her teammates crying. The other boys started cheering for Saiki and Lotus to do their best and win.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

"What I hate is being the center of attention. And yet right now the entire class is focused on me." Saiki looked to his left where Lotus was standing. "It doesn't help that she's standing next to me."

"Sorry?" Lotus said

"You attract too much attention on your own, and now since were the only two left on our team...that just doubles the amount of attention focused on me right now."

"Saiki, if you're worried about attention being on you how about you let me handle this?" Lotus asked

Saiki looked down at the ball. "I could let her handle this. But there is still the chance her powers might come out and she could kill someone."

Lotus paled at the idea, various scenarios of her causing bodily harm to her classmates.

"Frankly speaking winning this would be simple. But if I do that, my likability will shoot straight up. People will always be watching me. That would not be good. But if I do nothing and lose, I'll become even less likable than stink bugs. In that case, I'll probably attract the attention of bullies. Either way, I'll attract attention, so the outcomes of the game no longer matters."

Saiki's eyes flashed and several numbers appeared over everyone's head. The numbers came together combing into a large red heart-shaped meter, with the number 41 on it.

"41….It's a little low."

"Whoa what the heck is that thing?" Lotus pointed at Saiki's likeability meter.

"It's a likeability meter. By reading the minds of everyone around you can calculate the likeability people have for you."

With the new information, Lotus studied Saiki's meter. It was an average number, perfect for a guy like Saiki who didn't wanna stick out. She then looked over her own head, there was a small puff of pink smoke and a pink heart-shaped meter appeared. She gasped seeing it was an 85.

"Whoa!" She gave a cute gasp.

Then the meter went up to 88.

"It went up! Saiki, are you seeing this?"

"You know I can't."

"Oh right. Your powers don't really work on me."

"Overall my goal is 50. In order to get that, I need to take out at least one person!"

Saiki threw the ball and it looked like it was floating to the other

opponent team member.

The boys around Saiki let out angry shouts at the weak looking toss.

"Stop screwing around, you jerk!"

"What're you doing?!"

"Your throwing like that again?!"

"Play more seriously!"

Lotus gaped as she saw Saiki's meter drop down to 20.

"20, huh? It went down instantly. At likeability 20, girls would scream when they have to sit next to you when the seating gets changed. It's true that I'm not good at throwing the ball. My normal throw exceeds the speed of sound."

"If you throw like that you'll cause a catastrophe," Lotus said

"That's why this slow ball is different from the one before…."

"I got it! I got it!"

The boy went to catch the ball but it spun in his hands before falling out dropping to the ground.

"A spin ball!"

"He dropped it! He's out!"

"He couldn't catch that one?!"

"Yeah!"

The team cheered as the boy was out of the game.

Saiki's meter went up to 56.

"Way to go Saiki!" Lotus cheered

Saiki's meter jumped up to 73 points due to Lotus's cheer.

"Don't cheer for me, it attracts too much attention."

"Sorry."

"But at least with this, I can end around with a 50 now even if I become out. I'll get hit on the next one."

The ball was picked up by none other than Kaido.

"So it's finally my turn to throw the ball, huh? Do you know what this means? That means it's the end for you, Saiki!"

"Geez, I have to get his by his ball?"

"Take this! Meteor Spark Genocide Ball!"

Kaido threw the ball, well threw the ball was stretching it. If a newborn deer could throw a ball, Lotus imagined that's what Kaido looked like.

"He throws like a girl!" A boy yelled

Lotus felt a tick mark appear on her forehead. Lotus only had two major buttons that shouldn't be pushed. And mocking a girls athleticism was one of them. When this happened all rational and clear thinking flew out the window.

"Yaaah!"

Lotus let out a battle cry jumping before Saiki snatching the ball out of the air.

"Wow, the new girl really jumped high."

Lotus held the ball in one hand, her bangs covering her eyes.

"I'll show you how a real girl throws."

Lotus's eyes sparked as she glared towards Kaido.

"That's an intense look."

Lotus lifted up the ball then launched it full force at Kaido.

"Whoa look at that thing go!"

The ball hit Kaido then ricocheted hitting 3 other boys in the process. The boys were knocked off their feet landing harshly on the ground groaning.

"Whoa, she got 4 out at once!"

"All right!"

"Lotus-chan is incredible!"

Lotus's likeability meter jumped up to 99.

"Well, at least that's fewer members to take out and less attention on me. But my meter is still at 73 that's still way too high. At that level even if your greetings don't make sense people would respond."

Nendou was the next person to pick up the ball. "That's my pal!"

"I'll just get out now."

Saiki didn't move as he allowed the ball to hit him. His meter dropped down to 55.

Saiki seemed satisfied that is until-

"I got it!"

-Hairo slid in out of nowhere face first in the ground catching the ball before it could hit the dirt.

"His shorts felt again." Lotus blanched

Hairo stood up. "I made it back in time."

Saiki's likeability meter went up to 67. "Not you again."

Lotus looked at Hairo's likeability meter and it was at 100.

"You guys I saw all the spirit you two put into your throws. I was so moved!" Hairo started to cry.

"I don't care about your likeability."

A fire lit in Hairo's eyes. "Just leave the rest to me!"

Hairo took out everyone else on the other team until the ball was caught by Nendou.

"Your comeback ends now. Don't lump me together with those small fries." Nendou said

"Let's pick this up where we left off earlier. Bring it on!" Hairo declared

Saiki looked down at Hairo's knee that was patched up. "With that injury, Hairo probably can't catch Nendou's ball right now."

"Take this!" Nendou shouted

He threw the ball full force hitting Hairo in the stomach.

"I have no choice."

By using his powers Saiki jumped and caught the ball.

"He injured his knee because of me." He tossed the ball down to Hairo. "I hate to attract attention, but I hate being in someone's debt even more."

"Saiki….you really are a nice guy huh?"

Hairo smiled and turned to Nendou. "Now take this!"

The ball hit Nendou getting him out meaning that the Paper Team won.

Everyone cheered at the victory.

"He did it! We made a comeback!"

Saiki's likeability meter went up to 82.

"Good grief it ended up at 82. I guess I'll inconspicuously bring it down little by little."

"Saiki and that new girl are amazing."

Lotus was quickly surrounded by boys being complimented and praised. She flushed a little by the attention.

"It was really nothing." Lotus gave a shy smile rubbing the back of her head.

The boys around her blushed staring at Lotus's smile and her meter jumped up to 100.

"Hey, pal!" Suddenly Saiki was swept up in a hug by a crying Nendou. "That was a good match."

All of the boys looked confused staring at the two, then Saiki's meter dropped to 46.

"Wow, likability can drop so easily."