This is Lotus

This is Saiki

~The thoughts of others~

Saiki and Lotus vs. The Teruhashi's - Round 1

"Sorry Saiki, guess our plans are going to have to be put on the back burner," Lotus said

"It's fine."

"Thanks for understanding. But I guess it helped that I brought somewhat of a bribe," Lotus chuckled

Currently, Lotus sat in Saiki's living room, the two psychics sitting across from one another at the coffee table, with a small fudge cake between the two.

Lotus and Saiki had plans tomorrow after school to go out on another little date, but she got a call from Joshua, and she was needed for some emergency filming.

"Joshua said that filming wasn't going to last too long, so if you want you could tag along, and we can hang out after," Lotus said

Saiki nodded his head before taking a bite out of his slice of cake.

"Awesome. Maybe we-!"

Both Lotus and Saiki froze, their eyes widening. Lotus shot up from her seat, the legs of her chair scraping loudly against the wooden floor. She panicked looking around the room before diving behind the couch.

Not even a second later Makoto came barging into the room.

"How'd you get into my house?"

"There you are!" Makoto exclaimed

He took a seat across from Saiki, the seat that was being occupied by Lotus just a few seconds beforehand.

The actor looked rather ragged, his clothes and hair disheveled and out of order.

"You look like a mess."

"I've been doing very important research," Makoto said

"I don't care. Go home, pervert."

"Look at this!" Makoto exclaimed, holding up two photos.

Saiki blanched seeing each photo depicted Lotus. The first one was a simple picture of Lotus in her school uniform and the second one was of Lotus wearing her Love Line mask.

Saiki knew Lotus was Love Line because she took her mask off in front of him. Just like in movies and cartoons, someone's secret identity can be revealed if they take their mask off in front of someone, or if someone sees them putting their mask on. This fell into the new world rules Lotus had accidentally put in place when she used mind control to hide her identity.

"I think that my love, Lady Lotus, and this woman who is the stunt double in my movie are somehow connected," Makoto said

"Yeah, because they're the same person."

"I've been trying to gather evidence but so far I've come up with nothing. Lady Lotus won't talk to me, plus her crazy sister chases me off whenever I get near her home." Makoto said

"As she should."

"But nothing shall stand in the way of our love!" Makoto said

"What love? Just get to the point and get out."

"Tomorrow our movie will be shooting in our neighborhood. They need some extra stunt takes so the mystery stunt double woman will be there, giving me the perfect opportunity to figure out who she is," Makoto said

"She doesn't want that."

"But because of that all my attention has been taken up, so I haven't been able to keep up with my daily long talks with Kokomi," Makoto said

"I'm sure those are one-sided."

"A lot of industry people will be there and without me there to watch over Kokomi, she'll immediately be swept away. What do you think will happen if they scout her?" Makoto said

"Don't care."

"It won't take long after her debut to land a lead in her own television show, then she'll segway to starring roles on stage, winning all kinds of awards and endorsement deals!" Makoto said

"I doubt it."

"Kokomi has no interest in show biz," Makoto said

"~It's only natural that flowers in flower shops are pretty, I'm a wildflower that puts those other flowers to shame!~"

That's Kokomi's stance on the matter.

"So just this once I'm giving you permission to speak to Kokomi and tell her to stay away from the filming site. But don't say anything else! Don't make eye contact and don't get within ten meters of her!" Makoto said

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Don't screw this up," Makoto said

With that said the celebrity finally left. Lotus waited another minute to make sure he was really gone before her head popped up from behind the couch.

"And when I didn't think things could get worse with him," Lotus mumbled

She got up retaking her seat across from Saiki.

"So what's your next move, Saiki?" Lotus asked

Saiki sighed. "Why me? But it could be a problem if Teruhashi joined show business."

"Yeah, the guys of the school already gather around her, imagine all the fans who'd bomb rush the school just to see her. We'd have to get Coach Matsuzaki riot gear," Lotus said

"Guess I have no choice."

Saiki's current mood: Annoyed.

He was supposed to be on a date with Lotus, but somehow got roped into an outing with Kokomi in the next town over. Man those Teruhashi's sure know how to get what they want.

Long-distance telepathy was still something hard for Lotus so Saiki relayed everything that had occurred in a text. Lotus, trying to find the brighter side of things said that she and Saiki could hang out afterward.

Teruhashi walked a few steps in front of Saiki, completely oblivious to the psychic's displeasure of being there.

"~An after school date with Saiki in a neighboring town! No, it's not a date. It's just a gesture, my hands are tied!~"

Another reason Saiki was irritated was the fact that Teruhashi, as she always did, drew in attention. All eyes were on her as the two walked down the street.

"She's so cute!"

"Is that cute girl from our town?"

"She's amazing!"

"~Saiki must be experiencing pure bliss right now! He's probably been all smiles since our date started. I bet I'll hear him say 'Oh wow!' twenty times today.~"

Teruhashi was sort of in her own delusional fantasy world because if she had looked behind her she would have seen the slight frown on Saiki's face.

"Seriously? I thought it'd be okay since I don't know anybody here."

While others gushed over Teruhashi the eyes that zoomed in on Saiki were less than pleasant.

"~What's she doing with that guy?~"

"~I want to beat him up.~"

"I'm just gonna tell her I don't feel well. I can hide out at a store and wait for Lotus-"

"Do you like sweets, Saiki? Because there's a delicious café nearby," Teruhashi said

"Right after I have some cake."

"~Hehe! I've done my research, so I know Saiki has a sweet tooth! The 'Oh wow' fest is about to begin!~"

While Saiki was dealing with Teruhashi #2, Lotus was trying her best to handle the eldest of the blue-haired duo.

Lotus could feel the cold sweat that coated her skin as she did her best to not make eye contact. Makoto had been staring at her nonstop ever since she entered his line of sight. With her mask on, she knew he couldn't tell it was really her, but he was staring so hard she feared he might develop x-ray vision to see underneath the mask. Which wouldn't surprise Lotus if he did somehow magically gain the power to see through walls. He was a Teruhashi, they were crazy lucky like that.

To make matters worse, Makoto was only about four feet away from Lotus. The two were currently sitting in a van being driven to their shoot location. Where they originally planned to film had been canceled, but they managed to find another spot on such short notice. Joshua wasn't around to drive Lotus, so she had to share a van with Makoto, the actor was pretty insistent on it too.

"~I need to get that mask off! Some way! Somehow! Hmm..maybe when the van turns I can pretend to fall over. I head towards her and grab her mask on my way down.~"

"Geez, he's determined to find out it's me! I don't even have Mirareru with me since this is mainly a stunt shoot! Please just let this ride end soon!"

Kokomi's plan to get Saiki to say 'Oh wow!' through the persuasion of cake was well throughout, except for the fact that the café she had chosen was currently closed.

She stared blankly at the Closed sign that seemed to be taunting her.

"~ It's closed.~"

Teruhashi turned to Saiki with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, it looks like they're closed today. Why don't we check out the shopping district over there? We came all this way, might as well get something to eat. Let's go!"

Her second idea worked out about as well as the first one. An hour later Teruhashi wasn't able to find anything in the shopping district.

"~There's nothing here.~"

The young girl wore a desponded expression as she walked with her head hanging.

"~How can there be a shopping district without a single restaurant? Three tatami mat stores in a row? What is this, the tatami mat district?!~"

Teruhashi looked up and gasped as she spotted a shop.

"Is that a café?"

She ran over hopeful that this was an actual place to eat, but was once again disappointed.

"~Another tatami store.~" She depressedly thought

In the girl's defense the storefront greatly resembled a restaurant, and the fact that it had a large coffee cup statue was super misleading.

"Um excuse me. Can I help with something?"

Teruhashi looked to her right to find not one but a whole gaggle of guys, looking rather eager to interact with her.

"Were just looking for somewhere to get some tea," Teruhashi said

One guy jumped, throwing up his hand. "I know!"

"Hey, I can take her!"

A random man walked over holding a parasol out to Teruhashi.

"It's so sunny, take this."

"Here's a café coupon!"

"I'll run ahead and save you some seats!"

Teruhashi turned her charm on full blast, and she smiled while gently flipping her hair.

"Oh, thank you all so much."

"Oh wow!"

In no time flat Saiki found himself sitting across from Teruhashi in a café, cake and tea placed before them. They were also accompanied by dozens of males who crowded the restaurant to marvel and gawk at Teruhashi.

"Would you like some more coffee?" A guy asked, holding up a teapot.

"Thank but I'm all good now so bye," Teruhashi said

"~Saiki made me forget for a minute but these guys reminded me that I'm the perfect pretty girl. Now let's get back to our date.~"

"Good grief. Teruhashi really is relentless. Oh, well I'll just deal with this then make my escape. I wonder if they're done filming yet?"

Using his powers Saiki focused in on Makoto and Lotus.

"~Ugh I can't believe we had to switch locations at the last minute. But there's enough time from the ride to the next town over to get her mask off.~"

Saiki's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"They're coming here? We gotta leave town….As soon as we finish this cake."

"This is bad. Teruhashi's brother is heading right for us. If he runs into her he'll make a big fuss. What should I do? This puts me in a real bind. I gotta do something."

"Should we order more cake?" Teruhashi said

"Gotta do something right after that!"

Saiki ate or rather inhaled his cake, but despite how fast he ate, he and Teruhashi spent far too much time in the café than the pink-haired psychic felt comfortable with.

"That was delicious right Saiki?" Teruhashi said

"What a pain. We sure took our time here, even with her brother approaching. Oh, well this may be a small town, but hopefully, it's big enough we won't see him."

As if Saiki had that good of luck.

Lotus practically threw herself out of the van as it came up next to a café.

"Well, she seems to want to eat at this place." One of the crew members jokes

"This place looks rather popular too."

"You're moving the plot forward too quickly." Saiki stood up. "We better get out of here now!"

"Aww, you want to leave already? Can we wait a bit? There's still a long line of people who wanna shake my hand," Teruhashi said

True to the girl's words there was a line that mobbed the restaurant, all the men ready and more than eager to shake Teruhashi's hand.

Outside Lotus sped walked her way to the café her only goal was to put distance between herself and Makoto. She was the first to reach the entrance, while everyone else was still getting out of the van.

"Don't come in!"

Lotus stopped and quickly looked around.

"Saiki?"

"Look in the window."

Lotus crouched down slightly to look into the window of the café. She saw it was filled to the brim with men lined up, she also spotted Saiki staring back at her from across the café.

"Wait a sec...Saiki?! What the heck are you doing here?"

"Teruhashi wanted to go to the next town over."

Lotus turned her attention to the front of the line in the café and spotted Teruhashi. She was sitting down, shaking hands with each guy who reached the front of the line.

"We changed our filming location to the next town over too! This is disastrous! I can barely deal with Makoto. If he sees you with his sister he's going to be a whole new level of crazy!"

"That's exactly why Teruhashi and I need to leave. Can you distract them? Or better yet get them away?"

"On it! You can count on me."

Lotus stood up and turned the open sign over to closed before facing Koen and Makoto.

"Hey guys this place is closed," She said pointing to the sign.

"Really, it's closed?" Koen said

"It's not open?" Makoto said

"Yep so let's just-"

"Huh, there's a girl inside shaking hands with people. I wonder if she's a pop star? Why don't you sneak in I bet they'd get a kick out of it." Koen said to Makoto.

"I wouldn't want to ruin it for the poor girl. They'd all flock to me and abandon her," Makoto said

Koen looked at Lotus, "Maybe they'd even start forming a line to shake your hand if you went in."

"No, I really don't want that. Plus…" Lotus held back a cringe as Makoto now looked at her with a determined glint in his eye. "He'd get in line and try to take my mask off somehow."

"Let's just go somewhere else. We've still got plenty to do," Lotus said

"Yeah." The men agreed

Lotus sighed with relief as Makoto and the director started to make their way back to the van. She looked back into the window and gave Saiki a thumbs up.

"Now's our chance to sneak out of here."

That was easier said than done, as Saiki was approached by the owner. The large scary looking man holding the bill for the meal.

"That'll be 6,850 yen."

"How much?"

"Oh, I'll pay! How much did you say it is?" Teruhashi asked

The man's scary expression washed away as he blushed like a little school girl.

"You are? Well, in that case, 200 yen."

Teruhashi smiled brightly. "Wow, that cheap? Oh, and I have some coupons too!"

"Then it's 20 yen!"

"I hope in my next life I come back as a pretty girl."