Teruhashi slowly trudged down the street with her head in the clouds; however, inside her head was a raging storm. Wait, did her danger sense just trigger? She couldn't place the stimulus that demanded her attention, which immediately plunged her into fear unlike any she had experienced before.

Why does it feel like I'm being followed? she thought.

Tremors crept into her spine as she reflexively took a path toward a more open area. No one was around to help her, but this was her best chance.

Her feet picked up the pace to lock step with her racing thoughts. She was no stranger to being tailed, but this pursuit was different. It felt like she truly had no way to escape. Still, she needed to get to the bottom of this.

Mrs. Saiki spoke in a similar way when she talked about Saiki's trust issues and fumbled in a very similar manner after she said it at Saiki's birthday. Were they related somehow? How did I know that Makoto was at his house? Why did I see him dragging Makoto out when I was sick? Why did Saiki's brother say he was "out of my league"? What in the world happened to that meteorite? It starts to make a bit more sense when you put it together. The appearance of the supplies while we were stranded was a little too unbelievable even for me. Some of them were still in shopping bags! she thought as her mind accelerated past the point of no return.

...Was Okinawa really a dream? her thoughts stilled, leaving her wide-eyed.

Who ARE you, Kusuo Saiki?
_

The pursuer had been tailing Teruhashi with his invisibility, trying to figure out the right moment to strike. Just when he thought he had an opportunity, she perked up and became aware of her surroundings.

Her ability to tell when people are following her is uncanny. I need to wait for a better opportunity.

His heart accelerated in sync with Teruhashi's racing thoughts.

Why did I not consider that? She remembers too much, and trying to wipe out all of that memory could cause permanent damage. There's been too much time since Mom told her I have powers. I made a mistake. Why did I follow her and cause her unnecessary trouble? Now she's terrified of me. I should have come clean from the beginning. Why did I not do that? Was I afraid?

He heaved a labored sigh.

I have been defeated. Eat your heart out, annoying brother. The girl you said was nothing before me defeated me before you did.

...I guess it can't be helped.
_

Teruhashi's ears perked up when she heard something that sounded like a sigh. This was definitely not the wind. Her eyes darted around nervously as fear tightened its grip on her. She felt herself start to sweat. Her breaths became more labored. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she felt herself quake ever more violently, her veneer of perfection unraveling before her very eyes. She lamented the loss, but she had more pressing problems.

Wait, what was that?

Something had tripped danger zone behind her far too closely. She spun around just in time to witness Saiki Kusuo apparate out of thin air much closer to her than should have been possible, causing her to yelp and ungracefully fall on her butt. Unfortunately she was not able to catch herself before her hair swept up some of the dirt from the sidewalk.

"S-S-Saiki-kun?" she stammered. Despite her fearful tremble, she made no attempt to move away.

"Yes, Teruhashi, it's me. I'm not going to hurt you," he said, holding his arm up as if to soothe a cornered small animal.

"I assume by the fact that you appeared out of thin air, you know that I know about your powers?" she asked, eyeing him uncertainly.

"Yeah," he responded with an uncharacteristic lack of decorum.

Teruhashi got up and attempted to dust herself off, as both her body and speech shook like a leaf. Everyone had had a rough 2 days; even the mighty Kokomi Teruhashi and Kusuo Saiki had fallen. The storm in her mind made it impossible for her to gather her thoughts immediately. That meant she would need to weather it resolutely until she was sure no more unexpected swells were on the horizon.

Calm down, it's only Saiki-kun. There's nothing else to worry about, right?

She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath, allowing the sudden rush of wind in her lungs to help blow away the storm clouding her thoughts. Now that she was slightly calmer, she assessed her surroundings. It was around midday, but nobody was out due to yesterday's almost-cataclysm The path she normally took was a side road that was fairly well isolated due to the high fencing surrounding it. In any other situation, not making it to the street would have been terrifying but worked to her advantage in this case because it allowed her to talk to Saiki without the interruption of her followers.

"So where do we go from here?" she asked. her calm held together by a single frayed thread.

"I don't really know to be honest," he replied, completely deadpan. He seemed very distracted, staring right through her.

She looked up quizzically at his hairpins.

"So Okinawa wasn't a dream. As soon as I pulled one of those hairpins out, things started to go very wrong. You punched a bear into the upper atmosphere and teleported me to a castle. So does that mean your offu was...?"

A shaky smile started to quiver onto Teruhashi's lips.

"No, I used hypnosis to make you think that it was me saying offu. In reality it was someone else that I projected my likeness onto," he cut her off. His face remained as deadpan as ever, but he focused on her intently now. Progress.

"Wait a second, why do you sound like you know I wanted you to say offu before? How did you already know to make it look like you said it? Why did you not want to say it when I never said that I wanted you to out loud?" she pressed.

Busted.

"It's because I don't bow down to any mortal," he flatly stated. His distracted stare rolled in as quickly as it receded.

"Oh don't give me that! Based on what I've already seen so far you could have easily made me or yourself vanish or never have met me at all. You can read my mind, can't you? I only saw you talk with your mouth after you stopped wearing the glasses. It was you who called me when my brother was bothering you, right? Besides, if you were unbeatable we wouldn't even be here right now, would we?" she responded with great exasperation, putting her back into stamping her foot.
_

He hadn't the heart to tell her that it was Toritsuka who she had fantasized about in Okinawa. It would make him look bad, but she had mercifully spared him from explaining that. Evaluating her, the physical symptoms of her fear seemed to be residual. The tremors persisted but seemed to be abating little by little. His fear by contrast was only growing despite his efforts to restrain his expressions. He hadn't worked this hard in a while and was appalled by how quickly his stamina sapped.

This could have gone much worse. I imagine she'll probably hate me tomorrow when the shock wears off, but so far it's going well.

He didn't want to think about what happens when Kokomi Teruhashi hates you and knows your biggest secret. He studied her features closely, observing the last vestiges of her perfect pretty girl veneer falling away. The dirt she had picked up streaked her skirt and her hair, her legs shook, and she was doing her best to will the small beads of tears lining the corner of her eyes back into her tear ducts. He needed to figure out a way to stop her from talking and get her home fast.

"So what else can you do?" she interrupted his thoughts.

She completely ignored the implications of telepathy. Usually that's the first thing people care about. I imagine it's especially devastating for her given how much energy she puts into that act and how stressful the last 2 days were.

Teleportation, x-ray vision, pyrokinesis, telekinesis, apport, psychometry, astral projection, super strength, flight, ki control, petrification...

"So I guess the better question is what can't you do?" She asked, her voice shaky but focused. She somehow managed to press for answers without sounding accusatory. Her recovery skills far outstripped his.

All of these powers come with drawbacks. For example, I can only teleport once every 3 minutes, my invisibility wears off if someone touches me, and my x-ray vision causes me to see through everything. I have some control over it but a lot of times I don't. I can see the wiring in TVs and most of the time people look like muscles or skeletons to me, but I do still occasionally see people as they are and under their clothes. Saiki shifted his eyes left to give the impression of trying to remember, but he had already explained this to the audience many times.

"He sure didn't spend a whole lot of time on the whole seeing everyone naked thing… Oh no…" Teruhashi slapped her hand over her mouth as her eyes widened. It was probably going to be extremely difficult for her to get used to someone hearing her pettiness all the time.

Sure, tell me how you really feel, he rebuffed, his eyebrows set in a testy scowl.

"S-Sorry…" she said, pushing her shoulders together and bowing slightly forward, her eyes turned toward the ground to prevent them from meeting his.

He'd let her off the hook for this one though.

"I assume the meteorite was also your doing?" she inquired.

Correct.

"..."

How I disposed of it is classified.

"You didn't have to do that," she snipped, shooting him a small frown. She didn't dwell on that slight for very long, however.

Ever vigilant, Teruhashi remarked, "We should probably get out of here. I don't want to push our luck that someone will see us."

Agreed.

Saiki used telepathy to figure out how many people were around them and used clairvoyance to double check their attention. All lights indicated green. Teruhashi looked befuddled when she noticed Saiki's crossed eyes, but he didn't feel like explaining it before they teleported. Home was no good because his mother or father would likely interfere. Though it might shock her a bit from being out somewhere she couldn't get back from, the training ground seemed like the best option. She seemed mentally stable enough to be able to withstand it.
_

Saiki reached out and touched Teruhashi, and in an instant they were whisked away to the training ground. How in the world had they gone from a street to wasteland in an instant? Her mouth hung agape and her eyes felt as wide as saucers. There was nothing cute about this.

"W-Where are we?" she asked shakily, surveying her sudden change of scenery. Wasteland stretched to the horizon, the insipid natural beauty only broken by interspersed plateaus and boulders. Though sparse, some vegetation was present on the ground and on the tops of the various earthen features. She couldn't figure it out, but that wouldn't stop her from trying way too hard.

This is my training ground. I use this place to test my powers. We should be alone here, he explained casually as if he hadn't just teleported her to somewhere that wouldn't be out of place in Dragon Ball.

"Wow, uh, this is a lot. My instincts are telling me not to but I'm going to trust that you won't just maroon me out here, right?" Teruhashi stammered incredulously. Her eyes shifted back and forth as she stepped back slightly.

I don't want to add 'Expert Kidnapper' to my list of powers, so no, he quipped impassively.

"Fair enough, so who knows about these powers besides your family?" Her eyelids fluttered between wide to half open. The adrenaline was coming down, it was only a matter of time before she crashed. Hopefully it would happen sooner than later.

Aiura, Toritsuka, and Akechi. It was getting progressively easier to revert to his insipid demeanor.

"How did they figure it out?" she pursued, responding so quickly that she nearly cut him off.

Aiura and Toritsuka used their powers, Akechi used his detective skills, he droned. This line of questioning was starting to irritate him.

"So I guess I'll be seeing a lot more of them?" she questioned, nearly talking over him once again. She was absolutely relentless. She'd probably make a great lawyer.

"Hopefully not. I don't need anyone else following me around," he replied with a disdainful frown.

Her exhaustion finally caught up with her. Her eyes glazed over and she collapsed. Why did he even bother bringing her out here in the first place if she was just going to faint right away? He scowled. At least it saved him some interrogation. Saiki quickly caught her and teleported her back to her room. He used telekinesis to remove her shoes and tuck the bedsheets over her.

Within seconds of the 3 minute timer, Teruhashi rolled over and said,

"See you tomorrow, Saiki-kun."

Her eyes were shut and her voice shaky, but she still offered him a warm smile.

He shuddered and vanished for the last time that day.