Saiki caught her with telekinesis and laid her gently in her bed. She was still shaking, trying to process what happened. Saiki grabbed her desk chair and sat in silence. He bowed his head and closed his eyes, doing his best not to intrude on her thoughts. He didn't do this very often because it took a lot of effort and concentration. He was partially successful. He heard her, but she was muffled enough to prevent him from understanding her. Her breathing was shallow, but returning to normal.
She really is brave. I could learn a thing or two from her, he thought, his tone equal parts respect and mirth.
He waited patiently for her to rise. After enough time passed, she looked at him and smiled weakly. He noticed her rousing when he heard the sheets rustle as her head turned and looked up at her. His x-ray vision had stopped working again, but he didn't have time to dwell on it.
"Why are you like this? You could have just killed me with your powers and saved me the trouble," she giggled.
That was already difficult enough for me. Don't make me regret it, he said as his face immediately turned to a scowl. His crankiness did not falter no matter the circumstances.
"As long as you didn't do it for my sake, which I will choose to believe, then I will do my best not to," she said. The truth of the matter was that she was in fact not sure what to believe, but she was too proud and too invested to quit now.
He tried to empathize with her inability to ascertain his true intentions as he had always used his telepathy as a crutch. The least he could do is verbally reassure her that he was.
We both know I'm not the best at these things, but I believe I was truthful as well. I look forward to watching you be bad at video games.
A wild smug grin appeared.
"Now you're going to make ME regret this," she said, as moue took over her expression. Her pride was still wounded by her incompetence compounded by his generally caustic attitude, excessive taunting, and avoidance mastery.
That was probably the stupidest thing you've said since you discovered my powers. Do you want to rephrase that? he said, annoyed by her sudden change of heart. He knew she was joking, but it rankled him nonetheless.
"Nope." She turned her nose up. "It takes two. I have just as much power to refuse this relationship as you do," she snipped.
Why are YOU like this?
"I think I've let you forget who you're dealing with for too long. You will be punished for your insolence in due time," she teased coyly, but didn't try to prevent a warm, genuine smile from enveloping her face.
Her aura was virtually non-existent, but she was much brighter than she was after they got yakiniku. She could have looked weak laying in bed shaking, but she somehow looked stronger than ever.
Teruhashi… You're pretty good.
He put his hand over his mouth as he started to chuckle.
"What's so funny?" she challenged.
Your stupid face, he rebuffed.
Indeed, he still saw her stupid face.
He'd never give her the satisfaction of knowing what he was actually thinking in that moment.
"Muscles still looking pretty muscular? You're lucky your vision went back to normal; if you saw my real face consistently you'd regret ever defying me," she playfully threatened.
Maybe. Shame about the personality though.
She sank back into her pillow and smiled contentedly, her elation blowing away any further attempts to get a rise out of her.
"I had a great time tonight. I honestly never thought I'd get here so I don't know what to do, say, or think at this point," she said, expressing a sense of comfort, relief, and security.
I don't either. Go ahead and get some sleep. We'll pick this up later, he told her gently as he used telekinesis to lock her door.
"Thank you, Saiki-kun…"
Her eyes grew heavy, and she was asleep within seconds. Regrettably, she was in her dress once again in bed. She forgot her shoes as well. He'd get them to her later. He left her house through her bedroom.
Back home, he heard his parents' thoughts. They were unsure of what happened, whether or not Teruhashi was still at the house, and whether or not Kusuo had broken her heart. He grimaced at the thought of confronting them, but he needed to. The status quo was broken, and he was unsure of the potential ramifications.
Is this normal?
He didn't know for sure. The fear of lack of control crept back into his mind. He had decided what he was going to do, so he was not going to run from it anymore. He headed downstairs to face the music. His parents were on the couch watching a show, but turned to face him as he descended the stairs. They regarded him with unease. He spoke first.
Teruhashi… will probably be coming over more.
He tried to mask his embarassment, but he wasn't fooling anyone this time. His parents were absolutely dumbfounded. His father's jaw dropped, and his mother moved it back into place. They exploded into cheers.
"Oh, my Ku-chan! I'm so happy that you made a friend," his mother squealed.
"Yes! I'm gonna get a cute daughter…" Saiki found a piece of duct tape and slapped it over his mouth before he could finish. Normally duct tape would not be able to hold someone's mouth shut, but this was psychic duct tape. His father's eyes went wide as he struggled against it ineffectually. His mother giggled and told him to stop being mean to his father.
"I know you can hear me, Kusuo! I will not be silenced so easily!"
Saiki was paying attention to his mother and did not honor his father's protests. He wished he could duct tape someone's mind shut too.
"This was a long time coming, Ku-chan. Kokomi-chan is a nice girl, and you deserve to have someone around you that cares about you as much as she does," his mother gently reassured him.
But is feeling this nervous normal? If something bad happens and the wrong person discovers my powers or I hurt someone… Saiki attempted to proceed, but was paralyzed by his fear of the unknown. He wouldn't fall into this pit if his mother had anything to say about it.
"Ku-chan, you can't control everything. Sometimes, you have to open yourself up to being hurt to actually enjoy yourself. I would never want you to live half of a life. This fear of the future is normal."
"I understand that your powers make the price of failure much higher than it is for Mama or I, but I wouldn't want you to get to your deathbed and wonder what your life could have been like," his father advised in a firm but gentle tone.
"You deserve to be happy, the same as anyone else," his mother said with a warm, loving smile.
Saiki's eyes went wide as he felt his power surge. The house shook violently, making his parents wide-eyed as well. The house stopped shaking after a few seconds, and Saiki noticed the world became more still. He couldn't hear any thoughts, and he saw his parents' true faces. The duct tape fell off of his father's mouth. Saiki raised his now trembling hands to stare at them, unsure of the optimal actions. He could not find any path to get out of this situation, which shook him to his core. He could normally find at least 5 ways to get out of any given situation, but now he was facing one of the most impactful events of his life with no solution.
What just happened?
I'm sorry, I have to go, Saiki said. In his rush to get up the stairs he stumbled, grabbing the hand rail just in time to prevent his face from hitting the stairs.
Saiki ran up to his room. He could hear thoughts again; but he was sweating, breathing heavily, and shivering. Emotions came rushing out of him. Fear, relief, anger, gratitude, emptiness, satisfaction, too many to count. He tried to suppress them, but instead it made all of the furniture in his room float. He swirled with tortuous psychic energy once again. He next tried to keep his power from surging and he was mildly successful, but the two sides were held in balance by a small thread. Any slight shift could easily cause things to go badly very quickly. He was able to keep them in check long enough to the point where he tired himself out, similar to keeping muscles contracted while holding a strenuous position.
He collapsed onto his bed absolutely exhausted. He felt similar to how he did when he landed on the school lawn after disposing of the meteorite. He was breathing heavily, and he couldn't hear anyone else's thoughts.
Seriously, what just happened?
He could only conclude he had suffered an outpouring of emotion far beyond anything he had ever observed before. Why wasn't he terrified? He understood emotions conceptually from listening to other people. He knew he had them, of course, but they were fickle, troublesome, and dangerous things that needed to be suppressed so he wouldn't lose control of his powers. The incident that stuck out the most was the time he destroyed the classroom when Akechi was being bullied. He knew his years of emotional repression had stunted his growth as a person, but he decided that it had to be that way. Any slip up could end the world, and his power only grew with time.
It started to make sense now because for the very first time, he had a causal link to his powers weakening. When his emotions poured out, not only did he feel relief from his emotions at the time, but also emotions from years past. He had always known his power was tied to them; however, the revelation that his power grew not only with age, but with emotional repression was earth-shattering. He felt an emotion he had never felt in this way well up inside him. He sat up.
Is this hope? Can I actually become… normal?
His heart started to beat out of his chest as blood rushed to his ears. He lost control of his breathing, and once again felt his vision tunnel and his head fall back. When he came to his mother was cradling his head, eyes filled with tears. He felt one drop on his collar. She noticed him come to and pulled his head into her chest, still sobbing.
"Oh, Ku-chan, I'm so glad you're ok…"
He looked down, contrition written all over his face.
I'm really sorry to trouble you like this…
"It's no trouble at all, I'm just really glad you're ok…" his mother sniffled.
He could see her real face once again. He heard the torn thoughts of his father in the room as well. Were moments like this the reason why they were so obnoxiously affectionate with each other? He slowly sat up as his mother sniffled again and wiped her tears. His father sat in his desk chair with his face on his fist, and was staring off into space.
"So, Kusuo, you mind telling us what happened?" his father asked matter-of-factly.
I had an emotional outburst. Nothing more, nothing less. It shouldn't happen again, Saiki said as he hardened his gaze.
His parents seemed relieved but then switched to concern in perfect sync. Perhaps they did have the same brain in some ways. Saiki felt their thoughts start to creep in.
No, don't worry about me putting up more walls. The fact that I felt my powers weaken gives me a path to move toward my ultimate goal. It'll likely be a long road, but it seems like the only way for right now.
His mother beamed ear to ear and his father offered a warm smile.
"I'm so happy for you, Ku-chan… This is all we've really wanted for you. We both love you so much and we just want you to be happy…"
His father turned his head to the side with an embarrassed grin. His thoughts betrayed his body language.
Saiki sighed and said, Thanks to both of you for sticking with me. His mouth couldn't help but draw a true smile.
"You're very welcome, Ku-chan," his mother sat up straight with a bright smile.
His parents held their expressions. The three of them sat in silence until his mother finally spoke.
"Well, Ku-chan, you must have a lot to think about now and you look exhausted. We'll leave you be for now so you can rest up," she said while motioning his father out of the door.
Thanks, Mom, Saiki acknowledged gratefully.
His father had other more stupid plans. He cracked a grin and said, "Try not to almost destroy the house again!"
Saiki's face reflected into a scowl before the idiot was done talking.
I could just make sure it only destroys you next time.
His father laughed, "There it is. I was worried you'd stop being the same person. Then again it's not necessarily a bad thing because you're always looking down on us, very grouchy, and…"
His mother slapped the back of his head before he finished and gave him a death glare. His father jumped back as his mother grabbed his ear and dragged him out of the room despite his pathetic protests. Saiki fell back on his bed. He could fall asleep at any moment, but there were a few nagging questions plaguing his mind. He realized now that he needed to control his emotions, but not in the same way he did before. If he could find a way to balance them out, then he could walk with everyone else without fear of destroying everything.
He finally figured out a causal link between his emotions and his powers, so what about the times when he didn't have a causal link? He saw Teruhashi's real face a lot more than could be explained by power fluctuation from sealing them and then destroying the meteor. What could this possibly mean? He noticed himself becoming much more comfortable around her, but why would being home, his most comfortable place, not have the same effect on his powers? It could be his emotional repression, but that didn't explain why his powers dipped even lower with her. Could it be the fact that it was a new experience? He had gotten comfortable with the status quo; so even if it was inherently more amenable, nothing ever changed. This could be the shock that he needed to get things moving forward. After all, the tantrum he had tonight would not have happened if she hadn't been so annoyingly persistent. He chortled, as his face settled into a grin.
You're such a nuisance, Teruhashi.
It's time for me to grow up and take my future into my own hands.
He succumbed to sleep even without any resolution to his burning questions, but he was able to cobble together the trappings of a plan for going forward. He slept soundly that night.
