Chapter Text
As soon as Teruhashi Kokomi woke up, she knew something was off.
The first thing she realized was that she felt different inside. It was like there was some kind of energy coursing through her veins. It wasn't a bad feeling by any means, but she hadn't experienced anything like it, making it a reason for panic.
A slightly more concerning reason for panic was the fact that the bed she was currently sitting up in was floating three feet above the ground.
She blinked several times, then yelped as the bed fell to the floor with a crash.
"Kokomi! Are you okay?!" In about four seconds, her brother Makoto was already in her room, frantically searching for the cause of the noise.
"Is someone trying to break in?! It's that four-eyes with the pink hair, isn't it?! Fear not, my dear Kokomi! I'll protect you!"
Kokomi snapped out of her confusion. She could deal with...whatever had just happened later. For now, she had to deal with her brother.
"No one is trying to break in, Makoto. I'm fine, now can you please get out of my room?"
Her brother seemed to want to say something else, but then stopped when he saw her bed. One of the legs was completely broken off, making it lean to the floor in one corner.
What happened to her bed?
"It just broke while I was asleep. I'll deal with it later, now can you please leave?"
Makoto blinked. Aww, my sister and I are so close that she knows what I'm going to say before I even have to say it.
Kokomi repressed a shudder. She knew just how close Makoto wanted to be with her. She was about to get up and push him out of her room, but then she realized something.
Wait.
What did he mean by 'before he had to say it'?
Well, that wasn't important right now. She just wanted Makoto to get out.
She quickly got up and started pushing him towards her door. It was surprisingly easy. Despite his verbal protests, he seemed to let her push him along with ease. At the door to the hallway, she gave him a final shove, then watched with satisfaction as he tumbled across the ground, rolling to a stop at the wall.
He looked up at her. Wow, since when is she so strong?
"Shut up." And with that, she closed the door and locked it before he could even get to his feet.
Taking a deep breath, she glanced at her clock. She would have to start getting ready for school.
As she showered and got dressed, all she could think about was what had happened with her bed. Had it really been floating? Of course not. That was impossible, right? So what had happened?
After putting on the familiar PK Academy uniform, she made her way downstairs to get breakfast. Luckily, Makoto was nowhere to be seen. She ate quickly, wanting to get out of the house as soon as possible. Soon, she stepped outside, ready to make her way to school.
And then she was there.
Kokomi stumbled backwards, looking around in shock. Students were walking by, and she could see Mr. Matsuzaki standing at the front gate.
She had just been...and now she was…
Yeah. Okay. Why not? She knew she was going crazy now. Being the perfect pretty girl for so long was really taking its toll on her mind. She must have walked all the way to school, and then forgotten about it somehow, right? She pulled out her phone and checked the time.
Oh.
She blanched.
Only one minute had passed since she last checked it before leaving.
Well. That was...worrying? Incredible?
It didn't matter. She had to be there for the first day of senior year. After all, people were counting on her to bless them with her perfection!
"Offu! Teruhashi!"
At that, everyone in the vicinity looked over. She was instantly bombarded with offus and compliments.
Kokomi had been the perfect pretty girl for all her life. She was used to the crowds of people gawking at her and telling her how beautiful she was. It had never really bothered her, instead serving as a source of strength and motivation.
Today, however, it was not welcome.
The countless eyes staring at her were overwhelming. The offus and the overlapping voices of every single person trying to grab her attention were too much. She felt sick.
"E-excuse me. I need to get by." She tried to maintain her persona as she pushed through the crowd, weaving between the students obstructing her path.
"Is she okay?"
"I hope she's not sick."
I've never seen Teruhashi like this. Not that she's any less beautiful.
"Are you okay, Teruhashi?"
I wonder what's wrong.
Finally, she made her way out of the crowd, quickly walking into the building. She took a shaky breath, rejoicing at the absence of people nearby. She had too much to deal with already. Adding her usual crowds of admirers on top of that was too much.
It was still early in the morning. There weren't very many people at school yet, so Kokomi decided to head for the roof to clear her head. She went up there occasionally when she wanted to relax or get away from people. Hopefully there wouldn't be anyone there.
As she ascended the stairs, she thought about everything that had happened so far.
Her bed had been floating. Why? How?
She had pushed Makoto out of her room with no difficulty whatsoever. Okay, that was strange, but far from impossible.
She had suddenly appeared right outside of the school. That was the craziest thing so far. It couldn't have been her mind playing tricks on her, since no time had passed whatsoever. She was still shaken up, barely pushing her emotions to the back of her mind for later.
And looking back, she seemed to be hearing things. Things that nobody had actually said. Makoto had seemed surprised when she responded to them, and they were all phrased strangely, like everyone had been talking to themselves. Could she have been hearing...what they were thinking? Kokomi didn't want to jump to any conclusions there, so she decided to wait and see if it kept happening.
Finally, she reached the top of the stairs. The sturdy door seemed much lighter than normal. She furrowed her brow, swinging the door back and forth. It was like it was weightless.
Suddenly, with a particularly hard pull, the door ripped off of its hinges. Kokomi gasped, and the door flew off of the roof and into the distance as she let it go.
Her mouth dropped open.
Okay.
That wasn't normal. At all.
She needed to tell someone what was going on. Chiyo, maybe? She was hesitant. They were good friends, but Chiyo wasn't the best at keeping secrets. She had learned that the hard way, when she casually told Kuriko about Kokomi's crush on Saiki in the middle of a public cafe.
Definitely not Makoto. She would never even dream of telling him something as significant as this.
Not Mera. Kokomi liked her, but she wasn't even that close with the food-loving girl.
Kaido was always going on about superpowers and similar things. Maybe she should tell him? Maybe. Probably not.
What about Aiura? She did seem to have some kind of supernatural fortune-telling ability. Kokomi had considered her to be her greatest rival in the past, since she was always trying to flirt with Saiki. But this was serious. She didn't know what was going on, and maybe Aiura would.
There was no other option, really. She assumed that Aiura had the most experience with this kind of thing, and she would have to be good at keeping secrets, since her job was literally to peer into peoples' lives.
Okay, so at some point today, she would find Aiura and ask for her help. But what about right now? The door to the roof had flown into the distance, far away from the school. She had just destroyed school property.
She had to get away. As long as nobody saw her here, she was safe, right? She just had to go back down the stairs.
Unfortunately, someone happened to be walking up said stairs. It was that boy who transferred to PK near the end of the previous year. Akechi, if she remembered correctly.
Akechi was rapidly approaching, ascending the stairs as he took in the scene before him.
Kokomi took a deep breath. She could talk her way out of this. She knew she could–that was what she did best.
"Good morning, Akechi! I came up here to clear my head, but it looks like something happened to the door."
He looked at her for a moment, then began.
"Hello Teruhashi, I can see that you are indeed up here to clear your head, as by the slightly pale color of your face, I can tell that you are most likely stressed about something, hence why you came up here, likely to escape from the relentless crowds that obsessively follow you around because of your tendency to act perfect in every way. In fact, nearly every student in the school is prone to this behavior, with the exception of a few, each of whom have their own reasons, the primary one being that they are in your general proximity enough to have built up a resistance to your charms. Steering back to the original topic, you are most likely stressed because of the attention accompanied by your beauty, perhaps because you aren't used to it after the month-long intervention of summer break, although that is unlikely, as unless you remained indoors during the entire month, you would likely have received the same amount of attention as you do at school. Therefore, I would theorize that the reason behind your sudden stress is that you did not stumble upon this door after it was seemingly removed, as you said you did, but rather, you somehow removed it yourself, and thus, are worried about being held responsible for the damages to the property. Alternatively, your worry may have to do with other people finding out how you removed the door, as it would take an inhuman amount of strength to be able to do so with your bare hands. In fact, under closer inspection, it would seem that that is exactly the case, as the metal on the hinges is bent in a way that indicates–"
"What are you talking about?! I have to get to class!"
Kokomi stumbled over to the stairs and began to walk down, even paler than before. At this point, she didn't even care about her perfect persona. She had to get away from Akechi and his rambling. It was kind of creepy, how quickly he had discovered what she had done. It was overwhelming, as everything that morning had been. She just wanted to lie down and sleep.
She had to stop herself from flying down the stairs as she tried to walk at a normal pace. Somehow, she could sense that Akechi had not followed her. He was still on the roof, probably examining the door...well, the lack of a door.
As she stepped out into the hallway, Kokomi checked the time again. As with every year, she had to attend an assembly in the gym and listen to the principal give the usual speech. After that, she would head for her new class. If she was lucky, which she usually was, Aiura would be there.
Kokomi really didn't want to attract more attention. As unusual as it was for her, she was just dealing with too much. She started making her way towards the gym, hoping she would go unnoticed.
And...she did. By some miracle, not one person even did so much as glance her way as she walked through the packed hallways. It was so different, yet so wonderful. It was like they didn't even see her.
She glanced down. Oh. That would explain why.
Normally, upon seeing that your own body is gone, anyone would freak out. If it had happened on any other day, Kokomi would have panicked too. But at this point, she was just getting tired of all the crazy things happening to her. Of course, she was surprised at first, but that was quickly replaced with annoyance.
Why did these things keep happening?!
Okay. She just had to figure out how to get un-invisible. She tried focusing on the idea. Nothing happened. She tried squeezing her eyes closed, to no avail. Nothing seemed to be working.
At that moment, something collided with her from behind. Her eyes widened, and she fell to the ground.
"Oh, Teruhashi! Heh, sorry about that." Nendo stood above her, offering a hand.
She blinked, then looked down. She was visible again!
"It's okay, Nendo." At the sound of her voice, everyone in the hallway turned towards her, gasping and glaring at Nendo.
"Teruhashi! Are you okay?!"
"Nendo, you idiot!"
"Here, let me help you up!"
I almost feel bad for Nendo, but he did knock down Teruhashi.
Kokomi stood on her own, despite the dozens of people trying to help her. "I'm fine, everyone. Don't blame Nendo, he didn't mean anything by it."
At that, she quickly stepped out from the center of the crowd, hurrying to the gym. Ignoring the stares and offus she received on the way, she finally arrived, and opened the door.
And that's when her head started pounding. Countless people were standing around, waiting for the principal to start the assembly. Everyone was talking so loudly. What may or may not have been peoples' thoughts echoed throughout her head, forcing their way into her mind at an unbearable volume. It was, once again, overwhelming.
She didn't even realize that she had been standing in the doorway, her hands pressed to the sides of her head. Kokomi scrambled into the hall, dashing away.
She ran into an adjacent hallway–one that only had a few students in it. She threw open the door to a random classroom, then closed it gently behind her, remembering that she now had to be careful with doors.
Eyes closed, she slid down against the door, focusing on her breathing as she came to a sitting position. She really needed to figure out what was going on with her. She took one last breath, then opened her eyes. Instantly, she wanted to close them again.
She didn't even realize that the room she had entered was her classroom from last year. But that wasn't what made her want to die. That was due to the fact that there was someone standing at the window, looking at her with a concerned expression.
That someone was Saiki Kusuo.