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As it turns out, all that training with crushing up rocks at high speeds really came in handy. Saiki wished, however, that he had never forfeited his powers even for those few days. His sense of strength was totally off, and there for a moment it looked like a pretty big rock chunk was going to take out the east wing of PK Academy. But he managed to stop it, after all. And as quickly as it had arrived, Saiki had demolished it. The meteor that was destined to smash into Japan was gone, reduced to a cloud of dust.
Saiki felt exhausted, a rare feeling. Life had been a whirlwind over the last few days. Losing his powers and having to cope with normal problems like a normal person. It was humiliating. Then there was the devastating realization that those powers were slowly returning. And finally, the meteor. But still, even in spite of all of this, he felt a smile creeping over his face as his feet touched the ground once again.
“Hey, Aiura,” he said, calling out to his fellow psychic telepathically. “Any other natural disasters I should be made aware of?” He rounded the corner to find his favorite café. A coffee jelly would be a nice way to celebrate.
Kusuo! You did it! She replied, ignoring his sarcastic and demeaning question. In his mind’s eye, he could see her wiping away happy tears. A pretty blush spread over her face. I, like, totally love you!
He grinned, for the moment feeling on top of the world. Powerful again. He knew that Aiura’s predictions had somehow failed to identify the meteor strike, which gave him a small sense of satisfaction. He liked knowing that he could count on her when he needed to, but he liked being the last line of defense even more. Perhaps her fortune telling failed in this case because the event had been caused by something Saiki had done… Did the meteor have anything to do with all the magma he had siphoned off into space when he halted the volcanic eruption? Oh well, best not to worry about it.
Saiki settled into his favorite booth in the café and watched Mr. Manager try to collect himself enough to take his order. Saiki supposed that he wasn’t surprised. After all, everyone in Japan was certain just moments ago that this would be their last day on Earth.
Saiki finished his coffee jelly and, with a shrug, decided to head home rather than return to school for the day. He didn’t want to bear witness to the chaos that was no doubt unfolding as his classmates celebrated the miraculous dissolution of the meteor. Saiki listened as he walked to the newscasts emanating onto the street from the nearby electronics store. He didn’t stop to watch the report on the TV in the window, but he heard the news anchor suggest the meteor had simply burned up as it entered the earth’s atmosphere. The man didn’t sound too convincing, but Saiki figured it didn’t matter. He had ensured that he had been unseen as he carried out the task. A little invisibility, a little mind control. All in a day’s work for a psychic.
He entered his front door and watched as his parents both kneeled at his feet, clutching his legs. “Oh, Ku-chan!” his mother cried, her tears a combination of joy, shock, and maternal worry soaking into his school uniform trousers. “You did it! My perfect little esper!”
Yes, esper. Psychic. Freak. Whatever you want to call it, that’s what Saiki was.
He sighed as his father wiped his nose on his pants too. “Kusuo-mon!” he said. “I’m so proud of you! You’re the world’s hero! We’d be toast without you, son!”
Saiki listened to the jumbled thoughts in his parents’ minds. They were grateful, relieved, and expectant. Saiki wouldn’t exactly call it pressure, but it was something like that. The duty of a son to make his parents happy, to make them proud, and the knowledge that he could do it every time without fail. Because he was special. Because he was a psychic.
“Good grief, get up,” Saiki said after what he considered enough of a moment.
He lifted his parents to their feet without touching them and they stepped aside so Saiki could enter the house. And there stood Kuusuke, slow-clapping in the living room. “Couldn’t let me have any of the glory, huh?” he remarked.
Saiki narrowed his eyes. His brother’s idea of glory involved sending their weak father into space in an experimental exoskeleton suit. Not exactly the bravest path forward.
Kuusuke dropped his hands to his sides as his face split into a sickeningly, delirious smile. “And yet I can’t help but be happy, baby brother, that you’re still the beast you were always meant to be.”
Saiki rolled his eyes and marched up to his bedroom to stare at the ceiling, his favorite pastime. Anything to escape his brother’s perverse excitement and his parents’ cooing and drooling. He flopped back onto his mattress, heaving another sigh. Then another. And another.
Huh, why does my chest still feel so tight? Saiki wondered as he placed a hand over his sternum. And my heart feels like it’s pounding… Strange. Was this some side-effect of his powers’ full return? Was this some trick from his brother? Had that limiter been sabotaged with a self-destruct function? Why did Saiki feel like he was dying all of a sudden?
He held his fingers in front of his face and watched them tremble uncontrollably. His whole body felt like it was separate from his mind and operating of its own delusional will. He was safe. He was home in bed, just like always. And yet he felt like his body was reacting to some kind of imminent danger. Impossible, Saiki thought. Nothing can hurt me.
But as he lay on his mattress, no matter how many deep breaths he drew into his lungs, the feeling wouldn’t subside. He felt for the first time in years as hot tears began pricking his eyes. He shut his lids tight to try to force them back in. Crying was totally uncalled for. Nothing can hurt me, he repeated to himself. But for some reason, the words brought him no comfort. Dammit, nothing can hurt me!
“Aiura,” he called out telepathically, grateful that his mind didn’t betray the quiver that would no doubt be present in his voice if he actually attempted to speak aloud.
Hm? Ku? she answered as she packed her school bag, preparing to ditch her last period and head home.
“Do you see anything?” Saiki asked, already having a guess at the answer. He felt a warm, wet streak slide down his face and bleed into his mattress.
Are you, like, teasing me again? she asked, pursing her lips in good humor as she slung her bag over her shoulder to make her way out of the school building. I miss one meteor and it’s suddenly like I’m the worst psychic in the world?
“I’m serious,” Saiki replied, rubbing his eyes with the back of his arm and clutching his bedsheets with a tense fist. “I feel like I’m having a premonition or something.”
Did you have a dream? Aiura asked, pulling out her crystal ball to check, taking Saiki at his word, like she always did. Saiki watched with clairvoyance as she squinted past the gemstones and sparkles she had decorated the orb with. I don’t see anything, she said, tucking the ball back into her bag.
Saiki grit his teeth. Then why do I feel like this? he thought.
Are you okay? Aiura asked wordlessly, glancing around the air, wondering all the while if Saiki was still listening for her thoughts, watching her from an unknown distance.
“No,” he said honestly as his shoulders began to shake with a sob.
Let me help, she offered, her thoughts soft, drifting into Saiki’s mind like a whisper.
Without thinking, Saiki teleported her into his room, hoping in desperation that she might be able to make good on her offer to help. She was a fellow psychic. Maybe she had some power that she hadn’t yet explained? Something that could take this feeling away from him?
“Kusuo,” she murmured, stepping closer to his bed and reaching a hand out to him.
Saiki removed his arm from his face, revealing his red-rimmed eyes. “Do I have a death mark?” he asked bluntly.
Aiura’s expression softened even more as she shook her head. I guess even Saiki can get stressed sometimes, she thought as she knelt at his bedside. Her hand settled to stroke his arm.
Me? Stressed? Saiki thought. Why would I be? It’s not like I have anything to worry about. It’s not like it’s hard for me to keep saving the world. It’s not difficult to keep my secret from all my friends. It’s not unsettling to lose the powers I’ve relied on for all my life, just for them to rush back to me all at once…
As if Aiura could read his mind, she gave him a knowing smile. “It’s okay to be stressed sometimes,” she said. “Even if you’re a psychic.”
Saiki swallowed thickly around the lump tightening in his throat. He didn’t want to ask for more than those words of empathy, didn’t want to admit that she was right. But there was some small part of him, buried deep inside, that wanted to be held like a child. Comforted. In all his life, he couldn’t remember a time that someone soothed him or calmed him down. He never needed it. But now, after seventeen years of being strong for himself and everyone around him, he did.
“Will you hold me?” Saiki asked, a hot, crimson blush spreading over his face like watercolor paint spilling across a sheet of pure white paper.
Aiura stood up, then settled on to the bed beside him. She pulled his torso to her lap and scooped him into her arms, letting his cheek come to rest on her shoulder. She threaded her fingers through his short pink hair and started humming some pop song she had stuck in her head.
She couldn’t hold a tune to save her life, Saiki realized, but even if the song was bad, it made him smile. It gave him something else to think about. And he focused on that. On the feeling of her long, manicured fingertips grazing his scalp so slowly and carefully. On the way her chest felt soft against his own. On the way she felt small yet solid as his arms wound their way around her back.
She leaned back against his headboard and pulled him down with her.
“Please tell no one about this,” Saiki requested as he began to feel his raging heartbeat slow and his deep, panting breaths shallow.
As if, Aiura confirmed wordlessly. But still, you shouldn’t be, like, embarrassed. Everyone needs to be held sometimes.
Saiki nuzzled into her neck. “Okay. Let me know when you need me to return the favor,” he said.
Aiura laughed quietly as she traced a heart onto his back with the tip of her pinky finger, but she didn’t need to say anything else. Saiki knew that she loved him, that she would be there for him whenever he needed her, that she was probably his soulmate. And he knew that she trusted him. He trusted her too. He trusted her with this moment of weakness. He trusted her to be honest with him. He trusted that she didn’t need a thank you or a declaration of his affection for her. For now, just being in each other’s arms was enough. Enough for him to know that he was allowed to fall apart every once in a while, as long as she would be there to hold him together.