Chapter Text
So far, it was a horrible day.
For starters, Takenaka had misplaced his ear plugs, unable to find them anywhere in his room. He was about to tell his mother that he was going to stay home, citing his telepathy as the reason, but remembered that today also happened to be the dreaded annual marathon. The teachers already warned students about trying to call in sick on that day, so it was likely Takenaka would have had to deal with passive aggressive adults if he tried skipping. He didn't need his telepathy to know how people would interpret his absence; their demeanor would say it all.
So, despite everything in his gut yelling at him to stay home, to avoid dealing with the drawbacks of his telepathic powers, Takenaka dragged himself to school to participate in the marathon. Which wasn't fun either. Having to run 5 kilometers under the sun while a barrage of idle thoughts drifted past him had slowed his running pace to something he'd consider embarrassing. Yet miraculously, most of the attention at the marathon had been around another student tripping then passing out, so no one paid attention or commented on Takenaka's slower finish. Though, he couldn't help but wince at some of the disparaging words kids were sending to that poor guy in their heads. Teens could easily be merciless in their jeering.
"Better him, not me," he commented to himself after finishing the race.
There was no reason to stay at school once the marathon was over, especially with his lack of ear plugs. Being privy to so many thoughts at once was the equivalent of sensory overload for Takenaka, so he began his walk home.
"There's no way this day could get worse," he said aloud with an exasperated sigh, wanting to hear his own voice cut through the distant thoughts that clouded the edges of his mind, "I just wanna listen to music and sleep." Stretching his arms out and taking a glance at the sky, Takenaka began to formulate how he'd spend the rest of his day to rel-
"OI!"
How he'd spend the rest of his day rel-
"YOU IN THE TRACKSUIT! CAN YOU HELP ME OUT?" Well, any semblance of peace Takenaka had just got thrown out the window.
While he was ready to give whoever was calling out to him a piece of his mind via a vitriolic tirade, the part of Takenaka that valued self-preservation decided to scope out the person before acting. Turning around to sneak a peek, he found himself faced with a spiky haired kid waving at him. Can hair even get that red or is that dye? Takenaka grimaced upon registering the kid's features. The guy looked relatively harmless besides the brightness of his hair; it wouldn't hurt to entertain him, no?
Noticing he had successfully grabbed Takenaka's attention, the stranger began to make his case while wearing a cheeky grin.
"Hey there!"
First, we'll set it ablaze.
"Is this the right direction-"
The dead bodies would be the cherry on top.
"To this street?"
Fake, of course! Since I'll be taking Ritsu with me.
"I'm tryna find a friend."
After all, that coward won't use his powers-
"It's really urgent."
-unless I leave him a fuse for ignition.
"So can you help me make sure?"
What.
Takenaka stood there frozen, struggling to register the dissonance between what was coming out of this kid's mouth and what was running through his head. It's not like this was his first time running into someone holding sinister thoughts. He'd hear small doses of it back when he didn't rein his powers in using ear plugs; it distressed him every time. There were two-faced people, people whose thoughts simply didn't line up with their words like it was being proofread in real time, then there was this. Unadulterated and genuine violence.
Was this really a kid? He hardly looked older than Takenaka; in fact, he looked younger than the telepath (Though there was also the fact that Takenaka was considered tall for his peers, but that hadn't crossed his mind at the moment). There was no reason for a younger teen to be thinking such vividly violent thoughts, right? Maybe he's played too many video games; Takenaka knows some of his classmates liked games outside of their recommended age rating, so it's not completely unreasonable.
But something about the way this guy's thoughts played out, the phrasing, the specifics, the insult... it felt real. Tangible. Personal. Too personal to only be a scenario from a video game. Takenaka could feel his face become pale, his blood freezing, his joints locking as his brain scrambled to paint a picture; just who the hell did he run into?!
"Hey, I asked you a question and I'm on a time limit here," the kid snapped his fingers in front of Takenaka's face. Ugh, I knew I should've went with my gut.
Remembering that the cause of his distress was still standing in front of him and fearing the situation worsening, Takenaka quickly confirmed that he was going in the right direction for his destination. Then, he regretted giving out that information after a split second, considering the fact that his brain was blaring warning sirens. Either he was overthinking things or this was a scenario of being stuck between a rock and a hard place: could he confront this kid…? Was it even his place to intervene? Is he just jumping to conclusions too fast? Wait. He could just...
Hey, whatever you're thinking, don't do it.
Immediately, the redhead's eyes sharpened, staring up at Takenaka, almost burning a hole into his soul. The air became stifling, threatening to choke whatever remnants of oxygen was left in his lungs.
"Did you say something to me?" He couldn't respond to the question; in fact, Takenaka was confident he wasn't even breathing. It should've been easy to deny that he said anything because he technically didn't, but words just refused to come out of his mouth. The longer he was under scrutiny, the more he clammed up. Did he just accidentally give away his most personal secret to a dangerous person?
Ring!
The tension dissipated the moment Takenaka heard his phone’s ringtone— most likely his mother worried that he hadn't arrived home yet. The stranger redirected his sight to the telepath's jacket pocket, face still pinched from the intensity of the stare he had leveled at Takenaka yet slowly receding.
"Sorry, I've gotta take this," he muttered, too afraid to speak any louder lest his voice crack and tremble.
"Right, well I've got places to be too. See ya around, dude," the redhead replied without an ounce of warmth as Takenaka turned around to pick up the call. He could still feel that piercing gaze, now directed at the back of his head, all the way to his home.
...It'd help him sleep at night if he just forgot this encounter ever happened.
Just a kid with a really overactive imagination , Takenaka reasoned before going to bed that night.