Chapter Text
"And that's the end of this episode! Tune in next week as we expose the most powerful psychic we have. We are traveling to Japan! How exciting!" The live feed cuts.
A few months ago, a channel on the internet started exposing a psychic every week. He apparently is one as well. He has two abilities, one is something they can see for themselves, and no matter what language you speak or understand, you can understand him. You can hear him in any language. Great for live streaming to the entire world.
The second one is not so obvious to others. He can catoragize people into groups and track where each is at a time.
In this case, he is currently tracking every psychic in the world.
Saiki feels a sense of dread curl in his stomach before he waves it away. He's probably a sham anyway.
Though he did cover Toritsuka a while back. About a month ago, the man did a cover on him, exposing (and Saiki uses that word loosely) him for his power to see ghosts.
All it did was make everyone in school believe him about his power. His popularity has since died down to normal, the five minutes of fame passing over him quickly.
Whatever.
Saiki reassures himself as he walks to the school, making sure to dodge Nendo and Kaidou.
However, he was so caught up in his thoughts that Toritsuka caught up with him. Saiki ignored him, obviously.
"Awh, come on!" Toritsuka complains as Saiki walks past him.
'I just wanted to see how he was doing with that guy exposing psychics.' Saiki hears his thoughts voice his concern.
'Next week, he's coming for Saiki. Everyone knows how much he hates attention.' Saiki stops in his tracks and turns to glare at the other psychic.
'Right! Mind reading!' His thoughts scream, and Saiki rolls his eyes.
'I'll be fine. That guy is probably a sham anyway,' Saiki projects his thoughts into his mind, making him blink.
"He did expose me, though," Toritsuka says as he half walks, half jogs to keep pace with Saiki.
'It's easy to expose someone who tells the whole school about it. I'll be fine.' Saiki projects with a pointed look. Toritsuka pauses for a second, his mind racing with small what-ifs and concern.
Saiki keeps walking.
The week passes as usual, with a buzz around the school rising as the days go on.
People check the 'psychic exposer's' (as he named himself) page every day, seeing as he lands in Japan, and post a small text about this supposed ultra-powerful psychic attending a high school in Japan.
Or the post about one of the previous psychics being close to the next one.
Or a post Saiki doesn't really appreciate. Psychic exposer offhandedly says in one of the preparation live streams where he takes busses, cabs, or trains to get to the town while raising money about how this supposed psychic has at least a dozen provable powers, and even more, the man believes he has but can't prove.
The man is a sham. He has to be.
But as the whole school is brought into the auditorium only to see the psychic exposer, Saiki is beginning to lose a bit of hope.
Saiki slides into his seat, toritsuka quickly nabbing the seat next to him before nendo could, and kaidou sitting on the other side.
'You sure he's a sham saiki?' Toritsuka asks, looking at the man, who is still setting up recording equipment on stage as the kids trickle in.
'It's fine.' Saiki says through grit teeth as if he was saying it out loud.
Saiki hears toritsuka thinking about how tense he is, clenched fists.
Saiki tries to hear what he's thinking, but it's hard over the entire student body. He gives up once he sees the little necklace he's wearing. Geranium. Has to be.
Saiki scowls.
"Hello, PK high! And hello to those tuning in at home, " the man says into a microphone. He picks up a camera and sweeps it over the audience.
"We are back at PK high. Some viewers may have realized this is where we exposed toritsuka Reita as the psychic ghost boy he is!" A spotlight shines on toritsuka, making saiki shift away as eyes are drawn to him.
"Well, here we are yet again, here to expose the most powerful psychic in the world!" He announces, making the crowd buzz and whisper in anticipation.
"Oh, man! I wonder who it is!" Kaidou says from next to him, stars practically in his eyes.
The little friend group levels a look at him, making him cough.
"I- I mean, I need to know who it is so I can protect them from dark reunion," Kaidou says, but saiki can hear his thoughts, hoping it's a cute girl.
The psychic exposer then raises the tension, giving out bits and details that sound suspiciously like saiki.
There's no doubt about it. He's not a sham. He knows, and he will expose it to the entire world in about thirty seconds.
He's spent 17 years blending in, trying to bring absolutely no attention to himself. And this guy is going to undo it all in a minute.
Maybe he should go back in time and prevent his parents from meeting.
No, butterfly effect.
Maybe he should mind control him (and the entire world)?
No, too messy. Who knows what's going to change.
He could leave.
But that would still Mean everyone would know, and he can't. He's blocked in perfectly in the middle of everything.
Saiki likes to pretend he's better than his parents at driving off attention or at least at lying.
But now, fifteen seconds away from being exposed to the world, saiki panics.
The auditorium feels much louder now, with everyone's thoughts louder and quicker than ever, along with his own.
Saiki's normally perfect mask starts to crumble slightly as his eyebrow twitches and his frown grows deeper.
His hands are shaking against his legs, and he can hear toritsuka freaking out in his own mind.
His breath quickens as the man continues on with his introduction to the 'most powerful psychic.'
"Saiki? You okay?" Kuboyasu asks, leaning forward to look at his friend past kaidou. Saiki is the most expressive he's ever seen him.
"Yeah, you okay, man?" Another person turns to him as the clock ticks down for saiki.
Five. The spotlight starts to move across the crowd as it seems to 'search' for the hidden psychic.
Four. The man instructs the crowd to give a drum roll, which finally brings kuboyasu's and kaidou's attention away from him, but he doesn't relax.
Three. Everything starts to feel overwhelming for saiki, the crowd's thoughts mixed in with their actual speech. He can pick out bits and pieces of some of the people he knows best. Including teruhashi freaking out that whoever this psychic is could know about her crush on him. Yeah, I do. It's one of the main annoyances in his life. Or hairo personally thinking this whole exposing business is rude to those exposed. And for once, saiki agrees. Or toritsuka quickly becomes worried for saiki as he becomes more panicked.
Two. The spotlight has done a 180 and is starting to come closer to saiki. Everything feels too much. Too much sound, too much light, too much panic.
One. Saiki makes eye contact with the psychic exposer, glaring as the spotlight finally hits him. The man smirks before taking a breath to announce his name.
Zero. The spotlight stops, sitting firmly on him as the crowd looks at him, the most expressive he's ever seen himself. His eyes were no doubt wide with panic as everyone looked his way, a dreaded frown firm on his face.
"Saiki kusou!" The man says into the mic. "Why don't you come up here on stage!"
Saiki's mind blanks. He teleports to his room at home, away from everyone. He grabs his ring and shoves it on. He doesn't want to hear anything.
The sides of his eyes have started to go fuzzy, and his legs shake as if he needs to run. His mind feels like a thousand miles away, barely able to form a coherent thought. He distantly realizes he's hyperventilating.
Saiki's eyes go half-mast as he struggles to breathe. His eyes grey out, blocking everything. He shakily lowers himself to the ground before falling over.
He falls unconscious.