Chapter Text
Kusuo Saiki wasn’t really a guy known for his positive emotions. Or emotions at all, really. Apathy and indifference, sure, but anything beyond that was reserved for his friends, parents, and occasionally his brother. He was getting a little bit better at not being such a weird masochist, and they have been engaging in regular banter without the strangeness.
For the most part.
But right now, nothing was wrong, and he could let other thoughts and feelings flow into his body and mind. He laid on a hill on a checkered blanket, underneath the shade of a large birch tree. To his left and near the trunk of the tree, some of the most delicious coffee jelly known to man. Topped with homemade whipped cream, it sat in a cooler filled with ice, next to a couple iced coffees and energy drinks. A smile grew on his face as he rolled onto his right side, staring blissfully at an unnamed man.
He was beautiful, handsome, pretty, and every other word to describe a perfect person. Saiki was even willing to say ‘oh wow’ to him, rather than to Teruhashi, and he didn’t even have a glow of perfection around him. The guy had long hair down to his lower back, two toned with black on the right side and white on the left. It was pulled back into a low ponytail, a few strands framing his face, calling attention to his heterochromatic gold and purple eyes. A bit of smokey makeup really made his eyes pop, and when his eyes flickered over to Saiki, the smile that filled his face made the psychic turn a bright red. He fanned his face and used his cryokinesis to cool down some, right as the other man laid on his side from the sitting position he was originally in, cupping his face with his right hand.
Saiki’s left hand reached up to hold the silk glove, noting how they both were black today apart from a white heart on the middle fingers. The man reached down and removed Saiki’s glasses, and neither of them spoke for a while. As soon as he asked his singular question, Saiki knew he would go back, after all, and even though he couldn’t be sure, Saiki felt like the other wouldn’t want that, either.
He closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of the air mixed with the cool breeze on his skin. The thumb on his cheek rubbed in a circular pattern, and he felt the man’s breath on his face, breathing in tune with Saiki. They stayed like this for what felt like hours, but was probably less than twenty minutes, before he finally opened his eyes and smiled sadly at the guy. Hopefully he could catch a nap in between classes.
“Why do you wear gloves?”
Saik’s voice was still a bit hoarse, since this was the only time he primarily spoke out loud. It still was strange, moving his jaw and forcing the sound out audibly rather than telepathically. The other man thought for a moment (at least, that’s what Saiki thought the pause was for), before delivering his answer, in his velvety smooth deep voice.
“Primarily out of a fear of judgment of my scars… they’re not pretty. Maybe next time, I’ll show them to you.”
Saiki sat up in his bed, eyes darting open faster than a speeding bullet. He touched his hair to make sure he didn’t remove his limiters in his sleep again and cause the roof to go into orbit, before rushing up to his bedside table. Underneath some schoolwork was an all black notebook, to which he flipped a couple pages in.
September 5th - Gloves due to fear of people not liking scars.
Writing down his findings, he sighed, walking to his bathroom to take a quick shower before going to school. He needed to take his mind off of him, even though he knew his classmates were going to quiz him about today’s dream.
As the water ran down his back, he let out a low sigh again. He honestly felt like Kaidou at this point, hiding notebooks beneath his bed like they were some sort of dark secret fantasy.
… Was it? To be honest, the strangeness of each dream wasn’t something he’d concoct by himself. Maybe Kusuke had done something to make him like this. But the last time they saw each other was after the dreams had already begun.
As he dried off from the shower, being extra careful around his limiters, he went to get dressed for the day. The uniform was for warmer weather, which was always nice since Kusuo always felt so flustered when he woke up.
After packing his school bag and avoiding his parents' over-the-top flirting and trying to coddle him, Saiki made it outside where Kuboyasu, Kaidou and Nendou were already waiting for him. He slipped on his new germanium ring, and tried not to rapidly blink like he used to.
Kusuke had made a few new adjustments to Saiki’s ring, so he could exist more peacefully and normally. This specific ring allowed him to still speak telepathically, and only tune into a few people at a time. Granted, those he wasn’t listening to still spooked him if not careful, so he was still adjusting. On top of that, he couldn’t see through people’s skin anymore. Hopefully he would be able to live with the ring permanently, and remove the hair clips entirely. It did hurt quite a bit whenever he tried to lay on his side, after all.
“So buddy! Did you two go get some ramen this time round?”
Nendou’s loud remark almost had Saiki tripping over the rock in front of him. The cool, calm, collected and indifferent Saiki was turning into a basic lovesick schoolgirl, and he hated it. Since he wasn’t using his telepathy so frequently to watch for things, and he felt so consumed by this man that was in his dreams, every mention of him in public made him freak out like Toritsuka when Teruhashi so much as glanced at him last year. Or Yumehara when… ever. Whenever.
“Oh, come on Nendou, you’re such a moron. You two were picnicking last time, right?”
Kuboyasu’s question came at a bit of a surprise, Saiki hadn’t expected the ex-delinquent to remember all the details that he had been telling his friends… classmates (only in the dreamworld, did he ever refer to them all as friends willingly). He nodded, and all three men were waiting for him to explain the daily dream, but he shook his head.
You’ll wait like the rest of them for lunch.
The remainder of the walk to school was uneventful. Kaidou and Kuboyasu were having their own strange romantic tension, the four planned on a ramen get together later in the week, and they ran into Mera foraging for mushrooms, who tagged along as they arrived at PK Academy.
After the volcano and meteor, Saiki unfortunately had to keep his psychic powers. Earth would be doomed without him. But he revealed the truth of his powers to the people who wouldn’t keep pestering him, and the reactions were primarily positive mixed with confusions, and enough questions that would make a college entrance exam jealous.
Swapping into his school shoes, Teruhashi greeted him with a wave from down the hall. Revealing his psychic powers ended up solving his issues with Teruhashi. She was rightfully embarrassed that someone knew her internal dialogue and the very large crush she had on said person, but after a few days of talking, they figured out a great friendship would be fine for the both of them. She was also the first to know about Saiki’s dreams, and threatened on more than one occasion to send her fanclub on a mission to hunt down the man’s whereabouts on occasions where he couldn’t even think straight. Which was, to Saiki’s embarrassment, becoming more and more frequent.
Saiki abandoned the other four to walk by her side on the way upstairs. It was a comfortable silence, both of them on cloud nine for different people. Saiki was also the first to learn about the person Teruhashi had moved on to crushing on, which was something he could have seen coming from a mile away. However, she was still too internally worried about what everyone else would say to make the first move. He wouldn’t press her too hard on it - he had his own worries. Plus, she’d work it out. God was on her side, after all, and clearly he didn’t mind her having a crush on a girl.
Class 1, Year 3 was calm for once. Saiki had pulled a couple strings to get the main cast in the same classes, mainly so he wouldn’t have to worry about extra people’s names (he tells himself this every day, so he won’t become soft). Satou and Suzumiya’s relationship was going strong, although their unlucky-normalcy cycle was still the result of too many near disasters. Right now, the couple were studying for their math class, as well as the other psykickers. Toritsuka was holding his head in his hands as he watched Aiura try to explain a logarithm to the group. Even Akechi was silent, the new concept making his talkative trait next to nothing. Rifuta and Yumehara were exchanging and comparing hair clips, and were planning on going to the mall later in the week. Saiko was observing Hairo, who was doing his morning routine of sit-ups, push-ups and planks, as he fanned the other student with money as if that would create a nice breeze.
Saiki took a seat at his desk, but then glanced around the classroom. The 15 desks were now arranged in four rows of four, with one additional one in the back. Strange. He didn’t have any premonitions on a new transfer student. He also saw name tags on Matsuzaki’s desk, some to prop up on the desk and others that were stickers that would go on a shirt. Teruhashi took her seat next to Saiki, behind the group studying in the first and second rows.
“So? How was it?” Teruhashi was practically bouncing in her seat. Not only did her relationship with Saiki improve, but she was always the first to know the new details.
Finally figured out the glove stuff. Scars on his hands.
Teruhashi tapped her chin for a moment. “Ah, I see!”
Please don’t start that up again. Kaidou was so unbelievably obnoxious during that phase he had.
“I wonder what the scars are from? If we predicted he’s also a psychic, sending telepathic visions to you to arrive only when you sleep, the scars don’t make a lot of sense… But, if he’s something else entirely, that could explain it. Or, even cooler, he’s a superhero, fighting crime or something in a different country.”
She made a few noises as she punched the air, to Saiki’s utter confusion. Isn’t Kaidou supposed to be the one with the hero complex?
Speaking of the devil, the remainder of the 15 came in the room, followed by Matsuzaki in a frantic walk. As he has been designated their instructor from homeroom, he always made a big deal when he actually had announcements to share since he wanted to be there for his students. Plus, he was the only teacher thus far that knew about Saiki’s powers, since the guy had been very chill with the class and made sure they were all together come third year. It wasn’t gym class, so it was always a bit out of his wheelhouse.
He went around putting down the name placards on their desks. “Looks like we are for sure having a new student. Better than all the other times people came, some actual way for us to remember their names and us to remember theirs. Oh, but of course, as I was one of the last people to come to PK Academy, and I talked to much that most people forgot my name within the first moment as they listened to all the fun, and not so fun facts about myself, it only makes sense that Mr. Matsuzaki would enact this policy. The student… Huh, strange! Just a singular name, no last name, and it’s in katakana rather than hiragana! This student is bound to be a foreigner, or at least not with Japanese parents. The lack of a last name does bind the question as to why, when our full names are written on our name cards, and the stickers Mr. Matsuzaki has on his desk.”
Akechi’s detailed analysis of the desk next to Saiki did raise a question. He hadn’t gotten any premonitions as to a new student. Perhaps it was because of the few months of dreams of… well, he didn’t know. What would he call that strange man? He… still wasn’t too sure he was real, after all.
As the remaining students filed in and took a seat, leaving the hole right next to Saiki, Matsuzaki cleared his throat, glancing out into the hallway as he looked for the new student. The hallway outside was quiet, since most students were getting their homeroom announcements, but finally, the shuffling of shoes was heard outside. Now that the student was there, Saiki, despite his slight curiosity, didn’t look to see who the student was… But it was extra strange, he wasn’t hearing the thoughts of the person on the other side of the wall. They could be just out of range, perhaps? With his new ring, he was still getting used to the decreased vocal range he heard, after all.
“Alright students, we have a new student joining Class 1. They’re not from Japan, so treat him with utmost respect, and try not to overwhelm him by talking.”
The last remark was definitely just aimed at Akechi, potentially Kaidou as well, but there was a quiet murmur going through the class as they wondered just how the new student would be. Matsuzaki motioned with his hand to come in, and as he stepped inside, the murmur turned to gasps, Yumehara falling out of her chair, even Mera stopped eating the food Saiko had brought for her for her jaw to just hang open.
Split hair, black and white. A gold eye and a purple eye, looking back at the students who seemed to be staring at him like he was an animal in the zoo. His gaze was cold, incredibly distanced, something Saiki wasn’t used to, but then again, he was convinced until mere moments ago that this guy, now a physical being, was all just in his head.
The student’s eyes widened a bit as he turned around, taking the black gloved hand and writing his name in the same katakana, as well as his English version.
“Hello. My name is Spade. It is a pleasure to meet all of you.”
Yumehara whipping her head back and forth between Saiki was NOT helping in the slightest to keep Saiki’s genuine shock on his face. Not only because… well, this guy, now identified, was here , but he… didn’t seem to remember, or even know who Saiki was.
Something wasn’t adding up. But at least now he realized something.
His dreams had the possibility of becoming reality.