Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Aiura isn’t sure what prompted her to check her crystal ball suddenly. There was just this… feeling of urgency, like there’s going to be some world-ending catastrophe or something. But as she peers in, she realizes that maybe that’s not too far off.

She sees images of pure destruction- buildings being torn down violently, streets cracking, people running and screaming and crying, street signs being ripped from the ground and flying around, and more. When she looks at it, she could easily write it off as some crazy special effects in a movie, but this is real life.

Next, even more concerning, she sees Kusuo amidst it all, levitating above the ground with his arms held out. There’s a glazed look in his eyes, like he isn’t registering what’s happening around him. Fires blaze behind him, and it seems the whole world is shaking and coming apart at the seams. He doesn’t seem to be aware of any of it.

What the hell?! Is… Is he the one causing this? But- He would never do that! He-

Behind her friend, she notices a man with a sinister expression on his face, simply watching everything unfold. As he lifts his arms, he gestures toward Kusuo, who moves forward in a jerky motion, still unseeing. Almost… like a puppet?

It then seems as though the camera angle has shifted, showing her the scene facing in front of her friend. There’s another man on the ground, trying to crawl backward with desperation in his eyes. He gets to his feet and tries to run but trips as the ground keeps cracking and twisting beneath him. His clothes are in tatters, and there are visible bleeding wounds across his body. Crying, the man turns back and starts to plead for mercy.

“Please! Just let me go! I- I have a family! I’m so sorry I didn’t give it to you! P-Please! I can’t-”

She observes that he’s not just talking to Kusuo; he’s looking back and forth between him and the other man from before, as though he’s addressing both of them.

“It’s too late for that,” says the one behind Kusuo, grinning. “You really should’ve thought about that before you crossed paths with me. Don’t you know I always get what I want in the end?”

Thunder booms from above, and dark clouds block all of the sunlight. Flashes of lightning appear around Kusuo’s body as he advances. The wind picks up, and chunks of debris blow violently around the trio.

Before anything else can happen, the image cuts out, and Aiura is left staring in shock. There’s no way this is real… right?

But my visions are never wrong. This is going to happen, unless we find some way to stop it. But- Kusuo…

She starts to breathe heavily, her heart rate going up. Snatching up her phone from next to her on her bed, she desperately finds his contact and hits the call button.

It rings… and rings… and rings…

…Nothing. Just the voicemail box.

I mean, he doesn’t usually pick up anyways, but I have a really bad feeling about this…

She tries again but to no avail. This isn’t going to work.

Toritsuka’s next, she decides with a small groan. Although she usually hates calling him (for a lot of reasons), this is kind of urgent.

He picks up immediately, with a friendly, easygoing voice. “Hey, Tits! Did you finally-”

“Have you seen Kusuo lately? It’s important. Like, world-ending important.” She bites her lip anxiously, waiting for an answer.

“Saiki? No, I haven’t seen him since school yesterday. He doesn’t like going anywhere over the weekend anyways. What’s so important-”

“Shit. I’ll call you back.”

“What? But-”

She’s already hung up. Okay, next try.

Akechi picks up after the third ring. He’s got to know where he is, right? I think he stalks him.

“Aiura! How nice to hear from you! How have you been doing? Of course, we only saw each other yesterday. I mean, in the time since then. I myself have-”

She cuts him off. “Where is Kusuo? It’s really important. I- He- Well-”

“Kusuo? I’m afraid I don’t know. On Saturdays, although he likes to stay home, his mother sometimes sends him to get groceries, usually around 12:30, after a nice brunch, so he may be out of the house right now. I assume you’ve probably already tried contacting him, if you’re calling me right now. I would recommend checking with his mother-”

She curses. “I need to find him right now. This is-”

“Ah! I’m assuming you must have had some vision, then. If so, it would make sense that you would want to get ahold of him, depending on what you saw. May I ask-”

“Let’s meet at his house, just in case he or his mom are there. I don’t have time to get into it right now, but I trust you know how to get there?” she asks, even though she already knows his answer.

“Of course I do! As a matter of fact-”

“Great. I’ll see you soon.”

Hanging up immediately, she takes a deep breath and tries not to panic (although if there was any time to panic, now would be it). Instead, she calls Toritsuka back and tells him where to meet. He’s whiny and complains about her being so demanding, but he ultimately agrees to come.

Once that’s taken care of, she throws some essentials (phone, tampons, water bottle, crystal ball) into a bag, tugs on the nearest pair of tennis shoes, and rushes out of her apartment. She’s mostly sure where she’s going, but it still takes a little while since she lives the furthest away from him.

Akechi and Toritsuka are already there when she arrives at the gate of the Saiki residence. They’re both dressed in casual clothes, but their disheveled appearances show that they were equally rushed in getting there. Even without them knowing any details, she feels a swell of pride and appreciation that they trust her enough to do this.

Aiura rings the doorbell several times desperately, and Kusuo’s mother quickly answers, excitedly inviting them in for tea and sweets.

“Thank you, but is Kusuo home right now? It’s urgent,” the fortune-teller adds. There’s no time for niceties right now.

“Oh, Ku went out to get some groceries a little while ago. Is there anything I can help you with?” she asks kindly, pleased that his friends are stopping by. She hopes that they’ll stay a while, until he gets home, and they can hang out with each other.

Unfortunately for her, Aiura declines, putting a hand up respectfully. Some niceties are fine, she supposes, despite the time crunch.

“I’m sorry, we really need to find him. Is it okay if we come by later instead?” she asks sweetly, trying not to sound too rushed. Restless, she bounces on her feet to relieve the nervous energy.

Kurumi frowns, starting to grow a little worried. “Is everything okay? I can always-”

“Of course, ma’am!” Akechi interrupts, thankfully. Always so dependable. “Everything is all good. We’ll go find him at the grocery store, if that’s alright with you. I trust it’s your regular one?”

She chuckles, always impressed that he remembers these things. “Yes, he should be there. We’re out of coffee jelly, so he may take a bit longer to pick some out.”

“Of course. We may have to take our leave now, I’m afraid-”

“I’m sorry! We’ll be back later!” Aiura cuts in loudly, dragging the other two away.

“Ow! Hey!” Toritsuka protests, snatching his arm back protectively once they’re out of the house. “What was that for? Are you going to tell us what’s going on yet?”

She huffs, frustrated. “Akechi, lead the way.”

The boy takes the lead, directing them to the usual grocery store used by the Saiki family. “I must say, I am quite curious as well. Is-”

“Yeah, okay. Let’s just hurry up, okay?” she insists, trying to speed them up more.

As they jog, she spills everything she saw in her crystal ball earlier and how incredibly urgent it is that they find their friend as soon as possible. As expected, they’re equally horrified and desperate to find him.

“I mean… He would never do that kind of thing, right? I mean, this is Saiki we’re talking about.” Toritsuka huffs with exertion from their fast pace. “Like, there’s no way he has that kind of power anyways!”

Akechi recalls a certain destroyed classroom from elementary school but decides not to mention that. Besides, even that was nothing compared to what his friend is describing. “I believe he is probably more capable than you might think. However, I agree that he would never do that of his own accord. Aiura, you mentioned that something was off about the situation?”

She nods, remembering what she saw. “Yeah, there was someone else behind him who seemed like he was in charge. Like, he was doing the talking, and when he moved his arms, Kusuo moved with them. And Kusuo’s eyes… Something was definitely going on there. I don’t know that he was even aware of what was happening around him. Almost like-”

There’s a massive BOOM! from a ways up ahead, but they’re too far away to see anything from where they are now. Then, there’s a sound like something… cracking, perhaps. Being torn open?

Much like what Aiura saw in her vision, people around them start to panic. It starts with muttering amongst themselves, then people start shouting, then they’re running in all directions. Many people have their phones out, trying to catch whatever’s happening on video.

“Hey! Put that away!” she shouts, her heart filling with dread. “You need to get out of here!”

For the most part, people follow her directions, choosing to scream and run around instead once they see the streets in front of them literally being split open. Everyone flees for safety, although they know that the police are going to try to come soon to help, not that anyone wants them there. Besides, even law enforcement won’t be able to stop Kusuo from whatever he’s doing.

As the trio of friends look onwards, they turn and nod to each other as though they are speaking telepathically. As they wonder what the hell is going on and if their friend is okay, they step forward into the chaos, ready to do what it takes to bring him back home safely.

Chapter Text

To be fair, there’s no way Kusuo could have seen this coming.

For starters, his nice, peaceful grocery trip got cut short when some of the thoughts in his 200 meter radius started to get weird. Right in the middle of his coffee jelly price calculations, too, much to his disappointment.

It started out with just a couple of panicked office employees running out of a building, but then there were at least a hundred more that showed up after that. There’s some sort of catastrophe going on at their several-story office building, but it’s difficult to sort through what’s happening, given how many people’s thoughts are bombarding him at once.

He suddenly winces at a sharp pain in his head, and images start to go through his head of some crazy ongoing fight involving machine guns and a group of people who broke into the building, rounding up some of the workers and holding them in a room as the others ran for safety, screaming. A premonition- but it still didn’t give him much to work with.

His first thought would be to leave it to someone else, like the police, but they certainly can’t be trusted to handle things properly. Like, ever. He doesn’t need that kind of escalated situation on his conscience.

What a pain. I guess this one is on me.

Crossing his eyes, he uses clairvoyance to look in and find the culprits. Sure enough, he finds a group of thugs monitoring an entire floor, keeping a room with five tied-up workers guarded well. The hostages are all sitting on the floor with terror in their eyes as a couple of armed men keep watch, guns pointed at them.

He sighs, rubbing his eyes. All he wanted was to buy some coffee jelly in peace, plus a couple of other things his mom needs. Now this? Seriously, what a pain.

Unfortunately, he may be the only person capable of getting everyone out of the situation safely. Now, how to go about this…?

In the end, he decides to teleport in and take out the guards outside of the room first, knocking most of them out with a swift chop to the back of their necks before they can react. Well, a couple of them notice the commotion and shoot at him, but hey- being bulletproof has its benefits.

“Hey! Who the fuck do you think you are? Hands up, and stay where we can see you!”

“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” he grumbles, ignoring the order entirely. Since when is he one to let himself be bossed around?

He stalks toward the door with the hostages, and sure enough, several rounds of bullets shoot at and all around him. Now, if he was a normal person, he would be dead a hundred times over by now. Fortunately, though, he’s about the furthest thing from normal there is.

With a turn of his head, the pissed off expression he’s wearing on his face is enough to make them hesitate, and a few of them even start to lower their weapons. Unfortunately, they recover their senses quickly and start shooting again like there’s no tomorrow.

“What the hell is with this guy?! Come on, get him!” someone shouts, but as soon as they finish the sentence, they go flying into the wall behind them from an invisible force and slide down to the ground, unconscious.

The others only take this as motivation to keep shooting, shouting as they go, but with a wave of his hand, they’re thrown haphazardly backwards as well.

A maniacal grin finds its way to Kusuo’s face, and he’s not going to lie- he’s having a bit of fun with it. Of course, he’s only doing it because it’s absolutely necessary. It’s not like he’s going to make a habit of it.

“H-Hey, this isn’t what we’re getting paid for-” says one fighter in a wobbly voice, making a run for the door, but they’re suddenly frozen in midair and being thrown into the closed door with extreme enough force to shatter the glass window on it.

“Die, bastard!” someone shouts suddenly from behind Kusuo, and he turns his head just as a knife is flying toward his shoulder, but before it connects, he appears again behind them and takes them out with a blow to the back of the neck.

“Yeah, no.”

After that, the others go down easily- even the ones trying to flee.

Next, he teleports directly into the room with the prisoners, knocking out both guards in a similar manner before they have time to react. Once they’ve dropped to the ground, unconscious, he turns back to the hostages, who all stare up at him in fear, then sighs again. He’ll have to erase the parts of their memories of him being there.

“I’ll undo these, and you’re free to go.” As they cry loudly and thank him profusely, he gets to work on the ropes, snapping them without hardly touching them. Sure enough, the instant they’re free, they sprint out, albeit hesitant at first. Once they see that it’s safe, they’re gone.

Well, all except one.

A short man in a business suit remains, simply watching Kusuo, calculating. Come to think of it, he had never reacted much while all this was happening.

Kusuo hadn’t been paying much attention to the thoughts of the people around him, considering all of the action happening, but he quickly realizes his mistake. This was all done intentionally…

“Well done!” The man claps slowly, an unsettling smile making its way across his face. “I wasn’t sure if this would be enough to draw you out, but I guess it worked.”

Kusuo says nothing, simply raising an eyebrow and waiting for an explanation.

“I’d be willing to guess you’re that pink-haired psychic everyone’s talking about these days. Right? Long story short, I need your help with something, whether you’re willing to give it or not. Are you in?”

“That’s pretty vague, and it’s not very convincing coming from someone who set this all up on their own, in the first place,” he replies, narrowing his eyes. Something’s really not adding up here. Who is this person, and why did they think he would be willing to go along with anything they want? After all, they did just kidnap a bunch of hostages with a huge armed gang- not that they were any issue for someone like him.

“Hmm. That’s what I thought you might say. See, here’s the deal. There’s someone I need to get rid of, and-”

“Clearly, you have the resources to do it yourself,” Kusuo points out, unimpressed.

“I like you!” He gives a loud, bellowing laugh. “No, that’s too easy. I want it to be something big. Something memorable! I want him to suffer. Besides, even after he’s gone, you would be a very useful part of my… work, you know. Considering everything you’re capable of.” He slowly gestures to Kusuo and then to the room around him, particularly to the two unconscious bodies on the ground as well as several deadly weapons.

Kusuo doesn’t like where this is going. Time to take this guy out too…

Before he can react, however, a strange sensation comes over him. It’s like there’s something cold snaking its way into his head, even though nothing is touching him. His mind is starting to go blank, and his vision starts to go in and out.

His body no longer feels like his own. He tries to lift his hand or turn his head but finds himself unable to move, no matter how much he strains. Teleporting is out of the question too.

“Like I said,” the man says slowly, smiling. “Whether you’re willing or not. Just give in now, kid.”

“What… What are you…?" Panic starts to overcome him, but even that quickly begins to fade as well. Everything begins to fade…

No! He has to fight this! Whatever’s going on, he can’t let it take control! If that were to happen-

“Give in.”

The breath of the whisper tickles Kusuo’s ear, although he’s started losing all feeling in his body. Straining, he forces himself to remain grounded, even if just for a moment. His finger twitches, a sign that he’s not finished yet. Even a small movement is better than nothing! Now, all he has to do is-

“Give in.”

The feeling washes over him once more, stronger this time. Any progress he made is lost, but he still can’t give in!

The person moves in and out of his eyeshot, lifting his hands slowly, watching him all the while. Kusuo feels himself starting to levitate, but it’s not… him. Something else is making him do it. The sound of something crashing and breaking echoes beneath him, but-

“How-” …but he can’t get any more words out. It’s like this man’s doubling down on his mind, making everything go blank. He feels himself fading in and out between the room and an empty landscape of pure white. It isn’t over! It can’t be over!

“Give in.”

A small growl escapes his lips, and he manages to twist his face into a grimace, but he quickly loses all feeling after that. He tries to keep his thoughts moving, but everything is becoming muddy.

“Give in. …Although, I will say, I’ve never had someone hold out even close to this long before. You should’ve been out instantly. I don’t expect to keep waiting much longer, though.” A hearty laugh echoes through Kusuo’s eardrums.

Somehow, he finds it in himself to curl his hand into a fist, and he tries to move toward the man to defend himself, but his body is betraying him as he dangles helplessly in the air. “I don’t… You… Stop-”

He can’t get anything else out. His fist dissolves against his will, and the cold feeling washes over him again, stronger than ever. He’s not sure how much longer he can-

“Give in.”

As he hears loud crashing and booming around him, everything suddenly fades to white.

Chapter Text

The further they run, the worse it gets. The streets are torn up (literally), cars are turned upside down, and people have almost entirely evacuated. It seems that even the police are scared to get close to the action. The trio would be running in the opposite direction themselves, if they didn’t know that their friend was in the center of it.

Another loud BOOM! sounds from close ahead of them, but they don’t even slow down, dodging chunks of debris and random pieces of cement from buildings among the ruined street. It’s a good thing they’re all wearing close-toed shoes.

“He’s got to be up there!” Aiura shouts, running almost as fast as she can. “I can’t see him yet!”

“There’s no fucking way this is all him!” Toritsuka wheezes back, completely out of breath, but he doesn’t stop running. “Shit!”

“I sincerely hope that it isn’t, but perhaps it would be worse if it were someone else!” Akechi suggests, but he’s struggling to keep up as well. “If Kusuo was unable to stop this, who could?”

“Don’t even tell us that!” Toritsuka snaps, his voice wavering with emotion. This can’t be happening. Please… He has to be okay.

After turning another corner, they’re suddenly stopped in their tracks. Ahead of them is a literal whirlwind of destruction, and unfortunately, their friend is levitating in the middle of it. Debris flies around him chaotically. The sky has become dark, and it almost smells like rain.

“Hide!” Aiura hisses, and she pulls the other two behind an overturned truck. Peeking out from the edge, it appears that they haven’t been noticed.

Kusuo moves forward slowly, and she spots someone behind him- the one from the vision who appeared to be controlling him.

To her friends, she whispers, “That’s him!” and they peer around the edge of the vehicle to get a glance.

The man walks openly, unaffected by the disaster raging around him. “Come out!” he shouts. “You can’t hide from me!”

Aiura’s heart almost leaps out of her chest, but she quickly realizes that he wasn’t talking to them. Behind another nearby chunk of cement that was once part of a building she sees another man, beaten up and bloodied, hiding while quivering in terror. He’s the other one from her vision, who looked like he was about to get killed.

“Hey!” she whisper-shouts, and he turns to her in terror. “You need to get out of here! We’ll handle these guys, but they’re after you!”

He stares back in shock, his mouth hanging open. “But-”

“Go!” She raises her hands in a shooing motion, and the man looks conflicted but ultimately decides to try sneaking away, going from one hiding spot to another and slowly making his way back out of the scene.

“You know, I know you’re trying to run,” calls the one from before. “My friend here can find you in an instant. Isn’t that right?” He turns to Kusuo, who doesn’t respond or even react at all.

Instead, Kusuo lifts a hand, and one by one, the largest pieces of debris from the street shoot away, crashing loudly into the remains of buildings on either side of the street. They’re getting closer and closer to the poor guy trying to get away to safety.

Aiura turns back to her friends with a serious expression on her face. “The person out there shouting- We need to take him out before he makes Kusuo kill this other guy. Like, now.”

“How the hell are we supposed to do that?” Toritsuka cries, still keeping his tone down. “That’s like trying to go after Saiki himself!”

“We need to snap Kusuo out of it,” Akechi decides. “If we can get him to wake up or take control back, this will all be fixed. Well, not fixed, per se, but-”

“Yeah, we get it. What can we even do though? How are we supposed to snap him out of… that?" Toritsuka questions, glancing back around the corner at the scene and gulping.

Aiura cuts in, pointing to the scene, “I don’t know, but we need to act now. He’s about to kill that guy.”

Sure enough, the victim screams, no longer hiding, and he tries to run for it instead.

“Okay, but it’s the other guy who’s pulling the strings! Shouldn’t we take him out first? We don’t stand a chance if we try to go up against Saiki!”

Akechi holds his chin, thinking hard about it. “Let’s do both. Toritsuka, what ghosts do you see around here? Find one that can fight, and you go up against the man behind him. If you can do that, you’d stand the best chance at taking him out. Meanwhile, Aiura and I will try to talk to Kusuo. We’ll be the distraction for you. If we can break him out of this trance, we’ll-”

“Okay, we’re moving!” Aiura shouts suddenly, grabbing his arm and pulling them both out in the middle of the street, facing their friend. They can’t afford to wait any longer.

Still hiding, Toritsuka stares helplessly out at them, conflicted. He doesn’t have time to sit around, though. He’d better do something before it’s too late. Biting his lip and glancing around at his options for ghosts, he makes his decision.

Back out in the street, Akechi approaches Kusuo apprehensively, who stops and looks back with unseeing eyes. “Kusuo, it’s okay! It’s just us! Can you see us? Or hear us? It’s okay! We’re your friends! We understand that this isn’t you! You’re still in there, though, aren’t you?”

No response. Their friend keeps staring with those dead eyes.

“Akechi,” Aiura warns quietly, glancing in fear at the man in charge, who is watching, calculating. “Don’t get any closer.”

He ignores her, instead stepping forward again cautiously. “Let us help you! We know you would never want to hurt anyone. It’s one of your defining traits. You’ve worked so hard to make sure that what happened in elementary school never happens again. I know you don’t like to talk about this stuff, but it’s okay. We’re not here to judge you. We just-”

“Kusuo, stop!” she cries as he starts to approach them once again, the tension building. She runs up to join Akechi, trying to pull him back. “We know you’re still in there! He’s right! You’d never want to hurt anyone or do anything like this! Just- Just stop this! If anyone can break out of this- this mind control or whatever it is, it’s you!”

The guy that was being targeted appears to be gone now, which is good, but unfortunately, that means that all attention is on them.

“Stop them,” orders the other psychic. (That’s what he must be, right? Aiura wonders.)

Sure enough, the whirlwind of debris picks up again as Kusuo approaches, quicker this time. He raises his arms up, and the others feel the hair on the back of their necks rise suddenly.

Then, he freezes, his face contorted in pain. It’s like the whole world is hesitating.

“Kusuo!” Aiura cries. She isn’t sure what’s happening, but she thinks he may be fighting back. Have they gotten through to him?

Suddenly, a gunshot rings out, and everyone turns their heads and sees Toritsuka jerk in one direction suddenly, the other man holding a gun and breathing heavily.

Did Toritsuka just get hit?! He’s still standing, facing the other, but they’re too far away to tell what’s happening.

Another gunshot sounds, and he moves in a similar manner, seeming to have jumped out of the way of the bullet. (They hope so, at least). Shouting, he sprints at the man, throwing out punches and kicks expertly. So, definitely a ghost.

There are more and more shots, one after another, but Toritsuka doesn’t seem to hesitate. This could mean anything, though, considering a ghost is in charge, who might not be able to feel the pain.

“Shit!” Aiura shouts. “I need to go help him! Can you handle Kusuo?”

“I- Well- If-” Akechi stutters, but he gets interrupted.

“Good!” She sprints away from the scene, leaving the poor boy alone.

He turns back to his friend, who has left the air and is instead standing on the ground, faced away and clutching his own head.

“K-Kusuo…?” he starts hesitantly. “Are you- Are you okay? Can you hear me?” He tries to get closer despite his instincts screaming at him to get back.

Kusuo straightens up but doesn’t turn toward him.

“Please, let us help you. You’ve done so much for everyone else, and it’s okay for you to accept help when it’s offered as well,” he says quietly, but he knows that the other can hear him nonetheless (if he’s hearing anything at all, that is). “You like to pretend that you don’t care about other people, but we know you better than that. You’ve always cared. Why, do you remember when we were kids, we would always-”

He freezes as Kusuo turns to face him slowly, his face devoid of any emotion. It’s not like his typical neutral expression; this is just unsettling. Every muscle in his face is both relaxed and tensed up at the same time. And his eyes… He just looks dead.

What am I doing? Akechi wonders, ready to start crying. After everything you’ve done for us, there’s got to be something I can say, something I can do to help you back! A plan! I need a plan!

“Kusuo, it’s okay. We forgive you. We know this isn’t you. You would never hurt us- not willingly. Although, unfortunately, it seems in this case-”

A scream pierces through the air, and Kusuo almost flinches, his expression softening just a little bit. Could he be waking up?

“I can tell that you’re still in there! Please, let us-”

He stops as his friend turns away, walking slowly toward the battle, leaving Akechi behind to wonder if he’d said something wrong.

Chapter Text

When Aiura arrives to the scene, things have already gone wrong.

For starters, Toritsuka should not be breathing heavily and bleeding from the shoulder, whimpering in pain. He should not be pressed up against a broken wall in an impact crater several yards away from the man who had been shooting at him. And he certainly should not be begging for his life as a gun is being raised and pointed at his forehead.

God, how did they get into this mess?

The man with the gun, who had clearly been roughed up a bit as well, walks confidently toward him, but he freezes when Aiura shouts, “Hey!” and throws a metal pipe she found at him with all of her strength.

He’s so surprised that he doesn’t have time to react before it connects with his body. She scrambles for the gun he had, yanking it out of his grip. Before he can gather himself again, she points it at him, making him freeze again.

Then, he laughs, and it pisses her off to no end. “Put that down, girl. You’re not going to shoot me, and you don’t know how to use it anyways.”

“How badly do you want to bet on that?” she challenges, and she fires next to his leg, making him jump in fear. As he stares back up at her, shocked, she continues with a confident smirk on her face. “That was your warning shot. Let our friend go, now.”

He hesitates, calculating the situation. Then, another gun appears, seemingly out of nowhere, and a loud BANG! sounds.

Something pierces her leg, and she screams, the ground rising to meet her. Someone shouts her name desperately, and hands grab her, dragging her behind a large chunk of debris. As she stares up furiously, pulling the gun up, she freezes as Toritsuka jumps back, putting his hands up.

“Jesus! Sorry! I thought he was gonna shoot you again!” he cries. “Just put that down!”

She relaxes immediately- or at least she tries to, but the pain in her leg is making that difficult. “Sorry,” she mutters, wincing and trying hard not to cry. “Are you okay?”

“What- I think we have bigger problems than that right now!” He clearly dodges the question and glances around the piece of debris, his heart racing, but the man isn’t even paying attention to them.

Following his line of sight, his eyes widen as he sees Kusuo making his way toward the group, looking the same as before.

Shit, what happened to Akechi?! Toritsuka panics, but he looks further and sees their other friend following behind hesitantly, looking lost.

“What’s happening?” Aiura hisses, making her way over to check things out.

“Akechi looks okay, but I don’t think talking Saiki down worked.”

She curses, peering over his shoulder to make sure he’s alright.

Akechi finally spots them, and they start waving their arms around like crazy, gesturing for him to hide. Fortunately, he gets the message and crouches behind some debris several yards away from them.

“Well, I think our target got away, kid, but this seems like it’ll be more fun! We can always hunt him down later.” They watch as the man turns and stands behind Kusuo with a hand on his shoulder. “These are yours, right? I want you to fight them. They’re in our way, and I want them to die by their friend’s hand.”

Aiura screams in fear and frustration, jumping out from behind their hiding spot, and aims the gun at the man. With a wave of his hand, he has Kusuo step in front of him to block him.

“Kid, turn off your invincibility,” he orders. “They won’t shoot if they’re risking hitting you.”

He’s using him as a human shield.

Her hand starts to shake, and she grips the gun harder. Of course she’s not going to shoot her friend! Besides, there’s no way of knowing whether or not he can even turn it off in the first place. As far as she knows, he’s always been stuck with it, no matter what. Could it be some latent ability he didn’t even know about?

The man jerks his hand up, and Kusuo steps forward toward her slowly, the wind starting to pick up around her again. A flash of lightning appears behind him, and a sense of terror washes through her.

“Kusuo…” she says, alarmed. “Hey! I know this isn’t you! You can fight this! Come on! I- I’m not going to shoot you. And you’re not going to hurt me… right?” She gives a nervous chuckle but steps back instinctively.

He doesn’t answer or give any indication that he heard her at all. Step by step, he gets closer and closer.

Almost dropping the gun, she moves back even further, when she hears Toritsuka hiss, “Throw me the gun!”

“What?!” She whisper-shouts, trying not to panic as her heart is about to beat right out of her chest. Kusuo is getting closer, and debris starts to fly around again. There’s an intense, deafening boom of thunder, scaring her half to death.

“Do it!”

At the last second, she throws it at him as hard as she can, and somehow he manages to catch it, fumbling.

Kusuo is almost right in front of her now, but she won’t let herself back down any further. “Hey! Kusuo, come on! You’re better than this! I believe-”

A loud gunshot ripples through the air, and he’s disappeared from in front of her. The wind stops almost instantly, and everything that was in the air crashes down. What-

“Saiki!”

She turns in horror to see him standing protectively in front of the man with blood dripping down his shirt from his stomach. His face is contorted in pain, but he remains standing.

Nearby, Toritsuka is frozen in terror, standing with the gun still pointed out in front of him. “S-Saiki!” he cries again, petrified. “Shit! I’m sorry! What- What do we do?!”

The man he had been protecting laughs. “He can’t hear anything you’re saying to him. He can’t even see what’s happening right now. All he can do is what I tell him to!”

“That’s not true!” shouts another voice, and Akechi stands from where he had been crouched, his voice wavering with emotion. There are unshed tears in his eyes, threatening to fall. He never wanted to see this happen to his friend- to any of them. “He protected us earlier. You wanted him to kill us, didn’t you? I believe he resisted, took back control, and left me unharmed before he came back to you here! Guys, what we’re saying has been getting through to him! We just need to-”

“Kill that one first,” the man in the suit orders. His expression turns dead serious, as though they’d hit a nerve. He thrusts an arm out, and Kusuo starts walking toward Akechi, who anxiously takes a step back.

Aiura beats him there, and Toritsuka is close behind, still holding the gun, which he promptly hands back to her.

“We can’t shoot him or the other guy!” she exclaims. “If we try to get that guy, he’ll just make Kusuo teleport in front of him again!”

Toritsuka sobs, running in front of Kusuo and grabbing his hands, making the other two shout his name. “I’m sorry, Saiki! I never wanted to hurt you, I swear! Please, you know it’s that other guy pulling the strings here! Don’t let him take control of you like that! I know you don’t like being told what to do, and especially not like this!”

Kusuo stops and finally looks down at him, hesitating. The blood is still oozing out of the wound on his front, and he still looks like he’s in pain. His whole body is shaking violently, like he’s fighting some unseen monster.

“Kusuo,” Akechi says slowly. “We know you can hear us. You can fight this! It seems as though the easiest way to resist is inaction when he tells you to do something. We need to take him out somehow, and all we need you to do is to stay here. Don’t move for as long as possible, no matter what he tells you. Toritsuka, stay here with him, and don’t let him go anywhere or do anything! Aiura and I will do what we can against that man. Understood?”

Everyone nods, only crying a little bit. None of their other adventures had ever ended with such a devastating disaster as this. They sincerely hope they never do again- assuming they all make it out of this alive, that is.

As Toritsuka holds their friend’s hands and tries to talk him through what to do (or rather, what not to do), Akechi and Aiura slowly slip away, making their way toward the man. Their gun is pointed at him at all times, and they move from barrier to barrier to avoid getting shot in plain sight.

“We can’t do anything until we’re right up next to him or he’ll just make Kusuo teleport to take the damage,” Akechi explains cautiously.

The man shouts at them, “Don’t think you can keep hiding forever! He just needs some more discipline from-”

“Shut the fuck up!” Aiura shouts back, finally getting more pissed off than scared. (It’s getting hard to ignore the pain in her leg, however.) They’re getting closer and closer, and it seems that Kusuo has managed to stay in one spot to avoid following orders for the moment.

Just a little longer…

“Kid, get over here!” he snaps, but nothing happens.

When they glance back at their other friends, they find them in the same spot, with Toritsuka holding him in a tight hug and crying.

They sprint behind the next closest piece of fallen debris, finally getting very close to the man.

Akechi leans over and whispers, “What exactly is our plan? So far, things are going well enough, I suppose- well, as well as they can, given our circumstances. I merely mean, things have not gotten worse yet. At least-”

“I’m trying to figure that out too. I think that we both need to go at him from different directions,” she wonders aloud, clutching the gun. “If we get close enough and I think it’s safe to do so, I’ll shoot him in the knee or something. We just need to get the gun he has away from him and find a way to knock him out to erase the mind control. Here, take my pepper spray from my keys.” She takes the object off of its keychain and hands it over.

He takes it and nods. “Shall we split ways here then? I’ll go left, and you go right?”

“Agreed. Stay safe,” she orders, giving him a small hug before limping to the next closest barrier on their right as fast as she’s able. She watches as he does the same, to their left.

The two move forward as quickly as they can, always staying hidden behind overturned cars and fallen debris. As they go, the man narrows his eyes and moves his gun from side to side as though he’s trying to decide which one of them to shoot first.

“Kid, get over here now!" he barks, keeping his eyes on the two sneaking closer and closer.

They’re so close! Just a little further, and-

Kusuo appears out of nowhere and lifts Akechi off the ground by his throat. The blond gives a shrill, surprised noise that suddenly gets choked off.

“Akechi!” Aiura cries, abandoning her hiding place to run to help him.

“K-Kusuo…” he gasps, clawing at the hands on his neck. “Stop-”

Aiura grabs Kusuo’s arm and jerks it back, and he drops their friend, who lands on the ground hard, wheezing for air.

“Hey! This isn’t you!” she cries, although she can’t mask the fear in her voice. Things are getting a little too real for her. “You would never willingly hurt any of us! Come on!”

“Snap out of it!” Toritsuka adds when he runs over, with a hand on his fallen friend’s back to comfort him as he tries to pull himself together. “You know it’s just us!”

Kusuo pauses, and a pained expression comes over his face again. “I- Help-” he manages weakly- the first thing he’s said this whole time. Progress!

“It’s okay, man! You can fight this! Just-”

Toritsuka’s thrown back several meters suddenly by a wave of Kusuo’s hand- who wears the same dead expression again. A loud crashing sound comes from the dented car he lands against with a pained groan. Rolling onto his back, he tries to push himself upwards, but he definitely messed something up there.

Aiura looks back up into her friend’s blank eyes and pleads, “Stop this! You’ve resisted a few times, so I know you can snap out of it! Please-”

He freezes again, and he visibly strains against an invisible force. “I- I can’t-”

“Yes, you can! You’re one of the most stubborn people I know! You-”

In an instant, he’s gone again, and he reappears right next to the man, who holds him against himself with a gun pointed at Kusuo’s temple. Everyone shouts his name in fear.

“You kids really shouldn’t mess with me,” he growls, a disturbing grin growing on his face. “Now stand down. I want everything on the ground and your hands up, or I’ll shoot.”

Slowly, the gun and pepper spray are placed on the ground, and everyone puts their hands up. They’re out of ideas. Is this really going to be the end? It can’t be! …Right?

“He’s going to be pretty valuable to my work, and I don’t need you three getting in our way! You’ve seen too much, so I’m afraid this is it for you. It’s time for us to take our leave.”

Then, he turns back to Kusuo. “Alright, kid. I need you to kill them. You have to stay right here and can’t move, but you need to get rid of them. Do it, now,” he orders, but nothing happens.

Kusuo stays frozen, his face morphing in pain once more. He manages to shake his head, just a little, in defiance.

“Do it!” the man shouts. “Kill them!”

Again, nothing happens, but Kusuo starts to shake visibly, straining against the mind control.

“Don’t think I won’t shoot you too!” He presses the gun harder into his temple, filling the others with alarm. “You’re strong enough that you’d probably survive a shot to the head anyways, so we’ll keep working together after that whether you want to or not! Now don’t make me ask again! Kill them!”

The others watch in fear. There’s no way he’d actually shoot him, would he? It’s not something they’re willing to gamble with, regardless.

Before anyone can react, a single gunshot rings through the air.

“Saiki!” Toritsuka cries frantically, and the others echo.

Miraculously, though, Kusuo has appeared behind the man, startling him. He grabs the gun and knocks him out with a swift blow to the back of the neck.

As soon as he does, he crumples to the ground in a heap, unmoving.

Chapter Text

“Holy shit, did he shoot him?! Is he okay?”

“Come on, he’s bleeding. It looks like his head was only grazed, but there could be more damage-”

“Only grazed?! Can you see that?! I would say it’s-”

“That, and the shot from earlier-”

“Wait, I think he’s waking up!”

Kusuo’s head is swimming as he hears familiar voices around him. What’s going on?

One of the first things he notices is the hot, sticky liquid around him and the intense pain in his stomach and head. It feels like… Well, it feels like he got shot. But how-

His eyes flutter open, and above him are three familiar faces leaning over him. One by one, his senses start to come back to him.

“His eyes are open!”

Toritsuka sobs, tears and snot starting to run from his face. Disgusting, Kusuo thinks. “Saiki, I am so sorry- I didn’t mean to- but I- Please, it was an accident- I wasn’t trying to-”

“Stop talking,” he mumbles, and his friend obeys. “What happened…?"

They all turn to glance at each other, hesitant, like there’s something they don’t want to tell him. That’s not a good sign.

He pushes himself up with his elbows but then freezes, taking in the world around him.

They’re in a street he knows, but it’s hardly recognizable with all of the destruction around them. The windows of the buildings are all shattered, and chunks of cement and debris are littered all around. Cars have been overturned throughout the street, and the road itself looks like someone ripped it open with a giant knife. It’s as though a huge natural disaster hit and they got caught in the middle of it. …Is that what happened?

Something tells him that it isn’t.

“Well,” Aiura starts gently. “What do you remember?”

“I remember… I remember getting groceries. And then… There was a hostage situation nearby, so I went to help out. And I think I got everyone out, but then… There was someone else… And… I’m not sure about anything after that. Can you just tell me what happened?"

He glances around at their expressions, but their minds give away everything.

His eyes widen as he puts together the pieces. It’s… It was all him. This is his fault. The city has been destroyed, and his friends have been hurt, and it’s his fault.

They’ve picked up on his realization too, as evident from the guilty expressions on their faces.

He quickly gets to his feet despite his body screaming at him to stay down, facing them. This can’t have been… I would never… How could this happen?

“It’s not your fault!” Akechi exclaims, taking a cautious step toward him, but Kusuo flinches back, making him stop. None of them have ever seen him this down, this devastated.

“I can see it right now. This was all me, wasn’t it?"

They remain silent, unsure of how to proceed or comfort their friend.

Akechi’s mind is going back to that day in elementary school when the classroom was destroyed, comparing then to now. He can’t help but think about the wide scale Kusuo’s been capable of this entire time.

Similarly, Toritsuka is at a loss. All of his thoughts are centered around how all of those times Kusuo’s gotten mad at him for hitting on girls, he really could’ve hurt him if he’d wanted to. Of course, he knows that he never would (at least, nothing permanent). Just the idea that he could, though…

At the same time, Aiura keeps thinking of the images she saw in her crystal ball that morning, how much she was in denial. She had known that her soulmate was powerful, but this is on a completely different level, more than anyone could have ever imagined. How hadn’t she seen this coming?

“I… It was, wasn’t it? I did this?"

Please. Please tell me it wasn’t me. Something else must’ve caused this. If not… What then? Who knew he was capable of something like this? Even he’s in shock.

Everything he’s worked toward his whole life, not wanting to hurt anyone, and he was the biggest danger of all? Not the volcano or the meteor or anything else? He can’t say it wasn’t possible, but it would be the last thing he ever wanted.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Akechi repeats. “Someone else was controlling you, and-”

“But it was still me.”

“Listen, cut yourself some slack, man,” Toritsuka says with a nervous chuckle. “I mean, we all know you would never actually-”

“I still did, though, didn’t I?" He feels like he’s going to be sick- and he’s never been sick. His vision seems to get blurrier, and he feels burning throughout his body, particularly radiating from his head and torso.

Aiura tries to approach him again, but he takes a few steps back. “Kusuo-”

“Stay away from me,” he demands. “I can’t believe I-”

“Kusuo, please, just listen to us-”

It’s like he can’t even breathe. He feels tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. “I- I can’t- I’m sorry, I just-”

Before anyone can say anything else, he disappears.

Chapter Text

Kusuke’s already on his way once reports of the disaster began. He had just been working on one of his latest projects when he was interrupted by a WARNING! notification on his computers. When he checked it, his heart almost stopped. He needed to find Kusuo immediately.

…Which is what led him to where he is now- on one of his high speed, energy efficient jets of his own design, racing urgently across Japan to find his little brother. Kusuo isn’t answering his phone, and when he tried calling their parents instead, they were crying and didn’t know where he was either.

One more time, he tells himself, pressing the call button on Kusuo’s contact again, but his stomach fills with dread when it goes immediately to voicemail again.

Shit. His trackers seem to be malfunctioning- which makes sense with what’s happening to the control devices. It’s why he needs to find him as soon as possible. Not only for the disaster and destruction he’s hearing about, but for the level of power output the limiters have had to deal with too.

Normally, if Kusuo needs to do something that takes a lot of power, he takes the limiter out to do so. It isn’t just that they don’t allow as much power to get out. Well, that’s part of it, but an even bigger part of the problem is that the limiters just can’t handle that level of output without seriously overloading his body. None of his designs have ever been able to.

When the devices get used beyond their limits, they start to… malfunction. They get dangerous- like, life-threatening dangerous. If he can’t get to Kusuo and fix this, everything’s going to get a lot, lot worse than it already is.

Well, our parents are a no-go, and I definitely can’t get to Kusuo himself. Is there anyone left?

Then, he remembers that there are. He goes through the contacts from his brother’s phone that he’s hacked a few times for fun, and he presses the call button for the first one he sees.

It rings a few times before he gets an answer.

From the other end, he hears, “H-Hello?” in a shaky voice. “Listen, I can’t really-”

“It’s Kusuke. Where’s my brother?” he growls, keeping it short and sweet.

“Wha- You?!” Toritsuka shouts through the phone. “You’re actually just the person we need right now. Unfortunately.” He mutters the last part under his breath, but Kusuke picks up on it anyway.

“Where is he? And what’s happening?”

“I… We have no clue where he is,” he says, starting to cry. “Listen, I’m really sorry, but-”

“Where are you? I’m trying to pinpoint your location, but something’s wrong. I’m on my way, but for now, you need to stay where you are.”

Toritsuka rattles off the street they’re on, and Kusuke promptly hangs up. It’ll be easier to talk about this in person.

Chapter Text

When Kusuke gets close enough to the city to see the wide scale of destruction from the air, he’s left at a loss. He knew his brother was powerful, but he realizes that he had no idea what kind of power he was holding back on a daily basis- and while still wearing his limiters, no less.

He doesn’t need to say it, but something is seriously wrong. Kusuo would never do something like this- at least, not willingly. …Is that what happened? But who would be able to overpower him?

As he gets closer and closer to the ground, he sees the three idiot friends waving him down. The street is wide enough that he’s able to land safely, but the level of devastation is beyond him; the aircraft still has to dodge chunks of cement and broken down buildings, among other things, which would make for a tricky landing. However, his self-programmed autopilot doesn’t need too much help.

He removes his helmet and climbs out of the cockpit to find the three of them waiting for him, barely holding it together. Toritsuka is crying openly, and the other two are trying their best not to break down, but it’s clear that they’re all struggling.

None of them are in very good shape physically either. Toritsuka is seriously beat up and is bleeding from a nasty wound on his shoulder. Aiura is favoring one leg, and it's clear that she had been shot in the other. Akechi is struggling to breathe, and it looks like there are bruises forming on his neck as though he had been strangled.

…Did Kusuo do all of this too?

“Where is he?” Kusuke asks again desperately, although he already knows their answer.

“We have no clue,” Toritsuka replies, sniffling. “He just disappeared.”

“Well, what happened?” he demands as the cold wind blows ominously around them, bringing a chill. It’s as though the air around them knows of the serious situation at hand.

Aiura pipes up. “I saw something in my crystal ball this morning about Kusuo being in the middle of this disaster, but I guess we weren’t able to stop it. It was mind control- another psychic. He was controlling Kusuo and forcing him to destroy the city. Apparently, there was only one target they were after, but we at least made sure that guy got away.”

Akechi speaks up next with a scratchy voice. “We kept trying to break Kusuo out of it, but there wasn’t much we could do other than that. The man made him fight us. Kusuo kept trying to take control back, and he finally did, at the end, but once he woke up, he… panicked, realizing what had happened. We tried to talk to him, but he just teleported away. We don’t know where he went.” He hangs his head, ashamed that he couldn’t do anything.

“I see,” Kusuke mutters slowly. “Where is that psychic?”

They all point to behind them, where a man in a suit is unconscious on the ground.

“I’ve got some strong sedatives in my jet, for just in case we ended up needing them with Kusuo. We’ll make sure this guy doesn’t wake up until I’m ready for him to. I need to find Kusuo as soon as possible, though. It’s a matter of life and death,” he says grimly. “In the meantime, I have some medical supplies in my jet too. I can patch you up a little, but ultimately, you three need a hospital.”

“What?” Toritsuka cries, holding his bloody shoulder. “I don’t care about that! We’re finding him too! He’s hurt! He got shot in the stomach and the head!” Guilt is written all over his face, for some reason, as though he’s the one who did it.

Kusuke pauses at this, panic starting to eat away at him even more. His brother is already in bad shape. That… complicates things even more. “I-”

Akechi interrupts, “What do you mean ‘matter of life and death?’”

The older brother gives a big sigh. “It’s the limiters. They weren’t meant to handle this much power. It’s why he always has to take them out if he’s going to use a lot of it. Now that he’s overloaded them to such an extreme level, they’ve turned into a ticking time bomb. If we don’t find him before then… Well, we’re going to have a much bigger problem on our hands. His body won’t be able to handle that power. Like I said, life or death. For him.”

Everyone freezes at this.

“He… what?” Toritsuka whispers. Then- “Are you serious?! But-”

“I know. That’s why I need to find him immediately.”

“We’re coming with you!” Aiura demands. “You said you have medical supplies in there? A hospital can wait. We need to find Kusuo.”

The others nod furiously.

Kusuke huffs, frustrated, debating with himself over what to do. “I don’t have time to argue. Just get in the jet.”

They eagerly follow his instructions. Once they’re in the air, with the jet on autopilot, he starts to work on their injuries.

“There are a few possible places he could’ve gone. Logically, he would choose somewhere secluded, where he doesn’t have to worry about anyone else getting hurt. I have a few ideas, and I wish I could tell you exactly where he went, but unfortunately, we’ve never had anything like this happen before. So I’m not completely sure,” Kusuke admits.

Toritsuka hisses in pain at the disinfectant solution being pressed around the gunshot wound on his shoulder. In his head, he grumbles, He could at least be gentle with it…

“I know one place he might have gone,” Akechi says. He tries to ignore the unconscious body of the mind-controlling psychic in one of the seats behind them. It’s unnerving to know that if he woke up, he could make them do whatever he wanted, just like he did with Kusuo.

“I’ve got an idea too,” Aiura adds, trying not to pick at the bandages on her calf. She’s glad she wore shorts today so she wouldn’t have to take them off to get treated. Toritsuka, on the other hand, had to painstakingly struggle to take his now-ruined, bloodstained shirt off to get his injury looked at.

“Me too,” the medium says. “I mean, I could totally be wrong about this, but-”

Kusuke sighs, reaching for the fresh, unused bandages. “I’ll listen to whatever ideas you guys have.”

Chapter Text

They land gently in front of an old, abandoned building. Akechi leads the way out, staring up at it in wonder, lost in thought. He glances over at the old playground, untouched for years now.

Ah, yes. There’s where I first found his name badge on the ground after being miraculously healed of my injuries.

“It’s been a while,” he says softly, under his breath. It hurts a bit to talk, but that’s never stopped him before.

The others look over at him curiously.

“Why do you think he might be here?” Aiura asks, limping forward to stand next to him. This is a part of her soulmate’s past that she’s never gotten to know about. He doesn’t like to share personal stuff, so it almost feels like she’s violating boundaries by being here.

Akechi sighs but turns to them with a gentle smile. “This was our old elementary school. We’ve had many important memories here, and I’ve cherished the time I got to spend with him here. Kusuo was my first friend, you know.”

“So this is how you knew him?” Toritsuka asks. He’s always wondered about their past once Akechi started going to PK Academy and became obsessed with Kusuo.

Kusuke huffs, impatient. “Come on, let’s split up and look around. We don’t have time to sit around and talk.” With that, he steps forward and pushes open the doors, heading inside himself.

“He’s right,” Aiura says, following him.

In the end, Toritsuka stays glued to Akechi’s side, keeping an eye on the many ghosts around the halls. He wonders if his friend knew any of them.

When Aiura runs into them, she decides that they should stay together.

Akechi leads the way to the old classroom, his body moving by muscle memory to get there.

“So… What was he like? Like, when you guys were kids?” Toritsuka asks, genuinely curious. I’ve only ever known him as the asshole he is today, never wanting to hang out with me, he wonders. Was he always like that?

“Well… You see, he was very quiet back then too but even more so than now. I don’t think I ever heard him speak a word. But I looked up to him. He was always there for me to talk to, and he even helped me with the bullies. As I’m sure you could guess, I haven’t always been well-liked by my peers. They found me annoying, and, well, I did have some bladder issues that they would make fun of me for. These are all things that I still experience today.”

For once, the others let him speak without interrupting him. They’re lost in thought as well, wanting to know more about their cold, tsundere friend. Even though he would probably be a little pissed about them talking about him behind his back, they’re still curious.

As they walk through the halls, they check out every classroom, but there’s no sign of Kusuo.

“This one’s empty too,” Toritsuka announces, joining the others after stepping out of the room.

Aiura nods, coming from one on the other side of the hallway. “So’s this one.”

Eventually, they arrive at a seemingly regular room, but Akechi stops in front of it and just stares at the double doors. Memories flash through his head, and it’s becoming overwhelming. He sucks in a deep breath, eyes stinging just a little bit. He refuses to cry.

“Soooo… What are we waiting for?” Toritsuka interrupts, cutting the tension with a knife.

“I- Sorry. I just-” Akechi gives a little, pained laugh. “It’s stupid. I just-”

He pushes the doors open without warning, revealing a classroom much like the others, but it had been destroyed. Desks are strewn everywhere, chunks of the ceiling have fallen down on the ground, and it looks like some kind of natural disaster swept through.

“I remember…” he whispers to no one in particular. Then, he speaks up. “I remember one day, it had been particularly bad, and I had been getting ready to go home once classes got out, and I was at my cubby to grab my things, and they- the bullies -grabbed me from behind. I don’t remember too many of the details, but they…”

Aiura gives him a side hug as he takes another deep, shaky breath before continuing. “They, well, they hit me in the head, and then they were throwing me to the ground, and I’m not sure where the teachers were, but I suppose classes had been out for quite a while, so they probably went home. Regardless, the other kids started beating me and kicking me, and… I guess I must’ve fallen unconscious at some point.

“When I woke up, the classroom had been completely destroyed. It- well- this is what it looked like,” he states, gesturing to the scene in front of them. “I woke up, and everyone else was gone. The next day, classes were held at a nearby facility since they planned on building a new school in a different location. When I got there, all of the other kids thought that I had done it, for some reason.”

He turns and buries his face in Aiura’s arm, hoping there weren’t any tears getting on it. That would, as Kusuo would put it, be such a pain, especially after what they’d all been through.

“I never saw Kusuo again after that day, not until I came to PK Academy. See, no one else seemed to know what happened, and the bullies were convinced it was me. That I was the psychic. It wasn’t hard for me to put two and two together, though. Kusuo disappearing right after this highly suspicious incident… Clearly, they were connected.

“I had plenty of other evidence of something being off with him from before, such as him healing my wounds from the bullies. I was already convinced he was a psychic, and once this happened, I knew for sure.”

Akechi dislodges himself from Aiura and faces her and Toritsuka.

“I… I missed him dearly. And once I got here and we became friends again, I felt so blessed. He even trusted me with his secret! Of course, I knew the whole time, and-” He perks up and begins his usual rambling, at which point Kusuke walks into the room.

“Is he here? No? Well, he’s nowhere around here. We need to keep moving. There’s no time for this… whatever you’re doing.” He turns to leave the room, and the others follow.

“I’m terribly sorry, sir,” Akechi says. “I was simply reminiscing about back in the day, when there was-”

“Yes, I already know the whole story from Kusuo. As much as he remembered, that is. We really need to get moving, though- or do I need to remind you all of the time constraint we’re on?” He stops and glares at them, but only for a moment before he starts running toward his jet. “There’s no telling when the limiters are going to go off, and we cannot afford to waste any extra time.”

He’s clearly trying to remain civil, but the others can easily tell that the pressure is getting to him. They all enter the jet and buckle in again.

Kusuke takes a deep breath and sets some coordinates for the auto-pilot. When he sits back down with the others, he waits for them to face him to discuss their next plans.

Toritsuka is quick to ask questions. “Okay, where to next? Is there somewhere else you think he might have gone? I mean, if-”

“Yeah, I have a couple of other ideas. Are you guys still sure you want to come with me? You could really use a hospital, and I’m more than capable of doing this myself.” He glances around at the injured yet determined teenagers. It’s easy to guess their response, but he needed to ask anyways.

Akechi responds first. “Of course! As I was telling the others before you came, he’s one of my closest and only friends. I think-”

“I mean, he’d do it for us, in any condition,” Aiura cuts in, crossing her arms.

Toritsuka nods as well, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder and, well, whole body. “I don’t care about a hospital- for now, at least! But if there’s anything we can do for Saiki, we need to-”

“Great.” Kusuke doesn’t wait for him to finish. “We’ll be there soon.”

Chapter Text

Toritsuka watches idly out the window as they fly to whatever location is next. He desperately hopes Saiki is there, and that his brother can fix the limiters, and that everything will be okay. Well, other than the ruined city, but they’ll cross that bridge when they get there.

A familiar building appears in the distance, and he quickly recognizes it, sitting up further in his seat. Well, how could he not, after all he and Saiki had been through there?

He feels a sharp pang of guilt, knowing that a large part of this instance was his fault. In his defense, he’d been brainwashed, but that still doesn’t undo the damage he’d done to his friend.

As they get closer to their destination, he observes the facility and the holes that had been blasted through the walls and ceiling, back on that day.

I just keep hurting him, over and over again, don’t I?

He gives a small, pained laugh to hide his true feelings. This one was his fault too. If only he had never gone with Kusuke that day…

Aiura turns to him and frowns. “Are you okay? You’re acting kind of weird. And not your usual kind.”

After sucking in a deep, shaky sigh, he plasters a wobbly smile on his face. “Peachy,” is all he manages to get out.

“You seem to know where we are, Toritsuka, don’t you?” Akechi asks, always so observant.

With a nod, Toritsuka looks back out the window again, ignoring the others for the time being. There’s going to be a day when he has to face what he’d done with Kusuo, but he’s not sure he’ll ever be ready for that. After all, he is a coward.

The jet lands again, and Kusuke rushes them out.

“Remember, he could be anywhere around here, so let’s make this one quick.” With that, he speeds off. Toritsuka wonders if he’s trying to hide from all of that too.

They wander the empty halls of the facility as quickly as they can, considering their physical conditions at the moment. Aiura’s still limping, but Akechi is trying his hardest to help keep her upright.

It’s entirely abandoned, and Toritsuka doubts that anyone has been here since that day. Although, it had seemed like Kusuke might have been the only other person that ever came here.

Some of the rooms are completely empty, whereas others have lots of your stereotypical evil scientist lab qualities. For instance, the room they just stepped out of had lots of beakers and tubes, some still filled with a mysterious green liquid. Probably best not to touch that.

Something moves in the corner of their eyes and squeaks loudly, proving that they’re not the only ones here. Apparently, rats have infested the place.

Akechi turns pale every time they see one, so the others can easily assume that rats probably freak him out. They’ll keep an eye on him and try to help if anything happens, of course.

Toritsuka glances quickly in another room to see a large chalkboard filled with diagrams and equations he’d never understand. Then, he sees a collection of life-sized robotic replicas of Kusuo, much like the one he found in their school that one time. Thankfully, Kusuo had been able to destroy it, but it’s unsettling to know that that wasn’t the only one.

He shudders. “This is just disturbing.”

The others join him and give a little gasp when they see the robots.

“What the hell?” Aiura mutters.

“Kusuke has always had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with Kusuo,” Akechi informs them, herding them away from the room and back down the hallway again. “Even back before I knew about Kusuo’s psychic powers, everything was a competition for them. More often than not, Kusuo would be minding his own business at recess, for example, and his brother would come running with the most unusual things he’d built to try to one-up him. He did particularly like robots.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, though. I suppose it’s not too much of a surprise, however,” he adds, and he continues to ramble after that, but Toritsuka’s mind wanders elsewhere.

They reach a wide, open doorway, and when they pass through, he’s suddenly frozen in place. It’s right in front of him. The machine is right in front of him, like it never moved from when he last saw it.

“What the hell is that?” Aiura says, her eyes wide. “Why is there a cat on that thing?”

“This tank must’ve been what put all of the holes in the wall-”

She interrupts Akechi with a small glare. “Yeah, I gathered that much. I mean, why does-”

“Toritsuka?” Akechi says, but the boy in question is still staring at the world around him with tears starting to gather in his eyes once more.

“Tori, what’s going on? Where are we, and why do you seem to know everything that happened here?” Aiura presses.

The medium steps forward finally, and makes his way further into the room, stopping to stare at the first puddle of old, dried-up blood on the ground.

“Whoa,” she breathes. “Whose-”

“It’s Saiki’s,” he admits with a shaky voice.

The other two whip their heads over in shock, staring at their friend.

“What?! But when did-”

“Remember that time I was gone for a week?”

She frowns. “Yeah, Kusuo had me check to see if you died. But-”

“I was here. For the whole week. I, uh. I met Kusuke one night while I was out trying to pick up girls, you know, and he- Well, we were at a cafe, and I sort of vented about Saiki to him, I guess, and- Okay, I feel really bad about it now! -But we talked about my powers, and he, well, convinced me to come with him. He said that we could beat Saiki, and I-”

“And you came,” Akechi finishes. “I have a few questions-”

“Maybe later,” Toritsuka says, wanting to get this over with. He needs to tell someone, to confess one of the worst things he’s done in his life. “Yes, I came here with him. We talked, and, well, it was a weird week, and I don’t remember most of it or what he did to me, but basically, he tried to get me to hate Saiki. Like, seriously hate him. Like, want to destroy him, in a fully literal sense.

“But he also helped me develop this cool, new power, so I thought everything I was doing was alright! He made me feel like I was doing everything right, like I was finally being appreciated instead of- Well, you guys have seen how Saiki usually treats me.”

“Yeah, that might be something for you two to talk about later,” Aiura points out. She’s moved past the blood they found but finds herself looking at even more, everywhere. Sometimes, there are just droplets, but there are also splatters and more pools and all kinds of shapes. She’s horrified. How did she not know about any of this?

“Probably.” Toritsuka shrugs it off and moves forward to follow her. “Anyways, Saiki showed up one day, and I- I used my new power to possess him and, um. Do stuff that would humiliate him, I guess you could say. Run around naked. But obviously, he got his body back, and I passed out at that point.

“When I woke up, though, they were in this insane fight. That tank was firing these energy beam things, and he was teleporting nonstop, but he kept getting hit too, which is, you know.” He points to the blood all around them.

“Jesus…” Aiura mutters. “That’s…” She trails off, unsure how to proceed.

He turns and walks over to a space in the wall that was untouched, a ring around it where the blasts had gone but been blocked by him. There’s even more blood all around the area where he had been laying.

“This is where I woke up, and as you can see, he, um, he protected me. With his own body.” He cuts off with a sob. “Even after everything I’d done, he kept me safe. I didn’t even get a scratch on me. Eventually, I tried to get the limiter back, but his brother stabbed my neck with something. A muscle relaxant, he said. I couldn’t move, but Saiki got his limiter, and it was over.

“He wasn’t even mad at me. But I think I was mad at him. He should’ve hated me. He should still hate me. I still can’t figure out why he would protect-”

Aiura stops him with a tight hug. He doesn’t even comment on her boobs pressing against his chest, a testament to how upset he is. “I’m sorry. I had no idea any of this-”

“I mean, it’s fine. It’s over, and we’ve both moved on. Besides, he told me not to tell anyone!”

“It’s not fine,” interrupts a voice nearby. Kusuke walks over from the other side of the cat tank, having heard everything. His facial expression is hard to read. “It’s not fine,” he repeats.

No one knows what to say to that, leaving a tense silence for a few moments.

“I went too far,” Kusuke admits, hanging his head. “I’m sorry, Toritsuka. I almost killed him, and I would have, if you didn’t stop me. I could’ve killed you too,” he admits. “I aimed at you time after time again, knowing he would take the blow instead. But I wore him out. If he were unable to get to you in time, I would have killed you.”

“What? But…” Toritsuka’s not sure where to go with that. He supposes that he hadn’t even been worried about his own safety. But… I could’ve died too?!

“I suppose I should thank you for stopping me. I would’ve done it. To both of you. I- I can’t-” Kusuke covers his mouth with his hand, barely suppressing a sob. I could’ve killed him and my little brother. Why did I-

“It’s… fine,” Toritsuka mutters, feeling a little weird and uncomfortable at the sight of the scientist being so emotional, so vulnerable. Instead, he focuses his eyes on the ground, pretending not to care. “It all worked out in the end.”

“Actually, it didn’t,” Akechi interrupts, gesturing to the disaster around them, including the blood everywhere. “With all due respect, this isn’t fine. I don’t think either of you are okay after this. I certainly know that Kusuo is probably suffering as well, even though he wouldn’t want to talk about it. This is something we should be open about, though.”

“He’s right,” Aiura agrees, glaring mostly just at Kusuke. “This isn’t okay. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it’s over too, and I’m glad everyone made it out in one piece, but-”

Kusuke looks away, distracted, then clears his throat and says, “Listen, we don’t have time for this right now. I think we all got a little lost in the moment here, but we need to get to Kusuo. He's going to die if we don’t get to him quickly enough, remember?”

“That’s some convenient deflecting,” she points out, irritated, but unfortunately, he’s right. They need to move.

“This conversation isn’t over,” Akechi warns. “But we do need to find him. We’ve used up too much time here. Do you have an estimate of how long we have?”

Kusuke hesitates. “I honestly don’t know. I can’t track him, and my devices are showing that the overload is getting worse.” He turns and shows them a small tablet with some diagrams. There is an alarmingly red bar graph with WARNING! flashing across it. There are a few different levels it’s showing, but each one is dangerously higher than the 100% at the top.

“If this gets much worse, we’ll be too late,” he warns.

The others feel like they’re going to be sick.

“Let’s get going, then,” Aiura demands. This can’t be the end. It can’t. Not him, please.

Chapter Text

As they fly to their next location, Aiura tries to ignore the aching pain in her leg. Kusuke had given her some medication to help with it, but it must be wearing off or something because she feels miserable.

Next to her, the others are trying not to doze off, but Toritsuka is having a hard time. He’s holding his shoulder where he got shot in a way he probably shouldn’t, and his eyes keep drooping. He was given a much higher dose of the pain meds because of all his other injuries from being thrown around, so it’s probably from that.

Akechi is tiredly reading a flight booklet in his seat, but his adrenaline is still keeping him awake and alert- enough so that he’s blurting out random facts he finds about the aircraft, plus every single other topic he can think of as well.

Kusuke has been keeping himself busy measuring the sedatives for that other psychic in the back and closely monitoring his status. There are lots of things he wants to say, but he can’t bring himself to say any of it.

He should really apologize to the others for what he’s done to their friend, to his brother. Is he truly sorry? Well, if he wasn’t before, he certainly is now. Now, he can see what happens when Kusuo gets pushed too far. There are lines he shouldn’t cross, yet he’s crossed them over and over again.

Maybe he needs to apologize directly to Kusuo. Well, he definitely should. But his pride and stubbornness might get in the way.

His throat closes up when he thinks about how he may never have the chance to do it anyways, if he can’t fix this. Kusuo’s always been smart enough not to test the limits of the control devices, so Kusuke’s never really worried about it too much before. Now, though? Nothing like this was ever supposed to happen. How was he supposed to know there would be some crazy psychic trying to take control of his brother and use him like this?

He’s going to have to apologize to their parents too, he thinks. If he can’t get to Kusuo in time, this is going to partially be on him too. He’s never been able to create a device that’s truly been able to safely limit his powers before. Maybe if he had tried a little harder and figured something out, they wouldn’t be in this mess.

Are they going to ever forgive him?

Then, he has to force himself to calm down and take a step back. He really shouldn’t be prematurely grieving his brother. It’s not too late yet, and he’s going to do everything he can to help him. Instead, he starts fiddling with spare parts to see if he can build anything useful.

The fortune-teller sits up suddenly in her seat when she realizes where they are, staring intently out the window.

Kusuke was never here for this part when it happened, but Kusuo’s told him all about it- the volcano he tried several times to stop and finally succeeded. Apparently, this girl was here for multiple attempts, and he’s fairly certain that this may be a place his brother could be hiding at. He’s getting desperate to find him.

If he isn’t here... Well, he’s not sure where else to look.

They land smoothly in a clear area, but he looks around at the trees around them.

“Remember, he could be anywhere around here, so keep an eye out, but move quickly. As soon as you find him, I should be the first to know about it.” He had given them all his phone number when they first started looking, but he’s honestly not completely sure they’ll even get service up here on the mountain. Service has never been a problem for his personal, custom-designed phone, but the others don’t have one of those.

The others all nod and head out, away from the jet.

Aiura leads the way, and much like the other two destinations, her friends stick to her side like glue. It would be too easy to get lost here.

“You know, I never knew much about what happened here,” Akechi begins, helping keep Aiura steady while she tries to avoid using her bad leg as much as possible. “So, what exactly happened? Why wasn’t I invited, if I may ask? I’ve only heard a little bit of the story. I would have loved to be a part of it, and I think I could have been a useful member of the team-”

“Well, it’s a bit of a long story,” Toritsuka begins. “But you probably weren’t invited because you were still fairly new to our group- relatively speaking. I don’t know. Although, I’m not gonna lie, it probably would have been great to have you on the team.”

Aiura hobbles forward and sweeps her gaze from left to right, keeping an eye out for their missing friend. “Guys, we really don’t have a lot of time to sit around and talk…”

“She’s right. We’re running low on time,” says Kusuke, who’s appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “I found you and figured we might do well searching together. I don’t think there’s service up here for you.”

He leaves out the part about his guilt for not doing more. But it all worked out in the end, so does it really matter? He tries to reason with himself despite the feeling that he could’ve made things a little smoother so Kusuo wouldn’t have to time travel and do it all a second time while already horribly exhausted from stopping it once. Do the others even know about that?

“I mean, I just feel bad that he had to do it twice, just because I messed up and couldn’t keep the others away,” Toritsuka says, answering Kusuke’s question for him.

Akechi nods. Stepping carefully over a large rock, he lands roughly on the other side. It’s not easy trying to keep another person upright on this harsh terrain. “Interesting. He must have been really tired, I assume. I’m sure stopping erupting volcanoes is no easy ordeal! If I were to guess, I’d say he probably used enough energy to-”

“He was completely exhausted,” Aiura confirms. “I still can’t believe he did it twice in a row. I’m not sure how the first time went since he got rid of that timeline, but the second time, I thought he was gonna die. He ended it, and then he suddenly collapsed, totally burned and beat up as hell. It’s a good thing he can heal himself, that’s for sure.”

She doesn’t look them in the eye as she speaks. She can hardly keep her mind off the dire situation at hand; however, being back here again does make her relive certain memories.

She had asked if she could kiss him, and of course, he turned her down. At the time, it was disappointing, but there were definitely other things to focus on- like, how to get him off the volcano when he could hardly move.

“He didn’t even have enough energy to teleport. I had to call Toritsuka to help me move him,” she adds.

Toritsuka nods, ignoring Akechi’s wide, surprised eyes. “It was the second time I thought he was gonna die, and I… I never want to see that.”

He sniffles suddenly. “Guys, I shot him. I shot him. I-”

“We get it,” Aiura says comfortingly, but she can’t seem to smile. “It’s not your fault. It wasn’t like you were trying to.”

As Akechi rushes to reassure him as well, Kusuke remains passively silent. He knows he shouldn’t blame Toritsuka, but he can’t help but feel white hot rage when he thinks about it. As was explained to him over their flights, his brother wasn’t invincible at the time. Maybe they had been aiming for the other guy, but it was Kusuo who got caught in the crossfire.

That, plus a headshot.

Even if they find him and it’s not too late with the limiters, things may not be good. Two potentially fatal shots when he was definitely too burnt out and low on power to heal them? If they get ahold of the old limiters and do something with them, they’re still not in the clear. Those injuries should be nothing for him, but this may be the most powerless he’s been- aside from when he put in the power-canceling devices, that is.

It’s not like they can just take him to a hospital. Sure, he’d get the energy back eventually, but using so much power is probably still taking too much of a toll on his body. They’d need a way to keep him stable before he can get back what he needs to finish healing himself.

“I fear he may not be here,” Akechi says, interrupting Kusuke’s thoughts. (How long had he been distracted?) “We’ve been searching for quite a while now, and we’re running out of time. Where else do you think he may have gone?”

All eyes turn to the elder Saiki, who pauses. “I’m starting to run out of ideas, if I’m being honest,” he admits, hanging his head. He’s still pissed as hell, though. He should be able to do this! He knows his brother better than anyone else!

The other three all start talking at once, overlapping, which is starting to give him a headache.

“Fine. If any of you have ideas, I’m all ears,” he says with a tone of finality.

Just as quickly as they began, they all go silent, lost in thought. The longer the time goes on, the more hopeless everyone begins to feel.

Chapter Text

Kusuo stands in the field next to a cliff and stares out, numb. It’s been a while since he had come here last, but it’s been completely abandoned over the past year or so. The first time he arrived, he had been having some troubles controlling his powers, particularly control over his body’s size, and he may have scared some of the locals…

They had thought he was a god, considering how giant he had become and how dangerously close he was to destroying their village. Shortly after that, they all packed up and moved out, leaving almost nothing behind except a few abandoned shacks.

Ever since, he has come here a few times when he needed time to himself to think or have some time away from his noisy friends and family.

He’s never needed it more than now.

What is wrong with him? He could have gone on and destroyed all of Japan if his friends didn’t show up and stop him. If they hadn’t, who knows what would have happened? Just how long would he have been controlled, and what would that man have made him do?

People may have died because of him, and as he knows well, there’s no bringing someone back when they’re dead, which is why his power of turning people to stone is so dangerous- something he’s found out the hard way.

In the back of his mind, he starts to notice two spots on his head starting to get weirdly hot, right where his limiters are, but he’s far too distracted to pay much attention to it. Besides, the gunshot to the head is probably the reason, right? What else could it be?

He looks down at himself, noting the torn clothing and the blood coating his torso. Does it hurt? Yeah, actually. There aren’t many things he can say that have been able to cause him pain before, but this is definitely on the list.

His gut felt like it had been ripped open when he was shot, although being physically vulnerable for only the second time in his life would do that to a person. He hadn’t even known he could do that- turn off his invincibility, that is. It reminded him of his fight with Kusuke, but those wounds were more sharp and had this burning sensation that wouldn’t go away. This, on the other hand, was like one big, sharp pain that came and went, replaced by numbness and… something else. Something different but still painful.

He gives a short, shrill laugh of self-pity, and it ripples through him in a wave of new pain. It doesn’t matter if it hurts, though. Doesn’t he deserve it?

Seriously, what is wrong with him?!

What does he do now? He can’t face them, not anyone ever again, but it’s not like he can just stay hidden in solitude forever. Not with a determined brother like his.

Ugh, what a pain. Kusuke is probably looking for him right now. However, there’s no way he knows about this place, right? It’s not like they’ve ever interacted here before, and he’s only even come a handful of times.

But what now? The city has practically been demolished, his friends are all hurt because of him, and that mind-controlling psychic is still out there somewhere.

Well, he knows that he has a responsibility to do something, but he selfishly doesn’t want to do anything or go anywhere again. So what if it’s someone else’s problem now? He’s so fucking done with all of this. If only it were just a bad dream.

How was he supposed to know that he could ever be taken advantage of like that?! And that he couldn’t just break free?!

He had to actually fight for control with everything in him, and it still wasn’t enough to stop him from hurting his friends. Does anything even matter, or is he just truly a monster now? It’s like Kusuke and his dad were always saying.

A tree stands tall next to him, and he leans his back against it for a second, before sliding down the rough, bumpy trunk to the ground and bringing his knees to his chest.

‘But now I’m sitting here like this… This is so sad, I might start crying, he had thought once before here. Why does he feel like that again yet somehow so much worse?

His hand brushes the soft grass next to him as he gently tugs at a handful of it. It’s not fair. It’s not fair- that he can do something like this and the world just moves on! His surroundings here are peaceful, undisturbed, but somewhere across the world, his home has practically been through an apocalypse of his own making.

The burning sensation in his head starts to get a little more intense, making him wince in pain. The pulsing is radiating from two spots on his head, but he’s too distracted to consider much. Must just be the gunshot wound acting up.

Suddenly, he’s aware that he’s no longer alone. How did he not notice someone sneaking up on him? It seems he’s too tired and in pain to hear people’s thoughts.

He hears his brother’s voice call his name in a desperate manner, and he stands, stumbling and gripping the tree for support and balance.

I’m not ready.

Chapter Text

“Kusuo!” Kusuke shouts, his voice growing hoarse from calling for him for an hour. If they don’t find him immediately, things are going to really be bad. The only way he knows it’s not too late is from his devices showing the readings on the limiters. The levels are growing worse and worse, but they haven’t blown yet.

He catches a glimpse of a tuft of pink hair behind a tree, and its owner stands and turns to face them, barely staying upright.

Kusuo’s expression is more hurt than Kusuke’s ever seen it, not to mention his physical appearance.

There’s dried blood running down the side of his face, originating from a slightly gorey mess of blood, hair, and exposed flesh, which makes them nauseous to look at. His midsection of his torso is coated in thick blood, sticking his shirt to his skin and dripping down his front. Worst of all, the limiters on his head are smoking, and the four of them can see little sparks coming out of them.

They need him to take them out now. The only issue is convincing him to.

“Kusuo, wait!” Kusuke says as soon as his brother starts to turn away to teleport to some other location. It’s a miracle the older teen even remembered this place existed- which he only knew about from checking in once and noticing the new location. “Don’t leave! Everything is going to be okay, but you have to take your limiters out right now. Seriously. Please-”

Kusuo narrows his eyes and gives a small shake of his head, refusing. To some degree, he understands that he overworked them and that there’s probably some kind of issue, but who cares about that right now?

Apparently, the four in front of him do.

They all start shouting at once, begging for him to listen, but he refuses. Whatever’s wrong, he deserves it. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen, but whatever it is, he thinks it should be a fitting punishment.

“Saiki, come on- Seriously, man! You have to listen! This is dangerous! We just want to help you!” Toritsuka cries. “Quit being so stubborn for once, and listen to what we’re saying!”

“Kusuo,” the older brother starts, cutting off the others. He tries to keep the panic from his voice. “This is getting worse. I need you to take those out, or else. It’s seriously getting dangerous for you. Remember how I’ve always made you extra careful never to overload those things?”

He waits for recognition of his words but doesn’t get any response, so he continues. “They’ve gone through way too much. If you don’t take those out now, they’re going to blow. So please, listen to me and take them out.”

“I’ll be fine. It doesn’t matter anyways,” Kusuo replies defiantly, feeling a rush of adrenaline in anticipation of what’s to come.

“It does matter!” Aiura shouts, trying not to cry. She’s never seen him like this, and she never wants to again.

Akechi tries to speak up. “Kusuo, your brother explained things to us, and we have reason to believe that you would not be ‘fine’ if this happens. Your body has been overloaded with power, which is why you may notice yourself feeling somewhat empty at the moment. You’ve exhausted yourself far beyond your limits, and if those limiters go off, I’m afraid your body won’t be able to heal itself fast enough. You-”

“You’ll die,” Kusuke finishes bluntly. “Which is why you need to listen to us. This has never happened before; we’ve never tested it, so we don’t know just how big the blast to your body will be. So just take them out, and we’ll talk afterwards, okay?”

“Saiki, please!” Toritsuka begs. “After everything we’ve been through together, you can’t do this to us!”

“I- I’m sorry I hurt you guys. I tried to fight him, but I couldn’t stop myself from doing it.” Kusuo bows his head, deep in shame.

“Come on, we don’t care about that right now! Just do it!” He tries to take a step forward, but his friend backs up even more.

“Stay back. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re not going to hurt us,” Aiura assures him, but she doesn’t risk a step forward, just in case he actually does teleport away again. If that happens, all hope may be lost. “I promise, everything is going to be okay. Please-”

“Kusuo,” his brother starts, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. “I know you've never liked to listen to me before, but you have to do it now. I know you aren’t going to hurt anyone, so just come over here and take the devices out. We can help you, I swear.”

Kusuo shakes his head quickly, giving a desperate, pathetic laugh. “I think I’m just done. Sorry, guys. It’s always just been one thing after another, and I’ve done enough damage. Please, just leave me alone.”

On top of his head, one of the limiters starts making a small popping noise, and the smoke keeps rising out of both, alarming all four of the others.

Kusuke’s suddenly forced to consider a world where he lives and his brother doesn’t. He doesn’t want to think about it, doesn’t want to think about having to break the news to Mom and Dad. He doesn’t want to consider what would happen next, how alone he would feel.

“No!” he shouts. He wants nothing more than to run over there and take the devices himself, but he knows his brother would never let him. “Just- Just do it! Take them out! Please, I brought supplies and a pair of new ones I built on the way here, so we can just switch them out quick! All I have to do is take your old ones and disable them, and you’ll be safe! Whatever you’ve already done, we can address that next, but I need you to do this for me first!”

Kusuo is silent. What does he do? He’s obviously never had anything like this happen before. Being hurt and in danger is, for the most part, somewhat new for him, but he’ll admit that it’s more… exciting than he would have thought.

Does he deserve to stay, even after what he’s done? The others seem convinced that he does, but he’s having trouble believing it for himself. How can he live with himself, knowing that he’s hurt so many people- including the people he loves?

What if they’re telling the truth, though? What if it will be okay? Maybe this isn’t the end of the world.

A stabbing pain echoes through his skull, originating from his limiters, and he knows as he suppresses a hurt cry that he’s running out of time. He has to make a decision.

“Please,” Akechi begs. “You were my first friend, and you’ve made me know what it feels like to be wanted, to be needed. When I found you again after all those years, you have no idea how happy that made me. You’ve helped so many people. I could never judge you for something like this. It was completely out of your control!”

“Saiki, man, you can’t do this to us! You’re my best friend. I couldn’t imagine living in a world without you in it. We’ve really come a long way since that first day I met you. We have so much to talk through right now, but I need you to be here for it!” Toritsuka ignores the worsening pain in his body and keeps fighting through it to do what it takes to get to his friend. He’ll be damned if he lets it end here.

“I just- ”

Aiura swipes at the tears in her eyes. She’s equal parts angry as she is scared and sad. “Kusuo, we can help you! I’ve always known you’re a good person, and think of how many times you’ve saved us! Every time we tried to stop the volcano, you’ve done everything you could do to make sure I never got a scratch on me, even if you got burned in the process. Just because you were forced into a bad situation, it doesn’t mean we think any less of you! Please-” She breaks off with a small sob, unable to continue.

He’s stuck. They’ve all been trying to be so supportive, and he appreciates that, but in the end, does it really matter? It doesn’t change what he’s done. This is just what he deserves, what he has been wanting for a long time.

Deep down, though, he really wants to live. He wants someone to help him through it and tell him everything is okay. He doesn’t want to leave his friends and family behind. It isn’t fair. Can he really do this to them? Wouldn’t this just be hurting them more?

“I just can’t-”

“Kusuo,” his brother says as calmly as he can while trying to suppress the terror clutching his heart. “We’ve both made mistakes. There. I’ll admit it. I’ve hurt a lot of people, and I’ve especially hurt you before, which is one of the worst things I could do. I just- I’ll say this. Everything I told you when we were kids- I was wrong. You aren’t a monster. You could never be a monster.”

“But-” He’s cut off immediately.

“Don’t interrupt me. I shouldn’t have said and done all of that stuff. It wasn’t fair to you, and I think it’s partially my fault things have turned out this way. I was awful to you, and I was never able to create the perfect limiters, no matter how hard I tried. I’m sorry, and I swear, I’m gonna do better.

“But first, I need you to take those damn things off your head. I can’t possibly imagine being left alone here by you. Don’t make me have to tell Mom what you’ve done when it’s too late.”

Kusuke tries to stifle a sob, unsuccessfully. He can’t do this. He takes a cautious step toward his brother, who tenses up but does nothing.

One more step, then another, then another. Finally, he’s standing right in front of him.

“Please, just this once, you have to trust me. I’m not going to hurt you, and I’m not going to let you hurt yourself.”

The limiters continue to pop and smoke dangerously, and Kusuo winces intensely, almost doubling over in pain.

“Saiki!” Toritsuka shouts, the trio rushing forward as well. Fortunately, their friend stays in place, not fleeing.

“Kusuo, please. Do you trust us?” Akechi asks, somehow able to keep his cool. He tries so hard to avoid looking at the ruined, deadly limiters; otherwise, he might cry.

His friend narrows his eyes but gives a small, reluctant nod.

“Then you can trust that we’re telling the truth. Everything will be okay. You just have to let us help you like you did for me all those years ago. Can you do that?”

Another small nod, this time paired with a pained expression. The limiters are practically on fire now, yet somehow, Kusuo is still pretending not to notice or react. Maybe if he puts things off for long enough, it’ll be too late for him, he thinks.

“Then take them off,” Aiura orders gently. “Your brother said he has new ones ready for you, so it’ll be okay.”

For a tense moment, he does nothing as the limiters smoke and start making loud whistling noises. Then, he slowly lifts a hand to his head and, one by one, removes the devices.

Once they’re out, everyone throws themselves at him in a tight embrace. Toritsuka sobs loudly, and they all start to cry out their relief.

Kusuo’s touched. He had never realized how much of an impact he’s had on the others.

“I’m sorry,” he projects as a whisper, his words almost going unheard.

They eventually die down and step back, and his brother pulls out two brand new limiters, handing them to him and taking the old ones to fiddle with. Kusuo quickly puts them in and sighs in relief.

It’s over. Well, not really. He still has a lot to do, and he plans on fixing everything right now- before he passes out from the pain and overexertion.

“Kusuo, let’s get home,” Kusuke says with a sigh. “You really need to get looked at. I don’t know how you’re even standing right now.”

“I have one last thing to do.” He sways on his feet. Now that the old limiters are out, he’s feeling rather tired. His body feels like it’s been hit by a truck- well, like how he imagines it would feel for a normal person to be hit by one.

“Don’t even think about going to fix the city right now. Your powers have probably been nearly depleted for now. You need to wait until you’ve gained some more energy and healed enough before doing anything else. We can ride back in my aircraft, but you will use that time to get some rest,” Kusuke orders, having almost read his mind. “No restoration powers. I know you want to fix things, but people can rebuild things themselves, the normal way.”

“This is all my fault, and I need to fix it. Don’t try to stop me,” he responds weakly, struggling to remain standing.

Without warning, he starts to sink to the ground, and Toritsuka shouts, “Hey- Shit!” and grabs his arm, helping slow his descent. The others crowd around them to offer support.

Kusuke throws Kusuo’s arm over his shoulders, and Toritsuka does the same on his other side.

“Easy,” the blond murmurs, leading them back to the aircraft. “We’re almost there. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Where are we going?" he manages, struggling to support himself. His feet drag on the ground, but it doesn’t bother him too much. Not when he’s this exhausted.

“Home. I’ll just treat you from there. Your only job right now is to rest and get some of your strength back so you can heal. God- You scared the shit out of me, Kusuo. Never do something like that again. I really thought you were going to-” He cuts himself off, unable to finish that sentence.

Kusuo looks a little guilty, at least. “I know. I’m sorry.” He leans heavily on the two holding him up, trying and failing to support himself.

Kusuke isn’t sure what to say, too scared of saying the wrong thing and setting him off. His brother, suicidal? While he’s never considered the thought before, it terrifies him now. How close had he come in the past? How close had he driven him to it before?

On the other hand, to some degree, Kusuo’s relieved that he decided to live. It’s not like he truly wanted to die. Sure, he’s had some dangerous thoughts before, but never to this degree. Even though he can’t find the words to say it out loud, he’s grateful to his friends and brother for stopping him.

Regardless, he’s set on the idea of using his restoration ability to fix the city once they get back. It hasn’t been a full day yet, and despite his pure exhaustion and the fact that he might not be able to stay conscious while trying to fix things, he knows that he needs to do this. Although, using this much power in his current state may leave him out of commission for a while.

And he can only do it within a 24-hour time frame. That’s how the power works, and the only way he would be able to use it outside of then is by taking his limiter out, but he doesn’t know how to control it enough to safely use it, so that’s out of the question. Or maybe not. He’ll see.

Kusuke already knows what his brother is planning, of course. He considers using the sedatives he brought to knock him out so he’s forced to rest, but then he has to remind himself that he’s currently using them to keep the other psychic unconscious. He supposes there may be no stopping Kusuo, at least until his brother passes out on his own. Probably won’t be long, if he’s being honest.

Speaking of, he needs to figure out what to do about that psychic. He shouldn’t kill him, even if it’s tempting. Maybe he just needs to scare him into never doing something like this again. It’ll take some thought.

They finally arrive at the aircraft and gently help Kusuo up the steps to get on, before lowering him into a seat. He sighs involuntarily in relief when he’s no longer on his feet.

Taking a glance around him, he sees a spacious area with boxes of medical supplies on top of a coffee table surrounded by fancy, comfortable plane seats. The others take their places around him, equally happy to be sitting again. They’re ready to finally have their injuries looked at professionally.

Akechi still has intense bruising on his throat from where he was strangled, and the other two psychics are still nursing their gunshot wounds.

Toritsuka, in particular, is looking pretty rough; he’s covered with scratches and cuts, and the pain of being thrown all over the place and shot is finally catching up to him. It’s likely that he may have broken some ribs or damaged something else that he doesn’t know about yet.

He groans loudly, poking at his bandages to see how much it hurts- which ends up being a lot. Blood still covers his shirt on his shoulder since he hasn’t had a chance to change.

“What exactly is the plan here?” he asks as Kusuke returns from entering flight instructions in the cockpit. Shortly after, they lift off the ground and start on their way back home.

“Well, we need to get him home and you three to the hospital. We’ll stop at the hospital first to drop you all off quickly, and then, I’ll take my brother to our house, where I’ll treat him. I may have given you some emergency first aid, but you need to be seen by doctors.”

“I’d prefer to see him arrive safely at your house before we go,” Aiura says, raising her hand. The others nod as well.

He sighs loudly and grumbles, “I’ve let you come this far, but I’m not taking you anywhere but the hospital. You can come see him when you’re discharged.”

They protest loudly and extensively, but at the end of the day, his decision is final.

While they talk, Kusuo stares silently out the window. It won’t be long until the city is back in sight, considering this is one of his brother’s best high speed aircrafts. Once it’s in sight, he can try to stand again and restore the city as much as he’s able to, taking his currently depleted energy into consideration. These new limiters haven’t been overloaded, so he can safely use some of his remaining power, however little that may be.

It will look incredibly unnatural to the civilians, of course, but this matters more than being average for now. Besides, they’ll never know it was him if he’s hidden in the sky.

He almost can’t believe he’s doing this. Less than a day ago, he was back in the grocery store (which has probably been ruined now), picking out coffee jelly and grabbing a few things for his mother. Now, he’s done potentially irreparable damage and has traumatized the hundreds of thousands of people living there.

It’s a relief that his friends are going to get treated for their injuries. If not, those gunshot wounds could prove fatal due to blood loss, and how could he live with himself for doing that?

God, now he’s going to have to face his parents after all of this. They know it was him, and his dad already thinks he’s a monster, so… what are they going to think of their son?

Finally, the others die down a bit, and he sees the edges of town come into view. Standing suddenly and unsteadily, he raises his hand towards it, and the others all shout his name.

“Kusuo!” his brother exclaims. “Hey! You shouldn’t-”

“I have to. Don’t distract me.”

The others protest, but Kusuo turns back to what he’s doing and activates his 24-hour restoration, his eyes starting to glow a bit.

“Saiki! Stop doing that! You’re going to hurt yourself more!” Toritsuka shouts, and Aiura tries to grab his arm, but it doesn’t make a difference. It’ll work regardless.

Akechi stands in front of him and calls his name as well. “Kusuo, please sit back down. This is a bad idea, but of course, you’re likely already aware of that. You’re already struggling to stay conscious, I see, yet…”

In front of him, he sees pieces of buildings coming together again flawlessly, roads starting to fix themselves, street signs straightening out-

He hardly feels himself hit the ground as everything goes dark.

Chapter Text

Kusuo’s bedroom has turned into a hospital room. He lays on his bed peacefully, in comfortable clothes, and there’s an IV connected from his arm to a pole next to him. A few devices have been hooked up to various points on his body, all of which Kusuke has been carefully monitoring. Physically, he’s recovering well, save for the exhaustion and toll it’s taken on his body.

It’s been a few days, but his friends haven’t come by yet; they’ve all been stuck in the hospital for their own injuries. Kusuke knows they’ll be by sooner or later, however.

His parents have left for the day, meaning he has the house to himself. Initially, they were beyond panicked and terrified when he arrived with his seriously injured and unconscious little brother, who wasn’t waking up to anything, but everything has calmed down a little. His dad has the day off, so they’re even out on a date.

He stands in the kitchen alone, sipping a cup of hot coffee, before spitting it out in disgust.

Kusuo seriously likes this stuff?

Personally, Kusuke’s always been an energy drink fan, and he’s been known to drink up to seven or eight of them when he hasn’t gotten his precious seventeen minutes of sleep each night. Unfortunately, there aren’t any Red Bulls in the entire house, so this is the next best thing, he supposes.

He’s about to step back into the bedroom when the doorbell rings. With a mild scowl, he heads back down the stairs and opens the door, completely unsurprised at the sight of the three psychics waiting patiently.

“Thanks for taking care of that psychic,” he says, first and foremost.

They had arrived at the hospital and created their own dramatic sob story about being attacked by ‘that horrible man,’ which created a city-wide search for him. Kusuke had given him up to the police after giving them a strong warning about him, and also after waking him up and threatening him in the best way he knew. Fortunately, his telepathy-canceling headpiece somehow also happened to cancel mind control, so it was pretty effective. He’s confident in saying that the other won’t be causing any more trouble, and if he does, Kusuke will be the first to know about it.

“It was our pleasure!” Akechi replies with a friendly smile. The bruising on his throat has gone down significantly, and his voice is starting to sound normal again (which has already become annoying, Kusuke decides). “I don’t think we’ll ever be seeing him again- At least, not if we can help it. Should we cross paths again, we’ve already created a plan to-”

“Is he okay?” Aiura blurts. She shifts her crutches as she tries to peer inside the house. The pain has gone down a lot, but she’s still been taking some meds for it throughout each day.

“Yeah, we’ve tried calling his phone, but we think it’s probably just been destroyed forever. And you haven’t been answering yours, so we’re a little worried about him.” Toritsuka moves his arm stiffly, wincing in pain from his wounded shoulder. He had spent the most time in the hospital, needing a rather complicated surgery to get the bullet out and address the rest of the extensive damage to his body.

“I’ve been busy,” Kusuke responds plainly, uncaring of their affairs.

With a turn of his heel, he heads inside, the others close behind. They climb the steps to his brother’s bedroom, and he starts to explain the situation.

“He’s okay; he just hasn’t woken up yet due to the pure exhaustion that’s afflicting him. With any luck, he’ll wake up within the next day or two. Don’t worry, though. I’m taking perfectly good care of him here. I’ve treated his wounds, and his body is starting to heal on its own again, which is a good sign.”

The doorknob gives a small creaking noise as it’s turned, and the group enters quietly.

In the bed, Kusuo rests peacefully, his eyes shut gently. His glasses have been set on his desk, ready for him to wake up. They’re relieved to see that he’s alive and just unconscious, although the side of his head and his torso are wrapped in bandages.

“I’ll be downstairs, so let me know if he wakes up.” With that, he’s gone.

The trio turns to each other, then back at their sleeping friend.

“God, that was terrifying. I’m glad things are almost over. I really thought he was going to kill us for a minute there,” Toritsuka admits. He hasn’t told the others, but he’s been having nightmares about that fight, about him or one of the others being killed by him. Or, in some, about Kusuo dying at that other man’s hands. He can’t stand the thought of any of that happening.

Akechi replies quickly and confidently. “He wouldn’t. He fought for control, and I don’t see him ever letting any of us die. Even though it didn’t look like it, we were never in danger of dying, at least.”

“I don’t know…” Aiura says, sitting in the desk chair to give her injured leg some rest. “I mean, I would like to think he wouldn’t, but things were looking pretty bad there. We all still got injured- not that it’s his fault or anything, of course, but I just think that he could have killed us, if that fight went differently.”

“It’s also unsettling to know that he was capable of this, this entire time,” Toritsuka adds unhelpfully, to which Akechi frowns. “He’s threatened me a lot, but I had no idea he was actually capable of hurting us like that.”

“Well, whatever happened is over now. That man is locked away, and we’re never going to have to worry about something like this again. All I care about is that we’re all okay now,” Akechi says, changing tactics.

Aiura nods, setting her crutches aside and scooting the chair closer to the bed to get a better view of her friend. “I agree. As long as we’re together, everything will be okay.”

Toritsuka kneels next to the bed on the other side and sighs. “I know. I guess I’m just… worried about him. And all of us.”

“Yeah, like, was he… was he really gonna, you know… kill himself?” she asks quietly, hesitantly. It’s as though saying it out loud would make it real.

There’s a small stretch of silence before Akechi softly says, “I don’t know. But… I think he might have done it if we didn’t talk him out of it. I- I was scared for him. Really scared.”

“Me too,” Toritsuka adds. “He’s never really been open about personal stuff, but to think that he was even considering doing it-”

“I don’t know if it was an impulsive idea or something, but it also means that this is at least something he’s probably thought about before. It truly is a horrifying thing to think about. He was the first person to show me any kindness, and to think, I may not have been able to do the same for him…” Akechi trails off with a shudder. He’d rather not have to think about this stuff, but it’s something they can’t put off talking about. “If it had been too late-”

“We need to make him talk about it. We can’t let him suffer alone.” Aiura feels determined. She’s not going to let something like this happen again!

Toritsuka gives a weak shrug, unsure. “I mean, I’m not sure he’d really be up for opening up about this stuff, but-” Everyone glares at him. “-But we should still try! God, what’s that look for?!”

A small noise interrupts them, and they all peer down at Kusuo as his face twitches. They hold their breath as he slowly opens his eyes to the ceiling before closing them again instinctively.

“...Saiki?”

Kusuo mumbles something, and Aiura softly asks, “What?”

“Glasses…” their friend mumbles again, and she rushes to grab them from the desk, sliding them onto his face.

“You’re clear to open your eyes,” Akechi confirms from the end of the bed. He comes closer and kneels next to Aiura.

Kusuo opens his eyes slowly and hesitantly, then turns to look at each of them through his green lenses. “Are you guys alright?"

“Oh, Kusuo, you’re okay!” the fortune-teller cries in relief, squeezing his hand and ignoring the question. “You scared us so badly! We’re really going to have to have a talk about… everything that happened.”

“Yes, we’re all recovering well,” Akechi answers. “We’re more worried about you right now. Also, your brother wanted us to grab him when you woke-”

“Don’t,” he begs, lifting a hand to stop him. He’s starting to wake up more already. As usual, he’s unsure whether he wants to see his brother or not, considering their past. Things have obviously improved a lot, but after something like this happening, he’s not sure he can face his family quite yet.

They all nod, respectful of his boundaries, but the silence is quickly broken.

“How are you feeling?” the medium asks, looking down at the soft, tired face of his friend. His friend who, just a few days ago, almost-

Kusuo can hear them all thinking about it, but as usual, he’d rather not face his emotions, so he elects to ignore them. Instead, he slowly pulls his aching body into a sitting position, giving a small wince as his midsection stings. Everything that happened is sifting clearly through his mind, but he’s still not sure what to think.

Did he make the right decision to stay? He supposes he’ll see soon enough.

“What happened to the city?" he questions, wondering how much his restoration was able to fix. It’s been more than twenty-four hours since the incident now, so he can’t restore it anymore. Even if he took out his limiters, he doubts he would be able to control that power well enough to use it.

“The good news is, most of the city is 100% back to normal!” Toritsuka exclaims.

“And the bad news?"

“Well… the bad news is that everyone is talking about the miracle and are searching like crazy to find out how it happened, so you may want to lie low- which is great because that’s what you normally try to do!”

“Also…” Aiura continues hesitantly. “They’re all trying to find the source of the destruction. No one seems to have gotten any real footage or evidence, fortunately- I think you took out all the cameras in the city when you were… you know. And Kusuke has also been working hard to make sure no one connects the incident to you or us, so I think we’re safe.”

He gives a slow nod, taking in the information. On one hand, it’s great that he won’t have to worry about being labeled as a criminal or anything like that, but it still doesn’t erase his guilt. Maybe the city doesn’t know it was him, but he does.

“And none of us blame you for anything!” Akechi rushes to add. “It wasn’t truly you, and deep down, you know it too. We understand how you may be thinking that way, but we know you did everything you could to fight back. All we are, is worried for you, after all of this- after what you almost did.”

He wasn’t going to bring this sensitive topic up yet; it just spilled from his lips.

Predictably, Kusuo replies, “I'm fine.”

The others exchange a glance, unsure of how to proceed. What exactly do you say to comfort your all-powerful, psychic best friend who almost committed suicide the last time you saw him?

“Right. Fine. But we are talking about this sometime, man, okay?” Toritsuka decides to say. There’ll be a time when his friend has to face what happened with them, but for now, they can wait until he’s feeling a little better.

Kusuo doesn’t respond, tempted to just lay back down and go to sleep if that’s what it’ll take to get them to drop it.

Aiura agrees with the others. “We need to talk about it. We just want to make sure you’re okay. You’re my soulmate; of course I care about you!”

He rolls his eyes at that. Is she ever going to drop the soulmate thing? Not that he particularly minds it that much, to be honest.

There’s a loud knock at the door, and Kusuke enters, his eyes wide.

“Kusuo- I heard voices, so I thought- I’m so glad to see that you’re awake!” He pushes his way to his brother’s side, but once he’s there, he stands awkwardly, uncertain of how to continue. This is all new territory for him too. “Are- Are you okay?” he asks softly.

He’s wearing his telepathy canceler again, so Kusuo doesn’t know what he’s thinking, unfortunately.

“Good grief. I feel fine, I promise,” Kusuo replies, irritated about how everyone is walking on eggshells around him. “You don’t have to worry about me so much. I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

“I assure you, our concerns are in good faith,” Akechi cuts in, trying to keep the peace. “We’re just worried for you, is all. After what we saw you do- or almost do -we are understandably quite conflicted. We want to trust you, but if there’s even a sliver of a chance that you’re still a danger to yourself, we want to make sure-”

“I said, I’m fine.” He grits his teeth. Why won’t they just leave it alone? What’s done is done, and sure, he almost did something stupid, but it’s not like he’s actually suicidal or anything. It was just a high-stress moment where he wasn’t thinking clearly and almost made a bad decision. But at the end of the day, he took the faulty limiters out, and now he and everyone else are safe.

He’d like to say he wouldn’t have actually ended it anyways, but there’s a sinking feeling in his chest that knows he would- that he almost did. Logically, he knows he should be more concerned about the implications, but all he really cares about is his guilt at hurting his friends.

They appear to be doing much better, he notices, but he still did that to them. He’ll heal them as soon as he has the energy to, he decides.

The others exchange a glance at his words.

“Well!” Toritsuka practically shouts. “Moving on from that, let’s see how you’re actually doing, and we’ll move on from there!”

He turns to Kusuke, who startles but quickly begins checking the devices surrounding his brother, writing down numbers and prodding at Kusuo in a few different places to check up on everything. He asks him questions about any side effects of the treatment there are, any complications with the new limiters, how much energy he’s getting back, if he can heal himself, and so on.

All the while, the other three wait patiently, until Kusuke sends them on their way so that Kusuo- whose eyes are beginning to droop tiredly -can get some rest.

Once they’re out, Kusuke takes a deep breath. His brother is asleep again, snoring softly. It’s been a long few days for the two of them.

The city is pretty much back together by now. These days, as Kusuo has explained in the past, buildings that were ruined quickly go back to normal, among some of the other changes he’s made to the world over time. The only thing that’s remained is everyone’s memories of that day and their fear that it could happen again.

As he slips out of the room again and into his old bedroom (the next room over), he wonders what to tell their parents. When he came home a few days ago, he simply told them that another psychic had taken control of Kusuo and that they were forcing him to do it. Then, he mentioned very briefly that Kusuo was missing for a little bit but that they’d found him and brought him home.

He conveniently left out most of the important details, namely that his brother was ready to intentionally get himself killed in front of them. He isn’t sure yet how that would go over, especially with how his mom is always so close to him and how cold and rude their father sometimes is to him.

Is it even his place to tell them? Somehow, he doesn’t think Kusuo would ever do it, but they need to know to keep an eye on him and make sure he stays safe. If anyone can get to him, he knows it would be their mom.

He thinks back to when they were kids, when he would torment Kusuo nonstop, especially after the creation of the limiters. At what point did it all start to take a toll on him? If he’d have only known what he does now, he never would have said anything he did.

If only their parents had stopped them sooner. If only they had intervened or at least said something to the two brothers, to let them know that they were hurting each other.

To some degree, Kusuke almost holds some of the blame on them for never seeing what their youngest son was going through.

He’ll have to talk to them, for sure. Not just about Kusuo’s health but also about their roles in everything. For the time being, though, he’ll just focus on his brother healing from his injuries.

Chapter Text

“Oh, Ku, I’m so sorry! I never knew what you were going through! If I’d known you were thinking about… I would never forgive myself!” Kurumi cries, gripping her youngest son’s body in a tight hug.

In the end, Kusuke had decided to sit down with their parents and tell them everything, which was, predictably, a disaster.

“Kusuo, I’m sorry too!” Kuniharu wails emotionally, embracing both of them as well. “I never meant what I’ve said about you! I never thought I could ever lose either of you!”

Ugh, first he had to go tell them everything- without my permission -and now I have to deal with them getting their snot all over me? Kusuo grumbles to himself. He hates physical touch, and everyone knows it, but apparently this is reason enough to ignore that.

Still, he’s surprised at his father’s reaction. While he knew his mom would be emotional about it, his dad hasn’t shown much fatherly love before.

He’s still sitting in his bed, connected to all of the medical devices, but his parents had finally gotten home from their date shortly before he woke up again. Apparently, his brother had snitched about everything, which is annoying because Kusuo could easily deal with this stuff himself. He doesn’t need other people all up in his business all the time.

His parents continue to sob and apologize for everything, which quickly gets annoying.

“I’m fine now. You don’t need to do this.” Why aren’t they getting it?

“Honey, I promise you can talk to me about anything,” his mother says, pulling away, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I don’t want you to have to feel like you should do everything alone. I’m always here for you.”

Kusuke nods. “I’m sorry, Kusuo, but they needed to know. I worry that you’re still a danger to yourself. You need to talk to someone if you’re feeling depressed. What I saw from you was one of the scariest things I’ve seen in my life. I’m not going to let that happen again.”

Crossing his arms, Kusuo grumbles, “I don’t need all of this. Come on, I’m not going to do it again. You know I won’t.”

“No, I don’t. And that’s the problem. Look, you know that what happened wasn’t your fault, but that’s not the root of the issue, is it?” He lowers himself down at the end of the bed, careful not to touch the devices. “No, you’ve been feeling this way since long before this happened, haven’t you?” he accuses.

There is silence for a moment before Kusuo carefully responds, “Everybody feels like that sometimes. Sure, things got a little out of hand this time, but it’s not like I always feel that way.”

Is that true, though? Deep sadness, or maybe numbness, seems to follow him everywhere he goes, nearly drowning him at times- especially when he has to deal with the constant stream of horrible, depressing thoughts of everyone around him. But it’s fine, right?

“Son, I don’t know what you’re going through right now, but I don’t want to see anything happen to you,” Kuniharu interjects. “Besides, who else is going to get me to work on time?” he jokes, trying to lighten the mood.

“I’m serious, Kusuo,” his brother says. “You need to talk to us or your friends, if that would be more comfortable. I’m still sorry about everything I’ve said and done to you, so I understand if you don’t want to talk with me about it. Just- Just don’t let this keep going until it’s too late, okay?”

He wipes his eyes quickly, which have become misty. He couldn’t imagine his life if Kusuo wasn’t there. Even if that means giving up all of his projects that involve fighting him or causing problems for him- which are the majority of the things he’s been working on, unfortunately.

“Can we talk about this later?" Kusuo finally asks. He’s so sick of people treating him like this. “I promise I’ll be fine if you guys give me some space for a while.”

The others in the room exchange worried glances, but ultimately, they give in. Kurumi announces that she’s going to make some dinner and would be taking requests, while the other two finally leave the room as well, albeit hesitantly.

It’s hard to ignore the worry in their thoughts.

At last, he finally has time to breathe and think about things himself. The germanium ring sits innocently on the desk near his bed, tempting him, so he waves it over with telekinesis. Once it’s on, he breathes out a sigh and lays back down, staring at the ceiling above him.

Is he actually okay? That seems to be the big question, and unfortunately, he doesn’t really have an answer.

He’s fine right now, at least. He can 100% guarantee that he doesn’t want to hurt himself or worse at the moment. Although he’s perfectly safe for now, can he guarantee that he won’t want to later? Unsure.

‘Is he okay?' though, implies other things as well. For instance, does he feel safe in other senses? After being literally mind controlled, he can certainly say that he’s a little paranoid now.

As he understands it, that other psychic is locked away and won’t be able to get to him again (in theory). But if he did, there’s no telling what he could do again with someone like Kusuo. Even as is, he still couldn’t stop himself from harming his friends.

His friends.

He hurt his friends. Somehow, though, they’ve completely forgiven him, and they even want to help him too.

A small, sad smile finds itself on his face at the thought of them. Okay, he’ll admit it. He doesn’t hate them, and he wants to spend time with them too. Should he talk to them?

Part of him wants to resist, saying that they deserve a better friend than him, but he knows they would never actually believe that. Maybe he’ll be a little selfish.

He pulls out his phone (a new one from Kusuke, with all of his contacts saved) and texts their group chat, asking to meet them tomorrow, saying that he does want to talk about what all has been bothering him.

Once it’s sent, he gets an immediate response from Toritsuka enthusiastically agreeing and asking for details, followed shortly by messages from the other two as well.

Well, tomorrow afternoon after school. He supposes he had better be prepared to share his thoughts that he’s never talked about before. There’s no possibility that they’ll reject him for it.

It’s time to start being open and honest about his feelings, and there’s no one else he trusts more than his friends. Kusuke says he has to try talking to someone? Hell, maybe he’ll give it a try.