Chapter Text
My name is Saiki Kusuo, age 16, an esper. No, I'm not delusional — I have been an esper since birth with a wide range of powers, including but not limited to, telepathy, telekinesis, X-ray vision, levitation, pyrokinesis, etc.
I started using my powers before birth; all my ultrasounds were weird. This meant that my powers were always with me, even though they were nothing but pain. I noticed the sounds of students’ voices filtering into my head. Good grief.
Just look at this. A scene full of lovely students basking in their friendships. Girls are complementing one another, boys are walking with arms around each other and a girl is helping an old man cross the street. Simply warms your heart, right?
Not. I can hear their internal thoughts and see the thought process behind their actions. For example, the girls praise each other on the outside, but on the inside, both of them call each other uggos. The boys think that the other stinks, while the girl helps the old man only to seem good. The old man, on the other hand, is a pervert who is planning to grab her butt.
See, how troublesome my powers are?
“Oh! You must be Saiki-kun!" A voice called out. I stopped and turned around. Who was this who knew my name? Scanning her from head to toe, I concluded I didn't know her.
“Nice to meet you, I'm Tenmori Kumiko. Today's my first day." The girl, Tenmori, walked beside me, chattering away.
I didn't care and just sped up, expecting her thoughts to comment on how I was rude.
“How rude, Saiki-kun." She whined and I turned around in surprise. She was walking right beside me! “Hey! I think I get it. It was weird for me to know your name right? I can explain, I—"
I walked even faster, completely ignoring her. I didn't care how she learnt my name, though it was a bit odd, considering it was only the opening ceremony of the school.
Sheesh, she finally gave up.
“You can walk quite fast, can't you?" I snapped towards the voice. This girl! She was still walking beside me! How?! Also, why didn't I pick up her thoughts? Could it be…?
Before I could complete the thought, we had reached the school. Surprisingly, the girl had remained quiet for the rest of the walk after that one comment.
After putting on my shoes and putting away my bag, I joined the line in the assembly hall. The principal was giving a speech, but my mind was focused on the odd girl from the morning. Suddenly, a pair of hands slid onto my glasses, blocking my vision.
“Guess who~" Nendou's sing-song voice boomed over me.
Good grief. What was the need for that? There was only one person on whom my telepathy didn't work: Nendou Riki. This guy was an absolute idiot in the truest sense. The reason I couldn't read his thoughts was that the minute a thought formed, it would be out of Nendou’s mouth. For some reason, I had caught the juvenile delinquent's attention. So annoying.
As I contemplated how he could potentially manage to kill me, suddenly, someone fainted. It was Takahashi. There was a huge commotion, with Nendou trying to administer CPR. Finally, a teacher arrived, “What in the world are you doing Nendou?! Take him to the infirmary!” Unwilling to trust Nendou, the teacher told me to accompany him. Good grief. What a pain.
I whirled around in the other direction as I felt a pair of eyes watching me. Not the commotion but specifically me. I checked around with telepathy but everyone was thinking about how boring the principal's speech was or what they were going to do once they went home. Shrugging it off, I followed Nendou to the infirmary.
•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅• •❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•
Damn, he almost caught me. I quietly followed Nendou and Saiki as they made their way to the infirmary. Even without the crutch of his powers, Kusuo was rather sharp. He suddenly turned again and I hid behind a corner just in case. Technically he shouldn't be able to see me since I wasn't part of the canon and we had no relationship to speak of. But it didn't hurt to be cautious.
I watched quietly as Takahashi stopped faking and finally got up. He went off on Nendou, acting all disgusted by the fact that Nendou gave him CPR. He was vomiting in the sink, cribbing, “They're gonna call me gay and ship me with you! Gross! Blargh!”
I watched as Takahashi came and towered over Saiki, threatening him to keep quiet. He was definitely wondering whether to keep quiet about the gay part or the illness part. Of course he didn't need to choose, since Matsuzaki-sensei walked in, all menacing. “Oi, did I just hear you say you were faking?”
Takahashi panicked and tried to pin the blame on Nendou. Matsuzaki-sensei looked around, “Was Saiki a part of this too?" He asked. I saw Saiki blanch. He absolutely didn't want to get swept up, though it didn't matter if Nendou did. “Uhh….u-uhh…yeah! Yeah he was!” Matsuzaki-sensei was ready to yell at them when Saiki got out a thermometer.
Nendou assisted by being his dumb oblivious self, “What do you mean a ‘healthy guy’ sensei?”
"Didn't you hear what I said?!”
Nendou placed a hand on his cleft chin, "Yes, I did. But you said it yourself.” He looked up and in a very serious tone said, "You just said he’s got a faking illness, right?”
"A faking illness…?" Sensei was dumbfounded.
“I mean, he fainted and was also vomiting." Nendou added.
I saw as the gears in sensei’s head turned and he reached a solid conclusion. I also saw as Saiki looked on in disbelief while sensei finally spoke, “Feigning disease, huh?"
Seeing his chance, Saiki offered the thermometer. Obviously, Takahashi didn't have a fever, but Saiki used pyrokinesis to make it seem as if he had a very high temperature.
Sensei immediately got concerned and called for an ambulance. While Takashi was carried away and Nendou and sensei followed him, Saiki stayed behind, as did I. I saw as he checked his surroundings.
He grabbed the thermometer again and activated his pyrokinesis. Well, even he couldn't have predicted that Nendou would come in at the exact time when he was burning the thermometer. And so, Saiki was sent to the hospital as well, with Nendou making a huge racket, “Don't die partner!!!!!"
I returned to the ceremony and found that it was already over. I was laughing my ass off the whole time while I observed what had happened in the nurse’s office and needed some time to compose myself. Once I gathered myself enough, I finally left too.