Chapter Text
Summer break, Kusuo Saiki’s favorite time of year. It was the summer before he started his senior year.
‘Finally…’
Kusuo Saiki was just an ordinary boy with his whole summer ahead of him.
‘Except I’m not an ordinary boy and this is the only day of summer break that the nuisances who call themselves my friends haven’t made plans with me.’
Yeah. An ordinary boy who just so happened to have psychic superpowers.
‘Telepathy, Pyrokinesis, X-ray Vision, Precognition, Etc, Etc. But you already knew that, didn’t you?’
Anyways… With only one day to himself during summer break Saiki wanted to spend it in absolute solitude. Aside from a horrible television series and some coffee jellies, of course. There was nothing that could soil his idea of a perfect day.
“Kusuoooo!~” Kurumi Saiki, his mom, called from downstairs. Obviously Kusuo had realized that she was home since he could hear her thoughts but what else he heard was what really shocked him.
‘I can’t believe my little brother is trying to be a shut-in on his first day of summer break!’
Kusuke Saiki and he wasn’t wearing his telepathy blocker. It had been a couple of months since Kusuo had last seen his older brother, and the fact that he had come to his house on the first day of summer break, it could only mean one thing.
‘Good grief, what does he want with me now?’
. . .
Saiki made his way downstairs after debating whether or not it was truly worth it to see his older brother. However, after enough telepathic harassment from his mom he decided it wouldn’t kill him to participate.
That had been a change in Saiki’s attitude since the whole losing his powers and then gaining them back in order to save the world, and also stopping a volcanic eruption that was destined to destroy everything and everyone he loved.
‘I’ve been more willing to put up with interactions since then. I guess the world almost ending multiple times really puts it into perspective.’
Well now he’s faced with his mother who looks way too happy that her sons are in the same room together and his brother who always had the same smirk plastered onto his face no matter what the situation was.
“Kusuo! It’s been so long since I last saw you! Won’t you come give your big brother a hug?”
“It’s only been a couple of months and don’t touch me…”
‘He’s here for a reason. I need to figure out what it is and get him out of here quickly. I have one peaceful day that I just want to enjoy.’
Kusuo maneuvered so he was strategically standing directly behind his mom Kurumi giggled as she watched the two boys interact.
‘My sweet boys are finally getting along!’
‘Which is quite contrary to what Kusuke was thinking.’
‘Kusuo is always rejecting my advances, no wonder he always wins!’
“Well Kusuo! Since you had no plans today I asked mom if I could borrow some of your time.” ‘The answer is no.’
“Don’t worry Kusuke, I already said yes!” ‘You’re not helping mom…’
Fine whatever his older brother needed him so desperately for it couldn’t kill him to help just this once. ‘It totally could.’
“Sure.” Saiki said with his same deadpan expression. If there was one thing that never changed about him it was his attitude, tone of his projected telepathy and his facial expressions. Especially around Kusuke.
‘I can’t really let my guard down but at least we’re in front of mom so he can’t try blasting me through a wall again-‘
“Let’s go up to your room to talk Kusuo!”
‘Then I can really tell you why I’m here, which I know you’re curious about because-‘
‘I’m not listening to his thoughts anymore.’
. . .
Back in Kusuo’s room there was an awkward and uncomfortable silence that befell the two brothers. Obviously, Kusuo could hear his brother's thoughts and the people around him but he had really started turning it into white noise after his powers had become stronger after losing them and then them coming back.
It wasn’t just his telepathy that got stronger, and that was the power he used most. It was pretty much every facet of his abilities that had grown over the past couple of months. As Kusuo grew older he also gained new powers and old ones became stronger, he knew this even before losing them. What he didn’t expect was them coming back ten times stronger and with some new side effects.
‘That’s a story for a different time.’
Kusuke sat down on Saiki’s bed, much to the younger brother's discomfort. ‘Better to get this over with now.’
“What do you want?”
Kusuke’s eyes flashed up to Saiki as his smile widened.
“Always so perceptive baby brother. I must say since the last time I spied on you your life has gone significantly better. I truly am pleased with the work that those new limiters are doing.”
‘Just more proof of my clear success over you.’
‘Get to the point.’
“You probably just want me to get to the point though,” ‘I do.’ “so, theres an experiment I would like to run.”
“No.” Saiki was quick to stop his brother in his tracks, there was no way he was doing this again. He glared at his brother from behind his lime green tinted glasses. ‘How terrible would it really be if I turned him to stone for a day?’
Kusuke tapped his pointer finger to his lips for a second. He was debating so many possibilities at once that it was hard to keep up with the speed at which his thoughts were moving. ‘This is like the opposite of Nendou…’
“It’s a very short experiment Kusuo. I also think that it could be of a massive benefit to the both of us.”
Saiki wasn’t sure whether to truly believe his brother or not, but there was a certain look in his brother's eyes. Maybe it was the look that made Saiki think that he just wanted to help. Even if it was slightly foolish to think that way about Kusuke.
“What’s the experiment for?” Saiki relented slightly and brought his desk chair around via telekinesis to sit across from his brother. Kusuke’s lips twitched up a little more in what might actually be a more genuine smile.
“Well, I’ve noticed over the past month that your teleportation has gotten a little stronger.” ‘Okay, and?’
“And I wanted to see if you can travel significant distances in less time than you did before.”
Now, if this had been before Saiki’s situation with losing and regaining his powers he would have no problem with it. But, he hasn’t teleported anywhere in at least a month. He shouldn’t feel rusty, but he probably is.
“You probably also know that my powers have been a little haywire sometimes too.”
“Oh trust me I’m well aware! And in case anything like that happens you can be in contact with me the entire time!” ‘He definitely came here knowing that something is going to go wrong.’
“I added a new chip into your limiters digitally. So now we can telepathically speak to each other, or at least I get your thoughts through a computer, from wherever we might be in the world!” ‘That’s going to be annoying to get rid of after this experiment.’
Saiki looked at his brother, briefly, before dropping his head back down to stare at the ground. If there were anytime to back out of this situation now would be it. Curiosity would be the death of Saiki.
“I teleport somewhere random and then come back as soon as I can?”
“That’s the plan!”
“Fine.”
It was a horrible idea, disastrous even, but when has Saiki’s life ever been peaceful or not chaotic? ‘That would be never.’
“Go as far away as you can. Just so that I can get a baseline.” Kusuke said with his ‘mad scientist’ smile.
‘You’ll be fine Kusuo.’
‘Oddly enough that makes me feel better? No, no time to think about that.’
Saiki put all his energy towards finding a spot far away, and then.
*Woosh!*
He’s gone.
. . .
At first it feels like every other time that Saiki has teleported he’s in a new place, no familiar surroundings, but he’s in the place that he imagined in his head. Except one thing is wrong, very wrong.
‘I’m in the air.’
Saiki is falling from the sky, ‘Because of course I am.’ from a very high altitude. He knew he wouldn’t really get hurt but with all the suddenness of the situation and being able to hear so many new people’s thoughts at once he gets… frazzled, to say the least.
‘This is not a good time for a migraine.’ But he already feels one coming on. He’s getting increasingly closer to the ground and is able to identify that he’s in some sort of city, and based on the amount of thoughts that are in English, he is also in the United States.
Saiki deploys his levitation, maybe a couple seconds too late since he’s already barreling towards what he thinks is the overhang of a parking garage. As he gets closer the thought of letting his levitation go tempts him. He can’t get seriously hurt so what’s the big deal?
‘Mom and dad are waiting at home… Well at least mom is. Let’s just get out of this unscathed and as quickly as possible.’
And with that Saiki makes a not so graceful landing on the roof of what he now knows is an, ‘Emergency Department?’
Before he can even think more about where he landed boiling hot pain, ‘Like the volcano’, shoots through he right ankle and he tumbles back into a sitting position on the overhang.
‘That’s definitely not good. That’s not good at all.’
Those are Saiki’s immediate thoughts before he hears a chorus of thoughts presumably coming from inside the hospital.
‘Did someone just land on the roof?’
‘I should be able to smoke a cigarette out here in peace.’
‘How many hours are left in this shift?’
‘I swear to fucking god if someone just ran over my bike again I’m going to lose it.’
All these voices are western, and yeah Saiki can understand because of auto translators, ‘This is the only time I'll thank you for it Kusuke.’, but he can also make people understand him since his projected telepathy applies to everyone.
Saiki scans his surroundings, there’s not a lot of time before people climb up to the top of this thing and get him down and there's not much to the top of what he now knows as the ambulance bay of… ‘What hospital even is this? It would be helpful if I could move my right leg at all but,’ after a brief hiss of pain Saiki concluded ‘moving is not an option right now.’
However even just by using telepathy for a couple of extra seconds he hears the name of the emergency department loud and clear.
‘The wait was so long everywhere else but I shouldn’t have expected anything better, I mean this is the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center…’
‘Good grief.’