Chapter Text
Saiki’s POV
“Saiki, I'm begging you! Use your power to get me a date with Aiko from Class Five!” Toritsuka put his hands together and bowed his head low. “Could you max out my likability score with Aiko? Please!”
This guy is helpless. As we stood in the middle of a hallway I backed up a bit. I was annoyed and slightly disgusted that he came to me so I could help him be more of a pervert to another girl.
The world will probably be better out without him here. I turned my back on him. All I was trying to do was get out of school and go home. Toritsuka being here ruined my mood and I wasn’t trying to get him to ruin my plans after school either.
I took one step forward before Hairo showed up. His smile and sweat made an appearance in front of us. “Saiki! You going home?” Hairo asked.
Hairo. Our class representative. The opposite of what Toritsuka is. Hairo is kind, supportive, determined, smart, athletic, and treats everyone equally. Everything Toritsuka is not.
Unfortunately I also can’t have Hairo stopping me from going home. So I made a plan to get rid of two birds with one stone.
“I’m off to tennis practice right now. What are you guys doing?” Hairo asked. I pushed Toritsuka in front of me by his shoulder and spoke for him. “Toritsuka said he’ll join you.”
“What?...” Toritsuka's face dropped. “Wait!” Toritsuka pushed away from me. “I’m not doing such a thing!” Toritsuka protested.
“You need some cleansing Toritsuka.” I argued. “I-! Fine! But only if you do me a favor!” He told me. Ugh, he doesn’t deserve a favor, but I already know he won’t let this go. “Fine.” I complied.
We ended up out on the field running laps around the track as a warm-up for practice. The whole time Toritsuka complained about it. “Why am I being forced to run? I hate running. I hate how tired and sweaty I get.”
“Three more laps guys! Come on, push! You’re almost there!” Hairo called out to the group. “Ugh! The only thing I hate more than running is men!” Toritsuka’s feet were slowly dragging behind with each heavy breath he gave out.
After the run, I stood off to the side of the tennis court. Toritsuka stood in the middle with his hands on his knees acting like he just ran a marathon. “Good job guys! Toritsuka! I believe in you! You did good too!” Hairo encouraged him as he stood in front of him.
“This… is… ridiculous…” Toritsuka said in between breaths. “I’m not joining this-” He suddenly stood up straight and looked at the tennis court right next to us.
That’s Aiko from class five! Toritsuka thought. “What is she doing here?” He mumbled. Hairo looked in the same direction. “Oh, that’s the girl’s tennis team. They practice next to us.” Hairo explained to him.
Toritsuka’s eyes lit up and the excitement in his body skyrocketed in a not so appropriate part of his body.
“Anyway, what did you mean by ‘this is ridiculous’?” Hairo looked back at Toritsuka. “I just meant that… I’m totally taking this seriously! Let’s make it to nationals!” He gave a grin to Hairo, putting his hands on his hips.
“Alright! That’s what I like to hear!” Hairo patted Toritsuka on the shoulder. Then Toritsuka ran away to go talk to Aiko and flirt with her. Hairo of course got upset and yelled at him to not idle talk during practice.
Then Hairo took Toritsuka to practice hitting some tennis balls. Hairo would throw one ball up and hit it towards Toritsuka, expecting him to hit it back so they could go back and forth, but each time the ball would just hit Toritsuka’s body with the full force of god himself. It was an awful sight to see.
Wow, I never thought he'd miss so many balls being thrown at him.
After some digging into getting to know what Aiko likes, and dislikes in guys, I figured perhaps I can help Toritsuka get Aiko to like him back. After all, Aiko likes guys who are losers and suck at things, and Toritsuka is the kind of guy she’s looking for.
If only Toritsuka can just trust me and let me guide him.
I went to a corner and sat down. Toritsuka was going to let a pro tennis player take control of his body to try and impress Aiko, who was watching by the fence, but I pulled the guy out before he could do anything.
Unfortunately Toritsuka is a little snitch and told Hairo I was sleeping.
Toritsuka kept trying to cheat as practice went on, but I made sure he didn’t go through with it. At the end he finally accepted to just play with his own skills, which weren’t much, since he was getting irritated that I kept interfering.
But I was fooled yet again. Because he ended up gaining skills from a pro tennis player without them possessing him.
What a pain. He just won’t let go of his powers for one second in his life.
Aiko got turned off by Toritsuka’s sudden ability to play tennis and walked away from the fence. “Hey did you see that!- Aiko? Hey! Where are you going?” Toritsuka ran to the fence to get her attention but she just gave a plain compliment and moved on.
Her walking away from him gave me the cue to also walk away and go home as well.
I told Hairo I wasn’t feeling well, even made my face look a little pale so I could go home without much of a fuss.
I dragged my feet as I made my way back home. I stared at the ground counting each piece of chewed up gum I found and seeing which one looked the oldest. So far I counted around 57 before I reached home, and most of them already look like black dots which told you they’ve been there for a good minute.
I took off my shoes and ran to my room as soon as I got home, trying to avoid my parents before dinner so I could get some peace and quiet to myself.
I laid on my bed listening to music. I put all my focus on the music, trying to drown out the sounds of people’s thoughts and my own. It used to work back then. When the loop restarted.
But lately the world got louder. More demanding.
Even since she came back I felt like the world was taunting me for my failure now more than ever.
Class Five this, Class Five that. Oh have you heard that someone got a perfect score in Class Five? Did you know so and so broke up and now they're dating someone from Class Five?
It’s like the universe is reminding me of who’s also in Class Five.
I don’t see her often, maybe just once a week. And that’s only by chance. Like today.
I decided to take a little restroom break since I drank a bit too much water during lunch, trying to get rid of the taste of the odd sandwiches we had. There was no one in the hallway on my way to the restroom so I was free to choose whichever restroom I wanted.
It was on my way out of the restroom that made me freeze.
When I opened the door I was about to turn and walk to my right when I noticed her. She was walking towards my direction. So I quickly got back into the restroom, hearing her footsteps get louder, then quieter, until she was gone.
A breath of relief is an understatement when I say I was glad she didn’t pay too much attention to me. Who knows what she’ll think when she sees me. I can’t afford her getting any ideas in her head.
I turned my music louder. It does no use to blocking people’s thoughts but it does make it easier to focus on the music more.
Mom knocked on the door asking if I was alright. “Yeah I’m fine. I’ll be down in a second."
I took off my headphones and slowly got out of my room, each step leading towards the dinner table.
As I got down to the table I sat across from dad. Mom just finished putting the rest of the food down so there wasn’t much waiting to be done.
“I do hope the crispy chicken came out alright. I think I over did it with the garlic seasoning.” Mom warned. “Don’t worry hon! I’m sure it turned out just perfect. You can never make a bad dish in my eyes.” Dad stroked her back, reassuring her.
Gross. I took a bite of the chicken and joined it with some rice.
“Yeah, I do think you over did it with the garlic mom.” I told her as I shoved another piece of chicken in my mouth. “Really!? So why do you keep eating it?” Mom asked.
“Oh Kusuo must be lying!” Dad scolded me. He then turned to mom. “He’s joking honey, he obviously thinks it’s good because he keeps eating it!” Dad pointed out as I finished my plate.
“Well you ate the chicken too. So you must know if I over did the garlic?” Mom asked dad.
I got up from the table and walked to the kitchen. “Of course you didn’t! Why do you think I’m telling you this? Honey, don’t worry about it. Just eat and enjoy the delicious food you made for us.” Dad encouraged her.
I cleaned my plate and quickly went up to my room. Leaving my parents to argue if the chicken was good or not.
Mom did actually put a little too much garlic but that didn’t mean it wasn’t good. I only said she over did the garlic so she knows how much to put on the next time she makes dinner again.
Once I got back to my room I decided to finish my homework and head into bed early.
I took out my assignments, a pencil, and got to work. I made sure every other answer was wrong so I’ll average a C, at max I’ll average a B-. Once I completed my homework I rechecked everything making sure my grade came out average.
I can’t risk getting any As or else the class might think I’m some genius, and that’ll be too much attention on myself. So getting Cs is my only goal in life right now.
I put away everything and headed to the shower, trying to deep clean myself from the torment of seeing her today. I should’ve tried harder to get her to change schools. Wait a pain, I can’t believe how unpredictable she is. A Nendou 2.0. Except she’s not dumb like him. It’s my fault that she has that ring I stupidly gave her when we were kids.
Stop.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Stop thinking about her. I got rid of her from my thoughts and continued with my shower. I can’t risk going back into a psychosis again.
Finally, at last, I got to get some sleep and forget about everything in my life.
Turning off the light and pulling the sheets up, I quickly got myself to fall asleep.
The only good thing that came out of the time loop is that I realized how much more peace I got from reality when sleeping. I don’t have to think, see, or feel any of my failures from stopping the volcano.
Sleep feels like a best friend whose only job is to get rid of the pain you’re feeling and let you rest, or like a knight, whose only purpose in their life is to protect you from harm. In this case from reality.
I know it might seem like an unhealthy habit of sleeping a lot, but I think it’s doing me a favor. Makes going through the day a little more bearable to handle.
Sometimes I wish I could sleep forever.