If Gods Could Bleed

It started with a headache.

The pink-haired psychic awoke bleary-eyed when his alarm went off. He didn't feel quite rested enough to contend to being awake just yet. With his hand he fumbled uncharacteristically along his nightstand until he found the blaring alarm and turned it off. 

As usual, being awake brought with it the onslaught of noise inside Saiki's head. The noise consisted of a hateful cacophony of hundreds of overlaying voices, barely distinguishable from each other.

Trying to ignore them, Saiki sighed and went to sit up. It was at this point that he took notice of the headache. It was like someone was trying to break his skull with a jackhammer. Though, Saiki thought, he doubted that using an actual jackhammer on him would even do enough damage to warrant the pain he was feeling now. He groaned. The slight vibrations coursing through his vocal cords brought a miniscule relief to the pain, but it was gone in an instant.

Saiki sat up and thought. Though headaches were not an unusual occurrence for the teenager, they usually went hand in hand with premonitions of doom. Through the fog of pain, he tried to think back on his dreams. He couldn't remember having any.

Did he have a premonition and had forgotten about it? Had the premonition been so short that is was basically non-existent? He knew that his premonitions varied in length. Often he could see the entire disastrous event happening in real time, other times he would only see the end result. Had his powers increased once more and the premonitions gotten shorter? He hoped not. Either way, there was nothing he could do about it at that moment. He would just have to be extra vigilant today, he thought to himself.

He got out of bed, feeling shaky and off-balance. Maybe he had gotten ill? That would make more sense. Lots of PK students had been ill that week, including the unstoppable chatterbox known as Akechi Touma, who had been (mercifully) absent for the last few days. With Saiki's luck, he had probably caught whatever Akechi had been carrying around. And yesterday's shenanigans would have just made it worse, Saiki thought to himself, remembering the day before.

It had been raining hard and he had gotten wet. To no fault of his own, he might add. Nendou and Kaidou had been fooling around on the way home after school. At some point the double-chinned nitwit had suddenly and without warning – or at least none that Saiki could think of - ripped Saiki's umbrella out of his hand and performed a severely unwarranted dance routine with both his own and Saiki's umbrellas. It had apparently been amusing enough for the blue-haired boy to let out a small uncivilized snort, but nothing more than that. Instead, Kaidou had quickly switched to berating Nendou for taking away Saiki's “protection from heaven's wrath” (Kaidou's words, not his) in the first place. He must have been looking pretty pitiful in his wet clothes, because afterwards Kaidou had fussed over him and had even enthusiastically agreed with Nendou's proposal to get out of the rain and into a warm ramen shop on the way home.

On any other day, he might have just left them there and continued on his merry way, but his parents were out celebrating the anniversary of their fourth date (don't ask) and there wouldn't be any dinner waiting for him that evening. So he had joined them and had gotten home hours later, still wet and cold.

He hadn't been able to use his pyrokinesis to dry himself off since Kaidou had been keeping a watchful eye on him the entire time and he wouldn't have been able to explain it away so easily.

Pyrokinesis! That's what he needed right now, he thought to himself, bringing himself back to the present. He would just burn away whatever virus had gotten into his system after yesterday's escapade, he thought, satisfied that he wouldn't have to worry about premonitions and possible doomsday scenarios any longer.

Saiki got out of bed, taking extra care to step out of reach of any flammable object in his vicinity (he did not want a repeat from last time). Using his pyrokinesis, he felt himself getting warmer and warmer until it felt like his own blood was starting to boil in his veins. While using his pyrokinesis was not exactly comfortable, he wondered how it must feel like to a normal person. Probably very painful, he thought to himself, getting momentarily distracted from the task at hand.

After a few seconds he reigned his pyrokinesis in, certain in his assessment that any virus he could have contracted would have been killed off already. To his dismay, he noted his headache was still very much present. Though no longer resembling a jackhammer, it now felt more like ice-picks were behind thrust into his gray matter. He was unsure if this was an improvement or not.

He should probably skip school today, he would have thought to himself had he been a regular teenager. But alas, he was not. His concerns about premonitions returning, he thought it best to just go through the usual motions and keep an eye open for possible dangers. Also, today was Friday, and if he didn't go to school, his friends would think he had gotten sick – really, what a idiotic notion – and would keep coming to his house to check in on him over the weekend, he thought, steadfast in his decision to go to school as not to ruin his perfectly quiet weekend. He got dressed in his PK uniform and walked downstairs to have breakfast.

Upon arriving in the kitchen, he nearly collapsed into his seat at the table, where his mother had already laid out breakfast for him. He had woken up tired and the use of his pyrokinesis had drained whatever energy he might have had left. Now he just felt exhausted.

Saiki looked up at his mother as she came to stand next to the table. She looked at him as if awaiting a response. Huh, he must have not heard her, he thought, he had probably been focussing too much on his own thoughts.

“Sorry Mom, what were you saying?” he sent to her via telepathy.

“I was asking if you wanted anything special for your breakfast, Kuu-chan,” Kurumi Saiki asked with a big smile on her face; she was a morning person. He shook his head, he didn't really feel hungry at all, the headache was making him feel slightly nauseous.

“Are you okay, Sweety? You're looking a little pale this morning,” she said.

“I'm fine, Mom. I'm just tired,” Saiki replied. No point in telling her about the headache, she would just worry. “Okay, hun,” she said, seeming satisfied with the vague response. 'He's a teenager after all, they're always tired', Saiki could hear her thinking.

He ended up eating a light breakfast, keeping to the milder foods like rice and buttered toast as not to upset his already queasy stomach. He even forewent the coffee jelly his mom had lovingly placed in front of him, which earned him another questioning glance from his mother and a range of surprised and slightly worried telepathic thoughts. Before she could put any of those thoughts into actual words, he shrugged and said “I have to get going if I want to catch up with my friends on the way to school,” while placing the coffee jelly back into the fridge.

It was a dirty move, he knew this, if not exactly untrue. Usually he would leave the house just late enough to miss his “friends” and yet still get to class on time, thus minimizing the amount of time he would have to spend socializing before class. But there was no way that his mother would protest now that she thought he was in a hurry to meet up with his friends. He felt almost guilty for bringing it up in the first place when he saw tears of joy running down her face.

If he left now he might actually run into them, which would also mean that his father would have no chance to try and persuade him (read: plead pathetically) to teleport him to work before he left for school. With that in mind, Saiki quickly said goodbye to his mother and left.

Having more time than usual to get to school, Saiki walked slowly, keeping his eyes low on the ground, counting on his telepathy to warn him of incoming annoyances. It was for that reason that he was thoroughly jostled out of his thoughts when a body barrelled into him from the side.

“Hey, Buddy!” came a voice. Nendou..... He should have known that god would punish him for trying to deceive his mother.

Saiki acknowledged the taller boy's presence with a nod, if not with words. At least his mind is mercifully quiet, he thought to himself just before Nendou started talking about some inane show he had been watching the night before. He kept a steady stream of commentary running until they were at school, where he suddenly pronounced he had to go take a dump before class and disappeared in the direction of the bathroom.

Saiki sighed inaudibly as he walked into class and sat at his seat, taking care not to slump down into his chair. Even though the fresh air from the walk had somewhat cleared his head, he still felt downright rotten. The entire world sounded muffled and he had trouble concentrating what the thoughts he was hearing via his telepathy were actually saying.

There were already a few people in the classroom when he got there, some chatting and others trying desperately to finish their homework before class started. Saiki sat, resting his head on his left arm and letting his eyes fall halfway closed. This way he could unobtrusively rest his head, yet outwardly he would look only bored rather than as tired as he was really feeling.

As time progressed, his classmates started trickling in one after the other. Hairo came in wearing his summer uniform, even though it was well into autumn, almost on the cusp of winter. He was sweating buckets already, as if he had run a marathon that morning, and knowing Hairo he probably had.

“Oh, hey, Saiki,” he greeted.

“Good morning,” Saiki greeted back telepathically, not wanting to turn his head out of the comfortable position it was in.

Any thoughts Hairo might have had were drowned in a sea of “oh wow's” that could be heard both telepathically as well as acoustically. Teruhashi brought with her an entire swarm of fans, some of whom he was certain went to other classes. Or was it a gaggle of fans? A murder? A gush? As much gushing as they're doing, it would be appropriate, Saiki thought to himself, trying vehemently to ignore their thoughts.

Yumehara and Mera – who had been chatting by the window – went to greet their glowing friend when she came in. Teruhashi's fanclub dissipated when they realized they were no longer holding their beloved's attention.

Kuboyasu came in, his shirtsleeves coated in a dark substance. Saiki decided he did not want to know if it really was motor oil like the reformed delinquent was proclaiming to the boys he was talking to, or another less innocent liquid entirely.

Just before the bell rang, Kaidou ran into class, looking flustered and grumbling under his breath about stupid teachers telling him how to wear his uniform, his thoughts already turning said teacher into a Dark Reunion spy, sent to observe him.

Ah, Matzusaki must be inspecting student uniforms at the entrance again, Saiki thought. Strange how he hadn't noticed earlier.

Aiura was talking to Miss Shima when they stepped into class, carrying a heavy stack of papers. She must still be trying to get on her good side after her last fortune telling episode a few days back, Saiki thought. The memory of the very public dressing-down the self-proclaimed psychic had gotten, brought an almost-smile to Saiki's face. She had intentionally emptied two entire ink bottles on the second floor corridor for “inspiration”. She had felt significantly less inspired when she had to spend an entire afternoon's worth of detention scrubbing away all the blue footprints her inspiration had produced.

Hmm, she might still be angry at him for not helping her. Still, he should ask her if she's seen any catastrophes in near future, Saiki though to himself, not really believing she would not have told him already had she seen anything of significance.

Nendou walked into class just as Miss Shima started the lesson, proclaiming loudly that this morning's breakfast burrito did not sit well with him, which of course earned him a collective groan from the class.

Classes went by slowly. Saiki's left arm had gone kind of numb after a while. Must have been because he was resting his head on it for most of the first class. The feeling hadn't yet dissipated and it was unnerving. Saiki kept his head down and focussed on his notes. He was glad that nobody asked him anything during class, because he honestly wouldn't have been able to tell them what the lesson had even been about. His headache had thankfully abated to a steady throb, but he was having trouble concentrating. He took notes, yet as soon as the words were written down, they seemed to lose their meaning.

He couldn't care less at that point, he just wanted to finish up school as inconspicuously as possible and go home and spend his weekend in silence. He almost regretted not bringing his telepathy cancelling ring with him to school, as the flood of thoughts he was hearing were only aggravating his already subpar state of mind. But his telepathy was the only thing that would warn him of potential dangers and he had to be on his guard. At least until he could talk to Aiura.

In the couple of minutes between the first and second period, Saiki was able to stagger out of his seat and corner Aiura before she could slip away and earn an extra few boot-licking points from Miss Shima.

Huh, for some reason he couldn't help but think of his dad for a moment there.

Aiura pouted when she saw him, but her thoughts revealed that she wasn't angry at him. “Eh, disasters?” she replied to his question, “no, I haven't see any. But I'll check during lunch break if you've got a feeling.” Saiki nodded. Aiura gave him a look. “You okay?” she asked.

“Yes,” he gave back telepathically, “just a headache.”

“Uhuh,” she agreed noncommittally, not looking convinced.

The bell for the second period rang and the noise pierced through Saiki's skull. He debated internally on whether it was worth it to destroy the bell alltogether just to get it to stop ringing, but ultimately decided against it, as he would just have to repair it again afterwards. What a pain, he thought, both metaphorically as well as literally.

The next three classes passed in similar fashion. There was a small uproar in the middle of the third period, when Saiko finally decided to “grace the lower classes with his presence”, as he called it. The teacher did not see it that way and he called it “oversleeping and getting late to class” instead. Saiki could hear the litany of curses being directed at their unsettlingly wealthy classmate, on his ostentatious attitude and his gall at appearing to class this late.

Even from Kuboyasu.

Especially from Kuboyasu.

One would think that someone who would often come late to class because of – ahem, air quotes – “bike troubles” would have a bit more sympathy for a classmember in the same situation. Evidently, Kuboyasu did no such thing. He even went on to complain about him to Saiki during the break between third and fourth period, out loud and audible enough for Saiko to hear if he had wanted to.

During the last class before lunch break, Saiki had come to the conclusion that he would check in with Aiura before lunch and then skip the rest of the schoolday. He didn't want to arouse unnecessary attention, but the situation was becoming untenable. He had almost blown up his desk when someone had sneezed earlier. Every sound brought with it a sharp, piercing pain to his head. The telepathic thoughts on the other hand had begun to coalesce into – what seemed to Saiki like – a viscous liquid. It felt to him like he was drowning in the sea of their collective thoughts. Yet at the same time he could barely keep them apart, he couldn't concentrate on one thought for long enough to assuage its meaning. It was like he was surrounded by white noise, smothering him.

Lunch break finally came. Saiki let out a relieved breath. Done, now he just had to meet Aiura and then he could go home. Maybe he'd go down to the bottom of the ocean for a bit, it's always nice and quiet there. Mhh... No, he would need to use his teleportation for that and even that sounded exhausting. Maybe he'd just go home and sleep off this headache. Yeah, that sounded nice.

Saiki got up out of his seat and had to catch himself on his desk as his vision suddenly grayed out and his knees threatened to buckle beneath him. Saiki stood there with his eyes closed as he waited for the dizzy spell to pass. He could hear his name passing through someone's thoughts, but couldn't make out who it belonged to. He opened his eyes and was glad to find the world as upright as he had left it. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the annoying interactions that were inevitably coming his way.

Oh look, there comes annoyance Number One, Saiki thought to himself as he saw Kaidou making his way to Saiki's desk.

“Heya, Saiki!” Kaidou proclaimed in a voice that warned Saiki that the next words out of his mouth would be nonsensical gibberish. “I sense you also perceive the cloud of dark energy permeating the school today,” said Kaidou, standing in an exaggerated pose and affirming Saiki's prior suspicions. “It has already infected the teachers and the students are next,” he continued, trying (and failing) to sound ominous.

“Huh, what are you talking about, Pipsqueak?” came a voice from behind. Annoyance Number Two, right on schedule. “There are no clouds in school,” said Nendou, sounding as dumb as ever.

“I'm speaking of Dark Reunion, of course,” Kaidou said with a haughty laugh, “they've been trying to infiltrate school for years now, so far I've been able to stop them with the power of the Justice Knights of Thunder.” Huh, was that a theme song? Where was it even coming from?

“Huh, thunder? I'm telling you, Kid, it's not raining inside school,” came Nendou's voice again.

“No! You're misunderstanding,” argued Kaidou, starting in on a long spiel of describing his imaginary arch nemesis to Nendou. Saiki decided he had heard enough. He turned around and moved towards the door, hoping to leave the bickering pair behind him.

Annoyances Three and Four came in the forms of Kuboyasu and Hairo, who caught up to him at the door. He had almost escaped, came the despairing thought. “Yo, Saiki? You heading over to the cafeteria?” asked Kuboyasu. Saiki nodded minutely, not wanting to move his head around too much. He had agreed to meet Aiura there; she would be of no use to him before she had lunch, the girl tended to be moodier than usual when she was hungry.

Saiki kept walking, the faster he got to the cafeteria, the faster he could sit down again.

“We should all bunny hop there together!” came Hairo's voice, which Saiki felt was fifty percent too loud and one hundred percent too enthusiastic.

“I'm pretty sure that would take too long, Hairo,” Kuboyasu replied casually, used to the other boy's antics. “Maybe you're right,” Hairo agreed, “after all, we need adequate time to have lunch and it's unhealthy to eat large meals too quickly.”

The corridor was filled with students, eagerly coming and going, chatting, laughing and alltogether making too much noise, at least in Saiki's opinion.

“Huh, Saiki? Are you feeling cold?” Hairo asked, looking over at Saiki, where he was walking beside Kuboyasu. Saiki had to suppress a flinch, not expecting to have the conversation directed at him. Saiki had been unconsciously rubbing his arm, trying to get the lingering numbness to go away.

“You are looking a bit peaky,” Kuboyasu joined in, taking a good look at him. Not wanting his friends to get any ideas, Saiki shook his head vehemently.

That was a mistake.

The resulting pain in his head made Saiki sway on his feet and he had to catch himself on the wall before he could stumble and fall. He didn't want that, it would only raise more attention and he had already piqued the curiosity of nearby students. He could hear their thoughts turning to their fellow student, wondering what was going on.

No doubt they would be all over him, asking questions and not leaving him alone.

Something was itching Saiki's face. He could feel drops of liquid trickling over his mouth and chin. Was he sweating? Or even worse, was he crying? He couldn't remember the last time he had cried, but he wouldn't stand for his classmates seeing him cry in the corridor like some child that had scraped its knee.

He brought a hand up to his face – the one that wasn't keeping him upright – trying to wipe the liquid off before anyone took notice.

Huh, that's strange, Saiki thought, looking in confusion at the streaks of bright red colour now covering his hand.

Hairo's face suddenly appeared before his eyes. He looked worried, Saiki realized.

Hairo's mouth was moving, but Saiki couldn't make out what he was saying. All sound had seemingly drowned out of the world. Saiki felt a hand grip his upper arm, steadying him further.

He turned his head to look at the hand, but in doing so the world suddenly tilted sideways and Saiki lost his hold on the wall. The hand on his arm couldn't keep him upright on its own, but it did slow his descent to the floor considerably. Instead of falling, Saiki merely slid down into a horizontal position.

It was much more comfortable than standing up, Saiki decided.

There was a coppery taste on his tongue, which he didn't like, especially since it was not helping his already upset stomach. But otherwise, it was quite peaceful like this, Saiki thought to himself. It was his last though before succumbing to the darkness.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Hairo hadn't realized that something was genuinely wrong until it was too late.

Saiki had seemed his usual self when Hairo had greeted him that morning. As for the breaks between classes, Hairo had used this time to get in some extra sit-ups to stimulate his circulatory system. It was said to help you keep up your concentration levels during class, so he did it any chance he got.

As far as Hairo could remember, Saiki had remained sitting in his chair for most of the time between classes, though he did speak with one of the girls at some point.

When he and Kuboyasu had met up with Saiki at the classroom door after the bell for lunch break had rung, Hairo still hadn't sensed anything wrong. Saiki had even responded in the affirmative when Kuboyasu asked if he was heading to the cafeteria as well. Well, he hadn't responded out loud, but Saiki was just quiet like that. Saiki rarely ever went to the cafeteria, choosing mostly to stay in class to eat his bento. Either that or he'd disappear before anyone could look twice. Saiki could be surprisingly fast if he wanted.

I really should try to talk him into joining the school's track team, Hairo thought to himself, he'd be a great addition.

It was in the corridor that Hairo had felt the first stirrings of worry for his friend. Hairo had been chatting to Kuboyasu, when he saw Saiki rubbing his arm.

“Huh, Saiki? Are you feeling cold?” he asked.

Saiki had already switched to his winter uniform and was wearing his long sleeved shirt and a jacket. And that even though it had barely just turned autumn, Hairo thought. Looking around, Hairo had realized that most other students had already switched uniforms as well, making him the odd one out. But Hairo had already decided he would wear his summer uniform as long as he could, the long sleeves of his winter shirt always felt uncomfortably tight around his biceps. He also felt bad for making his parents pay for a new shirt each time the sleeves ripped due to his muscles straining the fabric too much.

Right now, he was regretting not having at least brought his jacket with him. He had nothing that would help Saiki to warm up. Cardiovascular exercises always made him feel better when he got cold, Hairo thought and was just about to suggest as much when Kuboyasu interjected that Saiki was looking a bit peaky. Hairo gave Saiki a look and had to agree with Kuboyasu. He did look a bit off. Saiki's expressionless face didn't give much away, but he was looking a bit pale. Paler than usual, that is. He had also been walking pretty slowly up till now.

Saiki shook his head vehemently and that's when the situation had started to deteriorate.

Saiki swayed on his feet and stumbled sideways, catching himself on the wall. “Woah, Saiki, are you okay?” Hairo asked. Saiki didn't respond. He was facing away from them, but Hairo could see him reaching for his face.

Hairo knew that the other boy didn't like other people invading his personal space, but after a heartbeat's worth of deliberation, he decided that the current situation warranted the invasion.

He went to stand in front of Saiki and that's when he noticed the blood dripping from Saiki's nose.

“You're nose is bleeding,“ Hairo said, stating the obvious and hoping to elicit some kind of response from the boy. None came. Instead, Saiki was staring down at his hand. His normally expressionless face was awash with confusion.

“Maybe we should get you to the nurse,” Hairo suggested.

Saiki didn't even acknowledge him. Hairo knew Saiki was a quiet guy, but his complete lack of response was starting to unnerve him. Hairo gripped Saiki's upper arm. Saiki acknowledged the touch by turning his sight away from his own hand and looking down at the hand that was gripping him.

Having known Saiki for quite some time, Hairo didn't think the boy would appreciate the prolonged physical contact. Just before Hairo could let go of him, Saiki apparently lost his grip on the wall and gravity pulled his entire weight downwards.

Hairo – gripping Saiki's arm more firmly now – slowed his fall and deposited him on the floor as gently as he could. Hairo immediately crouched down beside him.

“Woah,” came from Kuboyasu, coming closer after seeing Saiki lose his balance and slide down onto the floor. “Hey man, what's going on?” he asked, bending over the two of them. But Hairo didn't answer, he was focussing on Saiki.

“Saiki, are you hurt? Saiki, can you hear me?” he asked. Saiki's eyes were closed behind his glasses and he wasn't answering.

Saiki looks pretty out of it, Hairo thought to himself. He looked around. Students in the corridor were starting to stop and stare at the spectacle.

Alright, this is officially an emergency, he said to himself, and in an emergency we do things slow, orderly and silent.... No, wait that was for fire drills. Focus, Kineshi! He took a deep breath. Okay, first things first, stay calm and get help.

He looked up at Kuboyasu. “Aren, go to the school nurse and bring her back here,” he said in a steady voice, leaving no room for arguments. Kobuyasu looked like he wanted to protest, but seeing the look on his friend's face, he nodded, got up and left in a jog in the direction of the nurse's office.

Hairo looked down at Saiki again. Rivulets of blood were still running steadily from his nose. There was a myriad of small dark patches on his shirt where drops had fallen on it earlier.

Alright, next course of action: check vital signs. This was easily done. He could see Saiki's chest moving up and down from where he was crouching next to him.

Next step: get him into the recovery position. Hairo knew that Saiki had had fainting spells before – like the one during the sport's event – and he didn't want to overreact to the situation, but he had always felt better playing it safe rather than sorry. So, he put Saiki in the correct position, going through the steps in his head and making sure Saiki's airways were free and that the blood from his nose wouldn't gather in his mouth.

Saiki didn't stir as Hairo moved him, but his glasses were starting to slip off his face, which was now facing sideways. Hairo took Saiki's glasses off, not wanting them to fall and break. Saiki was attached to the green-tinted glasses for some reason unknown to Hairo – he wasn't one to judge – but he'd make sure that his friend didn't loose something dear to him.

I don't think I've ever seen him look this peaceful before, Hairo thought, looking down at Saiki's face. If it weren't for all the blood coating his face and the fact that he was laying unconscious in the school hallway, the scene might even have been pretty adorable.

Kuboyasu returned, interrupting any further ruminations Hairo might have had on the boy laying on the ground next to him. Kuboyasu looked tense and it was clear that he had jogged all the way back, going by the layer of perspiration visible on his face.

Moments later the school nurse arrived with Mr. Matzusaki in tow. Hairo stood up and stepped away from Saiki's side.

The nurse started asking what had happened while taking the recently evicted spot next to the unconscious boy. Hairo told her everything that had transpired since they had walked out of the classroom together.

Meanwhile, Mr. Matzusaki had started shooing away the crowd of spectators that had been forming. Kuboyasu took this as his cue to join in and scare them off, his former gang leader persona taking over in the heat of the moment. Most of them disappeared very quickly after that.

The nurse spoke up after checking Saiki over. “Matzusaki-san,” she said, her voice loud enough to be heard over the terrified screams of students being chased away. Mr. Matzusaki turned away from where he was trying to hold back Kuboyasu from going after the other students.

“I need you to call for an ambulance right away,” she said.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Kuboyasu was no stranger to blood and injuries.

He had attended the mandatory first aid crash course (no pun intended) for when he and the guys had gotten their bike licenses over summer break, sure, but his skills had really come from years worth of first-hand experience.

As leader, it had been his responsibility to look out for his gang and sometimes that meant fixing up a couple of them after a brawl gone bad. It hadn't always been just scrapes and bruises either. Trips to the emergency room hadn't been so unusual. After all, Kuboyasu had still been just a kid and sometimes things had gotten too messy for him to handle on his own. Hell, he had ended up in the hospital quite a few times himself.

So there was no good reason for him to freak out when he heard the nurse telling Mr. Matzusaki to call for an ambulance.

He had seen Saiki stumble and catch himself the wall on their way to the cafeteria. He had been slightly surprised, his quiet friend wasn't known for being clumsy. Even when Saiki's knees had buckled and he had slid onto the floor, Kuboyasu still hadn't felt the need to panic. Saiki had fainted before and he had been fine after a few minutes. This time would be no different, he thought to himself.

When Hairo told him to go get the school nurse, he wanted to protest at first, not wanting to make a mountain out of a molehill. He knew Saiki didn't like being at the centre of attention and when he woke up (which he would in few minutes, no doubt), he wouldn't appreciate their overprotective actions.

He'd probably wake up before the nurse got here anyway, he thought to himself. He was just about to say as much, but the look on Hairo's face made him swallow his words. He looked worried.

He knew Hairo could be overly passionate about.... well, anything and everything really and he had the tendency to overreact sometimes. But there was a reason he was the class representative. Hairo cared deeply for his fellow classmates and if Hairo believed this to be the right course of action, Kobuyasu would do his damnest to help. He nodded to Hairo and left in a jog towards the nurse's office.

The door was closed when he got there. He contemplated knocking first, but decided he would rather forgo the usual pleasantries and if he did end up intruding, rather ask for forgiveness afterwards.

Thankfully, the nurse had no other patients and was sitting at her desk reading a file. She looked slightly peeved at the sudden disturbance, but as soon as Kuboyasu mentioned that a student had collapsed on the second flood corridor, her demeanor changed. She got up, collecting her first aid kit and telling him to go ahead, saying she'd be right there.

He had only just left the nurse's office and had started to jog back, when he ran into Mr. Matzusaki. Quite literally too. Mr. Matzusaki had looked just about ready to start reprimanding him on running in the hallways, when Kuboyasu interjected that his friend had collapsed and that he had just informed the school nurse about it. Upon hearing this, he decided to tag along. Matzusaki-san might be strict, but he's always there if his students need him, Kuboyasu thought, being pleasantly reminded of a former gang leader of his, back before he had started his own group.

Kuboyasu eventually got back to Hairo and Saiki, with Mr. Matzusaki and the school nurse in tow. He had hoped to find Saiki up and about on returning. But the boy was still unconscious, the only difference being that he was now laying on his side instead of his back as he had been before.

Oh yeah, he had learned something about that in the first aid course. Hairo must have rearranged him that way. Good thinking, Hairo, he applauded innerly.

The school nurse crouched down to check over Saiki, while Mr. Matzusaki began addressing the students that had gathered around.

“Alright, no reason to stand around here gawking. Get back to your classrooms and give us some space here,” Mr. Matzusaki said loudly to all the students in the vicinity. Only upon hearing this did Kuboyasu even take notice of the other students. They were all just standing there, far enough away not to interfere, but close enough to have a good view on what was happening.

That pisses me off, he thought to himself angrily, his hands subconsciously balling into fists. Nosy brats! What do they think this is, some kind of spectator sport?! He stepped closer to the crowd, knowing that the look on his face would betray his murderous intentions and hopefully drive some of them off in fear.

It worked pretty well for the most part, with some of the students retreating backwards in the universal “I'm not a threat” stance and others letting out actual screams of terror and running off as soon as they saw his scowl. A handful of students apparently didn't know how to take a hint and still lingered. Kuboyasu was just about to get them to rethink their attitude with the help of his fists, when Mr. Matzusaki held him back, foreseeing the potential of a fistfight breaking out and wanting to nip it in the bud. Mr. Matzusaki turned to the nurse when she called his name.

“I need you to call for an ambulance right away,” the nurse said calmly yet confidently, with the voice of a professional, trained for situations like these.

Kuboyasu felt himself go cold at those words.

He was shocked.

He may have been used to blood and injuries, but this was Saiki. Unflappable, quiet, coffee jelly-loving Saiki. His friend. Nothing bad was supposed to happen to him.

Mr. Matzusaki took off in the direction of the teacher's lounge to call emergency services, but Kuboyasu didn't notice. He was looking down at Saiki, laying on the ground. If it wasn't for the blood still dripping from his nose and onto the floor, he could have assumed that he was just sleeping peacefully.

Seeing Saiki's closed eyes, Kuboyasu realized that he was no longer wearing his characteristic green glasses. He looked around and saw them in Hairo's hand, being gripped tightly. Now that Hairo no longer had to take charge over the situation, he looked strangely lost. Kuboyasu went to Hairo's side silently, the physical closeness being enough of a reminder to both of them that they weren't alone.

The ambulance arrived shortly after.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Saiki awoke to a faint beeping sound.

He could feel himself laying on his back. It was a very comfortable position and he wasn't planning on moving any time soon.

Beep Beep

His eyes were closed, but Saiki could sense that there was a dim light on the other side of his eyelids. He decided he wouldn't open them just yet.

Beep Beep

He could hear a scuffling sound, like shoes on a linoleum floor, and somewhere further away the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Beep Beep

In his half-asleep state, Saiki was starting to get confused, frown lines showing on his face. Why was he hearing these things?

Beep Beep

His bedroom didn't sound like this. Neither did his bed feel this soft.

Beep Beep

There, the sound of a cart being wheeled around. Where was he?

Saiki took a deep, fortifying breath, giving up on the notion that he wouldn't have to wake up at some point soon. The air he breathed smelled faintly of disinfectant.

Beep Beep

And that beeping sound was getting kind of annoying as well. What even was that?

Actually, why was he hearing it at all? Normally his telepathy would drown out most sound first thing in the morning...

Saiki opened his eyes abruptly, only to close them immediately afterwards. He had accurately predicted that there would be light awaiting on the other side, but he had not been accurate in predicting its luminosity apparently. He brought a hand up to his face, wanting to cover his eyes and block out the light he could still feel radiating around him.

Movement was slow and clunky – there was something attached to his arm, making him clumsier – but when his hand eventually got there, he could make out a thin but hard object running across his face, just below his nose.

Nothing was making sense.

Beep Beep Beep Beep

He was probably dreaming. Yeah, that was it. He was still asleep and this was one of those dreams wherein he would wake up to find his powers having miraculously disappeared overnight. He had those sometimes. How childish.

Beep Beep Beep

He brought his hand back down onto the bed again. He could feel the rough material beneath his arm.

He would be waking up soon. Any time now.

He heard a door open and close softly. Footsteps, then a sigh. Someone was walking to the foot of the bed and picking something up. A click and then scratches. They were writing something. Saiki could feel them coming up to the side of the bed, fiddling with something there.

Saiki opened his eyes once more, cautiously this time. The world was slightly less garishly bright. There was a person standing next to the bed, wearing a white lab coat. A doctor?

They looked up from the clipboard they were studying to fiddle with another piece of equipment. Saiki recognized that face.

Kusuke?

Now he knew he had to be dreaming. Kusuke was in England. It couldn't be him.

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep

The Kusuke-lookalike looked over to the other side of the bed where the machine had suddenly started beeping faster. He noticed Saiki staring up at him. The doctor's previously vacant expression morphed into one of cautious curiosity. He sat down lightly at the edge of the bed, clipboard still in his hand, taking care not to jostle Saiki. “Kusuo?” he asked in a deliberately mild voice. “Kusuo, can you hear me?”

Saiki looked up at him.

He wasn't wearing his Telepathy Canceler. Kusuke always wore his Canceler around Saiki.

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep

“Kusuo,” said the suspiciously like Kusuke-looking doctor, “calm down and breathe, everything is going to be alright.” The doctor looked up at the beeping machine worriedly.

His brother never looked worried. Scratch that, his brother never got worried. This was too much.

Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep

His not-brother had started talking again, but Saiki couldn't hear what he was saying. Why wouldn't he wake up?

The beeping machine started blaring, the noise hurt Saiki's head. Everything was too much.

More people were entering the room now, running up to the bed. Saiki closed his eyes.

He was breathing heavily at this point, but it didn't feel like any oxygen was getting into his lungs. He could have sworn he was drowning in air. The world was starting to sound muffled.

Saiki felt the doctor's weight lifting off the bed. The next moment he felt someone take hold of his right arm. He flinched and tried to pull back, but his arm wouldn't budge. He brought his other arm up, intending to push the grabbing hands off him, but his arm was pushed down onto the bead, immobilized. Tears of frustration were running down his face.

This was no dream, Saiki concluded, it was a nightmare.

A sudden coldness was running up his veins, originating from his right arm. Saiki could feel the darkness encroaching upon his consciousness. He didn't fight it.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

The next time Saiki woke, it was to silence.

He was laying on his back, looking up at a ceiling that he could barely make out. The room was darker than it had been before. I'm still in the room, then? the thought drifted into his consciousness unwittingly.

His memories were a tangled mess, but his thoughts felt more focussed than they had earlier. He vaguely remembered his brother having been there when he woke up last time. But where exactly is here anyway?

He let out a frustrated sigh and made to rub his hand over his face. He didn't get far. Both of his arms had been fastened to the bed. Alright, stay calm, there has to be an explanation for all of this.

He pulled at the restraints. They had quite a bit of leeway, so could still move his arms around a bit. That was good. But he couldn't get out of them. Okay, not as good.

There was something hard laying on the bed next to his right hand. He picked it up and looked down at it. It was a remote controller with a single button in the middle, the word “NURSE” was emblazoned upon it. A nurse call button? So, he was in a hospital then.

But how did he get here? And more importantly, why weren't his powers working?

He decided not to push the button yet. He had to get a grip on the situation before anything else happened. He wasn't used to being this out of his element.

Alright, his powers weren't working. Was he certain?

Well, his head was uncharacteristically silent, so his telepathy definitely wasn't working.

His germanium ring! Saiki thought with relief, he must be wearing it. Saiki looked down at his hands, struggling to make out their shape in the dim light. He rubbed his fingers together trying to feel his way instead. The feeling of relief disappeared as quickly as it had come. No, he wasn't wearing his ring.

Next one: superstrength. The restraints should have snapped easily when he had pulled on them. So superstrength was a no-go.

What about his psychokinesis? He tried moving the remote with his mind. It just lied there, mockingly. Guess that's a “no” then.

Pyrokinesis? He tried.

Well, he wasn't on fire. But then again, neither was the room. Might not have been the best power to try out in an enclosed space.

Damn, his powers really aren't working.

...But wait, if Kusuke really had been here, then he could have something to do with that. Right?!

It would make more sense than his powers just disappearing out of the blue at least.

Back to the other question: What was he doing at a hospital?

Saiki couldn't remember how he came to be there. The last thing he remembered was getting up in the morning with a headache.

The headache! Had it been a premonition after all? He couldn't remember anything that had happened afterwards. Had something happened at school....Had he even gone to school? He knew that the answers were there, but they were just out of reach, the memories slipping out of his grasp like trying to grip coffee jelly with your fingers.

This was getting him nowhere. Maybe the room itself could provide a few hints to his situation. Saiki looked about the room, he could make out a nightstand on the left-hand side of the bed, a white plastic cup and a bottle of water were standing on top of it. Beside it stood a piece of medical equipment with a large monitor on the front, it seemed to be switched off. To his right, there was a tall, metal pole with a bag of transparent liquid attached to it at the top. An IV-stand, Saiki realized. A thin tube reached down from the bag, all the way to the bed. Looking down, he could see it was attached to his arm. He went to touch it with his other hand, but was stopped. Ah yes, still restrained.

There was a door a few meters away from the foot of the bed, light was shining out from beneath it. Every now and then a shadow would move past the door, creating a momentary absence of light.

His eyes were slowly becoming accustomed to the darkness and he could make out more of the room.

There was a window a few meters to his right, with closed curtains. No light streamed out from behind it. Must be night. How long have I been here?

Shaking off the thought, Saiki turned his attention to the other side of the room. There were two wooden chairs by the wall, a small, low table positioned between them. Further down the wall, there was a closet and another door. Whatever lay behind it was shrouded in darkness. Looking back up at the nightstand, Saiki could now make out a vase with yellow flowers standing behind the bottle and cup. Next to it was a pair of green glasses.

Huh, right, he wasn't wearing his glasses. That was bad.

If someone came into the room now, them turning into stone would be a dead give-away for his powers.

….If that power even worked, that is. According to the current trend, it shouldn't.

Hadn't there been people in his room earlier? Kusuke had been there (right?!) and he hadn't turned into stone. Frowning, Saiki tried to remember whether he had been wearing his glasses then, but couldn't.

Saiki huffed, pushing his head back into his pillow. Not being able to remember was annoying, Saiki thought, and also slightly disconcerting, but he wouldn't admit that to anyone else. Saiki laid back, closing his eyes once more, hoping that when he opened them again, the world would start to make sense. That wasn't asking too much, was it?

With his eyes closed, Saiki's sense of hearing picked up, making up for the lack of visual cues. He could hear people talking in the distance. If he concentrated, he could even make out the sound if a child crying. Despite that, it was peaceful. Saiki wasn't used to the silence in his head. He had only used his germanium ring for special occasions, the resulting lack of telepathy creating an entire world of Nendou's hadn't seemed a fair exchange most other times. Saiki wasn't usually one to look a gifted horse in the mouth... Except if that horse had come from Kususke, in which case his X-ray vision would tell him more than he ever wanted to know about said horse. So despite all the confusion surrounding his current predicament, Saiki decided just to enjoy the momentary respite, certain in the knowledge that it wouldn't last long.

Saiki was feeling tired despite having only just woken up minutes earlier. Thinking that maybe taking another nap might be in order, he cuddled into his pillow. Something was missing, flitted the passing thought through his half-asleep mind. He rubbed his head into the pillow from side to side, trying to get more comfortable.

He opened his eyes, shocked into sudden awakeness when he realized what it was that was distracting him.

The small pin-pricks of not-quite-pain that he connected with his antennae were missing.

He wasn't wearing his Limiters. Saiki could feel his breathing speeding up.

This was bad, this was really, really bad. He realized he was starting to panic. He tried to calm himself down. Okay, the world hasn't exploded yet, so it can't be that bad. No point in getting worked up about it.

He laid there for a few minutes, taking deep breaths purposefully. His mind eventually stopped racing and he could feel his heart rate slow down to a more average level.

Saiki was still feeling tired, but now sleep was far from his mind. He was getting more restless as time progressed. And, quite honestly, he was getting a bit bored. Saiki picked up the remote with his right hand, the restraints thankfully having enough leeway for him to do so. After some deliberation, he pushed the call button.

And then he waited.

Less than a minute had passed when someone opened the door, which Saiki had been staring at in trepidation. The person stepped into the room and touched a panel on the wall. The room lit up suddenly, bringing with it a short stab of pain to Saiki's head. He had to squint through the brightness.

The person-shaped blotch of colour closed the door and walked towards Saiki, stopping at the foot of the bed to retrieve something. Saiki's vision was returning. The person was wearing a white coat and navy blue scrubs underneath. He could make out that the person was a man, in – what Saiki guessed must have been – his late forties. He had brown hair, which were dusted throughout with streaks of gray, and a friendly bespectacled face.

Spectacles? That reminded him, he wasn't wearing his glasses and the man hadn't yet turned to stone. Huh.

The man came to stand on Saiki's right. He was smiling down at him gently.

“It's good to see you awake, Saiki-kun”, he said. “I am Dr. Yashida. You're in the Hidari Wakibara Hospital. You were admitted here three days ago after you collapsed at school.”

Three days? He had missed his quiet weekend. Typical. The thought came unbidden.

Still, Saiki couldn't remember any of that happening. Some of the confusion must have shown on his face, because the doctor continued: “Do you remember your activities leading up to your collapse?” Saiki shook his head.

Dr. Yashida took out pen from his coat pocket and wrote something down on the clipboard he was holding.

When he stopped, he looked back at Saiki with a comforting expression. “Not to worry, temporary memory lapses aren't unusual in these types of cases.”

He looked down at where Saiki's arms lay on the bed. “Do you perhaps remember waking up in this room before?” he asked hopefully. Saiki vaguely remembered what he had assumed at the time must have been a strange dream. He nodded carefully.

“You worked yourself into quite a state, we had to restrain you to keep you from inadvertently hurting yourself,” he said, indicating at the restraints, “if you want, I can take them off now.” Saiki nodded vigorously, his mood brightening slightly at the prospect of having his mobility restored. The doctor huffed out a quiet laugh at the boy's enthusiastic response and proceeded to open the restraints with the aid of a small metal object he had taken out of his pocket.

As soon as the restraints were off, Saiki moved his hands together to rub at his wrists. They didn't hurt, but it had been getting slightly uncomfortable keeping them in the same position for so long.

The doctor continued: “Tell me, are you in any pain at the moment?” Saiki took a moment to take stock of his body. Apart from the bright light, that had hurt his head for a moment earlier, he didn't feel any pain. He shook his head. “Good,” said Dr. Yashida, scribbling down further notes on his clipboard. “You're still receiving a good dose of pain medication,“ he said, indicating at the IV-tube connected to his arm, “it might make your head feel a bit woozy, but otherwise you seem to be handling it just fine.”

The doctor moved to the IV-stand, adjusting the settings and scribbling notes down.

“You're being very quiet, Saiki-kun,” he said cautiously, still checking his notes. “Are you having trouble speaking?

“I'm fine,” Saiki replied telepathically.

Dr. Yashida turned to him. “Saiki-kun?” he asked, looking up from his notes and focussing on Saiki's face. “I asked whether you were having trouble speaking.”

Of course, his telepathy wasn't working. Good grief, now he was required to actually speak out loud. This day just couldn't get any worse.

“I'm fine,” Saiki tried replying out loud this time, but the words caught in his throat, sending him into a coughing fit.

The doctor quickly reacted. He went over to the other side of the bed, discarding the clipboard on the way there. He picked up the bottle of water from the nightstand and poured some into the little plastic cup. He held it out to Saiki, who – still coughing – reached for it clumsily with both hands. Saiki hadn't realized how parched he had been until the cool water flooded his mouth. He groaned in satisfaction, taking in another mouthfull. “Small sips, now,” the doctor cautioned him. Saiki decided to ignore the warning, only to regret it moments later when some of the water in the cup didn't make it into his mouth in time and spilled out over his neck and chest.

He really shouldn't drink laying down, Saiki thought.

The doctor moved away in the direction of the previously unopened door by the closet. He disappeared inside and returned moments later, a small towel in hand.

Must be a bathroom then, Saiki deduced.

The doctor took the now empty cup out of Saiki's hands and handed him the towel. The coughing having subsided, Saiki tried saying “thanks,” but it came out sounding more like “...ks.” Saiki patted himself down with the towel, noticing for the first time that he was wearing a hospital gown.

And a rather ugly one at that.

“You feeling better now?” the doctor asked. Saiki nodded.

Saiki was still drying off his face when the towel caught slightly on an object running beneath his nose. Saiki took away the towel, bringing up his other hand to feel it out. It seemed to be a plastic tube running across his face.

The doctor saw Saiki touching along the nasal cannula curiously. “That's connected to the oxygen supply, it would be best if you kept it on for the time being,” he said. Saiki took his hand away.

He was feeling sleepy again, the interaction with another person having worn him out surprisingly quickly.

“You never answered the question,” Dr. Yashida said, trying to get Saiki's attention, whose eyelids were starting to feel rather heavy. “Whether you were having issues with your voice?” he encouraged. Saiki shrugged, not bothering to even try and give an actual answer. He just wanted to go back to sleep.

“Alright, you rest for a bit,” the doctor said, acknowledging defeat. He picked up the clipboard and headed towards the door. Saiki was asleep before the doctor could even turn off the lights.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

The next time Saiki woke, daylight was shining through the window.

There were people in the room with him. He could hear them talking to each other.

“….responding well to the medication. The fact that he woke last night is a sign of definite improvement, Saiki-san,” he heard someone saying.

“I'm so glad to hear that,” a high-pitched female voice replied, “It's just so strange seeing him like this. Kusuo has always been such a light sleeper, it must have been years since I've seen him asleep.”

“Please, try not to worry, Saiki-san. It's completely normal for patients to be knocked out for a few days after the kind of surgery your son went through,” a male voice said.

Saiki opened his eyes. He was laying on his back, his head facing towards the window and away from the room's other occupants. He turned his head around sleepily. He saw his mother sitting on one of the chairs, listening to the man sitting opposite her.

He looked familiar, Saiki thought casually.

Saiki stayed in that position for a few minutes, trying to listen to the hushed conversation, but not really being able to pick up anything meaningful.

Actually, he was starting to get thirsty. He swallowed, his tongue felt as rough as sandpaper and it had an unpleasant taste to it. He brought his left arm up to the nightstand, intending to pick up the plastic cup that was still standing there. His arm refused to listen to him properly and caused the – thankfully empty – cup to fall over instead. Hearing the noise, the others quickly got up from where they were sitting and moved to his side. His mother set the cup upright, poured him a drink and handed him the cup. Having learnt his lesson last time, Saiki tried sitting up before drinking. The man, whom Saiki recognized as Dr. Yashida, came over to the other side of the bed and helped him scoot back until his back hit the pillow. Saiki drank his fill, slower this time, and handed the cup back to his mother gratefully.

“How are you feeling, Kuu-chan?” his mother asked.

“I'm fine,” Saiki started to say telepathically, until he remembered that she wouldn't be able to hear him.

“..mh..ine” he ended up muttering, to his dismay.

Dr. Yashida turned to his mother. “He had the same kind of trouble articulating himself last night. It's not all too surprising, aphasia is one of the more common outcomes of a stroke.”

...Wait, what?

“Oh no, my little Kusuo just isn't used to talking with words,” Kurumi Saiki objected.

She very quickly realized what she had said and started to talk her way back to the confused looking doctor. “Uh, what I mean is, he's always been such a very quiet child.”

“Oh, I see,” Dr. Yashida replied awkwardly. Kurumi let out a relieved sigh.

Well, at least that answers the question of whether Dr. Yashida knew anything about his powers.

“Oh, Sweety, we've all been so worried about you,” Saiki's mother said, sounding upset. “We got a call from the school on Friday saying that you had collapsed and were at the hospital. Your dad and I came over as soon as we could and they said that you were in surgery.” She had tears in her eyes at this point. “We called Kusuke and he came over on the first flight back to Japan. He's been working with the doctors here ever since, but then....then you wouldn't wake up....and.....and....” The rest of her story was lost to sobbing. Saiki, never liking it when his mother cried, held up his left hand. He wasn't a fan of physical touch, but for the sake of comforting his mother, he would endure it. Kurumi sat down on the edge of the bed and gently took the offered hand between both of hers, crying softly.

Wanting to give his mother a few minutes to calm down, Saiki looked over at Dr. Yashida.

“...usuke ..ow?” Saiki tried to ask.

Dr. Yashida thankfully understood. “Oh, Kusuke-sensei?” He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “Well, I don't know how well you remember it, but when you woke up the first time after the surgery, you had a bit of a panic attack. Your brother was there with you and ever since then he refused to stay in the room for long, insisting that being there when you woke up would be detrimental to your state of mind.”

That's surprisingly considerate of him, if unwarranted this time.

Dr. Yashida continued. “He's most likely in one of the labs downstairs. Do you want me to go get him for you?” he asked, probably hoping to find a reason to leave until his mother had collected herself.

Saiki nodded and Dr. Yashida left. He looked over to his mother, whose sobs had thankfully dissolved into sniffles and hiccups. He continued staring at her while she calmed down. He kept expecting his X-ray vision to strike and display her musculatory system instead of her exterior, but it never did.

“I'm just so glad you're okay, Kuu-chan,” she said eventually. Her face was red from crying, but she had a genuine-looking smile plastered on her face. “Ever since you were a little boy, you never got hurt. And with your powers, me and Papa never thought anything bad would ever happen to you.” At this she jumped up off the bed.

“I should call your Papa, I promised I would as soon as you woke up,” she said, wiping a hand over her face. “I'll be right back, Kuu-chan.” She gave him a quick peck on the head and left the room quietly.

Saiki was alone. For which he was very grateful. He needed a few minutes to sort his thoughts.

Had he heard Dr. Yashida correctly, he'd had a stroke?

That was....a lot to take in. He had so many questions...And no way to ask them. Having to rely on spoken words all of the sudden instead of his telepathy was frustrating to say the least. It wasn't easy to brush aside 16 years worth of telepathic experience. There has to be a better way to go about this.

Saiki flinched when the door suddenly swung open, the sound pulling him back into reality from where he had been sitting on his bed, lost in thought.

Seriously, did no one bother knocking anymore?

A figure barged in.

Even without his powers Saiki could sense who it was before he had even turned his head. He only knew one person whose ego was so big that it made the room feel uncomfortably crowded as soon as they stepped in.

“Kusuo!” shouted the figure, somehow able to stretch the name beyond its regular three syllables.

Oh, good grief.

The figure was at his side within moments. “I heard you were asking for me, Kusuo. Well, not to worry, your onii-san is here now to take care of you,” Kusuke said looking positively gleeful.

A few seconds later Dr. Yashida trailed into the room behind him, seeming slightly out of breath. He closed the door behind him, which had been standing wide open.

They must have run all the way up here, Saiki thought to himself, a warm feeling spreading in his chest by the knowledge that his brother really did care.

“Where's Mom?” Kusuke asked suddenly, looking about the room. He turned on Dr. Yashida. “I explicitly told you that someone should always be here in case my brother woke up!” He shouted angrily at him.

Well, there goes the warm feeling. Kusuke never gets angry, it's uncanny seeing him like this.

Before Kusuke could continue his tirade, Saiki held up his hand, signalling him to stop. Seeing the movement, Kusuke looked over at Saiki again. “Sorry, Kusuo. I just didn't want you to feel lonely all by yourself.” He was looking appropriately remorseful, considering his personality.

I don't get lonely, Saiki wanted to reply, but decided not to.

The door opened once more and Kurumi stepped in. She looked surprised to see the two doctors in the room. “Oh, Ku-kun, you're here already?” She stepped over to the bed and sat down in the same space she had vacated earlier. She looked at Saiki. “I called your father, he said he'd be here as soon as he could.

He also said he'd pick up grandma and grandpa on the way.”

His grandparents were visiting?

“They've been staying with us for the last few days. Mom called them on Friday and they caught the train here the next morning,” Kusuke explained at Saiki's apparent confusion. Kusuke's expression sombered up. “You had all of us really worried, Kusuo. Yashida-sensei mentioned that you couldn't remember what happened to land you in the hospital,” Kusuke said, awaiting a response.

Saiki shook his head.

“Well,” Kusuke started, “you had collapsed at school after getting a nosebleed. The school nurse called for an ambulance on account of the amount of blood you were losing. The response team accurately determined that you were having a stroke on the way to the hospital and scans confirmed that was due to an intracerebral hemorrhage.”

Dr. Yashida interrupted the explanation, addressing Saiki. “It means that an artery in your brain ruptured, causing blood to leak out. Which then put pressure on the surrounding brain tissue and caused damage to the cells.”

Saiki couldn't tell if Dr. Yashida was being patronizing or if he actually thought he was helping.

Of course he knew what a hemorrhagic stroke was, he wasn't just some kid. Though, Saiki guessed, he must have seemed that way to the doctor, because he continued speaking.

“You underwent surgery, both to relieve the pressure on your brain and to find the rupture and seal it. The procedure took just a bit less than two hours, but it went very well. We determined the cause of the rupture to be an aneurysm that had formed due to...“ here he looked down onto his clipboard, “...a malformation in the premotor cortex.” He looked up form his notes. “Your brother said this was a known medical issue.”

Saiki was tempted to roll his eyes. Of course Kusuke would say that his brain was deformed.

...Was it though? He certainly hadn't known. Not that he would have cared, really.

Kusuke took this as his cue to speak up. “Yes, the issue had been discovered when he was eleven years old. Measures were undertaken to alleviate the resulting issues and I have been monitoring the situation ever since.”

That's right around the time when Kusuke had made him his Limiters.

...So, this had something to do with his powers then.

Dr. Yashida must have seen Saiki's thoughtful expression and misinterpreted it as him being overwhelmed by the flood of information. “Now, I know this must all seem very frightening to you, but I can assure you that everything will be fine,” he said, trying to sound as comforting as possible. “The less time elapsed between the onset of a stroke and the patient receiving medical attention, the better the chances are of recovery. And in your case, everyone reacted swiftly and correctly.” He looked down into his notes again. “That being said, it will take some time for you to recover. You are to remain on strict bedrest for the upcoming days. You're still on a catheter, so that takes care of that. Someone will be along later to run some tests and maybe your brother here can explain to you the treatments that will await you. But right now, I suggest you rest as much as possible. I'll tell the nurse to bring you something to eat, okay?” He smiled, nodded to Kusuke and left the room quietly, leaving behind a tense silence.

Eventually Kusuke spoke. “I'm guessing that by now you've realized that your powers aren't working as they usually do.“

Yeah, no shit. Saiki gave him a blank stare.

Kusuke shrugged. “We couldn't know for sure how your powers would be affected, until you woke up. We only knew for certain that your petrification no longer worked. It's just as well, it would have been pretty hard to explain to the hospital why one of their emergency response teams had suddenly turned into stone.” He gave an emotionless smile. “Well, that and the entire world didn't explode when they naively took off your Limiters before taking you into surgery.”

“....hy?” Saiki asked unintelligibly.

“Huh, what was that Kusuo?” Kusuke stared at him curiously.

“...W....hy?” Saiki was able to squeeze out after a few tries.

“Why what? You're going to have to more precise than that, Kusuo,” Kusuke replied infuriatingly.

Saiki was certain his brother could understand what he was asking. Kusuke had had no problem understanding him in the past when he was wearing his Telepathy Canceler. This ostensible lack of comprehension was obviously some sort of ploy. But he wasn't going to play this game.

Saiki looked to his mother and made a scribbling notion with one hand.

“Mhh, you want something to write with, Kuu-chan?” his mother said, understanding the gesture easily. She rifled through her handbag and came up with a small notebook and a pen sans cap. She handed the spoils of her hunt to Saiki.

After a few seconds of internal cursing and ever more furious scrawling, the pen finally let flow its blue lifeblood and Saiki wrote the question he had been wanting to convey.

“Why didn't you tell me before?” Saiki wrote on the page in legible writing.

Kusuke read the note. “About the structural deformity in your brain, you mean?”

“It sounds insulting no matter how you say it,” Saiki thought at him telepathically, but – of course – Kusuke couldn't hear him.

Kusuke didn't expect a reply anyway. “Like I told the good doctor, I had discovered the issue when you were in fifth grade. Your powers were growing at an alarming rate and sooner or later someone was going to end up hurt, we've known that since the fiasco at your elementary school. I soon realized that the growth of your powers and the structural abnormalities in your cerebral cortex were correlated. The knowledge was instrumental to he creation of your Limiters. Using a derivate of the human growth hormone and a cocktail of neurotransmitter blockers, I was able to both slow the continued development of certain brain structures and neutralize their functions to some extent. But I'm sure you don't want to get into the details,” Kusuke finished happily.

Saiki picked up the notebook and pointed to his question.

He hadn't answered his question.

“Oh, well, you never asked before,” Kusuke replied with an innocent look on his face. “You only ever seemed to care that your Limiters worked instead of how. And honestly, I didn't think you would care.” The last part he said with a shrug.

His brother knew him too well, sometimes.

“Anyways,” Kusuke continued, looking at the notebook curiously, “I'm glad to see you're able to write without problem. When Yashida-sensei mentioned your communication troubles, I did start to wonder. As you no doubt already know, aphasia is often one of the symptoms of a stroke. Well, depending on the location of the stroke anyway. In your case, the bleeding was limited to sections of the frontal lobe, mainly in the right hemisphere. Had you been just another average person, resulting issues with language production would not have been surprising, since the Broca area might very well have been affected. So far you seem to understand what we're saying without trouble, the only notable deficiencies being in the fluency of your speech, independent word formulation and sound repetition. Though, honestly, it's hard to tell if your speech impediment is a result of the stroke or if they stem from years of disuse, due to your telepathic abilities. I'd wager that speech therapy will help in both cases, regardless of the cause,” Kusuke said nonchalantly.

By the end of that little speech, Saiki's eyes were stinging with unshed tears.

He wasn't going to lie, it was a lot to digest.

He cursed himself for his newfound emotionality. And tried to rub the tears away before they were noticed. Thankfully, someone knocked on the door and entered the room, drawing the attention away from him, sparing him from any further embarrassment.

It was a petite-looking nurse, dressed in white. She came in bearing a tray with a bowl of steaming liquid and a cup of yellow jelly next to it. As she approached the occupant of the bed, she nodded politely and set the tray down on the low table beside the chairs. She went past the closet and wheeled out what looked to be a foldable table that had been standing next to it. She pushed it over to the bed, folded out the upper part and adjusted the height. She went back to the closet, rummaged around for a moment and returned with an antiseptic smelling cloth with which she wiped down the surface before fetching the tray and placing it on the flat surface before him. “Thank you, miss,” said Kurumi, who had gotten up from the bed as not to hinder the nurse's actions. The nurse nodded politely once more and left without uttering a word.

“No solid foods for you yet, otouto-chan,” Kusuke said patronizingly as he stepped closer, inspecting the meal that the nurse had brought.

Saiki was fully prepared to refuse the foods on the grounds that he wasn't hungry, but as soon as the smell of miso-soup hit his nose his stomach betrayed him by growling loudly. It was all the encouragement he needed. He picked up the spoon from the tray and started to attack the soup with a vigour. The first bite burned his tongue slightly, but it satisfied a hunger inside him that he hadn't realized he was carrying.

After a while, Saiki realized that Kusuke was looking at him with renewed interest. Not wanting to be his brother's source of entertainment, he stopped shovelling soup into his mouth for long enough to look at him him demonstratively.

Kusuke laughed, not looking at all abashed at having been caught openly staring. “I'm only checking to see if you're having trouble swallowing. So far, you haven't been showing any signs of dysphagia. I'm glad. We wouldn't want to literally inhale your food now, would we? He smiled at his own (rather tasteless) play on words.

Saiki shook his head and got back to eating, albeit a bit slower, the interaction with his brother having curbed his appetite somewhat. Before long the soup was finished and Saiki turned to the jelly.

Not coffee jelly, but it'll have to do.

Saiki had only just started eating the – surprisingly flavourful – dessert, when there was another knock on the door.

Saiki's father, Kunihara Saiki, stuck his head in through the partially opened doorway. When he saw his family in the room, he smiled and entered fully. Saiki's grandmother and grandfather – Kumi and Kumagoro Saiki respectively – walked in behind him. Saiki's grandmother squawked in delight when she saw Saiki awake and hurriedly went to greet him and Kurumi.

“Make yourself useful and bring us those chairs,” Saiki's grandfather grunted at Kunihara as soon as he came to stand by the bed.

“Oh, it's so wonderful to see you awake, Kusuo,” Kumi began. “We were so worried about you since your mother called us. Isn't that right, dear?” The question was addressed at her husband. He merely grunted in response as he sat down on the chair that had been pushed over by the push-over that was Saiki's father.

Even though Saiki couldn't hear his thoughts, he knew his grandfather well enough to know that his uncaring attitude was just a facade. Deep down he genuinely cared, albeit in a childish manner that was reminiscent of an elementary school girl pushing a boy off of the swings because she liked him. Saiki tried not to think about that analogy too hard.

Kunihara greeted his wife in a polite but less intimate fashion than usual, knowing full well that his every move was being monitored by his father-in-law. He turned to his youngest son. “How are you doing, Kusuo?”

Finishing off his dessert, Saiki gave his father a thumbs-up in response. The IV-tube connected to his arm managed to only slightly undermine his statement.

Kunihara turned to his eldest son. “So, what did the doctor say?”

“From what we call tell, Kusuo seems to be recovering well, all things considered” Kusuke replied.

“Is he going to get his powers back?” Saiki's father asked anxiously.

Of course that's what he's worried about.

Kusuke was uncharacteristically hesitant to answer. “That remains to be seen.”

“When will Kuu-chan be coming home?” His mother asked.

Kusuke looked at Saiki with a thoughtful expression. “He's on strict bedrest for the next few days and afterwards he should be staying for at least another two weeks.”

...Annoying, but it probably could have been worse.

“Barring any complications of course,” Kusuke added innocently, not knowing – or more likely, not caring – that his words would be opening another can of worms entirely.

“Complications?!” That was Saiki's father. “What sort of complications are you talking about?” he asked with bated breath.

“Oh, just the usual ones after surgery, oto-san.” Kusuke replied. Kunihara started to let out a relieved breath, but stopped when Kusuke continued. “Like subsequent ruptures of the repaired blood vessels, subarachnoid hemorrhages, cerebral vasospasms – which are actually the leading cause of death after an aneurysmal rupture – hydrocephalus, infections such as pneumonia, aspiration caused by dysphagia and...”

“That's enough!” Kumi interrupted with an authoritative voice. She was hugging her daughter who had started crying again. Kunihara looked white with shock.

He really has no social skills, Saiki thought tiredly. The conversation was starting to wear him out.

Accepting the admonishment easily, Kusuke continued. “Without his powers to rely on, we're just trying to be prepared for everything.”

“Well, I still think the boy should rather be resting at home than at the hospital.” Kumagoro said gruffly.

Careful there ojii-san, your sentimentality is showing.

“That wouldn't be advisable in the current situation. Kusuo is getting the best medical treatment there is.

I am here after all,” Kusuke said with a smile.

Saiki did roll his eyes at that.

Sitting up was starting to tire him out too.

Saiki started pushing the table away and his brother unexpectedly came over to help, wheeling it further away. With his mother's help, Saiki was able to scoot down the bed until he could lay down in his original position. His grandmother covered him up with the blanket that had ridden down, making sure he was comfortable. He closed his eyes. Saiki could hear his father and his brother conversing again, but whatever it was that they said was lost to Saiki, as he fell asleep, surrounded by his family.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Six days had passed since Saiki had been admitted to the hospital and he was getting used to the new routine.

A nurse would wake him every morning before the doctor made his rounds. With the aid of a small basin and a cup of water, he would be allowed to brush his teeth and clean his face. Seeing as he was still bedridden, the nurse would then change his sheets while he lay there, being rolled to and fro to make it possible for her to do so. After that she would offer to help him wash up and change his clothes and he would refuse. He had luckily been allowed out of the hospital gown and since his mother always came by later in the day, he would wait for her to help him wash himself down with a soaped cloth and change into a new pair of pyjamas, that she had packed for him. His brother had offered to help him once as well. Saiki had called for the nurse and had asked her to escort Kusuke out of his room. He hasn't offered again since.

Dr. Yashida would check in with him every day before breakfast, asking how he was feeling and adjusting his medication accordingly. His IV tube had already been taken off and the nasal tube as well. He was slowly being wheedled off the stronger pain medication, which was good because the strong stuff made Saiki's head feel foggy. He took his medication – now in pill form – with his meals. He was to remain on a purely liquid diet until he was no longer bedridden. The strict bedrest after surgery had been nothing more than a precaution and since no complications had arisen since then, Dr. Yashida was allowing him to move around again come tomorrow. He would still need to be under constant supervision whenever he got out of bed, but he was looking forward to regaining his mobility, if not his independence.

At least the diet included jelly; he was going to take his victories where he could.

Saiki was still having trouble staying awake for long stretches at a time. Most of the time there would be someone in the room whenever he woke up. Mostly his mother, who came by every morning and stayed most of the day. Sometimes Saiki's grandmother or grandfather would join her. Saiki's father always came by in the afternoon to pick them up, and Kusuke's visits were fortunately few and far in between.

He had grown accustomed to the feeling of knowing someone was always there with him. It was actually quite nice. It's not that he was lonely, not at all, it's just that the world was so...unbelievably quiet at times.

Hearing the faint scratches of a pen on paper when his mother was doing word puzzles, or listening to his father's one-sided phone calls with what must-have been a manga artist asking for advice from their editor... it was comforting, in a way.

Saiki's powers had yet to make an appearance since ever since the “incident”, as his family called it.

Kusuke had even mentioned that his powers might be gone for good. Much to his father's dismay, he should add. Even during his short visits at the hospital, Kunihara managed to hurt himself constantly, a stubbed tow here, a papercut there. Always asking Saiki to use his restoration ability on him before he remembered it was gone.

Saiki wasn't really expecting the silence to last for long. With his luck, his powers were going to pop up again when it would be of the most inconvenience for him. So, Saiki had decided to enjoy his time spent as an average teenager for however long it lasted.

That being said, it wasn't quite as easy as Saiki would have liked, living without powers.

Even Saiki himself would sometimes forget that he couldn't use them anymore. Like when had been rereading some manga from an old issue of Shounen Jump Magazine, that his mother had brought him to pass the time. He had tried to apport the next one in the series – since they were basically worth the same – and ended up looking like an idiot staring at a magazine he was holding aloft. Not being able to use his memory alteration device – the one that strangely resembled TV Tokyo's mascot – on the nurse who found him like that was also kind of annoying.

The changes to the world, that he had made via mind control still, seemed to be present though. Major injuries still healed faster (Saiki himself could attest to that, only a few days after surgery and his incisions were little more than scars already), babies were still being born with strange haircolours (there was a maternity ward three floors down and his mother and grandmother loved stopping by on their way to Saiki's room) and clothes were still being ripped apart in such a fashion, that indecent exposure didn't need to be worried about (Saiki's father proved that one, don't ask).

Obviously, some powers Saiki didn't miss at all, his petrification being one of them. He had spent so long wearing his green-tinted glasses, that he had forgotten what the sky really looked like. He had spent a large portion of his time sofar, just staring out the window, enjoying the colour of the sky.

His X-ray vision was another power he didn't mind losing. For the first time in his life, he could look at people long enough to notice more than just their general features, before they ended up looking like medical school exhibits. He could appreciate for the first time just how young his mother and grandmother really looked and how much he and Kusuke looked alike. And since he could no longer look through packaging, he could finally be surprised by gifts he received, like the one his grandfather had brought with him the other day. It had been coffee jelly, he remembered fondly.

He was rather ambivalent about his telepathy, given the situation. He revelled in the silence of course, but remembering that he had forgotten to ask his mother to bring him another book from home just after she had left and not being able to tell her telepathically ...well, it took time getting used to.

As did talking out loud. Saiki still didn't talk much, preferring to use gestures or write out messages on the new notebook his mother had bought, a fresh pen included. A speech therapist had come by yesterday to explain to him what his therapy would entail. He seemed nice enough, not that Saiki could really tell without his telepathy.

Their first session was tomorrow afternoon and Saiki wasn't sure how to feel about it. On the one hand, if his powers really were gone for good (a pipe dream), Saiki would need to be able to communicate with people normally. On the other hand, the process sounded exceedingly childish and tedious. He knew how to speak, it's just that he never really had to before.

Saiki was currently sitting up in bed, drinking a lemon soda. Yuuta had asked Saiki's mother to pass it on to him, after he had heard from his mother that Saiki was at the hospital. Apparently lemon soda always made him feel better, so it should be doubly as effective for Cyborg Ciderman #2.

Not half bad, Saiki thought, nursing his soda. He appreciated the thought.

He rubbed his left arm, the numb feeling had never gone away completely. The doctor had determined some muscle weakness as an effect of the stroke. Fortunately, it wasn't by much, but his balance was off, causing him to under- or overestimate the amount of force he would need to move his arm or pick up an object. Dr. Yashida had demonstrated some arm exercises that he could do, that would help the issue get better. In his bedridden state, he wasn't allowed to do them yet though.

Saiki's mother was currently telling him about the previous evening at home.

“....and your Papa and grandfather both fell asleep during the movie. So when your grandmother and I got up they were both sleeping upright on opposite sides of the couch, looking so similar. They woke a few minutes later, because your grandmother and I were laughing so hard when Kusuke started taking pictures.” She finished her story with a laugh.

“Oh, and one of your friends called yesterday afternoon, asking if you were allowed to have visitors,” she said trying to sound nonchalant, but Saiki knew that innerly she was crying tears of joy at the thought of her baby having such caring friends. He didn't need to be a psychic to know that.

His friends wanted to come visit him....He couldn't fathom why.

Saiki knew his mother had called the school to tell them what happened and he had assumed that his homeroom teacher had then relayed the information to the class.

There was nothing better to curb gossip like the truth, after all.

He had thought his friends would be satisfied with the information until he returned to school, which Dr. Yashida had assured him would be in a few weeks if he continued to recover as speedily as he had thusfar.

Aiura was probably keeping and eye on him anyway and for all he knew Toritsuka had sent ghosts to check up on him regularly. The thought sent shivers down his spine.

His mother had been present when Dr. Yashida had cleared him to have visitors outside of family members, but he had been advised to keep the visits short and the number of visitors limited to two at a time, as not to stress him out unduly.

He clearly didn't know Saiki's friends.

His mother was looking at him expectedly.

Remembering what his speech therapist had told him, he tried using actual words for his answer.

“...kay,” was all he managed to enunciate.

His mother looked delighted.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

By Saturday, Saiki's routine had changed somewhat.

Instead of staying in bed in the morning, he would now walk to the ensuite bathroom – with the nurse always close by – to perform his morning ablutions. He would then change into a t-shirt and comfortable trousers (on his own, for which he was very thankful), no longer wearing his pyjamas throughout the entire day.

He still stayed in bed most of the time, but he was finally allowed to move around at will.

Having his catheter removed the day before had been one of the most embarrassing experiences in his life, and like any other average young man would do, Saiki swore he would repress that memory as deep as he could.

Saiki's mother had arranged for two of his friends to visit him today. He didn't know who was coming and he didn't really care who would, everyone was just a certain shade of Nendou nowadays anyhow.

Admittedly, he was looking forward to the break in his routine. He was still taking pain medication, but the dosage was low and his mind was no longer foggy because of them. He had been able to stay awake for longer and longer periods of time and he was getting bored out of his mind.

There was a small TV in the corner of the room that Saiki had been able to watch, which he had, despite the frankly atrocious audio quality. It had reminded him that he would have to buy a new TV for his room when he got home, his old one having ultimately met its end, now that Saiki wasn't there every morning to restore it. Sadly, the only channel that really broadcasted anything good had revealed that they were hosting a marathon of Toru Mugami movies today. Saiki had switched the TV off then and hadn't bothered turning it back on since.

Rereading old manga was also something even he could only do for so long before he got bored.

He had even told (well, written) his mother to ask his friends to bring some of his schoolwork with them, so that he could catch up on his studies. Now that he could no longer hear his classmates' thoughts, he would actually have to study in order to know what the answers were. After all, he had to get enough of them wrong in order to remain at the same rank that he had so far.

What? He finally had the chance to be average and he wasn't going to waste the opportunity by accidentally acing all his tests.

It was noon and Saiki's parents were quietly conversing among themselves, when there was a knock on he door. It opened to reveal two casually dressed teenagers, a red-headed boy and a gyaru girl.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Saiki, Mrs. Saiki,” Hairo greeted Saiki's parents when he stepped in. “Hi, everybody,” Aiura joined in, looking over at Saiki anxiously.

“Oh hello, you two,” Saiki's father greeted in return.

They stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind them. They had apparently come bearing gifts.

Hairo was carrying a plastic bag with what looked like school books. Aiura was carrying a box of chocolates, as well as a smaller bag with a bulky looking object inside.

“My name is Kineshi Hairo.” He gave a small bow. “Mikoto Aiura,” Aiura added in an uncharacteristically shy manner.

“Well, I'm Kunihara Saiki and this is my wife Kurumi. It's a pleasure to meet you all.”

“Likewise, Sir,” said Hairo.

Saiki's mother got up from her seat.

“Well, we'll leave the three of you alone to catch up.” She turned to the bed. “We're taking your grandparents out for lunch, but we'll be back this afternoon. I'll have Kusuke check up on you later, okay, Kuu-chan?”

“...ight, bye,” Saiki responded with a coarse voice.

His speech therapist had advised him to use his words as much as possible. He was only to use his notebook and gestures after he had tried speaking first. Saiki's first therapy session had been yesterday and it had been frustrating and his throat had hurt afterwards. His mother had been in the room with him (without company, thankfully) and had hugged him as soon as the therapist had left, showering him with praise for all the work he had been doing.

As soon as his parents had left, Aiura came to his side. “I'm so sorry Kusuo, this is all my fault.” Tears were shining in her eyes. “If I had only kept an eye on you, this never would have happened.”

Saiki was taken aback.

She continued, her voice rough with emotion. “You had even asked me check up on things because you had a bad feeling and I didn't think much of it at the time, because I routinely check up on all our friends' fortunes, and everyone's looked fine. But I never check up on yours, because nothing bad was supposed to be able to happen to you and if I had just looked into it sooner, none of this would have happened.” Tears were flowing freely down her face when she finished.

Seeing the overwhelmed looked on Saiki's face, Hairo stepped in. “Aiura-kun, by the sound of it, there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent this, including you,” he said cautiously to the crying girl.

Yeah, what he said.

“Sorry,” she said, still treary-eyed. She took a deep breath and tried to pull herself together. “It's just so weird seeing you like this, you know?”

Saiki shrugged, he didn't know what the appropriate response was to a young woman crying because her formerly invincible friend was in the hospital.

Reading the awkward tension in the room, Hairo intervened.

“We're all glad to see you're doing better, Saiki. We knew you would push through if we just believed in you hard enough,” he said with a triumphant expression. “By the way, I hope you don't mind the two of us coming over today. We know that Nendou is your best friend and all, but we couldn't exactly trust him to remember to bring these with him,” he gestured at the packages, “so I decided to come instead.”

He continued. “Originally, Teruhashi wanted to come too. But since your mom said you were only allowed to have two visitors today, she relented saying that you would probably appreciate it more if one of your closer friends came.”

Huh, that was genuinely thoughtful of her.

Aiura, who had calmed down, took this as her cue to speak up. “And of course I had to come on account of me being your girlfriend an all.”

She let out a laugh at the pointed look Saiki sent her. “Oh, lighten up Kusuo, you're as bitter as an old man.”

I'm not bitter, he thought bitterly with a bitter expression.

“We brought you your schoolwork like you asked,” Hairo said, lifting his bag, “and we even got you a few extras too.” He rifled around in the bag and held up the latest issue of the Weekly Shounen Jump Magazine.

Aiura stepped forward and placed the box of chocolate on his nightstand. “They're coffee flavoured,” she said with a wink. Hairo placed the bag he was holding on the floor next to his bed.

“...anks,” Saiki said, genuinely touched by the gesture.

Aiura was still holding her bag. Hairo saw him eyeing it and continued.

“When we heard you were allowed visitors, we thought it would be nice to bring you something that came from all of us back at school. We couldn't agree on whether to have everyone write you a personal get well card (sounds normal enough) or to make you a thousand paper cranes (probably Hairo's idea), so we compromised by combining the two ideas,” he said smilingly.

It sounds more like you really didn't want to let your paper crane idea go, Saiki thought wryly.

Aiura held the bag open and Hairo pulled out a string of colourful paper cranes. Saiki could make out writing on a few of them.

Hairo explained. “We asked all the students from our grade to write you a get well card, which everyone then folded into a paper crane. Afterwards we strung them together. It's not quite a thousand of them,” he said scratching his head embarrassedly, “but I'm sure it'll bring you luck anyway, Saiki.”

He wasn't quite finished. “We also realized that no one in our class had your phone number, so I told everyone to write their phone number on their cards, if they wanted to of course, so that you could call us if you need anything. Or message us, that is. Your mom did say something on the phone about you having trouble with your voice since you woke up.”

Saiki nodded.

“Well, whatever you need, Saiki, we'll be there for you. You can count on us!” Hairo was being his usual passionate self.

Saiki remembered what Dr. Yashida had relayed to him about what had happened when he had collapsed at school and how his friends had helped him. Somehow he knew Hairo had been among them.

He grabbed his notebook, forgoing to try and speak the words this time around. He didn't want to be misunderstood.

“Thank you, for everything,” Saiki wrote.

Hairo smiled. “Of course, Saiki. That's what friends are for.”

They stayed for a while, Aiura chatting about the latest school gossip and Hairo explaining some of the work-related things he had missed.

About an hour later Kusuke came by. After reminding them that his brother was still recovering and needed to rest, his friends left, promising to have someone else come by after school on Monday.

Just before Kusuke left as well (the visit really did tire him out and a nap in near future didn't sound too bad either), Saiki turned to his brother. “...phone”, he said, trying his mouth around the word.

Kusuke turned around to look at him. “Huh, phone? Do you want to call someone Kusuo?” he asked.

Saiki picked up his notebook. “Would you please buy me a phone,” he wrote.

“Oh, you've never needed one before, have you?” Kusuke laughed. “Of course, brother dearest, anything you need.”

“...k...you,” Saiki replied.

“I'm just going to assume you were trying to say 'thank you' as opposed to something else,” Kusuke said with a benign smile and left.

Saiki was alone once more. The string of paper cranes was laying at the foot of his bed. He decided to check them out and laid down onto his pillow, getting comfortable.

The cranes were all roughly the same size, but came in various different colours. Saiki pulled out the string that held them together and unfolded a few of the letters.

Saiki could instantly tell who some of them were from.

There was one that was completely filled out with text on both sides. Seeing Akechi's name at the bottom proved his suspicions.

One with glitter he recognized as Aiura's.

Teruhashi's was rather average on the surface, but still seemed to outshine all those around it. Weird.

Kuboyasu's pen had seemingly run out of ink by the halfway point of his letter, seeing as the first part was written in blue and the second part in red. At least Saiki hoped it was ink.

Nendou's was easy to spot as well, his had only a few words at the top and a ramen sticker stuck beneath it. It was one of those scratch and sniff stickers. Where did he even get those?

Saiko's was a rather creative one, as it was made from money. Literally. There was no text. The letter consisted of several 1000 yen bills that had been glued together. Saiki decided that as long as he didn't use the money, it would be alright to keep it. Folding a crane out of that had certainly not been easy.

Kaidou's was surprisingly normal, there was no talk of Dark Reunion anywhere on the page. Oh wait no, he was mistaken. His letter extended to the back of the page as well apparently.

Toritsuka had also written one. His consisted of a large drawing of a woman's chest and the words “Hope these make you feel better!” underneath it. Saiki crumpled up that one after reading it.

Saiki had picked up another average looking letter and had almost discarded it, but something held him back. It must have come from someone in another class, because there was something about how they may not have met before personally, but they wished him well and to get better soon. Rather average well wishes, all in all.

When he read the name at the bottom, he smiled.

His mother found him like that when she came back later in the afternoon. Saiki was fast asleep with the note still in his hand, slightly crumpled from where he had been holding onto it in his sleep.

She gathered up the letters, smiling at the few she saw glimpses of. She tucked Saiki into his covers and gently took the letter out of his hand. She read the name, it was not from one of his friends that she had been introduced to. Satou Hiroshi, what a forgettable name, she thought to herself.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Saiki was being pushed along in a wheelchair by his brother, who was making mundane conversation, which Saiki found easy to filter out of his consciousness. It might have been hospital policy to be wheeled around until he was officially released from their care, but it was humiliating nonetheless.

After two and a half weeks, he was glad to finally leave the hospital. His mother had signed the last of the paperwork and his father was bringing the car around the front to pick them up.

His friends had been by several times to visit him over the last two weeks. Seeing as they generally came by with snacks, Saiki had graciously allowed it. Teruhashi had been by as well, wrapping the entire male staff around her little finger. She had been the one to convince the doctor to include coffee jelly into the hospital cafeteria's dessert menu. He could comprehend why her fans went around calling her their “benevolent goddess.” He was almost tempted to give her an “oh wow” in exchange for her kindness. Almost. He was still having speaking problems after all. Yeah, let's go with that.

He wasn't allowed to go back to school quite yet. But if his recovery went forward at the same pace, then he could most likely go back in one, maybe two weeks. Saiki still thought that school was a waste of his time and that he could spend his day more efficiently by watching TV at home. That being said, he was looking forward to having some semblance of his former routine restored. He still had bi-weekly appointments for speech therapy. The sessions had been going....not well, but better than they had at the beginning. His arm had also been improving, if only marginally. A large portion of his upper arm had been left with little to no feeling to it, but the physio exercises were helping him regain some mobility and balance, so there was that.

Saiki's powers had also not returned nor did they show any signs of returning any time soon. As much as he wanted to, Saiki couldn't really believe it would last. He still went to bed every night expecting hundreds of voices to wake him come morning. He tried to move on though. He had to. He was slowly relearning how to do everyday things without the use of his powers.

No more telepathy. Now he had to talk to people to let them know what he was thinking. His most-used word sofar was “no.”

No more restoration to clean his clothes every day. His mother was going to have to show him how to operate the washing machine at home.

No more using psychokinesis to change the TV channel.

No more using psychokinesis to drag the TV remote closer either.

No more using clairvoyance to see where people were. Now he had to use his phone to message them and find out. Or just remember where he left them in the first place.

No more using cryokinesis. Now he will have to slog to the the freezer and get ice like a normal person.

No more teleporting to the bottom of the ocean.

No more breathing underwater either....he had learned that one the hard way when he had been taking a bath.

No more bilocation.....well, okay, it wasn't like he used that one much anyway. But it had been fun to prank his dad with the help of several of his clones that one time.

His brother was still chatting away merrily. The car pulled up in front of him and Saiki got out of the wheelchair. He turned to him and held up the notebook which had the words “Rock, paper, scissors to see who gets to ride shotgun?” written on them. Kusuke looked delighted.

A hospital employee took the wheelchair back inside. His father had gotten out of the car and was helping Saiki's mother stow away his luggage in the trunk.

Saiki and his brother stood in the parking lot playing a round of rock, paper, scissors.

It was a tie.

Kusuke let out a roar of contagious laughter, which made Saiki think to himself that, yeah, maybe everything was going to be alright.

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