- currently editing - not the only one || saiki kusuo no psi nan

chapter three

Author's Note: Fun fact: this fic is based off another fic for this story that I started and then got better ideas for. That's like eight thousand words of my writing that's never going to see the light of day, but at least it culminated into this!

Good grief. I mean, I knew it was coming, but I was hoping she wouldn't show up.

Saiki walked between Nendou and Kaidou as they approached the school gates. Kuboyasu and Bell were standing there waiting. Kuboyasu had approached the three of them earlier in the day about getting ramen after school with her, coupling in a few thinly veiled threats about what would happen if they didn't show up. "She needs friends!" he had said. "We have to come through, guys!" Kaidou and Nendou, of course, had immediately been willing to go. Saiki had thought about skipping out on them, but he decided it might be a good idea to spend some time around this unreadable person. Maybe he would see that she's a normal person after all. The chances of that weren't likely at this point, but he could hope.

"Hey, guys!" Kuboyasu said, rubbing the back of his neck. "You've met Bell, right?" They all exchanged the obligatory greetings, and then they began to walk to the ramen shop. Saiki couldn't help but smile inwardly as Kaidou started talking to Bell about Dark Reunion. She probably wouldn't hang around much longer once she saw what these guys were like.

"Okay, so, I think I get it," Bell said. "You, Jet-Black Wings, have secret hidden powers and use them to defeat Dark Reunion, and they're the bad guys?"

What.

"Yes!" Kaidou said, basically jumping with joy. "Yes, exactly!"

"And you have to keep your arm wrapped like that to protect the people around you, right?" she asked. Kaidou fell to his knees, looking up at the sky in pure euphoria. Everyone stopped walking while he had his moment.

"Yes! That's exactly it, yes!" he said. Bell clapped her hands together.

"I didn't know they had LARP in Japan!"

Kaidou stopped rejoicing.

"Huh?" he asked, already seeming to deflate.

"Oh, maybe you guys call it something different," she said. "It stands for Live Action Role-Playing. It's like Dungeons and Dragons, but instead of just role-playing, you act it out in real life, too."

"Oh," Kaidou said, rubbing the back of his head. "Uh, yeah, that's exactly what it is." Bell smiled brightly.

"You'll have to take me some time," she said. "I'm not much for actually playing, but it's fun to watch."

"Uh, yeah. Sure," Kaidou said, trying to look happy about it. Saiki covered his mouth to hide his slight smile. This did change his perception of the situation, though. If Bell had been able to read his mind, she would have known that Kaidou fully believed that he was Jet-Black Wings. Of course, that didn't necessarily mean she didn't have supernatural abilities. Aiura and Toritsuka couldn't read minds, after all. But what kind of power could she have that would prevent him from being able to read her mind? She seemed perfectly ordinary so far, aside from the story she had told Kuboyasu. He hadn't told them about it, but Saiki had gleaned it from his mind. He thought he had figured out who the businessman that Bell was meant to marry was, based on Aiura's reading. He'd just have to wait and see what happened when Saiko got back to school.

They arrived at the ramen shop and placed their orders before sitting down. "So, Saiki," Bell said conversationally, "Kuboyasu tells me that you have a sweet tooth."