[Saiki Kusuo] The One And Only Warmth.

CHAPTER 1

1. Another New School Year Begins.

Today is the first day of the new school year at PK Academy, a prestigious private school located in Hidari Wakibara, Japan. The school currently has a total of 542 students.

After the long and almost entirely formal opening ceremony finally ended, all the students broke into small groups, chatting as they walked and searched for their new classrooms.

Saiki Kusuo entered the classroom at the perfect time - neither too early nor too late. When he stepped through the door, about half the students were already inside. Some were standing and talking, a few had already sat down, and others were wandering around because they had mistaken the classroom.

Kusuo walked straight to his seat - a position that was neither too prominent nor too isolated, just right. He placed his bag down, sat in his chair, and as usual, swept his gaze across the room to assess the situation around him.

Suddenly, Kusuo felt a jolt in his mind. There was no specific reason — he had simply noticed that Yoshino Fuyu was sitting right next to him.

[Yare yare... So it's you.]

[We're in the same class again this year, Fuyu.]

Fuyu had already been sitting there for a while. She sat with perfect posture, her eyes focused on the open book on her desk, turning the pages at a slow, steady rhythm with light movements that made no sound.

[Yeah. Hello.] Fuyu replied directly through Kusuo's own stream of thoughts.

Kusuo maintained his usual "I'm used to this" indifferent expression on his face, even though he still didn't understand how Fuyu could simultaneously block him from reading her thoughts and use [Telepathy] to reply to him.

Footsteps sounded outside the classroom door, then stopped.

(Fuyu-chan, where is she? We're in the same class again this year, I'm so happy!) Yumehara Chiyo poked her head into the room, scanned around as if looking for someone, and her eyes immediately landed on Kusuo's position — or more precisely, the seat right beside him.

"Fuyu-chan!" Chiyo's face lit up. She ran over immediately with a bright, radiant smile. "We're in the same class again!"

Chiyo placed her bag at her seat nearby. Before she even sat down properly, she was already looking around excitedly. "Oh! And we're sitting close to each other again this year too!"

Fuyu turned to the next page without lifting her head. "Yeah. Hello."

Chiyo pulled her chair closer to Fuyu's desk and, as usual, began talking about all kinds of things. She started with the class assignments, then moved on to this year's teachers, the students in their class, and finally random trivial topics without any clear direction — as if her mouth had been turned on and all her scattered thoughts were pouring out.

(I don't know why, but every time I talk to Fuyu-chan, I never feel nervous at all.)

Fuyu would occasionally respond with a short reply or a slight nod. She didn't seem particularly interested in Chiyo's one-sided conversation. However, Chiyo didn't look bothered at all and continued talking normally.

(Even though she really doesn't talk much.) Chiyo would occasionally glance at Fuyu's movements, but she never noticed that Fuyu hadn't changed her posture even once since the beginning.

Kusuo glanced sideways. [Still the same as always.]

Two figures — one tall and one short — walked into the classroom. Their loud conversation was noisy enough that some students frowned, but once they saw it was Nendou Riki, they quietly looked away as if they had seen nothing.