Kuriko?

Chapter 8: New Sponsor

I was so focused on my work that it was Kaidou's girlish scream that alerted me to his presence as a substitute for his thoughts.

He was staring at Metori's bloody and unconscious body, horrified, "Is he dead!?" His voice cracked (from puberty or grief, we'll never know, will we).

I rolled my eyes, "No, but he might be soon if you don't help me carry him to the hospital, so come on." I urged him.

Kaidou gulped and nodded so we carried Saiko Metori to the street where we called 911 on a street telephone.

'ittle time skip~

After the boring ambulance ride, I placed my telepathy canceling ring on my finger because of all the people in the hospital and Metori was immediately rushed away so Kaidou and I just awkwardly stood around until a nurse told us which room to wait outside of. Since Metori was still in surgery, we were talking to the police (again). When they left, the nurse told us that we could see Metori.

"He looks so...powerless," Kaidou said.

He wasn't wrong, it was strange to see Metori in such a weak state, Kaidou turned to me, "Do you know what happened to him?"

I contemplated telling him about my powers, he already knew there was something weird about me so I don't think there would be much of a difference and he doesn't know my identity so,

"He got kidnapped. Someone saved him but they couldn't come with so they told him to run. He ran into the forest where he found our hideout and then he collapsed."

"He found our hideout!? That's- wait, why didn't you tell the cops that he was kidnapped?" He quirked a brow.

"Because Metori didn't tell me on purpose." I said mysteriously.

I was grateful that Kaidou didn't ask questions and instead just assumed that I had heard him talking in his sleep during the three hours that I was left alone with his lifeless body.

Said lifeless body began to stir, revealing that he was in fact, not lifeless. His eyes fluttered open and his usual arrogant expression returned to his features, "What happened? Where am I?" He demanded.

"You're in the hospital," I said. His eyes narrow on me,

"You're the last person I saw before I blacked out." He said. I neither confirmed nor denied his statement.

He was about to order me around but just then, Nendou burst through the door, followed by an out of breath nurse trying to tell him that he couldn't come in without permission and he was not to run in the hospital,

"Found ya!" He walked over to them and stood there for like a minute straight in silence before he turned to Kaidou, "Runt? What're you doing here?"

I facepalmed, Did it really take him this long to realize there were other people in the room?

Then he saw me and put on what a teasing smile, "Who's your girlfriend here? Is she the girl you were talking about at-" Kaidou smacked his hand across Nendou's mouth but retracted when Nendou licked his hand,

"Nendou! That's disgusting!" Kaidou yelled, applying an unnecessary amount of hand sanitizer onto his hand. Nendou shrugged and suddenly turned serious,

"So how is he?"

I used x-ray vision to check, "He has one broken rib, two fractured. A concussion as well." I stated.

They all turned to me in confusion,

"How did you know that?"

"One of the nurses told me." I lied. I didn't really want to but I also didn't want everyone in this room to know about my powers.

Soon a nurse came in and told us we had to let Metori rest. Kaidou and I started heading back to the base but Nendou caught up and invited us to ramen.

After Ramen, I confirmed that Kaidou and I were going to try to meet again tomorrow. I got lots of architectural work done but Kaidou did not. Hopefully, nothing interrupts us tomorrow.

Tomorrow on the way to the Hideout

I was coming into the clearing when I saw a strange sight. A fancy white chair sat in the middle of the clearing holding a black iPad and an unreadable Saiko Metori. Literally. He wasn't here physically so I couldn't read his thoughts, it was a little unnerving..

"Hello, plebe." He paused for a reaction but I gave none, "I'm here because you and weeb plebe are up to something, and one of you interests me a great deal considering there aren't any records of you in existence. So I'm here to offer you a deal: you explain to me and update me on everything significant that happens with your project and I'll give you whatever you need to accomplish your goal." He proposed.

I thought for a moment, we could really use the funding for our base and I don't think some treehouse is gonna cut it for life-threatening emergencies. Although, he might find out about my powers. Well, our agreement said anything significant, my powers aren't significant to me. That's a pretty weak argument but so is the agreement, it's kinda vague, so I'm going to exploit that.

"Earth to plebe." Metori drawled.

I turned to face him, "You've got yourself a deal." I said. It would have been a serious moment if Kaidou had not stumbled out of the bushes at that moment, not that I hadn't expected him to, (since I sensed him in the area)

"Who's got a deal?" He asked. His eyes widened when he saw what he had (literally) stumbled upon. There was a silence for a moment, broken by Metori who repeated the deal to him. Kaidou was pretty upset that I'd made the deal without his consent so I reassured him,

"Kaidou, I promise we're still a team but this opportunity is too good to pass up, he's offering to fund our bases construction if we ask." Kaidou understood though he was still a little down.

He turned to Metori from our 'huddle' with a serious look on his face, "What are the terms of our deal?"

Shoot, this may be a problem. Though I guess this will lose him the chance to use us.

Metori smiled, "Both of you give me daily updates on what you're doing in that forest: no white lies, no leaving anything out. In return, I give you funding or whatever else you need, as I'm sure you're aware: money is no object, so whatever you need for your project to go smoothly. Any questions?"

It seems that I won't be able to hide my abilities so, "Yes: there's something very significant about that no one else can know about under any circumstances. So my question is: will you swear on your life to never reveal it to ANYONE without my personal permission." I divulged. The guys stared at me for a moment but nodded,

"I'm an esper." (Psychic) I stated.

Metori's expression turned to disbelief and Kaidou's to amazement, I'm pretty sure there were cartoon sparkles in his eyes.

"No, you're not." Metori scoffed. I rolled my eyes and placed a flame on the tip of my finger as proof. Metori's face went paler than before and (if possible) Kaidou's face portrayed even more excitement than before.

We spoke about the design of our base and decided to meet at Metori's mansion tomorrow with the blueprints.