Chapter Eleven: The Newest Psychic in Town is a Pervert

AKARI IS WORRIED. EVER SINCE LAST NIGHT when Kusuo and her found that letter in his mailbox, she couldn't help herself but be a little bit unnerved by what it could be. On one hand, she knew he could handle himself. However, she had no idea who could have left the letter. She hypothesized that it must be someone who also has some sort of supernatural abilities because Akari didn't think anyone would be able to find it out about his psychicness without being superpowered themselves. She could only hope that they weren't a bad person or anything. It would be a shame if she had to hurt someone for trying to hurt her friend, again.

Though she tried to brush it off to the side until she could meet up with Kusuo so they could head to school together like normal. So she went about her morning routine as usual, we all know it by now. Get woken up by Rikuto, get dressed, eat some of her father's amazing cooking, say goodbye to her family(maybe even her mother), and head outside.

When she found that Kusuo was completely fine and standing outside by her front gate, Akari knew everything was a-ok. She had let out a small relieved sigh at that. Though she really shouldn't have worried. It's not like anything would ever happen to Saiki! ...Not unless MJ wanted something to happen… Though she would never do that, right?

She slid down the stairs and met her friend on the street so they could start their journey to school. They were quiet for a moment as they started to walk together, though eventually, Kusuo sighed.

'You don't have to worry about last night,' he mentally grunted. Kusuo could feel the small wave of concern wafting off of her. As stated plenty of times before, she has no need to worry about him. He's practically god-like, so nothing and no one would hurt him.

Akari raised an eyebrow at him, 'I didn't say or think anything.'

Kusuo just side-eyed her, 'You don't have to, I already know what you are going to think about. Even without my mind reading.'

She had half the mind to roll her eyes at him. Though it's not like she could really deny what he was saying. Sue her for being a good friend! 'I can worry about it if I want, you can't stop me from doing that.'

'There wasn't even a problem,' Kusuo huffed as they continued down the road, 'just some weirdo medium.'

Akari hummed, wanting to change the subject, 'Someone who can speak to spirits, that's quite interesting.'

She's only ever met one other person who has supernatural abilities; Kusuo. Akari has never come across any other people who have any sort of strange powers. There are obviously plenty of people who claim to have otherworldly abilities, though those people are just crazy. However, this guy seems more than intriguing. Speaking to the dead would be quite cool, Akari thinks.

'It doesn't matter we won't be seeing him again.' Kusuo said, breaking Akari out of her thoughts. Though what was he saying, nothing ever goes his way. It was as if the writers just love to make Kusuo's life miserable.

A ghost of a smile crossed her pale face, 'You hope.'

---

The teens all filed into the academy as normal. Once they got into their classroom, Akari perched herself on top of Kusuo's desk as usual. Kusuo doesn't really mind that she sat on top of his desk. It's so common for her to do it, that he would be surprised if she didn't do it.

Kusuo sighed, "Yesterday was a surprise. I believe that medium's name was Toritsuka." Oops. He mentioned the medium, and by the laws of anime, Toristska must appear back in the show!

A few desks over, the pair could hear a conversation between some nameless students, "An interesting student has transferred to the other class."

"Seriously?" A different student asked.

Akari raised her eyebrow before looking down at Kusuo, 'I'm guessing this transfer student is your newest friend?'

'He's not my friend.' Kusuo grunted before pushing up from his desk. Irritation consumed his expression, though when does it not? 'I'll go deal with this.'

The shadow-manipulator watched him start to head out, 'Do you need my help?'

'No.' He grunted while leaving to find their new fellow superpowered teen, 'It's best you stay as far from this guy as possible.'

'Okay…' Akari raised an eyebrow as her friend started to go on a hunt for the medium. She placed a hand on her chin and thought, 'He must really be bad for Kusuo to tell me to stay away from him. Hmm, I'm quite curious now.' Really, how bad could he possibly be? Most people here were just idiots, not necessarily evil or anything. Though she could be wrong considering this is a super-powered guy who could be downright evil with his abilities. However, from what Kusuo had told her about meeting him last night… She probably didn't have anything to worry about.

A couple of girls surrounded a desk a few feet away from Akari. Their high-pitch squeals were starting to give Akari a bit of a migraine, as usual. She didn't really care what they were talking about, she would much rather have them shut up so she could have her piece and quiet. One of the girls shouted, "Did you hear, that new guy can see your protective spirits!"

"Really?" A different one gasped. Okay, so that caught Akari's attention. Maybe baring through their squeaks and shrill shrieks for the moment was okay.

The girl sitting at the desk jumped up from her desk. "He has to tell me who mine is!"

"We've gotta find him!" The group of girls then set out to find the guy who would tell them about their protective spirits.

Akari was certainly even more curious now. 'All right, now I have to see this guy.' So she shadowed the girls as they searched around for this new student. Akari didn't really know what to expect this guy to look like, Kusuo didn't really go into detail about what he looks like.

"There!" She heard the shouts and squeals of a bunch of girls as they all crowded around the new student. Akari followed the noise and slithered around the rowdy group to stand beside her pink-haired friend.

'So this is the medium?' she thought to Kusuo who grunted in reply. Akari drank in the appearance of the new student as he was asked questions left and right by the group of girls. He was purple-haired with a white headband, though the way that he was staring at all of the girls, Akari has the feeling that he was a bit of a perv. She hasn't even spoken to the teen and she could already tell that he was a pervert. Now Akari understood why Kusuo had wanted her to stay away.

A girl shouted, "Can you see my protective spirit?"

"What is mine?" A different one asked.

The purple-haired boy glanced at Kusuo with a smirk, "Saiki, I am going to be just fine. All right! I will get to all of you! Get in line."

So the girls all crowded around each other and lined up just as he said. Toritsuka definitely is into this far too much. Transferring wasn't that bad of an idea. A brown-haired girl, the one at the front of the new line, smiled at him, "What is a protective spirit?"

"As the name indicates," Toritsuka started to happily explain, more than glad to get this attention, "it's a spirit that protects you."

"Wow!" The girl gasped, "What is my protective spirit?"

Akari found it interesting to know about the spirits who looked after a person. She can't lie, she's interested in knowing her own protective spirit. I mean, aren't you? What kind of spirit would protect her? Maybe we'll find out this chapter, maybe not. Is she going to ask him about it? Probably not.

Toritsuka stared at the girl for a moment, "You have… the spirit of a samurai! He will protect you." He turned to the next girl in line, "Yours is a royal lady of a European house."

"Really?" The girl gasped.

A new girl pushed her way over, "What about mine?"

"You have…" Toritsuka paused and cringed seeing what her spirit really is, which is a disgusting man. "Well… You have a poet from France or somewhere."

None the wiser, the girl smiled happily, "Amazing!"

"He is in his 20s with long hair…" Toritsuka shakily explained, which made Akari believe that he was lying. "He is a really charming guy."

Though a few boys ran over to him to see what he would say about them. Unnamed boy one pointed to himself, "What's mine?"

"What about mine?" Another asked.

Takahashi butted in, being the only character that has a name in the small group, "Mine first."

Though Toritsuka didn't pay them any mind and instead turned to the girls, "Are there any other girls?"

Yeah, Akari figured that he was only doing this to get attention from the girls. She's unsure how to feel about it, but did know that it was creepy.

"Hey!" Takahashi exclaimed with his squeaky voice, "Don't ignore me!"

Toristka tsked and turned to them, "Well, old man, old lady, old lady, old lady, done. Now, back to you…"

The boys all blanched at the way he brushed them off, "You didn't even look closely!" Though he disregarded them and focused on a different student.

"Hairo, go on." Someone said to the fiery class representative.

Hairo shook his head, "No, I'm not interested."

Toritsuka walked up to Hairo and stared at him in awe, "You have an amazing protective spirit."

"What?"

"He is a passionate man." Toristka explained, "Tennis? He is full of energy. His name may be Matsu…"

Kusuo cut in, "He is still alive."

"This is all so stupid." The blue-haired moron came waltzing over. He tried pretending that he isn't interested in all of this, though Akari could tell that he was a tad bit invested. Going by how his cheeks were dusted with a light pink, she doesn't doubt that he hoped he has a protective spirit with a demon or something. If anyone was going to have a strange spirit like that, it would be Akari. "Well, I suppose I will ask. Who is my protective spirit?"

Kusuo stared at him blankly. Though when does he not have a blank expression? "He really wants to know."

'He's not hiding it that well,' Akari tsked.

Toritsuka turned to him, "Your protective spirit is abnormal."

Akari could definitely tell he thought that it has something to do with his Dark Reunion fantasy. She certainly was amused with watching his fantasy fall for just a moment. Maybe Kusuo's right and she is a sadist, or maybe a masicist. Or MJ is just pretty inconsistent with her character writing. Oh, well.

"What is it?" Kaido blushed, "Go on."

"It's a Chihuahua."

Everyone laughed at the unfortunate spirit as Kaido blanched, "Chihuahua? This is a joke. You made that up, didn't you?" Did Akari feel kind of bad for him? Maybe a bit.

"What is the fuss?" A different idiot suddenly appeared. Really, aren't these kids supposed to be in class or something? "A festival?"

"Now, here comes the weirdo."

Akari stared at him for a moment before looking at where he had come from. When really Nendo had just appeared from thin air thanks to anime magic. 'Where even was he? I thought he'd be one of the first out here.'

Kaido pouted, "He claims he can see protective spirits."

"Protective spirits?" Nendo tilted his head, "What's that?"

"Don't push. There is a line."

Though Nendo slid up to the medium and completely cut the line, "What is my protective spirit?"

"Nendo's protective spirit?" Kusuo hummed, "I am curious."

Though Toritsuka just disregarded him and turned to Chiyo instead, "Your protective spirit is a politician."

The girl tilted her head, "Really?"

Kusuo let out the barest of chuckles, "Completely ignored."

'Guess he knows how I feel,' Akari commented lightly. Kusuo glanced at him from the corner of his eye before turning back to the grouping of girls. Did he notice the way that her words were both dripping with amusement and some resentment? Yeah, a bit. He knows that both of them never go looking for attention and detest it. However, he also knows that there's a small part of Akari that wants to be seen, at least every once in a while. Though there's not much that can be done for that, considering how her powers basically turn her into a shadow. While he doesn't share her small want to be seen by people, he can understand it just a bit. He can also feel quite bad for her.

---

School finally came to an end, as well as the swarm of people surrounding the new student. Everyone at the school really did want to know what their protective spirit is since they constantly followed Toritsuka around all day. Though he loved the attention that he got, especially from all the ladies. Kusuo and Akari had watched him from afar and rolled their eyes at him just about every minute. Akari now knew that he is a total pervert from how he tried to get close to every girl that he came close enough to.

Though now the quartet exited school. The quartet being Kusuo, Toritsuka, Akari and Nendo. The purple-haired teen exclaimed in happiness,"I am so glad I came here!"

Behind them, Nendo followed them like a puppy as he repeated the same thing over and over and over again, "What is my protective spirit?"

"My rose-colored campus life has begun," Toristka said, still ignoring Nendo. Akari was a tad bit impressed that the new student could brush Nendo off like this. That is a feat on its own.

"Tell me what my protective spirit is."

Toritsuka turned to Saiki, as well as Akari but he didn't see her on the other side of his new psychic friend. "Saiki, would you like to know yours?"

"I don't really care." Kusuo answered plainly, "But tell this guy his."

"What's mine?"

"He is annoying me."

"What's mine?"

"Shut up!" Toritsuka suddenly turned to the following buffoon and shouted at him, "I told you to stop following me!"

Akari and Kusuo stared at him in surprise, "Why did he get mad all of a sudden?"

Toritsuka suddenly whipped his bag around and wacked Nenod in his side. Though it's not like Nendo was moved by it because he's a literal beast. Toritsuka was astonished for a second before he grabbed Nendo's face and squished his cheeks. He is seemingly surprised that Nendo was actually there. "What?" He shouted, "He isn't a ghost?"

Kusuo's eyes narrowed, "You thought he was a ghost?"

"Can he really not tell the difference?" Akari asked Kusuo who just shrugged his shoulders lightly. She knows that everyone's abilities come with drawbacks. She just told you hers a few chapters ago, and we all know the many rules and limitations for Kusuo's abilities. So it seems like even as a medium, there was a drawback as well.

Toritsuka stared between Kusuo and Nendo, almost making sure that Nendo wouldn't suddenly disappear if he looked away for too long. "Didn't you also ignore him like you couldn't see him?"

"I saw him but ignored him," Kusuo explained since it's normal for him to do that.

Nendo growled, "How dare you?"

"Seriously?" Toritsuka continued to shout, "He's real!"

"Good grief." Kusuo sighed, "He can't tell the difference between a human and a ghost. It must be tough to be a medium."

Akari watched the shouting match between Toritsuka and Nendo as if it were a tennis game. "Is it bad that I feel bad for him?" She looked up to Kusuo with a tilt of her head. Her oily hair spills over her shoulder, "Not being able to tell the difference between ghost and living people must be hard."

Kusuo spared her a glance before looking away from her, "Yes."

---

"Saiki, I want to show you something," Toristka said as he led Kusuo, and unknowingly, Akari, to his home. Toristka apparently lives in a temple, which kind of makes sense since he could see the dead. "Can you use psychometry on me? You will understand why I made that mistake."

Kusuo rested his hand on the other boy's shoulder to see what he was looking at. Though he really wasn't expecting what he laid his eyes on. Apparently, Toritsuka's reaction to Nendo was a tad bit understandable now. "This is…"

"This is my protective spirit," Toritsuka said as the two stared at the ghost of Nendo's father. The same spirit that Kusuo had tried to forget seeing the other day. Hey, look at that, the episodes are related somehow. How about that!

Kusuo felt a bit bad for Toritsuka now, not too much but just about 0.01%. "You really do have it rough."

Akari stared at where they were looking and only saw the temple. So she figures that they were looking at something that she couldn't see. Though from their reaction, she isn't sure if she wants to. However, as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. "What is it?"

Toritsuka jumped at the sudden haunting voice from beside him, "AH!" He had honestly thought that he and Kusuo were the only ones around. There weren't any other spirits around beside his protective spirit, so how had there been someone else who just appeared? He turned to the side to stare at the girl who had suddenly appeared beside Kusuo and found himself drooling. How had he not noticed such a cute girl?

"What's wrong with his protective spirit?" She disregarded Toritsuka as he flubbed his words about her sudden appearance.

Kusuo looked down at her and explained plainly, "It's Nendo's dad."

"Oh," she blinked and turned to Toritsuka who was still trying to get over at her "sudden" appearance. She stared at him boredly, "How unfortunate for you."

He pointed at her with a slightly shaky hand, "H-How long have you been there?"

"The entire time." She blinked once again, "I've been walking alongside you guys ever since we left school."

Toritsuka stuttered, "B-But I didn't see you at all!" He tried to calm himself down and smirked, which caused Akari to cringe, "I'm so sorry for not noticing such a cute-"

"No."

The medium grimaced at the sudden harsh tone from Kusuo as he seemed to place himself in front of the girl. "Hey, don't be such a jerk, Saiki," Toritsuka whined, he continued to try and smirk at her, "I was just saying how I'm surprised I didn't see this beautiful girl following us from school. Usually, I'm the one following the girl."

Both Akari and Kusuo found that highly disturbing. Akri scoffed, "Right. Well, Ku-kun and I should head home."

"Ku-kun?" Toritsuka questioned as he thought for a moment. He then clicked his fingers, "Oh! Why didn't you say this was your girlfriend, Saiki! Good job catching such a pretty one, master!"

Kusuo stared at him unamused, "I thought I told you to stop calling me master." Oya oya oya, is he not denying it?

"Right!" Toritsuka squeaked out as an icy chill crawled down his spine at the glare from Kusuo. "Sorry!"

Kusuo then grunted, "And Akari is not my girlfriend." Mhm, keep telling yourself that, bud.

Toritsuka tilted his head, "She isn't?" Well, if she was single then that's perfectly fine. Give him a shot at wooing her! Yeah, sure, that'll happen when MJ gets a consistent update schedule. So never.

"Come on, Ku-kun," Akari lightly grabbed her friend's elbow to guide him away. The last thing she needs is to witness a fight or something between these two. Though she would greatly appreciate seeing the pervert punched at least once for all the unpleasant comments she heard from him all day. They turned around, leaving the medium watching after them with mischievous and longing eyes. Akari called over her shoulder, "Nice to meet you, Toritsuka."

"I don't like how he looks at you," Kusuo said as they started their journey home. Would he admit that there was a small spark of something(*cough* jealousy *cough*) in his chest? Hell no. It's not like he knew what it was nor why he would be feeling it about some idiot talking to Akari like that. Akari is his friend so he's going to look out for her as much as he can. That includes keeping perverts like Toritsuka away from her.

Akari chuckled slightly with her same wispy laugh, 'you don't like most things. Though I will admit, I don't like it all that much either.' She shivered, she certainly doesn't like how he stared at her like a piece of meat. Not only does she hate attention, but she detests the attention she had been getting from Toritsuka just then.

Kusuo clicked his tongue, "This is why I told you to stay away from him."

'How could I do that when you were around him so much.' Akari brought up. Yeah, Saiki, this is your fault. 'Would you have rather not seen me at all today?'

Kusuo was quiet for a moment before he grunted, "Whatever." Not like he wanted to admit that he would never want to be away from her for too long. Most days, she keeps him sane and if they were to be separated for too long there's no telling what would happen! So let's just be glad that Akari was around to keep him from doing something rash to those who annoyed him.