[Is this person also an esper? Wait wait wait... his hair is pink, could it be…]
'I'm hiding my abilities, so please don't expose this.'
Saiki looked at Ai Urana with utmost seriousness.
Because of Ai's special ability, the identity of Saiki as an esper would definitely be exposed. And now, in this narrow fortune-telling shop, Saiki had no room to avoid it.
If there weren't so many people present, Saiki should've already been able to use telepathy to perceive Ai's identity and come up with a response plan earlier, but there were simply too many customers present, so he couldn't use telepathy at all earlier to capture that information.
However, for now, fortunately Ai didn't seem to be any strange or weird person, so Saiki chose to directly negotiate with the other party.
Moreover, Saiki had heard that these kinds of fortune-telling shops usually only opened during summer vacation, and once school officially started, they should be leaving the school, so at that time the trouble would be a bit less.
'If there are any problems afterward, we'll communicate privately.'
[Okay, okay...]
Ai responded in her heart, then vaguely said a few words, "You, in the future, everything will go more smoothly, and your relationship with the people around you will also deepen further, but in terms of luck…"
"Alright, thank you very much."
Saiki immediately stood up and left the seat.
"Eh, is Saiki's already over that quickly?"
Karuizawa was a bit surprised. Previously, Ai had said quite a lot to the other people, but for Saiki, she only said a few vague and bland sentences.
"Yeah, let's go."
Saiki then spoke to the others and prepared to leave the fortune-telling shop.
And Ai stared fixedly at Saiki's back.
[Two-tone hair, seems like his surname is Saiki? Then the name abbreviation might really be that one… and the special ability, could it be referring to his psychic powers?]
[Th-then this boy called Saiki… could he really be my destined one? He's also kinda good-looking!]
[W-wait, does he have telepathy? Then the inner thoughts I just had… didn't he hear all of them!?]
———
'Yare yare, to think there's actually another esper?'
Saiki squinted slightly, his gaze becoming serious. What happened today exceeded his expectations a little.
'To prevent any unexpected incidents, I'll talk to that person privately tonight.'
And next to Saiki, the other three people were chatting first.
"That fortune-teller was really accurate! Were your readings accurate?"
"Mm… it really was accurate..."
"At first I didn't really believe in fortune-telling, but I didn't expect her to actually be that accurate."
Although they were discussing the topic, their thoughts were surprisingly unanimous.
[That fortune-teller's destined one, could it really be Saiki?]
———
Originally, today was supposed to be a "two-person world" between Saiki and Karuizawa, but due to all sorts of coincidences, it turned into a group of four.
After finishing the fortune-telling, the four of them had a meal together, then returned to their dorms. For each of them, today's events were unexpected.
As the sky gradually darkened, Saiki used teleportation to arrive outside his dormitory building, and Ai had already been waiting there for quite a while.
"He actually really appeared out of thin air…"
Ai looked at Saiki with some surprise. It seemed that the other's abilities went far beyond just telepathy.
"Y-you, what kind of person are you exactly?"
Ai asked curiously. Ever since encountering Saiki, she had been very concerned about his existence.
'Not anyone special, just an ordinary high school student with psychic powers.'
Saiki didn't open his mouth. He directly transmitted the words into Ai's mind.
"Teleportation, telepathy... do you have any other hot superpowers?"
Before Ai could finish speaking, Saiki took a metal spoon out of his pocket, next moment, the spoon twisted like a snake, even tying itself into a knot.
"The spoon tied itself in a knot! But the way it twisted and turned is so gross!" Ai exclaimed loudly in shock.
'This matter absolutely cannot be spoken of.'
At that moment, Saiki instantly appeared in front of Ai, using an extremely serious expression to look at her. The voice transmitted into her mind was equally grave.
"I-I got it."
Ai quickly nodded her head.
'Yare yare, I just want to live an ordinary person's life, so I don't want anything related to this to be exposed.'
Saiki stepped back a few steps and looked at Ai, 'You should only be staying at the school during summer vacation, right? Anyway, I hope that during the remaining days of summer vacation, you don't cause any trouble.'
"Got it, got it!"
Ai showed a well-behaved smile on her face, nodding repeatedly toward Saiki.
'Then there's nothing else. I'm leaving now.'
After Saiki finished speaking, he used teleportation and disappeared from the location.
After he left, a meaningful smile appeared on Ai's face.
"Aiya, the destined one I foretold really is this boy called Saiki! The fortune-telling shop only opens during summer, however, if it's to sell little accessories and items, then such a shop can stay open long-term!"
Ai smiled as she spoke, while pulling out a contract from her bag. Because of the birthday boom, after the summer vacation, her fortune-telling accessory shop would officially remain at the school.
"I'll be able to spend more time observing Saiki! Right, before I couldn't see anyone else's aura, but after Saiki left I could, could it be that his aura directly overwhelmed everyone else's?"
———
The summer vacation passed little by little, and very soon it was time for the official start of school.
On the last day of summer break, the members of Class B made plans to go to the pool together. But this was all a conspiracy by the idiot trio and the professor, they wanted to use this chance to film footage of the other girls changing clothes.
Although Saiki was not someone who liked to meddle in others' affairs, when facing this kind of thing, he also couldn't just sit back and do nothing.
So on that day, he used his psychic powers to destroy all the miniature cameras they had bought, and also made them fall on the street ten times with "face-first into the dirt" style as punishment.
Of course, they had no idea all of this was caused by Saiki.
When the official school start day arrived, everyone came to the classroom. The idiot trio all had a few bandages on their faces.
"In the end, the plan totally failed..."
"That fortune-teller wasn't wrong… our luck really has been bad lately."
"Didn't expect we'd even trip while walking… our luck is just too terrible."
The three of them leaned on each other like conjoined triplets, venting their inner frustration helplessly.
'This has nothing to do with luck.'
Saiki looked at the three with an expressionless face.
Although there had been a few small incidents along the way, overall, Saiki's vacation could be considered peaceful, which was exactly what he wished for.
Soon the first class of the semester officially began. But when Chabashira Sae entered the classroom, she didn't begin the lesson immediately, but instead spoke,
"Starting today, classes will resume, but during the one-month period from September to early October of the second semester, there will be additional P.E. classes for preparation toward the sports festival."
"I'll hand out new timetables, please keep them safe. Also, materials related to the sports festival will be distributed along with the schedule. The student at the front, please pass them back."
As soon as the word "sports festival" was heard, most students groaned. Although some looked forward to this event, since it was mainly sports-based, there were still many students who inevitably disliked it.
Among the few who liked sports festivals, was Sudo.
"Alright!!"
Sudo even stood up and shouted in excitement.
At this moment, there wasn't a hint of a smile on Saiki's face.
To Saiki, the sports festival was a massive disaster.
Even with his limiters on, he still couldn't perfectly control his physical strength.
If, at the time, he wasn't careful and broke a world record, it could lead to a lot of unnecessary trouble.
It might even cause some terrible accidents...
'Yare yare, for this kind of thing like a sports festival, I shouldn't necessarily have to participate, right? I'll find an excuse to take a sick day.'
"Also, the school's homepage has publicly posted the event details as well. Please refer to the website if needed." Chabashira Sae continued speaking.
"Teacher, is this one of the special exams too?" As class representative, Hirata Yousuke immediately raised his hand and asked.
"How you interpret it is up to you, but it certainly will have a huge impact on your class." Chabashira Sae spoke slowly.
"Some of you might've noticed from the materials already, but this sports festival will divide all grades into two groups for the competition."
"Your Class B was randomly assigned to the Red Team, and Class A will also fight as part of the Red Team, in other words, during the sports festival, Class A will be your ally."
'Divided into two groups? Then the chances of slacking off should be higher, but it seems we'll have contact with students from other grades too.'
Saiki thought to himself while carefully reading the rules of this sports festival.
This time, the rules were quite complicated. Also, unlike previous exams, this one didn't necessarily give class points, there might even be deductions.
However, if someone achieved a third-place finish or better in an event, they could choose to receive individual points or a bonus for the next written test.
As for the last-place finishers, they would receive the opposite, penalties.
"Next is a very important matter. Here is a form called the Participation Form. It contains the details of all the events, you must decide yourselves in what order and who will participate in which events, then fill out this form."
"I, your homeroom teacher, will submit it. No other junior high school uses this kind of system, so I hope you all take care not to mess it up." Chabashira Sae said this while placing the form on the lectern.
"Decide ourselves?"
All the students present were extremely confused.
"Everything is to be decided by you, the events held on the day of the sports festival, even who runs in which group, you all must discuss and decide."
"After the deadline, no replacements are allowed for any reason. This is one of the key rules of the sports festival."
"Submission deadline is between one week before and the day before the sports festival, at 5,00 PM. If the deadline is missed, participants will be randomly assigned."
"Please be aware. All students must participate. Because self-management is also an essential skill in society, even if you have a fever on an important meeting day, you can't easily take a day off. You all should understand that."
'Damn it!!'
Saiki almost screamed in his heart. This rule completely cut off his option to skip the sports festival using a sick-day excuse.
Even if he really couldn't attend due to uncontrollable illness, it would still be counted as an absence, and the whole group would be penalized with point deductions. He might even get pushed to the center of criticism in the class.
'Damn this school… really loves creating trouble!'
Saiki immediately shifted his thinking and started to consider how to survive the sports festival.
If it couldn't be avoided, then he could only find a way to slack off and get through it.
'Since the participants are decided within the class, I'll look for a chance to join a group event. That way even if I slack off, it won't be obvious. Or I can pretend to be someone with poor physical abilities to avoid being picked for important individual events.'
Saiki's brain spun rapidly, and he came up with a feasible plan.
"Next period, everyone will go to the gym to meet students from other grades." Chabashira Sae slowly said.
"For the remaining 20 minutes, it's self-study."
'Yare yare, this sports festival… is the real challenge for me.'
Saiki raised his eyebrows slightly.
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