Chapter 226 - My CO Stash #26 - See You In The Dark by JGSZX (TheDisastrousLifeofSaikiK.XWorm) (1/2)

-The first and surprisingly fun CO fic of The Disastrous Life of Saiki & Worm~ Author managed to capture Saiki's character extremely well and he even goes the extra lengths by actually ill_u_s_trating some of the events of the story, obviously I can't post images here so I suggest rereading it in the original site! (＃￣ω￣)

Sypnosis: Saiki Kusuo's efforts to live an ordinary life are constantly being thrown into disarray, and this is the worst incident yet. Not only have his malfunctioning psychic powers thrown him into another dimension, they've changed the genre entirely. What's it going to take to get back to his usual comedy show?

Rated: ???

Words: 11K

Posted on: forums.spacebattles.com/threads/see-you-in-the-dark-the-disastrous-life-of-saiki-k-worm.833943/ (JGSZX)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1 - A TroublePSIme Development

Notes:

My knowledge of Worm relies mostly on the wiki, the fanfiction I've read here on SB, and what my friends who have read Worm have told me. I'd like to get the broad strokes right, but I'm not overly concerned about getting the smaller details correct. Sorry if that bothers you. Feel free to offer up corrections but be aware that I'm playing fast and loose with canon.

I'm open to criticism about how to make the story better, but not about how to change the nature of the story. That is to say, there are topics / themes I am interested in exploring, and will steer the story in that direction. I won't stop writing what I'm interested in so please don't suggest otherwise, but if you have suggestions on how to make the execution of the story or exploration of themes more interesting, I'm all ears.

Tl;dr: OK: ”I think XXX event has distracted from the main storyline.” ”Having XXX happen is detracting from YYY theme that has showed up before. I think if you wanted to write a tighter story, you should change XXX like so.” Will be ignored: ”I'm not interested in the direction of the story, you should change it.” If you enjoy the story, please leave a comment letting me know what you liked. Having engaged readers is a big motivation for me to keep writing.

Thanks for your interest and hope you enjoy.

------

Psychic power. For instance… hearing other people's thoughts, or seeing what's on the other side of a wall, or even manipulating objects through power of will alone. A power to do what normal people can't. That's what I have.

My name is Saiki Kusuo, and I am an esper.

Q: Are you a chuunibyou?

A: No.

I've lived with this power my whole life. Some of you might be thinking, ”How lucky! With that kind of power, you could do anything you want!” Right? Wrong! Do you know how annoying it is to always be hearing people's thoughts, or constantly seeing through skin and muscle until everyone simply looks like walking sacks of bones? Not to mention each power comes with its own downsides too. Read the manga if you want to learn more. In any case, having psychic power has done nothing but inconvenience me since the moment of my birth, and is barely any help in my pursuit of my dream to live a completely ordinary life.

That said, thanks to my psychic powers, nothing bad has ever really happened to me, so I don't really have anything to complain about.

”Saiki. How did your part of the project go last night?”

As I haven't brainwashed the people of this world into ignoring me speaking directly to their minds with telepathy, I can only respond through physical gesture or by speaking with my actual voice. I don't particularly care to do the latter, so I simply nod in greeting.

Here, Hebert. Take this packet of papers with all my work so you can look over it and calm down your paranoia about me ruining your grades, and so I don't have to speak.

As you may have guessed, the one speaking to me is named Hebert. Taylor Hebert, to be exact. Since this is a story and not a manga or anime, I'll describe her for you. She's tall for her age, thin, and has long, curly black hair. As for her facial features… She probably has a wide mouth, but I wouldn't know, since my X-ray vision is always on and looking at anyone for longer than a second means I start seeing through their skin down to their muscle and bone. Thanks to that I've never bothered to memorize people's faces very closely. I can identify them by their thoughts anyways.

So why are you complaining about Hebert? you might be asking. Is she a bad school partner? Does she smell bad? Does she have a romantic inclination for you that you can't maneuver your way out of no matter how hard you try, like a certain blue-haired perfect pretty girl loved by God?

None of the above. There's nothing wrong with Hebert herself. She's capable, diligent, and introverted, which suits a shy and withdrawn student like me. No, the problem is the trouble that she comes with.

Here they come, right on cue. Hess has walked by and bumped Hebert just a little too hard, almost jostling the papers out of her hands. None of that, now. I'll help Hebert keep ahold of them with a little telekinesis. I worked hard on those papers, you know. No knocking them down.

”Oops, sorry, we didn't see you there, Taylor,” says Barnes sweetly. ”I guess we just didn't notice you, what with how plain and ugly your clothes are…”

And there they go, starting up with one insult after another. They're not even very good insults. Well, carry on a bullying campaign for a year and a half and you'll eventually run out of material, I suppose. It's still quite annoying to hear themselves congratulating themselves for a job well done with each insult, though. Like this, with Barnes…

<Hehe. The look on her face. She's totally self conscious about how she looks, now. I wonder if she'll go cry in the bathroom later?>

That's not something you should be proud of, you know. The level of self-congratulation sure is amazing. Actually, what's more amazing is how shamelessly they bully Hebert right in front of others. I'm right here, you know? Not that I want them to notice me, but it's the principle of the matter.

I shift in my seat slightly, which successfully draws their attention away from Taylor for a moment.

”Oh, sorry, Saiki,” Barnes says. ”Were we interrupting a moment between you two?” Yes, our homework consultation time. ”Nah, who am I kidding? No one would ever get together with flat-c_h_e_s_t over here.” What's the big deal about the size of someone's c_h_e_s_t? One mass of fat and muscle is basically the same as another; if there's a little more or less, who cares. ”You're still working with her on this project? You can do way better than her.”

Is that so? Certainly I could find a partner with better grades if I wanted, but I don't want good grades. I want ones that are completely ordinarily average. Standing out is the opposite of what I want to do… although, being partnered with Hebert, I've already failed step one. What a pain.

”Yeah,” says Clements. ”Haven't you heard how bad her grades are? She never turns in anything on time…” That's because you steal her things. ”And she cheats…” That's because you frame her after you copy her work. ”And when she does turn in original work, the quality is so bad, she might as well drop out and join the Merchants!” That's because she has to redo her work after you destroy it. Who has the time to redo everything perfectly a second time.

The bullies all seem to think this is very clever though, laughing at Hebert. It's actually quite incredible that anyone could be this cliche.

Hebert has lowered her head. … It's only natural to be worn down after months of this treatment, I suppose.

<Damn it. Why did they have to do this in front of Saiki? Now I'll lose another partner, too. Can't I have just one class without having to worry about them?>

It doesn't really make a difference if they do it here or in another classroom, Hebert. I can still hear it with my telepathy. This bullying case is even worse than Akechi's. At least Akechi had acquaintances who would help him in the aftermath. But no one steps up to help Hebert.

”Hey, it's rude to ignore people when they're talking to you,” says Barnes.

Ah, that's right, they're waiting for a response from me. Why did you have to drag me into this.

”Well?” says Barnes, putting a hand on her hip. ”What do you think?”

Now that it's come to this, I have no choice but to respond.

What should I do? Talk to her? I'd rather not make my first spoken words in this story to someone like her.

Ignore her?

<This guy is ticking me off. If he keeps ignoring me, I'll have to explain to him properly how it works around here…>

That's just trouble. How annoying.

With those two options off the table, you've left me no choice but to show you the power of an esper, Barnes. You brought this on yourself.

”Hey, she's talking to you,” Hess says menacingly, stepping up to me and grabbing me by the collar of my shirt. ”Or do you want to end up on the shit list like Hebert, here?”

I see. So you want to pick a fight with me?

​

Then you better be prepared for the consequences.

Hess flinches for a second, before gripping my shirt harder. ”What's with that look?” she says lowly. <What was that?! Usually he just sits there passively with a blank expression. He doesn't respond to anything. He's totally prey! He's basically air! But for a second there, I could have sworn…>

”Don't bother with him,” Clements says disdainfully. ”I mean, if he doesn't want to talk, he's pretty much declared where he stands, right?” She smiles. Next to her, Barnes holds the papers I worked so hard on last night. She makes direct eye contact with me as she rips it into shreds. I have the feeling I'm supposed to be hurt by this action somehow, but this level of harassment is so petty it's just sad.

<That'll show you not to mess with me. So hurry up and change your expression already…Hm?>

She follows my gaze to the doorway behind her.

There stands Mr. Prescott, looking at the shredded paper on the desk.

That's right. Behold the revenge of an esper.

”Miss Barnes,” says Mr. Prescott, ”Care to explain?”

<Damn it, it's Shadow Stalker and her friends. I can't turn a blind eye to this, but if I'm too hard on her, we'll lose the PRT funding…>

”Oh, Mr. Prescott!” Barnes says sweetly. ”We were just messing around between friends. Sorry, it looks a little compromising, huh?”

Mr. Prescott's gaze travels to where Hess is still holding my shirt. Hess lets go quickly and straightens up.

”Yes,” Mr. Prescott says slowly. ”Well. There's nothing wrong with having fun with your friends. But be sure not to disrupt class. Everyone be seated, then. The bell is about to ring.”

”Sure thing, Mr. Prescott,” Clements says, and the bullies disperse away from my desk.

<At least they gave me an excuse not to do anything, but honestly, if you're going to do anything, make sure I won't see it…> Mr. Prescott, you sure do love that PRT funding, huh. What is with this school. So irresponsible.

<What bad luck. Usually the teacher doesn't get here for a couple minutes more,> Barnes thinks. <What was that timing?>

That would be my doing. Using my telepathy, I nudged Mr. Prescott into deciding to walk over a few minutes earlier than usual. Of course, now he's thinking about how he's strictly not entering the classroom until after the bell has rung because he wants to avoid seeing trouble like that again, so it seems it was a one-time use trick, but it's enough to make everyone back off for now.