Chapter Two: The Worst of the Worst?! Riki Nendo

THE MORNING CEREMONY WAS JUST AS BORING as it usually is. Students lined up in their teal green uniforms listening to the principal go on and on about the school year. Stuck in the middle of the group was Akari, who would not like to be there at all. Then again she doesn't like to be anywhere that involves large crowds or people in general. Overall, she likes to be alone. 

The one person who was suffering the most through this Kusuo, of course. Being telepathic and all can be such a hassle, especially with having a radius of two hundred meters. Having the thoughts of everyone in the building was such a pain. Though he just had to suffer through the ceremony and not draw attention to himself. After all, he learned to not use his powers in public in order to keep himself hidden.

Though there was one person who he could not get a read on, like at all. "Guess who?" A pair of large, meaty hands wrapped around his eyes, to Kusuo's dismay. With no choice but to interact with the oaf, he turns to face him. His self-proclaimed buddy smiled at Kusuo stupidly, "How's it going, pal? Gal pal?"

The tall, intimidating figure of Nendo Riki loomed over the shorter pink-haired teen. Not to be mean or anything, but Nendo is definitely not the most... appealing person to look at. I mean, the combination of a butt chin, a scar over one of his eyes, and an overall mean-looking appearance, Nendo isn't the most handsome guy around. That's putting it nicely. It didn't help that he was also a complete moron which meant his thoughts were unreadable for Kusuo.

Akari leaned over from her spot next to Kusuo to look up at the delinquent looking boy, "hi, Nendo." Most people tend not to notice her because she's so quiet. Thanks to her god-given powers, she could easily become invisible in plain sight. Though for some odd reason, Nendo could easily pick her out of a crowd, so long as she's not in her shadowy form. Unlike Kusuo and basically everyone else, she wasn't as bothered by the big guy. He may be an idiot, but he could be endearing. Overbearing, but endearing. Deep down, Akari knew that he had good intentions with the things that he did. If he wasn't so much of an idiot then it would be more obvious.

You would think that she wouldn't like someone being able to see her even when she likes to stay hidden right in front of people. Though it's nice to have someone who wouldn't ignore you or at least be able to see you at certain times. As much as she likes to be left alone, being ignored all the time isn't usually fun. Sure she's shy, but she likes to at least be noticed once in a while. Kusuo had done that for her for such a long time, and it was nice to have another person to do that.

Suddenly, a green-haired student fell down to the ground. Apparently, he fainted due to the long ceremony. Though, if you asked Akari, it didn't really seem like it. She could understand the teens want to pretend to get sick, then he'd get to leave the ceremony early. Though she seemed to be one of the only ones to figure that out. As students started to worry about the broccoli-headed boy's sudden fall, Nendo screamed. Even if he had a good heart, the gigantic oaf certainly was going about the wrong way of showing it. He was hitting the poor teen in the face to try and wake him up. Akari grimaced. Nendo was also trying to "resuscitate" him with mouth-to-mouth. No one should suffer such an experience, she thought.

A teacher noticed the commotion and came over to see what was going on. "What are you doing, Nendo? Get him to the nurse already!"

The idiot nodded his head at the idea as if he hadn't even thought of it. "Oh, right! The nurse!"

"Hey, Saiki!" The teacher turned to the quiet, pink-haired teen, "Go with him! I'm worried about him going alone."

'Dammit.' Kusuo grunted in dismay. 

Seeing her friends disgruntled at the command from the teacher and peered up at his irritated scowl. 'I'll come with you if you want.'

'Why?' He side-eyed her as Nendo picked up the unconscious boy with his brute strength and ushered Saiki to hurry up already.

'So you don't have to suffer with Nendo.' She commented while following after the trio of boys. Nobody else noticed the black-haired girl leaving with them, and even on the minuscule chance that they did, they didn't care. 'You're a sadist after all, not a masochist.' Her comment earned her a sharp look from Kusuo which caused her to giggle softly.

---

The group entered the nurse's room and found that there was no one there. Where was the nurse? Shouldn't they be here in case something like this happened? Or perhaps the writers got too lazy to create a character for this. Either way, there wasn't anyone there to help them.

"Hey, no one's here." Nendo commented, "I guess it's time for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."

The student who faked being unconscious, Takahashi, tossed the large guy off of him. While Nendo fell into the side of a bed, Takahashi ran over to a sink where he started to violently wash out his mouth. "What do you mean mouth-to-mouth? Are you stupid?"

Nendo stared at him in stupid relief, "Wait, so you're okay after all?"

"I was just pretending, idiot!" Takahashi shouted out in anger as it was quite obvious. Though it's not like Nendo could recognize the obvious if it punched him in the face, "What's wrong with you? Why did you have to kiss me?"

"Well, it was my first kiss, you know." Nendo said bashfully, "Let's just call it even."

'You're not helping.' Akari sweatdropped from her hidden spot basically behind Kusuo. With a need to stay hidden, she usually uses Kusuo as some sort of shield most of the time.

Takahashi wailed in dismay, "Everyone's going to think we're in love or something!"

'No one would think that, at all.' Kusuo thought.

"Hey Saiki, you'd better not tell anyone I was faking!" Takahashi shouted, not even paying attention enough to notice the girl behind the pink-haired teen. "Keep this to yourself!"

"Keep what to myself, exactly? That you were faking?" He asked as the broccoli-head with a raised eyebrow. "Or that your first kiss was with Nendo? If it's the faking, the jig is already up."

Suddenly, their school gym teacher rounded the corner. Anger radiated off of him as he stared down at the terrified student. "I heard that. So you were faking?"

Takahashi started to shake in fear, "You've got it all wrong! It was his idea!" He pointed at the clueless Nendo, "He told me to fake an illness, so he could play hooky! I'm such a bonehead for listening to him!"

Takahashi started to fake cry to keep up the lie, to Akari's amusement. Matsuzaki sharply turned to the tall teen with narrowed eyes, "Is that true, Nendo?"

The big idiot just stared at them, not understanding what was happening at all, "What?"

'Blaming it on Nendo?' Kusuo thought and seemed to commend Takahashi on his quick thinking, 'Not a bad strategy.'

Akari nodded her head with a hand on her chin in thought, 'Probably the smartest thing he's ever done.'

Matsuzaki then noticed that there was another student in the room, "Saiki, what are you doing here?" Once again, nobody noticed the girl behind him. She really did look like a shadow and was completely invisible to the others in the room. Bless her powers.

"What?" Kusuo asked in displeasure causing Akari to let a few giggles slip through as she hid. Seeing her friend get into situations like these was always entertaining. No matter how much he tried, Kusuo always got dragged into the most absurd and annoying situations. She found it quite funny.

"Was he in on this too, Takahashi?"

Takahashi looked up from his arm and shrugged, "What? Oh, sure. Him, too."

"That's it!" The gym teacher started to rage, "Both of you, to my office! Now!"

Kusuo's glasses glinted in the light, giving him a terrifying appearance, 'Dragging me into this is a very bad idea.' 

"Hold on a second." Nendo piped up, "He really is sick. Didn't you hear what he said? He's got a bonehead." The four others in the room blanched at the sheer stupidity from the guy. Seriously, did they really write this guy to be this idiotic!? Who thinks that being a bonehead is an illness!? The dummy just stared at them innocently, "That's it, right?"

"Bonehead? What are you talking about?" Matsuzaki asked in bewilderment and thought about it for a minute, "Oh, bonehead! I remember now."

"Now way!" Takahashi gasped.

'Wow. Dumb and dumber.' Kusuo pointed out now realizing that their gym teacher was just as dumb as Nendo.

"Let's take your temperature." The idiot suggested, "If you're sick, you should have a fever."

Doing as he suggested, Matsuzaki grabbed a thermometer to take the "sick" boy's temperature. To make it seem as though Takahashi really does have a fever, Kusuo used his Pyrokinesis on the thermometer. "It's 92.8*C degrees." For Americans, that's 199.04*F.

Takahashi blinked, "What?" 

"Call an ambulance!" Matsuzaki screamed before rushing off with the supposedly ill boy in his arms to the gates of the school with a worried Nendo on their tail. Akari watched them from the window as they rushed Takahashi on a stretcher to head to the hospital. She shook her head and laughed lightly to herself. Her small laugh sounded as cute as it was haunting. Kusuo walked up to her side and stared at them uninterested and lit the tip of his finger on fire.

'Your powers are always impressive, you know that.' Akari thought to him with a small smile, 'though I'm quite content with just my own.'

The psychic nodded his head. That may be another reason why he tolerated Akari so much. While most people would wish to have amazing powers like his, Akari did not. Others pointed out how easy life would be if they had the god-like abilities that Kusuo has. Though they never think of how much of a burden their lives would truly be. However, Akari did. It may be because she has powers of her own and knows what it might be like to suffer through the hiccups that come with abilities like these. He glanced down at the thermometer and found that the tip of it was melted into a puddle. He picked it up, 'Looks like it melted a bit. I need to destroy the evidence.' By just blinking an eye, the entire thermometer was engulfed in flames and quickly turning to ash.

"Hey..."

Both Akari and Kusuo silently gasped in fright at that sight of Nendo who had come back. He must have witnessed Kusuo using his powers! 'Crap, he saw me!'

"Don't tell me you caught bonehead, too!" Nendo screamed in fear before rushing Kusuo out of the nurse's office to the ambulance as well. Really, how was a guy this stupid able to function?

Kusuo sighed as he laid on the stretcher and glanced up at Akari with a blank look, 'Nendo is one scary fellow.'

'Oh, yes.' The shadow manipulator nodded her head along with the sentiment and flashed him a minuscule smile. 'Have fun at the hospital, Ku-kun.'