[OLD] Caffeinated Coffee

19. From Afar, it Looks Strange (but up close, it's even stranger)

My finals are over and my grade looking great so I'm here again. Longer chapter as a peace offering :D

Quick mentions of vomit near the end, but nothing graphic. 

17:38

Saiki, despite liking to entertain himself with the thought that he has a more stable ground when it comes to getting himself out of certain unsavory situations (don't ask him about getting into situations because that's another beast altogether and it is something that happens on its own, like fate constantly like toying with him and he's too resigned to do anything less than nitpicking his battles), knows when he's in a situation that hovers a bit beyond unsavory.

Such as this one.

Which Sucks with a capital S (has done more than earn it, if he's being honest) but there isn't much he can do about it. Which also does Suck, but do the readers want to know what Sucks, with both that capital S and those italics? That whole invisibility thing. Not even his brother could bestow this sort of mood on him, which is saying something. His mood isn't really bad per se, but to look at Saiki and say he's happy is a claim so far gone that you could measure the distance between here and Thailand in millimeters and still have a ways to go. He should probably exaggerate more with the distance, like from here to the UK—actually, no. He doesn't even want to think of Kusuke's place of residence for the time being.

If he's being honest, he also doesn't want to play the game anymore (not that he wanted to in the first place), nor does he have the slightest idea of how much time remains. Given the fact that he was so close to being found just a few minutes ago only to be saved by an ability he never knew he had, it's not exactly something to be happy about.

That plus the fact that he dropped his cookbook, so it has some dirt stuck between the pages, but nothing incriminating. Not like suddenly turning invisible can be considered incriminating. Except, you know, in the eyes of the law, since it clearly bans quirk usage unless you have a license for it. Hero work or simply self-defense, but that's hardly important right now.

What is? The fact that (he doesn't want to admit it, but he has to because being stubborn won him absolutely zero favors in the past) he is, without a doubt, very much lost. In the ever-stretching dark alleyways and whatever nonsense it brings. Which, mind you, is never good.

Saiki, because he's a functional human being and not a mess of instincts and luck from failed attempts at natural selection (Nendo), brings out his phone. Listen, he's not a phone person (it is useful for getting people off his case, so he can't help but be drawn to it every now and then), or at least not as much of a phone person as the rest of his peers, but he does know how to work it and does know that he's without a doubt lost.

He taps it as he opens the map. He considers his options. He can go back home, risk interaction with Kusuke, and have to sit in his room at one point and stew in his thoughts. Think about his power that he still can't bring himself to call a quirk. Think about the USJ again because it's always an itch in his mind that he can never quite scratch. Think of a rush through his veins and how it disappears just as quickly as it appears. Mom told him to embrace his quirk.

He doesn't know if he wants to.

If, by a chance, he turns to embrace it, then what would happen? Aizawa-Sensei hinted at such, but embracing telekinesis and embracing whatever is going on with him are two different things.