The Yearly Reset

One-shot (9.8k words)

"I'm beat! Hey, let's eat ramen for lunch today."

You barely did anything in PE class.

Kaido groans in response as he rubs his back. Beside him, Kuboyasu merely yawns and says, "Yeah, I could go for some ramen today. Some kid gave me his money before running away. I wonder why."

I wonder why as well.

"How about you two? It's been a while since we all ate together." Kuboyasu turns to Saiki and Nendou and raises a brow, "C'mon, you two can't be that tight on money, right? I heard that old ramen place we went to with Teruhashi got discounts now."

Probably because no one wants to get food poisoning.

"Ah...sorry, buddies. I can't today. " Nendou huffs out, disappointed, "I had to give all my savings to this one guy!"

"Extortion!?"

"Bullying!?"

Kobuyasu and a newly energized Kaido exclaimed in unison, causing a few bystanders to glance their way. The ruckus ensues much to Kusuo's dismay and he can only sigh as he rubs his ear in annoyance after they shout those words right into his ear.

"No way! No way!" Kaido shakes his head and hugs himself, cringing, "How can you even bully a gorilla–!?" Kaido is quickly cut off by Nendou who hooks his arm around his neck and starts digging his fist on top of his skull.

"It was for a cause, brat!" Nendo proudly says, "You see, I found this person crouched down in the middle of the road, right? And in front of them was an unconscious cat!"

"Unconcious!?" Kaido claims in shock.

"Yeah! And this person said 'Help! My cat got run over and I need money for the vet!' So I gave 'em all my money! I don't know how much vet costs so..." Nendo scratches his head in contemplation. If there's anything to even contemplate in his empty head. He continues, "Well, that's that! I got no money for ramen today!"

"..." Kuboyasu crosses his arms, deep in thought. "Hm, since we've been friends for quite some time, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to treat you today." And as expected, Nendo beams and crushes all of them into a hug, as if the other two also offered him free lunch.

Just another day in my life. Saiki is a man of solitude and nonchalance. Well, he attempts to be solitary and nonchalant about all the crazy things that keep orbiting around him unwillingly. As if there's a God out there hellbent on making his life as annoying and troublesome for him as inhumanly possible.

Today's the 9,999,999,999,995th time of the yearly 1-year earth reset and Saiki is as bored and uninterested as he can be with whatever his classmates are chattering about. School just began again and Saiki can't be much happier.

Alright, that's enough narration about my life.

The next morning at the PK academy goes like this:

"Guys! Look at this!" A lively Kaido jumps into the classroom and shows off a card deck with pride. Saiki, who was about to nod off, was woken up by the box of cards getting shoved to his face with a loud slap. Kobuyasu crosses his arms as he inspects it while Nendo mindlessly picks his nose, oblivious to Kaido's glee. Although the response was unenthusiastic, it didn't dampen Kaido's mood one bit.

Kaido continues his rambling, "Can't you guys see!? It's the limited edition 'I'm a boxer but I want to be a novelist but I need to continue boxing so I can get out of debt!' card deck!"

Such a long name for a deck of useless cards, Saiki merely glances at the cards before closing his eyes. Saiki can understand why people invest in card games and other trinkets. His Dad is also a geek who fakes being a girl in games and is always up to date with his favorite games so he can spend money on suspicious-looking figurines. But come on, they're not at the age of licking the bottom of their boss' shoes to make money off of it. They're students in a country that doesn't allow child labor. Don't you have other things to better spend your money on?