OBLINE, KUSUO SAIKI.

Ψ. lapse blue.

Ψ . . . SAIKI WAS MET WITH THE usual barrage of thoughts as he sat down at his desk. Homework, extracurriculars, weekend plans. He thought nothing of it until he noticed there was a specific thought being echoed by multiple students.

Gojo-san is planning on going up to the roof at lunch.

No one was talking about it outright. It was just a subconscious idea, something everyone had heard and was now thinking about distantly.

Saiki narrowed his eyes in Gojo's direction. They were nodding at something Yumehara was saying, spinning a pen around their fingers. After their confrontation in the hallway, Saiki had made sure to stay away from the new student. He shouldn't have teleported out of the hallway, but the fact that Gojo had been able to pick up on his invisibility had been so alarming, he had done it by instinct. Saiki had hoped that by pretending it had never happened, Gojo would just shrug off the incident, but they had started interrogating everyone associated with Saiki instead. Innocent enough questions to passersby, but Saiki had heard the tailend of Gojo's question to Aiura and Toritsuka.

Or could it be that he's actually a psychic?

Gojo was on to him. Saiki might have been able to erase their memories but he was wary now. There was something about their eyes. Besides how beautiful they were, they seemed to grant Gojo some kind of ability. A sixth sense, they had called it. And then when Saiki had gone to grab their arm, it had just glanced off, as though he'd brushed up against an invisible barrier.

No, Saiki wouldn't be able to erase their memories. He would have to figure something else out. Presumably Gojo had invited a bunch of students to join them for lunch on the roof. Saiki would use that time to try and approach them. Worst case scenario Saiki would just rewind time and avoid following Gojo at all.

At the very moment Saiki thought that, Gojo looked over and caught his eye. They grinned and gave him a friendly wave.

Saiki kept his face blank, wondering why he felt so uneasy.

- Ψ -

Saiki realized that he had made a mistake the moment he opened the door up to the roof.

He found no one there, save for one student whose hair resembled the clouds drifting across the sky.

"Hey, Saiki," Gojo said with a crooked grin. "I thought you weren't going to come, but I guess I shouldn't have worried."

Saiki reached back for the door. He tugged on it, only to realize that it had locked from the other side. He was stuck. On the roof. With Gojo.

Good grief.

Where is everyone? Saiki asked, before remembering that his telepathy didn't work on Gojo. So he settled on glaring at the other student, unwilling to speak out loud.

"You know, just by coming here, you've answered a lot of my questions," Gojo said. They had their hands in their pockets, a slight breeze ruffling their uniform shirt. They weren't wearing their tinted glasses, and even from this distance, Saiki was disconcerted to find that Gojo's eyes perfectly reflected the sky.

"I never actually told you to come up here. I only mentioned it in passing to a few people in our homeroom. Sure, you might have overheard them talking, but I asked them to give me a bit of privacy. Either you're a really good guesser, or—I don't know—you can read people's minds."

Saiki stayed quiet. Whatever Gojo was planning, Saiki just wouldn't react. He could still play at being dumb. Gojo couldn't take his silence as confirmation.