Violet Roses | Saiki K

Chapter 20

After Christmas, a weight that had hung over Akemi and her dad seemed to lift. Things had been steadily improving over the few days before the New Year. Seeing her dad act more like his old self definitely put Akemi in a much better mood. She felt like they were finally taking a step in the right direction.

But due to his newfound energy, Akemi had no way to avoid Teruhashi when she had shown up at Akemi's house and essentially forced her to come pray for something at the shrine for New Years. Akemi hadn't minded too much though.

"So, what are you gonna wish for, Kumiko?" Teruhashi asked as they made their way to the shrine.

Akemi hummed, "I don't really know."

"You have no ideas?" Teruhashi questioned.

"Not really," Akemi replied with a shrug. The only thing that had crossed her mind wasn't possible. "What about you?"

"Oh, I don't know," Teruhashi said with a laugh, clearly not wanting to tell Akemi what she wanted to wish for. "I can't really think of anything just yet either."

Akemi sighed and they made it to the top of the stairs. As the two girls walked toward the shrine, a path seemed to part because of Teruhashi and Akemi noticed someone. And Teruhashi had noticed him too, because she walked up to him and said, "Oh, hey Saiki!"

"Oh wow, it's Teruhashi," Akemi looked over and saw Nendo, Hairo, Kaido, and a black-haired woman standing near Saiki. There was also a brown-haired man staring at Teruhashi.

"Who is this lovely lady," the woman asked with a smile on her face.

"Hey, what's up, Teruhashi," Hairo said.

"Want me to show you how to ring the bell?" Nendo asked.

"I'm Kusuo's dad, it's nice to meet you," the brown-haired man, Saiki's dad, greeted.

"And I'm Ku's mom," Saiki's mom said. Then she noticed Akemi, who was a few steps away from the group. "Oh, are you also a friend of Ku?"

"Um..." Akemi glanced at Saiki, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there and shrugged. "I guess."

"Oh, it's nice to meet you, what's your name?" Saiki's mom asked.

"Akemi Kumiko."

"And I'm Kokomi Teruhashi," Teruhashi greeted with her normal smile and glow.

"Kusuo, are you going home now?" Saiki's dad asked Saiki, who was starting to walk away from the group. "I know! Why don't you all come back to our place to celebrate, we've got a big spread."

"Yes, please come!" Saiki's mom added.

The group all agreed to go over to Saiki's house, Akemi being dragged along by Teruhashi and Saiki's mom. When they got there, she got sat down at the end of the table between Nendo and Saiki's dad. Saiki was sitting down on a chair against the wall, away from the table. Akemi slowly ate, half listening to the conversations everyone was having.

She looked up when she saw Saiki getting up from the chair and walking out of the room. That's when she heard his mom say, "I'm just so grateful for you. My Ku's always had a hard time making friends, what with him being a psychic and all."

Akemi tensed and uncomfortable silence instantly fell over the room. She looked up at Saiki, who was standing in the doorway with his back turned to the room. A psychic? She must just be making things up. I mean, psychics don't actually exist...

Akemi took a sharp breath as Saiki's dad started to suspiciously change the subject. Memories of the Okinawa trip flooded into her mind and she suddenly thought it wasn't as crazy as it sounded. A lot of those strange events that happened on that trip seemed to center around Saiki. And while they were at the beach, it had almost been like he was trying to make her believe they were all just weird occurrences that he had nothing to do with.

Suddenly, a glass of water near Teruhashi slipped and Akemi was snapped out of her thoughts. She looked back at Saiki, who was staring right at her. He almost looked a little scared. And that had seemed like a confirmation to Akemi.

Once the mess was cleared up, they finished eating and the group left.

"Thanks for the dinner," Hairo said.

"You kids drop by any time, ok?" Saiki's mom replied with a smile. Then she closed the door to her house and the group turned around.

"Which way do you go, Kumiko?" Teruhashi asked.

Akemi pointed in the opposite direction everyone else seemed to be going, "This way."

"Ok, well, see you at school," Teruhashi said with a wave before they started to go their separate ways.

Akemi started making her way to her house, which was surprisingly close to Saiki's. She let out a sigh as she thought back to what Saiki's mom had said and everything after that. It had all been too weird. Saiki's parents had been trying too hard to change the subject and Akemi didn't know why. Everything about Saiki had been strange to Akemi for some unexplainable reason. But maybe this was that reason.

Akemi wasn't just going to let this slide. She needed answers. It all just fit together too well. Akemi had always known there was something different about Saiki and his mom had practically confirmed it.

Though, the idea that Saiki was a psychic was still strange for obvious reasons. She wasn't really sure what she was going to do about it. Maybe she'd ask Teruhashi what she thought about it during school. Or maybe she'd just ask Saiki himself. She didn't really have a plan.

Akemi let out a long sigh and lightly shook her head. She didn't want to tell herself to just worry about it in the morning, but she knew worrying herself over something that she probably shouldn't worry about would not help. It was late and she needed to sleep. Even if Saiki really was a psychic, it wasn't like he was trying to take over the world. So she really had nothing to worry about. All she would be doing by getting confirmation is just that, getting confirmation for herself. Really, all she wanted to know was what happened during the Okinawa trip and all the other strange things that happened around Saiki.

-Author Note-

I'm back! Akemi's back! This story's back! It's a day to celebrate!

So, it's been a while. Like, a long while. Half a year is not a short amount of time. I never intended this break to be that long, though I honestly sort of expected it. But I wrote a few chapters and finally decided to post something for this story. It has gotten a surprising amount of traction over the past year(it even had number 1 in the fanfiction tag for a day, which is crazy to me). I'm really glad so many people read and enjoy this story, it makes me really happy. And it's even better now that it's actually going to be getting updates again.

But on a completely different note that relates to what's actually happening in the story, I wanna quickly address the timeline of this story because it's really messed up. This story does follow the anime, but I'm picking out what episodes to use and when. This is a fanfiction and the anime Saiki K is kinda everywhere sometimes anyways. So I'm going to be using a few parts of the anime out of order based on when I want them and where things fit. It's not going to be too extreme, but in case anyone's confused as to why things don't exactly follow the anime's timeline, it's because I'm using what's best for this story and it's a fanfiction.

So that's that. This story will have bi-weekly updates starting next Friday. I can't do weekly updates because I, unfortunately, don't have a ton of chapters written, but I couldn't keep this story on hold any longer. It'll go back to having weekly updates once I get back in the groove of everything, school's just been a nightmare recently.

But anyways, I hope you enjoy the return of this story and have a great day!

-Starlight