"Saiki-kun, Saiki-kun."
Saiki curled up in bed. He felt someone calling him but didn't pay much attention, so he skillfully pulled the blanket up over his head.
But then Saiki felt someone gently pushing him, and that gentle, familiar voice rang out again.
"Saiki-kun, it's already morning!"
Saiki groggily opened his eyes and saw a girl with refined features, bright eyes, a slender yet curvaceous figure, and that signature flaxen long hair.
Shiina Mahiru crouched down, hands resting on the edge of the bed, her big, sparkling eyes fixed on Saiki.
[Nani!]
Saiki got a fright and tactically leaned back.
"Saiki-kun, it's almost nine o'clock already. The sun's already up—get up and have breakfast!"
Shiina Mahiru waved the alarm clock in front of Saiki to remind him.
[Oh, right—wait, no, why are you here!]
"Saiki-kun, did you forget? You said yesterday that at ten o'clock you wanted to watch some program?"
"What was it called again? Oh, right—'The Superpowered Traveler Who Crossed to the Teyvat Continent and the Story That Had to Be Told with Yae Miko.' You said you were really looking forward to it and were afraid you'd forget, so you asked me to remind you."
[What a weird title. Did I really say that yesterday? Hmm… whatever.]
Shiina Mahiru looked at Saiki's messy hair falling over the side of his face and let out a soft laugh.
"Hey, Saiki-kun, your hair."
Saiki casually scratched at the tufts sticking up, pressed them down, and they immediately sprang back up.
[Fine, I get it. Go out first! I'll tidy up.]
"Okay! But hurry, breakfast's getting cold."
Shiina Mahiru turned and closed the door behind her.
Only after seeing Shiina Mahiru leave did Saiki slowly get out of bed to change clothes.
[Yare yare, I actually said something like that yesterday? I have zero memory of it. And sleeping in this late is all because of that precognitive dream last night.]
Precognitive dream: One of Saiki's psychic abilities. Saiki normally doesn't dream, but if he does, it's about something that will happen in the future—and it can be changed. Sometimes the fragments that flash through his mind when he has a headache are also a form of precognitive dream.
[Yare yare, yesterday I accidentally saved the Earth and humanity again.]
Last night Saiki had a dream. A massive alien ship descended, and several aliens with bitter-melon faces—no, exactly bitter-melon-like faces—stepped out.
They planned to use their weapons: guns that sprayed an unknown gas to make everything on Earth turn bitter.
They even made it rain from the ship, turning Earth into a place of unbearable bitterness, so they could enslave humanity and dominate the planet.
Making all food bitter and inedible—Saiki, of course, wouldn't stand for it. So he quickly staked out a spot, waited in outer space for several hours, and finally located the Bitter Melon King's ship.
It took the strength of "nine oxen and two tigers" to deal with them.
[That damned Bitter Melon King actually wasted so much of my time.]
Saiki finished getting dressed and headed to the bathroom to wash up.
After a simple wash, he casually ate some bread, an egg, and miso soup.
He watched that bizarre program—I'm not going into the details since you probably wouldn't like it anyway.
Afterward, Saiki and Shiina Mahiru sat reading novels side by side, neither disturbing the other, until noon when Shiina Mahiru went to prepare lunch.
Saiki felt this atmosphere was incredibly peaceful, but there was always a faint sense of something off.
(What's going on? Is it because of Shiina-san? Come to think of it, only this morning did it suddenly hit me—why does everyday life feel so gradually familiar now.)
(Well, yeah, it's been several months already. Getting a bit used to it is normal, but I shouldn't be getting influenced, right…?)
"Saiki-kun, lunch is ready!"
[Oh, okay…]
Saiki answered on reflex, stood up, and walked to the dining table.
After lunch, Saiki sat back on the big sofa and picked up his novel again—then suddenly lifted his head in surprise.
(Yeah, that's exactly the feeling. I've completely gotten used to Shiina-san living in the house like this. If this keeps up, something's going to go wrong!)
Shiina Mahiru calmly sat down on the same sofa next to Saiki, picked up the remote, and asked.
"Saiki-kun, there's a program I want to watch. Is that okay?"
[Sure.]
Saiki nodded.
(See? Exactly this feeling. No good—once you get used to being taken care of for too long, won't I turn into a useless person later? Wait, no, impossible. I can't possibly become useless.)
Shiina Mahiru turned on the TV, hugged a plushie, and "quietly" sat on the sofa—but her body slowly, bit by bit, inched closer to Saiki.
Saiki glanced sideways. She immediately looked like she was just watching TV and stopped moving.
Saiki went back to his novel. She inched closer again, little by little, until her body accidentally brushed against Saiki.
Saiki looked at Shiina Mahiru again with a questioning expression.
Shiina Mahiru acted completely absorbed in the TV, paying no attention to Saiki's gaze at all.
"Hmm, this program's pretty good."
(Are you even watching the program? This can't be on purpose, right!)
Shiina Mahiru [Mm… I touched him, I touched Saiki-kun, hehe, so happy.]
(Definitely on purpose.)
Shiina Mahiru [Come to think of it, Saiki-kun seemed really busy lately, always going out every day! I even thought he was avoiding me.]
(You're overthinking it.)
Shiina Mahiru [But later I gradually noticed—he was going out to hang with classmates from our class, and lately it seems like more and more girls have been around Saiki-kun. Saiki-kun's slowly been going on dates with lots of female classmates too.]
(Those aren't dates.)
Shiina Mahiru [Especially yesterday—he didn't come back until the afternoon. I really wanted to ask, but asking would be pointless, so I didn't.]
(I didn't go do anything—just kindly helped a classmate.)
Shiina Mahiru [If I really asked, he'd definitely say something like "just kindly helping a classmate" again!]
(You can hear what I'm thinking, can't you?)
Shiina Mahiru [Even though he didn't say anything yesterday, there was a scent on him that must've come from meeting a girl. I don't know which one, but I have a feeling it was Kitagawa-san.]
(What kind of nose is that? Sherlock Holmes? You're exaggerating.)
Shiina Mahiru seemed to think of something; her cheeks flushed a milky red. [Saiki-kun, when you go out with girls on dates, do you do weird things? Would you…]
(Hey!!)
Shiina Mahiru […Would you… hold hands? Or maybe even pat her head, mm…]
(Is this really something a high school girl your age should be thinking about? Puberty really does make the brain go weird, huh?)