Fortunately, with Saiki's intervention, Aiura Mikoto, disguised as Ryuen Kakeru, managed to avoid doing anything too out of the ordinary.
"Ryuen, that's enough. Ishizaki probably did his best. After all, the other guy isn't someone to be trifled with."
Ibuki Mio frowned as she tried to dissuade him.
Although she knew Ryuen Kakeru's abilities were essential for Class D, and that's why she was willing to follow his orders, she didn't entirely agree with some of his actions.
"Oh? Who do you think you are? Are you giving me orders now?"
Aiura Mikoto, still imitating the gangster image in her mind, spoke to Ibuki Mio.
Ibuki Mio, though annoyed, could only awkwardly purse her lips and say:
"You seem to be in a weird mood today. Did you get anything out of that Saiki guy?"
'Yare yare, if we can use this opportunity to stop Class D from causing us trouble, that would be great. But if Ryuen notices any changes after he recovers, it'll be a problem.'
Saiki thought to himself, then instructed Aiura Mikoto to respond:
"Nothing valuable. Just keep doing what you've been doing."
"Got it."
Ibuki Mio and the others nodded.
"I'm tired. I'm heading back for today."
Aiura Mikoto said, imitating what she thought Ryuen Kakeru might do, and swaggered into the dorm building.
"Don't you think Ryuen's acting a bit strange today?"
Ishizaki Daichi scratched his head, looking at Aiura Mikoto's retreating figure with confusion.
"It makes sense, though. Our class suffered a crushing defeat in the sports festival... Ryuen was so confident about it, but in the end, we were the biggest losers."
Ibuki Mio seemed to understand why Ryuen Kakeru was acting this way and analyzed the situation.
"And this is the first time Ryuen's been completely outmaneuvered by someone. Let him cool off for a bit."
"That's true..."
...
Inside the dorm, Aiura Mikoto followed Saiki's instructions and took the elevator to the floor where Class D's rooms were located.
'...Keep going forward. The third room on the right is Ryuen Kakeru's room.'
Following Saiki's telepathic instructions, Aiura Mikoto arrived at Ryuen Kakeru's door.
[I don't have a key card.]
'Not a problem.'
As Saiki's voice echoed in her mind, the door in front of her unlocked automatically.
[This psychic ability is so convenient.]
'I don't think so.'
Back in his own room, Saiki sighed and turned to look at the stone statue of Ryuen Kakeru behind him.
The statue's provocative pose, now frozen, looked somewhat comical.
If it weren't for that damn psychic ability, things wouldn't have escalated like this.
Ryuen Kakeru's student ID was in his pocket, but it had turned to stone along with its owner...
'You'll stay here for the night. Try not to change anything in the room. I'll handle the rest.'
Saiki instructed Aiura Mikoto, then teleported the petrified Ryuen Kakeru back to his home, hundreds of kilometers away.
Leaving the statue in the dorm was far too risky.
Meanwhile, at the Kusuo household.
"Mama..."
"Papa..."
Kuniharu and Kurumi Saiki were gazing lovingly at each other.
At that moment, Saiki teleported back home with the statue.
"Ah! Kusuo! Why are you back so suddenly?"
Saiki Kuniharu looked at Saiki with surprise.
'I usually come back around this time every day.'
Saiki didn't open his mouth, responding directly through telepathy.
"Kusuo, what's that thing you brought back?"
Saiki Kurumi also looked curiously at the statue.
"Is it a gift for us?!"
Saiki Kuniharu smiled and walked up to the statue, examining it closely. He couldn't help but reach out and touch it.
'This is my classmate. Due to an accident, he was turned into stone. To prevent further issues, I had to bring him home...'
"This is the first time Kusuo has brought a classmate home... I just didn't expect it to be in the form of a statue."
'There was no other choice...'
Before Saiki could finish, he heard a crisp sound behind him.
Ryuen Kakeru shattered into pieces.
Even Ryuen Kakeru's head rolled like a soccer ball into the corner, his arrogant smile now looking utterly ridiculous.
Beside him stood Kuniharu Saiki, frozen in place. He had accidentally knocked over the statue, causing Ryuen Kakeru to shatter into pieces.
Ryuen Kakeru would never have imagined that one day he'd end up like this.
'#$%#...'
"Kusuo, from now on... your mother will rely on you..."
Saiki Kuniharu spoke with a solemn expression, tears streaming down his face as he pulled out his phone.
"Hello... police? I'd like to turn myself in..."
Before Saiki Kuniharu could finish, Saiki stopped him.
'Calm down. You don't need to turn yourself in.'
"Really?!"
"In this situation, I can just use my restoration ability to fix him."
Saiki said, picking up Ryuen Kakeru's head from the floor. He activated his restoration ability, restoring Ryuen Kakeru's body to its complete form.
Although the restoration ability couldn't reverse petrification, it could repair a damaged statue.
"That's great, Kusuo!"
'Don't celebrate too soon. We can't afford any more accidents. The restoration ability can only be used once per day on the same object. If something happens again...'
Saiki broke into a cold sweat. If something went wrong, the consequences would be unimaginable.
'If he dies, I'd be at least 2% responsible.'
"Don't worry, Kusuo."
Saiki Kurumi smiled gently.
"I'll put your classmate... in that empty cabinet. That should prevent any more accidents."
'Yeah, that'll do for now.'
"Let me help move him!"
Saiki Kuniharu volunteered.
'No, I'll do it myself!'
Saiki couldn't allow any more accidents to happen.
...
The next morning.
Saiki arrived at the classroom early. While no one was paying attention, he used his psychic abilities to check on Aiura Mikoto's location.
At that moment, Aiura Mikoto, still disguised as Ryuen Kakeru, had already entered the classroom.
[Ryuen's here so early today?]
[He usually shows up right before class starts.]
[Don't make eye contact with him...]
The Class D students, upon seeing Aiura Mikoto, showed expressions of fear.
'Yare yare, so he usually shows up right before class starts? That's a bit different from today...'
Saiki thought to himself.
'But luckily, Ryuen's extreme personality means he doesn't interact much with others normally. That should help reduce the trouble just try not to interact with anyone too much today. Keep it up until school ends, okay?'
[Don't worry, leave it to me!]
Aiura Mikoto responded confidently.
"Good morning, Ryuen... You're here early today?"
Just before the bell rang, Ishizaki Daichi entered the classroom and greeted Aiura Mikoto with a tone of reverence.
[Saiki said not to interact with others too much.]
Thinking this, Aiura Mikoto turned her head away, deliberately ignoring Ishizaki Daichi.
'Hey, hey, that's a bit too much...'
Saiki was a bit worried.
[Ryuen... Ryuen's still angry. He's still upset about what happened yesterday... This is bad...]
However, Ishizaki Daichi was even more panicked than Saiki.
"Uh, Ryuen, I promise, I'll keep tailing Yamauchi today. I'll definitely get more information!"
Ishizaki Daichi quickly said.
But Aiura Mikoto still ignored him.
Ishizaki Daichi awkwardly pursed his lips and returned to his seat.
'Yare yare, somehow this turned out okay? I guess?'
Saiki sighed inwardly. Everything would have to wait until tonight.
...
The day finally passed, and the sky began to darken.
Saiki brought Aiura Mikoto to the spot where he had met Ryuen Kakeru the previous day.
'Yare yare, everything should be ready now.'
Saiki placed Ryuen Kakeru's statue in the same spot as before. He held a bag similar to the one from yesterday, though this time it contained a regular pudding instead of the limited-edition flavor.
"Today was exhausting."
Aiura Mikoto stretched.
She had been quite busy today.
Classes were manageable, but she almost walked into the girls' bathroom by mistake, which could have caused a scene.
"He'll recover in a minute. He won't have any memory of this time, right? What should we do then..."
Aiura Mikoto asked worriedly.
"Just make sure there's no significant discrepancy in his memories before and after."
Saiki replied.
"What if he checks his phone and notices the date is off?"
"Don't worry, it'll be fine."
Saiki answered.
Saiki had the ability to control minds, and this ability could even distort reality.
For example, the reason everyone in this world had colorful hair was because of Saiki.
He had also used this ability to somewhat blur people's perception of time.
'If I didn't do this, the timeline of the story might get messed up.'
Saiki thought to himself.
"Alright, you should get going now."
"Wow, you're kicking me out after I helped you?"
Aiura Mikoto pouted.
"If someone sees you the moment he recovers, it'll cause even bigger trouble."
"Fine, fine. Don't forget our deal later!"
After saying this, Aiura Mikoto quickly left.
Saiki focused on Ryuen Kakeru in front of him. He only had about ten seconds before Ryuen would return to normal.
'Yare yare, this should work. It's just that Ryuen seems to have a faint smell of mothballs. Is it because he was stored in that empty cabinet?'
'As for his memories, the environment and actions are pretty much the same as yesterday...'
'But I can't let things escalate like before. I need to stop this from getting worse.'
Saiki thought to himself, then stood in front of Ryuen Kakeru, mimicking the pose he had been in just before Ryuen tried to remove his glasses.
At the same time, the stone covering Ryuen Kakeru began to crumble away.
"Don't blame me if I'm not gentle, okay?"
Ryuen Kakeru's voice rang out. He had fully returned to normal.
And he had no idea what had happened to him.
'Yare yare, it seems he hasn't noticed anything unusual. Good... He'll never know his head was rolling around like a soccer ball.'
Ryuen Kakeru had already removed Saiki's glasses halfway, about to look directly into his eyes.
Saiki suddenly jerked backward, dodging Ryuen's attack.
Ryuen Kakeru was surprised. Saiki was more agile than he had expected, but soon a grin spread across his face.
"Oh? Not bad. But the more you resist, the more fun this gets. I'm not in a great mood today. The frustration from losing the sports festival will be taken out on you!"
'Actually, that was yesterday.'
Just as Ryuen Kakeru took a step forward, ready to attack Saiki, his phone suddenly rang.
"Oh?"
Ryuen Kakeru took out his phone, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the screen.
At the same time, a voice that once belonged to him played from the phone's speaker.
"Listen up. Our next target is Horikita Suzune from Class D. Here's what you need to do to sabotage her Kinoshita, you're in the same group as Horikita, right? When the time comes, just bump into her like we practiced. Make it look like she's the one who hit you. Turn it into an accident."