However, this pure and innocent appearance was likewise something feigned; in her heart, it was fundamentally impossible to place Saiki on the list of people for romantic interest.
"It was just that earlier I entrusted Saiki-kun, wanting him to help me communicate a little with Horikita-san, to see whether it could be possible to ease the relationship or something like that… but things didn't go as I wished."
"Ah, is that so?"
At the side, Ichinose Honami somewhat doubtfully raised her eyebrows slightly.
"You knew each other earlier? Why would Horikita-san have such an attitude?"
At the moment when she heard the words 'You knew each other earlier?' Kushida's expression instantly changed. Although it was only for the briefest moment, Saiki still noticed the change in her expression.
On the surface, Kushida looked like she wanted to get closer to Horikita Suzune, but in reality she wanted to use all kinds of means to make Horikita Suzune drop out of school.
"I don't know, maybe Horikita-san isn't good at communication."
Kushida shrugged her shoulders, skipping past the first question Honami had just asked, as though she and Horikita Suzune had only become acquainted after the school term began.
"I still want, as much as possible, to unite the class into a cohesive group."
"If it's like that, then maybe I can offer you some suggestions!"
Honami immediately began telling Kushida about some of her own experiences in Class B, thinking this might be able to help the other party a bit.
Within only a single day's time, Honami had already gotten along seamlessly with the other people in their class. Unlike Kushida's hypocrisy, Honami was far more sincere and warm-hearted.
However, Saiki did not care about these matters. He only looked rather helplessly at the two people before him, who had started chatting happily. Right now, if he wanted to leave the table, it was impossible to do so anytime soon.
———
By the time Honami and Kushida finished their conversation, it was already ten minutes later. For Saiki, these were the longest ten minutes in his life. He could have completely used those ten minutes to do many more things, but since he had after all eaten the dessert Kushida had treated him to, it wasn't good to just leave directly.
"Saiki-kun, would you like to go back to the dormitory together?" Kushida asked, her gaze focusing on Saiki, but the latter immediately shook his head in refusal.
Kushida and Honami could be considered beauties, right? If they walked outside, they would definitely attract other people's gazes easily, and if Saiki walked together with them, he would probably also attract others' attention, perhaps among those gazes, there would even be emotions of hatred.
Moreover, Saiki still had other plans for later. He was preparing to go take a look at other places in the school.
For example, the library. He'd heard that all kinds of books could be found there. Reading detective novels was one of the few hobbies Saiki had.
"Then see you tomorrow! Saiki-kun!" Kushida waved at Saiki with a smile, then left together with Honami, looking incomparably close.
But before Saiki could even stand up, Sudo Ken, Yamauchi Haruki, and Ike Kanji practically immediately surrounded him.
"Hey, are you dating Kushida?!"
The somewhat overly familiar Ike Kanji asked with a serious expression, at the same time locking his gaze onto Saiki.
[Could it be that Kusuo is really dating Kushida?! I can't accept that!!!]
'Hey hey hey, from start to finish you didn't even get my name right and you still came over to talk to me? Seems like we only spoke back when school started, right? Besides, you've known Kushida for less than two days, and you're already calling her little Kushida, how terrifying.'
Saiki looked at them with a bit of disdain in his eyes, but for the sake of avoiding trouble as much as possible, he still gave an explanation.
"Haha, I thought so, how could your progress be so fast!"
Ike Kanji and the others held their heads laughing as they spoke.
"Sorry sorry, we didn't mean anything else, it's just that we were simply curious!"
'Simply curious? Just now in your mind you were obviously thinking 'How could Kushida possibly be together with such an ordinary guy, why isn't it me!' right?' Saiki expressionlessly retorted in his heart.
At this moment, he was even more certain that these three people were no different from idiots.
After the idiot trio left, Saiki also, with a very clear goal, headed to the school library.
'Yare yare, I needed to buy some daily necessities, plus I needed to figure out how to use the jelly machine, so there wasn't any time to come check out the library.'
'I heard the novel collection there is extremely rich. Maybe I'll be able to find some hidden gems.'
'Although most people in this school don't seem very normal, the resources are really abundant. Coming here was indeed quite a good choice.'
Thinking this, the corners of Saiki's mouth couldn't help lifting slightly. After all, for someone with psychic powers, reading detective novels was one of the few things from which he could still derive enjoyment.
The most important thing was the suspense.
Because of his telepathy ability, everyday life for Saiki contained no surprises at all. If he went to watch movies, unless he chose premiere showings, he would be spoiled by the thoughts of the people around him.
Also, in the closed environment, other people's inner voices would sound unbearably noisy, making it completely impossible for him to concentrate on the film.
Therefore, Saiki preferred solitary activities for entertainment. Reading novels was one of them.
Saiki quickly stepped into the library. Although he had already come here before the term began to take a glance, because invisibility could only be maintained for at most ten minutes, at that time he had only roughly looked over the library's layout and hadn't checked what kind of books were inside.
However, this library building was extremely spacious, probably big enough to easily accommodate the entire student body. From that, one could imagine how vast the book collection was.
This made Saiki look forward to it even more.
He looked around. There weren't many people in the library, only a few scattered upperclassmen. After all, for young people, there were more exciting and enjoyable ways to pass the time. Very few would willingly come to the library to read.
'Not many people. That's great.'
For Saiki, this was undoubtedly a good thing. He couldn't help speeding up his steps. Using his x-ray vision, he easily located the detective novel section.
But Saiki faintly heard a stranger's thoughts.
[Can't… can't reach…]
'Also in the detective novel section?'
Saiki walked to the bookshelf for detective novels. In front of him was a girl with long silver hair.
Her height was not very tall. On her delicate face were set a pair of light purple eyes.
At this moment, the girl was standing on tiptoe, seemingly trying to take a book from the upper shelf, but because of her height, she simply couldn't reach.
The hem of her short skirt swayed back and forth with her movements. Her fingertips could only just barely brush the side of the book but couldn't actually pull it down.
'Because of her height, she can't reach it, huh? But sorry, this has nothing to do with me. I'm not the type who goes out of his way to help others.'
Saiki thought this in his heart.
[The guy beside me… maybe he could reach… but I feel embarrassed to ask…]
[I don't know how to talk to others… Even though it's already been two days since school started, in the class I still don't know many people…]
[What should I do… Should I ask him or not… Did he come to this shelf because he also likes detective novels?]
The girl's thoughts circled like this. She tilted her head slightly, glancing sidelong at Saiki, her face full of hesitation, yet she also seemed a little afraid of being noticed by him.
While the girl was conflicted, the book she was reaching for suddenly trembled a couple of times and then lost its balance, falling down.
"Eh?"
The girl looked surprised and quickly caught the book, as if her earlier efforts had finally paid off and the book had finally fallen into her hands.
Of course, this was not 'luck.' It was Saiki using psychokinesis to move the book a few centimeters outward so she could just barely touch it.
Just now, Saiki had heard the girl's thoughts, knew what book she wanted to read, and also learned her name.
Shiina Hiyori, apparently a student from Class C.
'Yare yare, I'll just help you out a little. This way I can also avoid some trouble between us.' Saiki muttered in his heart, then shifted his gaze back to the bookshelf before him, beginning to choose what novel would suit him.
If it was just borrowing books to read, as long as they were returned within the designated period, the point cost was basically negligible.
Saiki's gaze swept across row after row of books. He had read quite a few detective novels before, but he still tried to pick those very little-known ones, having fame meant more readers, and his telepathy would force him to know the plot in advance, so he preferred to choose obscure ones.
Although many obscure novels weren't very good, and some plots could even be called ridiculous, for Saiki, this was actually better. If he managed to find a high-quality novel, that would be like discovering a treasure.
Saiki's gaze fell on one particular book. He hadn't heard this title before, so he stretched out his hand, preparing to take it down.
[That's Simmons' Killing Yourself. He actually picked that one! Even though it uses killing oneself as a gimmick at first, later on it actually…]
But just as Saiki's fingers touched the novel, Shiina Hiyori's mind had already uncontrollably replayed the entire plot in her thoughts.
'…' At this moment, Saiki's face was full of dark lines.
He had deliberately picked a novel that seemed obscure, yet he hadn't expected that the quiet-looking girl beside him had read it.
'Maybe this book actually isn't that obscure. I'll try another one.' Saiki then moved his finger to another book.
[He picked this one? This book's plot is very interesting, he would never guess that the protagonist is actually the culprit…]
[He switched again? That doctor actually faked his alibi…]
[Although this book's overall quality is average, its suspense is set up quite well…]
'Hey hey hey, exactly how many books have you read…'
At this moment, even Saiki was a little shocked. Practically every book he had touched, she had read...
And because of his telepathy, he was spoiled again. A detective novel whose plot he already knew was utterly meaningless.
This made Saiki feel somewhat helpless for a while. He never imagined that after finally getting away from Kushida and Honami and coming to the longed-for library, he would still encounter something like this.
'Looks like this girl called Shiina Hiyori is truly a detective novel fanatic…'
Saiki sighed in his heart. But his gaze noticed the novel in Shiina Hiyori's hands, and at the same time a new idea formed.
'Since she came to borrow this book, that means she hasn't read it yet… There's another identical copy, perfect.'
While thinking this, Saiki reached out and tentatively touched that book. And this time, Shiina Hiyori really didn't have any spoilery thoughts.
'Finally found one!' Saiki's mouth curved up slightly.
"Um… classmate… do you also like reading Raymond Chandler's novels?"
And at this moment, Shiina Hiyori quickly stepped up to Saiki, asking with great curiosity.
"I…"
This sudden action made Saiki momentarily at a loss. Clearly only a minute earlier this girl had been hesitating endlessly over whether to talk to a stranger, but after seeing him pick up that book, she suddenly took the initiative so eagerly.
"I just wanted to randomly pick something to pass the time."
Saiki immediately answered. He didn't want to have too much contact with others.
"I see… But just now, I noticed you seemed curious about the other books, why did you finally choose this one?"
Shiina Hiyori asked very curiously. She had been watching Saiki's actions all along. He didn't seem like he was just picking randomly, but more like he had been choosing very deliberately.
"Because I've read the others."
Saiki casually gave an explanation. From a certain perspective, it wasn't wrong, Shiina Hiyori's thoughts had basically shown him the entire plots already.
But right after he said this, he felt a bit of regret in his heart.
[This person… has read all those books?!]
[Among them, a few are pretty obscure in the detective community, he's read them too!]
[Have I met someone who shares my same hobby?!!]
Shiina Hiyori's light purple eyes seemed to shine with a ray of light. The corners of her mouth also couldn't help lifting a little, as though she was very interested in the Saiki before her.
For Shiina Hiyori, there were just too few people who had the same passion as she did.
Even among people who liked detective novels, there weren't many. Let alone in this school, where in the first days after starting term, there were even fewer who came to the library to read. Because of different hobbies, Shiina Hiyori also never knew how to interact with others.
And now, she had finally met someone who was like-minded.
Although on the surface she looked quiet and gentle, in truth Shiina Hiyori's inner thoughts were extremely lively, she just hadn't found anyone with the same hobby in daily life.
"I didn't expect that you would also be so interested in detective novels!"
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