not an island

Kusuo lays on the ocean floor staring at the distant, watery light of the sun through half-lidded eyes. He hadn't been able to stop the volcano this year either. His hands still sting with a memory of burning pain from when he'd tried to hold back the magma for a bit too long before giving up and turning back time on the earth by a year again, in the hope that he'll be able to deal with it by next year. He's lucky that he'd remembered it a week before rather than a week after or else everyone he knows would be dead or as good as. He really needs to try harder to keep track of time apparently.

Deciding he's sulked long enough he teleports back to his hut and dries himself off. He needs to get ready to go get the geology books from Kaidou. Though he doubts that the parts he hasn't read will be any more useful for his purposes than what he has read already he should finish them anyway just in case. Besides he's already welched out of more than his share of commitments over the course of his life.

Kusuo spends the next two hours transforming into a cat. There had been a brief period where he'd considered starting a new life as some other animal which while it came to nothing had given him a great deal of practice at controlling his powers in non-human forms.

When he's done he checks Kaidou's location using clairvoyance. Kaidou is sitting at a desk in a room with various occult posters decorating the walls. Having confirmed that he is alone Kusuo teleports to him. Kaidou lets out a high-pitched "Eep!" when Kusuo lands on his desk.

Calm down, Kusuo says hopping off the desk, I'm just here to pick up the books.

Oh it's the esper, Kaidou thinks. Aloud he says,"Uh sure just let me get them for you."

"What do you need these for anyway?" he asks as he gathers the books from his bag.

You're better off not knowing, Kusuo says. After all it's not like Kaidou can do anything about the volcano, so telling him would just burden him with unnecessary stress and anxiety.

He can't tell me for my own good? Does this mean the esper has become embroiled in some sinister conspiracy to redirect the earth's geomagnetic currents to power some sort of ancient super-weapon? Kaidou thinks far too excited by this prospect.

Good grief, no. What is with you and jumping to such specific bizarre conclusions? Kusuo asks. The unscientific nonsense filling Kaidou's head would be way easier to deal with though. Even if it were possible to redirect the earth's geomagnetic currents like that (which Kusuo is fairly sure it is not) he could stop it just by destroying the ancient super-weapon and threatening a few conspirators.

"So what sort of conspiracy is it?" Kaidou asks.

It's not a conspiracy at all, Kusuo says. Look, just give me the books.

Kaidou begins to offer them but hesitates as something occurs to him.

"You're not just planning to take them and leave are you?" Kaidou asks.

Kusuo who had been planning to do exactly that asks, Is that a problem?

"Well, it's just I checked these out on my own library card," Kaidou says, cheeks flushed and voice shaking.

Don't worry, I'll remember to take them back in time.

"I'm not saying I think you'd forget or anything, just that I'd rather not get hit with a bunch of late fees on the off chance that you do." Kaidou says hurriedly.

Kusuo narrows his eyes at Kaidou. Kaidou's concerns about his library books are little more than an excuse to try and to delay Kusuo vanishing from his life forever.

Fine, I'll read them here, Kusuo acquiesces. Luckily for Kaidou, he isn't really in much of a hurry to get back to his peaceful island life.

Kaidou sets the books down in front of Kusuo and sits back to watch, fascinated, as Kusuo telekinetically lays them out on the floor to read.

Don't you have anything better to do than stare at me while I'm trying to read? Kusuo asks.

"Ah, Sorry," Kaidou says, and hurries back to his desk.

It takes Kusuo less than an hour to finish the books which, much as he expected, contain no more information on how to stop a volcanic eruption than the portions he had read already.

Not like he'd expected books by and for normal people to have a helpful section on how to win a fight against a volcano but he'd been hoping he could find some piece of information that would let him figure out the trick to it. As it is he still isn't sure if just flattening the damn mountain himself would mitigate the damage (because then the eruption wouldn't make so many little bits of mountain fly everywhere) or if it would make it worse (because there would no longer be a mountain in the way of the volcanic material trying to get ejected). He'd rather not resort to that anyway (because having him show up again after four years to obliterate a beloved geological feature would probably upset people) but he'd like to know if it's a viable fallback option.

His cat body, far less trained in suppressing its emotional reactions than his human one, lets out a low growl of frustration at how fruitless this endeavor has been.

"Is something wrong?" Kaidou asks.

Coming here was a pointless waste of time, Kusuo says, flopping over onto his side, I can't use anything of this.

"Well I'm glad you came," Kaidou says, smiling nervously.

Don't act like we're friends or something, Kusuo says.

"Um, well I've been wondering if you think that maybe-"go ahead and ask, it's now or never, Kaidou thinks to himself as he takes a deep breath and asks, "-if you think that we could be?"

No, Kusuo answers without missing a beat and teleports away.

After returning to the island and reverting to his human form, Kusuo lies on the cool glass floor of his driftwood hut and does his best to convince himself that letting Kaidou down was the right decision.

Kaidou only offered because he's lonely and wants to feel special. He doesn't understand the true weight of what he's asking for, what he'd actually be risking if he actually got it. That alone is reason enough for Kusuo not to let him close.

So what if Kaidou had wanted it- or rather thought he wanted it- badly enough to for it to bleed through Kusuo's telepathy and make Kusuo think that he wanted it too. Because that's absolutely 100% the only reason he wanted to reach back.

Kusuo doesn't need friends anyway. He's well aware that human connections are more liabilities than anything else for him who can do everything on his own. Maybe not everything, the prickle of the limiters poking through his scalp reminds him, but that's certainly a case where asking for help had come back to bite him. He's better off staying on his island away from everyone where he can live however he wants, so long as how he wants to live doesn't involve forming bonds with other people or participating in society.

Still he can't help but worry about Kaidou. His overactive imagination and terrible information hygiene makes him easy prey for grifters. If he doesn't get more discerning he'll probably end up joining a cult or something when he grows up and become a shame or a burden to his family.

Kusuo supposes he is somewhat at fault here. After all, living through the discovery of something that flew in the face of conventional science might muddle the line between the fantastic and the realistic, especially for someone with naturally fanciful tendencies like Kaidou's. Letting him keep his memories of Kusuo saving him probably just doomed him further.

He could go back and try to lead Kaidou onto the right path again. As the reason he strayed in the first place, it'd only be right for him to, wouldn't it?