Psycho Kaito

Chapter 1

Pixels blared on the screen. Kaito’s eyes reflected the television screen filled with colorful characters, which contrasted with the monochrome gray reality he was trapped in. His fingers deftly tapped against the controls, and his character maneuvered through sharp twists and turns that led him closer to the goal. Just one more goal, Kaito thought. One more goal and he would be finished. That’s when he will tucker in and get some sleep after staying up till ungodly hours in the morning, keeping everyone in the household awake. Kaito usually turned the volume down low so that it didn’t blast through the paper thin walls in the house, though his parents were notoriously light sleepers and startled at every floor creak that groaned through the house’s recesses while they slept in their separate beds.

The door flew open. His father stood there, red eyed and rubbing sleep from his eyes. His face scrunched into a frown. Kaito glanced towards his father’s direction, before sighing. It took just one second, and his character dived deep into a watery grave, and the words Game Over flashed mockingly on the screen. Game over indeed. This might be the final push that led to another screaming argument, where his father would kick him out of the house, like he always threatened. His father itched for any excuse to get rid of the son that disappointed him.

“Why are you up so late?”

Kaito shrugged.

“Just trying to pass the time, I guess. I was gonna finish soon.”

His father’s scowl deepened, shadowing his face with a grim expression.

“You do nothing but play on your video game system and fool around on the Internet. Have you thought about getting a job? You know, doing something productive rather than sitting on your ass all day?”

Resentment bubbled in Kaito’s throat. He wanted to to shout at his father, tell him that he wasn’t worthless, though a subconscious part of him knew that his father was right. His father was always right, no ifs, ands, or buts. His final word was law.

“Listen, it may look like I’m doing nothing all day, but I spend a lot of my time thinking,” Kaito said, to which his father snorted.

“You always think with that great big head of yours, but you don’t do anything with it. What use is a brilliant brain if you don’t use it? Your rotting your brain with your video games, television, and Internet. We put a roof over your head, feed you and give you a place to stay, and how do you repay your parents? By being a waste of space in the house? A leech that does nothing but bleed us dry?”

“How could you say that to your own son?” Kaito said, his voice rising while tears involuntarily pricked at his eyes. His father knew when to dig in deep and sting him the most. Always reminding Kaito of what he used to be, of the amazing things he used to do, before becoming a disappointment.

“You’re no son of mine if you keep up this wretched excuse of a life,” his father said, and suddenly he looked very old, his eyes closing shut in exasperation. No yelling this time, though somehow the silence was far more worse than any shouting could’ve been. It could’ve meant that his father finally reached his limit, and there was nothing but resignation. He finally gave up on Kaito. Kaito knew it from the tired tone in his voice, the way that his father turned his back on him.

“Turn off your goddamn video games, so I can get some rest in this house. Then after that, we’ll decide what to do with you after that. This is the final straw, Kaito. We can’t continue providing for you while you give us nothing in return. It’s about time that you learned independence and hard work by living on your own and providing for yourself. Maybe that will actually motivate you when you realize that you can’t get everything you want immediately. You’ll have to work for your video games and internet.”

Kaito bowed his head in response.

“I think that these are the drastic measures that we have to take,” Kaito’s father said. “This is the final straw. I’m putting my foot down. Kaito you can’t continue this kind of existence. So…once I get some rest, I want you to move all your things out. There is an apartment that we know that you can live in. We have connections with the Akabanes; Mrs. Akabane will be your landlord. They also have a daughter named Yuya, I believe? Someone who actually does something with her life. She’s very successful and has a very promising future. Maybe she will be a reminder of what you could’ve done with your life.”

Kaito inwardly cringed at the mention of Yuya. Yuya had been a brilliant young child, just like him. Instead of burning out and taking her gifts for granted, however, Yuya moved on with her life and became a very successful person who used her talents to crush any competition that crossed her path. She thrived on challenge and difficulty; she would do whatever it takes to succeed. In fact, Kaito and Yuya used to be competitive rivals with one another in school, trying to oneup one another in academics, sports, video games, or whatever you could think of. Kaito won them all, and this infuriated Yuya that he beat her at her own game every time. However, she would eventually catch up to him, and her unyielding personality and never-give-up personality made her surpass him. Far beyond surpass him.

“You’ll have time to reflect on your behavior while I get some sleep,” his father said. “Just think about the life decisions that you’ve made. All the choices that you’ve made. How you’ve led yourself into this mess. IF change doesn’t happen, then Kaito…we just gotta throw you to the wolves. It’s the only way we can help you. Your mother and I didn’t raise some…some manchild. Because that’s what you are.”

Kaito’s hands curled into fists. He could’ved decked his father for that comment. He just didn’t understand, and he thought it should’ve been totally easy when in truth, everything was so difficult. His father didn’t think about the childhood pressure that he put on his son to perform, and showcased him off like some trophy horse because he could do various things and calculate insane amounts of numbers mentally and studied college material at a young age. He was pushed beyond his boundaries and eventually burned out from it all—when Kaito eventually realized that he took his gifts for granted and he actually had to work for things instead of having them come to him effortlessly every time.

“I’ll leave,” Kaito said slowly. “But I will never acknowledge you as my father again.”

“That’s just fine,” his father said in a cold voice. “I’ve given up on you, Kaito.”

“You gave up on me before that,” Kaito said. “You gave up when I didn’t achieve your impossible expectations. You thought that I could do it all, that I was brilliant, that I was your little show horse to tot off and show to everyone else. Well guess what? I got tired of that life. I got tired of you placing even more impossible obstacles upon me. I got tired of having to please you for your approval every single time. So I guess this is it. There is no going back. I’m going to contact Minako and she will help me move my things out. Just go back to bed. You’ll be rid of me soon enough.”

His father said nothing more, though he stalked off to bed. Kaito sighed, before he finally turned off his game system where it said the words game over blinking repeatedly in bright bold letters. It really was game over, wasn’t it? It wasn’t until his father completely left the room that Kaito allowed himself to finally weep.

—x—

When Kaito moved into the apartment, moving all his things in the small cramped space, Yuya was there to gloat. She may have outwardly showed sympathy towards him and cooed to him that she would be there to support him, but internally, Kaito knew that Yuya liked having her rival under her control. There was an incident that she would never forgive Kaito for, and she was determined to crush him and decimate him completely.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Oh, I’m very sorry, Kaito,” Yuya said while she discussed the negotiations with him. “We know that you don’t really have money on your own, but I can always provide the funds to make you live here comfortably. If you’d like to live here without your father breathing down your neck and doing nothing but play video games all day, then I’m your woman. However…”

She smirked at this.

“There will come time when I take everything away from you. I’m not going to tell you when or how, but I’ll just have it lingering completely in the back of your mind, wondering what maneuver I will pull against you.

Kaito swallowed. Yuya meant what she said. He had to tread carefully here, especially since it’s Yuya. She was popular, smart, pretty, charismatic—everything that a person could want. Guys wanted her and girls wanted to be her. It was practically no wonder that Yuya was known as the idol at the school.

“I won’t do anything against you,” Kaito said, swallowing his pride and nerves as he bowed his head submissively towards Yuya.

“Good,” Yuya said. “First, I want to admit that I’m completely the superior one. You always one-upped me before, but it looks like the tables have turned now, hm? Though it wouldn’t be fun if I just completely and utterly decimated you, even though I totally could. What I want is some bit of a challenge, to push me forward and to keep me going. I thrive on danger and excitement, of course. And you, Kaito? Maybe this will help you gain that extra edge. Be a man. Get some manly courage. Do something to push yourself out of your normal boundaries.”

“I don’t think I can do it…” Kaito said under his breath, though Yuya had sharp ears, as always. Better to hear gossip or whispered insults about her, of course.

“That’s why you disgust me right now, Kaito. That giving up attitude. Everything came so easily for you before that you took it for granted. But guess what? You’ve turned into a slug. Or maybe something even lower than that. Something like a paramecium, I bet. But that doesn’t matter now. What I want is to hear you praise me so lavishly that I might change my mind about paying you back. Or if you must, lick my shoes to show your loyalty to me.”

Kaito’s throat tightened. He didn’t like being treated like a dog, but he worried about Yuya’s schemes. She could probably plan an elaborate murder scheme and pin all the blame on him, thanks to her intellectual prowess and acting abilities. Kaito looked down, kneeling on one knee and took Yuya’s shoe in one hand. He gulped. Before he could do something like kiss the tip of her toes or lick the bottom of her sole, Yuya gave him a sharp kick to the head. Taken aback, Kaito looked up, stunned.

“Absolutely pathetic,” Yuya said with the utmost contempt in her voice. “Since you must like the taste of shoe leather so much, have a taste of my special martial arts trained kick. It looks like you’ve fallen below the status of a paramecium, I daresay. So I must take drastic measures”

When Kaito rose from his knelt position, Yuya regarded him with a cold look that would’ve made any man’s blood run cold. He really had fallen from his child prodigy status, hadn’t he? Now he’s just a good for nothing that was reduced to licking someone else’s shoes

“Since you have no status now and kicked out of our home by your father, I will do something for you. It will take a divine intervention, I’m sure, but then I perform miracles. I am like God.”

She stopped to regard him, before a chilling smile emerged on her lips. Kaito gulped again. He didn’t like that look.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll be your girlfriend,” Yuya said, cooing to him. “But not your typical girlfriend. I will be like your psychiatrist on the side as well. There’s a social experiment that I would like to do, and you’re the subject that I want to test upon.”

“Social experiment? What kind of social experiment?”

“You’ll see,” Yuya said with a secretive smile, before she put a finger to her lips as though contemplating something. “I’ll be the type of girlfriend that will make you a better person. We may bring out the worst in one another, but don’t you see? I make you better than any other woman could. So, do you agree?”

Kaito considered for a bit, weighing his options. Yuya was a dangerous woman, and sometimes brought out the worst in him, but it was true that she could probably make him a better person than eh is now. As he was, he really was the pathetic person that his father saw him as. Yuya reflected back all his flaws and insecurities like a one-sided mirror, and he couldn’t do anything to dispute her.

“All right. I agree,” Kaito said. “But on one condition.”

“I don’t think you’re in the position to be making bargains,  boy.”

Kaito shook my head, before looking Yuya straight in the eye.

“I’m going to take this seriously. I’m going to be in a relationship with you, I must become a man worthy of you. Though I’ve hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up, right? So let me tell you this. I’m going to earn the right to make you my girlfriend. Though I will fall and stutter and falter, I haven’t completely lost my senses.”

“Well said,” Yuya said with a smile, before saying, “Looks like you’ve gotten a little bit more manly courage. Though do you really absolutely have the balls to my boyfriend? Praise me and say, Please save me.’”

Kaito clenched his hands into  fists.

“Please, Yuya. I need you to make me a better man. I need someone to save me. You’re the only person that I can rely on to be able to do that. You’re the greatest, most brilliant, beautiful, talented, and hardworking girl that  I know. You’re definitely a better person than I am, since I’ve let myself muck around in my own self despair like a pig in filth instead of trying to change my situation. But you have graciously extended your hand out to me and told me that you will find a way to save me. So please, Yuya. Please save me.”

Yuya put a hand to her head and let out shrill laughter. Kaito paused. She slapped her knee ot one thigh, and her golden blonde hair tied up into a ponytail tossed over her head as her head bowed down to her knees, and then she flipped her hair right behind her again when she gave Kaito a smile.

“You actually said it. God, you actually said it. I don’t know what to do anymore, you’re just a very interesting person, Kaito Takasu. You’re like a puzzle piece that I can’t solve.”

Kaito stared down. He thought she looked radiant when she smiled at him like that. But kittens had claws, and someone like Yuya sheathed her claws to appear harmless at the moment, before striking.

“I don’t know what’s so amusing to you,” Kaito said, a frown tugging at the corner of his lips.

Yuya’s green eyes centered onto his face examining him head to toe. She circled around him like a great cat stalking its prey. Kaito averted his gaze from her eyes. Locked him down and exposed him bare. Kaito swallowed, feeling his heartbeat rise and heat flush. Since when did Yuya’s breasts get so big? He remembered her as a skinny little child thin as a stick and had breasts the size of apple buds when she was eleven years old. How long he’d known her. He knew her secrets. As did she.

“Did you know that you could fix your problems right now, Kaito?” Yuya said with a brilliant smile towards him.

Kaito cocked his head to the side. “How’s that?”

“Just learn to defy your parents. Become a rebel. Don’t conform to other’s expectations or even my own. Just be your own self made man, Kaito. Only listen to yourself and your inner instincts. Besides that, we know one another’s secrets, right? Secrets that we promised not to tell anyone else?”

Kaito nodded.

Yuya looked off into the distance.

“You’re really amazing. Far more amazing than I ever could be.”

“Don’t say that,” Kaito said, looking towards Yuya.

Yuya turned to look at Kaito, before she bopped him on the nose. “No really. I’m not being sarcastic or anything. Remember that day in the park? When you showed me something really special?”

Kaito paused, before he said. “You mean…”

“Yes.”

Kaito paused, before saying. “I take medication to dull my psychic powers. Having psychic powers is a pain.”

Yuya’s eyes twinkled. “Didn’t you have a dream of becoming a hero once? Like the superheroes you saw on television and in comic books. That was your dream, right? Why not use your psychic powers to help other people?”

“Because…” Kaito said, trying to think of an answer. “I think it’s best If I don’t use them.”

“I think that you should use every tool at your disposal,” Yuya said. “You got an extra edge that other people don’t have. Granted, I don’t have psychic powers myself, so I don’t know what it’s like, but if I had psychic powers…”

Yuya grinned before striking a pose. “I would take over the world! Psychic powers at my disposal, the power of the universe! I would be the mastermind super villain that no one can defeat, except for a hero brave in stature. So tell you what, Kaito. I’m going to be that villain for you. I will take up the mantle of an antagonist so that I can push you to greater heights.”

“You ambition never fails to amuse me,” Kaito said, before letting out genuine laughter. He hadn’t felt this good in a long time, and then suddenly Kaito started crying.

Yuya pulled him together into a hug. “It’s all right, Kaito. Everything will be all right. You’ll see.”

—x—

Kaito enlisted the help of Minako Hinamura to help move boxes into the apartment. Just when she lifted the final package at the doorstep, Minako turned and smiled at Kaito.

“All done! Have you been eating properly? I know that you don’t have anyone cooking good proper meals for you, so I think I can always help with giving you something good and hot to eat. Sound good?”

“Very,” Kaito said, before he made his way into the apartment to find Yuya snoozing on the beat up couch. Before he could shoo Minako away, she slipped under the gap between his arm and the doorway and peered inside. The normally mild—mannered girl’s serene features contorted into a scowl.

“Oh, I see. Kaito, I want a very good explanation for what’s going on here.”