Charles glared menacingly at the four who were enjoying his misfortune, threatening, "What's with those looks? Want to try out my newly recovered abilities?"
Except for the honest Hank, the other three, who were thoroughly enjoying the drama, completely ignored the paper tiger that was Charles.
Furious and frustrated, Charles could only turn to Raven for help.
Facing everyone's knowing gazes, Raven calmly stated, "I was just checking on Charles's physical condition."
"Checking what? Checking if he's still capable of that?" Erik interjected with a particularly nasty grin.
Adhering to the mentality of 'only I can bully my people,' the "domineering CEO" Raven shot Erik a warning look.
"I suggest you don't provoke him, Erik, especially without your helmet. When this guy gets angry, he might make you do something that severely damages your image."
Saiki Kusuo, intrigued, asked with feigned humility, "Like what?"
Raven smirked. "Like making Erik go confess to Trask."
For the image-conscious Erik, that was practically worse than death.
Saiki Kusuo looked like he'd learned something valuable. "Noted."
Although the misunderstanding was cleared up, Charles still looked upset. He turned to Saiki Kusuo.
"Weren't you going to find someone? Why are you back? Did you find her?"
Saiki Kusuo nodded. "I found her, but it's a bit complicated."
"How complicated?" Charles asked, with an expression that clearly said, 'tell me so I can feel a little better'.
Only a fool would honestly spill everything. Saiki Kusuo simply said to Charles, "Give me some money, Professor."
Charles, without hesitation, read Saiki Kusuo's memories, understood the situation, and promptly refused. "Sorry, I don't have any money to lend you."
Saiki Kusuo ignored his refusal and turned to Raven. "I'll tell you something, about when you two were kids..."
Raven: "???"
Charles's eyelid twitched. "...You win!"
He pulled out a stack of credit cards.
But Saiki Kusuo rejected them with disdain.
"Do you really think that run-down little shop accepts credit cards?"
Charles was about to say 'forget it then', but glancing at Raven, he decided his life was more important. He had Hank give him a handful of cash.
Saiki Kusuo said "thank you," and under Charles's furious glare, teleported to the shop Kitty had mentioned.
As soon as Saiki Kusuo was gone, Logan, who had been feigning sleep, sat up straight. "Alright, jokes over. Now we need to discuss how to get Trask to stop persecuting mutants."
Although they'd convinced Raven and prevented Trask from getting her blood, as long as he had the idea of eliminating mutants, he would continue to capture them for experiments, and the Sentinels would still appear.
Saiki Kusuo, having bought three lollipops, went back to look for Kitty, but she was gone.
Saiki Kusuo's first thought was that the girl had tricked him, but he'd been able to hear Kitty's thoughts the whole time. If she'd been deliberately deceiving him, he would have known.
Remembering how he'd told Kitty not to wander off, and how obedient and well-behaved she'd seemed, Saiki Kusuo dismissed the possibility that she'd gotten impatient and gone home.
Either the little girl was cunning and had tricked him, or something unexpected had happened.
He couldn't be fooled even by the cunning Erik, Saiki Kusuo preferred the latter.
Future Kitty hadn't told him anything about her being in danger. Thinking that Kitty might be in danger because of his appearance, Saiki Kusuo felt a pang of regret.
He was about to go back and ask Charles to help find Kitty when he noticed something shimmering in the grass nearby.
Saiki Kusuo walked closer and saw it was a heart-shaped hair clip, the one Kitty had been wearing earlier.
He used his psychometry to read the residual memories on the hair clip.
He discovered that a group of men in plain clothes, but clearly well-trained, had captured Kitty.
Kitty, being clever, had discreetly dropped her hair clip in the grass to provide a clue for Saiki Kusuo if he came looking for her.
Although he couldn't tell who had captured Kitty from the hair clip's memories alone, their target was clearly mutants. The only one who would capture mutants other than Trask was, well, Trask.
He returned to Charles's house, where it seemed like everyone was arguing.
Specifically, Charles and Erik were having a disagreement.
Saiki Kusuo had always wondered how these two people with such drastically different personalities had ever become friends.
Erik advocated for simply killing Trask, thus eliminating any future threat of war. Charles, however, believed that Trask was merely acting out of a different perspective, wanting to protect humanity. If Trask could be made to understand that mutants posed no threat to humans, he would naturally leave them alone. Killing Trask would only deepen the hatred between the two sides, and the war would never end.
To be honest, convincing Trask, even to someone like Saiki Kusuo, who had never had any murderous intent and leaned towards the human side, seemed like a pipe dream.
Perhaps Trask's starting point was to protect humanity, but the fact remained that he had killed countless mutants in the process.
This was also why Erik and Raven were adamant that he had to die. Some hatreds couldn't simply be let go.
If anything happened to Kitty, Saiki Kusuo vowed to make Trask pay.
He stepped in to interrupt their argument.
"Okay, now is not the time for infighting," Saiki Kusuo interrupted. Then he turned to Raven.
"Miss Raven, you know the location of Trask's lab, right?"
Raven asked, "What do you intend to do?"
"Someone captured Kitty. I suspect it was Trask's men."
Charles had told her about Kitty. Recalling the horrifying reports about mutant experiments she'd seen in Trask's lab, Raven gritted her teeth.
"That damned bastard! He really can't be left alive!"
Charles, who had been holding firm, paled at her words. Erik glanced at him and snorted.
"Raven, before he does anything to that little girl, we need to go to his lab and rescue her."
And, of course, wreck the place. Although Saiki Kusuo had cursed him to not harm those politicians, this kid seemed pretty fond of that little girl. If something happened to her, he probably wouldn't stop them from dealing with those animals.
Blinded by hatred, Raven was no longer listening to Charles's pleas. She and Erik left together.
Charles closed his eyes, looking defeated. After a long silence, he choked out, "Saiki, am I really that useless? I can't change anything, I just spout empty words."
Saiki Kusuo answered honestly, "You are pretty useless."
Hearing this, Charles let out a bitter laugh. "Maybe Erik is right. Maybe only by killing those guys can hatred and war truly disappear."
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