The moonlight shimmered across the glassy surface of the ocean, casting a silver glow on the deck of The Saiko Conglomerate's Luxurious Cruise. Most of the guests were at the deck chatting amongst themselves, tired from the full course dinner that followed karaoke which had Nendou doing most of the signing. But two figures remained outside, far away from the deck.Framed by the elegant glow of the deck lanterns and the soft lap of waves.
Makoto sat beside Saiki on one of the cushioned lounge chairs near the railing, the sea breeze tousling their hair. Neither spoke at first. It was quiet, almost unnaturally so. Not even the chirping of night birds. Just ocean, sky, and each other.
"So, mysterious illness still got you?" Makoto teased lightly, nudging Saiki's arm.
Saiki gave him a long, exhausted side eye. "It's fine. The vibrations have stabilized."
Makoto chuckled, eyes twinkling. "Glad to hear your deep sea curse has passed."
Saiki huffed. "You're annoying."
"Did you get cursed by the deep sea gods too? What if it was dark reunion who cursed you?" Makoto teased while grinning.
Saiki rolled his eyes but didn't move away when Makoto leaned closer, head tilted curiously.
[System: Affection +1. (・o・)]
Saiki stared up at the stars as if they held answers, or at least a distraction. But he couldn't ignore the heat that coiled in his chest every time Makoto smiled like that, open, fond, completely unguarded.
"You didn't have to stay with me the whole night," Saiki muttered.
Makoto leaned back, stretching lazily. "Yeah, but I wanted to. Besides, you needed me."
Saiki scoffed. "I don't need anyone."
"Then what's this?" Makoto smirked, lifting Saiki's hand- which had somehow ended up resting dangerously close to his, and lacing their fingers together.
[System: Affection +3.]
Saiki didn't pull away.
A quiet settled between them again, heavy now not with silence but with something taut and electric. Makoto exhaled softly, his voice barely above a whisper.
"You know... I'm really glad I met you. Even if you're the most difficult person to flirt with in the world."
"Then stop trying."
"You love it."
Saiki didn't answer, but the ghost of a smile tugged at the edge of his lips. And that was all Makoto needed.
He leaned in.
Saiki froze. For a second, it was like time held its breath, and then their lips met.
It was soft, hesitant, and terrifyingly real. Makoto cupped Saiki's face gently, thumbs brushing his cheeks like he was trying to memorize him. And Saiki let him.
Let him.
Let him.
[System: Congratulations, host! 100% affection reached. Initiating departure from current world.]
Makoto barely had time to blink. The kiss broke apart, Saiki still inches away, confusion flickering in his eyes.
And then Makoto vanished.
Like a ripple in water.
Gone.
Saiki sat alone, hand still reaching out.
He blinked.
No sound, no flash, no warning.
Makoto was gone.
"…Makoto?"
He looked around slowly, but there was only air. Only waves.
At first, he waited. Waited for Makoto to reappear with a stupid joke. Waited for the punchline.
But seconds passed.
Then minutes.
He scanned the deck. Then the lower cabins. Then every room.
Empty.
Still no panic.
Just confusion.
He returned to the deck where the others were gathered- Kokomi, Kaidou, Aren, Yumehara, Hairo, Nendou, Chisato, Saiko. They were laughing, passing around drinks, none of them aware of what had changed.
"Where's Makoto?" Saiki asked plainly, his voice cutting through the breeze.
Everyone turned to him.
"Makoto who?" Kokomi asked, tilting her head.
He stared at her. "Your brother."
Kokomi's brow creased. "I don't… have a brother."
Something cracked.
Saiki turned to the others.
"Teruhashi Makoto. You were just talking to him."
"Uh… are you okay, Saiki?" Kaidou asked, wary.
"Are you turning insane you peasant?" Saiko asked while swirling his glass of wine.
"I don't remember anyone named that," Yumehara added, blinking in concern.
Aren scratched his head. "You sure you're not mixing people up?"
"He was just here," Saiki said slowly. "He was beside me."
But their faces stayed blank.
The name meant nothing.
Their memories- empty.
The absence hit like a black hole.
In a blink, Saiki left the yacht and stood in front of the Teruhashi household.
He didn't knock.
He phased through the door, scanning every molecule.
No shoes by the entrance. No overly glittery Blue jacket. No trace of anyone but Kokomi and her parents.
He rushed upstairs.
No bedroom belonging to Makoto.
The room was unused, covered in dust.
He pulled open the family album from the shelf. He flipped page after page.
Kokomi's school photos.
Kokomi's baby pictures.
No brother. No Makoto in the background with half a smirk and bright eyes.
Not even a Photoshop blur.
He ripped the edge of reality open with sheer force and replayed the memory of Makoto making coffee jelly for him.
But the moment was corrupted- Makoto was missing. The jelly floated, stirred itself.
Makoto's laugh was gone.
Saiki stood there, surrounded by broken logic and a growing scream in his head.
He searched Japan.
Every street, rooftop, city block.
Nothing.
He searched the Earth. Underground bases, Arctic caves, volcanic cores.
Nothing.
He searched the moon. Mars. The far ends of the solar system.
Empty.
He searched time.
He tore it open like wet paper.
He watched their first meeting again. But where Makoto once stood- there was nothing.
He sped backward, days, weeks, months.
Makoto never enrolled. Never transferred. Never lived.
He watched Kokomi being born.
Alone.
Then came the multiverse.
Saiki dragged his consciousness into parallel timelines, faster than light, moving between dimensions where anything was possible.
In one, he was a dictator. In another, a recluse. In another, dead.
In all of them, Makoto didn't exist.
He was a fracture that no longer formed.
A name that reality rejected.
A feeling only Saiki remembered
He returned to the sea.
To the yacht.
But now the sky was wrong.
Dark clouds spiraled above.
Lightning cracked the horizon. The water turned jagged, frothing like it wanted to swallow the sky.
"Saiki-kun?" Kokomi shouted as the wind howled unnaturally.
He didn't move.
He stood on the deck, breath shallow, vision tunneling.
"Saiki- what's going on?" Hairo gripped the railing as it twisted under his feet.
Time warped. The sun flickered like a faulty bulb.
Yumehara's voice distorted in reverse. "Wha–Saik–do–"
Aren fell to his knees, gravity too thick to fight.
Kaidou watched in horror as his reflection in the yacht glass turned into a stranger.
The sea rose in spirals.
The yacht lifted.
And Saiki-
He floated upward, silent, glowing, face blank, hair whipping in unnatural wind.
Around him, the world screamed.
But inside him, there was only one sound.
The absence.
The echo.
The kiss they'd shared, once, under sunlight. The flare of warmth that had lit his hollow world.
Makoto laughing when Saiki let down his guard.
Makoto calling him by his real name in a whisper like it was sacred.
Makoto's hands cupping his face when their lips met
And Saiki had opened his eyes-
Only to find the world already fading.
Everything stopped.
Just like that.
The sea fell still.
The sun returned.
Time repaired itself.
And Saiki collapsed to the deck.
Unmoving.
Saiki jolted upright with a gasp, breath hitching as the last shards of the nightmare clung to him like seaweed.
The world was spinning- sand, wind, ocean, empty.
He scrambled to his feet, still soaked, knees scraping against broken planks and scattered luggage. The twisted, half sunken wreck of the yacht lay nearby, tilted to one side like a dying beast.
Makoto wasn't beside him.
Makoto wasn't anywhere.
No.
No, no, no.
His powers surged before he could stop them. Teleportation. X-ray vision. Telepathy.
No response.
The kitchen was flooded. The control room was half melted. A single sandal floated past, and Saiki's heart nearly stopped before realizing it was Nendou's. Thank god.
"Makoto!" he called out- not mentally for once, but physically, vocally, the way someone calls out when they're terrified the only answer they'll get is silence.
Still nothing.
He stumbled through the ruins of the yacht like a man possessed, panic tearing holes in his chest. Furniture broken. Sails shredded. Time space warping under his feet.
Had it happened again?
Was this another dream?
Or was his dream a premonition?
Had the system finally taken him back?
Had Saiki Kusuo lost him?
No.
No, no, no- he couldn't-
He didn't even realize he'd dropped to his knees on the sand until a seagull nearly landed on his head and screeched directly into his face.
That's when he heard it.
A weak snort.
A tiny little snff and a very human groan.
He turned.
And there he was.
Makoto.
Half-buried in sand, mouth open like he was pretty sleeping through a Disney shipwreck- maybe even cosplaying Eric from the little mermaid, seaweed in his hair like a crown of chaos. His t-shirt was riding up one side and he looked mildly offended by the sun even while unconscious.
Saiki blinked once.
Then he teleported.
He landed next to Makoto in a blur of static, dropped to his knees, and reached for him like gravity had stopped working.
Hands trembling, he cupped Makoto's face, brushing the damp hair away, thumb smearing sand from his cheek.
Still warm.
Still real.
Still Makoto.
He sucked in a breath that felt like it had been missing for hours.
It wasn't real.
The disappearance. The total erasure. Timelines without him.
It wasn't real.
He pressed his forehead to Makoto's, just to feel him. Skin. Warmth. Breath. Something his powers couldn't replicate.
He was still shaking.
"…Oi," Makoto croaked eventually, blinking at him with a grimace. "Are you crying on me?"
"No." Saiki's voice cracked immediately. "Shut up."
Makoto groaned. "My lungs taste like salt. Why does my shoulder hurt? Why are you holding my face like I'm the last egg at a supermarket during a discount sale?"
Saiki didn't let go.
Instead, he asked, voice deadly serious.
"Can the system make you disappear?"
Makoto squinted. "What?"
"Can. The system. Make. You disappear?"
"Okay, first of all, please don't ask me existential questions while I'm still full of seawater," Makoto muttered. "Second- no? Not unless I finish all my missions or, like, actually die. But even then, I think I get a prompt before deletion."
"Not comforting."
"I'm not in charge of how it works!" Makoto hissed, swatting weakly at him. "And why are you even asking that?"
Saiki didn't answer.
He just teleported them again, away from the wreckage, to a secluded part of the island where the palms bent lazily in the breeze and everything was quiet.
Makoto stumbled, still not used to teleport hopping while sleep drunk. "Bro. BRO. Warn me next time."
Saiki didn't respond.
He held Makoto by the wrist like an anchor.
"I had a dream," he whispered.
Makoto blinked. "…A dream?"
"You disappeared. No one remembered you. Not even Kokomi." His grip tightened. "Your name. Your photos. Gone. Like you'd never existed."
Makoto's expression slowly dropped, sarcasm draining from his eyes.
"I searched every timeline," Saiki said. "Every world. Every layer of reality. I couldn't find you."
There was silence.
Just wind. Salt. The distant call of a gull.
"…That's a lot of effort," Makoto finally muttered, voice too soft to make it a joke.
"I thought it was real."
Makoto was quiet for a beat.
Then he said, "Hold on."
[System: good morning, Host! Rise and shine! ♡(> ਊ <)♡]
System, Makoto thought, mentally exhausted, are you capable of erasing me from this world prematurely? Like… if Saiki hits 100 affection or something?
[System: no! Affection milestones are for progression only! Host can only leave through voluntary exit or death]
Makoto raised an eyebrow. So I'm not disappearing even if Saiki, like, maxes out or breaks the love meter?
[System: Correct! You will remain in world untill you decide to leave.]
Makoto exhaled and turned to Saiki.
"Okay. System says no disappearing. Just when I die or something."
Saiki stared at him. "Good."
Makoto smiled faintly. "Also? Weren't we on a yacht?"
Saiki sighed, blatantly lying. "Nendou drove it."
Makoto went pale. "Oh god."
"It exploded."
"What-?!"
"There were dolphins."
"WHAT?!"
"And Kaidou summoned something unholy with a harmonica."
"I swear to every multiverse god if I died because Nendou wanted to become a pirate-"
Saiki cut him off by pulling him into a tight hug.
Just for a second.
Makoto blinked. Then relaxed.
Then, slowly, pressed a kiss to Saiki's cheek.
Saiki held him tighter.
The wreck could burn.
The island could sink.
Makoto was still here.
And Saiki Kusuo was not letting him go.