Natasha froze at the question, her gaze flickering uncertainly for a moment before she recovered.
"Doctor Saiki, he..."
Having already gleaned the basics from Natasha's mind and sensing her obvious reluctance to elaborate, Saiki Kusuo cut her off.
"Alright, you don't have to say any more. Just take me to him."
Saiki Kusuke's current location was top secret. Natasha, under strict orders, clearly wasn't willing to divulge it. But Saiki simply told her, "Use the phone hidden in your bra. Call him and tell him his younger brother, Saiki Kusuo, is looking for him. I think he'll agree to see me."
Directed at almost any other woman, pointing at her chest while mentioning a hidden phone would undoubtedly be interpreted as sexual harassment. But Natasha's primary reaction was shock. How did he know about the phone hidden there? she almost blurted out.
Then, she recalled Saiki Kusuke once joking about his younger brother being an omnipotent psychic he'd never once managed to beat. Natasha had dismissed it as a jest at the time. After all, though she hated to admit it, Kusuke was undeniably a genius—a rather arrogant one at that, who rarely acknowledged anyone else's merits.
After a moment's thought, she retrieved the phone from its hiding place, made a quick call, exchanged a few words, and then handed the device to Saiki.
The call had already ended. The screen displayed only a photo sent by Kusuke. Saiki glanced at it, then turned to Banner. "Let's go." With that, he teleported himself and Banner away.
Leaving Natasha standing there, utterly alone and bewildered, staring at empty space. "???"
The phone rang again almost immediately. Natasha answered. Before Kusuke could even speak, she launched into a tirade. "Your brother just ditched me here! He took the big green guy but left me behind! So much for chivalry!"
Kusuke's laughter boomed through the phone. "That sounds exactly like my brother."
Natasha: "???" Seriously? You sound proud of him?
"My brother's here now, gotta go," Kusuke added quickly.
Then what was the point of calling me back? Just to mock me? Natasha fumed silently.
"Oh, right," Kusuke's voice came again just before the line cut. "Natasha, I need to talk to you about something else later. Remember to come back soon."
Natasha: "..." Would it kill you to offer a single word of comfort?! No wonder you're ancient and have probably never even held a woman's hand! You Saiki men absolutely deserve to be single forever!
Saiki Kusuke had mentally rehearsed this reunion countless times. Scenario A involved greeting his long-lost brother with a furious tirade, dressing him down like a stern older sibling for abandoning his family for six years, and forcing him to apologize profusely. He even fantasized about Kusuo weeping bitterly, clinging to his leg, begging for forgiveness.
However, the moment he actually saw that familiar figure appear in his lab, Kusuke's carefully constructed composure shattered. A loud sob escaped him.
"Waaaaah! Kusuo! It's been so long!"
He rushed forward, intending to embrace his younger brother, tears and snot streaming down his face. Saiki dodged sideways in disgust.
"Don't come near me, Kusuke," Saiki said flatly. "You'll get snot on my clothes."
Kusuke clutched his chest, looking heartbroken. "You've changed so much in six years, Kusuo! Don't you love your big brother anymore? Have you forgotten how you used to cling to my leg when you were little, begging me to pick you up and lift you high?"
If Saiki hadn't needed answers, he would have seriously considered knocking his melodramatic brother unconscious right then and there. "Are you trying to write fanfiction now? How could such an unbelievably OOC character possibly be me?"
Despite his verbal disdain, Saiki, ever the tsundere whose actions betrayed his words, eventually relented with a sigh and allowed Kusuke to hug him.
Once Kusuke finally calmed down, Saiki got straight to the point. "What exactly have you been doing while I was gone?"
"Oh, that?" Kusuke replied casually. The psychic frequency blocker he habitually wore was still firmly in place, preventing Saiki from reading his mind directly. "Well, after you suddenly disappeared, everyone said Thanos killed you. Once you were dead, I found the world incredibly boring. So, for these past few years, I've been working on building a time machine."
He waved a dismissive hand. "Turned out it could only travel back to the day I finished building it, which was useless, so I tossed it in the recycle bin. Later, I invented a device capable of destroying the Earth. Figured I'd let everyone accompany you in death." He delivered this explanation with remarkable nonchalance.
Saiki: "..."
Banner: "...Holy shit. What the hell goes on in this guy's head? He's terrifying!" Banner knew Kusuke had spent the last six years holed up in his lab. He'd assumed Kusuke was trying to find Saiki. Feeling grateful for Kusuke's help in merging his and Hulk's consciousnesses, Banner had even invested his own money into Kusuke's research. Now he realized that his hard-earned cash had funded a potential apocalypse? That bastard!
As if sensing Banner's thoughts, Kusuke turned to him with a cheerful smile. "That's right, Dr. Banner! The funding for the device capable of vaporizing all of New York in an instant? It came entirely from you. Doesn't it fill you with joy, knowing you could die by your own handiwork?"
Banner's response was succinct: "Fuck you," accompanied by a raised middle finger.
Saiki wasn't finished. "You didn't only build that device, did you? I refuse to believe your ambition stopped at merely destroying the world."
"Of course not," Kusuke conceded, wearing an expression that said, Figures I can't hide anything from you. "Simply destroying Earth felt rather… lacking in achievement. You are my beloved younger brother, Kusuo. At the very least, the entire universe should accompany you. So, I constructed another device, one capable of obliterating the whole universe." He paused, then added thoughtfully, "I also felt the initial design was aesthetically displeasing, so I spent some time refining it."
He reached up and casually plucked a tiny capsule from behind his ear. "Here, look, this is it. The moment I open this, the entire universe will cease to exist. Instantly."
Banner: "..." This guy is beyond terrifying! Even the Hulk, somewhere inside him, felt a tremor of fear.
Saiki, however, remained completely unfazed, his gaze fixed intently on his brother.
Kusuke sighed dramatically, finally dropping the act. "Alright, fine. I'll confess," he said, throwing his hands up in surrender. "I did build the universe-destroying device, but that was merely my contingency plan for the worst-case scenario. My initial plan was, as I mentioned before, to travel through time… to save you." The implication that saving anyone else wasn't even a consideration hung heavy in the air.
"But the time machine failed," Kusuke continued. "So, I moved on to a new plan. If Thanos could assemble six Infinity Stones and snap away half the universe, then why couldn't I assemble six Infinity Stones and snap the other half back into existence?"
He shrugged. "No stones left? Fine, I'd just make new ones. And if that plan failed..." he glanced at the capsule, "...then I'd simply crush this, and we could all perish together."
After hearing Kusuke's full, convoluted explanation, both Saiki and Banner were utterly speechless.
Kusuke... Saiki thought, a sense of profound, weary disbelief washing over him. You absolute lunatic… you've read the script, haven't you?
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