Chapter 197

The Genius Artist's ClasPSIroom is the 197th chapter of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. (Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan) manga series published on the 30th of May 2016.

Characters

 * Saiki Kusuo
 * Nendou Riki
 * Kuboyasu Aren
 * Kaidou Shun
 * Hairo Kineshi
 * Yumehara Chiyo
 * Takahashi
 * Teruhashi Kokomi

Abilities Used

 * Telepathy
 * Thoughtography

Short Summary
Year 2, Class 3 is assigned to choose a partner to draw portraits of each other. Kusuo ends up pairing with Kokomi and they have difficulty drawing one another.

Long Summary
In the art classroom, Aren has finished drawing kid Goku. He questions Riki and Shun about the drawing and Riki compliments him. Aren explains to them that he used to draw many Dragon Ball characters since elementary school and is fine with any requests. Riki requests him to draw Burter, making Kusuo wonder why he chose a vague character like him. Aren draws him and asks him if the character looks like that. Riki exclaims it is and compliments once again. Aren explains he only doodled in class, Riki requests him to draw King next and after a pause he accepts the request. While the two speak, Shun was drawing on his notebook and happily shares to them after he finishes. Shun explains it is his drawing of Goku. Seeing how horrible it is, Kusuo says that Shun should apologize to Akira Toriyama.

After a lecture, their teacher explains that they will be practicing how to draw from real life. He speaks more but most students are not paying attention. Kusuo talks about how he is not good at art. He knows most students like art classes more than other subjects (such as literature or math) but he prefers those subjects. In those classes there is a correct answer but art has none. Kusuo then quickly draws the teacher and explains about his thoughtography, he can draw anything exactly how it is. Kusuo knows that if he were to turn any of his actual drawings in, many would think the drawing is a photo edit. He thinks about if everyone were to do the same type of drawing as himself, he guesses there will still be art classes. He then explains that he is unable to hold back since it is his own normal to draw exact things. So far he has turned in copies of someone else’s drawings or student projects but knows if he were a professional he would get in trouble with plagiarism. He then realizes it would not be possible to do this task for the upcoming assignment.

The teacher assigns the class to get into pairs and draw portraits of their partner. While classmates start picking partners, Kusuo is in his seat nervous about this situation, afraid to draw anyone too accurately. He thinks about how he should just pair up with someone normal and then copy a drawing of someone similar to them. Riki goes up to him to tell him they should pair up, Kusuo figuring he can not pair up with him. Kusuo leaves his seat and Riki asks him where he is going. He initially says that there is no one in the world with Riki’s face, backtracks possibly remembering Riki’s mother or father, and says drawing him would still be difficult. He starts looking at other candidates for his partner, which leads to him looking at Shun and Aren. Shun asks Aren if they could be partners but Aren quickly asks another classmate if they could pair up instead. Shun then asks Kineshi if they could partner up, but Kineshi, in panic, immediately tells another classmate that he wants to try to draw him. While he does want Shun to draw him, Kusuo decides to pick Shun as his partner. Shun nervously asks him but Chiyo interrupts him by asking him if they could partner up instead. Shun blushes and nervously says that he and Kusuo are partners, only to find that Kusuo left him.

Kusuo figures he needs to pick some else, looks around to find Takahashi is unable to get a partner either. He decides on partnering up with him, however when Takahashi sees him he ignores him. Kusuo feels angry and insulted but tries to shrug it off, knowing that the class has an even number. He figures the plain looking people will be last picked. Kokomi comes to him, nervously asking him if they could be partners. Angry once again, he quickly says no. He wonders why she is the only one left. She tells him she can not find a partner, he says it is impossible. Several guys come to her, asking to be her partner, proving his point. All the guys started drawing but then ripped up their drawings, showing Kokomi's point and he quickly understood.

Everyone has picked a partner and Kusuo ends up with Kokomi. Several classmates are angered that he is Kokomi’s partner and decide they will end up looking at his drawing when he is done. Kusuo is in despair and believes he is in the worst possible situation. He dislikes being her partner and believes he was better off partnering up with Riki. Kokomi then thinks the opposite of him, believing this is the best situation. She is highly happy that they are drawing each other and having a chance to stare at him for as long as she wanted. She quickly realizes the situation is the same with him, he will stare at her, and quickly calms herself down to not seem too happy. She is back to her mutual regular smile and thinks how he could look at her how much he wants. Kusuo tells her to draw.

Kusuo thinks the same is true for him, he needs to draw too. He worries once again on drawing too accurately, thinks on how it does not need to be perfect and decides to do a rough outline. He starts to draw and realizes his mistake immediately, he ended up drawing a third of her face instead of a line. He crumples the paper and decides to restart his drawing. Kokomi thinks about how he also ended up like the others, not able to draw her. In another paper, he tries to draw the outline by drawing an egg. He ended up with a perfect egg with shading and thinks he can fix it by erasing parts later. He then decides to draw the eyes, only to do it perfectly and finds the image terrifying. He is annoyed at how things are not going well but tries to fix what he has done. He ends up with some weird drawing, dumbfounded he wonders how it ended up this way. He quickly crumples the paper to restart again and Kokomi is again surprised at him failing again.

Kokomi believes Kusuo is worried about drawing her incorrectly. She is fine if he can not capture her whole beauty due to no one can, briefly breaking the fourth wall saying that the author can not draw her consistently either. Closing her eyes, she will patiently wait for him to finish and see the drawing. Kusuo tells her that she needs to draw too and she quickly remembers about that. She is not worried about it, she is good at drawing and it would not take long for her to draw him. She thinks of drawing him a bit better and does the drawing. She ends up drawing Kusuo as if he were in a Shōjo, with flowers in the background. Dumbfounded she wonders how it ended up this way. She questions if it is him that she drew, and ends up not thinking so. She thinks about having to show him this drawing and the teacher appears, asking her if she is finishing. She immediately tears the paper, thinking the drawing makes it appear that she likes him, surprising the teacher. She apologizes, excusing herself by saying she did not like how his ears came out. The teacher immediately believes her excuse, while Kusuo has seen the whole thing.

Kokomi and Kusuo continue to try to draw one another and 30 minutes pass. Kokomi finally draws him plainly. She briefly questions the drawing and wonders if she should put some flowers in the background. She then hears Shun, gleeful, on how Chiyo drew him. He compliments her and the flowers in the background too. She explains the background was too empty, he questions why flowers and she just says she felt like it. The classroom gossips that Chiyo obviously likes Shun and they did not expect it. Kokomi is relieved that she did not draw flowers afterall. Shun then shows her his drawing of her, asking if it came out well. Chiyo lies, saying it did. Kusuo is glad he did not pair up with him.

The teacher tells the class to finish up their drawings if they haven’t yet. Kusuo gets nervous since he has yet to draw anything. He figures they will all know if he copies another drawing of her and thinks if there is another other drawing no one has seen yet. He quickly remembers of the guys who tore their drawings of her earlier. He quickly combines different components of those drawings, ends up not liking how unbalanced it is, but nonetheless finishes the drawing. He soon realizes there was a flaw in his plan, he accidentally added in Aren’s drawing of Burter. Knowing how he will end up purged showing this drawing, he quickly gets rid of it. Their classmates hear he has finished the drawing and tell him to share it. He shares an empty page of paper and some quickly tell him he is a jerk for doing so. Kusuo thinks he will definitely get purged and closes one of his eyes. Another classmate tells them that he gets Kusuo’s drawing. Kusuo does not understand what they get. Many speak on the symbolism of the empty paper and compliment it. Kusuo says again that he still does not understand art. Kokomi sees the drawing and is a bit disappointed, wanting Kusuo to draw her normally.