#this isn't to say he saved the world for only teruhashi

[psychicdisaster]

I would like to point out that when the meteor was about to hit earth and Saiki was using clairvoyance to check up on his friends, the last thing he hears is Teruhashi pleading to god to do something. And then Saiki takes action.

He is literally the god that serves her.

[no-psi-nan]

I mean, from a real world perspective, no one because he's the shonen protagonist of a gag manga.

From an in-universe perspective, inarguably Aiura.

The narrative states and validates the fact that Aiura's predictions are NEVER wrong. While Saiki can use knowledge of her predictions to change the future and alter the timeline, it's extremely unlikely that this is affecting his actual soul enough to break a soulmate bond, if that's even possible.

And let's be real. 99% of the world understands the concept of soulmates to be explicitly romantic in nature, so to claim the soulmate bond is purely platonic in this case even though Aiura obviously has romantic attraction is kinda bullshit.

Back to the real world perspective though, it wouldn't make any sense to introduce Aiura as Saiki's canon soulmate and make them have instant chemistry and have her be instrumental to him saving the world if Teruhashi was meant to be the end-game romance option.

I think Aiura was specifically introduced to avoid having to do a romantic endgame at all, since Asou himself says he's not good at writing romance, but the fans would be expecting it if Teruhashi was still in love with Saiki and had no competition.

And making Teruhashi fall out of love with Saiki would kill one of her two jokes, making her extremely difficult to use as a gag character because the "perfect pretty girl" angle has already been beaten mostly to death. Plus, by the end of the series, Saiki has never been his real self around Teruhashi (except when he stole some of her milkshake) and Teruhashi still struggles to think of literally anything positive to say about Saiki to his grandpa. Not exactly very romantic...

So yeah, if there was to be a love interest for Kusuo, it would have to be Aiura, no contest.

Which I prefer anyways because they have a funnier and healthier dynamic by far and have been shown to enjoy each other's company in canon. Aiura won't compromise her morals for Saiki, Saiki trusts her enough to be open and vulnerable with her, they know they can always count on each other in an emergency, and they work together flawlessly to save lives.

And all that in such a short time! Aiura only shows up halfway through the second season and yet the very first time she interacts with Saiki it's just so perfect and awesome, Saiki being a badass and sarcastic mfer while Aiura puts aside her shock to help save her new friend over and over. Like, Aiura probably was not expecting to fall that deep in love so soon but who wouldn't under those conditions??

On top of that, Aiura is chill and flexible with her romantic approach, switching tactics when she sees that a "lucky feel" technique isn't going to work for Saiki, asking for permission to kiss, and immediately getting dressed when she realizes she misunderstood his request.

Clearly Saiki trusts her to be cool about her interest because he easily agrees to going out on a dessert date and basically tells her she doesn't have to ask, while he usually has to be forced by 3 different kinds of social convention to go anywhere with Teruhashi and he's looking for an exit the whole time.

In conclusion... AIURA MIKOTO!!!!!!!!!