Chapter Text
Reigen is so lost in thought that the ring of his phone almost forcefully ejects his spirit from his body. He starts so hard that it nearly sends him tumbling backwards out of his chair (he should really stop doing that), and barely manages to whip it from his pocket and answer before it’s too late.
“Yes hello this is Spirits and Such Consultation Office may I take your order— oh my god I just said that out loud, please ignore that I’m so sorry—”
There’s a burst of cheerful, hearty laughter from the other end of the line, and there’s something painstakingly familiar about it. “At ease, soldier, I’ve flubbed worse introductions than that.”
Ah. Makoto. He breathes a sigh of relief and sits back in the chair, running a hand over his face. “Oh, it’s just you—” The sigh of relief is cut short. “Wait, why are you calling me on the company phone?”
“Forgot to ask you for your number when you were over here,” Makoto replies lightly. “Sorry if you were expecting somebody else.”
“No, it’s fine.” Aside from that one thing he’s got scheduled tonight, he’s free. “What’s up?”
“Well… the good news is, it’s a paying job.”
Ohhhhh this is gonna be fun.
To be fair, out of the broad slew of non-spirit related jobs Reigen had cooked up in his mind, looking after Ritsu for the day hadn’t been near the top of that list. Actually, it hadn’t been on the list at all.
They randevu at the park early the next day, somewhere between seven and eight o’clock in the morning. Reigen had to use one of his sick-days for his other job to make it today, but for this occasion, he deems it worth it. He owes a lot to the Kageyamas, and they’ve done far more for him than any sick-day could.
“We really can’t thank you enough,” Kayo says for what is definitely the seventh time today, and just like every other time she’s expressed it, she bows along. “I’m sorry it’s such short notice.”
She’s standing on Shigeo’s left, opposite of Makoto who stands on Shigeo’s right. Shigeo himself has his cane folded and tucked close to his chest, eyes a gentle, shimmering maroon. Ritsu has already stationed himself at Reigen’s side with a plain, neutral expression. By some miraculous happenstance, no one mentions the hideous scar tracing the side of Reigen’s face.
He waves a hand passively as Kayo lifts herself from the bow. “Don’t worry about it. Just enjoy your time together, alright?”
“We will,” Shigeo promises, beaming. He turns to his brother. “Don’t be too mean to Reigen, okay?”
Ritsu side-eyes him. “We’ll see,” he says, and an involuntary shiver rattles its way up Reigen’s spine. And here he was thinking Shigeo was the unsettling one.
Shigeo doesn’t seem at all concerned, and after one final goodbye and a promise to be back before dark, the three take off in the family car. Reigen and Ritsu don’t stop waving until it’s disappeared around the bend. Then, they drop their arms back to their sides in unison and stand there for some time, watching.
Reigen rocks on his feet for a moment, hands clasped behind his back. “... So.”
Ritsu doesn’t look at him. “So.”
“Do you, uh… wanna grab some bubble tea?”
“Only if you pay for it.”
“I will if you promise not to tease me about spiders anymore.”
“Deal.”
The boba shop has been here ever since Reigen can remember. The building is older than he is, but bustles with customers and life as though it’s been open no longer than a week. He’s been here a couple times on his own since moving to Seasoning City; took a booth all to himself, usually mosied around on his phone to kill time; but now Ritsu is sitting across from him, and Reigen would be lying if he said it wasn’t nice to have some company.
He sloshes around the cup for a second, takes a sip, sets it back on the countertop. “So, what’s the rest of your family up to today, huh? Your dad didn’t give me a ton of details.”
Ritsu takes a sip and swallows before answering. “Shige had an appointment with his eye doctor. He mentioned feeling some weird pressure behind them or something, so Mom and Dad wanted to get it checked out to make sure it isn’t something serious. Sometimes it’s…” He does circles around his cup with his straw, “hard to tell what’s just ‘psychic’ stuff and what’s actually a problem. Mom and Dad like to be on the safe side.
“Ah, makes sense.” Reigen swipes up his beverage and knocks it against the edge of the table. “So they just decided to make a day out of it?”
Ritsu nods. “Usually I go with them, but this time they just wanted to take Shige.”
Reigen hums. He can imagine, after what happened the other day, that Kayo and Makoto would like some time to talk about everything with Shigeo in more depth. And Shigeo is always so worried about Ritsu that his presence, as much as he loves him, would most likely deter his honesty.
“What about you?” Ritsu asks, pulling him out of his thoughts. “What’d you have to cancel for today?”
“Meh.” Reigen shrugs. “Nothing important.”
Ritsu takes a sip without breaking eye contact. Reigen pretends not to notice and shrugs more animatedly the second time, shaking his head.
“Well, either way, I’ve got some business to handle at the office. So I guess you’re tagging along.”
Ritsu swallows the sip and says, straight-faced, “I can hardly wait.”
“Out of their element” would be an understatement. Truth be told, Kayo and Makoto have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
“What kind of places would you like to go, Shige?” Kayo asks when they’ve been driving for some time now. She sits passenger while her husband drives, and Shigeo is in the backseat, hands folded neatly in his lap. “Is there anywhere special you’d like to eat?”
“No, not really,” Shigeo answers, in a tone that both are them are equally helpless to read. “Wherever you wanna go is fine with me.”
“C’mon, son, there’s gotta be somewhere,” says Makoto, smiling at Shigeo through the mirror for a moment. “What kinda stuff do you like?”
“I don’t really know,” says Shigeo, without thinking about it. “I guess I do like ramen. But I’m really okay with anywhere.”
“Then ramen it is!” cheers Makoto, like he’d just won a trophy. He pulls into the right-turn lane, and as soon as the road is clear, off they go.
Shigeo looks out the window (at what? She has no clue and is, admittedly, a little scared to ask), and Kayo sits straight in her seat with a side-glance at her husband every so often. When he catches her doing it, he shrugs passively, eyes forward on the road.
“... Have I done something wrong?” Shigeo asks when the silence stretches and the tension grows thick. His voice is so soft and genuine but still so flat that Kayo can’t determine just what emotion lies behind it.
“Oh, of course not, son,” Makoto answers before Kayo has the chance. “You haven’t done anything wrong, promise. We’re just thinking of which shop we want to stop at.”
Shigeo doesn’t ask anything else, and it isn’t entirely a lie. Kayo sits back in her seat and draws a breath, thinking, not for the first time, that she goes far beyond “out of her element.” She loves Shigeo with her whole heart and so does Makoto, but she’d by lying if she said things haven’t been hard. Especially recently.
Well…
She helps Makoto with navigation and they wind up at a small, ramen shop near a much larger, much livelier park.
… That’s what today is all about. Making things easier. For everyone.
“That’s really unprofessional.”
“Like you know what professional is,” Reigen snarks, half-tempted to throw the tissue box at him. Ritsu has taken his spot on Reigen’s desk like he’s the one running the place; Reigen himself has thrown himself on the office’s one and only threadbare couch, where he has been blowing tissues up off his face for the past ten minutes.
Ritsu frowns at him. “I’m at least more professional than that.”
“You’re like, five.”
“Oh that is rich coming from you.”
Reigen lifts his head just enough to glare at him. Ritsu looks back at him, innocent as a puppy, and Reigen groans.
“Fine, fine, I’ll bite. You win this round.”
Ritsu does a little fist-bump that Reigen barely sees. Considering he’d dragged this couch out of that run-down thrift store while it was going out of business (which was a damn shame, he loved that thrift store), it’s surprisingly comfortable. Or maybe that’s just because he hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep since he was twelve. Either way.
He closes his eyes for just a moment.
Ritsu drops the phone book on his stomach.
Reigen shoots upright with the breath knocked from his lungs, and he immediately topples sideways off the couch, wheezing and holding his stomach.
“Ritsu what the actual hell—”
“Someone’s been knocking on the door for the past ten minutes.”
“You couldn’t’ve just—” He wheezes, clutching the edge of the coffee table. “—I don’t know, poked me?”
“I think the phone book worked just fine.”
Reigen wheezes for a while longer, gasping—and then,
“Wait—what did you sa—”
He hears them for himself; several knocks from the office’s front door, followed by what sounds like a distressed feminine voice asking if anyone’s there.
Reigen springs to his feet. “Shit.” And then— “Ritsu pretend you didn’t hear that.”
“Blackmail.”
“Ritsu I swear to god—”
More knocks.
“Shi— oot, go ahead and let them in, I’m gonna get the kettle going—” He practically parkours over his desk in an attempt to make it into the storage-room-turned-kitchen-utility, where he sets the kettle going.
The door opens.
“Ah, sorry it took so long,” Ritsu says, surprisingly civil. “Do you wanna come in? Take a seat?”
“Yeah, sure, thank you. I’m sorry, I thought you were open…”
“We are open, the owner’s just, ah… a loose cannon, I suppose.”
Reigen groans and hollers, “STOP TELLING PEOPLE THAT!” Then almost burns himself when he isn’t paying attention to what he’s doing. He bites back the swear this time but replaces it with a string of grumbles that have no meaning.
“... Is that the owner?”
“Yep. Reigen Arataka. He commits tax evasion.”
“I DO NOT!”
“Spoken like someone who commits tax evasion.”
“RITSU.”
Reigen swings himself into the room, tea kettle abandoned—just in time to watch as the client bursts into a short bout of light, cheerful laughter.
“Well, aren’t you two interesting,” she says, smiling warmly. “It’s nice to meet you both. If you don’t mind… I do have a bit of a problem you could help with…”
Reigen and Ritsu exchange glances for a moment before Reigen straightens up with his usual charisma and says, “We’re on the case.”
Ritsu snickers. Reigen withholds the urge to elbow him.
The restaurant isn’t busy, and Kayo, Makoto, and Shigeo are seated the moment they arrive at a booth by the window. Shigeo keeps his eyes closed and Makoto leads him by the hand until they’ve sat down; only then does he open his eyes again, and his irises swirl a soft, brown-red, a color they seem to fall in on default.
Shigeo is quiet as always, doodling on the back of his kids’ menu with the crayons supplied to him, and Kayo and Makoto sat across from him in the booth, wondering if they should start a conversation.
In the end, nothing much happened. Shigeo kept casting concerned glances over at the two of them, which is unnerving in and of itself considering that he can’t… actually see them.
“So, Shige,” Makoto says finally, smiling, “whatcha drawing?”
“I don’t know,” Shigeo answers, holding up the picture for the two of them to see. “What do you think it is?”
“Hmmm…” Kayo leans forward a bit, studying the scribbles. Out of the three color crayons he’d been given, he seems to have favored the blue one without meaning to, with dashes of yellow and green here and there.
“I think it looks like an ocean,” Kayo replies, lifting a finger to direct Makoto’s gaze. “See this, here?” She taps a spot on the paper. “Kind of looks something like a little sailboat, too, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, I can see that!” Makoto joins in, nodding and touching his chin. “Although, I was thinking it looked more like a cupcake…”
Kayo rolls her eyes and shoves him good-naturedly. “Of course you would, you and your pastries…”
Shigeo giggles. “You still need to teach me how to bake, Dad.”
Makoto’s chest puffs with pride. Kayo rolls her eyes again. “Why, of course I will, Shige! I’m sure we can find some way to make it work, if we put our heads together.” At this, he taps his forehead, then taps the same spot on Shigeo’s forehead. Shigeo blinks at his hand cross-eyed for a moment, before smiling and nodding his agreement.
“My neighbor—he told me you two brought his cat back to him right when he’d given up hope. I don’t know if there’s anything you can do about this, but… there’s been a stray stuck up in a tree ever since this afternoon. I tried calling for help, but… I think there’s an evil spirit involved, too, because the cat keeps freaking out for no reason and no one can get a ladder close enough… it would mean the world to me if you could help the poor thing…”
“Here we are,” says Ritsu, looking up into the oak tree. “From low-budget Ghostbusters to animal control. What’s next? Weather boys?”
“S’not the worst thing in the world,” Reigen says, leveling his hand over his forehead and peering upwards. “Besides, there’s actually an evil spirit involved this time.”
“So she said,” says Ritsu, crossing his arms. “Cats can be pretty jumpy anyway, how are we to know the difference?”
“Guess we’ll find out.”
With that, Reigen turns and begins unfolding and setting up the ladder they’d rented just for the occasion. The cat is barely visible with the noonday sun stretched right overhead, but Ritsu can make out its silhouette faintly when he looks hard enough.
“Alright.” Reigen sets the ladder against the tree, shaking it to test its strength. “Seems sturdy enough.”
“Oh, no way,” Ritsu snaps, frowning at him. “You really think it’s a good idea for you to go up there? What if there’s actually a spirit? What if you’re knocked off the ladder? Do you think I could catch you?”
Reigen rolls his eyes. “Well duh, of course not.”
“Then let me climb the ladder, and you can catch me if the spirit knocks me off.”
“I’m not letting you climb it.”
“Why not?”
“It’d be irresponsible. Plus, your father would kill me.”
“First of all, my mom would kill you. Second, since when have you worried about being responsible?”
Ritsu is expecting more of a fight, but Reigen just pinches the bridge of his nose with a sigh and a shake of his head. He doesn't know why, but he feels suddenly guilty.
“Fine, fine, fine, okay,” Reigen says, dropping his hand. “Fine. Just... don’t do anything stupid.”
Ritsu can’t pin down why he feels like he should apologize, but instead of thinking it through further, he convinces himself that it’s nothing, nods, and approaches the ladder as Reigen steps back.
One rung, two rungs, three rungs. Reigen steps in and holds the ladder stable as Ritsu continues to climb, and now that he’s gotten further upwards he’s beginning to wish he hadn’t. He climbs trees all the time, but the addition of the ladder is making him feel less stable. Like he could slip and fall at any given moment.
He reaches the kitten, and it flinches back against him, pupils huge and fur fluffed to the point where its figure is engulfed by it. It’s definitely a young cat, probably not even an adult yet, and while he’s never been a cat person, it looks so helpless that his heart can’t help but go out for it.
“It’s okay,” he soothes, trying to keep his voice gentle. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. I want to help.”
The cat continues to stare in the space right behind his head, over his shoulder, but it hadn’t hissed or reacted to his hand, so he moves closer—
“Ritsu, it’s a spirit! Grab the branch!”
Maybe it’s the desperation in Reigen’s voice. Or maybe it’s the looming feeling that there’s something more over his shoulder than just blank, empty space. Either way, he wraps his arms around the branch as tightly as they go and squeezes his eyes shut.
Something pushes him, pushes him hard enough to make his palms sweaty and his eyes burn. It doesn’t hurt. It feels like ice. But the ladder beneath him still isn’t as safe as he wants it to be. In the back of his mind he hears the words, idiot, idiot, but doesn’t even have the strength to spit them out.
“Ritsu, get down!” Reigen barks at him from below, and his voice carries the same urgency that it’d held a second ago, only somehow worse. “It’s gonna try again, you’ve gotta come down!”
Ritsu forces his eyes open, and there’s the cat. Fur sticking up like a pom-pom ball, eyes wide and scared and suddenly focused right on him. Not around him, or behind him. But on him. And then in the back of his mind he sees his brother, petting Cinnamon, holding her despite how she’d attacked Reigen moments before.
It shouldn’t matter to him this much. It shouldn’t, and he knows it.
“I’m not leaving without the cat!” Ritsu finds himself saying, without fully knowing the reason why. “Hold the ladder!”
“Forget about the cat, Ritsu, get out of there!”
Ritsu grinds his teeth, doesn’t bother responding, and pulls himself off the ladder and onto the branch.
“Ritsu! Ritsu—oh my god, Ritsu get down!”
Ritsu ignores him entirely, ignores the fact that the cat definitely has claws and can definitely do more than a little damage to his exposed arms, and snatches it up into his arms, hugging it close and tight against his chest.
“Rit— Ritsu!”
There’s ice on his arms, and the branch isn’t beneath him anymore. Wind rips through his hair. He sees the leaves and branches of the tree above him and the blue sky beyond it. He clutches the cat closer to his chest. He wants to close his eyes but can’t.
He collides first with Reigen, hears the air as it rushes from his lungs, and then he tumbles into the ground. Grass pricks at his exposed forearms. The cat flinches and squirms but he holds onto it tighter, closer, until he’s sure he’s stopped moving.
He’s stopped moving.
Ritsu’s eyes snap open, and he jerks upright. “Reigen?”
Reigen is lying on his side in the grass nearby, still picking himself up and holding his abdomen. Ritsu’s chest gives a lurch and he scoots closer as fast as he can, ignoring the cat’s claws as they dig into his shirt.
“A-Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Reigen wheezes, waving his other hand idly. “I’m fine, just hit the ground weird—stupid lungs —”
He chokes and gasps a while longer, with Ritsu sitting back clutching the cat, not knowing what to say or what to do. He feels guilty again. And very, very stupid.
“I told you to get down,” Reigen manages. He doesn’t sound angry. He doesn’t really sound anything. “I just—you could’ve really gotten hurt, Ritsu, what if I hadn’t been there—”
“I’m sorry,” Ritsu cuts in finally, desperate to say something. “I’m sorry. I should’ve listened, I just—I-I wanted to save the cat, it looked so scared—”
“I know, I know you did.” Reigen sits up fully and lowers his arms down to his side. But he lowers his head, too, and Ritsu can’t see his face. “God, I—that was my fault, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t’ve let you do it.”
“I-It’s—it’s okay, though,” Ritsu manages, because he wants to say something, he just doesn’t know what. “You—We’re okay, right? Th—Thank you for catching me.”
Reigen isn’t convinced, Ritsu knows he isn’t. He can’t blame him. But he doesn’t push it further. He nods, and when he gets to his feet, Ritsu rises with him.
And, finally, Reigen meets his eyes.
Ritsu… really doesn’t know what to call that look. But it reminds him of the time, when he was little (or, younger than he is now), and he and Shigeo got into a fight. It was over something stupid, something that didn’t matter, but Ritsu was angry enough to storm off and hide somewhere Shigeo wouldn’t be able to see his spirit—which happened to be outside under the porch.
Ritsu stayed there for at least an hour. Mom and Dad had made a run downtown to the supermarket, and they’d told the boys to stay inside, but Ritsu was too angry to heed it. He was too angry to care. He wanted Shigeo to feel sorry for it. A stupid argument that he can’t even remember now.
Eventually, though, his conscience got the best of him, and he went inside the house again.
In the end, it was Ritsu who really felt sorry for it. Because in all the time he’d been outside, Shigeo had raced about the house in a frantic search for him. There were scrapes on his arms where he’d forgotten about the placement of certain furniture, a bruise on his head that he later explained happened when he rammed into a doorframe. And he’d hugged Ritsu, said he was sorry over and over and over again, and pleaded his forgiveness.
Ritsu didn’t want him to. Because no matter how bad Shigeo felt, no matter how much he thought it was his fault, Ritsu knew the real truth.
And Shigeo didn’t look at him for the rest of the day. He kept his eyes screwed shut and even when they went to bed that night, Shigeo didn’t open his eyes. Which was unusual because he never did that when he was at home. He only did that when they were out and about, surrounded by a lot of people.
He told Ritsu later that it was because he didn’t want to see the disappointment in his spirit. He didn’t want to see how angry he was. He didn’t want to feel worse.
It was resolved the next day. They forgave each other, of course they did, and Shigeo looked at him again, but he’d never forget that moment. He’d never forget the look in Shigeo’s deep blue eyes. That look of guilt, interwoven with what he could only describe as regret, but with a tinge of relief, too. Relief that he shouldn’t have had to deal with at all, because it wasn’t his fault. Guilt that he shouldn’t have had to live through. Pain he shouldn’t have felt.
And the look in Reigen’s eyes now is painfully similar to that. Guilty, regretful, hurt, but relieved. It reminds Ritsu so much of Shigeo, in ways that it has no right to.
“C’mon.” Reigen ruffles his hair, but that somehow makes him feel worse. “Let’s see if we can’t find who the cat belongs to, yeah?”
Ritsu nods feebly and follows in Reigen’s wake, engulfed and overwhelmed by the same feelings he’d endured that day. A combination of guilt and remorse, with a touch of anger.
And for once, he isn’t angry at Reigen.
“What kind of shelter is closed on Mondays? Illegal.”
Ritsu watches the cat pace the coffee table in the office, not really knowing what to do. He avoids Reigen’s eyes. “I don’t know,” he says, watching her circle back, forth, back, forth, rubbing up against the phonebook, then back and forth again. “You’d think they’d be open, huh…”
“Well, whatever. I’ll see if I can take her by tomorrow.”
Ritsu nods and keeps on watching her. Reigen isn’t angry with him anymore; actually, he probably wasn’t ever angry with Ritsu to begin with; but Ritsu still can’t trust himself to look at his face. He’d thought it was the right thing, saving the cat, and maybe it was, but just not the way he’d done it. It was a reckless endeavor because he wanted to prove himself. And in hindsight, he knows it wasn’t worth it.
The cat bounces off the coffee table eventually and scampers off into the closet-turned-kitchen to explore the office, and Ritsu gets to his feet. He hears Reigen’s chair creak, and casts a side-glance at him, but never fully looks him in the eyes.
“I don’t know much about cats,” Reigen admits. “I don’t think I hate them as much as I used to, though. I’ve heard they can see spirits.”
“Really?” Without really meaning to, Ritsu turns to him.
With a thoughtful expression, Reigen nods. “That’s what I’ve heard, anyway. Seemed to prove pretty true, earlier, too.”
He doesn’t bring up the tree specifically, and Ritsu appreciates it whether or not he’d meant to. Ritsu nods, briefly compares Shigeo to a cat—and then, the bell over the door rings.
The moment the client steps foot into the room, Ritsu knows something is wrong. All previous thoughts and feelings flee him just like the cat had fled the coffee table, only much faster and much more desperate.
At once, the client has this air about him—this confrontational something that ticks off Ritsu’s fight or flight response, but keeps him rooted where he is regardless. It could just be the client’s stature, the look on his face, but every instinct he has says there’s something else there. Something more dangerous.
Ritsu casts a side glance at Reigen. Reigen doesn’t look at him, but his shoulders are squared and his posture is stick-straight. There’s no smile on his face. His arms cross over his chest.
“Hello.” No welcome, no flair. His arms stay crossed. “We were just getting ready to close. Can I help you?”
The client looks around the room for a second like he’s surveying it, searching for flaws. Ritsu takes it as a chance to look up at Reigen pleadingly again, only to see that his face and posture hasn’t changed at all.
“If I can’t help you with anything, I’m going to have to ask that you leave,” Reigen says shortly, lacking his usual charm and luster. “Like I said, we’re just getting ready to close up. If you’re quick about it, we can probably fit you in in time.”
“Is your name Reigen Arataka?”
Reigen’s eyes narrow. “You already know who I am. What do you want?”
The client squares his shoulders, hands balled into fists at his sides. Ritsu didn’t realize he’d been backing up until his calves touch the edge of the couch.
“I’m here because my brother said you ripped him off,” the client says in a low voice that should only belong to fictional villains in fictional shows, never in real life.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Reigen says mechanically, “but if your brother has business with me, then he needs to be here. I can fit him in the schedule for tomorrow, but unless he’s waiting outside we don’t have time right now.”
“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”
The client takes a step forward. Ritsu takes a step back. Reigen looks up to meet his gaze, but stays where he is.
“I said I’m here to get what you stole from my family. Either you’re gonna give it up now, or you’re gonna regret it.”
Reigen’s hand goes out behind him. “Ritsu.” His voice is low. “Stay behind me.”
Ritsu doesn’t know what to do. His heart hammers against his ribcage but he stays where he is.
“Well? What’s it gonna be, huh?”
“That makes two times you’ve threatened me,” Reigen says, still calm, still composed. “If you don’t leave now, I’m going to call the police.”
The client’s face contorts in fury. “I’d like to see you try.”
Ritsu sees it as it’s happening; his fingers curl into a fist, he slides one foot behind him, he lifts his arm—
“Reigen—!”
The client’s fist strikes him across the face.
The silence that falls may as well be a thunderclap. That’s how it feels. Ritsu opens his mouth but can’t find his voice. The client’s eyes are like saucers.
“Oh.”
Reigen’s voice is so soft, so startlingly calm, and that’s somehow scarier. A drop of blood rolls down his face and stains the carpet. Then another. And another after that.
“Now you’ve done it.”
Ritsu doesn’t see it happen, but Reigen moves, all to suddenly, too quickly for Ritsu to accurately follow. He elbows the man in the stomach, trips him, kicks his knees in—and then in another flurry of movements, the man is face-down on the carpet and Reigen’s pinned his hands behind his back.
“Ritsu—” Grinding his teeth, Reigen fumbles to rip his phone from his pocket and tosses it across the room at him. Ritsu catches it. “Call 110, hurry.”
The unwavering tone of Reigen’s voice brings Ritsu’s scattered, scared thoughts to a standstill, and he dials with confident fingers, ignoring the blood running down Reigen’s face and staining the back of the man beneath him.
It’s evening already.
The officers take in Reigen’s story, and Ritsu stays glued to Reigen’s side, too shaken to do much else. Reigen has already been looked at by a paramedic, and there’s a wad of gauze taped over his cheek, and the blood has been washed clean. His nose hadn’t been broken, but it’d bled a lot. Looked a lot worse than it was. Barely hurt at all.
(Or, that’s what Reigen told him. Ritsu still doesn’t know if he was lying.)
It doesn’t take very long. The officers already have what information they need, and they don’t keep them for any longer than they have to. Pretty soon the cars are speeding off with the ‘client’ in the backseat, and Reigen and Ritsu are left on the curb watching them go.
“... Well.” Ritsu turns to Reigen, who stuffs his hands in the pockets of his coat. “That was… eventful. You okay?”
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.” Ritsu nods, but does it more to convince himself. “I… I-I still can’t believe that actually… happened…”
Reigen hums shortly, but seems distracted. He doesn’t speak, and Ritsu rocks on his feet for a moment. The silence stretches and he doesn’t like it.
“I-I wonder what his brother thinks of him,” Ritsu says, just to have something to say.
“Oh, there’s no brother involved.”
Ritsu jumps and spins to face him. Reigen looks the other way. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, literally.” Reigen still doesn’t look at him, facing the street where the police cars and ambulance had departed. “He might have a brother, but not a brother who ever came into my office. He was lying.”
“So, wait—” Ritsu’s mind ticks slowly, putting two and two together. “Wait, you mean—that was a robbery? He was trying to mug you?”
Reigen laughs hoarsely. It sounds like it hurts. “Yeah. Something like that. Apparently he wasn’t very good at it.”
Ritsu swallows hard. His hands are stiff. None of it feels real.
“How did you take him out like that?” Ritsu asks, half because he’s actually curious and half because he can’t stand the silence. “You pinned him down so fast--I couldn’t even keep up. How did you do it?”
“Oh, it wasn’t a big deal.” Reigen shrugs idly. “He was easy to read, I knew what he was gonna do before he did it. Throwing him off balance wasn’t too hard once I had him figured out.”
“But you did it like it was totally normal.”
Reigen exhales sharply and shakes his head. “Well. My parents had me enrolled in five different self defence classes when I was growing up. Guess a lot of that stuck around.”
Ritsu rounds him. “Five?”
“Yep.”
“Isn’t that… isn’t that kind of a lot?”
Reigen shrugs passively. “In hindsight, yeah. But I didn’t think about it much at the time. It made sense.”
There’s something there in his tone, something that puts Ritsu on edge. Something that makes him want to ask for more but stay silent all the same.
He decides the latter.
Time passes. And for a while they stay that way, on the curb of Spirits and Such, and neither of them move.
“... Wellp. Guess that’s that,” Reigen says, clapping his hands together. It’d come so suddenly that Ritsu jumps. “We shouldn’t have to deal with him anymore, at least. All in a day’s work. Nice going back there, kid.” Reigen cuffs him on the back of the head lightly, but his smile is genuine and Ritsu can’t help but smile along. “You kept your cool. I was surprised.”
“You surprised me, too,” Ritsu admits, shuffling his foot against the sidewalk. “I was kinda expecting you to lie your way out of it.”
Reigen shakes his head. “Thought about it, but you can’t let people like that go. Who knows what he would’ve done.”
Ritsu hums pensively, but tries not to think about it.
“Anyways.” Reigen pauses for a moment, searching for words, before he gives up, laughs softly, and ruffles Ritsu’s hair instead. “Thanks for being alright with hanging with me today. I know I’m not the coolest person in the world, but—”
“You’re fine, really,” Ritsu says, smiling. “And… thank you. For earlier. I didn’t wanna say anything at first, but, when that guy came in, I… I was pretty scared, actually. I don’t think I would’ve been able to do what you did.”
Reigen looks at him incredigiously for a moment, but his smile isn’t far off. “That’s why I’m the adult and you’re the kid,” he says, knocking his fist against Ritsu’s shoulder lightly. “Someday you’ll be able to look after yourself, but for now, let me and your parents take care of it. You just focus on being the best kid you can be.”
Ritsu smiles weakly. “... You should probably get some ice for your face. The bruise looks bad.”
Reigen heaves a sigh. “God, I’m gonna be so banged up by the time I finally retire,” he groans, running a hand through his hair. “Damn it. But, I guess it’s not the worst job I could have. Beats out the fast-food biz, at least.”
Ritsu nods mutely, thinking. “Yeah. And, I guess if any fake psychic had to end up mentoring Shige, you aren’t the worst, either.”
Reigen snorts. “Glad to hear it.”
“I’m not kidding.”
“I know, I know. Sorry. Thanks.”
When they get back inside, the cat is angry with them, pacing the floor anxiously and batting at their ankles. Reigen curses, Ritsu laughs, and they wait the rest of the day away with pointless chatter.
“Thank you for being willing to look after Ritsu for the day,” Dad says, straightening out of his bow. “I know it isn’t really your job or your place, but it means a lot to us. Thank you.”
“No problem!” Reigen flashes him a thumbs-up, to which Ritsu rolls his eyes. “Happy to be of service. It was…” At this, he looks down at Ritsu, who meets his gaze. Ritsu smiles, Reigen smiles, and turns back to Dad. “It was a good day. We had fun.”
“You weren’t mean to him, were you?” Shigeo asks. His eyes are closed now, and he’s holding his cane down at his side. Mom has a hand on his shoulder.
Ritsu grins. “Weeeelllll…”
Shigeo sighs, but Reigen laughs and ruffles his hair.