Chapter Text
“ A-hem! ” Reigen cleared his throat rather loudly and the woman, Hirai, startled, looked over to where he was standing, “All right, I've decided I'll take your case!” he walked over to her and sensed a slightly more relieved air coming from her body. They went over the different courses of exorcism she could choose, she, wanting her son back picked the most expensive, but Reigen, not knowing whether or not it was ethical to charge that much money to essentially rescue someone, was willing to give her a pretty hefty discount.
“Thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me. I doubt the police would listen to something so...so inconceivable,” said Hirai, as she was writing down her contact information. “I know that my son’s friends have heard it’s rumored that this spirit lives in an old apartment building on the outskirts of town, I'll write down that address in case it turns out he’s there.” she scribbled the last bit out on the back of one of the takeout menus Reigen had piled on the edge of his desk. He recalled that he’d put them there for the purpose of note-taking, and remembered a mental note he’d made earlier that week, damn, I keep forgetting to buy sticky notes .
Thud.
“Ow. my face.” the chilling air of the apartment building set back into Reigen’s skin, as well as a new throbbing pain in his nose. Serizawa had stopped cold in front of him, and Reigen, being distracted, ran into his unmoving back head-on.
“Are you alright!?” Serizawa exclaimed quietly, turning around to check on Reigen who was rubbing the bridge of his nose in an aggravated fashion.
“I’m fine, I'm fine,” he waved his other hand, the one that was carrying the flashlight, in a ‘carry on’ motion, but Serizawa made a hesitant expression and glanced to the side nervously. “What’s the matter?”
“Hmm...” began Serizawa, “the energy here feels very...off.”
“Well, yeah, I’m not even a real esper and I know that,”
“I’m glad you’re aware, but. I don’t know...make sure you’re sticking close to me. I would...exercise a little more caution than you usually do .”
“What is that supposed to mean,” Reigen said, slightly taken aback, although he did know what Serizawa meant. Ever since he’d told Serizawa he wasn’t an actual psychic (it had been about six months now), he’d been especially protective on jobs like this. I miss the good old days when no one needed to coddle me.. he thought, though he realized he was being a bit overdramatic. Serizawa tilted his head and eyes in the opposite direction and said slowly.
“Well. You know...Just..be careful.” he shuffled back around and started down the hallway again, avoiding a large piece of caved-in roof. They continued up every floor, each feeling more uneasy than the last until finally arriving at the very top. The roof was caved in at a part of the stairwell and they both had to climb over the rubble awkwardly to reach the top floor. The door leading into the hallway was shut, and Serizawa, very hesitantly, placed a hand on the handle. Reigen was breathing rather unevenly beside him, which didn’t help improve their shared anxiety.
“Reigen...You’re making this harder than it needs to be,” said Serizawa gently, and Reigen, realizing how close he’d been hovering, took a large step backward, tripping a little over a small rock.
“Sorry!” he said, recovering his balance and standing up stiffly. He had a habit of getting up into Serizawa's personal space when he felt anxious but now didn’t seem to be the right time or place.
Serizawa pulled the door handle, but it didn’t budge, “Well it seems like we found what we were looking for,” he said, giving the door another good tug. When nothing happened, he backed away, and Reigen watched as his aura enveloped him. It was such an interesting thing to witness, and the color was so unique to him, Reigen really admired it. “Take a couple of steps back and move out of the stairwell.” he followed Serizawa's instructions and came to stand on the other side of him where the landing was.
Serizawa gripped the door with his aura and made a simple pulling motion, which was all it took to get the rusty door to fly loudly out of its place in the frame. Serizawa was about to set it down gently when a book came flying past his head. Startled, he dropped the large piece of metal, which went crashing rather comically down the stairwell.
“Go. away.” it was a loud, almost booming, voice that said this. It echoed around the hall and out into the stairwell, dropping out a bit when it hit the crisp evening air. Serizawa had moved out of the open doorway to stand in front of Reigen, who was now clinging tightly to his sleeve.
“It didn’t hit you at all did it?” asked Reigen, studying Serizawa's face in search of any marks.
“No,” Serizawa smiled and placed a slightly shaky hand on the one gripping his sleeve, “I'm fine. It was a warning shot though, next time it won’t miss.” he turned around again to face the entrance and took a small step forward, moving his head just far enough to where he had at least a small view of the dark hallway. It was grimy, that much he could tell, much more than all the other floors combined. “That’s definitely the home of an evil spirit...” he looked down to where the book had fallen in the stairwell and swept his eyes back into the hallway, where more littered the floor, there seemed to be quite a few even in the small corner of it that was visible.
“That isn’t good, more ammo I see,” he heard Reigen say, who was hunched over on his right side, craning his neck to see what lay in store for the both of them.
“There shouldn’t be more than my barrier can handle, let’s continue forward,” Serizawa lifted his hand, whose shakiness had subsided greatly, and erected a barrier which encircled the two of them, “stick close,” he added, which again Reigen responded to with an indignant huff.
“Yeah, yeah I will, don’t worry big guy.” with that the two of them began into the hall, which was a sight to behold. Books were piled everywhere, they lined the walls, some stacked all the way to the ceiling blocking out any light or air from the outside world. There were piles on the floor, some scattered about, some rather neatly organized, some that sat alone and open, others that looked far beyond repair.
“I think that someone has a hoarding problem,” said Reigen quietly. There was a bit of amusement in his tone, it was something of a coping mechanism for when he felt extremely creeped out, which was the case right about now. Serizawa only responded with a slight turn of his head, it was obvious he was trying to focus, he could deal with flying books, but if it turned out the spirit had all this ammunition and was extremely dangerous in other ways, he didn’t know how to go about handling that.
They turned into an open apartment, it was empty save for a disheveled dresser and a rather termite ridden coffee table, a shattered mirror lay on the floor in the corner. This isn’t where the spirit was, even Reigen knew that, but they were both curious about the building. How had it gotten this way and had it been this way for a while were both questions that clawed at their minds or at least more Serizawa's than Reigen’s.
“You know , they say this building was erected on haunted grounds,” Reigen began in a deep, slightly sing-songy voice as though he were telling a scary story to a group of children gathered around a campfire, Serizawa turned around and gave him a rather unamused look, “when it was being used as an apartment complex, people would constantly complain about weird bumps in the night,” they were on their way out of the room and already a good distance down the hall when Reigen punctuated his story, “things... disappearing .” he was holding the lit flashlight underneath his chin in true fashion to his story. Serizawa stopped abruptly again and Reigen narrowly avoided another impact when Serizawa held out a palm to the side as a signal for him to stop.
“Reigen, be quiet,” he said in a low voice.
“What now you don’t like my stories either-” Serizawa whipped around and placed a hand over Reigen’s mouth. Reigen was startled, but quickly realized it wasn’t about the story. Serizawa was silently observing their surroundings, his eyes darting this way and that, bottom lip withdrawn into his mouth, Reigen could tell he was extremely on edge.
“We don’t want to scare it away.” Serizawa's voice was hardly audible, he removed his palm from Reigen’s face and turned back around, signaling him to follow once again. The hallway only grew darker as the continued forward, and they had to take extreme care not to trip over the growing piles of books that stood in their path. Reigen was narrowly avoiding bumping a rather precarious stack when he heard the spirit for the second time, or at least, it could have been the spirit. There was a faint sniffling noise, and then a sob. Wait, he couldn’t usually hear spirits, what is going on ...he didn’t like this. Not one bit.
“You hear that. Sounds like a kid,” Reigen whispered, he saw Serizawa's head bob up and down in the darkness.
“Maybe it’s Miss Hirai’s son?” responded Serizawa. Reigen could tell he was equally as cynical about the situation which was good, “best to be cautious still.”
They rounded the corner into an even more chaotic looking room than the last they had encountered, only one piece of furniture made this room its home, a rather large bookcase lined to the brim with even more books, but it was utterly surrounded by stacks upon stacks of them, with only a small enough space in the middle to allow room for a body, and there was one. A young, light-haired boy, who had to have been no older than a high school first year, sat crammed and whimpering in the midst of the books. It took a while, but he eventually looked up at them, his puffy and wet face slightly illuminated by the soft glow from Serizawa's energy barrier. He blinked a couple of times in disbelief, “have you come to save me?” he croaked, cowering a bit as the two men approached him.
“Yeah kid, we were sent here by your mother,” Reigen laid a light hand on Serizawa's shoulder to signal it was okay to relax a bit, and he did, letting the barrier fall, “let’s get you out of here okay, it isn’t safe with the evil spirit who abducted you still on the loose.” he held out a hand to the boy, who took it with his own shakily and stood slowly.
“We need to know when the last time you saw or interacted with the spirit was,” Serizawa said, there was irritation in his tone, Reigen could tell he didn’t trust this boy, which was probably smart, smarter than Reigen who let his soft spot for kids get in the way of doing his job more often than he liked to let on. The boy sniffled again and wiped away some of the grime on his face with the back of his pajama sleeve.
“Spirit? Is that why I’m here?” his voice had gained back some volume to it from the last time he spoke, a little too quickly for Serizawa's taste, “all I know is that one minute I was getting a drink of water at my house and the next I'm....here,” his eyes flitted around the room in unrest. “If I'm here because of a spirit then it must be the one who keeps taking my school books.” there was the smallest hint of aggravation in his voice, which only served to increase Serizawa's suspicion.
“Well, if we find it it’s gonna have to be on the way to get you out of here, that takes priority,” Reigen said, ushering the boy to the exit of the room, Serizawa followed closely behind them for a length of the hall, the barrier surrounding them again, then, when he felt that it was safer, returned to his position at the front. The hall was long and dark, and they continued along its path slowly, Reigen couldn’t see the end very well anymore because the sun had long since set and they were away from any very well lit streets. It was a miracle he’d remembered to bring his flashlight or they wouldn’t have been able to see at all, let alone avoid tripping over ridiculously large piles of books.
There were daggers of anxiety poking at his stomach though, nothing about this kid felt right, he was too calm too quickly, too trusting, not nearly nervous enough. He had kept his hostility at bay far more than Serizawa, which would either turn out to be an asset or a stupid mistake. Either way, the boy walked in between the both of them, if he pulled anything Reigen would act.
“I think I see the stairwell, looks like we aren’t too far off,” Serizawa said and took a large stride to avoid a rather ancient-looking tome, he stumbled a little bit and tried using his left leg to balance himself out, but slipped on another pile and took a tumble to the ground. The barrier shimmered and then fell. Reigen shined the flashlight his way in concern and scrambled past the boy to help him.
“Are you okay?” he said, reaching out his hand to the man who had a rather worried look plastered on his face, rubbing his back and completely ignoring Reigen’s outstretched palm. The reason for his worry quickly became apparent.
“ You finally dropped your guard. I was wondering if I was going to have to attack you regardless .” there was an icy wind that began to blow around the two of them, Reigen’s wide-eyed surprise became a grimace as he turned slowly to face the boy.
“Oh. T here’s the spirit!” he backed away as much as he could toward Serizawa who was struggling to find the appropriate handholds in order to stand.
“ You come in to my home, desecrate it with your foul human stench, try and take away my prize, and you expect to leave here alive? ” the spirit possessed boy took a few steps forward, with each, the books on the floor flew away in different directions, Reigen had to try his best to avoid getting hit, “ I've never heard of anything so foolish. ” his words were practically poison, and each grating word that hit Reigen’s ears was more than enough to send his heart into a frenzy.
“Serizawa!” he yelled, not daring to take his eyes off the boy, “I could really use your help!”
“Getting there!”
“Well, could you get there faster!”
“ This boy, like so many others, uses his popularity to torment his peers, you really want to save some brat like that. ” Reigen stopped cold in his tracks, remembering the words dimple had said earlier, stealing items from a specific group of people, that’s what he meant. He was going to have to work with this at least until Serizawa was ready to help.
“What do you mean?” he asked as calmly as he could, at least getting spirits to talk about why they were malicious was never that difficult. The boy stopped moving forward, narrowing his eyes a little, the wind whipping around his hair lessening as well.
“ I died rather young. I was miserable because of people like this boy who found joy in torturing others for their lack of normalcy. ” he gestured to a stack of books that lined the wall, “ for liking books I was punished, my own constantly stolen from me and dumped in the river, ripped apart. I decided it would only be fair to take them from the kind of people who drove me into isolation. That is what I vowed upon death. ”
“So you aren’t a fan of bullies then, that makes two of us,” Reigen said, feeling Serizawa's hand grip his suit sleeve, he was finally standing.
“ That would be putting it rather lightly. ”
“What drove you to escalate to this?” Serizawa's voice cut through the dark for the first time in a while, he was genuinely curious as to what had driven this spirit into its malicious behavior, something that seemed only recent now that he thought about the way it described its mission. The boy’s eyes locked onto Serizawa and the wind picked up a bit, obviously, it saw a threat in his presence.
“I found this boy doing exactly as I had described people did to me, dumping the contents of another boy’s school bag into a canal and boasting about it, it was obvious that that was not his first time engaged in such an activity. I decided to teach him a lesson, plain and simple.” he took another step forward and the movement in the air was back in full force, “now that I have this body you aren’t going to be able to stop me from making an example out of him and others who share his nature,” he raised a hand and a terrible sound ripped through the hall, hundreds of disembodied pages came flying to the ready at his side, flat and sharp as knives, “now do me a favor and die.”
Serizawa barely had any time to react, erecting a rather shoddy barrier to take the brunt force of the pages, which crumpled rather anticlimactically as they hit it, a few of them flew past it and cut into his suit jacket. Reigen, too shocked to move further into the safety of the barrier, felt a sting as a few of them grazed his face, there was a new wet feeling trickling down it and on his left shoulder as well, he was bleeding.
“Reigen what are you doing! Come here!” Serizawa barked, Reigen snapped his head towards him, finally having come out of shock.
“Right!” he exclaimed and entered the safe part of the hall with a brisk sidestep.
“I’m going to exorcise it once this attack dies down, I need you to stand behind me so you don’t get more injured!”
“Right!” Reigen said again, he saw Serizawa's shoulder’s fall with a sigh as he shook his head.
“You are taking this way too casually as per usual I see.” he said loudly over the dying noise of the paper, he could see a gap in the barrier and spotted the spirit who was about to make its second move, “now, Reigen!” Reigen did as he was instructed and got behind Serizawa, who let down his barrier and sent a psychic shockwave through the possessed boy, who seemed extremely shocked to say in the least. He then quickly went limp, Serizawa had to dash over to him to make sure he didn’t hit the ground. He looked up to the disembodied spirit, who was fading away slowly.
“This could have been your chance to be freed of people like that...why?” it said in a small voice, to Reigen’s surprise he could still hear the spirit. He felt for it a little, he had strong feelings about people who were bullies as well, but they were of a different nature entirely.
“People change. You can’t just go around killing them before they get there,” said Reigen matter of factly, and the spirit responded with a small trickle of laughter before fading away completely.