Chapter Text
Business had been slow for the past two months. Mob still came in to work, expecting an exorcism client when he came through the door. It was difficult to read his emotions like with regular clients for Reigen, but he could see Mob wasn't very worried about the lack of work. He would always come in, ask Reigen if there were any jobs, and he would go sit in his desk in the corner, pulling out whatever weird manga book that his friends at school lent to him.
While Reigen was glad the kid had a group of friends now, and enjoyed seeing him happy with his books, He was incredibly worried about the lack of clients. He had tried his best not to decrease Mob's salary at all from when there was a client, but at this point, Mob was earning more than Reigen was. This past week, there were only 3 clients, as opposed to at least one a day before the scuffle with those weird esper characters in that building in the middle of the woods.
He really didn't want to worry Mob at all or stress him out by decreasing his pay, or even let on that they were in a financial crisis at the moment. Reigen kept it under wraps and had been searching the web and all news outlets for paranormal activity, and a client who will pay even a penny for an exorcism of any sort. He had even thought of resorting to getting a second job, or taking out a loan, but he had known several college friends who attempted that, and are currently crashing on family couches. He even asked Dimple to go out searching for paranormal activity, as difficult as that was with Dimple being so stubborn.
Reigen didn't even bother replying to him as he phased out of the wall, grumbling under his breath. When Dimple came back the next day, he reported on a few locations, which they both immediately went to investigate for paying clients. That had been a month ago. In the present, Reigen wiped the financial issue from his mind as he sat at his computer, mindlessly searching through a shopping website and finding what he had been keeping his eye on for the past month.
A white mug with a black cow spot pattern, complete with custom engraving, Reigen had his eyes on the thing for while now, as the months drew closer to May 12th, but never anticipated the drop in business that resulted in him being way behind on saving for Mob's birthday present.
He felt incredibly guilty about it. There was extreme stress with the lack of work and he had spent any extra funds as of late on packs of cigarettes, despite promising Mob and himself that he would quit. In times like this, he really was regretting not being so frugal with his money like his parents always drilled into him.
"Master?"
Reigen lifted his eyes from where they were, staring holes into the image of the mug on his computer, to glance over at Mob, his face blank as usual.
"There's a client."
It was then that Reigen caught sight of Mob's hand gripping the doorknob of the entrance to the office.
"...yeah, i'll be there, one second!" He called out to the outside of the door, masking his voice with his energetic salesman pitch. Smoothing out the wrinkles in his faded grey suit and black tie with his hands, he lifted himself up on his legs, out of his well aged, cushioned rolling chair, and onto his feet, making way to the door.
Mob took a step backwards to make way for Reigen, who, stride full of confidence as per the usual, took the knob and pulled. What Reigen found on the other side was a younger woman, probably only a year or so older than him, dressed in a dark brown cardigan, hair, a similar amber brown to Reigen's own, twisted into a pony tail and bangs neatly tucked behind her ears.
The woman looked a bit surprised by the energy in Reigen's pull of the door, and after recovering from her surprise, glazed over him with her eyes, viridian green, it was quick, but he took note of this, before speaking up to her.
"Welcome to the offices of Spirits and Such, maam! I am Arataka Reigen, and this young man here is Mob, my assistant." after hearing himself mentioned, Mob leaned over to look at the woman once again, giving a small wave, with an unchanging face.
The woman was slow to react, another note in Reigen's head.
"H-hello. My name is Shinobu Akuryou..." She reached into a black leather satchel bag hanging on her shoulder, that Reigen only now saw, as it hung behind her back. She pulled out a scrunched up business card that Reigen knew all too well.
"Um. You guys still do exorcisms, correct? I was wondering if i could hire you for one..."
Reigen craned his neck around to face Mob, motioning him towards the coffee machine against the wall that Reigen set aside for clients. Mob picked up on the signal, and walked towards said machine and went to work. Reigen, meanwhile, welcomed in their guest wordlessly with a sweeping gesture of his arm.
Shinobu saw this and took her cue, taking slow, gentle steps into the office, glancing around at the promotional posters on the walls and the furniture with curiosity.
"Ah, Ms. Akuryou...? Would you like me to take your coat?" Reigen piped up as he gently pushed the door shut, keeping in mind how jumpy this client was.
She jumped a little, then quickly shook her head, her hair becoming a bit messy in the process.
"Oh, no i'm fine! You don't need to do that Mr. Reigen. If... it's okay with you, i'd like to get to my case as soon as possible." She glanced back at Mob by the coffee machine, a cup in hand and two more placed to the side of the machine, he quickly looked at her in response, then turned back to filling the cups.
"Of course, come, have a seat." He moved in front, leading her to one of the two chairs laid in front of his desk with his palm outstretched, tapping the seat before sliding back into his own rolling chair, which let out a weak squeak as it embraced his body weight. The woman followed suit, and gently lowered herself into the seat, letting down her bag and sweeping any stray hairs in her face back to their place behind her ears.
It was obvious, this woman was nervous.
Reigen raced to start the conversation, as he guessed that they would be here all day if her brushing and tucking continued on like it did.
"So... what exactly are you having issues with Miss?" Ms. Akuryou looked up, a bit flustered, a light blush sweeping her face.
"I mean, I know that you said you needed an exorcism but-" Reigen was cut off by the woman reaching back down for her bag, practically ripping it open and digging around for... something. He wasn't sure exactly what was in her bag, but he made the guess of loose change, several convenience store receipts, other papers perhaps? Regardless, Reigen gave her the time she needed, and waited patiently without a word, setting both fists on the desk and twiddling his thumbs. He glanced back over at Mob once, who seemed to finally be getting the machine working, after several clients and several coffee related incidents he had started losing hope that Mob would understand the workings of drink based technology. It didn't seem like he was paying attention to the exchange between his master and this strangely nerve wracked woman. Reigen decided to point his eyes elsewhere, until his eyes fell on the image of the mug that he left up on his computer. Reigen hurriedly went to discard the image, and just then he heard the sound of the satchel closing. With breakneck speed, he turned to Akuryou, chin resting on the backs of his hands, pretending as though he wasn't just preoccupying himself as she got out her material.
She slid a ragged, wrinkled manilla folder, practically held together with paper clips and tape ungracefully onto the wood of the desk. Even Mob was distracted by the sound of paper clips scraping wood, looking up from filling the second white basic mug with coffee, then returning to his task in a homestretch.
"I put all of the info i could find into here. I know, it looks horrible, but that's because it's been through a lot. I've asked a lot of other psychics for help with this case." Reigen reached his hand out and touched the surface of the folder with his fingertips, already feeling the age and patches of tape without even fully grabbing the papers. He had honestly believed that the folder would split in two the moment he grabbed it like a normal folder. His hand retreated to the back of the folder, facing towards him, and allowed the other hand to reach around, wrapping his fingers around the file and gently pulling it closer, to at least reading distance.
With utmost care, his fingers slipped underneath the manilla cover, and lifted. What waited underneath the yellow paper were black and white photographs, written testimonies, written complaints, and many other papers labeled with the names of offices Reigen could only assume were psychic owned businesses, judging by the names and job description on the sheets.
"This is everything I could pull up on this spirit, I couldn't get the police to give me their reports, however." Well, he hadn't really expected that the police even had those kinds of reports. The police in Seasoning City never really got involved in spirit business, at least, as far as Reigen could tell. Still, the thought alone that this evil spirit could influence so much paperwork and even get crime scene style photos already hinted at Reigen that they weren't dealing with an average spirit.
"I see, so, can you explain to me exactly what this spirit has been doing to warrant these reports?"
She looked over the papers Reigen had taken up into his hands, a photo and a psychic flyer, and gave a nod.
"In truth, I think it may be my fault it even exists..."
Reigen brought his gaze back toward her at hearing this, his face signaling her to continue. She complied.
"About a year ago, I purchased an office rental space, a lot like this one actually, I was taking interest in opening a little business in there, and my mother helped pitch in to withdraw a loan and everything. We both bought the space, and work on my business was going well but..." He tilted his ear closer in her direction, waiting for her to speak up again."
"But?" Mob had finished with the cups and brought over two, placed them on the desk, and went back for his own, Shinobu mouthing thank you to him as she took the cup and chugged it. Reigen patiently waited as she took her drink.
She finally found her words and spit them out.
"...one day, the air in there seemed...off. Like, the air of a haunted house. It felt heavy, it was hard for me to breath at times, I heard sounds...like scratching, distant screaming..."
"So, you're saying the office space has become haunted? By this evil spirit?" Mob watched the conversation from the corner, eyes curious.
"Y-yes that's exactly what I said to my friends! But none of them believed me... so I left it be. But...now that it's come to this, I really wish I called an exorcist before this happened. Now it's not just the atmosphere, there's really an evil spirit in there! It attacked me one day and since then I've been looking for an exorcist who can destroy that monster....but..."
"All of them failed." Reigen interrupted, looking over the exorcist and psychic flyers, now noticing there were statements along the lines of rejecting her case, refusing to do the job, statements of that sort.
"..yes. Mr...Mr. Reigen..." Reigen looked back at her to see her tearing up, trying desperately to wipe away her own tears. He set down a few of the papers he had in one hand and reached for his tissue box, sliding it around any obstacles on the table and nudging it in front of her, concern on his face. She pulled a tissue out and lightly dabbed at her eyes, gracefully keeping her mascara from dripping, somehow.
"Mr. Reigen...this spirit has been haunting that space for over a year now... and all I'm living off of right now is my mother's funding...I'm worried she won't have enough to pay her own bills, and that loan is still-"
"Say no more."
She suddenly looked up from her tissue to Reigen, eyes full of tears, to see the business man with his chin on the back of his hands in thought. Mob had also looked at Reigen after the interruption, blinking, but otherwise did nothing other than slosh around his cup of coffee in it's mug. He never drank it so Reigen did wonder why he made a cup.
Reigen continued.
"As long as Mob is okay with doing the exorcism, he is my student, and he needs more field work." He looked to Mob, who nodded in exchange, agreeing to perform the exorcism.
"Mr. Reigen, thank you... thank you for accepting my case."