Chapter Text
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first the notes. I hope you can derive some amusement from the dumb ass format I write my outlines in.
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[Hahahaha Ritsu is still ultra-repressed and works as a personal assistant for a billionaire and is THE MOST EFFICIENT EVER and he’s really well off but also he hates his job and himself.
A fun fact is that cats can also see spirits; occasionally Ritsu meets a spirit and exorcises it but even he can sometimes tell that a spirit is harmless and just wants to be left alone. One spirit follows him home and keeps hanging around and at first he’s Super Annoyed obviously because he didn’t ask for this, but they keep his cat entertained so maybe it’s fine.
MAYBE it is okay to write about Ritsu as long as I have a plot in mind already—what if! What if it’s a plot about Ritsu and Hanazawa! Some kind of corporate intrigue—we know a lot of corporations are run by the yakuza so it makes sense that Hanazawa’s network would eventually come into contact with Ritsu’s employer. Y’know what would be really fun. Ritsu casually exorcising an evil spirit on the way back to his apartment and Hanazawa happens to be visiting for some kind of TV deal and is like, Intrigued by him and maybe a little irritated by the existence of other psychics in this city where he’s doing a show. Hanazawa’s method of dealing with people who intrigue him is to flirt, which will be funny because Ritsu doesn’t understand flirting so he has to keep turning up the obviousness and Ritsu just gets uncomfortable and runs away. Later Ritsu sees Hanazawa again in like serious business clothes so he’s almost unrecognizable and is like ???????? IS THAT THE SAME GUY? THAT GUY WHO CAN SEE SPIRITS AND IS KIND OF WEIRD?
Ritsu asks to talk to him the next time he comes to a meeting, since he’s curious and also would rather dig up dirt on him so the deal doesn’t go through. Listen, Ritsu is very bored with his life and wants to feel like he’s taking moral actions. Anyway he accidentally makes it sound like he knows more than he does, and Hanazawa gets up close and personal to threaten him. Because it’s Hanazawa, it’s halfway Sexy Menacing and it leaves Ritsu feeling very confused. But since he got his powers Ritsu has never met anything he can’t defeat—he’s no Shigeo but he’s probably somewhere close to Hanazawa’s level of power—and he feels irritated that someone was presumptuous enough to threaten him and determined to show that he’s powerful too. Maybe he feels a little bit of “protecting his corporation, not because he likes it but because it’s his.”
So Ritsu looks up the contact information for Hanazawa’s company and is aggressively polite at people until they take him to the head boss and he’s like Who Is Hanazawa Teruki. I know he’s up to some very fishy business, almost certainly illegal. Now I could call an official investigation on you, or you could tell me what I know and maybe convince me not to. Natch, the guy calls in his bodyguards, Ritsu beats them up, and the guy spills info on Hanazawa’s base of operations. Before he goes, because he’s nothing if not paranoid, he emails Musashi with the address he’s going to and instructions to call the police on a kidnapping if he doesn’t hear back within 24 hours. And don’t tell my brother anything!!
Musashi tells his brother, duh. Shigeo completely misunderstands the timing and thinks Ritsu has already been kidnapped, so he takes the train to Tokyo (so as not to inconvenience his husband who needs the car!) and goes to the address to beat people up. He’s a pacifist by personality rather than by training, but he hasn’t been in enough dangerous situations to internalize “violence is necessary to survive.” So he’ll beat people up psychically if he feels he needs to, but he’ll be sad about it.]
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and now the actual fic part, which is like 1.2 small chapters
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One night, very easily, as if the thought has been there all along, Ritsu realizes he hates himself. He’s lying on his back on the couch with a book about political theory propped open on his chest, just staring blankly at the ceiling. His life is very empty compared to his brother’s—he always has this thought after he gets back from visiting Shigeo. But tonight he can’t escape the realization that it’s his fault.
Pishipishi jumps up onto his stomach and starts trying to push the book off his chest, so he picks it up, puts a bookmark in it, and moves it to the end table. Pishipishi starts purring immediately and butts her head against Ritsu’s chin. He smiles, because it’s a little bit hard to hate himself quite as much with a cat declaring its affection so strongly. The one time he’s ever seen Shigeo drunk, his brother acted pretty similarly. Of course, he also telekinetically gathered all the soft things nearby into a cocoon, but if Pishipishi could do that Ritsu is sure she would.
Cheered, he sits up (Pishipishi falls onto his lap and meows at him reproachfully) to start petting her.
He reads with one hand while petting his cat with the other. When it gets late he helps her up onto his shoulders, brushes his teeth, and goes to bed. In the morning he brushes his teeth, eats some leftovers from the refrigerator, and kisses Pishipishi goodbye on the nose before he leaves for work.
Aragata stops by his office as he’s checking the new emails of the day—“Hear about the deal that’s coming up?” she asks, leaning against the doorframe. He shakes his head and makes attentive eye contact to urge her to go on. “Well, I’m sure you’ll read about it soon, Yazawa forwarded it to everyone. But the rumor is, it’s not just another supply deal. It might be a merger. And I thought you’d know, if anyone did.”
“I have to wonder what your source is,” says Ritsu, smiling slightly. “Anyone who hears such rumors before me must be a good friend to have.” It was probably someone who checked their email before coming into work. Ritsu never reads his email at home unless it’s urgent enough for someone to text him about it. “I’ll see what I can find out from the boss.”
Aragata smiles at him and leaves.
The email from Yazawa doesn’t mention anything beyond the fact that the Kondo Corporation wants to schedule a meeting, but as Ritsu is the one in charge of scheduling the meeting he has an additional email from the corporation’s head (or, more likely, the head’s personal assistant), asking him to reply with times that would be convenient for his boss, Miyamoto.
There’s also an email from his brother, containing several photographs of Shigeo posing with some of the half-wild spirits that hang around his farm. Two of the photographs have his bratty student in them, but Reigen is surprisingly tolerable when he’s not moving or talking. Ritsu smiles and puts the email in his folder of things he’ll want to look at again later.
Everyone in the office seems content, and a little excited, because new deals often mean bonuses. Miyamoto is optimistic as usual, and leaves every one of the details up to Ritsu.
At the end of the day he goes home, walking toward a place where he can get good soba for dinner. He eats, orders an extra container to go, and walks back in the direction of the Miyamoto building, which he will pass on the way to his apartment. He stops when the air starts to feel heavy and charged, because he may be a soulless office worker but he still considers it his civic duty to exorcise evil spirits when he comes across them.
He follows the spirit’s aura to a tea shop, and tries to look inside inconspicuously so no-one will stare at him. The spirit is currently inhabiting one of the tables in a corner—it’s empty, because even people with no psychic powers feel uneasy in close proximity to evil spirits. If he’s careful, Ritsu can dispel it from out here, without ever having to go inside. He stretches his power and feeds it through the open door until it’s within reach of the spirit, and grabs it out of the table. It struggles, rocking the table, but he does manage to pull it out. It’s a fairly powerful one, he thinks, frowning. Why is it in a tea shop?
It starts to speak incoherently, probably begging him to spare it, and he closes his fist and crushes it. There is no spirit, no matter how vile, that wouldn’t beg for its life in front of a powerful psychic. He feels nothing.
He allows himself a sigh as he picks up his take-away bag with the container of soba and turns to keep walking. The first time he exorcised a spirit he was radiantly happy, so much so that he forgot his usual hesitancy and hugged his brother. He’d wanted to be a superhero, then, even though he should have been too old for that kind of thing.
He stews in his dissatisfaction with himself until someone behind him says, “Hey.” He turns, cautiously, to look at the man standing behind him. He’s the kind of person Ritsu doesn’t like—flashy in an artfully rumpled way, probably uses his smile to get him where reasoned arguments never could. His hair is dyed blond and he’s wearing a neon blue jacket. He’s probably a con artist.
Ritsu turns back around and ignores him.
“Don’t ignore me. I just saw you exorcise a spirit. It was pretty clean, if I do say so myself. Very low profile, very smooth.”
Here Ritsu pauses, because he’s never met anyone else who can see spirits besides him and his brother. “I’m only doing what a responsible citizen would do in my situation,” he says. He still doesn’t like the flashy man, but he’s interested enough to keep talking.
“My philosophy is exactly the same,” says the man, beaming. He walks closer, relaxed, hands in his pockets, and Ritsu catches the faint flicker of an iridescent golden aura. “What’s your name, by the way? I’ve never heard of you before, and that’s a damn shame given how good you are.”
“I don’t tend to advertise my activities,” says Ritsu, hoping that will be enough of a hint. “But if you do, then it’s equally surprising I’ve never heard of you. You’re only the second psychic I’ve ever met.”
The man smiles at him, leans against the corner of the building they’re standing next to. “You must have tried quite hard not to have heard of me. I’m known as the twenty-first century’s greatest psychic. I’d even go so far as to say that I’m internationally famous. My name’s Hanazawa Teruki.” He seems like he’s waiting for a reaction, but all Ritsu has at this point is his polite personal assistant expression that says go on. He’s not incredibly interested in this person, who is obviously a braggart and possibly a conman, but he’s not yet quite disinterested enough to brush him off. Hanazawa’s smile drops one notch in intensity. “Since you’re trying so hard to pretend to be normal, I’d guess you don’t know much about how to use your power.” Pretty clean, he said. Very low profile, very smooth. “I could probably give you a few tips, maybe even get you a job where you can find your full potential. You look like a salaryman—I know how soul-crushing that kind of job can be. Haven’t you ever wanted something more fulfilling?”
The honest answer is yes, every day of my miserable life, but Ritsu just shrugs. “It pays the bills,” he says.
Hanazawa rolls his eyes, and pulls a card out of his pocket. He holds it out to Ritsu between two of his fingers, another dramatic flourish. “If you ever want to get out of that cage, call me. Hell, call me if you want to chat with someone who understands things.” He pushes off the wall and stands up straight. As he walks past, he puts a hand on Ritsu’s shoulder and squeezes it, a gesture that leaves Ritsu feeling bizarrely cold and sick.
He looks down at the card in his hand and swallows. Hanazawa the Psychic, it says. Spirits destroyed. Curses lifted. And a phone number. He puts it in his pocket, clenches his fist around the plastic bag, and starts walking again toward his apartment.
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The Kondo head has brought a few advisers and aides, and among them is a man in a sharp suit with his blond hair pulled back in a professional-casual ponytail. Ritsu keeps glancing at him, not sure whether he’s the same Hanazawa whose card is still burning a hole in his pocket. He’s dressed differently. He even moves differently. Ritsu tries to catch a hint of a golden aura in the corner of his eye, but if it is Hanazawa he knows how to suppress his aura. It’s not until after the meeting that he gets his answer, when Miyamoto is making small talk with the Kondo head—how is his hotel, does he need restaurant recommendations, how’s business going—and the blond man answers one of the questions with a small laugh. Even if Ritsu is bad with faces to the point where he can’t identify someone with slightly different but still extremely distinctive hair, he’s good with voices. Hanazawa, the reality television psychic, is posing as one of the Kondo head’s advisers. Why?
As is usual when Miyamoto is trying to impress a potential partner, they all go out to dinner at a nice restaurant after the meeting. Ritsu spends the entire time covertly doing research on his phone—who is Hanazawa, and what is his connection to the Kondo Corporation?
He doesn’t participate very much in the conversation, but he’s not the only one; most of the Kondo head’s aides are quiet, and let their head and Hanazawa chat with Miyamoto and his more official second-in-command, Ueda. Ueda does about half as much necessary work as Ritsu does, but Ritsu doesn’t begrudge him the spotlight. He has always preferred to fade into the background. As long as he is recognized by the man who writes his paycheck, he’s content. Content enough, anyway.
When everyone gets up to leave, Ritsu pauses next to Hanazawa. “I think I’m right in recognizing you,” he murmurs, trying to be inconspicuous.
Hanazawa has probably never been inconspicuous in his life. “Ah, Kageyama,” he says, throwing his arm around Ritsu’s shoulders. “It’s really been a while, hasn’t it? I was hoping we could catch up after all the business was taken care of.” He turns to smile at the Kondo head and waves his free hand as if to say don’t wait up. “Do you want to go to a bar?”
“Sure,” says Ritsu. There is very little he wants less.
Once they round the corner, hiding the other businessmen, Ritsu says, “
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yeah I don't really care about this story enough to finish it. what does ritsu DO with himself.
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