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Mob wakes up, feeling groggier than usual, his body heavier. He gets up anyway, goes through his routine anyway. Ritsu had already left for school when he sits down for breakfast. He walks to school alone. It does not bother him.
It soon grows, though. While sitting down for first class of the day, it has the weight of a bottle of water. Mob feels fine, or about as fine as you could feel when you know you're going to have to struggle through maths again in an hour. Why is it always maths?
Mob eats his lunch accompanied by the thing ever-growing on his shoulders. He'd carried a hiking backpack once, on a case with his Shishou. It was about that heavy. It does not bother him.
By the time he's at his little reception desk, watching his Shishou check his email, it occurs to him that it might be a spirit. He goes to check his reflection in the bathroom, silently as to not disturb his Shishou's typing frenzy. There was nothing on his shoulders, the only thing he sees is the 14 year old face of Shigeo Kageyama. Plain, not particularly an appearance that he had taken extreme care of, but he's smart enough to eat a decent diet.
He walks back into the the office. His Shishou looks up from his lackadaisical clicking about to look at his student.
"Hey, you okay there? You look down."
The thing on his shoulders shifts his weight.
"Shishou, is there anything sitting on my shoulders that I can't see?"
Reigen stares at Mob for a while, or some point in space in Mob's general direction. With a look that Mob can't read, he stands up and places a hand on Mob's shoulder, a familiar and familial gesture. The weight shifts and minutely lightens, as if displaced by the conman's hand.
"Well," his Shishou starts, still looking for words. "I already know the answer- not that, uh- anyway, how have you been feeling today?"
"Is this a test?" Mob wonders out loud. He recalls to his Shishou what he'd been feeling since he woke up. At some point, Reigen starts to pull his hand away, and Mob was about to protest, Reigen replaced his hand.
When Mob finished, Reigen pulled out his cellphone using the hand he'd lifted from Mob's shoulder and looked at the screen for a heartbeat. The weight seemed hesitant to reclaim its spot. Reigen glanced at Mob, then gave him a small smile.
"Well, you passed the test. Luckily, this spirit is easy to dispel. Just," he turned, then motioned to Mob, "You can sit first. On the couch."
While Mob waited, he listened to the sound of his Shishou bustling and doing things, his hand subconsciously on his shoulders. Reigen made a move to the couch with a blanket bundled in one arm and a mug of hot chocolate in the other. He gave the blanket to Mob, it was soft and flower-patterned, and set the hot chocolate on the table.
"You can rest up first, maybe take a nap. We don't have any more clients today, so I can work on your problem undisturbed. You don't have to do anything. I would like you to learn something, but if you were asleep it would work better."
So Mob did that. He drank the hot chocolate and bundled up right there, silently thanking Reigen.
In a few hours he was shaken awake. He sat up, feeling his shoulders relaxing and his body lighten. Reigen said something about this being free as a job perk while putting away the blanket and rinsing the mug. Mob gathered his stuff to leave.
"Oh," added Reigen, "After this, please make sure to rest enough and to not take yourself too far. The... spirit got you because of that. You're lucky you're my student, or in a week you'd be feeling elephants balancing on your two shoulders. Maybe you could take a day off muscle training."
"Thank you, Shishou."
"No problem."