Work Text:
“Cut, cut!”
Reigen shuffled to the unmanned tripod and paused the camcorder. He selected the newly recorded footage and restarted it—This week on Spirits and Such Unsolved, we investigate the tsuchinoko as part of our ongoing investigation into the question: Are cryptids real? He grimaced at the screen as the last few minutes replayed themselves.
“The intro here is good, but I think your appearance could be punchier. More exciting! Do you get it, Mob?”
Lying on the forest floor in front of Reigen was a little over five feet of cloth sewn in the shape of a fat snake. The head slowly lifted, revealing Mob’s face on the underside. A leaf was stuck to his cheek. “Master, I can’t move in this costume.”
“Well, the tsuchinoko doesn’t have legs or arms and it moves somehow. This is all about authenticity! Those people online will tear us apart if it doesn’t look like the real thing.” He sighed. “Let’s film the other one first, then. Serizawa?”
Serizawa was standing by a nearby tree, trying to stay out of the shot. He was holding a mask that was made of the same brown fur his body was covered in. “Uh, I’m having problems with my costume as well, Reigen-san…”
Reigen mentally grumbled about the hard work he put into those costumes before addressing the party. “Alright, let’s take a break. I’ll come up with some edits. But we’re not giving up just yet!” He gestured to the car they used to get to their shooting location. “I’ll meet the two of you back here when I’ve come up with something. Until then, just practice your act.”
The Spirits and Such Consultation Office was taking another shot at the online video market, this time with a series of documentary-style videos about cryptids. Cryptids have been popular recently all around the world! Imagine the views we could get if we got some good footage! That was what Reigen had said earlier that week, and after some short prep time, they had set off into the dark woods to try and create some clickable content. They planned to film two episodes of the series that night to create a decent backlog before they started uploading them proper. Naturally, Reigen brought substitute cryptids instead of the real things—after all the youkai hunting that they’ve done in the past, there was no way that there were any real ones left anywhere near Seasoning City. He had insisted that those wouldn’t be any good on camera anyway.
Well, it’s not like the substitutions were doing much better than their wild counterparts. Despite Reigen’s talent for crafting, he wasn’t the greatest at making practical clothing. It was a little hard to act with no limbs and no air holes…
Reigen looked up. He had been absentmindedly walking and ended up deeper into the woods. Figuring this would be as good of a break area as anything else, he plopped down on a conveniently horizontal log. In front of him was what looked like the remnants of a fire pit. Maybe this was someone’s campsite? He noted that whoever decided to hang out here before him had a pretty good idea. It all seemed picturesque, even as it was getting darker. At least the darkness brought out the stars.
Crunch.
Reigen’s face was frozen in fear. Slowly, he turned his head to look at the source of the noise…
Standing behind a tree was a tall, furry figure.
“Serizawa?” Reigen breathed a sigh of relief, smiling. “I thought you were a murderer. Or a hiker.” He motioned over to the campsite. “Come sit down. I was just about to figure out the solution to our problem. So the costumes didn’t work out as well as we thought, right? But they look too good for us to completely give up on them… not to mention the price of materials… so what if we used the costumes as found evidence? They could have shed their skin or something. So we put it there—”
Reigen suddenly felt something warm and soft next to his side. Serizawa had sat right next to him. He looked down, nervously fiddling with his fingers. Why did he sit so close to him? There was plenty of space, so it wasn’t out of need. The closeness made him feel something, though—something warm, despite the briskness of the air. Indeed, even the air seemed to change…
Wait. Was Serizawa… flirting? It was dark, and the starry sky had a romantic mood, but he wouldn’t do something so bold, right? Well, he did say that he felt more comfortable in dark places, and his confidence was building ever since leaving Claw…
Reigen decided to test the waters with a foolproof yawn-to-cuddle maneuver. Streeeetch… He placed his arm over Serizawa’s shoulder, and… Serizawa didn’t move away.
In fact, he moved closer.
Oh my god. Reigen’s heart was beating at dangerous speeds. He coughed into his fist to break the air. “Serizawa… I, uh…” He looked down at his shoes. “I, uh, really appreciate having you around the office, and… you know, it’s been a hard year, uhm, but getting to know you has really, uh, helped me get through a few things...” He leaned his head onto Serizawa’s shoulder and closed his eyes. “Do you want to go out sometime? Outside of work. As, uh, a d-date—”
“Reigen-san?”
Reigen turned to face the voice.
It was Serizawa, standing by a tree.
Not on the log.
Not under his arm.
Slowly, he turned his head back to creature he had snuggled up next to. Then back to Serizawa. Then back to the creature.
Reigen removed his arm from his campsite companion, excused himself, and ran to the car.
He drove the group back home in silence.