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“Serizawa what else can you do with psychic powers? Like, besides exorcisms and shit?” Tome waved her hand absently as if to say she had heard enough about spirits and exorcisms to be bored with them already.
I guess the novelty has worn off , Serizawa thought to himself, amused. But maybe he could still impress her a little...
“Did I hit a nerve or something?” Tome plopped her school bag down on the floor (Reigen hated that) and stepped towards where Serizawa sat at his desk.
“No, I don’t mind the question,” he said finally. “It’s just that... hm. I think it’s better to show you rather than just tell you.”
Serizawa stood abruptly and levitated the spoon that was sitting in the empty mug on his desk.
“Hah! What’s with you espers and spoons?”
However, she was quickly moved to silence as Serizawa twisted it expertly and spun it rapidly around his finger before letting it fall with a clatter. He looked around for a moment, considering his next move. Paper could be fun. He pulled out a small stack from a file behind him, raising it up over his head in an accordion fashion, sheet by sheet, and then down onto his desk in a neat pile. He’d tried that trick before; he liked the noise it made. Tome was speechless, a rarity for her. Serizawa was having almost too much fun, and her reaction only egged him on.
He thought about getting bolder, showier. He noticed the broom in the corner. While he was normally the one to take care of tidying up, he didn’t usually use his powers to do so, appreciating the monotony of going through the motions. But why not get a little silly, right? Tome looked absolutely thrilled watching the broom sweep up without anyone laying a finger on it.
Serizawa kept going, surprising himself by how much he was enjoying having an audience. While still working the broom he had the watering can in the opposite corner of the room hoisted up to water the plant. He had been meaning to get to that anyways. It was Reigen’s idea to add some greenery to the office but he was too scatterbrained to remember to take care of it, so it had sort of become one of Serizawa’s unofficial job duties.
Serizawa glanced slyly back at Tome, her mouth still hung open and her eyes wide as saucers. Now this could be really fun. He pointed a finger toward her for added dramatic effect as he lifted her a couple of inches off the ground.
“Ahh, oh my god, wait!” she exclaimed, squirming in midair. Serizawa moved her gently to the nearby chair, a smile sneaking onto his face.
“How about that?”
Gripping the chair tightly with both hands, Tome sputtered something to the affect of “wow” and Serizawa crossed his arms, satisfied. “Well, that was a lot of excitement for one afternoon, huh? How about some tea?” Tome nodded, then let out a little gasp as Serizawa went through all the motions of making it without lifting a finger.
“How many sugars?”
“Ah... two, I guess.” Tome wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead as Serizawa placed the cup of tea on his desk with a flourish.
“Help yourself.”
“Serizawa,” Tome began.
“Are you going to ask me what you really wanted to know now?”
“Well I was going to ask you how I can get powers like yours...”
“You can’t,” he said firmly.
She scowled. “I knew you were going to say that. “ But ,”
“But?” Serizawa raised an eyebrow at her. The devious look in her eyes reminded him a little too much of Reigen when he was mulling over a silly scheme to bring in customers.
“ But I just realized that despite you being too lame to help me activate my latent psychic powers, I can still use this as... an opportunity.”
“An opportunity, huh?”
“How would you feel about taking on a side job, Serizawa?” She stroked her chin thoughtfully.
“I already have a job.”
“Pfft, I bet you hardly make a living working for Reigen! I know he’s a cheap-ass.”
Serizawa couldn’t help but laugh at her bluntness. “I do just fine, Tome.”
“No just hear me out for a second, okay?” She stood up excitedly and pointed a finger at him. “You could be an entertainer!” Serizawa’s confusion must have been reflected in his face because she quickly added “You know, like a clown! Kids’ birthday parties, all that jazz! You could make big bucks entertaining some burnt out parents’ brat and their friends!”
“A clown?”
Tome rolled her eyes. “Not actually a clown, Seri. Don’t get stuck on the clown thing. It’s the concept that matters! The concept ! Like a clown but... less creepy. Just picture it! You, getting booked by some kid’s mom for a party, showing up for an hour or two to do tricks so the parents can down some wine, getting paid, and bam! Easy!”
“And why would I do any of that?”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “I already told you, to make money !”
Serizawa knew to carefully consider his next words, as Tome had an unfortunate knack for twisting them to get her way. “What’s in it for you?” He asked simply. Best to be straightforward with her.
“Wha-What do you mean?” She started to sweat. Her weak efforts to feign innocence were not nearly enough to trick Serizawa.
“Reigen was right, you’re too easy to read.”
“Shut up!” Her face reddened and she stared hard at the floor. “Okay so maybe I was hoping you would let me be... your manager.”
Well, that’s not what he expected.
“Look, my friend from school has a younger brother whose 8th birthday is on Saturday and she told me her mom has been looking all over for some kind of entertainer for the kids and I just saw you do all those cool tricks with your powers and it got me thinking, okay? And even though this is all my idea, I, as your manager, was going to, very generously, only take a 30% cut of whatever you make off of this gig, and all future gigs. Okay? There.”
When Tome got nervous she talked faster than anyone else Serizawa had ever met, so it took him a solid minute or so to fully process this information. Tome continued to stare at the floor like her life depended on it.
“Tome,” he said finally.
She looked up expectantly. “Yes?” she said, in the tone that Serizawa knew well to be the one she uses right as she’s about to convince you to do something you’ll later regret.
“Okay, I’ll do it.”
“YES! THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH! I KNOW YOU’LL THANK ME TOO WHEN WE GET RICH AND-“
“Just this one party. That’s all. And only because this girl is your friend.”
Tome huffed and rolled her eyes. “Seriously?”
Serizawa waited.
“Okay, fine. But I still want 30%.”
“Tome, I’m not going to take any money for this. This is just a favor.”
“Take any money for what?” Reigen asked. Neither of them had noticed him enter from the other room.
“Uh,” Serizawa started, not sure how to explain that he had once again been persuaded by Tome to do something ridiculous.
“It’s nothing, Reigen-san,” Tome said, suspiciously polite, waving her hand as if to shoo him off. “Seri was just showing me some tricks.”
“You’re still not a good liar, Tome. Now come and do this filing for me if you don’t want me to weasel the truth out of you.”
* * *
As they were preparing to close up later that evening, Reigen finally asked him. “So what did she trick you into doing this time?”
“She didn’t trick me,” Serizawa corrected. “I decided to help.”
“With?” Reigen raised an eyebrow expectantly.
“Uh... her friend from school’s younger sibling is having a birthday party on Saturday and... she suggested that they could hire me as entertainment.”
He laughed and leaned against Serizawa’s desk as he organized his homework and put it away in his bag. “I mean you’re funny and all, Serizawa, but to kids? I kind of doubt you’d pique their interest.”
“She said I could entertain them by doing tricks with my powers.”
Reigen cackled this time. “And you agreed to that? Man, you are such a pushover when it comes to Tome!”
“Yeah, kind of,” he admitted. “She’s got a lot of passion.”
“Yeah, too much,” Reigen added, rolling his eyes. “But shit Serizawa, you? Entertaining a bunch of brats at a party? It’s hard to wrap my head around.”
“Well regardless, it’s happening.”
“Ah well, a shame I won’t get to see that train-wreck!”
“Uh-huh.”
Serizawa knew that Reigen was never going to let him live this down, but he didn’t mind. It made him feel good to do something nice for Tome, even if she did have ulterior motives.
“You should definitely take money for this,” Reigen advised when they were about to part ways. “Don’t ever work for free, you know. Take proper advantage of what you were born with! I’d kill to have a talent that’s such an easy money-maker. I mean I have talent of course but I’m not so much an esper as an expert in dealing with spirits.”
Serizawa laughed. “Reigen, you sound exactly like Tome.”
“Actually,” he corrected himself, “ She has started to sound a lot like you. ”
“Hm... my impact.” He flashed a shit-faced grin that Serizawa did his best to ignore.
“She’s a good kid, Reigen.”
“Yeah, I know.”
* * *
Tome arrived outside of Spirits and Such at exactly 12:15, dressed in her favorite jacket, the one that displayed her collection of alien-themed pins and buttons. She had paired that with her NASA baseball cap, so that nobody could possibly mistake her as someone who didn't love outer space. Serizawa liked that Tome was late to just about everything, yet always on time to the things that really mattered to her.
“Serizawa, you’re actually here!” She sounded out of breath, like she’d run the whole way.
“A promise is a promise.”
“Okay well here’s the address, it’s uptown so we’re going to have to go back up the way we came. It really would have been easier if we could’ve just met up at your place, but whatever.”
She had been begging to see Serizawa’s place for weeks now; Reigen’s too. She was convinced that they contained some kind of exciting esper secrets; some magical potion or spell that could somehow bless her with telepathy. She had absolutely no idea how any of it worked. But no one had ever been excited about his powers before, at least not in such an innocent way, and well, it was... kind of nice. So he found himself getting along well with Tome, brashness notwithstanding.
“The next train will leave in about 10 minutes, and it’s a 6 minute walk from here, so we should probably get going.”
“How do you know where everything is? Is that some other power of yours?”
Serizawa laughed heartily and waved his phone in front of her. “Only the power of technology.”
“Ugh, lame.”
* * *
It was strange being in the residential part of town without the excuse of a spirit to deal with, but Serizawa supposes this still counted as a work obligation. Kind of. Technically Tome was a coworker and he made a promise to her, and keeping that promise was in the best interests of keeping up the morale at Spirits and Such. But still, he felt... out of place.
Regardless, Tome’s friend’s mother seemed friendly enough. She greeted him warmly and offered him snacks and a beverage of his choice while he awaited the moment he was to make his entrance. He and Tome had been instructed to sit inconspicuously in the kitchen for the time being. The weather was perfect and the kids were all outside playing. Serizawa was supposed to make them his captive audience after the cake. Tome kept asking Serizawa to tell her everything he planned on doing as part of his act. A magic act, they were calling it. That sounded silly to him, but easier than explaining his powers. Tome was smarter than a lot of people gave her credit for; she had really thought this through.
“Did you bring the marbles?” she whispered, like it was some big secret.
“Yes.”
“Are you sure that’s going to be enough to wow them?”
“I was able to wow you with a broom.”
She scowled, but apparently had no comeback.
* * *
He shouldn’t feel so nervous, Tome scolded him. His audience was a bunch of elementary aged kids ogling him while picking their noses. And he agreed, it was a foolish feeling to have. But if he was being honest, it wasn’t the kids that made him nervous. It was the nicely kept yard that reminded him of his childhood. It was the adults; the parents and their stares. That’s what unnerved him. But he took a deep breath, felt the sun on his face, and went for it.
“Okay kiddos, are you ready to see some magic?”
His voice sounded strange to his own ears. There were some whoops and claps and stares. Tome gave him a thumbs up from the sidelines. Okay, time to get down to business. He pulled a marble out of the drawstring bag, the most colorful of the bunch. He held it up in front of everyone. “You’ve all seen one of these before, right?”
“Yes!” they replied en masse.
“Well have you ever seen one float ?”
The kids gasped in unison as he stretched his hand out, the marble now hovering just above his palm before his captive audience. Okay, this was actually going rather well. Keep it up, you’re doing great , he assured himself. He pulled another marble out of the bag, and then another, until he had both hands outstretched and upturned, one shiny marble hovering above each fingertip. His movements were careful and precise, using only the amount of power he absolutely needed. It occurred to him that he hadn’t been worrying about control at all lately. When had that stopped? He couldn’t pinpoint a particular moment. He just felt it now, deep within himself - a sense of security.
The children hollered and screeched. Serizawa felt a fluttering sensation in his gut that registered as... joy. How often, as a kid himself, he had imagined would happen if he were to show a classmate his powers. How he had convinced himself they would be horrified and disturbed by his power the same way he had been, so much so that he condemned himself to a lifetime in his bedroom. But the exact opposite was the case here in this backyard on this warm and breezy afternoon. Sure, they just thought it was some kind of magic trick and not actual psychic powers. But if it makes him feel good to perform for them, who cares what they think is happening? He didn’t need the validation anymore, about who he is, and what he is or isn’t capable of. So it didn’t make a difference, he realized, whether they thought this was psychic powers or magic or a trick of the light. He was still Serizawa. He was still just... a person. A real person. And that felt good.
Serizawa didn’t let on with Tome, but he actually hadn’t really planned his act out. He was kind of totally winging it. And it was... working? Every new trick he did, the kids seemed to love. Genuine happiness was bubbling up from somewhere deep within him. Had those feelings been trapped there since childhood, just waiting for him to actually let himself go? Right before his final trick, he caught Tome’s eye from where she stood off to the side. She grinned and gave him a double thumbs up this time.
The final trick was planned. It really wasn’t anything too special but both Serizawa and Tome thought it looked so cool. It involved Serizawa taking all the marbles into his palm and using his powers to spin them in a circular motion, faster and faster until they formed something of a miniature hurricane in his hand. The best part was the end, when Serizawa would make the cyclone spread wider and wider, until his own body became the eye, the center of it all. And then with a theatrical flourish, he let them fall softly to the grass below. The kids couldn’t contain their excitement by this point. They screamed, clapped, and jumped up and down. When it was all over, the mom who was hosting had each child line up, shake Serizawa’s hand, and thank him for showing them some of his magic. One of the kids even hugged him. That was entirely unexpected, but incredibly heartwarming.
* * *
“You were SO GREAT out there! You were incredible! You were so cool, Seri!” Tome gushed the entire train ride back. Serizawa hardly knew what to say, but he found himself incredibly glad he had said yes to her.
“Thank you for this, Tome,” he said softly.
“No, no, my good sir, thank YOU!” She did a small bow in her seat and Serizawa laughed. He seemed to laugh so much with Tome. She had no idea to what extent Serizawa truly was thankful for this experience, or what it really meant to him. But that was fine. Serizawa was the only one who needed to know, and he smiled to himself as he stared out the window, watching the scenery blur past on the evening train to downtown Seasoning City.