Chapter Text
This, in your own professional opinion, was a very bad idea.
Your chances of getting swindled out of your money were much higher than actually seeing results, but there wasn't anyone else to turn to. Every other so-called "psychic" anywhere near you in Seasoning City had prices so high you were scared that just breathing in their presence would have a fee- not that this guy was cheap. You barely had any time for yourself, let alone to deal with your supernatural issues. Between working a simultaneously dull and stressful office job, taking care of your personal life, and trying to keep just one plant alive, you had no time to worry about spooky sights and things that went bump in the night. That was, until recently.
Frowning, you looked at the open doorway of Spirits and Such Consultation. There were some solid reviews on it, but between some (presumably insane) people claiming to have witnessed a child perform an exorcism and comments on the resident psychic's massage abilities, you felt unsure of how well things would all pan out.
"Excuse me, are you a customer?" a quiet, complaisant voice inquired. You jumped a little, and turned to face a young boy in a local middle school's uniform.
"Y-yes, sorry to get in your way," you murmured. "I don't mean to make you late for a consultation."
Of course a middle schooler would be here. You didn't feel like the adult- lingering near the door of some psychic's (read: scam artist's) office like a scared kid. You could feel your face begin to burn as you shuffled awkwardly to the side, but the boy simply shook his head.
"Oh, no, I work here!" he exclaimed softly, almost a little proud. "Shishou should be available, please come inside."
Oh, great. Not only were you going to ask some hack for help, he had some middle schooler acting as his intern. Not one to be deterred, though, you followed the young boy inside the office. To your surprise, there was nobody there.
The boy seemed confused too. You looked at him for a moment, and silently wondered if he was the child with the power to exorcise spirits. He sure didn't look like he could; if he hadn't spoken to you, you probably wouldn't have even noticed him. He was strikingly unremarkable, a plain-faced boy with a dark bowl cut and soft features. Through his flat expression, you could see a hint of confusion.
"I'm sorry, okyakusama. Shishou is usually here when I get here," he apologized, a faint air of concern seeping into his monotone voice.
"D-don't worry about it! Really, my issue wasn't all that important anyway." Anxiety was creeping into your bones and you were prepping to turn on your heel and out the door. This whole idea was so stupid, anyway.
"Ah, don't go, please!" The boy tensed up, obviously afraid he'd scared off a potential customer. "I-if you aren't in a hurry, can you just wait here? Shishou will probably be back soon..."
For someone so seemingly unemotional, the kid sure had the sweetest pair of puppy dog eyes. You sighed and nodded, settling down into a blue chair that was surprisingly comfortable. The boy leapt into action scurrying around the room preparing some tea, or something like that. The kid was a little shy, and stuttered every time you talked to him, but you found it to be endearing.
"So, what's your name?" you inquired, holding the steaming cup of tea close in your lap.
"Kageyama Shigeo," he said. "I've been working under my shishou since I was very young." When he talked about his master, you could see his face glow a little bit. It made you wonder if he was just gullible or if this person you came to see was actually going to help you.
"Well, Kageyama-kun, since you've worked here so long, do you think you could help me?" You felt the words come out of your mouth before really even thinking about it. He tilted his head a bit, considering the idea, and quietly nodded. You took this as your cue.
"I've had... something following me around since I was a kid. Freaked the hell out of my family and I. We thought it might be the house, and moved several times, but when things kept happening, we started to realize that it was following us. To be more specific, it was following me. It started when I was four or five, maybe. It was just little things then- objects disappearing only to turn up in strange places, fire alarms at school getting tripped when nobody was near them, or even sometimes lightbulbs above my head spontaneously combusting. It was scary at first, but even as the frequency escalated the people around me grew accustomed to it. For the most part, anyhow.
"It was worst in the summer before middle school. We had tried everything- priests, psychics, ghost hunters, seances. You name it, we tried it, and it didn't work. And on top of that, it was getting more violent. Mirrors shattered next to me, things flew across the room constantly. It got to the point that-"
You swallowed hard and tightened your grip on your cup.
"There was this kid who lived on our street that was a pretty mean bully. Everybody knew it, but he didn't really come around and pick on me until the last day of summer. I went out to explore in the little bit of woods near my childhood home by myself, and I was playing near the ravine. He showed up and said he wanted to play a game. It's not like I didn't want to refuse him, but I was too nervous to. Everything was fine until he started acting weird. He started backing me up against the ravine's edge, telling me that I should just fall and get rid of whatever it was that followed me around. That everyone would be happier that way. Slowly, he came closer and closer, but just before he could get close enough to push me off he made this... face. Like he was choking. He yelled at me to make the thing stop and clawed at his neck, begging me to help him. He looked like he was going to cry. I couldn't move, I was so scared, and I started yelling for help.
"Then, he... he started laughing. Told me I was such a gullible idiot. That if I left with whatever creature followed me, nobody would miss me. I remember his face when it happened. He'd picked up a big rock, and started to throw it at me- I assume to knock me over the ravine's edge. He was a big kid. Everything just stopped for a minute. The wind didn't blow, the animals were dead silent, and the kid didn't move a muscle. I remember feeling so angry I wanted to vomit. And then he just... flew across the ravine. Like something had pulled him and flung him into the trees on the other side. When he landed, h-he didn't get up. I didn't move, either.
"Eventually some adults showed up because they'd heard me yelling for help, saw the kid and called an ambulance. He had just been knocked unconcious, was all, but after that he was never the same. He didn't talk. He never looked me in the eyes again. And after that, the spirit never did anything. It was like it just disappeared or something.
"Until recently, that is. It's started happening again. Things are moving around, floating in midair, flying across the room. I haven't had to replace so many goddamn spoons since fifth grade! And I'm scared that- that it'll hurt somebody again. This place is my only hope, now."
Running out of words, you somberly sipped from the tea cup as he looked at you with what you assumed to be sympathy. It was hard to tell, really.
"Well, I don't sense anything right now," he said, "so it hasn't followed you here." It was strange- as he surveyed the office, you felt an energy radiate off him. He had struck you as odd before, but you had blamed it on him just being an odd kid in general. Now, though, you felt this invisible aura around him. You didn't know whether the kid was full of it or not, but some part of you found relief in his actions.
"If it isn't here with me, I wonder where it is..." Guilt seeped into you consciousness as you realized you were relieved that it might be haunting somebody else for the time being. You felt bad for whoever it was- not bad enough to want back whatever had been harassing you, though.
"I've met a lot of people who have been haunted," he said matter-of-factly. "I wouldn't worry too much. Most of the time, it's not anything that can't be taken care of easily. Still, I think we should wait until Shishou comes-"
The door to the office slammed open and you let out a frightened squeak, ducking as a stack of papers off the desk near the far wall came flying towards your head, nearly colliding with you before hitting the wall and flying everywhere. It was still here! Of course it was going to show up when you finally got a break.
"What the hell was that?!" A man with sandy blonde hair and a gray suit was standing in the doorway, a closed container of takoyaki in one hand and the other gripping tightly onto the doorknob. You brightened as you realized the faces on all the posters matched his own- albeit, they were a little less scared.
"S-sorry, that's my, uh... ghost." Well that didn't come out quite right.
"Your...?" The man squinted his eyes before realization washed over him. "O-oh, you must be a customer! I am Reigen Arataka, owner of Spirits and Such! Here, let me make..."
He spied the tea in your hands and his apprentice sitting patiently across from you, and an expression akin to pride (mixed with- what was that? Remorse?) ghosted his face. Quickly, he set his food down and hustled to stand behind his disciple. "So what exactly is the problem?"
The boy began to quietly explain the situation, taking the liberty of cutting the more emotional parts of your story out and leaving it down to the bare details. Or, maybe it just sounded like he did because his voice was so monotone anyways. It was hard to be certain.
Still, afterwards Reigen was making a strange expression. Her story sounds really... familiar, he thought. Just to be sure, I'll check.
You watched him mull over your dilemma in silence, face darkening with concern. It wasn't easy to tell whether he was really thinking or if it was just for show- not because he was especially good at it. No, it was because there was currently a bright green cloud floating directly in front of your face. He looked at you with furrowed brows, purple lips pursed, and bright red cheeks slightly puffed. Clearly something was bothering him, but it wasn't your problem.
"Hey, Dimple!" Reigen called. When the cloud jumped you blinked in surprise. Why was he addressing it? With a name, no less! "Does she have any latent abilities?"
Kageyama still had his eyes focused steadily on you, but you were too busy trying to ignore the fart cloud that was darting all around you, inspecting you carefully. It felt kinda gross.
"Can you see him?" he asked suddenly, and you shifted uncomfortable, unsure of how to respond.
"If you mean the little green spirit, yeah... everybody can. Why are you acknowledging it? Don't you know how dangerous that is?"
"What do you mean, 'everyone can'? Only psychics can see spirits, you know." The spirit, apparently named Dimple, chided.
"Of course you would say that. " You rolled your eyes. "You're a spirit."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" The cloud's face was contorted in defiance.
"I understand why you would interact with spirits, considering your occupation," you began, waving your hand in front of you to clear your vision of the neon green nuisance. "But can't you leave Kageyama-kun out of it? He's still just a kid! Not just acknowledging a spirit, but talking to it with regularity and even calling it by a name is dangerous. Don't rope your disciple into it."
Reigen's face was confused at best, and you sighed and shook your head. Not everyone was well-educated in every subject- maybe that's why this guy became a psychic.
"Who told you all that? If you can see Dimple out of his visible mode, that means you have psychic powers. Spirits don't gain power from interacting with the living or being called by name."
"My grandmother told me that. She was the one who taught me to ignore spirits like everybody else. Everyone can see them, we just ignore them because it's too dangerous to interact with them. Did your parents never teach you?" Reigen's eyes slimmed and he sunk down onto the table. "What is it?"
"Your grandmother was lying." Kageyama said flatly, and you sat up ramrod straight. "Only espers can see the dead. Nobody else can."
No, no, no, she wouldn't have lied to you. Especially not about something as important as that. Right? Right???
"But I... I'm not an esper. I can't even see the demon that's been haunting me. You have it all wrong," you declared, but still your voice faltered.
"This is why I was checking. I don't think you're being haunted, okyakusama. Does your 'ghost' act up more when you're nervous?" Reigen asked. Despite your disbelief, you lowered your chin into your hand and thought about it seriously for a moment.
"Yes."
"How about scared? Angry?"
"...Yes."
"Do spoons bend a lot while you're eating?"
You raised an eyebrow, but at the psychic's serious expression you relented. "Yeah, that's kicked back up again recently."
"Have you always been able to see spirits?" he asked, and you frowned. You hadn't talked about it since you were a kid, and even if you were sitting in a psychic consultation office it still felt uncomfortable.
"Of course."
"Have you ever exercised one?" You shook your head, but paused.
"Sometimes, if a spirit was truly bothering us, my grandmother would take it outside. We weren't allowed to watch her, but after she came back inside the spirit would never come back." Sighing, you knocked back the last of the tea. "She said it was okay for her to deal with the spirit since she was already an old woman. Death was already on her shoulder, she used to say. Such a morbid person."
Reigen nodded sagely, and you could see for some reason he was beginning to perspire. Not a ton, just enough to be noticeable. You were kind of busy having an existential crisis about maybe being an esper, so you didn't pay it too much attention.
"She... she said I would grow out of my ghost. That it was too big for her to scare away and it would eventually get bored and leave. A-and it did! Until recently..." You frowned. Why the hell would she lie to you? Did she not know, either?
"It sounds like she didn't want you to be an esper, and your powers went into remission. Has anything stressful happened recently? Say, around the time you started seeing your paranormal activity spike? Maybe a career change, or a move or something?"
You shook your head again. You'd lived in the same apartment for years, and you'd worked your hellish office job for just as long. Nothing had changed recently, for the most part... wait a minute.
"M-my grandmother. She died recently. It was a long time coming. She was very ill for a number of years following my grandfather's passing, so nobody was too surprised or upset. She even planned her own funeral before she left, to save us the pain. So, I wasn't horribly stressed by it."
"That could have kicked things back into motion. Or, it could have just restarted by chance, these things are complicated and mysterious." Reigen advised. Kageyama was giving him a careful look. Of course his master would be knowledgeable about psychic powers, but he'd never mentioned seeing a situation like this before. So how did he sound so sure?
"Can you try looking through the things she left in her will?" he piped in suddenly, and his master looked back in surprise. That was a good idea, actually. "Or maybe through her old house?"
"No, she lived with my parents for the last few years of her life. They needed help clearing out her things, so I've already sorted through everything she had there. I didn't see anything that could have shed some light on this." Thinking harder, you scratched the back of your neck. Suddenly, an idea popped into your head and your face lit up.
"Ah! She and my grandfather built a cabin up in the mountains when they were very young. We didn't go there after she passed because we assumed that everything she had there she brought back home with her, but recently my parents were informed the cabin and the things in it were left in my name. I've been meaning to go up there, to see why she'd leave it to me of all people, but I haven't yet." You made a fist and tapped it into your open palm. "Maybe something is in there that can tell me the truth!"
Reigen nodded, but he froze. It was difficult to say what he was thinking, before he said, "I'll go up there with you."
Your eyes widened in surprise. "Wha- you don't need to do that."
"I do, though," he replied, looking slightly uneasy himself. "Letting a woman go up into the mountains into an abandoned cabin by herself would be a bad idea. Who knows what homeless people might have taken up shop there in your absence? Bursting in and scaring them would be ill-advised. I'll go with you in case anything happens."
You might not have been appreciative of his tone, but he was telling the truth. The cabin had been left alone for years following the start of your grandmother's illness. While you were sure she would have it locked, there was no security system. They had built it in their youth, and it looked almost exactly like it had back sixty years ago, meaning the deadbolt on the door was the most security there was.
"Alright." You relented and rubbed your temples. "Just- here, put your number in my phone. I'll call you later and we can sort this out then."
He seemed nervous to punch his number into your phone, but did so quickly. When you got it back, you had a new contact. Reigen Arataka.
"I'll be going now. How much should I pay you?" To your shock, Reigen just shook his head.
"Well, I mean, the job isn't over yet, right? We should fix a price later," he explained. "It wouldn't be fair to charge you now."
"Alright- if you insist. Thank you for your help." You bowed deeply, and the psychic smiled anxiously.
"Ah, Mob, you go too," Reigen insisted, ushering you out the door. "I'm not feeling very well. I think I'm going to close the office and head home."
Before you or his disciple could protest, you were out the door. You heard the lock click behind you, and you exchanged a confused look with the boy beside you. Through his flat expression, you could see the worry etched into his soft features.
"Shishou doesn't like to close the office, even when he's sick," Kageyama fretted. "He says that it wouldn't be fair to those who need help."
Translation: He can't afford to close up and lose customers. You held yourself back from rolling your eyes for the kid's sake.
"I'm sure he's okay, I needed to leave anyway," you sighed. "I have a lot to think about now."
As the two of you walked out of the office complex and down the road (you both lived in the same direction), a comfortable silence weighted your shoulders. Occasionally, the student would break the silence to make quiet small talk, which you were happy to indulge him in. You weren't exactly thrilled at the thought of dwelling on what you'd learned today.
Eventually, the two of you went your separate ways, and you meandered down the sidewalk alone. Sooner than you expected, you'd made it back to your apartment, and the second you stepped over the threshold you were overcome with tiredness. The ghost was abnormally quiet as you struggled your shoes off in the genkan and trudged back to your room, collapsing face-down on your bed with a fwump .
"Hey," you called out weakly. "If there's a ghost here now, please do something. Anything."
That night you fell asleep, still in your work clothes and makeup, waiting for a response you knew deep down wouldn't come.
__________
Reigen collapsed onto his couch, using one hand to loosen his tie and the other to run a hand through his hair, which was beginning to stick slightly to his forehead. Not only had his takoyaki gotten cold from dealing with that customer, he didn't even feel like he could stomach any food. He just couldn't stay in the office after you and his disciple had left. Normally he hated closing up shop early, because usually he really couldn't afford to, but there was no way he could have stuck around today. Not like this. Something about that customer was strange and it was giving him awful anxiety- but he didn't know what.
When was the last time he had felt like this, specifically? Anxious was too broad a term; irrationally anxious might fit a little better. So what made him nervous for no reason?
Was it because of her? he pondered. Women, at least in his younger years, could cause some baseless anxiety. Especially the pretty ones.
Maybe it was that. Reigen couldn't remember the last time he'd met a girl his type, especially at work. He got mostly paranoid aunties, spinsters, and kids- none of which he was particularly attracted to. And he hadn't gone out of his way to meet anybody, either. His career as a psychic (and a fake one that took advantage of a 14 year-old boy, at that) kept any potential partners at arm's length. Well, that and his crushingly low self-esteem.
Silently, Reigen wished the two of you had met under other circumstances. If nothing, you appeared to be someone who would make a good friend. You were very pretty, in his opinion, and you seemed amicable. You also seemed very kind; your first reaction to him speaking with Dimple was concern for Mob's wellbeing, even though you hardly knew him. Maybe you were a bit shy, but still, it was endearing.
The more he considered it, though, the less likely it was for that to be the underlying issue. Sure, you were easy on the eyes, but he hadn't had an issue with speaking to attractive female strangers since his teenage years. The nerves had started hitting him after hearing your story, seeing your vulnerability, feeling this intense familiarity...
Reigen groaned, finally just yanking his tie off all together and throwing it onto his bed just a short distance away. And where the hell had the "remission" stuff come from? It wasn't off-brand of him to make shit up, but he didn't say any of that consciously. It wasn't compulsive, either. It felt like the words came out for him. But, trying to focus on how he might have gotten the ideas about remission only worsened his perspiration and nausea.
Fine! I give up, he snapped internally. Sometimes you were just anxious for no reason- right? He would just have to distract himself somehow. Hm... Even if I am nauseous, I should probably still eat something. Going to bed hungry will only make this worse.
With a sigh, he decided he would just cook something. He didn't like cooking, and hardly ever did it. It was time consuming, and Reigen found it near impossible to place all his focus on one task. But at times like this, he was more than eager to find something else to pay attention to. Besides, he didn't think that putting more garbage in his body was gonna make him feel better.
His pantry was near empty, as per usual, but there was a box of pasta. You can put just about anything on pasta and it'll be good, he figured, and set to work cooking it, tossing it with some olive oil and a few vegetables he'd received recently from some very thankful customers in the country.
After heaving out his television set (he kept it stored to save space), changing into comfortable clothes, and popping in the worst B-movie he owned, he was starting to feel a little bit better. Not to mention it was the first time he'd eaten a proper meal in... well, it was better not to think about it.
Normally, Reigen would just leave his dishes strewn about, in true bachelor fashion. Today, though, he found himself scrubbing his cutlery at the sink, simply trying to find something else to do. He was halfway through cleaning his bowl when the memory of forcing you and Mob out of the office sent pinpricks of anxiety over his whole body. You had looked so upset, and Mob's face had departed from his usual sole expression. You had an excuse, seeing as you'd gotten some hard news already, but the two of you looked... worried. Dimple had left just after the two of you, but even he seemed reluctant to go.
Eh, whatever, he thought absently, huffing and resuming the task of moving his pink kitchen sponge in circles over the surface of the bowl. It's probably all in my head.