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"Mob?" Reigen asked.
Shigeo glanced up, and Reigen beamed down in response, his smile bright enough to rival the sun.
He had melted ice cream in one hand, the trails of the sticky liquid pooling in his palm. The sun beamed down pleasantly on the pair. Mob was walking by his side like he usually did when they were on the way to a job.
It was such a lovely day in the park. When was the last time he had come here? Years ago, Mob would reckon.
Shigeo tried to smile back at his teacher but found his face was completely frozen. Something foreign made his features twist up, angry, which was the exact opposite of what he was feeling. With a sudden cold pit of dread pooling in his stomach, he tried to move his foot to step forward. To twitch his fingers.
He couldn't move.
They had stopped walking.
Mob distantly realized that the sky had turned black and red, smoke wafting up from the city, almost reminiscent of the world Mogami had trapped him in. Around the two of them, the park began to shift and morph until it wasn't the pleasant walk it had been earlier, but instead looked like a disaster zone.
The change was jarring and sudden, with the entire atmosphere suddenly losing the carefree happiness and became massive, oppressing. Shigeo could smell blood from somewhere, but couldn't place exactly where it was coming from. The wind ripped through his hair, a wind of his own creation, and he felt his feet leave the ground as it promptly shattered beneath him.
He tried to cry for help, but all he could do was stare helplessly as his power- it had to be his powers, it was always his damned powers- tore apart the park piece by piece.
A bench was twisted midair and sent crashing into a nearby building, the sidewalk suddenly cracked upwards towards the sky as though it could compete with skyscrapers, and the trees were ripped into jagged shards and flung unceremoniously across the city.
Then a building fell, and another and another as the rubble shot up, encased with psychic powers, and into others, creating a deadly domino effect. The crashes of destruction filled the silent air.
In the center of all this destruction was Mob, who tried to scream, tried to beg for help. Also in the center of the hurricane stood his master, with a terrible look of fear and disgust and horror melded into his features. His eyes were blown wide, tears tickling the bottom of his lashes, and he took a terrified step backwards, away from him.
It was the same look Ritsu gave him, all those years ago. Their faces could be overlayed on each other, and they would match perfectly.
"What are you?" Reigen breathed.
Mob wanted to beg for forgiveness, to apologize, but could only watch as the man he knew and loved had his suit jacket and tie flung backwards with the sudden increase of force Mob exuded. He could only watch, helpless, feeling the pressure of wanting to cry build up behind his face but without any of the relief, watching as blood started to gush out of his master's nose. The atmosphere was too oppressive, too strong.
Shigeo watched his hand raise, his horrible powers force his hand up, and with a painfully small and quick burst of energy, Reigen was coated in red.
He was dead.
Shigeo woke up and screamed.
This time was much like the last, taking place in that little park he played in as a kid in the center of Seasoning City. It had been over five years since Mob had been there, so the details were fuzzy. The slides were taller then they ought to be in reality, or maybe he was just shorter than usual.
In the same fashion as his last dream, he was in the center of the destruction. But this time, in the way dreams can convince you of anything, he knew with absolute certainty that he was dying.
Reigen was there again, but the look on his face held none of that horror from before. Instead, his eyes were spilling over with tears, and he kept shouting frantic apologizes, over and over like a psychotic mantra.
Shigeo reached out a hand, one that was far too small to be his, and tried to brush away Reigen's tears. As soon as his hand approached, the energy spilling out from him deleted the force of gravity, and the tears floated away from his face before his fingertips could touch the skin.
"Thank you," Shigeo settled on, voice thick and his throat closing. He knew that this was the last conversation he would have with anyone, ever.
The existential horror that filled him made his fingers numb and his toes cold, swirled in his aura and around him with his powers. He was dying, killing himself slowly, and it was far too late to be saved.
"I'm sorry, Mob," Reigen repeated, voice equally thick. "I'm so sorry, you never even got the chance to grow up. I wanted to be there with you every step of the way. I wanted to get to meet the adult you, the person you were turning into. I wanted to see you walk across the stage to graduate and join more clubs and get a real job."
"I wanted to get to know who you were meant to become!"
Shigeo looked away from his tearful master to the city. Like before, it was being torn to shreds. "…I have to say goodbye," he said quietly. The sky was more black then red this time.
Reigen tried to stifle a sob in his hands, then surprised Mob when he found himself dragged into a hug. The arms encircling him were warm, and suddenly Mob was clinging back.
In the logic dreams follow, Shigeo realized something vital that he had missed. He gazed at the city behind Reigen.
"This is the end of the world, isn't it?"
There was a brief, heartwrenching pause; then he felt Reigen nod into his shoulder.
"…please don't blame yourself, Shishou. This is all my fault."
"No, no no no Mob god, none of this is your fault-" his voice cracked with emotion. "You don't deserve this burden, okay? This isn't your fault."
He had to be lying, Shigeo knew because his powers were the ones that were causing the end of the world.
And although neither of them are religious, Reigen pulls back and looks him dead in the eyes. Around them, the sky starts whistling, like bombs being dropped.
"I'll see you in heaven because this isn't your fault. You deserve to be an angel. You are so good, Mob. You deserve better than this."
Then whatever bombs his powers had created hit the ground, and his vision went white while his ears began to ring.
Then he woke up, sobbing.
"Shishou," Mob started, eyes glued to his lap. "…you are aware of what I'm capable of, right?"
Reigen looked over from his spot at the desk. The office was small enough that they could hold private conversations from their different seats.
"You mean like how you can do telekinesis and have other powers too?"
"In a way… I mean more like how-" he paused, searching for a word that would get his concerns across and not scare Reigen in the way he had in his first dream. "How dangerous my powers could be."
He pinched his fingers together tightly, relishing in the slight pain as his joints protested the pressure. In dreams, you can't feel pain. This was real.
He was in reality.
Why was that thought not comforting?
"I still lose control sometimes, Shishou," he admitted quietly. "And now my powers are even stronger than when I was younger,"
Reigen let out a long sigh, sitting back from his computer. The wheels on the chair skidded loudly across the wood, probably leaving a long scuff mark.
"You're still scared of your powers, Mob? I thought we sort of got beyond that."
Mob paused, ran his lip between his teeth, then said, "Would you be able to stop me if I was going to destroy the world?
The silence in the office made Shigeo's heartbeat burn in his eardrums. He refused to look up from his lap.
A small breath, then, "Why would you want to do that?"
Mob panicked. "I don't want that at all! But… like if I got knocked unconscious again, or maybe I couldn't think straight or got a head injury or maybe-" he cut off his own ramble and clamped his mouth shut.
"…what if I lose control when I die, and I destroy the world or do something terrible?"
Not for the first time, Mob wishes that he didn't have to worry about such a monumentous and monstrous problem. It seemed like there was no right solution to it.
Dream-Reigen's words echoed in his ears.
'What are you?' Spoken with horror, dripping in fear.
"Mob," Reigen said, "You are a good person. You've got a ton of control over your powers, and if it makes you feel any better, I'm sure if the world needed to stop you that all the espers could team up and find a way. It takes a whole lot more than some skinny kid to bring down the whole world, okay?"
He looked up. Reigen's face wasn't one of horror; his eyes were dry. The only expression he wore was a slight concern; scrunched together eyebrows and gentle warm eyes peering down at him.
"…sometimes I wish I didn't have to deal with these powers. I wish I didn't have to be afraid of myself."
"It is a heavy burden, kid," Reigen replied, standing up from his chair. He approached nonchalantly, and Mob clenched his backpack to his chest in a childish desire for protection.
'You don't deserve this burden,' Dream-Regien had said, and at the time that was the most comforting thing he could have been told.
"But, if anyone in this whole damn world can carry it, it's you. And you're not alone in that either, you know? We are all here for you, right next to you. You haven't hurt anyone in years, and your control is getting better day after day. Will you mess up and hurt someone again? Sure, every now and then, but so do normal people without psychic powers. It's just another ability, Mob. Not something to be afraid of. You're a strong kid. You can do it."
Reigen rested a heavy hand on his shoulder and suddenly the visions of twisted trees and bleeding high schoolers vanished, the voice of his teacher's dream self faded. Mob focused on reality.
Reigen looked at him, not crying and not backing away. No desperation, no horror. Just pure concern.
"What's wrong, kid?"
And Shigeo broke down.