Chapter Text
Watch your step, Mob,” Reigen said. “My liability insurance only covers so much.” It was easier for them to joke about such things now that all of Reigen’s big secrets were out in the open. With no pretense to uphold, it was easier somehow.
"I'll keep that in mind, Shishou.” Not that there weren’t still a few hang-ups, Mob was still in middle school after all.
Reigen shook his head, choosing his steps carefully as they descended down the rickety metal scaffolding. “You don’t have to—”
“I know.” That was the end of that discussion as far as Mob was concerned. They had other things to worry about, like not tumbling down into the pit and smearing into red paste at the bottom.
The quarry at midday was not exactly picturesque. Variegated flat sheets of stone carved out of the living mountain formed jagged steps only suitable for giants. Metal scaffolding conveyed men down to their work: ripping ancient rock out of the earth to be sold for landscaping or architecture.
Spirits and Such was there to save the workmen from a mysterious ailment. It seemed that once the crew had dug down to a certain level, people started getting listless, their affect flattening to nothingness. They were useless as workers and sending them away didn’t make anything better. At home they would sit around like zombies and stopped talking to their loved ones. The higher ups had been inundated with distressed phone calls from spouses or parents.
“You’d have the biggest, loudest, most boisterous guys go down there and they’d come up all quiet,” the foreman had told Reigen. “Like everything important had been sucked out of them.” It had become enough of a problem for the company to pay an outside consultant.
Reigen would have come with Serizawa but the older man had a test he could not miss. When Reigen had talked to Mob, the middle schooler had agreed to step in. As Mob had put it, “I can’t look at another math problem” and “I don’t think you should push this appointment off. A delay might mean someone else gets hurt.”
So, Reigen had rented a car and picked up Mob up from his house. Ritsu had glared at them from the front porch. Despite everything they had all gone through, Ritsu still pretended not to trust Reigen. “He’d better not be late for dinner,” Ritsu had threatened.
Reigen had waved off his concern. “That’s Mob’s choice,” he had said before they drove off. It was Mob’s summer vacation, if he wanted to spend a day hanging out with his old mentor than it was his business.
Their footsteps clanged against the metal stairwell. “How deep does this stupid thing go?” Reigen complained. They had been climbing down for forever.
Mob was behind his former teacher so when he shrugged Reigen couldn’t see it. At least the worksite was deserted so no one could witness Reigen’s complaining.
“Why is no one here?” Mob asked after a while.
“I told the foreman our exorcisms could get a little ‘explosive’ so it was better to keep it clear of people,” Reigen said. That was an understatement. “You feel anything yet?”
“There’s a presence,” Mob said, gripping the handrail, “but it’s faint.” He was getting a little tired, this was a long way down. They might need a break before starting the exorcism proper.
Finally, Reigen stepped off the stairs, eager to be on regular ground. He let out an annoyed puff of air. “Okay,” he said, taking charge again. “The guys who got sick were operating the machines down here.”
Massive yellow and black mechanical beasts lurked in this part of the quarry. Piles of white, chalky dust from the excavation crowded into the corners of the pit. Along one side, was an expanse of water. On a hot day like this one, Mob was almost tempted to dip his feet in, despite how dirty it looked.
Mob found himself drawn to the machines. They were blunt instruments of controlled chaos, designed to carve the valuable stone out of its surrounding dirt. On another day, Mob might have wanted to see them in action. As he got older, he found he had a growing interest in how things were made. In the quiet of the quarry, he heard the sound of liquid dripping and then a strange ringing tone.
“Shishou?” Mob asked, “do you hear that?”
Reigen paused in his inspection of the wall and tilted his head. He listened. “It’s almost like water leaking somewhere, but it’s not a regular drip.”
Underneath a behemoth of a hauler was a pool of black liquid. It coated the treads of the tires, mixing with the ever-present white dust. Maybe something was wrong with the machine. It was singing to him. Mob walked toward it.
“Mob?” Reigen called, “where are you going?”
“There’s something off,” Mob said. His feet carried him closer and closer to the hauler. There it was, that ringing he had heard earlier. It grew more intense as he approached. The black ooze shimmered in the daylight, iridescent, and unknowable. His ears filled with noise, a buzzing ringing sound that drowned out everything.
The ooze bubbled on the ground, squeezing out from the crevices of the hauler. It smelled like nothing. Shouldn’t something like this have an odor? Maybe Mob needed a closer look.
“What are you doing?” Reigen called out, he sounded vaguely alarmed. “That’s oil or grease or something. Don’t touch that, you’ll get it—”
His words were meaningless babble. A distraction from the wonder before Mob, the odorless, shining, impossible, singing thing. How could Reigen understand when he was so far away from it? How could he understand the beauty of this shimmer? How could—
Mob's hand stretched toward the ooze, toward the splendor of this unknown miracle. His finger grazed the surface.
“MOB!”
The boy never heard the scream.