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Shigeo’s least favorite thing about the human world was math. He hated how there could only be one right answer to each problem, how everything was so orderly and consistent. It went completely against his nature. And yet, even though it didn’t matter at all in the long run, he didn’t want to fail his classes, so he slogged through his homework anyway. He wished he’d had an excuse to get started on it late today, but Body Improvement Club was cancelled, and the rest of his work wouldn’t be due until a few days later. Just as he approached the verge of solving the first problem, his phone buzzed. Relieved to have a distraction, he flipped it open.
Suzuki Shou: hey mob wanna hang out or smthn
You: Yes
Suzuki Shou: wow that was fast haha
Suzuki Shou: there’s this hiking trail i heard about on the outskirts of the city
Suzuki Shou: it's really scenic. lots of trees n stuff
Suzuki Shou: i wanna check it out w someone. U interested? ritsu can come too ofc
You: Yes, I am :) I’ll ask Ritsu if he wants to go too
Suzuki Shou: poggers i'll text u the meetup info
Shigeo thought it was a little weird how Shou wanted to hang out in the woods, of all places. He preferred arcades and carnivals: Anything with food, bright lights and opportunities to show off his competitive streak. But he was too excited about the opportunity to ditch geometry for a few hours that he didn’t care. He promptly rushed to Ritsu’s room to tell him the good news.
***
Math was one of Ritsu’s favorite things about the human world. He loved that no matter what the problem was, he could always find the right answer if he thought hard enough. Consistent and straightforward, just like him. So naturally, he was a little upset that Shigeo had interrupted his blissful algebra study session to ask him if he wanted to hang out with Shou, but he didn’t deny the offer. It was his duty to keep an eye on his brother, after all, and he was a little suspicious of Shou’s motives. Usually when he wanted to go to the forest it was so he could practice using his powers without causing property damage.
It was early April, and the sunlight that made it through the branches shone brightly on the trio as they walked along the trail. They were still technically within the city limits, and on certain parts of the trail they could catch glimpses of the highway, but at this hour there wasn’t much traffic. Shou walked a few paces faster than the brothers, barely taking the time to look at his surroundings. “Do you think I’ll see any frogs here?” Shigeo asked no one in particular. He had paused to look at a hollowed out tree stump.
“Probably. I think there’s a small lake nearby,” Ritsu replied anyway. He turned to ask Shou to confirm his guess, but the kid had already rounded a corner. “Try to hurry up, Shigeo.” He really didn’t want to keep his brother from enjoying the trail. The trees’ leaves were varying shades of verdant greens, and flowers were starting to bloom. On the other hand, he didn’t want to lose sight of Shou either. He was usually talkative but now his whole demeanor had shifted to one of silent determination. It was making Ritsu feel a bit uncomfortable -- his instincts were telling him that something about the situation was off.
Eventually, they reached a clearing. The sun was starting to set, but it was still warm outside, enough for Shou to take off his jacket and lay it on a nearby bench. “Ritsu, you’re the god of order, yeah?”
“And consistency.” Ritsu felt like he knew where this was going.
“How exactly does that work?” Shou’s eyes were gleaming with curiosity.
“If I sense a disturbance in the natural order of things, then I fix it. That’s the simplest way of putting it.”
Shou thought for a moment. “Can you give me an example?”
“I guess so?” Ritsu shrugged and looked around. “Let’s see… It's early spring but thanks to global warming it’s already 22℃ out here. I could fix that by lowering the temperature a few degrees.” He focused on the fabric of reality that made up their surroundings. There was a small tear in it, to his left. He raised a hand and let some of his power flow towards it. The tear closed and the temperature dropped to 15℃.
“So you’re basically a walking air conditioner? That’s pretty lame.” A grin spread across Shou’s face.
“Of course not. It’s way more complicated than that.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m just teasing.” Shou said. Ritsu was a little annoyed, but he couldn’t help but smile a bit. The idea of a god of air conditioning was pretty funny.
“Well, what about Mob then?” The esper pointed towards Shigeo, who’d sat down on the bench and was looking at the sky.
Upon hearing his name he snapped out of his reverie. “Me? I was just cloud watching.”
“No, I’m asking how your powers work.”
Shigeo tensed up a little bit. “I… destroy things. You’ve seen it before.”
“Yeah, but it has to be more than that, right? I mean, I can destroy things too.” He picked up a nearby rock and smashed it into pieces with his powers to accentuate his point.
"Yes, but…" Shigeo trailed off, trying to find the best way to explain how his abilities worked.
Ritsu decided to use this moment to interject before things got out of hand. "Shou, don't try to make Mob use his powers. It's not worth it."
Shou raised his hands in defense. "Whoa, I never said I was trying to make him do anything. I just wanted to take a walk with you guys."
"I seem to remember you saying a while ago that you find taking walks boring."
"I didn’t--" Shou ran a hand through his fiery orange hair. "Okay, fine, maybe I didn't tell you guys the whole truth. But curiosity got the best of me, you know? I've always wanted to know what being a god is like, I guess, and you guys seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to find out."
"Curiosity killed the cat." Ritsu retorted. His instincts were blaring in the back of his head now. Something bad, something extremely chaotic was going to happen.
"Yeah, but satisfaction brought it back, remember? Think of it this way," Shou said, turning to Shigeo, "You want to get better at controlling your powers, right?” He spread his arms, gesturing to the large clearing they were in. “Why not practice right now? By showing them off to me?”
“No,” Ritsu said. Shigeo hummed in thought.
“Alright, alright, I get it.” Shou’s defeated tone didn’t match the mischief in his eyes. “Mob, you didn’t say no.”
“Master Reigen says that control is important…” Shigeo said to himself.
“Reigen’s actually telling the truth for once.”
“‘For once?’ What do--”
"You're not listening to us, Shou!” Ritsu interrupted. “Even gods like me can cause problems! People like you are why gods don't--"
"Ritsu. Shou." Shigeo spoke much louder than usual. He stood up. "I do think that there are a lot of risks that come with gods using our powers here. I know that I'm a god of destruction, but even so, I think Shou is right. If I'm going to live on earth as a human, I need to improve my self-control."
"Yes! You get me, Mob!" Shou cried with relief. "Ritsu, your whole job is fixing things. What's the worst that could happen?"
"You could get hurt," Ritsu replied. "Yes, restoring order is my specialty, but when I have a chance to avoid creating chaos in the first place why not take it?"
Shou shrugged. "Because that's boring?"
"Ugh."
"Don't worry, Ritsu." As Shigeo spoke, his aura turned pitch black and his hair began to float. Shou looked excited, but he couldn't see what Ritsu could. A huge rip in reality's fabric, nearly a foot long, was forming behind Shigeo. Ritsu had to admit it was smaller than usual, but he would have preferred if it didn't exist at all. It was too late for him to prevent this now. Now that his brother had made up his mind, all he could do was make sure no one died and clean up the mess afterwards. He created a barrier large enough to encompass the clearing to contain the damage.
"Alright, this is what I'm talking about!" Shou assumed a fighting stance. "Mob, throw something at me. I've been saving up energy for a couple weeks now. I can take it."
Mob slowly held up his hand, fired a small blast of energy, and all hell broke loose. The ground beneath the trio's feet began to ripple and crack, and they had to start floating so they wouldn't lose their balance. The trees around them shattered into pieces like they were made of glass. Shou put up a barrier in the nick of time, but it started to dissolve once the blast hit it. "Holy shit, how did you do that?" He yelled his question over the deafening rumbling of the earth starting to tear itself apart.
"I'm using my divine power this time. It works differently than the weaker power I usually use on earth." Shigeo's voice sounded distorted, like he was speaking from three different places at once.
"This reminds me of when you were fighting my father." Shou said. He assumed a fighting stance. "Check this out. I'm gonna fire all the energy I was saving up, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, he summoned all of the energy he'd stored within himself, aura glowing a brighter orange than ever, and hurled it at Shigeo. It zipped through the air at lightning speed until it was only a few feet away from him, at which point it halted, dropped to the ground like an anvil and crumbled into orange-colored dust.
Ritsu tensed up; Shigeo was starting to completely disregard the laws of psychic powers. This had gone on for far too long. He needed to step in before Shou actually got hurt.
"WHAT?! THAT'S NOT HOW ANYTHING WORKS!" Shou yelled. If he was scared, he had no intention of showing it. He floated closer to get a better look at the dust.
"Shou, get back!" Ritsu pulled Shou back some with his powers, but the redhead resisted him.
"I need to see how he did that!"
"No, you really don't!"
Shou answered Ritsu's demand by slinging a chunk of earth at him. Ritsu reflexively stopped holding Shou back so he could create a barrier. When he realized his mistake, he cursed under his teeth. Shou had reached the remains of his blast now.
"Shou, I think my brother is right." Shigeo chimed in.
The esper ignored him. He stuck out his foot to kick some of the dust around, but Shigeo made the mistake of holding out his hand. His onyx aura reached forward, as if it had a mind of its own, and brushed Shou’s jeans; the denim started to disintegrate. Shou cursed and pulled himself back.
“That’s enough!” Ritsu was going to end this. He stopped holding back and tapped into his divine power. Its pale whitish-yellow aura overtook the blue one he usually exuded while on earth. Unlike his brother, he could use it far more freely without causing any damage. He was going to need it now if it wanted to fix everything as quickly as possible. First, he had to help Shigeo rein his power back in. That was what he struggled with the most -- back in the gods’ realm, he’d had no need to control it, so he was severely out of practice. Ritsu sent a pulse of energy towards him, and after a few moments, his aura reverted back to a blueish-purple and his hair fell over his eyes again. Their surroundings began to calm down. The ground stopped rolling, the floating tree fragments fell, and the tear behind Shigeo sealed itself shut.
Now, he could focus on the details. Still floating, he held out his arms and closed his eyes. It was easier for him to do this step when he could ignore all visual distractions and concentrate on the disturbances in reality that only gods like him and Shigeo could sense. There were so many now. It looked as if the clearing had been put through a shredder, each ethereal tear in it offering glimpses into spaces that even gods rarely ventured into. As Ritsu sealed them one by one, the clearing gradually returned to its original state. If his eyes were open, he would have seen Shou staring at him in amazement.
Even though he’d been aggravated by Shou’s dumb stunt, he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed setting everything right afterwards. Doing exactly what he was created to do calmed him down. He almost wished the process had taken longer -- in only a minute or so, the clearing looked just as peaceful as when they’d first arrived. Ritsu opened his eyes and lowered himself to the ground. The only sign that anything had gone wrong was the looks on Shou and Shigeo’s faces. Shou was looking to the side, his face red with embarrassment, and Shigeo was staring at his shoes more intently than he usually did. “I’m sorry, brother. I should have been more careful.” He looked up when he spoke but he barely met Ritsu’s eyes.
“You don't have to apologize. You didn’t mean for this to happen. Shou, on the other hand…” Ritsu didn’t try to hide the disappointment in his voice. “Shou, haven’t you heard any of the stories about what happens when mortals try to experience gods’ powers firsthand?”
“Yeah, of course I have, but I guess I just thought it wouldn’t happen with you guys? Y’know, because you’re so nice and all?”
Ritsu knelt down to get a better look at Shou’s leg. “You knew you could seriously hurt yourself and you asked my brother to use his powers on you anyway. If you had gotten any closer, he might have shaved part of your leg off. Or worse.”
“Yikes. Would you even be able to fix that?”
“Of course I would. But it would probably be really painful for you. Oh, I missed a spot." Ritsu rubbed his thumb over a hole in Shou's jeans and it sewed itself up. "Good as new."
"Thanks. I'm really sorry." Shou didn't like apologizing. The fact that he was doing it now instead of cracking a crappy joke to try and diffuse the situation made Ritsu think he was being sincere.
Ritsu stood up. "It's fine. Just… please be more careful, okay?”
“Yeah, I will.” Shou smirked. “You know, you kind of sound like my mom.”
That remark earned Shou a light punch on the arm. “Shut up. I take back my forgiveness.”
“Alright, Mom, my lips are sealed.”
“I’m going to smite you.”
“You’re gonna have to catch me first!” Shou went invisible and hightailed it back down the path they’d come from.
“Hey! Get back here!” Ritsu started to run after him, but stopped when he realized Shigeo wasn’t following him. “Come on, Shigeo, he’s getting away.”
“I’ll catch up to you. I still haven’t found any frogs.”
“I-- you’re right. I’ll go ahead.” Ritsu turned and ran after Shou.