Chapter Text
The sun beamed almost painfully into the wide open room.
Another sweaty, terrifying and sleepless night.
Matsuo groaned, shifting lazily in his bed and glazing his eyes across the room. All his photos and paintings were undisturbed, aside from the one photograph laying face down on the hardwood like it did every night. The esper slid himself to the edge of his bed, stretching with a quiet hitched noise. The floor and the bedframe creaked. He tucked his feet into his slippers and went to assess the rest of the night phenomena.
Every single night, without fail, an odd laundry list of things happened. The first to be noticed would always be this exact framed photograph falling from the wall and clatting on the ground in this spot. Upon picking it up and twirling it around - yep. This photo of everybody back at Scar, all huddled together for a rather awkward looking employee photo. Matsuo was being cut out of frame, only his right side visible in the picture. Granted, the branch representative was completely awful at taking photos. A few of the other ones on the wall were of similarly poor compositional quality. He sighed however, hanging it back up. He'd given up on a glass cover for the frame, seeing as how it always shattered upon impact. The photo was simply placed inside, hastily taped to the frame from behind.
The second thing to be noticed was his spirit capsules strewn out haphazardly across his vanity. Seemingly swatted by a hand and toppling over and into the floor, this one was the most personally annoying to Matsuo. He was a stickler for organization, so seeing his precious creatures knocked about like chess pieces frustrated him. Thankfully still, he'd learned from past mistakes and kept everyone in tightly sealed unbreakable containers. Even if there was a rug beneath the vanity, he wasn't taking any chances with thing's escaping again.
He got all his ducks in a row, slipping his most common spirits into the slots on his belt for use later today, and tucking the rest in a designated cabinet he'd purchased. It had many small little boxes perfect for storage. A lovely find, really. One of the canisters however, he kept on the countertop. He thumbed his finger across the ridge of the lid, popping the top off. A fine ghostly mist poured out like smoke, shifting and materializing into an amorphous blob. The legs sprouted, the wings unfurled, and the gnashing teeth all came to fruition. Matsuo squatted down and rubbed the creature on the head.
"Goooood morning, my sweet little Gum-chan~" he greeted, the spirit rubbing her face lovingly against his palm like a cat would, "You hungry? Let's get you something to eat, hm?"
She squealed in delight, hopping up and fluttering her wings to fly up and rest herself around Matsuo's shoulders. The esper yawned, leaving his room and making his way down the stairs.
The third thing that occurred were ghostly scratches all up and down the banister and edges of the stairs. Matsuo knew better than to use the railing, as he'd rather not be picking out splinters for the next twenty minutes. He's tried to keep up on the damages and fix them as they came, but the job became far too tedious as their numbers only grew exponentially. Besides, they added a nice unearthly charm to the already gothic building.
Gum-chan plapped into the kitchen floor, swishing her tail on the tile in front of her food bowl. Matsuo knew that he spoiled her, basically treating her like a normal animal instead of a hungry evil spirit. He also knew that the other spirits he contained would not be happy with this, and often showed contempt toward Gum-chan when given the physical opportunity. But it was one he just couldn't pass up. She was just so cute. He really loved her to pieces.
The esper cracked open the can of cat food, knocking his fingers on the counter next to him. The spirit took that as her signal, and gently grabbed the bowl in her teeth and carried it over. She had grown rather accustomed to human and animal foods, seeing as how Matsuo wasn't able to get as many spirits as before. He did have a secret reserve of them that acted as special treats for her, however. He scooped the food into the bowl, Gum-chan slapping her little hands on the counter in anticipation. She flitted her wings impatiently.
"I'm doing it, I'm doing it! Be patient!" he gently scolded her, furrowing his face at her. She clapped her teeth together and squawked.
He sighed.
"I know you're hungry! But I can't give you your food if you keep pawing at it like that. I might drop the bowl! That wouldn't be good for anyone, now would it?"
Another awful noise.
"Alright, here!" he huffed, holding the spirit away with one hand and taking the bowl in the other and setting it down. She instantly zoomed over, stuffing her face into the food and going to town. Matsuo chuckled.
"You really are a little beast, hmm." he mused, turning himself back to the counter to prepare himself some food.
The fourth thing he had to keep an eye out for was any foreign objects in his coffee. By some ungodly means, he’d find things that might as well be rocks mixed in among the beans. Not checking would usually bust up his grinder, and he wasn’t about to buy a new one for the third time in months. So, this left him to meticulously pick out one coffee bean at a time and place them into the grinder. He was getting really sick of this thing tormenting him still.
It had been at least a week since Claw was diminished, and things were vaguely returning to normal. Well, aside from the giant vegetable in the middle of the city, of course. He wasn’t too concerned about that, however. His mind lingered on one of the many happenings on that day. That being, of course, the one event he was actually involved in. The unfortunate release and erasure of Pudding-chan, or known to everyone else as Mogami Keiji. For months prior to that, ever since Matsuo had captured what he prized as his most valuable catch, the spirit within proved to be more powerful than his confinement. Even when completely sealed inside the bottle he was being kept in, whispers and night terrors filled Matsuo’s mind. He could only chock this up to revenge at first, but the causation seemed to be a bit deeper than that. Not that Mogami was the most clear individual, so it was all just inferences to him.
That was when all the phenomena started as well, among other minor life hindrances. He wasn’t one to be easily used by a simple spirit, but the former psychic’s power outreached anything he had anticipated. Every night would seem to trap the esper in a new hell, swarming with his worst fears and insecurities. He could barely get any sleep anymore, which was a further hindrance with his freelance work he was doing. Forcing himself to rely on caffeine and sleeping pills, their placebo of working was slipping and the nightmares just kept getting worse. He wished he knew how to stop it, but seeing as how the spirit had seemingly vanished there wasn’t any way to simply exorcize it. He could only pray that whatever he was doing would work, or that he’d soon grow numb to the nightmares, the former of which clearly being the more suitable option.
Or maybe Mogami could just stop. For what reason did he need to be tormented?
Matsuo sighed, having ground his beans and letting them brew in the french press. Maybe he’d try to seek out another solution today. He wasn’t entirely sure what else would work, however. He still was hesitant to get too drastic, so something simple would need to suffice. Maybe he could start drinking tea. He wasn’t the most avid tea drinker, but there were plenty of different flavors made especially for before bed. Or maybe a white noise machine? He knew those were pretty popular for restless people. He could maybe take another supernatural turn and get some talismans to try and ward him off. But again, would that even work since he was technically already gone?
Matsuo pinched the bridge of his nose as he poured his coffee into his cup. He could hear Gum-chan scraping the bottom of the bowl with her teeth as she finished her breakfast. She licked her face like a lizard. Matsuo snorted.
He pulled out the dining room chair after a few minutes, sitting himself down with his coffee and an english muffin topped with butter and jam. He yawned again as he pulled out his phone, taking a sip of his coffee. Not any worthwhile notifications, as usual. Only a few likes on some of tweets, and his daily news feed. He perused through his handful of social medias, huffing air out his nose at the occasional meme. The same old, same old however. His days had become monotonous, seemingly living the same one over and over again with the only changes being clients and his wardrobe choices. He squeezed his eyes shut after a while, setting his phone face down on the table and leaning back, the creak of the old chair echoing through the filled but empty room.
Something needed to give.
In his peripheral vision he spotted Gum-chan again, snapping at the mail slot angrily as the mailman attempted to deliver. Matsuo could hear the man yelp a bit as the spirit’s teeth caught on something other than papers.
“Hey, Gum-chan! Quit that!!” he called over to the creature. She just squeaked in response and tried to stick one of her many arms out the slot, but to no avail.
She grabbed up the various papers and envelopes off the ground and fluttered over to the table, placing them next to his plate. Matsuo grinned, giving her head another pet.
“Good girl.” he hummed, flipping through the mail. A coupon booklet, the power bill, some credit card advertisement, and the morning paper. He tossed aside everything but the paper, liking to look through the news physically at times rather than just on his phone.
He read through as he finished his breakfast, nothing wild catching his eye. There were a few articles about spirit rumors, but knew that other exorcists would be on them quicker than he would. He was about to set the paper down as well, before catching his eye on something seemingly pointless. In the corner of a page rested an advertisement for a florist’s shop that was having a big sale today. He creaked in the chair again, thinking to himself. That was something he hadn’t considered...flowers. He knew some of them had qualities to help with sleep, so maybe if he bought enough of them that could put a new dent in his nightmares. He made up his mind, not having anything better to do that day anyways. Might as well.
The esper's heels clicked on the sidewalk as he made his way downtown, thankfully not living all too far from the strip. He had left most of his spirits at home, which was uncharacteristically unsafe of him. Who knew the kinds of things that could be run into. It's not like a terrorist organization was the be-all-end-all here. Hell, that was basically just Tuesday. But, he did still have his two most prized creatures with him. Gum-chan of course, and his second favorite, Cookie-chan. Two two spirits got along miraculously well, but the same can't really be said towards any of the other beasts. They were finicky and jealous things, Matsuo thought to himself. But maybe that's why he treasured them so. After all, it was a rather rewarding feeling having creatures mangle each other and fight to the death for the sake of favoritism. It was twistingly flattering.
Matsuo paused and double checked his phone, making sure he had the right location. He blinked up, taking just a few more steps and stopping in front of the flower shop. The storefront was loaded head to toe with many varieties of flowers, a little rack of succulents resting off to the side, and a chalkboard sign by the door advertising the aforementioned sale. The heavy aroma of the flora wafted through the open door, almost overpowering him. He was enticed inside.
Matsuo quietly walked around the shop, his eyes catching on hundreds of differently printed petals and a combination of therapeutic scents filling his body. He could honestly live in here, he was surprised he hadn't turned to plants much sooner. God forbid he knew the name of a single one or even what he was looking for, but he found himself a few feet away from one of the store's employees.
"Excuse me, sir. Do you think you could help me out?"
The clerk turned around, a clipboard and pen tucked into their arms. The paper had some extensive chart with words and numbers scrawled all over it. They looked up at the esper, dull grey eyes meeting hazel. They brushed a lock of hair aside with the top of their pen.
"Sure. What d'you need?" they asked, a rather bored and inhospitable tone to their voice. Matsuo brushed it off.
"Well, I've been having trouble sleeping. I know some plants have properties to help with that, so I was looking to pick something out like that." he explained sloppily, the clerk's eyes glancing down at their clipboard and over to a different section of the store.
"Mm. Yeah. Follow me, I'll show you the lavender." they sighed, making their way over as the esper followed. He couldn't shake the feeling however that this person was oddly familiar. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he had sworn he'd seen those same grey eyes before. It could always be his imagination, or even an insomniatically induced farce. He furrowed his brow.
The clerk took him over to a rack of soft purple flowers, sharing the same color as their hair. They tapped their pen on the plastic pot the plant sat in.
"Lavender's the best for sleep. Helps lower your heart rate and stress levels. I suggest putting it on a nightstand by your bed or a nearby window sill." they droned, rubbing their eyes a bit, "Did you need anything else?"
Matsuo squinted at the person.
"Well - yes, but do pardon me. It's unrelated. I just...can't shake the feeling I've seen you somewhere. Do I know you - ?"
The clerk squinted back.
"... I dunno, do you?"
"What's your name, if I may ask?"
"Minegishi."
Matsuo pressed his fingers to his lips in thought.
"Minegishi, Minegishi… where've I heard that - OH!" he jolted as it clicked into place.
Minegishi was that former member of the Super 5, the plant esper. And unfortunately as well, the other main victim to Mogami's rampage after he had been set loose. He always felt a pang of regret thinking about it, even if Mogami's release wasn't entirely his fault.
"You were that esper that worked under Suzuki. We had a little battle, remember? I'm Matsuo, former Scar member. I was the one with all those lovely evil spirits." he hummed, grinning pridefully at his words. Minegishi huffed.
"Right, a Scar member. I suppose I should have guessed by your….scar." they said with an odd face, drawing a line with their finger down their right eye, "By that logic you were also the one to release that thing, weren't you? Thanks for that." they finished with a bite to their tone.
"Hey, that wasn't my fault-! I pleaded with those bastard espers not to break that bottle, and they did anyway. So blame them, not me." Matsuo retorted, crossing his arms lightly. Minegishi threw up their eyebrows for a minute before glancing back down at their clipboard.
"In all seriousness, I do apologize for that whole debacle. I hope you got out of that mostly unscathed."
Minegishi shrugged.
"I guess a few broken bones and bruising. I'was fine."
"Oh - well, that's good, but I suppose I meant more on the… mental aspect, if you know what I mean." he elaborated, shooting the chlorokinetic a look of genuine concern. Their eyes widened just a touch, before shifting their head slightly to avoid eye contact.
"... I guess I'm fine. I'd be lying if I said I was completely unaffected, though." they said softly, looking like they had more they wanted to share but held their tongue for the time being.
"Mm, you can say that again. That old coot was tormenting me for months it feels like. If I'm being frank, I'm getting these flowers to try and quell my nightmares a bit more. Even if he's gone, there's something still lingering."
Minegishi squeezed their clipboard a touch tighter.
"I mean hey, at this rate we might as well start a support group or something. I'm sure there's another handful of folks this man traumatized. Could be a fun bonding activity." the dark haired esper joked, chuckling a bit with his hand on his hip.
"...I'd like that."
" - Eh?"
His gaze drifted back down, Minegishi's brow furrowed in thought.
"I said…. I'd like that."
Matsuo blinked.
"Oh! I mean, I guess I was just joking - "
"...Oh. Nevermind then."
"Wh-wh-wait-! It doesn't have to be a joke, we can totally make it a reality!" he stammered waving his hands and he offered up the idea again, "I think it could genuinely help some people, you know? I can find a nice quiet and relaxing place, like a café or something, we can talk freely about our issues, offer solutions, the whole shebang! How's that sound, then?"
The lavender fellow peered up at Matsuo for a moment again, darting their eyes away quickly. Eye contact seemed to be a bit troublesome for them.
"...That...sounds great, actually." they hummed, cracking the tiniest of smiles. Joy flooded through Matsuo's body and made him beam as well.
"Well that settles it then. How's about this - I'll make some fliers for around town. Maybe stick a few outside your shop. I'll throw all the details up on there, all clear and concise like. We'll be set."
Minegishi nodded gently, eyeing the lavender plants again. They took a sweeping look around the store, not spotting their manager anywhere. They took the chance to grab the most bloomed looking plant and offer it to the man.
"Alright then. And, here. It's the least I could offer right now." They made one more moment of eye contact, "Hopefully it helps." They drummed their fingers on the plastic pot, the leaves and petals twitching on their stems.
Goodness, getting offered flowers so early in the game? How romantic.
… Wait, what?
Matsuo chuckled nervously, taking the plant in his arms and smiling back.
"Thank you, thank you… And might I add, excellent customer service."
Minegishi scoffed.
"Don't kid yourself. I hate this job. Now scram, before my boss comes back." they ushered, giving Matsuo a light shove with their clipboard.
"Right, right. I'll see you around, Minegishi." he said with a smile, giving a small wave before ducking out of the building.
"See you around...Matsuo."