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“Well this is just great,” Reigen deadpanned. Ritsu hated to agree with him, but the current situation was definitely not a pleasant one. “My pants are gonna get torn by all these darn brambles.”
“I should have gone to look for Serizawa-san instead of Dimple,” the teenager grumbled, crossing his arms and staring into the dead looking forest surrounding them. “At least I wouldn’t have to hear your complaining.”
“Oi, show a little respect to your elders,” Reigen huffed, giving his phone one last shake before giving up and stowing it in his jacket. “Besides, like I was gonna let you just walk off by yourself like that.”
Ritsu bristled. “What, think I can’t handle a stupid jorogumo? I think I’m way stronger than any spider yokai!”
“That’s not what I meant,” Reigen rolled his eyes and started scanning the area that Dimple had disappeared into. “I’m just saying it would be irresponsible for me to leave a kid by himself in the middle of the woods at night. I mean, your parents would kill me.”
Ritsu scowled. “So you just care about how it makes you look, huh.”
Reigen blinked suddenly and turned to Ritsu. “Hey. You…don’t really think that I don’t ca—kid? Where are you going?”
Ritsu stalked off into the woods, hands dug into his hoodie pocket. “I’m gonna go finish the job you were hired to do,” he said. “I’m not just a stupid kid you have to babysit, Reigen-san.”
“Ritsu, I never said—get back here!”
When Reigen finally caught up to Ritsu—damn why were all these teens so much fitter than him?—the boy was standing triumphantly in front of what seemed to be a large white fog obscuring a patch of the forest from view.
“Found it,” he said, putting a hand on his hip and smirking at Reigen. “No thanks to you.”
“Should have just waited for Mob to finish studying for that math test,” Reigen huffed. “Fine. What is it?”
“Uh.” Ritsu faltered. “Well, look. Doesn’t this stuff look like spider-webbing?”
Reigen stepped up and gingerly poked the white mass. It sprung back from his touch with a little twang. Taking both his hands, he pulled at a section of it, but it felt like wrestling with a large itchy sweater.
“Hmm, well that’s no ordinary webbing,” Reigen put a hand to his chin. “A nest, then?”
“Duh. Keep up, old man.” Ritsu pulled his sleeves back a little. “Hanazawa’s pyrokinesis would probably be useful here, but I can definitely handle this.”
“Whoa, you sure about that?” Reigen raised an eyebrow. “Maybe we should—”
Ritsu stiffened. “I said I can do it! Just watch me!”
A bolt of blue, purple, and pink aura soared from his hands and struck the webbing, tearing a large gash in the front. Ritsu grinned triumphantly…and then the gash closed back up as if nothing had happened.
“Wh…huh?” Ritsu blinked. Reigen sighed.
“Okay, so that’s not gonna work.”
“I…no, I just need to find its weak spot,” Ritsu said, walking up and down the space where the white began and ended. “Or maybe I could light a fire…”
Reigen froze. “Ritsu,” he murmured. “Walk over to me. Slowly.”
Ritsu frowned. “What?”
“Ritsu!” Reigen hissed. The teenager glared at him.
“No, I think you owe me a bit more of an explanation than—”
Suddenly, a shadow fell over his face, and Ritsu went silent. Glancing up, he saw a massive white spider with the torso of a human woman looming over him from atop the mass of webbing, giant mandibles clicking menacingly as it stared down at him with eight icy blue eyes.
“Oh.” Ritsu said dumbly.
“Ritsu, get over here!”
The jorogumo pounced, and Ritsu threw up a barrier with a yell. The jorogumo’s legs pierced clean through the energy shield, and it dissolved with a fizzle. As Ritsu tried to process what just happened, he felt Reigen grab his arm and pull him away, just before the jorogumo slashed through his neck.
“Move move move move move!” Reigen broke out into a sprint, and Ritsu faltered before meeting his pace, breathing heavily as the jorogumo thundered after them at a terrifying pace.
“What?!” Ritsu couldn’t believe it. “My barrier—”
“No thinking, just running!” Reigen yelled.
Within seconds—or was it minutes? they broke free from the forest and came up on a cliff. Reigen cursed.
“We have to go back!”
“To the jorogumo?!” Ritsu thrust his arms out. “Are you crazy?!”
“We can’t just jump!” Reigen yelled back. Suddenly, a wad of white gunk flew out of the trees and hit Reigen’s legs, knocking him to the ground and pinning him down. “Augh!”
“Reigen-san!”
The jorogumo scuttled out of the forest, front mandibles bared and emitting a horrible hissing noise. Ritsu dug his heels into the dirt and raised his hands, coating them in aura. A blast of light shot towards the jorogumo, and she cut through it with one of her legs, dissolving it into a shower of sparks.
“Oh no,” Ritsu squeaked.
“Ritsu!” Reigen called as the jorogumo swung around, its wide abdomen knocking into Ritsu and sending him flying…directly over the cliff.
“RITSU!”
Reigen ripped free of the webbing binding him to the ground with a sudden ferocity, running to the edge of the cliff and leaping off as the name tore from his lips.
Ritsu’s mouth was open in a half-scream as Reigen’s arms wrapped around him and tucked him in close. Instinctively he buried his face in the man’s chest, and Reigen squeezed him tight as they fell.
All too suddenly, they hit the dirt with a sickening thud, knocking the wind out of Ritsu’s lungs. Reigen let out a pained grunt as they rolled to a stop, huge gashes torn in the fabric of his suit jacket.
“Ah, geez…” Reigen hissed as Ritsu untangled himself from the man’s arms. “…You okay kid?”
“Why the hell are you asking me that?” Ritsu all but shrieked, dirt shaking out of his hair. “Did you break anything? Is it hard to breathe? How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Mmfine,” Reigen wheezed. “Just need to—ugh, catch my breath…”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not being totally honest,” Ritsu groaned. “I could have caught myself!”
“After that thing dissolved your barrier? I didn’t know if you could count on it kicking in before you hit the ground,” Reigen chuckled, but it sounded pained. Ritsu’s limbs froze as he noticed a trickle of red just beneath the man’s bangs “Look, I didn’t really think, I just moved. Sorry kid.”
“Oh god, you hit your head,” Ritsu groaned. “We need to get out of here and find Serizawa now.”
“I second that,” Reigen muttered, but he made no move to sit up. Ritsu scowled.
“Get up, old man!“
He began to shift Reigen’s shoulder, but the man suddenly let out a strangled yelp, and Ritsu jerked back as if burned.
“Okay,” Reigen hissed. “That…may have been a harder tumble than I thought.”
“Hold still,” Ritsu said, putting his hands out. A faint blue glow surrounded Reigen…but he didn’t move.
“Come on…” Ritsu grit his teeth in concentration and put his hands closer to Reigen. “Come on!”
His aura intensified…and then winked out like a dead flashlight. “FUCK!”
“Language,” Reigen wheezed, but Ritsu didn’t have time to glare at him before a cacophonous roaring echoed across the landscape and the sound of many large legs thundering against the cliff reached their ears.
“Reigen, you have to try to get up!”
“Look, kid…” Reigen bit his lip and exhaled sharply. “You need to go get Serizawa. Go on, I’ll be fine for just a little bit.”
“Liar!” a horrible feeling was bubbling up in Ritsu’s throat, and it came out a spluttering whine as he tried to stuff it down. “Come on, get up!”
A rumbling sound resounded from behind him, and Ritsu spun around, gasping as the jorogumo loomed over him, eight eyes blinking with a dead, empty stare.
“Ritsu, run!” Reigen screamed.
“No!” Ritsu staggered to his feet and threw his arms out between the monster and Reigen. “I’m not leaving you!”
The jorogumo hissed and launched itself forward. Ritsu shut his eyes—
THWACK!
But the pain didn’t come. Snapping his eyes open, Ritsu’s mouth fell open in shock. Reigen was standing in front of him, one fist extended forward and breathing heavily. The jorogumo staggered back, its face considerably more dented-in than it had before.
“Wh…huh?”
“Get away!” Reigen yelled, knees wobbling as he raised his fists. The jorogumo stared at him, looking oddly dazed. “Yeah you heard me, fuck off!”
The jorogumo’s piercing blue eyes darted from Reigen to Ritsu, quivering behind him, and then back again.
And then…it bowed its head, and turned away, climbing back up the cliff. A solid minute passed as Reigen and Ritsu stared after it, dumbfounded.
Reigen blinked. “What just happened?”
Ritsu’s eyes widened and he sucked in a breath of air. “A…a mother…”
Reigen turned to him, fists dropping to his sides. “Sorry, what?”
“She…the big white thing from before.” Ritsu murmured. “That must have been where she was storing her eggs. She thought we were trying to hurt them, but when she saw you just now…”
Reigen’s eyes blinked in recognition. “Protecting the young…she respected that.” He let out a little chuckle. “Huh.”
A tiny involuntary laugh escaped Ritsu’s throat despite himself. “Yeah.”
And then Reigen collapsed backwards onto Ritsu.
“Reigen? Reigen!” Ritsu shifted the man onto his back, shaking his shoulders. No response.
The feeling bubbling up in his throat suddenly came spilling out, and large tears started to spill down Ritsu’s face.
“No! Please…you can’t just…”
“Reigen-san! Ritsu-kun!” Serizawa and Dimple suddenly appeared, the tall esper looking out of breath as he rushed to his boss’s side. “What happened?!”
“Geez, what meat grinder did he fall into?” Dimple grimaced as he took in Reigen’s appearance.
“Can…can we…” Ritsu hiccuped as Serizawa’s purple aura surrounded Reigen. “…Hospital first?”
“Right,” Serizawa nodded. “Let’s get out of here.”
Reigen blinked his eyes open. His head hurt like a bitch, but after a moment he could tell he was sitting up in the backseat of the rental car, Dimple’s gross green glow floating up to his face as they puttered down the road.
“Hey Sleeping Ugly.”
“Oh, you’re awake!”
“Ritsu…?” Reigen murmured, but then he registered a warm pressure on his right. Glancing down, he saw the dark-haired teenager pressed into his side, dozing away despite the frankly absurd amount of bumps in the road they’d passed over.
“Oh.” Reigen sighed. “Thank goodness.”
“You really do care about that brat, huh?” Dimple snickered. Reigen shot him a nasty look.
“Don’t you dare tease him about it, okay? He’s been through enough today.”
“Whoa, okay Mama Bear,” Dimple scoffed, settling down on Reigen’s head. “I’m just saying, you don’t really admit it with him as much as the other anklebiters though.”
“...I guess you’re right.” Reigen murmured, watching the slow rise and fall of Ritsu’s chest. “Maybe if I had, he wouldn’t have run off to try to prove himself.”
“I think that might just be a teenager thing,” Serizawa hummed. “But it couldn’t hurt to give Ritsu-kun a little more attention from time to time.”
“Yeah, kid puts way too much pressure on himself,” Dimple added. Reigen frowned.
“Okay, advice hour is over, my head is hurting.”
“Go on and rest, Reigen-san,” Serizawa said kindly, and Reigen sunk deeper into the car seat with a groan.
Ritsu shifted awkwardly in his sleep, making a little noise of discomfort. Reigen hesitated for a second before lifting his arm and putting it around the boy, gently rubbing his back until he relaxed.
“He’s gonna hate you when he wakes up,” Dimple said fondly.
Reigen let out a long sigh, the ghost of a smile on his face. “Yeah.”