Chapter Text
Shigeo ‘Mob’ Kageyama woke up to the feeling that something was off. The air felt.. heavier. But he brushed it off, assuming that he must be coming down with a cold or that it was going to rain soon. He had to get ready for school after all. There was no time to be worrying about mysterious feelings. He got up, had breakfast, and rushed out the door. He failed to notice how the tv in the living room displayed nothing but static, or how the radios in the cars outside would only emit garbled noise, or the chatter from his classmates as they complained about their lack of service slowly coming to the revelation that they all had the same problem.
It was after school when he was waiting to meet up with Tome when he first noticed what was going on. He opened his phone to tell her that he had arrived at the agreed upon meeting spot only to find that even though the little indicator on the screen told him he had three bars, none of his messages would go through.
“Mob! There you are,” Tome had suddenly appeared in front of him making Mob look up. “Good to see you!”
“You too, sorry I tried to message you earlier but my phone’s not working”
Tome’s eyes widened “Yours isn't working either?? No way it’s the same with mine and my friends too.”
“Huh, interesting” Mob tucked his phone back into his pocket. Maybe this should have bothered him, but it didn’t. Things had been going smoothly. Why would that change now?
“More like annoying,” Tome huffed, “C’mon let’s just get going already, Reigen’s been talking about you visiting all week. ”
Mob no longer worked for Spirits and Such, having decided to focus his time on other activities, but Tome kept him up to date on whatever they had gotten up to and he still liked to visit occasionally. He didn’t regret leaving, and Reigen had happily (if reluctantly) let him go on his way, but it was still nice to see the place now and again.
Tome had been rambling about something funny that happened at her school when she swung open the door to the small office. Reigen was in his usual place at his desk hunched over his laptop with Serizawa standing behind him with a troubled look on his face. Dimple floated over the both of them and appeared to be in the middle of shooting an insult at Reigen. Mob couldn’t help but enjoy the familiarity of the scene.
“Ah! Mob!” Reigen had noticed he had entered and quickly stood up to beckon him over to the couch. “Please sit! Serizawa make some tea would you? Tell me how you’ve been Mob, it's been far too long.”
Reigen continued to speak at a rapid pace, his hands flying around accentuating whatever he was saying at the moment. Tome spoke just as fast, frequently cutting in with her own observations and digs which Dimple would happily back up. Serizawa had returned with the tea and was happy to listen and offer up a few words when prompted. Mob on the other hand, had barely said anything since he arrived, but was happy just enjoying his friends’ presence. The five of them continued their conversation normally until it quite predictably drifted to what had been on everyone’s minds.
“My laptop hasn’t been working since this morning,” Reigen complained, “How am I supposed to update my website!! I’m going to miss out on important clients.”
“That disgrace to the eyes? It probably scares off more clients than it attracts,” Dimple retorted as he dodged Reigen’s hand trying to swat him away.
“Wait, you've been having tech troubles too?” Tome asked.
Serizawa nodded, “We were trying to figure out what was wrong with it before you and Mob showed up, but uh what do you mean by ‘too’?”
The group quickly realized that none of their devices had been working properly. None of them could send messages, make phone calls, or access the internet. Soon after that they realized this problem was not unique to them either. Each of them admitted that they had noticed everyone around them having issues. It seemed like all of Seasoning City was experiencing the same tech troubles.
“Strange.. I wonder what’s causing it?” Mob wondered aloud.
Reigen dismissed his thought with a wave of his hand, “I wouldn’t worry about it. A bird flew into a cell tower or something. They’ll have it fixed in no time”
But after everyone had said their goodbyes and went home it had not been fixed. Not the next day, or the day after that either. For three whole days Seasoning City was in a complete internet blackout.
Tome was starting to get frustrated. She sat at her desk in Spirits and Such glaring at her phone in a vain attempt to will it to work. She couldn’t talk to her friends, she couldn’t keep up with the latest extraterrestrial sightings, and with all the tvs broken she couldn’t even check the news for updates. She wasn’t the only one irritated, Reigen paced back and forth muttering to himself. With no way to schedule appointments they were completely reliant on random walk-ins, which there had been very little of late.
“What is taking so long!” Reigen suddenly yelled out, breaking the anxious silence of the office.
“I’m sure it won’t be too much longer,” Serizawa replied, trying to reassure Reigen and himself.
“I don’t know about that,” Tome said dejectedly, “my friend Keiko’s cousin’s dad works for a cell tower repair company and she says that they’ve been trying everything and can’t figure out what the problem is.”
Reigen rolled his eyes “Real reliable source you’ve got there Tome.”
“But Reigen this does seem strange doesn’t it?” Serizawa was failing at trying not to worry.
Tome jumped out of her chair now invigorated, “I bet it’s aliens! They’re clogging the airwaves with their hyper advanced technology!”
“That’s ridiculous,” Reigen snorted, “It’s more likely that Claw came back and is hatching some new evil scheme.”
“What alien or Claw get out of doing this though? Wouldn't a spirit make more sense?” Serizawa asked.
Neither Tome or Reigen had a response to that.
“Well.. why don’t we find out then!” Tome announced, “We can get the internet back!”
“We don’t even know if it is anything supernatural,” Reigen reminded her.
“Would you rather go back to walking in circles all day?”
And with that it was settled. The employees of Spirits and Such were going to get to the bottom of Seasoning City’s tech problem.