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The last few weeks had been relatively peaceful since the fight between Nii-san and Hanazawa. Ritsu was incredibly thankful for it, because having Reigen introduced into their lives, then Dimple and making sure that that idiot wasn’t doing shady shit, and then it was Reigen walking in with manual strangulation marks around his neck, and then Hanazawa Teruki decided to go and make Nii-san explode in a parking lot.
Thankfully, thankfully, things had settled down since then. Sure, Hanazawa still popped up and asked Shige for a fight, but he made sure to set parameters and not knock him unconscious like he did the first time. That was a fucking mess. And so far Shige hadn’t come back with even a scratch on him. So hopefully Hanazawa had learnt his lesson. Maybe he had, but if he really had, then in Ritsu’s humble opinion, he wouldn’t be asking Shige for more fights.
Whatever, Hanazawa’s funeral and all.
Hanazawa had also cut his hair to match the length that Nii-san had accidentally cut it to, ending up around the guy’s ears. Apparently that was his debut haircut or something, Reigen mentioned it next time he walked through the door, and Hanazawa had given the kid a candy like he was a granny or something. Ritsu had wanted to check that it wasn’t drugged or something, but the kid had popped it into his mouth before he could.
Hanazawa had also seen the drawings of Shige and Ritsu and demanded one from Reigen himself. Reigen had gotten away with saying that he didn’t have any other paper to draw on, but Ritsu knew the guy would still hound him for a drawing. Speaking of, Ritsu still had to ask what the hell the colors meant around their own drawings. He knew his aura colors, but he didn’t know what the hell the other colors were.
Whatever.
Right now, Ritsu was on the way to an exorcism of an old building, and Reigen was bouncing alongside him. It was Saturday, and the kid didn’t have to come in today, but he practically insisted on doing so. A little odd, didn’t kids like, want to goof off and be ridiculous with friends? The brat didn’t seem to think so, preferring to hang out with Nii-san and Ritsu himself than hanging out with his own friends.
Speaking of ridiculous.
How Reigen dressed in his downtime was utterly ridiculous. The brat looked fine when you first got a glimpse of him. Some normal jeans and a pink zip-up hoodie. It was his shirt that Ritsu was currently hung up on.
The first weekend that Reigen had come in, he was wearing a plain black tee shirt and his jeans and the hoodie. Nii-san had gently encouraged Reigen to wear what he felt like he could around them, and the next Saturday, Reigen turned up in a black Rilakkuma tee shirt, the pink outline of Rilakkuma laying along his side. Ritsu had rolled his eyes, muttering something along the lines of “doesn’t look too bad.”
Reigen had apparently taken that as a declaration of war. He showed up today in a pastel blue shirt, with Pompomurin blasted across the front.
Ritsu should really know better by now than to challenge Reigen to do something by telling him to not do it. Don’t fight someone? He gets involved. Not a bad sense of style? Show up in something worse than last week. Don’t run towards the exploding Shige? Nope, breaks out of Ritsu’s telekinesis and continue running.
Ritsu still needed to fucking figure out how that last thing happened. He knew he wasn’t the strongest esper around, not when his brother existed. Hanazawa was also a strong esper too, and he wasn’t shy about flaunting those powers either. Ritsu wasn’t exactly crazy strong, or insanely strong like those two were. He was just, strong. Compared to the normal man, Ritsu was incredible.
So Reigen shouldn’t have been able to break the hold that Ritsu had on him. His telekinesis was one of Ritsu’s strongest points, he had worked tirelessly to make it so. His telekinesis was one of his strongest weapons and shields. His grip on items were iron-strong.
And Reigen had broken that hold like water slipping out of a child’s hands.
Ritsu let out a breath, and the kid in question that was causing the headache glanced up at him.
“Something the matter Kageyama-otouto? Your aura is kinda like, annoyed.”
That was an improvement. Reigen wouldn’t tell them what their auras looked like, their emotions painting their auras, beforehand. Shige kept asking though, so it might be bleeding over and that was nice. The kid needed to explain more about his powers anyways. What all could Reigen do, how far could he influence someone else’s emotions? Where did the line end?
“Just annoyed at the world heating up again.” Ritsu waved his hand in the sun’s direction. It wasn’t too high in the sky, but the world was starting to heat up after winter was finally losing the grip it had on the world. Spring was finally setting in. Which meant that allergies were still on the way. Greeaaatt. “Allergies are the worst.”
Reigen nodded, his arms swinging as he skipped. The hoodie strings swayed as his body moved and it almost looked like a conductor’s arms that moved when he was directing an orchestra.
“Allergies are the worst.” Reigen agreed, and they both fell silent again. Ritsu tried to wrack his brain to find something to talk to the kid about, but there wasn’t anything. Nothing really. Shige was the one that really talked to the kid, they really only snipped at each other with quips and ribbed each other over something that happened.
Oh wait.
“So how long have you been drawing?” Ritsu asked, stuffing his hands into his jackets pockets. “Those sketches were rather good.”
“Ah.” Reigen scratched at his cheek with his index finger, and it was such a Nii-san thing to do that Ritsu boggled at it for a few moments. “It’s just a silly hobby. Nothing more.”
There it was again.
It was something that Ritsu was noticing over the weeks that they were interacting. Reigen tended to downplay himself and his abilities. His sketches, which were rather good, was just a simple hobby. His green belt in shaolin kung fu, which was an intensive learning environment, was just something that he was good at. His esper ability, which helped him know things about people in a second, was weak.
Ritsu stared ahead as they stopped at a crosswalk. He racked his brain for what that meant for a kid around Reigen’s age. Shit, how old was he again? He was in middle school at least. Wait, birthday! Did they even know his birthday? Shige would want to know his birthday, definitely.
“I think you’re rather good at your hobby.” Ritsu finally settled on. “You could try and make a career out of it.”
“Like what, drawing manga?” Reigen laughed as the little man turned blue and they crossed the crosswalk. “I don’t think that track is for me, Kageyama-otouto.”
“No, not manga. Maybe just art.” Ritsu felt a little, scratch that, incredibly awkward, trying to encourage Reigen like this. He wasn’t the one to get touchy-feely, he was the little brother that had to make sure that his older brother didn’t explode. And he had already failed this year. “You’re talented.”
Reigen was quiet, but he bumped into Ritsu purposefully as they walked to the building, and Ritsu would take it as a win.
They walked into the building that the client had detailed was the one to exorcize spirits from, and usually, usually normal people couldn’t sense evil spirits like espers could. However, with the sheer number of evil spirits in this building would make anyone’s skin crawl. Ritsu sent a glance to Reigen, who was grimacing slightly. The kid had asked, begged really, to come along to this exorcism because he wanted to learn if he could actually exorcize a spirit.
It would be a good thing to learn, and incredibly important in the long run. If Reigen could, then maybe some weight could be taken from Nii-san and Ritsu’s shoulders. However if he couldn’t, then Reigen would stay permanently at the office and not be on the field. This was a good decision, no matter how the worry twisted and curled up in a ball in his stomach.
His aura curled around himself, the spikes of his aura warning the spirits that he was here to end things, once and for all, for them. His hair lifted, the bangs playing in an unseen wind. For years, he had seen Nii-san’s hair do this in his dreams, and then his own started to do this when he used his own powers. It gave him a sense of security, a sense of power, a sense of responsibility, that he could use esper powers and keep people safe. From spirits, and from his brother.
“Reigen, let your aura out. We’ll find out how they react to it and if you can exorcize them.” Ritsu instructed, his hand lifting and he gathered his aura into a concentrated ball in his palm. “Let’s find a smaller spirit for you to test it on.”
“Aww, too bad we left Dimple at the office.” Reigen giggled as his colorful aura started to seep out of his skin like water through a crack in a surface. Ritsu snorted at the slight against the spirit that was hanging around the offices and annoyed Reigen as much as it did Ritsu. It seemed to respect Shige at best.
“Maybe at a later date you could exorcize him.” Ritsu offered, sending a wave of his psychic energy out and getting rid of a few higher level spirits that Reigen definitely shouldn’t be fighting. Nii-san would be upset if Reigen came back with even so much as a cut, he had been doing so well lately in not being involved in crazy shit.
Reigen danced around the room, leading some of the spirits on a merry chase. He wasn’t using his aura like Ritsu was, but then again, they weren’t exactly sure if the kid could extend it past himself. The only way he could influence emotions was by touching a person, which was powerful in and of itself. But if he could do it without touching someone, that would definitely be an upgrade of sorts. Maybe that could come later, as Reigen used his powers more. And got used to his own damn aura, because hiding it all the time was probably only stunting his powers.
The smaller spirits went after Reigen, while Ritsu dealt with the larger spirits with ease. There was still an incredibly powerful presence in the building though. They had, well, Ritsu had exorcised most of the spirits. It didn’t make sense for something as powerful as what Ritsu was feeling to be hiding. He flicked his fingers and exorcized the smaller spirits that were now out of Reigen’s reach.
“Do you still feel that?” Reigen asked, managing to cut to the point without Ritsu even asking.
“Yeah. Something’s still here.” Ritsu confirmed. “I can’t pinpoint it though, so we’ll have to search the entire building.”
Reigen closed his eyes, tilting his head. His aura swirled around him in an almost whirlpool-like pattern. It was different than Nii-san’s circular, revolving aura of blues, pinks, and purples. Nii-san’s circles were a part of his aura as an entirety, making it almost like an impenetrable shield to break through. Interlocking circles that wouldn’t allow anything in or out. Reigen’s aura in contrast was a whirlpool, Reigen himself being at the center of it.
“Kid, did you hear me?” Ritsu asked. “I don’t want to be here all day, so if we could get a move on, I’d like that.”
“I think it’s on the third floor.” Reigen tilted his head the other way. “Towards the back of the building.”
Ritsu stared.
“How do you know that?”
“You can hide an aura all you want, but you can’t hide your emotions.” Reigen opened his eyes and grinned at Ritsu brightly. “Especially when those same emotions led to you becoming a spirit! Guess this power is good for being a sonar for spirits, huh?”
There it was again. The backhanded comments to himself. Ritsu would have to address that at some point. Not right now. Maybe he would get Nii-san in on it, since Reigen took his words to heart so much. Hell, maybe he could even get Hanazawa in on it. Would that feel like they were ganging up on him? That may feel like they were ganging up on him. Maybe Ritsu would stick to just Nii-san then. And himself. Ah shit, he’d have to bring it up to Reigen-san too, wouldn’t he?
Walking up the flights of stairs to the third floor, Ritsu could tell that the spirit that had been hiding from him was definitely on this floor. Damn, the kid was good. Hiding from emotions wasn’t something that even the unliving could do, huh? It was a good idea to bring Reigen along to this job, otherwise he’d be searching for like an hour at least for this damn spirit.
Opening the door, he saw the spirit that was the source of the energy that he was feeling.
Just a normal looking person. He didn't look like a spirit. In fact, if he wasn’t a spirit, Ritsu definitely wouldn’t have given the guy a second glance if he passed him on the street. His hair was straight and seemingly brushed nicely, his complexion was clear, and his clothes were without tears. If he didn’t have the eerie glow that all spirits seemed to carry with them. Ritsu wondered what Reigen saw through his eyes.
“Hey.” Ritsu greeted, his aura sparking around him. “Ready to pass on?”
The spirit sneered at him, and the eerie glow become hostile. “Are you the ones who got rid of my snacks?”
“You were going to eat the other spirits!?” Reigen asked, almost appalled. Ritsu completely forgot that Dimple had somehow avoided telling Reigen what he was doing around the office now. That was mostly because the kid had gotten his ass beat in a fight with his senpai, but whatever. He had seemed to acclimate to the spirit’s presence well enough in the office.
“Yeah.” The spirit scratched at his neck, leaving angry red marks. “How else do you think we spirits grow in power?”
“Disgusting.” Reigen muttered, and Ritsu agreed, but that could be because they both just disliked Dimple. Not that the kid knew he was insulting Dimple right now.
“Yeah well. You don’t get to tell me what to do. I get to live how I want now.” The spirit snapped, and his hand flew out and Ritsu felt himself flying. That was completely unexpected, most spirits didn’t have telekinesis, and Ritsu wasn’t thinking the spirit could use it.
Wait shit!
Ritsu caught himself with his telekinesis before he could hit the stairs.
He wasn’t beside Reigen anymore!
Making himself lighter, he shot back to where the spirit’s energy was turning into a cesspool. The sight he came back to was one that definitely one that he never wanted to see again. He wanted to never know what could happen if he left Reigen’s side again in a place like this with a spirit like that.
Reigen was being held up by his neck, slammed into the wall. The spirit’s larger hand was encompassing his small neck. Reigen’s face was growing red already, and his aura was reacting to his own emotions, lashing out and trying to fight back, but there wasn’t a way for him to do that. Reigen couldn’t exorcize spirits, and it was a mistake to bring him here. A costly one that would have him groveling at Reigen-san’s feet later for the bruise on her son’s neck later.
Hand out, Ritsu sent his aura forward as fast he could.
Something changed though, before Ritsu’s aura could get there.
Reigen’s aura where his hands were grasping at the larger wrist flashed a pink that he couldn’t really see the true color of, and the spirit stumbled. Reigen broke out of the hold and landed on his feet. Ritsu expected the kid to run, but instead the brat instead decided to wrap his arms around the waist of the spirit.
“JADE BELT SURROUNDS WAIST!” Reigen yelled, twisting his torso and throwing the spirit headfirst into the very wall that it was holding him against. The pink surrounded his arms again, and this time Ritsu could see that it was the same shade as cherry blossoms.
A shriek, sharp and loud, then fading.
And then it was just Reigen standing there. His arms and hands were still in position, the cherry blossom pink coating those points of contact, before he dropped them.
Ritsu stared in awe for a moment, before shaking his head and running forward.
“Reigen! Are you alright!?” He quickly tilted the kid’s chin upward, looking at the marks that the spirit made. They weren’t too bad, just slightly reddening marks on the skin. But they still felt like holes in Ritsu’s heart. He wasn’t a capable guardian to Reigen at all, not when he could get thrown from a fight so easily. He really should have kept his guard up, should have expected the unexpected. He had a ward, he couldn’t get too cocky.
“Kageyama-otouto! Did you see that!?” Reigen pulled away, his arms waving and his hands moving around like whirlpools. “I did! I exorcized it! I did! I can help!”
That thought actually terrified Ritsu now that he thought about it. That spirit had been nothing to sneeze at, at least somewhere between mid-strength and a higher level. And Reigen had exorcized it with a– a– with a throw of all things. Plus there was that new color to his aura that had slipped away when the spirit was gone.
“I did see.” He said, not even hiding his dread in his voice. “How did you do that?”
Reigen had hidden his aura as soon as he possibly could, so he just looked at his hands.
“I– I think I made him accept it?”
“Accept it?” Ritsu echoed.
“Yeah. I kinda forced acceptance into him, trying to make him accept that he wasn’t around anymore and he needed to move on and that, that he probably shouldn’t stay here and–”
Reigen just kept going. He kept going and going and his voice kept getting higher and his hands kept flying around like ocean spray and he barely took a breath to breathe and Ritsu didn’t need Reigen’s power to see what was going on here. He reached out and grabbed the kid’s hands midway through their flight.
“Kid.”
Reigen took a deep breath in, coughing on it. “Yeah?”
“You good?”
Reigen stared at him. As if no one had asked him that before. His mouth dropped a little and then he closed it, blinking at Ritsu as if he didn’t really exist. Did he not understand that his wellbeing came first? Or was that a new concept to him? Or was it because it was Ritsu that he was surprised? That sounded accurate actually, since he wasn’t really connected to Reigen in the way that Shige was. Maybe Ritsu could bribe him into realizing that he at least tolerated his presence?
“Yeah.” Reigen whispered, tugging his hands back and forcefully pushing them into the zip-up hoodie pockets. “I’m fine.”
Ritsu studied him, before nodding and taking a step back.
“That was a good throw kid. Did you learn that at your lessons on Sunday?”
Some light came back to Reigen’s eyes, and the corners of his mouth lifted up He started to bounce back and forth on his feet as they both turned to the exit. Ritsu would send a message to the client later and tell him that the job was done, but first, he needed to ensure that Reigen was actually fine.
“Yeah! That was one of the throws that I just learned! And! And it’s better with a taller opponent because of the weight of the throw! So it was the best throw to use with that spirit, especially since it was floating and didn’t have a lot of weight, so I could really push him into the wall.”
Ritsu nodded along as the boy started chattering, his hand coming out and winding into the extra fabric of Ritsu’s jacket. Did he just want to be near people and connect to them? Just hold onto them?
Ritsu pondered the point of contact as they left the building. Reigen was always near someone or at the most isolated corner of a room. He had stood closer to Ritsu than he needed to when Nii-san was going to fight Hanazawa. And Nii-san mentioned that Reigen often liked to keep a hold of his coat or his sleeve.
Was Reigen touch-starved? He had practically melted into his mom’s hands when she had held his face and studied him when she came to their office the one time. And Ritsu certainly hadn’t heard anything about a dad or siblings. If it was just Reigen and Reigen-san, and she was a working woman, then that didn’t leave much time for Reigen to have contact time with her. Tired hugs maybe, a few brushes of affection here and there. But not a lot.
So Ritsu let the kid hold onto his sleeve as they walked back to the office, nodding at the appropriate times and making hums.
“Maybe I should be allowed to swear without putting money in the swear jar too?” Reigen put forward, obviously trying to see if Ritsu was actually listening or not.
He hummed, thinking it over.
“How about this?” He counteroffered, and Reigen looked up at him in shock. Ha, did he think he could con Ritsu and use him against his brother when he swore during an exorcism? Fat chance. “You exorcize ten spirits, and then you get one swear without putting money in the jar. I’ll even make you a punch card.”
Reigen paused, and then it was like fireworks lit up behind his eyes.
“YEAH!” Ritsu watched in awe and disbelief as the kid ran forward and did an actual fucking cartwheel. “That sounds even better!”
And then he was off babbling again, talking about design and punch cards and what it will look like and how big the card should be and maybe Reigen should get a wallet so he could carry it? Ritsu just stared at him, shaking his head. How in the hell did they survive without this kid beforehand? Nii-san was better than ever, showing small smiles here and there, and his shoulders were relaxed and calm. Ritsu himself wasn’t as concerned as keeping his brother from exploding, because Reigen was there to see the emotions.
Fuck. He was turning into such a sap.
“C’mon.” Ritsu jerked his head to the offices. “Stop being loud in public.”
Reigen ran back to him, grin bright and eyes sparkling. “Do you think we can get mochi tonight?”
Ritsu gave him a scornful look as they climbed up the stairs to the floor that housed the office that Shige was still in with Dimple. “What, do you need more sugar to power your crazy antics or something?”
“Nope! But I did learn how to exorcize spirits! So it could be a celebration!” Reigen shot up in front of him, probably to throw the door open and tell Nii-san all about his new power and that he could go on exorcisms now with them. Ritsu shook his head and followed at a sedate pace, but paused when he saw what Reigen was doing.
Reigen looked up at the sign on the office door, and then carefully eased it open. He looked in the room, at least for a good five to ten seconds, before springing in and yelling for Nii-san. He didn’t close the door, likely expecting Ritsu right behind him. But Ritsu wasn’t right behind him, because he was honestly just frozen on the stairs because of what he had just witnessed.
It had always mystified Ritsu a little, how Reigen was always to keep cool no matter what situation he walked into. But what he just saw revealed everything Ritsu needed to know. Reigen didn’t go into rooms without observing first. He was likely watching the auras, trying to get a feel of the room before he entered them and thinking and calculating what he needed to do, what he needed to say. Ritsu had just seen the mask of Reigen Arataka drop just a little bit as he looked into the office for those five to ten seconds, calculation in those brown eyes as he read auras and deciphered their meanings and his face went through emotions so quickly Ritsu couldn’t even place their names.
Then that mask had settled on happy. Genuine happiness, because it was the one that Ritsu saw outside. That mask dropping while Reigen calculated the room in those seconds, that was a habit, wasn’t it? Something that was so ingrained in him that he probably didn’t even realize that he was doing it anymore.
Ritsu’s hand shook as he balled it into a fist.
Touch-starved. People, adults, checking on him being unexpected. Reading the room and deciding what emotion should be suited best for the current situation.
This wasn’t painting a pretty picture.
But Reigen Yoshiko-san definitely cared for her child. Loved her child. There was no way she didn’t, she had practically made Nii-san plead for them both to hire Reigen. There was no way a mom who didn’t love her child wouldn’t thoroughly vet them like she did. He’s interacted with a handful of abusive parents via their evil spirits, and it was all about control with them. But Reigen-san always gave Reigen freedom. She wasn’t abusive. She couldn’t be.
Reigen would have told them if his mom was abusive, wouldn’t he? And he was so attached to her as well. He loved her and cared for her, like a kid that was raised by–
Ritsu’s fist grew tighter by his side.
Like a kid that was raised by a single mom. Reigen was raised by a single mom. What had the dad done? What had that father done to Reigen Arataka? How badly had he hurt the kid? He clearly wasn’t in his life now, but how badly had Reigen been hurt when he was?
It also could not be the father. Something whispered in Ritsu’s mind, and it sounded like ten-year-old Ritsu. He jolted in place. That was true too.
Kids could be so cruel.
“Ritsu?”
Ritsu didn’t realize his head was bowed. He lifted to look at Dimple, who had a vaguely concerned look on his face.
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“Your aura’s lookin’ a lil,” The evil spirit shrugged, “spikier than normal.”
“I’m fine.” He rolled his shoulders, trying to calm down. “Just thinking about something.”
He couldn’t prove any of his speculations. They were just speculations after all. All the things that Ritsu had noticed, they could be nothing. The could be absolutely nothing, and he could be jumping to conclusions and could end up hurting Reigen more with his assumptions. If only there was a way to confirm those suspicions though, he would at least relax if the kids were crossed off his shit list.
Wait.
He looked back at Dimple.
“I’ve got a job for you.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Dark eyes watch the blond boy reenact movements from his lessons for the man by the desk.
Hanazawa Teruki laughed at his place on the couch at something the kid said, clapping. The kid took a bow, and the man with the bowl-cut hair smiled slightly at the theatrics. That guy had a creepy face, barely showing any expressions.
His aura made up for it though, he had to be pretty powerful with that sort of aura.
The attention back on the kid, he was shaking his head and throwing his hands in all sorts of directions as Hanazawa Teruki tried to give him something. They were arguing about something, and the man with bowl-cut went back to the laptop. The man with spiky bangs walked in then, the green spirit following. The green spirit then hung out around the kid’s shoulder, and the adults started to converse, bringing Reigen Arataka into the conversation every now and then.
They were bored. They had followed spiky hair and Reigen Arataka on their mission, but they had gone into a building and lost sight of the target until they came back out.
Leaning back on their hands, they let out a long sigh.
“Maybe I should wait a little bit? The awakening can’t be too far off. And if it needs a push, well.”
A wicked grin made their face look absolutely devilish.
“Things can be arranged.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Arataka stared at Dimple as he followed him after everyone split up for the day.
“Why are you following me?”
Dimple shrugged his shoulders that he made for the exact reason to shrug at Arataka. “Boss’s orders kid.”
“What can you do against humans?” Arataka groaned as he walked the path home. “You’re practically useless against the ordinary man, you know that?”
Arataka was lucky that there was no one else on the path to his apartment, otherwise someone would look at him like he was insane or something. He was talking to thin air to them after all. But whatever, he was stuck with the fart cloud of an evil spirit until he got home. Getting to the apartment building and buzzing himself in, he walked along the hallway to home and stuck the key in and turned it. Pushing the door open, he sighed as he slipped his shoes off and put on his slippers.
“Okay, I’m home. You can leave now.” He stared at Dimple. Who stared back.
“Sorry kid. I wish I could.”
“Uuugggh. Is it because it’s the weekend and I won’t be back in until Monday afternoon? I don’t go looking for trouble! And it’s been like, a month since something happened!” Arataka whined.
“Three weeks, and yeah. Boss is protective.” Dimple floated around the corner, probably to make himself at nonexistent home.
Arataka decided to make a pitstop at his room, pulling his hoodie off and staring at the fabric. It wasn’t damaged by hitting the wall of that place, thankfully. Nothing a good wash couldn’t fix, and his mom wouldn’t even know. Looking in the mirror that was in his room, and the bruise around his neck that he was expecting wasn’t even there. Just a little redness that he could explain away as a slight sunburn. Mom was a busy woman, she wouldn’t look too closely if she was tired.
Which was all the time nowadays.
Arataka looked at his room. It was pretty sparse, but that was fine. He didn’t need much. And he didn’t want much either! He had television in the living room and he had a few manga to keep him entertained, his schoolbooks and his gakuran in his room. No need for anything else, no need for things that he didn’t need. Without his deadbeat father around to help with the income, then Arataka had to grow up with a lot less than apparently most kids his age did.
That was fine. He was fine with that. He had his schoolbooks, his notebooks for school, and his gakuran in his room. His manga added flavor to his room, and he had his other clothes.
He placed the hoodie in the hamper by his bed, and flopped down on said bed. He hadn’t been expecting to be able to do that today. Forcing cherry-blossom-pink-acceptance onto the spirit had been a last second resort for him. But he had done it, and it had worked. Forcing them to accept their lot in life made them move on.
Arataka extended a hand in front of him, studying the back of it as he extended his fingers, retracted them. Hu just studied the hand. A hand that was still pretty small.
The hand that had helped a spirit move on today.
But did he want to do that? He had exorcized that spirit by forcing feelings onto it. By forcing cherry-blossom-pink-acceptance onto him. Forcing feelings, that’s something that he promised his mom that he never, would never do to someone. But did spirits count in that someone when they were going to hurt someone later?
“Uuuuuggghh!” Arataka dropped his hand down onto his bed, staring at the ceiling.
He was tired. His head hurt. Hanazawa-san wanted to buy him a sketchbook, a really expensive one and he was barely able to talk him out of it. Whatever, Mob-boss had been able to talk him out of it too, and then they had all gone to dinner and Boss had even bought Arataka mochi! Today had been a good day!
He slapped his cheeks twice and sat up.
He needed some water.
Getting up and leaving his room and entering the kitchen, he poured himself a glass of water, finding a note there from his mother. What a surprise, she was working late today too. Which meant that Arataka needed to heat up the leftovers that were in the fridge for dinner. Since it was Saturday, the Kageyama brothers wouldn’t let him work a full day. They cared, for some reason.
“Do you, ah, do you want some tea?”
“Kid. You good?”
Arataka shook his head. The brothers were weird. And he couldn’t use the excuse that they were espers and that made them weird, because Hanazawa-san, or Teru-san as he insisted on being called, was weird, but in a different way. And Shimazaki-senpai was weird in a different way too. The brothers were just– just weird. They acted like they cared, more than friends would. More like an adult that was related to him would.
If Dimple was hanging around until he went back on Monday afternoon, then he would have to bargain and plead with the undead guy to not say a word. He knew that the spirit had more loyalty to the brothers than to Arataka, so he would need to focus on maybe appealing to the spirit.
“So what all did you do as a cult leader?” He called out to Dimple, who appeared by his head as he placed the glass in the sink to be washed later.
“Eh, mostly tried to gain power. Also a lot of paperwork. You wouldn’t believe the amount of paperwork in keeping a cult active kid.” Dimple floated around the room. “But it wasn’t exactly a lot of fun. Mostly tiring to keep that persona up in front of the followers.”
“I bet.” Arataka sighed, going to sit on the couch and pulled the remote for the tv. “You really freaked me out when I first saw everything. Those auras were insane.”
Dimple floated in front of Arataka’s face, blocking the view of the television. He briefly contemplated exorcizing the spirit, but shook the thought from his head. The brothers would wonder where the damn fart cloud would be on Monday afternoon.
“Whaddya want?” Arataka muttered, giving the spirit a glare.
“What the hell kind of psychic are you?” The spirit asked, moving to the side as Arataka swatted at him. “You’re certainly nothing like Shigeo or like Ritsu. Or like Hanazawa. But you’re not a telepath or anything else I’ve ever seen in my time as a spirit.”
“I’m,” Arataka opened his mouth to answer, before closing it and studying the spirit. If the spirit didn’t recognize what he was, then Arataka could use it to his advantage. “Why do you want to know?”
“Eh, could be useful later.” The evil spirit shrugged his nonexistent shoulders.
“How about this.” Arataka’s brain started whirring with possibilities to use this to his advantage. “I’ll tell you, so long as you don’t tell the Kageyamas about what happens at school on Monday.”
Dimple raised his eyebrow at Arataka. Arataka crossed his arms and sat back into the couch, not budging. This wasn’t something he was going to move on. The brothers simply couldn’t know about what happened to Arataka at school. They were way too weird already, if they caught wind of what happened at school, then they would just get weirder. Arataka wasn’t sure that he could handle more weirdness.
“Why?” Dimple asked.
“Could be useful later.” Arataka shot back, keeping his stance clear. He wouldn’t tell Dimple until he promised, and Dimple wouldn’t find out until he promised.
Dimple and he had a bit of a staring contest, not even moving and Arataka didn’t try to watch television. Not until he had gotten that confirmation that Dimple wouldn’t snitch on him. He needed to make sure that no one found out what was happening at school. He couldn’t deal with someone poking their nose into his business.
“Sure kid.” Dimple finally said.
Arataka settled into the couch, and he turned on the television.
“I’ll tell you Monday afternoon when we get to the office. Then that way I can make sure that you’ll hold up your end of the bargain.”
Dimple looked thunderous, but he settled by Arataka’s shoulder, grumbling his acquiescence to the deal. Thank goodness, because Arataka didn’t really have anything more over the green fart. His oh so mysterious power was the only thing he had, but in all honesty it was just a weaker power than normal. That’s why he could hide it so easily.
~~~~~~~~~~
Arataka walked out of his school, rubbing his head and running a hand through his hair. He groaned lightly, scrubbing at his face. He wanted to go to work now. He really wanted to be in a place where he could relax and not have his normal apathetic mask on and be himself and be happy because he was around the people he likes. He wanted to relax around the people he liked.
Dimple floated behind him, before putting on speed to get in front of him.
“Kid. . . . .”
“Remember our promise.” Arataka replied, smacking at his gakuran and trying to get to the stains before they set into the fabric. He shook his head, pulling a comb out. He ran it through his hair, and sighed deeply. “I tell you my power, and then you keep your end of the deal and don’t tell Boss or Kageyama-otouto.”
Dimple’s brows furrowed, and Arataka could see the cerulean-blue-confliction arching around his aura and fighting with the deep-gray-confusion.
“Hey.” Arataka said sharply, glaring at the spirit as he walked the way to the offices. “We had a deal. You keep your end, I’ll keep mine.”
Dimple’s aura finally settled into cherry-blossom-pink-acceptance of the deal. “Fine kid. We got a deal, and I’ll keep our end of it.”
Arataka searched him, but he was being truthful for once, so he relaxed. Pausing on the way, he saw the new shop, and went in with a small smile on his face. The man looked up, blue eyes blinking at Arataka’s appearance in his shop.
“Well hi there! Welcome to my humble lil shop!” The man greeted with a smile, waving his hand and putting his book down. “Ah, you’re from that middle school around the corner, aren’t you?”
“I am, why do you ask?” Arataka was slightly suspicious, but the man’s aura was just peony-pink-curiosity and royal-purple-earnestness.
“Ah, I have a little cousin who’s going to come live with me.” The man scratched at the back of his neck and gave a little laugh. “So he needs a place to go to school.”
“Ah, Salt middle school isn’t really the best.” Arataka deflected, picking up a book. It looked like this bookshop had a bit of everything. Maybe Arataka should get Boss a book on frogs. He seemed to like them, he had asked Arataka if his weekend shirts had a frog figure. And he could get Kageyama-otouto a book on medical stuff. Since he wanted to be a doctor.
“Oh really? That’s a shame.” The man sighed, leaning his head on his chin. Looking closer, Arataka noticed something. He nearly jumped straight through the shop when he noticed it, but he would need to be capable of just walking out to get to work.
This man was an esper. He was keeping his aura really tightly against his skin, like he was trying to be invisible to those who also were espers. Red, pinkish-red, and yellow was kept tight to the skin, and if Arataka had noticed the trick of the light near the guy’s ear, he never would have known. Was he a weak esper too? Like Arataka?
“Do you have another recommendation for a school then?” The man asked as Arataka picked up a book on frogs and a medical book that looked pretty complicated.
“Sorry, I’ve only gone to Salt.” Arataka shrugged, placing the books down on the table that held the register.
“Ah well, I can ask around then.” The man scanned the price tags. “That’ll be one thousand and one hundred yen please.”
Arataka passed the money over, and took the wrapped books and walked out of the store. “Bye! Thank you for the books!”
“Thank you for your patronage! Come again soon!” The man greeted, and as Arataka glanced over his shoulder, he saw the nametag at last.
[Shou] glinted back at him, his family name obscured by the glint of the sunlight. Arataka shook his head, he would figure it out next time he stopped by. And he could get to know another weaker esper, like himself! And maybe he could get Boss to come with him next time! And he could get his frog book next time on his own, and Kageyama-otouto could get his own medical book.
Walking up the stairs, he sent a look to Dimple, who was still beside him.
“Remember our deal.” He reminded the spirit one last time, who rolled his eyes again.
“Yeah yeah kid.” The spirit muttered, before phasing through the door. Arataka opened the door, and observed the brothers inside, and the woman who was with them.
She wasn’t acting like a client. Her light brown hair was held up in a ponytail, and her purse was held on her shoulder as she observed the drawings that Arataka had done and Mob-boss had pinned up. Arataka was still really embarrassed about that, but he was also really happy about it. He was also really happy when Kageyama-otouto had tried to tell him that he was a good artist. His deadbeat father had never encouraged Arataka’s drawing, in fact, he had only torn Arataka’s drawings up.
The encouragement was really weird. The weird that was only reserved for the Kageyamas. Even though Hanazawa-san had already demanded a drawing of himself pinned up as well, with his aura too.
This woman’s base aura was a cream color, with white curling around in the mix. It almost looked like smoke curling around her. Peony-pink-curiosity was in her aura as looked at the drawings, as well as sunset-red-thoughtfulness.
Kageyama-otouto’s aura was his placid spikiness, the blue-purple dancing in a nonexistent wind, and some butter-yellow-calm was also in his aura too.
But it was Boss’s aura that was weird. It had its normal revolving blue-pink-purple, which would always be there Arataka felt, but there was something else there. Something that Arataka only really saw in other middle schoolers his age.
There was saffron-yellow-infatuation in his aura.
Did Boss have a crush on this woman?
“I’m here!” Arataka called, and all heads snap towards him.
“Good to see you, Reigen-kun.” Mob-boss smiled, the saffron-yellow-infatuation fading slightly and yellow-sunshiney-happiness glittering through.
“You’re late.” Kageyama-otouto replied.
“I was getting something for you both!” Arataka defended himself. He then cocked his head and looked at the woman. “Not to be mean ma’am, who are you?”
“I’m Fukami Emi, it’s nice to meet you Reigen-kun.” The woman greeted, her gray-blue eyes matching her smile. That made Arataka’s hackles soothe a little, so he would smile back at the woman.
“Whatcha doin’ here, Fukami-san? You’re not a customer are you? I’ll have to make you tea if you are!” Arataka said with a grin on his face as he put his wrapped books on his desk that Boss and Kageyama-otouto made for him. He would give them the books once the person who he didn’t know left, and then hopefully the brothers would like the books.
“Ah, just wanted to see where Hanazawa-san has been disappearing to all these days.” Fukami-san sighed. “He’s been such a pain recently, disappearing during his free hours when I need to talk to him about his schedule.”
Kageyama-otouto rolled his eyes. “That’s your fault for being his manager Fukami-san.”
“I didn’t ask to be his manager.” Fukami-san shook her head, and then turned back to Arataka. “But I heard that there was a very good artist, and I just needed to see his artwork for myself. And seeing my old classmates was just a bonus!”
Her aura was full of green-sea-wonder, and mint-green-sincerity, so Arataka believed her.
“Thank you.” Arataka bowed his head, his cheeks staining with red thanks to the praise. “If I had a spare piece of paper, I would draw you as well.”
Mob-boss opened a drawer in his desk, and pulled something out. His aura now had goldenrod-yellow-satisfaction and navy-blue-awkwardness as he approached Arataka and held something out to him. “Good thing I bought these over the weekend then, right?”
The paper bag crinkled, and Arataka pulled out a spiralbound sketchbook and some artist pencils and some erasers.
Arataka felt his cheeks heating up. Had Mob-boss gone out of his way to buy Arataka something that he could use for his silly little hobby? That made him really happy and really embarrassed at the same time. He was so glad that they couldn’t see his aura and his emotions like he could see theirs.
“Well, I can draw you now!” Arataka quickly deflected, smiling again. “Thank you Boss, for your fortuitous purchases!”
Kageyama-otouto was watching him though. Ocean-blue-concern was flicking through his aura, and carbon-gray-calculation flickered through his aura. What the hell? What was Kageyama-otouto’s deal? He would try to figure that out later, he would figure out a lot later.
“Do you want me to pose?” Fukami-san asked, sitting down at one of the couches that they had in the offices.
“Nope! Just be natural, and I’ll do the rest, promise.” Arataka said, breaking the pencil case open and making a few marks on the first paper to test the graphite. Nice and smooth, and a lovely gray. He liked it! A lot. This was way better than his writing pencils.
Neon-green-blue appeared in his peripheral, Dimple by his shoulder as he started sketching out Fukami-san’s base shapes.
“I upheld my end brat. What about you? What’s your power?” The evil spirit sneered, floating around Arataka’s head. He wanted to ignore the spirit, but he also knew that if he did, then the idiot spirit would break their rule.
“Empathy.” Arataka replied quietly as he started to fill in the details carefully. “I’m capable of reading a room and the emotions in it, and emotions of people. And recently spirits. I can exorcize spirits now, and you better watch out now.”
Dimple didn’t respond. He stayed quiet. He didn’t try to snipe back at Arataka, and it made the boy look at the evil spirit that was hanging around him.
Dimple’s aura was baby-blue-surprise, neon-yellow-panic, and purple-black-horror.
“What? What’s wrong?” Arataka asked the spirit, and it immediately zipped away to be by Boss’s side, farther away from Arataka. Boss raised his eyebrows at Arataka, and Arataka just shrugged his shoulders and went back to drawing. Fukami-san was relatively easy to draw, her hair a little lighter than either of the brothers, so he could convey that through not making it her hair as dark as the strokes that he used with the brothers.
In what seemed like no time at all, his sketch was over, and he stood, crossing over to Fukami-san and holding the paper to her.
She took it, her smoky cream-white aura full of peony-pink-curiosity, and then immediately full of yellow-sunshiney-happiness. His sketch of her had been with Fukami-san looking towards Boss, her face lifted in a relaxed smile and her hand lifted up and extended to the man, her legs crossed at the knee and her purse leaning against her body. He had colored in the cream part of her aura, sectioning off the white parts, and also colored in the sunset-red-thoughtfulness and sunset-yellow-playfulness curling through her aura.
“Oh! This is cute, I never thought about adding these colors.” She traced the colors.
“Actually, that’s what Reigen-kun sees. He’s an esper as well.” Boss broke in, his fingers stop their typing and coming to look at the sketch. Her aura flashed with baby-blue-surprise, and ice-cold-blue-shock when she learned that Arataka was an esper. Why was everyone so surprised, he didn’t flaunt it, so what?
“You are? No wonder Hanazawa-san wants you to draw him.” She grinned at him.
“And I drew you first! We should hang it up right where he’ll see it when he visits next time!” Arataka laughed, sitting back down on his seat and spinning. Boss walked to the corkboard and put the drawing of Fukami-san near his own. The saffron-yellow-infatuation was back in his aura, and then he jumped in place and looked at Arataka.
Arataka looked back at him, and then grinned. He waggled his fingers, giggling lightly and trying not outright laugh at the light shade of lime-green-fear in Boss’s aura. He would just keep this to himself, he told himself as motioned that his lips were zipped and Boss relaxed.
Not a long while later, Fukami-san had left and Dimple was still avoiding Arataka like he had a plague or something. Not like it mattered since the idiot was a spirit and all that, but it was fine. Plus, Arataka didn’t really like the guy either! So it was a double win that he was avoiding him! Ha ha, score for one Reigen Arataka!
A few clients that weren’t on the schedule trickled in, but currently the office was during its “walk-in” hours, so he just penciled them into the agenda and made them tea and balanced their emotions before handing them off to a Kageyama brother, usually Kageyama-otouto, who was searching for an escape from paperwork. Man, they better be grateful that Arataka was here to note everything down and make his own paperwork for the jobs, otherwise they could forget it all.
Finally, it was time to close, and Kageyama-otouto stretched and then splayed across his desk like he was a damn cat trying to take all the space in a sunbeam.
“Okay brat, what’s in the bag?” Kageyama-otouto squinted at him, and Arataka launched to his feet, practically vibrating as he grabbed the paper bags with wrapped books in it. Rustling through it, he handed Boss his and then Kageyama-otouto his, and stepped back to watch. Dimple was still keeping his distance, especially evident when Arataka had stepped closer to give Mob-boss his book.
Mob-boss’s aura exploded into yellow-sunshiney-happiness and fuchsia-thankfulness as he flipped through the pages, and a small smile lifted his lips. Good call with the frog book then. Arataka turned to look at Kageyama-otouto, who was flipping through the medical book. Sunset-red-thoughtfulness and peacock-contentedness colored that aura as he flipped through the pages, pausing to read something on the page, and then continued to flip through it.
“Thank you, Reigen-kun.” Boss said, and Arataka turned to him, a grin on his face as he held up a peace sign.
“It’s no problem Boss! There’s a new bookstore on the way here from my school, so I stopped in today to give it patronage. That’s why I was late, the guy has a cousin or something coming in around my age and was asking about Salt middle school.” Arataka explained, his hands moving in a whirlpool-like motion as he remembered his own actions a few hours ago.
Boss nodded, mind somewhere else and his gaze looking in the distance. His aura changed to gray-stone-determination and he reached down to pull out another drawer.
“Speaking of you coming in late again.” He started, and Arataka wilted. He knew he needed to stop doing that, but sometimes it really wasn’t his fault! He got held up by stopping his senpai from dominating the school or other things. That wasn’t his fault!
“Your mother and I talked, and we thought it would be best that you have this, since you don’t have one and that could be a problem in the future.” Boss pulled out a black flip phone and held it out to Arataka.
Arataka stared.
What? Huh? No way. Mom totally didn’t want him having a phone because– because of his deadbeat father. There was no way that she had agreed to let him have one. No possible way, she was way too protective to let him have one.
“We already got it set up.” Kageyama-otouto said from behind him, and that made everything make sense.
If it was in the Kageyamas names, then it wasn’t in Mom’s. And his deadbeat father couldn’t find it then. Because why would Reigen Yoshiko and Reigen Arataka be associating with the Kageyamas, with psychics? Well, if the man was smart and thought about it, he would know. But he wasn’t, so Arataka slowly, slowly reached out and took the black flip phone from Boss and held it close.
“It’s mine?” He found himself asking.
“All yours. We just hope this to be a mere safety net though.” Boss nodded.
“And to tell us when you’re going to be late.” Kageyama-otouto needled, a piece of levitated eraser bopping him on the shoulder lightly, and it was so gentle and it was Kageyama-otouto. It wasn’t bullying and he knew it wasn’t. So Arataka smiled and grinned and flipped the phone open to study exactly what his new phone could do.
~~~~~~~~~~
A long, weary sigh.
That Reigen Arataka brat seemed to have gotten a second wind. They would be keeping an eye on him for a while it seemed.
Whatever, he hadn’t awakened yet, so he wouldn’t notice them. And if he did, what exactly was he going to be doing? He couldn’t fight back, and he couldn’t tell his mom. She was such a busy woman after all. And he only saw those espers during the afternoons, so he wouldn’t be able to do much there. And that spirit that hung around wasn’t so powerful either. So Reigen Arataka didn’t have much of a support system.
They grinned and swung their legs as they hung over the side of the building.
Surveillance was a boring job, but maybe the antics that the kid would entertain them.
Besides, ending the hunt too early would be even more boring.
~~~~~~~~~~
Shigeo shut the door behind him, and Ritsu was turning and pinning Dimple with a look.
“Okay, spill.”
“Spill what? There’s nothing to spill?” The spirit tried to phase through the wall, Shigeo put up a barrier to stop him, hand extended. Even though he was rather dense and didn’t get social cues, he had noticed it. Reigen-kun had said something, or done something, and Dimple was avoiding him.
“What do you have against Reigen-kun?” Shigeo asked, and with a twist of his wrist, made the barrier an enclosed orb around Dimple so he couldn’t escape him and Ritsu. There was something going on, and it had to do with both Reigen-kun and Dimple, and Shigeo wanted answers.
Dimple very clearly evaluated his chances, before deflating in the only way he could.
“The kid is an empath.”
Shigeo blinked. That wasn’t new information to him, but Dimple stated it like it was a death sentence. Like it was something that everyone should be fearing and everyone should be scared of, instead of rejoicing. Which was ridiculous, because Shigeo was the one that everyone should be afraid of, not Reigen-kun.
“So?” Ritsu asked, staring Dimple down. “What does it mean, that he’s an empath?”
Shigeo dropped the barrier when it became apparent that Dimple wasn’t going to run away from the conversation, but the spirit looked increasingly reluctant to participate in the conversation. He looked like he just wanted to get away from it all, but also knew that he couldn’t avoid the brothers in any way, shape, or form. They would just track him down and he knew that as well as they did.
“The kid is dangerous.” Dimple finally settled on. “In a way that a normal esper like you and Shigeo aren’t. Sure, you two can ruin lives in different ways. But that kid?”
He seemed to contemplate something, growing arms to rub at his chin and sigh and shrug his hands. He waved them around, trying to explain through his motions and not through words.
“I’ve met only one other empath esper in my entirety as a spirit kids. And I’ve been around for a pretty fucking long time. Empaths are no joke to mess with, and that kid is a ticking time bomb.”
Shigeo didn’t appreciate that sort of talk about Reigen-kun, who was one of the most well-adjusted kids that he knew. Probably in his entire life, and that was saying a lot. Reigen-kun didn’t need to be concerned with a lot of things because he already had a lot of it figured out.
“Just,” Here, Dimple must have seen the look on Shigeo’s face and retracted his arms into his floating body, “keep an eye on that kid. Hopefully a ticking time bomb won’t go off.”