Chapter Text
It was another ordinary day. Nothing made this day more special than any other day.
The sun hesitated brightly on the horizon of Seasoning City, clouds lazily floated through the orange sky. A cold wind clawing at anyone exposed. Arataka Reigen scribbled notes for this and that, Shigeo Kageyama stared blankly into space, lost in thought.
"Shishou."
Reigen haulted his writing and looked over.
"What's up?" He asked.
Shigeo opened his mouth, but then closed it and looked down.
"Mob?" Reigen put his pen down and swivelled his chair to face his disiple.
"Lately, I've been feeling weird." He still hadn't turned his eyes from the dusty tiled floor.
"Are you sick?" Reigen suddenly seemed very concerned, but the reason was unknown. Was he actually caring for his disiple, or did he simply need Mob for exorcisms? After everything they'd been through, it would be fair to assume the former.
"I'm not sick, I..." Mob fiddled with the sleeve of his gakuran, looked up, and looked back down again. "I don't really..." He paused. His master listened with worry and confusion.
"I don't really feel like a boy."
He continued staring at the floor, avoiding his master's potentially disgusted look. He felt awkward, lost. Afraid of what his master might say. Afraid of being judged? Every second that passed made him feel more as though he was suffocating, the percentage he kept count of mentally raised up and up.
When he told his mother, she had laughed, assuming he was joking or something. He thought maybe his knowledgeable master would take him more seriously, but....
Seconds felt like hours. Mob felt like his head might just explode.
Finally, Reigen responded.
"Don't feel like a boy?" He clarified, processing what that meant. "Could you... Elaborate?"
"I don't want to be a boy, and I don't feel like I am a boy. I don't like wearing the gakuran, I want to wear a sailor fuku. Is that...Weird?"
Reigen didn't say anything, just stared into silence, processing this.
"Do you feel like a girl?" Reigen asked.
Mob paused. He considered what it might be like being a girl. Having long, flowing hair styled all different ways, wearing skirts and high heels around, wearing a sailor fuku and chatting with other girls. A stereotypical view of women, but all that came to Mob's mind.
Mob smiled, just a bit, thinking of that. A light blush tinted his cheeks.
"I...Think so." He answered, simply. "That's not normal, is it?"
"That is normal. You see, Mob, there are some people out there who may have been told they were a boy when they were born, but they're not a boy at all. Even if they still look like boys."
Mob, now with an impassive face, listened in silence.
"Sometimes these people are actually women, and sometimes they are both women and men, and sometimes they are neither. Sometimes they switch." Reigen paused, letting it sink in.
Mob reacted in no way, said nothing.
"These people are transgender. Do some research later." And with that, Reigen turned around and went back to writing.
Mob let the thoughts swirl in his mind.
Did he feel like a boy? Was he actually a girl? Mob really wished he was a girl. But, according to his master, he could be a girl.
The conflicted child sat there for a very long time, and to an outsider, it would appear he wasn't thinking at all. He stayed there, until the sun was completely devoured by the distant skylines.
"Oi, Mob, it's getting late. You should head home." Reigen's voice snapped Shigeo out of his own mind. He seemed slightly concerned, as the kid didn't often think about something for so long.
Mob simply nodded, muttered a quiet thanks, and excused himself from the office. The icy wind stabbed at his face, freezing him to the bone. He pushed through it, and headed home.