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It was a perfectly normal day. A day such as this one was normally used for indulging in activities people would call “normal everyday things”. People would hang out with friends, study for tests, bond with family, fight over others in territorial disputes, work out their bodies, and even bend spoons.
However, unknown to most residents of Seasoning City, something most catastrophic had happened. Something very horrific...something that would terrify even the most talented of people.
The facts:
- It took place in the Spirits and Such Consultation Office.
- The door was left open.
- It had happened unexpectedly, with no warning.
- Reigen Arataka, the greatest psychic of the century, was there.
- Kageyama Ritsu, brother of Kageyama Shigeo, the assistant of Reigen Arataka, was also there (his reasons for being there are personal).
- They both happened to share a common fear of…
- A sudden outbreak of cockroaches.
- Kageyama Shigeo, for some inexplicable reason, did not pick up the phone. Presumably, he had club duty at the time.
Both of them were huddled up behind the office desk, against the window opposite of where the outbreak happened. It was a most unlucky day indeed.
Reigen pointed towards the opposite side of the room and said quickly, “Hey, Ritsu, you have psychic powers, right? Can’t you do anything about this?”
“No. As I am now, I can’t do anything against them.” Ritsu said with a tone of finality.
Ritsu had tried. He had met face to face with one of those creatures several times in the past. Before he had powers, he was weak against them. Even now, his powers didn’t do much to change his situation. The most he could do was trap them in some kind of container until his brother came. His brother was powerful. Only he was immune to the horror that were...cockroaches.
He could hardly handle one cockroach, it was too much to think that he could even try to handle a whole army of them.
“What? But, aren’t you now a-”
“What about you?” Ritsu sharply replied, looking back towards Reigen, “Aren’t you a self-declared esper? Maybe you can do something about this.”
Reigen coughed a bit and said, “Okay, first of all, I’m not an esper, I’m a psychic. There are differences. Psychics have spiritual power, not psychic power, even though the word psychic is in the name. Second of all, I would have done something about this but you see...I’m all out of salt.”
Ritsu countered back, “What does that have to do with-”
“Oh my gosh, they’re...they’re coming closer!” Reigen cried out, making fast wild hand movements as he looked over from his desk.
The cockroaches that were once a unified force had begun to disperse into unpredictable patterns.
“They...they are?!” said Ritsu, “I...we have to...we have to think of a plan. If only...if only there wasn’t a whole horde of them, then maybe we could have handled it. We would have been fine.”
“Maybe…” Ritsu needed to think quickly, he had to, “I could use my telekinesis to move the furniture so that they can’t move?”
Reigen raised an eyebrow, “I don’t feel too good about cockroaches crawling on the furniture though. Just having them crawling on the floor is already scary enough! And we’re still stuck here!”
The cockroaches scattered even more. One of them, Reigen thought, even seemed to look into their direction.
“Ack! They’re getting even closer!” Reigen yelped and then took a deep breath, “Okay, listen...if all else fails, and only as an absolute last resort, then I, Reigen Arataka, will give you permission to use your powers to break open that window so that we can break free from these (evil) cockroaches. We will have to face our fears and endure this nightmare! ...At least until your brother comes, anyways.”
“...Then I’ll break this window now.” Ritsu began to-
“Wait! I said as an absolute last resort! These repairs cost a lot of money, you know! I don’t want to have to pay off my loans! I might even get into debt!”
Ritsu paid no heed. He didn’t care about the loans or the debt. Their lives were already in risk. He was prepared to break the window...the window to their freedom. He started to use his telekinesis…
A cockroach appeared on the window.
Then another came.
Actually, it wasn’t just one, but a whole bunch of them. So many of them appeared on the window that it made the “army” of cockroaches on the other seem small in comparison.
“Huh? Did it get dark all of a sud…” Reigen’s voice died out in shock when he saw an overwhelming number of cockroaches crawling furiously on the window where light had once shone through.
Ritsu, similarly, was also in shock. There was no way out. There was no saving them now.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Some people were said to have heard the screams of high-pitched voices near the Spirits and Such Consultation Office.
A long time afterwards, Mob finally came into Spirits and Such Consultation Office. He had quite a few things to do that day, and he even forgot his cellphone, which he didn’t discover until later. He had been wondering why he hadn’t received any calls from his master.
Mob thought that there seemed to be a lot of activity on the ground. Also, his master, for some reason, had decided to turn off the lights, but the door was open. He hoped he wasn’t too late for any work that he had to do.
“Ah. I’m finally back, Master. I had a lot of things to do today so I couldn’t come early…” Mob said,” Oh, Ritsu’s here too? ...Master? Ritsu? Are you okay?”
As for whether Reigen and Ritsu were alive or not? The world will never know.
“At times you don’t like it, it’s okay to run away!” Sadly, this is not that kind of story.