Chapter Text
Ritsu turned on the lamp on top of his desk and opened the drawer. The white light washed over the contents of it while he fished for his student council tag. The sun had still not risen but today they had a meeting. The tag was sitting on top of his diary. He pushed it aside and grabbed the diary instead. He flipped the pages, already softened by time; a soft blue shadow surrounding each of the words written with pen. He had filled the last page two weeks ago and still had the pending task of going to buy a new one. He’d take care of it today for sure. The last thing he’d made an account of was the vague memories he had about the whole Divine Tree issue but he usually was vague anyway when writing about that sort of unnatural events.
He put the diary in its place and grabbed the tag. A spark from behind the red fabric caught the focus of his vision field. It was the light reflecting off the spoon among his ballpoints in the pen holder. He didn’t touch it but it shrank like goo, molding under the non-physical weight of his blue aura. There was a curious sensation of uncertainty tugging at him.
He turned around. Now he’d also need to get a new spoon.
The day at Salt Middle School progressed very ordinarily. His grades were as good as always, there were more love confession letters in his locker today, and there was the usual discourse at P.E. class about who’d have him in their team for the football hour. When the bell rang announcing lunch time, he sat quietly in his desk by the window, the bright sky spilling from outside on his bento, making the rice look like quartz shards. Two of his classmates asked to eat with him and brought along their desks when he accepted. For a moment it wasn’t really bad; he’d eaten with his classmates like this very often before, talking about sports and recent movies mostly, but then they asked for his English notes. All of them had asked for his notes in the past quite often as well, so when he handed them over to them, he no longer felt like having company.
The classroom door slid open. “Kageyama-kun!” One of the girls in his class came in, “The Student Council President is looking for you. He’s waiting by the staircase.”
Closing his eyes, Ritsu pushed himself up with his arms. “Thank you, Akagi-san.”
She smiled at the ground when he passed by her to leave for the hallway. When he left her behind he let out a dry snort. I’m popular, ah? This must be a joke. The brief image of Shou with his constant reassuring of “You’re strong!” crossed his mind. Before reaching the staircase he caught a sight of his brother walking down the next corridor. He was carrying a pile of boxes topped with some papers that looked like were about to fall down at any moment, victims of his brother’s clumsy steps and wimpy arms. He most likely was asked to carry all that by his homeroom teacher. He intended to go to him instead and help him, but he dropped the pace when he saw the other members of the Body Improvement Club appear among the crowd and take the boxes from him. Ritsu watched them chat and laugh--Shigeo's fellow club members did anyway--while they disappeared behind the corner. An intense feeling of longing for something grew inside of him. It was familiar, but only half of it.
Just like in the early morning meeting, all that Kamuro did was review previous petitions. Why, more of the same, he thought. The only break to his routine came after classes ended, when he walked on the opposite direction from his house because he was going downtown to buy his new diary. The clouds in the blue-orange sky were purple blobs, but different from the pattern he was accustomed to on his way home, which felt singular in the same city.
He turned a recognizable corner—a penguin bar—still looking up and deep in thought when a blurry woman jumped in front of him, startling him. His heart still pounded after noticing her harmless red cat sweater and the desperate expression on her face.
“Oh, boy, you will help me for sure!,” she yelled at him. “Look! Look at this picture!”
She aggressively brandished a picture in front of his face, too fast, too close and too unsteady for him to actually make out what he was supposedly looking at.
“I met my soul mate in a dating website and we were finally going to meet today, but instead of telling me what kind of clothes he’d be wearing he just sent me this picture and told me to find this place.”
Annoyed, Ritsu caught her wrist in a firm grasp. He studied the woman for the second that took curiosity to win over his confusion, and then looked more closely at the picture. It was the frontage of a karaoke box.
The surprise caused by his sudden action calmed her a little. At least she didn’t yell anymore in her fast-talking. “I’ve asked everyone but no one knows where this place is,” she went on. “I don’t know how he looks either because we wanted to keep the mystery until we finally met. If I don’t get there soon he’ll think I didn’t come.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Please, boy, you’re young and must hang around these kinds of places. You must know where it is!”
Ritsu actually didn’t hang around those kinds of places. He wanted to tell her so and keep walking, so he’d stop wasting any more time but her begging eyes did the trick despite of him.
“I’ve never been there,” he said. The woman’s shoulders sank and she started downright crying. He pressed his lips together, “but my brother has. Apparently that place is new. My brother went there recently with his friends. He gave me the address.”
The woman’s face lit up. “So you can take me there?”
He tapped the ground with his foot. “…Yes.”
In the relative long distance they walked, Ritsu kept internally questioning himself about why he would go through all that trouble for a person that was as strange as a stranger. A zebra crossing from the karaoke box, Ritsu signaled at the neon lights sign. “It’s here,” Ritsu said.
To his consternation, the woman embraced him from behind in excitement. “Thank you so much!”
A wide man was standing next to the doors, staring at his wristwatch with a worried expression. He looked up when they approached him and the lines on his face seemed to fade away. “Catoutfit1459?,” he asked.
“Yes! And you must be good-lookingandrich22.” She took his hands between hers. “I’m sorry for being so late. I got lost.”
“That’s okay.” He laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck. “I should have been more specific after all.”
Ritsu decided it was time for him to go. “Well, if that’s everything…,” he said, giving a couple of steps backwards. But the woman took him by the arm and dragged him toward her date. “This boy helped me find you. He’s responsible for our fated reunion.”
The man had little round eyes and very curbed eyebrows that shot upward.
“Really? Thank you very much for bringing my beautiful girlfriend to me,” he said, causing the woman to blush a furious red. Ritsu didn’t have time to reply a typical “It was nothing”, because the man proceeded to cup his mouth with his hands and yell so people around on the street turned to them. “Hey, everyone! This boy here saved my relationship.” He pointed at Ritsu with both index fingers. “He was sent by the heavens to make sure my lover and I met. He’s a true hero!”
Ritsu felt his ears warm and an unpleasant nod in his stomach. He had no doubt the couple was insane. Many pairs of eyes were on him now showcasing a wide spectrum of expressions, some of which looked off-putting but that might have meant anything, and it was uncomfortable. “There’s no need for something like this, really,” he said, holding a hand up.
But then everyone around broke down in a collective smile and started to clap. “Great job, boy,” someone said. Several thumps were raised at him, and several other people even whistled. He was still unsure of what was going on, but his discomfort started mixing with a much more enjoyable feeling. He didn’t quite smile back but he was very close to.
He said his goodbyes and went straight home, the sky now a stained dark mantle. He only remembered he had forgotten to buy the new diary when he was changing his shoes for slippers at the entrance of his house.
After dinner, he told his brother all about the odd incident of the afternoon while sitting in front of the TV in the living room. The show Shigeo tuned in regularly at that hour was on. He wasn’t really someone to watch TV in the conventional way and he didn’t even know, after years, what the show was about, but Shigeo liked the background sound it delivered and everyone in the house was used to it filling in the quiet spaces at night. Shigeo was happy for Ritsu and congratulated him, though Ritsu still hadn’t clear what was so special about what he’d done that warranted so many praises from different people.
“And how was your day, Nii-san?”
“Today I lifted eleven pounds with one hand for the first time.”
“That’s great, Nii-san.”
“And helped Master with a ghost that haunted body pillows.” Shigeo kept his hands warm with a mug filled with hot milk.
“I see.”
Ritsu felt a bit stressed about the idea of his brother having anything to do with body pillows. And if he was honest with himself he still couldn’t completely shake his previous distrust toward Reigen, but because he had proven to worry about his brother and being certainly useful in critical situations, Ritsu would have to slowly work on it.
Ritsu noticed there was something different about his brother. It wasn’t that he looked particularly stronger, despite his recent accomplishment of lifting eleven punds. Ritsu couldn’t quite tell what it was, because, really, nothing seemed to have changed about him, or his calm demeanor, or his blue stripped pajamas. It was more like, what was different about him, was everything he had gone through so far. Ah. That feeling of longing reappeared again. He smiled.
“I’m tired,” he said. “I’m going to bed. Good night, Nii-san.” He got up the couch.
Before he reached the stairs, Shigeo called out to him. There was a stutter that didn’t go unnoticed by Ritsu when he did so.
Ritsu turned around. To his surprise, his brother was very serious, his warm mug put to a side on the tea table. He looked sideways before dropping his gaze to his knees.
“I don’t usually worry about you because you are better than me at most things and shouldn’t have a problem doing well while growing up, but I check on you every day at school, to make sure your day flows naturally as it should.”
Ritsu wanted to say something but his mouth just opened and closed again. He had been caught off guard. A warm, relieving feeling crawled up inside of his chest, shaping his lips into yet another smile, one that he felt with his whole body this time. His brother was definitely different now. “Good night,” he said again.
He slept soundly that night. And so, the next day, Ritsu had plenty of energy when he went to the town again after school. This time, he got to buy his new diary. On his way back, he stopped for a moment to look at the blank pages. He wasn’t certain with what he was going to start to fill them. Writing was something natural to him, he didn’t over think it, but finding a start was his only conundrum with every new diary.
“Ah, but if it isn’t Ritsu-kun?,” said a familiar voice. “How rare to see you around here. Don’t tell me you were intending to pay our agency a visit.”
Reigen was a few steps from him, hands in the pockets of his taylor pants. Now that Ritsu thought about it, he remembered he was at a one-block distance from his brother’s working place.
“Not really,” he said.
Reigen replied with the usual awkward laughter that made him sound like a creep. “You’re as cold as ever.” He came closer and put an arm around Ritsu’s shoulders much to his irritation. “But you don’t need to be so shy. What do you say? Come to the office for a bit. I have cookies.”
The sharp flourish of Reigen’s free hand wasn’t convincing enough, and Ritsu made sure to let it show through his disdainful stare. But that didn’t keep the man from insisting and dragging him along despite of Ritsu’s complaints. Reigen wasn’t very tall, but he was stronger than he looked and knew how to make Ritsu constantly loose his balance in a natural way by leaning on him while walking.
Before he knew it they were at the “Talk About Spirits” Agency. There were only the two of them in the middle of the eccentric cluster that was the office.
“Where’s Nii-san?,” Ritsu asked.
“He didn’t come today.” Reigen hung his coat on the chair behind his desk and picked a plate of cookies from a small table to offer them to Ritsu. He ate one himself. “He was going to hang out with his friends.”
While taking a cookie, Ritsu had an ominous feeling about why Reigen had actually invited him to come.
“Say, Ritsu, now that you’re an ESPer like Mob, are you interested in helping me with an exorcism?”
I knew it. “Why can’t Serizawa-san help you instead? It’s still early for his class.”
“It seems soon will be time for midterm exams, so he’s taking this week off to prepare himself.”
Reigen ripped a note from the block on his desk and handed it to Ritsu while talking. Ritsu read the note, which was written in childish calligraphy. It said: “Reigen-san, I left the coffee prepared. I’m leaving early to start studying as we had already agreed. Sorry for the trouble. If something gets too dangerous and Mob-kun isn’t around, you can call me.”
Ritsu glanced at the coffee maker. There was not coffee prepared so he supposed the note was from Monday. It was too bad for Reigen, but Ritsu had no real intention of giving him a hand. It was just his luck that he had run into his brother’s master in the street of all people. Just then the door opened with a ‘Bam!’, making them both alert, and a couple made its way into the office.
“Oh, Reigen-sama!” the man said, running to Reigen to shake his entire arm . He smelled strongly of perfume. “I can’t thank you enough. I followed all of your advices and the curse was lifted just as you said.”
“Eh?,” Reigen answered. “Have I seen you before?”
“Of course you have! I came last month with a curse on love,” the man said. He drew out his cell phone from his pocket and flipped it open to show them the picture of a shabby, underfed man with yellow teeth and red eyes. “This was me before. You told me cigarettes attracted spirits and that’s why I had to stop smoking. The bad-breath curse was lifted too.”
“Oh, yeah, yeah,” Reigen said, looking closely at the phone’s screen. “I see you also stopped eating only cup noodles three meals a day, as you’ve won weight, and probably started taking regular showers too. You see, evil spirits are weak to healthy diets and soap.”
The client nodded. “And this is my new fiancée.” He signaled the woman next to him. She waved a small hand at them, her smooth long black hair jumping a bit. “But now I have another problem, and I need your help, Reigen-sama. It seems like I caught a new curse.”
“Oh, really? What is it this time?,” Reigen said, completely into the professional-psychic role, his chin resting on his fist.
“I’m convinced an evil spirit is forcing me to look at other women beside my beautiful fiancée and it makes me think of cheating on her with them too. It’s obviously a curse because I’m really in love with Mana-chan.”
The woman looked at her lover with sad eyes and pattered his shoulder. Reigen pondered about the claim for a moment. “It is definitely a curse,” he decided. “But I do have the solution! In order to break the curse you have to prick your own eyes with your fingers every time you catch yourself looking at other females or having wrong thoughts. Those are ancient techniques.”
“A-re you sure? Well, if you say so.” The client paid the cheap price for the curse-lifting advice and left the office together with his fiancée unceremoniously.
When they were alone again, and Reigen was putting the money in the cash register which Shigeo usually was attending, Ritsu pointed out, “You smoke too.”
“Hm?”
“There’s a lighter in the inner pocket of your coat. My dad has a very similar one.”
Reigen followed with his gaze to where Ritsu’s finger pointed. He rushed to the coat and tried to hide the lighter better. He laughed a bit.
“Well, yeah, but that’s exactly why I know it’s not healthy or attractive.”
Ritsu couldn’t recall his brother ever mentioning his Master smoked. He probably didn’t know it. It was true that Reigen barely paid his brother for taking advant-- for his services, and that he made a living out of deceiving people, but now Ritsu could understand better why his brother chose him to be a person close to him.
“I will help you with the exorcism”, he said after a bit, and Reigen’s mouth got wide enough for baseball to fit in.
The case was about a purple beardy ghost that kept making small children fall repeatedly from the games at the park in a nearby district that was at a one-hour train ride away. No one knew how the guy had died but according to locals other kids seldom let him play when he was little. Ritsu had never performed an exorcism before so he was pretty nervous when getting close to the spirit. He tried to focus and relax as best as he could, and, to his relief, his powers did as he told them and so he managed to dissolve the ghost in a distorted flash of lights right when he realized what was going to come and put on a threatening face.
After it was over, Ritsu felt unexpectedly thrilled. He looked at his charged hands. This was what his brother did almost on a daily basis.
“Great job,” Reigen said with a smile. “Let’s go. I’ll treat you to ramen.”
Same as with Nii-san. Ritsu pushed away the hand that Reigen was trying to place on his shoulder, but followed him to the nearest ramen shop.
For a long space of time none of them said anything. Ritsu was simultaneously thinking of the peaceful sunset scenery of the park right behind them, and looking at Reigen start his second ration of ramen, while his own first portion remained almost intact. Something about it all felt organic to him, as if that was how things were supposed to be always and he had no idea why only now he was experiencing it. Pleasant was the word to best describe the moment. But then a speck of fear clouded that pleasantness. He looked at the vapor rising in front of him, stemming from the cooking pot.
“When Nii-san decides it’s time to stop working as your assistant, can I replace him?,” he said.
Reigen choked. He scoffed and punched his chest, reaching straight for a glass of water. When he calmed a bit he raised one eyebrow. “I don’t have any complaints,” he said, “but don’t you have many activities and plans of your own? In fact, right now I don’t think it’s wild for me to say it’s Mob who still doesn’t have a clear path he’d want to follow.”
Ritsu’s mood fell like a heavy rock by his feet. He couldn’t tell whether it showed on his face. “You could see it like that, but Nii-san is always a step ahead. That’s because he doesn’t stop or turns around or takes shortcuts. He just keeps going forward with the gaze fixed on his goals. I’m sure you know that too.”
Reigen sighed, placing his glass of water down. “Yes, I know. Before we know it he might leave us all behind.” He looked away, resting his chin on his hand. “What’s this? I’ve been avoiding thinking about this for quite a while now. The time we can only see Mob’s back…”
The low and breathy voice Reigen spoke with made Ritsu feel as if he had stepped into a private space for him, but the way he had left the words hanging in the air made Ritsu consider he was talking to him as well. Ritsu didn’t say anything right away, because he had been pulled into his own private space for thoughts and unwanted feelings.
“Well,” Reigen said in a brighter tone. He grabbed a paper napkin and roughly wiped the fresh orange stains of soup that had escalated to the tip of his nose in the last gulp. “You know where to find me when Mob resigns.”
Ritsu didn’t move when Reigen stood up to pay the check. He just followed every of his movements with his eyes, from his stretching to hand in the money to his reclining on the fairly illuminated wooden counter afterwards. “I’ll wait until you’re done.” The red lamps made everything look glossy and stuffed. It made his ramen bowl look tastier than it already was. Ritsu swallowed it as fast as he could and placed the empty bowl on the counter, a soft tap of the timber.
As they walked away Reigen kept chit chatting, saying things about not trying to pressure him to finish eating quicker. Ritsu was more concentrated on what he had said before, about the time they could only see his brother’s back. And the humid back of Shigeo was what Ritsu saw the day he graduated from Salt Middle School.