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nyndelion · 4 years

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共感 - empathy -

MP100; Serizawa & Reigen centric fanfic

SFW, general audiences, no pairings, AU

Wordcount: 2058

AO3 link

“Reigen-san… Why don’t you relax and take a break for a bit?”

The blonde looked up from his laptop to the man sitting across the room, feeling his facial muscles stiff and tired, especially around his eyes. “You don’t know how much I literally can Not do that right now without my business to collapse before my very eyes, Serizawa” Even as exhausted as he looked – and sounded -, he still conveyed his words dramatically, punctuating every other expression with his usual wild gestures, achieving to make Serizawa’s mouth corners lift slightly. “This is serious business, after that quite problematic case we had this week, I really got to work my ass off so we don’t get sued, and also I am late with taxes, which is the last thing we need after all that” He returned his eyes to his laptop screen. “Doing taxes correctly could be the sole difference between a running, successful business and a sinking one”.

Serizawa stayed silent, but kept looking at his boss. Reigen’s face was being illuminated by the computer screen, adding a creepier and sick looking glow to it, intensifying by the minute as the sun started to set outside, darkening the already closed Spirits & Such office, where the two men kept working on different kinds of paperwork. He looked down to his hands, fidgeting absentmindedly; Serizawa knew he couldn’t really help his boss with what troubled him right now, given he was extremely inexperienced in all this ‘serious intimidating adult stuff’, as he prefers calling it, and suggested Reigen to take a break in the first place as it was the only thing that he came up with after at least 20 minutes of being the only witness to the greatly unpleasant vibes he was letting swarm all around the office.

The truth no one else knew yet is, after his first encounter with Shigeo Kageyama at the stairs of that building in the center of Seasoning City two and a half months ago, Serizawa got a new power off of Shigeo’s display of empathy towards him when he returned the ball of energy that was tossed at him by accident, resulting in Serizawa to be able to sense other people’s most intense emotions, even if they weren’t ESPers themselves. He was able to sense, and even sometimes clearly see how that intense emotional energy spread in the ambient, and how it interacted with the energy of animals, plants, minerals, and other people.

He had to admit that a couple of weeks after gaining this new ability, and after getting used to it and recognizing the similarities in the more usual emotions and the way different people used to release the analogous energy, it was very useful in everyday life. He could prevent himself from interacting with angry strangers that might lash out on him simply because he wanted to know where the soup aisle was in the convenience store, or be more mindful and kind if interacting with someone that was trying really hard not to let out an especially dreadful sad energy. So yeah, for someone that struggled reading new circumstances and that tends to overanalyze everyday social situations to the verge of anxious breakdowns, it was a very useful tool at trying to be more independent and navigate casual human relationships more confidently.

However, these new ‘empathy powers’ could be perplexing in other circumstances, such as interacting with someone every day. And even more perplexing if that someone was, well… Reigen.

Serizawa wasn’t complaining, not at all, but he also couldn’t really lie to himself about this. If social relationships and being able to ‘read the mood’ successfully were a mystery to him back then in grade school, and even more after being a hikikomori for so long, existing around Reigen and being able to sense his many fluctuating, often contradictory and usually intense emotions without enough verbal correlation that served as an explanation or context for such sudden changes made their time together at the office – that is, while not doing any exorcism job- a hell of a ride for him, as a certified anxious overanalyzer he was.

So, even is this has been a rather calm day at the office and he could finally get some school assignments done before going home, at some point of the evening the dreadful energy emanating from the self-proclaimed Greatest Psychic of the 21st Century started to distract him from his task, and also to slightly upset him. He could sense stress, fear, a little bit of anger, and something else there he couldn’t really place, that he didn’t sense before he tried to talk Reigen into taking a break. It was something bittersweet that seemed almost out of place in the mix, but that was surely filtering all the energy and spreading in every direction, circulating viciously as if made out of thick smoke, hovering the plants that Reigen kept there and tried to take care of, slowly infecting their faint pale green auras.

Serizawa decided he needed to do something, even if it was a small gesture. Now Reigen had started to stamp his feet rhythmically, adding more frustration to the emotional soup, in pumps that mixed extremely well with the prevailing anger, enhancing it. He thought he better change his strategy; he had already tried talking to convince Reigen he needed a break, and he had been around long enough to realize insistence didn’t work well with him, given he could easily turn the tables around in any kind of debate. So he stood up and went to the kitchen.

He started by boiling some water, and reaching out to the assorted tea box from the counter cabinet. He then saw the dark brown box that was hidden behind the other, more colorful one, and remembered the time Reigen told him to keep it a secret from the teenagers that used to frequent the office a couple of days every week, since it was his preferred dark chocolate he kept for special occasions, such as when he had an unusual sweet tooth day. Serizawa connected the dots and realized that the ‘sweet tooth days’ were those when Reigen released more of what seemed sad energy all of a sudden, which perplexed Serizawa because he didn’t have almost anything to work out the reasons that could have triggered those sad emotions waves. He could only guess it seemed to be something unpleasant he saw on his computer.

Suddenly, he thought… maybe that out of place emotion he sensed that beamed from Reigen after he told him to go take a break was sadness? No, it was clearly something else, but it was quite similar. Maybe it was a complex emotion that had sadness into its mix.

By now, the water he put in the electric kettle had finished boiling, so he took the box that was hiding at the end of the counter and proceeded to make some chamomile and honey tea for his boss. He realized the chocolate box was halfway eaten already, and doubted if it was ok to bring it to him all of a sudden, without him asking to… But then he sensed another frustrated / anxious / angry / bittersweet unplaced emotion wave reaching him and he knew it was the right thing to do right now. Didn’t Reigen tell him more than once to trust his inner voice more and make decisions by himself in order to learn how to be a fully functional, contributing member to society? Maybe this was a good way to practice.

After taking the tea mug and the chocolate box in his hands, Serizawa stood in the kitchen for some seconds before going out to the main office room, breathing deeply through his nose a couple of times to relax and think about the exact words he was going to say. This was another technique his boss taught him, originally to be used before talking to customers, and he has been using it to any other occasion that seemed to get him nervous, since now that he didn’t have his umbrella he realized he needed all the help he could get to get a hang of how unpredictable and chaotic adult life could be.

Finally, he could gather himself enough to come out of the kitchen and approach Reigen’s desk determinately. He didn’t seem to realize he was heading to his desk until he was handing him the mug and the chocolate box. New –and old- emotions were now pumping from him, adding to the soup… Surprise, confusion, that bittersweet emotion again. No anger though; good to go, then.

“Hey, Reigen-san, I thought I should bring you something to help you, and given I couldn’t really help directly with the task you were working on, I figured that maybe I could help with the relaxing part a bit… I hope that’s ok” He turned his eyes away from Reigen’s, not being able to maintain eye contact for much longer as he realized the other man’s gaze was getting more intense. He sensed the surprise to give itself way further into the atmosphere, tuning down the more intense stressful emotions, but also giving more space to the bittersweet emotion to intensify. It was a little different than before, though…

“Ah, Serizawa! Did you suddenly become a telepath?” Reigen’s tone of voice and teasing attitude was very off tune with what his emotional energy gave off, as usual. Serizawa got stiff after the last part. “Hey, that was a joke! Everyone knows telepathy is a bunch of bullcrap, remember you don’t have to take everything so seriously” Reigen finally took the mug and chocolate box from his employee’s hands, letting out more of that weird bittersweet emotion as he put the chocolate box in his desk and proceeded to open it. Now that Serizawa was getting more familiarized with this emotion, he could sense it was morphing to something… warmer? “Y’know, I guess it’s time for a well-deserved break… Hmm?” He screened rapidly at Serizawa, “You didn’t make some tea for yourself? Aren’t you taking a break too? It won’t contribute to a good break atmosphere if you just keep stressing over your homework” he stated, matter-of-factly.

“Yes, sir!” Serizawa went back to the kitchen and prepared himself some green tea with mint. When he stepped back in the office he could sense how the energy changed drastically, now everything was tinted with a warm kind of drowsiness, an energy that surely was fainter than the last stress emotion soup they were being affected by, but that was effective enough to almost wipe it out completely, only a vague sense of nervousness and that bittersweet morphed feeling fluttering around. Also now there was a calming classical music video Reigen was playing on his computer, while sitting on one of the armchairs, across the coffee table Serizawa was using as a desk. He was sitting with his legs crossed, fully supporting his back in the armchair, while taking one chocolate square from the open chocolate box that now was placed in the middle of the coffee table. It seemed he was taking this break very seriously.

Serizawa sat across Reigen in the other armchair. The later coughed a couple of times before talking in a nonchalant way, as if sharing a random thought “I just remembered, I read the other day a quote from this very successful businesswoman on FriendBook, that it’s important to remember any time you apparently are getting stuck into a problem that seemed unsolvable to not let it fool you, no problem in life is unsolvable. You just need to take a break, do something that helps you clear your mind, and look at it in another perspective. Y’know Serizawa, that could really help you in your studies if you find yourself in a seemingly dead end. Remember this advice next time you feel like you need to take a break, and let me now, ok? I’ll try to do the same”.

“Yes, that seems very reasonable” Serizawa held his mug with both hands, staring down at his tea with a soft smile in his mouth, feeling the much calmer atmosphere that surrounded his boss, and realizing the new warm feeling that emanated from him could be placed as gratitude. His new Reigen-convincing technique was officially a hit.

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #fanfic #serizawa #reigen #serizawa katsuya #reigen arataka #mp100 fanfic #not serirei per se but can be read as pre-serirei #empath!Serizawa #nyn.doc #pls give me feedback if u can!

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beneaththetangles · 4 years

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Watch ‘Til I Drop: BNA, MP100, Yorimoi, and Vinland Saga

Noticing an open spot in my viewing schedule this season, I thought it would be a good time to check out some recent series that I missed but wanted to check out. I figured that I might have the time to complete an series or two this season, and went to Twitter for input on which anime I should try:

You’ll notice that the vote was pretty close. I also received feedback commentary there and on Facebook that tilted me toward one anime or another. If anything, I was further away from deciding which series to watch after the poll than before! But it then occurred to me that I should just do what I always do: Try a series, and if it doesn’t catch my fancy, drop it. And so, that’s what I’m doing: I’ll be watching the top three vote getters from that poll—BNA, Mob Psycho 100, and A Place Further Than the Universe—along with returning to a series I stalled on, Vinland Saga (which crushed Golden Kamuy in a second poll I tweeted), and will drop any series that I lose interest in as I go along. If I know me, that means I’ll probably give up on at least two (maybe for a second time with Vinland Saga), but who knows?

And I’d love for you guys to join along in the adventure! After I watch four episodes, I’ll report back here and briefly let you know what I’m thinking. And we’ll start today with my thoughts on the opening episodes of the first three and episode ten of the latter.

SURPRISE! Though the biggest surprise is at the end of the episode….

BNA, Episode 1

You know how one can have an appreciation for a film but not really enjoy it? Like, I appreciated The English Patient, but also agreed with Elaine Benes: “It sucked.” That’s how I feel about TRIGGER. Everything is so beautiful—SSSS.Gridman, Kill la Kill, Kiznaiver, DitF—but I have never completed a series from the studio. In all truth, I usually don’t even get past four or five episodes. Even Gurren Lagann, the show that launched the studio, wasn’t particularly great for me: I slept through most of the second half before hobbling to the finish line. But BNA might be the series that bucks the trend. The animation is of course incredibly engaging, with these beautiful shades of blue and magenta and gray, a style that recalls older anime series, and characters that move in brilliant ways. And the first episode was engaging enough, with a cool story of humans versus beasts that offers an easy immediate opportunity for social commentary. But most importantly, I like the two leads—and I haven’t felt strongly about any characters in a Trigger series since the pre-Trigger TTGL. That’s meaningful, because if you can get me with the characters, well, the rest just doesn’t matter as much.

Episode grade: B Likelihood for completion (1-5): 3.5

I’m meh about the humor in either MP100 and OPM, and I think that’s a major barrier

Mob Psycho 100, Episode 1

This is a little bit of a cheat—I’ve seen the first episode of MP100 before…or at least I thought I had. And Crunchyroll indicates that I’ve actually seen two episodes. But I only remember about half of episode one—the entire second half, in which Mob and Reigen encounter the ghosts in the cave, is brand new to me. And I’m glad for that, because this series was tucked away in this category of “I’m supposed to like this series but I found it boring,” and now I realize I may have been way-off base. I’m not a big fan of One Punch Man, but I appreciate it and I found myself enjoying season two much more than season one, and that, too, gives me hope that this series, from the same mangaka, might eventually capture me. I know it’s already beloved by so many others, including several who have told me that it’s a better series than OPM. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Episode grade: B- Likelihood for completion (1-5): 2 (The length is gonna keep this score low)

Ah, so that’s the name of the book!

A Place Further Than the Universe, Episode 1

There’s a certain something about being 16 or 17 years old. You’re rapidly maturing and beginning to understand the reality of things (and wanting to enter adulthood and affect that reality), but are still childish enough to embrace the fantastic, and those two qualities combined—well that that could get you in trouble. I think I’d forgotten what it’s like to be that age, because despite being animated my Madhouse, I took one look at the synopsis and instead of thinking how fun I thought, this is stupid. But I started to sit up and take notice when the New York Times named it to a “best of” list, which is when I realized just how acclaimed the anime is. The first episode demonstrated why this might be so, carrying an immense charm while conveying that feeling I mentioned above, which is challenging to do as the show could easily fall into “stupid.” Most anime that sends kids on an adventure does it in another world with different rules (see Made in Abyss), but this series is determined to do it in the here and now—and judging by just the first episode, it looks like it might pull it off.

Episode grade: A Likelihood for completion (1-5): 4

If you just stop and listen to the sounds in this series, they’re pretty hilarious: Lots of eh, er, EH!

Vinland Saga, Episode 10

Vinland Saga is a high quality series, from the storytelling to the animation. But I couldn’t take how dreary it all was—not so much the killing, but in the character development for Thorfinn. I know the manga is long and there’s much to tell, but man, when I dropped the series, I was almost a dozen episodes in and I still disliked every quality about the main character; there’s barely enough there to make me empathize with him, despite the loss he’s endured. Returning to the show reminded me of that, but having taken a considerable break, I was just able to enjoy the story in episode ten as I exercised my brain to try to remember what happened previously. But I can tell you this: I’m not going to be able to take another nine episodes of vengeful, one-liner (“I’m gonna kill you!”) Thorfinn. I may not be able to even take two more episodes of it: I need something to happen, something redemptive, and I need it now.

Episode grade: B- Likelihood for completion (1-5): 2

I’ll continue to revisit these shows with the aim of posting an article every time I watch four episodes, which right now means one episode of each series. But as I start dropping shows (if I do), I’ll be doubling up on some. I’m excited to see how this goes—and you can see if any of your favorites from among the four survives until the end!

=====

BNA can be streamed on Netflix, Mob Psycho 100 and A Place Further Than the Universe on Crunchyroll, and Vinland Saga on Amazon Prime.

#Anime #BNA: Brand New Animal #A Place Further than the Universe #Mob Psycho 100 #Vinland Saga #Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho #Articles #Author: TWWK

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turning-the-kaleidoscope · 5 years

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Ahhh it’s been a while but I wrote another hug prompt!! unfortunately I can’t remember exactly who had requested this prompt in particular jklsdfsdf, but have some soft Teru + Shigeo + Dadreigen at the end, sickfic style bc 1) i can and 2) soft hurt/comfort is so therapeutic so heck yeah!! i hope you guys like it! :D

hug prompt 17: a hug where one muse stops the other from collapsing (with Teru and Shigeo)

Teru likes the company. After being alone for so long with only a collection of fake friends, he enjoys all the company he has with Shigeo and the others. He treasures every moment.

So he invites them over regularly for games and movies and snacks all the time. Sometimes all at once. Sometimes one at a time. Tonight is one of those latter times, when it's just him and Shigeo. He likes Shigeo a lot, more than he's able to put into words, and his company is always welcomed.

Except this time, in the middle of the visit and quite suddenly, Shigeo comes down ill. And looking back on it, Teru should have seen the signs, even if Shigeo thought he was fine. It took him way too long to figure out what the problem was.

But as soon as he knows what's wrong, he's in full caretaker mode--a mode he only knows after being looked after by Reigen while sick himself. He isn't glad Shigeo is under the weather, but he's been waiting for this opportunity to take care of his friends like they've done for him, and he approaches it with what might be a bit too much enthusiasm.

"Reigen told me that you feed a cold and starve a fever," he quotes as he reads over a bottle of fever relievers from last he got sick. "And he made me take these, they're supposed to help."

"Are they?" Shigeo asks, and it isn't snarky, but the exhaustion in his tone brings it across that way. "I don't think my fever is very high, Teru…"

"Any fever is high enough to be taken care of," Teru says resolutely. "Trust me, I've got this."

"It's not that I don't trust you," Shigeo says, "but I really do think I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me."

"Listen, Shige." Teru pauses, long enough to look him in the eyes. He looks miserable, a lot more miserable than he seems, sitting on the edge of Teru's futon with a blanket around his shoulders. He isn't flushed (yet) but there's a glossiness in his eyes that speaks of a festering fever.

He sighs. "You, Reigen, everyone… you've always looked after me, yknow? Always took care of me, made sure I was okay… and, I never really had the chance to repay that, properly. So… let me worry about you a lil, alright? It might sound silly, but I want to."

"Okay."

"Huh? That quick?"

"I mean," Shigeo fiddles with the blanket, "I think I understand what you mean. So if you really want to, I don't have any trouble with it."

Teru blinks, but it softens into a smile. "Alrightee!" He salutes without really thinking about it. "Leave this to me, then!"

Shigeo cracks a smile, and Teru sets about measuring the proper dose of medicine.

It's easy, really, it is.

Until that night. And it's around that time when things start to go from manageable to scary. It occurs to Teru in the most unpleasant of ways that he really, really doesn't know what he's doing.

At all.

And he should probably get in contact with someone who does.

It isn't that Shigeo is sick in obvious ways. He isn't throwing up or unconscious or delirious or anything like that, he's just… very, very still. Quietly miserable and hard to rouse. Lethargic. Feverish, and very. The medicine didn't do its job. It's done nothing but rise since earlier that day and Teru is scared of giving him a second dose.

"Hey, Shigeo?" He shakes his shoulder, and hates the heat he can feel, even through the blanket. "Dude, wake up, I need to take your temperature."

Shigeo doesn't stir at first and Teru's mind leaps to the worst of conclusions, but finally, his eyes slip open. He's flushed now, red in the cheeks and pale everywhere else. His eyes are glassy like marbles and carry only what light is reflected in them from Teru's phone flashlight.

"What?" He sounds groggy. Not entirely there.

Teru kneels by the futon and nods. "Temperature. Think you can keep this under your tongue?"

Shigeo nods and Teru hands it to him, and while he's doing that, gets up and retrieves a fresh cold plaster from the bathroom. He doesn't expect it to do much good, but it's better than nothing.

He returns just as the thermometer beeps, and he kneels down and takes it from Shigeo's clammy fingers. Through the light of his phone, he examines the reading.

39.4

Teru swallows down the bile in his throat. Shigeo doesn't ask him what it says, just shuts his eyes again and curls his fingers by his throat loosely. Teru peels back the not-cold-anymore plaster from his sweaty forehead, brushes his damp hair out of the way, and then replaces it with the fresh one.

He needs to call someone. Someone who'd know what to do, someone who's done this before. Like Reigen. Or Serizawa. Serizawa lives closer, it's be faster, but Reigen might know more, might be able to stand in a crisis better--and Teru still doesn't know Serizawa very well, Reigen is a better bet. Plus, now that he thinks about it, he doesn't even have Serizawa's number.

He checks on Shigeo one more time, makes sure the plaster is properly set on his forehead and the blankets are around his shoulders before he gets to his feet and steps down into the hallway, already dialing and holding the phone to his ear. It's only around 11pm; he doesn't know how late Reigen typically stays up, but--

“Yo, Teruki, what’s up?”

He doesn't sound like someone who'd just woken up. And it only took two rings, too. But Teru doesn't let himself breathe a sigh of relief yet.

"Hi, Reigen," he says, and forces the guilt away before it has the chance to start. This is for Shigeo. "I-I know it's late, I'm sorry, but--Shigeo's at my place, we've been hanging out, but he's sick and his fever spiked and I…” He has to stop and take a breath, suddenly lightheaded. “ I don't know what to do."

Reigen swears under his breath. "Okay, okay--how long's he had the fever?"

"Since before he got here, I think." He's calmer now than before and regains the steadiness of his voice. "But it's gotten a lot higher since then."

"How high?"

"39.4."

Another swear. “Is he awake?”

"On and off. Usually I have to wake him. I gave him medicine earlier, the medicine you brought over last time--I don't think it did anything, though, he's just--he's really sick. I'm--I’m worried. About him."

"Okay, yeah, I'll be over there soon, okay? Give me five minutes."

It's such a relief and Teru can't help but feel the urge to laugh. "Th-Thank you," he breathes.

"Don't mention it, it's alright. Keep an eye on him until I get there, okay?"

"I will, thank you."

“No prob, kiddo. See you in just a minute.”

He hangs up and Teru's hand slumps down to his side, a breath escaping him. It's fine, Reigen will be here soon, it's okay--

"Teru? Was that Reigen?"

"Yeah?" He turns without thinking, and sees Shigeo standing in the doorway on untrustworthy feet. It clicks a second later than it should. "Shige, what are you doing up? You need to rest, come on--"

Shigeo is incredible, he really is. Sweet, clever in his own special ways, golden-hearted and gentle while simultaneously being a force of nature that Teru would never want on his bad side.

But he can also be so, so incredibly dumb. Even when his body sends him every signal it can telling him to stay down and leave the walking to the non-feverish ones, he does it anyway without realizing it.

Teru sees it coming probably before Shigeo knows it is. He sways, the glass in his irises becomes thicker and more heavily clouded, and then--

"Shigeo!"

He teleports, actually, without thinking, and still only just barely catches him before he faceplants the floor. Shigeo slumps and Teru holds him easily; Shigeo doesn't weigh much; but his skin is burning, and his forehead digs into Teru's collarbone and sends him into a panic.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you with me? Hey, Shigeo."

"Sorry." He sounds out of breath, worn out. Sick. "I thought it'd be fine…"

Teru tries to get a better hold, tightening his arms around his shoulders and gripping his shirt with curled fingers. “You're sick, Shige, you need to stay in b--” A shift in Shigeo's weight, and Teru takes all of it. He slips. “Okay, okay we're going down--”

He lets them down as gently as he can, but his knees still hit the floor too hard and he winces, not excited about the bruising. But for now he focuses on Shigeo, who is still a too-warm, too-limp weight against him. It's easier to support him from the ground, though.

Teru maneuvers himself into a somewhat more comfortable spot, legs criss-crossed with Shigeo tucked close and secure. “Damn it, Shige, you need to rest…”

“S… Sorry...”

Teru sighs and rests his chin on the top of his head. “As soon as Reigen gets here, you’re going back to bed and you’re gonna stay there. Okay? You can’t get better if you keep pushing yourself like this, dummy.”

Shigeo nods, and Teru feels it more than anything, but it’s enough for him, for now. If he wants to pursue the argument later (if it’s even worth it), then he can do it later. Right now he really does want Shigeo to rest, so he stays quiet and lets him. His fever is still much, much too high and not getting any lower.

When Reigen knocks at the door, Teru opens it with a flick of his powers and Reigen is on them both immediately. His first question is why they’re on the floor--and of course that’s a valid question--and once Teru’s finished explaining, Reigen wastes no time. He’s gone full mama-bear mode now and it’d take more than Claw’s entire arsenal to stop him.

He carries Shigeo with a brisk powerwalk and Teru jogs to flank him. After that, it’s like a routine. Reigen gets Shigeo to wake up, has him take another dose of medicine, uses a wet rag instead of a plaster (“Easier to deal with. Plus, ice water’s a lot colder.”), checks Shigeo’s fever (39.4 again, holding), and after that there isn’t a lot left to do. Reigen assures Teru that he’s got it covered and he’ll look out for Shigeo now, but it still takes a good hour or two before Teru finally falls asleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Admittedly, the armchair isn’t the best place to sleep, but Shigeo has the futon and for one night, Teru doesn’t mind. He wakes up with a crick in his neck and the feeling that he hadn’t slept at all, but forgives it and sits up. Reigen glances over at him in acknowledgment before returning his gaze to Shigeo. Reigen doesn’t look like he pulled an all-nighter, but there’s no doubt in Teru’s mind about it.

Teru gets to his feet and quietly makes his way over. “How’s he doing?”

“Better,” Reigen answers, scooting over. Teru sits down on the floor beside him. “His fever broke pretty quick after spiking, I’m just letting him rest now.”

Teru nods and looks over Shigeo for himself. He’s still flushed, as to be expected, but it’s lesser now and he’s definitely sleeping more peacefully. The tension in his shoulders ease, and he finally lets himself relax.

“Hey, Teruki.”

“Yeah?”

He turns, and at the same time, Reigen’s hand lands on his shoulder. “I’m glad you called me,” he says with a soft kind of smile that’s a bit uncharacteristic for him, but still perfectly and entirely Reigen. “Actually, I’m proud of you for calling me. It would’ve been easy to just pretend you knew what you were doing, so… thanks, for letting me help out.”

Teru blinks, first at the hand on his shoulder and then at Reigen, but before long he's smiling.

"Thank you for being there," he returns. Reigen's smile redoubles and he ruffles Teru's hair.

It's been hard to train himself out of that mindset of handling things himself, no matter how devastating, but he's gotten better at accepting others' help, whether he wants it or needs it. He isn't perfect yet, but they're getting there. They'll get there.

#cloud writes #hug prompts #prompt fill #drabble #dadreigen #reigen arataka #hanazawa teruki #kageyama shigeo #mob psycho 100 #mp100 #fanfic #i have too many tags for this jksdjflsdflsldfsldfsdf but!!!#i really hope you guys like it!!#i wrote a decent portion on my phone too so I'm sorry about typos ;-;#motivation's been kinda hard to come by lately #but i hope you liked it!#even if it kinda went all over the place sjdkflsldfsdlfsdf #sickfic

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dragon-zena · 5 years

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all your troubles in my hair

Fandom: Mob Psycho 100

Relationship: Serizawa Katsuya/Reigen Arataka

Characters: Serizawa Katsuya, Reigen Arataka, Kageyama “Mob” Shigeo, Kageyama Ritsu, Kageyama Siblings’ Parents, Dimple

Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, reigen has horrible coping mechanisms: the fic, Spoilers for Chapter 100, OVA spoilers, Anxiety, Depression, Therapy

Summary: Neither of them are naïve enough to believe that love is meant to solve all of their internalized issues.

Read it on AO3!

Neither of them are naïve enough to believe that love is meant to solve all of their internalized issues.

They both have bad days; it's not something that really comes to a surprise to Katsuya, especially after months of being together.

Katsuya has days where he feels like he's been in a loop, a dream that he'll wake up from, still stuck in his childhood bedroom. Sometimes, he smells the trash, the dirty laundry. He sits up in bed, and there's nothing but white noise under his skin, roaring in his ears. Days where he wants to lock himself in the bathroom, hands shaking.

As time goes on, he has less and less of these days, but even still, sometimes he'll be riding the train with Arataka, towards an apartment that they share more often than not, and he'll look out of the window, admiring just how bright the moon is. And then he'll look at Arataka, leaning into his side with an old newspaper, and he'll watch those long eyelashes flutter as he skims each page, right to left, and there is a small flicker of fear within him—the thought that he might lose experiences like these, again, someday.

And while he's honest about his feelings, sometimes—ironically enough—he just wants to lock them up in a room and throw away the key. When the nights are harder to sleep through, nightmares chasing him into wakefulness, Katsuya almost feels frustrated, angry.

Arataka notices (he always notices), and Katsuya can't ever decide if he wants his boyfriend to ask about whether he wants to talk, or if he would rather be left alone. Whatever he chooses always feels like the wrong answer. He doesn't know if there is a right answer, not after days where he lies in bed feeling awful about a comment made with more snark than usual, or days where he can't make himself speak, at all, days where only the wrong things come out of his mouth. Arataka never takes it personally, but it fills Katsuya with inexplicable vitriol.

He's been working on all of it, having found a therapist that actually understands him after years of having to interact with therapists that he felt never gave a shit about him. He's started to categorize his days, coping by journaling his moods and triggers, what makes him feel this way. What makes him feel better, what feels safe for him. It helps.

Arataka doesn’t have a therapist, doesn’t think that he needs one. It’s something that used to bother Katsuya, the thought that maybe Arataka thought that only certain people needed a therapist—that maybe he thought he was too good for one. But the longer that he experiences loving him, the more he realizes that the man is doing his damnedest to just internalize his issues and move on as though they don't exist. Katsuya thinks that maybe Arataka feels as though if he ignores his problems, he’ll be more credible to the people that need his help. If he ignores his problems, he won’t take up space and resources from people that “deserve it” more than he does.

If he ignores his problems, he’ll still be useful to someone, his accomplishments won’t be stripped away by whatever makes him wake up in cold sweats, whatever makes his face twitch minutely out of its normal placid expression, gone so fast that a stranger might think that they imagined it.

Katsuya is no stranger.

He can see it whenever Arataka gets too caught up in his newspaper on the train home, the way that he tenses up when Katsuya stands to get off, expecting him to follow. The way that Arataka suddenly jumps at the movement, quickly snatching one of Katsuya’s sleeves with wide, faraway eyes. The way that he can’t seem to settle when he’s without something to read, nothing to keep his mind off of the rattling of the train, the screech of the vehicle coming to a stop, the train cabin being thrown into darkness as they pass through a tunnel or under a bridge. The way that he’s always the last person to board the train and the first person off. The way he refuses to fall asleep, even when Katsuya offers him his shoulder.

He sees it in the aftermath of Shigeo’s last explosion. The two of them had waited with Shigeo and Dimple until his parents came to get him. Ritsu had reached them first, of course, and was promptly pulled into a hug by his older brother. The two of them let themselves feel for a few minutes, and Dimple hadn’t been too keen on leaving the two of them alone for a while, settling himself on top of Shigeo’s head like a languid cat. He was looking a little worse for wear, himself, small and a paler green than what he was before he disappeared.

Once the Kageyama parents arrived, Arataka had pushed himself up from his haphazard crouch, using Katsuya as a crutch and biting the inside of his cheek to stifle any pained sounds he made. He smiled genuinely, eyes glassy, and conversed quietly and respectfully with Shigeo’s parents, holding their children so closely. Returned their gratitude for the opportunity to know Shigeo when they had thanked him for looking after their son. Dimple had given Katsuya a significant look over Shigeo’s head when Arataka’s voice cracked, and he had nodded, eyebrows knitting together. When Shigeo had pulled Arataka into a hug before leaving, the man looked prepared to cry, again, and when Katsuya had lifted his young friend into a bear hug, telling him that he was so glad that he was safe, that he had come to a conclusion that made him feel at peace with himself, Shigeo had nodded, clutching him tighter, but he, too, had subtly asked Katsuya to look over his shishou. And Katsuya had nodded again, ruffling his hair and watching as he walked away with his parents.

It left Katsuya and Arataka alone. Not that it mattered, because the moment that the Kageyama car disappeared, Arataka had collapsed to his knees, wheezing in pain. Eyes bleary, he managed a raspy “I can’t afford any hospital bills, right now” before passing out, eyes rolling back into his head. Katsuya only panicked a little, hurriedly bundling him up in his arms and beginning to make his way back from whence the two of them came. With Arataka unconscious, buried in Katsuya’s arms, he had been able to start digesting what happened once he had let the other man walk into Shigeo’s tornado. He thought about how dangerous (and brave, but mainly dangerous) the choice Arataka made was, how quickly he had lost sight of him in the cycle of dusty wind and debris. He thought about what Arataka had planned to leave behind.

The suit jacket. The dress shoes.

They never discuss it fully, not for lack of trying. It’s just, well.

Arataka throws himself into his work, deflecting “personal problems” when they’re working, invested strictly into his mask of professionalism, even when there are no clients. The first time Katsuya tried to push him into talking about his emotions, the man began to talk circles around him, so quickly and with so much anxious fervor that Katsuya ended up at a loss of words, mind swimming. It only occurred to him later that Arataka had told him practically nothing, and he tried not to get frustrated about it. Katsuya subtly asks him about getting help and acknowledging his feelings multiple times, but the only other time that he pressed Arataka led to an argument that lasted for at least a week before they apologized to each other, and by then, it seemed as though the man had developed at least five more different coping mechanisms, none of them even remotely helpful. His sleep schedule has become absolutely ridiculous, and sometimes Katsuya sees his hands twitch for the emergency cigarettes that he keeps in the bottom drawer of his desk. He never goes for it, but he lately seems stressed enough to cave more sooner than later.

Sometimes, Arataka just parks himself next to Katsuya, back straight. He’s not close enough to comfortably reach for, but he’s there.

Tonight is one of those nights. It's Friday, and Katsuya can count on his hands the number of hours of sleep that Arataka has gotten throughout the entire week. Not only that, but something must have been happening to make almost every client that entered Spirits & Such unnecessarily hostile. At some point earlier, his boyfriend had attempted to call Shigeo, ask him if he wanted to come with them for "ramen or something, it’s up to you, really, Mob," but Shigeo had already made other plans. Arataka said that he hadn’t minded, and he probably didn’t, committed to the concept of “not distorting” anyone else with his presence. Even still, his smile seemed a little tighter after hanging up, informing Katsuya that it would just be them, tonight.

Arataka sits stiffly on the other side of the couch, and Katsuya acts like he’s not watching him through his peripheral while working on his math homework. He doesn’t know when he’s going to use this. Remembering Arataka’s frequent complaints about math, he opens his mouth to tell this to him, hoping to make the silence a little less unbearable. But the sight before him makes him pause, words caught in his throat.

His boyfriend is crying silent tears, lips pursed, eyebrows furrowed, nose crinkled. He makes no move to wipe his face, and Katsuya doesn’t think that he notices that he’s been caught until he moves a little closer, making him jump, head swiveling to stare at Katsuya. They both grimace at each other, an understanding passing between them, despite Arataka’s clear embarrassment at being caught crying.

“Arataka,” Katsuya breathes out, scooting a little closer to his boyfriend and cupping his face into his hands, thumbs doing their best to wipe away tears that don’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. “What do you need?”

Arataka curls in on himself, averting his eyes away from Katsuya’s worried face. He sniffs as though trying to suck the tears and snot back up, and Katsuya tries not to wince, heart clenching.

Arms wrapped around himself, Arataka admits, voice quavering, “I think I need help.”

It’s quiet, small and brittle, but it’s there. Katsuya pulls his lover into his arms, presses his head gently into the junction of his shoulder and neck, kisses his temple sweetly. “I’ll help you,” he says. “We can help each other.”

Arataka says nothing, but he presses a little harder into Katsuya. It's not long before the man falls asleep, exhausted. Katsuya kisses the crown of his head, buries his nose into coarse brown strands.

Neither of them are naïve enough to believe that love will solve all of their internalized issues, but Katsuya watches Arataka sleep, and he thinks, warmth blooming in his chest, "Thank god we have each other." It doesn’t take long for him to follow Arataka’s lead.

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #serirei #serizawa katsuya #reigen arataka #my writing #gurgles #i amn just a little projector...i canmot chang this

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serenlyss · 5 years

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For the Sake of a Smile Chapter 6

Rating: G Relationships: terumob, teru&tome Chapter Summary: "Feeding people is a way of loving them, in the same way that feeding ourselves is a way of honoring our own creativeness and fragility." — Shauna Niequist Crossposted to AO3: Chapter 6

Chapter 5 // Chapter 7

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“I wonder how he got into the special class in the first place.”

Teru glances over his shoulder from where he’s sitting at his desk, chatting idly with Shigeo before the start of class. He’d been listening to a story about someone from his after-school club, but it isn’t hard to place the voices and, by extension, to determine what and who they’re talking about.

Shigeo’s voice trails off, ending on a note of curiosity. “Is something wrong?” he asks, leaning his arms on the edge of Teru’s desk and attempting to follow his line of sight.

“He seems awfully friendly with Kageyama. I bet he used his connections to force his way in, just like Kageyama did.”

“I bet he’s just as untalented as him, too. I wonder what he put on his application to get in?”

Teru tears his eyes away from the group of gossiping teenagers and looks back to Shigeo, mustering up a well-practiced smile. “It’s nothing,” he assures, “I just got distracted for a moment. What were you saying?” He wonders if his classmates know he can hear them just fine from across the mostly-quiet classroom, or if they’re speaking loudly on purpose just to get on his nerves. Either way, it’s working.

Shigeo frowns, his gaze flicking to the group across the room before looking back to Teru. “Sorry about them, they’re always like that,” he murmurs, even though he has no part in it and Teru has never seen Shigeo so much as approach them. “They’re always so suspicious of new students, and they’re not very forgiving, either. I’ve been in the same class as them since elementary school, and they still haven’t really accepted me. Most of the time, they just pretend I don’t exist.” He shrugs his shoulders, glancing down at his notebook.

Teru raises a brow at him. “Really? That’s an awfully long time to hold a grudge based on nothing,” he grumbles disapprovingly. “I would have thought that most high school students would have gotten past all the petty assumptions by the time they graduated middle school, but I guess some people never grow up.”

Shigeo shrugs his shoulders. “I’m not so sure about that. Sometimes it’s hard to know why people do things, but there’s always a reason, don’t you think?” he replies with a little smile, leaning his head forward to rest it in the palm of his hand. “They probably seem childish now, but everyone has room to grow. They just need a little more time to figure things out, I think.”

Teru’s tempted to deny such sentiments right away, but he finds himself unable to say anything when faced with Shigeo’s unabashed honesty. He states his case plainly and with a tone akin to fondness, and Teru finds that there’s nothing he wants to argue about. “Huh, I guess you’re right,” he concedes, but it doesn’t stop the little splinter of homesickness that worms its way into his heart, the longing to go back to somewhere he’s accepted by everyone.

---

“... and that’s about it. I’m homeroom teacher walked in pretty soon after that, and I didn’t hear anything else from them for the rest of the day,” Teru says into his phone. Snowflakes swirl around his head and fall at his feet, only to be flattened beneath his thick snow boots as he walks back to his dorm room. Each word comes out of his mouth in a puff of fog, which hangs in the air for just a moment before dissipating out of sight. He reaches up with one mittened hand to adjust the scarf around his neck, tugging it tighter around his chilled neck.

“Talk about uptight! I bet they’ve never experienced a hard time in their lives. Maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to gossip if they got a taste of their own medicine.” Tome’s voice comes across the line crackly and somewhat distorted, and in the background, Teru can hear the telltale sounds of children playing in the winter’s first snow as Tome watches over them. Their screams are almost loud enough to drown out Tome’s voice entirely, but rather than feeling annoyed at their loudness, Teru feels a pang of loneliness that he isn’t around to experience the first snow with them. “Want me to come beat them up for you? I’ll get an express train,” Tome threatens.

Just like that, the loneliness is pushed to the back of his mind, and he has to stifle a snort of amusement at her overly-serious tone. “Absolutely not, I’d never give you the chance to embarrass me like that,” he teases, but it’s hard to keep the fondness out of his tone at the thought of her sticking up for him, just like when the other kids would try to tease him when he was just a child. “I’ll probably just leave it be. None of the other students seem to pay them much mind, and it’s not like they have a leg to stand on with their arguments, anyway. They just need to grow up a little more.” He tugs on the edge of his hat, drawing it down over the pink tips of his ears before the cold wind can get to them.

On the other side of the line, Tome laughs, loud and boisterous. “That’s the spirit! Don’t let those elitist brats get to you. You’re gonna be--Hey! Get down from there, it’s icy!” Tome cuts herself off suddenly, her voice coming across more distant as she scolds what Teru assumes to be the younger kids getting a little too adventurous. “Don’t make me come over there, you monkeys! Uh, Teru? I’m really sorry, but I gotta go, the kids are trying to climb the trees. Call me again soon, okay?”

“Okay--” Teru starts, but before he can even say goodbye, the line goes dead. He pauses in his walking, looking down at his phone’s blank screen for a moment. His own reflection stares back at him, eyes filled with disappointment and a petty sense of annoyance that Tome had dared to hang up on him, and after a moment, he sighs and slips his phone into the pocket of his winter coat. He tugs his scarf up over his mouth and nose, feeling the loneliness easily streaming back now that he has no one to distract him. He glances up at the cloudy, snowy sky, gray and impenetrable. It’s the last day of classes before the winter holiday, and the snow is a reminder that Christmas is fast approaching. This winter, it feels even bleaker than before, and Teru’s experienced a lot of bleak, lonely Christmases growing up, some of them self-imposed. It’ll be the first Christmas in many years that he’s spent away from home; he’d love to go back to his hometown for the holidays, but he doesn’t make nearly enough money working for Reigen to pay for a round-trip plane ticket, not to mention baggage fees and taxi rides to the airport and back. Besides, he thinks to himself glumly, if I go home now, I might not come back.

As desperately as he’d love to see Tome and all of the other kids he’d come to consider his siblings, he has a sneaking suspicion that he’ll lose his nerve if he relaxes too much over this break. After all, even with how difficult the schoolwork is and how abrasive his classmates can be, he still has a goal to reach. Someday, somehow, he’s going to find the boy who saved his life so many years ago and give him a proper thank-you. He can’t do that if he’s bogged down by his desire to go home, to just give it all up and go back to what he knows. Besides, he’s survived the first semester, so surely the second will come easier, right?

Despite his attempt at positive thinking, his glum attitude clings to him as he takes a detour toward the gym in an attempt to get out of the oppressive cold for a few minutes. He tugs his scarf down once more as he enters the building, the sudden shift in temperature causing his nose to run just a little. He sniffs, walking down a quiet hallway that separates the two main gymnasiums; the larger of the two houses the basketball courts and bleachers, while the smaller is relegated to extra storage and small school activities. It’s late enough at night that the building is empty, or at least that’s what Teru believes, until he hears the telltale sound of the dribbling of a basketball coming from behind the wide-open doors of the main gymnasium.

Teru pauses in his walking, curious, and peeks through the open door to see who could possibly be practicing this late at night. He’s expecting someone from the basketball team, coming to practice their shooting before bed, but instead he finds himself staring at Shigeo, still dressed in his uniform’s white shirt and navy slacks, his tie and jacket discarded to somewhere else in the gym. It’s so surprising that Teru does a double-take, his brain catching up with his eyes just in time to see Shigeo attempt a basket from the free-throw line. It bounces narrowly off the basket’s rim and hits the ground with an echoing thud, and Shigeo watches it roll away with slumped shoulders. Then he turns abruptly on his feet and looks up from the gym floor, catching Teru’s eye as he lingers in the doorway.

“Teru,” he exclaims, footsteps stumbling just a bit. He starts to make his way over, and Teru moves to meet him halfway, eyes lingering on the retreating basketball with curiosity. “What are you doing out here? Aren’t you going home for the holidays?” Shigeo continues, obviously surprised to see Teru still on campus.

“I could ask you the same question,” Teru says with a faint, forced smile, his previous feelings of isolation still not banished. “They’re going to close campus soon, right? You should hurry back, before the security guards come by and get angry with you for breaking curfew.” It’s already long past closing hours for the gymnasiums, and it isn’t really like Shigeo to overlook a detail like that when it’s clearly printed on the signs on every door.

Shigeo looks away, and Teru’s surprised to see a rather glum, faraway look come to his expression. It’s rare and just a little troubling to see Shigeo like this, compared to his usual small smiles or stony, expressionless default. “I guess I’m just not really ready for the holidays,” he murmurs in response, turning away from Teru and sitting down on the lowest bench of the built-in bleachers. “My family is always kind of weird around this time of the year. It’s… hard to be around them. I guess I’m just putting off the inevitable.”

Teru tilts his head, curious but hesitant to breach what could potentially be a sensitive topic for Shigeo. He lowers himself down onto the bench alongside his friend. “Weird how?” he asks eventually.

Shigeo just shrugs, still looking away. “I don’t know, exactly. It’s been like this for years, but I don’t remember what happened to make things like this. Even Ritsu…” He trails off, eyes fogging over for a brief moment as he goes still and stares out at nothing in particular. He’s only frozen for a second, but it’s enough to put the idea in Teru’s mind that something must be really wrong. Then Shigeo shakes his head and breaks the trance, turning to offer Teru a small, now-familiar smile. “It’s probably just my imagination, but I guess I’ve just been feeling kind of down about going home for the holidays.”

“Guess we’re both feeling a little sad today,” Teru chuckles, and finds himself, surprisingly, a little comforted that he’s not the only one feeling a little depressed now that the holidays are quickly approaching.

“You too?” Shigeo asks, but before he can say anything else, he’s interrupted by the sound of his stomach loudly growling.

Teru stifles a fit of giggles with his hand, the edges of his amused smile peeking out from between his fingers. “C’mon, why don’t we go over to the diner?” he suggests, standing up and holding out his hand to Shigeo.

Shigeo blinks up at Teru in surprise, though he doesn’t hesitate to take his offered hand. “Now?” he clarifies, letting Teru haul him to his feet.

Teru nods. “You probably missed dinner at home, right? I bet there’s something at the diner that we can whip up,” he urges, readjusting his bag on his shoulder while Shigeo retrieves his suit jacket and tugs on his winter coat and hat.

“I guess it’s worth a try, though Reigen and I already cleaned out the pantry and fridges for the break,” Shigeo mumbles into his scarf, which he wraps tightly around his neck as the two of them make their way down the familiar path to Sweets & Such’s front door. The lights are out and Reigen is, as expected, nowhere to be seen, but it’s easy enough to pluck the spare key from under the store’s welcome mat to let themselves in.

Shigeo flicks on the kitchen lights as Teru begins to root around the fridge and pantries to see what’s left over, but, as Shigeo had anticipated, there isn’t much left behind after the end-of-semester cleaning.

“An onion, some leftover shredded cheese, and half a loaf of stale french bread… there really isn’t anything left,” Shigeo sighs, staring down at the meager contents they’d managed to scavenge from the bare shelves.

Teru, on the other hand, is looking at the haul with bright eyes. “No, this will definitely work!” he assures with a grin, shucking off his jacket and rolling up the sleeves of his white undershirt to keep them from getting dirty. “I’ll just go french!”

“French?” Shigeo echoes, curious. Teru’s already moving around the kitchen, pulling out pots and setting them on the stove to heat while he scavenges for a few essential herbs and spices. “You can really make something with these ingredients?”

Teru meets Shigeo’s eyes across the kitchen and winks, his mind already racing with possibilities. “You can go ahead and wait for me in the parlor, okay? This won’t take long,” he assures, already cutting butter into the bottom of a small pot. I’ll use chicken stock as a base, with a little bit of salt for taste and the french bread to give it substance, he recites to himself, chopping onions and dropping them into the pot to caramelize. A little shredded cheese to top it off, and this is sure to make a really good soup.

As he goes over the recipe in his mind, he moves fluidly around the kitchen, now completely comfortable in this space that he’s come to claim for himself. It’s easy to fall into a rhythm, and the familiar processes that come with cooking are repetitive and soothing, drawing some of the tenseness from his shoulders and smoothing over the persistent crease in his brow.

He slides the shallow pot into the oven to toast for a few minutes, undoing his apron strings and hanging the dirty apron on its designated hook. He pauses for a moment, lets his hands linger on the apron’s edge, and frowns softly. The kitchen is too quiet. For a time, cooking here had made for a good distraction, but now all he can think about is the fact that there’s no one here but himself and Shigeo. No children hovering at the doorway in search of treats, no Sisters poking their heads in to see how he’s doing, no Tome come to steal tastes from his bowls and distract him with silly stories and dreams made up on the spot. He’d never realized before how much those little things meant to him, but now they seem so far away that they’d be impossible to obtain without giving up on his own dream.

Sighing defeatedly, he pokes his head back out into the parlor to let Shigeo know that the food is nearly ready. However, he hesitates when he sees that Shigeo has fallen fast asleep, his head resting on his arms atop one of the round tables in the middle of the room, his quiet breathing the only thing breaking the silence.

He must have been tired, Teru muses, wandering over to his table to stand at his side. He’s wearing his winter coat, but it’s still cold, even inside the diner. Just to be safe, Teru picks up Shigeo’s discarded uniform jacket and drapes it over his back and shoulders, if only to provide an extra layer to help stave off the cold.

Teru stands, quietly, at the side of the table for a few long moments, eyes downcast. Despite his desire to keep moving, to finish what he came for, he can’t help but feel like he’s not wanted or needed here, at least in the eyes of most. He has a job here, a class schedule, and friends, but even as he tries to list the good things in his head, he can’t seem to outnumber the bad. He sniffles loudly, reaching up to rub his nose as his throat tightens and he feels his eyes begin to burn. He has everything he could possibly ask for here, but he still finds himself sinking under the weight of his loneliness.

When Teru leaves the diner for the night, he leaves behind two things: the finished pot of french onion soup, and a neatly folded note containing only three words: “Thank you. Goodbye.”

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #mp100 fanfic #kageyama shigeo #terumob #hanazawa teruki #kurata tome #serendipitousfics

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marinsawakening · 4 years

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hey anyone wants to hear about the MP100 Lieat AU that I’ve spent way too much time developing? No? Well too fucking bad here it is:

Reigen is the Theo equivalent, obviously. He’s a licensed private investigator who also happens to be a conman pretending to be a dragon with the ability to read minds travelling from town to town looking for money. One day, he wakes up and finds a dragon egg under his bed, and soon has to deal with actual dragon Mob looking up to him for guidance.

The power Reigen pretends to have is less telepathy and more empathy. He generally keeps his explanations vague enough that it’s hard for people to get a good grasp on the limitations of his ‘power’, making conning them easier, but in essence, he says he has the ability to read people’s emotions and intentions to a very high degree of accuracy. Which is true, it’s just not magic.

The wish Mob was born from was made when Reigen had been run out of town after being exposed as a con for like, the seventh time in a row, and he was pretty done with it, and it made him wish his lies could just disappear. Que Mob.

idk this is subject to change bc it should maybe be a Bit More Serious, but I’m not giving Reigen Theo’s tragic backstory so I’m not sure how to go about this yet.

Reigen generally doesn’t feel guilty when lying to people, which is why his lies don’t manifest for Mob. However, over the course of his time with Mob, he slowly started to feel more and more guilty for lying to him, but he suppresses it, letting everything build up inside him. This is obviously going to backfire sooner or later.

Mob is Efi, a young dragon (about a year and a half old) with the ability to eat lies. Although he is quite powerful, he has little control over his powers and dislikes fighting, so he attempts to use them at little as possible. Unfortunately, since he does need to eat, and since his abilities are very useful to Reigen, he still ends up using them quite a bit, but nevertheless, he’s still pretty small and functionally the equivalent of a human 14-year-old.

For a reason he doesn’t know, he can’t make Reigen’s lies manifest. This confuses him quite a bit, especially after figuring out that Reigen isn’t a dragon and therefore doesn’t have any magic to counteract him. It sort of worries him, but since this is his norm, he figures it might just be a limit of his power.

He knows Reigen isn’t a dragon and figured it out about three to six months into his existence. However, he hasn’t told Reigen that he knows.

In this AU, Mob’s tendency to suppress his emotions/emotionless exterior is because a) he’s autistic and has flat effect, b) he’s autistic and has alexithymia, and c) when he gets emotional his powers go haywire, which he’s scared of.

I’m not sure yet if ???% is a thing that exists in this AU, but if he does, he’s probably going to some kind of lie ooze monster.

I’m also thinking of maybe giving him an extra power, namely the power to control the lie monsters, since I feel like that would make him suitably overpowered.

Ritsu is a human(?) kid that Mob picked up after his first job. Ritsu’s parents were murdered, and Mob decided that he deserved good parents, and since Reigen is a good parent, Mob dragged Ritsu with him and Reigen really had no way of protesting.

The three of them travel through towns looking for work and solving mysteries, and I currently have about three to four arcs planned out, More details about those and Ritsu + some other characters in this AU under the cut.

About Ritsu:

The murder of Ritsu’s parents was the first real job of Mob and Reigen. Ritsu hired Reigen after learning he was supposedly a dragon, because the police weren’t making any progress in solving the murders. It worked out fine since Mob was able to make the killer’s lies manifest and get them caught. During the investigation him and Ritsu bonded and Mob forced Reigen to adopt Ritsu.

Ritsu hates Reigen’s guts, because he recognizes that the man is a con and is pretty livid at him for a) lying to Mob and b) taking up the investigation into Ritsu’s parents’ murders by getting Ritsu to hire him under false pretenses, which yes, that worked out fine, but only thanks to Mob; he could’ve easily gotten the wrong guy arrested just bc he didn’t want to fess up to his lies. In Ritsu’s eyes, Reigen is a selfish asshole with no regard for others using Mob for his own means. He stays with Reigen because he feels responsible for Mob, and also because he has literally nowhere else to go, though he won’t admit that last part.

Ritsu has something of an inferiority complex, believing he brings little to the family because of his lack of powers or even any special skills (like Reigen has), and overcompensates by being unnaturally polite and helpful.

This eventually leads to him subtly lying to Mob and Reigen about his feelings, but since it’s not something Ritsu admits to himself is a lie and it’s more a lie of omission than a real blatant lie anyway, this doesn’t really manifest as a monster and instead just becomes ooze. Ritsu can usually clean it up before anyone sees it, but even if they do, Mob can’t properly figure out what it is or where it came from, so nobody traces it to Ritsu, and so he continues to hide it.

This will eventually reach a breaking point where Ritsu is consumed by the ooze and Mob can’t really save him anymore because he has trouble eating the slippery oozy lies. Saving Ritsu required the combined efforts of Mob eating whatever lies he could and giving pep talks, and Reigen talking to Ritsu, for the first time admitting to him that yes, he lies to them as well, and that he has similar feelings of self hatred and understands what he’s going through, and that he’s sorry for not noticing what Ritsu was going through, and just generally being completely honest with Ritsu (and Mob) for the first time since meeting him.

This eventually leads Ritsu to the realization that he’s essentially doing the same as Reigen; hiding his true self because he’s afraid of what people will think of him, and instead using lies to entice people to stay, and this realization is what makes him understand that he can’t keep lying. He knows that Reigen’s way of living is unsustainable, so his must be as well. This realization is what’s needed to finally make him able to break away from the ooze, and have it properly manifest as lies, which Mob then eats.

This incident improves Ritsu’s relationship with Reigen. While he still doesn’t like him and has justifiable issues with the guy, he does understand him a little better now and sees him as a person rather than a 2D asshole, and makes him believe Reigen has the capacity for change.

Yes, this is probably going to be something of a combination of the ???% arc and the Big Clean Up arc.

Ritsu may or may not be a dragon. Everyone (including himself) is under the impression that he’s human, but I’m debating whether it’d be interesting if he later turned out to be a dragon, as a parallel to canon.

I also have the basic idea for the world domination arc, so have some characters:

Touichiriou. He is the captain of the police, a human presiding over the dragon department and many crime investigations. He was appointed because the higher ups wanted a human influence on the dragons. Unbeknownst to everyone, he’s still a dickhead bitch who is planning world domination, and he’s grooming the dragons in the department’s care to be his personal army. This eventually leads to this AU’s version of the World Domination Arc.

He and the family have quite a bit of run-ins, because Reigen & Co keep getting tangled up in crimes he’s investigating. He and Reigen do NOT get along, but since Reigen’s technically not committing any crimes, Touichirou doesn’t have an excuse to arrest him. That didn’t stop him from trying once, but Serizawa interfered and Reigen was free to go. Touichirou hasn’t tried it again, since that could attract serious attention, but boy oh howdy is he bad at disguising his hatred.

Touichirou realized pretty quickly after meeting Reigen that he wasn’t actually a dragon, because that’s not an act you can keep up for very long when people actually know a thing or two about dragons. Touichirou knows that Mob is a dragon and he wants him so bad. Mob is very powerful and his abilities could be extremely useful for someone who is planning to be a dictator. Unfortunately for him, everything points towards Reigen being a good caretaker of Mob, and since it’s department policy to not separate dragons from their humans if they don’t want to be separated and aren’t in danger, his hands are tied. It’s one of the primary reasons he hates Reigen so much, and why he tried to have him arrested.

Mob doesn’t really care much for Touichirou, but doesn’t necessarily think he’s a bad guy either, just thinks he’s kind of rude and very no nonsense. Ritsu is somewhat suspicious of him, first because Ritsu is suspicious of everyone, and later because he has more interaction with Shou, and although he doesn’t necessarily see any immediate reason to think Touichirou might be up to no good, having your best friend tell you to keep your brother away from his ‘father’ is not something you forget. Ritsu does not tell Reigen or Mob about this, because he doesn’t want Mob to worry, and because he trusts Reigen about as far as he can throw him.

Serizawa is a dragon who is nominally Touichirou’s second in command/co-captain, like Brett is to Neil, but in practice, he defers to Touichirou entirely. He is a lot like his Claw self, and is being manipulated by Touichirou.

Serizawa was taken out of the care of his human pretty much as soon as he was born, as his human was scared of his power and kept him locked up in a small room, and called the police to pick him up as soon as she realized she didn’t know what to do with him. He was one of the first dragons placed under Touichirou’s care, and has latched onto him because he had no one else.

He’s being manipulated, obviously, but doesn’t really realize that the way Touichirou treats him isn’t normal, since he spent so much of his life around him and no one else. He’s slowly starting to suspect something might be wrong after seeing how Reigen treats Mob (i.e. just like a human being), but he’s deep in denial.

Serizawa’s power is energy manipulation; he can manipulate energies electricity and warmth to form ‘barriers’ that basically roast whatever comes through and attack people with explosions of power or targeted electrocution/overheating. He was most likely born out of a wish to get electricity to become warm, after the electricity in his human’s house stopped working during a snowstorm.

He’s about five years old in literal years, but about the equivalent of a 30-year-old human, since he’s used his powers quite a lot.

Serizawa and Reigen befriend each other, though Serizawa tries to pretend this isn’t true because Touichirou would murder him. However, they get along very well, and Reigen tries to tell Serizawa to get some self esteem and not let Touichirou treat him like shit, but Reigen doesn’t really realize what’s actually going on and it really doesn’t work for that reason.

Eventually, during the final battle, he’ll turn on Touichirou to save a bunch of the kid dragons (the Awakening Lab kids) in the department’s care, who would’ve otherwise died from overexerting their powers. He takes over Touichirou’s place at the force, afterwards, and slowly grows into his own.

Shou is a dragon born out of Touichirou’s wish to have someone who would be capable of doing all the sneaky things Touichirou himself can’t do. He has the power of invisibility as a result, and Touichirou frequently sends him on ‘errands’ that are mainly just missions to steal stuff or infiltrate something or another to get information. He’s working to take Touichirou down.

Shou is still very young, only about six months old, but has grown almost as much as Mob has due to his very frequent use of his power. In fact, he uses it so frequently, he’s permanently of the verge of overusing it, and he’s always in danger of dying of it. He’s not planning on stopping anytime soon though, not until he’s taken Touichirou down.

It took Shou about three months to realize what a douchebag Touichirou was, mainly because Shou read some of the comics lying around for the young dragons, and realized that the people who try to take over the world are usually not the good guys.

Because Shou’s moral system mainly comes from comic books, it’s very black and white, and very oversimplified. He realizes murder is bad, but doesn’t quite understand why, so he even though he doesn’t kill, he still frequently goes too far à la the Kageyama House Fire. He thinks his father is the ultimate evil, and because Shou opposes him, he must be a hero. This mindset doesn’t lend itself to more complex understandings of morality, but that’s to be expected, growing up with a dad like that. It’s kind of a miracle his moral compass is this good.

Shou met the family not long after realizing his dad was a bitch, and immediately related to Ritsu, because Ritsu was complaining about having to deal with a parental figure who lies and manipulates him and his brother and uses him and his brother for his own gain, and Shou immediately went “!!!! same hat!” This led him to project his own negative emotions towards his father onto Reigen, which hasn’t been conductive towards their relationship. He gets along okay with Mob, but frequently gets annoyed with him because, in his eyes, he’s incapable of seeing how Reigen uses him and it reminds him of Serizawa.

Doesn’t like Serizawa, because he’s annoyed by his yes man attitude, and doesn’t really understand that some people react to abuse and manipulation differently than he does.

Shou spends a lot of time sowing the seeds of unrest and rebellion within the dragon police. That’s how he met Fukuda, Higashi, and Ootsuki in this AU; they’re dragon officers who agreed to work with Shou.

One of the main reasons Reigen hates and distrusts Touichirou (aside from clashing personalities and the whole getting arrested thing) is that Reigen is aggressively not on board with the way he treats Shou. While Touichirou obviously doesn’t let people know that Shou does spy stuff, he does frequently bring Shou along with investigations and has him work for the police, and it’s clear that he doesn’t see him as a kid, but rather as an employee at best and a tool at worst. Mob and Ritsu don’t really pick up on how wrong it is, because they’re kids and they have some difficulty grasping the nuances in this situation, but Reigen, as an adult, can see how Touichirou treats Shou completely inappropriately for a child, and he’s Not Having It.

He suspects that Touichirou may actually be abusive and not just a dickhead, but he doesn’t have any evidence, and since the way he treats Shou isn’t illegal or anything (and even if it was, what’s he gonna do? call the police?), his hands are tied. He does try to get Shou to talk to him, subtly trying to figure out exactly how far Touichirou’s dickishness goes, but Shou trusts him about as far as he can throw him and is unresponsive.

A large part of his arc is going to be learning to be a kid and recovering from everything. It’s mostly going to take place after Touichirou’s defeat, though it starts during it, when Reigen jumps into the fight to try and kick Touichirou’s ass in his place because he doesn’t these fucking kids fighting, damnit. That was a moment of revelation for him, pretty much, and his opinion of Reigen approves afterwards, and so he agrees to travel with him, Mob, and Ritsu.

(Obviously the kicking-ass-thing doesn’t go all that well, and Serizawa and maybe Mob have to jump in to help him, but hey, it’s the thought that counts.)

#mp100 #lieat #as you can see it's still under construction but i love it already #my posts

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freshmb100fan · 5 years

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Manga vs Anime thoughts

Episode 2 & Chapter 2-4:

Dude may I repeat how much Reigen’s portrayed like a villain in the manga??? XD

I love it. This makes me actually worry for Mob, for real.

While the anime uses this scene mainly for a more comedic effect..? (they do tend to give serious moments a comedic flavour and vice versa)

The scene in the manga ended right then and there after his creepy stare, while the anime mellowed it out with a few more shots of his office. Not too much of a change in that regard, but it still gave us two completely different effects to the same scene!

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Takenaka’s so chill here lol A big contrast to this

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I’ve noticed that the buildup for some jokes flow much better in the manga! Another example of why ONE is such a great writer! Poor Bones must be having so much trouble deciding on what to cut...

For example, Reigen spent three pages coming up with supernatural reasons for this guy’s stiff shoulders until he settled on it being porn sites.

And the telepathy club spent an entire page planning out how to recruit a new member before the student council came in and ruined their plans. An entire page for some reason feels much longer than a few seconds in a show... or maybe that’s just me.

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Huh, another omake or original o: I’m just gonna assume these shuffled mini-arcs are from later in the manga or an omake. Looking forward to reading those as well!

Speaking of joke buildup, this middle content might have been a neccessity actually. As I mentioned above, anime needs more time to deliver a joke than manga does, and so this mini-arc might be their way to give the “Telepathy vs Body improvement” joke the buildup it needed. If they had adapted page by page then it would’ve went by way too fast, since the manga delivered the joke in one go, basically throughout the whole chapter 4, and then it moved on. Aaaaa the anime merged it so well tho! The transitions were so smooth, they apparently included a whole mini-arc, threw in more of Mob’s family (or maybe that was in the mini-arc too) and made him come back the next day to pick up where they left off. 👏

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Ending this episode comparison with my newfound reaction image

#kuro's mob journey #mob psycho 100 manga #mob psycho 100 #mp100 #why is this so fun #wish I could do this more instead of school #mine

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kabaitan · 5 years

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be somebody.

Be Somebody: A Brief Review of Existential Concepts in MP100 dedicated to the loveliest claude, for indulging me.

Cautionary Note: I took one (1) course in existential psychotherapy in grad school and this is probably just a fever dream I’ve been dying to write since I started MP100 so take what you will from this. I am by no means a crazy expert on existentialism and this is all 1000% self-indulgent. Moreover, I am obviously not ONE-sensei and therefore this is just acts as a personal and theoretical comparative interpretation of certain plot directions.

I. The Human Condition of Despair One of the major tenants of existentialism, proposed by Soren Kierkegaard, is that humans are always in a state of despair. Not all people are aware of this state; some people go their entire lives being in what Kierkegaard considers the lowest level of awareness in regards to despair while others become aware of their suffering at some level. Often times, to escape suffering, people busy themselves with earthly things or minor issues. In the end, these attempts to avoid suffering and despair are typically futile and are only temporary.

In his mid 20s, Reigen is working an office job, typical for people at his age. More often than not, there is a norm or niche job posed by certain cultures or societies – in this case, the salaryman/OL. For people in that society to escape personal suffering and despair, they fall safely into society’s cookie-cutter expectation while unknowingly renouncing their agency and freedom to choose (another major concept considered in existential theory). Reigen does this for a while and it appears that his office peers are unaware of their states of personal suffering and continue life as is.

In time, Reigen becomes aware of how his routine is unfulfilling. This does not mean that Reigen (of all people) is at the highest plane of awareness – there are a few more levels, but he is a bit more self aware than others. Becoming aware that the facade of happiness he gained by leading a mundane lifestyle is just that, Reigen makes an impulsive decision to quit his job.

II. The Duality of Man During Reigen’s quarterlife crisis, he finds himself in a state of confusion. In this state, he appears to not know where to proceed after quitting his job. He impulsively rents out a space to do something, but it is not clear what it is at the time of purchase. Unlike every rational young adult with the world at their fingertips, Reigen chooses to make his new living out of one of the most outrageously outrageous careers possible.

Reigen may have chosen a stupid goal like becoming a psychic as a huge finger to The Man and Society for wasting a portion of his career as a salaryman or he was just running out of options… Either way, choosing a path that opens one to obvious ridicule may be compared to the plight of many protagonists in works of literature which illustrate the duality of man. In particular, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella Notes from Underground presents a character dubbed the Underground Man, a painfully honest, troubled, and bitter retiree in nineteenth-century Russia who is highly skeptical of "normal" people who blindly follow societal ideals without question. As the novella progresses, the Underground Man expresses his raw human existence through angry outbursts and frantic attempts to be accepted by those around him, leading him to either be rejected or humiliated.

In Reigen’s case, he is certainly not foolish enough to think that being a psychic would be a widely accepted career goal, and yet, he continued to proceed with it anyway. While we see the rationale for his underlying motives (which will be touched on later), one can see his actions as a representation of freedom from societal expectation. In Notes from Underground, the Underground Man knowingly acts horribly to people and completely out of the ordinary, but does so simply because he wants to show is free to do so. Reigen quit his job and could have easily selected a more secure career path, but chose something he saw at the back of a magazine. Each day as a psychic probably left Reigen open to obvious critique by family and even his own clients, but he could at least say he chose to be in that position, instead of being in a state of equilibrium that was imposed on him by society. While playing fast and loose with your early adult career is not a wise decision, Reigen felt satisfied – at least at first – by acting like a complete fool in his new business, because he had chosen that lifestyle for himself.

III. Man’s Search for Himself Not only could opening Spirits and Such be considered an initial proclamation of freedom, but it may also serve as a challenge to the existential vacuum. Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl discussed what he called the “existential vacuum,” which leads people to become bored with their lives as they are ultimately unfulfilling and empty. Frankl described the existential vacuum as a product of modern society, stating that technically speaking, nothing and nobody tells a person what they must do or should do, leading people to either do what others do or what others want us to do. Essentially, we are ultimately free beings to choose our path, but instead of honing that freedom, people just copy what others do because they gradually come to believe it is correct or good, or simply wait for someone to tell them what to do with their lives. Reigen’s peers, like almost all people, took a backseat in life and let society dictate what they would become. When Reigen becomes aware that he too gave up his freedom to choose his future, he attempts to shake himself out of his boredom and chooses to make a change.

While Reigen initially enjoyed his freedom at his new job, he eventually slips back into another existential vacuum in the form of working odd jobs at the agency. He soon realizes that being a “psychic” while not actually being psychic isn’t as fulfilling as he might have originally anticipated, and Reigen begins to reconsider his life decisions again.

Regarding existential frustration, Frankl theorized that in order to surpass boredom from life, one must move toward what he described as the “self-transcendence of human existence”. In this, one must look outside the self, and it is outside the self that one will then find a meaning to their life:

Being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself – be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter.

Frankl outlined three ways that human beings can find meaning in their lives and move toward self-transcendence: 1) by creating a work or doing a deed, 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone, and 3) by the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering. (Making art or loving someone are general examples of points one and two.)

Just as Reigen readies himself for another life change, Mob enters his life. Intentional or not, Reigen accepts Mob as any other client and provides him half-baked advice. However, something about the response he receives from Mob becomes a trigger to continue the business he was close to ending out of boredom and dissatisfaction. While on one hand, it can be interpreted that Reigen really only chose to continue his shady business because he happened upon a real-deal esper. On the other hand, later events reference that Reigen’s actions are driven in part by a desire to help Mob mature, as he had said he would. In many ways, Reigen was able to ascribe a meaning to his life through his meeting with Mob, and declaring himself the person who would help him grow.

The separation arc provides necessary conflict in order to draw attention to these intentions. Reigen allowed selfish desire for personal gain to push Mob away, even if Mob is one of few reasons he became successful at all. At the start of their separation, Reigen appeared to be moving on well without Mob; his business thriving just as long as he could bullshit his way out in the way he always did. Despite the fact that his business is thriving, Reigen continues to work yet remains unsatisfied. It becomes obvious before, during, and definitely after Reigen’s fall from grace and during the press conference that he fucked up. While at one point Reigen felt he had actually become somebody important, that was the same point that he realized that he had become somebody he did not want to be. Reigen flew too closely to the sun and forgot why he still did what he does. In mentoring Mob – as dysfunctional as that relationship was/is – was where Reigen found meaning to trudge on with his existence. It is once he turned his focus away from Mob and back unto himself that he essentially lost what gave meaning to his life. It doesn’t seem like a long shot to consider that Reigen himself becomes aware that he lost sight of what was important as he sends a cryptic message to Mob at the end of the conference. As the two come together to reconcile and let out the elephant in the room, Reigen refocuses his attention and subsequently regains his sense of meaning.

Referenced Readings + Extended Material:

Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death (1849)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864)

Jean Paul Sartre, Nausea (1938)

Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf (1927)

Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (1946)

Rollo May, Man’s Search for Himself (1953)

#*analysis: philosophy #*analysis: psychology #*s: mp100

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aranciafiamma · 6 years

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ONE and Self Improvement

I just wanted to take this time to appreciate how neurodivergent both of ONE’s main protags are.

Like the “Ambigious Disorder” trope with Mob - and bear in mind ONE has never explicitly stated Mob is autistic, so unfortunately, no one can say it’s Explicitly Canon and therefore Explicit Representation. But damn. It’s so overt, it’s not so much subtext as highlighted text - never outright stated but pretty blatant.

But I also really think Saitama from One Punch isn’t as neurotypical.

Okay. Apart from again the nonexplicit but over coding of Depression. I’m fairly sure Saitama has an attention disorder. He has trouble listening to people. When he says “20 Words or Less”, it’s both a measure of his patience but I also honestly believe it’s a measure of his ability to process information that requires a little more time. We also see him zone out a lot. We see him “hear” people but not quite “process” what they’re saying. We see him usually distracted or doing something else in the background. And he’s canonically seen as a bit of a “troublemaker” in school and at work. Like the first time we see Saitama try to work we others, he just gets yelled at for not keeping pace with everyone else.

When we see Saitama around people of authority, he’s immediately labeled as lazy and disorderly. But it’s not like he’s slow to learn or not working hard. When we see Saitama as an adult, he has surprisingly knowledge about stuff like debt collection laws. He learns at his own pace. These things are *me* markers of someone who’s got ADD or ADHD. A mind prone to being distracted due to lack of sufficient stimulation.

And Saitama not having sufficient stimulation is like *canonically* the source of all his problems and the root cause of his depression.

And here’s where I kinda wish ONE pushed the envelope a bit with Mob. Because Mob is ideal. Like we see people take advantage of him and it’s a recurring problem. But neither his family or his friends - his support network - really care much to fundamentally change him in any way.

And ONE likes to push how it’s easy to blame Society and Other People for personal failings.

But to be frank, that’s a little easy for people like Reigen to scold people like Sakurai about. When you belong to the ethnic majority - or your ethnicity is preferred, when you’re abled bodied and neurotypical, when you present in a way that fits the heteronormative norms, you tend to enjoy certain perks. (Caveat: Reigen and Sakurai might not fit the heteronormative norms or may have hidden conditions not visible at a cursory glance. I’m not saying they don’t because we don’t really see into their identities much. But they seem pretty “ideally average”.)

For the purpose of this meta essay, I kinda wanna talk about Mob not looking typical or within the norms at a cursory glance or interaction. Within meeting Mob, most people notice that he’s not really expressive and “kinda off”. And what I wished ONE did with Mogami Arc was tackle what those issues mean with a desire to self improve.

It’s one thing to blame society when you fit within expectations. You start sounding like well.

Weh, weh. Baby want bottle.

But it’s another thing when you’re not exactly preferred, and you’re considered deficient in some way.

The relationship isn’t of course clear cut. But not everything is a personal failing, and not everything is society’s fault. There’s a bit more of a middle ground especially when it comes to not fitting within the preferred normal.

ONE grapples a bit more with this in One Punch than he did with Mob Psycho. In Mob Psycho, Mob lives in an ideal environment where the people who disparage him for being different are background characters. No one in his immediate circle negatively react to his way of doing things.

And I wish that nuance was introduced. It would have added a degree of complexity to the isolation rather than just “suddenly everyone who loved you don’t exist”. Like, let’s talk about how perceived norms affect how other people react to you. And let’s talk about how that could isolate someone who isn’t in fact normal. This sort of isolation *can still be* in line with Toushirou’s whole let’s take over the world as the “superior being” complex. Probably fits a bit better.

And it doesn’t counter ONE’s whole “you have to do better with your own two hands” message either. Because the thing that One Punch had that Mob Psycho never directly addresses is how other people will fail you. Mob is a sweetheart. He believes the best in people. So much so that people want to be better and do better.

But when you look at Saitama, how he’s effectively isolated himself and been isolated by people through most of his life up until he is 25 , you see a different sort of engine running. Saitama is aware that for the most part, he disappoints the people who work with him. He’s lazy or disorderly. He can’t play well with a team. And how that never stopped Saitama from becoming One Punch Man. He recognized his own personal failings then pretty much ignored what everyone else said. Which is his strength. Even if everyone hates you, keep being kind anyways. Keep doing good anyways. Even if the only person in your corner is yourself.

Anyways. I think ONE is neat.

#mob psycho 100 #one punch man #opm #MP100

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gofancyninjaworld · 6 years

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Is The Organization a Claw Analogue?

< 20: The Organisation is a collection of individuals who claim to have transcended humanity. There might be trouble.

This is a speculative theory rather than an analysis (for once!) but I thought that it'd be nice to have something to speculate about The Organisation that was a little different. I was on an OPM-related discord and had an awesome conversation, in which the person mentioned that they thought that cyborgs were accepted on OPM because they blend in and I idly started to pull up panels of known cyborgs on OPM.

And then I went hmm, this is odd...

I'll start with the end and work my way back.

I wonder if The Organisation is a bit like Claw in Mob Psycho 100. At the head of Claw was Tochiro, who wanted to take over the world, but largely, it was a place that collected psychics who felt alienated from society and found a place where they could see it as an identity, where that identity would be celebrated and they could feel superior to non-psychics. Philosophically and practically, they're opposed by Mob, Reigen and their allies, who see psychic ability as just another attribute a person happens to have, like height or hair colour.

What was most important in the Claw arc was this values clash.

What's this got to do with cyborgs in OPM? More than you'd think initially, because there are two main strands of cyborgs in the series.

Small ‘c’ cyborgs

The first are cyborgs the way we practically understand them in the real world: a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device. There are many of these cyborgs in OPM. To give a couple of examples:

Death Gatling, who has had his missing left arm replaced with a prosthetic that can take a minigun.

Sekingal and his cybernetic eye

And in the webcomic, we will have Air and his cybernetic voicebox that replaced his badly-damaged larynx.

For these people, their parts and devices are not a defining part of who they are as people. They're people who just happen to be using devices to help or enhance their lives. That said, they haven't settled for merely replacing lost function. Death Gatling has had his arm modified so he can attach a minigun ( effectively supporting its weight and recoil without hurting himself is non-trivial, but we'll elide over that!) and Sekingal hasn't settled for simple binocular vision either. Nevertheless, we'll call these people small 'c' cyborgs for reasons that will become clear next paragraph.

Big ‘C’ Cyborgs

Then we have the other kind of cyborgs, which are what people usually think of when they talk about cyborgs in science fiction. The ones who've modified their whole bodies to the point where they're more machine than man. There's quite a few on OPM:

Here's one from The Organisation, at least the guy on the left. I don't know about the one on the right -- he's either also a cyborg or else a robot with an extremely advanced AI. Note the lack of facial expression and a definite inhuman appearance.

Here's Drive Knight. Note no clothes, no facial expression, just one eye.

Jet Nice Guy. The no clothes theme continues. He does have facial expressions but crude hands, and needing sunglasses to cover eyes.

I'm calling these guys big 'c' Cyborgs because their feel is very different from those of the previous group. It's not about dealing with disability here. They're about identifying as a different kind of being: a man-machine hybrid, what would be termed transhumans. They make little attempt to blend in and 'pass' as regular people. At will, why not change shape altogether? Gallop or roll instead of run? Why limit yourself to two arms? I'm sure that as the manga progresses, we're going to see even more weird and wonderful Cyborgs. And it's something some people desire: Jet Nice Guy had full body modification surgery as soon as he got a windfall of cash that enabled him to do so. And why not? What's wrong with being harder, faster, stronger, with more capabilities than an ordinary person can even imagine having?

I keep wondering if one of the reasons The Organization exists is as a place founded by and for transhumans. Just as no organisation we've ever seen ONE write has all its members have the same motivations for joining, I expect that we'll see a variety of motives in The Organization too, but transhumanism will be the linking value. The one thing we do know about The Organization is that they see themselves in opposition to human beings.

The Weirdo

Values wise, I'm betting that Cyborgs will see Genos as a small c cyborg. He's very much the odd one out: while he may be very comfortable with being a cyborg, it's a tool, a means to an end for him, rather than something he has always wanted to be. He very consciously lives as a human being, identifying with humans, wearing regular clothes, eating regular food, staying human-sized, human-shaped and walking or taking public transport when he can fly perfectly well. It's not something to be taken for granted at all and it's really a case of exceptional care on the part of Kuseno.

It's most obvious in the case of his eyes. Their external appearance bears no relation to their actual function. He can see perfectly fine with no apparent light in them. Instead, the 'pupils' and 'iris' are rendered as social communication to show those around him where he's looking and what he's thinking/feeling. It's an honest indicator of his arousal state. The higher his arousal level, the more simply they’re rendered -- the ‘pupils’ tend to disappear first and the ‘iris’ eventually shrinks to a hard yellow dot. In the image below, on the left, Genos has a dangerous situation well in hand (he’s fixing to kill Garou). On the right, Fubuki has unwittingly hit his ‘bersek’ button by bringing back Saitama’s missing cabbages. Don't play poker, Genos!

When the Mad Cyborg arc gets underway properly and we start learning more about cyborgs, the very different types of cyborgs that exist is going to make for some very interesting values clashes. In his writings, ONE has been very big on the notion that having different abilities, be they inherited or acquired, does not make you a better person. And there's a potential parallel that makes me quite excited for when the arc begins.

Just as Claw was smashed by an immensely powerful psychic who didn't see his gifts as making him superior to 'ordinary' people in any way, The Organisation is likely to get smashed by a soon to become immensely powerful cyborg who has learned the hard way not to see his abilities as making him superior to 'ordinary' people in any way.

With one important difference. While Mob and Reigen were satisfied to give the other psychics a few home truths about their true nature and their role in society, Genos is a little less kind. From the beginning, he's aimed to become as a very vengeful god to Cyborgs.

This, as they say, is going to get good.

#OPM #Genos #Drive Knight #cyborgs #meta #mob psycho 100 #internal culture #The Organization #what measure is a human?#all your fault Raya #Sekingar

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katyatalks · 4 years

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Mob Psycho 100 - Kameda Yoshimichi’s Character Design Notes

With each blu-ray/DVD volume of MP100 Character Designer Kameda Yoshimichi gives some notes regarding his process designing each character. Here are all his notes for S1 in the order they are presented, regarding; Kageyama Shigeo, Reigen Arataka, Tsubomi, Dimple, Kurata Tome, Mezato Ichi, Hanazawa Teruki, Gouda Musashi, Kageyama Ritsu, Onigawara Tenga, Koyama, Awakening Lab Five, Terada, Matsuo, Sakurai, Ishiguro, Muraki.

KAGEYAMA SHIGEO

With Mob-kun, the first thing I had a bit of trouble with was - do I keep his design as it is in the manga!!??? Should I make him a little prettier!!!!!??? Should I make him taller!!!!??? Those were the kinds of things I thought about. During a meeting, we didn’t reach any conclusion, so I tried out a few things!!!! ONE-san’s recent designs for Mob Psycho 100 have been amazingly good, so I scooped up the taste of those illustrations and applied them to my anime designs. The atmosphere of the manga is lost if you make these characters too beautiful or make them taller, so I made the right choice!!

REIGEN ARATAKA

I feel I didn’t really struggle with Reigen’s anime design!!!! His suit is plain and there’s not many parts to his design, which was a little upsetting, but in terms of his character there’s no need to decorate him, so I thought that simple is fine. More than anything he pulls plenty of funny faces, so even if his design is simple he stands out as a character, so I think leaving his design as it is in the manga was the correct decision. In the manga, his tie is black, but here, to give a little extra to his design, his tie is pink - that’s a feature of the anime!!!!! Also, Something I particularly fussed over in the anime was the way he stands, with his hips cocked!!!! That’s the anime’s Reigen!!!!!

TSUBOMI

Fans of Mob Psycho 100 probably went, “Who the hell is this”, huh. (Laughs). A discussion was had in which I said I wanted to make her more heroine-like and sparkly - in the manga, she gives off the impression that she turns a lot of heads and puts on airs, but for the anime I thought it’d be good to make her into a more traditionally coded heroine!!!!!! From a directorial perspective I wanted to give her a country-girl-kinda look, so I gave her a hairpin. Regarding the colour of her hair and eyes, there was a lot of trial and error…... well, I think the way she is now is the most heroine-ish, isn’t it!!!!! She’s voiced by Satake-san, too, which is something symbolic!!!!!

DIMPLE

Dimple is a character that I had a good amount of trouble figuring out how to deal with design-wise - I’ll contrast him with Mob-kun, give him a flashy colour, then should I make him luminescent?? Have him slowly sway as he floats?? You could say Dimple’s facial expressions are the greatest in Mob Psycho 100, so I tried to draw as many variations in Dimple’s reference sheet as possible. Drawing expressions for this work was really fun! When I draw, I’m aware that I give distinct facial features!!! Well, not that distinct, but (laughs). Also, Ootsuka-san lending his nice, low voice to a character like Dimple gave the character depth, in a way that makes him quite profound. That’s the power of voice acting… but it made me a little worried, as I thought, I have to make sure the art lives up to his performance!!!!

KURATA TOME

Tome-san is a character that’s truly perfect as she is in the manga, so I tried to not ruin that! She has THE Mob Psycho face!!!! When I was choosing the colours for the school uniform, my decision was made based on how the colours suited her, Mezato and Tsubomi, but the bright blue in the uniform for some reason or another doesn’t suit Tome-san (laughs). The colour is lost a little on Tome-san. I thought Tome-san was quite a gloomy character, but her voice actress, Tanezaki-san, performs her in such a funny way that I ended up loving her! I think, out of all the characters, my view on her changed the most! “Tome Psycho 100” wouldn’t be a farfetched anime idea.

MEZATO ICHI

I drew Mezato with the intention of making her the heroine!!! When drawing character sheets I draw any particular trait the character may have and then pose them and see what I think - the moment I drew her standing with her camera, I fell in love!! (Laughs). The round head she has due to the silhouette of her short bob - I love that!!!! Her caramel coloured hair also stands out in her design!! She’s fresh!! And her eyes are big and round!! In terms of what makes up her design she’s not too different to Tome-san, but I really felt a girlishness in Mezato!!!! My heart is racing!!! But she never appears!!! Director, please include her more!!!!!!!! Let’s make “Mezato Psycho 100”!!!

HANAZAWA TERUKI

[Written in Osakan dialect that gets more intense as it goes on]

Teru-kun is a character whose appearance changes a lot - I designed 6 variations of his hair and clothes!!!!! That’s way too many!!!!! I don’t know if the number has significance but we see him in his 150% form the most, so I’ve gotten used to seeing him like that!!!! It makes me laugh so much! I wasn’t satisfied - I made his hair extend so far that you can’t even see the top of it usually! In the anime you could say his hair is at 200%!! I can’t decide between the version of him we first see, his bobbed hair version or his short hair version. How can I!!!!! Let’s bring back his 150% hair!!!!!!! Wow, I’ve gone full Osaka dialect here. The colour of his sweater was decided to my taste. Director’s sole judgement was that it’s cute and resembles pyjamas.

GOUDA MUSASHI

As you’d expect, I really fussed over President Gouda of the Body Improvement Club as he’s a popular character!! His characteristics are his caterpillar-like sideburns and eyebrows, his soft mohican hair, and his brawny body. He’s unexpectedly hard to draw (laughs), I suppose I had trouble with him. Above all else The Body Improvement Club’s existence gives a sense of security within Mob Psycho 100 - they’re strong and brave, but it was pretty difficult trying to make sure their facial expressions weren’t too intense!!!!! Kumagawa, Sagawa, Yamamura, Shimura… these are characters who I’d love to delve deeper into!!

KAGEYAMA RITSU

I tried to make Ritsu-kun have more of an adult-like aura than Mob. He barely smiles, so he has an intense look in his eyes. I kept in mind that his eyes are only allowed to become soft when he’s with Mob. His irises are bigger than Mob’s own, so there’s a bit of a difference there. Also, he gets a mid-anime gloom story, so I decided to make his hair a little bit on the longer side. His hair is flexible - I’d make his bangs/fringe longer or shorter depending on his expression. When he’s possessed by Dimple he’s magnificent, using his powers as a weapon. His eyes become even more intense, his hair gets all ruffled up and spiky, and he’s overflowing with confidence. ONE-sensei’s manga have all become like that, too, actually!!!!! Ahahahaha!!!!!!!!

ONIGAWARA TENGA

With Onigawara and his three lackeys, I gave them baggy pants to try and up their rural-delinquent-trashiness factor. Onigawara’s anime features are his baggy pants and the tape he has on his cheek. It gives off the impression that he’s some king of the punks who’s always getting injured… but truth is, it’s probably just there to cover up a pimple (laughs). He’s in a situation where he’s bettering himself after the recorder incident, so perhaps the next time we see him he’ll have given up on those baggy pants and will wear the same clothes as everyone else!!!!!! Switching topics, what’s up with those two wrinkles he has under each eye?? Please enlighten us, ONE-sensei!!!!!!

KOYAMA

You know, since Mob and Reigen use flip phones I thought that was the standard for the Mob Psycho 100 universe, but then we have Koyama with his smartphone. Sakurai uses a flip phone, too. So, only Koyama has a smart phone? What videos does he watch on it? Which apps does he have installed… it’s a mystery… a mystery!!!! Please enlighten us, ONE-sensei!!!! Switching topics, I’m pleased with the unique aura that his special move, Telekinetic Helix, has. Mob, Teru, Ritsu, Claw… everyone has their own particular colours!!

AWAKENING LAB

Hoshino-kun, Asahi-kun, Kurosaki-san, and the Shiratori brothers all have a sense of individuality, so I suppose it was easy to visualise what colours they might have!! For Hoshino-kun, the process was; Hoshino [star field] -> hoshi [star] -> star -> Nishikino Akira [A Japanese celebrity with a song titled ‘Passionate Star Disco’] -> white!! I thought, his clothes definitely have to be white (laughs). Kurosaki-san’s clothes are sporty but not particularly fashionable, Asahi-kun was designed with a ‘you’re almost there’ feeling, and the silent Shiratori brothers have plain clothes… it was with that that I decided the colours of these five, having them all be out of fashion. Episode 10 had Oda-san as its animation director - he drew a very good and cute Kurosaki-san!

TERADA

What stands out with Terada’s design is his T-shirt that droops below his left shoulder - is it a fashion statement, or is it simply worn out of shape? Who knows!! As something special to the anime, his middle fingers that present his special move, “air whip”, are adorned with jewelled rings! I’ll leave it up to you all to decide whether or not those rings have some hidden secret to them. Out of all the upper echelon members of Claw, Terada has the richest facial expressions - plus, he’s voiced by Tachiki-san - so even when he’s undergoing water torture, despite the cruelty of the situation, he still comes across as good and charming!!!!!

MATSUO

Matsuo is monotone-ish in the manga, but, “I could give him a magician-ish feel?”. So now he has a dark green shirt with yellow lines. The vase he carries has a bunch of colourful stickers on it, so I tried to make sure Matsuo himself wasn’t too flashy or he and his vase would clash!! Candy-chan and Cookie-chan were also fun to draw!!!! Their colours are also good!!!!

SAKURAI

This simple, undecorated design is rather like him. I tried to make sure it didn’t look like he was wearing mourning clothes. I included red in the handle of his katana. I intended for his hair colour to be a natural, slightly dark brown… but looking at him on TV, it ended up being more of an unexpectedly lighter brown… Not my intention, lol. His slicked back hair was pretty hard to draw!!! The atmosphere of his design changes depending on how much of a forehead he’s given, the silhouette of his slicked back hair, and the application of highlights. Ah, this is unrelated, but me and his voice actor, Hosoya-san, are from the same area! We’re also similar in age, so I kinda feel an affinity toward him!!!!! You didn’t need to know that.

ISHIGURO

First off, I already knew that in the manga there’s an old man beneath that mask, so I gave him a hunched back! Following a request by the Director I made his boots plump, round, and cute!!!! With that, the woman’s voice that comes out of him with the mask on suits him!! You can really feel how cornered Ishiguro is during the season 1 finale, thanks to the power of his voice actor and the lead animator!!!!! It’s just, he has so many scars on his face that I felt sorry for him, so I want to find out more about him!!! I look forward to seeing him in an active role again!!!! ...Will he appear again, I wonder.

MURAKI

Muraki looks more like he’s in cosplay in the anime than he does in the manga (laughs). Following an idea from the director, I gave him a cloak and a mark on his chest that’s connected to the mark on his forehead!!! He’s even wearing boots!!! His design is all put together with purple in a fashion-conscious way!!! Anyway, it seems the director’s favourite colour is purple. Muraki, purple, muraki, murasaki[purple], director, murasaki[purple], muraki, purple. Something I fussed over with his suit beneath the cloak was giving it a gleaming lustre much like latex would have… makes you unsure of whether or not it’s a high quality suit. All in all, it costs 9800 yen!! A bargain price of 9800 yen! Now then, you there, sitting in front of the TV - together with the director, Let’s Muraki!!!!

Twitter crosspost here.

Season 2 notes here.

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Conflicts and Challenges Within Mob's Mind

Emotions have been at the heart of Mob Psycho 100, and that’s even more true with the new season. The empathetic start to Mob Psycho 100 II has shown that Mob is changing, slowly but surely. Some of these changes have been brought upon by himself, but others have come about due to outside influences. Mob’s been conflicted about whether or not he should use his powers against simple bullies and confronted the idea of whether all spirits are bad and should be eviscerated. The biggest question to come out of these new issues is how they will have an impact on Mob and his overall continuous growth?

From the first season to where we are in season two, Mob has undergone significant changes. He's been able to gain legitmate friends, learn how to not feel as if his powers are a burden on him, and has taken Reigen's advice of not having to fight if things truly get out of hand. While he's still not as emotional as other people around him, he's coming to terms with them more and more, which leads Mob to being able to handle these issues in season two. The Mob of season one would have a much harder time with these than where he is now and it's thanks to the growth he experienced in season one through facing his own problems and with the help of others that he can face what's about to come.

Mob dives straight in this season into a situation that potentially could have ended up worse than it did. Following learning about being deceived by Emi, the negative emotions garnered from that could have been fuel for Mob’s psychic powers. Mob is Mob though, so instead, he doesn’t let it truly get him down and instead helps her when Emi is bullied by her own friends. He shows his sympathy for Emi and belief in her skills as a writer by standing up for her and helping to reassemble her manuscript.

What was surprising here is that he willingly shows her his esper powers. For the first time in quite awhile, Mob lets a non-psychic person see this side of him in order to help her feel better and show that despite what happened, he trusts her. It’s a surprising way to show his emotions in a way that we haven’t seen from him in the previous season. The Mob we then wouldn’t do this nor would we expect him to, but the growth he undertakes throughout allows for this beautiful moment of vulnerability that Mob shows.

Early on, we’re seeing Mob fighting various internal dilemmas that are also going to push him toward changing as a person. The third episode raises two distinct questions that Mob has to mull over. Question one comes from when Mob gets bullied, but is saved by Ritsu and members of the Body Improvement Club. Musashi asks why Mob didn't just fight back and Tenga tells him to use his “powers” in situations like these.

The first question is perhaps easier for Mob to come to terms with since it’s unlikely he’d use his powers for personal gain in that type of situation. He could have easily dispatched those bullies and been on his way. With how some people perceive him as White T Poison, they wouldn’t be surprised to see him use his powers to get rid of anyone in his way, but that’s not Mob. Even Ritsu tells him not to waste his powers on people like that. The only part that could change in the future is if he decides to stand up for himself verbally, but not physically. However even that might be a stretch, since Mob is pretty non-confrontational.

The next question rears its head when Reigen and Mob are tasked with exorcising a spirit. Up until this point, everything has been cut and dry when it comes to spirits. If they’re causing a problem, Mob will get rid of them, no questions asked. With the exception of Dimple, the idea of spirits has been binary—you’re a spirit who will willingly pass on or are looking to cause trouble. What happens when we introduce shades of grey and spirits who aren’t looking for trouble, but just want to stay where they are?

Mob’s reaction to this question is not as simple, and by the end of the third episode, it has him visibly shaken because he’s unsure what would happen if he used his powers for evil. In the heat of the moment, Mob truly is conflicted and doesn’t know what he should do: exorcise the spirits or let them be? His empathetic nature leads him to the decision to let them be, but it’s a choice that can shake the foundation of what he’s been doing all this time. With Mob’s more laid back nature, this is something that can allow him to grow more as a person and push forth his journey into being more emotional.

Perhaps one of the interesting by-products of these changes that Mob is dealing with is how they affect Reigen. Unbeknownst to Mob, Reigen has picked up on how Mob seems to be changing. What could be intriguing about this situation is the reverse effect where this could cause change within Reigen as well. That probably won’t lead to Reigen being less shady, but it seems he’s really going to be more perceptive about looking out for Mob when he’s having trouble or problems as seen in the third episode.

With emotions being the key to psychic powers, what exactly will these new changes mean for Mob? Mob’s empathetic side is going to continue to grow which could help unlock some of the restrictions he’s placed on his emotions that have been locked away because of his powers. That could in turn lead to Mob having a better control over his powers so he doesn’t go completely overboard or out of control when he reaches the upper limits of his emotions. He's able to let loose a bit more because of his power not feeling like a curse anymore or that he has to use it when things are bad. Now, he has more of a choice. Hopefully, it allows Mob to truly experience the human spectrum of emotions without having them be associated with his powers getting out of hand.

The first real test for Mob’s new view on life and the changes he’s had to confront came in episode four and five. Here we will see how he will put everything together and what that will mean for him going forward for the rest of the season , including how to effective use postive emotions and seeing how people's hearts can change. Everything that’s happened to him early in this season looks to be good changes to help Mob, but it’s up to him to decide where to go from here.

What do you think of Mob’s recent dilemmas, and how do you think he will end up as the rest of the season progresses? Let us know in the comments below!

---

Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

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strawberrygiorno · 6 years

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Ok, time to talk about Momo! So, last I heard of him, he was a deaf airbender with an adorable hearing lemur, living with the air nomads in the Northern Air Temple and studying to become a scholar. He knew sign language, which was only really known in the temple, so travelling was difficult for him. Did any part of this change? What else is there to know about him? You mentioned he meets the group (or at least someone in it), how does that happen? What does he think of them? Anything else?

yes!! momo!!

under the cut!!

you’re right!! his lemur’s name is taro, by the way. Momo and taro are so good.

Sign language actually is known outside the temple, it’s just that pretty much everyone in the temple knows it while it’s much harder to find people outside who do. It’s a nice stroke of luck that three whole people on team avatar are fluent (reigen because he grew up at the temple, and mob and ritsu because mob’s got apraxia of speech so he uses signing to communicate sometimes) and the others know at least a little bit from hanging around mob.

After leaving the fire nation and travelling for a while, the group ends up at the northern air temple at reigen’s suggestion, which is how they meet him -- looking for an airbending teacher as well as a place to stay for a while.

Reigen, knowing most of the older monks personally, took to discussing the situation with some of them, and so mob and momo were both stuck outside waiting to be called in. Momo decided he’d had enough of that and ditched, and, having nothing better to do, mob followed him.

Momo had intended to be by himself for awhile, but mob is persistent in following him around. After they talk for a bit mob grows on him and momo offers to show him around the temple, first the bison stables and gardens, but eventually some of the cool secret spots that momo knows about that he sneaks off to when he feels like skipping any kinds of lessons or training.

One of these places happens to be near the hall of statues, which mob takes an interest in. Momo decides to show off a little to his new friend and show him to a secret entrance that he found ages ago, one that wouldn’t alert the monks that the door had been opened.

Once they get inside and mob actually sees everything there, he falls into an almost trance-like state, surrounded by the spiritual energy the room is drenched in, looking all his past faces - eventually his gaze falls on the (yet) unnamed air avatar that came before him, and he freezes.

Momo has no idea what the fuck is going on.

He tries to talk to mob, but mob isn’t paying attention, too caught up in the moment, until suddenly mob collapses, overwhelmed. Momo is freaking out now but manages to get mob outside, and after they spend some time just sitting and giving mob some time to recover, momo asks about what happened.

Mob hesitates, but goes on to explain how he’s had trouble connecting with the spirit world and especially with his past lives, but seeing all of those past avatars he could feel that connection, and it was too much. He also asks that momo not tell anyone about it. The others don’t really know the extent of his issues beyond him having some minor troubles with spirits that they’d encountered.

What had happened was that mob had been slowly opening the connection again over his travels as he came to terms with his role, but it was still weak. All of the information that he was getting from being around these statues flooded in at once, and for a moment he even saw the spirit of the previous avatar again, and it was too much.

He got scared and overwhelmed and shut the door on them again.

(we talked about mob’s complex more here)

After this, they rejoin the group and reigen reveals that serizawa will be teaching mob airbending. Momo… isn’t happy about this. Serizawa is His teacher, and the only one that hasn’t given up on him, and he feels as if he’s being brushed aside now that serizawa can have a “better” student.

Momo runs off to one of his (not-so) secret places, and after a few moments serizawa comes after him. They have a small talk where serizawa reassures him that he’s still teaching momo too, and he certainly has no intention of giving him up. He also jokes about having momo help him train mob, and that gives momo an idea - help mob with his spiritual problems.

He spends the next few days cooped up in the library doing research on anything that he thinks might be helpful to mob, studying up on spirit world stuff, what they know about the avatar state, everything, and approaches mob later with the offer to help him overcome his block.

Mob accepts the offer, and they make slow progress together outside mob’s usual training, and this helps mob a lot because it’s less formal and there’s less pressure on him here, so he can actually relax and genuinely work on letting the spirit world and the past avatars back in.

In turn, mob also helps momo make friends in team avatar, and he integrates into the group while they’re staying at the temple.

Momo’s still not too open or trusting at first and tends to be rude, so it takes awhile for him to bond or decide he likes anyone, but since they end up staying for at least a few months, he has a lot of time to do so.

The first person besides mob that he decided he liked was ritsu. They met while momo was doing his studying to help mob out, and ritsu initially confronted momo about what happened when momo snuck off with mob, but once momo can explain ritsu backs off and even helps with some research. Their personalities complement each other really well, and they also bond over their shared love of making fun of reigen and teru.

Momo and tsubomi get along pretty well, too. She’s also interested in what’s in the library, so sometimes they’ll end up hanging out together while they’re both doing some research. Momo’s never been very far from the temple, so naturally he’s interested in hearing more about the world, which tsubomi, having travelled quite a bit even before joining team avatar, is happy to tell him about. In turn, he helps her find information on airbending forms, something she seems very interested in hearing about, impressed by the ease of movement. After some prodding, he agrees to demonstrate, as well.

Teru and shou both get on momo’s nerves a whole lot, and teru especially annoys him because he can get so stuck-up, without realizing it sometimes. As luck would have it though, one day teru and shou challenge momo to a game of airball, giving him the perfect chance to get back at them. Naturally, momo destroys both of them despite the odd numbers and teru had to go to bed early that night with a fever. Momo was smug about it.

Teru and taro also don’t get along very well. Taro bit teru one (1) time, so teru is convinced taro’s evil (in taro’s defense, teru was being rude and messing with his sensitive wing skin without permission :/ )

Momo’s not really sure what to make of reigen. He’s weird and it’s baffling to him that he would be in charge of a group of teens. Still, he could be a lot worse, and while momo would never pass up an opportunity to mock him, he’s still nice enough and momo can appreciate that. (He’s also impressed by the fact that reigen just… left the air temple when he was younger, something he’s vaguely envious of)

Serizawa is actually the monk that’s been training momo for the last two years. They were kind of shoved together by circumstances (and the other monks) because momo’s rudeness and tendency to skip his lessons had him labeled a “problem student” and hardly any of the monks were willing to try to teach him, and so they dumped him on serizawa, who at the time was very depressed and isolated. This ended up being beneficial to both of them, and they grew very close. Serizawa has someone to take care of, and momo has an adult who actually listens to him.

The only other thing that i can think of that’s relevant is a little thing that happens later, where momo meets shimazaki (another airbender) and learns by studying him how to use airbending to expand his senses, in a way. He learns how to sense air currents and use that as another means of perception.

#100 psycho mob #asks #mp100 #atla au #i'm sorry this one took so long aaaa

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mustdang-100 · 6 years

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Shifting Perspectives - Ch. 9

Serizawa gets a text message. Teru and Shou practice some skills. Summary:

How many espers does it take to rescue one abducted conman?

Months after the events of the World Domination arc, Reigen disappears sometime between leaving the office and after-work plans. Serizawa finds himself the unwilling leader of a bunch of former Claw members and a couple of stubborn teenagers, determined to get Reigen back.

On AO3: <https://archiveofourown.org/works/11091201/chapters/34325561>

Tumblr: Ch.1|Ch.2|Ch.3|Ch.4|Ch.5|Ch.6|Ch.7|Ch.8|Ch.9 - below

“Th-thank you again for choosing Spirits & Such for your spectral solutions; come again if your problem returns!”

Serizawa pressed the office door gently but firmly closed – before the overly grateful customer could launch into another round of fawning compliments. He leaned heavily against the door with a relieved sigh and allowed his eyes to slide shut for just a moment, trying to remember why he’d thought opening the office today would be a good idea. He was lucky the woman’s issue really had been spectral in nature. Even at the very best of times he had no aptitude for the kind of charm Reigen could put into play, much less now. But the tiny spirit clinging viciously to the customer’s purse had been an easy job; he’d exorcised it with a single surreptitious flick of his hand before she’d even finished explaining her troubles. Getting rid of the customer herself, however, had been a bit more of a challenge. Tsuchiya, lounging behind the desk that Serizawa usually occupied, shot him a sympathetic look that did not quite hide her amusement. “Damn, I thought the door was gonna catch on her eyelashes, with how fast they were fluttering.” Tsuchiya grinned. Serizawa made a face at her, and sighed again. “Sorry, that was probably a bit abrupt of me. It’s usually Reigen who takes care of seeing out our more, uh, amorous customers. I think he considers it a fun challenge. I’ve gotten too used to throwing him at them as a distraction to get out of doing it myself, since he can manage to do it without being rude.” Tsuchiya rolled her eyes. “That’s the nice thing about running the boxing gym. Being rude is practically one of the techniques.”

Serizawa snorted, straightening up to keep from simply sliding all the way to the floor, as Tsuchiya returned to her text conversation.

As the only one of the group who owned her own business, Tsuchiya had offered to stay with Serizawa while they all waited to see whether Hatori managed to dig up any more clues from the video with his technological wizardry. Serizawa had urged the rest of his little rescue band to return to their jobs for the day – there was no reason why they should all put their positions at risk – and he would let them know as soon as he heard anything. They had gone, protesting all the way, but it made him feel like less of a burden.

He’d tentatively suggested that Tsuchiya go into work with the rest of them. She’d fixed him with eyes like steel and said only: “The gym will be fine without me for a day or two; that’s what assistant managers are for. You shouldn’t be alone right now.” Serizawa had almost cried at the show of support, which just made her uncomfortable – Tsuchiya really preferred actions to emotions. Serizawa walked heavily back to the chair behind Reigen’s desk, feeling a little sick that the action might imply he thought Reigen wasn’t coming back. He’d started the morning just sitting on the office couch, until Tsuchiya had pointed out that might look unprofessional to any customers. The office had already seemed bigger than usual, somehow, with just the two of them. Almost like the force of Reigen’s personality had taken up the space of an entire third person. Serizawa pulled out his phone and pressed the power button, preparing himself to wait the small eternity the decrepit thing needed to start back up. He normally kept his phone off and stowed in a drawer during the work day, in an effort to put forward the best businessman face that he could. Today he was so paranoid about missing a call from Hatori that he’d had to fight himself to turn it off even when a client walked right up to him.

But with each hour that passed with no news, the clearer the message became: the video was a dead end; they were back to square one.

Tsuchiya exhaled loudly and began typing a long text message, thumbs flying aggressively over the keyboard.

“Mukai still wants to help?”

“Yes,” Tsuchiya said with an eyeroll, voice brimming with affection. “Little ass-kicker. We’re lucky she doesn’t know where we are, or she’d have been here hours ago. I’m telling her that we’ll call her in if we need any more firepower.”

Serizawa felt his lips twitch up in the first smile in days. “And the chances of you actually telling her to come join us are…?”

“Exactly zero.” Tsuchiya nodded decisively, snapping her phone shut with a resounding clack. “After Claw, I’m trying to give her as normal a childhood as possible, but it’s difficult. She’s so smart, and so powerful – she’s having a hard time making friends her own age.” Tsuchiya rubbed her face, her expression shadowed with a weariness that was more mental than physical.

Serizawa’s heart twisted in empathy; he well remembered similar difficulties in his own childhood, and that was without the trauma of being recruited to Claw before the age of…

...He shuddered. He knew Claw kidnapped children as young as possible, for the brainwashing to be most effective. He found he didn’t want to know how young Mukai had been when she was taken.

He opened his mouth to offer his sympathies, but was interrupted by a chirp from his own phone sitting innocuously on the surface of Reigen’s desk, announcing he’d received a message during its brief hibernation.

Serizawa stared at the phone, frozen, until his body caught up with his brain.

Hatori!

He lunged; the phone practically leapt into his hand, and probably did have just a bit of telekinetic assistance. He had not one, but two messages; unfortunately they were not from Hatori, but from an unknown number. Serizawa swiped at the screen, frowning, disappointment crushing down as quickly as his hopes had risen.

“Not Hatori?” Tsuchiya had jumped to her feet, but relaxed at the slow shake of Serizawa’s head.

“No… it’s someone I don’t know. But, it’s… it’s weird…”

The message was one giant mass of characters, and Serizawa read through it in increasing bewilderment. Something about the… the government?”

He blinked. Ugh, was this political spam?

Serizawa slumped against the desk in disgust; well, a spam message might explain all the typos. He scrolled halfheartedly through the jumbled mess of kanji, only skimming now. The last thing he wanted was for political campaigns to get hold of his number, when every message sent his emotions on a thrill ride that was somehow mostly plunging falls. Serizawa had been doing his best to be a model citizen, but at the moment he couldn’t give two shits about the upcoming elections, or the government as a whole, for that matter, regardless of what they wanted. Something about kids? Serizawa squinted, tilting his head as though that would make it easier to read. Kids, and-

Wait… ‘Mob?’

An electric jolt zipped up his spine; Serizawa leapt back to the beginning of the text and read with frantic exhilaration. He clutched the phone so tightly he was afraid he might break it in his fervor. But his excitement faded into mounting anxiety as sentences slotted damningly into place with the context of the sender.

Serizawa whirled to face Tsuchiya, who’d straightened in alarm.

“I think…!” Serizawa could barely hear himself, his heart drumming too loud in his ears. “I think it’s Reigen!”

Tsuchiya’s eyes flew wide; she dashed to read over his shoulder.

Reading it through a second time did not alter the conclusion he’d drawn; Serizawa brought up a second hand to minimize the shakiness of his hold on the tiny device that had brought him both jubilation and horror.

The government – the government – had taken his… had taken Reigen. Because they thought Reigen was responsible for the increasingly peculiar psychic phenomena that had been occurring in Spice City.

Because who they were really looking for was Shigeo.

Serizawa reeled; his lungs couldn’t seem to take in any air. They wanted to take Shigeo, his wise little friend, who wanted a life filled with nothing more than kindness and normalcy.

And Reigen had – ? What? Told them that he was responsible for everything?

Reigen, Reigen no…

The message was all warning. Warnings for Serizawa, to be careful of anyone watching him. To make sure no one had any more reason to look too closely at the kids. It said nothing about where. he. was.

Serizawa almost did crush the phone, then, out of sheer frustration. He resisted the temptation – it might still be able to tell him something.

He tried calling the unknown number, once, twice, three times. Each one rang through to a curt, no-nonsense voicemail message. The voice belonged to a stranger.

He was so close. He could feel the chance falling through his fingers like grains of sand, possible to grasp but only with the right knowledge, the right equipment, the right-

Tsuchiya pointed at an icon at the top of the screen, interrupting his racing mind. “Is that another message?”

Serizawa had completely forgotten about the second text. He opened it at once, but it contained only a single, blurry photo.

A single, blurry photo of two street signs, the names of which were still perfectly legible.

A destination. Finally, a god-damned location.

His mind snapped onto the street names like a hound with a scent. He could finally do something.

He called Minegishi, words spilling out before they could even say hello.

“Minegishi! He sent a message, he sent a text! Reigen! We have a clue, we have a – a picture! A street sign! We can find him! Those people that took him – in the video – they’re from the government, but we can search the street names and find where he is! I’m gonna-”

“Ok, calm down,” Minegishi said, more unflappable than ever in the face of Serizawa’s tripping tongue. There was the sound of talking in the background, of a door opening and closing. “I’m leaving now. I’ll text the others. We’ll meet you at the office within an hour, two at most.”

“Two hours? I’m leaving now, Minegishi. Tsuchiya’s here, we can go, we’ll find the intersection,” He looked up at Tsuchiya. She was already on her phone, searching the internet for intersections with those names. “We have to get there before he gets too far from that street, before-”

“Serizawa.” Minegishi’s voice was loud and curt. “You just said someone in the government has him. You don’t know who, you don’t know why. You don’t know what kind of resources they have to bear, which means you could walk straight into something that could get you taken as well, or worse. And you are not sacrificing yourself for anyone else, we are done with that.”

Their voice broke, surprising both of them into silence.

Minegishi didn’t say anything else, but Serizawa could hear the sounds of traffic in the background; they hadn’t hung up. Serizawa gritted his teeth. The urge to run straight to the intersection was almost overpowering, but… the implication behind Minegishi’s words deserved a response.

“Reigen isn’t using me, Minegishi.” Suddenly Serizawa almost smiled, as a long-ago conversation about job duties floated up from his memories. “Or rather, he’s very upfront about how he is most definitely using me. That is, to help his business succeed. I’m in charge of beating the crap out of anyone or anything that might be a threat, you know.”

Minegishi said nothing to that. Serizawa realized belatedly that now might not be the best time for jokes; the adrenaline rush from finally having a firm lead had pushed him towards something approaching giddiness. He quickly sobered.

“I promise he’s not manipulating my emotions like that. I promise. I know exactly where we stand.”

Whether he liked it or not, he thought with a slight pang. Not important right now, Serizawa.

The silence lasted one heartbeat, two. And then a sigh whispered through the line.

“Just.. please wait? We’ll get there as fast as we can. You find the location, look up the fastest route there, and we can discuss our plan on the way. It won’t be that much slower.”

Serizawa was itching with the desire to run out there, after Reigen, right now. But if he could push his panic away for just a second… Minegishi did have a point. It would be better for Reigen if he could come in with real support.

Despite this logic, he probably wouldn’t have been able to hold himself back if he hadn’t been coming to the sinking realization that Reigen’s texts had arrived almost 45 minutes before he’d seen them. Reigen was either on the run, long past the intersection where he’d managed to take a photo, which meant they’d have to follow a train anyway. Or, he was hiding somewhere nearby. Maybe with the phone he’d somehow gotten ahold of turned to silence, so it wouldn’t betray his location to his pursuers…?

Serizawa made his decision.

“Fine. I’ll wait, for at least an hour.”

Minegishi’s sigh was a punch of static. “Thank you. We are on the way.”

Serizawa ended the call, and immediately called the unknown number one more time. Just as before, it rang through to voicemail. This time, Serizawa spoke when prompted.

“I’m coming for you. We’re coming for you. Please hold on.”

He stopped himself before he could say something more, something that was simply not appropriate, not right now. Not in these circumstances. Instead, he added only the simplest, most overwhelming hope in his heart.

“Stay safe.”

He ended the call, and settled in to research Spice City’s sprawling train lines.

Tsuchiya was arguing that the less-direct east train got to the business district faster than the midtown line when a text message tone made Serizawa jump.

His heart leapt instantly to his throat – Reigen!? – until he realized the buzz had come not from his own phone, but from Reigen’s, which he’d recharged and placed back in his pants pocket. He’d grabbed it to look at the sender before he recalled that it might be an invasion of privacy. But it was too late – he’d already seen the sender’s name, and a preview of the message that appeared on the lockscreen.

[Mob]

[Sunday 11:48 am]

[Hi Shishou. Ritsu is acting kind of weird. He said nothing is wrong but I was wondering if you…]

Serizawa stared at the words, his stomach twisting in horror. The message was cut off, but the preview said enough.

Shigeo was starting to figure out that something was wrong.

‘It’s Mob thety want Mob you have to keep him away, pleas keep him safe no keep them all away, all the kids, I don’t know what they would do with kids, Serizawa please make sure…’

Serizawa squeezed his eyes shut. And slowly returned the phone to his pocket.

If he was smarter he would respond to Shigeo’s message, pretending to be Reigen. He’d send something reassuring, but very short, to sound as much like him as possible without giving away the ruse. But the lies of omission were already sticking in his throat, trickling nauseatingly into his belly; he simply couldn’t bring himself to lie so directly to someone he trusted.

They had a location. If they were lucky, they’d have Reigen back before Shigeo’s concern had the chance to blossom into real suspicion.

Serizawa knew only one thing that Reigen wanted right now, one thing he could do for him: protect the kids from the people who wanted Shigeo, to keep the people who had Reigen from finding out it was Shigeo they wanted. These people who had already taken one person he cared about. He would keep all the kids, whose powers made them too obvious a target, as far away from this business as possible.

***

“So here’s what I’m thinking,” Shou said, staring intently enough at the government building that he might as well be trying to intimidate it into revealing its secrets.

He and Teru had watched the building all morning from Shou’s lofty hideout, hoping daylight would reveal new information. There had been a buzz of activity a few hours ago; a half-dozen people dressed in black burst from the three different exits they could see, but it’d been hard to tell exactly what was going on from Shou’s chosen lair around the back of the building.

Shou’s glare suggested that Teru might have pointed this out one too many times.

They’d relocated to the roof of the building across the other side of the street from the government stronghold, hoping to get a better view. Bright sunlight gleamed across the empty space, glinting off the satellite disks and air conditioning units the two crouched amongst, peeking over the edge of the building to survey the site. Yet the only movement below was the usual traffic of busy pedestrians, scurrying along the street like ants. The building revealed nothing new. It was time for them to try breaking in.

Shou continued voicing his plan aloud, not bothering to wait and see if Teru had any suggestions.

“We wait invisibly by the door, until someone opens it for us. Then we can slip through-”

“What, no handy key-card for this one?”

“They change the system too often,” Shou snapped. “Both times I managed to steal one, it stopped working within a month. But this is how I’ve gotten in before without setting off any alarms – I know my way around inside.”

He turned suddenly to fix Teru with an almost accusatory stare – or, maybe that was just Teru’s imagination. “You can make yourself invisible, right?”

Teru drew himself up, insulted. “Of course I can.”

“Good.” Shou nodded, and started to turn back to the building. Teru took advantage of Shou’s attention elsewhere, and flexed a bit of his power. “So we get in, stay invisible, and search the place until we find Reigen, figure out everything that’s keep-”

“And what if we can’t find him?” Teru cut in quickly. “Who knows how long it might take us to find Reigen, just by snooping around, having to be quiet to keep anyone from noticing.”

Shou snorted. “I know where they keep prisoners. My pops is-”

“Your father is an ultra-powerful terrorist turned long-term prisoner. Reigen is a guy they only just grabbed off the street, for reasons unknown, who has zero psychic ability. In my hardly-uneducated opinion, I sincerely doubt they’d waste one of the super-protected cells on him.”

Shou rolled his eyes. “Damn, guy gets kidnapped once and thinks he’s an expert.”

“I’ve never been kidnapped,” Teru said instantly. Shou opened his mouth to argue, but Teru beat him to it. “I walked into the Seventh Division headquarters on my own volition, to help Shigeo get Ritsu back. Who, I should mention, had been kidnapped. It took two Claw-tier espers, taking me by surprise, in their own base, to capture me. After I’d incapacitated more than one of them in that night alone.”

Teru was breathing too hard; as soon as he noticed, he forced himself to relax. “As a child, I evaded several kidnapping attempts and acquired a large amount of information about the process. I think it’s a reasonable guess that Reigen might be in a different part of the building.”

“Ah. Yeah, Claw does, I mean did, like to go after the little kids. They’re much easier to manipulate that way, ya know.” Shou’s gaze was unnerving. “They get your folks, too? That why you live alone?”

“Of course not,” Teru said, instantly defensive. “The first time was a bit of a close call, I suppose, but I handled it. And they… we were... more prepared, after that.”

Shou was looking at him oddly; clearly interested, but not reacting in quite the way Teru would have expected. It put Teru on edge; he was getting tired of how carefully he had to tiptoe around Shou.

“The point is, I think it’d be good to have a backup plan,” Teru said briskly. “For example: if it’s taking too long to find Reigen, or… any other issues, I can cause a distraction.” Teru brought one finger up to his chin in a thoughtful manner. “If we make them think someone is attacking, part of their defense system will undoubtedly involve some people going directly to Reigen’s location. They’ll lead us to Reigen while I keep up the distraction, and then we'll sneak him out under its cover.”

Now it was Shou who looked offended. “Do you think I can’t come up with distractions?”

“I would never suggest such a thing,” Teru said, with utmost sincerity. “It’s just that, I am, perhaps, a bit more talented at distractions that don’t also require anything to be set on fire.”

"Quite talented,” said Teru, from just behind Shou’s left shoulder.

“Probably the best in the world at distraction; it’s just one of our vast array of talents,” said Teru, from directly behind Shou’s right shoulder.

“Probably the best in the world at distraction; it’s just one of our vast array of talents,” said Teru, from just behind Shou’s right shoulder.

Shou launched himself five meters straight into the air, simultaneously forming a blob of bright energy in his fist. Teru had expected some kind of retaliation at being surprised, of course, but had underestimated just how quickly a spooked Shou would respond to a perceived threat. The first psychic clone managed to dodge Shou’s blast completely, but the second suffered singeing to its entire right side. Teru sighed disapprovingly.

“Wow, you really can’t take a joke, can you?”

Shou’s eyes were large with fury, and for once, he seemed too angry even to speak. Teru’s clones took advantage of the silence.

“Teru’s the best at jokes; you should feel lucky to have the chance to be part of one,” Clone One said in pompous, chiding tones.

“Teru’s right,” said Clone Two, voice slightly more irritated than the first as it patted anxiously at its smoldering hair. “Do you even know what some of the old Black Vinegar kids would do for the honor of having a joke played on them by Teruki Hanazawa?”

Teru hastily waved a hand, dispelling the clones before they could say any more. Teru had discovered somewhat to his chagrin that, unless he was actively directing the clones, they behaved and spoke much more like he had before meeting Shigeo than he did now – they didn’t have as much of a filter as Teru would have liked.

“So you see,” Teru said smoothly, “I can lead any meddlesome government employees away, while we remain invisible. Should such an occasion be necessary.

Shou returned slowly to the ground, eyes narrowing as he peered at Teru with suspicion.

“If you’re so eager to demonstrate your talents, you should probably show me your skills at invisibility as well.”

Teru put a hand to his chest. “Do you think I’m lying?”

“Show me, Hanazawa.”

Teru tched, but complied with a pulse of power, concentrating on bending light. He kept his face as smooth as possible, so as not to reveal just how much effort he had to pour into this particular trick.

Shou inspected him carefully, eyes squinting in the bright sunlight.

“Hanazawa… is it just me, or is your gaudy-ass aura still perfectly, fully visible?”

Teru released the power instantly, reappearing.

“It’s perfectly suitable for most occasions!” Teru said quickly. “It… it simply goes... rather against my nature to hide my gifts. I've honed them so specifically for different tasks-”

“Oh my god.” Shou dragged a hand down his face. “You’re so goddamn extra that you’re literally having trouble with invisibility. Oh my god.”

Teru folded his arms across his chest. “Only espers can detect me. And given proportion of people we’ve seen entering and exiting the building, it’s far more likely that a non-esper will be the next person to appear.” Teru moved his hands to his hips. “And I’d like to point out, if we’re going to discuss the gaudiness of one’s aura-”

Shou’s face was turned to the sky, as if seeking guidance. He took a deep breath.

“Ok. You know what: fuck it. We’ll just have to try and avoid any espers in there altogether. Let’s get this over with. The sooner we get Shigeo’s master back, the better.”

Teru was just as eager to be done with Shou, and contemplated multiple possible replies. Rejecting all of them in favor of simply not granting that comment a response, Teru turned and led the way to the rooftop access door. He pointedly ignored the irritated muttering from his companion as they let the door swing shut behind them, cutting off the brilliant sunlight, swallowing them in the darkness of the descending stairwell.

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #mp100 fanfiction #serirei #shifting perspectives #-collapses- I MADE IT BEFORE THE TRIP #my fics

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pannypancake · 6 years

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Hope is a Four Letter Word

Fandom: Mob Psycho 100 Characters: Kageyama “Mob” Shigeo, Reigen Arataka Rating: T Genre: Friendship, Dimension Travel, Pseudo-Age Swap Perspective: third person, past tense Word Count: 6971 (Oneshot) For @eigenvalium in the Mob Psycho 100 Holiday Gift Exchange (@christmas-shou)

Reigen waved one energetically dismissive hand. "We all have different skills that give our contributions value," he said. "It's only natural that we rely on other people."

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Mob was always kind of relieved when the teachers picked the groups for assignments. It saved him the awkwardness of having to ask people only for them to have to explain to him that they already had their group picked out. The only downside was that sometimes he didn't know anyone in his group very well at all.

This time was one of those times.

“I'm just saying, I don't know what you're so mad about,” Saito said, not looking up from where he was typing into his phone. His fingers and eyes moved in rapid unison. Mob didn’t know how he kept up with it while talking. “If you ask me, we got way lucky.”

“Good thing nobody asked you,” Yokoyama said, tossing her hair and sniffing.

“You kind of did,” Takada said with a shrug. He was leaning over to peek at Saito's phone. Saito kept shrugging his shoulder if Takada leaned too close, but otherwise didn’t try to stop him. “When you asked if anyone else cared.”

Mob, who had been sitting stiffly, hands upon knees, and trying to follow the course of the conversation jumped a little. He hadn't realized that had actually been an invitation for his opinion. “Um,” he said. The other three jumped a little too before turning to look at him. “Um, I think Fujita's already started on the project over there.” The other three continued to stare at him and his palms suddenly felt clammy. He resisted the urge to wipe them against his pants. “I just thought maybe we should go over and see how we can help?”

“Hah, good luck,” Yokoyama said. “She'd just tell you not to get in her way.”

“Right, so we should just let her do her own thing. It's not like she's gonna rat us out to the teacher,” Saito said.

“Fujita's groups always get really good grades,” Takada said.

“Oh, okay,” Mob said, uncertain. Letting one person do all the work didn't seem very fair to him. But...it was true that he wasn't very good at this sort of thing. Maybe if he tried to help he'd just ruin it and then everyone would get a bad grade. He looked over to where Fujita was very seriously sketching ideas onto a sheet of paper and something squirmed in his gut and his chest.

“Look, you do what you want, Kageyama. We're just telling you that you'll be wasting your time,” Saito said and then frowned as something on his phone beeped rapidly. “Shit, there goes my high score.”

“Hm? Fujita?” Inugawa rubbed at his neck as he thought. “I mean, yeah, she pretty much does every group project by herself. I think last year someone offered to help her and she just bit their head off - said she'd already done it all.”

“Sounds like a pretty good deal to me,” Shirihiko said. “It means you don't have to worry about homework this week, right?”

“Oh, I guess that’s true,” Mob said, brightening with the realization.

“Oi, Mob, you’re half way through a push-up!”

“E-eh?” Mob glanced downward and his elbows wobbled with the attention, almost as if his gaze had added extra weight.

“Ah, don’t give up, Mob! Fight!”

“Do you sense anything, Mob?” Reigen asked, hand inserted casually into one pocket. The building in front of them looked like it might once have been capable of ‘looming’, but years of sinking into rot and disuse had made it just look vaguely sad.

“Yes.” Sometimes Mob couldn’t detect any spirits when he and Reigen visited a haunting site. People are haunted by many things, Mob, Reigen had told him one time when he’d been particularly troubled by it. It wasn’t an issue now, though; even standing outside the front door he could feel the hair on his neck standing on end. “It’s very powerful.”

“Right,” Reigen said after a moment, shifting to look at him. “The client asked us not to do a straight exorcism today; we’re supposed to help the spirit move on. And sometimes it’s okay not to exorcise spirits if they’re not hurting anybody.”

“Like the little family in the woods,” Mob said.

“Exactly, like the little family in the woods.” Reigen snapped his fingers. “But we also can’t let the spirit hurt anyone.”

“Right.” Reigen just looked down at him expectantly and Mob scrambled to think of what else he was supposed to say.

Reigen sighed and laid a heavy hand on Mob’s shoulder. “Just keep an eye out.” Reigen patted his shoulder once, twice, firm. “You’ll know what to do.”

Mob followed Reigen into the building, staring up at him, but Reigen wasn’t looking at him anymore. His gaze was darting into the darkness, as if the spirit might emerge from any of the barely distinguishable shadows on the walls. It was a good instinct; Mob could feel the aura snaking through the space around them.

“It’s not happy that we’re here,” Mob said. Reigen paused, stiffened, before continuing on.

It was when Reigen’s foot was stepping over the threshold of a particularly decrepit looking doorway that snaking turned to striking. Mob’s hand flashed out, but it was almost unnecessary, his power moving first without the need of physical direction. He felt something recoil in the dark and remembered at the last second to pull back; this was not an exorcism job.

“Leach.” Something without a shape settled in front of them, just beyond the boundaries of the room. Mob watched it warily. It happened sometimes that a spirit became so entrenched into the place that it was haunting that it lost its own physical form; they would have a hard time convincing it to move on if that was the case. “Parasite.”

“Hello,” Reigen said loudly, hovering outside of the doorway. “My name is Reigen Arataka. This is my disciple, Mob - ”

The spirit lashed out again, but Mob moved first. Reigen flinched back from the place where the spirit struck at his barrier.

“Leach,” the spirit said again. “You're hiding behind the boy.”

“You're the only one who's hiding here,” Reigen said. His eyes slid past the spirit's non-form to veer wildly into the dim room. “Why don't you come on out and we can talk about this like civilized adults?”

“People like you are the worst kind of vermin,” the spirit said, apparently not interested in Reigen’s offer. “You cling to the talents of others, relying on them to carry you. Does he even know what you are?”

Reigen waved one energetically dismissive hand. “We all have different skills that give our contributions value,” he said. “It's only natural that we rely on other people.”

“What do you contribute? What value do you have?” the spirit asked and its presence seemed to swell. Mob's power prickled along his own skin as he kept himself waiting. “I gave my whole life to my work while the rest just waited for the credit. Where is the value in that?”

“Ah, here we go.” Reigen stepped forward, just outside the doorway now; brave, confident, or careless, it was hard to tell sometimes. “Alright, why don't you tell us your story and we'll see what we can do about this haunting situation.”

“Why don't you disappear.”

Mob tried to hold himself back, stopping the spirit’s curse without harming. It was like trying to cup a bubble in your hands: delicate, careful.

Inevitably impossible.

All it took was a brief spike, an infinitesimal falter in control, and the bubble burst, splattering Mob and everything around him with the collateral damage.

Mob awoke to the distinct sensation that something was off, like looking in the mirror and finding your nose moved two millimeters to the left. He was sleeping on the floor, like he had for years now, but the angle of the sun was all wrong. And his feet were cold.

He looked downward and realized that his feet were also big.

He climbed from his bed and his limbs felt strange, longer. Not, he noticed with disappointment, more muscular. He used them to carefully make his way to a bathroom he didn’t recognize, hoping there would be a mirror.

His nose was, fortunately, exactly where he’d left it. The face it was attached to, however, was quite different. Older.

Okay, so he had somehow traveled to the future. Well. That really wasn’t that strange, considering everything that had happened to him already. There was no need to panic.

He was kind of panicking a little bit.

He took a better look around the apartment. Small. Sparse. Clean. His? It was hard to tell; there were no photos on the wall or personal affects that would give its ownership away. He spent some time examining a small potted plant by the window that seemed to be barely clinging on to life.

The nicest thing in the apartment was very clearly the cellphone charging on the kitchen counter. Even so, the model would have already been considered out of date in Mob’s time; it must have been considered ancient now. It was kind of comforting to look at.

As he scrolled through the phone, a sense of relief built with every contact he recognized. Mom and Dad. Ritsu. Hanazawa. Reigen.

His thumb hovered over ‘Reigen Arataka’ for a long moment before he flipped the phone closed. This was the future; he didn’t know if the number was up to date or if he still worked at Spirits and Such. Or if Spirits and Such still existed. Or if Reigen still lived in Spice City.

He studied the familiar skyline through the window. He could probably find his way from here.

He checked the small closet and to his relief found a coat that looked like it fit him. It felt weird, taking a strange coat without permission, but he supposed that the coat was (technically) his. He reached into his pockets. From the left, he pulled a handful of crumpled receipts; all of them were from the same store, for the same type of potted plant, bought weeks apart from one another. He glanced again at the dying plant by the window, trying to decipher the strange puzzle his future self had left for him.

From the right, he pulled two keys attached by a ring. He tried both in the apartment’s front door and the second one turned the lock. Good. Okay.

Mob felt so relieved when he found the office, right where they’d left it, that his legs almost wobbled with it. He inspected the second key from his coat pocket curiously before trying it in the door; the lock turned easily.

He flicked on the lights and this space instantly felt more familiar than the apartment that he’d woken up in. There were changes: the posters with Reigen’s likeness were gone from the walls, the tile floor he remembered had been replaced with warm, if cheap-looking carpet, there weren’t quite as many books, some of the furniture had been moved. But Reigen’s desk and the smaller one that he’d given Mob to work at were both still there. Where the apartment had been bare of personal affects, the office was tidily scattered with little pieces of evidence that people worked there: two mugs sitting on the coffee table, a couple of knickknacks by the small tv, a couple of photos on Reigen’s desk in fragile plastic frames.

Mob handled the photos carefully, faintly surprised when he turned over the first one to find a picture of himself and Ritsu. They were older than he remembered either of them being, but perhaps a little younger than he appeared to be now. Disappointingly, the Mob in the photo hadn’t noticed the camera in time to smile, hands pressing down on the papers spread in front of him. The Ritsu in the picture was frozen in the middle of turning toward the photographer, eyebrows drawn to the space between his eyes and mouth open to say something. Mob wondered who had taken the picture and if Ritsu and Reigen were on better terms now.

The next one was of a boy in a Salt Middle School uniform who Mob didn’t know, but who resembled Reigen closely enough that he was probably a relative. The camera had been angled in such a way that the boy had clearly taken the picture himself, leaving the end result out of focus, but he wore a large, open grin.

Mob set the pictures back and glanced uncertainly around the office. He at least knew now that Reigen was still here. He couldn’t be certain that Reigen would know how to fix this anymore than he did, but…he would feel better not being alone. And somehow things had always worked out before. Mostly.

He was just debating giving the phone number a try when the door to the office burst open, followed by the sandy-haired boy from the picture. The boy almost chased after the door, reaching to stop it before it slammed against the wall and sighing in relief when he succeeded. “I’m sorry I’m late, Shishou, I – ” The boy stopped, schoolbag slapping once against his side with the abrupt end to his momentum, staring at Mob as he stood stiff and uncertain in front of the desk. “Are you okay?”

Mob startled momentarily at being addressed. He opened his mouth. Closed it. And finally it dawned on him who the boy had probably been expecting to see. “Oh, are you looking for Reigen-shishou too?”

“Am I - ?” The boy’s mouth moved a moment longer without sound, brows furrowed. And then he marched up to Mob with purpose, peering into his face with such force that Mob actually found himself leaning back. Without warning, the boy clapped his hands on Mob’s arms, grip surprisingly firm, and Mob felt his heart make a genuine effort to escape through his throat. “Shishou, you need to sit down,” the boy said, apparently to Mob.

“I – okay,” Mob said and let himself be led to the office’s familiar couch because nothing about what was happening made any sense and sitting down sounded good right about now.

The boy pressed the back of his hand to Mob’s forehead and narrowed his eyes before moving away. “You’re not sick again.”

“I don’t think so,” Mob said. His own hand almost automatically went to touch the spot that the boy’s hand had vacated.

The boy cupped his chin thoughtfully, rocking back on his heels, and Mob was struck again by just how much like Reigen he looked. “Did anything strange happen before I got here? Any shady looking visitors?”

“Yesterday, I was fourteen,” Mob said. If this boy was studying under Reigen, maybe he could help. “And now I’m not.”

The boy blinked at him. “Who did you say you were here to see?”

“Reigen-shishou. I think he still works here, but – ”

“I’m Reigen Arataka,” the boy said, thumping his chest proudly, “the most promising exorcist of my age. I’m studying under the greatest psychic of the twenty-first century.”

Mob’s whole body felt strange: cold and hot at the same time. His throat was dry, tongue heavy in his mouth, but he swallowed and spoke anyway. “And who’s that?”

“You,” Reigen said, looking at him steadily. “Kageyama Shigeo. Mob. My Shishou. Except you’re not, are you?”

“I think I’m still the first two,” Mob said.

Reigen sat on the couch opposite him and leaned forward across his knees. Mob had seen this pose enough times before; it usually meant Reigen was interested in a case. “Why don’t you start from the beginning.”

“Right, okay,” Reigen said, pacing a little now. Mob’s eyes tracked him as he moved. “I’ll have to handle this afternoon’s customers; that’s alright, some of them are regulars. We’ve got that little old lady coming in again to talk about her cats.” He stopped abruptly, arm swinging around to point at Mob. “Do you have somewhere to go?”

Mob stiffened, back ramrod straight as if the tension from Reigen’s arm was contagious. “Ah, um, I could go back to the apartment?” Reigen stared at him blankly. “My apartment,” he clarified. “Or I think it’s my apartment.”

“Good, perfect, wait for me there.” Reigen turned away and it took Mob a moment to realize that the conversation was evidently over. He hovered uncertainly by the couches for a while in case there was anything more. Reigen flitted busily from one part of the room to another: brewing tea, sorting through papers, checking something on his phone. Eventually, Mob decided it was probably alright to let himself out. He stopped outside the front door, patted his pocket and felt for the key; it was still there. He debated on whether Reigen expected him to lock the door after him; he decided against it.

He had the entire walk to think his situation over, but nothing became any clearer. It didn’t matter how he turned it over in his head or what angle he held it from. Understanding of his situation fled from his grasp like the answers to a math equation.

Alternate realities shouldn’t have felt that much more impossible than time travel. Home felt somehow farther now.

The knock on the door came about a half hour after Mob had decided that Reigen wasn’t actually coming tonight. He opened it to find Reigen shivering against the night chill, holding two bags of take out. “Sorry I took so long,” Reigen said. “I had to sneak out after Mom went to bed.”

Mob thought for a moment about scolding him, but the idea of scolding Reigen about anything was too weird. Instead, he moved aside and Reigen was quicker to make himself at home than he expected. He dumped the food on the small dining table and picked through the kitchen for clean dishes in a way that suggested familiarity. Mob could count on one hand the number of times he had been to his Shishou’s apartment over the years.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d had anything to eat today,” Reigen said, unpacking his own food.

Mob honestly hadn’t thought about it with everything that had happened. His stomach growled loudly, as if to chastise him for this oversight. “I didn’t. Thank you.”

Reigen nodded and gestured for Mob to sit across from him, digging into his burger without further preamble. The sight of ketchup smeared across Reigen’s face made something in Mob’s chest ease. This Reigen may have been younger and had different memories, but he was still Reigen.

“So, you wanna go back to your own world, time, whatever,” Reigen said, gesturing sharply with a fry. “I want my Shishou back. The way I see it, we’re partners.”

“That makes sense,” Mob said, relieved. ‘Partner’ sounded like a much more manageable title than ‘Shishou’. Reigen looked pleased.

Reigen insisted on looking at ‘the scene of the crime’ after they finished dinner, examining the bedroom with careful scrutiny. He insisted on turning over Mob’s bed to check for portals. Mob felt like he probably would have noticed if there had been one, but had to admit that he hadn’t checked.

Finally, Reigen rolled back onto his calves, looking vaguely disheveled, and held out a hand toward Mob. “Give me your phone.”

“You don’t have one?” Mob asked even as he passed his to Reigen.

“Mine won’t work for this,” Reigen said, frowning at the screen. “Great as my abilities are, I’ve determined that interdimensional travel might be beyond even me. So, I’m calling in my secret weapon.” Reigen turned the screen to Mob for a moment before going through with the call, apparently unfazed by Mob’s surprise.

“Ritsu?” Mob glanced at the dark sky through the window. “It’s late; will he even pick up?”

“He’ll pick up. That’s why it had to be your phone.” Reigen held his finger up in an unmistakable request for quiet. “Yo, Kageyama – ”

Reigen lapsed into sudden silence, frowning with the phone pressed against his ear. Mob sat stiffly, hands fisted in his lap as he waited. “Yeah, I know, but – ” Reigen started before pausing again. “If you would just listen – ” Reigen paused. Frowned harder. Flipped the phone closed. “He hung up.”

“Is Ritsu okay?”

“Oh yeah, he’s fine.” Reigen waved a hand in front of his face, at once reassuring and dismissive. “He’s just mad that I woke him up when his new job starts in the morning. I’ll call him back.”

“We can’t bother Ritsu,” Mob said.

“It’s not like I want to, but – ”

“We can’t bother Ritsu,” Mob said firmly. Just a twitch of psychic power and he pulled the phone from Reigen’s grasp for good measure. It felt a little weird; maybe his body wasn’t the only thing that had changed.

“Geez, fine.” Reigen rolled his eyes before standing up, stretching until his back popped. “I guess it’s good to know that you don’t really change when it comes to stuff like that, whatever world you come from.”

“Look, I have school tomorrow, but I’ll do some digging around and let you know if I find anything,” Reigen said. “You should see if you can do anything on your end in the mean time. You know, psychic stuff.” He waved his hands expansively in what Mob guessed was supposed to be a representation of ‘psychic stuff’.

Mob nodded even though he wasn’t sure exactly what it was that he was supposed to be trying. Maybe…could he make a portal? He let his aura flare, just a little, and even with the ‘weird’ quality to it, he knew his powers were as strong as ever. It was almost scarier to entertain using them to travel between realities as a real possibility.

Reigen didn’t seem to notice Mob’s flare up, pausing instead to look at the plant by the window. He reached out one hand to touch a browning leaf before poking at the soil. “I thought he was looking after it.”

Mob thought guiltily of the receipts in the coat pocket and wondered if he should say anything; it wasn’t his secret to share. And then Reigen sighed and Mob couldn’t find it in himself to lie. “I think he’s been replacing it every couple of weeks. Sorry, I was never much good at looking after plants.” Actually, if he used his powers, they usually grew too much and became a problem in a different way. He understood why this world’s Mob would want to care for the plant without relying on psychic powers, might have even felt proud of it, but he couldn’t help feeling disappointed that he’d clearly been unable to take care of something that clearly meant so much to Reigen.

To his surprise, Reigen didn’t seem disappointed at all. If anything, he left looking happy.

“Where have you been, Dimple?” The words slipped out before Mob realized that they probably wouldn’t make any sense – not to this Dimple.

“Keeping out trouble,” Dimple said, looking a little cross. “I figured I’d give the kid some space after the, ah, incident last month. Keep you from deciding to poof me. Turns out, there’s no pleasing some people.”

“So, he’s not possessed,” Reigen said, staring Dimple down.

“Possessed? Kageyama? Hah! I’d like to meet the spirit who tried that one.”

“No,” Mob said because Dimple wasn’t talking about himself and there was only one other spirit who came to mind, even if Mob had technically been in someone else’s body at the time. “No, you wouldn’t.”

Dimple stared at him for a moment. “No, I don’t suppose I would.”

“Well, it was worth a shot.” Reigen sighed. “I figured we should rule the easy stuff out before breaking the laws of science and whatnot.”

“He’s not possessed,” Dimple said, “but he is sporting one hell of a curse.”

“Curse?” Mob’s eyes widened with the epiphany.

“And you couldn’t just say that from the beginning?” Reigen glared at Dimple, hands on hips.

“I was getting there, sheesh.” Dimple floated closer to Mob, looking him over before whistling. “It’s a doozy too. Normally Kageyama should be able to shrug this kind of stuff off, but, as usual, his powers complicate things.”

“What do you mean?” Mob checked himself over, wondering if he could spot the curse if he looked hard enough.

“I mean, you appear to have…absorbed it? Something like that. Shame – I don’t get to eat curses very often.”

“So, what do we do now?” Reigen asked.

“You’re gonna need the help of a really powerful psychic, that’s for sure.”

Reigen glanced at Mob. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to lend me your cellphone again.”

“We’re – ”

“ – not bothering Ritsu. Yeah, I got it.” Reigen sighed.

“You could always ask that guy,” Dimple said. Reigen's eyes narrowed. “What? Is this because you want into his pants? Because I don’t see how it would hurt. In fact – ”

Reigen grabbed Mob’s arm firmly. “Let’s go. There’s nothing this useless spirit can do for us.”

“Useless? Who are you calling useless, you wannabe – ”

The house looked normal enough, but Reigen kept straightening the hem of his shirt as they approached. If Mob didn’t know better, he might have mistaken it for nervousness.

The woman who answered the door did not look pleased to see them and Mob began to feel a little nervous himself.

“Good afternoon, Serizawa-san,” Reigen said, ignoring Mob’s surprise at the name. Reigen had his Customer Service Smile in full force and Mob allowed himself to relax fractionally; Reigen had always been very good at dealing with people who didn't want to deal with him.

The woman stared at Reigen for a long moment before stepping aside. “Katsuya’s upstairs.”

Reigen and Mob both thanked her in turn before entering, Reigen encouraging him to ignore every ingrained instinct toward politeness and hurry on. About half way up the stairs, Reigen finally acknowledged the questioning glances Mob had been directing at him. “I miiight have yelled at her. Once.” Mob couldn’t entirely quash spark of admiration; Reigen would be the kind of kid who wasn’t afraid to yell at an adult.

Reigen seemed to have no trouble figuring out which room belonged to Serizawa, pausing to rap his knuckles gently against the door. “Serizawa-senpai? We need to speak with you.”

It only took a few seconds for the door to crack open, a head poking out. Serizawa looked both less put-together than he usually did these days and more so than he had been when Mob had first met him. He smiled tremulously and seemed to unfold from himself a little when he saw them. “Reigen-kun. Kageyama-san.” He paused and his brow furrowed as he turned to Reigen. “I thought you were sick?”

“What? Me? No. You know me: the very image of health.” Reigen quickly inserted himself into Serizawa’s doorway, wrapping one arm over the other boy’s shoulder and pulling him away from Mob. He seemed to remember half way in that Mob was actually supposed to be a part of the conversation and hurriedly signaled that Mob should enter. Mob tried not to feel too annoyed.

Serizawa was very patient while they explained things to him, eyebrows lowering on his face when he had to ask them to review certain points. "I'm very worried about Kageyama-san too," he said when they had finished. He glanced, almost guiltily, at Mob. "Um, both Kageyama-sans. I guess I just don't...see why you came to me with this? I mean, ah, not that I don't want to help - obviously! I just don't see how I...can?"

Reigen's eyebrows rose on his face as if to compensate for every millimeter Serizawa's eyebrows had sunk. "Serizawa, you're the most powerful psychic I know." He stopped, patted Mob on the arm, almost consolingly. "Besides Shishou, of course."

“That’s very nice of you.” Serizawa ducked his head as he started to turn pink and sweaty like after a workout.

“It’s the truth,” Reigen said emphatically. “I need a powerful psychic to get rid of this curse and you’re the man for the job.”

“Reigen-kun, I still can’t control my powers well enough for something like this. It wouldn’t be right to use them on another person.”

Mob felt sympathy swell in his gut. “We’ll find another way.”

“What other way?” Reigen asked, one hand making a frustrated slice through the air to connect with his other palm. “We can’t bother Ritsu, Dimple can’t eat it, I tried calling that guy with the ESPer training camp or whatever – ”

“Ah, Hanazawa-san is – ”

“Busy, yes, I know. I couldn’t even get through to him directly and the brat who answered the phone wouldn’t tell me where he went.” Reigen sighed, running a hand through his hair. Serizawa was so tense at this point that Mob’s back hurt just looking at him. “I’m sorry, Serizawa, this isn’t your fault. We’ll…we’ll figure something out.”

“I do want to help,” Serizawa said. “Maybe I could, ah, come by after school? Just to see if there’s anything else I could do?”

“I appreciate it,” Reigen said, but he didn’t make eye contact with Mob the whole way back.

Mob woke up one morning to the realization that he may not be going home for a long time. Something burned at his eyes and pushed at his ribcage and he tried desperately to quash it before he wrecked something in the apartment that he still couldn’t think of as his.

“He hasn’t been in school all week,” Dimple said, materializing arms apparently just to cross them. “I’ve been tailing him because tall, dark, and jittery here was worried.”

“Reigen-kun, why didn’t you say something?” Serizawa genuinely looked as confused as Mob felt.

Reigen glared at him, taking Mob aback; he’d never seen the Reigen of his world be anything but kind and patient with Serizawa. “Because there’s nothing you could have done. You already missed so much school while you were locking yourself in your room, you can’t afford to miss any more.” Reigen spread his hands and adopted his most reasonable tone of voice. “Look, priority number one is still getting Shishou back, but until that happens someone needs to pay the rent and keep this place running. I may not be like the rest of you, but I can do that much.”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about that,” Mob said. “Adults are supposed to handle those things.”

“No offense, but you’re not actually any more of an adult than I am,” Reigen said and his expression didn’t look very young at all.

“Why didn’t you ask Dimple for help, then?” Serizawa asked.

“It’s not like he can greet customers,” Reigen said, but for the first time he looked away from all of them, appearing uncharacteristically cornered. “Why would he want to, anyway; not every job was going to have ghosts for him to eat.”

"What, you can only accept help from people you think you've manipulated into giving it?" Dimple said. It sounded mean, but Dimple was easy to misunderstand when he was actually trying to help. "Is this some sort of pride thing; you're too good for handouts? Because let me tell you, kid, out of the two options this one is much more pathetic."

Mob didn’t think that was it. “Reigen-shishou says that you’re never too good for free”

“Look, Shishou has saved me a whole bunch of times,” Reigen said. “I owe him this.”

“I don’t think Kageyama-san thinks of it in terms of ‘owing’,” Serizawa said.

Reigen whirled on Mob, advancing with an almost manic energy. "Why did you take me on as your disciple?" Mob knew the glint in Reigen's eyes well; it was the look he wore when he knew he was on to something.

"I don't know," Mob answered honestly. "I don't understand why I would.” He knew it was the wrong thing to say when Reigen almost seemed to deflate. Dimple's harsh inhale and Serizawa's nervously reproachful "Kageyama-san" only backed that up.

“I don’t know what kind of person this ‘me’ is or what he would have to teach you,” Mob said, “but he must have his reasons. Reigen-shishou helped me learn to use my powers to help other people. I hope that we’re still able to help people here.” Mob placed a hand firmly on Reigen's shoulder. “We all have different skills that give our contributions value. It's only natural that we rely on other people.”

Reigen looked up at him, wide-eyed, before turning his gaze away just as quickly. "Then why can't you rely on me?"

"I do." Mob's brow furrowed. "All the time."

“But not this ‘me’,” Reigen said. “And you’re not the one I want to hear that from.”

“I know,” Mob said and tried not to be upset about it. The thing inside his ribcage rumbled and swelled.

“Hey, if your ‘Reigen-shishou’ was here, what would he do?”

“I don’t know.” He’d wanted to turn to Reigen for help from the first moment he’d woken up in this world. The thing pushed until the pressure was almost unbearable, shaking him apart from the inside. “I wish I could ask him.” If they couldn’t figure this out, he’d never see Reigen, or anyone else he knew, again.

Mob’s aura flared; the pressure had nowhere else to go.

Dimple hurriedly backed behind Serizawa. “Kageyama, hey, what are you –”

Mob’s explosion came on like a kettle coming to boil and all of them were overtaken by a blinding white light.

When Mob was finally able to open his eyes, he found himself again in an unfamiliar place: white, expansive, and empty.

Empty but for one familiar person in a grey suit and pink tie.

“Ah, Mob,” Reigen said, settling into a casual slouch even as he took in his surroundings, “this is your doing I take it?”

“I think so,” Mob said. Reigen shrugged and sat down, patting the space beside him to indicate that Mob should do the same. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Reigen said. “Can’t say it’s much to look at, but it certainly makes a change from the past week.”

“Did you go somewhere too, Reigen-shishou?”

Reigen nodded. “Hell of a thing to wake up to: the office was gone, I didn’t have your number – which made sense later because apparently we’d never met. I worked for a law firm. Steady, reputable. My parents would have loved it.” Reigen scratched at the back of his neck. “Might have been their idea, come to think of it.”

“Oh. Ah, were you very good at it?” It sounded like a stupid question as soon as he’d asked it; it seemed obvious that Reigen, who never lost an argument, would do well as a lawyer. Somehow, in his mind’s eye, Mob couldn’t make Reigen fit into any other context than the Spirits and Such Consultation office, feet propped on the desk, using a computer that had never heard of a ‘terabyte’. Even so, he wondered if Reigen had some regrets.

“Well, you know, these places make you start small.” Reigen cleared his throat, loosening his collar a little. “But my last performance review was very favorable.”

“That’s amazing, Shishou,” Mob said sincerely.

"If something's worth doing, it's worth doing well. I've always believed that." Reigen laughed like he'd told a really good joke; Mob wished he got it. "I probably would have quit within the week."

“Why would you do that?”

“Because sometimes our talents are the worst thing for us, Mob. An idle mind is an obstacle to progress; always want more.” Reigen frowned. “And never let anyone make you do something that you don’t want to do.”

“My Mom says we all have to do things we don’t like sometimes. Like Math and dishes.”

“Wise woman, your mother. And she’s right for the most part. But unhappiness, dissatisfaction – these things are traps, Mob. You don’t always know you’re stuck until it’s too late, but you have to claw your way out regardless. Otherwise – ”

Mob tried to wait patiently for Reigen to finish, but no follow-up seemed to be forthcoming. Mob shifted a little, something uneasy in the silence travelling through the base of his spine. “Shishou?”

“I was trying to figure out how to get back. I did manage to track you down, but…well. And then I wasn’t sure what was happening when that whole white light business started. I should have known it would be you."

“You said that I would know what to do,” Mob said in realization.

Reigen blinked at him for a moment before smiling. “Just so.”

“You said you found me,” Mob said. “Did I – ” Mob clenched his fists, unreasonably frustrated. Did I not try to help you? But maybe that Mob was still afraid of his powers. Or maybe there was some worse reason why Reigen couldn’t turn to him for help.

“You did alright without me,” Reigen said, ruffling Mob's hair lightly. Mob wasn't always the best at reading the mood, but Reigen didn't seem upset.

Mob thought back to the empty little apartment and how much better he had felt when he had found the office. “I think I did better with you.”

“Oh?” Reigen raised an eyebrow. “Careful, Mob. Flattery is a dangerous - ”

“Did you do better without me?” Mob asked because Reigen hadn't mentioned that part.

Reigen ducked his head. “No. I don't think I did.” He chuckled. “Maybe I do rely on you too much.”

“Then maybe - ” Mob started to say and maybe he'd meant to finish with we were meant to help each other.

But at that moment, white space became impossibly whiter. And brighter. Mob blinked, squinting against the light -

- and when he opened his eyes, he was back in the musty house like nothing had changed; Reigen and the spirit still stood in their same positions. Reigen's back seemed impossibly broad as his arguments grew more passionate.

“It may be natural for the weak to cling to the strong,” the spirit said, “but do not pretend that it benefits the strong.”

“Was your mother weak, then?” Reigen asked.

The spirit stopped short. “What?”

“She came to us to get help for you. Is she weak because she had to rely on us?”

“How dare you – ”

“No, how dare you. There’s nothing more powerful in this world than the bonds between people; only fool would look at them and see weakness.”

“It’s not weak to ask for help,” Mob said.

“Exactly,” Reigen said, smacking his fist into his palm. “It’s absolutely the least weak thing you could do.” He stretched out a hand. “So, how about it? Take the gift your mother has given you and let us help you.”

For a moment, Mob really thought that it would work. Or maybe he just wanted to believe that it would and that’s why he was so late in noticing when the spirit’s aura turned malevolent and violent energy grasped at Reigen’s arm. Reigen howled as the skin on his arm blistered and Mob didn’t even have time to think; his power surged out from him like a wave.

And this time he did not hold back.

Reigen cradled his injured hand against his chest as they sat on the lawn. They’d had to call Serizawa to pick them up; Reigen wouldn’t risk driving the rental one-handed. Mob had felt bad that Serizawa had sounded so worried when they’d explained the situation to him, but mostly he was relieved that someone else was handling it now.

Reigen kept glancing down at his jacket pocket, where he kept his cigarettes. All at once, it occurred to Mob why he probably hadn’t grabbed one yet. “I could light one for you,” he said with a guilty glance at Reigen’s hand.

Reigen turned to look at Mob, eyes a little wide. “What? Oh. Don’t worry about it; I should probably cut down anyway.”

Reigen stared at Mob a moment longer before turning away again, scrubbing his good hand over stubble that he didn't have. “Listen, Mob, not everyone is going to want our help,” he said. Mob nodded because he understood that much, even if it didn't make anything feel any better. “But it matters that we tried.”

“You’ve helped a lot of people,” Mob said softly.

“Yes,” Reigen said, “we have.”

When Mob woke the next morning, his feet were the right size and maybe a little too warm.

Fujita rolled her eyes. “I already have it all planned out; I'm not changing it now.”

“Oh, okay,” Mob said. He eyed the various papers and objects that Fujita was carrying. It looked like a lot. “Um, I could help you carry that?” She stared at him, maybe a little disbelieving. “I'm in the Body Improvement Club,” he said hopefully. His muscles still didn't look like much (though President Musashi had said that his deltoids seemed a little less soft the other day), but he was sure he could manage that much.

“Sure,” she said, drawing out the middle vowel and staring at him for a moment longer before handing off some of her burden. They walked mostly silent through the hall and Fujita kept shooting him small glances.

“Um, hey,” she said, stopping as they approached the door, “are you available after school today?”

Mob tried to think of any pressing commitments; Reigen wouldn't be taking on many serious jobs while his hand was bandaged and it wasn't a Body Improvement Club meeting day. “Yes, I think so,” he said.

“Oh, good. Um, then you should meet me here and I can catch you up on what I've been working on so far.”

“Oh! Sure!”

“Great.” Fujita helped him unload the papers onto the desk. She paused to re-arrange them in a way that didn't make much sense to him, but seemed important. “And, um, thanks. You know, for asking.”

#shou-ho-ho #Mob Psycho 100 Holiday Gift Exchange 2017 #Mob Psycho 100 #Kageyama Shigeo #Reigen Arataka #Friendship #Dimension Travel #Age Swap #Third Person #Past Tense #Oneshot #Rated T #Gen #Fanfiction

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