#what if teru kept him around and then mob would exorcise him thinking hes forcing teru into possession

[metukika]

premob

[writing-radionoises]

afterlife

ship: background terumob and ritshou, implied seirei

genre: angst with a bittersweet ending

prompt: mob tries to cope with death and learns he's really bad at it

notes: autistic mob is canon because im autistic and i said so

--

Reigen was always good at reading people, me particularly.

He was better than Ritsu, who had lived his whole life around me, and better than Teru, who was arguably horrible at the task.

Reigen knew me better than anyone I knew. 

He could tell what percentage I was at before I could even spill the numbers.

Even though he was never as great as he said, and I had known he was a fraud for years, I do believe that somewhere deep down, Reigen did have an ability.

Reigen passed the year after I graduated high school, so I guess we'll never really know.

It was a couple months ago, but I'm still not strong enough to talk about it.

I'm struggling to live as an adult without him.

There's no one who can really understand my situation as much as he did.

Even though I love Ritsu and Teru dearly, and they're working hard to get in the level Reigen was once, they'll never be Reigen.

I'm never going to have a person like that again.

… Probably.

Before he passed, I used to text him when I was starting to get overwhelmed, about to meltdown, and he'd help me ground myself, keep it under wraps.

Sometimes he'd call, he had a comforting voice.

I find myself still texting his old number, I'm sure it goes to some random person now who didn't even know who Reigen was, but that doesn't stop me.

I apologize a lot in those messages.

Partially because it was my fault he passed.

Partially because I feel bad for dumping all my emotional baggage on the person actually receiving these.

I vent about my day, I scroll up and read our old conversations, I take pictures of things that remind me of him and send them.

… Part of me is half expecting him to respond.

Part of me is hoping he's gonna text back and say "Aw, what a cute puppy, Mob! Be sure to give it lots of pets for me!"

And then he doesn't.

I had a meltdown at his funeral, it was embarrassing.

Dimple didn't know what to do with me, Ritsu was trying to get everyone to settle down.

Teru tried to comfort me from afar.

I cried a lot that day.

I couldn't leave the house for weeks.

I got fired from my job because I hadn't come into work so long.

I stayed home alone, constantly at my limit.

100% loneliness.

100% sadness.

100% mourning.

I think the stages of grief work differently for me, I never had a denial, bargaining, or anger stage.

I jumped right into depression, head first.

I'm working my way out of it, though.

Reigen had no living family, but he had put me in his will, so I had gotten most of everything he ever owned. Ritsu tried to get me to get rid of it, but I was already attached to most of it.

So I kept most of his belongings.

Teru wasn't mad when most of our apartment was cluttered with Reigen's stuff, and I was stuck in the middle of the apartment, desperately trying to cope.

He organized it, framed pictures and put away books.

I still couldn't cope. But he insisted that was okay.

I readjusted my routine, trying to keep my lost father figure as far from my mind as possible, but he still forced his way in.

Today, Dimple insisted that I visit Reigen's grave for the first time in months. Ritsu said it was a bad idea, that it would only awaken more grieving, but… Maybe it could be the closure I needed.

The train was loud, so I had worn my ear defenders, and sat close to the window while I waited for my stop.

I felt like a middle schooler again, on my way to the Spirit and Consultation Office after school.

I wasn't, but it was a nice warm feeling to be reminded of. 

My stop came along, and I hopped off the train and headed towards the graveyard. It was autumn, the wind had just gotten chilly and the leaves started to fall. I slipped off my ear defenders and continued walking.

"Dimple," I asked, "Were you ever… Human? Or were you just always a spirit?"

Dimple looked back at me, I'm sure if he had shoulders he would shrug, "Don't really know, Shigeo. I've been like this for as long as I can remember, so I doubt I was ever human. Why?"

I looked down towards the ground, shoving my hands in my pockets, "Maybe… I've been too consumed by grief to think about this before, but I'm wondering if maybe… Reigen is a spirit now."

"Don't get your hopes up."

"I know but… It'd be a nice thought. To actually talk to him again instead of just… texting his old number like he's still there."

"Maybe so, but would it really feel any better to know he's stuck here instead of going into the afterlife?"

I fell silent again, Dimple might've been right, maybe I was selfish for wanting that.

I don't like the idea of him being stuck here forever.

What if he asks me to exorcise him? Would I be able to do it?

Would I… be able to live with killing him twice?

"Don't think about it too much, kid," Dimple reassured, "Think about something else, like… Oh, Serizawa's coming to town soon, isn't he?"

I nodded, "He is, he's going to take over the business, and probably move up here. He left to visit family for awhile… the grief was too much for him."

"And your brother is getting married soon, right?"

"I think so… I hope he and Shou don't feel like Teru and I are pressuring him since we're already married… Teru and I have just been together since middle school."

"Ah, I'm sure he doesn't feel like that, hey look! We're there," Dimple replied.

I looked up at the entry way gate, and headed on in.

I could feel the presence of many spirits, most of which were good meaning, as I moved down the aisles. I remembered which one was Reigen's, I'm not quite sure why I memorized that, as I came across the gravestone.

Reigen Arataka

1993-2025

A father to all,

A lover to one.

I remember Serizawa picking out that inscription, he confronted me about it before confirming it.

It was the first thing to make me smile during the week of Reigen's death.

I took a breath, looking down at the grave, and then getting on my knees.

The ground was cold, and I felt no presence here.

"Reigen…" I started, trying to collect myself, "I'm really sorry. About… everything. About the fight I got you involved in, the people I got you involved in with, not taking over the business like you wanted… I'm really sorry about that one, I should've done it, but it feels so… so… empty without you… Serizawa said he was gonna take it, though. I know he's gonna take good care of it, I'll work under him, too. Maybe someday… I'll let go enough to be able to do it? I don't know…"

I balled up the fabric of my jeans into my hands, trying to keep it together.

"I've been texting your old number, I'm having such a hard time living without you… I love Ritsu, and Teru, and Dimple but… I don't think there's a person in the world who could get me quite as well as you did. You taught me a lot of things, I'm not sure if I'd be the same person without you. Teru, as patient as he is, is probably tired of my mourning and constant depression. I had a meltdown at your funeral, I'm sorry about that, too, it was really embarrassing…"

I fell silent again, biting my tongue.

"I think… I'm happy about the moments we spent together, though. There could've been so much more, you died so young, but the ones we had… they make me pretty happy. A part of me, though, has been thinking about you on the afterlife. Wondering if you're a spirit and wondering… how much damage I can do with my powers. It was my fault you passed, my fault that many people passed and now I'm wondering… am I really a good person? Am I doing good enough? Will I ever… live up to what you thought of me?"

There's silence in the air as I feel the emotions build up once again.

75%.

"I'm really nothing without you, I'm so annoying to everyone because you're all I can talk about. I can't remember the last time I saw my parents, Serizawa left town for awhile, Teru's coping by overworking himself and here I am, crying to someone who isn't here anymore and can't do anything to help. Here I am, texting a dead person and still praying they'll text back and… And… I'm just…"

93%.

"I'm just so… fucking lonely, Reigen, I'm so fucking lonely."

There isn't a response. But I expected that. Nothing but the wind as I still pray to hear a familiar voice.

Just one more time, please.

Just one more hug.

"Hey, Mob!"

I lift my head up, and I'm met with a ghostly figure of someone I once knew.

"Still venting to me from the afterlife, huh?"

[mp100secretsanta2017-blog]

From : help-i-cant-adult

To : @pagerunners

Message : Happy Holidays! This was actually pretty fun to write, even though it isn’t that great. I hope you like it! Merry Christmas!

Reigen was definitely not an esper.

He couldn’t be.

Because, if he was…

Well, if he was, he would’ve noticed that they’d been separated, wouldn’t he?

 __________________________________________________________

It was Shou’s idea, at first. Mob’s day had already deviated from the relaxing usual routine when Ritsu had insisted on coming with him to work. “To keep an eye on him,” he had said, but Mob knew something must’ve caused Ritsu’s intense distrust of Reigen to flare up once more. Maybe it was the fact that this was a big case. In fact, it was so big that they’d called in backup in the form of Teru and Shou.

There had been reports of a poltergeist terrorizing the areas in and around the Hoisin theme park - it was so severe that the park had actually shut down. The owner, frantic about the amount of money he was losing by closing the park down smack in the middle of summer, had come to the first person willing to help - Reigen, the fifty-second psychic on the list.

They had been paired off and had split up - Mob and Ritsu together, and Reigen supervising the other two, not really sure if he could trust them to stay focused.

They’d been investigating for all of fifteen minutes when Shou got bored and dragged Teru into an alley. Reigen kept walking, still talking about his innate abilities and how they were so strong that he needed weaker espers to help him with simple stuff like this.

“What’s up?” asked Teru, seemingly unfazed by being dragged into an alley by the son of a crazy megalomaniac.

“I haven’t been to a theme park in ages,” said Shou, his eyes bright with barely contained excitement, “And I bet Ritsu and Ritsu’s brother haven’t either.”

“Well, what ’s stopping us?” grinned Teru.

“I think I last saw them that way.”

__________________________________________________________

“But the park is closed,” said Ritsu.

Teru rolled his eyes. “Oh, Llittle Brother-kun, you naïve soul. What do you think we have powers for?”

“What about Shishou and the spirit?” protested Mob.

“Ditch work today,” shrugged Shou. “I’m sure Reigen will understand.”

“Yeah, niisan, if reigen-san is as great as he claims to be, he wont need our help.” Ritsu’s eyes gleamed.

“Well…” Mob couldn’t argue with that. And he did want to go to a theme park.

Shou’s enormous grin widened another centimetre.

“What’re we waiting for  then?”

__________________________________________________________

“Which one do you guys want to ride first?” asked Shou. “I’ve been on the Brain-Melter, but I don’t really remember it, and I don’t think I’ve been on the Limb-Twister yet.”

“Those sound a bit dangerous…” said Mob, but Ritsu and Teru had both spoken over him.

“Limb-twister,” they said in unison, then looked at each other in surprise, like they hadn’t ever thought they could have similar tastes.

“Limb-Twister it is,” shrugged Shou, ducking under the rope that kept the line to the roller coaster closed.

“Lucky us, there’s no line,” drawled Teru.

“The park is closed, Teru-kun. How could there be a line?” asked Mob.

Ritsu snickered.

“Come on slowpokes, we don’t have all day!” yelled Shou, from where he was already seated in the  cart. “We need to get back before Reigen notices we’re gone or Ritsu’s big brother could get in big trouble!”

Once they were settled in the cart (Ritsu and Mob in front, Teru and Shou behind), there was the debate about who should push the cart up and down the tracks.

“It was my idea, so I should get to do it!” argued Shou.

“Well I don’t trust you to not get us all killed, so…”

“Hmmm.” Shou chewed on his lower lip, trying to come up with a quick solution. “Well, how about your brother and I push, Ritsu? You trust him, don’t you?”

Ritsu turned to look at his brother.

“I don’t mind,” said Mob.

“Alright then! Remember, Ritsu’s brother, the tracks are for babies and we’ve got to make this go as fast as it can to get the full experience!”

“No-”

“Don’t-”

“LET’S GO!” yelled Shou, cutting Teru and Ritsu’s protests short as the cart blasted forward, propelled by pure esper energy and a desire to have fun.

“THIS IS FUN!” called Mob at the top of his voice, trying to be heard over the rushing in his ears. Ritsu’s answering smile looked suspiciously like a grimace.

Must’ve been the wind.

“FASTER!” yelled Shou, and Mob complied.

As they approached the peak, Teru seemed to break.

“STOP! YOU GUYS ARE GONNA GET US KILLED YOU HAVE  TO-”

There was a break. They were perfectly balanced on the peak of the coaster, seemingly impossibly high. Time stopped just long enough for Teru to finish his sentence.

“-slow down.”

And then they fell forward, hurtling faster and faster towards certain doom. Mob and Shou screamed in exhilaration.

(Ritsu and Teru were also screaming in exhilaration, definitely not terror why do you ask?)

__________________________________________________________

“Well! That was fun! What’s next?” said Shou, hopping out of the cart as it screeched to a stop, courtesy of Teru and Ritsu, who looked haggard. Mob also clambered out, after it had stopped, and offered a hand to Ritsu, who took it gladly.

Teru repeatedly ran his hands through his less-impeccable-than-usual hair.

“Whatever Kageyama-kun wants.”

“I think I would like to go on the Mind-Melter. It has loops,” said Mob.

Teru’s smile instantly became more pained, but he gave a forced hum of assent anyway.

“As long as we don’t go too fast,” said Ritsu. “I still don’t trust you, Shou.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” said Shou dismissively as he bounced towards the Mind-Melter.

“Last one there is a smelly fart!”

“Real mature,” said Teru, and Ritsu rolled his eyes, but both of them sped up anyway.

__________________________________________________________

The instant they got into the car, Ritsu and Teru regretted it. Shou had gotten there first, and they had slowed down so that Mob wouldn’t be last.

“Move your asses!” Shou had said, before  flicking his hand and shoving both of them into the back seat of the car.

“That wasn’t very nice, Suzuki-kun,” scolded Mob, but he didn’t stop Shou from speeding the car along the tracks before the two in the back could be seated properly.

“You’re going too fast! We need to stop!” said Teru. “Little brother-kun agrees with me, doesn’t he?”

“Well, yeah, but I have a name. You should use it.”

“See!”

“Look, if we slow down we’re not gonna have enough momentum to finish the loop,” said Shou, “ So y'all are just gonna have to suuck iit uupp!”

They stopped at the center of the loop.  Hanging upside down, there was just enough time for Shou to give the backseat a dirty look before they fell out of the cart. They caught themselves, each esper supported by their own aura, and, suprisingly, Shou’s.

Ritsu shot him a quizzical look.

“Accidents at theme parks just get in the way,” said Shou, but he looked very relieved that everyone seemed unhurt. His relief quickly turned to irritation.

“Alright, which of you morons did this?” he snapped.

“They aren’t morons,” rebuked Mob, but he seemed to agree with the assessment.

“It wasn’t us, you dumb-” Ritsu cast a look at his older brother and cut himself off.

“You may be annoying and slightly insane, but your understanding of physics is pretty sound, Suzuki-kun,” said Teru, legs crossed and inspecting his nails like none of this even phased him.

“It could be the spirit we came to investigate,” said Mob in a small voice, just in case he was wrong.

The others’ eyes widened simultaneously, as though they would never have thought of that.

“You truly are a genius, Kageyama-kun,” said Teru in awe.

 Ritsu shot him a dirty look.

“Yeah, good job Ritsu’s brother,” Shou smirked.

“I guess we should find this spirit then?” asked Teru, starting to get up from his reclining position, still midair.

“No need!” chirped an unfamiliar voice, putting all four espers on guard.

A child-spirit hovered before them, grinning ear to ear.

“That was so great! If more people had fun like that I might not have had to shut down the park!”

With twin sighs, Teru and Ritsu raised their arms to exorcise the spirit, only to be stopped by Mob.

“If we find out what he wants, we don’t have to hurt him,” he said, causing the other two to drop their hands.

‘So what exactly do you want, kid?“ asked Shou.

The spirit’s smile widened.

"To have fun!”

__________________________________________________________

“I knew this was a bad idea,” murmured Ritsu to Teru. They were hanging behind the other two, who had run ahead to start on the bouncy castle with the spirit.

“Kageyama-kun is very smart,” said Teru, “and wise. Why does he insist on trusting spirits he’s just met?”

Ritsu sighed.

“Niisan is neither smart nor wise. But he is very kind. Almost too kind,” he said, shooting a look at Teru.

“He sometimes befriends characters he would be better off without.”

Teru nodded, as though Ritsu had confided an important secret in him.

“Then I’ll help you make sure none of them hurt him.”

He started to catch up with the others, leaving Ritsu to stare after him incredulously.

Just how unaware was this guy?

__________________________________________________________

“Where were you kids? I’ve been searching all day! You can’t just run off without telling me! What if the poltergeist had gotten you?”

Mob looked at Shou. Ritsu looked at Teru. Shou looked at Ritsu. Teru looked at Mob.

“Do you wanna stop looking at each other and actually say something?”

Mob decided to take pity on his Shishou, who was sweating very hard.

“It did.”

“Huh?”

“The poltergeist. It did get us.”

“HUH??!!”

They watched as sweat dripped down Reigen’s face, even faster than before.

“Are any of you hurt?”

Ritsu raised a mocking eyebrow, but Mob just shook his head.

“We’re fine Shishou. We played some games with him and then he left.”

“Just like that?”

“Well…”

Mob’s mind flashed back to when the spirit, wanting Mob and Shou to stay and play with him, had tried to kill them so they could haunt the park together. Ritsu and Teru had jumped into action with the first movement the spirit made towards Mob, but Shou had beat them to it, exorcising the thing with a fiery snap of his fingers.

“Yes.” said Teru, finishing Mob’s sentence for him. “Just like that.”

“Well then,” said Reigen, looking at their sweaty, flushed faces, “God job kids. Let’s go home.”

“Can we get takoyaki first?”

“Of course, Mob. Of course we can.”