Chapter 1: A Glass of Milk
A.N: Well, here we are again, off to another bizarre adventure…
Please Enjoy.
Some days it was easy, other days it wasn't. Sometimes it could be boring and sometimes it could be interesting, even a bit dangerous at times.
Unfortunately, today was neither of those things.
If he had to give it a name, he suppose this what many folks would consider, "an average hard day at work."
"Are you serious?"
"Serious about what, Mr. Ando?"
"About this." The plumped face man said, his lip already forming into an angry scowl. His little chubby finger was pointing on the bottom of the page, "An 99% reduction in spirit guaranteed?"
"Yes? Do you have a problem with that?"
"Do you take me for some kind of idiot? Who the hell in their right mind would believe this crap?"
"Good sir, you offend me!" The other, much younger man cried out, raising his hands up in a defensible manner, "Everything listed on that piece of paper-"
"- Is utter bullshit." Your telling me that only with 2000 yen, I can only get the 20% chance course of having the ghost completely removed? Yet to get the 99% guarantee, you expect me to pay over 12000 yen?!"
"Hmmm, perhaps I should increase the percentage for Option A… Mr. Ando, if your unhappy with these prices, may I humbly suggest that you go for Option B; The Serious Course?
Oh yes, wasting 5000 yen in order to get a wonderful 50% guaranteed spiritual reduction, truly a ground-breaking deal!" The older man replied in a sarcastic voice while turning his angry glare towards the window, "I can't believe that I actually came this god-forsaken place."
"He has been on the edge since he arrived here…I'm going need to trend lightly." Well, good sir, I can't say I blame you for having doubts about this place, we are recently a new business, so it hasn't been easy to-"
"Oh, your new huh? Well then let me give you some friendly advice, boy" He raised his right hand's index finger, "First off, your prices suck, second-" The man raised his middle finger while also pointing at one of the nearly posters with his other hand, "Take down that disgusting picture on the wall-"
{The picture in question was simply Reigen striking a dramatic pose with the citation, "THE GREATEST psychic of the 21th Century"]
"Honestly, what sort of freak would place their face all over their work space? And third-" He promptly stood up from his chair, while also raising another finger into the younger man's face, "Don't bring a second-rate cheap suit to a meeting with your customers, it makes you look like a god-damn idiot who doesn't have a clue what he's doing."
"I see, I see. He sure does have a flare for being dramatic." Reigen muttered quietly, already placing these "valuable tips" into the back of his mind before offering the upset man a friendly smile, "You raise some very wonderful good points about my sorry state of affairs, but I'm afraid to say that I fail to see how any of your complaints affect my skills as a professional exorcist. After all, I doubt that my posters are responsible for those fiendish little creatures that keep popping up in your dreams. If it's prices that worries you, I sure we can reach an reasonable agreement, don't you think?"
The plumped face man only gave a blank stare towards the self-proclaim psychic as he went on speaking, "Of course, if you still have any doubts, I'm sure you can always turn to the Sun Psychic Union for help, although I'm pretty sure they going have to charge you extra, seeing how they are a professional business after all."
"…"
"Well then, with that being said, would you like to go forward with the exorcism, Mr. Ando?"
"Well that went better than I expected." Reigen thought as he puffed out another cloud of smoke into the room, "His wife did say over the phone that he did have a bit of a nasty temper…"
He lazily stretch out his hand to remove the cigarette out of his mouth before throwing it into the nearby trash bin, "Still though, only 5000 yen…" He made a quick peak at the small watch that hung around his hand-waist,
"Jeez, it's almost six already and that guy was my only customer for today…"
He gave off a small sigh before taking out another cigarette out of his pocket, "At this rate I am going up burning myself out if I don't find something to attract more customers… perhaps I should try lowering the prices-"
Knock, Knock, Knock
"Hmmm?" The man slowly got off his comfy chair, placing his cigarette into his pocket once more and begin calmly walking towards the door, stopping short at the entrance, "Yes?"
"H-hello."
If it hadn't been for the knocking, Reigen would have sworn that he had simply imagined the voice up, for they had spoken so softly that he doubted that even the speaker themselves could heard the sound of their own tiny voice.
"E-excuse me, but may I come in?"
This time, being much closer, Reigen was now able to distinguish a more feminine yet youthful tone from the soft-spoken speaker, "Well, there's no point in guessing, might as well let them inside."
He opened the door to face himself staring at… a small child, "Oh, it's just a kid…"
She was wearing a plain old looking short sleeve blue dress, (A style that almost reminded Reigen of the clothing that a cousin of his wore when they had been children themselves). The back of her hair was cut short, although her front bangs were extremely long to the point in which it was nearly covering her eyes from being seen by anyone. Besides that, the only thing that stood out about her in Reigen's eyes was the fact the girl was holding some sort of piece of paper tightly to her chest.
"Hello sir." The girl spoke up, this time her voice was a bit louder than before, although it still held that uncertain tone that he had heard from earlier,
"Hello, there is anything I can help you with, kid?"
"Ahhh…I'm sorry, but is there someone here waiting for me?"
"…Did someone sent you here to say that?" Reigen answered, one of his eyebrow raised slightly at this odd yet familiar question.
From time to time, some random kids would show up at his doorstep and claim that they have seen some supernatural phenomenon occurring within the hallway or that some sort of ghost had calling out to them…of course, the performance would only last for about two seconds before they start laughing their little heads off and run off, pleased that they managed to waste the con-artist time again.
"No, I-" The girl's eyes looked away from the older man's glare, her checks becoming slightly red as her small hands slowly hand out the white piece of paper she had been carrying, "I came because of this."
Reigen gently took the paper from her tumbling fingers and quickly read through its contents,
Hey Mob,
Why don't you come to the tall building with the silly sign on the street near the old park that everyone used to visit? I be waiting at the second floor, there's something I would like to tell you there in secret.
Nobu.
"Ah, so it's classic elementary school drama huh? …God, never thought I would ever put out those pair of words together in a sentence… I take it that this "Nobu" fellow is someone you know?"
Once again, the girl's face turned into a bright shade of red, "Nobu is…a boy in my class."
"Ho-oh? Someone you like?"
"No."
"…What do you mean, "no?" There be literally no point in coming here if you have no interest in the guy. Ah, then I'm assuming he's a friend of yours?"
"No…" The girl hesitated, her eyes were now looking down at her feet, "I don't think we ever actually talked before…"
"…"
"…I thought it would be rude if I didn't come…"
"I see…say kid, does your parents know you're here?"
"No."
There was brief moment of silence before Reigen gave a small sigh before forming that winning smile he would always display towards his clients, "Well then, I suppose we should gave call them a call, huh?"
"Here you go." Reigen said cheerfully as he handed a cold glass of milk into the young girl's hands, "Sorry it took so long, (You wouldn't believe how bloody expensive it is to get one bag of milk…)
"Thank you." The girl quietly mumbled as she raised the tip of glass to her lips. Within a few seconds, the context of the glass had completely disappeared, with only prove of its existence was a stain of milk remained on the edges of her mouth and the empty glass cup that remain still on the con-artist's desk.
"Damn, aren't she a fast drinker… Say kid, you might want to clean up that little mess on your mouth."
"Oh." Without saying another word, she quickly wiped her mouth with her arm before resuming her empty stare at the large desk that stood between them.
"So, kid, were you able to contact your parents?"
"Hmmm." She gave off a small nod, "Ritsu said they should be here in half hour."
"Ritsu?"
"My brother."
"I see…She doesn't talk much, huh?" For the past hour or so, the girl had remained silent, always allowing Reigen to start one-side conversations or make simple remarks about the weather, never once voicing her own opinion about anything.
"You know kid, if you're feeling uncomfortable being here, you can wait downstairs or I can always ask Mrs. Sato from next door if she could-"
"Oh, it's not that sir…it just-" Once again, the girl's pale face flushed as she gave her answer, "I'm sorry, …I don't know your name."
There was a brief moment of silence, before Reigen started laughing, much to the poor girl's confusion, "Ah jeez, how terrible rude of me, you been here for nearly an hour and I haven't even-ah whatever." He stretched out his large hand while continuing to maintain that friendly warm smile of his, "I'm Reigen Arataka, professional exorcist, nice to meet you."
"Oh…I'm Rika Kageyama, I'm in my fifth year in elementary school." They shook hands for an brief moment, "She has an pretty weak grip, huh? Well, she still only a kid…"
"Mister Arataka-"
"Oh, you can just call me Reigen, kid."
"Mister Reigen," The girl began again, this time, her large brown eyes (or at least what could be seen from her long bangs) held a strange fascination the moment that Reigen had mention his profession, "Are exorcist like espers?"
"Espers? Well... I suppose so, I mean both required a huge amount of psychic energy to do what they usually do, either to levitate object into the air or banish evil spirts, so I imagine that there wouldn't be much of a difference."
"Oh, I see…Mister Reigen, would you mind if I ask you one more question?"
"Go ahead."
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Deal with being treated…"
{"Who said you could hang around here?"]
["Honestly, why don't you go and bend some spoons over there, huh?"]
["What a show off."]
{"Why can't she get a clue?"]
"-special."
Reigen stared at her for bit. Beside her short height, there was nothing much that made the child stand out in any particular way. Her face was nothing special, no remarkable features that made it memorable. The way she acted and spoke hinted toward the behavior of someone who would easily faded into the background when confronted by large groups of people. "I see, so that how it is…"
"I don't."
"Huh?"
"The truth is, kid, no-one really is special." For a brief moment, Reigen felt the itching temptation to take out a cigarette to smoke, but remembering his present company, he instead went on tapping his foot as he went on talking, "It's simple really, no matter if you're an athlete, intellectual or a psychic, people are only going treat differently simply because they just want something from you. The moment that's over, you're back to being an average chum in the eyes of society. So in a sense, you never were special in the first place."
"Besides, just having a special gift doesn't really change anything about you, does it? It's what you do rather than what you can do what counts in the end…Just be a good person, that all."
"Oh…" Rika couldn't help but stare in complete awe-stuck at the man sitting across her, as if he just revealed to her the answer to one of life's greatest mysteries,
"Mister Reigen, do you mind if I come back to talk to you again?"
Reigen couldn't help but give off a small nervous laugh at the young girl's innocent question, "Well, I don't know about that, I'm pretty busy guy, you know? (Besides, I'm pretty sure your parents wouldn't exactly be thrill at the news of their little girl wanting to make friends with a guy in his mid-twenties…) Anyways, perhaps we should give your parents another call and see if they-"
He wasn't sure what caused it, either his sudden movements or perhaps because it had been too close to the edge… regardless of the reason, the glass that he had given to Rika chose at that moment to fall off his desk and shattering all across the floor,
"Ah Crap! Kid, watch ou-"
…Or would have, if wasn't for the fact that glass had stopped in mid-air.
Reigen could only watch in utter disbelief as a bright blue aura effortless brought the glass cup back up into Rika's small hands. It also took him a moment to realize that the same aura was surrounding the figure of that small, unremarkable girl,
"…Hey kid…are you an esper?"
"Yes."
"Huh…say kid, you don't happen to see ghosts too?
And that is a wrap for now… quite a strange start, huh?
For those wondering why I chose to name Fem Shigeo as Rika, it's primarily for three reasons; First, I personally see it as a sign of be lazy writing if I simply make the character's name sound more feminine rather than making the effort of giving her own identity. And second, I actually like this name for several reasons (I. Rika means simply "Strong", a fitting name considering some of the future plot-lines for this story… It's also the name of one of my favorite characters in the Higurashi series…). As for the last reason...Rika and Ritsu certainty has an nice ring to it, doesn't it?
Anyways, I'm curious about what you guys thought about this first chapter, I do hope you guys did find Rika to be believable version of an Fem Shigeo, if not just let me what I could try improving on and hopefully avoid having her from becoming a cliché Mary Sue archetype.
Until next time, have a wonderful day.
Small facts: $2000 yen= $23 Canadian dollars= $18 US Dollars
$5000 yen=$57 Canadian dollars=$46 US dollars
$12000 yen= $136 Canadian dollars=$109.5 US dollars