"Mob, you're finally here." Reigen said with his hands in his pockets.
"I was free tonight.. But please stop calling me on sich short notice, Shishou." Shigeo sighed.
"Sorry Mob, but we have a big one today."
"A big one? And it's in another tunnel..."
"Yes. This one has just recently been cursed, apparently."
"Is that so."
"Yeah, there've been many complaints about this, so it's best that we take care of this now."
"Yes, Shishou." Mob said.
Shigeo and Reigen both made their way into the tunnel, their shoes clicking on the floor.
"Shishou... Can you feel that?" Mob said.
"Yeah, I can." Reigen lied. He couldn't feel anything, but that was normal.
Mob stopped walking, and Reigen stopped as well.
"The spirit is right up there. You may want to step back." He said, pointing up the tunnel.
Reigen impulsively took a step back, to let Mob handle the work. Soon, a skinny figure emerged from the darkness, long black hair draped over her face. She let out a demonic screech that was grading to the ears. She quickly raced for Mob, who lifted his hand in response. A bright light illuminated around the spirit, who screeched in response.
Reigen watched Mob do his work, proud, like usual. Something felt different though. His stomach was churning, and his head was in pain. It felt like wire was tightening around his brain. He just kept a straight face and tried to bare with the pain. As Mob exorcised the spirit, he was still in pain, starting to get tired. He went over to lean on the nearest wall for support.
The spirit soon disappeared into thin air and the pain slowed down.
"That spirit was a lot stronger than expected, Shishou. No wonder why we got complaints." Mob said, lowering his arm and turning to his master. "Shishou?"
Reigen looked at Mob, a strained smile on his face.
"Shishou, are you okay?"
"Y-yep, I'm okay." Reigen responded. "Let's go back to the agency."
Quickly turning around, Reigen sauntered off to exit the tunnel. Mob squinted at him, concerned by his strange behavior.
Mob and Reigen sat at the table with takoyaki in front of them.
"Alright, let's dig in!" Reigen said cheerfully, picking up a stick with the food on the end. Before he could put the hot food in his mouth, Mob interjected saying, "Shishou, what happened today?"
Reigen paused. He wasn't too sure about what happened. "It was just a headache, I guess." He said, proceeding to put the takoyaki in his mouth. The scalding food touched his tongue briefly, causing Reigen to emit a shriek of pain and spit it out. "Ah no, not again!"
With a raise of Mob's finger, the food stopped before it reached the floor.
The pain started abruptly, causing a squirt of blood to come from the orange haired man's nose.
Both gasped at the spray of red liquid and Reigen reached his hand up to stop the flow.
"Shishou, what happened?!"
Reigen waved, not making eye contact with his pupil. "It's nothing!"
The takoyaki floated down back to where it was in the tray, causing the pain to dtop.
Reigen stood up and grabbed some tissues before sitting down again.
"What happened just now...?"
"Eh? A headache and a nosebleed I guess." He rubbed his nose, letting the tissue absorb the blood.
"Do you think it was from my psychic powers?"
"Huh? No." Well. It was a possibilty. No... It had to be that. Ever since the big battle against the Scars - when Mob lent Reigen his powers - he hadn't been feeling so great. It was like every time Mob used his psychic powers, it hurt him. But... How does that work?
It doesn't matter. It'll get better.
"Shishou, what do you think that was then?"
"Nothing important. I guess it may be something natural." Reigen shrugged. "It'll be fine, Mob." He said as he picked up the same takoyaki.
But it wasn't fine. It just kept getting worse and worse, until-
"Shishou?"
Mob rushed over to his master, uneasy at what happened.
Reigen's mouth was covered, his eyes wide and his body shaking. Blood ran through his fingers, as he pulled his hand back to look at his palm before quickly slapping it back over his mouth.
"Shishou what happened?!"
The man raised his free hand, waving to Mob that he was okay.
"Mob, its fine it's-" He got cut off with a terrible cough before collapsing to the ground.
The boy stepped back in confusion and terror, not understanding what happened.
Mob sat in the chair next to Reigen staring blankly at his master's face. His once colorful and bright face was now pale. His cheekbones could even been seen through his skin, he'd lost so much weight. How long had he been sleeping? It was about a week.
It's been too long.
Every day from school, he'd visit to see if his master had gotten better. But it was never what he'd hoped. He got worse every single day. The constant beep of the heart monitor rung in Mob's ears even after he'd left the hospital for the day.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
It continuously kept beeping until the beep started to drag on.
Mob snapped out of his daze and realized what happened.
Shishou. Shishou is dead.
His mouth parted open.
Shishou.
His eyes started to burn.
Shishou...
Tears began to roll down his face as he let out a pained cry.
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