"…cooking wine?"
Reigen felt something soft under his head. That was…this was new. He had fallen asleep, well passed out, hunched over in the kitchen at the table. The table had been hard. This space was soft…and something warm was over him….
"Is it dangerous?"
He opened his eyes and then immediately closed them again. Too much, too bright, and too much red. There was so much red…what was it with that Matsuura guy and all of this red? It was the worst, eye bleeding-est, shade of red that the good people at the paint company could have conceived. It was designed only for the purpose of torture and torment.
"No…just disgusting."
There was a chill to this room. He huddled closer under the blanket…and it was a blanket. It was a blanket in that same, eye bleeding, shade of red as the walls. How anyone could have lived with so much red was beyond him. He wished that he was in his own home with his own neutrally colored walls faded by years of chain smoking and not closing his blinds during the day…but he wasn't home. He was here.
"Is it really? Have you tried it before, Teru?"
He was here because this was where Mob was. He wasn't going to leave Mob alone…not after what she had gone through. Not that she had been alone. He could hear her, her and her boyfriend, and he….he didn't know if he wanted to. Now was not the time to be squeamish about what it was that Mob got up to…but he didn't like having confirmation of what it was that she and her boyfriend did together…but she had saved the world. She had saved them all…she could do whatever she wanted to at this point.
"Once. Just once…and it was disgusting. I mean if you drink enough of it you'll feel…something…but it was not worth how sick I got afterwards or how truly terrible it tasted."
She sounded fine. She felt….she felt fine. Better. It was easier to feel her aura, now, and she sounded less…spacey…than she had before. How much time had passed? He had no idea. This room had no windows. A lot of the rooms didn't have windows. It was a gutted apartment building, that guy had said, and as a consequence there were a lot of rooms that hadn't existed before. Room enough for all of the espers he had planned on finding…though he hadn't though that they would be all kids. Some kind of bizarre baby boom about fifteen years ago, it seemed, though Matsuura had only been able to gather so much data…and Reigen wished that he would have just shut up about…about all of it…
"I'm glad that you're ok now, Teru. I drank once, too, and I only got a little sick. I mostly just felt good."
This was not the place for kids. Kids….this had been too much for a bunch of kids. Kids Mob's age. Younger. All of this…but it was over. This whole thing was over and Mob was fine. If Mob was fine then he should have been fine, too. He had…he had survived and everyone had survived and he…he was just so grateful that she was still alive.
"Good. I like it when you feel good."
He was not grateful to have heard that. No, he could have lived a long life without having had heard that. He could have lived long enough without ever hearing the tone of voice from that kid…or the way Mob laughed, there, a few seconds afterward. She must have gotten his meaning…and he wished that she had been clueless. He wished that he had been clueless. He wished…he wished that the discomfort he felt right then and there could have overridden all of what he felt after…after all of that…
"Teru! Don't say things like that where people can hear!"
She sounded embarrassed, then, and she felt embarrassed…..or maybe that was his own embarrassment. She sounded like a normal, fourteen year old, girl then. She sounded the way that she was supposed to sound. Like she was fourteen and she didn't have a single care in the world besides…besides her boyfriend and feeling embarrassed and…and she didn't have a thought about saving the world or…or anything.
"What? They're asleep and even if they weren't, well, I don't care. I love you and I don't care who knows."
He wondered what was coming for her, for them, for everyone. She sounded fourteen, there, and…and he wanted her to sound fourteen for the rest of her life. Well for the rest of her life where it would have been appropriate to sound fourteen. She was…she was just a kid…and she had gone through so much….he pulled his aura away from hers. She was happy. Well neutral….but she was not upset and that was what mattered. She was the one who had every right to be upset…but she was fine…and he should have been fine, too.
"Teru….you're not talking about love. I know that you're not talking about love." Said Mob. She cast a glance in Master Reigen's direction. He was asleep…maybe. She knew what his breathing was like when he was deep asleep but he might have just been half asleep. Like when he fell asleep sitting up at his desk, sometimes. She could sort of feel his feelings…and he might have been having a bad dream. She understood if he was. It had been a lot for her and would have been even worse for him.
"It's got nothing at all to do with love?" asked Teru. He asked like he was kidding, he hoped that she had been kidding, but he couldn't stop that feeling that was settling into his chest….that cold sort of feeling. Cold and…and now his heart was beating kind of fast, too…but he was ok. She loved him. She had told him a million times…and half of those million times had been just then in that borrowed room…God, he loved her so much….
"No…I mean it does….I did all of that with you because I love you…and also because…because I wanted to feel good. I mean I know that sometimes people only do that to feel good but…but that was not one of those times. I mean that…that I wanted to be with you because I love you more than anything and…and I wasn't really thinking clearly, I guess. I mean that my thoughts were all…fuzzy. I just knew that I loved you and I wanted to feel good and I wanted you to feel good, too." Said Mob. She tried to find words for how she felt, then, and found none. Well 'good' was a word but it was not a word that could properly encompass all that she felt…and she felt so good, though, then….and she felt good now, too. Being near him. Being there. Being alive. Being herself.
"I get it…you were happy to be alive…and so was I. I still am, of course, but I was…it was a lot. I thought that I had lost you…but that doesn't matter now! It happened and now it's over and…and let's have breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Food! Let's have some kind of meal right now and just…just have some kind of meal right now." Said Teru. He was still shook…even though he knew that there had been no reason to be. It was over, it was all over, the world had been saved and the credits had rolled and now…now this was their epilogue. The part where they all lived happily ever after…
He hadn't watched those sorts of films in years.
The sorts where everything was all wrapped up in a neat little package at the end. After the credits rolled the people all lived their bets lives or whatever. Well that was not…that was not how the real world worked. In the real world…in the real world so much, still, could have gone wrong. They had beaten the bad guy…but even then he still might have felt like going for round two. Even then there still might have been an even bigger bad guy, later. That was how it worked in manga and anime and all of that. Just when you thought you'd won, beaten the big bad, there was an even bigger bad waiting there for you.
And then they would have to fight again.
Then she would have had to fight again. They would…she would…that didn't matter. He had to make her something to eat, now. He had to make and she could not help. He was in the kitchen, now, and she was there too. They had gone their originally and had, instead of finding food, had found Reigen and Matsuura passed out with a bottle of cooking wine between them. Adults…he would never understand adults.
Cooking wine was truly disgusting.
And so were adults. They thought that because they were older they could do whatever they wanted. They could be whoever they wanted. That they could just…just do whatever they wanted! Who the hell thought that they could take over the whole world! This whole thing was just…it was ridiculous! It was stupid! It was so stupid and then….and then they all had to go through that and…and he had almost died, he had almost died and lost her…lost everyone.
Adults could be truly disgusting sometimes.
He was and was not an adult. He had been taking care of himself for years, now, without help…and that was the way that it was going to be. He reached down to check his phone. It was useless. He didn't have his phone in his pocket because these were pajama pants, they didn't have pockets. These were his marigold and cheddar ones, an underrated color combination if anyone were to ask him, and they were comfortable. He had saved of his wardrobe what he could….he wondered if anything had survived the explosion. He wondered if his apartment building was still standing. He wondered if-
"Teru. You're going to burn it." Said Mob. She wished that Teru would have let her help. She liked to help…and she wouldn't have let Teru burn the food. She wished that she knew what was going on in his head. He had been doing that thing where he talked a lot and talked very fast…and she wished that he would have just slowed down and just…just made himself heard…
And understood.
That was the limit that they were under. Instrumentality…it hurt. It hurt so much. It hurt in a way that nothing had ever hurt before…but it also…it was easier to be understood. Easier. The easiest. She had never understood and been so understood in her life…and that was all over now. She needed to get used to words. She needed to use them again and use them well and use them right….and other people should have, too.
Was that what she had been looking for?
"Sorry. I'm sorry." Said Teru. Right. He had to at least be able to do this. To make her something to eat. He had…he had been useless to her. She had saved him. He knew that he shouldn't have let himself feel that way but his pride was wounded. She had wounded his pride…and he was the biggest piece of shit in the world for feeling like that. It was…it wasn't about the glory of winning but the fact that she had…she had done what he should have been supposed to do. He was the guy, he should have been the one to keep her safe. She was his girlfriend. She was his girlfriend and he…he had almost lost her. Because he had been too weak and powerless to fight…to win…
"I don't mind. I can even help, too, if you want me to." Said Mob. She tried to reach over to him but he took a step away.
"No. I can do this myself. Let me do this for you." Said Teru. He wondered when these feelings would ever end. This feeling of being useless, less than useless even. He should have been there for her, been the one to save her, but she had saved him…she had saved him and then…then what was the point of him being there? For her?
She could leave.
But she wouldn't.
No matter what he did he could not shake that feeling, the feeling that she would leave him alone one day and that it would all be…that he would be all alone. He would be alone and she would be…not with him. With someone else. But that…there were two side to his mind and they argued. There was the stupid part of his mind that kept on trying to convince him that she, his girlfriend, the person he loved most in this world was planning on leaving him the moment she realized how amazing she was. There was the other part of his mind, too, the smart part that told him that he knew Shigeko. She was not the sort of person that would leave him when she realized that she was so amazing and he was just so…not.
Then there was the part, also, that kept on reminding him that they had all almost died yesterday.
"You don't have to do everything yourself, Teru. I'm here too. We're here together." Said Mob
"I know that you're here but….Shigeko, you've done so much for me already." Said Teru
"Do you mean when I did that thing you like? Because that's also kind of for me, too. I like knowing that I've made you happy." Said Mob. She liked the fact that she had, for a little bit, chased away all of the bad feelings from the previous day and replaced them with good feelings. The best feelings. Maybe that was what she had been looking for, a way to feel good, to be happy. She had been so unhappy for so long…and she never wanted to feel like that again.
Had she been selfish, then?
Had she been using him, then, to erase her own bad feelings? Was she just a selfish person? She hadn't been thinking of him, then, or how he felt. She had just wanted to feel good and she had felt good in making him feel good. She had just been so sick of all of those bad feelings…and she was still kind of sick of them. She had just…she wanted to be happy. She should have been happy. She was happy. But if she was happy then why couldn't she just let herself be happy? What was wrong with her that the first thing she did when she realized that she was happy was tell herself that she had been selfish?
What was wrong with her?
"No…I mean I wasn't talking about that…and thank you, by the way, you didn't have to…not that I'm complaining! I just…I meant that…you do a lot for me in general. I mean beyond saving my life! Which was, by the way, amazing. I just…I can't thank you enough for what you did and…and I just…let me do something for you, now. Let me do everything for you." Said Teru
"But I can do things for myself, Teru, you don't have to do everything for me. If you do everything for me then when will you have time to do things for yourself?" asked Mob. She could not be so selfish even if Teru offered. Though it seemed sort of nice…not having to think about anything…having everything done for her. She had been…she felt like she had been holding up the weight of the world, lately. She only had two hands, though, but she had…it had been a lot. Being alone after Mogami…that whole fight and the time leading up to it…she just wanted to rest.
But she had already done a lot of resting.
And now it was time to eat something.
"I don't care about that. I only care about you." Said Teru quickly. He didn't…he was not going to be selfish. He had been a selfish prick when he had met her…and in a lot of ways he had still been a selfish prick even afterwards. He hadn't noticed that there was something wrong with her, after all of that shit with that Mogami spirit, until it was too late…that was on him. It made sense, reasonable sense, that he would be pissed at himself for letting her…for everything that had happened to her, then. It didn't make logical sense for him to beat himself up about not having had been able to save the world from a guy who was so powerful that he could have…any of the things that Teru now saw when he closed his eyes.
"But…but you should also care about yourself. I care about you, Teru, and I think…I think that we should care about each other. We're in a relationship and when two people are in a relationship then they're a team. They're there for each other. You're here for me and I'm here for you. That's how all of this works." Said Mob
"We…we are a team." Said Teru
"We are…and that's why we should think about each other, why we should be there for each other." Said Mob
"You…you're right. We should always be there for each other. You're so right…you're always right." Said Teru
"I'm not always right, Teru, I'm not right about…about a lot of stuff. I mean…I was wrong about…I don't want to think about it." Said Mob
"About what? Tell me what's bothering you and then I can…I can do…something." Said Teru even though he had no idea what he could do. What he could do without holding her and kissing her and just…just making her happy in the best way that he knew how. He was an adult and that was what adults did. Words…words were hard, sometimes, and words….words had meaning but so did actions. He spoke better with his actions than his words, then, because his words…their first instinct was to protect him. To fill up the atmosphere so thickly that she couldn't see through to what he was, what he was feeling. To protect him from…from he didn't even know what.
To protect him from showing himself.
From showing her himself…even though she had seen every single part of him already. Body and soul. They had become one time and time and time again. Body and soul. She had seen him at his weakest tome and time again, at his most vulnerable…and he did not know why it still bothered him. Why the whole things still made him so…so…anxious. If that was the word. He loved her…and he had shown himself to her as he was time and time again…and she…she had made him what he was, now.
She was the one who made him work for what he was.
"It's about…I don't even know. I just feel…I know that I should be happy, and I was happy, and I am happy but…but also I feel like…selfish." Said Mob
'What? Shigeko, no, there is nothing about you that anyone could ever call selfish. You save me and you saved everyone and I…you're not selfish. Ok?" said Teru
"I…it's just that…I made you do all of…I mean I wanted to-" said Mob
"I wanted to, too, you know. You didn't make me do anything that I didn't want to….and I just…please don't ever call yourself selfish, ok? Just…please don't ever call yourself selfish ever again. You're not. You risked your life for me…for everyone…and that's just…I love you, ok? I just…" said Teru. He didn't even know. He knew that he should have been happy too….and he was. He was happy and also about a million and one other things. He loved Shigeko, he loved her the most out of anyone else in the whole world, and he was so happy to be with her…
But there was so…much.
So many feelings. All of them swirling around inside of him…so many of them contradictory, too. He wanted to be near her forever and he wanted to be alone. He wanted to go home and he wanted to never set eyes on that burnt out husk of an apartment again. He was hungry and he was nauseous. He was cold and he was warm.
A lot of feelings.
Maybe he should have done the adult thing and run from them. Maybe he should have found a bottle of cooking wine and drank that….if it would even do anything. It was for cooking, not drinking, and he had gotten sick to his stomach that time he drank it long before he got even a little bit…anything. Maybe he should have found some real liquor or…or something. Because that was what adults did, wasn't it? They ran away? When things got too hard they ran away? They ran away and left you all alone?
But he wasn't alone.
He had been trying to run away, before, and so had she. When they had gotten here. When the dust settled and they found themselves tired and filthy and alone…that was what had happened, wasn't it? They had both been trying to run away from these truly terrible feelings that they both had? They had both wanted nothing more than to…to just be….happy. To find happiness with each other? Because…because there had been happiness in all of that. Happy. They had been happy to be alive…and he was still happy to be alive.
Also he was hungry.
And he decided to settle on that feeling and not the million and one others that had settled somewhere deep within himself.
"I love you too…and if you don't want me to then I will never call myself selfish ever again." said Mob even though she felt…she felt selfish. She felt selfish for letting the fight get as bad as it did. So many people lost their homes and their jobs…and also there was no more Cultural Tower either…and that had been a fun field trip…and nobody else would ever have that fun field trip again…and she had…she should have done more to save the city…and to save him, too…
Was it worth it?
Had she found what she had been looking for?
"Please don't." said Teru. He meant it. He meant it more than he had ever meant anything in his life. She could never have been selfish. Not Shigeko. Never Shigeko.
There was nothing at all selfish about her.
Ritsu knew that he was selfish.
Plain and simple he was the most selfish person to ever walk the Earth.
"Are you kids sure you're ok?" asked Rei's mother. Ritsu nodded. He still didn't feel much like talking. He had slept through most of the day on Rei's couch. He hadn't meant to, he had just passed out, but it was alright. Her family had made it perfectly clear that it was alright. They had certainly said it enough times.
"Mom, we're fine." Said Rei. She felt a million times better after sleeping, actually sleeping. She felt…she still had that low key fear but…but it was better. She was alive. She was alive and she was back home with her family and her boyfriend….the best boyfriend in the world. She was having dinner, well breakfast for her and Ritsu, with her family…and she would share meals with them again and again and again.
The future told her so.
She looked into the future again. Her parents…they would fight over whether or not they should stay in the house or evacuate with everyone else. Some people were still leaving even though they were far from where all of the fighting had been. Nothing was broken here. Nobody had died. Well people had died but…but nobody she knew. Hopefully.
Nope. Nobody she knew.
She saw her aura glow. Ritsu must have seen it, too. He held her hand tighter. They were holding hands under the table…and it was so nice! She was so glad that she could get back to the things that mattered…that had mattered to her before she had to help save the world. She had a bag to unpack, a shower to take, and a boyfriend to hang out with and cuddle and kiss and maybe even…
Life was short.
Life could end at any time.
And there were a lot of things that she wanted to do before she died. She had come so close to death so many times…and she could have died again…and she didn't want to. She looked into the future again. She saw so many possibilities for her death….but that was good. The explosion had been this thing, this beacon of certainty, and it had been…bad. But now there was so little certainty. Mom and dad would fight but make up. Her sister would be a jerk to her but what else was new? Ritsu would…he would…
Their future was muddy.
Unclear.
But that didn't matter. They had a future together…in some of the futures that they saw…and almost dying certainly did put some things into perspective. Things between them were great. Sure there were some compatibility issues but it was nothing that they couldn't work through with the books that she'd found in her parents room. He loved her, that was what mattered, and not the kind of love that was all 'oh I love you' but then you love someone else three days later or whatever. Their love was real. The real and true kind of love.
They had risked their lives for each other after all.
"Mom, stop making such a big deal out of it. We're fine, our clothes just got messed up." Said Rei before her mom could start up again about what had happened. She had been about to, Rei could see what she had been about to see. She never used her powers this much….and she didn't know why. Sure she sometimes got headaches and stuff but there was no reason not to look into the future. The future…anything could have been hiding there. Anything could have been waiting to hurt them…
So she looked into the future.
It was going to be a good future. The internet would be fixed in a couple of days and…and also the state of emergency would be over…and Ritsu would stay with her for a long time. His house had burnt down but Sho had said that his friend, one of the adult espers, could put it back together in just three days…and Rei didn't know how to feel about that. One the one hand of course she didn't want her boyfriend to be homeless but on the other hand she wanted him to stay with her for the rest of his life.
But they had their whole adult lives for that.
"Damn. You almost made me the youngest." Said Riko. Rei stuck her tongue out. Mom and dad told them both to knock it off. Jeez. You'd think that someone's big sister would have been happier that their little sister hadn't been crushed by a building or killed in an explosion or kidnapped or died in a fire or something like that…not that Riko knew what happened…but still!
"You're lucky I don't make myself the oldest." Said Rei. She didn't mind it, not really, not when she thought about it. She'd rather deal with her sister being a jerk a thousand times over than deal with being dead or kidnapped and having to deal with whatever Claw did with the people they kidnapped…or watching Ritsu die…or knowing that he was dead….that she would never be able to see him again….to be near him…to hold his hand….
"Dummy. We still have two older sisters." Said Riko. Rei stuck out her tongue again. Ritsu held her hand tight.
"Rei, it's ok." Said Ritsu softly. He didn't know if they were fighting for real or just fighting for the sake of fighting. He couldn't tell. She and her sister fought…but he had never fought with his sister. Not for the sake of fighting. Their first and only fight was something that would haunt him for the rest of his life…
He wondered how she was doing.
He was her little brother. He should have been there for her…but what could he have done? What could he have done but say that he was sorry…and he had already said that so many times already. He said that he was sorry because he was sorry. There was nothing else that he could do but say that he was sorry. Either that or build a time machine and beat Sho's dad all by himself and then go back further and save her from that Mogami spirit thing and then go back even further and kick his own ass so he didn't lost control and yell at her…or push her….
He wished that he knew how she was doing.
She had been passed out last time he's seen her. She had every reason to be tired. She had saved them all after all. She had…he remembered what he' saw. He would never forget what he'd seen that day. The explosion…his sister made of light….the way it hurt to look at her…the way she got bigger and bigger and bigger until she was touching the sky and then…and then she had bent over backwards and…and then she had folded herself backwards until she was back in the shape of an explosion…
And then everything hurt.
His hand was squeezed.
"You're ok, too." Said Rei. She could see and feel his aura. He was bothered. Sad. Unhappy. Scared. Something negative that caused his aura to flare out like that. She could see auras better now, or maybe his was just showing a lot. Hers was. She had never glowed so much before….and she had never used her powers so often before…
"Will you two just get a room already?" Said Riko. Rei kicked her under the table in the way that only a little sister could. Not to hurt her for real, she was sick of fighting, but hard enough to tell her sister to shut her mouth. This was…she would have missed this if she were dead. The war at home was what her parents had called it. She used to be annoyed by her sister…
And she still was…
But it was a good sort of annoyed.
"Riko! Who's in middle school, you or Rei?" said Rei's mom. Ritsu wondered if she was yelling for real or just yelling. His mom always yelled for real…and if she came home to find the house in ashes and cinders then she would yell so loud they'd be able to hear her across the country….but mom would be gone for a while. She was up in the mountains with dad and there was no internet or TV up there. Hopefully mom and dad would come home long after the house was put back together…and Ritsu wondered when that would be.
Not that he was going to go and bother Sho.
He had been…the last time he had seen Sho…Sho had been worrying. Worried and worrying. He had been making a bed for his dad…and he had been yelling at everyone to go away. That had hurt, the way Sho has yelled at him, but he could understand it. It must have been hard having a dad who not only tried to take over the world but tried to kill him with his own two hands.
Sho had been too hurt to walk, even.
Ritsu hoped that he was better. He had woken up with all of his injuries healed just as everyone else's had been. He had been well enough to walk…and talk…and yell…and there was nothing that he could do for him, either. Nothing at all but…but be there until he had been told in no uncertain terms to go away. That had hurt, too. They had been through so much shit together and now Sho was just…
Going through a lot.
Everyone was going through a lot. Ritsu had to remember that. He was thinking selfishly, like a kid, and that was…that was wrong. He had to be better. He had to be the person that everyone seemed to want him to be. Even though his sister seemed to want him to be no kind of person to her. She hadn't even asked him to help her…not that he would have been any help….
Because he just was not strong enough.
He got the feeling that this feeling, this feeling of being useless and a failure, would stick with him for years to come. He imagined that all of the feelings had about this, the bad ones, would stick with him for years to come. After all this was not the sort of thing that a person could just forget. Even though he wanted nothing more than to just forget that everything had even happened. He just wanted to be ok. He just wanted everything to be ok. He just wanted…
He just wanted to calm down.
Because he was sitting at Rei's table with her family like normal. This was a normal scene, something that he could have sat in on at any day of the week. This was normal and expected and he had to act normal and he had to tell his stupid brain that it was all over…even though it didn't feel like it was over. It felt like it could have started back up again at any time…and there would be nothing that he could do. Once again there would have been nothing at all that he could do. He'd be…
He wouldn't be anything because it was over and done with.
"It's over and done with….so now what?" asked Koyama. Suzuki, little Suzuki, had been pretty clear. Everyone had to leave him the hell alone. Fine. That was an order that Koyama could follow and would follow because, well, he did not want to see any more of Suzuki, big Suzuki, than he already had.
And he did not want to see what the Boss did with people who ruined his world domination plots, either.
So he and Sakurai had walked until they found a place that was opened. A convenience store. They got some boxed breakfasts and some coffee and just sat and…and existed. Decompressed. It wasn't every single day that you…what had that guy said? The purple haired member of the Ultimate Five? Something like…
So that was what it looked like when two Gods fought.
"Get the hell out of here and try and start new lives? I mean what else can we do? The organization is done with." Said Sakurai. He reached up and touched the spot where his scar had once been. Gone. Not even the boss' personal healer could fix scars…but there it was. Gone. Thanks to that girl…
If she could even be called a girl anymore. That was…no human being should have been able to survive that. There was just no way that a person could give up their body like that….and to have done all of that after the beating that she had taken…and that big tree…
That felt wrong to look at.
"That's easier said than done. We may not have scars on our faces anymore but it's not like we can explain the gaps in our resumes." Said Koyama with a shrug. Sakurai shrugged too.
"We'll just say that we were self-employed independent contractors. I mean we technically were. We'll be fine. Anything would be better than what we were doing before." Said Sakurai. He finished off the last of his coffee and set the cup down next to him. The wind picked it up and it blew down the street. Near desolate. A lot of the city had been evacuated. Technically they were all still under an evacuation order. This place was far, very far, from the warzone. Some of the people had stayed and now they were all sort of milling around.
Well there wasn't much else to do with no phones, no internet, and only broadcast TV.
He was brought back to a scene from his childhood. Him and all of the orphans just milling around after the earthquake, well one of them, had taken one of the dormitories. Nothing to do. No twenty four inch black and white TV to crowd in front of, no more broken toys to play with since they had all been in there. Just a whole lot of nothing.
Nothing good had come from kids being left to their own devices like that.
But these people….they weren't causing trouble. They seemed nice. This must have been a pretty nice place. Especially if it had given them that girl. Mob she had called herself. She really was a nice kid, he thought, from what he had heard. Of course he had only spent time with her in battle both as friend and foe. She spared her enemies, though, and sacrificed herself for the good of her allies and friends…
Even though she was the strongest of all of them she acted as though she were the weakest.
"You're right about that. God…I can't believe that I actually went along with…all of that." Said Koyama. It had been weird, a little, seeing the kid he had kidnapped again…and the one who had mangled his hand. Peeled the skin right off she had…but that was better now, too. He had the full range of motion back and everything.
Thanks to whatever that light had been. Had truly been.
"You're not the only one who did things that they should be ashamed of. That part's over now. We have to keep moving forward with our lives. There's no other way." said Sakurai. He wondered what kind of trouble they'd be in when the dust cleared. Suzuki was over. His dreams, Claw, all of it was gone. He was going down…and it would just be a matter of time before they found out who he was taking down with him.
He hoped that someone with access to Claw's employment records had enough sense to destroy them.
"Yup. No other way. Nothing to do but settle down, get jobs, and live the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders." Said Koyama. He had been involved in some very serious crimes. The kind of crimes that they put people away for. Away for a very long time. If he got caught….by the time he courts were done with him he'd either be very old or very dead…
"Pretty much." Said Sakurai. He hoped to God that someone on the inside had the good sense to destroy every single record they could get their hands on. A lot of people were about to go down. He was happy to have lived, happy to have woken up half buried in the dirt, but that happiness was fading. Being replaced by worry. There was only so much time before the government came in and started making arrests, seizing assets, and placing blame. If they were lucky, insanely lucky, the government would find Suzuki, arrest him, and then decide to let the whole thing go….but when were they ever that lucky?
They never were.
"Well aren't I lucky?" drawled Shimazaki as he was helped to his feet. He still couldn't see shit. The entire area was so loud. The girl. The girl and the president. It was like they were having a shouting match with their auras…and it had ended in a draw.
"No, not really considering the fact that the explosion didn't heal your eyes." Said Minegishi as he handed Shimazaki what was left of his coat. After the president had bared his soul, and everything else, he had decided to get going before anything started up again. Some little skirmish was bound to come up. Necessity had made them all allies but he was still a member of the Ultimate Five, the inner circle, and those Scars had never been their biggest fans….
"I was born without eyes. You can't heal what was never there." said Shimazaki as his arms were threaded through the sleeves of his coat. He could dress himself, he was blind not helpless, but there was something nice to this. Intimate. Caring. It was not often that he got to see this side of Toshiki….of Minegishi.
Maybe the world should have ended more often.
"True, true, true. You're not missing anything, anyway. There's rubble everywhere, Hatori's freaking out-" said Minegishi
"You'd be freaking out too if you had to delete almost three decades' worth of-of-of everything! Almost three decades' with of everything with a last gen smart phone that's only connected to the main system through sheer force of will!" said Hatori. He hadn't come up out of the ground fresh as a daisy with a whole new lease on life. No, he had come up out of the ground without the luxury of any time to enjoy the fact that he hadn't been dematerialized or whatever in that explosion of pure psychic energy…
And also that he had emp shielded his old phone.
Not that he was sure if that had been an emp. He had no idea what to call that explosion. All he knew was that he had woken up, all the little cuts and burns he had gotten from working without gloves on were gone, and now the world had this pink and blue and red and yellow haze around it...
And also there was an evil tree glaring at them.
Minegishi had been the one to use the word 'glaring'. He said that the tree did not feel right, did not feel right at all, and that it wasn't showing any signs of being anything like a normal tree so they all needed to put as much distance between that thing and themselves as they could. He was not about to argue with Minegishi about plants.
So off they went.
For a while. For a while he had thought that they were just walking in some random direction. The best thing to do would have been to start running. He could have easily fabricated new identities and histories for them as soon as he got access to the internet…which there didn't seem to be any. Something had been damaged…a lot of something's had been damaged….well some of those something's had been important now they were without internet aside from what he could force into his phone.
Thank God for the small miracles.
"Stop complaining. It's not like either of us can help you." Said Minegishi. He brushed some dirt from Shimazaki's hair. He had almost died, he could be a little soft right then. He'd go back to normal once the thrill of having not been blown up in a horrific explosion passed.
"It's not like either of you would." Said Hatori as he went back to work. He needed to do this before the government did. He did not want to have to go underground until this whole thing blew over….so, basically, forever. This was not the sort of thing that people were just going to forget about. It wasn't even fair. He hadn't wanted any of this. He had been dragged into this thing kicking and screaming, pretty much. He wasn't Serizawa. He hadn't been singing the President's praises until the very end…
It was finally over…
But not yet.
"Unless that thing can do text to speech I can't help you. Sorry." said Shimazaki. This was disconcerting. He could feel Minegishi but he couldn't see Minegishi. Not really. Not in the way that he had been able to see before. He could see a vague sort of…of outline…or whisper….because it was just so fucking loud! It was over. The loud…thing….was gone. That thing that had been both Suzuki and the girl together. Two become one…but not in the fun way, it seemed. No. It had hurt, burned, when that thing touched him…and he hadn't even been at the epicenter of it all…
And the memory of it still hurt.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You two go off and be useless over there. I have to save all of our asses before someone goes digging around. Me, I'll be fine, I already destroyed all of my records but you two….I have no clue. Minegishi at least didn't go and kidnap the Prime Minister live on national TV…" said Hatori. He bit his thumb as he found Minegishi's records. He did not snoop…even though there were a few things that he had been curious about over the year….but he did not snoop. He deleted and destroyed everything that there was.
He hoped to God that he didn't get popped for this.
He wondered how much time they gave you for destroying the evidence? Maybe more than they gave you for terrorism and acts of treason. He was…he was being paranoid. There was no way that he was getting caught. His records were destroyed….as best as he could have with an old smart phone and sheer force of will. He needed….he needed a drink. A strong one. This whole thing…he just wanted to be done.
He was getting there.
"I fully acknowledge the fact that I am well and truly fucked no matter what. There's no way I can be caught and trapped by the government so I suppose that I can just live the rest of my life on the run…not a fun prospect. I can hang around here until the boss regains enough strength to kill me for losing to a bunch of kids and Scars, also not a fun prospect, or I can try to get into the girl's good graces so she doesn't hunt me down for trying to kill her friends as well as all of the other shit I've done over the years. No matter what I do I'm fucked." Said Shimazaki with a shrug.
"Well aren't you optimistic." Said Minegishi
"I'm realistic. Something that I thought you used to be. I'm amazed that you're even here. You of all people….I would have expected you to run away as soon as the girl was done with you." Said Shimazaki
"Now why would I go and do a thing like that? That'll get me nowhere with her. She's not Suzuki, you know, not by a long shot. I think….I think I might stick around. I mean it's not like I have anywhere else to go." Said Minegishi. He wasn't stupid. The girl was the most powerful among them all and he was going to stay near her. Thank God she was pleasant and nice and forgiving. Yes, very forgiving. He had changed sides at the last minute…and that must have meant something to her…
Plush she had saved his life even when she had no reason to.
Not a bad kid at all.
"Away. Far away. With me." Said Shimazaki. He had almost died. Almost dying, or whatever the girl had been trying to do with all of that aural shouting, tended to make a man rethink certain things. Feelings and all of that crap. Toshiki was….he was someone. Someone who Shimazaki cared about…and someone who he did not think that he could stand to lose. Maybe it was time to…he didn't even know. The Ultimate Five were not all one big happy family like certain people thought, no, but they were capable of caring for one another.
He was capable of caring for another person.
"And do what?" asked Minegishi. He did not want to live this life anymore. This life…it had gotten him nowhere. Nowhere good. He knew Shimazaki. He knew where he was planning on going from here. Minegishi…he didn't want this anymore. He wanted something simple, something safe, something that didn't end in him getting devoured by a spirit that must have been the embodiment of all that was evil in the world….
He owed that girl one.
And, frankly, if it was a choice between following her or following Suzuki he would pick her hands down. If it was a choice between following her or following whatever yakuza boss that Shimazaki was going to end up working for he would put the girl. Mob. Shigeko. She had saved him and let him live….and also she had forgiven him…which was way more than he had any right at all to expect. He owed her one, two, three, everything….his life….he owed her his life. Also he needed to keep an eye on that tree. It was…it was pissed off…it felt like. It was like no other plant that he had ever felt before.
"Whatever we feel like. A little of this, a little of that." Said Shimazaki. He was not staying here. Not with all of this noise and not with that girl. He should have been long gone already….not that he was going to try his luck blind. It was too busy here, too loud, and it was messing with his perceptions. He needed to get somewhere quiet and just…think. Plan. Figure something out.
"Do you two have to do this now!? I am trying to work! Have your moment somewhere else!" said Hatori. How was he the only one who realized just how much deep shit they were in? They were all going to go down if he missed even a single scrap of evidence. It wasn't just a mass deleted, no, he needed to leave enough to satisfy the authorities when they inevitable went digging around in this area. They were all going down if he didn't do this just right. One mistake and…
And then it was all over.
"I can't believe that it's all over." Said Daichi telepathically from his perch on the top bunk. Mom and dad had finally given him and Kaito some space. There had been a lot of hugs and kisses when they got home and it had been nice…
But they needed space to think.
Or to sleep, as they had told their parents.
"I know. I was so sure that it was…the end….but we're here and everything's ok." Said Kaito from his spot on the bottom bunk. The whole thing was over. It felt like it had happened years and years ago even though they had just dug themselves up out of the dirt that morning.
"I'm sorry about all that stuff that I said before….and I know you are too, I can feel it, so can we just pretend that it never happened?" asked Daichi. That would have been the best thing. He didn't want to remember what happened or think about it or ever talk about it again. He had never come so close to dying before…but at least he had been with his brother….
"I don't think that we can ignore what happened." Said Kaito
"We can try. I mean that we don't have to dwell on it." Said Daichi. He felt it, his brother's hand in his. A trick of telepathy. It hadn't been a trick last night. When they had been running for their lives with only Rei to lead them. She had been freaking out, everyone had been freaking out, if not out loud then their minds were screaming…
And then they were somewhere else entirely.
It was like being both completely alone and surrounded by people. He could hear not only his brother's thoughts but everyone's and they could hear his. It was like everyone was talking at once and nobody knew how to take turned and it had just been so…much. Everything from everyone all together…and Ritsu's older sister had been talking the loudest. Ritsu's older sister and Sho's father had been talking so loudly too each other….and everyone else had been talking so loudly….
But he and his brother were the only people to remember.
Well so had Ritsu's older sister. Her thoughts had been slow and sticky but she had remembered. She had thought that she was still in that place, the place that was both everywhere and nowhere, when she had woken up. That place…it had hurt. He had seen so much…and his brother had seen so much…and they had all seen so much of each other.
Maybe it would have been better if he could forget.
"How can we possibly forget? We were there. I think that we're the only ones besides Ritsu's older sister that remember what it was like. How loud it was. How much it hurt. I don't think that we can forget that." Said Kaito. That had been unlike anything that he had ever felt before. Sometimes he got physical sensations from people, it was a side effect of the telepathy, but he had never fully inhabited another person before. He had been himself and his brother and his friends and everyone else all at the same time…and he had no idea if it was even right to forget something so…so life changing.
"Then can we at least not talk about it. You and I…we're different people again and I just…I want to forget that any of this ever happened. I just want…I want things to go back to normal. Or as normal as they can be after what happened." Said Daichi. He could feel his brother's hand in his. A trick of their telepathy.
He reached up.
And his brother reached down.
"You're right. We're different people and if you don't want to talk about it then we won't. Whatever you want, brother, I'm just happy to still have you." Said Kaito. He had no idea how they were supposed to get back to normal, how anything was supposed to get back to normal, but he would try. For his brother he would try.
Because that was what you did for someone when you loved them, you tried.
"Arataka…I don't know why I keep trying your number…maybe because I love you…but please just call me back as soon as you can…and if you're screening my calls then shame on you young man!...heh. I was just kidding there. Taka-chan, if you're screening my calls please just….don't. I'm worried about you. I tried to get to you but it turned out that there was a mountain high enough, a valley low enough, and a river wide enough to keep me from getting to you…heh. You used to love that sound when you were little….do you still like it? Oh God…." Said Sophia. She had made it home in one piece…though she could not say the same for her alleged car. She didn't care about that.
She just cared about her son.
And Mobbu, of course, but in a different way. Arataka was her child. Mobbu was just the teenage girl her son was in a codependent nonsexual and nonromantic relationship with. Though she would try Mobbu again next. She would call and call and call until the screen on her phone had worn totally through. What else could she possibly do? There was no getting into the city.
People were getting out, though.
"If you're out of the city come here. I'll reimburse you whatever the train costs just…just come here so I can know that you're safe. Please. You've spent so many years away from home as it is…but that is not what this is about. I spent so many years trying to control you, trying to make you into the person that I thought you should be, and I am very sorry for that. You can be whoever or whatever you want to be, Taka-chan, but please just be here with me where you're safe. You and Mobbu." Said Sophia as best as she could. She was not going to cry. Her son could not hear her crying. He had heard enough of that growing up. He was…he had deserved better back then and he still deserved better now. She would give him better. If she heard from him again…WHEN she heard from him again…then she'd be a better mother to him. Well as much of a mother as a man his age needed.
He wasn't even thirty yet.
But he was not dead. He was alive and Mobbu was alive and any minute now her phone would ring and it would be Arataka telling her to stop blowing up his phone or it would be a chime telling her that Mobbu had posted something on Friendbook and Sophia would hit like even if it was another picture of her and her little boyfriend all curled up in bed…tasteless selfies if anyone were to ask her…but she would like the pictures anyway even if they were terrible because it would have meant that Mobbu was still alive.
The number of missing had only gone up.
No numbers of dead yet. People…people reported other missing but…not dead. Not yet. There hadn't been any word from the media or the authorities on what was even happening in Seasoning City…the internet was on fire, though. People who had been close to the city reported seeing some kind of explosion. A big one. Big enough that it had been seen from a distance of-
She didn't want to think about that.
She didn't want to think about all of the wild and outlandish rumors that were coming out of Seasoning City. She didn't want to think about Earthquakes and explosions and giant trees and meteor showers and whatever else people were talking about. You couldn't believe everything that you read on the internet after all. The internet…it was full of liars. Just look at what happened to Taka…at all that had gone wrong…
At least people would forget all about Taka-s fifteen minutes of shame.
"This is…Taka-chan, we can get through this together. The two of us….the three of us…you and me and Mobbu…we'll weather this storm. I know you and I know that…you're always had a knack for getting into trouble and you've always had a knack for getting out of it, too. You're fine. I know you're fine. If you survived your father and I then you….you could survive anything. I…I love you Taka-chan…and give Mobbu my best." Said Sophia before she ended the call. She had so much more to say…but she had been leaving so many messages…it was a fruitless task.
His phone might have been off.
Or on silent.
Or broken.
Or maybe she had just said something or done something to bother him and now he was ignoring her until the end of time. That was it, wasn't it? He was always running away from things…and people…when things got hard. He had always had a knack for running away. Good. She knew her son and she knew that he had…he had probably ended up running away…and he had probably taken Mobbu with him…probably. Those two, they were joined at the hip almost. It was a weird relationship, a really weird relationship, but if they had both made it out then she would never say or even think a single word against…whatever that was.
If she could just have her son back she would have accepted him no matter what he did with his life…or who he lived his life with.
"I do not, cannot, and will not accept this. I refuse!" shouted Hana as she scrolled through the latest news out of Seasoning City. They had stopped again, this time at the home of some of her husband's relatives. Hana knew that she needed to come out of the guest room and be sociable, to crowd around the television like everyone else and wait for more news to be broadcast.
She could check the news on her phone.
Another ping. An update. She opened it…and it was nothing of interest. Well the Prime Minster was alive. He had been found by rescue workers half buried in some dirt outside of what had been the corner of Allspice and White Pepper streets…and he was alive and well…though the street wasn't….
"Hana! Come quick! They're showing footage of downtown….and it's horrible!" said her husband. Hana shook her head. She did not want to deal with anyone. She was so like Shigeko, then….Shigeko….she had another child. She had another child and she had been so focused on Ritsu and…
And she was such a bad mother sometimes.
Even now she was more worried about Ritsu than anything. She was more worried about how he was doing, if he was ok, if he was safe, than she was worried about her own daughter. Shigeko could take care of herself, that was it, she had proven time and time again that she could and would take care of herself. She had her powers. She could do….Hana had no clue the limits of what her daughter could do, but Hana knew that she was fine. She had run away before and she could do it again. Yes, that was what she had done.
Her Daughter was fine.
"Hana, you need to see this! I don't even know what I'm seeing!" Hana groaned. She did not want to be out there with her husband and his family. He did not know how to control them. The minute they had come through the door last night his relatives had asked about the children. His sister and his parents. They hadn't seen the children in so long…and it was obvious why they couldn't. Shigeko. What she could do…and how she had no control over what she could do…but she wasn't there now…
And that whole thing was not something that she had been prepared to explain.
What could she say? Her fourteen year old daughter had run away from home? That she had no idea where he daughter was or what she was doing? That she had made so many mistakes and that she was not prepared to talk about any of them? That she had her husband and abandoned their son at home to go up to some spa in the mountains….
She had, ultimately, said that she was tired and avoided their questions.
"Hana! Hurry! Before they cut to something else!" She sighed and got up. She had might as well go out and deal with…everything. Even though she could see it all on her phone. The destruction. The first images to come out of Seasoning City were of destruction. There was no more downtown. There were just piles on concrete and rebar where it had been. Some building were still standing. They were slating dangerously. Nobody was allowed to get close. There was still a state of emergency. There was still an evacuation order in place. There was still her son all alone in the middle of that. The phones in Seasoning City were down, even the landlines, and she was about to just stick her head out the window and yell really loudly if that meant she could know if her son was alive or dead…
And her daughter.
Hana joined her husband and his family. For a man who had been calling her like it was the end of the world he was surprisingly silent when she joined him. He said nothing, he just pointed at the screen. The screen that was taken up by…a close-up shot of a stalk of broccoli? What in the world? Wait…no…that was downtown. She could see what was left of that big bank with it's cheating fees…she could see….and she knew that statue…well what was left of it…she knew…
The Cultural Tower should have been there.
"What in the world…."
How did…why would….what was Hana even looking at? And where had it COME FROM?! How had…how had it even….just….what?
What was…was any of this?
"What even is this?" Reigen asked himself. It was…this room had no windows. He had no idea what time it was. All he knew was that this was not his house and he needed a cigarette. Badly. Also Mob was…near.
"This is….today." said Mob. She hadn't been able to sleep. Teru had gone back to sleep. She had laid very still with her eyes closed. That had gotten boring. She felt like she had been sleeping for a million years. But she hadn't been. She had only been sleeping for…she didn't know how to count it. Mainly because she didn't know what time it was. Her phone was broken. It had been in her bag and her bag was mostly broken now. There was a big hole right in the center of it and her phone…and everything else inside…was broken into a million pieces…
She needed a new phone.
Which was a problem that she could deal with in the immediate future. She liked those kinds of problems. She liked problems that she could solve quickly and easily. Not the types of problems she had been having lately….
"Mob. Hey….you're here." Said Reigen. He sat up slowly. He had been laying down for too long. His head was absolutely spinning. Something moved on the table in front of him.
"I'm here. I made tea. You can have some, you feel thirsty." Said Mob. She could feel what he was feeling. Her mouth was dry and her tongue was sticking to her teeth, and it hadn't been before, so that must have been his doing. It felt….this was familiar. Feeling what he was feeling. Him feeling what she was feeling. It was all so familiar. It was all so…so normal. This was better than…whatever that had been. The void. Instrumentality.
She walked over and sat next to him.
"Thanks. I needed this." said Reigen as he finished downing his entire cup of tea. Green tea. Mob had made this. She had made this and…and she would be around to make him tea again and again and again and again and again….
She was there.
"I know. I could tell." Said Mob. She had her own cup of tea in her hand, it had gone cold a while ago. She had gotten bored a while ago, when she had been sleeping next to Teru but not really, so she went to see if Master Reigen had woken up yet. He hadn't so just made some tea and waited for him to wake up.
It had taken a while.
"Way to get a clue…sorry. That came out wrong." Said Reigen. He tried to find words, words that he would have used before, words that fit that easy sort of teasing that they used to have…that they still had. Maybe. He just did not know. He had no idea what they ever were, now. After all the shit that had happened…what were they?
Besides sitting on the lumpiest couch in existence sipping lukewarm tea while the ashes of the world smoldered just outside of those walls. The ones that contained them. That limited them.
"No, it's ok. It's easier for me to understand you when you share your feelings with me. It's been easier since you got powers, too. I mean powers like mine." Said Mob. She didn't know what to do. She wanted…she didn't know what she wanted. To go back? To have stayed…it felt weird. Her body felt weird. Heavy. She felt heavy and she could feel…she could feel her powers again. the other her, too, and she…did she want to go back?
Back to the void?
No, she didn't, because Master Reigen was out here, not in there.
"Mob…." Said Reigen. She was talking like she…like she was the way she was before. They were before. Who they were before. Before all of this. He knew who they were before. They were master and student. Now…now he did not know. Friends. Two friends. Two friends having tea after the world had almost ended.
"Yes?" asked Mob
"Nothing. This is…this is good. Good tea. This is very good tea." Said Reigen. He was not going to ruin this. This…whatever they were. Two friends having tea.
"Thank you. I made it how you showed me. There was lavender tea, too, but I didn't want to make lavender tea. I also didn't know if either of us liked lavender tea so I made us green tea." Said Mob
"It…it's great. Just like old times." Said Reigen
"Old times?" asked Mob
"Yeah, remember? Back at the office you would always make tea…and I would always drink it…and that was just…how we were?" asked Reigen. It seemed like a million years had passed since they last sat in that office together. Since she had last made him a cup of tea. Since he had last watched the minutes count down on the clock until he could see her again…
"I remember, Master, but those don't count as old times. I mean…we still…we're still Spirits and Such…right? We're still Spirits and Such even if our office burnt down or melted or exploded or-or-or anything." Said Mob
"Melted?" asked Reigen with a quirked eyebrow. Mob tucked her head down low so he couldn't see how red she was. She smelled…she smelled smoking and green tea and…and home. Master Reigen had brought her this from home…well she had known that already. There had been a bag with clothes for her and who else but him could have brought it?
"I was just thinking of words." Said Mob softly. She felt his hand in her hair. He tugged on a piece of it. It wasn't in braids, she hadn't braided it…and maybe she should have. If they were talking about old times which were not really old times at all. Back when she had braided her hair before school every morning, well every morning that she had school, and then they took the train together and…and those times. Before this…..all of this.
"Mob…never change." Said Reigen. That was…her. Mob. His Mob. She hadn't changed and they…they hadn't changed. Even if everything around them had changed they themselves had not. The office was…there would be a lot of insurance and whatever else to go through but they were still…they were still what they were…like she had said.
"I think I might have…sorry. I just think that maybe after what happened I might have." Said Mob. She felt…different. She was different. Her body felt different. She pressed her fingers into the porcelain of the tea cup in her hand. She pressed her nails into the white of the cup. The tips of her fingers turned white with the pressure. She could feel….she could feel again. She had been feeling things for her entire life…so why was she feeling weird about feeling things?
"Well that's fine, too. People change, it's what they do." Said Reigen. She was…what did she feel like? He didn't know. He was writing his feelings to her, now, instead of feeling what she was feeling…like he should have been. He should have been there for her…and he was now. He was there for her now and that…what mattered most was the fact that he was there for her now.
He would help her through this.
"But you just said not to change." Said Mob
"I didn't mean…Mob, you can be whoever you want to be." Said Reigen
"Am I who you want me to be?" asked Mob
"Whoever you want to be." Said Reigen
"But what do you want me to be? Maybe what you want me to be is what…is what I want to be. Maybe I don't even know who or what I am or who and what to be…anymore." said Mob
"That doesn't matter. I don't want you to be any way other than the way you want to be." Said Reigen
"But I don't know how I want to be. I thought that I knew before but then…then I changed…and a lot of other stuff happened…and then I became this person…and I don't even know…if I'm the same person." Said Mob. Her hair and nails were longer…because this was a new body. She had lost her old one and…and now she had this one. Was she the same her, then, if she had a new body? What part of her was 'her'? Her body and her soul were…separate…but together. They were separate but together. Her and the other her. Her and her body. Her and her…her and her.
Was she the same person?
Did it even matter?
"Mob…people change. They change all the time and I…I would be happy with you no matter how much you'd changed." Said Reigen. He put and arm around her and pulled her close. She smelled…not like herself. She smelled like…kiwi. Heavily of kiwi and…winterberry? Borrowed soap. Borrowed soap and borrowed shampoo and borrowed conditioner and borrowed whatever else she had borrowed.
No more dirt and no more blood.
"I think…I think that I'm the same person and a different person too. I think…when I was in the…when I went back to being nothing it hurt…because I didn't have a body anymore. Now I have a body but it's different and I want…I want to stay the same." Said Mob
"What are you even….I mean, you're ok. You're ok and no matter what happened back there you're still…you're still you." Said Reigen. He knew her. He knew that any minute now she would start up about how terrible she thought she was…and he could not have that. Not again. She hadn't even gotten over, if she even could get over, the last terrible thing that had happened to her. Now she had a whole new terrible thing happen to her…and she was processing it, it seemed.
Hadn't had a body?
He had no idea what had happened to her back at the fight/run for their lives. He had only seen…light. A giant of light…human shaped. It had gotten bigger and bigger and arched it's back…and then it had bent over backwards and then there had been the actual explosion…and…and then nothing. As bad as it had been to witness, as terrible and terrifying as it had been to be there, it must have been nothing compared to what it was to actually have been in the middle of that thing…
Or to have been that thing.
He wanted to demand that she tell her everything that had happened. He wanted to know the whole of everything that had happened…he needed to know…because she had a history of keeping important information from him until he said the wrong thing and did the wrong thing and then the whole thing just ended up going totally and completely pear shaped and Mob ended up sleeping between vending machines and in the park…
That was not going to happen ever again.
"Do you mean that?" asked Mob. She leaned over and rested her head on him. She missed this, being with him, being near to him…it was nice. This. Her body. The feel of him. It wasn't painful. It wasn't painful at all because she had a body, now, a barrier between herself and himself. There was space between them…and she liked it. The space between them…because it did not hurt. She was tired of things that hurt…
"Mob…of course I do." Said Reigen. He reached up and rested a hand in her hair. He had missed this. her. Him. This. He could have lost her. He could have lost her so many times and…and he hadn't…and he just had to remember that she was there and she was going to be there and so was he and it was over…it was all over…
"I know you do. You would never lie to me, Master, you would never lie to me." Said Mob. She wasn't tired but she closed her eyes just the same. She was happy. She was happy and this…this was the best feeling ever…
"I never would…" said Reigen quietly.
The 'again' was left unsaid.