Mogami needed a new vessel.

He had never been able to possess one vessel for very long. They tended to break under the strain of his powers. First their minds, usually, then their bodies. This vessel's mind was still intact, he could feel it screaming out from the depths of some deep, dark, place within it's self. The body, however, was beginning to strain.

A break.

"Be careful! We're not trying to kill her!" shouted a boy. Small yet powerful. Potential, a great amount of it. Restrained potential. Even now he held his aura, his power, close. His eyes were cold, steely, and locked onto the vessel's. There was a challenge there, one for Mogami, one which he would gladly take up as soon as he was done with what he was doing now.

Things were finally starting to get interesting.

"I know that! Just-Just get Reigen out of here. I've got this." Said the other boy. This one was much more interesting, and much more broken. An easier vessel than his friend, anyway. Broken ones were the easiest, they had so many cracks he could sneak into. This boy's eyes were wild, terrified, and wide. As wide as his aura.

Unguarded.

Yes. It would have been easy to slip inside of him. Mogami flexed the vessel's fingers. Pain shot through the body. He let the vessel feel it. He could see the jagged edges of broken glass sticking out of both of the arms. The legs and feet weren't in any better condition. There would be scars, if the vessel survived, many of them…but that was what she got.

Nothing good had ever come from vanity.

That had been her sin. Vanity. Arrogance. Greed. So many sins for such a small girl. She was young, barely a blip in the fabric of existence, and yet she had caused such suffering already. No, the death of this vessel would not be a loss to the world at all.

A gain, if anything.

"You-" said the smaller boy

"I've GOT this!" said the blonde boy. A look passed between them, their auras met, and the younger boy sent out one last burst of energy at Mogami before he left to tend to one of the many frauds who had come to 'exorcise' him.

As if such a thing were possible.

The only true espers there had been these two boys, these two potential new vessels. There was a shudder through the vessel's body. Yes, this one was nearing the end of it's life. No matter, no matter, he had another vessel all lined up.

This beautifully broken boy.

"Come back in a few decades." Said Mogami as he tossed the little blonde boy aside with a flick of his wrist. He landed in a pile of bodies, that had been on purpose, it wouldn't do to completely break this vessel yet. He would feel it, his mind, peak into it. He reeked of loneliness, it rolled off of him in waves. Fear, loneliness, pain, anger, vanity, pride…so much pride.

At least this one had a reason to be proud.

"Come back when you're at my level!" shouted the boy as he sent an important burst of power towards Mogami. He yawned and batted it away. He twitched a finger, ignoring the scream the vessel gave out through it's mind, and pinned the boy down. Yes, this would do.

They'd do good work together.

He launched himself forward until he was eye to eye with the boy. A strong aura. He'd come with one of the frauds. They had been punished but where these had come from there were others. Like ants in a hill. He recalled, once, as a child he'd put his hand in an ant hill…or had it been an ant farm? It had been so long ago and his memories had just…left him. Were leaving him. Becoming dull…yes. Dull was a good word for it. The memory of the itching, the pain, how it multiplied.

That was what these people did, they multiplied.

There were two kinds of people in the world. There were the ones simply living their lives and the ones who insisted on impeding that existence, on making things worse than they had to be, on adding more pain and suffering to the world. Sometimes he thought, imagined, that he would get to the end of the latter until the world was left with only the former…

It would never be.

But he could still try. The boy put up a barrier. Mogami smashed through it easily, like the time he walked through a rice paper door as a child…or maybe that had been a vessel…or maybe a spirit he had consumed. It was all muddied and muddled within himself…it didn't matter. The past didn't matter, there was no way to undo the harm that had been done to him and others, but he could at least prevent any more harm from coming to the world.

This boy would be perfect.

"What the fuck!?" shouted the blonde boy as Mogami grabbed him by the wrist. He pulled him close and stared him down. He looked, probed, for the perfect crack. One that would let him in but would not destroy the new vessel…not yet. He probed, he felt, and he saw.

Oh yes, he saw.

A young boy, alone, trapped. Cold. Terrified. Hard metal bars surrounded him. The cold floor. Bloodstains on the walls. Fear. Impotent rage. Mogami smirked. The boy threw himself against the bars, screamed, demanded his freedom as if it would do anything. A crack, a deep one, the first one. He followed the memory, the crack.

A girl appeared.

A mixture of emotions. Shame, pain, anger, and loneliness were attached to this girl. She was nothing more than a shape and an ethereal blue glow in the boy's mind. He widened the crack. More fear, but shame began to overtake it. A shame that someone so young would have carried so much shame within him…

A shame for the new vessel, of course, not for Mogami himself.

"Such a delightfully broken boy." Said Mogami

"What-what are you-I'm not!" said the blonde boy as he tried to struggle his way to freedom.

"Yes, oh yes you are. I can see it. I can feel it." Said Mogami

"The only thing you're going to feel is me exorcising you!" shouted the boy

"Oh, you think you can?" asked Mogami with a chuckle, one that strained at the ribs of this vessel. He tasted copper. The children had done a number on this body…of course they had. He could see it, there, within this boy's mind. The older man…harming him….some would have called it a mistake.

Mogami didn't make mistakes.

"I know I can!" shouted the boy. His eyes darted over towards his friend. His only friend. His best friend. Someone who counted, in the deepest depths of this boy's soul, as more than a friend. An annoyance, the boy told himself, nothing more than an annoyance.

How Mogami hated liars.

"Why? Because Reigen told you that you could?" asked Mogami in a sing-song voice. He was going to miss this vessel's voice. It was soft, the entire vessel had a softness to it, an external softness. Within it, of course, these was a sharpness. One that would never be rounded down, smoothed down, even now he could feel it poking at his grip.

Nothing near close enough to break free.

"Don't talk about him!" shouted the other boy. Mogami ignored him. Too headstrong for a vessel. Hard outside and in. Assured of himself. So few cracks…no, there were cracks, but they had been patched over with a confidence and assurance that for the most part felt completely truthful. Real. From within…

Sometimes it was best to stick to the easier prey. One expended less of themselves that way.

"He did tell you that, didn't he? He told you that you could do anything you put your mind to…though of course you know that's a lie…" said Mogami. The boy was losing his grip on himself. The cracks within him grew wider and deeper. He flailed, again, his body and his powers…

It was like nothing.

"But of course you know that he lied. After all, if you truly were capable then you wouldn't have needed to hear it to him. You wouldn't have needed to be told-" said Mogami

"Shut up!" shouted the boy

"-to be told that you were someone. If you were someone then you would have simply been someone. You wouldn't have to prove-" said Mogami

"I'm not trying to prove anything!" screamed the boy, his voice breaking with each syllable. Mogami but a hand to his chest. The boy's eyes darted across the room. His friend, of course, was gone…good. Very good.

For Mogami.

"-to prove yourself. To prove that you're someone. To prove that they never should have left." Said Mogami. The boy went still, so very still.

"How-how did you-" stuttered the boy, how power retreating within the vessel of his body….good.

"You can't, of course, but it's nice of him to take pity on you and tell you what you want to hear." Said Mogami

"He doesn't-" said the boy

"Oh come on now, there's no need to lie to me. I can see it in your eyes. He tells you what you want to hear and you preen under his praise. Its more than THEY ever gave you, isn't it? More than you've ever gotten from your poor, put upon-" Said Mogami

"Shut your mouth!" said the boy

"-parents. Dear mother and father, or mutter and vater as you would say. Poor boy, a world away from home. Abandoned. A stranger in a strange land." Said Mogami, the vessel's eyes dancing as he took in the wonderful cracks that appeared throughout the boy's body, his aura, his psyche, his very soul.

"I'll kill-" said the boy

"Alone. Completely alone. Poor boy. Too much trouble for your parents. Too much for them, for everyone around you. That's why he left, you know, your friend…Ritsu. Yes, that's his name. That's why he left you all alone with me. He doesn't think that you can save yourself, that you can stop me, no, no, no. He knows that you'll-" said Mogami

"Shut up!" said the boy

"He knows that you'll fail just like you know that you'll fail. He knows you, probably better than you know yourself. After all you can't lie to him, can you? Not like you lie to yourself…and you do lie to yourself. Even now you're lying, you're telling yourself that he'll come back any moment now and save you." said Mogami

"I don't need saving! You don't know anything!" shouted the boy as he managed to break free and jump to his feet. The force of it sent Mogami and his vessel stumbling back. He was going to need to use more of himself to hold it together…that was not ideal at all. No, not at all.

He needed to end this. Soon.

"He's not coming back and neither are they, you know. There's no point in running from the truth. You DO know they aren't coming back, correct? You know that even if you wipe your enemies from the face of the earth your parents will never come back for you. Why should they? They're so much better off without you. So much safer. So much happier." Said Mogami. He braced himself, braced the vessel, as the boy attempted to physically attack him. So many cracks, so many beautiful cracks, so many cracks he could slip right through…he would just have to widen them, that was all.

Simple.

"That's not true!" said the boy. He looked like he was about to cry. Such painful human emotions. Mogami could feel the echoes of them. He could remember it, the pain of them, being alone…that was painful. The loss of mother, the powerlessness he felt, selling his soul for her and getting nothing in return.

The memory of it almost hurt. Almost.

"It is. Anyone can see it." Said Mogami. There, the pain…it was there but it was not him. His. Not from him and not his at all. echoes, that was all. Echoes from this boy. He'd always gotten echoes, back when he lived, part of being the greatest medium of the twentieth century. The greatest esper of the twentieth century. He had been great, hadn't he? There hadn't been a singly being, living or dead, that could stand up to him…though in the end he had still lost, lost completely, lost everything that he had ever worked for and-

-and he needed to stop this right now.

Too much from the boy. Pride from the boy and the vessel. They were so much alike, the two of them, such easy targets. Unguarded in their emotions. That, of course, could be a problem for him. He had expended enough of himself punishing that room full of frauds. Too many were still alive. He had allowed himself to make an error, there, to focus too much on these two unexpected espers and not enough on the task at hand.

He'd finish these frauds off as soon as he finished here. As soon as he got the right vessel, the right tool, for the job.

After all, what could have been better than to finish off these frauds with the very thing that they pretended to be? These people wanted this power so badly that they would lie about it. That they would 'fake it until they made it' as it were. Well they would never make it. Never. There was no need, no reason, to ever want this kind of gift. This power. This burden…that burden. It wasn't his burden to bear anymore. He had left the land of the living, left his vessel, so long ago…longer than he could remember. He hadn't been keeping track of the time, of course, he had no need for it. People never changed. It wasn't as though he'd open his proverbial eyes one day and the world would have been filled, suddenly, with the sort of people it should have been filled with. Good people…people that didn't exploit others, that didn't harm others, that didn't take you for everything that you were worth and leave you with nothing at all.

People never changed and his work would never be done…but that was alright, he had an eternity after all, and it wasn't as though there was a shortage of vessels in the world.

"If that's what you think you can seen then-then you're blind!" spat the boy. Literally spat. If Mogami had still been alive, if he'd been in his own vessel, then he would have cared. He would have been insulted. But, of course, he was well past such things. He'd let go of his own pride long ago.

The pride always came before the fall.

"Am I?" mocked Mogami as he reached out and grabbed the boy again. There was less fight in him this time, much less fight. Good.

"Yeah! You are! You-" said the boy, his eyes clouding over in rage. His power lashed out, randomly, angrily, but not in any way that could have been a threat. No. He was still the greatest esper, no, he was now the greatest spirit of the twentieth century. This one too. He wasn't going to lose to this child. He wasn't even going to get hurt.

No, not at all.

He probed deeper. There, the crack…abandonment. Failure. Fear. Shame. So much shame. He followed it down until he could see…yes. A scene from a life. A scene clouded by fear and shame but a scene. The crack went deep, deeper even than the one this boy's parents had left. It was all connected to this…yes.

This was where the cracks, the fissures, sprang from.

"Couldn't even save yourself, could you? No, you had to be saved by…her." said Mogami. There was always a start to the cracks people carried within themselves. For this boy it was capture by his enemies and a lost love. The love, yes, the love seemed to be the thing. Abandonment and shame…a desire to avoid both…that was what sustained this boy…

And what would be his undoing.

"You…what?" asked the boy, going still as death. Not actually dead, of course, that wouldn't do. Sure the power boost of consuming his soul would have been enormous, espers always left the best souls behind, but then he would have to try his luck with the other boy. That child would be much more difficult to possess, his cracks were so tightly sealed. He'd have to be beaten into submission. Mogami so hated doing that.

There was more dignity in this and he didn't have to wait for the vessel to heal.

"Hmm…you loved her, didn't you? You loved her and she betrayed you…you let yourself be betrayed." Said Mogami as he dug the vessel's fingers, and his own soul, into the boy. He felt his grip on the current vessel lessening. That was purposeful. He was done with this one. She'd had her use and now…well now it was time to move on.

He had so enjoyed being Asagiri Minori. Perhaps he would enjoy being Hanazawa Teruki as well.

"I…I…I…" said the boy. He was trying to guard himself both emotionally and physically. Splitting his focus didn't seem to be working out for him at all. His aura, his shield, all of the shields he'd put up between himself and Mogami began to waver and shake. The cracks that made him up widened.

It was almost anticlimactic how easy this was proving to be.

"She saved you, you thought that she'd saved you, but then she turned right around and tried to trap you…so sad. You actually trusted her enough to love her. You actually thought that you would be the one saving her. Her. Someone so…powerful? Yes, I see it now. She's stronger than you'll ever hope to be. You try to lie to yourself, you try to tell yourself that you'll catch up, that if you focus hard enough or practice enough that you'll be on her level. You know, though, deep in your mind that you will never catch up to her. You will never be even a tenth of the esper she is…her or your friend out there. Or the ones who hunt you….or anyone, really." Said Mogami

"Shut-shut up! Shut up!" shouted the boy, his movements and attacks becoming even more erratic than they had been before. Mogami had never even thought that such a thing was possible. This wasn't going to be a problem…much of one. These were the risks that one took on when trying to possess an esper.

"Unlike you I can see the truth. You shouldn't hide from it, you know, the truth. You shouldn't lie yourself or others. It leaves you vulnerable. I can see it all, you know, everything that you are or ever will be. I can see it all laid out so, incredibly, perfectly in front of me." said Mogami. The boy still had some fight in him. He could deal with it. He knew from experience that espers would be more difficult to possess than normal people but it was always worth it…worth it for the work he could do…oh what work he could do.

Would do.

That is if he even made it in. This work, like most work, was best done slowly and deliberately. It had taken weeks to lock this girl completely away within her own mind and she was human. Of course he had also been taking the time to learn her, to see what he could do with her. Of course he'd immediately known, in his formless drifting, that she would be useful. A child of the aristocracy, of privilege he could only have dreamed of in his life, someone who'd been born with power beyond belief but wielded it so poorly…yes. She had been perfect. The shrine, the delicious grief which called to him like the most beautiful siren song in the world, had been the perfect spot to find the perfect vessel…but there was always something better, now wasn't there?

Of course there was.

"Get out of my head!" shouted the boy. Mogami obliged, retreating back into the vessel. He could see, there, an aura…two auras? Three? No, one monocolored aura and one bicolored aura…a rarity. Two espers, both incredibly powerful, and both incredibly broken…so many wonderful cracks….

Perfect. Absolutely perfect.