Ritsu woke up alone.
Whatever. He had been waking up alone since he had started waking up or…or whatever. He didn't care. In fact he cared so little that he couldn't even be bothered to think of something to compare this feeling to, that was how little he cared. He didn't care that he woke up to an empty bed, he didn't care that he woke up to a note on his desk, and he definitely didn't care that he had to pretend like everything was normal. Sho was gone and…and he had better things to worry about than his love life. Claw was making it's move. Sho had been all elusive about it but Ritsu wasn't dumb. He knew that there were more Claw members in town and he knew who on the forums could be believed and who was just making stuff up.
And he knew, too, that when the guys who just made things up agreed with the guys who had real intel that things were going south.
"…said to my mom that, no, I wasn't the one who drank the last soda but she was all..." said Tsubomi as she walked beside him. Ritsu nodded as he half listened to her. They were going to part ways soon anyway. She had to turn left to go to Salt and he had to turn right to go to his school. They'd meet up here at the fork in the road and walk home together since she didn't have tennis today. Then he'd probably either head over to Reigen's or stay home…probably stay home. Teru had been so weird lately and Ritsu didn't want to deal with him. Not when he was all sad for no reason all the time.
There were more important things to deal with than their feelings about…about stuff.
"…which is like 'come on' and, I don't know, she's just like that I guess." said Tsubomi. It took Ritsu a second before he realized that she expected him to say something back. He needed to get out of his own head. He had things in the real world to worry about, things that mattered, things like the coming end of the world and…and whatever it was that she had been talking about.
He drew a blank.
"That sucks." Said Ritsu quickly.
"Yeah, it does, but…I don't know. Things have just been weird at home lately. Things have been weird everywhere lately." Said Tsubomi as she motioned towards the road. A car filled with Claw operatives and cats drove by.
"Seriously. Is there a convention in town or something that I don't know about?" asked Tsubomi
"Those guys are always hanging around. I think that we should just ignore them." said Ritsu
"You're right, they're totally weird but, like, where do they come from? And what are they cosplaying as? I've never seen any show with outfits like that." Said Tsubomi
"Yeah but you don't watch anything that doesn't have hot guys in it." Said Ritsu. Tsubomi rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, you're one to talk." Said Tsubomi
"I barely watch TV." Said Ritsu
"Yeah but when you do all of your shows have nothing but hot guys in them." said Tsubomi. Ritsu sighed. The last thing he wanted to talk about right now was guys. If he talked about guys then he'd end up thinking about guys and if he thought about guys then he'd wind up thinking about Sho and what had happened and…and he didn't need to think about that right now.
He had a world to save, a world that was much bigger and more important than the achy feeling in his chest, and he just had to keep on reminding himself of that fact until he stopped feeling whatever way this was.
"That's just how they're drawn." Said Ritsu as he kicked the sidewalk. He didn't make himself feel better, all he managed to do was scuff his shoe. Scuff his shoe and make Tsubomi do that thing where she got in really close. He sighed. She was going to ask him what was wrong, he'd tell her that he was fine, and then she'd hug him. She was a good friend like that. Either that or she wanted an excuse to hug him.
"What's wrong?" asked Tsubomi
"Nothing." Said Ritsu
"I know you, Kageyama Ritsu, I can tell when there's something wrong." Said Tsubomi
"If this was one of those shows you like you'd say that it's because you're my childhood friend or something like that." Said Ritsu. If this was one of her shows then she would have been his girlfriend, because the childhood friend always won, and then they would have had an OVA where they finally kissed or something. But of course this wasn't TV, this was real life, and in real life she probably felt as bad as he did. She had probably felt like that for years since she'd been in love with him since they'd been old enough to know what love was and…and he was turning into an asshole.
Only an asshole would have wanted their friend to feel the way he felt right now….especially someone he had known for his entire life.
"If this was TV then we would have…it's not important. This isn't TV, this is life, and yeah. I am your childhood friend and that means that I know you and I know something's bothering so…so tell me what it is." Said Tsubomi
"It's…nothing." Said Ritsu. He couldn't have told her even if he'd wanted to. She was a normal person, this wasn't anything to do with her, not that she would even have believed him about this. Any of it. The world being in danger, Sho walking out on him like this was one of those daytime dramas that he and mom watched sometimes, all the stuff that had happened over the years. So there was no point in saying anything.
Besides, he didn't feel like being hugged. Not by her, anyway.
"I don't like being lied to. Something's up with you and I think Teru, too, since he's been super weird lately but whatever. If that's the way you want to be then fine. Be that way." Said Tsubomi before she turned and went her own way to her own school. He should have been happy, it was better if she stayed away from him, safer for her and less stressful for him. With her gone he didn't have to worry about the target he put on her back or…or how she was always asking him what was wrong. Asking her for answers that he couldn't give. He should have been happy to see her go. He couldn't afford friends anyway, not when he had to save the world, not when at any moment the world could have…exploded….or something….
He couldn't afford to be distracted.
So he kept walking. He didn't want to walk but he had to. If he didn't go to school, if he turned around and went home to wait for Sho, or if he got on a bus and rode to the end of the line and then hiked through the woods and took the fight to Claw all by himself, or…or anything then Mom and Dad would have been mad at him. Worried. Sad.
They had enough to be sad about today.
"Yeah, fine, I'm going to school." said Ritsu as he walked. He knew that if his sister had been there she would have…well, she was dead and spirits didn't really interact with people unless they were evil which of course his sister wasn't, but if she had been with him and alive she would have told him to do the right thing and go to school. To do the right thing and not make Mom and Dad's lives harder. To do the right thing and…and why were girls like that? They always wanted you to do the right thing and think about everyone other than yourself…not like Ritsu didn't know how to do that…
He'd been doing that for his entire life.
He had spent his entire life with Shigeko watching him, her picture right there in the shrine, her ghost living in Mom and Dad's heads or hearts or whatever. She was gone and he was here and…and if he died too then Mom and Dad wouldn't have been able to go on. If he got kidnapped they would have probably moved into a crazy house or something. So he had to be careful…another group of them passed, all dressed in red, and some even turned to face him…he picked up the pace. Sho had said, a while ago, that his sister had made up some new rule about not kidnapping people anymore but Ritsu knew that she wasn't at the top of Claw's power structure. It was the President and then Sho's sister, or maybe the President's new son that people had been talking about, or maybe his second in command. Information about Claw was like a game of telephone sometimes. Everyone said something just a little bit different until you got to the one guy who ruined the game by saying something like 'purple monkey dishwasher' or 'Claw hacked Disney and is going to release the newest Frozen short'. It would have been easier to pick out the reality from the myth if…if he'd had someone on the inside to talk to.
If that person hadn't left him.
Sho had left him…and Ritsu had left for school. Now he was here and all he had to do was to get through another day. It was going to be a long one. They were all long days. Ritsu could and had taught himself everything that he needed to know from the books. Every day he sat at his desk and listened to his teacher tell him things that he already knew. Sometimes he took notes he didn't need, sometimes he rushed through work he knew he would get a perfect score on, and sometimes he just sat there with his hands folded and pretended to listen while he plotted out his next move. He wanted this to be that sort of day.
But it wasn't going to be.
And it was all Ritsu's fault. He shouldn't have brought the note, he should have torn it up and thrown it away, or burned it on the stove, or buried it in the yard, or even eaten it like he knew spies did. But no, he'd taken it to school with him, tucked it away between the pages of a notebook. At the time he had wanted to get rid of it so Mom and Dad wouldn't be able to find it and start asking him questions. Questions that he knew he wouldn't have been able to answer. If he couldn't tell Tsubomi then he certainly couldn't tell them…and anyway they didn't need to think that he was crazy. Not on today of all days.
Not on Shigeko's birthday.
It was kind of like a holiday in his family, but sad, so more like an un-holiday. Shigeko's birthday was the saddest day of the year next to the day she died. Ritsu knew that afterschool he was expected back home. Maybe they would just pray at her shrine, maybe they would go to an actual temple or a real shrine, or worse of all they might have gone to her grave. He hated graveyards. Graveyards had spirits, the dumb kind who often didn't know that they were dead, the ones who started talking to him like they were still people. They did that to everyone, Ritsu was just the only one who could see them, but he knew better now than to talk back. What would have even been the point? It wasn't like Shigeko was there. She had passed on, she wasn't haunting anything, his family was just haunting themselves.
Ritsu had enough haunting him, he didn't need to add his sister to the list.
And he didn't need to add love to the list either. He didn't need to add a note tucked away in his things to the list. A note, the feel of someone warm beside him, the feeling of safety that came with being near him. When he was with Sho it felt like everything was going to be ok. Ritsu hadn't felt like that in years. There was always something waiting to go wrong, Claw was always poised to kidnap him or take over the world or something like that, and…and when Sho was around he could just rest for once in his life.
He was selfish like that.
He was Kageyama Ritsu, he didn't get to rest, and even if he had the option he knew that there was no way that he could take it. When the day was over he was going to get rid of this note. He was going to put it in recycling and then let it be turned into something else, something useful, something that wouldn't distract him. Something that wouldn't make him stare at his open notebook for the entire school day tracing chicken scratch characters, katakana mostly, thinking about the person who wrote them. The way he smelled, kind of like hamsters and candy and dirt, the way he looked…the way the light got caught in his blue eyes. How warm he felt beside Ritsu, the rise and fall of his chest against Ritsu's back…the way his aura seemed to move with him as he breathed in and out…in and out…the memory was a strong one. He could almost smell Sho, almost see him, almost hear him, even feel him-
-he could feel him.
Ritsu jerked upwards with a start. Thankfully no one noticed. Everyone was too busy watching the clock…the clock…school was almost over. He'd been zoned out for nearly the entire day! He'd been…that wasn't a problem. School wasn't important. Sho was…Claw was important, which Sho was a part of, and saving the world from Claw was important and…and that was why Ritsu was going to do something really stupid.
He raised his hand.
"Can I go to the bathroom?" asked Ritsu. He saw his teacher study him and then the clock. It was getting close to dismissal, only a little more than an hour left in the day, and they never let anyone go during their first class or the last, or before lunch, because of some stupid rules that made no sense. But Ritsu was a good student, he even got an award for it every year, and they had to make an exception for him. He hadn't done anything bad…lately. Fighting didn't count. It shouldn't have counted…his teacher was studying him again. Fighting probably did count.
"It's an emergency." Pleaded Ritsu. His teacher sighed and pointed to the door. Ritsu didn't waste any time. He got up and left. He didn't bother even trying to pack up his stuff, he didn't have time to think up any kind of excuse as to why he would need it, he just left. He walked out of his classroom, down the hall, down the stairs, and then out through the utility corridor. He let his aura lead him.
It didn't have to lead him far.
"Ritsu!" called Sho from his perch in a tree. What, was he trying to be a bird or something? He was sitting in there like one…it was actually kind of cute….
Pull it together.
"Oh. You." said Ritsu as he took a step back. He reminded himself that he was mad at Sho. He reminded himself that Sho had just left him in the middle of the night. He reminded himself that it didn't matter how he felt right now the world was in danger, probably more than normal, and that his feelings weren't more important than the world.
Except for being mad. That was alright.
"Uh…yeah, me." said Sho. He stopped in front of him and put his hands in his pockets. Ritsu crossed his arms.
"Is this important?" asked Ritsu
"Yeah, I mean you're important and…and a lot of stuff is going down today but you're more important." Said Sho. Ritsu could feel his face getting warmer. He couldn't help that but he could help what he said and did.
"If I'm so important then where were you this morning?" asked Ritsu
"I went home but…but for a good reason! I had to go home because I didn't want to drag you into this shit and-" said Sho
"I've been dragged into this." Said Ritsu
"-and I know, ok? I know that you've been dragged into this and that's why I came back. Me being away from you won't keep you safe and…and I can keep you safe just by being with you…and I'm really fucking sorry, too, for being such an asshole. I know…I know what it's like to wake up and…and then someone you love isn't there. It's a sucky feeling and I'm a sucky dickhole for making you feel like that and I suck." Said Sho softy. Ritsu decided that he was done being mad. Sho had apologized and…and that had been really sweet. He took a step forward. He couldn't stay mad at Sho. He couldn't-
-a window shut.
"Come on." Said Ritsu as he motioned for Sho to follow him. He wanted to take Sho's hand and drag him away. He wanted to take Sho's hand and drag him close. He wanted to kiss Sho and…and he knew better. He couldn't do this in front of his school. Not where people could see, like teachers, and not where they could call his parents on him. They knew…they knew what they needed to know.
He didn't feel like fighting with anyone right now. He just wanted to be near Sho.
"Where are we going?" asked Sho as he caught up to Ritsu. Ritsu…didn't really know. He wanted to go somewhere private and make Sho apologize again so he could kiss him and they could make up but he knew better. His feelings weren't more important than the world. He had to pull himself together.
He stopped.
"What's happening?" asked Ritsu. A cold wind blew his hair into his face. He brushed it away. He could feel people looking at him. Maybe they were plainclothes Claw members or maybe they were just people wondering why two kids were on the street during school hours. He didn't know. He shouldn't have been risking it. If something was happening then he needed to spring into action like he'd been planning on since he'd been a kid.
It felt like he'd been planning for this for his entire life.
"We're standing in the middle of the road and…uh…it's cold? There's a bird in the tree, someone spat gum on the sidewalk, and…um…my shoelace is broken?" asked Sho. Ritsu sighed.
"No, I mean what's happening with Claw? Why did you run away? And what are you doing here now?" asked Ritsu
"I'm here because I love you. You know that." Said Sho. Ritsu knew he was red, he knew he was shaking, he knew that he was trying to look away because he was embarrassed. That was…it was private, just for them, not for out there in the middle of the street. They needed to be alone, he wanted to be alone, but…but he knew better.
He stopped looking away.
"No, I meant with Claw. What are you doing here? You said that something was happening so…what?" asked Ritsu
"Ritsu…don't run away." Said Sho
"That's rich coming from you." said Ritsu
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know…but seriously. I'm going to tell you something and I need you to promise me that you're not going to scream in terror and run away." Said Sho. Ritsu rolled his eyes.
"Yes, alright. I promise that I won't scream in terror and run away. Now come on, tell me what's happening. Whatever it is I can handle it." Said Ritsu. He planted his feet firmly on the ground so Sho knew he wasn't planning on running away. He wasn't going to be a little kid about this. He was almost thirteen. He was old enough to handle anything that Claw threw at him.
He had been preparing for this for his entire life.
"My Dad's planning on making his move tonight and my sister is planning on trying to stop him but I know her and she's super nice and she loves him and I know that she's usually really good at keeping her promises but I don't know if she's going to now or if she can even beat him and that's why I should help her but I also want to keep you safe and I'm really freaked out right now but also really fucking happy to be with you and I'm sorry I brought up my sister I know that yours died and I don't want to hurt your feelings because you're the love of my life!" said Sho. He was panting at the end of that, kind of like he'd just run a marathon, but he hadn't run anything other than his mouth. That had been…a lot. Ritsu went backwards and took in everything Sho had said to him. Something about his sister and…and his Dad…his Dad, the boss of Claw, was going to try and take over the world tonight.
Ritsu broke his promise. He ran.
"What the fuck?!" shouted Sho. Ritsu would deal with that later, how mad he was, right now he needed to find Teru. As weirdly mopey as he'd been lately he was still powerful-ish, not on Ritsu's level but closer than anyone else he'd ever met minus Sho, and he'd been planning this for as long as they'd been friends. This wasn't going to happen without Teru.
So that was where he went.
The run to Black Vinegar wasn't long, not for Ritsu. Sho, on the other hand, wheezed the whole time. Maybe that was why people weren't supposed to smoke. He sounded like Reigen…Reigen…he was going to have to save Reigen, too. As he ran through the gates of Black Vinegar a list appeared in his mind. He had to save Reigen and mom and dad and Tsubomi and her parents and…and that was just people who lived in Seasoning City! What about grandma? And his aunt and uncle? And, as annoying as he was, cousin Tobio? And…and Mom and Dad had relatives that never visited or called because Shigeko died but…but they were still family…
Now Ritsu was the one huffing and puffing. But not because he'd just ran a marathon.
"Ritsu…fuck….you…" panted Sho as he caught up.
"Whatever." Gasped Ritsu as he felt around his pockets and tried to find his phone. If he could slip out then so could Teru. It wasn't time for Black Vinegar to let out yet either. He needed…he needed to figure out how to type! His hands were shaking so badly that his phone was slipping through his fingers.
It fell.
"What do you mean 'whatever'? And this is no time to play with your phone! I just told you-" said Sho
"I know what you just told me, ok?! I know that your Dad is planning on…on making his move tonight and I know that if I don't get Teru then we're all fucked…and maybe with Teru we're all fucked too…and I know that if Tsubomi were here she'd be freaking out because I just said that and…and I know that Reigen would lecture me if he heard me saying that and…and my mom would kill me and…and my dad would just tell me not to talk that way around my mom and…and I know a lot of people without powers, ok?!" said Ritsu. He may have been shouting. Sho took a step back. Their auras separated. He hadn't even known that they had been together.
"Well, yeah, we're all pretty much fucked but I don't know what you think he can do." Said Sho. Ritsu tried to take a deep breath. He needed more air, that was all, a lot more air. There wasn't enough air out here which made no sense because they were outdoors! Now he was the one breathing like he smoked and maybe this was what secondhand smoke did to you and maybe this was all Reigen fault for smoking all the time and….and maybe….maybe he needed to be doing something instead of just standing there and blaming people inside of his head!
"Something! We have to do something right now! If we don't do something then we're all fucked! And I know I'm not supposed to say fucked but that's what we are!" said Ritsu. He had planned for this. He should have known what to do. He should have been on top of this. This was what all of that planning had been about. This was why he had spent years gathering espers…well, he pretty much only had Teru. He barely knew those other guys and, really, he knew that there were going to be useless if…if things happened. If it came down to a…a fight…
Ritsu knew that if it ever came down to a fight he was going to have to win.
"I never said that we were fucked…all the way, anyway, and I don't see what you running away from me does besides make us even!" said Sho
"It's not about being even! It's about…about….about how I should know what to do! I should know what to do and…and I do! Teru may be kind of useless now and weird and he may have been moping around for weeks now but I know that I can't do this without him!" said Ritsu. Sho gasped and took another step back.
"What do you mean? I mean…without him?" asked Sho. His eyes were getting kind of glassy…oh. Sad. Hurt. That was how he looked. Ritsu had done that…and he knew how to fix that. He knew what to do. He liked knowing what to do. He liked having a problem that he could solve.
Even if it was kind of a stupid thing to be upset about.
"Shut up and stop being dumb. It's not like that." Said Ritsu. The shaky feeling was gone, he wasn't shouting anymore, and his heart was even beating like normal. As normal as it could be when he was around Sho, anyway.
"I'm not being dumb-" said Sho
"Yes you are. You're sad because you're hurt and you're hurt because you're jealous and we don't have time for you to be sad and hurt and jealous. It's dumb. I'm not in love with Teru. He's annoying and cares way too much about clothes and hair and stuff like that. Now stop it so I can text Teru." Said Ritsu as he picked his phone up off the ground. When he had been little he had been afraid of driving through tunnel. The feeling had been the same, the same shaky sort of feeling, but it had always disappeared when the end of the tunnel came into view. When he could see that he was getting closer and closer to the end…that was what this felt like.
He had a problem. He knew how to solve it. He was solving it.
And now he needed a second problem. The big one was too…too much. Stopping the boss of Claw, supposedly the most powerful esper in the world, was too big. But maybe if he broke the problem up into smaller pieces it would be easier to see the end of it. First he had to make Sho stop being an idiot and then he had to get Teru out here and then…and then he had to…Reigen was close and he knew about Claw. So it made sense to go to him and…and…
To go to him. He'd think up the next part when they got there.
"….not jealous…" muttered Sho. Ritsu didn't say anything, he just told Teru to get down there. He made sure that Teru knew it was an emergency. He probably had his phone on. They were supposed to turn their phones off when they were in school, every school had that rule, but nobody followed it. It was inhumane. Teru thought so too.
Though he had been kind of weird lately.
"….mean, I know you wouldn't cheat on me. You're not like that…" said Sho. Teru didn't reply. Ritsu could see that the message was sent. He could see that it had been received and read. So where was Teru? The seconds turned into minutes which turned into hours which turned into days…
Or at least it felt like that.
"But I'm not dumb! I don't see why we need to bring more people into this…." Said Sho. Ritsu turned to the side and watched the front door. It didn't more. He watched the windows. Normal school stuff was happening in there, probably, he couldn't see anyone in particular….though the only person he was looking for, and the only person he knew, was Teru…Teru who would have been there by now unless…unless something had happened to him….
"….but Big Sis says that she's handling it so…so maybe I should just keep you safe…but this is my fight too! It's complicated. It's like I want to be there and I want to be here and…and I don't want to kill my Dad but I don't want her to have to either…." Said Sho, still talking. Ritsu wasn't even pretending to pay attention anymore. He just watched the door. Something could have happened. Claw members were everywhere. They weren't even trying to hide that they were Claw operatives. They were walking around in their uniforms with the insignia and…and nobody knew but him. Him and Teru, and Reigen too, but Teru should have been smart enough not to let anything happen!
But then again Teru had never been the smartest person in the world…
"Sometimes I wish that things could have just stayed the same but…but also good, you know? Like my Dad was just a normal jerk, not the evil kind, and I still had my mom and…and I had you, too, I guess I didn't mean that I wanted things to stay the same…or maybe I just don't want it to be today…" said Sho. He could feel Sho's aura against his. He let it rest there. He watched the doors. He could feel Teru, and it felt like he was even getting closer, but he couldn't see him! But this was good, right? This meant that he hadn't been captured. That he wasn't being tortured right now. That he wasn't spilling all of Ritsu's secrets. That he wasn't being brainwashed. That he…that he was alright.
Teru had been with Ritsu since pretty much the beginning. As mopey and weird as he'd been lately he still didn't think that he could do this alone…do this just with Sho.
"You know?" asked Sho. Ritsu turned to face him. Right, right, right. He had to say something. He went backwards…Sho was worried about what was happening and also some stuff with his family. He was hurt. He was hurt and…and Ritsu was being a jerk right now. He cared how Sho felt. He cared about Sho. He had been too busy looking for the end of the tunnel that he hadn't been looking around at the…the walls…and stuff.
He had never been that good at creative stuff…or being a friend.
"Yeah, I get it. This is really scary and I'm freaked out too." Said Ritsu. He took Sho's hand. Sho reached out and took the other one. He didn't care who saw them here. This wasn't his school and the only person who knew him was Teru. Teru who…who he was alive, that was what mattered, and if he was alone then he'd get out here when the bell rang. If the world was ending then the world was ending. He would rather have spent the last moments of the world not being ended or…or whatever….he wanted to be with Sho. That was what mattered.
"So we're freaked out together…that weirdly makes me feel less freaked out." Said Sho softly.
"Me too." Said Ritsu softly. Sho let go of his hand. He felt a cold shiver move from his hand to his arm and then his spine before it spread to his entire body. The cold feeling was soon chased away as Sho reached up and touched his cheek…and pulled him in closer.
He didn't care who saw them kissing. This wasn't his school.
"Come on, right in front of my school?" Oh. There was Teru. Ritsu didn't break the kiss, Sho did, even though he didn't have to. He didn't care if Teru saw him kissing Sho. He didn't care if the world ended right in that moment. He was with the person he loved most and…and since he couldn't shake the feeling that there was nothing that he could do so he might as well have enjoyed his last moments of life…
He wasn't going to give up.
"It's not my school." said Ritsu. He had overcorrected, like when dinner was bland so Dad put way too many spices on it. He wasn't going to die but…but he wasn't going to give up, either. He had a mission after all. It was a mission that he had given himself but it was still a mission that mattered. He was going to stop Claw.
Or he was going to die trying.
"I don't even go to school." said Sho. His aura moved from Ritsu to Teru…and it looked angry. Hostile intent rolled off of him. Teru just took it. His aura didn't change. If anything it got a little slower, a little dingier, it reflected a little less light and a little more of the person it was attached to. Teru was just standing there. His hair was messy, his uniform was wrinkled, and he was just kind of holding his school bag and looking at them like they were boring or something. Even his eyes looked-
-Teru looked away.
"Sho." said Teru as he turned away from Ritsu. Sho shrugged.
"Sister fucker." Said Sho. Teru, if he had been himself, would have insulted Sho right back but instead he just took it…this wasn't good. Teru needed to pull himself together. It wasn't hard. Ritsu had managed to pull himself together and he had much more on his shoulders than Teru did. He was the leader after all.
"Don't pick on Teru, we have enough to worry about." Said Ritsu
"I'm not picking on him, I'm just saying that he fucked my sister and broke her heart and I'll never forgive him and when all of this is over-" said Sho
"When all of 'what' is over?" asked Teru, sounding way too bored for everything that was happening.
"The end of the world!" said Sho. Teru sighed and turned to face Ritsu.
"Really? Or did you just feel like making out in front of me?" asked Teru
"Of course it is, why would I tell you that it was an emergency if all I was going to do was make out in front of you…and why would I want to do that in the first place? Middle school is weird." Said Ritsu
"That's why I don't go." Said Sho, nudging Ritsu. Ritsu nudged him right back. Teru just sighed.
"To show me what I'll never have, or something like that. I mean it's not like it bothers me. Like Sho said, I threw away my one chance at happiness because I asked for more than I would ever get. I had nothing to offer her and she-" said Teru
"I never said that, I just said that you fucked my sister and you broke her heart and when this is over I'm going to kick your ass." Said Sho
"Fine. I don't care." Sighed Teru
"Nobody's kicking anyone's ass! I mean we're going to have to…you know what? Let's go and warn Reigen before we start kicking people's asses." Said Ritsu. Nobody argued with him, thankfully, or with each other the whole way to Reigen's. He was happy that things were working out…or at least he should have been. Really. He should have been happy that everyone was working together and that everything would work out and…and…
And he had no idea 'what' was supposed to work out.
But he would figure it out. He just…he just needed time, that was it, and he was buying himself some. Not much, though. It wasn't far to Spirits and Such. In the time it took to walk Ritsu came up with nothing aside from the fact that this was actually happening, which he had been well aware of, and that he was twelve, which he had also been aware of. He didn't know why his age mattered, why it kept coming back to that, but it did. He was just a kid…but he was the only person who could do this…whatever 'this' turned out to be.
Right now it was convincing Reigen that, yes, this was happening.
"Ritsu, Teru, and…and redheaded kid from the kidnapping…this is going to be bad, isn't it?" asked Reigen as he got up from his desk. Ritsu nodded. Teru shrugged. Sho just looked around. He seemed weirdly calm about all of this. Maybe because this had been his life for so long, all of this Claw stuff, and…and maybe because he believed in Ritsu? Just a little?
Or a lot.
"It smells weird in here." Said Sho as he looked around. He walked over to the incense burner and tried to catch the smoke with his hands. He was kind of…kind of cute there…and this was not the time to think about how cute his boyfriend was. He had to focus!
"Incense. Now can someone please tell me what's going on?" asked Reigen before he leaned back on his desk. He was trying to keep himself upright, Ritsu could tell. He was shaking like he did when they went on real jobs with real evil spirits. He had always been like that even after he'd stopped pretending that he had powers too. He had always been into that, pretending, and…and it wouldn't have killed him to at least pretend that he wasn't scared. He was supposed to be the great Reigen Arataka, right? What happened to that guy? What was he being like this for? Why was he leaving this all to Ritsu to take care of?
Because he knew, Ritsu reminded himself, that he could handle it.
"We're going to die." Said Teru. Ritsu elbowed him in the side. Sho stopped what he was doing and gave Teru a look, the kind that said that maybe he wanted to elbow him too….Ritsu elbowed him once more on Sho's behalf.
"We're not going to die, I worked too hard to let us die now. We've been planning and planning for years and…and we're not going to die." said Ritsu. They had plans on top of plans, what if scenarios, plenty of them…but none that applied totally to this situation. But that wasn't an excuse. He wasn't going to die. He wasn't going to give his parents another excuse to put together a shrine.
"Yeah, my Dad wouldn't have you killed anyway, just brainwashed. So you'd be alive, your body anyway, but your mind would be soup." Said Sho
"Either way it's not like there's anything I can do about it…it's not like I stopped them before from…I had to be saved…" said Teru. Sho rolled his eyes. Ritsu rolled his too. Teru was so dramatic. Sometimes you had to be saved. They had been kids when they'd been kidnapped but now they were slightly older kids and…and they were practically adults and, anyway, they had been planning for this for years. They had fight plans, get away plans, the thing where they tunneled into Claw's base with spoons and planted a bomb…that last one might have been a little beyond them right now since they didn't have all the bomb making ingredients that the internet had said they would need…
They had plans, that was the point.
"Yeah, my sister saved you, so what? She saves people and makes you brush your teeth and eat your vegetables and not do coke. It's what she does but we can't rely on her to-" said Sho
"Wait, what was that?" asked Reigen. Ritsu shook his head. They were way too easily distracted.
"It's not important. What is important is that Claw's making their move, Sho's sister is going to try and stop them, and now we have to make our move because she could lose and-" said Ritsu
"Yeah, no." said Reigen as he pushed himself away from his desk.
"No, they're totally making their move. I know, my Dad's been planning this since he was my age. It's his reason for living or whatever." Said Sho
"He's pretty much a supervillain." Said Ritsu
"I don't care if he's a supervillain, we're not getting-" said Reigen
"This is totally the kind of thing you should care about! Right? Ritsu? Mopey guy who shattered Big Sis's heart into a million pieces? Can you guys back me up here?" asked Sho
"We're probably going to lose but I guess since there's a chance we could win we should at least try." Said Teru after a moment.
"Shut up, we're not going to lose. We worked too hard to lose." Said Ritsu
"Well let me tell you, hard work hardly ever pays off." said Reigen, getting back into that voice he used when he needed to sound like a wise mentor. It had been dumb then and it was dumb now even if it did feel kind of familiar and…and stuff like that.
"Uh…not really. My Dad worked hard his whole life and now he's going to try and take over the world and even if he didn't I think that we control a lot of the world anyway. I mean I'm not sure if it's true but we make more money than some countries and my Dad has a lot of people praying to him and stupid shit like that…hey! Stop making me say nice shit about my Dad! And-And stop saying shit all together! You're a normal person, you're one of the people that we should be protecting, not listening to." said Sho before he turned to look at Ritsu. He knew that Sho was expecting him to agree but he couldn't. Not when Reigen…well, yes, he was a normal person but he was also Reigen. He somehow knew how to talk his way out of anything, he could run weirdly fast when he needed to, and…and he was just…Reigen.
He couldn't do this without Master Reigen, even if he was only playing at the 'Master' part.
"Reigen's weirdly lucky." Said Ritsu with a shrug. Teru nodded.
"He is, and he's got a weirdly good metabolism too. Supernaturally good." said Teru
"That has nothing to do with anything." Said Ritsu
"I'm just agreeing, Reigen is supernaturally lucky. It's like he's got this aura or something around him." said Teru
"I can't see any aura." Said Sho. Reigen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"As much as I love the vote of confidence from the both of you I'm going to have to burst your bubble." Said Reigen
"I told you years ago that I know you don't have any powers. I always knew. I'm not stupid." Said Ritsu
"Ritsu's the smartest guy I know." said Sho. Ritsu looked down at his shoes. This was not the time to guggle and blush like this was Valentine's Day or something. This was serious and he had to be serious.
"I'm not calling Ritsu's intelligence into question, just his judgement…his and mine, too, for letting this go on for so long." Said Reigen
"So long? What's been going on for so long?" asked Ritsu
"This. Letting you both think that I was actually going to give you both a shot at taking down Claw. It's not going to happen. Not on my watch." Said Reigen. He used that voice that adults used, that parents used, when they wanted you to know that the matter was closed. That this was final. That they were putting their foot down. That if he asked again they were turning the car around and there'd be no family trip for anyone. That was just how parents were but…but Reigen wasn't a parent. He was an adult but he wasn't that kind of adult.
He was supposed to be on Ritsu's side.
"Why the hell not?!" shouted Ritsu. He could feel himself shaking. He couldn't help it. Reigen was supposed to be on his side! He had always known that Reigen hadn't been one hundred percent onboard with taking down Claw but…but this was Reigen. Reigen was always on his side even when he said that he wasn't. Reigen wasn't the kind of guy who…who lied. Not about things like this. Important things. Ritsu look down. His hands were shaking. They matched his aura. It was bright and…and there. Shaking around him, trying to turn into a barrier…semi-solid. He felt everyone looking at him. Teru's aura met his first.
A barrier appeared.
Teru took a step back. Their auras separated. The solid space stayed. He had no control over it. He wanted…he didn't know what he wanted. Half of him wanted to take the fight to Claw and the other half wanted to stay there under his barrier. To let it turn solid. To use it to shield himself. He shook in place. He shouldn't have wanted to hide…he should have been better than this…but he wasn't. He was just a scared kid…the last thing he needed to be. The last thing he wanted to be. He was supposed to be better than this! He was…he was supposed to be Kageyama Ritsu…he wasn't supposed to be scared…
Sho reached out and took his hand.
He was warm. Either that or Ritsu was cold. He didn't care which. He just laced his fingers with Sho's and tried to pull him close, his body and his aura. He was more successful with his aura. Where their auras met the semi solid state his was in melted away. Sho's aura was warm, too. Red, like a summer sunset. Safe like sitting under a heater. Familiar like an old blanket. Ritsu looked down at their hands. He felt a rough patch under his pointer finger…a scar on Sho's knuckle. Another on his wrist. Another trailing up his sleeve. He's seen Sho without his jacket on. He knew he had more scars than that, that they went under his shirt too. He'd seen the one on his back when his shirt rode up, the small bit of it being almost too much to take it, so much he almost didn't want to see the rest of it. He'd see the rough, thick, skin on Sho's feet. The puncture marks on his arms and legs. He knew, sort of, what had caused all of that. Who had caused all of that…and why. He knew what Sho had been through and…and he was terrified of it.
But Sho wasn't.
"Fine, Ritsu doesn't need you anyway. We can do this on our own and if we can't then I can keep Ritsu safe on my own, too, and…and I guess that guy too since he and Ritsu are friends but Ritsu comes first." Said Sho
"Fine by me. It's not like I can do anything, anyway. I'm not that strong, not compared to other espers, real espers. Not the grunts in the red body suits. They caught me once and they can do it again and…and this time she won't be there to save me. I don't know why she would be. She-" said Teru
"And stop moping over my sister! She has a boyfriend and he's not the kind of guy who goes around ripping people's hearts out and showing them to you. He doesn't even like Mortal Kombat, he's actually kind of a scaredy cat, but Big Sis loves him and he can't ever escape so just shut up about her…and anyway if my Dad takes over the world then your love life is going to be the least of your problems!" said Sho
"I'm not moping." Said Teru
"Yes you-" said Sho
"Now you wait just one second-" said Reigen. Ritsu frowned. This was getting out of hand. He was letting this get out of hand. He was letting them all get distracted and out of hand. He was the leader here so he had to actually do some leading. If Sho's crazy dad could lead thousands of espers to taking over the world then Ritsu could lead three people into stopping him.
"Everyone, shut up." said Ritsu. He didn't yell, he didn't curse, he didn't even have a tone. He just said what he needed to say. He was the leader here, he shouldn't have had to do any of that. When he spoke people needed to listen…and thankfully they did. Even Reigen shut up for once in his life.
"We need a plan. I'm not running or hiding and I don't need you to protect me either, Sho. This is what I've been planning for most of my…a bit part of my life and I'm not going to stop now just because you think that I'll lose, that I'm not strong enough to fight, or that this is crazy. I'm doing this with or without you guys." Said Ritsu. He made sure to look everyone in the eye daring them to say anything. To tell him that he wasn't going to be able to do this. He wasn't going to lose. Failure was not an option here. Not when there was so much at stake. The whole world and everyone on it…everyone he loved…
He wasn't going to lose the people he loved. He wasn't even going to let the idea cross his mind.
"You can be…be on standby or something. I can't lose you. I've already-" said Sho as he reached out again. Ritsu pulled his hand and his aura away.
"Not happening." Said Ritsu with a shake of his head. He felt Teru looking at him. He stared right back. It wasn't a long staring contest, Teru broke first. Not like him at all...but there was no point in wishing for the old Teru. He had the new Teru and he had to work with what he had.
"Fine, I'll help you I guess." said Teru
"Good." said Ritsu. He turned and made eye contact with Reigen. The new Teru he could work with. The new Reigen, this new one who wasn't on his side, was going to be another matter entirely. Reigen had always been kind of a 'scaredy cat', to borrow a word from Sho, but he had always been on Ritsu's side. Doing this without him…it was…it wasn't right. Even if Reigen had no powers Ritsu wasn't going to just…just leave him behind.
He couldn't.
"….there's no stopping you, is there?" asked Reigen, breaking eye contact. Ritsu nodded.
"No there isn't." said Ritsu
"Then…then I guess I'm in, too…but don't drag anyone else into this! Not those other kids you found, not your friends, not your families-" said Reigen as he began counting off on his fingers…and he had a point. Those other kids were barely anything and his parents were normal people…and they had enough to be worried about with today being the day it was…why did it have to be today!? They were going to be so worried about Ritsu and…and at least if he died then they wouldn't have to remember a second mourning day…
No. Losing was an option and he had to stop treating it like it was.
"I mean the whole city is going to be under attack so your friends and families are pretty much fucked anyway…sorry." Said Sho
"Not mine, they're on the other side of the world." Said Teru
"We have Divisions in Europe too, you know that, right?" asked Sho, rolling his eyes. Teru took a step forward. Reigen stepped between them and held out his arms. They were getting off track again…he had to get back on track…right, their families. He wasn't going to just leave mom and dad in the house. There was Tsubomi and her family, too, and Madoka's family…actually Madoka might have been in the worst danger of them all. She was an esper, she had Awakened as a kid, and she was a girl too. There weren't a lot of kid espers and even fewer girl espers…Claw would definitely be after her…and she was just a kid, she wasn't going to leave without her family…
He had to figure out what to do with everyone…where to hide them….
"First and foremost we need to figure out a way to keep your parents from looking for you…and if we can't then-" said Reigen
"Is it just Seasoning City that's going to be under attack or all of Japan?" asked Ritsu, not caring that he'd just interrupted. Reigen was just saying what he had been thinking, anyway, and this was just faster. He felt a shift in the energy around them…there were more Claw operatives outside, more than normal…
They had to get back on track before there wasn't any track left to get onto.
"Seasoning City and Tokyo, mostly, but there are cells in every major city." Said Sho. Well, now he was going to have to warn Tobio and his family…and maybe grandma, too, if she was still visiting with them. Hopefully she had gone home and hopefully nobody bothered her. He didn't know why they would have, it wasn't like there was anything worth attacking in her town, the shrine barely even had spirits. Just boring mountain ones….
"What about the mountains and the country? Anyone stationed there?" asked Ritsu
"Nothing there but safehouses and bunkers." Said Sho
"Is your Dad watching them?" asked Ritsu
"Dad has Hatori watching everything" said Sho
"Damn it! We could have hidden everyone there…everyone I know, anyway, Teru's parents are out of luck." Said Ritsu
"I don't care…it's actually kind of funny. They left me here and went all the way back home to keep themselves safe and now…yeah." Said Teru
"We can discuss the irony of the situation later when people's lives aren't in danger. Alright, so we've established that the countryside and mountains are safe-" said Reigen
"And anywhere with rats. My Dad's scared of rats." Said Sho. Reigen sighed.
"Ok, and the sewers too, I guess…but let's make that our last resort." Said Reigen before sticking his tongue out. Ritsu didn't blame him. The sewers were disgusting and, anyway, he wasn't going to stick his parents in a sewer to save their lives only to have them die of some gross sewer disease. And, anyway, they couldn't go down there either. Sho was terrified of water, he'd said so before, and he didn't need Sho panicking and forgetting how to fight if it came to that.
"And Sho's afraid of water." Said Ritsu
"I'm not afraid of it, I just don't like to touch it." Said Sho
"Then how do you bathe? If at all." said Teru scrunching his nose up. Ritsu rolled his eyes. Sho didn't smell that bad and even if he had it wasn't like it was the end of the world. No, the end of the world was happening regardless of whether or not Sho had taken a bath this week.
"I take a bath when I have to and, anyway, bathing's overrated. As long as you don't smell bad then what's the point? I don't get people. Like we went to this bathhouse in the mountains and everyone was all 'taking baths is a great minivacation' but I was more into looking for monkeys. Monkeys make for a better vacation even if they like to avoid people." Said Sho
"You chased monkeys? How old are you?" asked Teru
"Thirteen…and don't look at me like that. There wasn't anything else to do. There wasn't any internet up there or TV or anything." Said Sho
"Where?" asked Ritsu
"The bathhouse place." Said Sho
"No, I mean where was it? If it's that isolated then it's be the perfect place for my parents…and we can use the savings from Spirits and Such to send them there." Said Ritsu
"Uh, Ritsu? Adults have these things called bills that typically come at the end of the month and when those bills aren't paid, well, things get kind of unpleasant." Said Reigen. Ritsu rolled his eyes.
"Money's going to be worthless if Claw takes over." Said Ritsu
"I have money if you need it." Said Teru
"You guys don't have to spend your own money, I have tons of it. My Dad hasn't kicked me out of the accounts yet and even if he did there's cash in the walls back at the base." Said Sho
"Enough to send a bunch of people there indefinitely?" asked Ritsu
"Yeah, even if it's really fancy." Said Sho
"I doubt it's that fancy if they let you in." said Teru
"It was. It was super fancy and they even accommodate allergies too." Said Sho
"You all know that it doesn't matter how nice this place is, right? Your parents aren't going to run off to a bathhouse in the mountains just because a thirteen year old kid handed them fistfuls of cash, right?" asked Reigen
"I'd put it in an envelope." Said Sho, rolling his eyes. Ritsu took a deep breath. Reigen had a point. Mom and Dad would definitely have been suspicious, even if the money was in an envelope. Mom would have just thought that it was tacky. She said that cash was for when you couldn't think of a good gift. Gift cards were less impersonal….
"Gift cards then, or vouchers, the kind that expire tonight…Mom and Dad would go, they need to get away anyway with…with what day it is. Tsubomi and her family would go too since they hang out with my parents and I think Madoka's parents would go, too, since adults like to hang out together…and if they don't then we can…um…" said Ritsu. He didn't know what he was supposed to do if they wouldn't go willingly. Come clean? No, they wouldn't believe him and if they did then…well then that would be a whole new problem….
"We could hit them over the head, tie them up, and then dump then there. We do that when we need to kidnap people." Said Sho. Teru and Reigen winced.
"Yeah, I know." said Teru
"Let's not commit too many crimes at once, ok? I'll talk to them and…yeah. This is…this is happening." Said Reigen as he put his hands in his pockets. Ritsu could see him playing with his cigarette case. He was nervous and he wanted a smoke…and he could have one after they were done. It was like Reigen had said.
They were doing this.
"Yes, we are." Said Ritsu. They had a plan, at least part of one, and the rest could come later. He could see the beginnings of the end, the light at the end of the tunnel, and while he had no clue when they were going to reach the end of it he did know that they would. They weren't going to fail, failure was not an option, they were going to win…or at least not lose.
He didn't know what was going to happen to him, to them, to the city and the world but he knew one thing. He wouldn't be alone when it happened.
