Mob hadn't visited her parents in a while. She could count the number of times she had been to the new house on one hand and still have fingers to spare. She wasn't nervous, though, just kind of sad, maybe. She didn't fully know why. She hadn't lived with her parents since she was fourteen and she and Ritsu had that great big fight. She could have come home at any time after that, she just hadn't wanted to.
It wasn't like her parents had thrown themselves on the ground begging her to come home, though.
"Hey, what's wrong? I'm getting a weird feeling from you." asked Reigen. They were approaching what Mob said was her parents new house. They had bought it after their old one burnt down in the big Claw hostile takeover. Well, more like Mob's little brother and his boyfriend burnt it down to that they could hide and regroup but the Kageyama's didn't need to know exactly what had transpired all those years ago.
"Nothing, M-Arataka. I just…I was just thinking about my parents." Said Mob. Reigen reached over and gave her hair a little tug. He had told her that telling the people close to them would be hard and it looked like, based on her little brother's reaction, she was ready to listen.
"It's better we tell them this way, Mob. Instead of letting them find out through Friendbook. This is the kind of thing that needs to be broken to them in person." Said Reigen. Hopefully her parents didn't put him in the hospital for too long. If he ever had a daughter, if he and Mob ever had a daughter, he would have been less than pleased if she were in Mob's place. Reigen knew that he loved Mob, he knew that Mob loved him, but that didn't mean that her parents had to love it. It looked bad, it looked so bad, but for Mob it was worth it.
"Oh, no, I'm not worried about that. I'm just kind of sad…it's just that I don't visit that often and they don't really ask me to visit. Sho spends more time here a week than I have in my whole life." Said Mob
"Well you're a grown woman, now. Your life is your own and if you can't fit your parents into it then you can't fit your parents into it." Said Reigen. In his opinion her parents were the sort of people that shouldn't have been parents. He had been living with her since she was fourteen, she wasn't even a thousandth of the monster her mother made her out to be. The worst that Mob ever did was move the room around on accident and fill their streaming algorithm with her depressing cat shows and long video essays about the minutia of Evangelion.
"Is that why you never visit your parents, Arataka?" asked Mob. That was a good way of looking at it, it certainly made her feel better. Maybe she wasn't such a terrible daughter that her parents were glad to be rid of her. Maybe she was just a grown woman now and she had a lot of important grown up things to do.
"Mob, you know that things aren't great between me and them. Well, mom's ok I guess but dad can go suck a bag of dicks." Said Reigen. He hadn't exactly been a model son to his mother so he had his part to play in their somewhat distant relationship. Dad was worth less than the gum on the bottom of his shoe, though.
"Arataka!" said Mob. That was both mean and kind of gross. How did they get in the bag? Was there just some crazy person with a knife going around cutting them off and sticking them in a garbage bag? The more she thought about it the less sense it made.
"Fine, sorry, that was immature. I don't like my dad, I don't want to talk to my dad, I don't want to put you through talking to my dad, and I don't want our kids meeting my dad." Said Reigen quickly. Everything that man touched turned to shit. He hadn't seen his father since he was in middle school, when his little brother had been born, and he was fine with that. If the man hadn't wanted a son that was only half Japanese then he shouldn't have slept with a western woman.
"…our kids?" asked Mob. She smiled, a little. Reigen could feel the happiness from her. He wasn't ready to…or maybe he was. But she was still too young! And they had just gotten together three days ago! But it was a very pretty picture….
"Not now! I mean, when you're ready to have them." Said Reigen. She had painted a pretty picture for him and he…he did want that with her. He had never wanted that with a woman, not since he was young, but he wanted it with her. Mob. Well, who else?
"When's that going to be?" asked Mob. She wondered when people were ready. She had been someone made to complete the union between her parents, mom had said, and Ritsu was a happy accident. Did you just wake up one day and think to yourself 'this is a good day to make a human'?
"I don't know! I mean, you'd have to be done with school, of course, and uh…" said Reigen. Mob was stubborn. When she got an idea in her head it had to happen. At eleven she had decided that she needed a Master so she sought him out, at fourteen she had decided to become more social so she joined a hardcore workout club despite her lack of athletic ability and probable anemia, at fourteen she had also fought for the world twice and won. Hell, she had run off all over Japan to hunt down Mogami Keiji and had…Reigen didn't know what exactly she had done but she had gotten rid of him. The point of this trip down memory lane was that Mob didn't let go of an idea once it got into her head.
He loved and less than loved that about her.
"We'd have to be married, I think." Said Mob. She wanted that, marriage and a family and all of that. They were already kind of a family. They had been living together for years after all. She wondered when all of the other things she wanted would happen. What was the progression order of this? She wished she knew more married people. She didn't want to ask her parents because they never really had anything nice to say. Really nice, not the polite sort of 'how are your grades? I'm glad you're not failing at school' nice.
"Right…" said Reigen. He wasn't opposed to marrying Mob. He wasn't sure how marrying her would make what they had different but he like the...symbolism…of it. The forever. The party, too. The extremely expensive party.
"But not now. That takes time, right?" said Mob. He was right. She wasn't even done with school yet. That would only take two years. Then in two years they could do all of the stuff she dreamt about. They had forever, after all.
"Yeah. Don't rush, Mob." Said Reigen. She was young, so young. She was at the age where she wanted the world and she wanted it now. He was at the age where he could stop and think of all the variables and logistics to the things he wanted. He wasn't opposed to what Mob wanted but he wanted to get used to the whole Mob being his girlfriend thing first before he went any farther.
They ought to break it to her parents first, before anything else.
"I'm not. I just want to know when. I mean, how do you know when?" asked Mob. Was it one of those things you were just supposed to know?
"When you're stable, Mob. We aren't that stable right now." Said Reigen as they approached her parent's home. Mob stopped and turned to look at him.
"How aren't we stable? I mean we have a home and a business and we love each other." Said Mob. That seemed pretty stable to her.
"We've been a couple for three days, Mob. What's your rush?" asked Reigen. Mob stared at him.
"No rush. I guess that I just want to know…when I guess. I don't understand everything. That's normal for me, though. It's like…I know that's the order that we're supposed to go in and I know that it's what I want but I don't know when it's going to happen." Said Mob staring up at him. Reigen stopped in front of the front gate. He took her hand and looked at her for a while.
"There isn't a schedule, Mob. It's just whenever is best for us but stop rushing. Most of the people in our lives don't even know that there is an 'us' to begin with. Just wait a minute, ok? We've got our whole lives for marriage and kids, Mob. Besides, I just think that you like the making of, anyway." Said Reigen with a drawl. Mob blushed. She did. She really did.
"….maybe…" said Mob. She couldn't help it. She had been dreaming of him for years so why not enjoy everything that reality had to offer.
"Maybe? Well then maybe I'm the one who can't a clue." Said Reigen. Mob blushed. He spoke in that deep sort of way, the way that made it feel like his voice was rolling over her from her toes to the top of her head. She smiled and looked up at him, conscious of how much taller he was than her. How close he was. How nice he smelled. Cigarettes and incense. His hand was in hers, his other hand, the one holding the sake he insisted that they bring to 'keep everyone calm', was against her back. She looked up, he looked down. He was about to kiss her when she felt an aura pass over her.
"Hey! Get in here! You're freaking Ritsu out!" said Sho as he leaned most of his body out of the second floor window. Mob could feel the both of them, Sho had just sort of poked against her.
"Come on, let's get this over with before your brother has another Ritsu freak out." Said Reigen. He let his aura away push away from him. The two espers in the house were the loudest. He could feel amusement from Sho and a generous slathering of discomfort from Ritsu. If he focused further into the house he could feel a weird mixture of stress, annoyance, and...fear? He pulled back into himself, passing over Mob quickly. She was…a lot of things. Worried. Hopeful. Happy.
"Ok, but he won't. He promises that he understands and that he won't ever do that again." Said Mob. She looked up. Well, he hadn't exactly said the words 'I promise' but she knew her brother and she knew that once he apologized he never did the bad thing he did ever again. Like the time when they were little and he took a bite out of her dessert cookie so she wouldn't want it. Or the time when he said that he would never kiss anyone else while he was in a relationship because he had kind of started his relationship with Sho while he was already in a relationship with Rei. Or the time when he beat up all of those guys because he was drunk on power.
"Sho! Get in here before my mom sees! You want to get kicked out?!" Mob heard Ritsu shout before he pulled Sho back into the window.
"The only one spying out this window is you!" yelled Sho as he was dragged back in. Mob smiled. She was happy that Ritsu had someone he cared about and who cared about him. She wondered what the trajectory of their relationship would be. Wherever they ended up she would be there for them.
"Your parents are blind…" muttered Reigen. Willfully blind. Maybe he and Mob just wouldn't say anything. Maybe they'd carry on, get married, and have a dozen little espers and then wait and see when her parents noticed. If they ever noticed.
"Huh?" asked Mob
"Nothing. Come on, let's go in before those two kill each other." Said Reigen. He heard something crash up there. They weren't really fighting, though, he wasn't getting any anger off of them. A lot of love, trust, devotion, annoyance, and a fair bit of a cocktail of discomfort from Ritsu. He didn't blame the kid. He had no idea exactly what Mob had shown him but if it was about how much she loved him he had a decent inkling of what it could be.
"They wouldn't do that, Master." Said Mob before she opened the front gate with her powers. This gate was different. Taller. It didn't have her and Ritsu's names carved into the side. There wasn't any grass in the front yard, it was all concrete. The windows were shaped different. Taller, more rectangular. She walked up the steps and for a moment she reached for her keys. She still had the old house key on her keyring. She had never gotten a key to this house.
Reigen could feel it from her, the melancholy. He heard her pocked jingling before she stopped moving. She didn't have a key, did she? Even he had a key to his mother's house. He reached over and rang the bell a few times.
"Mas-Arataka, don't push it so many times. You'll break it." Said Mob. She heard some movement from behind the door. She heard the knob turn for a moment but then stopped as heavy footsteps filled the house. The door was soon thrown open by Sho of all people.
"Abandon all hope ye who enter here." Said Sho cryptically as he opened the door. Ritsu pushed him aside.
"Ignore him." said Ritsu. Mob looked past them and saw her mother. She had a pinched look on her face, like she was sucking on those extremely sour lemon candies that they sold for one hundred yen a pack at the convenience store.
"Don't you boys know how to answer the door? Honestly!" said Kageyama Hana with a frown. That red haired boy was a terrible influence on her little Ritsu.
"Hi mom." Said Mob simply. Mom looked mostly the same as she had a few days ago. For some reason she had expected her mother to look older. Same old mother.
"Mrs. Kageyama! Hello! Thank you for having us!" said Reigen. He and Mob pushed their way past Sho and Ritsu and slipped out of their shoes. He could feel her mother's eyes on him, or maybe he imagined it. He was getting a clear feeling of annoyance and disapproval but that might have been directed at Sho and Ritsu….or probably just Sho. The way Mob talked about her mother the woman must have thought that Ritsu hung the sun, the moon, and the stars above.
"Thank you both for coming. I was so surprised when Shigeko actually asked to come over for dinner." Said Hana as Reigen handed her the bottle of sake. Middle shelf, at best.
"Should I have not asked?" asked Mob. Maybe she didn't have to ask because they were family. She wouldn't have minded if Ritsu showed up in the middle of the night to eat with her and Master Reigen. She wouldn't even have minded if he woke her up at three in the morning to make him dinner.
"No, Shigeko, it's better that you did. Otherwise I wouldn't have had enough food for everyone." Said Hana. Her daughter was much too old to be so socially stunted. At some point Hana had dropped the ball, she knew it, but in her defense how was she supposed to parent a child that could life cars with her mind?
"It smells delicious. What are we having?" asked Reigen not at all liking the tone he was hearing. Mob didn't mean anything by that, she was very literal. She was her daughter, too, she shouldn't have to ask. He didn't even have to ask his mother if he could come over for dinner. Not that his mother would have minded, she would even ask him to stay forever, probably.
"Just some curry, nothing special. Miso soup, some salad, and some squid. I didn't have a lot of notice." Said Hana
"I'm sure it'll be wonderful. Right, Mob?" asked Reigen. Mob nodded. Mom made good curry. She hoped that there wouldn't be spoons, though. She ate exclusively with chopsticks these days.
"I like your curry, Mom. It's really good." Said Mob. To everyone else then her voice would have been flat. Reigen didn't need his powers to know that Mob was genuine in what she said. He knew her voice and he knew her.
"Well, you haven't had it in a while." Said Hana. Sho stood behind her shaking his head. Do not engage, he tried to convey. She's in a Ritsu's mom mood, he tried to say. Ritsu just hung his head. He had begged, well not literally begged, but asked really hard for mom to be nice tonight. It would be bad if she started off mad. When Shigeko told everyone about…it…mom would definitely get into one of her mom moods. Dad might get upset, too, if he ever came to the table.
"And we look forward to having it soon! What a lovely home, Mrs. Kageyama. Did you decorate it yourself? You have wonderful taste." Said Reigen laying it on as thick as he could. He was a kid again, meeting the parents. I'm a nice guy, he tried to convey. I'm good for your daughter, he tried to convey.
"Why yes, I did. I went with a more modern style than what I used to have, before the fire. I actually made most of these decorations myself. Like this shelf, it's all from things from the hundred yen store…." Said Hana as she led him deeper into her home. She had to occupy herself somehow. One child was out of the house and the other was about to go off to university. The house had been so empty, this knew house. Brand new, a new build they had managed to snatch up after that awful business with the terrorist attack. Thank God that Ritsu was at his friend's house the whole time. What was she thinking leaving him all alone? Something awful could have happened to her little baby boy…and Shigeko.
"First your sister and now your mom. Should I be worried?" asked Sho. Ritsu shoved him, lightly. Mob stared at them. They always seemed to be fighting, even when they weren't fighting. Not that she fully got what Sho meant but if it was Sho it was something worth fighting over, to Ritsu anyway. Sometimes she felt like she was the only person that Ritsu didn't fight with.
"Sho, if you say one more word I will throw you out the window." Said Ritsu. He meant it. It wasn't like he hadn't done it before. Sho had been fine but his mom had instated a ban on them touching the windows after that. If he was warm he should just have her turn on the air-conditioning, she had said.
"If you try to throw me out the window then I'll drag you right out with me." Said Sho reaching over and clasping his hand. Ritsu did a quick check around. Dad was still in the living room on his laptop and mom was showing Reigen the picture frames she had made from measuring sticks and fake flowers. Just Shigeko, she was staring at them, but she stared at everything. He gave Sho's hand a squeeze and pulled it away. Shigeko wouldn't say anything but he didn't want mom to walk back in. He'd have to do some heavy duty explaining. Her poor heart couldn't handle two big shocks in one night.
"So you guys weren't fighting, right?" asked Mob for clarification
"Yeah, we're mortal enemies now. He used my toothbrush this morning and it's been spiraling out of control from there. We do battle at dawn." Said Sho. Ritsu jabbed him in the side. He couldn't help it, big sis was so easy to mess with! She knew he wasn't teasing her to be mean, right?
"Eww Ritsu, that's gross. But you shouldn't be enemies over that. They sell four packs of toothbrushes at the Family Mart, in all colors too. They even have dark blue, if you still want that color." Said Mob. Boys were so weird, sometimes. It was like they had a need to fight over everything. Why would sharing toothbrushes matter, anyway? They probably kissed all the time, they were a couple after all. Not that she wanted to think about her little brother kissing anyone. No matter how tall he got he would always be her little brother.
"Sho was just being a jerk. Ignore him and maybe he'll get a clue." Said Ritsu. Shigeko didn't know how to read tones or sarcasm or stuff like that so messing with her was just mean.
"Ritsu, don't tell Sho to get a clue. That's not nice." Said Mob. She hated that phrase, get a clue. Some people had trouble with that and there was no shame in it.
"See? Big sis can appreciate my brand of humor." Said Sho
"They sell your brand of humor at the discount outlet department store." Said Ritsu
"They sell a lot of nice things there. I was there today, with Arataka. They have a lot of really nice futons. We got a takoyaki maker, too." Said Mob. She didn't think that they needed one but Arataka had been really excited. They could have takoyaki for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the weird fourth meal that you ate at two a.m. when you woke up hungry.
"Seriously? You guys are going to end up weighing a thousand pounds." Said Sho. If you were eating enough takoyaki to necessitate a takoyaki maker then you were eating way too much takoyaki.
"I don't think so. Arataka is a little fatter than he used to be but still pretty skinny. I mean, he mostly eats junk food all the time." Said Mob. She wondered how he could be so skinny. She was normal sized, not fat but not skinny. No muscles, though. All those years of body improvement club had done nothing to improve her body.
"So you got a new futon?" asked Ritsu. He didn't want to think about Reigen Arataka. He had just gotten to the point where he could look at the man, he didn't want to think about everything that he knew about the guy. Sho raised an eyebrow. Dammit! Sho could read him like a book.
"Yeah, Arataka and I did. We don't both fit on my futon or his bed so he got a futon and now we have a guest bed. Hey, do you guys want to have a sleepover? We have a guest bed now." Said Mob. Ritsu felt the last lingering threads of his sanity begin to snap. Right. Couple stuff. He needed a drink, where did mom put that sake?
"I don't think Ritsu's poor little heart could handle it. He's just now over the whole 'urge to kill' thing. I'll crash at your place one of these days, though. Anything's better than my mom's house." Said Sho. She still looked at him like he was dad, like he was a monster just waiting to happen.
"Master says that- I mean Arataka says that you can't stay over without Ritsu because of the time you tried to make caramel and set the kitchen on fire. Also because you went through Arataka's search history." Said Mob as she followed Ritsu. They sat down at the dining table, Sho laughing the whole way.
"If he didn't want me to look through his history then he should have deleted it." Said Sho as he pulled out his chair and flopped down. He was to the right of Ritsu. His parents always sat across. Now there were two folding chairs next to each other. His parents had put the leaf in the table because of 'the sheer number of unexpected guests we're forced to accommodate' as Ritsu's mom had put it.
"Why do you keep trying to make caramel? You don't know how to make caramel!" said Ritsu. It had taken all day to get the kitchen back to normal before mom and dad came home. They had to repaint half the kitchen and retile parts of the floor.
"They sell them at the store, Sho. Wouldn't that be easier?" asked Mob. Master Reigen, no, Arataka, always said that there was no point in cooking foods that they could get from the outside world. They weren't cavemen, they had modern food technology, he had said.
"He gets bored and does dumb stuff." Said Ritsu with a shrug
"I wouldn't be bored if you were around more during the day." Said Sho kicking him lightly.
"You know I have to go to school." Said Ritsu
"Why? I don't. The only thing that matters is the exams and I can sit those on my own without wasting my time at school. Back me up, big sis." Said Sho. Ritsu rolled his eyes. He may have loved Sho but he could be so ridiculous.
"School is never a waste of time, Sho. There's friends and clubs and the cultural festival and sports day. School is great and I miss it a little but I think that I'll have fun at my new school." Said Mob. She hoped that she would. The only one of her friends going with her was Onigawara and they weren't exactly very good friends. Everyone else was going on to real school, not two year school, even though Arataka had said that two year school was just as good as four year school.
"Seriously? Big sis, this is not backing me up." Said Sho
"She's going to back me up before she backs you up. She's my actual sister after all." Said Ritsu
"Don't be sad, Sho. When you guys get married I'll be your actual sister, too." Said Mob simply. Ritsu and Sho shared a look before Ritsu began to panic. He could still hear dad clacking away at his laptop and mom was talking over, in step by step detail, how she had made the videogame shelf from painted plastic bins, hot glue, and stamps with all of Ritsu's favorite characters…from when he was ten. Sho thought it was adorable, though, as he had often said.
"Not so loud!" said Ritsu. Still, she could have been heard and then mom would ask questions and she'd ban Sho from the house and ban him from seeing Sho. He didn't think that he could go back to being without him for more than a day. He just sort of appeared, stayed, and then occasionally went off somewhere before coming back.
"Still not entirely legal." Said Sho. Well, they could have a big party and stuff but they couldn't sign any government papers. He wouldn't mind the big party. Everyone coming and seeing that, yes, they were a couple. Hiding sucked. He didn't know why Ritsu cared so much what his parents thought. Big sis didn't. She could be such a badass without even trying, sometimes. The way Ritsu told it she had just packed her bags and left without a single word. He hadn't even had the courage to leave dad, not until he was so obviously becoming a supervillain.
"That's dumb. If I can get married then you should be able to be married." Said Mob. The way she saw it was that love was love. It didn't matter who the two people in love were, they just loved each other and love was the greatest of all feelings. Ritsu should be allowed to be as happy as she was. Even happier, if he could manage it.
"….you and Reigen are getting married?" asked Ritsu. Reigen was a good guy, he knew this now, and Shigeko loved him more than anything else in the entire world, but wasn't that moving kind of fast? Kind of way too fast? Why would they get married so fast? His eyes darted to her stomach. Was she…? Could she be….? He needed air, lots of air.
"Not yet. He says that there isn't a set schedule for this stuff and that we couldn't until we were more stable and I was done with school. I'm only going for two years so after that I guess we'll get married and stuff." Said Mob. Ritsu was turning a weird color. She hoped that he wasn't going to explode again. She hated it when he got into his Ritsu moods.
"Kids?" asked Sho. He knew that look. That was the Ritsu is about to faint from shock, look. His mom got it, too, sometimes. Like the first time she had caught him sleeping in Ritsu's bed with him. She had been talking for years about getting him his own futon. She thought that he was an orphan or something and that he and Ritsu were cuddling because he had emotional pain. He'd let her think whatever she wanted as long as he got those sweet, sweet, Ritsu cuddles.
"What about them?" asked Mob. She liked them, they were nice people, when you were a grown up. She was glad not to be one, anymore, though. She was much happier as an adult.
"Are you guys going to have any?" asked Sho. Ritsu made a weird sort of yelping noise that he hadn't planned on making. He stared at her stomach. Was it any bigger? How long until girls got bigger? Or women, rather.
He didn't want to think about this.
"We are. I want to have a little boy. I'm going to call him Shigeo, but that's for later. We've only been a couple for three days. Are you and Ritsu going to have any kids?" asked Mob. She hoped that they did. Ritsu's kids would be great kids. He was a great kid, after all.
"You know, we keep on trying but neither of us has gotten pregnant yet-" said Sho before Ritsu covered his mouth. Mom was still talking. Now she was talking about how she decorated the entire downstairs bathroom for only two thousand yen. Reigen was saying 'uh-huh' a lot. Dad had turned the TV up.
"Sho! Shut! Up!" said Ritsu, his hand covering Sho's mouth. Shigeko didn't need to know about that. Mom and dad didn't need to know about that. Nobody in the world needed to know about that.
"But you're both boys, you can't. You'd have to-" said Mob
"Sister…please…let's talk about literally anything else." Said Ritsu shaking his head. He didn't want anyone to overhear and he didn't want his sister poking around in that area of his life.
"Ok Brother. Is dinner almost ready?" asked Mob. It really did smell nice in there. Familiar. It smelled like when she was very small and she wanted to help but mom wouldn't let her so she got upset and the kitchen shook. It smelled like all the times she had bent her spoons on accident because she felt like she was under a microscope and the other her was reaching out for some kind of control. It smelled like long nights at the table trying to figure out her math homework and falling asleep only to wake up to Ritsu having done it for her.
"It's been ready. Mom just likes showing the house off." Said Ritsu. Mom had gotten really into decorating after they got the new house. Maybe because they had lost everything in the old house. He didn't know what was so upsetting, it was just stuff. They didn't have any priceless family heirlooms or antiques.
"It looks nice. I'm glad you guys like it here." Said Mob. This was a nice house, she thought. Very clear, lots of decorations. Mom always said that she couldn't have nice things because of how her powers were so out of control. It was nice that her parents could be happy, now, because she was gone.
"You would have liked it here, too." Said Ritsu. Mob shook her head.
"I could never be happy here. I hate being in places where people are afraid of me. I don't like to go where I'm not wanted." Said Mob. Mom and dad hadn't stopped her from leaving so they didn't want her around. They had always thought of her as a monster.
"Why not? You should try it, it's fun." Said Sho. He went wherever he wanted, he did whatever he wanted, and he was beholden to nobody but himself. This was the life. If not for one little thing it would have been perfect.
"No, I don't like making people unhappy. When other people are unhappy then I'm unhappy. I'm happy now, though, and I'm not coming to live here ever Ritsu. I know you want me to live with the family and I know that you miss when we were together all the time but I can't live like that anymore. I'm not a monster and I don't want to live in a place where people treat me like one." Said Mob. She knew fully well what he wanted but she wouldn't give it to him. Her own happiness mattered, too, even though Ritsu was the best little brother in the world and probably the most amazing person ever.
"I know you're not coming back…you're with Reigen now. I'm ok with that. I'm ok with him." said Ritsu. Mob nodded. He still was talking like he got a say in this but she was happy that he didn't hate Arataka anymore, and that he wasn't going to go off into one of his Ritsu moods again.
"I was never not ok with him." said Sho. He liked Reigen from the beginning. He was kind of obnoxious sometimes but he could be a total badass when he wanted to. Hell, he tried to punch dad out. What'd he say? Oh yeah, 'Brute force, bastard!' and then just punched him. It didn't do anything but it was still really badass that he would walk into certain death like that. Plus the whole Salt Splash thing was hilarious.
"I'm ok with you now." Said Mob. She hadn't trusted Sho in the beginning. He had burnt down the house, after all. He also had a tendency, in the beginning, to just show up places. Sometimes she and Arataka would come to work and find him watching TV. Sometimes Ritsu would wake up to Sho sleeping next to him. Sometimes Teru would wake up to Sho having destroyed his kitchen trying to cook. Mob came around, though. Sho was lonely, she thought sometimes. He must have been sad, too. They were using his dad for experiments after all and his dad had been a super villain before that.
"You weren't ok with me? Big sis…come on!" said Sho. He knew that she didn't fully like him in the beginning. She came around fast. Big sis liked everyone, even that mean pink haired girl who made her go all super saiyan.
"Mob's ok with everyone, right Mob?" said Reigen as he was led into the dining room. If the wide world of accounting ever bored Kageyama Hana Reigen figured that she had a future in interior design.
"Yes. I like everyone I know." Said Mob. Reigen sat down in a folding chair next to her. She leaned a little into him. Her mother hurried past them.
"Even me." Said Sho. Big sis looked happier. It was in her eyes and her aura. Her face didn't really do a lot of…face stuff. He had seen her smile for real, it was nice he figured. He had seen her do that crazy smile she did when she was about to have her version of a Ritsu mood. That was less nice.
"We all like you, you poor little thing." Said Hana as she began to set up the dining table. Poor little thing, all alone in the world. Strange boy, obnoxious, but he was her son's best friend and she would make an effort. Besides, if he was spending all of his time with his best friend then he didn't have any free time to spend getting into trouble with girls.
"Mom!" said Ritsu. His parents thought that Sho was an orphan for some reason. Probably because he had pretty much moved in years ago. He had a mom, it was just awkward between them.
"Oh he knows I don't mean anything bad by it." Said Hana as she brought more food to the table. She patted the red haired boy on the head. He was an alright boy, a little strange, but alright. Much nicer than that girl Ritsu had brought home all those years ago.
"Yeah, Ritsu, I'm a poor little thing. I need all the love I can get." Said Sho sticking out his tongue childishly. Mob nodded.
"Sho needs a lot of love, like a plant." Said Mob. She felt kind of bad for Sho. Her parents were just a little mean but his dad had gone full on shonen supervillain and his mom didn't really seem to be there for him. When she had a kid she'd be the best parent that she could ever be. People were like plants and they needed love and food and water and sunshine or they would never grow.
"We all love you, Sho." Said Reigen as deadpanned as he could. He liked the kid enough. Kind of strange, kind of annoying at times, but he was one of Mob's friends and he had to like all of Mob's friends for the sake of his own sanity. If he was going to be with Mob forever then he'd have to like the people in her life.
"Some more than others." Said Sho as some food was plated for him. He looked over at Ritsu through the corner of his eye. Ritsu kicked him under the table. What was he so worried about? His parents were just as dense as his sister.
"So! How has everyone been?" asked Reigen. He could see the battle that was brewing there and, frankly, the Kageyamas could only have one bomb dropped on them at once. One would upset them, two would kill them from the shock. He took Mob's hand under the table.
"We've all been wonderful! Right?" asked Hana as she sat down. Her husband made an affirmative noise. Ritsu shrugged. Sho nodded as he shoved food in his mouth. Such a poor, hungry little thing.
"Well I had a wonderful day. I got a great deal at the department store." Said Hana to fix the atmosphere left over from everyone's lack luster response.
"How much did you spend?" asked her husband, Ichimaro. He didn't even look up from his work.
"Oh don't be like that! Barely anything at all. Besides, it was worth it. Now will you close that thing? We're at the table." Said Hana reaching over to her husband's laptop. He batted her hand away.
"Do you like having food to put on this table? Then let me work." Said Ichimaro. Honestly. His work never ended, not like hers.
"What'd you get?" asked Reigen. The quickest way to put Mob's mother at ease, he decided, was to ask her about her crafting projects. He needed to keep her at ease for the bombshell he and Mob were about to drop.
"A present for Sho." Said Hana clapping her hands. Sho looked over at her, his cheeks bulging with food like a hamsters. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"For me? You didn't have to, Ritsu's mom." Said Sho. Ritsu's mom could be a little much but she was nice enough. Not like his mom. His mom didn't really seem to care one way or another about him. Dad burnt her out, he decided. He burnt her out on caring.
"Yeah Mom, you really shouldn't have." Said Ritsu with a groan. At least mom liked Sho, that was good. Maybe when the truth finally came out she wouldn't be too upset. Still, she should be putting that effort into trying to reconcile with Shigeko. That fight was years ago, they should have made up already. Besides, Shigeko was her actual kid!
"Nonsense, I wanted to. I got Sho his own futon so now you two don't have to share a bed anymore!" said Hana. She surveyed the table. Well, at least Sho looked happy. Her son looked like he wanted to both laugh and cry. Shigeko was as detached as ever. Her husband was just as detached, mired in his work once again. Apple, tree. The man, Reigen, looked like he was choking a little. She topped off his water glass.
"Thank you." Said Reigen stifling a laugh. He couldn't help it, Mob's little brother looked hilarious. It was like he was sucking on an entire bag of lemon candies. How was this woman so willfully blind?
"We got a new futon today, too." Said Mob. So she had seen her mother at the store. She had thought that it might have just been a woman who looked a lot like her mother. Regular people didn't have auras, they carried their AT fields on the inside, so it was easy to mistake one person for another from a distance.
"So I did see you two! What was the occasion?" asked Hana. She had felt her daughter before she had seen her. She wanted to say hello but didn't. She so rarely ran into Shigeko out in the world. She hadn't know what to say. She was with Reigen, too, and the atmosphere around them was strange. They stood closer, talked quietly. It reminded her, somewhat, of her and Ichimaro back when they went shopping together. Since she was already so far off the mark she had just let them be.
"Arataka needed a futon." Said Mob simply. That was why there were there after all. Reigen drank his soup quickly, not able to meet anyone's eyes. Her father was giving him the side eye. Her mother was confused, it felt like, but it was harder to get a feel off of regular people.
"This is really good soup! Isn't this good soup everyone?" asked Reigen. Don't open with that, Mob. The last thing you want to do is open by putting thoughts of the two of us in bed together. In fact, leave beds out of the equation for now!
"I agree, it's great soup, Ritsu's mom. And thanks for the bed. I'll sleep really well tonight." Said Sho. Not that he intended on sleeping on his own. He didn't mind being crammed into Ritu's bed with him.
"That'll be good for the two of you. Sleep deprivation causes irritability, you boys know. I'm glad you two made up, though, this morning. Such fighting last night…" said Hana. She had no idea what they were fighting about but she knew it had to do with Shigeko. Maybe her son's friend had developed feelings for Shigeko and it upset Ritsu. Well, that would certainly have been an awkward situation and her daughter was the queen of creating awkward situations.
"Boys fight, it's what they do, Hana." Said Ichimaro not looking up. There could have been a million reasons for those two to fight and it was none of his business. He was just grateful that his son had a friend. With the way Hana babied him he had been worried that Ritsu could end up as one of those boys who locked themselves in their homes and depended on their mothers for the rest of their lives.
"You and Sho were fighting really badly?" asked Mob. She didn't want to cause Ritsu any trouble, especially in his relationship. He needed Sho and Sho needed him just like she needed Arataka and Arataka needed her.
"It's fine, sister. It had just been a…rough day." Said Ritsu. Mob nodded. It had been. She maybe shouldn't have shown Ritsu so much, actually yes she really shouldn't have shown Ritsu so much, but she couldn't control it like that. Also, sometimes you had to be hard on people. It worked, he finally got it, but there had been a cost. Good thing they had made up. She didn't know if she could live with herself if she had made Ritsu and Sho break up.
"A rough day? Ritsu, your days are never rough, I make sure of it. You've been doing so wonderfully lately, too." Said Hana. She smoothed down any bump in his road. It was her job as his mother. He never wanted for anything, never did any chores, and she even let his best friend stay over whenever he wanted. It had probably had something to do with Shigeko, why the boys had been so upset. Probably something romantic, from what she had overheard. Maybe Shigeko had been the one to confess, Hana had heard the word confess used a few times. It would make sense, Shigeko had been without a boyfriend for a year or so. Hana wondered what happened to that blonde boy she had been seeing. How had Shigeko managed to mess that one up? It wasn't like anyone else would ever take interest in her. She was much too plain, much too awkward, and now had even deferred her entire future. Where had she gone wrong with that one?
"If you say so, mom." Said Ritsu. He had been wracked with guilt, mostly, and also severely weirded out all night. Then he had spent the day apprehensive about the storm that was coming and worried about how, exactly, his parents would react.
"Ritsu, don't be like that. You've been wonderful! You've achieved so much and you're only seventeen! Ritsu scored so highly on his practice test that he can get into the top universities in the country. Kyoto, Tokyo, Tohoku! Ritsu you've been telling people, right?" asked Hana. He should be prouder of his accomplishments. He always downplayed himself for his sister's sake. It wasn't his fault that Shigeko just couldn't apply herself academically.
"Mom, you're making people feel bad." Said Ritsu. Shigeko, possibly, but she was ok with everything so who knew with her. Sho, probably. He didn't like to show it but Ritsu knew that he felt worried that he'd be left behind. It wasn't Ritsu's fault that he didn't do well, though. He had never gone to real school in his life.
"No I'm not honey. Remember, Sho, it was just a practice test. You have plenty of time to study even harder and do even better. Ritsu will help you. You boys can just keep holing up in Ritsu's room and get back to cramming. Next time you'll do much better." Said Hana. He tried so hard, that poor little thing. He needed someone to look out for him. Not like Shigeko, not that she was replacing Shigeko, but Shigeko had never really tried at anything. She had always just sort of waltzed through life with that look of quiet detachment. She should be more like Ritsu's little friend. That boy was certainly full of passion.
"Ritsu told me. I'm proud of him. You did really well, Ritsu." Said Mob smiling at her brother. Her real smile, not her picture smile. He could really go on to reach his full potential and be somebody important. She would be there to cheer him on every step of the way. She hoped that whatever kid she had could be even half the person that Ritsu was.
"Are you still not going onto a real university, Shigeko?" asked Hana tersely. Mob nodded.
"Yes, I'm still only going to junior college for two years." Said Mob. Her scores hadn't been that good and she didn't want to be in school for longer than was necessary. She liked the friends and clubs part of school but hated the studying and tests part of school.
"You should really reconsider, Shigeko. You'll never be able to get a good job with only two years at junior college. Honestly, those things are relics of a different time. You've got opportunities that my mother and I could barely even dream of. You should just take the test again and then go to a four year university. Junior college is for girls who only want to work for a couple years before they get married. You've got to be practical." Said Hana with a dramatic sniff. Sho stifled a laugh. Ritsu took a deep breath. Reigen squeezed Mob's hand and plotted the quickest route to the exit in case Ritsu got his temper from his parents.
"But I am-" said Mob before she was cut off. That was sort of her plan. Go to school, learn how to help run the business better, and then it would be business as usual.
"Shigeko's doing just fine, Hana. She's had a steady job for years now." Said Ichimaro. He was proud of both of his children. Ritsu was his pride and joy, his only son and a person who excelled at everything. His daughter on the other hand might not have even had a shot at a tenth of the success her brother had but she was making the best of life with the hand that fate had dealt her. She had managed to find and keep employment, which was more than he or Hana ever thought that she would be capable of with her condition.
"It's not a career, Ichimaro. Shigeko you should try and be more like Ritsu, really. Just put in the effort and stop being so detached all the time. You're going to have to put in twice as much effort as everyone else as it is with your…condition." Said Hana. A quirk of genetics, a cruel twist of fate. Whatever the reason for it her daughter had been cursed with uncontrollable supernatural powers and a naturally dull and even standoffish personality. One alone would have been bad enough but both.
"Mom, Shigeko's fine." Said Ritsu. He did not want mom to get on this rant again. He had no desire to listen to his mother, the greatest monologist in Japan, start to dig into Shigeko like that.
"Big sis is awesome, Ritsu's right!" said Sho. It was dumb. Big sis had saved the world! She didn't need a job or anything like that. She was doing the whole exorcist thing and it was working for her.
"You boys are so sweet to her but this is something that she needs to hear. Shigeko, you're not a little girl anymore. You're a woman now and it's time to start acting like one. Two year school is for girls who are planning on getting married and having children. You need to think of an actual plan for your life because we both know that a life like that is not in the cards for you." Said Hana. She slammed her drinking glass down. She was suddenly his by what felt like a tsunami of rage. She saw Reigen tense and Shigeko put her hand over his.
"I'm fine, Mob, I'm fine." Said Reigen as he drank his own water. Not in the cards for Mob? Not in the fucking cards!? He was sitting right there! Mob was an amazing person and her own goddamned mother couldn't see it. The woman was blind, plain and simple. She couldn't even see what was happening right under her nose in her own house so how was she supposed to see Mob's worth?!
"See? You even still let people call you by that embarrassing little nickname! Shigeko, you've got to so some heavy duty growing up!" said Hana still angry. Her husband got up and grabbed he sake bottle and some cups from the liquor hutch. He knew this side of his wife well.
"My life is my own." Said Mob simply. She was living her own life and she would do what she wanted with it.
"So you're just going to run it into the ground?" asked Hana as a cup of sake was placed in front of her. Two more cups were poured and the bottle left on the table. Sho reached over but Ritsu slapped his hand away. They were too young and he didn't want to piss his mom off any more than she had already been. Reigen downed his cup and poured himself another. He needed to calm down because he was throwing his own feelings around. No, not around, at the person who was making him feel them.
"No, not at all. I'm very happy and I'm doing very well. That's what I wanted to tell you guys." Said Mob. Her life was her own and just because her mother didn't approve, and she so rarely approved of anything anyway, didn't mean that there was anything wrong with the way she was living. She watched Arataka down two glasses of sake in quick succession before nudging his cup away with her powers. This was not the time to get drunk.
"You're counting my drinks now?" asked Reigen feeling better. Crap. Too much. If he was feeling it now then he had just drank way too much. He was such a lightweight. Well, if his mother in law ever drove him to alcoholism it would at least be a cheap habit.
"You get drunk easily, Arataka." Said Mob. She didn't want him to fall down or throw up or anything like that. He hated to be embarrassed.
"Who gets drunk off two cups of sake?" asked Sho. Ritsu elbowed him in the ribs.
"Not that I would know anything about that, being underage and all." Finished Sho trying to look like the picture of innocence and purity.
"Fine, I'll stop at two if it'll put your mind at ease." Said Reigen. She was right, it would do him no good to get stinking drunk in her parents' house on the night she's going to tell them that she was in a possibly lifelong relationship with the old fraud she's spent the last seven years of her life working for.
"Thank you, Arataka. We have sake at home if you want to drink more later." Said Mob, her mind now on her current conversation. Now her father was looking up from his work with one cocked eyebrow. Her mother was staring, her mouth opened so wide it looked like she was trying to catch flies. Ritsu was looking down at his food and pushing it around with his spoon like he was looking for something. Sho was looking at everyone, his head darting around like a bird's.
"Nah, I'll be fine, Mob." Said Reigen. He knew those looks. She had used his given name more than once. Given names meant intimacy, more intimacy than 'Shishou' ever did.
"…you should have people use your given name, Shigeko, and you should be more careful when using the given names of others." Said Hana after a moment. Her daughter was just making another social faux pas, that was all. Shigeko thought that because she was legally an adult now she could use anyone's given name. That man should have been Reigen to her now, not Arataka.
"I don't want people to call me Shigeko. I'm Mob and I want to be called Mob. It's my life and my name and I'll be called whatever I want and also it's Arataka's name and if wants me to use it then I'll use it." Said Mob. Hana heard a whining, petulant tone when there wasn't one. Maybe she wished for one, maybe she wished for a normal daughter who whined and stomped and emoted. What she got was this person, this doll. This person who's voice was always level, who's face was always frozen. Had been frozen since childhood.
"Honestly Shigeko-" said Hana before she was cut off.
"Hana, enough. Don't antagonize her, you know what can happen." Said Ishimaro in a warning tone. Shigeko's condition made her unstable. The last thing he wanted was to see his only son unconscious in a hospital bed again.
"…you don't have to be afraid of me." Said Mob after a moment. They were still afraid and they would always be afraid and she just had to accept that. She felt someone taking her hand. Arataka. She felt calm feelings rushing through her. Oh. She had been sad.
"Mob, nobody's afraid of you. How could anybody be afraid of you?" asked Reigen softly. Ritsu was looking down at his food like he was afraid that it was going to run away. Both of her parents were openly staring. He knew what this looked like and frankly he didn't care. Mob was hurting. Her own father had all but called her a monster, something dangerous to everyone, at the goddamned dinner table.
"Because I'm me." Said Mob. Softly. Her hair began to act up and Reigen smoothed it back down.
"You're awesome, big sis! Don't get like that!" said Sho. He didn't get her parents one bit. They had created the most powerful being on Earth, they should be patting themselves on the back every day instead of being afraid of her. Well, maybe it was different for normal people. His mom was afraid of him and Teru's parents were so afraid that they had put a entire ocean between themselves and their son. Well, if Sho ever had kids somehow and they turned out to be super power espers, or just regular espers, he'd pat himself on the back every day and not be afraid at all.
"I'm not afraid of you, sister." Said Ritsu. Not anymore. He was almost an adult now and he had left that petty jealousy and fear behind long ago. Shigeko was his sister and yes, she was super powerful, but she was also a good person. Mom and dad were normal people so all that they could see was her power and it made them feel powerless and scared. If he ever had a kid, somehow, mom and dad would probably be scared of it, too.
"We aren't afraid of you, Shigeko, just your…condition." Said Hana. Condition made it sound better, like it was something medical. Something manageable. Not something like what it was in reality. Not the monster that lurked within her daughter, the power to crush cars and throw people.
"There's nothing wrong with Mob." Said Reigen, a slight tone to his voice. Maybe it was the sake making him braver, maybe it was the fact that he was not going have Mob relapse. There was nothing at all wrong with Mob. She was a human being and didn't have anything at all wrong with her. She was not the monster that her parents made her out to be.
"Her name is Shigeko." Said Hana matching his tone. Ritsu and Sho looked at each other. They both knew that there was a full on war brewing now, not just a battle.
"My name is whatever I want it to be." Said Mob. Mob. She was Mob. Arataka squeezed her hand again. Her voice may have sounded flat but that was just to someone who hadn't spent the past four years listening to her. She was hurt. She was stressed. He didn't need powers to know that. He tried to give her all the calm emotions he could. Just because she wasn't exploding didn't mean that she wasn't hurting.
"Your given name is just that, Shigeko, given. That's the name your father and I gave you. You need to grow out of that childish nickname. You're an adult now, a grown woman, and it's time you started acting your age." Said Hana
"My life is my own." Said Mob again. Ritsu winced. To anyone who couldn't see auras her voice was as flat as ever. He saw that spike. He felt that spike. That spike was not the preamble of anything good.
"Your life is your own but you live in this world with other people, Shigeko, including your family. What you do is a reflection of us. Do you even know what you're going to do with your life? Or do you just plan on carrying on the way you always have?" asked Hana. Reigen wanted to pull Mob away. She didn't need this kind of stress. He didn't need this kind of stress. Nobody needed this kind of stress. This was like dealing with his mother at her worst. At worse than her worst.
"Both." Said Mob. She was going to have everything she ever wanted, which was everything she had already but better. Why didn't mom think that she could have that? Because of her powers. Because of who she was. Her life was her own, she needed to remember that. She had tried living her life according to what she thought that she could be.
"That's not a plan, Shigeko. You need to think of how you're going to support yourself for real. You think that you can just stay with him forever? You aren't a child." Said Hana. Reigen held her hand tighter. He decided, for once in his life, not to run his mouth. He knew that the second he opened his mouth he was going to say something that he would regret. Telling Mob's mother to fuck off would definitely be something that he would end up regretting.
"I have half the business. Arataka and I are doing very well. We support each other." Said Mob. There was an edge to her voice audible only to those who actually knew her. Her parents, on the other hand, did not hear this edge.
"Half? Shigeko, we're so proud of you. You're doing better than your mother and I ever imagined was possible ." Said her father. Half a business at the age of eighteen. Not a salary woman but an owner. There, his daughter was successful and he could rest easy.
"Half of what, that's the question." Said Hana. She had no idea how much half would be but she didn't imagine it was very much. The office itself was nothing much to look at and they only had one other employee and one of Shigeko's school friends who called herself the secretary.
"We make about….how much do we make, exactly?" asked Mob. She wasn't exactly sure. They had two hundred thousand yen a month after they did the payroll and the bills. She wasn't sure how much they took home a year, exactly. She didn't handle the taxes.
"About six to seven million yen a year." Said Reigen with a shrug. That was before taxes and overhead but it was much more than they used to make. A lot a lot more than they used to make. Passive income, the key was passive income. That and, well, actual psychic powers.
"Holy fucking shit." Said Sho. Ritsu kicked him.
"Language." Said Hana absently. Well, that was more than she had ever thought that Shigeko would ever be capable of making. Half of that, the and a half million yen a year was nothing to sneeze at.
"See? I am supporting myself. I do have a plan." Said Mob. So that was how much they made a year. That was pretty good. She wondered where all the money went. Probably back into the business.
"Then I suppose you have it all figured out, right? I just wish that you would do something more with your life but that is a decent amount of money. I suppose that you're stuck now, right? I suppose that you have no desire to go to university and make something more of your life…and don't you dare say that your life is your own again." Said Hana. She didn't know what more she wanted for her daughter, just that it would be something, well, more than what she had at fourteen. A normal life. She needed to finally fully accept the fact that her daughter could never and would never live a normal life.
"I'm happy. Arataka and I are happy and we'll always be happy. This is all that I want for me." Said Mob. Hana's eyes swung between the two of them before resting on Shigeko's hand. Shigeko's hand clasped underneath Reigen's. No. She was just misreading the atmosphere.
"I think you should just tell them, Mob." Said Reigen. No use in dragging it out. Hopefully her mom had gotten most of her rage out.
"Tell us what, Shigeko?" asked Hana. No. impossible. There was no way in hell that what she was thinking was the truth.
"Arataka and I are a couple now. I thought you ought to know." Said Mob simply. There was a beat, then another, and another.
"I think you broke her." Said Sho. Ritsu's mom was turning a weird color. Kind of like the time he tied that string around his thumb and forgot about it all day.
"Mom….?" Asked Ritsu. He didn't think that it was healthy for a human being to turn that color. It was like the time Sho almost lost his thumb because he kept cutting off the blood flow with string and forgetting about it. Why he had done that Ritsu had no idea.
"No." said Hana simply. This was not happening. This would not be allowed to happen.
"Yes." said Mob just as simply. There was no room to argue. It was a simple statement.
"Uh…Mob? Maybe we should…" asked Reigen. He had seen that look in his own mother's eyes on several occasions. That was the 'Arataka, you fucked up' look. That was the 'I'm driving away for a few hours because I can't stand the sight of you' look.
"I said no. I forbid this. I will not allow-" said Hana finding her voice. This was not right. Shigeko was….this was…she had trusted him! She had trusted him with her daughter and THIS was what he had done with her trust?!
"What do you mean by allow? This is my life, not yours. I'm not a little kid anymore and I can make my own choices and this is what I choose." Said Mob in her usual monotone. She had no tone. She was not being smart or fresh or cheeky. That was an honest to whatever God was out there question. To Hana it didn't sound like it.
"How dare you! I am your mother!" said Hana slamming her hands on the table. The picture of water tipped over but Mob caught it with her powers and righted it. Hana gasped and put her hands in her lap. Reigen took a couple deep centering breaths and retreated into Mob's aura, her feelings. It was just too chaotic out there.
"Mom, Shigeko didn't mean anything by that." Said Ritsu calmly. He knew his sister and she wasn't capable of mouthing off to anyone. She was just blunt. Mom and dad weren't used to her anymore.
"Yeah Ritsu's mom, big sis is just dense." Said Sho trying to be helpful. Mob nodded. They knew what she meant, they spent enough time with her to understand her.
"Boys…eat your dinner upstairs. I have something I need to discuss with your sister." Said Hana trying to keep her voice level. Shigeko lost control when she was upset. Shigeko could lose control at any moment.
"But mom-" said Ritsu. Well first of all Sho wasn't her kid even though she liked to pretend that he was and second of all Shigeko was his sister and he needed to be there for her. He also needed to be there to be the interpreter because mom tended to hear what she wanted to hear in regular conflicts and this was both bigger than a regular conflict and involved Shigeko, someone who missed a few social skills classes in life.
"Go upstairs, the adults need to talk." Said Ichimaro in a tone that left no room for discussion. Ritsu knew that tone well. That was the 'there is a screaming match on the horizon' tone. That was the 'Ritsu go stay with your friends while your mother and I talk' tone. Ritsu got up and pulled Sho by the back of his shirt.
"But I want to see the fight!" said Sho as he allowed himself to be dragged away. This looked like it was going to be a doozy. They, or at least one of them, needed to be there incase big sis lost control. She looked fine but who knew what was building up inside of her like a shook up can of soda?
"Goodbye Ritsu, goodbye Sho." Said Mob as they left. This wasn't a fight, Mob wasn't yelling back. This was just mom getting upset. That was normal for her. She felt Arataka in her aura. He was worried. Right, he wasn't used to mom's yelling.
"Shigeko, I will not allow this." Said Hana as she heard the boys finish climbing the stairs. They were too young for this and Ritsu didn't need the stress.
"You said that already." Said Mob. Mom said no but she had no power over her anymore so it didn't matter. Reigen reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. This was rough, on him. He could feel four eyes, two glares, attempting to cut through him. He told Mob that this wouldn't be easy. He would have gladly taken her little brother having another Ritsu freak-out in the office over this.
"I trusted you." Said Hana glaring at the man holding her daughter's, her eighteen year old daughter's, hand. How could she have been so naïve? How could she have been so quick to pass on responsibility for Shigeko? How could she have been so stupid?!
"I've done nothing to break your trust." Said Reigen in an even tone. Regardless of how he felt about Mob before, and he was ready admit to himself that he had feelings for her in the past, he had never acted on anything he felt. He hadn't done a single thing to ever hurt Mob. In fact, he had done more for her over the years than her own two parents.
"No? What do you call this then?!" asked Hana. She heard her husband sigh beside her. She could have really used some backup!
"Two adults in a relationship, and I know what you must think but this relationship is only three days old. I would never do anything to hurt Mob. I tried to talk her out of it but she was insistent. This is what she wants, this is what I want, and we just wanted to tell the people closest to us in person because, well, it's not the sort of thing I'd imagine either of you would have enjoyed reading about on Friendbook. We told you and we can see that you're both obviously upset so we'll just get going and leave you two be." Said Reigen diplomatically. Sometimes you had to run away and live to see another day. If he stayed for another moment he would never live to see another day.
"You think that you're an adult now, Shigeko? Is that what you honestly think?" asked Hana through clenched teeth. Two adults in a relationship? A grown man and a teenage girl who didn't know any better.
"Yes. I'm eighteen. I can't drink or smoke but I can go to university, graduate high school, drive, get married, buy a house, have baby, and own a business." Said Mob. How was she not an adult? She knew what age she was. She had not only managed to live for eighteen years but she had also saved the world on numerous occasions, survive six months of the most evil spirit in the world trying to break her, changed to become a better person, helped numerous people change and become better people, lived away from home, had held down a job for seven years, and knew how to make curry from scratch.
"You're a teenager. You have no clue what it means to be an adult. This is my fault. I can't believe that I was stupid enough to-" said Hana before she was cut off.
"How old are you?" asked Ichimaro suddenly. His voice as steady as his daughter's, his face equally impassive. Reigen dove deeper into Mob's aura. Somehow the calmness was worse.
"Thirty two, born in October." Said Reigen. He hoped to God that he wasn't about to get beat up. He did not want to fight Mob's father. He glanced over at Mob. She was staring at them. Her mother was sputtering and tugging on her husband. He shrugged her off.
"What University did you attend?" asked Ichimaro. Reigen, for a terrifying moment, forget literally everything about the place he had spent the first four adult years of his life.
"Lower Back Pain City University, for business." Said Reigen after a moment. Mob's father nodded.
"Have you always been a business owner?" asked Ichimaro. Reigen shook his head.
"No, I sold water coolers before this. I started Spirits and Such about eight years ago." Said Reigen. Was her father…was he trying to size him up? To see if Reigen was, what, worthy of Mob? Well, at least her father could be a reasonable man it seemed.
"You left your career? Why?" asked Ichimaro. Reigen looked her father in the eyes. He needed to look calm, in control. He needed to be strong and direct.
"I was unhappy. I found the work meaningless and wanted to get out. I saw an ad in the back of a magazine, got an idea, and here I am." Said Reigen. He was not at all ashamed of what he had done. He had saved himself from a lifetime of unhappiness. He knew that he would languish as a salaryman. Now at least he did work that was of some direct good to someone.
"You sound impulsive." Said Ichimaro. Reigen shrugged.
"I'm here and that's what matters." Said Reigen. He could feel Mob's eyes on him. Mob was confused. Dad didn't look or sound mad, she had gotten better at reading faces and tones over the years. Was this turn of events good or bad?
"Yes, you're here. For Shigeko." Said Ichimaro. Reigen nodded. Yup, that was pretty much it.
"I'm here for Mob, yes." said Reigen. He was there to support her. He was there for her. He would always be there for her.
"Has this really been going on for only three days?" asked Ichimaro as impassive as ever. Reigen and Mob nodded.
"I don't tell lies, we've only been a couple for three days." Said Mob. Arataka had said that people would only be able to see them for who they had been before. People would never be able to see them as two adults but instead as master and student, adult and kid. Well she was not a kid anymore.
"Who else knows?" asked Ichimaro. An educated man with his own business who had the decency to wait until Shigeko was an adult. Not nearly as bad as it could have been. Hana was overreacting. As if anyone could ever make their daughter do anything that she didn't want to do.
"Yesterday I told Ritsu and Sho and then the day before that I told our friend Serizawa so that's only three people." Said Mob. She didn't get why that mattered. It wasn't like she was going to hide or anything. She loved Reigen Arataka and she didn't care who knew.
"His parents don't know?" asked Ichimaro looking over at Reigen.
"My mother lives all the way in Lower Back Pain City. It's a day trip to get there and we're only closed on Sundays. My father and I haven't spoken since my parents' divorce and, honestly, we both like it that way. He can read about it on the internet." Said Reigen. He wasn't ashamed of his parents' divorce even though he knew that to a lot of people it could reflect badly on his own character. He had dealt with that before. His life was his own and he would not be ashamed.
"A divorce?" asked Ichimaro. If he started up with some 'well then he would obviously divorce Mob' crap Reigen would reach across the table and Salt Punch him into oblivion.
"Yes, when I was fourteen. My parents didn't like to be married but loved to fight. My father remarried, my mother didn't." said Reigen
"Which parent was foreign?" asked Ichimaro looking him up and down.
"My mother. She's from the United States but she still lives in Japan. She runs an English school now. I think my father is still a salaryman, but we haven't spoken in a while." Said Reigen. He was half, he didn't care. That was who he was.
"Why would that matter?" asked Mob. She knew that people felt differently towards people who were less than fully Japanese but it made no logical sense. People were people.
"For any children you might have. They would only be three quarters Japanese." Said Ishiamro. Mob wondered why that would matter. She wouldn't mind if they looked exactly like Master Reigen or exactly like her or a mixture of them both. She would love their children for who they were.
"Shigeko…you aren't…you aren't pregnant…are you?" asked Hana, her hand over her heart. Mercifully her daughter shook her head no.
"No, we've only been in a relationship for three days. I don't think that we've been in a relationship long enough to have any kids." Said Mob. Her mother looked like she had forgotten to breath. Arataka was shaking his head. What had she said now? Three days was way too early to have gotten pregnant and they had used a condom anyway so there wasn't any chance. Did they want grandkids? She knew that Arataka's mother did, she certainly said so whenever she called.
"Yes! You are much too young for any of this! Including him!" said Hana. Ichimaro shook his head and motioned for his wife to be quiet. They needed information, not to upset their daughter. She didn't need any more stress than necessary due to her condition.
"And yourself? Have you ever been married? Any children?" asked Ichimaro. Reigen sat up straighter.
"No, of course not!" said Reigen. He could feel Mob's eyes on him, her curiosity. What was she so curious about? Of course the answer was a resounding 'no'.
"But you have been in relationships before?" asked Ichimaro. Reigen nodded. Of course he had! He was a good looking successful guy! He wasn't one of those guys who avoided women and worked twenty hours a day until they died at their desk types.
"Yes, but that was a long time ago. I'm in this with Mob for the long haul." Said Reigen. He was in it for as long as he could be. He loved Mob, that was the difference between her and everyone who came before her. He loved her completely and totally and she loved him. She was also pretty jealous, if what she was feeling right then and there was any indication. He'd talk to her again later.
"Why is my daughter any different?" asked Ichimaro
"Because I love her." Said Reigen simply, that same matter of fact tone that Mob used for everything.
"That's good enough for me. We approve." Said Ichimaro. A good man who loved his daughter and could provide for her. What more could he ask for? Shigeko had been fighting an uphill battle since the day she was born. It was nice to see her hitting normal milestones for a change. Marriage, a family, a man who could care for and provide for her. More than he and his wife had ever imagined for their daughter.
"We certainly do not!" said Hana. Was that all he wanted for his daughter? A man to take care of her? Shigeko may have had her condition but she could strive for more in her life that a man fourteen years her senior!
"We do, Hana. Be realistic. We never once imagined that Shigeko would ever do this well in life. She has a business, has built a career for herself, and has found someone. We never thought that she would ever be able to accomplish anything like this. Be thankful." Said Ichimaro in a tone that left no room for argument. Hana nodded. She could always talk to Shigeko later but this…could this really be the best that her daughter had to look forward to? Thank goodness that Ritsu was born normal. There was no way that she would ever have been able to handle two children like this.
"It's getting late and we can see that you two are going to need some time to get used to the new situation. We'll just leave you be. C'mon, Mob." Said Reigen standing up. Mob nodded and stood up, too.
"Ok. But mom, dad, what did you mean by 'be realistic'?" asked Mob. Of course she could never come close to achieving as much as Ritsu had in life but that didn't mean that she could never achieve anything.
"You're different, Shigeko. You know that." Said Hana tersely. Her daughter had to have enough self-awareness to know that she was not like anyone else. That she had all sorts of difficulties that normal people would never have to deal with.
"You mean my powers? Oh. Ok. Goodbye, then." Said Mob as she turned and left. It always came back to her powers, didn't it? That she was dangerous. That she was a monster. That something was wrong with her. She slipped on her shoes as she left. She didn't look back. No matter how much older she got her parents would never be able to look past her powers. She felt Arataka slip his fingers between hers.
"I'm sorry about that, Mob. I should have handled it better." Said Reigen. Speaking to people was his forte, he should have stopped that fight before it began. Now Mob was being distant. Upset. Hurt.
"Mom and dad are always like that. They fight all the time. Sho says, not Ritsu, so I trust it. Ritsu never tells me when bad things are happening." Said Mob. Did she care? Why did she care? She hadn't lived with her parents since she was fourteen. She was a grown woman now. Why did it matter what her parents thought of her? She knew exactly who she was and who she wanted to be. She was Shigeko, she was Mob, and she was more than her powers.
"I'm sorry I made you tell them in person, then. I mean…Mob I did warn you. If you don't want to still do…this…then we can stop." Said Reigen. She was hurting. She was confused and hurting and she wouldn't have been if he hadn't agreed to start this with her. This wonderful, idiotic, beautiful, terrifying thing with her. Mob stopped walking suddenly.
"No. Arataka…I love you and I never want this to end. You were right, it isn't easy, but I want this with you more than anything else in the world." Said Mob. She squeezed Arataka's hand as hard as she could. Her life was her own and this was what she wanted. He was who she wanted. Did he not want to, anymore? Had he changed his mind? An icy burst of fear exploded within her. The streetlight over their heads flickered. Reigen didn't think. He just pulled her in and kissed her.
"Mob…I don't want this to end either, I just wish that you weren't hurting right now. I just…if it weren't me then it wouldn't hurt. Then you'd be happy." Said Reigen. She should have been with someone her own age, someone who her parents would have wanted her to be with. She should have been with someone who people, not only her parents, wouldn't have had any problem at all with who she was with.
"I am happy. When I'm with you I'm the happiest I've ever been. I don't care what people say or think. I don't care. I just want to be with you. I just want to be happy." Said Mob. He was all that she had ever wanted. He was her everything and she was his. That was all that matter.
"Mob…I love you. Let's…let's go home." Said Reigen taking her hand and walking with her.
"I'd like that but can we get ramen on the way home? Mom spent so much time yelling that I barely ate." Said Mob. Reigen laughed and gave her hair a tug.
"Mob, whatever you want."