At some point Reigen was going to have to get that air conditioner fixed.
Summer was upon them. Hot, sticky, unpleasant summer. The kind of weather that made her want to just lay down and go to sleep until the leaves started changing color. The kind of wear that made her makeup melt like a snow cone in the sun. The kind of weather that made her wish that she wasn't too lazy to shave her legs. Stockings in the summer were the absolute worst…
Everything about summer was the absolute worst.
Well not everything. Summer meant summer break. Reigen had been out of school for years now but she still counted down the days until school let out. For Mob's sake. For Mob's sake and for the rest of the kids, too. Mob always came around more during summer break. She hadn't been coming around as often as she had before, boyfriends ate up a lot of time, but summer would be different. Not that Reigen was going to be monopolizing Mob's time again. That hadn't gone over well the last time.
She'd missed the kid.
She still missed the kid.
And she would continue to miss Mob and all of the others, too. The beginning of summer meant the end of the school term and the beginning of the next. Mob was going to be in her third year of middle school, Rei her second, and Tome was going to be in her first year of high school. They were growing up and one day they'd grow up and head out into the world. High school. University. Adulthood. She'd miss them all, she really would, but she was not going to hold them back.
Their lives were their own.
And Reigen was happy for them. Hence the fact that instead of going out and getting the air conditioner fixed, or better yet junking this one and getting one that didn't break down constantly, she instead chose to spend that money on something nice for the kids. End of term cards. Well Tome got a graduation card but the others got end of term cards. She hadn't agonized over their gifts, no, the decision had come quickly. She had been at the train station and the card and gift shop had been right there and then one thing led to another and she found herself stuffing thirty thousand yen into three separate cards. Not an insignificant amount of money, especially for Reigen, but more than she had ever gotten in any of her cards when she had been a kid.
Besides, she would have just spent that money on nonsense anyway.
She knew herself and she knew that the money she put forth for their gifts would have gone down the drain like it always did. So really this was the more responsible thing to do. The most responsible thing to do. She hadn't been the best at being responsible, her mother could certain attest to that, but there was no time to start like the present. The money was going to end up going to nonsense anyway. Videogames and makeup and candy and things that looked like cats, Mob had a bit of a fixation, so really it might as well go to their nonsense.
"…but what do the aliens have to gain from abducting us? And why even bother bringing us back?" The front door of the office opened. Reigen could hear their voices echoing up the stairs. It was just her that day. Serizawa was off visiting his mother. She would have gone too, she totally would have gone too, but work was just so demanding and she had to give Mob and Tome and Rei their end of term gifts. She'd go next time he went, or maybe the time after that, or something. She wanted to meet his mother. She totally wanted to meet his mother. There was nothing scary about that at all. She was just a mother. Reigen had a mother. Everyone had a mother! Well not everyone had a mother but mothers were so common that they were nothing to be scared of. She was not scared, she just had a lot to do, that was all.
"They're aliens, Mob, we can't even begin to comprehend them." Said Tome. Reigen wondered if she should hand them their gifts when they came in or maybe leave them on their desks or maybe make like she was upset but then just as they were getting worked up reveal that it was all an act and they were getting gifts to use on whatever nonsense they chose.
"Maybe they just like messing with us." Said Rei. Right. That last one wouldn't work on her. She had been using her powers more and more lately. Ever since that mess with Mob's little brother. She was getting better, though, she could come within fifty meters of Mob's house now without freaking out it seemed.
"That's not very nice of them at all. I bet that if they wanted to they could just ask if some people wanted to be abducted and experimented on. I bet a lot of people would like that." Said Mob. Reigen settled for sitting at her desk and pretending to work. She'd make like this was a normal day and then surprise them…as much as one could surprise them when Rei was around.
"But who would want that?" said Rei as they came through the door. Summer clothes, not school uniforms, though she wondered if Mob knew the difference. The other two were dressed for the weather, t-shirts and shorts and sandals, but Mob had decided to wear a heavy looking shirt with a long skirt, knee socks, and gym shoes. Reigen wondered how Mob could stand to be dressed like that in this heat, though that was how she had been dressing year round since Reigen had met her.
"Who wouldn't?" said Tome
"I wouldn't." said Rei
"Wouldn't what?" asked Reigen pretending that she hadn't been eavesdropping the whole time.
"To volunteer to get abducted by aliens." Said Mob as she settled down at her desk. Rei and Tome did the same, though Rei's desk was more of a coffee table. Reigen would have to get her a real desk soon…and find space for another real desk. Tome only had her own desk because the one Reigen had gotten for Serizawa, before, had been way too small. It was only fair that Rei got one too.
"Because they keep on just taking people without even bothering to ask." Said Rei
"It's impolite." Said Mob
"I don't care, I'd still go. Who in their right mind would pass up a chance like that?" asked Tome
"Yeah, I'd go for that. Just so long as they weren't going to do anything weird to me." Said Reigen with a shrug. She pretended to work as she spoke. Her eyes glanced down at the plain white envelopes on her desk. Now or later, that was the question….
"But what if they weren't nice? Like if they said that they weren't going to do anything weird to you but then they did?" asked Mob
"Then, Mob, I would have no choice but to use my green belt." Said Reigen
"Even if you were millions of lightyears from Earth?" asked Mob
"Of course." Said Reigen as if this were the most natural thing in the world to be talking about…which for the lot of them it kind of was. They'd had weirder conversations before, much weirder, like the time they debated for about two hours if a tomato was a fruit or a vegetable. Turns out it's somehow both at the same time.
"Master, you're amazing." Said Mob. Reigen smiled. A compliment from Mob was never not heartwarming. She wondered how long this would last. Until high school? University? At some point Mob would have to stop thinking of her as Master and just start thinking of her as Reigen. The others already did. Eventually she might even end up being Arataki to them, or just Taki as she was called by the few people who called her by her given name. She knew Mob's big plans for the future, though they were probably amended since it didn't look like her brother would be marrying one of her friends any time soon, but she knew that Mob did not envision a future where they were not all friends living in the same building or at least general area living out her slice of life dreams. She wondered how close to reality her dreams would come. Times changed, things changed, and people changed…
"Wasting an opportunity like that is not amazing. I'd give your 3DS for a chance to be abducted. Both of your 3Ds's and all of your games." Said Tome
"Why ours? Why not yours?" asked Rei
"Because I need something to do while I wait for the aliens to abduct me. Besides, you both hardly play, and I'm on my way to making a career out of it." Said Tome
"I thought you were going to go to university and study the mysteries of the paranormal." Said Reigen
"I can do two things." Said Tome
"I thought that you were going to go to Roswell and study the conspiracy about the aliens." Said Rei
"I can do three things." Said Tome
"I thought that you were going to marry Inukawa and live in a mountain top observatory together." Said Mob
"I can do four things…and I never said anything about marrying him! Marriage is an antiquated concept that we need to move away from. Like Reigen has even though Serizawa would totally say yes if she asked." Said Tome. Reigen stopped pretending to work. Again with this? She had thought that they would have come off it by now. She and Serizawa were together, why was there still a need to 'ship' them? And she did not need to be reminded of her Christmas cake status either, thank you very much.
"They can't get married now, it's summer. By the time they're done planning it'll be winter at the earliest and Reigen can't get married in the winter. She's a summer with fall undertones." Said Rei
"I think that Master Reigen would look really nice no matter what colors she wore…and doesn't the bride have to wear white, anyway?" asked Mob
"Well no, not really, you can wear whatever colors you want. You have to think about the color palette of your decorations and flowers though. Also what your bride's maids are going to be wearing. I'm a summer, definitely, but you and Tome are winters…so maybe we should all meet in the middle and wait until next spring?" said Rei
"Wait a minute-" said Reigen. Ok, she'd take the shipping. She'd take the shipping over…whatever this was. Them planning her wedding…and assuming that she would have a wedding…and assuming that it would be a western style ceremony…and assuming that they would be in the wedding party…though it wasn't like Reigen had a lot of female friends….but it was all a moot point because she and Serizawa were not even close to beginning to discuss marriage! They had just gone from making out to slightly heavier making out…and she hadn't even met his mother yet!
"Maybe fall would be better? Because then it wouldn't be as hot and also I think that we all look nice in fall colors." Said Mob
"That's true, but fall dresses aren't as cute. We'll have to find something that we all look good in, too, and that could be a real problem since we've all got different coloring and we're nowhere near the same height." Said Rei
"You can just dye your hair back to black." Said Tome
"No. I will never go back to having black hair." Said Rei
"Your hair is black? I always thought that it was more of a dark brown, like your mom's." asked Mob
"Yeah, you didn't know that?" asked Rei
"No, I've never seen you with anything other than red hair. Well I mean I can see your roots sometimes but they always look closer to a dark brown than a black." Said Mob
"You shouldn't have kept your eyes closed when we went to the bathhouse." Said Tome
"I-I was being polite! I mean I was trying to be…" said Mob
"You not looking is more impolite than you staring." Said Tome
"I think that both are equally impolite. I mean you're just supposed to treat it as a nonissue. Even in a mixed gender onsen." Said Rei
"There are mixed gender onsens?" asked Mob looking thoroughly scandalized. Reigen would have laughed if she hadn't been praying that the conversation stayed on bathhouse trips that she had not been invited to and not back to her nonexistent upcoming nuptials.
"Yeah, a few. It's more inclusive that way." said Rei
"And good for people on their honeymoons." Said Tome with a look that could only be described as suggestive. Rei giggled. Mob, as usual, did not seem to notice.
"Master Reigen and Serizawa would want to go somewhere nicer than the onsen downtown for their honeymoon." Said Mob. Reigen groaned. They were back to this? Why was this so fascinating to them? There must have been something more interesting to talk about than this nonexistent marriage….though Mob had a point. The bathhouse downtown wasn't really that nice….and the last thing that Serizawa would have wanted was a bath with a bunch of strangers…but they could always rent out…nope. Off this train of thought before it went anywhere else.
"Like a fancy spa out in the country. Where they can be all alone and just enjoy being in love with each other. With hot rock massages and hot springs and clay baths and-" said Rei
"I feel like this is something that you've been planning for a while….though I don't think that Mob's little brother would be into it." Said Tome
"Oh! Don't talk about him! I'm over him…and I never was that into him to begin with! He's too…too…" said Rei
"Gay?" asked Tome
"Oh!" said Rei. She threw her hands over her eyes and flopped down backwards onto the couch. Reigen didn't blame her. She had been really into the kid, God only knew why, and she had found out the truth about him in the worst way possible…by getting drunk for the first time in her life and spilling her guts to him.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you that he had a boyfriend…and that I didn't know that he had a boyfriend…and that he has a boyfriend right now…well I'm not sorry about that last part. I'm glad that he's happy and I wish that you had someone who made you happy too. If I had another brother I would ask him to go out with you." Said Mob
"That's even worse than being rejected." Said Rei
"It is?" said Mob
"Yeah, how would you feel if someone told Hanazawa that he had to be your boyfriend?" asked Tome
"Who?" asked Mob
"Does it even matter?" asked Tome
"Yes. A person I didn't know asked Teru to date me then I would be very uncomfortable but if someone I knew told Teru to date me I wouldn't be uncomfortable. I would be sad that Teru didn't decide on his own to be my boyfriend but it would be less weird." Said Mob
"…you are severely overthinking this." said Tome
"I am?" asked Mob
"Yeah, but just a little." Said Reigen jumping into their conversation. Maybe she could steer it in the direction she wanted it to go…which was the direction of the mysterious white envelopes on her desk. Actually any direction was good as long as it was away from the direction of her totally not happening marriage to Serizawa. Not that it would have been so bad…and not that it would have been anything other than terrifying, too, the thought of him just asking her to….yeah. That was way too much too soon. Let them plan their own weddings. Well Mob's wedding….she was growing up so fast….it was like yesterday she had been eleven and now she was going into her third year of middle school.
"Master, is something wrong?" asked Mob
"No, why?" asked Reigen
"Because you got that far off look, that's all. I'm trying to get better at reading people's faces and stuff. You just looked kind of sad, that's all, or maybe I just didn't read right. Are you sad, Master?" asked Mob
"No, I'm fine. What would I have to be sad about? Life's good! Life's great!" said Reigen. It really was. She had a boyfriend, she was pulling down decent money, her mother had gotten off her case after hearing about how she had both a boyfriend and was making decent money, and she had all the kids over at once. Really, life was good.
"Because it's hot as hell in here?" asked Tome
"Eh, I hadn't noticed." Said Reigen
"Because Serizawa is gone and you miss him because you love each other more than anything else in the world and even though you know that having time apart is healthy your heart aches because he's so far away and even though you're surrounded by your friends you still can't stop thinking about him and wishing that he were right here beside you?" asked Mob
"No, I'm ok…and that was oddly specific…" said Reigen
"Because you're going to get tea all over the front of your shirt and it won't come out because that's pure silk?" asked Rei. Reigen pushed her tea cup to the other side of her desk. Good to know…though this shirt wasn't pure silk…but it was nice to know that she could fool even Rei. She was like a soothsayer when it came to clothing…or a Doberman…
"No, I'm fine, really. Well I supposed that there is something on my mind…" said Reigen
"Are you worried that even though Serizawa says that he loves you with all his heart he might secretly be unhappy with you and wish that he was with someone else? Someone older and prettier? Even though you know that you shouldn't feel like that you do? And then when you're together all you can worry about is if he really wants to be with you? And even when you kiss-" said Mob
"Mob, you're not even close to being right….and you and I have to talk later…" said Reigen. Well then. Middle school relationships were not supposed to be that…much. Poor Mob….insecurity was a bitch and a half. Reigen, of all people, knew all too well…
"Mob, Teru loves you. I can tell even without using my powers that he would never break up with you." Said Rei
"I-I wasn't talking about-" said Mob
"And if he does all we have to do is buy some sky masks and then fill a couple pillow cases with doorknobs and-" said Tome
"Anyway! There is something on my mind and that something is…this." said Reigen. She picked up the envelopes and held them up high effectively ending the conversation before she overheard something she would be expected to testify about in court one day. Though if Haystack ever did break Mob's heart Reigen would pretend that she never heard any conspiracies to commit any vicious pillow case beatings.
"You want me to take those to the mailbox, Master?" asked Mob. Reigen resisted the urge to faecpalm. Maybe she should have spent the extra money on festive envelopes. After all she had already spent thirty thousand yen on the three of them. They were worth it, though.
"No, I think that those mean we're being fired. My dad got an envelope from work and then he got fired and now he just sleeps all day or sits in the living room watching TV and napping." Said Rei
"Nobody's getting-" said Reigen. Well now, hadn't this backfired nicely? Also she made a mental note to have a talk with Rei later, too. Poor kid. That must have been hard on her family. Two older sisters in university and one going into her last year of high school, plus her mother and father had been talking about having another one…and Reigen knew way too much about the inner workings of Rei's family. Way, way, way too much.
"You can't fire me! I quit! And if I quit they quit too! Come on, we'll open up our own psychic agency! With videogames and a full drink bar!" said Tome
"Guys-" said Reigen trying her best to restore order…and failing.
"But I don't want to quit…or be fired…." Said Mob softly. Reigen shook her head. How could Mob ever think that she'd be fired? That any of them were fireable?
"Too late. Come on, let's go and rent our own office-" said Tome
"Hey! First of all nobody is getting fired and second of all there is no way I'm letting you three open up a rival office! Sheesh! You try and do something nice for a person and you end up with your whole staff quitting at once…" said Reigen. She got to her feet and handed each of them their cards.
"So we're not getting fired?" asked Mob. Reigen reached over and tussled her hair messing it up in the process. It still hadn't grown back all the way from her little emergency haircut.
"What? No, nobody's getting fired. I just thought that since it's the end of the school year I would do something nice for you guys." Said Reigen as they opened their cards. She watched the looks on their faces as they found the money. She wished that they would have read the inside….well at least Mob was…
And then the next thing Reigen knew she was being hugged.
First by Mob and then by Rei. Tome was the last to join them and she decided that the best thing to do was to get a running start and then jump on them. They almost fell off balance but Mob caught them. That hug went on for too long, and the room was entirely too hot, but Reigen wasn't complaining. This was nice. This was really, really, nice.
"I un-quit! Now, to the arcade!" said Tome. She was the first to break the hug. Well at Reigen was right, one way or another her money was going to end up spent on nonsense. Whatever. They were happy, that was what mattered. They were happy and it was a happy occasion…even if they were about to tear out of there like the room was on fire…which it felt like it was….
"Master, aren't you coming?" asked Mob as Tome and Rei made plans to head off to the arcade and play only the games that gave you the best returns. Apparently there were big ticket items to be had and they finally had enough money to earn them.
"I'd love to Mob, I really would, but there's still work I have to do." Said Reigen. She wanted to go, she really did, but this was going to have to be one of those times when they would have to leave her behind. Those times would be coming up more and more…and she was ok with that. That was just the way it went. She didn't expect them to stay-
But Mob instantly sat back down.
"Ok. I'll wait." Said Mob. Even though she loved the arcade. Even though this room could have doubled as a sauna. Even though her friends had been itching to go a second ago…and now they were following her lead. Even though….even though there really wasn't anything for Mob to do….
She still waited.
They all still waited.
And Reigen didn't keep them too long. It was way too hot for that. Heh. Maybe one of the prizes was a new air conditioner.