It was freezing.
Which was utterly perfect as far as Reigen Arataki was concerned.
"You guys feel that? That's what success feels like." Said Reigen as she leaned back in her chair.
"It feels cold." Said Mob as she used her powers to hold Master Reigen's chair steady. Sometimes she fell when she tipped back like that. One time one of her shoes flew off and broke a potted plant. Master Reigen had said that it was a sign but of what Mob did not know.
"That's what success feels like Mob! Success is a dish best served cold." Said Reigen as she closed her eyes and let the cold wash over her. It was cold enough that she was back in her blazer as she should have been. She didn't care if this put her and Serizawa deep in the hole…or if they were, hypothetically, to break up he would get half the air conditioner….
However that would work.
Not that they were going to break up. They never fought. They agreed on just about everything….and maybe that was too much, too. Maybe they needed to start disagreeing and having arguments. What did that say about her as a person that she needed to be with someone who agreed with everything she said and did whatever she wanted to do? Maybe she was just self-centered and-
And that was negative self-talk.
"Isn't that revenge?" asked Mob. She had heard that revenge was a dish best served cold. She didn't know what that meant, she didn't have anyone that she wanted to get revenge on, but she had heard that before.
"Yes, revenge too but there's nobody that we want to get revenge on so we're going to call the feel of cold air on demand success." Said Reigen
"It feels like it's drying out my skin." Said Rei as she looked up from the paper she was cutting. Snowflakes. That was what she was going to make. She was going to fill this room with snowflakes because it was cold enough to snow. Inside at least. Outside it was so hot that even the birds had gone quiet. It was not good for anyone's skin. Reigen needed to turn the air down before they all shriveled up like grapes.
"Here, catch." Said Reigen as she took out a bottle of lotion from her desk and tossed it to Rei. Yes, it was kind of dry in there….but dry skin was also the feel of success. Being cold and having dry skin was success.
"Careful." Said Mob. She guided it over to Rei with her powers. She didn't want a repeat of the last time Master Reigen had tossed a bottle of lotion across the room. Though it had been cool when it exploded, Mob had to agree with Tome on that, but the office also had smelled like grapefruit for way too long, Mob had to agree with Serizawa on that. Well she would have if he had been there. He was off visiting his mom again. Mob wondered if Master Reigen was sad. Mob was always sad when Teru was too busy to see her….well not always but a lot of the time.
"Thanks." Said Rei. She turned it over and read the bottle. Yuck. Parabens.
"What's with that face?" asked Reigen as Rei made a face that was somewhere between stepping on a thumbtack and getting a burnt French fry. It was actually kind of adorable. If Reigen had to pick a most adorable kid it would have been a tie between Mob and Rei. Not that she was picking favorites or anything like that.
"This has parabens in it. Sorry, it's nothing against you." Said Rei as she tossed it back.
"What the hell is a 'paraben'?" asked Tome. She wondered how Rei had managed to survive this long. She was too afraid of stuff. Petroleum. Parfum, which was somehow different from perfume. Getting in the sun. Not getting enough sun. Pretty much everything that there was in the world Rei would find a reason to be afraid of it much to Tome's confusion. Life was to live!
"I don't know but I know that they're bad for me." Said Rei
"I looked it up. It says that they cause cancer." Said Mob as she held up her phone for everyone to see. Master Reigen held her lotion bottle between two fingers and then threw it away. She shook her head and wiped her hand on her shirt even though she could have messed it up. Mom was always mad at her when she messed up her clothes. Master Reigen was so lucky to be an adult. She could do whatever she wanted. She could even turn the air conditioner up full blast even though that must have been really bad for the electric bill and also the environment. Mom and dad only let her and Ritsu turn the air conditioner on at night to save money. Maybe her parents just weren't as successful as Master Reigen was.
"Well the feeling of success certainly isn't cancerous lotion." Said Reigen with a shudder. Well then. It was nice to know that she had been slowly killing herself with lotion. Maybe the damaging effects of parabens were stacking with the damaging effects of smoking and she wasn't long for this world. It certainly felt like it.
Well it did, anyway, when she looked across the room towards his empty desk.
He had gone to visit his mother again. If someone had asked Reigen's unfiltered opinion it was that his mother was a terribly needy woman. Not that anyone had been asking her for her opinion…and not that she would have said that if she had even been asked. Serizawa's mother loved him and he loved her and that was why he kept running the moment she called. She missed him, she said, which made sense since she had spent fifteen years with him right there in the house.
Reigen could sort of see why some women didn't get along with their mother in laws.
"Nah, it does. Everyone knows that the best things are bad for you. The universe doesn't reward happiness because all the things that make you happy end up getting you in trouble or killing you or something." Said Tome with a shrug. She was getting philosophical in her old age. Sometime she wondered why the universe punished happiness and pleasure and rewarded boring hard work and conformity. Was this what life was going to be from now on? Just doing the same things as everyone else in an effort to be just like everyone else and live like everyone else and die like everyone else and then get exorcised by Mob or some other psychic like everyone else?
"What did you do?" asked Reigen. She went through everything that Tome could have done wrong in her mind. She made a mental note to check the petty cash box in case she had to bail Tome out of jail or pay someone to be quiet. Hopefully it was just something simple like trespassing again….
"Nothing!" said Tome. Why did everyone always assume that she had done something wrong? She hadn't done anything….lately. She was going into high school now, she was beyond such childish rule breaking.
"But what about the time you go caught on your neighbor's roof with your telescope?" asked Mob
"Also didn't your mom catch you sneaking out again?" said Rei
"That's not what I mean." Said Tome
"What did you mean? I don't understand." Said Mob. She could say that to her friends, that she didn't understand, and they would always explain to her what it was that she had missed and they never made fun of her or anything. She was so happy to have friends.
"I just meant that it feels like when you do whatever you want, whatever makes you happy, you end up paying for it later but if you do what you're supposed to do, what other people tell you that you're supposed to do, then you get rewarded even if you're bored or it's not what you want to do. Success comes from conformity…and it's not fair." Said Tome
"High school's hitting you hard, huh?" asked Reigen. It was like looking back at a younger her. Back when she had been about that age it had hit her that her life was on a track. School, a job, marriage, and a family just like everyone else's life. She would be a drop in a sea of people all flowing the same way towards the same goal. What someone else described as success. That was when she had decided that she was going to be somebody.
"But it's still summer. School doesn't start again for weeks." Said Mob
"Yeah, and what sucks about high school? You get to wear a new uniform and you get to be older and you get to meet new guys and-" said Rei
"There's more to life than guys, Rei." Said Tome with a huff.
"Hey, none of that. We all have different priorities." Said Reigen. She omitted the fact that Rei maybe needed to get her priorities in order. She was thirteen years old, almost fourteen, and she would never be that hormonal again in her entire life…but somebody needed to tell her that there was more to life than boys. That person would probably end up being Reigen one of these days.
"It feels like we're all supposed to have the same priorities…and it sucks." said Tome
"We don't all have to have the exact same priorities. I mean we all have to go to school and stuff but we want different things, too. Like how you want a new lens for your telescope or Rei wants her sister to stop stealing her stuff or I want a cat even though I had a cat for a little bit before my mom found it or how Serizawa and Master Reigen want to get married and have a bunch of babies and-" said Mob
"Wait! What?!" said Reigen. She leaned too far back in her chair and tipped back. Mob caught her, thank God, even though it was her fault that had happened in the first place. Her and her speculations.
"Be careful, you're going to tip over." Said Rei. She had been just a little late to the party. It was Mob's fault. She put the image of Reigen and Serizawa getting married….and Reigen had so many colors she'd look good in…and also weddings in general were great…and Reigen really should have gotten on that. Rei knew that there was more to life than love. There was school and work and stuff like that. Guys were just on her mind a lot. She couldn't help it. It was just like they explained in health class. It was a special time in her life and all of that. What was wrong with wanting to love and be loved in return? She wanted someone to love her just like Mob had someone to love her and Tome had someone to love her and Reigen had someone to love her. What was wrong with that? Everyone wanted something from their life and that was what Rei wanted.
If she could just find someone to love her and if she could love them in return then she would count that as success.
Love was success. You just weren't someone until someone loved you. Like the song said. Having friends was good but you couldn't kiss your friends. Well you could but Rei was not into that. Also friends would leave you, maybe, but if someone loved you then they would never leave you…until they did…and that sucked…
But love still felt like success.
"Thanks Rei, thanks." Said Reigen as she got her bearings. What good was it to have a clairvoyant kid around if they couldn't tell you when you were going to tip over and break your neck or if someone was going to start speculating about your life, about parts of your life that you weren't even ready for, that you-
Breathe, Arataki, breathe.
"You know, Mob, that's the same thing that we're always supposed to be working towards. We have to get good grades so we can get into good schools and meet guys and then get married and have kids and it's the same thing that everyone else is supposed to do and it's like you have no choice because that's what success looks like." Said Tome
"You know, I felt the same way when I was your age." Said Reigen in her best wise Master voice. The same voice that had enraptured Mob all those years ago…and still did if the stars in her eyes were anything to go off of.
"I know how this ends. You realized that everyone was right and you got good grades and went to university and then got a good job and met the love of your life." Said Tome
"Yes….and no. I felt the same way that you did and I vowed that I was going to be somebody." Said Reigen. She decided that she was going to tell an abridged version of the story of her life. Nobody there was old enough for the unabridged director's cut of the life of Reigen Arataki….and she was not old enough to tell that story.
"But you are somebody. You're Master Reigen." Said Mob. She remembered from the press conference, that had been a terrible day, that when Master Reigen was a kid she wanted to be someone. That didn't make any sense, though, because everyone was someone. Nobody was no one. Well she felt like she was no one, no one without her powers, which was why people called her Mob…so maybe it did make sense. She didn't know.
"I wasn't always Master Reigen. Back when I was your age one day I woke up and got into my school uniform and I just thought…so this is it? It felt like my whole life had been planned out for me…and it sort of had. Very overbearing woman, my mother, very overbearing. I decided that I wanted to be someone so I…well I did a lot of things, some of which you are WAY too young to hear about, and some of it you aren't. I barely made it through university and I sort of jumped from job to job for a while before I found this…and the rest is history. My life was my own and if I had just done what I was told I would still have been cutting hair or grooming dogs or selling water coolers. Your life is your own so do whatever you want." Said Reigen
"So we don't have to go to high school?" asked Mob. Well that had been a load off of her mind. They were all going to the same high school and then university and then they would all live together after that and then they would raise their kids together…but that was what she wanted. She was still worried about high school, the work was harder and the people might have been mean…but at least they didn't have to-
"Mob, no, you're going to high school. Everyone goes to high school. Even Serizawa is studying for his equivalency test. High school sucks, well a lot of it sucks, but you have to go to school." Said Reigen
"So then I have to do the same thing as everyone else then…" said Tome
"Ok fine, you can't drop out of school to pursue your passions and whatnot but you can still do whatever you want with your life after you've given yourself some options, ok?" said Reigen
"So then I can be successful like everyone else…" said Tome. Reigen didn't get it. Nobody got it…and she was not being an angsty high schooler! Even if it seemed like she was. Even though she was going to high school and leaving the telepathy club and she still hadn't found any aliens or any of her other goals…
"That's the opposite of success, I think, if you're just doing things because everyone else is doing them. I think that success feels like doing whatever makes you happy." Said Mob. She hoped that Master Reigen was ok. Well she hoped that all of her friends were ok but she especially hoped that Master Reigen was ok. She was best friends with Master Reigen…maybe. Maybe they were all best friends. She didn't know, she hadn't had very many friends before. Now she had this many…and it was so nice. A bunch of friends, a boyfriend, Master Reigen had found the love of her life, Ritsu had found the love of his life…
It had been a good year.
Even if there had been all of that stuff with Claw and also the big fight that she and Master Reigen had. She was so happy to have gotten through all of that stuff to get to where she was now. Maybe this was what success felt like. Being happy almost all the time. Waking up and being happy because you could hang out with your friends or your boyfriend or your friends and your boyfriend at the same time….or just your boyfriend because sometimes you wanted to kiss and stuff and you were not going to do that in front of your friends. Especially not Rei because she was very sad that Ritsu didn't love her back. She really wanted a boyfriend and Mob didn't blame her. It was nice having someone who liked you…and also all the kissing.
Success also felt like kissing.
Maybe that was why Master Reigen and Serizawa kissed so much. Master Reigen couldn't sense auras and Serizawa couldn't sense Mob when he was distracted. That was how Mob had ended up seeing Master Reigen and Serizawa kissing. She hadn't set out to see Master Reigen and Serizawa kissing, she had just wanted to see if they wanted to go to the arcade with her and Rei and Tome, and maybe she should have made more noise when she walked up the stairs or knocked on the door or something.
Because she should not have seen what she saw.
And now she could never un-see it…but she was happy for Master Reigen and Serizawa. She really was! They loved each other and they kissed and nothing felt better than kissing, especially the way that had been kissing, and so Mob was happy for them…even though it had been so weird to see that. Weird and intrusive, like she that was something that was not for her eyes…which made sense because that certainly had not been for her eyes. It didn't matter, she was happy for Master Reigen and Serizawa.
That was what success felt like, being happy and being happy that other people were happy.
"There, see Mob's got it. Now remember it, put it in a book, sell it and get rich and famous. Success is your own personal happiness…and also air conditioning. Hang on, let me turn it up." Said Reigen. She didn't care if she was cold. She didn't care if everyone was cold.
Success was personal happiness and she was happiest when the air conditioner was going full blast.