A/N: The older brother bows.

.

Click.

"Koyama?"

"Yeah?"

"Your last report was ten minutes ago… What's keeping you?"

"I'm watching. The kid is still just messing around with his powers, and it's amusing."

"You are the one messing around, Koyama. Hurry up and get him already."

He hung up without the courtesy of a goodbye. The man grumbled and shoved the phone back into his jacket pocket. He waited a moment longer before he took a step and dropped off the building to the ground below.

.

Ritsu smoothed the spoon back to its curved shape. Dimple spoke in a misplaced voice somewhere inside Ritsu.

"You're getting better!" he congratulated. "Now you can better control the output of your powers—with my help, of course."

Dimple had the sense that Ritsu was preparing to eject him out of his body. He quickly moved along, to the other bent silverware near the shrine stairs.

"You should try to do them all next! Focusing on one thing is easy. You need to practice doing many things with your powers at once."

Ritsu reached out his hands to the quirked spoons and forks. A light silver aura shimmered around them, but Ritsu never got the chance to bend them back.

"It's been a while, Kageyama."

A man stood on the path to the shrine. Even in the hot glare of the sun, he kept his hood up and face shadowed, the smallest indication of him even having a face coming from the glint across his eyes and metal piercings. He kicked a rock off the path with his boot, and his head leaned to the side.

"What're you doing? Playing with spoons?"

Ritsu was not stupid. He knew the man did not come for no reason. He backed away.

"Don't tell me you're going to try to run again," the man sighed and shook his head. "You've caused me enough trouble as it is."

"Oh, this is bad!" Even Dimple fretted. "That's an adult ESPer!"

If the unkind red-brown aura that circled him was anything to go by, Ritsu would have to agree. And although his heart had begun to flutter, the fear that burned like ice had not reached his limbs or his brain, so with the courage he had left, he thought, and tried to remain as innocent as possible.

"You must have the wrong person," Ritsu said—not hatefully, not fearfully, but simply— "I have never seen you before in my life."

The man chuckled. Not swayed, he raised his arms and shrugged.

"I suppose it would be asking too much for you to remember me. You were very young when we first met."

He walked closer. With every step, Ritsu took one away, until he was nearly backed against the shrine.

"Now… Are you going to try to throw me into a building again, Shigeo?"

.

"Mob-kun…" Tome practically whined. She stared at the sky while she walked, and although it was reasonability too warm, she wore her new sweatshirt with an alien eating a pizza on it; Mob had bought one, too, that said 'Milky Way', and it had a milk cartoon surrounded by stars. He kept his in the bag that Tome swung to and fro.

"You know what's not fair? That so many people see UFOs at night. My mom won't let me stay up long enough to look for them."

Before he could answer, she almost smacked him with the shopping bag as she looped her arm around his shoulders.

"We should try to contact aliens again!" Tome winked and gave a thumbs up. "We were so successful last time! Maybe we can get a full message if we try again!"

"Sure, Tome-chan," Mob agreed after a moment. "Although, I should tell Shishou beforehand."

It was too awkward last time trying to explain to Reigen what was happening. (Reigen sought to allow Mob as much freedom as he could, but he was also protective, and that made him not eager to believe Tome was so close to Mob's face because of aliens). Tome hummed in understanding and took her arm away from Mob.

"We should do it next Saturday!" Tome apparently needed both her arms to gesture. "My mom's birthday is on Sunday, but I think I can pencil you in…"

.

Shigeo?

The man grasped Ritsu by the hair and slammed him into the ground. The force was enough to knock Dimple out of Ritsu's body, and the spirit spun dizzily in the air from the impact. The man rubbed Ritsu's face into the broken dirt, and he leaned down to speak into his ear.

"Not so fun when you're on the receiving end, huh? Are you not even going to give me a fight this time? How boring."

Dimple finally stilled and got his wits about him. He saw the man lift Ritsu's face from the ground; Ritsu's nose streamed blood, and he spat dirt from his mouth. Ritsu tried to turn around and fight back, but the man slammed him down again, enough that the breath was lost from his lungs.

"Come on," the man groaned, and leaned his elbow on one of his knees. "There's no need to be so pathetic."

Dimple had to act—do something. He did not consider how he could just leave, say he was somewhere else, not get wrapped up in whatever trouble had found Ritsu. Instead, he reacted, and the wind swirled around him as he grew to his full size.

The man did not seem fazed by the little green spirit that had turned into a hulking monster. He looked over lazily, where Dimple stood with his arms crossed.

"I had not planned on showing my true form so soon," Dimple said in a much deeper voice than before.

Dimple did not get a chance to make a move or speak again. A hole formed in his middle, and the man lowered his arm as the spirit dispersed into the air, unimpressed about Dimple's attempt. Not changed by the inconvenience, he lifted Ritsu again, and almost laughed at the tears and dirt on his face.

"Wow, I didn't think you were such a sissy…"

.

Something was wrong.

Mob felt it in the deepest, oldest, most frightening parts of himself. His hand slipped from the doorknob and the bag from his arm, and he could only stand in the quiet horror of his emotions for a moment. Strange tears welled in his eyes.

Ritsu.

Dimple.

Him.

A dull flash died in the graveyard. Mob's feet moved him, as well as his little heart, beating at a frantic speed that was almost too painful to think about. Such a desperate need drove him that he did not bother with the front gate: he used his powers to scale the fence, right over where Tome-san's grave remained. He reached the main path, towards the graveyard shrine, where Ritsu's schoolbag leaned against one of the arches and parts of the earth were cracked.

A man stood there. A man stood there holding Ritsu by the hair.

He held him like a swan with a broken neck. Tears and blood and dirt discolored his face, and all the man did was shake him, shake him by the hair until he cried out. The man growled at the noise, and Mob felt such a blind, terrible emotion that he did not realize he had grasped the man's arm until he did.

Anger.

The man was forcefully spun. He met the eyes of another, and they held so much hatred that for the briefest second, he himself was terrified.

"Let my brother go."

.

A/N: I swear my standards for this fic just continue to drop as it gets closer to the end ;;