Reigen didn't know why he thought that he could trust Touichirou.
That wasn't Spotify. He knew what Spotify looked like and it looked nothing like YouTube. Somehow the kid had found YouTube…he never should have set him loose on the internet. God only knew what he'd seen if he'd seen fit to look his own name up. His bid for taking over the world…if there was some way to send him back he was going and the last thing Reigen needed was waking up in a world where the kid learned from his mistakes and actually succeeded in taking over the world…that is if this world changed at all. Reigen had seen a lot of movies. He could have created a whole new timeline when he left or he'd make a new one when he came back or…or something.
His head hurt. He decided to stick to one problem at a time.
"So, I see you've found YouTube." Said Reigen as he leaned over Touichirou's shoulder. Touichirou shrugged and took his headphones off.
"Obviously." Said Touichirou, his eyes never leaving the screen. He didn't know how anyone's eye could have ever left their screens. This was a laptop, amazingly enough, and on it was everything that anyone could have ever hoped to watch. Also games. Also it was in color. Also the screen was big enough that he could actually see what he was doing. Also there was a place where anyone could have taped themselves doing anything and broadcast it for the world to watch.
Amazing.
"And I guess you just forgot the part where I told you to stay on Spotify?" asked Reigen
"No, I ignored you, now leave me alone. You're distracting me and I can't find the rewind button." said Touichirou. You could watch any video on any topic being broadcasted by anyone. This was the coolest thing in the world! There had to have been some way he could have used this to take over the world, or at least somewhere to broadcast those movies he and Tadashi were always making, and to think Tadashi had said that the world didn't need a kaiju movie they'd made in his backyard…
Or maybe that had been Touichirou…but in his defense there had been script problems since day one!
There was no way Godzilla would have turned on humanity in order to team up with Mothra to get revenge on the world. Obviously he was right but it had been Fukuda's script and Touichirou hadn't felt like writing another one so that was what they had to work with…maybe they could take over the world through movies…but first he had to finish this. Then he could figure out how to utilize this technology for his own means…better means than this.
Though that wasn't going to happen if Reigen didn't learn to leave him alone!
"Well that's enough of that, then." Said Reigen as he reached for the laptop. It slid over to the other side of the desk. Reigen crossed his arms and sighed. He felt like his mother trying to pry him away from the TV on a school night.
"Come on, give it back. We need to get out of here." Said Reigen, keeping his voice level. He felt the hair on the back of his arms standing up. Right, right, he may have felt like his mother but he wasn't his mother and this wasn't a younger version of him. This was a younger version of the guy who had tried to kill him…and Mob wasn't around. Touichirou glared at him…but that was it. Reigen reminded himself that this kid wasn't the same person. He was younger and…nicer? Not as bloodthirsty.
He was just a middle school kid. Kind of like Mob only more prickly.
"Later, I'm in the middle of something. Find something to do until I'm done." said Touichirou. Honestly. Reigen was acting like Mother. At least he could tell Reigen to go away. If he'd tried to say anything of the sort to Mother she would have had Father correct him…he sat up straighter and kept his eyes on the screen in front of him.
He didn't have to worry about Mother or Father anymore.
And he wasn't worried about Reigen, either, even if Reigen was getting very close. He could see his aura, he was nearly making a barrier, but he didn't. He had better control than that. He knew what would happen if he kept his barrier up when Father was correcting him…he shook his head in an attempt at shaking any and all of those thoughts away. He focused on what he was doing.
He may have been trapped here but that didn't mean that he had to be inefficient. He could still work at completing his goals.
"You're…watching people play Atari games?" asked Reigen, scratching his head. Huh. Well maybe he was just a normal kid. He had never been able to understand this kind of thing. Watching other people play videogames was like watching other people eat, which was something else that he'd seen people doing, what was in it for you?
"Yes." Said Touichirou as he slid the laptop back over to him. Reigen was leaning even closer to him now. It was understandable, Adventure was a very aggravating yet fascinating game, but he wasn't sure if Reigen really had to be so close to him.
"I know for a fact that I got you an Atari. How about we get out of here and you veg out in front of the TV until I figure out what I'm going to do with you?" said Reigen
"Later. I have to see how this ends." Said Touichirou
"…this game is from 1978. You came from 1986…this is an old game even for you." said Reigen reading the video's title. Reigen wasn't sure what kids had been like in the 80's but even by those standards this game had to have been incredibly primitive. Just blocks and lines…though judging by how Touichirou's eyebrows had begun to knit together he maybe should have kept that thought to himself.
"I…have not been able to get past the first door and the bird plagues me endlessly and has been since I was a child…and I will not admit defeat!" said Touichirou, crossing his arms. The lights above them flickered. A cup of pencils rolled off of the desk. His doing. He should have had better control than that!
"Fine, alright, finish this video but then we're getting out of here and back home so I can figure something out for you." said Reigen as he picked up the pencils that had tipped over. He was grateful to have had something to do, something to take him away from the pissed off little megalomaniac in front of him. Right, that was a kid…and not every kid was Mob.
Mob was something special.
Mob was now his favorite kid. Mob never got visibly pissed off, Mob usually did as he was told, and Mob didn't have any real ambition world domination or otherwise. Sure Mob could be weirdly quiet sometimes, and the leaps of logic his mind took were perplexing at best, and also he did have a tendency to stare…but he never threatened Reigen implicitly or explicitly. Reigen had never once been afraid of him even when things had gone completely sideways. This kid…
Touichirou was just a kid.
He was just a kid and he needed an adult and Reigen had to be that adult…even if it could be kind of…difficult sometimes. But this was alright. If he'd gotten here then there was a way to get him back and he just had to figure it out and if he didn't then he could just wait for either the universe to collapse under the sheer stress of having Touichirou here or he could wait for Touichirou to grow up and make another bid for the world…
Yeah, he could handle this. Somebody had to.
"You look pathetic, let me help you." said Touichirou as he reached out with his powers and cleaned up the mess he had made. Just because he was far from home that didn't mean that he got to act like that. He may have been a bit unpleasant there…just a bit. Whether he liked it or not he needed Reigen. Sure, he could have gone off and lived in the woods until he figured out how to get home, but that would have meant living without electricity which would have meant living without television or videogames and he didn't think that he could have lived like that. Not when there was so much about this future to take in.
Not when there were so many good things about this future to take him…things aside from his massive failure.
"Thanks…I think. Anyway, is that thing almost done? I'd rather head home sooner rather than later." Said Reigen as he checked the clock. He had taken care of his standing appointments. All he had to do now was leave before he got an after lunch walk in. He didn't know how all of this worked but the fewer people who saw or interacted with Touichirou the better. For the sake of the space time continuum and also for Reigen's personal sake as well. He didn't need people asking questions. He didn't know how he was going to justify having a random teenager around in the middle of the school day.
The less people looking into this the better.
"I'm halfway done. Why are you so anxious to leave, anyway? It's not as though either of us has anything planned for today…anymore, at least." Said Touichirou. He should have been at school. He had a test today, he had homework due, and there was no way he was trusting Fukuda to take notes for him. There was also their Claw meeting after school. Mother's new microwave may have come and if it did then that meant that he and Fukuda could start microwaving batteries again.
"When people see you they ask questions and I'd rather not have to deal with that right now." said Reigen
"Just let them assume that I'm your son. It's not as though people look too closely as foreigners…or people who look foreign." Said Touichirou
"I have no idea how I'm supposed to explain having a kid your age." Said Reigen
"You look old enough." Said Touichirou. Adults all just sort of looked like adults.
"Hey! I'm only twenty eight years old." Said Reigen. Touichirou shrugged.
"Then you had me when you were fifteen. I think that you should go with that, then people will be jealous that you had a girlfriend when you were fifteen." Said Touichirou. He had hoped to get a girlfriend sooner than that…he'd have to find Fukuda and ask him which of them had found a girlfriend first. He hoped that it was him.
"Yeah, when you get to be my age having a girlfriend at fifteen isn't really a brag." Said Reigen. Yup, he was definitely dealing with a kid…or someone that had the planning skills of a kid. Considering the fact that he'd tried to take over the world…
"Is that a future thing or a 'you' thing?" asked Touichirou
"It's an adult thing. When people think that you had a kid when you were a kid they don't feel impressed so much as, you know, full of pity and maybe disgust." Said Reigen
"Adults will never make sense. I would have thought that you would have wanted people to think that I was your son. I mean, I'm me, and also everyone would think that you had a son and a girlfriend at some point. I have Sho and you'd better believe that I'm going to rub this in Fukuda's face when I get back." Said Touichirou as he closed the laptop. As much as he wanted to stay and finish what he had started the last thing that he wanted to do was make Reigen leave him…
Because then he would have been bored, that was all.
"But if you want to leave then we can leave." Said Touichirou. Reigen began to look entirely too happy before he frowned and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his…Touichirou would never feel comfortable referring to that tiny computer as a phone, and began to swipe at the screen.
"Serizawa, please, you don't need to bring me soup. I feel fine…better, I feel better. I'm going to be fine, really, you just focus on enjoying your day off." said Reigen as he turned around. Serizawa was too nice for his own good sometimes…and way too fragile. This wasn't going to be good for Serizawa, knowing about Touichirou, Reigen didn't know the whole story between them but he did know that Serizawa was working hard at getting over everything that happened between them.
"Who's that?" asked Touichirou as Reigen turned away from him. Reigen was trying to have a private conversation…which meant that the person on the other end of that call must have been important…which meant that Reigen was hiding him from important people. Reigen had said that he didn't want to have to explain Touichirou's existence…but other people knew already…so Reigen must have been hiding him for some other reason…
He stood up. Reigen began to pace.
"Really, really, you just focus on…uh…you had a test coming up, right? Focus on that." Said Reigen as he tried to get away from Touichirou. He was hovering like a little kid, doing everything but standing on his tiptoes and tugging on Reigen's sleeve. He further renewed his appreciation for Mob. At least he was never nosy.
"School? Test?" asked Touichirou. So, someone his age then…Reigen had a lot of friends his age. Maybe because people his age seemed to be very powerful. That made sense but also no sense. The only other esper he had ever met in his life was Fukuda and he'd been looking for as long as he could remember. So far he had met his son, Shigeo, his brother Ritsu, and their friend Teru. Four. Twice as many as he knew existed in 1986…and now another person.
He wished he had a pen. He needed to write this down. It seemed as though it was important.
"That? That was just…uh…you're breaking up! Sorry, it's a bad connection. I'll talk to you later!" said Reigen as he hung up. Touichirou was still looking at him. He sighed and put his phone back in his pocket.
"Who was that?" asked Touichirou
"A friend. Why are you so nosy?" asked Reigen
"Because I want to know who you were talking to, how old they were, and if they were an esper or not." Said Touichirou
"And you need to know all of this why?" asked Reigen
"Because I just do, alright? It's important data gathering. There are so many espers in the world now…why? As far as I can tell there weren't any nuclear wars so it's not like Godzilla." Said Touichirou. It would have made more sense. Fallout from nuclear wars would have given people powers. If it could turn an ordinary sea creature into Godzilla then it could give people powers…though in the first film he had always been there and the radiation had set him free…but still! Radiation did things like that, it was a widely accepted fact.
"I think I would have noticed a giant lizard running around." said Reigen. Touichirou, in true teenager fashion, rolled his eyes.
"No, I meant that radiation would have been a good excuse as to why so many people have powers now. It's a well known fact that radiation does things like that." Said Touichirou
"Yeah…I'm not sure about that one…but then again you're here so at this point I'm not sure about anything." Said Reigen
"Well if you're not sure then you're useless to me." said Touichirou
"Well then in that case you can play videogames in someone else's apartment." said Reigen. Touichirou shook his head.
"I apologize. Now let's go." Said Touichirou as he dragged Reigen along with his powers. He stopped when Reigen said something about having to get his things. He was such a strange, and somewhat annoying, person but he had his uses…and he was pleasant to be around at times. He was kind enough to allow Touichirou to stay in his home while he planned his next move.
Whatever it may have been.
Currently it was playing and beating adventure. He'd tried and failed…no, not failed, tried and found something better to do with his time. Well now he had all the time in the world and he would put it to good use. He would fulfil his smaller goals and then figure out how he was going to take over the world…or at least Japan. As Reigen had said before the world was a very big place…
Though it felt small.
In the future the world would shrink. He committed that to memory. In the future everyone would be able to pull a computer from their pocket and speak to anyone else. Listen to any music that had ever been made. Watch any movie. Play any game. Even watch broadcasts that other people had made. The world of the future was so small…and yet he had failed. How had he failed? He had been working at this for his entire life and…and yet…
And yet he was nowhere to be seen.
He chose not to think about that. He chose, instead, to focus on the things that mattered in the moment. Learning the way back to Reigen's home from Spirits and Such, learning new landmarks, seeing what had changed, seeing what had stayed the same, casting his aura outwards in order to see if there were any more espers…
There were.
The four he knew and…and others. Faint, because they were further away, but there…maybe there was a video about that. Maye a movie. Someone must have had something to say about the growing psychic population. Someone must have had something to say about…about everything that had happened within the last three decades…and someone must have had something to say about him, too. Where was he? What had become of him? Reigen should have known, if not him than one of the others.
Like Sho.
Touichirou had found his aura on the way home. It felt like his…of course it did, that was his son. He had a son. That was never going to stop being amazing. He'd had a wife, a girl had actually liked him back, and they'd had an actual son…which was more than Fukuda had…but also…also there was a human being in the world because of him. He'd made a human being.
He had power over life and death.
"What are you smiling about down there? Don't tell me that you're having that much fun right now." said Reigen as they walked down the street towards his apartment. Touichirou had a smile on his face that could have only been called 'sinister' or maybe even 'devilish' or maybe he just had resting evil face.
"I'm not having fun, I'm just thinking." Said Touichirou
"Do I want to know what you're thinking about right now?" asked Reigen
"The fact that I have power over life and death." Said Touichirou. Reigen stopped in his tracks. Good, he could see how amazing that was.
"You're not…thinking of killing anyone right now, are you?" asked Reigen. Right, this may have been a kid but he grew up to be the guy who had almost killed him so…yeah.
"No, not right now, I'm just thinking about the fact that I have a son. I created a human being. I have power over life and death." Said Touichirou as he kept on walking. He could feel Sho's aura. It was close. That was good. Sho would be able to answer his questions…and also he would have been able to just…he didn't know. Speak to him? The only person he had ever really wanted to speak to socially was Fukuda. It was different with Sho. When he thought about speaking to Sho he didn't feel like his internal organs were threatening to become his external organs but in a good way…his organs felt like they were going to stay where they belonged. But there was still some excitement at the idea of speaking to him…
Maybe because Sho was half of him, so it would be like speaking to himself, but not in the way that worried people and made them think that he was crazy…which he wasn't!
"Right…power over life and death. That's one way to look at it." Said Reigen slowly.
"How else can it be looked at. I made a human being, I mean I will make a human being, and I can kill people too. Therefore I have power over life and death." Said Touichirou
"That's true but…you're never going to, uh, use that power…right?" asked Reigen. Touichirou looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Obviously I have. You've met Sho, apparently you know him well, and you know that I'm his father. I mean I will be when I'm an adult and I meet his mother…who I'm guessing that you don't know." Said Touichirou
"I've never had the pleasure of meeting Sho's mother, no, and I think that maybe you shouldn't, uh, look too deep into who she is. In case you end up messing things up and Sho winds up never being born. I mean he can be kind of…Sho, sometimes, but that doesn't mean that I wish the kid was never born." Said Reigen, trying his best to string words together into something that made some kind of coherent sense. It wouldn't do either of them any good to involve anyone else and it wouldn't do Sho good to pull a 'back to the future' either.
"Yes…that makes sense, I suppose. It's still annoying, though. I hate not knowing things. I shouldn't not know something, I should know everything." Said Touichirou. Reigen, for some reason, chose that moment to begin laughing at him.
"Kid, stop it, nobody knows everything." Said Reigen
"I do. I'm a genius and I have the test scores to prove it. I should know everything and when I don't…well, when I don't know something I figure it out. I don't fail. I've never failed…at this point in my life." said Touichirou
"Not knowing something isn't failure. It's just not knowing something, that's all. There are plenty of things that I don't know either but you don't see me calling myself a failure, do you?" asked Reigen
"How do you not know everything? You have a computer in your pocket that can tell you everything that you ever needed to know." said Touichirou
"Well…it's a lot of pressure, that's all, trying to know everything." Said Reigen as he felt the phone in his pocket. The kid did have a point…and now he felt almost like he'd been wasting his life.
"Is not." Said Touichirou
"Yes it is, and you of all people should know that. You put a lot of pressure on yourself for a kid, you know that, right? I have never seen a human being as ambitious as you are." asked Reigen
"I do not put pressure on myself. I just know exactly who I am and who I want to be." Said Touichirou
"You've dedicated your life to the pursuit of world domination. If that's not pressure then I don't know what is." Said Reigen
"It's only pressure if…if it's not inevitable. If it's not something that I know for a fact is supposed to happen." Said Touichirou as he turned away from Reigen and focused on walking the path in front of him. He had failed but…but he could learn from his failures. He could figure out what he had done wrong or…or he could be told. He could feel Sho's aura getting closer and closer, or maybe he was just getting closer and closer to Sho…either way Sho knew more than he was letting on and Touichirou was going to find out what it was that he knew. Time and space be damned!
He was going to figure out why he had failed at world domination…and also which girl had liked him enough to sleep with him, even if it did jeopardize Sho's existence.
"Nothing's inevitable accept death and taxes." Said Reigen, trying and failing to lighten the mood. Touichirou was, apparently, having none of this. Not in the Mob way either. Mob almost never smiled, or laughed, but not in a mean way…but of course this just confirmed what Reigen had already been well aware of.
This wasn't Mob.
This was an entirely different kid and he was going to have to be entirely different with him...for the foreseeable future. He had no idea what he was supposed to do with him. He wasn't exactly going to let the kid rot in the streets no matter who he grew up to be. He didn't have the first idea, though, how to get him home and he had no idea how long he could fake it for. He had been faking it until he made it for his entire life but, well, there was no making it here…not that he could see. Nothing that he could do but take care of this kid until he figured something out…but at least this was just one kid…
Reigen spoke too soon.