Chapter Text
Reigen clasped his hands together to stop them from fidgeting as he sat across from the prospective client. “Of course we take on all sorts of requests, and this one isn’t beyond our power, but…”
“But…?”
“Well,” Reigen continued, trying not to sweat, “this is…rather unusual. Are you sure this is the agency you’re looking for?”
The spirit nodded its featureless head. “Yes. Spirits and Such Consultation Office.”
Reigen glanced towards Serizawa, who was seated next to him. “And you do know what the main service we offer is?”
The spirit nodded again. “Exorcising spirits.”
“And you don’t see anything odd with coming to an exorcist’s office?”
“Dimple’s here too,” Tome pointed out from her desk.
“He doesn’t count.”
“Hey,” Dimple said, without offense; then added, “Stop playing this charade already. It’s not like it can pay you.”
“Please,” the spirit interjected, bowing its head. Its hazy outline seemed to blur even more. “I want to know who I am. I want an identity.”
“I get it,” Reigen said. Amnesia was a pretty good sob story for a spirit. What was its angle? Was there an angle? Going to an exorcist’s office was a very risky move—there had to be a benefit outweighing that cost, but Reigen couldn’t think of any ulterior motive besides getting this request fulfilled. “Do you have something you can pay with besides money?”
The spirit thought for a moment, then extended its arms. Something with a defined edge started oozing out of its undefined borders before falling to the table with a clatter. A couple more followed.
Masks. Painted wooden masks, old and faded. Reigen picked one up. They were carved well and had an eerily smooth lacquer. As he examined it, turning it this way and that, the lighting made its expression change. This was a deigan mask, wasn’t it? Some type of Noh mask. They could probably fetch a good price. Even if they couldn’t, they’d be good wall decorations. He held it up to Serizawa. “What do you think?”
“I think we should turn down this job,” he replied immediately.
“No, I mean about these masks. Anything weird about them? Beyond coming from a spirit.”
Serizawa made a sour face. “There’s nothing strange that I see, but that’s not the point.”
“This is really sketchy,” Dimple agreed. “You shouldn’t be messing around with spirits in the first place, but you definitely shouldn’t be making business deals with spirits.”
“Don’t be rude,” Reigen scolded. “A client is a client.”
“Let’s take the job. I think it’ll be cool,” Tome offered (and it was nice to have some support, but support from a high schooler sort of hurt his position more than helped).
Reigen examined the other two masks. Also good quality. Also eerie, but Noh masks just had that effect in general.
“Okay. So what we can do is, these three masks can be your advance payment. That’ll buy you four hours of our special research service. After that, every hour will cost one mask. We’ll do what we can—but this will depend on how much information you give us, so I won’t guarantee a result. Sounds good?”
“Yes,” the spirit said, its form buzzing.
“Reigen-san…”
“Also, if you try something funny, these two guys will exorcise you,” Reigen added, pointing lazily to Serizawa and Dimple. “So none of that stuff. Deal?”
“Deal,” the spirit replied, holding out its hand.
Reigen shook it. “So what can you tell us about—“
In the featureless face, he suddenly caught the flash of teeth. And then everything went dark.
Reigen didn’t even have time to fall before Serizawa attacked the spirit—a quick burst of energy right at its head—but missed. It ducked down formlessly and flowed out the window as Serizawa caught Reigen in his arms and found himself torn between chasing after it and checking on his boss.
“I’ll handle this,” Dimple shouted, already flying after it. “You just take care of that idiot!”
Tome leapt over as Serizawa carefully laid that idiot out on the floor. “What happened? Is he okay?”
He was breathing. His pulse seemed fine. There didn’t seem to be any marks from when he had touched the spirit. “I think he just lost consciousness,” Serizawa told her as he patted Reigen lightly on the cheek. The two of them sighed with relief when he groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palms.
“How are you feeling?” Serizawa asked him.
Reigen flinched in surprise, which wasn’t necessarily odd. But Serizawa caught a flicker of something in his eyes when he looked at them, something that inspired a sudden anxiety—before it disappeared behind an obsequious smile.
“I’m so sorry, you must have come in during my afternoon trance—something I do to regulate the residual negative energies from my morning clients, you see. Did I keep you waiting long?”