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Reigen Arataka had loosened his tie and was playing solitaire on his laptop with one eye on Mob, who was by the open window, the warm breeze ruffling his hair. The boy was mumbling too quietly for Reigen to understand what he was saying, but it was clear he was conversing with the unblooming orchids Reigen had picked up from the discount shelf at the florist’s yesterday. They had had two walk-in clients this Saturday afternoon, but none were scheduled the rest of the day. Mob had noticed the new plants not long after their last client had left. When he saw the unmitigated delight in his charge’s eyes, Reigen had smiled widely and urged him to take a closer look – there was water and orchid food waiting by the sink. Mob’s hair had poofed just a little in his excitement before he got himself back under control, and then he took both little pots in his hands, whispered to them, and dragged the spray bottle and packets of fertilizer through the air with his power to join him by the window.
He hadn’t moved from there in nearly an hour, and though Reigen had almost told him to take the rest of the beautiful day off… he was hesitant to break the little spell of peace that had fallen over the office. He could just start another game of solitaire. At 4, he promised himself, I’ll send him home to his family and close up on my own. That would at least score a couple of points with Ritsu.
The sun went behind a cloud and cast the office walls a deeper brown. The breeze quickened and then stilled, and Mob’s cell phone rang.
There was a pause in the mumbling as Mob realized what he was hearing was his phone and looked over to Reigen, the only person who ever really called him. Ritsu and Hanazawa-kun stuck to texting. Reigen met his inquisitive gaze with raised eyebrows, and Mob fumbled the phone off the small table, glancing at the number.
“It’s ‘unknown’,” he told him, and hesitated a second more before pressing the screen and lifting it to his ear. Reigen stood quickly, arm outstretched, as Mob said, “Hello.”
The voice on the other end coughed. “Is this Kageyama Shigeo?”
“I am,” Mob replied. He absently stroked an orchid leaf and waited for the man to continue.
“The… ESPer? Who goes by the name ‘Mob’?” The man sounded surprised.
Mob’s eyes widened fractionally, and Reigen stepped around the desk. “Yes. Who is this?”
“Ah, my apologies. I am Ito Asahi, an instructor on the art of telekinesis.” There was another pause, as though Ito were waiting for some reaction which Mob did not give him. “I’d like to meet with you discuss your future, Kageyama-kun. Are you available today?”
“Oh, um…” Mob said, blinking in confusion at Reigen, who took the final two steps around the chairs and held out his palm for the phone. Mob said, “I’m still at work, but here, my shishou wants to talk to you—” before handing him the phone.
Reigen took it and looked at the number: ‘Unknown 0000000000’. He slipped one hand nonchalantly into his pocket and put the phone to his ear. “Who is this?” he asked lightly.
“Ah. You must be Reigen Arataka. I did not think young Shigeo would be, ah, working on a Saturday afternoon.”
“Hm. Who is this?” Reigen repeated. So, not a telemarketer. “There are exactly three people in the world who have this number. How did you get it?”
Mob, recognizing his master’s airy tone as the one he used when angry, pulled his knees up to his chin and shifted his gaze back to the orchids, which were fluttering slightly in the breeze from the window. Ito introduced himself and calmly informed Reigen, “For those of us with psychic power, the matter of discovering a phone number is of little consequence.”
“Oh?” Reigen replied and noted Mob’s distress. He sank into the consultation chair across the little table from Mob and the window, catching his eye and sending him a quick grin. “From this, can I conclude that certain morals, such as respect for privacy, did not factor into your decision to pry into my student’s life?”
“Morality is what drove me to seek him out in the first place.”
“What do you mean?” Reigen asked, and crossed his legs. “Is there something we can help you with?”
“There certainly is. As a telekinetic master, I’m in the business of teaching young ESPers how to control their powers, and it is my duty to remove them from environments where their special needs are not being met.”
Reigen’s heart rate picked up and his stomach flipped.
“I’m highly interested in young Shigeo’s case. You see, his power is, frankly, much greater than any I’ve ever encountered, and this is concerning not only to me but also to the greater ESPer community as he receives no guidance on how to control it. In the event of a meltdown… well. You surely understand why we would want to take preventative measures?”
Reigen cleared his throat. Then he cleared it again. The sun flickered into the room between breaks in the spotty clouds. He couldn’t look at Mob, but he could feel his stare now. The breeze cooled the sweat at his temples.
“I see,” he said, his steady voice surprising him. “Well.”
“Please give the phone back to Shigeo, Reigen-kun. This is a decision he needs to make on his own. Or don’t you agree?”
He took a deep, slow breath. “Of course.” He held the phone out to Mob.
The boy did not immediately reach out to take it, but tilted his head in confusion, like a puppy, and Reigen did not know what to say. I’m sorry came to mind, but his shame would not let it past his lips. The phone hung between them. Mob, finally, took it.
“Hello,” he said again to Ito Asahi.
“Shi-, pardon me, Kageyama-kun. I hate to further intrude upon your day, but there is something I would like to discuss with you in person. I’d like to meet you at your earliest convenience.”
“But… we’re already talking?” Mob said.
There was silence on the other end. “I’d like to meet you, Kageyama-kun,” Ito repeated eventually. “If you’re not available today, we can make arrangements for another time.”
Mob was quiet, and Reigen blinked out of his guilty headspace in time to notice there were also no vocal sounds coming from the phone in the boy’s hand. “You can go,” he said softly, and met Mob’s eyes.
Mob visibly relaxed. “Okay,” he said into the phone. “Can we meet at the park?” He liked the park – the trees there knew him, and there was usually a dog for his master to pet.
“X Park? C-certainly, what time would you like…?”
Mob shrugged, then remembered that wouldn’t suffice for a phone conversation. (Maybe in-person was better after all.) “I’m done with work at five today,” he said.
“Four,” Reigen corrected, and when Mob looked at him he nodded and repeated himself to confirm.
“Four o’clock it is, then. I hope you don’t mind, Kageyama-kun, if I bring one of my students to meet you as well?”
“Mm.”
“… Good. I shall see you at four.”
“Mm,” Mob said again at the same time Ito hung up. Mob blinked and stared at his phone until the screen went dark.
When he looked up, Reigen was pouring tea for them. “Did… did Ito-san tell you what he wanted to talk to you about?” he asked, handing Mob his cup.
Mob racked his brain. “He wants to meet me,” he said, fidgeting again with the orchid leaf.
“Yeah,” said Reigen, and Mob was pleased he had gotten it right. “It’s about three-thirty now, and X Park’s a good five or six minutes from here. If you leave, then, by… say…”
Oh, was this another quiz? Mob glanced at Reigen and saw his half-smile that meant it was, and tried to remember what they were talking about.
“I want to… get there at four. The walk is five minutes long. Um, okay, so four minus five?” He frowned. “That’s not right, Shishou.”
Reigen coughed. “Units, Mob.”
Ah. Right. Time. “Four hours minus five minutes. That’s … there’s… sixty minutes for one hour… so sixty times four…”
Reigen winked an eye at him. “If there are fewer minutes than an hour…”
Ah! “It’s between three and four. Three… three-fifty-five!”
“You got it.” Reigen threw a full smile at him, sure that the meaning behind the brevity of his expression would be lost on the boy, then blew on his tea again.
“I’m glad we can go early, Shishou, so I’m not late for dinner. I can make up the time next week…”
Next week, huh? Reigen almost laughed, but he wasn’t entirely sure Mob would miss how wrong it would sound. “Sure, whenever you like.” He drank his tea, and it was the perfect temperature.
“Are you worried about missing clients, Shishou?”
“Missing… clients? When?”
“When we go meet Ito-san.”
Reigen choked on his tea.
“Shishou!”
There was a flurry of tea and psychic power that gave Reigen a powerful feeling of déjà vu. Then he could breathe again, and his tea was in its cup on the table. He looked at it but did not pick it back up.
“Did you… want me along?” he asked uncertainly.
Mob just blinked at him. “Of course?”
He must think Ito invited me too. Reigen squared his shoulders and thought hard. You need to decide right now, Arataka, whether you think you’ll be doing your best by your student if you go.
No! What I really need to decide is whether any other person could be better for Mob than I am. I’ve known him for years. I’ve done as much as I could to show him the right path. I’ve watched him grow up. I can read him almost as well as his brother can. And I…
He glanced at Mob and the warm, protective pride in his chest he usually kept locked away filtered into his blood.
Maybe another teacher could care about him like I do. Maybe. But the only way to know… is to see for myself.
If I have to give him up to anybody, they’d better have my goddamn approval.
“No, I don’t think there will be any more clients today. I’ve got a sense for these things, you know.”
Mob smiled, with only the slightest hint of a knowing tease that Reigen chose to ignore. “Yes, Shishou.”
“So we’ll head out in a few more minutes. How are our orchids feeling?”
Mob turned to consider them. “They’re going to be small,” he said, contemplatively. “But that’s okay.”
“It absolutely is,” Reigen agreed. They sat quietly together, Mob still focused on the plants, and Reigen losing himself in darker thoughts. He snapped himself out of it. “Come on, get your coat. It looks warm but gusts like today can be tricky. Smart of you to bring your windbreaker.”
But the breeze was warm, and so on their short walk they held their coats in their hands. Reigen felt increasingly ill, his gut twisting. Ito had said, “It is my duty to remove them from environments where their special needs are not being met.” Because Ito was a psychic, even if Reigen did not approve of him there would be almost nothing he could do to keep Mob. He would be forced to let him go.
He glanced down at the top of Mob’s head. He did not allow himself to hope Mob would make the decision to stay. Why would he? It’s just common sense, to learn psychic control from a real psychic.
Chin up, Arataka, he remonstrated. What’s coming will come. You’re the adult here.
With the pretty day, there were many people at the park and lots of children running around. Reigen and Mob paused just through the gate, unsure of where to start looking for Ito. They did not have to look far: a greying man marched up the grassy hill toward them, with a young girl in shorts dogging his steps.
“Ah, Kageyama-kun. And… Reigen-kun,” the man said when he reached them. There was a slight hesitation before he bowed, shallowly, to each of them, which they did in return.
“Are you Ito-san?” Mob asked politely.
“Ito-sensei,” barked the girl, and the man put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at Mob. It was a grandfatherly smile, and Reigen tried not to hate it.
“Indeed, young one. And this is my protégé, Ando Haru. She is my second oldest student.”
Mob cocked his head and glanced briefly at Reigen. “You’re a teacher?”
“Yes, a psychic teacher,” Ito said. “I teach people like you how to control their power.”
Mob’s eyes widened. “You’re like Shishou, then?”
There was an awkward pause during which Reigen truly regretted coming along. He could feel his skin heating, and his palms grew clammy. The girl snickered, but Ito pressed his hand a little onto her shoulder and she stifled it.
Reigen breathed deeply and looked up from the ground, and Ito was watching him with pity, or maybe compassion, in his grandfatherly gaze. Then he turned it on Mob. “Kageyama-kun, your shishou does not have psychic power. I do. Aside from that difference… well, perhaps there are others in addition to merely that… but yes. I am a shishou to many young people such as yourself.”
Mob nodded, with his brow furrowed. “Yes, I see.”
“You do?” Ito said.
“Mm.” Mob blinked at him. “Do you need to send some of your students to Reigen-shishou?” He looked earnestly at Reigen, whose mind was stuttering with how completely backwards Mob had understood the situation. He almost – almost – could laugh, but not while Mob was staring at him so straightforwardly. “I don’t mind, if you want to take more students,” the boy told him, and Reigen had to turn away. He wished he could answer him, to correct him, but he knew if he opened his mouth now his composure would crack.
“Ah, Kageyama-kun. I’m afraid I meant something a bit different,” Ito said, rescuing him. “I’m offering to be your teacher, in matters of psychic control.”
Another terrible, awkward pause. “But I already have Reigen-shishou to teach me control.”
Reigen sighed. Ito was looking at him again. “If you don’t mind, I think Kageyama-kun and Ando-chan should get to know each other? And perhaps she can… explain things to him?”
Mob looked up at him, and for the first time seemed to notice Reigen’s discomfort. “Shishou, you’re not well.”
Reigen bit his tongue and then, focusing on the pain, managed to say, “I’m just fine right now. You should talk to Ito-san’s student, Mob.”
Mob looked at her. “Okay.”
Ando led him down the hill, and Ito was watching Reigen again. He resisted the urge to snap at him just long enough for Ito to start talking. “I can see you care for him honestly. You are doing a braver thing than I thought I was asking of you, and I’m sorry.”
“Ahh, that’s unfortunate,” Reigen said, forcing a smile and putting a hand over his eyes. “Here I hoped I would be able to walk away from this and hate you.” He took another deep breath and shoved his composure back into place. He was able then to open his eyes, his sight clear, and say, “I’m not going to disappear from his life, you know. If he’s unhappy, I’ll know. And if you can see that I care, you can see I’m sincere when I say I will not stand idly by and allow you to stress him out.”
Ito said, “Ah,” his eyes widening slightly, then took a tiny step back and… he bowed to him. Quite low. “You have my word that I will do everything I can to avoid such an eventuality, Reigen-kun.”
“Good,” Reigen said, “good.”
I guess… this will have to do.
---
Down the hill, Mob was waiting for Haru to start talking instead of staring at him.
“You really go by ‘Mob’? Isn’t that an insult?”
At least he had had this kind of conversation before. “Nobody except Shishou calls me that anymore… And it’s okay because… um. Because I don’t like attention, and. Um. It—”
“That’s okay!” Haru said intensely. “You don’t have to talk about it. Ito-sensei just wants me to show you the kind of things he’s taught me to do, so you can make a… an informed decision. Yeah.” Mob nodded. “So I’ll just show you, I guess.”
“Mm.”
She looked around them, but no kids were running by. Then the wind picked up around them, and Mob could see her pink and gold aura shine in waves around her. It took him a second, but then he could see – this was not just the wind that rose when he or Hanazawa used their power. She was directing it. She was controlling the air.
Wind pressure flowed beneath his arms and bent his knees, and he floated up, buoyed by air, not power directly. Her hands and fingers were making tiny, fluid motions to guide him, and he smiled a little, impressed. Then she set him back down.
“Wow,” he said quietly. It really was impressive; he had never thought consciously of controlling the air before.
“That’s just one of the first things we learn, and only when we’re strong enough to throw someone using the air are we allowed to learn how to deal with people who have weapons.” She drew herself up and said, “I’m already at level four, knife-handling. Even though I’m twelve.”
And just like that, Mob was confused again. “Knife… handling?”
“Uh huh,” she said.
“Why…” he asked, “would you need to know knife-handling?”
She blinked at him and smiled at him like he’d asked an obvious question. “In case someone attacked me with knives, silly. This is how you incapacitate them.”
She drew one foot back in the dirt and raised her hands, one folded in a fist and the other flat like a blade itself. Then, with a quick tug of her fist, a bolt of her power shot forward two meters in the empty air, and many tendrils peeled from it to cloud the air with pink. “Did you see? The little ones seek out the knife blades, if there are any coming at you, and the big one in the middle knocks the other guy down.” She smiled again. “Cool, right?”
Mob tilted his head and pressed his lips together. “Ito-san, I mean Ito-sensei… sorry… he teaches you how to do that?”
“Yeah.” She was flipping her hair back out of her face.
“Why?”
She stopped messing with her hair and stared. “I already said! In case someone comes at you with knives!”
“But you don’t have to…” he said. “You don’t have to use your power against them.”
She was now staring at him like he’d started speaking another language. “What are you saying, that I try to stop them with just my hands? What if they’re bigger than me, huh? I’m just a twelve-year-old girl!”
“No… I mean… sorry. I mean you can always talk to them, instead…”
“Talk?” she said. “They have knives, and you think they want to talk?” She grimaced at him and shook her head. “Are you stupid?”
He bit his lip. “I don’t think so,” he said, and looked at the ground, remembering his first meeting with Hanazawa-kun, and then remembering waking up to Hanazawa-kun’s worried face after Claw had kidnapped Ritsu. “But I think if we can avoid using our power against people, we should. And that means,” he raised his head to meet her incredulous gaze, “that means trying everything else before being violent.”
She looked sad now. “That sounds nice, Mob-kun,” she said, “but my way, I’m safer. With your way, there’s still danger, because how do you know they didn’t lie to you? If they’re knocked out, they definitely can’t harm you.”
“If they try to attack again, we can talk again,” Mob said with confidence he had forgotten he had. He could see Suzuki Touichirou’s eyes staring at him in his mind, and then they morphed into eyes of darkness, the skin around them lined with age – Mogami Keiji’s eyes. “I know people can change. Sometimes they need to be reminded how to be good, and I can’t do that if I’m hurting them with my power.”
The wind had picked up around them, and Mob noticed it wasn’t due to a natural breeze. He dissipated his confidence and his conviction until they were tightly tucked away in his heart again, and the wind eased. Haru was chewing on her lip, looking away from him, and apparently had not noticed his slight release of control.
“I think I understand now,” he said, and she nodded absently. They walked together back up the hill to where their mentors stood, watching them.
When they reached the top, Mob stood beside Reigen and bowed, as he had before, to Ito, and then to Ando. “Thank you for the offer,” he said politely.
Ito and Reigen froze, despite the warm day. Ando scuffed the ground with her shoe, still chewing her lip. She looked a bit confused, to Reigen’s eyes, and he finally dared to hope. He turned a little to look down at Mob, who had come out of the bow and was watching Ito with his normal, calm gaze.
Ito shook his head to clear it. “You cannot mean you will not be joining us, Kageyama-kun?” His eyes flicked to Ando, who quailed a little and shrugged.
“That is correct.”
Ito gaped at him. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I,” Reigen said shakily – and Mob, extraordinarily, noticed the weirdness in his voice, turning to look up at him and putting a hand on his arm, his brow furrowed.
“Kageyama-kun, please,” Ito said. “I implore you to reconsider. Your power is very great, and we need to—”
“I don’t want to learn from you,” Mob said, still polite, with his hand still on Reigen’s arm. “You are teaching your students to fight, but I don’t want to learn how to fight. When I fight…” Reigen felt the hand on his arm twitch, “people get hurt.”
“Listen, young one.” Ito’s voice was gentle. “You’re not hearing me. The power you have, if you lose control, wouldn’t just hurt people, but it could completely destroy entire cities—”
The hand on Reigen’s arm twitched and clenched onto his shirtsleeve.
“Well, you’ve spoken your piece, Ito-san,” Reigen said, running with his unbelievable luck and rapidly shifting into full salesman mode. He slipped his arm out of Mob’s grip and rested it on Mob’s shoulders instead. “He’s given you what you asked for – the right to decide on his own.”
“He’s making a mistake,” Ito said angrily and took a single step toward them, and Mob lifted a hand. Reigen, of course, saw nothing but another tiny gust of wind blow around him and whip Ito’s clothes back a little. Ito and Ando gasped. Ito whirled on his student. “Did you teach him the whole technique?” he demanded, but she was already shaking her head.
“I only showed him, like you said!”
Ito whirled back to stare at Mob.
“Did you know that technique already?” he said, his own fists clenching. “Tell me, boy!”
Mob flinched and shook his head, and Reigen smoothly stepped in front of him, his palms displayed for peace. “That’s enough, Ito-san.”
Ito raised a finger. “This is an ESPer-only conversation, Reigen-kun.”
Reigen braced himself, nothing happened, and Ito actually snarled; his power had blunted against the invisible shield Mob had curled over Reigen’s head to slide between the two men.
“Fine.” Ito lowered his hand. “Fine. But you will grow to regret this, Kageyama Shigeo.” He heaved a few breaths until his face had lost its angry fervor and was again grandfatherly. It was also afraid. “I just hope that you reach out to the people who can truly help you before it is too late.”
The four of them stood in silence, and the sun shone down on them. Then Ito reached into his coat pocket – Reigen braced himself again, though Mob behind him did not move at all – to present his business card. He held it out, looking beyond Reigen’s arm to Mob, then switched his gaze and lifted it slightly to offer it to Reigen.
Reigen, in meeting his eyes, recalled the sensibility of the man’s concerns over Mob’s power. Ito saw Mob as dangerous, a wild card, an unknown – one he might have had the chance to control, but who was now given free reign, in Ito’s eyes, to do whatever he pleased. He could see clearly the man’s fear, his worry for the future and for the lives of those he loved and those he felt honor-bound to protect. Reigen wondered, for a moment, that Ito did not simply eliminate him, to remove the obstacle in the way of his monitoring and guiding Mob. The fear Reigen could see in his eyes would be enough to drive a lesser man to such practices.
Reigen took the card and bowed low to Ito, who looked down his nose at him in surprise.
“Reigen-kun.”
Reigen straightened.
“You should be afraid, young man,” Ito said to him, solemn. He hesitated. “He—”
“But Sensei,” said Ando from the side, and Ito paused. She pulled her lips in and said, “Never mind. Sorry.”
“Mob got to you too, didn’t he?” Reigen asked her with a wide smile that surprised him, and she grimaced at him.
“N– No.”
“Uh huh,” he said, and winked at her.
“Shishou?” Mob said behind him. Reigen tucked the business card into his pants pocket, lifted his coat over his shoulder, nodded again to Ito, and said, “What time is it, Mob?”
“Ah, uh, four, um, four forty-two.” Reigen turned away from Ito and Ando, nodding sagely.
“Let’s get you home,” he said, and put them on a path toward Mob’s house, a spring in his step. Mob walked quietly by his side as they passed through the park gate and started down the street, though he was glancing behind them every so often, even when the park was out of sight.
“Are you okay?” the boy asked when they were nearly to his house, and Reigen started. He glanced at Mob and then put a hand on his own forehead.
“Yeah, uh. Yes. I’m fantastic. It’s, you know, it’s a Saturday, and I think I’m gonna order in some food and call Serizawa, see how his studies are going, just. Have a relaxing evening. You too, yeah, Mob?” He couldn’t stop smiling. He reached out and patted Mob’s shoulder, and suddenly felt his throat tighten. He took a deep breath which loosened it only marginally.
Mob was pensively staring at him. It was unnerving. (Since when had he learned to read him so well?)
“I’ll keep an eye on the orchids for you til Monday, if that’s what—”
“You’re the only teacher I want,” Mob said.
Reigen, for the third time that day, found himself uncharacteristically unable to speak. Mob dropped his gaze to thoughtfully inspect the sidewalk.
“I think it’s because with Dimple, and Ito-san, and even Ritsu and Hanazawa-kun… with all of them… it’s hard for them. They care a lot about the powers. But, you saw me. Even after you saw my powers, you saw me. You’re the only one who did that.”
Reigen now found it difficult to breathe.
“I want to be like you, Shishou,” Mob said, looking up, and it was a new Mob that Reigen saw staring up at him, no longer the star-struck little boy but a contemplative young man. His face was placid, but gone were the dull eyes, the bland expression – now he was present, and watchful. His eyes widened. “Shishou, d-don’t cry please. I’m sorry – for what I said?”
“Ah, haha,” Reigen said raggedly, and blinked. “You’ve caught me out for the sap I am, kid.” He didn’t bother to wipe away his tears; the warm breeze would take care of them soon enough. He smiled through them. “You gotta give me some warning, when you’re going to get all emotional on me, yeah?” Overcome still, he reached out and tousled the boy’s hair, igniting a reassured smile on the youthful face.
“I … I couldn’t tell… you seemed sad, earlier, and I wasn’t sure why—”
Reigen sniffed deeply and let his hand fall onto Mob’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “I’m one-thousand-percent not sad now, okay?”
“Okay.”
He patted the shoulder, then stuffed his traitorously shaking hand into his pocket. “See you Monday, Mob,” he said in what he hoped was his normal boss-voice. But Mob’s little grin didn’t waver.
“See you Monday, Shishou.”
He watched him go inside his house, then pulled out his phone and started to walk back to the office, dialing Serizawa’s number. “Hey, I’m getting takeout. No, not celebrating… not really. Just. Anyway. Whatcha up for? No, you don’t have to pay, man – no, it’s not a holiday, can I not buy takeout for my friends, hell…”
At the office, the orchids bloomed.