Chapter Text
Reigen Arataka starts her day just like anyone else might.
She rises at the crack of dawn, smacking her alarm clock to silence, before scrambling to the bathroom to quickly wash her hair.
She doesn't notice how the cold air smacked her face, or how the shower wouldn’t heat up.
She plugs in her flat iron, to heat it up before getting to work on brushing her hair out, and then plugging in her hair dryer and flicking it on… flicking it off, and on again?
Resetting the outlet?
Flicking the hair dryer off and on and off and on, and resetting the outlet? Nothing?
She tries the lightswitch for the bathroom. Nothing again?
She leaves the bathroom and tries to turn a light on out there. Still nothing.
Reigen whines defeatedly. The power is out.
She fills a pot with water, and turns the stove on.
She praises the gas stove, and curses the shitty apartment, curses the hairdryer, the outlet, herself, everything she can think of.
The pot whistles, and she pours the hot water over a handful of leaves.
Before turning the stove off, she bends down and lights a cigarette with the blue flame.
She brings in the first draw and can hear her mother in the back of her head telling her that ‘those things make your boobs saggy!’ She lets the smoke out of her mouth, and watches the cloud rise to the ceiling and dissipate.
Her hair wasn’t dry yet, but she could feel it starting to curl on the back of her neck. To remedy this, she tightly pulls all of it into a clip on the back of her head. It bugged her to leave the house like that, but she forced the thought into the back of her mind.
She climbs as far into her coat as she can, trying to wrap it around herself more than once, to fight off the cold.
The whipping wind just makes her tied-up hair feel that much more unnatural, the breeze on her neck and her wet hair starting to freeze to her scalp.
Her heels make a satisfying clack-clack-clack against the pavement as she speedwalks to the station. Not that that would mean she would get on her train any faster, considering she was perfectly on schedule- but, the cold just puts you in a hurry.
So there she is, waiting on the platform because she's here before her train.
She rocks on her heels a bit, the cold finally hitting her legs. She wishes it was socially acceptable to just curl up into a ball until the train gets here, because it almost feels like her survival depends on it.
As she's fidgeting, someone strides up next to her, also here before the train.
"Good morning," the woman says.
Reigen ceases all fidgeting.
"Good morning!" she bows her head sharply, tucking her hands into her armpits.
Reigen feels a little awkward.
The woman next to her is wearing pants and warm looking boots, kind of making her look a little trampy in comparison.
She also thinks maybe she went to highschool with this woman, so she turns her face to look in the direction the train is going to be coming from.
"Sorry," the woman starts, and Reigen turns to her, brows raised.
"Did you go to highschool in this city?"
Come ooooonnn. She was really hoping to not have to deal with this.
"Uh, yes. I graduated from Sesame Salt Highschool in 2001."
The woman, whose name escapes reigen, wears an excited expression, probably meaning she also graduated from Sesame Salt Highschool in 2001.
"Get out of here! So did I!"
right on the money.
She's smiling now, trying her best to, at least- wanting to seem even slightly interested in talking to a classmate she hasn't seen in more than a decade.
"Ooh, don't tell me-" the woman has screwed her eyes shut, and has her knuckles to her left temple.
"Honda! No, that's- REIGEN!"
Reigen smiles sheepishly and applauds quietly and politely.
"Wow, we were even in the same class, huh!?"
"Yes, we were. You were the class rep, right?"
In the back of her mind, she recalls sideways looks and hushed words behind hands.
"Gosh, you look just the same! your hair is even still curly! The only thing missing is those glasses!"
Reigen instinctively brings her hand to her hair, fully realizing the state of it, sticking out crazy, curly and much more proud than she felt right now.
"This is Futaba!"
She steps back, revealing that a child was with her the whole time.
The girl looked like she was a bit younger than Mob's younger sister, and the thought that one of her classmates' children's ages was comparable to Mob's kind of made her sick to her stomach.
"Futaba, this is Reigen-chan- oh, sorry I suppose I just assumed, is that still your surname?"
This is just becoming more humiliating by the second.
"Yes, just Reigen. I haven't gotten married."
she clears her throat, not wanting this conversation to go on any longer. She's really hoping this train will show up.
"Well don't lose hope, Reigen! You still look so young!"
Of course she looks young. She is twenty-eight, not one hundred and two.
"Well, belated congrats on your marriage, and your baby."
"Thank you!"
Her prayers have been answered. not only does the conversation end, but the train comes to a whooshing stop in front of them.
"Well, it was good catching up with you."
Reigen steps into the solace of a very full train car, finding a place to stand as far away from that woman as possible.
The rest of her commute to the office is uneventful, she stops at a convenience store in search of something to nibble on, but finds that putting anything in her mouth just doesn't sound appealing right now.
Stepping into the office, she takes a big breath. The smell of copy paper, tea and incense puts her at ease.
She drops the breath as she eases into her office chair, trying to push all the tension out of her shoulders.
She opens her laptop and looks at it, mind wandering and not knowing where to start.
A few minutes late, Serizawa stumbles through the door. She nearly shouts a "Good morning!" before nearly groveling in apology for having the nerve to not show up on time.
"It's fine Serizawa," Reigen starts cheekily, "I'll just dock your pay, no biggie!"
Serizawa makes a shocked expression before groveling harder.
"Seri, I'm messing with you. You're like, 5 minutes late, I don't care."
She returns to staring blankly at her laptop screen.
It still has the default desktop background, blue and swirly. She traces the curves in the design with her eyes.
"Reigen?"
Reigen hums, affirming that she had heard her name being called.
"Is something on your mind?"
Reigen blinks slowly, trying to get the desktop wallpaper out of her head.
"Not particularly. Why do you ask?"
A lie, of course. That stupid conversation with that woman was still playing on repeat in the back of her head.
Serizawa is tense at her desk, as always.
"You just seem lost in thought today."
Reigen chuckles.
"When am I not?"
Serizawa looks away, looking defeated.
Reigen really hates when Serizawa looks like that, like a kicked puppy. Like someone had told her to just shut up. She tries her best to backpedal.
"Ahh I think I'm just tired. The power went out at my apartment so I was cold last night."
Serizawa quirks her brow a little, but ultimately finds the excuse acceptable.
"You know, Reigen, you're always welcome at my-"
Reigen cuts her off.
"I absolutely could not impose like that. It's my own fault for going to bed in so little clothes. I appreciate you, but no."
Serizawa lets the topic drop, accepting that she wasn't getting anywhere.
"When's my next appointment?"
Serizawa pulls a clipboard out of the compartment in her desk and flips a page.
"In thirty minutes, in the office."
"Fantastic. Do we have any field trips today?"
She flips another page.
"Not until Kageyama gets here, I think."
Reigen hums and then actually makes use of her computer.
She navigates to an open browser window, and finds the tab with her scheduling information.
She could have done this from the start, but she likes making Serizawa feel useful.
The 10:45 appointment looks like it's going to be a massage- er, a "physical exorcism"; the note on the timeslot reading "anxiety and back pain"
Reigen sighs, thinking about how getting older makes people think they're possessed, for some reason.
Something taks on the wood of her desk, and she can feel Serizawa looming over her shoulder, getting a look at her computer screen. She cranes her head to the side, making sure Serizawa can see.
She glances up at the figure over her shoulder, and fights every bit of her being not to reach out and brush her fingertips against Serizawa's jaw.
"Go to that other tab."
Reigen jumps to action, snapping the cursor to the top of the window, finding that there are several tabs open.
"The tabloid one." Serizawa looms closer, moving her hand from the back of Reigen's chair to point at the tab she wanted to see.
Oh, she forgot about this article (if you could call it that, it being 50 words long).
Serizawa is bent so close now, that their faces are just inches apart, and Reigen is just a little hot under the collar about this.
"I never sensed any strange energy over there."
Right, the article.
Supposedly, according to this "journalist" that works for the seasoning report, the campus of Sesame Salt Highschool is totally haunted.
What a horrible coincidence. She opened this article at first from shock that her highschool might be haunted, but of course today is the day she would be reminded of it.
"When are you over on that side of town, anyway?"
Serizawa stands back up, again bracing herself on Reigen's chair.
"My dad's place is over there."
Oh. so it is.
"Maybe we should check it out sometime. You can see if there's any bad vibes or anything."
"That's all well and good, but it's still a highschool campus that we probably shouldn't be sneaking around without permission."
Reigen sucks her teeth and taps her foot.
"I can try to get in touch with the principal mentioned in the article. I think he was already principal when I was there- also, We don't have to actually go inside the school for you to get a grasp on the situation. Just a quick stop by the gates, see if you sense anything and if it's worth pursuing."
Serizawa hums in agreement. She backs away and scoots the cup of tea she set in the table closer to Reigen's hand, silently suggesting she drink some.
Reigen wraps her hand around the cup and pulls it closer to her.
"Did I look cold?"
Serizawa stammers a bit.
"You said you were tired, I thought you might like tea. Sorry, I should have asked if you wanted it first."
"I'm not complaining, Seri. I'll never stop you from doing me a favor."
She crosses back to her side of the room, and pulls out some homework from night school.
Reigen had to get used to silence, working with Serizawa. The woman just doesn't have much to say, and didn't pretend that she did. It was an admirable quality.
She was even quieter than Mob, who, while still a better listener than responder, still gave verbal input to conversation, and would ask random questions throughout her shift.
Reigen glances at the webpage again.
She scrolls down to find the principal's name, and drags the phone closer to her, tacking in the school office's number after looking it up.
The phone trills a few times before someone answers.
"Sesame Salt Highschool. It's too late to call in an absence."
"Hello, there! I'm Reigen Arataka, an alumni, and I was wondering if I could speak with the principal?"
"One moment while I put you through."
"This is Kobayashi."
"Hi, there! I'm Reigen Arataka, and I'm calling from Spirits & Such, an exorcism agency."
"How can I help you, Miss Reigen?"
"I recently came across a troubling article. It talks about a possible haunting in your school. Have you seen it?"
"I have."
Reigen clamps her teeth together tightly. This guy always was the driest man on the planet. The speech he gave at her graduation was less than thirty words long.
"I was wondering if you'd appreciate us coming over and taking a look around? Estimates are completely free of charge!"
"What company did you say you're from?"
"Spirits & Such."
She hears loud clacking over the phone.
"If you're looking us up, feel free to! We have good reviews!"
Principal Kobayashi lets out a drawn out sigh, grumbling a little bit.
"Sure, you can come over on…" He pauses, possibly flipping through a planner. "Saturday. I'll call you back with a good time."
"Thank you very-"
She is curtly hung-up on.
Rolling her eyes, she sets the handset back into the cradle and pushes the phone back to the corner of her desk.
She looks up to find Serizawa looking at her, expectantly.
"We have the go-ahead to poke around tomorrow."
Serizawa nods and goes back to her homework.
It's a slow day, thus far. The whole twenty-three minutes she's been here today have been entirely dull. It's getting too cold outside for people to care about ghosts, or something. It seems like there's usually a walk-in by now, or that one of the other businesses in the building has sent someone down about something frivolous like a creak or groan (that was always just the 15 year old building settling)
Thirty uneventful minutes pass, and then fifteen more, and there's a light knock on the door.
An older woman enters, the 10:45.
She's a semi-regular, your average superstitious type.
"Good morning Sachiko! I was starting to get worried about you!"
Sachiko chuckles and waves her hand.
"Ohh Arataka. You know I would never flake on you."
"Seri, tea?"
Serizawa nods and moves to the kitchenette.
"Good morning, Mrs.Yamamoto."
"Oh, Good morning Serizawa, always lovely to see you."
Sachiko makes her way to sit on the plush chair, as usual.
"What can we help you with today?"
"I think something has attached itself to me. Can you sense any bad energy around me?"
Reigen flicks her eyes to look at Serizawa to get her input. They have a silent language for these things. She raises her eyebrows, meaning she sees something, and cocks her head to the side to say it seems malevolent.
"You know, Sachiko, I can feel a negative energy radiating off of you. I'm worried it could be affecting your back pain that you mentioned on the phone."
Sachiko hums thoughtfully, and Serizawa bends over to hand off the tea, and Sachiko pats her arm in thanks.
"What should we do about it?"
Reigen puts a finger on her chin and furrows her brow in mock contemplation.
"I think you should be good just with a basic exorcism. We'll start with that, and talk about how you feel after."
"Okay," for some reason, she sounds apprehensive, but Reigen shakes off the feeling and moves forward.
"Seri, whenever you're ready."
Serizawa holds out her hand, and her hair stands on end for a moment before she puts her hand back down.
"Thank you Seri, I appreciate ya"
She pats Serizawa on the back, and she leaves to put the tea tray away.
"So, how do you feel?"
Sachiko is quiet, thoughtful.
She taps her toe and fiddles with the end of her salt and pepper hair.
"I think I feel better…"
"What's on your mind, Sachiko?"
Sachiko looks small, like she's trying to pull all of herself into her stomach. She clutches the teacup like it's the only thing keeping her grounded.
Reigen leans forward and places a hand on Sachiko's knee.
"It hasn't got anything to do with the spirit…"
"Hey, whatever it is, you can tell me."
Sachiko chews on her bottom lip for a moment, and takes a deep breath before starting shakily.
"Arataka, I appreciate you. I… I feel like I have to come clean about something to you."
Reigen nods, encouragingly.
"I won't get mad Sachiko, please, I can tell this is weighing on your heart."
Sachiko traces the rim of her tea cup, looking at herself on the surface of the drink.
"I was so conservative for a long time. I think I was overcorrecting from my younger years, and I'm embarrassed to think about it now- to judge someone for who they love. I was ashamed for a long time about having relationships with other women in my youth, and as I get older, I realise that a lot of my values were just… based on self-hatred, and that I appreciate and respect you because of who you are, not in spite of who you are."
Reigen is having a full stop moment. The words just kept tumbling out of Sachiko, and Reigen just can't imagine why she would be the one to admit all this to. Did she really look that homosexual? She was certain she hadn't mentioned any of her love-life to any clients, especially considering it was a pretty dry subject.
"Sachiko, I-"
"I'm sorry for putting all of that on you, but it's been weighing on me recently. I haven't judged anyone since long before I knew you, but the guilt is catching up to me. Just watching you and Serizawa makes me hate that I could ever judge someone. It makes me miss the good old days with my girlfriends."
Reigen glances at Serizawa, who looks just as confused as she feels.
"I really appreciate you telling me all this, Sachiko, and I'm really happy to hear about your self-discovery, but- what do I or Serizawa have to do with it?"
"Well, you two are just such a lovely pair, and it just fills me with so much joy to see you two together. Such a beautiful couple."
Reigen feels lightheaded.
"...Thank you for saying that, Sachiko."
"Thank you for listening. That feels good to get off my chest."
"Um, you know what Sachiko, today's session is on the house. Go on and have a great day."
Sachiko smiles, looking refreshed, and gathers herself up, before they all but shoo her out the door.
Reigen tries to laugh the comments off.
"What a crazy thing to say!"
She feels thrown against the wall, still in shock. She has to physically make each of her limbs move to waddle back to her desk, and leaning against it helplessly, feeling like her knees might give out any second.
Serizawa looks lost in her thoughts, hands wrung and eyes on the floor.
"Why didn't you correct her?"
Reigen can't look straight at Serizawa.
"Oh, I didn't want to embarrass her, I guess. It seemed unnecessary to correct her."
Serizawa doesn't look reassured, and whines in her throat a little.
"I was also a little shocked you know- Like, nothing against anyone, but I don't think I look like one, right?"
Serizawa is looking at her a little sideways and skeptically.
"Do I really look, um- f-fruity?"
she isn't sure how lightly to put it. Serizawa doesn't seem like she's interested in anyone, but that probably has a lot to do with locking herself in a room for fifteen years.
Serizawa is forcing a smirk off her face, and not looking directly at Reigen.
"Seri, I'm serious! Do I really look gay? Do you think I'm gay?"
Serizawa smooths her hands on her shirt.
"Well… I don't really think about that stuff…"
"Seri?"
"But, aren't you, though?"
Reigen slouches, defeated.
"Yes."
Mob sighs and glances at her watch. The sun is glaring down on the street, and she is glaring at a sweet potato man.
She can't decide if she's hungry or not, and she's running out of time to make up her mind. Teru is at her side, seeming happy just to be involved.
"Shigeo, if you want some, I'll buy you some."
Mob moves a finger to rest on her chin.
"It's not about money. I just don't know if I'm hungry…"
"Then I'll get you one and we can share if you're not hungry!"
"I don't know…"
"I'm just gonna get one, I think you're scaring the man selling them."
Mob glances at the man and sees that he's side eyeing her worriedly, even as he hands a sweet potato to someone else.
Teru forces some cash into the scared sweet potato man's apron pocket, and takes one.
They move on, walking up the street towards the office.
"Are you coming to work with me?"
"I've got nowhere better to be."
Teru takes a bite of the potato, and puts it in front of Mob's face so she'll take a bite too.
They make it to the office building, up the stairs, past the bathrooms, and finally through the door.
Reigen looks up as the door swings open, Mob coming in with Teru in tow.
"Afternoon Mob, Teru."
"Ah, Reigen-san, your hair!"
Reigen freezes.
Suddenly, she was fifteen again.
She was fifteen again and eating lunch in the classroom, and the girls with the perfect faces and the girls with perfect hair and the girls with the popular boyfriends were looking at her, and they were covering their mouths with their hands and snickering to each other.
That morning, she had the absolute nerve to try a different hairstyle. The nerve to tell herself today was going to be a good day.
Now she felt like an idiot.
She tried to stand up slowly and nonchalantly, but they knew. They knew she was getting up to go and cry in the bathroom.They laughed a little louder.
She tried to move faster but their voices followed her out the classroom, and all the way down the hall to the bathroom, where she tore her hair down from the stupid ponytail and quickly pulled it into one thick braid just like she did every other morning, before sinking to the floor and tucking her head between her knees and crying.
In present day, Reigen's face feels hot and she has to sit on her hand so she doesn't unclip her hair. Her mouth is locked agape and her eyes are wide as looks at Teru, but doesn't see her.
"It looks really nice! You should curl it more often!"
Teru is smiling at her, and slowly she finds herself able to breathe again.
"It, um… I- thank you."
Teru takes a chomp of a sweet potato before handing it off to Mob.
Reigen pries her eyes off the door, finding a concerned look from Serizawa.
"Are you alright?"
She plants her hands firmly on the desk, and pushes herself up from her chair.
"What are you talking about? I'm great!"
Reigen clears her throat and walks over to where Serizawa was standing, all her school stuff packed up in her backpack.
Serizawa rolls her eyes, rare for her. Reigen isn't shocked, though, knowing it was impossible to get absolutely anything past her.
Reigen shakes her head, not out of disappointment or disapproval, but like she wanted to get a drawing off an etch-a-sketch.
Well, have a good day at school.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"What?"
Oh she definitely just thought what she meant to say and said what she meant to think.
All eyes are on her, and she can't think of how to make a quick save, so she just laughs dryly.
"I ah- I meant- have a good day at school!"
Serizawa has a sad look on her face as she slings her backpack over her shoulder. She makes a funny face before opening her mouth and closing it again, but she manages to get a few words out.
"Do you want to get food or drinks tonight or something? You seem, um… stressed. Also, it's Friday."
Her brows are furrowed and her lips are tightly pressed together, hoping for an answer.
"Yeah! Yeah, call me when you get out of class!"
Serizawa smiles and bows her head quickly before rushing out to the door, where she bows again, and rushes out.
"Okay, date night!"
Reigen suddenly remembers the kids are in the room. She sighs.
"You too?"
"Me too, what?"
"Everyone thinks I'm gay!"
Mob jumps in.
"Aren't you, though?"
Reigen drags a hand down her face.
"Let's just… get to this appointment."