Chapter Text
If there was one thing Reigen was worried about, it was money.
For his entire life there had never seemed to be enough of it. From Mom telling him and Akiko that it was time to tighten their already tight belts after Dad left, to his university days living off of ramen and the cigarettes he could get with change he found under the vending machine, to his current predicament. An office he was renting, an apartment he was renting, utility bills due, credit card bills past due, and a teenager who insisted on tempting him with the offer of his, admittedly insanely high, allowance. An allowance which Reigen wasn’t going to touch, of course.
That was Teru’s money.
That was his money to waste on health food and eye searingly colorful clothes, complicated starbucks drinks and movies in languages Reigen couldn’t speak, soccer shoes and weirdly expensive shampoos….and conditioners…and face masks…and for some reason an entire anti aging skin regiment. Reigen was never going to understand Teru and he certainly wasn’t going to take his money. No, that was his to spend. Reigen could just make his own money…somehow.
Thank God for the forest.
“Please, sir, I’m sure he’s in the Divine Forest. That’s where the kids go to hang out…oh, I’m so sorry.” sniffed the client as she blotted her eyes with one of Reigen’s complimentary tissues. Hundred yen store ones he put in an expensive box. He leaned forward and handed her another one.
“Please, please, take all the time you need.” said Reigen as she took another tissue. He put the box down onto the table and leaned back, folding his hands carefully on his lap. Approachable was good right now. He’d always been good at that. He needed this job even if it meant going…out there.
His eyes felt like darting towards the window. He stopped them.
“My son…he’s always been such a good boy. Good grades in middle school, good enough to get into Cardamon High even! But then something happened when he got to university. He….he changed…” sniffed the client. Reigen nodded.
“Big life changes often leave us vulnerable to the spirits. Sometimes-” said Reigen
“That’s it! It must be. He…he must have just…just forgotten to pray or leave an offering and…and something happened. I knew I shouldn’t have pushed him so hard to leave home. He wanted…he had been talking about staying home and going to the technical school but…but he didn’t want that. I knew that he didn’t want that. I knew that he wanted better and the spirit…it must not have had such a strong hold on him then because he…he went into his program like he had worked so hard for…” said the client, dabbing her eyes and smudging her makeup. Reigen didn’t say anything. Not about her makeup, the wasted tissues all over the table, or the fact that it sounded more like her son had decided to run off into the woods rather than-
-this was not about him.
“Go on.” said Reigen, still approachable. Still friendly. Still the wise spiritual master he had always tried to be. This was not about him. This client wasn’t his mother. This was Misses Honda, not Misses Reigen, and she was a lot shorter and a lot less blonde than his mother. This was…this was just a job.
A job he desperately needed. The spiritual stuff had always paid more than the massages and odd jobs.
“He started hanging around some other boys from school and I thought…I thought that it was so good that he was finally making friends but he started coming home later and later and this terrible smell was clinging to him more and more…though it’s clinging to everything these days, I suppose.” said the client…said Misses Honda. Reigen discretely nudged his foot against the air freshener plug in he kept tucked next to the couch. Immediately a spray of tropical tempest filled the room. It helped, if just a little.
Keeping the windows closed wasn’t helping anymore.
“Really? I hardly even notice these days.” said Reigen cheerfully.
“You do get used to it. That’s why I didn’t question it, not at first, because the smell is everywhere but then he started staying out later and later with his friends and then he stopped coming home at all and I just thought that…that he’s a young man now and this is what young men do…but then he started talking about the Divine Forest.” said Misses Honda
“And he used that word, Divine?” asked Reigen
“Yes. All the young people are calling it that even though there’s nothing divine about those horrible weeds.” said Misses Honda through gritted teeth.
“I agree. The whole place just reeks of, uh, spiritual contamination.” said Reigen quickly. The truth always came quicker than lies. That place was just…wrong. He could feel it on a spiritual level. He could see it, too, maybe. The color of it. He saw it and he didn’t see it. Ritsu and Teru’s running theory was that he’d absorbed enough psychic power to awaken something within in. He wasn’t going to argue, it wasn’t like he had a better explanation for it. Why he could see things now, feel them, why he could finally be what he’d always proclaimed himself to be.
Reigen Arataka. The greatest psychic of the twenty first century.
“He kept on talking about how the forest was Divine and how everyone was welcome just as they were and…and it sounded like nonsense. Like something from one of those new religions. I told him, I told him right to his face, that I had raised him better than to go in for that sort of nonsense and he…he took out this strange cigarette and lit it and then walked right out the door! That wasn’t my son! My Bunko!” cried the client. Reigen took a deep breath.
Show time.
“Don’t worry! I, Reigen Arataka, will take your case!” said Reigen as he jumped to his feet. That always got them. He knew that he looked ridiculous but that was what the people liked. The whole thing was ridiculous. Sprits, possession, Divine Forests…or at least it should have been.
The whole world felt like, sometimes, like it had been turned onto it’s head.
But it was his job to turn it the right way again one job at a time. He had nothing else booked for that afternoon, not a lot of people looking to get massages in this economy, and that freed him up to do what he did best; run head first into a situation that was most likely beyond his capabilities.
Alright then. Bring it on.
He took the deposit from the client and then headed out. He made sure to take some supplies. Not just his ‘blessed’ salt that he’d gotten a great deal on but some more practical things. His phone, some clothesline, a couple of water bottles, and his gym shoes. Hopefully it was just some kid who ran away to get high in the woods. The divine woods. The divine woods made almost entirely out of marijuana…which grew from the psychic fight that had happened downtown….the psychic fight that he had nearly lost the kids in…that he’d nearly died in….
It was over now.
It was over, he had bus fair, and he had a job. He was going to get this kid out and back to his overbearing mother come hell or high water…or a severally reduce bus line. Right, the busses didn[t pass through downtown anymore. The whole area had been cordoned off in the early days after the fight. When the world had been eerily cold, quiet, and calm. Before things had settled into what passed for normalcy in Seasoning City. He walked down the sidewalk towards the forest, his hand absently reaching for his cigarettes as he walked. He’d given it up again for the…he couldn’t even remember how many times he’d tried to quit. But this time it was going to stick. This time he was going to set a good example for the kids and do right by them and not get them started on a very expensive habit that would send them to an early grave. Either that or get them started on an even worse habit.
God. It stank.
Reigen had never been a fan of marijuana.. He’d tried it in university, among other things, and had just found himself thirsty and paranoid. Not a fun time. Ritsu and Teru…he hoped that Ritsu and Teru knew better than to get into this stuff. Aside from the fact that it was extremely illegal, if the law still meant anything, they were just kids. They didn’t need their judgment any more impaired than it was now. They already made the stupidest decisions he had ever seen anyone make, and that included himself, he didn’t need them to top themselves.
Things were crazy enough around here already.
Red. To the left and to the right. He saw these people around sometimes, Claw members, and they made no effort to hide. Their red uniforms, some of them in black, but all of them conspicuous. He wondered how this boded for the future. If they weren’t afraid of the government or the JSDF then what did that mean? The government had been calling it an attack by a delusional terrorist organization. That was back when they had been calling it anything. Now it was back to reports on the terrible economy and articles begging people to have more babies and save the sinking population. Nothing on the news or any of the mainstream news sites about the attack or the forest or Claw or…or anything.
Maybe that was a good thing.
Because that girl, Shigeko, was at the center of it all and she was just a month younger than Teru. He didn’t know…part of him wanted to take the poor kid and hug her and drag her away from all of that and part of him wanted to run away as fast as he could. Shadows. The forest was coming into view. Tall as any of the old buildings downtown…the tree in the middle as tall as the Cultural Tower it’s self had been. That had been all her, her and her father…that redhead guy…he didn’t know how it worked in that family. Ritsu’s sister. A subject that Reigen knew better than to approach. The wound was still to fresh. He didn’t know if it could ever heal, that kind of lie, and he knew lies…those poor kids.
And they weren’t even his kids.
And they were safe. He had the client’s kid to worry about now. Ritsu and Teru were still at school. Sho and Shigeko were…he had no idea and they were not his problem…they were sort of his…he would worry about them later. There was a line of people going into the forest. He didn’t see any kind of reason for them to be going in at that particular place. There wasn’t a sign or…well it was pretty blue. And pink…a little red. Bright. He felt his feet moving. It was so warm…a breeze pushed him. It smelled so..so..
He pulled his shirt up over his nose.
He turned around and walked, maybe even jogged, in the other direction. Whatever that place was it was bad news. He jogged/walked/maybe even ran until he was at the dimmest place he could find. Then he stopped to catch his…huh. Maybe quitting smoking did have it’s benefits. Normally he would have been completely out of breathe by now. No matter, no matter. He had a job to do. He took the clothesline from his pocket and tied one end around a piece of rubble that was jutting out of the ground. An old trick from the time his class had gone cave exploring. It worked even better than a trail of breadcrumbs. He took a deep breath. The air smelled better here. Not as skunky…it didn’t matter. He put one foot in front of the other. Left. Right. Then the same again and again until he was in the forest.
Dark.
Forget divine, they should have called it the Dark Forest…or maybe that was too spooky. It may have been dark but it wasn’t spooky. It was actually kind of nice…pleasant. Like taking a stroll through a garden. The ground under his feet was soft, like walking on a plush carpet, and there seemed to be a path in front of him. On the sides stems grew tall and stood strong, almost like walls. People had even written things on them.
Surprisingly nice things.
No dicks. No ‘name was here’. No words that could even be a little objectionable. Positive messages. ‘Just let it go’ was popular. There was also ‘some people are worth melting for’ along with…huh. ‘Reindeer are better than people’ for some reason. That one had him stop and scratch his head. Did they even have reindeer here outside of a zoo? That was…he kept walking. It was ok that he didn’t understand that. He was ok. He was Reigen Arataka.
He was a good person.
He was funny. He had always been good at making people laugh. He had been the one person to get mom to laugh after Dad had left. Akiko hadn’t even been able to do that…but that was ok. He loved his big sister so much. She was definitely someone worth melting for even if she had been kind of frozen after Dad had left. Stopped playing with him. Stopped talking to him. Just school and studying and…and that was ok. Maybe it was time that he just let it go. Mom. Dad. Akiko. They were all worth melting for. So was he. He may have lied, a lot, but those kids had no one. That was something else he should have just let go. Teru had been all alone in the world and Ritsu had been on the path to getting himself kidnapped or worse…yeah. They were better off with him in their lives. Even if he was a friendless loser…he had friends. The Kageyamas and the kids and…and it wasn’t the quantity but the quality of your friends…
Hey!
Before he knew it had had taken his keys out of his pocket and was carving that into the path’s wall. A set of footsteps came to a stop behind him. He turned around. Hey, there were some guys there. He was looking for a guy, right? Well a girl, woman, but…no, wait, the client. He shook his head. Something was…something was happening….
He took a deep breath. It smelled nice in there.
“No, don’t shake your head. That’s a good one. It’s not the quantity but the quality of our friends…that should be in Frozen.” said the guy. Reigen nodded slowly. He felt something slipping between his fingers.
“I think I’m looking for someone…” said Reigen. The guy nodded and took his hand.
“We’re all looking for someone! Come on, everyone’s at the place.” said the guy as he led Reigen towards the place. He didn’t know where the place was but he did know that it was pink. So much pink. He walked through a tunnel of blue to get to the pink. Like standing in the middle of a wad of bubble gum…he used to chew a lot of gum when he was a kid…maybe he had always been orally fixated.
Something was pressed into his hand.
“Here new guy, join us.” a woman this time. Dressed in what looked like it had been a business suit at some point…no, no, he hadn’t been looking for a woman. Not for a long time. He just didn’t have the time or, really, anything to offer….but that wasn’t true. He had a lot to offer. He was smart, resourceful, funny, could elevate any brand of cup noodle, flexible, and could sort of play the recorder. He’d always gotten good grades in music class. He needed to just…something was pressed to his mouth.
Wait.
“Sorry! Sorry, not for me. Next, next person.” said Reigen as he pushed the…not a joint, too big, but not…he wasn’t up on his terminology. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing that even would have matter. The woman didn’t even look disappointed, she just passed it along to the next person. Reigen looked around. This was…a room? He reached out behind him. The walls felt velvety. There were sleeping bags all over the floor. A bag overflowing with old wrappers and takeout containers. A couple cats were sleeping on a pile of clothes and the floor was alive with rats…no, hamsters and...and…over in the corner were some people who had shed their clothes…
He focused on the people who were wearing clothes. He was looking for…the client! How could he have forgotten? The air…there must not have been enough air in here. Too much smoke. He couldn’t think. He had seen a picture of the client’s son and…and all he could remember was the weirdly old fashioned haircut. He rubbed his temples. This was…his hand was empty…this wasn’t good.
He had to get out of here.
He tried to stand up but it was almost like he was standing on a water bed. He got onto his knees and tried to push himself up. Hands. Hands on his arms. Hands under his stomach. He closed his eyes and reached into his coat pocket, prepared to exorcize…or at least piss off, anyone who tried to stop him….but they didn’t. The hands didn’t drag him back down, now, they pulled him to his feet. Something was pushed into his hand.
Oh. A bottle of room temperature strawberry milk.
“You should drink something.” the woman said. A bag of chips was pushed into his other hand.
“And eat something.” said a guy. Reigen took a step back. There was movement from the corner that he had been deliberately avoiding.
“And join our love circle!” called another woman. That snapped Reigen out of whatever had taken hold of him.
“No thank you! As tempting as your offer of junk food and tree sex was I, um, have to go home and fold my laundry!” said Reigen as he took off. That was the lamest excuse. They were bound to be…he looked back.. Nobody was chasing him. He didn’t stop. He had to get out of there. He went away from the light, the warm, the feeling of pink. He went into the cold…and it was cold. Leaving. Even though it was July and he was wearing a suit. He had dropped his string and his plan brought him to a dead end with trash cans and a sign telling people that garbage made hamsters sick.
He had to get out of there.
He had to get out before he lost it again. Before he forgot who he was, where he was, what he was doing…he was giving the client her deposit back. This was too big of a job for him. He needed to find some other line of work or…or something. He could barely see. It was so dark. He needed to keep moving. He put his hand on the wall and just picked a direction. He had to get out of there before he lost his mind and…and now he was hearing voices.
That was never a good sign.
“....separated the boys from the girls then we…”
“...love each other so….”
He knew those voices…and he knew that he had better have been hallucinating. That wasn’t who he thought it was. He changed direction and followed the voices echoing through the maze of stems and leaves. Red. Red and blue…not the cotton candy blue he’d been seeing, no, a darker sort of navy blue. That was…he knew those auras. He knew those voices.
He just wished that he didn’t.
“...if you would just stop letting them sleep with each other then we wouldn’t have to worry about their babies.” He could see…yes, there, there was more light here. Enough light to see the back of Ritsu and the unmistakably red hair that was Sho’s. Ritsu and Sho were here….here!
No.
“And what do you two think you’re doing here?” asked Reigen, using his best 'disappointed adult’ voice. Because he was an adult and he was disappointed. Disappointed enough that any and all lingering fog was lifted from his mind. He thought that Ritsu, at least, would have known better…but then again this was Ritsu.
And Sho…well that kid brought out the worst in him sometimes.
“Reigen?” asked Ritsu as he turned around. He had something in his arms. A plastic tank cage full of rats? Reigen shuddered. Rats were…wait, no, rats had tails. Those were hamsters…much less disturbing.
“Hey! You want to help me build a house for…hang on. Ok, so that’s cookie three, that one’s cheesy, that one’s…I think his name was celery, hang on-” said Sho as he started pointing to what seemed like random spots in the wriggling mass of hamsters in that cage. Reigen, momentarily, forgot what he was so disappointed about. This was just…confusing.
“What are you-” asked Reigen
“He named one of them celery because it wouldn’t stop biting him. One of the striped ones but he can’t remember which is which because he has too many.” said Ritsu
“Alright, but-” said Reigen
“Hey, if they want to fall in love then they can fall in love…anyway I think that they’ll be happy here. There’s lots of food, people to take care of them, and it feels like Big Sis.” said Sho
“I know.” said Ritsu as he looked around, the dark blue around him getting brighter. Reigen cleared his throat. Right, this was weird, but that didn’t mean that this was the place for them to be. This didn’t seem like the place for anyone to be.
“Alright! Now I don’t care why you’re here or why you have hamsters-” said Reigen
“They’re trying to eat each other again.” said Sho. Reigen blinked.
“That’s…sad. Anyway! You and you are coming with me!” said Reigen. Sho shook his head.
“No thanks. Whatever you’re here to do you can do it on your own. If I want to smoke I’ll do it with Big Sis and if I want to watch people bang-” said Sho. Ritsu glared at him.
“-which I don’t! But if I did I wouldn’t be here.” said Sho. Reigen didn’t know what he was supposed to say to that. That was well beyond his paygrade. He took another deep breath. This kid…Ritsu made eye contact with him. These kids.Well, it wasn’t like he could just leave them here. He didn’t like the idea of them getting involved in any of that and, um, he was responsible. Yes! He was the responsible adult here and…wait. Why were they even here?
“Why aren’t you two in school?” asked Reigen. Sho crouched down and opened his hamster cage.
“I haven’t been to school since kindergarten.” said Sho
“My school went to half days because of the smell.” said Ritsu as he did the same. Reigen took a step back as the floor came to life with hamsters. There were hamsters coming out of the walls…stems. Squeaking. Deafening squeaking. And then they were gone.
The walls shuddered.
“Goodbye! I’ll miss you! I love you! Play nice! Remember, they’re all your brothers and sisters so you have to get along! And don’t eat any-” called Sho. Ritsu put a hand over his mouth.
“They get it.” said Ritsu, smiling in that way where unless you knew him you would never have known that he was smiling. Reigen would have been touched, maybe, if they hadn’t been in this place…not that it was so bad. Sure it was weird but this was a place for friends and-
-and he had to get out of here.
“You’re both coming with me. Ritsu, your parents can’t possibly be ok with you being here-” said Reigen
“They don’t know I’m here. Dad’s in the hospital and mom went with him.” said Ritsu. Reigen felt his hands reaching towards Ritsu. A hug…but that would have been too much…but the hospital was serious and that was what friends did and…
He crossed his arms.
“Is he-is he alright?” asked Reigen quickly.
“No, people don’t go to the hospital if they’re alright.” laughed Sho. Ritsu actually smiled there.
“He has a point…but yeah, Dad’s ok. They’re keeping him under observation. He found some weird mushrooms growing in the woods and, well, I think he ate a bad one because when I came home he was arguing with the fridge.” said Ritsu. Reigen kept his arms crossed. Everything inside of him was telling him that Ritsu needed a hug right then and there but….but that would have been too much. This was…this was…it was this place. He could feel it, the fog, that warm blanket wrapping it’s self around him. How could it have been bad, though, how could it have been anything other than….
Warm.
“Mushrooms suck, Shimazaki says so. He says they taste like sh*t and acid is just better if you want to trip.” said Sho
“I’ll be sure to pass that on.” said Ritsu sarcastically. But he didn’t mean it, though, Reigen could tell. He’d known Ritsu for years now…wow. Since he’d been ten. Such a small amount of time for him but so much for Ritsu. It was such an amazing thing to watch him grow…Reigen was so proud of him. He was such a good friend, a good little friend, and Reigen cared about him so much and-
“f*ck, I think it’s got him.” said Sho. Reigen looked up…he was on the ground? He ran his hands against the carpet under him. Velvety. Leaves. Leaves and grass…leaves of grass. He could have just closed his eyes and gone to sleep. He was so tired. Everything had him so tired. Worrying…but he didn’t have to worry, did he? He was with his friends and what could have been more important than friendship? What could have been…what could have been better.
Darkness.
“sh*t! Help me carry him!” Ritsu shouldn’t have…oh, Ritsu could say whatever he wanted. That was how it went when you cared about someone, you let them do whatever made them happy, and he wanted Ritsu to be happy. And Sho. And everyone else. As happy as he was. He was so happy it felt like he was floating. He let himself sway back and forth. His eyes were so heavy. He didn’t want to open them. He didn’t want to do anything but stay there and…and…
…and what?
“Here’s far enough.” Reigen heard Ritsu say before he…fell? Why had he…when had he…,what?! He sat up. There was something hard under him…concrete. He opened his eyes. Bright, so bright, brighter than he had ever seen before! Brighter than-
-oh. He was staring at the ramen sign.
“Ritsu! Sho! You two-” said Reigen as he climbed to his feet. Those two should never have been in that place! They could have gotten trapped! They could have gotten…he didn’t know what that place had been trying to do but he knew that it was bad news! He had to get through to those two before they wound up getting themselves hurt or killed!
“You moron! You could have died in there!” shouted Ritsu. Someone stuck their head out of the ramen place…their usual ramen place…but switching ramen places was the least of his problems!
“I could have died? You two-” said Reigen
“We’ve got powers. You don’t.” said Sho. Ritsu nodded.
“Exactly! We have powers, you don’t, and that place was going to keep you there forever! Come on, it eats lonely people! Or…well, it doesn’t kill them, we’re not sure what it does, but…but it’s dangerous! Now don’t ever go in there again!” said Ritsu, stomping his foot and poking Reigen in the chest. This was…not something that Reigen was going to take further. More people were looking. Lots more people.
“Alright, alright, I’ll never go in there again. I just had a client but you’re right, it’s too dangerous.” said Reigen, holding his hands up in surrender. Sho co*cked his head to the side.
“Someone paid you to go in there? And you did it? How broke are you?” asked Sho. Reigen sighed.
“Broke…but not so broke that I can’t get you two lunch, now come on.” said Reigen as he motioned for them to follow him. He really was too broke for this, and a lot of things, but they didn’t need to know that. They were just a couple of kids. He was the adult and…and he was going to have to find another way to make money. Because they were right, he could have died or gotten eaten or whatever the hell that place had wanted to do to him…he would just have to find another way.
He could do that.
Because he had always been able to make money, always been able to get by, and this was just…a bump in the road. He could get past this, he would, or at least that was what he told himself. That was what he told himself all through lunch. All the way home. All the way to the couch where he sat down…on something.
He reached into his pocket.
He knew for a fact that he had not started the day with that much cash, even with the deposit the client had left him. He never took out that much at once and certainly never 10,000-yen bills. He folded his wallet shut and threw it onto the table. He wished that a wallet full of mysterious money was the weirdest thing that had ever happened to him, not even that day, just in his life…he needed to lay down.
But he didn’t.
Because Teru’s school was not on half days. Teru would be home soon and Reigen had to get some dinner going, eventually, and just…Teru had been through enough. The last thing he needed was to be worried about Reigen, worried about his safety, and worried about that goddamned forest. No, Reigen was the one who needed to worry…so he would.
That was his job after all, worrying, someone had to and it had to be him.
