Chapter 4: Cutting Algae Part One

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Texting was a pretty neat function. It was widely adopted by every teenager except the one he, Reigen, had so generously gifted a phone to do it with. Mob was diligent to a fault about picking up his calls, but texting? Still a work in progress. Mob was getting better, though. After all, how else was Reigen supposed to give him a heads up about big jobs before the end of the school day? Excepting the occasional friendly lunch break chat.

That was of course assuming the phone was still intact. After their chat last night, Reigen wasn't so sure. It wasn't like Mob made a habit of texting him first.

Reigen squinted at the clock on his second-hand laptop he'd just replaced the shattered one with. 12:05PM. He had found a decent deal on one in a flea market but there was something off about the graphics. Parts of the screen were always slightly out of frame and most of his day had been spent trying to uselessly dink with the display options until it was righted, but instead he just ended up with a resolution that was too small.

'Ugh. New laptop, and if we're really unlucky, a new phone? I'll just garnish it...' Reigen pulled out his phone and fired off a text to his pupil. You didn't get washed away, did you? Your phone's still working, right?

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[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"Of course you don't. I said Spirit Specialists. You're a rookie, remember?"

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

If Mob was at all offended by being called a rookie, it doesn't show on his face, which remains as neutral as ever.

"Maybe I should go in first."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen's ego won out and he stepped right back into the waiting castle, flashlight at the ready. "No, no, that won't be necessary. I've, ah, properly attuned myself to the spiritual energy here."

Luckily, the sense of dizziness was faint, then it was nothing at all. 'Heh.' As if some musty old castle could get the better of him for long. He turned his light on and shined it at the floor first--yeah, it was steady-looking--and then at the rest of the room. It was an antechamber, but notable was the scaffolding. So, that restoration fund was going somewhere...slowly.

The next thing his light fell on was a lot more attention-grabbing. Fusuma paintings greeted them, and he approached one to get a better look. Every one depicted a red-crowned crane. Despite the faded linework, the red at the top of their heads was as striking as a fresh drop of blood.

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Mob was relieved that Reigen seemed to recover so quickly. It made it easier to concentrate on reaching out for any dangerous spirits in the area. Unfortunately for the both of them, the negative energy is too dense for him to root it out at its source. At least from here. It'd be like swimming through an enormous bowl full of jelly. If they got closer, it'd be easier.

"I'm not sure which way to go," Mob said, though his feet continued to carry him forward. "Do you have a map? I might have an easier time if we're closer to the building's middle."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"There's the Great Hall right up ahead. That's the middle layer of the main keep." Reigen took his time studying every painting and every carved figure. He couldn't touch them, despite how much he wanted to--he was a man of great respect after all.

Finally, he peeled his eyes away and lead the way down to the Great Hall. It was there that the sense of grandeur now long-gone really sunk in and he had to pause to take it all in. The light caught shapes and carved out shadows. What he could see right away were the elaborated grid ceilings and silhouettes of the paintings on the walls. The floor was raised after a certain point, which was surely where the reigning shogun sat. Reigen fixed his light on that spot to catch glimpses of the tokonoma--the way the art and architecture came to frame whoever sat there was fascinating. Even after centuries had passed, the effect it had on him spoke to the castle's power.

'Sorry I called you musty,' Reigen thought. He was drawn to one wall in particular where the door had fallen through, and down that way was another hall. For whatever reason, without saying a word, he was immediately compelled to venture into it. Candles flickered to life wherever he passed, but he didn't even pause to look.

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Though Mob had been deep in focus, he didn't neglect to see the candles that lit up as Reigen passed.

"I suppose this means we're headed in the right direction," he observed as he followed along, just a scant step behind his Master.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

It certainly felt like they were going the right direction. It didn't occur to Reigen to check or to question his own certainty (or Mob's, for that matter) on this. He just kept walking until he was staring into another room. There was more natural light than ever filtering through the shoji screens here. That wasn't what immediately drew his attention though. No, it were the wooden bookshelves with their shelves wide open lining the walls.

Reigen mouthed something to himself and gravitated towards the west-facing wall in particular where the books were still neatly mounted. A scroll had rolled out to display a long poem and he started reading right from the top.

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Reigen rushed in the library (was it a library?) so quickly that Mob barely had a moment to register a blink before his eyes were frantically scanning a scroll mounted on the wall.

Maybe it was something important? It had to be if he was this deeply focused on it.

But the silence between them grew. Mob was accustomed to the silence. Until recently, he was alone a lot of the time. But he wasn't accustomed to silence when he was in the same room with Reigen. He had enough words to speak for the both of them.

"Master," he began, somewhat hesitatingly as he stepped in after him. "Is everything okay?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"Why wouldn't it be? Just look at all this!"

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

This was far more disturbing to Mob than any self-lighting candles would be.

"Is this necessary?" he asked. "We really should be focusing on the job."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"Eh?"

It was like someone dumped a bucket of cold water on Reigen.

What the hell WAS he doing?

Still, even at his most perturbed, he wasn't about to appear uncertain in front of his student. He moved out of the way of the hanging scroll and gestured meaningfully towards it. "Mob, Mob, Mob, Mob. Mob. I certainly can't expect a rookie to understand the importance of this right off the bat. Come closer--read it. Really take it in."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Oh, so his Master had his reasons. He shouldn't have doubted him.

Mob joined Reigen and began to read the scroll. But as much as he tried, he couldn't seem to find a connection. Then again, he wasn't really good at this kind of thing, anyway.

"I don't really get it," he admitted, turning to look at Reigen after spending a long moment absorbing what he read.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

'The Crane's Return of a Favor.'

"Keep thinking on it. I would be stunting your critical thinking if I just handed you the meaning."

Reigen did an about face towards one of the doors to continue on his way. Sliding the battered door open was more of a formality but he was rewarded with lingering traces of sunlight shining down on an open courtyard. He could tell from the patches of thick shadow from the clouds that the sun wouldn't be there for too much longer.

In the courtyard, nature had reclaimed what history had left; moss and vines covered the ground, the walls, and even the trees like a blanket. Even one season of neglect from the locals unable their restoration would set them back dearly. If not for one sunbeam shining on it, Reigen could have missed the small structure across the way.

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Mob turned his focus and re-read it a second time with such intent that he didn't even realize that Reigen had drifted outside.

"Um, Master?" he called out, setting the scroll down. When he didn't get a reply, Mob's feet carried him out into the courtyard after him.

"Oh, a garden." Or at least it used to be. Now it probably couldn't be called that. It'd take a lot of work to get it back into the state Mob was sure it was in a century before.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"Must have been, huh...?" Reigen squinted, and then squinted some more. "And that over there..."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"That's the teahouse." Did he just become a tour guide? It kind of felt like it. "Did you want to go inside and take a look?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen whistled in a way that clearly indicated he hadn't expected that and stepped out into the courtyard towards it. "You're right! Very astute, Mob."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"Actually, I only knew that because I got a--" But before Mob could get the words out, Reigen was already moving forward like a man on a mission.

Mob quickly followed behind him.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"You're clearly more studious than you give yourself credit for." Reigen stepped over every vine and rock in his way until he was at the small staircase leading up to it. "It looks surprisingly intact..."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"The negative energy I felt before... it's strongest in this area." He looked up at his Master. "You did a good job of tracking it down as quickly as you did."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

He had?

"Of course I did." Reigen took his first step onto the staircase. "This tea house...it's strange, don't you think?"

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"Yeah." Mob didn't know why he felt so unnerved here. Normally what other people considered unusual was usual for Mob. But there was something off here. Something more off than most places.

He followed close behind Reigen. They needed to stay close in case anything happened.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"It's not just the spiritual energy. This place..." Reigen took the door by the handle. The door felt sturdy under his grip. When he opened it, it revealed nothing less than the perfect picture of an old tea house. "...It's barely damaged at all."

There was a distant boom of thunder - a reminder of the storm rolling in from the sea to come. He didn't want them to get caught in a storm (poor Mob had been in enough) but they couldn't leave as soon as they found a so-obviously supernatural place. It was screaming and begging to be searched.

"We're going inside." As always, Reigen went first. He took one, two, three steps inside--nothing dangerous had happened yet. He glanced back at Mob, who was hovering close cautiously but he wasn't reacting to anything in particular.

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"It seems I keep getting caught in storms," he said, more to himself than to Reigen. "It's good we're getting out of it."

Mob fished his flashlight out of his pocket. It was small, but it still managed to illuminate the area in front of them as they continued forward.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen's eyes followed Mob's light, and it took him a moment longer than it should have to remember he even had a flashlight of his own when he stopped short at something Mob's light flashed across in particular. Once you noticed it, it was impossible to miss. A tall structure about chest-height at the far end of the interior framed by an alcove, carved from stone -- a tomb.

Reigen was drawn to it like a magnet and he fumbled with his own flashlight to get a good look. There was text inscribed on it that was hard to make out even with the light right on it. He shined the light from every which angle, hoping that even with the age of it and the damage it's meaning would become clear. He didn't so much as murmur, his eyes narrowing in intense focus.

The rain which … when the season of … comes is the rain reminiscent of the … of the poor … sorrow