Chapter 5: Cutting Algae Part Two

[mp_simplyacommoner]

It was 7:50PM. Teru had gotten bored of studying and broke it up with his nightly stretches—he had decided it was going to be an early night to bed. He had already decided he was going to sign up for the next basketball roster and it was offseason practice time.

As it turned out, he couldn’t tolerate a lack of things to do after school for long.

Cooling down from his trunk rotations with some Kamizawa Water, he checked his phone and paused mid-sip. There were a few notifications from Mob that he opened right away. There were a few pictures of what was undoubtedly the long-awaited kaiseki meal…though they were a bit blurry. Oh, one was actually decent in quality. There was also a blurred person in the background of one without much food—even with the lack of clarity it looked like they weren’t expecting to be caught on camera. Had he meant to send that one, let alone take it? Oh well, didn’t matter.

that mukōzuke Send.

( ੭ ˘ ³˘)੭‎°｡⋆♡‧₊˚ Send.

divine looking Send.

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[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen looked at them, his eyes glazed over as he took in each small face—until he saw one in particular. A blonde kid. His grandpa. A flicker of irritation. “Ah, yeah. Those two…” Reigen murmured and rubbed his head. “For crying out loud Mob, I still can’t believe you—“

Mob.

Mob.

It was like someone dumped a bucket of ice water over Reigen.

He was suddenly watching himself, half-drunk with his client on his arm. Mob. What if he saw this? How could Reigen even explain this? What was he doing?

[mp_npc]

Reigen's sudden outburst surprised Asa. "Is something wrong?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen’s heart was beating out of his chest as he re-oriented himself, and Asa was so close to him he was certain she felt him.

“O-oh, you know…kids. Full of surprises.” He waved his hand aimlessly before pointing at the picture in question. “Turns out my pupil is friends with the kid in the photo!”

[mp_npc]

"Your assistant, right?" Asa smiled. "The two of you are close. Is he like a son to you?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen laughed and rubbed his face. That question was an added layer of complication on top of the many he was struggling to process.

In his painful lucidity did he realize Mob was absolutely correct. He was possessed. There was no other explanation for this. He would have taken head spinning and projectile vomiting over being used as some...conjugal prop.

"No, not quite..." His thoughts of his protege were the only thing keeping him grounded and he clung onto them like a life raft. "He's just..."

[mp_npc]

Asa gave his hand a squeeze. She led him outside, hoping that might help to clear his thoughts.

"You can be honest with me," she said as they stepped into the gardens. "I won't judge you for it."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Could he? The feel of her warm hand on his was nice--too nice. It made him want to believe her.

'I'm in trouble.'

"He's just...a good kid who looks up to me."

[mp_npc]

"I see aa lot of me in you and a lot of Mob in Misaki," she said, continuing through the gardens. They were beautifully lit this night. Moonlight filtered through the garden's trees, patterning the ground with leaf-shaped shadows. "Not that Misaki and Mob are the same--" They weren't. "--but, just the relationship. That's all."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

“They’re not the same, but they are similar. They’re both earnest.” To a fault. Reigen’s hand brushed a camellia plant and he took a branch of it in his fingers. The white flower glowed in the moonlight, the water droplets that cling to it making it even more luminous. It was pretty like Asa’s kimono—

‘Focus!’ He was losing himself again.

“She’s good at tending these. Misaki-chan. Mob…he’s good at what he does.” Really good. Reigen conjured up memories of Mob and held them in his brain. He’d need to find the kid as soon as he could make a clean exit. He could make up whatever story suited him, he’d worry about that later. “She looks up to you. That’s clear to see.”

[mp_npc]

"I could say the same for you and your disciple," Asa said. "You're really good with him. I think you'd make a great father someday."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen froze. He was sure he would never have to worry about ever feeling cold again with the way his blood was burning him from head to toe now.

[mp_npc]

Asa wasn't sure how to read Reigen's reaction. "Unless... you don't want to be a father?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"You're giving me a lot of credit, Asa-san." Way, way, way, way too much was more like it. Reigen's throat was impossibly tight and impossibly dry. "Even if you say that...I'm not the type who could..."

Who could...? Even Reigen didn't know how he was going to finish that sentence before it ended. His head was swimming again.

[mp_npc]

"Have children?" Asa supplied, still uncertain as to how to interpret Reigen's reaction.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"Right." Reigen swallowed. "N-Not for any physical reasons!" 'Why are you clarifying that, smartass!?'

[mp_npc]

"Not for physical reasons?" Asa repeated. As bewildered as she was before about Reigen's reaction, she was even more perplexed now. Physical reasons hadn't even been on her radar until now, but now that he said it, all she could wonder was why he said it.

"There's medicine for that now, you know," she said. "There's no need to be embarrassed about it. It's a common problem."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"N-no, no, I'm perfectly healthy." Reigen wanted nothing more than for that camellia to strangle him and lay him down into the gentle earth. He let go of Asa's hand to raise them as if in a show of surrender--but, really, he didn't want to envelop her delicate fingers in the copious sweat pouring through his palms now. "Nurturing others like that...it's beyond me...really, the best you can get from me are massag--ahem--holistic treatments for spirit-related illnesses."

[mp_npc]

"Really?" Asa hadn't known that Reigen was capable of that until now. "Do you mind showing me, then?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

“Right now?”

[mp_npc]

"You have anything else you need to do?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

‘Demanding…’ He should have been annoyed. He wasn’t.

When had anyone wanted his attention this much?

…

That thought Reigen had been trying to hold so tightly onto was fading.

“I don’t usually do this standing up…” Regardless, his feet were moving forward on his own. Face to face, they were suddenly very close. The scent of something—plum blossom? It was her scent. There was a warmth on his face. Her breath. Reigen swallowed and gestured for her to turn around.

[mp_npc]

"We could find a place to lay down, if it's easier. Your room, or mine?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen was cornered. Soon he'd be eaten--if there was anything of him left after dissolving. He'd have to be slurped up through a straw.

"Fresh air is good for the body." He carefully swept her hair to the side until he could see the skin of her neck. He put his hands on her shoulders and did everything he could to focus on the act itself. But this wasn't a physical act he was doing to someone. This wasn't self-indulgent. He was assisting her with her mind-body-soul connection. He was a tool. Asa was a client in need. He was Reigen Arataka, the premier psychic of the 21st century. He...

He had a half-finished certificate in massage. It could be a full certificate if you counted years in the field. That's who he was.

He was someone who helped people. He was dissolving the knots of tension in her neck and her shoulders and her back.

"Tell me if it hurts..."

[mp_npc]

It didn't hurt. Even when it felt like it should, it didn't. It was as if Reigen's psychic abilities had somehow given him the power to know where his hands should go and when and how much pressure he should apply and where.

She felt better. And she realized in that moment, that she hadn't felt good in a long time.

"You might make a better masseuse than a psychic," she teased in reply.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Yeah.

Who was he kidding.

‘She’s got you pegged.’

He was even less of a romantic than he was a psychic.

He knew what needed to be done, and he needed to do it. Gently.

“Asa-san…what’s your ideal man?”