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It was looking to be another boring day, sitting and people-watching with Mob-kun until they forgot why they were doing it. Tome liked to choose high-traffic areas, where they’d have the most chances to spot potential telepaths, and often they saw some pretty unusual pedestrians.
Tome nudged Mob with her elbow, jolting him from staring at his phone, and pointed at a group of boys walking their way.
“Look, Mob-kun, I think they’re delinquents. Look at that one’s boots.”
“Oh.” To her surprise, Mob raised a hand as the boys got closer. “Hello.”
Even more surprising was how the boys all straightened up, one in the back even going as far as jabbing another behind him to make him do it. The one in front smiled broadly right at Mob-kun, and Tome stared at them in all-too-obvious surprise. The one in front said, “Kageyama-sama!”
Mob-kun blushed beside her, shaking his head, “Ah, no. I’m not sama, Masaru-san. I’m not above you like that.”
The delinquent, who must be Masaru, coughed, bowing very slightly, “Yes, Kageyama-san. We’ll be sure to remember that for next time."
The boy with the boots she pointed out moved closer to the front, looking every bit a peacock, and posing slightly, "Kageyama-san! How do I look?”
Mob smiled at that, saying, “You added little gems! It’s very impressive! They shine very brightly, don’t they?”
“Thank you!” he practically gasped. He leaned over to another boy and hissed, “He noticed!”
“Shh, don’t be weird about it.” The boy smiled, as if trying to cover up how bad he was at whispering. “We should leave Kageyama-san alone, he’s with a girl.”
“My apologies, neesan.” Masaru bowed to her as well. “Goodbye Kageyama-san.”
“Nice seeing you,” Mob said mildly. Tome stared after them as they left, while Mob went back to whatever he was doing with his phone.
“You… know them?”
“Hm? Oh, yes. I’ve met them before. They’re friends with one of my friends, I think.”
“Right…” She twisted around on the bench to keep watching. The delinquents were nudging each other and grinning. “You have a lot going on, don’t you Mob-kun?”
“Not really.”
Somehow, she doubted that was at all true. But she couldn’t exactly call him on it, since he seemed to honestly believe it. It was odd, but right now it was time to return to people-watching. This was something she enjoyed, and she wouldn’t let a group of weird boys ruin it for her.
Tome perked up at the sight of something, “Mob-kun, look! His hair is as long as my arm!”
Mob-kun glanced up, and nodded, “Wow. Do you think he uses a lot of hairspray?”
She smirked, leaning back on the bench, really settling in, “I bet he does.”
Ritsu was just heading out of the house when he was forced to stop. A large group of rough-looking boys were arrayed all over the street in front of their home. He scowled, glancing at his phone to check the time, and realized he couldn’t actually do what he wanted to do. He was debating on how to best get rid of them when the door opened behind him, and his brother walked right into his back.
Jerking forward, he couldn’t stop himself from falling short of his or his brother’s powers, only to be beaten to the punch by one of the delinquents grabbing him before anyone could do anything. The boy grinned at him, setting him on his feet, and winked as he popped a thumbs up, “Hey! Be more careful, huh? The both of you.” The boy grinned even wider at the sight of his brother, “Kageyama-san! We thought we’d walk you to school, you know?”
“Oh, you don’t have to.” Niisan stepped forward, positioning himself between Ritsu and the delinquents. “I’ll walk with my brother.”
“Are you sure? There’s stories going around again.”
“Stories?” Ritsu repeated. Last time niisan got in trouble with delinquents, it was his fault.
“Thank you. I’m okay.” He reached back for Ritsu’s hand, something they hadn’t done since they were children. “You’ll be late, right Ritsu? Let’s go.”
The delinquents didn’t follow, though none of them looked away as the brothers walked down the street. It wasn’t until they’d turned a corner that niisan let go of his hand.
“Niisan? What’s wrong? What happened?”
“It’s nothing,” he said. Amending, “Nothing serious. There were some rumors about me a little while ago, and sometimes someone new decides to investigate them.”
“You mean White T Poison?” Ritsu knew he’d been mistaken for his brother before, but he wasn’t sure what had happened to the story after that.
Niisan nodded. “It’s all a misunderstanding. Those other guys worry about me.”
Ritsu wasn’t actually sure how he felt about that. Sure, it was good his brother had protection, but…
He mentally shook his head, glancing at niisan from the corner of his eye, “Are you really safe?” Since if his brother needed the help, Ritsu would… allow the delinquents to keep guard.
That got a genuine smile, “Oh, absolutely. Don’t worry, I’ll be perfectly safe. No one seems to be starting any trouble. Not now, anyway." His brother frowned, tilting his head, "Well, I wouldn’t call it trouble.”
Instantly, his hackles were up, unable to stop himself. “What is happening?”
Niisan looked at him, “They… really seem to enjoy when I comment on their clothing? One keeps adding shiny things to his uniform, and looks really happy when I tell him he looks nice? Another just stands next to me, blushing a lot?”
“Oh.” As fond of his brother as he was, it took Ritsu several steps before it occurred to him the delinquents’ admiration might not be the same as his. “Oh! I see. It doesn’t bother you?”
“No? It’s a little strange I guess. I don’t know anything about fashion.”
“Um… right.”
Well. As long as niisan was okay with it, that was the important thing.
The client had insisted, repeatedly and loudly, that the park near her home was haunted. Reigen was hardly one to argue, especially since that was entirely possible, but normally he wouldn’t drag Mob out there without more evidence. This time he was driven by the desire to not be shouted at, as well as the advance he’d managed to talk the client into, and they were walking through the park as the sun sunk in the sky.
“She said there was always loud voices and banging,” Reigen scanned the trees, looking for signs of anything out of the ordinary.
“That might not be a spirit, shishou.”
“I know, I know, but we should be sure.”
It was still early enough that people were walking their dogs or kids, and a few teenagers were around avoiding their homes. A group of them, wielding baseball bats and a length of broken pipe, were crouched near the biggest tree, still in their school uniforms.
He was about to take the long way around when there was the sound of shouting coming from the tree. He frowned at the noise, since it was forcing him to deal with people with weaponry. It wasn’t like he could go around with a knife in his suit pocket. That was a certainty to get him distrusted by his clients. They don’t want a man to threaten to cut open a ghost. They want someone who will fix their problems with as little property damage as possible.
Weaponry just made that an inconvenience.
Besides, Reigen prided himself on his best ‘weapon’. His brain and ability to talk. If he didn’t have that, he wouldn’t be running his own business.
The teenagers were fighting, not seriously, but clanking their weapons together and grabbing and tossing each other around. One by one, the boys dropped, until there was a final victor standing above his fallen foes.
Reigen put his hand behind Mob’s back, hovering it there, in case they needed to move quickly. “Keep walking.”
“No shishou, I think it’s okay.”
“What-”
Sure enough, the victor began to jog toward them, smiling and raising his hand in a wave. Mob stepped away from Reigen to return it.
“Kageyama-san!” the boy bowed deeply. “Welcome to Bean Paste Middle School territory. Allow me to be your escort?”
“Thank you, no, I’m working right now. We won’t be long.”
“Oh…” His face fell. “If you need anything, this park is our usual spot. We’ll be here for a couple hours still.”
“Thank you.” Mob smiled. “It’s Shima-san, isn’t it?”
The boy’s eyes got wide. “Yes!”
“You changed your hair. It’s very… tall.”
“Thank you!”
If Reigen didn’t know better, he’d say the boy was glowing as he walked back to the giant tree. He stared after him, then asked, “What is this about? Should I be worried?”
Mob shook his head, “No, shishou. This happens a lot, and it’s harmless.”
He was curious about how this was happening, but not enough to ask for more information. It wouldn’t help that much to know, especially since he understood how things go with Mob. If he asked, he’d just feel tired and maybe confused.
Better to let it go.
He couldn’t help but rib his student a bit, though. “Really? I was expecting him to ask you on a date with how pleased he was being told his hair is nice.”
Mob ducked his head shyly. “No, it’s not like that. They admire me because they think I’m strong. I don’t want to tell them I’m not… I don’t think they’d believe it anyway.”
“You are strong,” Reigen assured him. “If they like you, it means they have good taste.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “In guys, if not in hair.”
“You don’t think his hair was cool?”
“Well, maybe I’m out of touch.”
They hung around they park for a while longer. Mob didn’t sense anything, and given the alternate explanation of roughhousing teenagers, Reigen felt safe assuming there was no spirit after all. But that left the problem of the troubled client.
“Hey Mob, do you think you could tell those guys to cut it out with all the noise?”
Mob frowned. “I don’t know. They wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Sure they would, you just said they admire you.”
“I… I don’t give orders, I think? I’m not sure how it works.”
They’d cycled around and were approaching the big tree again. Reigen could see the boys crouched in a circle, one of them clanking his bat on a rock.
“Do they know who I am?”
“I think so? Some of them know I have a job.”
“Okay. Wait here.”
It took less than five minutes of explaining why what they were doing was causing trouble, why they weren’t making themselves look any more impressive, why the poor nice lady who’d hired Reigen was so upset, before the boys were bowing and apologizing.
“We won’t be loud after dark any more!” the one called Shima said. “We’re very sorry, White T Poison’s master-san.”
“Yes, well,” Reigen filed away that nickname to ask Mob about later. “You didn’t know what you were doing. Now you can be better.”
“Thank you!”
He returned to Mob, and said, “Let's go tell our client that we’ve fixed things.”
“Yes, shishou.”
Teru leaned on the wall as he watched various gang members show up to talk to Kageyama. His friend was making it amazingly difficult to keep his chuckles just chuckles. Especially when Kageyama walked to the one guy who’d pretty much turned his entire school uniform into a rhinestone mess. The boy’s boots flashed with every step, and it was all the better since he took Teru’s terrible, terrible advice.
Now the guy had little led lights to better show up at night.
“I used to have shoes like that,” Kageyama said, nodding thoughtfully. “When I was little.”
“Wow…” the guy sighed, awed. “Do you still have them, maybe? Or do you want to know where I got the kit for mine?”
Kageyama took a step back. “Oh, no, that’s okay. I have enough shoes for now.”
“Maybe… maybe we could deck yours out? I could come to your house?”
“Kageyama-kun,” Teru took his place at his shoulder, smiling politely. “Can I talk to Budou-kun for a moment?”
“Okay, sure.” He went off a little ways, letting one of the other guys claim his attention. Once Teru was sure he was out of earshot, he turned to his target.
“We’ve talked about this. White T Poison doesn’t have time to indulge you.”
“I- I thought he was interested, I wasn’t-”
“He’s urabanchou of the whole city, you think he cares about your shoes?”
“No, I… I don’t really, I just…”
“Back off. Don’t invite yourself anywhere.” Teru scowled. “You weren’t with that group who went to his house, were you?”
“No! Of course not!”
“Good. You find me the names of those guys and I can get you another face-to-face meeting. They really crossed a line, especially involving brother-kun.”
“I wouldn’t, Teru-san. I’ll ask around.”
“Good. Good talk.”
Budou looked at Kageyama longingly, “Yes, Teru-san.”
He watched the boy hurry off, looking incredibly determined. He knew Budou was a good choice for the job, if a bit too pushy at times. Teru returned his attention to Kageyama, and was pleased to see that one of the satellite gang leaders was bowing respectfully to Kageyama. The boy was even carefully introducing the lieutenant of the gang, while keeping the rest of the gang behind him, but not moving any closer.
Teru listened in, and it was just about a slight restructuring at Pasta Sauce Middle School. Seemed like one of the former leaders graduated early, and they had to scramble to fix things up properly.
“Kageyama-kun, don’t worry.” Teru clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s below your notice.”
“It’s okay, Hanazawa-kun. I don’t mind if he wants to introduce his friend.”
“Yes, but you don’t need to concern yourself.” He made a show of glancing at his watch. “That’s enough for today, don’t you think?”
“I’m sorry,” Kageyama agreed. “He’s right, I should get to work. Very nice meeting you.”
With a few more hasty apologies, Kageyama took his leave. Teru was left alone with Kageyama-kun’s underlings.
“If you need to pass on a message, go through me,” he told them. “And remember, White T Poison doesn’t like to be bothered with little things. If you can’t handle it yourself, what kind of gang are you?”
The banchou looked irritated at that, but also wasn’t stupid enough to try anything to retaliate. It was clear the guy wanted to get in good with Kageyama, but also realized that Kageyama trusted Teru far more than anyone else. Which was one of the reasons that Teru did this. He wouldn’t have his friend hurt by social-climbing meatheads who didn’t realize there was more to life than bashing another’s head in.
Being top of the tower wasn’t all there was to life, and he knew that now.
But he also loved the ridiculous lengths some of the gang members went just to impress their new leader. It was hilarious to watch them attempt to top each other, and Kageyama observing them with polite and on the edge of wonder expressions. Some of their attempts were so over the top, Teru had started taking pictures.
His favorite was the guy with fake cornrows. The guy had shaved his hair to look like it, instead of actually braiding his hair properly. Mostly since the boy’s hair couldn’t keep a proper cornrow at all.
Teru knew Kageyama-kun didn’t want this. Didn’t want to be the urabanchou, White T Poison, but he didn’t get much of a choice in the matter. You break it, you buy it. The least Teru could do was be his lieutenant. The buffer between kind, sensitive Kageyama, and the roughness of the delinquent life.
If anything, Kageyama was a good influence. There had been far fewer turf wars and almost no street fights since he became the shadow leader. When Teru was leader of his school he’d only wanted power and respect, he’d made no effort to change things. Kageyama disliked violence, and his position allowed him to put a damper on it.
Not wipe it out entirely, because these were still teenage boys he was in charge of, but it was a change nonetheless.
And if a few of the underlings had developed more-than-admiring feelings for their leader, that wasn’t such a bad thing. Perhaps the influence would spread deeper. Perhaps, for however long this situation lasted, there could be peace.