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nie7027 · 5 months ago

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{{I've had this draft saved literally since April 18th 2019 but I didn't post it back then because I wanted to finish the super5 headcanons first... which i of course havent done.

But I think it's finally time I post it.

I reread it recently and I don't think it's as spoilery of other wips as I had initially and thought and its related to the other stuff I'm gonna post soon so why not use it as a preview for it?

Anyway it finally is here. I hope you enjoy this tiny list of headcanons}}

Mob psychobook headcanons

These could actually apply to any social red but Psychobook is the one i know besides Tumblr (and no, none of them have tumblr...maybe just Seri)

Teru's

Teru's used to be the typical popular kid psychobook where used to he the typical popular kid psychobook where he posted pics of the parties he went("Crazy night guys, thanks for inviting me!), his soccer matches ("Another victory for Vinegars soccer team. You are welcome~") and trainings(even some from his personal training when it didnt end that bad), the food he ate at the new trendy coffe he went and the obligatory selfie every couple of days that will make his notifications blow up everytime with likes and comments

Now he sometimes still does those but he posts mostly pics of nice sights he finds on his bicycle routes, pics of him hanging with his friends/new family or the lastest fuck up Reigen did

He, Shou and Tome are invested in a meme competition. Whoever makes Mob laugh the loudest wins. Sadly they have to be with him so he can see them.

Rarely Terus posts a pic of him & Mob (or Mob alone) with the emoji equivalent of a gay keysmash and when he does it drives crazy the whole alumnae of Vinegar middle school, everybody wondering who is that bland looking guy and what Teru meant by that.

Mob's

Mob's used to be empty but now it's filled with pics Tome posts of their karaoke outings, pics where the body improvement club tag him and Terus, shous and tomes memes

But he rarely uses it and doesnt get to see them. Still he likes the milk memes teru found (do those even exist?)

Thats why he doesnt know he has basically become the body improvements star. Captain musashi and the others tend to photos of him with inspirational quotes (warrio male kind of) in the club page to attract new reclutees

After terus mysterious post a swarm of Vinegar students tried to add him as friend

But Mob thinks they are internet weirdos and ignores their invitation

It's actually Dimple who uses it more

Ritsu's

Ritsus used to be th pristine psychobook profile proper of a student council member. He had added the majority of the school and he made posts of the schools next event, resolutions the council had reached after their last session or answered any question any student could have but was to shy to personally ask.

His most personal post where the seldom book quotes he posted from the lastest book he read and liked.

Everything changed with Shou

The students didnt know who he was but suddenly this random kid started to tag Ritsu in even more random posts(most of them hamster related...Ritsu liked all of them?) and post pics of him AND RITSU doing the weirdest things you could imagine

Theres a pic of Ritsu with the most ridiculous susprised face(thats the most expressive people have seen him?? Whats going on?) in front of a microwave in flames. The fact shou edited it with a caption saying "And he didnt believe me eggs could explode" didnt help

Theres another of them hangin at the tallest part of the city (people dont undertsmad how is that even possible? You cant even acces that area)

And theres even a blurry pic that looks like they are running away from a police car

Shinji, who knows whats Ritsu is truly capable of, likes each of those pics

Everybody in Salt middle school is confused. But the only thing they get is Ritsus "Sorry" to Kamuro when the council president makes a blank comment in the infamous police pic.

They quickly recognize Shou as the kid that sometimes flies(yeah FLIES) besides Ritsus classroom or sneaks in the school

Shou's

The only reason Shou made a psychobook profile was to keep in contact with the espers that helped him during the domination arc

But he quickly realizes how useful it is to annoy Ritsu when he is bored

Besides the memes and Ritsu pics, his psychobook is full of interesting facts of different animals and reblogs of drawings from artist he follows and tutorials

As Mob he was invaded by a swarm of vinegar students once he appears in one of Terus pics. He accepts all of them the same way he accepted Ritsus classmates. It ends well for him because that way his drawing are seen by many peoplea and he receives lots of likes.

It takes a while but he finally unblocks Seri one day. Seri likes each and every thing he posts and makes encouraging comments on his drawings.

Serizawa's

Seri had a profile during his isolation days where he added many "friends" (random internet weirdos) with whom he talked about the things he liked and the media he consumed

Once he rejoins society with the Spirits and such cre he makes a new personal profile

He only has his family, the spirits and such crew, his school friends and the super5 added but thats all he needs

He follows many cooking and baking pages and once he learns to cook he saves the recipes he wants to try

He doesnt know if he cried more the day Shou unblocked him or they day Teru put him as his dad.

Minegishis

Minegishi only has the super5, Mob Ritsu, Tome and his coworkers added as friends

He follows many pages about plants and how to take care of them and pages that post downloadable audiobooks for Shimazaki

He rarely posts but he likes all the posts where he is tagged.

His elder coworkers tag him in lovely pictures of flowers with inspirational quotes. He likes those too.

The other super5 make fun of him for this but they secretly like them, especially those that talk about being a good person.

He follows many trolling pages too but never reblogs them. He doesnt want the other to know where he gets some of his humor sense.

Hatori

Hatori follows mostly memes pages, specially those about programming because he can "relate"

He say he understands them. (He doesnt)

He almost fell for the "delete system32 to make you computer faster" joke but his coworkers stopped him. He passed it as him messing around

Shibata's

Shibata follows personal trainers and healthy foods pages

He and Seri swap recipes they find and think the other might like

He saves exercises routines and tries to convince the other super 5 to try them with him.

Specially Hatori, he needs them.

He is only succesful when he finds those routines based on fictional characthers

It doesnt last much

He follows the body improvement club page. He actually sends some of the quotes that end up in some of the Mobs pics.

Shimazaki's

Shimazaki doesnt have a psychobook per se

It's a bot that hatori made to post "uwu" ":3" or "nyas~" every once in a while

The profile pic is the photo they took of Shimazaki wearing the prank glasses

Sometimes the other super5 post photos of their hang outs

"Its our register of Shimazakis progress!" says Hatori

Sometimes it receives messages from internet weirdos and most of them go along the lines of "Weren't you the guy that kidnapped the prime minister?".

The others are horny texts.

They delete all of them.

Tome's

Tomes psychobook can be considered the normalest of the spirits and such crew.

Even though half of her posts are cospirational thories and supposedly aliens sightings

Apart from that she has the normal amount of friends ("Seriously guys, why do you have every random you find added?") and posts a regular amount of pics of her hangouts

Besides the memes. Teru and she share LGBTQ content they find interesting

Seri somehow is the first to know about the lastest news of the videogames they follow and tags her on them

She edits Terus posts of Reigen fuck ups and turns them into memes. The super5, Ritsu and Dimble(using Mobs profile) always like them.

Its on psychobook where she organizes the telepathy club next reunion

She has been nagging Mob and Take to use their psychobooks more so they can see in time what they are planning to do

Takenaka's

Take has enough with the whole wind reading thing. Good luck trying to convince him to make a psychobook profile.

Reigen's

Since his birthday during the separation arc Reigen decided to completeley get away from his psychobook seeing as how little those persons cared for him

But he forgets to delete the app

So one day his phone cant stop blaring with notifications and when Reigen picks it up to see what the hell was going on

He had messages and messages of exfriends congratulating him for his son and saying things like "Wow Reigen, you had it very closeted" "we didnt know you were so private" "who is the lucky mother?"

Teru had put him as his dad

Reigen was having an existencial crisis and needed some comfort so he started searching Seri

Only to find him crying because Teru did the same to him

They ended togeyher as a crying mess sprawled over the couch. Only Dimple got to see them like that

So writing my fanfic "Sunflower" made me think of these headcanons but i couldnt post them then because i hadnt finished the super5 headcanons and didnt want to spoil some things. As you can see this finally shows what Ive been saying of "College funds", "Sunflower" and the "super5 headcanons" taking place in the same universe.

Really, i wrote down a timeline of how these things overlap and can tell you what the s&s crew were doing while shimazaki was fucking around or what the super5 were doing while the crew celebrated terus birthdays.

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #hanazawa teruki #shigeo kageyama #ritsu kageyama #shou suzuki #serizawa katsuya #reigen arataka #tome kurata #takenaka momozou #minegishi toshiki #hatori nozomu #shibata hiroshi #shimazaki ryou #super 5 #nie's writing #boku no hero academia

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hongherbac · 2 months ago

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[Hatori Centric] He Didn't Press the Button - Chapter 1 & 2

Read it on AO3

Fandom: モブサイコ100 | Mob Psycho 100 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Words: 4,664 / about 10k when finished

Non-Romantic Relationships: Hatori Nozomu & Joseph, Suzuki Touichirou, Shimazaki Ryou

CW: curses, a lot of smoking

Summary: After "Claw" collapsed, Hatori began working for the government. He was never good at fighting, but rather at intelligence, logistics, and electrical warfare.

However, he was forced to face the front line this time.

Notes: Both Hatori and Shimazaki worked for the government in the psychic crimes department. Shimazaki was more like an agent, so he didn't need to go into the office everyday. Joseph was their team leader (unfortunately).

Chapter 1

　　The visitor's room was filled with a cold, sterile atmosphere. The furnishings were sparse. The room was divided into two halves by a thick glass partition, with only two plain tables in the middle. The glass above them has a few tiny holes that allow sound to pass through to the other side. Sitting here, face to face with his son, was the former leader of the terrorist organization, Suzuki Touichirou.

　　He was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, his hands in shackles, but he sat upright, his light blue eyes as calm and cold as ever.

　　Suzuki Shou, on the other hand, was always wriggling and squirming in his chair, his voice rising and falling, and his eyes as hot as his fiery red hair. Today, he was especially excited. He proudly stuck his report card to the glass - his first since junior high school. Needless to say, Kageyama Ritsu's contribution as a tutor was remarkable. And the constant attention from Fukuda, Higashio, and Ootsuki might... play some part as well.

　　Suzuki took a quick glance at his report card and nodded slightly, "As expected of my son."

　　Shou looked away, somewhat embarrassed, but his cheeks flushing a bright red, "Stop flattering yourself! I don't want to be like you!"

　　"I know, and you’ve done quite well. That's what I mean."

　　The boy was at a loss for words for a moment. He stammered out a few replies, but the blush on his cheeks grew deeper and deeper.

　　To outsiders, their interaction revealed the awkwardness and warmth typical of teenagers. If they weren't in such a white, monotonous room with thick bulletproof glass between them, it would be an ordinary domestic scene.

　　It's interesting how they only had fifteen minutes a week, but they became more like father and son than they had been in years.

　　They had been silent at the very beginning. Shou struggled with his expression, blushing and opening his mouth several times, as if he wanted to say something - maybe a curse, maybe a plea, or maybe just to ask how his father was doing in prison - but finally closed his mouth in frustration, only his eyes conveying the complexity of his feelings. Silence. The awkwardness was almost unbearable. Had they not both been so stubborn and refused to be defeated, one of them might have given up long ago.

　　Shou came every week, and Suzuki always appeared on time behind the glass, sitting quietly and waiting for his son to speak. Before anyone knew it, they had become quite comfortable talking to each other.

　　"Visiting time is over." The guard at the door announced.

　　Suzuki nodded to his son and stood up, ready to leave as the guard instructed. Shou continued to sit on the chair with his legs tucked up, and watched his father walk to the door under escort. Only at the last moment did he suddenly speak:

　　"Mom said she might be here next week. Don't let her down again!"

　　Suzuki didn't look back. But for the first time in months, his icy eyes wavered.

　　Only when his father's figure had completely disappeared and the metal door clanged shut, followed by the click of a turning key and the hum of an automatic electronic lock, did Shou slowly climb out of his seat.

　　Turning around, he saw a guard waiting patiently by the door. The place was heavily guarded, with armed personnel escorting anyone in and out. To put it nicely, they were escorting him; but to be honest, they were watching him. Shou put his hands in his pockets, greeted the guard cheerfully, and led the way out of the room. The guard followed silently, almost like a subordinate, as if Shou were the boss here.

　　The boy walked through several corridors and around a few corners with familiarity. Once out of the visitor’s room, it was no different from a normal office building. The fluorescent lights were dull, and the bulletin boards on the walls were pinned with some boring announcements ("Please separate your garbage!"). Employees walked around with papers and documents or chatted in the break room. No one could have imagined that in the same building, there was a facility housing a world-destroying esper.

　　As they passed by an office, a staff member poked his head out and called out to them.

　　"You are Suzuki Shou, right? It's good that you're here today. Starting next month, there will be a slight change in the visitation policy. Could you please come in and fill out some forms for me?"

　　"Alright."

　　He was about to step forward. But a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him, causing the boy to freeze.

　　"Hey, Shou, it's been a long time."

　　Shou turned around sharply. The guard who had been following him had vanished into thin air, replaced by a tall, slender figure in black. The man wore a burgundy V-neck shirt with a sleek dark coat over it, his eyelids half closed, and a cynical, confident smile on his face. The man just appeared at his back without any warning, so close that Shou could feel the chill of his arm hair brushing against him, effortlessly breaching his defenses.

　　He stepped back and raised his arms in defense. His bright blue eyes filled with hostility.

　　"Shimazaki."

　　"Really, am I such a pain in the ass?"

　　"What do you want - "

　　Before he could finish, Shimazaki reappeared behind Shogun again, placing a hand on his shoulder. They both disappeared in a flash.

Chapter 2

　　"... that concludes the mission objectives report. Any questions?"

　　Joseph finally finished his lengthy presentation. He let out a sigh and took out his lighter to light his cigarette as he looked around the conference room, observing the team members he was leading.

　　They were gathered around the table, either reading the thick stacks of documents in front of them, or whispering to each other in discussion, pointing out certain details, engrossed in their thoughts about the mission. There was only one young man, with light brown tousled hair, sitting alone at the far end of the long table, silent and buried in his laptop, looking rather out of place.

　　That was the youngest member of the team, and also the one who gave Joseph the most headaches: Hatori Nozomu.

　　Hatori, wearing an over-ear headset, hunched his shoulders and stared quietly at the flickering computer screen. His posture had hardly changed during the entire meeting, like a breathing statue, immersed in his own world of electronics, as if everything else had nothing to do with him.

　　If one didn't know Hatori, they might think he was busy with something important. But Joseph had seen it all. Since the beginning of the meeting, that computer had been playing cat videos for the entire 80 minutes.

　　A whole goddamn 80 minutes.

　　Joseph, with a cigarette in his mouth, looked at the esper askance, "Hatori, are you listening?"

　　"Yeah, the two known suspects are affiliated with a drug cartel, responsible for controlling Brown Sugar Town, and both possess moderate telekinesis. Kowa Yoshiko, a 36 year old female, a municipal employee with abilities in x-ray vision and lie detection. And Watanabe Shihide, a 28 year old male, is able to manipulate temperature, usually using ice spikes for attacks. Their superior is the team leader ‘Sun Hawk,’ whose identity, name, and abilities are currently unknown."

　　Hatori did not even blink, his gaze and posture stayed still.

　　"Recent intelligence indicates that they will meet on April 14th. We plan to send undercover agents to make contact and gather the missing information. You were about to announce the strategy of this operation. Sir, you may continue."

　　Joseph took a deep drag on his cigarette, trying to suppress an inexplicable irritation.

　　Of course, he could tell himself that he was just put off by the carelessness and frivolity of his subordinate. But he hadn't gotten to where he was by fooling himself. Joseph had to reluctantly admit that the reason he was so irritated was because Hatori was just too... excellent.

　　"Technokinesis". He appeared to be a weak fighter on the surface, but when pushed into the background, in roles of reconnaissance and support, he instantly became incredibly powerful. Surveillance, hacking, tampering, counterfeiting, anything related to electronics and airwaves. Once you could think of it, Hatori would surely make it.

　　When he was not on missions, he spent a lot of time immersed himself in databases. No one understood exactly what he was doing, but Hatori always knew a lot more than he should.

　　And his capabilities even went far beyond that. Joseph had once seen Hatori use five computer processors simultaneously as a medium, pulling footage from public and private surveillance cameras across the country in order to locate his target. The entire wall of screens scrolled through images at an astounding rate, and Hatori was poring over a thick, complex dossier while listening to another briefing on his headset at the same time, then tossed a takeout order at Joseph's face, demanding a treat to make up for the overtime, and listing a long list of foods for a post-work revenge meal.

　　Despite his poor attitude and endless complaints, Hatori had never failed any order. With such a capable subordinate at his command, Joseph should have no problem with that. Yet there was something he just couldn't stand, something that made him couldn't help but want to pick on Hatori.

　　"Fine. Give me your thoughts on this mission."

　　"My thoughts?" Hatori finally looked up at Joseph for the first time, slightly moving his headset slightly to one side, an almost condemning look in his eyes, "I don't make plans, 'sir'. You know what I can do. I follow your orders."

　　Joseph exhaled a long puff of white smoke.

　　He stubbed out the rest of his cigarette, adding another scorch mark to the already battered conference table. He turned to the other team members in the room, picked up the presentation pen again, and raised his voice slightly, "All right, everyone, buckle up. I'm going to continue with the action details, so please make sure you understand your own responsibilities…"

　　Needless to say, before Joseph had even finished his sentence, Hatori had already put his headphones back on and bent over his laptop again. The screen flickered with a new video window popped up. It showed a parrot cackling viciously and proudly pushing a bottle off the table.

　　The latter part of the meeting was even longer.

　　They went over every detail to the second, over and over again. From time to time, someone would offer an opinion, plunging the room into endless debates, struggling for a long time to reach a consensus. By the end, everyone had lost their patience and their temper.

　　When the meeting finally adjourned, everyone sighed with relief, slumped in their chairs, rubbed their temples, or lazily put away documents. The room suddenly came alive with the rustling of papers, the heavy scraping of chairs, and the cheerful chatter of relaxation. Hatori stood up, oblivious to his surroundings, closed his laptop and prepared to leave. But Joseph called out to him coldly.

　　"Hatori, come to my office."

　　"Oh, come on! Not again!" Hatori groaned in pain, "What is it this time?"

　　Joseph ignored him and walked out the door. Hatori reluctantly followed.

　　Just as Hatori was about to step out of the conference room, he suddenly felt something—Sharp. Oppressive. Cold. Like an invisible needle piercing his back—And it made him instinctively stop and look back.

　　But there was nothing.

　　Still the same room. Still the same colleagues. Some of them were slowly packing up and moving out, while others stayed where they were, leaning against the table, chatting with ease, showing no interest in them. Only a few noticed Hatori's sudden movement and looked back in confusion before turning away in embarrassment.

　　Maybe it was just an illusion. Shaking his head, Hatori switched the laptop to his other arm and quickened his pace to follow Joseph into his office.

　　It was thick with smoke. The ashtray was littered with crumpled cigarette butts, and the entire room was shrouded in a hazy white fog. The strong smell of smoke made Hatori cough and his eyes burn. Joseph slumped back in his chair, his legs stretched out on the desk, and leisurely puffed a cigarette between his fingers.

　　"Oh god, man, you're gonna die of lung cancer sooner or later."

　　"None of your business."

　　"If you keep calling me over here, then it is my business." Hatori wrinkled his nose and coughed, opened the window without permission, and then sat himself down in the chair, "So—what's the matter?"

　　Joseph squinted at him, "Think about what you've done. You should know very well."

　　Hatori didn't say a word, but looked at his boss cautiously from behind his glasses, as if weighing something carefully. One could almost hear his mind racing.

　　From this reaction alone, anyone could tell that he was definitely not innocent. Instead, he was more like a cunning criminal calculating and thinking, trying to deduce what cards each side held and how to deal with the current situation. Joseph must have some kind of information, but he deliberately kept it vague, trying to lure Hatori into revealing more. Of course, Joseph would not expect to fool him by this little trick...

　　However, damn it, as an intelligence officer, Hatori couldn’t help but be intrigued. But he had no intention of letting Joseph know that the question he was really pondering was not "How did Joseph know about this?" but rather "Which did Joseph actually know?"

　　Was it that he had traded a seasonal mobile game character to a colleague in exchange for writing two weeks' worth of reports?

　　Was it that he had hacked into the Prime Minister's speech script and added too many emojis to every sentence?

　　Or was it that he had secretly set Joseph’s hold music to Never Gonna Give You Up? (All of his colleagues had so far quietly respected this unique sense of humor, but he should have known it would come out sooner or later.)

　　Uh, the possibilities were endless. And Hatori was not an idiot.

　　"... I have no idea."

　　"Fine. You can keep denying it, but you know what I'm going to say."

　　"Oh, yeah?" Hatori crossed his arms defensively, "Then you know what I'm going to say, too."

　　"Exactly. I'm not wasting my time on this. You're free to go. Get outta here."

　　Hatori blinked, somewhat disbelieving that he was being let off so easily. He stood up tentatively, watching as Joseph already reached for a thick stack of reports and began to leaf through them with displeasure, seemingly completely ignoring Hatori. But then Joseph suddenly said:

　　"Oh, I need you to contact Shimazaki for me."

　　"Wha— he's missing again?"

　　"Same old story. No answer on the phone, no show." Joseph bit into his cigarette, "I often wonder if you two were sent by Suzuki to punish me."

　　"Paranoid. I wouldn't want to take your call if I were him."

　　Slinging the headset from his neck to his head, Hatori effortlessly connected it to the signal and crawled into the complex network of radio waves between base stations. He found the familiar wave of Shimazaki's cell phone and moved forward like moving along a rope, until his power reached the tiny, thin device and grasped its controls.

　　He let the cell phone ring for a few seconds as a prelude, then forced the call through, activated the speakerphone, and turned the volume up to maximum. Shimazaki hated it when the environment was out of his control. He couldn't predict the airwaves, and he was sensitive to sound, so he especially hated it when Hatori pulled a stunt like this. Frankly, Hatori was surprised that Shimazaki had never lost his mind and teleported over to kick his ass yet.

　　"Hey, Shimazaki. Our asshole boss is looking for you."

　　Hatori paused and waited. But there was no answer coming from the other end.

　　"Shimazaki?"

　　He pressed his hands against the headphones and listened intently, using his psychic powers to increase the sensitivity of the microphone. But there was still silence. No rustling of pockets. No pounding footsteps nearby. Just the faint sound of cars rumbling in the distance, probably coming through the walls.

　　Hatori took off his headphones, "He left his cell phone at home. There's nothing I can do."

　　"Then use the monitors to find him."

　　"And then? Broadcast a message telling him to report to the service desk?" He grinned, "And it's not as easy as you think. He can teleport. I can’t track him as usual."

　　Joseph swore.

　　"Fine. Try again later. I hope he's just out shopping and forgot his cell phone at home."

　　Hatori shrugged, but in his heart, he hoped the same.

　　It was tea time when he returned to his office. A few people from the neighboring team had dropped by, and everyone was gathered on the couch, with open snack bags scattered on the table, and paper bowls of disposed shells of peanuts and edamame. A burly man with thick eyebrows was telling a vivid tale of a thrilling mission filled with intrigue, danger, and chase, which ended with the heroic apprehension of the psychic criminal. The others intermittently chimed in with encouragement and cheers.

　　As soon as Hatori pushed open the door, they all fell silent, as if the volume had suddenly been turned down, scratching their faces and turning their heads away.

　　Hatori gave a cheerful greeting, grabbed a bag of opened potato chips before walking into his own seat. None of his colleagues responded.

　　Hatori set up the laptop next to three large monitors. Behind them displayed a number of magnets and trinkets from gacha capsules. Some high-ranking official (definitely not Joseph) had decided to give him this cubicle, twice the size of the others, so it could accommodate all the equipment and decorations. The computer screens lit up, and each began to scroll through a multitude of incomprehensible commands.

　　"Hey, Hatori."

　　The burly man who had just told the story shouted from the couch in a somewhat deliberate tone.

　　"The coffee machine isn't working. Do you have any ideas?"

　　Hatori looked up from his seat and gave a cursory glance, "Bad wire contact. The... heating component on the top right? I don't know what it's called, but that's where it is. The welds are a little rusty."

　　"......"

　　There was a strange silence. The burly man just looked at him.

　　"Please, guys, you can't blame me for every electrical problem. Can't you just fill out a repair request yourself?"

　　"Yes, of course, of course. I didn't mean that." The burly man said falsely, "But now we are all out of coffee. I think you might be kind enough... Because, you know, we don't want to be irritable."

　　Hatori rolled his eyes.

　　As if intimidated by his attitude, the coffee machine suddenly buzzed to life. The blades whirred as they ground the beans, and the water gurgled through the pipes. Soon the spout poured out a rich, deep brown espresso. The steam swelled and the aroma filled the air. The glass pot overflowed with the refreshing liquid.

　　His colleagues eagerly stood up to get their coffee. The pot was passed from hand to hand until there was hardly any left. Once they had their drinks, they seemed relieved at last, and returned to their former cheerful chatter.

　　Like pigeons eating the feed. Hatori thought.

　　He took his mug and walked over to pour the rest of the coffee into it. It wasn't even half full. So he put the coffee pot back under the machine and let it brew again.

　　At that moment, he felt that sharp, oppressive, and cold sensation again.

　　Hatori stiffened. He stared at the coffee machine as it slowly poured out the hot beverage. Twice in a short period of time. And now that he was standing still, the sensation was even stronger. Either he was about to have a stroke, or something—something that could disappear the moment he turned his head—was trying to "invade" him, but was being resisted by his psychic energy.

　　Hatori filled his mug with coffee, then turned around with a feigned ease.

　　Still, there was nothing. The same office, cluttered with unprocessed work documents. The same colleagues, too busy chatting and joking to even look at him. Hatori almost doubted if he was going crazy. But he had another way to verify it.

　　He hurried back to his seat with the coffee. The countless commands scrolling across the screen suddenly froze and were then wiped away. Hatori thought for only a second before deciding to make them start playing the first thing that came to his mind: live penguin camera feeds of a zoo. It would serve as a disguise so that anyone who saw it would just think he was distracted again.

　　Actually, Hatori concentrated, and he submerged his consciousness into the computer. He was going to bypass the monitors, directly interpreting the complex electronic flows inside. He carefully maintained the screen display while pulling up the surveillance footage of the office.

　　It was a few minutes ago. 2:48 p.m.

　　The camera overlooked the east side office from a 33-degree angle with a fisheye lens.

　　Hatori watched his own figure on the screen. (He had combed his hair this morning, why was it so messy again?) A few minutes ago, he had picked up his cup and left the booth, walking towards the steaming coffee machine. As he passed by his colleagues, they looked up, their eyes fixed on his back. Hatori was about to smirk at the childish behavior, but he realized that it was much worse than that.

　　For it was not just a few people. Rather, it was every single colleague, every pair of eyes, behind Hatori's back, one after the other, turning their heads to look at him. Their eyes were dull and emotionless, but their lips kept moving in conversation. And just as he finished pouring the coffee and turned around, in less than a second, all of his colleagues averted their eyes again and returned to their original relaxed, chatty postures. All the movements were perfectly synchronized, like a group of remote-controlled toys following a specific command at the same time.

　　WHAT THE HELL?

　　Hatori replayed the footage again in a daze. And then again. And then again. Almost hoping that the image would miraculously change. But each time the scene was always exactly the same: him facing the coffee machine, completely unaware of all the weird, predatory stares behind him, leering as if they wanted to eat him alive.

　　His fingertips were numb and cold, and a wave of nausea welled up inside his body. It felt like he was going to throw up.

　　"Hatori."

　　The call startled him, snapping his consciousness back to reality. The buzzing pale fluorescent lights made him blink rapidly. A coworker stood by the cubicle with a thick file in his arms, looking somewhat confused.

　　"Uh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were so ...... focused." The coworker glanced at the screen, where an emperor penguin was preening its feathers, "If you have a moment, could you help me with—"

　　It was bad. It was really bad. Hatori's hands trembled, and the churning in his body even intensified.He couldn't believe that this guy had stared at him like that just a few minutes ago and was now talking so casually about work. His instinct told him that he had better not show any signs of wavering. His colleagues hadn't made any hard moves yet. However, it might change the whole facade of peace if they found out that Hatori was aware of it. But he must have looked terrible, shock and panic in his eyes.

　　Hatori grabbed his mug, and he forced himself to inhale while gulping it down at the same time.

　　Then he immediately regretted it.

　　He spat out the coffee. The liquid invaded his airways like razor blades, causing his throat to burn, and his chest to constrict with a dull, aching pain that felt like an explosion. Hatori bent over uncontrollably, tears bursting from his eyes, coughing so hard that it felt like his lungs were about to expel themselves. He clumsily tried to put the mug back, but ended up knocking it over on the table, spilling coffee everywhere.

　　His coworker frowned and backed away in disgust. Hatori tried to apologize, but he couldn't speak at all. It was agonizing to even try to breathe. He could only make a few muffled grunts, pushed his chair away, and stumbled toward the restroom.

　　Hatori leaned over the sink, gasping for air.

　　He looked down and noticed that his light blue pigeon sweater (his favorite sweater!) was splashed wet with large, hideous coffee stains running through the fabric. Hatori immediately took it off, cursed loudly, and rinsed it with fresh water in the sink. Part of him was genuinely angry, reaching for the soap and twisting the knobs roughly, making loud pinging and thumping noises, deliberately, for everyone to hear; while another part of him forced his thoughts to work as quickly as possible. Think. Think fast. He would make his colleagues suspicious if he stayed in the bathroom too long, and Hatori had to come to three conclusions before then.

　　The first question—what was going on?

　　Split attitudes. Strangely synchronized movements. This reminded Hatori of a classified document. It recorded a major cult brainwashing event where the victims had retained their usual personalities and interests, but had simply been implanted with complete loyalty to the cult leader. Their behavior seemed so natural that no one noticed anything wrong at first. It was only when the leader began to act on a large scale that the cult members were suddenly able to share information among themselves without words, as if they all belonged to a common giant spiritual network.

　　Brainwashing. Mind control. Call it what you like, but the above descriptions fit the situation quite well. Hatori's colleagues... were not particularly powerful, but experienced agents at least. The opponent must possess a certain strength. Stronger than most espers, but not strong enough to break through the energy barrier of Hatori, one of the former "Super Five".

　　The second question—what was the purpose?

　　Stealing classified information, influencing enforcement decisions, disrupting apprehension operations... To be honest, if someone had the ability to brainwash an entire government department, Hatori could think of no reason not to.

　　Several nearby teams had apparently fallen. Of course, the opponent would try to bring everyone under control, and then they come across Hatori, who somehow resisted the brainwash and became a destabilizing factor. With Hatori's combat capability, his colleagues could have easily taken care of him: knocked him out, tied him up, killed him, etc., basically dealing with him however they pleased.

　　But they hadn't done anything yet. This meant that Hatori still had some utility. As long as he remained unaware of his colleagues' condition and continued to do his job diligently without causing any trouble, they would be content to let him be. For now.

　　The third and the most important question—what should he do now?

　　Ugh. Shit.

　　Hatori took a deep breath and looked at the wrinkled, damp pigeon sweater in his hands, which still had a big brown stain from rubbing. He wrung it out as hard as he could and put it back on, ignoring the dripping edges. He looked like a mess in the mirror, but he was much calmer now. Now, He knew what he should do.

　　Nothing.

　　He didn't know the extent of the brainwashing, and whoever he reported it to could put him in danger. He just had to play his role as a competent worker: Capable. Excellent. Obedient. Make no decisions. Irresponsible.

　　...... That should be enough. Right?

#fanfic #fanfiction #mob psycho 100 #mp100 #ao3 #archive of our own #nozomu hatori #super 5 #ultimate 5 #shimazaki ryou #mp100 joseph #suzuki shou #hatori nozomu #suzuki touichirou

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