#reigen arataka imagine

[stargazer-dreamer]

Spiritbox

character: reigen arataka

reader: gender neutral

content warnings: sexual content, at the end

notes: also on ao3. 2k word count. unreliable narrator. companion piece to ghost box; it’s recommended to read that one first but it isn’t necessary

There was no room for a romantic angle in any of your current relationships. You didn’t want that. Even in your online communities, there wasn’t really anyone you were interested with in that type of manner, content to stay as just friends, just acquaintances, coworkers and space-sharers.

So you tried the popular dating app.

Reigen thinks it’s only appropriate, for a business, to branch out and follow the latest trends—to come up with new ways to put himself, and his name, and his office out there. Yes, he’s stood out on the street and handed out flyers, made a website, shot peace signs at passing cameras, but he still found that business was slow lately, boringly so; only emails and articles to fill the time.

When it was only him and Mob, a quiet day at the office usually saw him sending the kid home early. Now that he had an additional name in the lineup, there was only so many times a week he could send Serizawa to reorganize the massage oils before the man would mutter that there wasn’t much left to do. The fact of the matter was: there hasn’t been much of anything to do for quite the while, and Reigen was starting to get just a tad bit worried about how he was supposed to pay the upcoming bill.

He decides to download a dating app. That seemed new and innovative enough to gain a decent attraction. Plenty of people used those platforms to form various types of relationships, not just of the romantic kind. So he’s heard, that is—it’s not like he’s ever actually used a dating app before.

Successfully, anyway.

Besides the point—Reigen entered his login information and got to work rebuilding his profile; spending a lot of time scrolling through his camera roll to find the most appropriate photos to use and typing up the best imaginable pitch for the office he’s ever come up with. It took an entire afternoon—“Sl-slow day isn’t it, sir?”—but by closing time, he got the account up and running. It was under his name, with his face, but he figured it would do well to get potential customers well acquainted with his physical appearance—so they could associate him with his brand, of course. There was no Spirits and Such without the greatest psychic of the twenty-first century, after all.

He spent the rest of the night and most of the following day swiping right. Statistically speaking, if he set his range at the largest possible amount and liked every account that came his way, he was bound to get at least a couple of matches. And once he did, only a handful of those would actually interact with him, and out of those, only a fraction would come to see him. That had been his previous strategy with the app, anyway. It would have been, if he had ever used it before, of course.

His hand was starting to cramp when Mob asked him—“What game are you playing, Master? You’ve been playing it all day, is it that interesting?”

Suddenly, it felt extraordinary hot in the room. His back was wet, like he ran ten marathons and was about to start another one immediately afterwards. His mind went blank, and he found that he was lost without words. This was a very uncommon occurrence for Reigen—for you see, he was able to talk himself out of just about any situation he found himself in, and was quite known to be capable of talking a mile a minute if he really wanted to—so to be left so utterly tongue-tied without an idea on exactly why he felt such a way burned him up. Badly. Like he needed to throw his phone against the wall, fast, before it was too late.

This was about the same time that Serizawa found his voice. “I probably have the same game…do you want some tips?” And when he started to lean in over his shoulder to see what exactly was on Reigen’s phone, the device did, in fact, find its way across the room; crashing against the wall opposite, ricocheting around, before bouncing to the floor, where it clattered to a stop at the foot of his desk.

Silence filled the space. It felt like a record-breaking summer.

Finally, like a switch had been flipped, he regained some of his bearings. “Oops!” he exclaimed, “I dropped my phone! How clumsy of me!” He laughed, getting up to retrieve the device; and it was an achievement in itself that the two psychics in the room couldn’t have stopped the phone in time—but to have them both so stunned by his behavior that they didn’t pick it up for him was award-worthy, truly. He outdid himself this time.

A quick inspection found nothing amiss, so he snapped it shut, and slipped it into his pocket. He swiped at his bangs—to wipe away the lingering sweat—and smiled. “It’s just some gatcha game I saw an ad for. I was grinding for crystals so I could do some more pulls.” A wink to Serizawa saw the man blushing and turning away, so he didn’t catch the thumbs up he gave him. “You know how it is.”

“I-I do—I do. Good luck, sir.”

“Oh,” was all Mob said, and nothing more; and they left it at that.

---

It took about a week before he got his first match. He was so ingrained in typing up an email one-handed while using his other to simultaneously consistently swipe that he almost missed the notification. He scrambled into the chatroom.

[[ hello!! ]]

He waited.

He waited all day, but got left on read.

---

This happened six more times over the course of the next month before he actually got a reply. It took another two for him to realize that he couldn’t wait for a reply back to start his spiel, he had to lead with it instead. That got some conversations going, but no one actually agreed to come out to see him. He was getting traction, but stumbled halfway out.

This was familiar. Achingly so. 

---

The day after he matched with you, he was about to shut the whole venture down and come up with a new one. Maybe focus more on the website, maybe find some bulletin boards and scatter some posters in the local area. He was laying in bed, contemplating some ideas when you messaged him.

(( Hi ))

He stared at the message. He had already sent the pitch beforehand; such a simple response must mean that this was a potential future client, surely. A quick look through your profile was enough to tell him he should take the friendly approach.

[[ hello!! ]]

[[ how may i help you? ]]

The friendly approach included lots of emojis. According to research, frequent amount of emoji use made people appear more sociable and less intimidating. He hoped he wasn’t overdoing it, less he appeared corporate instead.

The symbol indicating you had seen his messages popped up, and he gripped his phone a bit tighter.

(( You’re a psychic? ))

[[ yes i am!! ]]

There was a pause. He felt himself gulping, despite himself.

(( Do you do curses? ))

In the privacy of his own bedroom, he allowed his tongue to click. If this was where your mind went after seeing the word psychic, he better let you down as quickly as possible, as easily as possible.

[[ i’m afraid i don’t offer curses ]]

[[ i do offer evil repellent charms if that’s something you’re interested in ]]

Hopefully, that would satisfy you enough. It usually worked as an alternate option for clients; it had to be presented before they got too worked up, though. People who craved curses tend to latch on to ideas quickly and refuse to let go, kicking and screaming.

(( That sounds interesting. Tell me more? ))

Bingo.

---

Over the course of the following week, you were the only one he had matched with. That was a negative. A positive, however, was that your curiosity seemed to grow the more you spoke to each other—and he found himself messaging you throughout the day. You would ask him about his business. What sort of methods he used and what kind of spirits he’s faced. If he was successful, what he would do in hypothetical situations. Easy to answer questions, and even easier to embellish answers.

It was on the seventh day that Mob spoke up. “Master, have you been messaging clients?”

Once more, the office turned into a sauna. From his desk, he stared blankly at his student.

“Because if you are, I don’t think it’s working.” The kid always had such a way with words, truly. “We haven’t had many jobs lately.” It was the truth. Spoken clearly, if not confidently.

He wondered why Mob assumed he was messaging a client specifically, and not someone else. Not a personal matter or another acquaintance of his, family or friend. But when he thought about it, and he looked into his student’s eyes, partially obscured by his cropped hair, Reigen didn’t like the conclusion he got to. Not at all.

“Ah, well,” his hands flew around him, pointing and gesturing to nothing in particular but his vague point. And what was his point? Why was he so flustered? “I set up a messaging line on the website, is all. So I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately. That must be why we haven’t had many walk-ins this week—my online advice is just that good! I impress even myself sometimes, really.”

He was glad Serizawa had class today. He was sure the man would have checked the so-called messaging line on the spot. Mob, for his part, just took his word on it.

“Oh,” he said, and nothing more; and they left it at that.

---

The dating app strategy worked. He hit a breakthrough, and over half of the customers coming in over the following month were those he had matched with—and a good chunk of the other half had been word of mouth from that demographic. Business was flourishing. The safe never looked so good. Clients and curiosities flooded in; his schedule was booked for the first time in ages. He had several interviews with news sites and even a small television segment. The dating app strategy truly was innovative, and he started running across other small businesses during his swiping sessions—he was a trendsetter.

Reigen Arataka, the headlines said in big, bold letters. Greatest Psychic of the Twenty-First Century.

Of course, with the raise in popularity, the truth eventually came out to the rest of the office. Mob labeled him a genius. Serizawa was happy for him. He didn’t know why he was so embarrassed to begin with.

He delegated all the duties of the app to himself. It would be much easier if he had help—but he didn’t want them to see your messages. His face still burned at the thought of it, so he split up the rest of the workload evenly, to keep up with the demand.

One day, in the office, between appointments, in the lull of papers shuffling and a lunch-run, Reigen held up his phone in front of him. The shutter noise was turned all the way down, so Serizawa didn’t hear the photo of himself he took. He was feeling pretty good. Better than he had in weeks.

He sent it to you.

Your curiosity seemed to have peaked a while back, but you had never once come in. You had admitted that the conversations you shared were pleasant and, on a day very much like this one, Reigen was careless, and gave you his number. He enjoyed talking to you, too. He found himself checking his phone more often, these days. And when you sent a photo of yourself back, he felt his heart skip a beat.

Oh.

He couldn’t leave it at that; and he cleared his schedule.

---

The day you finally came to visit him was the day he finally got to touch you. Your moans underneath him was all he could ever ask for, and the fact that this was his workspace didn’t matter much to him at all. Not when your lips parted like that, and your back arched for him. Not with the scent of you, and him, and the oils and incense around you, so much that it made it hard to think. Intoxicating, driving him further and further off the edge, higher, rapidly—

He buried himself deep, and you gasped, writhing across the massage table, panting and blurry-eyed. In the moments following, his mind cleared enough for him to realize a thorough room cleaning was in order. And with that thought came another: it didn’t matter what happened—if you would have him, he’d be happy to clean up later.

[sallymew4]

supposed to be studying but all i have on my mind is this mind-shattering uncle&nephew duo. i need to be sedated

[doctorsiren]

Guys guys guys guys guys guys guys guys guys hear me out okay

the other two times we see Reigen portrayed as a kid (when he tells Sakurai about forgetting a lunch as a child and then when he’s talking about being afraid of urban legends and alleyways as a kid), he looks like himself but small, yes?

And so it’s goofy to me that his graduation photo only kind of looks like him (yeah I get it, his hair is different bc it’s picture day SHHH LET ME COOK) but he looks like Inukawa with Reigen’s eyebrows

So HEAR ME OUT

Reigen has an older sister that’s never talked about in the show but it was in one of those Q&A things (sorry for the blurry image, it’s the only version I have and I got it from Chatter HAHA)

But it says:

Please tell us about your family.

Father - Local government employee. A serious person, thinks I’m unemployed.

Mother - Housewife. A serious person, thinks I’m being tricked by someone into doing my current job.

Older sister - Bank employee. Told me I should hurry up and turn myself in to the cops once. Convinced that I’m a conman.

I haven’t shown my face around them in years, but it seems like we have some misunderstandings, so I’m thinking of going home once a year from now on.

SO HEAR ME OUT I made a joke that Inukawa and Reigen were actually related bc of the photo similarity and also bc during my telepathy arc rewatch, I was working on a project for my brother, and so I was looking down a lot and not at the screen. And I kept somehow mixing up Reigen and Inukawa’s voice lines because I didn’t realize how similar they sounded until they were in a place together?

And since Reigen has that older sister, what if Inukawa is actually her kid, meaning he’s Reigen’s nephew but neither of them know that because Reigen’s sister doesn’t talk to him and thinks he’s a criminal. (And the two of them never made the connections between the family names)

This is how I think it could go:

Anyways I love making up silly headcanons off of minimal information

[joethesparkle]

the thrilling sequel, dedicated to everyone who wanted to see Reigen adopt Teru!

[almondpiglet]

stuff originally for seriweek: spring

they went out for a snack but the bus ran late, but a lil rain never hurt no one!

[rassebers]

One and only one

[cup-o-noodlez]

Spirits & Such family company photoshoot

[nothingbizzare]

I think teru and ritsu would be silly friends jfyjfgfyfjy

[butcher--bird]

theyre on their smoke break come back later buddy

[taiga-pine]

ok NOW these middle aged men drive me crazy

[1o1percentmilk]

vs. the world!

[anicream]

rereading mob psycho and I was reminded that tome had her own "uu-chan" once (omake page below cut)

[dailyserirei]

WHITEDAY PART1 // PART2 (YOU'RE HERE!!!)

[DONE!!!! IM DONE!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAA THANK YOU FOR YALL PATIENCE AND ENJOYING IT!!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

[doctorsiren]

I think he would play baseball in high school 😁

[crying-art]

Day 3 & 4— Flowers and Curse

[justice-artblog]

Wait shut up, late night thought (For the Saiki×Mob Crossover)

Just the thought that one of his friends makes it into seasoning City for a day or two, either passing through or temporarily visiting family.

And just the thought that Saiki is so devestated by what happened that he literally decides to hide rather than face what happened, rather than face the people he left behind.

And Mob has to awkwardly turn them away like *No, you didnt see any pink haired kids around here named Saiki, no siree!*

And manages to successfully ward off the friend. So he goes to Saiki's hiding place, and for the briefest moment sees the barest hint of devestation on Saiki's face. Morphed in grief before it smooths out.

Saiki wants to go, but Mob convinces him to just sit and wait it out.

And wait they do.

Either that, or.

Or.

They visit at Reigen's workplace. Cause they hear he's the greatest Psychic in the 21st century.

So surely this man can find their best friend, right?

And it's like 4 of them, And Reigen fully expects Saiki to give him sass when the teen makes note of people entering the building.

He does NOT expect Saiki to dive behind his desk and hunker down.

Amd 4 of his friends walk on, sit down, have tea and finally go onto their spiel.

"We know you do exorcisms but-"

"Well, we were wondering if you could locate someone? Cause you're a Psychic and all."

"I'm sorry?" Reigen blinks, plassing down his teacup as the teens shuffle nervously, the purple haired kid with glasses giving him a painfully peircing stare.

"Our friend." The teen explains, and slides across a picture of a very familiar teen. "Kusuo Saiki, he just up and disappeared one day."

Dont tell them Anything, Saiki's voice filters in his head that Reigen forces himself to just bite down the sarcastic comment bubbling up.

If anything, Saiki sounded nervous.

I do not.

"I'm not sure i understand." Reigen opts to say, waving a hand at Shigeo, who seemed just as tense as he felt. "Me and Mob here, arent really search and rescue types. Shouldnt you go to the police for this?"

"We did," The brown haired girl pushed up her own glasses, fingers drumming nervously against his chest. "Look, Psychic's have Telepathy, don't they? And youre the greatest one out there so- so maybe you can reach out to him... For us?"

"Please," The smaller blue haired teen voice quivered, his strangely wrapped forearms clasped together in a begging position. "Even if you tell us he's okay, that's all that matters!"

The conflicting feelings rise in his chest, the urge to tell the kid's everything was strong but-

Please, don't.

"I'm sorry," The smile he gives is a nervous one, lips twitching at the corners of his mouth. "My Telepathy has a range, and even then, if i havent met him personally i wouldnt be able to find him like that."

The way each teen deflated broke something in him, the desperate want to see if their friend is okay was palpable.

"But," He held up the picture of Saiki, the kid was surrounded by other's, 4 of them sitting right in front of him and the rest possibly being his classmates. "I can do this."

His eyes slipped closed, the blinding flourescent light leaving his world a view of dark skin toned reds. He pretended to focus, pretending to pour all his energy into this one photo.

'Do you really not want to say anything?'

No.

'Saiki-'

Drop it, Reigen, just... Just drop it.

'I'm going to tell them you're okay.'

Don't you-

'I won't say where or how, just that you're okay. Okay?'

...

'Saiki?'

Okay.

His eyes slipped open, squinting slightly at the bright lights as the teens starred at him expectantly.

"He's okay." Reigen smiled, and handed back the photo to the first teen.

"How?" The last teen finally spoke, slightly taller than the rest and gray hair almost white with the indoor lights. "How do we know it's not a trick, how do we know you're telling the truth?"

Well-

"I'm using a form of Psychometry." Reigen explained gently, watching the teen's glare harden. "Using a Photo, i can tell the state of being of the occupant within. There's a lot of you in there, granted, but with your description and knowing who I was targeting, it was easy to narrow it down."

He waved a hand down and up, letting their eyes trace his hand movements as the words registered in their brain

You're such a scam.

'Quiet you.'

"I don't know where he is." Reigen grimaced, the lie burning at his tongue. "But i can at least tell you he's okay."

"This is a trick." The taller teen snapped. "This has to be."

"Your friend," Reigen paused, thinking slowly. "He loves sweets, doesn't he?"

As a unit, they froze. The bittersweet smile he shot to them wasn't for show, Reigen felt sick.

"I got that from the photo." He pointed a hand, and then pulled back. "Loves Sweets, seems to be a bit of a homebody, a very quiet demeanour, yes?"

"All that... Just from a photo?" The smaller teen seemed to tear up. "Is there anything else?"

Don't do it, Reigen.

"I think... He misses you as much as you miss him." Reigen smiled. "His feelings are harder to pin down through the photo, and i don't know if im getting that because of the photo or if it's what he's feeling. But I believe, he misses you all too."

The fear faded, leaving nothing behind but relieved looks.

It took a couple minutes to wrangle them outside, denying pay even if the taller teen seemed to be loaded.

When the door clicked shut, he paused. Listening to the sounds of Mob shuffling and the absent noises that Saiki seemed to make.

"Kid's not telling us something." Dimple's appearence wasn't a surprise.

"Shut it Dimple." the words weren't harsh, but pointed, even as the spirit rolled his eyes and moved towards Mob, floating behind the other esper. "They're gone Saiki."

Shigeo shot him a look, his normally blank face twosted into something regarding mild concern.

'I know.' And he could hear Saiki shuffle, as if he were oulling himself into a small ball. 'I know.'

--

Like- do you see my vision????