Archive of Our Own ^beta

Shigeo raised a hand to block the sun from his eyes, but that didn’t seem to stop its shining beams from nearly blinding him. It looked pretty reflecting against the ocean, he supposed. Well, he was pretty sure it did, at least. He couldn’t actually tell. You know, with it being in his eyes and all. So far, he was having a hard time figuring out what exactly was supposed to be so fun about the beach. The sun was in his eyes, sweat was dripping down his brow and his back, and he could feel sand that had somehow wormed its way into his socks. He didn’t know how, given that his tennis shoes were tied tightly. He was about as far away from the water as he possibly could be.

Kageyama Shigeo was not afraid of the water. He simply preferred not to be wet. He didn’t care for the sand either, since now his shoes and socks were grainy and uncomfortable, and they’d be that way forever, he was pretty sure. The simple solution to not having permanent grainy socks and shoes would’ve been to wear sandals, or maybe some rubber shoes or something that would be easy to rinse off, he knew, but given that he’d left his house this morning with the full intention of going to work, he’d worn his tennis shoes, as he always did. (They were the best at running away from spirits that were too powerful for him to exorcise. Probably. He hadn’t actually run into a spirit that was too powerful for him yet, but Reigen had always advised him to be cautious, so he listened.)

He stared out at the ocean. He… wanted to go to work.

𓈒ㅤׂㅤ𓇼 ࣪ 𓈒ㅤׂㅤ⭒
𓆡 ⭒ㅤ𓈒ㅤׂ 🫧

Today was the first day of summer vacation. Shigeo had never particularly cared for school holidays, but he didn’t have to wake up early like he did on school days, so he was pretty glad. His memory of the morning was decently hazy, since he’d been mostly asleep- he was never a morning person, after all- but he vividly remembered Ritsu and his father leaving away for a dentist appointment for his brother, and his mom kissing him on the forehead and reminding him that Reigen would be there for him later, and to please be up and ready in the next thirty or so minutes. He hadn’t been. In fact, he didn’t wake back up until he’d heard insistent knocking at his door. Technically, he knew he wasn’t allowed to open the door for strangers, but the person knocking insisted that he was Reigen and to please open the door because if he’d been kidnapped or something, his mom would be really, really upset with him.

It was Reigen. He had waited patiently as Shigeo got dressed at a sloths pace, and held his hand down the stairs and crossing the road, which Shigeo was too old for, but Reigen didn’t seem to care. He had never really paid attention to directions, he tended to just be taken somewhere, and then end up in that place. He’d ridden the train with Reigen multiple times, and always ended up right at Spirits and Such. Today, they did not, which he hadn’t realized until they actually were standing both feet on the beach.

“...Is this beach haunted, shishou?” Shigeo asked uncertainly. He didn’t sense anything. The beach didn’t feel haunted, and this didn’t really seem like the type of place that would be haunted, with all of the people running around and laughing, but spirits did weird, unexplainable things sometimes.

“What?” Reigen asked, turning towards him. “Mob, no, the beach isn’t haunted.”

“Then… why are we here? I thought we had an important job.”

“We do have an important job here today,” Reigen paused for what Shigeo had recently learned was ‘dramatic effect’. He hadn’t yet learned how long dramatic pauses were supposed to go on for, but this one… felt like it was going on much too long.

“Uhm…” he began, only to silence himself when Reigen gave a thumbs up.

“Our job is to have an incredible day at the beach,” he said with a flourish of his hand. “The weather is perfect, there aren’t too many people around, and I saw not one, not two, but three different ice cream stands! This is an ideal beach day!”

A moment of silence passed. Then two. Then three.

“This is… where you would usually agree this is a perfect day for the beach, Mob.”

“Right,” Mob agreed with a hesitant nod. “Except, I don’t like the beach.”

“You don’t like the- you don’t like the beach?!” Reigen repeated, utterly flabbergasted.

“Not really. It’s bright. And sandy. And I’m not a very good swimmer.”

“That’s not gonna do, no,” Reign shook his head. “By the end of it, you’re going to love the beach. Trust me. You wait hare, I’m gonna go get ice cream. Stay.”

“Ah, wait, shishou-” He tried, but Reigen had already turned on his heel and hurried away, sliding in the sand, because it’s pretty much impossible to walk normally in the sand. Shigeo looked back towards the water. There really weren’t too many people. The waves sounded nice, and he wasn’t close enough to get wet, which was nice. Otherwise though, he wanted to go home. The sweat was making his shirt stick to him uncomfortably, and he hadn’t brought any sunscreen, or a hat. He… didn’t get it.

𓈒ㅤׂㅤ𓇼 ࣪ 𓈒ㅤׂㅤ⭒
𓆡 ⭒ㅤ𓈒ㅤׂ 🫧

Ice cream, as it often did, was making the day much more enjoyable. Not enough for him to actually want to get into the water, but he’d inched ever closer per the coaxing of Reigen. Reigen who was currently in the water. He didn’t seem to be enjoying it too much, but he was kicking water around in what Shigeo was decently sure was an attempt to convince Shigeo to come in too. It wasn’t working.

Instead, Shigeo crouched down, staring down at the water that was just barely missing his shoes. He drew aimlessly in the sand. Ritsu first, then tried his mom and dad. He drew a zebra, then an ice cream cone, then a spirit he’d exorcised last weekend. Each time the water washed a drawing away, he’d start anew. It was fun, but he’d probably enjoy it more if his fingers weren’t so grainy, and if he didn’t keep pricking them on random shells.

Water splashed up in front of him, then slowed as he felt Reigen crouch down beside him.

“What are you drawing?” He asked.

“Seahorse.” Shigeo replied. He was doing his best to draw a seahorse by memory but now that he thought about it, he couldn’t remember the last time he saw a seahorse. It looked more like a blob.

“I see,” Reigen said anyways. “Are you having fun?”

“I guess so.” When the water washed the seahorse blob thing washed away, Shigeo didn’t continue drawing. He licked his ice cream. The beating sun had melted it down so that it was dripping down his hand and arm. He hated when ice cream did that.

“I guess my ice cream bribery isn’t really working, huh? You don’t like the beach any more than you did before?”

“Well… no. Not really.” Shigeo answered truthfully, licking up his arm to get the ice cream. It tasted salty.

“Yeah.” Reigen looked towards the ocean. “I didn’t like it when I was your age either.”

“But you like it now?”

“Kind of. I think I like the idea of it more than I like the beach itself. There’s sand in my shoes.”

“Mine too,” Shigeo agreed. He finished up his ice cream, missing its coolness as soon as it was gone. Now he had no reprieve from the heat. “Why did we come here if you don’t like it either, shishou?”

“Not sure. It seemed like a good summer idea, at the time. Are you scared of ocean?”

“No.”

“You haven’t gotten in yet.”

“...It’s deep. And it goes on for a long time.”

“So you are scared?”

“I think…” Shigeo furrowed his eyebrows. He couldn’t quite figure out what he wanted to say. “I think I don’t like that I can’t see it all.” He decided on after a while. Reigen nodded.

“I understand. It’s pretty big.”

“Are you scared of it too, shishou?”

“A little bit, sometimes.”

“But you were out kicking around in it earlier,” Shigeo pointed out.

“Well, sure, but that’s because I’m used to it.” Reigen shrugged. “We’ll never be able to see it all at once, and we’ll probably never know what’s all in it, but we can’t let that stop us from exploring it anyways. We can either dive in the water ourselves, or let the water meet us. It seems scary, but at least we’re in control, right?” Shigeo took a moment to think about this, eyes turning from where he’d been drawing back to the ocean. It seemed to be getting further away now. Hm.

“I’m going to get more ice cream. I dropped mine in the ocean. Wait here, okay? I’ll be right back.” Reigen stood, and seemingly having learned his lesson from last time, walked slowly back towards an ice cream stand back out on the board.

Shigeo supposed Reigen was right, as he often was. He’d never really know what all was out there. Though, he did know some things that were out there. Like jellyfish, and eels, and sharks. He’d learned about them, in picture books, and horror movies that he wasn’t allowed to watch, and got too scared of after the very first person got eaten by a shark. He inched closer to the water. He was pretty sure man eating sharks couldn’t come up this close to land. Probably. He didn’t know much about them, to be honest.

He stood up, carefully taking off his shoes and tucking his socks into them carefully. His feet were wet now, not quite close enough for the actual water to touch, but the wet sand made him grimace. It didn’t look like there were any eels or jellyfish from what he could see. If he didn’t go too deep, he could still see the sand.

Cautiously, he dipped a toe in. It was cold. Apparently the water didn’t seem to realize that it was really hot outside. He pulled his foot back. Then, he closed his eyes, and took a step. Then a second, and a third. He walked all the way until he could feel the water up to his knees. It didn’t get any warmer, but he found himself not minding as much.

When he chose to close his eyes, it seemed a lot less scary. He couldn’t see, sure, but it was on his own terms. And he stepped on a shell, but it didn’t really hurt too bad. He opened his eyes, tilting his foot up to check, and it wasn’t bleeding, so it was fine. He turned his attention towards the rest of the sea. It was prettier up close, he thought.

“Mob! You’re in the water!” He heard Reigen splash up behind him.

“Yeah. It’s not so bad,” He turned towards his teacher, accepting the ice cream cone he was offered.

“I told you so!” Reigen flourished with the hand holding his brand new ice cream cone, causing a scoop to drop directly into the ocean. “Oh. dam- rn. Darn it.” Shigeo watched the water wash it away, licking cautiously at his own.

“Ah.”

“Second time. Anyways, is this the best beach day ever? Do you love the beach?”

“Uhm… not really, but… but it’s not as bad as I thought before. Thanks, shishou. For bringing me. And for the ice cream. It’s tasty.”

“Yeah, sure, Mob. Next time though, we should do something inside. You know, the office really needs cleaning.” He offered. Shigeo nodded, hardly listening. The beach really wasn’t so bad.