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The idea of being hurt is strange in their relationship, purely because it happens so often, but on the tiniest of scales. Reigen gets paper cuts all the time. He stubs his toe, or when he goes out to exorcise a ghost, he'll end up just getting conked on the head and needing an ice pack. Ekubo gets hurt too, but sometimes it's just a little scrape on his spiritual form, a thing he needs just a few hours to regenerate with Serizawa's help, or it's a missing limb in his more powerful form that's remedied with a bit of thought and belief.
Hurt happens to them on little levels.
But now Reigen's bleeding. He's been impaled, tossed about by an Esper with a grudge against the world. They'd gone after Mob, who'd been so caught up in protecting himself that he hadn't noticed the piece of shrapnel from the last explosion. He didn't see it whiz past; a metal pipe with Reigen Arataka as its target.
Ekubo didn't notice it either, not until the thing went straight through Reigen's torso, missing his spine and lungs by the tiniest of degrees. It's clean, in one side and out the other, but it doesn't go completely through. The pipe is too long for that. The thing Ekubo does notice though, is that Reigen's staggering backwards, and if he ends up falling that way, the pipe's gonna do way more damage than it has initially.
He's under Reigen's skin in an instant. Counterbalancing him, Ekubo leans forward, trying to not stumble backwards any more. It's easier to catch himself this way, although if he ends up falling forward that's just going to push the pipe further in. In the back, lurking just under his control, Reigen is writhing. Ekubo is used to pain, knows how to personally block it out, but it's still in his senses and Reigen can feel his organs, feel the muscle aching.
Mob hasn't noticed yet, he's still busy. That's good. If Mob notices, then everything's going to get a lot more dangerous.
"Kneel," Reigen's mouth says, despite the fact it's Ekubo talking. They're still two separate beings at the moment. Reigen's not in any place to relax and let his thoughts swell and stir. Right now he's his own being, and Ekubo is fighting to keep him in place, keep control over the body. "We need to kneel."
Kneel, Reigen thinks, and his body starts cooperating. It stops fighting against Ekubo's control and lets him lower himself downwards. Reigen bends his knees inwards to try and cushion the fall, while Ekubo leans them backwards so the pipe doesn't move when they land. It's awkward but it works, although the impact has them coughing up blood which splatters both onto the pipe and the concrete ground.
Breathing is hard, so Ekubo focuses on it. Patching this up will be easy once Mob finishes with that Esper. All they have to do is call Shou, get hooked up with his healer friend. The guy's actually rather nice, and hands out spiritual medicine like it's candy. The one time Reigen scraped his chin by tripping over something Ritsu had left out to mess with him, the dude was on him in an instant with that healing power.
Reigen's voice rings out in his head, and Ekubo hears it beneath the ringing that's starting to take over the senses. "Let's call him now."
That's a good idea. Honestly Ekubo had intended to call after Mob had finished the fight, but given the sudden pains that are going through their vessel, and the fact their vision is starting to swim, that's a really damn good idea.
"Right..." Ekubo reaches for Reigen's phone. He has to twist a little, and makes him cough again, blood splattering as he reaches awkwardly into Reigen's pocket. The phone is in there, wedged in that awkward position where the fact Reigen's sitting down is what's keeping it in there.
"Shishou!"
And things just got worse.
Ekubo just says fuck it. He throws the body onto its side, making sure the pipe can't get lodged any further. It puts copper into their throat, but now he can reach the phone. Mob's perched on a broken window, barrier up as he stares down, a hundred miles away from his beloved master.
Reigen already knows this is going to end badly.
It's not like Reigen can speak. Ekubo's got control of that part, and his mind's too hazy to do anything but process pain, but he still tries.
"Don't," he thinks, only for Ekubo to hear. Ekubo isn't sure what he means, if he's talking about the phone call or something else, but as there's a pulse of energy, and their eyes move to Mob, whose coated in an aura that Reigen would have been able to see pre-possession, Ekubo understands.
Now he's got a priority list, and he's trying to rapidly sort it while Mob practically teleports out of the window he's in and manifests right next to the other Esper, slinging him across town. Their vision blurs for a moment and Ekubo realizes that wow, they're bleeding a lot, and Reigen's gotten quieter. There's more space in their vessel, more room in the body for Ekubo to extend influence and he really doesn't like that.
The phone is pressed to their ear, the dial tone joining the ringing in their head and making a cacophony. Ekubo tries to keep some focus on the phone as he reaches into Reigen's soul and tries to catch him.
"Don't fade out on me now," Ekubo says, voice his own. Reigen's vocal chords aren't cooperating with him, so it's just his spirit emanating noise. He can feel Reigen's consciousness slipping, pulling away with each drop of blood that spills and oh Gods that's a lot of blood. He's got a puddle going on and everything.
The phone connects, and Shou's voice is chipper and happy. "Yo, Reigen-san! I didn't think you'd call me! Did you wanna watch Evan-"
"Reigen, focus! Tell me about how much this'll cost in medical bills!" Still Ekubo's voice, still with his attention on Reigen. He hasn't noticed the phone's connected, and it's only because Shou is an Esper that he can even hear Ekubo over the connection.
The thing is, Ekubo doesn't ever make phone calls. He just shows up to harass you.
Shou connects the dots. "What's wrong with Reigen? Where are you? Fukuda, we gotta go!"
There's some rustling on the end, and Ekubo surfaces from Reigen's soul, barely dragging the man's consciousness with him. It's hard to get the human to focus, but Ekubo tries, attempting to shove Reigen's mind into sensing other less injured parts of the body. Sound comes from the phone again. "Is that you? That smoke in the distance?"
Together, Reigen and Ekubo try to look around. As they lift their gaze, forcing it to focus and sharpen, they see the Esper that Mob is fighting get catapulted across the sky, into another building, followed by the boy. A huge plume of smoke goes up, and Ekubo can only assume the smoke that Shou is referring to has to do with the first attack Mob made.
"Mob," Reigen rasps, with his own voice. It hurts to speaks, and he weakly spits out some blood, which in turn starts another fit of coughing. Ekubo can feel their body shutting down, head light, ringing more intense. It would be easier if he just left Reigen. He could go tell Mob to calm down, possibly bring Shou to them faster, maybe even get more help.
But the idea of leaving Reigen alone like this, fading away from reality, it just sounds too cruel for even an Evil Spirit to consider.
For a moment they just lay there, and focus on their breathing. Reigen wheezes, pained and aching. "Hurts," he manages to say with his mouth.
"I know," Ekubo soothes, doing his best to try and shuffle Reigen's mind away from all the hurt. It's hard, considering it's spread everywhere and a good ninety nine percent of Reigen's brain is going "oof ouch my organs" but Ekubo is doing his damn best. "Help is coming."
It's almost impossible to hear Ekubo's words because of the ringing in his ears but Reigen's soothed by it. He smiles, lets himself relax. Ekubo tries not to panic at it, instead keeping his attention half on Reigen, and half on the voice coming from the phone.
"Help's coming," Shou says over the phone, in some attempt to reassure whoever can hear him. "We're coming as fast as we can, but Fukuda isn't great at telekinesis, so we're doing our best."
Shou's too young to be doing this, Ekubo thinks as he listens to the kid try and keep a steady voice. The boy's only just turned fourteen; he shouldn't be worrying about having a man die on his hands. Ekubo just knows that if Reigen doesn't make it, that Shou's going to blame himself.
Speaking of people blaming themself, Ekubo makes them look at Mob. He's somewhere around, judging from the sounds of things breaking. Their vessel is right on the cusp of going unconscious, and it's more of Ekubo's influence keeping them alive at this point. That makes him concerned. If Reigen were to die, what would Mob do? What would Shigeo do to him?
"He wouldn't be mad," Reigen mumbled, words slurring into each other. "He loves you."
Ekubo scrunched up his nose, gesture translating on Reigen's face. "Sappy little shit."
There's a response, Reigen has it ready and Ekubo senses it in the way their throat tightens and their tongue gets ready to make a sound but it just falls away. Reigen falls away.
Their breathing is so slow, their heart so slow, and Ekubo scrambles to try and find the magical little trigger that sets off the adrenaline. Sure, that means their heart will beat faster and they'll breathe more, but that also means more blood, and that means more of the substance bleeding onto the floor and wow that's a lot. Their suit is soaked, more red than grey, and the puddle beneath them is intimidating. Blood sure is a lot cooler when it's inside the body.
"Hey, Reigen-" Ekubo speaks and his senses wander into all the parts that Reigen had been occupying and wow, they're cold. Everything is going wrong. They're cold, bleeding, barely breathing, heart barely beating. Everything is falling apart and if he'd just-
If he'd just-
"Ar-Ra-Ta-Ka!" It's Shou's voice that cuts through Ekubo's thoughts, and through the battle that Mob is dominating. Shou doesn't care about formalities with Reigen, and honestly Reigen thinks it's nice that someone will call him by his first name. Ekubo's mocked him for it before. "Ara-taka!"
It sounds like Shou's just trying to amuse Reigen, and if the man was awake or in control of his senses, Ekubo just knows he would appreciate it. Instead, Reigen's already unconscious and he's left the Spirit to remember how to breathe.
Shou skids to a halt next to Reigen's body and Ekubo separates himself just slightly, removing himself from some of the senses in order to manifest, and let Shou know that he's there.
"Oh shit, Eku-chan!" There's so much relief in the words that Ekubo lets the nickname slide. He gets on Tome's case for it, but Shou is such a playful idiot that he gets a free pass. "Fukuda's almost here. I'm gonna chop off some of this pipe, just- Hey Kageyama!" His attention shifts immediately to the other boy somewhere around the place. "Come help me!"
Mob manifests beside Shou with speed. He's angry, Ekubo can tell. Even though Mob's made his peace with that other half of himself, he can still explode just like any other human, and the revenge he's craving is blatantly obvious. "Shishou."
Luckily, Shou has more than two braincells when it comes to situations like this. "Help me break this pipe." He grabs it right above Reigen's wound, and Ekubo taps into the senses again, making sure nothing jostles as Mob breaks the chunk of metal with just a flick of the wrist. The same happens with the part coming out of Reigen's back, although Shou does take the time to say "wow, what a lucky bastard."
Fukuda slides onto the scene just as the second half of the pipe is broken, and Shou uses some telekinesis to pull him closer, growing more worried for Reigen's state.
"Sorry," Fukuda says, hands on Reigen's waist and shoulder. "I'm sorry. I get ill when I try and use telekinesis to move. I'm sorry."
His hands glow softly, and Ekubo immediately feels the effects on Reigen's body. It didn't hurt to breathe. Their heart began to beat slow but strong, as if controlled. There's a noticable tremble in the man's hands, and Ekubo tries not to focus on it. If Fukuda failed... Ekubo didn't want to think about it.
The air crackles with energy as Fukuda pours everything he has into getting Reigen back into a stable state. Mob has his hand on Fukuda's shoulder, letting his drive for revenge fade away, shoveling the extra energy into the other Esper. Shou is merely sitting in the puddle of blood like it isn't a problem, keeping one hand on Reigen's neck to feel his pulse, while the other gently combs through the man's hair.
It's soothing, and Ekubo taps into that sense. It helps him relax, not worry so much about trying to feel Reigen's presence in their body. At this point, it's probably safe for Ekubo to stop possessing the man, but leaving just feels wrong at this point. He might as well stick around until Reigen wakes up.
Mob hasn't said anything, but it's clear that he's worried. He's probably blaming himself for the whole damn thing too, which just pisses Ekubo off. In a fight, you're not responsible for the collateral. It's their own fault for standing around like idiots.
"'m not an idiot..." Reigen's mouth mumbles, complete with Reigen's voice. Immediately Mob is by his side, practically in Shou's lap as he tries to check on Reigen. "Shut up, Ekubo."
"Shishou!" Mob's cradling his face, although Reigen doesn't open his eyes. "You're alright!"
Reigen doesn't answer, but his eyes flicker behind his eyelids. He's only slightly there, but it's enough to get the tension to drop out of Mob's shoulders.
Ekubo scrambles to catch Reigen's soul, hook it up to all the senses it needs. It's soft and malleable, as if Reigen's just lazily letting Ekubo push him around. Given what had happened, Ekubo also believes it.
It takes a few hours to get Reigen into a good, stable condition due to the fact Fukuda needs to take several breaks in order to not pass out. It would have been safer to call an ambulance, they all note in hindsight, but honestly if any of the paramedics had tried to take Reigen away from either Mob or Shou, there was likely to be casualties.
All the while, Ekubo doesn't leave Reigen's skin.
Even when the ambulance arrives, Ekubo stays there. He makes his presence less known, lessens his existence, creeps into the deepest part of Reigen's mind so the telltale dimples won't show on his cheeks. Getting Mob or Shou away from the body is hard though, and they end up riding in the ambulance, holding Reigen's hand the whole way while he sleepily babbles nothing but nonsense.
"Ekubo," Reigen says, looking at the space above Shou's head. "I think I love you, y'know? In that really gay way. The really, real gay way."
Reigen's control of himself is shaky and unsteady, and Ekubo quickly hijacks it. "Alright," he says with Reigen's voice, but lower. "That's enough from you."
Shou laughs, and Mob blushes, having seen his Shishou in such a state. Still, there's a warmth in the spirit as he presses against Reigen's soul and feels him press back. It's warm, comfortable, and soothing. "Maybe after we get rid of this pipe, we can get some dinner," Ekubo suggests, looking into the roof of the ambulance with a faraway gaze.
"We can still hear you," Shou says, pretending not to find the obvious flirting between spirit and human something short of adorable.
Reigen keeps the response to their dinner date private and internal, but his lips curl into a smile, and that tells the boys all they need to know.