Shigeko Kageyama, AKA Mob

by Green Kneesocks

The ongoing life of Shigeko Kageyama, also known as Mob, as she tries to navigate work, school, feelings, growing up, and being the protagonist of her own life. MobXReigen. MobXTeru. May be M rated in later chapters. FemMob. Now with cover art by ponystoriesandothers!

65. You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do

"I finally made it here! Claw's finished, dad! It's over!" said Sho. He could do this. He had to do this. He could see the whole city from the windows of the tower thing and he knew what was going on. A lot of fighting. A lot of bad stuff. He could see it, there, Ritsu's sister's weird two colored aura. She was down there.

He needed to finish this before she did.

Ritsu would have never forgiven him if he let her fight and also she could have killed dad or something. Sho may not have liked his father, he may have thought that his father was completely out of his mind, and he may never have forgiven his father for what happened with mom but he didn't want him dead.

Just seriously injured.

"Sho, there must be a better way of handling this." said Suzuki as his son stood before him completely assured of his victory. What was wrong with that child? Suzuki had never once understood the boy. Didn't he understand? This was the rightful order of things and there was no point in opposing him. He would have had better luck trying to get the Earth to stop turning than he had trying to stop his father from taking his place as the rightful ruler of the Earth.

Sho was such a failure.

"What? So now you care? Now you want to act like a father? You've never given a damn about a single thing I did or said!" said Sho. Sho could see Serizawa on the other side of the room shaking his head no. He couldn't tell if he was trying to tell Sho to shut up and knock it off or if he was finally telling dad that it was wrong to beat up his own son.

He was probably telling Sho to shut up.

Serizawa was, in fact, trying to get Sho to shut up.

"Please Sho…stop this…" muttered Serizawa as he clutched him umbrella between both hands. Sho was going to get himself killed. Serizawa could see the President's aura. He didn't get upset, not like regular people did, but his aura did get upset and right then and there he looked like he was about to put Sho in the ground. Why was Sho doing this? Sure they had knocked down a few buildings, hurt some people, caused mass panicked, kidnapped the prime minister….well he still shouldn't have been going against the President like that!

The President was a good man even if he didn't always show it.

Sho knew that his dad was a bad man and he knew that he should have put a stop to this before dad started showing his true colors.

"This really would have worked better if you'd had it planned." Said Suzuki. He couldn't be beaten in a one on one confrontation, especially by a child. He had fought nearly every single member of the upper echelon, he could not be beaten, but he could have been taken by surprise. If Sho wanted him dead then he should have done some degree of planning. He may have been able to heal quickly from physical damage but he did get sick. That was also the reason he never imbibed any substances, not even the weakest of alcohols. Sho's best bets would have been poisoning or illness, not this.

Sho couldn't even plan a murder properly.

"What the hell are you talking about?! I have you cornered! It's over!" shouted Sho. His aura was lashing out. Red, light red, as opposed to dad's dark red. He needed to keep it together. Dad called it awakening, when he got so mad that he exploded, but Sho just called it losing control. Sho was not going to lose control. He had to stop dad. He had to do it for all of the people out there who didn't deserve what dad would do to them. He had to do it for all of those animals out there with nobody to take care of them because of what dad had done. He had to do it for all of his allies, the guys who he had dragged into this, the ones who were counting on him to win. He had to do it for all of his new friends even though he didn't even know those guys that well. He had to do it for Ritsu who was out there probably fighting for his life…and who Sho had promised to come back to.

He was going to make it out of this alive and he was going to make it back to Ritsu and then they could hang out and do friends stuff and just have fun.

"You should have attacked whilst playing the part of the dutiful son. You had so many opportunities to poison me or contract some illness and make sure it passed on to me. You did not. Instead you planned this little rebellion of yours, a rebellion which has no hope of achieving anything at all." Said Suzuki

"No hope!?" shouted Sho

"It took me twenty years to get to this point." Said Suzuki

"So what?! Seeing all those years go down the drain serves you right!" said Sho. Dad was just trying to get him upset and make him lose control. He was not going to dissipate the energy that he had been storing up for all of these months. He had this. He had to do this!

"Sho, this is pointless." Said Suzuki. He couldn't remember being like this at Sho's age. Well to be fair his father had been a normal man and his mother a normal woman. They hadn't been able to control him since he had been little more than a toddler. Sho was no prodigy. Sho was nothing special, not really, compared to Suzuki himself. There would be hope for the next generation, maybe, since power seemed to be halved when reproducing with a normal human. There would be hope for his grandchildren.

That is unless he ended up prematurely ending his bloodline.

No. That would have been poor tactics.

"What the hell are you talking about? I'm just as strong as the Ultimate Five and I'm going to be the one who takes you down! Now come on! Fight me like a man!" said Sho. No more talk. Dad wasn't going to realize that there was no hope and then surrender. Serizawa was off crying in a corner and Sho….Sho didn't want to fight him….but if he came to help dad then…then he would have to. He'd have to fight his first friend ever…and he'd have to beat him…

Sho tried to stop thinking about that. He tried to stop thinking about anything. He just threw himself at dad. Dad deserved to get beaten up by his own son! See if he liked it! Rage threw Sho at his father. This wasn't for the world, like he told himself, or even for all of the defenseless animals out there. No. This was thirteen years of pent up…he didn't even have a name for this feeling. He wanted to give dad just as good as he had been giving Sho all these years. Every punch and slap and broken bone and split lip and bruise and cut and contusion and whatever else had been given to him he wanted to give back to his dad a hundred fold! He had to!

This was what dad deserved.

He was about to unleash a torrent of pain upon his father then he hit his barrier. His invisible barrier. That made no sense. Sho was powerful enough to see any barrier, even Shimazaki's weird one, so why hadn't he been able to see dad's?! So that was it, the secret that he had been keeping from everyone? That he had a barrier that wouldn't shatter no matter how hard Sho hit it?

And he was hitting it hard.

His powers and his fists hit the side of dad's barrier but it would not go down. It wouldn't even ripple. Behind it Dad was just staring at him. He was staring at Sho like a person would stare at a germ under a microscope or the fuzzy stuff that grew on bread. Dad stared a lot, always with the staring, that goddamned staring!

Then he flicked a finger and Sho was flat on his back.

"Sho!" gasped out Serizawa. He knew that it was not his place to question the way the President raised his son. He knew that the President knew best. Sometimes desperate times called for desperate measures. Sometimes we had to do things that we thought were wrong for the greater good. The President knew what he was doing. They just had to trust him. It wasn't anyone's place to question the President. He was a good man.

The President was a good man.

"You underestimate me. Don't." said Suzuki. That should not have been so effortless. He wondered if there was any part of him at all within his son. Such poor tactics. Such poor emotional control. He couldn't even stay down. The best thing to do would have been to try and catch him off guard but of course Sho wasn't going to be doing the best thing. Sho was getting right back up again, presumably to try the same thing again, even though it made no sense.

"So that's your secret? You've got some kind of super strong barrier that activates whenever anyone gets near? That's what you've been hiding all of these years?" asked Sho as he picked himself up. No matter. Every barrier came down eventually. He just had to keep on hitting dad hard and fast. No barrier was impenetrable. Nobody could keep their barrier up forever.

"Really? Sho, you know that you can't break through this. Why even try?" asked Suzuki. His eyes tracked his son movements. He was trying to find a weak spot. He wasn't going to. He crashed against his barrier again and again and again. At every crash it became visible to the naked eye. Red. Tracks of yellow running through it.

"I can and I will!" shouted Sho as he slammed into his dad's barrier again. At every slam he could see his dad's aura. It was red…mostly. Sho had never noticed before, the tracks of yellow going through it, but then again he had never taken the time to really look at it. Sho's own aura was all one color, red, and he had only heard of one other person having a two colored aura…

"No, you can't." said Suzuki. Sho attempted to rush him from behind but a snap of his fingers and a burst of power sent his son crashing to the ground. There was a gasp and a whimper. Not Sho, thankfully, Suzuki would never have been able to abide by such weakness from his own son. That had been Serizawa. He was back there holding his umbrella practically in tears on Sho's behalf.

Honestly.

Sho had brought this on himself. Suzuki wasn't going to kill him, if he did then he would have to go through the trouble of making another, but he was going to punish him. This was…annoying. This was so annoying! What was WRONG with this child!? Wasn't it obvious?! Suzuki was a living God and there was no force on this Earth that could stop him! He was going to take his rightful place as ruler of this world and nobody, not even his own flesh and blood, had any hope of a prayer of stopping him! He was going to!

Exorcism of my emotion.

Suzuki took all of his strong emotions and cast them aside. Awakening would not suit his needs at this moment in time. He needed to have control. He could see her, out there, coming. Pink and blue, an ever changing aura in two colors. A threat. A nonthreat. A pacifist. She was strong but she was also weak, very weak, because she had concerned herself with the wellbeing of her allies. He had seen the surviving footage. He had what little intelligence could be gathered on her.

She was weak.

She would get along well with Sho.

Sho who he had pinned to the wall. It hardly took any effort, something which Suzuki found somewhat disappointing, though he had no idea why. Maybe because he had expected better of his own son. Maybe because Sho wasn't even close to being able to break out of that hold. He had Sho pinned to the wall, the sheer amount of power it took made the tower shake, but Sho still did not have even the smallest chance of getting out.

At Sho's age he had been able to do…everything.

And he had only gotten stronger. The techniques that he had mastered, then, when he was young were child's play compared to what he could do now. Like fire. Fire was easy. He wasn't trying to kill Sho, no, if he had been then Sho would have already been dead. He was trying to get the measure of the boy. He thought that this little rebellion of his had a prayer. Why? He must have had something up his sleeve. Suzuki is hopeful, for a moment, that Sho inherited more from him than his hair color.

Exorcism of my emotion.

He cannot allow himself to be hopeful. He feels neither highs nor lows. Having this much power was a burden at times. He needed to remain stable at all times lest he awaken and lose control. He didn't much care what happened to the others as people but he did not feel like spending the next twenty years gathering allies. ESP was not a common gift at all. It wasn't common and finding someone who could do more than some insignificant phenomenon was almost impossible. It had taken him over a decade just to gather his first few upper echelons followers. No. He cannot awaken. He must remain calm.

Sho dissipates the fire.

But the ice gets him.

In the moments between states, when the heat of the fire gave way to a sudden cold, Sho looked scarred. Frightened. He looked down, saw his breath, and was incased in ice. Not enough to kill the boy. He was made of hearty stuff, all espers were, and even if he did get hurt that was what Fukuda was for. Yes he'd let Fukuda live at least until he found another healer. A rare power, one that he did not possess. He could share his energy with others and that had some healing to it, along with pain, and the destabilization of the person if he kept it up for a while, but he could not heal others. He could heal himself and that was enough. People could be difficult to replace but nobody was irreplaceable. Not even his own son.

He just didn't want to make another one.

"Stop mocking me!" shouted Sho. There was some damage to his clothes but none to his person. Good. The boy could at least out up a decent barrier. He wasn't a total disappointment.

"These techniques are mere child's play. Sho, I would have expected better from you." Said Suzuki. The ice shattered with a burst of power. His son's power. Well the boy could at least save himself. Good. Suzuki was forty six, he could have more children, but that was more trouble than it was worth. A squalling infant, a screaming child, and impossible teenager…he did not want to deal with that. He could always leave the infant with a woman to raise but then the infant would take after her. Sho had only spent the first seven years of his life with Masami and even now he was…this. This smaller version of her. Her weakness, her caring, even the way she challenged him even though there was no point in it. There was no way she could have won and there was no way that their son was going to win.

He couldn't see Sho.

But he could see his aura.

"I thought you would have grown a little more than this." said Suzuki as his eyes tracked his son's aura. He was tenacious, that was for sure. Also he was invisible. Cute. So that was the trick he had up his sleeve? Well that was something that he hadn't imagined Sho as having had the patience to learn. Messing with the refraction of light took power, power enough to move light, and the patience to do so without destroying anything including himself.

"So? You learned how to mess with the refraction pattern of light? Is this what you've got up your sleeve?" asked Suzuki. Sho forced himself to calm down. He had this. He had to do this. Dad was trying to mess with him. Dad was treating him like he was seven and just learned something new and just wanted some praise, some love, and a hand on his head telling him that he was learning so much. That he was proud of Sho. That he loved Sho. That he was capable of loving someone or something other than himself. Well Sho was not seven years old anymore. He was thirteen and three quarters, he didn't need his dad to pat him on the head and tell him that he was making his father proud and that he was worth something and…and Sho was not going to think about this.

It was time.

Dad was not going to die.

"You really want to see what's up? Fine! Here's what I've got up my sleeve!" said Sho. He didn't waver. He didn't have any second thoughts. He had to do this. This was his responsibility. Nobody else even had a ghost of a chance of being able to stop dad but him….he had to do this.

He was ok with this.

Serizawa was not ok with this. The President said that he would handle Sho…and now they were fighting. Sho had fought back before, sometimes, but never like this. Serizawa had been pleading with him for years not to fight back, not to be bad, not to give the President any reason at all to prolong his punishment. Sho was so small and he could get so hurt…

And he was supposed to protect the President…

But he could never do anything to hurt. Sho was…Sho was his friend. He couldn't hurt his friend. He had hurt so many people over the years…he could not hurt Sho, too.

But Sho was over there getting hurt. The President was over there getting hurt. There were people out there getting hurt. Everyone was hurt and it wasn't going to stop happening and all he could do was stand there clutching his umbrella and shaking in his crocs like a coward.

Then the whole tower shook.

"Ha! I win! Justice prevails!" said Sho. He heard that, before, on TV. This was like TV so it fit. He won! He stopped dad and now everything was going to be ok! He could see himself, his aura, and he was glowing so brightly that he couldn't see anything else, not even Serizawa. Serizawa who had just stood by and watched. That was all he ever did! He always just stood by and watched as dad hurt people…hurt him! Serizawa always just stood there like a coward! Like Sho wasn't even someone worth-worth-worth-

A smack to the side of the face.

"A charge bomb? That's new. Tell me, how long did it take you to save up that much energy? It must have been months." Said Suzuki. So Sho had the capacity to plan ahead after all. Huh. Well what do you know? There might have been some hope for the boy yet. Suzuki had been able to do that at Sho's age, too, and it had come before the ability to share his power with others…so there was hope for Sho.

There was.

"Fuck you! That was three month's worth of energy!" shouted Sho. He stomped as he shouted and the tower shook, again.

"Sho. Not this again. You sound so juvenile-" said Suzuki

"Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you dad you mother fucking dick sucking asshole fucking bastard jerk off-" shouted Sho saying every single bad word that he could think of. No. No fucking way! He had not lost! He had!

"Sho! Stop it! You're going to…you're going to make it worse…" said Serizawa. He shouldn't have butted in. Now the President was looking at him. Sho was crying. He was crying and stomping his feet and slamming his fists against the wall and choking out curse words through his tears like they were actual curses and he was trying to curse his father rather than curse him out and Serizawa knew how the President felt about that and he knew that Sho was just pissing his father off and that meant more punishment and Sho already had so much punishment coming to him and-

"Serizawa. I am needed elsewhere. Deal with this." said Suzuki. He felt it. He saw it out of the corner of his eye and he felt it. There. She was close. She was close and others were following her. She was out there and she was coming. He couldn't afford to waste any more time on this distraction.

This was what Serizawa was for, anyway.

"S-Sir?" asked Serizawa. He had never been asked to hurt Sho before. He had been asked to hurt people, so many people, but never Sho…

Sho was looking at him. Sho was doing that thing where he cried but tried not to. He was looking at Serizawa like…like he was scared. Like he was scared and sad and-and-and lost and Serizawa didn't want to hurt him! Sho didn't need to be hurt! He was….he was just a kid…

"Deal with that. I have bigger fish to fry." Said Suzuki with a wave of his hand. He collected himself. He felt for her. He tried to get some read off of her. She was…he read her aura. She was trying to keep calm. She was close to awakening. Hmm….

"C-Come on….Sho. Let's get out of here and-" said Serizawa. He reached for Sho. He wasn't going to hurt him. Maybe he could just get away with carrying Sho away. They could find some place to calm down and then Sho could be able to think and see that his father was right about what he did and…and that everything was going to be ok.

"What? You're going to hit me too?" asked Sho. He spat as Serizawa as he got closer. Serizawa stopped walking. He knew how Sho was. This was Sho when he wanted to be left alone. This was the Sho that would hit his barrier until it broke and then maybe even hit him…though that rarely happened and Sho always apologized afterwards….

"No. You know that I would never hit you…I would never want to hit you…so come on. Please? Sho, you've done enough-" said Serizawa softly

"I haven't even begun to do enough!" shouted Sho. He tried to push past Serizawa but Serizawa put a barrier up between them and the President. Sho slammed into it but it held.

"Sho, please, before you make it worse." Said Serizawa. He needed Sho to calm down. He needed Sho to stop this before he got hurt…worse than he already had been…and he needed to get Sho out of there before the President took his attention off of whatever was going on outside and put it back onto Sho…

"Serizawa, what did I say? You aren't going to disobey me, are you?" asked Suzuki. Serizawa was loyal to Sho. That was not good. It was time to test that loyalty. If Serizawa chose Sho well, then, he'd have to be replaced. That was going to be difficult, espers as powerful as Serizawa weren't born every day, but he could at least get rid of a liability. Though he wondered if he could ever find anyone who was capable of the unwavering loyalty Serizawa was.

"B-but s-s-sir? He's…he's…" said Serizawa. He's my friend. He's just a kid. He's your son.

"Annoying." Said Suzuki. He watched her, the girl, from the window. Her aura. She had stopped. She was getting closer to awakening. Her aura was shifting. Pink to blue and then back again. His own aura had some yellow in it though he had buried that yellow, that part of him that he didn't want, away. It would do him no good to awaken at every little thing.

"Sho, come on. Let's stop fighting and just…just be together. We just have to get through this then we can-" said Serizawa. Sho didn't want this. Serizawa himself wouldn't have wanted this if the President hadn't wanted it. Sho just needed to calm down and maybe even grow up a little more. What kind of an adult would he grow up to be if he kept on acting like this? Defying his father like this. The President knew what he was doing and he was acting in the best interests of everyone. Serizawa wouldn't have wanted this if not for the President…and it did feel wrong….and he cared about Sho….but the President had been the one to save him…

This was hard.

"We can what? Go through with all of this craziness?! This whole plan is insane! Dad thinks that he can rule the whole world like-like-like this is TV or something! It's not! This plan is never going to work and the only thing that you'll accomplish is breaking a lot of shit, hurting a lot of people, and pissing me off!" said Sho. He was shouting, then, and he didn't care. This whole thing was…dad couldn't win…but he could break a lot of things and people and mess everything up…and if by some miracle dad DID win then it wouldn't be a world worth living in at all!

"Don't bother, he's too far gone. Honestly, Sho, you should have more faith in me. I can see why you think that this plan could fail. You're young, you don't see the big picture. You're weak, too, and you always have been. You don't see that for the greater good sacrifices must be made. The world was meant to be ruled by the supreme being." Said Suzuki. The boy still had his uses. It would be too much effort to replace him. He was just misguided. He was at that age. Suzuki had challenged, and beat, his own father at that age. Thirteen. Or thirteen and three quarters as Sho always said. That was annoying, the way he measured his age, but it was an annoying that Suzuki was used to. If he had another son then he'd have to get used to the new boy's idiosyncrasies. Sho was at least familiar.

"What the hell are you talking about? Are you…are you saying that you seriously think you're GOD?!" shouted Sho. Crazy. Padded room, straight jacket, carry him off to the asylum crazy. Sho knew that dad was nuts but-but this was on a whole other level….

"You think that this plan is going to fail because the world is so vast and it's people so spread out. You think that there may be someone in this world who could challenge me. You don't know much about the world, the reality of the world-" said Suzuki

"I know the world, dad, you've been dragging me all over it since I was seven!" said Sho

"You're well-traveled, nobody would argue with that, but you don't truly know the world, Sho. You've been sheltered from it-" said Suzuki

"Sheltered!? You call any part of what you put me through sheltering me?! You dragged me around the world while you looked for more espers to recruit-" said Sho

"You've lived your entire life surrounded by your own kind. You haven't spoken to a regular person in years. You think that I can be challenged. You think that this plan can fail. It cannot. The real reason I went all over the world was not just to collect followers but also to see if world domination would be possible. It is." Said Suzuki

"You sure about that?" asked Sho as the tower thing shook again. That hadn't been him or dad or Serizawa. That was Ritsu's big sis. She was coming and she was pissed and she had destroyed the whole 7th Division…or at least lent that guy that she was always with her powers…which was so cool…and she could give dad a run for his money. She was going to have to fight him.

Sho hoped that Ritsu would forgive him for getting his big sis involved in all of this.

"I've been traveling the world for decades but, ultimately, I could not find a single esper in the world more powerful than me in the whole world. I am the Ultimate Power." Said Suzuki

"And that gives you the right to take over the world?! Seriously!? What the fuck is wrong with you?!" shouted Sho

"I wish you wouldn't…" said Suzuki

"You hear that, Serizawa? He's fucked up! He's totally messed up in the head!" said Sho. Serizawa couldn't possibly just stand there and listen to dad after that crazy speech, could he? Ultimate power? Sure dad could hit hard and put up a strong barrier and a bunch of other stuff but he was still just a human being the same as everyone else. If he was God then he wouldn't have had those grey hairs that were starting to pop up near his ears and he wouldn't get heart burn every time he had spicy food and he wouldn't have to chew gum to pop his ears whenever they took off in the Claw jet. Dad was just as human as everyone else!

"President….you're amazing…." Said Serizawa. The President spoke with such conviction. Serizawa knew that the President couldn't have meant it literally. He knew that the President was just talking about how he felt like, being so powerful, he had a responsibility to make the world a better place. He wanted to help everyone just the same as he had helped Serizawa get out of the hell that was his life. The President just wanted to do for the rest of the world what he had done for Serizawa.

"Absolute idiots are the worst to deal with!" screamed Sho. Serizawa recoiled from him. That had hurt. He hadn't even done anything, just spoke, and it hurt. Sho was…he was just young and upset and Serizawa wasn't going to hold him to anything he said. Sho could say that worst things, sometimes, but that was ok because they were friends and they always would be.

"I was impressed with you earlier, Sho." said Suzuki

"W-What? You're just…you're just trying to mess with my head-" said Sho. Dad didn't give a fuck about him and Sho was old enough to understand that. He was thirteen and three quarters, he was beyond stupid stuff like trying to impress dad with his powers, he knew that truth about him now.

"That charge bomb was surprising. Normally I wouldn't have expected something like that from you but I suppose that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Said Suzuki

"Don't you dare lump me in with you! I am NOTHING like you! You don't give a damn about anyone but yourself! You use people until they're useless to you and then you cast them aside! You hurt people! You would kill anyone, even your own son, to get to what you want! I care about people! I care about my friends and my allies! I don't go around thinking that I'm GOD! How am I anything like you?!" shouted Sho

"You said that you had been collecting that energy for three months. Where do you think you get that from in the first place?" asked Suzuki. He took a step forward and motioned for Serizawa to step away. He'd deal with Serizawa later. He was loyal to Sho but he hadn't done anything stupid…there was hope for him yet. He'd deal with Serizawa after he was done dealing with Sho.

"What are you talking about? Are…are you saying that you can do that, too?" asked Sho. That was…it would make sense. He got his powers from dad after all. But…but did that mean that dad was going to…to hit him with a charge bomb? That would…Sho didn't care that he would get seriously injured or that dad would be willing to seriously injure him. It didn't matter. He knew that he was to dad. He was just another useful pawn, that was all.

"I told you that I've been preparing for this day for twenty years." Said Suzuki moving forwards. Sho moved backwards. He moved back as dad moved forward until his back was to the wall and he couldn't move and he knew it was coming and-and-and he looked back and saw Serizawa, there, and their eyes met…and Serizawa looked away.

And then he ran away.

And that hurt more than anything that dad could ever even think of doing to him.

But that didn't matter.

"A-Are you telling me that the last twenty years…you haven't just been gathering troops? You've been…but how?! How did you….how!?" asked Sho. Dad was closer, now, so much closer…and his aura was so much more visible…and it touched him…and it hurt.

The whole thing hurt. Dad was…Sho couldn't see anything besides dad's aura. He had lost sense of everyone and everything, even himself, as dad just kept on getting closer.

And closer.

And closer.

Until al Sho could see was red. Not even his dad's vessel. Just…red…so much red….

"I guess that it wouldn't hurt to show you some of my twenty years…" said Suzuki. He was not going to awaken but he was going to…to blow off some steam. Sho had betrayed him. Sho of all people…and not just in his little rebellions of the past. This was worse. His son, his own son, had tried to destroy all that Suzuki worked for. This was worse than taking in some stray, worse than sneaking off in the night to be with some boy, so much worse. His own flesh and blood. Sho was no longer just a failure but a liability too. Suzuki should have just gone back to the drawing board.

But that would be so much effort.

First of all he was forty six, he did not want to have to deal with a squalling infant again. Second of all he'd have to find a suitable partner to have the child with, and female espers were few and far between. Female espers of some skill were even rarer. Female espers of some skill that he could also trust not to ruin the next child in the same way that Sho had been ruined…he would have had better luck catching a tsuchinoko.

Another burst of pink and blue out of the corner of his vision.

There was no way that she would have stood down and even if she did that was one hell of an age gap. She was a child and by time she wasn't he would have been old…older than he was. He knew it was irrational but…that was not right. She was powerful, he would not deny that, but just…no. That was not right and since he had no way of replacing his son that he found acceptable then he had might as well keep Sho around at least until his grandchildren were born. Yes, that was why he had no plans to replace Sho.

But he would teach the boy a lesson.

It was a hard lesson to learn, that sometimes you had to be hard on people, but it made sense.

Even if it came from Mogami it was true. It was like the other Shigeko said. If Mob had been harder on Asagiri, not broken her but had been harder, then she could have saved them some heart ache. Sometimes you had to be nice, sometimes you had to run away, and sometimes you had to be hard on people. Some people deserved it. Some people were just so terrible that…that unless you were hard on them then they would never stop.

Case and point.

"Why are you touching my boyfriend?" asked Mob/Shigeko. She had moved fast to get here, fast enough that she had lost Master Reigen and Dimple, because she had felt so many auras…auras that she knew…and one that she had never felt before.

And it was attached to the person who was holding on to Teru.

"You're in for it." Said Teru. He knew that it was cowardly to hide behind someone else, especially his girlfriend, but she liked him to humble and there was no greater sign of humbleness than knowing when to step back and let someone else handle this. Even though he had this. He just needed a minute to get the feeling back in his body, and the rest of his sight back, and then he was ready to go. Round four…if Shigeko didn't have this.

"Holy shit…." Muttered Koyama. He had never felt…this was even worse than when she had beaten him. She had said…what had she said? That she didn't have time for all of that…and then she had turned him into a pinball. It had been quick. It had been quick but it had hurt. She had hurt. Her aura…it had been painful…but it had nothing on this.

"Well this certainly is…something." Said Sakurai as the ground beneath his feet began to move. She wasn't trying to lift all of that debris…chunks of concrete and skyscrapers…but she was. It should have been heavy but she wasn't even trying to…she could do all of that without trying…

And she was pissed.

"Sister…." Said Ritsu. This was what he had been afraid of all of these years. She was…she wasn't exploding but it felt like it. She was pissed. She was pissed off and she was going to take it out on that guy…not that he didn't deserve it…but he knew how it felt. Once you started beating people up it was difficult to stop. Sister was a good person but good people could go bad so easily…he knew all too well…

Teru who looked terrible. He was all beaten and bruised and…and bloody…and he had a big lump on his head…and he could barely open his eyes…and there was so much blood….

She looked around. Everyone was like that.

Because of that man.

Mob took a deep breath. Shigeko took a deep breath. They both took a deep breath, a centering breath, like Master Reigen had taught them. They needed to stay calm. When they were divided they were weak. Bad things happened to people when they were divided. All of those espers back there, the ones that Mogami ate, would have still been alive if Mob and Shigeko hadn't been divided. Mogami was being hard on them, then, and they learned a lesson.

They could not be divided.

"What the hell…." Muttered Shimazaki. All he could see was her…and it was one person? How? That was an aura in two colors…and it was so bright…he could hardly make out the kid he was holding on to. She was that powerful….no matter. They'd have to go head to head, it was the only way. Like fighting the President. He had no qualms about hitting a girl, power was power, and if he had to do this to prove himself then so be it.

She was just a kid, anyway.

"Why. Are you. Touching. My. Boyfriend." Said Mob/Shigeko slowly. She could, they could, see her aura. Everyone saw her aura. She was making people afraid. Mob. Shigeko didn't care. If people were afraid of them then they wouldn't dare to-

That's mean, Shigeko, stop it.

"Do we help her…or stop her?" asked Koyama. Sakurai shrugged. Shimazaki was done for, he knew murderous intent when he saw it, and he did not want to get in the crossfire of whatever it was that she was planning on doing. They would have to wait to even speak to her until she had been briefed on the fact that they were friends, not foes, this time.

"Stay away from her." said Sakurai sagely. Koyama nodded. Yeah, he did not feel like a second ass kicking. She looked like she was ready to start kicking some ass and he did not want to get in her way…but then again wasn't she the peace and love type? She had gone on and on about being a pacifist…but maybe that was some phase that she was going through. Kids went through faces like that.

That was just a little girl out there.

Still scary.

"Sister! You don't have to-" said Ritsu. He had…he could still have this. If she did something like…she would never be able to forgive herself…or she'd go crazy. The bottom line was that he was her brother and it was his job to protect her and he had been doing a piss poor job of it lately.

"Answer the question." Said Mob/Shigeko slowly and lowly. No. People did not hurt the people that she loved. This was not ok. None of this was ok. This was the direct opposite of ok. He had no right to…to do this….

And he would pay.

Ritsu was out there and he was just as hurt. Ritsu was little. Ritsu was her little brother and he had been out here fighting that guy and-and-and they should have been there to protect him! They should have been there to keep him safe because now he was hurt and he was there and lots of other people were hurt, too, people that she didn't much like or know that well…but still!

"Yes it is, little girl, now why don't you just run along? I wouldn't want to have to hurt you." Said Shimazaki. He could try and fight her. He could…maybe….her aura was so unstable. She might just end up imploding in on herself. He might have even been able to beat him. Raw power did not translate into skill. This was just a little girl, how skilled could she possibly be?

"I don't want to have to hurt you, either, so let go of Teru or I'll do something…something bad…and I don't know what thing is because I don't usually hurt people but you hurt the people that I care about, and a bunch that I don't know, and I want you to stop but…but sometimes you have to be hard on people…" said Mob/Shigeko. Shigeko wanted them to peel him like a grape. Mob did not agree. They were dividing again, not good, and they needed to agree…they could at least agree that if he didn't knock it off they'd have to hurt him…

Even though, even now, Mob didn't want to have to hurt anyone.

"Come on then, face me head on! Let's see who's powers are greater!" said Shimazaki. He let his aura extend out until it met hers. There. She was surprised. Now he just had to teleport over and-

What.

What?

What?!

WHAT?!

He could teleport. He had let go of the kid and attempted to teleport near enough to her to sucker punch her but as soon as the ground fell away it came back…it came back and…and it was the same ground. He could only see her and she had…she had…she had managed to hold him in place…she was pinning him down…

He felt weaker.

He hadn't felt like this since he fought the President. The world, her aura, went quiet. Her aura was loud and then it was silent and he couldn't see her or anything anymore and he kept on getting weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker and-

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Said Mob/Shigeko. Mostly Mob. Shigeko was not sorry. She was not sorry about any of this. She understood that sometimes you had to be hard on people. Mob understood it too, she just didn't want to. She didn't want to do what had to be done. She wanted to just incapacitate this man, drain him until he couldn't get up.

Shigeko wanted him dead.

Because he had hurt Teru and he wasn't even sorry. If he had been sorry then he would have said that he was sorry, like that Minegishi guy had said, but he wasn't spry and he even wanted to fight them. There had been so much fighting…and if that red aura at the top of the tower was anything to go off of there would be even more fighting to come. Fighting was so stupid! What was the point of all of this! it would have all been ok if these people would all just say 'sorry' and then agree to never, ever do it again for as long as they lived….

But this man wouldn't.

So Shigeko was prepared to do what they had to do. Teru had been hurt. They loved Teru. Ritsu had been hurt. They loved Ritsu but in a totally different way. There were a bunch of other people there and neither of them loved those people but it was still wrong to hurt people….

"How in the hell are you doing this?" asked Shimazaki as he struggled to stay on his feet. He knew that Minegishi could use his plants to suck the life out of people…was this the same thing? Was he finally going to die? Well it had been a fun thirty two years and he had no intention of ending that fun any time. There was nothing that he could do, though, he couldn't even see.

"Shigeko? You're…you don't have to…" said Teru as he tried to walk towards her. He could see it, what she was doing. The other guy's aura was going out and Shigeko was the cause. She could depower people, she liked to do that instead of hurting them, but this was still hurting them. This was even worse than beating the crap out of someone. When you beat the crap out of someone at least they could lick their wounds and learn their lesson afterwards…and also it didn't look quite so much like killing them…

"Sister! That's enough!" said Ritsu. No. Shigeko was not going to kill someone just because he could not protect her. No. This was not going to be on her. If she had someone's death on his hands then it was the same as him having someone's blood on his hands because he should have been there for her. He was her brother, it was his job to protect her, and this was not protecting her.

But he couldn't stop her.

He could barely move, first of all, and he had no hope of stopping her even if he could. He could see her aura, it kept on trying to turn blue, and he knew what that meant. She was starting to lose it and when she lost it then he had no hope of even beginning to get through to her…

"Are you sorry? Say sorry and then we'll stop. Only if you mean it. Sometimes you have to be hard on people." Said Mob/Shigeko. They meant it. Sometimes you had to be hard on people and this was being hard on people….and Mob didn't like it….but Shigeko did…and they were both getting a headache and their vessel hurt and their aura was being all weird and…and it hurt…it hurt so much….

"I-I'll face you…head on…" said Shimazaki. He knew powerful men, he was a powerful man, and a powerful man would not have laid down now when he was being so blatantly challenged. This was a powerful man…woman…teenage girl. This was a powerful teenage girl and she felt like Suzuki and Suzuki had to have been a teenage girl…boy…at some point and…and he wasn't sure where he was going with that. The point of it was that he was going to act the same way he had acted for Suzuki. He didn't know much about teenage girls, teenagers in general annoyed him and teenage girls were much too young for him, so he went back to the script he knew. Suzuki said that he admired his tenacity…

And fighting with Suzuki had kind of felt like this…

"Fighting is stupid." Said Mob. Shigeko wanted to say something else but Mob beat her to it. She thought that she had drained this guy enough, he was pretty much depowered as it was, but Teru was there and he was so hurt and bloodied and scared looking and none of that would have happened to him, or to any of those guys, if she had just been there like she should have been! She was….she had to be hard on people….but maybe not that hard…

But Teru was hurt.

Ritsu was hurt.

A lot of people were hurt.

But she was adding to hurt. She was adding to hurt and she had been hard enough on him and she had to stop no matter what Shigeko thought. She had been right, Mob was too easy on people, and that was why all of those espers had been eaten and a whole lot of other bad stuff had happened….but Shigeko wasn't much better. She was the one who scared people. She was the one who broke things. She was the one who always did whatever she wanted to do without any thought to what was good or bad or mean or nice or to what sort of person that they were supposed to be.

That Master Reigen wanted them to be.

He was the one who made them work for what they were. Shigeko at least agreed to that. They had to be the sort of person that Master Reigen wanted them to be. They loved him and he loved them, not in the same way, and they had to be a good person. Teru loved them, too, and he wanted them to be a good person. He had become a good person for them. He had worked so hard at changing…and if he was going to be a good person then they should be a good person, too.

"Then why are you…fighting….me…?" asked Shimazaki as he felt the strength stop leaving his body. He could…he at least felt less like someone was sucking the life out of him. That was good. He could stand up straighter, now, and he could…what did she want? He could submit…but if he was weak then he would be useless to her. He knew Suzuki, not as well as Serizawa but he knew the man, and he knew that the useless were cast aside. He had already lost to the girl so Suzuki would cast him aside, there was no doubt about it, so he had might as well jump ship and join the side that lived.

That is if she won.

"Because you started it." Said Mob. She stopped depowering him. There. She had bene hard enough on him…even though he hadn't said sorry…

"I started it? I was just doing what I was told." Said Shimazaki. She had sounded so young then. You started it. All hail the teenage girl, their new lord and master. Heh.

"That's stupid. That's a stupid reason to do bad things. Are you at least sorry? Say sorry and then I'll try and forgive you and then we'll all be ok." Said Mob

"…are you for real…?" asked Shimazaki. Was this even a teenager? She was operating off of playground rules! Just say sorry? What the hell?

"Yup. Like I said, she's a lady and she abhors violence. She also has a very forgiving nature. I, on the other hand, do not." Said Teru. He could stand again…and the other guy was considerably weaker. Good. Time for round four!

"Teru, don't fight him. I don't want anyone else to fight. I am so sick and tired of fighting." Said Mob. She said it in her normal tone of voice but for some reason when she talked everyone's aura felt…scared. And they looked scared, too, when she looked at them. She knew what fear looked like at this point.

"Sister, just stop! We can handle him! You don't have to do anything!" said Ritsu

"You still want to go, kid? Fine, let's go. We'll see who's power is greater!" said Shimazaki. Oh hell no! It was one thing to have been beaten by what he would have called the second coming of Suzuki, had Suzuki been dead, but to have that insolent little brat…or that other little bastard….think that they could take him….think that they could…could…could…!

Forget the fact that he could barely see.

Forget the fact that he could barely stand.

Forget the fact that the world's most indecisive teenage girl had just been about to kill him.

Forget the fact that he had already soundly been beaten. Suzuki would end him once he learned of what happened. He was not going to spend the last few moments, or however long, of his life with some impudent, aggravating, little bastards thinking that they even had a hope of beating him!

He was going to go out fighting goddamn it! He was not going to go out with some kids thinking that they could-

Someone hit him.

He fell to the ground as a series of blows, the source of which he could not see, bombarded him. He couldn't see even the barest hint of an aura. Just the girl. She was even louder now, her aura was, and there was something new and soft but still drifting there in her aura.

Also someone screamed at him.

"Self-defense! This is clearly self-defense! Self-defense rush!" shouted Reigen. He hadn't thought, not really, he had just acted. Mob was in trouble and everyone was looking like they were in pretty bad shape…so he had just acted. He acted because Mob looked like she needed him.

"For the love of…." Muttered Teru. He had missed Reigen. Of course he had. With how brightly Shigeko shown he hadn't been able to see Reigen. But now he could. He could see Reigen, his aura trying to bond with Shigeko's…and him standing over that teleporter guy like he had been the one to win. He hadn't! Teru had softened him up! Shigeko had done her part too.

And now they were calling Reigen the great master again.

"Everyone! Get up! The Great Master is here!" said Muraki. He pulled himself to his feet. The others did, too. Wow. That had been so amazing! He had hid his presence in the girl's aura and taken Shimazaki by surprise. Muraki hadn't even thought of doing that! It was true, what the Great Master had told them that night. They relied too much on their powers. They were so wrapped up in what they could do that they didn't even think to think outside the box. That was why the Great Master had been the one to defeat Shimazaki, and why the little blond boy had been the one to figure out Shimazaki's weakness.

No wonder someone as powerful as the girl followed him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…." Muttered Ritsu. He tried to approach the scene of…all of that. He didn't get into it with the newest card carrying members of the Reigen Arataka fanclub. He just wanted this whole thing to be over. He was in pain, he was tired, his house had burnt down, and if the aural activity coming from the Cultural Tower was anything to go off of then Sho was losing badly…and now Reigen of all people had saved them. Great. This was just great.

"Are you sure that counts as self-defense, Master?" asked Mob. The others were gathering around. The man, the BLIND man, was laying dazed on the ground. It was wrong to hit blind people…right? Even if they were jerks? Even if they had hurt your friends? Even if they had beaten up your boyfriend and your little brother and a bunch of your former enemies until they couldn't even walk right?

Teru!

He stumbled and at an instant she was at his side. She supported him with her body. He was so hurt…but she could fix this! She could just pour as much of herself into him, and the rest of them, until they were fine! She had healing powers! Or at least she could pour enough of her own energy into someone until their body just took over on it's own! Either way she knew what to do!

Even if she hadn't done this with a group that large before.

But she tried. She leaned into Teru and closed her eyes. Her power went to him first. He gasped and held her close. She could hear his breathing picking up. She could see his aura glowing brighter. She could see his aura from behind her closed eyes. Gold. Then yellow, custard yellow. Then blue, the same dark blue as school uniforms. Then a shade of light blue that she couldn't place…and then a shade of pale pink…light yellow…blood red…..neon yellow….

So many colors.

So many people who needed her.

She stretched out further. More hurt people. She saw orange…Rei! That was Rei and that light blue was…and then even lighter blue…and then…and then….and then…and then….

So many colors.

So many people who needed her.

So many people to help.

That was why she had those powers. She had those powers so that she could use them to help people. That was the difference between her and whoever was responsible for all of this. She was a good person. She may have made some mistakes, and may have been at war with herself, but she was still a good person! She didn't use her powers for things like this! She helped people and they needed her to help them and-

"Mob!" she heard someone say. Custard yellow.

"Shigeko!" she heard someone else say. Gold.

"Sister!" she heard someone else say. School uniform dark blue.

It was then that she opened her eyes and called her power back to herself. She had…she felt dizzy. She needed to sit down. She tried to sit on the ground but she felt someone, two someone's, trying to keep her on her feet.

"I've got this!" snapped Teru. Shigeko had just gotten a little unsteady, understandable as she had just shared her energy with everyone, and Reigen just swooped in to catch her. Teru had been right there, he had this, he could keep his own girlfriend steady. He held eye contact with Reigen and dared him, silently, to say or do anything.

Reigen broke eye contact first.

Teru was being such a jerk. Shigeko was there in his arms and all he could think to do was glare at Reigen. He was not in competition with Reigen for Shigeko, there was no competition, but he still let Reigen get the best of him. God, how pathetic could he get? Feeling threatened by that guy? Please. Shigeko was his and he was hers and they would always belong to each other. Maybe if he hadn't been on this jealousy shit then he could have been a better leader, friend, and boyfriend to all the people who depended on him.

"Sister-" said Ritsu. He hadn't been able to get to her fast enough. He sucked. He sucked in every single way in which a person could suck. He was a sucky little brother, he hadn't been able to do a single damned thing to protect his sister, and now she was there and ready to collapse. Thank God Teru was there. Ritsu had been such a sucky friend to Teru. What kind of a friend kissed his friend without asking, and while he was in a relationship too! He was such a sucky boyfriend. What the hell kind of boyfriend would rather spend time with, and think about kissing and other such things with, their big sister's boyfriend? He had been leading Rei on for months now and there was no end in sight and she deserved much better than what he could be and he never should have dragged her into this. He never should have let himself get dragged into this insanity. Now he was and he was such a sucky ally that he had let himself get his ass kicked and now his friend was up there getting his ass kicked and this day had been nothing but one ass kicking after another and it was all is fault!

"R-Right." said Reigen. He couldn't look that kid in the eye. He hadn't done a damn thing wrong! Except for letting Dimple take over Mob's body and then letting him cross a line, no, not just cross a line. Dimple hadn't just crossed a line, he had thrown up on it! He had thought that…he hadn't had time to think! One minute they were running for their lives and the next he was being kissed! If Dimple hadn't done that, crossed the line, then it would have remained uncrossed. He didn't think of Mob like that. He liked her company, her conversation, the way she spoke to him like he mattered more to her than anyone else in the world, the way she looked at him…he loved her but he didn't love her like THAT. Never like that. So then why did he feel like this? Why did he feel so guilty? There was no way in hell that he would even think of doing anything like that with Mob. She was fourteen! Regardless of how she felt about him he would never reciprocate and he would certainly never have kissed her if Dimple hadn't made him! And he pushed her away! Anything before that moment of shoving her away had been pure instinct!

So he had no reason to feel as guilty as he did.

"You don't have to feel so guilty, Master." Said Mob softly. Reigen felt like he had jumped ten meters in the air. For a moment he wants to run away from this, from the conversation that he did not want to ever have with her, and he even almost does.

"I mean even if he is blind he was still being a big jerk…even if I'm not sure if that counts as self-defense, Master, so I'm not mad that you hit him. He was ready to start fighting people anyway so it's not like you hit someone who wasn't doing anything…and I don't think that he's that hurt either. I just healed everyone." Said Mob. For a moment she felt like everything was her fault. She was the one who didn't go and do something about these red aura guys when she first started sensing them. She was the one who had been so wrapped in her own problems that she hadn't even thought about anyone but herself. She was the selfish one. She was the one who only thought about herself. That moment passed, though, once she realized that these weren't her feelings but Master Reigen's.

He was just really upset about hitting that blind man….and he was blind, too, based on the lack of eyes in his eye sockets.

"I don't know why he's still on the ground but you didn't hurt him that badly…so you don't have to feel so guilty…" said Mob

"Right, of course Mob. I just don't know my own strength sometimes I supposed…and don't worry, it was self-defense. Self-defense counts even if you're defending someone else." Said Reigen slipping back into the skin of a man who had this under control. Of a man who wasn't about to pass out from the sheer 'what the fuck' of this day. A man who wasn't shaking, there, in his cheap suit while a couple of teenagers handled this better than he ever could.

"But then why is it called self-defense? I'm not you, I'm Mob." Said Mob. She felt Teru relax beside her. He still held her up even though she was mostly fine now. She didn't push him away, though, she liked being near him. It felt like an eternity since she had last been in his arms. She leaned into him. He still smelled the same underneath all of the sweat and blood. He smelled like safety and love and companionship. He smelled like Teru.

"Legally it's an umbrella term. If you're ever not sure then be sure to yell it really loud." Said Reigen even though he wasn't sure if that would hold up in a court of law. Not that he imagined anyone would prosecute him for beating up one of the morons responsible for all of this insanity.

"Yeah, I don't think it works that way." said Ritsu looking Reigen up and down. Sister couldn't see it but Reigen looked like he was just about ready to pee his pants from fear. Damn. And him without his phone. He have to give Sho a piece of his mind for breaking it…when he came back. Sho was coming back. Sho had made him a promise and…and he was going to come back. He had to….

"Hey! Who's the adult here!" said Reigen. Teru rolled his eyes. That was all he could do without Shigeko noticing. He liked this, this light feeling he had now. This feeling was his own. He felt like he was on top of the world. His girlfriend was back. So what if Reigen had dealt the finishing blow? Shigeko was a lady, she hated violence. Anything that tarnished Reigen in her eyes was alright by him.

Shimazaki listened to the world around him. The world was quieter, now, less drowned out by her aura. That had been another esper. An esper that could hide any trace of his presence. That wasn't like Sho's little trick where he'd quiet his aura until it was almost nothing. No. This was something that was supposedly unheard of…and the man could do it. He could do it and he was an ally of the girl…the girl that was the second coming of Suzuki. She wasn't focusing on him anymore. He could have withdrawn if he wanted to…and he did want to…but then she might get pissed off at him. She felt like Suzuki almost, she sounded like Suzuki, and he did not want to know what other similarities there were between the two of them. This was bad. If he went back to Suzuki he was dead, or at least seriously injured, but if he stayed here then the girl would….he had no idea what teenage girls did to their captured enemies. Make you braid their hair and listen to the latest gossip? Make you paint their nails? Get them candy and soda and whatever else teenage girls ate? Suck the life out of you and then string your body up as an example to others?

He didn't want to stick around long enough to find out.

But running away posed it's own problems. Suzuki was poised to take over the entire world and when that happened there would be no running. Suzuki would catch him and if Suzuki wasn't planning on killing him now then he would, certainly, if he ran away. The only way to leave Claw was in a body bag and Shimazaki did not much want that. To die would be an awfully big adventure but it was not the sort of adventure, excitement, that he wanted. The girl was poised to stop Suzuki and he had no idea if she was planning on lording over the world as it's lord and master…er…mistress.

"…you sure this guy's ok, Mob? He's not really doing much of anything." Said the man getting closer. Shimazaki braced himself for a blow that he was sure would come. He felt fine, physically, after the girl did whatever it was that she did. It hadn't felt like healing powers. He had let Fukuda try and heal his eyes, he couldn't heal what had never been there in the first place even though something had been meant to be there in the first place, and what the girl did felt nothing like what Fukuda had done. It had been like she had been pouring straight energy into him and his body had no choice but to heal.

Still no eyes though.

"Master, don't get too close. This guy's really dangerous and you could get hurt. I mean, did you see what he did to everyone else? I don't want anyone else getting hurt." Said the girl. She sounded like Suzuki. Cold. Emotionless. Her voice was so steady but her aura, no, it was nothing like his. Suzuki had a steady aura, loud but steady, but her aura was like two people having the row of the century. Just the constant shouting….how did she live like that? It was maddening, aggravating, and he wondered how she hadn't destroyed herself yet.

The girl, the kids, those scars, and now this new esper…

How many were there? Was she really the second coming of Suzuki? Had she been planning on opposing him? What had she been planning? She was just a kid. The other kid, the arrogant little brat bastard, had called her his girlfriend. Shimazaki could see her, what she looked like, and while he knew that the way he saw her was different from the way in which sighted people saw he could tell that she was not a grown woman. He had, in his time, had plenty of women and that was not a woman. That was truly a teenage girl, a young teenager at that, and she had managed to gather up all of these allies and…and…and….

Toshi was out there.

She had managed to defeat Toshi too. Minegishi. She had managed to defeat Minegishi…and there has also been that…thing…he had felt earlier. Had she been responsible for that, too? Had she…what else had she done? And was that a high level evil spirit beside her? She was a spirit master too? Her aura was so loud…she was on a whole other level!

He did not want to fight her.

"Hey, look, I'm done. It's just not worth the risk to keep this thing going." Said Shimazaki. She was younger than Suzuki, just as powerful, and had plenty of allies. Switching sides would be the best thing for now and then…then he'd see how all of this went.

"Well that was easier than I thought it would be." Said Reigen. Hopefully whatever that red thing he could see at the top of the Cultural Tower would be just as easy to defeat. Then he and Mob could go home, order some takeout, and just put their feet up. Watch some more of her weird shows, eat some good food, lay down, and get some rest. In their own separate beds, of course, because as upset as Mob was that was….he had crossed enough lines with her that day.

He just wanted this day to be over.

"Too easy. I don't buy it. Whatever happened to taking over the world?" asked Teru. He knew what that guy was doing. He was going to pretend to be down and then strike when everyone felt sorry for him. Well Teru was not letting his guard down. Shigeko had healed him all up and now he was ready for round four!...or was it five? Whatever round this was!

"I never gave a damn about all of this world domination crap, that was all the boss' idea. As long as I'm having fun I don't really care." Said Shimazaki speaking the truth. Some people were dragged kicking and screaming into the organization, Shimazaki was not one of them. He only joined Suzuki because he was bored. Surely that must have meant something to this girl.

"As long as you're having fun? You disrupted the lives of all of those people, beat everyone here up, and did a bunch of other terrible things just for fun? What is the matter with you?" asked Mob. She was mad, then, but she tried not to be. She tried to see what could have been fun about any of that but she just…couldn't. She was mad. She was so mad. She was so mad that her aura was doing that thing again and she knew that it was wrong to fight people after they'd surrendered but this guy….THIS GUY….

This guy teleported away.

He made a strange sound and then teleported away.

Shimazaki needed to get out of there. He knew that tone. That was the tone Suzuki took before he 'disposed' of someone. Running away seemed like the best option, now, and that was what he did. He teleported as far away as he could…and then teleported closer. He had to. He knew that aura. He knew who it belonged to.

"Minegishi. You're alive." Said Shimazaki as he appeared beside Minegishi…who was being very still…

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Said Minegishi as he looked down at his hand. He could feel his power, there, under his skin. He had been so drained after the…whatever it was…and now he felt fine. Thanks to the girl. Shigeko. She was out there and she was really going to do it.

"Well I did." Said Shimazaki

"What happened to you? You look like shit." Said Minegishi. Shimazaki was bloody…not his blood apparently…and his clothes looked like he had gotten into a fight with a paper shredder and it ended in a draw.

"Scars and brats. What happened to you?" asked Shimazaki

"Sprits and a kid." Said Minegishi

"The girl?" asked Shimazaki

"Who else? That girl…I don't understand her…" said Minegishi

"So don't. Don't try and understand her. Listen, I'm getting out of here. Claw is finished and I never believed in any of that crap that our great leader was spouting off about anyway. That girl stands a good chance of killing Suzuki and I don't want to be around when she wins." Said Shimazaki

"You're afraid of a little girl?" asked Minegishi

"That…that is not a little girl. That's not even….I have no clue if that's even a human being at this point. It's like Suzuki…the second coming of Suzuki." Said Shimazaki

"Suzuki's still alive, I can see him." said Minegishi

"You know what I mean. Minegishi…come on. It's over. It's all over. We can go somewhere, anywhere you want, and just…I don't know what we'll do but it's better than being here." Said Shimazaki

"You still want me to make room for you in those grand dreams of mine?" asked Minegishi

"If you want to….Toshi." said Shimazaki. He felt it, the ripple of Minegishi's aura.

"You've never called me that…vertically." Said Minegishi

"I do. In my head sometimes." Said Shimazaki

"Well I'm not a telepath. I don't know what you're thinking and I never have." Said Minegishi

"I'm thinking that we should run away before the girl starts trying to take down Suzuki. I'm thinking that I don't want to be around when this is all over and she has a minute to sit down and start making lists on enemies. I'm thinking that I want to take you with me and just…find somewhere to hide until this whole thing…settles. I've seen her. I've fought her. We can't defeat her. She's…she's Suzuki. She's female Suzuki.

"Toichiko?" asked Minegishi with a dry laugh.

"What?" asked Shimazaki

"A feminization of the boss' given name. Toichiro. Toichiko." Said Minegishi still with that same dry laugh. There was nothing left for him to do. He was done with Claw, he had to be. He had made the girl a promise and one did not break a promise to the person who saved their life. He owed her one and she could come to collect at any time.

So maybe he should have just saved her the trouble.

The boss was a mortal man. He may have been the most powerful out of all of them but he was no God. God did not bleed. He had bled when he fought Minegishi. A God could not bleed. If a God could bleed then a God could be defeated and if a God could be defeated then that wasn't a God at all.

"You know I love that about you but we need to get a move on." Said Shimazaki

"I'm staying." Said Minegishi

"No. When the boss…you lost to her…and if the boss beats her then guess who's he's coming for next. Who's going to be at the top of HIS list of enemies? The people who failed him! Just…please….come with me." Said Shimazaki. There was something in his voice that he had never let show before. Hopefully it would be enough to convince Minegishi to come with him. There had to have been room in those grand dreams of his for Shimazaki, and if not then he could always make room. They needed to go and they needed to go now to get a head start on the lifetime of running they were going to have to do.

"I want to but I can't. The girl…she saved my life. She saved my life and she didn't even have to. She could have let me die but she didn't. I just had to make her a promise. I promised that I would never do anything bad again-" said Minegishi

"That's a promise you made to a child. Who decides what's bad and what's good? Suzuki's out of his mind, you think he thinks he's the villain in this story? What, the girl is the hero and the rest of us are villains? Good is going to triumph over evil? Then the credits are going to roll and that'll be the end of it all? That's a kid out there with the maturity of a kid and-and-and you can't possibly keep that promise! Come with me and just-" said Shimazaki

"I owe her one and I know that one day she's going to come to collect. I'd rather that day come sooner rather than later so I…I'm going to help her, Ryo. You said it yourself, Claw is finished. Switch to the winning side while you still can and she'll go easy on you. You're right, she's a child, but she's not that bad." Said Minegishi

"No. I am not letting you-" said Shimazaki

"What do you even care? Find someone else to bother when you're bored and lonely." Said Minegishi

"Don't act like it was ever about anything different on your part." Said Shimazaki. If that was the way that he wanted to be then fine. Toshi could handle himself. Let him get himself killed. See if he cared.

"Good. I'm glad we understand each other. Now if you'll excuse me I have a little girl to stay in the good graces of…and I'd suggest that you try and make peace with her too. She may seem like Suzuki but she is nothing like him." said Minegishi as he turned and started walking towards the collection of auras on the horizon. He didn't look back, he couldn't look back. Ryo could handle himself.

"How? How is she in any way different than Suzuki?" called Shimazaki after him.

"Isn't it obvious? She's human." Said Minegishi as he walked off to lend his aid in whatever way he could. He didn't dare look back, not even with his aura, because if he looked back then he might have taken Shimazaki up on that offer. He was…he was scared…they were both scared…but Ryo could handle himself.

They could each handle themselves.

Mob could handle that guy on her own.

"Wow. Somebody's scared." Said Reigen. Mob had shaken herself free of her boyfriend and was expanding out her aura. Reigen reached out and put a hand on her shoulder even though this action sent a shock of guilt through his mind.

"That little coward ran away!" shouted Terada, his air whips in hand in case that bastard was planning on sneaking up on everyone again.

"Does that even count as a win?" asked Koyama as he looked around. Huh. He had actually ran away. Koyama didn't blame him. That girl could be scary when she wanted to be. Sometimes running away was the best course of action.

"Keep your guard up, he may strike again." said Sakurai as he drew his gun. He willed Shimazaki to come out of wherever it was that he was hiding. This time he would be ready. This time he would not lose.

"No, I'm pretty sure that he's gone for good. After going through that I'm sure he'll change his ways for good." Said Teru. He knew what it was to be knocked on your ass by Shigeko. Humility. If anyone needed some humility it was that guy. Well he had chosen to run away like a coward. Good. One less thing to worry about.

He glared at the only other thing he had to worry about.

Reigen quickly took his hand from Shigeko's shoulder. Good.

"I can handle him if he comes back." Said Mob as she searched for him. Away. He was far away and that was what mattered. Something else was close. Yes. There. That red thing. That red aura person. The same red aura as the rest of those red aura guys but…worse…if that was the word for it.

"You mean we'll handle him." said Teru taking her hand. She shook her head.

"No. All of you…you could get hurt. You did get hurt. I don't want any of you to get hurt. I don't want any of your to fight again and end up getting hurt or even…or even killed. Ok? Just…please….I'm so sick and tired of the people I love getting hurt…" said Mob. Everyone's clothes were all messed up. They had bene covered in injuries before and she had healed them to the best of her ability…but they still weren't ok….not all the way.

Nothing was ok.

"Sister, please, let me help you." Said Ritsu. He was her brother and his job was to keep her safe. He may have been a sucky brother so far but he was prepared to fix that. He was prepared to do right by at least one person in his life. He expected her to argue with him, to tell him to go home even though they didn't have a home to go back to, but she didn't.

She threw herself into his arms.

"Ritsu! Ritsu….Ritsu…brother….little brother…baby brother…." Said Mob as she held her little brother close. He was too tall, now, taller than her. That wasn't fair. They were supposed to be the same height. She had been gone from him for so long. She had been so selfish. She had avoided him because of how awful she was…and she could have lost him! He was in the thick of this! She could have so easily lost him because she had been too selfish to do something about these guys when she first sensed them!

"Sister…sister I am so sorry…" said Ritsu. He was sorry about all the ways that he had betrayed her, including that one thing that he didn't need Teru giving him a look for to know to keep to himself. Well he was going to do right by her, now, and not just because he was never going to kiss her boyfriend again. No. He was going to the top of that tower, where he should have gone with Sho, and he was setting this whole thing right.

"Brother, no, you have nothing to apologize for. This is all my fault! If I hadn't been so busy feeling sorry for myself then I could have done something about these guys before things got this bad!" said Mob

"Sister, it's not-" said Ritsu

"Yes it is! The city is ruined, our house burned down, bad people are beating all of you up, and now there's some guy at the top of that tower probably waiting for his chance to come down here and do it all again! No more! I'm going to go up there and do what I should have done weeks ago when I first sensed them! I am going to keep you and everyone else safe-" said Mob

"No you aren't!" shouted Reigen at the top of his lungs. There was no way in hell that he was losing Mob again. They had found her brother, her boyfriend, and those two probably knew where the rest of the esper kids were. Priority one would be getting the esper kids home safe, or to an evacuation point, and then priority two would be getting the hell out of Seasoning City until the authorities did something about this. Espers were real so surely the Japanese government would have had a few laying around to deal with problems like this…or an army….or something! Hell, he'd take the secret alien fighting super Sentai team at this point!

"Shigeko, no, let me do it." said Teru with a bit more composition. She did not want to do this. He knew her, how to read her, and he knew when she was not ok with something. He could go. He could go up there and be the one to save her this time. She had saved him so many times already. She had saved him in every single way in which a person could be saved and now it was his turn.

"Not without me you aren't." said Ritsu with enough sense to know that there was no stopping sister when she got like that. He could at least be near enough to protect. She was going to need it if what Sho had told him could be trusted. Sho who had promised to come back.

"Nobody is going anywhere! Mob, no. We need to save your friends. Remember them? They need you, Mob, everyone needs you. You can keep them safe until we get them back to their families and then-" said Reigen grasping at anything that kept her from the top of that tower. She was stubborn. This was the Asagiri job all over again except it would be real. Really real. Not the unreality or whatever she was calling it. This was real and she could really get hurt and Reigen really didn't want that. Really.

"You are not the boss of her and you are not the boss of me! If I want to go up there and save MY GIRLFRIEND-" said Teru

"No, you're going to go up there and DIE for your girlfriend! You're going to die pointlessly and then how the hell is Mob supposed to live with herself after that? You love each other, right? Well when you love someone you don't pull this shit! When you love someone then you don't out your life on the line, ever, if you can avoid it! This, all of this, is not your problem. You're a bunch of kids whether you like it or not! I am an adult and I am telling you to run away!" said Reigen

"If you know so much about love then where's your girlfriend?" asked Teru. Reigen looked at him like he was about to slap him into next week. That was where Teru was getting this aggression from, obviously, he was a good person now and good people did not carry this sort of aggression within themselves.

"Shots fired." Said Koyama. He was promptly elbowed in the ribs.

"Stay out of it." Hissed Sakurai. This was not the time or the place to be getting into quarrels. It was a stress reaction, a natural one, but not something that they needed to be adding to.

"Teru, usually I'm all about that but what you just said was not helpful." Said Ritsu trying his hardest to be diplomatic here. He didn't like Reigen any more than Teru did but Shigeko cared about him so maybe this was not the time to be hitting below the belt like that.

"I don't have one. I'm not in middle school, I don't need to be in a relationship all the time to be-" said Reigen

"Well maybe you should give it a try and then lecture me about what I should and should not do for my girlfriend. I am going up to the top of that tower and I am going to fight and I am going to win and there isn't a single thing that any of you can say or do to stop me." Said Teru. He stood in front of Shigeko protectively. He had this for her. He would do it for her, that was how he knew he could win.

"Teru! You're pissing sister off! Stop it!" said Ritsu standing in front of Reigen. That was a surefire way to get Shigeko to explode, threaten Reigen Arataka in any way/ he was loathe to protect the man but he was also not going to let his sister explode. He watched her. She was just staring at all of them. That could have meant literally anything.

"I'm the one pissing Shigeko off? Me? Yeah, you'd know a lot about that, wouldn't you?" asked Teru meanly. How dare he take Reigen's side after all that Teru had done for him! Put up with from him! Gone through for him!

"Listen, why don't we all just stop and take a breath-" said Reigen trying to calm himself down. That was him. He was the one doing this. He had been pissed off and now those two were pissed off and Mob…Mob was just standing there taking it all in…

"Shut up! For once in your life will you just shut your mouth!" shouted Teru. His voice broke at the end and his throat felt raw. He just wanted to save his girlfriend, what was so bad about that? And who the hell did Reigen think he was to even begin ordering Teru around?! Where did he get off thinking that he was entitled to order Teru around just because he was an adult!?

"Stop yelling at Reigen!" shouted Ritsu. Sister was being still and quiet, she could have so easily been building up to an explosion, and Ritsu had no idea what to do besides diffuse the situation…even though Reigen deserved it.

"Why are you defending him? What, do you just have a thing for blonds?" asked Teru mockingly. He put up a barrier just in time to stop a rush of energy from Ritsu.

"Shut your mouth! Don't say another word!" shouted Ritsu

"Why? Why should I keep my mouth shut!? I haven't done a damn thing wrong! I'm the one who's had to keep this whole thing together while you've just been falling apart and acting stupid and running around with Suzuki! Do you have any idea how hard this has been for me! I needed you a million times back there-" said Teru

"I helped you fight that blind guy! Hanazawa, don't give me that shit! I was THERE! You even told me not to-" said Ritsu

"Hey, you guys are maybe getting a little bit off subject here-" said Reigen

"Reigen, I swear to God you need to shut your mouth right now." Said Ritsu glaring at him. Reigen put his hands up in surrender.

"Think we should do something? The great master is-" said Muraki as he watched with all of his other former scars. Tsuchiya shook her head.

"It's like a tire fire, you've just got to let it burn." Said Tsuchiya. Things got heated, fights happened, everyone got out their misplaced aggression, licked their wounds, and got on with their lives. She was so grateful that she only had the one kid to take care of, and that she was a girl too, teenage boys were such monsters at that age.

Case and point.

"I needed you, Kageyama! I needed you because you were the only other person there who even stood a chance, a fucking CHANCE, at doing anything to help us! But what did you do? You just went off with Suzuki and left me alone with EVERYONE! Including your girlfriend! Yeah, remember her? Red hair, brown eyes, has been crying non fucking stop since you went missing?! I don't care how you feel about her or me or anyone but you cannot treat people like that!" said Teru

"Yeah, you know a lot about how to treat people don't you, Hanazawa? I bet you were SO upset about getting to, I mean having to, boss everyone around, weren't you? It was just SO hard having a bunch of people to lord over! It must have been-" said Ritsu

"You have no clue how it's been! You abandoned us! You abandoned your friends and your sister and your girlfriend all for Suzuki! Some guy you barely even know! What about us! What about the rest of us! What about-" said Teru

"Both of you! Take a minute and just breathe!" said Reigen. This was bad. This was so bad. He couldn't project calm emotions until he had calm emotions and he couldn't have calm emotions if those two wouldn't stop screaming at each other!

"Excuse me? No. You do not get to tell me what to do! I will yell at whoever the hell I want to yell at!" shouted Teru

"Reigen, I said to shut up! I'm only defending you for sister's sake so at least be grateful!" shouted Ritsu

"For Mob's sake? This is not good for Mob, she needs-" said Reigen

"Don't you even begin to tell me what my girlfriend needs! You just shut up and stay the hell out of this! This is between Ritsu and me! And Ritsu stop defending him! Whose side are you on because it certainly doesn't look like mine! I am doing this because I love Shigeko, something that neither of you would have even the smallest of an idea about! So stay the hell out of my way and get me a cup of tea for when I'm done because I am going up there and-!" said Teru

"You are such a glory hog, you know that?" asked Ritsu

"Better a glory hog than-than-than a liar!" said Teru

"Better a liar than a-" shouted Ritsu. He was about to call Teru something unforgiveable when a voice, soft and monotonous and steady cut through them all.

"Can everyone please stop this? I am tired of fighting and I just want this to be over. Friends shouldn't fight and the only reason that things are getting this bad is because you all feel cornered. Sometimes when people feel cornered they lose control of their mouths and say the meanest things. It'll all be ok so long as you apologize but right now I need this to stop. I am going up there and if you love me you'll stay here." Said Mob all in one breath. She had been thinking while they had all been shouting at each other. They were not going to help her. They couldn't even handle that guy from before so the, of course, stood no chance against whatever that was.

But she did.

And Shigeko agreed.

It was time to put a stop to all of this.

"Sister, no. I won't let you-" said Ritsu as he reached for her hand. She pulled it away.

"You're my little brother, not my big brother, you don't get to order me around." Said Mob. She tried to take a step away but Teru managed to grab her by her bag.

"Shigeko…please…let me do this. You don't need to do this. I can-" said Teru. He grabbed her by the NERV bag she wore across her body and pulled her close.

"Teru, you were almost dead when I got here and that was just from fighting that guy from before. You are not coming with me." Said Mob though she made no move to get away from him. She wanted to remember this, him, in case she didn't…in case things didn't go well.

"Mob….please….remember the Asagiri job? Sometimes you have to run away. This is one of those times and-" said Reigen. And he loved her. And he cherished her. And he never wanted to see any harm come to her. And he would die before he let anything happen to her. A lot of ands.

"Just shut up and let her go, dumbass. None of you can say or do a damned thing to stop her so just let her go. The longer you stand here screaming at each other like a bunch of morons the longer that boss guy up there has to plan his attack. Just let her go so we can all get on with our lives." Said Dimple finally chiming in. Honestly. Why Shigeko surrounded herself with these idiots he would never know. She had this and she didn't need anyone ruining her confidence. She had more power than she thought and she just needed to harness it and she couldn't if these morons planted the seeds of doubt in her mind. She was the only one who had a chance of winning….and failure was not an option….

"Thank you, Dimple. If you all love me then you'll let me go…and you won't follow me. Ok? I'll come back and-" said Mob before Teru pulled her in even closer.

"Shigeko-" said Teru. She was dead serious….and she could have been seriously dead. Her. The love of his life. He needed her to know that. He needed her to know that she was the greatest thing to ever happen to him. She needed to know that without her there would be no him and he existed in that moment. She needed to know that he could not lose her….

But he didn't have the words.

"Teru, I'm going and that's final." Said Mob. She expected more protesting, begging, pleading, arguing but instead she was kissed.

Hard

And she kissed back just as hard.

She kissed him like she would never see him again…which she might…no. She would fight and she would win and then when this was over she would come back and kiss Teru and hold him and even do all of that other stuff that they did together. The things that she could do without remembering the unreality. The things that they liked. Even that thing that he liked but she wasn't very good at but he still liked when she did it.

They'd do everything once she came back.

"Come back to me. When you're done come back." Said Teru as he pressed his forehead to hers. Objectively that hadn't been a good kiss. Sloppy and off target and loud…but authentic. He kissed her like he wanted to drink her down and carry her with him for the rest of his life. Maybe he did. Maybe if he kept on kissing her he would.

But he couldn't.

She had a world to save.

"I will….I promise." Said Mob. She gave Teru one last kiss, and bid everyone one last 'I'll be back' and then went on her way with Dimple in tow. She didn't want this. She was sick of all of this fighting. She just wanted to go home or kiss her boyfriend or hang out with her boyfriend or even do some of that stack of homework…anything but this. But that was not how it worked. Sometimes you just had to fulfill your destiny. She was the protagonist of her own story and in this story she had a destiny to fulfil.

So she had no choice but to get in the robot, so to speak.

And that was what she did. Stair by stair she climbed. She climbed to meet her ultimate destiny, her final boss, her arch enemy she didn't even know she had. She had this, though, she had to have this. Failure was not an option. She was going to save her friends and her family and the whole world.

Because that was what she did, she saved people.