A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter is so short, the holidays have got me really busy but don't worry. Chapters will be back to their normal length soon. They usually take me about six or so hours to do around 15k words so just as soon as I have six or so hours free they'll get longer again. As always thank you for your continued readership! You guys make it all worth it!

The Cultural Tower sure had a lot of steps.

Well that made sense, it was a very tall building. It might have even been the tallest building in the city, now, because so many other buildings had been knocked over. She could see, from the windows, that a circle around this building was just…gone. Gone. Tipped over. Ruined. Downtown was ruined. Not just the buildings that had fallen down but the damage they did. Ruined.

People did all of that with psychic powers.

That wasn't right. Mob could have, maybe, knocked down a building if she felt like it. She could have done a lot of things if she felt like it. She could have found and beat up everyone who had even been the least bit involved in all of this. She didn't because things like that were wrong. It was wrong to use psychic powers to do things like this.

Very wrong.

But they had still done all of this. Why? It was mean. Mob didn't understand meanness at all. If given the option between helping people and making them happy and making the lives of everyone in the entire city worse then, obviously, helping people! That was what psychic powers were for, helping people, not doing things like this!

Calm down.

And stay calm.

Because the windows were starting to crack. Shew as not going to add to all of this. She was not…she was not these people. She could have so easily become this, it seemed, because at some point this became the default setting for espers. She had met so few nice espers in her life….why was this the default? Why did people act like this just because they had psychic powers? She had never felt like this in her life. She had always been afraid, actually, of herself.

And she kind of was, now.

Because she was so mad at the people who did this….so very mad. She was mad but she had to stay calm. She had to keep it together. She could not lose control. She could not explode. She had go up these stairs and keep it together so that she could do…something. Oh yes, she was going to do…something.

"So? What's the plan here?" asked Dimple as he caught up to her. No way was he waiting with the others. He had missed the boss fight when they fought these guys before, no way was he missing this one.

"Dimple, go back with the others. It's not safe here." Said Mob

"What am I going to do? Die again? Come on, you need me." Said Dimple. Also Reigen had been serious about the whole 'trying to exorcise him' thing, which was a little bit of an overreaction. On the grand scale of things that he could have done kissing Reigen was at the bottom of the list.

"Maybe. I don't know what happens to spirits after they're exorcised but I don't think that it's good and I don't think that there's any coming back from that. Please, just go be with the others. I know that they won't run away but….but I don't want them here. I don't want anyone I care about here. I don't want you to be here, Dimple." Said Mob

"Aww, I'm touched. I'm really touched you care so much Shigeko but I am not going anywhere. No way. You're stuck with me." Said Dimple

"Please Dimple, please just keep the others safe. I don't need any help. I don't want to drag anyone into this. This is something that I have to do myself because I…I'm the only one who can. Sometimes you just have to get in the robot…and this is one of those times. Ok? You and everyone else could get hurt and this…this is my thing that I have to do…ok?" said Mob softly. She had stopped walking now. She could see herself in the window. Reflected. A mirror imagine. She was still in her school uniform, it was burnt and ripped and dirty now after the day she'd had. Her hair was a mess, lose and wild, and her bangs were stuck to her forehead.

She looked awful.

But not scared.

Scared of herself, yes, but not of what was happening to her. There were people depending on her to end this and because they were depending on her then she had no choice but to win. The thought of someone she loved getting hurt was the scariest of all and that was why she had no choice but to win. Maybe she could win without having to hurt anyone. Maybe she wouldn't have to hurt anyone too badly. Maybe this would all be over soon and then she and Master Reigen and everyone else could go and get some ramen and just pretend like everything was normal even though it so clearly wasn't.

"You've been watching too much TV." Said Dimple dismissively.

"I know I have and when this is over I'm going to watch a lot more." Said Mob as she started walking again.

"Well you shouldn't, it's poisoning your mind. What do you think? That you can do this without getting your hands dirty? That you can find this boss guy and talk him down with the power of love or friendship or whatever? I know you, Shigeko, and I know that you hate getting your hands dirty. The shit that happened in Mogami's little fantasy land was enough to mess you up for weeks…and it didn't even happen! Shigeko guys like this…you can't talk to guys like this. You're either going to have to hurt him or get hurt." Said Dimple as he tried to talk some sense into her. She didn't have to run away like Reigen kept on repeating over and over again but she didn't have to do this alone. Let someone else do what had to be done. He had been around a long time, long enough to know that there were some people in this world that couldn't stomach doing what had to be done, and Shigeko for all of her power was one of them.

"Guys like that? What makes you so sure that it's not a girl?" said Mob. Boy or girl she didn't want to fight them…but it maybe would have been better if it were a girl that had done all of this. Most of her friends were boys and boys could not fight girls so maybe, just maybe, if it were a girl then the others would stay out of it and go somewhere safe.

If there even was such a place anymore.

"Pretty sure I heard one of those lackeys or minibosses or whatever say that their president was a guy so…maybe don't pick a fight with a grown man on your own. Not even a grown man but a grown esper. I know that you're seeing this guy's aura just as well as I am and I know that the only other aura you've seen like this is yours. Just a thought." Said Dimple

"That was a lot more than one thought." Said Mob

"Yeah, well, it needed saying. Shigeko….as much as I like you I'd rather hang out with you as a person than as a spirit." Said Dimple

"But you are a spirit." Said Mob

"I mean don't get yourself killed. You have a lot of people out there who care about you…or at least believe in you enough that they were willing to go up against this crazy aura guy. Shigeko, don't die. I mean, after all, if you die then who am I going to hang out with? Spirits don't exactly make the best company for other spirits after all." Said Dimple

"You'd be sad if I died?" asked Mob

"Yeah, for a little while. I'd get over it pretty quick, though. I mean what's more ridiculous than one dead person mourning another." Said Dimple

"Hairless cats." Said Mob

"What the fuck are you on about?" asked Dimple

"Hairless cats. They're ridiculous. They look like baby aliens. Cats are supposed to be fluffy and cuddly but hairless cats just look….ridiculous. I could never have one in my house, I would be too weirded out." Said Mob

"Shigeko, I'm calling bullshit." Said Dimple

"I'm not lying. There really are hairless cats. You're really old, how come you've never seen one?" asked Mob

"You are too lying. Come on, like you said I've been around for a while, and I cannot allow myself to believe that there are people who are going around shaving cats-" said Dimple

"No, no, no, they're not shaved, they're born like that. They have a mutation in their genes that makes them not grow hair. They're cold all the time, though, and they need sunscreen and protective clothing. Also they have really big ears and pointy faces and they just look…not good at all. Ridiculous." Said Mob

"You're ridiculous." Scoffed Dimple. He manifested a hand and waved it at her dismissively.

"Dimple! I'm telling the truth!" laughed Mob. For a moment she wasn't walking up the stairs to the top of the cultural tower to fight the big boss, end the season, accept her magical destiny, or have a long drawn out battle sequence that you go on over weeks and weeks and weeks getting more and more violent…but that was boy's manga. This was a girl's manga. She'd just go up there and…face her magical destiny.

Which she hoped would involve talking to the bad guy and showing him the true meaning of love or friendship or something.

Either way she would do this. She had the powers, she had the school uniform, and she had the sidekick. She was as close to a magical girl as someone in this reality could get and the magical girl always won. She had to. It was her magical destiny.

And she was a magical girl.

Whether she liked it or not.

Reigen had to be there whether he liked it or not.

"Are they…hey Master Reigen? Should we tell them to…stop? They're making everyone uncomfortable." Said Muraki as he kept his back turned, made it a point to keep his back turned, to the young couple sitting a couple meters away getting better acquainted.

"Yeah, I mean those aren't my kids or anything but…aren't they a little young to be like that?" asked Koyama also pretending that he couldn't see or hear what was going on back there. Group A had reconvened with group B and after everyone got up to speed, or while during, the kid he had kidnapped all those months ago met up with his girlfriend. At least based on the show that was being put on Koyama assumed that little red haired girl was his girlfriend.

"I'm on it." Said Reigen with levity that he didn't feel. At least this was a problem that he could solve. Kids making out like nobody was watching. A simple problem with a simple solution.

"Mob's little brother and his girlfriend! Knock it off, you're making people uncomfortable!" called Reigen over his shoulder. He suddenly had the urge to both pull his shirt up over his head and hide as well as stomp his feet and scream. He just sighed.

Teenagers.

He looked up.

Teenagers.

He could sort of make out Mob's aura. Pinks and blues. Red. The red was starting to drown her out. She had told him to stay put…and he was. He was staying put because…because he was of no help to her. He would just hold her back, slow her down, and that was all that it would take. One moment of distraction and it would all be over. She was up there and she was in for the fight of her life…and he was down there telling her little brother to stop making out with his girlfriend.

"Ritsu, don't let me go." Said Rei as she clung to Ritsu as tightly as she could. She had been mad, then embarrassed, but now she was just…she didn't know what this was. This was as if panic had eaten worry and then grated some mortal terror on top of it all. It was bad, it felt bad, but so long as she was with Ritsu she knew that everything was going to be ok.

They loved each other.

"I won't, I won't." said Ritsu, for once in his life grateful that Reigen was so bossy. Rei may still have been holding onto him but at least she wasn't trying to tongue stab him anymore. Now she was just holding onto him and telling him to never let her go. Of course he wasn't going to let her go, she'd asked him not to once already, she didn't need to say it over and over and over again.

"Ritsu….don't ever go again. Please don't ever let me go and don't go again. Please. I love you so much…don't let me go." Said Rei as she closed her eyes and buried her face in his chest. He was still holding onto her even though she looked terrible and smelled like she had been hanging out in a sewer, which she had been, and he was never going to let her go…and he loved her. He loved her and she loved him and they were there, together, and they always would be together and Mob was up at the top of that tower thing and she was going to…win?

Lose.

Win.

Lose.

Draw.

Win.

Lose.

Lose.

Win.

Draw.

The future kept on shifting and she tried to follow the path, the one path, but there so rarely was one path. Each path seemed equally as likely to happen and that didn't help! Mob was up there and she had no idea how this was going to turn out! Mob was up there fighting for everyone and she…she could have died. She might have had all the things that made a magical girl a magical girl but that didn't mean that realty would follow the rules of fiction! Sure Mob had psychic powers and stuff but that didn't mean that she would win!

Why was this happening?

"I said I wasn't going anywhere….I can't go anywhere. My sister is up there." Said Ritsu. He should have been up there with her. He was her little brother. It was his job to keep her safe. He was failing at….at everything. He wasn't keeping his sister safe, he wasn't keeping his girlfriend happy, his parents would kill him once they came home and found out that he let the house get burnt down…..if they didn't kick him out, too, once they realized that he had psychic powers….and he wasn't even up there fighting alongside his friend either….

So now all he was, all he could be, was the world's biggest handkerchief, if his girlfriend didn't stop crying anytime soon.

"Damnit Shigeko." Muttered Teru as he took in the scene around him. He should have been up there. He could have…he would have been useless. He couldn't even beat up a blind man! Wait…that sounded really bad….but it was true! Not that he planned on making it a habit, beating up blind people, but he had lost to that esper with no eye so many times…and there was no way in hell that he would have been able to be of any use to Shigeko in whatever it was that she was doing up there.

Maybe she'd knock some humility into that asshole who started all of this mess.

No. There was no maybe about it. He loved her. He believed in her. He knew that she would win. She was his girlfriend, of course she would win. Once she won and this whole thing was over they could…well he'd have to find a new place to live. His apartment had exploded and/or burnt down after all. All of his stuff….some of it might have been salvageable….he'd shift through the wreckage when all of this was done. He'd get everything back the way it should have been when all of this was over and done with. When Shigeko made sure that this was all over and done with.

Because she was a magical girl and the magical girl always won.

"Are you a magical girl?" Mob saw the aura before she saw the man attached to it. Purple, not red, which she had thought might have been a good sign. She had been seeing way too many red auras lately.

"No. I mean maybe. I don't know. Are you a bad guy?" asked Mob as she stood on the steps in front of this man. He had a purple aura, no hostile intent, and he wasn't even dressed like a mean person. Well he wasn't wearing the uniform the red aura guys were wearing, at least. He had on a robe and pajamas and crocs. He even held an umbrella even though it wasn't the rainy season anymore.

"Yes. I mean no. I mean I don't know." Said Serizawa. That was…that was who the President had been looking for. She looked a lot less…scary…than he had imagined. Not that he was sure what he had been imagining. Certainly not this. That was…she was in a school uniform so it must have been just a kid. Just a girl.

A magical girl.

She had the school uniform, the sidekick which was apparently that spirit glob thing, and her aura was so bright and…and pretty. Pink and blue. Bubble gum pink and electric blue. Her aura was pretty and she was kind of pretty, too, and that just made this all the worse….

He didn't want this.

He didn't want any of this.

"How do you not know? Are you with these people or not?" asked Mob. He didn't seem like the others…which could have been a good thing….because he could maybe have been on her side….or a bad thing because if he was on the bad guys' side then that meant that...well it meant that good people could have been turned to the dark side.

And he felt like a good person.

She let her aura meet his. Such a sad energy….and not murderous of hostile or even the least bit mean. Nothing like the red aura guys or the minibosses she had been fighting. Nothing like them at all. His aura was even a different color…and she could see all of the red behind him….and she was maybe even just trying to find something good in him because she was so sick of fighting and bad people….she was just so sick of it all…

"Y-You shouldn't be here. This is a bad time….you should go." Said Serizawa. He was sick of it all. He was sick of hurting people and of seeing people get hurt. This was a girl. He knew what he was supposed to do and he knew that he couldn't do it. He couldn't do it before and he couldn't do it now. Hurt her. He hadn't been able to hurt Sho and he certainly couldn't hurt a girl.

He was tired of it all.

"I can't go." Said Mob. He didn't want to look at her now, it seemed. He looked away from her down at his umbrella. He held it even tighter.

"Want me to possess this guy so you can keep going?" asked Dimple. Well this was just the sort of guy who'd tug at Shigeko's heartstrings and make her all sappy and when she got sappy she got sloppy and then this whole thing would be lost.

"No. I don't want anyone else to get hurt…and I don't want anyone else to get hurt…but I have to keep going." Said Mob

"You have to get out of here. This is a bad place to be right now." Said Serizawa. She had no facial expressions whatsoever. Nothing. She just stood there with that spirit…had she bound it to herself? Could she do that? Her aura was expressive while her vessel was not…and her aura was so bright…

"No. I won't. I'm going up there and I'm going to stop whoever's responsible for this. Please move out of the way." said Mob simply

"No. I just…no. You have to leave." Said Serizawa clutching his umbrella between two hands. He couldn't hurt anyone else. He had already defied the President when he didn't hurt Sho….if he defied him again….and he was going to. He couldn't do it. He couldn't hurt his friend and he couldn't hurt a girl. That would be the worst thing that he had ever done in his life…and he had done so many bad things already…

Hurting her could not be one of them.

"No. I'm not going anywhere. You're the one who has to leave. You're not safe here. You should run away." Said Mob. She heard the creaking of a door. Oh. These were panel doors, not walls, and there were still people inside….

Normal people.

Hey! She knew that guy from….somewhere….but where? Was that the guy who ran the snow cone cart in the summer? Or was he the nice man who had the haunted printer that she and Master Reigen exorcised last spring? Or maybe he was the man who kept on leaving food menus on the outside door of the office.

"Please, go, and take him with you. I know that the President will be angry with me but…but he's already angry with me…and I just…..I can't anymore. I just can't." said Serizawa. In for a penny, in for a pound. He knew what the President was planning on doing to the Prime Minister on national TV later on and…and it was awful. Not that he hadn't seen the President kill people before but those people had all done something against the President. Here the President was just trying to make a point about…something…Serizawa didn't even know what anymore.

He had already proven that he was the strongest.

He had proven that he could lay siege to an entire city.

He had proven that he could hold the world hostage.

What else was left to prove?

Serizawa knew that the President was just following his dreams. He wanted to make the whole world a better place for espers everywhere. He wanted to make it so that nobody had to be afraid of themselves like Serizawa had been afraid of himself for years. He was trying so hard to make the world better…he said so, anyway, but lately…lately there had been a lot more hurting people than there had ever been before.

And Serizawa just couldn't anymore.

But the President wanted….the President had been the one to save him from the hell that was existence. Not even a proper life, just an existence…and there Serizawa was letting the Prime Minister go, a mission that Shimazaki had risked his life to complete, and also standing there and arguing with the greatest threat to the organization and the President himself instead of just sending her flying out the window. Serizawa was letting the President down….which was wrong….but so were the things that the President had asked him to do.

It was wrong to keep a man prisoner so you could kill him in cold blood later.

It was wrong to hit a kid even that kid had done treason against his own father.

It was wrong to hit a girl. It didn't matter is she was old or young or bad or good or an esper or a normal person. Hitting women was wrong. Period.

And he just couldn't do it.

"Y-You're letting me go?" asked the Prime Minister. The madman who kidnapped him, and all of these other people, had been busy with whatever it was that involved all of the bashing and crashing and screaming. He had managed to get free of his restraints and had found the staff access throughways. He would have made it to the bottom and out if he hadn't stopped when he heard a female voice. Small and young and fragile. A child.

There was a child there in this awful place.

And she was going to…do what, exactly? Fight that madman Suzuki?

A little girl in her school uniform.

"Take him with you. He's supposed to be a hostage but I can't….I can't anymore. Take him and get out of here. He hasn't even done anything wrong, the President was just trying to make a point by killing him." said Serizawa motioning for the man to keep walking.

"The Prime Minister?!" asked Mob. Wow. She hadn't voted for him, she couldn't vote yet, but that was still cool. He was the most important person in the whole country…or maybe that was the emperor….she hadn't paid that much attention in civics….but still! This was so cool!

"Kill?!" said the Prime Minister. The man nodded. The little girl was just staring at him. She had no expressions whatsoever, like a little doll. Her clothing was burnt, bloody, and dirty. Her hair was a mess. This little girl had been through hell and now she was going to challenge that madman Suzuki with…what…exactly?

"Hey, do we get three wishes now? Since we saved you?" asked Dimple coming out of invisible mode. The poor old sod jumped about three feet in the air when Dimple materialized in front of him. Ah yes, the joy of scaring normal people and scarring them for life with the knowledge that, yes, spirits were real and they were as awesome as he was.

"Dimple, don't scare the Prime Minister, I think that it might even be a crime….also he's not a genie. Genies aren't real…I think." Said Mob

"Th-that's a spirit right next to you! H-How is any of this possible?" asked the Prime Minister. Mob stared at him. How was she supposed to explain the many idiosyncrasies of the nature of existence? She did not have the time, first of all, nor did she have all the answers. Dimple probably didn't, either, even though he acted like he knew everything sometimes.

"I don't know how spirits work, just that there are spirits, and I don't know who there is that can explain it to you. I think that you really should run away, though, I'm going to try and talk to the person who did all of this and make him stop…somehow. I don't know how but I'm going to try." Said Mob

"You? But how? You're just a little girl!" asked the Prime Minister

"You can't…."muttered Serizawa. She couldn't. The President could not be stopped, could not be defeated, because he was the President. He shone so brightly and he was so strong…there was no defeating him. She couldn't defeat him. If she…who would he be without the President? Where would he go? What would he do? He didn't want…this…but without the President what else was there out there for him? He'd have to go back to the hell that had been his life….

"I don't know what I'm going to do or how I'm going to do it but I'm going to do something. Here, I'll put a barrier around you. I don't know how long it's going to hold for but maybe it'll help you. You should run away, far away, because it's not safe here or out there or maybe even anywhere." Said Mob. She put a barrier around him and tried to make it as strong as she could. She didn't know how long it could hold without her being there, she had never tried to do this before, but she wasn't just going to let someone without any powers to go out into that warzone.

Even if it hurt, a little, holding up a barrier as the Prime Minister ran away. Holding up a barrier that far from her was hard…especially when she could only, after a few moment, approximate where she was supposed to keep the barrier up from the sounds of footsteps. Normal people were so hard to see. No auras.

But there were auras here.

Including his. This person who would not let her pass. This person who didn't even seem like he wanted to be there, based on his aura, and who she would have to maybe even fight past…or let Dimple possess…both were not things that she wanted to happen.

"Please move out of the way." said Mob. She didn't want to fight him. She didn't want to fight anyone. Fighting was so stupid. This whole thing was just so stupid.

"I can't do that. I can't let you fight the President." Said Serizawa. He drew his umbrella and held it in front of himself defensively. He wasn't going to hurt her…at least he really didn't want to…and he didn't agree with what the President was doing…

But without the President he'd have no one.

"So you are one of the bad guys after all." Said Mob. What a world, even seemingly nice people couldn't be trusted…and he did seem very nice.

"No. I'm not…we're not the bad guys. The President…he just wants to make the world a better place for all of us…for all of us espers." Said Serizawa. There. That got some expression out of her. Her eyes narrowed. Her aura flared. Her hair stood up and whipped around her like she was standing inside of her own personal windstorm.

"A better place? You call this making the world a better place? Look out the window and tell me how that's making the world a better place." Said Mob as she clenched her fists and tried to keep it together. The other her wanted to break him, to make him pay for what happened, but Mob was in charge and she didn't want to break anyone….

Even though she'd have to. Maybe.

"It is! I mean it's going to be…once this is all done. The President said that sometimes sacrifices had to be made-" said Serizawa.

"Sacrifices? What do you think you mean by 'sacrifices'? Huh? What do you mean?! Look outside! Look at what you guys did! There, right there in that building was where my mom worked! And that place over there had a really nice manga shop in the basement! And there, all the way out there, was where my boyfriend lived before you guys went and blew it up! And you burnt down my hou-my parents' house! And I bet that a bunch of other people don't have houses anymore either!" said Mob. She tried to breathe in and out like Master Reigen had taught her. She needed….she didn't want to fight him…she didn't want to fight anyone. Mob didn't want to fight.

But Shigeko did.

"Shigeko! Calm down or you'll end up accidentally killing this guy! Come on, don't waste your time on small fries like him! You've got a boss to battle!" shouted Dimple as he felt himself trying to dematerialize. Why or why had Shigeko had to have learned that trick?! Now she did it without even thinking!

"That President said that most of the people had already evacuated. The President said that we needed to destroy the old to create the new. The President said that we're making a better world for espers everywhere. The President said-" said Serizawa

"The President says a lot of things, it seems, but that doesn't mean that they're true. There is no way to make a better world when you ruin the lives of others like that and you're stupid to think that there is. This was mean. This was the meanest thing that I've ever seen…almost the meanest thing that I've ever seen people do to one another. How could you or anyone else possibly think that this is ok? How? How?!" said Mob

"Shut up! Just shut up! The President…the President is doing this for me! For you! For all of us! He's doing this so that we don't ever have to be alone again…so that we don't ever have to be afraid again! When all of this is over then there won't be a single one of us who feels the need to hide! Who's so afraid of themselves that they-" said Serizawa

"Wrong. You're wrong. When other people are afraid of you it doesn't make you any less afraid of yourself, no, it makes everything feel so much worse. You're even more afraid of yourself than when you started off and it's such a bad feeling, the worst feeling, and it never goes away…not really. You're still scared of yourself and it's even worse, now, because people think that….that you're a monster." Said Mob

"Better than you, yourself, thinking that you're a monster." Said Serizawa

"No. You…when other people are afraid of you then you…you start to think that you're a monster, too. You start to wonder…to wonder if you're even human. You don't feel human. You feel different. You feel like…like they're right to be afraid. That's how you'd feel." Said Mob

"Like you'd know anything…" said Serizawa

"I do. I do know." Said Mob

"No you don't! You…you're just a kid….and a strong one, too! You've never been afraid of yourself, of your powers, of what you could do! You've never been so afraid of yourself that you hid away for years…longer than you've even been alive for! Probably….you're just a kid…" said Serizawa

"I am not a child. I'm fourteen years old and for your information….I am afraid. I'm afraid of myself all the time. I'm afraid of what I can do….because I'm so strong. Because I've hurt people before….because I'm going to have to keep on hurting people…." Said Mob

"How can you possibly understand…." Said Serizawa

"Because I'm afraid of myself. Every single day I'm afraid of myself. I didn't hide though…even though I wish that I could sometimes…but I can't. I can't hide and…and I'm through running away." Said Mob

"Run away! Just…just go away! You've got to go away! Run away! You can't stop the President! Nobody can!" said Serizawa pulling his umbrella closer to himself. He could see it, feel it, his aura. She was setting him off…nobody had set him off in a while…and she was…

He was not going to hurt her.

He couldn't.

"I'm going to try! Why do you even care so much? Can't you see all the bad stuff you've done?! Can't you see how wrong this is? And how wrong it is of your President to make you do things like this?" said Mob

"Hey, Shigeko, check out that umbrella. It's completely saturated with his energy." Said Dimple floating up and whispering in her ear. That was as close as he could get…how he didn't miss pain….he got away from her before he dematerialized. That wasn't much better. That guy was getting close to his own little melt down too. Sheesh.

"I see. It's like that Sakurai guy and his sword…" said Mob. She wondered if she could do that, curse objects or saturate them with her own energy…she felt the NERV bag at her side. She did carry a lot of junk with her….and fighting with the junk in her bag felt like it would have been better, less guilt inducing, than fighting with her powers.

Don't point knives at others.

But yo-yos, hair ribbons, and broccoli seeds were ok.

"The President saved me from the hell that was my life! I spent fifteen years locked away from the world because of my powers! Nobody ever understood me! They'd upset me so that I'd freak out and then when I'd freak out I'd accidentally hurt them…and break things…and I even sent my mother flying once! I was alone for years because of my powers! Fifteen years alone in my room….in the darkness all alone…so completely and totally alone that I would talk to myself just to…to have someone to talk to. I had no idea that there was anyone else in the entire world like me! I felt alone, truly alone, until the President came in and saved me from my life! No, not a life! Not even a life but an existence! He saved me and taught me how to control my powers…he gave me a purpose in life!" said Serizawa. He needed to keep it together. He could not hurt her. This was a line that he would not cross. He was not going to hit a girl. Only the biggest losers in the world went around hitting girls…

He needed to keep it together.

"So you just….lived in your room for fifteen years? And then this President guy said that he'd help you but only if you did whatever he said? That's messed up." Said Mob. She didn't get it. Why would someone just go along with someone who told them to do bad things? She went along with whatever Master Reigen said but he never told her to do bad things…but he did save her…but her situation was totally different from this guy's.

She had placed her trust in the right person.

"What the hell? Shigeko, listen to yourself for a minute." Said Dimple. Huh. So this was like a guy version of Shigeko…about ten or so years older than she was. Huh. Dimple wondered if this guy also harbored weird romantic and sexual feelings for the guy he called 'Master'…no, wait, for this guy it was 'President'.

"You have no idea what you're talking about…now go! Please! I can't…you're really pissing me off and I can't…I can't control it that well!" said Serizawa

"I'm not going anywhere! I don't care if you try to fight me or explode at me or whatever! I am going up these stairs and I am going to do whatever I can to make this President guy knock it off! Ok! So if you want to fight then I guess…I guess that we're going to have to fight even though fighting is stupid!" said Mob

"But I don't want to fight you! I don't want to hurt you! I am…I am sick and tired of hurting people!" said Serizawa. She wasn't letting up. Why? How could she not see that there was no ending this? This was the President's dream and nothing could stop it. The President…he may have made Serizawa do terrible things, things that kept him up at night, but at the end of the day the President just wanted to do what was best for all of them. The President had done so much already for them all…and for him specifically. This umbrella…he felt it in his hand…the President had given him this. The President had been the only person in the world who had helped with this…this power that he had been cursed with. The only person in the world that had understood. He…he couldn't let the President down….he couldn't!

But he couldn't hit a girl.

Even if she was trying to steal his umbrella.

"Don't! Little girl! Stop it! You-you're not safe here! Don't touch my umbrella! It's the only thing keeping me together!" said Serizawa. Telekinesis. Strong telekinesis. But he had to be stronger.

"Mob! My name is Mob and if…if taking your umbrella is the thing that's going to get me up those stairs then that's what I'm going to have to do!" said Mob. She stomped her foot and the tower shook. The windows beside her began to crack but not shatter. Thick glass. The kind made not to shatter even if there was a psychic powers fight happening. About to happen.

"No! Just go away! You're going to get hurt…and I don't want it to have to be me! He's going to try and make me…or he'll just hurt you himself! I'm sick and tired of hurting people and I'm sick and tired of watching him hurt people! JUST…..GO…..AWAY!" said Serizawa.

The pulled harder.

He dropped his umbrella.

And then everything went purple.

"Oh. You're just like me…I do this too, sometimes, so don't feel bad. I can't control it either." Said Mob. At first it had hurt. It was like the worst sunburn she had ever had, but also internal, like if she had been a kid and gotten surgery on the beach before she learned to heal herself. Her ears popped, too, and there had been this weird wind rushing sound…but then she had gained her footing.

And caught the energy.

And pulled.

And pulled and pulled until she had collected it, or was in the process of collecting it, into a ball. She held it between two hands but did not absorb it into herself. She didn't want to. It was…sad. It felt like when she and Master Reigen had switched bodies and she had gotten his powers. Sad. This man….Serizawa Katsuya popped into her head….was so sad…and she knew why…

She saw everything.

And it hurt.

It wasn't like this when she depowered the red aura guys. Maybe it was because they all had the same aura or weren't exploding or some other reason that she had never even though of. She didn't know. All she knew was that this energy was sad and it was trying to merge with hers and she didn't want it to.

But it was anyway.

And she saw it.

She saw every sad thing that had ever happened to her. She saw the time Ritsu had accidentally ripped the head off of her favorite doll. She saw the time she and Ritsu had been playing hide and seek with Tsubomi and then she went home and left them hiding for five hours. She saw the time in elementary school when every other girl in class got an invitation to Tsubomi's sleepover but her.

And it only got worse.

She was seeing all of her sad memories in order from first to last. She made it through elementary school and onto middle school. On to this year. On to all of the things that had happened from Ritsu and her fighting to running away to…to running away again…because of the fight that she'd had with Master Reigen….because of Mogami…

She saw him, too.

He was out there now and she…she needed to get through this so she could exorcise him once and for all! So nobody would ever have to go through what she went through...even though Asagiri was out there, too, and she said that she hadn't learned a damn thing….and there was so much…so much to be sad about…

She was overflowing with sadness. Sorrow drowned out anything else that she was feeling. She didn't want this sad energy, none of it, so she decided to give it back to it's rightful owner.

"You…you're taking in all of my energy…incredible…." Said Serizawa. Amazing. He…he could feel himself getting weaker. He could see his energy joining hers. She was holding it, the explosion, in the palms of her hands like it was nothing. How could someone so strong still have existed? How could someone so strong be so young, so…her? What was she?

A magical girl.

That was a real, live, magical girl…and he knew he was too old to think of her in such terms. Magical girls were the stuff of the games he had enjoyed when he was younger…and still did even though proper adults didn't even play videogames let alone videogames about magical girls saving the world with the power of love and whatnot….but there she was. She was there and she was…she was doing the impossible.

He wasn't hurting her.

"You-you're taking in all of my energy…" said Serizawa as he watched her. He watched her face, her aura, and was transfixed by what he saw. Her aura, her hair, everything about her was just so amazing in that moment. She was actually containing the explosion…

He let his umbrella fall to the ground.

It hit the steps with a loud crack and then rolled away. He let it. He didn't…it hadn't helped him. It hadn't stopped him from exploding…but she did. She had stopped him and now she…what was she doing? She was looking at him and holding…was that a charge bomb?!

"Yes. I can do that." Said Mob

"And you…you're turning it into your own energy…" said Serizawa

"I am but I don't want it. Here. You take it back." Said Mob. She lopped the energy towards him like it was a medicine ball and this was one of those rainy, indoor, club days. The kind of days that she was secretly grateful for because they couldn't run around the halls because of the noise and the way the floors scuffed easily…..when this was all over she was going back to school and going back to club. After all of this she…she wasn't going to ever be afraid of anything ever again.

"Wait! I'm sorry! Please don't-what….? What is….?" Asked Serizawa as he was hit with his own energy. He expected it to hurt. To be painful and to cause him damage. It didn't. He could feel his power, his strength, returning. She wasn't attacking him…she was giving back what she had taken…

With interest.

He saw seeing…he was being….he was her. He was her and he was…sad. People were afraid of him. People were mean to him. He never asked for these powers. He didn't mean to hurt his little brother…why were mom and dad looking at him like that? He didn't even know what happened…it all just happened….and now he was alone…and then he wasn't…and then he was again and little brother was so mean and mom didn't want him around and neither did dad but Master Reigen did and he….he didn't want him around either. Nobody did. Mogami was right…he was terrible…he was the most terrible person to ever walk the Earth and maybe everyone was better off without him…

But they needed him.

At some point Serizawa had fallen to his knees. He shook his head and his mind tried to disentangle itself from what he had seen and lived….her life. That had all been her life. She did…she did understand. She knew what it was like to be afraid of herself, to have hurt someone she loved on accident, to have people treat you like a monster because of your powers, to love someone who could never love you back…to have that person cast you aside…

Poor Kageyama.

Poor Miss Kageyama.

Poor Miss Kageyama Shigeko.

Poor Mob.

She was there, beside him now, and she was trying to help him up. She was using her hands, not her powers, and that was more than Suzuki had ever done for him in the three years they had been together. He couldn't recall Suzuki ever, once, seeing if he was ok. Helping him to his feet. Even saying sorry…

"I'm sorry if I hurt you! I really didn't want to, it just happened! I mean I didn't want that energy…that's what I mean! I mean…I mean that I'm just so sorry." Said Mob as she helped him to his feet. She hadn't wanted to hurt him, in fact quite the opposite. That was why she had given him back all of his energy. He wasn't a bad person at all. He didn't deserve to be depowered.

"You…you didn't hurt me….and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry about everything that happened to you…I am just so sorry!" said Serizawa as he was helped to his feet. She was still saying sorry…and he didn't know why. He was the one who should have been sorry. He looked out the window. He hadn't personally done any of that destruction but he hadn't done a thing to stop it either. Because he was weak. Because he was dumb. Because he was dumb enough to believe the pack of lies that the President had sold him. He wasn't rejoining society, he didn't actually have friends, and he wasn't making the world a better place. He was just….he had just been going along with insanity….

He was a bad person.

"I'm just sorry about-" said Mob. She didn't know what that was. She had shared her energy with other people before but this had never happened to her before….was it different because he was so strong? Was it different because she had passed his own energy back to him? She had no idea how any of this worked.

"No. Please…don't be. I'm the one who's sorry. I'm sorry about…about everything. I thought…I thought a lot of things and I know, now, that I was wrong…and I think that it always felt wrong to me but I just…I went along with it because I thought that…that it was right. I thought that people cared about me…I thought that I had friends…I thought…I thought a lot of things." Said Serizawa softly. Her aura surrounded him. It didn't hurt. It was…nice. She was nice.

She was a nice person.

"It's ok, you just got tricked. I've…I've been tricked too…but it's ok. You're not a bad person, you're not terrible. Even if you do bad things…even if you've done terrible things…it's ok. As long as you're sorry it's ok…you just have to be sorry and…and try to be a good person from now on." Said Mob. She knew that it didn't come out right and she knew that he probably didn't even know what she was getting at but that was the closest way that she could approximate what she wanted to tell him.

Just be a good person.

That was all that it took. He had done bad things and let bad things happen…and so had she. She had done bad things too but it didn't matter because she was trying to be a good person. So was he.

"You and your bleeding heart." Muttered Dimple. Shigeko was too nice for her own good. She was helping this guy up after he was complicit in all of the shit that had been happened. It didn't matter if he was sorry about it, he had still gone along with it. He should have just owned up to what he did. People were strange like that, so strange, the hoops that they jumped through to not feel like bad people no matter what they did. It was much easier with spirits. He was an evil spirit, he did bad things, it was in his nature. People, living people, spent so much time trying to avoid their true nature, what they were deep down, and it made no sense. You were what you were.

And Shigeko was such a bleeding heart.

Suzuki was many things but a bleeding heart was not one of them.

His son laying there broken and bleeding didn't move him one centimeter. The boy brought it upon himself with this misguided little attempt at rebellion. Honestly. How Suzuki could have spawned something like this he did not know. The boy brought it on himself. He'd live. It was too much trouble to replace him and the next son he had might have been an even bigger disappointment…as amazing as that thought was. A bigger disappointment than a son who actively worked against his father. A son who couldn't even rebel properly.

Where had he gone wrong?

He could feel it. He had lost more soldiers. More had gone down and…and there was something happening underneath his feet. She was there, the girl, and she was…she was fighting Serizawa. That moron had better win. He had better be good for something. Good help was so hard to find these days. He didn't much feel like going back to the drawing board when he was so close, so very close, to his goal. No distractions. None.

Not even this one.

"Dad…just give it up already…" said Sho. He didn't know what he wanted dad to stop. The world domination, the beating him up, or that goddamned staring. He was just staring, always staring, since Sho had gone down. His chest rattled when he breathed, he couldn't lift his arm, and one of his leg had some extra corners. He smelled blood. He tasted blood. He tasted blood in the spot where his tooth had been….where a couple teeth had been. That part didn't matter, his teeth always grew back eventually. Fukuda could speed the process along.

If he was still alive.

Sho couldn't see anything but his dad's aura. There was…something….happening below him but he could barely feel it through the sea of red he was mired in. Red, a dark red, not like his light red. Lines of yellow in it, too. Yellow and red and evil all over.

His dad was evil.

"You don't know when to quit, do you? A pity. You could have been something great, you know, but instead you're…this. Such a pity, such a waste." Said Suzuki. The boy would heal on his own even if Fukuda didn't survive Sho's little rebellion. He pressed his shoe to Sho's chest and turned him onto his back. He coughed. Blood.

Broken ribs, possibly.

He'd live.

"N-No…you don't. You're not going to win. You're…done…you're done dad. All of your soldiers are probably all gone by now and you-you're scars are all rebelling…it's over, dad." Said Sho trying his best to sound like he believed a word that was coming out of his mouth.

"That doesn't matter. I can always make more. Nobody is irreplaceable. Nobody." Said Suzuki. Sho tried to sit up but wound up sprawled out on his back. He coughed and glared as best as he could through what felt like, what he hoped felt like, just a black eye.

"So then replace me. Go on, get it over with! Get rid of me and then go make another son! Or just find some normal kid and put him through those goddamned awakening machines! Go on then if I'm so fucking replaceable!" said Sho. He spat blood at his father's feet. It didn't faze him.

"That would be more trouble than it's worth. I have no desire to raise another child and as far as awakening goes…I suppose that you're old enough to hear this." said Suzuki. He didn't care if the boy was hurt but if he were to die…that would be bad strategy. He had just now gotten a hold on the world, it finally fit in his hands, and he was going to savor this, not spend his time running around filling Claw staffing shortages.

"Hear what? More crazy stuff?" asked Sho. Either this was going to be the day that he died or it wasn't. He didn't care. Well he had some regrets. He'd never managed to stop dad, for one thing, and he also hadn't seen his mom in person once since he was little. Those were regrets. He had others, too, because there were so many things that he still hadn't done. He had friends now, sort of, friends that weren't Serizawa anyway. Like Ritsu, he was a good friend. Sho wished that they could have hung out without there being a world to save. Sho wished that they had started being friends back when they first met. He hadn't…he hadn't known Ritsu long enough and he really, really, really wished that he could have gotten to know him better.

But that was not going to happen.

"Defiant to the very end, I see, though I suppose that it does sound somewhat crazy but I think that you're old enough to hear the truth. Those awakening chambers? Failures. There is no way to give someone the gift of esp if they're not meant to have it." Said Suzuki. His son's eyes widened. Huh. He had thought that the fight might have left his son but there it was. He was trying to get up on a broken leg and a dislocated shoulder.

"Then what in the hell did you stick me on one of them for?! Why?! To hear me scream!?" said Sho. No. Dad was…he was a lot of things but he didn't…he didn't like hurting people. He just didn't see any other way to get things done besides hurting people. That was all. He had put Sho through all of that so that he could get stronger. Dad, in his own crazy way, had been trying to help Sho…to make him stronger…because he had been such a late bloomer…dad had said…

"You cannot give the gift of esp to someone who was not meant to have it. You were meant to have it. You are my son after all. It was for your own good, Sho, and it did make you stronger. The best that they have managed to produce for others were some insignificant phenomena if not outright death. Still, they were useful in what they've managed to accomplish." Said Suzuki

"You're calling all of this insignificant?! Look at what those 'insignificant' soldiers did! You've got weird standards of significance, dad!" said Sho using his telekinesis to get to his feet. He needed…he was fine. So long as he had his powers then he was fine.

"Let me let you in on another secret, Sho. Those powers that they've been using like there's no tomorrow? Those are my powers." Said Suzuki. The boy was standing now. Such a waste of time. There was no way that he was going to win. This little rebellion of his was hopeless. He was hurt. That didn't matter. He'd live. He'd been through worse.

"That….what? Are you seriously telling me that you can't just store up energy but…but you can share it with other people, too? Like, what, some kind of living battery?" asked Sho. He understood that energy could be shared, that was hos Fukuda's healing powers worked, but not…not like sharing your…youself…

That was why all of the artificial espers had the same aura.

Dad's aura.

And that was the most messed up part of this whole thing. You couldn't just…just share yourself like that! Your aura was your soul! It was the only part of you that lasted forever! Even after you died your aura was still there! It changed as you became a spirit but it was still there! Sho had seen enough people die to know how it worked! You couldn't just….your aura was your own! You couldn't just-just-just-just-just split it up like that!

Dad was crazy.

"Yes. All six hundred of the awakened soldiers have a small amount of my power. An insignificant amount, true, but every little bit counts. I suppose I should be taking it back now. Your little rebellion may have failed, Sho, but it's caused me quite a bit of inconvenience. All of those, the awakened, maybe had possessed the ability to house the gift of esp but obviously they had no idea what to do with it. Well, back to the drawing board I suppose." Said Suzuki. He spread his arms out and pulled back every single drop he had given the awakened soldiers. He felt it. Not quite six hundred anymore, some had been depowered previously and some had perished, it seemed…perished and his energy stolen…stolen by….ick.

He'd deal with whatever that disgusting thing was later.

But first he had to take back what was his. He felt…there she was. She had taken in too much of his energy. It came back to him without any….with barely any effort. Whatever. She would come to him, now, whenever she was done with Serizawa. If that idiot knew what was good for him then he'd make sure that there wasn't anything left of him for Suzuki to find when this was all over.

Suzuki was surrounded by failures. Enough was enough.

Mob was tired of all of this. Enough was enough.

"But what are you going to even do? The President is unbeatable. He has no weaknesses. He's been working towards this day for twenty years, that's longer than you've even been alive." Said Serizawa as he sat beside her on the steps. His umbrella lay discarded at his feet. He wrung his hands together as they rested on his knees. She was there, now, beside him. Her aura was so bright but she was so…not bright. Not dumb! Just…muted. Expressionless.

If he hadn't been able to see her aura then he would have had no idea what she was even thinking.

"I'm going to do what I have to do. I'm going to try and talk to him and…and if he won't listen then we're going to fight." Said Mob

"You can't fight him. I've seen so many people try and fight him and get hurt…or worse. That's what he does, he hurts people…" said Serizawa

"And that's why he has to be stopped. I have to win so that he doesn't hurt anyone else. It's wrong to hurt people, Serizawa, and I can't let him do all of this." said Mob

"I don't…I don't want to see you get hurt. I don't want to see another one of my…friends…get hurt. If I even know the meaning of the word. I don't. The only real friend I had…I'm down here while he gets the life beat out of him…as usual. I've always been right there while he…while Sho got hurt…" said Serizawa

"We're friends. We're friends and friends forgive each other. I forgive you for what you've done and I don't know Sho but if he's your real friend then he'll forgive you too." Said Mob

"He won't. I know he won't and…and I would never expect him too. Not after what I've done…what I've let happen to him. He's so brave and strong but…but he's just a kid. He's your age, a little younger, and he had the courage to go up against the President while I just…stayed here cowering." Said Serizawa

"Sometimes you have to run away. That's what my master, Master Reigen, taught me. You ran away and that's fine. You keep on saying that this President guy is unbeatable but maybe you just think that you can't beat him. I'm going to go up there and I'm going to try and I'm going to win." Said Mob getting up. She waited for Serizawa to stand up too but he just shook his head.

"I can't go up against the President…there's no way I can win…" said Serizawa. A little girl was going to fight his battle for him. He had sunk as low as he could, any lower and he'd have been underground. Her aura flared and it looked like she was about to say something when she closed her eyes and…

He saw some of her energy leave her body.

"That feels so…weird. It's like someone's digging inside of me with a coat hanger and pulling out my insides through my belly button…ick. He knows I'm here. You can stay here if you want to, but really you should run away, but just…if you don't want to follow me then don't. Your life is your own." Said Mob. She wouldn't have minded if he helped her. He was older and stronger than all of her friends. She didn't much want to be alone…she wished that Master Reigen was there…and that was so selfish.

She needed to do this on her own.

It was wrong of her to think that she needed help. This was her fight. She was the only person that could stop all of this. She felt so alone, then, as she climbed the steps even though Dimple was going on and on about different strategies and stuff that they could do. She barely wanted him with her but he was dead already so really the worst thing that could happen was that he got exorcised but Mob had tried, Teru had tried, and Mogami had even tried but there was no exorcising Dimple.

Mob wondered, if she died, what kind of spirit she would leave behind. Not that she planned on dying. This was her magical destiny and she was a magical girl…but what kind of spirits did magical girls leave behind? Well besides witches, if Madoka Magica was to be believed. Mob was supposedly the very strongest, the very best, of magical girls…did that mean that she would turn into the worst of witches?

She had already been the worst of witches.

This was not the unreality. This world was real and she could not end it…but she had been strong enough to end one world…if she had been strong enough to end that world then would she be strong enough to save another?

Mob was going to save the world.

Reigen had to believe in her. He had to. Even if the sky was turning red and he had no idea what was happening and there was another kid crying and another one was praying and there were adults asking him what to do…

He had no idea.

The sky was red, now, or at least it was filling up with red…it felt like…people? Auras? Reigen did not know. He was, for once, not going to try and bullshit his way out of this.

"Reigen! What do we do?!" someone was tugging on his sleeve. Reigen shrugged and lit himself a cigarette. Someone told someone else to stop panicking, obviously it was all under control. Heh. Reigen wished that he had that much faith in himself.

"Nothing to do but wait and watch, I guess." Said Reigen. Maybe he was just getting burnt out of all of this. Maybe all of this, the stress and tragedy, had gone on for too long. He had to believe in Mob, and he was worried about her, but he had to believe in her. He had to believe in whatever it was that she was planning on doing…

"Is that Mob?" whispered Rei. She didn't dare let go of Ritsu. The minute she let him go, she felt like, he would be gone from her and she would be alone. She knew that she couldn't lose him, she loved him, and losing him would be like losing a piece of herself. The whole world was going to pieces, she was going to pieces, but she was not going to lose him.

"No…sister's aura isn't red…" said Ritsu as Rei clung to him. Her face was still buried in the crook of his neck and her arms were still wrapped around him. She was not going to let him go. He had tried to get free before but she had just held on tighter. His girlfriend was clinging to him and his sister was so far away and now the sky was turning red with…auras…like this was the end of Evangelion and he hoped to God that it wasn't and he needed sister to be ok and he wanted to help her and he should have been there but he…he was not strong enough to take on Sho's dad…and maybe sister wasn't, either…

Maybe he should have held onvto sister tighter.

"God damn it, Shigeko…." Said Teru as he balled his hands into fists. He was so useless. He was the most useless. There was nothing that he could do and now the sky was turning red and…and there was nothing that he could do….

He couldn't help. He would just end up getting in her way.

"You shouldn't have gotten in my way, Sho. All of this could have been avoided had you just stayed in your place." Said Suzuki as he collected his energy from the fallen. This was for the boy's own good. Everything was for the boy's, the stupid boy's, own good. There was still hope for him, maybe, just maybe, because otherwise then he would have been useless and Suzuki did not keep around useless things…

"F-Fuck you…" said Sho as he felt himself getting weak. Dad was drawing energy from him, too. Maybe this would be it. Maybe it wouldn't. He didn't know what dad was planning on doing. He just didn't know…he just knew that he was…that he had…

He was a failure.

"Again with this. Sho, come now. It's over. Your allies have fallen and so have you. It's over." Said Suzuki. Maybe the boy could be salvaged. Maybe he would grow out of it. Suzuki was forty six, he was not up to having another son. That was why he didn't just eliminate this thorn in his side. That was all.

"Then kill me." Said Sho. He could have sworn that he finally got some kind of expression out of dad, then. Maybe he was shocked. Maybe that would be the thing to shock him out of whatever crazy spiral he was going down.

"That would be bad tactics. You still have your uses despite what you've become." Said Suzuki. His son thought that he would kill him? He feels something erupt within him at those words. A spike of yellow in an otherwise placid red aura. How could Sho have thought something like that? That his own father would be so wasteful. He had already sunk thirteen years into that one. He was not sinking another thirteen years into another one.

"Y-you're a monster! How could you say that to your own son?! How could you…you're stealing my energy right now! Is that all you care about?! You're a monster! I know what you are, dad, you're a monster! You're a monster made up of energy!" shouted Sho

"If that's the way you see me, Sho. That doesn't matter, I know what I am. Let this be a lesson to you, Sho, only one absolute being can be the true protagonist of this world. Let this be a lesson that you carry with you always." Said Suzuki as he collected a beam of pure energy in the palm of his hand. It fit like the world, there, in the palm of his hand. Sho covered and fell to the ground. The boy was wrong. Suzuki wasn't planning on killing him.

He had to focus, actually, to keep from killing him. Power was nothing without control and this was very difficult to control. He could feel himself trying to awaken. He could feel himself starting to lose control. That would not have been good. A shift in the energy around him didn't help…he ignored it. He could not lose control now. He didn't want to kill the boy after all.

Just hurting him badly.

And one slip could end up with either all of this energy dissipating or the boy dying. Both were equally annoying options. No. He did not need any more annoyance in his life. Enough was enough. Even if the energy around him was shifting. Even if he could see, feel, someone new coming closer…he needed to focus. He could not kill the boy.

"Just do it…" muttered Sho. He didn't care anymore. He had failed at everything he tried. He had filed at being a member of Claw and he had failed at stopping them, too. Maybe dad was right. Maybe he was a failure…maybe this was just…something that was supposed to happen…

But not that.

That big shift in the energy around him was not supposed to happen. This aura…it felt nice. Warm. Safe. He could see it, the barest hints of it, pink and blue that could be seen poking through dad's aura. He could see red, so much red, but he could see…he knew that aura…

Ritsu was going to kill him if dad didn't.

"You shouldn't do that. You could hurt someone very badly. That's wrong, like everything else you've been doing."