"What the hell is this thing?" Dimple asked himself as he ascended through the leaves of this…tree. This thing that was more psychic energy than tree. He felt…alive…and that was not an exaggeration.
He felt alive in this thing.
Corporeal. It was easy to get into his corporeal form like this. He didn't care who saw him. The only people around were espers anyway. Usually he would have made a meal out of them, not in the way that he made a meal out of spirits of course, but he would have syphoned some energy to them. Not now. He didn't have to do that anymore, not now….
This tree tasted like Shigeko.
Shigeko and something else. Something that he couldn't put his metaphysical finger on. Something sharp and unpleasant…but also strong. Powerful. Like liquor, really good liquor. If he were to compare this to a drink it would be one of the sweet, fruity, but biting concoctions. It was good, invigorating even.
He could get used to this.
Reigen could get used to this.
"You're cheating." Said Reigen. They were playing a game from his childhood. One of those stuck in his room and trying to pass the time games. They had found a deck of cards, a hat, and the rest was history.
"No, I would never cheat, Master." Said Mob. They had started out playing Go Fish and ended up playing throw cards in a hat. There was nothing else to do. Her phone had exploded and the internet was still down and the only things on TV were about what happened. She didn't want to watch about what happened. She had been there. She didn't want to see the tree that she had grown or about how so many people's houses were destroyed or how bad the economy would be from this…
She wanted to throw cards in a hat.
This was a fun thing to do. The only thing that would have made this more fun would have been if Teru had been there. But he wasn't. He was still in their room, asleep, and she hadn't wanted to wake him. He slept a lot. More than she did. She didn't need a lot of sleep in general and she had spent so long asleep anyway…
"Hmm….I don't believe that. You've been doing way too well lately. Makes me suspicious." Said Reigen. She smiled at him. She knew he was kidding. She always knew when he was kidding she knew him…and he knew her. She was…she was….surprisingly ok. For someone who had given up her physical body to save the world from some madman who had been intent on mercilessly killing her….she was ok. She was smiling, her little Mob smile, the smile that he had been afraid that he would never see again. She was happy. She was here, with him, and if they had been at home in their own living room then all of this would have been so normal….
It was almost normal.
"Maybe you're just out of practice, Master, you said that you used to play this when you were my age." Said Mob. Master Reigen was surprisingly ok. For someone who had almost died so many times running for his life…he was pretty ok. Not scared. Not sad. Not anything but ok. Normal. This whole thing was very normal…and that was ok. This would have been even more normal if they had been in their own apartment and stuff but they were here, now. She could have left at any time but she didn't' want to. She didn't want to leave Teru alone. She loved him. She loved him and she wanted to be with him…and she had come so close to losing him…to losing him and…and she did not want that. He had been surprisingly ok, too, for someone who had gotten beaten up very badly and also almost died. He was surprisingly ok…
Everyone was surprisingly ok.
"Yeah, maybe I'm just getting slow in my old age." Said Reigen with a laugh. She shrugged. He reached over and gave her hair a tug. A light one, one of the ones he had given her so many times before. That was normal for them. This was normal for them. Everything was normal for them. Nothing had changed…and nothing was going to change. They were fine, now, everything was fine. It was all over and everything was fine and they were normal and everything was normal.
"You are almost thirty, Master." Said Mob. She had been both young and old at the same time, before, when she had been in the void or whatever she wanted to call it. She hadn't felt any age in particular. It had been like she had been cycling between old and young and then she had no age at all. Now she was fourteen again and she was normal and everything was normal.
"Yup. Pretty soon I'll be forty then fifty then sixty and then you'll have to feed me mush like I'm a baby and my life will have come full circle." Said Reigen
"Mush? Why does it have to be mush?" asked Mob
"Because I'll be old, too old for food…and I am dreading that day! The day when I won't be able to eat ramen again! Takoyaki! Those-" said Reigen
"Those big mochi that they sell at the train station? Next to the cigarette machine?" asked Mob
"Yeah! You remembered….you actually remembered that?" asked Reigen
"Yes Master Reigen, I remember everything about you." Said Mob. Master Reigen got up really fast after she said that. He seemed…she could feel his aura resting on hers…startled? Well Mob had certainly felt like jumping up from her spot on the couch…she must have said the wrong thing. She was always saying the wrong thing….
"Just getting something to drink. You want something to drink?" asked Reigen. He needed to put just a little bit of distance between the two of them. Just a little. She had something of a crush on him and that was fine. Normal. She was just a kid and it was normal for kids her age to get crushes on anyone and everyone. He was not going to make her feel bad about the way she felt. He was not going to make her feel weird about the way she felt. He just didn't want to…to feel the way she felt. To rest his aura on hers and share in the feelings, the totally normal feelings, that she felt for him. That was all.
"Cooking wine again?" asked Mob
"What? No, hell no. Mob…don't do what I have done. I'll bring you some milk." Said Reigen. Right. She had found him after he had somehow managed to drink just enough cooking wine that his lightweight self had gotten messed up but not so much that he had made himself violently ill. That Matsuura guy was another story…though to be fair everyone had almost died and the guy didn't keep any real drinks in this place. So really it was no one's fault…..not that he ever wanted Mob to drink cooking oil…or to turn to drinking in the first place. It was a terrible habit of his and one he did not want to teach her. Not that he was in any danger of her dying of drink or anything like that. She coped well, very well, better than he did. She was coping better at fourteen than he was at almost thirty….
"Thank you." Said Mob. She used her powers to the cards out of the hat. She had won, again, though maybe she should have let him win. She usually let him win things. She liked to let people win. At games, of course, not at the things that mattered. She hadn't let Suzuki win. She had won…even though this did not feel at all like victory. She wasn't celebrating. If this had been a victory then she should have been celebrating. She wasn't celebrating, though.
She was normal.
She felt normal.
Good, even.
She felt good. She was with someone she loved…or cared about a whole lot. Or loved. Or liked a whole lot. She didn't know. It was weird. Teru was there, well not 'there' there but he was there and she was with Master Reigen and she liked….she didn't much want to think about it. Them. Her feelings. She had just gone through so much and she was ok and she just…she did not want to think about that now.
"Milk delivery." Said Reigen as he handed her a tall glass of milk. Nice and cold. There was plenty of food there, in the kitchen of this place. That was good. The looting outside had stopped but there were kinks in the supply chain to iron out. They had lost a lot of grocery stores. They had lost a lot of everything. Life in the city wouldn't be easy for a while. That was ok. At least they hadn't lost each other.
Though money might be kind of tight for a while.
And any plans he had of moving would be shot to hell, too, since there was going to be housing shortage. He could just feel it. Well that and he had seen a lot of people's homes get destroyed. Or maybe it would be the opposite. Maybe there would be a mass exodus from the city. Maybe this would turn into some kind of ghost town and then they'd end up with a whole city to themselves….or something.
He'd worry about that stuff later.
"Thanks, Master." Said Mob. She liked milk again. She still sort of remembered it, the way it felt when Asagiri dumped her milk over her head day in and day out…but that was all. It was a sort of memory. She wasn't afraid anymore. She knew that…that she had no reason to be afraid. It had happened and now it was over and…and it would never happen again. She was fine. Even though she knew that Mogami was somewhere out there…she'd think about this later. She would think about it and worry about it later but as of now nothing was going to stop her from enjoying this glass of milk.
Nothing at all.
Because she was Mob. She was Mob and she was Shigeko and she was not the person that she had been in the unreality. She had her powers now, for one thing, though that was not what she meant by not being the same person. She was stronger in this world than that one. Here she had people who made her strong, people she cared about, and they were her strength. That was why she had made it through all of that. She had people she had to come back to. That was also why Suzuki almost exploded and died. He had no one and nothing. He was fighting for himself, doing all of that for himself, and ultimately he lost. Well they had both sort of lost…
Because Mob had lost her body, too.
But she had been trying her very best to save him. To make sure that he didn't die. He had so many people to say sorry to. He had so many things he wanted to tell people. She was not about to just let him die before any of that could happen. She was not that sort of person. She was…she was a good person. She was a good person and so was he…deep down. Very deep down. There was a good…a decent…a decent person hidden deep down in the depths of his being and she had not let him die because of it.
Even though they both might have been dead for a little bit.
But she did not want to think about that now. She did not want to think of anything, now, aside from the fact that she and Master Reigen were together and now everything was as it should have been. Well not everything. Teru was still homeless and Ritsu's house…her old house…was still burnt down and the city was still broken and there still wasn't any internet but…but things were still good. They were a lot better than they could have been, would have been, if she had lost…or just not fought at all….
"So, best two out of three?" asked Reigen. He knew that he should have headed home. He had no reason to be here aside from her. He could always lie to himself and tell himself that he was being responsible. That he was being a responsible adult and making sure that Mob was doing ok after everything that she had been through. That wasn't why he was there, though, and he knew it.
He was there because he didn't want to be alone.
He didn't want to be alone so he was hanging out with Mob. Even though he knew that he should have just left her alone. He should have just given her some space to process what had happened to her. To get her bearings. To have some time alone with the kid she was in love with…who was not him…and who was an age appropriate romantic partner for her. Not him. Not someone who was over twice her age. She needed to get over her crush on him and she could not get over that crush if they spent every waking moment of their lives together.
And she needed to.
Because now it was all over and things could get back to normal. Well as close to normal and they could call it. She had stopped going to school a while ago…would she want to go back? She had a life that she had dropped out of because of what happened on the Asagiri job…and she had been a wreck after that job…but history would not be repeating itself it seemed. For one thing she was smiling, now, and for another he would not push her away. Ever again.
"If you want to. Until Teru wakes up, I mean. He didn't get a lot of sleep last night. A lot of things are bothering him even though he's pretending like they're not. He's pretending that he's ok but I know something is wrong…and I wish that he would just tell me. Even if it's not something that I can fix, like how his apartment exploded or something like that, I would at least like to know. I just…this was a lot for him and I'm worried." Said Mob.
"Mob, don't ever apologize for worrying about someone you love." Said Reigen. She was beside him again, or rather he was beside he again, and he wanted to pull her close and tell her that it was all going to be ok. Mob was worried about her boyfriend….after everything that she had been through she was still worried about other people. Not herself. Not what had happened to her. He loved her for that, her capacity to care about others…and her capacity to care about him, too.
"I won't. I'm sorry…and I said sorry again. Sorry for saying sorry again." said Mob. The butterflies in her stomach were there, again, and they were not going to be leaving anytime soon. Was it right to feel like this when she had just been talking about her boyfriend…her boyfriend who had been tossing and turning all night worried about things that he would not tell her about and muttering things in a language that she could not understand? Why did she have to be like this, too feel like this? She wanted to be ok, to feel ok, and she could not feel ok if she was feeling like….like this….
"Mob, stop apologizing. You're alright to feel the way you feel. You're worried about him, that's understandable, and if he won't tell you what he's worried about well then don't pry. He'll tell you when he's ready. He cares about you a lot, Mob, I can tell. He'll tell you when he's ready." Said Reigen
"I guess…but I don't like it when he keeps things from me. Like before, back before all of this, he was going off to fight Sho's dad with all of the others and he didn't even tell me. I just worry that he might be keeping something big like that from me. I want…" said Mob
"You feel like you're having trouble trusting him, now, because of how he was involved in all of this and didn't tell you?" asked Reigen. That made sense. That made a lot of sense…and he could not be pissed off at the kid. Not when he was just a kid and hadn't realized that he had been in over his head from the very beginning. This was not anything that any of those kids should have been involved in. He didn't blame the kid for not wanting to get Mob involved in all of this insanity.
"Yes, that's it….you cheated. You used your powers to figure out how I was feeling." Said Mob
"I didn't. I just…I understand what you're going through. It's hard when someone you love breaks your trust and puts themselves in danger. It's hard because you came so close to losing them and they wouldn't even let you help. It's hard coming close to losing someone you love and then you just can't help but wonder when…when it'll happen again." said Reigen
"That's how I feel." Said Mob. That was true. She did feel like…like what if this happened again? What if Teru thought that he had to fight and then he just…went off and did it? And didn't tell her? And then got hurt or died or something like that? And she hadn't been there to help him. From what he had told her, what little he had told her, he had been beaten up so badly that he could barely see…and she hadn't been there for him…but she was there, now, and she would always be there for him. For Teru. For her Teru.
"I know." Said Reigen
"And I'm sorry." Said Mob
"I said to stop apologizing." Said Reigen with an exaggerated moan. She knew how he felt. She knew that he wasn't really annoyed with her. She knew that he was…he did not have a word for this feeling. Happy didn't cut it. Happy…he was happy to be with her, to be there with her, that both of them were alive and well. She was a gift. It was a gift to have been able to spend time with her like this. A gift that he would never take for granted again. He was so happy…and happy was even too small a word for it…for what he felt when he was near her….
"I mean that I'm sorry for what happened before. When I left the house to go and fight Sho's dad. I broke your trust when I did that and I made you come out here and…and you almost died. So I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about that and I'm sorry, too, about what happened after the thing with Mogami…how I ran away from home." Said Mob
"Mob….don't. We already decided that the Asagiri job was my fault from start to finish. You and I are not going to share the blame in that. It's my job to keep you safe. It's my job not to run my mouth and say terrible shit to you. Ok? And as for what just happened….let's split the difference. You didn't listen to me and I didn't listen to you." Said Reigen
"Split the difference…ok. We can do that." Said Mob. She didn't want to feel bad about herself…even if she kind of did already. Because she had let so many of her friends, her little brother, all the people that had been there…she had let them all almost die because she hadn't ended the fight sooner. Made Sho's dad stop sooner. She did what she had to do. She had…she was not going to make herself feel bad about this. Split the difference….she liked that.
"Good. That's what we'll do." Said Reigen even though he knew, deep down, that it was his fault. Not the fact that it had happened in the first place, no, he hadn't been the one to tell that madman that he had to take over the world or whatever else he had been planning on doing. Mob's involvement…he hadn't been able to stop her. He hadn't been able to stop her and had, in fact, almost lost her. Almost let her get hurt….
She had gotten hurt.
She had gotten very hurt.
But here she was, just sitting with him, like everything was normal. That was good. That meant that…that she was fine. On her way to becoming fine. Not suppressing what she felt but just not…not afraid. She had come so close to death but she had come out the other side. So why was she so calm? Was it that she had come out the other side? Was there nothing left for her to be afraid of, even?
After facing death….what did one have to fear beyond that?
Ritsu had almost died. Beyond that he had nothing to be afraid of.
Really. After almost dying the rest of the world, the things he had feared before, seemed insignificant by comparison. This was worse than the time he had almost gotten kidnapped. He hadn't been staring certain death in the face back then…even if he felt like he had. He had been so young then, even though it hadn't been the long ago, actually, he still felt like he had been so young…
He wasn't a kid anymore.
Even if he was still just thirteen. Thirteen going on whatever. He had saved the world, helped to save the world, and had almost died in an explosion of…of whatever it had been. After that what else could he possibly worry about? Well the state of his house, obviously, that would need to be put back together…and sooner rather than later…but Sho said that he would find Ritsu. He had his own loose ends to tie up, loose ends that did not involve Ritsu…and he had no idea why that stung the way it did. They had come so far together and…and he was being selfish. Sho had things going on that Ritsu could not even begin to understand. His dad, how own father, had tried to take over the world…and also there had been the part where they found him….that was it's own flavor of terrible right there. He couldn't blame Sho for needing some space and time to get all of his loose ends tied up…
Ritsu's house could wait.
But that wasn't the only reason that he wanted to see Sho. No, he just wanted to be near him. He knew why he wanted to be near Sho, almost dying about fifty million times really put things into perspective…and he wasn't sure, yet, how to be ok with that. He liked Sho a lot, a lot of a lot, but he had someone who liked him….
Someone who wouldn't leave him alone.
"It looks just like a piece of broccoli, doesn't it?" asked Rei. She and Ritsu were watching the news coverage of the big tree downtown where the cultural center used to be. So far the only thing that they had to report was that it was a tree, it was big, and that was all they knew. Broadcast TV was so boring. She couldn't wait until the internet came back. Maybe by then people would actually have some idea of what was going on with that thing…
It felt weird, that tree.
She looked into the future and…just general bad feeling about that tree…and then she stopped. She didn't want to think about that or anything else bad happening. Not now. Now she should have just been happy. She had lived through the explosion. There had been a future beyond the explosion. There had been an actual future in which they had not all died. That was enough to celebrate.
She was alive.
He was alive.
They were alive together.
"Yeah, it's weird. I mean I have no idea why a tree even grew in the first place but a giant piece of broccoli is just…weird." Said Ritsu. He had not expected he climactic final battle to end in a giant broccoli tree…but that whole strong of events had just been so…so outside the realm of the ordinary…that he could accept this. Well he had no choice but to accept it, there was a giant tree downtown. A giant evil tree that had tried to eat his sister. At least it felt like it had tried to eat his sister…
Finding her clothes half buried in the dirt had been one of the worst experiences of his entire life.
Even worse than finding her and Teru together…
But he was so glad that she was still alive. He wished…he wished that he had been with her. That he had gone back to the Awakening Lab with her. He would have gone with her, too, if he had been able to. But Rei had been clinging to him and she was his girlfriend and if she wanted him to come home with her then…then he had no choice but to come with her. She had been scared and clinging to him and….and he had to go with her. Besides, sister had her own boyfriend and he did not want to be around when they did….the things that couples did together that he did not want to think about his sister doing…or the guy he liked….and he did still kind of like Teru…even though that was terrible of him. His sister had almost died saving him and he was still thinking about kissing her boyfriend….and he had kissed her boyfriend….but that had just been a moment of temporary insanity. He had been tired and stressed and not totally in control of his actions. That was all. Had he been in his right state of mind he would have remembered who he was and who Teru was and what was and was not acceptable and what he had to be and who he had to be and how he had no choice in the matter…
It didn't matter if he had a choice in the matter. He was alive. That was the only thing that mattered.
"This whole thing was just so weird. I mean I can't get over it. We were actually there….I keep on thinking about it but it's like…like I'm remembering something from a dream. A bad one." said Rei. She was holding Ritsu's hand. This was about the only thing that they could do in the living room…unfortunately. She wanted to lay down with her head on his chest and just be comfortable and there with him. She loved him so much….and she wished that she could have just been older. If she had been older then nobody could come in and tell her not to cuddle with her boyfriend. She knew that they had their whole lives for stuff, they hadn't died so they literally did, but she didn't want to wait her whole life for that.
For anything.
She wanted to be with him now. She was with him now. She had no idea how long they would be together for. His parents were still safe in the mountains but they could come down and get him at any time. Their phones were still smashed but the landline phones were still working. Mom and dad were tying up the line talking to people and telling them that everyone in the family was still alive. Still, every time the phone rang Rei worried that his parents had somehow gotten their number and they were calling to tell Ritsu that they were going back to what was left of their house. Ritsu still hadn't left to help put it back together….
His house would be fixed.
A glance into the future told her that. His house would be fixed and then he would leave her and then she would be all alone…well her parents were still there and so was her older sister…but it wasn't the same. She just wanted to be with Ritsu. She didn't care if he was really quiet a lot of the time or if he had been a jerk all the way back when they met. He had risked his life for her so many times. She had risked her life for him.
They loved each other.
And it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that they were thirteen and everyone said that they had no idea what love was. That was what mom had said. She said that Rei was too young to know the full weight of telling someone 'I love you' even though she totally did. Those weren't just words that she said to hear herself speak. She meant them. She would have died for Ritsu and he would have died for her. if that wasn't love, if that didn't count, then what did? She may have been thirteen, and so was he, but that didn't make what they had any less real.
"It's over, Rei, you don't have to be afraid anymore. You saved all of us so you don't even have to be scared." Said Ritsu. He let go of her hand, briefly, to wipe the sweat off onto his shirt. Thank God he had packed a bag. He had woken up to it right next to him…Sho was like a ninja when he wanted to be…and he wished that he could have thanked him. He had spent that first night here, after everything, in one of Rei's big T-shirts and her pajama pants. Not that he had anything against her clothes, they were very soft and comfortable actually, but there was just something to wearing his own clothes…the only clothes that he had left in the world…that is until he put his house back together. Well until he helped…and he wondered when that would be…and he wished that he had woken up when Sho was there so he could have asked…but he had been dead to the world that day.
"Ritsu, no. You saved me. I didn't do anything but tell everyone where to go. You're the one who actually fought for us…for me…and I can't put up a barrier. You can. You can and you saved us so many times. I didn't do anything but tell you where to go." Said Rei
"I couldn't have done it without you and you couldn't have done it without me. Ok? Let's just agree that we…that we need each other." Said Ritsu. He did not want to remember that. His barrier hadn't done much, probably, because he wasn't nearly as strong as the rest of them. He had been more worried about his own life than…and he had been selfish. He had been panicked and selfish…but he was done being selfish.
"Ok…that makes sense. We both saved each other. It was so scary…but you were so brave." Said Rei. She had saved him and he had saved her…and that was…that was everything. That was love. That was…she loved him. She loved him more than anything or anyone else in the world…and he loved her…
And she hated that they were thirteen.
"So were you. I mean we all were. We kind of had to be." Said Ritsu
"Yeah….but I'm glad it's over. Like, now we can move on with our lives and stuff. I mean I have no idea what we're going to do…school's closed and stuff…but we can figure something out. I mean we can't go out or anything because it's still not totally safe and everything's broken but we can still do….stuff. I mean we can still hang out. We should hang out with Mob and Teru, too, when she feels better. She's going to feel better….soon….sorry, I kind of cheated and looked into the future. I mean we shouldn't bother her anyway, she went through a lot. I mean we all went through a lot but she went through a whole lot. I'm just glad that we're here and were ok…and it's just like….like I had no idea how, I don't know, grateful I'd guess to be here again. Like…even my sister being a jerk is good because I'm alive for her to be a jerk to me again. If that makes sense. It's like 'Hello Rei' you're here and you're ok and you're with…with you and that's…that's pretty ok. Pretty good. More than ok. Sorry, I said too much again…" said Rei. She had been rambling, she rambled sometimes, and she'd even had no idea what it was that she had been getting at. She had just wanted to make words and hopefully those words could express how she felt….and maybe she did and maybe she didn't. She didn't know.
She didn't know how to say how happy she was that she was alive. Not only alive but alive and there, with him, and how she had never been so happy to be in her living room with her boyfriend, the best boyfriend ever, in her entire life.
"Yeah…it's pretty good. That's it's over." Said Ritsu. It took him a moment to process everything that she had just said. She was back to normal, it seemed, which was good. Maybe she didn't need him anymore. Maybe he could go…well he had no home to go back to. Sho said to he'd find him…but where was Sho, even? He couldn't still have been under that broccoli tree, right? It was freezing out there…well if he got cold then he always could have burnt it for warmth,….heh…
"Honestly I don't even know what I would want to do. Like, I know that there's still stuff I have to do. I have homework…even though I have no idea when they're going to open school again…and I have to dye my roots, too, because they're showing again and it looks so bad when they show. Like, it looks better when it's really grown out but I don't have time to grow them out. If I go to school with my roots showing…well, still, I have no idea when I'll be able to go to school again…it's amazing how much of my life revolves around school. I guess it's like adults and work. Yeah, school is like work for kids. My parents are worried about work. Well they didn't tell me but I heard them talking and they're worried about the economy and stuff since downtown is, well, gone. Maybe if there's no work there won't be any school. That would be so great! Wait, no, you like school….sorry. I bet that it's harder for you, too, since you actually liked going to school. I wonder if Mob is going to go back to school. They shouldn't make her. She saved the world and I think that if you save the whole world you shouldn't have to go to school anymore. Like, we helped, but she did most of the work. All of the work. We just sort of ran around and tried not to die. So I guess that we would have to go back to school…but that's ok, because you like school…and I don't hate it but I would rather not go…even though I have no idea what I would do with my time if I wasn't in school. I mean I like holiday breaks and…." Said Rei. She was just saying words, all of the words that came into her head. She knew that she should have shut her mouth, already, because she was having a conversation with herself at this point…but she didn't know how to stop. It all came up like word vomit.
"Uh-huh…" said Ritsu. That was about the only word that he could get in edgewise. Not that he wanted to get any more words in edgewise. He was content to let her talk. The more she said the less he would have to say. He didn't really want to think about what would happen after this. How he was expected to go to school after all of that, and if his sister would even be coming back. He didn't want to think about that at all. So he just listened.
"….and they had better not take up our whole summer break to make up for lost time. We need that break. It's so hot in the building during spring, even! Riko says that her high school has air conditioning to at least I have that to look forward to. Does your school have air conditioning? I wish that we got all the hot months off and just stayed in school all winter. I wouldn't mind Christmas at school if I got to come home at the end of the day. Maybe we won't even get a summer this year since it's freakishly cold outside this fall. Maybe that's climate change and we'll never have a summer or a spring again. Maybe it'll be like a mini ice age or something like that. Maybe…." Said Rei. Ritsu was listening to her ramble. He didn't tell her that she was talking too much or that she was annoying or anything like that. He just sat there and listened and…and that was so great. He was so great. She scooted closer to him as she went off on a tangent about all the things that they could do when summer got there.
Because they'd have a summer together.
She didn't need to use her future vison to see that they would have a summer together. It would be great. There'd be festivals and fireworks and her parents worked during the day so they could be all alone in her house. Not his house because his mom had already walked in on them once…that had been bad…but her parents were gone all day during the summer so they could have the whole house to themselves…kind of like now…
Dad was on the phone in the kitchen. Rei could still hear him. Mom went to go check on the old lady who lived on the end of their street. She was old and lonely and the visit could take over and hour if she roped mom into one of those long conversations that didn't go anywhere. Those sorts of conversations where you just made words and hoped that they made sense because you didn't want the other person to go…or to know what was really on your mind…because if they knew what was on your mind then…then they might want to do something about it…and the thought of that is both terrifying and…and exciting….and so you just keep on talking and talking and talking and talking…
She highly doubted that her mother had the same things on her mind that she did.
"So…yeah….I hope school starts again soon…and I have a lot of homework piled up…and I want to get it done before…summer…" said Rei because she had been talking for a very long time. Ritsu had just been sitting there waiting patiently for her to be done. He was still looking at her and still holding her hand even though she was sweating buckets. He was just…there. There with her. They were together…almost totally alone….
She wished that she wasn't wearing a sweater.
And she wished that she was wearing two sweaters.
"Do you want me to help you with your homework?" asked Ritsu. She went silent after that like she expected him to say something. He kind of wanted to tell her that a conversation was like a game of ping pong, both people had to participate, but that would have been mean. He may not have felt the same way about her as she did about him but he was not about to be mean to her…even if that would have made his life easier…but that would have been wrong. She had saved his life and he had to be with a girl anyway so why not this one? She was nice and she cared about him and even if he didn't think that thoughts about her that he knew he should have been thinking he could still tell that she was pretty. Really, he had no reason not to want to be with her. Well aside from THE reason but nobody could ever know about THE reason who didn't already know…and he hoped that Teru kept what happened between them to himself for the rest of his life.
"Sure! I mean, sure. That'd be…that'd be nice. Responsible. Grown up." Said Rei. Her voice was being kind of squeaky, there, and she…she had never made hat sound before. Kind of nervous. Kind of afraid. Kind of…she didn't even know what. She wanted….she wanted a lot of things. Things that she knew she wasn't supposed to want. Because she was so young. Because she was a girl. All of that stuff. All of that unfair stuff.
Stuff that she wasn't even sure if she should have asked about.
Ritsu never asked her about that stuff. He was mature like that. He was mature enough that he probably figured that they had their whole lives for stuff like that, like adults were always saying, even if they almost hadn't. They had almost died. They had almost died so many times in so many ways. They had almost been crushed and…and there was the part when the sky caught fire…and then there was the explosion and…and she would have died without knowing what ANYTHING was like. It wasn't fair.
It really wasn't.
But she had no idea how to even begin to talk about that. Mom and dad had a bunch of books about love and relationships and making a marriage work after forty and they all said that the key to a good marriage was communication. Well that may have been true but they were thirteen, not in their forties, and they weren't married. They hadn't even had their six month anniversary. They'd had their three month anniversary, though, which mostly just involved sitting in the river park and kissing a whole lot. Also Ritsu had gotten her a slice of cake, which was nice of him, and she had drawn him a picture of the two of them. It was a charcoal sketch and it came out ok…though maybe their three months anniversary was not the time to be trying out new mediums. He liked it, though, he had it taped up in his room. He had all the pictures she had ever drawn him taped up in his room.
Because he loved her.
That was the thing, he loved her, so would it be alright to just come out and…and ask? Just ask him to…she didn't even know what. Not THAT because she was not in any way ready or prepared for THAT but…more than kissing and holding hands and cuddling and watching TV. The kind of stuff that second years did…well second years did that too or at least Mob did…and she did not want to think about her friend while she was in her room all alone with her boyfriend…and she was not going to bring his sister up too because sisters were mood killers…speaking of she had better close her door even though she knew that she was not allowed to…
"Rei, what are you doing?" asked Ritsu. He had been in the middle of helping her with her homework, math this time, when she said that she had to go do something. That was Rei for close her door even though she knew for a fact that she was not allowed to and he did not feel like getting her in trouble or getting kicked out of her house just because she wanted to kiss again. Not that her parents were like his. They might just…get upset. Mom had kicked Rei out when she walked in on them…they hadn't even been doing anything. Not really.
What was she doing?
"Don't worry, my mom's out visiting and my dad's going to be on the phone for a while since they just fixed them and, you know, people want to know that we're not…dead…and stuff. My sister…she knows that I know stuff about her, too, so if I go down then she goes down with me." Said Rei. She sat back down on her bed. There was a book between them, and a notebook, and a pencil, and a calculator. She wanted to shove everything onto the floor. She wanted to pile more stuff on the bed.
Was she honestly going to do this?
"But…that doesn't answer…." Said Ritsu. The collar of his shirt was suddenly way too tight. The room was suddenly way too hot. There was a textbook and a notebook between them…not exactly insurmountable obstacles. She didn't actually want to….did she? Why would she…because she loved him and that was what people did when they were in love….
He scooted backwards until his back was against the wall.
She scooted so she was next to him.
Her homework stuff fell on the ground. He wished that her room wasn't carpeted. If her room wasn't carpeted then someone could have heard that and kicked down the door and then they would have been banished back to the living room where they could be clearly heard and seen and then whatever Rei had on her mind couldn't happen.
"I just…I don't know. I love you, ok? I love you and I don't….I mean I love you and I know that you're going to….I mean I love you and…." Said Rei. Well it was one thing to think about something and quite another to set out and…and she didn't even know. Kiss. More than kiss. She wanted…she wanted to but…but there was a difference between wanting to do something and then actually sitting there on her bed and preparing to do it…
Not like THAT.
"Rei…I love you too…but this is a bad idea. This is a really bad idea. What if your mom comes home? Or your dad comes upstairs? Or your sister decides that she doesn't care if she gets in trouble too?" asked Ritsu. She was close…so close…and she had been this close before….and he shouldn't have been bothered by this. She was his girlfriend and even if she wasn't he owed her for saving his life. He had no reason to be freaking out like this. She probably didn't even want to…any of that….she probably just wanted to kiss again. Yeah. That was probably it.
"I don't care. I don't…I don't want to die." Said Rei. She clung to his hand when she said that. She clung to his hand so tight that she worried, a little, that she was hurting him. She wouldn't have blamed him if he shook his hand loose…but he didn't. He still held her hand…just like he had before…when they were in the middle of it all…
"What? Rei, we're not going to die…are we?" asked Ritsu. He wondered if there was something else coming, something that was just about to start again, maybe more world saving….great. Just great.
"We will. I mean everyone who has ever been alive will die…but that's not what I mean. I mean if I look into the future there's a million ways we could die and they all have their own probabilities…but that's not what I'm talking about. I love you so much, Ritsu, the most, the very most, I've ever loved another person and…and I don't want to die without…I can't even say it." Said Rei. She knew what they said at school. If you weren't mature enough to say it then you weren't mature enough to…but she wasn't even thinking about…that. She just wanted…she wanted to know what something felt like…but she didn't even fully know what…
So confusing.
"I…I love you too but…uh….I don't know." Said Ritsu. Guilt. A hell of a lot of guilt. This girl was in love with him…and he…he had to make her happy. He hadn't meant to lie to her. He had just gone with it…because it was the thing to do…and he had been lying to her for so long…and she was so in love with him that…that she was looking at him like that and…and he just did not know.
"Can I kiss you?" asked Rei. Well now she was having second thoughts and third thoughts and fourth thoughts even. All the different degrees of thoughts that one could have. She had never done anything before and she didn't want to die without ever having done anything….but the probability of their imminent deaths was low…but that could change. Some other misguided person could try and use their powers to do terrible things…and maybe there wouldn't be any running next time. Maybe there wouldn't be anyone to save next time….
She had no idea what would happen next time.
She had no idea if there would even be a next time.
But there was a now. There was a now and he was there and she was there and she wanted to kiss him and of course he wanted to kiss her, he was her boyfriend after all, so they kissed. They kissed and went from there….for as long as they could because, yes, she was not allowed to have her in her room with the door closed. But they'd had some time alone together…
And they'd made the most of it.
"Well I can't exactly say that we've made the most of our time together." Said Sho. At some point it had gotten light, then dark, then light again. He had spent the entire time by his dad's side. Serizawa had spent the entire time at his side. It was cold but they had made something close to a shelter from broken bits of buildings and stuff that they'd scavenged. Sho wondered if they could have lived there. Made their home in the mess and lived out the rest of their days with the rats.
There were a lot of rats.
The gross city kind that carried disease. He had been loath to shoo them off but he had to. No sense in dad surviving the explosion just to end up sick from rat germs. They were cute, though, but not as cute as hamsters. He wondered if he could get a hamster now. Dad hated it when he had pets…but dad was looking half dead and he wasn't the boss of Sho anymore, anyway. He wasn't the boss of anyone anymore.
Claw was finished.
More years than Sho had even been alive were gone. Right down the drain. He had won. Well his side had won. But why didn't he feel better about winning? Why did he feel…bad? For all of this? For his dad? That was the worst part, feeling bad for dad. The same dad who had no only tried to take over the world but had tried to kill him with his own two hands. He should have just left his dad to freeze. Left him to starve. Left him to the gross city rats that came up to them trying to steal the food he had scavenged.
He had left his dad.
Briefly. To give Ritsu his stuff, he had told himself, and Serizawa too. Serizawa was even more choked up about what happened than he was. It made sense. Dad was the guy who saved him and all of that. That was how Serizawa had put it, before, that dad had saved him in every way a person could be saved. Now he said that about Ritsu's big sis. That she had saved him in every way a person could be saved. By fighting dad. By saving their lives. By exploding. By growing that evil feeling tree. That was why Sho left. He just…he could not listen to that for a moment longer.
And also Ritsu needed his stuff.
Sho knew what it was like to live out of a backpack. That was how he had lived most of his life. Ritsu was living out of a backpack now but it wasn't permanent. He had to get back to Ritsu, he had to help put his house back together and all of that, but right now there was some stupid force that was keeping him near dad. He hadn't even woken Ritsu up when he found him. He had been at his girlfriend's house, he was probably still there, and he wouldn't have wanted Sho to bother him in the first place when he was with his girlfriend. People who were in love liked to be in love together, on their own.
He really had wanted to wake Ritsu up.
Not for any specific reason. He still had to find Ootski and in the middle of the night after that great big fight was not the time to do so. So fixing Ritsu's house was out. He just…he had just wanted to be near him. To have someone to talk to. Someone who wasn't Serizawa. Someone who wasn't dad. Someone who made him feel good. Ritsu…it always felt good to be around Ritsu. Even though there was nothing that Ritsu could do. Even though Sho was the one who had dragged Ritsu into this whole thing. Even though Sho was probably the last person Ritsu even wanted to see….
"He's waking up…I think. I mean I can see his aura and it looks…better." Said Serizawa. He had been sitting there at the President's side since he had collapsed. He had nowhere else to go. It didn't matter if he stayed, the President didn't care one bit about him, but he had nowhere else to go. He could always go back to his mother…back to his room…back to the hell that had been his life…but he didn't want to. His life was his own. She had said that.
Her.
She had gone away, been carried off, and he…he sort of wanted to follow her. Wasn't he just the most pathetic person in existence? He's cast aside by one person so he follows another right away. He hadn't followed her, though, even though he had wanted to. He stayed with Sho. He had to stay with Sho. He had to make things ok between him and Sho again.
If it was even possible.
"And then what?" asked Sho. He could see dad's aura, too. He wasn't dead, just passed out. Once dad woke up…he had better now have been planning on pulling any more of that shit like he had before! Especially the part where he decided that it was a good idea to literally go waving his dick around! That was the part that pissed Sho off the most. The embarrassment. Not the almost killing him, not the taking over the world, no, it was the constant never ending hailstorm of embarrassment!...and also Dad had better not have been planning on trying to take over the world again. That would have sucked, too.
"Then…he'll be awake." Said Serizawa. He had no idea what would happen next. He hoped that the President had learned the error of his ways and all of that but…but there were still doubts. Serizawa knew that he would never go along with something so transparently terrible again…because the President didn't give a damn about him or anyone else…
Then why was he still there?
For Sho. For his friend.
"What happens after he wakes up? I mean…I don't know. I don't even know why I'm asking you. I'm the one in charge." Said Sho
"You are?" asked Serizawa. They had never decided who would be in charge…but of course it would be Sho. Who else? Even if he was only thirteen he was still a hell of a lot smarter and braver than Serizawa had ever been at any point in his life.
"Yeah, aren't I always? That's my name after all." said Sho. Dad said, years ago, that he named him Sho because he had hopes for his future. Well it sucked for dad because, yeah, the prophecy had been fulfilled after all and Sho really was a leader just like the kanji that made up his name spelled out. He had led an incredibly successful resistance movement…that really had only won because he had found someone overpowered enough to take dad on and win….but winning was winning. Even if it didn't feel like victory. Even if it wasn't….even if there was something like a feeling of loss. For what he didn't know. There was kind of a sort of loss that settled in over him. A loss of…not what he'd had…but what he could have had.
He looked down at dad.
Dad looked downright normal when he was asleep. Sure he looked super thin, like he was on one of those eat single apple once a week diets or something like that, but he looked like…a normal guy. The kind of guy who didn't try to kill his son with his own two hands. The kind of guy who didn't think that it would be ok to call his son a failure. The kind of guy who hadn't watched way too much TV and decided that taking over the world was a totally smart and feasible plan. When he was awake he was….downright terrifying….
But asleep…
Asleep he looked like…a guy. A guy who could have been his dad. A guy who could have been….who could have been someone to Sho. Someone who…who actually cared about him. Someone who wanted…who actually wanted him for a son. He could have had that. Those kids from the Awakening Lab had that. Ritsu had that. Teru….well he didn't…and neither did Ritsu's big sis. Maybe that was just how it went when you were powerful. Maybe the more powerful you were the more people left you.
He looked over at Serizawa.
Or used you. Left you or used you or hurt you. Maybe that was just how it went. Maybe that was why dad had turned out the way he did. He never talked about his parents but they must not have been very good parents to have raised someone who grew up to be him. Maybe Sho would end up messed up from all of this. His parents did suck after all…well dad did…
He hadn't heard from mom in a while.
Maybe that would be what was going to happen next. Maybe he would end up back with her. He was only thirteen and that was a kid in this country…and pretty much every other country on Earth. Maybe he could flee the country….not that he wanted to. He just…he didn't know what he wanted. Someone to care about him, maybe? Someone to tuck him in at night and read him stories and chase the monsters out from under his bed and-
What was he, three?
"I-It is…and we'll do whatever you want….after this." said Serizawa. it was easier to just let Sho pick what they were going to do, where they were going to go from here, because he really had no other options aside from living in the rubble out here or going back to his room in his mother's house. Neither option appealed to him. He trusted Sho. He trusted Sho's judgement. Even though Sho was a kid…and also might have hated him…he still trusted Sho.
"Yeah, I've got this. When dad wakes up I…I'll figure something out. We'll be fine. Well me and dad'll be fine. You can come with too…I guess." Said Sho. Serizawa may have betrayed him but….but he was still there…and that was something. That was something in this world. More than his own father had ever given him, anyway. He didn't forgive Serizawa, he didn't know if he would ever truly forgive him, but he didn't want to be all alone…
When dad finally woke up.
