Apparently Joseph, the cigarette guy, worked for the government.
Who would have thought? He didn't do a very good job, in Sho's opinion, because he hadn't done a thing to stop dad for even getting close to all of the crazy shit he had done. That had all been on Sho….like everything was. He didn't know what pissed him off more. The fact that Joseph did fuck all to stop dad or the fact that he thought that days after what happened he could just swoop in, capture dad, and take all the credit.
"I can't believe you were stopped by a civilian esper of all people. This gives us pros a bad name." said Joseph as he scrolled through his phone. He tried to look bored, nonchalant, like it was every day that he had the most powerful man in the world at his mercy…and Suzuki was at his mercy. He was there, bound in smoke turned to steel, and there was no way he could have gotten out…this time. His aura was still so dull….but looks could be deceiving.
The other two seemed fine, though, and that was…both a good thing and a bad thing.
"What's going to happen to my dad?" asked Sho. He knew that it would not have been able to last. They could not all just live in the shadow of the broccoli tree eating scavenged food and making forts out of debris and whatever else they could find. Of course it ended and of course dad would have to be punished for what he did. He tried to take over the world. That wasn't the kind of thing that people were just going to forget.
No matter how many times he said that he was sorry.
"Well if they don't outright execute him then they'll probably keep him alive for experiments or something." Said Joseph. He was not afraid of Suzuki's kid or his lapdog….or Suzuki himself. Suzuki who had been rather…agreeable….during this whole exchange. Once the initial fighting had died down, and the state of emergency had been rescinded, it had been easy to find Suzuki…well somewhat easy once he figured out how to find auras within the….shadow? The shadow of that tree….that worrying tree….
Which was not his problem. The tree was not his problem, the man who helped create it was, and his orders were to bring this man into custody. No more and no less. As for his son…that was not his problem either, and neither were Suzuki's followers. Some of them had defected and that earned them some points. Maybe even enough points for a get out of jail free card. Not that anyone who had willingly followed Suzuki deserved one…but Joseph was not being paid for his opinions. He didn't even get to have opinions on any of this.
"D-Do you have to say something like that in front of his son?" asked Serizawa. Nobody deserved to hear something so awful. Even if the President had been a terrible father to Sho….Sho still did not need to hear something like that. The President…he reminded himself that the President was an awful person. He reminded himself that the President had used him and everyone else. He reminded himself that the President had tried to kill his own son…and the rest of them, too. He reminded himself that he knew what true friendship was now and the President had never had anything close to that for him….
He reminded himself that he shouldn't care what happened to the President after this.
But he did care. He cared a lot. He told himself that the pain he felt when Joseph said those terrible things was on Sho's behalf, if anyone had a right to feel terrible it was Sho, and he told himself that Sho's pain was the reason he felt like…this. So terrible. It was just empathy, he told himself, empathy for Sho.
He had always been very good at deceiving himself.
"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." Said Joseph with a shrug. That guy could have kicked his ass eight ways from Sunday if he'd wanted to…but he didn't seem to want to. He was just…there…with the kid. The kid who was being oddly somber….and Joseph didn't care. He didn't care about anything but getting Suzuki into custody and taking a nice, long, leave of absence because this had been just too much.
This whole thing had been too much.
Too much to handle. The world…this guy had almost taken over the entire world…and the only one who had been able to stop him, according to reports, had been a teenage girl. A teenage girl in a school uniform had stopped the most powerful man on Earth…and now she was just out there. There was a government policy on espers and that policy was to leave them be unless they used their powers to commit some sort of crime or something.
That girl, the one responsible for stopping Suzuki, was still out there.
"What are you going to do to him?" asked Sho finding his voice. That was all that he could ask. The only words that he could form. He wanted to take dad and run away with him. To hide him somewhere where nobody could ever find him and then spend the rest of his life as his father's jailer. He didn't know why he wanted that. Maybe because he didn't' trust anyone either than himself to watch over his dad…or maybe because he didn't want to be alone. Maybe he just didn't know what would happen if dad was gone. Maybe he hadn't thought ahead this far. Maybe he wanted….maybe he didn't even know what he wanted.
He didn't want his dad to be executed.
He didn't want them to experiment on his dad like a lab rat.
He just wanted his dad…locked up…or something. Locked up in a power nullification room or something. Locked up somewhere where he couldn't hurt anyone ever again. He was still super pissed off at dad, and he had every right to be, but he did not want his dad dead or dissected or whatever else the government was planning on doing to him.
"I don't know the specifics and that's not my call to make, kid. Anyway if that's the last of the goodbyes I've got to go. I've got a schedule to keep." Said Joseph. There was a sort of….guilt…to this. That kid, Suzuki's kid, looked more like, well, a kid than Joseph had ever seen him looking before. Not that he knew that kid well, just at a distance like everyone else in Claw had. Just as that kid who hung around sometimes. Just as that cocky, annoying, little brat. But he was not a cocky, annoying, little brat now. He was a kid who was about to lose his father….
And Joseph was not allowed to feel guilty about this.
This was what needed to be done. Suzuki had proven that there was no way that he could be allowed out in the world. Not after all that he had done. He was going away for a long, long, time if they didn't just stick the needle in his arm the minute they brought him into custody. It served him right, too, for all the things he did. There was no reason to feel guilty about this. The kid….Joseph was not social services. The kid was not his job. The kid was too young to be tried for any of the things he had done, and he had defected in the end anyway, and therefore he was nothing to Joseph. A nonentity. Just another civilian esper.
There was no need to feel guilty about orphaning this kid.
The goodbyes were said and now it was time to go and figure out how Suzuki was going to pay his debt, his substantial debt, to society. He turned his back on it, on them. On the city, that tree, and the people who he had found living under it. He turned and left. He turned and closed the book on all of it.
"President-" called Serizawa. He didn't know what he was going to say. He just knew that he wanted to, had to, say something to the man who saved him. Who saved him and damned him all in the same motion. To the man who…to the man who had betrayed to. To the man who he had betrayed. To the man who had…who was responsible for…everything…..
He had no idea what to say.
I hate you.
I love you.
How could you?
I forgive you.
Get away from me.
Please don't go.
Or maybe all of the above.
"Serizawa." said Suzuki. He had been silent. There was nothing that he could possibly say. There was no way that he could justify himself. What he had done. Hoe he had hurt…everyone. Was it worth it? He didn't know. He had held the world in the palm of his hands…and then he had lost it…but he had never had it in the first place. It hadn't been worth it. Not if it meant…being alone.
He had been alone for so long.
He had spent his entire life thinking that no man could be his equal. Well he had been right about that. He'd found his equal and she was a fourteen year old girl. She'd defeated him…no….they'd both almost destroyed each other. She had almost destroyed him and he had almost destroyed her…if 'almost' was even a word which had been applicable to their situation.
He'd lost his body.
He'd lost the entire boundary of himself. Lost it. Been one with not only her but the universe itself, it had felt like, and for once in his life he had known what it was to not be so…alone. So very alone. People needed other people. She had taught him that. People only existed in this world because of others. Because of how their interactions with others shaped them. Because of how their interactions with others motivated them. People needed other people….including him…he needed other people. In his pursuit of his goal he had pushed everyone away…and now he was alone…
And it had not been worth it.
"S-sir?" asked Serizawa. He hadn't had even the faintest idea of what he would say to the man…and now it was a moot point. He was the one being spoken to. The President was always speaking to him, never with him…and Serizawa wanted to speak with him. To have one conversation, even a short one, as the friends he'd thought that they were. A lie. It had all been a lie. He had been lied to…and he had also lied to himself as well. Just lies on top of lies on top of more lies.
He wanted the truth. For once he wanted the truth.
"You should know that I never considered you all my comrades. There's no reason to care about me." Said Suzuki. He knew what Serizawa was going to say. Something like an apology for betraying him, possibly, or some expression of guilt for his part in all of this. What he had done to Serizawa…it had served it's purpose. His most powerful follower was also his most loyal…but it had come at a cost to his wellbeing. A cost that Suzuki never should have asked him to pay. It was time, for once, to be truthful about…everything.
"I-I know…" said Serizawa. He knew that the President hadn't cared about him, he knew that the President had just been using him, but hearing him say it…there maybe might have been some hope. Some hope that some part of the President had…had cared for him. But of course there was no hope of that.
"Now you get it…." Muttered Sho. He was angry, again, and he didn't want to be. Serizawa may have betrayed him, may have almost let dad kill him….he was still pissed about that one, but he had also been there by his side…eventually. Sho wanted to take him and shake him and ask him where this epiphany had been weeks ago. Months ago. Years ago. Back when he could have actually done something rather than just…just let so much bad shit happen….
"You should be careful from now own since you lack self confidence and that makes you easy to manipulate." Said Suzuki. That was the most important information he could leave him with. Now was not the time for apologies. They were well past that point. Now the best thing he could leave his most loyal follower with was a piece of very good advice. This was a good place to end it, to end them, on. His last act as President.
He would never see Serizawa again.
And he would never see his son again, either.
He's spent this whole time avoiding looking at his son. It hurts. It hurts to look at him and to know just how badly he had messed up. Just what he had done to his own child. Not only what had happened in the Cultural Tower but everything that had happened in the past thirteen years between the two of them. He had hurt Sho in every single way in which a person could be hurt. Not only that but he had taken Sho away from his mother…away from Masami….
The wound is opened again. It hurts.
"Sho." said Suzuki. He needed words to leave his son with, too, since this would be the last time he ever saw him again. His son. The person he had made. The person who he had hurt most. The person who…who he was proud to have made. His son had led a successful, barely, insurrection against his own father. His son was a leader, like his namesake, and his son…his son was not a failure. Sho was not a failure.
"Yeah, dad?" asked Sho. He didn't know if he even wanted to hear what his dad had to say. Based on what he just said to Serizawa it wouldn't be anything good. Probably more about how he was such a disappointment and a failure. Probably more about how he wished that he'd never had him for a son. Something mean like that. Something cruel Something….something dad.
"I'm proud of you. I'm proud of the person you've become." Said Suzuki. He saw his son's aura. He saw his son's face. Disbelief. Complete and utter disbelief….of course there would be disbelief. Why wouldn't there be disbelief? He had been nothing but cruel to his son for his entire thirteen and three quarter years on this planet.
"Dad…." Said Sho. It was like something out of a dream. Dad finally being proud of him, finally looking at him like something other than the worst failure that ever could have existed, finally talking to him like he actually cared….
Why did this have to happen now?!
Why couldn't dad have just said something mean and then gone from his life forever?!
Why did he have to leave Sho with this?! This-This-This final 'fuck you'?!
"You're seriously telling me this now?! Now, after all of these years, you decide that I'm worth something!? Right fucking now!?" shouted Sho. Serizawa took a step back. Sho didn't care. He didn't care that he was yelling, that his aura was showing, he didn't care at all about any of that. He just wanted-wanted-wanted-he had no fucking idea what he wanted!
"Yes." said Suzuki simply. He so wished that his son would do something about his language…but the way his son spoke was no longer under his control. Nothing about the boy was under his control…and he never had been to begin with. That was ok. He was his own person and that was totally ok.
This was ok.
He was ok with this.
"Fuck you! Fuck you for-for-for fucking with me like this! And don't start with me about the way that I fucking talk! I will say any fucking thing that I want! So fuck this and fuck you, too! You don't get to suddenly start giving a damn about me! You don't get to suddenly just…..fuck! You don't get to tell me this now! Why didn't you say this before!? Why?! What was stopping you?! What was…why are you telling me this shit now!?" said Sho. He was shouting at the top of his lungs, now, and his throat was red and raw…and he didn't care. He didn't care one bit. Dad needed to hear this. He would shout until he went mute if it meant that dad heard this.
"I'm telling you this now because this very well be the last time that we speak. I was too blinded by my own pride and ambition to see that…that you are someone who I'm proud of. You are. I know that you're angry with me, it would be strange if you weren't, and I know that I deserve it. What I have done to you….what I have done to you….I am truly sorry for what I've done to you. All of it. I know that all of this is far too little and far too late but I am deeply sorry for everything that I've done to you…put you through. The pain I've caused you both emotional and physical. Treating you the way I did…keeping you from your mother…all of it. I'm truly sorry." Said Suzuki. His son shouted at him some more. He shouted the worst obscenities in his vocabulary. Truly obscene things, truly vile things, and some very creative word combinations that Suzuki had never even thought of….
And he let him.
He deserved it.
So he just let his son curse him out. He let his son curse himself out until, truly, he would out of things to say. Exhausted himself. Stood there panting while a thoroughly scandalize Serizawa patted him on the back in a gesture of comfort. Sho was in good hands. Sho would be in good hands. Any hands were better hands than his. Sho didn't need him anymore, Sho had never needed him, Sho needed so much better than what he could be. That was why he hadn't stopped Sho for throwing every piece of obscenity in the dictionary at him. For making those their parting words. He had only said, Sho had only said, his son had only said, what needed to be said.
"I'm sorry."
And so had Suzuki.
"I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry." Said Mob as she walked down what was once called a street. She had really done a number on this part of the city….on most of the city. She had put some of it back when she exploded, when she lost her body, but most of the city where the battle took place looked like this.
And she was so, very, sorry.
And she said it. She said it to the trees that she had uprooted. She put them back as best she could but….but she had still hurt them. She said it to the broken sidewalk she tried her best to fuse back together. She said it to the windows she had broken. She said it to the buildings she had knocked down. She even said it to the people she passed.
She was so, very, sorry.
And she wanted nothing more than to fix everything that she was responsible for breaking. She wanted to just…to just stop and make everything better. She knew that there had been two people in that battle. She knew that Touichirou, that Suzuki, should have been saying sorry too….but she knew that he was sorry. She knew it deep within herself. She knew it to be true….she knew a lot of things about him to be true. A lot of things about the both of them to be true….
True instrumentality.
Something that she never wanted to feel again. People needed the boundaries between themselves and others. They needed the limits that their vessels could provide. They needed….they needed quite a few things. Things that instrumentality, returning to nothing, took away. She wished, a little bit, that she had never felt that…even though in some ways it had made her better. There had been a feeling, before, like a cloud...a thick rain cloud…that had been hanging over her. The feeling that she was terrible. That feeling….that feeling had been her constant and unwanted companion….
And now it was gone.
Mostly. Mostly gone. She knew that she had done some bad things but…but she had found what she was looking for. She was looking for peace, maybe, peace within herself….and it was peaceful. The other her…she was there…but they were not fighting anymore. Not only that but that sense of terribleness that had clung to her was gone-ish. She still…remembering what had happened with Mogami hurt, knowing that he was out there worried her, and thinking about all of it…but it was easier not to think about it. She had so much new stuff to think about now.
Like fixing her old house.
It wasn't her house anymore. Her house was with Master Reigen. That house was, if anything, Ritsu's house now. That was where Ritsu lived with mom and dad and he loved them and they loved him and everyone was so much happier when she wasn't around. It didn't hurt, no, it felt nice knowing that her little brother was happy. Mom and dad were happy too. Now they only had to think about Ritsu. He was the one they loved and he was worth it.
She had to help fix up his house.
This wasn't what she had set out to do today, no, and walking all the way home from the awakening lab was hard on her feet. Her shoes had been destroyed in the battle. Now all she had were the ones she'd saved the world in. It was hard walking in heels…or maybe it was just hard because these shoes did not fit her. Mom wore higher heels than this and she got around just fine. These shoes hurt her feet a lot, and she knew that flying would have been easier, but she did not want to fly. She had flown enough, before, back during the fight. No, walking was just fine. She hadn't set out to go on this long walk today, hadn't set out to fix up Ritsu and mom and dad's house today, actually she hadn't set off to do much of anything at all today…
But then Sho showed up at the lab and told her that they were fixing the house.
And his aura had felt sad and mad and Mob was sure she was not misreading it, no, because Master Reigen had even asked if everything was ok…and Sho said that it was…even though Mob got the feeling that it wasn't. Sho hadn't even given her any answers when she asked him where he had been, if he was ok, and what happened to his dad. Sho just told her that none of that was important they had a house to fix.
And then he went to get Ritsu.
And then Mob had been on her own. Well, not really, because Teru and Master Reigen had been there. They had both asked if she was alight to go to the house on her own. Of course she was. The battle was over and now all that was left was cleaning up and getting back to normal. Teru asked if she felt like she did after Mogami. Master Reigen asked that, too, but at a different time. She told them both 'no' and that was the truth…even though it had felt like neither of them had believed her.
This was nothing like how she had felt after Mogami.
This was a good feeling. She had saved everyone she loved. She hadn't ended the world, no, she had saved it…and everyone had been there for her, afterwards. Master Reigen hadn't pushed her away and she'd had no reason, this time, to push away from Teru. She had been happy and loved and it had just been the best, the very best. Loving and being loved…
And she was outside and on her way to her old house and her brother would be there and that would be the last she thought about how good it felt to show love and to have it be shown in return.
She loved Teru and she wished that he had been able to come with but he had to go to his apartment and see what could be salvaged. The internet was back….sort of. It kind of worked, or at least it had kind of worked on the computers at the Awakening Lab, and Teru had been in a very long skype call with someone. Mob hadn't wanted to eavesdrop and gained nothing by over hearing. None of it had been in Japanese.
Teru had been kind of upset, though.
But he said that it was nothing. He said that everything was under control and that he would never leave this city and that he would never leave her. She, of course, trusted him. She had never accused him of wanting to leave her in the first place. They loved each other, the real and true kind of love, and they would always be together. She loved him so much….
And she loved Master Reigen, too.
He said that it was about time that he went home. She'd go back home, too, after this was done with. She hadn't been home in so long…and she wanted to be. She wanted to be with him, alone with him, but not the kind of alone with him that she and Teru had been…well she sort of did….but she knew that it wasn't right for her to feel like that. She loved him, she always would love him, but he did not feel that way about her and he never would. Not now, anyway, because he was an adult. Maybe it would change when she became and adult and maybe it wouldn't but right now she had Teru and Teru had her and she loved him so much.
So very much.
And she wanted to be with him but she had things to do and so did he. He said that his parents were working on finding him a place to stay. He said that no matter what happened he would always be there for her and that there was no way he was leaving Seasoning City. Not unless she wanted to leave. She, of course, did not want to move. She wasn't opposed to taking a trip somewhere but she was not moving away from her friends and her little brother and Master Reigen. She wanted to stay right here in this city for the rest of her life.
Even if she had broken just about everything.
But it could be fixed. She could fix it and other people could fix it. Nothing that she had broken could not be fixed or replaced. They were just buildings and things. She felt bad for what she had done but what she had done was nothing compared to what so easily could have happened. They could have lost. She could have lost. They could have lost it all. She could have lost it all. She hadn't, though, and what they had lost could be fixed.
And it would begin with fixing the house.
"How the hell are we supposed to fix this house?" asked Ritsu mostly to himself. The house had burnt down. He knew that the house had burnt down. He knew that Sho had set fire to the house and that the house had burnt down. He knew this….but knowing that something had happened and seeing the aftermath…those were two very different things.
The house was gone.
There was almost nothing left. There were parts of the wooden skeleton, some pipes catching the sunlight, and what looked like it had been the door…and that was it. The concrete steps, too, were still there. That was it. That was the only evidence that there had ever even been a house at all. The houses around his seemed fine…well aside from the black marks from the smoke….and at least he could be reasonably sure that his neighbors were ok. Not that he knew them personally or anything like that, he just didn't want anyone to get hurt on his account. Pretty much every car on his street was gone and there were evacuation notices everywhere.
No neighbors around to see this.
No neighbors around to tell his parents what they had seen. Mom and dad must have still been up in the mountains. Seasoning City was the only place that had been damaged. There was some fighting in Cuticle City but nothing nearly as bad as what had happened here. At least that was what the TV had said. The TV had also said that all of it had been the work of a delusional terrorist organization.
So he wasn't sure what to believe.
"Ritsu, Ritsu, Ritsu….you've just got to have a little faith, that's all. Don't worry. We'll get this put back together as good as new. It'll be easy, trust me." Said Sho. He was told to speak for himself, Higashio was kind of cranky it seemed, but Sho paid him no mind. It wasn't like they were doing anything terribly difficult.
Nothing in the world was as difficult as what he had just done.
"Do you remember what happened the last time I trusted you?" asked Ritsu. He felt his pulse quicken. Sho had no concept of personal space it seemed. Well he had known that for a while. This seemed…different, though. Closer. His aura was being all….clingy…too. Something was up with him. When Ritsu asked him, earlier, where he had been he had brushed him off.
It had been days since they'd last seen each other.
At some point he had changed clothes but that was it. He looked like he hadn't had a bath in a while and he smelled like, well, broccoli. The last time they had seen each other was at the tree….had Sho been there the whole time? With his dad? Ritsu wanted to ask about that too, his dad, but he already knew the answer and he knew that it wasn't good. Either he got away, not good, or he had been captured, also not good. Well that last part was good for the rest of them, that guy had tried to take over the world after all, but Ritsu knew that nothing good was coming to Sho's dad.
He wondered what Sho would do now.
But he didn't ask. Sho didn't want to talk about it so he didn't ask. This was a lot to deal with. They were all dealing with a lot but the only person who was dealing with more than Sho was Shigeko. He hadn't even heard from her since she collapsed. The internet was barely working and he had smashed his phone, anyway, so he couldn't just text her…and forget going to the Awakening Lab and seeing her. Rei's parents weren't like his parents. They cared where the kids in their house went especially after a terrorist attack nearly leveled all of downtown.
Even leaving to come here had taken a level of sneaking around that Ritsu was not used to.
"Yeah, we saved the entire fucking world. See, you can trust me!" said Sho. He needed to stop saying 'fuck' so many times. He had thought that he had used the max amount of 'fucks' that a person was allowed to have yelling at dad…but apparently he still had some fucks left to give. Heh.
He didn't know what was wrong with him.
Dad finally told him everything that he had been waiting his whole life to hear…and he had told dad everything he had been waiting his whole life to tell him…and now this was…it. This was it. Their words had all been said and now it was over. Dad was off to the mercy of the government and Sho was…he was here. He was here and he was…
He was not alone.
Even if he kind of felt like he was alone.
"Sure I can." Said Ritsu. He was only kidding. He trusted Sho with his life. He had never trusted another human being so totally and completely before. He had never been ready just give another person….everything….like…like he had to Sho. His trust, his life, everything. Everything that he had to give, everything that mattered, he had given to Sho.
"You can. Don't worry, your house is going to be rebuilt and everything is going to end well." Said Rei squeezing his hand. She barely even had to look into the future to see that this, all of this, was going to be just fine. They were ok. He was ok and she was ok and they were all just…they were all ok.
They were more than ok.
But Mob was coming and she needed to stop thinking about just how much more than ok she and Ritsu were. Had been. Were now. She had never felt this way about another person in her life…and she liked it. She loved him, she knew that she loved him, and this…all of this…had brought on a whole new dimension to what she felt for Ritsu. Him saving her life…and all of the other stuff….
She never wanted to let him go.
"Thanks, Rei." Said Ritsu as she tried her best to cut off his circulation. He wondered, he had been wondering for a while, if this had been a mistake. She loved him. She loved him so much and all he could think about was the boy in front of him. The one who had come into his life like a whirlwind. The one who had dragged him into…all of this…and who he would let drag him into it again and again and again.
There wasn't anything he could do about the way he felt.
But it wasn't fair to Rei. He was making her happy…but was he really? Was her happiness real if it was based on a lie? Or did that not even matter? Was happiness just happiness and it didn't matter what it was based on so long as it was there? Maybe he was just over thinking things since they had…stuff. All of that stuff. That more than kissing but less than a lot of what other people were doing, if talk was to be believed, stuff. That sort of stuff that he regretted the minute that it was over and she was holding him and telling him how much loved him….sort of stuff….
That had, possibly, been the biggest mistake of his life…it felt like.
"Come on! Let's get to it!" said Sho taking a step back. Right, he had a girlfriend. As much as he needed Ritsu…Ritsu had a girlfriend. He knew this feeling. He liked Ritsu. He liked him a lot. More than just wanting to be his friend and also with a generous scoop of wanting to at least kiss him if not bang….and he knew that he should not have been feeling like that.
Even though it felt nice.
Even though when he was with Ritsu it felt like everything was going to be ok. Even though he wanted to just throw himself into Ritsu's arms and be held because….because he needed someone to ground him. Because he knew that at any minute he could just…he didn't know. Go. He wanted to go, to run away, to be alone…but he also wanted to be around people. There were just too many feelings happening inside of him at once and he needed to do something about them!
So he had might as well make himself useful and fix what he had broken.
"I have no idea how I'm supposed to even begin to help with this." said Ritsu. He was grateful for it, this immediate problem, and the immediate solution of fixing it up. This gave him an excuse, at least, to pull himself free from Rei's grasp. He wished that she had just gone with her sister. That was who was supposed to be watching them, even though they thirteen, and that was where they were supposed to be. Her sister was supposed to be out checking on people and stuff and he and Rei were supposed to go with her. He was supposed to be checking on his house and his sister.
Well he was checking on his house.
And there, in the distance and getting closer, was his sister.
So it wasn't a lie…and he was thirteen, anyway, and could take care of himself. Her parents were weird like that. They treated him and Rei like they were little kids. His parents always let him go wherever he wanted and do whatever he wanted. Her parents had barely even let them out of the house. Even with everything that had happened he knew that his parents would have let him leave the house on his own. They would have never put Shigeko in charge of him...and not just because she didn't live there anymore.
"I've got everything all sorted out so all we need is a little, actually a lot of, telekinesis." Said Higashio. As soon as the dust settled he had gotten to this…mostly just to have something to do with himself. He had made the kid a promise and he was going to keep it. One last promise before he fled the country before the inevitable witch hunt began.
"Yeah but how are we supposed to-" said Ritsu. His telekinesis didn't always listen. He wasn't good at precise movements, either, not like Shigeko. He had seen her brush her hair and do her buttons with telekinesis back when they had been kids….and the last time he tried to button a shirt with telekinesis he had ruined it and mom had been so upset with him. If he couldn't do up a button then how was he supposed to fix up a whole house?
"Things that are broken want to be back together." Said Mob as she touched down. She had, in the end, ended up flying. These were the worst shoes ever and she didn't know why adults bothered with them. She was sticking to gym shoes…well if she could get another pair. She had a pair of dress shoes at home…or at least she had some dress shoes in her room before her house burn down…and she hoped that they still fit…and could be fixed.
This was going to be a big job.
"Sister….you're ok." Said Ritsu. She had flown there…and it had been nothing like when she had been flying before…and now he was remembering what had happened…how it had felt to see her being thrown through the air and being so powerless to help her….how it had felt knowing that his sister was up there in the air and that there was nothing that he could do to help her…
And now he knew what it was like to be hugged by his sister.
Not that he hadn't known, already, what it was like to be hugged by his sister. They had hugged so many times over the years….but he hadn't been hugged by her in so long. Too long. He didn't care if he could feel her aura, and if it hurt a little, he just cared that she was there. She was there and she was alive and she was awake and she looked so, incredibly, normal and he had to be normal even though he almost wanted to cry and-and-and
He loved her so much.
"Brother…of course I am. You're ok too…we're ok together." Said Mob as she hugged Ritsu. He was too big, maybe, to be hugged like that…but he should have said something if he had a problem with this. It had been too long since she had last seen him, last hugged him, far too long. This was…this was perfect. Her little brother was ok. She had come so close, before, to losing him….but here he was. He was there and he was ok…
They were there and they were ok.
"I missed you so much." Said Ritsu quietly. Not just over the course of the past few days but…but for months. He wished that he had the power to turn back time. He wished that he could have just gone back in time and kicked his own ass. Done something to knock some sense into himself. Done something to…to keep himself from ruining what they'd had….from sending her away. From making her leave. He wished that the house wasn't the only thing that they were there to fix. He wished that he could have fixed what had gone wrong with them.
He wished that he could have made her come back home.
But he didn't dare ask. He knew what her answer would be and he didn't blame her. Who would have wanted to come back to that house? To deal with a brother who had treated them so terribly and a pair of parents who were going for the world's record in shouting matches almost every single night? He didn't blame her one bit for not wanting to come home…
He blamed himself.
"I missed you too, Ritsu, I missed you so much little brother." Said Mob before she let him go. She had missed him so badly, too badly, and she also knew that she had to let him go. She wanted to hold him close and never let him go but she also knew that they had things to do. It was cold outside. It was cold and Ritsu was homeless and she knew what it was to be homeless in the cold.
So she got to work.
What looked like piles of ashes and rubble were, in fact, not piles of ashes and rubble….well they were and they weren't. These were the remains of the house. Higashio, the one with the power of restoration and transformation, as he called it had been doing most of the hard word himself. Everything had, mostly, been put back the way that it was meant to be. All it needed was a little telekinetic nudged back into the right place.
Or a big one.
Because Ritsu could not do this. Ritsu just sort of moved things around. He didn't have the intuitive sense for how things needed to be put back together. That was ok. That was perfectly ok. Mob didn't want him to end up tiring himself out…and this was very tiring work. She just wanted him to have a place to live, that was all, and even if these very small and precise movements were tiring…she would gladly had spent the rest of her life doing this for him.
She had the power to pick up skyscrapers and pulled satellites from space. This was nothing.
Besides, it wasn't like she was doing this all on her own. Sho was there to help, too, and so was Higashio. Rei was there to provide moral support. She kept on telling them how they were going to succeed and how the house would be back to normal, too. She didn't have to tell them that. Mob was there. She was the one putting things back together. She could see clearly just as anyone else how the house's skeleton rose up in the air. How the bones of the house got filled in. How the body of the house was just as complex as the human body.
If she could put her body back together from nothing then she could put a house back together.
"You don't have to work so fast, you know, you can take it easy. You know, so you don't get burnt out or anything like that." Said Sho. She worked fast, really fast, and he didn't really want her to. The faster she worked the faster they would be done…and once they were done he had no idea what he was supposed to do with himself.
He had told Serizawa to fuck off.
Not that Serizawa would hold that against him, no, he was the most forgiving guy on the planet. He just…he just had no idea what to do, either. He would probably end up going back to his mom's house…and he couldn't take Sho with him. Or maybe he could, who knew? Sho knew, though, that if Serizawa went back to his mom's house then…then he could not go with him.
He had his own mother after all.
The mother who had left him all alone with dad. He knew where she lived, well he knew her last known address, and he was sure that Hatori could find her…if he hadn't gone underground by now. Like the others were planning on doing. His Ultimate Three, well Ultimate Four if you counted Ritsu, were going underground after this…well not Ritsu, obviously, but those guys. They were going to flee the country and…and Sho would never see them again.
He would be all alone.
"I don't mind. It's cold out here and I want Ritsu to have a place to live. It's terrible not having a place to live…being out in the cold. It's the worst." Said Mob. Ritsu did not deserve to feel like that. She was going to fix up his house and then he was going to be ok and everything was going to be ok…it really was. He would be back in his nice warm house where he belonged and she would have been a good sister to him and then she would go back home and then…well she hadn't really planned that far ahead. Maybe make instant ramen with Master Reigen and watch TV. Yes, that would be a nice time. Something normal. The best thing to do, as if now, was to get back to normal.
"Yeah, not having a place to stay sucks." Said Sho. He did not want to live under that stupid broccoli tree anymore. He had nowhere to go. If the government was involved then those safe houses wouldn't stay safe for long. He could live by his wits on the streets…but that was going to be a last resort thing. He was tired of living from day to day and moving from place to place. He wanted…he wanted…
Part of him wanted this.
Not this house specifically but…but a house. A house which was his. A place to put his stuff. Some stuff, actually, that didn't all fit in his backpack. A bed of his very own and a room of his very own…like other people had. Parents of his very own, too. A dad who didn't try to take over the world and who hadn't killed every single pet that Sho had brought home and who he didn't have to be afraid would just hurt him for every little thing….that was what he wanted. A mom, too, a mom that would last forever. A mom that was there when he woke up. A mom who loved him…a mom who wanted him…a mom who was…
He had no idea what his mom was like.
He knew where to find her, maybe, and he knew that…that maybe that was where he should have ended up. Maybe that was step two. Go to his mom's house and just…what? Tell her that it was over and they could be together again? Tell her that he had missed her for long, too long, and that he wanted to start again with her?
He had no idea what he was supposed to do when this was all over.
"It does, it really does….do you have a place to stay?" asked Mob. She knew that she had said something awkward the moment the words had made the journey from her brain and past her lips. She barely knew him…even though it felt like she had known him for a while….and she knew that she could have phrased that better…but she was worried about him. He looked like he hadn't had a bath in a while…and the last time she had seen him had been by that tree….and she knew that his aura was being weird…
And all of those things worried her.
"Yeah I have a place to stay! The world is my place to stay! I can stay wherever I want! I'm a nomad like that, I find a place and I stay in it until I don't like it anymore." Said Sho perhaps a bit too loudly. Ritsu was looking over at him, now, and he was all concerned…and that face did not suit him at all. Ritsu shouldn't have been concerned, he should have been happy! His house was getting fixed up and….
And his girlfriend was with him, too….so he had no reason to be concerned about anything at all.
"Oh. I meant specifically if you had a place to stay. I know what it feels like when you try and live outside…not that you are living outside…but it just sounded like you were planning on living outside…and it looks like you've been living outside, too. If you need a place that's inside to live in you could stay at the Awakening Lab or with me and Master Reigen." Said Mob. She knew that the Awakening Lab was open invitation, the guy who ran it said so, but she wondered if her house was….Master Reigen wouldn't say no. Even if they didn't have the space for another person except for on the very uncomfortable couch. Master Reigen would still say yes, he was a good person like that.
"….after this I'm going to stay with my mom." Said Sho. That was what he had to do. There was no other way. He was only thirteen and that was still a kid. Even though he would be fourteen…fourteen was still a kid, too. Even if he had stopped his dad from taking over the world, or at least sort of helped stop his dad, he was still a kid. Even though he had been to every corner of the world by himself he was still a kid. Even if he had seen so many terrible things…and done so many terrible things…he was still a kid.
And kids lived with their moms. Usually.
She didn't but she was something all on her own. She didn't act like a kid. He knew that he could act like a kid sometimes but he had never seen her act like a kid. She hadn't given up, hadn't gotten scared, even back when they first met. She was…she was her own thing. Not a kid. A big sis. Ritsu's big sis.
"Oh." Said Mob. She knew his mom. Masami. She liked cinnamon a lot. She liked movies with dogs in them. She liked to watch the rain fall. She loved bright colors. She was a very good go player. She could speak three languages. She had worked at an animal shelter before Sho was born. She had long brown hair that was very soft, impossibly soft, and-
And those were not her memories.
She wondered how many of her memories Touichirou, Suzuki, had in his head. Did he remember things about the people she loved? Did he remember how Teru smelled like winterberries? How he loved scary movies? How he hogged the bed every single night? How it took him a VERY long time to get ready in the morning? Did he know things about Master Reigen? The way he ashed on the floor even though he knew that it made the carpet dirty? How he loved to watch the same shows he had when he was a kid even though there were so many good shows out now, too, that he could get into? How he would have lived on instant ramen if he could have? How he could make anything feel like an adventure and how he could make even the most dangerous of adventures feel safe just by being there?
She didn't know if she wanted him to know that.
And she didn't know if she wanted to know these things about the people he loved, either.
"Yeah, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I'm always fine. I'm like a cat, I always land on my feet." Said Sho. He wondered if she believed him. He wondered if he believed himself. He wondered if he should have asked Ritsu's girlfriend over there if he really was going to be ok. He wondered if he should have just gone over there and asked her to look into his future. Maybe there was something to reveal.
He did not.
He just helped finish the house.
"There you go, pretty as a picture." Said Sho after they put the finishing touches on the house. It looked more or less the way he remembered it. Maybe a little shinier than he remembered. A little newer. Well then that was a good thing! Ritsu deserved to live in a nice, clean, house. He was a nice guy and he deserved a nice house…and this was a nice house! The nicest on the block! In the whole city! Sho had done a damn good job on this house….and now the job was done…and now he had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go but to…to his mother's house…which was his own house, now, and he had no idea if…if it was as nice as this….or if she would even be happy to see him and…
And he needed to stop this.
He focused on Ritsu. The way he smiled. The look of disbelief in his eyes. The way he held his girlfriend's hand so tightly…and Sho wondered what it would have been like to have someone hold his hand so tightly. To have someone just reach out and without even a single word say something like 'I'm here for you, Sho, I've got you' or something like that. To have Ritsu say something like that to him….
"Whoa…." Said Ritsu. He had seen it being reconstructed. He knew that this was what they had been working towards…but it was still amazing. His house had come back from the ashes. It was mostly the same. The outside was whiter than he remembered and it might have been moved a little….but that was his house.
Sho was amazing.
"I told you it would all work out." Said Rei. This wasn't a surprise, she had seen it in her future vision, but it was cool. She wished that she could have done something as amazing as make a house from ashes but she couldn't. She could only see the future…and even then just barely. It was nothing compared to what the others could do.
"Thank you…thank you so much." Said Ritsu. He meant that for everyone but he looked at Sho when he said it. Sho looked away. He was red….but that was because of the cold, that was all. It was a really early winter. They could all go inside now…that is if the heat still worked.
It did work.
The heat and the power and the water all worked. The house was totally back to normal. Even the food in the fridge was back. Everything was completely normal…aside from the fact that it was as clean as a show house. Whatever, mom would just think that he had done some cleaning. She was always going on and on about how she did everything around here. She and dad would come back and suspect nothing and then they would be free to resume their nightly shouting matches.
"It's just like it was before." Said Mob as she walked through her old house. The books were back on the shelves and the cups were back in the cabinets and the table was back where it was supposed to be and her chair was there where it had always been…and she did not sit in it. This was not her house and that was not her chair and she needed to get back home to her actual home. This was Ritsu's home and his alone, not hers, and she was ok with that.
She really was.
"It's not totally like it was before…" said Ritsu. Everyone was walking through the house, now, seeing if it was done or if it needed some touching up. That was what Ritsu should have been doing but, instead, he was broaching a subject that he knew would not go over very well.
"Oh. Well if something changed since I've been gone then I can fix it. I haven't lived her in a while." Said Mob. She wondered if there was something else that need fixing. Maybe the kitchen had been a different color. Last time she had lived at home mom had been talking about painting it. She said that the colors were dated, whatever that meant. Mob hadn't fully known what she was doing, she had just been putting things back the way that they had wanted to be put back, but she could maybe change things…if that was what Ritsu wanted.
"It's just…nothing. You're what's changed. You being gone…that's what I meant." Said Ritsu
"Oh. Ritsu….little brother….I'm not coming home. This isn't my home anymore. I just came here to fix the house for you and get my other pair of shoes, that's all. I told you before that I'm never coming back. I won't live in a place where people are afraid of me…where they think that I'm a monster." Said Mob softly. She looked away from her brother. She looked over to the wall, the wall that she had cracked when she was little…and that wall was fixed, now…and she wondered if mom would have been happy about that. Probably. She had been complaining about that crack since Mob had accidentally made it all those years ago.
"I know….I know. I know that you're never coming home and I know…I know how mom and dad make you feel….and that's why I'm not going to ask you to come home." Said Ritsu. He was not going to ask even though he really wanted to. He wanted not only his house to have been restored but his family, his life, to have been restored as well.
But there was no going back.
This was his life. His sister had moved out and moved on…and that was just the way that it was going to be from now on. He had made his mistakes, one more mistake to add to the pile, and he had to live with them. Besides, he told himself, it wasn't like she had moved away to parts unknown. She still lived in the city and they still went to the same school…if she was ever coming back to school…and once he got a new phone he could call her or text her whenever he wanted to….
Even though she was never coming home it didn't mean that they had stopped being brother and sister.
No matter what happened, what he did, and what the world threw at him they would never stop being brother and sister. He loved her and she loved him and no matter where they lived that bond would never break. It would never break so long as they both lived. They had both almost died…and they were both alive now….and their bond was just as strong as ever.
Even when they were apart nothing could separate them.
Being separated from Mob made him anxious.
She was at her house. She was helping to put it back together. She was fine. She was fine and everything was fine and he had no reason to freak out as badly as he did. He should have been fine, happy even, because this whole thing was over and he was back to normal. They were back to normal. The world was back to normal.
Well, mostly.
He had stopped, on his way home, to gawk at the tree. He didn't know what it was, well he knew it was a tree, but he had no idea WHAT this tree was. Why it felt the way it did…like Mob but not. Why it was so disconcerting. Why it was even there. He had seen his fair share of climactic anime battles and none of them had ever ended with the appearance of giant trees. Not that what Mob had been through counted as a climactic anime battle, no, it had all been real life….and that had been the worst of it. But she was fine and he was fine and he needed to get home and he needed to stop staring at that damned tree…
But he couldn't.
There was something about it. Disconcerting. Fascinating. Off putting. Powerful. It was like it was Mob herself. The contradictions that had made up her being. She was fascinating and powerful and disconcerting and, to those who were not used to her, off putting. This thing felt like Mob but it was not Mob…or maybe it was. He had no idea how her plant powers worked, only that she had them, and only that the explosion had left them with whatever this thing was.
He got closer.
It was sort of like being all wrapped up in Mob's aura…but also nothing like that at all. Mob's aura was warm and safe and…and a good place to be. This felt like it was trying to be a good place to be…and Reigen knew that it shouldn't have been trying to be anything. It was a tree. Tress did not have wills of their own….or maybe they did. He didn't know, he wasn't a botanist, but he did know that he needed to get out of there and head home and-
And then what?
He had no clue. Mob would come home and he would be there for her, of course, even though this time…this time it felt like she didn't really need him there. This time it felt more like she had this. After the Asagiri job she had been a wreck but now…now she was keeping it together. She was happy, even, and he should have been over the moon that she was taking this whole thing so well. Hell, because she was taking it well then he should have been taking it well, too, instead of trying his hardest to keep it together.
He was fine, she was fine, and everything was fine.
Well, everything but this tree. He wondered what sorts of answers he hoped to find by exploring it like this. He wondered what answers there even were to find. He wondered when he was going to stop being ridiculous and just head home already and…and figure out something to do with himself now that the world was saved. Heh. Since the internet was back maybe he should dealt with the glut of emails he knew his mother had sent.
Joy of joys.
With the only other option being going home and checking his email he kept on walking around the roots of this thing…this tree. He walked along the roots not knowing what it was he was setting out to find. Answers without questions? Prizes without games? Solutions without problems? He didn't know. All he knew was that he didn't know what to do with himself. All he knew was that-
He was alone.
He was cold and alone. What was he supposed to do now? She was gone and without her he was nothing. He had nothing and nobody without her and she had just gone and left him….and how could she just DO THAT?! Didn't he mean anything at all to her!? How could she have just cast him aside like that? Like he was nothing? He loved her. He had loved her, cared for her, and been there for her for so very long….and she had just cast him aside like he was nothing at all! He loved her so much that it hurt and she had just left him all alone to-to-to-to-! He didn't even know. He was alone and cold and he wanted someone, anyone, because it just hurt so very much and-
And these were not his feelings.
These were not his emotions. These thoughts…they were being influenced by something else. Once he realizes it he can tear himself away from….he knew that aura. He vaguely knew that aura…and he went to it. That was a terrible way to feel….nobody should ever have had to feel like that. To feel so alone and rejected….he wouldn't wish that on anyone. Well…almost anyone….
Not that man.
Not him. Reigen knew that man. He would never be able to forget that man for as long as he lived. The man who saved his life. The man who helped him save the esper kids. The bravest man that Reigen had ever known in his life. He had been resigned to die….but that man, a man who he hadn't even known, he thrown himself right in the past of that explosion without a single thought.
Reigen was indebted to him.
"Oh! I remember you…." Said Serizawa for lack of anything else. This was….he knew that he had felt another esper and there he was. He had thought, for a moment, that it was someone coming to make him answer for his crimes. He was prepared to do it, to go and face the music, because he knew that he had to pay for what he had done. He had thought that it had been another government esper…
But it hadn't.
Serizawa had no idea how he had forgotten that man. Reigen. Reigen Arataka. The man who he had defied the President to save…for her. For Shigeko. For Mob. For Miss Kageyama. The person who had saved him. The President hadn't saved him from the hell that was his life, no, the President had only delivered him into another layer of it. A layer in which caring and friendship and love were just tools use to exploit him…a world in which he had allowed himself to be used and exploited….
She had saved him from that.
So the least he could have done was save one of the most important people in her life.
"Yeah….I remember you, too….and I never took you for the outdoorsy type." Said Reigen with levity he did not feel. It looked like he planned on living under the tree….which made sense. With the end of the fight came the end of that guy's only source of, well, everything. Yeah, Reigen would have done the same, maybe, if he had nowhere to go and no one to help him….
"I-I'm not. I mean this isn't…this isn't permanent. I don't know where to go…really. I mean without the President…but he got captured…and it doesn't matter…but it feels so…so bad…but…but he never cared about me to begin with." Said Serizawa. He could always go back to his mother's house…to his room…to the hell that had been his existence. That was always an option….but one that he did not want to take. No, he would have gladly lived under this tree for the rest of his life if it meant never stepping foot in that room again….that prison….that self-imposed purgatory…that self-imposed hell…
Even if it meant having nowhere else to go.
"Well you can go anywhere you want, I figure. I mean Mob said that you were the one to let the Prime Minister go so I bet that earned you some points and if there was a manhunt for you they would have picked you up when they got that President guy." Said Reigen with a shrug. He knew, from Mob, this guy's story….and it sucked. He was like…Mob…an older version of Mob. Afraid of himself, used by someone he trusted….
This could have so easily been Mob.
"I-I can?" asked Serizawa. Well that made sense. He hadn't exactly been hiding in shadows over these past few years. No, he had been at the President's side this whole time….and he sort of wished that he had been taken away. He had done so much stuff….so many terrible things….
He was terrible.
"Yeah, you can do whatever you want and go wherever you want to go. You're a free man, Serizawa, and your life is your own." Said Reigen. Words of hope, the same ones….some of the same ones….that he had given Mob all of those years ago. Your life is your own. Words to live by, words that he had lived by, and words that Mob lived by too.
Your life is your won.
"It-it is?" asked Serizawa. She had told him that. Your life is your own. Simple words, simple yet profound. Words that…that she lived by. Words that he could live by. She….she had saved him and she…she had been the only one to ever say those words to him…well at that point. She had been the first one to ever say something so simple and yet so profound….
Your life is your own.
"Yeah, it is. You're your own man, Serizawa, and you can do whatever you want with your life….even live under this tree I guess." Said Reigen. Serizawa's eyes were brimming with hope….just like Mob's had been all those years ago. He wondered how this guy's life would have turned out if someone had said those words to him back when his life had gone off the rails. If there had been someone like him in this guy's life…what he would have ended up being….
Something other than what he was now, that was for sure.
"I-I don't want to live underneath this tree but I…I'm terrible. I've done so many terrible things and-" said Serizawa.
"No. You are not terrible. You are a person who terrible things have happened to but there is nothing terrible about you." Said Reigen. That was what he should have said to Mob. The minute that idea had entered her mind. He should have…he should have just been there for her instead of being stuck in his own shit….
He was not that man anymore.
There was somewhere here who needed him, who needed him to be that man, to be the Reigen Arataka that existed in his mind….and he could be that man. He would be that man. He would be that man and he would…he would help him out. He owed this man his life after all. He had come so close to dying so many times…and would have if not for this man….
"I-I just want….I want to make this right, I guess. I just want…I've been hurting people for so long. I don't want to ever hurt someone again. I want to help them but…but I don't know how to help anyone….being who I am. With my powers being what they are." Said Serizawa. He was getting a little worked up but…but nowhere near an explosion. Not yet, anyway, but another explosion would build and build until it came…and it would come…it always came….
He was too dangerous to be around people.
His powers were too dangerous. He was….everyone was better off when he was gone, when he was away from them. He wanted to make things right but…but with his powers there was no way that he could do anything other than hurt people. Maybe that was all he was good for….
"You know something? If you really want to help people then I know just how you can do it." Said Reigen. It was a split second decision born of his own guilt and also….also the fact that he had this need to be…himself. The version of himself that he wanted to be. It was also a very selfish decision, too, if he were to look at it more deeply. Maybe he just knew that this man was someone important to Mob and he wanted to make Mob happy…or something like that. Or maybe he just had a pathological need to save people.
Either way this looked like it was shaping up to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
