The low rise of the morning lights is somber with a heavy attitude. It's quiet on the top floor executive suite. The city below lays barely awake against the plush red carpet. His recently polished shoes stand before the boding double doors. They sway open as he steps inside.

Mori is, almost unexpectedly, sitting at the end of the long dining table. Elise is sat in front of him. Chuuya bows to both of them. "Boss."

"Ah, Chuuya, yes. How kind of you to visit me. Are you at all curious why I summoned you here so early?" The man clasps his hands together and rests his head on them. Once a fraction of a second passes, he continues. "I need you and your friend to keep an eye on that pesky group of… teenagers that's running around. We do not need to press right now, but they are causing troubles for some of our trading partners. Understood?"

"Yes, Boss," he bows, then exits the room.

Once out, he takes his phone and lets out an annoyed sigh. Great, now he has to call –

"Aw, Chu Chu, fancy seeing you here. Do you like being up here cause it makes you feel tall?"

And speaking of. He turns around with a well-worn glare on his face. "Don't call me that. I am an executive, your superior, remember?"

"Aww, you don't like it when I call you that?" She pats him on the head. He growls and slaps her hand away. "Ouch," she feigns. "If you're going to physical you should at least ask me to dinner first."

Chuuya sighs and simply starts to walk away. "I don't know why Boss insists on partnering me up with you." He turns back once they're halfway down the hallway. "We have an assignment. Boss wants us to watch the group of teens –"

"Ugh, more babysitting."

"– to keep an eye on our business interests," he finishes in a sterner tone. He takes out his phone and presses the button for the elevator. It's going to take a while for them to get the proper setup.

"You know, there's this restaurant that opened up. They sell burgers," Moxie says as they get in the elevator.

Burgers? Chuuya gives her a side eye. "We're on assignment."

"They open at 12:00," Moxie says, now on her phone too.

The executive rolls his eyes. With any luck he'll be reassigned.

The highway is, as usual, full of traffic. This is accounted for, obviously. Not by her, but by the texts that told her exactly what minute to leave and what minute she would get there. She signals for the exit a minute before the sanctioned arrival time.

"Mommy, why's the sky blue?" the three year old asks from the backseat of the car.

"Because the gas in the atmosphere causes light to scatter, and blue light scatters the most cause it's shorter," Rei answers as she looks around for the right terminal.

"Why's it shorter?" he asks again.

"Because of the way we perceive things. Light comes in these tiny little things called wavelengths, and we interpret the shortest ones as violet and blue."

"Why do we pervees things?"

"Huh?" Rei asks as she finally sees an open space. "Why do – Well, I don't think it's a choice. There's probably an evolutionary component…" she trails off as she spots a vibrant head of violet hair. "Suzume!" She waves her hands, catching her sister's attention.

Suzume waves back and heads over as Rei opens the back of her car. Exactly on time, of course. Suzume is always exactly on time. The older sister walks with her arms wide open. Rei smiles and opens hers too. "Suzu –"

"Yuta!" Her sister forgoes their hug and immediately dives into the back to her kid.

"Sumee!" Yuta jumps up in his car seat, excited to see his favorite (only) aunt.

Well, there's that. Rei puts down her arms. "Hey Rei," Suzume smiles casually as she finally gets up from the back seat.

"Hey Suzume," Rei smiles back and the two finally hug. She helps put her sister's stuff in the back with Yuta, then they head off down the road.

"So, how's it been? Pretty crazy?" the older sister asks once they're on the highway.

Rei doesn't speak for a moment, letting the singing cartoon vegetables do the talking for her. "What do you think?" she laughs. "How have things on your side been?"

"Oh, you know, the same old. We did another merger. I got another promotion. I thought it'd be nice to travel more, but it's always for work. On the bright side, I might be able to retire by the time I'm thirty."

"Thirty?!" Rei exclaims as they come to a light. That's awfully young considering her sister's almost twenty-eight now. "What do you plan to do?"

Suzume shrugs. "Maybe I'll do what you do: chase people around and yell at them."

Rei rolls her eyes. "Haha, you're very funny. You know what you could do? Work a few extra years, then give that money to your incredibly loyal little sister who's always been there for you."

Suzume smirks. "I'll consider it." She looks out at the Yokohama landscape. She's always loved the nostalgia that comes with visiting home. "How are things at the old folks home? Anything I need to know about?"

"Umm, I don't think so? You talk to them more than I do."

"I live across the world. You live in the same city."

"As far as I know, everything's the same as always. Mom talks about work. Dad talks about work."

Now Suzume rolls her eyes. "That's because you talk about work." She sighs and looks ahead on the road again. "I can't believe you probably have more sex than me."

"Mommy what's ses?"

Rei slowly turns her head to her sister. "Really?" Suzume makes an "oops" face and faces the other direction. Of course that's the part he heard.

"Mommy was ses?" Yuta asks again.

Rei sighs. This is going to be a long drive.

And a long drive it was. Partly because of the conversation, and partly because of the physical duration of the drive. They get there eventually though, and they all hop out and head to the park.

It's a lovely day out as the weather is finally getting warm. Kids, teens, and adults all run around; the first buds sprout on the trees. On the first bench off the trail are their parents along with Takuto. "Hey guys," the man gets up and waves them over. "Did you have a good car ride?" Rei nods as they hug and Suzume hugs their parents. Then they switch and all hug Yuta.

"Mommy taughted me about sex!" the toddler proudly proclaims once he's free.

The three adults all stare at Rei. "She started it!" the woman points a finger at her sister.

Suzume looks around, feigning innocence.

"Mommy says it's… is… inner – inner…" he trails off with a pout, unable to remember the word.

"Shhh," Rei bends down and puts a finger to his mouth. "These are quiet words, remember. We don't say these words in public." Yuta lowers his head and nods. She rubs his cheek and gets up. "Well, why don't we get going then."

It's dark and dingy in the backway alley. A small girl with short, curly blonde hair sits with her knees to her chest on top of a rusted trash can. She picks at her arms as her legs shake against the metal.

"Stop that," the boy standing next to the trash can demands. He puts down his mirror to glare at her. His long brown hair rests neatly at his waist, one of his eyes partly covered by his bangs. The rattling sound of the metal is too loud; someone's going to hear them.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. This is all my fault." The girl draws her legs in closer and picks at her arms faster. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," the boy sitting next to her soothes. He puts an arm around her and pulls her in. He's dressed in a normal t-shirt and jeans, the only one who is. Pose is dressed like the pretentious prick he is: fancy shirt, jacket, dry cleaned pants. Scabs is wearing her usual brown potato sack. And Bubbles is of course dressed like a mama's boy.

Speaking of Bubbles, Square turns to the boy sitting on the ground beside them. He's diligent as ever, doing his usual doodles on his arm. No one dares try to stop him. He gets so jittery when he's not drawing on himself.

"I'm bored," Pose complains. "We should go somewhere, fuck some shit up."

"But Morg told us to stay here," Square says confused.

"Why do we have to do what Morg says?" The younger boy huffs and flicks his long hair behind himself.

Square shakes his head. He knows what this is about. "Come on, just give it a rest, would you?"

"I hate taking orders," Pose states the obvious. "What are they doing anyway? Why do we have to wait?"

"Morg, Toe, and Locks are getting more money for us. They'll be done soon, then we can have some fun."

Bubbles stops drawing and tenses up. Scabs starts picking her arms faster. "What is it?" Pose asks.

"Someone's here," the boy says. "No, they're not. Someone –" He holds his head and tries to concentrate harder. "Forewarn." The signals pulse faster. "They're listening, but they're not close."

Pose and Square look at each other and nod. They're being spied on. "Come on, Scabs, Bubbles." Pose gestures to them and they get up and leave.

Chuuya puts a hand up to his ear piece. Dammit. That's fine. It's not like they would've gotten much more anyway.

Moxie takes her piece out with one hand and picks up her burger with the other. "So, do we follow them?" She takes a bite of her burger and sets the equipment down on the bar countertop.

"Unnecessary, we got what we needed," he says while in deep thought over something. This should be an interesting report to give to Mori.

"What do we do now?" she asks while stuffing her face.

"See what happens," he answers offhandedly, still mulling it over.

"You gonna eat that?"

He comes out of his trance once he sees a hand reaching over toward his plate. Chuuya smacks her hand away. "You're the one who didn't order any fries."

"That's because I didn't want them then."

He turns, looks directly at her, grabs a handful of fries, and eats them in one bite. She narrows her eyes, then cranes her neck to look over his shoulder. "Hey, isn't that that brunette guy?"

Chuuya whips his head around as if he were Akutagawa. There's nobody there. He turns back, already missed, and sees that a fry is missing. He traces an eye to the culprit who's smiling with satisfaction. "Oh, chill out. I'll buy you a hat later."

The beautiful midafternoon sails by as they wind down. From tag to catch to hide and seek. It's one thing you learn very quickly about three year olds: they never run out of energy. So now they're taking turns on kid duty, with Rei favoring to sit out.

Suzume and Takuto sit by the playground and talk about current events. Tetsuhisa tries his best to keep up with the kids, though it's mainly them running around him in circles. And Rei and her mom walk along the outside area.

"It was absolutely lovely. I went a few years ago and have wanted to go back since. Maybe I'll even try to get your father to come along," Natsumi reminisces about her recent trip to Korea. She and a couple other artists recently had a show there. "So, anything new with you?"

"No, not really," Rei says as they turn the corner.

"Are you sure?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're always so… quiet about things. I just want to make sure everything's okay." Her mom reaches a hand out.

"Yeah, everything's good." Rei looks out to where Takuto and Suzume are sitting. He looks so… happy. It makes her feel an inevitable knot in her stomach. The way he and her sister laugh as her dad struggles to keep up with the children. "How do you know when a secret's bad?"

Natsumi follows her daughter's gaze to their family playing in the park. "When it hurts someone." Takuto covers his laughter with a hand as he jogs over to help his boss. The older woman smiles. She knows Tetsuhisa holds him in high regard, and that's saying a lot considering he usually goes through right hands like an anime villain. She herself has grown quite fond of him, Yuta loves him, and even Suzume is on board. "He's a great guy."

"I know," Rei says back. She doesn't even have to think about it. "Why can the right thing be difficult? Shouldn't it be easy? If the right thing is the right thing, why isn't it the automatic choice?"

Natsumi cackles so loud it scares her daughter and causes everyone near to look at them. "Because we're people and we make it difficult." She moves a hand over her mouth to regain her poise. "The right decisions are often the hardest to make. And that's because a good person will know the difference between what we want to do and what we need to do." They continue to walk for a bit then make their way to where the others are. "I'm guessing you're not going to tell me what's going on."

"It's nothing," Rei says offhandedly.

The older woman shares an "I knew it" smile. "Well, I know better than to pry with you." She puts a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I'm sorry I worry so much."

Rei shakes her head. "Thank you. I'd rather have parents who care than those who don't." The women hug then head back to their family.

Once they get there, Takuto and the police chief are talking while Suzume plays hand games with Yuta. The kid jumps into his mom's arms.

Bzzz. Bzzz.

Beep. Beep.

Ring. Ring.

The sounds of three phones go off at once. A couple grunts, nods, and yesses later, they put their phones away. "It's the highway robbers," Chief Hayashi explains. "Kosaka, you coming?"

"I'll go with Rei," Takuto answers. He knows that the chief will go to the station first anyway. Chief Hayashi nods and bids them farewell.

Rei hands Yuta to her mom. "We'll get him after." She bends so that she's eye level with him. "Stay with grandma and auntie. We'll be back." She waves at him. He waves back with his tiny hand. Sometimes it's so hard to go. She looks at Takuto and nods, then they head out.

Backroads and shortcuts are a necessity at this time of day. Rei follows the guide as best as she can. At least now they'll finally have the highway trio. They're a group of three men who have been doing grand theft auto for the past month. She heads down one of the smaller roads, when something catches her eye.

She pulls over and stops the car. "What is it?" Takuto asks.

Rei peers down the alley. "I saw something down there. Something I usually wouldn't."

"Are you going to check it out?"

"Do you think I should?"

"I think you're going to."

She smirks. He knows her well. They got out of the car and run down the alley. At the end there are a few buildings, all of which look to be old storage facilities. Rei points to the one in the middle and she and Takuto sneak to either side of it. He barges in the door with his gun out.

Three teenage girls turn around, all with varying levels of excitement on their faces. The one with brackish hair and icy eyes is the most excited. She jumps up in her poofy skirt so that her hard dress shoes smack when they hit the ground. The one with dark brown hair and gray eyes seems rather indifferent to the whole thing. She's dressed like a skater and has a hand on her hip. The third one is in all black with shorts and a tank top. She looks pissed that they were interrupted.

Rei studies them intensely. She's seen them before. The officer and the agent switch their attention to the bags in their hands. They're looting. Rei steps forward.

"Pickpocket." It's from the one in the girly skirt. Their phones fly from their pockets straight to her hands. They begin to move in.

"Refrigerate." And that's the one in all black.

Rei puts a hand out, not letting it go the same way as last time. She can still feel the cold beating against her skin. She fights the instinct to cover her arms and puts a second hand up, redirecting the blast.

"Rei, over here." She turns her head to the right where Takuto is pointing at some old pipes near the wall. She redirects the frigid frost and soon after the pipes start to crack. Water leaks out as Rei bounces the last of the blast to the ceiling. "Liquid Ooze."

Takuto dissolves so now there's only four of them. The three girls look around. He reappears next to Toe and grabs their phones from her hands. She takes a swipe at him but he liquidizes again.

"Shadow Tag." One of the girls, the skater one, turns her focus to Rei. She disappears and the agent has her eyes fully on the ground.

Rei twists her torso as she watches her shadow rise from the floor. Sifts lands a punch square in her jaw. Payback for last time. The agent falters back. Sifts moves in again. But this time Rei's ready and puts a field up. The girl grits her teeth and scrunches her face, but it's not going through.

As Rei reflects her hit back, she feels her wallet leave her pocket. It lands in Toe's hand that catch it with gleeful victory. Takuto cuts in and snatches it from her. He puts it in his pocket, then a deadly winter hits him. Riffs puts her powers on full force. His cells delineate every task to keeping himself warm. The hairs on his skin start glaciating.

Huh-uh? The girl looks at her hands. Why isn't it working anymore? She turns her head to see a tall man with brown-red eyes staring at her. He has a smirk on his face and a finger on top of her head.

Sifts gets up from her fall and disappears into the ground again. Takuto rubs his arms to warm himself. His eyes narrow in on the movements of Dazai's shadow. He liquidizes and reappears behind the man, just in time to save him from Sifts' attack.

Toe readies to use her ability again. Items jump out from Takuto and Dazai's pockets. Rei interjects herself between the girl and oncoming valuables. She uses her own ability to propel them back to their owners.

The battlefield lays now in three stalemates. A hawk comes in and lets out a long SQUAAWWKKKKKKKK. The three girls immediately stop what they were doing and look at the animal. Rei looks at it too: heterochromatic.

The bird lands on the ground. In a flash it changes to a girl. Then just as fast turns into a rhino. The other girls quickly jump onto the rhino's back, then they all bulldoze out of there.

The agent puts a field up to save them from the rubble. She dispels it then turns to the two men. "We need to build a case." They agree.

"Thanks," Takuto turns to Dazai. "Where did you come from anyway?"

Dazai thinks about it, then just puts his hands behind his head and shrugs as an answer. Apparently that qualifies as an answer.

"Well," Rei starts after a solid minute of awkward silence. "I should go get Yuta."

"Alright." Both men say at once.

Rei looks at Takuto who looks at Dazai who looks at Rei. Well, isn't this nice. "Dazai, you should go," Rei says before it gets weird.

It's quiet as the three of them stare at each other. Then Dazai starts laughing and laughing. The echoes shake and rattle the old, weakened walls. "Oh, how silly of me." He swats his hand and laughs some more. "Goodbye best friend!" He smiles and waves at Takuto. "Goodbye Rei." He says without any fanfare.

"What was that about?" Takuto asks once he's left.

"I don't know," Rei answers genuinely. That was weird even for him. Both their phones go off and they turn to each other with knowing eyes. Rei reads the text from Kunikida as Takuto reads the nearly identical one from her father. "At least they caught the highway trio."

They share a laugh of their own and head out of the storage facility together.

Hey, I'm back from the dead.

Sorry if anything's weird I honestly haven't written for this in a while and so my understanding of the characters and story has obviously slipped. If you have any pointers to tell me (esp with the characters) I'm open.

Also thank you to the 4-5 of you who said something during this time off. It was some nice motivation to continue again.