This was not how Minegishi saw their day going.
They angled their book downwards to catch the last of the daylight. There was lighting on the train, of course, but natural light was better. Warmer. They had planned on using all the natural light from the day to get caught up on their reading…but of course they never got what they wanted now did they? Mob…they cared about Mob. She was their best friend, they had the bracelet to prove it, and also she was twelve. She made stupid impulsive decisions…like going all on her own to see the boy she liked even though it was a phenomenally bad idea. She didn't know that this was a bad idea, obviously, and that was where Minegishi came in. They loved Mob, Mob loved her, and this was what you did when you loved someone.
You saved them from themselves.
"The things I do for love." Muttered Minegishi as they turned the page of their book. They could have been home right now…but Mob needed them and they needed Mob…well they cared about her. They took care of her as best as they could. They had never wanted a kid, they had never asked for a kid, but they had a kid. They had Mob and, yes, they loved her….but she put them through a lot.
A hell of a lot.
"What?" asked Fukuda as he looked up from his phone. He had tried Sho again just in case he had gotten home. Nothing. He was either still in Seasoning City or he was screening Fukuda…really he would have believed other. He had to get to Sho before Suzuki realized that he was gone. Not that he gave a damn about Sho…he just didn't like to be defied. Sho didn't need to be punished, he didn't need that in his life, and Fukuda would do whatever he could to keep all of that out of Sho's life.
Including sharing a train cabin with one of the people he liked least in the entirety of Claw.
"Nothing." Said Minegishi. They gripped their book a little tighter. The things they did for love….like share a cabin. They had paid extra for a private cabin…and so had he, apparently they just gave these out to everyone. Mob owed them big time for this. Mob owed them big time for a lot….so this was just another drop in the bucket.
The things you did when you loved someone.
"Do you have to sit here?" asked Minegishi. They could still feel Fukuda's eyes on them. What? Was he so captivated by their beauty that he couldn't look away?
"Believe me, if I could move I would. I don't like this any more than you do." Said Fukuda. He'd paid for a private cabin and this was the only one available. He would rather have ridden with them than next to a stranger….though what he wanted, what he would have preferred, was to be alone. He needed to think, to center himself, to get in the right frame of mind to talk Sho out of whatever he had gotten himself into. He had gone to see his boyfriend, Fukuda figured, since he had been talking about it for so long….and if this had been any other boy that Sho had been in love with then Fukuda would have left well enough alone…
But this…well this wasn't the kind of thing he could leave alone.
"Good. I'm glad we can agree on something." Said Minegishi as they reread the same sentence for what felt like the fifteenth time. This man…Ryou was easy to sit with. Even now with things how they were between the two of them Minegishi still would have preferred his company to Fukuda's. Or even Hatori's or Shibata's…or even Serizawa's. God, could this trip be any longer? They didn't know how they were going to survive…maybe if this hadn't been in the winter. That was it…and maybe if they'd had time to mentally prepare….whatever, it was what it was.
"Yeah, we agree…on a few things. So I assume you're going to deal with Shigeko and you'll leave Sho to me?" asked Fukuda
"You want Sho you can have him. Just leave Mob alone." Said Minegishi
"For the love of God, will you people stop already?" asked Fukuda
"Nope." Said Minegishi
"I don't look at her and I have no idea why you people think I do." Said Fukuda
"Well maybe because you just insisted that you don't look at her." said Minegishi
"You're the ones who keep on insisting that I am! And she-" said Fukuda
"Mob doesn't like you for a good reason. You make her uncomfortable. Maybe if you knew how to keep your comments to yourself then she wouldn't feel the way she does." Said Minegishi
"Are you seriously still angry about that? That was years ago-" said Fukuda
"I wasn't aware that there was a statute of limitations on making unwarranted comments about people's bodies." Said Minegishi
"I said that to Sho in private, I never thought that he'd repeat it in front of everyone and I only said that because I had to comfort him after he heard you and Shimazaki carrying on. If you two knew the meaning of the word discretion-" said Fukuda
"I'm not going to live my life walking on eggshells. Sho needs to learn to stop going where he isn't wanted and he needs to learn how to mind his own business. What Ryou and I do is our business, not his, and certainly not yours." Said Minegishi
"Then don't make it other people's business. I don't care how you and Shimazaki live your lives, just keep Sho out of it. It's cruel to treat him like that, like his feelings don't matter. He's had feelings for Shimazaki for years and I know you know-" said Fukuda
"Sho can feel however he wants. Ryou doesn't owe him anything. These things have to go both ways, you know, or maybe you don't. I don't know what goes on in your head and I don't want to." Said Minegishi
"I never said that Shimazaki owed him anything….and I don't want him to. I don't care what he gets up to with Shigeko-" said Fukuda
"Keep pushing me. See what happens." Said Minegishi. They reached into their pocket and held a handful of seeds between their fingers. This man…what happened in his mind?! What…what did he think he was even…well Ryou hadn't exactly made things easy on himself. Not a sex thing. That was what he expected people to believe….well Minegishi did but they knew him. He was emotionally…pear shaped. They fully believed that he had a crush on Mob but that was because he had no idea how to have positive feelings for someone who wasn't his kid or his lover.
Fukuda didn't have to go and voice his feelings on the subject, though, as warranted as they were.
"Excuse me?" asked Fukuda. He could see their hand and their aura. They were NOT threatening him. No. There was no way in hell that they thought that they were going to intimidate him.
"Suzuki isn't here to protect you. You have a degree of immunity when he's around but he's not…so watch it. Don't sit there and run your mouth about Mob and Ryou. You want to know why she feels uncomfortable around you? This is why she feels uncomfortable around you." Said Minegishi
"That is completely-" said Fukuda
"Be quiet. I'm done talking to you now." Said Minegishi as they got back to their book. They spent the rest of the train ride in silence. Fukuda didn't attempt to break that silence again. He didn't have anything to say, hopefully, or better yet he had enough sense to keep his thoughts to himself for once. Suzuki wasn't there to protect him and, yes, Minegishi did have enough sense to fear Suzuki…which was the only reason that Fukuda was still alive right now. They weren't entirely sure how to kill a man who had, apparently, lived through the epicenter of Suzuki's explosions. Minegishi didn't know if a handful of seeds and dirt was enough to kill him.
But they could do some damage.
They knew that, if they did anything to Fukuda, Suzuki would come after them. They couldn't take him, they knew that there wasn't any sense in trying, so…so they let Fukuda live. For now. If he said something to Mob again or something about her…well then they didn't know what they were going to do but they knew they were going to do something….something awful….something that he deserved.
Thoughts of violence and vengeance carried them all the way from Tokyo to Seasoning City. Not a bad trip at all.
This was the worst trip ever.
Really. Mob hated this trip. She hated how cold it was and how gross she felt and…and how she was all alone. Selfish. This was all her fault for being selfish. She should have just made Sho come back home with her or followed him to the Castle or…or something other than what she'd done! She didn't know why she had done it, why she had been so selfish. She knew better. She knew better than to try and get what she wanted. What she wanted didn't matter, taking care of her little brother mattered, and she'd been doing such a terrible job of it today…
But she could make it right.
She knew where the Castle was. Far. Very far. It was in Sendai and she was further south even than Tokyo. It would take two and a half hours on a train to get there….well to Sendai. Then she would have to walk…in the cold. She remembered what December had been like in the Castle. Cold. Snowy, even, sometimes. She didn't have the right shoes on for snow…and she didn't have the right clothes on for the cold. She was wearing a dress and knee socks, she should have been wearing tights. She should have been wearing tights or leggings or maybe even pants…she hated pants…but she loved Sho…and here she was being selfish again! She was sitting there thinking about the cold when she should have been thinking about the fact that her little brother was all alone in the world without her to protect him. Anything could have happened to him up there. She knew that he was little, if he had been Mukai's age then he would have been in real danger, but he was little compared to Mob. It was that part of the year when they were the same age again…but she had still been born first and she should have been looking after him instead of…of….of….
The 103 towards Morioka would be arriving in fifteen minutes.
That wasn't fast enough. If she had just gone after Sho then she could have been there by now. But no, she had been too busy kissing Teru and…and that other thing. That other thing that she knew she would never be doing ever again. That thing…that thing that was supposed to be the best thing ever…but it wasn't. It just left her feeling slimy inside and out. Her feelings were slimy and her body was slimy…she crossed her legs. It was worse than anything she had ever felt before, and she counted all those times her period came without warning her. This was worse because it wasn't from her…and it wasn't blood. It slime and…and it was there to remind her that she'd made the biggest mistake ever…
How was she supposed to go home like this?
She wasn't, she had to but…but she couldn't. She didn't know how she could go home and sleep in her bed like nothing had happened. She had gotten up that morning thinking that it was going to be a normal day but then all of this happened and now…now she'd done the thing…all the things. She'd done all the things and…and if she went home then everyone would be able to tell. She knew the expression 'written all over your face'. She had never been able to see what was written all over people's faces, it was a feelings thing not an actual with writing thing, but other people could…and then they'd know…
And then Fukuda would have been right.
He had always accused her of doing things like this, with Shimazaki for some reason, but it wouldn't be any different to him if he knew that she had done this with Teru and not Shimazaki. Not that she was going to tell him, no, nobody could know about this. She knew that they would be able to tell, though, that she'd done this. That she taken off her clothes and…she didn't want to think about it. Her heart hurt when she thought about it. When she thought about how much she'd loved him…still loved him? She wasn't even sure. He had yelled at her…and she had yelled right back…she shouldn't have yelled. Maybe he would have wanted to join Claw if she hadn't yelled at him…
That would have been perfect.
They could have lived in a house just the two of them….and dad, but maybe he could have lived in his room like Serizawa used to or something…and Sho too, of course. She couldn't have a house without Sho in it. She and Sho would share a room and she and Teru…well he'd share a room with them too…and also maybe Mukai, too, if Tsuchiya let her…and then Minegishi would live with her too of course and if Minegishi lived with her then Shimazaki would have come too…and maybe he would have fallen out of love with her if she had another boyfriend. Yes, that would have made sense. Then things would have been back to normal between them. The others could have lived with them too…well in that case it would have needed to be a very big house…but that was ok, this was just her dream. Reality was different. In reality Teru had said no…and also that Claw was an evil place and that dad was an evil person…and then he'd asked her to leave…told her to leave…he kicked her out and it shouldn't have been…why did it hurt? She had wanted to leave so why did it hurt that he made her leave?
Mom would have known.
Mob got the feeling that mom would have known. She'd done things like this before. That was how Mob and Sho had gotten here. It was kind of gross thinking about her parents doing things like that, kind of really gross, and asking about it would have been even grosser…but mom would have known about this stuff. She would have been able to tell Mob why she hadn't liked it. She would have been able to tell her why she felt so weird during and after. She would have been able to tell Mob if she had been in love with Teru or not. She would have been able to tell Mob if this made her and Teru…anything. Boyfriend and girlfriend, friends with benefits, whatever else there was that came before being married. Mom would have known about this stuff but….but mom wasn't around. She wasn't around and she hadn't even bothered to warn Mob about her period coming let alone all of this.
Mom was kind of a b-word….
Mob took it back…but then she un-took it back…but then she retook it back. Mom was mom and….and she had left. She had left Mob all alone but…but she was still her mom. This was why people had moms…to tell them about things like this. The closest thing that she had to a mom, well another parent, was Minegishi. Minegishi probably knew a lot about this. They had done this a bunch of times with a bunch of different people. Mom had only done this with dad so she might not have even known how to help Mob. Minegishi….they knew about this and…and Mob could tell them. They weren't like Fukuda. They weren't going to be all 'I told you so' and they weren't like the others either. She didn't want the others to know. They wouldn't have made fun of her…but they were boys. She didn't want any boys to know about this. It was bad enough that they knew she got her period sometimes…and that they'd thrown her a party…that had been kind of weird. It hadn't been a period party, it had been an international friendship day party, but it had still been weird…
She didn't want a party for this.
She didn't want anyone to look at her or talk to her or even think about her let alone throw her a party. This was private…and this wasn't the kind of thing you threw a party over anyway! She wished…she wished that she could have just gone to one of the Christmas parties she had told everyone to throw…that would have been fun…she was being selfish again. She had to get her little brother back. She had to bring Sho home from the Castle and then she had to go home and take a bath and change her clothes…and avoid everyone for the rest of her life. They would all be able to tell…and Fukuda would say something….he might have even said something to dad!
If dad found out then Mob knew she would die…right there on the spot.
Her spirit would climb out of her body and fly away. Dad couldn't know. Nobody could know. Dad was the worst person that could have known. He would have been mad at her and nothing good ever came from making dad mad. Dad wasn't mom, he was a boy, and even if he hadn't been a jerk when he got mad she still wouldn't have told him. This was too private for him or anyone else to know about. Anyone but Minegishi….Mob wanted Minegishi. She wanted them to come and…and take her somewhere or…or sit with her. She was all alone on the platform bench. Some people looked at her while they walked past, she didn't know what the looks they were giving her meant but she knew that she didn't like it, and she didn't even want anyone to sit with her…she just wished that she wasn't so alone and-
-and wishes sometimes did come true.
She felt Minegishi before she saw them. She had been keeping her aura tucked in close around her like a blanket. Her passive range wasn't very good when she was like this but she hadn't minded. The only espers around besides Claw members would have been strangers and she didn't want to talk to strangers. She wanted to talk to Minegishi…and here they were. They were walking, more like running, right towards her…or away from someone…
Oh. Oh no.
"Oh no." said Minegishi as they came to a stop right in the middle of traffic. Someone knocked into them but they didn't even bother to glare. It would have been pointless, for one thing, and for another…for another Mob was sitting right in front of her.
And she looked like…
Her hair was a mess. Her dress was wrinkled and askew. Her coat was opened and Minegishi could see, even from this distance, a smattering of bright purple hickeys right at the collar of her dress. That wasn't the worst of it. She had a look on her face…one that Minegishi recognized. This was…Minegishi heard a train coming in. They briefly entertained thoughts of jumping in front of it but thought against it. Without them who would take care of Mob? Who would help her deal with the aftermath of what she had so clearly done? Who would save her from any and all future stupidity?
Certainly not the idiot following them
"Oh, good, there she is." Said Fukuda as he caught up to Minegishi. He knew what he'd said, that he would find Sho and Minegishi would find Shigeko, but Shigeko was already here at the train station…without Sho. So either she'd abandoned him in the city or he'd gone off on his own. Either way he needed to talk to her, at least to find out where Sho had gone off to. He would have, too, despite how little he wanted to speak to her…if Minegishi hadn't thrown their arm right out in front of him.
"Don't say a word." Said Minegishi as they stopped Fukuda in his tracks. The train had pulled into the station now. People were filing on from the platform…if only he'd been able to walk faster. Then they could have tested the limits of his healing abilities and saved Mob the heartache of having to deal with him. He was going to have a field day with this, they could tell. He had been going off about Mob for years now….and this was just pouring fire into a pool of gasoline….
Either he held his tongue or they were going to remove it.
"I just need to ask her where Sho is. Move." Said Fukuda as he tried to push past them. They stood right in front of him. A passing couple gave them a look and muttered something that he couldn't hear. They were out in public and Minegishi was going to act like this.
"Turn around and walk away. Mob doesn't need this from you." Said Minegishi. Mob had made eye and aura contact now….she looked so…ok. They clutched the charm at the end of their bracelet between their fingers. This was…something that they were going to have to deal with. They were going to have to deal with this in a calm way, like a mature adult….
No shaming. No yelling. No pushing people in front of the moving trains.
"I just need to know where Sho is. I'm just going to ask her and then you and her can do…whatever it is that you do." Said Fukuda. He could see from here the hickeys that climbed up and down her neck. Not his problem. What was he supposed to do? Go up to the second most powerful esper in the world and tell her to stop acting like this with men? Or at least to cover up? Yeah, that would go over REALLY well. He couldn't even get Suzuki to listen to him anymore and she was like if someone had cloned Suzuki but made him a hundred percent more socially competent.
Masami would have pushed him in front of a moving train for even thinking this but…but Shigeko was beyond his help. Sho wasn't.
"Then wait here and I'll ask her. We both know that she doesn't want to talk to you." Said Minegishi. He made a noise like he was about to say something, probably something stupid, they didn't care. They walked, practically jogged, over to where Mob was sitting. They wanted to stand over her and ask her exactly what she thought she was doing. If she knew how worried they had been. If she had at least had the sense to take some basic precautions….
Precautions that Minegishi hadn't taught her about.
They had been so close, so very close, to the family planning aisle that day…the day that they'd made their first stop in the feminine hygiene aisle. Aisle 8a, feminine hygiene. Aisle 8b, family planning, otherwise known as 'that aisle that Minegishi had assumed that Mob had been too young to know about even though experience told them otherwise', or whatever would have fit on the sign. They had thought that there would have been more time…
But Mob did seem to be determined to make all of their mistakes.
They didn't stand over Mob and demand, for everyone and their mother to hear, what she thought that she had been doing. No, they sat right next to her and said nothing. They didn't have to say anything, they didn't even have the chance, since Mob…Mob pulled them into a hug. She didn't say anything either. She just pulled them into the most bone crushing hug she had ever given.
Which was more than Minegishi had ever gotten…back when they'd been twelve.
You little whore. A slap to the face. A shove to the ground. That was what they had gotten. Mom and dad…classic mom and dad. Minegishi had been weaker then, much weaker than they were now, and they had just taken it. They had been her, their, parents…back when they had been a she and she had been small and weak and looking for love in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways. They had left her behind years ago. If anyone tried that shit now then they would have done things that would have gotten them an immediate lethal injection or however they executed people in Japan these days. Nobody would have dared say or do that to them now…and if anyone tried that with Mob then Minegishi would have no choice but to see how cleanly a train could bisect a human being.
They had never even imagined that they would have wanted to see that but now….well this was different.
"You're going to be ok." Said Minegishi. That was what they had wanted to hear more than anything when they had been her age. When their heart had been ripped out of their chest for the first time. When they had realized how cruel the world could be….a lesson that they had needed…but a lesson that Mob didn't need. The world was cruel and vicious. The world took anything good and right and destroyed it. The world….Mob didn't need to know about the world. Mob needed to be saved from it…but Minegishi had no idea how! If they couldn't even save Mob from this heartache…and it was heartache that had been written all over their face. The heartache that only came when you had someone inside of you and then they wanted nothing more to do with you. The heartache that came when you realized that the only person you had to blame was yourself. The heartache that came with realizing how stupid you were. The heartache that came with realizing how truly alone in the world you were.
Mob wasn't alone.
"Minegishi…I did something…." Said Mob as she held Minegishi as tight as she could. She had held Minegishi before but this was different. This time she held onto them like they were made of smoke, like they would just disappear out into the atmosphere. She didn't want that. She wanted them right by their side. She had wished for them. She had wished for them and now they were here…she was glad that she hadn't wasted her wish on mom.
"I know….and it's going to be ok." Said Minegishi. They pulled Mob as close as they could. She smelled like sex…she needed a bath…and a lesson in how to clean up. She was…she was going to do this, to keep on doing this. Telling a teenager not to have sex, or a near teenager in Mob's case, was like telling the sun not to rise. You were just wasting precious oxygen. Mob was going to do this, there was no going back, so the least that Minegishi could do was impart their years of wisdom…but Mob was also only twelve but Minegishi had been her age when they had first…what were they even supposed to…
Parenting was hard. Murder was easy…and it looked like they were going to have to get some murdering done before they tried their hand at the whole 'parenting' thing.
"You know something, Minegishi, you can't tell me what to-" said Fukuda. He couldn't believe he had actually listened to them. They were…intimidating…but not here. Not out in the world. There was one cardinal rule in Claw, one which even Suzuki himself followed, and that was no using your powers in public. No making a scene. No giving the world incontrovertible proof that espers existed before Suzuki decided to make his grand entrance or debut or whatever. Minegishi may have been a powerful esper in Claw…but out here they were just another person, another face in the crowd…
And Fukuda didn't have to do a damn thing they said.
"I thought I told you to-" said Minegishi as Mob buried her face in their coat.
"I didn't do anything!" said Mob as she hid in Minegishi's coat. Mukai used to do this when she was a baby. She thought that if other people couldn't see her then she turned invisible. Mob didn't know how to turn invisible so this was the next best thing. He was there….WHY was he there?! Why did he have to be there and why did he have to-to-to talk to her and…and look at her and…and…and….
Why was he STILL there?!
"I don't care what you did. I just need to know where Sho is." Said Fukuda
"He's…he went back to the Castle…go away!" said Mob
"The…the Castle?" asked Fukuda. That was….not good. That was pretty much the place to go when you wanted to be alone….but Sho….nothing good happened when Sho was all alone….and anyway that house was a shrine. Aside from his own sabbaticals up there Suzuki kept that place as a shrine to the life he had….the life he'd wasted. Fukuda didn't know why….it wasn't like he gave a damn about Masami. Sho though….he had every reason to miss that life….something must have gone wrong. Fukuda hoped, feared, that Sho had broken up with his boyfriend….that must have been it. He couldn't think of anything else that could have sent Sho running all the way back to the Castle, all the way up to Sendai. Oh Sho….being broken up with…and then his sister coming here to sleep with some boy…
This was not going to be fun…but it was something that Fukuda was going to have to do.
"Yes. The Castle. Either the house Mob and Sho grew up in or our dear leader owns actual castles. Either way now you know so you can, you know, get the fuck out of here." Said Minegishi as they patted Mob on the back. Her aura…it was painful getting this close to her. The lights flickered….the screen with the arrival and departure times went to pixels….this was not the place for Mob to freak out. That is unless Fukuda wanted to deal with the aftermath of Mob destroying a train station. He might have actually been crazy enough to want that…or stupid enough….
"Well did he say anything else? How was he feeling? How did he look? How did he-" said Fukuda
"Stop talking and leave me alone." Said Mob, her voice muffled by Minegishi's coat. Why was he still THERE!? Why was he still TALKING?! She didn't….she didn't want him there! She didn't want him anywhere! She just wanted…she just wanted to be left alone!
"You heard her. Now go away or I'll scream." Said Minegishi. There were cameras and people everywhere. Suzuki didn't want the cat out of the bag just yet…and though train murder did look like the best course of action, it wasn't. Too much attention and too much effort. Minegishi knew how they looked right now. Lavender floral coat, matching hat, and a floral messenger bag. Men's pants and boots, of course, but nobody was looking that closely. They were only glancing over quick enough to give them and Mob concerned looks. The old 'blink twice if you need help' look.
In Claw Minegishi was 'they' and 'they' were a powerful, and rightly feared, esper. Here Minegishi looked like 'she', they didn't feel like correcting the whole world right now, and 'she' had a scared twelve year old girl clinging to her and telling a very large man to leave her alone.
"Fine, scream, I don't care. I just need to know how Sho was doing. How upset he was…what even happened." Said Fukuda. Fine. They could scream as loud as they wanted. This wasn't Claw. They weren't Minegishi the powerful and dangerous esper here. No, now they just looked like some guy in a ridiculous coat with a twelve year old girl clinging to him. Fine. They could scream as much as they wanted to. All that would do was serve to get them both escorted out by security.
"Nothing happened….now go away…please…" said Mob. She didn't want to scream….she didn't want everyone in this whole train station to stare at her. If she screamed then they would stare and if they stared then they would know…and she didn't WANT them to know. Minegishi and Fukuda had known just by looking at her….and that meant that other people would be able to tell too…just by looking….but Fukuda…he was still there!
He wasn't going anywhere.
He had always accused her of having sex. Now she had. Now he was right. Now if he accused her of having sex then he would have been telling the truth…and he would have known…and if he thought about her having sex then he would have been right too. He must have thought about it a lot since he had always accused her of it. She didn't care if he was finally right or not, she didn't want him to KNOW! But he was still there and he was still looking at her and-and-and-and he was still talking to her and-and-and-and-
-and why couldn't he just go away!?
"Miss Suzuki I just-" said Fukuda
"Fine. You want me to scream then I'll-" said Minegishi. He'd given them no choice. Mob didn't want to talk to him. That was obvious…but he was STILL pushing her! Wasn't he used to Suzuki? Hadn't he learned in the fifty years or whatever that they'd been together NOT to poke the unstable time bomb?! Well Minegishi wasn't going to let-
"Go away! Go away! GO AWAY! Don't look at me! Don't look at me! Don't talk to me! Just go away!" screamed Mob. She screamed as loud as she could….she just…she wanted him gone! She took her face out of Minegishi's coat and screamed….and as soon as she was done she wanted to turn invisible…so she hid her face right back in Minegishi's coat.
Everyone was looking. Everyone knew.
"I…" said Fukuda. He…had not been expecting that. The ground had shaken, of course, with Shigeko's outburst. That was to be expected. What was not to be expected was how she had just….she never shouted at him…not like that…never like that….
"Get away from me!" screamed Mob. That time her voice was muffled by Minegishi's coat…but she knew that she had been loud enough for him to hear. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die. He knew…everyone knew….everyone was looking and everyone knew…
"You heard her. Go. You got what you needed, now go." said Minegishi. They made a mental note to get her a strawberry milk. She was finally sticking up for herself. Good. At least they had some kind of a positive effect on her.
"I know I need to go to Sendai, I need to know-" said Fukuda. He needed to know what he was getting into…and he had no idea why Shigeko was acting like this. She was acting like she was…scared…of him. Part of him ached at that, of course, the part of her that still saw her as the child she used to be. The one who used to run to the door to greet him….who begged him to play with her for just a little while longer…the rest of him didn't ache. The rest of him was just confused. What was she so afraid of? She could have crushed him like an ant and she knew it. She wasn't a child anymore. She had made that abundantly clear…so what was this all about?
Why did he feel so…guilty?
"Hey, you there! What do you think you're doing?" shouted the ticket officer as he marched up to the disturbance happening on the platform.
"Well look at this." said Minegishi as they smirked at Fukuda. They felt zero sympathy for him, he'd gotten himself into this mess.
"Me?" asked Fukuda
"Yes you? What do you think you're doing?" asked the ticket officer
"Nothing." Said Fukuda
"This man bothering you and your daughter, ma'am?" asked the ticket officer as he turned to the lady in the funny coat and her scared little girl…aw, poor little thing….
"Ma'am?" asked Fukuda. That guy must have been blind. Even dressed from head to toe in flowers there wasn't an ounce of femininity in Minegishi. If anything they were just a short, skinny, oddly dressed guy with a twelve year old girl clinging to him. One that looked and smelled like she'd been going all day…he could smell her from here…
It made him sick.
"Yes, actually." Said Minegishi
"I-I-Minegishi! What the hell?!" asked Fukuda
"Do you know this man?" asked the ticket officer
"Never seen him before in my life." Said Minegishi simply. They held Mob close. She had been about to turn around and ruin it, they knew her, honest to a fault…but this was neither the time nor the place for honesty.
"But-but-but-" said Fukuda as he was led away. That…that….that bastard! That bitch! That, to borrow a word from Sho, bitch bastard! How could they-they-fuck!
"Fuck you!" shouted Fukuda, making sure that Minegishi could hear him loud and clear.
"In your dreams." Muttered Minegishi as they let go of Mob. They reached up and wipe the tears from her eyes before they could fall. She'd amassed quite the collection of tears at the corners of her eyes but this was not the time to let them fall.
"…I was mean…." Muttered Mob. She didn't like Fukuda but she hadn't meant to get him in trouble…and she hadn't meant to lie, either. She just…she just needed….she didn't know what she needed. She knew what she wanted…she wanted to disappear. She wanted to turn invisible. She wanted to fly away. But she didn't, she was there….with Minegishi…who knew.
"He deserved it, Mob, and he knows it. Now come on." Said Minegishi as they got up. They pulled Mob to her feet, too, when she didn't follow them.
"Wh-where are we going?" asked Mob as Minegishi pulled her to her feet. They walked her away from the bench…but the train was coming. The next one to Sendai was coming in less than five minutes. It was a long trip to Sendai….to the Castle. An hour and a half…and then there was the walking. She had to get to Sho. She had to help him. She had…she had to bring him home…to get him from….from the Castle. The Castle was not home….not anymore…and not just because mom had left. They had all left.
It couldn't be Castle Suzuki without the Suzuki family…so it had stopped being Castle Suzuki a while ago.
"The train store. You need a strawberry milk." Said Minegishi as they took Mob by the hand. The arrival and departure board. The next train to Tokyo was coming in….they'd get the one after the next one. Mob needed a strawberry milk and a change of clothes, too. Deodorant, perfume, baby wipes…they'd have to tell Mob about the baby wipes….they'd have to tell Mob about a lot of things…and they would. After they got some strawberry milk in her…and a drink in them.
This was going to be one hell of a day…they looked up through the skylight….one hell of a night.