Amazingly enough Mob didn't want a party this year.

Shibata…thought that he was handling it well. Part of him wanted to cry, the kids were growing up and that was always sad, and another part of him wanted to throw the party anyway and just call it something else. Like when they'd all thrown Mob that pink party, they had all agreed to refer to it as such, even though looking back it had been a VERY bad idea. Throwing Mob a surprise birthday wouldn't have been nearly as bad as throwing her a pink party…but she had said that she didn't want one.

She was nearly a teenager now and Shibata knew how they could be.

"Sunrise, sunset…sunrise, sunset…" Shibata sang softly as he packed his suitcase. Mob didn't want any kind of a party, she had been very clear, not even pancakes or anything. Just a day to relax. Her birthday had also matched up with some big industrial espionage war thing, Shibata didn't ask questions, that had taken President Suzuki away from them. He'd take Fukuda and Hatori with him, so it wouldn't have been much of a party anyway. Not without Hatori. This did free the rest of them up to get some travel out of the way.

Some overdue visits.

"Is this the little boy I carried?" sang Tsuchiya as she folded some clothes. This was…in a way good. President Suzuki was going to be gone for a little while. Long enough to leave Hongkong but not for so long that it made sense to move everyone. She finally had time to visit…a lot of people she should have visited a while ago. The Seventh Division was livable again and all of the Scars had been called back to their posts.

All of the Scars but her.

"Who?" asked Shibata, looking up from his work. He needed a bigger suitcase…or smaller clothes. May in Seasoning City meant dressing for all weather. He had no idea what they would be doing there, exactly, this wasn't a work thing. No, Tsuchiya just wanted to visit her other friends….other friends. That was a foreign concept here. For years now…five years now, his entire social circle had been this group of people….it would have been nice to branch out…

Equal parts nice and terrifying.

"It's from Fiddler. I mean you were singing it so I thought I'd join in." said Tsuchiya with a shrug. She didn't know why they were singing showtunes but she was happy to join in. Finally, a song she knew. Her two semesters of film history had come in handy…and her parents had told her not to waste her time in university. That it wasn't a playground, that she had to study something useful, that she had to come back with something that could help the temple. They'd had her whole life planned out for her, including her job. Well the joke was on them, she had a job….well she'd had a job. Now…well she had a new, less fulfilling, job now. She was part of President Suzuki's personal entourage. Instead of training new Awakened soldiers she instead mostly did nothing, occasionally homeschooled his kids, and chased after Mukai. Very rarely, so rarely she could count eat time it had happened on one hand and still would have had fingers to spare, President Suzuki had her tag along on missions with Hiroshi and the others. Those times were rare and those missions….she didn't like to think about those missions…but at least they got her out of the house. At the Seventh Division, back when she had just been a Scar, she'd had plenty to do. Enough that she even complained sometimes. Mukai had been a baby then, too, and she had been a fulltime job in and of herself. She was older now and there was less to do. Fewer naps, no more diaper changes, no more getting up in the middle of the night to make a bottle. Nothing. Just…well she still required care, of course, but now she had more help…some of it unwanted.

She should have been grateful….or at least less ungrateful.

"Is it? I had no idea what that was from. It just sort of came to mind…I mean with everything that's going on." Said Shibata

"Mukai has been getting better with her chopsticks." Said Tsuchiya. She hadn't taught Mukai that, no, her brother had. Sho mostly ate with his hands. She hadn't known, actually, that he knew how to use chopsticks. That wasn't fair to him. He really was a good kid. He had taken the initiative to get his sister some kid's chopsticks and teach her…well of course he had. He loved her.

It was impossible not to love Mukai.

Everyone loved Mukai. They had loved her at the Seventh Division and they loved her here, too. Shimazaki had especially surprised her. He was a lot of things, she suspected many of them were exaggerated, and one of them was a surprisingly good caretaker. Sure he let her eat nothing by junk but he wore her out, too, and he read to her and played with her and just took very good care of her. Better than her own father, anyway. President Suzuki…Tsuchiya was glad that President Suzuki wasn't around right now. He brought out the worst in Mukai…and she was normally such a sweet kid.

Maybe a change of venue would be good for her…for all of them.

"Oh no, I meant with Mob. How she doesn't want a party this year…she used to love parties." Said Shibata

"She's been having a hard time lately." Said Tsuchiya with a sigh. That was an understatement. She had no idea what had happened. Shigeko hadn't opened up and she didn't seem to like being questioned about this. Tsuchiya didn't need a play by play, of course, she could see the blackeye on her face. President Suzuki…he worried her…but there was nothing she could do.

"You know what happened?" asked Shibata

"No, I just saw the aftermath…I can't believe that President Suzuki would hit her like that." Said Tsuchiya

"I could. My Dad was like that…until I got bigger than him. President Suzuki is…he's not the nicest person and Hatori said something about him having a hard childhood. I mean growing up after the war must have been hard for him." said Shibata. That was the best excuse he could think of. Wartime was hard on people. It must have been so hard for President Suzuki growing up during all of that…and Hatori had told him before that President Suzuki's own father had been hard on him growing up.

"What war?" asked Tsuchiya. She had taken a lot of history back in university but she couldn't think of…he'd turned forty -six back in March, Mukai had been sure to inform them all, and that put his birthday back in 1973….but those had been good times. It would have been easier to excuse it all away….but things were never easy.

"The Pacific War." Said Shibata…and then he thought about the words that came out of his mouth…..

"Hiroshi…he's only forty six…right?" asked Tsuchiya

"Oh…oh! I'm sorry, I'm not really big on history. My mental timeline is a mess." Said Shibata with a laugh and a wave of his hand.

"It's alright, I won't tell anyone." Said Tsuchiya, returning his smile.

"I guess growing up was still hard for him though. I mean it was hard times….right?" asked Shibata

"No, second baby boom people were actually pretty lucky. We still had an economy back then, for one thing. I don't think that there's an excuse for it, not really. My parents spanked me, sometimes slapped me, and occasionally made me kneel on rice but that's it. I never got a blackeye, not outside of sparring." Said Tsuchiya

"Well President Suzuki…he has his own way of doing things. I don't agree with it either but there's nothing that I can do. The only thing we can do, I guess, is try and make things better for the kids…as good as we can make them." Said Shibata

"I don't….I don't know." Said Tsuchiya. She really didn't. There wasn't any right answer. She couldn't change President Suzuki's mind. She knew how she would have reacted if someone questioned her parenting…and President Suzuki didn't have anywhere near her level of restraint when it came to his anger….and the kids didn't want to listen to her anyway. Sho…well he had been a ghost lately….and Shigeko…if she hadn't listened at the age of twelve then, of course, she wouldn't be doing any more listening at thirteen.

"I know that you don't like a lot of what happens but-" said Shibata

"But I know that there's nothing that we can do. I know and…and I hate it. Just…I've never felt more powerless in my life than I have since coming here." Said Tsuchiya

"…I get it." Said Shibata. He had never felt more powerless in his life than when he'd first met President Suzuki. He had always been the biggest and strongest person in the room. Even as a baby the doctor had thought he was triplets until he came out. Growing up he'd always had this feeling that he was…well invincible. He was not proud of the person he'd been back then, not at all. If he hadn't been humbled as a child he might have even been grateful for the beatdown President Suzuki had given him.

"I just…I don't know what I'm supposed to do sometimes. I mean I thought I could make things better but…but it's hard. It's like every time we make progress, every time we take a step forward, President Suzuki comes in and we take two steps back." Said Tsuchiya

"I know." Said Shibata. He had given up long ago. President Suzuki was…well he was an asshole. To everyone. Even his own kids. It was like he didn't even know how lucky he was. He had three great kids that he had no interest in being a real father to. Shibata…if he had been more powerful he would have done something…but he was finally done growing and he had no chance of taking President Suzuki. Nobody did.

"And it's like….sometimes I look at the kids, who they are now, and I look at Mukai and then I think that…well I see her future and I don't like it." Said Tsuchiya. She sat down on the bed and sighed. It dipped, a lot, Hiroshi was sitting next to her. A suitcase fell to the ground…she would deal with it later. She would deal with everything later. Mukai running up and down the hallway, the mess, travel arrangements…she would deal with it all later. She was the only one actually trying to deal with this…with everything.

"Mukai isn't going to have the same kind of…problems….as the kids. They don't have a mother, Mukai does." Said Shibata. Moms were important like that. Kids were always just closer with their moms, he knew he had been. The kids…he wasn't happy about the course their lives had taken but he was making the best out of a bad situation. There wasn't anything else that they could do.

"But she still has a father…if you can even call him that." Said Tsuchiya with a scoff. Hiroshi was a better father to Mukai than he was, and she had only been seeing him for a few weeks. She didn't even know what President Suzuki was doing here. He had been little more than a sperm donor for two years and now he wanted to be a father? Or a pet owner…really all he did was feed her and play with her.

"She looks just like him." said Shibata. He smiled…but that wasn't really needed or wanted right now. Tsuchiya wasn't one of the kids. She wouldn't just smile back and get happy again. This was…there were some things that smiles couldn't fix, or even the right snack…or anything else he had in his bag of tricks.

"I know….but that doesn't make him a father. You're more of a father to her than he's ever been." Said Tsuchiya

"I…I try…" said Shibata

"Oh….oh! Not that…I don't want to rush….I didn't mean to….you're good with her, that's what I meant. You've always been really good with her and…and the other kids, too. You try, you know? At least you try and….yeah." said Tsuchiya

"I'm honored that you think of my like that and…and you're not rushing me into anything. I'm happy with what we have." Said Shibata

"Do you ever think of having…more?" asked Tsuchiya. She thought about it. That was why she had left home in the first place. She had left home because she had wanted something more out of life than the cloistered world of the temple. She knew that some people, most of Claw, had it worse growing up. Hell if she wanted to talk about cloistered upbringings Takeuichi won that contest hands down…she had no right to complain…so she needed to stop. She wanted something more than this, living from day to day and moving from place to place without anything close to a life…but there wasn't anything she could possibly do about that.

"More?" asked Shibata, his voice coming out higher than it had in the past twenty years. More…what did she mean by that? Was she about to…well women could propose. They could propose marriage or…or whatever she wanted. It wasn't like Shibata hadn't thought about it before, imagined it, a life with a wife and kids…with Tsuchiya….

"More than this place. I used to think…I know Scars barely rank but I loved my job. I loved my life…my apartment….it felt like I was doing something that mattered. I mean I know that President Suzuki's plan is insane but…part of me thinks that he'll make it and…and life would be better for some ways if he does what he's promised…I don't know. I just think about it sometimes, my old life, or just…a life away from here. Just….sometimes it feels like I'm stuck in one endless today. Nothing I do has any bearing on the future, yesterday was just like the day before, and…and sometimes I just feel so numb to it all. I just feel like…like I want something else. Like I just want to run away…but I'll never defect…I mean I've thought about….doing something stupid but there's no way I'd put Mukai in that kind of danger.." Said Tsuchiya. The only way to leave Claw was in a body bad. Nobody defected. Even talking about it was dangerous. Mukai was screaming at something, Shimazaki had his record player going as loud as it could, and if she really focused she could have heard Serizawa's game going….what was she even thinking? President Suzuki was miles and miles away…

She couldn't help but worry.

She had seen the future. She had seen what Mukai would become without her around. She loved Shigeko and Sho, she really did, but she didn't want that for Mukai. Sho was always so angry, when he was around, and Shigeko….at some point she had leaned to drown her sorrows and she hadn't stopped. If you drank or, well, anything to escape your problems then you weren't doing anything other than creating a bigger problem to deal with down the line…but of course Shigeko wasn't going to listen. Mukai was three and she already didn't listen….without Tsuchiya there to protect her as best as she could Mukai…nothing good was in her future….

Even with Tsuchiya around the future, Mukai's future, would be….not the best.

"Defecting!?" gasped Shibata. He looked around…it was way too loud in here for anyone to hear anything…and anyway President Suzuki was gone. He was gone and nobody was going to snitch on him…well he worried about Hatori sometimes but he was gone too….he calmed down. He could see, there, how his shirt had strained….well now he had two problems to deal with, didn't he?

"No, not defect. I just mean…do you think about a better life? Ever? Like in Claw, I mean." Said Tsuchiya. There were other places they could work, other divisions and HQs, other…they could make lives, maybe a life together…somewhere else. This was as high as you could go in Claw…it was lonely…..

"I've thought about it too…not being a Scar but just a life….a family, a little house, a job. Just…being comfortable….but it'll be alright. We're going to visit the Seventh Division and…and I guess it's better than nothing." Said Shibata. That was the best that he could give her…and it had been his idea. He had always been strong, good for supporting people…and he could support her. He could support her as best as he could…which was just…this.

"I guess….I guess, yeah, it's better than nothing…excuse me. I have to save Mukai from whatever she's screaming at." Said Tsuchiya. She got up quickly. They hadn't once fought but…but now she could feel it, her qi pooling. She wasn't angry with him. She wasn't angry at all. She just…she needed some space from him and from everyone and…and Mukai needed her. She was the most important person here, she was her child, and…and she needed her mother.

"She's probably just looking for that hamster…I'll just…get back to this then." Said Shibata. Right. She had to take care of Mukai and he…he had to take care of this. He got up and got back to packing. He was going to make the best of this. Even someone like him could feel powerless….anyone could, when there was nothing that you could do…nothing that you could do besides make the best of a bad situation. He had been doing that his whole life. The kids were growing up and dealing with heavy things…and so was his girlfriend…but he could make the best of it….the new situation.

A party would really have helped to lift everyone's spirits…but Mob hadn't wanted one…so he was, for once, at a loss…..