It was amazing how colorful the night could be.

Shigeko….Mob hadn't ever noticed it before, how many colors there were, even in the dark. There was the dark blue of the sky, the stars that twinkled in it, the dark green of the forest, the dark grey of the clouds in the sky. They were all dark colors but colors just the same. She hadn't ever noticed them before, she had taken them for granted, but she was never going to do that again.

She was never taking anything in her life for granted ever again.

Not the sky, not the ground, not the trees, not the grass, and certainly not the colors. Not the colors of the world or the colors of the people around her. Right now it was just purple. Serizawa's colors…his aura. He was purple. She was pink and blue. She had missed her aura so much. It was a part of her. Dad had told her, back when she had been little, that her aura was the part of her that was too big to fit inside of her body. Her metaphysical self. Her soul.

It had been gone but now it was back.

She closed her eyes and watched it. The sky had been in front of her eyes, it was just about the only thing that she could see while Serizawa carried her. He had insisted. They were friends, he had said, and that was what friends did. They were there for each other. He had been there for her. Even after she had forgotten him he had still been there. He could have left, he should have left, but he hadn't. He had stayed there and pulled her out of…of…of the other world.

This was the only world.

Even when she closed her eyes she could tell that it was still there. The air smelled good, like nature, and there was even a wet sort of chill in the air. It was going to rain. It rained sometimes in April, not nearly as much as during the summer but it did rain sometimes. Not like in the other world. In the other world it never rained. There was never any weather. Every day was exactly like the one before it. It had been one long today…one long today that she hadn't been able to get out of. Like being stuck inside of Shio's hamster cage, running on the wheel, going and going and going but never actually making any progress…

She wasn't a hamster.

She opened her eyes and rested her head into Serizawa's chest. He was so warm. He smelled nice, too. There hadn't been smells in the other world, just this sort of dusty-ish smell. Sort of like the treasure room back in the castle…though the castle hadn't even smelled like the castle. She didn't know what she was supposed to call it. There were stairs and the rooms were wrong…the order and the colors and the furniture and…and all of it…it was just so…

"Weird." Muttered Mob. Serizawa gasped and stopped. They were on the side of the road, now, just standing there. Part of her was afraid. She was worried that she would end up pulled back into the other world, that she would wake up in her bed in her room with the woman who was and was not her Mom and she would have to face up to the things she did to Minori…to the horrible person that she was. The things that she had done. She was so desperate for anyone to love her that she did things that she knew were wrong. She just wanted people to be near her even if they were using her, and of course they were, she was the most powerful esper in the world next to Dad and-

"Sorry!" said Serizawa, nearly dropping her. This was weird, wasn't it? He looked down at her. She still had that dark look on her face, like she was halfway between mad and sad. He had to have done something. He had saved her, it was just the two of them now, and…and there was nothing else that could have happened. No one else that could have upset her.

Everything was his fault in the end, wasn't it?

"What do you have to be sorry about? You didn't do anything wrong, you never do anything wrong." muttered Mob

"Whatever I did to make you upset." Said Serizawa

"You didn't do anything, Serizawa, so you have nothing to apologize for." Said Mob

"I just…feel like I do. Do you want me to stop carrying you? Is this weird?" asked Serizawa. This felt kind of weird. There were a lot of rules when it came to girls, he had seen enough TV and played enough games to know that there were a lot of rules. Not that Miss Suzuki was one of those tsundere girl characters. She wasn't going to call him a moron and hit him or anything, but maybe she wanted to on the inside. Or maybe she didn't. Maybe she wasn't like that. He didn't know what went on in her head.

It must have been a confusing place, if his own mind was anything to go off of.

"Only if you want to put me down. I don't think that this is weird. I feel nice, actually. Safe. This just feels…safe." Said Mob

"Then I won't. I was just worried about you." said Serizawa

"You don't have to. I'm fine. I mean I'm not, I'm terrible, but I'm fine." Said Mob

"Please stop calling yourself names, Miss Suzuki. That's not true, you're the best person I've ever met in my life." said Serizawa

"You haven't met many people." Said Mob before she could think.

"That's true. I really only know…you, your brother, your sister, Hatori, Minegishi, Shimazaki, Shibata, Tsuchiya, Fukuda…oh! And the President. That's ten people. That's more people than I knew for years." Said Serizawa

"I know, I shouldn't have said that. I was mean. I don't think sometimes. I'm so dumb. I can be such an…such an idiot sometimes…all of the times." Said Mob

"Miss Suzuki I'm sorry to have made you feel like this but please, please stop saying things like that about yourself." Said Serizawa

"Please stop apologizing." Said Mob

"I'll stop apologizing when you stop being mean to yourself." Said Serizawa. He wished that he had felt as brave as he'd tried to sound. He knew that he had no right to be making demands of her but he just wanted this to stop. It hurt when someone you loved, when your best friend, when the person who had saved you said terrible things about herself. Lies. He had never been a fan of lying, not unless it was to himself.

"That seems fair." Said Mob. She shouldn't have been putting him through this, not when he had already been through so much else in his life. She shouldn't have made his life worse, especially when he had said that he loved her…and especially when she had said that she loved him back. When you loved someone you made their life better, not worse.

And he had done nothing but make her life better.

"But I am sorry for…for making you feel that way. You love me and I love you, I shouldn't make your life worse." Said Mob

"You're my best friend, I love you, I can't think of a single way you've made my life worse." Said Serizawa

"We're walking around in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere and it's all my fault. Everyone told me not to try and stop the spirit but I did and I got up all wrapped up in this and I got myself…I got hurt." Said Mob

"But you were doing it to save your friend, Miss Suzuki. It's alright, I think, to disobey people if it's to save someone." Said Serizawa

"She's not my friend, not anymore, and not…not for a while. She doesn't like me, she never did." Said Mob

"I remember her being very good friends with you. We all went to see that play for you and she was there. I think that you wouldn't go to an entirely separate country to see a play if you didn't like someone at least a little." Said Serizawa

"I guess she might have liked me a little but…but maybe she was just planning on using me. Because of my powers. That's the only reason I even have any friends, you know, because I have powers." Said Mob

"That's why I met you, yes, but I would still have been your friend if you were just like everyone else. I mean we probably wouldn't have met but if we had then I still would have been your friend." Said Serizawa

"You…wouldn't have felt any differently about me if I were just like everyone else?" asked Mob

"No. Why would I?" asked Serizawa

"I…I don't know what I'm even talking about. Sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it feels like I'm going crazy. It feels like it's two things at once sometimes, and I don't know what to do…." Said Mob

"Keep walking?" asked Serizawa. He knew that it was a dumb thing to say, he knew that it had been dumb the minute he'd said it. Just keep walking…well what else were they supposed to do? Stand in the middle of the road until a car hit them? Not that he ever would have let anything happen to her, of course, but how was she supposed to know that? Some friend he was turning out to be. He wished that he'd been someone else, like Minegishi, they were her best friend and they were really smart. They would have known what to say to make her feel better, to even get her to smile, instead of making her look at him for the longest time…he didn't know if that was a good look or a bad look…

She would tell him. She always told him.

"Keep walking….yes. That's a good idea. We'll must keep walking. Thank you." said Mob after a moment. It made sense. They had to just keep walking, keep moving forward. Things had happened, bad things, but also they hadn't. It had been the world but worse, and colorless, and small. Nothing like the world that they were living in now….she looked up. The world was big and colorful, even in the dark, and all she could do was keep on walking through it.

So that was what she did.

She didn't need to be carried anymore. She was a little hurt, mostly from falling on the ground and laying there awkwardly for so long, but her legs still worked. She had just liked being carried because she had liked being close to him. It was nice being able to be close to someone, someone real, not someone who had been created from her memories. The more she thought about it the grosser it felt. That hadn't been the real Teru, the real Teru was kind of a jerk…he had kicked her out right afterwards and all but told her that he never wanted to see her again because she wouldn't give up Claw for him. Also it hadn't felt nearly as good with him.

Not very good at all.

It hadn't lasted long, it hadn't felt good, and it had left her feeling all slimy and sad afterwards. In real life. In the world in her head it had been a lot better, like she had been with someone else, and…and she kind of had. That was the gross part. It had felt like all the times she had been with Shimazaki. During, not the weird guilty and kind of gross feelings she'd had afterwards. It had felt good from start to finish and then start again and finish again…and that was gross. That thing had gone through her memories and made it feel like it had been happening again. It had almost been like she had actually been…been with that horrible spirit thing…

So gross.

It felt gross on a level that she had never felt before. Like it was grossness under her skin. She needed a bath, a long one, and then to never think about it again. She had been trying to bury those memories, of how it had been with Shimazaki, because that part was over now…it had been the only part she had liked…and she wasn't supposed to think about that! About how good it had felt because he had not been her boyfriend and it had been as wrong in real life as it had been in her dream and-and-and-

-and she didn't want to think about this.

But she was. Not only was she thinking about this but she was going to have to face her friends, too, with all of this in her head. Thoughts about what she had done, and what she had done again, and other thoughts that the spirit had put in her head too. She would never have had her friends if she hadn't had her powers so did that mean that they were just her friends because of her powers? Who was she without them? She hadn't had them in the world the spirit had made and she had been pretty much nothing without Minori. So did that mean that she was nothing out here? She felt like nothing…she felt…she felt…

She felt Serizawa's aura against hers.

She let her aura meet his. She didn't feel like nothing when she was with him. She felt like something, someone, when she was near him. Because he loved her. Someone loved her, someone who could love her. That was what she wanted most in the world, she had learned about herself. She wanted someone to love her and want to be with her. Someone who would never leave her. Someone who was allowed to love her and someone who she was allowed to love.

She loved him.

He was kind of a fixer upper but she did love him, she decided. He could be a little…excitable…sometimes but that was alright. He didn't always smell the best or dress the best either but that was alright. He talked about videogames a lot but she could learn to like them. She loved him and he loved her…and it was a good feeling. A feeling that could almost chase away everything that the spirit had made her feel, that the spirit had put inside of her mind and her heart…she leaned closer to him. She let their auras meet and mix. Purple was absorbed into pink and blue, no, not absorbed because she wasn't taking any more of his power…he wasn't giving her any more of his power. That was what had saved her…he had given his own aura up to save her. He let their colors mix, like tie dye. He let his mix with hers…this was perfect. She could feel everything, she could feel him and…and…something else.

She reached out.

"Miss Suzuki, what are you doing?" asked Serizawa as he felt her pulling him into her…no, against her. She had pulled his aura into hers back when she had been passed out. It had felt better than this, more…separate, somehow. This felt kind of like she was touching him and he was touching her, the closest thing that he could think of was when Fukuda's cat rubbed up against him when it wanted to be petted. It was alright for cats, of course, because you were supposed to pet cats.

It was weird for people, though.

He wanted to pull away from her. This felt weird and usually when things felt weird it meant that he was doing something wrong. She was not a cat and he was not supposed to be petting her like one. Not literally and not whatever this was. He wanted to pull away, even, but he stopped himself. If this was something wrong then Miss Suzuki wouldn't have done it in the first place. It wasn't like she was trying to hurt him, no, Miss Suzuki loved him, she was his best friend and best friends didn't hurt one another. So as weird as this was he didn't pull away.

But he did hold onto the hope that she would pull away on her own.

"I feel something." said Mob as she stopped walking in the middle of the road. She knew that this was dangerous but…but she felt something, someone. Someone was coming. There was a car and…and auras she knew! She could see the colors if she focused and…and she knew those colors. She didn't think. She just stopped right there and reached out with her powers. She picked up the car, held it in the air, and pulled it until it was right in front of her. Serizawa gasped and covered his head. He was fine, though, they were both fine…they were better than fine!

They were all together again. They would never be anything other than fine ever again.

"Sho!" shouted Mob as she flipped the car over and put it back down on the ground. She could hear Hatori screaming in the driver's seat…huh. She hadn't known that Hatori knew how to drive. What else didn't she know about him? About all of her friends? She had forgotten all of them, they had just been dolls in her dollhouse, and that was just because she treated people like dolls. She collected them. That was something she could do because of her powers and-

It was almost like she could hear it's voice.

She focused on the sound of Hatori screaming, the creaking of the car as she it settled, the sound of the doors opening, and even Sho cursing. There was a shift in the energy around her and then suddenly-oh. She dove deeper into Serizawa's aura. She felt Shimazaki before she saw him, not that she was looking at him, she was trying not to. If she looked at him then she would end up thinking about him and if she thought about him then…well then things could get weird. The car door was opening, Sho was coming out.

Sho!

"Little Brother!" shouted Mob as she ran to him. She didn't stop even as she stumbled, she just grabbed him with her powers and pulled him into a hug. He was real! He was real and he was there and he was warm and he smelled like hamsters!

"You're ok?!" said Sho. Maybe he had whined a little, just a little. He had been prepared for the fight of his life after all and her just being alright…well, that was kind of like when you got to the end of a really good movie and it all turned out to be just a dream. Not that he had wanted anything bad to happen to her or anything, he had just…he had just wanted to save her…

If he couldn't save her then how was he supposed to save the world?

"You're ok! You're ok!" said Mob as she held him as tightly as she could. He was ok! He was alright and…and she didn't know what she had been expecting but he was ok! She squeezed him. He was there. He was real. He was ok.

"Yeah, I'm ok…everyone's ok." Said Sho as he let himself be squeezed. He looked around. Everyone looked as confused as he was. Shimazaki was holding his arms out like he wanted a hug too. Minegishi rolled their eyes and slapped his arms. Hatori was on the ground outside the car crying. Serizawa looked like he was going to cry.

So yeah, a normal night for them.

"I'm not. Where's my warm welcome?" asked Shimazaki

"Nobody's been maimed. Be grateful." Said Minegishi. This was anticlimactic. That was the best that they could have hoped for. They looked Serizawa and Mob over. Some scrapes and bruises but everyone was alright. Physically, at least. Mob's aura was being strange. Hell, she was acting strange. She could be clingy sometimes but not like this, and not towards Sho.

She was alive. That was the best thing that they could have hoped for.

"No! I'm not ok and I am NEVER driving again! Someone else can drive! I don't care who! I'm not…I'm done! I'm fucking done!" shouted Hatori as he laid down on his side and drew his knees up to his chest. He wasn't fine. He was never going to be fine. He had seen death and it had been waiting for him! He felt the asphalt of the road digging into the side of his face. He didn't care. Mob was alive, Serizawa was alive, and he had almost killed all of them.

He'd had enough!

"I call driver!" said Shimazaki, raising his arm. Toshi slapped it down again.

"I'll drive. Let's just get out of here." Said Minegishi

"But how did you guys get here in the first place? I mean what are you doing here….but in a nice way! Not a mean way or-" said Serizawa

"We came here to save you, you saved yourselves. Since Mob clearly beat that spirit we can all safely get back in the car and go home." Said Minegishi. Mob let go of her brother and ran over to them. They let themselves get hugged. They didn't trust themselves to hug her back. If they hugged her they were liable to either never let her go or slap her over the head until they broke their hand. How could she have been so stupid?! What had she been thinking?! What was the matter with her?! What was-

Mob held them closer. The put an arm around her, but just one. That was all they trusted themselves to do.

"Minegishi…oh Minegishi, I missed you so much. I'll never forget you again, I promise." Said Mob as she held Minegishi close. They were there! They weren't a doll, they were a person, and they were right there! She pressed her face into their stomach. They smelled like dirty and smoking. She never wanted to let them go!

"Good. So, we're in agreement? You'll never, ever, do something as stupid as go after the thing that I specifically told you not to go after again? Alright?" asked Minegishi as Mob wiped her eyes onto their coat. They patted her on the back. It must have been one hell of a fight if it was affecting her like this. They almost felt for her…almost. There was no reason for her to go after that thing. They didn't have a lot of sympathy for her right now, some, but not a lot.

Enough to hold her but not enough to forgive her.

"I'll never do it again! I mean it's still out there but-" said Mob

"We'll go after it! I bet that if we combined our powers, now that we have Big Sis and Serizawa, we could-hey!" said Sho as his world went black. He felt someone pulling his coat up over his head…Shimazaki. He had teleported over specifically to fuck with him! What?! How could he not see how serious this was? Sho could take this thing. If Sho could stop it then Sho could stop Dad and….and Sho could win. Sho knew what he was doing.

Sho was going to save the fucking world and nothing was going to stand in his fucking way.

"We're getting back in the car and going home. Alright? He doesn't speak for us. Mob's the highest ranking Claw member here and she speaks for us so…I don't know, speak for us?" asked Shimazaki. He felt her looking away from him. She had her face buried in Toshi's jacket. He ran a hand through his hair. Had he done something to her? Lately.

"Um…uh….who's car is that, anyway?" asked Mob. Shimazaki was talking to her, that meant that she had to make words back, but every time she thought about him she remembered what had happened with Teru and how it had been just like with him. The more she thought about it the more it felt like she was going to say something about it and if she said something about it then it would have been real…and also all of her friends and her little brother would have had details about that part of her life and she knew that if they knew she would just end up dying of embarrassment right there on the spot…and with her luck her spirit would linger so she'd be eternally tormented.

"No idea." Said Shimazaki

"It's best that you don't ask these questions, Mob." Said Minegishi

"I could probably look and see-" said Hatori as he pulled himself together. That was what Suzuki would have wanted. He didn't need one of his kids laying on the ground and crying…even though they had come so close to a horrible, fiery death…

"It doesn't matter, they're probably asleep anyway. What are you going to do? Call them up and say 'sorry we stole your fancy car' or something?" asked Sho. Big Sis gasped.

"You stole this car from someone?" gasped Mob. Her little brother was stealing…this was what happened when she left him alone. Well, never again. From now on she was going to always be with him no matter what.

"It was just sitting in a parking lot, don't make a big deal out of it." Said Sho

"We need to give it back right now!" said Mob

"Then how the hell are we supposed to get home? It's late, I don't even think that the trains are running anymore and I know that we can't walk all the way back to Tokyo. We'd die of exhaustion or exposure or we'd end up so hungry we'd go looking for food in the woods and probably eat the wrong plants and die." Said Sho

"You know I can make food, right?" asked Minegishi

"I can, too, if I have to." Said Mob. This felt familiar…oh! They had talked about this before. She and Minegishi would make food so nobody would end up eating each other…wait? Was that part of the real world? Her head hurt…

"We still have snacks. I mean they're older than Mukai but I don't think that you can get food poising from chips and soda." Said Hatori

"And if we do it'll hit you first since you ate the most." Said Shimazaki

"Ok, ok, fine. We have food but still. It's still a lot of walking to get home." Said Sho

"I don't know if I can walk that far. I mean me and Miss Suzuki already did a lot of walking and it's late and cold and I'm tired…but if that's what Miss Suzuki wants then I'll try!" said Serizawa

"Mob's not going to send up on a death march home, are you Mob?" asked Shimazaki. Again, she was making a point of not looking at him. Alright, he must have fucked up again at some point along the way with her. He loved her but he did not love this. Why couldn't she just come out with it? Whatever the hell was bothering her?

"Not…not a death march…um…alright. If it's too late to take the train then we can sleep in the woods or find an inn or something." said Mob, looking around. Right, she was in charge. It was…weird. Being in charge. She almost expected Mom to yell at her, but of course that wasn't going to happen. There wasn't anyone to tell her that she wasn't the one in charge. There wasn't anyone who wanted to. She didn't have a Mom or even a Dad really….she was the one in charge. Everyone depended on her.

She had to take care of everyone, not just herself.

"I vote woods, it's nostalgic." Said Shimazaki. Normally she would have jumped in and told him not to talk like that…but she didn't. She was still trying not to look at him. This was weird. If there was a time for things to be awkward it should have been long passed. He hated it when things were awkward, awkwardness was so boring, and Mob was many things but being boring wasn't on that list.

"I vote inn!" shouted Hatori. He looked around…good. At least one thing was going right for him. The last thing he wanted to be was spend the night in the woods with Shimazaki. He'd probably end up waking up in the middle of nowhere and then it'd be like a survival game…and he hated survival games more than anything else, even those toddler games Mukai played.

"I've always tried not to sleep outside if I could avoid it." Said Minegishi with a shrug. This was turning into an impromptu vacation…alright then. They had been expecting an extraction mission, and a fight, so this…this was better. It had worked out. They had no reason to be pissed off. Mob was ok…even though she had put her life in danger, again, and taken at least another ten years off of their life…

They put an arm around Mob. They could tell her off later. Her aura was acting up. Something was definitely wrong.

"I don't think that we all fit in the car." Said Sho. He wanted…he didn't know what he wanted. He wanted to fight, mainly, but he knew that it was wrong. He also wanted to go home but also not really. If he went home right now then it would just feel like…like he had left for no reason. That this whole thing had been pointless. That she hadn't needed him at all…but she had needed him. She was his sister and she had been in danger and…and he could have helped her if she'd given him the chance! He could have…he would have….

He would have saved her if he'd had the chance but he hadn't so…so he should have been happy. So that was what he was going to be right now. Happy.

"And we haven't been on vacation together in a while." Said Sho, forcing himself to smile. Yeah…he needed to be happy. She was ok. He hadn't had to save her and…and it had saved him effort! And anyway, he didn't have to prove himself, he knew that he could save the world so…so what did he need practice for anyway?!

"Ok…um…ok. Hatori, try and find us a place to stay. Everyone, try and fit in the car and…and then in the morning we'll give it back because stealing is wrong. Then we'll go home and…and then things can go back to normal." Said Mob. It felt so weird, telling people what to do. She closed her eyes. Any minute now, it felt like, Mom was going to shout at her to wake up and get ready for school. Then she'd have Minori telling her what to do at school. Then she'd come home to Mom yelling at her. But that hadn't been the real world…in the real world she was in charge of everyone. She had to take care of everyone, and herself, and…and…and…

And she had to do a good job.

That had felt like she had done a good job. She had made good choices and…and she was going to have to figure out what else to do. But she couldn't do it! There was no way that she could be in charge! She had never been in charge before! She had…she'd been in charge on and off since she'd been ten. She could do this, she had to do this…she looked at Serizawa. She let her aura meet his. His eyes met hers…he trusted her. He trusted her so much that he had saved her and…and she was going to be there for him, for everyone…or at least she was going to try her best. She wished she had been closer, she would have held his hand, but she was by Minegishi and…and it felt kind of weird seeing them here as a real person…this whole thing felt weird….

She looked up at the sky.

There was so much color. The wind felt so cold. It seemed to blow the stars out, for a second, they were twinkling so much…it was beautiful. She looked around at her friends. At her family. At the people she loved most in the world. The ones who loved her. She shouldn't have cared why they loved her, so she was going to try her best to stop caring, she should have just been happy that they were there…and she was! Sho, Minegishi, Shimazaki, Hatori, and Serizawa…everyone but Shibata and Tsuchiya and Mukai were there but…but that was ok. Most of her friends were here and she was going to be there for them.

No matter what.