Sho had never been a big fan of sleepovers.

Sure, he liked sleeping over with Ritsu, but that was different. He was Ritsu's boyfriend so sleepovers involved a lot of talking and cuddling and kissing, nice stuff like that. Sleepovers with Ritsu's brother and their friend Hanazawa were…not as fun, and not just because of the lack of kissing.

Though it was getting to him.

He didn't like sleeping in a room with other people, people he didn't know well. He didn't much like sleeping at night, actually. Too many things could happen when your guard was down like that, and too many things could happen at night too. Just…it was a lot. Especially all of these other auras around him. Pressing in on him. Bumping up against his…

Four was a crowd.

But he could deal with this. It was nice to have friends his own age for once. Before it had just been him and the ultimate five, and then his rebellion crew after the ultimate five refused to betray dad like the self serving cowards they were, but out of all of them the only person even close to his age was Hatori and he was twenty one. Being around people his own age was kind of nice…

Kind of.

"Never have I ever…well this is hard, I've done so much." Said Hanazawa. Sho wasn't a big fan of this game, or most games for that matter. He knew some games, kid games. The kind that people had played with him when he had been little. Hide and seek, tag, soap up a staircase and then hide around the corner and watch while people fell…Shimazaki was kind of an asshole sometimes, and other stuff too. Stuff that didn't involved hurting people like guess what number I'm thinking of, name that animals, Pictionary…Sho was weirdly good at Pictionary. The drawing part, not the guessing part, or maybe Fukuda had just been a bad artist…

It was fun playing with people his own age.

"Oh, I know. Never have I ever accidentally destroyed an entire school." said Hanazawa. Sho winced, that had been directed at Ritsu's older brother. He knew that it was a sore spot, the way he lost control of his powers sometimes, losing control was a sore spot for most powerful espers. People didn't like being reminded that they sucked. People never took it well.

But Ritsu's older brother wasn't most people.

"Teru." Said, or rather whined, Ritsu's older brother as he took one of the extremely sour candies that Hanazawa had brought. They had come in one of his parents' care packages. It was nice, the kind of parents he had, the kind that thought of you even if they were a world away. Sho knew that his parents didn't give a damn. Dad was rotting in prison and mom was busy with her new family.

But he wasn't an asshole. He was happy for her.

"That was too easy and you know it." Said Ritsu as he took the candy from his brother and ate it, along with his. Sho took one too even though these were sour lemon flavor. He hoped there wasn't actual citrus in these, he didn't much feel like dying. Dad had always said that he hated citrus because he was allergic to it, it was some weird genetic thing from his side of the family. Sho didn't know if that was true or not, Mukai loved oranges and one time when she had been a baby she had eaten an entire lime skin and all, but he wasn't afraid to take his chances.

Still gross. Still burny. Still made his mouth raw. His other brothers and sisters were so lucky that they hadn't inherited this.

"Well there aren't a lot of things that I haven't done, little brother-chan." Said Hanazawa. Ritsu rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, you've led a really full life, the kind that the rest of us can only dream of." said Ritsu. Sho smiled through the burny citrus flavor crawling down his throat. Ritsu was so cute when he was being sarcastic. Hanazawa was kind of cute too when he was all pissed off, but not super pissed off, just a little bit. Not that it was something that Sho was going to dwell on. He wasn't his dad, he didn't go around looking at other people when he had someone at home who loved him.

Well, not Sho's home, Ritsu's home…but the point still stood!

"I know, your life's been so interesting, Teru. You've been so many places and done so many things. I've never even left the city." Said Ritu's older brother. Sho wanted to scoot away from him. He was closer to him, well he wanted to be closer to Ritsu it seemed so that put him even closer to Sho, and Sho knew that he had nothing at all to be afraid of when it came to this guy. If he had wanted to hurt Sho he would have done it already. It was just hard to think of him, sometimes, as anything other than an esper more powerful than him…and he knew what more powerful espers were like.

No, he knew what they were like in Claw. This wasn't Claw, this was Seasoning City. That part of his life was over now.

"We go to see grandma every summer and winter break, and also there was the time with the hot spring inn and the train." Said Ritsu

"And didn't you catch a tsuchinoko once?" asked Hanazawa

"Oh, right. I guess I've never left the city aside from a couple of times. Not nearly as much as the rest of you. I mean everyone but Ritsu, since mom and dad wouldn't take you somewhere without me…oh! That's a good 'never have I ever'. Never have I ever left the city aside from work or seeing my grandma." Said Ritsu's older brother. Ritsu was the only one who took a candy.

"Sorry brother, I didn't think that one through." Said Ritsu's older brother. Ritsu and his brother called each other 'brother' a lot. Madoka, Kyo, and Jiro called him that too. Mukai only called him by his name. Was he supposed to call his little brothers and sisters 'little brother' and 'little sister' too? Sho didn't know, for most of his life it had just been him and the adults around him and all of the adults around him were only children.

Seemed weird, though, since he knew everyone's names. He may not have known them, aside from Mukai, but he at least knew their names.

"It's fine, these aren't so bad. I've had worse." Said Ritsu as he ate another one, voluntarily, to make a point. Sho hoped he brushed his teeth later. There was no way he was kissing Ritsu unless he…Sho couldn't even finish the thought. Of course he was going to get some Ritsu kisses in after everyone went to bed regardless of what his spit tasted like.

"Worse? I'll have you know that these are delicious. I mean if you have a sophisticated palate, that is." Said Hanazawa

"Never have I ever said that I had a 'sophisticated palate'." Said Sho. Sure, he had to take a candy, but at least he was in the game. There, another round had passed and he was still in. This was fun. Sure, they weren't playing videogames, or hide and seek, or doing something mean but funny, or any of the stuff he did with the others but he was still having fun.

He was.

"Stop torturing yourself, I know you hate these." Said Ritsu as he took the candy right out of Sho's hand. Their fingers brushed. Sho knew that they were just fingers, and they had barely touched, but his insides felt like the time he had tried to see if eating a bunch of pop rocks and drinking twelve cans of soda would make his stomach explode.

But in a good way.

"Everyone's a critic." Said Hanazawa

"I like them, I mean they're a little too sour, but they're not that bad. Like Ritsu said, there are much worse candies out there, like this one time I found a cilantro gummy bear…it was awful." Said Ritsu's older brother.

"Or the time grandma got us cabbage candy." Said Ritsu with a shudder. Sho couldn't help it, he shuddered too.

"Gross. That sounds like something Minegishi would make. They're weirdly vegetarian but also not. One time they made a carrot cake but it was all carrot and no cake and…yeah." Said Sho. He was getting looks now. The worried kind from Ritsu, the pitying kind from his older brother, and the uncomfortable kind from his friend.

Damn it.

"What? I lived, as you can so clearly see. That is unless I'm a secret ghost or something…that would actually be kind of cool. Like the kid at the end of that old movie, the one who saw dead people." Said Sho. Hanazawa shook his head.

"No, the guy was a ghost and the kid was just a medium. Honestly." Said Hanazawa

"It's alright, that movie makes no sense anyway. I mean how can a person not know that they're dead? That they aren't talking to anyone or touching anything or just…existing?" asked Ritsu, coming to his rescue. It was nice to have someone who came to his rescue, who thought of him, but also who didn't treat him like a baby like some people…not that he would have ever compared Ritsu to Fukuda. Fukuda was just his babysitter/co-conspirator. Ritsu was his first, last, and only boyfriend plus the absolute greatest person that Sho had ever met in his life.

It was like apples to something not like apples but not oranges because they were evil.

"Spirits don't always know that they're dead. Neutral ones, I mean. A lot of the time they just kind of walk around and live their lives. They can't even see each other, a lot of the time, let alone us." Said Ritu's older brother.

"Oh yeah, you can see those." Said Sho. He forgot, sometimes, just how powerful that guy was. As powerful as dad. Instinctively Sho knew that he was more powerful than him but neutral spirits were really fucking hard to see! Of course Sho wasn't jealous or something, it must have been annoying having people hanging around all the time. Being loud, pushing into you, being all in your space.

It couldn't have been fun at all.

"Not all the time, I learned to ignore them when I was little. They can be kind of confusing. Some of them look normal, they don't all have the injuries that they died with. Some of them do, though, and it's kind of scary to look at." Said Ritsu's older brother.

"You could always just exorcise them." said Sho with a shrug.

"Mob doesn't like to exorcise spirits that are just minding their own business." Said Teru. Weirdly defensive…did they like each other or something? Sho crossed his fingers. Maybe if those two fell in love then they'd stop inviting him and Ritsu to their sleepovers and then he and Ritsu could kiss and hold hands and cuddle and just be together in peace.

"Or annoying ones that tag along sometimes." Said Ritsu

"Speaking of, how is Dimple doing these days?" asked Hanazawa

"No clue, he's been gone for a while now. Probably off trying to be God or something, one of his dumb dreams." Said Ritsu

"I hope that Dimple is ok, wherever he is. Things have been weird with the spirits since…everything that happened…and the big broccoli tree." said Ritsu's older brother. Sho had no idea why they kept on dancing around what had happened. It had been a cool battle, their side had won, Claw was defeated, and now they could all live normal lives like they were in one of those shows Hatori liked where people just did daily life things. Well, they weren't girls, but it was pretty much the same thing.

"Yeah, that thing's pretty weird. Minegishi say's that…that thing is pretty weird." Said Sho, catching himself before he could make it even weirder.

"You're still talking to those guys?" asked Ritsu. He had a tone there, an accusing one, but a worried one too. He worried too much. Sho didn't need people worrying about him, he had gotten enough of that over the years from Fukuda.

"Sometimes, not that often. We're still kind of pissed at each other, kind of. Well, everyone but Serizawa, we're cool again." Said Sho

"Still, you shouldn't-" said Ritsu as the power went out. That was what came first, the black out, and then the shaking. It came on suddenly, like an earthquake, and for a moment Sho had thought that it had been an earthquake…until he had seen the light.

Red.

An aura. That was what it had been, a powerful aura, as powerful as Dad's when he had lost control. But that couldn't have been Dad, Sho would have sensed him before this! He was locked away in esper prison thousands of kilometers away and deep underground. Dad had no hope of getting out at any point in his life, Joseph had made it perfectly clear…and anyway if Dad had gotten out he wouldn't have come back here! He was smarter than that! His nemesis lived here, Sho refused to think that Dad and Ritsu's brother were cool, and even Dad knew that he had no hope of winning…right?

This was Dad.

The shaking stopped, the aura went away, and the lights came back on. Sho could hear Ritsu's mom and dad saying something about an earthquake. Car alarms were going off outside. Dogs were barking. He hoped that his hamsters were alright. Sunflower and Stardust were prone to anxiety…oh, and also all of his human brothers and sisters. He hoped that they were ok, too.

Mukai was afraid of the dark.

"Boys! Boys! Boys!" shouted Ritsu's dad as he pulled on the door. Sho scooted back behind Ritsu. Ritsu didn't seem worried about his Dad, or anything for that matter.

"It's push, dad." Said Ritsu. He sounded so calm…Sho had no idea how he could have sounded so calm. Everyone else was freaking out. Hanazawa had dove under Ritsu's desk and Ritsu's older brother had put a barrier up around all of them…oh, right. The whole 'having a living bomb for a brother thing'. Also Ritsu was just…like that.

Even when his Dad came into the room.

"Everyone alive? Nobody's parents have any reason to sue us?" asked Ritsu's Dad. Ritsu shook his head.

"Are the boys alright?!" shouted Ritsu's mom from across the house.

"Everyone's fine, Dad, you can go now." said Ritsu. And like that his Dad left. That was…normal. That was the way that normal people were with their parents. It was a hard thing to remember, that not everyone's Dad was evil, and not everyone's mom only pretended to love them.

"They're fine, Hana!" shouted Ritsu's dad as he closed the door. Sho was proud of himself, he didn't even flinch. He was getting better. Ritsu still squeezed his hand, though, even though he didn't need it. He wasn't about to pass up holding Ritsu's hand, though.

He wasn't going to pass up squeezing it back, either.

"I wasn't scared." Said Hanazawa as he crawled out from under the desk.

"What were you doing then, stealing gum?" asked Sho. Hanazawa made a face and shook his head.

"Gross. I don't know how you come up with these things." Said Hanazawa

"I'm just really smart like that, I guess." said Sho with a shrug.

"Yeah, sure, if that's what you want to call it. Of course if you ask me-" Said Hanazawa

"Wait." Said Ritsu's brother

"Alright, alright, I'll be nice." Said Hanazawa

"No, not that…well, yes that, but do you guys see that?" asked Ritsu's brother as he pointed out the window towards the red, aural, haze hanging around outside. Sho could see it better if he focused. It was kind of like the time with the broccoli tree but worse, or brighter, or better. It all depended on how you looked at it and Sho didn't really want to look at it for very long.

"Kind of, if I really focus." Said Teru

"I can see it too. Feel it. That's…that's a person, isn't it? I mean it feels like…" said Ritsu. He didn't have to say anything, they all knew who it felt like. What it felt like. So really there was no reason to keep talking.

But all the reason to go and do something about it.

So that was what they did. They told Ritsu's parents that they were going to sleep now, locked the door, and snuck out the window. That was the easy part. The hard part was actually getting out of town. They all knew what was in that direction, the woods, and they all knew what was in the woods. The old Seventh Division. They also knew how hard it was to get there.

Even on bikes.

Which Sho wasn't ashamed to admit that he didn't know how to ride. Hey, it wasn't like there had been someone there to teach him how to ride a bike and all of that other fatherly stuff. Dad had been too busy taking over the world. Fukuda had tried to teach him back when he had still been small enough to ride a trike but Sho hadn't had the patience for it. He hadn't had the patience for much of anything after mom had died. But that was alright, at least it all worked out. At least he had an excuse to sit on the back of Ritsu's bike.

It almost made it all worth it.

It at least gave him something else to think about. Being near Ritsu. Sho knew that he should have been past this by now, needing people, not being able to take care of himself. He could take care of himself, and other people. He had even helped save the world. He was Suzuki Sho, he didn't need to cling to Ritsu to feel better…or at least he shouldn't have. It was what it was and what it was, what felt best, was resting his head against Ritsu's back and thinking about how nice his soap smelled and not how much it felt like he was coming right up to Dad, right into his aura. That there was a not totally zero chance that his dad had broken out of esper prison and was back for revenge.

Turned over a new leaf Sho's ass….

That had been his story, that he had grown and seen the error of his ways and now he was going to be a better person. Sho knew better. He knew his Dad. He knew that Dad wasn't just going to change because he lost a fight. Sure, he had never lost before, but Dad had been the one to tell him that you never gave up no matter what happened. No matter if you thought that you could lose, if people betrayed you, if everything was stacked against you. You never gave up. Not until you took over the world and then made everything perfect. Dad wasn't going to give up just because Ritsu's older brother beat him up.

No, if anything Dad would come back for revenge….he'd finish what he started. But Sho was here, he was ready for whatever Dad could throw at him.

"Hey, stop!" said Teru. Sho clung even closer to Ritsu even though he didn't need to. It was just nice and right now, if he was about to go into the fight of his life, he needed all the niceness he could get. They hadn't left the main road yet. There was a hidden road in the woods that led to the supply depot for the Seventh Division, and then there was an underground road that led into the actual building. Sho knew how to get there and he knew that if Dad had been smart he would have been hidden in the ruins of the Seventh Division…and Dad was pretty smart.

Smart enough to leave the main road, anyway.

"I can feel whoever it is, they're close." Said Ritsu's older brother. Sho could feel his aura too. There was just too much going on. Sho wasn't ready for another fight, well he was always ready for a fight, but he wasn't ready for another one of those near world endings fights. He didn't know what he would have done if the world ended…or if Dad won…or if he lost again.

Or died.

Sho didn't like his dad but it wasn't like he wanted the guy dead! Just…not an asshole. That wasn't so much to ask. If Dad had broken out though then he was probably going to still be an asshole and then there'd be another fight and then Sho would be an orphan…nearly an orphan. Mom didn't count because she left and her new husband didn't count because he wasn't Sho's Dad. He was Madoka, Kyo, and Jiro's dad. Sho was really pretty much an orphan at this point.

Pretty much. Not all the way. Not yet.

"Hey, uh, Ritsu's older brother? If it is my Dad maybe don't….almost kill him this time." Said Sho as he caught up to the others. There was a lot of junk on the road. Books, papers blowing in the breeze, a backpack, and even a broken wagon. A lot of stuff to step over to catch up to them, he hadn't been lagging behind for any other reason.

Certainly not because he didn't want to get to the end of this road.

"I won't try and kill him and I told you before, you can call me Mob. Or Shigeo. Or Kageyama. Anything but Ritu's older brother." Said Ritsu's older…said Mob. That fit. Sho wasn't used to people's given names, Ritsu was already called Kageyama, so Mob it was. Even though it didn't fit at all.

"It is a mouthful." Said Hanazawa

"Fine. Mob, can you please try not to kill my Dad? I mean he deserves it but he's also my dad so….yeah." said Sho as he followed the others to the tree line. This was where it was brightest, strongest. This was where it felt the most like Dad….but he couldn't see Dad. He couldn't really see much of anything. No streetlights. Barely any moonlight. They hadn't brought flashlights….

Just a whole lot of darkness.

"I never tried to kill him. I just wanted to stop him…everything that happened was an accident. I wasn't thinking." Said Mob. He was tense now, Sho could see it in his aura. That was enough for him.

"Thanks." Said Sho before he hurried off to Ritsu's side. That was enough of that. Now he could rest assured that he wasn't going to become an orphan. For now, at least. Dad had pissed off a lot of people. Sho could count on both hands the people who wanted Dad dead and still not even be a third of the way through the list. Sho could save him…but he didn't want to save him…but he also didn't want Dad dead and-and-and why did this have to be so complicated?!

Too complicated. Too much at once. Time to focus on one thing at a time, like Fukuda had taught him.

"Did anyone think to bring a flashlight? Or charge their phone?" asked Ritsu as he turned his phone screen on and moved it around the ground. Sho fished his out of his pocket.

"It's nearly dead, I mean it's always nearly dead, but for you I'll use up the last of the battery." Said Sho

"Be careful, we need to be able to find our way home, too. I've never been this far from home before. I mean not without someone." Said Mob

"We could always take shelter in the old base until dawn." Said Teru as he turned his phone's flashlight on.

"Sure, I mean if you like being crushed by falling concrete that is." Said Sho only exaggerating a little bit. That didn't count as lying and even if it did he had a very good reason for not wanting to go back to the place where he'd been awakened…the place where he'd met Ritsu. Yeah, that was better. Ritsu always made him feel better even if it was in thought.

But it didn't have to be in thought.

He took Ritsu's hand and followed him as he walked down the side of the road. There had been a trail of stuff and then nothing. An overturned wagon…did that mean that there was someone in there? It would have made sense…and the red high top Ritsu found on the side of the road supported his theory. Though of course it could have been a random road shoe.

Where did those come from, anyway?

Sho had spent a good amount of his life in cars and, for some reason, in every country that he had ever been in there had been weird shoes on the side of the road. Always only one. Were there just a bunch of one legged people throwing their unneeded shoes out the window as they drove back from the store? Did people's shoes fall off as they got abducted by aliens, like that weird girl Reigen and Serizawa hung out with thought? Or maybe it was shoe making elves, like mom had told him about when he was little. The kind that made shoes when the lazy cobbler went to sleep and then let him take all the credit. Or maybe it was-

-hey!

"Hey! I found another shoe and…and a person…" said Sho as he dragged the light of his phone up from the other high top. It was attached to a leg which was attached to the rest of a person…or a dead body…

He picked up a stick.

"Is he dead?" asked Ritsu. Sho poked him. This wouldn't have been the first time he had ever seen a dead body, even a dead kid. This was a kid, either that or a really short adult. Sho poked him with a stick…he was breathing. Good. Sho didn't want to have to go and see if he could get ahold of anyone from body disposal. Those guys were really scary and weird and just…

This kid was alive. That was the end of it.

"He's breathing at least." Said Sho as he jabbed him with the stick a few more times. He was face down on the ground like he was dead but his back was rising and falling. This was good. He poked him a few more times for good measure, just about five or ten, and then he went for an even twenty before Ritsu took his stick away.

"Stop it, you could make it worse." Said Ritsu

"Ritsu, if it was any worse then he'd be dead and nobody ever died of being poked with a stick." Said Sho as he reached for the stick. Ritsu just threw it behind them.

"Hey!" said Hanazawa as he caught up with them, rubbing his head the whole way there.

"Sorry." Said Ritsu

"Sorry doesn't-hey! Who the hell is that?" asked Hanazawa as he picked up a stick of his own and started poking the kid. Sho gave Ritsu a look. Ritsu just rolled his eyes and took Hanazawa's stick away.

"For the love of-what is it with you guys and the stick thing?" asked Ritsu

"He might be dead." Said Teru

"Do you know of a better way to check and see if someone's dead?" asked Sho

"Who's dead?" asked Mob as he caught up to them. He had a bunch of papers in his arms and a backpack on his back that, clearly, wasn't his. He pulled the broken wagon behind him with his powers.

"This kid's dead…tired." Said Sho, pointing to the kid on the ground in front of him. Mob crouched down and poked him with his finger like a moron. Everyone knew that you didn't touch an unconscious person. They might have been faking and then when you touched them they jumped up and attacked you. Honestly. Playing dead was the oldest trick in the book.

"I don't think that this guy is dead. I mean he's still warm and he's breathing, too. I can feel his aura and his spirit is still inside of his body where it should be. He's alive, just really hurt…should we take him to the hospital? It's still opened this late, right?" asked Mob as he turned the kid over with his powers.

"Wait! You're not supposed to move an unconscious pers….on…" said Teru as Mob flipped the kid over.

"What…" said Ritsu

"Is that…." Said Mob. Sho nodded. Even in this darkness Sho could see the red hair and the eyebrows…he shone a light on the kid's face. His eyes were closed but Sho would have bet everything in his bank account that the kid's eyes were blue. This was…this was….

Sho was sure of two things.

As he shined a light on the kid he knew two things for certain. The first of which being that this was obviously his brother, one of his brothers. If Dad could make Mukai then he could make other kids. The second of which being that there was no way in hell that this kid was going to the hospital. Sho could handle himself. He knew that there were plenty of people out to get revenge on Dad and he knew that they weren't above going through his kids…and this was so obviously one of his kids. He had even gotten Dad's eyebrows. Sho wasn't going to leave this guy in a hospital like a sitting duck.

So, really, there was only one thing to do.