The Tokyo House felt like home.

At least it felt like a home, more like a home than any home had ever felt like, aside from her actual home. The castle had been her home since the day she had been born, since mom and dad had brought her home from the hospital, but she hadn't lived in the castle since she had been little. She had spent more time outside of the castle than in it. The castle wasn't home. Tokyo was the closest thing that she had to her home.

And now it was time to move again.

Mob was packing up for the last time. Moving wasn't new to her, they had been moving around since mom had left, but this felt different. Maybe because it would be their last move. Their last move before…everything happened. everything that had to happen. Before she had to fight dad and really hurt him and possibly even...

She got back to packing.

She was all alone. Sho was off with Shimazaki, maybe, or even Fukuda. She couldn't remember. She hadn't wanted to remember. She hadn't wanted to put her brother through this, their last move. Packing up a life…not all of their things, their entire lives, but enough of them. So much clutter, so much stuff, so many boxes that were still only half unpacked. Their old toys, old souvenirs from when they lived at Disneyland, clothes that didn't fit…clothes she had tried to put Mukai in…so much stuff. A lot of this they didn't even need anymore. A lot of stuff that she should have gotten rid of a long time ago. She should have given it to the needy or thrown it away or had it sold but she just…she couldn't. She couldn't just get rid of their entire lives.

She couldn't throw away memories.

She closed the box in front of her with her powers and put it in the stack. That box had mostly been old souvenirs, lots of popcorn buckets, and way too many Mickey ears. She had gotten them every time they went to the park, a lot of those ears were collectible, and the popcorn buckets got you unlimited refills and were also collectible. She didn't know why she had collected so many, though, since they had practically lived at Disneyland in those days. It wasn't like it was a once in a lifetime trip…she had just been that way when she had been young. Everything had been so new, they had hardly left the Castle before Mom had left, and Disneyland had only been a place she had heard about on TV. It had felt like magic, back then, the sort of magic that she had needed in her life…the sort of magic that could make her forget about Mom if even for a little bit…

The boxes were tipping over.

She fixed them quickly…mostly. She hadn't been taking much care when stacking these boxes and now she had to pay the price…which was something falling on her head. She rubbed the top of her head and picked up what had fallen from the stack. Shoes, blue ones…Mukai's shoes? She checked the inside of them. They were the plastic kind of shoes, the dress up kind, the kind that used to go with her old princess dresses back when that was all that she had worn. These might have been hers…yes. There it was, her name, right there in black magic marker.

"Suzuki Shigeko's shoes." Muttered Mob. Her handwriting had been so bad back then, and somehow she had messed up the stroke order in her own family name, not to mention how one character was big and the other was small. Big Suzuki, small Shigeko. Maybe because the Shigeko part hadn't really mattered as much as the Suzuki part. After all if she hadn't been born a Suzuki, if she hadn't gotten her powers from Dad, then she wouldn't have been anything. Without her powers she was nothing so…so she might as well have done something with them.

Right now that something was packing these boxes.

She looked up and saw the box that had tipped over…she remembered that day. She had been looking specifically for her old costumes that day, for Mukai, and she had eventually found them…but something had been wrong with them…oh! They had been too big for Mukai. Too big for Mukai and too small for her…she pulled a dress out of the box.

It was amazing that she had ever been that small.

It was her Bell dress, because it was nice to have some variety even though Elsa and Anna were her favorite of all the princesses…even though Elsa was a queen but she'd written her letter to the Disney people and never gotten a response back so it was what it was. This dress had been itchy, kind of, and it hadn't had sleeves which also kind of annoyed her, but it had still been one of her better dresses. She had been wearing this when…oh, right. She put it back in the box. She had been wearing this when she had met Hatori.

It felt like a lifetime ago.

She couldn't believe that she had ever liked him, liked him-liked him, because she did like him now but not like that. He had just been so…she couldn't believe that she had ever thought that he was cute. Maybe because she hadn't known him well, back then, she hadn't seen the way he freaked out whenever there was danger or what he thought was danger. The way he screamed and cried whenever he lost, or won, a videogame. The way he weirdly got on with Dad so well that she could have sworn that they were secret brothers or something. But they weren't secret brothers, Dad had adopted him, and now Hatori was her brother…and it was kind of good, then, that he had rejected her. It would have been so weird if they had been together and Dad had adopted him…and also she didn't like Hatori like that.

He was just a friend…at least he had been.

She didn't know what she was supposed to call him now. He wasn't going to betray Dad no matter what she said or did. He liked Dad too much. Minegishi said it was because Hatori had daddy issues because his had died when he'd been a kid. Mob hadn't asked him about that, it hadn't seemed right, and anyway he was Dad's friend now. His new son and his new best friend, too, because Fukuda had been a jerk one too many times…because Fukuda had changed too much. Or maybe because Dad had changed too much. Hatori had changed too…and so had her actual brother. Mukai had changed the most of all, going from a baby to a kid. Minegishi had changed a lot since she'd been a kid…they had said, before, that they wouldn't be the kind of friends who hugged but now they hugged all the time. She remembered that they had even said that they never wanted a boyfriend but now they had two…,maybe because they had changed so much. Shimazaki had changed, too, so that might have helped. Everyone had changed, even Shibata. When they had first met he never would have just left her even if it had been for true love…there was just so much change happening all the time.

Even she had changed.

She pulled an Elsa dress out from the box. She had so many of these things. She'd had no choice but to buy a lot of them. They didn't go through the washer well, they fell apart pretty easily, and they held in stains. This one was covered in red…blood? No, wrong color. This was more pinkish…jello. This one was covered in jello all down the front. She felt a memory surface, the time they had all shared jello in Dad's office, back when things had made sense…back before she had changed. They had changed. Everything had changed.

Why couldn't things have just stayed the same?

She held the dress up to herself. Maybe it still fit…maybe it hadn't changed that much. She tried to get it over her head…and tried…and tried. She tried and tried until she heard it starting to rip. It was too small…of course it had been, that was why it was in that box. She wasn't ten anymore, she was thirteen, pretty soon she'd be fourteen. She was going to turn fourteen and then everything would change. She was going to have to change more than she had ever thoughts possible. It was like Dad had said, there was no such thing as a bloodless coup, and that meant that she was going to have to…

Change.

Minegishi said that they would do it for her, so she wouldn't have to change, and she wanted to let them but…but the more she thought about it the more dangerous it seemed. If Dad killed them, or hurt them, then she wouldn't have been able to live with herself. She loved them and she never wanted to see them get hurt. Ever. This was…this was her fight. She shouldn't have felt like this. Sho had carried this with him for years before she had even known that he'd had anything planned. She could carry this for a few more days and then she could…she could…

Hope that Dad changed.

She pulled the dress off and put it back in the box. She had outgrown it. That was what happened when you got older, you outgrew things, even if you loved them. Maybe it was time for Dad to outgrow this stupid dream of his…if he had been there, and able to hear thoughts, then he would have sent her flying through a wall for that one. Or at least he would have e tried. She could block him if she tried hard enough. Maybe because she was getting stronger, or maybe he was getting weaker in his old age, or maybe he hadn't even been trying…the whys didn't matter. What mattered was that she could block him if she tried. Which meant that there was a chance that she could win. Which meant that she could, maybe, be the one to rule the world.

As dumb as it was.

She closed the box and stacked it with the others. Another thought that she shouldn't have had. She should have been happy that she was going to be ruling the world, that she was going to finally use her powers for good, that she was going to build Claw into what Dad had always wanted it to be. She should have been making her plans, lists, doing her own logistics so they could get through all the things that she wanted to do…but that was the thing, she didn't want to DO anything. She just wanted to stop Dad. She wanted to stop the kidnapping, the awakening, the stealing, the lying, the taking over the world…she just wanted everything to be ok. She just wanted everyone to be friends. She just wanted…she wanted there to be a Claw but a better version where nobody got hurt. But that wasn't an option for some reason.

Because Dad had said so.

The boxes slid again. It was like playing jenga without her powers. Every time she moved one thing two more slid out of place. She caught the boxes she saw, small ones with Dad's name on them…well, Dad, anyway. She was the one who had packed these. She was the one who had packed everything. She gently put the boxes down. These were so old that the tape was wearing off. Inside she could see Dad's old clothes, his shirts, and his suits. Always the same color. For as long as she had known him he'd always worn that same blue suit and white shirt. Only his ties changed…which wasn't much change at all.

He had changed a lot.

His clothes might not have changed but he had. He used to be a lot meaner…physically. He used to hit them both a lot more, Sho more than her of course but there had been a lot of hitting all around, and now she could hardly remember the last time he had hit Sho. He had tried to hit her, push her down, the other night but she had stopped him. Maybe that was it, maybe he hadn't changed, maybe she and Sho had just changed too much. Maybe they were too big…no, he was always going to be the most powerful, but she was still second to him…or just as strong as she was. She didn't know, she didn't want to test it. She wouldn't have wanted to test it against the new Dad and she certainly didn't want to test it against the old one.

She didn't know which one she preferred.

The old Dad hit them a lot more and was meaner…or at least did more mean things in a day. The new Dad had fired her, replaced her, and was trying to have a whole new family…but he was also a lot more open with his feelings. Maybe because he finally had some besides being made or wanting to smother her with his love…his love. He didn't love her, he had never loved her, he had only loved Daughter! Well she was his daughter no matter how much she changed and…and he may have talked more about his feelings and he may have even shown her when he was sad and…and stuff but…but deep down he was still the same Dad!

She could see her aura.

She got her powers under control. All she had done was tip over the box in front of her. A sea of blue and white came tumbling out. Blues, whites, and…wait. Was that a dress? Yes, there, that thing that was the wrong shade of blue. The thing that shouldn't have even been in that box. It was small and it was hers. She didn't even have to think about it, she knew what this was. It was the dress he had gotten her when they had been living in England, back when she had been a kid still and Sho had been pretending not to be gay. Dad had still been sad about Mom back then so he had gotten her this dress…it had been yellow then. He'd had it colored blue so that she would want to wear it.

She put it back.

She hadn't worn it then and she couldn't wear it now. She wasn't ten anymore, she wasn't that person anymore, and she was never going to let herself be that person ever again. It was just like what had happened with Minori in the dreamworld. She was so desperate for someone to love her that she went along with anything even if she didn't want to…even if she knew it was wrong. She wasn't going to be that person anymore. She was Mob now.

Not Daughter.

She put the box back with the others. There were so many that the nearly reached the ceiling. It was like a lifetime of memories was stacked up there in front of her. part of her wanted to go through all of those boxes and see, feel, count, and just…just remember everything that had happened. Remember what it had been like back then, when she had been a kid, when things had been simple…but this wasn't right. Things had changed and she wasn't going to pretend that they hadn't. She had changed. So had everyone else.

Maybe, though, if she tried then…

Maybe if she tried, maybe if she won, then she could make things go back to the way that they had been before. Not completely, of course, Dad wouldn't have been around…but maybe he wouldn't have to die. Maybe Fukuda's stupid sounding plan about giving him to the government's espers was secretly a good one, he had known Dad for most of their lives after all so he knew things about Dad that Mob didn't, and maybe then it could be a bloodless coup and then they could just be…be happy. Just hang out all the time and watch movies and go to Disneyland and just…just be together. Sure, she'd have Dad's job, but she'd done it before. She could try and be Dad but also be Mob and…and she could try and be happy.

That was all she had ever wanted.

Maybe that was what her dream was. Dad had realized his dream when he had been thirteen. He had realized that he was going to rule the world someday. Mob knew, too, that she was going to rule the world but that wasn't her dream. Her dream was to be happy, that was all, to be happy and loved. To have friends and be happy and loved and just…to be ok. For everything to be ok. Maybe she would be. Being happy should have been a much easier task than taking over the world. If she could have been happy then…

Then all of her dreams could have come true.

But this wasn't the time for dreams. This was the time to pack. She had spent way too much time in dreamworlds, too much time asleep. It was time to wake up. This was the world she was living in, she was this person, and her dreams didn't matter. Doing what was right mattered, stopping Dad mattered, making sure that he could never hurt anyone ever again mattered. Her dreams, what she wanted, reliving the past…it didn't matter. She just had to do what she had to do and what she had to do was to stop Dad.

But later, after she was done packing up the Tokyo house. Maybe if she brought all of this junk with her to Seasoning City then she could make it feel like home, too.