Daughter was six years old now.

It hadn't meant much to him, the children's birthdays. They lived another year. He expected them to live so he did not breathe a sigh of relief every time a page on the calendar was turned. They got taller, they spoke better, and they became a little more independent.

Case and point.

"Look dad!" said Mob as she spun around. She was six, now, and didn't go to kindergarten anymore. She went to real school now and while she was sad, very sad, to leave Sho behind she was happy to go to a real school with real uniforms and everything. That had been a big thing for her when she told mom which school she wanted to go to. She had to go to one with uniforms. Mob liked uniforms, they looked cool and older. She was six now, not five, and that meant that she got to a real elementary school!

Plus she liked the way it felt when she spun around. Kind of like she was a magical girl.

Though of course she was not a magical girl. Her powers were not magical, dad had said so, and she was not a magical girl. Dad said that she was a princes, a princess of the world, not a magical girl. Mob would have rather been a magical girl than a princess of the world, though she would rather have been Mob than anything. Mob blended in. Mob was just like everyone else.

Mob didn't have to worry about losing control and accidentally hurting someone. Mob was just like everybody else.

"You're wearing your uniform. Very nice." Said Suzuki simply from his spot at the breakfast table. He hadn't been home for a school run in quite some time. The children were older now and school was, for daughter at least, compulsory. He had been against putting the children in school from the very beginning. Masami was a very intelligent woman, she could have taught them everything they needed to know right there at home, and if she hadn't felt like it he could have hired the best tutors that Japan had to offer.

But Masami had been firm. They needed to learn how to be around other people.

He deferred to what his wife said when it came to child rearing. She knew best. Mothers always knew best about this sort of thing. Fathers, well, what did they know? He hadn't carried the children, well Son, and he hadn't raised them either. In his opinion they didn't need to learn how to be around people because they, well certainly Daughter, stood head and shoulders above all others. They, or at least she, had no reason to learn how to mix with all of the extras in the world. Not when she was a man character.

"Shigeko, be careful. No sitting on the floors or rubbing up against the walls." Said Masami as she scrubbed out the frying pan. She eyed the clock on the wall. They had time, but only just. She would have left it until she got home but Touichirou did not like a mess and she did not feel like getting into it with him. Not that early in the morning.

"I'm not mom, don't worry." Said Mob before she spun around again. She loved this uniform!

"Are you trying to transform?" asked Sho as he finished off his breakfast. He was so glad that he didn't have to wear a uniform. He was still in kindergarten and they had to wear the stupid hats and he jackets but only while they were coming and going. In school he could wear whatever he wanted. He missed big sis, it was weird not being at the same school as her, but they'd be back at the same school soon…and he'd have to wear a stupid outfit, too, but at least he wouldn't spin around like he was on some magical girl show or something.

"No, I just like to spin." Said Mob

"Why?" asked Suzuki. He did not understand Daughter one bit in that moment. She seemed so proud of that outfit and he just…he could not begin to understand. He hadn't had to wear a proper uniform until he started middle school. Black gakuran, gold buttons, black shoes. A uniform in a sea of uniforms. It itched, being forced to be just like everyone else. Daughter's uniform consisted of a navy blue blazer, white shirt, navy blue ribbon, navy blue skirt, white socks, and black shoes. She would walk out that door, just as he had when he was young, and disappear into a sea of girls dressed in identical navy blue blazers and ribbons and skirts with white socks and shiny black shoes…why would she ever want that?

"Because I like how my skirt spins." Said Mob. She spun again, this time too close to the table, but dad used his powers to keep anything from falling. It was kind of weird having dad there. He hadn't been back since before she started elementary school. He was there at the table like this was all normal. Like he had breakfast with them every morning. Like he saw her in her school uniform every morning.

She wondered if dad being there made the atmosphere weird.

She had trouble reading the atmosphere sometimes. Even at her new school the other kids said that she couldn't get a clue. They called her 'Mob' at her new school, too, and she didn't even have to ask them to. She hoped that dad never figured out that she was still letting people call her 'Mob'. Her name was Shigeko, Suzuki Shigeko, and she was supposed to be called Suzuki or Shigeko, if people were more familiar with her, but she didn't want to be called Suzuki Shigeko. She wanted to be Mob. Mob was just like everyone else. Mob blended in with the background. Mob didn't have to worry about being a princess of the world like dad kept on saying she had to be.

"Be careful! I said don't get that uniform dirty, Shigeko, we don't have time for you to change." Said Masami. Getting Shigeko dressed in the morning had been such a production, as it always was. She insisted on dressing herself that morning as she did every morning. She and Sho were old enough to dress themselves and were quite good at it…when they were getting dressed in their regular clothes. T-shirts and pants, lose fitting things, those were easy. Things with buttons…things with multiple steps…Shigeko needed but would not accept help.

Why that school had the children wear shirts with buttons Masami would never understand.

She didn't understand why a six year old needed a school uniform anyway. She hadn't worn a uniform until middle school, a navy blue sailor dress with a red ribbon, but for some strange reason her daughter wanted to wear a blazer and a button down shirt and a pleated shirt and shiny leather shoes. The shoes had to be shiny, very shiny, Shigeko had been very clear about that. She had been very clear about everything when it came to her new school.

Mainly that it had to have a uniform. A real uniform.

"I am being careful!" said Mob. She did not want to have to go through the trouble of putting on her uniform again. It had a lot of steps. There were buttons for her shirt and her shirt had buttons, too, but on the side and her jacket also had buttons and her shoes had buckles, but she didn't have those on yet, but the whole thing took so much time. All Sho had to wear for his school was the blue jacket and the yellow hat. Mom didn't put any of that on him until they got to the door. Sho hated uniforms. He liked the clothes that he had. Loose stuff with the tags cut off because they bothered him. Mob didn't get it. Uniforms were for when you grew up. Even dad wore a uniform, sort of, his suit was kind of like a uniform. Dads wore suits. Well, her dad always wore a suit anyway. Mob had never seen him without his suit on. Not even in pajamas.

She liked her uniform but she didn't want to sleep in it.

"No you aren't." said Sho as he got up and put his plate in the sink. Mom was only doing the dishes now because dad was there. Dad liked everything to be neat and clean and he didn't care who he bothered by wanting everything to be neat and clean all the time. Sho didn't much like it when dad ate with them. When dad ate with them then Sho wasn't allowed to have any of his animals at the table. He needed to eat with his animals because they were his friends. Well so was big sis but that was different.

"Sho." said Masami in that tone, the one that told him not to start, and thankfully he listened. He was only five years old, it was normal for him to get into it with his big sister, but Touichirou didn't like it when the children were quarrelsome and she did not feel like getting into it with him. It was too early for all of that.

"Sorry mom." Said Sho. Right. Mom sometimes thought that he and big sis fought, they didn't of course, but mom thought that they did and he didn't want to upset her. Plus if she got upset then dad might have become upset with him…and he didn't want that. He sat kind of away from dad, just a little, because he didn't want dad to do that thing where he found some tiny thing wrong with what he was doing and got upset with him. He never did that to big sis. He liked big sis best, but that was ok, because mom liked him best. They each got a parent. There. That was even and fair, like dividing up the bacon at breakfast.

"I really won't get it dirty. You don't have to worry." Said Mob

"I have no idea why you want to wear that thing in the first place. It can't possibly be comfortable, for one thing, and you're dressed like all the other girls at your school. Why would you want that?" asked Suzuki. He was genuinely curious as to what Daughter's reasoning was. She was so fascinating. A being so far removed from himself. Sho was like him when it came to uniforms. He understood how terribly…terrible…it was to be forced to look like everyone else. Even Masami had expressed her own sense of perplexion last night as she ironed Daughter's uniform. Why a six year old would want to wear a school uniform was beyond both of them.

But Daughter had not come from either of them.

Some of personality was genetics and some of it was fate. For example, Masami had expressed numerous times that Sho was quite a bit like she had been when she was young. Daughter, on the other hand, had his resting face it seemed but beyond that did not mirror him or Masami in her behavior. She was still his daughter, though, he had the court papers to prove it. Not that she would ever be seeing those court papers. It was best that she had no idea of what her true parentage was. He did not want anything tugging at her loyalties. She was his daughter and she had to be on his side come the day. She was strong, very strong for someone her age, and she would only get stronger. The last thing that he wanted was for her to serve as his foe at any time in the future.

"It's not about being comfortable, I just like it. I'm not little anymore. I get to wear a real uniform now…oh! And I have a school satchel too! A real one!" said Mob. She rushed off to find her school satchel. She and mom and Sho had been to buy it a while ago. It had taken a while for her to find the best one. It had to be pink, of course, because that was how she told her stuff from Sho's. This one was pink and leather, mom said that horse leather was the best kind but Mob didn't care about that, and it felt good on her back even if it was full of all of her school stuff. Dad hadn't seen it yet, or even any of her new school books even.

She wondered if he cared.

Mom cared. She said that she was so proud that Mob was in real school now. Fukuda had cared, too, when he went with her and mom and Sho to her first day of school. He had been there because mom had burned herself on accident with the iron. She had been ironing too early in the morning, she had said, but luckily Fukuda got up that early and they all had breakfast and then walked with Mob to her first day of normal school. It had been a good day.

Even if she had maybe cried, just a little, when it came time to leave Sho.

He had his own school he had to go to. He had kindergarten and she had first grade and they had to be apart…and it was hard. They had always been in different classes even as far back as preschool but they had always been in the same building. Her school was far, very far, from Sho's. He'd even had to be late because he wanted to come with her to her first day. She hadn't cried that much, and Sho hadn't cried at all, and she hadn't been that ad either. She still came back home to her family and that was what mattered.

She loved her little brother so much.

"Well she's certainly excited." Said Suzuki as his daughter practically ran out of the room. She was followed by Son who warned her not to touch his school things. Suzuki could not remember ever being this excited about school. It had always been just a place that he had been forced to spend the better part of his day.

"Shigeko loves her new school…or maybe just the uniform." Said Masami as she wiped her hands off of on her apron. She checked the clock. Time to go. Shigeko's new school was much farther than the children's preschool and kindergarten had been. They had to leave earlier if they were going to make it on foot. They didn't have a car, her husband had cars that came to pick him up but aside from that they did everything on foot.

"I do not understand that child at all." Said Suzuki. Well he had always had trouble understanding most people. Even when he had been small it had seemed like everyone else was on a different set of instructions than he was when it came to socializing. When he hit middle school he realized that it didn't matter if he understood other people. His powers had grown stronger and he had realized, then, that the world could and did fit right in the palm of his hand.

When he ran the world he wouldn't have to understand the people in it. They would understand him. They would have no choice.

"She's a mystery to me." Said Masami. Of course she did not say what she really meant. She would have, if she had been itching for a fight, that he didn't understand anyone but himself. She didn't say that, though, because that wouldn't have accomplished anything. He was the way he was and that was just how he was. He wasn't…he didn't try to be the way he was…and he tried for her, at least. She didn't much care for the fact that she had to tell him whenever she needed basic intimacy and comfort…but that was just how he was.

He was home. She should have been happy about that.

The kids were happy. Shigeko had been so excited when they had picked out her uniform and school bag. She said that she could not, absolutely could not, wait for her father to see her in her new school uniform and new school satchel. She had always been closer with Touichirou than Masami, they were a lot alike those two…for better or for worse. Touichirou had gotten excited about things, before, when they had first met. His grand, pie in the sky, plans for the future. He never discussed those anymore.

But that didn't mean that he had given them up.

How long would he stay for this time? Two weeks? Three weeks? How much longer until something or other pulled him across the world and away from his family. She had thought that she wanted him gone, that she wanted to be away from him, but what she had really wanted was that human connection with him….that connection that he seemed to have trouble maintaining. He thought that everything was fine. They were married and had children, his end goal, and now everything was fine between them. He had no idea…and he would never have any idea. Ever.

"I was never this excited for school when I was a child. Honestly I thought that it was more of a slough than anything." Said Suzuki as he finished off his coffee and used his powers to place the cup in the sink. He didn't much like having dirty dishes in the sink but it seemed as though Masami was done with that particular household task. He wondered if he should have hired some help for her. Female espers were so rare, though, and he couldn't waste one to give his wife some household help. Yet.

Or maybe Daughter would become more of a help as she got older. It would be good practice for when she had her own household to run. She would be at that childbearing age in a few short years. He didn't see why she would want to delay it. She would be in line to rule the world, well to serve her part in ruling the world, within a decade. People held off on childrearing due to educational and financial obligations. Daughter would have to worry about neither of those things. She was his daughter, she would never have to worry about securing employment or extending her education. She would be free to focus on the things that mattered in life.

"I think she's more excited to be growing up. They grow up so fast. It feels like just yesterday that you brought her home." Said Masami as she took off her apron. She was not doing any more dishes until she got home. She had to drop the kids off at school and then do some shopping and them come home and do some laundry and then the cleaning, too, and then maybe she could rest for a minute or two before she had to go and pick Sho up from school. She'd take him to the park for a little bit before Shigeko's school got out. Elementary school lasted longer than kindergarten. Yes, she and Sho would have a nice time at the park.

Touichirou was free to join them at any time.

Though he probably would not. He had things to do even when he was at home. One of the many rooms in the labyrinth he called a house was his office. She had no idea what it was that he did but it involved him locking himself away for hours and hours. She would be without his company, any company, for hours. She entertained idle thoughts of injuring herself just to have Fukuda come around….but that would have been a terrible idea. It hadn't happened again, no, just the one time but she was not going to sit there with Fukuda and her husband….just no. Even though she liked having Fukuda around in the mornings. He helped her with the cooking and the washing up, he played with the kids, and he even walked with them to school. He had been there for Shigeko's first day of elementary school, he had even helped her entertain Sho throughout the entire opening ceremony. The very long opening ceremony. Sho didn't do well when he had to sit still for long periods of time, she feared or his elementary school teachers, but Fukuda had managed to keep him mostly quiet without having to shove a phone or a tablet into his hands.

"They used to be so small." Said Suzuki. It amazed him just how quickly children grew. Especially Daughter. She had been strong before, back when she was two and they first met, but now she eclipsed every single adult esper he had ever met. Not him, of course, she was still as strong as she had been as a child. She would, could, possibly be as strong as he was now when she hit her adult years. He was so grateful that she was female. A son would have challenged him, possibly, but a daughter would never have done anything like that. He wondered what she would be like when she got older. Would she be like Masami, hardworking and intelligent? Would she be ambitious like him? Or would she stay the same, obsessed with games and toys and twirling in the kitchen in her school uniform? Would she stay the same, just transported, transmuted, into the body of an adult. He had been the same since he was about…thirteen or so. He wondered when she would stop changing. Probably when she hit that age, too.

"Yeah…they're growing up." Said Masami. She did not bring up how much of their lives he had missed. She did not bring up the fact that he missed Sho's first steps, his first words, his first day of preschool and kindergarten. She did not bring up the fact that he wasn't in a single family picture. That would have just ended in a fight and she did not want to fight with him.

It wasn't worth it.

He wouldn't change, anyway, no matter what. Even after that fight they'd had the other night he still hadn't changed. He asked her, periodically, if she wanted affection…which was not him changing at all! He still just did not get it. Asking if she needed affection didn't make her feel loved, no, it made her feel like one of the kids' virtual pets. Press 'A' to give affection. Press 'B' to feed. She was a human being and she just…she did not even know.

The floor was kind of slippery. She had just waxed it yesterday. If she were to slip then…

She was not calling Fukuda. No. Touichirou…she did not want to know what he did to his subordinates when they slept with his wife. Fukuda had been vague, very vague, about what it was like to work for her husband. He had just said that sometimes he had to fix up upper echelon members who got on her husband's bad side. So that meant that Touichirou's…whatever it was…was big enough for echelons….and also he was…he hurt people on occasion….

Masami stopped asking questions after that.

She did not want to see Fukuda hurt. She…she did not have feelings for him, she could not have feelings for him, but she couldn't stand the thought of him getting hurt because of her. And it would have been because of her. Because she had acted so selfishly. She had been selfish enough to start all of that with him and she was selfish, no, for wanting him to be there with her instead of her husband.

"Here, look at this, dad." said Mob as she ran into the kitchen and almost bumped into mom. She knew that she had taken a long time but she had good reasons, lots of them. She had to get her hair braided, which took time, and also she had to get Sho ready to go. That meant that mom had to do less work, now. Mob was six, she was old enough to help mom out. Besides, dad liked it when she did things for herself.

"Your school satchel. Very nice. Though I have to ask, why is it pink? I thought that girls had to use red satchels." Said Suzuki as a school satchel was thrust into his arms. It was a heavy thing. Real leather, it seemed, which was good. It would last. Only the best for his daughter. It was pink, too, and it had that dreadful cat that Daughter adorned her things with. Hello Kitty. He would never understand the opposite sex.

"They have to be red?" asked Mob. Some people had red satchels but most of the girls in her class had pink or blue ones. Light blue, boys got dark blue. She didn't know why it was important to divide up the colors but she didn't know a lot of things. That was why everyone said that she couldn't get a clue.

"They did when your father and I were in school, but that was a long time ago." Said Masami

"Before I was born?" asked Mob

"Yes, a long time before you were born." Said Masami

"Oh." Said Mob. She tried to think of her mom and dad as kids. She couldn't. Mom had always been mom and dad had always been dad. It was hard to think of them as being little and going to school and playing games and stuff. She wondered what they were like when they were her age. She wondered if they all would have been friends. She can't imagine dad having friends, though, but she could imagine mom having friends. Though Mob didn't know of any friends that mom had besides Fukuda. Mom and Fukuda were best friends, it seemed, since Fukuda was always at their house and sometimes even slept over to they could all have breakfast together. But she and Sho were not allowed to talk about that because it would make dad jealous because his work too him away from his family and stuff.

"Thirty two years before you were born." Said Suzuki. That was how long it had been since he had been her age. Being six had been fun in the sense that everything had been simpler. He wondered if she was enjoying being six. Maybe not since she seemed to be in somewhat of a hurry to grow up, what with the school uniform and everything. He didn't blame her. Childhood was all about being controlled and no child of his could stand to be controlled like that.

"That's…a really long time." Said Mob. She couldn't even think of a time so long ago. Wow. Her parents must have been really old, then. They didn't seem like old people but they would be one day…maybe even soon. Time was kind of scary when you thought about it for a long time. She wondered what she would be like when she was as old as her parents. What would her kids be like? What would life be like?

That was a lot to think about.

The future was such a far off place. She didn't think that she could think about it because she had no idea what was going to happen. The world could change so much. Her world could change so much. She had no idea, before, how it would feel to go to a different school than Sho. Now she did. She had no idea how it would feel, again, when she had to go to middle school while he was still in elementary school. She also had no idea, before, what it was like to wear a uniform. She had no idea, now, what it would be like to wear a middle schooler's uniform or a high schooler's uniform. She had no idea what it would be like to wear an adult's uniform, too.

She had no idea what kind of job she would even have when she became an adult.

She didn't even know what dad did but he had to wear a suit. She had no idea if she would even have a job. Mom didn't, she was just a volunteer at the animal shelter, and dad said that when she grew up she wouldn't have to have a job besides taking care of her family. That was how a lot of moms were but some moms had jobs, too. Mob didn't know if she would have wanted to have a job. The future was still very far off.

But she knew that she did not want to rule the world.

"Not really. Time passes more quickly the older you get." Said Suzuki as he handed her back her school satchel. She was so proud of this bag, of that uniform, and that was a testament to how small her world was. When she got older, when all of his plans came together, then he would be able to give her the whole world. She deserved the world and he would give it to her.

"Is that why you're gone for so long? Because the time passes so fast that you forget how long you've been gone for?" asked Mob as dad put her school satchel back in her hands. It was heavy, for a moment, before she used her powers to help her hold it up.

"No, I know how much time is passing." Said Suzuki. Masami winced. Daughter's aura tucked in close. Both were not the responses that he thought that he would receive. People, even his own family, were truly perplexing.

"Do you…do you miss us?" asked Mob. Mom put her hands on Mob's shoulders and was trying to lead her out of the kitchen, she supposed that they needed to get to school now, but she needed to know if dad ever missed them. They missed him. Well she did, anyway. Dad…dads missed their kids when they were away. They had to.

"Shigeko, we have to get on the road if you want to make first bell." Said Masami as she tried to lead her daughter away. Shigeko was doing that thing where she just rooted herself into place and would not be moved. Masami hated it when she did this. She didn't know her husband taught their child these things. Last time this had happened Masami ended up having to buy two gallons of strawberry milk just so that she could leave the grocery store. Shigeko had finished them off within the week, of course, but that much sugar could not have been good for her.

"I think of you when I'm away. I wonder how you're doing. I wonder if you're happy. I wonder how you've grown. I, occasionally, also find myself wanting all of you near me." Said Suzuki. He wondered if that was what she wanted to hear. Daughter and Masami, what they wanted to hear. Women had soft hearts like that. He wasn't lying, he did occasionally find himself missing his family. The children's antics could be amusing at times and their worship of him never grew tiresome. Masami, well t went without question that he did not enjoy being away from his wife for so long. She had said, before, that she wondered if she even mattered to him. That had been such an odd question. Of course she did, she was his wife. If all he wanted was a nanny for his children and a maid to keep his house clean then he would have found some espers willing to serve him in that way. Or cultists. They'd do anything that he asked of them.

"We miss you too, dad." Said Mob. Ok, now she would leave. Sho was getting upset by the door, he was asking when they were going to go. Mob checked the wall clock. Yes, it was time to leave. She could go now that she knew that dad missed them. That had been a dumb question to ask. Of course he missed them when he was away, he was their dad.

"Come on, Shigeko, we have to go. Your brother is starting to get anxious." Said Masami. Shigeko was allowing herself to be moved, good. She did not want to get into that with her husband. She knew that he was telling the truth…or rather she hoped that he did. He never called when he was away. He never skyped, either, or any of the other communication platforms that were available to him. Hell, she would have taken an old fashioned letter as opposed to the weeks of silence that he would only break to tell her when he was on his way back. Sometimes it felt like he didn't even know that he had a family.

Like now.

He made no move to join them on their school run. She could have used some help wrangling Sho. He was a ball of energy at the best of times and it got even worse when it was time to go to school. She could have used some help. She could have used some company. She was going to come back to a near empty house, most likely, with him locked in his office doing whatever it was that he did for work. That was how it was in this country, her mother had complained many times on the subject when Masami was younger, but she knew that even if they were to uproot the family and move to one of the many countries that Touichirou travelled to he would not change one tiny bit. Nope.

But that was ok. That was just how her husband was.

"Dad, you can come with us if you want to." Said Mob as mom led her out of the kitchen. Fukuda sometimes walked with them to school but he was not their dad. Sometimes dads walked to school with their kids. Well back when she was in little kid school like Sho. She was too old, technically, to have any parent walking with her to school but mom said that she wasn't allowed to walk on her own. She wouldn't have minded if dad came too.

But he didn't want to.

"I trust that your mother will deliver you to school safely. Have a good day. Learn a lot." Said Suzuki. He didn't know why the children still clung to him so. She was six years old now, and Son was five, but they still clung to him just as they had when they were toddlers. Children were odd like that, he decided, or maybe he was just the strange one. Well he didn't need his children to understand him, nor did he need to understand them. He just needed their obedience and they just needed him to provide for them. There. It was such a simple relationship.

So why did it feel, at times, very complex?

There were things about interacting with others that he just did not understand. When he had been younger, as young as the children were now, the others had always said that he couldn't get a clue. He didn't care about that, now, he was a grown man and he did not have to get a clue. He was going to rule the world within ten years, he didn't need to understand others, they just needed to understand him.

Though he did wish, sometimes, that he could understand his children. He didn't know which one he wanted to understand more, they were both so perplexing, but he did wish that he had some idea of what it was that made them tick.

His wife, too.

She was a mystery to him, sometimes….and maybe he should have made more of an effort to understand her…

Or maybe she should have made more of an effort to understand him.