Shanghai was a city in China.

China was a country in Asia.

Japan was also a part of Asia.

Japan was a collection of islands called an archipelago.

China had islands but it was not an archipelago.

Those were things that Mob knew about Shanghai. Well Shanghai and China and Japan. That was where the airplane had taken them. To this apartment in Shanghai. This was where dad lived when he had to stay in Shanghai, he had said, and now this was where they were going to live for the foreseeable future. Which meant that he didn't know when he would be done there. Which meant that she and Sho were probably going to miss school registration. Which meant that they would start school late and be the slowest kids in their classes and then everyone would make fun of them and stuff.

Which was not good.

A lot of things in her life were not very good at all at the moment. Mom was missing and dad was gone off to work and she and Sho were stuck in the smallest space that they had ever been stuck in. They were stuck there all alone. There was food for them in the kitchen and a TV they could watch, even though neither of them spoke any kind of Chinese, and they had internet which was still in Japanese even though they were in China. Well the parts of the internet they went to, the parts with shows and stuff, were still in Japanese. Dad said that there was plenty of Chinese stuff on the internet too, and some of it was interesting, and that she and Sho should work on learning at least mandarin.

Which looked like kanji but was not kanji…which was very confusing.

Also they were bored. Bored and confused and also they, or at least Sho, said that he had a sort of shut in feeling and he wanted to go outside. Dad said that he would take them outside when he got finished with his work. That had been hours ago. He had gone off to do something, he didn't say what, and had left her in charge of Sho. Sho did not like her being in charge of him.

"It's not fair and you know it." Said Sho as he drew in his drawing book. He drew what the sky looked like from the plane that they had taken. He hadn't been scared, not even for one second, and he had only held hands with big sis for the whole trip because she had been scared. That had been it. It had been neat, flying in an airplane, but this part was not neat.

At least when they had been in the castle there had always been something to do.

Something to play with, some new place to explore, something cool to get into. Now there was just this tiny place that they were trapped in. Sho had no idea what a place where people were meant to live could be so small. There was a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. This was where dad lived when he left the castle. It was boring, like him.

"It really is. I don't see why we had to come all the way over here just to sit inside and be bored…and I don't know why he left you in charge, too." Said Sho

"He left me in charge because I'm older than you, that's all, and he wants me to keep you safe until he comes back from working." Said Mob

"That's totally unfair!" said Sho

"I know that it's not fair but dad said that we have to stay in here and we have to be quiet and also I'm in charge. It's ok, dad said that he was coming back and when he came back we could go outside." Said Mob

"I don't believe him." said Sho. He didn't even look up from his drawing. He didn't have to. He knew that big sis was just going to give him that same look she always gave him, that look that wasn't really a look at all, and then she would tell him that dad was awesome and that he was talking crazy talk and that dad was totally going to keep his promise and take them outside and then everything would be ok.

He missed mom.

But mom was gone.

"I know you don't believe dad but you should. Besides, what choice do we even have? He's our dad, Sho, and we have to believe him. Besides, it's not like he lies to us." Said Mob. No, dad never lied. He was always completely and totally honest no matter what. Even if it was things that they didn't want to hear, like they had to leave the house right that second and he had no idea if or when they were coming back. Mob liked it better when dad answered them honestly than when he just refused to answer them at all.

Like when Sho had asked if mom was ever coming back.

That was not a good question to ask. They were never supposed to ask that. They were supposed to pretend like they had never had a mom at all, it seemed, and Mob…she didn't want to do that. She wanted to talk about mom. About where she could have been. About if she had run away from home or if she had gotten lost or kidnapped or maybe she just fell and broke her leg and was waiting for someone to find her like she saw on TV once about a man who broke his leg in the woods and got lost…

Mom was not lost in the woods.

And maybe she wasn't lost at all. Mob didn't want to think that mom was lost. Mom being lost or kidnapped, that was why they were never supposed to talk to strangers, was worse than the thought of mom running away from home. At least if she ran away from home she was still safe and sound…maybe. She did not know. Fukuda said that wherever mom was he was sure that she was thinking of them and that she loved them both with all her heart.

But if she loved them both with all her heart then why had she left?

"He still hasn't told us what happened to mom." Said Sho

"Yes, but that isn't lying. He just told us to never ask him that question again or to mention mom in any way." said Mob

"….but I want to…" said Sho. He wanted to talk about mom. Talking about her wouldn't make her come back, she was never coming back, but it would still…he had a mom and he wanted to remember her. Even the bad times, like when she would sleep all day and stuff, he wanted to remember. She was never coming back. That was why dad didn't give them a date or a time for her to come back. She was gone…and he had no idea where…and maybe it had been…sometimes he thought that it had been his fault. For fighting with big sis. For not being better. For making dad mad at him all the time. Sho knew that he had been born wrong, that was why mom had the scar on her stomach, and maybe the fact that he had been born wrong…maybe that was why his mom had left him….

He wanted his mom back.

And big sis was not mom even though she liked to pretend that she was. She had woken him up that morning and made him eat fruit because it was healthy and then made him take a bath and comb his hair even though it never stayed combed and then she even made him have fruit again for lunch…not that there was much else in the kitchen. If they wanted something special to eat they had to write it down and then give it to the weird aura guy that was outside the apartment door and he would get it for them.

Food stuff.

Not what he really wanted.

"I know you do…and I want to, too, but we can't. Dad said so." Said Mob

"So?" asked Sho

"So what?" asked Mob

"So we just pretend that we don't have a mom?" said Sho. His drawing was now abandoned. Big sis had been playing on her tablet, something boring probably, and that was abandoned too. They were looking at each other now. He was mad, getting mad anyway, and his aura was showing. She wasn't anything and her aura was always showing. She just…she just stared at him…like dad always stared at him….

"We have to do what dad says." Said Mob. Of course she didn't want to pretend that she didn't have a mom. She wanted her mom back. She didn't care if mom was in this tiny apartment with her and Sho. She just wanted her mom back….but she was not getting her mom back….because if they were getting their mom back then….then she would have been back already.

"It's not fair. He doesn't get to just-just erase our mom because….because he says so. He can't just make us pretend that she never existed. She did exist. She does exist!" said Sho

"Sho-" said Mob. Loud. He was being entirely too loud. She was not supposed to let him be loud. She was supposed to be the one in charge. Dad trusted her to be the one in charge.

"She exists and she's gone and she left us and-and-and I don't know why!" said Sho even though he knew why. He knew what he had done. Everything. He had been born wrong and mom…mom had decided to leave because of him. Because no matter what happened and what he did he would never be good. Never be right.

"You need to-" said Mob

"She's gone! She just left and-and-and I don't know why!" said Sho

"You're shouting-" said Mob. She glanced at the door. The copy paste aura guys were out there…and they felt like dad…but they weren't dad. They weren't dad but they reported to him and they would tell him about how she had let Sho yell inside even though they were supposed to be quiet because there were people all around them and-and-and she was not letting Sho get in trouble again!

"I don't care! I don't care if I;m shouting! Mom is gone! Mom is gone and-and-and-" said Sho. This room was too small. The room was small and the walls were white and the carpet was white and the cushions that he had made his drawing fort out of were white and he felt so caged in and trapped and he just needed to get out!

So he left.

He walked past big sis and out the door and he left.

Those weird aura guys tried to stop him but he just kept on walking. He felt something like an invisible wall…and he just walked right through it. Aura through aura. He had no idea where he was going or what he was doing. He just had to get out. He just had to get out and get…away. He didn't know where he was going to go….

He didn't even know, fully, where he was.

But he knew that he had to get away. Big sis was running after him. She was telling him that he had to go back inside…and also that he had to put his shoes on. Right. He was outside in his socks. She was so far behind him because she had stopped to put her shoes on. He knew that in some other countries people wore shoes all the time, even in the house, and in other countries some people never wore shoes at all. Maybe this was one of those countries where nobody wore shoes ever.

It was not one of those countries.

He had run down the stairs and out into the city…and people were looking at him weird. Of course they were. He had red hair and blue eyes and freckles and…and also he didn't have any shoes on. The people there were looking at him weird and saying things that he didn't understand….and even though he was outside he felt even more trapped than when he had been inside…

Was this why mom had left?

Had she felt this trapped feeling, too? Had she felt like she was…like she was stuck? Sho had felt like that even back at the castle. When dad and big sis had been hanging out and liking each other…but mom had mostly been asleep…and even though the house was super big it still had walls…even the yard had walls…and he had been stuck there. He had brains in his head and feet in his shoes but he could not steer himself wherever he chose. Even now he could not steer himself wherever he chose. He had no idea where he was.

It was called Shanghai.

It smelled weird. It looked weird. He could sort of read some of the writing on the signs but not really. He thought that he had been stuck before but this….this was a whole other kind of stuck. He should have thought this through. Dad was always saying that he wasn't incapable of thinking things through. Sure he was outside but then…then what? What was he going to do now? Walk back to Japan in his bare feet? He had run down the stairs and out the front door of the building…and now he had to run back up the stairs and back to…not home but…but the place where the futon he had slept on last night was. Where his drawing books were. Where his sister was.

"Sho! At least put your shoes on!" said Mob. She handed Sho his shoes. He was just kind of looking around…which was good. She was glad that she hadn't lost him. She did not speak mandarin or any other kind of Chinese. She knew nothing about Shanghai or China or anywhere that wasn't where she had grown up. If she had lost track of her little brother here…she never would have seen him again….

And also he wasn't wearing shoes.

You always had to wear shoes when you left the house. Even if you went swimming at the pool you still had to wear water shoes. Sho wasn't wearing shoes. The ground was dirty. That was why you were supposed to wear shoes when you went outside. If mom had been there she would have been so disappointed in Mob for not taking care of Sho. If mom had been there then Mob wouldn't have had to take care of Sho in the first place…

Mom was not there.

And Mob was the one in charge.

"Fine." Said Sho. He took his sandals from her and put them on. There were two red aura guys standing off to the side and talking. Sho wondered if they were going to tell dad on him. Probably. They worked for him after all. He wondered how dad would punish him this time.

"Are you ok? Did you step in anything sharp? Or gross?" asked Mob. She looked him over. He seemed to be fine. No blood or bumps or bruises. She wondered if maybe she should have put her hand on his forehead, too, even though she had no idea what that would have told her. That was just something that you were supposed to do when you were worried about someone. Mom had done that, before, when she had been worried about them.

"No. I'm fine." Said Sho. Those weird aura guys were still looking at him and big sis and talking to each other. It looked like they were arguing. Sho had no idea what they were saying. He didn't speak Chinese.

"Come on, then. Let's go back inside before dad finds out." Said Mob. She took Shi's hand, well she tried to, but Sho pulled away from her really hard. She tried again and he did the same thing again. It hurt that he didn't want to hold her hand. They always held hands, even when he had been scared on the plane ride, and…and it hurt when he pulled away from her. It hurt a lot…

But she didn't let it show.

"I don't want to." Said Sho. He didn't know where he would go or what he would do out here but he knew that it had to be better than being trapped up there.

"But you have to. Dad said-" said Mob

"I don't care what dad said!" said Sho. That was the last straw. He did not want to hear any more about dad or what he said or what he wanted from them! From him! He didn't know where he was going to go or what he was going to do but it had to be better than being there, bossed around by his big sister, or waiting around to get punished by his dad.

He started walking.

"Sho! You can't just leave! We'll get lost!" said Mob. She was seven and he was six. They needed to be outside with a grownup. Mom had always said that they were never to go outside the house, or the yard, without an adult. They weren't just outside the house and the yard, no, they were outside the country! Plus dad had been super clear, they were not supposed to leave the apartment under any circumstances. Dad had told them to do something and they had best do it unless they wanted to get punished. Mob got punished too, now, like Sho got punished…and it was the worst. Dad never hurt her, not really, but it was always so…scary…when he pushed her down. Or into something. Or just reached out and hit her…he didn't do it very hard…but he did hit her…and it was scary because he was dad and…and it also felt kind of like he had been tricking her all these years, too. That he had tricked her into thinking that he loved her…but he did love her. That was why he punished her, to make her into a better person, so it was ok….

She did not want to be punished.

Even though she was long past that point. They had left even though they were not supposed to and she had let Sho go outside without shoes on…and it was all her fault…and dad was going to punish her…and maybe if he punished her a whole lot then he wouldn't have any energy left to punish Sho with…even though that was not at all how it worked, maybe, she didn't know. It had never worked before…

Sho would not slow down.

And they were being followed by those weird aura guys. Mob wondered why they didn't just tell her and Sho to stop…and she wondered if she was supposed to listen to them…they worked for dad so they listened to dad but wasn't working for dad kind of like working for them? Because they were all part of the Suzuki family? They had even called her 'Miss Suzuki' even though mom was…well she was Mrs. Suzuki…

She was not a grownup.

She was not mom.

And it felt a little bit unfair to her that dad expected her to be mom. Well he never came out and said that she was mom now, because then she would have had to be married to her own dad and that wasn't right at all, but he treated her like mom. He made her take care of Sho and even asked her, before, to cook and clean like mom had. Was it because she was the oldest kid? Or was it because she was a girl? What if Sho was the older brother? What would have happened then? Was it even something worth thinking about?

What did it matter what she thought about? Her thoughts couldn't change what was happening right then and there.

"Sho, where are you even going?" asked Mob as they came to a stop. It was hot. The air tasted funny here. Her feet hurt because she hadn't had time to buckle her sandals the right way. They had been walking for hours, it felt like, though she didn't have a clock anywhere near her so she couldn't tell the exact time.

"I don't know…away, I guess." Said Sho. He couldn't walk anymore. His feet hurt and his skin hurt, he had a sunburn coming on, and also it hurt to breathe just a little. He had no idea how long he had been walking for, at least a million kilometers if not more, and he just wanted…he didn't know what he wanted.

To go home.

To his actual home…but that was never going to happen again. It wasn't home without mom. It wasn't castle Suzuki if all of the Suzuki's weren't living in it….and dad didn't count. He could move to wherever he wanted, Sho didn't care, he just wanted his mom back. He didn't care what happened as long as he got mom back.

"You can't just do that, Sho, you can't just run away like that. Something bad could have happened to you! We don't know where we are and we don't understand anybody and nobody understands us because we're speaking Japanese and-and-and I need to stop it." Said Mob. She could see her aura. Those copy paste aura guys took a couple steps back. Normal people weren't looking at them, yet, so she hadn't totally lost control…but she needed to calm down. Conceal, don't feel. Losing control…that would make dad madder at her than he probably already was.

"I know that! You think that I don't know that!?" said Sho. He could see his aura again…and he was getting close to losing control. He wanted to push her. He wanted to shove her. He wanted…he could not do any of the things that he wanted…because she was his sister…and he didn't want to hurt her…he just…wanted to hurt something.

He didn't understand why.

"Sho, I don't know what you do and don't know. All I know is that you can't just run away like that. You can't just…just run away even if you want to." Said Mob

"I wasn't trying to run away. I was trying to get away." said Sho

"What's the difference?" asked Mob

"I was trying to get away from you." Said Sho

"Oh. That hurts my feelings but…but I understand. I understand why you wouldn't want to be around me. Because I can't control my powers and I can't take good care of you and-" said Mob

"No, it's got nothing to do with that! I wanted to get away from you because you wouldn't shut up about all the stuff that dad said! And you kept on trying to be mom! You are not my mother." Said Sho

"I know that I'm not our mom-" said Mob

"My mom. I had mom and you had dad, that was what we agreed on." Said Sho

"I know that we agreed on that but…but we don't have mom anymore." Said Mob

"I know! I know that we don't have mom anymore…and I hate that! I hate that dad…he's making us pretend that she never existed in the first place! And he's trying to make me treat you like you're our mom but you aren't! You're my big sister, not my mom, and I don't see why I have to do what you say-" said Sho

"I don't like it either, you know. I don't like how dad puts me in charge. I don't like how mom is gone and we aren't allowed to talk about her. I don't like how dad punished me-you. I don't like how he's always punishing you just for talking about her. I don't like it and I didn't ask for…for any of this." said Mob

"Neither did I…but now we have it…and I don't want it. I want to go home. I want to go back to the castle." Said Sho. He wanted to go back to the castle and see mom there, he didn't care if she was wide awake or on one of her sleeping marathons, and then everything would have been ok and he would have been ok…but that could not be. He knew that it could not be…but he could still want things. There was no crime in wanting things….

"I do too…but we can't. We live…I don't know where we live now, dad said that this wasn't a move just a trip, but I…I miss the castle…and I miss mom, too. I miss her so much that it…it hurts." Said Mob. She was crying a little. Sho wiped the tears from her eyes. Well he kind of just shoved them back in but that worked too.

"Big sis…do you think that we'll ever be able to go back home?" asked Sho

"I don't know. I don't know any more about what's going to happen than you do….but I do know that we need to get back because if dad comes back and sees us gone then nothing good will happen to us." Said Mob. She took Sho's hand, he didn't shake her away, and they walked together. They retraced their steps and, when that didn't work, they asked the weird aura guys to lead them.

Turns out they sort of spoke Japanese.

And they did have to do what she said. Well what she and Sho said. Sho told them to get them candy, they passed by a candy store, and they did. So they did have to follow their orders. Mob wanted to tell them to, well ask them nicely to, show them how to get back to Japan…but she wondered if that might have been pushing it. She didn't want to push it. She and Sho were in enough trouble as it was.

At least it had seemed that way.

They went back to the apartment and watched Chinese TV, well tried to watch Chinese TV, until dad came home. He said some mean sounding things, Mob didn't speak Chinese and she had trouble with tones but Sho assured her that those were angry words in whatever language, and then he came through the door.

Mob and Sho waited to get punished.

But he just told them to explain…and they did…and then he just stared at them for a while before saying…

"Children need exercise."

And that was that.