They still lived at Disney Land.
Which was better than living in the new apartment with dad, at least that was what Sho had said. The new apartment which was different from the last new apartment. This one had two bedrooms so she and Sho didn't have to live in the living room. They were in a place called Hong Kong now, which was a part of China but also not a part of China. Dad explained it to them but Mob had forgotten most of what he said. All she knew about Hong Kong was that nobody spoke Japanese, she and Sho had to learn a whole new money system, and there was Disney Land here.
They could never get tired of Disney Land.
Well they had gotten kind of tired of the last one. Just a little. This was a different one but a lot of things were still the same. There was the castle, which was similar to the one in Shanghai, though not as big. Nothing here was as big as was in Shanghai. Not that Mob wanted to go back to Shanghai anytime soon. No, she really just wanted to get back to Japan. Back to Japan and back to the castle where they belonged. They were Suzuki's and it was called castle Suzuki and they had always lived in the castle. She agreed with Sho on the subject of going back home.
Though she, of course, said nothing to dad.
What could she say? That she wanted to go back home right that minute? That she was sick and tired of waking up and not knowing where she was? That she wanted to sleep on her own bed in her own room and be in her own house? That she didn't care if the castle was empty or that she and Sho would be all alone? Well that last one was half of a lie. She wanted to be with mom…but mom was gone. Fukuda said that no matter where mom was she was still thinking of them.
But she didn't have to think of them.
She could have just come home to them and been with them in person. Dad said that mom left of her own accord. She's wasn't laying hurt or dead somewhere and the kidnappers hadn't gotten to her. That was the only thing that dad had said to her when she asked about mom even though she wasn't supposed to. Then he pushed her down with his powers and it had hurt a lot, he had pushed her so hard that all the air had gone out of her lungs, and that had been scary…and she had lost control…and this was actually their second Hong Kong apartment….and dad had been so disappointed in her…
But better her than Sho.
Besides, she and dad were ok now. He still let her go to Disney Land and he still gave her a big handful of money to keep in her Elsa bag and he still told her to have fun. He always said that before they left. He told them that they had to have fun and get good and tired. So that was what they did. Since dad hadn't said anything about being mad at her then she could have a lot fun. So could Sho. Really, they were having a lot of fun.
"I'm bored." Said Sho. Mob frowned. They were drinking frozen cola with ice cream in it, Mob knew that it was bad for them but she didn't care it was very hot out, and this had come out of nowhere. A minute ago Sho had said how much fun they had been having. Maybe he was just in a bad mood because Mob had forgotten to put sunscreen on him again. Fukuda could fix his sunburn when they got back. Tomorrow Mob would remember to cover him in sunscreen. Herself too, that was why she had forgotten, her skin never burnt or got any darker in the sun. Dad said that was a good thing, that she was so pale, but Mob didn't think so. Back at school the other kids would say that she looked like a ghost. Still, it was better than burning every time the sun came out to say hello.
"We can get more autographs. Someone new might be walking around." Said Mob. She didn't know why Sho was so bored. They had only been coming here for the past three days. There was still so much new to do like…like a lot of things. All sorts of things. Oh the things they could do….like…um….more autographs! Wait, no, she had just said that…
And also their autograph books were getting kind of full.
"Nobody new is ever walking around." Said Sho
"Um…we could go on the spinning teacups again." said Mob even though they just ate a lot of Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes and Sho had thrown up, before, when they were in Shanghai. She actually hoped that he didn't pick that one. She needed to learn to think before she spoke, like dad was always telling them to.
"Those are just like the spinning honey pots at the last Disney Land." Said Sho
"We could go on the carosel again." said Mob
"That's just more spinning." Said Sho
"We can go back to superhero world." Said Mob
"We were just there." said Sho
"We can feed popcorn to birds." Said Mob even though they were not supposed to do that, actually, though she didn't know why. Birds could be hungry, too. Mom had always let them feed the birds when they went to the park with the bird pond in it. They would stop off at the store and get stale bread or bags of popcorn and then feed the birds…and sometimes the birds would take their food…or the mean ducks would come back…but mom would chase them off…
"Then they'll just yell at us in Chinese." Said Sho
"Maybe they won't." said Mob
"You're right. They'll yell at you in Chinese and they'll yell at me in English." Said Sho. Mob wondered why people did that. She could understand thinking that they both spoke English or that they both spoke Chinese, both kinds that they spoke here, but it was weird when they said something to her in Chinese and then turned to Sho and said something to him in English. They were clearly brother and sister so of course they would speak the same languages.
"But then that's ok because we won't be able to understand them anyway." Said Mob. She was trying to be funny. She was trying to make him smile. It didn't work, he just sat back and crossed his arms. Mob had no idea what combination of words would make her little brother happy.
So she didn't use words.
She just poured what was left of her cola with ice cream in it into his cup. He looked up at her. She looked back at him. Maybe he was just unhappy because he was hot and his skin was burnt and stuff. She couldn't fix any of that but she could at least try and make him happy in the only way that she could. That was her job. She was his big sister.
"Thanks." Said Sho after a little bit. He tilted his cup back and drank way too fast. Mob wondered what his hurry was. It wasn't like they had anything specific to do. Well there was the princess show but there was no way he would ever be in a hurry for that. She wondered for a moment before she remembered that not only did that drink have frozen cola but ice cream in it as well…and she knew what happened when you ate or drank cold stuff way too fast…..
"Sho, be careful or you'll get a-" said Mob
"Brain freeze!" shouted Sho. He almost tilted backwards but Mob caught him with her powers. She wasn't supposed to use them where normal people could see….but nobody noticed. Everyone was busy with all of their own stuff. Well most of them. Some of them said things in Chinese, Mandarin and Cantonese, but Mob had no idea what it was that they were saying. They hadn't noticed her powers, they would have freaked out if they'd had, and Sho was ok. That was what mattered, that Sho was ok.
"I said to be careful." Said Mob as Sho calmed down. Brain freeze was the worst, the very worst. She wished that she had healing powers because then she could have made it better. She wished that she could do more for him. She was supposed to take care of him after all. She was the big sister.
"I was careful." Said Sho
"Ok." Said Mob
"I really was!" said Sho
"I believe you, little brother, I always believe you." Said Mob even though it hadn't looked like he was being careful at all. He would not have lied to her, though, because he was her little brother and little brothers did not tell lies…well unless they were telling you that they had washed their hands before eating. But to be fair there was mostly this citrus smelling soap in all the bathrooms.
"Good. You should." Said Sho
"I know that I should." Said Mob. They just sort of sat there for a little bit. Sho kicked the underside of the table a few times even though he should not have been doing that.
"I'm bored." Said Sho even though he had said that before. He had said that before and she had offered up her suggestions and he had said no to them all. If anything she wanted to go back to Fantasy Land and go to the garden place…but Sho thought that it was boring in there. This wasn't a boring place at all. This wasn't…this was just a place that they had gotten too used to. That was all.
"I know." Said Mob after a while. What else could she say? She had already said a bunch of things that they could do together. What else was there to do? Besides go back to the car….or maybe it was a different car this time. She could sense another one of those weird aura guys….and it might have been the same one. Dad had called them the Awakened. They were artificial espers, which meant not real, like how artificial cheese from the can was not as good as real cheese despite what Sho though, and that was why they all had such similar auras. She wondered if they ever got bored just waiting for them. She had asked, once, but they said that they were not allowed to speak to her unless it was necessary….and they also called her Miss Suzuki even though she told them a million times to call her Mob. Nobody called her Mob. She had missed the first day of school. Nobody was ever going to call her Mob again…but that was ok….because she called herself Mob. Even though it was not a name. It was who she wanted to be, though, and that had to count for something. Right?
She liked being called Mob a lot better than being called Miss Suzuki, anyway.
"Aren't you bored?" asked Sho
"No. Not really. I can think of a lot of things more boring than this." said Mob. She was a little bit on the bored side…but that was ok. Going back to the apartment was a lot more boring than this. Dad said that they couldn't walk around Hong Kong on their own because it would attract undue attention, which was dad speak for 'kids aren't allowed out on their own' and if people noticed them out on their own then dad would get in trouble and people would find out about the place he ran. Claw was supposed to be a secret, he said, and people who talked got in big trouble.
Mob wished that being an esper wasn't such a big secret.
But dad had said that one day it wouldn't be. One day he would make it so that being an esper wasn't weird or scary. When he ruled the world then he would make it into a better place for espers everywhere, he had said, and she was looking forward to that…though not to the other stuff. She didn't much want dad to take over the world and then leave it to her and Sho. She may have been dressed like a princess, her Elsa dress had gotten dirty so now she was Anna, but she did not want to be a princess of the world like dad said that she would grow up to be. She didn't want to boss people around like that. She didn't even like bossing Sho around so she of course would not like to boss around all the people in the world.
Even if Dad had promised to build a Disney Land just for her.
She was getting kind of tired of living in Disney Land.
"Like what?" asked Sho
"Being back at the apartment. At least here we can be outside." Said Mob
"But at least there's air conditioning in there." said Sho
"That's true but I know you. We'll play videogames for an hour or two and then you'll be begging me to let you sneak outside for just a little bit. Remember what dad said, we can't go outside unless we're here. This place is for kids so two more kids wouldn't attract any attention." Said Mob
"I know what he said. I was there." said Sho
"Ok. I just thought that you might have forgotten." Said Mob
"I didn't forget what dad said, big sis, I have ears and stuff. I know that if we go back we have to spend the rest of the day inside. I'm just bored." Said Sho
"Do you want to play on your tablet for a little bit? I brought it and I'm sure that we can find a charging station somewhere. I even remembered the converter thing this time." Said Mob. She hadn't remembered, last time, that the plugs in Hong Kong were different than the ones in Japan and she and Sho had been kind of disappointed. Sho was the only one who showed it, though. It was ok, well not totally ok but more ok than it was for Mob, for Sho to show his feelings. That was because his powers were still little. She had a lot more power than he did, dad called her a prodigy and that was a word that meant very good at something without even trying, but Mob tried every day. That was why she couldn't show her feelings, because she had to try and control her powers, and that was why she could not sit there and kick the table along with her little brother and complain with him about how bored she was.
"No, I'm bored of that, too." Said Sho
"Oh. Um…do you want to-" said Mob
"I think that this one is more little than the other one." said Sho
"You mean in Shanghai?" asked Mob
"Yeah, where else could I have meant?" asked Sho
"I read on the map that there are other Disney Lands. There's the original one in the U.S. and then there's one in Tokyo and one in Paris and also-" said Mob
"Well we've only been to the one in Shanghai." Said Sho
"I know." Said Mob
"There's one in Tokyo too." Said Sho
"I know, Sho, I just told you that." Said Mob
"We've only been to the ones in China." Said Sho
"I know." Said Mob
"Even though it probably would have been easier to go to the one in Tokyo. That's at least still in Japan and we're from Japan." Said Sho
"I know it is. Back at school, at my old school, the big kids that were graduating got to take a school trip to Tokyo." Said Mob. She hadn't given that trip much thought, that was for the older kids, and she was not one of the older kids…but she could have gone with her class if she had stayed at school…and she had no idea why she felt sort of sad about that. She was traveling with her little brother and her dad, and she got to practically live at Disney Land, what could be better than that?
Having a mom.
But she should not have been thinking like that. Dad had told her not to talk about mom. Dad had told her not to so much as think about mom. Dad had told her to exorcise those emotions. Mob had tried…but she couldn't. She had a mom and she'd had the same mom for her entire life and now she didn't have a mom….and that was….it hurt kind of…
And she couldn't exorcise that emotion no matter how hard she tried.
"Do you think that dad'll take us to the one in Tokyo?" asked Sho
"Maybe. He doesn't tell me where we're going…or even if we're going. He woke you up the same as me that morning and told us both that we had to pack up because we had to go to Hong Kong next." Said Mob. That had not been a fun way to wake up at all. Mom always told them the day before what their plans for tomorrow were….but dad was not mom. Mom was mom…and mom was gone….
"Do you think that he'll ever take us home again, big sis?" asked Sho. Mob wanted to reach over and cover his mouth even though that would not have changed what he had just said. She felt around with her aura…and the only other esper around was the weird aura guy that was waiting for them…and she didn't know what she was so worried about anyway. Dad had more important things to do besides spy on them.
"I really don't know, little brother, I don't know at all" said Mob softly. She wanted to cry, now, because she had been thinking about mom for so long…and she had been up almost all night thinking about mom…and she wanted to cry or shout or something….but she couldn't. There was no way that she could…no way that she could exorcise these emotions….
So she just stomped them deep down low where they would drown underneath pancakes, frozen cola, and ice cream.
"I don't know either…" said Sho. Mob nodded. She reached over and took his hand even though it was somehow both sweaty and sticky at the same time. He was all sweaty and sticky. The umbrella they were sitting under did nothing for the heat. She wondered if it was still high summer, or if high summer was different in China than it was in Japan.
"I'm bored." Said Sho. Mob wanted to tell him that she knew that he was bored, she had working ears after all, but she did not. That would have been mean and big sister were not mean to their little brothers. Ever.
"I know." Was what Mob settled on.
"Do you…do you want to go back to princess town?" asked Sho. Mob blinked. Had she heard him right. He must have meant fantasy town….and he hated fantasy town…because he said that it was boring….but then again he was bored so…so she figured that he could have been bored anywhere.
"If that's ok with you." Said Mob. She really did want to go…but she also did not want to make him unhappy. She loved him so much…and when you loved someone then you always wanted to make them happy. He took his hand from hers and just got up. She followed him pausing only to throw their cups out because they did not come all the way to Hong Kong to make a mess. Like dad had said when they had left a mess at breakfast the other day. They did not come all the way to Hong Kong to make a mess…just like they had not gone all the way to Shanghai to make a mess…and just like they were not going to go wherever the next stop on their trip was to make a mess.
They were going to go to wherever their next stop was to go to Disney Land probably…..because that was where they lived now.
They lived at Disney Land.
And it was getting kind of boring.