"Don't name them, Sho, they aren't pets."

"I heard you the first fifty times."

Dad said that people ran rats through mazes all the time. Maybe this was ok. It was something new, and it was fun, and they even got to play with rats….

Well of them was a hamster.

The hamster was Sho's favorite. Mob wondered if something got lost in translation, which was the name of a movie Mom liked and also something that meant when you mostly spoke Japanese and tried to speak English to someone who mostly spoke French and only knew a little English and even less Japanese something things got confused…like the words for hamster and rat.

"I still think we should name them, though, so we know which one is which." Said Sho. He wanted to keep at least the hamster but dad said no pets. Dad really hated animals…not like mom. Mom would have let them keep at least the hamster….if she didn't have to do what dad said all the time.

"One is black, one is white, and one is a hamster. We know which is which." Said Mob. She felt like mom, now, and not just because she had to put sunscreen on Sho every half hour. Well that wasn't a hard rule but every half hour would be safest. They were outside in the backyard of the house they lived in. There was a wall, so it was ok, and they weren't keeping any of these animals, so it was also ok.

Dad wasn't going to get mad. That was ok.

They had stayed home, which dad never said that they weren't allowed to do, and they were not going keep any of these animals, so it was ok. It was ok and they were not going to get in trouble. They were allowed to ask the weird aura guys for things, too, so they would not get in trouble for that either…and if they did and dad wanted to punish them she would just take Sho and hide and then tell dad that it was all her fault….and it was…

This had, kind of, been her idea.

"I guess….but they need real names. Everyone needs a real name." said Sho. That was like how dad never called them by their real names. Living things needed names, mom said, because they needed to know that they were loved. It was important for people and animals and stuff to know that they were loved. Being loved….being loved was important.

"They probably have names at the pet store or animal shelter where they came from. If we give them names now then they'll end up getting all confused and stuff." Said Mob as she picked up the hamster with her powers and put it at the end of the maze they had made. They didn't know what they were trying to prove with this other than that hamsters and rats liked to eat food and knew how to run fast.

"Do you think?" asked Sho. It was hard to imagine the lives of these animals. Did they have friends where they came from? Families? Moms and dads and big sisters and little brothers? Was one of these guys someone's mom? And did the kids miss their mom? Did the mom know that her kids missed her? Did the mom even care? Did the mom ever think about the kids? Did the mom ever….did the mom ever think about coming back?

"Yes. Animals can give each other names, especially rats. That's all the squeaking, it's rat language. They have their own language and probably friends and families and stuff…and I don't think that's disturbing at all." s

"Yeah….I guess. Let's make a slide, too, to go over the moat." Said Sho. He dug through the pile of stuff they found until he got out a very long paper towel roll. They had collected all the junk they could find, which hadn't been a lot, but enough to make a maze for all of the animals they were borrowing. This was…this was nice….even if he couldn't keep them….

Because dad didn't like animals.

Mom liked animals. Mom said that animals loved people just as much as people loved animals. Dad didn't love anyone but big sis, that was why he didn't like animals or even his own kid. All he cared about was big sis and it was the worst and-

"Don't cut yourself." Said Mob. She used her powers to take the scissors from Sho's hands and cut the cardboard tube herself. She didn't want him to get hurt. She loved him and when you loved someone you wanted them to be safe. That was why the walls of the maze had cotton balls on them, because they loved those little animals and they didn't want them to get hurt. The walls were made of cardboard so they might have gotten cuts…and that would not have been good at all.

"I know how to use scissors." Said Sho. He didn't yell at her or kick her like he wanted to. Well not wanted to, like part of him wanted to, the mean part of him. That was a part of himself that he didn't like. He knew that he should have been nicer…and he tried. Animals were watching.

"I know but I just don't want you to get hurt. I love you." Said Mob as she finished making the slide for him. It went over the moat, which was a water bottle that they had cut in half, and Mob wondered if it would have been safer to take the water out. Maybe. Rats could swim, right? And so could hamsters?

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I know." Said Sho. He turned away from her and picked the hamster up out of it's plastic cage thing. He wished that he could have kept him…or maybe it was a her. He didn't know and he wasn't about to go invading it's privacy like that. Or maybe animals didn't care, they were naked all the time. He wondered if they got hot having so much fur. It was hot out even though it wasn't high summer, no, now it was low summer.

He didn't know if that was a thing.

And he couldn't very well just go and ask now could he. Mom was the one who taught them about high summer and therefore mom would have been the one to know if low summer was a real thing. Summer was a very long season, at least he never remembered it lasting this long…or maybe it had something to do with how they were halfway around the world, dad had said. If you could get jet lagged then could you get season lagged too?

He wasn't about to go and ask dad that.

Dad was already going to be mad at them because they had borrowed all of these animals. He'd probably punish, them, or maybe just him. He hardly ever punished big sis. That was because he liked her. She got dad and he got mom…only they didn't have a mom anymore. They only had each other, now, and dad which was almost like not having anyone at all. Well having someone who didn't like you and made you feel like shoe gum, Sho gum, all the time. That was who they had. A dad. They needed a mom but they had a dad.

Maybe he wanted to be an orphan.

Maybe this hamster was an orphan. Sometimes back at the animal shelter where mom took them too they got orphaned pets. Those were pets without homes or parents. Maybe they were lucky in a way. Like if their parents didn't like them. Like if their parents didn't like them then they would be happier all on their own. Kids could be orphans too. A lot of movie characters were orphans. Maybe he wanted to be an orphan…he was already halfway there. No mom and hardly even a dad….

"I think that rats run faster than hamsters." Said Mob as she let one of the rats, the black one, go through the maze. They ran really fast and were smarter too, maybe. She could totally believe in the rat cities and rat societies that dad thought were so scary. Well he said disturbing and that was a word which meant scary. She didn't think that smart rats were scary. She didn't think that rats in general were scary at all. She didn't get why, on TV, people always shouted and jumped on top of chairs.

These little guys weren't scary at all.

Maybe they were just misunderstood. Dad said that people would be afraid of them for what they could do, that was why they had to keep their powers a secret for the time being, but maybe they just didn't trust what they didn't understand. Like rats. They weren't mean and scary and they didn't have fleas, well these rats didn't have fleas, and actually they were very small and cuddly. Not the terrible things people made them out to be.

People didn't understand their powers but it would be better when dad took over the world.

And also, maybe, when he ruled the world he would be so busy that he would look the other way if she and Sho got a pet. Well maybe they would be adults by then and then they would be able to do whatever they wanted. Well not whatever they wanted, they would have husbands and wives and stuff, so they would have to listen to them…but they would at least have more freedom than kids had. Not that they had a lot of rules, just a few very unfair ones, and maybe a few unfair rules would be better than having a million and one fair ones.

Like mom had.

"No way, they're too long. Hamsters are smaller and smaller things go faster. That's why we have to take a little plane when we go places and not a big plane. That's science." Said Sho as he let them hamster run up and down his arm. With his free hand he fed her a sunflower seed. She liked it. Hamtaro hadn't lied to him.

Not that he would name the hamster after the show, no, that would be too boring.

Not that they would be naming any of these animals. They couldn't be named because if they got named then it would be like they were their pets and then it would be harder to say goodbye. Maybe that was why dad never used their names. Maybe he thought that he and big sis were going to run away like mom did. That was a stupid thing to think. They were six and seven years old. Where would they even go? They were oceans and countries away from home and didn't speak a word of the language that the people here spoke.

They were well and truly trapped.

But at least they had a yard to make animal mazes in. Even though this house was not their house and this yard was not their yard at least they had somewhere to play. That was a lot more than a lot of people had. He hated apartments, he decided, and he felt bad for all the kids who had to live in them.

"If you say so." Said Mob. She didn't think that Sho was right at all. She thought that hamsters were too small to run fast and also they got distracted too easily but of course she would agree with her little brother. That was why you did when you loved someone, you agreed with them even if you didn't actually agree with them.

"I don't say so, I know so." Said Sho. He hated it when she was like that. She just told him what he wanted to hear. What she thought that he wanted to hear. It made him mad…and he didn't even know why. He knew that he had to stay calm but…but he was so upset…

But he had to be good. There were animals watching.

"Ok Sho. I know you do. Do you think we should make an elevator too? And then another level of this maze?" asked Mob. They still had some boxes that they could cut up. If they made another level then it would be even cooler. Maybe dad would even think that it was cool. He had talked about that, before, building a self-contained city with different levels and stuff. The cities he talked about would have domes over them to keep the people inside safe but Mob had no idea how to make a clear dome out of what they had so she just settled for another level.

It went sort of well.

Until one of the rats ran away.

And then she tried to catch it with her powers.

But Sho got up to chase it.

And then he fell on her.

And she fell on some scissors.

It hurt. There was a big cut down the side of her arm. Her blood got all over her dress, this was a copy of the dress that Ariel wore after she turned into a human, and it may not have been her favorite dress it was still nice…and now it had blood on it….but it wasn't all bad. That was why she didn't cry. It was a bad cut but it meant that they got to see Fukuda again.

Which was always good.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Fukuda could hear Sho shouting the minute he stepped through the door. The lack of genkan was disorienting but it wasn't frightening, no, that honor was reserved for the sound of Sho's apologies mixed with him shouting something about blood.

This was what happened when you left a six year old and a seven year old unsupervised.

The Awakened did not count. They took their orders from the children. They weren't supposed to…at least Fukuda hoped to God that they weren't supposed to. He didn't know. All he knew was that nobody had thought to stop the kids from doing…whatever it was that they had been doing. Whatever it was that they had taken over the yard to do.

That involved various rodents in cages.

And Shigeko sitting there on the ground just bleeding….poor kid. Poor Sho, too, Fukuda figured that he had something to do with this. Who would have thought that emotionally neglecting a child and then blatantly favoring his older sister would have resulted in a very angry little boy? And who would have thought that this very angry little boy would have had all the normal impulse control issues that child his age had? Really, this whole thing had just come out of nowhere-

These were not his children.

He reminded himself that these were not his children when they greeted him like he was Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy, and the second coming of Walt Disney himself.

He reminded himself that these were not his children while he listened to the play by play of what, exactly, had gone wrong.

He reminded himself that these were not his children while he healed the cut, the very ugly cut on Shigeko's arm.

These were not his children and this was not his family. They were Masami's children and she was…he didn't even dare think of her whereabouts. She was gone and she was safe and…and she was happy. The last time they had checked in she seemed happy….as happy as a woman starting over from nothing with her kids a world away could be. She was…she was doing better than she had been, before, and that was all that Fukuda wanted. All that he could ask for.

Her happiness.

"It really was an accident…." Said Sho as Fukuda healed big sis up. He didn't want her to get hurt, to get all bloody, and that time it had been an accident….and she probably didn't believe him. She had said, before, that she believed that it had been an accident but she was the type of person to just say things that she thought would make him feel better.

He didn't.

"I know, Sho, you told me a bunch of times already. I'm not upset with you. I'm more upset that you're upset." Said Mob. She had been upset, she had been scared, but she had been calm, too. She had kept all of her feeling deep down inside of herself to where they couldn't come out and hurt anything or anyone. She kept them right there inside of herself, next to her stomach it felt like, and that kept her from losing control even a little bit.

Dad would have been so proud.

"Hey, listen. I don't blame you. Your sister doesn't blame you. I bet your little friends down there don't blame you either. Accidents happen, especially when you're on your own with a pair of very sharp scissors." Said Fukuda as he moved the very large pair of scissors, much too large for children their age, away from them.

"We're not babies….and we're not alone. We have each other and those guys who work for dad, too." Said Sho

"I meant you didn't have your mo-you didn't have a parent or a nanny watching you, that's all." said Fukuda. It was one thing to leave them alone ay Disney Land all day, at least there was no way for them to get hurt there, but to leave them alone in a strange house in a strange country with no real supervision….

These were not his children.

But he was still an adult and he was involved and he was concerned.

"Dad left me in charge." Said Mob. She didn't know what the look on Fukuda's face meant, exactly, but if she were just to go off of his aura…she had said the wrong thing again.

"He always leaves her in charge…because he likes her the best." Muttered Sho

"Sho…he likes you too…I mean at least a little." Said Mob

"You're just telling me things that you think I want to hear." Said Sho

"No. I'm not. If he didn't like you at least a little then he would have just left you all alone at home. He doesn't have to take us with him, you know." Said Mob

"He has to because he's our dad." Said Sho

"No, he could just leave us with a nanny or something like Fukuda said." Said Mob

"Hey now, I never said that your dad was planning on-" said Fukuda

"I wish that he would have left me at home." Said Sho

"But then…little brother you would have been all alone. I don't want that. I could never want that. I love you so much…"said Mob softly. Sho took her hand but kept his head turned away from hers.

"Yeah…I love you too….even if you're bossy and stuff…" said Sho

"See? You two love each other and everything is ok. So now then….how about….." said Fukuda. He stopped himself before he could do anything stupid. He was about to spirit Sho away. Shigeko….there was no spiriting Shigeko away. She was too noticeable, too bright, and Suzuki would definitely burn the world to the ground looking for her…

And then he would burn whoever it was that had the audacity to take her.

But it would have been so easy to spirit Sho away. Suzuki was busy all day, Claw wasn't all vicious beatings and boring speeches, and Sho….he didn't give a damn about the kid. The only problem were the Awakened. They may have let him take Sho….but they knew him. They had at least seen his face. Suzuki would have him found and disposed of if he dared Spirit Sho off to his mother….

And then Masami would be compromised as well.

"How about you two show me what, exactly, it is that I'm looking at." Said Fukuda. He couldn't take Sho away from here, not yet anyway, but he could at least spend some time with the kids. Snap a few pictures for Masami…maybe even a video. It wouldn't have raised suspicion. This was an impressive rodent fortress that the two of them had built.

Oh. According to Shigeko it was a maze.

And according to Sho they had permission to build it.

And according to Shigeko rats ran faster than hamsters.

And according to Sho his sister had no idea what she was even talking about.

And according to Fukuda, not that anyone asked him, these were the most adorable kids in the world. Masami…she would be happy to see that they were doing as well as could be expected…if they ever checked in again. He knew the number of her burner phone by heart…and he knew her new e-mail address….and as far as he knew Suzuki didn't have anyone watching the internet…so there wasn't a high change that she would be compromised….

He hit send.

And as far as anyone could tell he just took some pictures of a rats running through a maze.