The Eighth Division was gone.

"Hold still, I think you cracked your skull."

This facility, the awakening portion, was built two stories underground.

"I looks worse than it is. Head wounds always bleed like crazy."

Wind. Sunlight. There was no roof. Dirt. Dirt in his mouth. Dirt in his hair. Blood in his eyes.

"The kids are ok, by the way. I managed to put Sho back together. Shigeko passed out."

Pain. He was in pain. His vision blurred. The world echoed. He could barely understand a word that Fukuda said. He tasted blood. He smelled blood. There was blood. Everywhere.

"Well I did my best to put them to sleep. The last thing they need, in my opinion, is to see this."

He turned his head to the side. His children. Not moving. Son was…alive. Daughter was alive as well. He could see Son's aura. It shone almost as brightly as Daughter's…though perhaps Daughter's aura was simply unusually dull. His own aura was…normal. That had not been him. Even though he had been close to that point…that had not been him.

"Yeah, I know, when you want my opinion you'll ask for it. Listen if you're going to put me in the ground then do it. I don't care anymore. Maybe I will later but I just…can't. I can't right now."

His children could have been mistaken for sleeping. He had the urge to tell Fukuda to shut up before he wakes them. He doesn't want them to be awake. When they were awake they were underfoot. He didn't want that. He needed….he needed time. This was big. This was something that he was going to have to run himself ragged fixing this. Thoughts, his thoughts, came clearly now. More clearly. It was easy to exorcise his emotions, the ones that had been plaguing him, now. Now that they had been knocked out of him.

"I know you can hear me and I know that I'm overstepping. Right now I just….I can't. I'm a healer and that's what I'm doing, healing you. You and those kids."

He sat up. He had been slumped over….something that had been digging into his back. That hurt. He pushed it away with his powers. Fukuda took a step back. The entire area was bathed in pink and blue. It drowned out Fukuda's green and his own red and yellow. He pushed Fukuda's aura away. He pushed Fukuda's hand away.

"You know better than to speak to me like that." Said Suzuki. He stood up and looked Fukuda in the eye. They had a history. Fukuda had been the first other esper he had met. They had been together in some capacity for about three decades. More like two and a half…but nobody was counting. Fukuda had been, apparently, like it meant something. Three decades or three hundred would not give him the right to speak to Suzuki that way.

"I do. Sorry Boss." Said Fukuda. There hadn't even been a delay. Good. Maybe he could excuse Fukuda's blatant disrespect. Maybe he could just…forget it…for now. It had been a very stressful time. Son had not been doing well. Fukuda was unusually attached to his children. He had none of his own after all. Yes, he could let it go for now. He had known the man for almost thirty years now...and he also only had the one healer. Yes, that was it. Healing was rare, very rare, so rare that Fukuda was the only healer that he knew of. That was why Suzuki would be letting this slide just this once. Because it would be too much trouble to go back to the drawing board. Anyone else would have been put in the ground if they had dared speak to Suzuki in that way.

Everyone else was already in the ground.

There should have been more auras. There weren't. There were….he could see people…and spirits…and he could see the massive hole in the ceiling…and the wreckage that had been the awakening chambers. He could see the broken concrete and twisted metal…he could smell blood and…ozone? It hung in the air. It hung in the air like the residue of Daughter's aura.

A true awakening.

A true explosion.

"What's the damage?" asked Suzuki as he surveyed the scene around him. His children were curled up together on the ground. A jacket, Fukuda's jacket, had been draped over them like a blanket. It was not big enough to hide the fact that they were both mostly naked…or the Lichtenberg figure that crossed Son's back. Son was breathing. He was bloody but he was breathing. So was Daughter. That was good, breathing was good, not that he could ever envision a situation in which the children being able to breathe would not have been good.

They were fine.

So why did he still feel like this? He needed to get back to business. He needed to get back to work. He needed to figure out exactly how much of this situation was salvageable. There was a hole in the ceiling. That was something to worry about. A lot of people were dead. That was something to worry about. Manpower shortages and massive renovations. Things that needed to happen. They would have to make all of the Awakened at the Seventh Division…which was not feasible. That was why he had created an Eighth Division in the first place. This was…not good.

Daughter had exploded.

"Besides the obvious? I highly doubt that this place is safe anymore. I don't just mean from the government. I mean that the structural integrity of the compound has been compromised. I did what I could but so far I've counted twelve dead Awakened and five dead scientists. That's just what I've managed to count. I healed you and the kids up, and whoever else I could, but there's nothing more that I can do." Said Fukuda. Suzuki nodded. He appreciated the return to normalcy from Fukuda. He overstepped occasionally, he had a weak spot for the children that caused him to act…irrationally….but at the end of the day there was no one more loyal than Fukuda.

"The children?" asked Suzuki. Son was kicking. He kicked in his sleep. Wrapped across his leg…that was one hell of a scar. It wrapped around his calve and then up behind his knee. Fukuda usually healed…well there were some things that left scars. When he went too quickly. When the wound was severe. That was why the Scars had, well, scars…

Son was a Scar.

Which was, actually, a good thing. Not the various marks that marred his Son's skin, no, those were grotesque but that fact that for once the damned awakening chamber actually worked. He wondered if it made espers who already had their powers stronger…or maybe Son always had the potential within himself and he had just been too young to bring it out. Fukuda's words ran through his mind. Son was only eight years old. Daughter was almost nine, now, in about half a year…and she was a prodigy. He had always compared Daughter to Son. Son to Daughter. The child of two nobodies from nothing to his own flesh and blood…and found his own flesh and blood wanting. Not anymore. He had no idea what Son could do now but…but if his aura, his passive aura, was anything to go by then the experiment had been a success.

Daughter had exploded.

"It's like I said. I managed to get Sho as healed up as I could. The scars…there's nothing that I can do about those but they're-they're normal for people who survive that fucking-that experiment. All of the experiments. He's alive, he's breathing, and I had to put him to sleep so he didn't see…any of this." said Fukuda. There's a look in his eyes that Suzuki doesn't like. There something in his tone that Suzuki doesn't like. Fukuda was, once again, getting close to overstepping. These were his children. He knew what was right for his children. Son knew that it would have been dangerous, the experiments, but he volunteered. He volunteered because he wanted to be something more than what he was…and now he was. It had been a success.

Daughter had exploded.

"And Daughter? Is she injured?" asked Suzuki. Aside from being completely naked, well almost completely her clothes were so damaged that she might as well have been, there was not a scratch on her. Nothing. Her passive aura, she was truly asleep, was duller than normal but he knew from his own explosions that something like that was to be expected. She would be groggy for a few days and would have trouble with some fine motor functions. That was to be expected. She had never truly exploded before…not like this…and he was disappointed in her.

She could have killed him.

She had killed at least seventeen people. He had been warning her about this for her entire life. Power was nothing without control. She had set his work back…and put him in danger. Him and Son. She could have killed Son. That was how…that was how she had come to him in the first place. She had almost killed her biological brother. Was she trying to make an orphan out of herself again? Why had she even been there? He had told her, he had told her to her face, that she was not to come anywhere near where her brother was. He had told her! And then she had the nerve to not only deliberately disobey him but also put his life in danger, put Sho's life in danger, and set his work back…he didn't even know how far! The nerve of that little-!

He exorcised that emotion.

"No. She's just passed out. She just…she just freaked out, ok? She freaked out and lost control. Please, don't be too hard on her." said Fukuda

"You're overstepping. I will deal with my Daughter as I see fit. She deliberately disobeyed me. Not only that but she put my life, Son's life, your life in danger. She also killed seventeen people. I cannot let her get away with killing seventeen people. Good manpower is so hard to come by. You know this just as well as I do." Said Suzuki. He didn't know what he would do to her…he had never been this angry with her before. He wanted to….he saw his aura. He was going to lose control if he thought about this too much. He needed to focus on the here and now. He needed to focus on getting everyone out, having this place repaired, and then replacing the dead. The Awakened were largely disposable but the people who actually ran the awakening experiments….they were a whole other story.

"You're not going to tell her that…are you?" asked Fukuda

"Tell her what?" asked Suzuki

"That she killed seventeen people. You can't seriously think that telling her, a little girl, that she killed someone…let alone SEVENTEEN PEOPLE is a good idea. I know you. I've known you since our school days. You're smarter than that. I know for a fact that you are smarter than that and I know for a fact that once you calm down you'll see that it's a bad idea. You'll see why you can never tell her the truth about what happened here. " Said Fukuda

"Why not? She's responsible for this. She deliberately disobeyed me. She needs to know why I'm upset with her and why she's being punished." Said Suzuki. He did not appreciate being questioned by one of his subordinates. Even one he had known as long as Fukuda. He knew how to raise his own child. He knew what could happen, what had almost happened, because she had lost control.

"Don't you dare." Said Fukuda. There was something low and dangerous in his voice…and in his aura. Suzuki didn't like it one bit. Now was not the time to challenge him…or maybe it was. He was angry enough that he might actually injure Daughter later, when she got up. She was the one responsible for all of this….

"Watch your tone and watch what you say." Said Suzuki

"Do you really think hitting her is going to solve anything? She's not even nine yet! She's not even nine and she saw something horrific and it freaked her out and she lost control of powers that a kid her age isn't even supposed to have yet! She's just a kid, Suzuki, and she saw her brother getting tortured. Smacking her around because she lost control…you know that saying 'the beatings will continue until moral improves'? Yeah, moral never improves. If you lay even a finger on her you know it'll just make her more unstable and then something like this will happen again…or maybe even something worse…next time." Said Fukuda

"Yes, the next time could be even worse. Which is why she needs to learn from this time. I know better than you, better than anyone, how bad the next time could be. I know and I need to stop her from-" said Suzuki. Fuck it. Fukuda had been doing nothing but overstepping and overstepping and overstepping and he needed to be taught his place and this was the worst day and he had almost died and he had lost a very good compound and a lot of staff and he had almost lost his Son and-

"I know how your parents died, Touichirou, I know what happened that day." Said Fukuda. Suzuki's aura shrank down. He found that he could no longer draw breath. Fukuda…how dare he…..HOW DARE HE!

"Get out of my sight before I murder you." Said Suzuki. He was serious. He was dead serious. He had never been more serious about anything in his entire life. Fukuda had no right to speak of that, of the past, of his parents and that awful day…HE HAD NO RIGHT.

No right.

"Fine, I will, but take my advice. If not as a colleague, if not as someone who's known you for most of your life, then as a healer. There are some things that we never can heal from. What she did, that's one of them, and if you tell her what happened I guarantee that she'll break. She'll break and then there'll be no fixing her. I know you. I know how much time you've invested in her. Time, money, and effort. I know how rare she is. If you tell her she'll break and if you hurt her because of what happened….it's going to happen again. It's going to happen again except the next time she'll wake up an orphan. I don't want that for her and neither do you. I know that I've overstepped, that I've run my mouth, and that I'm truly going to pay for it later. All I can say now is thank you for letting me say my piece. I'll go now and get everyone packed and shipped out before this place collapses down over our heads." Said Fukuda. He stood there…oh. He was waiting to be dismissed.

"Get out of my sight." Said Suzuki. He wanted to kill Fukuda….but he needed him. He needed Fukuda because…because he was the only healer in all of Claw. That was the only reason he was still alive after saying…all that he had said. Suzuki closed his eyes for a while after Fukuda. He sat down beside the children, closed his eyes, put up a barrier, and tried his best to exorcise all of the emotions that threatened to come bubbling to the surface.

He hadn't thought about his parents in years.

He hadn't thought about what happened to his parents in years.

And now he was trying his best not to. He was trying his best…but at least this took his mind off of what happened. Off of what his Daughter had done. For all of his insolence Fukuda had a point. He had always been good at that, reigning in Suzuki's worst impulses, and he was….oddly grateful to him for it. Even if he had been so far out of line that it wasn't even funny. He knew that, in his previous state of mind, he could have severely injured Daughter.

He brushed the hair from her face.

She had not set out to make herself an orphan. She loved him. That was why she was always telling him as much, and why she was always seeking out his company, because she loved him. She loved him in the sense that she had imprinted on him. He was her parent and she looked to him for safety. She cared for him in the way that children cared for their parents. In the way that he had cared for his own parents long ago. She had not set out to hurt him….even if she had disobeyed him…but if he punished her she may have ended up losing control again…or losing the pair bond that she had formed with him…and then it was over half a decade wasted on her.

He would not punish her.

And she would never know what happened here.

And neither would Son. Son could not keep anything to himself. He would tell his older sister…and also he would find it psychologically distressing as well. What had happened here. He could not risk losing his Son, either, not now that he had become someone worth keeping around. His resting aura was so much brighter, now, than it had ever been before. Good. More than good. Maybe he should have just…accentuated the positives. Son had finally awakened and Daughter….he had seen the upper limits of her power.

She could not take him.

If she ever got it in her head to challenge him then she would lose. That was…a comfort. He had never been afraid of her challenging him before but now…and that was due to Fukuda's insolence. Fukuda's insolence and her loss of control. She would never challenge him, she loved him, and even if she did she would never have been able to win.

Even if, now, there was no more Eighth Division thanks to her.