It was Mob's birthday.

She was nine years old today. She was older even if she didn't really feel any different than usual. She was still the same size she had been yesterday. She didn't know why she always expected to suddenly get taller on her birthdays, it had never happened before, but for as long as she could remember she had always just…expected to be different. To wake up different. Older. Maybe because older usually meant taller. That was probably it. It didn't matter anyway, she was still taller than Sho, so what did she need to get any taller for anyway? No reason at all…though it would have been nice…

To be different.

To be different than how she had been last year and the year before that. How she had been since mom left. She was so…tired was the word for it. Some parts weren't too bad, she liked it when she and Sho lived at Disney Land and stuff, but most parts were so….dad liked the word 'tiring' and Mob liked it too. She missed school and not having to worry about stuff…worrying about stuff was tiring. Worry about Sho, mostly, taking care of him and making sure that he didn't do anything that would make dad upset and also making him eat food and take baths and do his homeschool work and go to bed. It was just…tiring...having to worry about all of that. Maybe that was why mom had gone…because it was tiring.

Mob had no idea why her mom had gone.

It had been two years. Mom left when she was seven and now she was nine. Seven plus two made nine. She knew math. She was bad at it, even dad said that she was unusually bad at it, but she at least knew sums. Seven and two made nine and she was nine and mom had been gone for two years and she had been seven when mom left and now she was nine and….and she didn't know. She didn't know why mom had left and she didn't know if mom was ever coming back…not that she would be able to find them even if she did…and she didn't know why it still bothered her. Dad said, after he finished hitting her because she asked about mom, that mom was a traitor and that they wouldn't concern themselves with her. Then he told her to get out of his sight….but then the next day they went back to hanging out like everything was normal.

At least she still had dad.

"I cannot begin to understand you, Daughter. I have no idea why you would want to spend your birthday here of all places." Said Dad as he walked them through the Fifth Division. Mob had wanted to go to work with him and it was her birthday and on her birthday she got to go wherever she wanted. She picked here. This was a good place, all bright and sunny with windows and people who didn't look scared all the time…

Much nicer than the Eighth Division Compound.

There were no spirits hanging out here. Just a lot of espers. She could see so many different auras, truly different, not like how the Awakened had auras that differed so slightly that you had to focus to be able to tell them apart. There were plenty of Awakened there, too, but also a lot of other espers. This was where Minegishi worked. They said that they did stuff that she wouldn't be able to know about until she was ten. She wondered if maybe she could negotiate it down to nine. She didn't see any bad stuff happening here. No spirits hanging around and no people screaming, either. This was a very nice place…

She didn't know what Sho was so upset about.

"Me neither. You're weird and this place sucks….sorry." said Sho as he held her hand. She knew that Sho was scared, she could tell by his aura, and she didn't get why. This place wasn't scary at all, not like the place where they had done all of that bad stuff to Sho…he still dreamt about it. She knew he did. He cried in his sleep and sometimes he wet the bed. She wished that she knew why he was still upset. All of that had been months ago and…and he had his powers like he wanted. She didn't know why she still got upset about it, thinking about it, too.

She decided not to think about it. She exorcised the bad thoughts from her mind. It was her birthday after all and on her birthday it was ok for her to do that.

"I don't think that it sucks, Sho, I think that it's nice. There are so many other people here and it's…it nice to hang out with dad." Said Mob

"Don't say that. It's crass." Said Dad. Mob nodded. She shouldn't have said that…and she shouldn't have let Sho say that either. Even on her birthday she still had to take care of them.

"We're sorry dad, we won't do it again." said Mob. She covered Sho's mouth with her hand while she said that. She didn't want him to pick a fight with dad on her birthday. She just wanted to spend the day with dad, that was all. Part of her wished that she could have left Sho at home…but that was the bad part of her. The part of her that was a very bad big sister. She was a good big sister so of course she wanted to spend time with her little brother an stuff like that.

"When have a I heard that before?" said Dad

"Um….we mean it this time. Right, Sho, we mean it this time?" said Mob as she took her hand off of Sho's mouth so he could talk and also stop licking her hand. It sucked when he did that….it was gross when he did that, she meant, even though she only meant it to herself.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we mean it this time. Fine, I don't know why you would want to be here because it's boring and stuff. You could go anywhere on your birthday but you picked here? Why?" asked sho

"Yes, it does seem an odd choice to make." Said Dad

"Wanting to be with you?" asked Mob

"Yes, you see me when I come home. Why would you want to spend your birthday at work with me? I have no idea what you think goes on here but I can tell you that whatever it is that you've been imagining cannot possibly live up to the boring minutia of my work day." Said Dad

"You don't do any fun stuff at all?" moaned Sho

"No, this isn't a playground. Its serious work I do, Son." said Dad

"You don't beat people up and make examples out of them?" asked Sho. Mob frowned. She hoped that Minegishi had been lying when they told that story….but friends never lied. She hoped that dad wasn't going around hitting people. That wasn't nice. When she ruled the world…well when Sho ruled the world and she helped because she was a girl and girls could not inherit the world, she wouldn't fight with anyone. She'd had enough fighting, enough of being fought with by Sho and watching her dad hit her little brother, in the nine years that she had been alive…she had seen enough and she was done with it.

"Yes, but not that often….and how did you know about that in the first place?" asked dad

"Minegishi said so. They said that Fukuda followed you around because you were always fighting with people and getting hurt. They said that when people didn't let you boss them around you beat them up so bad that they had bad scars on their faces to remind other people of how they aren't supposed to cross you." Said Sho

"They did say that." Said Mob. Dad was looking at Sho for a while, which could have been good or bad, and Mob thought that it might have been bad so of course she had to make sure that dad knew that Sho was not a liar.

"I, on occasion, have to put people in their place. When you're powerful people want to challenge you." Said Dad

"But can't you just ask them nicely not to challenge you?" asked Mob. She didn't like the idea of dad fighting. She didn't like the idea of anyone fighting. Why couldn't they all just get along? Claw was all espers, dad said that it was important that all espers had a place to be together and stuff, and since they were all espers didn't that mean that they all should have been friends? She didn't know. She wished that she were the one in charge of Claw. Then she would tell everyone that they had to be friends. Not that she could force people to be friends….but she could at least be nice to everyone and make everyone else be nice to each other. If she were the boss of Claw…which she wasn't and never would be. She wasn't the son, Sho was, and Sho was the one who was going to be the boss of Claw…so the fighting would probably just go on and on and on.

"Who would listen? You've got to teach people not to mess with you. Right dad?" asked Sho. Mob wished that Sho was less fighty. Quarrelsome was the word that dad used. She never fought back, she didn't want to fight with her little brother, but her not fighting back didn't seem to stop him in the least bit.

"For once you're right, Son. That's the difference between the male and female perspective I supposed." Said Dad with a shrug. Mob wondered why it always came down to it. Boys were supposed to be one way and girls were supposed to be a whole other way entirely. She wondered who decided this stuff.

"That means that girls are weird." Said Sho. Mob shook her head. She didn't think that she was weird because she was a girl, she just thought that she was weird because she was dad's daughter. He was weird. He hated sweet foods and never called her by her name and a whole bunch of other stuff that she would need all day and several books to fill.

"No, not weird…just different. Their thought process is as alien to us as ours is to them." Said Dad

"Yeah, like why you want to spend the whole day in Dad's office." Said Sho. Mob didn't mind dad's office. It felt like when they were little and they played on the floor while dad worked…even though this office was different. It still had the desk and the chair and the laptop and Sho's drawings tacked up on the walls but there were…people….here. People coming in and out. They always said happy birthday after they asked why she was there. Well after they stopped staring. Dad said that they were just staring because not a lot of people knew that he had kids…which was kind of hurtful a little since it felt sort of like dad was ashamed of her…because she couldn't control her powers…and stuff like that…but that was ok. It was her birthday and she was not going to feel bad about anything. She was fine. She was happy. She was in dad's office and she was with him and he was being nice to her, he hadn't said a single mean thing to her and Sho all day, and it was just like when they had been little…at the old house….which she was not going to think about.

She decided to think about how everyone was telling her happy birthday. That was nice.

Sho had told her happy birthday when she woke up and then Dad had told her happy birthday over breakfast. Also Minegishi had texted her happy birthday. Fukuda had even told her happy birthday, too, in person. So that was a lot more happy birthdays than she had gotten last year. Last year it had been her and Sho and not a lot of dad….but now it was her and Sho and dad and she was happy…even though mom wasn't there she was still happy.

"Yes, it's not that I don't enjoy your company, Daughter, but I have to ask…why?" asked Dad. Mob didn't know why he even needed to ask. Maybe he just didn't understand her because she was a girl and he was a boy, like he had said. The answer was so obvious though….

"Because you're gone all day…and I miss you a lot when you're gone." Said Mob. That was the truth of it. The whole truth and nothing but the truth so help her God. She missed dad when he was gone. She didn't just want to be near him because she could keep him from being mean to Sho, well not keep him from it but at least distract him, but also because she wanted to be near him. She didn't have a mom anymore but she at least still had a dad. She had dad and dad was nice to her a lot of the time and being with dad was better than being cooped up in the house all day. Not their house but the house they had been staying in these past few months. She wondered if they lived in Korea now. She wondered if they were ever going back to Japan. She didn't say anything, though, because there was no point. Even dad didn't know when they would move again.

"Oh. I find myself thinking of you, and you're brother to a lesser extent, when we're separated as well." Said Dad. Mob frowned. She knew that she was not supposed to let her feelings show on her face or her aura but…but dad should not have said that. Or at least he should not have said that while Sho was right there. He had feelings to and those feelings got hurt. That was why he was scribbling in his sketchbook like that. He did that when he was upset. Sho wasn't supposed to let his feelings show either.

Suzuki's had better control than that. They had to because the Suzuki family was made up of the most powerful espers alive and power was nothing without control. Dad had said that.

But Mob did wish that, on her birthday at least, Dad could have been nice to Sho. Sho was a good person. He did bad things sometimes but that did not make him a bad person. It also did not make him aggravating or tiresome or annoying or any of the other mean words dad used sometimes. Mob wished that she could have asked dad to be nice…at least for her birthday….but there were some things that she could not ask for. Like her mom back. She could ask to go anywhere on her birthday, do anything, and get whatever new toys or dresses she wanted but she could not ask for…for the things that she wanted more than anything else in this world.

A dad that was nice, to go back to the castle, and her mom back.

But at least she could spend time with her dad. That was, at least, something. And at least she wasn't bored. Dad explained to them, well mostly Sho it seemed but Mob didn't feel left out at all because it was nice when dad and Sho were friends like that, what it was that he did. Who the people who came in and out were, all of them saying happy birthday to her once they realized that it was her birthday, and what they did for him. Mob didn't feel left out at all even though it was her birthday. No, she just sat on dad's comfy office chair with her new tablet and her new tablet games and her new shoes that lit up when she walked and her new dress that dad had gotten her which was actually a real kimono, he said, because he didn't like her other dresses that much…even though it didn't matter if he liked them because she was the one who wore them and he was gone from the house all the time anyway and-

Conceal, don't feel.

Power was nothing without control.

She did not feel left out. She was happy. She was happy to be out of the house, she was happy to be with her dad and little brother, and she was happy that they were getting along. She was happy for all of her new stuff. She was happy for all of the gifts that she was getting now, too, from the people who had wished her happy birthday…even though some of it was just…stuff that she did not want. Like all of the plastic jewelry. She didn't wear jewelry plastic or otherwise. Sometimes candy necklaces but that was it. She also got a lot of dolls that she didn't know…and also some candy that she didn't much like…but she was a gracious gift accepter. Dad said, when she was little, that it was important to be gracious to the sycophants so that they stayed loyal to you. That seemed like a mean thing to call someone…

But it fit.

While Dad was showing Sho how he ran Claw she had a bunch of people coming up to her and going 'Happy Birthday Miss Suzuki' and 'You're looking well, Miss Suzuki' and 'You look just like your father, Miss Suzuki' and other stuff. They said it in a tone that dad had told her was deferential….but to Mob it just seemed fake. She didn't want people to fake liking her, there was no point in it, she wanted people to really like her and to like her for who she was. Not who her dad was. Not for what her family name was.

She didn't have a lot of people like that in her life.

But she did have one. She didn't know much about them, they hadn't been friends for very long at all…and they could be kind of prickly like a cactus sometimes….but they were still Mob's friend. They didn't call her 'Miss Suzuki' or 'Miss Shigeko' or anything like that. They called her Mob because that was her name, what she had decided to name herself, and that was worth more than any present that she had gotten that day.

But they had also gotten her a present.

"Happy Birthday and many more and all that crap. Here." Said Minegishi. They didn't talk to her like the others did…and it was nice. They talked to her the same way they talked to everyone else, Sho said that it was mean, but Mob knew that Minegishi was not mean. They seemed mean but they weren't. If they were then they wouldn't have gotten Mob a present or gone through the trouble of wrapping it.

"What's in the bag, big sis?" asked Sho. He was next to dad, then, but he stood up on his tiptoes like it would help him see better or something. Mob wanted to take a picture but the moment had passed.

"What is it?" asked Mob as she held the pink party bag in her hands. Sho came over to her and tried to see inside but she pulled it away. This was her present to open. She sometimes let Sho open he presents…but she did not want to do that this time.

"Thank you very much." Said Mob. She meant it that time. Well she meant it every time but she especially meant it that time. She didn't know what it was, it was in a paper bag, but it was for her and it was from a friend…and she couldn't remember the last time she had gotten present from a friend. Well she had gotten a birthday present from Sho, he had gotten her a stuffed cat, and Sho was her friend…but getting presents was different when it was your friend versus yours brother who was also your friend…if brothers even counted as friends. Minegishi said that being friends with your little brother because you and your brother had no choice but to be together.

Mob didn't know if she agreed with that.

"Ok, whatever, just don't hug me." Said Minegishi. They were not the sort of friends who hugged. Minegishi had so when they first met. Mob wanted to be the sort of friends who hugged but that was part of friendship. When you were friends with someone you also had to think about what they wanted. Kind of like getting a gift. Getting a gift because she was dad's Daughter and people worked for him or were afraid of him didn't mean as much as a gift from a friend. What was in the gift didn't even matter. It was the thought that mattered.

But she did like what was in the gift.

"You look-" said Sho. Mob braced herself for something mean. Sho had explained to her, before, that sometimes he just said mean things without thinking about it. That the mean things just came out and he had no way of stopping them. That was just the first stuff that came to his mind…so it was ok.

"Never criticize a woman's clothing or hair, it's dangerous ground, Son." Said Dad. Mob didn't much like being called a woman, she was only nine, but she did appreciate dad being nice to her like that. She didn't see how it was dangerous ground, either, because she was not dangerous. She loved Sho and she would never have done anything to hurt him…even though she lost control sometimes…like the time when she lost control and didn't even remember what happened…but she knew that it must have been bad if she couldn't remember it…

She hated it when people were scared of her. It was the worst, the very worst, and it was even more the worst when she was getting that was her own family.

"I was going to say that she looked cool. I want a cat ears head thing." Said Sho. Mob smiled. She took off her headband and put it on Sho's head even though it was hers and it was for girls, too. She wished that she could have taken a picture but she hadn't had the time. Dad used his powers to take it off of Sho's head and put it back on hers. Minegishi laughed and dad dismissed them. That was what it was called when dad told someone to get out but didn't say a word.

"That belongs to your sister, leave her alone. Now come here, I have to show you something." Said Dad. Mob wanted to tell dad that she didn't mind, and could never mind, sharing with Sho. She loved her little brother and of course she would share everything she had with him. Even this really cool headband. It was pink and fuzzy and looked like cats ears…and now she looked like a cat…and she looked so cool…and Minegishi was such a good friend for remembering that she liked cats…

If her birthday had ended right then and there then she would have been very happy.

But it didn't end right then and there, no, because she was not that lucky. There was more day to fill and if the day had just been filled with dad and Sho ignoring her, not that she minded or felt left out in any way, she would have been fine. But the day was not over, not by a long shot. There were still people coming in and out of dad's office, he was a very important man he had said, and she didn't even mind that. Even if she got more people wishing her a happy birthday but not meaning it, and even more gifts without thought of meaning. Even if she did end up getting kind of bored because dad and Sho were ignoring her, she didn't mind because they so rarely got along, and even if she did spend a lot of time wishing that mom were there….

If not for what happened her birthday would have been fine.

And nothing had even happened. A lady walked into dad's office. That was all. That was sort of weird, there weren't a lot of girl espers in the world. Dad had told her that she was rare, the rarest, and that there hardly ever were girl espers…but there was a girl esper right there in dad's office. She had an aura, it was light blue, so she was an esper…and maybe that was why dad stared at her so much. Mob knew what dad looked like when he was listening and he was not listening to that girl esper…

So maybe she should have taken the hint and come back later…or never….which was a very mean thought to be having about another person.

Mob knew that even on her birthday she was not supposed to have such mean thoughts about people. She was supposed to be sweet, like mom had always told her to be, and sweet girls did not wonder if they had the power to dismiss people from their dad's office. None of the other people who worked for dad talked to him this much…and dad's aura never got like that when he was around the other people who worked for him. Dad's aura was like that, all clingy like Sho's did when he met some boy he wanted to be friends with or hers did when she met someone who made her feel all weird…and she knew what it was when she felt all weird…and she had seen enough auras including her own to know…

She didn't know anything.

Besides the fact that this lady made dad's aura all weird. She was too…her hair was too brown, Mob decided, not at all like mom's. She was too nice, too. She was all 'aren't you a pretty kitty?' and stuff like that even though Mob was not dressed up like a cat at all. If anything she was dressed like she was going somewhere fancy because she had been wearing the kimono that dad had gotten her. Mob didn't know exactly why but she got the feeling that she did not much like that lady.

"Is it really your birthday, Pretty Kitty? And how old are you today?" asked the lady. Mom looked up from her tablet because it was the polite thing to do. Even if she had to pause her movie. Even if she didn't much feel like being talked to right then and there. Even if she didn't much want anyone talking to her or dad right then and there in that moment in time. That was mean but it was her birthday….but she was still being way too mean…

"I'm nine years old today and my name is Suzuki Shigeko." Said Mob. Usually she told people to call her Mob. Usually she liked to be called Mob. Usually she liked it when people were nice to her, for real, and called her Mob…but she got the feeling that she would not have liked it for this lady to call her Mob. She was too familiar. She was too close and too familiar.

"Happy Birthday, Shigeko-chan. I love your kimono too. So pretty. But ooh, what's that you're watching? Mice? So scary, but I bet they don't scare you. No, I bet a kitty like you would eat those mice right up." Said the lady. Mob felt bad for feeling like that but…but….but she was talking to Mob like she was three, not nine, and also she was way too familiar. She was Miss Suzuki to people who didn't know her well…even if she hated being called Miss Suzuki…but she didn't want to be called Shigeko-chan either….

"I'm not a cat, I'm just wearing the headband, and I wouldn't eat those mice even if I was. In this movie the cats are the bad guys. The cats try to eat the mice while the mice just trying and live their lives." Said Mob. She didn't think that she sounded mean, she had trouble with tones, and she hadn't been trying to sound mean anyway. Even if she sort of disliked this woman….

Which wasn't right because she was not supposed to dislike anyone.

Mom had said so. Mom. Suzuki Masami. The lady who dad should have been staring at. The lady who should have made dad's aura all weird like that. The only lady who should have been talking dad. The only lady who should have been in dad's office. Dad didn't need to talk to any other girls because he had mom and mom was….she was somewhere. Everyone was someone. Dad was not allowed to like any girls but mom….not that Mob knew that dad liked this lady…and the thought of dad liking any lady was kind of….gross. She knew that mom and dad had been in love with mom, they had kissed and made her and Sho, and that was enough for her mind to handle. It was so weird to think of dad having those same weird feelings that she got, sometimes, about someone anyone let alone that lady…

Who Mob wished that she could have dismissed.

"Another one of your movies about a shadow society of super intelligent mice? Disturbing." Said Dad. Now he was looking down at his laptop. Sho had pulled her tablet out of her hands. She let him have it. She watched dad. He wasn't working. She knew how he looked when he was super into his work. He not super into his work then, or into his work at all.

"Mice in general….icky, but mice as smart as people…very icky. You're such a brave girl, Shigeko-chan." Said the lady. Mob smiled and nodded. That was all the she could do, just smile and nod, and nothing else. She was not going to be mean to that lady…and she had no reason to be mean to that lady…and it wasn't like the lady was even DOING anything. She didn't even stay for long, she just had to tell dad some stuff, and then she left and everything went back to normal.

So aside from that it was a great…good…ok…birthday.

Especially because of her new cat ears headband.