They could never go home again.

When Mob heard that they were going to Japan she had assumed that they were going home.

Back to the castle.

Because they had always lived in the castle. For her entire life, until mom left, the castle had been her home. Castle Suzuki. That was the home of the Suzuki family. When they were in Japan they should have lived in the castle. It made sense. They had a perfectly good house to live in. There was no reason to live anywhere but the castle. It just made sense and dad was always all about making sense.

"When are we going home?" asked Mob. She stepped to the side as some of the Awakened walked by carrying her and Sho's stuff. Some of it. They had to travel a lot so they left a lot of their stuff at the different places they'd stayed. Seoul was the only exception. She told the Awakened to pack all of their stuff because she had assumed that they would have been back at the castle by now.

They weren't.

"For the time being this is your home." Said Dad as he checked something on his phone. He didn't seem upset…and she didn't know why she expected him to be. Maybe because of how badly he had been shaking the house before. Well he was better now. At least he was acting like he was better now. He was pulled his aura away from her.

Which was weird.

He was never a very opened person but every time she got near he pulled away from her. He held his aura close and pulled it away…and he pulled himself away from her, too, when she got too near. She took a step forward and he took a step back. She took another step forwards and he took another step back. So on and so forth.

Mob didn't understand why.

"But…but what about the castle?" asked Mob even though she knew that they were staying here now. Sho was as upset as she was but he was showing it. He was in their room, the room that was going to be where they would be sleeping, and he was jumping on the bed and hitting the walls and stuff. He was upset. She was upset too.

She just took care not to show it.

She kept her aura close. She kept her aura close and she kept her face still. Dad could not know how upset she was. Sho was allowed to be upset, well he wasn't but Dad expected that from him, he was always madder when she got upset. He hardly ever hit her, not like how he was always hitting Sho, but he said the meanest things when he was upset with her. He treated her like he didn't love her anymore, like she wasn't even his Daughter anymore, and it hurt. When she showed that she was hurt by him he just got even madder. He was mean like that, her dad.

But she couldn't let it show that it bothered her.

"Do you mean the old house?" asked Dad. He was looking at her now. She was looking back at him. She felt a warning tap against her aura. She was not supposed to talk about the old house because they had lived there with mom and they were supposed to pretend like they'd never even had a mom in the first place…even though that made no sense. Of course they'd had a mom. What, did dad think that they were just going to forget about her? That if he pretended hard enough she and Sho would just forget that their mom had ever even existed?

That was not how it worked at all.

You needed a mom and a dad to make a baby. The way they went about making that baby was disturbing and if she hadn't heard it from her own mother she would have thought that it was a lie like the people who stole your organs or stuff like that. But mom and dad had done that super gross thing and that was how she and Sho had gotten there. Therefore since people existed in the world because of mom they could not pretend that mom did not exist.

Perfectly rational like dad liked.

"Yes. I mean the old house. The one that we used to live in, before. I want to stay there." said Mob. She didn't let on about how mad she was. About how sad she was. She had wanted to go home for the past two years. To play with her old toys. To sleep in her old bed. To use up the last of her Hello Kitty Shampoo. To eat off of her Frozen plate. To get the crackers out of her school satchel before the house got ants. To play in the backyard. To go to the park again. To go to the library again.

To be with mom again.

But she knows that mom won't be there. For as much imagining as she had done on the plane ride back to Japan, there hadn't been much else to do since Minegishi slept like a rock and Fukuda never wanted to play anymore, she knew that her mom would not have been back. Mom was never coming back. She had betrayed them all like dad had said. She shouldn't have wanted her mom back…

But she did.

She really did. She wanted mom to wake her up with singing again even though she and Sho woke up on their own now. She wanted mom to make them breakfast even though the Awakened brought them whatever food they asked for. She wanted mom to braid her hair again even though she could braid it all by herself now. She wanted mom to give her and Sho a bath again even though she and Sho knew how to bathe themselves. She even wanted mom to boss her and Sho around. She wanted mom to tell them when to take a bath and when to go to bed and when to wake up and what to eat and when to eat it.

That way Mob wouldn't have to be the one to decide those things anymore.

But mom was gone. Mom was gone and castle Suzuki had been empty for two years. That was all the more reason for her and Sho to go back. Dad could work from there, he had an office there, and there were even enough rooms that some of the Awakened could stay with them. Even Minegishi and Fukuda could stay with them. Well they could have stayed with them now but Minegishi lived next door and she had no idea where Fukuda was.

It could have been good….or at least better than another strange house in another strange city.

"No." said Dad. One word. That was all that he was going to give her, one word. She felt her aura flare. She reached up and held on to her braids before they could start to float away. Power was nothing without control. Conceal, don't feel. Dad hated it when she lost control. Dad hated a lot of things. He hated more things than he liked, it seemed, and Mob wished that he would just have…have made her one of the things he liked. She wanted him to like her all the time, not just sometimes, because when he liked her sometimes it made her worry about the times when he would stop liking her. Like now. Her control was starting to slip and he didn't like her at all when her control slipped.

"Maybe for a little bit?" asked Mob. She had never been to England but she knew the expression 'in for a penny, in for a pound' which meant that since dad was already probably about to start disliking her again she had might as well just…just make it worse. Even though she got the feeling that she shouldn't have been making it worse. Normal kids didn't have to beg to go back to their houses….

But she was not a normal kid.

She was the Prodigy. Sho was the Awakened Child and she was the Prodigy. That was what people called them, sometimes, when they thought that she and Sho couldn't hear. She was born with her powers, they said, and Sho was the only kid to live through the awakening machine…and at that point Mob stopped listening. She didn't like thinking about what had happened to Sho on that horrible day…even though she couldn't really remember it. She just remembered pain and fear. Her control slipping through her fingers. Then nothing. That was why she and Sho were not normal kids.

So she shouldn't have wanted to be treated like a normal kid.

She shouldn't have wanted to go to school. She shouldn't have wanted to have woken up to a mom making her breakfast and laying out her clothes and walking her to school….wait, she was nine now. A fourth grader. She would have been walking herself to school. Sho, too, because they would have gone to the same school. They would have if they had been normal kids. They weren't. That was why they never went to school and got to go to work with dad and sometimes even got to play all day.

She was not a normal kid and neither was Sho. This was not a normal family. It was irrational to pretend that they ever could be a normal family.

"The answer is 'no', Daughter, now do not make me tell you again." said Dad. Mob wanted to shout at him. She wanted to tell him that he was being a real…words that Minegishi used to describe people they didn't like….and also that she was tired of being away from home and she wanted to be a regular family for ten seconds. She wanted to yell and scream like Sho did. She wanted to kick the walls so hard they cracked, like Sho did. She wanted to slam doors all day and then slam windows all night. She wanted to be Sho if just for a minute. If just for long enough to be allowed to show dad just how she felt.

But she was not Sho. She was Shigeko. Mob.

She was not Son. She was Daughter.

And Daughter could not act like Son. That was not how it worked. Even though it wasn't fair. Sho got to act like such a little kid…and he was only a year younger than her. It wasn't fair. Nothing was fair. Sometimes she liked her life, being able to wear her Elsa dress all day and play with her little brother and watch all the TV she wanted and play all the videogames she wanted….and other times she wished that she could have been in school with the other kids and been able to have friends who were kids and was able to have a mom or…

None of that was ever going to happen.

"Yes dad. I won't make you tell me again. I understand that we can never go home again. I understand that no matter what I say or do we'll never be able to go back home again. I understand." Said Mob. She wished that she wasn't so very little. She wished that she were older. She wished that she were old enough to live by herself…with Sho, of course. She wished that she could have gone back to the Castle herself and done all the things that mom did so she could at least pretend that she still had a mom…and stuff.

But she couldn't.

"Good. I'm glad that you understand. Now go and make your brother stop that this instant. I am sick and tired of his carrying on like that." Said Dad. Mob nodded. She was dismissed to go and take care of Sho. Even though there was so much she wanted to say. Even though it was so hard to be back in Japan, so close but so far from home, and also from mom…and she had no idea where mom was. She wanted to walk out that door and either walk back to the Castle or walk to find mom or both.

She had no idea where mom was.

She had no idea where the castle was.

She only knew where she was. Tokyo. Capitol city of Japan. Most populated city in Japan. Had a lot of arcades. Those could be fun. It had a Disney Land too. She and Sho would probably spend a few days there. There wasn't a big Division of Claw here but there some business that dad owned. They laundered his money. Laundered meant cleaned but not literally. That meant taking the dirty money and mixing it in with the clean money so the taxman didn't get suspicious. Since there was no real Division of Claw here that probably meant that they wouldn't be staying for long.

Not that it mattered since they were never going back to the castle.

She wanted to go outside and look for mom or look for the castle but she did neither. She went to Sho. She was not going to argue with her dad. She was going to take care of her little brother and then she was going to unpack their things and then she was going to have the awakened get them food to eat and then she was going to maybe hang out with Minegishi or play with Sho or just sit and wait for tomorrow to happen. She didn't know. It all felt pointless since they were staying here, now, instead of going back home.

"I want to go home! I want to go home! I want to go home!" shouted Sho as he jumped up and down on the bed. At least he had taken his shoes off in the genkan. At least this place had a proper genkan. At least they were back in Japan. At least they wouldn't have to learn a whole new language again. At least people would be able to understand what they were saying again. At least they didn't have a whole new money system to learn again. At least the people looked like them…like her…again.

A pillow hit her over the head and knocked her cat ears headband off.

"Sho, come on." Said Mob. She sounded tired, then, and she felt tired too. She just wanted…she wanted to go home. Homesickness was not a feeling that passed. Homesickness was not something that could go away in even two whole years. Sure it could get quieter, not hurt as much, some days you could even forget about it but it never went away. Not really. Now it was hitting her so hard…and she just wanted to sit down and…and just be alone…but she couldn't just be alone. She had Sho to take care of. If she didn't take care of Sho then who would? He couldn't take care of himself. He was just a kid.

"No! Not until we go home! We're in Japan!" said Sho as he kept on jumping up and down. It didn't matter one bit if he broke the bed, the Awakened would just bring him another one, but Mob still didn't want to go through the trouble of asking them for another bed and then waiting for them to get one and they would probably come back with the wrong thing and then she would have to send them out again and then dad would be upset because of how long it would take….

She did not want to have to deal with that.

She did not want to have to deal with anything. She picked up her headband with her hands. She didn't know what would happen if she used her powers. She could feel her powers bubbling up from inside of her. She could feel herself losing control. Her braids were starting to float away….so she tucked them into her headband.

"Sho, I just talked to dad. We're not going home. We're staying here." Said Mob. She wanted him to stop jumping. He was going to ruin the bed. He was going to make himself dizzy. He was going to make himself throw up. Those were all things that she would have to deal with. She was the one who took care of him. She was the one who had to take care of both of them.

"No!" shouted Sho. He took off his shirt and threw it at her. It hit her on the head. She took it off her head, folded it, and then put it down on the nightstand beside her. Not their nightstand. Nothing in this room, none of the furniture, was theirs. Their furniture was in their room at their house. This was not their house. She agreed with Sho….not that she could show it.

"Yes. Dad said that this is where we're staying." Said Mob. She wanted to lay down. She couldn't. She had to stop Sho. Dad told her that she had to stop Sho that instant…and that instant had passed and now it was a new instant and now she really had to make him stop….

"No!" shouted Sho. A sock hit her on the head that time. It was gross. Now another sock hit her over the head. It was just as gross as the first one. She was tired. She was tired from flying and she was tired from fighting and she was tired of…she was just tired. She was just so tired. She was just so very tired…..

"Sho….please stop it." Said Mob. She was tired of holding back her powers. Not in the sense that she wanted to lose control but that she was tired from holding her powers back. She was tired. She was tired and hungry and upset and she just wanted to rest….but she couldn't.

"No!" shouted Sho again. Mob took a deep breath. She wished that she had gloves. She wished that she was like Elsa with the gloves that could stop her powers….but gloves didn't even work. She had tried gloves. She had tried gloves and they didn't work and nothing worked but keeping her feelings under control…and she was having so much trouble….

"Sho…you need to understand that sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to. Sometimes we can really want something so badly that it hurts but…but no matter how much it hurts we have to remember that we can't always get what we want." Said Mob. She was trying to be like mom. That was something that mom had said to them years ago. She was mom now, practically, and she had to try and fix this…if she even could…..

"No!" shouted Sho. He was still jumping. She could feel dad's aura. He was getting upset. He was getting upset and now she was upset because now he would be upset at her…even though she was the one who should have been upset with him. This was all his fault. He was the one who wouldn't take them home even though he easily could have. They were in Japan. Home was in Japan. Therefore if dad had stopped being a….one of the bad words Minegishi used a lot….then none of this would have happened.

"No you don't understand?" asked Mob. He was still jumping. He was using his powers now so he hit the ceiling. If the ceiling broke then they would have to find another place to live. Dad would not have been happy about that even though they had a perfectly good castle they could have stayed in.

"No!" shouted Sho. Mob could feel her head pounding. She just wanted some quiet. She just wanted him to stop. What did he even think that she could do about this? She was a kid the same as he was. Dad was the one who made the rules, not her, and she had no right to tell him what to do. She was the kid and he was the adult. She was Daughter and he was Dad. She couldn't just walk up to him and tell him something like 'Suzuki Touichirou you are being a jerk and I am walking home in my socks if I have to. If you want to stay in Tokyo then you can stay in Tokyo all by yourself because my little brother and I are leaving just like mom did' or something like that because then she would most certainly get hit. More than once too.

Even if it was something that she wanted to say.

But she was not that sort of person. She didn't just say whatever mean thing came to mind. Even if she hadn't been scared of being hit a bunch of times she still…she still wanted….she wanted to just…she wished that she knew the magic combination of words that could make dad take them home. Even if they were bad words. Even if they were mean words. Even if they were words that she should not have used on her own dad.

She and Sho just wanted to go home….but they could never go home again.

"No, what!?" asked Mob. She could feel her braids floating. She could feel her aura growing around her and becoming visible. She knew that she was not supposed to lose control like this, that she was setting a bad example for Sho, and that she needed to stop…but she couldn't. She had no way of stopping her powers once they got like this. She had no way of making any of this stop….

Power was nothing without control.

And she guessed that she was nothing because she was quickly losing control.

"No!" shouted Sho. Another pillow went flying towards her face. She blocked it with her powers. It exploded. There were feathers everywhere. She had lost control. At least she hadn't hurt Sho. At least she hadn't hurt her little brother. He had stopped jumping, now, and was holding himself in the air. She could see the pinpricks running up and down both arms. She could see the tree on his back, the way part of it wrapped around to his front, and she could see his aura too…

She slammed into a wall.

She didn't even think. She just lashed out. She just pushed back…and then the house shook…and then Sho shouted. Sho shouted because she had hurt him. She wanted to stop. She wanted him to be ok. She wanted them both to be ok. She wanted the whole world to stop. She wanted her mom. She wanted her dad. She wanted someone, anyone, because she had lost control and not only that she had done the worst thing that a person could do to another. The worst thing that a big sister could do to her little brother. She had hurt him. She was the worst. She had hurt the one person in the world who was guaranteed to be her friend. Who was always going to love her. She had hurt him and now…now she was paying for it…

She was dragged out into the hallway by her braids.

It hurt.

"Daughter. Explain." Said Dad. He was the one who had dragged her out. Not a moment too soon if the loud crash coming from the bedroom was anything to go by. He was mad at her. She could tell by his aura and the fact that he had grabbed her by the hair with his powers. He was still holding her by the hair. He hauled her up to her feet by her braids. She was calmer now…sort of. Hurting Sho had been a big shock, a big enough shock that she at least realized what it was that she had been doing.

"Sho's upset and then I got upset." Said Mob. There was so much more that she could have said. She could have told dad that this was all his fault. She could have told dad that if he had just taken them back home to the castle then none of this would have happened. She could have told him that he hadn't worked harder to find mom. She could have told him that instead of sending people out all over the world to look for espers he could have sent those people all over the world to look for mom. It was like he didn't love mom anymore. It was like he didn't love them. It was like he didn't love anyone but himself and-

He yanked on her hair again. This time he pulled her up so high that she had to stand on her tiptoes just to make it hurt a little less.

"Did you intentionally provoke your brother or did you lose control?" asked Dad. Mob yanked her hair out of his telekinetic grasp.

"I lost control because Sho was upset." Said Mob. She was so mad…the walls next to her shook a little. Dad…she saw his aura before she felt him use his powers to hit her…and she put up a barrier. She didn't mean to put up a barrier but she did. It didn't matter. He shattered it after a moment.

"I am so disappointed in you, Daughter, that I do not even have the words to describe it." Said Dad. That was worse than dad hitting her. He was disappointed in her…but she had done her best! If Sho wasn't going to listen to her then there was nothing that she could do. She may been pretending to be mom but pretending only went so far. She was not mom. She wanted mom! She wanted mom and she wanted to go home! She wanted…she wanted a lot of things….

Things that she knew that she was never going to get.

"Then why don't you just let me go home!? Just let me go home and then let me take Sho with me and then you can be all alone and you can be happy and then we won't be around to bother you ever again!" shouted Mob. She didn't meant to shout at her dad, she didn't like shouting in general but she especially did not want to shout at her dad…but she had and now there was no taking it back…

He slammed her into the wall.

She let herself be slammed into the wall. She was tired. She was tired of fighting both with dad and with Sho, too. She just wanted to stop, to rest, and to get her powers back under control. She had failed dad. She had disappointed dad. She had probably failed and disappointed mom, too, and that was why she had just left them one day without even leaving a note or saying goodbye. This was all her fault. Everything was all her fault. At least it felt like that. It felt like that because…that was what dad felt. He felt that she was a failure…that she had disappointed him…

She wanted her mom.

She wanted her dad.

She wanted to be alone.

"Stop this. You've never acted like this before and I have no idea why you're acting like this now. You need to stop being irrational. You know that you're only nine years old. You can't go back to the old house on your own and there's no reason for you to go back. I'm here. Your brother is here. That means that you'll be here too. You will always be by my side and I won't hear another word to the contrary. Understood?" asked Dad. He had picked her up now but not by the hair. He was trying to look her in the eyes. She turned her head to the side.

"I don't…." said Mob. She didn't understand. She didn't understand why they couldn't just go home even for a day. That was all she really needed, just one day, and then they could say goodbye to their house forever once again. She didn't think that she was asking so very much. Just a single day. That was all. She just….for one day she wanted to be able to pretend that she was…that she was a kid again…and that things were the way that they had always been.

"Daughter. Are we understood?" asked Dad. Mob looked him in the eyes and nodded.

"Yes dad. We're understood." Said Mob. She didn't want to say anymore. She didn't want to do anymore. She just wanted…she wanted to be with someone and she wanted to be alone. She wanted someone to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be ok but she also…she just wanted to be alone. She had lost control and now she wanted nothing more than to be left all alone….

"Good. Now get out of my sight. I can't bear to look at you right now." Said Dad. Mob nodded. She nodded and walked off. She didn't go back into the bedroom. Sho had stopped carrying on in there but she didn't want to start with him again. She went past the TV room. She didn't want to watch anything on TV even if it was in Japanese for once. She walked past the Awakened who stared at her like she was something scary…which she sort of was…she had lost control…

She wanted to be alone.

She knew that she could not walk home. She had no idea how to get home and besides, dad had told her clear as day that she was not allowed to leave him. She had to be with him all the time…so even if she had walked to a train station or a bus station or took an airplane she still wouldn't have been able to go home.

So she didn't go home.

She went in the direction of the only other friendly aura she felt. Minegishi couldn't live in the house with them. Dad had said no to that idea and Minegishi said that they didn't want to live with dad anyway. So Minegishi lived right next door. It wasn't a long walk at all. All she had to do was walked a few meters and there their house…the place that they were staying in. Minegishi was from Japan too. She wondered if they ever missed the house that they grew up in. She wondered if they were sad that they had to stay in Tokyo too. She wondered if they ever felt like they were trapped and there was no way out even though there was no reason at all to be looking for a way out. She wondered a lot of things about them.

Not that she had any plans of asking.

She just wanted to be near them. She just wanted to be near them while they read or whatever. She didn't care. She just needed a friend. She knew that she was being rude by just letting herself in. She knew that she was being rude by not asking first. She didn't care right then and there. The only thing that she cared about was not being alone.

She felt so alone.

She found Minegishi quick enough. They were laying down on the bed seemingly asleep. There was a half full bottle of something clear that did not smell at all like water. She put the cap on in case it spilled. She used her hands. She didn't trust her powers at all. She didn't want to make even more of a mess than she had already.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" asked Minegishi as they opened their eyes. Mob felt her eyes start to water and prickle. She had messed up again. She had woken up her friend and now they were going to tell her to get out of their sight and-

"You look like crap. No offense." Said Minegishi as they say up. They were already in their pajamas it seemed like, a baggy T-shirt and purple pajama pants. Was it bedtime in Korea? Was their body still on Korea time? She didn't know. She knew that she was tired and…and a whole lot of other feelings that she knew that she should have been focused on getting rid of.

"I feel like…like that. Sho and I had a fight and…and I pushed him-" said Mob. She didn't know what she was expecting but it wasn't Minegishi to start laughing. She didn't even know if they could laugh. She felt better, though, even though she had no clue what was so funny about that. She had hurt her brother. She should have filled her pockets with rocks and walked out into the ocean like in that movie she and Sho saw.

"Serves him right." Said Minegishi

"Huh? No, I hurt him-" said Mob

"Yeah, and I'm surprised you didn't do that sooner. I've known you for…six months? I have no idea, I can't do math right now, but I do know that your little brother has had it coming since the day I met you two." Said Minegishi

"But…but I wasn't nice. I hurt my brother." Said Mob. Sho hadn't had it coming. Sho was her little brother and she loved him. She didn't care what he did or how badly he acted. She loved him and she would always love him. She didn't care how many times he made dad mad or hurt her or…or he did any of the things that he was not supposed to do. She should not have hurt him.

"And? How many times has he hurt you?" asked Minegishi

"That doesn't matter. I love him and I shouldn't have hurt him. I shouldn't have lost control. Dad's so disappointed in me. He told me to get out of his sight…and now I'm here…but then he also told me that no matter what I would always be by his side…so I'm here. Can I be here? Is it ok for me to be here?" asked Mob. She was sniffling now. Minegishi made space for her on their bed.

"Yeah, that's fine, but we're not the sort of friends who cry to each other." Said Minegishi. Mob nodded. She knew that rule about not crying. She had been so bad that day. They hadn't even been back in Japan for half a day and already she was acting like this. No wonder dad wanted her to get out of his sight. No wonder he had hit her and pulled her hair. No wonder he was disappointed in her beyond words…

She was disappointed in herself, too.

"Ok. I won't cry. I understand." Said Mob. She was not going to cry. She was not going to lose control of her emptions again. She was Suzuki Shigeko. She did not cry. She was not going to make dad any more disappointed in her than he already was…which was already more disappointed in her than he had ever been in her life that she could remember. He had talked to her like she was Sho…that was how upset he was with her…

This was good. If he was upset with her then he would not be upset with Sho.

And she could make it up to Sho, too. She could let him do whatever he wanted from now on. No more healthy foods or baths or homeschool work or anything. She would scrub him down in his sleep and crush up vitamins into his food and do all of his homeschool work for him. Yes, then he would be happy with her again…or not. Maybe she had ruined everything. Maybe she had ruined their relationship as siblings and also her relationship with dad and he was going to send her to an orphanage or something and she would be all alone and-

"You still nine?" asked Minegishi

"Yes. My birthday was in May." Said Mob. Minegishi muttered something to themselves before reaching out for the bottle that was beside the bed. They looked at her, and then at the bottle, and then at her again before they twisted the cap off of the bottle and pouring some of the liquid into it. It looked like water but it certainly did not smell like water.

"Here. I know that I'm probably ruining your life right now but it sounds like your dad already got that started so drink this." said Minegishi as they handed her a capful of something that burnt her nose when she smelled it.

"What is it?" asked Mob as she stared at the clear liquid in front of her. The bottle was in Japanese…which told her nothing. She could read the words but she had no idea what they meant. Had she forgotten how to read? No, she just didn't know these words…but it didn't matter.

"Something that I shouldn't give you right now but, hey, I was about your age when I started and also…seeing you like this makes me feel like crap…because I guess you've grown on me or whatever….but if you tell anyone I said that I am never hanging out with you again. You got it?" asked Minegishi. Mob nodded. She wasn't going to tell anyone that Minegishi said that they cared about her…even though she didn't get why…and also she was going to drink this even though it smelled like something that she was not supposed to drink.

It burned.

But she swallowed.

"Next time just drink it down, don't hold it on your mouth." Said Minegishi. They patted Mob on the back. For a moment she thinks that she's going to be hit again but she's not. This is Minegishi and Minegishi is her friend and friends did not hit each other unless they were siblings.

"Oh…ok. I will. What was that stuff, anyway? It tasted like burning." Said Mob. She wished that she'd had some water. Her mouth and throat were raw and her eyes were watering and her nose was running…and also she was feeling sort of warm inside…

"Vodka. Good Japanese vodka. The one thing, well on my very short list of things, I missed about this country. The only country that does better is Russia it's self but my Russian is shit." Said Minegishi. Mob nodded. She felt…she felt like she needed to lay down. She felt warm and kind of tired…

But not bad anymore.

"My dad says that Japanese things are the best in the whole world and that Japanese people are the best and the most cultured people in the whole world too. He says that. He says a lot of things. Some of the things he says are very mean. I hate it when he says things that are very mean…but I can't even say anything…." Said Mob. Another capful was pressed to her hand.

"You get one more but that's it. I'm trying to make you feel better, not turn you into a drunk." Said Minegishi. Mob nodded and drank the next capful the way Minegishi told her to. She expected Minegishi to put the cap back on the bottle but they just took a big drink right from the bottle. Maybe Minegishi was a boy. Boys did that a lot.

"Hey, are you a boy or a girl? I've been wondering that since the day I met you but I was too scared to ask." Said Mob. She felt a little dizzy. Minegishi let her rest her head on their shoulder.

"Yup. You're drunk. I know you wouldn't have had the balls to ask me that otherwise." Said Minegishi

"Drunk?" asked Mob. She knew what drunk was. Sometimes adults drank sake and acted dumb. That was what dad said drunk was, anyway, and that was why he said that he hardly ever drank sake even though it was delicious. She had seen dunk people in anime too. They had rosy cheeks and noses and acted silly.

She touched her nose. It felt the same. But rosy was a color, not a feeling.

And she didn't think that she was acting silly. Well she was leaning against Minegishi. They weren't the sort of friends that hugged. They were, though, apparently the sort of friends who leaned against each other. This was nice. Minegishi was warm. Their aura was nice. Their room was full of boxes…maybe they should have made a fort. There were plants too. A plants vs boxes fort like she and Sho made…that would have been fun.

"Yeah, I may have given you a little too much you little drunk. Also to answer your question unless you're asking me out, which I would say no to because you're nine and I'm not a creep, then you don't need to know that." Said Minegishi

"Oh. B-But what do you do if people want to ask you on dates? If they don't know if you're a boy or a girl then how will they know if it's ok to ask you?" asked Mob. Poor Minegishi. It was so sad that they didn't have love or kids. Mob sort of wished that they had kids just so that Mob could have had another kid to play with…but they didn't and Mob should have been happy with Sho. She could see his aura. He was still upset…and she should have gone to him…but she was very comfortable sitting right in that spot.

"I don't date people who care about that. Well I don't date in general and what I do is not something that you're ready to hear about at your age. Maybe when you're ten but not nine." Said Minegishi

"Oh…ok. I don't understand but ok." Said Mob. She did not understand the world of adults. She had thought that dad was hard to understand but maybe they all were…actually everything was becoming hard to understand. She couldn't keep balance. She kept on swaying and swaying until she fell backwards onto the bed. It smelled new. It was new.

It was comfortable.

"Yeah, you're gone. You can wait out world war Suzuki here, even the plants can feel how pissed off your dad is, on the condition that you don't tell him I let you drink. I don't want to be next after he's done with whatever it is that he's doing over there." said Minegishi

"Ok…I won't tell dad…won't let him get mad at you." Said Mob. She knew that she should have been worried, been afraid, but she wasn't. She was…content. Yes, that was the world. Content and snug as a bug in a rug. She could get used to this…and also she could keep a secret. This was so nice. Her feelings wouldn't listen and her powers wouldn't listen and she had been so upset before…

She may not have ever been able to go home again but…but at least it wasn't so bad anymore.