There was no problem that could not be solved in some way.

His Daughter was no exception.

Something was wrong with her. Since coming to Japan she had been so odd. Not that they had been back for very long, only a few days, and over the course of those days she had been distant from him. She hadn't sought him out in the night, she hadn't clung to his legs when he tried to leave in the mornings, and she hadn't tried to go to work with him either….not that there was much for him to do in Tokyo.

The Seventh Division was in Seasoning City after all.

And they would not be going to Seasoning City. He was not going to risk it. There was nothing for them there. Well an entire Division of Claw…which was still in it's infancy. He had established the Seventh Division, well planted the seeds of it, shortly after adopting Daughter. Seasoning City had produced the both of them after all. It seemed as though they were the only two espers to come out of there…but then again lightning could strike the same place twice. Or thrice, in this case. Still he was not going back to the place of his and his Daughter's birth.

He didn't need that kind of stress.

An irrational kind of stress. The sort of stress that could drive a person to lose control. He didn't need to walk down the same streets of his youth, to maybe even see the house he had grown up in, to climb the same tress, to eat at that same omelet place…if it was there. To light some incense for his parents. He didn't need…he didn't need that in his life right now. He had enough going on as it was. He had business to run and a world to take over and…and he did not need to go to Seasoning City.

Or home.

The children had carried on something fierce on their first day back. Son put up a racket and Daughter…she defied him to his face. She defied him to his face and forced his hand…not that he had hurt her in any way. He barely touched her. She had been asking for it anyway with the way that she was carrying on. The way that she had let Son carry on even though he had told her to stop him. The way that she had lost control and attacked her brother….all of it. It hadn't been like her at all and he hadn't been able to reconcile the way she was acting with the person he knew her to be so she forced his hand in that way.

She had forced his hand.

It had been her fault. She should have been able to keep it together. He had been able to keep it together. It wasn't easy for him, either, being back in Japan. He hadn't thought it through, coming back here, because even if he was kilometers from the home he had shared with Masami it still hurt. The wound, which had been scarred over, had opened again. It was opened and he had to do his best to close it. There was no reason for this wound to be opened. He wasn't anywhere near home…but he was. He was closer to the house that he and Masami had shared….closer than he had been in years.

Irrational.

A house was a collection of walls and pipes and a roof. The house was just a building no different from the one they were staying in now. No different from all of the ones that he and the children had stayed in. He knew this, he could recognize this, and he had been recognizing this from the moment that he had stepped foot into their new accommodations. There was no need to go back to that house even for one day. There was nothing there but dust. Dust and boxes of junk from the past. Memories that he had been trying to exorcise for years and years. He was not going back.

And neither were the children.

Daughter had asked to leave him. She dared to ask to leave him after all that he had done for her. She would have been languishing in that child prison if not for him. Not that she knew about the child prison. Not that she could ever know about the child prison. Not that she could ever know her true origins….but still. She should not have asked to leave, to go back to the old house, and she….she should not have even thought to….she should have….

She was going to be by his side for the rest of his life.

He did not want to draw parallels between his wife and his Daughter. He had to keep those two categorizations far away from each other. Daughter was nothing like Masami. Daughter was easier to understand than Masami had ever been. Daughter never asked him for things that he couldn't understand, she never asked for affection and didn't tell him when she wanted it or how, and she never pushed him away in one breath and then drew him closer in the next. She never…she was not her mother. Masami may have left him, may have betrayed him, but Daughter never would…

So he tried to understand Daughter.

In the moment, when she had asked to leave him, he had been disappointed in her beyond all measure. Disappointed in and also…other feelings. Cold ones. Cold ones that stabbed him in the wound that Masami left and then twisted back and forth until blood was drawn. So he had told her to get out of his sight…and she had complied. She had gotten so far out of his sight that he had feared that she had left….but she hadn't. She had just gone to spend time with Minegishi.

And then she had come home the next day and she had stayed….so that was good.

"Daughter. Eat something." Said Suzuki. Daughter was staring at her plate. There was a full Japanese breakfast spread out in front of her and she hadn't touched a bite. He had even held up on breakfast for her and she wasn't touching a single scrap of it….

"Don't touch the furikake. I barely even had any." Said Son. He took more than his fair share…but that was fine they could always get more. They could always get more of everything. There was no need for Daughter to just sit there and stare at her food. She was slumped down in her chair, too, which was not like her at all. He reached over with his powers and propped her up properly.

Her aura pulled away from his.

And she was looking at him now. He was bad at reading faces but auras…she seemed frightened. He didn't know what she was frightened of. She had nothing to fear. She was his Daughter. He would protect her from everything around her. He would keep her safe and protect her like he had been for her entire life. Her and Son and-and Masami…

"You need to eat something." Said Suzuki. Daughter shook her head. She was still looking at him now. He didn't know why she was so focused on him. Her eyes met his and her aura was focused on him…and he had no idea why. It wasn't like she had spent the past seven years that they had known each other ignoring him but….but she had never been this focused on him, either. It was….he didn't like it. The fact that she was so frightened. He felt, almost, like she was frightened of him…but that made no sense. He had never given her reason to be frightened of him.

"You've been eating nothing but the furikake." Said Suzuki. It wasn't that there wasn't enough to go around it was just the fact that it was rude to eat all of one thing. Son's table manners weren't the best. Daughter had excellent table manners. He'd have to ask her to help Son with that…even she ever stopped carrying on the way she was.

"No, I've been eating other things too. See my rice bowl? It's empty and it's my second bowl of it, too. I'm super hungry because we had to wait to eat breakfast for some reason." said Son

"Your sister was away. We should all eat at least one meal together a day." Said Suzuki. Truth be told he would have rather eaten on his own or just with Daughter….but it was good for them to eat together at least once. It reinforced family bonds. Also Daughter enjoyed it.

"She's always away hanging out with her friend and stuff. You never tried to starve me before." Said Son

"You are far from starving, believe me, you've never known true hunger and you never will. Now stop this." Said Suzuki

"Sho can have all of everything. You and Sho can. I'm not hungry." Said Daughter. She seemed paler. She was resting her head on one hand now. Her eyes were squinted shut. Was she sick? He had never once known her to get sick…the thought is frightening. The thought of there being something that he could not protect her from….that she could not protect herself from….the thought of her succumbing to some illness.

Masami had been frequently sick towards the end.

"You need to eat something." Said Suzuki. Daughter was not sick. If she were sick then she would have told Fukuda. If she were sick then she would have gone and gotten herself all healed up. She was not sick. She was just….not sick. She wasn't any paler than usual. She had always been pale. She got it from him.

No, she didn't.

"I'm not hungry." Said Daughter. She wasn't looking at him anymore. She was looking down at her rice bowl. It was full. His was half full. Son's was empty. He didn't know why his Daughter was carrying on like this. She was not sick, no, because if she was then…then it would have been unthinkable…but she was not sick.

"Did you eat today?" asked Suzuki

"No." said Daughter

"Then eat now. You need to eat to live." Said Suzuki. She picked at her rice with her chopsticks. She held her chopsticks strangely. Both of the children did. They hadn't really used them that often, had they? Masami had always preferred a fork and she had been the one to make the meals and set the tables…that had been years ago. Well the children mostly lived on things that they ate with their hands. Pizza, french-fries, candy….he'd have to teach Daughter how to hold chopsticks later. Then she could teach Son. They had to learn how to use chopsticks especially if they were going to be spending time in Japan again.

"I'm trying." Said Daughter as she picked up some rice with her chopsticks and ate it. She made a face as she ate it. That was strange. She only made faces when she ate things that she didn't care for. Like the time with the locusts. Son had enjoyed them but Daughter had made that same face…

Did she just not like it?

Yes, that must have been it. She just didn't like it. She usually ate everything that was put in front of her. She was usually so good about that. He didn't much care what the children ate just so long as they ate. He thought that she would have appreciated it, a real Japanese breakfast after so long away from home, but he must have miscalculated. She was just…hungry for something else. Also she must have been tired, too. Maybe he wouldn't take the children with him today. There wasn't much for them to do and he couldn't just take Son with him, that was too much of a hassle.

Daughter was fine.

"If you don't like it then you can ask for something else. I just thought that you would enjoy a real Japanese breakfast since you were so happy, before, to be back in Japan. We all are." Said Suzuki. Son nodded as he dug into his third bowl of rice. He seemed fine now, better than he had been before, though he sort of carried on still…but not the same way that Daughter had been….

Daughter should not have been carrying on at all.

But that was over now. She hadn't uttered a single word about going back to the old house since that day. That meant that it was all over and…and now they could carry on as they always had been. No matter what country they were in they could always carry on. Their geographic location didn't matter anyway. They were still the same people no matter where they were. So there was no need to assign any irrational feelings to their location. So Son and Daughter, really, had no right to carry on the way that they had been.

"It's fine, dad, I'm just not hungry. Are we going to work with you today or are we doing homeschool?" asked Daughter

"I want to go to the arcade! Well an arcade…and also the park, well a park, and then we can find some other place fun a-and-" said Son

"Are you feeling alright?" asked Suzuki. She could not have been sick but if she had been then it would have been nothing at all to call Fukuda…unless this was one of those things that he could not fix. Like Masami's condition. Whatever her condition had been. Whatever had made her carry on in bed all day. Daughter…she did not have the same affliction or condition…she couldn't have…

Something was different about her.

And he had no idea what it was. There was sort of a distance between them. He could sense it. A metaphysical distance. She was sitting right across from him but she felt so far away…and he was not at all accustomed to feeling like he was far away from her. She had been his shadow whenever she was near to him since the day he had brought her home. Well almost since the day he had brought her home. She had been weary of him before…back when she was only two years old….but that was seven years ago. No point in dwelling on the past now.

"I feel fine. I can totally go and-" said Son

"No, not you. Your sister." Said Suzuki. Son stabbed a piece of pickled vegetable with his chopstick until it was reduced down to almost nothing.

"I feel fine. I just don't want any breakfast." Said Daughter. That was not like her at all. She did not skip meals. She was…she was still growing and needed to eat. She was an esper and needed to eat. She needed to eat often because not only was she growing but her powers were taxing on her energy reserves as well. Daughter…she should not have been worrying him like this. She should not have…she should not have been acting like this.

He exorcised the emotion that he was feeling. The anxiety.

"What do you want, then? Whatever you want you can have." Said Suzuki. There was no reason that she couldn't have whatever she wanted…within reason. If she asked to go back to the old house again…he hoped that she didn't start up with all of that again.

"I want….I want whatever Sho wants." Said Daughter. She pushed her rice bowl away. Son reached over and took it from her. His hand stopped and his eyes met hers as he grabbed her bowl. She did nothing. He took it. That was normal for the two of them. Daughter took care of Son. That was how it was supposed to be.

But Daughter was not the way that she was supposed to be.

Suzuki ruminated on this throughout his entire day. Better to ruminate on his Daughter's strange behavior than on the million and one other things that came to mind. Masami. The house. The life he used to live. The life that he had made with her…that she wanted no part of. She had taken everything that he had given her and just…just left it all there. She had just left him. She had left him and…and she was gone…and even before that there had been this distance between the two of them…

A distance which she had let grow.

A distance which he had her grow.

A distance that would not grow between him and his Daughter. She was never going to leave him. He wouldn't let her leave. She would be by his side for the rest of his life. She had no reason to leave. She…why did she have to say that? That she would leave for the old house and…and take her brother with him. She would never leave him. She was not…she was not Masami's daughter. She didn't have even the smallest bit of Masami in her and that was….was good. She was…she was her own person…

And she was not going to leave him.

She wanted…she wanted to be near him. She was just…he had no idea. Maybe she had just been having a bad day. Maybe she had just…maybe they needed to leave Japan. She wanted…he had no idea what she wanted. She had said, before, that she wanted to be in Japan and so had he…and also he wanted to leave. He wanted to stay and go at the same time…so maybe she felt the same way, too. Maybe she had a wound that wouldn't heal like he did. Maybe she felt the way he felt.

Of course she didn't, she was just a child.

It may not have always felt like it but she was a child. Even if she hadn't been a child she had no reason to feel like…to feel the way he felt…and he should not have been feeling anything at all anyway. He was feeling this and it…it would pass. It had passed before for the most part, before he made all of those stupid choices, and it would pass again. If the feel of betrayal ever could truly pass. He didn't know. She would never know. She would never know the pain of choosing someone out of everyone else in the world and then having them leave you….

If anyone ever did that to his Daughter then he would murder them.

And Daughter would never leave him. She was just…he didn't know. Melancholic. Morose. Sick looking. She had been like that since they quarreled….and maybe that was it. But they had quarreled before…but not so badly….and she had always come back to him. He had never quarreled with Masami and yet she still…and Daughter was not Masami. Daughter was also younger…and he had struck her hard enough to break through her barrier….

Was that it?

If it was then he would have to make peace with her. He had no idea how to make peace with someone he had upset. Usually when he upset people he didn't care. They were only upset because they had given him a reason to make them feel like that. Sometimes people forced his hand…his own Daughter included….but Daughter was not like most people. Did he really want to go groveling to her like that? Did he really want to make peace with her even though she was the one who forced his hand?

She needed to eat.

If she was on some sort of hunger strike then, of course, he would make peace with her. He couldn't have her starving to death or anything like that. She had been hard to find. A prodigy. He knew that she would be had to replace…so therefore she was irreplaceable…and therefore making peace with her was fine. If anything she was forcing his hand.

So he had to make peace with her.

Because he could not stand the way she was carrying on. Carrying on but also…not. Not in the way that Son carried on, he could not have handled it in if she carried on like that, but she was….she was carrying on in her own way. A distant sort of way. Not seeking him out. Not spending time with him. Not…not being herself. He missed her. It was a bit like how it had been with Masami...that sense of distance.

So he would have to make peace….somehow.

Not with words, no, because we did not grovel and especially not to his own nine year old Daughter. No, he would get her a gift. She had always liked it when he came back from abroad with gifts for her. Yes, she would appreciate the gesture and then she would stop with whatever it was that she was feeling and then things could go back to normal.

All it would take was one doll.

The search for said doll ended up taking longer than Suzuki had anticipated. It had to be perfect. He had always put care into what he got her. There was no point at all in picking out a gift if it wasn't going to be the most perfect one he could have picked out. He also had to do this personally. The Awakened couldn't be trusted. They could have come back with all sorts of nonsense. There was a reason that there was a difference between an Awakened soldier and just a general Awakened esper. No, he would gladly spend the better part of the day at every doll shop on Tokyo, turned out that there were a lot of them, to find something that his Daughter would like.

And then they would be alright again.

"Here. This is for you." Said Suzuki. That was the first thing he said to his Daughter after coming home. He had left Son and Daughter to their own decides that day, not even school work for them, and judging by the fact that Son was passed out in front of the television it had been a day well spent. There were stuffed toys and little trinkets everywhere. Good. They'd tired themselves out. That was why Daughter was all…slouched over…like that.

"Thanks Dad." Said Daughter as she took the gift bag from his hands. She rested it on her lap and just sort of looked at it.

"You can open it." Said Suzuki. That wasn't like her at all. The children had never waited….well Daughter waited, Son just sort of tore apart whatever paper or bag contained his gifts….but Daughter always asked and then opened. She was just sort of staring at it…and that wasn't like her. Even her aura seemed…duller.

"A new friend for you." Said Suzuki

"Oh. Another doll. Thanks dad. I'll put it with the others." Said Daughter. She seemed tired. There was a far off quality to her voice. She also had some trouble getting to her feet. He reached out to help her and she flinched away.

"What was that?" asked Suzuki

"What?" asked Daughter. She swayed a little on her feet. She must have been very tired. It wasn't so late…maybe she was still on Seoul time. Yes, that must have been it. That and her age. Children needed a lot of sleep, didn't they? That might have be why she was still acting so…differently.

"That. That thing you did. You've never done that before." Said Suzuki. Daughter swayed a bit as she stood. She put her new friend down next to a half full bottle of milk. She had some trouble setting her doll down, it seemed, and he helped her as best as he could. By hand that time. She still stepped away from him. He didn't know why.

"I don't know." Said Daughter after a moment. He picked up her doll and handed it to her. She must have liked it. She loved dolls. She had so many after all. She was a little girl and little girls loved dolls.

"That's not an answer." Said Suzuki

"It is. You asked me something and I answered you." Said Daughter. Suzuki thought for a moment. Well she was technically right, she had answered him, but that had not been the answer that he had been looking for. He didn't know what it was that he had been looking for, what it was that he wanted her to say, but it was something more than 'I don't know'.

"But it's not a real answer." Said Suzuki. Daughter shook her head. Son kicked in his sleep. She pulled a blanket off the couch with her powers and draped it over Son. At least that part of her was still normal. The caring part. He didn't know what he would have done if she had stopped…if she had just laid in bed all day…and stopped being…herself.

"Sho might wake up." Said Daughter by way of explanation. Yes, that would not have been god at all. Son had been carrying on…both of the children had….but now at least Daughter would be better now. Right?

"Are you tired? You're acting like you're tired." Said Suzuki. She reached up and played with her hair. It was down now. She kept it in braids a lot, even when she slept sometimes. He forgot how long it was, sometimes, long and straight and black as night. She really had very beautiful hair.

He reached out and brushed it behind her ear.

And her aura pulled away from his. He frowned. That was odd. She was being so odd. She was being so odd…he didn't know. He had given her a new doll, a new friend to play with, but she was still so…so…he didn't even know. All he knew was that he didn't like it, the way she was being, and he wanted…he wanted her to be…not like this.

"Are you still mad at me?" asked Daughter

"Have you done anything today to make me angry with you?" asked Suzuki

"No, I mean about before…when I asked you to go home. Are you still mad at me? Are you still so disappointed in me that you don't even have the words for it?" asked Daughter. So he was right. She was upset about what happened. He had thought that the doll would have made it better. Maybe it had and it just needed time. She was…she was still being like…and he didn't like it.

"No. That was days ago. I'm no longer angry with you or disappointed in you." Said Suzuki. He tucked the rest of her hair behind her other ear. She didn't flinch away that time. She was still unsteady a little bit but she was at least not pulling away from him.

There was less distance between them now.

Which was such a relief. He had never been this relieved in his life…well no, that was hyperbole. There was no greater relief in life than the relief he had felt when he had been allowed to go and see Masami after they had cut Son out of her. This was a big relief though, knowing that she was still there….which made no sense. Of course she was there. She was nine years old, where was she even going to go?

She wouldn't be nine forever.

And that was what he was….what even was this feeling? Fear. He was afraid of the growing distance between the two of them. Maybe because emotional distance was a precursor for physical distance? Masami had been the same way…but Daughter was not Masami. Daughter would be by his side for the rest of his life.

"Um….dad?" asked Daughter quietly

"Yes?" said Suzuki. She played with the hem of her dress. She wasn't in pajamas yet. He wondered if maybe she should have been headed off to bed. He wondered if she wanted to watch television with him. He always enjoyed watching television with her. He wondered if maybe she was bored of television by now…or something. He didn't know. He did know, however, that he wanted to be near to her. It felt as though he hadn't been near her in years….and that was an irrational way to feel. He had just seen her that morning. He hated it when he got all irrational like this.

"Do you…do you still love me?" asked Daughter. She said it so quietly that he could barely even hear her. she was probably only speaking so quietly because Son was asleep. She should have spoke up, though, because he had hardly heard her. Well it didn't matter, he had heard her, and now he had to answer her.

"Yes. I do." Said Suzuki. He hated that word, that imprecise word, but if that was the word that she wanted to use…if that was the word that would keep her by his side, then he would use it. He did care for her. The thought of losing her made him ache. The thought of being away from her made him….unhappy. So, yes, he did love her.

"I love you too, Dad." Said Daughter. She embraced him, then, and he didn't push her away. Even though he didn't like being trapped like this. Having another person wrapped around him like this. He still let her, though, because having her near was better than being far away from her.

She still held on to her.

He reached down and touched her hair. She had such soft hair. Such soft hair. She still held onto him. She cared for him. She cared for him and she would always be by his side….he would make sure of it. She was only nine years old. She was only nine and she could not go anywhere but be beside him…and when had this become such a big fear for him? It was being in Japan, probably, that did this. Everything here reminded him of Masami….

But Masami was gone.

But he had Daughter and that was enough for him.