A/N: I'm sick. I don't know with what but no matter what happens I'm going to do my best to stick to the daily update schedule. Just don't think that I've abandoned this fic if you don't see any updates in a day or two.

Daughter was still so easy to shop for.

She liked dolls. Representations of living people. He understood that, the joy that came from having complete control over another living being. She crafted little worlds for them too. He also understood that. Having the whole world fit in the palm of your hand, the feeling of it. So he could even think that he understood her. That part of her anyway. People had so many parts to them and those parts were constantly changing. Most people were very difficult to understand.

He understood her better than he had ever understood another living being in his entire existence.

"Here. A new friend for you." Said Suzuki as he handed her another new doll. He had been stopping off and getting her new ones almost every day after work. They kept her from feeling left out, he imagined, because he had been leaving her alone all day and only taking her brother with him. He couldn't have taken her with even if he had wanted to.

This was not the place for a little girl.

His dealings with certain yakuza groups had upset Masami. Ergo since Daughter was also female then they would upset her, too, and he could not have that. She had already threatened to leave him once. It hadn't been a real threat because she was only nine…or maybe it had been since she was only nine and, of course, was incapable of fully planning ahead. Either way he was not involving her in any of this. He'd bring her to work with them on their next stop…wherever that would be. He didn't know. All he knew was that if he kept on providing materially for her like this then she would be happy and she would have no reason to even think about leaving him.

"Th-Thanks Dad. I love it." Said Daughter. He might have woken her up. She had been laying down on the couch. One of her shows was playing. Something Japanese, thankfully, that show she liked about the teenage girls who saved the world in very short skirts. He wondered if she had been waiting up for him again. She must have been there for a while based on the number of empty milk bottles that littered the table. He used his powers to compress the empty ones until they were small and then to send them to the kitchen garbage can.

"H-Hey….I was drinking those." Said Daughter as she sat up. She held her new doll in her hands. Another one that looked like her. It was so much easier to find dolls that looked like her in Japan. She looked Japanese after all. He wondered if that ever bothered her, having to look like everyone else…but then again she had been so happy, before, to wear her school uniform. That was something that he did not understand about her.

"No you were not, Daughter, those were empty. How you can drink so much dairy in one day is beyond me." Said Suzuki as he down beside his Daughter. She smiled at him. She leaned down and rested her head against his arm.

"You smell weird." Said Daughter

"Like what?" asked Suzuki. He pulled his shirt up over his nose. He was, if anything, fastidious about his appearance and hygiene.

"Fireworks." Said Daughter as she closed her eyes. He rested a hand in her hair. She really had very soft and beautiful hair. It was heavy and silky. Masami's had been light and silky…and he was not going to think about her. He didn't understand himself. It was a big country. There was no point to thinking more about her now, or about her at all, because she was gone and she had betrayed him and he should have just forgotten about her…

And other such things that he had been telling himself for years.

"Oh….gunpowder." said Suzuki. Right. He needed to change. Shimazaki was elected to teleport him and Son away instead of dropping the moron who had the nerve to make an attempt on his life in the ocean or something.

"Did you and Sho go see fireworks without me?" asked Daughter

"I wouldn't dream of it." Said Suzuki. He made a mental note to take her to see some fireworks. The children enjoyed them and so had he as a child…and as an adult though he would not tell a soul. He had no desire to leave Daughter out of something which she would have enjoyed. He so liked making her happy.

"You smell like fireworks though." said Daughter

"Never mind why I smell like gunpowder." Said Suzuki. Daughter nodded. She pulled the remote over with her powers and handed it to him. He was thankful for that. He could feel a headache growing. How she could watch this he would never know. Much too loud, much too colorful, which made sense because she was a child after all. Also she was female. That was something that he did not understand about her, her media choices.

Masami had been difficult to understand in that regard as well.

They used to watch her historical dramas together. They could agree on that. He liked learning about history and she liked watching the drama unfold. Those had been good nights. When Son was a baby and he would sit there with them, asleep, and it felt like it was just him and her….like they were the only two people in the whole world…..and she would rest her head on his chest or in his lap. He would touched her hair or her face or her hands….and she had such beautiful hands….

Daughter's hands were soft, too, and her nails were lavender.

"This is new." Said Suzuki as he tapped her nail with his finger. Daughter opened her eyes and nodded.

"Minegishi painted my nails for me. Well they were painting their nails and then I asked if they would paint my nails and then they did. I like it. I tried to paint their nails, too, but I had trouble staying in the lines. Then we played Totalitarian Doll State, Minegishi invented that game, and then Sho came home and I had to go home to play with him. Then me and Sho played target practice. Then we had dinner and watched TV and took a bath and then I put Sho to bed. Then I came here to wait for you to give me my new doll. Those are all of the things that happened to me today." Said Daughter. He liked that, how she listed things off. He had never been sure when Masami wanted him to ask the details of her day. Sometimes he would ask and she would get cross with him and tell him that her days were unchanging and that he should have known that. Other times, when he didn't ask, she would get upset with him for not asking.

Women were so confusing.

Daughter was so much easier to understand. He wondered if it was all Daughters or just her. Not that he was ever going to have any more Daughters….he hoped. He hadn't exactly been careful before….back in Korea…but he is not going to think about that now. Also he was never going to do anything like that again. Even if there was the brown haired woman who worked at the doll shop where he bought Daughter's friends…and maybe it was time he found another doll shop….

Maybe.

"Your nails look very nice." Said Suzuki. He wasn't a fan, honestly, because she was just a little girl and that was something that grown women did….and also Minegishi apparently…..and she was just a little girl…but this was something that he did not have any expertise in. For all he knew this was normal for little girls her age. He didn't know. Masami would have known.

Sometimes he wished that he had a female perspective.

Because he was not ashamed to say that he was out of his depth when it came to these things. He thought that she was too young to paint her nails but he also had no idea what was and was not normal female behavior for her age. He had never been female and he had never had any sisters. There weren't any women in his life that he could ask…and there never would be. No, not after what happened before. He was never risking losing control like that again.

"Thank you, dad. Do you want to pick what we watch or do you want me to pick what we watch." Said Daughter. Right. He had stopped scrolling. He handed her the remote. She knew what he liked. She knew him to a degree. The degree at which he allowed her to know him. There were so many things about his life that she could not know about. Like why he smelled like gunpowder….or why they could never enter the nation of Korea ever again.

"Here, you choose." Said Suzuki. He didn't have to wait for very long. She found another documentary about the domestication of the housecat. Though from what he had learned from her numerous cat documentaries cats were not domesticated at all. They simply decided that it would be advantageous to share space with humans. He wondered why she watched so many of these documentaries, they were the same thing over and over again, but he was not going to get into it right then and there with her.

He was tired.

He was tired and he just wanted to rest with her. Her presence was so enjoyable. Even if she seemed tired, her aura was being strange and her movements were sloppy, he still enjoyed sitting there with her. He had her hand in his still. She had very soft hands. She smelled like….aloe? Where had he smelled that before?

Right, Minegishi.

They smelled heavily of dirt a lot of the time. Sometimes aloe, too, and sometimes rosewater. Suzuki didn't ask them about there. He knew that he shouldn't have cared about offending them, when he ruled the world then social rules would mean nothing, but he was not going to go up to such a valuable esper and ask if they were male or female.

He was starting to lean towards female anyway.

But then again things were a lot more fluid now than when he was a young. The rules were a lot more lax now and he had no intention of tightening them again. The sexuality of others was not of his concern unless they were trying to have sex with him….or if they were espers. He did need more espers in the world…but in general people did not react well to being told that they had to reproduce. Even though the world was woefully bereft of espers….

And he had done his part.

"You certainly spend a lot of time with Minegishi, don't you?" asked Suzuki. He had been skeptical about taking Minegishi with them but Daughter had made friends with them and, really, there was no reason to say no to her. He couldn't blame her for wanting to surround herself with other espers. He had been the same way when he had been her age.

"Yes. They're my best friend who isn't Sho. We're besties, they said so first so that way I know that I'm not just being clueless again." said Daughter

"Do you know if they're male or female?" asked Suzuki. He was leaning towards female. Why else would they have painted Daughter's nails? He didn't know what he would do with this information, though, if they were female. It wasn't as if he was ever going to pursue Minegishi sexually or romantically. They weren't attractive to him. The oddly colored hair, the constant quips and comments, and the fact that he was never sleeping with a subordinate again. With anyone again. He was not going to turn into some womanizing, self-defiling, slave to his own joy.

"I don't know. Minegishi says that unless I want to date them then I shouldn't ask. I don't like them like that, we're just friends and also they're a grownup, so I don't ask. Well I did ask once but they didn't answer. Sometimes I think that they're a girl because they like to play dolls with me and also they painted my nails again. Sometimes I think that they're a boy because they always wear pants and also they like fighting. There's a lot of fighting in Totalitarian Doll State." Said Daughter

"What on Earth is 'Totalitarian Doll State'?" asked Suzuki. Well the game of dolls was, fundamentally, a game of creating a world and controlling it…but why totalitarianism? It never worked out. He was going to rule the world and all but he wasn't going to control every aspect of people's daily lives. There would just be no self-governance and a severe curtailing of personal freedoms. That was totally different.

"It's a game that we and Minegishi played when they got bored of playing Divorced Princesses. It's where Elsa takes the crown of the magic kingdom from Mickey and then Elsa with some other princesses take over the whole Disney world but then there's a resistance. We didn't get to play for very long because Shimazaki came to visit Minegishi and then Minegishi kicked me out. I don't know why they hang out so much. Playing with me is probably more fun than hanging out with him." said Daughter

"I would imagine so." Said Suzuki. Just when he thought that he understood his Daughter she went and said something like that. Maybe he should have paid more attention to the games she played. He might have understood her better. He wondered what the world would have looked like if she were the one to inherit it from him. He was going to make a better world for all espers, one in which they wouldn't have to hide, and one in which eventually there would be a way to make everyone an esper. Though that was far off in the future.

He wondered what her future would look like.

What would the world look like in her hands? What did she want? She was getting older now. She had said, before, that she wanted a world where everyone got along. In theory a totalitarian state would bring peace, she so hated conflict, but with a truly totalitarian state there would be never ending resistance fighting…but then again if he took over the world he would have those fires to put out anyway. No, not if, when. When he took over the world.

The world would fit right there in his hands.

And had she been his biological Daughter then the world could have fit in her hands as well. Her soft, small, hands. But she was not his biological child so the world would never fit in her hands. He wondered if it would have been better off in her hands. She had such small hands, such soft hands, just like her mother's.

"Dad….how come you keep on holding my hand?" asked Daughter. Right. He had been holding her hand for far too long. Not like him at all. He was not an affectionate person. Well he was if he was told when he was expected to be affectionate. He could be affectionate towards his Daughter, she was female, and that was ok.

"I'll stop." Said Suzuki. She shook her head and looked up at him.

"I don't mind. I like it when you're nice to me like that. I wish that you were like that more often." Said Daughter. Well not there was some serious dejavu. For a moment her hair is not black and her eyes are not brown and she is not his Daughter at all but his wife and she's talking, again, about how she wants more affection but then refuses to tell him how much more affection or at what times she wants this affection.

Women were so confusing.

And he hoped that Daughter was not going to be confusing. She was…she was a lot like him. He wanted to think that she was one of the few people in this world that he could understand. He wanted to understand her. He wanted there to be someone in this world that he could understand. Not that he felt alone or anything like that. To feel alone he would have needed someone and he need no one. He was a full and complete person all on his own.

He was.

"How often is more often?" asked Suzuki

"What do you mean, dad?" asked Daughter

"If you want me to show you affection then I need to know what sort of affection, in what quantity, and at what times. Otherwise I will have no idea what you want. I am many things, Daughter, but a telepath is not one of them." Said Suzuki. He found himself feeling something akin to fear. He was…afraid…that she would get up and leave just as her mother had. He was afraid that he had said the wrong thing and that she was upset with him, even though he had no idea what it was about what he said that could have been taken as wrong, and that she would just get up and walk away….

Which made no sense.

He didn't need her. He didn't need anyone. That had been his mistake with Masami. He had been too weak around her. He had been too dependent on her. That was why she had left him, maybe, he didn't know and he couldn't very well go and ask her why she had left now could he? He just…he was just being irrational. This was his Daughter. She was never going to leave him. She was going to be by his side for the rest of his life and also for some time afterwards if he didn't pass on right away. She was still so small that he could keep her from leaving. He was not going to make the same mistakes with her that he had with Masami….even though he wasn't entirely sure what those mistakes had even been….

People were complicated, especially women.

"Um….ok. When we sit on the couch together I want you to hold me close and touch my hair and stuff. The same for when we hang out in your room and watch TV. Also I would like it if you hugged me at least once a day. I like hugs. Sho won't let me hug him that often anymore because he says that he's too big and Minegishi says that we're not the kind of friends who hug. That's what I want." Said Daughter. There. That was not so very difficult. He had no idea why that had been so difficult for Masami. Perhaps because she had been a bit more like everyone else than Daughter was. Yes, Daughter was more like him. He didn't know why she was so much like him when her brother was so much different….

A quirk of genetics?

For his entire life he had felt it. The difference between him and the rest of the world. The rest of the people in the world. For his entire life he had been able to move things without touching them amongst a great many other talents but for some reason he had never been able to figure out the art of conversation. Pulling meaning from words. Words didn't mean what their definitions were, it seemed, because there was a whole other level of meaning that he had never been able to understand.

He said what he meant and meant what he said.

And so did Daughter, thankfully, because this made their whole relationship so much easier. True it was not a walk in the park, they did quarrel, and he did have reason to become angry with her and also to punish her, but those times were rare. They generally got on so well…maybe that was because they were made the same, it seemed. She had expressed it too. She had expressed a similar frustration with the world, the way it communicated, as he had felt for his entire life. Maybe it had to do with genetics. She may not have been his Daughter by blood but there was a similar quirk of genetics that gave her the same sorts of powers that he had.

Not all of the same powers, of course, because he had been the only one bestowed with the ultimate power.

"Yes. I can do that." Said Suzuki. He reached his arm around her and pulled her into a more sitting position. Then his hand found her hair like she had asked of him. He didn't like direct orders, he hated them actually, but he would do as she asked. She was just a little girl. She wasn't trying to have power over him, she was just trying to reinforce a parental bond, and it was in his best influence to make that bond as strong as possible. She wouldn't be a little girl forever. She would grow up and then one day she might get the same sort of idea her mother had….

But she was not her mother, she was Daughter, and that would never happen.