Suzuki had no plans of ever returning to Seasoning City.

He hadn't been back since acquiring Daughter. There hadn't been any reason to go back. There was nothing there of strategic importance. Well aside from the Seventh Division but they weren't that important. He had established the Seventh Division of Claw shortly after acquiring Daughter. Seasoning City had made the two most powerful espers ever to live after all. He had thought that there would be more. Nowhere near his and Daughter's level, obviously, but he had assumed that there would have been…someone. Anyone.

There hadn't been.

Which was why Suzuki was not going to get his hopes up. His contacts in Seasoning City spoke of another child esper. Suzuki was not going to get his hopes up. It was probably nothing, or at best something completely insignificant. Some people were born with visible auras, it didn't necessarily mean that they were capable of anything. If he didn't get his hopes up then he couldn't be disappointed as he had time and time again in the past. Adult espers were disappointing enough but to get his hopes up that he had another prodigy….

He didn't want to have to deal with that.

"Dad, why are we going back to Japan so soon? We just left Japan." Said Mob. Another plane ride. She felt like she had spent half of her life in planes. That wasn't true, though, because she had only started taking planes places when she was seven. She was nine now so for it to have been half of her life it would have had to be four and a half years for it to have been half of her life. Really it was…some smaller percentage of her life that she didn't feel like calculating. She shouldn't have been complaining, anyway, since it was worse for Sho. He was nine now too but since he was younger than her he had spent and even bigger portion of his life in planes.

"You have a problem with going back to Japan?" asked Suzuki. He did not understand his children. One minute they're complaining about having to leave Japan, they felt best in their homeland and he could understand that, and now they were complaining about going back. What? Had the Second Division really been so much fun that they just had to stay? He could not begin to understand his children.

"….I wanted to see kangaroos…" said Sho. It was his birthday, well it had just passed, but still. On his birthday he got whatever he wanted and he wanted to pet kangaroos like they did last time they went to Australia. They were cool and the babies were cute and he liked animals and it was his birthday and he could do whatever he wanted! And he did not want to spend his birthday stuck in an airplane heading back to Japan when they had just come from Japan!

"You can't ride in their pouches you know." Said Suzuki

"I know that!" said Sho. He kicked his feet a few times. He would have kicked more but he felt big sis' powers stopping him. He hated flying. It had been cool the first few times but now it was just boring. He needed to MOVE. He needed to move and he needed to move away from Dad and big sis. He wished that he could teleport. Then he could have gone away somewhere, anywhere, else. Somewhere not right there across from his dad and next to his sister.

"You tried to do that before. Remember? The kangaroo didn't like that." Said Mob. That had been a nice day. The first time they had gone to Australia there had been kangaroos and they had been so cute and cool…but you couldn't ride around in their pouches like cartoons said. There was just gross stuff in there and also kangaroos could be mean.

"I recall that as well. I could have told you both that their pouches are full of mucus." Said Suzuki. The things his children got up to when he wasn't around. They had been younger back then, too young to keep around while he worked, but things were different now. They were older and he left them to their own devices less and less these days. They were both nine now, after all, though Daughter was older. He wondered if the children would ever question why their birthdays were so close together. He hoped that they didn't, not any time soon, because he did not want to answer those questions.

Maybe taking them with had been a bad idea.

Seasoning City. Daughter had been born here. Her family still lived there last he checked. He still kept tabs on them, he had to, but not as much as he had when she had been young. Her brother still showed no signs of being anything more than a normal person and her parents hadn't had another child. He wished that they had just so he could get some more data on how powers came to be. If the child had been an esper, or if Daughter's biological brother had shown signs of anything, well then he would have had no choice but to give the children another sibling.

He wasn't above kidnapping.

"I know that now….so just quit making fun of me." Said Sho. He crossed his arms and sat back. He knew when he was being made fun of. He wished that big sis would just go to the back of the plane and spend time with her friend. She was always doing that. She got to have a friend and all he had was dad…and it wasn't fair…and he didn't even have dad! Dad was making fun of him too…it just wasn't fair!

"Stop that." Said Suzuki. He could see Son's aura. He so rarely lost control in the same way that Daughter did but it did happen. He was not in the mood to go falling from the sky.

"I'm not even doing anything." Said Sho

"You're aura. Be careful, if you lose control on a plane we could all die…or dad would catch us but it still wouldn't be good." Said Mob. She wished that Sho would have been happier. It was his birthday and they could still have fun. There were lots of fun things to do in Japan. They were going to a place called Seasoning City and, apparently, there was a big arcade there. That could be fun. There was also a big tower called the Cultural Tower. It was the highest point in the whole city and they let you go to the very top. That could be fun, Sho loved heights, and he could also draw the view too. He liked to draw. This could be very fun.

Mob would make sure that it was very fun.

Not just fun, no, very fun. The most fun. The best birthday that he had ever had. Better even than the birthday when dad surprised Sho by getting him all of those cakes. That was good and she could do even better and they could be happy, still, or maybe just Sho. She wanted to make Sho happy, that was all, and also nobody should ever have had to be upset on their birthday.

"I wouldn't lose control! Sheesh! Why do you have to be like that?" asked Sho

"Like what?" asked Mob. She didn't think that she was being like anything. She just wanted them not to end up in a plane crash. What was so bad about that? She wished that Sho wouldn't have been like that. He was like something, he was always like something, but now he was particularly like something. Mean. Upset. She didn't get why. It didn't matter where he celebrated his birthday. The only thing that mattered was that they were together.

"Like that! Acting like that!" said Sho

"What am I acting like? I don't understand." Said Mob

"Acting like you're worried about me." Said Sho

"I am worried about you." Said Mob

"No you aren't." said Sho

"Yes I am." Said Mob

"No you-" said Sho

"Quiet, the both of you." Said Suzuki. He knew that this argument would devolve into the old 'am not, are too' debates that could literally stretch on for hours if the children did it right. He was not in the mood for that. He had enough on his plate as it was. Going home after all this time…not that he held any irrational feelings towards Seasoning City. He had grown up there. That didn't change the fact that it was just a city like any other. He was there for a specific purpose and once that purpose was fulfilled then he could just move on and not look back.

That is unless…

It would be nothing. There was no unless. This whole trip was a waste of his time. This child…this child was nothing. Lightning could stroke twice but most likely not thrice. No, this was…this was nothing. A waste of time. Shigeko had been…Shigeko had been…he wanted and did not want another one. Another child to trail after him, another child to fight with the two he already had, and an older child at that. Daughter had come into his life when she was two. She had forgotten her family quickly enough. An older child would definitely remember their birth family.

Also this child was not an orphan.

"Yes, dad." Said Mob. She covered Sho's mouth with her hand. She knew that he would have been prepared to fight with her and she also knew that dad hated it when they fought. Dad was in a bad mood, she could tell. He kept on looking down at his phone and when he did that his aura got all mad. Something might have gone wrong with work. Minegishi said that sometimes people got stupid and thought that they could challenge dad. Those were the traitors and nothing good happened to traitors.

Mob didn't know what happened to traitors exactly but she knew that people should not have been trying to undermine dad or his work.

Dad was trying to make the world a better place for all espers. What was the matter with that? He was collecting all the espers in the world and then he was going to use them to do…something…and when that something was over then he would rule the world and everyone would be happy because he knew best. Dad had said so. He said that was exactly how it was going to happen and he never lied. Mob didn't think that the people in the world would have wanted that but dad said that what people wanted was of no consequence. He said that people never knew what was good for them. Like with Sho. He never knew what was good for him.

Being quiet was what was good for him.

He was never quiet. No matter how many times their dad got mad at him Sho just would not stop. He should have known by now that the best thing to do was just to go along with what dad wanted. Even if it wasn't what you wanted. Even if you had other things that you wanted out of life. Even if you were your own person with your own thoughts and feelings…you still had to do what dad wanted. Because he knew what was best. If he knew what was best for the whole world then he knew what was best for his family, too.

"Good." Said Suzuki. He did not want another child. Not one that he did not father, anyway. It was one thing if he had fathered another child and that child joined his household. He had no problem with that. Even though there was no chance…little chance…of that happening. He hadn't been careful that one time…but he was not going to think about that. He had two children and he would only have two children. One biological and one adopted. He was not going to adopt another one.

One boy was enough.

The other child, the one he had been told about, would not have taken well to his family at all. The child was just too old. The child also was not an orphan. An orphan would have adopted easier by virtue of being cast away from their own family. This child had two parents who showed no signs of wanting to rid themselves of their esper child. Not like Daughter's biological parents. He was not above doing what had to be done to get the child.

Though joining his own household was not what had to be done.

"I'm going to take my hand off of your mouth. Please don't try to lick me or bite me or anything like that." Said Mob. She wished that Sho would have just been quiet. She wished that he would have just listened to dad already. If he had just been able to listen to dad then she could have been back there with her friend…not that Minegishi was ever one for conversation when they flew. They hated flying because they were so far from the plants and the ground. Also they slept through most of their plane rides. Still, sitting next to Minegishi while they slept was still better than sitting next to Sho while he did everything he could to make dad upset.

That was not a nice thought to have about her little brother at all.

Especially not on his birthday. This was not how he should have remembered turning nine. Not that there was anything particularly special about turning nine. Ten was more special because you got to be in the double digits but all birthdays were special days. She thought so, anyway, dad said that his birthday was just another day and that he never wanted to celebrate it. Mob knew better….well dad knew best but she knew better….however that worked. She didn't know. All she knew was that the day her little brother had been born had been the most special, most wonderful, most amazing day of her life.

"You were trying to suffocate me!" said Sho as he pushed her hand away. She wanted to be an only child, probably, because then she and dad would be alone together and they wouldn't have him to mess everything up. Even though he spent more time with dad he knew, deep down he knew, that dad would rather have spent time with big sis. That was the truth. That was why he always brought big sis with when they weren't doing stuff that involved fighting. He knew that if big sis had been a boy, if they had both been boys, then dad would have sent him to live at an orphanage or something. Dad only had him because he needed a boy to inherit the world. Girls couldn't inherit the world, dad had said so, and that was why he'd had Sho in the first place. If big sis had been born a boy then she would have been an only child.

He pushed her.

She didn't go very far at all because they were sitting down. He knew that he was being a jerk but she was being a jerk first. Still, even if he was being a jerk dad didn't need to push him, too, and so hard…it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all. Big sis was the one who had been a jerk first. She knew he hated it when she did the hand thing. She knew that he got mad at her every time she did it. She shouldn't have been trying to get him to shut up. He would shut up when he was good and ready to shut up. It didn't matter that he was making dad mad. Dad was always mad! Sometimes Sho wondered if dad went around looking for things to be mad at!

"I was not!" said Mob. She wished that Sho hadn't of done that. Now dad was going to be so mad at him! Why did he have to be like that! She used to wish that she had a little brother or sister back when she had been little. She had wanted, more than anything else, to have had a little sister but she would have settled for another little brother….but now she wanted neither. One Sho was hard enough to look after. She didn't know how she would have dealt with two of them. She had enough younger siblings, one, to last her for the rest of her life.

"Son. Daughter. Separate. I've had enough of this." said Suzuki. Two children were more than enough. He did not need a third. The child was the same age as his children were now…and he did not need a third child. Especially one who would be too old to learn to recognize them as family. He had no idea what he would be doing with the child but he knew that it would not join his household.

"Go hang out with your friend. Go on, dad said to go away, so go." Said Sho. He threw himself back in his seat and picked up his sketch book. He started scribbling as hard as he could just so he didn't end up doing something else that he would get in trouble for. It didn't really make him feel better. He just ended up ripping a hole in the page.

"Here, let me try and fix it." Said Mob. She knew that they were supposed to separate but she wanted to be near Sho. He should not have been upset. This was his birthday. He was nine now. He should not have been upset on today of all days. She should have done more for him. She should have done more to make him happy.

"I told you to leave me alone." Said Sho. She was always trying to fix it. She always thought that she knew best. What if he wanted a giant hole in the page? What if he liked it better that way? She didn't know. She couldn't read his mind. She could everything but read minds. It wouldn't have been any easier, anyway, if she had been able to read his mind. She would have been too clueless, anyway, to know that he wanted to be left alone.

"But I-" said Mob. She wished that he could have just believed her when she said that she just wanted him to be happy. She just wanted to make him happy. It didn't matter where they were. As long as they were together she would do whatever she could to make her little brother happy. That was just what sisters did.

"Daughter. Go. I cannot deal with you two being quarrelsome right now." Said Suzuki. He pointed to the back of the plane. He would have sent Son away but that would have just started up another fight and he did not want to deal with that. He had enough to worry about. The logistics of it all. Kidnapping was a lot messier than his usual methods of recruitment. It would be worth it, though, considering the rarity of child espers.

Also the children could use some same age companions.

The child would not join his household but the children, or at least Daughter, seemed to be adept at making friends. That was normal. People gathered companions. He didn't need anything like that in his life but the children were younger. It would be good for them to socialize with someone their own age and now that there was someone their own age for them to socialize with, well, that would be good.

He was getting ahead of himself.

"Yes, dad." Said Mob. She wanted to stay but she also knew that it was best to do whatever dad said to do. He was mad and she did not need to make him madder. If he got any madder then he would take it out on Sho and Sho did not need that. He needed someone who was nice to him all the time even when he was mean. He needed someone who would do anything to make him happy. He needed love and kindness and all of the things that Mob tried her best to give.

But her best just wasn't good enough.

Because no matter how much she tried Sho was still mad almost all the time. When they played he could be happy but then she said something or did something and he got mad at her…and he was a lot like dad, sometimes. Dad got mad a lot of the time too. She just wished…she wished that Sho could have been more like her and less like dad.

But wishes did not come true.

"Yes, dad." Said Sho in a singsong sort of voice. He felt dad slap him upside the head with his powers. He didn't let it show how much that hurt.

"Stop it. I don't know why you're being like this but stop it. Why do you insist on antagonizing her? She's done nothing to you. The only thing that you're doing is making me upset. Stop it." Said Suzuki. Maybe Son acted like this, acted up, because he didn't have any companions beyond his sister. Suzuki hadn't needed anyone but Son was only half of him. There was a lot of Masami in him…though Masami had never acted like that. He didn't know.

Parenting should not have been this hard.

Everything had always come easy to him in life. This, however, was not. His children. Why couldn't he have had two Daughters? It would have been so much easier if he'd had two Daughters…but that was neither here nor there. His life was what it was. He had two children who seemed to both love and hate each other…and he did not need a third.

He didn't know what he would do with the child, if the child was even something worth acquiring, but he knew that it would not join his household. The two children he already had were more than enough for him. He was getting ahead of himself anyway. This was probably nothing. This child was probably just someone insignificant. This whole trip was probably just a waste of time, his valuable time, and he would just end up kicking himself for returning to Seasoning City over nothing.

After this was over, no matter what the outcome was, he had no intention returning to Seasoning City ever again.