The Seventh Division was a lot like the Eighth.
They were a lot alike, actually. They were both places where they Awakened people. This place was full of Awakened, a sea of them in the red uniform, and they all had that same red aura…just like at the Eighth Division. They wore the uniform there, too. There was one for the regular Awakened and one for the Awakened soldiers. These were regular Awakened. They were new. They thought that their powers were cool even though they could barely do anything and they were always showing each other what they could do and talking about how grateful they were and stuff like that. At least that was what Mob had been able to overhear and oversee. They always stopped and hugged the walls when she walked by. Well when she had been allowed to walk by. She was stuck in the apartment just like she had been at the Eighth Division.
It was just like being at the Eighth Division.
Well there were some differences. This one was mostly above ground, for one thing, which meant more sunlight. Mob liked the sunlight. There were windows in the apartment they were staying out. They overlooked some woods and a city could be seen in the distance. Seasoning City. Dad said that they had to stay put and that they were not to go near the city for any reason. Mob didn't know why. It was boring here just like at the Eighth Division. Nothing to do and nobody to talk to. Even Minegishi was busy. They said that Mob did not want to know what they were busy with. Dad was quiet too about what it was that they were doing here.
Hopefully nothing to Sho.
Sho was with her where he was supposed to be. This was a place where they Awakened people and Sho had already been awakened so he was safe. Mob didn't know what, specifically, he was safe from but she did know that whatever had happened to him had been bad enough to cover him in scars. Scars worse than even the Scars had. This was…this was not a good place. This place felt…wrong to her. At least there were spirits hanging out around here, though, which was nice. That meant that she didn't have to exorcise anyone. She didn't like doing that. She didn't know where they went after she exorcised them. Evil spirits were a different story but she saw very few of them. There was a Scar there who could capture evil spirits like Pokemon. That was pretty neat. Actually a lot of the Scars there were pretty neat. Neat in what they could do. She had no idea what they were like as people. They wouldn't talk to her either. They just said things like 'do you need something, Miss Suzuki' and 'everything alright, Miss Suzuki' and stuff…and she hated being called Miss Suzuki so much…
She hoped they left soon.
"Boring, boring, boring, boring. This place is boring and you are boring and I am bored and everything is so boring and I am slowly going insane with boredom because this place is so boring. Boring, boring, boring, boring-" sang Sho. This place was the worst! There was nothing to do! They weren't even allowed outside. There was a whole forest out there but dad said that they had to stay put. He said that if they even thought of leaving their living space they would be punished worse than they had ever been punished in their entire lives. He said that if they were good, very good, then there would be a reward. He said that he could not be interrupted because he was doing some very important work. He said that there was something very important happening and when it was over then he and big sis would have the best surprise ever.
Sho didn't care.
He didn't care about whatever the surprise was. Knowing dad it was going to be something dumb. Sho wanted to be literally anywhere else in the whole world than at the headquarters for the Seventh Division. It had nothing to do with the fact that this was a place where they made new Awakened. Where they held you underwater until you passed out. Where they jabbed needles into you all up and down your arms. Where they shot you full of electricity until it felt like you were on fire from the inside. Where they-
Sho wanted to leave because he was bored. That was all.
"Did you do today's schoolwork?" asked Mob. She had finished hers already. She wasn't as bored as Sho was. She was pretty bored though. There was TV and they had toys but it was hard to distract from the trapped in feeling. The feeling of not being able to leave. There was a door and they were not allowed to go out it or dad would punish them worse than they had ever been punished in their entire lives. His words, not hers, so she knew that he was being serious. She didn't care what happened to her, well she didn't want to be punished but that didn't matter, but she did care about what happened to Sho.
So much had happened to Sho already.
"Yes." said Sho lying through his teeth. Schoolwork was pointless. If he were back in actual school he would have been on winter break already. What was the point of doing schoolwork anyway? Dad said that he was going to grow up to inherit the world. When he was king of the world it wouldn't matter how many multiplication tables he knew or how many kanji he had memorized. He could always just make other people do things for him and know things for him and he could focus on what mattered the most. Having fun and also having a real menagerie because when he grew up then dad couldn't tell him that he wasn't allowed to have a pet.
"All of it?" asked Mob. She knew Sho. She knew how he hated doing schoolwork. She didn't get it. By the time he was done whining about it he would have had enough time to have finished it twice over. Besides, they needed to know a lot of things about a lot of things…even if math was really hard….because when they grew up they would run the world. Well Sho would and she would be his right hand, dad had said, until she had her own family to focus on. Suzuki's had to be smart people, dad had said, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to run the world and then dad's life would have been for nothing and they could not have let that happen.
Dad's work was very important.
"I'll do it later! I can't do it right now because I'm bored!" said Sho. He couldn't focus on anything. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He could sort of feel it, sometimes, the way it hurt. He felt the poke of the needles into his skin, the way his lungs burned from being underwater, the way his-
He was fine, just way too bored, and because he was so bored his mind was playing tricks on him. That was all there was to it.
"But if you started to do your school work then maybe you would be less bored." Said Mob
"No, if I tried to do my school work now then I would die of boredom. I'd just drop dead right here and then you'd have to explain to dad how I died and then he'd be mad at you because he would have to take time away from whatever he's got going on here to have my funeral." Said Sho. He knew deep down in his guts that dad wouldn't have cared if he'd died of boredom or for any other reason. Dad hadn't cared, before, what had been happening to him. He knew that dad had been there. He felt his aura, sometimes, and one time he had opened his eyes and seen dad there with Fukuda. Dad hadn't cared…or maybe he just knew that Sho would have been fine. Yes, that was it, dad hadn't been worried because he knew that Sho would have been fine. No matter how much it hurt dad wouldn't have just let him die….he wouldn't have!
Because then he would have had to have another kid and that would have taken him away from his work.
"He would also be sad because you had died…and also don't talk about dying. When you talk about dying then I start to think about you dying…and I don't want you to die. Sho…please don't die." Said Mob. She had dreams about it, sometimes, Sho dying. Sho hurting so badly that he died. She knew that these were just bad dreams. Dad wouldn't have just stood there and let Sho get hurt so badly that he died. Dad loved them, even Sho, and he would not have just let Sho die.
"Will you just calm down already? You know that I'm not going to die. Nothing can kill me, I'm Suzuki Sho." said Sho
"What does being Suzuki Sho have to do with not being able to die? All things have their time and all things die. Remember, dad said so?" asked Mob
"I know what dad said, big sis, I have a better memory than that. I'm not a goldfish." Said Sho
"I never called you a goldfish. If you had to be a fish then you would be one of those fighting fish that we saw at the Chinese market. A beta fish I think." Said Mob
"Forget that. I would be something cool like a walking fish." said Sho
"Sho, don't remind me of that fish. It's so scary looking." Said Mob
"I can't believe that you're afraid of a fish." said Sho
"I'm not afraid of fish I just think that a fish with legs is disturbing. Dad agrees. He says that it goes against the natural order of things." Said Mob
"That makes no sense. The fish was born with legs. It's not like some mad scientist did experiments on it to give it legs. How can a fish with legs be unnatural if it was born like that?" asked Sho
"I don't know, I didn't ask dad, but you can ask him when he comes back." Said Mob
"I'm not asking dad anything." Said Sho. He pulled his aura in close without even thinking about it. Dad was…dad wasn't in a bad mood, at least he hadn't been the last time Sho had seen him, but there was still that feeling that he could not shake. The feeling that dad was there watching them waiting to punish them for…something. Anything.
"You don't have to be scared of him. He only punishes you when you're bad so just don't-" said Mob. She knew what it meant when his aura got like that. He was scared. She didn't blame him, she was scared of dad sometimes too, but he wasn't that scary so long as you didn't do anything to upset him.
"I'm not afraid of dad." Said Sho
"Ok…but I would understand if you were. Sometimes he can be a little bit scary and sometimes it might seem like he doesn't care but he does. He cares about both of us." Said Mob
"Yeah but he cares about you a lot more than he cares about me. Like if I died of boredom he'd just be mad because I'm his only son and only boys can inherit the world so then he would have to stop working and find some lady to have another baby with and then hope that it came out a boy. If you died then he would be super sad and probably try to bring you back to life with science or something." Said Sho
"That's not true. None of that was true. If you died then dad would be sad to have lost you and also if I died then I would stay dead. You can't bring people back from the dead." Said Mob
"Uh-huh, then how do you explain zombies?" asked Sho
"There's no such things as zombies." Said Mob
"People say that there's no such thing as spirits either but we see them all the time." Said Sho
"That's different. We've never seen a zombie so that means that there are no zombies and also being a zombie would be terrible anyway. You smell bad and you're rotting and you're scary and you eat people-" said Mob
"When I die I want you come back as a zombie." Said Sho
"No, I won't let that happen." Said Mob. She did not want to have a zombie for a brother. When Sho died then he would pass on like normal…and she did not want to think about Sho dying. Not now when they were kids and not in a hundred years when they were grownups either.
"You don't get to tell me how to die. I'll die when I want to and I'll die however I choose to…and also I'm not going to die! First of all kids don't die and second of all I'm Suzuki Sho, the Awakened Child, and I can't die." Said Sho
"You can still die. People die all the time, even kids." Said Mob
"Normal kids die all the time. I'm not a normal kid though, big sis, I'm the Awakened Child. If going through that didn't kill me then nothing will. I'm not afraid of anything." Said Sho. He really wasn't. Sometimes things gave him bad feelings or made him nervous but he was not afraid of anything. Not even water. No, the water didn't scare him at all. He just hated getting his face wet and also couldn't take a bath by himself because…because he got lonely. That was it. He got bored and lonely. Also big sis needed someone to take a bath with her or she would fall asleep in that tub and drown. That was a thing that happened, he saw about it on TV, and he had to be there to keep his big sis safe. Also she needed someone to wash her back for her and he needed someone to wash his back for him…even if she did touch his tree….and also he needed someone to wash his hair for him because he couldn't be bothered. Yes, those were all very good reasons to take a bath with his big sis and all of those reasons had nothing to do with the totally crazy idea that he was afraid of the water.
Nothing scared him.
"You're afraid citrus fruits." Said Mob. She knew that she was. Even drinking lemonade made her nervous. It was scary how one little plant could have the power to kill her little brother.
"Nope. They don't scare me." Said Sho. He refused to be afraid of citrus fruit. They had no power over him. Just because they could kill him so easily…but that didn't matter because he refused to die. As long as he avoided them then they couldn't hurt him. Simple.
"But if you eat them you'll die. Doesn't that scare you?" asked Mob
"Nope. I'm not scared because I know that I can avoid them. It's not like they can chase me down and stuff themselves into my mouth and force me to eat them." Said Sho
"But what if you accidentally eat one? Like the time when you ate my grapefruit." Said Mob
"That was before I knew that citrus could kill me. I'm not a moron, I know never to eat citrus, and besides it's not like we keep it in the houses we stay at." Said Sho
"Sometimes dad eats grapefruit and stuff, though, and that scares me a little because there could be a terrible accident and then you would be dead and…and I wouldn't have a little brother anymore. I don't know what I would do without you, Sho, I really don't. I love you so much-" said Mob. All this talk about death was making her all sad and teary eyed. She didn't want her little brother to die. If he died then…then she would find his spirit and drag it back into his body. She didn't know if that would work but she would try her hardest to keep her little brother alive and safe and there with her.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah I love you too." Said Sho. He reached over and pulled her into a hug. Girls. What was with them? They cried for everything. They cried when they were happy and when they were sad and also for no reason sometimes. He didn't know what she was so sad about. He wasn't going to die. If the Awakening thing hadn't killed him then nothing could. There. Nothing hard to understand about that.
"Promise you won't talk about dying anymore?" asked Mob
"Fine. I promise from the bottom of my heart, cross my heart and all of that stuff, that I won't talk about dying…but I will talk about how bored I am!" said Sho
"Um…if you're bored then maybe you could…draw a picture? Or maybe we could play Wii? Or you should use me as target practice? Or we could-" said Mob. Her eyes darted across the living/dining/fort room looking for things to keep her little brother occupied with. There were lots of things that he loved to do, from his pencils to his toy guns to their Wii, and she named them off as her eyes skimmed them. There were other things too, things like the fort they had built or his plastic zoo animals or their board games, that she didn't get a change to name.
Because the lights went out.
And then, for a moment, all she could see was a gold colored aura. When it touched hers she felt…scared. She felt so scared that she could have wet herself right there. That was…what was that? A person. That had been the aura of a person, not a spirit. An esper. A natural esper. She felt the explosion of power that came with someone awakening but those always felt the same. Also they were red.
She had never seen a gold colored aura before.
"Whoa! That was so cool!" said Sho. The room was dark, hardly any light came through those tiny windows, but he wasn't afraid of the dark. He wasn't afraid of anything. Not even whatever that had been. An aura. Another person. Someone had awakened…that poor guy….that was the only explanation of it. He had seen people awakening since they had gotten there. The explosion was always red though, not gold…so that must have been a natural…some other natural had gone through the awakening process…
He was the Awakened Child. No one else.
"That was….they felt scared." Said Mob. She pulled her knees up to her chest. The power was still out. They had lost control, whoever that natural esper was, and they had blown the power to the whole Seventh Division. They must have been strong, then, if they could do that. She did that on accident sometimes when she got upset too…
Another prodigy?
Good. She was tired of being The Prodigy. Let someone else have that title. Then she could just be plain old Mob. Not that she even knew if that had been a kid or not…but something told her that it was. She had never once in her life known an adult to be that afraid. That must have been another kid…and she hoped that it was an older kid. No little kid should ever have had to be that afraid. Well no kid at all should have had to have been that afraid but a little kid would have been even worse….
She hoped that they were ok.
"We should help them!" said Sho. He jumped to his feet and pulled big sis up. It was a no brainer. If the kid was scared then they should have helped him. He knew in his gut that it was a kid. Something about when their auras touched. He also got the feeling that it was a boy. It would have made sense, dad said that girl espers were super rare and all, and if it was a boy then they could have been friends…well Sho had to make friends before the other kid became competition….since he had awakened too….
There could only be one Awakened Child.
"We should…it's the right thing to do…but dad said that we should stay here…and we're always supposed to do as we're told…" said Mob. Helping that kid was the right thing to do. You were always supposed to help those in need. Mom had said so. Also that was what Claw was for, helping espers and stuff, and that meant that if that poor kid was alone and afraid then of course she was going to help….but dad had told them to stay put. Dad…he did not like it when they disobeyed direct orders. He did not like it at all.
She wanted to help so badly…but she didn't want Sho to get hurt…or her even though it was selfish to worry about herself like that.
"Do you always do as you're told?" asked Sho with a scoff.
"I try to." Said Mob. Sometimes she did bad things, like the time she stole from Minegishi or like how she thought that kendo was boring, but in general she tried to be as good as possible.
"Yeah, that was a dumb question…anyway! You can do whatever you want, I don't care, but I'm going to help whoever that is. Stay here and play with your dolls or whatever if you want." Said Sho. He turned to leave when he felt her hand grab his.
"If dad catches you then you're in for it. You heard him. We would be punished worse than he had ever punished us before." Said Mob
"I don't care. Anything is better than being in here. Besides, if he just awakened then he probably needs a friend." Said Sho. He didn't have any clear memories after the part where they shot him full of electricity. He did remember being scared, though, more scared than he had ever been in his entire life.
"Then…then you stay here and I'll go." Said Mob. Sho made a good argument but that was all the more reason to make him stay. In for it meant something different for Sho than it did for her. Dad almost never just came out and hit her. He pulled on her braids and pushed her around but he never just reached out and hit her…not like he hit Sho…and when he did hit her it was never hard enough to leave any marks. Never anything so bad that they'd had to call Fukuda. She would much rather have been punished beyond belief than Sho.
"No way! Why do you get to-" said Sho. No way was she going off on this adventure without him. No way was she going to go and meet the first esper kid that they had ever seen without him. No way was she going to be the one to make another friend and no way was he going to be left all alone!
"Yes way. I'm older than you. Dad left me in charge. Dad likes me better. He likes us both but he's much less likely to hurt me than he is to hurt you. If he finds out that you left this place then he's going to hurt you so badly that he's going to have Fukuda come in and put you back together. I don't want that. I could never want that. If he catches me then he'll hurt me as badly as he hurts you on a regular basis. I don't care if I get hurt. I care if you get hurt. I am not letting you out that door so either I go or neither of us goes. Nothing you say or do will change my mind." Said Mob. She held Sho's hand tight in hers.
"No." said Sho. He pulled his hand away from hers and took a step back. He ended up with his back pressed up against an invisible wall. A barrier. Her barrier. He instinctively tried to break it. He hit it with everything he had…and it didn't even crack.
"Yes. Stay here little brother." Said Mob. She used her best 'dad' tone. The kind of tone he used when he gave the sorts of orders that had to be followed. The same tone that made that one Awakened Guy wet his pants…and Mob did not want to make Sho wet himself but desperate times called for desperate measures.
"Bite me." Said Sho. What else could he do? He wasn't strong enough…he would never be strong enough…and now she was going to go off and meet that kid and make friends with him and then he would probably end up being stronger than Sho and then dad would adopt him and send Sho to an orphanage and then-
"Don't say things like that. You know that dad hates it when you say things like that. Come on, I won't be gone long and then we can play together. I might even be able to bring the other kid if I can sneak him away from wherever he is. Then we can all be friends." Said Mob
"Shut up." Said Sho
"Why are you so upset, Sho? Please tell me. Maybe I can make it all better." asked Mob
"Because you're going off without me to make friends with this kid and then you'll have another friend and I'll have no one and he's probably another Awakened Child and I'm the Awakened Child and-and-and-" shouted Sho. Things in the room were starting to float. His doing. Big sis went inside of her shell. He couldn't break through her barrier, he wasn't strong enough, and there was no point in trying.
He tried anyway.
Their auras lit up the darkness. His red and her pink and blue. He threw whatever he could at her but it had no effect whatsoever. She just stood there and asked him over and over again to stop. He didn't…well he tried not to. He was fine until she stuck her hand through her barrier and took his…and didn't let go. No matter how much he fought and pulled and pried and kicked and screamed she wouldn't let go of him.
Then he got tired.
It felt sort of like someone was pulling his insides out through his belly button. He got so tired and his aura got so dim…and then he found that he couldn't fight against her anymore. He was just…he needed to sit down….and he did. Right there on the ground. The lights were still off. He could feel a lot of frantic auras moving against the edge of his perceptions including the mysterious gold one. He felt a blanket being pulled over his shoulders….the roof of their fort…but he was too tired to be mad at her about that.
He was too tired to be mad at her about anything.
"Ok, now you just stay here and I'll go check it out. Ok?" asked Mob. She was bouncing up and down a little bit. She felt sort of like the time she and Sho had drank all of those energy drinks, the ones with the warning labels that said that they had too much sugar and caffeine to be considered safe in them, which made zero sense because all she'd had to drink that day was plain milk.
She'd worry about that later.
Sho had tired himself out. That was good. That meant that he wouldn't have been able to follow her. She made sure that he was comfortable and then she set off to find where the gold aura was coming from. She wasn't noticed. Well she was but not by anyone important. She knew that the Awakened noticed but they were too busy running around to care. They were afraid of something….but she didn't know what.
She hoped that it wasn't the other kid.
But that was ok if it was. She knew what it was like to have people be afraid of her because she was a prodigy. Kids were not supposed to be as strong as she was, dad had said so, but it was ok because she was a Suzuki and Suzuki's were the strongest espers around. As she walked down the sterile white halls she thought about everything that she would say to the other prodigy. She would tell him that it was ok that he was the way he was. She would tell him that he had nothing to be afraid of. She would tell him that he could be friends with her and Sho. She would tell him that he had nothing to be afraid of, that Claw was a good place, and that he was amongst other espers.
She would make him feel welcome.
Or her. It could have been a her. Mob had no idea what the other esper was. The other esper could have been neither, even, like Minegishi was. Mob didn't care, she just wanted another friend. She wondered if they were ok, the other esper, because she had seen firsthand what happened when someone was put in one of those Awakening things. Sho had the scars to show….and the other kid probably had scars too…but that was ok. Sho was proof that even if a lot of the scars were unsightly it was ok because they just meant that you got your full powers. When you got your full powers then you could do all kinds of things and your dad was proud of you-
Did this kid have parents?
The thought makes Mob almost stop in her tracks. She knew that this was a kid and if this was a kid then the parents should have been near. The mom and the dad. Or just the mom or just the dad or two moms or two dads or some kind of grown up…but she didn't feel any new grownup auras. She felt…she didn't even feel dad, which was good, but also she didn't feel any new grownup auras. Just the Awakened and the Scars and also Minegishi as outside…and Shimazaki was moving around too much for her to pinpoint him….
Where was dad?
It was good that dad was gone. She let her perceptions expand as far as they could go and could not find him anywhere near….not in the compound anyway…and that was good. Then he wouldn't be able to find her and catch her and punish her…even though she had no idea why she was being punished. She was helping out another esper and there was nothing wrong with that. She was allowed to talk to espers and be friends with them and that was what she was going to do. Besides, if this kid really didn't have any parents then they needed all the niceness and help that they could get.
Poor esper kid.
They were probably an orphan. That was why she didn't feel any new grownup auras…or maybe their parents were normal people…but that didn't make any sense. The kid was too strong to have come from two normal people. She and Sho were only as strong as they were because they had one esper parent. Dad had said so. The kid was probably orphaned and alone in the world…she walked a little faster….the poor kid was probably all alone and needed a friend…or even a sister. If the kid was an orphan then dad could have adopted them and then she and Sho could have had a new sibling and maybe this kid was older, too, so that way she could have had less responsibility….
She walked even faster.
She didn't know what everyone was running around for. She could clearly feel the path to take…and the kid was running away from her for some reason….but the path was still clear. Oh. Right. She forgot, sometimes, that the Awakened and even other naturals weren't as powerful as she was. She could sense the other esper clearly but that didn't mean that everyone else could. No matter, no matter, it was better that she found the kid instead of someone else like Shimazaki or that Division Leader who always wore the creepy mask or the evil spirit pokemon trainer with the annoying voice…
A blind spot.
She kid went into a blind spot of her perceptions….which was so weird. She had never felt a blind spot before…but maybe that was their power. Maybe they had the power to disappear completely. That was so cool! Maybe they could teach her. Maybe they could compare powers and learn from each other and hang out every day and be best friends and have sleepovers and birthday parties and Christmas parties and forget the year parties and Halloween parties and Samhain parties and lunar new year parties and equinox parties and political parties and-
And a white room?
She came to the blind spot on her perceptions. A white room. The door was white and…and there was a gross sort of energy coming off of it. She touched it with her hand and then pulled away. A curse. She knew what a curse was. Sometimes evil spirits put curses on people….and sometimes other people put curses on people. Like Sakurai the Samurai. He had cursed his toy sword until it was a real one…and this room felt kind of like him…
She dispelled the curse on the door.
Good. Now she could open it…..but there was no knob. There was only this keypad thing…and she did not know the password. Just to be safe she typed out the word 'password' with her powers. That was her and Sho's password to their tablets and phones. It was easy to remember. Password was not the password…so she tried password1 and the password11….and she was getting nowhere.
So she just overloaded it.
That was a way to get past keypads, at least it was in videogames, and art imitated life after all. She was glad that it worked because the only other alternative would have been to rip the door out of the wall with her powers…and someone definitely would have noticed that. She didn't want anyone to know that she had been sneaking around where she should not have been. The Awakened wouldn't have said anything, they treated her like she was an adult, but the Scars might have told dad…and also Shimazaki was there somewhere and he seemed like he would have been a tattletale. She did not need him or anyone else tattling to dad…
And nobody would.
Even if she had maybe overloaded the keypad too much. The whole hallway smelled like burning….and that had been her doing. She maybe should have been just a bit more careful with what she had done…but that didn't matter. That could have been explained by an electrical error or something. Yes, she would be fine. She was fine, totally fine, and so was the other esper….
It was a boy.
A crying boy. The room he was in was white…and it felt weird….and Mob dared not step foot in it. Not when all of her instincts were screaming at her that she had to run away while she still could. She tried to reach into the room with her powers and pull the boy out…and she could not reach into the room. There, carved into the white walls, was a curse…a nasty one. She couldn't even reach into the room to disburse it…and that was…it was scary. It was scary and wrong and she wanted the room to never have existed and she was getting scared and it felt like she had too much energy and-
And now the boy was looking at her.
"Don't hurt me!" shouted the boy. Mob took her powers and stuffed them down inside of herself as deep as they could go. Conceal don't feel. Power is nothing without control. She was not going to hurt him and she was not going to let him think that she was the sort of person who went around hurting others. That was no way to make friends.
"I'm not going to hurt you, boy, I'm trying to get you out. See? I opened the door. Come out of there. That room is cursed…I think it takes away powers…so you really should get out of there. It feels like an evil room." Said Mob. She didn't mean to scare the boy but evil was the only way that she could describe it. If she knew how to make fire then she would have burnt it to the ground because a room that could take away powers should not have been allowed to exist.
"You…you're letting me out?" asked the boy. He was standing up now. He was a little taller than she was. His hair was blond and his eyes were blue and she wondered what country he was from. She wondered what his name was. She wondered how he spoke Japanese so well. She wondered how he had even gotten into that room to begin with. She wondered so many things…
She had never seen another esper kid before…one that wasn't her little brother…
"Yes. Come on before you end up getting hurt." Said Mob. She didn't have to say anything more. The boy came running right out. His shoes made a loud noise when he ran, and also they lit up which was so cool, and Mob worried that someone might have heard…but the Awakened weren't near. The Scars weren't near.
She was all alone with him.
She felt warm. She had never been all alone with a boy before, not one who wasn't her brother anyway, and this boy looked like he was about her age….and he was taller than she was…and his shirt was all dayglow and cool looking…and she really wanted to be his friend. Yes, that was what this was. She really wanted to be friends.
Even if he did smell kind of like Sho did after he wet the bed.
"Come on, keep moving! We've got to go before they come back!" said the boy. He grabbed her hand and started to run with her….towards the awakened. Mob stopped and pulled him off to the side.
"Why did you stop!? Come on, we have to move!" said the boy
"Why are you running in the first place?" asked Mob. She looked him over. He had on a short sleeved shirt and short pants. She didn't see any of sorts of scars that Sho had…or even any at all. Was he afraid of the Awakening room? That was a totally valid and normal fear.
"Because they're going to find us! Get a clue already! I don't know who these people are or what they want-" said the boy breathlessly. Mob let her aura cover him. That helped Sho calm down, sometimes, when he had bad dreams. She needed him to know that he was safe…not that she had any idea what he was afraid of. Since he had his powers, his aura was so bright, then he didn't need to go through the Awakening process. He had nothing at all to be scared of.
"This is the Seventh Division of Claw." Said Mob helpfully. How could someone not know where they were? Was it like when she woke up in a whole other country and it took her a moment to remember that they had moved again? Probably not…she didn't know what it was but she knew what it wasn't. That was…something.
"What? How do you know that? How long….how long have you been here?" asked the boy
"Not for very long, just a few days. How didn't you know where you were?" asked Mob. She knew that it was bad form to answer a question with another question, dad had told her so, but she really and truly had no idea how this boy could have had no idea whatsoever where he was. This was so clearly a Claw division, you could tell just by looking at the outside of the building, and if he was an esper didn't he know about Claw? Dad said that every esper either worked with Claw or opposed it…but it made no sense why anyone would have wanted to oppose Claw. Claw helped bring espers together from all over the world. What was bad about that?
"I don't know! One minute I was at the park with my parents and the next I was in this cage…thing…and then I got out and I ran but…but they caught me and-and-and-and I want to go home!" shouted the boy. Mob put her hand over his mouth without thinking. As soon as she realized what she was doing she stopped. That was only for quieting down little brothers, not new friends, and she had been so rude there….
"I'm sorry that I did that, I'm used to keeping my little brother quiet like that, and it was rude of me. Just don't shout, please, because then they'll find us and I'll get in big trouble-" said Mob
"We're both going to be in big trouble if they find us! Come on, we've got to keep moving. We can find where they put your little brother and then we can escape-" said the boy. Mob frowned. Escape? But he wasn't trapped…right? People wanted to join Claw. That was why there were so many Divisions. Espers from all over the world wanted to be a part of dad's vision for the future. They followed dad because he was the most powerful esper ever. Also he was going to make the world a better place. Who wouldn't have wanted to be a part of that?
"I know where my little brother is, he's back in the room, and also…what did you mean by escape?" asked Mob
"What did I mean? What did you mean? Do you…do you live here?" asked the boy
"Yes. Well yes and no. My family moves around a lot for my dad's work. Right now we're living in this Division but we can move at any time." Said Mob
"Your dad…my parents are like that too….did they….did they take you from your dad? Did they take you and your brother from your parents, too? Is this…do they just take kids and make them live here and-" said the boy
"No! No, it's not like that at all. We don't take people, they come to us. Claw is an organization that gathers espers from all over the world and brings them together to help make the world a better place for espers everywhere. One day we won't have to hide our powers and-" said Mob
"You….you're like me. You have….you have colors too…." Said the boy
"Yes. That's my aura. Every esper has one. Sometimes it's the same as your parent's aura and sometimes it's different. Didn't you know that?" asked Mob. How did he not know that? All powerful espers had at least one esper parent….right? And the boy had said that he had parents...but then what was he doing there? He said kidnapped….but that must have been a mistake. Yes, a terrible mistake. He had no esper parent…so they thought that he was an orphan. Yes. That was it.
"My parents don't have powers….but your do?" asked the boy
"No, just my dad. That's where I get it from. That's probably why they took you, you know, and it was probably an accident too. Since neither of your parents has powers then they probably just thought that you were an orphan. I'm sure that when I explain it to them then they'll take you home." Said Mob
"No! Don't talk to those people! Are you ok? Did you hit your head or something? Or is this like Stockholm syndrome? Have you been here so long that you've gone crazy or something!?" asked the boy. He was shaking her now…and only Sho could do that. She took a step back. He had called her names, too, and that was something else that only Sho could do. Only little brothers could be mean like that.
"I am not crazy and you shouldn't shake me like that. If you're going to be mean to me then I'm leaving. The only person allowed to be mean to me like that is my little brother." Said Mob. She was prepared to leave. She wanted a friend but not one who was going to be mean to her. You had to choose your company wisely, dad had told her that, and keeping mean company was not wise at all.
"Wait! Stop….I'm sorry. It's just…the things that you're saying aren't making any sense…or maybe that's just me. I'm so scared and…and I just want to go home…and you're here telling me that I can just leave and…and that this was a mistake…but I know what it wasn't! I was just minding my own business when these guys came and took me and then I woke up here and-and-and it was not a mistake! I never asked to come here! I have no idea why I'm even here! These people steal kids-" said the boy
"No, they don't. We don't steal kids. We're a good place. We bring espers together. You're actually the first esper kid that I've ever met that wasn't my little brother so you can take my word that we don't steal kids. Trust me, I know my dad, and he would never steal a kid. He already has two anyway." Said Mob
"You…you're one of them….one of Claw…" said the boy. He backed up and backed up until his back was pressed against the wall. His eyes were darting around in both directions. His aura was big again. He was messing with the lighting, the emergency lighting, and once that was gone they'd be in darkness…and also if he kept on carrying on like this then they would easily be discovered.
"I'm only nine and a half, I don't work for anyone. Well I help out my dad sometimes but not lately. Also please stop being afraid. If your aura gets big again or you mess with the power then they'll find you again. come on, conceal don't feel. Power is nothing without control." Said Mob
"Co-conceal don't….is that from Frozen?" asked the boy
"Yes. I love Frozen, can't you tell by my dress? Do you like Frozen? I have Frozen, well I have all the Disney movies, and if you want you can come and meet my brother and we can hang out. I mean if you want to be friends…but I understand if you want to go straight home. You must be scared. This really was a misunderstanding, I think, because I know my dad and he would never let this happen. The Awakened must have made a mistake, those are the guys in the red uniforms, they really aren't that smart and they make a lot of mistakes. Do you want to come home with me or do you want to leave?" asked Mob. She crossed her fingers that he would stay and be her friend…but she also knew that he wanted to go back to his mom and dad and she did not blame him one bit. She would have been freaked out too if she'd been taken away from dad….and she had freaked out when she had realized that mom was gone and she was never coming back…
Also the boy had been scared enough to wet his pants so he probably wanted to go home and change.
"I want…I want to go home. I don't want to become a part of the esper army or whatever it is that people do…I just want….I want my mom and dad…." Said the boy. Mob knew what she had to do. She was not going to do the selfish thing and bring this boy home with her and let him borrow some of Sho's clothes and also run him a bath and give him a hot meal, too, because he seemed hungry. She was not going to try and keep this boy here and make friends with him…even if dad said that the only friends she could have were epsers….
She was going to help him get out.
"I'll help you. Don't worry I won't tell the Awakened or the Scars anything….even though they have to listen to me because my dad is their boss…I'll just help you sneak out." Said Mob
"You…your dad is their LEADER….?" Asked the boy
"Yes. My dad is the president of Claw and one day he'll rule the whole world." Said Mob. The boy was looking at her again…and his aura was scared…and she had no idea what he was so scared of. He knew that she was not going to hurt him and she just said that she would help him get out. What more did he want?
"Pl-please….I don't want to join Claw…I just want to go home. I want….I want my mom." Said the boy. Mob knew that feeling well. Wanting to go home, wanting mom, being in a strange place with strange people…she had to help him. There was nothing else that she could do but help him.
"Come on, we can take the access hallways. I kind of know my way around, this is a lot like the other Divisions, and I can sense anyone long before we run into them. Try to be quiet though because if someone finds us then my dad'll punish me for leaving my room…and I don't want to get hit today." Said Mob
"You-you're helping me? Even though…even though your dad runs this place? And he'll hurt you if he catches you?" asked the boy.
"Of course I'm going to help you. You're alone and afraid and you want your mom. I know that feeling, it's not a good one, so I'll help you. Also you smell like you wet yourself and I bet that you want to go home and take a long bath and change your clothes. So come on, I can feel them getting closer." Said Mob. He stared at her some more before nodding and following her. Mob knew the path outside…well she sort of knew it. This place may have done the same thing that the Eighth Division did but it was built more like the Second Division…which she had spent some time in…
She eventually found the way out.
She kept her aura around the boy's. That way none of the Awakened could see him. She didn't know if this trick worked on Scars but she was not going to stick around long enough to find out. She needed to keep going no matter what. She had to get this boy back to his mom. Nobody should ever have had to be separated from their mom. Nobody should ever have had to be far from home. Nobody should ever have had to be scared that they wet their pants. Mob wanted this boy to be her friend but she also wanted him to be happy, to be safe, and to be back with his mom and dad who loved him very much.
So she showed him the way out.
"Head that way, towards the city, but be careful. My friend Minegishi is on the other side of the building but they can control plants and you're in the woods. I'm sure that you were only kidnapped on accident but if the orders are to keep you here then even my friends have to follow them. But don't worry, the Awakened have terrible ranges and the Scars hardly ever leave the Division so as long as you get back to the city you'll be fine….oh! Hang on, I think I have some yen in my pockets!" said Mob as she dug through her pockets. They were outside now, they had gone through a bunch of maintenance and access hallways until they found an exit that was far from everywhere, and now it was time to say goodbye. She wasn't dragging it out or anything, meeting the first esper kid she had ever met who wasn't her little brother, she just…people needed money for things like food and new pants and maybe even a taxi and she had yen to spare so she had might as well give it to him.
"This is…a lot of money." Said the boy as Mob handed him a bunch of bills. Was it? That was just her pocket money. She only had one ten thousand yen bill in there. He could have that too. She had only asked for one to prove to Sho that they existed.
"You can take a taxi home if you see one. I don't know if there are taxis all the way out here but you can stop one and take it home. That's all the money I had in my pockets, I'm sorry if it's not enough." Said Mob. The boy took half the money and tried to press it into her hand.
"Here. You need money too if you're going to escape-" said the boy
"I'm not trying to leave. I can't. My little brother is here and also my dad would be worried about me. Also my friend is here and they said that they'd paint my nails at some point and I like painting nails…so you take the money. It's not that much and I can always ask for more if I need it." Said Mob. She took the money and pressed it back into his hand. Instead of taking the money he just wrapped his hand around hers. She felt her face start to turn red. This was…this was a lot. She had never felt…not since she was little…and now her heart was racing and her aura was too visible and….
"Come with me. We can come back later for your brother. You can't stay in a place like this." said the boy
"I-I don't want to leave….my family is here. My whole life is here….but you can go. Go and go now because people are going to notice and….and I don't want you to get captured again. I don't know where my dad is or when he's going to be back and he's the only one who can fix this mistake…and he's going to be so mad at me if he finds out that I left…so please, if you want to go then go now." Said Mob. The boy still held her hand. She didn't want him to stop….but also she did. She wanted him to get back to his parents because nobody should ever have had to be separated from even one of their parents let alone both of them.
"Thank you…thank you so much. I will never forget you…." Said the boy
"Suzuki. Suzuki Shigeko…but my friends call me Mob…well my friend calls me Mob but more people would call me Mob if I had more friends." Said Mob. Her face must have been red as Sho's hair. She was sweaty and her heart was racing and she wondered if she was going to die. Her hand was being held by a boy!
"Mob…I will never forget you or what you've done for me…you saved my life." Said the boy. Mob nodded. She would have told him that he was not in any danger of dying, that Claw did not kill people, but she didn't get the chance. She would have told him that he needed to get going because she could feel Minegishi's aura noticing her aura. She would have told him that he needed to make his aura as small as possible or he would get caught. She would have told him a thousand and one things if she'd had the chance…but she hadn't the change to say even one more word to him.
Because the next thing she knew she was being kissed.
One minute she had been talking and the next his lips had been over hers. It had been quick, not like in the movies, and his lips had been super chapped…but it had been a kiss. A real kiss. A real kiss from a boy…her feet stopped touching the ground. Her lungs stopped working. Her heart was working overtime. She felt like she was going to die but in a good way. A kiss. A real kiss. A real kiss on the mouth like….like she had always imagined….well not like she had always imagined because it hadn't been as long and there hadn't been fireworks…well there had been inside of her…and they were still going off inside of her even after he pulled away…and she felt grass under her feet but she was still floating…the grass was growing around her….all the plants were growing….
Her first kiss.
"I-I-I'm never going to forget you either…." Said Mob once she remembered how to speak Japanese. That was….that stripped all of her sense right there on the spot. She wanted to do it again. She felt…she could not make sense of this feeling beyond the fact that she wanted to do it again. Again and again and again….but it would never happen again because she would never see that boy again. Ever. For as long as she lived she would never see him again….and she didn't even know his name…
"Hanazawa Teruki. I-I'm Hanazawa Teruki…and I can't believe that I just did that…" said the boy, Hanazawa, as he turned just as red as she must have been. She wondered if that had been his first kiss too. She wondered if it was ok to ask. She wondered if it was ok to ask, too, if she had been any good. She hadn't moved at all and in movies they always moved their lips. Also she hadn't hugged him or but her arms around his shoulders like they did in movies. Are imitated life after all. Maybe she had done it wrong. Maybe she was bad at it. Maybe…well it wasn't like they could do it again. He had to go back to his family. It would have been selfish of her to make him stay just because she wanted to kiss him a bunch.
"Me neither….thank you. That was….that was really nice…um…but you have to go before someone catches you again." said Mob. That had been hard to say…and what was wrong with her? She should not have even thought about keeping him there with her. She should have been ordering him to run away…not that he was someone she could boss around….but he needed to go and she needed to stop thinking about what life would be like if he stayed with her and became her boyfriend and married her and they had babies together and one would have been called Shigeo and the other would have been called Shoko and…and stuff that was never going to happen because she was never going to see him again.
"You're right. I-I should go…thank you so much, Mob, for saving me. Thank you so much and…and I will always remember you." Said Hanazawa. He gave her hand another squeeze and she just about turned into jelly right then and there. Was this how it always felt after kissing? Would she ever feel like this again? She didn't know. She didn't know anything beyond the fact that she had just had her first kiss and also she had defied dad…and she would be in for it…but that didn't matter because she'd just had her first kiss!
"Me-me too. I-I will always remember you too….Hanazawa Teruki." Said Mob. She didn't want to let go of his hand but she knew that she had to. She didn't want to let him go but she knew that she had to. To do otherwise would have been selfish and she was not going to be so selfish as to keep someone from their family. No, that would have been wrong, even more wrong than deliberately disobeying her dad. She was in for it….if dad found out what she had done…because even though he had made a mistake she had still defied him and also he might not have been a big fan of the whole kissing thing either…so that was something else that she was going to keep to herself…
She needed to get back before someone noticed her….some more.
She ran back as fast as she could. When she got there Sho was taking a nap. She put the TV on and sat next to him and tried to act as normal as possible. The power was back and that meant that they could do normal things…even though she had no idea how she was ever supposed to feel normal again…because this had been such the day…..and it wasn't over yet. She hoped that Hanazawa made it home safe. She hoped that he made it back to his mom and dad.
And she hoped that he never forgot her…because she knew that she would never be able to forget him for as long as she lived.