Sho had never eaten in the cafeteria before.

He liked it! There were so many other espers around, none of them kids but he was used to that, and nobody cared how he ate or what he said or even if he was loud and annoying! This was so much better than being upstairs and eating with dad and big sis! This was freedom, true freedom, like the time when he was at the museum and they had a bird in a cage so he let it go and it was so happy…and he had no idea what big sis had been so mad about. Her favorite song was called Let it Go after all.

He drank his pudding straight from the cup and threw it across the table. He knew that she would not have been able to let that go.

"You know, Little Suzuki, there's a garbage can right there." said Shibata. He pointed across the room at the big line up of garbage cans. They had a bunch of signs telling people to throw their trash away. Sho maybe should have but he wasn't going to. He was free and he could do whatever he wanted to. Besides, it wasn't like everyone else in the room was cleaning up after themselves.

"I know, I don't care." Said Sho. He opened up another pudding cup and went to drink it, managed to get it so close he could smell the chocolate and vanilla swirl, when it disappeared right out of his hand. He didn't have to look far to see where it had gone to. It was right across the table from him.

"That's mine!" said Sho. He stood up on his chair and reached over for it. Shimazaki just hit him in the face with a plastic spoon. The spoon was sticky, he had already used it, and it was so gross! It was only ok when he did that to big sis, not when someone did that to him, because it was the grossest thing ever! Now he had Shimazaki's spit on him and…and he felt weird because of his gross it had been. Yes, that was it.

"I know, I don't care." Said Shimazaki. He took his spoon and dug into the kid's pudding. He could have said something like the kid had eaten enough pudding cups, he'd heard three hit the table so far, and then childhood obesity and type two diabetes and all of that shit. He could have said that, justified himself, but he didn't. He just liked messing with people.

"Be nice, he's just a kid." Said Shibata

"Yeah, I'm just a kid. So be nice to me." Said Sho. He reached across the table for his pudding cup back. He knew that it was gross now. Only brothers and sisters or brothers and brothers or sisters and sisters but never people who weren't related to each other. He should have been grossed out…and he was! He was super grossed out! He was the most grossed out! But he had to get his pudding cup back because…because of the principle! Yes, principles were important. Dad had said so. You had to stand by your principles and stuff and his principles said that he wanted his pudding cup back even if it was full of Shimazaki's spit.

"I'm a kid at heart so, no, I won't." said Shimazaki. If the kid didn't want to be messed with then he should have been less fun to mess with. There. Simple. Maybe Shimazaki should have had some kids. They could be fun…but then he'd have some kids. That was a lot of commitment. Also he'd never get a break from them. Even now he was starting to need a break from the kid. Or maybe the world. It was loud as hell in there, and not just because everyone felt the need to shout, there were a lot of auras in there. Well it was better to be down there than hanging out waiting for Suzuki to finish eating. That guy's aura screamed at the best of times but now he was on a whole other level. Shimazaki wondered what was up with him…but he didn't care so much as to go up to the man and ask. Or to spend any time unnecessary time with him.

"It's ok little guy. Here, you can have my cookie." Said Shibata. He passed Sho his cookie even though he wanted that cookie. He really wanted that cookie. These were the best cookies that he had ever had. These cookies were totally worth the big fight that had happened, before, and which had ended in him getting a new job and the cafeteria getting a new wall. He wanted that cookie but so did the kid and as the adult it was his job to go hungry so the next generation would not starve. He was old, twenty six already, he'd lived his life. Now it was time to give the next generation a chance at life.

"I wanted pudding…." Said Sho softly. He still snatched the cookie away, though, because these cookies were the best he'd ever had. Dad said that they were at this division because he had work to do but Sho knew the real reason. This was the best food that he'd ever had. Well at a division, anyway, because everyone knew that the best food in the world was at Hong Kong Disneyland.

"You did? Ok then." Said Shimazaki. The kid didn't waste any time, he just put up a barrier. Well he learned fast, didn't he? He could 'see' Shibata's aura. He could see him turning his aura inwards, always bizarre, but at least he wasn't bulking up to his final form now. Or maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing. It would make everything more interesting.

"Don't steal my cookie or I'll…I'll steal something from you." Said Sho. He had never stolen anything in his life. Well he stole milk and candy and stuff from big sis but that was ok because they were brother and sister. She stole from him all the time too. Sometimes when they slept next to each other she stole all the blankets and one time she stole his soda out of the fridge even though she knew that he had been saving that specific soda for hours until it got just cold enough that it was good but not so cold that his teeth hurt.

"You're arguing with a little kid." Said Shibata

"And?" said Shimazaki

"He's nine years old. Why would you argue with a nine year old?" Said Shibata. You didn't argue with the little people. Even if they were adorable when they argued.

"Because it's fun. It's like playing chess with a chicken." Said Shimazaki with a shrug. The kid lunged for the cookie in his hand. He saw that coming, as he always did, and he acted quickly. He tossed his cookie from one hand to the other. The kid paused to ooh over the fact that he could throw something from one had to another. Sighted people were so easy to impress and children doubly so.

"I'm not a chicken." Grumbled Sho. He crossed his arms and sat back. He was going to get it…eventually. Shimazaki wasn't eating his cookie, he was dangling it right there in front of him, like he wanted him to take it. Well this was not playing chess with a chicken because Sho was not a chicken. Even if Shimazaki was cool and could teleport and also could see what you did before you did it, even though he couldn't see at all, but Sho was not afraid to steal his cookie back from him. If they fought then he would win. He knew that he would win because he said that he would win and if he said that he would win then he would not let himself lose.

"No, but this is like playing chess with a chicken. You can't win, because the chicken doesn't understand that it can't lose, but you still have fun." Said Shimazaki. There, a smarter way of saying that he liked to mess with people for the sake of messing with people. The kid was fun. He was a little ball of easily upset nerves much like his father. Though Shimazaki was not suicidal, he would never push Suzuki this far, even though he kind of wanted to see what would happen. Nothing good, probably, but it would still be worth it to…well maybe not. Maybe when he got old. When the world was conquered and he got his reward and Suzuki was close to death and old…but maybe that would be boring…hmm…he would have to think about it some more. He had time, though, about forty to fifty years.

"You'd be better off playing chess with a monkey. You can teach a monkey to play chess." Said Shibata

"Does it play a good game?" asked Shimazaki

"It plays decent, for a monkey. Well the one we had at Pet Palace did." Said Shimazaki

"You had a monkey?!" asked Sho. That was so COOL! He wanted a monkey! He would take good care of it, the best care of it, it would be his best friend! He wanted a monkey and…and there was no point in asking dad because he would just say no. Sho frowned some more.

"Yeah, how in the hell did you have a monkey? That can't be legal. Also monkeys are little bastards. Well temple monkeys are." Said Shimazaki. That had not been a fun trip. Though it had been harder on Toshi. They relied too much on their sight. Monkeys were masters of misdirection and they would do anything to steal from you…or for you. Though they didn't stay long enough for him to train any monkeys. They were a lot like kids, monkeys. Both were small and entertaining…..and good at misdirection.

He took an empty pudding cup and slammed it down on the kid's hand.

"Hey! What was that for?!" asked Sho. He had thought that Shimazaki had been distracted. What could be more distracting than monkeys? Well maybe cats…or hamster. Yes, most definitely hamsters, they were the best animals after all. They were small and cute and you could teach them tricks. Maybe he would have had a better time distracting Shimazaki if he'd had a hamster with him. Maybe then he wouldn't have gotten stopped again.

He felt warm.

His face was red, he could feel it, and his aura was showing and just as red. That was because he had lost. He was embarrassed and mad because he had lost. That was why his aura was that way and that was why people were staring at him…and didn't they have anything else to look at!? He wished that someone else would have started something. He wished for another brawl. He wished for a lot of things but his wishes didn't come true. He pulled his hand back. Shibata patted him way too hard on the head like he was a puppy or something.

"Don't move so slowly, kid, it's easier for me to see you." Said Shimazaki. He wondered if he would ever end up fighting this kid. He wouldn't be a kid forever after all. He would still be able to take him, maybe, especially if he was anything like his father. Suzuki telegraphed his movements too and Shimazaki would have won if Suzuki didn't have an inexhaustible well of power within himself.

"Can you see this?" asked Sho. He stuck out his tongue. He knew that he was not supposed to stick out his tongue, dad said that it was immature and stupid to be so immature, but that was what he felt like doing. If anyone deserved to have someone stick their tongue out at it was Shimazaki.

"Close your mouth before the birds nest in it." Said Shimazaki. He could hear Shibata laughing. He didn't see what was so funny about that. Kids stuck out their tongues all the time, it was just something that they did. It wasn't like when a dog walked on it's hind legs or something like that.

"Little Suzuki, come on. You've got to finish eating so you can grow up big and strong. Don't you want to grow up to be big and strong like me?" asked Shibata. That was so cute…but he shouldn't have been laughing like that. He was on babysitting duty, his superior had put him on babysitting duty, and he was not going to mess this up. The boss would have been upset with his son if he could have seen him then…and that was not a good thing, when the boss got mad at his son. The boss was a little too…much…when it came to his son, in Shibata's opinion, but what did he know? He wasn't anyone's father. At least he was mostly sure that he wasn't.

"Yeah, eat something, little guy." Said Shimazaki. That hiccup of his aura. It was way too easy to push that kid's buttons. Oh they were all so fucked when Suzuki either died or stepped down from his positon as unquestioned lord and master of the world.

"Eat this." said Sho. He did something that he had never done before but he knew that it was a bad thing. He had seen people doing that and he knew that it wasn't good. Mom had said so. She didn't tell him what it meant but she just told him that she never wanted to see him do that. Ever. Well it was ok, then, because mom was totally gone and never coming back.

"Are you flipping me off?" laughed Shimazaki. Ok, now it was time to laugh. He could see it, the kid was sitting there flipping him off like it was nothing, and it was hilarious. Really, it was. Oh, if Suzuki could have seen that he would have lost it. He would have done worse than knock out a wall. Well Suzuki wasn't there, just his son, and Shimazaki was going to enjoy the hilarity of being flipped off by a nine year old.

"Sho…that's not funny." Said Shibata. He laughed behind his hand. That really was funny. It was as funny as it was cute, with was very, but he should not have been laughing….but he was. He wished that it were more socially acceptable to take pictures of other people's kids. This would have been his background for sure if he could have taken a picture of this.

"I'm not trying to be. I'm trying to-" Said Sho. He could have said more, he would have said more, but he didn't have time. He felt a familiar aura coming near to his. Not dad's, thank God, and not big sis' either. No, this one was green. Green and warm and nice and fun.

A hand reached over and tucked his finger back into his fist.

"Sho, you know not to do things like that." Said Fukuda. Sho never ate down there with everyone else. Suzuki never ate with anyone outside of his family so therefore he did all that he could to cut his children off socially from everyone else. Or at least his daughter. He had never been as protective of Sho as he had been of Shigeko.

"I didn't do anything!" said Sho. He had said it on instinct. He felt bad as he said it. First of all he should not have been lying to Fukuda because Fukuda was nice and cared about him a lot. Second of all that was a stupid lie to be telling because Fukuda had just seen what he was doing. Third of all mom had always told him not to tell lies…but maybe that shouldn't have counted. Maybe he shouldn't have cared what mom thought, she wasn't even there and she had betrayed them all by leaving, but part of him still did. Or maybe he just cared what mom thought because mom and Fukuda had been best friends back when she had still been around and not a traitor.

"He's fine. He didn't mean anything by it." Said Shibata. He had no clue if Fukuda outranked him or not. He both was and was not a member of Suzuki's entourage. He was the personal healer to the Suzuki family and followed them around but he didn't live with the rest of them in their house and they hardly ever saw him, too. Little Suzuki seemed to be listening to him though.

"Yes I did!" said Sho. He regretted saying those words, too. Well now Fukuda would be upset because he had lied and admitted to lying. Great. Fukuda was pretty much the very last person who he wanted to be upset with him. He was kind of like a friend, almost, but a bossy one who healed him up and made him eat green vegetables and brush his teeth with real toothpaste, not the bubblegum kind.

"Sho, come on now. Why don't you come and eat with me? How's that sound? Come on." Said Fukuda. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Sho wouldn't have done that if he wasn't spending time with the worst influence in the entire organization. He knew Suzuki, he had known Suzuki since before Claw was even a thing, but he never would have figured that THIS would be the company he kept….and left his only son with. Though she wasn't Shigeko. He had to keep her close. She was his pride and joy after all.

"Ok." Said Sho because, well, what else could he say. He used to eat with Fukuda all the time. Back when mom had been sick and he had come over with extra food he had bought from the grocery store. Those had been fun times. He and Fukuda didn't spend as much time together as they used to. Probably because there was a lot of stuff to do in Claw and also Sho was a big kid now and didn't need to call Fukuda for every little thing.

He could have but he didn't.

He could have called Fukuda when he woke up all alone in the night. He could have made Fukuda come over during the day to play with him. He might have even been able to tell Fukuda to do his homeschool work for him like he had told the Awakened a few times before his teachers caught on. He could boss people in Claw around. If big sis could then he could too.

He just didn't want to.

Because he knew how it felt to be bossed around. He didn't want to make anyone feel like that but especially Fukuda. He had always been so nice to him. Even back when he had been little, so little that he could barely remember, Fukuda had been there and he had been nice to him. He sat down next to Fukuda with what was left of his lunch, only the apple and green stuff, and forced himself to eat it because he knew that the next thing that he would have been told to do was eat. Adults had this obsession with kids eating enough to grow up big and strong. It didn't make a lot of sense but then again a lot of things didn't make a lot of sense.

"Sho…you shouldn't do things like that. Ok? It's not nice." Said Fukuda after a moment. This was not his son, he reminded himself that this was not his son, but he could not have let Sho go around flipping people off. If his father had seen that then….Fukuda couldn't even stand to think of what the consequences would have been. Sho was just a kid, he didn't know what he was doing, but Suzuki would not have seen it like that. He thought that all kids came into the world miniature adults and that parenting involved hitting them when they upset you and ordering them around. Well that was not parenting and not all children were Shigeko.

"….I would have said sorry." Said Sho telling yet another lie. He knew that look, the one that Fukuda was giving him. Fukuda saw through him worse than a wet white t-shirt at the beach.

"Really?" asked Fukuda. Sho needed to spend some time with kids his own age. Actual kids, not his sister, because then he would not have picked up things like these. Of all the people that Suzuki had left his son with it just had to be Shimazaki. Fukuda couldn't speak for the new guy but he knew the look of him. Sho did not need to be around any other people with poor impulse control, Shimazaki, or issues with anger and violence, Shibata. He also didn't need to be around anyone else like his father, Shigeko, or his actual father, Suzuki.

He had failed Masami so badly that it wasn't even funny.

"…no…but he was asking for it." Said Sho. He saw Fukuda's aura hiccup and he shrunk down in on himself. It was a reflex, like when you hit your knee and it jumped, because usually dad's aura hiccupped like that before he hit him…but that was dumb, it had been a dumb thing to do, because Fukuda had never once hit him once in his entire life.

"Yeah, I'd bet he did. Still, you shouldn't get into the habit of doing that. It isn't nice. What would your mother say if she'd seen you doing that? Even if it was to someone like Shimazaki?" asked Fukuda. Masami would have hated him if she could see what he had let happen to her children. She couldn't see them, of course, because they had stopped checking in. He wasn't even sending her picture anymore. It just was not safe to send her any information. Not with that techopath Suzuki had collected. The search for Masami was still on, just cooled, and Fukuda would not be responsible for whatever it was that Suzuki planned on doing to his wife when he found her.

He knew exactly what Suzuki did to those he considered to be traitors.

"My mom wouldn't say anything because she isn't here." Said Sho. Now he wanted to leave. He was not allowed to ever talk about mom. If this got back to dad then he would be in for it. Fukuda knew that Sho would have been in for it. Fukuda was the one who fixed him up after dad punished him, he knew what would happen, but he was still talking about mom like it was something that they did all the time. What was the matter with him?

Maybe he missed mom, too.

But he shouldn't have! Mom was gone! She had left them. She had left them all alone with dad. If she had been planning on running away she could have taken him and big sis. Maybe even just him. They could have run away together and been together and been happy and…and it was…it would have been…he didn't even want to think about it. It was pointless to imagine a life where mom had taken him with her. She had left him and that was the whole of it.

The whole of it.

"That's true. She isn't here but if she were here she would have wanted you to have been a good boy. I'm sure that wherever she is she's thinking about you all the time and-" said Fukuda. They never talked about her, Masami, because Suzuki preferred to pretend that she had never existed. It was usually dangerous ground, talking about Masami, but there was a certain privacy to this place. It was crowded with people and auras. People were shouting and auras were bright and someone was committing the serious crime of watching YouTube without headphones. Across the way the other members of Suzuki's entourage were kicking each other under the table like a couple of nine year olds. Nobody was paying attention to them.

Nobody cared.

He could see Suzuki's aura above them, always above them, and he had something going on right now. Something upsetting enough to make his aura that visible. Something that Fukuda would have to smooth over later. There was always something. Maybe he was just upset about his birthday or the kids' birthdays or Masami's birthday. He was more sentimental than he let on.

"But she isn't. She's somewhere else and I'm here." Said Sho. His aura was showing again. He wanted to kick Fukuda, to throw his lunch at him, to climb over the table and hit him a bunch of times. But he wouldn't because he was not supposed to be a jerk like that. He was…he was going to eat his lunch…and he was going to be good. Mom might not have been there but Fukuda was…and also Dad was there, too, or at least his aura was.

"Sho-"said Fukuda. That anger. He had seen that anger before. He had always been prone to outbursts of anger but now it was getting worse. Fukuda did not want to know what Sho was going to be like during his teen years. He wasn't afraid, though, because he knew that he would never been on the other side of that anger. Sho was just a kid, anyway, he couldn't fully control himself.

"But if it makes you sad then I won't do that again…because it makes you sad. You're here. My mom isn't…and don't talk about her. Dad might hear you." Said Sho. He picked at what was left of his lunch. He wasn't hungry anymore.

"He's all the way up there in his office, he can't hear us." Said Fukuda

"You don't know that for sure, Fukuda. Dad just knows when you did something bad and…and I didn't even do anything bad. Well I did but you're doing something worse. Mom is gone, dad says that she's a traitor for leaving and…and we aren't supposed to talk about her. That's the way that it is now and…and…" said Sho

"Alright. If that's what you want." Said Fukuda. He hadn't meant to upset Sho. It hurt, knowing that Sho was hurt, and he wished that there was something that he could have done. There wasn't. He was powerless. He had been powerless for the vast majority of his life. Since the day he had met Suzuki Touichirou

"It is. I want-" said Sho. He wanted to go. He wanted to be alone. He didn't want to be there in case Fukuda started talking about mom again. He knew for a fact that they were not ever supposed to talk about mom. He wanted to go but he couldn't just get up and leave. That would have been mean. He was enough of a jerk that the last thing he wanted to do was to be an every bigger jerk than he already was.

He wanted to go.

He wished that he could go and his wish was granted. He felt big sis's aura. He turned to face her. She was walking away from the garbage cans and over to the drink fridge. He watched her get out a bottle of that strawberry milk she was always drinking. Something was bothering her. He could feel her aura.

It was not a jerk thing to do, getting up and leaving, if you were helping to make your big sis feel better.

"I want to go see what's wrong with big sis. Bye." Said Sho. He got up and walked over to her. She stood in line even though they didn't have to because they were dad's kids. So he really did need to go over there and help her out. The line was long and that guy who never wore headphones was there. Yes, she certainly needed him to save her. He could be a jerk to her sometimes but not all of the times.

"See you, Sho." said Fukuda. He was, once again, alone. Sho was so afraid of his father that even the mention of his mother sent him running. He wished that he could have just told Sho the truth. Not the whole truth, of course, because nobody wanted to know that about their mother. No, he had no desire to give Sho something else to describe to the therapist he would undoubtedly have to see in his adult years. That poor kid…there was so much that Fukuda should have been doing for him. So many promises that he had made to Masami, to his mother, to the woman he loved….he stopped thinking about this. About her. About Masami, his Masami…not his Masami. She was not his wife and these were not his children. If they had been his children he would have told Sho that he didn't have to go running to his sister, that he had to stay put and eat something, that he didn't have to spend every waking moment of his life with Shigeko.

But he didn't.

Because he was not going to overstep. He knew that Suzuki was pissed enough. He knew that he was irreplaceable but he also knew that his life could have been worse. There was always something worse and Suzuki would think of it. Just when you thought that it didn't get any worse….well there were prisons. There were places that Fukuda wasn't even sure existed anywhere outside of rumors. There was always something worse that could be done to him…and maybe he was just being selfish. Maybe he was just a horribly selfish man.

Maybe he should have done more.

Maybe he should have done more for those kids. Maybe he should have done more to keep Shigeko a sweet little girl and not just a smaller version of her father. Maybe he should have done more to keep Sho safe over these years. More to keep him from becoming the angry little boy he had grown into and the angry man it looked like he would be. Hell, maybe he should have done more back when he and Suzuki were in school. More to stop him. More to stop all of this…

But he hadn't and now Sho was over there with his sister and he was sitting at a table all alone poking at a cold, limp, salad and a mealy apple.

They had never eaten together since…what had happened, in the cafeteria or otherwise, and he doubted that they ever would again.