Suzuki Touichirou did not do things that he did not want to do.

He didn't have to justify himself to anyone. Nobody. If he didn't want to go to Korea then he was not going to Korea. Simple. He said things and then they happened. He said that he was not going to do things so then things didn't happen. Simple. He was Suzuki Touichirou and he was in control of himself and every situation that he was in and he was not going to Korea.

Even if he had frantic Awakened knocking on his office door and handing him cryptic letters from people he did not want to hear from.

She wanted him to meet her in Bussan. She lived there now. People were not supposed to just up and leave…but he was not going to get into that with her or her base leader. He wanted nothing more to do with Pang Sujin…or whatever her name was. He didn't know. He didn't care. She meant nothing to him and whatever the big, urgent thing was…well he had people for that. How she had even managed to personally get ahold of him was another thing. He would have to look into that too….but he would not because he wanted nothing more to do with her.

He really did.

He didn't want to know if she had ever finished that book she had been telling him about. He did not want to know what she thought of that kumdo season. He did not want to know…there was no point in thinking of the things that he did not want to know about her. There was no point in thinking about her. He had more important things to think about like…work. His own work that he should have been doing but instead he spent the latter half of the day staring at a letter written to him in Korean on one hand and the most perfect kanji that he had seen since….on the other side.

What a waste of a day.

He should not have sent the children away. They were, if anything, a distraction. Son had taken to jumping out of places in an attempt to startle Shimazaki, which was obviously not going to happen, and Daughter…well she had been odd. She had been sleepy, honestly, and clumsy. He wondered if she had taken ill. That had been his justification for sending the children away, that Daughter had been ill….

He should have kept her near, at least.

Things were always so much easier when she was near. Even when she was being annoying things were still easier with her around. He could talk to her. He could share something worth sharing with her. He could letter her chatter on about something that she cared about. He could even just sit there in companionable silence with her. Being near her….that was always pleasant. A hell of a lot more pleasant than spending the day staring at a letter.

"Hey boss? You ready to head home? It's getting kind of late." Said Fukuda. He knew, well as well as a person could know, Suzuki. He knew that Suzuki did not get melancholic but there he was sitting at his desk with his head down. He also knew that Suzuki did not get startled, he could see an aura from literal kilometers away, so the fact that he practically jumped when Fukuda came up to him…

Something was wrong with Suzuki.

It smelled vaguely of liquor and for a moment he has the crazy idea that Suzuki was drunk. That would…that would not have been good. He had babysat a drunk Suzuki before. It had not been good for everyone. Seasoning City had recovered…eventually. He looks Suzuki over with his aura. Not drunk. Perfectly healthy…thank God.

Yay. Perfectly healthy. No concussions, contusions, or abrasions.

Hoo-fucking-ray.

"Oh…yes. I suppose it is. Very well then." Said Suzuki. Nobody had been able to sneak up on him since…well since he had been surrounded by mostly normal people. He could not believe that someone had managed to startle him. If it had been anyone else he could have been killed. Thankfully it was only Fukuda. Still, though, he should not make it a habit to let his guard down like that. Especially since he had sent his bodyguards home...and maybe he just needed to get better at tolerating truly annoying people.

At least it was just him and Fukuda.

He could be annoying sometimes. He could speak out of turn or overstep when it came to the children…though he had been better about that as of late. Fukuda's presence had always been pleasant. Even when they had been young. He had thought that it would be another year with the same bunch of…his younger self had not had non crass words for those around him…but then he had felt Fukuda's aura. He had felt his aura and then it was Fukuda who had sought him out initially. They had each been the first esper that the other had met.

They had been fast companions.

"Everything alright, boss?" asked Fukuda as Suzuki got up from his chair. He bumped his knee on his desk. Right, Shigeko had been sitting in his chair that day. That had certainly been something, walking in to Suzuki's office and seeing Shigeko there. She had been sitting there in his chair at his laptop like she owned the place. If not for her headband and the costume dress that she had been wearing he would have thought that he had been looking into his future.

Serving another Suzuki.

That was how it had been since he had been a kid. He had been curious about Suzuki. He was the only other esper he had ever met in his life. He had been aware of a feeling, before, of someone near him. He had always attributed that feeling to spirits or something like that. He had no idea, up to that point in his life, that there were others like him. But then there, at his very school, was Suzuki Touichirou. His first ever esper 'friend'.

How he wished that he hadn't gotten into such a good school.

"Damn it." Muttered Suzuki. That was not like him, either, and he knew that he should have been guarding himself better. The whole desk had jumped. That had been his powers. There were pens and papers hovering in the air now. Damn it. He hadn't lost control like this since…well this was not losing control. Not truly. He knew what it was to truly lose control.

Thank God that Fukuda was the only one seeing this.

Fukuda had seen him truly lose control on more than one occasion. That was one of the main reasons that he had kept Fukuda around for in the beginning. He had been so annoying. Always insisting that they were friends. Insisting that they spend time together even when there was no need for it. He spent at least half his nights, in those days, in Fukuda's home and visa-versa. Fukuda had seen him at his greatest lows. That terrible White Day. The time at kendo. His parents. University. The time after Sho's birth while Masami was recovering. Masami leaving. All of it. Fukuda had seen it all and yet he still stayed no matter what had happened.

He had always been so loyal since the very beginning.

"Anything I should look at?" asked Fukuda. That had been his job in the beginning. Suzuki had been pretty accident prone. He had used his powers more back then, lost control of them more often back then, and cursed more back then too. Like now. He hadn't…well he had heard…but only when something was REALLY wrong. Those times were always few and far between….

Those times had never been good for anyone.

"No. I'm fine. Uninjured." Said Suzuki. He took his powers and practically slammed everything down where it belonged. Fukuda, to his credit, did not so much as flinch. He had seen that before. Back at school when he had been too distracted by…why did it always come back to women? He was not an adolescent anymore and he should not have been so hung up on the opposite sex. Of course back then rejection had been his problem…

And the solution had been simple.

Fukuda had given him some very good advice. He was good at two things, healing and understanding other people. Two skills that Suzuki was not ashamed to admit he was lacking. Fukuda had enough social skill to tell him that it didn't matter if she had rejected his offer of White Day chocolates and told him everything from his powers to the look on his face was creepy. There was someone out there for everyone.

He was having the opposite problem now.

"You sure? Because I could take a look at you-" said Fukuda

"I said that I was fine." Said Suzuki. There's an edge to his voice and his aura when he says fine. He does not mean to do that. Next to him his desk begins to float up off the ground. He slams it back into place. He isn't an adolescent anymore. He does not need Fukuda's social help with this. He doesn't need anyone's help with this. He doesn't need anyone's help because he knows exactly what he is going to do about this. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He is not going to meet her in Bussan and deal with whatever it is that she wants him to deal with.

She was either angry at him for leaving or she wanted to beg him to stay with her.

He doesn't want to deal with either option. If she was angry at him for leaving…well he should not have cared what anyone thought. Also he was her superior. Also she was the one who couldn't get a clue, that he wanted nothing to do with her, so really there was nothing wrong with him having left her and she had no right to…but he had never been good at this. Having women be angry with him. He just could not stand an upset woman. Men, well he didn't care about men. They were simple in their anger. He understood the direct physical fighting that came with being a man and angry with another man. Women were always so strange in their anger. They never told you what it was that they were even angry about. Even Masami had always just said that she was fine when he asked her what was wrong. He knew that she was not fine because something was so clearly wrong…but she had said that she was fine…

And then she had left.

But Pang Sujin was not going to leave him. She was seeking him out. She even said that if he wouldn't come to her then she would come to him…not a good prospect. She wanted to be with him. He did not want to be with her. He couldn't. He was already with Masami. Not physically and not in spirit, he hated astral projection and had no idea where he would even project his astral form TO, but he was still her husband.

They were still married even if they were apart.

Of course he had taken that, their marriage, and practically vomited all over it. He had been weak, that was all, because it had been a very long time since he had been with a woman. Now he was fine. He never even thought about…well not often…and he exorcised those thoughts when he could. He didn't need Pang Sujin or Masami or anyone. He was fine all on his own…which was why he was not going to Korea no matter how many handwritten letters he got.

"Hey, just doing my job." Said Fukuda. He knew Suzuki, he knew that something was bothering him, and he knew that it was his job to fix it. He was the person who had known Suzuki the longest. Some might even have mistaken them for friends. Their relationship was more like the one that Shigeko had cultivated with Minegishi. Someone to hover around Suzuki and follow his orders and fulfill social needs that the man would not even admit to having. That was his job. He had been at it for thirty years. At least he wouldn't have to do this for Shigeko. Thank God that Minegishi had taken that job.

He wondered if he should warn Minegishi about the complete and utter shit show that Shigeko's teenage years would be.

She was her father's daughter after all. Daddy's little girl. His pride and joy. His spitting image. Suzuki in feminine miniature. She didn't share a drop of blood with him but she didn't have to. Whatever was wrong with Suzuki, whatever made him the way that he was, could be seen right there in that little girl. Her face, her aura, the way she walked, the way she talked, the way she wanted the world and thought that she was right to ask for it, all of it. Suzuki had been the definition of awkward when he had been just a few years older than her.

Not that he had ever really stopped being awkward.

A change of hair and a suit to wear. Those were the only things separating forty two year old Suzuki from his younger self. He had cut his hair a lot shorter so it didn't stick out like Sho's did and he started wearing suits exclusively. Even to bed. If Fukuda could have met his younger self he would have been unrecognizable. Any ambition in life that he'd had, though it had not been much, was gone. He had gotten over his obsession with sci-fi too at some point. He had grown a few dozen centimeters and his skin had cleared up in the years between then and now. An improvement if he did say so himself. Not everything was an improvement though. He had considered Suzuki to be his best friend back then, a weird and bossy kid who liked sci-fi and had powers too. A total weirdo but still an ok guy. The only other esper that he had ever met, his lunchtime buddy, and sleepover partner. They had gone exploring a lot in those days too. To the back alleys and in the sewers, abandoned buildings and homes for sale, across the train tracks and down the road into the woods….yes, he remembered that day. He had said that the clearing in the woods where they'd built their fort would have been the first division of Claw.

Suzuki killed his parents. It ended up being the Seventh Division.

He had helped his best friend through that too. Orphaning himself. Losing his mom and dad…by his own hand. Even then he had no truly seen what Suzuki was. Even back then he had still considered him to be the closest thing to a best friend that he had ever had. Younger him would have slapped him over the head and told him to ask Suzuki again what was wrong. Stay on him until he either hit him or told him the truth. Take him out for nighttime omelets so the idiot would spill his guts already. Go to the manga store with him and hang out until he said what was wrong. Younger him would have wanted him to be there for his best friend.

He had slept with his best friend's wife. He had fallen in love with his best friend's wife. He had never fallen out of love with his best friend's wife.

Younger Fukuda would have probably stepped in front of a bus if he could see what they had become. What he had become. What he had let himself become. All the crimes that he was an accessory too. All the suffering that he let happen around him. The fact that he had actually gone along with Suzuki's crazy plan to rule the world. The fact that with every year that ticked by, every turn of the calendar, Suzuki's goal looked more and more plausible….

And he was going along with it….but at least he was still there for his friend.

"I know. I can't fault you for that. I am not physically hurt. I just…control. I just need to get myself under control." Said Suzuki. Admitting that weakness…it was like the time when he had been a child and he ate those bitter berries that grew in the park. The time everyone around him was sure that he would die. The time, the first time, that he had ever truly been ill. He felt ill. He made himself ill. How could he have come to this? He was not…this was not supposed to be him. He was not supposed to be this man. He was not supposed to be weak like this.

If the time machine had been a feasible endeavor his younger self would have reached forward from the past and beaten his older self to death but then replaced him in that time line so that he could have been something other than…this.

He had never allowed himself these emotions even when he had been a child. Nothing good had ever come from them. His control had never been good but especially not when he was…well it had been ok when he had been a child…it was the onset of puberty that made everything ten times worse. But then again that was normal. You lost control of your body and then your mind went to places it shouldn't have without your control and then, he supposed, any control issues that you had with your powers were magnified a hundred fold. That was just the way it went. You had powers and then you lost control of them.

His control was supposed to be better.

He was supposed to be better. Here he was agonizing over a woman. Again. Not even his own wife. If this had been Masami telling him that he needed to get to Bussan then he, of course, would have left immediately. He would not even have taken the time to have his bags packed. He would have flown there under his own power even though he hated flying under his own power for long stretches of time. He would have been at her side no matter what she wanted. Even if it was to slap him in the face and tell him that she never wanted to set eyes on him again…

But this was not Masami.

He would have hated himself, his past self would have, if he had known that he would have been nothing more than a womanizing and self-defiling slave to his own joy. He had never planned on being unfaithful. Never in his entire life. And he had hoped to have gotten past the self-defiling at this point in his life. Yes, he would have hated himself…and Fukuda probably would have left his side, too. He didn't have the power to force Fukuda to stay, not back then, well he had been strong enough but Fukuda had never cared about that. No. He cared about building a better world. He cared about Suzuki's dream, his plans, and that was why he stayed.

Of course younger Fukuda would have had enough and left. They hadn't built anything but a fort at the future sigh of the Seventh, then planned to be the First, Division of Claw back in those days.

"I would offer you a drink but, judging by how low those bottle are, I'm guessing that you've been hitting it pretty hard." Said Fukuda even though he knew that Suzuki hadn't had a drop of the stuff. He would have been able to feel it. This was just a way to get him to talk. No matter how upset he was he would always take the time to correct someone when they were wrong.

"No. That's Shimazaki's doing." Said Suzuki. His eyes followed the path Fukuda's took. Well now that was just far too much….and the balance of the shelf, the arrangement, was off too. Of all the things…

"Want me to tell him off for you?" asked Fukuda. He had the power to do that, tell people off, since not only was he the original entourage member but he was also the only healer. There may have been a lot of idiots in Claw, a whole lot of idiots, they at least knew that messing with the only guy with healing powers was a bad idea.

"No. I can do that later." Said Suzuki. Yes, blowing off some steam would have been nice. It wouldn't even have done anything for moral. There was an expression that he had heard before, playing chess with a chicken. No matter what you did, no matter how badly you beat the chicken, it still had a good time. Yes, that would be a good way to take his mind off of…things. Fukuda always had such good ideas.

"You sure? I mean if you're close to losing control you might accidentally kill him. Especially if he's pissed you off this badly. I can take care of him since, and it's killing me to say this, we need him. He's a powerful esper and he keeps you and the kids safe." Said Fukuda. He knew just what notes to hit, what buttons to push, to get Suzuki to talk. He hated being weak and being seen as weak. He was also a control freak, a violent one at that, and he would never let a chance to discipline a subordinate go. Mix in a little loyalty and reverence and you had the perfect recipe for a few cups of instant emotional truth.

"It isn't about him. I would never allow him to get me into this state. It's about…something else. Something which you can't help me with." Said Suzuki. He liked and disliked that about Fukuda. His loyalty. The fact that he was always trying to lend a hand. He wondered if Fukuda still thought of them as friends even though they were nothing of the sort and never had been. They had just had a very good working relationship, that was all.

"You sure about that? I just spent the half hour helping one of the Awakened get his arm out of a vending machine." Said Fukuda with a shrug. Ah yes, there. Some kind of work thing. Another traitor, maybe? But no…a traitor would not have gotten him that worked up. Maybe another vast conspiracy…he so hated those. He hoped that it was nothing more than some government sending their spies in. That was always….hard…but at least it ended quickly.

"How did that even happen?" asked Suzuki. That was…odd. His only thought was that someone had tried to steal from the vending machine…or maybe it was just broken again. According to Masami that had happened to Son once when he had been small. He had gotten his hand stuck in a gumball machine when he was two. Daughter had been old enough to try and help but not old enough to know that her idea of 'helping' was only making things worse. Then it turned out that Son had only been holding onto the gumball….the Awakened, the ones who had not come through the process mentally sound, were such children sometimes….

Once he got that Awakened's name he would make sure that they never made it past the first uniform level. He was not going to share his power with overgrown children come the day.

"He was just holding onto the snack. Why he was doing that I do not know. Shredded his arm up real good though." said Fukuda. He watched Suzuki's aura. Absurdity was always a gamble. Sometimes it put him in a better mood, sometimes he took some minute detail and ran with it, and other times he just got pissed off at the stupidity of others. He was amused now. Good.

"You shouldn't have helped with that. Some people need to learn the hard way." said Suzuki. Fukuda had this thing where he just had to help everyone. Suzuki did not understand it…but then again he had never been able to understand Fukuda. There was nothing that Fukuda would not do for him, well in the past, Suzuki had seen where his limits were…

And this was nowhere near those limits.

"That's true but I like to help out when I can. So what's this new mission? More traitors? Is the government sending in their spies? More embezzlement maybe?" asked Fukuda. He tried to make his aura look enthused. Suzuki couldn't read tones or facial expressions that well, Shigeko couldn't either, and it probably had something to do with having such a large and sensitive aura. Some might see it as an advantage, and Fukuda's own small and unobtrusive aura as a disadvantage, but at least he could make his aura look any way he wanted to.

He doubted that anyone else in the entire world could have worked Suzuki like this.

"I…" said Suzuki. His eyes glanced down at the letter on his desk. He could have sent anyone in the organization anywhere. In fact he often did that just to test their loyalty. He would send them on pointless missions just to prove that they would still listen to him…and he'd never had to do that with Fukuda. He had been loyal since the very beginning. He could have…but then Fukuda would KNOW.

Nobody could ever know just how badly he had lost control that day…and just how badly he had betrayed Masami.

"Mission details?" asked Fukuda. He tried to seem interested but purely in a work way. That letter…it was partially opened and from what he could tell it was handwritten on both sides. One side Japanese and the other side in Korean…and that looked like a woman's handwriting. It was too neat, too perfect, and the kanji were…he took his eyes away. He could not show too much interest…even though the kanji for Touichirou could be seen plain as day on both sides of that paper.

"No…I mean…" said Suzuki. He could trust Fukuda. He had always been able to trust Fukuda. He was the most loyal man in all of Claw. He would…he would be able to handle discrete business…and this required the utmost discretion. Anyone else, even one of the Awakened, would have taken this information and tried to either use it against him or discredit him to the entire organization…and he could not have that….

But he could trust Fukuda.

The man saw them as friends after all. Suzuki was not above exploiting that. There was a reason that he had never had any friends, that he had never let anyone that close, and it was not only because he was a complete being on his own. He also had enough sense not to let anyone in that close. Not to let anyone truly know him on that level. The level at which he could be manipulated. Yes, he doubted that anyone else in the whole world could have been able to manipulate Fukuda like this.

Poor man.

"I can head out soon if you want. I mean unless you plan on making any more Scars any time soon." Said Fukuda. Eager but not too eager. That was the key. He watched Suzuki. Watched his eyes as they bore holes in that letter. Watched his aura as it flared and hiccupped. Watched the wheels in his head turn. Hopefully they were turning in his favor.

"Yes. There is something you can help me with…but it will require a level of discretion not normally asked of you." Said Suzuki. He felt himself instantly calm down. There. A plan. That was all that he had needed, a plan, and now he had one. He had people and his people could do things for him…even reject women as if he were an adolescent again…but no matter. No matter. Fukuda could handle this.

It was probably nothing, anyway, nothing at all.