Mob knew that time would not move faster just because she was watching the clock.
But she couldn't help it. It was almost her birthday. She was almost ten. Soon, very soon, the clock would strike midnight and she would be ten whole years old. Two whole digits. She would be older. A whole year older! She wouldn't have to share her age with Sho anymore…not that she didn't like sharing with her little brother…but she was older and she didn't much like it when she and Sho were mistaken for twins. They were not twins, they just had close birthdays, and either way she was the older one.
Two minutes to go.
She couldn't wait. Not only would she not have to share her age with Sho anymore, she felt guilty not wanting to share with him, she could finally get all of her questions answered. She sat up and picked up the piece of paper on her bedside table. She did it with her powers so she didn't make any noise. Sho was asleep in the bed across from her. He wasn't pretending, he was doing the little kicks that he did when he slept, and she did not want to wake him up. He'd had a full day of hiding in places with Shimazaki and scaring people…which had not been very nice at all in her opinion. Boys were weird. The weirdest. How was she supposed to understand them? She was older now, well she would be in two minutes, but she didn't think that she would just suddenly understand why boys did the things they did.
She would add that one to the list, why boys were so weird, and then maybe Minegishi would tell her.
Even thought that wasn't one of the questions that Minegishi had promised to answer when Mob was ten. They had been promising since two winters ago to answer these questions, and there were a lot of them, so maybe they were not planning on answering any extra ones. This was a lot of questions and it was very late but Minegishi's aura didn't feel like they were sleeping. It seemed awake and so did Shimazaki's so when the clock turned to midnight she would go and ask her questions.
One more minute.
She was allowed to do over there even though it was nighttime. The rules were no waking Minegishi up, no going through their things, no sneaking around and eavesdropping like a noisy little snoop, and to stay far away when Minegishi and Shimazaki fought. They fought sometimes, Mob could tell by their auras, and one time she had asked about it and Minegishi told her that unless she wanted to have something to describe to a psychologist, that was another word for brain doctor, in ten years then she needed to stay far away from Minegishi when their aura looked like that.
Their aura seemed awake and not in the middle of a fight so it would be ok to go over there.
Dad probably wouldn't have minded, either. He was awake. He had been so busy lately. That was probably why he had been so grumpy and snappish at everyone lately. She hoped that no more traitors were doing bad things to Claw. She didn't understand traitors one bit. Why did they keep on trying to ruin dad's life's work? Why did they want to undermine all of the good things that dad did? Claw was a good place that helped bring espers from all over the world together and also dad was going to use Claw to rule the world and then the world would be a better place because dad would make it a better place.
Minegishi would probably know why traitors did the things that they did.
Their job was to deal with the traitors, they said, though they had refused to tell Mob what specifically happened to traitors. Mob wondered if it was worse than what dad did to people who hid under his desk and jumped out so they could scare him….poor Sho…but he was ok now. Mostly. He wasn't bleeding this time and none of his bones had extra corners. Dad had said that Sho deserved worse and that he was lucky that Fukuda was away on a special mission. That was really weird. Fukuda had to follow them around, that was his job, and Mob couldn't even think of a mission that would take him away from them….but maybe that was why it was a secret mission and not a regular mission. Mob wondered what happened on missions, both secret and regular, but she knew that she would never go on one. Dad had said so. Because her place was by his side. Still, she wondered what missions were all about.
Minegishi would probably know.
They went on missions all the time. They had to put traitors, dissenters, and other people like that in their place, they had said. Mob didn't know what that meant. She was still nine and nine was too young to know what happened, specifically, to traitors. Nine was also too young to know why Minegishi never visited their parents or why they got sick so often or why they drank so much or why they were friends with Shimazaki even if he was a jerk or why…a lot of why's. Nine was too young to know all of those why's.
But ten was old enough!
Midnight! Mob couldn't help it. Her powers picked up everything on her bed from her bedding to her dolls to the socks that she kept on taking off in her sleep and sent it all flying to the ceiling. It didn't make a loud noise because the blanket cushioned most of the banging but she was still afraid that she had woken Sho up….but she hadn't. He kicked and rolled over and said something about hamsters. She wanted to wake him up, part of her did, but that was the stupid part of her and she knew better than to listen to that part. It would be her birthday for the whole rest of the day and Sho could share it with her then. It would be so much fun. Since it was her birthday then Sho would have to play with her for the rest of the day and they would only play things that she wanted.
Like Shoko. She liked that game.
He said that he hated it but he said that he hated a lot of things. If he really hated it then he wouldn't agree to play with her. Birthdays were not legally binding contracts, not like promises, and he could have pushed her down and told her that if she wanted a sister so badly then she should have told dad to pick one up from the orphanage for her. It wasn't that she wanted a sister, if dad had another girl then he might love her less and also to make a sister for her he would have had to do that gross thing with mom and mom was gone and also it was gross, she just wanted another girl to hang out with.
She and Minegishi did girl things together like paint nails and watch TV that wasn't about fighting or explosions or giant robots but that did not mean that Minegishi was a girl.
Mob still had no idea and knew not to ask. She accepted that she wouldn't have another girl to hang out with probably ever because girl espers were super rare, dad had said, and also she didn't even know the rare ones that worked for Claw so unless she put Sho in a dress and pretended that she had a little sister instead of a little brother then she was out of luck. Besides it was only for one day and only for a small part of the day. Sho could at least do one nice thing for her. She did nice things for him all the time…not that it was a contest. You weren't supposed to keep score you were just supposed to do nice things because you were a nice person. Mom had said so.
Did mom remember?
Had mom remembered her birthday? Did she even still care? Where was she? Had she been looking at the clock waiting for Mob to turn ten? She must have cared that it was her own Daughter's birthday. This was the anniversary of the day that Mob had come out of mom's stomach. She came out the usual way, through the belly button, not like Sho who had to be cut out like mom was a fish or something. Maybe she only remembered Sho's birthday, then, because they had to cut her open and move her organs around and then sew her up afterwards so Sho could have been born. But mom must have cared a little bit….right?
These were not the questions to ask.
She had a list of questions that she was planning on asking and it was a long list so she had better not add to it. She should not have been thinking about mom, anyway, because it was her birthday and she could think about whatever she wanted to think about and do whatever she wanted to do and…and it was her day and she did not want to spend it thinking about mom and how she was gone and how she hadn't even said where she was going or goodbye and that made her a traitor and horrible things happened to traitors but she didn't know what those things were so, maybe, they just weren't terrible but she had no way of knowing until she asked.
So she decided to go ask.
She put her things back where they belonged. She should not have lost control like that. Dad would have been so ashamed of her if he had seen. He must have sensed it…but she did not feel him coming to tell her how terrible she had just been. Good. She let out a breath that she hadn't known that she had been holding. Dad would probably have lifted her up by her braids and dragged her around if he had known that she had lost control like that. He was too busy for her, though, he had even said so. He had locked himself in his room because he was busy and he said that if she or Sho bothered him then he would take her birthday away and anything else that they cared about.
Dad was busy and she respected that.
It hurt. It hurt more than getting up and stepping on a lego, dad being too busy for her, but she understood. He was very busy. He was busy with things that she could not begin to understand. She had seen his secret but maybe not she had been snooping after all email. She knew that he did things in Claw that she did not begin to understand and talked to people who called him by his given name and all kinds of other things that were just…weird. Things that she wanted him to tell her about, that she wanted to ask him about, but that she knew she could not ask him about. Not even because he had told her to leave him alone. No, because she had only found out about those things because she had been looking where she was not supposed to look.
Minegishi was right about snooping around. Eventually she would end up finding something that she would wish that she hadn't…and that had been exactly what had happened.
Mob needed to learn to listen when smart people told her that something was a bad idea. Well Minegishi was smart and she would listen to every word that they said. She wondered if she should bring a pencil and paper to take notes. She did have a lot of questions…but then again that might have been weird. She didn't know. She decided to bring her phone with so she could record if she had to. That was less weird. She took her phone from the charger and took care not to disturb Sho's. The screen was already cracked and she didn't want to make it worse. Her screen wasn't cracked but she did sort of want a new phone case for her birthday…a Hello Kitty one this time. The Frozen one was alright but the glitter got everywhere. Dad said that glitter was like cancer because even when you thought that you had gotten rid of it you just ended up finding more later.
She would take care not to get any glitter on Minegishi or any of their stuff.
The walk to the house next to the one she was staying at was short and cold. She maybe should have worn a jacket. May was cold at night back in Japan and also where they were now. They were in the northern hemisphere. She wondered if it was hotter down in the Southern hemisphere….or maybe not because that was their fall. She didn't know. She would ask Minegishi if there was time. She didn't know how many questions they would answer. It was late and maybe they would be going to bed soon.
It didn't sound like they planned on going to be any time soon.
The only light that was on, when she let herself into Minegishi's house, was the light of the TV. It was softly playing….ooh! She knew that movie! About the witch and the cat and she could fly but then she couldn't but then she could and also she should have married the guy with the glasses but she didn't but it was still an ok movie. She sort of wanted to watch…but she didn't. She didn't have anywhere to sit, first of all. Shibata was sleeping on the couch and there was an upside bowl of what smelled like chicken flavored ramen on the ground in front of him. Second of all she would have had to put the subtitles on because he snored like a chainsaw and she did not want to watch Japanese subtitles on something that was already Japanese. Third of all she had a mission to accomplish.
She was finally ten and she was going to get her questions answered.
She walked down the short hallway and saw that Minegishi's light was on. There was music playing, loud music, and also loud talking. It smelled weird too. Like the time that Sho had tried to pick up that skunk even though she had warned him so many times not to because the skunk didn't like that but then he didn't listen and she had to give him a bunch of tomato sauce baths…only without the tomato sauce. Poor Minegishi…but Shimazaki was there too, she could hear his voice and see his aura, and picking up skunks seemed like something that he would do. He was always bothering people for the sake of bothering them.
Dad said that he most likely had an impulse control disorder…or he was just a jerk.
But that was not the way to be thinking about people. Even people she didn't much like. Especially blind people. You weren't supposed to be mean to blind people even if they were jerks that stole the pudding cup out of your hand and told your brother that it was ok to jump out and scare people and also called your best friend by their given name even though they hated that…for reasons Mob could not understand. She would asked Minegishi that, too, why they hated being called Toshiki and Toshi. They had so many things that they wanted to ask-
-and now she had no choice but to ask them.
"See, Toshi? I told-told you that I felt her getting closer." Said Shimazaki. His hand was on her shoulder. She put up a barrier quick out of instinct. She had let her guard down, dad said never to do that, and now she knew why. That had been…not good. The floor had been gone and the world had been gone but then it had been back….and he should have asked her before he did that! You were also supposed to say hi or hello or something when you saw someone you knew! And Minegishi did not like to be called Toshi!
And it smelled really weird in there….not good but…not bad enough to make her want to leave.
The room was hazy…smoky. The room was smoky and for a moment she thinks that there's a fire but then she sees the cigarette in Minegishi's hand. Oh. They were just smoking in there. Dad said that smoking was a filthy habit. He said that smoking made you smell bad and your clothes smell bad and also it gave you cancer and a bunch of other stuff…
Minegishi was so smart, they read very big books, so why were they smoking?
"Mob, go home." Said Minegishi. It took them a moment to say that. They had been mid smoke when Mob had been teleported in. While they said that a whole bunch of smoke, more than Mob could have even thought could fit inside of a person, came out of their mouth. They coughed, too, and Mob immediately handed them a two liter of orange soda that had been on the ground.
They drank about half of it.
Mob was impressed. The only person that could drink soda that fast was Sho but he only drank cola. Orange soda would have killed him. Lemon-lime too. Also the plain soda that dad drank sometimes, the sparkling water, but that was out of how boring it tasted and not out of Sho's citrus allergy. Mob hadn't even known that Minegishi liked soda that much. They must have, the floor was littered with empty bottles, and also there was a pizza box and some empty fried chicken buckets and a pile of apple cores and also cookies and chips and…
And she would have liked to have been invited to the junk food party. It was her birthday after all.
"Mob, go home." Said Shimazaki. Then he laughed even though Mob had no idea what was so funny. Then Minegishi laughed too so Mob realized that she was just being clueless again. She had trouble with humor sometimes. Sho just said that she was weird…though she had no idea why he wanted to watch compilations of people falling down. All she could think about when she saw things likes that was how hurt those people must have been. She didn't get it. Like now she didn't get it. What was so funny about telling her to go home.
"Shimazaki go home." Said Minegishi. Then they laughed some more. They hit Shimazaki over the head with the half full bottle of soda. Shimazaki didn't teleport out of the way even though Mob expected him to. That was what he always did. He just let himself get hit over and over again and he just laughed.
Adults were weird sometimes.
"Toshi, go home." Said Shimazaki. This time he hit Minegishi over the head, but not hard, just enough to mess their hair up…more than it was already. It was always weird seeing Minegishi dressed for bed. They usually dressed nice, lots of pretty colors and shirts with buttons which Mob understood to be very fancy, but now they were just in a very big T-shirt that said something in Korean that she couldn't read and sweatpants with vines on them. The colors didn't match. It was weird. Almost as weird as Minegishi letting Shimazaki call them Toshi.
"Ryou, go home." Said Minegishi. The tried to hit Shimazaki over the head with the soda again but Shimazaki batted it away. It ended up at Mob's feet. They didn't seem to notice. Shimazaki had their wrist in his hand and he was looking at them and they were looking at him and…and Mob knew that she was clueless but she felt like this was one of those things that she was not supposed to see. Like when they kissed, but just for fun, or when they cuddled and listened to things on the couch, just for comfort.
She didn't want to go so she picked up the half full bottle of soda and set it down in front of Minegishi.
"Thanks for the soda. Now go home." Said Minegishi. The passed the cigarette over to Shimazaki. Mob wondered why they didn't just start two cigarettes. She had seen them, they were sold in boxes, but maybe that was their last one. Mob also wondered if she should have brought something to use as an ashtray too, like they had in the Claw smoking room, because Shimazaki had just ashed right there on the bed.
How rude.
"It's my birthday." Said Mob. She pointed to the clock. Minegishi looked at it, looked at her, then repeated that action several times. While this was happened Shimazaki started singing even though it was not time to sing her happy birthday…and also that was not at all how happy birthday went.
"Today is your birthday, nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh, it's my birthday too! Nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh! Today is your-" said Shimazaki. He was sitting on Minegishi bed now with his legs crossed and she could see that he had tattoos up and down his arms and legs and they went into his undershirt and she had never seen anyone with tattoos before…and also he had a lot more muscle that she had ever thought that he did…not that she ever thought about him like that, not fully dressed, and not that she was thinking about it now either! Mob looked away from him…because he was kind of a jerk a lot of the time. That was it. Not because she was getting a weird sort of feeling looking at him sitting there in gym shorts and an undershirt. That was weird. Those were the sorts of feelings that she got when she liked someone and she did not, could not, and would not ever like Shimazaki.
She'd have to go to the jungle and live with the chimps like the chimp lady in the documentary that Sho liked if that ever happened.
"That's not how you sing happy birthday." Said Mob. She omitted the fact that she knew why he didn't know the words to happy birthday, it was because the only people who would celebrate his birthday were his parents. That would have been a mean thing to say…but calling Minegishi Toshi was already mean….but that was also a mean thing to think and she was not supposed to be mean.
"She's right, you know." Choked out Minegishi. The cigarette had been passed to them, now, and Mob wondered why they were smoking something that didn't smell good and made you hack up your lungs. She didn't ask, though, because that was not on her list of questions.
"Well I wasn't singing happy birthday. You're both bad at music." Said Shimazaki. Mob frowned. She was not bad at music. If anything he was. She may not have known ever song ever made but she at least didn't go around singing just to annoy people. In fact she actively tried not to be annoying.
"You're bad at smoking. Pass it back already." Said Minegishi. They kicked Shimazaki and Mob wanted to tell them that they shouldn't fight, even though she could totally understand why someone would have wanted to kick Shimazaki, because she didn't want them to tell her to go away again.
"I, for your information, am savoring it. If anything you're bad at this. I can feel it canoeing." Said Shimazaki. Mob was confused until she saw that the cigarette was split down the middle like a canoe. Oh. That made sense. Maybe now they could give it a rest. She wondered if they had been drinking. Minegishi had said, once, that Mob would never see them truly drunk because when they were drunk they acted like an idiot. Shimazaki even more so. That would have made sense…and also she would have liked to have been invited, too, since it was her birthday….but that was ok. People had lives outside of her. Even her best friend in the whole world who was not her little brother.
"For your information I am going to kick your ass out of here if you don't share. Come on, I grew it so I should at least get to enjoy it." Said Minegishi. Shimazaki sighed and passed the cigarette back. Well he made it hallway across the bed before he passed it to Mob.
Oh.
Dad had said that smoking was a dirty habit…but he also said that about drinking. Also about nose picking, chewing gum, nail biting, toenail biting which actually was pretty gross and Sho was gross for doing it, eating ice cream straight from the carton, drinking milk straight from the jug, drinking ketchup when you ran out of fries, eating in bed, making mazes for ants and then bringing them inside the house, eating slice of ham out of the fridge, picking eye goo out, sharing hairbrushes with Sho, eating cold soup from the can, petting dogs, blowing your nose and then leaving the tissue in your pocket because there's still dry parts, wearing shoes in the house, not wearing socks in the house, wearing the same clothes two days in a row, licking pudding clean, sharing lollipops with your little brother, and playing in the dirt.
Probably some other stuff, too, that she had missed.
"Ryou, don't ruin her life…more than I have." Said Minegishi. Mob hated it when Minegishi said that they were ruining her life. Mob was ten now and she could decide if she was ruining her life or not…so she took the cigarette from Shimazaki.
"I am not ruining her life any more than you have. At least this way she won't end up with psoriasis of the liver by the time she's your age." Said Shimazaki. Mob didn't know what psoriasis of the liver was but she did know that this was sharing germs. She didn't mind sharing germs with Minegishi but she did mind sharing them with Shimazaki. Maybe she should have given it back.
"Mob, give me that and then go home. You are way too young to be here." Said Minegishi. Well that was the thing, she was not too young now, because she was ten. She had been hearing since she was eight about how she was too young to know things and do things…and she was tired of hearing that from Minegishi. They were friends and one friend did not tell another friend that they were too young for something that they themselves enjoyed.
That was siblings. Not friends.
Mob inhaled…and then coughed. She coughed so hard that she saw bright things dancing in her vision. She coughed so hard that her throat felt all raw like she had drank a bunch of the stuff that Minegishi kept in their drawers. She felt the cigarette being taken from her hand and then someone was hitting her on the back. She smelled…well she smelled smoking but also dirt and flowery shampoo. She opened her eyes. Minegishi was stretched over her and hitting her on the back.
"See? This is why I told you not to. Maybe next time you'll listen to me." Said Minegishi. They finished patting Mob on the back when she finished coughing. She did not understand the appeal of that but…but she also did not like Minegishi telling her what was and was not good for her. She was not a little kid anymore, she was ten, and nobody but Minegishi treated her like a little kid. She had met Minegishi when she had been eight and it seemed like, in their mind, Mob was frozen at the age of eight or something.
She wasn't eight. She was ten.
"I didn't mind that much. I don't mind cigarettes that much at all." said Mob. She didn't know what was so funny about that. She didn't think that she had said anything funny or in a funny way but for some reason she was being laughed at now…and she didn't much want to be.
"Kid, you just smoked-" said Shimazaki
"A cigarette. A harmless, homemade, cigarette. So that's what you're going to say if you ever regale someone with tales of this night. We let you smoke a harmless cigarette." Said Minegishi. They were being serious, they were making a lot of eye contact, and Mob tried to make it back and also not smile at their lack of eyebrows…which was mean and she should not have had the urge to do in the first place.
"Cigarettes cause cancer, heart disease, emphysema, stroke, high blood pressure, low birth weight, birth defects, erectile dysfunction, cataracts, glaucoma-" said Shimazaki. He was leaning back now and listing things as he held up his fingers. Mob wondered if she should have been taking notes, that sounded like a lot of bad stuff to remember, but she couldn't move her arms because Minegishi was still holding on to her. They had stopped making so much eye contact, though, because they were shaking their head. Mob had never noticed how shiny and purple their hair was. She wanted to touch it.
She bet that it would feel shiny and purple.
"Thank you so much, Health Minister Ryou. Always a joy to hear from you." Said Minegishi
"Am I going to die?" asked Mob. What if she died? How would she explain it to dad if she died? He would be so mad at her…and probably Sho too because he was always mad at Sho…and she did not want him to be mad at Sho and-
"No, no are not going to die just…stop freaking out." Said Minegishi
"Cancer, heart disease, emphysema, stroke, high blood pressure, low birth weight, birth defects, erectile dysfunction, cataracts, glaucoma-" said Shimazaki. Minegishi let go of Mob and slapped him upside the head loud enough for there to be a sound…and that just made her feel worse because-
"Shut your mouth for once in your life. Can't you see she's freaking out?" asked Minegishi
"Well then calm her down." Said Shimzaki with a shrug. Mob was being pulled forward until she climbed up on the bed. She knew that she and Minegishi were not the sort of friends who hugged but this…this was nice. Just being pressed up against their side…they were so warm and their shirt was so soft….
"I'm thinking." Said Minegishi. Their eyes went between their drawers and the cigarette in their hand a few times before settling on their cigarette. They passed it to Mob with a sign.
"Be sure to write me from rehab, Mob." Said Minegishi. Mob nodded. She didn't know what rehab was but she would gladly write Minegishi all the letters that they wanted. Even though she had never written or received a letter before because she was ten and had a phone and letters were more for people who were dad's age. She didn't say that, though, because she was happy now. Being included felt so good that she forgot all the bad feelings that she had. She actually hadn't liked this very much at all but she hadn't totally hated it…and also she was ten and not a kid and she was going to do what adults did because she was ten now.
She inhaled again.
"Tell her to hold it in. She's not going to listen to me. I think she hates me." Said Shimazaki. That wasn't true. She wanted to tell him that it wasn't' true. She didn't hate him, she just really disliked him and wished that he was a better person, which was not at all the same thing at all. She didn't say anything, though, because she was going to listen to his advice since he knew what he was doing…even if he was a jerk.
A great big jerk.
"Mob, don't hold it in for too long. I don't know how I would explain this to the healer if you passed out from lack of oxygen." Said Minegishi. Mob exhaled as soon as they said that. Fukuda wasn't around. For the first time in her life she would be in real trouble if she got hurt. Thankfully Minegishi looked out for her and stuff. How someone as nice as them could have been friends with, and even for fun kissed, someone like Shimazaki was something that she would never understand.
Unless she asked.
"How did you become friends with Shimazaki?" asked Mob. She maybe should not have interrupted. The cigarette was back to Minegishi. Shimazaki was saying about coke next. Mob hoped it was the orange kind. Citrus was the forbidden fruit in her family.
"Why-why do you need to know?" asked Minegishi between coughs. Mob handed them the orange soda and they drank the last of it really fast. Mob tried to pick up another one from on the floor with her powers but she just made it roll around a lot. Smoking cigarettes made her powers not work too. Good to know for the future.
"It's on my list of questions that you said you'd answer when I turned ten. See? Here." Said Mob. She handed them the piece of paper from her nightgown pocket. She liked this one. It was so long and soft and also it had Princess Aurora on the front who may have had a boring movie, even she'd had trouble keeping her eyes opened through that one, but she sure had a nice nightgown.
"Right…well you really fucked up this time didn't you, Toshi?" muttered Minegishi as they read through the paper. Mob had written it all in Japanese so as not to make any mistakes. She hoped that she had done it right. She hoped that she hadn't done anything to make Minegishi think that they had fu-messed up.
"Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh. Fascinating. It sounds, feels, and smells like a piece of paper. Therefore I deduce that it's a treasure map. Come on, I'll get the shovels and-" said Shimazaki. Mob reached over and patted him on the hand. Even if he was a jerk it must have been hard being blind. He didn't get to read manga or watch movies. Also getting dressed in the morning must have been hard. Maybe that was why he wore so much black. She wished that she could have written him a list of questions, too, but she couldn't because she didn't know brail and also that would have been rude. She wanted to know, though, how he did things like cook and clean and get dressed and brush his hair and know when he was done washing his hands and stuff if he was blind and why he had all of those tattoos if he couldn't even see them…but it was also none of her business and also it was rude to point out people's differences. Mom had taught her that…and then she had left…like a mean jer-not the way to be thinking about her mother at all. She had to think nice thoughts. Always nice thoughts.
"No. We are not staying up all night digging holes again. That was the last time I ever-" said Minegishi. Their eyes went from the paper and then to Mob.
"Stay up all night digging holes for reasons that to do with…what we were doing that night." Said Minegishi. They looked at Shimazaki when they said that. Shimazaki just put their hands up like you did when you surrendered. Minegishi took his surrender…though she had no idea what he was surrendering from.
"That isn't a treasure map….sorry. It's a list of questions for Minegishi. I don't know where there's any buried treasure but if you want I could bury some money and then tell you where to find it." Said Mob
"Sounds fun. Ok, you get the money and I'll get the shovels and-" said Shimazaki. He looked funny there and Mob laughed…and laughed…and laughed…even though she had no idea what she was even laughing at. He hadn't been THAT funny but she just could not stop laughing.
"Yeah, that's enough for you tonight." Said Minegishi. They took the cigarette and put it out on their side table. Mob was so getting them an ashtray for their birthday.
"It looks like a baby cigarette." Said Mob. Then she laughed some more. Shimazaki said something about her being gone but that made no sense. She was right there. She hadn't gone anyplace at all.
"It's called a roach. Always save those so you can-" said Shimazaki. He stopped talking after Minegishi hit him over the head again. Mob covered her mouth so she didn't laugh…even though people getting hurt was not funny at all and she should not have been laughing…and also her sleeve felt really good on her face…how had she not noticed this before?
"Ryou! Are you trying to ruin her life?" asked Minegishi
"No, I'm trying to improve it beyond measure…and also I'm trying to put a middle of the night treasure hunt together."
"Shimazaki if you want to go outside in the cold and dig holes all night that's all you." Said Minegishi. They reached down and pulled up another bottle of soda and handed it to Mob. She would have preferred strawberry milk but this was good. She had never been this thirsty in her life and….what BRAND was THIS!? This was the best soda that she'd ever HAD! Where had this been all her life?!
Being ten was the best.
"It's not any fun if I'm alone. With you two it's a fun social activity. On my own I'm just digging holes." Said Shimazaki. Mob didn't understand him but that was because he was a boy and, apparently, boys never grew out of weird stuff. Maybe that what 'boys will be boys' meant…but then shouldn't it have been 'grown men with tattoos and muscles and hair on their arms and legs and chests would be boys'? Actually that didn't sound right at all…and it would come to her…it always came to her…..well usually…
Her toes felt weird in her socks.
"Then, and here comes a thought, don't dig any holes." Said Minegishi. They were smiling even though they sounded like they would not have been. Their aura was happy too…at least Mob thought that it was. Right now her aura was trying to cover her like a blanket. It was an effort, a real effort, to get it to move at all.
"I didn't even hide anything yet." Said Mob. Well she knew what she would do for his birthday…even if he was a jerk…but a funny jerk. Just in the way that he said things and he moved and…and stuff. Also she knew that she was not supposed to stare but he had a lot of tattoos and they were so pretty. There was a dragon wrapped around…oh. That was a naked lady…ok. That was…ok. There was also on his back what looked like part of a samurai with a sword…and she was going to hope that the samurai was wearing clothes…and there was the symbol for Claw on his leg…and also for some reason he had gotten the words chicken fried rice tattooed on his leg right above the hem of his shorts…
Which was probably just someone playing a prank on him. That wasn't as nice as the other ones. The stroke order was bad.
"Well then I'm bored. Minegishi, grow more we-" said Shimazaki. Minegishi interrupted them, which had been rude, but was also good because Mob had been about to interrupt and ask why he had the kanji for chicken fried rice tattooed on his leg. It was either a mean prank and he didn't know it was there or he just…really liked chicken fried rice.
Mob could have gone for some chicken fried rice.
Also some pork miso and fried dumplings and fried tofu and fried fish and fried chicken and a fried ice cream cone and a fried churro and a fried corndog and a fried snickers and a regular snickers and a kitkat and a green tea mochi and a custard mochi and a strawberry mochi and a cookies and cream mochi and cookies and warm cream and warm milk and cold milk and cold chocolate milk and cold strawberry milk and chocolate covered strawberries and strawberries dipped in caramel and caramel apples and apple pie and turtle pie and turtle soup and soup buns and meat buns and custard buns-
-but not chocolate custard buns like Sho liked because that would have been just too rich.
"I am not growing anymore…tobacco for cigarettes. I've had enough, she's had enough, and you won't admit it but you've had enough too." Said Minegishi. They pulled Mob close and ran a hand through her hair…and that felt so GOOD! No wonder cats and dogs like this so much!
"No such thing as enough…for me. The kid's aura is all over the place. Aww…she's like a little angel. A stoned little-" said Shimazaki
"What's stoned?" asked Mob. She wiggled her feet in her socks. So nice…the most nice. This was the best part of socks that had ever existed. Her green ones that looked like a mermaid tail. So pretty too…sparkly….glittery. Why did she have so much glitter on everything she owned? Her socks and shoes and dresses and nightgowns and night shirts and undershirts and underwear and jackets and coats and phone jackets….cases and her tablet case and the rubber thing on her Wiimote to make gripping easier so it didn't end up breaking through the TV like Sho had done that one time which had been scary but also kind of neat because the sparks had looked like glitter and she liked glitter and why did she like glitter so much and-
Because glitter made everything better.
Also what did stoned mean?
"Nothing. He's speaking nonsense…and he was just on his way to bed. His own bed. His own bed in his own room where he will sleep and only sleep." Said Minegishi. They did the thing where they made a lot of eye contact only they did it to Shimazaki this time…even though his eyes were closed like they always were. She wondered why Minegishi bothered if he couldn't even seen them.
"Or, and hear me out. Since we're already getting kids fucked up I have some left over coke-" said Shimazaki. He didn't get far before Minegishi threw a pillow at him.
"What the fuck is even…what happens in your mind where you think giving a nine year old KID coke is even an idea let alone a GOOD one?" said Minegishi. They said that low and slow like dad did when someone failed them. Mob didn't get why. Maybe they just only liked orange soda. That would have made sense considering how much orange soda was everywhere.
"I'm not nine, I'm ten, and I like coke. I like vanilla coke and orange coke but not lime coke or peach coke…but I also like cherry coke but the kind where you put the cherry sauce in yourself and also the cherries from the jar. That's what I like." Said Mob. She didn't know what she had said that time but now she was being laughed at again…which was making her laugh…because laugher was infections. She had heard that before. Laugher was infectious like that disease from the movie she and Sho had seen. The one that makes you into a zombie….
Zombies aren't real. Even though she's ten she reminds herself that zombies are not real.
"You heard the birthday girl, Ryou. Go out and get her some vanilla, orange, and classic coke. Pick up some grenadine too and make her a Roy Rogers while you're at it." Said Minegishi. Mob didn't like putting people to work but…it was her birthday and she was thirsty and she wanted soda and on her birthday she could ask for whatever she wanted.
"Fine, I'll wake an Awakened and-" said Shimazaki
"Nope. Do it yourself. You started this and you're going to end it." Said Minegishi
"Where am I even supposed to get coke at this hour? It's four in the morning!" said Shimazaki
"It's one twenty nine in the morning." Said Mob as she read Minegishi's clock. They didn't like using their phone as an alarm. Adults were weird like that. Well they were weird in a lot of ways. She could have filled a book with all of the weirdness that she had seen from the adults around her. Like an explorer's log or something like that…not that she wanted to get started on her explorer's log right then and there. She was too busy feeling her feet in her socks and her arms in her sleeves and her tongue against her teeth and her side pressed up against Minegishi's.
"You heard the birthday girl, get to it." Said Minegishi
"Where am I supposed to even get coke?" asked Shimazaki
"The store? I mean there are stores….things come from stores. Before they go to the stores they come from the factory. Things are made in factories. Factories are run by people. People are made by other people. It's gross." Said Mob. She had said words and she thought that they were the right ones…well there was laughter so at least she had made people happy.
"You heard her. Either buy it, steal, find it, or make it yourself. Just get the hell out of here." Said Minegishi
"Stealing is wrong…" said Mob. She didn't want to get anyone in trouble, even him, and also stealing was wrong even if you didn't get caught…but bad things happened to you when you got caught…
"So is letting you down on your birthday, Mob. Ryou, now." Said Minegishi. Mob had never noticed how expressive he was before, Shimazaki, and she wondered how he knew how to have expressions if he had never seen anyone have expressions. She didn't have a lot of expressions and there were some that other people had that she didn't understand. She wondered why that was. She wondered why she was. Was she just here because dad had needed a daughter? Or was there another reason? Why was anyone there? Why was she Suzuki Shigeko? She could have been born into another family…and that would have been awful because then she never would have had a dad who was dad or a little brother who was Sho.
Also she never would have made as good a friend as Minegishi.
"Fine…but you know that I'm blind, right? The labels aren't in brail and all the soda smells the same, like plastic, because it's in plastic bottles." Said Shimazaki
"Well then you'll have to make a few trips. You'd better get started now." Said Minegishi. They waved 'bye'bye' and Shimazaki. He stuck out his tongue, dad said that sticking your tongue out was a filthy habit' and then he left.
Mob kept moving her toes in her socks.
She would never get tired of this. How had she now known how good this felt? She needed to do this more often. This was the best. Being on this bed was the best. She bounced on it a little. Good for jumping…not that she was planning on jumping any time soon. She was just going to sit there and be happy and enjoy being ten. Being ten was the best.
"So you came here in the middle of the night just to ask me questions?" asked Minegishi. They were touching her hair again. She closed her eyes and nodded.
"You promised that you would answer then when I turned ten. I just turned ten tonight at midnight." Said Mob
"Uh-huh. So you were born at midnight exactly?" asked Minegishi
"Um….I don't know. I can't remember. I was a baby, back then, and I was too little to remember things like what time the clock said when I was born…and also I don't think that I knew how to tell time back then. They taught me that when I was really little but not a baby." Said Mob
"Fair enough." Said Minegishi. Mob knew what that meant. It meant that there was no more argument left. Dad said that when she said something that made sense but he did not all the way agree with. She didn't know how she felt about winning against an adult…not that she had even been sure that they were arguing…or discussing as dad called it…
"So will you tell me the answers to my questions? How did you meet Shimazaki? I mean I know you met at work but what was it like? What did he say? What did you say? When did you decide to kiss him? How can you kiss someone without being in love? Have you ever been in love? What's being in love feel like? What does kissing feel like when you're all grown up? Why do you want to kiss him of all people? Why do you-" said Mob
"Mob…what is the obsession with me and Shimazaki? He's barely even a friend, you know, and I met him at work. There's nothing more to the story than that. He was annoying but we had to work together and then we ended up working together a lot and then at some point we felt like kissing. That's the whole of it." Said Minegishi. Mob wished that she had recorded that. She was still very distracted by the feel of her toes in her socks…and it was so weird being able to move them without seeing them…and they were so weird in general. Like fingers for her feet. Feet fingers.
Did that mean that fingers were hand toes?
And what about Mr. McGregg, the man with a leg for an arm and a-an arm for a leg?
"….thirstiest ten year old I have ever met. And I can say that now, you know, because I can tell that you're not paying an ounce of attention to me." Said Minegishi
"I-I am. Thirsty, I mean. Very thirsty. My tongue is sticking to my teeth….it feels kind of nice…everything feels kind of nice…I can see why adult smoke all the time. This is so nice…not a bad thing at all. Dad thinks everything is a bad thing. He won't even wear pajamas. He sleeps in his suit. I don't know why." Said Mob softly. She was so comfortable. She never wanted to move from that spot. Not for as long as she would live…well she would have to go to the bathroom eventually…or maybe now. Or maybe she just thought that she had to go to the bathroom now because she had thought about it. Still was thinking about it….
"Your dad is a weirdo, Mob, I hate to say it but he is a grade 'A' weirdo." Said Minegishi. Mob knew that it was a mean thing to say but it was also a true thing to say. Dad could be a real weirdo sometimes…a lot of the times….all of the times.
"He can be kind of weird sometimes I admit…" said Mob
"Yes, he can be, and also kind of violent. Towards everyone." Said Minegishi
"I know. He was mad at Sho today about-" said Mob
"Which is why you can't tell him or anyone about this, ok? You are a kid and you are not supposed to do this…even though I would be a hypocrite if a tried to stop you and your life sucks almost as much as mine did….your dad would kill me, alright, if this got back to him. Ten is still a kid and regardless about how I feel you're too young to smoke." Said Minegishi
"Oh…ok. It's a secret. I can keep those. Like how dad is afraid of Borrowers, the little people who live in the walls, or like how Sho wets the bed a lot even though he's nine…and also um….oh! Fukuda is away on a secret mission." Said Mob
"You're not really inspiring confidence here, Mob…wait. What? What do you mean Fukuda, our only healer, is away? What kind of 'secret mission' could he possibly even be on?" asked Minegishi. Mob shrugged.
"I don't know but I know that whatever is happening dad is upset…but not at us! Don't worry. I won't tell me dad….I promise…and also I think that I have to go to the bathroom but I'm not sure because I only thought about going to the bathroom because I realized that I might have had to go to the bathroom but then I really had to go to the bathroom and-" said Mob. Minegishi let go of her and gave her a light shove on the back.
"Mob, go take a piss already. If you wet my bed then we're trading. I'm serious. I will go into you room and steal your mattress and replace it with this one." said Minegishi. Mob did what she was told. She didn't think that this mattress had a protector on it, it didn't feel like it, and also she didn't want to make her friend mad.
It had been such a good birthday.
And it had gotten better, too, when she came back from the bathroom. She had gotten distracted washing her hands, the sound of the water and the feel of it on her skin was nice, but she did eventually find Minegishi's room again…which was full of soda pop….which she knew that she was not supposed to drink at night but she didn't care.
This was the best birthday ever and it was only two in the morning.