It was a girl.
"So, yeah. This is…she gave me the…the baby and told me to tell you that…well she said…" said Fukuda. He didn't know how much longer he had to live. He had done what he had been told to do. Showed up, spoke to Pang Sujin, and accepted what she had to give him. He had done what he was told and he knew that, logically, he had done nothing worth being punished for.
But this was a situation which defied any and all known forms of logic.
He had hardly set one foot in Bussan when a baby was handed to him. Pang Sujin. He knew her…of her. She worked in finance. She had used up all of her maternity, vacation, and sick time in having her baby. She had to go back or she would be considered a traitor. It wasn't a personal thing she had just been gone for too long. She had been trying to figure out what to do with her Daughter. Her parents wanted nothing to do with her due to the fact that she was an unwed mother. She couldn't run or hide because she knew people would come after her. She couldn't raise the child either. She couldn't openly have a red haired, blue eyed, baby girl while she worked for Claw.
Even Shimazaki would have been able to see the resemblance.
So she had decided to give her Daughter the best possible life. She had decided to give her Daughter to…to…to the father. To Suzuki. The fact that Suzuki had managed to even find a woman willing to have his child, no offense to Masami he knew the story there, but also that she would have thought that being raised by Suzuki Touichirou was the best possible life for said child….it defied all logic.
Suzuki Touichirou was anything but father of the year.
He had already ruined two kids. Shigeko was a smaller version of him and Sho…Sho may have needed professional help. Those kids…Suzuki already barely took care of those kids. Now he had another kid. How could he have betrayed Masami like that? Then, paradoxically, good for Masami because he'd finally moved on. He'd found another woman to emotionally and physically neglect which meant that he would call of his search for Masami, which was good, but he had also betrayed Masami, which was bad. Of course that was a whole pot and kettle thing. But still! He had no business going around…well it was good for Masami that he was going around….but also Masami would have been devastated if her husband had gotten another woman pregnant while they had been together…but one again pot and kettle…
Logic had no place in Fukuda's mind at the moment.
"Yes?" asked Suzuki. Something was said…what was it? He didn't know and he didn't care. There was a human being in his arms. There was a small sleeping human being in his arms. There was a small sleeping red haired human being in his arms. There was a small, sleeping, red haired human being with a red aura in his arms….
What.
"Pang said that…that the baby was better off with you. That you could give her a better life. She said…oh God…that you already had your own kids and also…also she had thought that…well she said that she's sent you numerous messages outlining how she feels." Said Fukuda. Apparently that woman had been AATRACTED to SUZUKI of all people. Claw was mostly men. Most espers were men. She could have had her pick of anyone but instead she went with Suzuki of all people. Not even for reasons that would have made sense. She said that she knew how it looked but she had never been after money or power. She had just liked talking to him. He could be cute and funny. Those were the two words that she had applied to the man standing right in front of him with the thousand yard stare and the unreadable aura.
Cute. Funny.
Fukuda had asked, before, why Masami had even bothered with Suzuki. Why she had ever married the man in the first place. It was because he had been good looking, his weirdness had been endearing, and Sho had come along. So history repeated itself. Or not. Suzuki had left this woman, the mother of his…oh god…child. He had been the one to leave this time.
The world had another Suzuki in it now.
"How…" said Suzuki. He was fading in and out. There was a baby in his arms. There was a baby right there in his arms. There was a small baby in his arms. There was a small round faced baby in his arm. The baby had a round face and red hair and long fingers and was…was so small….so small and…
And Fukuda was speaking to him.
He couldn't hear a word Fukuda said. He was…the baby was breathing. This was a live human baby. It was breathing. The baby was drawing air into it's lungs. This was a live human baby. This was a live human baby sleeping in his arms. Not a doll. This was a baby of flesh and blood, not hard and cold plastic, and it was there in his arms.
A baby.
"….said she missed you. Said that she didn't want anything from you that you wouldn't give." Said Fukuda. If this woman had any sense she would have left her child in one of those baby boxes and then pretended that she'd never had it. That was the only way that this child had even a chance at a good life. If she had nothing to do with Claw. If she had nothing to do with Suzuki.
Suzuki.
He was taking this well. He had decided to come straight back from Korea. Usually post mission briefings happened in the base. Well this needed discretion. This baby…she had a target painted on her and she was too young to know it. Nobody could know about this. Nobody did know about this. Pang Sujin had told everyone she had lost the child. This little girl…she could so easily disappear. She wasn't stuck in this. She could have been left on any doorstep, in any garden, on the steps of any church…hell, they could have just sent her down the river in a fucking basket!
Suzuki was not going to keep this baby.
He hated kids. He hated kids and he hated babies, too, because they had needs and Suzuki didn't know how to fulfill any needs at all besides physical ones. Suzuki…he could not keep this baby. What was he even going to do with it? Let someone else raise it? Emotionally abandon it before it could walk? Make it feel like a third class citizen compared to his REAL Daughter? Put it through the Awakening process so that he could have a child worthy of him?
He didn't know.
"This…this is a baby." Said Suzuki finally. He knew that he had to say something. He was being spoken to and he had to say something back. That was basic manners. But he was Suzuki Touichirou. He didn't need to follow and rules. He made rules. He was the most powerful and most complete being in the world. He could have stayed silent. Maybe he should have stayed silent. But he had to speak. If he didn't speak then he knew that he would never come out of…whatever it was that he was caught in. He felt there, stuck, staring at this little person in his arm.
"Yes, that's a baby." Said Fukuda. They had known each other for thirty years just about. He had never seen Suzuki like this. Not even when Sho was born. This was…he did not know what to make of the expression on his face or the look of his aura. Tense. There was a tension running throughout his body…
Thank God that the baby was too young to feel auras.
There was a slight aura to her but Sho had been the same way when he was born. He hoped to God that this was not another Sho. He could not allow…could not sit back and watch…he could not let another child go through the Awakening process. But that was the kind of man Suzuki Touichirou was. He was no kind of father. Fukuda doubted he even knew where his children were right now. Their auras were gone. Far away, then, since he could not sense Shigeko's aura. Good.
He had time, then, to figure out what to do with this baby.
"This is a female baby." Said Suzuki. She was wrapped in a pink blanket. There was a pink cap on her head. Her face had these dry red patches…eczema. Son had suffered from it too after he was born. This was…a girl. A…this was a baby girl. There, in his arms, was a baby girl.
"It is." Said Fukuda. He, for once in his life, didn't know what to do. He had thought about just…disappearing with the child at some point in transit. Just putting the baby in a basket and leaving her on someone's doorstep…but that could have meant certain death for him. Suzuki would, at some point, get a message asking after his daughter…and not Shigeko. Then Fukuda would die and if he was dead he would be no use to anyone. Especially not Sho. Sho…he needed him. So disappearing WITH the baby was out of the question too.
Suzuki should not have had that baby.
"This is an esper baby." Said Suzuki. There. An aura. Barely there but…yes. Son's had been the same way when he had been born. Son…he had held Son in his arms like this nine years and some months ago. He had felt…good. Good. He had felt good when son had been placed in his arms for the first time. When Masami had allowed him to hold Son. He had been so small then, and he had smelled different, and he had been screaming…a fighter even back then…and Suzuki had felt a sort of…kinship…with Son that he had never felt with another human being in his entire life.
The baby was not making him feel that.
This baby with it's red hair and red aura. This baby who had come from…he didn't even want to think her name. She was…she had…they had…and now this. Now there was a baby in the world. He had made a human being. Of course he had made a human being. That tended to happen when one ejaculated inside of a woman. In fact that was the basic way all human came into the world. He had made a human because he had fallen to his own need for…and not even a real need! Sex was not a need! It was just something that he…he had enjoyed…and now there was a human in the world because he couldn't keep his pants on or his hands to himself or his aura to himself or his genes to himself then…then he wouldn't have had…
This was a human being.
"She sure is…" said Fukuda. He could see the wheels in Suzuki's head turning and nothing good ever came from that. Suzuki Touichirou thinking. The last time that he had been that deep in thought he had put thousands upon thousands upon thousands of yen into figuring out how to make the perfect omelet. The logistics of space trains. What the exact shade of blue his suit was…Fukuda hadn't seen obsessive Suzuki in a while…
Obsessive Suzuki was the worst kind of Suzuki.
Obsessive Suzuki was worse than tyrant Suzuki and disaffected Suzuki and half assed under parenting Suzuki and half assed over parenting Suzuki and the rare, very rare, drunken Suzuki. The only Suzuki that was worse was explosion Suzuki. This was…on the bright side he didn't look like he was about to explode. That was…Fukuda thanked whichever God was the right one that Suzuki was not about to explode. Maybe…maybe he would just…Fukuda had no clue. He had no reference for this. He had been so happy when Sho had been born, Suzuki happy, and he had been just as happy is not happier when he found Shigeko.
Now he was just staring at the baby like it was a frog that he was supposed to dissect for biology class.
Maybe this baby would just be another step in his quest to understand why some people had esp and others didn't. He had been compiling data for years. Maybe he would just raise the baby so he could figure out how esper kids developed. Maybe he would keep her around so he had a female heir, heiress, with his blood. Maybe he would dust of his plan of marrying Sho and Shigeko then…Fukuda hoped to God that Suzuki had totally forgotten about that plan...or maybe he would just tell Shigeko the truth about her parentage and she would just become another upper echelon employee of Claw…which she sort of already was.
Shigeko. Sho. The kids.
He had no idea when the kids would be back but he knew that they would realize something was up when they saw the baby. This was their, Sho's, little sister. Sho had a little sister…well what he had wanted was a brother, but now he had a sister…and he was not a gentle boy. Masami had tried her best, Fukuda had tried his best, but Sho's anger issues were…worrying. Shigeko could put up a barrier or defend herself at any time. This was a baby. Sho would never have intentionally hurt her but Fukuda knew that Sho was not always in control of himself.
He inherited that from his father only instead of exploding with his powers he exploded in a flurry of violence.
Sho would…not take this well. The new addition to his family. Doubly so if this baby turned out to be as gifted as Shigeko. This baby had an esper, a weak one but an esper, for a mother. That had to account for something…though he knew for a fact that Shigeko's parents had been two ordinary people without even the barest hint of esp between them. She even had a biological brother who was, by all accounts, totally normal. A genius though, if the Seasoning City chronicle told the truth about the boy's test scores, but Claw was not in the business of recruiting geniuses.
It was being run by an idiot after all.
How hard was it to take the ten seconds to put on a goddamned CONDOM?! Seriously! It was the one thing, the only thing, that he had to remember. That everyone had to remember. Safe sex. It wasn't complicated. You roll the latex tube over your dick BEFORE you have sex! It wasn't complicated and they sold them in every country. Suzuki was an idiot. Well technically he was at least hyper-cognitive…but he had been such an idiot. Fukuda had never gotten anyone pregnant. Not once in his life had he ever fathered any children with any woman. He knew that he was in no positon to raise them. He wanted them, oh God how he wanted them, but while he was trapped at Suzuki's side he was in positon to have a wife or children. More people to use against him.
At least he was not in any positon where his wife and children could be used against him.
But Suzuki was. The kids…they could defend themselves. Sho had a bodyguard now but Shibata was mostly there to guard the world from Sho. Shigeko…she didn't need a body guard. Everyone else needed a body guard if she ever got it into her head that she couldn't get things by exploiting the fact that she was a cute little girl and her father was a very powerful man. That baby was helpless. There were so many people, even within Claw, that would give their left arm to get at Suzuki but knew that messing with one of the kids was suicide.
A baby could not defend itself.
Pang Sujin was an idiot and not just for having unprotected sex with Suzuki Touichirou. She was an idiot for thinking that this baby could have any chance at all at life with Suzuki as a father. There would be people coming after her just for being Suzuki's daughter. Suzuki's adopted daughter would resent her for taking her place in the family and probably the whole organization. Sho…Sho would just plain not take this well. He was just a kid. To suddenly have a baby sister and to know that his father had done…something like that…with a woman who was not his mother…the poor little guy. He would not be able to understand this situation and…and that would set him off…
There was no way to fix this.
"I….I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with this information." Said Suzuki. This was an esper baby and it was his esper baby…or maybe not. He didn't know for sure. This could…this could have just been another man's baby. This could have been anyone's baby. Lots of people had red hair and lots of people had red auras. Yes, this could have just been…this was just a baby. A baby without parents. A baby whose parents were unable to care for her. A technical orphan. Like Daughter.
This was another daughter.
A female esper baby. That was what this was. Like Daughter had once been. Daughter had been two, a toddler, when she had come to him. Really getting his hands on this orphan…this was like catching lightning in a bottles twice. Another female esper, and a possible prodigy too if she was his-if she had even a small bit of a visible aura at her age. He should have been overjoyed that another child esper had been literally dropped into his lap. This was…this was going to be so good for data and also she would be raised by-raised in Claw so she would be fiercely loyal to him come the day. This was everything that he could have ever asked for….
Then why did his collar feel much too tight.
Air had become a scarce resource. This was…he did not want to be holding this baby anymore. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. He had wanted more children in an abstract sense. He had wanted to see what he would make. He had wanted to see if they would all come out like son or if they would end up taking after him at all. He had wanted to secure his bloodline for the future. Son was worrying him just a bit. Suzuki had walked in on him wearing a dress and playing dolls with his sister…which could have meant nothing at all, just children playing as they tended to do, or it could have meant that Suzuki would never be getting any grandchildren. He had wanted another child but now…
He did not want this child.
He could not care for this child. He had no wife. He had no idea where his wife was so, therefore, he had no wife by his side to care for this child. He had no desire to divorce Masami and remarry. He had no desire to take a mistress. He had no desire to have a live in nanny. There were so few female espers and he trusted nobody with the baby. The children were another story, they could run away and defend themselves, but this baby could not even hold it's own head up yet…this baby had a target painted on her…and there was no way to get it off considering who her father…considering who Suzuki was and the fact that this child had been left in his care.
He already had two children.
He was so close to the finish line with them. They had become less tiresome as they got older. They were almost teenagers. Soon they would be adults and they would be tolerable and he would have reached his goal by then, too, and the world would be his…but a baby would push back all of his plans. The baby would have to bond with him so he would have had to spend time with it…he had spent countless hours holding son on his lap while he made some pathetic attempts at working….he did not have the time to be catering after a baby. Maybe Daughter…
She was the nurturing type.
But the target would still be on the baby. There were enough attempts on his life as it stood. Maybe the baby could have been raised by someone else…but he knew no women. Minegishi might have been female…and they looked after Daughter as if she was their own…but Minegishi was also very unpleasant to be around for long periods of time. Also the drug problem. Well Suzuki didn't know if they took enough drugs for it to be a problem, unless he felt like killing everyone around him he knew better than to partake of anything stronger than tea, but Fukuda had brought it his attention that they might not have been the best person to leave around the children. The children were not so impressionable…
But babies were entirely different creatures.
A baby would take after whoever was raising it…to a degree. He still had no idea who it was that Son took after…but daughter had taken after him and he'd had no hand whatsoever in her creation. This baby…this baby would have to be left with someone who could care for her. There were so few women in Claw and the ones that were there…well the child's mother was a solid 'no' and Daughter was just a child herself…though she was nurturing and responsible….he'd put a pin that. There was also that female Scar from the Seventh Division. She hit hard and was good at tactics…
So it was a contest between Daughter, a near stranger who ranked as lowly as she good while still being something to Claw, and Minegishi running as an alternate.
He had no idea what to do. He couldn't do this himself and if he gave the child to Daughter, even if she could rise above her chronological age as she had done time and time again, there would still be an even greater target on him and his family. He didn't watch them twenty four hours a day, he would have gone mad if he had tried, and the baby…it would be in danger if it was only the least bit associated with him…and that was why he didn't want it. Not because the room was closing in more and more and the air was getting thinner and thinner the more he held this baby…
He had to give this baby to someone else, delegate the responsibly, for her own good and nothing more. One had to think of the welfare of the child above all else.
"Are you planning on keeping her?" asked Fukuda. He would work from there. He knew that the baby would have to be raised in Claw but he had no idea by who, specifically, in Claw. Half of these idiots couldn't take a piss without wetting the front of this pants and the other half couldn't go ten minutes without starting some stupid fight. That was just the Awakened. The upper echelons…he was amazed that any of them had made it this far without being killed…the Division leaders were all pretty…eccentric…to say the least. The Scars…not a lot of healthy and fully formed individuals there…
It was almost like you had to be at least a little bit unhinged to want to join a world domination cult. Who'd of thought?
"I…do you want this baby?" asked Suzuki. The answer was right in front of him. Fukuda loved children, at least he loved Suzuki's children, and for some reason he had never had children of his own. It wasn't that he was a homosexual, no they had figured out that they were both fully heterosexual together back when they had been in school together, he had just never married for some reason. Well now he could have a child without the hassle of marrying and the trouble of having sex, waiting for his partner to get pregnant, and then the terrifying nine months where at any moment your partner and your child could have died…and then they cut her open to get the child out…like a fish.
Who wouldn't have wanted to skip all of that and get right to the part where you raised the child?
"What? No! I can't…no. I do not accept that baby." Said Fukuda. He was not going to be chained to the organization any more than he was. At least on his own he could, in theory, run away. Masami…that was what her chained her to Suzuki for all of those years. The kids. It had damn near destroyed her to leave them…but at least she could be assured that Fukuda would do his best to raise them right and, eventually, bring her Sho...and he had messed all of that up…but if he did leave then there would be no one to care for this child…and he knew that he would get attached to her just like he had gotten attached to Sho…
Which was why he had made it a point not to even so much as learn her name.
"Why not? You make good money, you have parental leave that you're never going to use, and you love children. You certainly love taking care of mine, anyway. You can care for this baby as if she were your own. This would save you the trouble of meeting a woman and having one of your own. You'd be saving years and getting right to the point." Said Suzuki
"I…I can't take care of a baby. I have no clue how to take care of a baby and I have no desire to take care of a baby. If you give me that baby then it will not get even close to the best possible care." Said Fukuda
"I am not looking for the best possible care I am just looking for someone who I can trust with this and I trust you. This baby needs to be cared for and I do not have the time. You can raise this baby and simply tell people that she's your daughter-" said Suzuki
"No. I won't do it. I don't care what you do to me I will not take that baby. That's your daughter, not mine." Said Fukuda. He was…angry. He was just so angry that Suzuki…he was not being rational. He knew that he was not being rational. Suzuki had made a person and then just...just planned on…that was what he did. He got rid of people who didn't serve their purpose or impeded him in some way.
Bringing up his lackluster romantic life had been a low blow too. No wife, no kids…and who's fault was that? Who had been the one to scare off any girls that might have liked him back when they were in school together…and university…and then he had been chained to Claw pretty much at that point…
"No! This is…this is not my child. I am not her father. I…there is no way to know if I am her father." Said Suzuki. Well there were ways, many ways, but he was not going to submit to them. If he submitted to them then he was…then he was announcing to the world that this was his child and then she would be in great danger. Yes, that was all. It had nothing to do with the feeling of slowly being crushed or the fact that if he acknowledged that he had made another child with another woman than he would have might as well stood up and told the world that he was nothing more than a womanizing, self-defiling, slave to his own joy…and he was not going to say that. Who would follow him if they knew that? What would his children think? And Masami…she would not return if she knew what he had done…
The child was better off without him raising her. This wasn't even his child anyway.
"They have these new things called paternity tests. You can even get them at the drugstores in the States. Also she looks just like you." Said Fukuda. Really. He was going to pretend that he couldn't see the obvious? How clueless did he think that Fukuda was?
"I…there is no need for me to take one because I am not and cannot be this baby's father." Said Suzuki. Once. It had only been once. To make Sho it had taken at least two tries. Therefore the chances that this baby was his were so low that they were not even worth mentioning.
"She looks just like you, Suzuki. She has red hair. How many people in the world have red hair?" asked Fukuda. He needed to keep himself under control. He needed to tally up his evil thoughts and then he could make room for planning out what was going to be done about that baby…if something could even be done….
"Watch what you say…and many other people have red hair. There are rarer hair colors, probably. I am not her father. I did not father this child. This is not my child." Said Suzuki. The child in his arms was still dead asleep. That deathlike sleep that infants went into. It had always been so terrifying when Son had gone into one of those…so terrifying….but this was alright. If this had been his child then he would have felt the sense of kinship he had felt for Son. He would have felt the obsessive need to protect her from the world around her.
Now he just felt, mostly, like he was either going to asphyxiate, die, or vomit. They were all equally probable.
"Suzuki…I can't do this right now." Said Fukuda. He was close to losing control of himself and his mouth always went first. Suzuki was denying his own child like it was nothing…Fukuda knew he could be a cold man but this was…up there. This was up there with what he done to Sho and how he had planned on punishing Shigeko for accidentally killing seventeen people. He was close to running his mouth and then the baby would wake up because Suzuki would be pissed and then they would get into it with a screaming baby, it had taken so long to get her to sleep in the first place, and also he could feel Shigeko's aura getting closer and she would probably just order him to take care of the baby if she didn't just claim it for herself like a doll or something and-
-and he really needed a personal day.
"You already said that you wouldn't take the child but-" said Suzuki. The carrot would work. Most men got the stick but the men he needed got the carrot. He could offer Fukuda a substantial raise in pay, a substantial decrease in all of his non healing duties, and a seat of power come the day for this. He was prepared to offer the man a mansion on the moon if he agreed…and he did not like this about himself. The way he was feeling.
He was having a lot of trouble exorcising these emotions…but he had to unless he wanted a screaming baby on his hands…and also Daughter was getting closer and closer…even though he had told her to be gone all day…
"Suzuki. President. I am taking a personal day. Like you said I have a lot of them saved up and I am taking them. I won't be available for anything other than healing. Good day." Said Fukuda. He bowed and turned to leave.
"Fukuda. Stop." Said Suzuki. He held the baby out in front of himself. He was careful to support her head. She was so small…and he was so close to the edge…and someone needed to take this baby from him before he…
The door opened.
Daughter came in carrying two cups of what smelled like coffee. He could see her from his vantage point in the living room. She was using her powers to hold up her drinks while she took her shoes off in the makeshift genkan and faced her shoes the right way. She was always so responsible like that.
"Dad, I'm home, and I brought you a coffee too to help you work!" said Mob loudly, but not shouted, as she got her shoes just right. Fukuda was there too…he was back from his mission! She wished that someone would have told her. She only had her own coffee which she had drank from, and also put too much milk in according to Minegishi, and the one she got for dad. Still, she could at least say 'hi' to him and-
"Excuse me, Miss Suzuki." Said Fukuda. He saw his out and he took it. He knew that he would pay for it later, not waiting to be excused, but right now he needed space to…to process all of this…and to figure out what in the hell he was supposed to do in this situation. Well besides the obvious, he was not going to take that baby, he could not take that baby under any circumstances.
He did not want to be in Masami's boat…he did not want to get attached to another Shigeko.
"Bye Fukuda…" said Mob as Fukuda practically run out the door. She hoped that he was ok. She did want to hear about his mission though. Maybe he was part of that group who went to Tokyo. She had liked Tokyo alright and she would have liked to hear about how his trip was. He hadn't given her the chance though, but that was ok because he was busy, and on the bright side it looked like dad had finally decided to take a break…
And play dolls?
"Daughter." Said Suzuki. There she was. His Daughter. For a moment he thought that he had just seen an apparition of Masami. It was the coffee she was putting down on the coffee table. That was it. Masami had loved Starbucks for reasons he could not understand…and Daughter did as well even though she was just a child.
Chronologically speaking.
She was mature, intelligent, more reliable than many of his Awakened…and she was Masami's Daughter too…
"….hope you like it. No cream, no sugar, and no artificial sweetener either. Minegishi says that artificial sweetener is poison like sugar is poison but I know for a fact that they can drink half of a two liter of orange soda all at once…but don't ask how I know that. I brought some creamers with me, though, in case you wanted some. They made coffee better and also you can drink them on your own." Said Mob. She began to put the creamers on the table when dad stepped forward with the doll that he was holding. That was normal, him getting her dolls, but he didn't usually get her baby dolls. She didn't like baby dolls, the stories you could use them for were limited, and also they didn't fit in her dollhouse. She would be grateful though because she was always grateful.
"Here. A friend for you." Said Suzuki. He place the baby into her arms and made sure that she was supporting the baby's head. The last thing he wanted was a dead baby. The baby could die when it was an adult if it chose to but right now no dying before she had even gotten to truly live. Before she had gotten to see the sun rise from the stratosphere….swim in the Mariana Trench…eat solid foods….
He sat Daughter down with the baby. There. Now she was more stable.
"Dad…is this a robot? Because it's breathing and looking at me…and I know that they have baby dolls that do that…but it's also warm and I think it has an aura…dad…are you listening? I think that this is a real baby….or a really cool toy…" said Mob. Dad had shoved this…doll…into her hands and then made her sit on the couch with it…and then it's eyes opened and now it was looking at her…and it was sucking on the front of her shirt…and it had spit…
"Yes, you are correct. That is a real baby." Said Suzuki. There. This was perfect. Daughter…she was a natural at this. Yes, he had just been overthinking it. Now Daughter had a Daughter of her own and this would be good practice for when she had her own children and the baby would join his household but not as his child and this was perfect so why was he still so close to an explosion!?
"What?" asked Mob. She did her best to keep her powers out of control. This was…this was the her birthday present? She said that she wanted another set of princess dolls, they added a new one, or a fur-real friend…or just a hug…not a human baby! What was she even supposed to do with this baby?! She was ten! She was too young to be this baby's mom! Where had she even come from!? Had dad just stopped by an orphanage and picked up a baby without even asking her?! What the F-word!? Who the H-word did that!? So she wasn't allowed to have a cat but she could have a human being to take care of?!
"Control yourself or you'll upset the baby." Said Suzuki. She was…he had seen her aura flare. He needed to go. He needed to move. He needed to get out before he…he didn't even know what he would do but he needed….he needed to put some space between himself and that baby.
"Wh-what? Dad, this baby is alive! I-I don't know what to do-" said Mob. Babies were not like dolls. They were complicated and they cried and you had to feed them and change them and also they were gross and mess, like now how the baby had gotten spit all over her shirt…and she didn't know what to do…and this was a baby! A human baby!
"You'll learn." Said Suzuki. She would. She was so smart and capable and he trusted her more than anyone else in the entire world.
"I've never taken care of a baby before!" said Mob. She almost shouted that at dad. A baby was not all fun and games, she was ten and she knew that, and she just…she was ten! She didn't even know this baby's name and now she had to take care of her like she was a mom or something!
"You're taken care of your brother and he can be a baby sometimes." Said Suzuki
"That's different. Sho can feed himself and walk and talk and I don't have to give him baths or change his diapers or…I don't even know how to change a diaper." Said Mob
"Google it. Daughter, I trust you to watch over this baby until...if something else cannot be…found." Said Suzuki. He would have to share a household with that baby until Daughter came of age…and then he would have to leave Daughter because he did not want to be around that baby….
He didn't know what to do.
"Dad…I don't even know her name." said Mob finally. Maybe that would be the thing to tell dad that she was not up to this. This was…she had only been ten for two days now…and she had this baby to take care of. Being an adult wasn't all drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes…but she was only ten…but dad trusted her…
And she could not let dad down.
"Her name is…it's here in this paper with her things." Said Suzuki. There, in Korean on top and Japanese on the bottom, was a note. Please take care of Mi-Cha. He did not like that name. He would have called her…not that. Something Japanese. She was Japanese, it could be sort of seen in her facial structure. The eyes, mostly, and the shape of her mouth.
"Mi-Cha…" said Mob craning her neck so she could read the note dad had in his hand. He was pale and his aura was shaky and he kept on looking at the door…and also things were starting to float…and the baby was starting to get upset….
"No. I don't like that name. Her name will be…" said Suzuki. Girl's name. Shoko. He had wanted to call Son Shoko if he had been female but…no. Too close to Sho. Not good. Ai? Too generic .Aia….it meant ruler…but no. Not that. He didn't like the sound of it…and also he had a son called leader already…
Daughter was staring.
"But she already has a name." said Mob. They couldn't just change the baby's name like that. She might get confused and upset. She was also upset enough as it was. Mob bounced her like she had seen moms do on TV and in the world and stuff. She wished that she'd thought to ask her mom more about life, mostly about how to take care of a baby, because right now she was a lost as a goose flying north for the winter in the middle of December.
"Mukai. Her name will be Mukai from now on." Said Suzuki. He liked the sound of it. Mukai. There. Now the baby had an acceptable name…and he had just named the baby…and now he was both too hot and too cold at the same time…he had to go.
So he did.
"Wait! What do I do if-" said Mob as dad made a rush for the door and the baby started to cry.
"Figure it out!" said Suzuki. He made it through the door but, contrary to popular belief, fresh air was not a cure all. He still felt so…frightened. Yes, that was the word…frightened. When he had no reason to be. This was not his baby. He had not fathered that baby. That was just….a baby…which he had given to Daughter…which was crying….
He could not stand the sound of a crying baby.
So he kicked off from the groud and flew away before he could explode and hurt someone.
"Mukai…if you don't stop crying then I could explode and hurt you on accident…and I don't want that…" said Mob. Dad's aura was gone which meant that he was gone…which meant that she and this baby were all alone…and it wasn't even listening to her….maybe it only spoke Korean since the note had been in Korean and she'd had a Korean name before dad renamed her…
Mob didn't know what to do.
But she could not give up. Conceal, don't feel. Power was nothing without control. This baby needed her and she was not going to explode or run away. She was going to do a good job, the best job, and then dad would have been so proud of her. She would and could figure this out just like dad had said to. Dad trusted her, dad believed in her, and he was not going to let him down.
Plus, well, she had always sort of wanted a baby sister.
"Please don't cry, Mukai, I'm going to take good care of you. My name is Suzuki Shigeko but I like to be called Mob. I'm your big sister…your pretend big sister. Because we aren't related…but that doesn't change the fact that I'm going to take good care of you."
She would.