Mob and Sho had taken a lot of pictures over the years.

They kept their pictures in their phones and tablet. Back in the olden days, back when dad had been their age, people kept their pictures in albums and stuff. Mom had some of those back in the Castle. As far as Mob knew those were still at the Castle where they had left them. She didn't know. She wasn't sure of what became of that house and their stuff and…and mom…and also dad….

But she and Sho had plenty of pictures.

"That's one mine and dad's Chinese checkers games from back when I was little. I took a picture of the board so we had a record of what it was supposed to look like." Said Mob as she flipped through her pictures. She was going back pretty deep now. She was already at pictures of the old house…and she wasn't sure if it was ok to look at these. Not because dad wouldn't have wanted this, he was still on his mission, but because looking at the way things used to be made her feel sort of…sad.

She wanted to go home.

But she could never go home again. Now everywhere and nowhere was her home. They were like nomads, dad had said, and she and Sho should have been happy to travel around and stuff like that. The normal kids of the world didn't get to travel around the world. Mob was happy that she had been able to travel, she had been to every single Disney Park in the world which was a lot more than most people, but she also wanted to go home. Not home to where she had been staying but home to, well, her home. The Castle. The home that she had shared with her family.

The home in these pictures.

But she could never go home. She and Mukai were in the same boat. Mukai's home was Korea, Mob didn't know where in Korea but she knew that Mukai was Korean, and dad said that they were never going back to Korea again. Dad had said, back when she wanted to go back to Seoul, that they were never going to go back to Korea because of reasons that she was not supposed to ask about because she was the kid and he was the adult and he was the one who got to decide where they went and stuff like that.

Mob could have gone back to Korea if she wanted to since she was the boss of Claw, now.

She could have brought Mukai back home. She could have had the Awakened walk around with pictures of her, Mob and Sho had taken a lot of them so there would be no shortage of them, and they could have asked every single woman in Korea if they were Mukai's mom. That way they could have at least given her one last look at the place that Mukai had called home for the first three months of her life. She could have…she could have seen her mom again…but that would have been a bad idea because Mukai's mom might have been like their mom.

Their mom didn't want anything to do with them.

"That's boring. Next!" said Sho. Mukai was so bored that she was falling asleep…and yes, Sho knew that putting Mukai to sleep was the point of all of this, but still. Life was way too short to be bored. He didn't want to sit there, bored, looking at pictures of games that big sis had played with dad. Boring games. He wouldn't have wanted to have been a part of that game, anyway. Big sis and dad had always been so boring when they had been together. Not that he cared. He had fun on his own and with baby sis and that was what mattered. Besides, it didn't matter anyway. Dad was gone, now, to some place that Sho had no idea where.

He was coming back, though.

He was going to come back and…and Sho had no idea if he wanted his dad to come back. Big sis wouldn't have to run Claw if dad was back. Dad would go back to teaching him how to run Claw if big sis was back at home doing home stuff. He should have been the one out there running Claw, not him, but when dad said that she was in charge he meant that she was in charge of everything. It just was not fair and…

And at least he got to stay home with baby sis.

"Ok, but don't shout. She's getting sleepy. I need her to get to sleep so I can get back to work. I have a lot of things to…figure out." Said Mob. She was not in any hurry to get back to work. She would be back there with all the people who needed her to settle all kinds of stuff and decide stuff and help people get their arms out of things. Now people were putting their arms in a hole in the wall that someone had made while fighting…and what was it with boys and sticking their arms places!?

She needed a cigarette.

Not one of the fun ones, no, the ones who made her calm down and wake up and also not be hungry. She hardly ever got to eat these days. She had spent lunch with Sho and baby Mukai. She had changed baby Mukai but then she had gotten upset and now she needed to get back to sleep but…but she needed to eat too and she wanted to sleep and…

And she needed another cigarette.

"You're always at work." Said Sho

"I have to work, Sho, because dad's gone." Said Mob

"I never said that you couldn't go to work, I just said that you always went to work." Said Sho

"I know you and I know that you were saying that to complain." Said Mob

"No, you're just bad at talking. Get a clue, big sis." Said Sho. That was mean and he knew that it was mean but he had to say something because, yes, he had been saying that to complain. She was always at work and they never played anymore. She was always tired and she always got up super early and came home super later just like dad always had. He didn't mind it when dad did that, dad was always mad at him for some reason, but big sis…they used to be friends.

Well as much friends as a brother and a sister could be.

They were siblings and being siblings was sort of like being friends but also being…something different. When you were brother and sister then you had no choice in being friends. It wasn't like how he was back in school, how he would just have a bunch of different kids to be friends with, because he had no choice in who his big sister was. She was just this other kid who he had shared his whole life with. If he hadn't known her already he wouldn't have wanted to hang out with her. She was a girl and he never was good friends with girls. They had always been so boring and their games had been different and if he was friends with a girl, every single time he had ever played with one, she would try to hold his hand or even kiss him…and if big sis ever tried to hold his hand or kiss him he would die of being grossed out. Yes, he knew that she kissed him and held his hand already but she did that like a sister, not like she was trying to be his girlfriend, and he didn't even want a girlfriend anyway let alone one who was already his sister.

They weren't friends, they were siblings, and he missed her.

But dad would be back and then…well he'd be mad because Sho and Mukai had been drawing on the walls together because they were white and plain and boring and there was nothing to do. Well there was a lot to do to take care of her. She cried and ate and needed changing and all of that stuff but it was so…tedious. The whole thing was just so tedious, sometimes, taking care of her. He loved her, though, he loved his baby sis.

His pretend baby sis.

"Oh. Sorry. I guess I should. Um…here. Look at this." Said Mob. Sho was looking away from her now. She decided to flip to another picture. She didn't want him to be upset…and not just for the selfish reason that she was really tired. She also wanted him to be happy all of the time. She wanted her little brother to have a happy life, the best life that he could have had, because right now her life was having a family and running Claw. That would be his life when he grew up and he needed to have as good of a life as he good before he had to take over for dad.

"Oh yeah…I remember that. My birthday. The one where dad got me all of those cakes." Said Sho. That was one of his happiest memories…and it made no sense. Dad was….dad. Sho wished that he could have done something mean that day. It would have been more…more normal…for dad to have been mean. It would have made more sense. Mom was the nice one and dad was the mean one.

That was how his life had been.

But now everything was upside down. Mom was gone and dad was in charge all the time but he was gone and now big sis was working and he was a big brother now and…and everything was just so different! He wished that he could have gone back. He wished that he could have gone back into the world of those pictures and just…just been little again. Just been six and five and four and three and two and one and then baby Mukai's age again. He wanted…he wanted a lot of things that he couldn't have.

So maybe he should have just enjoyed what he had now.

"Do you see, Mukai? That was Sho's birthday. You've never had a birthday but you will…and maybe even with us. You're going to have a good birthday with us. We'll have cake and singing and presents and you're going to be so happy that you remember it for the rest of your life." Said Mob

"She's going to be one. She won't remember." Said Sho. He didn't know why he was being mean. He didn't know why he was so sad when he looked at that picture. He didn't know why he wanted her to go to another picture and also to go somewhere else.

"She might, I sort of remember things from being little. Like I have this memory of you in this…white room…and you were in this crib sort of thing with clear plastic sides…and I remember a weird smell…and also being sort of scared. I think that I must have been a baby then because you were a baby. We were babies together. So I think that people can remember from so far back." Said Mob

"We never had any white rooms in the Castle. Mom had most of the walls blue or green or yellow or brown. The bathrooms were pink, too." Said Sho. He knew that he should not have been talking about mom. He knew that mom had left them and dad said that they were never supposed to mention her ever again…

But dad wasn't there anymore.

It was just him, big sis, and baby sis. Also the other guys but they weren't Suzuki's. Well little sis wasn't a Suzuki, not a for real one, but she wouldn't have been out of place in their family. She was an esper with red hair and blue eyes. She looked like she could have been his little sis. She looked more like him than big sis did. He wondered if she knew that. He wondered if little sis thought that she was his for real little sis. He wondered if she would have some weird, hazy, half formed memories of him and big sis.

He didn't know if she would even be there with them for that long.

"Maybe it was before mom had the walls painted. Remember the pictures we saw of mom painting the house with you in her stomach? It must have taken a while to finish if she was painting the house while you were in her stomach." Said Mob

"That might have been you." Said Sho

"No, all the pictures of mom with a baby in her stomach are of you. She said that she lost all of the pictures of me from before I was two. I hope that doesn't happen to me." Said Mob

"That you end up with a baby in your stomach?" asked Sho. That was a thing that happened to girls. They grew up and fell in love and then did the gross thing with the guys they loved and then had babies. He didn't know what he would do, though, if some guy was hanging around his big sister trying to do that sort of stuff with her. That was what little brothers did, kept guys away from their big sisters. Big brothers too but Mukai was still way too little for guys to be trying to kiss her and all of that other stuff.

"No, I want to have a baby when I grow up. I want to have a boy called Shigeo and a girl called Shoko. After you and me. Then they can grow up to be good friends like we're good friends. I just meant that I don't want to lose all of the pictures of me when I have them in my stomach." Said Mob. She knew that she was tired all the time, that babies were a lot of work and it never stopped, but she still wanted to grow up and have a family and stuff. It would have been easier when she was an adult. Then she would know what to do. Babies were hard now because she was still learning. Thanks to Baby Mukai and Sho she knew that when she grew up she would be a very good mom.

She wouldn't run away and leave her kids all alone with their dad…and also she wouldn't leave them all alone together, either.

She would be like her mom but also better. She wouldn't get sick, that was why she made sure to eat all of her food groups every single day, and if she did get sick then she wouldn't be in bed all day and making her kids worry. She would always be there for her kids and she would love them even if they were very different from her. She would be there for her kids and she would never run away and…and she was going to do a good job.

"They might not be lost. They might just be in one of the Treasure Rooms." Said Sho. He flipped the picture on her tablet. It was of the Treasure Room. They hadn't ever fully explored it. He wished that he would have gone through all of the boxes while he still had the chance. He would go through all of the boxes later, though, when he had a kid. He would explore with his kids and be friends with them and never hit them and…and they would be happier than he had been when he had been little.

Of course he would have to be responsible for putting a baby in it's mom's stomach…and he didn't want to think about that. Gross.

"Yeah, there was more than one." said Mob as she flipped through the pictures. She remembered that hat. She was looking at a picture, a selfie, that she had taken of herself with that pretty hat on that she had found. She wondered if that hat was still there. She wondered if the Treasure Room was still there. She wondered if the house was even still there.

She didn't know.

"There were whole parts of the house that we never got a chance to look through." Said Sho

"I know." Said Mob. She could have gone back, maybe, possibly. She knew how to order a plane. She knew how to tell the plane where she needed to go. She knew that there were things that needed doing in person at other HQs and Divisions and bases and cells and teams and stuff. She knew that since she was dad, now, she could have seen to everything that needed to be done….and some of those things needed to be seen to in Japan….

If they went back to the Castle then she knew that she would never have been able to leave.

She and Sho could have played house there. That was what they were doing, now, playing house. They were playing house in this house that wasn't theirs. Well it was hers. Claw belonged to dad and since she was dad now and everything that was his was hers, now. This house was hers and everything else in Claw was hers but…but this was not her home. No, the Castle was her home…and she knew that if she went home then she would never go back.

She and Sho would be playing house for the rest of their lives.

But she couldn't play house. No, she had to play work. She had to play work and be the dad and go to work…but she also had to be the mom, too. She had to be the dad and the mom and it was just making her be tired and she knew that if she ever stopped and just…went home…then she would never be able to leave again…

She couldn't go home ever again. She accepted that.

"Baby Mukai might have liked to look through the boxes. She likes it when we play fort and she likes to look inside of things, too. Like she likes to stick her hand inside of paper towel rolls." Said Sho. He wondered if they could have gone home now. He hadn't been home in so long. This wasn't home. This was just walls and floors and a roof. He wanted to go home and stay there. Without dad to tell them 'no' they could have gone back…and then they could have stayed there. Just him and big sis and baby sis. Even if big sis kept on bossing him around he would have been happy.

He knew that these were just wishes. He knew that he could never go home again.

"She's just a baby. She wouldn't be able to have fun in a place like that. She can't even sit up yet." Said Mob

"She's been trying to sit up." Said Sho

"She has?" asked Mob. Her voice may have been too loud, then, and her aura may have been too bright. Mukai kicked and stirred and that was the last thing that either of them wanted for her. They needed her to sleep but…but Mob sort of wanted her to wake up. Wake up and sit up and just…just be sitting up. Mob had been away for so long that she was missing so much of her life….

But she had to work. She had no choice but to work. Someone had to work and that someone had to be the one who did it.

"She tried to. Sometimes when I sit up with her in my lap she tries to sit up on her own." said Sho

"Oh…when she does sit up then can you send me a picture? So I can see the first time that she sits up?" asked Mob

"Or you could just come back home earlier or leave later." Said Sho

"I would if I could but I can't. I always have so much to do. Without dad around to be mean to them the Awakened keep on acting like kids….but it's weird because they're adults…and also everyone wants to have a meeting with me because dad's gone and…and also people are mad that dad's gone…and I have to spend all day with Shimazaki and he's so annoying-" said Mob

"No he's not. He's cool." Said Sho

"You just think that he's cool because you don't have to spend all day with him. He's annoying. He always stands and sits way too close and he's always saying stuff to bother me or just…saying stuff. Stuff that he knows that I don't like." Said Mob. She wished that Shibata could have guarded her. The worst that he ever did was tell her that she was cute and try to pick her up and throw her in the air. She was not looking forward to going back in to work. He would be all annoying to her and saying annoying stuff and being too close and just so…annoying.

So very annoying.

"No, I think that he's cool because he's cool." Said Sho. He flipped over to the next picture and then the next and the next. He missed that, when he had hung out with dad and Shimazaki. Dad was dad but Shimazaki was fun. He was cool. He was the coolest guy in the whole world…and that was why he was upset. Because big sis got to hang out with him. Because he had been Sho's friend first. Yeah….that was it.

"But he's…not. He's annoying….and stop flipping through the pictures so fast. Baby Mukai doesn't have enough time to see them." Said Mob. She didn't understand boys. Why did they think that being annoying was cool? What was with them? And why did they decide to act like kids for the rest of their lives?

She felt bad for them, a little bit, liking being so annoying to people.

"Fine, here. You explain the pictures to her." said Sho. He stopped flipping and practically shoved the tablet into big sis' stomach. He didn't want to talk about this. He didn't want to talk about anything or think about anything or anything like that.

"Sho, that hurt." Said Mob. That had been sort of jarring. He hadn't been mean to her, physically, in a while…but that was ok. Sometimes he just got upset. That was ok. He still loved her and she still loved her and they loved each other like a brother and sister were supposed to.

"Just explain the pictures." Said Sho. He hadn't been mean to her like that in a while…and it was bad of him…and he had been so good lately…and he didn't know why he had done that. She was his sister and he should have been nice…or even said sorry. Yeah, it would have been ok if he had just said sorry. Fukuda had said that it was ok, everything was ok, if he just said sorry.

"Ok…I will. Look here, Mukai. See? That's a happy face pancake that mom made. She was good at stuff like that….our mom, I mean, not yours. We don't even know who your mom is…but I'm sure that if she could take care of you and also if you would eat solid foods then she would have made you all of the happy face pancakes that you would have wanted." Said Mob. Mukai was sitting on her lap, Sho was sitting on the floor beside her, and she knew from the way his aura looked that she should not have mentioned mom…but she was in so many of their pictures…

And also dad was gone now, too, and he was the one who told them that they weren't allowed to talk about mom in the first place.

If dad wanted his rules enforced then he should have come back home. If he wanted them to pretend like they had never had a mom in the first place then he never should have left. They wanted a mom, they wanted their mom, even though she had left…and if she were to come back right now it would have been very hard to be nice to her again….well Mob would have had trouble being nice, anyway, she had no clue what Sho would do….

Not that mom was ever coming back.

But Dad was. Even though he had been gone for so long….long enough for her to be the boss of Claw and for Mukai to become a part of their family. Long enough that she hadn't worn anything comfortable in days. It was tights restricting her legs and ribbons around her neck all day. She had never worn a costume for this many days in a row, even the Elsa one, but it didn't matter because dad was going to come back and then when he did everything would be back to normal.

Actually…she wasn't sure about things being normal…if dad would come back…if Mukai would stay…

But right now they just had pictures.